Sixty pounds to lose. Grateful to at least not be gaining. Sad not to be losing. Scared and a lot of other feelings about not being able to stick to a way of eating that I know is best for me. I think the old OA way of never any sugar whatsoever is probably best for me, but then I get into deprivation, pick it up and, before I know it, I'm off and running, cramming in as much as I can "before I have to quit again."

I'm also looking for advice on the most efficient way to get the most out of this board. I have maybe half an hour a day to cruise it, but get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of info on it.

Any old hands at this out there with advice? I'm really, really tired of letting food run my life. I gained this weight five years ago and just can't seem to get rid of it - I'm 50 now, so that has something to do with it...my body just won't tolerate carbs anymore.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Newbies Advice - This is my standard reply to people who don't know where to start. Take a deep breath.

WELCOME!!!!! Beethoven (my favorite composer, BTW
OK, here's my schpiel for newbies:

You've chosen the BEST website for LC support. We are all in this together. We are ALL carb addicts. My weakness has always been French or Italian breads, cakes, cookies, potatoes and pasta. I did not think, in the beginning, that I would be able to do this. I am here to tell you I AM DOING THIS. I thought my cravings for these foods would be insurmountable. I scoured the internet for LC recipes. I read the book of my plan choice, Dr. Atkins New Diet (DANDR) I went to www.atkinscenter.com and read every article I could get my eyeballs on. I armed myself with KNOWLEDGE. I went to past posts here and read others' posts in order to see what people have struggled with and to get veterans' advice on how to do this successfully. I cleaned out my pantry and replaced it with allowed food. I cleaned out my fridge and stocked up on staples of this WOL (way of living.) I didn't exercise much the first couple of weeks. I just didn't have the energy and I suffered from headaches. I now know that I needed to de-tox and my blood sugar wasn't too happy with the lowered levels, but I adjusted. My body adjusted. I just had to give it time. I accepted that I wasn't going to lose weight overnight. The weight didn't come on overnight, so I know I won't lose it overnight. I am doing this for the rest of my life, so however long it takes, that's how long it will take. I like the fact that I can eat like a QUEEN, not go hungry and still LOSE weight. I love trying new recipes, so I now have a renewed interest in cooking. I had gotten into a rut and made the same old same old, night after night. Variety IS the spice of life. Here's what I have learned about this WOL and about myself through my journey and what you have to do to succeed:
1) Follow the book of your plan choice and the advice of LC veterans and read everything you can here and at other LC websites or other books-----KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
2) Drink TONS of water-for detoxing, flushing, hydration, to pevent headaches and balance
3) Take it one day at a time
4) Set small , reachable goals-imperative for success
5) Exercise AS SOON AS you feel up to it and as often as you can, even if it is just walking. Go to Target or Walmart and buy some 5 or 10 lb dumbells and come up with a routine of 8 different exercises, keep a journal and add 2 more repetitions the next time you do your routine.
6) Decide that you are going to do this the rest of your life, this is not a diet, it is a lifestyle change!!!!!! (WOL-Way of Living) If you only do this temporarily, you will go back to the way you lived before and gain the weight back.
7) Create a notebook of recipes, articles, before pictures, journal your feelings and your goals.
8) Take beginning measurements and record them in a journal
9) Use a food tracker program, at www.fitday.com. It is imperative that you track your food intake for at least the 1st three weeks so you can evaluate what you consume to see if you have a correlation between loss and consumption., i.e., if you are not losing, you can look at what you are eating and change things.
10) Come here often for support. We have all been in the same boat you are and are here to help YOU. I personally want each and everyone of you to succeed. There is no greater feeling of satisfaction and acheivement than to take control of your life through this WOL!!! I am doing it, and I want this for you too!!!
11) Yes, post your menus so we can evaluate it for you.
12) Weighing daily will show minute fluctuations and can be discouraging. Only weigh yourself once a week!!!
13) Expect stalls every now and then. If you expect them, they won't come as such a shock. I seem to stall every 3 weeks. This is my pattern. Learn what your patterns are and then just ride them out. I think it has to do with the dreaded TOM!!! (curses being a woman sometimes,
14) expect some detoxing symptoms: headaches, diahrrea or constipation, fatigue, nausea. These symptoms usually disappear after the first week or two. Pamper yourself, don't try to do any strenuous exercise and sleep whenever you feel you need to and when you can. After that, kick it up a notch and start exercising and try to build up your exercise regimen.
15) Do your homework, look up recipes here and at other lowcarb sites.
16) Clean your pantry, cabinets, fridge and freezer of foods you will or could cheat with.
17) Do NOT use Low-carb bars or shakes in the beginning, they will stall you. Avoid anything that contains Maltitol or Lactitol!!!
18) READ labels!!!!!!!
19) Do NOT stay on induction levels forever. Your body will adjust to those levels and then you will get stuck there.
An afterthought: Don't panic. What I did in the beginning may be somewhat helpful to you. Get yourself a good Food Counts book, available at any bookstore in the Nutrition section. Next, do you know how to use Excel? If so, make yourself a chart and label it: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack, and Water and then have a column for food descriptions and carb counts. Write down EVERYTHING that passes your lips for at least the first two weeks if not the first four. Print out a bunch of pages and put these in your notebook. This gets your head where it needs to be to recognize what foods you can eat and what size portions you can have. I have a little food scale, an invaluable tool. I would suggest you get one of those too. Some food labels only list their serving sizes in ounces, and /or kilograms/milligrams. Make sure your scale can measure in both.

We are here to help you. We've been where you are now. Take your time to figure this out. We are always just a mouse click away. Don't hesitate to post your questions and concerns.

I think I have rambled on enough, but there was a lot to squeeze in here. I couldn't leave anything out. If I have forgotten anything, I am sure other Vets will chime in and add to what I have said.
THE BEST OF LUCK TO YOU!!!! (I will stop now, my fingertips are raw, LOL)


Barb
Atkins-3/14/03
174/146/135 5'2"
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Knowledge is POWER

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>I'm also looking for advice on the most efficient way to get the most out of this board. I have maybe half an hour a day to cruise it, but get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of info on it.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If you click on the little blue globe thingy it will say view topics since last visit or view active topics. I use that to find the most recent posts and it usually has all I need to know in those topics. If not, I hit find and type in what I what to know and sure enough, there is a topic about it!

Jen

Atkins since 11/11/03

140/133/115

"Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we will reap a harvest if we faint not." Gal. 6:9

also, when you post a message, click on the "Notification" button on the reply page (lower left corner) turn it to "ON" and you will get e-mails showing responses to your active posts (ones you have replied to) That way you can remember what you have been posting to and you will instantly see others' reponses to you without wading through all the other posts.

Also, if you go to the top of this page and clcik on My Space, you can see the topics you have notifications turned on in. There is where you can edit your profile too and make a signature line and add your beginning weight/current weight/goal weight.

Barb
Atkins-3/14/03
174/146/135 5'2"
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Knowledge is POWER

Welcome beethoven, fellow OA alumni

I always thought the people at OA that get hysterical about traces of sugar in their bacon were just that -- hysterical. I don't worry about sugar unless I can taste it. I look at real carb counts on the food instead. It's just too hard to avoid sugar in the real world. Traces of it don't bother me unless I have a choice of products.

**************
"Sometimes I think you have to march right in and demand your rights, even if you don't know what your rights are, or who the person is you're talking to. Then on the way out, slam the door."

Thanks to all of you for your advice - hugely helpful. Here's where I seem to get into trouble:

Having food on hand. I like to eat as much organic as possible - and the Whole Foods stores are all a schlep to get to, so I end up running out of food. Now I'm in a mode of realizing that for now it doesn't necessarily have to be organic. So I just answered that question - thanks! :-) This leads to my second obsveration:

Cooking! I love to cook, but I don't always love to cook - and it seems I have to cook for every friggin meal - that's where I fall apart, too. Any quick and easy ideas? I think I'm making this way harder than it needs to be...

Last - sucralose, sweet & slender - I'm wondering whether it's best to just stay away from desserts, like I try to do, or just give in and have the fake sugar kind. Again, I hate using checmicals, pesticides, or fake foods of any kind (unless I'm in the throes, of course...). Any advice on this?

Thanks SO MUCh for all your help! Have a great day! Karen

Ya know Karen, I have found now that I am doing this WOL, my kitchen is CONSTANTLY a mess. I am always cooking. Everything has to be done by scratch, the only drawback. I love to cook too, but it gets tiring afterwhile. I keep saying I have to plan my meals for 2 week periods at a time and then shop for it and stay out of the grocery store. I used to do that when we had all 5 kids living at home and I was working full time. I would sit down and plan out 2 week's worth of menues and then shop and be done. Now that it's just DH and I in the house, I've gotten lazy. I have a notebook full of recipes I have found on the internet, so I suppose I could easily do this again. So it's a matter of getting organized. (my ultimate goal in life ) So, sit down, plan a menu for 2 wks or 1 (hard to shop for all the fresh veggies, etc without them spoiling) and off ya go.

As for fake sugars and sweet treats, I use them a lot. I like stevia, which is the most natural sweetener. I use a blend of stevia, splenda and sometimes sweet and low. I have also tried Erythritol (available at www.netrition.com) but it is so cost prohibitive that I don't use much of it. It's a sugar alcohol that doesn't seem to impact insulin levels at all. Stevia takes some getting used to, and I now LOVE it. It does not impact insulin levels nor does it feed Candida. Stevia Plus is wonderful and is mixed with fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and dissolves immediately, where plain stevia takes quite a bit of mixing. I love my sweet treats after dinner, so I make a lot of sweet goodies. I don't have a problem binging on them, as some people do, so I can have a smidge and be okay. It's a YMMV thing.

Barb
Atkins-3/14/03
174/146/135 5'2"
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Knowledge is POWER

Barb, thanks so much for your words of wisdom! What you said made a great deal of sense, and I plan to print out your message and post it so i can read over it every day beginning 1/2/04!
I did well with the WOL at first, but got carried away, and didn't follow a lot of the suggestions you listed.
I am going to be relying very heavily upon you all for support, and I'm glad to have found you at this point in time!

"You are only old when you stop learning, whether at twenty or at eighty"
-Henry Ford
I'm learning every day!-Karimah
Re-starting Atkins 01/02/2004
180/172/140

If you're tired of cooking for every meal, why not go out to eat? I eat burgers frequently. Just order a double-cheeseburger and don't eat the bun. I'm particularly fond of Carl's Jr. Six Dollar Guacamole Bacon Burger.

As far as cooking, I don't try to be a gourmet. I'm too clumsy. Everything I make is, for the most part, very simple. I don't collect low-carb recipes off the internet, usually, because they often require exotic ingredients and require too much work. And, they're usually recipes for fake desserts anyway.

Speaking of fake desserts -- I have the mock danish often. It's the simplest to make of the different ones I've seen, and it's very low in carbs. Honestly, I don't feel like I need anything else in the way of desserts.

I think desserts have their greatest charm in the early days of the diet when you're most starved for carbs and miss them most. That wears off after a while. If you're lucky.

I guess I stay away from complicated recipes for another reason. It's too easy for me to be seduced by food if I start to go down that path. I can remember times in the past when I was crash-dieting and I was hanging out in the library reading different cook books just to imagine what they would taste like. I don't ever want to go back to that.

For now, if I want sweets, it's a mock danish with some raspberries in it. Or I'll suck on a frozen raspberry, or make some hot chocolate with cream and water, or just sit back with a nice old iced tea with nutrasweet.

Whatever you do, don't eat any low-carb store-bought candy. They're a lawsuit in the making. False advertising, all of it.

**************
"Sometimes I think you have to march right in and demand your rights, even if you don't know what your rights are, or who the person is you're talking to. Then on the way out, slam the door."

No home should be without "Bag of Salad"!!! Throw in meat, tuna, eggs, cheese or whatever is around --- instant food.

To be honest, I just learned to eat the best and leave the rest. Picky eaters are everywhere. I pick the top off pizza, the crust off fried chicken, the buns off burgers, and leave what I don't want. Don't be afraid to eat out. Watch your selections and get on with life.

And..... it is possible to make this work after the age of 50. I'm 52.

Judy

180/138.5/138...almost there!
"How long does getting thin take?"
Winnie the Pooh,Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne

We eat out once in awhile, but it's cost prohibitive to our budget right now. We love a place around here called Portillo's. I will get a double bacon cheeseburger, remove the bun and have a salad. OR I will get the ribs (yes they have bbq sauce on them, but when I've had almost NO carbs for the day, I'll splurge) Then on VERY special occasions we'll go to Outback. There I will have the Prime Rib, steamed veggies and salad. I leave feeling like a stuffed teddy bear. Christmas Eve we are going to have our traditional Chinese food. I will skip the rice and make my own S&S sauce. I figure I can have Beef & pea pods, shrimp and veggies, stuff like that. Maybe I will make myself some mock fried rice out of cauliflower too. YUM YUM

Karimah, glad to be of help. Is that a pic of your child????........How CUTE!!!!! Let us know when you have jumped aboard officially. In the mean time, gather ALL the knowledge you can and ARM yourself with the know-how. I love your quote!!!!

Barb
Atkins-3/14/03
174/146/135 5'2"
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Knowledge is POWER

You've already gotten some great advice. I can't really add much. But, I will say that I often have 2 pieces of protein going at one time in my house. That's often the most time consuming thing to deal with so if it's already made, all you have to do is chop a few veggies and reheat the meat. Dinner in less than 30 minutes.

What I often do is buy 2 premade chickens from Costco and a roast on Monday. Cook the roast for use in future days and use the chicken for dinner that night since it's already prepared. Also make sure to have a large bag of the broccoli florets (also from Costco), bell pepper, onion, garlic, salsa, etc and some prewashed salad greens. Just make sure you have some of your favorite flavors on hand.

Monday (while roast is cooking you can have dinner) is chicken fajitas made with the dark meat (you can skip the tortillas and just melt some cheese on top) with onions, peppers, salsa, sour cream, etc.

Tuesday is roast with gravy and veggies.

Wednesday is the chicken breasts sliced and fried in the pan with a little butter to warm them up. You could also add a little garlic, shallots or cream to make a quick sauce. Serve with veggies.

Thursday is the roast meat shredded up and mixed with some lc bbq sauce or chili seasonings (whatever you like) served with a salad. Or, you can slice it up and saute with onions and top with cheese like a philly steak without the bread.

Friday is whatever is left (if anything) or, to make things quick and easy, I'll run by the store and get some fresh ground beef for burger patties. Tastes good and is cheap and fast.

Good luck and welcome back!

Thanks to all! Your suggestions are absolutely wonderful. Barb, I did go to FitDay and sign up, and I'll try to use the site efficiently.
Probably won't be around tonight, as I'm doing a "sleepover" with three of my grandchildren. I've already figured out what I'm going to take with me to eat. This is a WOE for life, and it's not too soon to start out the way I mean to go forward.
No Barb, that's not my child. (Although they are pretty cute too.) That's an avatar offered by this site, and I just use it for now until I get my pictures online.
Keep me in your prayers, that I can sustain the energy I'm feeling now.

"You are only old when you stop learning, whether at twenty or at eighty"
-Henry Ford
I'm learning every day!-Karimah
Re-starting Atkins 01/02/2004
180/172/140

I enjoy cooking too -when I have the time. With working full time and going to school full time that rarely happens. I try to do as much of my cooking for the week all at one time. It usually only takes 1-2 hours and most of my meals either just need reheating or some simple prep. here's some examples:
I bake 2-3 pounds of bacon in the oven, put it in baggies then just reheat. Same with breakfast sausage.
Suausage, egg and cheese muffins -same thing.
A quiche or 2, like the deep dish pizza or cheeseburger pie.
Chicken drum sticks, same as the bacon.

The I do buy some preprepared foods like bags of salads and usually 1 roasted chicken (our grocer sells fresh raosted amish chickens). From that I'll have things like chicken caeser salad, fajitas, stir fry -you get the idea.
I also use a lot of frozen veggies -brocolli, cauliflower, green beans, etc.

HTH

Always eat your veggies first!
LCE member since March 2002

From reading your other post, Karimah, I know you are going to succeed at this. Keep us posted, ask questions and let us know when you've triumphed, we'll do the happy dance WITH you!!!!

Barb - 30 lbs gone FOREVER!



Atkins-3/14/03
174/144.8/135 5'2"
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Knowledge is POWER