For my concerned friends...

Well, I'm trying something new. New for me, that is. Yesterday was day one of the Atkins diet. I thought it would be pretty easy to just eat protein and fat but it is quite difficult. I can only have 20 grams of carbs a day for the first two weeks then each week the number goes up a tiny little bit.

This diet is based on the fact that our bodies use carbs for energy and if we eat an abundance of carbs we never go into our fat stores. Once eaten, carbohydrates breakdown into smaller sugars (glucose, fructose and galactose) that get absorbed and used as energy. Any glucose not needed right away gets stored in the muscles and the liver in the form of glycogen. Once these glycogen stores are filled up, any extra gets stored as fat.

Let me settle my friends that are encouraging me NOT to use the Atkins diet. I do know the importance of carbs in our muscles, brain, kidneys, etc. I'm using this diet strictly as a beginning. I have been trying and trying to lose 20 pounds with no avail. I've been working out, doing 1 1/2 hours of cardio 3, sometimes 4, times a week burning 600 - 700 calories each workout. Along with that I have been watching what I eat. Not a pound has been dropped.

Unfortunately, I am at that age where a woman's body starts to change hormonally. Along with that goes difficulty in losing weight. Once I lose a bit of weight, I will be eating a fair amount of carbs but I am going to try to decrease the amount that I would normally eat. But at that time, also, I will decrease the amount of fat again. According to the USDA, we need somewhere from 200 to 300 grams of carbohydrates per day. I'll stay on the low end of that number. I'm going to try to find that magic number where I eat just enough carbs to be stored in my liver and muscles as glycogen and not a gram more to be stored as fat.

Of course the argument that eating an abundance of fat is not good for your heart and arteries holds true. And with the Atkins diet you don't have to count the amount of fat you eat. After I lose some weight, the fat content will be cut back.

Thank you to all have expressed concern. It gives me the warm fuzzies to know you care. If any of you have done a low carb diet and want to give me pointers and recipes, that would be great! Oh, I am remembering to take my multi vitamin and calcium. I'll keep you posted on my progress.