Hi everybody,
I'm Jessica. For those of you who came here from the Kimkins forums, I was jessicaboston. I chose a new username for this forum, because it's time to make a fresh start. I ran screaming from Kimkins (okay, first I backed away slowly, but once I was far enough away to see the big picture, THEN I ran screaming), took a week off of dieting to get my head back on straight (didn't go on a carb bender, but you don't want to know how much peanut butter I ate), and am gearing up to start Atkins by the book. Literally - I just re-read the first 150 pages or so last night.
The Kimkins experience was quite a doozy. I'm not going to rehash the whole thing, because it's time to start looking forward. That said, I did some reflecting on the habits and skills that were a big part of my success:
- portion control
- measuring/weighing things
- keeping an accurate food journal
- identifying authentic hunger (both the stomach growling kind and the feeling-sluggish kind)
- paying attention to my body's signals
- pay attention to hydration (water intake & electrolytes)
- actually following the rules of a diet (if it's not on the allowed list, don't eat it!)
- skipping most "products"
I'm on Induction (rather than loosely low-carbing) as of this morning, and my first goal is NOT related to the scale. The first thing I need to learn is how to apply this list of skills to the new program. So wish me luck!
Full Version: Things I Still Need to Learn
Hi Jessica,
I'm really glad you are here. I subscribed to your journal "over there" and really enjoyed it.
I'm a peanut butter fiend too so I know what you're talking about.
I'm really glad you are here. I subscribed to your journal "over there" and really enjoyed it.
I'm a peanut butter fiend too so I know what you're talking about.
Jessica, you're list is quite impressive for someone who says she needs to still "learn" some stuff. Sounds like you know it already...it's just time to apply it. We're here for you, my friend. Feel free to let me know if I can ever do anything for you! 
Thanks, Jimmy, but taking that all out of the Kimkins context and applying it to Atkins is going to take some learning. Luckily, the deprogramming seems to be progressing nicely:
- accepting that it doesn't really matter if I get to goal this month: check!
- establishing reasonable expectations for loss rates: check!
- pushing the veggies: check!
- welcoming fat back into my diet and inviting it to put its feet up on the coffee table: double check!
My focus for this week is figuring out how much I should actually be eating. I now know how to identify false hunger, but (having eaten 600-800 calories a day without feeling hungry) I'm not confident that I'm always getting the message to eat more. Like everything, it's probably just going to take some experimentation.
My current modus operandi is to:
(while following the rules of induction from DANDR 2002)
- eat reasonable protein portions
I'm cutting myself 4-5 oz servings, which has added up to 70-100g of protein a day, usually 80-90.
- eat way more veggies
From what I read in the book, the "2 cups of salad veggies plus 1 cup cooking veggies" sounded to me like a guideline, not a hard & fast rule. I don't have the book with me, but if I recall, The Good Doctor was saying that those are the amounts that most people can eat (when also eating cream, eggs, cheese, and other foods that contribute a small number of carbs) and stay under the 20 carb limit.
- add at least one fat source to each dish:
(butter, olive oil, coconut oil, cream, cheese, salad dressing, etc.)
- if that puts me under 1200 calories, or if I need a snack, add extra fats or fat/protein combos (like cheese, deviled eggs, etc.)
Ginger: what is it with the peanut butter? I always liked it well enough, but would never go out of my way to eat it. Then about a week before I left the Kimkins site, somebody mentioned craving it, and it was like a rubber band snapped inside me and I suddenly NEEDED some. It hasn't gone away, even after two full jars of the stuff.
I looked up the nutritional content, and it looks like the "big 4" are Vitamin E, Niacin, Phosphorus, and Magnesium. (And, of course, fat & salt.) I've been supplementing with Vitamin E and a Cal-Mag-Zinc, so I wonder if it's the phosphorus, or of my supplements just aren't bioavailable enough. Will have to look into that...
- accepting that it doesn't really matter if I get to goal this month: check!
- establishing reasonable expectations for loss rates: check!
- pushing the veggies: check!
- welcoming fat back into my diet and inviting it to put its feet up on the coffee table: double check!
My focus for this week is figuring out how much I should actually be eating. I now know how to identify false hunger, but (having eaten 600-800 calories a day without feeling hungry) I'm not confident that I'm always getting the message to eat more. Like everything, it's probably just going to take some experimentation.
My current modus operandi is to:
(while following the rules of induction from DANDR 2002)
- eat reasonable protein portions
I'm cutting myself 4-5 oz servings, which has added up to 70-100g of protein a day, usually 80-90.
- eat way more veggies
From what I read in the book, the "2 cups of salad veggies plus 1 cup cooking veggies" sounded to me like a guideline, not a hard & fast rule. I don't have the book with me, but if I recall, The Good Doctor was saying that those are the amounts that most people can eat (when also eating cream, eggs, cheese, and other foods that contribute a small number of carbs) and stay under the 20 carb limit.
- add at least one fat source to each dish:
(butter, olive oil, coconut oil, cream, cheese, salad dressing, etc.)
- if that puts me under 1200 calories, or if I need a snack, add extra fats or fat/protein combos (like cheese, deviled eggs, etc.)
Ginger: what is it with the peanut butter? I always liked it well enough, but would never go out of my way to eat it. Then about a week before I left the Kimkins site, somebody mentioned craving it, and it was like a rubber band snapped inside me and I suddenly NEEDED some. It hasn't gone away, even after two full jars of the stuff.
I looked up the nutritional content, and it looks like the "big 4" are Vitamin E, Niacin, Phosphorus, and Magnesium. (And, of course, fat & salt.) I've been supplementing with Vitamin E and a Cal-Mag-Zinc, so I wonder if it's the phosphorus, or of my supplements just aren't bioavailable enough. Will have to look into that...
Hi Jessica,
The only time I crave peanut butter is when I'm dieting. I don't know why. And I can't stop at one or two spoonfuls. I'll eat half the jar!
The only time I crave peanut butter is when I'm dieting. I don't know why. And I can't stop at one or two spoonfuls. I'll eat half the jar!
| QUOTE (Ginger @ Oct 3 2007, 12:40 AM) |
| Hi Jessica, The only time I crave peanut butter is when I'm dieting. I don't know why. And I can't stop at one or two spoonfuls. I'll eat half the jar! |
For me, it was about 1/3 of the jar at a time.
I bought some on Monday, but managed to throw it in the back of the freezer before opening it, so it's now hard as a rock. Once I get to OWL, I'm going to thaw it and portion it out into 2-Tbsp packets in waxed paper, and then freeze all of those. I figure it will take a bare minimum of 30 minutes to thaw, so that'll put some limits on it.
Induction is going well. Since Monday, I have been doing it by the book (2002 DANDR) with a few modifications:
- I haven't cut caffeine out entirely, although I am slowly scaling back
(I'm down to about half my previous diet coke intake, and have been drinking my coffee half-caff)
- I haven't completely banished aspartame, although diet coke was my only source, and as that gets phased out, so does the nutrasweet.
- I'm eating the GG Scandinavian Crispbreads
Whether these are induction legal is unclear. They aren't on the allowed foods list, but bran crispbreads are listed in the induction menus in the book. They're 0g net carbs, which could be rounded down from as much as 0.5g each, but I only have two a day anyway.
- I'm using unsweetened Almond milk
This is not on the allowed list, but it's very low (1g net for 1 cup), gives a lot of vitamins and minerals for the carb expenditure (40% vitamin E, for one thing) and I have been careful not to overdo it.
My calories continued to climb, in part because I'm adding coconut oil to my diet. I've always been chilly, but did seem to get more sensitive to the cold in August, which I recently read is a symptom of thyroid dysfunction. (Then again, it could have been less body fat for insulation, or maybe they just turned up the AC in my office.) I've been taking my temperature (low basal body temperature can indicate a thyroid problem) and got a big scare when it consistently read between 96.5 and 97.5, but I took my husband's temp and his came out low, too, so it could just be a bad thermometer. Whew!
Anyway, my calories have been climbing (1300-1600 most days, one day up to 1800), but I'm still losing steadily. I am down 2lbs since I started "by the book" induction on Monday morning, and have had steady drops of 0.2-0.4 lbs/day for the last several days. By comparison, I was doing 0.4-0.6 lbs/day when I was doing Kimkins by the rules (leaving out cheat days and cheat recovery days - of which there were many). I think I can live with 1.4-2.8 lbs/week on a diet that doesn't damage my health and lets me eat prime rib. (Ooooh, that prime rib was good!)
Yesterday's menu:
Breakfast:
- Egg White Oatmeal with cinnamon and 1 Tbsp of coconut oil and 1 Tbsp flax meal stirred in. I was crazy about this stuff on Kimkins, and it's even better with the coconut oil and flax in it.
- half-caff coffee with cream
Lunch:
- leftover prime rib
- a great big romaine salad (about 2.5 cups) with caesar dressing
Dinner:
- sirloin strip steak (unfortunately overdone)
- sauteed mushrooms
- grilled asparagus
Pre-dance class:
- coffee w/ half and half (coffee shop didn't have full cream)
Evening:
- 2 GG Scandinavian crispbreads, crumbled into a "cereal"
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- coconut oil fudge experiment (coconut oil, walden farms chocolate syrup, thickenthin not/sugar, flax seeds)
1579 calories, 48g carb, 26g fiber -> 22 net carbs (teensy bit over)
Percentages: 60% of calories from fat, 6% from carb, 34% from protein
- I haven't cut caffeine out entirely, although I am slowly scaling back
(I'm down to about half my previous diet coke intake, and have been drinking my coffee half-caff)
- I haven't completely banished aspartame, although diet coke was my only source, and as that gets phased out, so does the nutrasweet.
- I'm eating the GG Scandinavian Crispbreads
Whether these are induction legal is unclear. They aren't on the allowed foods list, but bran crispbreads are listed in the induction menus in the book. They're 0g net carbs, which could be rounded down from as much as 0.5g each, but I only have two a day anyway.
- I'm using unsweetened Almond milk
This is not on the allowed list, but it's very low (1g net for 1 cup), gives a lot of vitamins and minerals for the carb expenditure (40% vitamin E, for one thing) and I have been careful not to overdo it.
My calories continued to climb, in part because I'm adding coconut oil to my diet. I've always been chilly, but did seem to get more sensitive to the cold in August, which I recently read is a symptom of thyroid dysfunction. (Then again, it could have been less body fat for insulation, or maybe they just turned up the AC in my office.) I've been taking my temperature (low basal body temperature can indicate a thyroid problem) and got a big scare when it consistently read between 96.5 and 97.5, but I took my husband's temp and his came out low, too, so it could just be a bad thermometer. Whew!
Anyway, my calories have been climbing (1300-1600 most days, one day up to 1800), but I'm still losing steadily. I am down 2lbs since I started "by the book" induction on Monday morning, and have had steady drops of 0.2-0.4 lbs/day for the last several days. By comparison, I was doing 0.4-0.6 lbs/day when I was doing Kimkins by the rules (leaving out cheat days and cheat recovery days - of which there were many). I think I can live with 1.4-2.8 lbs/week on a diet that doesn't damage my health and lets me eat prime rib. (Ooooh, that prime rib was good!)
Yesterday's menu:
Breakfast:
- Egg White Oatmeal with cinnamon and 1 Tbsp of coconut oil and 1 Tbsp flax meal stirred in. I was crazy about this stuff on Kimkins, and it's even better with the coconut oil and flax in it.
- half-caff coffee with cream
Lunch:
- leftover prime rib
- a great big romaine salad (about 2.5 cups) with caesar dressing
Dinner:
- sirloin strip steak (unfortunately overdone)
- sauteed mushrooms
- grilled asparagus
Pre-dance class:
- coffee w/ half and half (coffee shop didn't have full cream)
Evening:
- 2 GG Scandinavian crispbreads, crumbled into a "cereal"
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- coconut oil fudge experiment (coconut oil, walden farms chocolate syrup, thickenthin not/sugar, flax seeds)
1579 calories, 48g carb, 26g fiber -> 22 net carbs (teensy bit over)
Percentages: 60% of calories from fat, 6% from carb, 34% from protein
| QUOTE |
| (the artist formerly known as jessicaboston) |
I love this line in your signature! it's good to see you here
| QUOTE (jessdr @ Oct 4 2007, 11:00 AM) | ||
For me, it was about 1/3 of the jar at a time. I bought some on Monday, but managed to throw it in the back of the freezer before opening it, so it's now hard as a rock. Once I get to OWL, I'm going to thaw it and portion it out into 2-Tbsp packets in waxed paper, and then freeze all of those. I figure it will take a bare minimum of 30 minutes to thaw, so that'll put some limits on it. |
That's a really good idea! I may try that. I bought some almond butter today to use in a recipe. It doesn't have sugar in it and it's pretty good. The recipe was also fudge with coconut oil, almond butter, unsweetened cocoa and liquid splenda. It was wonderful.
Vickie: nice to see you too! I had forgotten that I wasn't using jessicaboston here, and that people wouldn't recognize me.
Ginger: that fudge recipe sounds SO GOOD. I'll bet it has kind of an almond joy flavor with the coconut oil and almond butter... I'll have to try it in Phase 2.
Once again, I Can Has Cheezburger provides the caption of the day:
I didn't actually cheat too badly, just strayed into Phase 2* with some peanut butter. It took my carbs for the day to closer to 28 (estimated, since I didn't measure my veggies), but I was otherwise very "clean" for the day - resisted the wine, crackers, cream puffs, and ice cream. Plus, I got the fresh-ground kind which has the lowest carb count and the best flavor, and its denser texture makes it harder to overeat, AND it came in a smaller size than most peanut butter. (Yummier + self-limiting = smart choice.)
I'm not feeling at all "carby" today, so I don't think I did any damage, but I intend to be stricter about the Induction rules for the remainder of the two weeks, and then to be equally careful about the following phases.
Yesterday's menu:
Brunch:
- omelette with swiss cheese
Cocktail Hour:
- 2-milk brie (cow + goat) - yum!
- saucisson sausage - also yum
(There was also a blue-shot camembert, which was a very nice cheese, but I'm off blues at the moment)
- diet coke (resisted the wine!)
Dinner:
- grilled lamb chops
- green beans stir-fried in olive oil w/ garlic and parmesan (yum, yum, yum!)
- roasted mushrooms, peppers & onions
- diet coke (resisted the wine!)
Late-night dessert:
- peanut butter "fudge" (pb, heavy cream, salt & splenda)
In other news, I am seeing some hair loss, and it's freaking me out. I didn't notice it right away because I've always been a "shedder", and I play with my hair constantly, which tends to distribute it around the house, rather than it all ending up in the hairbrush. I haven't lot any handfulls, but I've been seeing more in the shower drain, and a LOT more on my pillow and on the top of the couch cushions. When I left Kimkins, I thought I was one of the lucky ones, but from reading other people's accounts, it seems pretty common for the hair loss to strike when you leave the plan.
I have been pushing the biotin since I first read about other people's hair loss, and may start a nioxin shampoo soon. This is not a big deal compared to the health risks, but I'm a belly dancer and I need my hair!
* p.s.
Phase 1: count carbs
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: weight loss
("Geek of the Day" award to the first person to identify the original quote.)
Ginger: that fudge recipe sounds SO GOOD. I'll bet it has kind of an almond joy flavor with the coconut oil and almond butter... I'll have to try it in Phase 2.
Once again, I Can Has Cheezburger provides the caption of the day:
I didn't actually cheat too badly, just strayed into Phase 2* with some peanut butter. It took my carbs for the day to closer to 28 (estimated, since I didn't measure my veggies), but I was otherwise very "clean" for the day - resisted the wine, crackers, cream puffs, and ice cream. Plus, I got the fresh-ground kind which has the lowest carb count and the best flavor, and its denser texture makes it harder to overeat, AND it came in a smaller size than most peanut butter. (Yummier + self-limiting = smart choice.)
I'm not feeling at all "carby" today, so I don't think I did any damage, but I intend to be stricter about the Induction rules for the remainder of the two weeks, and then to be equally careful about the following phases.
Yesterday's menu:
Brunch:
- omelette with swiss cheese
Cocktail Hour:
- 2-milk brie (cow + goat) - yum!
- saucisson sausage - also yum
(There was also a blue-shot camembert, which was a very nice cheese, but I'm off blues at the moment)
- diet coke (resisted the wine!)
Dinner:
- grilled lamb chops
- green beans stir-fried in olive oil w/ garlic and parmesan (yum, yum, yum!)
- roasted mushrooms, peppers & onions
- diet coke (resisted the wine!)
Late-night dessert:
- peanut butter "fudge" (pb, heavy cream, salt & splenda)
In other news, I am seeing some hair loss, and it's freaking me out. I didn't notice it right away because I've always been a "shedder", and I play with my hair constantly, which tends to distribute it around the house, rather than it all ending up in the hairbrush. I haven't lot any handfulls, but I've been seeing more in the shower drain, and a LOT more on my pillow and on the top of the couch cushions. When I left Kimkins, I thought I was one of the lucky ones, but from reading other people's accounts, it seems pretty common for the hair loss to strike when you leave the plan.
I have been pushing the biotin since I first read about other people's hair loss, and may start a nioxin shampoo soon. This is not a big deal compared to the health risks, but I'm a belly dancer and I need my hair!
* p.s.
Phase 1: count carbs
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: weight loss
("Geek of the Day" award to the first person to identify the original quote.)
Hi Jessica,
I read many of your posts at the "other" forum altho I was only on the forum for about a month. It is nice to see you here!
I love the name of your journal.
I read many of your posts at the "other" forum altho I was only on the forum for about a month. It is nice to see you here!
I love the name of your journal.
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