I just registered here and am ready to start on Atkins. Just spent the last hour clearing out the massive amounts of carbs from my kitchen cabinets. It says something about how I have been eating when all I had left in my cabinet/pantry was a can of green beans and a can of tuna! Two entire shelves were filled with high carb products that I'm giving away to a friend. I have been doing massive amounts of reading, have planned out menus for the 2 week induction phase, and have my shopping list ready to go for later on this morning.

here's the thing...I'm at 276 lbs, my highest weight ever. I dieted steadily on one or another diet from age 13-29 where I reached 200 after 2 kids, then gave up and just ate whatever I wanted. Now, at age 47, my metabolism is totally screwed up. I am right on the cusp of diabetes type 2. I'm on med for high blood pressure and reflux disease. And I have found no medication to deal with my bipolar disorder. (just therapy). I know this is getting long, and perhaps depressing to read (try living it!) but I just needed to tell someone how scared I am to even attempt this!! I have paid so little attention to my health for so long that in part, I'm scared it can't be done, can't be helped, that I can't improve my health at this stage. Then I'm also scared in part because of the very idea that I could actually change my life by doing this. We get comfortable in our agonies sometimes! And I'm afraid that I won't be able to see it through, really stay with it.

So, hello to all of you out there. Thank goodness there are forums like these to help out a low-carb newbie. No matter how scared i am, I've made the committment now to doing this, to becoming healthier. Thanks for listening to(er...reading) my fears.

I can understand your fears. You are planning some radical changes. But they are all good ones!
I've seen people with any of your problems improve it with this way of eating. It can be done!
We'd be glad to help you hang in there.

You can do it! Hang in there. I never thought I could do this. I kept thinking it was too good to be true when I'd read the success stories. But it is good and it is true. If I can do this you can too.
We're here to cheer you on.

Lily

Hello, and welcome to the forum pd42!

Welcome to the forum pd.....you'll find we're all experiencing many of the same feelings and questions you are with this WOE. Luckily there are some veterans here who are able to calm the fears, provide support and encouragement and help us through this change.
Good luck to you....you can do it!

welcome! here's a secret--i think all of us were a little scared at the beginning! not to worry, you will have success and gain confidence and then wonder what took you so long to try all this! you have planned things out very well, and i think that's a great start! you can do this!

Wow, you all are just great! Thanks for responding so quickly.

I'm sitting here after eating breakfast (a meal that is normally skipped).
I had 3 strips of bacon with 3 eggs scrambled in some butter with a bit of cheese.

I was so full that i couldn't finish the eggs! I made 3 thinking I would need/want all of them, but now I've learned that 2 will do just fine.

Kinda unreal for me to not "clean my plate"!!!

You are starting on a Journey that will reteach you to Love YOURSELF FIRST, so that you can then LOVE others. You just must remember to take TODAY ONLY. It will help to keep reading on here. To create a journal and a food journal to make yourself accountable to yourself. The one person who you don't want to cheat, betray, hurt or sabotage. Many are here for you. You won't walk this path alone.

Get used to it pd....you'll find that you're not hungry on this diet..no feeling of being deprived & I'll admit that there are some evenings I have to force myself to eat! Imagine that

Welcome pd, remember to log on anytime you are needing support. The first couple of days are the hardest with this new WOE, but as adkpam said, a lot of people have found relief from the problems you mentioned in your first post from this plan. I felt horrible for the 2cnd thru 5th day, I guess I was "carb-detoxing", but once you get through that, you will feel better and more energised than you have in years, maybe even ever!
I would suggest you start a journal to keep track of things here, also if you havent already, a fitday log is very helpful. You can find that at WWW.fitday.com it is free to register.
Good luck and welcome to the low carb journey!

Yep, I signed up at Fitday.com a couple days ago and actually put in all the foods i was eating for those 2 days before I started this. it was AMAZING to me just how many carbs i was eating in one day!!!

And I started the journal at Atkins too. discovered I need to buy a measuring tape (doing that today) and then I'm going to do all the measuring and put that in the journal too.

Its so cool that there are such great online tools available. What with those sites and forums like this, i am not dieting alone like so often in the past...actually i am trying to change my thinking here and not see it so much as a diet but as a WOL change (see I've been reading here and know what WOL means!!

There is a forum area here to start a journal too May save you some time hopping around site to site. Just a thought.

Welcome to this forum! I've only been low carbing for 3 weeks and have already lost 14 pounds and 12.05 inches! Aside from pouring over my copy of DANDR, I've learned so much just from reading this forum.

It's sounds like you're off to a great start as far as cleaning out your cupboards and getting rid of all the 'junk' food. I couldn't do that for two reasons....my five kids can still eat most of that stuff, plus I'm just not that organized! I've definitely stopped buying my kids some of the horrible foods they were eating before, but they're all skinny so I'm not going to change their diets too horribly. I've been gradually introducing new veggies to them and they seem to like most of them. We were all definitely veggie deprived before.

Once again, welcome! You'll find so much encouragement and support here!

Hi there! I'm so glad you came!

I see you have a lot of fears, and that's really, really understandable! I was actually afraid of losing weight for years, because my mother was heavy her whole life and struggled to maintain below 200 pounds. Just about the time she was 47 or 48 she started losing a bunch of weight. She was so happy about it, and I was so excited for her! Unfortunately, she was losing weight because she had cancer, then passed away a short time later. In my mind I always saw my fat as a safety cushion. If I kept the fat, nothing was wrong!

However, I have other health concerns like you: diabetes, high blood pressure, bipolar, and the list goes on. Not so healthy after all, huh?

As you can see by my sig line, there are four of us here embarking on this new WOL, and everyone here just loves it! Even the little guy who doesn't need to lose a pound is completely enjoying all of the new and healthier foods he's eating.

Welcome to the group! Sounds like you're off to a great start!

My BF has Diabetes and kept eating junk (his nutritionist recommended 40-60 carbs per meal!) Well even taking the Meds and "eating right", his blood sugar topped off at a whopping 419 one night.
I looked him square in the eye and told him if he wanted to live he needed to give low carb a shot. He has been low carbing for a week and a half now and his blood was 240 the other night.

This WOE does work wonders.... Keep up the good work. We're all here for you.