Hi everyone.

I know there's loads of experience on here and I'd love to get some advice. I feel like I'm constantly eating salt, maybe its me, but all the stuff allowed for snacks (pork rinds, cheese - I can't think of anything else) is loaded with salt. I can't stand it!!

Any suggestions out there on ways to cut out the sodium? I wish I had time to go thru the posts, but I'm at work and its not a smart thing to do. Weekends are a different story, but its only Monday and I feel like I'm ready to quit!!

ANY advice? I'm sloshing to the ladies room again for like the 6th time today - i hope that means SOMething.

Thanks in advance anyways...
MissB

Try celery with cream cheese. That shouldn't be too salty.

On induction you lose TONS of water as you get rid of the carb load you're carrying around. Someone here explained that each carb molecule attaches to 4 water molecules, or something like that. So anyway, you'll be draining your camel hump of stored water. I think that probably accounts for much of the amazing weight loss when you begin Atkins.

Oh thanks for responding really!! Cream cheese with... anything else?? I hate celery it gives me a headache. I know that sounds stupid but I'm allergic to many things (though I don't think celery is one of them), mostly fruits and nuts.
I think wheat and chocolate, shrimp too, just by the reaction I get when I eat them.

Anything else? Maybe I'll have to make some fish in the morning to go with that cream cheese. *sigh* no LOX.. I love 'em but right now... too salty.

Thanks dear, truly appreciate the suggestion. More, more people... I know you got the know-how!!... pleeeeeease?

Hmm... there's not a lot of crunchy choices for induction other than pork rinds, celery. Later on you can add nuts in. I know some people do stuff like nuke grated cheese and it forms kind of a hard shell that is a little crunchy. After induction, I have a cracker recipe in the snacks forum you can try.

Do you just not like the taste of salt, or is it a high blood pressure concern? My BP came down a lot on Atkins.

Oh how about some crunchy veggies? Have raw brocoli or asparagus and dip into blue cheese or something.

Well I don't mind salt and I've never been diagnosed with high blood pressure. But i've found that today and yesterday my heart was racing not too long after I ate. Also, the taste just seems to be prevalent on my tastebuds... as if I ate a block of salt or something.

For lunch, i had a salad with lettuce, roasted chicken, turkey ham, feta cheese amd cheddar cheese. I supsect the cheeses have too much sodium but normally they are fine. But again, after I ate, heart was racing and I've had a headache on and off since I started this thing (2 days ago).

Crunchy stuff - maybe I can get the pork rinds without the salt somewhere? Mama mia this is going to be a long 2 weeks.

cucumbers, red/yellow/green pepper slices, tunip "chips" are good dipped in ranch dressing or cream cheese type dips.

YES!! I just realized I was doing everything wrong! I have a lot more room for my carbs so I will add your suggestions to my menu.

I feel better about this now...

My induction headache lasted 3 days straight before it faded. What a pain (literally). I didn't drink caffeine at all before starting this so it wasn't caffeine withdrawal. Must have been some other metabolic issue right at the beginning.

I actually liked the salt in induction - I substitute salt cravings for sweet cravings, it felt like!

You are right - the worst part of induction was a lack of nice snacks. I did find this recipe for Cheese Straws on the Atkins site, which claims that it's OK for induction. It involves butter, cheese, egg and some Atkins bake mix and garlic to make little cheese bread sticks. They are REALLY good and satisfy my need for something slightly crisp and bready.

If you make the dough, roll it quite thin (like 5-6 mm, it puffs up a lot when cooked). I could never make my dough roll out in a nice rectangle, so I ended up weighing the finished product to figure out how many carbs. I got about 360 grams of finished sticks. They claim 1 carb per seving, 13 servings to the batch, so I divide the weight of finished sticks by 13 to get how many grams of sticks per carb. If it's around 350g per batch, 350/13= 26 grams of sticks for a carb. The way I make them, that's about three 6 or 7 inch long cheese sticks. or a handful of the leftover chunks that didn't make it to stickdom.

One warning - these tend to be dry. I've choked a few times when I was talking and inhaling while eating them - the crumbs fly! Have water on hand. They taste good, tho!

Induction is quite helacious for many people. Whatever is happening during those 2 weeks, it causes all kinds of weird symptoms. Just expect to feel bad for two weeks, then you'll be fine.

Also, the weird taste might be "ketosis". I wouldn't have described it as salty, but everyone is diferent.

Thanks for the cheese straws recipes, and the suggestion for the cream cheese and crunch... I'm planning on doing cucumber and cream cheese.. mmmmmm...

I am working on my meal planning b/c it really helps. I've never been organized as far as food is concerned, well, not on a regular basis. I am NOT a creature of routine, it bores me, so I need a little work in that area. I'm always rushing. Grrr.

Maybe I'll get around to trying the cheese straws if I can remember to buy the ingredients.

My headache lingers but is not as bad as yesterday..and I'm not sloshing around too badly but I think I need mORE water so I'll take that back.