...I'm embarrassed to admit that this was me!! I ate like that all the time....I did not know how to cook anything, seriously. I could boil water
for pasta but that's about it...and there was never anything "to eat" in my fridge.

MY mom was a horrible cook and she too, went the route of convenience. Her chicken was always pink inside...ewww!! and floating in grease!! Our favorite food was pasta with Ragu sauce.

I had no role model or teacher for cooking. When I started this whole thing 3 yrs ago, I realized early on that if I was going to make this work, that I'd have to learn how to cook and make my kitchen a workable place for me to be...its tiny

While I don't cook every single day, I have learned to make a few dishes that I really like and to prepare poultry(chicken and turkey) so that it is not only edible, but tastes like I want it to taste....spicy and garlicky!!

I have learned much on this forum....have tried to make many things and some I'll never make again..but I've got a good selection of dishes that I can make now that leave my feeling very satisfied with my food today.

Last night I made yummy fajita veggies(onions, garlic, orange bell pepper, tomato) with a salmon fillet using fajita spices.....I find it very emotionally satisfying to cook a meal that I enjoy eating.

ps- I went to hear Dr Agatson speak at Cornell Med School a few weeks ago. One thing he said about those who are able to make this a success is the fact that they are what he called "foodies". I happen to agree with him. He was speaking about the fact that it does in fact take time to plan, shop and prepare this type of food. Those who are true foodies have an easier time doing this....so I guess that I'm a foodie!!

I feel vindicated somehow.

and i will GLADLY accept the title of "foodie". it seems so... so... upper east side, somehow .

I know this topic has been discussed quite thoroughly, but I just wanted to add my experience. I grew up with a mom who cooked all our meals. Restaurants were infrequent, maybe once every two months or so. I grew up not really enjoying the cooking process, but I did learn how to bake and became pretty good at it. Once I decided that I really wanted to lose weight doing low carb, I really learned how to cook and feed myself. I gained all the weight back and the way I did that was by not cooking and buying all sorts of "convenience" foods. When I finally decided to lose weight for the last time, I was a second year medical student. Granted, I was single and had no children, but this was the most difficult time to lose weight. Then I had to find a way to incorporate exercise into my schedule. I also ended up in the hospital twice in three months and was put on steroids for six months. All of this while staying low carb.

I think ultimately you just have to decide to do it and find a way to make it work. Not easy, not convenient, not always fun, but always worth it. The only way I could get it done was to cook on the weekends so all I had to do during the week was reheat food. I ate out when possible (not much on a student's budget!), but ultimately my success was in cooking my own food and knowing what I was eating. I currently am without a real kitchen and have been eating prepared food from the supermarket (REALLY expensive but necessary). When possible, I will once again begin cooking. I don't know what I'll do once I start my clinical rotations at the hospital. All I know is that I have worked too hard to gain any weight back. Been there, done that, don't want to go back. I just have to find a way to maintain until I'm capable of going back into weight loss mode.

So long answer short, low carb is as hard as you perceive it to be. If it's important enough, you make it work and adjust your schedule around it. I'm really reaping the benefits now, because I have long days and am able to take it physically because I have lost the 75lbs and exercise regularly (although not this week!). I'm in a new phase of weight loss now, trying to find a way to not gain weight with an uncertain and unpredictable schedule.

Oh I am def in that category. I had a chuckle to myself about a thread that was asking for help with recipes for "simple" food. I laughed and thought one mans simple food is another mans complicated. I didn't post anything because what I consider simple is probably by no means what the poster was after

Even before I started low carbing I have always been known as the single person who always cooks dinner (when I'm not eating left overs) and the health provider that has NEVER in 10 years eaten in the cafeteria (I either take my lunch and now that i live close enough, go home for lunch everyday). I must be a foodie--I find preparing a meal very relaxing. Thank you mom for teaching me how to cook and always introducing me to new foods and cuisines!

We must be foodies. I learned to cook in college and then later when I lived abroad in one of those quaint little European countries where eating at a restaurant was considered "weird". Everybody cooked, all the time, even the techno club kids. I lived with other people for a time and even made all of our bread everyday for about a year.

Now my husband is more the foodie - he cooks every meal and is constantly trying new things. Some of this is because he is intolerant to many major foods and food additives but also for relaxation. He will keep at something (mayonnaise is the latest) until he gets the exact right formulation. We can't even eat most salad now unless it is very fresh and well-raised, we have gotten so picky.

Janine

I can understand people who think that it's "too hard." I grew up with my dad cooking nice meals on the weekends, but during the week it was pretty much fending for myself with frozen/boxed food or eating my mom's latest rice-a-roni/canned tuna concoction. I never learned at home how to cook or keep a kitchen clean/stocked. I've tried to teach myself these things, but it *is* difficult...I don't have anything to emulate, so sometimes I really feel like I'm trying to reinvent the wheel.

I do make pretty elaborate things nowadays, and everyone who eats my food tells me that I'm a good cook, but it is definitely time-consuming. I don't know what will happen when I have kids, but I know that there is no way on this earth that I will ever go back to eating the crap that I used to eat. I guess I'll just have to reinvent the wheel the second time at that point, because I somehow don't think I'll continue to have and hour and half to get dinner ready!

So anyway, I empathize with these people on the one hand. On the other, I want to tell them to suck it up.

Theres a TV chef here in the UK Gordon Ramsey who has made it a bit of a personal aim to get the nation cooking. One part of his show is when he goes and meets a family or group of people who rely on ready meals. He then does a challange where in the time it takes then to go to the shop, get a ready meal and cook it he cooks a nutritious meal from scratch, and he always wins! On one episode there was a couple where the wife got home 20 min after the husband and then had to cook, so usually was some ready meal. Gordon showed the husband FIVE meals he could cook in the 20 min it took his wife to make it home from work! All very simple with stuff in the cupboard. Life is busy but i do think with some thinking ahead cooking proper food is possible, its just easier to reach for the packet of premade stuff.

What a great discussion! I, without a doubt, am a foodie (always have been). Actually, I find cooking low carb easier and less time consuming as there are only two things on our plates (veggies and some main course) in lieu of three, as I eliminated the twiced baked potatoes, mashed potatoes with roasted garlic, etc. I think you get what I mean. My husband has not complained once in over a year since I started this woe. Jill

Gordon Rmasey???(Isn't he the one form Hells Kitchen??) I thought it was Jaimie Oliver??

I will admit I only scanned a lot of the responses (the thread's getting long!) but this just jumped out at me. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

I have access to a wonderful lowcarb bakery that makes lc muffins, cakes, and doughnuts that are TO DIE FOR, yet I, a cake lover, could take them or leave them. I totally get a "fix" from bread and sweets and I know that's the reason I have failed on lc so many times.

It is odd that the complaints of these individuals is the opposite of what I love about low carb WOE. I can eat out anywhere. I can go to McDonald's with my child and have a double cheeseburger without the bun and a side salad and be full. I think the only thing hard about this is that , for those of us who do not like tuna, it is a little expensive, but I am dealing with it.

Gordon Ramsay has had several series on UK tv. One of these, iirc, had a segment where he would join a family in their kitchen on a Sunday and teach them how to make a roast -- it was pretty good, he'd make them cook it themselves and give advice and explanations rather than take over.

I've never seen Hell's Kitchen, but from the discussions I've read it seems like they're really playing up on the entertainment value of his temper. I'm not sure I'm a fan of his but there's definitely more to him than swearing and terrorising people!

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Good for you for seeing a particualr food and what it means to you!!

I too, am a flour junkie.....I see it for what it is, low carb or not...its still flour!! I am now very strict with myself when it comes to flour products in general as I know it is my substance and will abuse it if and when I am not very careful.

This morning, after my son's swim session at 6 a.m., I took him to McDonald's for breakfast. I think he looks forward to these little trips to McD's. He's a big muscular 16 year old (looks like a Calvin Klein model, really, from lifting weights, running and playing sports). I was happy I'm low carbing because I had two breakfast burritos and a big breakfast (scrambled eggs, 1 sausage patty and a biscuit) and hot coffee. I scraped the inner filling of the burritos on the big breakfast plate, donated the biscuit and the burrito wrappings (still flavored with eggs and cheese) to my son and had a yummy breakfast. I could not eat all the scrambled eggs (I like McD's scrambled eggs but I might be lucky they make them hot and creamy at the franchise we frequent). My son has some ideas about nutrition but basically he burns off anything and everything he eats, running typically 14 miles and then swimming on alternate days.