Hi all, since all of us have differing methods for low-carbing and losing weight, I thought it would be a great idea to share your secrets for success! Figured it might help if others are having a hard time, need motivation, or have recently 'cheated' and need to get back on track....

Here's my secrets for success............

Before I even started this WOE, I slowly weaned myself off all carbs, ate less bread, pasta, rice, and though I didn't eat junk food or fast food, I concentrated on eating healthier before I started. This helped immensely with feeling sick when I started as some have, because the body is trying to rid itself of the toxic stuff we put into it.

I took measurements, so I can brag about it later, and plus, I have no memory! I have an excel worksheet, where I log all measurements and weight when it goes down.

I allowed myself one treat before I started, Starbucks Java Chip Ice Cream, when I lose 50lbs, I can have another.

I buy all my food for the following week and cut everything up on Sunday, so my salads are ready, meats/cheeses, deviled eggs. All I have to do is pack up stuff the night before and take it to work! I even cut up the vegetables I"m going to cook with dinner on Sunday, so when I come home from the gym, it's all ready to just cook!

I have made time for at least an hour of exercise daily. If you don't belong to a gym or can't afford it, the YMCA has financial aid for those who qualify, or walking is free! Freeweights and a ball are pretty cheap, and most fitness magazines are loaded with exercises for freeweights and stability ball. Local Parks & Recreation for your town will usually have different classes at low prices. You have to get moving, think down the road, when you're losing weight and getting jiggy with it, exercise will help prevent that, and exercise makes you feel better, gives you more energy, better mood, sleep better. If this is truly going to be a way of life, you must make room for exercise.

If I do have a cheat, I don't worry about it. I had one recenly on my birthday, my cousin took me to Olive Garden, I had the pasta gonzola beef dish, concentrated on the beef, filled up on the salad, and had a few spoonfulls of pasta. I also had cake afterwards with decaf coffee. The very next day, back on atkins, back to the gym, no biggie. The scale went up 3lbs the next day, but down a couple days after that.

While you're losing weight, stick to the whole healthy foods, after all, you are changing for life right? Atkins products are great, but they should only be used sparingly. I bought a case of Atkins bars, but only allow myself 2 a week. I have 1-2 shakes a week also.

Read labels! Every manufacturer is jumping on the bandwagon, this is no time to get lazy and start eating all the junk food in low-carb version. Stick to the meats, cheeses, poultry, vegetables. This site has great recipies!

Read the message boards, I've learned a lot in the short time I've been here.

Drink your water! Water is key, you don't think that fat just magically disappears do ya? You pee it all out of your system! hahaha. Well, maybe not, but drinking a gallon of water may make you feel that way.

Lastly, you need to get ready to lose weight, and Dr. Phil's book is great for that, it helps you address the issues that got you to be where you're at to begin with. If you are truly ready to do the deed and do what needs to be done to lose the weight, you won't feel the need to cheat all the time, if you find you just can't stick to Atkins in it's entirety, maybe you should look inward, figure out why you aren't ready. Get counseling, read self-help books, deal with issues before starting Atkins, this is all outlined in Dr. Phils' book.

I wasn't ready to do this before, but I am now and it's going well. I think I'm not losing weight quickly enough, but over the past month, I've consistently lost 2.5lbs per week, and losing slowly will help with not getting jiggly, keeping your mind to the task at hand and keeping yourself motivated to continue. The weight didn't come on overnight, and it won't come off overnight. Just think a year down the road, when you are healthier, free of disease, thinner, buying beautiful clothes, feeling great from making healthy food choices and exercising daily.

Sorry its' so long, I had a lot of advice to dish! haha

LL

great advice all around.

My keys are
1) Water water water
2) Exercise is NOT optional. Weight training AND cardio.
3) Set goals and have rewards that are NOT food related.
4) Plan meals ahead of time, don't be caught in a high carb situation.
5) When you are tempted to cheat, just ask if that food is worth being fat. Every little bit counts.

--nw

being incredibly obsessive about my diet and exercise works best for me. Gotta keep at it and not slack off for any reason, even mental fatigue.
The best two motivators to keep in mind(IMO) are:
1. living a (hopefully) longer, healthier life.
2. looking better and feeling better about oneself along the way.
A third absolutely vain motivator for me is:
3.being able to wear my tight black clothing again.
Keeping those in mind helps me to stick to a natural diet. Also, the way that (the taste, texture, and effect of) carbohydrate now makes me sick. Quite unappealing.

Wow, Lucylucy, you are inspring! I love your advice! It also helps me to be obsessive with this lili, for example checking these message boards frequently and keeping a food journal are a must for my weight loss. Also, exercise keeps me motivated to eat healthier and while I work out I think about how good I will look and that soon I will look like one of the gym bunnies, hehe. Another tip is to not cheat (that was my problem, I got down to 137 and cheated my way back up to 146, as you can see I am back down to 143.5 so I am getting there.)

Excercise is key for me...and not weighing EVERY minute. Also being very forgiving of myself helps tremendously. I work horribly under guilt, so I quit beating myself up. And Buddies make a huge difference. Find one and work out with them. COmpetition is great and so is having someone to chat with while you're sweating away

My biggest key Ive found is of course following this WOE, but with EXERCISE. Ive done it both ways, and I just dont lose, I feel worse about myself, and am much hungrier and more likely to overeat if I dont exercise. I finally started back last week and the improvement in just 5 days is shocking. Also, if you slip up, get right back on track!

For me:

I do plan ahead. Bring my own cream and splenda for coffee places or if I'm going to a family functions with dessert I'll make a lc cheesecake or something else I can eat. If I'm going to be on a plane I carry a small cooler with premade celery with cream cheese, chicken salad, lunchmeats, cheese and/or pork rinds and of course water. I'm not embarassed to ask someone what they plan to make if I'm invited to dinner. I'm committed to doing this and I don't ask them to make anything different I just bring something I know I can eat and of course enough for everyone. (the host is not required to serve it, of course, I just think its not very nice to bring something only for your self.

I gave up the carb smart ice cream and RS SF candies (basically anything with sugar alcohols) and the weight started to come off again. Took me a month and a half to commit to doing that. I love sweets, but I've been obsessive about looking at these boards as well as others to find alternatives that are Atkins friendly and not made with things that stall me.

I do exercise 6 days a week but I've done that for a long time prior to Atkins so I don't look at that as what has helped me on Atkins but I'm sure it does.

The number one thing I would say that I had to get over was the "fear of fat" that Dr. ATkins talked about. Because the more fat I eat the more weight I lose. Just discovered that this week and I"m 3.5 pounds less for it.

I haven't been afraid to try things that sound weird like, faux mashed potatoes or zuchinni hash browns, flax seed, soy flour and yes, pork rinds etc.

Good luck to everyone. Everyone is different of course and this WOE can be tweaked to fit your body and lifestyle it just takes commitment to figure out what that is. I'm quite sure IMHO that ATkins DOES work for everyone, they just have to figure out that one size doesn't fit all. The book is great and will teach you a lot but it wasn't until I came to these boards that I've really learned how to make this fit me and my life hopefully forever.

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions and information. These boards are awesome.

I concur with many others here that PRE-PLANNING IS KEY. Always have low-carb food in the house. It's so much better to grab a celery stick with cream cheese than have to resort to having a small bowl of pasta just because you have nothing in the house.

And finally, after many months of torture, I've learned to NOT weigh myself every morning. The daily ups and downs will drive you crazy. I've started weekly weigh-ins on Fridays and have been at the same weight for 4 weeks now. Even though I'm not losing anything, it's so much better emotionally rather than seeing myself up 2 lbs one day, down a lb the next day, up a lb the next, etc.

Finally.....water, water, and more water.

I would have to say that my secret, which really isnt a secret, was to find all new easy recipes. Doing this I was able to get rid of my higher carbs meals, and make this more of a normal life style.

I think the single thing that I did that helped me to be successful in atkins was that I took the time to learn creative ways to use ALL the foods that were available to me. I moved to OWL after my two weeks and learned how to adapt to a new lifestyle rather then focusing so much on how fast the numbers on my scale was dropping. I think so many people get hung up on the basic induction list of foods and are afraid to try the foods higher up on the ladder. But reality is... carbs are good for you, as long as you are choosing the right ones and introducing them in the way you are supposed to. Other than that, drink lots of water, eat healthy snacks and have fun, the weight will come off in it's own time.

Jenn

1. Drink lots and lots of water
2. Exercise at the least 3 days a week for 20 minutes or more
3. Don't cheat, eat only the foods listed for your phase
4. Stay focused
5. Tell yourself your worth it
6. Take your supplements
7. Eat high in Fat
8. Read and post in this forum daily for support and motivation

I started Atkins early part of March. Right now I am getting disscouraged. I drop 8 lbs and gain back 2 or 3 every other day now for 2 weeks. I am trying to find the right metabo fit for me. What makes me burn and what doesn't. Being 52 and in the grip of menopause is not helping. I noticed you mentioned giving up low carb ice cream. I have been buying it and using it as my sweet treat every evening because giving up sweets- meaning splenda etc. is not something I desire to do. I mean do I have to give up even splenda so lose? I use it in my coffee, and I have not had sugar or bread now for a month. Well low carb bread and then only one slice in any given day. I just bought a bicycle and started riding about every other day. I probably need to get a grip on myself and do it every day. Do you think the ice cream could be slowing me down?

dito- I guess that is what I need to do is weigh only once a week, same time, same station. This every day thing is the 2 pounds down, 2 pounds up. and I also have been at the same weight for 2 weeks. Trying to figure out how to break the impass without going back to induction. I get tired of eggs, chicken, tuna and salad.

I think the problem with the ice cream has nothing to do with the splenda but with the sugar alcohols. There are many new studies out about the sugar alcohols that say you do need to count those as carbs (in part at the least) where most people are counting sugar alcohols as zero carbs. You could always make your own splenda sweetened ice cream. There are a lot of recipes out there that sound great. Also for coffee use the divinci flavored syrups. They don't have the carb fillers that the powdered splenda has.

Jenn

For me the main one was to just keep going. I had times when the scale stayed level for weeks, and times it went up. Each time I just reminded myself that I was better off then I was when I started and kept plugging away. The weight eventually did come off, though it did involve playing with my menus a few times.

I also found that sugars gave me massive tummy aches. So do sugar alcohols. Sticking to whole, natural foods not only sped up my weight loss, but kept me feeling my healthiest and best.

Right now I am having a real problem getting back on track. While I am not eating high carb, I am eating higher then I should be. I really need to get b ack to basics.