What do you do to fight carb cravings?

[TheVeryHungryPreggo]

What do you do, when you have a day - or a week - when nothing seems to satisfy you? And your meal plan looks boring and uninspiring without pasta/bread/chips/potatoes?

I've done this before, I know how it goes. I lost about 35lbs last time and kept it off until I got pregnant again, and despite my best efforts, I'm at almost the exact same starting weight as I was before (187lbs - clinically obese with a BMI of 30). That's depressing, realising that the baby weight hasn't fallen off and I have to do this all over again from the beginning. I'm fine with LC as a WOE/WOL and tend to make my food choices along those lines anyway, but the dieting part requires calorie counting and macro calculating and MFP and I find it hard going, maybe because I know how long it is going to take me and that I can't take breaks.

I'm nearly four weeks in, 12lbs down which is great, but I have twice that to go and the initial loss is always more so I expect a big slow down and a stall. I have shortcuts to help me discipline myself: I volunteer to drive so I won't drink; I have LC snacks constantly on hand - dark choc, nuts, mini cheeses, bag of sugar snap peas, packet of salami in the fridge. Didn't feel hungry at all for the first two weeks, but I'm hungry all the time now for rubbish. I have awful carb cravings that started 2 weeks in when I got my period and they never went. DS has chocolate buttons in the fridge. I smell them when I open the door and all I want is to devour a packet of cadburys buttons cold from the fridge. I don't even like cadburys usually - I have my own 70% stuff in the door and I have a 10g square a day for a treat. I have a massive bag of salted cashews in front of me, I've measured out 30g and am trying to psyche myself up to put it back in the cupboard but what I really, REALLY want is to grab a cold beer and polish off the whole bag.

My meals are ok, I have a salad for lunch every day which I quite like and is very low-effort. Tonight's dinner is baked salmon and spinach, with either broccoli or sprouts. Yesterday I had steak, the day before I had sausages (the 97% pork ones) with assorted roast veg, before that spiced lamb mince with aubergines, so I'm not really lacking variety or inspiration - just carbs!

What do you do to feel satisfied?

[SharkSkinThing]

Hello! Have you only just had a baby (congrats!), just thinking maybe it's too soon to diet?

Also (and I say this because I have a tendency to set unrealistic goals, like, I'll start running five times a week! Starting tomorrow!), do you need to LC and calorie count? And MFP?

I really get the carb craving...I love piles of pasta and steamy rice (sorry, not helping)...but perhaps it's just the sugar from the carbs that's triggering this?

Sorry, don't really feel like I've helped. Just to say hang on in there...the thing that curbs is for me is trying on a pair of (too tight) size 16 trousers that I am desperate to wear to remind myself why I'm dieting!??

[TheVeryHungryPreggo]

Thank you for your kind reply! I was having a bad day yesterday... Just fed up with it all!

Yes I do need to do low carb, and count calories and use MFP to lose. I know it works for me and it helps keep me disciplined when I can see everything going on, otherwise I just lose track and would eat extra portions too often. And it is working. The scales says so, and my clothes say so - I've just ditched the pregnancy bra-extenders I was using.

I don't think I've started too soon after baby. I did start when she was 6 weeks old and it didn't work at all, I was hungry and tired and not losing anything. Gave it a break, waited til my hair started falling out in the shower ( hormones dropping) and restarted at 12 weeks. It's been going well; I have lost over 5kgs in the last 4 weeks and have binned my (too tight last month!) size 16 jeans at the weekend in favour of the 14s DH told me yesterday that I look hot, which is sweet of him, so it is working even though I'm frustrated with it.

Maybe it's just a bad day. I never ate cadburys or toast most days anyway, shouldn't be any reason I desperately crave it now! Though I'm with you on the fluffy rice, I love Thai food more than anything and it is all loaded with sugar. I think part of the frustration is when it gets in the way of the fun things in life - yesterday was my eldest son's birthday and I didn't bake or eat any cake or party food. He wanted to "put on our coats and go out to a cafe and have sausages and chips and ice cream" a la Sophie in TTWCTT and I'm finding all sorts of excuses to say "not now, we'll go out another time, or I'll buy some things at the shop tomorrow and we can have sausages at home when I've had time to look at the contents, the calories and fit it into my meal plan for the day ..."

[SharkSkinThing]

Holy cow, sound like you are doing spendidly! My DS is 5 and I am only just feeling energised enough to tackle the baby fat!

Binning jeans is a lovely stage...my 16's are def looser, but not quite there on the 14's. I'm 5,8', started at 15.3, now 14.12 (I am now into my second week), so I'm hoping to be two stone down by Christmas, then tackle the next 2 afterwards!

So, like you, it's working.

Oh bless you, with your DS, that's the hardest bit, dieting with kids. So tempting to just join in the fun and blow it all on a fishfinger sandwich. Or chips. I do firmly belive that life is for living though (exalains my current weight), so the odd deviation for special occasions is totally ok!

My mum is coming to stay next week, but she's very suportive of dieting, so I'll do boot camp lite next week (ie wine & nuts), but I'm bloody determinded to stay off the carbs.

In the mean time, I'm trying not to have too much fun stuff in the diary to throw me off the rails. I#m studying for a master's degree at the mo, part-time aorund work, so it's easy to just disappear upstairs of an evening and not be tempted to eat cheeese and crackers with a big fat glass of red wine (my absolute comfort food).

So, yeah, sounds liek you were having a bad day! Cut yourself soem slack and do an extra lap with the pushchair! xxxx

[TheSwallowingHandmaiden]

Pram push all day long.

[AStoneBeforeChristmas]

I'm with you TheVeryHungryPreggo; I do ok for a few days then need carbs. Toast, mainly, but biscuits too. It's so frustrating. And not just one or two! I'm also around 13st so on Monday 12th October it all starts. I'm so looking forward to it. Only 79 days until Christmas!

[TheVeryHungryPreggo]

Biscuits are my Achilles heel. You can never have just one biscuit... I have 10kgs more to lose. I sincerely hope I'll be done by Christmas. I have planned a cheat day next week because I'm so fed up, but I've been pretty good on the discipline for the last month so I'm wondering if they have low carb options to go for!

It's possible yesterday's rant was a PMT wobble - I'm getting my period AGAIN, bloody hell. That's the third time in 30 days. Probably a combination of quick weight loss, post-pregnancy hormones and the mirena being fitted last month. But it sucks and the carb cravings are far worse with a dose of hormones even when I've been without for a while. I thought I'd low-carb while pregnant- HA! I couldn't bear the smell of eggs and meat and all I wanted was a jacket potato with cheese!

[AStoneBeforeChristmas]

Preggo! I was just going to make some reference to the gods not being in your favour, and then I realised that was from The Hunger Games! So I won't. Anyway, you've got a lot going on. Periods are rubbish.

I've discovered that if I have green tea then I'm not as desperate for a biscuit (or 10) as you can't dunk in green tea.

I think part of my First World Problem is that I'm not working at the moment - I foster and am between children - so I potter most days and my own children are all at school. Shocking excuses!

So Monday it is....

[AStoneBeforeChristmas]

I have started today!

[aseaandthreestars]

You're doing brilliantly

What are you having with your salad? Could it be that you're just a bit hungry, which is showing in the carb craving?

[TheVeryHungryPreggo]

Well done AStone, you can live up to your name in no time!

My salads typically have 2 spring onions, quarter of a cucumber, a head of romaine lettuce, one tomato, 30g of cheddar cheese and half a packet of wafer thin ham, all chopped up small and dressed with red wine vinegar. I'm not usually hungry afterwards but at 312 calories I have room to snack on a square of dark choc, nuts, sugar snap peas or a gin and slimline.

I finally gave in today and had a cheat day. I've been bleeding heavily for a full week and am so tired, and it shows no sign of slowing or stopping. I'll have carbs just for a break from it all - if it helps stop the bleeding I'll do the induction again any time! That and I had bad news in the morning which means we have to withdraw an offer on a house, and that was the point at which I found myself at the fridge with the buttons in my hand.

Sod it. I'm down 6kgs. One day with a beer, a kebab and some cadburys isn't going to undo a month's hard work. I just need a break from the relentlessness of baby, toddler, mortgage hassles and food discipline that means shopping and cooking for different meals for myself and family every day... I'll be back on it before the weekend. Usually I get a taste of 2-3 days of poor eating habits and I'm dying to get started again, but it mostly happens when I'm travelling and am stuck for a week!

[aseaandthreestars]

Ah, Preggo, you've got a lot going on at the moment. I can imagine that you really don't need to be making drastic changes and anything you do needs to fit in to your life.

Your salad sounds lovely, but really, really low in calories. Could you add a hefty slug of oil to it? Or maybe chuck a hard boiled egg on it?

Also, if you're bleeding you need more fuel - my calorie needs change hugely - I have a wobble of 4-500 calories throughout the month.

So, you're doing brilliantly is the main thing, but if you fill up on low-carb, high fat, high protein food you might feel less hungry and you won't have to use weapons grade willpower to keep you away from the buttons.

[Blodss]

Sounds like your doing low carb, low fat and low calorie so its no wonder you are craving sweet things.