Hi guys.  I'm returning to a healthy lifestyle on Monday and if anyone has any
suggestions, comments or words of encouragement I'd love to hear them.

First, some brief history...I'm 20 years old and I'm about 15 pounds overweight
(I know, nothing serious, but I just don't like the feeling of being out of
shape, and my lifestyle has been very unhealthy lately).  I have typically ate
pretty healthy until last August when I moved into a house with 4 other college
guys.  

You know what that means...junk food all the time.  Pizza, soda, chips, pop
tarts, etc...as the year has gone on I've been eating worse and worse and
although I've started cooking for a week every now and then, I haven't been
able to keep it up.  Now that school is ending tomorrow, I'm going to dedicate
myself to getting healthy again.

I've read a lot about diet plans and for the most part, I'm not going to
restrict myself in any extreme way or follow any fad diet.  I'm just going to
eat healthy, limit my carb intake (not low-carb, just sensible eating) and get
a lot of exercise.  I might start a log on here where I post periodically
update my progress in a thread.

But I do want to try the low-carb diet until I reach my fat-loss goal or at
least lose 6-8 pounds.  It's not something I will do permanently because I know
I couldn't live that way and I'd rather keep a healthy, balanced, enjoyable
diet that I can stick to forever.  

I'd like to commit to it for 2-3 weeks and if it's going well, keep it up for
another few weeks until the fat is gone.  I've read about some people doing
this, and the only cases I've heard of the weight coming back is when people
have either stopped exercising or returned to their old eating habits,
including a lot of junk food and too many starchy carbs.

I plan on lifting weights 3-4 times per week (I am writing my program after my
final tomorrow) and riding on the exercise bike at home 3-4 times per week.  I
would prefer to run but I have a bad knee...if it feels better after I
strengthen it for a few weeks, I will return to running.  My roommates and I
will also be playing sports a couple times per week and I will be more active
than usual this summer in general.

I'm not terribly out of shape in terms of extra fat (15 pounds at the most) or
lack of stamina (I can jog for a couple miles and I can play sports without
getting winded).  But I want to get back the athletic, healthy, high-endurance
feeling I used to have (I know, I sound old...but by used to, I mean last
summer) and that's what I'm going to do.  The major challenge is to resist the
junk food that is all around me...but I know it will be ten times as easy once
I get into my routine.

Does anyone have any recommendations, general or specific?  I'd love to hear
them.  Also, I have a meal plan I'm working on for my normal eating plan but
none for low-carb.  I'm going to research it in a couple days, but does anyone
know of any good resources for finding low-carb recipes online?

Thanks for reading!

Tim