back home & sick

The wedding went well and I'll have to update when I can. My sister was kind enough to share her cold with me, so I'm down for the count and home from work which is actually kind of nice because I have time to get things done. There were parties every night and it was just exhausting - too many parties, too much to drink (although almost always within my limits), and too little sleep. Thursday was the rehearsal and dinner, Friday was April's bachelorette party, Saturday was the out-of-towners' party, and Sunday was the wedding (the only night I drank too much).

The wedding was outside and dry, but it started raining shortly after the wedding was over, and didn't let up. What good timing!

I have no pictures, but there were two pro photographers there, so hopefully I can see some of those pictures. I'm wearing a wig, so you won't be able to pick me out by my blue hair. ;) However, as the Maid of Honor I got to wear a peachy pink dress instead of the lime green the rest of the bridesmaids had to wear.

(Speaking of which, now that I have my home computer back as of yesterday [yay!] I am working on getting my Conference pictures up. They are being worked on. Hopefully being sick will give me time to make a good dent in all the work.)

Sorry there were no updates while I was gone. April kept us crazy busy and there was no computer at her house (I guess it had already been moved to her new house).

I'm eating bad today. I just can't eat semi-bad over a vacation and come home and NOT binge. Back on the wagon tomorrow for sure. The carbs and heat together are making me REALLY thirsty.

Which Peanuts Character are You?

You are Rerun!

Which Peanuts Character are You?
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Happy Birthday, April!

Just a quick Happy Birthday to my sister April, who turns 33 today! Happy birthday, sis!

All this and getting married this coming Sunday, too! :)

Another official statement from Atkins Nutitionals

You're probably all getting tired of all the Atkins stuff I've been posting lately. I have to blog about it; this is the lifestyle I've chosen so keeping up on news about it is important to me.

(I)f you've seen the recent news about ANI you know that we recently filed for Chapter 11 protection. But what you may not know is that this is a positive step for the company. This financial restructuring is pre-arranged with our financial partners and allows us to get relief on a significant portion of our debt. We expect to emerge from Chapter 11 by year's end. In the meantime, we have plenty of exciting work to do.

Full story here.

Leaving Thursday

I'm leaving Thursday morning for my sister's wedding. I return next Monday. I'll see about posting anything important here on her computer. We'll see if I can get her to let me use it.

Bought a wig today since she said she doesn't want her Maid of Honor to have blue hair. She wants the attention on herself that day, and I totally understand that. Hopefully the wig will meet with her approval and look natural enough. It's sort of a light brown color with blonde highlights, or maybe a blonde color with light brown highlights. It's lighter than my real color, but as long as it can pass for natural I'm cool. I've never owned a wig before.

I used all but 4 hours of my comp time on my last vacation. This coming 5 days will eat what little remains of my vacation time. But my anniversary date is coming up soon so I will get more vacation time.

Weightwise these vacations are wreaking havok with my weight loss. A one week vacation where I maintain means that I see NO loss at the end of the month after that time of the month (the only time I ever see a loss). I've gone from hovering just above 150 in June to hovering just below 150 in August. July was the only month with no vacation - and the only month I lost.

Over 1000!

We're at over 1,000 hits now! Wowser! Thank you all.

Carb Supporters Rejoice as Atkins Goes Belly Up

This made me sick and it so sad that people rejoice at the misfortune of others. (See my "Darkness" post for my experience with this.)

Pasta makers and potato farmers are happy to see the weight-loss firm's bankruptcy filing.

Full story here.

And here's my response to the article:

Overall the decline in popularity a good thing because now those of us who are serious can be left to eat as we will without all the hype from people who are looking for a quick fix fad diet.

As long as I can buy a few important products I'm fine. I am dependant on low carb bread, fried pork rinds (my substitute for potato chips), sugar free BBQ sauce, diet cola, green tea, and frozen veggies.

When the diet was at its peak, fast-food chain Carl's Jr. pushed its lettuce-wrapped Low Carb Six Dollar Burger...

They still have it. I ate one just a few weeks ago. It's one of the few good low carb fast foods out there. It's good in a pinch, and I hope they keep it around. I don't eat it often, but it's nice to know it's there.

...Atkins Nutritionals peddles chocolate shakes and energy bars on its website.

Peddles? What happened to objectivity? The very wording of this sentence is anti-Atkins.

Dieters who stuck to the regimen said they lost weight rapidly even as nutritionists warned about the negative long-term effects of eating high-fat foods.

What long term effects are those? My bad cholesterol going down and my good cholesterol going up? My lower than low heart attack risk? Oh wait! It must be my regularlity from all the fiber I eat! Hmmm, I'm still not seeing the downside...

"South Beach is more vegetables and carbs, instead of beef, beef, beef," said June Parr of Santa Barbara, who said she tried the Atkins diet several times...

This woman shows a complete lack of knowledge of what Atkins is all about. South Beach is NOT more vegetables. When done properly, Atkins includes tons of veggies - 4 cups a day is the minimum for the first two weeks. From week three and on you should add in even more.

In court papers, the company indicated that it was a victim of fierce competition from large food companies such as Unilever, Kraft Foods Inc. and General Mills Inc., which in the last few years rolled out their own lines of low-carb food.

This is true. I had no idea how HUGE Unilever is. They make tons of name brand products we buy every day (such as Lowry's BBQ sauce and Skippy peanut butter). They make the "Carb Options" line which I still use a lot. When I ordered a case of pasta sauce from them online and one bottle broke, they sent me a check for the amount of the bottle plus a book of coupons for a bunch of their products. (www.carboptions.com)

I'm sticking with low carb. I've lost 58 pounds so far, and my cholesterol is the best it's ever been. A heart attack risk of 3.4 or less is considered "low risk" (the best catagory that exists), and mine is 2.2. You can't get much lower than that.

---

For the truth on Atkins and low carb, please visit my Atkins forum here.

Could Atkins bounce back from bankruptcy?

8/1/2005 - Business is looking bleak for Atkins Nutritionals. As the once-celebrated pioneer of a diet regime that took the world by storm files for bankruptcy protection, Jess Halliday asks: What went wrong?

Full story here.

Which theologian are you?

You scored as Jonathan Edwards. You're the original hellfire-and brimstone preacher and you take God's justice very seriously. You are passionate about preaching and an accomplished theologian. Jonathan Edwards 73% Karl Barth 67% Anselm 67% John Calvin 67% Martin Luther 60% J.Moltmann 53% Charles Finney 40% Augustine 33% Paul Tillich 27% Friedrich Schleiermacher 27% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

STILL computerless

So the computer guy comes over with my computer today. As he sets it down I notice that the disk drive is pushed in. He gets out his Swiss Army knife and pries it out, then tests it to make sure it slides in and out like it should. He hooks the computer all up. I ask him if he got me my chooser option back so I can print from OS 9 and he says no but that he can do that right then. He gets his pack from his car and inserts the disk. He presses the key combinations to get it to read the disk and...nothing. The computer refuses to read the freaking disk! He tries another disk; same thing. He says he needs to take it back to the shop and open it up to find out why it's not reading disks.

I'm so not amused, and he better not charge me extra because the thing read disks just fine when I gave it to him. He broke it and he should fix it for free.

So now I have no ETA on getting the computer back, never mind getting my pictures uploaded to it. :-p

The darkness in my heart

Talked to Veronica yesterday and she mentioned that some sort of implosion happened at EW and they took the forum down. I popped over there today and confirmed that the forum is indeed down right now. They are putting a good face on it, of course, about the mods seeking God on something, but really, it's the same spin they put on things when they kicked me out.

Ok, all fine and dandy...but what does this have to do with me? Well, nothing really. It was just my reaction to the news that horrified me. I should feel sad for them. I should mourn that they can't do ministry right now. But I'm not. I'm almost happy over it, as if they are getting their just desserts for what they did to me, and got me to do to Brian. That's not the way of the cross. That's not the forgiveness that God calls me to give to them. Even if they never know it and it's just in my heart, I must extend that forgiveness to free myself.

I'm sure they will read this and take it as confirmation of how spiritually immature I am, and how mature they are. Perhaps I am. I leave those decisions up to God now. Every time I tried to ask God about the people at EW and what He planned to do, He always guided me back to myself by refusing to answer. Therefore, I take it from Him that we are each to focus on ourselves and leave others to Him.

And that's another thing. I kept asking Him about these people. Over and over. I was frustrated and hurting. Asking what He was going to do was as natural as asking "Why?" when something horrible happens - it's a natural question that you don't even realize you're asking until the words escape your lips. Each time He gave me the same answer, like a freaking broken record, and He quoted Scripture to me, Jesus' words to Peter asking about John (John 21:22) - "What is that to you? Follow thou Me." Eventually I realized that He wasn't going to answer me and I stopped asking. One of these days I'll get this stuff through my thick skull. Thankfully, God is very patient. He never got angry at me for asking; He just repeated the same answer over and over again until I "got it."

At any rate, I came face to face with the darkness in my own soul today so I now see I have something to work on. I think I need to post about this privately at CH Refugee and see what everyone there says about how to overcome this (very wrong) reaction.

Friday Conference Crier

I did want to mention one thing that I didn't have time to before. I got a passing mention - sort of - in the Friday edition of the Conference Crier. Second column, in the "Add to that" paragraph, it reads, "I also saw people with blue hair, a guy playing a flute (nice!), and more new faces than I could remember." I was the blue-haired person. My friend John Rasmussen (sp?) was the guy playing the flute, no doubt. :)

http://www.seventhdaybaptist.org/images/7DB/PDF/Friday%20Crier.pdf

I have pictures (I promise!), but the computer is still in the shop, and once I get it back, getting the pictures up onto a new page will take a while. It's all simple enough; it's just extremely time consuming. So I'm not giving an ETA on when I'll get them posted. I was sure to get some full body pics of me in my nice dress. Hopefully I can put a new pic of me up here.

Rest in peace, John...

It's not really a prayer request. John was my forum Editor at Sabbath Keepers. He died a week ago Sunday. I was at Conference when I heard the announcement.

Ken M. started a thread on my forum. If he hadn't, I would have posted about it today.

http://forums.delphiforums.com/7thDayBaptist/messages/?msg=2754.1

He was in very ill health and is home now, but the rest of us feel the loss. At least as Christians we have hope of seeing him again.

He was a former pastor and did a lot of work for SDBs on the Net. The e-mail that was forwarded to me from his wife said that since the Sabbath Recorder came online, he felt there were enough other people to carry on the work of SDBs online. Perhaps he felt like he could finally let go.

We miss you, John. Make sure to keep places set for all of us at the table. I never met you, but I felt I knew you. We will meet someday. You did a lot of good work. Now take a long Sabbath rest in Him.

[sniffle]

Conference Journal, Day 8

Conference Journal entry for Sunday, August 14.

Flew home today. Arrived at the airport early and managed to be waitlisted on both the flights to Chicago and Dallas. I made both! Thank You, God. No more worrying about making the Dallas flight and getting home tonight.

So today was a blur of flights and airports. Grand Rapids, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco. I'm exhausted. Too many days running on a lack of sleep and last night was no exception.

And there was no need for worry in Dallas - the gate I needed was right next to the gate I landed at. And then the flight was delayed two hours anyway! :-p

I arrived in San Francisco two hours late and Brad met me at the airport. I was so glad to get home to my babies and collapse into bed. I had gotten up at 7 a.m. Eastern and to bed at 1:30 a.m. Pacific - 4:30 a.m. Eastern. I was so tired I slept until nearly 1 p.m. Monday afternoon.

So what did I learn at Conference? When the new president took over last night he gave a speech and talked about giving up secret sins - whether needing to know the future from a psychic or drinking or fighting over trivial things or ignoring the poor. I do have one thing God spoke to me about. I'm not sure how to handle it from here, but I must handle it.

Conference Journal, Day 7

Conference journal for Sabbath, August 13.

After breakfast we had Sabbath School, then worship. Because there was no communion at the service last night, I figured it would be this morning. But nope, no communion at all at Conference this year. They ALWAYS do it, so I wasn't the only one surprised. It could have been done and it was just sad that it wasn't.

The sermon was one of the lamest in a long time. Something to do with Caleb being strong, steady, and enthusiastic for the Lord. But with too much straight Scripture and very little commentary. Don't just say, "This passage shows that Caleb was strong for the Lord," and then read the Bible to me. Tell me why I should care. Tell me how it applies to ME.

Cindy was really upset about Paul Manuel being made a "Baptist Cardinal" yesterday. It was supposed to be a joke, lighthearted, and that seems to be how most people took it. (I know I did.) The vestment they gave him was a red Cardinals BASEBALL cap. It was nothing more than a humerous way of honoring him for all the work he's done.

But Cindy insisted that Baptists have suffered too much at the hand of Catholic in the past to laugh at it. But I think the key phrase is "in the past." It's long since over and ancient history. Let's move on.

I let the week catch up with me this afternoon and crashed out after lunch - a true Sabbath rest. I felt better afterwards. I missed all the afternoon programs.

After dinner I did some packing and then went to the new president's installation and he announced his theme for the next year - "Making Christ's Mission Our Mission." The Scripture is Luke 4:18 (quoting Isaiah), and the theme song is "The Power of Your Love," a worship chorus.

I will have no computer access for the next few days. My new hard drive won't arrive until Monday so I won't have my computer back until at least Tuesday. I also go back to work Tuesday. So I should be able to check back in starting Tuesday at least. I'll have one or two more jounal entries then about my adventures home. For now, just please pray I don't miss my flight and get stuck in Dallas. I have a VERY tight connection there (30 minutes).

See you all next week! I hope your Sabbath was blessed and restful.

Conference Journal, Day 6

Conference journal for Friday, August 12.

Paul's Bible study today was on service. It was the last and best. He talked about personal preferences, general principles, and Biblical precepts. Personal preference are things like disliking peas. The Bible says nothing on the topic. General principles are things like drinking wine - the Bible addresses it in an oblique manner. And Biblical precepts are things the Bible clearly addresses, such as worshipping idols.

After the Bible study was business. With no hot issues this year, it was quickly disposed of. Then free time for the rest of the day until evening worship. I went to the gym, walked a mile on the track, did the excercise bike for about 30 minutes, then walked another half mile. Then I took a shower and relaxed until dinner.

Worship was okay, but I was tired beyond belief. I went straight back to my room, had a peanut butter sandwich, and went to bed. But as usual I had a hard time sleeping and Jeanne's snoring only made it worse.

Sorry for the numerous misspellings in these posts. I'm on a borrowed laptop with limited time. I'll work on correcting these when I get home.

Conference Journal, Day 5

Conference journal for Thursday, August 11.

After Paul Manuel's Romans Bible study this morning on sovereignty, I gave the report for the Christian Education interest committee. I did okay, but I heard some laughing when I got to the part about thanking Andrew for all his work in the areas he is gifted in as well as the areas he is not naturally gifted in. What people don't realize is the context it was written in - Andrew talked to us about his growth in areas he has no giftings, and that he is getting better at those things. It wasn't a slam. It was to encourage.

Today's afternoon seminar was another four hour one, this one on "Cults and World Religions." The speaker had to be quick, but he covered Hinduism and Buddhism (same chapter), Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormons. Just too much information in too short a time. Otherwise, very excellent. The speaker knew his material VERY well. It was also presented by Probe Ministries, the same organization that did the Tuesday seminar on "Reasons to Believe."

Dave Johnson arrived this evening. Haven't seen him since last year at Conference. It was cool to run into him. :-)

Worship tonight was different. Instead of having a sermon, they had a dramatic presentation. Rev. Roy Gearheart played the apostle John, in the present day. Since John was one of the "Sons of Thunder," Rev. Gearheart thought that a modern day John might be Irish (!).

Received word tonight that Sabbath morning worship will be in the chapel. I assume that means that worship tomorrow night will still be in the ballroom, and that communion will be Sabbath morning. (Some years it's Friday night and some years it's Sabbath morning.)

Conference Journal, Day 4

Conference journal for Wedenesday, August 10th.

After Pastor Paul's Romans Bible study on sanctification, Jane and I met to work on the interest committee report. We made a dent, but there is still so much work ahead.

The Pre-Con teen presentation followed this and lasted about 45 minutes, at which time it was lunchtime. After lunch, we had our final committee meeting, after which Jane and I finished typing up the report. She wrote out how to present it to help me; I am due to present it tomorrow, though I don't know exactly when.

After all that I got in only my second workout all week and did two miles around the gym track.

The speaker at worship tonight was Pastor Rod Henry, the one who touched me so deeply when he spoke a year ago and gave the altar call where I went forward. I began to forgive that night, though that is certainly still an ongoing process. That Conference began to lift the black cloud that hung over my head - 2004 was a very tough year.

I'm really tired tonight and hope to go to bed early.

Conference Journal, Day 3

Conference journal for Tuesday, August 9th.

Paul's Bible study this morning was on salvation. It's still hard to take notes fast enough and there is so much information.

We hammered out some proposals in the Christian Education interest group. We have one "urging" and one "suggestion" so far.

This afternoon was Probe Ministries "Reasons to Believe" seminar. No excercise today since the seminar was four hours long (thankfully with three short breaks).

At worship tonight they again played "Blessed Be Your Name." I think that song will always be special to me now. It revolutionized my view last year when I was still down about EW.

I finished "Under the Banner of Heaven" last night. Good book. I definetly recommend it. Now I am reading the intro. material in "Journey Into Narnia" before using it as a guide when I reread "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." I'll update the "Books I'm Reading" list here when I get back.

Conference Journal, Day 2

This is my journal for Monday, August 8.

The day started with breakfast. Then there was Dr. Paul Manuel's Bible study. This was in the "ballroom" and thankfully air conditioned. Usually these things are held in the chapel, but not this year.

The Bible studies this week are on the book of Romans, Dr. Paul is taking a five month study he did with his church and turning it into a five day study for all of us.

After that was uninteresting business so I went looking for the track. I finally found the phys. ed. center and found the track inside, on the second floor, locked. I discovered it doesn't open until 11 a.m. each day. There goes my idea for morning excercise.

Just before we broke for committee meetings they had a couple last announcements. First, that due to the warm weather, worship would be in the ballroom rather than the chapel. Second, John Conrod died yesterday evening. I never met him, but he helped me moderate my Sabbath Keepers' forum. He had MS so it's good for him, but sad for me.

Then we broke for committee meetings. I'm in the Christian Education committee this year because Jane drafted me to be her secretary (she is leading it). We only had a half hour to get started before lunch.

After lunch, Andrew made the annual presentation for the Board of Christian Education. I thought I should attend since it is my interest committee this year.

Then back to our committees. These let out at 4 which gave me a chance to go to the phys. ed. building. I did 10 laps for a total of one mile, then quickly changed for dinner and evening worship in the air conditioned ballroom. Coffee and cake during the following fellowship time capped off the day.

These is so much walking every day. Every meeting or event is in a different place and there is so much back and forth. Never mind extra excercise; just the normal walking you do in the course of the day will keep the pounds off.

I'm in Michigan! (Conference Journal, Day 1)

Posting by e-mail this week, from my written journal entries.

Sunday night, August 7

Getting here was an adventure. Three flights and I didn't sleep at all on the longest leg from San Diego to Chicago, arriving at 4:30 a.m. I ate the sandwich I'd brought from home and tried to sleep. At 7 a.m. I had coffee to keep me awake on the final short flight and until I could get my room at the Conference site.

I checked in, ate the salad I'd bought in Chicago, and tried to sleep to be able to make it through evening worship. I woke up just in time for dinner, and after dinner I grabbed my Bible and notebook and headed to the opening session.

Then the youth led the worship that night, the whole reason I came to Conference opening day. I was in the bathroom when they started - one of my favorite songs - but I ran upstairs as soon as I could. Their closing song was the one that touched me so deeply last year - "Blessed Be Your Name," a song about praising God whether life is good or bad.

It was so hot. The chapel is not air conditioned; neither is my dorm room, which I happen to be sharing with Jeanne, one of only two women pastors in our denomination. (How I feel about women pastors is a subject for another time.) [Edit: There are actually four woman pastors in the denomination.]

I'm on the second floor of the building that houses the cafeteria, so that cuts down on some of the massive walking Conference reqiures.

That's Monday. Tuesday will follow when I have time.

Atkins Nutritionals files for chapter 11, take 4

From a message board on the Atkins' site, by Colette Heimowitz.

Hi everyone. I know you may have heard that Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. recently commenced a pre-arranged Chapter 11 proceedings. This means that we have already agreed to the terms of our restructuring plan with our lenders which will allow us to emerge from Chapter quickly. I want to address other questions you may have personally.

First, please understand that this was a positive move for the company. It will allow us to be stronger, faster and more flexible going forward by significantly reducing the companies long term debt. The Atkins brand is strong and is here to stay. As you know, we have been focusing all of our attention on improving the quality, freshness and taste of our nutrition bars and shakes under the Advantage, Morning Start and Endulge brands. Our products have ubiquitous distribution and can be found in over 30,000 retailers nationwide; including all major supermarkets, club, drug, mass-merchandiser, nutrition, convenience stores.

We have accomplished a large part of our vision. Today carbohydrate awareness has gone mainstream. In fact, 44% of US Adults consider reducing carbohydrates as an important aspect of a healthy nutritional approach. We believe we can continue to assert our mission by educating health & nutrition conscious consumers on the importance of eating adequate protein and fiber, while reducing the consumption of processed sugar and transfats.

We hope to continue to earn your support and trust as we evolve our messaging from "controlling carbohydrates" to speaking about more of the benefits our products offer to help improve your nutritional intake and overall health. We are proud that our products taste great, are made from nutritionally superior ingredients, fit with almost every nutrition philosophy and want to tell people about it!

This fall we will be introducing Atkins Advantage Caramel Bars nationally throughout our network. I can't wait for you to try them. They are delicious and are packed with key nutrients like protein, calcium, and fiber, and of course include no added sugar. They are the first Caramel favored bars on the introduced on the market without sugar alcohols.

There will be more great tasting new products introduced in the months ahead. As you can see Atkins is strong and here to stay.

Public transit woes

The bus system around here, AC Transit, is raising it's prices again on September 6. No old cards will be good past October 15. So that means using up my 10 Ride pass and transfer coupons before they are worthless (or, more likely, selling them). I posted a sign downstairs by the clock saying that I'll sell them for less than I paid for them just to recoup some money.

When I moved here passes were $50, then $60, and now they will be $70 per month! Argh! Stupid Board of Directors! Money means nothing to them unless it's in their wallets. They don't care about us riders. The more they raise the prices, the more people will decide that driving isn't any more expensive. The more people who don't ride, the most service is cut back.

I'm already getting the full $100 in Commuter Checks I'm allowed each month, and have no trouble using every penny. This will just put me $10 further behind each month.

Computer going into shop

The computer is going into the shop tomorrow so I will not be online until I get it back, which will HOPEFULLY be the day after I get back from vacation, though he is closed Monday and it may have to wait until Tuesday. At any rate, the memory is almost all used up, and the printer won't work. I don't have a car so he's going to pick it up at my house tomorrow early afternoon. He's not the cheapest, but he only does Macs and does good work and is willing to come pick the computer up.

Atkins Nutritionals files for chapter 11, take 3

Here's another article on the bankruptcy from Yahoo news:

Atkins files for bankruptcy as low-carb slumps

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The company behind the Atkins Diet, standard bearer for the low-carbohydrate diet craze that put some bakeries and pasta makers out of business in its heyday, has itself filed for bankruptcy as U.S. consumers have tired of the once-sizzling fad.

Full article here.

All I can say is - this works. Even the guys who work at Subway noticed that I have lost a lot of weight and commented on my flat tummy. Screw the critics and those just following a fad.

Atkins woes signal low-carb lust waning

If the clearance stickers on low-carb foods didn't make it clear that Americans had moved on to other diets, a bankruptcy hearing Monday for Atkins Nutritionals provided another sign.

How much have Americans lost their appetite for all things low-carb?

Atlanta Journal-Constitution article

And my comments:
I heard about chapter 11 yesterday and blogged it. I feel bad for their suppliers who now won't get paid. It's the stupid bankers and financiers who've run what Dr. Atkins started into the ground. This wouldn't have happened if he were still alive.

As for low carb, the ones who treat it as a fad have left (and probably regained all their weight, too) and left those of us who think of this as permenant to follow the plan correctly. As for the products, I just hope Unilever (maker of several brand names) leaves their Carb Options line alone. I use their stuff nearly every day - salad dressing, BBQ sauce, steak sauce, peanut butter - things normally full of hidden sugars that are basic parts of meals.

There was one Atkins forum on Delphi that I found out recently closed. I started one last week that I invite people to who are on this lifestlye or want to learn more about it to come over.

The Atkins' Weigh

From the same article above, a Very Bad Idea:

"We succeeded in bringing a carbohydrate awareness to the health-conscious consumer," Heimowitz said Monday. "We hope in the future to appeal to a broad spectrum of health-conscious consumers, rather than just low-carb, by offering nutritionally superior products with higher protein, higher fiber, lower sugar, no trans fats and glycemic-impact tested."

It goes on to mention bars with fruits and grains. Bad idea. Very very bad idea. I am saddened. Atkins is low carb. God forbid they become anything other than what Dr. Atkins envisioned. It will ruin a company that once was perfectly good.

Atkins Nutritionals files for chapter 11, take 2

Official Atkins statement, copied from a message board on the Atkins site:

Atkins Enters Final Phase of Restructuring

The company emphasized that the filing will not impact day-to-day operations. Commences Pre-arranged Chapter 11; receives approval for $25 million debtor-in-possession financing: day-to-day operations continue

New York, NY, August 1, 2005 - Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. (ANI) announced today that it has commenced reorganization proceedings under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, a move that marks the final step in its previously announced effort to reorganize the business. In connection with the filing, the company confirmed it has reached agreement with the overwhelming majority of its lenders on a pre-arranged plan to restructure its debt and, as a result, will be seeking the Bankruptcy Court's approval of its Plan of Reorganization, which will be filed shortly. The lenders will receive the equity of the company in exchange for a substantial reduction of its outstanding debt.

"We are pleased to have reached this milestone with such strong support from our Board of Directors, equity sponsors and lender group," said Mark S. Rodriguez, President and Chief Executive Officer of ANI. "In the past year we have adjusted our organization to accommodate a smaller business and have begun to position the Atkins brand more broadly for consumers who are concerned about health and wellness."

"I will focus its energy on driving profitable growth within its core nutrition bar and shake portfolio," said Rodriguez. Atkins is one of the leaders in the weight control and nutrition category in the United States and Canada with products available to consumers in over 30,000 stores in North America.

"I am confident in our future," concludes Rodriguez. "We expect to proceed quickly and will emerge from these proceedings with a significantly improved balance sheet and greater operating flexibility."

The company emphasized that the filing will not impact day-to-day operations.

Atkins Nutritionals files for chapter 11

Just found out about this!

July 31 - Atkins Diet, Business

UPDATED -- Atkins Nutritionals Inc. has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The filing, which was was made today, comes after the bust of Atkins' popularity. The diet is of course still very popular (as our readers are quick to point out), but the vogue-like aspect that defined low-carb diets for a while in 2003/2004 has faded.

Full story here.