My Husband is Struggling

[DarlingBri]

My husband is a super-taster and has additional legitimate food aversion issues and is struggling with this diet. He's often hungry, whereas I know he should never be hungry (I'm not!), because he's not really eating enough.

We are working very hard to come up with meats and fish he can eat for snacks, as he eats no cheese and is already sick of eggs. (He also doesn't eat bacon, or ham, or... it's a pretty long list.)

While this diet is a breeze for me as I was never a fan of pasta, etc, he has given up his favourite things - potatoes, bread and beer - in order to diet along with me.

He is eating no off-plan food except... he's gone down from about 6 cups of tea with 2 teaspoons of sugar each to one cup of tea with one sugar each. The artificial sweetners are intolerable to him.

I'm 100% aware that this means he is not doing Atkins and that's OK with me. What I'm wondering is two things:

1. Is there another diet he might be better suited to that I could manage side by side with Atkins?
2. Is eating all of this fat and eating the sugar harming him?

I mean, one would not normally consume this much fat; I understand how it fits into this plan and I'm fine with that, but I'm concerned about this much fat when he's not on plan. (Although he's eating far less than I am, now that I think about it... hmm.)

I know nothing about low-carb diets in general; I'm doing this plan and this plan only, on plan, so I'm ignorant of anything not Atkins-related.

I would prefer he not drop dead; his life insurance isn't that good

[Georgiana]

Re: My Husband is Struggling

I can't answer your first question, but your concern in the second one is legitimate. Eating a high fat diet and "a lot" of sugar is not healthy. This is how much of the research showing that high-fat diets are dangerous has been done: on high-fat, high-carb diets. Now, I don't believe 1 teaspoon of sugar is going to kill him. But that teaspoon might very well be responsible for his hunger (he might not be in ketosis).

The solution I think would be moving to OWL soon (after his two weeks of Induction) and giving up that teaspoon of sugar immediately, so that he can be in ketosis by the time he moves to OWL. Now, I guess he wants his tea sweet, so the only idea I have is to try cinnamon tea. That thing is naturally sweet and needs no additional sweetener. Megs posted the recipe here: http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...lly-sweet.html

In OWL he would be allowed to eat more veggies, diary (would yogurt be okay?), nuts, fruits, legumes, etc., so it would make things easier for him.

For snacks, would he be okay eating things like flax crackers with some veggies, for example? Or some avocado? Olives? I realize these are on the Special Category Foods list, but if he's a such a picky eater, it would be better than eating off plan, imo.

[Georgiana]

Re: My Husband is Struggling

Oh, about cheese... would he accept cheese in things like a taco, pesto or a quiche, for example? Or is cheese a no-no, yucky, bleah food?

[DarlingBri]

Re: My Husband is Struggling

Thank you so much for the suggestions, Georgina! He is definitely moving to OWL asap. Olives no, avacado no, melted cheese in anything especially no... flax crackers I had not thought of but that's a great idea!

I'm going to do some more research, too, and see if I can come up with anything else. I really didn't realise how difficult this would be for him

[sporty]

Re: My Husband is Struggling

I wish him luck - it is hard when you are such a picky eater.

Try searching on Linda's site too - she has many different recipes under different sections like snacks, desserts etc. Some taste sinful but are good for you!

Good luck!

[msanjelpie]

Re: My Husband is Struggling

What does he weigh? How much does he have to lose? Does he like fruit?

As for the tea with sugar, since he doesn't like liquid splenda I assume, it would be better all together if he were to just have water...

[DarlingBri]

Re: My Husband is Struggling

He weighs 176 and only needs to lose about 20 lbs.

And yes, just water would be best, but it isn't going to happen. He just will not cut that one cup of tea with sugar.