I started putting on extra weight in my teens.  I never really cared enough
to do anything about it from an appearance perspective.  Sure, I wanted to
be thinner, prettier, get more dates, but that alone didn't motivate me
enough to stick with an eating or exercise plan. I knew being overweight
could cause health problems down the road, but that road looked really long
and health problems looked really far away, so that didn't motivate me
either.

It was last year, when I was 27, that I got sick and tired of it.  
Literally.  I realized that I was tired and icky feeling most of the time,
with a little bit more age the weight had started to affect how I _felt_
not just how I looked.  I had a sedentary job, ate a ton of crap, and
really just wanted to sleep all the time.

I was on a break at work one day, walking down to the grocery store to get
lunch, when I passed by the Curves location at that shopping center. I went
in on impulse, asked about it, and came back the next day to join.

After my very first workout I felt a LOT better.  I left there feeling like
I was floating, and I said to myself "Ok, THIS is what they mean by an
exercise high."  I went religiously for my first month, and I did notice a
difference in my energy levels, but I also started to notice that after my
huge meals of pasta I would get that tired and icky feeling back again.  In
my first month I didn't lose any weight, and I was worried about how sleepy
I got after eating, so I started cutting out the carby things that made me
so sleepy.  Then, the second month I lost 8 pounds, I had lots more energy
and it was more steady throughout the day, and I said to myself "Ok, this
is gonna be my life now. I like feeling like this more than I like pasta."

Sandy, you are so right. I watch people all of the time. Pretty, ugly,
skinny, fat, "normal" I watch everybody because people just fascinate me.
But I do not see extremely obese in their 70's & 80's. I never gave much
thought as to why.

I was overweight almost all my life.
I got in shape briefly after my first marriage, but when she died I dived in
the bottle for a few years, and after that really packed on the weight.
Even after I turned diabetic type II six years ago I didn't succeed in
taking off weight. But last year I was as far as the medications could take
me and the doctor said if I got any worse I would have to take insulin.
I knew this would be basically a death sentence for me, because of my
chaotic life I could never keep to the type of schedule required for that.
So I turned to a nutritionist that put me on a low carb diet and I lost 55
pounds.
I recently fell off LC, but am going to try Atkins this time and in fact
start induction in the morning.

Garth
310/255/200

I was a lightweight, skinny as a beanpole sort of Tomgirl in my
younger years. Very athletic too. I started putting on weight in my
early 20's. When I started having children. I gained with my last
child..That was over 11 yrs ago..alot of weight. I was around 180. I
was involved in a serious car accident right after giving birth to my
11 yr. old. My right arm bone was shattered, took me a long time to be
able to have use of the arm again. I went into a serious depression
following it all. Then gained more weight on top of what I allready
was carrying around. I went up to 225-240.  I have ate not great, a
high carbo diet all my young adult life. Fed the crap to my children
too. I say to myself, I did not know any better, and really I didn't.

I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia around 4 years ago. It was following
a house fire to my home, a home we had built from the ground up. The
pain, the depression, not being able to keep a job, being overweight,
stres etc.. I gained even more weight.

The last couple years, since becoming so ill, I have worked hard at
overcoming the depression. I learned how to take care of my needs too.
Sort of a trip on self discovery. Been hard, I call it a faceing of
reality I guess.

Took a long hard look at what I was putting into my body. Tried
different diets, none worked, I was hungry all the time too, then
binging. I took stock on what my kids are also eating, what they are
becoming, what I am teaching them. I took a long hard look at myself
in the mirror, naked. That was so hard.

So, I guess I just got sick and tired of being sick and tired.  Tired
of the mood swings, tired of the depression. Tired of looking in the
mirror and not likeing what I see.

I thought to myself right before the diet.. I can put it off, make
excuses. Or I can start now, and maybe a year from now, I will have
progress. Like, you aint gonna have any thing good happen, any
progress, if you don't start now. Tired of laying around, feeling
sorry for myself too.

So, heard about, read about, seen on the news, the Atkins Way Of Life.
I picked up the book one evening. Read it, and learned so much from
it. Some parts made me cry. I guess because I am hard on myself, and
cannot believe I didn't do this years ago.  Read the book all the way
through.. Like some of you all suggested here. Then ridded the
cupboards and the refrigerator of the high carbo junko.  My kids
became interested too in it all. They too want to lose weight, feel
better and all that jazz.  So we all started together. I started a few
days before them, because I knew I would have a withdrawl with
migraines from Mountain Dew.  I too got tired of the trips to the
store to get my fill on twelve packs of the pop. The money spent too.

I had tried to kick the habit of the soda pops, failed many times.

It was hard the first few days. I am still hungry at times in between
meals. I am sleeping better than before. I am not as moody. I know it
will work deep down inside. I think positive too. I got great support
from my kids. We brought out old pics of when I was a lightweight. And
then one of now, being 265. Stuck the pics to the fridge, its a great
way to keep on track.

I still have nerve pain in my hip and leg. Still get migraines, and
then pain with the Fibro. I guess too I wanted to start the Atkins
because I want the Fibro to get better.  It has some, but its still
there.

So, just continueing to work on making my life better for me and for
my kids.

And thats all she wrote..