Hello!!!
I am not new to low-carbing but I am new to this site... I was so excited to find a low carb board that seems friendly!
I am a 42 year old mom to 4 kids.... happily married for 22 years.... enjoy exercising... really really battle with sticking to any kind of eating plan. I have had the most success sticking to low carb. I am a sugar addict.... so when I get the sugar out of my diet I seem to do better.
My problem has been this.... after a while of low carb eating I tend to wonder if its the healthiest diet for me... is it too much fat??? to little fiber??? you know... justifying the reason to dive into a bag of chips or candy...
So... the last couple of months I have been calorie counting... I have gained 10 lbs... eating mostly carbs! Whole grains, fruits, veggies.... but still NOT losing weight and definitely NOT Happy! I feel tired.. want to sleep all the time.. almost depressed. And from past experience.. I know its the sugar and the carbs that are making me feel this way.
Well..... today is a new day! I am so excited to be here and look forward to making new friends and reaching my goals along with you guys!

Welcome, Sherry. I agree- this is a friendly community!

The problem you experss is a bit puzzling to me. You can certainly experiement with altering your fat and fiber intake while maintaining a LC lifestyle. While the majority of LCers haven't don't feel the need to watch fats (beyond avoiding transfats), some do (and/or choose reduced fat/moderate carb plans like SouthBeach), but almost all LC plans encourage plenty of fiber. In fact, many follow the "net" or "effective" carb count model, where you count the carb grams after directly subtracting the fiber grams from the food.

So I guess I'd have to say that's probably not the best excuse to turn to junk food...sorry!

From our observations, the folks that are the most successful choose a plan to start with and begin by following the plan. As time goes on, they may experiment to find out what works best for them, but having the solid base to start with makes a huge difference. So that's where I would encouarge you to start, if you haven't get.

Good luck!

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Thanks for the welcome! I know low carb is the best route for me... I am starting over with Atkins today.
I love salads and I agree that the fiber excuse was well.... just an excuse!!! No more excuses!!!

Sherry. It's amazing the excuses we come up with before we go back to what we know works. on deciding to return to what works for you. Atkins provides a good structure that provides a firm foundation for developing healthy eating habits. Good luck.

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Henry

Welcome, Sherry.

Nice to have you here.

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Welcome Sherry! Glad to have you join our friendly low carb forum! I follow Atkins too and I kept wondering about the fat issue. But if I go off it.....I feel horrible. Which I kinda did in the last couple of weeks. I ate low carb but kept adding foods I knew were not low carb and even had the evil sugar in them. I felt so bad the other night that my husband said "you better get back on Atkins tomorrow." He was right! Anyway, happy you found this site and hope to get to know you better.

katlupe

To me, the golden standard is always how you're feeling and how you're body is resonding. When you feel good, you're probably doing a good job of balancing your eating as well.

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Welcome! Hopefully we can all help you stay on track. For me, it's been a journey of finding good substitutes for foods I used to eat, but with a healthier twist. I pretty much make everything from scratch now and avoid the specialty foods........especially since they seem to be disappearing from the shelves anyway.

Hang out here, you'll learn a LOT!

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