Well, I have been thinking alot about this WOE. I felt great after I got through induction but now I feel so sluggish. I'm eating my veggies and taking my vitamins but I feel my body is lacking in something. Most of you also know I've been struggling with a lack of appetite with new meds and a flare from arthritis. Gosh....that sounds like a lot of stuff ! LOL! Sorry to unload all of this on you!

Now...I am dealing with the expense of this diet and the time it takes to prepare foods. I feel like I am spending money on two grocery bills. It is just me and may daughter and she is only 12 so of course I am not having her eat the same things I eat. For dinner, yes we eat similar things as there is protein and veggies but like for breakfast and lunch...not so much. Also, for snacks....totally opposite. While I'm buying her apples and carrots and yes a little junk food..I'm buying myself pork rinds and cheese. You get the picture. Not to mention the time it takes to prepare my foods. I work full time and being a single mom....taking the time it takes to prepare us two different meals sometimes is wearing on me.

While I understand this WOE and how great it works I just dont believe I can keep it up. With my appetite diminishing..I feel I will do okay on just watching portions. I miss just being able to pour myself some quick cereal for breakfast and eating and then going on with my day with taking my daughter to school and then working. I miss grabbing something quick for lunch and not spending half my lunch break on just the preparation. Maybe when my life gets back on track I can do this again cause I do understand how great it can be.

I'm not trying to discourage you. I empathise with most of what you're going through. I have a lot of health issues (including fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and autoimmune disease, also possibly mild rheumatoid arthritis). Low cab eating really reduces my symptoms, and it drastically reduces my appetite. When I go back to eating carbs though, my hunger becomes out of control.

I also understand about the inconvenience of food prep and expense of low carb eating, but there are a lot of ways to make it more convenient and more affordable. My husband and I are on disability, so our income is pretty tight (we do have a little more time for food prep, though).

Because low carb really improves my symptoms, I've found a lot of ways to make low carb easier and cheaper. There are a lot of good recipes in low carb cookbooks and also online that are budget,- time-, and family- friendly. I found a lot of them in my local library, but bought a few from thrift stores and from amazon.com for under $6 including s/h.

I buy very cheap ground beef and brown it in a huge batch with dry tvp granules (soy protein - looks like grapenuts cereal or beige aquarium gravel), with seasonings and seasoning veggies such as onions, celery, bell pepper, mushrooms. I freeze it in gallon ziploc bags and smoosh it around every 20 minutes or so, so that it freezes in "crumbles." Then I can scoop out a portion and microwave and use in recipes or eat as is.

I shop Aldi, Walmart and Sam's Club to save money. I use the crockpot a lot. If you have a Sam's Club nearby, ask at their customer service desk (or the customer service desk at Walmart) as they'll often give free one-day passes (so you don't have to pay the membership price).


Whether you stay on Atkins or not, good luck with whatever you choose.

The low carb way of life is a sort of re-training school for me. I now know more than I ever knew about food, and how human beings were really meant to eat. I guess what I am saying is that eating cerial is not a quick substitute for "real food," it is ingesting a substance that will bring you chronic disease later on. Sorry to sound like a fanatic, but the diet that doctors give to people with arthritus and immune disfunction diseases is the low carb diet. You're suggesting eating the stuff that is making you sicker. Sorry to be harsh. I also would not agree with feeding a child anything with sugar or flour in it. Why would anyone want a child to eat something that will potentially lead them into metabolic diseases and overweight. I don't see what is so difficult with cooking a whole carton of eggs for "boiled eggs" in the morning. There are pre-cooked sausages. There's a whole range of pre-cooked options. I guess in closing that it is up to you. I would switch her to the low carb way rather than switch yourself back to the high-carb way.

Do you have children? How I feed my child is none of your concern.

Thanks Kim.....there are a lot of obstacles right now I'm dealing with. I think its a great WOE but with no appetite...its hard to stay in ketosis. Thanks again

Kaplods.. I shop at Walmart too.. If you and your husband are both on the same WOE then that works great for you.

giselley, I'm a grown adult and I feel that the choices I make for me and my daughter are my own. we need to all remember that 3FC is a SUPPORT forum...not for bashing.

Unfortunately we're not. We're both eating fewer carbs, but our preferences and needs are very different. We only eat, I'd say three to five meals a week together and most of the rest of the time we fend for ourselves.

We both like to cook, but we're not always up to it, and our preferences are very different. He eats more refined foods, more salt and fewer fruits and vegetables than I do.

We also need to keep a lot of quick and easy-to-prepare foods in the house for days when one or both of us is not feeling up to cooking.

It isn't easy. We're on a tight budget (though we've been on tighter). We spend about $200 a month on food, and we use a variety of techniques to save money (The Complete Tightwad Gazette has become my budget-saving bible). We spend only a little more time cooking and shopping that we did when we were both working, but we have a "system" of cooking/prepping for many meals so we only have to cook one day in four or five. Making a crockpot of beef or pork roast, or chicken things, and then eating them for several days seasoned different ways (roast chicken one night, and chicken salad the next).

It isn't easy, but my choice is to feel crappy all of the time, or to find a way to eat the foods I feel best on. The more I read on the subject, the less I believe that humans bodies are designed to function well on a large proportion of carbohydrates. But everyone has to work within their own budget, time constraints, and priorities.

Good luck with finding what works best for you.

well I havent felt that great lately on low carb...probably because I'm just not able to get in all the protein and fats I need to cause of the loss of appetite. It's really hard to eat meat when you have no appetite :/

I never said I was going to follow a high-carbohydrate diet..but if I wanna eat an apple or a banana sometimes I dont wanna worry about it throwing my whole weight loss efforts off by putting me out of ketosis.

We'll miss you LeslieLou but you know we will always be here if you decide to rejoin us. You sound very sure of your decision and no one knows what you need better than you so, really, best wishes. I'm sure everyone would love to know how you are doing so check in from time to time ok?

I didn't mean to imply that you would be following a high-carbohydrate, or that Atkins was necessarily for you. With the title and content of the post, it seemed the expense and the preparation was your bigger concern. And you have to work within those constraints too, just wanted to share that there are many ways to spend less time in the kitchen and less money while being carb-conscious. Where health issues are concerned, it's important to find the plan you feel as good as you can on.

I wouldn't have made any suggestions at all if it didn't seem from your post that you were reluctant to give up low-carb and wanted to return to low-carb at some point.

The important thing is that you take care of yourself.

I'm sorry you are going through some hard things, and not feeling well, Leslie. You are such a dear, sweet person, and a good friend here. I don't know the right way for you to go, but I do trust that you will find the best WOE for you and will find a way that leaves you feeling your best and healthiest. Even if you don't do Atkins "perfect" or anything, I hope you might stay here and say "hi" to all of us sometimes because I'll miss you if you go.

I know some people find that they do better on a South Beach type of diet or even the more traditional high-carb low fat diet. I think we are all so different in what our bodies need, that the most important thing is to listen to our bodies and not pay too much attention to what anyone else says.

Wishing you good things

I haven't known you for long, but I'm still going to miss you if you leave! Safe journey, whatever you decide. I wish you well.

Lori and Firefly..thank you both so much! I will still be around on 3FC as for the most part it is a supportive site. Good luck to you all...and keep up the good work. Hopefully, we will see some great before/after pics from you guys

I'm so glad you will still be here, Leslie. I'm just so sorry you are going through all this with the arthritis and the meds and everything.

I know what chronic pain is like - I have had problems with endometriosis for over a decade now (just too chicken to get my ovaries and other stuff pulled out in a surgery) and I know that doesn't sound like any big deal at all but some is on my bladder, etc. and it's caused so much pain there have been times I couldn't sleep at all at night (feels just like a bladder infection) and even narcotics barely helped at all. Last night I had a bad night again, it happens every once in awhile with my cycle. It's getting better the closer I get to menopause because my estrogen levels are decreasing, but I still have a bad spell now and again.

I know what it feels like to be hurting and have to try to just carry on with normal everyday life anyhow, and you don't know when the pain will ease up, so you don't feel like you're in control of your life.

Sometimes I think when we have pain, we just can't handle very much more stress than that because pain is so stressful in itself. And maybe when we have pain, it's not a great time to diet because dieting is stressful too. I was thinking maybe you'd want to try a later stage of Atkins after you aren't hurting anymore, like a pre-maintenance phase, where you can have a pretty liberal dose of carbs. Anyway we'll be here for you no matter what!

And I know you will reach your goal, even if you have to stop and rest a bit when you are in pain.