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Donna from Wisconsin has been following the Protein Power plan since November of 1999. When Donna began following Protein Power, she weighed 187 pounds. She is currently two pounds under her goal weight of 145, and is now sporting a size 6!!

This week's menu features a simple fish dish, a cooked vegetable, and a side salad. Notice the variety of colors (white fish sprinkled with green parsley and red paprika), yellow waxed beans, and a dark green spinach salad with splashes of red and orange. Imagine what this meal would look like if mashed cauliflower were substituted for the waxed beans and coleslaw were substituted for the spinach salad. While all the dishes might taste good, the lack of color would be so boring that your eyes would cross. And I can guarantee that your kids wouldn't eat it. Never underestimate the visual aspects of the meals you prepare!

Maehing is from South Carolina and is 32 years old. She has followed the Atkins way of life since November 1, 2000. Maehing has gone from 264 pounds to just 8 pounds from her goal weight, now weighing in at 178. She has dropped from a size 22 to a 12.

As I have indicated in past articles, I have a tendency to stray from the righteous low carb path of life. But I'm sure that everybody cheats every once in a while, right? Well, maybe if you're some sort of Stepford-Wife-Alien-Robot entity who is bent on world domination through manipulation of the worlds fat people. Maybe you don't. But for the rest of us, we cheat occasionally. And, unfortunately, I've been cursed with the unbearable gift of rationalization.

This is going to be my first winter handling life in the world of Atkins, and I'm pretty scared. There's usually a two-month long period of serious eating that starts on Halloween and doesn't stop until New Year's Day. It's a time where there's just one traditional excuse to pig out after another! How am I going to deal with this?

Sometimes there is no need to cook dinner for the whole family, but you still need to eat and want something quick. The week's meal of Pizza Frittata & Tossed Salad fits the bill, and requires virtually no planning or preparation. You probably have all the ingredients already on hand, and can put the whole meal together in less than 15 minutes.

Diana Lee never intended to write a cookbook. All she wanted to do was be able to provide her family with sugar free, low carbohydrate muffins, cookies, sweet rolls, cakes, and pies. Through her participation in a number of Internet low carbohydrate support lists, Diana became aware that many people longed for just the types of recipes she was developing, and Baking Low Carb was born. (Click here: Baking Low Carb).

Nick from Canada is 32, and has been following Protein Power since October of 1999. Nick started out weighing 395 pounds, and now weighs 216! He has dropped from a size 56 waist to a 36, and a from 4XL to a large shirts!

Dr. Beth Gruber talks about how protein works in the body. Article 10 of the Science of Low-Carb & Keto Diets series. The liver converts an average of 58% of the protein we eat into carbohydrates, and that the carbohydrates-from-protein are handled by the body just like "regular" carbohydrates. It is broken down into glucose by the simple water-related steps of hydrolysis; it is used for fuel to run the body; it is converted to glycogen and stored. If there is too much of it, it is converted into body fat.

I went off my diet temporarily one Thursday this summer, and didn't stop being off until the following Monday morning! It all started innocently enough at a companywide lunch meeting. It was the last lunch meeting of the year that we'd be having outdoors, and my coworkers convinced me that I should go ahead and have a burger on a real bun with real ketchup, since this was the last time this year it would happen. And what good is a burger without potato salad and Fritos? Luckily, I was able to rationalize this cheat by remembering one of the golden rules of dieting: food eaten at an official company function doesn't count. So I figured I was safe, and vowed to start anew the next Friday.