Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor. I'm not a nurse. I'm not a nutricionist. I'm not licensed to give advice, recommendations or anything in the medical or nutrition field. Therefore, whatever you read here applies to me only and you should not follow it unless you clear with a doctor first or if you're willing to risk your health on your own. I'm not responsible for anything. Not even that the information here is accurate or even true.
That said, let's move on...
I started my diet on May 14th, 2003. My body weight back then was reaching 186 lbs (84 kg) in my medium 5'9-3/4" body (1.76 m). Therefore, I was overweight.
Here's what my blood-lipid panel was like, just a few months before I started on the Atkins diet:
| Test | Value | Units |
| Total Cholesterol | 178 | mg/dl |
| Triglycerides | 182 | mg/dl |
| HDL | 45 | mg/dl |
| VLDL | 36 | mg/dl |
| LDL | 96 | mg/dl |
That is, I was good to go. I bit high on the blood sugar (triglycerides), but still cool.
Then, after the first 6 months, after dropping to 156 lbs (71 kg), and being slowly upping the carb intake, my lipid panel was this:
| Test | Value | Units |
| Total Cholesterol | 205 | mg/dl |
| Triglycerides | 51 | mg/dl |
| HDL | 67 | mg/dl |
| VLDL | N/A | mg/dl |
| LDL | 128 | mg/dl |
That is, a slight "improvement"? Well, true, total cholesterol went up. But the ratio total/HDL went down (because HDL went up). I'd say this was an improvement, yes. But no one knows for sure. The safest thing to assume is that I was still fine and feeling well. Actually, I was feeling much better without the extra 30 lbs around my waistline.
Now, checkout the sugar in my blood. 51 mg/dl! That's low! That's like saying I'll never get diabetes. Plus, my tolerance for sugary things went down. I wasn't much of a sweet tooth before atkins, now I'm like: Yikes! There's sugar in my lemonande! What for? It's sweet enough naturally.
Anyway... Life went on and so did my Atkins diet. I started adding some good carbs (low glycemic index) to my diet and gained a bit of weight back. But my fat kept going down the drain. No matter how much fat I ate, I was still losing body fat and feeling great!
So, here's my lipid panel as of March, 2004, ten months after my first Atkins-friendly diet.
| Test | Value | Units |
| Total Cholesterol | 186 | mg/dl |
| Triglycerides | 41 | mg/dl |
| HDL | 63 | mg/dl |
| VLDL | N/A | mg/dl |
| LDL | 115 | mg/dl |
So, now, let's move on to what I actually ate during the four phases. I have to admit that breakfast was the hardest part to adjust, since I was born a meat lover and I was pretty used to eating meat anyway. So my lunch and dinner didn't change too much, other than the vanishing of carbs from my plate.
A sample of my meals during PHASE I:
| Meal | Description |
|---|---|
| Breakfast I | BEST'S Low-sodium hot dogs (that's the only brand I can tolerate, the rest is crap). Get two hot dogs and put them in the toaster oven. Or slide them and fry the little round discs in olive oil. |
| Breakfast II | Canned tuna fish, scrambled with mayo. Add a splash of lime juice and salt. Eat like that. Later, on phase IV, you can spread that on a low-carb toast. |
| Breakfast III | Traditional eggs and bacon/sausage (can get tiring very quickly) |
| Lunch I | Salad at the Rutgers faculty dining hall with lots of grilled chicken and hard boiled eggs, some lettuce, cheese and olives (add broccoli if you like it raw, I like it cooked). No croutons, carrots, corn. Lots of extra virgin olive oil. |
| Lunch II | Fried meat or fish with creamy sauces. No rice nor potatoes, just the vegetable of the day (also at the Rutgers Dining Hall). |
| Lunch III | Salmon with creamy sauce, homemade. Get 1 lbs of salmon and fry it with onions and garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the frying pan, heavy cream and one of {a splash of vodka, wine, parmesan cheese}. Let the sauce thicken. I've also tried it with sunflower seeds and parmesan. Works fine. |
| Lunch IV | Try lunch III with a steak or shrimp. Keep changing the stuff you add to the sauce. The only thing that stays the same is butter and heavy cream. |
| Snack | Make beef jerky at home. Buy a food dehydrator and beef (london broil works fine). Cut it in slices, add garlic and salt to it and let it dehydrate for a while. Put in plastic bags and take it with you. Warning: don't buy the commercial thing, they all have sugar in them. |
| Dinner | Just repeat all the lunch options.Also, dump pre-cooked frozen shrimp (defrost it under hot water first), canned tuna, lettuce, hard boiled eggs and whatever comes to mind into a bowl, mix it with lots of olive oil and there you go, nice Atkins salad for dinner. |
PHASE II
Repeat the same menu as before, but start adding some more cheese and an occasional carrot to your salad, as well as peanuts and cashew nuts. Also allow yourself to have an occasional sweet potato with your fried salmon.
At this point too, I started cooking my delicious Atkins-for-life ground beef extravaganza. Here goes the recipe:
PHASE III