Deena, you're so right. I ate a low-fat muffin a couple weeks ago and I was SO HUNGRY all day long because of the simple carbs. It was awful and a real eye-opener.

I don't expect my weight loss to keep up at this pace, but I will not complain if it does. Getting back down to my low weight in the first two weeks (150.4 on October 22nd, yes, I have it memorized) would be FANTASTIC, but I'm used to losing slow, so I'm just going to go with the flow.

I'm bracing myself for Atkins flu, though my legs hurt all the time anyway so I might not even notice. I am pretty tired today, but I didn't sleep much last night so that's probably why.

Anyway, yeah, it's going well so far, and I thank you for the encouragement! I really am enjoying this WOE, which I honestly never thought I'd say.

Day four and I am feeling a little bit like a zombie. I am CRAZY busy at work, which might be part of it, but I think it's just a little 'Atkins flu' settling in. I'll work through it for sure, especially since I saw another two pounds of water gone on the scale this morning.

I have been carrying like ten pounds of water weight for three months now, going up and down the 150s on the scale until I want to scream, so if I can get it off for good and get into the 140s here one of these days, I will be so thrilled.

In the meantime, I'm not having any trouble sticking to the diet. I don't miss anything except the extra sweetener in my coffee. It's just not the same without two Splendas and flavored creamer! I'm willing to sacrifice to break this plateau, though.

You're doing great, Caroline, just stick through it! The first week can be hard, but usually by the end of the second week, you're feeling great.

You can do it!

It's the morning of day five for me and I'm down six pounds. Honestly I expected to lose maybe five in the first two weeks, so I'm already reaching beyond my own expectations, which is great.

I feel good, apart from yesterday's fatigue (which I imagine will continue today, but after years of insomnia I am used to working through it) and I'm doing fine hunger-wise.

I'm out of eggs again, so I will go pick up some more tonight after I work out. That's two dozen in a four days, I think? Okay, some of them went into recipes and I cooked almost an entire dozen last night, but still. That's a lot of eggs! For someone who's not really a fan, it's bizarre. I am going to have to stop buying the organic ones, though; they're just too expensive. Until the farmer's markets start up again and I can get them locally, I'll just have to start buying the flats of eggs at the grocery store. Luckily they're on sale this week. I'll stock up tonight and the kid at the register will think I'm insane!

Speaking of working out, I just didn't have the energy last night. Normally I wake up at 5:00 and work out before work, then again after work, but this week I haven't been able to get up early. I'm giving myself a break while my body adjusts to truly low-carb eating. I hope to have the energy for weight training tonight, at least. It feels *weird* to drop a bunch of weight without daily killer cardio sessions! Not that I'm complaining.

Today I am having lunch out with a friend, which would make me nervous except that there's a restaurant downtown where you can design your own salad, so I can make a completely Atkins-friendly meal. I do look forward to my daily salad. Breakfast used to be my favorite, but I think it's the salad that wins now.

No omelet for breakfast this morning; instead I made Oopsies last night (I have a KitchenAid so I just skip the cream of tarter and let the mixer do the work) and had one with egg salad and a couple slices of bacon for breakfast. It was a nice change.

That's awesome, thistoo! And good for you for sticking with things even through the uncomfortable early days of the diet! Hopefully by next week you will be feeling much better.

Oh my gosh, I just saw your before & after photos on the support forum and what a huge difference! You look like a totally different person!

I'm really intrigued by those oopsies...mainly because with only those ingredients, it sounds like something that wouldn't hold together during baking. I'll have to try them.

BTW, have you heard of those parmesan crisps? Where you simply take the grated parmesan and put little piles on a cookie sheet, flatten them and bake? I'm not all that crazy about them but some people love them.

Years ago, they had this guy on the Food Channel who made all low-carb foods. He and his entire family had lost significant weight on a diet that sounded just like Atkins, basically. I wish it was still on. I thought it was really helpful for low-carbers.

The latest thinking on eggs is that they are now supposed to be the best protein out there and are good for you....versus the old thinking that the yolks were bad for you. I heard this during a lecture/speech on C-Span by Robin Cook, I believe it was. They are also now saying that the body will make its own cholesterol so that trying to avoid things like eggs/egg yolks isn't necessary to lower cholesterol levels. Plus they now think the good cholesterol is really good for you. My cholesterol was always good (both good and bad cholesterol) during all my years on Atkins maintenance and all my egg/egg yolk eating.

deena

Thanks! I have trouble seeing it, since I look at me every day, but sometimes I look at before and now pictures and it's sort of shocking.

The Oopsies hold together as long as you beat the eggs until they're *really* stiff. They're kind of flaky, I guess, and you have to handle them carefully, but they do hold up more or less the way they're supposed to. Not the most delicious invention ever, but they're handy.

Having said that, I am experiencing more hunger than usual this morning, which is problematic since I'm stuck at work and only have the snacks I brought with me available. I'll have a big lunch to tide me over, and salmon for dinner. But I guess it's back to my omelet for breakfast tomorrow; I never get hungry until 1:00 when I have an omelet. It's just weird because I still ate a ton of eggs this morning. Oh well, lesson learned.

I haven't tried any of the cheese crisp recipes yet, but I've been meaning to. We're supposed to get snowed in this weekend, so that might be a good time to try them out. I was never really a chip/savory snack person (my weakness is chocolate) so I don't crave that sort of thing.

It's the morning of day six and I am up almost an entire pound. To be honest I'm not that surprised; I was so hungry by 10 am yesterday that I'm sure I overate by the end of the day. I kept all my food on plan, but I think I had more cheese than usual and I KNOW the salad I had for lunch was way more lettuce carbs than I would normally take in. The trouble was I was too hungry to practice portion control.

Today will be better, and really, my weight loss has been so stubborn for so long that I can't expect Atkins to be a miracle cure for that. I've got to get more cardio in (I've been totally slacking this week) and I've got to make sure I stick with the Induction plan 100%. There was also some Diet Pepsi yesterday. Yes, I know it is not on Induction. And now I know that I am one of those people who is super-sensitive to artificial sweetener. Lesson learned.

Anyway, I feel okay and the fatigue only lasted a day, so that's something. Unless I messed up completely yesterday and ruined the ketosis process, I am hopeful that the downward trend will continue eventually. If it takes awhile, that's okay. I'm used to waiting.

(((HUGS)))) Hey, Caroline, don't get discouraged! The scale does some weird things sometimes. You know, a lot of times when I have days when I want more food than usual, a whoosh will be coming pretty soon afterwards. I'll bet you will see a whoosh soon! Plus if you ate anything salty, that water weight thing can really throw the scale off, even though it's not real weight.

Now this is just me....but I've never really had to worry how much lettuce I eat....in fact, how much low carb veggies I eat (spinach, broccoli, etc.) BUT cheese is a whole other story. That, I have to be really careful with. You'll get to intuitively know which foods you have to worry about and have to be really careful with portion sizes of.

For instance...and this is rather weird...but (and I even noticed this years ago), I will run into difficulty if I eat a lot of beef, for some reason. I eat mainly chicken, turkey and fish now because I care for my dad and that's what he wants/likes....so there's always plenty here....but for some odd reason, eating beef often caused problems for me...which makes no sense really, as it has no carbs....so I have no idea why this is. But I only eat beef once in a while due to this.

It's so strange to me how I can have this problem with beef that has NO carbs yet not run into problems with these mayos that have a bit of sugar in them. I DO, if I"m near the state line, jump over and stock up on sugar-free Duke's mayo.....but the others (Hellman's, etc.) never cause a problem for me. Sometimes it's hard to figure out the logic of it.

Oh...one other thing related to hunger....I noticed early on that if I ate a huge meal...it made me hungrier later...and sooner. I'm guessing it has to do with stretching the stomach. So I never eat any huge amounts...even if it's just lettuce....so as not to stretch my stomach. It is extremely helpful with controlling these hunger spurts.

You know, another thing I really like about Atkins/low-carbing....and this is just my sorta best-guess quasi-medical opinion....but whenever I'd lose any weight on any sort of low-calorie diet (which was always a miserable, hungry struggle for me)....I felt as though I'd lost lean muscle mass in addition to fat. Then I'd gain the weight back but feel like I now had an even worse muscle to fat ratio. Not sure if I'm explaining this well.

Basically, that each time I'd do this (unless I was doing MAJOR exercising to replace the lost muscle), I kept lowering my muscle mass/percentage and increasing my fat percentage. And THEN, kept creating more and more fat cells by doing this....making it more and more difficult to lose the weight.

But once I went to Atkins, I never had a problem with this. Right now, I feel like it's been all fat that's melted off. One thing I've always noticed is that on other diets, I'd always get gaunt in the face first....just what you want, a big body and a shrunken head......but on Atkins (due to the fat, I'd imagine), I never get that. My face looks better but I don't get that gaunt look. I remember back in the 90's, even my mom noticed and commented on it.

Heck...as long as your clothes aren't getting tighter, you are not gaining any weight. It's just the scale/body acting weird. Don't worry.

deena

Thank you for the pep talk, ladies! I am not despondent or anything, just annoyed because I have been stuck at the 155 mark or thereabouts for months and I'm so far over it I can't even tell you. But I was thinking about it this morning, and I introduced cream cheese to my diet yesterday. I know that can sometimes cause problems for people, so I will lay off it until further notice and see what happens.

I also went to the grocery store and stocked up on eggs last night (the dozen-and-a-half cartons were on sale for $1.50 each! I bought six dozen. The checkout girl thought I was insane until I said 'Atkins'.) so I won't run out of hard boiled eggs for snacks again. They keep me more full than anything else, I find.

Also I did a crazy amount of pull-ups last night, so I might be retaining water from that as well. As long as the downward trend starts up again soon-ish, I won't panic.

This made me LOL for real. Thanks for that.

I think you are right on! I noticed on Weight Watchers, at the same weight, my measurements were larger than when I low-carbed = more fat and less muscle making up my body.

Low-carbing does really seem to protect muscle mass and selectively burn more fat than when you are on a low-fat/higher carb diet. I mean, I bet some muscle is lost but I think not nearly as much.

Plus I find it SO MUCH easier to stay on

Here's something weird: Today I am really craving a beer. I don't even know why; I mean, I enjoy beer, but I don't drink it every day or even every week, so there's no reason to want one. Instead I am drinking coffee with a Splenda and a little half and half (I'm at work so it's not like I'd be drinking beer anyway) and thinking about the chicken I'm going to cook for dinner.

It's my mom's cinnamon chicken recipe, which I stopped making ages ago because it uses butter. I was browsing at the grocery store last night and saw a giant bag of chicken legs on sale super-cheap, and it dawned on me suddenly: I can make cinnamon chicken! I refrained from doing a happy dance right there in the store, but I thought about it.

So it's cinnamon chicken and green beans for me for dinner. We are expecting that big storm to roll through tonight so staying in and making some comfort food sounds about perfect to me. (Who'd have ever thought I'd refer to chicken as comfort food? Three years ago I was a hardcore vegetarian.)

Hmm, have no idea why you are craving beer unless you look at all the ingredients in beer and see what your body really wants or needs. I listen to my body as when I crave something there is usually a health reason for it (not all the time but most of the time).

For example, before I knew I had lyme disease (I am all better now!), I could not understand why I craved raw garlic! I was buying them like crazy and popping whole cloves in my mouth like they were candy!

Later on I found out that garlic acts like a natural antibiotic, so there was a reason.

Deena, you mentioned that beef may be a problem for you. All I can think of is that beef is not what it used to be compared to the old days. I forgot what cows eat today but it's not the same grains, grass, etc. that cows ate when I was younger. The only beef I eat is chopped meat which I mix with other ingredients to make a casserole. Not sure about organic beef except it costs lots of money which I don't have.

Also, I am finding out that cheese could be a problem for me as well. I have to go easy on cheeses, especially Cream Cheese! I have no idea why this is but it is..

Toby

Toby, I tried Atkins once years ago and just didn't do well on it mostly because I wasn't following it right. I had a misunderstanding about quantities and thought I could just eat as much of everything as I wanted and I'd be okay. So not even realizing cream cheese has some carbs, I would eat like a whole block of cream cheese each day (like divided into 4 snacks) with a few packets of splenda (maybe 8 or 10) blended in. Didn't know those had carbs either. And I ate hamburger patties with soy sauce on top a few times a day. So I still had incredible cravings, didn't lose any weight in two weeks, and really it was all because I wasn't doing the diet right. This time I know a lot better than I did before. This time, I am staying away from cream cheese entirely (at least until I get close to my goal) because I think for me it might trigger cravings.

It's true, the grain fed cows don't provide meat that has the Omega-3 fatty acids that your body needs. The grass-fed meat/organic meat is wicked expensive, I'll agree

But I'm thinking of maybe looking at it again because now that I'm in the 3rd week of the diet, my appetite has been reduced to where I only eat about maybe 3 or 4 ounces of meat for dinner. I might be able to swing one of those organic steaks every week if I can divide it into two portions, one for me, one for DH. I don't know, I'll have to look again, I've forgotten exactly how much more expensive that meat is.

I'm really sorry you have Lyme disease. Were you able to put it into remission? I sure hope so!

Caroline, that cinnamon chicken sounds so yummy! I'm going to try to look that up on the internet and see if I can find a recipe because now I really want to try cinnamon chicken!

Have a great weekend, you guys! It's snowing here in Virginia. Some years we don't get hardly any snow, maybe just a dusting or two, and other years, we get lots. This winter so far we seem to be getting lots! Poor little birdies outside, hopping and looking for seeds - I placed some seeds on the ground near the birdfeeders knowing the snow was coming, so the little chickadees would be able to get a bite to eat easily.