I am new to this forum and to the LC of eating but I am jumping in with both feet. I need to lose weight for me and for my new daughters sake. I want to be around for her long term. I have read the Atkins book from cover to cover so I am prepared. I have done all my shopping for the two induction but I have 1 question so far and that is..... I love cheese and I hate veggies except for lettuce and cucumbers so I was wondering do I still have to really limit my cheese intake becuz of the carb count or is there another reason to limit the cheese ? Thanks for being here

I love the challenges too, it makes me want to do even more. I have started to walk to Leslie Sansone walk away the pounds 1 mile and I struggled thru it but I will do it everyday.....until i fly thru it.... thanks again and I am glad to be here.

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every body has a different type body, and what bothers one, doesn't bother another... I found I can't eat a LOT of cheese, and it does cause your cholesterol to go up. If you find there's a problem, stop eating it, and see if it is the cause.Welcome aboard! This is a wonderful place to be. Lots of support, friendly people, and fun, fun, fun!

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In the cookies of life, we are the chocolate chips.

You've come to a good place, and congratulations on getting off to a good start.

To answer your question, yes, there's a good reason to limit the cheese. The first reason is: 'Cause Dr. Atkins says so! It's the plan.

If you need more reasons, you might think of the relatively high fat content of cheese, as compared to vegetables. Also, with cheese, you'll get far less VOLUME of food for the amount of carbs consumed.

Sorry to say, lettuce and cucumbers aren't going to take you very far on a low-carb plan. And even dark green lettuces don't have the fiber and nutrient content you'll get from broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, and countless other healthy veggies. What about melting some of that cheese over a veggie? You could fool yourself into liking it!

At this forum, you'll find many helpful suggestions--and recipes--for adding variety and nutrition to your menu. So stick around.

And best wishes.
P. S. I'm a Leslie Sansone fan! Keep at it, and you'll be amazed how quickly your endurance increases. Exercise is the key to continuing benefits.

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Barb L.
Atkins since Jan 2003
Maintenance as of 4/05


My Fitday Journal

Welcome, Sherbear.

For your daughter's sake, I hope you'll learn to like vegetables. It's a very important part of this way of eating. The two vegetables that you do like, are about the least important in terms of all the wonderful phytonutrients which vegetables offer.

Hope you'll make yourself at home.

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sherbear- welcome and nice to meet you. it sounds like you're getting prepped for a successful run to me, getting informed, doing your shopping, being ready to go. that's great!

a couple of comments and another perspective on your question:

on the veggies: you'll probably get tired of lettuce and cucumbers after a few days, or whatever time frame it is for you. that's to be expected, since we need variety to keep happy, i think. maybe some don't, but i do! it will probably serve you well, though, with this way of life, if you start working on expanding your veggie choices. but it's not as difficult as you might think...

i've never been a big veggie eater. heck, if i was, i probably wouldn't have needed to lose so much weight! but here's what i found: first off, after a few days, i found that my tastes were changing. i accidently got a taste of ketchup after my first few days of low-carbing, and i couldn't believe how over-sweetened it tasted: like red sugar! i started craving veggies. and i also learned that a piece of apple tasted like a big dessert! (definitely not for induction) and if someone had told me how much my tastes were gonna change, i would have accused them of being looney! so understand you may feel a bit differently as time goes on.

now, i try new ways of fixing veggies. sometimes i put cheese sauce on 'em! sometimes i stick 'em in ranch dressing. sometimes i mix 'em with eggs. sometimes i fry 'em up with some meat. you just have to use your imagination and after a while, it becomes second nature...to get some creative ideas for your veggies, you may want to check out the five a day club in the challenge thread area. i'll bet there are lots of ideas on how to get your veggies there!

and on the cheese: i love cheese, too. but what i found is that if i eat more than just a little bit, i don't lose weight. cheese is high calorie and while on low-carb many people don't have to count calories, well, if you eat too many calories even low carb, you will not lose and may even gain weight.

and one other word of warning--i always suggest newbies stay away from the "low carb" bars, shakes, and convienience foods. i've seen this stall more people than any other single issue. later on in your program, you may decide to try something like that, and see if your body handles it well or not. but for the beginning, i'd rather see you get off to a flying start than to get as many "goodies" as possible. you're retraining your tastes to some degree, and it will make a difference.

if i could, i would suggest you start out with the atkins plans as is, and then, after your induction and you start adding in carbs, maybe consider tailoring it more to your preferences and experimenting. that way, you get a good, solid springboard into low-carbing, you'll start out with some losses under your belt (ha!), and you'll be developing a good idea of how you feel when you lose weight, when things are running smoothly, etc. then, when you try changes, you'll have a better idea what's going on. make sense?

and come here often! the people here are the BEST for advice, encouragment, support and troubleshooting. i owe lots of my success to the good information i got right here!

good luck to you, and check in with us once you start induction and let us know how it's going!

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EatSmart Nutritional Scale Review

Welcome Sherbear!!! OOHH! A new daughter??? How old is she? Got a picture??

Sounds like you are setting the foundation for a great start!!! PLEASE reconsider your veggies - they are soooooo wonderful!!!

Glad to have you here!!! Good luck!

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Kelly
Highest recorded weight: 103.2kg/227.04lbs (03/15/08)
Current: 97kg/213.4lb-13.64
Goal:150
"Resensitizing myself to the urgency and severity of my weight problem is important in keeping myself motivated. I have to remind myself that my body will not tolerate this abuse forever." Jeannette Fulda, aka PastaQueen

Sherbear, you've gotten some really great advice here. I would like to say welcome to the forum and make yourself at home. I want to add something about the veggies, like goddess said, sometimes it's the way veggies are prepared that can turn you off. You might like your green beans roasted or stir-fried crunchy instead of boiled up soggy. Fresh, stirfried spinach is awesome and tasted totally different that canned. It only takes about 2-3 minutes to fix it that way, too. Did you like potatoes pre-LC? If so, tried mashed cauliflower, we have some great recipes for that dish here on LCE. Also, if you like potato salad the faux potato salad made with cauliflower is awesome and many of my nonLC family and friends can't tell the difference.

At the top of this page click on the "Recipes" link and browse the vegetable ones. Keep an open mind about them. As Maggie said, for your daughter's sake like vegetables. Kids will ending up eating what their parents like and so on.

Best wishes and keep us posted about your veggies!

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Ozzie's Place

One of the great things about this way of eating is learning about new foods and learning new things about familiar foods! There are some amazingly tasty veggie recipes out there.

Before long, you may find your tastes transforming and chaning. Getting past carb cravings opens the door to many new appetite pleasers.

Might I suggest that you add your cheese to a veggie dish? Brocolli or zucchini is a whole new dish with a couple of tablespoons of grated cheddar cheese melted on top. Grating the cheese is a trick to make it go farther, you know.

Marcie gave us a wonderful recipe for mashed cauliflower made with cream cheese and brie. I usually make mine with about half the amount of cheese in the recipe and we think it tastes just fantastic. I once had a dinner guest who said he didn't like cauliflower. I told him to go ahead and taste it - it was different. And, he liked it! He said that if I hadn't told him it was cauliflower, he never would have known that's what was in it. Check it out:Marcie's Cauliflower Recipe

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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.

Welcome, Sher!

One thing about too much cheese and not enough green veggies is that you'll have "problems" in the bathroom. Cheese is VERY binding and has a tendency to "clog up" the works, if you get my drift.

So, make sure you don't eat too much cheese in one day.

Also, I would strongly encourage you to try some new veggies every now and then. You may be surprised to find you actually like something you used to hate. Just ask around the board. This has happened to MANY people. They used to hate broccoli and now they have it every week. Or, they hated green beans and now they're their favorite veggie!

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It is always necessary to leave some part
of cooking to improvisation. - Paul Bocuse
Member since 2001