Two melons balancing on an egg, wedged between two chicken drumsticks..

Hey everyone! Like many of you, I am also at Last Chance Saloon and seeking the Holy Grail of Diets..that which requires no work and no abstaining, but yet the fat magically disappears away!
Having failed that unfortunately, I'm now considering other options. I've tried VLCD and Weightwatchers, but always had a problem with stickability..


I've picked a low carb approach because:
1) The science behind it makes sense (just google ketosis)
2) The food is a lot tastier than other diets (particularly VLCD, yuuk)
3) It's easier not to cheat, as blood sugar is balanced (I used to be plagued by a maddening 'sweet tooth')


I have armed myself with:
- 'Neris and India's Idiot Proof Diet'
- 'The Low Carb Gourmet' (cookbook)
- 2.5kg whey protein chocolate flavour and shaker bottle
- xanthum gum
- 900g flaxseed meal
- box of low-carb goodies, from LowCarbMegaStore..


Wish me luck!


Batty x

Hi! I hope you get on well with low carb! I love neris and India's book - though be wary if it's a version with half a butternut squash listed as a first two week recipe, that's in there erroneously.

Also, I don't know which goodies you got from LCM - a few are very good (1 carb ketchup, davinci sauces) a few are ok but don't taste great (walden farms mainly) and some of the stuff they sell is evil - be wary of any sweets/chocs containing sugar alcohols (sweeteners ending in 'ol' like maltitol) and glycerin (including Atkins bars) as they're notorious for stalling people's weight loss (there is a post on the Atkins forum called 'sugar alcohols and why Atkins bars are evil' which explains a lot) - also be wary of bread and cake replacements that contain the word wheat in the ingredient list - not as bad for you as the sugar alcohols but another staller for some people.

Definitely best to eat 'clean and green' - whole foods, meat, dairy, fats and oils, veggies - at least for the first couple of weeks.

Good luck, and come and see us over in the Atkins forum - its near identical to neris and India.

Welcome and good luck. 2nd everything that's been said about the evils of sugar alcohols for stalling plus i also recommend gary taubes book

Enjoy

Love the name of your diary!!! Im back to low carb today after post wedding blow out and a half. Only way of eating that gets rid of my gut and makes me feel slimmer and god knows half the battle is how we feel about ourselves!!
Ditto the eating real foods rather than marketed low carb but whatever works for you hun!

Wow, I can't believe so many people replied to my post! Thanks for the love and good luck wishes everyone I hear what you're all saying about the sweeteners, I was silly and bought all of the above at the same time, only to then read the section in Neris & India talking about the evils of sweeteners. Doh! Today I read the ingredients of the whey protein powder I have been using and even that contains sucrose (double doh!) and I've got 2.5kilo's of it to use! (I feel this diary is going to become about how to find every pitfall in low carb dieting and jump in it! Lol) I really appreciate all your thoughtful advice.
Moonlights I've now read that post in the Atkins forum, I'm feeling pretty dumbfounded that a brand whose success is based on the weight loss of its followers, would undermine its own name, for the sake of a few chocolate bars!
Diem, I think I will buy that book. Have a great time in Bali Smiley, strut your stuff girl! *jealous*
Kat1e your weight loss is amazing, nearly 6 stone! Actually you've all had fantastic losses, I feel very inspired
RJG Congratulations on your wedding, your dress is gorgeous! I agree that half the battle is how you feel about yourself, if we don't love ourselves we won't treat our bodies right either..
I'm looking forward to a morning curled up today reading everyone's blogs, and planning my meals for the week.
B x

I think once Atkins the doctor died, Atkins the company got worse and worse. Though really I'm wary of any weight loss companies as their success depends on your (ultimate) failure. If the bars stall your losses you might stay on the diet longer, buying more bars & etc & etc. there are loads of yummy and more natural things you can make though - and don't worry, you're not the only one to buy out low carb megastore. I failed on Atkins the first time I tried it after buying all their magic products - both because they stalled me and because I just over ate them. I didn't retrain my palate at all. As an occasional treat they're fine - I just don't have that willpower. I stay away from sugar alcohols now though - I have an absolute horror of them. The few low carb things I buy are Splenda (sucralose) or aspartame sweetened - and I use hermestas liquid as my daily sweetener as liquid sweeteners are the only genuinely zero carb kind.

Sorry to ramble on about all this! Bit of a pet subject. How's your day going?

OK, so weekend is over and after a couple of birthdays on Saturday I am determined to be angellic for at least two weeks. I have even plonked cream in my tea, and am supping the congealed floaty bits right now..

Cauliflower rice and korma last night was really tasty! Looking at my meal planner we're basically eating vast amounts of cauli all week, I hope it doesn't have a similar effect to brussel sprouts!

Breakfast: Chocolate Whey Protein Shake
Lunch: Smoked Mackerel Salad, with a small amount of cauli rice
Dinner: Patak's Korma, made with 100ml of cream and more cauli rice
Snacks: Mixed Nuts and a Babybel

I forgot to mention that my whey shake contained sucralose (ie Splenda), not sucrose - so there was no need to panic
Stayed angellic yesterday, and even went to Zumba for the first time in a few weeks which was brilliant. I was rewarded with a 1lb loss overnight, hurrah!

Breakfast: Choc Whey Protein Shake
Lunch: 2 egg and salami salad, with spinach, tomatoes and cucumber
Dinner: Shepherd's pie with cauli mash.
Snacks: Two mini Babybels (0 carbs!) and 50g Tesco Mixed Nuts

On your recommendations ladies we have downloaded the ebook 'Why we get fat', I'm looking forward to reading that!

Thought for the day: why does cream dissolve so much better into coffee than tea?

Batty x

Well done on being angelic! Have you tried alpro unsweetened soya milk in tea? It's what I use as I don't really like cream in it, and it's even lower in carbs than cream (also tiny on the calories front). I'm not mad on it cold but warm it is delicious - I often have a warm milky drink with alpro and sweetener.

moonlights said:

Well done on being angelic! Have you tried alpro unsweetened soya milk in tea? It's what I use as I don't really like cream in it...

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Hey again Moonlights I have tasted it cold & thought it was disgusting! But if you say it tastes different warm, hmmm..I guess I have nothing to lose by trying it. I do love a good British cup of tea! I've been getting funny looks in the staff canteen drinking the floaty gross stuff lol x

Hello again everyone well I haven't been to the shops yet to buy the soya milk and I'm starting to get turned off tea by the creamy mess it has become...so Diem today I was sort of thinking along the same lines, and nabbed an earl grey bag from a colleague so that I could avoid the dairy altogether. I used to drink a lot of green tea and loved it, but my palatte seems to have changed as I found it too bitter the last time I drank it. Still palatte is changing lots on this diet, so maybe it will taste different if I try it again now. Green tea is meant to be metabolism boosting I suppose!

I felt like a bit of a treat on Tuesday night and had a look in the naughty box from Low Carb Megastore (halo had slipped somewhat lol) Ooooh I thought, double chocolate chip muffins! In convenient two muffins sachets..then I saw that no only was it low carb, but low fat too. Ut oh. Suffice to say they were absolutely disgusting, and what is worse - I paid £7 for that box. I couldn't even chew the bite of it I had in my mouth. So I was a bit down about that and ended up eating half an Atkins fake Snicker bar..the crispy one that everyone likes I fed to my OH, as it smelt too saccherine.

Halo was definitely back in position yesterday though..

Breakfast: Choc Whey Protein Shake (these are actually starting to taste sweet oddly)
Lunch: Leftover Low Carb Shepherd's Pie
Dinner: Mince from Shepherd's pie with Dreamfields Spaghetti
Snacks: (Getting a bit bored of...nuts and babybells...bearing in mind I had been doing this diet for two weeks before I started this thread and this is all I have eaten for snacks since lol!)

I was a bit worried about the Dreamfields pasta, and this morning ketostix just showed just traces of ketones..but I did lose another 1lb overnight, so yay! I wonder if everytime I exercise in the evening on this diet I will lose a pound? That would be awesome!

Batty x

Argh dreamfields - dreamfields are a proven lie I'm afraid. Google them and you'll find hundreds of results on it. They have exactly the same
effect on blood sugar as regular pasta (as proven by a host of diabetics) and we pretty much just digest them as carbs. Their big trick is to have such a small recommended portion size that it would be low carb either way - but it's the insulin hit low carbers have to worry about.

Let me suggest a couple of much cheaper, healthier, lower carb options.

Cocoa bark:

(this does require buying something called coconut oil though I've also heard of people making it with butter).

2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp cocoa powder
(green and blacks and bourneville are good - just make sure you get the cocoa not hot chocolate powder)
Sweetener
(either liquid sweetener or tablets dissolved in a little water)
1 tbsp single cream (for milk - leave out for dark)
Flavoring (optional)

Put the coconut oil in a microwave and freezer safe tub. Microwave for 15-30 secs to melt coconut oil.

Stir cocoa, sweetener, cream and flavoring if using into the coconut oil. Mix really thoroughly so it's an even color and texture.

Freeze for a minimum of 10 minutes.

Take out and break into squares of home made chocolate. Store in freezer.





About 3g carbs max and none from sugar alcohols. You can also make it as sweet or u sweet as you like - I really recommend hermestas liquid sweetener- no carbs and tastes just like sugar.

Almond fairycakes/ muffins

50g ground almonds
sweetener
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
Dash of alpro milk OR
Cream and water

Mix egg with almonds and baking powder. Add sweetener and a flavoring if you want - vanilla essence would be good, I used banana flavoring and cinnamon yesterday.

Add milk or cream + water until batter is a dropping consistency. Spoon into cake moulds. Either microwave for 2 mins or pop in the oven until firm and springy.

Taste like non low carb products IMO.





About 5g carbs for whole lot - makes 4

Lots and lots and lots more recipes in my diary over on the Atkins section.

I love having berries and cream for dessert now however there are loads good recipes for desserts - enjoy

Oooh I can't wait to try those recipes!! I love fruit Kat1e, it's been the hardest thing to resist since starting this diet, & I have cracked a couple of times and eaten a peach, or a banana on the run *slaps self with naughty stick* I find posting on MM helpful though, keeps me on track!

Yesterday:
Breakfast: Chocolate Whey Shake
Lunch: Cabbage, Spring Greens & Turnip Soup (not bad but needs a flavour kick, perhaps curry powder or something similar)
Dinner: Lamb stew, with Chinese 5 spice, ginger, turnip, cabbage & radishes.
Snacks: Cheese-string, babybel, 50g mixed nuts, 3 mini beetroots, some raw cabbage, 3 slices of salami (I was being a pig!)

Today:
Breakfast: Yep you got it...Chocolate Whey Protein Shake.
Lunch: 50g Tesco Mixed Nuts, a cheese string and a babybel (just snacks as I had to stay on at work)
Dinner: Leftover lamb stew

Rhubarb! Technically a vegetable you can have a lovely bit of rhubarb stewed with sweetener and know you're being low carb and virtuous. Having some stashed in my freezer has been a lifesaver more than once xx

Mmmm rhubarb crumble is one of my favourites Moonlight! I bet you could make a low carb topping with ground almonds, almond flour and butter...*wipes drool from her chin*

I'm obsessing way too much about desserts, aren't I? That must be another low carb pitfall of mine, I'm toting them up lol.

Overall not had a brilliant day today what with one thing and another, so roll on the weekend I say

Also, I've had metallic breath before, but today it was awful - like I'd been sucking on pennies, I just couldn't get rid of it..I wonder if I'm in stronger ketosis this week because I have exercised so much, and hence the stinky breath...hmmm.

Batty x

Haha there is a rhubarb crumble recipe with exactly that topping a little way back in my diary ground almonds, liquid sweetener and butter.

Another suggestion to help make the topping even crunchier is grind up a few other nuts to add to the mix- DH rekons hazelnuts are particularly good. They add a lovely extra crunch