My Ah-Ha moment!

[ValidRouge]

A conversation with my boss today and another post in the induction forum got me thinking today...and I'm "Officially" moving over to this forum. I've gotta practice what I preach. I've been adding some new vegetables the last two weeks really, and I've been eating more than 3 cups of veggies a day too. No problems so far. I do notice that my weight wobbles more since doing this, but it's still on a steady downward trend.

I think I had my Ah-Ha! moment today, so it's time to walk the walk!

How long did each of you stay on each rung? What have been some of the pitfalls--so that I can watch out for them?

Also, do I add 5 carbs in EVERY day or some days add them in and others not?

[ValidRouge]

Oh...and today was my birthday and my whole family took me out to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse.

I had a ceasar salad, 12 oz prime rib and asparagus!

YUM YUM!

I passed on the drink, and passed on the cake!

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me! hehheh

[Analog6]

There's an OWL post, but this is anextract from it. As I understand it, you add 5 grams carbs per week (so week one on OWL you would eat 25 g), then the next week 30 and so on. BUT, spend longer than 1 week per rung, because you have to try various foods form that rung.

So the 5 g 3 times per week may be a different vege each of the three days.

-------------------

As you choose foods from each rung on the ladder, you should choose most often from foods with a low Atkins Glycemic Ranking, or AGR. Foods with a low AGR will have the least impact on your blood sugar for each rung. The foods listed in each rung of the ladder below are examples of low AGR foods for their rung.

As you hit each rung, you can add up to 5 net carbohydrates from that rung. For each food group you add, you should eat from it no more than three times the first week and monitor your body for changes. You need to give it the entire week as a couple of days may not be enough to know how a food is affecting you. You can eat from daily same food group the second week, and continue to monitor your progress.

You should only skip a rung if you do not plan on eating from it. For example, someone may have dairy allergies, so they may skip the dairy rung #2.

If you do skip a rung, at Atkins Diet Bulletin Board we have found that it is best if you spend the time you normally would have spent for that rung before moving to the next one. This helps to give your body enough time to adjust before giving it the higher AGR foods. For example, if you normally spend three weeks on each rung, and you want to skip alcohol rung#5, then you should spend six weeks at berries rung #4 before proceeding to legumes rung #6. In the same example, if you normally spend two weeks on each rung, then you would only spend four weeks at the berries rung #4 before proceeding to the legumes rung #6.

Your ability to add all the food groups back depends upon your Atkins Carbohydrate Equilibrium, or ACE. For example, someone that does not exercise and has a low ACE would probably not be able to add legumes back during OWL, while someone who is young, works out regularly, and has a high ACE might have no problems climbing to the top.

Once you begin consuming alcohol on rung #5, be sure to count the carbohydrates and monitor your weight loss. Spirits have no carbohydrates, while white wine and red wine have 0.9 and 2.0 carbohydrates respectively. Alcohol will suspend weight loss as you do not burn fat while your body has alcohol to burn. If you find that you are stalled, discontinue your alcohol consumption.

When you get to the last three rungs of the ladder, you are eating foods with the highest AGR. Make sure you do not eat those foods alone. Eat them with foods high in fat and fiber to help minimize their impact on your blood sugar.

With fruits and vegetables, the more color they have, the more nutrition they have. If you have a choice between red grapes and white grapes, choose red. Also, be careful of dried fruit as it concentrates the natural sugar and could potentially make a small piece have as many carbohydrates as the entire fruit.


The OWL Carbohydrate Ladder

1. Vegetables
   More salad and other vegetables on the acceptable foods list
2. Dairy
   Fresh cheeses:
   Cottage cheese
   Farmer’s cheese
   Ricotta cheese
   Pot cheese
   
   Keep portions small for:
   Hard aged cheese
   Cream, heavy and light
   Half and half
   Sour cream
   Low-carb ice cream, yogurt, and milk
3. Seeds and Nuts
   Macadamias
   Almonds
   Peanuts/Natural Peanut Butter
   Coconut
   Sunflower seeds
   Sesame seeds
   Walnuts
   Pistachios
4. Berries
   Eat frequently from:
   Strawberries
   Blueberries
   Blackberries
   Raspberries
   
   Eat moderately from higher AGR melons:
   Watermelon
   Honeydew
   Cantaloupe
5. Wine and other spirits low in carbs
   Spirits
   White Wine
   Red Wine
   Low-carbohydrate Beer
6. Legumes
   Lentils
   Kidney Beans
   Pinto Beans
   Black Beans
   Hummus
   Chickpeas
   Tofu
   Soybeans
   Soy milk, unsweetened
7. Fruits other than Berries and Melons
   Plums
   Kiwis
   Peaches
   Apples
   Grapefruit
   Tangerines
8. Starchy Vegetables
   Keep all portions small
   Carrots
   Green Peas
   Acorn squash
   Butternut squash
   
   Eat rarely:
   Corn
   Potatoes
   Sweet potatoes
9. Whole Grains
   Keep all portions small and focus on whole, unprocessed grains:
   Old fashioned Oatmeal
   Oat Bran
   Wheat Bran
   Low carb (soy) bread and muffins
   All-bran
   Barley, cooked

[ValidRouge]

I went to the Atkins site and got their carb counter for vegetables. I put it into Excel and sorted by the net carbs. I took out everything that had a net carb count above 12. I may revisit this much closer to my goal, but for now, I'm not considering any of them.

I then sorted it by fiber counts. I want to try to get the biggest bang for my buck so to speak. How do you figure AGI? If I recall correctly, it's a ratio of total carb to fiber, right?

Looks like a couple of the really good ones are Chinese Cabbage (pak choi) and mustard greens...which i love both--raw or stir-fried. For .5 cup, there are 1.5 carbs total, and 1.4 of them are fiber--and that's COOKED! WOOWOO.

I want to make sure I'm getting my fiber in. When I was in the doctor's office in December (pre-Atkins), my HDL was too low at 35. The Dr told me to eat fiber cereal for breakfast (which of course, I'm not doing) and to exercise. I am doing the exercise and I want to try to make sure I'm getting my fiber in too....I will supplement if I have to, but if I don't, I'd rather not.

Last week at work, we had a benefits fair and did cholesterol screening. I'm waiting for those results to come in so I can compare them to my December tests.

[2big4mysize]

that post she quoted info came from Atkins For Life and AGR is Atkins Glycemix Index. he ranked veggies by seving size and GI and nutriants too I think. it helps to know when you start another rung what foods might give you issues.

There was a typo in DANDR according to Dr Atkins staff and that 3 times a week thing should be a new to your food not food group so if you are doing rung one and never had spinach then you could only have it 3 times the first week you test it in your body.

Think of OWL as the great food experiment you are the scientist and the lab rat. you are testing 3 variable every time time you go up a rung is the new food group something your body can oir can't handle is their a food or foods in that groupo you can't handle and finally is the new total carb number higher then your CCLL, so take your time and take good notes. some folk breeze through with no problems and other have issues on every rung.

Each one of us has a unique genetic make up so no WOL experience from some one else will be right for you. Not2late had issues with all but one brand of a cheese while folk like me had no issues at all on rung 2. We have folk who can't do the whole nut rung and others that can do it as whole nuts but not nutbutters even if they make it themselves with judt ground nuts. So work it and make sure you only change on variable a day to make knowing what effects you how easier. if you want a new food but only say 3 net carbs of iut then have 2 net carbs more of an old food so you get the full 5 every day.

Not2late found using the chapter 12 blood sugars effectsd test from chapteer 12 a much better for her way to know if a food or food group was effecting her.

remember too this is 5 net more then last week plus the induction 3 cups strays with you too. Shhhh Yep Atkins is really a big veggie plan but don't tell folk or they will not do it.

Have fun experimenting.

[ValidRouge]

Thanks 2big and analog. Your comments help. I realized I didn't post my Ah-ha moment in this post. oops. Here it is:

This is my second go-around with Atkins. The first go-round I didn't follow the plan in its entirety. Oh I followed the rules of induction--I drank water, and ate 3 cups of vegetables and stayed under 20g of carbs a day. How is that not following the plan?? I stayed on induction (which I know that many people do with success) the whole time (5 months). I didn't "climb the rungs" and add the different foods back into my diet. Therein lies the problem. The allure of losing weight faster by staying on induction longer tempted me to not add foods back (Fruits, Nuts, Dairy products other than cheese, Legumes and YES Whole grains). Then I got bored, or hit a stall and "fell off the wagon". When I returned to my old habits--stuffing my face with chips, pizza, soda, bread, cake, candy, ice-cream--of course I gained the weight back and more.

What prompted me to post this (in addition to reading the posts on your UJ site) was that today my boss said that South Beach was a better diet, that it allows you to have "normal" food like fruit etc. I've read both DANDR and the South Beach Diet and I can't really find much difference except the order in which SB allows you to have those foods and eating low fat meats and cheeses. I said that to my boss and she then said that you can't sustain Atkins for the long haul. You know what--she's right and she's wrong. Most people can't (and SHOULDN'T) sustain INDUCTION for the long haul. This is where the misconception about Atkins comes in--the Atkins diet isn't just INDUCTION. This is where MY misconception lead me astray the first go round. And I don't want to do this again. I want to be a success story like Brooke, 2Big, Richt, ttdriver, cleo, etc. etc. etc.

If I'm wrong, tell me...I want so badly to succeed this time. I realize that different foods affect people differently, but I was wondering if there were things (other than the actual foods) that I should be watching out for?

[2big4mysize]

Dr Atkins in the premaintenance stage tells folk that if they know a food is a problem food for them like pasta then don't even try to include it in your Atkins he actually calls it an addiction so if you know you are going to have issues with a food them just skip it.

Don't eat frankenfoods! stick with foods that count every carb except fiber and you will be a big loser for life. When Dr Atkins created and redefined his program he never invisioned a lwo carb cake that would have 3000 cals and only 24 net carbs. if you wanted cake you had to budget your carbs and have a very snmall 1/24th of the cake to get 24 carbs and about 180 cals from a Betty Crocker cake. Folk that blindly eat the mythical magical countiung noncounting carb foods get themselves into trouble and have a very hard time ever getting even close to goal caus those darn candies pies cakes whatever we soo addictive. fiber is the only thing by definition that goees in your mouth and comes out the other end unmetabolizes. the Frankenfood companies Atkins included petitioned the FDA to allow them to count all those "special counting noncounting things as fiber since they had little blood sugar impact but trhe FDA said no way and even cracked down on companies that tried to sneak them in to their packaging like Russel Stovers and others.

Also remember Dr Atkins said sweets and desserts should be occaisonal treats not every day events. I was kind of surprized that he had never even had a low carb chocloate candy until LArry King gave him one in Jan 2003 on his show.


Also know before you put it in your mouth if it is allowed and the carb count of a food. Asking after you ate it will be of little use.

your Ah Ha moment is very much like what Dr Atkins discusses in DANDR those that do all 4 phases of his plan have the least trouble sticking at goal

happy OWLing.

[Elizellen]

Originally Posted by 2big4mysize

Also know before you put it in your mouth if it is allowed and the carb count of a food. Asking after you ate it will be of little use.

This statement ought to be engraved into every Atkineers mind

[ValidRouge]

Thanks 2big and Elizellen. I do try to stay away from the 'frankenfoods'. In fact, I haven't had any this go-round. On two occasions I have made something sweet. Week 2, I think, I combined some sugar free jello and some cream cheese...and of course, overate from it. Caused my weightloss to stop that week, but at least it didn't go up.

Then last week, I made some cream cheese whipped cream from Linda's Low Carb site. 1 oz cream cheese, 1 cup of whipping cream and splenda. It was so rich I could only eat a little. Luckily my dh loved it and pigged out on it so there wasn't much left for me to go crazy on.

I lost inches like crazy for the first few weeks and have slowed down the last two, but pounds are coming off now. Either way, I'm calling it success. I've got one devil of a cold right now and am taking sudafed, else my sinuses and ears are all plugged up. This is my second go around with this stupid cold this year. It sure knocks me on my butt! I'm also having water retention problems from it. I may not see much weight loss for the next couple weeks because TOM is approaching too. Ahhh the joys of being woman. That's okay though, because I know a Whoosh will come afterwards, and it'll be HUGE.

I'm going to try to find kohlrabi (sp?) this week and give that a go. I tried turnips night before last and boy were they bitter. I'm going to try to find younger ones and see if it makes a difference...if not, i'll just eat the greens! MMMM!

After looking at the spreadsheet I did (for net carb/fiber counts), I could really eat a boat load of vegetables! I'm thinking of making some soup (it'll help ease my sore throat) with chicken broth and greens...maybe add some chorizo sausage and make something like Caldo Gallego (Spanish Collard Green Soup) but without the chick peas and potatoes. I could really have a big bowl of that.

Funny, a big bowl now would be what I used to consider a small bowl! LOL

[not2late]

Occasionally turnips are bitter. When that happens, I shred the turnips using a box grater, mix them with about a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice. Allow it to sit for 15 minutes, then squeeze out the water, then I rinse the turnips in cold water to get rid of the vinegar. Then I use those shredded turnips for hash browns or in a casserole with mayo, sour cream and a strong cheese like cheddar.