My wife and I have been fighting near obesity for 20 years. We've lost a few pounds on traditional diets and of course put them back on with a few bonus pounds after the diets ended. Does that sound familiar? Ugh! This year right around the middle of June the wife had her annual physical and the doctor gave her the startling news, and frightening I might add, that she was on the verge of being diabetic, her cholesterol counts were in the stratosphere and her blood pressure was out of control. Does anyone need more of a wake-up call than that? I decided that this was the time to stop fooling around with DIETS and think about LIFESTYLE CHANGES. To digress a bit, I note that most of this site is devoted to Atkins, so I hope I'm not an Alien here, but I found the South Beach book a bit more appealing. We started the South Beach regimen about the middle of July. I must say that I enjoyed all the phase 1 food, though I didn't follow all the recipes to the letter. I did find that I slowly migrated away from the SB regimen and started, after much reading, to count carbs rather than let someone else count them for me. I found this allowed for more variety. Anyway, the great news is that the wife went from 202 pounds at the start of the diet and is at this point 171; I started at 220 and I just weighed in at 178 this morning. The best news is that wife had her chemistry analyzed again last week and her blood sugar levels have dropped dramatically, blood pressure is much reduced (no doubt due to an added exercise routine as well) and her cholesterol levels are in the normal range....they wouldn't give numbers, which surprised me; I'll have a fight with them when I have my physical I guess. The bottom line is this: whatever low carb plan you start with, it works and it can and should remain a permanent way of life. I've started going through the pantry and I'm throwing out everything that's loaded with carbs. I shudder to think of the amount of carbs we were consuming; It's a wonder we weren't more obese. I have another 20 pounds to lose and the wife has about the same and let me tell you, we are going to lose it and this will be our eating lifestyle for the rest of our lives. For those of you who are just starting low-carb or contemplating it, don't wait for a scare like we did; get going and try it; It really works. Best of all, we have more energy and our mental outlook is fantastic as well. Good Luck

Congratulations on you and your wife's success.