My Experience with the Atkins Diet (part 1).

When I first came across an Atkins Diet book, I was working in an office in south Wales. I had been working there for five or six years and had accumulated quite a bit of excess weight. I had never enjoyed participating in sport, but my previous job had been working on building sites, which entailed a certain amount of physical activity ” just enough to keep me in reasonable shape. After five years as office-wallah, I weighed 18 stone 12 pounds (264 lbs or 120 kg), three stones more than before and neither I nor my physician were happy about it.

One day a representative of a legal firm came in for an appointment, and, while we were waiting for the other directors to arrive, we got talking about office life and its propensity to put on weight. He said that he had had the same problem before, but that now he made sure he got out of the office regularly and walked everywhere time would allow. He also said that he’d read a good book on losing weight while on holiday in America and that he would send me a copy. I thought nothing more of it and never saw the man again. Mr. Blackwell, I think his name was.

The book arrived as promised, but I left it lying on my desk unread for months and months, until one day, I had a dentist’s appointment and had forgotten to take a book to work to read while I was waiting ” something I always did/do because the magazines are always so old and boring. Anyway, I read 50-60 pages that day and I was mesmerised. I had never been on a proper diet before and I thought I should give it a a go. I had stopped eating pastry, cakes and chocolate months ago, but it hadn’t had much effect and my weight was still on the increase, albeit more slowly.

It appeared to me that it was a ‘thinking person’s’ diet There is a huge amount of scope for individual tastes and lifestyles and self-discipline did not seem to be much of a problem because for that reason. The book warned of addictions and fads and how best to overcome or prevent them. These did not seem to be an issue for me. I liked coffee, but could take it or leave it and I had already given up chocolate. I knew that maybe beer and bread could be a problem.

The only ‘must do’ in the seven-day induction phase is to eat not more than 20 gram of carbohydrate per day. The book had a clear list of almost all foods and their carbohydrate content. I found it really easy. In fact, I started eating in a more healthy manner in the induction stage than I had been eating before it! I bought a tub of Ketone sticks from the local chemist to check whether the Atkins Diet was working and found that I was in ketosis on the third day. It was very satisfying to know that now I would be losing weight whatever I did and wherever I was every minute of the day!

I gave up bread (and Guinness!) for a fortnight and felt great. I actually felt ‘springy’ or ‘bouncy’ like a martial artistr in the ring before a fight. I had no bother whatsoever staying within the 20 gram limit, although I did miss some fruits more than I’d expected. But I found ways to get around any ‘problem’ that cropped up. There are hundreds of recipes and recommendations in the book so there’s no need to go into them here. I started eating breakfast before I went to work and dinner in the evenings regularly. I really enjoyed taking care over preparing lunch for work the next day, usually consisting of a salad, some cheese and various nuts to snack on. You can even eat a few strawberries too. In the evening, I would cook up something like a curry (no flour) eating it with green beans instead of rice; or a traditional British meal without potatoes followed by cheese and strawberries and cream. I lost 18 pounds in two weeks and felt better than I had for a decade.