Hi, all!

First off, I must confess that I have not read the book yet. I am more than happy to, if any of you experienced folks think this WOE might be good in my situation.

I live in Japan, and started on Atkins almost a year ago. I love the way I feel, even though the weight loss hasn't been all that fast (about 25 pounds). I attribute this partially to many indulgences. And most of my indulgences aren't necessarily things I want to eat, but things I eat in order to maintain harmonious relationships with people around me.

When I first heard of CAD/CALP (on this forum), I thought it might be good for my mom, as she has a hard time giving up sweets. Then, when I thought about it, I thought it might be a good thing for me to try, because of the reward meal.

In your experience, do you have to eat a big salad before the reward meal? It seems like I've seen a few different things on this. For example, if my reward meal were to be a typical Japanese school lunch of rice, soup, small veggie, small meat dish, and milk, would that be feasible? I tend to get a little discouraged when I go off plan (which often leads to more cheating), so if there was a way for me to eat school lunch and not go off plan (reward meal), it would be good for me mentally.

What do you think? If you guys think that sort of thing would be an ok reward meal, I will totally go get the book and learn everything I can. I know school lunch is a weird thing to be a reward meal, but schools here are very community based - everyone eats the same thing together in the classroom, etc.

Thanks for your help, and sorry about the rambling post!

Certainly helps, but isn't necessary. It fills me up more and gives fibre. You could certainly use the school lunch as your reward meal. The rest of the day is low-carb -- each serving of any food has to be less than 4g carb, so Atkins works except that CAD/CALP is a bit more concerned about fat content the rest of the day as well.

Hi,

If the small veggie portion is of veggies on the cm list that is in calp, just double the portion instead of having a salad. The big thing with CALP is balance - your reward meal should be visually 1/3 protein, 1/3 carb, and 1/3 cm veggies.

I have to differ with the other poster..calp does not restrict fat in any way. It is a topic of discussion that for some, they may wish to follow calp with a lower fat option (as noted in calp you may choose this option) but that would be due to medical conditions/advice from their doctor, not because that is how calp works. I've been following calp off and on for over 10 years, when I'm on, I lose quite nicely eating full fat cheese, real butter, sesame seed oil on salads, extra virgin olive oil to cook with, real bacon.

Measuring carbs is also not necessary, though some do - ie. vegetarians, myself as a pre-diabetic - I take note of how many carbs in the carb portion of my rm. I do not ever pay attention to how many carbs in the dairy or veggies etc. I have at cms or as part of my rm.

If you can get access to a copy of CALP from a local library, give it a good browse, that might work best Best wishes to you with whatever you decide.

hi-
JAPAN!!!!

Yes- do the school lunch with CALP as your RM- then the other meals are just low carb (veggies/protein).
I agree with Pat- it is not low fat.

HI!!!

Thanks, all!
I think I'm going to give this WOE a trial run and see what happens. Ordered CAD from Amazon Japan (easiest/cheapest one to get), and it should be here in 1-3 weeks. Started a practice run today (because I wanted a reward meal ).