After being on the Atkins diet for a few months, I decided it was time for me to quit. I put a lot of thought into this decision, and concluded that it was best that I get off this diet. My reasons for quitting the Atkins diet might be different from everyone else’s reasons.
Despite what is commonly believed, I don’t think that people are supposed to stay “on a diet” forever. There are some exceptions to this rule, however. If a doctor prescribes a certain type of diet for a person, based on that person’s health, then it might be best for the person to adhere to what his or her doctor says. A few examples that come to mind are diets for people who have high cholesterol, for people who are diabetic, or for people who have food allergies.
Beyond that, I don’t think it is always the best decision to stay within the “I am on a diet” mentality forever. Eventually, you have to find out what foods are healthiest for you to eat, and the amount of exercise that your body needs. We are all different and unique. It would be illogical to assume that one, specific, diet is going to be the perfect one for absolutely everybody.
That explains part of why I decided to quit the Atkins diet. Another reason why I chose to stop doing Atkins is because I am at the point where I have met some of the goals I intended to achieve when I first selected the Atkins diet.
I wanted to lose some weight, so I wouldn’t look like a pregnant bridesmaid at my sister’s wedding. Since I started the Atkins diet, I have lost eleven pounds, and an entire clothing size. I have not yet reached my goal weight, but, I look quite different than I did before Atkins.
I am confident that my relatives won’t look at my stomach, and whisper questions to each other behind their hands about whether or not I happened to be pregnant. This has given me enough confidence to be much more comfortable wearing the bridesmaid dress that my sister has assigned me.
I wanted to find out if I truly did have a gluten allergy. I chose the Atkins diet because it was one that required people to stop eating carbs. Most of the foods that contain carbs, (pasta, cereal, cookies, pancakes, bread), also contain gluten. A good way to figure out if you have a food allergy is to stop eating the thing that you are allergic to, and see how you feel.
Within the first week of the Atkins diet, after about three days without eating anything that had gluten in it, I started feeling better. I was breathing a bit better. The “puffiness” on my face disappeared. My skin wasn’t as itchy. Put that together with the allergy testing that I had done years ago, that said that I am highly allergic to wheat, and I can safely conclude that I am allergic to gluten. My acupuncturist, who knows a lot about gluten allergies, agrees with my assessment of this allergy.
Right now, I think that it will be much better for my health if I transition over to a gluten-free diet than if I continued with the Atkins diet. I have heard that people who discover that they are allergic to gluten, and who start a gluten-free diet, end up losing weight anyway. I no longer have a need for the Atkins diet.
Image by Raelene Gutierrez on Flickr