Soo confused about OWL!!!!

[Delicious]

Ok so soon I'll be starting owl an im really confused about the process I did read dandr but I'm still confused. Some people here say to try a new food group 3 times a week and others say that you eat the food group all week but change the foods you eat and limit each to three days. And others yet that you should only add a single food every week. Which one is it? And also, is granola or oatmeal allowed during owl? If so, what rung? Thanks

[not2late]

Re: Soo confused about OWL!!!!

Ok so soon I'll be starting owl an im really confused about the process I did read dandr but I'm still confused. Some people here say to try a new food group 3 times a week and others say that you eat the food group all week but change the foods you eat and limit each to three days. And others yet that you should only add a single food every week. Which one is it? And also, is granola or oatmeal allowed during owl? If so, what rung? Thanks

Early on one of the moderators or former moderators on ADBB contacted the Atkins Center about this (when Dr. Atkins was still alive) and they said that is a typo.

Anyhow, the book says you add the carbs stepwise. Beginning at the first rung of the carbohydrate ladder (see the section in the book that lists the carb ladder in order). So the first food group you add is more of the Induction vegetables. You add it in 5 net carb amounts for the week. (BTW, it's not an extra 1 cup of the veggies. It's 5 net carbs. Each veggie has it's own carb count so 5 net carbs of lettuce is something like 5 cups of lettuce, but 5 net carbs of pumpkin puree is about 1 cup.) If you choose to move to the next food group on the carb ladder (fresh cheeses) the following week, you add members of that food group in 5 net carb amounts. And so forth.

If you add a new food----a food you have not eaten during your Induction phase----it is to be added 3 times a week. So if you never ate asparagus during your Induction and you want to add it during your OWL Rung 1, you add it into your menu 3 times a week. After Rung 1, all the foods are more or less "new", so you will be adding them in no more than 3 times weekly.

But typically you do 1 rung at a time. Not several rungs in the same week.

Granola, oatmeal, corn are all grains and they are added during the final "rung" of the Carbohydrate ladder.

[liv]

Re: Soo confused about OWL!!!!

OWL is not the clearest of the chapters in DANDR for sure. Here we are going by what we understand it to mean and some calls some members made to the Atkins company when Atkins was still around but yeah it can be confusing. But take it one step at the time. It is your journey.
My number one advice (because that worked for me ) is to take it slow. Spend some time on each rung to explore the foods and you are not in a hurry to get to those higher rungs.

Here is how my journey was:
The first rung is the easiest just five more carbs of veggies. Every day. I would use this rung to get used to measure carefully and think about how much 5 carb is (or rather in most cases how little )
The the next week and I was now up to about 20 carbs (having around 15 on induction) I added one new food from the dairy rung: cottage cheese. So I would have on Monday 20 net carbs like on OWL one and then an extra 5 net carbs of cottage cheese. On Tuesday 25 net carbs but no cottage cheese. Wednesday 25 carbs and cottage cheese, Thursday 25 net carbs and no cottage cheese etc.
So I preferred to add the food in three times that week - I did it carefully and I ate a lot of my carbs from veggies. The week after that I did not add more carbs but I tried yogurt in a similar fashion.

This worked for me because I lose slow and I have a low carb tolerance but the first time around I lost fine just puddling along.

I am sure others will tell you they did it a bit differently and that was their way to climb

Sorry if that is not giving you a very definite answer but OWL is a journey of exploration. Enjoy it