Hi! I'm new

[anutka]

Hi All!
I'm new here and been asked to introduce myself.


I'm 39 y.o. Today is my 17th day on Atkins. I'm still on 20 carbs per day and I have not decided yet either I should stay on Induction or move on OWL.
I'm 5'5 and started with 159-160lb, my current weight is about 152lb. My goal is 128lb by the end of October, so I can celebrate my Birthday wearing my favorite black dress.
First two weeks I only ate food from allowed list, except by the end of the second week I bought 2 lb of Belfiore Russian style Farmer Cheese that I thought was allowed. I got confused by its Nutrition Facts label (50 cal per 1 oz, 0 carbs, 0 sugar) It took me few days to finish this cheese and only then I realized that farmer cheese is not permitted during Induction. After that I started to count my carbs very closely on fitday.com to make sure I eat right food and stay in 20 carbs level per day.

My Workout:
cardio (ecliptic machine) 3 times a week for at least 70 min;
weights- 2 times a week for 20-30 mins;
walking- 30 min 5-6 times a week.

I love this forum and check it every day. Thank you to everyone who is posting here. It's tremendously helping me with this diet.

Cheers!

anutka

[Trisha001]

Welcome and best of luck to you!! Stay strict and you won't be disappointed...
T~

[sugarsack]

welcome and keep up the good work .. come here often, read everything, ask questions.. you will find great support !

[chinadoll]

Welcome. You are off to a great start. Many people think they will lose faster if they stay on induction. That's not the case for most people. You are either in ketosis or not. Having fewer carbs doesn't mean you are in more ketosis. Since you have a relatively small amount to lose (compared to me, anyway) I would suggest moving on for several reasons.

First, you will still be in ketosis on the rungs so you will keep losing.

Second, moving up the rungs provides you with more variety, more vitamins, and more fiber in your diet.

Third, by moving up the rungs slowly and trying one or two new foods at a time, you will learn which foods trigger you to go off plan and then can avoid them. Trigger foods are funny. Some of mine are blueberries(portion issues), peanuts and cashews. This week another poster identified cucumbers as a trigger for her! You need several months to identify these triggers.

Finally, by moving up the rungs you are learning how to do maintenance along the way. You are also learning the self control you will need as you add foods. If you wait until you get there and then suddenly move to maintenance it can be overwhelming. You suddenly have to learn to handle it all and many people goof it up and wind up back at the beginning again. You will also have time to analyze the emotional and social triggers.

Induction is great but it is so structured it makes it easy to stay on plan--very cut and dried. OWL is a gray area. It requires more work but it will ready you for living in the world where you will have to make choices and learn to balance things.

You know yourself best but these are some things to think about, and you can always stay on Induction awhile and then start up the rungs later, but you should give yourself 3-4 months to ease upwards in the rungs.

[anutka]

Thank you so much for welcoming me! I have so much to learn from all of you, and its much easier when you have such great support group here.
Jill, thanks a lot for your detailed post. It helped me to make up my mine mind and I will move on OWL as you suggested. Yesterday I eat first time in more then 2 weeks fresh walnuts little less then 1oz, but kept my total carbs for a day same 20. But I will go up to 25 carbs today, so I can enjoy little bit more food.

Thanks a lot again!

[carbless_in_seattle]

It's great that you do so much exercise! However, maybe you should think about doing a higher intensity workout on the eliptical for a shorter amount of time. Changing your exercise routine is important to keep your body guessing and the scale moving down.

[IvannaLive]

WOW I need you for an exercise partner!! welcome

[anutka]

When I'm on ecliptic machine, I input my weight and I always put Random setting on lever 12 or 13 ( depends on my energy level that day). So when you are on Random its never same intensity, its just like going up and down the hills every 1-3 min, and during workout I may change my speed to make sure I burn at lest 600 cal per hr. I'm not sure how accurate these machines showing you burned calories, but I been told that its could be less then it shows on display. I will probably cut down my cardio to 35 min when I get close to my goal weight and increase weight lifting to 3 times a week.

Couple years ago I tried doing 20 min HIT for while, but honestly I got so annoyed by changing speed every min, it was so distracting for me and the end I saw same amount of burned calories as when I use Random setting. But I will keep in mind and maybe will try HIT again Thanks for advice!