As is the case with most people who gravitate to Atkins or another low-carb diet, trying to keep from getting fat has been a life-long battle for me. I am 6' 2" tall and managed to stay between 180 and 230 until I was 27. I did it through a variety of means. In college I first discovered "low-carb" through the Stillman diet which is a calorie restricted low carb AND low fat diet. Terrible on the bowels, however, despite drinking 8 glasses of water per day.

I first discovered the Atkins diet in 1981 when I bought the book "Dr. Atkins Nutrition Breakthrough." That book was probably Atkins' best at giving the "hows and whys" of the diet. I was sold. By August of 1981 I was down to a relatively trim 192.

Unfortunately, I had a personal tragedy at that point and turned to food to help me get through it. And boy did I turn to food! Over the next 18 months I gained over 100 pounds. It wasn't unusual for me to polish off a half gallon of ice cream in an evening. I made some half-hearted attempts to lose weight over the next few years but always found myself creeping upward. When I stepped on the scale on my 33rd birthday in 1987 I had gotten up to a whopping 348 pounds. I felt lousy, I looked lousy, my cholesterol was creeping up and my blood pressure was on the borderline of "safe" and high for the first time in my life.

I went on the Atkins diet and shed 120 pounds over the next 16 months. I looked great and I felt much better. However, I viewed low carb as a "diet" and not a permanent change. Over the next 5 1/2 years I slowly crept up until I was back to 317 pounds in March of 1994. Damn. Then reality hit. My lower back gave out. I was approaching 40 and my body was telling me it couldn't take it any more. It was so bad I could not walk. My chiropractor fixed me up but suggested losing weight would help more. I went back on Atkins and dropped 110 pounds over 17 months. My cholesterol went from 246 to 198, my blood pressure was well within normal and I (and my back) felt great.

At that point I decided to try to maintain my weight by eating low-fat. For a couple of months this seemed to work fairly well. Then I started to slowly creep up. Just 2 to 3 pounds per month. Before I knew it, it was a year later and I was back up to the low 240s. Then the holidays hit. You know, that time of year when we just can's say "no" to all those traditional goodies. I did a serious backslide (damn, I hate being human some times) and by the beginning of 1997 was back to 261. That's right - 20 pounds in under 2 months. Well, at least it wasn't 317 or 348.

This time, I convinced my wife to try the diet. She had been a long-term skeptic of what it could do for her even though she had seen it work well for me. This has made it easier than ever to stay on it. In addition, I found the "New Diet Revolution Cookbook" which has made the diet FAR more tolerable - the dessert section has been well used in our home! By Halloween I was down below 200 - my lowest in 16 years - and by February of 1998 I hit a steady 190 which I have not maintained in over 20 years. I look and feel better than I have in years. My wife has lost over 50 pounds and is at a weight she hasn't seen since she became pregnant with our first daughter in 1984.

What is funny is that when people ask us how long we are going to be on the "diet" my WIFE answers "forever!" We both now view this as a permanent change to our eating habits. Do we never "cheat" or "fall of the wagon?" Of course not. But both of us have a very healthy attitude about it - if we slip, we go back to induction the next day. We don't fret that we "failed" or that we were weak. We just get back with the program and move forward.

A low carbohydrate dietary regimen is not for everybody but it IS for me, my wife AND our son. It is in harmony with our metabolisms which is why it works for us. It also works for many others. But we realize that it will only work if we are committed to it for the long term. It took me 20 years and 3 serious episodes of weight gain to realize that. Hopefully, my story will open the eyes of others who have gone through the same struggle so that they will not be fighting the same battles over and over as well.

Persistence pays off. I am living proof.