Brand new and motivated

Alrighty, just joined the Low Carb Friends site and decided to share my story. I am 26 years old and I weigh 236 pounds. This is actually not the heaviest I have ever been. I have been almost up to 260. But let me backtrack a smidge...

I have always had issues with food. My mom has always been overweight, so I'm sure I picked up most of my inner issues from her. My dad was my best friend and we LOVED to go out to eat together, but we stayed pretty active as well, so I never really had to watch the calories that much. I was a little round in elementary school, but not that bad. In sixth grade I did sprout up and "out" before everyone else and did get some pretty nasty comments from my classmates that have forever scarred me. In junior high I decided to starve myself down to a size 2, and was a decently functional anorexic for a couple of years. I sort of got over that and really was very healthy and slim in high school. I played lots of sports and was very social and active.

Then when I was 20 my dad died from a brain tumor. I was so devastated that food was my drug to deal with the pain. We had loved to eat together so much that eating brought me momentary happiness and calm. Over my college years I gained almost sixty pounds. When I got married to my high school sweetheart, we didn't have any money for a long time so we ate the cheapest, junkiest food from the store and I proceeded to gain more and more weight. By the time I got a job as a music teacher, I was pushing 260. I was only 24 and could barely clip my toenails.

So I decided to try the Slim4Life plan. I had started out at 255 and over about a year I did get down to 209. The diet was extremely restrictive and I was always hungry. But the weight did melt off. Right after I turned 25 I went on vacation with my husband and packed on a few pounds while living it up in San Francisco for a week. About two weeks after we got back from San Fran I found out I was pregnant with our first baby. While I was SO excited to be pregnant, I was really bummed that I was going to have to stop losing weight. I started out my pregnancy at 224 pounds and by the end I was 257. Although as soon as the baby was born within two weeks I was literally back to 228. But, over the past year a few pounds have crept back up on me, and I do not want to set a bad example for my own daughter.

Last week I weighed in at 241, and tried to start eating the Slim4Life way again. After a few days I had already lost a few pounds, but was absolutely starving and constantly fighting my urges to go through the drive thru. I realized that I didn't think I was going to stick with Slim4Life very well while I am staying at home with my daughter. So I started reading up again on protein diets again and decided I needed the power to eat when I was hungry and eat decent size portions.

So here I am and I just finished day 2 of induction on Atkin's. I have felt good so far...though I know the carb withdrawel is coming. I am really going to try and prove I can stick to this plan and really lose some weight. My poor husband tries to be supportive and has always been so loving to me no matter what weight I am (when he met me I weighed 140 pounds...sigh), but he has made a few comments that he is concerned about my future health and that he worries I will always be really heavy. I don't want him to have that weight (no pun intended!) on his shoulders. I don't want this weight anymore either. I want to shed this emotional protection that really has not brought me any happiness. I want to break out of my emotional issues with food and I want to feel good about myself again.

I welcome your opinions and advice, so please feel free to comment as you deem necessary. I look forward to losing weight the low carb way with all of you!