I woke up this morning unable to open my right eye.  I walked into the bathroom, looked into the mirror and saw a puffy, pink right eye.  What sucks about pink eye is you can't be around other people because it is contagious.  I feel awful and my stupid eye hurts like crazy.  It made me think that whenever things in life seem to be going great, a mountain appears that you have to climb over to get where you want to be.  I realized that this is not a setback, but more of a time for me to rest and reflect what I have accomplished and where I want to be.  Don't let mountains set back your weight loss journey.

I just completed three weeks of eating lowcarb and it is going great!  I'm down 10lbs and ready to take on the next 10lbs.  I'm starting to notice changes in my face, stomach, and legs.  It is just slightly noticeable to me.  Today at work I had someone ask: "Are you losing weight?"  It was so great to hear!  Ten pounds does not seem like a lot to lose when I know I have many more 10lbs to go, but it helped reconfirm that I'm going in the right direction.  My main goal is to become healthy inside and out.

I don't know about you, but whenever I gain weight I start to feel depressed.  The depression than causes me to feel anxious in social settings.  The strangest thing is I love being around other people, but this all changes when I gain weight.  Does weight gain change the way you feel about yourself? 

No matter what weight you are or what size you are, you are a beautiful person inside and out.  You are created like no one else on earth.  You are the only you!  That's pretty amazing to think about.  Let's let people see our uniqueness and strength through this journey.  When you conquer this weight battle you have a story to tell, an accomplishment you achieved.  And no one, I mean no one, can take that away from you.

So find that inner strength within you and go.  You are the only person that can stop yourself from accomplishing your goals.  So take that inner voice that tells you that "you are fat", "you'll never be beautiful", "thunder thighs" or whatever your inner evil voice tells you and work it out of you!  We can do this.... I know we can.

I just saw the movie "TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN" and it was great!  The whole idea of transforming reminded me of my weight loss journey.  First the title feels like it is describing my past attempts of losing weight.  I feel like I've tried diet after diet and have fallen off of it for one reason or another.  So here I am mad at myself and wanting revenge of my past, fallen weight loss goals.

Second thing I thought about while in the movie is that it takes time for the Transformers to win the battle against the enemy.  It doesn't happen instantly.  This idea made me think transformation takes time and to win this weight loss battle we must keep pushing and take it one day at a time and one pound at a time .  So take it to heart and know that we too can be transformers and we will win this battle.   

I guess you have to decide for yourself: are you a wiener or a turkey?  When you start something do you have to ween yourself off of it or can you quit something cold turkey.  I heard this quote from a writer on Oprah and kept it close to my heart.  I took the quote and reanalyzed myself.  What am I...a turkey or a wiener. 

In most situations I would say I'm a turkey, but the first 2 weeks of my lowcarb journey I was more of a wiener.  I still took in a low amount of carbs, but not the Induction Phase suggested 20 carbs per day.  I didn't follow Atkins Induction Phase like I should have.  As I was going into the 3rd week of my journey I decided if I wanted to see results, I would need to follow the Induction Phase more closely.  I was happy to get on the scale this morning and see I had lost 8 lbs total. 

I'm going to continue eating on the Induction phase for the next week or two and see if this helps me achieve my results quicker.  Click here to see what to eat during the Atkins Induction Phase: http://www.atkins.com/Program/FourPhases/WhatIsInduction/AcceptableFoodsList.aspx    

I went swimsuit shopping.  Enough said.  Does anyone else dread swimsuit shopping?  I know I shouldn't be down on myself because I've only been lowcarbing for almost 2 weeks, but It is so hard when you want to go shopping and try on something and feel sexy and you don't even feel close to sexy.  After my swimsuit experience, it encouraged me to continue along my journey, let me emphasize JOURNEY.  I know the weight is not going to come off overnight, but it will come off over time with consistency.  Day by day and pound by pound I will knock off this fat to make my body not round.  :-)  I'm a poet and didn't know it.  But on a serious note I am taking it one day at a time and I know that in the end I will find myself again.

I don't know about you, but I can find just about any excuse in the book to not exercise.  When it comes to losing weight, exercise is a must!  No ifs, ands, or buts about it.  You know you've heard the saying "you are what you eat", so changing what you put in your body helps but it is only part of the equation of losing weight, the other part is what we do to the outside of our bodies....EXERCISE.  Right now I'm trying to incorporate it least 30 minutes of cardio 5 days a week and weight training 2-3 days a week.  The hardest part of exercising is getting to the gym or walking to your treadmill/elliptical that you conveniently own in your house like I do.  Once you get there the hardest part is over.  Now just exercise!  Once you are done, your endorphins will have kicked in and you will feel like your skinny sexy self.  Just try it!  We all have to start somewhere, so why not start changing ourselves from the inside out today!   

I started eating lowcarb on Monday, June 8.  I always feel like Mondays are great days to start something new because it is a fresh start to the week.  I've been doing well so far with really no challenges.  I bought the ketosis sticks at Walgreens and am officially in ketosis!!!  When you are in ketosis, it means your body is burning fat.  Burn fat burn!  I went to the doctor today and he agreed with my lowcarbing choice of dieting.  He told me to keep it up, which was the medical encouragement I needed to hear.  Since Monday I have lost 3 lbs.  I'm going to weigh in again on Monday, June 15 to see how much I have lost in my first week.  I'll keep you posted.

I am a 25 year old female who wants nothing but to feel confident in my own skin. I've started my low carb weight loss journey to lose 40 lbs. I know it will be challenging, but I know I can do it. Please follow along with me in my journey and discuss any challenges that keep you from accomplishing your goal. The greatest challenge in losing weight is being consistent. How do you stay consistent? Consistency is the battle, losing weight isn’t.

I have decided to no longer make excuses for “just one more cheat day”  I am starting the journey to the new me.  I guess gaining weight seems like it happens out of no where, but we all know that it happens over time.  One day you wake up and realize, Wow!  when did I change into this body.  I don’t even recognize myself.  

You know that you’re skinny self is still in there, but at the moment your skinny self is hiding.  Now here’s the tough part…. gaining weight doesn’t happen over night, so you must remember losing weight will take time.  And we must not lose hope or quit.  We will get to the end of this journey, because we won’t give up.  

Does anyone else struggle with the beginning of a weight loss journey?  Please share your struggles and successes with your weight loss journey on my forum…..