I really want to see this thing through but the longest I've ever made it was 10 days. The induction is just so hard for me!! My biggest problem is caffeine and sweets. Any tips on how to get through the induction without feeling like I'm going to die?

Audra Just stick to it !!! The cravings will go away and it does get easier. Once you are used to eating this way it becomes natural. I have been on induction for a long time and I am used to it. I was fallowing it very losly for a while but now I am very determained to keep my carb level at 20 till I lose 40 or so pounds . Then I will start to rise the carbs by 5 grams.

The only advise I can give you is to stick to it and the cravings will go away. Drink lots of water. I was told once by a doctor "when ever you have cravings drink a sip of water and soon you will be craving water not sweets". That might help.

Good luck and happy lowcarbing SMuffy

Thanks!! I'm so glad I found this place. I really feel like I can stick with it. I have found so many great ideas on here.

I have been trying to do the induction since 1/1 but have only made it a week and then given up. It is so hard!! I've lost 8 pounds since the first and I'm getting farther and farther each time.

It helps to know that it will get easier!!

For sugar cravings I recommend taking L-glutamine...500-1000 as needed when the craving hits. It should help within 5 minutes.

If the caffeine withdrawal is a problem, try weaning off rather than going cold turkey....or at least reducing caffeine to a very moderate level of 200-250mg/day. That's about 2 6 oz. cups of coffee....or 4 cups of tea.

Otherwise....just tough it out as has already been suggested. Hey! Maybe give yourself some type of reward if you finish a clean induction! How does a full-body massage sound!?

You can do this Audra!!!!!!!!!!! When ever you want to quit come on here and pour your heart out and someone will come to your rescue. THis is a good place and everone is so helpful and supportive.
I know you can do this keep up the good work and happy low carbing smuffy

You guys are great. I already feel motivated enough to do it!!

I am going to get the L-glutamine. I've heard that works wonders!

And a full body massage sounds heavenly, Teri!!

just like the other guy said try to get off the caffeine slowly. personally i dont try to limit my caffeine as much as was suggested i drink diet dr peppers (2-4 a day) and lots of iced tea with splenda, but i keep checking my ketostix just until i have learned everything i can keep doing and what i cant. so far the caffeine has not made a difference i am in ketosis and have lost 5 lbs. in the first week of induction (and am losing inches as well, dummy me i didnt measure before starting but i can tell there's more being lost than what the scale has made.)

Okay so limit caffeine. I don't think that caffeine affects me to bad because I've still lost and I love my diet dr peppers. I can cut down to one a day though. Also, I love my cup of coffee in the morning with splenda of course.
I'm going to start up a journal and that way I can see what my food triggers are as well.
I also have to train my mind that this is a new WOL and that I can't change myself in a week.
I'm making my list of stuff to get at the grocery store tonight.
I think I'm ready!!

What about asperatmine during induction? Does it have a negative affect?

Also, I thought I heard nuts were okay during induction? Is this true?

Atkins and most other experts recommend the elimination of aspartame altogether because it is a pretty controversial substance. There are other sweeteners available that are not so questionable, so why not use them?

If you NEED your Diet DP to make you happy for now...then by all means, have it. Just try to limit it to one a day if you can. When and if the time comes that your weight loss stalls, that's the time to start eliminating things that might be causing problems.

Nuts on induction? Mmmm...No. It's just two weeks. You can do without them for 2 lousy weeks!! Later, when you get into OWL you can have macadamia, walnuts, or pecans....in small portions! That's the problem with nuts... it's way easy to get out of control with them....like popcorn! Eat just a few (1 oz.) and then wait!...your hunger will disappear. Don't keep eating UNTIL the hunger disappears! You'll have 1000 calories of nuts in ya before you know it!

Gee, I'm glad to see this thread, I'm on my 19 tht day of induction, and have never had any cravings until the last 2 days, I'm just dying for something sweet especially with my decaf tea, which I can drink black, so I've tried a bit 1/4 tsp of slpenda in it, did'nt really do the trick.
I tried Tofu whipped with cocoa powder, splenda almond extract, helped a wee bit made 1 cup do me 3 days. Also I bought my first diet Pepsi 500ml,( can't find diet rite here ) that I made do over 4 days. Not big on pop, but have a cold and it does feel good on the throat.
This afternoon I got such a craving for something sweet, I just fried up a burger, topped it with cheddar, I think it helped.

Does anyone have any other Ideas, keeping in mind I do want to stay on induction another week or 2. please post or go visist my Journal. Thank you

Cheers Kathy54

Hello! I am on my 3rd day of the Adkins diet. Any good tips? This site is awesome....... Hope to meet lots of new people going through the same thing......How well have some of you done so far on the Adkins.....or just Low CarbingI want to hear some success stories Thanks

Hey MacKenzie... there's actually a Success Stories section on this board. Check it out, pretty inspiring. Sometimes just looking at people's stats is a success story to me.

My biggest piece of low carb advice: preparation. I do so much better the days I cook ahead of time and plan out what I'm going to do. Use weekends to roast chicken, hard boil eggs, make casseroles, and then eat them throughout the week.

Good luck all!

i kill my sweet craving by eating one sugar free Jello cup with Redi_Whip on top. i KNOW i KNOW! but i am checking to make sure i stay within my 20 carb grams and am using the ketostix to make sure. and i dont use a whole cup of redi-whip and it has only traces of carbs in it.

i have been on induction nine days and have lost 7 lbs. and i dont know how many inches cause i didnt measure til one week into it.

my biggest problem is i am not hungry now. i am almost having to force myself to eat. its great. and i have no compunction to eat carbs. i had to make chicken spaghetti for my family last night and when i got ready to taste the spaghetti to check for doneness i really did not want to put in my mouth, so i hollered for my kid and made her tell me if it was done or not.

Pork rinds were a big help. i didnt know you could eat them until 5 days in to induction. They were nice for muchies at work (before atkins i used to eat chips at work every morning and this replaces it nicely - still crunchy)

Aspertame- I read an article in the New York Times regarding medical studies being done on Aspertame. It apparently is NOT actually sweet. It is a chemical that tells your brain it is sweet, that's why when you drink alot of it you crave salty foods.

They are rerunning a testing on mice. Apparently, some had severe cognitive problems after long term usage. Another said that your body actually converts one of the chemicals in the aspertame into formaldhyde and puts it in your fat cells.

Its really not good for you. It also causes migranes.

If you want to read up on it, just type "Aspertame" into the Google search engine and it brings up horror stories, medical studies and other such information.