Kay, I'd put the hunger thing down to PMS -- it's a pretty common symptom. I always get fantastically hungry right before my period, and it's usually protein that I find most satisfying. Sometimes it's chocolate, of course, but often enough I find that nothing is going to banish the hunger but a 16-oz ribeye. I've always had a tendency towards anemia, and I think the PMS food monster is my body's way of begging for a little extra nutrition.

It is also not uncommon to be starving for a day or two prior to a "whoosh" (when you lose a couple of pounds literally overnight). If you find yourself being hungry out of the blue, and you're not expecting TOM, an impending woosh is sometimes the cause. Some people will say to feed the hunger, others to resist and eat as normal -- it's one of those issues on which there's a lot of lore and little fact. Me, I eat if I'm hungry, but I also don't eat anything unless I decide to eat it 30 minutes prior. If I'm truly hungry, I'll still be hungry, and if I'm not, 30 minutes is usually enough to distract me.

Like Alina says, there are lots of problems with the sticks, and they're prone to giving either false positives and false negatives. Try not to worry about what they say, and look for the physical symptoms of ketosis (bad "tinny" taste in the mouth, unusual body odor, loss of appetite, feeling hot, etc) instead. In over a year of Atkins, I've never once used the sticks -- when I started, I figured I just wouldn't worry about them unless I didn't lose any weight on Induction, or stalled for a long time, or something, and to this day haven't felt the need to check whether i'm technically in ketosis. It took me a few weeks to recognize the physical signs, but they're a much better guide. Also, It takes 3-4 days to get into ketosis, so just because you're not quite there yet doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. Try not to worry about the sticks, and stay off the scales for two weeks -- take measurements if you feel like you've got to have some numbers.