Hey lady B - have you considered trying the less than 20g carbs per day option? Atkins induction in other words and - I think the same in neris and India, they suggest saying at under 20g carbs until you're fairly close to the weight you want to be.
Low carb is a great (in that you can eat loads) but fairly unforgiving diet.
What I mean by that is that most of us who come to Atkins being more familiar with calorie counting diets are used to the mentality that you can have one 'bad' day but as long as you're good the next day it balances out (except on calorie counting you're usually still hungry and it's so easy to slip again). So you could have a chocolate bar one day, but be saintly the rest if the week and balance it.
That mentality doesn't work with low carb, because of the need to stay in ketosis in order to burn fat. Say you're being perfect and eating your 20g per day with 15g coming from veggies etc, but then you have an off day and eat a chocolate bar.
That chocolate bar could well (would likely) take you out of ketosis. Not being in ketosis, especially if your carbs are a little higher in general, means you can gain back some of the water weight you lost in the first week (though the good news is its only water and not fat and will go once you're back in K).
Most importantly, not being in ketosis means you're not burning fat.
So, then it takes a few days of eating around 20g carbs to get back into ketosis and you might be stalled a little or even gain in that time.
I've had a couple of planned breaks while I've been on Atkins but only one 'one day' break. That one day put my weight loss back by two weeks as I gained 7lb (water weight) immediately and had to lose that before I lost anything else.
It's not that you can never eat off plan, I just don't eat off plan without expecting to go up to 2 weeks with no weight loss.
So your brownie and the insulin spike it caused might have pulled you out of ketosis and the higher level of carbs the next day probably didn't help. The courgette cake also - yummy but I personally only ever make dessert type things in single portions so I can exactly carb count what's in it and so I don't end up eating it all in one day (I have very little willpower so have to be that strict with myself). A sweet taste, as long as its carb controlled and has no real sugar (or polyols) shouldn't cause you problems. I have cocoa bark regularly, sweetened mims and various almond things once or twice a week without issue. I just make sure not to have anything I can overeat.
What might have been more of an issue is it being 16g carbs a portion - I try not to eat more than 10g at any one meal.
20g carbs sounds restrictive but I've been eating at under 20g a day (I allow myself 30g a day but 11g of those carbs come from medication so only 19g gets spent on food) since April without feeling restricted. I have a chocolate substitute, a few different bread substitutes, pasta substitute in the form of courgette noodles, microwave almond cupcakes, cheese crisps, salami crisps - but I find I don't need these things all the time anymore and just have them when I fancy them. I don't think my daily diet is restrictive, really. When you consider the variety of food most people actually eat - toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch etc - most of us probably eat more variety on low carb.
Anyway, I know a sts can be frustrating and hard when you've been trying all week and maybe haven't had things that you wanted (having said its not restricted, nearly every day there are things I want but can't have- but the same would be true on any diet) but I'm quite sure with a few tweaks and maybe cutting back on the carbs you'll find a way to make this work for you - and hopefully get a nice woosh to compensate for this sts
Eta: oh also, was a bit worried about the black bean sauce from the Chinese when you had it. Most sauces from the take out have sugar in and are thickened with flour - its nearly impossible to check. Crispy duck (minus the sauce) is a good Chinese option.
