Hi everyone!
I'm a newbie from new zealand and i think this is a great website! It provides me with lots of information and a forum to support each other when needed
Since i'm new on this LC diet, i kindda need you help (this is only my 3rd day on induction).

In my first day was last thursday i was very naughty because i didn't know that i wasn't allowed to have chocolate... i thought i only need to avoid the real obvious food such as potato, rice, pasta & bread. Only after reading Dr.Atkins book in the induction part i just realised that i'm not allowed sugary stuff within my induction.
The sugary part is the hardest for me....i don't mind giving up my bread, pasta, rice & potato for 2 weeks....but i think my sweet tooth is my number one enemy.

So on my first day i had 1 small bar of chocolate in the afternoon, i checked the carb content in the label and it says:18g per bar. However as a consolation, the rest of the day i was very good. For breakfast i had bacon and egg, salad & bits of chicken for lunch and i had fish for dinner. Do you think that day counted as my first day of induction? i'm doubting it because of the chocolate eventho in Atkins book i'm allowed to have 20g of carb per day.

Anyway, i kept going after that first day and i have not had any sugary stuff for 3 days now and I have been trying my best to be strict with my diet. After 48hrs i checked my ketosis with the ketostix and it turned light purple! i was soo happy I guess i'm on my way to weight loss.

However, i need your help on my eating plan because of my lifestyle we tend to eat out quite often and i need to know exactly how much carb i'll be eating in the restaurant food...

My first question, if I buy chickens from KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and not eat anything else that comes with the order except the chicken, will it be okay for induction stage?
Since we are allowed meat on induction stage i thought it would be safe enough, but i'm worried about the coating on the fried chicken....i'm pretty use they use flour and egg rite? is that mean KFC chicken is a big NO for induction? will it be alright to eat it on the second stage after the induction?
My confusion with a lot of meat comes with meat coating....like battered fish can we eat it during the induction or we have to peel off the coating and just eat the inside fish? What about the Chicken burger in McDonald or Burger King, if we toss the bun can we eat just the chicken? However i'm also sure the chicken is coated, so are we allowed this? if we eat it, do we have to count the carb within the 20g/day that we are allowed? i found this very confusing... so please help me and shed some light on this, because i'm not sure if i'm doing the right thing since i'm still on my induction stage i don't want to ruin it.

My second question, before i go on LC diet i always have my diet lemonade after dinner. Am i still allowed to drink this on induction? I checked the label and it said carb=NIL. Am i allowed to have diet soda on induction stage? If we always check the ingridient labels before buying/eating it, is it safe enough to believe what the label said?

I know that the first induction stage is very critical...so i want to get it right.
I had visited the pharmacy to get my multi-vitamins and i have been very careful to eat as little of carb as possible, but i just want a confirmation from others that are more experince than me that i'm doing this the right way

So please help. . . I hope my questions don't sound silly or ignorant, i just need some assistance from experienced LC eater and hopefully overtime i will be able to help others too

Thanks heaps in advance from me!
Cheers,
Natalia

Hey I am a newbie too, day 3 as well but I thought I would give you some of the tips I learned just from the experts on this site alone. They really encourage you to read the book, so you are on your way!
First, I cheated once on my induction and was advised to start over but I guess that is one's own choice.
About KFC and the other breaded chicken... I am pretty sure they would be made with flour so I would stay far far away from those. I suppose you could pull the skin off, but if you are anything like me, you have to eat the skin
As for your lemonade. I dunno really, there is probably no sugar since it is diet but it might have aspertame and that stalls some people in their weightloss. Although I do still have some diet pepsi but am slowing weaning myself off. But if it is made with sucralose (splenda) that is fine.
We are all new at sometime, this site is so amazing, everyone is very helpful.
I know you can do this! How much do you have to lose? I have 45 lbs. Good luck on induction!

~Steph

Hi, thank you for your input....much appreciated

The other thing i need to ask: is it okay to have 2 eggs scambled with bacon and maybe mushroom everyday for breakfast? is this too much? a friend of mine said that its not good to have 2 eggs everyday because they are very high in colesterol...so i'm not sure if that is true or not?

Natalia

Your questions are all very sensible! Never be afraid to ask about anything you're not sure of.

On this diet, eggs play a big part, and you are allowed to have two (or more) eggs a day for as long as you want (tho you may tire of them if you have too many!!). People who have been on this diet for a long time get their cholesterol checked and I haven't come across anyone who hasn't had lowered numbers than before they went on Atkins, so I wouldn't worry about eating the eggs.

As for the chocolate, it wouldn't just be the 18 carb grams but the effect on your insulin, as it is so sweet. Insulin levels control the way we store fat which is why we avoid sugary foods. However, I would just continue as you are. Weigh yourself after a week and play it by ear. If after two weeks you have beaten carb cravings and have lost five percent of the weight you want to lose, you could consider upping your carbs by 5g.

Burger King do sell a chicken burger which hasn't got a coating, I think it's called the chicken flamer. Personally, I can never bring myself to throw the bun, so I daren't order those things. Steph is quite right about KFC, the coating on the chicken is chock full of carbs - I really miss those Twisters, too....

For myself, I have found that the occasional (and very occasional) 'treat' doesn't hurt, but some people find it does. You will come to understand how this way of eating affects your body when you are further on into this way of eating.
Best of luck with Induction, sounds like you are going to make a success of it!

Natalia:

I think you're confusing carb content with carb quality.

Sure, you can have 20 grams of carbs per day, but what constitutes those carbs is all-important. The whole theory behind low carbing is to control your blood insulin levels and you cannot do that if you're consuming sugar, in whatever form.

If a chocolate bar has 18 grams of carbs, you still can't have it because of the sugar content. That's the same reason you cannot have fruit or starch. The natural sugar content in those foods is too high and will not allow your insulin levels to get where you want them to be.

Eat only the foods that are listed in the book, and do not deviate from that list.

Hope this helps...

April
352 / 205 / 180
5'10", large frame, size 13 shoe
www.geocities.com/aprilreinhardt

April has given you really good advice. Your carbs should be spread throughout the day and should come mainly from vegetables - especially dark green leafy ones. You'll get a few incidentals from things like cream, splenda, dressing, etc.

As to the cholesterol question. The research is pretty clear that eating cholesterol does not raise your cholesterol. (just as eating fat - in the absence of carbohydrates - does not translate into getting fat) Your body makes it's own cholesterol. Eggs have been vindicated for years. Scarf 'em up. I eat eggs every day in one way or another and my lipid profile has only gotten better every time.

HTH

Maggie
5'1"
Atkins since '98 (160)
Maintaining nicely (110)

Redhead until further notice!

Natalie, can you get Diet Rite? They have many fruit flavors and are allowed by Adkins. I am not sure if your lemonade would be allowed or not. You could also add a little lemon and Splenda to your water. I always do this when I eat out, since most of the water is very horrible tasting. If you find you cannot live without your lemonade do not count it as water. The onlything that counts as water is water.

I have been eating LC since April and I had KFC the other night. I took the skin off. If you cannot resist the skin do not get any until your body has had a chance to get rid of all the bad cravings. This will happen .

Good Luck and reread your book.

Susan ( AKA Northwest)
207/178.5/160

Thank you soo much everyone, your advice are much appreciated

I haven't had any sweets since my last chocolate bar and I have not touch the diet lemonade either until i'm sure its okay, thats why i post the question in this forum.
For Susan, unfortunately we don't have Diet Rite here so i can't really have that either as a subtitude...

I wish i know where to get Spelnda here in New Zealand, most people on diet here use Equal as sugar replacement. However i checked out the label and it contains Aspartame so i have not touch any of it. So my chocolate bar on that first day was my last sweet for a while.

Regarding the carb contents and quality, i'm learning as i go
I had KFC yesterday and i peel off the skin with great reluctant but i ended up with only the inside meat, so i guess thats okay.

Oh btw, i read from previous post to stay away from processed meat at induction stage...but i have already bought Corned Beef on my shopping trip last week. I checked the carb contents and its said 0% and doesn't have sugar in it. I also checked the ingredients within the label and the things listed there are: Beef, water, salt & sodium nitrite. Will it be okay to eat thisfor dinner? Does anyone know the carb count on 'Corned Beef'?

The other thing is my multi-vitamins. I just got them a few days ago when i started induction and unfortunately at that stage i didn't know we are supposed to get multi-vitamins that does not include iron in it.
I have already bought my 75 tablets multi-vitamins and it contains: Ferrous Phosphate (equivalent to iron 5mg).

I'm taking this once a day, is it okay to have this? What effect will it have on my diet if i'm having a very small dose of iron within my daily multi-vitamins? I don't have the heart to throw them away as it was quite expensive

I think i'm gonna have to finish off that i bottle of multi-vitamins and change it afterwards with no iron. However when i checked some of the local pharmacies here they do not have any multi-vitamins with no iron, so i will be checking some health food store as another options.

Thanks everyone once aain for helping me with my questions anyone got any advise regarding the corned beef andmulti-vitamins?

Cheers,
Natalia

If you're still menstruating, the iron is not a big deal for a couple of months. Perfect opportunity to donate some blood, too.

As for the Corned Beef, it's perfectly carb legal and I eat it. It's the nitrates in it that a lot of people try to avoid. In large enough quantities nitrates can give rats cancer. I like corned beef, bacon, ham, sausage, etc. I don't live on these items, but I don't avoid them either - 'specially bacon, my favorite.

HTH you make up your mind about those issues.

Maggie
5'1"
Atkins since '98 (160)
Maintaining nicely (110)

Redhead until further notice!

Just pick the coating off of the KFC chicken. I had to do that a few days ago. (MY well meaning brother bought it for me and I didn't want to waste it.)

It's better, and easier too, to buy chicken that doesn't have any breading. I'm not sure what the fast food situation is in New Zealand or I'd recommend Pollo Loco. American supermarkets usually have nice broasted chickens in the deli section.

Don't worry about the aspartame unless you're sensitive to it. It's no big deal, really.

There are some fake chocolate recipes that you can use to appease your sweet tooth. You might want to look in the recipes section if/when that's working again. I kind of like hot chocolate made with cream, water, unsweetened cocoa powder and some artificial sweetener.

Natalia check out this site
www.nutritiondata.com I found this really helpful

Thanks everyone....all of you have been really helpful

For Doctor Insomnia, is unsweetened cocoa powder low in carb? do you have any idea where i can buy it from? I suppose i'm gonna have to look around here seeing that we are in a different country oh well...i'll have another check at the supermarket after my induction, it'll be nice to be able to have hot chocolate again

I have Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder. I don't remember the carb numbers exactly, but it's relatively low. (4 carbs per tablespoon? something like that?) I'm not sure if that's allowed on induction, but you could probably try to weasel it in.

1TB = net 2 (3gms carbs - 1gm fiber) for Hersheys. When I'm in Canada, I get Fryes, same carbs. I think most cocoa is the same.

I've seen cocoa in the coffee/tea section, but most supermarkets have cocoa in amongst the baking ingredients. It's a staple in my kitchen.

HTH

Maggie
5'1"
Atkins since '98 (160)
Maintaining nicely (110)

Redhead until further notice!

Thanks Maggie & Dr.Insomnia

I'll keep an eye out for those Unsweeten Cocoa Powder (either Herseys brand or Fryes).

Hopefully this will relieve my chocolate cravings

Can't wait until my induction is over.....8 more days to go! Counting down