The Pretty Extraordinary Low Carb Diet Thread

[QueenStromba]

A continuation of The Rather Amazing Low Carb Diet Thread.

morning all, my back is killing me today and I feel shaky, I have a serious craving for carbs, I would scoff anything, so I am going to have some cheese and meats and salad to see if I feel a bit better, also a glass of pepsi max.

Had an awful weekend last weekend so stopped posting for a bit as I felt The Shame. Have been LC-ing since Monday and now I am back at my lowest weight pre-weekend so back on track and all weight loss will be 'new' and not catch up weight loss.

I am feeling pretty shattered at the moment too-think because the weekend was just two days of carby meals my body is in shock but I know that I will get my energy back soon. Luckily I am not working till Monday now so have some time to chill out.

I keep having chicken and veggies for dinner...anyone able to recommend something else or a good LC recipe book/website at all?

Meatballs, tomato sauce, cheese and courgettes - does that get the ok? Tomato sauce as in tinned tomato based I mean.
Also, is a few squares g&b melted in some cream a bad idea?

creamtea according to IDP if you have less than 3 stone and only have to do phase 1 for a few weeks then the choc and cream melted and whipped is ok. BUT you are still giving in to those 'sweet' cravings, so my advice would be to keep it as a treat.

I think your menu is ok, just be mindful that the meatballs (if not homemade) may contain carbs in the form of bread, and tomato sauce has carbs too.

Tonight I am making chicken stirfry for us all. Some noodles added for kiddies but not for DH and I.

Hello again, I posted earlier in the week and have been very strict with myself since starting LO-Carbing on Monday. My food intake so far as been this (what do you think?) :-

MONDAY
BREAKFAST Black coffee, scrambled egg cooked in 8g butter with cheese /
LUNCH Chicken slices, green salad, cumber and mayo / DINNER 2 Grilled Pork steaks with salad / SNACKS chorizo and cheese

TUESDAY
B'FAST same as Monday / LUNCH Cold meats and salad / DINNER Roasted Chicken with courgette and spinach cooked in butter.

WEDNESDAY
No Breakfast but had scrambled egg later in the day / LUNCH tinned salmon with mayo on lettuce leaves / DINNER Bolognaise cooked with passata, carrote, mushrooms and red pepper with rocket/watercress/spinach salad and grated parmesan.

THURSDAY
No breakfast but scrambled egg w/spinach later in the day / LUNCH cheddar slices and cucumber (Not enough to eat i know!) / DINNER will be tuna balls cooked in passata sauce with lots of courgette, aubergine and spinach.

I'm really struggling to drink LOTS of water - the most i have in a day is probably 4 - 5 large glasses. That is loads for me as i barely have 1 or 2 glasses a day normally. I also don't think i'm eating enough carbs. I use a weight loss website for a food diary and it gives me all the info - i think the first couple of days i had no more than 10g and am aiming for 20g. Any clues how i can up my intake? The good news is that i've already lost 4lbs!!!
Though i am having more headaches than ever but am assuming thats my body adjusting?

Thanks for your tips and advice!

OhCobblers - I was never a water drinker before low-carbing - in fact partly due to the nature of my job it wasn't hard for me to go several hours without any water (and then if I did drink it would be tea or juice or flippin' lucozade!). But now I feel that if I'm addicted to anything it's to the water! Being in ketosis seems to make my mouth quite dry and now I'm sip, sip, sip all day and feel SO much better for it.

Lots of water is really pretty important when low-carbing. Having a bottle of water with me works better than trying to remember to drink individual glasses, I find.

Your menu looks pretty good, are you getting enough fat though? A lot of your foods look quite low-calorie as well as low-carb, and you need the good fats to make this work.

how about avocado with your salad? some celery and pate for a snack?

Drinking water is important to get those fat cells OUT the body, and also to keep your skin in tip top condition. My mouth gets dry too and sipping water really helps.

Jax i bought avocado earlier! will have those in my salads too.

Tea I love peanut butter - is that OK to eat? perhaps on lettuce leaves rather than celery which hate!!! What pate would you suggest. I think i'm terrified of over doing the fat intake so not sure what to eat.

Apart from all the obvious meats, fish and eggs what else can i eat without worrying too much? Thanks again.

make sure you get the whole earth sort - no added sugar etc, cheapo peanut butter is full of crap. Health food shops have some lovely butters, almond nut butter is delicious too.

You mustn't be terrified of fat. You need fat to burn fat! I know it runs counter to everything you have been told before, but it is an important part of this WOE.

Look up Dr John Briffa's blog and have a read about what he says there - or, better still, buy/borrow his book Escape the Diet Trap to read about the importance of fat.

And the water is really important. Buy a bottle with a sports top and keep it on your desk/to hand, and just sip on it all day - you will soon be getting through it without realising.

Ok dinner is done - did courgette spaghetti (2 courgettes) with blue cheese, had 4 small meatballs with just 1 spoonful of the tomato sauce. Feeling quite pleased with that! And was yummy. On 2nd big glass of water.
Errm still have no progress on the toilet front..trying peppermint tea in the morning!

Right, hope no-one minds if I carry on posting daily menus - it helps me get a handle on what I've eaten during the day and am useless with things like myfitnesspal tbh...

B - small pot Total full-fat greek yog, small handful blueberries
L - rocket and baby leaf salad with olives, a couple of cherry toms, cucumber and smoked salmon with mustard dressing (from Aldi, only 2.1g carbs in the whole pack including dressing - my new fridge staple I think!)
D - not really hungry so had a few smoked salmon and philly rolls and a few macadamias

Have drunk tonnes of water and had 3 cups of herbal tea (nettle and peppermint), plus snacked on a few almonds at work today.

I know the greek yog and the blueberries aren't strictly IPD phase 1 but sometimes I just cannot face meat or eggs first thing...

Am feeling really proud of the fact that I don't even want the slab of Dairy Milk or the trifle sitting in the fridge (they are dp's). Though I did have a carb-pang today when I picked ds up from my dad's and he was tucking into boiled egg with doorstop white crusty bread soldiers!

That salmon sounds really nice TandT will have to make a trip to aldi. And your menu sounds good, only thing I notice is dinner is maybe a bit small, you could probably have a bit more to eat. Well done on the dairy milk! There's a raisin and biscuit yorkie iny fridge!

....can I pop my head in here again????

Wish I had been online on Saturday and read about weightloss stalling etc etc as after a really good carb lite week ( still bfeeding so not going for ketosis..) I hopped on scales and had gone up 3lbs.....this sent me into a spiral of doooooooooooooom!!! I then seriously raided the chocolate stash...don't think I even chewed half of it...was surprised that when I went to the loo whole chunks of dairy milk weren't coming out in one piece ha ha!!!!! TMI sorrrrry!!! Even worse tho is that what I did taste, tasted waxy and yak ( don't ask why i kept on chomping it though, I just did!!!! )
Think the pressure of new baby's baptism and being 'on show' is getting to me a bit...
Had Sunday off the carb ite wagon and been snaffling crackers and options hot choc this week too...back on a str*r road tomorrow though x

Meant to type 'straighter' road...whooooops...

Gah! Gained a pound as I ate some chinese for dinner last night (feelign very very lazy), just had meat and fish but the little bit of sauce I had has obviously made me retain some water. Slap on the wrist - it wasn't even nice!

I have been in London a few days this week - long days. I hate being out and about when on this diet as it is really difficult to find anything to eat snackwise at stations when you only have 10 mins to spare. You can either have a steak at the restaurant, or a pepperami, nothing in between.

Weigh in day tomorrow, I don't think it will be a loss though as I haven't worked every day this week and have been drinking a lot of diet coke when not eating! I think though I would be happy if I have maintained at 10.9.

I am working from the office every day next week - the stability makes it a lot easier.

lol at kandinsky's The Shame

BIWI hope you're feeling a bit more positive today - bloody typical new scales being 3lbs different than before.

Gah. Not sure about positive, GOML. Still cheesed off.

Got on 'scales with new feet' today - three times. First result, 10 stone 8 and 3/4. Second result, 10 stone 6 and 3/4. Third result, 10 stone 8 and 1/2.

Have decided to take the last one - although it was very tempting to take the lowest one.

I'm finding it tough at the moment

a) because I know I've been working hard at it
b) because it's the weekend, and I'd really like to drink wine, but know I shouldn't
c) because I feel like I've been cheated out of 3lbs!
d) because I really, really wanted to get to that first stone off
e) because now I'm losing less - on average - than my target of 2lbs per week
f) because I can't see what to do to be even stricter (although I could knock the alcohol totally on the head - see point (b)!)

I feel as pissed off as you do. I am mentally 'there', but sometimes it seems hard to justify when I simply am not losing weight. I hovered around the 10.10 mark for ages, now dropped down to 10.9, it doesn't seem to impressive a weight loss.

I think the reason I have done so well is because of daily (ish) workouts - that has made the difference. I too have been very strict the last few weeks - yes I am drinking diet coke but not litres of it, and am eating very sensibly. Not a morsel of unsuiotable food has been eaten.

It is very hard to remain motivated and not think 'arseholes' and have some toast. Or some chips. Or bloody peas.

I think though I will keep carrying on until July because I said I would - and then perhaps relax it a bit then.

biwi I think you need to ditch the scales and get some new ones - those seem really erratic. I am sorry that you have been 'cheated' - it must feel really gutting when you have been really, really good.

They are new-ish, though!

Biwi/goml - also stuck for 3 weeks at 10.10. Added a couple pounds then removed again over the last week. Also my scales are rubbish - quite expensive digital omeron (spelling, sorry) ones but give me 3 different readings for 3 weigh ins back to back. So this morning, varied by 2.5lb across the three weighs. Argh!

Next problem - toilet (or lack of). Went to boots and bought some 'pleasant tasting' syrup of figs.
Oh.
My.
God.

It is FOUL, pleasant tasting my arse!! Supposed to take 3 spoonfuls and I was nearly throwing up it was that disgusting.
So very tempted by the dulcolax tablets but resisted.

Woah! Be careful - surely if it's called 'syrup' that will mean it's full of sugar?

I had a blip over mothers day but today is day 3 of being back on the carb wagon-cravings are over now thank god- day 1 was tough- I picked up chocolate loads of times but am v proud that i put it back down.

I will not weigh until next week (scared of having gained).

Lots of early nights until my will power is back up to scratch.

I'm doing P2T- can anyone remember if peanuts are ok? They seem quite carby when you read the packet...

Oh I know - had to assess the lesser of all the evils - needed something and didn't want the nasty tablet route..

TOGK - if you want nuts then either macadamias or almonds are your best bet. Sainsbury do salted macadamias which are, I think, 5g carbs per 100g - definitely the lowest carb count I've seen. They also do nice smoked almonds, but I can't remember their carb count