TAKE YOUR MEASUREMENTS
Before you begin doing Atkins, use a tape measure to record some vital statistics. Measure your chest, waist, hips, upper arms and thighs, and write down those numbers! When you measure yourself again in a couple of weeks, you ' ll be happy you did; the more ways you have of gauging your success, the more encouraged you ' ll be.
FILL OUT THE BLOOD-SUGAR SYMPTOM TEST
This quiz on pages 150-151 is a great way to quantify how much better you ' ll soon be feeling. Go ahead and fill it out now but make a copy because you ' ll do it again in a couple of weeks, at which point I ' m confident it will help spell out exactly how significantly your new way of eating will have affected your quality of life.
CONSIDER ADOPTING AN EXERCISE PLAN
If you aren ' t already exercising, I strongly urge you to start doing so now. Even a half hour of brisk walking four times a week will make a big difference, especially if you are almost completely inactive now. Exercise has enormous benefits for your health, and will speed your weight loss! It ' s a critical element of the healthy new you, and its importance cannot be underestimated.
HAVE THE RIGHT FOOD ON HAND
Stock the refrigerator and the cupboards with the food you ' re going to eat, including plenty of your favorite protein goodies. The next chapter will give you complete lists of acceptable and unacceptable foods specified for the Induction phase of Atkins.
When you go to the supermarket or health food store, avoid the aisles where the highcarbohydrate temptations are found. Whenever I give this advice, I think of John Connor. He was a 19-year-old, six-foot four-inch patient who dropped his weight from 290 pounds to 209 in six months by doing Atkins. He told me he ' d often go to the supermarket to buy legitimate food, get sucked into one of the sugar-saturated aisles and end up walking out of the store with a package of candy bars. During his drive home, self-control would reassert itself, and he ' d lower the car window and throw the package into the street!
What acceptable foods are your favorites? Do you love deviled eggs, turkey, chicken, shrimp salad, cheese? Have all these foods and more readily accessible in your refrigerator, along with plenty of low-carbohydrate vegetables and salad makings. I can ' t stress that enough. Better that a little food should be wasted than you should find yourself running out of the right foods and tempted by the wrong foods when hunger strikes.
Next, get rid of all the foods and beverages you won ' t be consuming. This is easiest if you live alone and don ' t need to worry about what anyone else wants in the refrigerator. Invite friends over to finish off the ice cream. Have a " carb blowout " party! Give away all your forbidden
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