The atkins diet is unbelievable, but my urine could gag a maggot!

Day 3:
the strips are looking more like the far purple end of the scale, I
have really bad "sick" breath, and my urine smells so strong I have to
pee sitting down so I can keep it contained. The good news is, the
headache went away, and I found a couple of "patches" for the sweet
craving, namely having a diet rite, and I found some sweet pickles
made with splenda, although there is 1 carb per pickle and they are
small. Sooo I had a soda and a pickle tonight, and it felt really good
to put something sweet into my mouth. On a positive note, my local BBQ
joint has all-u-can-eat ribs on tuesdays! and they are "dry" ribs, so
I left the sauce alone, and horked down on some ribs, with a single
side of "country" green beens, the kind with bacon in em. and on an
even more positive note, I have lost about 5lbs in 3 days! I really
find it hard to believe that I am munching on eggs, and pork chops,
and steak, and cheese, and I am losing weight, somebody pinch me!

Now a quick question, I really like to mountain bike, and on a
weekend, we may do 25 miles in an afternoon, I have had trouble in the
past when drinking water of "hitting the wall" or completely running
out of energy followed by a pounding headache, this is completely
cured by sipping a sports drink throughout the day, what am I going to
do now? I am worried that a day of hard excercise is going to drain my
blood of sugars and leave me sick and tired?

Is this nothing to worry about? weirder things have happened, because
if you told me 4 days ago I would lose 5lbs by chowing down on ribs, I
would have laughed in your face.

Jerry

Jerry Everetts wrote:
Day 3:
the strips are looking more like the far purple end of the scale, I
have really bad "sick" breath, and my urine smells so strong I have to
pee sitting down so I can keep it contained.

Dehydrated maybe? Drink more water. May have caused the headache as well.

The good news is, the
headache went away, and I found a couple of "patches" for the sweet
craving, namely having a diet rite, and I found some sweet pickles
made with splenda, although there is 1 carb per pickle and they are
small. Sooo I had a soda and a pickle tonight, and it felt really good
to put something sweet into my mouth. On a positive note, my local BBQ
joint has all-u-can-eat ribs on tuesdays! and they are "dry" ribs, so
I left the sauce alone, and horked down on some ribs, with a single
side of "country" green beens, the kind with bacon in em. and on an
even more positive note, I have lost about 5lbs in 3 days! I really
find it hard to believe that I am munching on eggs, and pork chops,
and steak, and cheese, and I am losing weight, somebody pinch me!

Most will tell you around here, calories still matter. LC helps avoid the
calories, but few will support the notion that LC means "all the non-carb
you can stuff down." YMMV, but I doubt it.

Now a quick question, I really like to mountain bike, and on a
weekend, we may do 25 miles in an afternoon, I have had trouble in the
past when drinking water of "hitting the wall" or completely running
out of energy followed by a pounding headache, this is completely
cured by sipping a sports drink throughout the day, what am I going to
do now? I am worried that a day of hard excercise is going to drain my
blood of sugars and leave me sick and tired?

I too am an avid mountain biker, and know about the dreaded "bonk" miles
from home. I would just say that you're just going to have to find what
works for you. This may run up against some conventional wisdom in this NG,
but you may need to plan on supplementing some carbs if you plan on riding
past your normal "empty" stage. My advice is to suck it up for the first
few weeks and let your body adjust to what you're putting it through, and
see how you feel then. Start slowly and find your limits and stay hydrated.
At that point start to experiment with when and how to add carbs back into
your diet to support the athletic performance you desire. Overcoming any
sugar addictions or triggers may be an issue for you, so be aware of why you
started the diet to begin with. Don't use riding as a means to feed your
sugar/carb fix. That's just something you'll have to figure out for
yourself. You may find that keeping your heart rate firmly in the aerobic
zone will allow you to go a long time without fueling up with carbs.
Roadies seem to tolerate that better since they can maintain a steady
cadence for longer periods. Off-road anything too technical will make
controlling the heart rate a bit tougher.

Keep ridin'

Tom

Jerry Everetts writes:

the strips are looking more like the far purple end of the scale, I
have really bad "sick" breath, and my urine smells so strong I have to
pee sitting down so I can keep it contained.

Sounds like you're not drinking enough fluids.
Ketones do have an odor, but the clincher is the "far purple end" of the scale.
You don't have to be "dark purple" to be doing a good job. Many people never
show any shade of purple, yet are losing weight steadily.
If your urine is that strong, try upping your water/fluid intake and see if it
helps.

Connie
************************************************** ***
My mind is like a steel...um, whatchamacallit.

Jerry Everetts wrote:

Day 3:
the strips are looking more like the far purple end of the scale, I
have really bad "sick" breath, and my urine smells so strong I have to
pee sitting down so I can keep it contained. The good news is, the
headache went away, and I found a couple of "patches" for the sweet
craving, namely having a diet rite, and I found some sweet pickles
made with splenda, although there is 1 carb per pickle and they are
small. Sooo I had a soda and a pickle tonight, and it felt really good
to put something sweet into my mouth.
I found it really helpful to go cold turkey in the first week--it
sucks. I ate everything in sight, but I didn't eat sugar, caffeine, or
sugar substitutes. I think breaking those addictions to having
something sweet on the tongue are helpful for the longer run. When I
wanted to eat something, sweet or not, I ate more zero-carb food or
near-zero carb. My first week had a lot of high calories days, but I
still lost 9 pounds in two weeks and my cravings disappeared by day 6
or 7. Days 3,4&5 were the worst.


On a positive note, my local BBQ
joint has all-u-can-eat ribs on tuesdays! and they are "dry" ribs, so
I left the sauce alone, and horked down on some ribs, with a single
side of "country" green beens, the kind with bacon in em. and on an
even more positive note, I have lost about 5lbs in 3 days! I really
find it hard to believe that I am munching on eggs, and pork chops,
and steak, and cheese, and I am losing weight, somebody pinch me!
Don't forget to include salad green and low carb veggies. With the
absence of breads and veggies you are shorting your body on a lot of
vitamins & minerals. Use at least a multivitamin to make up for some
of the shortage.

Now a quick question, I really like to mountain bike, and on a
weekend, we may do 25 miles in an afternoon, I have had trouble in the
past when drinking water of "hitting the wall" or completely running
out of energy followed by a pounding headache, this is completely
cured by sipping a sports drink throughout the day, what am I going to
do now? I am worried that a day of hard excercise is going to drain my
blood of sugars and leave me sick and tired?
In the first week you can suffer from being tired & headaches
(withdrawl from sugar/caffeine/and whatever else you've given up). In
week two I bounced back. Long timer LCers do talk about not being able
to maintain intense workouts because of the depleted glycogen stores
normally stocked up in muscle and liver(that's where the whoosh of
weight comes from at first, you will eventually rebuild that). Some do
carb ups before workouts, but while in induction I would not break the
Induction rules. Week 3 you start OWL and you may have enough energy
for mountan biking.

Is this nothing to worry about? weirder things have happened, because
if you told me 4 days ago I would lose 5lbs by chowing down on ribs, I
would have laughed in your face.

Jerry

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)
350/316/Mar-315/200
Atkins since Jan 12, 2004

the strips are looking more like the far purple end of the scale, I
have really bad "sick" breath, and my urine smells so strong I have to
pee sitting down so I can keep it contained.

Are you drinking enough water!? Make sure you're properly hydrated.

LCing since 12/01/03-
Me- 265/220/140
& hubby- 310/239/180