I thought I did good this first week back to low carb. I actually lost three pounds in the first five days. But I knew I wasn't being strict enough with my foods. And this mornign the scale showed me just how loosey goosey I was being. The three pounds are back. It could be from the bowl of turkey and cabbage and a few slices of cheese I ate after 9:30 last night. Or that I didn't have a salad with lunch yesterday. I don't know, but I am feelling really disappointed in myself right now.

Everyone here seems so successful in their journey. I know that I have only been doing this for a week but really it's been a much longer journey than that and I know that I could be so much further along in my journey if I had just stuck with the plan.

I'm lactose intolerant but have issues sometimes with giving up cheese. I have always had half and half in my coffee without problems. But I know that I could do so much better without any dairy at all. Anyway, I had a few slices of sharp cheese [always less than 4 ounces] a few nights.

I used store bought Italian dressing and balsamic vinegarette. Both have an acceptable amout of carbs but they are from sugar. I know that I should avoid them. I have olive oil at work to use on my salad but I opted for the vinegarette that comes with the salad instead. And I've had a hand full of baby carrots every night except last night.

Well, after weighing myself today, I know I will have to do better. I will have to make sure that I am getting enough carbs and not too much protein. I will have to leave the cheese alone for a while. And no carrots until I am consistently loosing. I made my first post to fitday with breakfast. Luckily I can go on fitday from work. So I can post my food from every meal.

And I did walk on the treadmill four days last week. So, I've gotten some exercise. It helps to be able to write this down somewhere, too.

Don't feel disappointed in yourself because you'll only be setting yourself up for failure. Dust yourself off and get back on track. The one thing I would watch for is the carrots. Carrots are very high in carbs. Maybe giving them up and opting for veggies which are lower in carbs might help a bit. Also.....being as your lactose intolerant......giving up the cheese for awhile might help also.

I wish you the best!!

Patty

Thanks for the encouragement. I think I was having cravings late at night because of the sugars in the dressing and the carrots. I decided on eating celery instead. I usually eat by 6:30-7 p.m., so nothing after 7 p.m. except celery or some other acceptable lc veggie. We'll see how it goes.

I think part of the problem is that you seem to be really unclear about your diet. I am not sure if you are low carbin' or if you're calorie counting. I think you are worried about the cheese but cheese is not high in carb. You still can't overdo it but cheese can be part of your daily diet. The other thing is that you are now worried you aren't having enough carbs? Then you are really not committed to this diet. I don't judge any diet, whatever works for people but I really think you need to clear that up. Without knowing for sure what kind of plan you are on, I can't really comment further. Maybe you could tell us what you typically eat every day.

Also the big thing here is that it is not a week diet. You need to stop thinking of this eating as a diet and as a way of life. We all need to give up the junk, give up the sugar, give up overeating. We all need to include half a plate of vegetables as part of every meal.

A week is absolutely not enough time to show you if the diet is working. You need to give it a month and think of the month as the way to clean yourself of your bad habits. I've always heard that it takes 2 weeks to make a habit. I always say give it a month.

Don't lose your motivations, cut your portions and you'll be ok. You will lose weight.

Oh and about carrots, I do low carb because I am diabetic. The dietician and my blood sugar measuring have showed me that baby carrots do not raise my blood sugar. The dietician told me carrots have enough fiber to make up for the carbs. Carrots are not going to make you fat and in my experience as a diabetic their glycemic impact is not great.

I am definitely low carb. I do not eat anything made with flour or [normally] sugar. Like I said, this week with the dressing was a big goof on my part. When I said I didn't eat a salad, I meant in addition to the turkey and cabbage meal I had. I usually eat a salad with lunch and dinner.

I worry about the cheese because I am lactose intolerant and dairy make me bloated and stalls my weight loss. Knowing this does not stop me from eating cheese sometimes. It usually takes something harsh, like me gaining back those 3 pounds, to stop me from eating cheese.

I don't really watch my calories. I have used fitday and I found that if my caloric intake is below 1200 my weight loss stalls. But I usually only focus on carbs and fiber.

As for worrying about how many carbs I am getting, I only worry about that because when I followed Atkins Induction, I was getting less than 10 net grams of carbs a day because I did not eat any cheese or avocado and I stuck with their plan of 2 cups of salad and 1 cup of other veggies.

My last weight loss was much more successful. I followed a 30/10/60 p/c/f ratio. I never had cravings for bread. I stopped the WOL because of personal issues. My original daily food usually looked something like this:

BREAKFAST
2 scrambled eggs
3 pieces bacon
LUNCH
4 cups lettuce
2 slices tomato
4 slices cucumber
3 oz chicken breast
1.5 Tbl olive oil dressing/mayo
SNACK
2 stalks celery
DINNER
4 cups raw spinach
2 cups romaine lettuce
1 beefsteak tomato
2 Tbl olive oil / mayo
4 oz chicken break / steak / fish
3 cups brocolli / green beans / cabbage

I am clear about my mistakes. This week I didn't get the extra veggie in at dinner and the dressing with sugar, in addition to the 3 ounces of cheese and handful of baby carrots. All combine, this was a recipe for doom.

Thanks for the reply. I hope this info helps.

Hi sylvia, your menu looks good, as for the three LBs its not realy much to wory about as our bodys natualy fluctuate and it is not nessisarily FAT you gained. I dont think the carrots are a big deal either. Little slip ups happen to everyone. Just keep at it, your doing good so far.

Thanks for the extra info. Just stay motivate. It's harder to lose at the weight you are at. I find it easier to decide at the end of the month if I've lost weight or not because I fluctuate so much from day to day or week to week. I know I gain water weight right before my period and I keep it even a week into it. It's hard to say but I would try to find a monthly pattern as well. You're doing great.

sylvia , don't feel bad. I think it's just your body trying to adjust to you getting back to low carb. Your menu doesn't look that bad. I'm sure it's just water gain and not fat gain and it will be gone in a couple days. I recently restarted Atkins after having gained 6 lbs. through the holidays. Mine is coming off WAY slower this time than it did on my original Atkins journey.

Here is my typical daily menu.

BF: 2 slices of bacon or 2 sausage patties with 2 eggs (cooked any way)

lunch: 2 stalks of celery, 1 with Laughing Cow Cream Cheese, 1 with 1TBSP of Peanut Butter, (if I'm really hungry I'll eat a couple slices of turkey with this)

Dinner: grilled chicken breast, dinner salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and ranch dressing, 1 cup green beans
sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with garlic

snack: 2 oz. cheddar cheese, or SugarFree Jello with 2TBSP coolwhip lite


When I did Atkins originally, I ate a big chef salad everyday for lunch (lettuce, tomatoes, ham, eggs, cheese, bacon, turkey, olives) and had no problem taking off the weight. Unfortunately the little cafe that I bought this at near my home closed down and I'm too lazy to make this for myself everyday.

As for your diabetes, I have insulin Resistance and take glucophage 850 mg. twice a day. My Dr. advised me to do Low Carb to get the weight off. The only thing on your menu that I would advise maybe changing is the carrots, to some type of green snacky veggie instead with a low-carb dip. Plus, maybe limiting your cheese to 2 oz. daily.

I hope this helps. Hang in there and the weight will come off.

Thank you everyone. The weight has started to come off. I was in early, early PMS. And because the PMS was a week early, I really wasn't expecting to hold on to any weight. C'est la vie. I do not do the premade dressing and I replaced the carrots with celery at night.

I just cannot say thank you enough for the support.