Hi everyone! I am a newbie to this board and I came here because I am really struggling with Phase 1. I am in the middle of week 2 and am having a hard time keeping motivated. I can’t believe that I’m the only out there that is having so much trouble on the SBD. I chose this plan because I’ve heard it’s not TOO restrictive, you lose weight quickly and really learn how to eat healthy.
First off, I have a good 17lbs to lose. I lost 3.5lbs the first week. I weighed this morning and have lost another 1.5 lbs bringing my total up to 5lbs lost. I usually only weigh myself once a week but I cheated yesterday and just needed to see where I am for motivation. I cheated badly…….terrible. I had m&ms!!!!
I feel sooo guilty. It wasn’t that I was craving something sweet it’s that I’m SOOO hungry. And I’m sooooo sick of celery sticks with LLC, cucumbers, cheese sticks, etc. I think I’m going to start clucking if I eat any more eggs. I am not a big fan of eggs to begin with (no matter how they are cooked or what I try to disguise them with) I AM SICK OF EGGS! I have eaten more eggs in the past week and a half than I have all year. That said, I still feel guilty about those m&ms so I dutifully got up this morning and made myself eggs and turkey bacon. Since I cheated do I have to start the whole Phase 1 over or can I just keep moving forward?
About the hunger thing, I know I’m eating reasonable portions. Not too small but normal. Is it just that my appetite is maybe ‘getting used to’ the smaller more normal sized portions? I go to bed hungry almost every night and usually feel hungry about an hour after I eat. I feel like I’m eating plenty and that I shouldn’t want more. Yes, I eat salad and vegetables. Plenty of them. I drink plenty of water, that (thankfully) is not a problem for me. I have been putting some Caffeine Free, Calorie Free artificially flavored sparkling water in my regular water. (Ingredients: Carbonated Water, Citric Acid, Potassium Citrate and Potassium Benzoate, malic acid, natural and artifical flavor, sucralose (splenda), acesulfame, potassium, neotame). I’m assuming this is ok as it can’t be any worse than a diet soda. I just use a splash to give my water some flavor when I get sick of drinking ‘just water.’ I do eat snacks but I am totally sick of my choices. I like cheese but am really starting to get burnt out on it, same with celery and cucumbers. I eat nuts but have a hard time sticking to the allowed amount. In fact, last week I didn’t even realize there was any kind of restriction so I ate WAY more than was allowed. When I realized this I backed off. I did go out and by some sugar free Jell-O. I really don’t like Jell-O. It’s not the taste, but the feeling of it. It’s just so……weird. But I am going to give it a shot. I was surprised that Sugar Free Cool Whip is so yummy. I had a hard time finding SF fudgsicles. I haven’t even had one yet. I bought some over the weekend (Carb something) but then yesterday looked at the ingredients and it has Cocoa in it (plus a zillion other unpronounceable things) so that’s a no-no, right? They also have 100 calories each and we’re supposed to only eat 75 calories of that stuff a day. It was the only brand my local store had. I stopped at another store (slightly out of the way going to work) and they had the Popsicle brand SF Fudgicles so I got those. I hope those are ok because otherwise I’m at a loss.
I have the SBD book with all the recipes. I really have never cooked; I hate it and am not good at it. I also work 2 jobs and have a 2yo so don’t have a lot of time to cook. The weekends are just as busy as the weekdays so it’s not like I can spend all day Sunday cooking. I would rather stick a red-hot poker in my eye. I’ve been trying to find diet friendly FAST meals. Does anyone really have time to cook all those (seemingly – to me anyway) complicated meals that include so many things that I don’t have on hand? I have had to resort to a few frozen SBD meals due to lack of time but they are expensive and not very tasty anyway. I just bought them so I wouldn’t run to fast food.
Other inadvertent mistakes I’ve made: the ‘Lite’ salad dressing that I’ve been using has sugar in it (didn’t realize it until yesterday), I was eating Virginia Baked ham and not boiled ham (ummm, I didn’t see anything called ‘boiled’ ham at the deli), I’ve been eating turkey breast from the deli (shaved) but it doesn’t say ‘low fat’ (is it naturally low fat or does it have to SAY low fat to be allowed?). So now I have a bunch of lunch meat in my refrigerator that I don’t think I can eat. Oh and I can’t find turkey sausage either. I can find the kind that is like turkey Italian sausage but not the ground breakfast kind. I made the egg cups with sausage (Jimmy Dean 50% less fat) and reduced fat cheese but now realize that I can’t have it b/c of the sausage. I will try to make them with turkey bacon. It still has eggs though.
Is anyone else finding that they spend a fortune on food? Or at least way more than you used to? I am on a tight budget and am pretty frugal. I could eat very inexpensively (and poorly I guess) by matching coupons and sales. I could get things pretty cheaply and would stock up on things. Now I have a pantry full of soup, instant potatoes, rice dishes, pasta, etc. that I can’t eat. I will donate some of it to a local food bank but still, it’s a lot of food! I have probably spent more on food in the past week and a half than I did all last month! Yikes!!
I would like to try to stick to this because it obviously works but between the cost, the time it takes to prepare all these complicated foods and the restrictiveness I am really struggling. I am not a big ‘carb’ eater, I really don’t miss the bread or pasta or potatoes at all. The only thing I miss is microwave popcorn. I don’t really care about anything else. I just feel like I’m eating the same things over and over and over.
I am going to try those ricotta pancake things though since I can’t bear the thought of another egg. Of course I have to go buy some ricotta cheese and hope that my grocery store has “Lite” or part-skim (I’ve never seen that particular phrase before). I’m not sure if I like ricotta cheese. Is that the stuff that some people put in lasagna? If so I might have a problem with it. Hopefully it takes on a different consistency in the pancakes. I did find some SF syrup, it’s not Davinci brand (couldn’t find it) but Roddenberry’s Northwoods. I didn’t see anything bad in the ingredients list but I’m new to this so I hope it’s ok.
I swear, I’m almost done but I have a couple more questions. On P49 of the book, he says that mayonnaise is ok, as long as you don’t overdo it. ‘Remember to use the regular kind, not the low fat.’ Is that just for Phase 2 and beyond or is it ok for Phase 1? The recipe for Cilantro Mayonnaise (P179) uses reduced-fat mayonnaise. Is mayonnaise ok or not? Real or low fat? I’ve been eating my lunch meat plain because I don’t know if I can have mayonnaise.
I’m sorry for the novel and thank you if you made it this far. I guess I’m just looking for some support/advice/motivation to keep going. I was SOOO frustrated last night after realizing that my salad dressing was a no-no and then when I went to go heat my Bumble Bee tuna steak (vacuum packed) I realized there was some sugar in the marinade it was in. I think it was Lemon cracked pepper tuna or something like that. The ingredients listed 0 sugars but the ingredients showed some sugar in the sauce. That sent me over the edge. I had to eat it (with a salad of course) because it’s all I had in the house to eat and I was not dragging my 2yo out to the store. I only ate half though because it was pretty nasty anyway. But I was just feeling like I couldn’t eat ANYTHING. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!!!