Hi Wendy... Welcome aboard.

Wa'il is right. You have to do the research. Nothing will work if you have the slighest doubt about it. Kinda sets you up for failure in the future so I guess you have some work to do girl.

I can mouth the words here, you should never start a diet without checking with your doctor. However, I didn't because 1. I'm lazy and 2. I thought for sure my doc would object. I too have heard the negative things people say about any low carb diet.

Tuesday marks one year on Dr. Aitkins for my hubby and I. This is the only diet I have ever stuck to, let alone for a year. I have never seen Ray this slim in all the years I have known him. Kind of like seeing a whole new person. He looks "normal" now just slightly pudgy and hasn't yet become accustomed to his size. He is under 200 now, down from 285.

I guess what I am trying to get across here is, give it a try. Take it one day at a time and don't think that you will lose 50 lbs in a short space of time. Some people lose fast, some lose slow.

Dr. Aitkins gives you the tools to work with. Yes there is a lot of protein. But there is also a lot of veggies too. There are many sites including this one that post low carb recipes. The most astonishing thing about this diet is that it works. You don't have to go overboard with the butter and the cheese. Fair warning though, you will be doing a bit of cooking because everything is made from scratch and from mostly fresh ingredients. No chemicals, packaged mixes or artificial life forms allowed! How can that be unhealthy?

People typically eat a very high proportion of carbs in a day. Lots of low fat stuff that has no taste. Do you see tons of skinny people around you? You would think that with the huge amount of low fat, low calorie items in the grocery store, there would be a lot of Calista Flockharts in the nebourhood but they don't live around here!

Ray and I were just as guilty and should have bought shares in the A&W, Burger King, McDonald's, Robin's Dougnuts, and Tim Hortons. We were just as happy to belly up to the drive through. Didn't get us anywhere, especially when it is so easy to supersize everything! And what about those Pizza joints? No wonder I hated looking in the mirror!

So Wendy, give it a try. All you have to lose is about 2 weeks and see where you're at. Like I said before in my ramblings, I have never stayed on a diet this long, and I have been on some kind of diet ever since I was a teenager. I have a long way to go, but then again, I've come a long way too.

Sorry about the long yadda yadda yadda...... I think I'll end this here before I get into trouble. Have a good night everyone.

Robin