Finally getting past my stall has really gotten me all nostalgic. I thought about how many times I had attempted this WOE, thinking it was a quick fix, and how I reached so many milestones and then sabotaged myself.

2002 - Highest Weight: 220
I remember feeling horribly fat and terrible. Dating Andy for about a year and wondering if his standoffishness was more about my weight than his own committment issues. Got laid off in May and took up a part time job and massage school and decided it was time to get thin. Lost a good amount of weight in 3 months and got down to 198 (I had a waist and an hourglass figure!!!). Suddenly Andy was very interested but I was tired of waiting for his issues to be resolved and by September I ended the relationship. Started dating and fell off the wagon to gain all 22 pounds back and more. I'd go out for dinner and eat pasta, promising myself I'd go back on Atkins on Monday. Then the next date, and the next. Monday never came. Fluctuated in the 220s for 2 years. Stopped dating and eventually went back to Andy for 2 additional years of committment issues.

2006 - Highest Weight: 232
I had met my Hunny and we dated, eating everything in sight. I had lost some weight from massive exercise and gotten down to a 206 but slowly ballooned up within 5 months of dating. We both went on Atkins in July and both lost weight, sticking with it (with a few oops moments) through October when I weighed 201. Lost control at Halloween and promised each other that we'd go back on the diet on Monday when we were home. Nope, no Monday in sight.

2007 - Highest Weight: 236
I was desperate. I was frustrated. I was stupid. I found Kimkins and thought I had found the perfect diet. I dragged Hunny with me. In 1 month I lost 20 pounds and felt terrible. I was exhausted but dedicated to working out. I felt like I wasn't eating enough food yet the website said I was doing fine. Then I saw the interview about Kimkins and how it was a fraud and dangerous and I called Hunny at work and told her to eat something carby STAT! We left Kimkins in the dust and gained it all back and then some.

2008 - Highest Weight: 238
Hunny and I agreed that enough was enough and we weren't going to be obese for another summer season so we began again in April. I found ADBB and loved it. We ended up losing the same 25 pounds only to mess up at a barbeque....guess what we did...that's right...Monday. Not sure where Monday's went, but we couldn't seem to find any!

2009 - Highest Weight: 242
Thoroughly disgusted with myself that I had let it go this long and had been obese through yet another summer. I refound ADBB and Hunny and I re-recommited to the diet in June, knowing our wedding was just a year away. Went well until early August and my sister's disastrous wedding, had lost 10 pounds, and then FAILURE. (notice how my weight loss each time decreases???)

Later in 2009 - Highest Weight: 238
With only 4 pounds of my original 10 pound weight loss left we re-re-recommited on September 1st, a TUESDAY . We've both had some stumbling days, some oops moments, but we now realize that it was our attitude of "we'll start again on Monday" that always killed us. There were too many Mondays. Now we have learned to stop at that meal and start fresh at the next. We are now 2 months in! I've lost 18 pounds (including the 4 from August I had kept off)

So, it took 5 attempts at Atkins (and a foray into lemming-like stupidity) to figure out what our weakness was. It was MONDAYS. We no longer have Mondays. Its just not an option any more.

This is why my best advice to anyone on any diet, Atkins included, is to never ever ever have Mondays again. If you fall off that wagon you have to get right back on. The next bite, the next meal, but don't ever let it become the next day, after the weekend, after this next holiday....because it won't stop there. It never does. The longer you wait to get back up onto that wagon the farther you have to run to catch up with it.

We're all on this crazy hayride together, and whether it's that unexpected family function with nothing but pasta and potatoes popping out of the woods to get you or Grandma offering you her famous fudge brownies at Christmas (horrible devil-woman temptress!) you will meet challenges. You may throw yourself out of that wagon to rush those brownies like a linebacker and feel like you'll never get it right but you have support here and we sure as heck will help you get back on if you just give us a hand to hoist your sorry butt back up!!