When I lost weight in the past it was right after the birth of my first child. At that time I weighed 170 pounds (after I had her) and wanted to get down some where between 140 to 150 pounds.

I read several diet books before finally deciding on one diet.

The diet I chose to do was the Atkins Diet by Dr. Atkins. I began the diet around the beginning of May 2001. I followed the diet which was not easy to do. If you are not familiar with the diet, it is a high protein, no/low carbs diet.

I had to cut out all of my starches and sugars which meant cutting out bread, soda, tea, pasta, potatoes (of any kind), certain processed foods, etc.

Basically on the Atkins Diet you mainly drink water and eat lots of meat, some fruits and some vegetables. It was hard at first because I would get caffeine headaches, felt like I was starving to death and was always tired. I had almost no energy.

After I was on the diet for about two weeks, it did become easier. I tried to have one cheat day per week but on that cheat day, I did not over do it.

I would limit myself to how many carbs I had that day so I had to watch my intake of sugars, starches and of course, the carbs. If I had a sip of soda, it felt disgusting.

My teeth felt like they were just caked in sugar which was a gross feeling. Anyway, I started losing weight almost immediately. I think after the first two weeks, I had lost about five pounds. At the end of those two weeks, going without carbs no longer had an effect on me.

I didn’t need them anymore. I also seemed to have more energy and no longer had caffeine headaches. I continued with the diet but did no exercise what so ever. I did not have time to exercise as I was a single mom and worked a full time job.

The job that I worked required me to be on my feet and moving around the entire day so keeping active was no problem.

After I had been on the diet for two months, I did lose a total of twenty-five pounds which put me at my goal or target weight of 145. I felt great!!

As you can see, the weight pretty much fell off with this diet and I was very impressed……until one day in August.

In August I became violently ill. I was so sick that I ended up going to the hospital. The doctors could not figure out what was wrong with me. After a CAT Scan and an Ultrasound, they determined what the problem was.

It turned out that this high protein (high fat) diet had ruined my gall bladder forever. They scheduled me for surgery the following week with a general surgeon.

There I was a week later laying on the operating table under the knife. The surgeon removed my gall bladder which was the size of a Nerf Football, highly enlarged. Even though they removed my gall bladder, the ducts are still there.

To this day, I still cannot have fried or greasy food as it causes those ducts to become clogged and it makes me ill. Sometimes I get sick without eating those types of foods and when I do, I vomit bile which smells like sewage and I’m usually out of commission for about a week.

All I can do is lie in bed in severe pain and wait for it to pass. I’ve never had gall stones, oddly enough. I would not recommend this diet to anyone who appreciates not throwing up bile, having severe cramping and does not wish to have surgery.

Nine years and another child later I decided to try it again, this time I was going to stick to it. I was 25 years old 5’8’ tall and I weighed 197 pounds. I hated myself.

I started my diet with a week long colon cleanse program. It was very hard at first because I would get really hungry. But I couldn’t each anything.

I lost 8 pounds with that. Then I replaced two meals a day with a high protein meal replacement. I ate whatever I wanted with the other meal. When I started to get real hungry I would suck on a piece of peppermint candy and drink a tall glass of ice water.

I took a multi vitamin and dared to eat anything after 8:00 pm.

Everyday I made sure I walked at least 2 miles a day. I didn’t have any money for a gym membership, times were hard, so I exercised through popular taped Aerobic programs.

Oh, and I also made sure I drunk one whole gallon of water for the day. I kept up with this program for about three months.

Negative twenty two pounds later, and I was closer to my goal weight of 135 pounds. After the weight loss I adjusted my protein meal replacement to only one replacement meal a day.

Through meditation and determination I have gained the confidence to achieve many other goals in my life. I guess the best is yet to come!

A good support group would also compliment an exercise program, just in case you tend to lose focus of whats important. The greatest weight loss secret is determination. Whether it is the will to see your children grow up, or the will to see another birthday.