Help - only one week on Atkins and I'm getting discouraged. I started one week ago today and have lost 6 1/2 lbs. as of this morning. That's good for me. However, I keep getting these cravings for something sweet. I'm not hungry, but I'm getting sick of eating so much meat and so many eggs. I've actually been nauseous (sp?) the last few days when I've started to eat because I just feel like I'm eating the same thing over and over. I need encouragement from someone that's been doing this for a while and can tell me that this will get better. What happens when you lose your weight, go on maintenance, and decide to have something with a substantial amount of carbs? Does your body react with a rapid weight gain? I'm just feeling like I'm not sure if I can do this forever.

Also, I'm confused on sugar alcohols. I bought some sugar free Baskin Robbins candies that are made with Splenda. They have 15 grams of carbohydrates, which includes 15 grams of sugar alcohols. What does all this mean? Will I be able to eat one of these when I just have to have something sweet or do they count as 15 grams of carbs?

Thanks for any help.

Have you been to the Newbies threads? It is chocked full of information and you will not only be able to find answers to your questions there, but answers to questions you didn't even know you had! Also check out other threads...there are good ones on LC products. If you have lost 6 1/2 lbs already, you are doing really well.

Hello stooges & welcome. For a full discussion of Sugar Alcohols, click on Low Carb Tips in the orange bar above and there you'll find an article along with many other helpful things.

I am surprised that something with Splenda would also have sugar alcohols. However, I always count the sugar alcohols as carb grams. Then I KNOW why I don't lose for a while. And if I continue losing, then I am ahead of the game. And very lucky.

As for the repetition, visit our Recipe section for many Main Dish ideas as well as side dishes and desserts. There is no need to get bored with the food on Atkins or any LC plan. And it all tastes so good!

The longer you stay low carb without having sugars and starches, the more your body will return to "normal" as far as insulin resistance goes. Some people think that we each have One Golden Shot to get the weight off. That means that the longer you can stick with your plan, despite cravings and special occasions, the more success you will have.

In fact, the longer you stay on the LC way, the easier it gets. And the better you feel. It is a relief to get back to LC after giving in to temptation because you forget how bloated you felt when all the carb side effects also return. You'll be amazed.

Be careful if you are having cravings. Those SF chocoalte treats can effect some people just like the full sugar ones causeing an insulin surge and cravings.

If you are sick of just meat and eggs, why ar eyou eating so many, where are your veggies? I had a day the other day where I ate eggs, but the only meat I had was tuna. I ended up getting most of my protien from dairy type things, veggies, and I may of had some shake mix. Look up LC recipes and experiment. I've been having one dish caleld Sang Peer (?) Basicaly you sautee curry powder in butter, then throw in a ton of spinich. Sautee for a while longer, then add cottage cheese and maybe a bit of sour cream or a touch of cider vinigar. Cook until cheese is melted. It's got around 7g of protien depending and 7 carbs, most of which are fiber. Pared with mustard brushed salmon it's a great meal. Or make a little more and eat it on it's own.

Make large stir fries where there are a ton of veggies and only a little meat. Make chicken or steak fajitas and eat them like a stirfry with a fork. Experiment with things such as zucchini hash browns, zucchini used as baked apples, turnip french fries, cauliflower rice, and so on.

When you go on maintanance you find the amount of carbs you can have, such as 60g a day. Soem days you can have 40-50, and some days you can have 70 just balancing it out over the week (This is maintanance, not OWL). Dr Atkins states that an occasional high carb treat won't kill you, just watch portion control and have it with protien and a small amount of fat to moderate insulin reaction. If you go back to eating a ton of carbs and junk food, then yes you will gain the weight back. So would someone on weight watchers or any other eating plan.

With planning and juggling almost anything can be made low, or at least lower carb. If you can't do this forever, it's time to get alot more creative and start raising your carb allowace just a bit

Hi Stoogle!
Oh yes! It will get much better! First days are difficult. We dramatically changed our way of eat and our body and our psique resists de change.
I understand you perfectly. In fact, I had my own difficult time thinking that I couldn't eat more meat and eggs and had a lot of doubts about eating that the rest of my life.
And now, 3 months later, I love the way I eat. Innovation and the recipes have helped me a lot, specially at the beginning. You have a world of foods and tastes to discover: herbs, oils, nuts that can change the taste of your poultry or fish or even the eggs in a delicious way. Have a special dedication in the preparation of your food, specially at the beginning so you can get used to this new WOE.
Congrats for those first 6 1/2 pds, that's great!
Isiar

stooges
Hi !
You are doing great and its only a week!
Take the advice of the other folks, they are right on. Also think of the variety you can eat-check out the menus and recipes.
Its tough going but worth it to investigate all the possibilites. Seems you can lose and are on the path which is the first big battle.

Thanks to each one of you for your encouragement. My husband is doing this with me, so he says we have to keep going at least for another week, so maybe I'll feel better by then. I sat down to supper tonight of a salad w/eggs & cheese along with cauliflower and a grilled hamburger. I'm just not really hungry anymore - I can't hardly choke the food down. But the worst part is how I feel - I've read several places how this makes you have more energy, but I've been dragging so much I can't hardly go today. I keep hoping I'll start feeling better, but not yet. Maybe one day soon. I know I used to eat a LOT of carbs, so it must be taking a while to get them all flushed out of my body.

Thanks again to each one of you for the encouragement. It looks like you've each done very well on this way of eating.

Are you taking in a lot of caffeine in diet soda? I was and had to cut them completely out. And, unfortunately, even though I am starting the 6th week of this WOE, I still have fatigue issues. But stress plays a BIG part (my Sheltie had a stroke and requires constant vet visits, nursing and attention) and I'm not going going to give this up. The all-day "wooly-headedness" is gone...and that was worse than the fatigue. If you have stress in your life that may be a big factor in the fatigue. And take a power nap if you need to...I do because we get up at 5:15 and H runs when he gets home from work so dinner doesn't go on the table until 6 p.m., and I still have the clean-up from dinner and his lunch to fix for the next day. I am usually not out of the kitchen until almost 8 and the more exhausted I am the far more likely I am to want to just chuck this all, and I get REALLY REALLY irritable!

We don't eat much hamburger but do eat a lot of chicken and pork. I found McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Chicken seasoning (in a spice bottle) really wakes up the taste buds. I make a salad with a plum tomato chopped up and spread throughout the salad and let it sit to help flavor the lettuce. And I quit using the iceberg lettuce and use romaine and baby spinach...and toss it all with mayo and lemon pepper as a dressing instead of bottled...we always have green beans, too. We have found the spices really help keep the food from being so bland. That's dinner.

I have an omelet with cheese and some baby spinach folded in for breakfast (boring but not as bad as plain eggs) and I cook extra chicken breasts to make chicken salad, or make tuna salad with a couple of chopped baby dill gerkins to get it crunch, and have it on a 1/2 c of salad greens for lunch. I keep baby gerkins and cubes of ham on hand, too, to fill it all out. I also keep sugar free jello to give me the "sweet" for after dinner so I feel the meal is complete. And the jello is the one real extravagance because I buy the boxes of the refrigerated pre-made cups so I don't pig out on a big bowl of jello. It has citric acid and may affect weight loss, but I haven't had that problem. You can put a T of whipped cream on it, but I don't keep wc in the house because I wouldn't quit at one or two Ts.

It took me three weeks to get the food issues taken care of (H & I are still on Induction) and now I have trouble even getting the 20 carbs a day in for myself. We eat very few eggs because I just don't care much for them. There have been many days I have eaten chicken salad for breakfast and fixed omelets filled with chopped ham (chicken), tomato (high in carbs but 1 plum spread between two people isn't much), cheese and salad greens for dinner. And we have been STUFFED... which isn't a good thing! I started off fixing about four eggs each and had to cut back to two because we just couldn't eat that much. Surprising how adding the ham or chicken, tomato, cheese and salad greens will fill up two eggs! And use spices, here, too.

Hope this helps...if you can get through the first couple of weeks you will be amazed at how your taste in food changes. H is able to resist the temptation of the cakes, donuts, pizza and other junk that floats through his office with no problem, and none of it appeals to me either (unless I am extremely tired at night, and then I could eat all the listed above at one time). Hang in there!

FROMVA - that was a very interesting reply. You have some good ideas -- i'm craving an omelet with baby spinach and cheese right now !

Hey again stooges,
Have you tried a bit of walking to increase your metabolism and get your energy up?
It may take a bit of time to get the surge and all the other benefits of the program going, but it will go faster if you do something physical for a half hour a day as recommended in DANDR. So if you havent yet try to incorporate a new routine of activity of some kind. I also found that when I wasnt taking my multivitamen I was feeling really slow and crappy and it took away from the benefits of being on Atkins a lot! So make sure you are getting that into you as well.
And also try to vary what you eat as much as you can and take in smaller meals making sure you get breakfast in you, it will move things along and improve your overall energy/metabolism by as much as 10% just to eat breakfast and not take in 1 large meal but rather smaller ones over the day.
I wish you the best and know that you are well on your way to long term success!

Fairchild and FromVA - thank you so much for your ideas. I plan to try some of the different food options that FromVA mentioned - at least it'll be something different than what I've been eating. I couldn't even get eggs down this morning, so we just had a couple patties of sausage for breakfast. The surprising thing is that I didn't get hungry before lunchtime. That's one thing I have noticed - food does not appeal to me as much as it used to. Although I'm sure if you sat a piece of homemade pie or cake in front of me right now, I'd be drooling. The idea of spinach in the eggs sounds like a great one.

One thing I haven't been doing is exercising. My plans are to walk at a local college tract for 2.5 miles about 5 x a week (which I did for 3 months last year), but the temperature here has been consistently averaging 103 for the last couple of weeks, so I'm afraid I'll literally melt out there!! We are supposed to have a nice break on Friday into the 80's, so I'm looking forward to getting out.

Thanks again for your help. So far today, I'm hanging in there.