Moved onto OWL....

[EverLosing]

The weight has stagnated for the past week. I know I had some days that I didn't eat enough but I was always over 1200 calories. Then, there was ToM too. So, I always tend to discount any perceived failure during girly week.

It's time for rung 2 now and I have a problem. Dairy and I do not agree. Unless of course, we're talking milk and Lucky Charms! I can do sour cream, cottage cheese in a recipe, whipping cream and yogurt. Low carb ice cream and milk scare the heck out of me.

I did try 1/2 cup of plain yogurt this morning. GAG! The carb content was 12 g per cup so I opted for only 1/2 cup. I got the lowest carb yogurt I could find at the grocery store but I need to keep looking at other places. So, I need to add a different dairy daily, correct? I'm not into cheese. Yuck. Don't like it at all except for mozerella melted on something delicious. How long do I need to dedicate to rung 2?? As you can tell, I'm not excited about this rung. I feel like it's an icky rung I have to go through!

Quite frankly, I feel like I'm going out on a limb to go to OWL. I've just read so many posts about people staying on extended induction too long and rediscovering what weight loss is after they began owling. I'm on my way to ONEderland....10 pounds away. I want it. I've been stuck at 209 for a long time. Considering the amount of exercise, water and calorie counting, fat/protein/fat tracking I'm doing, I should be dropping some weight. Muscle mass has certainly increased and I can tell I'm stronger and muscles are developed. My energy levels in the last couple weeks went waaaay down. So, I'm concluding my body is asking for more carbs to match the energy I'm using every day.

Opinions? Expertise???

[liv]

Not so many opinions about what is right for you. OWL is a personal journey in so many ways. It is a good time to explore new things about foods and about you eating those foods. So you are eating about 25 carbs now? Mostly from veggies?
I like the dairy rung. I eat yogurt - look for Greek Yogurt or Balkan yogurt. Those are fattiest and lower on carb. I eat 1/4 cup when I have yogurt. If you do not like it plain you could add some flavour to it. How about vanillla - or a flavoured syrup? Once you get to rung 3 you can add flaxseed and in rung 4 berries. Makes yogurt kind of fun.
Cottage Cheese, ricottoa , mascarpose are fun things to experiment with. Cottage cheese is a nice source of protein. You can also make pancakes with it.
And then there is one of my favourites - whey protein powder - maybe I am weird but I love that stuff in drinks.
Milk and cream are good to try out. They are great in recipes. A creamy vegetable soup is very delicious.

[EverLosing]

One of my downfalls is keeping the food pretty bland. I don't know where to get these flavored syrups. They sound wonderful. I'm sooooo looking forward to the berries. Really a big reason why I want to get away from induction. It does help further up the rungs when friends and family see you eating something that looks "normal" to them. I'm supposed to go to my friends house tonight and she doesn't eat meat. The rest of her family does. I'm thinking maybe tuna salad and a pickled cucumber.

I need to work on preparing food in advance and finding and making delicious alternatives to tuna salad, egg salad, bacon and eggs!!

I did look for Greek Yogurt and did not find it. Sounds yummy. What kind of milk do you drink and what was your serving size on the dairy rung??

[not2late]

If you don't like dairy, you don't have to do the rung. But you mentioned things like cottage cheese, which is a fresh cheese that you couldn't eat during Induction.

There are low carb ice cream recipes out there that are "safer" than the store bought kind, in terms of additives. So you may want to try those out.

As for milk.....it's limited to 5 net carbs too. So if you use it, just remember to use 5 net carbs of it.

I tend to use my dairy as an ingredient in a dish, rather than as a food on its own (with the exception of the aged cheeses with I eat as dessert.) So when I use yogurt, I use it as an ingredient. For example, there are some Indian and Greek recipes that use yogurt as a sauce base. There are recipes in which yogurt is used as a marinade for chicken, etc. Same thing with cream. I rarely whip heavy cream and eat it straight. Instead I use heavy cream in soups or in sauces.

[EverLosing]

I'm thinking I don't need to spend too much time on this rung. I'm not into straight dairy. When I was, it certainly wasn't low carb!! I'm leaning more toward using the dairy as ingredients also. I just am not into it. Until I can add fruit to the yogurt, perhaps. We'll see.

[EverLosing]

So, this morning I discovered Breyer's Carb Smart almost real ice cream. It was gooooooooood! No cravings either. I read in someone else's post that another brand caused her cravings but not Breyer's. I've had it in the freezer for days...afraid to open it! I did have 1/2 cup in a tiny little custard dish to make it look full!! Maybe not the best thing to have before I worked out but it was delish!! It certainly makes doing this WOE feel more do-able! I'm on rung 3 and things are sluggish. Time to resist the almonds and explore some other things, I believe.

[Desertthorn]

I would also suggest skipping the dairy rung. The only benefit I would see is calcium and Vit D, so you might want to take some calcium supplements if you don't already.

[rweeks]

SOunds like you have learned all you can from this rung.... MOVE ON! I learned QUICKLY that berried do not work for me. So I moved past that rung quickly. THis is information that we need to make this work for a lifetime. COngrats on your discovery!