The New Atkins Made Easy (26 page)

Y
ou did it! You're finally in Phase 4, Lifetime Maintenance. You set a goal, made significant changes in your habits, stuck to your guns, and accomplished what you set out to do. You're probably receiving compliments left and right, along with looks of amazement from people who haven't seen you in a while. Exciting as all that attention can be, it's probably nothing compared to your own sense of pride and accomplishment. Pat yourself on the back and take a bow! And carve out time to celebrate your achievements, perhaps with some new formfitting clothes, a weekend at the beach, or a great new haircut and makeover. I also strongly recommend that you record your feelings about your weight-loss journey and the happy results in your journal. And don't forget to take an after photo of the svelte new you!

When you think about your accomplishments, don't stop with your streamlined body. If any of the following apply, congratulate yourself on them as well. For example, in the process of doing Atkins, did you do any of the following?

• Eliminate a destructive habit such as drinking sugary sodas, eating in front of the television, or having a daily doughnut at break time

• Develop a healthy new habit of a daily brisk walk or riding your bike to work, or start an exercise program or build upon an existing one

• Create weekly meal plans and shopping lists

• Develop a love of vegetables

• Improve your family's nutrition and sit down together for meals more often

• Honor your commitments to yourself

• Make other significant and positive changes in your life

In your current cloud of optimism you may be saying to yourself, “I've lost the weight and kept it off for a month, so what's the point of yet another phase of Atkins?” Whoa! That kind of thinking can set you up for a fall. Again, the last four weeks of Pre-Maintenance were only a rehearsal for Lifetime Maintenance, which is not so much a phase as a permanent lifestyle. Sad to say, this is where all too many people, regardless of how they lost weight, get cocky and soon find themselves in trouble. In fact, up to 95 percent of people who shed extra pounds on any weight-loss program regain it when they return to their old eating habits. Or they fall off the wagon and can't figure out how to climb back on. According to the National Weight Control Registry, people who keep off their lost pounds have several traits in common. They:

• Eat breakfast

• Exercise almost every day

• Monitor their weight regularly

• Track their food intake

The good news is that if you're following the Atkins program and you've opted to make physical fitness part of your life, there's no reason why you have to become part of that 95 percent. In many additional
ways, Atkins is designed to make maintaining your weight easy. Here's why:

• You've transitioned from phase to phase, gradually increasing your carb intake, as you worked toward a permanent way of eating.

• By reintroducing foods one by one, you know which, if any, could spell trouble for you.

• You now know which foods you can do without and which you love but must eat in moderation.

• You've learned how to be alert to the signals of cravings or undue hunger and how to respond before you lose control.

• You've discovered how to substitute certain low-carb foods for high-carb ones, treat other foods as garnishes, and more.

• Most important, you've come to trust the Atkins program and experience the pleasure of feeling good, both physically and emotionally.

If you accept that Phase 4 is a lifestyle and act accordingly, I can promise that you'll never have to “diet” again. Does that mean that you won't ever regain a few pounds? Of course not. If you go on vacation and dine out every night, you may well pack on some excess baggage. If an injury lays you up for a few weeks and you can't get to your exercise class, some excess pounds may creep back. But now you possess the tools and skills, the same ones you've honed for months, to turn around any such situation. Just as important, don't succumb to negative thinking by letting an occasional misstep become a reason to wallow in guilt and punish yourself by falling into a downward spiral.

In general, the foods you can eat in Lifetime Maintenance are the same ones you've already been eating, although you can now introduce
Atkins Cuisine Penne Pasta. There may be some foods you tried to reintroduce earlier without success that you can now handle. Feel free to experiment at any time as long as your weight remains under control. Just as there's great variation in how many carbs people can consume while losing weight, the same applies to weight maintenance. You might not be able to get much beyond 50 or 55 grams of Net Carbs a day (or even less), or you might be humming along at close to 100 grams or more.

To remain in control of your hard-won new weight:

• Stay at your carb tolerance level, the number of daily grams of Net Carbs you can consume while maintaining your weight. This is the threshold you discovered when you maintained your weight for a month in Phase 3 (Fine-Tuning).

• Continue to have a minimum of 12–15 grams of Net Carbs in the form of foundation vegetables.

• Continue to have 4–6 ounces of (cooked) protein at each meal.

• Aim for no more than two servings of fruit a day.

• Continue to see fat as your friend and integral to weight management.

• Combine carbohydrate foods with fat and/or protein to moderate your blood sugar response.

• Continue to drink plenty of water and other noncaloric beverages.

• Adjust your carb intake if you become less (or more) active.

• Distinguish between hunger and habit.

• Continue to weigh and measure yourself once a week.

• Never let yourself gain more than 5 pounds (unless you become pregnant) without taking immediate action.

• Add new foods one at a time to gauge their impact on cravings and appetite.

• Engage in regular physical activity.

• Portion out ahead of time any foods, such as nuts or cheese, that you might be tempted to overeat.

• Keep reading labels, especially on any new foods.

• Stay alert to the possibility of carb creep.

• Plan ahead if you decide to take an occasional departure from your low-carb lifestyle. (See “Taking a Break,” page 186.)

Now that you're maintaining rather than losing weight, you'll be consuming a slightly larger (with the emphasis on
slightly
) quantity of food, meaning more daily calories. Your appetite will also increase slightly at this point. As long as you're close to the weight your body “wants” to be, this is likely to occur naturally. Does that mean you'll also be consuming more carbs than you were in the last month of Pre-Maintenance? Not necessarily. You might be able, for example, to add a
¹
/
₂
-cup serving of brown rice (about 21 grams of Net Carbs and about 108 calories) without experiencing cravings or undue hunger. In that case, you'd likely need to reduce your fat intake slightly.

On the other hand, if you have a lower carb tolerance, you'll have to make up that extra calorie demand with a bit more fat, perhaps with half a Hass avocado (less than 2 grams of Net Carbs and 153 calories) or 1 tablespoon almond butter (2.8 grams of Net Carbs and 102 calories). Unless you're eating less than 4 to 6 ounces of (cooked) protein at each meal, don't increase protein to boost calories. You may have to play a little with this adjustment so as to not overshoot the mark and start gaining weight. Continuing to make entries in your food journal should help you figure out which foods help fill you up without stimulating your appetite unnecessarily.

Here's a question I often hear from Atkins followers: “Now that I've lost weight, why can't I go back to my old way of eating but just be more moderate?” You're welcome to try, but I have to warn you that it's unlikely to work. You've learned that controlling your carb intake makes your body burn primarily fat for energy, which produces that wonderful side effect of moderating your appetite. Return to your old way of eating, and you'll be right back on the blood sugar roller coaster, experiencing peaks and dips in your energy level, which leads to overeating. Once more, Lifetime Maintenance is just that—a way of eating
that you can sustain and which will maintain your healthy weight. The price you have to pay is small: continue to abstain from added sugar and refined grains, as well as anything that acts as a trigger food. Fortunately, there are so many tasty alternatives that this really isn't difficult, as we'll discuss in the next chapter.

Perhaps you're in your forties or older and until recently never had to worry about your weight. Or perhaps you're in your twenties or thirties and assume that now you've slimmed down, you have it made. But things change, and your metabolism may be one of those things. That's why it's a good idea to understand that at some future date you may need to adjust your carb intake up or down in order to continue to maintain your weight. This may result simply from the passage of years, but here are a few other possible reasons to recalibrate:

• You may need to dial your daily Net Carb count down if:

 An injury sidelines you for a few months.

 A change in career puts you behind a desk eight hours a day.

 You're prescribed a drug that slows your metabolism.

 You enter menopause.