On my Atkins journey

[Silvermoonbeam]

Well I did a big post last night to introduce myself but gawd knows what happened to it!!!

So after a whole year of yo yo dieting (and many more years before that) and being no better off than I was before I started I did some serious research over the past few weeks and found a book on Amazon written by an eminent scientist called Gary Taubes (Why we get fat and what to do about it) and my eyes are now wide open and I am aware and awake!!!

Starting in about February 2011

Rosemary Conley :sigh:

Slimming World (lost 2lb in a MONTH) :cry:

Weight Watchers ( lost 12lb in 4 months)

So here we have it - January 30th 2012 and Day 1 of Atkins

I plan to eat today (already had breakfast)

2 cups of tea with Splenda and fc milk

Breakfast - 2 fried eggs, 2 rashers bacon, 1 cup of mushrooms

Lunch - Tinned salmon with 1 cup salad and mayo

Dinner - Roast chicken with 1 cup of hot veg

Snacks - 10 olives and a bit of feta or some celery stuffed with Philly

6 glasses water

I might make up a WW sugar free jelly later and have with some double cream, not sure if WW jelly is OK to be honest, still on a steep learning curve here. I also bought some WW new style cordial to try and encourage me to drink more water, will have to check that out too, anybody know?

I did do Atkins many years ago (maybe 7 or 8) but it was half heartedly as I felt so guilty eating all that fat. I even felt a bit bad this morning eating bacon and eggs but I am determined after reading the above Gary Taubes book that Atkins is the way to go for me. I always knew SW would not work as there were way too many carbs allowed for somebody like me, I wonder why it works so well for some people and not others?

I did it with my 2 sisters and none of us lost more than 2lb in a whole month, we are all basically the same body shape (apples) and obviously we have the same genetic makeup. i.e. carb sensitive.

I DO NOT want this to be yet ANOTHER diet, I am just fed up of diets, diets, diets, please God let this be my last time and let it be a whole new way of life for me.

 

[Silvermoonbeam]

BTW I have high blood pressure so it will be interesting to see if this goes down with Atkins, also after reading all the health benefits about Atkins I hope I stop myself from getting diabetes like my mother. But to be honest my health is not the issue (shame faced expression) it is because I am sick of my middle age spread!!

Oh and I did buy a box of Atkins Day Break Cappuccino Nut bars at Tesco - just in case......they do say "This product can be used in all phases of the Atkins Diet" but I will try not to cave in just yet.

 

[ladyfelsham]

Hi Silver and welcome

Gary Taubes is a brilliant read, and it really does open your eyes to all the rubbish we are spoonfed (sorry about the pun) over so called healthy eating.

You will find a lot of low carb fans here. I joined ages ago and did well at first but let carb creep get the better of me - but I also discovered that I have a wheat intolerance - which I thought was normal!

So, even though my weight loss/Atkins woe focus is a bit up and down this time, I know I am eating much better, getting lots more healthy greens in me, lots of water down me, preparing meals from scratch without salt or preservatives - and just looking much better for it (and not blowing off for England - a big plus! ).

So, feel free to ask lots of questions and post your menus - always good to see.

Re the sugar free jelly, a lot of us do have it in Induction because we all crave something sweet from time to time. Just limit that and the bars (our guru Jim shouts "Frankenfoods!" - he means anything sugar free or with fake sugars in them) and try and keep to the straight and narrow and see how you get on.

Susie

 

[Silvermoonbeam]

Thanks for your support Susie, yes I will try and limit this stuff until I can't stand not having sweets for another minute!!

I just bought the flax seed for the MiM's pretty expensive at Holland and Barrett for £4.99 so hope it goes a long way.

Also I bought some unsweetened Soya milk for my morning cuppa's as somebody on another site said milk is a big no no on Atkins............lots to re-learn!!

 

[ladyfelsham]

I use Alpro soya unsweetened (green container) - it's 0.1g carbs per 100g. I promise, you will soon become a label detective and check everything A lot of people also use their double cream allowance - straight or watered down.

Re flax, I buy Flex Flax online (just google it) for about £4.95 a pack. I don't use it often but they claim it has no carbs because of the milling process - and I'll believe anything

Have a good read of the stickies (above the diaries) - Jim's one "So you're thinking of starting Atkins" and my low carb shopping one.

The keys to this (there are a few) are -

- eat fat to burn fat, which I know flies in the face of everything you've been told but just check out Katie's stats, she is now on maintenance, ditto Jim

- use your 20g carbs a day eating green veg - it really does help - rather than getting into complicated computations about how many carbs you have left for flax Mims (muffin in a minute, there's a sticky on that too) and so on

- drink loads of water - 2-3 litres a day - unflavoured, because many flavourings have citric acid which stall people. Just keep it as close to the induction instructions, at least for a few weeks, and then you can introduce things and see if they make you stall.

 

[dizzydelly]

Hi silver and welcome!
Good luck on your Atkins journey, it seems like youve really thought about it and know what you want to achieve so fingers crossed for you! x

 

[Caledonia]

hey hunnie, welcome to Atkins, hope it goes well.

Stickies are wonderful, get stuck in.

Don't forget to stay in touch, we all like like to see peeps journeys.

 

[hondapeeps]

Heya! Didn't know you had this, I can stalk you now good luck though xx

 

[Soraya]

Hi there, I've recently started back with Atkins too.

I have no idea how people lose weight with SW - it must be a metabolism thing. I went and followed it religously, keeping a food diary, weighing stuff out, red and green days, never wavered or cheated. At the end of 2 weeks I gained 7lbs and they gave me my money back!

 

[Silvermoonbeam]

Thanks for all the support and Soraya my sister's neighbour lost 5 stone on SW and she couldn't understand us 3 not losing, it's weird. :sigh:

Well day 2 for me, not had anything to eat yet I am not a breakfast person so will be looking for easy type meals for that time of the day. I've had 2 cuppas with the soya milk, not too bad just tastes a little different.

I actually feel a little lighter today as I haven't had any bread since last Wednesday as I was trying to ease myself in by cutting the bad carbs gradually. And last night I slept for at least 7 hours without waking up once which is a biggie for me though it may be a co-incidence.

 

[hondapeeps]

Silver, I was on SW for over a year, kept losing but very, very very slowly! Till I fifured this I was being given too much free reign on the carbs and there had to be something else to try.
Oh and I was doing sometimes six gym classes and still gaining!!

So here is to Atkins, may it be easy and work really well for us all xx

 

[Silvermoonbeam]

Silver, I was on SW for over a year, kept losing but very, very very slowly! Till I fifured this I was being given too much free reign on the carbs and there had to be something else to try.
Oh and I was doing sometimes six gym classes and still gaining!!

So here is to Atkins, may it be easy and work really well for us all xx

Agreed too many carbs for some people, though not all obviously.

I knew at my first meeting when my sister who is a huge jacket potato fan asked how many she could have and the SW leader said "Oh have 2 or 3 if you feel like it!!"

 

[hondapeeps]

You know what ticked me off was .... I had gained 1lb after being good and exercising my back side off all week. A very over weight woman across the room lost 2lb, 'how do you think you did that?' the woman- 'oh don't know, I did exercise, did a half hour of swimming....'

Well I about launched myself at her throat!! Honestly, half hour swimming and eating Ll you want? No, no, it's not right!!

 

[Silvermoonbeam]

You know what ticked me off was .... I had gained 1lb after being good and exercising my back side off all week. A very over weight woman across the room lost 2lb, 'how do you think you did that?' the woman- 'oh don't know, I did exercise, did a half hour of swimming....'

Well I about launched myself at her throat!! Honestly, half hour swimming and eating Ll you want? No, no, it's not right!!

 

[hondapeeps]

Oh yeh I lost a stone and gained it all back woo hoo! Anyway, onto a new journey xx

 

[Kat1e]

Hi SMB and welcome. I agree the gary taubes book was a real eye opener anyway i am now clear that i cant eat carbs - they are not healthy for me! Just had a fab dinner of pan fried pork with mushroom and cream sauce and green beans and celeriac chips - this is for life

Good luck to all ditching those jacket potatoes

 

[Silvermoonbeam]

OK not sure if today has been a good day, I think I need to have more prepared foodstuffs......

I have had today the following:

2 cups of tea with Splenda and soya milk

B - 2 hard boiled eggs chopped up in a cup with a knob of butter, a Babybell cheese and 6 slices of very thin cut salami

A cup of coffee with Splenda and double cream, few tbsps.

L - A whole tin of pink salmon with half an avocado and a few tbsps of Hellmanns mayo

Picked at the cooked chicken in the fridge 'cos I was hungry where normally I would have had something bread related and another 4 slices of salami.

D - Brocolli, chicken with some grated cheese heated up in the oven in a little dish.

Snack 6 olives and a wee bit of feta cheese.

2 tbsps WW jelly I had made up in the fridge as I needed a SUGAR sweet fix this afternoon.

MMmm not really happy with today's effort.

I have just taken some mince out of the freezer and will make that cheesybake pie thing tomorrow when I can find the recipe again on here and also I need to make some kind of breakfast thingie, like a quiche type effort with eggs, those lardon bacon bits maybe and I do have some Philly cheese but now not sure if I can have cream cheese. :sign0163:

I SO want to do this right BUT not as a diet but more as a whole new way of life thing..........

I do have the Atkins bars ready for if I have a chocolate craving and the flaxseed to make MiM's if I have a bread craving.

I won't beat myself up because I have had no bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, chocolate, sweets, crisps, cakes or biscuits, so well done me!!

 

[Kat1e]

Looks good to me - maybe add some more green veggies as filling and good for you and keep insides happy. Otherwise picking at chicken and salami is just the right thing to do - eat when hungry! I bet in 1-2 weeks you'll be complaining that you are not hungry (see some of the other posts at the moment) lol.

Yes - crustless quiche is a yummy and good recipe option. Must admit i am now hooked on bacon and scrambled eggs for brekkie...every day...never gets boring...always tastes so good to break my fast

Ps just saw you had brocoli so that's covered

 

[Alpaca]

Good luck with it! It all sounds good to me... Good planning and prep always helps... X

 

[Soraya]

Hi there

'Eggs in a cup' is my DH's favourite food in the whole world. It was what his mum used to give them when they were ill and a real treat apparently - children were much simpler beings in those days. I'm sure this is why he loves Atkins as he can have as much as he wants.