kayliegh, losing weight is hard...very hard. but one thing that jumped out at me about your post is that you've stopped gaining and maintaining! congrats! that's the first step! you go!

i'm a person who's been overweight her entire life...most 20-40 lbs. however, when on lots of meds, i gained massive weight. i ended up having to lose 87 lbs...it took me 2 1/2 yrs. i've kept if off for six years now if i can do it, you can! you're already on your way! the thing that i had to do is to realize that i will go up and down some and not to get disgusted and just give up...hard to do. i would lose twenty and give my body and break, then i'd gain probably 5-6 of that back during that break (eating pretty much what i wanted)...then i'd go back on watching it and repeated that. i'm still about 10 -15 lbs overweight but not worried about that at all! i'm 42 and it's to be expected right? hehe.

i had to find out what would work for ME, not worked for other ppls. like you said, you already know you can't do the atkins. i couldn't conform to other diets because there are so many foods that i can't/won't eat. i had to figure out what i COULD do and started there, making the necessary changes along the way. one thing i do believe helped me lots is taking that necessary break so my body didn't go into the preverbial "plateau" that they talk about when you keep trying to lose and body adjusts to what you're doing and just doesn't lose for a while. to prevent that, i took a break and then started again after a month. most of all, do it safely!

i don't know how much this will help you, but it's what i did. and please, don't put all your self-worth into weight. i'm no happier or high functioning with the weight loss than i was before. i just feel better physically.

be safe and gl!

kimmydawn