OK, I guess I'm in OWL now...and I have concerns.

[Stefanie]

I've been eating OWL foods for quite sometime, though not adhering to the OWL ladder, and for some reason thinking I was on extended induction. Today I realized I might be in OWL and came to this forum and read the rules and stuff and FREAKED out!!!! I thought I messed up the entire thing and would have to start ALL OVER AGAIN. 2Big said I didn't, and I should just get on track from here. I've lost 20lbs so far, so I guess my body can handle extra veggies and nuts. I eat sour cream at least twice a week, and a little half and half when I have coffee, I guess my body can handle that as well. So even though the beginning of my OWL experience was haphazzard, I am going to start doing the rungs next week (I already bought my groceries for this week so I guess I'll just still do the nuts rung), beginning with the berries rung. I will stay on berries for three weeks and then advance. I do have a question, though, and forgive me if it's written somewhere, I should be reading psychology right now and studying for tonight's test, not reading about OWL. So my question is: If I can't loose weight by eating berries...what do I do? Do I drop back to nuts for three weeks and then try the rung after berries...or what? This OWL thing is soo confusing to me. I'm probably making it harder than it needs to be. Thanks in advance!

[not2late]

Re: OK, I guess I'm in OWL now...and I have concerns.

So my question is: If I can't loose weight by eating berries...what do I do? Do I drop back to nuts for three weeks and then try the rung after berries...or what? This OWL thing is soo confusing to me. I'm probably making it harder than it needs to be. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to OWL. You've made a mistake some people on "extended Induction" make: Extended Induction means you're eating off the Induction Foods List and following the Induction rules for longer than 2 weeks. Some folks think that Extended Induction means you can eat whatever the heck you like as long as you stay below 20 net carbs. Once you start eating OWL foods, you're not in Induction anymore. Anyhow....

What's your current carb level? If you know that you can stay at that level while trying out the berry rung. If you stop losing weight or inches while eating berries, then you stop eating the berries for a week to see if your weight loss resumes. If it does, then you might be sensitive to whatever berry you've been eating.

[2big4mysize]

Re: OK, I guess I'm in OWL now...and I have concerns.

Megs one other thing I told her to do was qualify that I eat lots of veggies into an amount with a carb number whatever it is as stabilize that while experiemtning with the rungs so she doesn't eat tons of veggies this week and have 25 net catrbs iof then and next week eat tones and have 55 net carbs of them.

[2big4mysize]

Re: OK, I guess I'm in OWL now...and I have concerns.

Glad you made it over here Stefanie. OWL is the great food expoeriment and you are changing 2 varibles each time you climb a rung a new to you food group with a higher GI AND a higher total carb count for you. So you just do it and see if you have any troule. if you do you stop immediately and see if it was the food first by trying as different one from that rung. if it continues you drop the rung and keep the carb number by adding more of your already climbed rung foods and see if your weight loss stops. Now you know if it was the new to you carb total or the foods. if it was the carb total you drop your carb budget for the day back down 5 net carbs and try again eating the new rung foods. no trouble then you have found your CCLL and will need to stay beklow that carb total unless you make life style changes.
trouble again? then you know it is something in that food group and if you love that food group you may want to spend a long time experimenting in it until you figure out iof there is anything you can have in it. Some folk have to fprgo whole rungs others like Megs had to use only one type of a cheese.

Happy experimenting.

[not2late]

Re: OK, I guess I'm in OWL now...and I have concerns.

Megs one other thing I told her to do was qualify that I eat lots of veggies into an amount with a carb number whatever it is as stabilize that while experiemtning with the rungs so she doesn't eat tons of veggies this week and have 25 net catrbs iof then and next week eat tones and have 55 net carbs of them.

I noticed that 2Big. That's why she needs to figure out what her carb level has been.

[Stefanie]

Re: OK, I guess I'm in OWL now...and I have concerns.

Thank you very much, 2big and not2late for your help. I guess what I will have to spend this week doing is buckling down and measuring my food intakes to see what my numbers are like. I guess it's pretty safe to say that I have been very lucky so far with losing weight, because I haven't really measured anything. I know what is acceptable on induction (and i know that nuts are not acceptable on induction), but I guess I have just been eating however much of it I want, especially veggies. My goal for the next week is to measure everything and get as accurate as possible on my daily carb counts. THEN, next week, I will move on to the berries rung of owl. Thanks again, both of you, and I'll keep posted on how I'm doing with OWL and finding my CCL.

[not2late]

Re: OK, I guess I'm in OWL now...and I have concerns.

Thank you very much, 2big and not2late for your help. I guess what I will have to spend this week doing is buckling down and measuring my food intakes to see what my numbers are like. I guess it's pretty safe to say that I have been very lucky so far with losing weight, because I haven't really measured anything. I know what is acceptable on induction (and i know that nuts are not acceptable on induction), but I guess I have just been eating however much of it I want, especially veggies. My goal for the next week is to measure everything and get as accurate as possible on my daily carb counts. THEN, next week, I will move on to the berries rung of owl. Thanks again, both of you, and I'll keep posted on how I'm doing with OWL and finding my CCL.

It's not luck. It's your body and its individual carb tolerance. Too many people have the misconception that they will only lose weight if they stay at or below 20 net carbs daily so they stay on Induction--falling off and on because they get bored with the food choices and the "restrictions". Only a small percentage of people need to stay at that level because they have a high metabolic resistance to weight loss. The rest of us can eat over that amount and still lose weight.

So start measuring your foods and counting your carbs to see what you have been doing.