Healthy Diet at Home

Lately, I’ve had a few readers ask me, “What is Atkins 72?” Since I use that term quite often, I thought maybe more of you might have the same question. Most people think of the book, Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution , whenever they talk about a low-carb diet. But that became quite confusing over the years because every new edition Dr. Atkins put out carried the same name, even though the diet had changed. The basic principles of the Atkins program stayed fairly consistent, but the Rules of Induction, food quantities and types, how you add carbohydrates back into your diet, and even the way you count carbohydrates changed – depending on which edition you were following. That made it difficult to help someone who didn’t understand how to do the Atkins Diet correctly, or to give advice when someone was stumbling or had stalled. To make it easier, the low-carb community began using the year the edition was published attached to Dr. Atkins’ name in order to distinguish one plan from anothe...

I’ve received a few questions lately asking me how I managed to make a low carb diet work so well for me. These questions are coming from individuals who have tried The Atkins Diet, as written, but have not found it to work as promised. With all of the various Atkins' diets to choose from – Atkins ‘72, Atkins ‘92, Atkins ’99, Atkins 2002, and the latest version called A New Atkins for a New You – which one did I use? Which version worked best for me? Other questions have asked how to make a low carb diet work, period. What can people do when Atkins stops working or when it doesn’t work to begin with? How can you tweak a low carb diet to achieve success? So this first post is going to be an introduction to that topic, and then future posts will go more into detail of how I actually lost over 100 pounds following a low carb diet. The Atkins Diet as written is an attempt to reach the greatest majority of individuals. It is a general guideline that works for most people, but it does no...

[no dialogue]. my name is tiffany cavaretto,and i'm a graduate dietetics nutrition student at easternillinois university. today, i want to talk to youabout fad diets. a fad diet is a diet thatbecomes popular very quickly how to lose weight without dieting, and just as quickly fallsout of popularity. there are many ways that youcan recognize a fad diet. a fad diet often makes claimsthat are too good to be true, such as lose 10 poundsin two days. it also promises a quick fixor makes recommendations based on a single study. fad diets also may eliminate oneor more of the five food groups and may label foods as goodor bad and it may have complex rules or guidelinesfor you to follow. there are many examples of faddiets out there, but today i want to highlightspecifically three of them and i will explain what thepremise of the diet is, the pros and cons of the diet,and why it is a fad diet. the first i'd like to talkabout is the atkins diet. i have the book right here,you can still ge...

Atkins 40 Friendly: Sausage and Cabbage Stew Atkins Nutritionals Inc. has come up with a brand new Atkins Diet. Unlike the traditional program, this new flexible low-carb diet plan allows you to pick and choose from all food groups. Breads and starchy carbohydrates are no longer off limits. The idea behind Atkins 40 is to curtail cravings and kick your feelings of deprivation to the curb while still keeping your daily carbohydrate level low enough to shed those unwanted pounds. Along with your typical: protein sources vegetables essential fatty acids and sugar-free condiments you can also enjoy bread, pasta, tortillas, and even potatoes during the weight-loss phase. You no longer have to wait until pre-maintenance to begin enjoying the carbohydrate foods you're missing when you use the new Atkins Diet. That change in concept has a lot of low-carb dieters worried. However, Atkins 40 isn't a free-for-all. It's not a well-balanced low-fat diet. It is still the Atkins Diet. Bu...

I recently received a comment from a reader that suggested my lack of dieting success was probably due to my inability to stay with one particular low-carb diet plan long enough to reap results. The advice I received was to go on a low-carb, high-fat diet and give it six months or more to work before analyzing.  That was similar to the advice I received from the zero-carb folks a few years ago when despite the fact that I had gained about 20 pounds in the first three weeks and was experiencing abnormally high blood glucose levels, they told me to eat only beef, drink only water, and wait six months before reviewing the results. They didn't seem to care about the resurrected neuropathy. They were just sure that their way was the only way.  The problem with that type of advice is that it doesn't work for everyone.  Take Responsibility for Your Own Health Correcting metabolic issues isn't always as easy as lowering your carbohydrate level. For example, I'm juggling vertigo...

Confused About Atkins 20? This Guide will Clears Up your Misunderstandings! I was over at Low Carb Friends yesterday afternoon, and one of the members was seriously upset. She had just learned that Atkins Nutritionals Inc. has come out with a brand new set of Atkins diets. They have now dropped the New Atkins for a New You approach, and instead, they are offering two different versions of the Atkins diet plan: Atkins 20, which includes a modified Phase 1 Atkins 40, which is a more flexible, low-glycemic diet Atkins 20 is what many are calling the original Atkins diet. In reality, it is an spin off of what most of the low-carb community know as Atkins 2002, or DANDR. Since there are a lot of people over at Low Carb Friends who are very confused by this new diet being presented on the Atkins Nutritionals Inc. website, this post will clear up any misunderstandings you might have. For example, some people are under the impression that the new Phase 1 includes fruit, nuts, and whole grains....

Not Losing Weight on Atkins 40? Atkins 40 is the latest Atkins Diet specifically designed for those who are insulin sensitive, rather than insulin resistant. This makes the Atkins Nutritional Approach more adaptable to every metabolic type than it was before. From the very beginning of this low-carb diet, you can eat from all food groups on the acceptable foods list and even start at a higher carb count than those doing Atkins Induction.  Like the Protein Power Life Plan, there is no carbohydrate ladder that you need to adhere to. You are free to make your own choices within your personal carbohydrate tolerance. For that reason, Atkins 40 can be an easier way to implement the Atkins Nutritional Approach because it comes with less deprivation and more flexibility than Atkins 20.  Unlike previous diets that told you exactly what to do and when to do it, Atkins 40 seeks to place the control over what you eat in your own lap.  This freedom allows you to design a personalized weight-loss pr...

There is a lot of confusion these days about metabolism. It seems to be a scapegoat that people like to blame when weight loss doesn’t happen easily. If they’re following a low carb diet and struggling to succeed, then they believe that all of those years of eating carbohydrates must have destroyed their metabolism and made them fat. On the other side of the argument are those who oppose low carb dieting. These people claim that carbohydrate restriction will permanently alter your metabolism, but what’s the truth? Will eating carbohydrates or following a low carb diet ruin your metabolism – or not? What is Metabolism? Low carb dieters generally do not like to hear about the energy equation. Dr. Atkins told us that we no longer need to worry about calories, so most people believe the energy equation isn’t applicable to them. Calories don’t matter, they say. Dr. Eades has tried to set the record straight, but far too many people still do not want to go outside and drag the equation bac...

(This is part 5 of a multi-part series on How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet . It discusses my weight loss journey so far. If you didn't read part 1, you can do so by clicking on the how-to link. Part 1 also includes links to the rest of this series.) After leaving the Kimkins’ weight loss diet behind, I began reading through Lyle McDonald’s website and body building forum because of a comment I received to one of my blog posts. This commenter had gotten stuck when she was almost to goal weight and had broken her stall by incorporating Lyle’s technique of using refeeds to reset her Leptin and other hormone levels back to normal. She warned me that the forum participants were not always nice to each other, especially newbies, and that they could be a bit over-the-top, but she believed the information I would find there would help me decide what to do next. That piqued my interest. Not only because I trusted the source of that information, but because I knew there had to be a valid reason ...

(This is part 7 of a multi-part series on How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet . It explains the path I have traveled in my weight loss journey so far. If you didn’t read part 1, you can do so by clicking on the how-to link. Part 1 also includes links to the rest of the series.) My diet break obviously refilled my glycogen stores, since I was eating more carbohydrates, but that wasn’t a surprise. I was okay with the eight-pound weight regain because everything happened exactly as Lyle McDonald said it would. Although each of us have the potential to hold different amounts of glycogen in our liver and muscles, there was no reason to believe those eight pounds were fat. I was used to inputting everything I ate into Fitday, and that didn’t stop during my break, so it was easy to keep tabs on my daily calorie count. That helped to keep me zeroed into maintenance. Overall, my complete diet break went well, except that I took my husband’s suggestion and enjoyed a full month off from dieting that Dec...

(This is part 4 of a multi-part series on How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet . It discusses my weight loss journey so far. If you didn’t read part 1, you can do so by clicking on the how-to link. Part 1 also includes links to the rest of the series.)  I took a quick glance at the archives to see if I could discover exactly when I first started doing the Kimkins Diet back in 2007, but I kept it quiet due to the controversy surrounding that plan. I can remember communicating with Jimmy Moore several times back then, as he was doing the Kimkins Diet himself, but I couldn’t find anything I had actually posted to this blog. People were very emphatic back then that you had to eat a certain amount of dietary fat. You had to eat a ton of protein, and you had to get a certain amount of calories, or you were not doing low carb. Because of these self-made dietary restrictions, these same individuals refused to call Kimkins a low carb diet. They insisted it was a glucose-burning diet, even though it...

Many things can interfere with the success of a low carb diet. Gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, thyroid problems, portion control issues, and food addictions are just a few. Recently, I’ve been looking at food sensitivities and allergies, since inflammation and the resulting water retention factor heavily into the vertigo and ataxia I suffer with. Also, I started having severe itching problems and a rash on my arms, along with drastic weight gain, whenever I ate beef. Technically, the term “food allergy” describes an IgE antibody response launched by the immune system to a specific food protein. These antibodies interpret the offending protein molecule to be an invader and use mediators such as histamine – which cause the allergy symptoms. The skin, gastrointestinal tract, and respiratory system are the primary organs affected by food allergies. However, when I was younger, most allergists did not believe in food sensitivities or intolerances. They only believed in food allergies ...

Low-Carb Fruit Platter  Helps You Stay on Plan It's been in the 90s this week, so I've been looking for creative ways to serve cool and inviting dinners when hubby gets home from a long, tiring, hot day.  While we've been eating a lot of sliced strawberries over the past few weeks, and couldn't resist coming home with a small basket of plump, red raspberries this past weekend, summer ushers in a wide variety of tasty fruits that make the perfect side dish to accompany your fish or chicken. Being on a low-carb diet doesn't mean you have to pass up Mother Nature's delicious fruit bounty all summer.  It just means you have to be careful and selective when adding fruit to your meals and snacks. You have to stay aware of portion sizes and keep your fruit indulgence within your personal carbohydrate tolerance level. While those of you on Atkins Induction will have to wait a bit before returning fruit to your diet, if you're doing the: Keto Diet Atkins 20 Atkins 40...