CarbSmart.com Your trusted guide to the keto, low carb, intermittent fasting lifestyle

We are continuing our discussions of diets, dieting, and the various ways people have attempted to lose weight. In the last article we looked at the phenomenon of women's magazines as a huge factor in the return of calorie counting after World War II. And we saw the rise of meals in a can, which are still with us today.

Once in a while, the kids fly the coop and range about the city doing whatever kids do. In my case, that means that Chris is at his "other family's" house for dinner and the evening. (His girlfriend's mother is thinking of declaring him a dependent on their income tax return.) Judy is usually off to spend the night with a friend.

Sammy from Scotland is 38 years old, 5’ 10" tall, and has been following the Atkins program for six months. He began the Atkins program weighing at 15 stone, 13 pounds and had a waist size of 36/38. (A stone is 14 pounds, so Sammy weighed 223 pounds when he began low carbing.) Sammy currently weighs in at 12 stone, 10 pounds (178 pounds), and has slimmed down to a 32/34-inch waist. "I never set myself a goal weight. I decided to stop at my current weight as I thought I'd lost enough," Sammy told me.

We go to southeast Kansas, where most of my people are buried and where I spent a good deal of my childhood. To me, southeast Kansas is about joy and freedom and fields of ripening wheat to the horizon. It's about standing in a nearly abandoned cemetery in the silence of miles and miles of green rolling hills, and listening to the sound of God's voice in the wind, and the touch of His hand as it blows through your hair. It's also about Chicken Mary's.

Low-carbers bemoan missing certain foods. I miss bread, I miss pasta, I miss chocolate, I miss pizza... potatoes... rice... stuffing... The list goes on and on. Here are some Low-Carb comfort foods recipes.

Last November featured PJ’s journey for "Success Stories." (https://www.carbsmart.com/pjillinois.html) At that time PJ had lost 140 pounds, dropping from a high weight of 313 pounds down to 191 pounds. Today, just 18 months from her low carbohydrate start date, PJ is a mere 4 pounds from her goal weight of 150! I thought it was time for an update on her progress, here is what she had to say.

This Low-Carb Gluten-Free Greek Marinade recipe is perfect for grilled Greek chicken but also works for other great Greek dishes - pork, steak, lamb and even white fish will make your Greek dinner spectacular. Greek Marinade recipe by Tony Blakemore.

Cathie from Florida is 5’ 5" tall and 36 years old. Following the Atkins program, she has dropped from 220 pounds to just 128 pounds. Cathie is a mere 18 pounds shy of her goal weight. She has "ungrown" her old size 2X clothes and now wears 9/10’s. And she did all this in just nine months!

Sometimes you just have to take the time to have dinner alone with your spouse. It's so nice to have a little quiet time together, even if it means fixing a separate dinner for the kids earlier in the evening. It's worth the effort, even though it's not something you'd want to do every night.

This weekend a fellow low carber has come to my town on a business trip, and I have enjoyed his company immensely. In a conversation in which he successfully attempted to recondition my thinking about the seminal event I've written about which I will call "The Fat 5-Year-Old," I blurted out, "But if I'm not fat, I wouldn't know who I am anymore. Who am I if I'm not fat?