Hi guys,

Second day on OWL and I'm having trouble already. I was under the impression that I'm supposed to follow the "ladder" and add veggies this week to equal 5 extra carbs daily. Next week, I'm supposed to add 5 more of cheese. I cannot do this!

Yesterday, I ate my usual lunch of a chef salad and still had 15 carbs to go plus needed more veggies to reach the amount I'm supposed to be eating. I ate some cheese as a snack even though I wasn't hungry because I knew my carbs were too low. I made some yummy vegetable & meat soup for supper but couldn't begin to eat 13 carbs worth! I ate as much as I could and in fact ate more than I wanted, trying to get my carbs up. I felt like if I ate one more bite I would be ill. When I counted up my carbs at the end of the day I was only at 18.2. I'm not going to get to 25 carbs today either, but I'm shooting for at least over 20. I'm trying to imagine eating 5 extra ounces of cheese AND all these veggies to make 30 carbs next week. It's mind-boggling!

Has anyone NOT followed the exact order of food and done okay? I mean, if I was adding nuts or legumes, 5 extra grams of carbs would be easy to get. But I don't want to mess myself up. For the first time since the first few days of Induction, I'm not feeling good because I've had tummy aches from trying to eat all this food.

If I can't get my act together by the first part of next week, I'm going back on Induction and staying there until I reach my goal -- then I'll go straight to pre-maintenance -- I'm feeling panicky because I'm not even sure if my goal weight is the weight I want to be yet or not and OWL seems to be 'forcing' me to eat more than I can handle. Any suggestions at this point are welcome.

Julie

I did not follow any specific path. I added whatever I felt I wanted to eat that was not part of induction and I had success there. Also
I sometimes did not get my carbs up, but at least I had more variety.

Your doing great, and do what you think is right for you.

It can be tricky but if you stay on Induction until you reach your goal weight (whatever that turns out to be) you'll just postpone the problem. I didn't count precisely, just ate what I wanted of allowable foods -- as long as the weight was going gradually down and I felt good, I didn't worry about it. I know, that isn't strickly Atkins, but it worked for me. Try to relax a little and enjoy your success.

Cindy

JulieL
I first added more veggies and then the next week I added nuts (helped get my carbs and calories up) and next I added berries. I waited a couple of weeks to up from 25g to 30g simply because I wanted to know if I had any sort of negative result from the additions or from increasing carbs.

Since nuts and berries I have added small amounts of some LC foods (occassionally), 1/2 orange, 1/2 apple, cottage cheese, unsweetened cococut, flax meal (for baking LC muffins), peanut butter (all natural- no sugar), sugar free jam, Fiber One cereal and others ... always in small amounts to start.

I thought that it was best to add, in small portions, foods that I would like to eat. This is a WOL and its important to know how your body responds to the foods that you plan to eat.

Good luck to you and congratulations!

*deep breath* Thanks for your replies. I feel better now. I think y'all are right. I'm trying too hard to follow the rules. Sometimes I can be pretty inflexible with myself. It's my Type A personality

I'll just enjoy more variety of veggies and stop stressing about the number of carbs as long as I don't go over. And next week I'll add some nuts not cheese. Imhere, your explanation made perfect sense and I think I'll follow your lead (hope you don't mind if I copy you!). Thanks for being here to pull me back to reality.

Julie

Hello! Everyone is different. I went up in 5 gram increments by first eating extra vegetables and nuts (I wanted a snack and a couple really did the trick while I was cooking a meal, but be careful not to have to many!) then went on to cheese and some other stuff. I'm really not *perfect* and I now eat small portions of whole grain breads and melba toast too. I try to stay away from the Frankenfoods. (LC Knockoffs).

ImHere mentioned that she did each level for a few weeks before moving up. I also did this to see how each increase affected my weight loss. I ended up in between 40 and 50 per day when all was said and done.

On another note, I don't know how many people agree with this, but I treat my carb intakes as maximums, not minimums. If I'm at 25 carbs one day and I don't feel like having anything else, I don't. I don't require myself to have 40 - 50 per day, I just try my best not to go over that because I end up putting on weight or stalling.

Good Luck!!!

Kristi

Kristi,

Thanks for your input! Your idea of maximums makes good sense. I was trying to use the count as a minimum and that indeed was my problem. I'm so happy I found this forum because I never would have made it through OWL without everyone's suggestions and support!

Julie

Hey Julie! Just wanted to let you know youre not alone in the whole stressing over adding foods, and how much, lalala. I was such a spazz..well I still am, and Im constantly asking questions, stupid ones. Try spaghetti squash its higher in carbs and SOOOOO good with just butter and salt. Omg I love spaghetti squash. Ive had it 2x this week SO FAR. Try some LC bread, cottage cheese is a good way to go. Broccoli, LC pastas (I like Darielle), spinach, yogurt (count ALL the carbs), peanutbutter (all natural kind). Those are all things Ive added and enjoyed. Gluck and congrats!!!

Ah, how about adding some fruits?

That'll give your carb level a meteoric rise with both very little effort and food-volume wise, relative to cheese and veggies.

The ladder doesn't mean you have to add 5g from each rung each week.

Basicaly it means start by adding veggies because these are low GI, high fiber, and the least likely to stall your progress. You can add 5 one week, and just keep adding more until you decide you have enough veggies already. Then add a new food. Instead of incrementing 5 with the new food, stay at the current carb amount for a week, that way you can see if it is the food that bothers you or the higher carb amount.

Fresh dairy doesn't just mean more cheese either. Now that you are in OWL you can enjoy plain yogurt (mixed witha ton of different things), kifer, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and so on. Some people can't tolerate dairy and it will stall them even in small doses. For them it is best to just skip this rung of the ladder.

Nuts are a good addition. Some people have a really hard time with portion control however. Also they add alot of calories you have to be careful of sometimes. I wouldn't get more then 5-10 of your daily carbs from nuts or nut butters, at least until you know how you do with them.

Fruits are a wonderful step. Berries are low GI and packed with tons of nutrients, they are great to start with. Mix them in a salad, or with yogurt or cottage cheese. They can be added in soon after you move into OWL. Apples, oranges, and other slightly higher carb higher GI fruits may have to wait until almost premaintanance. Again it depends totaly on how you react to them.

Don't look at OWL as such a stressful time or exact science. This is when you get to begin experimenting with your diet and learning more about your body. Weight loss may slow, but you will learn what foods slow you down, and which may slow you a bit but still make for a healthy treat occasionaly

Do you have to add more carbs in OWL, or can you just stay at 20? I hve been staying at 20 and feel fine but the weight is coming off slowly now even though I drink plenty of water 72 to 96 oz per day and even started exercising!!! I feel like I am doing something wrong and I don't know what it could be. Everyone keeps saying eat tons of veggies, but isn't 3 cups the amount you are supposed to eat? I read the book carefully and yet feel confused with the actual applicaton of it

I am sort of doing a "modified induction" at the moment. I added a few new foods (peanuts, peanut butter, whipped cream, even a little bake mix to make mozzarella stix/chicken fingers)... foods that I never ate on Induction. I'm so afraid to weigh myself. I don't feel like I lost anything last week... might have even gained.

I'm scared of OWL too... so I hear ya. Just pick like a food or two to introduce every couple of weeks. That way you won't feel like you leapt off the Induction platform and dove headfirst into OWL with your eyes closed.

3 cups is just for induction. When you move into OWL the first thing you add is more veggies. Even on induction you can eat alot more then 3 cups if you watch carbs in other areas. It would take around 50 cups of salad greens to get anywhere near your 20g ent carbs because of all the fiber. I don't think anyone could eat a salad that large on a daily basis.