What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

[gonnabskinny]

This could have been pretty typical for me. I can think of days, when this might have happened.

First thing was to get up to exercise. OK, I'm out of bed. Exercise over. Extra exercise, getting dressed! That was a chore in itself.

Then headed to Breakfast: Eating along the way to my 1 hour drive to work.
McDonald's Saugage, Egg, and Cheese McMuffin
McDonald's hash browns
Large coffee with 3 half and half
4 packets of sugar (does that give you any idea that I was addicted to sugar)

Get in 3-4 hours of work and then. Oh goody! Lunchtime: Had to get something quick to take back to the office. So much to do!
Sonic Double Cheeseburger
Sonic Size Tater Tots (It wasn't that much more to Sonic size it)
Sonic Route 44 Coke (See above excuse, besides it had to last the rest of the day)
Sonic Butterfinger Blast Lg. (I knew that I would get hungry later, and had to have something, otherwise I might pass out from a lack of nutrition)

Get in about 5 hours of hard labor behind my desk making calls. Exercise consisted of lifting the receiver to my ear and leaning back in my chair.

Then I had the 1 hour drive home so I would call ahead for dinner and pick it up, so that my wife wouldn't have to cook. See how thoughtful I was)
Pizza Hut Super Supreme Pan Pizza 4 slices (1/2 of the large pizza)
Pizza Hut Breadsticks (3) with marinara sauce (They gave me for free because I was such a good customer)
Bottle or Merlot or Shiraz (yes, I said a bottle! I'm not a lush. I had some at dinner and some later in the media room)

Evening snacks for watching in our media room
Mother's animal cookies (hard to guess at count, but maybe 25-30, afterall their not that big)
Orville Redenbacher Popcorn 3.5 oz bag (butter flavor)

Fall asleep in the recliner watching a movie and snore louder than the explosions on the action flick that others were trying to watch.

Get more exercise, by lifting my fat @$$ out of the recliner to head to bed.

Total counts for the day:
6066 calories
752g carbs
97g of protein (that was all!)
269g of fat

Yes, I was a mess back then and heavily addicted to carbs! Not a pretty picture! Thank goodness that somebody saved my life by sharing Atkins with me.

[MrsBrittney]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

I would easily pack away the entire package of Lofthouse frosted sugar cookies (probably about 12 of them and these are full size cookies), have a frozen pizza, and continue.. without breathing in between. My hubbie was sort of horrified/amazed that it only takes/took me about 15-20 minutes to get through a pint size of ice cream and that I could easily eat the entire FULL SIZE bag of doritos myself in about an hour or so.

[Adena]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

Breakfast
On the way to work: McD Bacon egg and cheese biscuit and 2 hashbrowns (you get 2 for $1 on the dollar menu, you know)
OR a bagel with cream cheese AND a doughnut from Dunkin Doughnuts
OR large, very sweet cappuchino and biscuit or doughnut from Quick Trip
Once at work: Grits with cheese from the cafeteria

Snack
About 1/2 pound of candy from the coffee shop downstairs. Usually Jelly Bellies, sour balls, sweedish fish.

Lunch
Something (burger, chicken fingers, whatever) with fries or two "veggie" sides, like fried okra and potatoes or mac & cheese
Big serving of cobbler or banana pudding

Snack
More "by the pound" candy, or a sweet & a salty from the vending machine (Skittles and Doritos).

Pre-dinner
2 Krystals and a cornpup or a malt from the drive through

Dinner
Whatever meat, veggie, and starch my MIL had cooked.

Dessert (sometimes)
Ice cream or cookies or whatever else sweet was in the house

Wow, I've never written all that out before... no wonder I was pushing almost 300 pounds.

[Porcelain]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

Well, since I was always starting my diet tomorrow, I had quite a few days where I had a box of fudgesicles and a bag of ruffles potato chips and cheese dip with a LOT of coca cola.

[Chicklady]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

Waking: tons of coffee with half and half and artificial sweetener
Breakfast: More coffee heading to work
Mid route: HoneyDew Donuts Ultimate Apple Fritter (about 8 inches in diameter, 2 inches thick and glazed) easily 800 calories. They saved me the biggest one, nice folks. and more coffee
Done with route: more coffee
Lunch: more coffee
Snack: more coffee
Dinner: typical huge meat, starch and vegetable dinner about 1200 calories More if we ate out.
After dinner: mudslides or mai tais 2-4 of them (see, no more coffee )
Snack: pint of Ben& Jerry's. Favorites: chocolate, "everything but the kitchen sink" and Caramel Sutra. Range for pint 1300-1500 calories

[scaleskl]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

I have so many..I don't know where to start.

How about this one.

One day in 2003....B-I had a steak, egg and cheese bagel from Mc'Donalds. L- was a whopper meal with a strawberry shake. D can't remember, but i stopped and bought 2 slices of pound cake (the homemade kind from this tiny bakery). I ate one piece on the way home and hid the other piece so I wouldn't have to share with DH and DS.

I get sick to my stomach when I think of the food I used to hide.

[FunnyActressInLA]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

Kass I know what you mean, so many to choose from I'll pick a Saturday because that was usually just a crazy free for all day, I mean after all-it's Saturday!

BREAKFAST-Nothing. I usually NEVER ate breakfast, which is the usual route of a fat person.

LUNCH-Something at a restaurant, chinese food with lots of fried rice, mexican food with at least 3 refills on the bowl of chips, something cheesy with tortillas and rice.

DINNER-A BIG bowl of spaghetti and meat sauce made out of italian sausage, lots of parm cheese and 2-4 pieces of garlic or texas toast, then for desert I would go back and eat ANOTHER bowl of spaghetti the same size. I would estimate that I was eating SIX servings of pasta in one sitting.

SNACK-A whole bag of doritoes or cheetos (I LOVED cheetos) or a bag of potato chips and french onion dip and 1/2 pint of Ben & Jerry's Chubby hubby.

Gosh no wonder! No wonder...

[DigitalMocking]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

I can't even imagine my worst to be honest.

Some that come to mind are the days I'd way to pick up krispy kreme's on the way home as a "treat" for my family... and I'd buy that second dozen just for myself... and it wouldn't make it in the door.

I was a horrible pizza addict.

I used to stop at the quick mart every night on my way home for some twinkies and a milk.

McDonalds every morning.

Ugh, the list just goes on and on and on and on.

[Katie_1985]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

Well I am really addicted to eating out and getting sugary lattes! I am a sucker for drinking my calories. I, too, cannot narrow it down to a specific day but I can give you an example.

Breakfast: Starbucks SF Caramel Macchiato with Nonfat Milk and yogurt and berries with a lot of granola. Sometimes I'd have a muffin

Lunch: Diet Soda with Pasta and Tomato Sauce or on the Weekends I'd have Thai Food or Sushi

Dinner: Thai Food or Sushi or Pasta

After Dinner: I'd never have desserts in the house but at the movies my bf and I would always get a large popcorn to share and chocolates each!

[*poetic.child*]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

okay lets see..i've had a lot of 'pre-atkins' day...like i would say i'm starting the diet 'tomorrow' and then when tomorrow came...i decided to postpone that start..

but umm..lets see

Breakfast:
like 3 bowls of cinnamon toast crunch,

Snack:
5 slices of bread with butter

Lunch:
Like 3 corndogs with maple syrup
Fries with ketchup and mayo mixed together




Snack:
Okay guys seriously, i was so bad i use to walk to the dollar mart(that was down the street from my house)..and use $5 dollars to get all the goodies i can buy...cookies, soda, hershy bars, a whole jar of nutella!..some type of sour candy..just about anything went


Dinner:
A big plate of spaghetti with extra cheese, sour cream, and ranch dressing, then i would go for a second serving
Garlic bread 2 of them

Dessert:
A half a box of cheese Itz with milk
A huge serving of pecan ice cream(i mean...maybe half a box) . mixed with milk to make a huge shake




no wonder everytime i look at these foods now..they make me sick

[kate58]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

I never was a big sweet eater, and really believed my diet was kind of healthy and low-fat but when I look at it now I am just amazed by how totally carb based it was.

Breakfasts
Muesli with a lot of dried fruit in it, low fat milk and wholemeal toast (often several slices) or potato cakes made from left over mash. Occasionally fresh croissants from a local bakery - two or three of them.

Lunch
Sandwiches, made with wholemeal bread again,lots and lots and lots of thick cut bread, not so much filling, just a small slice of meat and some salad. What filling there was included low-fat spread, low-fat mayo (ie full of carbs). Quite often with a side of potato salad.

Dinner
Some kind of lean meat with veg and LOADS of potato (sometimes two different kinds!!), or a big pasta dish, or curry of some kind with basmati. Often had a big pile of lentils as well as the other carbs on the plate.

Snacks
Lots of fruit - oranges, apples, pineapple, mango and banana mostly. Even more bread when hunger struck. Popcorn. Homemade tea brack (a fat free fruit cake I made very often).


The bizarre thing is that if you look at that diet it's really very close to the standard food pyramid - very little fat, not too much meat, loads of fruit and veg and carbs. I really thought we ate well. I never eat in fast food places (just don't like the food), nearly everything, including the bread quite often, was home made, and it in theory should have been a really healthy diet, I certainly believed it was. But I got fatter and fatter and fatter, was tired ALL the time and hungry a lot.

Thank you Dr A!!

[Chicklady]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

Kate, your meals sound like what I was eating when i was trying to "be good". It wasn't until Atkins that I realized why "being good" was putting on just as much weight as when I was eating garbage (Ok, I will not classify Ben&Jerry's as garbage----just high quality junkfood ) So often, I went back to my junk because I gained weight either way, so why go through the extra work....

[julirama723]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

Don, I'm so glad you started this thread!

I've posted my Pre-Atkins "typical day" in my journal a couple of times before, and it's shocking and disgusting to me, how much I used to eat. I have two "typical" days.

COLLEGE TYPICAL DAY:

Breakfast at home or walking/driving to campus:
I would eat 1 bagel with cream cheese or 2 granola bars and a can of Dr. Pepper, or perhaps 2 pieces of leftover pizza, but leftovers were RARE!

Secret breakfast between classes:
I would walk to McDonald's (which was down the street from the music building) and get a ham/cheese bagel, 2 hashbrowns, and an extra large diet coke.

Snack with boyfriend:
My boyfriend wouldn't eat breakfast earlier, so this would be his breakfast. He didn't know that I'd already eaten 2 meals prior to this. We would go to the coffeehouse, and order hot tea with either a double chocolate chip muffin or a blueberry scone.

Secret snack:
Hunger would hit after this mid-morning snack, and so I'd hit up the vending machine, getting a bottle of soda, a candy bar, and some sort of salty/crunchy thing like wheat thins or pretzels.

Lunch:
Usually we'd walk to a burger joint or some other type of fast food. I'd get a meal, supersized, with a diet coke.

Pre-dinner snack:
I'd hit up the vending machine again, or go to a shop or something and get cookies or a candy bar or a bagel, as well as a large soda or sometimes bottled fruit juice.

Dinner:
In college, if I cooked, it would be pasta. Otherwise, it was fast food or pizza.

Dessert:
I'd eat cookies or ice cream or go to Dairy Queen. Dessert was not optional. It was every night of the week.

---------------------------

POST-COLLEGE TYPICAL SUMMER DAY:

Breakfast:
I would make a HUGE breakfast, my specialty, chocolate chip banana pancakes. My recipe would use a couple of cups of white flour, lots of sugar, buttermilk, powdered sugar, oil, butter, etc. This recipe would make 4 pancakes at least 12" in diameter, each about 1/2 inch thick. I would eat all four with loads of syrup.

Snack:
Of course, I'd get hungry, and I'd open up a bag of chips. I would usually eat half the bag along with a couple of cans of soda.

Lunch:
My boyfriend and I would split a large frozen pizza, each eating half, and to accompany it, we'd throw in some mozzarella sticks, taquitos, and jalapeno poppers.

Snack:
A couple of hours later, I was having mad sugar cravings, so I'd decide to make whoopie pies or chocolate chip cookies or something. I would either make a whole recipe, or DOUBLE the recipe, figuring in that I'd eat at least 3 dozen cookies before my boyfriend got home (I'd eat the batter/dough, as well as the cookies). So I would eat 2-3 dozen before he got home, and then later in the day, I'd eat a cookie every time I went into the kitchen or walked by the table if they were cooling on it.

Dinner:
Since I'd already baked, I guess I was too tired to cook real food? My boyfriend and I would go to this drive-in place called Rod's and for the 2 of us we'd order 5 double cheeseburgers, 4 orders of curly fries, and I'd get a large chocolate malt. I'd end up eating 3 double cheeseburgers, and my 2 orders of fries plus some of Geoff's, the chocolate malt, and then more soda.

Dessert:
I'd ausually make a sundae with ice cream, chocolate sauce, cherries, whipped cream, and cookies.

--------------------

I've done the calorie and carb counts for these before, and it always comes out to something like 6000 calories and 600+ carbs. It's not any surprise to me now why I was so overweight and felt so disgusting.

[blue996]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

Wow...it's amazing to read everyone's menus. It's also amazing to see how everyone has changed their diet! For me a typical day would be:

Breakfast: Either toast (my favorite was toast with mac and cheese lunchmeat), chocolate chip muffin, or sausage McMuffin meal and McD's.

Lunch: Leftovers. Always pre-made food like pizza, breaded chicken, or fries. Always some type of sweet snack like rice crispy squares or chocolate.

Dinner: Again something pre-made. Pizza, chicken kiev, fries, anything battered or fast food (Dairy Queen).

Dessert and snacks: Chocolate cake (everyday!), chips and dip, tortilla chips and cheese dip, chocolate (lots of it), crackers, popcorn, cupcakes, cookies, donuts.

I never ate veggies and I mean never. Sometimes I would have fruit. I didn't even eat that much meat. It was a pure sugar and refined carb diet. No wonder I gained 70 pounds in 6 years. Looking at that now I feel sick to think I did that to my body and still expected it to be thin and healthy.

[gonnabskinny]

Re: What was your worse Pre-Atkins day?

Sometimes, I see people in the store buying all that crap, and want to say, "hey, what is the matter with you, don't you realize what you are doing to yourself? Then I answer myself. No, they don't. They are just like I used to be. Now I understand why. However, the one thing that I have learned through all of this, is that you cannot change somebody else. They have to want to do it. I do get asked how I did it. For some it is like the light bulb going on for the first time, and for others, it is "you mean I can't have ______ (fill in the blank)?" They are still drawn to certain foods like an alcoholic is drawn to liquor and they cannot even imagine living without those foods that have them hooked.

Plus people are getting hooked at an early age, with cereals and other products that are nothing more than fat storers. No wonder we have an epidemic of obesity with our youth. Fruit drinks that are pure sugar or worse yet, high fructose corn syrup! OK, now I'm getting pi$$ed and just getting started! Ketchup! OMG! Low fat mayonaise (loaded with sugar instead) You can't even buy chicken that is just chicken anymore, they have to inject it with a sugar solution. Thank you Boston Market! Grrrr! OK, I'm through!