When all else (and I do mean ALL ELSE) fails and I'm out where I can't get real food, I can always get something from a fast-foot dollar menu. It doesn't replace an actual meal, but I can always get a cheeseburger and side salad with ranch dressing. Toss the bun and it's a perfectly acceptable LC snack/small meal.

I, too, have nuts with me all the time. Anywhere there's a fridge availabe (at work, for instance) I try to keep cheese, boiled eggs, etc. for acceptable snacking or for those times when the office has lunch catered-in (so I have to stick around for a meeting or "celebration" of some sort) but there's not always something acceptable to eat.

I currently have fruit only once daily and I still have to watch my serving sizes at that. Usually it's blueberries or strawberries in yogurt -- or with some other protein source to slow down the blood sugar spike. I feel like the antioxidants outweigh any H2O weight I may be carrying as a result. And I really think of it as a great treat!

mammac, thanks, I suppose you made it clear to me why some of you don't understand why am thinking of fruit as fast food - I don't live in an area where at every corner I’ll find fast food burger joint you can order with a side salad and ranch dressing, also I don’t live in a city like in NYC with a Deli around every corner, sometime I have to travel hours to visit work sites - I drive and drive then the only thing around is a petrol station with some stale bread/muffins, chips, candy etc in it. Most have only small packets of peanuts, some do have mixed nuts but really salty ones, I was trying to cut the nuts. However as nuts don't have a bad effect on me, may be I should stick with it now and forget about the fruit.

I was also trying to cut on having to take vitamins from pills, I would much prefer it to take the actual fruit to get all my vitamins.

Do maintainers here still take vitamins? Is the vitamins part of WOL?

I still take them. I suppose I always will.

I still do take vitamins and supplements as I want to be sure that my body gets all that it needs.

As for convenience foods while on the go......if you are in your car alot, I know that some carry a small cooler in their car so that they can bring their own foods. It does not have to be from a fast food place.

I cook up 2 lbs of chicken each week...on the grill in my own yummy marinades. I will put a couple of ozs of chicken into a zip lock bag with some baby carrots for a mini meal on the go. Eventhough I am in NYC, I'm with dogs all day and cannot go into the delis on each corner so I have to be prepared with foods that I can eat. Also, I always have 6 HB eggs in my frridge.

Pre cooking easily transportable foods will help you a lot.

I think the pre-cooking some things to pack into a cooler is a great idea and very do-able except if you have to leave your car for hours at a time in very hot temps and cannot take your cooler inside with you for some reason.

I like to make tuna salad on Sundays to have for a couple of lunches during the week. Also big on the boiled egg thing, Judy. Cheese. Veggies read to dip in ranch (it's my favorite and is also available in single-serve sizes at my grocery).

And I wouldn't give up on the fruit entirely. Fruit is obviously a great source of vitamins and antioxidants -- not to mention fiber. I think it works best for most folks (from what I've read over the years) to eat it in small quantities at a time along with some protein and fats to temper the effect of the sugars once they break down in the stomach. The fats and proteins slow down the digestion of the sugars to flatten out the otherwise high spike of blood sugar immediately after ingestion.

Making a meal of fruit salad -- although likely full of good things, low cal, and very tasty -- just isn't low carb.

I had the worst stomach/intestine pain, bloating gassy episode last night, really nasty I couldn’t sleep. Wonder if you guys can help with this? All I had yesterday was roast lamb with mayo (I don’t normally eat Mayo, so this was new) mixed and nuts, lots of nuts (mainly Almonds, but there were some Cashews and pistachios ) this is not the first time I have mixed nuts, I usually have it and have no reaction -
I made fresh carrot soup for my son because he really likes that soup, I added a spoon of flour to thicken it, I didn’t eat the soup, but I did taste it to make sure I added the right amount of spices/salt so I had a tiny bit of taste (less than a spoon, more of a lick) I also cooked the kids a banana cake (cuz the bananas we had were getting quite ripe) again I only had a taste of it not a portion. As I am in maintenance mode I don’t really mind having a taste of something. I expect this may have stalled me if I was trying to lose weight, but am not at the moment. Also I haven’t had any fruit all last week, so I am appalled that I got such a bad reaction simply because I tasted a couple of carby dishes.. this can’t be normal? Did I really make my system so sensitive to carbs that I can no longer even taste the stuff? Or do I have some kind of imbalance? Do I need to take some Acidophilus or eat live yogerts?

I don't think it was a taste of your carrot soup that made you feel sick.....it sounds more like you ate too many nuts. How much did you have?

1 oz is a portion of any combo of nuts as is 2 tbs of nut butter.

Judy – thanks so much for replying, I really appreciate it that you take the time to help. I will tell you how much nuts I ate, only you have to promise not to reprimand me for it .. I just didn’t have an appetite to eat anything yesterday, it was one of those days when I was just not able to eat meat or cheese, so nuts seemed ideal for such a day.
I followed my meal replacement strategy, so my solution when I want to have nuts is to have it as a meal replacement not as a snack – btw: I did this so many times in the past with no problems, in fact I find nuts a good appetite suppressant, so yesterday I replaced breakfast with about a handful of mixed nuts, and replaced dinner with 2-3 handfuls of nuts – please don’t shoot me for doing so, but if you think its so so wrong please explain – don’t mind being corrected.

BTW: my SIL when she was a kid got addicted to tomatoes sauce, she ate loads and loads of it, and one day that was it, the last straw, she suddenly developed rashes and a complete allergic reaction, am worried that I may have done the same with nuts by over eating them, I was ill and this morning I felt pain in my throat (tightening) same as it would feel for an allergic reaction… so am hoping I didn’t develop some kind of an allergy to nuts. I just can’t think of anything else, I even thought it may be some kind of a mild food poisoning? But again can’t think of the source…

Thanks again Judy and others for all the advice and your patience, been re-reading a lot of LC books to reaffirm this WOE and how it works, so I am definitely sticking with it, I have another question relating to the LC science will post in general low carb.

Not reprimanding at all and if it felt that way to you previously, I'm sorry.

Nuts are very high in fat....that is why it is a good idea to practice portion control....you may be having a gall bladder issue eating too many of them. But I'm not a doctor and can't diagnose your issues...only guess.

You keep saying that you are looking for meal replacements.....there is a quote that I've seen around the forum that goes like this "if you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got."

To me, this says a lot about learning new ways to eat that support our low and controlled carb lifestyle. Its all about balance.....too much fruit, too many nuts.....all can be problematic. This is true for meats and veggies too. Too much of anything can be problematic.

When I first ate flax, I ate too much of it because I didn't know any better. I could actually feel it moving through my digestive tract and it did not feel good at all...it hurt a lot!! I learned my lesson!

hi Sandy-
maybe if you told us what you are eating on a daily basis we could help more. I am also confused by your wanting to replace meals with either nuts or fruit. I know of no LC plan that suggests this, so am wondering what you are eating besides nuts and fruit? We have no idea where you live either (you don't have a location) so I am reluctant to make any additonal suggestions that are not geographically appropriate. Please let us know how else we can help-
E

Thanks, am not eating frit at the moment or before, I just tried to eat fruits when first posting this post, I reacted badly and was disappointed, apart from fruit and nuts I eat meat, veg, eggs, and cheese. I actually eat nuts like once a month, not on a daily basis, but when I eat nuts I don't like to eat it as a snack, I just eat it instead of a meal, I don’t force myself not to eat a main meal when having nuts, but perhaps because nuts are so fatty I sort of don’t have an appetite to eat anything else.

I wanted to introduce fruit for variety and to hope to get rid of taking vitamin pills, I sometimes don't have appetite to eat meat or veg or cheese or eggs, so was thinking like a couple of fruit or fresh fruit salad for breakfast or lunch sometimes if not too hungry, however, it seems this is not going to work for me now (my stomach didn’t like it lol).

I was also hoping to use fruit as a healthy portable fast food, again it seems this is not going to work out, due to Judy’s advise, and me re-reading some of the LC books I concluded that a 2-3 fruits will my insulin level and this is something I don't want to do. Therefore, will listen to Judy's advice and stick to berries with some nut flakes or cream to keep the glycimic effect as low as possible.

Thanks for offering to help, I do appreciate that you and others on this forum are going out of your way to help. If you have any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Sandy, my mother gets bloated and gassy from pistachios. She seriously has an allergic reaction to them that sounds EXACTLY like the symptoms you described. It baffled her for a long time, because she used to be able to eat them without problems, so she didn't even think they could be the culprit. But they were!