Well, tracking calories making a plan ahead of time does not work for this girl. Per my docs approval I set my calorie limit 1400. I find that planning ahead makes me overeat because I am eating even when not hungry to get all the calories eaten and while my bs is good in low 120, I am going to bed feeling stuffed. A feeling I totally hate and swore I would never allow myself to experience again. Yet I still want to track, so today I am tracking as I go without an advanced plan. I don't believe I will hit my maximum 1400 cals very often this way if I'm eating only when I'm hungry and even eating what I want, I honestly believe that eating and tracking this way, I may still find it difficult to reach the 1200 calories they say you have to eat.
I would love to do a very low carb woe, but I realize that I can't do that any more. I have a friend who does Ducan and she looks great, but I don't think it is good to go totally FF. Also you have to eat nothing but protein for the first 4 days and I couldn't get through the 1st day of nothing but protein when I tried it. I think they alternate... 1 day only protein and next day nothing but veggies no fruit. I want my fruit and I want at least a salad with my protein. So that doesn't fit me, my lifestyle or my personality. I still lean more toward Intuitive Eating where I only eat when hungry and stop when satisfied and for me don't eat till stuffed. I can't standK feeling stuffed and uncomfortable when I go to bed at night. So I think counting cals as I follow the IE guidelines fits me perfectly well.
Jane - To answer your question about the sweetners. I always loved Splenda and still use it when I'm in restaurants unless I have my Stevia with me. I use Stevia because it does not raise my FBS. When I started Intermittent Fasting, I tested my FBS while drinking tea/coffee with Splenda and with Stevia. I also use 1T FF half and half in coffee and my bs rose with the Splenda but not with the Stevia. I would suggest that if you want to use the sweetners to test to see how it affects fbs.
Ksail - Glad you and numbers are good.
Georgia, Ruthie, Mad and everyone else reading.Hi