 | This wonderful compilation was written by Doug Freyburger and posted on the escribe Atkins Diet bulletin board 01/18/2002. He has graciously allowed me to publish it here.
It can help you succeed, regardless of which phase of the plan you are on.
The challenges during Phase 1, Induction:
1) Only eating the foods on the list. "Can I eat X?" always has the same answer "Is it on the list?"
2) Understanding that detox/withdrawal symptoms happen to most people.
3) Staying off the scales until finished.
4) Staying on the plan and having faith until finished.
5) Getting up to the quota of 20. It's SO easy to think that fewer is better but that is not true for most people.
6) Comparing yourself to others and judging your loss. Nothing good can come of discounting the value of the weight that you really lost.
7) Variety. You still have no idea just how many items there are at the grocery store you can and should eat.
The challenges during week 3 of Phase 1:
1) Your body is adjusting and that is natural. The sticks get lighter, etc. This happens whether you increase your carbs of not, so do anyways.
2) Most pause out of Induction, so enjoy the loss during Induction and expect loss to start again. It does in week 4 in most cases.
3) Variety. You still have no idea what to order at restaurants so you worry in the face of plenty.
The challenges early on in Phase 2, OWL:
1) Actually moving on to OWL, the whole emotional issue of it. We stepped out in faith that Induction would work, and when it did it became a blanket. If the early part worked on faith, use the same faith to move on.
2) Citing the book that you don't have to move on. This is a different expression of the emotional issue. Read through the book again. It has perhaps two sentences on when you should stay, perhaps two pages on when you can stay, and more than half the book on moving on. Step out in faith
just like you did when you started.
2) Using the ketosis to find your CCL. Since the book is extremely ambiguous on this point it is easy to miss that ketosis is the key to finding your CCL.
3) Adding low glycemic index foods first. The new book has the carb ladder to explain this, but the previous versions did not describe it in anything like the necessary detail.
4) Seeing someone else's CCL and thinking that must be yours, too. It isn't. Everyone has their own and everyone has to find their own.
5) Seeing someone with a CCL of 20 and thinking you must be eating to many carbs.
6) Seeing someone with a CCL of 100 and getting jealous that you can't eat that many (unless your CCL IS 100, of course).
7) Discovering that your CCL is over 50 and being afraid to eat starchy veggies or fruit to get any higher.
8) Really counting carbs, really measuring your food. It's a drag to do it. It also gets easier with practice.
9) Different food *every* *single* *week* to acheive that carb quota. The key is planning. This is the flip side of variety, chuckle.
The challenges later in Phase 2, OWL:
1) Finding your binge trigger foods and avoiding them forever. Since these are the foods that tempt us the most, it is a mental issue to focus on how much we like the many foods we CAN eat, not on the few we CAN'T.
2) Getting back on the wagon after discovering a binge trigger food.
3) Mixing up your carb level. The schedule for Induction and to find your CCL was so strict, it's easy to think that you are locked at your CCL from here on out because you were locked to the schedule before. Once you've found your CCL, you should eat that much regularly, but if you feel
like going lower for a day or several days please understand that it is a great idea to do so, as long as you HAVE found your CCL first.
4) Variety. You survey your kitchen and don't know if you should buy a fondue pot or any of these other cooking methods discussed on the recipe board.
The challenges of starting Phase 3, Pre-Maintenance:
1) Moving on at all. If the emotional security blanket of Induction had that much hold in two weeks, what deep security there is at your CCL in ketosis where you might have been for months or years.
2) Understanding that just above your CCL is now your minimum not your maximum.
3) Figuring out the top of your maintenace range. The book is reasonably clear about OWL ranges, but it just sort of waves its hands in the general direction of maintenance and wishes you luck.
4) Knowing your water swing. The whole time you were in OWL you only weighed weekly so you would not have to see your daily water bounces. Now that you're starting maintenance you need to know the size of those bounces to figure out if the range you selected makes any sense.
5) Avoiding those binge trigger foods and still having more carbs.
6) Variety. Is there an echo in this room, or is there an echo in this room, chuckle, chuckle. Just keep claiming that carb ladder in the new version of the book.
The challenges during Phase 4, Maintenance:
1) I know and avoid my binge trigger foods, so I am invincible. No I am NOT!! Stay on the board to keep focus. Until you've been on maintenance for 5 years, the statistics remain stacked against you. (For the regulars
I have been corresponding with for 2.5 years now, I learned this lesson the hard way, sigh.)
2) Seeing how easy your plan earlier was and going back when you don't need to lose. Fewer carbs may not be any better, but it sure is easier.
3) Thinking that now that you are on maintenance you can go off the plan. Maintenance may be more generous, but it is still on the plan.
4) Another year of peer pressure to eat cow fodder (grain) or to return to eating poison, which they insist on falsely labelling "normal".
5) Still counting after all this time, the challenge is what other plans work without counting.
6) Falling behind on progress. There's a new book out. Borrow it and read it to see what's up. Heck, for that matter consider getting a copy of the 1973 one and see where the plan came from. It isn't that different in
what you eat.
7) Variety. If the difference between a rut and a grave is depth, then practice makes perfect. Specialty stores for odd items and custom orders at restaurants help. Try something different every chance you can.
You too can climb Dr Atkins' CARBOHYDRATE LADDER to success. The ladder starts with the first, most acceptable, food to add to your meal plan as you increase carbs, and each higher step on the ladder represents a carbier (higher glycemic) group. He says to add each group cautiously and slowly, starting with the first 'rung' of the ladder.
When you add carbohydrates to find your CCLL (Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing) you do so in 5 carb increments. There's a very helpful list of foods sorted by carb count on the Links page.
Here's the "CARBOHYDRATE LADDER":
1. More salad and other vegetables on the acceptable foods list.
2. Fresh cheeses (as well as more aged cheese).
3. Seeds and nuts.
4. Berries.
5. Wine and other spirits low in carbs.
6. Legumes.
7. Fruit other than berries and melons.
8. Starchy vegetables.
9. Whole grains.
Dr Atkins warns people to always "be careful to add these foods slowly to prevent re-addiction and the emergence of cravings."
ALTERNATIVES
If you are having problems, are stalled, despite following the plan according to the rules, you may want to consider some of the following alternatives:
Plateau Buster Checklist Texas Elimination Diet The Meat Fast >^,,^< |
