I hear you!

When we had our first restaurant experience after starting LC my husband ordered his meal (no potato and extra vegetables) and then said, "We're on the Atkins' diet."

This prompted our server to say, "Oh ... um ... you really should reconsider that. I've heard it's bad for you. I don't know why, but let me go ask one of the guys who discussed it with me."

He returned a bit later to announce that it's dangerous to have no white sugar intake! It was a slow night in the restaurant, so he listened while I explained why that was a fallacy. It took me about 2 minutes, and he was convinced because he had no idea that vegetables and fruits had carbohydrates in them.

My parents and siblings think we must be torturing ourselves, mainly because everyone uses the word "diet". They're suprised to discover we're eating deviled eggs, ribs, cole slaw, homemade Chinese food, tuna salad, cream in our coffee ...

Hang in there. Your own experience is what's important. I like to tell people that the "carb-loading" way of eating that most folks have adopted was something heretofore reserved for ATHLETES immediately before a race/match/game. They ate simple carbs that they would use as immediate fuel, but didn't eat that way on a normal diet.

Today, everyone is carb-loading and doing nothing physical to burn those carbs. Hence, fat!