After college, I got a good job and met and married my first wife. I no longer had papers and exams to keep me from exercising and eating right, but I had a career, a wife and a house. How could I find time for anything else? Making matters worse was the fact that I had married a good cook. Together, she and I consumed loads of pasta, cookies and pies. By the time we divorced, I was well over 300 pounds and had started having knee problems. I told myself the aches and pains were from playing baseball as a kid, but deep down I knew they were the result of my weight.

Single again, I also knew that my obesity would be an issue with dating. I had a great personality and a good job, but I suspected that all most women would see was my size. I kept making excuses, telling myself that some people were just naturally bigger. I cursed the small seats on the rides at amusement parks and stopped going altogether when I could no longer fit.

I’d given up amusement parks, but there were still plenty of other things I did for fun. One summer night, my friends and I had tickets to see one of my favorite bands of all time—the Eagles. I was excited about the show for months, and I spent the whole day listening to their music. The stadium was packed, and my spirits weren’t even dampened by the fact that we had nosebleed seats. Then I tried to sit down. I couldn’t fit in the seat, and it was impossible to get comfortable. The band was fantastic, but I didn’t enjoy a single second of the concert. The seeds of discontent were planted.

I met my second wife online soon thereafter. She was heavy, too, so my weight wasn’t an issue for her, but I made sure to plan dates that didn’t involve concerts and shows where we’d have trouble sitting down. I justified my avoidance of these activities by telling myself that lots of people thought that public seating was too tiny.

On June 17, 2003, I had my first physical in four years. I hadn’t been on the scale in more than a year, but I guessed I was up to about 380 pounds. When I stepped on the scale at the doctor’s office, I managed to exceed its maximum of 400 pounds. If I’d weighed in at 398 pounds that day, it may not have been as much of a shock. But I didn’t, and I knew that I had to talk about weight-loss programs with the doctor.

I suspected the doctor was going to tell me to lose weight, so I’d spent the previous week researching. Quite honestly, I’d always been an Atkins detractor, telling anyone who asked how stupid they were for thinking about it. But as I started looking at what was out there, it seemed a better and better idea. I mentioned it to the doctor and expected him to blast me, but he didn’t. “Give it a shot,” he said encouragingly. I left his office and headed straight to the bookstore. That day, I read Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution cover to cover.

I knew from reading what to expect during Induction—lack of energy, headaches. Luckily for me, I had only two days of that, and then it was like someone had flipped a switch. I started feeling noticeably better within the first week. I wish I had charted things from the beginning, but I was so scared that it would ultimately be just a record of my failure that I didn’t bother. By the time I weighed myself a few weeks into it, I had lost around 15 pounds. I was doing it, and I wasn’t hungry. I was eating my bunless cheeseburgers and chicken, and I was even managing to slip in some of the vegetables I’d always hated.

Seeing my success, my wife joined me in my new lifestyle, and we rid the house of white bread, potatoes and sugary sweets. (My wife was soon able to go off of her diabetes medication.) The fact that she was making changes, too, was an enormous help, and being on it as a twosome kept us motivated. We found low-carb cookbooks and hunted down the ingredients needed to make delicious dishes. We worried about the holidays but got through them without feeling deprived by bringing our own low-carb stuffing, low-carb pumpkin cheesecake and cauliflower "mashed potatoes."

In February, I joined a gym and have since become an exercise lover (some weeks, I go every single day). Only a couple months after I joined, a man I recognized as a regular came over to me. “You’re doing a great job,” he said. “I’ve been noticing how much weight you’ve taken off, and it’s inspiring. Keep it up.” When the other regulars there began noticing my weight loss and encouraging me to keep up the good work, too, it was a huge confidence booster and was motivating during plateaus.

1. Read the books! When others ask me how I’ve made the program work for me, this is the main piece of advice I give. Even if some of the descriptions of the physiology and metabolism are confusing, make yourself read them. Make notes or mark pages if you find something you don’t understand so you can review it or research it elsewhere later.

2. Find your motivation for making your health a priority. Different people require different motivations. Do you have a medical condition such as high blood pressure or diabetes that is changing your life? Do you want to be better at your favorite hobby/sport? Are you tired of paying extra money for plus-size clothes? Whatever reason you choose, focus on it. When you start thinking about going back to your previous eating habits, remember why you decided to start eating low carb in the first place. Obviously, major things, like improving your health or quality of life, are most important, but don’t discount the effect of other motivating factors.

3. Visit your doctor to get a good baseline health screening before you start. You’ll be glad later on to know what your numbers were when you started. Thankfully, many medical professionals have now opened their minds to the advantages of a low-carb lifestyle. However, if your doctor has not, don’t let this discourage you. If he doesn’t think you should switch to a low-carb way of life, ask him specific questions regarding the recommendations. Don’t accept generic, broad answers. Make him provide a detailed explanation of the advice. And if you’ve read the book, you should have at least a beginning understanding of whether the advice is sound or not.

4. Clean out your refrigerator/pantry when you start. If those high-carb items aren’t sitting in your cupboard tempting you, you’ll have a much better chance of avoiding a slip.

5. If you do “cheat,” don’t beat yourself up over it. Move on at the very next meal.