Sooooooo lost

[tami.brock]

Hi, everyone I'm Tami a 27 year old wife and mom to two. I have been heavy all my life but the last eight years I have gone crazy, gaining 110 pounds. I looked into gastric bypass, however, my insurance denied me. So, I turned to my family doc and he put me on some meds and told me to do Atkins. That was yesterday. I was so excited and came home, got on the computer and started reading away. But I sit here now 24 hours later and feel so over whelmed I dont even know where to begin. I have never tracked or counted anything and the tracking carbs has me scared like you wouldnt believe. I thought about doing something like ediets so I can have a meal plan made for me until I'm a bit more familiar but I have an extermly picky family and I need to choose recipes I know they will eat. So, I browsed this forum and found recipes I know they will like but I guess I dont understand how I count the carbs from meal to meal. Goodness I'm so lost I am not even making sense to myself in typing this.

I guess basically I really want to do this and scared to death I wont do it right. So scared that I'm scared to even begin.

[Kisal]

Welcome! It's nice to meet you! :)

The best way to be sure you do a plan correctly is to buy the book for it, read it, and follow it. There are a few different versions of Dr. A.'s books, and it doesn't really matter which one you follow. If you follow them as written, you will lose weight.

If you're on a tight budget, the books can often be found very inexpensively at thrift stores, used-book stores, and even on eBay and Amazon.com.

Best of luck to you! :wave:

[tami.brock]

I looked for the book at WalMart today but we live in a small town with a small WalMart so they didnt have it. I was thinking of starting before buying the book, is it your recommendation that I read the book first?

[Cerridwen]

I highly recommend the book too! If you can't find it in stores right away, try your local library. I live in the country too and mine has it.

The Atkins web site has some basic menues for the first phase induction that should help you stay on track, and you can download software that you just enter the food you eat into and it tells you how many carbs etc. Lifeform is what I use, but Fitday is another and I'm sure there are more.

We've lived here 8 years and I've read my way through the entire library - part of the reason we're moving :D
Cerridwen

[lowjax]

If you aren't familiar with counting carbs or calories, I'd recommend reading the book first as well. I'd also recommend a website called fitday.com. Here you just sign up for a free account, then you just enter in the food you are eating and how much, and it calculates your carbs, calories, etc for you. You don't have to do any work, just keep track of how much food you eat. Hope that helps.

[tami.brock]

Thanks for all the replies. I will hit the library today after I pick up the girls from school. Hopefully that will shred light on this because I'm getting frustrated and I havent even started!!

[seesah]

Yep...me too..I totally recommend reading the book first.
Once you read it...you will be like "Ahhh, I get it!" or "Yesss,
that makes total sense!" Plus, it will end up being your
low carb bible & it will be there to refer back to it anytime. :D

[Jgregm69]

Hi Tami, and welcome. Until you get the book, stick with meat, eggs, cheese, and as plain a salad as you can handle. Do this for two weeks then play with it, but read your ingrediants and stay low carb.

[pennink]

until you get the book, and if you want to give the original Atkins a go, here is the plan. Now, this version's inducton is only for a week, the later versions inductions aren't as stringent, but this one works like a charm. Also, a lot of us don't follow the diet that deducts fibre. To me a carb is a carb (and to my body too) :thup:

1972 Atkins Diet Revolution

The Diet Revolution Rules (Level One)
1. Don’t count calories
2. Eat as much of the allowed foods as you need to avoid hunger.
3. Don’t eat when you are not hungry.
4. Don’t feel you must finish everything on your plate just because it is there.
5. Drink as much water or calorie-free beverages as thirst requires. Don’t restrict fluids… but it is not necessary to force them either.
6. Frequent small meals are preferable.
7. If weakness results from rapid weight loss, you may need salt.
8. Everyday take a high-strength multivitamin pill.
9. Read the labels on “low-calorie” drinks, syrups, desserts. Only those with no carbohydrate content are allowed.

The First Life-Changing Week, eat nothing that is not on the list.

Meat: Steaks, Corned beef, Lamb chops, tongue, Hamburgers, Bacon, Any kind of meat in any quantity—except meat with fillers such as sausage, hot dogs, meatballs, most packaged “cold cuts”
Fowl: Duckling, Turkey, Chicken, Anything with wings, No stuffing
Desserts: Gelatin with artificial sweeteners
Condiments: Salt, pepper, mustard, horseradish, vinegar, vanilla, and other extracts; artificial sweeteners; any dry powdered spice that contains no sugar
Drinks: Water, Mineral water, Vichy, Club soda; Beef or Chicken broth, bouillon; Sugar free diet soda; coffee*, tea, decaffeinated coffee
---------*Special note on caffeine and Diet Cola. Because most heavy people have some hypoglycemia, coffee, which contains caffeine, should be limited to six servings a day (cups). If you know you have low blood sugar, better limit it to three.
Fish: All fish, including canned salmon, tuna; any kind of seafood, including oil-packed and smoked, except oysters, clams, muscles, scallops, and pickled fish
Eggs: Boiled, fried, scrambled, poached, omelet – any style and without limitations
Salads: Two small green salads a day (each less than one cupful, loosely packed) made only of leafy greens, celery, or cucumbers and radishes. Dressings with vinegar, oil, salt, dry spices, herbs, grated cheese, or anchovies. Or else a sour pickle in place of a salad. Plus… green olives.
Butter & Mayonnaise Fats: Butter, margarine , oils, shortening , lard & mayonnaise.
Juice: Juice of one lemon or lime
Cheese: Four ounces a day of any hard aged cheese. No cream cheese or cheese spreads.
Heavy Cream: Four teaspoons a day. (Cream has less carbohydrate than milk – so don’t use milk)
Diet Revolution Salad Material: Celery, Chicory, Chinese Cabbage, Chives, Cucumber, Endive, Escarole, Fennel, lettuce, Olives (Green or Black), Onions, Pickles (Sour or Dill), Parsley, Peppers, Radishes, Scallions, watercress.

What Happens After The First Week’s Diet? Most diets are fixed formulas and are therefore short-termed and self-limiting. This diet is fixed only for a week. After that – because it must be a lifetime diet, it is, as variable as are individual tastes.

I’ve labeled the additions of carbohydrate that follow’ second level’, ‘third level’, ‘fourth level’, ‘fifth level’, but in fact the additions are interchangeable and flexible. You can make any of these additions any week that you choose. I am so committed to making this a livable lifetime diet that I am letting you select your own variations, within the rules set up by your biological rulebook.

Put back what you’ve missed the most: The idea is simply to gradually return to your diet first what you missed most. Custom-tailor the diet to suit your carbohydrate additions to suit your lifestyle. All that matters is that you add back to your diet a little carbohydrate at a time, and that you stop adding carbohydrate when you reach your CCL.

How to know when to put back a little carbohydrate: Ask yourself: Are the ketostix still turning purple? Am I still un-hungry? Have I stopped eating at night? Do I have more energy? Am I still losing weight or inches nicely? Remember, your tape measure is a lot better friend than your scale, not only more accurate, but better able to report on the actual fat (not just temporary water) losses this diet achieves.

The Second Level: Cheesecake for dessert? At each level, remember you add approximately five to eight grams of carbohydrate daily for a week and analyze the results. Most people agree the best way to handle the second level is to add cottage cheese…

The Diet Revolution Vegetables (not for level one): All of the above plus; Asparagus, Avocado, Bamboo Shoots, Bean Sprouts, Beet Greens, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Chard, Chinese Cabbage, eggplant, Kale, Kohlrabi, Mushrooms, Okra, Onions, Peppers, Pumpkins, Rhubarb, Sauerkraut, Snow Pea Pods, Spinach, String Beans, Summer Squash, Tomatoes, Turnips, Water Chestnuts, Wax Beans, Zucchini Squash

Sample menu, level one:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with spicy ham, Diet revolution roll and butter, Bouillon, coffee, or tea
Lunch: Cold cuts sandwich on Diet revolution Roll w/ mayo or mustard, 1 cup of salad (loosely packed), oil & vinegar, or a dressing from the recipe list, sf Raspberry gelatin, Diet soda, coffee, or tea
Dinner: Chicken soup with Matzoh Balls, Your favorite cut of steak, Caesar salad with Caesar Salad dressing, Gelatin, diet soda, coffee or tea
Snack: baken-ets, stuffed celery, diet soda.

Sample menu, level two:
Breakfast: Lox and stuffed onion omelet, caraway Diet revolution Roll with cream cheese, Bouillon, coffee, or tea
Lunch: Avocado stuffed with crabmeat, Tossed green salad with dressing from recipe list, diet soda, coffee, or tea
Dinner: Mixed grill with garlic Butter Sauce or Béarnaise Sauce, Tossed salad with French Dressing, Gelatin Parfait with whipped cream, diet soda, coffee, or tea
Snack: Assorted smoked fish, Hard cheese, Diet soda

[pennink]

also, that matzoh ball soup is an Atkins' recipe, not regular matzohs

[Womb]

I totally agree with the other posters here, a book (whichever you choose) will help to take a lot of the guesswork out of where to start and then to proceed.
When I first found this site, I found reading this was very helpful too

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=28939

Lots of information located there.
If you have any questions, so many people are here to lend a hand
Good luck to you!

[CandiceD]

Dont be discouraged. You haven't even started yet! Think of this as the first day to the rest of your life. There are so many people around here who can act as encouragement and support. They have proven that with determination and support you can change your body.

I think that Atkins is one of the easiest diets to follow. My other half does NOT eat low carb and I'm still able to create a meal every night for the two of us that satisfies us both and doesn't take up much time. If your concerned about becoming a short order cook I recommend looking up recipes on this site and others to develop a sense of what you can and cannot eat on the diet. You'd be surprised at how easy it is. :)

[Ptrcmcc6]

Hi tami and welcome to the best site for support and encouragment. I would have to agree with the others when they say to read the book but I also believe you can get started beforehand without too much of a problem. Pennick gave you a good idea of what's allowed in the "induction" stage and you should have no problem making meals for the next 2 weeks from the list she gave you. Counting carbs is not as hard as it may seem. Everything we buy nowadays has the "nutritional" info on the packaging. Although I'm not doing Atkins in particular.....a good rule of thumb I followed when I first started was to give up all the "white" stuff which includes: sugar, flour, potatoes, rice, etc. And this includes all the pre-packaged foods that are out there which contain these ingredients such as: cakes, cookies, chips, cereal, etc.

Another good recipe site you can check out besides the recipe site on this forum is Linda's Low Carb Menus and Recipes. I don't know how to post the link here but you can "google" it and it will come up for you. All the foods she's created which are "induction" friendly she's put and asterick (*) next too. What I like about her site is she has actually tried most of the recipes she's made and she leaves little footnotes as to how they came out, if she liked it or not, and if she'd make them again or not.

Anyway, don't be discouraged. It's not as hard as it seems and once you see the way you feel and the weight coming off by following a low carb lifestyle.......you'll be so happy you made the decision to change your old eating habits. And if you should have any questions.....feel free to ask around on these boards. Everyone here is always friendly and willing to lend a hand. Another good thing to do is to start a journal on this website where you can keep track of what you're eating....how much your losing.....and just talk about whatever it is you feel like talking about. It's your journal and you can write whatever you want in there. It also is a place where others can stop by just to say "hello" and see how your doing.

Well....best of luck to you and I look forward to seeing you around here.

Patty

P.S. :thup: to your doctor for suggesting you do Atkins. A lot of doctors won't do that or worse yet....discourage you from doing it.