Starting June 8 as a 23rd birthday gift to myself

[Stokes]

Hello!

I'm really excited to start the W30. I'm going to start on Monday, June 8th — a month before my 23rd birthday and three months before I begin grad school.

Reading your posts and tales of the journey has really helped me mentally prepare. So thank you to the community at large for all the stories, advice, and encouragement. With community support and all the information at my fingertips I feel incredibly prepared, and yet I'm still very nervous.

I am living in New Orleans (a food-centric city) and studying architecture (a very intense program). The odds are not in my favor. I come from a family with high rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and digestive issues. Surprisingly, I was a reasonably healthy and fit child. I graduated high school in fairly good shape, but then things took a turn. 4 years of college and 40 lbs later I found myself chronically ill, mentally strained, and uncharacteristically depressed.

I never used to think about food unless it was meal time, but in recent years I fixate on food and my cravings are a constant companion. I struggle to resist temptations and I have trouble enjoying activities that don't include food. I've tried to change my ways, but it always seems like an uphill battle. Every diet, workout plan, or healthy eating habit has ended in "failure" when I succumb to temptation and return to old ways. I began to think it was hopeless. I thought every time I got something good going, my weakness for food was inevitably going to ruin it. I gave up and decided I'd just accept my unhealthy fate.

Then I heard about the W30. I read the books and found new hope. Perhaps I can control my sugar dragon. Perhaps it's not too late for me. It's time to make a change and not just any change. This is the kind of change that has the potential to break the cycle and give me a fresh start — a new relationship with my body and with food.

So here I am.

Wish me luck. Wish me success. Wish me a long healthy life. I wish the same for you.

Sincerely,

Stokes

[Lori Pegram]

Hi I am new also and not sure I should be trying to start tomorrow but it is the date I want.  I just found the site I have not had a chance to get the book yet and was hoping I can learn enough on here to get started without it.  I feel like this is a last hope after trying so many different things.   I am hoping to find some support on here. Good luck to you on your journey. Lori

[SharonKayMoore]

Good luck to both of you. I'm starting my first W30 tomorrow, June 8. Excited, very nervous. Feeling well-prepared but also have some self-doubt. I hope I can do it. My health is really in jeopardy and I haven't been able to manage my addiction to processed carbs on my own. I've read the books and I hope what the authors say is true. Desperate for relief. Glad this forum connects us. I need it.