Key points I have learned...
Okay - right up front: Everyone's body is different and what works for me may not work for you. Before you start *any* diet, check with you medical professional. Atkins seems to be doing it for me and both my nurse practioner and MD are happy with my doing it. I know Weight Watchers works great for some. Smae with Slim Fast. The *key* to any diet is 'behaviour modification'. Otherwise, you'll go off it and yo-yo your weight around which, in the end, can be worse for your health than the weight was in the first place.
The key points I've found over this last month [with Atkins or any diet]:
1: Any exercise is good. Right now I'm fairly limited becasue I blew my right knee out a week into the program and now have a brace on it - so much for my retaking up folk dancing right away.
But I walk the hallway in my apartment building several times a day. Even walking around outside for 10-15 mins. three times a week is a start. And it gets you out of the house where you can fall into the 'snack zone'.
2: It *is* better to eat several small meals a day if you get hungry fast. I keep hard boiled eggs and pre-sliced cheese in the fridge along with a can of olives [all things I can have during 'induction' - the first phase of Atkins] and if I get the feelig I'm hungry, I grab something than before I *do* get hungry. I found I really eat less over the day.
3: Quality is better. I'm lucky with this. My local grocery prepairs just about all their own meat [an oddity in the US] and use things like ground chuck roast for their ground beef. Very little fat and pretty good flavor even cold. If you buy cheap products, there's a good chance there's a lot of filler in them. I can't stress enough to read lables.
4: "Low Fat" isn't always the best product. To make something 'low fat' and still taste good, a lot of companies add sugar and extra carbohydrates. You may not get the fat, but the product may not be any better for you. This is *especially* important on any 'low carb - high protien' diet like Atkins or the diabetic exchange diets. Read. Read. Read!
5: For us Atkins folks - get the ketosticks or your equivlent. You need to know that you are spilling ketones in the urine and not just water weight on the scale. You don't have to check every day, but you should check a couple of times a week. I tell the local pharmacist I need them for dieting and not becasue I'm diabetic. He finds me the cheapest cost.
6: A good scale and a tape measure. Talk about positive reinfourcement!
Seeing that first inch disappear from chest, waist and hips in that first week along with my weekly weigh-in was a major boost. Now I weigh and measure once a week - no more than that - and it's nice to see the trend.
7: Accept that you'll slip-up. This is not permission to binge off the diet, just the acceptance that you're human and if you blow it, not to drop the entire project. I was baking scones for my husband [I love to bake and this was a *bad* thing for me to do] and made only a small batch of 4 with dried cranberries in them. I held out for about an hour and then made off with this poor little maybe 4 ounce scone. Took me probably 20 minutes to eat the thing, I savored every bite. And that's been it for these 4+ weeks. It happened. I moved on. I also don't bake anymore right now.
8: Peer Group Support. A family member, a friend, a group - anyone you an talk to when you need a boost or to touch base with. Ultimately you're the one doing the work, but it's nice not to feel all alone out there.
Hang in there folks. We will survive.
Rowan
