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Maxine - 14 Mar 2004 17:40 GMT

You kindly responded to my post earlier in the week re the south beach diet
v atkins. I know you have been posting on here for a long time and wonder
if you would be willing to give me some advice? Firstly i must explain that
I am 57 years old and I have been on low fat diets most of my life I am
5'1" tall and I now weigh 160 lbs down from 181 lbs, and my GP wants me to
get to 146 lbs. I know that is higher than my height/weight should be but I
have had bowel surgery and he says he would be very happy if I got to that
weight which is the lowest I have been for over 20 years. (max 196 lbs) I
do get arthritis in my hips, shoulders and knees which makes exercising
difficult. I do garden and walk as much as I can, I also try to swim but
the nearest pool is 20 miles away (I live in a rural part of West Wales UK)
so i can only get there once a week max. I have found Atkins quite easy to
follow after Weight Watchering for many years, but as explained in my
previous post I am not stuck.

I have a 50 gr slice of melon (weighed with skin on) and cheese for
breakfast, salad and meat or tinned fish with mayonnaise for lunch. My
salad only includes lettuce, raddish, cucumber and celery. I only eat one
tomatoe a week as they are higher in carbs. I only have about 7 ozs of
salad. For supper I have meat with cauliflower or cabbage, brocolli, runner
beans or similar and sometimes brussell sprouts. I weigh my veg to make sure
they are not more that 7 ozs. I do have gravy with it but i reckon that adds
about 2 gr carb. About twice a week I have bacon, sausage, egg, mushrooms
for supper. In the evening i have sugar free jelly and cream.

For snacks I have pork scratching a packet lasts me 3 days, and 75 grams of
nuts mostly almonds but sometimes hazel nuts or peanuts. If i havent had all
my salad allowance in the day I sometimes eat celeery with cream cheese in
the evening.

I drink water and i have two cups of decaff coffee made with cream.

I stick to 4 oz of cheese a day and 2 tablespoons of cream.

For the past 2 weeks i have had a crispbread a day which add on 3 carbs
(they were the lowest i could find) with butter.

Can you make any suggestions as to how i can get the weight loss going
again. I know there have been suggestions about calorie counting but i was
hoping that with atkins that would be avoided, but if i have to i have to.
How do you work out how many callories you can have? If they were weight
watcher level 1200 i wouldnt be able to eat hardly anything that i eat now,
the cheese alone would add up to that!!

I really would be most grateful for any help/advice as this diet is only
just catching on in the UK and there are no help groups, and very low carb
food. There are a few places you can order on line but they are expensive
and i dont have a problem with preparing my own food anyway.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Maxine

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Roger Zoul - 14 Mar 2004 18:18 GMT

:: You kindly responded to my post earlier in the week re the south
:: beach diet v atkins. I know you have been posting on here for a
[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]
::
:: Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Hi Maxine:

There are many ways to proceed. I offer some ideas.

1) fitday.com is your friend. Please learn to use it.
2) Use fitday.com to track what you're eating now for a week or two. If you
remain stuck (weight doesn't go up or down) then you are at your maintenance
level of calories with whatever exercise you get now. Note your typical
carb intake as well.
3) Use fitday to drop your calories by about 500 kcals per day, provided
that doesn't take you below 1200 kcals per day. You may need to limit the
cheese, bacon, sausage, butter, and other high calories foods. But be sure
to plenty of high fiber veggies.
4) If you can do #3, you should lose about a pound a week, or about 4 or 5
lbs a month. If you can't, drop as much as possible and accept that you're
have to have slower weight loss. That is no crime and many people
(including short people, like you) have to do that.
5) If you can find a way with too much pain, try get more exercise on a
regular basis and track it with fitday.com.
6) Read and post here daily....expect to have to make further tweaks along
the way, too.

Good luck.

Reply to this Message

Maxine - 15 Mar 2004 16:40 GMT

Thank you Roger. I have registered with FitDay and i have listed everything
I have eaten today, plus other items that I usually eat ready for making up
my daily diary. I will monitor my progress over the next week or so as you
suggest. It is interesting i have already realised I will have to cut down
on my nut intake.

I will let you know the result.

Maxine

> :: You kindly responded to my post earlier in the week re the south
> :: beach diet v atkins. I know you have been posting on here for a
[quoted text clipped - 74 lines]
>
> Good luck.

Reply to this Message

The Queen of Cans and Jars - 16 Mar 2004 15:38 GMT

> :: You kindly responded to my post earlier in the week re the south
> :: beach diet v atkins. I know you have been posting on here for a
[quoted text clipped - 74 lines]
>
> Good luck.

Maxine, basically, my advice would be the same as Roger's.

exercise is really important for me. if i don't do it, i don't lose.
if you have a vcr or can play dvds, you might be able to get some
exercise videos or dvds that would allow you work out at home. pilates
and yoga are a little bit easier on the body than things like aerobics
but still offer good possibilities for conditioning, so maybe consider
looking for those. you might also consider getting some dumbbells and
beginning a weight training program. lots of good information is
available here:

http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html

i know it's tough with the arthritis but i think you could probably find
a way to modify a routine to suit your needs. even just ten minutes a
day of strength training with weights can make a difference. it is
without question the single best thing i have ever done for my body.

i know counting calories is kind of a pain in the butt, but it's good to
know where you stand. i personally found it surprising how quickly the
little things added up, and having the accountability helped me a lot.
if you tend to eat the same things on a regular basis you can get away
with not counting them every day, but i really do recommend that you do
it if for no other reason than to arm yourself with realistic
information about what you are eating. it's very easy to tell ourselves
that "we're doing it right" but when the numbers are looking you in the
face you have to acknowledge them.

you've made wonderful progress so far. you're very close to your goal.
hang in there!

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PJx - 14 Mar 2004 20:05 GMT

Maxine, you seem quite dedicated to following your diet plan. I have
a suggestion that you can try for one week that has helped many people
get out of a stall on their plan.

atkins fat fast
http://atkinscenter.com/Archive/2001/12/21-237659.html

Give it one week of your life and your life and health may be paid
back many fold.

Pj

>You kindly responded to my post earlier in the week re the south beach diet
>v atkins. I know you have been posting on here for a long time and wonder
[quoted text clipped - 48 lines]
>
>Maxine

Reply to this Message

Maxine - 15 Mar 2004 16:41 GMT

Thanks, PJx. I will try this if all else fails, I am going to try and limit
my calorie intake for the next couple of weeks and see how that goes.

> Maxine, you seem quite dedicated to following your diet plan. I have
> a suggestion that you can try for one week that has helped many people
[quoted text clipped - 60 lines]
> >
> >Maxine

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