Hi everyone

I live in Holland, and I started the Atkins diet last November and for the first 3 weeks or so did really well. Now the 16 pounds I lost are back on and I'm gearing myself up for another go. I find the meals monotonous, but packed lunch ideas the most difficult. I had been taking chicken, cheese, egg and mayo to work, but if I see that combi again I'm likely to throw up. The low carb cookery books I've read all contain American ingreds, rarely with a British equivalent . It seems the Dutch have rarely heard of low fat, let alone low carb
Getting basic foods like cheese, eggs, bacon, meat, cream, veg etc is not a problem although you cannot get sugar free juices or jelly of any sort.

Can anyone please help with some ideas for some decent meals?

Thank you soooooo much.
DutchGirl2

What about salads? Cabbage salad? Cucumbers and sour cream? Grean beans, canned tuna or salmon or herring? Thick vegetable and meat soups. Celery stuffed with cheese? Cold beef, veal or ham? Shawarma? Meat balls? Crustless quiche?

I have seen and eaten amazing cold cuts in Amsterdam. I like the liver one, studded with chunks of fat, but understand that it is not to everyone's taste. I'll be there in a bit over a month and am looking forward to the fantastic cheese and cold cuts!

Karen

{Getting basic foods like cheese, eggs, bacon, meat, cream, veg etc is not a problem although you cannot get sugar free juices or jelly of any sort.}

I found it was best to start with the basics and create your own LC favourites. There are hidden carbs in a lot of the prepared foods, which might be the reason for you gaining the weight back. Work out what exactly you were eating in the first three weeks when you were losing. Sometimes subtle changes occur without realisation.

There are lots of vegetables that are allowed in low-carb. They are wonderful to add spice to variety in meals. Karen's Kitchen Corner is buzzing with LC ideas.

Take care.

HI DutchGirl

Good luck with LC this time around!

A good lunch snack (if you like fish) might be some smoked salmon slices - each one wrapped around a piece of cheese like perhaps Port Salut. If you have the extra carbs to play with then you can add in some macadamia nuts for the crunch factor.

If Im out and I want to be social, then I have a burger with no bun and no extras.

Also - my friend yesterday had the most delicious artichoke and goat cheese salad which was very filling... again more cheese than artichoke.

Hope these ideas help.

Daschnook

Hi, DutchGirl2!

I figured the easiest way to have my LC lunches is sandwich fillings. We have in-house canteen where they make sandwiches for you as well. You just ask them to put fillings of your choice (prawns and mayo, cream cheese and smoked salmon, plain/mayo tuna, avocado, eggs/mayo, cold meats, chicken etc) into the tub/cup instead of bread. I'm sure you have a lot of sandwich shops near your work.

Hi Karen


Thanks a lot for your quick reply, I see you're already familiar with Dutch food, we do indeed have lots of cheeses and cold meats here (lucky I'm half mouse)

The cucumbers in sour cream and cabbage salad and quiche sound great, I'll try them.

I find that the prepacked meatballs and almost all prepacked sliced cooked meats do not give a carb amount, and whether or not they do, they all contain sugar, dextrose or some other "ose" in them or if not that, then they have tarwe or zetmeel (wheat and starch). Consequently I buy more ham than anything.

I like to make my own meatballs, but the one drawback is that the minced beef etc. is absolutely full of fat before you add anything, and I don't buy steak to make mince because all meat here is grossly expensive.

I have also avoided the thick soups because they can contain pulses and lots of veg which I thought wasn't allowed.

Q. Am I needlessly avoiding all these things? Because of the lack of info, I'm never sure whether the amount of sugar etc. in meat is negligable or not.

Reading back, I'm sorry if it looks as if I'm trying to pick holes in some of your suggestions but I'm not. I just have a lot of questions because I'm not sure of things.


Thanks for bearing with me ..
DutchGirl2

Hi Ella, Daschnook and Fiona

Thanks a lot for the quick replies, All ideas have been gratefully taken on board. I'm a big fan of macadamia nuts and they are readily available at our Saturday market.

I have finally found some Hellemans mayo here, although it's twice the price. (having egg\bacon mayo for lunch today).

We also have Lidls here in Holland, although due to the cultural differences, most of the products are different, but, there is in the frozen section Kebab meat (I believe it just says Kebab on the box) this is lovely stir fried with peppers, mushrooms and onions. If you can find it in your Lidls it's worth a try.

I'll also be checking out Karens kitchen.

Thanks again bye for now

You don't have to worry about the fat in meat Dutchgirl, all you have to worry about is the carbs, so making meatballs is fine.

For thick soups, use cauliflower as a thickener. Just make sure you add some meat. You can use any lowcarb vegetable in soup: cabbage, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, etc. and even lettuce!

Karen

If you are gaining weight then it is not negligible. My first stall was broken when it dawned on me that although I thought I was eating roast chicken it did have sugar. When I stopped buying prepared chicken and started cooking my own (the only way you can really know what has gone into it) I started losing weight again. When in doubt, be safe and don't buy/eat hidden carbs.

Take care.

Hi Fiona

Thanks for the advice, as I mentioned I did really well the first time I went on the diet. I put the whole 16lbs back on + over Christmas. My weight gain wasn't due to lack of care with my carb intake. To be perfectly honest, it was due to sheer greed and a lack of self discipline. I lost my mum on boxing day 2000 and this was the first Christmas without her and very difficult. I'm ashamed to say I didn't care what I ate or how much of it

Anyway, here I am again, back on the wagon, full of determination saying to myself (and my wonderful long suffering husband) I'm not going to wear leggings and T shirt this summer, nor a jacket in 27 degrees c, knowing perfectly well that if I don't do something now that's exactly what I'll be wearing

I wish will power and self discipline came in a bottle (I've not got much left since I stopped smoking about 6 weeks ago).

Bye for now

{I stopped smoking about 6 weeks ago} Give yourself credit. That is no mean task. It takes a LOTTTTTT of discipline and control to do that.

It is hard to lose someone close to you but a parent is just irreplaceable. Anniversaries bring home the permanence of the departure but it gets easier with time.

The main thing and the most important thing is that {here I am again, back on the wagon, full of determination }

That's the spirit.