Hi all,
My name is Jenny and I have been LCing for about 5 weeks now. I started off doing my own thing and lost so rapidly that I thought it would be wise to research and follow a plan. After much research I decided Atkins made the most sense to me so I am following DANDR and probably in the OWL phase.

To give you some background, I have always stuggled with body image issues. I am 5'3" and grew up with friends who were all in the 5'7" and up. My size 4 to their size 1 growing up made me feel fat. I know I wasn't but when I was seeing a female doctor for the first time at 18yo I weighed 117# and all muscle, I was a serious athlete. This doc had the nerve to tell me I was at least 10# overweight and should consider taking up and exercise program and diet. So this started me down the path of an eating disorder in college. After becoming a christian I realized that what I was doing was wrong and pursued christian counselling and worked through it. I gain too much weight with pregnancies and then diet and exercise to lose it all. I always have to watch that I don't become obsessed with the process though.

Which brings me to now. Last year I put on 20# due to stress and just really a lack of self control. I hate feeling unhealthy and tired all the time and that is when I started LCing. So I only have 20# to lose and I have lost 16 of it already. I feel great! I am usually hungry all day long and with this WOE I am not. So of course I want to continue forever and not go back to my unhealthy ways. I am eating more veggies than ever before and am actually tasting the flavors in food that were once hidden by sugar and breads.

I am obviously excited and am preaching my new WOE to everyone but this is where it can be dangerous for me. I need balance I need to not obsess. So far so good but I honestly don't know where the line is sometimes. Is my choosing to abstain from foods I know are not good for me being obsessed? Or is it just finally making the wise choices and staying with it? My mom is obese and she says I am getting "too skinny" and doesn't understand why I don't cheat a little. I try to explain that cheating makes me feel bad and isn't good for me. I actually have not cheated in the entire 5 weeks. In the past as I get toward my goals I am always looking for ways to cheat. Of course I was doing low fat, low cal back then.

Sorry for the long post and intro. I hope this makes sense and would appreciate your feedback.

Thanks for the feedback. I hope I didn't make it sound like I was accosting people on the street and thumping DANDR over their heads. I just mean when people ask me what I am doing I am excited to share it. I really am so amazed at the difference in my hunger. I have never been able to control cravings before. It makes me wonder if I wasn't borderline diabetic/hypoglycemic or just a plain old carb addict.

If you are happy with the way of eating then there is no reason to change. Relatives have a tendency to try to put things back the way they were and maybe that's why your mom wants you to eat.

Let your weight, your health, and how you feel be your guide. If it's not broke, don't fix it.

When people ask me what I'm doing to lose weight, I sometimes just say I'm avoiding things with sugars and refined, overprocessed carbs. Or I may tell them I'm concentrating on eating lots of vegetables and an adequate amount of protein and healthy fats. If they need to lose weight and are really interested, then I give them the details. My mother is telling me I don't need to lose anymore and I'm still at least 40 pounds overweight. I just let her know I'm eating healthy and will need to continue to eat this way for the rest of my life. I don't think it sounds like your being obsessive about your eating, but since you have had problems in the past, it's wise that you're aware of the need not to go to extremes. I know when I start freaking out about something like a couple shreds of carrots in my salad that I'm getting a little too "carb aware".