Originally posted by zurgswife
My cravings are poptarts, cookies, ice cream, chips.....I've found in the past 3 days they have dropped while I've over indulged in red meat...
Don't worry! I don't think it is possible to "over indulge" in red meat if you are faithfully following Atkins. In fact, although he does say you can't just continually stuff yourself, he also
strongly cautions against trying to do Atkins low-fat!
As long as you are not "cheating", eating until you are satisfied is a must! You are already seeing your cravings disappear. Try not to worry about eating "red" meat - according to the studies, it will not increase your risk of heart disease or make you fat (as long as you don't cheat by eating the junk carbs, of course).
On Sunday (tomorrow), I will have been on Induction for 4 weeks and so far I have lost 12.5 pounds total. I've been eating steak, chicken, regular (not extra lean) ground beef, nitrate free bacon, eggs, sausage, salmon, tuna salad with real mayo, cream cheese (original, not fat free), regular hard cheese (not low fat), heavy whipping cream and lots of olives. Amazing, isn't it? I know it is working because of the weight loss and because my blood sugar levels are now in the "normal" ranges (I am a diabetic and that was never true before Atkins). Thanks to the stories I read here (about nativetxn's DH and John, for example), I'm sure my cholesterol levels are improving as well. I still have a little trouble believing that all that "bad/rich" food can make me lose weight and become more healthy,
but I can't argue with the results.
Anyway, the point is that you must try very hard to forget about the things you have been hearing all your life about red meat being bad for you. Junk carbs - sugar, white flour and refined starches are the real "evil" culprits!
When you start to get a craving, try to snack asap on something legal that you really like. For me it was a little heavy whipping cream (boy, did I feel wicked drinking that straight, LOL), a Diet Rite soda or one of the Atkins chocolate shakes (and I aften doctored those up a bit with some of the heavy whipping cream). If I was really "in trouble", I had a handful of almonds or walnuts. Now the nuts aren't strictly legal on Induction, but they didn't slow my loss and I figured that they were keeping me from pigging out on the chips/bread/ice cream/cookies/crackers. The nuts never kicked me out of ketosis and I was surprised how they helped me get over the craving for junk carbs.
It gets easier every day and by the time you start to get a little bored with the Induction food choices, you should be ready to move to the next stage.
Now that my cravings have pretty much completely disappeared, I can walk right by the Krispy Kreme Donut displays without even a twitch! You'll be in the same boat very soon! Who would have thought!!!!
Keep up the good work! You can do it!
