rileydan's Journal, 11 November 2012

I only looked at a few of your food days but there are quite a few things that you're eating/drinking that you shouldnt be on induction. The sugar free candies, peanut butter, almond and coconut milk and worst is the vegetables with cheese sauce. How much water are you drinking per day? 64 oz is the recommended amount for an average person. If you weigh 285, you should be getting in at least 140 oz per day. You should be getting around 20 net carbs per day but 12-15 of them need to come from strictly veggies. You can take some frozen broccoli, shredded cheddar and heavy cream and make your own. It wont have all the carbs that the bag stuff does. I think going and eating fast food is a way for you to sabotage yourself. JMHO. 

I have to agree with Christie (FitnessJunkie). You have to work the diet right if you want the diet to work right. Wine is also not suitable for Induction. Your RDI of calories is 2500, but it seems on most days you are way below that. But, even on the days that you do get close to that, you haven't eaten much food. The kinds of food you're choosing have lots of calories and carbs, so the amount of food you're eating in a day is very small. Doing that could easily cause you to get discouraged and cheat, or feel overly-restricted. That, combined with the frustration of seeing the same 5 pounds come off and go back on, will surely cause you to just give up. I think you're already sabotaging yourself without realizing it :/ If you want to go and have the big splurge and then start over, then do that, but start back with a better meal plan in mind. You can Google "Atkins what can you eat in this phase" and get a better idea of what kinds of things you need to buy at the supermarket. Things that will help you lose :) And as Christie said, drink LOTS of water! Especially on the days that you eat Flax Seed Meal. I also like to eat things made with it. I drink anywhere from 60 ounces of water to over 100 ounces a day, and it still takes about 2 days to get it, and the rest of the food I've eaten, out of my body. I hope you don't take our comments as "preaching" to you. We're only trying to help you accomplish what you've set out to do. Good luck to you :) 

Yes, I agree with Angie. We are definitely not preaching. I know when I first tried the low carb approach, I wasnt following the plan and wasnt losing weight. When I tweaked what I was doing wrong, and read the book, I dropped about 50 pounds in 2 months. You should have been able to drop more than 5 lbs just in water weight. Maybe reading the book and doing some research on the Atkins website will be helpful for you. The website lays the diet plan out for free for you and gives you a list of food you can eat in each phase as well as recipes that are acceptable in each phase.  

I really appreciate the comments. I only started eating the sugar free candy, and it has been very helpful because I was having a difficult time “going” before I ate a couple pieces per day. I hear you about the water, I drink tons. Wine is just a onetime thing and I actually lost a pound the next day, go figure. I don’t really think the broccoli cheese is making me not lose weight the whole time but I will cut that out. Again thanks for the help, I still feel a bit lost. I have read about 6 books including the Atkins books. I was very strict at first and the result was very minimal losses.  

You're very welcome :) That's what this site is for. To help you along when you're having problems :) I just noticed, also, that you're not getting very much fiber. Try eating more green veggies, like broccoli, spinach or green beans. Salads are also good. Use a type of "lettuce" that is green and leafy, like Baby Spinach or even a Spring Mix. Eating more foods like those, which are insoluble fiber, will help you to "go". With low-carb, the "cleaner" you eat, the better you'll lose. By "clean", I mean eating fresh, unprocessed foods. I think by cutting out the sugar-free products you'll see a loss. And you're right, it may not be the packaged broccoli and cheese that is making you not lose, but it's the combination of that, plus everything else you're eating. Good job for drinking TONS of water! And anytime you have a question about ANYTHING, do ask. We've all been where you are at one point in time and we are very willing to share our experiences with you so that maybe you can benefit from them :) 

It also might be helpful for you to join a more active group than the ones you are in now. Christie and I are in a group called "Low Carb Daily Check In". It's a small group of people who are very active on this site. Your posts will always be responded to, plus you'll receive motivation and inspiration from all of us on a daily basis. We share our past and present experiences, our daily ups and downs, our frustration and our victories, and also, tips and recipes :) It's a very relaxed atmosphere of people simply helping other people, and we're all getting through this together. We'd be very happy for you to join us there, if you like :) 

Please join the group Angie mentioned if you haven't already. We want to help others as much as we are trying to help ourselves. With some time and tweaking of your diet I guarantee that you will see those pounds just melt away. Best wishes to living the Atkins way!