Love your thread ladies, and how friendly and supportive it is, too.

I will live vicariously through you all for now, as carb nite is not for me at the moment - whenever I've had a carb evening over the last 2-3 years, it for sure takes me more than a week to get back to where I was.

But I think I can learn from your thread because I already have, and it is helpful for me even as a very long-term low carber, to see how others manage their choices, their scale expectations and following consequences, and so on.

So I'm subscribing to keep up!

Although I wasn't able to lose on a carb nite type plan, I will be entering (I hope!!!) maintenance at some point this summer, and I feel like dealing with carbs once or twice or four times a month and being able to bounce back from it, and get right back on track... is a CRITICAL tool to have under our belts. Even if someone is not intending to actually eat them.

Because even if someone expected to NEVER eat grains or sugar again.... I think to not have a plan on how to deal with it... is how then people fall face first into oblivion, NEVER come back because they've started a binge cycle that they "thought" they had under control, and then when it happens anyway, after they said "no exceptions EVER", they don't know how to deal with it, because they never prepared themselves with the right tools, kwim?

I mean as in - I feel like this is how people who have success for years and years and YEARS, sometimes just snap one day, go off the deep end, and TOTALLY regain all of their weight. Not to mention also disappear from the boards.

So I think what you guys are doing is great, and I am really excited that it's working for you all, too.

I will be following your thread for knowledge, out of interest, and to root you guys on. There is a lot to be learned here.

I know this message was quite long but I was just thinking out loud. Hope you don't mind.

I read one time about this lady, who lost like over 150 lbs. That got her down to less than that. She maintained her weight for NO JOKE 17 years... NO blips, NO regains, happy and SOLID and CONTENT in her LC eating.

*Everyone* knows the old adage, about how "after 5 years, only 5% of people have kept off any weight that they've lost".

So I guess after 5 years, you'd feel confident that you were one of the so called 5%. After 10 years, you'd know this was for life.

After 15 years, it wouldn't even OCCUR to you, that anything could ever be different for you again.

And then.... after 17 years... to regain EVERYTHING? She literally said in the article,

"I didn't have a trauma. I didn't get divorced. I didn't lose my job, or a child, or a parent, or my home. I didn't get sick. I didn't have failing thyroid function."

"It can just still literally happen to anybody.

No matter how knowledgable they are. Or how committed. Or how happy with their food, health, and with what they've achieved.

One day, it can just still happen to anyone, when they least expect it."

So if that story wasn't enough to scare the living bejeezus out of people into having a better plan than just "no more carbs, ever" once they get to goal, I know it sure was enough to give me serious pause for thought, when I came across that article a few years ago.

I don't want to regain my weight, EVER. But realistically, that means that I need to know how to deal with the unexpected. How to not freak out. How to stay focussed even after having something with carbs, etc etc.

Like I said, I think there is A LOT to be learned from your thread, for all different reasons. Even for example for people like me - who aren't even following your plan.

So well done ladies, good luck... and thank you for starting this great (and supportive and kind thread), Paulette!