A few months ago I was inspired by my friend to try switching to a low carb diet. It must be my continental European heritage but I’m bread crazy. I could easily replace any meal with a slice of cake, or a fresh baguette. And when I’m having a roast, my favourite part is having lots of roast potatoes and gravy…

So basically this is quite a challenge. When I first tried it, my husband was participating as well because we both felt we’d been lazily gaining weight for too long. It didn’t really suit him though and the diet was quickly abandoned.

But this week I’m giving it another go, this time on my own. On one hand it’s nice to have the support of another person doing it, on the other it severely limits the choices of what foods to eat for dinner. The list of “allowed” ingredients already excludes most staple foods for us, but then it gets even more cut by combining two people’s particular likes and dislikes.

I’ll be honest and say that although I am researching and reading up on Atkins etc. I’m mainly doing my own thing and adjusting the guidelines to suit my own tastes. For example, if I were to follow the Atkins induction phase to the letter, I would go absolutely crazy.

For someone with a sweet tooth like me, it is extremely hard to go without sugar, so to cut out fruit as well would be hell. I also am not going to limit my intake of tea while at the office. If anything it helps keep cravings down, not increase them. And I am stubbornly going to eat nuts as well as yoghurt, both of which are not allowed during the Atkins induction phase. My idea is, if I limit myself too much, I am basically setting myself up to fail because when I’m hungry, I cannot bring myself to eat a slice of ham and some cheese. The thought alone turns me off. I may eat a salad containing ham/cheese/whatever, some nuts as a snack, an apple, etc. So I would be properly miserable if a lot of those things were off limits.

In any case, I may not get the boost of extra quick initial weight loss, but slow and steady wins the race… hopefully! At least it should be better than jam toast or baked potatoes.

So far I’ve made the following meals for myself:

Crustless quiche: Pancetta cubes, pepperoni slices, 1 whole leek, some button mushrooms and a packet of spinach. Topped with 5 whisked eggs and grated cheese. I baked this in a paper lined baking tray. Next time I may just try greasing the tray because the paper got soggy and stuck to the egg.

Cheesy cauliflower bake: Cauliflower, leek and button mushrooms with pancetta cubes, cooked down in creme fraiche/cream then transferred to a baking tray. I made a crispy topping with some ground up almonds and cheese.

Creamy leek & mixed cabbage served with some pork “Schnitzel”. I made the schnitzel by beating the pork steaks flat, dipping them in egg and coating with dessicated coconut.

Other meal ideas I’ve had include: boiled egg salad, salmon salad, sausages with similar creamy leek/cabbage/cauliflower etc.

I mainly drink water and some diet soft drinks but not a lot (plus unsweetened tea). And I will eat a few nuts or an apple if I feel hungry between meals. I’m trying my best to get used to desserts with sweeteners instead of sugar but I am having a very hard time with the hideous aftertaste. So far the only thing that has worked a little bit is greek yogurt flavoured with some concentrated sugar free lime cordial. Maybe the lime flavour hides the taste?