The New Atkins Made Easy (11 page)
Read The New Atkins Made Easy Online
Authors: Colette Heimowitz
SUCCESS STORY
HALF THE MAN HE WAS, AND BETTER FOR IT
VITAL STATS
Daily Net Carb intake: 20â30 grams
Age: 62
Height: 5'3"
Before weight: 300 pounds
After weight: 125 pounds
Weight lost: 175 pounds
In 2004 when audiovisual consultant Mike D., of Napa, California, told his physician he wanted gastric bypass surgery, he was informed that he first needed to lose 10 percent of his 300 pounds. After two months on Atkins and minus 30 pounds, Mike decided to see if he could lose more weight without going under the knife. It took him fourteen months to achieve that
goal, and he's maintained his trim 125-pound transformation since then. Mike tells his story.
My wife and I renewed our marriage vows in Las Vegas in 2003 in front of an Elvis Presley impersonator. Our first wedding was in a grotto in Hawaii, but that wasn't the only difference. The second time I weighed more than twice what I did when we married fifteen years earlier! Now, as our twenty-fifth anniversary approaches, I'm back to the weight I was as a groom.
I wasn't into most sweets, but I really liked high-carb food like chips, dips, and pies. I used to make a cherry cheesecake to die for. My workplace was sociable and we'd have lots of potlucks and were all into desserts. I'd tried cutting back but nothing gave fast enough weight-loss results. When my HMO started paying for gastric bypass surgery, I decided I wanted the weight off once and for all. I knew that with my smokingâI had a pack-and-a-half to two-pack habitâand being overweight, I was likely to die before my time.
I looked at several weight-loss programs, decided on Atkins, and stayed on a modified form of Induction the whole fourteen months it took me to lose the extra weight. One thing that helped me stay the course was that I'd reward myself with a new Hawaiian shirt for every 10 pounds I lost. When I started doing Atkins I had a 60-inch waist and was wearing size 6X shirts. My waist is now half what it was and I now wear a small or medium.
My wife and I share the cooking. While I was losing I ate mostly meat and salads. The rest of the family would also
have baked potatoes, pasta, breads, and the like. They were totally supportive about my doing Atkins. Later my wife lost the 35 pounds she wanted to lose on the program. She and I find it easy to eat out. For example, we'll order prime ribs at our favorite diner but skip the corn bread and order extra vegetables instead.
Basically, I eat meats, cheese, salads, and cooked vegetables. I especially like chef salads with ranch dressing. Nowadays, my treats are peanuts, sugar-free chocolate candy, and Atkins bars. I've also found a great brand of low-carb bread called MiRico. It's the first bread I've had in ten years. and occasionally I'll have it with no-sugar-added jam. I do the grocery shopping and read labels carefully.
I'm aware of my carb intake but don't count carbs anymore. I realize now that the real key to weight loss is not the number of calories consumed in a day but the amount of carbs. At first I thought that I was “dieting” and that after I'd lost weight I'd go back to eating the things I used to eat. But I've come to understand that to keep weight off, it has to be a lifestyle change. My food preferences have actually changed a lot and I feel healthier.
When I went back to my doctor after losing the weight, he was amazed. All my health markers were excellent. When I told him that I did it on Atkins, he was delighted it had worked. His parting words were, “I probably won't see much of you from now on.”
Losing weight on Atkins and being successful in keeping it off long-term came in handy when it was time to give up my
thirty-year smoking habit. I wish I could say my decision was personal, but my workplace instituted a no-smoking policy. So it was give it up or go off premises every time I took a cigarette break. I was concerned that I might regain weight after I stopped smoking, but fortunately, I haven't. I seem to be a permanently slim guy!
MAKE IT EASY
My advice to anyone with more than 100 pounds to lose is to stay on Phase 1 longer than two weeks. â
M.D.
YOUR SECOND WEEK ON ATKINS
Y
ou're now on your eighth day of eating the Atkins way and are probably off and running. Give yourself a pat on the back and flash a high five! You've almost certainly shed some of that padding around your middleâbelly fat is the first to go on Atkinsâmeaning there's a little less of you to love. Your real weight loss should pick up now that you're losing only fat and not water weight. If you experienced fatigue for a few days as you transitioned to burning mostly fat, chances are that has vanished. Almost everyone reports a burst of energy by Week 2, and many people feel a sense of exhilaration. Perhaps most amazing of all, you're experiencing that marvelous sense of being in control of your appetite. Life is good! Stick with Atkins and it's only going to get better.
By now you know the guidelines for Phase 1 (Kick-Start) and have a good understanding of what's on the menu for the first two weeks (and perhaps longer). In this chapter I'll show you how to branch out a bit with more options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, including a complete meal plan for the week. We'll also delve deeper into the details of daily life in this phase, such as how to integrate
Atkins into family meals, and address some challenges you may be already experiencing or anticipating. Time is at a premium for all of us, so I know you're looking for ways to eat nutritious low-carb meals and snacks with a minimum of effort. Resolving these and other important issues from the start will build your confidence in the program and strengthen your commitment to stay the course.
Breakfast on Atkins can be the most dramatic change from your usual eating pattern. No wonder. Just compare the typical low-carb and low-fat breakfasts below. The latter contains the equivalent of 18 teaspoons sugar (approximately
1
/
3
cup), and that doesn't include a teaspoon or two of sugar in coffee or tea and jam or jelly on the toast. On the other hand, the low-carb breakfast of two eggs cooked with
1
/
2
cup chopped onion and 1 ounce Cheddar cheese in 1 teaspoon olive oil, and 2 ounces bacon or sausage contains just 4.2 grams of Net Carbsâthe equivalent of a single teaspoon of sugar. (For more breakfast carb bombs, see “The Scoop on Sugar: Sweets for Breakfast” on page 83.)
There are a number of tasty and filling choices for breakfast in the first two weeks on Atkins. Let's start with the obvious. Egg lovers are in luck, as it's perfectly fine to have two or three eggs every day.
â¢Â Enjoy eggs poached, fried, scrambled, baked, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, or made into omelets or frittatas.
â¢Â Serve eggs with sliced tomato, grated cheese, a pat of goat cheese, bacon, sausage, or veggies (reheated leftovers are fine) such as cooked spinach, asparagus, or broccoli.
â¢Â Jazz them up with sugar-free salsa or guacamole.
â¢Â Try Eggs Parmesan (
page 252
) or Breakfast Casserole (
page 255
).
â¢Â Check out the Atkins recipe database for dozens more delectable egg dishes.
Okay, you like eggs. And they're great on the weekend when you can chill out, but not on rushed weekday mornings. Or there's no handy deli or coffee shop where you can pick up some scrambled eggs or an omeletâhold the toastâon your way to work. How about these ideas?
â¢Â Pop an Atkins Tex-Mex Scramble or Farmhouse Style Sausage Scramble frozen meal into the microwave. Unlike most other
frozen breakfast products, they aren't built on biscuits, waffles, pancakes, or potatoes.
â¢Â Keep hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. Peel a couple in the morning, slice in half, and drizzle with hot sauce or top with a little mayo and salt and pepper. Or have one plus an Atkins shake or bar. No time to eat at home? What could be more portable than a hard-boiled egg neatly packaged in its shell?
â¢Â Make deviled eggs the night before, flavoring them with curry powder, pesto, chopped chives, or dill.
â¢Â Make a crustless quiche, dividing the mixture into six portions and cook in muffin tins. After they're cooled, freeze in individual portions and then reheat in the oven or microwave.
â¢Â No time to even boil eggs? You can find peeled, hard-boiled eggs in the dairy section of your supermarket, or at a salad bar, along with crumbled bacon.
Even confirmed egg-lovers have days when they simply want something else. Or perhaps even on a good day an egg is the last thing you want to see on your plate in the morning. What to do?
â¢Â Grab a tasty and convenient Atkins Day Break bar or shake.
â¢Â Check out the Atkins recipe database for Breakfast Mexi Peppers, Chicken-Portobello Broilers, Veggie Breakfast Sausage Stacked with Avocado and “Cheddar,” and other tempting egg-free breakfast options.
â¢Â Breakfast sausage (or turkey or soy-based versions such as Gimme Lean) makes a hearty breakfast that cooks up fast. Stuff into portobello mushroom caps and broil. Or broil the sausage, stack with slices of mozzarella and tomato, and run under the broiler again.
â¢Â Pan-fried Canadian bacon also makes great breakfast stacks. How about one made with Cheddar cheese and salsa on the side?
THE SCOOP ON SUGAR: SWEETS FOR BREAKFAST
The typical American breakfast is made with white flour and sugar. In cereals the sugar may be in the form of dehydrated berries, marshmallows, honey, or maple syrup, adding to the already high carb count of grains. Hot cereals are right up there as well, particularly packaged ones. Orange juice might as well be liquid sugar, and bananas are among the fruits highest in carbs. Bagels are outta sight! Take a look at the carb minefield represented by a few breakfast faves:
SERVING | ITEM | NET CARBS (GRAMS) |
1 packet | Instant cinnamon oatmeal | 33 |
1 cup | Corn Chex | 24 |
1 cup | Banana Nut Cheerios | 22 |
1 | Grape-Nuts | 27 |
1 | Alpen | 38 |
1 | Bear Naked Maple Pecan Granola | 40 |
1 cup | Frosted Mini-Wheats | 40 |
1 | Orange juice | 12 |
1 cup | Nonfat milk | 10 |
3 | Plain bagel | 54 |
1 | Strawberry Frosted Pop-Tart | 35 |
2 | Eggo Frozen Waffles | 27 |
2 | slices White bread | 24 |
1 small | Banana | 20 |