The New Atkins Made Easy (20 page)

To modify the earlier meal plans to make them suitable for 35, 40, and 45 grams of Net Carbs, follow these guidelines:

Additional dairy Rung:
Reintroduce these foods in portions of roughly 5 grams of Net Carbs. For example:

Legumes rung:
Reintroduce these foods in portions of roughly 5 grams of Net Carbs. For example:

Tomato and lemon/lime juice rung:
Reintroduce these foods in portions of roughly 5 grams of Net Carbs. You can also increase lemon or lime juice from 2 to 4 tablespoons a day.

Check the Atkins Carb Counter for other options.

However, as you seek your threshold for carb intake while continuing to shed pounds, known as your carb balance, your daily Net Carb intake may level off well before you transition to Phase 3 (Fine-Tuning). If you have a low carb tolerance, you may choose to experiment with adding some or all of these foods without increasing your daily carb intake or by doing so very slowly.

One way to segue into Ongoing Weight Loss is to keep your meals similar to those you ate in Phase 1, but now have snacks that incorporate Phase 2 foods. All Atkins bars and shakes are now acceptable, and you can certainly continue to have your favorites coded for Phase 1. Following are some other snacks you can put together in minutes if you have the fixings in the fridge and pantry. They're also portable. Pop them in an insulated bag with a freezer pack and take them to work or wherever.

• Cottage cheese and berries

• Hummus with radishes or jicama sticks

• Celery sticks stuffed with almond or peanut butter

• Tomato juice with a slice of Cheddar

• Greek yogurt, blueberries, and a packet of sweetener

• Greek yogurt mixed with no-sugar-added salsa, with soy chips

• Sliced avocado on a small low-carb pita bread

• Chopped almonds mixed with half an Atkins bar cut in cubes

• Prosciutto wrapped around cantaloupe slices

• Provolone wrapped around honeydew melon slices

• Small low-carb tortilla with black bean dip and a tomato slice

• Cooked and shelled edamame drizzled with olive oil

MAKE IT EASY

In Phase 1 (Kick-Start), you, your significant other, your boss, and your great-aunt Hilda can all eat the same amount of carbs and a fixed number of foods and pretty reliably shave off some excess weight. It's the rare individual who doesn't convert to burning primarily fat in the first week of Atkins. Phase 2 (Balancing) is a different story. Whether you're a fast loser or slow loser, in this phase you'll get a grasp on your own metabolism. This understanding will be invaluable as you move toward a permanent way of eating.

There's tremendous variation in how many carbs individuals can consume while continuing to lose weight. (The same applies to maintaining weight, as we'll discuss in
Chapter 8
.) An active young man might
be able to put away 70 grams of Net Carbs a day (or even more) and keep shedding pounds. Meanwhile, a sedentary menopausal woman might hover around 40 grams or even less. Once you understand how sensitive your metabolism is to carbs in general and to certain foods in particular, you'll be armed with the information you need to tailor your progress up the Carb Ladder accordingly. Once more, your personal carb balance is the number of grams of Net Carbs you can consume while continuing to lose weight, feel good, and remain in control of your appetite. This number usually rises as you get closer to your goal.

As you continue to move up the Carb Ladder slowly but deliberately, your weight loss will slow and almost certainly not proceed like clockwork. Both are normal. A loss of 2 or 3 pounds a week might be a reasonable expectation for your age, weight, and other factors. However, some weeks you may pare off just a single pound or so, or even a big fat zero. Bottom line: be patient. If your weight loss stalls for several weeks, you may have exceeded your carb tolerance or you may have hit a plateau. How can you tell the difference? And what do you do to reignite fat burning? Let's start with the second question.

Before you panic and jump to the conclusion that you'll never lose another pound or that you'll never get above, say, 45 grams of Net Carbs a day, ask yourself these questions.

• Are you counting (not estimating) grams of Net Carbs?

• Are you eating any inappropriate foods?

• Are you supersizing portions?

• Are you overdoing it with berries and/or low-carb products?

• Are you finding certain foods you can't eat in moderation?

• Are you adding additional food, meaning that you're eating more, rather than swapping out other foods (edamame for green beans, for example) to maintain the amount of food?

• Are you eating more than 6 ounces of protein at each meal?

• Have you added all Phase 2 acceptable foods at the same time?

• Have you started drinking wine or beer or using sugar-filled mixers?

Assuming that these queries merit some yes responses, it's time to make one or more modifications to get back on track.

• 
Write it down.
Carb creep is all too common as you start to reintroduce certain foods. Enter your food choices, amounts, and Net Carb counts in your journal. You may well be consuming more carbs than you think you are.

• 
Play hide and seek.
Look for carbs you may have neglected to count, such as in cream, lemon juice, and even acceptable sweeteners (reminder: count 1 gram of Net Carbs per packet). Also be vigilant about reading labels to ferret out hidden carbs in sauces, condiments, and other processed foods.

• 
Abstain for now.
Drinking alcohol could be interfering with fat burning. Eliminate it, as well as any trigger foods.

• 
Check your calories.
Although there's no need to count calories on a daily basis, a woman consuming more than 1,800 calories or a man consuming more than 2,200 may simply be eating too much.

If you're not actually on a plateau, you should see weight loss resume once you make the appropriate modifications.

A plateau is defined as an inexplicable pause in weight loss for one month or longer that's not the result of dietary misdemeanors or
lifestyle changes. It can happen at any time after you shed the first “easy” pounds, but it is increasingly likely as you approach your goal weight. For inexplicable reasons, your body simply slows down and “refuses” to lose any more weight for a while. Infuriating? Of course. Permanent? Fortunately not. A plateau usually yields to certain strategies, including temporarily reducing your daily carb intake. If you're at, say, 35 grams of Net Carbs a day and hit a plateau, you can cut back by 10 grams and likely some excess pounds will budge. You might even need to go down another 5 grams to 20 grams, which will almost certainly reboot weight loss. Once you're losing again, you can gradually start to increase the carbs.

One possibility is that you've stumbled upon your carb tolerance level without realizing it. If cutting back on carbs doesn't do the trick, pretty much the only thing to do is wait out the plateau, although adding regular physical activity if you haven't already done so may also bust it. It will certainly help you maintain your weight and handle the stress the plateau occasions. (See “Nowhere to Go,” below, if you plateau while following the Fast Track.)

Although it sounds counterintuitive, some people have found that slightly increasing their carb intake or adding a new acceptable food kick-starts weight loss again. Patience is definitely a virtue when it comes to a plateau. As you'll remember from Charity W.'s story (
page 48
), she waited out an eight-week period of no weight loss!

If you can't seem to eat just a few nuts, you already know what a trigger food is: it's any food, whether an acceptable one such as nuts or an unacceptable one such as chocolate chip cookies, that you can't eat in moderate portions and which may make you hungry for other foods as well. Once you have one (or a handful), you can't stop eating until the box or bag or jar is empty. The best way to deal with unacceptable trigger foods is to banish them from the house if possible. With Atkins-friendly foods such as peanuts, measure out portions ahead of time to avoid overeating.

The urge to binge is a clear indicator that you may have exceeded your carb threshold. If you're eating too many carbs, fat burning ceases and with it the empowerment of appetite suppression. Bingeing isn't just a matter of eating more carbs than you should; it's being totally out of control, often as a result of eating a trigger food. Eating a second 1-ounce bag of almonds is an indiscretion; snarfing down a pint of rocky road ice cream is a binge. The only solution to such overindulgence is to stop it before it occurs.

In addition to not going too long between meals, always having acceptable foods in the house, and not shopping while you're hungry, these tips should help head off the urge to binge:

• Call your buddy (or a sympathetic family member or friend) for help
before
you succumb.

• Don't eat in front of the television or computer, at the movies, or in any other place where it's easy for hand-to-mouth movements to go on automatic pilot. (The exception to this rule is if you're having a single portion-controlled Atkins meal or bar.)

• Have substitute foods on hand. If a chocolate chip cookie can send you off the deep end, an Atkins Advantage bar should tame your chocolate lust.

Q.
How do I get back on track after an “indiscretion”?

A.
First of all, don't beat yourself up. We all have moments of weakness, and maybe that plate of french fries your friend was eating was more than you could resist. Second, don't play the game of “Well, since I've already messed up, I might as well go whole hog.” For the rest of the day eat appropriately. Don't wait until tomorrow to get back on the wagon.

Q.
What's carb creep?

A.
Without realizing it, as you gradually add back foods, you may be consuming far more carbs than you think you are. This can make you complacent about your intake until your weight loss stalls. Once again, tracking your carbs and portion sizes should help you avoid carb creep.

Q.
Why have my cravings returned?

A.
Usually cravings vanish by the end of the first week on Induction when you convert to burning primarily fat for energy. There are several reasons they may return. Women sometimes experience cravings a few days before their menstrual period. Going too long between meals or adding foods such as dairy products or peanuts may stimulate cravings. Stress can also destabilize blood sugar, triggering cravings for comfort foods. Adding a bit more fat, in the form of olives, half an avocado, or some cream cheese in a celery stick, can help you feel more satisfied, minimizing cravings.

Q.
Do I have to reintroduce all Phase 2 acceptable foods?

A.
Of course not. If you don't like yogurt or chickpeas or tomato juice, so be it. Or if a whole rung on the Carb Ladder holds no appeal for you, just skip it. There's still plenty of variety inherent in the whole foods you can eat on Atkins.