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ZACK GRADY writes from Southern California. He reads cookbooks, but mostly, he just adds garlic and hot sauce.

I promised my husband fish a few days ago, so tonight we're having Italian Fish Fillets. I find that it takes more fish than beef to fill me up and make me feel completely satisfied, so I always count on one half pound of fish per person. That doesn't mean that my family of four always polishes off two pounds of fish, but to my way of thinking it's better to have too much (and have leftovers for lunch the next day) than it is to have too little.

I have traditionally not shirked at manual labor, nor have I ever thought to take a break while doing heavy work. It's not efficient to take a break, it messes with my rhythm, it drags out the work that much longer, I fear I may not go back and finish the job if I take a break, and I want to see the fruits of my labor NOW.

There are certain instinctive drives that all human beings share. Hunger is one of them. Eating is necessary for our survival as individuals, so we eat. We can't live without eating, so the drive to eat is hardwired into our psyches. As individuals, we can live without sex, but as a species we cannot, so that drive is also hardwired into our psyche.

I'm a beef person; my husband is a fish person. Tonight I'm satisfying MY taste buds and serving Steak Diane. Sometime over the weekend I'll fix some salmon, his all-time favorite fish, just to be evenhanded. (Don't you just hate being fair and considering everybody's tastes? As far as I'm concerned, being "nice" is highly overrated. Why do I keep on doing it?!? Because I'm a patsy, that's why.)

Marcia is from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and follows CAHHP (Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program). Marcia has been a controlled carbohydrate eater since December 1, 2000. She is 5' tall and has dropped from a high weight of 250 pounds and size 24 down to 156 pounds and size 12. Marcia is well on her way to her goal of weighing 125 pounds.

We all know what it feels like to be overweight. The self-disgust. The shame. The exhaustion. Unpleasant physical symptoms abound; maybe we even have to have our blood taken regularly to test for diabetes. A trip to the doctor's office includes the inevitable rationalizations about heavy clothing as we step on the scale and later dire pronouncements of doom and gloom from the doctor if we don't do something.

LBJ from Minnesota is 53 years old and 5' 4" tall. LBJ has been low carbing for since April of 1999, and has been at the maintenance level for nearly four years. She follows the Protein Power program. When LBJ began low carbing, she weighed 150 pounds and wore a size 14. Currently, LBJ weighs 114 pounds and 1s wearing a size 3. She has dropped 36 pounds and more than 5 dress sizes!

By August 18, 2001, weighing in at 255 pounds (down from 380), I was to meet The Captain for the first time, and I was a wreck. I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I knew I hadn't lost enough weight to make a good impression on him. And I was sick to my stomach because it wasn't enough. I knew in my heart that it would never be enough, and I would not acknowledge that fact.