Active Low-Carber Forums
Atkins diet and low carb discussion provided free for information only, not as medical advice.
Home Plans Tips Recipes Tools Stories Studies Products
Active Low-Carber Forums
A sugar-free zone


Welcome to the Active Low-Carber Forums.
Support for Atkins diet, Protein Power, Neanderthin (Paleo Diet), CAD/CALP, Dr. Bernstein Diabetes Solution and any other healthy low-carb diet or plan, all are welcome in our lowcarb community. Forget starvation and fad diets -- join the healthy eating crowd! You may register by clicking here, it's free!

Go Back   Active Low-Carber Forums > Main Low-Carb Diets Forums & Support > Daily Low-Carb Support > General Low-Carb
User Name
Password
FAQ Members Calendar Mark Forums Read Search Gallery My P.L.A.N. Survey


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #16   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 01:11
Ms Arielle's Avatar
Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 19,177
 
Plan: atkins, carnivore 2023
Stats: 200/211/163 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: -30%
Location: Massachusetts
Default

I was a great baker--cakes, cookies, breads. Everyday. Those cookbooks just gather dust now.

I have new cookbooks and new recipes. I have learned enough LC recipes to make up a LC brownie or LC cake. ANd watch my kids dig in---they forget it is LC. For teenage boys I like the higher protein to grow muscle!
.
You can eat sweets. Just LC versions! Tons of cookbooks and onlne recipes!

As for pasta, I gave that up too. Usually. We made homemade ricotta mixed with shrimp to stuff in homemade ravioli. I limited myself to 4.

I dont miss pasta. It is a very poor food and I try to avoid feeding it to my kids. I f I do, the dish is LOADED with veg and meat. There is NO food value to pasta than just bad carbs.

Spagetti squash is an option. I love it with parmesan and cream; I HATE it with tomato sauce. Maybe one of the LC pastas is just right for you. Not as low as no pasta but not as high as regular standard pasta.

GOod luck---you have been down this path before, this journey just needs some tweaking.
Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
  #17   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 09:00
Bonnie OFS Bonnie OFS is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,573
 
Plan: Dr. Bernstein
Stats: 188/150/135 Female 5 ft 4 inches
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: NE WA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ms Arielle
Depression is complicated and needs addressing to feel our best. The winter snows reflect a ton of light into my house and help boost my feeling of well being. ALso Vit D.


You're lucky you get the sunshine! We used to have more winter sun here - between snow storms - but it's been very overcast for the last 8 or 9 winters. And we moved here, in part, for the sunshine. Not good for me at all. Vitamin D3 helped, but what really helped me was getting a light therapy lamp. I turn it on every morning - even in summer - & it's been fantastic. January has, in the past, been the month I didn't even want to get out of bed. This is the first winter in years that I haven't been depressed.

I tell everyone about the lamp because I was so skeptical - it sounded like new-age woo to me, so I put off buying one. I finally became desperate enough to risk $50 bucks. Wish I had done it sooner.
Reply With Quote
  #18   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 09:09
Bonnie OFS Bonnie OFS is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,573
 
Plan: Dr. Bernstein
Stats: 188/150/135 Female 5 ft 4 inches
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: NE WA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ms Arielle
I was a great baker--cakes, cookies, breads. Everyday. Those cookbooks just gather dust now.


Me, too. I can't seem to let go of the cookbooks - especially Beard on Bread - even tho I no longer bake. Someday I hope to have enough strength to be able to bake for others without eating, but so far, that's not possible.

I wish Beard had known about low carb back in the day. He had plenty of fats in his diet - his recipes are where I learned about the beauty of cream & butter - but he ate (& drank) tons of carbs. Just think what wonderful recipes there would be had he embraced the lchf diet! Tho some of my vegetable recipes - like Green Beans Almondine - are from him.
Reply With Quote
  #19   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 09:10
Ms Arielle's Avatar
Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 19,177
 
Plan: atkins, carnivore 2023
Stats: 200/211/163 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: -30%
Location: Massachusetts
Default

Great job!!!

If we have 4 days of overcast I am in serious trouble. Serious trouble. I cannot functions--my only goal is to get thru the day anyway possible. The rainy seasons, spring and fall, are difficult; especially fall with the shorter days.

The interior walls of my house are white to reflect light.

One of my best friends is moving to WA. I will visit but not stay for long.
Reply With Quote
  #20   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 09:14
Bonnie OFS Bonnie OFS is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,573
 
Plan: Dr. Bernstein
Stats: 188/150/135 Female 5 ft 4 inches
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: NE WA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ms Arielle
One of my best friends is moving to WA. I will visit but not stay for long.


If she's moving to the west side it will be worse than here. At least we don't get as much rain in the summer. Of course, that's why we've had drought for the past 10 years or so.
Reply With Quote
  #21   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 09:26
Ms Arielle's Avatar
Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 19,177
 
Plan: atkins, carnivore 2023
Stats: 200/211/163 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: -30%
Location: Massachusetts
Default

The grass looked pretty green....maybe the new house gets enough.
Reply With Quote
  #22   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 09:38
Bonnie OFS Bonnie OFS is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,573
 
Plan: Dr. Bernstein
Stats: 188/150/135 Female 5 ft 4 inches
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: NE WA
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ms Arielle
The grass looked pretty green....maybe the new house gets enough.


I lived for 45 years near Portland - enough rain & light to make everything green - not near enough light for humans like me!
Reply With Quote
  #23   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 09:55
Ms Arielle's Avatar
Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 19,177
 
Plan: atkins, carnivore 2023
Stats: 200/211/163 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: -30%
Location: Massachusetts
Default

lol, glad I wont be living there myself. I'll deal with the cold here to have the sun.
Reply With Quote
  #24   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 10:21
Calianna's Avatar
Calianna Calianna is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,851
 
Plan: Atkins-ish (hypoglycemia)
Stats: 000/000/000 Female 63
BF:
Progress: 50%
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ms Arielle
DO you have the recipes to replace the old foods??? My kids eat pizza while I eat LC versions.


I find this to be very important in maintaining a LC WOE indefinitely. I've been around the block a couple of times on this before (back in the 70's... yes, I'm old!), and what got to me both times was that after a couple of years, it was just so irritating to not be able to eat like a normal person, so I'd cave. It was only a matter of time before every pound was back (along with at least twice as many of their "friends" ), and I was back to feeling horrible, eating uncontrollably.

This time around (I've been back on LC for about 15 years now), I realized that a lot of what I was missing when I was LC was certain flavor combinations or certain textures in foods, so I figured out what ones I was missing, and set out to replace them with something else.

One of the big things I missed was being able to eat a sandwich - it gets a little old eating everything with a knife and fork. But Oopsies changed all that. Oopsies are similar to Rev Rolls, only they're soft and pliable right out of the oven - perfect for sandwiches, burgers, and making things like turkey stuffing - which I'll explain below. When I make oopsies, I always make a BIG batch of them. The original recipe called for 3 oz of cream cheese and 3 eggs (to make 6 oopsies, enough for 3 sandwiches) but I buy the 8 oz blocks of cream cheese, and use 8 eggs, which somehow always makes 18 oopsies, enough for 9 sandwiches. They keep quite well in a plastic bag in the fridge.

I also missed mashed potatoes, but it wasn't the potato flavor as such - that's so bland all by itself, and needs lots of salt and butter to make it palatable, probably also some thing else such as sour cream or garlic powder to give it flavor. So it was the texture I really missed. Enter mashed cauliflower, and voila, I have the smooth and creamy texture, even though it really doesn't taste at all like mashed potatoes. I still make my own using cooked cauli, cream cheese or sour cream, salt, pepper, and some onion and garlic powder (a stick blender gives it the perfectly smooth texture), but the frozen veggie companies have jumped on the cauliflower bandwagon, and now you can get frozen mashed cauliflower. Couldn't be simpler.

I also missed my mom's turkey stuffing - but it wasn't the bread that I missed, it was the seasonings- she always sauteed onion and celery, then mixed that with the bread cubes seasoned with poultry seasonings and celery seed. Cut up oopsies give the texture of the bread, the same seasonings give the flavor.

To go along with the mashed cauli and oopsie stuffing, I missed gravy too. So I started making my own using broth (usually saved from baking chicken or beef roasts, but canned broth or bouillon will work too), and mixing in a roux using a bit of xanthan gum and some olive oil. (The stick blender works wonders to make the gravy smooth and helps thicken it more than simply stirring in the roux)

I missed pizza - but there are numerous ways to still have the pizza flavors, which is what I really missed about pizza. One recipe I use calls for baking a flattened chicken breast with a bit of pizza sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni on top. Another way is to simply put some of the sauce in a baking dish, layer the cheese and other toppings (pepperoni, sausage, ground beef, onions, peppers, olives, mushrooms) on that, and bake until bubbly. Sometimes I make a pizza flavored frittata - cover the egg base with all the pizza toppings, bake (or nuke) until hot and melty. There are recipes that call for using cauliflower to make a crust, but I saw in the ad at the grocery store where I work that there's actually a company now making a cauliflower crust frozen pizza (but I haven't checked the ingredient list yet, so I don't know if it's truly LC friendly, or just a little cauli in a mostly flour based crust or not). I've even gone so far as to partially bake a single BIG oopsie spread in a big circle on a sheet of parchment, then added the pizza toppings and finish baking. I still order pizza sometimes when we go out - but the big difference is that I only pick off the cheese and other toppings to eat, and leave empty "pizza blanks" behind. That's what you do when you realize what you really liked about pizza all along was the flavor combination of the toppings.

Pumpkin pie - It's not the crust that really makes the pumpkin pie - it's the spicy, sweet, pumpkin flavor, and smooth/slightly firm texture I really like about it. There's a Pumpkin Bake recipe on Linda Sue's recipe site that's crustless, and tastes better than my mom's pumpkin pie recipe ever did. I even make it in a 9" pie pan, so I get pie shaped slices.

[Linda Sue's site is wonderful for a wide variety of recipes -everything from main dishes to snacks and sweets]

Cookies and cakes - I don't make either very often, but when I do, they're delicious, very satisfying, and completely LC. I've made Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese filling, and chocolate cream frosting. I've even made LC Whoopie Pies, using the LC cake batter, and filling them with LC cream cheese based filling. I don't often use protein powder, but keep some on hand, because can be used to make a crispy cookie - I've even made snickerdoodles and an old family recipe for sour cream Christmas cookies from it. The thing about the cakes and cookies is that you won't don't want make a big batch - Most of the cakes I make are 4" in diameter, and if I make cookies, 1/2 dozen is more than enough. Oh it's also possible to make LC donut holes using protein powder. Just saying.

Chips - the texture of crisped cheese is more delicate than potato chips, but far more flavor. I remember DD1 liking cheddar and sour cream chips at one time - I made chips from cheddar cheese, then put a little smear of sour cream on them - the crunch and flavor she loved.

There's so much you can do with LC foods - don't limit yourself to just a few foods, enjoy the entire array of possibilities, and you'll never miss eating high carb foods again.
Reply With Quote
  #25   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 10:32
Ms Arielle's Avatar
Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 19,177
 
Plan: atkins, carnivore 2023
Stats: 200/211/163 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: -30%
Location: Massachusetts
Default

Beautifully said!!!
Reply With Quote
  #26   ^
Old Sat, Jan-20-18, 11:08
Calianna's Avatar
Calianna Calianna is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,851
 
Plan: Atkins-ish (hypoglycemia)
Stats: 000/000/000 Female 63
BF:
Progress: 50%
Default

Oh I saw something the other day (popped up on FB) that was really interesting and definitely LC. It was a short video showing how to make "subs" using a cucumber. (If you google "Tasty cucumber subs", you can find the video I saw) At any rate, it suggested a great variety of flavors - Turkey, bacon and guacamole, triple decker (mustard and mayo, with beef, turkey, ham, and cheese), smoked salmon with a cream cheese, onion and dill dressing, and a pesto with tomato and fresh mozarella.

If you like cucumbers (I don't particularly care for them, but this way might be worth trying - the crunchiness of the cucumber sounds like it would be nice), sounds like a great way to have a sub without the carbs. Those combos would be delicious wrapped up in leaf lettuce too (leaf lettuce is pliable enough to wrap around the fillings).
Reply With Quote
  #27   ^
Old Fri, Feb-23-18, 21:20
Ms Arielle's Avatar
Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 19,177
 
Plan: atkins, carnivore 2023
Stats: 200/211/163 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: -30%
Location: Massachusetts
Default

I have been doing the low carb thing for 17 years... some times better sometimes not at all.

What I know with great certainty, LC is healthier.

I have two cook books by DANA CARPENTER that I rely on for inspiration. Even my teen boys will pull these out looking for something. THey like brownies made with protein, either nut meat or protein powder like Muscle Milk.

ALso Chocolate Fluff is popular!! Based on diet chocolate pudding, tofu and whipping cream.

Arm yourself with a new pantry and new cookcooks.

Also both my son and I have low seratonin. ANd are prone to depression. SAMe is very effective. Read up on this one carefully to understand how and why it is used. Basically when we are in depression, our body doesnt make it. IMO I think my body just doesnt make it. The second supplement is 5HTP. THis is a seratonin precussor. My son is less irritable and therefore more happy when he takes a daily dose.

Dr Daniel Amen wrote extensivly about these supplements in his HEaling ADD book. It goes far beyond ADD, so dont let the title throw you off. He wrote the book because too few have access to real support for brain health.

You have lots of experience to rely on. Not your first rodeo! You can do this. Maybe slowing down the weight loss and enjoying a little more food would help. After all this is for life. It is not a race, though I understand how that mindset happens. Last fall I carefully calculated out a "reasonalbe" weight loss and in 2 months the first tonnage would be gone. LOLOLOL NOT. lol It is more important to eat the right foods, add a little movement and watch the scale. Adjust as necessary to make the scale go DOWN.

We all have relapses. You are not alone. One day you will have this weight off, and you will stay at a set weight without gain. It is a mind set, a goal, to be valued, to be tracked, to be monitored. You are worth it. You are worth putting yourself first.

We are here to help each other thru the ups and downs.
Reply With Quote
  #28   ^
Old Fri, Feb-23-18, 21:25
Ms Arielle's Avatar
Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 19,177
 
Plan: atkins, carnivore 2023
Stats: 200/211/163 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: -30%
Location: Massachusetts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonnie OFS
You're lucky you get the sunshine! We used to have more winter sun here - between snow storms - but it's been very overcast for the last 8 or 9 winters. And we moved here, in part, for the sunshine. Not good for me at all. Vitamin D3 helped, but what really helped me was getting a light therapy lamp. I turn it on every morning - even in summer - & it's been fantastic. January has, in the past, been the month I didn't even want to get out of bed. This is the first winter in years that I haven't been depressed.

I tell everyone about the lamp because I was so skeptical - it sounded like new-age woo to me, so I put off buying one. I finally became desperate enough to risk $50 bucks. Wish I had done it sooner.


I would not survive well in your area. Have visted several times, love the area. Just cant cope with the overcast. 4th day of gloom and I am doomed.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 02:45.


Copyright © 2000-2024 Active Low-Carber Forums @ forum.lowcarber.org
Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.