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My sister has started a modified Atkins plan and I'm curious to see how she'll do. The numbers I see here are impressive -- but I wonder how a carboholic like me could ever survive the first day! LOL.

Tell you what: when I came to the point of saturation, in misery over where I'd gotten, the 1400 pounds (ballpark figure < g >) I'd put on, feeling like an old man, not able to play with my kids -- yeah, the first couple of days were rugged, there were some passing physical things in the first week or so. But now, four months later, I experienced almost immediate (and startling) health benefits and improvement, have dropped a ton (several more to go), almost ten pants sizes, and feel terrific. And I'm virtually never hungry; CERTAINLY never unhappy with the diet, overall.

I was a major, major carb-consumer: ice cream, cookies, fried stuff, breads breads breads, all daily realities.
In fact, I've been heard to say (and am about to be heard to say) something I never though I'd say: I LOVE this diet, and thank God for what Dr. Atkins worked out.

I commend it heartily. No pun intended.

Dan

but I wonder how a carboholic like me could ever survive the first day! LOL.

Well, yesterday was my first day on the diet. I am a total carboholic. I think I did OK. No strong cravings, and the headache I expected never showed up. I'm not under any illusions that the next few days will be easy, but I'm to the point that I have to do something. My husband has been on a low carb diet for about 3 months and has dropped about 30 lbs.

Carboholic is a good term, it is an addiction for some. My mom and sis and I are convinced that we are more inclined to be carb-addicted than other people might be, that some people are affected by carbs in general more than others. For me it's not a sweet thing, but I love the bread and potatoes and pasta etc. Of course I haven't had spaghetti in about 6 months so I don't remember what it tastes like, haha. And frankly I don't miss it at all. The bread I struggle with, probably because I let myself have it more than any other carb. Anyway, I digress.

There's type 2 diabetes in my family - mom has it, aunts have it, I had gestational diabetes with my third baby, which puts me at greater risk for type 2 later. My mom has yoyo-ed with weight for decades, diagnosed with type 2 about ten years ago, and ever since it has been a struggle for her to lose weight, keep it off and keep her drs off her back. They finally put her on oral meds for the diabetes a couple years ago, plus one for high blood pressure. She would constantly say things to me like, when I eat certain things - chips, cookies etc - I sometimes can't stop til it's gone. And her sugar, when she would test it, would spike over 300 and scare both of us.

Then she decided to try Atkins, around last April I think. Since then she has lost over 30 lbs, is below her goal weight, her cholesterol is normal, her blood pressure is normal, her blood sugar is normal and maintained, she feels better, looks better, her fingernails are stronger, and she is OFF the meds for diabetes and HBP.

My sister on the other hand (back to the carb addiction thing) is having a really hard time staying on Atkins because she is so carb addicted that she actually goes through withdrawal. She has severe headaches, feels utterly useless and washed out, irritable, nausea etc for days. And she enjoys her carbs so much that I think she is having a hard time feeling like the suffering is worth it. :) She'll get there though. I experienced the same thing the first time I really cut carbs only not as drastically. But once it is out of your system, the difference is remarkable. More energy, alertedness - I used to think my dragging through the afternoon was due to lack of sleep from being up with my infant, HA! It was the food I ate for lunch. Right now I'm not doing Atkins in the strictest sense because I'm nursing, rather I'm doing lifetime maintenance, which for me is keeping it under 50 carbs or so a day. Not losing, but maintaining, and the baby weight is long gone. After I'm done nursing, I'll start losing that last 20 in earnest.

And back to addiction - my mom has found that she can't even eat low-carb bars or candy because it triggers that sweet addiction. Once the switch is flipped, it's a struggle. Unfortunately for a lot of us that's just the way it is.