Really nervous for Day #1 tomorrow!

[Me'Shell]

HELP!! tomorrow i am starting my induction, and i am terrified! what do i do when cravings for sugar kick in? How do i stay one step ahead of temptation? Please Help me cause i am tired of starting a diet and failing it....it starts to wear on my self-esteem.

[spazzyhilo]

you just need to take it one day at a time, one minute at a time, even one bite at a time.

Just ask yourself, would you rather lose the weight, or would you rather have that pizza?

Go to the recipes forum for great recipes on snacks and dishes and good stuff. Do a search for Mock Danish, it will help your sugar craving very much - it did for me!

And don't be afraid to ask questions here, there are a lot of people who are here to help and support you!

Welcome to ha

[tabekat]

Fear is the mind killer. I will face my fear.

I understand how you feel. But you are going to be ok. Forgive this long story.

When I made the decision to do Atkins it came after a lifetime of diet failures. I have tried many famous diets and invested far too much money in weight-loss schemes. All to no avail.

The diet I remember the most was a tablespoon of icky orange goop 3 times a day. I actually stuck to that crazy regime for 3 months, but I still didn't lose much weight and I didn't look good. That weird diet took all the saliva out of my mouth. Pretty gross.

My appetite was so enormous I had no hope that I could make any diet stick for long. Even when I did stick to a diet, the weight just didn't come off.

There was a time in my life when I was running four miles a day and sticking to a low-fat diet and I still couldn't take off any weight. It was baffling. I really felt discouraged by this experience so I just gave up.

For the past 10 years or so, I've refused to diet at all. I ate whatever I wanted, when I wanted and I gained lots of weight.

I felt bad about the weight gain and ashamed to have to wear larger and larger sizes, but I didn't want to experience another diet failure. It seemed to me that when I failed a diet, it was harder on my esteem than when I never tried to lose weight at all.

I resolved myself to being fat for the rest of my life.

I became extremely vocal about accepting people of all sizes and I ordered plus sized womens catalogs. If I couldn't be thin I would be a militant fat person and fight for a fat persons right to be accepted.

And this was my mindset for many years.

I remember some stranger online asking what my weight was back then, and I promptly told him that I was "plus sized and proud of it, and no, I wasn't going to change...." heh, heh....

Even after I developed diabetes, I felt it was hopeless to try to lose weight. I took some sporatic medication, and waited for things to get worse. I had no doubt the disease would kill me, I just hoped it wouldn't take too long.

January 2005
I had just gone through the typical holidays, binging and stuffing and suffering from an aching back. I knew that joining a gym would help with the pain and there was a fantastic gym close to my daughters apartment.

I wasn't trying to lose weight. I had no hope that could happen. But I did want to be out of pain. So I joined the gym and started working out and it felt great.

As I got more in touch with the needs of a body that had been neglected for so long, I developed a wish that my eating behavior would support my gym efforts somehow. For the first time in years I started to consider the word I had previously resolved should never be spoken - no, not Voldemort - hee, hee - DIET.

Everywhere I went I saw the controversy about low carbs. I even ran into a store that only sold low carb foods. I started to think about low-carbing and did some research online. This led me to the Atkins site.

After reading through the Atkins site I went and sat in a restaurant and looked at the menu. I realized there were things on the menu I could eat and still be on Atkins. Could I do it?

In that moment I felt a powerful surge of positive will take over me. I suppose you could say it was a spiritual experience. I resolved in that moment that I would never eat potatos, flour, bread, pasta or rice again. Not for the rest of my life. And I knew I meant it. Which was bizarre - how could I know, what I had never known before? But I knew.

Soon after I found this forum and started reading the advice of some of the wisest people in the world. And I was clueless. But they helped me. I started an informal induction - just to try it on for size. But I didn't like some of the rules so I decided I would only follow the rules I liked. hee, hee...still battling with an ego there.

I especially wasn't going to give up my equal, or my coffee. I had a cup of coffee with 1 pink and 2 blue sugar packets for years and I wasn't budging.

Well I posted my menu and a few of the monitors quite honestly told me I wasn't doing induction correctly. This made me mad. I felt that I had given up the biggies and that was enough. But I just kept watching these monitors. Day after day, they kept helping people. And they were losing weight.

So I decided to take it on faith. Which really isn't like me. Again, I don't know where the positive will came from, but it was a gift. I gave up the coffee. It took me about 4 weeks to integrate all of the induction rules and follow them exactly. I'm probably the slowest and stubbornest inductionee in the world. But I finally did it.

Once I gave in and stopped trying to shorcut the program it felt great. I started to experience some very positive changes. I started to gain some portion control. My cravings vanished. My desire for healthy food increased. Never in my life had I experienced the ability to say no to food. But I found my no.

Then boot camp came along and I did boot camp and wow - did I learn some amazing things. That experience was just fantastic. I can tell you that there are people on this forum who know this WOL inside out. It was wonderful.

And now i'm doing the 3rd rung of OWL and planning to stay there a while. Slow and steady wins the race.

And I do have a point to this post and I'm sorry it took so long to get me to the point. But here it is. It seems to me that if you decide to do Atkins it helps to make it a permanent decision from the start. Make it serious and profound and spiritual and about you.

I see a lot of people here starting, stopping, cheating, whining, sneaking, faking, fudging and staying in denial. I did these things too. But they stood in the way of my success.

You can only hurt yourself.
Why would you want to hurt yourself?

I had to ask myself that question many times before I decided that no, I didn't want to hurt anymore. I wanted to help myself because I love myself and I'm worth it.

So...take a stand for yourself. Resolve to do induction by the book without a cheat. Once you do, the light will go on about so many things.

You don’t need those high carb frankenfoods. You don’t need sugar. You need tough love. Love yourself enough to stick, stick, stick to the approved foods lists.

Let no other person or temptation derail you from loving yourself at the highest level. At first you will be going on willpower. But I promise you, if you stick the to approved foods lists and allow your body to go into ketosis, you will change. Your preferences will change. One day you won’t need will power. You will love to eat the Atkins way because it makes you feel wonderful about yourself. You can do it. You can.

[Me'Shell]

THANKS SO MUCH TABEKAT AND SPAZZYHILO!!
I returned home tonight and read your reply, and i totally teared up! i was getting all worked up for nothing. i am glad that there is support and encouragement out there which really makes this a whole lot easier!
:clapping i cant wait to write about my success tomorrow night!