Thanks SunnyB for your encouragement, mich appreciated!! I’m glad too that I’m not the only daily-weigher!
We ended up having a takeaway (Indian) with friends last night and I chose wisely – still lost 1lb today!

2EvilTwins, how many carbs do you try to have as your maximum? I try to start under 35 which works well so far – and I eat a lot of cauliflower as a carb substitute… I find new ways with courgettes, mushrooms and shredded cabbage really help to bulk out a meal – garlic obvs makes lots of things more interesting too!
I’ve been using lots of herbs, from my newly played herb bed! I find that fennel, rosemary, thyme and marjoram in particular (Used separately) really do give a very different taste to otherwise same veg!

Bryla, it’s so good to hear that you found such a fabulous reduction in pain levels too. It’s the greatest motivation isn’t it? And it fills me with hope that your report it’s lasted!! Thank you x

Hi Delabodge
Great to hear we’re in the same boat – we can spur one another on! I’ve mainly adapted ‘normal’ recipes so far to be honest, coq au vin, fish pie, Spanish chicken, Chilli con Carne, Pesto chicken etc. and I substitute cauliflower or other veggies for the accompanying carbs.
Something I have found helpful is to ensure at least some of the veg is VERY al dente and chunky, so that it’s difficult to pick up and shovel into my mouth too easily (!!) and then when it’s in my mouth it’s take a bit of chewing! lol x
It slows the whole meal down – which I find helps a lot!! x

Made choice on Friday to step away from 800 calories and allow around 1200 for weekend but stay low carb. Bscailly stop trying to binge like I have in the past.

Was shocked when thought I’d have a bit of tomato ketchup with my steak tonight but found it was vile and couldn’t eat it which is massive change for me as used have tom ketchup on everything.

Hopefully going back to 800 tom wont be too tough.

I do like the sound of Urchin’s brunch! And EC, I have made the aubergine dish again – also with lamb steak, which I know sounds odd with the anchovies, but It is common in Italian cooking (viz Osso Bucco) and just adds that wonderful umami (sp?) flavour when all melted down. I have obviously been watching too much telly in lockdown as inspired by countless property doing-up programmes (“it’s demo day!!” was a fave…) I have enjoyed demolishing an ancient built in wardrobe (prob as old as my house, ard 1890) and taking out the old render/plaster in the alcove. I bought myself a very dainty pry bar which proves the Archimedes principle: give me a lever and I shall move the world… Less fun has been bumping the rubble bags down two floors to sit in the front garden pending disposal. I will get a professional in to re-render and plaster as that is beyond me. Another lockdown thing I frankly have to face is the “o’clock”… I must look back at CanadaLiz’s posts…I hope all are well.

Hi Urchin – I am trying to stay around 35 – 40. I eat lots of squash, green beans, spinach, kale, salads, broccoli, cauliflower. I am staying away from beans/legumes now and sweet potatoes which are a staple for me. I also am steering clear of carrots and peppers – thinking they may have more carbs. For fruit – I have only been eating berries – although I love almost all fruit. I am occasionally drinking a vegan protein shake with 5g carbs to make sure my protein is high enough and enjoy a vanilla yogurt snack most days…when I make my meal plan some days my calories are coming in too low now if I want my carbs to be at this level. Not sure what I am doing wrong.

Hi everyone, great to see so many new faces here giving this woe a go.
Tomorrow I will be starting another 2 week stretch of isolating and working from home ahead of my August holidays so that I can go and see my family in what will also be my new town starting in September. I am feeling so much relief about not having to go into the office. I was definitely falling back into poor habits again there. I’m hoping that being at home will help me eat better again.
I had a bad day yesterday as I was having some issues with my sister who lives 2 hours away and near an uncle of mine. I ended up offering the porridge oats left in my cupboard to that uncle as he has porridge every morning for breakfast and is a pensioner so I realized he would likely be quite grateful for them. My sister was going to be driving right past my town yesterday afternoon so I asked if she would pick them up and take them with her. I also had some left over baking ingredients that I thought she might like. She said she would call or text me when she was close so I could meet her outside my block of flats as she would be in a bit of a hurry to get home. I sat at home until 5pm until I realized that she wasn’t coming. She is so inconsiderate as she could have at least let me know that her plans had changed. I haven’t heard from her since and quite frankly I don’t think she will bother to get in touch before I leave. Anyway, I was quite angry and upset as I could have gone out and done something a bit fun yesterday in the nice weather instead of staying home waiting for her, and now I will need to make a separate trip as well. I ended up stress eating to cope. It was all pretty much on plan, but far too much.
The good thing that has come out of this episode is that I’m back to fasting today. Not as punishment for yesterday, so don’t worry anyone. I just was not hungry when I got up this morning so decided to see how long it would take for me to feel hunger. I got a bit hungry at 4pm, but by that point had decided that I would do a full 24 hours, so I went for a walk. It’s very warm out so I didn’t feel like eating when I returned either, so just had some salt and lots of ice cold water. Now I feel really good so I think I may go 36 hours and not eat until tomorrow morning. I haven’t done 36 hours since February I think! I will see how I go but may try for 2 more fast days of at least 24 hours this week and see if I can get back on track with it. It is really the only thing that was working for me and I was doing so well with it at the beginning of the year.

So after 3 months, a nasty reminder that while eating disorders can go to sleep, they do not go away. I lost control of it on friday and did not find it again til sunday evening. That’s enough time to put on 5lbs from binge eating. The worst thing about having an eating disorder is not the weight gain itself, but the self loathing and fear of further loss of control that comes in its wake. So its a pretty bad day here, I feel rather sorry for myself. I will loose those 5 lbs and some more, its annoying but it can be done. But there’s no point in saying that this will never happen again, because it will. So the week beginning July 14th was well and truly a write off. I’ll pick myself up as fast as i can.

Oh Britta i feel for you. A lot of us are here because we havent had a healthy relationship with food, and although this WOE helps to improve that, it will not solve all the underlying issues, and certainly not quickly and completely.
You are right not to worry about the weight gain, thats by the by, you know you can address that.
But dont beat yourself up, it is a known condition you have, you have done an amazing job being in control for a significantly long time; yeah, it was a slip and its disappointing for you, but you are human, you are not perfect…. but you have faced it, recognised it and know you can recover. You have support here, you are not on your own and you have a much better equipped toolbox to deal with this now than what you’ve had in the past.
Chin up, look forward not backwards, get a plan, find your control buttons and go day at a time. If this week coming is better than last week then you can be proud! Knowing you cant say it will never happen again is ok…. but just decide it wont happen today….. and go from there?!
Disclaimer – I’m no expert, just trying to be supportive, I really do hope you are ok and can be kind to yourself! you deserve it!
Take care.

Thanks Julz, I did feel better after posting this, a bit like saying it out loud in therapy group! It doesn’t look good in my weight loss graph, but it has been logged. And as you say, I can control it a day at a time.

Hi Britta,

The good news is that you are unlikely to have put on 5lbs of fat over a weekend. – That would be 5 x 3500 calories excess.

Remember that most people have a period of rapid weight loss at the start. That is due to the change from fuelling your body with carbs which means that your body needs to store water to process the carbs. – The same happens in reverse if you step off the wagon for a few days. So cut out the carbs and you should see a a rapid loss of some of that 5lb.

To share my experience after years of this way of eating. – In time you will get to a point where you realise that even though your instincts expect you to feel calmed by a carb binge, it doesn’t happen. This article https://www.psychcongress.com/blog/role-dopamine-addiction-and-drug-abuse explains that the size of the dopamine hit effects how you react to it. – I have a theory, as you stay low carb long term, gradually your gut bacteria mix will change and there will be less of the bad bacteria which digests sugar. – So when you eat something with lots of carbs the lower number of bacteria to digest it reduces the speed at which that sugar hits the blood stream and therefore the size of the spike in dopamine. – It takes years of staying low carb, but I promise you, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

really interesting hearing everyone’s highs and lows it does help me to keep motivated. However I think I’ve been a bit mixed too this week. Saturday was a wash out – eating out in a pub and felt pressured to chose quickly ordering online via an ap. had scampi and chips, was lovely but screwed up my carbs and calories.
Calories average 901, carbs 47g over 7 days.

Weigh in this morning week 3 finish only 1lb off
So
Week 1 7lbs
Week 2 3lbs
Week 3 1lb

Total 11lbs.

Will try to do better in week 4 really want to reach that 1stone loss!

HI everyone, still here and still doing okay. Had a bit of a slip up with a couple of V&T’s on Saturday after a very stressful week trying to find house sitters for our September and December holidays (not really holiday, visit to family). I was inundated for September and make a point of thanking everyone and letting them know I have chosen someone, rather than leaving them wondering. Then the December dates got mixed up with September so I didnt know who had applied for what. Finally sorted and that’s my excuse for a couple of drinks. It didnt upset my efforts but I stuck when I could have lost a bit more. My plan is not to wreck my effects by bingeing ever weekend and putting back everything I have lost during the week. So far so good.

Britta, as JGwen says, it is unlikely you have actually gained 5lbs. Remember for every gram of fat you eat your body retains 3 grams of water. Get back onto it and it will soon flush out.

Official weigh in tomorrow so will see you all on the next thread.

Hi everyone.I too have had a day feeling a bit yucky. Can’t explain it and hope it is a passing thing.I spent most of the afternoon sleeping . I didn’t think it was a good idea to do my usual Monday fast and made one of my antiinflammatory golden lattes.Tomorrow will be a better day.
I really feel for those of you who are having a tough time, whetherr with family disappointments (big hugs articfox) or insiduous moments of self sabotage.For sure most of us are here because we have had an unhealthy relationship with food but I think the fear of bingeing and undoing all our efforts do ease in time. Don’t be too hard on yourselves as Julz has said. We are doing the very best we can to improve our health but like most things we don’t all get it right all the time and that’s ok.
Thank you Jennie10 for your good wishes about my retirement ! July is galloping away but I still feel I am a teacher on holiday 😉 September will be a different matter.

I am about to set up the new weekly thread xx

The new weeekly thread is up and running x

One Week at a time beginning July 21st 2020