Want to do this but need advice/encouragementHELP?

[mom2jjl07]

Hi! I have 30lb I need to lose to take back my life and feel good about myself again. I am a carb addict, I crave them....candy,fries,crackers etc. I know this WOE would be succesful for me, however every time I try after the first day I start feeling like complete and total poo, i guess this is due to the fact that on a daily basis I eat lots of carbs, not so good carbs either. I think this would be the answer to my weight loss issues, I love salads(especially with bleu cheese dressing) steaks w/sauteed mushrooms and cheese YUMMY! however with these favorite things its so common that I will eat several peices of bread and cookie(s) later that night :-(. Every time I try to do this its so hard to get past those FIRST couple of days, I am a Mom of 3 and wife(stay at home Mom) Please help me I am so tired of living this way :-( and not wanting to function outside of my home. Does this WOE work?? If I stick to this will it work for me? How do you get past the first couple of days??

[not2late]

Hi and welcome

I'm a starchy carb addict like you. And I can tell you the Diet DOES work!

First thing is to get a hold of the 2002 edition of the book. Check your local library for copies. Read it cover to cover, take notes if you need even. Make sure you do this BEFORE you start, so you understand the Diet and how it works. It's easier to stick to something you understand, than to something you don't. Plus it will give you the opportunity to see if YOU can make this diet work for yourself. See, if you can't stick to it or you aren't willing to give it a 100% effort, then it won't work.

If you don't understand something, by all means, post your questions here and we'll try to answer them for you.

Then do what Dr. Atkins suggests and get a physical exam and blood work.

Finally, look at the foods list and start planning your menues. Then go and buy your supplies.

I found that Atkins wasn't too far off from what I usually ate (because I wasn't a big processed foods eater in the first place)....the exceptions were that breads, pastas, rice and potatoes were off the menu for the Induction Phase and that I wasn't eating foods like cream, full fat cheeses, butter, etc.

And I found that I eventually didn't miss those starchy carbs at all. In fact, I'm at a point in my Diet that I can eat bread, pasta, rice and potatoes, but I don't eat them daily or even weekly. Mainly because when I did reintroduce them, I discovered they weren't as delicious and tasty as they used to be. But things like asparagus, broccoli, squash, etc. were far more delicious than I remembered them. And fruits like berries were candy-sweet.

So read the book, cover to cover, ask questions, then decide if Atkins is something you can give a 100% effort to, if it is, then it will work for you.

[Sunny_0ne]

Mom, I also was a horrible carb addict.

I've only been on this plan for 3 months and I don't crave the carbs anymore. There are so many legal substitutes when you really want bread or dessert. Start collecting recipes from the board's recipe collection and from Linda's Low Carb recipes.

Also, move up the OWL rungs fairly quickly and the food choices are amazing. I am really enjoying blueberry and cream desserts now.

You get past the first few days just by gritting your teeth and DOING it. It's not fun, but if you truly want what Atkins has to offer, that's the price you have to pay.

Does it work? Take a look at the success stories on this site.

It's worth it to me!

[Kathi22]

I feel like I am reading my own thoughts the first time I deciced to low carb. I just mentally put my mind to it. I was anti-social, down all the time, tugging on my clothes, etc. I finally just said that is it, I hate living life so miserable because of food. I wanted to lose the weight more then I wanted to eat the carbs. The first 4 days for me were very rough. I felt sick, hungry, etc. But then I just became so energized and so much more happy that I thought every second of battling the temptation to get fast food and get rid of the sick feeling was more then worth it. It's all in your desire - and once you get going, it is addicting in itself!

[Slapshot]

"How do you get past the first couple of days??"

That's a great question. For me, I kept re-reading/repeating the line in DANDR about induction "flu" being a good thing/sign that your body is burning its final glycogen stores and will soon turn into a fat-burning, lipolysis machine. I figured if I couldn't do something for two or three days, then I couldn't do anything. I drank TONS of water, ate good breakfasts (egg-based), and tried to get myself out of the house (i.e. distracted) as much as I could.

I told myself to "welcome" the crappy feeling because I knew it would be validation of the program working as well as that it would be over soon. Sure enough, on day 4, I woke up at 6am rearing to go. On several days since then, I've found myself at 6pm saying, "Oh shoot, I didn't eat enough today..." (Seriously.) That's a nice problem to have, and I've felt that way since Day 5.

So, to sum up, keep reminding yourself that how bad you feel for those couple/few days is inversely proportional to how great you'll feel in less than a week, and every day thereafter.

Good luck!

[kibskix]

For me, there is no secret to getting through the first few days, but there are proactive things you can do. There are next to no bad foods in my house at all. Any bad things that have to stay for other peoples sake, I put in a seperate cabinet where I dont have to look at it. And any time I feel like I want something, I have to sit and recognize that I dont actually -want- it, its just a sugar craving (my cravings are usually donuts, and I dont even LIKE donuts). So when my cravings going "OMG I really want this" I don't distract myself with other things, or eat something that resembles it, I just say "Oh yeah? TOUGH." I'm a competative person, and looking at it as a contest that I have to win is a lot easier than listening to my craving whining to me about how unfair it is that it doesn't get what it wants. It seems to work so far, as i'm almost a month cheat free!

[SunnySmile501]

Everything in life worth having involves some effort and some discomfort on your part. How many sick, uncomfortable days, and pain was involved in the three pregnancies that produced those three children that you love so much? Would you give any one of them back not to have suffered morning sickness and labor pains? I think not. Were they not worth every uncomfortable moment?

If you are so uncomfortable every day with your weight, are you not willing to be uncomfortable for three to five days to move towards complete comfort and satisfaction with how you look, but more importantly, how you feel? The first step is always the hardest.

Being a carb addict is every bit as hard to overcome as alcohol or drug addiction. Worse, because you never have to take another drink or drugs to live, but you have to eat. Those cravings are your detox DT's. You probably have some allergies or food intolerances to the carbs you eat the most. You crave what you are allergic to or sensitive to. Sad but true.

How do you get past the first couple of days? Day one: Start. Take the first step. Make up your mind that you can do it for one day, 24 hours. Don't worry about day two until you open your eyes on day two. Day two: repeat day one. One day at a time. One hour at a time, if need be. You are stronger than you think.


Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may
mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but
unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships
that have lost their meaning. As Dostoevsky put it, "Taking
a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most."
The real fear should be of the opposite course.
--Gail Sheehy, author

[kibskix]

another thing that helps is every day I post how many days cheat free I am on my siggy. Today IS day 28, so technically day 28 isn't cheat free -yet-, but changing that number every morning as soon as I log in keeps me in the right mind set. As does working out. I've sweated a -lot- to lose the now 10.8lbs i've fought for this month. It'd take an hour of sweating again just to burn 1 tiny cheat, and who knows how many more for a whole day of cheating! There's no way i'm doing that to myself!

[SunnySmile501]

How many sick, uncomfortable days, and pain was involved in the three pregnancies that produced those three children that you love so much? Would you give any one of them back not to have suffered morning sickness and labor pains? I think not. Were they not worth every uncomfortable moment?

Upon more reflection, this question should not be answered if any of the children are suffering from the Terrible Twos or in the middle of a temper tantrum.

You can save the morning sickness and labor pains for "Mom leverage" when they hit puberty.

[msanjelpie]

The first couple of days are usually counted in hours... 'I've been doing Atkins for 16 hours now... I've been doing Atkins for 32 hours now...' etc... You have to take it one hour at a time if you are having a hard time staying with it...

It sounds like you make it through the day OK, and then are not really sure what to eat late at night... Usually late at night I'll have some sort of high protein, high fat snack which will get me through all the way until the next morning without hunger.

After the first few days, then I don't feel the need to snack late at night, although I usually have dinner around 9pm after my workout.

Planning what you are going to eat every hour of the day for the first 2-4 days will really help you stay on the diet. Also those cookies and bread should not be in your house the first week at all...