Atkins

 Surprise!  Ben and I have been on the Atkins diet for a week.  I have been journal writing along the way but wanted to wait to post until I had stuck to it for a while and had some progress.  So I'll post those entries now. 

Thursday May 17
I'm keeping a journal of my dieting experience.  I hadn't posted it yet because it's kind of embaressing to admit you are dieting, and using a 10 year old semi-fad diet too!  This is mostly a record for me to see how far I've come and measure my success.

Here's the gist:  Induction stage of Atkins is a two week long diet to"kick start your body into a fat-burning machine!"  Basically you super restrict carbs to force your body into a ketogenic state, so it starts burning fat for fuel instead of expecting carbohydrate deliveries.

Key point:  Net carbs = total carbohydrates - fiber
Induction = net carbs/day.  Subsequent stages allow more daily net carbs.

I weigh 162 pounds (varying from 158 to 164 over the past 3 months).  Before Jack I consistently weighed 158, but was chubbier than I liked.  At the end of college I weighed about 146.  At the end of high school I was around 132.

I think a safe, reasonable goal for me is 150.  12 pounds.  It's not too much, really.  According to the Atkins plan I could start at an easier stage, limiting my net carbs to 30 or even 50 a day.  But I'm
going to start with 20 per day for three reasons.

One: I want to do the diet right.  I have failed at other attempts to self regulate.  I hope to have more success by following a strict regimen to the letter.

 Reason two: Won't I lose faster if I start at the hardest level?  All the better for me (see birthday cake, above).  I don't plan to be low carb for life (tsk tsk says Dr. Atkins).  I hope to do some power
losing and then go back to my steady maintenance with a better awareness of carb intake (hopefully making better choices along the way).

Reason three:  Ben is doing the diet with me.  Lying bed one night I was moaning about how fat I felt.  He said he wanted to lose weight too and his doctor had actually recommended the Atkins diet. So we teamed up!  I'm going to stay on the low carb path as long as Ben does.  Possibly at a more lenient level.  But I want to be supportive for him.

Day 1
I'm excited!  I had planned to do a "test day" by counting my carbs and seeing how low I could go without strictly dieting.  I had half a slice of toast with eggs for breakfast.  11 carbs, yikes!  We talked
about how hard it will be to diet on Jack's birthday (I MUST bake a real cake!) and with family visiting.  Later that morning Ben and I decided to plunge in.  We will always find excuses not to start. Today is no worse than any other day!

Enthusiasm has made it easier than it will be later.  I spent much time reading Atkins materials and recipes.  I bought low carb foods to stock our pantry.  I bought an app to keep track of my intake.  Again, the diet change feels . . .weird.  I already miss sugar.  I didn'trealize just how badly sugar is EVERYWHERE.