I am so sorry to bother you all with this, but I don't know what else to do. I have so many questions and I hope you can help me to find the answers to them. I am on my fith day of doing Atkins and I have not expirenced a energie boost and have not yet managed to stay under 20g! I am soooo sad.

1) About your water intake. I don't drink plain water, instead I drink decaf unsweetened Nestea. The lable reads :
Calories 0 daily value 0%
Total Fat 0 0%
Sodium 0 0%
Totals Carbs less than 1 g 0%
Sugars 0
Protein 0
Now, can I drink this? What else can I drink instead of water?

2) The Atkins book tells you how much you can eat of salad vegetables and other vegetables. Now my question which will strike many of you as stupid. Do I count those (I keep a journal of all my carb intake) to my daily carbs? How do you manage to stay under 20g?

3) I love Jell-O. But I found out that you are not allowed to eat this because of the aspartame. I have not found a nother brand of gelatin that not uses aspartame. Do you know of any?

4) What kind of foods can you eat (except meats, fish ect) can you eat that contain no carbs?

5) I have depressions. I stopped taking my Prozac because the book told me that the plan might not work when taking this medication. I tried others, but Prozac is the one that really works for me. Does anybody else take Prozac and still has great results?

I know these are a lot of questions and probably these are not all of them. I just can't think of anymore for the moment.
Please help me.
Thank you sooo much.

1) Nothing replaces pure water. Other drinks may contain added sodium which can cause water retention.

2) You count every single carb you put into your mouth. You can subtract dietary fiber from the total carb count but that is about it.

3) Haven't seen any jello products sweetened with anything else.

4) Fresh unprocessed meats or pure fats/oils are the ONLY food that do not contain carbs. If you have read the book, in the induction chapter it covers 4 pages of allowable foods

5) Don't know about this one.

Hope this helps

First of all, Welcome
Just wanted to say, Hang in There. You will be fine. There isn't a magical time line, everyone has different experiences with induction. What you are doing right now is teaching your body to burn a different fuel.
The weight will come off naturally as you move along.
As far as feeling depressed, take a walk. Anything to get your mind off of yourself. Rent a good movie or pick up a good book.
You can do it!
As soon as you are feeling better start exercising at least 30 min a day. LCing and exercise are so complimentary, the results are wonderful!
If you go to the Atkins website, you will find that there is lots of answers to what you can eat and recipes.

Unless I'm mistaken, you're not supposed to discontinue taking Prozak without your doctor's supervision... discontinuing it suddenly can create a chemical imbalance. Did you discuss this with your doctor? I feel quite sure (don't have the book in front of me) that Dr. Atkins does not advocate stopping the medications w/o your doctor's approval, he only states that they may make your weight loss slower. This is not a reason to discontinue the medication if you really need them!

Hi! Hang in there! You're doing well. Do your best to stay under 20 grams of carbs, but don't beat yourself up over it: remember, other low-carb programs don't even go that low, and people still lose weight on them. Dr Atkins says 20 g basically to 'retrain' your body and to break the carb addiction.

I hear you on the water thing - I hate drinking water. Water's best, but if it means the difference between you staying on the program or quitting, enjoy your decaffeinated tea. Or perhaps just take a few days off it, to see if it makes any difference. It's a YMMV thing; people react differently.

About your prozac: it might be a good idea to discuss your meds and this diet with your doc. Many antidepressants make it difficult to lose weight. There's a depression forum on this website: you might want to ask your question over there.

Good luck!

I wanted to let you all know that I really appreciate your help.
I did talk to my doctor about it and he said it was fine since I am on a real low dosis anyways. (half of a capsule a day).

I really want to make this work and I hope I can do it. Failed with so many other things and I did not think this was easy. But it seems harder than I thought....(I guess we all heard that one before).
I am doing Taibo as far as my 18 month old lets me do it. LOL.

Again, thank you all so much for your support. I will check out the depression forum. Thank you for telling me.

I suffered through depression for over a year (had slight symptoms for around 5 yrs) and was hypoglycemic, gaining weight fast.
Anyway, this diet was a life saver for me. I have not had the depression symptoms ever since I began and I can do things now without panic attacts. I am not a fan of medication for depression, but understand that for some it is totally needed.
But, It could be that you are insulin sensitive and depression is common with insulin highs and lows which affect your seritonin levels.

Do you like to dance? Turn on your favorite music with your 18 month old and dance up a storm! It always is so much fun and the kids love it too.

Hi-

Just to let you know, Jolly Rancher Jello is sweetened with Splenda instead of aspartame. It is an alternative...

~Michelle

booneyhead - may I recommend you put a slice of a real lemon in your water? You'd be surprised what a difference it makes! I keep a gallon glass jug of pure filtered water in the frig with lemon slices in it. My 'goal' each day is the polish off that jug!

I was on Prozac - one pill a day - until Jesus healed me of depression and panic attacks about 5 years ago. He is willing and able to heal anyone! However, in the meantime, there are many alternative things such as St. John's Wort or SamE if you'd prefer trying those instead of drugs. I believe this way of eating will eliminate your depression! It's a very nutritious and healthy way of eating and living.

Go to the recipe sites, there are many of them, and download recipes like crazy. Try new ones every week, otherwise you'll get bored fast. I have a large binder FULL of recipes. I make large servings and freeze servings in little containers also, so they're ready for me. I do lots of salads and vary the veggies and try new ones. I also go recipes for almost every kind of dressings known to man! I also have LC treats almost every day!

I walk 30 minutes every day (ok, sometimes I miss). I put on my favorite praise and worship music in my walkman and go for it. Keep on keeping on and don't spend time focusing on your mistakes or failures. We ALL have them! You are a wonderful and special and unique person created by God who loves you much!

Low carbing is a new adventure. Make it exciting! I've been doing it almost two years now. Still coming up with new things!

God bless you abundantly!!

Marcia

The sugar fee decaff iced tea is fine. I drink it all the time and its a great way to take in water and not drink too much pop. I have had it since day 1 and I am very close to being at my goal weight.

There are some sugar free aspartame free jello's. They taste best with redi whip on it.

Its not easy to stay under 20g but it can be done. I think most people who don't use FitDay or a food journal are not under 20g during induction and they think they are. I use Fit Day to stay under 40g and its hard sometimes. You sound like you are doing the right things for success.

Don't forget to excersize it will take you away from the fridge and keep your mind off all this stuff.

Hi Booney
Welcome to the site!!! I know it gets a little overwhelming at first, but we all will help

I have been low carbing for 2 months now. I take Prozac. I know the book says that can slow you down, but you know what? I have been losing an average of 1 pound a week, and that's okay with me! I only lost 3 pounds my first two weeks, but I am not ready to stop Prozac right now. One thing that really really helped with my moods was taking all the reccomended vitamins. I especially think the Atkins Basic 3 is very helpful.

Good luck. You may want to enter your foods on Fit Day http://www.fitday.com
I found it very helpful to know how many carbs and calories I was eating.
Sandy

Hi,

I thought I'd answer question number 5 because everyone else would prob know more than me for 1-4.

I take prozac 30mg daily. I've done the Sugar Busters diet before and it worked out well. I lost around 7lbs. I still have kept it off too!

At this time, I was only taking 20mg of prozac daily.

Now i take the 30 (as stated before), 150 mg Wellbutrin SR as well as Concerta 36mg. (All in the morning. Imagine how my stomac feels.... 6 pills lol)

Everything seems to be working fine with me... I haven't checked the scale but I fell like I'm losing fat.

I just got a Personal Trainer to help me with weights my weight will probably even out (muscle mass increase and fat decrease).

BTW, did you make sure its ok with your doc to stop your Prozac? If not, you should. Quitting an antidepressant can a) cause chemical imbalances that could lead to weight gain as well as make one badly physically and b) you may become depressed again. Depression is an awful disease.... when i get mildly depressed i slow down... physically and mentally and head directly for the candy. This cant help you lose weight (I know from experience....). When you figure out you've gained, you get even more depressed.

I'll stop babbelling. But please, watch out when quitting anti-depressants. If you have depression as badly as I do, you could end up hurting yourself.

Keep up the good work though! You can do it!

Good Luck,
Alex

Very early in my low carbing life someone mentioned that it is much easier to drink lots of water if it is very cold. . . it makes a big difference for me. I use lots of ice, keep bottles in freezer half full so I can take a icy cold one with me while out.

Try it, made a big dif.

I don't remember if you are on Atkins (I am on the post page and can't see your profile) but Atkins says to avoid caffein because it causes your body to produce insulin, which you want to avoid. Is your Nestea decafeinated?

Hang in there. I am at point now where I prefer icy cold water to just about everything. completely broke my lifelong diet soft drink fixation. Water and my morning cup of decaf. Oh, and I drink decaffed iced tea. Have you tried making batches of herbal iced teas. I am currently addicted to raspberry zinger.

Hang in there. I felt pretty bad early on, too.

Booneyhead,
Try Omega 3 Fatty Acids, I heard that they help people with depression. You can also try B vitamins they are good for stress. I suffer depression at first because I was addicted to carbs. But that has past I'm off the Induction phase but I'm still keeping my carbs down.
I have to drink my water at room temperature. So I guess it's how ever you can drink it that matters.
Have you tried string cheeze, it doesn't have carbs I snack on those along w/ some slice meat? I also eat celery sticks.

Josie

Hi, I am on an antidepressent too. I use Celexia and I don't think it has bothered me with the weight loss. On your question on Jello, I still use the Jello brand of sugar free even tho it's not recomended...I don't eat it everyday or anything like that, but I do eat it. If you can't find a Splenda geletin, try useing Knox unflavored, any flavor of koolaid and sweeten it to your taste with Splenda or sweet and low.

There are so many recipes here to help keep you on the plan. I really haven't had a problem staying at 20 to 25 carbs a day, just not always getting that many. You can get alot of salad for very few carbs and other low carb veggies help, too.

Good Luck