I have some excellent cooks among friends and family. Some made pizzas with fresh homemade dough, and my dad used to make it with fancy deli meats and special cheeses (havarti, blue cheese, etc). So it truly is a loss, but I'm not quite desperate enough to trade eyesight for piza

I am just totally hooked on dehydrated, crispy olive oil, sea salt, kale chips lately! I have 5 batches going in the dehydrator right now. A local farmer down the road is selling large bunches of organic kale for only $2/bunch.

I have a couple batches that are just olive oil & sea salt.

But I also make a "cheesey" powder: Finely ground brazil nuts, nutrional yeast, dried chopped garlic, cayenne powder & sea salt all mixed together and turned into powder in my coffee grinder and then sprinkled all over the kale, after the kale has been coated in a little olive oil.

I dehydrate them over night and try not to eat all of them the next morning!

Also, I am currently loving these dried sea weed sheets from the local Asian Market. They are called "roasted laver", pretty much very very thin cripsy slices of nori. I recommend buying it in large sheet packages at an Asian specialty market (where it is very inexpensive), vs. those tiny little packs that are now popping up in regular grocery stores. Seaweed is one of those super foods that provides the body with all sorts of vitamins, minerals, veggie B-12, and iodine. They are also yummy crumpled up in pieces on soups. http://muffintop.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/korean-roasted-salted-laver/

It's kinda hard to convince someone how awesome the NSD diet is at first when they have to give up comforting food they are used to like potato chips, and I am over here raving about "dried seaweed snacks", but after so many years of my own health/body based restrictive diets, I don't feel any loss when I eat these crispy salty snacks, and I always feel awesome afterward! But I will readily admit it's definitely been an acquired taste developed in the process of getting healthy!

-Andrea

I tried kale chips when I first tried low-starch diet (was not aiming for no-starch until about a year ago) and thought they were decent, but stopped having them after food intolerance test showed I was allergic to both cabbage and kale. I hate cabbage so that was no loss at all, but I'd probably still have kale chips sometimes if it weren't for that. Probably would have liked them even better with the garlic, but garlic also irritates my digestion...

Yep I tested it with iodine and left for ten mins no black so far as I could tell

I also do a pizza alternative if you can take cheese and I think it is better than normal pizza. I will post the recipe once I have double checked the starch (no black first time I tested - I didnt cook the topping just pureed everything before spreading on the base. I just dont believe it wasn't starchy first time round as the tomatoes (fresh not tinned) were cooked for a bit when on the base).

The closest thing to 'potatoe chips' for me are kale chips/crisps yum and they dont take to long to make.

This is great everyone, I am glad to hear I am "normal" when it comes to the smells. I don't have an issue with chips, good veggie pizza might be an issue. I was a vegetarian for 15 years so I am a big on veggies. I grew up on mostly homemade food so not big on fast food and such. I know I am a few steps ahead of some people for that reason.

Have any of you lost weight when they started?

A lot of us -- some have liked it, and some didn't. I didn't like it, I'm skinnier than I want to be... but on the other hand I'd rather be skinny than dependent on strong meds to prevent pain and eye damage. I've seen the taking-powerful-drugs-for-years-at-a-time thing go too wrong for too many people to want to be in that situation if I can avoid it.

I went from 60kg to 55kg in three weeks when I started and dipped below that at times! The plus side is it went off the right places.
I grew up on homemade too and don't do fast food.

I did get too scrawny, very ribby on my chest (not good to wear summer tops) so I made a concerted effort to eat more especially as I felt it was affecting my energy levels. I am now hovering around 57kg.

I started about 6 months ago. I also had a problem with fatigue and HUGE cravings at first. I think a lot of people go through this. Since we are also taking out a good portion of carbohydrates, I think this can be compared to "carb Flu". Like you, my favorite breakfast used to be whole-wheat toast but with jam. Here is a link for coconut flour bread that only takes 2 minutes in the microwave. I have it at least once daily with home-made spiced plum jam on it. Delicious!! It's best when served warm but not toasted. Make sure to make it with starch-free baking powder (1/4 cup cream of tartar and 2 tablespoons baking soda)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmJ4jT9i2L4