I've been on a low carb diet for a month or so now. It's the Atkins Phase I, Induction and it's a tough one for anyone who loves their carbs. Phase I of Atkins allows you only 20 carbs a day. The average American consumes more than 500 carbs a day so you can see what a stern requirement Atkins lays on you. The Atkins diet seems to be the only one that works for me these days. As I've gotten older my metabolism is not the roaring fire engine it was in my youth so stern measures are called for.
A few years ago I went on the Atkins diet and lost 50 pounds in three months. Over the next few years those pounds came back for a repeat performance. But I've found it harder and harder to stay on a low carb diet for more than a few days. However, a month ago I started looking at it as more of a lifestyle and less of a diet, as my youngest daughter practices it. I have chosen to be less rigid with myself with this diet. In my earlier low carb attempts I pretty well limited my self to steak, chicken and tuna with green beans or a salad as side servings. Not bad but it got old pretty fast.
This time I've been making an honest effort to seek out alternative recipes that provide variety through low carb "workarounds". My daughter had recommended Linda's Low Carb, a site maintained by a lady who really does offer a great variety of recipes that are tasty and allow you to live permanently on a low carb regimen. She teaches low carb folks how to put a crust on fried chicken or fish, how to have tasty desserts and how to enjoy rich but low carb foods.
This past week I have prepared the fried chicken and batter fried fish and "faux rice" and "faux hash browns and they are really good...and help keep me motivated to stay on the rigid Phase I induction phase. I've lost 20 pounds this month and do not feel deprived.
I did have one hang up; Linda has many, many dessert recipes and I was hankering for more variety in desserts. I came across Linda's mention of Netrition.com on her site and hunted the Netrition folks up on the net. They have all kinds of vitamins and supplements for weight lifters and athletes and health nuts in general, but I was interested in their low carb food offerings. And I found Netrition to be just what I needed!
The first order I placed with Netrition was their CarbQuick baking mix and a package of Mama Lupe's low carb tortillas. Netrition offered a $4.95 flat rate shipping for my entire order so it was easy to order from them. I was excited as a kid at Christmas when my order arrived. That very day I heated up some really wonderful Mama Lupe tortillas and made tacos that night for supper....at 3 carbs per taco! Unlike so many low carb products, Mama Lupe's are great and taste just like regular tortillas!
The next morning I broke out the CarbQuick and followed their recipe for biscuits. I made a small batch of biscuits to go with my turkey bacon and eggs and it was so great to eat hot biscuits with my breakfast.
I was batting two for two with my first order!
After this success I went back to the Netrition site and ordered Judy's sugar free peanut brittle, Judy's sugar free nut caramels, a pack of low carb pita bread, a box of no carb cookies and three more packs of Mama Lupe's tortillas to store in the freezer! Kinda went nuts on this order.
With one exception every product I have received from these folks live up to the rave reviews they receive on Netrition. The candy was wonderful and did not upset my digestive system or interfere with my continuing weight loss. The one exception was a package of ginger cookies from True Zero no carb cookies; they just didn't do it for me.
But, all in all, I've never found so many wonderful tasting low carb foods as is offered through Netrition. While visiting their sites I saw an offer for blogging sites to sign up with them as Affiliated partners.
Thus, you now see a new advertiser on my blog! Anyone who wanders on to their site through my blog link enriches me in the form of a commission for leading you there.
You may take this blog as a shameless plug for Netrition if you like. But I know there are people who struggle to stay on low carb diets. If you are one of them it wouldn't hurt to give these folks a try. They have excellent customer service and offer the best variety of low carb products as any I've found!
Gotta go now...there's three quarter of a cup of sugar free peanut brittle calling my name. :)
5 comments:
Eating a few less carbs would probably be better for me but I absolutely have to have my toast in the morning. It's the desserts that I stay away from but I can't say I actually follow any diet. Just very few desserts, almost never candy and only two sodas a week. I stopped getting diet soda because I'd read something about it causing strokes. Sooooo....I just limit the regular sodas.
I go out for a fish meal twice a week. It has to be grilled though even as much as I love Culver's North Atlantic Cod basket. Ok, I just had that yesterday with fries so no more fries this week. How about grilled salmon at Ruby Tuesdays! I'm glad there's one here and an Olive Garden. It's soup and salad for me there.
PammieJean, I've been bugging Sprouts here in Phoenix to start stocking the Julian's Bakery no carb and one carb bread. Low carb folks says it's delicious and not rubbery like some of the other low carb breads.
Had to come back to this one because I've been hearing a lot lately about being 'wheat free' and 'gluten free'. Had never really heard of it before moving here. There's a whole section of gluten free foods at the grocery store. And a friend of one of my daughters went totally gluten and wheat free so she could stay thin before she married some well known athlete. Anyway, there's also a book called Wheat Belly that's been mentioned too. I'm not going to buy it but this whole thing is mind boggling. How many years have 'they' (whoever they are) been telling us to eat whole wheat breads, pastas, etc.? Then you have the dentists advertising a toothpaste to protect tooth enamel because citrus destroys it? We're told one thing, then ten years later, it's bad?
The daughter in Chicago, with the gluten free friend, has had food issues since way back. She's been trying to get me to stay clear of red meat and dairy products and started to tell me some gross stuff and I said please don't. I've been drinking skim milk for 30 yrs, and curbed my red meat intake years ago. But she is now becoming a vegan I think. She is a long distance runner and this has me worried. But, she'll be 30 next year and stopped hearing me years ago.
And now the Fargo daughter, who I do all the grocery shopping for, has asked me to start reading the labels for foods free of MSO....or something like that. The Chicago daughter sent us an email with a list of products to avoid. At this rate I'll end up spending 3 hrs at the grocery story instead of an hour and half. Very frustrating.
Sorry....I kind of blathered on a bit.
I agree that too many people are making it all too damn complicated and it's stupid to mess with it if your'e not allergic to gluten (btw gluten free does not mean low carbs). If you are not obese, PammieJean you ought to stick to a balance of all foods. Low carb just happens to be the only diet that works for me to lose weight. If I weren't over weight I would say to hell with it.
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