I have been heavy most of my life.

In college I was able to diet and exercise down to a size 5. I was thrilled - but keeping up the exercise and calorie counting proved too much after awhile and I went back to my old ways.

After getting married and having children I started taking diet drugs prescribed by my doctor. They were wonderful. I lost weight easily and quickly and soon my husband was telling me how proud he was of me.

One day I went to the dr. and he told me that the gov’t had taken the pills off the market. The weight went right back on in no time.

Years have passed. I’m no longer married and my weight has been getting worse and worse. I’m on meds for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

One day my teenage daughter came home and said the dr. told her she had high cholesterol. That was enough for me.

After researching diets online, I decided to follow the South Beach Diet. It seemed reasonable and other people were saying that giving up carbs for the first 2 weeks wasn’t that hard. I thought if they can do it so can we.

I’ve found the diet to be a complete lifestyle change. I thought that there was no way I was going to be able to deal with no bread or cereal or sweets for 2 weeks. It wasn’t as hard as I thought.

My daughter and I are eating healthy and we’ve found lots of great recipes to make. We’re well into Phase 2 at this point and although carbs are allowed to some degree now we’ve found that we don’t want them. That’s saying quite a bit since we were both addicted to them. We feel great, more alive and more energetic than ever.

Thanks for letting me share our story.

-Laurie

I spent years on roller coaster diets; my weight went up and down but I couldn’t seem to keep the weight off. Then one day I ran across the Atkins diet and it changed my life.

By following Atkins within two weeks my blood sugars were under control and I had lost 11lbs in the first two weeks. I was amazed.

Now a year and a half later I am down to my ideal weight and my diabetes is no longer an issue and on top of it I feel fantastic and have so much energy my kids can’t keep up. It is more than a diet it is a lifestyle and I love it!

-Lynn