All of our ties to food is emotional. Before I finally committed to Atkins, I started and stopped the program 3 times. I wasn't psychologically ready to commit to this WOE. Try not to think of this way of eating as "work". Unless you are a workaholic, work has a negative connotation to it. You are making decisions that will affect your body from now until you die.

It took me eight months of committing to this lifestyle to realize that a "clean" or "keep it simple silly" induction is the best method of losing an extreme amount of weight in this nutritional approach. Of course as you get closer to your weight goal (within 30 lbs), you should be moving on to the OWL phase. (You can move to OWL after two weeks if you want, but the DANDR requests that you consider staying on induction if you still have more than 30 lbs to lose). I still have another 15.2 lbs. to go before I will place myself on the OWL phase, so I'm going to try to do it as quickly as possible (clean, KISS induction).

Now lightforce, you are within 30 lbs. of your goal (based on your stats right now). Dr. Atkins really seemed to advocate a slower approach to losing the weight. The premise behind this way of thinking is the slower that you lose your weight, the longer period of time that this WOE has to become ingrained as a permanent way of life. So, OWL might be an option for you right now. To sum things up: You are allowed to eat a few more carbs in the OWL phase, therefore, you will be less deprived of the carbs that you want. If you want to reward yourself with any sort of food, make it nuts & seeds first, and then go up the ladder that is referred to in the OWL chapter.