Welcome Jill!

Hi everyone! My name is also Jill and I've been waiting for my account to be activated while I've read all of your posts. I'm almost 48 years old and this is my THIRD time on LAWL. I'm hoping that the third time will be the charm. I am a busy music teacher, a director of music in a Roman Catholic Church, and a free lance musician. I first went on LAWL back around 2002. I lost 50 pounds on the Gold Plan and was very happy with my success. Unfortunately, I never did stabilization or maintanence and gained the weight back plus some. The second time on the plan was 2004 and that time I lost 75 pounds and thought that would be it. That time, I was on the Red Plan and did a lot of exercise combined with the diet. I lost weight, BUT I made the same mistake of not following through. I never got the magic book that would let me know what every food equaled and things again got out of hand. I am determined that this time will be the last time for me, as I am really getting too old for this. At least, I am not up to my highest weight. I have set a goal to lose 38 pounds for starters. It's great to meet all of you and good to know that I have this forum for support!

welcome to both of the Jill's!

Love both of your names..since mine is Jillian!

Hello my name is Mary, I am from Cape Cod, Massachusetts and I am the mother of 4 children, 18, 16, 9 and 7. I have struggled with my weight all of my life. About 2 years ago, I learned I was diabetic and met with a nutritionist and managed to lose 110 pounds through diet and exercise and come off all medication. Then I stopped and the weight has been slowly creeping back on so I decided to join LAWL since a friend of mine was on it and I saw how suceesful she was on this plan. I am committed to finally getting below 200 pounds (a place I never remember being)! This board has been so helpful to me over the past four weeks and anytime I am feeling discouraged all I have to do is come here and I am right back on track, Thanks to all of you!

welcome mary!

Shannon,

Just in case you didn't get an answer to the question about alcohol, yes.. you can still have a drink now and again.. Check your menu book for the number of servings allowed.. The basics include substituting 1 fruit serving for a 3 oz. glass of wine and 1 starch serving for one 12 oz. light beer. There are also exchanges for liquor, but since I don't usually drink that, I dont' remember what they are. I suppose it can vary depending on what color plan you're on, so be sure to check your menu.. Also, it's not something you're allowed to do more than once or twice a week.

Thanks Dan! I was actually kidding about that. I used to go out with a friend of mine every now and again for margaritas but since I started this diet I am afraid to go to the Mexican place so no margaritas for me! Once I feel I can navigate the restaurant again without eating buckets of cheese (my other weakness) I may go out and have one.

Hello everyone!

My name is Stephanie. I am 24 and started my journey at LAWL on June 17, 2006. I have lost a considerable amount of wait thus far and am continuing to strive to meet my initial goal. I have not yet reached my goal, however, as I am ineligible to use many of the weight loss supplements and LA lites for various medical reasons.

I work as an accountant in a small firm not far from where I live. I live in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. I just recently got married in September 2006 to the love of my life whom I have been with since I was 17.

My weight gain started in my first year of university. I was 150lbs all through high school. In my first year of university I put on the typical "freshman 15" while living for 8 months in residence. From there I moved in with my husband and his mother and grandmother. Of course things were wonderful, but 2 years of decadent desserts every night definately did not help my cause to lose the weight I had packed on. By the time my husband and I moved into our own house I was pushing 195 lbs. Of course my husband never complained about my weight so I never realized just how bad it was. I knew I felt like crap, but even though I exercised some and rarely had desserts I was still eating wrong (mostly pasta, lipton side dishes, and what we fondly refer to as "Poor Man's dinner" a.k.a. Kraft dinner and brown beans and weiners). So the weight only dropped to 185 and I continued on my merry way.

My turning point in all of this was my brother's wedding in May 2006. It was when I finally saw the pictures of my family and I that I saw just what I really looked like, so I was finally able to equate that with the way I had been feeling about my weight and my health for several years. I had always been concerned about my weight since my family has a history of heart problems, but seeing those pictures was the real kick in the butt that got me moving.

So here I am almost 9 months later. I am happy to have found this forum so I can get the perspectives and ideas of others who are on the program as well. I have been struggling for several months now to reach my goal and my weight keeps going up and down, but doesn't seem to stay down. My motivation has really slipped as I continue to get more and more frustrated. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Welcome, Stephanie.

Welcome!

Hey everybody!

My name is Sarah. I'm 20, and I live in Ottawa, ON, Canada. I'm a 2nd year undergrad student at the University of Ottawa studying science, as well as a part-time admin assistant for the Ottawa Base Hospital Program (they're responsible for training and certifying paramedics).

I've been somewhat overweight most of my life. I grew up in British Columbia with my dad and my sister (my mom passed away when I was 7), and my father was pretty much useless in every way, including health and nutrition. Fast food, candy and chips made up most of our diet, and at one point I was drinking about 10 cans of coke a day! I spent a good 10 years or so hating myself, until finally last December, I resolved to do something about it.

I started on LAWL January 2, 2007. I was rather pessimistic, having never seen the numbers on the scale decrease significantly in my life. The reviews I read online certainly didn't help, as most seemed to be from disgruntled ex-clients who paid WAAY too much for no results. However, I've been thrilled with the results so far. I'm averaging about 2.5 pounds a week, and I'm generally quite satisfied food-wise.

The past couple of weeks, however, have been pretty difficult. My cat was quite sick (we think from the tainted pet food), and we spent a fortune in vet bills and blood tests. I've been ridiculously stressed, and I've been giving in to temptation a lot more than usual. Also, my sweet cravings have become almost unbearable! I NEED MY CARBS!!!

At the moment, I'm on the purple plan with no LA Lites, but due to my recent difficulties, I'm thinking I might get a bulk of 20 and switch to the gold plan, in an effort to lose my last 10 pounds or so quicker (not that I can afford them...). As much as I love the program, I can't wait to be done!

I look forward to communicating with all of you, and I'm hoping to draw some inspiration from fellow LAWL-ers.

Welcome! Your losses so far have been great. You have come to the right place for support.

I've been scoping these threads out that last couple days and I'm already addicted. Just thought I'd do a short intro as I hope to be around these boards quite a bit in my weight loss journey.

I'm 26, 5'8" currently residing in the good 'ol midwest. I keep busy teaching kindergarten, being super involved at church, and currently PLANNING MY WEDDING! I'm down to about 4 months until I marry the greatest man ever. So now it's crunch time!

My weight has always yo-yo'd (right along with all my diets). I did WW in college with pretty good success and 2 years ago, did LAWL. Last summer though I moved to a city that doesn't have a center and back the weight came. So, now that the honeymoon is quickly approaching, I have committed to driving to center out of town every 2 weeks and am calling in my weight on the off weeks. Thank goodness I stumbled on these boards. What a great way to keep me accountable without having to drive 2 hours!

Thanks everyone for all the ideas I've gotten already. Looking foward to getting to know you more!

Hi everyone,
I'm a 40ish mom from Tennessee. I work in the Finance / Analysis area. I've been married almost 17 years and have 2 boys 14 and 5. I never really had a weight issue until I had babies and went to graduate school while working full-time with an infant/toddler. I reached a point where I want to feel happy about the way I look and feel. I want more energy!!!
I've been on LAWL for just over 4 wks and have lost 10.4 pounds - with much more to go, but I'm very excited with progess so far.
This past week the COD recommended take off again, but when discussing it with a visting center director, I found out I shouldn't have done it the first time since I take Metformin for pre-diabetes. I didn't seem to have any trouble then, but they think my blood sugars might drop too low. I sure hope my weight loss doesn't stall out as I'm not sure what I'll use for a jump start.

Hi everyone. My name is Kim and I live in the great state of Oklahoma. I joined LAWL Feb. 16. I have lost 14.6 so far. Last week I didn't lose anything and was so down and just wanted to give up but knew I'll never lose this weight if I give up so I stuck to it and today I am so very proud of myself because at this morning's weigh in I lost 5.4!!!

I'm 47 and will be 48 in June. I keep telling myself I want to be 148 by the time I turn 48. I have two great kids. My son lives in Florida with his wife and my two year old grandson. We will be going there in July for his 3rd birthday. My daughter lives in Texas with her boyfriend. I am married to a wonderful guy but I know he still probably doesn't believe I'll get this weight off. I've been on so many diets and have spent a small fortune on diet stuff.

I love this site and look forward to reading more.