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Re: Semi Annual Veggie Challenge (May 12 thru 16)
Good Afternoon, Everyone!
Nice to see so much activity here! I'll address a few things...
Chick - all that is required to participate, is to list the number of your net veggie carbs each day. Feel free to post what you ate, too, if you are so inclined. But it is not required.
Sugar Snap Peas - We had a long discussion about this in another thread a few months ago. While sugar snap peas are not specifically on the list, snow peas are, and these are similar - in that you eat the pod. It was decided that they ARE acceptable on Induction as an "Other" veggie. I eat them at least 3 times a week, and have for many months. They are the perfect snack - very portable and sweet like candy. Mine come pre-washed in little bags, and there are 3 servings in each bag. I open it up, and divide the pods into 3 piles. Each stack is put into a snack-size baggy, and I have 3 servings ready to go. Bagged this way, each serving has 5 net carbs.
Going by number of carbs versus measuring cups - OK, I knew it was just a matter of time before this subject came up... it does at every Veggie Challenge. I want to preface this by saying that I am normally very "anal" about how rigidly I follow Atkins. Monkeying around with the rules and making Atkins into Mitzkins, is what stalled me out at 155 after losing 60 pounds on my first go-round with Atkins, and never gave me the skills to maintain the loss that I did have. So I have really tried to follow the plan to the letter.
Having said this - When it comes to this particular subject, I have done as Morning Glory and went by carb counts rather than sticking strictly to the cup measurements once I was past my 2 week Induction period. I still always made certain that at least 2 of my servings of veggies came from the Salad list (and still do, even in Maintenance), but other than that, I started going by net carb numbers rather than cups.
When I joined that first Veggie Challenge, I had been resisting using Fitday. I didn't want to be bothered. But the Challenge suggested using it at least for just counting your veggies, so I decided to try it. What an eye-opening experience! When you follow Induction strictly, it is kind of a no-brainer to stay at or under 20 carbs. I knew I was staying under 20, but I didn't know exact numbers until I started practicing for the Veggie Challenge. Waaay too low on carbs. I thought I was getting more than that... and I think that is the case with a lot of people. Until you start actually measuring your portions and recording them into something like Fitday, you might not really know how few carbs you are eating. You can see by MG's visual aid (thank you!), that you can eat quite a few veggies for relatively few carbs. At any given phase of Atkins, most of your net carbs should come from veggies. So I decided to try just going by carbs, instead of strictly by cups, for that first week long Veggie Challenge. That first challenge was 7 days long, and at the end of that week, I had lost 3 pounds! This was very exciting, because that is the most I ever lost in a single week on my whole journey with Atkins (other than my first week of Induction). It showed me that I did not need to fear veggies... that I had better get off my @ss and embrace them, because this is what I will be eating a LOT of for the rest of my life. And you know what? I don't just tolerate them now... I acutally like them.
For those of you on Induction... like I said, I went to the "counting carb" rule rather than "counting cup" rule after I left Induction and went into OWL. It will be up to you as to how you handle that. It is only required that you report net veggie carbs... I'm not going to police you on how you're doing it.
Know this - it IS possible to get your minimum required net veggie carbs AND obey the cup rule strictly... I've tested it, and done it many times. It is up to you.
I know that most people fear leaving the comforts of Induction and progressing through the rungs. My best advice is this - DO NOT fear Rung 1! Rung 1 is just more veggies, and they are a relatively safe kind of carb. I'll be the first one to admit that the Rungs higher than 1 can be tricky... but Rung 1 is pretty safe. You can hang out there as long as you want. I stayed on Rung 1 for a couple of months. On the weeks that I didn't add a new food, I increased my carbs to begin the search for my CCLL. OWL stands for Ongoing Weight Loss... I only lost 9 pounds on my Induction/Extended Induction... the rest of my weight was lost in OWL. You know what I found out, doing it this way? That I could lose at the same rate eating 35 net carbs, as I could eating at 20 net carbs. This was handy to know, because when it was time for me to venture into the other rungs, I had more carbs to "spend"... I wouldn't have to sacrifice veggies in order to start trying foods from the upper rungs.
Good questions - good discussion.
Good Afternoon, Everyone!
Nice to see so much activity here! I'll address a few things...
Chick - all that is required to participate, is to list the number of your net veggie carbs each day. Feel free to post what you ate, too, if you are so inclined. But it is not required.
Sugar Snap Peas - We had a long discussion about this in another thread a few months ago. While sugar snap peas are not specifically on the list, snow peas are, and these are similar - in that you eat the pod. It was decided that they ARE acceptable on Induction as an "Other" veggie. I eat them at least 3 times a week, and have for many months. They are the perfect snack - very portable and sweet like candy. Mine come pre-washed in little bags, and there are 3 servings in each bag. I open it up, and divide the pods into 3 piles. Each stack is put into a snack-size baggy, and I have 3 servings ready to go. Bagged this way, each serving has 5 net carbs.
Going by number of carbs versus measuring cups - OK, I knew it was just a matter of time before this subject came up... it does at every Veggie Challenge.
I want to preface this by saying that I am normally very "anal" about how rigidly I follow Atkins. Monkeying around with the rules and making Atkins into Mitzkins, is what stalled me out at 155 after losing 60 pounds on my first go-round with Atkins, and never gave me the skills to maintain the loss that I did have. So I have really tried to follow the plan to the letter. Having said this - When it comes to this particular subject, I have done as Morning Glory and went by carb counts rather than sticking strictly to the cup measurements once I was past my 2 week Induction period. I still always made certain that at least 2 of my servings of veggies came from the Salad list (and still do, even in Maintenance), but other than that, I started going by net carb numbers rather than cups.
When I joined that first Veggie Challenge, I had been resisting using Fitday. I didn't want to be bothered. But the Challenge suggested using it at least for just counting your veggies, so I decided to try it. What an eye-opening experience! When you follow Induction strictly, it is kind of a no-brainer to stay at or under 20 carbs. I knew I was staying under 20, but I didn't know exact numbers until I started practicing for the Veggie Challenge. Waaay too low on carbs. I thought I was getting more than that... and I think that is the case with a lot of people. Until you start actually measuring your portions and recording them into something like Fitday, you might not really know how few carbs you are eating. You can see by MG's visual aid (thank you!), that you can eat quite a few veggies for relatively few carbs. At any given phase of Atkins, most of your net carbs should come from veggies. So I decided to try just going by carbs, instead of strictly by cups, for that first week long Veggie Challenge. That first challenge was 7 days long, and at the end of that week, I had lost 3 pounds! This was very exciting, because that is the most I ever lost in a single week on my whole journey with Atkins (other than my first week of Induction). It showed me that I did not need to fear veggies... that I had better get off my @ss and embrace them, because this is what I will be eating a LOT of for the rest of my life. And you know what? I don't just tolerate them now... I acutally like them.
For those of you on Induction... like I said, I went to the "counting carb" rule rather than "counting cup" rule after I left Induction and went into OWL. It will be up to you as to how you handle that. It is only required that you report net veggie carbs... I'm not going to police you on how you're doing it.
Know this - it IS possible to get your minimum required net veggie carbs AND obey the cup rule strictly... I've tested it, and done it many times. It is up to you. I know that most people fear leaving the comforts of Induction and progressing through the rungs. My best advice is this - DO NOT fear Rung 1! Rung 1 is just more veggies, and they are a relatively safe kind of carb. I'll be the first one to admit that the Rungs higher than 1 can be tricky... but Rung 1 is pretty safe. You can hang out there as long as you want. I stayed on Rung 1 for a couple of months. On the weeks that I didn't add a new food, I increased my carbs to begin the search for my CCLL. OWL stands for Ongoing Weight Loss... I only lost 9 pounds on my Induction/Extended Induction... the rest of my weight was lost in OWL. You know what I found out, doing it this way? That I could lose at the same rate eating 35 net carbs, as I could eating at 20 net carbs. This was handy to know, because when it was time for me to venture into the other rungs, I had more carbs to "spend"... I wouldn't have to sacrifice veggies in order to start trying foods from the upper rungs.
Good questions - good discussion.
Thank you!
). And it's an easy way to help satisfy the "salad" veggie requirement.
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