Re: When my urine tastes bitter...

Well, as I've mentioned before, each person is different so each one is going to respond differently.

If I remember right in the Bernstein diet a small Italian tomato is 4 grams of carbohydrate.  From a class that I took from my clinic, 1/4 cup of rice is 15 grams of carbohydrate.  It's not very much.  I think that in the Atkins induction diet (the low, low carbohydrate introduction period), there are 50 grams of carbohydrate allowed per day - that's more than my clinic and loads more than Bernstein.  I find that even small amounts of carbohydrate such as a little salad dressing or ketchup will trigger a desire for more carbos so I try to really restrict all of that.  Found out too that first two to three months are difficult, and it's difficult to stick with it exactly.  But once you do it gets easier and easier.  When I occasionally fall off, it's easier to get back with the program than it was in the beginning weeks and months.  I'm of the opinion that the older you are, the more difficult it is to lose weight.  I'm 76 and part of my "program" besides the diet is walking an hour a day, five or six days a week.  The combination has kept my a1c at 5.6 which is the mid-point of the normal range.  (a1c is a test that determines the amount of glucose that is stored at the cellular level.)  Walking has also helped me to maintain and actually lose weight.

I drink a jumbo martini once every week or two and hard liquor has virtually no carbohydrate in it.  The downside to that though is that it reduces my eating inhibitions, so before I have something to drink I pre-plan what my meals will be and try to stick with it the rest of the day.  I've been pretty successful at that, but have failed at times too.  It's like trying to maintain a balance between sticking with the diet while once in a while giving myself a reward.  It's a learning process but after three years I have pretty good control.  When I've fallen off my diet with ice cream or toasted cheese sandwiches (one of my favorite foods, with sourdough bread, of course) I drink more urine than usual for the next couple of days and that seems to flush out any effects of the carbohydrates - which is the craving of more carbohydrates.  I eat a late breakfast and with the high protein don't get hungry again until evening so I eat two meals a day - in violation of what many teach.  But hey, it works - so that's what I do.