I am on Atkins and This is Where I Like to Go Out and Eat

This is what I eat at home

Today I am going to go out of my box a little bit and talk abut something new I have noticed in the world of food lately.

I am an Atkins person. I started the diet when my son was about one as a way to lose weight, and lose weight I did. I went from 340 pounds to 240 pounds within about 4 years. I have since leveled off, and I stand right around 265-270, which is a good weight for me. But, at first I really struggled with the diet. It was tough for me to give up bread and pasta and full sugar soda and ice cream and candy, namely licorice. I loved all those foods, and I ate way too much of them. After the first year though, I kind of got used to not having them anymore. It was something I stopped pining for over time. Since the weight loss I found going to restaurants as kind of a hassle. Yes, there are endless meat and cheese and veggie options, but after awhile I get sick of eating a salad or having just meat and a veggie. I found myself wanting more. So for awhile I slipped back into old habits. I would get a meat dish, but I would have a carb heavy side. I would get fries or a potato, or have bread before the meal came. I realized this was messing up my stomach, both internally and externally, so about a couple months back I decided to go back to being more conscious of what I was, and am, eating. I got up around 285, but since I got back on the diet, I am back down to 275, and I feel good.

This all brings me to my point today. Yes, I still go to restaurants and have salads and meat dishes, but some places have made it a bit easier, and more carb conscious friendly for people like me to have a taste of what I am missing so much. For instance, yesterday I took my kids to lunch at Qdoba. We had a crazy storm in Saint Louis, and my son had school called off due to flooding. So I took them to the local library to play for awhile, and my son asked if we could have Qdoba since it is close by. I said sure, and pretty much decided I would have my usual burrito bowl. But when we walked in, they had a newer menu with some specials on it, one of them what they called a Keto bowl. I was intrigued since the Keto diet is pretty much the same as Atkins. I ordered it, and it was awesome. It had a bit of lettuce on the bottom, some cheese and pico de gallo. They also filled it to the brim with their brisket and guacamole. I mean, it was piled on there. I added a little hot sauce and I devoured that thing. I was satiated, and felt full. That doesn't usually happen for me at a place like Qdoba, but it did yesterday. I was super impressed, and I appreciate that Qdoba is now catering to carb conscious people.

Another place that is trying to help out the Atkins community is Blaze Pizza. I know RD has these all over his hometown, but it is relatively new to Saint Louis. I was out with my dad and daughter last week, and he suggested we got to Blaze to try out their Keto crust. Again, I was intrigued. We went, they still had some left, apparently it sells out quick, and we each got our own pizza on the Keto crust, and it was delicious. It was the first time in a long time that I felt like I was eating real pizza. Sure, the crust is a little different, but it still tasted like pizza. I got pepperoni, sausage and green peppers on mine, and it was great. It was pizza. It was giving me that feeling that I was missing. My dad had a meat lovers pizza on the crust, I tried his, and it was great too. The entire pizza, all 6 slices, has a grand total of 6 carbs. It is wonderful. I'm sure some other places are doing this now, I know you can get burgers lettuce wrapped at big time chains, and I am so grateful that this is a viable option now.

I just wanted to say that I really appreciate this, and I hope more and more places will continue to follow this trend. There are a lot of Atkins people out there, and we will pay money to eat the things we miss while on our diet. This is great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Ty used to work at St. Louis Bread Company. Back in those days he would eat same number of carbs in one day that he now eats in one year. Those were the days

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