Sherry - do you have a link for that article "Diet Like a Man" or was this in a magazine. Sounds like it was right on target. We emotionally invest in food - period. Not all women but surely a much larger percentage than men. I'd love to read it.

Falon, no unfortunately, this was several years ago. It was in 2000 probably April or so and it was in Ladie's Home Journal or Good Housekeeping or maybe Woman's Day (though likely not the last one). I usually only read the other two so probably one of them. It is possible that you could write the two magazines and ask them if that is in their archives and if you could get a reprint.

Some of the ideas she said was that men "compete" with one another. Put up a pot with money in it for who can lose the most weight (and cautioned women to not compete with men since men lose faster), that they just go at it with a different mind set. I can't remember all the details, but it was one of the things I had in mind when I first started Atkins and I mainly started it because it was what my brother was doing at the time.

Falon and Sherry, go to Prevention Magazine's web site. It was in the magazine last month or the month before. It was a good article.

No Susan that isn't the same article. It is a good one though and it does make some similar points. No I clearly remember reading this article back before I started Atkins the first time and it was printed in a woman's magazine in 2000.

It may have been a new magazine or it may have been one I found lying around, so it may have been even older than 2000. 1999 or so.

It did make the point that men don't get all emotional about the fact that they need to lose weight, they just make up their minds to do it and tackle it like any other problem logically.

We women have advantages and disadvantages mentally. We are more likely to recover from a stroke than a man, because if one half of our brains get damaged, we have a lot of connections with the other half and the other half can take over the functions that are lost. But the disadvantage (or maybe still an advantage in some ways) is that men think with one half of the brain at a time and women don't. Men think with the logical half, and then at a different time will think with the creative/emotional half. We women tend to confuse the two and use them both at once. Keeps us seeming "illogical" to a man, when in fact it is logic mixed with emotion.

With the dieting game, that can be defeating. Instead of "I need to drop some pounds, I'll do this..." It's "I'm such a loser! Such a fat pig! WHY don't I have any willpower? Oh I HATE myself I just HAVE to diet. I'll start tomorrow, right now I feel too horrible and I need some chocolate."

Uhhh... No wonder it is easier for them....

hi guys,
i am down again today , i hope i will do better tomorrow.

If you give this a chance believe it or not you will come to the point where you won't want it. Give it a chance just take one meal and one snack at a time. If you take care of today tomorrow will tak care of itself. Judy

Think this might be the ringer

Diet like a man. (woman tries diets used by men)(includes related information on male dieting strategies)
Ladies Home Journal, October, 1998 by Gerosa, Melina

(It's no longer available on the site I found the preliminary on (www.findarticles.com). They must clean out their archives but keep old links...)

No more girl stuff. It's time to get tough and lose weight.

My weight problem began as soon as I left the womb. A few days after I was born, my mother's best friend came over for a viewing. "Wow!" she said, as I lolled naked on the bed. "I've never seen a baby with an hourglass figure--Melina has hips!"

The truth is, I have never been obese or, by most other people' s standards, even fat. But when you are described as voluptuous and zaftig, when all you want to do is fit into your brother's Cub Scout uniform for Halloween, growing up ...

Born2run2,
Thank your for your welcome words , i got a big smile on my face cause i felt that i am realy welcomed.
I will start doing it again and hopefully i could stick to it this time and do it one meal at a time

Kotty

That sounds really familiar. I guess I must have been reading an older article at the time...

I'm glad I could help. On my rough days I never think past the immediate meal, It seem to help. That way you don't have to think I'm never going to be able to eat___ fill in the blank. See I sent along some Cyber will power dust to help(LOL). Judy

Judy, i wish i could think about it one meal at a time.
The problem is my husband and y baby are eating all the food that i love and i am the one who is preparing it, smelling it , tasting it
I know this is realy hard for me because i a still at the begining of my weight loss journey, i feel that its never ending.
Anyway, i am doing fine today and hope will go to bed without messing things up, i can see that your will power dust is doing its job
Btw, what plan are you following and how much did you lose and when exactly did you take the decision that enough is enough?
Nice talking to you.
Kotty

Kotty, you do not need to limit the amount of food you eat on this plan to still lose weight.

While you are cooking dinner, snack on slices of pepperoni or ham or celery with cream cheese. I eat a lot of cheese (I know, the plan says to limit it, but I've been ignoring that part the whole 145 lbs off).

If you feel like eating 3 hamburger patties, eat 3 of them.

I found that limiting my calories was a recipe for failure. After a while, I backed off on the amount I was eating. But I never allowed myself to get hungry. I only wish I liked hard-boiled eggs.

kotty I know what you mean-it IS hard to stick with any diet while preparing "regular" food for everyone else. Yesterday it was pancakes. Today we ordered pizza. You have to think of it as CHOOSING to eat something different for your own benefit, and that you absolutely do not have to go hungry while watching other people stuff themselves, like we would have to do on alot of other diets. Hey, the stuff we do get to eat on Atkins is usually the forbidden stuff! When you count calories, you want nothing more than some bacon or a big whopping steak-now we can have it! Try to look at it that way. Keep your house full of Atkins friendly foods, and eat whenever you are hungry. My family could not care less what diet I'm on or how much I'm losing if it means they have to change their way of eating, and I just have to live with that. But let's stay strong and do this for ourselves anyway, girl!

I don't even understand why people would do that to themselves. If you are the cook, cook the same way for everyone. Make dinner be meat and veggys and forget about feeding the family things you can't eat. Or if you do make them things you can't eat, then make them things they like that you don't.

I can't see ever being able to succeed if I have to cook for other people in such a way that it tempts me. Dont' go there, make it easy on yourself. Atkins has enough good food and enough variety that the family probably won't even notice most of the time.

I see your point Sherry, and my life would be alot easier to live right now if that were possible-but I cook for a family of 5. Carbs not only are not bad for growing children, but they are absolutely necessary! It would be detrimental to a small child's health to put them on a low-carb diet. They need to use carbs for energy, not just to live, but their bodies' energy is used to grow and develop, something as adults we can safely do without. They don't have the metabolic resistance or insulin problems (unless they have health problems) that we do as a result of the lifestyles we have chosen to live. Children, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers etc are advised in the book NOT to do this diet. Sometimes a low-carb meal for the whole family is doable-but fruit, grains, pasta, milk, and breads are a necessary part of a growing child's diet. I admit-pizza, chips, fries, and other junk like that can be done without for everyone's health. But if you are a parent on this diet, carbs in the house are just unavoidable.
Besides, to some degree or another, even if you are single and have that choice, this is all about willpower. We are all bombarded every day with sights and smells of food we aren't supposed to have-from the late night Taco Bell commercials to watching others eat on their lunch breaks. There is no avoiding that no matter what your situation is, so it's about making the right choices for YOURSELF even when temptation abounds-even if it's in your own house.