Low Carb Induction - 14 days of eating RIGHT

[wyo_rose]

Today is my first day of INDUCTION which is the introductory phase of the Atkins diet. I follow Protein Power more than Atkins, but it's all basically just eating low carb (20 carbs or less per day), drinking lots of water, exercising, and taking my vitamins. I never really did induction to begin this new way of eating years ago, just slowly cut out sugar, then bread, then other carbs and the weight just poured off.

I lost about 75 pounds and actually kept it off for 2-3 years. Then I went through a bout of depression, got in a wreck and hurt my back, and basically said "EFF IT" - I'm eating whatever I want, got on a Moolatte kick (highest sugar coffee drink ever!) and put most of that weight back on in the course of a year.

This is part of my motivation to stick to my low carb way of eating. For the past week or two, I've been eating out of control. There are all kinds of reasons for eating low carb: traditional diet, avoid diabetes, lose weight, feel better. And it's not hard to stick to - there's all kinds of yummy things to eat. It's just so easy to cheat.

Feel free to follow along, posting or not. I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I'd rather do it here than on a "low carb site". (I had to get chided by visiting any other sites but POWWOWS.COM!):rolleyes;

[wyo_rose]

RULES:

1. 20 carbs per day or less
a. 2 - 3 cups of salad veggies or other low carb veggies a day
b. Avoid artificial sweeteners, nuts, fruit, legumes
c. No more than 2 ounces of cheese per day

2. 8 Glasses of water or more

3. 20 - 30 min of exercise 1 or 2 times a day OR MORE!!

And take a multivitamin and a calcium supplement.

The first couple days you probably will go through carbohydrate withdrawals...no worse than having a blood sugar crash. But then things will even out and there will be no more swings.

Weigh in the first day, and then after the first couple days for motivation. I like to weight everyday...have to try to do it at the same time everyday.

Here's the Acceptable Food list with carb counts: Acceptable Foods List

[wyo_rose]

ME: Weigh in: 205 (ACK!!)

Day 1 Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled with butter and 1/2 cup of mushrooms
Took my vitamins (multivitamin, calcium, fish oil, tumeric, chondroitin)
Drank 2 cups of water so far and am filling water bottles RIGHT NOW

Lunch: Kraft 2% singles wrapped around Oscar Mayer bologna and turkey breast.
Dinner: 2 Cheddarwurst and some meat sauce with zucchini, bell peppers, and carrots (minus the pasta)

Made a Bisquick coffee cake for dessert (my favorite) and didn't even test taste it!

Swam in the lake for 1/2 hour. Need to get more exercise in!

Also need more water later in the day. Of course I had to visit the restroom after every OUNCE of water. That should get better in time.

Overall a good first day. If I wasn't holding myself accountable in these posts, I would probably do worse.

[wyo_rose]

Day 2: Gonna resist the temptation to weigh in so soon.

Breakfast: 1 cup shredded cauliflower sauted with 1/4 cup chopped onion, 2 T butter, and 1 egg. Remember the right fats are GOOD for you - butter, olive oil, virgin coconut oil, and a few kinds of seed oils.

Took my vitamins and already drank 2 cups of water.

Walked for 1 1/2 miles on the track. Hopefully I can make both my tribal health walks today if I'm not too busy at work.

Lunch: Red Snapper with lots of butter and lemon/pepper. A whole orange bell pepper dipped in a little Jalapeno Ranch, and a smackerel of cheddar.

Dinner: Double cheeseburger with Heinz Low Sugar Ketchup. Cream of broccoli soup with 1 cup of broccoli, chicken broth, garlic, and 1/2 cup cream.

Luckily I'm so busy that I fell asleep before I got my after dinner munchies.

[Ol'Girl]

I will peruse the acceptable foods list...at first glance, I did not see cheetos...hmmmmm

[wyo_rose]

You have to make your OWN low carb Cheetos...called Cheat-O's. Mostly sawdust fried in axel grease dusting with day glo chalk dust. JKS

I saw a low carb hush puppy recipe that could probably be tweaked and then sprinkled with Mac and Cheese powder to get that same orange coating on your fingers.

Just remember after the first 14 days, you can add in more types of foods (even processed ones) and you can make a low carb version of almost anything.

Chips are my downfall usually, so I try to keep different flavors of pork rinds on hand and eat them with lots of dip...after my first 2 weeks back on track.

I'm lucky I'm too busy to think about food much these past few days...but I find myself obsessing with lunch already and it's only 10AM. I'll have to grab some veggies for a snack.

Need to eat more veggies... at least a little with each meal. Where's my commodity green beans when I need them?

[~Journey~]

I too am going low carb. Just diagnosed with diabeties.. bummmer.. but not out of control and a good chance with low carb and some weight loss I can put this in remission..

I did atkins a while back and had excellent results.. lost over 60 lbs.
Lets do it again!

I wish you luck and will be watching your progress..
I'll let you in on mine too, if thats ok?

[wyo_rose]

Sure! This thread is for others to follow along too! I'd love to hear about your progress. That's too bad about your recent diagnosis, but yes, I think you can reverse it with diet and exercise.

I did Atkins/Protein Power about 5 years ago and lost 75 pounds, so I KNOW IT WORKS!! And I was keeping it off just fine until I think I sabotagued myself and must have subconsciously wanted to be fat again. I don't know....I should read Dr. Phil's diet book that's not so much about DIETING, but on WHY we overeat.

Anyway, the more the merrier!! I love this low carb, high fat, moderate protein way of eating cuz I love to eat! And eating this way is more traditional than eating these processed, flour and sugar laden items that our society is living on.

So it's no problem eating meat or eggs at every meal. Working the veggies in is the big thing. I don't mind taco salads, grilled chicken salad, or a chef salad, but keeping lettuce on hand and fresh is not easy out here in the boonies.

But good luck and I'll try to post more tips about eating low carb.

[wyo_rose]

Day 3: Got up early to walk, but remembered I had to rearrange the garage to fit all my yard sale stuff in, so I got my work out there.

Breakfast: All set to make a mushroom omelet and NO EGGS. So I just grabbed some baloney and cheese.

Lunch Plan: I'm hoping my co-worker is going to spring for chicken and salad from the deli cuz I'm out of options. There's Italian sausage thawing but won't be ready until dinner time. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but since honey is working hard now 9 hours a day, I'll make him a nice Italian dinner.

Real lunch: Canned ham with mayo and pickles.

I'm slacking on the water, so I'm trying to drink a liter bottle and a big liter of sun tea with no sweetener before lunchtime. I forgot to weigh in as well, so I'll try to do that before lunch.

At home I have some hermetically sealed salami packs in case I have a craving and there's nothing I can grab. I also have 1/2 a bar of 85% Lindt chocolate so I can grab a square (at 1 carb) in case I have need a sweet fix.

As soon as I get some $$ I plan to have a veggie tray ready to munch on along with deviled eggs, so I'm not tempted to cheat before dinner or whatever.

Dinner Plan: Italian sausage with Hunt's Garlic/Herb Spaghetti sauce and sauteed green peppers and onions. Will use this as lasagna filler for my honey's dinner.

Dinner: my plan actually worked out for dinner. Also added pepperoni slices and a little shredded cheese. I made lasagna for my signifigant other and thought it would be hard to resist, but I'm so full now that I think I can even skip my planned snack and be fine.

Now I'm going to take my vitamins which I forgot earlier and drink a couple glasses of water.

Snack plan: Veggies with ranch dip.

Weight: 203....mmm...ok...down 2...probably all water weight...been here several times in the past 6 months...not going to get excited...

[~Journey~]

This morning I made myself a omlett souffle.. I took egg whites and beat them until they peaked. Meanwhile I sauted some mushroom, onion, sweet basil and tomatoes for a short bit.
Wiped my pan out, then laid the egg white fluff in the pan on med-med/hi and let it set. After it firmed I put the saute mixture back in and fold it out onto my plate.. I must say it was awesome.
I saw the recipe on Blaines low carb cooking show.. it was on fit tv..
have a successful day

nuts are a good low carb snack too.. and thank goodness for pork rinds...LOL

[wyo_rose]

That sounds TO DIE FOR!! I LOVE Blaine! Sometimes he makes some stuff that's too gournet for me, but I've been following his show for awhile.

Here's the link to his recipes: FitTV :: Blaine's Low Carb Kitchen :: Recipe Index

[kgirl7]

Good for you! I did low carb induction but lost weight too fast! Yup too fast! But it works. I do a modified plan where I add nuts and fruit from the get go. Basically I just avoid sugar and processed carbs as well as wheat and rice. Good luck.

Also what might help is to take measurements, because there are times when it will show you aren't losing weight but you are losing inches (or in my case it seemed to go in 1/8 of an inch increments).

[ndngirl73]

GOOD FOR YOU WYO ROSE!! i'm following along...keep us posted...

[wyo_rose]

Thanks everybody! I'm going to try to get a "before" picture. I thought I'd be too shy, but I really think I can stick to it now and get back to where I was just 3 years ago.

Yep, the first time I did low carb, I lost TOO FAST too. The school nurse had the office next door, so I weighed everyday and she was very concerned and thought I was starving myself to lose so much. But she was very impressed with the way I kept it off and put her teenage daughter on a low carb diet. I swear I was losing a pound a day for almost a month.

I was also drinking water like a fish at that time (1 - 2 gallons a day), so I really gotta push the water now. I'm going to try to fill all the water containers necessary for the day and keep downing them every time I look at them.

They say the first time you go low carb, you get the "Golden Shot", and lose very easily. None could believe I was losing WITHOUT working out. I had gone to the gym everyday for a year before and didn't lose a single pound. It's harder now that I've been eating and cheating on the low carb diet for so long, but I'm adding daily exercise, and going to resist falling off the wagon with all my might.

Looking back, those high carb "treats" were NOT WORTH IT. I was trying to lose 20 pounds by my birthday. That didn't happen. There's a wedding in October, where it would be cool to show up 20 - 30 pounds lighter...maybe more???

[timmy tiger]

Wow that's great. Good luck Wyo_Rose. I don't usually diet 'cause as soon as you go off it, the weight comes right back on. But I wish you luck. I drink way too much soda a day to do that. I really need to cut down and am working on it. If I could cut it in half, I would loose 20 lbs like right away.LOL I only have a little more to go, really. Like 2 sizes and I will be down to where I was before my son was born. Well, actually a size and a half and that's not really bad at all.