I Bought Frankenfoods!
 

Years ago, when Atkins was new, I bought a bunch of Atkins foods and I used them with moderate success. Some of them were yummy (the shakes and bars) but others were horrible (the baking mixes, brownies, etc.) Just last week I was cleaning out the garage and I found a cache of old Atkins baking mixes from the early 2000's. - Needless to say, I threw them out.

Jump forward a few years to 2008. I went on a self-styled low-carb diet. I did not really adhere to Atkins, my plan was more strict with regard to carbs, and I was very-low-calorie as well as low-fat. I was wildly successful, except that once I reached my goal weight I gained all the weight back and then some.

Now jump forward to the present. Since 2008 I have gone vegetarian, but remained fat. At the end of July 2011, I went on another self-styled low-carb, low-fat, very-low-calorie diet. I was again wildly successful. But now I am very close to goal (6 pounds) and I decided I need to do this right; find a way to make it "stick". So I have decided to stick with low-carb as a WOE and not think of it as a diet. In order to do this I dusted off my Atkins book and re-read the chapters about pre-maintenance and maintenance, as well as what to do if you start to gain weight back.

I switched to Atkins pre-maintenance just before the Holidays and weight loss has slowed dramatically, as it is supposed to. I have added foods back into my diet such as nuts, heavy cream, sour cream, butter, a wider variety of veggies, etc. I am so very happy eating this way it is hard for me to describe. I can have real cream in my coffee, real sour cream on my One Minute Muffin, and a pat of real butter on my vegetables - and it's OK! I am learning to successfully bake low-carb goodies and I make a killer pizza crust/bread which I use every other day (thank you, my friend Peggy, for the fabulous recipe!). Today I bought a bottle of dry white wine. I have not had a drop of alcohol since last July 25th, since I was determined to lose weight. But now that I am going into maintenance, I figured, I'd like to reintroduce wine. I only have a glass once in a while anyway.

So today I started thinking it would be nice to have bars and shakes again for maintenance. I mean, when I'm in a huge rush and have no time to prepare anything. Or if I just want a delicious, candy-ish treat and I don't want to go through the laborious process of making homemade candy.

So I bought Russell Stovers sugar free chocolates:
Chocolate Covered Coconut
Chocolate Caramel Pecans
Chocolate Truffles
Chocolate Mint Patties

Werther's Sugar Free Hard Candies

And I bought:
Atkins milk chocolate delight shakes
Atkins Caramel Chocolate Peanut Nougat Bars
Atkins Peanut Butter Cups.

I know from experience that I have to go VERY light with these things, since they can seriously disrupt my digestion (which is a good motivation not to binge on them).

So, I have two questions. #1 Do you think I just derailed myself and I shouldn't have done this, and #2 What Frankenfoods, if any, do you buy occasionally, LOVE and swear by? Or are there any you ALWAYS keep on hand. I have heard good things about Netrition's Chocoperfection bars but I can't afford to buy a whole case of them. Please list your faves, and also tell me what NOT to ever buy!

I can't speak for you but I could not have that many goodies in my house. too hard to resist.

My adult daughter must have those RS chocolates every day or she swears she cannot stay low carb. There are always bags of the stuff, along with atkis bars and other low carb foods like LC tortillas in the house.

Let me just mention that back in the days of my first attempts to diet, diet food products were horrible! The sugar free candies back then had a bitter after taste and were waxy! The sugar free chocolates that are out now are so fabulous, that I cannot leave them alone.

I generally don't eat low carb products because I believe in naturally low carb whole foods as my guide for healthy eating. When I started to eat tlow carb processed products, I began to have a long rollercoaster ride with the return of my binge cycles. Now, I am not blaming the products directly, as bingeing involves many layers of issues and a specific food trigger is only one of them. But having "sweet treats" was enough to bring me back into the realm of wanting those over real food. I always start out thinking I can handle it and I am soon proven wrong.

It starts out slow, like just having two sugar free bon bons on a weekend evening, but it wasn't long before I would make myself sick on them, and let me just say that I knew what they would do to me, but continued to eat them anyways, it was awful! I suffered, but it didn't stop me from indulging. This for me is the nature of addiction, it is the willingness to suffer for a moment of pleasure.

If you can truly use these frankenfoods as a way to vary your food plan and provide a way to stay on plan and not feel as restricted, then it may work for you.

I have been in the low carb community since 1998 and I can say that eventually most people found that keeping those high carb food redoux in their diet only led to keeping the cravings alive and eventually they went back to the original high carb food. I know for myself, I would rather be simply low carb on real foods and I don't even bother with trying to mimic any high carb foods. The best sucess I have seen with them is using them to transistion to maintainance after reaching goal, but as a weight loss method, they can backfire.

I do eat some of these.

I eat the Atkins oatmeal cinnamon bar quite often. I also eat a few of the other bars (chocolate nut roll, chocolate nut chew). For me, I don't find that they cause cravings and I don't have problems with them. I know that isn't true for everyone.

I sometimes buy sugar free popsicles or the Krunch Lite bar.

I am in love with Quest bars, and also keep atkins bars and shakes on hand. HOWEVER, as a rule, I limit to one per day. It works for me because my previous habit was an afternoon candy bar, now it's an afternoon atkins bar. I eat one, almost as a routine. I have to admit, I prefer the quest bars. The cinnamon bun one microwaved 10 secs is sinful. I am using them to replace a bad old habit that would likely come back on stressful days without the back up plan.

I do not find that one a day is stalling my weight loss or creating a binge. YMMV. But the rest of my day is usually pretty low carb. Coffee with heavy cream makes enough breakfast for me. Lunch is now, almost always, a small salad of some sort with a meat and ranch. Afternoon is generally a diet soda with a low carb bar. Supper varies - that's were I'm playing with ideas right now. Bedtime snack is usually a few pork rinds or meat and cheese roll ups or hot broth or pepperoni, sometimes nothing. I'm finding I'm less and less hungry lately.

I do some of the frankenfoods too - I know that the conventional advice says not to but there are times that I just need something to curb that sweet tooth.

I LOVE the RS sugar free caramel pecan candy - yummo.

Atkins bars, sf Reese's cups and even no sugar added ice cream all make their regular rotations in my diet.

There are a few Atkins bars (the dark chocolate one specifically) that trigger massive cravings so I stay away from them but otherwise the SF treats don't seem to make much of a difference in cravings or weight loss. They just make it easier for me to stay on track with the low carb lifestyle.

For some reason, I cannot kick the Dark Chocolate Jello Sugar Free pudding with Lite Cool Whip nighttime snack. It's really the only "fake food" I routinely eat.

2-3 spoonfuls of Lite Cool Whip has saved me from an all-out carb binge more than a few times!

I seem to stall on any and every frankenfood, unfortunately...would be nice to have something shelf stable in the car. When I do "splurge" though, the Atking pb cups are my fave. I just wish they came in singles instead of just the 2 packs. Makes me feel obligated to eat both at once when 1 would do nicely.