This morning I ate a hardboiled egg and an apple for breakfast. I KNOW that I have been short on carbs too much (every day it seems I'm short on carbs) so my hubby offered to share a bagel with me. I could hardly eat half of the half that he gave me... I had to soak it down with water and I offered him the rest and he made me "take another bite." For lunch I had a few fish sticks and peas (came to less then 300 calories) and I couldn't eat anymore. So it's after 1:00 and I've only had about 400 calories and 54 carbs. My goal is 1800 calories per day and 200 carbs. Is this normal? It seems like every day I have to FORCE myself to eat the carbs, even if I eat pasta I'm short on carbs.

Maybe you could try snacking more, like midmorning and midafternoon--a handful of nuts, some string cheese, or some pretzels?

Well if you're not eating carbs, what ARE you eating? I don't do the pretzels, bagels, rice, pasta type carbs. But I do eat plenty of carbs - vegetables and fruits are LOADED with them.

What kind of plan are you following? Do you plan ahead? How long have you been eating in this manner? I see you've lost a few pounds. Is this recent?

In other words, I think we need a little more info in order to be able to help you a little better. Give us a little insight into your plan it will be easier to guide you.

After reading the title of your post, "I'm scared I'm going to give myself another eating disorder," your post surprised me. Are you worried if you eat less than your daily alloted amounts that you have set for yourself, you could develop an eating disorder?

I think as long as you are eating a balanced menu, you shouldn't too much about how many carbs you get. Like Robin said, lots of things besides white bread do contain carbs - apples, beans, rice, milk, yogurt, etc. Hopefully, you will be just fine and continue losing.

Good luck to you.

I'm counting calories. I do try to plan ahead but on the days when I don't I feel like I'm floating around all day trying to force myself to eat if that makes any sense. I also lost more weight early on this week but I gained a few pounds back, which I think is due to TOM. (I lost about 4 pounds this week but gained 2 back in the last two days)

My main issue is that if I don't FULLY plan my menu, I'm either WAY over in calories or WAY under in calories, but either way my carbs are always low. Here's an example:

Breakfast:
scrambled egg, toast, butter, corned beef hash

Lunch:
Bagel sandwich with turkey, mayo, and provolone

Dinner:
Cheese, crackers, and pepperoni

Calories: 1645
Carbs: 90

But actually looking at this I think the idea about eating snacks will help me. My main problem is I only have unhealthy snacks so if I eat a snack I feel like I have to go hungry for dinner, so I need to get snacks that are more low-calorie snacks. It's kind of weird when you actually try to explain your problem to someone and you figure out how obvious the solution is.

Now that I look back on it, it actually does seem kind of silly. I think the problem is I'm so used to my whole life being revolved around food that when I am having to force myself to eat calories I'm scared that I'm going to go to the other extreme. I'm being irrational.

No vegetables or fruits? Whole grains? It looks to me that you have carbs with every meal (toast, bagel, crackers), so I don't see a problem.

My doctor recently told me that in her opinion an almost even 1/3 split for carbs, fats, protein is the healthiest (of course it depends somewhat on the person's make up). Of course the fats should come from healthy fats - nuts, fatty fish, olive oil. And the carbs should be complex carbs - not refined white carbs - brown rice, whole grain breads and crackers, vegetables, fruits, etc. Basically this is a Mediteranean (sp) approach -- have you ever read about this plan? Very healthy.

I think most of us here have a lot of emotional issues that are tied up with our eating. It's a complex animal - we have patterns that may have been set in youth or early adulthood, so trying to learn to eat healthfully and lose weight is not always without its irrational side. Don't apologize for that!

I definitely think you could add in some healthy snacks and do better with your plan all around.

Vegetables? Fruit? Whole grains, nuts, seeds. You don't seem to have much 'bulk' in your diet and its quite high in fat. Have you been an Atkins dieter or other low carb plan in the past and trying to move to calorie counting? That's what your sample day looks like to me.

Kitty

You have no vegetables or fruit . Why ?

I'm seeing plenty of carbs in your menu. Bagel, crackers,toast..... But I'm not sure why you would want those in particular. What I really don't see is fruit and veggies. Now THOSE would be the carbs that you should be aiming for. They highly nutritious and filling. Those other ones? Well, quite frankly not so much.

I think if you had a sensible plan in place, mapped out AHEAD of time, maybe from the night before or even days before, you wouldn't be so nervous. Putting thought into it ahead of time takes away a lot of the stress during the day.

I'd definitely work on getting a more balanced menu on hand. It does take time for your food choices to evolve. You can google healthy balanced 1600 calorie menus and lots of ideas will pop up.

Give it some time. Be open to change. Be creative. Tweak as need be. Keep in mind, eating healthy won't happen on it's own. You need the right foods on hand. It does take time and thought. But it's time and brain power put to very good use.

Thanks guys, you're right. TBH that was kind of a weird day but I do need to implement more fruits and veggies in my diet. I am using my daughter as a motivator to eat more as she is turning 1 and starting to eat what I eat.

jadebatdog...

I do understand what you're talking about. When I first started on this new eating plan, I was carb-phobic... I was eating a lot of lettuce and chicken breast with full fat dressing. I saved the calories from stuff like bread, rice, and pasta, and threw them into salad dressing...

But after awhile... (I've been at this for about three months...) I started to realize that I needed more variety in my diet. I've even added back in stuff like rice and pasta, but I CAREFULLY measure it and stick to my serving size.

When I started, my diet was mostly protein and fat... now it's usually balanced with an equal percentage fat, protein and carbs. That always astonishes me because, compared to my old way of eating, I'm eating "low carb..." That's because my old way of eating was very very carb centric-- bread, pasta, rice, fruit, and sweets-- all in large portions.

So what seems "low carb" to me is actually well balanced.

I also can relate to your feeling of being hyper vigilant and almost afraid to eat certain things. I find that now when people offer me candy and stuff I say NO!! and even startle a little... I think I'm just reminding myself that I no longer eat that stuff.

Well last night I think I made my hubby mad because we were gonna have people over and I was like 'mm let's make brownies' and I found a recipe and made sure the had the ingredients and then I was like 'what am I doing? we can't have brownies!!.' He said I'm turning into a food bi-polar. I crave something and I'm just about to get it and then all of a sudden I come to my senses.

Hi Jade,

How is it going? I hope your week got better with the food choices. Mine started great and went a little downhill as I got busier and more and more tired. But I registered a loss, so that's a boost.

Take care