A few days ago I posted on IG about how I was afraid to weigh in. My clothes have been looser (and I went down a size in jeans) but Halloween really set me back. Suddenly I had access to candy at work and at home and try as I might to resist, I had a lot of candy. Dammit! But a friend, and fellow long time maintainer, commented and said to weigh in, accept it, move on and do better. So I did. And it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I was 1 pound up from my last weigh in. Not bad at all after four days of candy eating.
NSV this week – I had to buy a new bra. I was a 34DD for years and when I got pregnant and was nursing I was a 38DD. My bras are now too big! I had to buy a new one! And going down one size felt good and very motivating!
Something I’ve been reflecting on lately is that this diet is super hard for me to maintain. I can do it pretty well for a few weeks and then carb creep starts to happen and I find that I am getting closer and closer to 100 grams of carbs on most days. I don’t know why I am so good at it in the beginning but then end up failing–especially since my goal is 50 grams of carbs (so not a true low carb diet, which seems IMPOSSIBLE to me!).
I’m starting to wonder if maybe I should try and focus on keep my carbs low during the work week (it’s usually easier for me to stay on track during the week) and then on the weekends just have a normal diet, eat whatever I want in moderation and stay within my calorie goals. So instead of a cheat meal, just take a break on the weekends.
This is something I’ve been thinking about lately. Curious what my readers think, especially if they have experience doing a similar diet. Thoughts?
New recipe:
Lately I’ve been craving meatballs. Michael was happy to oblige and make some low carb meatballs I found online! He used this recipe: Low Carb Meatballs.
I made a salad and topped it with the meatballs and feta cheese plus Goddess Dressing. The meatballs were so good! We both loved them. They turned out really well and held together well, too, despite no breadcrumbs. The recipe was a bit on the salty side, but overall it was really good. And I loved that it was low in carbs.
Michael made extras so that I can take some to work for lunches this week. He said he could eat these meatballs every week. 😀 Definitely a winner!
New To Me:
I had this as an afternoon snack one day:
Bone broth. 40 calories, 9 grams of protein (love that!), no carbs. It was kind of a blustery, fall day and sipping on some hot broth was nice. In the future, I would do this with a snack. It felt slightly weird to just drink some bone broth. I think some cheese or nuts or something would be nice to have with it.
Cheat Meal
I don’t know that I really “deserved” a cheat meal last week since I ate a few pieces of Halloween candy basically every single day…sigh…but I decided part of the reason I was eating candy again was because the low card diet is so restrictive. I hoped a legit cheat meal would reset my brain (and it kind of did).
I met up with my friend Robyn for a long overdue girl’s dinner. We met up at Maru Korean Restaurant and it was really good! We both got a beer with dinner. I ordered the bibimbap and she got something similar, except hers came in a sizzling pot that made the rice crispy.
They brought out a bunch of toppings, too. I really liked my dinner. It was a lot of food and I didn’t eat all of it. It was a little heavy on the rice and light on the beef, but the flavors were really good. We both enjoyed our dinners and I’d go back to that restaurant for sure.
So that was my week!
Lori
I think I might remove the word “cheat meal” or “cheat day” from your thinking. If you plan it in, it isn’t cheating and then you won’t have any guilt associated with it or so much difficulty with the other days (IMHO).
You could also try just increasing your carbs a little bit closer to 100 and see if that is enough to keep the creep from coming back. It’s always trial and error to find out what works well.
Those Pacific soups are pretty good, although I have to warn you that their regular soup line can give you really bad breath LOL!
Lisa Eirene
I agree with you. I’ve always been against the concept of a cheat meal or a cheat day. Just like I’ve been against the idea or concept of a diet and severely restricting–I don’t think it works. How I lost the weight before was eating whatever I wanted just in moderation and according to my calories for the day. I never felt restricted or denied things I wanted and it was easier for me to stick with it. I find this current diet very restrictive (especially considering fruit and vegetables — which are HEALTHY — are considered “Bad” because there’s carbs in them).
Eilonwy
As they say, individual results may vary . . . but I find healthy carbs relatively easy to keep a lid on (i.e. stay in my calorie range), but when I slip into unhealthy carbs, which for me is almost always sugar in one delicious form or another, I have a lot more trouble both staying with my plan and returning to it when I’ve wandered. So, a small serving of rice or pasta with dinner is something I can sustain, but once I start allowing myself a dessert here and there, I want too many of them too often with way too much force. I don’t count carbs, per se, but obviously they are leaping way up on any day I have dessert.
I give myself “holidays” rather than “cheat days,” but I’m struggling to figure out how often I can have them. I’d like to have a couple “holiday treats” a week, but I’m frustrated with how that’s working out. I may need to bite the bullet and try having a “holiday” just once a month (several sweet treats across the designate day) and then go right back to severely limiting added sugar. I did that for awhile, and it worked great, but I wanted to work toward a more natural, less regulated approach to eating. I’m not there yet.
And I’m wondering how much of the issue is seasonal–so many treats are on offer from Halloween through Christmas. Maybe this time of the year is just bound to be more challenging.
Lisa Eirene
Interesting! I like the idea of a holiday instead of cheat day. Like you, I don’t know how often is ok.
This is a very challenging time of year to do a diet. I wanted to try and lose some weight before the holidays started because I knew it would be extra challenging. I knew I couldn’t sustain a low card diet through the holidays, but I thought if I could just make it to Thanksgiving and lose a few more pounds, I’d be good.
Andy Parsons
Hey, looking great 🙂 I’m on a weight loss diet as well so i can relate.
It’s 6 weeks for me now and not that many pounds dropped, but I’m trying the slow approach of being just like -20% of calories loss with plenty of cardio, but recompensating myself with eating more of tasty food 🙂
Good luck to both of us!