O.k. -I'm a new blogger & I'm chekin' "the mike"...

Ladies & Gents,

How's your low carb lifestyle goin'? -I have to confess that I've been an on-again, off-again low carber for the past several years. I am embarrassed to introduce myself in this way...I'd love to tell you that I was a "perfect" follower of a program that I absolutely believe in. However, I gave in to temptaton far too many times to count and even in the days of following my low carb lifestyle, I expected perfection from myself.

So here's "the beef"....pardon the pun everyone! -The heart of the matter is not about how good or bad any single one of us feels about how we've followed our chosen low carb program....it is about how we dust ourselves off when we've fallen and how we get back to running the race.

-Remember when you were a kid? -You most likely fell a few times in the dirt, felt a little hurt...maybe even cried a few tears because of the bruise you just created or the stain or rip in your panyhose (or jeans guys). -But, you didn't say to yourself, "What a loser I am, look at me FAIL as I play, I should just give up playing for the rest of my life." NO! Rather, you brushed the dirt off of your pants, with your tiny little hands and you went on running to catch up with your friends. In other words, you loved yourself enough to know that you weren't perfect, and you furthermore, you knew that it was normal to slip and fall and then get back up again and run along with your friends. You didn't suck dirt for the rest of your life, grovelling in your fall.

My point is, somewhere along the line, or "horizon" of life, we thought we needed to be perfect in order to succeed, and anything less than that, we have a tendency to want to berate ourselves for....over what? -A bagel, a slice of pizza? This is not only counter-productive, but fanatical and negative self-talk. We need to remember the joy we feel with taking off in flight, the way kids do after a scrape or fall. We have to remember, that we are "them"...we are those children, just in bigger bodies that grew up and grew older. Nontheless, we are human and we slip and fall sometimes and any other way of doing anything, be it a dietary lifestyle, a trip to the slopes for a ski-day, a brush to an oil painting....we quite simply would be unhuman to do these things perfectly each and every time.

I happily announce to you all that I am "in it" for the bumps, bruises, scrapes and dirty knees for the rest of my life! No longer thinking "Is that extra low carb cracker "too much" for my carb. intake that day or questioning if the extra piece of low carb cheesecake is "the culprit" to a slower weight loss. No sir! While I will continue of course, to watch my carbs, my eyeballs won't be glued to my "counting page", my scale or any other such instument that is supposed to only be used as a guide 0r usefull item on the journey. Rather, I will eat the way I know I am supposed to eat and live the way I am supposed to live...by enjoying God-mades foods, Atkins-style and knowing that making slipping and falling is part of living a healthy, normal life.

God Bless you all, and know that I will be on here to share my journey, to fill you in on my passion for life, and to share my genuine love for the Atkins program and not to "scare" anyone, but I love Dr. Atkins for what he's laid out for the world-a normal eating plan-and I am sure that I will have a lot to say about his program.

My intention in blogging is to share a part of myself that may help others on their own way in life.

Zephir-Mary