I found this wonderful forum a month ago. During this month I read literally thousands of messages, hundreds of journals. I am very grateful for this opportunity to share, to learn about this WOL. Congratulation for the founders, moderators, I have never seen similar health (or other) forum. Thanks for everybody to be open, to share not only the success stories, but the everyday fight, the occasional failures too.
About myself a couple of words. I am lucky to be raised in an "LC" family. It was really a WOL, not only a diet. My parents always prefered salty over sweet, appetizer over dessert, water over soft drinks. To eat fish or meat without potato, rice, bread or pasta was the rule, not the expectation. My biggest cravings were always for trout or salmon, not for any sweet. In our home library we always had Prof. Yudkin's latest book. (He was one of the father of LCing. He is best known about his book on the deadly sugar.)
Because of this family background, I not only easily kept the same weight (140-150) during my adult life, but got back to this weight after my three pregnancies.
Everything seemed so perfect, till my 43th birthday. That is when my problem started. My metabolism changed, and I slowly started to gain weight, despite of my increased activity level. During 2 years I gained 25 lbs. My medical test results were excellent, did not show any big changes, so I was not really scared, but cut back my carbs. The gaining stopped, though did not lose weight.
This January I experienced the first sign of insomnia. 5 sleepless nights in one week. It was much more scarry than the weight gaining. I acted immediately: added cardio to my morning swimming and changed my evening walk to jog/run. In 48 hours my sleeping problem disappeared. I felt great, and decided to aim for a half Marathon this September, and for a Marathon next January.
On the other hand this jog/run revealed my problem with the 25 plus lbs: at every stride my feet felt 75 lbs plus. (When you run you hit the ground with the triple of your weight.) It seemed to me, that this 25 lbs my biggest enemy against reaching my dream Marathon.
So I reached for the good old Yudkin's book again. (His program is very similar to Atkins, but with less drastic induction - means slower start.)
I came here to learn how to cope with this new challenge (the pre-menopausal slowing metabolism), to get advice how to get in shape for a Marathon without giving up the LC WOL, and to share my 47 years of LC experiences. (My favorite subjetc are the ethnic LC recipies. I travel a lot, collecting new ideas always.)
More in my journal.
Thanks again for the opportunity.

Welcome, traveller! Glad you could join us! "Not all those who wander are lost ..."