okay... I just started this phase. I have been looking everywhere for a progression of foods that I can eat. I know I can't start out with everything, but I don't know what I can start with. I looked in the book, and the one I have doesn't give specifics... any help would be great. I am afraid I'm going to mess things up if I add too much too soon.

Started Atkins 10/6/03
220/207/170
"To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides."
- David Viscott

What plan are you following and What book are you referring to? Would like to hep, but, need these answers.

Repeat after me...There's no place like home.

Ditto what Donna asked.

If you are entering OWL on Atkins, a good first choice is ............ {{{{drumroll!.....}}}} MORE VEGGIES (green, leafy, cruciferous, more onion, more tomato, etc.)!

Then, choose other low glycemic items, such as berries, nuts, melons, grapefruit sections, small portions of yogurt or cottage cheese. The USDA has carb values of most foods and you can check out the carb count for the portions you are adding.

USDA Food Search

HTH

Maggie
5'1" ~~ Atkins since '98 (160)/Maintaining nicely (110) ~~ Redhead until further notice!

Uhm, Donna and Maggie, note that in her signature line it says "started Atkins 10/6/03...

One thing I would warn about--in line with Maggie's suggestion--is that many of us (well, me for sure) could hardly wait to get off Induction so we could eat "everything"--all those low-carb goodies everyone else talks about (candy, ice cream, bread, tortillas, cereal, snacks, etc.) Oh sure, meat and veggies, yeah, right, whatever...

I've recently broken a LONG stall (YAY!) and in looking back, I honestly think what stalled me was exactly that--eating "everything," even though I was careful to keep it all low carb and keep total carbs low. I don't know if it was hidden carbs, sugar alcohols, or what--I just know I don't want it to happen again any time soon.

This is NOT easy to hear, or believe, if you've just come off induction. At least, it wasn't for me (yeah, everyone here tried to tell me...gotta burn my own fingers).

For me, I think OWL really needs to be meat and veggies, and maybe a rare treat of LC bread or whatever. Even after I decided to try being "squeaky clean," it took a long time to break the stall. Now that I've learned this, it will be a long time before I screw up my OWL again.

Aderyn

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>"everything"--all those low-carb goodies everyone else talks about (candy, ice cream, bread, tortillas, cereal, snacks, etc.)

Aderyn-
That's kinda what i"m going through. I bought tortillas, had one for lunch.. then realized how many carbs were in it... I'm really not up that high yet to be eating that much in one little thing. I did by the Morning Start cereal though and have been having that with strawberries and heavy cream... it's a nice treat when having veggies and meat the rest of the time.

I just got out of a stall. It lasted about 2 1/2 weeks, then when I moved onto OWL it seemed to kick it.. not a lot, but just enough so that the scale started moving again, and the tape measure numbers are getting smaller.

Started Atkins 10/6/03
220/205/170
"To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides."
- David Viscott

You might be amazed how well this WOE works when you don't eat those "low-carb" items.

Low-carb products usually taste lousy anyway. They can't compete with things like real lobster and a fresh caesar salad.

**************
"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."

I agree with the Doc here. The LC specialty foods taste fake. (Plus they are very expensive) You want them to taste like the real thing, but they just don't. And if they do taste close, the carbs are usually high, or they used sugar alcohols in them.
If you just stick with real, fresh foods, and lots of water, you will do so much better on this WOE.

Teri

Thanks for the tips... And i have to agree about taste.. The cereal is good, but I can't afford to buy it all the time, and the tortillas taste kinda funny. I see lots of people on here that do eat cereal and I was wondering what you guys would recommend......???? It's nice having variety in the morning instead of eggs all the time...

Started Atkins 10/6/03
220/205/170
"To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides."
- David Viscott

Just,
In my opinion, the best breakfast cereal is hot cereal.
The flax-o-meal line is pretty tasty(a little pricey), but a good choice...no sugar alcohols, lots of fiber and nutrition.
Or you can make your own hot cereal mix by following Maggie's recipe, which can be found in the recipe section here under...Breakfast..cereal.
HTH

Shelley

sg
***********
"if it ain't broke
don't fix it"
***********

I like hot cereal, too, but if you're like me, sometimes you just want that quick bowl of crispy, crunchy something. I completely sympathize with JustTheThing and the bowl of cereal with strawberries and cream.

Personally, though, I'm avoiding it for now. As I said, I'm not sure just what caused me to stall so long, and I'm just not taking any chances. "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels."

Aderyn

Shelleyg I am glad you mentioned the sugar alcohol.... I can't remember are they good or bad for you? I am assuming bad ... I was looking at labels today just to get better, and there were sugar free items with like 23g Carbs and 23g Sugar Alcohol, so I was trying to figure out if that was ideal or not... I know it's probably in the book, but I enjoy the feedback I get from here better... Thanks

Started Atkins 10/6/03
220/205/170
"To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides."
- David Viscott

The sugar alcohols can be anything from a minor annoyance to a serious impediment to losing weight. For some of us - I'm one - most sugar alochols (erythritol is an exception) act on our blood glucose levels the same way an equivalent amount of sugar does. Consequently you will see many reports of people stalling until they lose the bars and lc candy. Many people get diarrhea from ingesting sugar alcohols. It seems that the less digestive difficulty you experience, the worse they effect your blood sugar.

You will find that there's a difference in advice on sugar alcohols depending on which edition of DANDR you look at. Prior to Atkins Nutritionals going into the retail food market the advice was : sugar alcohols were not acceptable sweeteners. Sometime after 1998, the advice was changed to "acceptable." I presume that is because it became clear that it was nearly impossible to produce an aesthetically pleasing product with a good shelf life unless one used sugar alcohols.

Best advice is to derive your net carb count by taking total carbs and deducting ONLY fiber. That rules out most bars and most candies for most people.

HTH

Maggie
5'1" ~~ Atkins since '98 (160)/Maintaining nicely (110) ~~ Redhead until further notice!

Atkins bars, shakes, cereals, etc. are considered by Atkins to be "convience foods." According to the Atkins Nutrionals site convience foods are for occaisional use, only when "you are unable to find appropriate food, can’t take time for a meal or need a quick snack." Occaisional is defined by the site as 1-2 a week. So even though they're listed as OK for Phase I, they certainly aren't ok for daily use.

HTH





Always eat your veggies first!

I think if we could all start seeing these "convenience" foods as appropriate only as maintenance foods, it would be helpful--they just don't seem to work while still in the weight loss phase!

ouis

Man... I'm heading to Dr. I's house for dinner! Lobster and caesar salad? Sounds YUMMY.

I wonder if sugar free softdrinks are bad? I am usually not a soft drink person but I've been battling nausea for some reason for the past week and the only thing that helps is diet sprite or Pepsi One.
That may be why I've GAINED a pound despite the fact that I have hardly eaten anything.

It's hard to find tummy friendly foods on LC. when you're nauseous. I couldn't have faced an egg for anything in the world!

Michelle -- 208/196/140
Started Atkins 9/03
On my way to finding the new me.... WATCH OUT WORLD!!