Low-carb diets support thread

mazzers

linni wrote: »

Hi everyone. Today I'm having the yoghurt/flaxseeds, eggs/cheese and chicken/brocolli/cheese. I'm so glad I can still have the Lidl Greek 10% yoghurt as I love it! Should I limit the amount I eat or can I have lots? I had a really bad craving yesterday and had to test a Aldi chocolate reindeer but I felt really sickly afterwards. Serves me right. I'm going to try and add another small meal/snack today to stop the hunger/cravings. I think this lousy weather doesn't help.

There's no need to limit if it's things like meat, fish, eggs, but watch the carbs in other foods, even lc foods add up considerably if you over indulge, eat whenever you're hungry.

sweetserendipity

mazzers, hope you have a fantastic time in London!!
Have you decided on a show to watch??
Bet you have a great time!!

paula7924

hello everyone. I'm just back from a long weekend visiting family. Much eating and drinking. Looking forward to seeing what the scales say tomorrow, lol.

I saw some photos of myself from 18 months ago and couldn't believe that i was SO much bigger. i felt fantastic dressed up on Saturday night and feel ven more fantastic about it now.

Also, I discovered that I am smaller than my almost 13 year old 2nd cousin - very odd indeed

mazzers

sweetserendipity wrote: »

mazzers, hope you have a fantastic time in London!!
Have you decided on a show to watch??
Bet you have a great time!!

Thank you :kisses3:

We have decided not to go to a show, not really our cup of tea :rolleyes:
We will hit the bars, and i'm being made to go and watch the tennis not my cup of tea either, but cant complain, is all free

My gadding about will come to an end in July as my son will be going to uni and i'll not be gettin any tax credits, so without more hours i'll be rather penniless :rolleyes:

Ah well, all good things must come to an end
I could always take in a lodger i spose :cool:

mazzers

paula7924 wrote: »

hello everyone. I'm just back from a long weekend visiting family. Much eating and drinking. Looking forward to seeing what the scales say tomorrow, lol.

I saw some photos of myself from 18 months ago and couldn't believe that i was SO much bigger. i felt fantastic dressed up on Saturday night and feel ven more fantastic about it now.

Also, I discovered that I am smaller than my almost 13 year old 2nd cousin - very odd indeed

Well done Paula, very inspiring :T
If i could lose that amount i would be delighted, and would only want to maintain, mind you, if i lost half that amount i would be delighted

Give [STRIKE]us[/STRIKE] me some tips please

sweetserendipity

Morning everyone :hello:

Happy Windsday, tis a rather blustery day today, as Pooh Bear said

mazzers, I'm not a tennis fan either but maybe you'll get caught up in the atmosphere & enjoy it!! Have a brill time anyway!!

paula, good to see you feeling positive about yourself, I have 'fat' photos in my knicker drawer, so I see them every day!!

Menu for today:
B - 2 egg cheese & mushroom omelette
L - 2 low-carb crispbreads with butter & cheese
D - to be decided but I fancy chicken??

DD2 still poorly & off school so I won't be able to do a proper shop today, hence the ?? for dinner.

Should also say that 1 or 2 chocolate buns with cream will be making an appearance in my menu today.

Hubby nipped out for a bottle of wine last night, so had 2 glasses of the red stuff & 2 more crispbreads with butter & cheese for supper.

Have a good day all :wave:

paula7924

I don't have any particularly special tips I'm afraid. Really I just stuck to the plan and didn't cheat!
I did (and still do) make my life as easy as possible by not buying anything we're not allowed to eat as my will power isn't good enough to resist, and by putting the banned stuff we had in but didn't want to throw away (true mse) into our "box of evil" - way out of reach, and out of sight, so no temptation when i look in the cupboards.

I used nutritional analysis kitchen scales to keep track of my carbs and i soon spotted that if i ate the naturally low carb stuff like cucumber/lettuce/mushrooms/broccoli rather than onions/peppers/tomato i could eat sheds load more than the atkins 3 cups thing which meant i never had any constipation problems and could pretty much eat as much salad/veg as i ever wanted. I didn't spot for ages that it was 1 cup of cooked veg rather than raw so I wasn't riginaly eating as much as i could have done. The atkins approach now specifies a weight limit rather than volume limit and which makes much more sense to me and fits in much more closely to what my nutrition scales say too.

http://www.atkins.com/Program/FourPhases/WhatIsInduction/HowToStart.aspx

After the first stone dropped off I started to use my exercise bike every day, starting at 10 mins and increasing as i got fitter or if my weight loss started to slow down as I got closer to bmi of 25. i don't do that at all now though but i try and do pilates etc for toning and go dancing once a week..

I did plateau for a few months at a bmi of 25 - I think because of carb creep.(My initial portions of dark choc and nuts were very small but got bigger and bigger - now i know i really can't control myself so i just don't buy them, or at least not very often, lol). I was really quite controlled at Christmas but I ended up off plan for the whole of January. I allowed myself to have anything i fancied, reacquired a sweet tooth, put on some weight and felt annoyed with myself that i hadn't been more controlled (it was supposed to be a week off but the control went as i started craving sweet things again, which i hadn't done when i wasn't eating, and my 1 week holiday lasted until into February....)

I went back to induction and lost the extra i had put on, plus the extra stone i hadnt managed to lose earlier fairly easily, but again by sticking to the allowed lists, taking my supplements etc.

Now that i have lost my weight I have set myself a maximum weight limits. I'm calm about a temporary gain of 3lbs, which is what i know i gain because of water retention following a carby meal - eating at friends etc, but if my weight creeps up to 7lb i go back to induction.

When my weight is spot on I allow myself to go off plan fairly easily, as long as its not too often, because I know the weight will drop off as soon as i go back to LC, and I don't think I would get any return invites if i refused to eat pasta etc at friends' houses. And as i don't it at home it's a nice treat. And my real friends are usually quite happy to do me a side salad or baby corn or something to go with my spag bol, rather than the spag. More often than not people ask if they can have some of my stuff to go with their meal! The only ones who go on about my "funny food" are the ones who are annoyed that I'm not the fat girl anymore.

Which reminds me - Atkins helped me with the mechanics of eating but The Idiot Proof Diet was probably the key to keep me going and keep the weight off by helping me sort out my relationship with food, how i felt about my weight and its impact on my self worth, how to plan treats rather than spontaneous cheating and feeling guilty/cheating even more and also about the existence of sabotage etc (amazingly easy to spot once it has been brought to your attention and so much of it around waiting to take advantage in a moment of weakness/insecurity)

And finally (and sorry this has gone on and on) if you're not at your goal weight but you need to give yourself a treat to stay LCing long term then really try to do it less often otherwise you just yo-yo over the same 3 pounds e.g. treat day Saturday, put on 3 lb because of water retention (because carb digestion needs more salt, so your body retains water because of the salt so you weigh more), go back to LC, salt levels reduce, water retention goes down, lose the extra 3lbs by friday but probably no more, treat day saturday, put on 3lb etc. Every other week would mean that at least you have a fighting chance of losing a couple of real pounds rather than just the ones you have put on. And a whole weekend once a month is better on your metabolism and so weight loss than one day a week every week.

sweetserendipity

paula7924 wrote: »

Which reminds me - Atkins helped me with the mechanics of eating but The Idiot Proof Diet was probably the key to keep me going and keep the weight off by helping me sort out my relationship with food, how i felt about my weight and its impact on my self worth, how to plan treats rather than spontaneous cheating and feeling guilty/cheating even more and also about the existence of sabotage etc (amazingly easy to spot once it has been brought to your attention and so much of it around waiting to take advantage in a moment of weakness/insecurity)

Brilliant post, paula :T

I'm always referring back to the IPD book & think I always will, can just see myself in them & it's great for straight-talking, common-sense advice & suggestions, I love it!!

sweetserendipity

Had roast chicken & cauliflower cheese for dinner, yum yum!!

Will make coronation chicken with the leftovers, probably for dinner tomorrow night.

Have attempted to make a sort of tiramisu with one of Mercy's chocolate buns, whipped double cream, black coffee & cocoa - I'll report back tomorrow if it was a success, or not!!
Looked at loads of 'normal' recipes & I know I should probably use mascarpone or cream cheese but only had double cream in the house & I couldn't wait!! Tis in the fridge just waiting to be eaten, hope it's nice!!

zerodashzero

Paula - wow! Great post, thank you! Very inspirational (and all common sense really!).

Mazzers - double check about the tax credits, I've just found out that I can get them & I don't have kids! (Although I am a pauper working in retail...)

I hope everyone is well? You all seem to be sticking to the plan. I think I'll restart next week *wanders off to guzzle wine & pizza*