Skipping Rung 1?

[nikki_e]

I'm toying with the idea of moving on to OWL. I feel like I have explored the non-starchy veggies during my time in induction and extended induction. Eating 5 more grams of veggies each day does not seem all that exciting for me. Can I skip this rung? Or would I be missing out on something if I did that?

[2big4mysize]

the veggies are very important for the maintaining of our weight loss at goal and should be a strong part of the timbers framing your house of Atkins in OWL so add those 5 more net carbs you can make soups, purreed sauses out of them add more to your omlets and salads and snacks too.
According to Dr Atkins at goal he was eating 6-8 cups of veggies a day.

Happy low carbing.

[not2late]

Hi.

There's two things you have to do during OWL.

1. You need to find your CCLL (Critical Carbohydrate Losing Level)
2. You need to find out how various foods affect your body.

I don't recommend skipping the first rung for the simple reason that you know how the Induction vegetables affect your body. So you'll be more certain that it was the addition 5 net carbs of spinach, not the spinach itself, that stopped down your weight loss.

If you skip rung 1 and move onto rung 2, dairy, you'll have to figure out if it was the additional 5 net carbs or the cottage cheese or both that stopped your weight loss.

[nikki_e]

Ok, ok...if I do make the jump into OWL, I'll take your word for it and do my best. 6-8 cups of veggies just seems like so much food! I already feel like I'm eating so much food throughout the day, but when I step back and look at it, it really isn't all that much. This surpressed appetite thing just throws me all off! I get full so fast. Maybe I'll try munching on veggies as snacks to sneak them into my day.

[nikki_e]

Ok, now I have a few more thoughts. I feel like I'm in a whole other world here in OWL. I felt like a pro in induction.

So, for the first week, I add 5 carbs of veggies, on top of my 2 cups of salad veggies and 1 cup of induction veggies. And I can add more than one veggie a week. So, if I add 5 carbs of summer squash on M, W, F and 5 carbs of asparagus on T, Th, S and I gain, how do I know if it is the asparagus, summer squash, or just the additional 5 grams of carbs? Or do I not add more than one type of veggie a week? I feel like an idiot.

And then after the first week and all appears to be fine with those veggies, can I move on to rung 2, or do I need to keep testing the various veggies in rung 1 before I move on?

[not2late]

Ok, now I have a few more thoughts. I feel like I'm in a whole other world here in OWL. I felt like a pro in induction.

So, for the first week, I add 5 carbs of veggies, on top of my 2 cups of salad veggies and 1 cup of induction veggies. And I can add more than one veggie a week. So, if I add 5 carbs of summer squash on M, W, F and 5 carbs of asparagus on T, Th, S and I gain, how do I know if it is the asparagus, summer squash, or just the additional 5 grams of carbs? Or do I not add more than one type of veggie a week? I feel like an idiot.

And then after the first week and all appears to be fine with those veggies, can I move on to rung 2, or do I need to keep testing the various veggies in rung 1 before I move on?

Apparently, there's a typo in DANDR. It should read add one food, not one food group.

Anyhow, you add an additional 5 net carbs of a veggie. For example, there's a broccoli sale at the supermarket, so you decide to try out 5 net carbs of broccoli as your first OWL veggie.

You eat the same 3 Induction cups of veggies as you normally do.

Week 1: You eat 5 net carbs of broccoli on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Re-evaluate your measurements on the weekend. Did you lose weight/inches? If so on

Week 2: You eat 5 net carbs of broccoli everyday. Re-evaluate on the weekend. Did you lose weight/inches? If so then you can choose to either try out other veggies or increase your carb level by another 5 net carbs. To do that, you repeat the process I described.

Eventually, you'll reach a carb level where you stop losing weight/inches. That's your CCLL. The following week you drop back 5 net carbs and see if your weight loss picks up. It usually will. So you now know that you cannot eat over your CCLL if you want to continue losing weight.

What happens if you don't lose weight while increasing your carbs? You can try another vegetable and see what happens. Not too surprizingly, some vegetables cause blood sugar instability in some folks. So you might want to make photocopies of the Blood Sugar Symptom Test in Chapter 13 and take it to see if a vegetable or vegetable combination will upset your blood sugar, causing any of the symptoms listed in the test.

Any food that messes up your blood sugar, you need to drop from your diet ASAP.

While it does seem like a huge amount of vegetables, you'll soon learn that many vegetables can be pureed into sauces and gravies, making those 5 net carbs easier to eat.

Whenever I make pot roast, I toss in some chopped onion while it's cooking. When the roast is finished, I remove the onion and the cooking juices, toss it into a blender and puree. The puree becomes a very good tasting gravy. If you want it thicker, you boil it down. If you want it thinner, you add broth or water.

You want a red sauce for your chicken casserole? Buy a jar of roasted red peppers. Drain them and rinse them in cold water and toss them into a blender. Puree them---instant sauce.

You want a white sauce for the casserole instead? Take a bag of frozen cauliflower, boil it until soft. Toss in blender and puree. Add cheese and whatever other herbs and spices you like, use a sauce for whatever.

You're making meat loaf. You can chop your veggies finely and saute them, cool them and add them to your meat loaf to make the meat loaf more tender.

Lots of tricks to getting those vegetables in.

[not2late]

Forgot to add...I stayed on Rung 1 to find my CCLL. After I found it, I still stayed on rung 1 because I wanted to try out some more non-list low carb veggies (watercress, some asian vegetables, etc.) Then I moved on and tackled the dairy rung.

Just remember 1 food at time. If it destabilizes your blood sugar, drop it from your menu.

Happy eating.

[2big4mysize]

this is why I call OWL the great Atkins food experiment. the answer is you don't know which it is. What you do is drop the new to you food and keep the carbs the same the next week and see which it was or you drop the carbs back to the old level and eat the new to you foods and see if it was the carb level. it takes lots of trial and error to figure out exactly what was messing with you when you get a problem like the weight loss stops as it could be something else in your life too like tom stress or exercise.

If you have blood sugar issues like cravings you drop that new to you food and see if that fixes it if it does you try another new to you food from that group and see if it is the whole group or just one food or more foods in the group as Not2late did with the nuts rung.

Happy OWLing remember you are the scientist and the lab rat here and need multiple testing to confirmit is a certain food food group or carb level that is messing you up.

[nikki_e]

I read 2Big's sticky on "OWL Rules Have a Typo". According to that, you can eat more than one food in that rung each week, just don't eat each food more than 3 times. If I had to eat each new food for a minimum of one week to test it out, I could be in OWL forever! So which was is it?

I don't want to be difficult. Just want to make sure I'm doing it all right.

I do know one thing. I need to become a more creative adventurous cook.

[not2late]

I read 2Big's sticky on "OWL Rules Have a Typo". According to that, you can eat more than one food in that rung each week, just don't eat each food more than 3 times. If I had to eat each new food for a minimum of one week to test it out, I could be in OWL forever! So which was is it?

I don't want to be difficult. Just want to make sure I'm doing it all right.

I do know one thing. I need to become a more creative adventurous cook.

No, you're correct. I just simplified my explanation using broccoli as an example because I thought it would be less confusing.

Just remember to monitor how your body reacts with the Blood Sugar Symptom test. I find that's a "faster" indicator of if a food is affecting you than the weekly measuring.

2Big alluded to my problems on the nut rung. But she didn't mention my ricotta cheese trauma on the dairy rung. Through ALOT of trial and error, I found I can eat only one brand of ricotta cheese. So that's why I suggest you find your CCLL in Rung 1, then move up the ladder testing the various foods.

[2big4mysize]

you don't have to eat every food on the list at every rung you just want to have a new to you food whenevery you incounter it no more the 3 times a week the first week you havce it.

Say you started OWK in Dec and had worked your way up to the legumes rung 50 net carbs a day, but in the berry rund yo had only frozes straberries now blueberries raspberries and blackberries are in season since you are beyound the bery rung you don't drop back, but you can sub 5 net carbs of blueberries for some of your already gotten net carbs total and continue to test your beans too if you get troubke then you willhave to figure out if it was the new to you beans or berries. Say you never tried peyote catus and want to try it you only have it 3 times a week the first week even if you are a gaolie just to be sure you know and can control any blood sugar or other body effects it gives you.

HAppy low carbing

[shrinkdieter]

Peyote cactus???

I think I tried that in college at a rave once....

[lift]

Personally, I think it's all highly individual (by that I actually mean the entire lifestyle).

I skipped rung 1 and added 5 additional gms straight from the dairy list. I also disregarded the whole "don't eat the new food more than 3x/wk" so-called rule and ate my new food every single day for a week, adding another 5 the following wk, etc. Sometimes, I'd add 6-9 gms, instead of the suggested 5. I figure the few extra won't make or break me! (And they didn't/haven't)

Bottom line: not only did my weight loss continue - I lost a bit more, and quicker, in the beginning stages of OWL.

I guess this is all a personal preference as well as an individual thing, as I mentioned above. I understand doing things differently will affect different people in all sorts of different ways! I just wanted to share my own experience.

And don't stress so much (at least not about this! hehe)... stress contributes to cortisol production, anyway, which is counterproductive to weight loss efforts

I think another good thing to remember is not to be so afraid!!! I have noticed that a lot of people eating on this way of life are dead scared of food! in general! It's ridiculous. Have a healthy relationship with food, and it will be kind to you in return

[not2late]

I think another good thing to remember is not to be so afraid!!! I have noticed that a lot of people eating on this way of life are dead scared of food! in general! It's ridiculous. Have a healthy relationship with food, and it will be kind to you in return

Actually, they are dead scared of carbs---you can read that carb-fear in the Extended Induction forum. Too many people think if they add 5 net carbs of veggies, they'll stop losing weight (but on the other hand they have no second thoughts adding 5 net carbs of low carb bars, candy, shakes, etc.). And it's sad too, because they're brainwashed into thinking that Induction is the entire Atkins diet. Whatever....

I followed the rungs as written, because I like veggies and I knew that if I added the additional 5 net carbs, I'd get enough fiber in my diet so I wouldn't have to take those yucky fiber supplements (you won't realize how much money you save not buying that stuff!). Plus I've run into problems with individual foods on each rung, so adding these foods in step-wise, organized way, helped me avoid alot of grief.

[tickletussler]

Re: Skipping Rung 1?

I wanted to pull this thread forward because it's a great thread and shows great importance for the Veggie thread.

I never realised that I could easily eat up to 10 cups of veggies a day (usually 5 cups salads for lunch, 5 cups veggies for dinner) and if I use very little condiments during the day and don't eat much cheese, I need to eat that much veggies - it would be really interesting to see how I cope with the next carb level at 25g - that's a lot of veggies! LOL

I guess as I try and find my CCLL on the Veggie rung, I will have to include more of the higher carb veggies like pumpkin, turnips, celeriac and even cauliflower - that I don't mind, these veggies are FANTASTIC and I'm glad I can eat as much veggies as I had been eating pre-Atkins - YAY!