Successful Induction!

[FLdoodette]

Re: Successful Induction!

Congrats on your success, redfoxglove, and thanks for your excellent post!

[DLS]

Re: Successful Induction!

redfox,
I agree that I will have to commit to this for life. Don't intend on every going back to the way I used to eat after losing my weight. But I would rather get VERY close to goal and then experiment so if I screw up then I won't be that far from home base anyway.
I too am confused about the owl rung. I wonder after I do the add a veggie for 5 g of carbs for a week or two do I then drop that and add things from the next rung or can I keep the veggie 5 g AND add the next type of food!

Oh so much to learn!

[redfoxglove]

Re: Successful Induction!

you're welcome, doodette...

yeah, I'm with you on that Donna, and it will probably work for you, I don't mean to say otherwise.

For me, knowing what I know about me, I am going to be more successful if I do it in a somewhat scientific manner. I have too much of a tendency to wing it. THen I end up not knowing where to start making adjustments. From what you've written, it looks like we have some of the same ? about OWL.

I've read over what it says in the OWL forum several times, I'm still not quite sure how it works. Like you said above...let's say I've had an average of 19g during Induction. Now it's OWL. I choose to add in more tomatoes b/c that's what I've really missed. I get through the first week of OWL fine, still losing weight at a satisfying pace. So the next week I decide, oh, I think I really miss having a huge honking serving of green beans, I'm going to up my green beans to 1 cup or 1-1/2 cup servings (adding 2.9 or 5.8 more grams of green beans)...Nothing happens, ie, I still lose at a good pace. So the third week I decide I'm going to add cottage cheese from rung 2. That goes well. Now my daily gram intake should be around 34g. The fourth week I decide, mmm...macadamia nuts. Nope, I get stalled. So do I try another nut, drop back down to dairy, what? Is 34g my limit already?

[Elizellen]

Re: Successful Induction!

...let's say I've had an average of 19g during Induction. Now it's OWL. I choose to add in more tomatoes b/c that's what I've really missed. I get through the first week of OWL fine, still losing weight at a satisfying pace. So the next week I decide, oh, I think I really miss having a huge honking serving of green beans, I'm going to up my green beans to 1 cup or 1-1/2 cup servings (adding 2.9 or 5.8 more grams of green beans)...Nothing happens, ie, I still lose at a good pace. So the third week I decide I'm going to add cottage cheese from rung 2. That goes well. Now my daily gram intake should be around 34g. The fourth week I decide, mmm...macadamia nuts. Nope, I get stalled. So do I try another nut, drop back down to dairy, what? Is 34g my limit already?

It looks as if you have got a handle on the OWL thinking, redfoxglove

If on rung one you add more of veg that you have already been eating then you can add the 5 net carbs of them every day (or 2 of one and 3 of another already eaten veg from either list), so in your scenario that would be up to 24 net carbs that week. If you wanted to add a veg that you havent been eating so far then you add that new veg every other day the first week, and add 5 net carbs of one of the veg you are already eating on the alternate days.

The next week if all is well you can add another 5 net carbs of veg, and if you like you can add several weeks worth of 5 net carb additions and test all the veg you are likely to want to eat before moving to the dairy rung.

Once you have tried all the dairy options you want - ricotta, milk, yogurt, farmers cheeses etc you can move on to nuts & seeds. I only tried yogurt as I dont like cottage & other fresh cheeses and have never been able to drink milk.

BTW for nuts Dr Atkins told us to add only one ounce of most of them at this stage no matter what the carbs are, and half an ounce for cashew nuts.

Maybe on the next rung you find that adding cashew nuts bring your losses to a halt. Then you need to find out if it was the cashew nuts or the extra net carbs doing that, so maybe drop down 5 net carbs and try them again.

If your losses start again at the lower carb count, then you might have found your CCLL and will need to swop out your 5 net carbs for the rest of the rungs instead of adding them.

But if you still don't lose it might be the cashews messing you up. So try a different nut/seed and so on.

By taking it slowly and scientifically you can learn so much about your body and how different foods affect you, which will help you when you reach maintenance and want to stay at your goal weight, so it is worth taking your time on the main weightloss phase of Atkins which is what Dr Atkins intended OWL to be.

[DLS]

Re: Successful Induction!

you're welcome, doodette...

yeah, I'm with you on that Donna, and it will probably work for you, I don't mean to say otherwise.

For me, knowing what I know about me, I am going to be more successful if I do it in a somewhat scientific manner. I have too much of a tendency to wing it. THen I end up not knowing where to start making adjustments. From what you've written, it looks like we have some of the same ? about OWL.

I've read over what it says in the OWL forum several times, I'm still not quite sure how it works. Like you said above...let's say I've had an average of 19g during Induction. Now it's OWL. I choose to add in more tomatoes b/c that's what I've really missed. I get through the first week of OWL fine, still losing weight at a satisfying pace. So the next week I decide, oh, I think I really miss having a huge honking serving of green beans, I'm going to up my green beans to 1 cup or 1-1/2 cup servings (adding 2.9 or 5.8 more grams of green beans)...Nothing happens, ie, I still lose at a good pace. So the third week I decide I'm going to add cottage cheese from rung 2. That goes well. Now my daily gram intake should be around 34g. The fourth week I decide, mmm...macadamia nuts. Nope, I get stalled. So do I try another nut, drop back down to dairy, what? Is 34g my limit already?

EXACTLY! I am like what the heck do I do. I am so afraid that I will get to around 30 carbs and have to stay there forever! LOL

[redfoxglove]

Re: Successful Induction!

Elizellen, that makes so much sense. You have a real way of making it quite straightforward.

I think I get that I am not just adding 5g of carb to my daily intake. I'm also testing individual foods to see how my body reacts. I think I get it!

With my decision today, for example, to go on to OWL, I chose to emphasize tomatoes. I've already been eating them somewhat sparingly. But now I'll choose them more frequently this week and see what happens. Assuming good results, end of week 1 OWL would put me at 24g daily.

Next week I might try beets? They are coming in season...and I don't know much about them other than I really, really like them. So let's pick instead, pumpkin, I have numbers on that. I decide to add more pumpkin, like have a pumpkin dessert more than once a week. I add that with good results, end of week 2 I'm at 29g daily.

Week 3 I decide to go to dairy. Let's say I didn't already know that milk is an addiction for me and makes me crave ice cream when I drink it (which I could easily do a quart a day)...let's say I tried milk and didn't lose a pound or show other positive results. I would then say, oh no, I better drop that milk and go back to week 2 level, with 29g daily.

Week 4 I could try a different dairy (I happen to know I can eat cottage cheese and plain full fat yogurt)...and with good results add 5g more, bringing me to 34g daily by end of week 4...maybe week 5 add the next dairy, etc etc...

I might just skip the nuts and seeds for now b/c they seem to throw off a lot of people and what I really really would like to have back in my menus are berries. Berries with yogurt and a little sweetener, or a smoothie...yummmmm

I think I might be getting the hang of it? Your explanation made it fall into place for me...

[redfoxglove]

Re: Successful Induction!

EXACTLY! I am like what the heck do I do. I am so afraid that I will get to around 30 carbs and have to stay there forever! LOL

If you haven't already, check out post #19 from elizellen. Very instructive, I may just be ready to go OWLing from what I've learned from her....

[Elizellen]

Re: Successful Induction!

I think I might be getting the hang of it?

Yes, except that Beets are a rung 8 starchy veg though Beet Greens are induction/rung 1 veggies.

[redfoxglove]

Re: Successful Induction!

Yes, except that Beets are a rung 8 starchy veg though Beet Greens are induction/rung 1 veggies.

A couple more clarifications...once I run into a food that I suspect is stalling me, I cut out that food, and drop back to the previous daily carb count?

That's to test if it's the carb count or the specific food that is stalling me...?

And I think I got it from above, that for the new foods, let's say I'm doing them every other day, then on the days I am not doing a new food, I do more of an accepted food to bring the carb count up by 5g?

[Elizellen]

Re: Successful Induction!

Absolutely right

[redfoxglove]

Re: Successful Induction!

Absolutely right

As with so many things in life, once you got it, it seems so simple, how could you not have got it before? Thanks so much, Elizellen, I'm really ready to move forward in OWL now. Got my pre-TOM week so I'm not going to fret if things seem to be in limbo for a few days....just gonna keep on truckin!

Thanks so much.