I have been following the Atkins Nutritional Approach since July 4, 2003.  I have every intention of following it for the rest of my life - that's how valid I think it is.  However, not everyone agrees with me.

I have gotten used to seeing and hearing about horror stories in which so-and-so tried the Atkins diet and wound up with life-threatening cholesterol.  Or how somebody went on Atkins, lost fifty pounds, and a year later had gained back 100 pounds.  People I work with tell me how unsafe Atkins is because, well, because it just is (they can never back up anything they say, but that doesn't stop them from saying it.)  I try not to let all the saboteurs out there bother me.

Before I started the Atkins Nutritional Approach I bought the book ("Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution") and read it cover to cover.  I have since done my best to follow the guidelines set forth in the book.  I am convinced that the reason I have lost 45 pounds and kept it off, the reason my triglycerides went down, the reason my cholesterol went down, the reason my blood pressure went down, and the reason my health and demeanor has generally improved 100% is that I stuck to what was in the book.  Every single person I know who is dissatisfied with the Atkins Diet has done one or both of these two things:

1. Stayed on Atkins for a while and then returned to their old way of eating.

2. Followed some of the principles in the book, but did so while refusing to give up certain favorite foods.

The Atkins Nutritional Approach is not really a diet - it is a way of eating for the rest of your life.  Dr. Atkins writes quite convincingly in his book about the twin epidemics of obesity and Type II diabetes which have been plaguing this country for the past thirty years.  The best way to make an entire nation obese and at risk for diabetes is to do exactly what we've been doing in this country - eat lots of sugar, corn syrup, bleached flour, and heavily processed foods laden with hydrogenated oils and fats, and do it all while getting minimal exercise.  We really have to change things up.

I feel like I had an advantage when I started Atkins in July 2003.  Just a couple months earlier I had kicked a twenty-year addiction to smokeless tobacco.  My attitude when quitting tobacco was that it was a dangerous habit that could adversely affect my health and I wasn't going to allow myself to do it ever again.  I knew that if I allowed myself to use tobacco once a week, or once a month, or maybe just on special occasions, that I would almost certainly wind up going back to my two-can-a-day habit.  When I started Atkins I took the same view of sugars (and, by extension, starches and carbohydrates which can rapidly break down into sugar).  I told myself that sugar was bad for me, that it was adversely affecting my health, and that I wasn't ever going to allow myself to use it again.

As hard as it may be to believe, since I started Atkins in July 2003 right up through the time I'm writing this page in August 2005, I have not cheated once.  I didn't even have a bite of cake at my wedding.  The other day I was in Stew Leonard's (a large food store) with my wife and right by the checkout counter I saw a box of Rice Krispies Treats made with Cocoa Krispies instead.  I am a serious chocoholic, and that's exactly the sort of thing I used to have no willpower to resist.  My wife saw me looking at the box and asked me if I wanted it.  I simply shrugged and said no, and it was actually easy to resist.  I see it as a choice between eating the Cocoa Krispies and weighing 215 pounds, or not eating them and weighing 170 pounds, which is actually no choice at all - it's a no-brainer.

Of course, you don't have to be as extreme as that to be successful on the Atkins Diet.  If you are the type of person who can have a piece of cake on your birthday, or a slice of pie on Thanksgiving, or other similar indulgences on certain occasions, and it won't cause you to slide back into your unhealthy eating habits, then go ahead.  You won't be able to do that during the first few phases of the program, but you'll be able to do it later on.

A lot of people seem to think that Atkins means that you eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, a double cheeseburger without the bun for lunch, and a T-bone steak for dinner.  In fact, I know a number of people who ate just like that for a couple of weeks, thinking that they were doing the Atkins diet.  They didn't lose weight, they felt like hell, and now they tell me all the time how unhealthy Atkins is and how it didn't work for them.

Other people read the first part of Dr. Atkins' book, which is the "Induction" phase of the plan, and they assume that first section is the same as the rest of the diet.  It's not, but they think it is.  In the induction phase of the plan, you are eating more fat than you normally would, not counting calories, and basically eating whatever you want as long as you don't take in more than twenty net carbs per day.  The primary goal of Induction is to break your addiction to carbs as well as get your body to start burning stored fat instead of ingested glucose for fuel.  I can see why people who believe that Induction is the same as the rest of the plan also believe that Atkins is unhealthy. 

However, once you are done with the weight-loss portion of Atkins, you enter the Lifetime Maintenance Phase of the plan.  I can't imagine anyone looking at the stuff you are supposed to be eating in Lifetime Maintenance and pronouncing it unhealthy.  Listed below is a typical day's food for me.  Take a look and see for yourself.

1. One Atkins Advantage bar for breakfast.

2. For lunch, two cups of string beans or broccoli, with some chopped onions, garlic, and tomatoes.  I heat it all up in a pan and sometimes throw in an ounce or so of low-fat jarlsburg cheese.

3. For dinner, four cups of raw veggies (two each of broccoli and red peppers) and four to six ounces of grilled chicken.  I divide the dinner into two and eat half at about 5:30, and the other half around 9:30.

Of course, that's typical but it's hardly the only things I eat.  I sometimes substitute fish or shrimp for dinner, and sometimes I throw the veggies in a pan and sear them quickly with some hot sauce and mushrooms tossed in.  I have found I have a very high tolerance for not getting bored with the same food; I've been bringing the exact same thing to work for dinner for over a year now and I'm not tired of it yet.  I also have several cups of coffee per day, sweetened with Splenda.  I use fat free Half & Half at home, but when I'm out I don't mind the real thing.  It's not a perfect diet - there's really no fruit on a regular basis, which is something I've got to work on.  But on the whole it's pretty good, certainly a huge step up from what I used to eat when I weighed 215 pounds.

Overall, if you want to lose weight easily and keep it off, feel better, and get rid of a whole spectrum of health problems, then buy Dr. Atkins' book.  Read the whole thing and follow the guidelines in it - you'll be glad you did.