The Atkins Diet

 Love it or hate it this diet has been around for a long time and works!

My husband and I went on the Atkins diet several years ago.  This is the first time my husband has done any dieting. I on the other hand have tried every diet know to mankind.  Of course he dropped 10 pounds the first week, and could not understand why I am always saying that weight loss is difficult.  I did lose 6 pounds the first week so I had to agree that the diet was working. The first two weeks were difficult to get used to eating only low carbohydrate foods.  Once we got past that two week mark we found that it was an easy diet for us to follow.  On the Atkins diet you eat mostly protein.  My husband has always been a big meat eater so that part was easy.  It was more difficult for him to give up the potatoes and bread that he ate along with his meat.  We needed to find alternative foods that were allowed on the Atkins diet.

Funny quotes "Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever"

"Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out. But I can usually shut her up with cookies..."

I bought the Atkins diet book which not only outlines the diet but also has recipes.  It is amazing how you can eat a lot of food on the Atkins diet and still lose weight.  The main challenge is getting some variety into your meals.  When we first started the diet the dinner meal was very easy to prepare.  We would have some type of protein, fish, pork, chicken or beef and a large leafy salad with bleu cheese dressing.  This was not that different than what we ate before it was just minus the potato and bread.  After a few weeks the lack of variety started to bore us.  We were both losing weight, so that helped keep us motivated, but we were getting tired of the same meal each night.  Then I discovered some of the recipes in the back of the Atkins book.  Our favorite is mashed cauliflower.  It is the same texture as mashed potatoes.  The Atkins diet book also had a recipe for a salad that has all the same ingredients as potato salad, minus the potatoes.  You substitute cooked cauliflower.  I was skeptical at first, but it tastes wonderful.

Oh the infamous Atkins diet, where did you go? There was a time in our not so distant past that this country was absolutely fixated with the Atkins diet. Since that time, carbohydrates have been the enemy. Breads and pastas everywhere cannot find good homes. Muffins and cookies have been left out in the cold. I won't even mention the cruel fate faced by the cupcakes. Why was this anti-carbohydrate diet so popular? More importantly, why was it so powerful? How did it change our nation and its eating philosophy forever?

Perhaps the Atkins diet appealed to so many dieters because it seemed simple. Many dieters prefer to have strict rules and regulations to guide them through weight loss. Meat is good. Carbs are bad. These mantras were heard all around our country. Restaurants saw dramatic changes in what their customers were ordering. Even bars felt the fad as diet coke and bicardi became a slogan and billboards promoting the diet-friendly cocktail sprung up over cities.

We have lived off of grains and carbohydrates for centuries. Why it did take us so long to realize that they are bad for us? I think that many people gravitated toward the Atkins diet because of its meaty foundation. Americans are meat lovers and we prove it every holiday. We have even invented holidays so that we could spend more time by the grill. Meat, meat, meat as an idea was simple and easy to remember.

The focus of meat in the Atkins diet was much easier to implement and more easily accepted than an anti-meat diet would have been. I cannot imagine a large cross-section of America easily letting go of their barbeque anytime soon. The Atkins diet did come under some scrutiny from those that thought it did not do enough to promote the eating of fruits and vegetables. Others believed that a strict no carbohydrate diet was too much for systems that were used to carbs and had been ingesting them all of their lives.

Whether you follow the Atkins diet or another kind of diet, the bottom line is that weight loss equals eating less and exercising more. Regardless of what you eat, you must eat less in order to shed pounds. Weight loss is all about numbers. You want to take in fewer calories and expend more. I do not believe that dieters, unless they have a specific food allergy or complication, have to give up any type of food in order to lose weight. Moderation is the key and determination is a must.

Over the years we have added carbohydrates back into out diet.  Initially we both gained some of the weight back, but now we have found the right balance for each of us.  Long term with very low carbohydrates did not fit our life style, or taste buds, but the Atkins diet was an effective way for us to take off pounds.

If your thinking of doing this you might want to check out this Health and diet information site