The first three days that I was on the Atkins diet were easier than I expected them to be. I was having fun figuring out how to fix foods in ways that were new to me. On day four, things continued to go well. Day five, on the other hand, turned out to be the worst day since I started the Atkins diet.
I started day four feeling optimistic. I had managed to stay under 20 carbs every day so far. I hadn’t had any soda since I started the Atkins diet, and I wasn’t experiencing any caffeine cravings. I was feeling pretty good and I was looking forward to the rest of the first week of the Induction Phase.
I was learning how to plan ahead with food. On day three, I asked my husband to boil some eggs for me, so I could have them handy when I needed to eat a snack. We had a detailed conversation about how to boil an egg that resulted in him looking it up on the internet. Who knew there were so many different ideas about how to boil an egg? He managed to get the job done, and I stored the eggs in the fridge after they had cooled.
On day four, I was able to easily grab one of these eggs, and some celery stalks, for a snack. This, plus a little salt, is a lot tastier than it may sound. Having foods that I could quickly grab and eat was a good way to avoid consuming foods that I wasn’t supposed to be eating.
There was a brief few seconds where I wanted a piece of toast. I resisted making some. I knew that since it seemed that I had a gluten allergy, toast wasn’t going to be good for me. I also wanted to avoid cheating on the Atkins diet for as long as I could. I stayed under 20 carbs on day four.
Day five was absolutely awful. One of the hard boiled eggs didn’t boil correctly. The texture was wrong, and I decided not to eat it. This forced me to rethink what I was going to eat, which was annoying. I didn’t want to think about food, I just wanted to eat something. I substituted a slice of cheddar cheese instead, and that worked out fine.
I decided to “save” my carbs that day so my husband and I could go to the Farmers’ Market in town. We often go there to hear live music, pick up veggies, and get something to eat. He knew what he wanted to eat right away. It took me a while to make my decision, however. I’d suddenly noticed how many carb filled foods there were at the Farmers’ Market.
I ended up eating a kebob from a Chinese restaurant. Normally, I would get rice with it, but I couldn’t do that this time. The kebob had steak, green pepper, and two little slices of carrot. It also had onions, which I didn’t eat, and one piece of a vegetable that I could not identify, and also did not eat.
There was some sort of sauce on the kebob, but not very much. Later, I learned that the sauce had olive oil in it. I am allergic to olive oil, and was sick for the rest of the night. I stayed under 20 carbs, but am not sure how much I actually managed to absorb.
Image by Clay Junell on Flickr