[StarPrincess]

Thanks for sharing! Keep it up! Here's my actual turning point:

One day I got the oh-so-brilliant idea to measure myself. When I was at my thinnest, my waist was 23.5". On this day, my thigh was 28". And it hit me like 3 tons of bricks: my thigh is bigger than my waist was. OMG. I just started crying.

After that day, I was sick every time I ate something. I was so depressed. I started throwing up all the time, I just couldn't keep anything down. When you throw up a lot, it does some bad things to your throat. I didn't want to be doing it, so I found that if I took laxatives, then eating didn't make me feel bad enough to throw up. 3 weeks later, DH found a bag of laxatives in my purse. I was taking 20 or more a day and he flipped. He called one of my closest friends, who has battled anorexia for years, and together they gave me a serious ***-kicking.

I needed it.

2 days later, I was pill-free and at the grocery store doing the week's shopping with DH. We were in the produce section and I just looked at him and said 'That's it. I'm done with this crap. I'm going on Atkins.' I had researched this WOE for a long time but I didn't realize I was going to really change until that moment. So I did and I haven't looked back since.

[Shimma]

Ok, I've been kind of absent from the board for over a month now and never got around to posting my story.... so here goes.

My entire family is overweight. My two older sisters can probably be considered morbidly obese. I always prided myself on being the "thinnest" person in my family. I figured that, as long as I was under 200 lbs then I was fine. But then I graduated college and starting having sinus problems which led to stomach problems because of the medication I was on. I basically ate little to nothing for 3 months straight... which meant I lost a BUNCH of weight. At that weight I got this killer good looking boyfriend in the marines and bought a bunch of new clothes. I felt killer. Well, the not eating damaged my metabolism and plus, with college gone... so were all the activities I used to do. The fabulous bf ended up cheating on me once I gained a bunch of weight back. Fine. I was still under 200lbs. For some reason I kept gaining weight and thinking 200 would never get here. A bunch more weight was gained last year as I was really busy and depressed a lot as my grandmother gradually lost her battle with cancer. She raised me as a child and was the most important person in my life. We took turns helping her out on weekends and during the week I'd be depressed and hid myself away in food. At the end of last May, she was given 2 to 21 days to live. We brought her home to die with the help of hospice and I moved in with her. My mom and aunt quit their jobs to help out as well. It was an amazing time the way we all pulled together and those were some of the most precious days ever. However, the high stress and the fact that most people bring cake and cookies over instead of meals (hint hint if you know anyone going through anything similar) meant that I was eating crap and smoking like a chimney. My BF at the time was pulling a bunch of crap and saying he felt neglected.
After my grandmother died, I found myself. Here I was with this loser boyfriend who was so incredibly selfish that he played GOLF the day of my grandmother's funeral and I had been in such a fog and so in love that I hadn't had the courage to dump him. Well, I dumped him the day of my grandmother's funeral.
I went to the allergist in July last year and I was at 205. I had gained 25 lbs in the year it had been since I had last been there. I was past the 200 mark. My clothes weren't fitting. That was the point. Right there in the doctor's office. The previous year had taken it's toll but it had also made me a stronger person. I knew that I could do something about it.
Well... I lost 10 lbs between then and January when I first started Atkins, which was the first day I came to the board. I've lost 23 more lbs since then. I've got a great guy that I'm gonna marry and spend the rest of my life with and I have no doubt he is my grandmother's gift to me. My body is actually loving the break from all of the crap food I ate last year and even when I'm not on plan, I'm much better than I was before.