Here is another post at forum.lowcarber.org where I have replied to regarding weight loss

MishaBelle said:

:: sigh::: I am so frustrated. I’ve been trying for two weeks to get back on the wagon and I just can’t seem to get it together. I’m a veteran low-carber. I’ve lost 30 lbs… twice. I know what to do, but I’m not getting that immediate feedback (e.g., the initial woosh), so I get frustrated, tweak something, or worse, cave and eat something I shouldn’t and I’m back in the same place.

Background: just turned 50, menopausal (no TOM since July) and while my weight hadn’t changed, gravity played a mean trick and everything kinda “fell” and I hate hate hate my shape more than ever.

Help. Seriously… help.

My reply:

Hi MishaBelle,

You actually need something bigger than the woosh to help you reach your goal and the thing I think you’ll find most effective is to actually have a good set of reasons why you want to get slim and fit again in the first place. I say again, because you’ve already lost 30 lbs twice as you say, so you know this diet can work for you. It’s more of a question of taking away all the things that sabotage your efforts and reinforcing all the things that will helps you succeed. Simply put, if you can find a powerful enough reason why then it doesn’t matter what life, the lack of feedback or hormones throw at you, you’ll have what you need to carry you through to the place you want to be.

Now whilst hormones may be partly responsible for allowing gravity to have its way, I would also ask you what else has changed over that same time period. Has your routine changed? Have you changed jobs? Have you for any for any other reason become less active? The reason I suggest you look at that is simple, in as much as everything that we are physically is held in place by our muscle structure and if there’s been a change in routine that has caused you to be less active or not to move in the same ways that you did before, the muscles that held everything in place will no longer be there and gravity will inevitably work its work in ways that we don’t really wanted to, so that’s just something to look at.

The other thing to consider is like many of us, you’re a veteran low carber and the problem with us veterans is that we tend to rely on our own understanding of things instead of relying or rather following what the books tell us we should be doing. As you say you get frustrated and tweak something, perhaps it might be simpler just to go back and follow your original successful plan to the latter without tweaking anything as that way you’ll have a firm base to work from and you’ll be going through something that is proven to have worked for so many people.

I noticed that you mention that you snack in the evening because you don’t want to fall asleep. There is no law against going to bed early and that maybe just what your body is asking you to do so rather than fighting it why not give in to it for a week or so  to see how much of a difference it will make. I would also second samissa and Kirsteen’s suggestions of going back to the books and certainly do, really do have a good look through Jimmy Moore’s information (I’ve got a lot of respect for that man).

The thing I want to leave you with the most is if you got a good enough, a powerful enough reason why you want to get fit and healthy again and that you can clearly articulate, first to yourself and anyone else who’s interested what that is, you’ll find just the simplicity of having that will give you the strength you need to carry you through to get the body you want.

Hope that helps,

Mark