On the Atkins

Hello Everyone,

I started the Atkins diet (as I insist on calling it, despite the serious warnings from other low carb eaters that the Atkins is a lifestyle) just under a month ago.

Nearly one month into the process, I am one stone lighter (14 pounds for my American readers, 6.4 kgs for the metrically-inclined) and feeling more confident about shifting all this weight that has pulled me down for years. My family are astounded, because I have never managed to stick to a diet for more than three days before. Everyone I know is a bit bemused with me walking around everywhere with a bright orange book in my hand.

The fact is, I am very, very heavy - I still am and will remain so for quite some time. But as they say 'the longest march starts with the first steps'.

I am presently on the Induction Phase of the diet, which is doing me very well. I am trying to keep to eating whole foods, no processed stuff at all - at least you know what is going into your food if you cook it yourself. I have already found some firm favourites for recipes and am rediscovering the joy of cooking. What other diet encourages you to have Steak au Poivre for dinner? or Cajun chicken with a couple of dollops of cream? or bacon and eggs for breakfast?
Apparently coffee is a real diet killer - fortunately for me, I have never been that keen on coffee and have always been an inveterate tea drinker. It was a small adjustment to start taking my tea with a drop of single cream.

I have had a couple of 'blips', where the weight loss has stopped for a couple of days - but so far no 'cheats' (apart from taking a drop of milk with my tea for the first few days).

As I am pretty damn heavy, I have had some issues about exercise, when you are carrying the amount of extra tonnage that I am, the knees do tend to get a bit grumpy. However, I am working them through as I go.

I keep a small pink notebook in my pocket most of the time, this is used for writing down what I have eaten, recipes I have seen and the amount of exercise I have done. Unsurprisingly, it has also become a bit of a diary for grumbles and woes. I will use this blog to share stuff I have found out with you.

I will put up the odd recipe that I find particularly useful - they will be aimed at the complete cooking novice so that you can get into the kitchen and conjure up delights to astound your family, friends and workmates.

**UK READERS - this blog is written by me for anyone, but any brands etc. which are mentioned in them are British and available in your local shops. There will not be many of them as I am trying to avoid convenience and pre-packaged foods - but those I use will be here**

***OVERSEAS READERS - I am using British/Metric measures when I put down recipes, please check these against your local measures as sometimes they are surprisingly different***

I hope you enjoy this blog and find it useful. I am happy to receive comments or just a hello. I will point out here that any gratuitously rude comments will be deleted at moderation stage - this is my blog, to be shared with other who are trying very hard to lose weight. If you have issues with overweight people, or are sad enough to want to abuse us - kindly take your complexes elsewhere.

Keetje