Ready To Go!!!

[tEkNiQ]

Hello! I am married, with a 6 month old, and my main reason for starting Atkins again is for the benefit of them both. I am a 27 year old male who relatively have been in great shape for most of my life. I played football in both elementary and highschool (a total of about 10 years) and was always active. Each summer, I would do Atkins Induction phase (in highschool) to prepare myself for the season and would always drop that 10 stubborn pounds I gained over the summer. Now, here I am, at 27, nowhere near as active as I was. Comfortable in my marriage and a father and have gained about 60+ pounds over the last 9 years since graduating. Between college and my wifes home cooking, there was no way around it.

I begain Induction on Monday and have been dropping weight the last couple of days. (I also dabbled in proper eating last week which helped me to drop a little, however, I think this is all water weight) I currently weight 248.6lbs and would like to get down to about 185lbs.

I have the Atkins book and have been following with all the acceptable foods listed, however, I am now finding out, via this thread, that some of the things I have incorporated into my meals are not good. (ie. The Atkins Advantage shakes and bars, steak sauce) On Monday, I had very little steak sauce on my porterhouse (about a tablespoon) and i've been drinking the shakes daily as one of my snacks. I've only had the bar once in the last three days, and since stopped since reading they aren't good to have during the Induction phase. Could someone please clarify?

A general idea of how i've been eating is as follows (today's meal plan for me)

Breakfast: Eggs w/ cheese and 3 strips of bacon with a bottle of water
Snack: Atkins Advantage Shake
Lunch: Cheeseburger (no bun obviously) with chopped onions, caeser salad with bacon, parm cheese and one egg, 2 tablespoons of caeser dressing and a bottle of crystal light.
Snack: Two hard boiled eggs and water
Dinner: Baked chicken and asparagus with Diet Dr. Pepper
Snack: Pork Rinds and water

I am very serious about being successful with this, however, with losing a larger amount of weight, rather than the 10lbs I would usually drop, I want to make sure there are no margins of error!

All replies are welcomed!

[Slapshot]

Welcome! If you read my signature, you'll see that we have lots in common.

I, too, fell into the Atkins shakes trap. I would have one per day (around 7:30 pm) as my "reward" for a clean eating day. I don't think it stalled my induction, but out of an abundance of caution, I broke the habit of them since they contain soya/milk. Bummer because I really looked forward to them. But, since I'm staying on extended induction, they're off the plan for now.

You're in a great spot for great advice from the folks here.

Congrats on the new beginning!

[Slapshot]

P.S. You might want to try and curb/cut the Crystal Light/Dr. Pepper habit as (a) Dr. Atkins frowns upon Nutrasweet; (b) some people have noticed that diet drinks cause stalls and (c) those drinks might cause real sugar cravings. That was a hard choice to make on my end (12 cans of diet coke a day), but amazingly, I've been drinking 100% water/seltzer water throughout induction and haven't missed the soda at all.

[tEkNiQ]

Slapshot! Thanks for the reply. That's actually why I reached directly out to you, as we have similar motives and goals to reach and with me, it's great to have another person as inspiration and a go to.

Between the Crystal Light and the soda, I definitely agree on letting one of them go. In the Atkins book however, and correct me of i'm wrong, as I'm in the office now and don't have access to the book, it mentioned that one can of diet soda is ok. I am willing to let one of them go as I don't want to jeopordize anything. What would you recommened I kick to the curb?

Also, I really appreciate the advise on the bars and shakes. As mentioned, I had the bar once yesterday and once I heard they aren't good for the induction phase, I have passed them on to the wife as she actually likes how they taste. Now, if I remove the shake from plan as well, what can I replace something like that with.

If you have a moment, what is your typical meal plan like for a day? Maybe I can get some ideas from there.

Hopefully you won't mind me coming to you as it seems as though you and I have the similar goals.

[Slapshot]

Sure, no problem on the support/Q&A's. I need help, often, too.

I've done this before (went from 230-180), so I know it can be done. I'm confident the issues that caused me to go from 180-240 won't come back, so this really is a new WOE for me.

I don't have the book handy either, but I don't recall the "one diet soda a day" rule. I'd be surprised if the book says that because all I remember is the caveat against aspartame/nutrasweet.

I'm a cold turkey kind of person, so I just made a decision to drop the diet coke and see what happens. I bought 20 one-liter bottles of flavored seltzer water in my supermarket and have been using them to spice up regard water from the fridge, or drink directly. The carbonation is really what I found myself craving, and the seltzer does that trick. I don't miss the diet coke at all.

Typical day for me is:

1. breakfast: 2 eggs, scrambled, with either blue cheese or ground beef. I sometimes use 2 tbsp of creamy caesar dressing to help stomach the eggs down if I'm not in the mood.
2. snack: Babybel cheese, string cheese, or celery and cream cheese
3. lunch: 2 cups salad with high fat, no carb dressing of choice
4. snack: the other cup of vegetables allowed, usually cucumbers and peppers marinated in a vinegar and pepper dressing (as I type this, I think I'll add some olive oil to this to up my fat count)
5. dinner: buffalo wings/chicken/steak made in the highest fat way possible (trimmings on, etc.)
6. post-dinner snack (not always): 5-10 pork rinds

I'll also add bacon, veal, and chicken drumsticks into the rotation as well.

And LOTS of water

[tEkNiQ]

I am getting ready to have my lunch now (my Crystal Light is packed in the bag), so my best bet is to just relinqish it all together. I'm not a fan, at all, of seltzer water. As a child, I know my mother use to drink it often and I tried it once and was completely turned off from there. What would be my other option? I do get in my water, so i'm proud of that. Especially since I wasn't a fan of water, at all, before.

Your menu helps alot, it lets me know that I am generally on the right path with what I am eating, however, it's just the soda/crystal light that seems to be an issue. Would you say I am much better off, at least for now, cutting ONE of them out? Say, the Crystal Light and stick with the diet soda for dinner, until I can slowly get myself off of it? Or would the Crystal Light be a better option and letting go of the Diet Dr. Pepper?

Quick question? You lost a tremendous amount of weight on Atkins before. Was that WITH or WITHOUT the Atkins Advantage Shake? (As you can see, the shake is like a treat for me as well, i'd hate to have to lose it now. They didn't have this back when I was doing Atkins in the late 90's)

[Slapshot]

Here's a recipe you might like for the buffalo wings: YouTube - Atkins Diet Recipes: Buffalo Wings

I don't fry mine (no fryer). I cook them at 425* for 45 minutes on a cookie sheet with aluminum foil sprayed with Pam (if you don't use the aluminum foil, you'll be scraping the cookie sheet...and cursing me...)

I buy full chicken wings (cheaper). Then cut them as follows: with a butcher knife, hyperextend the small joint and cut off the "tip" wing and discard. I then slice down the fat between the wing and drum (looks like the skin between your thumb and index finger). I then pry apart the wing and drum until the bone on the drum pops out of the wing, then I slice the two pieces apart.

My hot sauce is simple. 2 parts melted butter and three parts Frank's red hot sauce (with some tabasco if I'm in the mood). I buy the huge hot sauce at our wholesale club.

When the wings are done I put them in a bowl and pour the sauce mix over them to coat. If the wings aren't crispy enough, I put them under the broiler for a minute. Usually they're fine.

For bleu cheese dressing I simply take sugar free mayo (from Trader Joe's) and mix in crumbled real bleu cheese.

If it wasn't for these wings, not sure what I'd do.

[Slapshot]

Originally Posted by tEkNiQ

I am getting ready to have my lunch now (my Crystal Light is packed in the bag), so my best bet is to just relinqish it all together. I'm not a fan, at all, of seltzer water. As a child, I know my mother use to drink it often and I tried it once and was completely turned off from there. What would be my other option? I do get in my water, so i'm proud of that. Especially since I wasn't a fan of water, at all, before.

Your menu helps alot, it lets me know that I am generally on the right path with what I am eating, however, it's just the soda/crystal light that seems to be an issue. Would you say I am much better off, at least for now, cutting ONE of them out? Say, the Crystal Light and stick with the diet soda for dinner, until I can slowly get myself off of it? Or would the Crystal Light be a better option and letting go of the Diet Dr. Pepper?

Quick question? You lost a tremendous amount of weight on Atkins before. Was that WITH or WITHOUT the Atkins Advantage Shake? (As you can see, the shake is like a treat for me as well, i'd hate to have to lose it now. They didn't have this back when I was doing Atkins in the late 90's)

Starting backwards first, I lost my original 50 lbs without using the shakes. I just didn't think of getting them and probably didn't have the budget for it even if I did.

Given your anxiety over the drinks, you have two choices: (a) give them up entirely and do a clean induction; or (b) try and wean yourself off them by slowing phasing them out, but recognizing that your induction wouldn't be clean, and you won't get the best results. Too bad on the selzter water for you. That was heaven-sent for me. Perhaps others can chime in here on how to get rid of the aspartamed-stuff in your repertoire. I don't have a pick between Crystal Light or Diet Dr. Pepper since I think it's a toss-up.

How about trying Diet Coke with Splenda? (Look for yellow Splenda label on the bottle.) However, I still caution you that even Splenda can cause cravings in some people, and I have avoided it in induction and haven't had a single craving. Of course, YMMV...

[thegreat08]

I love that buffalo wing recipe! I'll have to try it soon. As far as the bars go... I heard an idea from one post to put them in the freezer then chop them up into smaller pieces and eat just a few pieces as a "treat". That way you don't rely on the whole thing.
For myself, I have been doing a protein shake in the mornings. I bought the whey protein powder (only 1.5 carbs) and mix it with water, ice, and a splash of heavy cream. Blend for a few seconds, and mmmm it's good. It might stall for some people, but I have been doing good with it. I might gag if I eat another egg.
I'm doing an extended induction for at least another week. Lost 10lbs in the first two. So that's good.

Hope all you guys do great!

[tEkNiQ]

Wow! Thanks for that! Even if I could have half the bar, or half the shake, as a "treat" it would help alot. If absolutely need be, I will completely remove them from my diet.

What I am trying to figure out now is how I am going to completely rid myself of both the crystal light AND diet dr. pepper. Removing those AND the bar/shake is going to be extremely hectic as mentally, i'll feel like i'm getting no "bonus"