I'm sorry to hear the bad news about Susan's mother and about GC's gf's father. That all just sucks so hard.

But Yay! on Teppy's dad's goodish news. Hope the lungs check out ok, some nice, easily solved issue.

Yeah, true. Unless you count the dog, but whatever. It's probably better than The Cat Daniel's existence, stuck in my apartment bored out of his tree.

On an entirely different note - anyone here ever done the Atkins diet/South Beach diet/otherwise high protein & low carb kinda diet?

son- dog and pet- dog.

nope can't get my head around it

Watching Angel. Halfway through Season 4. Dude. Some *really* good fight choreography. (o ya, and 'Fred. The Yum!)

Mickey Mouse had a pet dog Pluto, and friend dog Goofy.

Dharma's dog had a dog.

OTOH? All fictional.

I have referred to my plan of getting a second dog as getting a dog for my dog. No prechewing in my house, though.

It's better than Caligula insisting his horse is a Senator, surely. I don't see the harm.

I've done Atkins, Fay, with pretty good success as long as I stuck to it. South Beach seems like it might be pleasanter to follow.

I've done South beach for a little while.

I liked South Beach, lots of vegetables to eat and I ;probably would have stuck on it more if I had cooked more, but I got lazy and didn't.

Did you find it successful, askye? Because this book I'm reading right now is making a pretty damn compelling argument for cutting carbs and cranking up protein, and even fat. I think I'm going to start officially on Monday - I'd been thinking I'd go with the WeightWatchers plan, which is easy enough - but now I'm thinking Atkins may be the way to go. Although I'm a bit gutted about having to limit which fruit and veg are appropriate...still, I think it's worth a try.

On an entirely different note - anyone here ever done the Atkins diet/South Beach diet/otherwise high protein & low carb kinda diet?

I did.

I dropped a ton of weight.

But more importantly than that, I learned a LOT about how my blood sugar affects my behavior and mood. I became aware of what the things went into me did to me in a way I never had before.

I also discovered that when I'm not eating cheap white carbs I'm not a compulsive eater.

Which is amazing, imho. If there are more than occasional cheap whites in my diet I'll do all the classic compulsive things-- eat when I'm not hungry, eat out of sadness or boredom and (most noteably) eat as long as there is still food. When I am restricting them (particularly sugar) those behaviors GO. A. WAY. The first time I left the last slice of pizza to be thrown away I nearly teared up -- traditionally I'd have eaten that if I POSSIBLY could have.

And I learned how to occasionally indulge. If I have refined sugar it isn't by its self or at the end of the meal. If I have pasta I have to have as much or more protien too. It keeps my blood sugar from giving that little bounce that, once I learned to feel it, was distinctly uncomfortable.

The first three days, btw, are the hardest and gave me a headache. I now cut out sugar for a few days and THEN cut the other refined carbs and it makes the transition easier.

So, that's me. And I can't speak for anyone else -- but I would suggest doing the first two stages of Atkins (induction for two weeks and then the less restrictive form) for a month or six weeks if only to potentially learn a lot about what the food you eat does to you.