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This episode begins a new track to my Luther Vandross'ish weight loss/gain/loss journey. While I find this difficult to write about, I believe it to be necessary for me and possibly helpful to you. And as long as I'm writing this column, I'm going to be honest with you.

Karen from Nebraska is 41 years old and 5' 4" tall. Karen has been following her own modified version of the Atkins program for a little over a year now. She began low carbing weighing 320 pounds and wearing size 28W and now weighs 209 pounds and wears a size 18. Karen's goal is to reach 150 pounds and sport size a size 10.

Karen G. is an American living in Poland. Karen is 5' 4" inches tall, and has been following the Atkins program since December 31, 2002. In that time, Karen has dropped from weighing 228 pounds and size 20W to weighing 168 pounds and wearing size 12/14. Karen's goal is to weigh 140 and (possibly) be a size 8.

Since we are coming to the end of the gardening season (at least for those of you up north), I thought I'd base tonight's meal on bounty from the garden.

It's much easier to focus on the negative aspects of our lives than the positive ones. Do we remember the sunny smile the clerk at the grocery store flashed in our direction or do we remember that when we finally got all the groceries loaded in the trunk that the right rear tire was flat? Do we think about the fact that our husbands (or wives) dress in the dark so they won't wake us up, or do we obsess about the fact that they rattle the house with their snoring and keep us from getting to sleep in the first place? (Never mind the fact that we snore, too. From our own point of view, that's irrelevant.)

Jori Lynn from Corsica is 51 years old and 5' 3" tall. Jori Lynn's high weight as a teen was 187+ pounds. She began low carbing following Dr. Marvin Anchell's Steak Lover's Diet at when she weighed 167 pounds, and reached her goal weight of 127 pounds. Jori Lynn then switched programs, and has been following the Atkins program since June of 2003. She began low carbing in a size 18 and now wears size 8!

Today, January 1, 2003, I don't know how much I weigh. I think it's somewhere in the 280s, but I haven't weighed. Part of me is afraid to, part of me wonders what good it would do since I can't do anything about it right now, and part of me is happy to be going back to familiar territory (although the path is unfamiliar).

Now you're a low carber and those bygone non-Low-Carb lunches of yesteryear are out of the question. You're losing weight and feeling great on your Low-Carb Lifestyle, but you're still a bit stumped over what to have for lunch. I mean, really! How much tuna salad can a person eat without sprouting gills? What in the world do you put the meat between to construct a sandwich? What could possibly replace canned soup?

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.