My Experience with The Atkins Diet

A Personal Experience with the Atkins Diet

It was probably a ridiculous experiment on my part to try Atkins, since I am allergic to dairy, and am really not all that fond of meat. I also am not a fan of eggs, especially the yolks. I also have an apparently incurable sweet tooth. (Thank goodness for Splenda!) However, I was absolutely desperate to lose the weight I had gained over the summer, and was looking for a quick fix, so I dove right into Induction.

I like beef jerky. I have also found that I am not allergic to all dairy, only to cow’s milk. So armed with beef jerky and goat cheese, I began the diet. To me, goat cheese generally tastes terrible unless you have crackers to accompany it. However, no crackers were allowed. I gnawed on the beef jerky for a couple of days, which was a good choice, since I enjoy snacking. I ate some goat cheese, and some dried soy nuggets that were artificially sweetened with something. I drank plenty of diet sodas.

On the third day, I held a garage sale. I found that I could hardly stand up when I got out of bed that morning. This was after only two full days on the Atkins diet. For me, the difficulty staying on the diet was not the restrictions imposed, made all the more restrictive by my dairy allergy, but by the pure lack of energy that I experienced. I felt as though my legs were made out of lead. And so, after waiting out the day to see if this was something temporary that might go away, I quit the diet. Granted, the feeling might have gone away, but I had too many things to do in order to risk feeling that badly for even one more day. Also, had the feeling persisted, exercise would have been next to impossible.

If it hadn’t been for the severe exhaustion and the dairy allergy, I might have enjoyed the diet. I suspect that I would have quite happily subsisted on the whipped cream with vanilla and artificial sweeter dessert forever, without ever feeling the need for a steak. The Atkins Diet has several tasty recipes, all of which I was too busy to cook at the time.

Also, had I been a tad less lazy about the manner in which I approached the diet, and eaten some of the permitted veggies, such as asparagus, broccoli, avocado and cauliflower, all of which I adore, I might have had more success. Asparagus dripping with real butter. Why did I pass that up? Chances are, something was needed to mitigate the effects of unlimited beef jerky and goat cheese. I suppose what I did was Atkins Diet Extreme. I don’t recommend it!

It did become clear that the Atkins diet is something that would be hard to do if you were on a strict budget. I admit, this is something that I was worried about at the time—how I would feed my family their ‘normal’ diet and cook up constant steaks and chicken breasts for myself, while shopping at the gourmet market for goat cheese and fresh vegetables. At that time, my family was refusing to eat fresh anything, and were only satisfied with pizza, french fries, and all of the other things that are verboten on this diet. It can be hard to go it alone.

My recommendations to anyone who is considering this diet are to make sure that you have the budget to buy the tastiest vegetables, meats and cheeses; and that you have a source of support that will help you cope with the sight of your family, friends and colleagues chowing down on donuts, freshly baked bread with honey, birthday cake and other torments. Definitely broaden the diet as much as you can while still staying within the guidelines. Watch out for excessive amounts of beef jerky!

Write about your own experience with the Atkins Diet here.