Living the Low Carb WOE

#1 September 29th, 2003, 02:21 PM

I haven't posted for a long time, but I try to read the posts every
few days. A few days back, someone posted a question about what to do
about her eating her daughter's birthday cake. My understand of the
post made it seem like the cake was central to the celebration. Later
in the thread people discussed how you handle a high carb meal when
you're a guest in someone's home.

The thread really got me thinking. Since I went from 182 to 124, I've
made the determination that I'm not going back up the scale-EVER. I
love wearing size 6 and 8 clothes. I love the admiration of my college
freshmen son when he says, "Mom, you look HOT." I love not having sore
knees anymore. Accordingly, many of my behaviors have changed too.

First, I have stopped including food as part of any celebration. That
doesn't mean that a birthday cake doesn't appear on the table. It just
means that I don't have to eat it! I explain this to people -
somethimes the birthday person-beforehand so there are no hard
feelings.

If I am going to someone's house for a meal, I explain what I can and
cannot eat beforehand. Because I have such tight dietary restrictions,
I offer to bring my own food. I explain that the meal is more about
the fellowship and love for me than it is about the food being served.
I will not eat, for example, a serving of lasagne that I "pay" for for
a week. Surprisingly, most people are very accomodating about
preparing what I can eat. Those that are not are accomodating about
allowing me to bring what I can.

I think life can be so simple if you tell people in advance what you
need. Not in a demanding or bossy or mean way. But in a way that meets
your own needs and gives the other people choices too.

Of course, there's always going to be the person that doesn't
understand.....my Aunt Eileen, for example who says, "there must be
ONE day a year when you must go off that silly diet." My answer, which
I keep to myself when I'm at her house, is "there might be, but it
won't be here!!!!!" but I just smile and nod and eat my Tupperware
salad as everyone else is sucking down spaghetti.

Maybe you're one of those lucky folks who can have a bite, a taste or
go on and off plan. If so, then you don't need to modify your behavior
now or ever. However, especially if you're in the weight loss phase,
it's easier to stay on the straight and narrow, if you don't derail
yourself by jumping off your plan throughout the upcoming holiday
season.

Duffy
182/124
since 12-01=01

#2 September 29th, 2003, 03:16 PM

"Duffy" wrote in message
om...
I haven't posted for a long time, but I try to read the posts every
few days. A few days back, someone posted a question about what to do
about her eating her daughter's birthday cake. My understand of the
post made it seem like the cake was central to the celebration. Later
in the thread people discussed how you handle a high carb meal when
you're a guest in someone's home.

The thread really got me thinking. Since I went from 182 to 124, I've
made the determination that I'm not going back up the scale-EVER. I
love wearing size 6 and 8 clothes. I love the admiration of my college
freshmen son when he says, "Mom, you look HOT." I love not having sore
knees anymore. Accordingly, many of my behaviors have changed too.

First, I have stopped including food as part of any celebration. That
doesn't mean that a birthday cake doesn't appear on the table. It just
means that I don't have to eat it! I explain this to people -
somethimes the birthday person-beforehand so there are no hard
feelings.

If I am going to someone's house for a meal, I explain what I can and
cannot eat beforehand. Because I have such tight dietary restrictions,
I offer to bring my own food. I explain that the meal is more about
the fellowship and love for me than it is about the food being served.
I will not eat, for example, a serving of lasagne that I "pay" for for
a week. Surprisingly, most people are very accomodating about
preparing what I can eat. Those that are not are accomodating about
allowing me to bring what I can.

I think life can be so simple if you tell people in advance what you
need. Not in a demanding or bossy or mean way. But in a way that meets
your own needs and gives the other people choices too.

Of course, there's always going to be the person that doesn't
understand.....my Aunt Eileen, for example who says, "there must be
ONE day a year when you must go off that silly diet." My answer, which
I keep to myself when I'm at her house, is "there might be, but it
won't be here!!!!!" but I just smile and nod and eat my Tupperware
salad as everyone else is sucking down spaghetti.

Maybe you're one of those lucky folks who can have a bite, a taste or
go on and off plan. If so, then you don't need to modify your behavior
now or ever. However, especially if you're in the weight loss phase,
it's easier to stay on the straight and narrow, if you don't derail
yourself by jumping off your plan throughout the upcoming holiday
season.

Duffy
182/124
since 12-01=01

Really good points, Duffy. (having just had lasagna this weekend and
kicking myself for it)
Especially the one about "where" you are going to eat your off-diet meals!!!

Brenda W

#3 September 29th, 2003, 03:27 PM

Wow, this has been my strategy since 3/2000. I have always been one of
those who knew that "just one bite" would not work for me and would bring my
own food to a party or just be satisfied with the one item from the meal
that fit into my plan. I too learned to just enjoy the fellowship of the
gathering. My family is most accomodating, especially since they have seen
me go from a size 24 to a size 10 in these last 3 1/2 years.
However......now I am 8 or 9 weeks pregnant. I have had a bite of a corn
dog. I had a bite of baked beans. I drink a glass of milk almost every
day. I eat two or three pieces of fruit every day. I am hungry much of the
time. I know I will gain some weight, and I am enjoying having some of the
things that were taboo to me only two months ago. I feel good knowing that
I absolutely will have control over this once my body is my own again after
the baby is weaned, but I am NOT looking forward to buying bigger sizes, I
threw out all my fat clothes a year ago....
Cheers
Auntie Bubbles
Atkins since 3/272000
felt terrible/feel great/feel great for the rest of my life
"Duffy" wrote in message
om...
I haven't posted for a long time, but I try to read the posts every
few days. A few days back, someone posted a question about what to do
about her eating her daughter's birthday cake. My understand of the
post made it seem like the cake was central to the celebration. Later
in the thread people discussed how you handle a high carb meal when
you're a guest in someone's home.

The thread really got me thinking. Since I went from 182 to 124, I've
made the determination that I'm not going back up the scale-EVER. I
love wearing size 6 and 8 clothes. I love the admiration of my college
freshmen son when he says, "Mom, you look HOT." I love not having sore
knees anymore. Accordingly, many of my behaviors have changed too.

First, I have stopped including food as part of any celebration. That
doesn't mean that a birthday cake doesn't appear on the table. It just
means that I don't have to eat it! I explain this to people -
somethimes the birthday person-beforehand so there are no hard
feelings.

If I am going to someone's house for a meal, I explain what I can and
cannot eat beforehand. Because I have such tight dietary restrictions,
I offer to bring my own food. I explain that the meal is more about
the fellowship and love for me than it is about the food being served.
I will not eat, for example, a serving of lasagne that I "pay" for for
a week. Surprisingly, most people are very accomodating about
preparing what I can eat. Those that are not are accomodating about
allowing me to bring what I can.

I think life can be so simple if you tell people in advance what you
need. Not in a demanding or bossy or mean way. But in a way that meets
your own needs and gives the other people choices too.

Of course, there's always going to be the person that doesn't
understand.....my Aunt Eileen, for example who says, "there must be
ONE day a year when you must go off that silly diet." My answer, which
I keep to myself when I'm at her house, is "there might be, but it
won't be here!!!!!" but I just smile and nod and eat my Tupperware
salad as everyone else is sucking down spaghetti.

Maybe you're one of those lucky folks who can have a bite, a taste or
go on and off plan. If so, then you don't need to modify your behavior
now or ever. However, especially if you're in the weight loss phase,
it's easier to stay on the straight and narrow, if you don't derail
yourself by jumping off your plan throughout the upcoming holiday
season.

Duffy
182/124
since 12-01=01

#4 September 29th, 2003, 03:45 PM

In article , Duffy says...

I haven't posted for a long time, but I try to read the posts every
few days. A few days back, someone posted a question about what to do
about her eating her daughter's birthday cake. My understand of the
post made it seem like the cake was central to the celebration. Later
in the thread people discussed how you handle a high carb meal when
you're a guest in someone's home.

The thread really got me thinking. Since I went from 182 to 124, I've
made the determination that I'm not going back up the scale-EVER. I
love wearing size 6 and 8 clothes. I love the admiration of my college
freshmen son when he says, "Mom, you look HOT." I love not having sore
knees anymore. Accordingly, many of my behaviors have changed too.

First, I have stopped including food as part of any celebration. That
doesn't mean that a birthday cake doesn't appear on the table. It just
means that I don't have to eat it! I explain this to people -
somethimes the birthday person-beforehand so there are no hard
feelings.

If I am going to someone's house for a meal, I explain what I can and
cannot eat beforehand. Because I have such tight dietary restrictions,
I offer to bring my own food. I explain that the meal is more about
the fellowship and love for me than it is about the food being served.
I will not eat, for example, a serving of lasagne that I "pay" for for
a week. Surprisingly, most people are very accomodating about
preparing what I can eat. Those that are not are accomodating about
allowing me to bring what I can.

I think life can be so simple if you tell people in advance what you
need. Not in a demanding or bossy or mean way. But in a way that meets
your own needs and gives the other people choices too.

Of course, there's always going to be the person that doesn't
understand.....my Aunt Eileen, for example who says, "there must be
ONE day a year when you must go off that silly diet." My answer, which
I keep to myself when I'm at her house, is "there might be, but it
won't be here!!!!!" but I just smile and nod and eat my Tupperware
salad as everyone else is sucking down spaghetti.

Maybe you're one of those lucky folks who can have a bite, a taste or
go on and off plan. If so, then you don't need to modify your behavior
now or ever. However, especially if you're in the weight loss phase,
it's easier to stay on the straight and narrow, if you don't derail
yourself by jumping off your plan throughout the upcoming holiday
season.

Duffy
182/124
since 12-01=01

Very well said. Because I don't feel deprived on a low carb diet I've found it
easy to stick to even when dining away from home. My friends and family all know
I'm LC and serve meals that at least give me something I can eat. If they want
to prepare potatoes or noodles for the rest of the guests that's fine. I don't
have to eat them. Same with desert. Go ahead and serve little Timmy's birthday
cake. I'll just pass. If someone really insists that I try something off plan
I just point out that my health does not allow it. That usually ends the
discussion. Afterall, how many friends are going to force you to eat something
if they think it might make you sick.

BillJ
254/171/168
Atkins since 6/20/01

#5 September 29th, 2003, 04:05 PM

Duffy,

This is definitely one of those YMMV issues. Your maintenance record is
very impressive so there's no question your approach works. It's also a very
easy way of doing it since you don't need to track what you eat or do a
whole lot of thinking about it.

For me, however, the only way I know I will be able to maintain long term is
by factoring in the carby treats into my food plan. I've been successful
with this kind of an approach over the past couple months--I was 137.5 this
morning though my weekly food plan included salsa and a couple chips, 1/4 of
a blueberry muffin, felafel, even a pita and 1/3 of a serving of onion
rings. The nutritional averages of what I've eaten are well within the low
carb range, my calories are below maintenance and I keep my blood sugar
spikes under 140 mg/dl. So from a health standpoint, this works for me.

The issue does seem to be "portion control." I can't eat the whole muffin
or the whole plate full of onion rings. If I do, my blood sugar will tell me
very quickly that I'm poisoning myself. There are some foods that I can't do
portion control with, too. Ice cream being the worst offender. So I stay
away from them. Sugar alcohols give me intense cravings, so I avoid them
too. But over the past couple months of experimenting with maintenance I've
found there are surprising number of carbier foods I can eat in moderate
portions without gaining weight or messing up my metabolism.

When I keep the portion sizes of the carby treats at a reasonable level I
don't get rebound hunger. And when I have whatever it is I'm yearning for
(it was felafel this week for some wierd reason) I rarely even think about
it later. Every bit of scale weight I've put on in the past three months has
come right back off as soon as I've dropped my carbs to the "flush out the
glycogen" level.

So it is possible to maintain in a way that makes room for more carbs too.
For me the benefits of not having to fight psychological cravings for
"normal people food" all the time outweigh the benefits of staying strictly
on plan all the time. But I think that food logging is required to go that
way so that calories can be kept reasonable.

Calorie creep, not carb creep is the biggest threat I find myself facing.
And since I know that at higher carb levels fat can turn into body fat, I'm
very careful to keep the calories under control.

I have been posting about this as much as I have because in the past when I
was maintaining I burnt out because I developed such a strong feeling that
so many foods were "evil carbs" and off limits for life. Eventually when I
ran into a very stressful life crisis, the "forbidden foods" used it as an
excuse to take over and I ended up doing the classic "eat a crapload of
carbs and gain it all back" thing even after 3 years of successfully staying
low carb. So that's why I've been working so hard to find a WOE that won't
implode on me since my health issues make weight gain and carb overdose a
matter of life and death, not just vanity.

-- Jenny

168.5/137

Low Carb 9/1998 - 8/2001 and 11/10/02 - Now

http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean
How to calculate your need for protein * How much people really lose each
month * Water Weight Gain & Loss * The "Two Gram Cure" for Hunger Cravings
* Characteristics of Successful Dieters * Indispensible Low Carb Treats *
Should You Count that Low Impact Carb? * Curing Ketobreath * Exercise
Starting from Zero * NEW! Do Starch Blockers Work?

"Duffy" wrote in message
om...
I haven't posted for a long time, but I try to read the posts every
few days. A few days back, someone posted a question about what to do
about her eating her daughter's birthday cake. My understand of the
post made it seem like the cake was central to the celebration. Later
in the thread people discussed how you handle a high carb meal when
you're a guest in someone's home.

The thread really got me thinking. Since I went from 182 to 124, I've
made the determination that I'm not going back up the scale-EVER. I
love wearing size 6 and 8 clothes. I love the admiration of my college
freshmen son when he says, "Mom, you look HOT." I love not having sore
knees anymore. Accordingly, many of my behaviors have changed too.

First, I have stopped including food as part of any celebration. That
doesn't mean that a birthday cake doesn't appear on the table. It just
means that I don't have to eat it! I explain this to people -
somethimes the birthday person-beforehand so there are no hard
feelings.

If I am going to someone's house for a meal, I explain what I can and
cannot eat beforehand. Because I have such tight dietary restrictions,
I offer to bring my own food. I explain that the meal is more about
the fellowship and love for me than it is about the food being served.
I will not eat, for example, a serving of lasagne that I "pay" for for
a week. Surprisingly, most people are very accomodating about
preparing what I can eat. Those that are not are accomodating about
allowing me to bring what I can.

I think life can be so simple if you tell people in advance what you
need. Not in a demanding or bossy or mean way. But in a way that meets
your own needs and gives the other people choices too.

Of course, there's always going to be the person that doesn't
understand.....my Aunt Eileen, for example who says, "there must be
ONE day a year when you must go off that silly diet." My answer, which
I keep to myself when I'm at her house, is "there might be, but it
won't be here!!!!!" but I just smile and nod and eat my Tupperware
salad as everyone else is sucking down spaghetti.

Maybe you're one of those lucky folks who can have a bite, a taste or
go on and off plan. If so, then you don't need to modify your behavior
now or ever. However, especially if you're in the weight loss phase,
it's easier to stay on the straight and narrow, if you don't derail
yourself by jumping off your plan throughout the upcoming holiday
season.

Duffy
182/124
since 12-01=01

#6 September 29th, 2003, 09:07 PM

Duffy wrote:

I haven't posted for a long time, but I try to read the posts every
few days. A few days back, someone posted a question about what to do
about her eating her daughter's birthday cake. My understand of the
post made it seem like the cake was central to the celebration. Later
in the thread people discussed how you handle a high carb meal when
you're a guest in someone's home.

The thread really got me thinking. Since I went from 182 to 124, I've
made the determination that I'm not going back up the scale-EVER. I
love wearing size 6 and 8 clothes. I love the admiration of my college
freshmen son when he says, "Mom, you look HOT." I love not having sore
knees anymore. Accordingly, many of my behaviors have changed too.

First, I have stopped including food as part of any celebration. That
doesn't mean that a birthday cake doesn't appear on the table. It just
means that I don't have to eat it! I explain this to people -
somethimes the birthday person-beforehand so there are no hard
feelings.

If I am going to someone's house for a meal, I explain what I can and
cannot eat beforehand. Because I have such tight dietary restrictions,
I offer to bring my own food. I explain that the meal is more about
the fellowship and love for me than it is about the food being served.
I will not eat, for example, a serving of lasagne that I "pay" for for
a week. Surprisingly, most people are very accomodating about
preparing what I can eat. Those that are not are accomodating about
allowing me to bring what I can.

I think life can be so simple if you tell people in advance what you
need. Not in a demanding or bossy or mean way. But in a way that meets
your own needs and gives the other people choices too.

Of course, there's always going to be the person that doesn't
understand.....my Aunt Eileen, for example who says, "there must be
ONE day a year when you must go off that silly diet." My answer, which
I keep to myself when I'm at her house, is "there might be, but it
won't be here!!!!!" but I just smile and nod and eat my Tupperware
salad as everyone else is sucking down spaghetti.

Maybe you're one of those lucky folks who can have a bite, a taste or
go on and off plan. If so, then you don't need to modify your behavior
now or ever. However, especially if you're in the weight loss phase,
it's easier to stay on the straight and narrow, if you don't derail
yourself by jumping off your plan throughout the upcoming holiday
season.

I am the person who wrote the post you alluded to. I admire your
approach, but I don't know that I will ever be able to take it
myself. I am still feeling my way through this. I do know from
experience that I cannot just use the WOE as a temporary measure,
because the result of doing that is obvious. Although I did eat a
small sliver of cake, I found that all my thinking about it and
planning meant that I did not use that as an excuse to then go
binge on everything else in the house. So that approach seems to
be doable.

I have not figured out what I can do for the holidays or what
would just be too dangerous for me. I am thinking of making my
favorite pie and making it as LC as possible, but it will still be
pretty carby. I THINK I can have some of that leave it at that.
(I REALLY need a low-carb graham cracker though.)

--
Jean B., 12 miles west of Boston, Massachusetts, USA

#7 September 29th, 2003, 10:46 PM

#8 September 29th, 2003, 10:49 PM

In article , "Jean B."
wrote:

I am the person who wrote the post you alluded to. I admire your
approach, but I don't know that I will ever be able to take it
myself. I am still feeling my way through this. I do know from
experience that I cannot just use the WOE as a temporary measure,
because the result of doing that is obvious. Although I did eat a
small sliver of cake, I found that all my thinking about it and
planning meant that I did not use that as an excuse to then go
binge on everything else in the house. So that approach seems to
be doable.

I have not figured out what I can do for the holidays or what
would just be too dangerous for me. I am thinking of making my
favorite pie and making it as LC as possible, but it will still be
pretty carby. I THINK I can have some of that leave it at that.
(I REALLY need a low-carb graham cracker though.)

Why not just eat something else? What is so all fired sacred about a
piece of pie or cake that it MUST be there?

I was one of those "food is my temple" people, but I know the only way
to stay the way I am is to fundamentally change how I approach food.

--
Wayne Crannell
Atkins+ 10/27/01
250/139

#9 September 29th, 2003, 11:21 PM

#10 September 30th, 2003, 12:21 AM

Wayne Crannell wrote:

Why not just eat something else? What is so all fired sacred about a
piece of pie or cake that it MUST be there?

I was one of those "food is my temple" people, but I know the only way
to stay the way I am is to fundamentally change how I approach food.

I don't know what is so "sacred" about it, but I do know my
daughter would have been extremely disappointed if she did not
have a cake--and I didn't want to do that on her day. Whether or
not I partook of any was another matter--and totally up to me.
Sure, part of it was the feeling that she would not like it if I
did not have any of her cake, but that may very well only have
been in my head. I didn't derail myself because I thought about
what I was doing a lot--and I was very careful not to do what I
would have done in the past (used that as an excuse to eat more
off-limit things). Maybe this approach is too lax for some
people, and maybe it will be for me at some point too, but right
now I am looking for a formula that works for ME. I think we all
have to do that.

--
Jean B., 12 miles west of Boston, Massachusetts, USA

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