Confused with OWL rungs 2 and 3

[Paula.in.NC]

This week I started rung 3 and have followed the guidelines by adding 1 ounce of nuts (in a pumplin pancake recipe that I make in the wafle maker) 3 times this week. I understand that nuts are the exception to the 5 carb guideline and so even though the carb count for the nuts is 3, I count it as 5. My question is if I have that ounce of nuts, can I have flax as well in the form of a cracker or muffin? If so, doesn't that put me over the 5 allowed for the rung 3?
I'm confused about the dairy rung as well. If I add 1/2 cup riccotta cheese at 4 carbs, can I have more than 1 ounce of hard cheese in the same day? (Not that I'd want to very often because of the higher calories.)

Thanks

[JulieB]

Re: Confused with OWL rungs 2 and 3

Yes, you can have more than one food from the same rung in the same day. You should still try to get more than half your carbs from veggies.

You add 5 carbs PER WEEK (if you want to) on OWL. Some of us add 5 carbs one week, then a new food the next week, then 5 more carbs the following week...but you can add both 5 carbs to your total number of carbs/day and a new food the same week.

When you are adding a new food, your 5 new carbs/day are used up by the 5 carbs worth of a new food from your current or a past rung for 3 of those days. The other 4 days, you still eat at your new carb level.

Example: Week 3 on OWL, you move to Rung 2. This means you spent 2 weeks on OWL Rung 1. You were eating 30 carbs/day on Week 2 (Rung 1).
Week 3, you add ricotta. You up your carbs/day for the whole week to 35. 3 of those days, you eat 5 carbs worth of ricotta, which uses up 5 of your 35 daily carbs. The other 4 days you eat only Rung 1 foods, but still 35 carbs/day.
Week 4, you add 5 more carbs plus cottage cheese. You can have both Cottage Cheese and Ricotta the same day, for a total of 10 carbs. You only have the cottage cheese 3 days that first week, of course


I hope this helps you more than confusing you further!

[Paula.in.NC]

Re: Confused with OWL rungs 2 and 3

Thanks JulieB, I think I follow you, I'll have to re-read this a few times to let it sink into my brain.
So if I'm only rung 3 at 35 carbs, I eat 35 carbs everyday, 5 of which are the new food 3 days a week, and still eat 35 the other 4 days by adding extra carbs from the prior food groups - so this would be most likely in my case from adding more vegetables so as to keep most of my carbs from veggies. I try to eat a minimun of 17 now and would find it easy to add another 5 or more - even though it would then be more than 3 cups.

[JulieB]

Re: Confused with OWL rungs 2 and 3

Yes. The three cups rule is for induction. You add 5 carbs on top of the 3 cups for Rung 1.