ATKINS support thread - who's with me?!

[ElectricElephant]

Following on from my other post asking advice on Atkins, I'm going to give it a preoper go now and aim to lose 10lb by the end of September.

Who's with me - Katisha, Eyeballs, anybody else?

I'll start. This time last week I was 14 stone. I'm now 13 stone, 11lb. WOOHOO!

just returned from visiting friends hand have pigged out for two days - i'm afraid of the scales

Weighed myself this morning, and lost just over 4 lb this week. Though, I have to admit it all went a bit wrong over the weekend, so I fully expect most of it back by next week.

Did feel good this morning though, even though I know most of it is water.

Any downward movement is good downward movement.
I am in the middle of another no-shift period. Well - down a pound after about two weeks...
But last time this happened it did start to move again quite dramatially so am hoping it will happen again soon!

Sorry to those of you who are waiting for The Chart. I have a new laptop, haven't got the chart transferred from my old one and can't work out how to use Office 2007!

Will do my best to deal with it asap

Katisha, at least you've got the big losses to look forward to, and in the meantime, a pound is a pound, so congrats!

BIWI, oh, don't worry, it's just lovely that you're doing this anyway, so thanks. Re Office 2007 - took me weeks and loads of swearing to understand accept the new Excel!

All I can say is thank goodness I'm not as busy at work as I was a couple of weeks ago - I would have gone absolutely ballistic with the bloody thing by now!

I just can't work out how to use PowerPoint and it's making me !!!

Well, at least your timing is better than mine! I started a new job after 10 months at home following ds's birth - just to be hit by this new interface. I constantly felt like saying "no really, I'm very good at Excel" whilst looking like a complete imbecile... In the end decided that being able to filter by colour was worth it and stopped moaning embraced change emoticon! I do think their menu options are a bit odd. Clearly meant to be user friendly, but I'm not always convinced.

Morning all, just checking in.

Lost 2lbs in total on induction - 7lbs the first week and 2 the second. I had several meals where I couldn't low carb on the 2nd week though so overall was pleased that it was a loss at all.

My appetite has reduced so much, it's quite bizarre. I don't remember it going down this much before. The other day I swear I had to force myself to eat and that's SO not me.

Family meal out tonight - curry. Hmm. Going to have a main and a veg side and no rice/naan etc. Won't be that brilliant from a carb point of view but I'm not putting life on hold for this...

Whoops! That should say 9lbs in total

Wow - well done, Casserole!

Lack of appetite is a real bonus when you're low carbing as it helps to keep you on the straight and narrow.

As far as curry is concerned, go for something like chicken tikka or tandoori chicken, with a cauliflower, spinach or mushroom bhaji.

If you can't help it, poppadoms aren't as high in carbs as rice/naan - just don't load up on mango chutney!

Afternoon all - have been totally useless at keeping up with this. Am still on Atkins but I'm slacking a bit! Unsuprisingly have not lost anything for 2 weeks now, but am blaming that on AF/TOM.

Have been keeping up with BIWI's chart though... definitely helping!

Unfortunately I have friends visiting and a string of Birthday-related outings between now and Christmas, it's going to make it all very difficult!

Hey all, can I join in?! Im trying an unofficial low-carb diet, where Im just eating typically eggs and sausages for brekkie, a piece of fish on a bed of lettuce with cheddar cheese chunks for lunch, and either steak, fish or chicken on lettuce again for tea! Drinking gallons of diet coke, and snacking on Hartleys sugar free jelly.
So... am I doing it right or so wrong?!
Im 5'7" and started at 143lb, 4 days in and Im down to 137lb woo hoo!
My target is 120lb by Crimbo.
What else can do?

Well done on the weight loss so far. Number one thing I'd recommend is cut out the diet coke. It's crap and will do your body no favours. Also, try and add more veggies in- lettuce is not going to cut it twice a day. Make sure you're getting good fats, so cook with butter, dress your salad.
Also, 17 pounds by Christmas is a tall order. Not impossible, but a tall order. Your weight loss will slow down after a week or so and if you have such a big weight loss in mind it will be easy to get demoralised.

Ahh no not my diet coke! Its my addiction, it has replaced my sugar & smoking .
Ok, I cook with extra virgin olive oil but can use butter no probs. I had asparagus and cabbage with gravy and sirloin steak last night, but then panicked because aren't some veg full of carb?
So butter, veg, and salad dressing. What can I drink then? (I dont have anything hot like tea/coffee, or milk-yuck. Its fizzy all the way, but whats best?)
Thanks for the help x

I'm not following Atkins, I'm following the Idiot proof diet so the guidelines may be slightly different. Definately try to give up the diet coke. If you need hte motivation, leave a penny in a glass of it for an hour and then think about what it's doing to your insides.
Olive oil is great. Not sure about the gravy but I'd say no. The thing with atkins is if you do it wrong, you will pile weight on, so you have to be careful. I found it helpful to just deal with 'real' food. No coke, no jelly. To drink, at least 2 litres of water a day. Plus fruit tea, decaf coffee and add double cream if you need it. Use only splenda to sweeten with.
The veg I avoid are potatoes, carrots, peas, beans and more that I can't remember. Use onions sparingly. Cauliflower is great, and I eat at least one salad a day that I load with lettuce, cucumber, celery, spring onion, dressing, parmesan, brie and any meat I fancy. Real mayonnaise is also fine.
I really recommend gettign the book if you want to do it properly

MMmmmmm brie, forgot about that! Going to stock up on Brie and Edam tomorrow!
Hows about grilled goats cheese with balsamic vinagar and rocket? Sounds lke lunch is sorted tomoz!

I don't think I'm allowed balsamic because of the sugar content iirc. But goats cheese and rocket sounds perfect

Monkey get a book and don't guess. Either India and Nerys or Atkins proper.
Then do the recommended induction period.

You do need to really understand how it works.

I hope I don't come over as patronising but as said below, it won't work if you don't do it right. As we all know to our cost!

badietbuddy - not allowed balsamic, or any dressing with sugar in. Ranch dressing is OK for salad. Not ketchup/BBQ sace/HP sauce either. with salad dressings I go by carb count per 100g, anything over about 5g per 100g and I avoid it

On true Atkins you're not really supposed to use animal fats for cooking, you're meant to use oils (Custy, Katisha, BIWI, correct me if I'm wrong), but omlettes are just revolting cooked in olive oil, so using Bertolli instead

I would spout the simplest rules, but I don't think i can out-do Custy.....

Butter is fine.

(Or at least I think it is - along with olive oil)

Hi, ive been doing this half heartedly as well (I had wine and toast last night), so I would like a kick up the bum from you ladies and could you look at my typical food to see if im mucking up anywhere.

I have 10lbs to lose, so the aitkens website recommends that I don't do the induction phase.

Anyhow, breakfast if I can be bothered is usually fried bacon, eggs, either fried or scrambled and maybe some fried mushrooms.

Lunch/dinner is generally salad, lots of iceberg lettuce, couple of slices of onion, cucumber with a tin of tuna mixed with full fat mayo.

or

Homemade lentil soup, now I know about the lentils, but if your not on induction, can you use the fibre to cross out the carb iykwim.

or

Meat with lots of veg, usually brocolli, cauli, cabbage, brussell sprouts.

snacks are usually some brazil nuts or sunflower seeds or cheese strings.

I love sausages, but make sure they have at least 70% meat content, don't have them that often though.

Does it matter how much mayo you use? I love the stuff and it really fills me up.

Im a coffee addict, I know the caffine isnt good, so I could switch to decaff if it would help.

Any comments on what im eating would be appreciated.

No to the lentils. You can make lots of other great soups though, I make a spicy cauliflower one.
And really, a 70% meat saussage is still packed with 30% shit. Tesco and Sainsburys finest range do ones that are about 95%. Really be careful with saussages, a lot have more carbs than you would think.

lilaclaire - sausages are OK, but go for chipolatas - they seem to have a lot less carbs. The tesco finest ones are 2 for £5 at the moment

I think the mayo is OK, but the thing is, if you're doing it half-heartedly and having things like toast, then all this full-fat food will mean you put on weight.

Ditch the toast, have some flaxseed crackers instead

as per your request - [kicks up bum]

badietbuddy - would love to have the cauliflower soup recipe if you have it?

I noticed those Mathiesons sausages have no carbs, although not quite the sausage I have in mind.
Had a crap day and there was a bottle of wine in the house and of course the toast followed the wine, my first in a fortnight (slaps own hand).
Off to buy more veg, some posh sausages and decaff.
Think will ditch the soup then, don't really like any other kind.