I'm now 54 years old and have been on fs on and off since 2011. I'm a christian vegetarian with two "kids", one husband, two cats and a dog that thinks she is a cat. I became a vegetarian seven years ago when my daughter wanted to become a vegetarian and her grandparents were worried that she wouldn't get enough protein. I thought that if I kept track of what I ate then I would know that she was getting enough protein and that and it would be a good way to lose weight. Though I ate healthy and stayed within a calorie budget of 1400 calories I gained weight ballooning up to 233 pounds. I had done Atkins before when I ate meat and had some success with it and wondered if it could be done as a vegetarian. After a lot of reading and planning I decided to try eating as a low carb vegetarian and it worked. I used both the book by Rose Elliott The Low Carb Vegetarian and the Atkins book I got down to 156.8 pounds. Then vacation struck and there was a crappuccino machine across from my hotel room. I came home from vacation about 10 pounds heavier and over the course of the year my weight crept up to 176.

My daughters vegetarian phase ended a few years later when she declared one day that "Chickens are ugly and fish feel no pain". She had no problem going back to eating meat. I tried to eat different kinds of meat like shrimp, BBQ whatever and chicken and couldn't stand the taste or texture of anything I once loved. Oh well at least my cholesterol is the best it's ever been.

2015- I'm no longer doing low carb or counting calories and am pretty much as vegan as I can be living in a rural ranching community. I eat a whole foods plant based eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full kinda diet. I go to the gym about 3-4 times a week and do cardio and strength training. I also wear a pedometer to make sure I get at least 10,000 steps in each day. I'm losing slowly but that's ok because it's for life.