Hi all!!

I am quite perplexed right now. I love SF jello with whipped cream, but it has Aspartame. Everything SF for a snack has Aspartame in it and it stalls me big time. I haven't lost anything in a week and I really feel discouraged. I have been doing everything I'm suppose to and nothing is happening!!!! What advise can you give me???? I need to have something sweet as a snack! I haven't cheated and all I have lost in three weeks is 8lbs!!!! I was hoping for alot more!!!! Here is a sample of what I ate yesterday:

3 silver dollar pancakes made with atkinns bake mix and bacon.

lunch 4 thick pieces of turkey breast. Two cucumber slices

Dinner - 3 cheeseburgers - 2 cups of salad - 1 cupof zuchini

snacks throughout day - sf jello - no whip cream
1 tbsp peanut butter and three small ribs of celery.

I drank 120 oz water!!

Any ideas!!! My oldest is getting married August 23rd and I am waiting to get my dress so that I can lose some more weight. I already lost 30lbs on WW. I am determined to make this work and
keep it a life style change. But like everything you need to have choices to make it work. Boredom is going to mean trouble for me.

Does anyone drink those protein drinks that are 1 carb and 1 carb sugar??? Do they help????

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Kathy

Kathy,

You can go into the kitchen section of the board and find a lot of good idea and recipes for "sweet" snacks. My favorite is cinnamon almonds! Also if you are still on induction you might want to knock out the peanutbutter.

One recipe that come to mind is mixing 3 oz cream cheese with some baking powdered cocoa and 1 splenda.

I drink the Atkins shakes, and personal I have no problems with them. But keep in mind, some people do.

I feel your pain !!

Until I found these soybite cookies I was in hell over what to 'snack' on. I like a little bisquit with tea after dinner and the cookies are 1.5 carbs each and solid like a cookie and really saved me from that need, flavored with Splenda and does not cause me to 'binge'.
Everyone will tell you your weight loss is great and that a week is not a stall so I will tell you too.
Also the scale lies and tape is the best way etc.
Bottom line is I know what its like to want to lose weight for an event and I think you can do that and also make healthy lifestyle changes-the two are not mutually exclusive.
My guess is it is not the sugar free jello but the whipped cream that is killing you-if you want to drop this weight quickly you have to go on induction-and be strict about the cream. Shakes are OK in induction, and dont worry about all the possible 'stallers'-you could be reduced to meat and butter if you heed all those warnings.
Get on fitday.com and start an account where you track carbs/fat% and calories-these are what you must pay attention to.
Get on a strict exercise program if you havent already-even if you follow Atkins to the letter, you may take some time to get rid of the weight-exercise guarentees weight loss more than any thing, that is why Dr A pushes it in his book at every chance he gets.
Boredom will slam the door on the diet -you have to choose-do you want to lose the weight quickly and stay in induction? Or do you want to add carbs and are willing to lose more slowly?

If you are stuck on jell-o, you can make your own Splenda jell-o. I use Skamito's/Angela's recipe:

2 packets Knox unflavored gelatin
1 packet Kool-Aid flavoring (unsweetened)
8-10 packets (16-20 teaspoons granulated) Splenda to taste
One cup hot water
One cup cold water

Follow the basic gelatin recipe on the box. You can use a variety of flavors because of the amount of Kool-Aid flavors.

I was stuck after induction for 3 1/2 weeks, ended up dropping cheese and keeping to just induction foods. I find that a few ounces of a diet-rite fruit flavored soda after a meal, gives me that little sweetness to end a meal. You've got a great goal in mind so maybe you can bite the bullet to get there successfully.
p.s. how about a few berries?

You've only been on LC three weeks, so by definition you are not stalled. A stall is four to six weeks with no weight loss or loss in inches with no changes in your diet or exercise routine. Nearly everyone stops losing weight after the induction period, because most of the induction loss is water. After induction, you will usually lose more fat and replenish the lost water, hence the weight equilibrium. This is normal and natural, so don't stress out about it.

So don't be so quick to assume that aspartame is a "staller" for you -- my guess is that it doesn't have anything at all to do with your weight loss this week. You just don't have enough data at this point to draw that conclusion -- give it a little time. Of course, heavy consumption of aspartame is not generally a wonderful idea no matter which diet you're on, and homemade LC treats are almost always a better idea than the prepackaged versions.

As for 8 lbs. in three weeks, that's a reasonably good rate of loss. The biggest myth about Atkins is that it's a fast weight loss diet -- it's not, except during the induction period (which, again, is mainly water). After the initial loss, most people continue at a rate of one to three pounds a week. It's not necessarily much faster than WW (when it works) -- but it's more fun, and it often works for people who are insulin-sensitive and have slowed or stopped on LF diets. It's also very important to measure yourself, as it's very common to lose inches while the scale remains the same.

Don't stress out! Give it a month or two of following the guidelines in the book before you decide to start tinkering or fretting. Relax and enjoy what you're eating and how you're feeling!