Day 6 yay. I made it through last night, cravings and all. It was pretty hard, and I definitely ate too much. Musta ate like a pound of flank steak last night for dinner...

Ok. I had a big problem sleeping last night. My knees and elbows were aching so bad. I don't know how to explain it.. It hurt so bad that I couldnt sleep. I ended up taking a couple excedrine and an hour later managed to fall asleep. This morning I feel perfectly fine.

I know I'm giving up the carb and the booze and the nicotine. So I though first this may be withdrawal. But I dont remember hearing anything like that. It was so strange how it came and left like that.

And then I think, maybe it's because of the working out I've been doing? But I havent been doing anything different for the last two weeks, with one exception. I started adding Glutamine to my after-workout protein shake. I jsut started two days ago.. but this stuff is supposed to help prevent muscle pain...


I don't know.

Anyway, feeling much better this morning. Looking forward to finishing my work day(9-9 today :P) and then tomorrow makes day 7.

Any ideas abotu the aching would be great.. I'm a bit worried about it

thanks again everyone

Check out this web site. Read the artical and follow the gout link. Now this is not a pro-lowcarb diet artical. It is about the illnesses one can get while on low carb diets. But, I have heard many times that lowcarb dieting can lead to gout.
Infact, 20/20 (or someother of those news show) done a show about losing weight. The had 6?? people all of which went to school together. They were all trying to lose weight for thier reunion. They put each person on a different diet. Some of the diets were atkins, weightwatchers,etc.... The man on atkins got gout. He had to quit his low carb diet for a few weeks, then had to start back on a less harsh version of atkins.
the up side to all of this was, the man on atkins lost a lot more weight than the other participants and he had to quit dieting for a few weeks.
Anyway check out the link. Make sure to look at the symptoms for gout.

http://arthritis.about.com/cs/diet/a/lowcarbdiets.htm

Thanks Emily, that was an interesting read. Gout definitley is an issue to be concerned about for me it seems, since it states that excess comsumption of alchohol(ME!) could contribute to it as well. But from reading the symptoms and warning signs of gout, I can be pretty confident that is not the cause of last night's pains.

Mostly based on - it was all 4 of my joints at once. The odds that these uric acid crystals built up in all four of my joints at the same time to trigger pain in the same evening is too much of a stretch. From what I read, gout usually presents itself in 1 joint first(usually, but not always, the big toe). Then perhaps spreading or getting worse in other joints throughout time without treatment.

I dunno. I'm thinking it must be withdrawal still, but I have no real basis for that opinion. I appreciate the article though. All information is great. Arms me for the future!

My legs ache if I don't get enough potassium. I take 90 mg in the morning and 90 mg at night and my legs do not ache like that. I'm wanting to quite smoking also but I'm trying to get a good start on my weight before I do. You are doing great! Good luck!

I second the potassium idea. If you use some versio of 'low salt' which is mostly potassium choride this may sort itself out.

Ever considered gout? I've had a few aches in my joints too recently. I'm not trying to cause any alarm, but it's just something to consider. I'm taking a bunch of vitamins and supplements with my 2 week induction.

http://www.atkins-diet.cc/Article47.phtml

My shins ached for a while. Not the muscle but the actual bone. I am no longer in that kind of pain but I read that the Native Americn had incredible bone structure when they lived their traditional low carb life. I have always wondered if I were experiencing bone strengthening due to my new low carb way of eating. I have seen other forum memebers speaking of this.

gout is insulin related.

You're likely to feel crappy during the first two weeks on low carb. We like to call it "carb flu".

Are you sure thats true? I had gout a long time ago, my big toe hurt so bad it hurt when the wind hit it, and my doctor said its from eating a protien rich diet. Like I said this was about 12 years ago, so maybe since they they have discovered a connection, but I have never heard of that.

I think the potassium will help you. Or maybe just a couple days of aspirin. With the working out, and depleting your body of all the toxins like nicotine and booze, on top of a total nutritional change, your body is probably just reacting. It will most likely go away. I wouldnt worry about it unless its persistant.

On page 55 of Protein Power states that gout afflicts people with insulin-related problems. You need to have the uric acid assessed to see if you are at rist for this. If your value is high and you currently do not have gout then count yourself lucky. It also points out that on a low carb diet uric acid results should improve. I have heard that many treat their gout with a low carb diet. Sometimes gout will worsen for a few weeks following the onset of a low carb diet but will begin to improve once the uric acid levels return to normal. The SMA-24 or Chenistry profile is the test for detecting this.