A little background: I am married, have 3 great sons (well, usually great, though the 16 year sometimes makes me want to run into fast moving traffic ....they are 24, 19 and 16. Every Sunday for the past 8 years, we have had a "open dinner" for all of our kids friends and various and sundry teens who want to show up. We began this because my oldest son, who was 16 at the time, was vegan (NO animal products, even honey)---he and his friends who were also vegan craved a good homemade vegan meal. So, I opened the doors for all and on Sunday's we had a wonderful time. We are fortuante to have a large home and beautiful, lush and inviting yard. Makes for a blessed day. Anywho, this tradition has morphed, and the meals are for both vegetarians and meat eaters----but it is a huge part of our lives.
Bet you've guessed my dilemna. I am the heart of this venture/tradition. I is VERY difficult for me to pull it off on a LC diet. Last Sunday, I found myself brooding because of my restrictions. I DID eat an LC diet, but I really felt left out of the overall carefree-ness of the day (counting my carbs, being acutely aware of anything that passed the lips). I know that over time, I'll be able to relax a bit more and know more instinctively how many carbs I'm eating.....having said that, I guess bringing this all up might be a moot point! But.....

Now, this is where, if you are a letter-of-the-law-Atkins person, you'll wanna slap my behind. I'm NOT looking for a cheat day. But I am wondering (only wondering---don't get mad at me what would happen to my plan if I ate the CAD (carb addicts diet) plan on Sunday and followed Adkins the rest of the week.

I guess I'm especially wanting to hear from those who may have tried this.

Danke!

I tried CADing on specific days near the holidays and it didn't work for me. I found that carbs caused cravings in me and the only two meals w/ no artificial sweetners unless during the RM and coffee swallowed down in only 15 minutes was too difficult for me.

Try it if you want and see how you do.

And if you choose to stick to your guns keep me in mind passing the donuts, bagels, danish, fresh fruit, and oatmeals every morning on my way to the omelets.... and handing my DH the hagen daaz ice cream in the evenings while I have my big delicious salad!

You are a very cool mom! Would you consider adopting a 30yr daugher?

I've tried it once. Just like Lisa, it triggered loads of cravings and really wasn't worth the hassle. I also didn't like fighting w/the additional water weight that I had acquired.

Maybe it would help if you found some more lavish or less-obvious LC recipes. I've found that when I vary recipes, I feel less like I'm on a "diet" and more like this is a WOL. There's only so many days that I can do salad and steak, etc. Mix it up a little and offer up lots of LC dishes-- that just may get you over feeling "left out."

HTH-
Nikki

Louisa,

I don't think anyone can tell you for sure whether using the CAD approach for that one meal a day will work for you. You're going to have to try it and see what happens. It all depends on your particular metabolism, and trigger foods. A couple of questions to consider, though.

1) How hard was it for you to make the switch to LC in the first place? Did you have really bad cravings for the first few days, or was the adjustment smooth and relatively easy? If you had a lot of cravings in the beginning, it might be harder for you to switch back and forth (even for the one meal) every week.

2) Similarly, how much do you miss the foods that you would be able to eat in your CAD meal? Are they likely to be trigger foods for you? (We're back to cravings, again.)

3) Will you be able to observe the CAD 1 hour limit for this meal and have no snacks afterward? It can be difficult in that kind of warm, family gathering atmosphere, and extending the reward meal beyond the one-hour limit is one of the major pitfalls they discuss in CAD.

4) Finally, could you enjoy your time and get the feelings of freedom and participation that you're looking for by staying LC and simply relaxing your counting for that day? If you're eating the right kinds of foods (proteins and low-carb vegetables) you're unlikely to do much damage by simply eating a few too many vegetables at one meal a week! You could make several really wonderful LC vegetable offerings (roasted vegetables are easy, and everyone loves them) and eat as much as you want of those and your proteins.

Hope some of this helps.

--Ruth

Can I come? It sounds like so much fun. As you get comfortable with this way of eating, you'll find so many good things to eat that you won't have room for the other high carb foods. You're going to be looking so good that others will want to eat like you. Some of my low carb "company" food are low carb cheesecake, lots of shrimp, crab legs, buffalo wings, standing rib roast, salad (with bacon, olives, eggs, avocado, & feta), etc. I miss the mountains. We just sold our Colorado home. Dallasalis

I love Ruth's input.

Another thought is to try CAD for a while in total. Then you aren't swinging back and forth and see how that works for you.

For me the key to which ever plan you end up using should be something that would feel right as a way of life. That way you don't get to goal and then like most of us on one diet or another - gain it all back plus because we went back to old habits.

If something doesn't work for you... find what does. There are plenty of LC choices out there.

I don't know anything about CAD, but I do know how tempting non-LC foods can be! Maybe if you give us an idea of the types of foods you make for Sunday dinner, we can suggest alternatives for some or substitutions, etc. If there are a number of choices that are good for you, perhaps you won't be so tempted by the ones that aren't?

One thing I would suggest is the All-Meat Chili (recipe is in the Forum) - it's reasonable in price and the seasoning combination is *great*! Another would be the Parmesan-Sunflower crackers.

Veggie trays with dips would also work and Lord knows, with our full-fat choices, there must be a lot of options for dips!

Hope this helps!

I'm in a rush with no time to write---but I did want to sent you all my best and especially my thanks! You are all so great to take your time to reply to me. Hey anyone who wants CAN join us! It is a riot---lots of music and laughs. RUTH! I'm orig. from Seattle. Love my hometown!

Hey Louisa, your house sound just like mine. Same age kids, and always extra kids at meal times.