Really Healthy Recipes

When I first encountered an Atkins Diet book, I was working in an office. I had been working there for five or six years and had accumulated a fair bit of excess weight. I had never been active in sport, but my previous job had been working on site, which brought with it a certain amount of physical activity ” just enough to keep me in reasonable shape. After five years of pen-pushing, I weighed 18 stone 12 pounds (264 lbs or 120 kg), up three stone and neither I nor my doctor were happy about it.

One day a representative of some legal or accounting firm came in for an appointment, and, while we were awaiting the other directors, we got to talking about office life and its tendency to make one put on weight. He said that he had had the same problem before his new, more mobile, job, but that now he made sure he got out of the office regularly and walked everywhere he could if he had the time. He also said that he’d read a good book on dieting while on holiday in the USA and that he would send me a copy. I didn’t think anything more of it and never saw the man again. I think his name was Mr. Blackwell.

The book arrived as promised, but I left it lying on my desk unread for months and months, until one day, I had a dentist’s appointment and had forgotten to take a book to work to read while I was waiting ” something I always did/do because the magazines are always so old and boring. Anyway, I read 50-60 pages that day and I was mesmerised. I had never been on a proper diet before and I thought I should give it a a go. I had stopped eating pastry, cakes and chocolate months ago, but it hadn’t had much effect and my weight was still on the increase, albeit more slowly.

It seemed to me that it was a ‘thinking person’s’ diet There is a huge amount of scope for individual tastes and lifestyles and self-discipline did not seem to be much of an issue because of that. The book warned of addictions and fads and how best to overcome or prevent them. These did not seem to be an issue for me. I liked coffee, but could take it or leave it and I had already given up chocolate. Beer and bread could be a problem though.

The only rule in the induction phase is to eat not more than 20 grams of carbohydrate per day. The book had a clear list of most foods and their carbohydrate content. I thought it was really easy. In fact, I started eating more healthily in the induction stage than I had been eating before it! I bought a tube of Ketone sticks to check whether it was working and found that I was in ketosis on the third day. It was a very satisfying experience to know that I would be losing weight whatever I did and wherever I was now twenty-four hours a day!

I gave up bread (and beer!) for a fortnight and felt great. I actually felt ‘bouncy’ or ’springy’ as you see a boxer in the ring before a fight. I had no trouble whatsoever staying within the 20 gram limit, although I missed fruit more than I’d expected. But I found ways to compensate for everything. The book has loads of recipes and suggestions so I won’t go into them here, but I started eating breakfast before I went to work and in the evenings, took great care and attention over preparing a lunch box for work the next day, usually consisting of a salad, some cheese and various nuts to snack on. You can eat a few strawberries too. In the evening, I would cook up something like a curry (no flour) eating it with green beans instead of rice; or a traditional British meal without potatoes followed by cheese and strawberries and cream. I lost 18 pounds in two weeks and felt wonderful.

One of the most common, and astonishing results of ‘doing’ the Atkins diet is appetite suppression. Many followers of the plan state that the inter meal hunger pangs they used to have just fade away and quite rapidly too. This fact makes it easier to stay on the diet and keep to lose weight. While other diets leave their followers starving between meals, the Atkins dieters receive relief from constant hunger. The Atkins diet, with its specific recommendation of foods and ingredients, has powerful appetite suppressing effects.

The main factor is the amount of protein in the Atkins diet. Protein, more so than carbohydrates, has the capability to satiate hunger. If you’ve ever eaten a carbohydrate heavy meal and then felt hungry a few hours later, you know that carbohydrates don’t have much staying power as a satisfier. Protein, on the other hand, when combined with a small amount of healthy fats, can keep you feeling full for much longer periods of time.

One of the most sustained appetite suppressant foods on the Atkins diet is the simple egg. Eggs are a great sort of quick and easy protein. A recent report revealed that eating eggs for breakfast would actually keep hunger pangs at bay throughout the rest of the day. The research concerned two groups of women. One group ate only eggs for breakfast and the other had a breakfast of buns and cream cheese.

The calorie count for both types of breakfasts was precisely the same. The participants noted down what they ate for the remainder of the day and answered questions about their hunger and satisfaction levels throughout the day. The results of the study showed that the women who ate the eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied throughout the entire day and they ate less at each meal than those women who were in the bread group.

Eggs contain about 6 grams of protein each, which helps to even out blood sugar and produces a feeling of satisfaction. Both of these factors help to curb cravings. Egg yolks also contain lutein and xenazanthin. These nutrients have been shown to have incredible effects on eye health. So it’s important to eat the whole egg, and not just the white. Eggs contain choline which is important for maintaining brain function and memory. These nutrients are just an additional benefit to the appetite suppressing qualities.

Broccoli and cauliflower, two of the most suitable vegetables on the Atkins diet, also have appetite-suppressing effects. These vegetables are very bulky and they help make your stomach feel full. When your stomach is full, it will actually create a chemical signal in your brain. Your body will reduce its call for food because it assumes that your stomach is full of high calorie foods. This will happen regardless of what is in your stomach. You can achieve the same results with water and psyllium husk fiber. Both broccoli and cauliflower provide bulk in your diet and are essential vegetables on the Atkins plan.

The Atkins diet recommends eating small, protein packed meals a few times per day. This will help maintain your blood sugar level in a stabilized state and avoid carbohydrate-induced cravings. With high carbohydrate diets, you are riding a wave of carbohydrate highs. After you have eaten, you feel fantastic and full. Then after a few hours, you come crashing down and are hungrier than you were before eating the carbohydrates. This cycle continues ad infinitum and, over time, you will eat more and gain weight.

The protein, fat and vegetable meals of the Atkins diet put your blood sugar back in balance. They provide just enough of each type of food, with a proper amount of carbohydrates (from the vegetables). The vegetables provide quick carbohydrate energy, and the protein gives the meal its staying power. This combination helps suppress your appetite throughout the day.

The Atkins diet is actually a craving control plan that suppresses your appetite. If you’ve had a problem with carbohydrate cravings before, this new way of eating will help control those desires. The more you eat on the plan, the better your cravings will be controlled and the easier it will be to follow the diet - the more you practice the diet the easier it gets.

A very common, but nevertheless surprising results of following the Atkins diet is the suppression of appetite. Many followers of the plan state that the between meal hunger pangs they used to have just fade away and very quickly too. This factor makes it easier to remain on the diet and continue losing weight. While other diets have their followers hungry between meals, the Atkins diet offers relief from constant hunger. The Atkins diet, with its specific recommendation of foods and ingredients, has powerful appetite suppressing qualities.

The first key factor is the amount of protein in the Atkins diet. Protein, more so than carbohydrates, has the capability to assuage hunger. If you’ve ever eaten a carbohydrate heavy meal and then felt hungry afterwards, you know that carbohydrates don’t have much staying power as a satisfier. Protein, on the other hand, when combined with a small amount of healthy fats, can keep you feeling satisfied for long periods of time.

One of the most sustained appetite suppressing foods on the Atkins diet is the simple egg. Eggs are a great form of quick and easy protein. A recent report showed that eating eggs for breakfast would actually keep hunger pangs at bay throughout the rest of the day. The study concerned two groups of women. One group ate only eggs for breakfast and the other had a breakfast of buns and cream cheese.

The calorie count for both breakfasts was exactly the same. The subjects noted down what they ate for the rest of the day and answered questions about their hunger levels and satisfaction levels throughout the day. The results of the study showed that the women who ate the eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied throughout the entire day and they ate less at each meal than those women who were in the buns group.

Eggs contain about 6 grams of protein each, which helps to regulate blood sugar levels and produces a feeling of well-being. Both of these factors help to control cravings. Egg yolks also contain lutein and xenazanthin. These nutrients have been shown to have amazing effects on eye health. Therefore, it is important to consume the whole egg, and not just the white. Eggs contain choline which is important for maintaining brain function and memory. These nutrients are just an added benefit to the appetite suppressant qualities.

Broccoli and cauliflower, two of the most suitable vegetables on the Atkins diet, also have appetite-suppressant effects. These vegetables are very bulky and they help make your stomach feel full. When your stomach feels full, it will actually create a chemical signal in your brain. Your body will reduce its appetite because it assumes that your stomach is full of high calorie foods. This occurs regardless of what is actually in your stomach. You can get the same results with water and psyllium husk fibre. Both broccoli and cauliflower provide bulk in your diet and are essential vegetables for the Atkins plan.

The Atkins diet focuses on eating small, protein balanced meals a few times a day. This will help maintain your blood sugar in a stabilized state and avoid carbohydrate-induced cravings. With high carbohydrate diets, you are riding the wave of carbohydrate highs. After you have eaten, you feel great and full. Then a few hours later, you come crashing down and are hungrier than you were before eating the carbohydrates. This cycle continues and, over time, you will eat more and gain weight.

The protein, fat and vegetable meals of the Atkins plan put your blood sugar back in balance. They provide just enough of each sort of food, with a proper amount of carbohydrates (from the vegetables). The vegetables provide quick carbohydrate energy, and the protein gives the meal its staying power. This combination helps suppress your appetite throughout the day.

The Atkins diet is actually a craving control diet that helps suppress your appetite. If you’ve had a problem with carbohydrate cravings before, this new way of eating will help regulate those desires. The more you eat on the plan, the better your cravings will be controlled and the easier it will be to follow the diet. Really, the longer you follow the plan, the more it works and the easier following the diet gets.

Some people try make your life miserable, if you let them. Everyone could see that I looked better and felt happier, but some people just have to try to spoil it. I was told: many people have died of kidney or liver failure after being on Atkins I read it in the paper; you will have a heart attack, it’s not natural; your cholesterol will shoot up and you will need your legs amputated or you will have a stroke; it will affect your eyesight. All sorts of drivel. So, I went to my doctor, who admitted that he knew nothing about the Atkins diet, but also added that he had heard nothing bad about it either. He sent me for a series of tests, but the results all proved satisfactory. He was very happy that I’d lost 18 lbs and so was I. Six weeks later, I went for another cholesterol check, because of the high fat levels in the diet and, although my cholesterol level was up very slightly, the doctor said there was absolutely no cause for concern.

The Atkins diet book warns that you might develop bad breath (halitosis). I don’t know whether I did or not - no-one said anything, but I started brushing my teeth four-five times a day just in case. I guess that’s another benefit of following the Atkins diet: increased oral hygiene. It also warns of constipation. I didn’t get that either, although I didn’t give up black coffee, which has always had a laxative effect on me. But surely you can’t suffer from constipation if you’re allowed to eat well over 1lb of greens a day? I hadn’t been eating that well before the diet! So my two main concerns were nebulous.

After a couple of weeks I was getting bored not going out so much. Not with the diet, but because I’m single and am used to going to the pub (and drinking beer). So, I decided to treat this scientifically. One day, after work, I had three pints of Guinness and felt merry. Before the diet, I would have drunk five or six pints to feel the same. To my delight, the next morning the ketone stick told me that I was still ‘on the diet’. Over the following weeks, I really enjoyed finding out what would ‘work’ and what would not. I discovered that cider had to be avoided at all costs; some beers and some lagers were all right; red and white wine were OK. Consuming alcohol does not knock you off the diet, but it slows down your rate of progress. However, even slow progress is progress, I say. Better than giving up the diet or giving up going out.

Be very wary of people encouraging you to ‘just try a little bit’. They don’t understand or don’t want to understand the trouble they’re causing you. Your body can hold two days worth of carbohydrates. One chocolate, one slice of bread, a bowl of cornflakes or one sugar in your coffee will cost you TWO days to put right. Don’t let them do it to you. This is not a diet for the weekends, in fact I think that it probably could be dangerous to keep ‘falling off the wagon’, because of the high fat content of the diet, which is not dangerous if you stick to it, because you body devours fat and cholesterol in the absence of carbohydrates.

The story ends so far, with me having got down to under 16 stone and keeping it there, until very recently when I moved to the Far East to live. Once I get used to the food and my own house and own kitchen, I will go down to 15 stone, I know I will ” with very little effort.

Well, there you have it … My grateful thanks to you, Mr. Blackwell, wherever you are these days, you changed my life and my understanding of food and drink with that book and thank you, Mr. Atkins too.

When I first encountered an Atkins Diet book, I was working in an office. I had been working there for five or six years and had accumulated a fair bit of excess weight. I had never been active in sport, but my previous job had been working on site, which brought with it a certain amount of physical activity ” just enough to keep me in reasonable shape. After five years of pen-pushing, I weighed 18 stone 12 pounds (264 lbs or 120 kg), up three stone and neither I nor my doctor were happy about it.

One day a representative of some accounting firm came in for a scheduled appointment, and, while we were awaiting the other directors, we got to talking about working in an office and its tendency to make one put on a stone or two. He said that he had had the same problem before this new, more mobile, job that he had and that now he made sure he got out of the office regularly and walked everywhere he could, time permitting. He also said that he’d read an interesting book on dieting while on holiday in the United States and that he would send me a copy when he got back to his home town. I didn’t think anything more of it and never saw the man again. I think his name was Mr. Blackwell.

The book duly arrived as promised, but it stayed on my desk unread for months, until one day, I had a dental appointment and had forgotten to take a book to work to read while I was waiting ” the magazines are always so old and boring. Anyway, I read several chapters that day and I was fascinated. I had never been on a real diet before and I thought I’d give it a try. I had stopped eating pastry, cakes and chocolate months ago, but it didn’t seem to have had much effect and my weight was still rising, albeit more slowly.

It appeared to me that it was a ‘thinking person’s’ diet There is a huge amount of scope for individual tastes and lifestyles and self-discipline did not seem to be much of a problem because for that reason. The book warned of addictions and fads and how best to overcome or prevent them. These did not seem to be an issue for me. I liked coffee, but could take it or leave it and I had already given up chocolate. I knew that maybe beer and bread could be a problem.

The only rule in the induction phase is to eat not more than 20 grams of carbohydrate per day. The book had a clear list of most foods and their carbohydrate content. I thought it was really easy. In fact, I started eating more healthily in the induction stage than I had been eating before it! I bought a tube of Ketone sticks to check whether it was working and found that I was in ketosis on the third day. It was a very satisfying experience to know that I would be losing weight whatever I did and wherever I was now twenty-four hours a day!

I gave up bread (and Guinness!) for a fortnight and felt great. I actually felt ’springy’ or ‘bouncy’ like a boxer in the ring before a fight. I had no trouble whatsoever staying within the 20 gram limit, although I did miss fruit more than I’d expected or some fruits anyway. But I found ways to make up for everything. There are many, many recipes and recommendations in the book so I won’t go into them here, but I started eating breakfast before I went to work and dinner in the evenings. I really took great care and attention over preparing lunch for work the next day, usually consisting of a salad, some cheese and various nuts to snack on. You can eat a few strawberries too. In the evening, I would cook up something like a curry (no flour) eating it with green beans instead of rice; or a traditional British meal without potatoes followed by cheese and strawberries and cream. I lost 18 pounds in two weeks and felt really great.