Hi, i've just started on the atkins plan

i really want to get my induction right & off on the right footing, so i have a few questions.....plz

1) i was wondering if any1 could let me know what kind of meals you were eating on induction?

2) can i eat as much cheese & mayo as i want? or is there a limit?

3) is mustard allowed?

4) what vitamins should i be taking?.....at the moment im taking a multi vitamin & vit C (chewable) they have aspartame & sorbitol sweetners in them....r they ok?

Thanx in advance xx

Hello and here's wishing you good losing on Atkins. The first thing to do is really read the book. All the laws are in there and much more easily understood than just asking questions.

Induction meals should be meat or fish, plus a few carbs at each meal. The wisest course is to keep it really simple for the 2 weeks. Lunch could be cold chicken breast with some green salad. Use oil for dressing or some mayonnaise. Dinner could be a steak or ground meat with 2/3 cup of allowed veggies (green beans, cauliflower, borccoli etc) and a small green salad. For breakfast, you could have eggs and bacon (any style, cooked in butter) or leftovers from other meals. Don't think that breakfast HAS to be breakfast foods. You could make an omelette with some leftover veg. & a bit of grated cheese.

Mayonnaise and mustard are fine to use. Salad cream is NOT good - too many carbs. Tomato ketchup has sugar.

Ifyou have read the Atkins Induction list, you know that cheese is limited to 4 ounces per day.

Atkins lists the vitamins he recommends. Everyone has to decide what they will do and can afford. Certainly a multivitamin is good. And since there is no vitamin C in the Induction, take that as well. Sorbitol is a form of sugar alcohol so when you finish the chewable type, buy something that is not sweetened - just a tablet that you swallow.

Truly the best advice you could be given is to get the book and read it several times. There is an edition which came out in Dec. 2002 which is the latest and has lots of information. Don't try to do Atkins just by reading this board because that would be very incomplete. The book will answer questions you haven't even thought of yet.

All the best.

BarB

Hi Destiny,

Welcome to the board !

I can answer some of your questions - I'm sure someone with more knowledge will answer the rest and add to mine!

1) i was wondering if any1 could let me know what kind of meals you were eating on induction?
I had fry ups for breakfast, eggs, mushrooms and the odd veggie sausage (if you eat meat you can have lots of bacon !), tuna or egg mayo salad for lunch, fish and veggies for tea. Snacks included cheese, cream and celery (i like the stuff!) I also drank a couple of decafs a day but now I drink "proper" coffee as I have discovered it doesn't affect my weight loss.

2) can i eat as much cheese & mayo as i want? or is there a limit?
I don't think there is a limit for mayo - i could be wrong but I believe the limit for cheese is 4oz - it does affect weight loss in some people.

3) is mustard allowed?
again not sure - i don't eat it so I don't know the carb count !

4) what vitamins should i be taking?.....at the moment im taking a multi vitamin & vit C (chewable) they have aspartame & sorbitol sweetners in them....r they ok?
I take multi vits, psyllium capsules sometimes and the odd potassium - yours sound fine.

Hope this info helps - good luck and keep us informed !

Hi Destiny,

If u wanna know what I ate during my early LC days, u can read my journal (here in the journal section). U can also read Little Ann's & Fern2340's journal cos they have detailed menus in their journals, too.

(BTW, I was reading the yellow-covered Atkin's book when I did Induction. In that edition, nuts were allowed on Induction. He changed this rule in the white-covered book though.)

Re: Your Q2
No more than 4oz of cheeses daily (page 125).
I use quite a bit of mayo (about 2 to 3 tbsps a day). No limit on mayo, according to the book

Re: Your Q3
Dijon mustard & english mustard is allowed. Just count the carbs into your 20g of carbs. U might wanna read the ingredient list & the nutrition info on the bottles first

Re: Your Q4
I myself take a super-multi vitamins & minerals tablet, 2 cod liver oil capsules & a vitamin E gel capsule daily. Destiny, pls read page 303 & 304 of your DANDR. U'll see a list on that page. Your multi vitamin tablet (read the bottle, there should be a list of the amounts of nutrients inside each tablet) should meet the required nutrients on that list.
If your chewable vitamin C tablet is sugar-free, that tiny bit of aspartame & sorbitol is nothing earth-shattering, in my humble opinion. Don't worry about it

Have a great day

Bebe

Hi Destiny

Glad to see you've started Atkins and want to do it right. I assume you have the book to guide you. Even if you've read it once it is good to read it again as you can miss a lot of helpful stuff first time through. I see you also posted this in the Atkins thread and so you will get two lots of answers, I hope they agree.



I mainly ate relatively plain meals, eggs and bacon for breakfast, tuna or chicken salad for lunch and meat and vegetables in the evening. There was a thread on jazzing up induction on this forum, but at the moment I can not find it to give you the link. As Disneybebe says I put my menus in my journal - thanks for the plug there Bebe - but as I did not find this forum until I'd been doing Atkins several months, my initial menus are not there. You may find it helpful to join Fitday.com to keep a track of your food. Although it is an American site and the measures are mainly in ounces or cups, it can be a very useful guide.



The cheese question has already been answered. You can have lots of mayo, make sure it has minimum carbs. I use Hellmans which has 1.2 g carbs per 100g. This has a high fat content, so after induction you may need to eat it in moderation. I usually have three tablespoons with my salad.


Yes, but after induction look at the labels to see how many carbs are in it, and take these into account, as it is mainly a starch. I don't use it personally.



I would either include a good multimineral and perhaps additional chromium and potassium - in the chelated form. Don't worry about the small amount of artifical sweetners in your current vitamins, however, when they run out you might want to choose tablets which you swallow whole and hence do not have this coating.

You will find lots of extra info in the hot tips section for which the link is.
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...0081#post240081

Keep us informed of how you get along.

Welcome aboard!!

For me, low carb condiments really made the induction phase more tolerable. Low carb (no sugar) ketchup, steak & barbeque sauces, etc. helped me to add more variety without hard work.

Try browsing around the net to find them in your area. Be sure to read the labels for 'illegal' ingredients and hidden carbs.

Thanx to u all for making me feel really welcome and for all the advice

I have taken ur advice onboard......and am reading the atkins book again......(it seems i may have missed sum parts :read2