Janet -
Don't give up!
Just when I think I'm not doing Atkins right, I just look back at my book or I log in here and read the success stories. For me, I need to see other's struggles and successes to keep me going too. If it wasn't for this group, it would be terribly hard for me to keep going. The constant pressures from all the high-carbers is rough.
Trust me. My fiance just whipped up a batch of white chocolate macadamia cookies last night and they certainly weren't low carb. It was hell on earth, that smell was so delicious. You know what I did. I broke open the fridge and whipped up some deviled eggs. He looked at me and said "what did you fart or something?" I said "no, and I'm sorry that my deviled eggs don't smell as great as your cookies." I giggled to myself and thought that I'm doing this for me.
I'm the one that wants to feel better about my body. I'm in control of what I put in it. If I put good stuff in it, the bad stuff will come off.
Oh it was hard to resist those damn cookies. But I went grocery shopping for low carb ingrediants and I'm going to make some low carb desserts to help me in my struggle. Of course, I was in need of some chocolate after smelling those cookies for hours. I had to settle with half of an Atkins chocolate shake, but it worked til bedtime. I'm not going to tell you that for me everyday is perfect and everyday I'm at the "right" number of carbs. I'm supposed to be at 30 grams this week. Yesterday, I had 43.
My problem yesterday was Starbucks. I settled with a small breve latte (10 carbs). So I have my "bad" days. I just skip weighing myself and hope for a better day tomorrow. Today, I'll just have to make certain I skip the higher carb items and focus more on my Induction-type snacks. It's hard to watch family member stuff their faces with high carb snacks and it's hard to watch the TV when we're constantly fed the "low fat" is good messages. Makes me want to puke. Tuesday was my worst day yet. I added a scoop of ice cream to my Atkins shake because I was out of regular cream. Well, there's sugar in my Breyers. So I was over my carbs on Tuesday too. Add in my homemade chili (10 grams carbs) and I hit an embarrassing 51 carbs.
Am I disappointed in myself? Yes, to a point. What I like about Atkins is he's trying to help people find a carb level that helps them lose weight and it's not all about Induction. I'm definitely pushing my body and I'm doing it too fast. We'll see if I suffer for it at weigh in on Friday morning. But finding the limits is what we're trying to do here. We're also trying to help ourselves overcome certain addictions too. Granted, some people, once they're off of sugar or high carb items, can't even nibble on them or they're back on the wagon. For others, like myself, I can indulge a bit and walk away. I don't have that "addiction" to certain foods. My biggest fat-inducer is beer. I got into a weekly habit of drinking on Fridays, along with eating high carb "bar foods" like fries every week. Before I knew it, I was fatter than ever. I stopped drinking beer on Fridays and switched to water with a lemon. Of course, this is challenging because I bowl in a couples league with my fiance and we're surrounded by people drinking.
I look quite out of place, let me tell you. But when I tell people that I'm tired of being fat from all the beer drinking, they shut up really fast. Especially when they look down at their beer gut. I did have a couple drinks over the weekend though. I decided to see how the hard alcohol worked with this low carb diet. Boy, one shot is plenty! I nursed my little shot with a can of diet coke with lemon and that drink lasted me all night.
We all have the inner strength to do this! But we do need each other to help us overcome the high carb demon!
Keep your chin up Janet
You can do it!!
Annie G.