So funny I saw this tonight because we had deep fried turkey for dinner!

Yes please Mel!

I've always had low energy levels and I'm a bit intrigued.

I checked out the Atkins website which said that because I only want to lose around 20 pounds, I should do the new Atkins 40, which is 40 carbs a day and doesn't really seem to exclude all that much.

A bit confusing.

I know right!

I've tried this, lw, with some success. It does get me through the afternoon and lighter dinners saw me lose 10 pounds.

Never tackled my low energy though. As a reporter I always blamed this on crazy shifts and erratic meal times and grabbed food - if anything though my lethargy is worse with regular sleep and an organised diet!

Now that weight has nearly all crept back on because I arrive at the weekend exhausted and with no willpower.

Doctors have tested me for anaemia (they always do because I've always been pale) and as usual, it's low but not low enough to explain anything.

That sounds like the perfect plan for you, however, I would avoid fruit initially. Atkins allows the berry groups, but fruit really messed up my blood sugar, which messed up my energy levels. The KEY to regaining energy is to eat minimal carbs and just stick to the green leafy carbs and make the bulk of your diet fat and protein.

The first 2 weeks, you will shift from glucose metabolism to fat metabolism [your stored body fat] and you will feel really run down when your body is making this shift. After that, you will feel GREAT as long as you stick with it. I wouldn't give into the temptation to add more carbs to alleviate the discomfort because that will just prolong the pain. After a couple of weeks, you will feel fabulous.

I never went through that initially and went from feeling horrible on high carb to feeling great the next day, so your mileage will vary. I suspect your blood sugar levels are very sensitive to carbs like mine were so you might feel great right off the bat.

Do you have some ideas yet about what you want to eat? I can show you what I eat on a typical day and give you some of my favorite low carb recipes.

Yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: 2 string cheese sticks

Lunch: chicken and spinach with parmesan cheese

dinner: turkey, spaghetti squash with oodles of real butter

1 snack of 1oz peanuts and 5-6 pickled okra

I make a sugar free cheese cake that is great for breakfasts or desserts:


Beachgirl's Basic Cheesecake

Ingredients:
32 ounces cream cheese
1 cup Splenda
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons sour cream



How to Prepare:
Bring all cold ingredients to room temperature. With an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese and sugar at slow to medium speed, scraping sides often. Add all other ingredients except eggs . When completely mixed (with no lumps), add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating very slowly. Over-mixing the batter is a contributing cause of cracked cheesecakes. (The leading cause of cracking is over-cooking, so don�t believe any one who tells you it is normal for a cheesecake to be cracked; it isn't.) Always treat the batter gently.

Pour the mixture into a greased Springform pan. Place the pan on a very large piece of aluminum foil, and fold the foil up around the pan to create a watertight barrier around the cheesecake. Then place the springform pan in an even larger pan and fill the larger pan halfway with water. This is called a water bath. It is a gentler way to cook the cheesecake. Place the entire water bath containing the cheesecake in a 300-degree preheated oven.

Place the entire water bath containing the cheesecake in a 300-degree preheated oven. Cook for 1 hour and reduce heat to 200 degrees for 1 more hour. Turn oven off and leave cheesecake in until the oven is completely cool. The cheesecake can even be left overnight at this point. Cracks can also occur when a cheesecake cools too quickly, so don�t rush this process. Let it set up for several hours in the fridge, preferably overnight.

12 servings, each with 5 grams of carbs.

My momma makes a crust for low carb cheesecake with almond meal.

Though, we found the trick is it all has to set for 24 hours to get good texture.

Zucchini is the wonder veggie: Slice into thin wafers for a noodle substitute in low carb lasagna.

Shred into a colander and sprinkle with se salt, rest for 10 minutes, then rinse for spaghetti noodles.

Coffee head? Most espresso shops now carry almond milk for your latte!

You can actually do low carb without "going without."

Cheesecake Factory has one with an almond crust that is out of this world! Great idea to use zucchini in the place of lasagna noodles...

One of my favorites! This is a great meal, very satisfying and filling.

Italian Sausage Soup [best soup I have ever had in my life!]

2 lb italian sausage
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 large onions, chopped
1 16oz can Italian pear tomatoes
3 1/2 14oz cans of Swansons beef broth
1 1/2 C red wine
1/2 t basil
1/2 t thyme
3 T chopped parsley
1 green pepper chopped
2 med zucchini, sliced

brown sausage on med heat. Add garlic and onions; cook until limp. Stir in and break up tomatoes. Add broth, wine basil thyme, and parsley. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Add vegetable, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

Serve with FRESH grated parmesan cheese over each serving

Another regular favorite is here: Pioneer Woman's BBQ Jalapeno Poppers

I use sugar free BBQ sauce that I purchase online: http://www3.netrition.com/guys_bbq_sauce.html

This all sounds delicious!

I do wonder how much of it will be available in British stores though. I've never heard of spaghetti squash or okra.

I love eggplant parmesan and omelettes, I am a big slow cooker user. I recently made pulled pork in mine so its good to know sugar free bbq sauce exists!

I eat branflakes in the morning: is that a no no?

I am a big coffee head HHH! I've yet to walk past a Starbucks - but why would I need almond milk: isn't ordinary allowed?

11g of net carbs per cup of milk vs 0g with almond milk.

Yikes!

Correction: 2-3g in almond milk.

It's significant when you are only taking in 20-40g of carbs a day.

nononono, big energy sapper. Stick with cheese, eggs, cheesecake, bacon, sausages.


Milk is very high in lactose, which is a sugar. I personally prefer heavy cream. 0.8g per ounce.

You can log and add up your carbs/fat/protein on fitday.com. It is an invaluable resource that makes it so easy to track yourself. I don't track every day, but when I feel something is OFF, I will go back and track everything for a few weeks to double check myself.

Hardly sacrifices!



Great tip! The maths part is what puts me off diets.

Same here. But you just need to use it long enough to get a feel for it. It will be an invaluable tool in tracking yourself and getting into good habits. Once you get a feel for how many carbs is in a cup of spinach, peanuts, etc, you won't have to do that. But I am glad I used that for the first few weeks because it is so easy to lose track of what you are doing.

Do you know that many condiments contain sugar of some type and will wreck your diet? For example ketchup and many salad dressings contain sugar. When i eat out, I always stick to blue cheese or ranch, because they usually don't have sugar. At home, I make my own blue cheese dressing.

Do you have this in the UK? One of my favorite veggies, next to brussel sprouts... http://steamykitchen.com/11285-baked-spaghetti-squash-with-garlic-and-butter.html

If you don't like the math part, there is a website called sparkpeople that will keep track of everything for you, you can even scan food into it, I have found it an invaluable tool for me. (It also had lots of other great stuff about exercise, recipes, everything)

Prisca wants to know how in the world cheesecake is on that list if this is supposed to be low carb.

Personally, all I saw was "bacon."

Calorie free sugar substitute and nut based crust.


ML, posted a low carb cheesecake recipe one page back.

I've heard that energy dips during the day can be eliminated with a little something at 10, 2, and 4.