Hi everyone, hope everyone is having a happy Saturday!

I know I'm not losing weight all that fast now that I'm in the post-induction stall, but you know what? I still really love this way of eating. I really do. I just plain old feel so much better on it. And I feel confident that I can eat this way the rest of my life. I don't have cravings, I'm satisfied with fewer calories than when I was eating a carb-heavy diet, and I'm hopeful that I will over time reach a healthy weight for me.

I'm trying to figure out if I'm spending more on groceries than I used to, and I don't think that I am. Because I used to buy some meat and cheese and salad fixings in addition to a bunch of carb-heavy snack food. So I don't think I'm buying all that much more meat and cheese than I used to, and I am saving some money by not buying the junk food. Junk food can add up, especially if you like to buy a large variety of it like I used to.

I'm not eating huge portions of meat actually at each meal. Some days I'm just not hungry until about noon - most days actually, it's just how I'm made.

So around noon usually I will eat a couple of eggs with a little chopped up peppers and onions that are sauteed in butter. I buy these bags of frozen chopped up peppers and onions and use that, and I use only like a couple of tablespoons worth of the veggies so my carb count won't go too high.

So that meal doesn't cost too much. My husband usually takes tuna salad or chicken salad to work along with a piece of fruit, or sometimes he eats a bigger lunch there at work, so I don't do too much for his lunch unless he's at home.

Anyhow, usually the eggs will keep me full enough until dinnertime around 6. If they don't, I will usually eat either a small bag of sunflower seeds (3 net carbs, 190 calories) and that will keep me happy or I cut up some salad veggies such as cucumbers and celery, about 1 cup's worth, and use 1 to 2 Tbs. of ranch salad dressing to dip them into and eat.

Then dinner is a normal portion of meat of some type (anywhere from 4-6 ounces usually, depending on how hungry I am. Right around that TOM, when I'm super hungry, I had 8 ounces, but that's not usual for me.) I cut up some more raw veggies (maybe one cup's worth again) to munch alongside my meat. I also give myself 1 to 1 1/2 cups (depending on hunger) of some low-carb vegetable, like collard greens, cooked. I put butter on the veggies, like maybe 1 TBS, or in the case of greens, cook the greens with some bacon so that I get some fat with the veggies.

If I'm really having the munchies in the evening after dinner, when we are watching TV etc., I will have a couple ounces of cheese, or a couple pieces of relatively low-carb bologna (1 carb, which isn't that great, but no sugars at least...) or a cup of chai tea with one Tbs. of heavy cream and a packet of artificial sweetener. Or my packet of sunflower seeds, which is handy to curb my cravings for salt.

A couple of times over the last 5 1/2 weeks I've had strong cravings for something sweet. Those times I've taken an ounce of cream cheese and a few drops of vanilla flavoring and a packet of Splenda and mixed it all together into a cheesecake-type thing. I try not to give into that very often though because I am sure that would be something that could stall me and I believe I might be one of the people for whom even a sweet taste might cause insulin to be put out into the body. I try to stay away mostly from anything that tastes too sweet, even diet soda. But especially around that TOM, I do get some cravings for sweets, always have, so I have to figure out how to work with my own willpower and my own body, without doing too much damage. This is kind of a learning adventure for me. I'm trying to find a way that I can keep this up for the rest of my life. If I tried to tell myself, no diet soda for the rest of your life, no cream cheese with artificial sweetener for the rest of your life - I would rebel. I would go off the diet. I know myself. So instead I tell myself, let's really limit those items to when you are really badly craving something sweet tasting. And that generally only happens to me around that TOM so it's only a once a month indiscretion so that's not so bad really.

I've been reading Gary Taube "Good Calories, Bad Calories." Some of the science makes my eyes gloss over, but when he gets to the conclusions in the latter half of the book, I was fascinated. I think everyone who can, should read this book! If you have the money to buy it, so much the better, but I guess at least some libraries would have a copy of this. It's worth reading, it really is.

Anyway I might have misinterpreted this, but I got the feeling that my body with its insulin resistance and hyperinsulimia is going to take some time to heal. That by eating this way, I am going to bring down my insulin levels, which is good, but there are still some biochemical processes going on and my body is still really going to be quick to put out insulin for awhile, even just thinking about food, etc. So I am thinking, okay, my journey back to health will probably be a gradual one, and I might not lose as quickly as I would like, especially until my body stops wanting to pump out insulin at the mere smell of food. It will take awhile for my body to realize, I'm no longer overloading it with simple carbs and sugars, so the big doses of insulin aren't needed anymore.

But I'm okay with that. I know I'm on the journey to better health, to good health, and I will be patient with my body as it heals from all the years that I overloaded it with simple carbs in large quantities.

Anyone else here read that book? What do you think of it? Isn't it a great book?

Happy Saturday to you too! Yayy...we got the day right this time! Notice..I said "we" lol! Do you think you might try eating breakfast? You really should eat every five to six hours. If you slept all night and then wait to eat until noon..thats a long time to fast. It could be slowing down your progress. I could be wrong though! I've never been a big breakfast eater either but I make myself eat it these days...especially since I have to take darn morning meds with food (yeah I sound like Im 80)!

Don't you just love those sunflower seeds? yummy!

I haven't been spending as much on groceries lately cause my appetite has decreased and I'm not eating as much...so this WOE is working for me again in that area! All I wanna eat is bacon and hamburger meat lol! Those are the only things I crave besides the sunflower seeds. I did buy some chicken and pork chops so my daughter wouldn't get tired of breakfast foods and hamburger! LOL!

Keep up the good work Lori

Thanks, Leslie! Well, some mornings I'm hungry and I eat breakfast earlier. Just not that often. I just have decided to feed my body when it's hungry and not feed it when it's not and see what happens. If I don't lose the weight I hope to lose by next Christmas, I'll re-evaluate how I'm doing things and make some changes!

Yup, the sunflower seeds are great! They do have a lot of sodium though especially since I suck on the shells before I open them with my teeth, and every evening I have them as a snack, I wake up the next morning with puffy undereyes, sigh. My body doesn't do sodium very well anymore since my kidneys aren't as healthy as they once were. But sometimes I just crave salt, I dunno. Progress, not perfection, LOL!

I love how eating this way keeps my appetite in check. Yeah, I'm still hungrier when I'm PMSing, but I think that's pretty normal for all women.

It's just amazing to me that I used to eat, I don't know, maybe 4 or 5 thousand calories sometimes in a day and I'd still be starving, and now I can eat 1,000 calories in a day and be satisfied. How wonderful - it feels like a miracle!

Oh, part of the reason I wait a bit to eat breakfast too is that I have to take synthroid because of my being hypothyroid, and you have to take that on am empty stomach and then not eat for a good hour or so afterwards. Or, if you take it in the evening (not recommended, doc said in the morning is best) you have to wait about four hours since your last snack/meal before taking it. Because women's stomachs empty out soooooo slowly. So it just works better for me to take the synthroid in the morning. So I will never be able to eat right when I get up, unfortunately, even on the days when I wake up hungry. But I think this WOE will work for me anyhow. Although being hypothyroid doesn't help any, LOL. They have shown that people who are hypo, even when corrected by medicine, still have a weight gain their first couple of years and have a hard time losing weight and keeping it off than non-hypo people. But this isn't a race for me. I will succeed, even if it takes me five years to reach 140 or less! I'm determined!

I really love the hamburger meat too, there's just something so yummy about it! I think it's the healthy amount of fat that comes with it. Meat these days is so lean It sucks. Ever since we established the "fat is bad" religion in our country, it's gotten harder and harder to eat the healthy low-carb way. Oh, well, maybe someday we will wake up as a nation. After all, they did finally admit they were wrong about trans-fat margarine being the best thing to put on your food.

Going to Lowe's today, thinking of painting an accent wall in our family/tv room...hoping I can do it right without getting paint on the ceiling or messing it up!

P.S. I wanted to say, I appreciate you trying to help me! I love that on this board we all help each other gently! It's just that I'm a rebel at heart, always have been, and I'm stubbornly going to do it my way, at least until I see it isn't working, LOL. But for sure the recommendation is to eat breakfast right away when you get up and not go too many hours between eating something. I just...well, my body is really weird in so many ways. I come from (on my Mom's side) hundreds of years of in-bred Amish. We have weird genetic diseases in my family, and my body has always just been weird in general. Most of the time I've had to figure out for myself what on earth was wrong with my body, and how to fix it. So I just got used to the idea that I have to figure my body out for myself and what works for everyone else, often doesn't work for me. So I'm a rebel. But I will absolutely reconsider what I'm doing if I find that I haven't lost a good twenty pounds by next Xmas. And I do appreciate so much that you took the time and cared enough about me to try to help me! It's nice having this friendship, even if it's just on-line. Please don't be mad at me for being a rebel for the time being and just kind of trusting my body for a bit of time.

Happy Saturday (please tell me me I got the day right this time)

Hahaha! Yes, I do believe this is Saturday.

Hey Lori! Yeah, it can slow down, but believe me....when you get there and look back it just all falls into place and the time/rate is totally inconsequential. All that really matters is that you got there.

And I finally broke through this latest 140 stall, I do believe.....so even if you get stuck in place for a while....perseverance pays off. And now I need to go and buy more jeans in an even smaller size....and can't wait.

I AM going to get new photos...I promise. It's a matter of me actually being dressed and presentable-looking at the same time my son's girlfriend is here with her good camera.....and then having my son put the photo(s) on my computer and getting them posted here. Because the two of them are always either at work or off flitting around somewhere, it's really a matter of just corralling them here together with their camera.

I'm not a breakfast person either. Normally....I get up very early and MUST have my requisite 2 big mugs of coffee (with 1 pack Splenda plus some half and half) before I can even think about food. What I've been doing...in order to get some sort of food in before noon....is to eat a handful of almonds...which has been working out well. They're light and I can always manage to get them in (without feeling yuck...which breakfast usually does).

If you have Walgreen's there....they sell a big 16 oz. bag of unsalted, natural almonds and they are very good and the whole bag is only $4....and am sure they also have them salted (I just don't like salt much). It seems that almonds and macadamias are the two lowest net carb nuts.
I do like cashews and pistachios...but the net carbs are quite a bit higher and the portions have to be strictly controlled.
I have a canister of Blue Diamonds natural unsalted almonds but I just keep refilling it with almonds from this $4 bag, because they are much less expensive than buying the Blue Diamonds one. Have also switched dad from a walnut snacker to an almond snacker.
If you really like salt, the Green Emerald Marcona almonds are a unique variety of almond and quite salty and crunchy....much more so than the natural ones. Any of the almonds that are roasted will have more of a crunch, in fact.

Like you, I too find that I eat a normal amount of protein. I say this because folks always seem to think one has to eat some massive quantities of protein on Atkins....which is just not true. Even though fish is low fat, I eat quite a bit because dad and I love fish...esp. salmon and tilapia (though we love any kind, really). I prefer dark meat chicken and turkey (LOVE the skin) and love that I can have this. I DO buy skinless, boneless chicken breasts when they are on sale at a great price (which seems to happen several times monthly at the grocery store) and will steam them in the oven and then dice them up and make a big batch of chicken salad, which I love. I mix the diced chicken with mayo......and then mix that in with a whole bag of pre-cut, pre-washed salad mix with added tomatoes and cucumbers. You can also add in shredded bacon or cheese if you want. You need no dressing because the mayo provides this.

It's great to have this already prepared in the fridge....for whenever you need a quick meal (such as last evening, when I returned from Annapolis...too tired to cook something). It's also great to pack up in a smaller container to take with you if you're going somewhere where finding Atkins-friendly food could be more of a challenge.

I am also not spending any more for groceries than I did in the past. For one thing, my dad and I both eat healthy so I don't have to buy a whole lot of totally different items for other family members. We share most of the same foods in our individual WOE. The most expensive thing I get is probably all the fresh fruit my dad likes/eats but I'd have to buy that anyway, regardless of what my WOE was. I also pretty much have the prices of everything memorized so know to stock-up on things when they are on sale....especially when they are REALLY on sale at great prices. This includes....cheese and dairy products, meats/fish, and frozen veggies....stuff that does not go bad quickly (like fresh produce, etc.). I also plan my weekly menus around what's on sale that week.

I truly do not think of this as a "DIET"....especially in terms of thinking that I can finally "go off it" when I hit goal. Being close to goal, I never even think of going off it....or await the day I can go off it. For me, this truly IS a WOE...not a diet. I know it's easy to say that....but I DID maintain that WOE for 12 years and did not regain the weight....until I was put on a medication that was so destructive to my metabolism. After that happened, I still followed this WOE, but kept gaining weight despite this....kept reducing and reducing calories to no avail....and eventually got so upset and depressed over it that I DID experience all the ravenous hunger, the cravings and the binges when I, in frustration and despair, ate simple carbs again.

BUT...the point I'm trying to make...is that because this medication severely affected my metabolism in a negative way....stopping the medication (a year and a half later) did not totally fix the problem....though it DID help quite a bit. My metabolism had been so negatively affected that it did not just bounce right back. BUT....on Atkins, I do believe that it HAS been healing. I could not have ANY more than 3 packs of Splenda daily and still remain in ketosis when I started....but as I related in my newest post on my own thread here, I went to Annapolis yesterday with my brother, and due to circumstances, ended up drinking at least 6 cups of coffee....ergo, 6 packs of Splenda.....but it did not in any way negatively affect my metabolism or my ketosis.

So to me....my metabolism has indeed been healing and become more efficient ever since I finally got the plan to work for me again early last summer. And I believe that your insulin issues will also improve as well. Like you, I find much of the complex biochemical info in the Taubes book to be quite over my head....but if I understand correctly, hypoglycemia is often caused by the malfunction of the pancreas (the isles of Langerhans, the part of the pancreas that releases insulin) secondary to overworking the pancreas due to high sugar/carb/simple carb intake.
Clearly, the Atkins WOE can do nothing but help this situation....possibly even allow the pancreas some much needed rest so that it can begin to function normally again. Like me, this plan will not just provide a quick fix overnight....I do realize that. But over time, I truly believe that these things can be improved, if not reversed. The body is a very resilient and regenerative thing, thankfully. And it will hopefully reward us for feeding it good food instead of poisonous stuff....right?

Oh...and here are the very few treats I will treat myself to....but only on rare occasions: Either, pork rinds dipped in sour cream (yum) or the cream cheese mixed with a little splenda and either cocoa powder...or lemon, cinnamon or vanilla (another yum). I mean heck...we all deserve a little Atkins-approved treat now and then.

LeslieLou....I am SO glad you are back onboard and that this is working for you again. Don't get me wrong...I would never fault you for any of your decisions regarding this....because we all have our own individual challenges in our lives. But I want so badly for all my friends here to be successful and I have so much faith in this WOE....faith that it is the best WOE and also that it is the best for controlling our weight issues.

Oh...and I absolutely DO love this Taubes book.....and believe that everyone should read it. At least everyone who is interested in weight loss, any sort of distorted eating issues, healthy WOE, health in general, etc.
Like I mentioned on my thread earlier, I began to suspect these things quite some time before I ever read the Taubes book...or even heard of it. As soon as sarahinparis began referring to it...I became totally intrigued. I immediately thought, "Finally! The truth is coming out."
I really respect Gary Taubes beyond words. It takes a lot of courage to go up against the establishment....and the entrenched beliefs that have been so long-standing and so heavily promoted. Poor Dr. Atkins had to deal with all sorts of slings and arrows for so many years....when he'd only been trying to help people....and he helped so many over the years.

It's interesting....most of my life, eating plans were generally seen as either healthy or not healthy. Junk and fat was NOT healthy and real foods were healthy. But now, an entire category of food, one that contains many "real foods", is in question. AND, a category that was almost across-the-board, considered to be a "bad" and unhealthy food....may turn out to not be bad at all. Just the concept of "getting fat makes you eat more" as opposed to the long-held belief that "eating more makes you fat" may be turned upside-down/reversed.....and the whole "calories in/calories out" theory may be, at least partially, disproven.
A very fascinating time, nutrition and dietary-wise, IMO. From a strictly objective standpoint, I'm finding it very enjoyable to watch and follow.

deena

ADDED: Lori, instead of salt, I use onion powder. Not onion salt, onion powder. It's delicious.

Good morning, ladies. Lori, I checked Good Calories, Bad Calories out of the library (I'm a reference librarian; I don't buy books) and I'm reading it slowly. World's slowest reader, right here. I am in the wrong profession! No, I'm not, actually, but I do joke that I work in the wrong place, considering how slowly I read. (I have this obessive-compulsive disorder that slows down my reading. It's a long story and hard to explain, but I do this thing in my brain with grouping words together and it's really distracting.)

I digress! The book really is interesting, though I am skimming some of the science-y bits that go over my head. I did watch his lecture online and it was quite interesting as well. I keep giving my coworkers low carb facts and I'm sure they're all sick of hearing about it. It's like an ongoing book review! I can't help it, though, it's just so eye-opening.

I am still OP, though I eat so much more than either of you. I'm not starving all the time these days, at least, which is a huge improvement for me. Thing is I know I *can* lose weight, since I've already lost so much. The trick is figuring out how to get it moving again. TOM should be over in a couple days and then we shall see. My water retention is starting to ebb, at least. (I don't usually get on the scale during TOM, but I had to weigh in for a challenge on the LCF board.)

Good luck with the painting, Lori! I hate painting, but I'm thinking about doing my kitchend/dining room this spring. I'm really tired of the color in there, it's this boring moss green that was there when I moved in. I'm thinking a nice spa blue would brighten things up for spring.

Happy Saturday!!!!

My TOM is almost over, too, and I am back down to just 1 lb more than the weight I was before the water hit me. I hope to see some really good change in a few more days.

Keep at it everyone, and good luck!

Deena, you snuck in while I was rambling! Congratulations on breaking through your plateau! And yay for new, smaller jeans, that is my favorite part.

It is beautiful out here this weekend (finally, a weekend in the valley with no rain) so I should strap on my running shoes and go for a run. It feels great once I do, it's the getting started I always have trouble with.

I brought that book to work yesterday and showed Taubes' picture to my friend. We both agreed we are bad calories and he should whack us with a celery stalk.

I brought that book to work yesterday and showed Taubes' picture to my friend. We both agreed we are bad calories and he should whack us with a celery stalk.

Hahaha! I wish he would whack ME with a celery stalk (hubba, hubba).

Just kidding. Intelligence IS very attractive, though.

I'm also reading the book VERY slowly....it's just THAT kinda book, IMO. In fact, I'll probably end up reading it a few times. I have to say, though...this is definitely one of the most fun-to-read non-fiction and scientific books I've read. Certainly not like reading a science textbook or anything like that.

And Caroline...believe me, people DO want to hear you lecturing and giving advice when they see you so successful with your weight loss. I find that people have always been thrilled, for the most part, to learn how a person managed to lose a significant amount of weight.

I mean, remember when Anna Nicole Smith lost all that weight and looked so fab in those TrimSpa commercials? Even though I knew darn well it was not due to TrimSpa, it still made one feel tempted to try them though, didn't it? Nothing sells like success. People want what you have....and want to know how to get there.
One of the most motivating things about this site, IMO, are the before and after pictures. Just one of the factors in the success of internet message boards.

deena

Wow, Deena, congratulations on breaking through that plateau! I knew it would happen for you! It's the funnest thing in the world to buy a smaller pair of jeans! I am hoping maybe in a few months I will be able to fit into a smaller pair, since the ones I am wearing now are a bit loose on me (but not quite loose enough to go down a size yet.)

See, Firefly? I told you the weight would come off again, that the water wouldn't stay forever! Woo hoo! And you might still see a pound or two more come off, that's usually how my water weight comes off anyway.

Good luck to you, too, Caroline, with the painting - that sounds like a beautiful color! Any blues are such restful, peaceful colors I think.

Honey, you are cracking me up again! Yeah, Taubes gets a thumbs-up from me, too. I always loved the smart guys, married a guy who has a PhD in Physics. It's funny, since I have absolutely no background in math or science of any type. We are the odd couple!

Thanks, Lori.

It's funny...I'm sure everyone has their specific body parts that they focus on...and because I'm fairly short (barely 5 ft. 4 in.) but am big-boned (like a peasant), short-waisted (with big bust and rather big hips)....my biggest focus is on my hips and mid-section area. Even overweight, I've never had fat upper arms or legs, really. Even joked that I have chicken legs.

So the source of my greatest exultation has been fitting into the smaller jeans and having the top part of the jeans (waistline to thighs) fit nice and snugly but perfectly. That's right what I zone in on when I look in the mirror. That...to me...spells success. When I'd see these young gals walking on the boardwalk at the beach in the evening....that was the part I was the most jealous of and the part I always focused on.....how well their jeans fit their hips, mainly.

At my short height and at 195 lbs., I was....well, just downright lumpy. I did not have the long waist or the height to have any real waist to speak of. So it was just a sequence of lumps, I hate to say. Some gals can pull off tucked-in pants even if they are overweight if they're tall enough, etc. But for my particular height and shape, I literally had to wear these big, voluminous tops over the 38" to 40" jeans....and always included the constant shirt-tugging, which I loathed. Everything got lumped-in between the bust and the hips.....it was just a lumpy mess with arms and legs (and a head, of course) sticking out. Hah!....horrific.

So.....I cannot tell you what a huge thrill it is for me to look in the mirror and see the tops of jeans fitting so nice and snugly, with nary a visible lump, in the mirror.....and looking like those young gals at the beach in jeans.....and me here old enough to be a grandmother. It's what shouts out to me in the mirror....and the rest is almost inconsequential, really. It's almost comical. And THEN, I can wear those nice little tops, the little hoodies, etc. that the slimmer and younger women can wear. And do not even have to remotely worry if they slip up....can raise my hands up over my head and could care less if they ride up. Never have to go tugging my shirts over all I want to hide. Boy, it's just fantastic! I often have to pinch myself and can't even believe I got here.....I just struggled for SO long to get Atkins to work again and had gotten SO darn fat on that medication. I had almost come to believe I was gonna have to live at that weight for the rest of my life....had almost sadly resigned myself to it.

Ya know...I'll tell you this. One blessing about having to struggle and to wait patiently to get what you want....is that you SO appreciate and enjoy it when you finally get there. You're gonna love it! I can't wait!

deena

honeybjones, you had me laughing out loud! I needed that!

Good Calories, Bad Calories is how I found low carb, and is for the most part what I follow (although I've gone and read several editions of Atkins, and Banting, and South Beach, and Protein Power).

There are things Taubes said that touched me deeply, and I have indeed re-read it several times (well, at least chapters). I was a fat kid in a skinny family and really felt out of place. When Taubes explains weight stabilization of obesity it explained a lot to me. I actually forgave myself for being a fat kid who became a fat teen who became a fat adult thanks to that book. I'd been carrying around so much guilt forever about that, but seeing there was a real biological aspect really helped me.

What he's written on exercise has also really changed things for me (both this book & several articles he's written). I finally made peace with exercise because I no longer think of it as an equation "calories in - calories out". I see the benefits of exercise as distinct from those of diet and it's made me become a regular exerciser without it being a struggle or forcing myself.

Funny, I'd have to put that book on the 'books that changed my life' list!