I have been on the wonder-diet Atkins for a little under two weeks. If the terminology of the word Induction doesn't get you, well the diet will!

For all of you who shudder at the thought of diet, well let me explain myself. This is my first diet ever, in all of my nearly 28 years. This is my one attempt at self-control, the self-control over the intake of my daily ritual of croissant buying and hearty nutty, grainy bread loaf eating. (over the span of 3 days) This is just a test.

Besides, these kilograms mean almost nothing to me. It's like trying to remember what it was first like to have another currency in your hand, oooooohhhhh, colours, oooooooohhhh, it's in different increments, oooooooohhhhh I have to convert in my head.

Well after a miniscule amount of looking, I now know the pound conversion is 2.2 pounds to one kilogram. Easy enough, but standing on a newly-purchased bargain scale at rise and at bedtime, well not only does the converstion not really computer (the 2 times does, rather easily, but not the .2) but all I see is rather-small numbers between my toes. Small for me, but pretty hefty in these parts.

So yes, it's been 10 days since bread. 10 whole days. Not since I first started eating solid food has it been this long. 10 whole days outside of my ritual of croissants for breakfast and buttered/walnut-cheese-smeared/sun-dried tomato- smeared /Parma-ham topped bio brown old-style multi-grained bread from Del Haize. Hey, I mean they took away my favorite sliced fake meet, the least I can do is find another product I can obsess about. I even have a package of Froop blackberry and raspberry yogurt in the fridge at work just to daily temp me.

And if there is anyting weird about this so-called diet, it's the amount of salad (gasp!) and tonnage of meant I've eaten. Me, Andrea, the one who loves cheese is so sick of it she can barely manage to choke it down. And not a drop of anything sweet, I actually allowed myself to dunk my index finger into honey, just so i could remember what sweetness is. It definitely makes you take stock of the things you eat, and at least for me it's curbed my desire to eat by unbelievable percentages.

Is it working? Sorta. I'm going to skip a meal and eat a regular meal for Valentines day, but I'm happy with the results so far. A bit of grandiose fatigue while my "blood sugar levels were leveling" but every morning the scale does a bit of moving downward, and apparently here in kilos, that little move can mean a lot! :)

IN THE NEWS:
Phyllis Lyon, left, 79, and Del Martin, 82, right, partners for 51 years, were married in a civil ceremony in San Francisco, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004.
Thank you San Francisco, now we've got both sides of the continent covered!