Please comment on my menu

[Jarrod]

Here is a typical menu for me:

Breakfast:
16 oz water with my vitamin and calcium supplement
2oz of breakfast sausage (one patty), or 4 strips of bacon
2 eggs fried in the same pan (after draining the fat)
A smoothie consisting of:
10oz ice
4 oz of Tropical Diet V8 (1.5 net carbs)
3 oz of Carbmaster vanilla yogurt (1.5 net carbs)
1oz cream
1 tsp vanilla or coconut extract

Lunch:
8-10oz tuna or chicken salad
two stalks of celery
1oz cream cheese
6 oz Carbmaster yogurt (3 net carbs)
12oz diet soda

Snack:
One piece of string cheese or a hard-boiled egg
16oz water

Dinner:
6 to 8oz of fish, chicken, pork, or beef. Usually grilled or smoked. Sometimes I'll use home-made sugar-free bbq sauce on the meat (2 carbs for tomato base in the sauce), or some kind of cream or butter sauce for seafood.
2 cups of salad, or 1 cup of cooked brocolli or squash
8oz Homemade vegetable soup.
12 oz of Crystal light
12-16 oz of water

Dessert:
About every 2nd or third day, if I get a sweet tooth, I will make a root beer float from diet A&W with 2oz of cream. Sometimes I'll splurge on a Breyers Carbsmart ice cream bar (5 net carbs). The great thing about this is that the kids love to join me and are perfectly happy to have these treats instead of something really loaded with calories and sugar.

The last thing I do before bed is drink 8-12 oz of water.

[liv]

Your profile says extended induction. Is that where you consider yourself. It is clearly not only induction legal foods on your list.
Are you wanting your menu to be clean? Or are you just wondering how it measures up? Let me know. I can sure you through it and point out all the induction illegals?
Are you losing OK?

[Jarrod]

Thanks - I was just wondering how it measures up. I'm not too worried about being 100% clean. I'm a biochemistry professor and understand the principles behind induction and am following them closely enough to obtain all the results one expects. So for lack of a more accurate description I've indicated that I'm on "extended induction". I'm staying at 20 carbs but have indeed been eating traces of foods from the early OWL rungs all the way through induction without any problems - one or two almonds slivered on top of a salad, a trace of fruit in the "yogurt", etc. But never really an entire "portion" of food from an OWL rung.

Speaking of - I really believe the "yogurt" should be considered induction friendly. This stuff I'm talking about isn't really yogurt - it is protein, a little bit of fat and traces of low-glycemic index fruit (peach, berries) to add flavor. It is made from milk proteins, cream, active cultures, and a really tiny amount of fruit - probably the equivalent of half a small to medium strawberry per 6oz container. In fact they can't legally call it yogurt, it is actually called "cultured dairy blend". It has 3 net carbs (plus 1g of fiber) and 1.5g of fat per 6oz. It is delicious stuff - in fact I think it tastes better than 90% of the actual yogurts on the market IMO. The cream gives it a fabulous texture.

The other one that I am guessing raised a flag was the V8 juice - this stuff is mainly water and carrot juice, sweetened with splenda and flavored with natural fruit extracts. Again, not on the list but for all practical purposes induction friendly taken in moderation (no more than 4oz per day in my case).

The Breyer's bar is a new discovery, and taken in moderation (2-3 times per week?). They can be a nice crutch and as I mentioned a way to share a treat with the kids that I don't need to feel guilty about. No argument from me that this is not an induction food, or indeed a "food" at all

I believe everything else is on the menu is within the guideline. One could argue that I've traded 3-5g of my allowed induction veggie carbs and substituted some early OWL foods and they would be correct. But as I said, I am not too concerned about being 100% clean, just to follow the principles and be sure I get my vitamins and exercise - and of course to see the expected results. So far, so good!

Please feel free to give additional feedback and/or comment on what I said above!

[Grant]

Hi Jarrod, the main reason to review someone's menu is to try to help find things that may not be on plan. Since you are intentionally not eating on plan and already know which items you'd need to avoid to do that I'm not sure how much help any comments would be.

I won't try to dissuade you from eating off plan but I can suggest two things:
1. Lose the crutch. They can only slow you down.
2. Check the breakfast sausage, they often have fillers you may not be factoring in.

[Jarrod]

OK, thank you for the suggestions!

[MelTin]

What do you want. You come on here and say I'm not doing Atkins and is it working. If this diet works for you, great but it isn't Atkins.

[Jarrod]

Just hanging out and chatting about my menu. Sorry if I offended you.

[Grant]

I think maybe Meltin thought your response to me was sarcastic. I didn't take it that way.

[boonie stomper]

Personally, I would have made sure tosave the bacon grease for later use, plus cooked the eggs in it, and then maybe added cheese and some veggies to them... Just a thought...