Low carb diet shopping

Hi everyone
Well after having my second son here I am again on my low carb diet. (NOT the Atkins diet).
It works well for me and I am able to see pretty drastic results within 2 weeks. I am in the middle of my third week now and over the weekend I went to the lowcarbmegastore site and ordered a few low carb items such as pancake mix, syrup, biscotti's, etc. Has anyone ever ordered from there before? Very anxious to get my parcel but Im a bit worried what everything will taste like.

Sorry, I have not ordered from there, but I am a low carber myself. (Never followed a diet, jut don't eat a lot of sugar or most carbs anymore)  I have lost over 20 lbs in five months.  Please let me know what you think of everything.  I've only ever had the atkins bars, and I have to say I LOVE the Fruits of the Forest ones.  Very yummy!!!  And only in the UK as far as I can tell!

How do you like low carbing? I feel I have so much more energy. After my last son was born I was able to lose 2st in 4 months. I noticed however when I deviated just a little but I did put a few pounds back on. I am doing pretty well so far this time. We are going on vacation in 3 weeks and I would love to drop another 9lbs if possible. I have been very strict this time. I dont follow any sort of diet either I, like you, just dont eat sugar and try to keep my carbs down to about 20 a day.
Pebs

I really like it.  It's hard sometimes, but on the hard days I give in.  I was pretty strict for the first three months, those were the months I was in NY getting ready for my wedding.  Funny, I was kind of at a plateau around 2 months, I went to Boston for my hen do there and gorged at this fantastic family style Italian restaurant . (I still dream of the salads I had!!!)  I thought I had blown it, but in fact that binge helped kick start my metabolism somehow and I started to lose again.  Now I am a lot more lax, but I still don’t eat any white flour products or potatoes.  I have some sugar, in low fat ice cream and such, but that is it.  I snack a lot on Nuts, and they are very filling.  I also find I am less hungry during the day, and more energy for sure!!!  I am getting close to my low weight of 139 (I am 5’9”) which would be the lowest I have been in 10 years.  Not sure if I want to go that low though.  Now I need to start exercising and toning up.  Going to walk to work for most of that, which is about ½ hour each way. 

OOH! OOH OOH!

I went to my local newsagent yesterday and found a UK magazine called "Low Carb Energy" and it is really really cool! I've waited for ages for a low-carb mag! It looks like an adaptation of a US magazine perhaps? But still, the ads are geared towards the UK and has links to various websites I had never heard of, shopping sites, recipes... and it is really cool!

Also - went into Holland & Barrets yesterday - in their cooler of chilled drinks they've got Atkins shakes (which thrills me, I loved going into the Vitamin Shoppe in the US before work and grabbing an occasional cold ready-made shake!), and a good range of low-carb bars, including the Atkins mint wafers I like so much.

Wheeee!

I just picked the magazine up too, Marlespo. It does seem to be based on a US one (they even have an 'American team' on the masthead).

Anyway, I'm not a low carber officially but want to incorporate more low carb eating into my diet so thought I'd pick it up.

My biggest issue with the 'official' low carb diets is all the artificial sweeteners they rely on. I can't take aspartame and don't like the taste of any of the others. Plus, I worry a bit about the long-term safety of them.

What do you all think? Am I just paranoid?

UK magazine called "Low Carb Energy" and it is really really cool! I've waited for ages for a low-carb mag! It looks like an adaptation of a US magazine perhaps?

I just got back from Walmart and looked just for you Sara!
Yes, they have Low Carb Energy, Low Carb Living and another that I can't remember. See - come back soon, the magazines are waiting for you!!

Back when I was pregnant or breastfeeding I didn't ingest any aspartame.  I am a Splenda person now though. I think the taste is fine (in tea etc.) Supposedly Splenda isn't harmful to you since it is sugar-based. (Only altered?) The thing is...they never know until AFTER it seems! So if I were trying to get pregnant, pregnant or breastfeeding I would cut it out completely or use it sparingly. (Just my opinion.)

Balmerhon - my opinion on the Splenda issue is as follows: using real sugar is super crazy harmful. Using fake sugar doesn't seem to be as harmgul, unless ingested by the bucket-ful, but really - you never know. It can't be healthy either. So until I'm realy to live completely sweetener free (and honestly? it aint gonna happen) - I'll take what I feel to be the lesser of two evils - being the one that doesn't spike my blood sugar, give me cravings, screw with my insulin resistance, etc time infinity. Plus - I love how splenda tastes and acts... and I don't have enough of it to be a problem. Certainly not daily, like I used to have (tons of) sugar...

Im using Splenda now too. I used to use Hermasetas but our Tesco stopped carrying it. Well they still have the tablets (yuck) but not the powder anymore. I actually preferred the powder Hermasetas better than the Splenda.
Pebs   

I also use Splenda pretty much exclusively (except when I'm baking for company and then I use the real stuff - I'm old fashioned in that respect.) But I definitely don't use it to excess - i.e. a packet on my bran flakes in the a.m. and another in my tea in the afternoon. I figure that even if it ends up being harmful it'll be in the same way that aspartame is said to be harmful - in HUGE quantities that 99.9% of us never even come close to and pretty much no one actually equals or exceeds. Apparently the thing that people worry about with Splenda is that the chemical alteration involves chlorinating the sugar and I have to admit that doesn't sound so good. A friend of mine says she's starting to read more bad things about it in the U.S. and so she only uses real sugar and preaches "all things in moderation" but I think for those of us for whom a bit of real sugar can trigger things like binging, etc. if we're not careful, a bit of artificial sweetener is probably not going to do any drastic harm.

...and preaches "all things in moderation" but I think for those of us for whom a bit of real sugar can trigger things like binging, etc. if we're not careful, a bit of artificial sweetener is probably not going to do any drastic harm.

Exactly. The "all things in moderation" theory doesn't work for everyone. It doesn't work for al alcoholic, it doesn't work for someone giving up smoking, and it doesn't work for people addicted to sugar.

My local superdrug doesn't have Atkins stuff, but does have Carbolite stuff, which I used ocassionally in the US.

Superdrug also has lowcarb Rolos and Kit Kats, which I haven't tried yet - - -

Belated thanks for the comments on the artificial sweeteners. I crave carbs more than proper sweets though so guess I wouldn't really use it that much anyway. Will give some thought to trying it again. I did make a panna cotta with Splenda once and it was pretty good. Let me know if you want the recipe!