Hi Kaye,
I started out on this voyage early in September 2010 after reading SP. I am 185cm tall and weighed 85kg with a waist of 104cm. I got down to 74kg and 94cm waist by about April 2011. Following a hernia repair operation in November I've put on a few kg and cm; now 77kg and 97cm. Not sure why as my diet hasn't changed much. David's advice is to go low-carb for a while but I am having a bit of trouble motivating myself to do that. My wife does the cooking and I don't know how she'd feel about it.
It's called a change of lifestyle . . not a diet :-)
Also I heard some refer to the Dukan Diet (low-carb with a buddy system). I checked it from curiosity and found a questionnaire on the front page. It told me that 77kg was my ideal weight! So now I'm wondering if I shouldn't just accept that. My waist is my main concern as ALL men should keep it under 94cm (80cm for women) to avoid the dangerous accumulation of fat around the vital organs.
David says "party food is for parties". So it's OK to eat a bit of rubbish at a party as long as it doesn't set you back on the road to perdition :-( You are wise to abstain in the early stages.
You can get a huge variety of food without including fructose in it. As I read recently . . " eat the sort of food your grandmother used to cook; not the sort your mother bought from the supermarket shelves". So simple, unprocessed, food, like raw vegetables (make great salads), cereals, and glucose-based versions of all the stuff you used to eat. Since you are subscribing to this web site you can see the recipes David and his wife have devised.
Where are you from in Godzone? I was born-&-bred in Dunedin but left there in 1956. I have lived most of my adult life in NSW and on the Mid-North Coast for the last 12 years or so. Three children (plus one stepson) and a total of 14 grandchildren, all in NSW and Queensland. Lots of relos in N.Z., especially around Christchurch and Invercargill.
If you need a morale boost look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM Professor Robert Lustig of the University of California spelling out the evils of fructose in great detail, and quite entertainingly.
I wish you well in your journey to health and happiness.