Atkins as a Way of Life?

I am now on Day 10 of this foray into the Atkins Diet. This is not my first time at the rodeo. Back in 2005, I took this diet on for the first time. For 4 solid months, I stayed on the hardest part of the plan, the Induction Phase, which is typically only adhered to for the first two weeks. 

It was the first day back to work after 4^th of July weekend when I started. My goal was to stay on until Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving would be my reward for all those months of suffering, and I would gorge myself on mashed potatoes and pies and all manner of yummy carby goodness.

People who'd done the diet before told me that my carb cravings would go away after two weeks. And to my complete surprise, they actually did! I couldn't believe it.

The other surprise after those first 2 weeks? I was down 14 pounds. A pound a day. I'd never had that kind of success on any other plan – and believe me, I'd tried a boatload of diets, having battled with weight issues pretty much all my life.

I never cheated on Atkins. I had this irrational fear in the back of my mind that any deviation from the plan would somehow make all the weight come back overnight. The only treat I had in those 4 months was a handful of a child's size popcorn at the movies (the movie was Poseidon – I needed something to make it bearable). And what was my prize for all of my hardcore sticktoitiveness? I lost 45 pounds. I was skinny! Okay, not super-model skinny – which I wouldn't want to be and never could be – but I was buying size 6/8 pants and skirts... and even got into a size 4 here and there. It was amazing. I'd never been that thin in my life.

I held on to one pair of jeans to remind me of where I started – before Atkins, before Richard Simmons (my diet before Atkins, on which I lost about 30 pounds over a long period of time). My heaviest was close to 220 pounds. After Atkins, I was at 145. Those jeans I kept? I think they were a size 18 or maybe even 20. I don't have them anymore, but I still remember how it felt holding them up, looking at them, at that weight. Just mind-blowing.

Years went by, and I more or less did Weight Watchers – sometimes hardcore, sometimes wasting my money paying for something I wasn't doing. My laziness gave me about 15 pounds back over the years... and then I quit smoking. Oh boy. I had no idea how much smoking affected my metabolism, but it clearly did. And some more pounds came back. And then a few more. Ugh.

I joined a gym. For a while, I was going to the gym at least 4 days a week – often more. It didn't seem to be making any difference on the scale. I felt stronger, and good about myself, but I was only maintaining, or at best showing tiny losses.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that before things get completely out of control again, I'd go back to Atkins. When I told my mom, she asked if I was going to stick to this as a lifestyle, and I started thinking... I am a carbohydrate junkie, there's no question about it. I love my pasta, my bread, my pizza, and oh my God my potatoes. There's probably nothing I love more than potatoes, food-wise. And those are the foods that are usually my downfall. Granted, if you eat too much of anything, you're going to gain weight (in the end, it all comes down to calories, no matter what plan you're on). But I'm certainly more susceptible to over-indulging when it comes to carbs. 

Last week, during my first week back on Atkins, I realized I feel more energetic than I have in a long time. I just generally feel better. And that's when it occurred to me that maybe I shouldn't just think of this as a diet. Maybe I should think of it as a lifestyle change. If I actually go through the phases this time (as opposed to last time, when I stayed on Induction the whole time), I think I could make it work as my way of life.

My first weekly weigh-in shows I'm down 7 pounds. I know it won't go as fast this time as it did last time, and that my metabolism is slower since I'm older and not smoking anymore, but it was a good first week!

Taking it one day at a time... I'll be wearing those 6/8s again someday soon :)