Welcome, Sunny!
You've come to a great place! YES you can have watermelon...you can eat the whole darn thing, if you want! I LOVE watermelon! I have an extra fridge using the excuse that I need a place for watermelon!
On the boards:
When you click on the tab above marked "Home" you'll be able to see all the sections of the boards. Make sure you click on any Plus + signs on the left of the tabs to open all the sections in that main section.
For instance, when you open the plus sign next to Recipes, Ideas and Suggestions, you'll see all the subsections there, like Breakfast ideas, Soups, Salads, etc. Click on Salads, and you'll see all the salad recipes people have posted.
When you see something you like, click the Bookmark tab in the upper right...that will add that thread to your own bookmarks so you don't have to go searching for that great dip recipe you remember somewhere......this is especially helpful since people often post recipes in the middle of "conversation" threads and they don't wind up in the recipe section, making them much harder to find after the fact.
When you have a note open, there will be a "reply" tab at the top or the bottom, or for each message, there will be a quote tab if you want to quote one specifically. Within the quoted area, you can delete any parts that aren't relevent to your answer, as long as you leave the outer quote code intact.
And, NO! You DON'T count calories

or carbs, or points, or elves, or laps, or Hail Marys, or degrees or IQ points. The only thing some people track is their blood sugar, if they're medically instructed. The great thing is that you eat ALL the LDL approved foods, whenever you want, and you'll gradually fall into wanting/needing less food and be happily enjoying wonderful meals and losing weight at the same time.
I've done low carb, too, and the main habit I had to break was thinking I had to limit my intake of veggies...and of course fruit was SUCH a treat after not eating it "legally" for so long. It's not very clear in the magazine article, but you can learn a lot from reading here....you HAVE to eat large amounts of legal food, and plenty plenty plenty of fruit in the beginning so you overcome your cravings and never give your body a chance to think it needs to be in starvation mode. Our metabolism is wired to adjust to feast or famine, and if you cut back on portions, it will go into "famine" mode and you won't lose any weight...you'll store up instead. Eating LOTS of food will convince your system that storing isn't necessary, and you'll gradually, naturally cut down on how much food satisfies you. It's really a wonder, but it WORKS!
I just had a FABULOUS salad...big pile of romaine, a little smoked turkey breast, a slice of low fat American cheese, a few diced marinated mushrooms, and several large spoonsful of Navy beans, straight from the can and rinsed. I put 2 T of Italian dressing on the side, dipped my fork as I ate, and I had easily 2 teaspoons left. As long as you put juicy, tasty things on your salads, you'll need much less dressing.
Congratulations on finding LDL, and joining us here on the board. If you wouldn't mind, when you have settled in a bit, would you respond to this thread?
http://www.letsdolunch.com/boards/http: ... 840#p52840Thanks, and enjoy your journey!