Hello,

Read these forums quite a bit (certainly more often than i post on them) and there's a lot of talk about how, on atkins, we can eat lots of things we like etc etc.

To be honest, looking around supermarkets in England, I can't really find anything that doesn't contain sugar except lettuce and fresh cuts of meat.

Now, i like to cook meat, but not 3 times per day every day. Even if i didn't work odd shifts, it'd still annoy me.

When i'm on a late shift, i often find that the only thing i can really buy from the supermarket near work is a bag of salad and some cold, packaged meat, which obiosly contains sugar.

Even the salad dressings seem to be 'illegal'. I spent about 20 minutes looking at all the dressings the other day (people must have thought i was a nutter) and chose the one i thought was best. then posted on here the ingredients and nutrition info and it seems it wasn't as good as i'd thought.

Basically, the only thing it seems like i can eat (without cooking - we only have a microwave at work) is salad. On it's own. No dressing.

Oh i know i can have mayonaise, but i watch calories as well as carbs (scientific part of my brain says it's impossible to eat big calories and lose). So i try to stick to 1800 cals per day and mayo has 700 cals per 100g, making it a little dangerous, to be honest.

I know the diet works. But it's sooooo much hasle. The washing-up back home is piled high from cooking burgers, steak and chicken and i won't be back til midnight*.

Anyway... enough venting, i guess.

*as you might have guessed, i'm on UK time, not US

try making stuff ahead of time, Sunday is my "cooking" day and I use a crock pot (slow cooker) too. Have lots of veggies cut and ready to go and boil up some eggs. That should help.

Stirfry chicken cutlet pieces are a quick meal.

Make your own salad dressing. I make a simple oil and lemon garlic one. Add some kosher salt to garlic for grist, and mash with a mortar and pestle. Put oil, lemon juice, and pepper to taste. If I am in the mood for something different and creamy I add sardines, mustard, and/or mayo. You can make a lot and bottle it for later.

What about eggs? There is so much you can do with eggs. Add cream cheese and splenda to make a desert or sweet mock pastry breakfast. Add crushed pork rinds, splenda, and heavy cream to make mock french toast. Or there are about a thousand different omlettes if you want something savory; add cut up chicken, cheese, crispy sweet veggies like green red and yellow peppers, green onions, mushrooms, etc. Egg salad is quick and easy. If you truly have zero time, just scramble, fry and eat. Takes less than 2 minutes.

THe trick to making this woe work AND keep things interesting is to be efficient. Make a bunch of food when you have free time, and freeze it. Be creative. THere are tons of recipes in the recipes section of the board.