need a friend to talk with

[rbbrand2]

Already checked out that gastric bypass surgery and believe this will be my last time I try to diet again. Been dieting for 30 years now and get discouraged. Would be nice to know I'm not alone. Will accept emails at work or home as well.

[Sakira22TN]

That is the EXACT reason I started atkins last week. I think it is why I am staying past one day too It is really easy once you get past the withdraws. I would be more than happy to be your friend and pen pal.

[rbbrand2]

Thank you for replying. I was ready to sign up for the gastric bypass, I had thought of doing this for about 9 years. I had made the appointment and talked to the doctor. After getting all the facts, I just didn't feel comfortable about going on with it. They told me that becuase of my thyroid condition and obesity, that my chances of not making it thru surgery and of starving to death after surgery was greater than average. Not only do they reduce your stomach to the size of a walnut, but for the three months following, you are on liquids and supplements only and with chronic 24/7 nausea. If you make it thru that, you must eat extremely small amounts of food, several times every day and absolutely no sugar. Sugar would make you live in the restroom . I thought, what a life. And, then my brother told me again, for probably the 100th time, to try Atkins. He lost 50 lbs in his belly and hips and then regained 30 lbs in upper body muscle. He looks great. He is at the place now that he maintains his body weight at 150g of carbs per day and he feels great. He lost 30 lbs in the first month. I have lost 1 pant size in two weeks. If you haven't gotten the Atkins diet book yet....you have to have it. It is fulled with all the steps and it's encouraging and it even has about 40 or 50 recipes and a carb counter in the back. I keep it by me. I keep lookin' in the mirror. I see those cellulite places sinking in. I have more energy. I'm sleeping more restful. The cravings are just about non existent anymore. I sure am goina give this the best chance I can to work. Tell me about yourself....I'm sorry to be such a chatterbug. I will answer either wed or thursday depending on the time I get home....rachel

[Sakira22TN]

I like chatter bugs I tend to be one myself. Its broing if the other person hasn't or can't find something to talk about. Me? Well, I am 22, 5'7''-currently 318.I am newly married w/out kids. I have joined to challenges to hopefully keep me on the right track. I have been big since brith and as I grew taller the weight grew with me. I don't eat all that much, but what I did eat was 80% carbs so I knew this was the diet change for me. I have been looking into that surgery for the past year. Had all the info and all I had to do was start making appointments and get the ball rolling. I could live with the after affects of the surgery, but being really healthy even for being so over weight (iron low and chol. 16 points high is all--blood pressure has always been around 128/78, good everything else) so (knock on wood) I have never had surgery for anything let a lone even a broken bone. I rarely get sick,but I do have a bad knee and weak ankles and get shortness of breath. Any way, I decided to try atkins. I heard good things about it as of lately and I knew that if I couldn't do it, I more than likely couldn't maintain with surgery in the long run any way. So here I am, 9 pounds lighter.

[rbbrand2]

Sorry that I haven't responded before now. I had church last night and didn't get home until late and tonight, I had so much to do after work (which is unusual for a Thursday). The heaviest I ever weighted was 450 lbs. That was after I had a severe , disabling, back injury in 1993. I'm 5' 10" almost 5' 11" tall and at last weight was 344. But since then I have gone down one pants size...been on adkins for about 3 weeks now (the week in the middle I blew because of christmas and I always bake goodies and give as christmas gifts and take some in for the christmas party at work). My husband also is the "official taste tester", so I have to have some for home too. This year I baked 31 dozen cookies and 27 dozen candies. It took 4 days to do all of it. I am thinking of contacting local catering and banquet places to see if they would be interested in ordering some of my items for meetings and parties. If so, I may be able to work from home or get a small business storefront somewhere. I have a 22 year old step son, but could not have any children of my own. It is very hard to get people who do not have our problem to understand the difficulties we face. I too was eatting about 500 g of carbs a day. The average is 300g. I am on most days averaging about 25 to 30 grams. There is a big difference in the way I feel and I see all the cellulite sinking in and it is very slow and mushy to the touch now. It used to be very hard. That tells me that adkins is working. If you haven't got the adkins diet book, it costs $13.95 at most local bookstores. My husband got me mine for christmas at Barnes and Nobles, but it is just about in every bookstore. I think if you would consider getting it, that it would be neat to be able to talk about it and be able to look at the pages and comment about it to each other. Well, it's bedtime....hope to hear from you soon.....rachel

[Sakira22TN]

Hey rachel. Its good to hear from you. Wow, you certainly did stay busy cooking. The most I have ever spent cooking was last sunday for this week. That was only 3 hours, though. I have lost 10 pounds now. 17 more to mini goal. If I can figure out what has slowed me down then may be I can cut it out and get it moving a little faster. I think it might be too much cheese. I don't know does or doesn't slow it down. I have complained for so long that when my hubby saw me looking into atkins on the computer that he went out and bought me the book the next day. There are many different versions from old to new. I have the newest full and fat one. It is "NEW updated Diet " and has 560 pages. Is this the one you have? It was 13.95. I have to get ready for work. Have a great day!

[rbbrand2]

Hello again..the book I have is 540 pages and the title is "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution". It talks about what to do when you slow down on weight loss and all kinds of other stuff. I did something different today. I started the day with my exercise routine. I am a bit sore, but the good sore. My clothes are getting looser and I'm feeling smaller. With the routine I have, I plan on losing inches and fat but my weight will go down gradually. That is because I'm building muscle tissue. This has always been a easy thing for me to do. My hormone imbalances include a bit too much testorone and building muscle has been pretty easy for me....sounds weird huh? I figure the overall atkins diet plan may bring my hormones back in balance as the hormones are affected in obesity. So if I build up muscle now, I should keep it. Muscle will burn more fat storage, so the end result will be the same, but I'll be physically sronger along the way too. My downfall is the lifecycle (bike) I have. I readlly need to get on it more but have a hard time doing it. I used to, about 10 years ago, bike over 50 miles per week. If I had been on atkins then, I would have been at ideal weight and kept it down. I wish I would have known about it then. I wanted to give you my personal email address, in case you would like to email me directly at home. It is rbbrand2@msn.com talk at cha later....rachel