We started the Atkins diet

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Edlyn and I started the Atkins diet yesterday morning, and boy, yesterday was tough on me. I’m a southern boy, raised on biscuits and gravy, Pepsi, and pecan pie. My carb withdrawals are, well, overwhelming.

By evening yesterday, I was experiencing dry-mouth and truly lusting for a cold glass of Kool-Aid, a hot muffin, a baked potato — anything at all with some carbs. My total carb intake for the day was about 20 grams. (Around 5:00 PM or so, I ate half an oatmeal cookie ~10 grams of carbs.)

Yesterday morning, I drove to the Super K-Mart and loaded us up on eggs, beef, chicken, pork, and a few veggies that are allowed during the induction period, like lettuce, broccoli, and green beans. Oh, and I bought a lot of cheese.

I also bought some Splenda, which is a sugar substitute made from sugar, but with only trace amounts of carbohydrates. Unfortunately, it has the trademark aftertaste that all such substitutes have, but it is juuuuust a bit more tolerable than the others. And I bought half-and-half to use in my coffee because it has slightly fewer carbs than Coffee-Mate.

A strange thing, though: even though I hadn’t had any sugar all day, I felt an uncharacteristic surge of energy late in the afternoon, and went out and helped Edlyn wash the car’s wheel-wells (we bought a new Saturn Ion Saturday and promptly road down a street with fresh tar poured). I also went to the store and bought some numbers to put out on the mailbox post, something I’ve been meaning to do for, what, three years.

So far today, I’ve been up for about 7 hours, and although I’m a bit shaky, I’m not quite as drastically spastic as I was yesterday. And now that I’ve learned how to measure the Splenda, that part is just a bit better.

I’m not really morbidly obese or anything, but I do have quite a gut. At least, it’s enough that putting on my socks causes me some mild discomfort. I don’t even have a scale to weight myself, but when I’ve become able to clip my toenails without grunting, I will know that I have achieved my goal.

Wish me luck. And if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to try to answer them. But please save debating for the Atkins topic in Great Debates. I’m just here to sort of share what’s going on with me and my wife.

2

As I said in the primary thread - good luck. I hope you’ve read the book through so you know what you’re up to. And that you’re drinking lots of water too.

One beneficial side-effect that I didn’t mention is that my post-prandial 3.30pm fatigue, that I used to get every day, has evaporated. I now remain as alert all afternoon as I am all morning. I wake up quicker in the mornings too, and I tend to sleep right through the night, which I didn’t do before. I wake up with a very full bladder though. I also don’t get hungry in the old sense - I don’t crave food with my head, I merely require it with my stomach. I don’t know if that makes sense.

Hope you enjoy it!

3

Thanks, Jjimm! :slight_smile:

4

As for myself, I can barely look another egg in the eye.

5

Good luck, Libertarian. I know the battle of weight loss (I’m currently doing the Weight Watchers plan) and can tell you that success makes it worth all the effort you put into it.

Zev Steinhardt

6

Do you get carbs on Weight Watchers? […drool…]

7

Yes.

WW is really simple. Every food boils down to a number of points based on calories, fat and dietary fiber. You can eat only so many points a day. So, there are no “forbidden foods” in the program. You just have to decide which foods are important enough to you to spend the points on.

There are some other details, but that’s the gist of the program.

Zev Steinhardt

8

Congrats! Mr. Cricket and I started Atkins in September and have nothing but good things to say about it.

The first few days are really hard as you’re dealing with the carb cravings, but if you just follow the induction list exactly (no 1/2 oatmeal cookies!), then it gets better. By about the 3rd day, the cravings go away and it’s really not bad. Also, once we were in ketosis, we both experienced huge energy surges as well. I haven’t felt so great in years! And I really was surprised at how little I craved the carbohydrate stuff.

Mr. Cricket and I both lost about 10 pounds each. Now, we’re more in the maintenance stage as the holidays are getting closer, but we’ll probably go back to induction after Thanksgiving. I think the maintenance is harder than the induction as it’s easier to mis-count and have too many carbs. And as soon as I do, then I’m not in ketosis anymore and the cravings come back.

I found that those little separately-wrapped packages of string cheese are great to have as each one is an ounce and so is one carb. Makes it easier to calculate your 3-4 oz/day of cheese.

I also found that packages of full chicken wings were good when I needed a savory sort of snack. I’d put 'em in a pyrex dish with a bit of butter and a ton of lemon pepper and cook them until a bit browned and crispy. Then, when I was tired of everything else, I’d gnaw on one.

I also have a wonderful tuna salad recipe (from the Cook’s Illustrated magazine) if you want that - I’d make a big batch of it and then add some quartered hard-boiled eggs. This also helped to keep the diet from getting too boring. I have a really good chicken soup recipe too (lemon and cilantro flavors).
Oh, and the low-carb. energy bars are good, too.

Cricket
(who’ll now stop giving unsolicited advice…)

9

Thanks, Cricket, but I’m alergic to fish and seafood. I’m thinking of making a good egg salad, though, using Duke’s mayonnaise (famous in our area of the South).

By the way, what was wrong with the 1/2 oatmeal cookie? I had ten grams remaining for the day, and it was 8-1/2 (the whole cookie was 17).

10

AFAIK, for the induction period, you want to stay in ketosis. There is a certain level of carbs pertinent to you that will get you out of ketosis - the cookie might have pushed you out of this state. Get ketostix from the pharmacist, and test your piss to see whether or not you’re in ketosis, and you’ll be able to tell how many carbs you can consume without messing this up.

11

Am I right in thinking it hits the hardest on the third day?

I recall jadis posting about the Atkins diet and saying she was glad that she started midweek, because by the third day (which was a Saturday) she was glasd that she could just stay in bed and sleep through most of it.

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I’ll let you know. My third day is tomorrow.

13

I think it differs from person to person. I had no problems at all on day 3 or beyond, hardly any on day 2, and minor cravings on day 1.

14

I still don’t get the problem with the 1/2 cookie. I was due for 10 more grams, and I ate 8-1/2.

15

Just another note on the cookie - your carbs are supposed to come from low-glycemic foods like vegetables, which don’t cause an insulin spike. Sugar, white flour, etc definitely cause an insulin spike (which among other things signals your body to store fat, IIRC), and a subsequent crash, which IME sets off more crab cravings.

Good luck, Lib.

16

Mmmmm, crab.

17

The updated Atkins diet allows you a set amount of carbs. The first one, back in the 70s, eliminated them all together. So, Lib, you’re fine on half an oatmeal cookie.

My big thing was sweets. I started craving them. Then I found a recipe for low carb fudge that I think is wonderful.

One package sugar free chocolate pudding mix
Four tablespoons (more or less) of peanut butter
One half cup heavy cream

Melt the peanut butter, then stir in the pudding and cream. Add whatever sweetener floats your boat. Scrape into an oiled dish and chill until set. Cut into squares.

Nice and thick and sticky…but no guilt!

Remember, drink lots of water. LOTS of water.

My favorite salad dressing is Miracle Whip mixed with Parmesan cheese. The Miracle Whip has a nice sweet tangy flavor but few carbs. I mix it in the salad bowl, then add the salad, and stir everything up until everything is coated.

18

Thanks, Porc. Gah. Maybe we should read the book first.

19

Ivy

We’ll definately try the fudge! But when you say lots of water, is a quart of coffee and 3 quarts of Kool-Aid (with Splenda) okay?

20

No, Lib. Nice try, but good old fashioned water is best. There’s that Propel, which is flavored water, low carbs, but kind of pricey.

Oh, I find the Crystal Light drink mixes not too shabby either, especially the peach tea.

(Jeez, a quart of coffee? And I thought I was a caffeine junkie.)