When I was in 14 or 15 yrs old I did this diet called Stillman's Quick Weight Loss Diet...you eat nothing but protein...no veggies, no fats, no fruits, no breads..just meat, eggs, cottage cheese, etc....lots and lots of water....I stayed on for six days...then ate like a lunatic the seventh...then went back to the diet for six...and kept repeating the cycle. I lost a lot of weight that way. Then in my junior year of high school I skipped lunch every day...that was how I maintained the loss. But...that all changed my senior year when I got a job in the school cafeteria...we got free lunch every day...and poof...there went my diet.

Atkins came along for me in the 1970's. It seemed like a step up from Stillman's, and I knew I could lose weight on that diet...so Atkins wasn't difficult to follow. Follow it, I did...to the letter...no cheating.....not even on every seventh day.....but after a month I lost ZERO...ZILCH...NADA.....and I panicked and quit immediately. It marked the first time I did everything right on a diet without having any weight loss to show for it.

Many years later...here I am, full circle....back on Atkins, only this time I have a better handle on WHY I might not have been able to lose the weight then....the program has changed somewhat....I think it's a lot healthier now...and I recognize many factors in my life that could have hindered any possible progress....I've been struggling to discover my problems and have had a little success.....I seem to have a lot of cards stacked against me.....