I've been low carbing for just over a year now and have lost just over 3 stone. For a while it was easy and I lost a 1lb a week steadily and didn't crave sugar (my biggest downfall of all!)
Then I had a small blip which seems to have set me off on a huge yoyo spiral for the past six months or so. I go sometimes days, sometimes weeks following this WOE and lose what i gained after a binge (I am a sugar binger, when I fall off the wagon I don't just fall off, I fall off and the wagon reverses on me!)
Then I seemed to sort myself out and was eating on plan, just like before, but my weight was not budging. I kept on plan believing that I was doing the same as before and my body would catch up. Then I started logging my carbs on MFP and saw I had allowed "sneaky carbs" into my diet (too many peppers, onions etc) so went a bit crazy and cut down on what veg I would eat and keeping my carbs extremely low.
So fast forward to now and last night I ruined 2 weeks worth of good, healthy eating by caving and eating a huge bar of chocolate. I had weighed in expecting to have lost at least 1lb after another good week but instead I had gained 2lbs and was devastated. I'm not due on so don't think it was the usual monthly bloating. I don't know why I do it to myself. I had really clear short term goals. Lose 3 more lbs to get to 3 and a half stone loss. Then 7lbs more and I would have broken the 4 stone barrier. I have a pair of smart black jeans that are just a bit too tight to wear and they were my motivation to get to 4 stone loss but they've been sitting in my wardrobe for months.
I'm sorry, I'm aware this is turning into a huge self pitying rant, I'm feeling really low and ugly at the moment and after a clothes shopping trip to try and perk myself up went disastrously wrong I'm feeling even worse.
So, to actually be practical and not such a misery I think my two problems are:
- I don't drink nearly enough water. I know how important it is. I know it would help. But I still chose to drink crappy diet coke instead which I know is crap for me. When I'm on plan this is like my sweet treat and I hate the thought of cutting it out when I still drank it when I first started and lost weight.
- My protein and fat levels are roughly the same. After MFP logging I noticed that my fat wasn't high enough, but I struggle with ways to get more fat into my diet. I eat a lot of eggs, tuna and meat. I cook with cream and cheese but sometimes just don't feel like the same old cheese sauce dish.
I'm trying to up my fats but I cook in butter, use olive oil or mayonnaise for salads, have cheese and use the fattiest meats I can.
If anyone has made it this far, can you offer me some words of encouragement/kick up the arse please?
I keep thinking maybe I'll go back to calorie counting but then I remember how hungry I felt and I don't want to feel hungry after low carbing and losing weight whilst NOT starving. But I think low carbing just isn't working for me?
I'm going to try MFP again to log all my food but it is a huge pain in the arse as now me and DP cook everything from scratch and I don't measure ingredients when I make curries or cheese sauce so it would be a huge faff!
I'm also going to drink more water and cut the diet coke out if I can.
Anyway I'm going to stop typing this now and come back later in the hopes of someone offering me magic words of wisdom