Tues the 26th was the end my two week induction, and I still crave sweets! The only thing that gets me by is my diet decaf pepsi, and it has aspartame in it, and whats the deal with that?
I've bought the strips, and I'm at the scant level or the small level depending on the time of day, I've lost 14 lbs. (the last 4 between monday and tuesday wow what a rush that was to see) the headaches are gone the indegestion is gone so why is this demanding urge for sweets still here and how long will it be so bad?

for many people, the cravings remain as long as they keep ingesting artificial sweeteners. Also, you could have a food allergy you don't know about that is triggering general cravings. Or you might be undereating and so just plain hungry! Skipping breakfast can cause poor blood sugars throughout the day...lots of possibilities.

I'd do two things--well, three really. Cut out the diet pepsi, start a detailed journal here so people can review your food and make suggestions, and the third thing (hardest advice in the world to take and easiest to give, I know!) is be patient. Two weeks isn't a lot of time out of a whole lifetime spent (if you're like me) in abusing food...it can take longer for the body to straighten itself out.

I think I'm eating enough I did list a record of what I'eating on fitday.com under Elaine3 but here's what I did today:

breakfast
2eggs with cheese and three slices of shaved turkey all mixed together in a bowl and put in the microwave with coffee and creamer and hand full of pork rinds

midmorning snack
1 cup jello w 1 Tbls whipped heavy cream

lunch
1 can vienna sausages
10-12 colby-jack cubes pkg style
2 deviled eggs
handfull pork rinds
1 glass no ice diet decaf pepsi

dinner will be meat green veg green salad 2-3 deviled eggs

I have been a pop freak for the last 27years demanding from everone in my house to never take the last pepsi from the fridge because IT"S MINE... to now drinking only diet decaf pepsi if there's one out there with spenda please tell other wise I have to have my PEPSI

My advice here is to try going for a few days w/o any artificial sweeteners and see how you feel (this means the SF jello and the diet pop). If the cravings go away you'll know, wont you?

Q; are you also drinking water during the day?

Nat

I'm really new at all this dieting stuff, haven't done anything like this since before my youngest was born, in other words 1989. I was a fit preg pop drinker at 160 lbs and after he was born went back down to a fit pop drinking 140 lbs within two months. Then it started coming on me no longer did I work outside the home I stayed in and ate and ate and ate little Debbies (and pepsi), choc was what I craved and from then till now I just kept on gaining, so now I've been doing this Atkins thing for a little over 2 weeks and have gone from 289 to 273 thats 16 lbs in 17 days I'm sure I'll have some cravings and I can do without th sf jello but not my pop (pepsi) is there a soda pop out there made w/ splenda? I'v tried the tea thing but it's not my pop. thats the last vice I have I don't drink, don't smoke, don't cuss, and don't stay up all night, and now I don't carb out, all I do is drink pop

Hang in there Elaine, there is a pop with splenda, Diet Rite.
I know it's not sold everywhere, but try Walmart if your local super market doesn't have it. It's not bad but I still think you ought to cut down pop to the bare minimum. I think I've only had 6 cans since I started in Jan. I know I needed to overcome my cravings, not satisfy them. Good Luck!

I was drinking about 80 oz of diet pepsi per day before I started this WOE. I immediately bought a 2 liter of diet rite upon starting, it uses Splenda and has no aspartame. It tastes good, has the cola flavor, but I only drink maybe 20 oz a week now. Maybe a glass every other day or something like that. I don't so much have cravings anymore, but I can tell you when I walked by 2 plates of freshly cooked brownies with choclate icing on them this morning, I almost cried.

-Chris

Chris - That's SO funny.....or SO sad....however you wanna look at it But boy can I relate!! I was looking for chocolate bunnies for the kids last night and I felt the same way!! BUT and MOST IMPORTANTLY, I didn't cave.

Chocolate =

Good for you! I didn't cave either, but I would be lying if I said I didn't have bad thoughts!

Diet Rite sounds good to me! I never did like diet tasting pop before, but now any cola tasting anything will work for me!
Elaine

Elaine, no one here is going to "tell you" to do anything! you're a grownup and can make any choice about what you ingest that you wish to.

But you complained about sweet cravings, and the likeliest cause of those is your continuing to use artificial sweeteners (of any sort--splenda is healthier than aspartame, but still a sweet). That's not instruction, just information. Life is easier for some folks without the cravings; others can battle them daily with success for weeks and weeks at a time. You want sweet drinks and you want no cravings--and from what you've said, it seems you probably can't have both. But you get to choose which you'd rather have!

When you're off sugars and artificial sugars for a few weeks, other foods start tasting amazingly sweet--celery and green peppers and cauliflower and many others. When that happened to me, it was one of those "aha" moments...I figured out what Mother Nature had given me those sweet taste buds for! (duh!)

Though I'll confess I've been drinking almost a Diet Hansen's a day since I found their "tangerine lime" flavor...and I've had extra carbs twice this week, too...so reminding you has been a good reminder to me to knock that Hansens off for awhile!

Glad MY desires to find a pop helped you raz. I just needed to know what if any pop was out there that would help me in my quest. Giving up old friends (pop) is hard to get used to I've only been on Atkins 2 1/2 weeks guess I'm not as hard core as you. Kinda sounded like you where talking down to me. Yes I am a grown up I didnt need you to remind me of that