As I sit here (munching on a cracker), I recall some scenes from last night’s first episode of “The Biggest Loser” on NBC, and I contemplate the likelihood that I will be able to see yet another diet phase of my life through to completion.
Jim and I have talked about wanting to “get back on Atkins” for weeks now. But neither of us has had the motivation to actually do it.
When it comes to food and diets, we’re just plain lazy — always seeking the “quick & easy” solution (like driving to the Mexican restaurant down the street where they treat us like royalty, fixing a frozen pizza, or warming up some other highly processed concoction recently purchased from Sam’s Club) rather than the “healthy” solution at mealtimes.
But, we’ve reached a new low (or would that be “high”?… don’t know how high because we don’t own a scale!), and we’re ready to go carb-free once again.
Perhaps our biggest motivating factor of late has been looking through all the photographs of ourselves as we post them on this web site — noticing a drastic difference between “then” and “now”.
Trying The Atkins Diet Again…
Anyway, we’re hanging tough, and sticking together, and we’ve vowed to be best buds with Mr. Atkins once again. (At least for a week!)
So, if anyone’s up for a little friendly competition in this mission, come on! We invite anyone who’s wanting to lose a few LB’s to chug through this process with us, with the end result (hopefully) to be much more comfortable in our clothes this Holiday season.
Now, I’m off to enjoy my LAST high-carb lunch: angel-hair pasta with tomato sauce!
(…we start tomorrow.)
We’re choosing the Atkin’s route, not because we think it’s particularly better than any other form of weight loss out there, but because we’ve had good results from it in the past, and it doesn’t feel quite as restricting as some other diet plans.
The Good News: Atkins has come a long way since the days of “no bread” (now there’s low-carb bread & Atkins-friendly baking mixes), no sugar (these days, you’re able to find aspartame-flavored products everywhere), no fast food (most of the popular chains have low-carb options now), and no sweets (even our all-time favorite indulgence – Smoothie King – offers 20 oz. smoothies with only 6 carbs!)
The Bad News: This “diet” can cost you an arm-and-a-leg stocking up on all the meat, chicken, fish, shrimp, Atkins-specially-prepared-baking mixes, and all those other little “extras” that you normally don’t buy on a regular basis.
But heck, it might get me to try salmon for a change of pace! (UPDATE: I tried it. I liked it!)
The Long-Term Plan: Just glancing at the recipes on Atkins very own web site, it appears that they’ve either loosened their standards a bit, or found ways to more cleverly market less-palpable entrees. Because I found no less than 40 Atkins-friendly recipes that I’m excited to try out!
SIDENOTE: Jim and I aren’t the most rigorous followers of the Atkins plan. We subscribe to the “6 days on, 1 day off” theory. That’s 6 days of no more than 20 carbs per day. Then 1 day to eat whatever you want (without over-doing it). We call it our “cheat day”, and it gives us something to look forward to each week — a light at the end of the tunnel so to speak. We’ve chosen Sundays as our “cheat day” this go-around.
Professionally, I pursued my Masters Degree in Family Therapy at Texas Tech — where I obtained invaluable expertise and experience helping people with a wide variety of physical and emotional health issues. Personally, I think it's useful when people realize that they're not the only one going through a difficult time. So any time that I think my personal health experiences would be helpful to someone else going through the same thing, I will share my story here. With health issues that I've personally experienced (like Endometriosis, Lyme Disease, Hysterectomy, Skin Cancer, Ganglion Cysts, Autism, and other topics that very few people enjoy talking about) and health products that I've found beneficial (like sleep aids, essential oils, and medications)… I do my best to provide my own raw and honest firsthand experiences that I think others would appreciate hearing about and (hopefully) find helpful. I'm grateful that I have a number of friends who have also been willing to share their very personal stories here — regarding their own physical and emotional health. When I'm not writing about health topics, you will find me sharing Good News & Fun Times as publisher of The Fun Times Guide (32 fun & helpful websites).
