Is cold turkey the only option?

[BreakingBod]

I'm really wanting to change over to a low carb way of eating - I've done lots of reading (the easy bit!) and am totally convinced by the health benefits of this way of eating, but in the past I've struggled to get going properly, previously never lasting longer than a couple of days . At the moment my diet is VERY carb heavy, and I love them, I just know they're no good for me.

Instead of launching from total carb-fest to low carb, has anyone had success at a gradual move away from carbs - or is this impossible with their addictive loveliness?? In the past when I've attempted low carb I've actually felt depressed and given up as it's felt just too damned hard, and am hoping that a more gentle approach might help me get through this part better. Or am I kidding myself and the only possible way to adapt to this way of eating is to grit my teeth and cold turkey my way through it?

You could start off with primal, see marks daily apple and have some dairy (in theory this would be raw or goats milk but I just have organic) . There is a paleo/primal weightloss thread, it has been quiet this week but dogsrus has reached her goal so prob has some good tips! This woe would isn't necc that low in carbs so you could still have white potato as that is now considered ok on many plans in moderation, as well as carby veg, fruit and nuts and dark chocolate in moderation.

But no processed food esp containing white flour or weird ingredients!

Do you think you could cut out sugar first, then processed foods, then pasta/bread/rice then potatoes, then everything else? Personally I think it's better to go cold turkey and be prepared with lots of lovely low carb meals and snacks for the first couple of weeks because once you're fat-adapted all the carb cravings should go away. But if you think gradually cutting down will work for you then why not try it.

I followed SW initially on extra easy, so cut out processed sugar, then the original plan, so rice & pasta etc went too. I then switched to the Harcombe Diet which is no mixing carbs and fat, initially with some carb meals, but I'm now 99% low carb high fat.

So yes, you could do it gradually :)

Hmmm I've been thinking about trying to cut out wheat and sugar initially - although even 'just' that would be very hard I think...

I've just got Chris Kresser's book Your Personal Paleo Diet so I'll have a look through that iver the weekend (whilst eating Toblerone etc - obviously Friday is not the day to be making any radical dietary changes )

I am going cold turkey tomorrow......

I was 193lbs in Jan 2013.......got down to 169lbs and am up again to 193lbs.

Have been away for 3 weeks and eaten my body weight in pasties and scones and chips. I feel sluggish and tired and not good.

Am determined to do this. Low carb is fab and makes my skin feel better too. I can drop weight easily on it but need to stay on it. DH is joining me too so we shall do this together.

Tis the only way. Cold turkey is the only way.

I was just coming onto this thread to say cold chicken would be just as good. Oh, I'm so funny.

Seriously, most low carb diets do suggest you go in "hard" and kick your body into a new way of eating, then you relax slightly as you enter a maintenance phase. You certainly notice an immediate weight loss doing it like that. But it's horses for courses, and if you don't think that's workable for you, then why not give stuff up gradually. Getting rid of sugar and "white" carbs (bread, pasta etc) will help enormously.

Loads of recipe ideas on the low carb threads....

Had scrambled eggs with bacon for breakfast.

Snack was 2 spoons ff yoghurt.

No lunch.

Dinner was lamb shish kebabs, burgers, salad.

Water.

Good going calzone (you might have to change your name though).

I'm still pondering and delaying - I think realistically a more gradual approach will suit me better, but there's always the risk that 'gradual' slows right down into doing nothing! I made an effort to have some protein with my breakfast this morning, and I've got some chicken in the fridge for lunch.

Am thinking I might try and start with no processed sugar - so still have fruit and carbs, but cut out a lot of the junk I currently fill up on, and I'm also having a break from wine too. No sugar is just so hard though, I love chocolate and biscuits and often skip meals and eat crap instead . I doubt there's many people who eat as much sugar on a regular basis. I'm not overweight though, but I know it's really bad for me. It's hard to stay motivated though when the Double Deckers start calling to me...

If your not over weight that's probably all you need to do for now breakingbod

Good luck BB. I think the thing to remember is that everyone is different and what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for others.

Personally I tried the gradual approach and it didn't work as the cravings were there. I did manage to cut out sugar for a couple of months but then a family birthday led to a major fall off the wagon and I ended up worse than ever.

I went completely cold turkey and found after about a week that the cravings subsided. Not completely, but I can easily watch the rest of the family shovel sugary rubbish like doughnuts, cakes and biscuits without wanting to give in.

The things I did that helped were:

1. asking hubby to do the shopping at the start. That way he could only buy enough cookies or whatever for the rest of the family so I couldn't buy extra and eat myself.

1. cooking properly separate food. Bit of a faff but if I made something that I really like then I didn't begrudge them their chips. If, however, I tried having the same as them but without chips or rice then I felt deprived and was more likely to want to give in. This became unimportant after a while and now I can happily eat bolognese with courgettes whilst they add spaghetti.

1. keeping busy and making sure that I didn't eat in the evening. I quite often get 'hungry' about an hour after tea but if I ignore it it goes away.

1. eating lots of fruit. This stopped my sweet cravings. A lot of people say this stops them losing weight but I still lost 1-2lbs a week despite 3-4 pieces of fruit a day and it stopped me eating worse.

Why not try doing it a meal at a time, so that you change your habits/menus/repertoires gradually as well?

So if all three of your meals are carb-heavy, try to make one of them low/no carbs - breakfast could be a good one. So if, for example, you're used to eating cereal and toast, and washing it down with fruit juice, switch to a no carb breakfast, of eggs (boiled, poached, scrambled or in an omelette), with mineral water, or green tea?

If you find that your evening meals are based around pasta and/or rice, find alternatives for those - if you do a few 'traditional' days of meat and two veg (no potatoes!) this will really help you.

And look at what you're eating between meals. One of the best things about a low carb diet is that you find you're not hungry between meals - but the corollary of this is that on a high carb diet you often are, which leads to snacking! Switch from carb-based snacks to low carb ones - so cheese or nuts instead.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone.

I like the idea of doing it one meal at a time - I think lunch would work well for me on that. I've just had chicken, egg mayo and salad for lunch. Breakfast I really like a homemade smoothie (although this morning I had pate on toast as was heading to the gym and a smoothie is too filling and sloshy before a hard workout) and the full fat yogurt I use does have some added sugar, and of course so does the fruit (although I think I'm ok with fruit sugar).

My big problem really is sweet snacks - I often eat biscuits and chocolate etc in the afternoon, and then I'm not hungry enough to bother with a proper evening meal and end up having something like cheese and crackers (and a glass of white wine!). I'm hoping that by having a substantial protein-filled lunch, I won't need to snack in the afternoon, I also need to get better at planning my evening meals for the week, and actually choosing things I like so that I don't end up not making them because I don't really fancy them (white fish and vegetables I'm looking at you here). I'm quite lazy when it comes to cooking and I don't really enjoy it.

To begin with I'm also going to 'allow' myself a sweet treat in the evening just incase I really feel desperate for it, as in the past I've given all my good intentions up because I couldn't go another second without some chocolate. My thinking is that if I contain any sugar to one treat at the end of the day, it'll hopefully prevent me from eating it all day every day like I do now.

No sugar so far today...

BB, if you want a treat in the evening there are some non-cheaty things that you can still have. They may not work, but they might. On the paleo thread I posted about homemade no-sugarice-cream. Freeze chopped bananas then whizz them in hand blender with a small amount of cream. I also do it with non-frozen bananas as a kind of mousse. Add a tablespoon fo cocoa powder its yum

... and don't forget, a low carb way of eating is a high fat one! This is what will keep you satisfied.

(I'll also point out that fruit sugar is still sugar! Drop the smoothie and the yoghurt, if it has added sugar)

I have tried that method bb sometimes it worked well other times I would spend my whole day trying not to think about the treat in the fridge and if I had that I NEED CHOCOLATE feeling I would cave early and then feel guilty.

I think dogsrus has a good point if you replace the treats by looking up paleo (paleomg is a popular website) you will be learning new treats that are less processed, possibly more nutritious, pos better for blood sugar and less craving inducing. This 14 day meal plan includes a daily treat (lemon cake, no bake walnut cookies, coconut cupcakes with chocolate frosting, fruit bars, coconut macaroons, berry shake, paleo brownies, apple chips, peaches with coconut cream, granola, smoothies, cookie bars, pumpkin pancakes, chocolate mug cake, chocolate cookies, french toast etc) I think you would prob find you end up skipping the treat some days as too full! You could prob bend some of the rules of the diet and keep milk in tea etc as you are a healthy weight. This is the paleo thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/low_carb_diets/2110448-paleo-for-weightloss?pg=4 and there is another one if you scroll through low carb.

Another option would be to cut out choc and sweets during the week, anytime you had a craving write it down and forget about it then at the end of the week pick a couple of things from the list to have at the weekend?

Thanks yumyum I'll take a look.

I really need to do this-I'm sure carbs are responsible for my thickening waist, crap skin and IBS! What do you eat though?! Most of my meals contain rice, bread, pasta or potatoes! Meat is expensive :(

Can anyone give me a few cheap and simple meal ideas?

Currently, I have today for breakfast, sandwiches or rolls for lunch and meat/fish with rice etc etc for dinner!!

Here's the Bootcamp recipe thread should give you some ideas for food!

Today I had ff yoghurt for breakfast.

Chicken, salad and coleslaw for lunch.

Roast chicken, broccoli and cauliflower cheese.

I was 193lbs on Friday.
Today I am 189lbs.......tis working!

Reasons for Low Carbing.......

1. The food tastes great!

1. Not being a slave to sugar which is sooooo addictive.

1. Skin becomes beautiful.

Thanks

Thanks for the link-I'll have a look.

Does it get expensive? I've been trying to cit down on having meat every day with the prices rocketing, but you've had chicken twice in one day?! There's 5 of us-we couldn't all eat like that so I'd have to do separate meals?

I suppose bread, pasta, rice and potatoes are all cheap, aren't they? Even some vegetables can be expensive fresh.

It depends, if you are being careful/frugal with your shopping already and don't buy much meat etc you probably will find it more expensive. Some people 'give up' ready meals, eating out, alcohol,processed treats etc and for those people it probably evens out or works out cheaper.

Slow cooked stews or bolognaise etc which you can bulk out with veg and freeze portions are a good family meal, slow cooked chicken is also good as you can get more meat off the bones to make into salads etc. You could try and have some of the meals for the whole family with extra pasta for everyone else but other meals such as breakfast just for you? A tin of mackerel is less than £1, Tesco have improved prices on some of their veg, brocoli is less than 50 p, 3 peppers for £1 etc. Tesco and sainsburys both do 3 for £10 on certain joints of meat. Tesco also sell 10 happy eggs (FR) 10 for £2. Good sausages are expensive but favadi on the paleo thread makes her own and says it is cheaper than buying the fancy wheat free sausages. liver is another cheap nutritious meat if you can eat it. It is doable on a budget but only if you have time to be organised and cook ahead, shop around different supermarkets each week and/or or have an aldi and lidyl nearby.