sharidoto's Journal, 15 April 2010

while admittedly not knowing your personal story - I do see you lost about 20 lbs while on Atkins over about a 2 month period of time. That's pretty good results - for any weightloss program. That's an avg of 2 to 2 1/2 lbs. a week. Most programs try to get you to shoot for less (1-2 lbs / wk) so, to my way of thinking - it's good. Any "diet" you go on, if there are restrictions, you will likely feel compelled to eventually quit (I think) unless you have dealt with this issue head on. What do I mean? Well, for me - I had to ask myself WHAT did I really want. Did I want to lose slowly? And keep it off? Did I just want to lose for an upcoming vacation or special occasion? What DIFFERENT was I willing to do TODAY, that I wasn't doing before - and would I be willing to keep doing it if I got positive results? What if the ship stalled out? Would I stay? What if I got bored w/ induction before I could move on to OWL? Would I stay? I tried to answer these honestly for myself - and then I jumped in. My expectations were not to lose 5 lbs a week. I had been counting calories, and eating low fat for a year, with tremendous efforts at the gym, and had been in survival mode and stalled out for months! What I really needed was an education about food, body chemistry, metabolism, and more....and I have actually found a lot of that here on this site. So ask yourself some very important questions. Define your goals, both now, and LONG term! What can you LIVE with, lose weight with, and incorporate as a lifestyle for your life long future? All I know is I was sick and tired of being fat too! Making steps to change that, has helped me not feel so out of control. 

WELL THANK YOU FOR THAT GAVE ME SOMETHING TO SERIOUSLY THINK ABOUT, I DO WANT LONG TERM AND HEALTHY RESULTS, IM 52 AND A CAREGIVER I SEE ALOT OF PEOPLE MY AGE AND JUST A LITTLE OLDER JUST SICKLY AND GIVIN UP I DONT WANT TO BE LIKE THAT I WANT TO ENJOY MY LTER YEARS AND BE ACTIVE  

well, once you figure out what you can LIVE with - the easier it will be. It won't feel like a decision forced on you by some guidelines to a diet, it will be your OWN informed choice! It has made all the difference for me. I too am a caregiver to my elderly mom, who lives w/ me and my family - and I too am pushing in the direction of 50, and really starting to feel some of the "down hill slide" people talk about. But honestly, it has taken well more than a year - of being on track with my food choices, and being committed to exercising regularly, and I really do feel better than I ever have. Whatever you end up deciding - just remember you have all of the control. You can always make changes to whatever you do - but you can never view WHAT you eat as more important than YOU! The longer you work at getting yourself more healthy - the easier it becomes to keep going - nothing is easy - and if it were, none of us would be here. But it is do-able. Lots of successful WW's peeps, and Atkins, and South Beach, and others...but you really have to learn what triggers YOUR body, and do what is BEST for your overall health. If you are the type of person to make a lot of excuses and say stuff like..."well, I worked hard this week - I deserve to go out to dinner one night"...and then you proceed to totally blow your eating plan - well, that's not gonna work, no matter who's plan you're following. I am glad you're thinking about it. BIG FIRST - IMPORTANT - STEP!!!