So, I started Atkins this week...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Why? Well, I’m 5’5" and weigh 191 lbs (female). The previous times I’ve wanted to lose weight ended up with me simply not eating at all (I’ve mentioned it in previous threads, it wasn’t fun). I figure I’ll give the two week run a try and see how things are at that point.

I started Tuesday. My first mistake was starting the day before I began my period. :rolleyes: Any quick weight loss is gonna be negated by the damn bloated feeling I get around this time (so I’m wondering if I should wait longer than 2 weeks for my trial run or not).

I don’t have any cravings, per se. I’m not frothing at the mouth for bread or potatoes, although they do sound good. The problem is that there’s hardly anything around that I can eat!

To clarify: I’m a college student, and I’m at school (i.e. away from my/any kitchen) from 11.00 am - 7.30 pm four days a week. Anything from vending machines is loaded with carbs, almost everything in the cafeteria is loaded with carbs. Basically, if I want something low carb, I have to make it myself, and I really don’t have a lot of time for that. Also, as a college student, I have quite limited funds, and I can’t afford to buy ready-made low carb stuff that often.

And call me shallow, but I don’t want to bring just hunks of meat and cheese (yes and veggies too) and have people staring at what I’m eating, especially since I usually eat where my friends and I work (tutoring centre), and I really don’t think they’re all for the Atkins diet.

Although I checked my weight and I’ve lost 2 lbs since Tuesday, and that’s even when I’m on my period, so that was kind of neat. I also do feel a bit more energy than I used to and I feel alert more quickly after I get up than I used to. :slight_smile:

My mom, on the other hand, is a bit frustrated. She’s trying it too, and she’s limiting her carbs to 20 or less (just like Induction says). In the first week (last Friday until today), she lost 4 lbs, and then gained it back. If she’s keeping her carbs in check, does anyone have any suggestions for her? And hey, if anyone has any meal-ish suggestions for me too, that’d be greatly appreciated. :slight_smile:
PS – neither of us have quit caffeine and we’re not planning to. We are drinking a lot of water though.

2

I just started it recently, too. Six and a half pounds, so far - most of it was water, though (which is part of what causes the “rebound” effect, I think).

The first time I tried it, I did badly - I ran into the same problem you did. Lunch. It’s hard to find a quick lunch that isn’t loaded with carbs. But now I’m working at home, and I can make my own lunch, which is good.

Bags of ready-made salads (watch the carb content on the dressing) work well, especially with a chicken breast or something on them. Hard-boiled eggs. Tuna salad. Those come to mind readily.

3

I started on Atkins last summer. Fell off it during Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I got back on in January. It really does work. If you don’t have Dr. Atkins’ book, I recommend either buying it or borrowing it from the public library.

The first two weeks of Induction are the hardest. But what will really motivate you to stick with it are the results you’ll see. Don’t worry about the scale. Go by how your clothes fit on you, or how loose your ring (if you wear one) fits around your finger.

I used to try to lose weight by doing the low-fat diet, but it didn’t work because I was eating way too many carbs, so my body wasn’t burning fat even though I exercised daily. Instead it was burning glucose. Atkins works for me!

I have several friends who also have successfully lost weight with Atkins. They plan to continue it as a way of life.

4

My daughter wanted to give it a shot, so we’ve been doing Atkins for about two months now. I’ve lost 18 lbs. She has not lost as much, but she didn’t need to lose. She reached her 13 lb goal two weeks ago and has already gone to 50 carbs a day.

I could stand to lose so I’m trying to keep mine a bit lower.

It’s pretty easy to stick to for us. I just wish we could get more Splenda products here. I’ve totally gone off sugar and white flour and I’ve never felt better. I was having palpitations about an hour after meals before I started. Haven’t had one since. Oh, and my old rings fit! :slight_smile:

It will be hard if it bothers you to tote around meat and cheese and boiled eggs. I did that with celery, cherry tomatoes, and one or two strawberries. Plus my water jug. I also had containers with tuna, cauliflower salad, broccoli and dressing, and now I have a handfull of nuts or black bean dip and apples. And pears.
Atkins has a site with recipes, but there are lots of low carb recipe sites. My favorite take-along has been pork rind-cinnamon crisps. My favorite home cooking is mashed cauliflower. Do it right and it’s just like potatoes. I haven’t spent a dime on any Atkins food products or even the book.

I think it’ll get easier for you once you can start switching up on the foods. After a while it doesn’t seem like such an odd way of eating from what I’ve read. Lots of fiber, fresh fruits and veggies. And you don’t have to always eat high fat foods. I don’t care for red meat, so I do a lot of chicken, turkey and fish. I know there is a huge amount of controversy over Atkins, but hey, I’m a controversial girl. I did phen/fen and lived to tell about it. :smiley:

5

I did Atkins for about a year, starting with induction and adding some carbs back, lost a lot of weigh, felt great, and even noticed that my vision improved. Kept the weight off for about 3 years, then started this PhD thing, with a 200 mile commute to classes, and went on the McD #4 supersized diet. I ended up gaining most of the weight that I had lost, and had some problems with energy swings, which made it hard to keep up with all the driving I had to do. So, I’m back to the Atkins diet, been doing the induction for about 3 weeks now. So far, I’m back to having great energy levels, have lost about 8 lbs, and feel much better.
Rushgeekgirl, would you plese post more info about the mashed cauliflowers, that would be a godsend, since mashed potatoes are one of the things that I really miss!!

6

My mom and two of my aunts are on the Atkins diet and things are going great for them.

Rushgeekgirl, if you’re having trouble finding Splenda, try Stevia. It’s a liquid sugar-substitute that you can find at most health-food stores.

7

I’ve lost 16 lbs since the 1st of the year on Atkin’s. It’ll probably be 18 by the middle of next week (bloating now).

Foods:

Like others have suggested, make up ready made salads. Add tuna or chicken to them. Or tuna, chicken or hard boiled egg salad.

Eat a big breakfast of bacon and eggs (make it an omelet with cheese, veggies, whatever tickles your fancy) before you leave for the morning.

Bacon cheeseburger salad: it’s just a salad with hamburger meat, bacon and cheddar cheese. You can make taco salad the same way, just go easy on the taco seasoning as it has carbs.

When you can start adding carbs back in, corn tortillas have about 8 carbs each (check pkg since these differ).

There are some sugar free and high fiber breads from Mrs. Baird’s and others. They’re expensive, about $2 for a small loaf, but they have net carbs of 6-8 per slice (as opposed to 13+ for other breads). Adding a half a sandwich a day helps with the food boredom.

Get a lunchbox (check in the coolers section for six-pack coolers) and bring your lunch in Gladware containers. If you eat a big breakfast at home, you probably won’t be as hungry for lunch or dinner and can fit it all easily in there.

Russell Stover makes some great sugar free candies that have net carbs of 0-2 (some are higher, though, so you have to avoid those). The chocolate caramels are simply divine. Don’t eat too many, though, as the Splenda can cause you to have diarrhea.

Overall, I love this diet. That sleepy feeling from being overstuffed in carbs has completely disappeared. I usually have plenty of energy (assuming I got plenty of sleep the night before. It’s not a miracle after all :)) I’ve lost 16 lbs (29 to go) and my clothes fit better. I don’t actually crave breads, crackers, chips and pastas (though I would like them).

8

There are several recipes that use turnips or a mix of turnips and cauliflower. I dont have an exact recipe, but here’s what I do:

I take a big bag, 16 oz I’m guessing, of cauliflower and boil it until it’s nice and mushy in a little water and chicken buillion, then I mash it and beat it until its looking quite…mashed.
Then I add things…different depending on my mood. I’ve adding a half block of cream cheese (that is the best help with consistency) and cream or sour cream, salt, butter, pepper, whatever I’d add to real potatoes. But what makes it extra good is that I put it in a pie tin and bake it for about thirty minutes. It’s almost like twice baked. You could add a pinch of onions or bacon…anything you want.

Now I discovered a new thing today…cheese skins. A subbie for potato skins. You just put a handful of cheddar in a skillet, let it get lacy and crispy, then toss on bacon bits and sour cream. If you let them crisp up enough it tastes very much like a potato skin.
I have no idea how to do a link, but I get good recipes from low-carb-friends.com. AND THEY HAVE A MESSAGE BOARD! Whoo hoo! Something to read when SDMB is down! :smiley:

9

We have both products at the local Kroger store. I want the goodies made with Splenda! On the abovementioned board, people mention all kinds of snacks and syrups and sauces you can buy in Canada.
I’ve heard a mix of stevia and Splenda is just perfect, but stevia is twenty bucks here and I am spending enough on chicken breasts and Ozarka water!

10

To everyone in the thread who’s dieting (whether it’s the Atkins or what have you), good for you and good luck! I’ve been on my own diet since the start of the year. It’s not Atkins, but switching off of caffeine, eating healthier, and exercising more has helped me drop a pants size since the start of the year. Starting next week, I will realize the part of my exercise routine that I’ve failed to keep so far: taking advantage of the lovely walking/jogging trail locally conveniently nearby (and, damn it, body, whether you like it or not, we are going to get up and get out there!).

I’ve heard a lot about the Atkins Diet, but I obviously don’t know the whole story. I was under the impression that all carbohydrates to forbidden under Atkins until I came into this thread. Most of what I know about it comes from the six people in my office that are on it (only one other guy and myself aren’t on it). Yesterday at lunch, a couple of them told me I ought to try Atkins out for a while.

I’ve considered it, but I’m not sure how long I’d last on it. For one thing, like you, zweisamkeit, I’m a college student with limited funds. Ready-made stuff is out of the question, but I do have the time to make stuff from scratch. However, I do the cooking for both my roommate and myself. I’d either be tempted by his stash of carbohydrate goodies or force him to come along with me for the ride. The other reason I doubt my potential success with it is that I love bread. Every meal I make has some sort of bread or grain. I snack on slices of wheat bread.

I guess I’ll try to find some more information on this. Next week would the perfect time to start it since it’s my Spring Break and I’m in desperate need of going to the grocery store. In the meantime, I just want to reiterate my positive vibes on this to all of you.

11

Anyone wanna ship me Stevia or Spendla? Can’t get them here.

I started the Atkins diet in January and can’t rave enough about it. Never hungry, never tired, and I don’t crave sugar anymore, which for me was a HUGE problem. (I have been known to eat a kilo of gummy bears in a few days)

I don’t seem to have the same scale of problems that people here are quoting. I just stopped eating pasta, rice, bread, potatoes, fruit and candy. I eat HUGE salads, lots of tuna fish, chicken and steak. I drink multi-vitamin fizzy drinks (its a Euro thang…vitamin Alka-Seltzers) and lots of water. I’m the cook for the family, and I just make whatever I normally make, but I don’t eat the side carbo dishes (pasta, rice, etc.). So, yeah, pasta primavera turns out to be an Italian stir-fry-meets-soup for me, but it tastes great and I eat as much as I want!

When out and about, I generally get KFC if I’m hungry. The original recipe is easier to peel off than the spicy coating. At restaurants, I rarely feel put-out. I just order an appetizer, creamy soup and a main dish with no sides.

I’ve lost 6 kilos (13 pounds-ish) in 2 months and only have another few to go. And that was with a 2 week plateau. I figure once I’m down to my ideal weight, I will go back to eating more-or-less normally, but cut-down the carbos a lot (like 1/3 portions of spaghetti or rice, no candy, etc.).

It’s funny though, I think I am eating healthier than I did before- I eat salad everyday. Big chunky veggies and a ton of olive oil dressing. I throw on a can of tuna or chunk up cheese too. I don’t eat the bacon and etc. because I’m not quite convinced that those are healthy, albeit permissable.

Good luck-
-Tcat

12

A couple more quickie/portable lunch suggestions:

Small carton cottage cheese, with veggies or a small amount of berries on the side.

Go to a deli and get 4 or 5 ounces or so of your favorite lunch meat, shaved, and a few slices of cheese like American or provolone. Roll the former in the latter for wrap ‘sandwiches.’
When hunger strikes and you’re nowhere near a kitchen, the following lo-carb (though not exactly nutritious) items can be found in most drugstores or 7-11 type stores:

canned vienna sausages, slim jims, string cheese.
And in the fast food line, get the gigundo burger with bacon and cheese and special sauce and lettuce and cheese. And a fork. Pretend that the bun was an extra layer of insulating wrappers and eat all the goodies out of the inside. :slight_smile:

Good luck to everyone! I lost 80 pounds on Atkins, the best way to diet EVER!

13

I second this. I’ve started a weight loss program myself (not Atkins) and have lost 16 pounds since Jan. 8. I’m eating 2,000 calories a day, consisting of 60% carbs, 20% protein and 20% fat. I’m also doing a resistance and cardio program, although I need to concentrate more on the cardio. I feel so much better now than I did 2 months ago.

Maybe we should start a thread where we can go to brag about our accomplishments and get support from each other when we feel like falling off our diets. Better yet, let’s start a thread where we track our weight loss for one month and see how well we do. Yea, I’ll go start it now.

14

I’ve found that my desire for bread has decreased - I’m not doing Atkins, or a conscious diet in order to lose weight, but just trying to eat in a manner that’s more healthy. Like a couple of others, I’m a student, which means funds are limited and last semester I developed a tendency to just grab whatever was close and quick.
This semester, I started making a conscious choice to get my 5 servings of fruits/vegetables a day - last semester I bet I would go a couple of weeks at a time where I might have gotten five servings in a week - and that was mostly potatoes.

I purchased three small containers at Target and I fill them with applesauce or mixed fruit or something along those lines, and along with my fruit at breakfast, I’ve got five servings. It’s not low carb, but it’s far healthier than before, and I feel better for it. Along with exercise (4 rounds of my complex parking lot is a mile) - what I set out to do as exercise and what I get hiking campus, healthwise I feel much better, even if my weight isn’t dropping fast.

15

I’ve been hearing more about this lately. I’m half-tempted to try it, but I have the taste buds of a 7 year old child. If they wouldn’t like it, I probably won’t like it. Hell, they probably have a more diverse palate than I do. Veggies, salad, dressing, cottage cheese, tuna - all of it makes me gag. Not in an “I prefer other things” kind of way, but in an “if I swallow this, it’s coming back up” kind of way. I basically live off of burgers, pizza, pasta, burritos, etc. If I took out pasta, potatoes and bread, that would probably eliminate 70% of the foods I like.

I’m a little intrigued now though. Any diet that includes bacon, cheese sticks and Slim Jims might be worth it…

16

I started the Atkins diet a couple of weeks ago. Now when I went to the doctor in December I weighed 172. I had been doing a low fat diet in January and came to a stand still. But after Atkins, I am now weighing 152 with no clothes on. I know I count the clothing, but every bit helps. I hope to get down to at least 125 I am 5’4". So I still have a long ways to go.

I cut out the Mt. Dews (I used to drink 2 or 3 of those in the morning to get going) and replaced that with Crystal Light and Sugar Free Tang. They are awesome drinks and that is coming from an absolute sugar freak. I eat no bread of any kind. My snacks include dry roasted peanuts, string cheese, and strawberries with a little cool whip. I eat pork (I didn’t used to), chicken, steak, hamburger meat, a little fish and alot of eggs.

I did get a good recipe for after you are out of the induction phase. Take 1 tub of cool whip, 2 packages of cream cheese, vanilla or almond flavoring, and splenda sweetner (don’t know amount on that). Mix all that together and for the crust take 2 packs of finely crushed almonds (looks like powder) and mix that with some butter and a little splenda. Press it down in a pie plate. Top that with the cool whip mixture and sprinkle with leftover finely crushed almonds. Then slice a couple of strawberries on top of that. It is so easy to make and really has helped me out when I want something sweet. Of course as with anything you can’t sit down and eat the whole pie. Just be reasonable. Good luck with your diet. I’ll let everyone know if I reach my goal!

17

I wanted to do Atkins, but was advised by my urologist not to. He said it promotes formation of kidney stones (I know Dr. Atkins claims this is not true, but if you’ve ever had kidney stones, you’ll understand my fear of getting even more than I already do), so I modified it, for myself. I don’t eat any simple carbs at all any more (since the first of the year). No refined sugar, white flour, white rice, white potatoes or corn (mashed sweet potatoes are yummy), and I have lost 23 pounds and three inches off my waist since the Jan. 1st. Of course, I still have about 90 pounds to go, but I plan on eating this way for the rest of my life, so it’ll come off eventually.

18

Hooray for Atkins. I’ve been on since July and have lost 45 pounds…would have been more if I hadn’t succumbed to mom’s homemade goodies over the holidays. :frowning:

Still have about 45 more to lose, but I feel better than I have in years, look mahvelous (I have a waist!!) and whoo boy, can you say self-confidence?

Here is an excellent recipe to make on these cold winter days:
Clam Chowder!
Start some cauliflower steaming. You want it to be very done.
In the meantime, dice and fry some bacon. Add some onions if you want.
Add some canned clams with about half their liquid and cream. Sorry, I don’t have any exact amounts, just make it so it looks good.
Add the cauliflower and mash it all up with a potato masher. Simmer gently.

Yummmm. I often add bay scallops and salad shrimp to this.

Good luck everyone!

19

Tomcat, send me your address to my email and I’ll be more than happy to mail you splenda…packets and power.

20

I really tried getting into the Atkins thing, but so many people told me that I couldn’t get into ketosis by simply keeping carbs low, it was all about ratios. Had to eat less protein than I was as well as more fat. When I found myself eating butter straight so as to adjust the ratio, I pretty much said screw it, not worth it. Have you all had success getting into ketosis by simply keeping carbs <15g/day?