Starting Today.

[Hayden]

Hello,

My Atkins book arrived in the post this morning. All the way from some dusty warehouse in America to my front door in Japan.

I feel the dieting journey ahead of me, is going to be long and just as far, as this book has travelled.

I walked to the local park this morning and sat down and read chapters 1 to 10, so tonight I'm going to read Chapter 11. Induction.

When I opened the book there is a hard glossy paper insert giving different foods carbohydrate values, and I was shocked how high some of these foods are. A simple pitta bread pocket, for example is 33.4 grams !!

The difficult task, I think, is going to be to keep under 20 grams of carbs.
Not from bad will-power, but by making a simple mistake in a food choice or portion control.

So, here I start.

The clock is ticking. Or should I say, the ticker thingy below is ticking.

I may have questions later.

[Alexa]

Re: Starting Today.

Hi Hayden,

Welcome to the site!

Congrats on getting, and reading the book - it makes life so much easier when you understand the processes.

You shouldn't have too much trouble sticking to under 20gs on induction because the chapter shows how many cups of veggies, how much cheese etc to eat per day, so if you stick to that (and add up carbs to make sure) you should be fine. It gest easier once appetite supression kicks in

Best of luck with your journey

[garwil]

Re: Starting Today.

Good luck mate!

[lancelotsgirl]

Re: Starting Today.

Glad you got the book, it is a huge help and it makes understanding why our body does what it does easier. The carb counter is helpful, I carry mine with me!

Good luck on your journey!!!

[Hayden]

Re: Starting Today.

Hello Again,

Slight problem. Any ideas.

The Japanese for carbohydrate is 炭水化物 or tansuikabutsu (tan-su-i-ka-bu-tsu).

I have just been looking at the cans of food in my kitchen. All the Japanese labels state the carbohydrate of the whole can, or jar, or pack. There is no breakdown by serving or 100 grams or anything.

I'll just telephoned a Japanese friend, and he's told me that this is normal in Japan.

How can I get the carbohydrate value of lets say, for example a single dill pickle (pickled), or a green olive.

Is there an page on the Atkins website for this? (looked, but not found)

[Alexa]

Re: Starting Today.

Hello,

I would say try www.fitday.com - is has some good generic food values. Don't forgot to subtract the fibre. You do this by setting a goal for fibre on there and take it away manually yourself.

Good luck

[Hayden]

Re: Starting Today.

Just signed up. Thank you. A perfect solution.

[mitzimarie]

Re: Starting Today.

Is there an page on the Atkins website for this? (looked, but not found)

Hayden,

In addition to using Fitday, I also use a Nutritional Spreadsheet provided in the FAQ Section on this board.

Here is the link:
http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...ad.php?t=42713

After you go into this link, click on NUTRITIONAL SPREADSHEET and it will bring you to a great list of foods with their weights and nutrition information.

Fitday has been an awesome tool for me. I do enter a lot of my foods as custom foods when I can. I brought my laptop into the kitchen and went through my refrigerator and pantry and entered info from every label of every product that I use. Even eggs, because on certain items, it can be tedious to find exactly what you are looking for on Fitday.

Also, on things like eggs and cheese, labels say that there are 0 carbs when Dr. Atkins would have us count them as 1. So, even though the label on my eggs says 0 carbs per egg, when I custom entered it I used 1 carb. Same with cheese. If I didn't do that, a 3 egg omelette with cheese would be counted as 0 carbs when it really should be counted as 4.

Do you have access to any kind of food scale there? I use a really inexpensive food scale that I picked up for about 4 dollars that has become my best friend. It measures things in grams and ounces and makes measuring things accurately a breeze.

And like Baarb mentioned, we go by net carbs. On Fitday, you need to set a fiber goal. You do this on the left side of the screen under Goals. It doesn't matter what number you set as a goal... mine is set at 1 just so it will count grams of fiber for me. It will display the fiber grams alongside the total carb grams and you just subtract the fiber from the total carbs to get net carbs. It is also nice to know how much fiber you are getting so you can aim high to keep things "moving along" so you don't have *potty* problems, if you know what I mean.

I am sure you will have more questions as you progress. Please feel free to ask as many as you can. Atkins is the best thing that has ever happened to me for my health, and it will be for you, too! Best wishes to you.

[Hayden]

Re: Starting Today.

Hello Mitzi,

Reading your post, it looks like I have 2 things I need to study a bit more.

1, Fibre, and how to keep the level of fibre in my body high, without going over the 20 grams of carbohydrate.

2, This concept of "net carbs".
Now my thinking was that the good 'ld 3 eggs, with cheese and bacon would not "eat" into my 20 gram limit. Reading your post, looks like I'm mistaken.

As a slight aside, I am planning to get my 20 grams of carbs over the next 2 weeks from green olives and pickles. I can space them out over the day, and can replace sweets (candy) and chocolate.

I'll have a go with the search button on the fibre issue, and have another read of the Atkins book about the net carbs, because I've clearly missed the point about the eggs and cheese.

[mitzimarie]

Re: Starting Today.

Reading your post, it looks like I have 2 things I need to study a bit more.

1, Fibre, and how to keep the level of fibre in my body high, without going over the 20 grams of carbohydrate.

Hayden, since the fiber is subtracted from the carbs to get net carbs, it is easy to get a lot of fiber without upping your carbs too much.

2, This concept of "net carbs".
Now my thinking was that the good 'ld 3 eggs, with cheese and bacon would not "eat" into my 20 gram limit. Reading your post, looks like I'm mistaken.

This has to do with the way things are labeled... if something has less than a full carb, the labels call it 0. I don't remember exactly where this is mentioned in the book, but I have seen it mentioned in the "stickies" on the board as well.

As a slight aside, I am planning to get my 20 grams of carbs over the next 2 weeks from green olives and pickles. I can space them out over the day, and can replace sweets (candy) and chocolate.

Well, Hayden, I think you make have to adjust your plan a little. A wide array of veggies is extremely important for nutrition and fiber. At least half of your net carbs should come from veggies. And, olives are a special category food that can't be eaten in large amounts. Look in the book to find the exact amount under "special category foods". I hate olives, so I don't remember offhand how many. Neither pickles nor olives have very much fiber at all. Both olives and pickles contain tons of sodium, too... not good.

You will need to research and practice to find which veggies carry the most punch for nutrition and fiber. If you don't get enough fiber, you are going to be miserable with constipation... trust me on that one.

And about trying to replace sweets... your best bet would be to try to do without that during induction. One of the main points of induction is to break the addiction to sweets. And believe me, the cleaner the induction, the easier it will be to control cravings. It is absolutely critical to the success of Atkins to change your lifestyle.

I've got to run now... if I have confused you or you have other questions, just ask away and I or someone else will be around to help.

Good luck!

[mitzimarie]

Re: Starting Today.

Hayden,

I'm back.

One of the things that can help satisfy your veggie requirements and perhaps serve as something sweet at the same time is peppers. We call them "bellpeppers" in my neck of the woods... not sure if they are called that everywhere or not. In the book, they are listed as just peppers in the salad vegetables list. I eat the green ones, red ones, yellow ones, and orange ones raw cut into strips. The green ones are not quite as sweet as the other colors, and most people use those to cook with. I like them raw, though.

When you do a clean induction, things start tasting differently and I have found that I like veggies now that I wouldn't have touched before Atkins. The first rung of OWL is more veggies, so I would start trying to branch out.

Celery is another good veggie that has nutrition and fiber. I am not sure what kinds of veggies are available to you there. I bet if you made an effort, though, that you could find some others that will be great.

See ya!

[SwissMiss]

Re: Starting Today.

Hi Hayden,

I'm in my 2nd week of induction phase. Be aware that the first couple of days (Day 1 - 4) can be very though. You might feel pretty awful and extremely tired (at least I did). But stick with the atkins plan, no "bad" carbs, no sweets what so ever! When you make it through those days you will feel so proud of yourself to have resisted all those temptations (and that feeling will last when you stick with the plan and when you see how those pounds dropp). Physically you will feel much better, you'll have more energy and best of all... you will not have nasty cravings for the "bad" carbs anymore (I personally can't get over how amazing that is).

Regarding handling the 20 net carbs. I made a couple of mistakes in the beginning. But I solved that problem by entering my food into fitday.com. I usually plan in the evening for the next day. Works for me!

Good Luck!

Salima

[mitzimarie]

Re: Starting Today.

About counting eggs as one carb each...

I skimmed through the book this afternoon and could not find where he said to count them as one carb each and in fact, the carbohydrate gram counter in the front of the book counts them as 0-trace. The nutritional spreadsheet I gave you the link for lists them as 0.39.

It was probably through the board that gave me the idea to round up instead of down on the carb count for eggs. I bet a lot of people don't count eggs as one carb each. I have been counting them as one for a long time.

I would be interested in hearing from the seasoned veterans how they count carbs on eggs.

Elizellen, Megs, Joy, Julie, etc... how about it? How do you count carbs for eggs?

[mitzimarie]

Re: Starting Today.

As a slight aside, I am planning to get my 20 grams of carbs over the next 2 weeks from green olives and pickles. I can space them out over the day, and can replace sweets (candy) and chocolate.

Hayden,

I'm just curious how you came to the idea that green olives and pickles satisfies the required on 2 to 3 cups of salad vegetables plus one cup of other vegetables if you only had 2 cups of salad vegetables for a total of 3 cups of veggies per day.

Oh yeah, I looked up Special Category Foods and it says that "to add variety you can also eat ten to twenty olives, half a small avocado, one ounce of sour cream, as well as two to three tablespoons of lemon juice or lime juice. But be aware that these foods occasionally slow down weight loss in some people, and may need to be avoided in the first two weeks."

[Hayden]

Re: Starting Today.

Hello,

I only got the Atkins book yesterday (the day has changed in Japan) and I only read it yesterday. Sat in my local park. I've not seen anything in the book about eggs as 1 carb. So far.

Your comment did shake me sideways a little.

I am worried that I'll go over the 20 grams of carbs, by making a mathematical carb counting error.

I would be interested in the replies about eggs. I am happy to listen to all advice.