I don't post very often but I wanted to put this in writing to keep myself accountable ...I went thru my 2 week induction and actually did it for the entire month of January. I lost 8 lbs. and felt great! I hosted a baby shower for my sister last weekend and I thought I could be strong enough to eat carbs for just that day but instead I kept eating carbs "just for today" throughout the rest of the week. I feel so bloated and I've gained back 5 of the pounds I worked so hard to lose. I'm starting induction again today and I'm going to work to avoid the "just for today" mentality...

I am drinking lots of water and today I am sore from going to the gym (didn't do this either for the past week!). I can do this, my goal is to be in swimsuit/shorts by June

I did the very same thing to myself over the weekend, and I don't even have a baby shower to blame. It was just PMS for me, and I gave in. So I feel your pain, and I'm right there with you, trying to climb back up on the wagon.

I decided to have a skinny cow ice cream sammich on valentine's day and within 2 hours of consuming it I wanted to EEEEEEEAT!!!! But I didn't and everything went back to normal. And I didn't gain either but I sure did not like the feeling of waking up the monster in my belly.

It's okay, you got back on track and that's all that matters! And you've learned what your personal limits/triggers are - that's very useful to know! Some people can "cheat" and get right back on the wagon and other people find that the cravings come back very strongly and it's very hard to get back on the wagon. You'll be feeling much better again very soon!

Doing Atkins is really a process, I believe. The main reason I've been able to be so compliant this time around is that I made all my mistakes and learned all the pitfalls back in the 90's....when I used it the first time and maintained for many years.

I don't want anyone to think that I've stayed on plan so rigidly because I believe so much in this magic formula/recipe. That in itself would not bode well for me.....as I think any sort of magical thinking is rarely, if ever, helpful. This whole process starts out as a hypothesis....and hypotheses are made to be tested. It can take quite a few flubs or backslides to fully convince ourselves of the why's and why not's of this program. I actually think that's a really good thing, to be honest. We NEED to experience these in order to truly understand and to be committed.

Take sarahinparis, for example.....she has chosen to do it the longer and slower way due to her own life experiences. The key is that she totally understands what she is doing. She enjoys her planned forays into carb-land but then goes back into ketosis and loses in increments...but she understands the logic of what she's doing and why.
Then there's LeslieLou, who seems to be experiencing some negative results of simple carbs....probably a learning experience for her...though I don't want to hold her to this or to having to make any decision on this immediately. She truly does deserve to find the plan that works best for her but if it turns out that carbs are a huge problem for her, she will come to a decision based on her own experiences...which is a good thing, IMO.

I think it's always good to totally understanding why you are doing what you've chosen to do....even if you had to backslide a few times to get there.

Boy Lori...I totally hear you on the Taubes book/hypotheses. Whereas before, I'd view what some others chose to eat/buy as unhealthy....now I almost see it as poisonous.
There's a particular blog in cyberspace that I keep track of due to health issues of an individual on it. There are tons of pics on it.....and it's clear that the majority of the women in this family are severely overweight. But in the pics, I also get to often see what they eat. Holy moly! Seriously overweight AND malnourished. A truly unfortunate lack of understanding regarding the implications of their dietary choices.
They appear to be somewhat low on the socio-economic ladder...WHY, oh WHY are these folks not taught and assisted to make better dietary choices? Their children are doomed from the start and are overweight but malnourished adults in the making. The govt. seems to be attacking the health care crisis from the wrong angle, it almost seems to me.

deena

After seeing the documentary King Corn, I know for a fact our government plays a strong hand in keeping the American people in general and impoverished people specifically in poor health. Ungodly amounts of money are funnelled into the corn industry to our great detriment and they sit and scratch their heads and wonder why obesity has exploded since the USDA got into bed with the devil. Oh here's a good idea. Take the food pyramid that already pushes starches and turn it sideways, make it completely incomprehensable and then people can eat corn and potatos 5 pounds for $2 and think they are doing a good thing. No worries though--metformin and lisinopril are only $4 for a month's supply.

Now that you did it, and learned from it, I guess you won't make that decision again?
I've been kinda half-azzed about low carbing, but I am now transitioning into the lowest carb intake ever. Hambuger patty for breakfast kind of low.
What I've learned is: Any carbs will slow or stop your weight loss. Any! Carbs put more glycogyn into depleted stores, and you have to live off that for 3 days until it is gone. Even the good carbs of OWL are there to slow down your weight loss a bit because it is harder on your body than to go without.

Deena, I liked your post a lot. I can't believe what I used to eat. Ice cream-- love it, but would love Cocaine too if I were doing it. I don't necessarily want to be Aloof and Elietist, (or to sound like a conspiracy theorist) but Americans are all being drugged. Corn, sugar, grain, potatos are the cheap foods, and you don't see paychecks going up any. If people controled their portions they would not need to "fill the plate" with surplus food. Seriously, people just need a "tiny" bit-- 375 calories 4 times a day to make 1,500. That to me, means "itty bitty" meals. So I think that what really works is low carb (better to call it high protien) and restricted meal sizes.

I also think that socio economic influences are part and parcel of the "obesity epidemic." Rich people do have better food, but they also have a culture where weight-gainers are publicly humiliated and talked about. Letting yourself go is a minor crime among the wealthy (especially women).

I want to comment also that this was also a "middle class" idea when I was a young child (I am 50). Those who were overweight were viewed negitively. Also since I am 50, I know that the training, at least for girls was that eating large amounts was seen as "unladylike" and greatly looked down at.

Now this might shock and horrify, but I think one reason more people are obese is that being fat does not have the stigma it once had. It's harsh, and you have to remember that I have 100 pounds to lose too-- so I am not immune to this.

Actually, it is better to call it moderate protein, since too much protein results in the body turning the excess into glucose. I follow Atkins and describe it as more of a high fat, moderate protein, low carb plan.

Giselley....I would not have a problem, strictly speaking, with decreasing the stigma that being overweight has. The problem with reducing the stigma, IMO, is that it can reduce the incentive to eat more healthy. Just seeing the amount of info. that I and the other members of this site learn here regarding healthy eating....simply because we came here concerned about our weight and wanting to lose weight. And in the process, have learned all sorts of helpful info on how to eat a more healthy diet.

For those on the lower end of the socio-economic/level of education scale...it's not so much the acceptance of being overweight as it is the acceptance of eating an unhealthy diet (a bunch of high carb, highly processed crap, literally) that leads to all sorts of negative health consequences over time.

I remember in that film "Supersize Me", they showed various teens from the inner-city who claimed they ate at McDonald's every day and were nice and healthy. But they were teens....and the effects will take some time to manifest themselves.
I don't like to necessarily see the other end of the spectrum, where adolescent and teen girls see being overweight as such a stigma that they resort to eating disorder behaviors and experience major lack of self-esteem issues. These eating disorders can be just as, if not more, unhealthy than eating junk can be.
But this issue of the poor eating the worst diets possible is, to me, a huge problem that deserves more attention than it gets. If you go into the inner city, where many don't even have cars, there are often NO regular grocery stores to even get things like fresh produce. What you see are deli's, corner stores and fast-food places. There aren't even places available to get the foods you should eat, even IF they became educated about a proper diet....unless you're fortunate enough to have a car.

I mean, I don't tend to be any sort of conspiracy theorist, by any means.....but the lack of attention to this issue does, indeed, almost seem intentional...I hate to say.

What also surprises me is that here you have new info coming out but it barely makes a ripple, it seems to me. Were it not for the internet, few of us would have even heard of the Taubes book. A recent significant study came out of the Mayo Clinic, the results of which showed that fat does NOT cause heart disease...but was this heralded in the headlines? No.
It seems to me that anything that comes out that supports the entrenched beliefs are widely announced.....but anything that does not...but could and likely would, make a difference and help so many people.....barely make a ripple.

Sadly, becoming an adult....was a hard lesson in learning just how much we are NOT told.....usually because money talks and the rest barely whispers.

deena

Deena, thought provoking as always -- I enjoy your posts a lot.

Indeed I too have done many rounds of battle in the weight loss ring. I've always been a type A personality and my dieting until recently was too. I was all about control, all the time. I stuck to the most stringent diets imaginable. I exercised hours every day. It was exhausting, both physically and mentally. I'll also note that even with that I lost slowly - I do think speed of weight loss individual and some of us are just slower than others for factors beyond our control.

In the past several years I've gotten a much better and more balanced life. My weight just can't be one of my top life goals anymore - I have too much other stuff that's important to me. It's taken me a while to realize that it's not all or nothing. I can do something to manage my weight (and lose too) without it taking over my life, and part of that is a more balanced approach to life, part of it is accepting that slower weight loss works too, and basically it all boils down to what I call "low stress weight loss". It isnt "30 pounds in 30 days" but it doesn't drive you bonkers either!

Sarahinparis....I really enjoy reading your posts too....and also your blog.

One thing I'd mentioned on someone else's thread here (can't remember which) was about comparing really good food to basically crappy tasting food. My sister hired a very expensive gourmet catering service for my niece's bat mitzvah years ago and the food was fabulous. I remember trying this luxurious chocolate dessert of some sort and thinking about how the taste of all the grocery-store cookies and cakes that I'd piled on my hips and belly had not even remotely measured up to this really quality chocolate dessert.

And this has happened to me multiple times....usually when eating something fabulous at an expensive restaurant or wedding with very expensive catering....and I have ALWAYS reflected on the total waste of calories I'd eaten when eating the stuff from the grocery store. It had literally tasted like cardboard (and not even GOOD cardboard) compared to a really well made dish or dessert with really good quality ingredients.

You've described foods in Paris that I think I might have to take an Atkins break for...because the quality and taste would make it totally worth it. But when I think of lapsing in order to eat a crappy chocolate bar full of paraffin or those packaged chocolate coated sugar wafers I'd cram my in my mouth for the sugar rush....but it was essentially sugar-infused cardboard, etc....I immediately think WHY?? WHY DID I DO THAT BACK THEN?? For THAT?

BUT....if I could get that chocolate dessert from the great caterers at that bat mitzvah....well, that might just be worth scheduling a little lapse for....KWIM?

When I'm not actually hungry and am reading some of the foods eaten during stories of binges here...it really makes me see just how NOT worth it those particular foods were. I mean, if you really want to give your taste buds something worth cheating for.....give them something REALLY good. I could totally give myself permission to have a lapse (just for a brief moment, mind you) and don't believe I have to live every single day according to rules...but if I do it...I'd really hope it's for something really great and awesome. That would be totally worth it to me.

I guess what I'm saying is that I also would like to have those moments of pure pleasure when tasting/eating a really good and well-made food. I just never want to go back to those days when I would sacrifice my weight just to eat a bunch of what was junk, essentially, and really didn't even taste good. And was never worth it.

But I'd LOVE to try some of the great Parisian things you've described in your blog.

deena

I am glad to hear er see you sayt his because I have thought the same thing in passing. My husband and I went to a barbeque place recently. I had the sliced turkey and a salad. It was unexpectedly served with Texas toast. I didn't eat it but it got me thinking. I've had enough Texas toast to choke a Texas congressman. I don't need to eat another piece to experience that particular sensation. And of course the irony of Atkins is, had I eaten it I would have increased my volume my lowered my long-term hunger satisfaction. If I am going to do that to myself it is going to be for something worth it, not something so mundane.

I totally agree, honeyb.

What's even worse is that sometimes, when I'd get that intense sugar craving screaming in my head in the late evening...and have nothing particularly enticing around...I'd go searching in the cabinets and pantry and end up shoveling in old, stale cookies I didn't even like or breakfast cereal or other crap I didn't even want...just as long as it was sweet.

I remember many years ago, I stayed with some folks at the beach (who didn't have much in their pantry) and becoming ravenous in the late evening, finally found some of those instant, fake mashed potatoes in a box, mixed it with boiling water and then finding no butter or margarine, mixed in this Hellmann's sandwich spread, which was something like a sweeter version of tartar sauce. And ate the whole darn bowl. I'd eat almost anything when I was really hungry and a lot of it was crap.

Most excellent gourmet food is not served in massive portions. It is the taste that is the centerpiece and only a small bite or so is needed. No need to shovel massive quantities into your mouth. You know, those dinners where they serve the amuse bouche, etc.....small items that taste heavenly....each an explosion of heaven in your mouth. Now THAT is worth scheduling in a little cheat for.

I just shake my head at all the stuff I've eaten that was so totally not worth it. And then will read here of someone going on a Doritos binge or bingeing on stuff in their child's easter basket...which is usually the worst quality chocolate imaginable....not to mention jelly beans, etc...total waste of calories. It almost seems like I was punishing myself. If you eat/do it, you should REALLY enjoy it.....and that probably applies to most things in life, when I really think about it.

deena

When that happens (and it's happened to all of us) you just get right back on plan and move forward. You don't have to call a do-over on Induction if you don't want to.

Personally, I found Induction really easy to stick with. My problem with trying to move into OWL was that I started giving myself permission to let my carbs creep up until I was sort of out of control. Of course, my venture into OWL coincided with TOM, so I was adding sweet 'Atkins approved foods' and that was just a trigger for me.

So for me, Induction is safest for the time being. If you do move into OWL the right way (i.e. by adding 5 grams at a time of allowed foods, starting with more veggies) you will be fine, even with a slip-up during Induction.