My name is Lora. I am a divorced mother of one in her 40's, and have been struggling with my weight (and health) in one way or another since the 1970's. In 1979, while attending nursing school, I was first introduced to the very controversial Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution. My girlfriend had gone on the diet and lost 75 pounds. A pretty ringing endorsement! She lent me the book and within a week, I was low-carbing.

Everyone around me questioned what I was doing. Family was "concerned" and friends thought I'd fallen for the latest "fad" diet. It might have been stupid of me, but I started the diet on Thanksgiving week! I still remember sitting down to dinner (that I'd spent all day cooking!) and having nothing but turkey and broth. Back then, first week of the diet meant zero carbs... so no vegetables either. Cyclamates had already been banned in America and saccharine was our only option.

At that point in my life, I was married to an ex-husband who was a difficult man to live with. He drank... a lot. He got mad... a lot. Well, you get the idea. Somehow, though, I managed to go 8 long months on this diet — and lost 68 lbs! And I truly did feel wonderful on the diet. But stresses in my real life were tremendous then. I was going to school, working, raising kids (mine and his), and managing life with an alcoholic. So after that glorious 8 months, I slipped into depression and back to my old way of eating.

Stern warnings from friends, printed articles, and those in the health profession I was working in then, frightened me away from going back to a low-carb way of life. As I think back on it now, it seems odd to me that I was so ready to listen to all those around me, yet unwilling to listen to my own body and how I felt and thrived on those months on the diet.

Needless to say, the years went by; the pounds piled on; and the yo-yo effects of many other diets (usually the low-fat variety) played havoc with my life. Blessedly, as time went by and I got help from some supportive friends, I was able to get out of my destructive marriage.

As the years passed, I married again and was married for 14 years to a man who was quiet and peaceful and indeed was a good friend. He was good to me in many ways... including being there for me in 1998 when I lost both of my parents. In April of that year, my father died suddenly and without warning (we were very close), and right on the heels of his passing my mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Yes, she smoked... heavily. She died by inches over the course of that year. My diet plans fell to the wayside as I helped to care for her and put my life on hold.

Sadly, in October, she passed away. The holidays were a difficult time, but I got through them. My son and his then fiancée came up from the Carolinas to spend the holidays with us. And we began to talk low-carbing. Both of them were "chubbier" than they wanted to be for their wedding (set for September 99) and we began exploring our options again. By this time, my thin husband had put on a few pounds around the middle as well and wanted to see what he could accomplish by axing his usual daily round of sugared sodas. And so we started...

As of May 1999, I had been low carb for 3 1/2 months and had lost 26 pounds and was feeling great. I'd been able to discontinue my cholesterol reducing medication (Zocor), my blood pressure meds (Ziac), and had energy for my life and my business again. (I left nursing in the 80's to pursue a career in the graphic arts.)

I am very metabolically resistant as I have dieted off and on for so many years. So the weight comes off quite slowly and in fact, I've had an entire year during my five years low carbing that I lost almost nothing at all. Yes... a one year stall. Not the easiest thing to deal with.

But I have continued this way of life because I feel wonderful when I low carb, and as I write this, I have lost 156 pounds. I am, indeed, a new person.

And that brings me to the divorce from my last husband — the man who I felt perfectly instep with for 13 of our 14 1/2 years together. We grew apart... we'd both changed so much. I won't say anything negative about him, and we continue to be friends.

Over the last three years, I've come to know, and eventually love, someone who's become a big part of Low Carb Luxury and the work we do here — the mission to help others, and LCL's goals for the future. Neil Beaty has become my partner and my best friend. I couldn't continue doing all of this without him, and wouldn't want to.

So now, LCL is a joint venture between the two of us, and it's our intention to continue bringing the best low carb news, information, recipes, research, and product info to the visitors of this site. We give our all to our LCL magazine and every other project for Low Carb Luxury.

And here I am — dieting like all of you reading this probably are. Learning what I can each day to keep my success going, and allowing it to center around this website. I hope it helps others. And more selfishly, I continue to hope it helps me.

To all others travelling this road with me, all my hopes...