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Hi there!
 I'm Bob, aka Bobnatlanta, and you might
know me from postings you saw on the eScribe Atkins Diet Bulletin
Board. I surfed over to the Atkins Friends site, created by Mangus
and 808State, and an idea popped into my head. How about a column
featuring observations on the 'low carb lifestyle.' I contacted
our webmasters and they thought it was a great idea. Four out
of five dentists surveyed agreed, and here we are. But, what
qualifies me to write this? Allow me to share my story of how
Dr. Atkins changed my life..
As a child, I was crushed to
learn that 'Huskies' was NOT a French designer of fashionable
jeans for kids. My mom explained that I had 'inherited her fat
cells,' and that was just the way it was. She apologized for
the curse she had passed on, and to make up for it, took me to
a doughnut shop. My teen and college years were spent exercising,
battling weight, and visiting more doughnut shops.
Fast forward to the spring of
1999. A sedentary lifestyle (politically correct term for lazy)
and a lust for pretzels and popcorn had put a hulking 238 pounds
on my 5'8" frame. The trip up one flight of stairs in my
home left me winded. The recently purchased size 38 pants were
getting tight. The manager of the local pizza buffet restaurant
knew me by name. Time to do something, so I started running and
starving. In short, I made myself miserable, and gained and lost
the same 7 pounds over the next 8 weeks. In late May, my lovely
wife had a fortuitous encounter with a former coworker who had
lost 30 pounds on the Atkins plan. I bought the book the next
day, and my low carb adventure began on May 31, my 36th birthday.
Headaches on the day after my
birthday are nothing unusual, only this time, I hadn't had ANY
alcohol. It was carb withdrawal, and once through it, I found
a brand new me. I lost 12 pounds on induction, and started running
again. By the Fourth of July, I had lost 25 pounds and ran the
Peachtree Road Race 10K. I also said goodbye to insomnia, indigestion,
headaches, and wildly fluctuating energy levels that had been
part of my daily life. I've continued to lose weight while eating
steak, pork rinds, and chicken wings, and drinking the 'occasional'
adult beverage. As I write this, I'm within 3 pounds of my ideal
weight, having lost 48 pounds.
Along the way, I found the Atkins
Diet Bulletin Board, and later, this terrific site. There are
people who visit both places regularly to whom I owe a great
debt of gratitude. Their wisdom and encouragement helped me to
stay focused on my new way of eating and lose pounds and inches
faster than Bill Gates makes money. I'm writing this in hopes
that the lighthearted experiences and observations shared here
will help you to that kind of success.
 Cheers!
Bob
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