Well, now you say it all...
Kool-aid. You should check the label. Some unsweetened flavors contain maltodextrin, the same sugar you find in Splenda, so if you drink one serving of Kool-Aid with 1 packet of Splenda, it should be counted as 2 packets of sweetener. Other flavors contain modified corn starch, so you should not have them.
Shakes and bars. As Liv said, they are infamous for screwing up people's weight loss, either by stalling it or by slowing it down.
Veggies & alcohol. Your carbs should come from vegetables, not from alcohol, and you should "jump start this" by dropping alcohol and following the plan (which includes vegetables!), not by tweaking the plan to fit your drinking habits. And by the way, if you think you are compensating drinking alcohol by not eating vegetables, you are just fooling yourself. The carbohydrates in vegetables come with fiber, vitamins and minerals, and you remain in fat burning mode while eating them. On the other hand, when you drink, your body has to burn through all the alcohol before going back to burning fat, so you are putting a break on your weight loss. Also, if you are using ketostix to test for ketosis, they will change color because of the alcohol you drank, not because of excess acetoacetate spilled over into your urine.
Read or re-read the book (
"Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution", 2002 ed., is what we use here), or at least the sticky threads on top of this forum. If you want to maximize your results, you will have to follow all the rules, not only those you like. No complaints otherwise.
