Help with menu please..

[Rafaella_F]

Hi.. today is my fifth day in induction and I tested and I´m not yet in ketosis. I´m feeling better and with more energy but no purple in my strip so someone (sorry I don´t remember the name) suggested I posted my menu here to get some ideas, so here I go..

Breakfast: 8:30 am: 1 egg (scrambled but just the egg done with water)
Snack: 11:30 am: 1 oz turkey ham
Lunch: 2:30 pm: 3 oz roasted chicken (I think it´s called roasted here it´s called asado but it´s the chicken that you put in the oven with salt and let it cook) with 1.5 cups of lettuce with 0.5 teaspoon of olive oil and salt
Tea: 6:00 pm: 1 oz turkey ham
Dinner: 9:00 pm: 1 egg and 1.5 cups lettuce with 0.5 teaspoon of olive oil and salt

Water: 2.5 liters= 85 oz
1 can of sprite zero

35 mins of elliptical at 160- 170 hb/min

Any help will be appreciated

Ahhh I´ve lost 4.1 kgs (9 pds) but I guess it´s only water!!

[shari_dawn]

Re: Help with menu please..

don't worry about those testing strips. Mine never turned purple... just a darker shade of beige but I still lost 45 lbs when I was on it last time. I've lost 7 lbs so far this time (in 5 days) Just keep doing what you are doing. The only thing I might suggest is add some more fat to your diet. You have a lot of protein. Protein is good but there is a way it can be stored as fat. Also with your veggies try some frozen steamed ones with butter. Its yummy and convenient. Also what kind of lettuce are you using? You should try for the darker leafy greens as they are more nutritous.

[kate58]

Re: Help with menu please..

Well done on your weight loss, but that isn't an Atkins menu or anything close - it's more like a fast!

You are not eating NEARLY enough. Are you not hungry? I can't understand how you would not be on so little food? I ran that menu through Fitday, and you are having under 600 calories a day - you need a LOT more than that. I've eaten almost that for dinner some nights!

Also your menu comes out at 55-2-43 - thats Fat:Carbs:Protein. You should be shooting for something around 65-5-30. So basically too much protein, not enough fat and not enough carbs. Though actually you are NOT eating too much protein, it's just that you are eating so little of anything that is seems like too much.

Lettuce is not a food. It's just water mostly and you really need to pick much more nutritious veg.

Here are some suggestions:

Have more than just a single egg for breakfast, have two and you can add butter or cream to them, no need to do them in water. And perhaps add some mushroooms or a couple of slices of turkey ham with it.

Dump at least two cups of the lettuce, maybe all of it, and eat more nutritions veg from the salad list and get your cup of other veg in. You could have a fried steak, or a whole chicken breast (roasted with skin on) instead of the small portion you have for lunch, with veg or a good muxed salad. The steak/chicken will add much needed fat.

You can be more generous with the olive oil than just a half teaspoon, or you can use mayo or another full fat dressing on your salad.

Same with dinner, more varied and nutritious veg, make sure to include fat and eat MORE.

Upping the fat and eating more will probably kick you into ketosis, but shari_dawn is right - not everyone makes those sticks change and it's not really important.

[Rafaella_F]

Re: Help with menu please..

Wow, thanks for your suggestions!

I´ll try to eat more, specially fats. I love fish so I´ll add that, what I´m having trouble with is the whole sauce/cream/dressing part. I looked in the supermarket and the cream with less carbs has 3 per serving, mayo also has carbs and the dressings I found had sugar in them, my supermarket has a small section with those, just 7 or 8 different ones so I don´nt have much to choose but I´ll try to add some more olive oil (I don´t like it very much, but anyway..) and some red meats which we usually don´t have and add more eggs.

Tks for the suggestions.. I´ll tell you in a few days how that goes. In the morning 2 eggs sounds great!
Buu I love lettuce, but I guess I´ll switch part for another vegg.
I just started with Atkins and it´s really so so different from all Ive heard before that I was kind of "shy" with my fats, but I´ll eat some more fat (yesterday for the first time in my life I ate the skin.. lol its great)..

Thank you so so much, really, even though I read the book its great to have you guide me.

[OzLover]

Re: Help with menu please..

I'm starving just looking at your menu. EAT SOME FOOD GIRL!!

kate58 gave you some good suggestions. Don't be afraid of eating some fat & more protein. Eat some veggies with real butter. Get creative with your food & have some fun trying new recipes! Here is a site with some great recipes!
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/index.html

[shari_dawn]

Re: Help with menu please..

When you are counting your carbs are you subtracting for fiber to calculate the net carbs?

[liv]

Re: Help with menu please..

The problem with eating so little is that your metabolism will slow down. Your body try to preserve everything. This is not conducive to losing weight. You can still eat your lettuce - just add other veggies. I always eat some sautéed veggies with my breakfast eggs. (I like mushrooms, snow peas, red pepper and a sliver of onion)

Use fitday to help you figure things out. I have found it to be very helpful.

Most people eat the Mayo (Hellman's regular) even with that sugar and people eat dressings if the carb is low - even if it is not zero.

Cream does have carb but if you use a bit (like a tablespoon or two) it is fine. It adds some good fat to your diet.

Good luck.

[Rafaella_F]

Re: Help with menu please..

Tks for the advice, I´ll eat more... the point is as I said, that it´s kind of hard changing the switch that "fat is not your enemy"... I lived with that all my life so it´s strange adding things that normally I would take away from my food, it´s just day 5 and with these suggestions I´m sure I´ll make better!

Also my mom (who´s a dr, go figure) doesn´t get atkins, when I told her I bought the book she told me "ah, that´s the diet that everybody has proven to be wrong", and I can´t argue with her cause she´s the kind of person who will never ever loose, so I just said "read the book and u´ll understand" (of course she didin´t read it). So I have to battle not only my own inertia towards fat, but her telling me "dont use mayo, take the cream out"... etc... I really needed your posts, tks!

[shari_dawn]

Re: Help with menu please..

thats funny about your mother... most doctors I talk to here have told me that the atkins diet is actually very healthy for you. Next time your mother says something like that to her ask her what is wrong with eating fresh meats, eating more vegetables and losing weight??

[Rafaella_F]

Re: Help with menu please..

It´s funny you mention it but even though now we have a "global world" and everyone says that information travels so fast, etc etc but our society is very very conservative in every way you can think and I guess this is one more topic in which we refuse change... it´s very common anyways, I haven´t met 1 dr thats pro atkins (and both my parents are drs so I know a few of them)
Anyways, I´m very very happy with Atkins so far and even though I´m a lawyer it makes perfect sence to me!

Ahhh I´m in ketosis, I tried again and a light light light purple appeared! I dont measure my success/failure according to a stick but it´s motivating, even if purple was so so light

[sungju]

Re: Help with menu please..

Dear Rafaella,
I am new here, but please eat a lot more. Oh my god. Fat is your friend.
Goodluck! Follow your heart.