Chef_Troy's Atkins Diary

Tue, 14 Oct 2003 17:04:31 GMT

Looks like my plateau has ended! I got on the scale this morning for the first time in a while and discovered that I've lost the five pounds I'd regained and five more on top of that! This means my stats are:

OWL - 378/355/250 since September 2, 2003

Sigh... backsliding

Wed, 08 Oct 2003 22:02:43 GMT

Apparently I'm doing something wrong. I've been drinking tons of water, taking vitamins (even adding chromium and l-carnitine), not going crazy with meat or cheese portions, making only occasional carby missteps (on the order of a couple of crackers or an ounce of cashews), and I even started exercising again (although not in the last couple of days - the air conditioning is out and I'm sweaty enough, thank you).

Despite all this, I climbed on the scale today for the first time in more than a week and discovered that I GAINED five pounds. Grrrrrr...

I was really down about it this morning. I came to work thinking, "What's the friggin' point?" I tried to tell myself that it was more about how I'm feeling (better), how my clothes are fitting (wore a shirt Friday that I haven't worn in years), where my blood sugar is (still a little high, but down 40 percent from before I started Atkins), etc. I told myself these things and they had no substance.

So I posted a screed similar to this in the atkins_diet community and tried to put it out of my head. The good folks in there said much the same things I'd been saying to myself, with a few additional points about water weight and my salt intake that I hadn't considered.

As I was getting ready to go get some lunch, I thought to myself, "I need to rededicate myself to this way of eating. Tomorrow, I'm going back on Induction." At which the devil on my shoulder whispered, "That means you could go get a nice carby lunch today. Chinese food!" I was in the car heading for Pei Wei when the guy on my OTHER shoulder pointed out that starting afresh tomorrow did not mean I had to misbehave today. So instead I went to Friday's and had a salad and some chicken with sizzling cheese, peppers, and onions. Then I stopped by the supermarket and got some of those sugar-free Russell Stover toffee squares I've been wanting to try - man, they're GOOD. Sure, they're sweetened with Maltitol, and we all know what THAT stuff can do, but I figure it's all a matter of perspective. What some would call diarrhea, I call another way to get rid of some water weight. *grin*

I'll be similarly virtuous at dinner tonight, and then tomorrow I'll take official weights and measurements, and start fresh. Changes:

No more coffee with glugs of cream. I never used to drink coffee before, I don't need to drink it now.

No more lunches at the Greek buffet. It's an economical way to get grilled chicken and a few veggies, but I WILL eat piles of gyro meat there. It doesn't have carbs - I checked, it's just beef, lamb, and spices, no filler - but it's salty, and I need to watch out for salt so I don't retain more water than the Hoover Dam.

Half as much bacon, and not every day. It'll be fine, Cheffie, really. The uneaten bacon is NOT mocking you. Also, Cheffie, you CAN take a bite of bacon and put the rest of the slice back down instead of cramming the whole slice into your mouth like you're the wood chipper in the end of Fargo.

Exercise EVERY day, not just three days a week. Telling myself that I can sleep in for another half hour and promising myself I'll get on the treadmill that evening is NOT working. Enlist Mrs. Chef's help on this.

Above all, relax about the rate of my weight loss. I have to lose enough weight to equal twenty-three 5-pound bags of sugar. I didn't put it on in a month, or six months, or even a year; it won't come off overnight either.

Finally!

Tue, 07 Oct 2003 22:09:16 GMT

I said all along that one of the hardest parts about doing Atkins for me would be the dearth of crunchy nibblies. Yes, yes, pork rinds. And they're great. But they have shortcomings. For example, when you open a bag of them, the soul of the tormented pig who died for them belches forth in a nose-hair-curling exhalation of malice. Also they tend to coat the inside of your mouth, they stick in your throat if you don't have a drink handy to wash them down, and they don't come in nearly enough interesting flavors.

So it was with near-sobs of relief that I discovered

Take pepperoni slices and layer them on several paper towels; put one more paper towel on top. Place in the microwave and nuke them for two minutes or so, just like you would if you were making bacon in the microwave. Near the end, check them occasionally to make sure they don't burn.

Remove them from the paper towels and arrange them on a plate; sprinkle with shredded cheese and return to the microwave for another 20 seconds or so (just until the cheese melts). Voila! Italian nachos!

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 15:21:06 GMT

I got breakfast at the coffee shop in my building today, and I have to say:

Eating scrambled eggs with a plastic spoon is a surprisingly messy experience.

And what's with this bacon? How the hell do they even SLICE it this thin? I mean, I like my bacon crispy and all, and thin bacon tends to be crispier, but this stuff is SO thin that it only has one side.

Hungry hungry hungry... I've been walking a mile on the treadmill in the mornings, and I guess I need a little more breakfast now that I'm exercising beforehand. Hope I can make it to lunch.

Week Four begins

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 14:51:55 GMT

My weight loss has slowed down, but that's to be expected. As of this morning -- day one of week four -- I'm at 360, which is two pounds lighter than last week. I figure that at that pace, in a year's time I'll lose a hundred pounds. That boggles the mind. (Yes, I know it'll probably take more than a year in actuality... there will be plateaus and stalls. But it's nice to contemplate.)

Blood sugar continues to inch down as well. I think it was 111 this morning... I'm homing in on normalcy there. My energy level is good too.

I've been promising myself I'd exercise, but haven't been doing it. Well, last night I got to looking at this big ugly clothes rack we have in our bedroom, and whaddyuh know? It turns out that it's actually a treadmill!
C=(;^{P>)
For dinner we made Florentine Chicken roulades. Mmmmm.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded out to 1/4 inch thick
4 tablespoons whipped cream cheese (we used the kind with chives in)
1/2 package fresh spinach, chopped (if you use frozen, thaw it and squeeze out the water)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spread each chicken breast with a tablespoon of cream cheese. Top with a handful or so of chopped spinach, spreading it out almost to the edges of the chicken and pressing it into the cheese a little.
Starting at the broad end of the breast with the point facing away from you, roll tightly jelly-roll style, tucking the ends in as you go. Wrap in foil; place wrapped packages on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 minutes or so, until internal temperature reaches 160.
Slice roulades crosswise to display spinach filling and fan slices across plate. Serve with salad or other induction-safe veggies.

Serves four; I don't have the carbs figured out, sorry (but it can't be much more than 1 carb per serving for the main dish and it's probably less).

After dinner, I got on the treadmill and walked for about 25 minutes at speeds ranging from 3 mph up to 3.6 mph.
This morning, I got up early and did 30 minutes! I feel more wide awake than I usually do, too. I'm going to have to keep this up.

Induction: 378/360/250 since 9/2/2003

Wed, 24 Sep 2003 14:55:01 GMT

I meant to make this carb diary a daily thing, but I've been slacking. Time to take up the reins again.

Yesterday started my third week on Atkins. I don't know for sure how much I weighed when I started, because I didn't buy a scale until the end of the first week. At that point I weighed 370 pounds.

This morning I weighed myself again: 362. I'm going to arbitrarily say that I lost the same amount of weight the first week just to have a starting weight figure. That means I lost 16 pounds so far! Tonight I'll have Mrs. Chef take my measurements to see if they've moved too.

The measure of my progress that means the most to me, however, is my blood sugar. When I started, my fasting sugar (taken first thing in the morning) was consistently over 200 -- that's about double what it should be, for those of you who don't check yours. Within a week it was in the mid 140s, and it's continued to drop. Today's reading was 127 -- still high, but light-years better than before. And here's the bizarre thing: my doctor also is having me check my blood sugar an hour after the biggest meal of the day, which typically is dinner. My blood sugar at those times is actually lower -- 20-25 points lower on average -- than my fasting blood-sugar levels. My doc was freaked out by that when I told him. He says it should be the other way around.

Anyway, I'm staying in Induction because I have so much weight to lose. I want to get from 378 to 250 - that's still above my "ideal" weight for my height but I know that chart doesn't take your build into account and I'm a BIG guy, irrespective of the fat. I'm built to a heroic scale - what can I say? *grin*

I just realized... that means I have set myself the goal of losing more weight than both of my children combined. When I'm done I'll have to occasionally pick them both up and carry them around to remind myself what it felt like to be me before I started.

--Cheffie
Induction: 378/362/250

Week two begins with a lot of uncertainty

Tue, 16 Sep 2003 19:45:50 GMT

I meant to post to this every day but I totally zoned out on it. Whoops.

So today marks one week on Atkins. How's it been going?

I don't know.

It depends on what postulates you pick. Have I lost weight? I don't know because I haven't gotten around to buying a scale yet (have to do that tonight or tomorrow).

Have I lost inches? Hard to say. Mrs. Chef and I measured ourselves in a variety of bodily locations when we started, and again last night; my neck and upper arm are the same size, my chest and waist are each one inch smaller, and my hips and thighs measured a little bigger. I'm tempted to write that off as a matter of imprecise measurement, both the bigger and smaller results. We'll see how it goes in another week.

Have I entered that milestone of Atkins activity, ketosis? I don't know. I haven't found a source for ketostix yet (okay, I haven't really looked for a source for ketostix), and I haven't noticed the breath odor that everyone talks about. Nor did I experience the low energy of the first couple of days followed by a surge of energy that everyone talks about.

So what DO I know?

I know that I feel better. I feel even. Before I had wildly oscillating energy levels - now it's more of a steady burn.

I know that my appetite is more firmly under my control than it's ever been. Pre-Atkins I had a carb-laden breakfast around 8 or 8:30 and by 11 I was hungry again. Now I eat when I remember to, and I have had no problem restraining myself around forbidden foods (with one very minor exception Sunday night). And once it occurred to me that I might be hampering myself by eating too much meat, I've been able to rein in portion size without feeling deprived.

My fasting blood sugar has improved a LOT. I started checking it several days before I started Atkins, and it was consistently above 200 every morning. It started dropping about Day Three, and by the day before yesterday it was 147, then 140 yesterday. (I can't remember what it was this morning for some reason, but it's dropped again.) I know this is still high, and I have GOT to work on remembering to check it an hour after dinner like my doctor told me to, but it's an encouraging sign, isn't it?

So there you have it. I'm seeing enough benefit to keep doing it, and once I get my act together on the scale, ketostix, etc., I'll have more information to help me track my results.

Week Two, here I come!

Day Two

Wed, 10 Sep 2003 16:39:37 GMT

So Induction Day One went pretty well. I did slip up at lunch and had some cole slaw that I'm SURE had sugar in the dressing, but no bad carbs other than that. Dinner last night was fajita steak strips sauteed with butter and garlic, onions, and mushrooms, with a little beef stock thrown in to emulsify the butter and make a sort of pan sauce. It was REALLY tasty, but I put too much butter in judging by the oil slick left behind on our plates.

This morning I feel... a little weird. I had the same breakfast as yesterday - scrambled eggs with cheese, and bacon on the side. My energy level is NOT exactly peaking. In fact I went out to the men's room about mid-morning... and dozed off in the stall. Fortunately the door to the men's room makes a loud noise when it opens, so nobody heard me snoring (I hope).

I still haven't found a scale that can handle me (I weigh more than 350). Any suggestions? Someone said that GNC stores in mall locations have scales, but the GNC employee I spoke to couldn't say what the scale's weight limit is and I don't really want to go all the way there just for that unless I know it can handle my weight.

Off to lunch now. Carbs? We don't need no stinkin' carbs.

Here we go!

Tue, 09 Sep 2003 15:28:12 GMT

This morning, as of 8:35 a.m., I've officially begun Atkins. Welcome to Induction, Cheffie - help yourself to some pork rinds.

(Actually, are pork rinds okay on Induction? I can't remember. Hmmmm.)

I stopped by my doctor today and had a bunch of blood drawn so they can do the whole baseline testing - cholesterol, lipids, triglycerides, blood sugar, thyroid function, the works. I'll go back in maybe five or six weeks and have it done again so I can see how the numbers have changed.

Then I drove in to work and stopped in the coffee shop on the ground floor to grab some breakfast. Normally I'd have bought two breakfast biscuits with bacon, egg and cheese and washed them down with a cup of coffee with non-dairy creamer and hot-chocolate mix dissolved in it, but today I skipped the biscuits and just ate their contents, and I'm drinking ice water. And it's fine. It was satisfying and my body isn't grousing "Where are the damn BISCUITS?" or anything.

So I'm underway. I can't tell you my starting weight because I need to find a scale that goes over 350 (sigh) but as soon as I do I'll have that info, along with the measurements I haven't taken yet, in the bio of this L.J.

Wish me luck!

Geez, I forgot to chronicle my doctor visit!

Fri, 05 Sep 2003 19:23:50 GMT

So when we last left our tale, the hero was scant hours away from visiting his doctor to discuss the advisability of doing Atkins. We then blew off updating about it. We are sorry.

It went pretty much as I expected. I already knew that my doctor is in favor of the general idea of restricting carb intake, because he suggested I do so when we first discussed the results of my last set of blood work a couple of months ago.

I told him I intended to start following Atkins and needed to inform him so he can monitor/adjust my meds (I take Lipitor for cholesterol, Lotrel for blood pressure, and Glucovance for the diabetes). He said that, nutritionally speaking, Atkins isn't his favorite diet; however, he freely acknowledged that it's very effective and the principles on which it's founded make good sense to him. (yay!) He just wants me to take a vitamin supplement -- which I'd already planned to do -- and to let him know if I started getting dangerously low blood-sugar readings so we can talk about discontinuing the Glucovance.

So I'm cleared to start. Which begs the question, why haven't I started yet? I want to have a fresh set of bloodwork done, as the Good Doctor recommends -- blood chemistry, lipid levels, thyroid function, etc. -- and the earliest I could get in to have the phlebotomist bite me on the neck is next Tuesday. (Oh, I could have gotten in sometime this past week, but only by taking an appointment in the middle of the day -- and I work all the way across town. It would have been a round trip of two hours or more. PLUS the blood has to be drawn after 8 hours of fasting, and I doubt I could hack not eating all day.) Tuesday, September 9, at 8:30 in the morning, I stop by his office, have the blood drawn, and head off into my first day of Induction.

On exercise

Tue, 02 Sep 2003 21:13:32 GMT

I don't know why I'm finding it so hard to start exercising again. When I was a senior in high school, I was on the football team and was exercising regularly for that - but as soon as the season was over, I stopped working out and didn't do any regular exercise at all again until nearly fifteen years later. I decided I would start walking, so I got up a little before six a.m. every day for a week and walked in my neighborhood for about 30 minutes at a stretch. Unfortunately this was during a rare cold snap in Dallas and the weather turned inhospitable. I couldn't get out and walk for several days and the spell was broken - I never started again.

Then, last year, we got a treadmill. I used it religiously for several weeks, 3 mph or above for 20-30 minutes a day (hence at least a mile a day). It was working. I felt full of energy after working out, people were noticing that I was losing weight... aww YEAH.

But for some reason - I can't for the life of me remember why - I stopped. It may have been simply that I missed a day for some reason, and after that it was easier to miss another day, and another. And that was that until this summer, when Chef Jr. started taking swim lessons at the Y and Mrs. Chef and I joined up too. His swim class met at 6:20, which was late enough in the evenings that I could make it there to meet everyone after work. He'd do swim class, Lil' Miss Sous-Chef would go to the nursery, Mrs. Chef would either hit the exercycles or swim laps, and I'd treadmill it - a minimum of 1.5 miles a day. On weekends, I used the home treadmill.

This time, though, it didn't seem to be making as much difference. Maybe it was because it was in the evening instead of in the morning, I don't know. Anyway, when the swim classes ended and there was no longer a reason for us all to go to the gym, I stopped walking again.

I want to start again. I remember how good I felt when I was working out before, and I want that again. But I just CAN'T seem to force myself to get out of bed and do it. Part of it is that when I was walking in the mornings before, I wasn't doing the comic strip yet, and I was getting to bed earlier - but if I just WOULD, I could get enough ahead on the strip that I didn't need to be constantly working on it at the last minute.

I know if I do this, I will be glad I did. Why can't I break loose and do it?

Fri, 29 Aug 2003 16:34:41 GMT

Three hours from now I'll be at the doctor's office.

We won't be discussing Atkins yet, though. It'll be only fifteen minutes into the appointment, and I'm sure he'll still be reading me the riot act about the fact that I haven't gotten around to buying a blood-sugar monitor, even though I was supposed to start monitoring my blood sugar weeks ago. and he'll probably have something to say about how I haven't been exercising, too.

*sigh* I know I need to do all this stuff if I want to live. Why am I sabotaging myself?

Well, I made the call.

Mon, 25 Aug 2003 20:26:26 GMT

I have an appointment this Friday afternoon to see my doctor regarding my going on the Atkins diet. (Because I'm in early-stage type 2 diabetes, I have to clear it with him before I begin so he can monitor and adjust my meds.)

I have no idea how he feels about Atkins. I know that some doctors support it and others are vehemently against it. I'm also not sure how I'll proceed if he is anti-Atkins... I guess I can ask my brother for the name of their doctor and see if he's on my health plan. The thought of doing that feels oddly weird to me - like I'm shopping for the medical opinion I want.

Things that won't be hard for me to give up

Mon, 25 Aug 2003 16:14:08 GMT

The prospect of starting Atkins does make me worry about some things I won't be able to eat anymore -- starting with corn.

Mrs. Chef's parents have a garden that's almost a farm, and they grow this amazing corn that's so sweet and tender, it would make you want to cry except that your tears would dilute the butter. Right now I have about six quarts of this corn in my deep freeze. The good doctor won't let me eat any of it until I make it all the way to Lifetime Maintenance, and even then he considers a serving of corn to be something like 1/2 a cup. That's not one serving, that's one MOUTHFUL.

I love this corn so much that I have found myself seriously considering delaying starting Atkins until I have a chance to eat it all. Of course, the good doctor would reply that thoughts like those are the sign of an addiction, and the best way to deal with addiction is abstinence. This is a hard philosophy for me to adopt, since previously I would have allowed Oscar Wilde to tell me that such thoughts are the sign of temptation, and the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. *grin*

But I can't focus on what I can't have but don't want to give up. Instead I'm going to chant a litany of the things that I can't have but am indifferent to, recognizing that people who love them (or "need" them) would have a far rockier time in Induction than I will.

Caffeine. I drink a lot of iced tea but I like the decaf stuff just as much - and I would be just as happy drinking ice water, which is my default beverage. Plus if I just switch to water, I'll save money - which I'll need, since eggs and bacon cost more than bagels.

Alcohol. Sure, in college I used to drink enough at one time to get drunk - even hung over the next day - but I haven't been That Guy for more than a decade. (there have been one or two occasions when, over dinner with friends, I've had enough wine to get pleasantly buzzed.) These days, I only drink a beer if someone hands me one at a party. I have beer in my refrigerator that someone else brought to a get-together at my house - two years ago. Wine I drink somewhat more often, and I also cook with it, but having one glass instead of three or four (once it's allowed) will not be a hardship.

Desserts. Don't get me wrong. I like dessert. If there's ice cream in the freezer, chances are I'll dip into it. But I don't MISS it when it isn't present. And I never have any problem saying "no thanks" when offered it, even if someone else is eating it in front of me. I can deal.

What I ate for lunch

Fri, 22 Aug 2003 20:29:30 GMT

I can see this is going to be harder than I thought - I know I'm not actually ON Atkins yet, but I'm trying to get into the mindset.

So for lunch today, I went to a Caribbean place in my area called Bahama Breeze. Neat place - I ate at their Orlando location years ago and really enjoyed it.

I ordered and ate a lot more food than I normally would, partly because I was by myself and there was no one to share the appetizer with. (yes, yes, I know - the fact that I was alone in no way required me to eat the entire appetizer. Shut up.)

I had:

The creole goat cheese appetizer, which consists of goat cheese, chopped tomatoes, and seasonings baked in red bell peppers and served with little parmesan/garlic-topped toast rounds. I should have stopped after eating only half, or maybe less, but I ate it all and then chopped up the bell peppers to put them on my entree, which was...

A "jamaican-style" cheeseburger - a nice-sized patty topped with pepper-jack cheese, grilled onions, and barbecue sauce, on a bakery roll. The goat-cheese-napped red bell pepper strips harmonized nicely with the above.

I eschewed the french fries and got the fruit, which consisted of one strawberry, one chunk of mango about the size of my cell phone, a slice of honeydew (which I didn't eat) and one quarter of a small fresh pineapple.

Oh, and I had iced tea to drink.

A disaster of a meal by Atkins standards. Shouldn't have had the bun on the burger; barbecue sauce was probably loaded with sugar; soft cheeses like goat aren't allowed during induction; all those little toast rounds were like carb-bullets in a pistol aimed at my head. And fruit may be much better for you than french fries, but from an Atkins standpoint they're equally forbidden.

I got back to my desk and soon felt so sluggish that I went out to the men's room and dozed off in one of the stalls for about fifteen minutes.

I sure hope what they say about the cravings fading is true. How can I ever fix the part of my head that gets so lustful when confronted by food like this?

Finished the book.

Fri, 22 Aug 2003 15:48:58 GMT

I must say, if (like me, two days ago) you think that you can have as much steak and bacon as you can pound down your throat with a stick when you're on Atkins, you're misinformed. The book warns that excess protein consumption can result in some of that protein being turned into glucose in your body, preventing you from entering/staying in Induction.

What you're supposed to do is eat proteins and fats until you are satisfied but not full. I may have trouble with that; I've been overeating for so many years that I'm not sure I'd recognize what "satisfied but not full" feels like. I might have to lowball it at first.

My brother, who is several weeks into Induction, says that it's quite a strange feeling to realize that your stomach is empty, yet not feel hungry. He has to remind himself to eat, because if he waits until he IS hungry, he's in for several hours of discomfort because you don't get the quick lift that carbs provide when you're sticking to Induction-friendly foods.

I am intrigued by what he says. I just always assumed that the feeling of hunger came from your stomach being empty - all those digestive juices sloshing around with nothing to work on. The idea that your blood sugar could be behind the sensation of hunger is an interesting one. Hmmmmm.

He also says that you get rid of those sinking spells during the day when you run out of energy and start getting sleepy. I'm REALLY looking forward to that.

Before the First Step

Wed, 20 Aug 2003 21:25:03 GMT

As I noted in my first post below, I haven't actually started on the Atkins diet yet. I'm getting ready to start; I'm taking the preliminary steps that must be done before I CAN start. Right now I'm reading the book. I have to admit that everything I'm reading is making sense to me, even though my (previously uninformed) opinion of Atkins has always been "too good to be true." I mean, really: how can cutting out some bread and sugar possibly offset eating eggs and bacon, steak, heavy cream, etc.? Sounds impossible.

Then my brother and his wife started. They were Weight Watchers people, but my brother's weight loss had stalled and they were both tired of doing it. Now they've both started losing again and they say it's unbelievable how well it works. Couple that with the studies that have started conceding the diet's effectiveness, and I can't continue to scoff.

Once I've finished the book (sometime this week), I'll make an appointment to see my doctor and discuss it with him. I'll post my thoughts as I read, as well as what goes on during my doctor visit.

Kicking things off, or why I'm starting this journal

Wed, 20 Aug 2003 21:15:36 GMT

I'm a big, fat man. I've been fat most of my life. Until recently, I paid very little price for my fatness in terms of my health; my blood pressure was on the low side of normal, etc. I freely agreed with anyone who suggested that I really ought to think about losing some weight, while making no effort to follow through on the suggestions. People warned me that the older I got, the harder it would be to lose; I acknowledged that they were surely right about that, and still made no effort.

I have never been one of those people who are constantly dieting and losing weight, then gaining it back. I never went on a single diet, and my weight -- after drifting up to a figure that I'm sure would shock my friends if they knew it -- has remained basically stable for several years, judging by the fit of my clothes. I don't know my exact weight because no home scale goes that high; the scale at the YMCA tops out at 350 and even that isn't quite enough. I estimate my weight to be between 350 and 375; I'm 6'4" and have a very large frame, so most people guess low when asked how much they think I weigh.

The one time I've tried to do anything about my weight was last year, when my wife and I bought a treadmill and I was using it daily for the first couple of weeks (half a mile to a mile a day, in about 20 to 30 minutes). It was working; people commented that they could tell I was losing weight and I felt great. Then I stopped. I don't know why - I think I just missed a day and then it was easier to miss another, and another. I've just basically been drifting along, not thinking about my weight or my health.

Which was stupid, because of one factor I haven't mentioned: my mother and her father (my grandfather, natch) are/were both insulin-dependent diabetics. My family history, coupled with my lifestyle and eating habits, put me at extreme risk for becoming diabetic myself. My mom has been riding me about this as frequently as she thought she could without it being counterproductive; I agreed that she was right and then did nothing.

Until a couple of months ago. I took an honest look at the way I was feeling and had to admit that my weight WAS having an adverse effect on my physical well-being and health. My knee has been bothering me; I wasn't sleeping as well; yadda yadda. The final catalyst that drove me to the doctor was a shoulder injury that hasn't been healing to my satisfaction.

In an extremely rare burst of doing-something-about-itness, when I called the doctor to have my shoulder looked at I went ahead and asked for a complete physical, including blood tests to check me for incipient diabetes. The results were like a bucket of cold water. My blood sugar and triglycerides were way high, indicating type 2 diabetes, and my blood pressure was now considered high (although that is not because it has risen, but because the medical establishment has lowered the threshold at which it considers your BP to be "high"). It was time to finally do something about it.

Since then I've been trying to eat healthier and mostly succeeding. I've been taking my meds (glucovance for the diabetes, lipitor for the cholesterol/triglycerides, and lotrel for the high blood pressure). I have NOT been monitoring my blood sugar, because I haven't gotten around to buying one of the little monitoring machines. I'm a dumbass, I know.

I've even been exercising several times a week. But it's not enough. I've been gloomily contemplating cutting all the fun stuff out of my diet, with no enthusiasm for the prospect. And then my brother and his wife went on the atkins diet and they've been evangelical in their praise of it. I've decided that here's a nutritional approach that I have a chance of sticking with, and everything I've read about it makes sense to me. So I've decided to give it a shot.

I'm going to chronicle my experiences with it in this journal, starting with today's first baby step (starting to read my new copy of Dr. Atkins's New Diet Revolution). Next up is to make an appointment to see my doctor and discuss with him my decision to embark on this nutrition/weight-loss regimen. He'll need to be involved because my meds will need to be reduced and monitored as I go.

I don't know if anyone is going to read this -- it's really more for me, and maybe to serve as a record of this experience that I can share with others in the future -- but anyone who wants to follow along, comment, kick me in the butt if I look like I'm slacking, etc., is welcome and warmly encouraged to do so.