Hi everyone! I am officially begining my Atkins tomorrow(Saturday). Me and a couple online friends are joining up and working on this online together. I know this works because Ive read so many boards all over with so many people that have lost weight. IM so excited for once!! I am currently 320 and want to be 180 or so. Less if possible but 180 is fine with me.
Now for the questions. What do I do or take to reduce sugar cravings? I am a total 100% sugar addict. DO you recommend walking as excercise or is weights/gym better over all? What works for yall? Can I have Diet Pepsi or is that a no-no? (important ? cause Im a diet pepsi addict too above all). One more question. I want one of those adorable tickers that show weight loss , how do I get one? (the ones alot of you have)

I think thats all for right now, but Ill have lots more questions during all this and I will need lots of support!!

Thanks,
Ange

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If you can shape it in your mind, You will find it in your life!!

Okay... first let's start with your questions about the nutrition..... to reduce the cravings.... the first few days are hard(I will totally admit that, and so will most people here).
1. Try to avoid caffiene... it really increases cravings for most(YMMV).
2. Make sure you are eating..... and have lots of induction friendly foods on hand. If you keep your stomach full and eat enough food... you won't have hunger pains and that should help avoid cravings bit.
3. With the soda, I PERSONALLY avoid soda as much as possible. DRINK< DRINK< and DRINK your water. And you might want to try green tea. Alot of us have kicked the soda/coffee habits by replacing it with green tea. And if you want to drink diet soda, try for ones sweetened with splenda, not sucralose like diet pepsi is. Sometimes soda can induce cravings, and in certain people, it may actually act like sugar alcohols in the body slowing your weight loss. My best advice is to stay away fro mthe soda for your two initial weeks of induction. YMMV.

Next onto working out. This is the one thing that will drastically increase your weight loss. I don't know how much you know about weight lifting, but lifting weights, even moderately, will increase muscle mass, burning more fat while the body is at rest, as well as the effects of the lifting exercise itself lasts up to three times longer for the metabolism as cardio exercise. In my opinion, everyone should do atleast some form of ressitance training to build muscle. Cardio is also a good thing(and yes walking is cardio). Your choice of exercise is really based on your physical health and capabilities at this time. If you need more help on the exercise thing, I'd be happy to help you work up a program...

And to your last major question... the weight loss tickers that so many of us have... well just click on the ticker at in my signature, it will take you to the website where you can create one for free. And then just take the URL and post it in your signature. It's not hard, but if you have trouble.... anyone around the board could help(including myself).

Good luck on your journey and remember we are here to support and cheer you on through the good times and the not so easy.

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Megan Rose
Back and really to lose some weight!
250(sw)/196(cw)/175(gw1)/150(fgw)

Thanks for responding so quickly. For being 320 lbs Im in good health and can do most anything I want. Lately though, and one of the reasons I have chosen to get rid of this weight is that Im gettting tired really easy and can tell its getting bad. I dont want to develop any of the ailments that being overweight can cause. Im almost 33 and I want to be a healthy 33!
IM willing to give up the soda and I love green tea so I will be replacing the Diet pepsi for it then. I was a bread addict too, but over the last week Ive broke myself from that, so if I cant do that, I can do anything!
As far as the hunger, I love veggies and am ganna try this mock mashed potatoes made of cauliflour too to see how it is. I guess its trial and error to see what makes me not hungry best, like between more meat or more veggies? I like meat, but will probably reach for the veggies first as they are easier to cook and Im kinda lazy:bear: . Thanks for being here tonight, it was nice to get feedback so quickly. Now Im going to bed. lol. OH one more thing. Is it true that a balanced sleep will also help with the weight loss? If so, boy do I have a rough road. I am out of school this quarter and have totally messed up my sleep habits. I go to bed at 1am and sleep til 8 or 9 am. Thats not good for me I know. WIll it help to change that as far as metabolism?
And thats another question.....(told ya thered be endless ones). My metabolism is non exsitant..heehee. Are there other things along with excercise and low carbs that I can do to increase my metabolism or will this be sufficient?
Ok, Im ganna let ya go for now. IM headed to bed but I will be back tomorrow!!


G'night
Angela

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If you can shape it in your mind, You will find it in your life!!

Welcome, Angela.

Sleep is important, too, it turns out. There's a recent article in the "low carb diet & health news" on just this topic.

Do check out our beginners info section (there's a link at the top of the page) and make yourself at home.

p.s. Megan, when you said you meant aspartame, didn't you? Splenda and sucralose are the same thing, one's a trade name. Diet pepsi is sweetened with aspartame, which gives some folks problems.

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Angela, the latest info does seem to indicate that getting enough sleep will help with weight loss efforts. Mainly try for 7 to 8 hours. I don't think it matters that you go to bed at 1 and get up at 9 . . . that's 8 hours!

If you are going to do Atkins, I stress the importance of getting the book and reading it! That will answer a lot of your questions. Of course, you can get the guidelines at his site, but since everyone's body reacts differently, Atkins does seem to cover a lot of these differences in his book . . . such as a lower metabolism. I combat my lower metabolism by eating fewer calories I loaned my book to my sister, so I can't check this out, but I think Atkins suggests L-Carnitine for cravings.

Since you love meat and vegetables, and have already beaten the bread thing, and have given up Diet Pepsi, it sounds like you are really on a roll!

And a note on exercise: if you have been pretty much a couch potato, start slowly! Short, brisk walk for starters, gradually adding more, especially weights. Also remember that muscle weighs more than fat! Be sure to take a lot of measurements at the start of low carbing . . . even your neck, wrist, calves, in addition to the usual bust, waist, and hips. This will be your true guide as to how you are doing. Sometimes the scale may not budge, but your inches will!

Good luck and please visit often!

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Alida
5'1" ~ 59 years old
Highest weight: 165
Atkins 7/10/2004
160/126/125
RE-DO, January 2008:
167/162/135

Take L-glutamine for sugar cravings.

It takes a few days to kick in, but after it does, it sure does help a ton!

And drink your water!! (1/2 oz per pound of body weight per day - seriously). It helps tremendously with cleansing, sugar and caffeine detox, and speeds up weightloss as well. (And the running to the bathroom will decrease after your body gets used to being hydrated again).

Also, keep some pain-killer of choice on hand for the first couple of days of induction. You'll probably experience a headache or two and some general "uckiness" (technical term ) for a little bit while your body is adjusting to not having all of the sugar, caffeine, and preservatives it's gotten used to. This will go away and you will feel SO MUCH better! So remember this and push on through.

Good luck! Glad you found us!

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Mada
221.6/193.8 <--- ONEderland! /sz 8

ange..
ditto what they all said..
i want to add that when i started LCing i could sleep all DAY if i could... but after a while i started to feel better..sleep better and have more energy during the hours i WAS up.. and i found i needed less hours sleep PERIOD..

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kims SECOND journal is HERE
kims new blog
KIMS BLOG !!
SUGARFREE BLOG

Ange, not much I can add to the great advice posted so far. Drink lots of water, and start a walking program, even if it is only 10 minutes at first. And strength training is SO important, there are alot of good sites to learn how to incorporate strength training into your lifestyle, here is one I found to be particularly useful :

http://www.strongwomen.com/index.stm

Welcome to LCE I hope you find all the motivation, inspiration, and advice you will ever need to be successful with your health goals!

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Shimmer
my blog

Welcome Angela. I was a total sugar addict as well. I use to eat 2 to 4 or more mini candy bars a day. It does get better with time. I don't take the pills to help that but it obviously works for some people. I would give it some time but if you can't stand it then maybe you could try them.

I (as well as a lot of people here) do Walk Away the Pounds. I like you was surprisingly capable for weighing 300+ though once I got to 390 my knees were giving me such problems. It did take a while of building myself up to do the six days a week I do now but since I was sedentary before that was to be expected. (I had been very active through my pregnancy a couple years ago but that dropped off after having DS.) I say you should try some different things and find something you'll like and will stick with, for me it was WATP, but it's a very individual thing. I do some muscle toning with my arms but not much as I don't belong to a gym. In the future I hope to join Curves or someplace like that but right now it's just not possible.

As for the metabolism if you are truly metabolically resistant there is a section in the Atkins book on ways to conquer that.

I use to drink at least one diet coke with lime a day (usually two or three) and kept drinking fresca when I first started but recently I have switched to green tea as my drink if I am not drinking water...which I do drink a lot of. I do also keep diet rite (raspberry flavored) which is sweetend with splenda so I can enjoy an occassional soda if I feel like it. Also I do have a diet coke with lime maybe once a week if the mood strikes me. But now I can't even finish a whole one in one sitting. A far cry from where I was five months ago when I chugged them.

Congratson taking charge of things. I am ust a bit older than you and feel like my late 30's are going to be the best times of my life healthwise.

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Noël


Worry doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrows, it empties today of its strengths.

Hey, Welcome. It was fun and infectious to read your post - I love your energy and enthusiasm!

I also think water helps with the cravings.

As for the caffine - I, personally, depart from the book in that I feel it is better to taper off to avoid headaches. I think the headaches are unnecessary and I don't believe that caffine could possibly do more than slightly slow weight loss. Many people, me included, still drink caffinated drinks and haven't found it to be a problem in losing weight. But, each of us is different. I'd say to cut your caffine intake in half the first week, then in half again the second week. After that, experiment to see if being caffine free speeds your weight loss. (of course, I'm not talking about tapering off sugary drinks. Go cold turkey on the sugar drinks, as they just won't work at all for any weight control plan )

DANDR says some people find that the aspartame in most diet sodas stalls weight loss. Maybe... I really haven't seen many reports about that. Still, I switched to Diet Rite, Hansens, and other brands sweetened with Splenda. I did that for a long time, then I switched back to my preferred poison, caffine-free diet Pepsi (which has aspartame). No difference in my case. I try not to drink more than one diet soda a day, as I feel it's more important to drink water.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading about your progress and getting to know you better.

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~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

Mada, thanks for the correction on the sugar craving. I was getting my L's confused and I don't have my book to check it out!

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Alida
5'1" ~ 59 years old
Highest weight: 165
Atkins 7/10/2004
160/126/125
RE-DO, January 2008:
167/162/135

No problem, Alida... all those supplements can get to be mind-boggling! I only know because I take it myself.

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Mada
221.6/193.8 <--- ONEderland! /sz 8

You all are so wonderful with so much information. I have felt yucky lately and I know its from the lack of sugar. Ive spent so many years eating and drinking everything with sugar and Im realizing now just how much my body depends on it to even feel "normal". I did get a caffine free diet pepsi today, other than that, I did really good. Normally Im drinking a 2 liter a day and I drank a 20 oz all day so hopefully I can eliminate even that after a while.
Now for the sugar cravings, they havent been bad like I imagined. No headaches, just general lethargic feeling. That will go away when I get my butt up and excercise. lol. You know, I avoided this "diet...ohhhh nasty word" because I thought it would be like others where you stay soooo hungry but I actually get to eat decently and not be hungry. This might just work..heehee.

Thanks everyone!!!
Ange

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If you can shape it in your mind, You will find it in your life!!

Ange...I started last January...had failed at every diet known to man and a few I had made up myself...and decided this one too was not going to work...it couldn't--nothing else did...so I would give it two weeks and then see what happened...I thought I was dying the first 5 days...then I felt better and even better yet I lost 6 lbs the first week...but it was the first week and I always had seen something happen the first few days of a diet...every diet so this was nothing new...but byt he end of the second week I had lost 13 and still wasn't hungry...here I am 71lbs lighter and in my second year...take it from someone still trying it for two (extremely extended) weeks...It works...and it can be done longer than two weeks too! I love this WOE! I don't have to be hungry for it to work...in fact it works best when I am NOT hungry!

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Lori

232/190/130
My other journal http://www.lowcarbeating.com/bb/showthread.php?t=1130

Hi Lori,


That is wonderful! Thanks so much for the inspiration. If you can do it so can I! 71 lbs is awesome, so you gotta be doin something right girl. Im hoping soon, Ill be saying that too. I know I can do this even through the rough times, especially when I have people like all of you to talk to.

Ange

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If you can shape it in your mind, You will find it in your life!!