help with restarting atkins, calories, breakfast
 

okay, so here's the deal. started atkins last year. did induction faithfully for 3 months. i am talking NO cheating here. got extremely bored with the food and kinda went off the wagon, but not to an extreme. lately i've been trying to get back on track to a strict induction. it's been hard. i need variety. when i get bored and frustrated i start taking little non-atkins nibbles here and there and it adds up.

so...my main problems right now are my menu and keeping it varied, calories, and breakfast. i have to keep things pretty simple because i hate to cook and try to do it as little as possible. i throw something in a pan, add salt and pepper and that is IT. no fancy recipes, sauces, seasonings, cooking utensils, frills, or excessive chopping please. i am a simple gal. who can't cook.

so now on to calories and breakfast...since i've started being stricter with what i eat, i'm finding that my calorie count is WAY up. like 2000-3000 calories. this is not good. i know atkins says calories are not really an issue, but i know that that many is not conducive to weight loss. and i actually haven't been losing very well. i do exercise 5-6 times a week, drink 6-9 liters of water a day, take my vitamins, and eat LOTS of veggies. i actually eat way more than 3 cups a day, for various reasons.

i think most of it has to do with what i've been eating for breakfast lately. 2-3 eggs, sausage, and bacon. that's a lot, i know. but i've made a few recent discoveries:

firstly, breakfast is my most hated meal. i've never been a big breakfast eater and still have to wait a couple hours after waking up to eat or i get nauseous. AND unless i eat a very big, hearty breakfast, i will be STARVING an hour later. i mean starving to the point where i feel light-headed and sick from low blood sugar. i almost passed out in class numerous times. so eating one mock danish or a couple of hard-boiled eggs does not work for me. i need food! so i solved the problem by eating a bigger breakfast (added one egg and bacon to my meal). it seems to have skyrocketed my calorie count though. so i need alternative easy, quick, filling breakfast ideas that aren't so high in calories...

any ideas on any of that?

QUOTE>>>>i need alternative easy, quick, filling breakfast ideas that aren't so high in calories...<<<

Well........you said just one mock danish ( god i love them) ..wont do it... have you tried 2 or 3?.........have them ready in your fridge...I like mine cold with coffee in the morning.
And i am sure if you go to a health food store and get a good "high protien" drink that may help you out. Its quick and easy.... you can also add that drink to your mock danish quick meal or keep it for around the hour after you feel you need a pick me up.

YOU MAY NEED TO SPACE YOUR EATING OUT NOT HAVE A HUGE MEAL TO HOPE IT LASTS YOU TILL NOON

You said you are eating way more then 3 cups of veggies a day..... THAT could be one of your probs of not losing well.. The veggies can be boosting your carbs up not the extra calories not the protien you are adding to your meal

Go back and read the book.... and when you get bored from doing induction long.. try before you go off the wagon to move on to the next stage and that will allow you the things you "cant" have on induction but watching the carb intake.

Juzame

what are mock danishes?

Katlo... mock danishes.. are WONDERFUL

here is the recipe...

1 egg
3 ounces soften cream cheese
1 tsp of lemon juice
3 packages of splenda
1/2 tsp of vanilla

whip the egg, lemon juice, splena and vanilla with fork.
in bowl soften cream cheese in micro for just a sec.. then add other ingred to the cream cheese.... stir it all up.. Dont worry about small chunks of cream cheese....... put it in a small bowl sprayed with cooking spray... Microwave on high for 3 min.. covered....

THATS IT.

You can eat them warm.. but i like them when they have been in the fridge.. (wrapped up)...... When i make them i add about 1 tb of cocoa to the mixture..... it turnes them a brownish colour and tastes great..
For morning coffee and or late day/evening snack

BTW. ..I use a 4 inch bottom width bowl... with high sides.. my danishes really go high... really cool

Try something with lots of fiber, like hot flaxmeal cereal -- a small amount will keep me full for a very long time, and it's not quite as high calories as multiple mock danishes (which don't fill me up at all).

The morningstar Farms soy sausage only has 80 calories a patty. I dont know how that compairs to the real sausage but that might be a simple way to cut back on calories. I tend to eat a hearty breakfast later in the day myself. It usually consists of 2 or 3 egg whites, sauteed cabbage, soy sausage patty and a wedge of cantaloupe or serving of strawberries. The fruit would be for after the 2 week induction of course. I eat whites just because I hate yolks but they are low on calories. You could always use a mixture of whole egg/whites to cut calories a bit. Vegetables are an easy way to eat more in the mornings without adding a lot of extra calories. Tomato slices with dressing, sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, cabbage, onions and peppers and stuff like that are easy to throw in a pan with butter, they don't need a recipe, special utensils and they go great with eggs. :) Another easy food which might be a nice change from eggs /bacon would be tilapia or some other thin white fish sauteed in olive oil or butter with a sprinkle of cajun seasoning (or whatever seasoning you like). It fries up very fast and is one of those things you can toss in a pan and sprinkle with seasoning and go. Goodluck with your re-induction. :)

Jenn

honestly, i don't really like the mock danishes. i don't really like eggs, period. the only way i can eat them is fried.

i didn't think protein shakes were okay on induction. are they? what are some good ones for a self-proclaimed shake-hater? i tried the atkins shakes and *hated* them...

as for reading the book, i've read it. numerous times. i have many pages dog-eared. and i've always eaten lots of veggies, and i'm not willing to compromise on that. you can't gain weight from eating too many veggies. i stick to low GI ones of course. and plus, i really cannot give them up for health reasons. er, to put it delicately, i need LOTS of fiber from veggies and benefiber to keep things going, if you know what i mean. that's my only caveat with low-carbing; it messes up my GI system BIG time. i've found that increasing my veggie intake was the only thing to combat that problem, so the veggies are staying. plus, even when i first started atkins, i ate way more than 3 cups a day and still lost 30 pounds in my first 2&1/2 months. so i don't think they are the problem.

as for the flaxmeal cereal, i didn't think that was induction friendly. i'm trying to stick as closely as possible to the list of acceptable foods.

thanks guys, for your responses! i love this forum!

They are an issue for many of us. Quite a few of us didn't lose weight on Atkins until we started dropping our calories.

I think the key to getting variety and not getting bored is to do a bit of cooking. There are some very easy recipes in the recipe forum. What I generally do is try to do all my cooking on the weekend and freeze stuff. Or I eat really huge salads for a meal.

I also suggest, after you finish induction and get your blood sugar and cravings squared away, that you might want to try some of the low carb cereals. There's a couple at Trader Joe's I like, and Keto Hot Banana Nut is really good. Also, I find a bit of SF peanut butter really staves off the hungries in the morning.

Low carb bread is a good one too. I often make sandwiches from cream cheese, bacon and low carb bread.

Salads are a staple in my diet. I often get precooked chicken meat from Trader Joes. It's called "Just Chicken". I rip it up into some good, pre-washed greens (spinach, mixed spring greens). I add a good salad dressing, cheese and a very small handful of toasted pecans or walnuts or sunflower seeds. And I'm pretty happy with that for a meal.

I'd suggest that if you aren't losing weight you slowly lower your calories. You don't want to be hungry otherwise you might set yourself up for binging.

I'm eating about 30g of carbs a day, keeping my calories around 1200-1400 and I'm losing a pound or so a week. Before I lowered my calories I was stalled for 8 months.