I was really inspired when I heard so many success stories about Atkins. I tried Sommersizing last year before I got pregant with my 3rd child, which is a combo between Atkins and Fit for Life. I lost a whopping 28lbs in 3 months (6lbs in 1st week) and was obviously very pleased. And this was without exercise. While I was pregnant and gained about 50lbs (up to 225), but wasn't overly concerned because I figured that I could just get back into Sommersizing and lose the weight as easily as I had the first time.

The first 25 pounds was fairly easy and took only about 1.5 months. However, it came to a standstill at 200lbs. I decided that drastic action was needed. I hired a personal trainer and started working out 5 times a week. And these were intense workouts - running in the hot sun on the beach, weight training that included leg lifting 180lbs, running up and down the seats of the bleachers 90 times. I lost another 20lbs in 5 months doing this - but it probably looks more like 40lbs because my muscle mass is quite large. I'm extremely happy with my fitness level. However, I still would like to get down to 135lbs - another 45lbs.

While I was exercising, I wasn't following any specific plan because my trainer insisted that I needed to focus on ensuring that my energy level was high enough for the intensity of my workouts. He assured me that now that the pace had been stepped up and I was doing more cardio (ie bleachers) that the weight would start melting off. This didn't happen.

Therefore, I decided to finally give Atkins a try. I was extremely meticulous about it. For the week before I started, I read the book, searched the internet site, bought all the necessary foods so I wouldn't be tempted to cheat.

Finally on the Monday I was ready. I wanted to follow it religiously so that I could be sure that I'd given it a fair shot. I even bought all of the supplements (ie the Basic 3, the multivitamin, the omega 3/6 oils, the Accel). Every night I would spend about an hour going through everything I'd eaten that day, using the Atkins carb counter to count the net carbs. I counted and measured EVERYTHING. I had bars and shakes as snacks, usually because I'd gotten used to not going more than 2 hours without having something to eat (as per advice from my trainer). One bar in the morning, and one in the evening when I got home from work, because I was going to be going to an extremely intense 1 hours exercise class in about half an hour and needed the extra energy. I've been drinking about 4 litres of water each day. I had no more than 20 carbs/day except for maybe 2 days when it creeped to 21 or 22, but sometimes I got it as low as 14.

The first week was good - I lost about 4lbs. I followed the same routine for the second week, and watched my weight creep UP each day. By Friday, I was back where I started. I was working out at least 3 times per week and not doing anything differently. Two of my friends were also doing Atkins and both lost about 8 lbs in the first 10 days. I was in tears. I truly believed when I started this that if I was disciplined, and followed everything to the letter, that my goal of 135 was attainable.

I almost gave up over the weekend because I thought, why am I going through all this trouble to keep track of everything I eat, and still maintain the same weight? I've maintained the same weight at 180 for about 2 months now by just eating what I want and exercising. On Saturday night, 13 days into it, I had about 3 handfulls of peanuts - that was my big cheat. Whoopie.

However, my friends kept insisting - don't give up! If I hadn't spent so much damn money on the bars, shakes, vitamins and supplements, I might have said to hell with it. It's probably only because I've invested so much that I'm still on it.

So, here I am almost at the end of my 3rd week and I've LOST NOTHING!!! The measuring tape is still the same as it was 3 weeks ago. I can't sleep at night - I don't know whether it's because of those so-called Atkins fat-burners, but I'm completely wired at 1:30 am, and have to be up for work and 3 kids at 7 am. My butt hurts because my "# 2's" are completely abnormal - almost diarrhea. And I feel like I'm going to faint every time I turn my head quickly. My legs feel more toned, but I think that has more to do with the new exercise classes.
Although, a few people have mentioned that my face is looking smaller these days - again, may have more to do with new exercises.

I'm very frustrated and confused. I'm starting to become less diligent about measuring this week because it hasn't seemed to have helped so far. I’m not prepared to do a “fat fast” because I don’t believe that I should have to do that in order to lose weight. So am I just going to be one of the few for whom Atkins just doesn't work? Will I have to eat no more than 20 grams of carbs a day for the rest of my life so that I don’t gain any weight?

Any thoughts would be welcome. Thanks for taking the time to read my extremely lengthy life story.