Well, I managed to make it through a week on the Atkins diet, and I’m 9 lbs. lighter for the effort. I’m feeling very energized and have noticed that in the mid-afternoon, I have not been experiencing a lull in my energy level. I’ve also been staying up longer and have been sleeping approximately 7 hours per night, which seems about perfect right now. I had been sleeping at least 8 hours and sometimes 9 hours a night prior to the diet, and always feeling like I had never had enough rest.

So, here’s some things I have learned from the first week:

• I’ve shifted my mindset to the long term now. At first, this diet was just a “let’s see what happens” experiment. Well, I’ve seen and I like, so now I’m committed for as long as it takes to see my abdominal muscles.
• The Coca-Cola company, in their infinite wisdom, has packaged their caffeine free diet Coke very similarly to their caffeine free regular Coke. I drank 1/3 of a can of the regular before I realized my mistake (“Hey, how come this tastes so good? Aww, damn.”). Considering that my carbohydrate intake is limited to 20 grams per day, and that one can of the regular Coke contains 39 grams, you might conclude that I was very upset with myself for such a stupid mistake.
• Despite what you think about what is in a food, always, always, always read the label or ask. Last week I found out that McDonalds adds fillers to their chicken, which increases the carbohydrate count. I also found that Skippy peanut butter is loaded with sugar, after I enjoyed some celery and peanut butter sticks. D’oh!
• In-N-Out burger sells their Double-Double as “protein style,” which substitutes the bun for wrapping the patties in lettuce. Yummy!
• Despite what the book may have you thinking, calories still count. The good thing about eating a protein and fat rich diet is that you feel full very quickly when eating, which automatically helps you reduce your calorie intake. But this most certainly is not an “all you can eat” diet.
• While beer has a fair amount of carbohydrates, wine does not. Especially white wine. I was very happy to learn this, because I had initially assumed that all alcohol was completely out of the question. The truth of the matter is that most hard alcohols have no carbohydrates.

The first 2 days of the diet were fairly rough, as I quit carbohydrates and sugar cold turkey. Clearly, I had some addictions there, but I was able to sit in Baskin Robbins yesterday afternoon with my kids while they enjoyed their ice cream and I had very little desire to order anything for myself. That, my friends, is nothing short of amazing for me.

Look for another diet update next week.