What happens to real people with real problems when they follow the Atkins Nutritional Approach? Well, let me give you a far from atypical example.
Traci Laurens, a 44-year-old restaurant manager and mother of two, had always considered herself a " big-boned girl:" Over the years she ' d tried many a diet, but her weight continued to oscillate between 190 and 230 on her five-foot four-inch frame. Fortunately, Traci was not experiencing any health problems, and, in spite of her weight, she walked every day. " I had occasional headaches but no real problems other than the fact that I hated to look in the mirror," she recalls. " I did what all overweight people do: I focused on my face and never stood back and took a long look. My problem was that I couldn ' t get away from carbs; I craved them. I had been raised on starches and sweets. I am from a family of twelve and that ' s how my mother stretched meals. I didn ' t know any other way of eating.
" In 1998, I met my fiance, Jack. He fell in love with the size- 16 me, but I had really gotten tired of being fat. A friend told me about Dr Atkins ' New Diet Revolution. I read it cover to cover, and on New Year ' s Day 2000 I began Induction. I broke through my carb addiction sometime in the first week, and from that point on, doing Atkins was easy. Thirty days later I moved from Induction to OWL [ Ongoing Weight Loss ], having dropped to a size 13."
Traci and her fiance had planned two romantic back-to-back cruises in February 2000, a slow time at both their jobs. Even though cruises are floating smorgasbords, Traci stuck to protein and fat and passed up most of the carbs. After the first one-week cruise, she was wearing size 9 or 10 and had to buy some new clothes. At the end of the second cruise, she weighed 146. Newly invigorated, she increased her walking routine to one and a half hours a day. And, like most people, she found that exercise kept her head clear, relieved her anxiety and restored her energy.
Traci has stuck to about 30 grams of carbohydrate daily because she feels good on that level. That way, when she wants to indulge herself a bit, she has some " wiggle room " in case she gains a few pounds. She says she doesn ' t miss starches at all and hasn ' t had a piece of bread since December 31, 1999.
" I love to eat sauteed portobello mushrooms in garlic and butter sauce or beef shish kabobs with multicolored peppers and summer squash. If I ' m eating breakfast out, I enjoy scrambled eggs and bacon. I am no longer bloated and never tired; I haven ' t taken a nap in a year and a half. I go to bed at 10:30, sleep through the night and awaken at 5:15, raring to go. When I run into people I haven ' t seen in a while they say, `I can hear you, but I don ' t see you-what happened?"'
Traci plans to continue with Atkins because she now understands it is a whole life change. " With Atkins, I easily keep my weight between 133 and 139 pounds," she says. " I know how quickly 70 pounds can go on. But now I also know the secret to how quickly they can come off."
Change the Way You Look at Your Body
Now we are going to get to the bottom of a mystery and one of the great inequities of life. I bet you know people who eat more than you do, exercise less and yet never seem to put on a pound. They ' re not lying about the amount they eat any more than you are. They do eat a lot. Maddening, but true.
Instead of envying them, realize that these slim friends are actually cause for celebration. The fact that they are not fat is living, breathing proof that being overweight needn ' t mean you ' re greedy, weak-willed, lazy or self-indulgent. Instead, in all probability, it may mean you are only
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