No/low carb diets have had such a bad press. Mainly with people just using them as an excuse to pig out on bacon, eggs, steak etc etc.
For some of us low carb works. For some of us it makes us eat healthier. I am firmly of the belief that we are all different. Low fat might work for some. 3 meals a day and being disciplined the rest of time for others. Slimming world for others. But low carb works for lots of us.
The only issue I would have with how pinkbasket is going about it is that she appears to be doing it without actually reading up on it other than Custy's blog. And much as I am sure that Custy's blog and advice is great I think she really needs to read a specific low carb book and stick to that one plan.
I did Atkins a few years ago. Lost weight. I ate much healthier than I had been eating. I would have eggs for breakfast or smoked salmon and cream cheese or an omlette. Lunch would be protein and salad. Dinner would be protein and more veg. Snacks were protein. Sliced ham or turkey or cheese. What ever was in the fridge. I often made up a tuna salad with lots of peppers, red onion and cucumber chopped up.
On the other hand before Atkins my breakfast might be white bread toasted with lots of butter. Lunch would be a cheese sandwich. Dinner would be heavy on carbs too and light on veg. I rarely ate fruit. Lots of crisps and biscuits and chocolate though.
When I did Atkins I didn't limit my veg intake. I still lost weight. I didn't bother with the whole ketosis thing. I knew by the taste in my mouth that I was probably in ketosis and by the fact that I was losing weight.
People forget that with Atkins the first 2 weeks are toughest. That is when you are supposed to limit carbs to 20g a day. Most people want to lose weight quickly and stay at this but you don't have to. You can increase your carbs a little. Say 25 g a day. If you are still losing you can increase a little more. 30g a day. Still losing? Great. Caryy on. Stopped losing? Drop back a bit. Find the pace of loss that you are happy with and keep going till you get to your goal. Then you start increasing your carbs again to find your set point. This is the level of carbs a day at which you MAINTAIN. You don't gain and you don't lose. And the carbs you re-introduce should be GOOD carbs. Wholegrains. Fruit. More veg. Brown rice and pasta. All the healthy stuff that we all know we should be eating. Not carbs that are highly processed and full of sugar.
Pinkbasket - A few tips if that's ok?
The basic premise of Atkins is that protein fills you up. As does fat. Fat being cream, butter etc. They also make food taste good. Avoid anything 'diet' or low calorie or low fat. The fat will have been replaced with sugar. So you can have a Ceasar Salad with chicken or prawns. No croutons. Have egg mayonaise with full fat mayonaise. Read labels - avoid things with sugar. Custy is right - this is a no sugar plan.
With regard to drinks - I always had tea in the morning as I can't survive without it. I also had milk with it but just a dash. Coffee is great as you can have it with cream. If you must use sweetener use Splenda. Drink loads of water. I used to struggle with this but found I liked it with lots of ice cubes. Also water from a Brita Filter is nicer than plain tap water. You can have diet drinks but not too many.
Take a good vitamin supplement. If you get constipated take magnesium.
Good luck.