Okay, so by now we know that white flour is no good for us. I used to love, love, love going to a restaurant and having 1 or 2 (never more) pieces of fresh Italian bread dipped in olive oil.

I'm in maintenance now and can have a little more variety than I used to without the repurcussions of cravings and weight gain.

My question is....what would you do? Would you do without it totally (it's not often that I would do this), substitute something else (although I don't know what could substitute for this) or just have a few pieces and move on?

I have the bread.

Mothers day I took mom to Red Lobster. I had two biscuits. First time in over 2 years.

Maintanance is about making choices. It's also about how you handle those choices. Have the bread but don't let it turn into an all night carb fest.

I also say tho, if it causes you guilt to eat it, you've made the wrong choice. Make sure you're eating it with the right mind set.

Thanks so much for commenting. I guess I just needed to know what other people in maintenance do. I look up to all of you people who have lost alot more weight than I have and have kept it off longer. This WOL is not hard, but it ain't easy either.

I have cheated in the past with eating pizza and a fast food burger. What I need to do is to find that healthy balance between having something like the bread and oil once in awhile and just all out destroying my blood sugar.

Thanks!!!!!

This is the mindset thing I was talking about.

There is no cheating in maintanence...it's all choices. It's just what you do after you choose to eat the food that is important.

I love maintanance because I can choose to eat certain things but have the tools behind me that the book taught me on how to stay on the maintaining track.

Krissy, have you read the book Atkins for Life? It's a wonderful book and taught me so much about maintaining.

I just wanted to comment on your ice cream. In Atkins for Life Dr. Atkins touches on ice cream, probably because there is such a love of the stuff. He says to make sure you eat full fat ice cream to help metabolise the sugar slower...less of a blood sugar spike.

Just something to think about

Shell, I haven't read that one. Guess I'll be making a trip to the bookstore this weekend. This phase seems to be the hardest because it's not all spelled out for you.

When I say cheated, it's because of the hypoglycemia more than the weight aspect. Things like pizza and fast food burgers send me into a crash an hour after I eat them. I don't have guilt or cravings after them, I just fall asleep which is not smart to do to my body.

Thanks for the tips and the encouragement everyone!

Hi Kryssi -

I've got very bad hypoglycemia and have to steer clear of flour.

I do a fair amount of baking, though, using wheat gluten. I actually buy it in bulk at www.bulkfoods.com because I go through so much of it.

I always keep a bunch of LC muffins in the freezer. My standard recipe is 8 eggs, 1 cup wheat gluten, 1 tbs baking powder, 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup water. That makes 24 normal sized muffins. Wheat gluten is quite sticky so you probably want to use foil muffin cups if yo try this.

I modify the recipe for sweet and savory muffins. Right now the freezer has gingersnap ones (added 2 heaping tbs ground ginger and 1/3 c splend) and a garlic bread type one (added 2 super heaping tbs of garlic & bell pepper seasoning). They take 22 to 23 minutes of baking at 325.

By varying egg and wheat gluten levels, I can make waffle batter and other stuff. I've made home made pasta from wheat gluten and egg as well. I'm going to try to figure out how to make a yeasty wheat gluten based pizza crust recipe this week.

I love using wheat gluten. You need to figure out how to work with the stickiness and stretchiness, and it absorbs water differently than flour does. It can be hard to mix up with water alone, but it mixes well into egg or if you add some oil.

It's great stuff once you get a feel for working with it, and it doesn't mess up my blood sugar at all. You can browse the nutrition info at nutrition data.com


Lynda

Lynda,

Thanks for that. I bought some wheat gluten and wasn't so sure how to use it, so it sat there. Now I do!!! Great tips!

I go for the bread on rare occasions like that. I was at a swanky dinner on Saturday, and we were served little slices of whole wheat bread with olive oil and some kind of tasty vinegar.

It doesn't bother me to do minor cheating at restaurants. It's not like being at home, where it can turn into a binge. It's a once-in-a-while treat with controlled portions. I've improved my insulin resistance to the point that a conservative dinner time '(ch)(tr)eat' no longer gives me the sugar-shakes/insomnia in the middle of the night like it used to.

If there was no substitute, I would have a very small piece and move on. As long as it is an occasional indulgence and you are responsible in maintainance that sounds just fine to me. I would and do this too.

But be careful, I have found that the effects of carb creep are very slow and insidious. It's not the sort of thing where you eat a food and then you realize "yep, I'm slipping". You don't realize it, often, until it's too late and you have to grapple back to lower carbs only to rediscover how readdicted to sweets, foods, and how unstable your sugar and poor your health had already gotten. I had no idea I was "slipping" until I decided to experiment with lower carbs, only then did I realize I had fallen pretty far (because the difference was so striking).

That's a great point. I love the emphasis on choices vs cheating. You cheat a diet. You make a bad choice on a healthy way of eating.

Food is not just nutrition, it's also pleasure, too. If you're out at a resturaunt and they have delicious fresh bread, have a small piece. The effect on health is nothing compared to how it will heighten your enjoyment of the experience (and that's what eating out is about: enjoyment, not nutrition). As long as you learn to seperate "eating for enjoyment" (on occasion) from "eating for nutrition" (as a staple), you'll be ok .

Yup...as I've always said...Life is about balance. I'm learning that maintenance is too. Thanks everyone!!

I love that it is about choices. I have told many people that maintainance is the hardest phase of all. We work so hard to get to that point, and then the scary part begins when we have to maintain long term that which we worked so hard to achieve. I have found that for me I really can't do the once in awhile thing. Some people can, and I say if you can hooray. One of the things I have learned on this journey is to listen to my body, and that is something each of needs to do. Our bodies will tell us if what we are putting into it is the right thing or not.

Odd thing is, even if I am in maintenance *I should be*
Even if I eat things that I should be *at least on that phase* I go into crazy carb binges, so I am just staying in Induction.

I say, if your body can handle it, and the rest of you can handle it *mentally* then I don't see a point to making a substitution.

Well for me, I once in a while think what the heck and then have a couple bites of big crusty bread/pizza crust/1 fired tater,ect but as soon as I eat those couple of bites, my craving is gone and end up with a knot in my tummy! Not from guilt, I think just cuz my body is not used to it. I'd say if you know you won't over-indulge and it doesn't give you a belly ache, go for it! I think we all deserve a treat! Just in moderation. Bread has been my biggest miss! I love crusty(outside) with a tender inside! hmmmm, dipped in sauce or just olive oil or butter! Damn, you had to bring it up, didn't ya? lol
Good luck! You do whatever works for you. But I'm warning ya, if you do it, and don't get a belly ache and it was the best thing you've eaten in months...don't tell us!!
Jul

I eat bread (at home I eat Ezekiel's, which has a moderate-carb level, but at a restaurant I'll eat a slice of regular fresh bread); I sometimes have a slice of pizza; at home I eat apples and cantalope. I can handle these indulgences with no ill-effects -- simply closely watch my weight for the next several days and jump back into strict induction if need-be.

However, I don't think I can eat sugary foods -- had a couple of bites of tiramisu the other day and my stomach really hurt afterwards -- from the sugar????

I think that maintenance is a time to figure out what you can eat and what you need to avoid, and a constant monitoring of your weight! The first time I lost weight I didn't watch my weight, and I ended up gaining 30 pounds -- this time, which I mean to make my last time, I am going to constantly watch it!