JustForMe
Gold Member
Getting Started
Stock up on hard cheese, low carb nuts, eggs, salami, ham, ricotta, full fat cream cheese etc so that there is always something readily available for when you want a snack, need to eat on the run or have simply forgotten to cater for yourself in the rush to get the rest of the household fed.
Especially if you aim for ketosis…Get ketone testing strips from your local chemist. Testing is not mandatory, but is helpful as an indicator of how near you might be to slipping out of ketosis. Some also find it psychologically helpful to see that the ketosis is still happening each day. Many people find the best time to test is around 6pm, before their evening meal. Try cutting the strips in half lengthwise to double the number of tests for your money!
Start taking a good multivitamin/mineral if you aren't already (sugar and starch free). Low carb diets, when properly done, are not deficient in essential nutrients, but you may already have deficiencies caused by previous ways of eating. Many people, even those who consider they have a so-called balanced diet have a sub-optimal nutrition status and this may affect weight control.
Start reading nutrition labels and getting used to the fact that, on low carb diets, you are generally not looking for low fat versions of foods. (These usually equate to 'fat content removed and replaced by sugar or other refined carbs'.)
Cut down or preferably cut out coffee, strong tea, flavoured fizzy drinks (diet or otherwise) and fruit juices before starting your diet. If you are a heavy consumer of coffee/cola drinks, you may well get headaches and other caffeine withdrawal symptoms for a while after stopping. Weaning yourself off caffeine beforehand will avoid the danger of abandoning the diet because you think it is making you feel ill - don't let your diet take the blame for your caffeine addiction! Try drinking very weak tea, fizzy water or iced still water if you really can't face good old tapwater. It's surprising how quickly you get used to it once you are no longer getting your regular sugar or caffeine fix.
Make yourself a chart for recording your weight, daily carbohydrate total and daily ketone test results. You can either record your weight every day, recognising that a pound or two up or down is just a normal fluctuation, or decide to weigh yourself once a week.
Keep a record of your measurements, too - measure say every month. This is important, as there will probably be weeks when you don't appear to be losing, or you may even gain a pound or two on the scales, although your tape measure will prove to you that the diet is still working. When cells lose some of their fat content, they usually want to fill up with something else and so they inflate themselves with water. Even though you have lost fat it may take your body some time, possibly a month or two, to adjust and release this water. Also remember, if you have been doing resistance exercise, that you may have been replacing fat with muscle - and muscle, being denser, fits into a smaller space for the same weight.
Meals out
If you think you may not be able to get a filling low carb meal when out or visiting, either eat something beforehand or take an emergency snack with you.
Favourite emergency meals of mine include vacuum-packed spicy meat snacks, nuts or hard cheese for protein/fat together with a generous quantity of raw celery, courgette or green/French beans for veggies/fibre.
When invited out for a meal, and the host asks what is good for your diet, a roast is usually a good bet. (But make sure that at least some of the vegetables are going to be white or green low carb ones - it usually comes as a great surprise to other people that parsnips, peas, and carrots are high in sugars!) A barbecue is good too, but ask for your ribs, burgers or chicken legs etc to be left plain - barbecue sauces and marinades can be very high in sugar.
Checking the meal plan out beforehand saves the embarrassment of finding out too late that the host hadn't understood 'no flour, sugar or other high carb foods' means you can't have the soup, the melon or grapefruit starter, the cheese sauce on the cauliflower, the carrots, peas and parsnips, or the fresh fruit for afters! If your host starts getting confused or exasperated, offer to bring some of your meal with you. I always like to keep individual pieces of home made low carb quiche in my freezer for this eventuality. Then all the host has to do is heat it up, and provide plenty of green veg or green salad. Or suggest you'll have grated cheese over the top of a plateful of hot green veggies - this is much tastier than it sounds.
Panic Meals
There are always those times when you arrive home later than expected, when you can't get out to the shops, or when you've nearly got the pizza on the table for the other members of the household and then realise you've forgotten about the low carber. With such times in mind I always keep a stock of the following:
Hints and Tips so that your meal doesn’t get boring
[FONT="]***please note i have taken this from Low carb recipes cookbook free Atkins low GI diet and menu plans you can see on their website the full list but just pasted on some key ones tohelp everyone along. I am not claming them as my own.****[/FONT]
Stock up on hard cheese, low carb nuts, eggs, salami, ham, ricotta, full fat cream cheese etc so that there is always something readily available for when you want a snack, need to eat on the run or have simply forgotten to cater for yourself in the rush to get the rest of the household fed.
Especially if you aim for ketosis…Get ketone testing strips from your local chemist. Testing is not mandatory, but is helpful as an indicator of how near you might be to slipping out of ketosis. Some also find it psychologically helpful to see that the ketosis is still happening each day. Many people find the best time to test is around 6pm, before their evening meal. Try cutting the strips in half lengthwise to double the number of tests for your money!
Start taking a good multivitamin/mineral if you aren't already (sugar and starch free). Low carb diets, when properly done, are not deficient in essential nutrients, but you may already have deficiencies caused by previous ways of eating. Many people, even those who consider they have a so-called balanced diet have a sub-optimal nutrition status and this may affect weight control.
Start reading nutrition labels and getting used to the fact that, on low carb diets, you are generally not looking for low fat versions of foods. (These usually equate to 'fat content removed and replaced by sugar or other refined carbs'.)
Cut down or preferably cut out coffee, strong tea, flavoured fizzy drinks (diet or otherwise) and fruit juices before starting your diet. If you are a heavy consumer of coffee/cola drinks, you may well get headaches and other caffeine withdrawal symptoms for a while after stopping. Weaning yourself off caffeine beforehand will avoid the danger of abandoning the diet because you think it is making you feel ill - don't let your diet take the blame for your caffeine addiction! Try drinking very weak tea, fizzy water or iced still water if you really can't face good old tapwater. It's surprising how quickly you get used to it once you are no longer getting your regular sugar or caffeine fix.
Make yourself a chart for recording your weight, daily carbohydrate total and daily ketone test results. You can either record your weight every day, recognising that a pound or two up or down is just a normal fluctuation, or decide to weigh yourself once a week.
Keep a record of your measurements, too - measure say every month. This is important, as there will probably be weeks when you don't appear to be losing, or you may even gain a pound or two on the scales, although your tape measure will prove to you that the diet is still working. When cells lose some of their fat content, they usually want to fill up with something else and so they inflate themselves with water. Even though you have lost fat it may take your body some time, possibly a month or two, to adjust and release this water. Also remember, if you have been doing resistance exercise, that you may have been replacing fat with muscle - and muscle, being denser, fits into a smaller space for the same weight.
Meals out
If you think you may not be able to get a filling low carb meal when out or visiting, either eat something beforehand or take an emergency snack with you.
Favourite emergency meals of mine include vacuum-packed spicy meat snacks, nuts or hard cheese for protein/fat together with a generous quantity of raw celery, courgette or green/French beans for veggies/fibre.
When invited out for a meal, and the host asks what is good for your diet, a roast is usually a good bet. (But make sure that at least some of the vegetables are going to be white or green low carb ones - it usually comes as a great surprise to other people that parsnips, peas, and carrots are high in sugars!) A barbecue is good too, but ask for your ribs, burgers or chicken legs etc to be left plain - barbecue sauces and marinades can be very high in sugar.
Checking the meal plan out beforehand saves the embarrassment of finding out too late that the host hadn't understood 'no flour, sugar or other high carb foods' means you can't have the soup, the melon or grapefruit starter, the cheese sauce on the cauliflower, the carrots, peas and parsnips, or the fresh fruit for afters! If your host starts getting confused or exasperated, offer to bring some of your meal with you. I always like to keep individual pieces of home made low carb quiche in my freezer for this eventuality. Then all the host has to do is heat it up, and provide plenty of green veg or green salad. Or suggest you'll have grated cheese over the top of a plateful of hot green veggies - this is much tastier than it sounds.
Panic Meals
There are always those times when you arrive home later than expected, when you can't get out to the shops, or when you've nearly got the pizza on the table for the other members of the household and then realise you've forgotten about the low carber. With such times in mind I always keep a stock of the following:
- Tin of tuna or braised steak (very low carb brand)
- Tin of French beans (in water, no sugar)
- Vacuum packed smoked pork sausage (very low carb brand)
- Full fat cream cheese
- Hard cheese
- Eggs
- Low carb nuts
Hints and Tips so that your meal doesn’t get boring
- Put real butter on your green vegetables from time to time.
- Forget dry and boring salads! Use mayonnaise (read the labels, as some brands are much lower in carbs than others). Or make your own French dressing from good quality oil, mustard and white wine vinegar and a little liquid sweetener if you wish (commercial brands usually contain sugar). Ring the changes by adding herbs. Try making your own Thousand Islands or Marie Rose sauce by mixing a little tomato concentrate and a few drops of liquid sweetener into mayonnaise.
- Use butter/oil, garlic and herbs as a sauce for chicken, prawns, white fish etc
- Stir-fry beef, peppers, mushrooms and courgettes, then add crème fraiche for thickening and a luxurious creamy taste
- Make fishcakes by mixing tinned fish with soya bran, protein powder, mayonnaise and herbs, then frying
- Use a mixture of soya bran, protein powder and herbs and spices for 'breading' fillets of meat or poultry
- Mix prawns and avocado with iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced strawberries (but mind the carbohydrate count!) and Thousand Islands sauce as above to make a delicious main course salad
- Mix whipped cream, beaten eggs, cocoa powder and artificial sweetener and freeze in individual containers to make chocolate ice cream
- Make cheesecake by adding an egg and artificial sweetener plus flavourings to full fat cream cheese
- Make up sugar free jelly and eat it with real cream
- Add cocoa powder, other flavourings and artificial sweetener (or sugar free jelly) to whipped cream to make mousse
- Make chocolates by mixing artificial sweetener and cocoa powder into mascarpone cheese or unsalted butter, dip nuts then set in the freezer
- Make porridge by adding a little soya bran and/or unsweetened desiccated coconut to ricotta cheese with sweetener and cinnamon, then microwaving it
- Make muesli with soya bran, desiccated coconut, nuts and seeds and eat with unsweetened soya milk
- Make bread with flours made from soya or nuts and seeds such as almonds, sesame and flaxseeds (linseeds)
- Make cake and biscuits substituting soya flower, soya bran and ground almonds for wheatflour and sweetner for sugar
[FONT="]***please note i have taken this from Low carb recipes cookbook free Atkins low GI diet and menu plans you can see on their website the full list but just pasted on some key ones tohelp everyone along. I am not claming them as my own.****[/FONT]
