Wow

[oowildfinoo]

Hey everybody! I've been gone for a really, REALLY long time.
I kinda toyed around with the idea of Atkins, but never really committed. So I'm here and I'm committing for my health.
I have an illness that I live with and eating what I choose to seems to bring out the symptoms and make it worse!

I live in the dorms at college, so I do have to rely mostly on the cafeteria food. I've read the book and I'm motivated - I'm tired of feeling sick!
Does anybody have any suggestions as to how I make sure I succeed?

I already carry around a Nalgene 32 oz bottle and consume usually 4-5 full bottles a day. I am an avid exercise fan, so no problem there.

[not2late]

Make sure you have a copy of the Foods list with you.

Stick to the basics in the dining hall: no sauces, whole meats and vegetables. Ask the servers if something has sugars or grains, etc.

Salad bar: avoid the dressings unless you know what's in them. Otherwise, you might want to bring a bottle of your own dressing or use plain oil and vinegar.

Your room: keep cans/packets of tuna, chicken, turkey. If you have a dorm-sized refrigerator, you can keep a bottle of dressing or mayonnaise, cheese, a small container of heavy cream. You can even keep a dozen raw eggs in there and pepperoni slices. If you have access to a microwave, you're in luck. You can scramble eggs in the microwave. You can even make tuna or chicken melts (tuna or chicken salad, a slice of cheese, nuke until cheese is melted, use pork rinds as scoops to eat it).

If you have a hot pot, you can boil eggs, so you'll have a stash of hard boiled eggs ready for a quick snack.

When you move onto OWL, you can keep fruit in your dorm room and cans of soybeans to add variety to your meals/snacks.

[calichick]

Hey there, :wave I was following Atkins 3 years ago and I was in a similar dorm situation. Here's a few tips on what I did to survive ....

1) I never went to class hungry ... if I did I found myself much more succeptable to want to cheat when all my friends and I went to the cafateria afterwards.

2) I ate 3 small meals per day and then 3 small snacks in between. Snacks were all at home (hard boiled egg, slice of cheese etc) and meals were @ the cafateria.

3) For the meals I'd ususally get a chicken ceazar (they were YUMMY) or a double bacon cheese burger with a small side salad. I didn't bother to ask the chef to make it without the bun. Because most of the chefs were spanish speaking, it would have been a huge hassle to explain what and why I wanted it that way ... I just took off the bun @ the table. This might be a non-issue at your school.

That's all I can think of for now. What school do you go to?

Good luck,
Amanda