Doing well But I need Help!!

[Ryansmom]

Hi, I am on day5 and I am feeling really good! I have energy and no more hungar pains. I think I made a few mistakes becasue I just bought DANDR yesterday. I ate a few mini carrots one day. And that is not on acceptable foods list. But it honestly was only about 5 mini-ones.

Don't Laugh, but I don't understand how to measure the food. Some of it I get but not all of it.

1) How do I measure cherry tomatos?? They are organic and don't have any labels. IN the back of the book it only gives example for regualr sized tomatos.

2) And how do I measure cheese that is in a block? How will I know how many slices are my daily allowance?? I am having a hard time with this. I thought I would try to guess because I really am not eating big protions of just one thing.

3) Also, I bought some frozen meatballs which they say are 5 carbs and there is 1 fiber, so 4 carbs per serving woudl be 6 meatballs. I don't know if this is okay or not. Also, I don't understand the whole net carbs thing????? Help :icondance

4) I was wondering if I could just have someone review yesterdays day as well.

Morning: Dr.Atkins Vanilla Shake 1 carb

Afternoon: 12 MINI meatballs 8 carbs
and two cheessburger patties with cheese, tomato and light onion

Dinner: Baked Lemon Chicken (one breast)--I made up a sauce
with a fresh avocado, sour cream, tabasco, salt and pepper. I had a smaller size amount of this with my chicken. I know it didn't go over becasue I didn't eat alot of it.
Fresh Mozzarella and cherry tomato salad (small sized)
Green Beens sauted in Oil Oil with a little salt (I had about 10 pieces)

I know I sound like an idiot not knowing how to count this stuff. I have never been the best at Math.

Does anyone know a brand of gum or breath mint that would be acceptable to take during induction?????

Thanks in Advance :wave
Also, is it allowed to take any fat burners like xendrine or trimspa while on induction or any of the other phases??????

[Checkers]

Hi,
I don't have all of your answers, but I can tell you that I would be lost without my kitchen scale. I have a small digital scale and I use it at every meal and post all my food on Fitday. This will help with your veggie and cheese measuring. I'm betting your meatballs have some ingredients that are not induction friendly. Can you post what's in them? You do subtract fiber from your total carbs to get your net carbs. I'm doing 35 net carbs right now, but my gross carbs are usually much higher. I eat alot of high fiber foods making my net much lower. Are you posting on Fitday? It really is a good tool. :wave

[Elizellen]

Hi ryansmom :wave

The Atkins shakes are not really a good idea during induction. Better to eat real food :yes
If you do decide to use them make sure you check that all the ingredients in the shake are on the 'allowed food' list for induction. Even if the pack says OK for induction many of the 'lc' products have ingredients not on the list. :sadblinky

If you dont have a scale to measure your cheese a good idea is to look at how many ounces are in a whole block when you buy it - say the block is a pound of cheese then cut it into 4 pieces so you then have four pieces that weigh 4 ounces each, then if you want you could cut each of those in four so you have 16 one ounce pieces. In time you will be able to 'eyeball' one ounce but start off doing it this way so you dont go over your 3-4 ounces.

If you buy your cheese ready sliced then just divide the total weight of the pack by how many slices you have in the pack. So if your pack weighs 10 ounces and has 10 slices (to make it easy to do the maths) each slice is one ounce.

I do the same for meat slices too. I buy some sliced ham in 100 gram packs that contain 5 slices, so each slice weighs 20 grams.

Most of your food you are supposed to measure in 'cups' which is a volume measurement - not a weight one.
Easiest way to do this is to go out and buy a set of measuring cups and use those.
Then if you want to know how much of a cup your cherry tomatoes are you can put them into whichever measuring cup they fill to the top and whatever measurement is says on that measuring cup is the size of your portion - 1/4, 1/3, 1/2. 3/4 or 1 cup.

If you are measuring smaller portions you can use a measuring spoon - one tablespoon is 1/16th of a cup, 2 tbsps make 1/8 of a cup and so on.

It is a pity Dr Atkins was an American as otherwise he might have given us weights for our portions, but most of us get used to it in time with practice. :hug

[Elizellen]

I just noticed your question about diet pills (I assume that is what they are).
Don't muddle your body with those. :no
Let it get used to induction and the rest of the Atkins Way of Eating :hug

[FightingTheFight]

I agree with the others, Great idea to get rid of the shakes for now. Known to cause stalls and would prohibit you from reaching your goal. Based on the pill question I am going to assume to want to get rid of this fast. I am happy for you but you gotta realise this is a journey and its nots going to come off over night.

Also, those pills are crap, they are basically designed to raise your heart rate throughout the day. The best way to do that is with regular exercise. Stay away from those things, they are only after your money. Besides, with resistance training, you will be burning calories all day long! :joy

Does anyone know a brand of gum or breath mint that would be acceptable to take during induction?????

They do have sugar free gum, but I would stay away from those right now because of their taste. My best advice is to do what I do(imagine that lol) I bought a little bottle of traveling mouth wash,I take it with me and then when I run out, I just refill it from a bigger bottle at home. Plus, its better because its going to be killing bacteria, instead of covering up the smell.

Remember, Get all your water in and take your multi-vitamins, and you will be set!

Happy Atkining! :hug

[Ryansmom]

Thank you all sooo much for the advice. The measuring part I am going to print out. I am going to the grocery store becasue we are BBQ for fathers day. Of course everyone will be eating no-carb/low carb but I will supply my guests with buns. lol. Again, thanks. I am confused why they advertise those atkins shakes for being okay during induction. Oh well. I better find a cookbook to teach me how to make an omelette. Also, I won't take any pills but I wanted to see if anyone else was. In fact my body feels great, I have energy!

[punkin50]

The way I measure out cheese in a rectangular block is to look and see how many oz are in the whole block. Say there are 8 oz for the whole block. Mark off 8 equal portions with a sharp knife. This gives you a place to know where to cut it when you are ready to have an oz of cheese. Remember, you are to have no more than 3 oz of cheese in one day. :wave

[Elizellen]

we are BBQ for fathers day. Of course everyone will be eating no-carb/low carb but I will supply my guests with buns. lol.

Congratulations on your realisation that it WILL be possible to cater for yourself AND your family by cooking for your woe and adding extras for them :yes It takes some people a long time to work out how to cope.

As for not being much of a cook (yet) we have several cooking forums further down the index of forums whioch you might find useful
One is called LC cooking lessons and is well worth browsing for ideas about substitutes for highcarb foods.

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=63916

There is also one where you can ask about recipes for things you would like to make but dont know how, as well as forums for specific types of recipes.

When you have time scroll down and take a look. :hug

[Ryansmom]

Thanks for all the tips!! I survived our BBQ with only eating one chicken breast, one hamburger patty a piece of tomato and lettuce. I am sooo happy to have all the meat leftover for the week. I threw out the rest of the buns that were open. Gave the chips, fruit plate and pasta salad to my girlfriend for her and her sister!! I will give my neighbors the rest of the buns that were unopened! It was tough going to the grocery store today becasue i was super hungry. Also, shame on me, I did look at those meatballs and they had some flour in them, and bread crumbs. So, those are gone too. I am learning!!! I am really excited becasue I have never been this disciplined -- when I was pregnant it was eating galore without caffeine and other bad things but nothing like this healthy.

[FightingTheFight]

I am confused why they advertise those atkins shakes for being okay during induction

=

$$$

[Moochiecat]

Re: Doing well But I need Help!!

I'm glad you've got yourself DANDR :yes

) Also, I bought some frozen meatballs which they say are 5 carbs and there is 1 fiber, so 4 carbs per serving woudl be 6 meatballs. I don't know if this is okay or not. Also, I don't understand the whole net carbs thing????? Help :icondance

I think that I'd avoid these if I were you. Meat doesn't have carbs, so there's got to be fillers like breadcrumbs or something in there to give the meatballs carbs. Or is there a sauce on them? The sauce would probably have some non-Induction friendly ingredients (sugar) in it that gives carbs.
Meatballs are SO easy to make! Meat and seasonings(no need for a filler at all) roll into balls, and bake in the oven for about 30 mins or so. You can freeze them and eat when you want, with negligible carbs.

Net carbs are the total amount of carbs in an item minus the fiber, so you did that correctly. :yes

I know I sound like an idiot not knowing how to count this stuff. I have never been the best at Math.

Then let Fitday do it for you! Here's a link to help you with how to use it.

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=66107

Does anyone know a brand of gum or breath mint that would be acceptable to take during induction?????

I have a little travel size bottle of mouthwash that I carry in my purse and I have one at work. If I do have a sf gum, I pick one that has the least resemblance to a 'candy' taste...like strong peppermint, because I don't want to trigger any weirdo cravings from it. I prefer the mouthwash though, because I'm not actually ingesting anything.

(quote)
Also, is it allowed to take any fat burners like xendrine or trimspa while on induction or any of the other phases??????[/quote]


When you read DANDR, you'll learn that eating this way turns your metabolism into a fat-burning metabolism, so there's no need to mess with drugs like that. It's best if you save your money and use it to buy clothes when you lose your weight doing Atkins.

[Hinen]

Hi Ryansmom,
I wonder if you are eating enough.
Put it into fitday and you can see how many calories you are eating, you won't lose weight it you aren't eating enough calories.
Yeah I know its a hassle and counting calories isn't supposed to matter on Atkins. But fitday is easy to use and gives such useful information
Cheers