So who are you?

[Dawn]

Since I've been gone for such a long time, I don't know who anyone is! Can you tell me how long you've been on Atkins, and any other info you want to share?

I'm Dawn from Florida. I'm married and have six kids. This is my second time around with Atkins. I lost close to 100 pounds til I found myself miracousely preggo. I had an awesome pregnancy and birth due to taking such good care of myself, but after the birth and beginning a new career (I graduated from college four days after my daughter was born), I found the weight creeping back on as I started having lunch with my co wokers and stopped exercising. Next thing I new I had gained almost all the weight back and was pregnant again. The pregnancy was very difficult, and I ended up with pre-eclampsia and in the hospital for two weeks before my daughter was born prematurely.

Since Alanah's birth I would waiver back and forth... start Atkins one day... eat a donut the next... til I just got sick of myself!!! I decided enough is enough. I'm tired of being the biggest Mom, the biggest wife, the biggest co-worker. I want to be healthy again and feel great about myself.

So here I am where I started three years ago. So far everything has been great, and I'm feeling so much better and when I went in for a blood pressure check I had lost four more pounds and my blood pressure was down 10 points! YAY!!

So tell me about you... please!

Dawn

[FunnyActressInLA]

Re: So who are you?

Well I have 100 lbs to lose so I would love to be part of the Century Club!!!

Dawn great to meet you!

Here is a little about me...

I live in Los Angeles, CA. I am an actress/comedian, married with one teenage son and four cats! LOL! I have been overweight/obese since I was a kid, dieting and yo-yoing many pounds for most of my life. I've never let my weight stop me from doing the things I wanted, I always loved myself and made sure I was respected and liked for who I was. I was overweight in highschool but was still on the pom-pon squad, swim team and drama club. And I'm not talking a few lbs. overweight, I was close to 200lbs. and a size 18. That's big for high school. Heck, now I would kill to be 200 and a size 18! LOL! I've never had problems dating handsome men either being 200lbs. Basically my life being fat was just fine and I was "okay" with being fat, I had friends, boyfriends, and people thought I was talented regardless of my weight. So because of that I didn't care. But over the past 10 years my weight has skyrocketed. At my highest I got up to 290, 10 pounds away from being a 300 lb woman! Not only was I almost 300 lbs. but now my weight stopped me from doing certain things, I hated the way I looked in photos and avoided cameras like the plague! And with things like Myspace and Facebook I couldn't control the pictures I took with other people when they'd put them on their pages! And most importantly health problems started springing up and with my extended family all being overweight and having type II diabetes, things are getting scary. So with that I could no longer be "okay" with being the fat girl. I needed to do something. I tried Atkins again in October, joined this board, was doing okay, then fell off the wagon and since it was the holidays, just never got back on, disappeared from the board and then tried WW, Vegetarianism and Low Fat diets. And I just kept losing and gaining the same 10lbs. I'm back now, almost done with induction, I've so far lost 6lbs. and feel really good. I know this WOE works and I'm enjoying the great support system here on the board, I'm on the STAC group, the February group and now I'd love to be part of the Century club! Especially where people understand how daunting trying to lose 100+ can be! If you're still reading this I hope to get to know more of you!
THANKS!

[FunnyActressInLA]

Re: So who are you?

Since I've been gone for such a long time, I don't know who anyone is! Can you tell me how long you've been on Atkins, and any other info you want to share?

I'm Dawn from Florida. I'm married and have six kids. This is my second time around with Atkins. I lost close to 100 pounds til I found myself miracousely preggo. I had an awesome pregnancy and birth due to taking such good care of myself, but after the birth and beginning a new career (I graduated from college four days after my daughter was born), I found the weight creeping back on as I started having lunch with my co wokers and stopped exercising. Next thing I new I had gained almost all the weight back and was pregnant again. The pregnancy was very difficult, and I ended up with pre-eclampsia and in the hospital for two weeks before my daughter was born prematurely.

Since Alanah's birth I would waiver back and forth... start Atkins one day... eat a donut the next... til I just got sick of myself!!! I decided enough is enough. I'm tired of being the biggest Mom, the biggest wife, the biggest co-worker. I want to be healthy again and feel great about myself.

So here I am where I started three years ago. So far everything has been great, and I'm feeling so much better and when I went in for a blood pressure check I had lost four more pounds and my blood pressure was down 10 points! YAY!!

Dawn, WTG on 4 more pounds and even more importantly that your blood pressure is down 10 pts! WOO-HOO!

[Dawn]

Re: So who are you?

I was overweight in highschool but was still on the pom-pon squad, swim team and drama club. And I'm not talking a few lbs. overweight, I was close to 200lbs. and a size 18. That's big for high school. Heck, now I would kill to be 200 and a size 18! LOL!

We have a lot in common! I don't have four cats, but I've always been active and didn't let my weight get in the way of enjoying life. I was on the basketball team, the track team and volleyball team and was a cheerleader in high school also. I weighed around 220 pounds until my senior year when I began binging and lost 60 pounds. Since then my life has been a series of yo-yoing and trying every diet under the sun. I know though that Atkins is the right way of eating for me. I am insulin resistant and spike really bad with sugars.

I'm so glad you're a part of the Century Club now! I look forward to watching you working your way to goal!!!!

Dawn

[Porcelain]

Re: So who are you?

Hi, I am in southern Cali and I have been chubby most of my adult life except for a stint in my early 20s where I was only 114 pounds and a size 4. Pregnancy blew that. I was also overweight in high school at 165 and I was only 5'3" I was very athletic though and was MVP in tennis singles, on the softball team, and color guard in band in high school and college.

I am on my second marriage and I have a 15 year old daughter from a previous marriage. I graduated with my LVN this summer but I am back in school to get my RN. Being on this diet (well, doing it right, this time) is actually helping me with school because it is making me be more responsible and organized. I also exercise so it is making me feel better.

Umm..

I have a dog. Looks like a dingo so that is what we named her.

[rebelwithkidz]

Re: So who are you?

Lots of us here in So Cal! We should get together some time! My name is Danielle and I live in San Dimas about 30 minutes east of Los Angeles.
I was a member of this board about 5 years ago and lost 75 pounds. Never made it into onederland though but pretty darn close. Over the last few years my weight has slowly climbed back up to 275 at its highest. I've tried restarting Atkins a few times in the past but couldn't stick to it longer than a week. This time I am determined to make it stick. I have 4 kids (11,6,5,and 6 months) and am tired of being exhausted just from a short ( and I mean short) bike ride with them. I would like to be down enough by this summer that I feel comfortable going to the local Water park with them.
I just restarted and have lost 9 lbs already. Looking forward to making alot of great supportive friends here.

[Dropzofjupiter29]

Re: So who are you?

Hi Dawn!

I'm Christy I'm 29 and from central california.. soon to be northern. I'm moving to Susanville in a few months to be with my man he just graduated the academy and is working at the prison there. I have been on atkins (2nd time around) for about a month. I did atkins a few years ago and lost quite a bit of weight but since then gained it all back :/

I have 4 kids. 12,11,7,& 5. They keep me busy! And thank goodness for the gym having a kids area!! I'm a music fanatic and go to tons of concerts, and just like hanging out with my friends. Look forward to getting to know u!

[FunnyActressInLA]

Re: So who are you?

I'm so glad to get to know all of you CC'ers!

[mom23kgirls]

Re: So who are you?

I'm Lisa Married to a great military man ( in Iraq currently and have 4 kiddos.
I have been struggling with my weight ever since I had my first..We have to undergo infertility meds to conceive so they always seem to PACK on the lbs...then somewhere along the lines I just got bigger and bigger and lazy!! I am about 2 classes away from my bachelors and also REALLY want one more baby...Dawn I wanna be YOU when I grow up :,) I want 6 babies!!!
I have 100 lbs to lose..(Yikes that sucks to see that in print) but have lost 30 so far so I am determined to do it!!!
We live in WA State-
NIce to meet all of you ~

[DigitalMocking]

Re: So who are you?

I really enjoyed reading everyone's stories and introductions, I realized I never really made mine.

I'm Ron, 38 year old with 3 kids (19 year old daughter, 18 year old daughter, 3 year old son) and another one on the way (wife is due in june). I currently work too much in the tech field as a networking director. The rest I'll steal from a journal post I made here...

I was born in may of 1969, shotgun wedding for my parents. I was a pretty happy baby
.
Unforunately it ended there. My father was raised by an abusive bastard, and he became one. I don't blame him now, because I understand that's all he knew, but when I was growing up, the physical and mental abuse was really bad. Like "good will hunting" kind of bad.

My mother has always told me I was an optimistic child, despite it all, happy a lot of the time, often withdrawn into my own imagination. I was also active, and skinny:


Unfortunately shortly after this picture was taken, my mother moved up to Atlantic city for 6 months to take care of my grandparents... she took my sister, but I stayed with Dad. It was a bad time for both of us, and all we did for that entire 6 month period was eat. EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT, and all the worst foods.

I remember to this day the reaction my mother had when she saw me after that time... she broke down into tears. She tried hiding why she was crying, but after 20 years I got her to finally admit she was so shocked at the weight I gained that it broke her heart.



I got back into sports, swimming, football, wrestling, you name it. My weight stayed the same from 8th grade until I graduated, right around 230 or so. I was a complete screwup in highschool, total underachiever, however, I was good at sports, so I was given a free ride, which did nothing to help me as a human being.

My choice at the end of High School was to go to college... or go to college as my old man said. I had a full ride scholarship to UCLA and a couple of other schools, and I SO wanted to piss him off, I joined the navy instead. The best part about the navy was the exercise. I looked *GOOD*. 210 lbs, lean, in great shape... I'd so love to be there again.



I never struggled with weight in the navy, I ate like a horse, but I was exercising hard every day so I stayed right around 215lbs the whole time.

I also got married when I was in... great idea that was at 19 years old. Amazingly it didn't last. We split, I got out of the Navy to be closer to her and my daughter.

I entered a really wild time in my life about then. I was working as a bodyguard for exotic dancers and tending bar at a local 'meat market' and my weight started to climb... about 8 to 10 lbs a year. I was drinking pretty heavily just being in that scene. I pretty much don't remember most of 1992 to be honest.

I dried out and decided to get mymyself together thanks to an intervention by some people who really loved me, got my career on track and all seemed well... except my weight. It just kept going up.

I'd battle from time to time with exercising again, or some fad diet at the time, or even going vegan for almost 9 months for a girl I was with (that worked wonders by the way, I just can't live like that, I gotta have me some bacon).

My weight peaked around 2002 at 354 lbs and has since settled into the 330 range most of the time, give or take depending on the time of year and what ridiculous job hours I'm working at the time. I fought with my weight off and on for a couple of years, settling between 310 and 330.

Along came my current wife, she loves me for me, doesn't care about my weight, just that I'm healthy. She was kind enough to marry me, even weighing 330lbs on our wedding day:


I also started a really stressful job at the time, my weight started to climb again, we were talking about having a child, so Lisa and I together decided to really focus on my weight, we researched diets and exercise plans, you name it. We found the DANDR 2002 book and it was a godsend. I got down to 265 over the course of about 6 months, and pretty much hovered there, because I found WAAAAY too many products. I wasn't losing, but I wasn't gaining. I decided somewhere along the lines that I would just eat normal, but use low carb products instead of their full carb counterpart. I was expensive, not very satisfying and a lot of how I felt pre-atkins started to come back. I still looked and felt pretty good:



Lisa got pregnant, and it was pretty magical overall, but my job was getting more and more stressful, and as with all points in my life, when things got too hard, I'd fall back to food to comfort me. I got back up around 290 when our son was born:



Things went downhill from there, I wound up quitting where I was working, it was killing me and my marriage. I got pretty depressed over the whole thing, gaining the weight back, quitting my job, and really got into a downward spiral. After almost 5 months of that, Lisa and I decided we had to get out of Southern California and we decided on Oregon. We love it here, but my weight hasn't changed much, there's ALWAYS an excuse... ALWAYS.

I'm tired of excuses, I'm tired of lying to myself, I'm tired of bs'ing myself about my weight and my health. Lisa is pregnant again (due in june) and I really don't want to be the fat dad to my kids. I want to be their role model, not something they pity.

This was me at Thanksgiving, 340 lbs, and this will be the LAST damned time anyone sees me like this again:

[Dawn]

Re: So who are you?

Ron, you have an awesome smile!!!!! Congrats on the new baby!

Lisa, I wanted kids, but I would of never imagined me with six kids!! People ask me how I do it, and I tell them you have to have a great sense of humor!

Christy, I look forward to getting to know you too!

Dawn

[Callie]

Re: So who are you?

Hi Dawn. This is a great thread. It's fun getting to know everyone and hearing their stories. And even though we were Atkins buddies a few years ago, I don't think I ever told my story (or ever fully admitted why I'm fat).

I was NOT overweight as a child -- just tall and very big boned (yeah, really). In 7th grade I was 5'6", weighed 128 lbs. and wore a size 9 shoe. My mom was 5'10", big boned, wore a size 10 shoe and always very thin. My dad was 5'11", big boned and struggled some with his weight, but was always active. I grew to 5'7" and was around 130 lbs. in high school (I was a cheerleader too) and through the 1970s.

In 1981 I had been married 10 yrs., had 2 great kids. My hubby, the love of my life, took a good job, but was working 2nd shift. He began going to the bar after work with the rest of the guys. He wouldn't come home until the bar closed or later. I don't think he intended to mess up our marriage at first. He was just having some fun, but to make a long story short, it got worse and worse and worse. I started eating for comfort. I gained 30-40 lbs. Then he got transferred to another state. I wasn't going to go with him (good time for a break, right?). Well, he promised to quit going to the bar, so we all moved away from family and friends. We moved again a year later. I got kids settled in a new school again. I found another job, but the marriage was never the same. My weight had ballooned to about 220 lbs., but with my big stature I carried it well.

A couple of months after our 17th anniversary, we divorced. I guess I had divorce syndrome and lost down to about 145 lbs. without even trying hard. A couple of years later I met a man and fell head over heels in love with him. My friends (and teenage children) tried to tell me he wasn't the right guy for me, but I wouldn't listen. We had a 5-year "on again-off again" relationship before I realized my friends and children were right. But every time he came back, I let him in, so this time I thought if I gain the weight back he won't want to come back -- so I ate for comfort, telling myself "so he won't come back". I gained some weight.

Then I met the nicest, sweetest fat man. I fell in love with his whole family -- what nice people. I married him (now #2 guy wouldn't come back for sure, right?). I am still married to the fat guy. We don't fight, we get along great. We both love to cook and eat. Wow, he had been fat (not chubby) all his life. All he thinks about is food and what he's going to have for his next meal. When I would get home from work, instead of asking how my day was, he would ask what I had for lunch. What an enabler!!! The more I cooked (good old fashioned southern comfort food) and ate, the more he liked it. Finally at 350 lbs., I started having health problems--type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, thyroid problems, etc. He developed high blood pressure and when he hit 450 lbs., the light bulb finally turned on for both of us. We went on Atkins and each of us lost about 50 lbs. before we both stalled -- didn't gain, but didn't lose. I think we ate the right foods, but increased our portions little by little. The holidays came around and we sort of gave up (instead of adjusting portions and increasing exercise, duh). Now that we've gained most of it back, we decided that we really need to lose it for good this time, so here I am back on Atkins and I've lost 25 lbs. since Jan. 2. Sorry this was so long.

[FunnyActressInLA]

Re: So who are you?

Hi Dawn. This is a great thread. It's fun getting to know everyone and hearing their stories. And even though we were Atkins buddies a few years ago, I don't think I ever told my story (or ever fully admitted why I'm fat).

I was NOT overweight as a child -- just tall and very big boned (yeah, really). In 7th grade I was 5'6", weighed 128 lbs. and wore a size 9 shoe. My mom was 5'10", big boned, wore a size 10 shoe and always very thin. My dad was 5'11", big boned and struggled some with his weight, but was always active. I grew to 5'7" and was around 130 lbs. in high school (I was a cheerleader too) and through the 1970s.

In 1981 I had been married 10 yrs., had 2 great kids. My hubby, the love of my life, took a good job, but was working 2nd shift. He began going to the bar after work with the rest of the guys. He wouldn't come home until the bar closed or later. I don't think he intended to mess up our marriage at first. He was just having some fun, but to make a long story short, it got worse and worse and worse. I started eating for comfort. I gained 30-40 lbs. Then he got transferred to another state. I wasn't going to go with him (good time for a break, right?). Well, he promised to quit going to the bar, so we all moved away from family and friends. We moved again a year later. I got kids settled in a new school again. I found another job, but the marriage was never the same. My weight had ballooned to about 220 lbs., but with my big stature I carried it well.

A couple of months after our 17th anniversary, we divorced. I guess I had divorce syndrome and lost down to about 145 lbs. without even trying hard. A couple of years later I met a man and fell head over heels in love with him. My friends (and teenage children) tried to tell me he wasn't the right guy for me, but I wouldn't listen. We had a 5-year "on again-off again" relationship before I realized my friends and children were right. But every time he came back, I let him in, so this time I thought if I gain the weight back he won't want to come back -- so I ate for comfort, telling myself "so he won't come back". I gained some weight.

Then I met the nicest, sweetest fat man. I fell in love with his whole family -- what nice people. I married him (now #2 guy wouldn't come back for sure, right?). I am still married to the fat guy. We don't fight, we get along great. We both love to cook and eat. Wow, he had been fat (not chubby) all his life. All he thinks about is food and what he's going to have for his next meal. When I would get home from work, instead of asking how my day was, he would ask what I had for lunch. What an ebabler!!! The more I cooked (good old fashioned southern comfort food) and ate, the more he liked it. Finally at 350 lbs., I started having health problems--type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, thyroid problems, etc. He developed high blood pressure and when he hit 450 lbs., the light bulb finally turned on for both of us. We went on Atkins and each of us lost about 50 lbs. before we both stalled -- didn't gain, but didn't lose. I think we ate the right foods, but increased our portions little by little. The holidays came around and we sort of gave up (instead of adjusting portions and increasing exercise, duh). Now that we've gained most of it back, we decided that we really need to lose it for good this time, so here I am back on Atkins and I've lost 25 lbs. since Jan. 2. Sorry this was so long.

Good luck to you and your hubby!

[Tracy53]

Re: So who are you?

Hi Dawn.. and Welcome back.. I remember you from before you were an inspiration to me.. I lost about 60 pounds .. found out I was pregnant and gave up atkins, and found myself back to my old starting weight plus 25 lbs heavier..
I can really relate to going on atkins one day and off the next.. I kept trying it and thinking about it.. and now I'm ready.. my daughter is almost three.. and enough with the excuses...I'm struggling right now..It's only been two days.. I'm trying to beat the cravings..
Congratulations on your 2 new little ones... I hope to see you on the board.. It's so nice to see someone on here from before...

[womanpraised]

Re: So who are you?

Hi! Dawn - I fell off the boards a short while after you had the baby, I think. I am newly back also.

I am Kimberly. I am a single mom with three boys. We live in a tiny little town that still closes up all 11 of its storefronts on Sunday, and after 7:30 pm. (Even the grocery store and cafes... no going out for Sunday breakfast, unless it is at the truck stop on the edge of town). A "the lady at the grocery store goes to church with you, is a cousin somehow, your kids are in scouts with hers, and you work with her husband and sister" kind of town. I work mostly swings for a prison doing activities and such and homeschool my kids. My journey has been marked by trauma and drama, but it is time to finally finish this for me. I don't feel like the fat girl, so I am going to stop being her. I fully intend to stubborn my way through this.

I am an emotional, stress, and compulsive eater... so I am fighting myself more than anything else in this. I also somewhere along the way picked up the mentality that since I have been through/am going through so much, I DESERVE to eat that candy bar... and I just recently identified that thought pattern, so I am not sure how to eradicate it yet.

Lisa, I wanted kids, but I would of never imagined me with six kids!! People ask me how I do it, and I tell them you have to have a great sense of humor!

Dawn

This made me laugh, because my boys are so close in age and my ex left when my youngest was a tiny baby, that people always used to asked me if I meant to have them and how I did it. I used to tell them that I could always put them in the free cart in front of the store, and I managed because I was 50 percent deaf and 50 percent crazy... Either I couldnt hear the noise, or was too nuts at the time to care! Some people have NO sense of humor, and were highly offended. I figure if they were going to ask a total stranger in Walmart those questions, they should have accepted whatever answer they got. Something about me, for whatever reason, screams to total strangers eapecially at Walmart... "Please comment about my children/family/parenting style. I am not dealing with enough already"....