Hi, everyone, I'm a newbie here!

I read the Atkins Diet Revolution years ago and totally agreed with his theories and they made sense to me. Tried to do the induction phase, and actually made it two weeks or three weeks (tried to stay in that phase forever, which wasn't realistic for me) and the carb cravings overcame my willpower at that time and I stopped the diet.

But I never forgot the basic principles. I know lean protein is essential to good health and also to being a healthy weight. I also don't "believe" in low-fat diets. I believe in fats in moderation. Big old hunks of butter aren't good for me, too many calories, but a little is okay in my book.

When I started my diet (finally got serious about being healthy and losing weight, finally made up my mind to do it RIGHT this time) I didn't follow the induction phase exactly, because I remembered that I wasn't able to really do it long-term last time. And I made up my mind that I'm only going to do on this diet, what I can keep up long-term.

But, I remembered most of the principles. In the past 10 days I've been dieting, I have chosen lean protein, a little tiny bit of healthy fat (olive oil and whatever fat was contained in a serving of sirloin steak I allowed myself) and veggies.

Looking back over the lists of the various phases, the only "no no" stuff I've eaten during these 10 days has been a few baby carrots each day, cauliflower, and brown rice, and hummus. I don't see any of those foods on the induction phase page. Some of them are okay for OWL or maintenance/close to your goal.

So what I've been doing is not really "blowing" the diet exactly but certainly not losing as quickly as I could have. But I really believe I have been in ketosis anyhow because my breath has been that icky breath/icky taste I remember so well from the one time I did do the induction program for a few weeks.

I'm sitting here trying to make up my mind what to do. This seems to be working for me so far. As of this morning, I've lost 9 lbs. in 10 days, and that's pretty darn good if you ask me. And, I don't feel deprived or overly hungry, so I believe I can continue this program long-term.

Now, I could be more perfect, and do the induction phase 100% right. That would probably be the smartest thing to do, and would result in the best weight loss, but....I remember last time and I want to be able to keep this up pretty much the rest of my life. And I'm also not that concerned with losing weight quickly. I don't mind losing weight slowly, as long as I feel okay and don't get overwhelmed with hunger/cravings and fall off the program and give up entirely.

Soo....ummm...I feel in my heart that I am basically doing the Atkins diet, but I'm picking foods from the various phases so that I can do this long term. Slows my weight loss down, sure, but I seem to be losing anyhow. I will have to rethink my strategy if my weight loss stops entirely. I hope for one-half to one pound weight loss per week on average, long-term. If I can't achieve that using what I'm doing, I'll have to do things right and do the phases in the proper order.

But, I'm sort of worried I might not be welcome here because I'm allowing myself some no-no foods (at least if I'm supposed to be in the induction phase) but I do feel I'm mostly following it and I really do believe in the basic principles of Atkins.

Ummm...okay, so is it okay for me to be part of this group?

Thank you so much, JerseyGrl! Wow, congratulations on your weight loss and maintenance, that's incredible! You are really an inspiration to me as I start my journey!

And thank you for letting me post here and giving me a warm welcome even though I'm doing a modified version. The basic principles, I really do agree with. In fact I hauled out my old Atkins cookbook and am looking at some recipes to make

Here's a funny/and or sad story I gotta share...

After I fell off the wagon with Atkins, I sent the book to my Dad. I realized this was THE diet - that it would lead to good health and getting to a healthy weight - but I felt it was "too hard" for me and I gave up too easily. But I sent it to my Dad because he's always had a lot of willpower when it comes to diets - he'd basically starve himself for a couple of weeks, lose weight, then of course slowly gain it back. But I still figured he could do this diet and I knew he would feel good on it.

Well, he told me after he tried it for a month, he didn't lose weight and his cholesterol etc. was bad. BUT - here's the thing - my Dad is an alcoholic. I know there is no way he cut out the booze while he tried the diet. And booze is pretty much all carbs, isn't it? I know it's not allowed on the Atkins plan for a reason.

So, yeah, he might have been following the diet as far as cutting out other simple carbs, but when you drink half a fifth of scotch in a day or so,....? The Atkins diet ain't gonna work for you, LOL. Funny and sad I guess.

Well, I'll see how I do on my health and weight loss goals. I'm feeling good and able to exercise most days, and not having any real bad cravings, etc. so I might just kind of continue with what I'm doing, unless I run into some setbacks with it. If I do run into setbacks, I'll change what I'm doing and do the diet "right."

I know carbs are really horrible for me. I used to live on french fries, toast with sugar and cinammon, regular coke with the sugar - almost everything I put in my mouth was a carb. And I would pig out because the carbs just made me hungrier and hungrier. And I felt AWFUL. I mean no energy, depressed, AWFUL.

I'm not doing this 100% correct I think, but boy I feel so good, like I did when I did the Atkins diet perfectly, so I can't help but feel I'm doing okay so far. For sure I'm doing better than when I ate french fries for lunch.

Cool! I like that you are my age, because I know it's harder as we get older to lose. So I can tell myself, hey, if JerseyGrl can do it, so can I!

Just did 25 minutes on the elliptical trainer. I'm amazed because two weeks ago, I could barely do 10 minutes and it exhausted me. After 10 days of low-carbing, I feel like super woman and can do 25 minutes and really I had to stop myself from doing more because I don't want to be dumb and risk an injury.

You know what it feels like, as the simple carbs leave mybody? It's like recovering from the flu. I feel WELL.

That being said, I think I'll have my chile verde (pork and garlic and green bell peppers and tomatoes and a jalapeno and, yes, admittedly, one onion but dispersed widely) without the brown rice today. Just because at least right this minute, it doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice to me to skip that.

PS. I lived in Jersey a couple years in Princeton - Hubby was doing a fellowship. I liked NJ except for the bugs, there are a lot of weird bugs in that area of NJ, LOL!

Hey Lori,

Girl, you must have one awesome metabolism. I envy you, I'm serious....plus, I wouldn't mind being 48 again, to boot. I could never go into ketosis eating beans, fruit, etc. I have to keep it limited to 20 net carbs or I run into problems....with loss, that is. Once on maintenance, I could add some of them in.

Yes...you're on the money with your dad and the alcohol, I believe. It's funny though, years ago one of my brothers-in-law lost a good bit of weight on Atkins...but he ONLY drinks beer. Not sure if that made a huge difference as compared to ones like scotch. I remember being surprised that he was able to do this with the beer and so was his wife. She did Atkins with him but had to be strict....she did lose quite a bit of weight, though and last I heard she's still kept it off years later.

Welcome to the Atkins area. I say the more, the merrier.

deena

Thank you so much, Deena! So you are coping with the "over 40 metabolism" as I like to call it!

Did you feel a whole lot better once you started on Atkins, too? I just can't get over how much better I feel when I'm low carbing as opposed to my old high-simple carbs intake. It's really like being sick, then being well.

Both back in the early 90's and again this time, I did experience a bit of that "Atkin's flu" around the 2nd/3rd day. It was mainly achey legs. I took calcium, magnesium and some potassium....and it resolved...though who knows if it was just gonna resolve on its own anyway and what I took was irrelevant?

But once in ketosis.....I had an awesome increase in energy. And even now, 8 months later, I still have it. In fact, when I experienced the energy surge again this time, I really wondered why I'd ever even considered eating any simple carbs again.....not only due to how they affect weight but also because I've always felt so darn good low-carbing. It also improves my mood, IMO. I'm a lot more "UP" on this eating plan.

deena

Hi Lori,

Personally, I think your approach to modify your diet to fit what YOU can live with long term is the ABSOLUTE BEST APPROACH. Almost all successful long term losers find ways to modify someone else's diet to make it theirs.

What you're doing now is obviously working now, both in terms of weight loss & also in terms of how you feel about your diet (good!).

Bear in mind that you need to keep yourself open to going back and revisiting things if either of those change -- if you stop losing you might need to tweak what you eat or how you move, and if you get frustrated with your food choices you might also need to make changes. I think one of the keys to long-term success is the ability to set nothing in stone, and instead revisit the choices based on what they are doing for you periodically.

Sounds like you've got a great plan & great attitude -- good luck!

Whew Lori I'm glad to see I'm not the only modifier here! Congrats on finding what works for you. I'm following a modified blend of mostly Atkins principals with a bit of Metabolism Miracle principals thrown in. I managed to stay strict Atkins for over 4 years before I found myself slipping and sliding off/on/off on for about 4.5 years. That got me slowly heavy again. I had to REALLY think about what I needed to change to make it work for me. Why did I keep falling off the low carb wagon when as a diabetic I desperately need to stay on that wagon? I'm pretty sure I have found my perfect blend!

I've hesitated posting in the Atkins forum because I'm not 100% by the rules but I'm coming out of lurkdom in full force I have read the posts and seen that unlike another low carb board I visited that no one is getting blasted here for not being 100% perfect! Yeah!

Hi, Thinner and Sarah, I'm so glad you guys are here! I love this forum because everyone is so nice, and understanding if we need to tweak this part of the plan or that part, or be in the ongoing weight loss part rather than induction for the whole time, etc. It's so nice just to be accepted and supported! Now that doesn't mean there isn't some advice here, because people who have done this program successfully for years, are really hoping for success for us too, and are eager to share what they have learned in the hopes that it will help us. But I always consider that a good thing!

I'm visualizing all of us marching towards the victory line, arm in arm, the Atkins/low-carb team! Here's to our journey, and to our victory over the high-glycemic carbs that were making us feel bad in the past!

I like your visualization