Why is it so hard to give up Carbs :-(
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Donnah781
Posts: 37 Member
Hello,
I"m new to this group. I started back on MFP a few days ago. I'm trying so hard to not eat carbs. I did have a bagel today and a few other carbs. I know its one day at a time and each day I will lower my carb intake. I drank a coffee with milk and 2 sugars instead of m usual extra cream and 4 sugar. I'M PROUD OF MYSELF that I changed that almost cold turkey per say. :-)
That was a big step for me.
How do you control your carb craving and what snack ideas can you share with me. Thank you in advance for the input.
I"m new to this group. I started back on MFP a few days ago. I'm trying so hard to not eat carbs. I did have a bagel today and a few other carbs. I know its one day at a time and each day I will lower my carb intake. I drank a coffee with milk and 2 sugars instead of m usual extra cream and 4 sugar. I'M PROUD OF MYSELF that I changed that almost cold turkey per say. :-)
That was a big step for me.
How do you control your carb craving and what snack ideas can you share with me. Thank you in advance for the input.
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Remind yourself of why you are going low carb. Make the reasons strong enough.
One of my mantras: "flour is filler"
Don't eat bagels, full stop. Just don't allow them to be an option for you.0 -
I have a motivation board to remind me daily. I'll post a picture when I get home. It keeps me mentally on target. I also don't let certain things in my house that I know are trigger foods, and I don't go to stores/coffee shops/restaurants that I know I can't control myself at.0
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I compare cutting carbage to climbing a mountain. It IS hard, you WILL feel kind of crappy while you're doing it, but if you keep that mountain top in view and remind yourself how accomplished you will feel when you summit, the view from the top is SO worth it. The longer you toy around w/ the crappy carbs, the longer it's going to take you to make that mountain top.
And once you scale the mountain, the rest of the ride is downhill from there...easy-peasey. :-)0 -
If you eat carbs you'll want carbs. That simple. If I eat one slice of bread I will eat ALL the bread, for the next 3 months. If you don't eat carbs, it's only hard for about a week, then you should feel completely in control. Best thing about low carb IMO is not letting food control you.0
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I am also one who can't go slowly. The first 3 or 4 days sucked but I'm day 10 today and its much better. Haven't ate over 20 net carbs in 10 days. At this point I think if I ate a piece of bread or had a spoon full of sugar in my coffee, I'd go cometely back to how i was before so eliminating all of that junk is how it HAS to be.0
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For me, I just committed at the start. I didn't know if it would actually work for me, but I figured it was worth a whole hearted effort. I cut out all sugar and grains and starchy veg. All of it. The second day I was in Amsterdam to run an errand and it was sunny and warm and I kept walking by cafes full of people drinking beer in the sun. I really wanted to stop and treat myself. But I figured, it had only been one day and how could I tell if it worked if I didn't give it a real try? So, that was my first nsv. I said no, I don't need a beer. Also, what really helped me switch was not worrying about calories at all. I ate as much as I wanted of real food so that I wasn't hungry. It's a lot easier to say no to carbs when you're not hungry. Over time, my appetite naturally reduced so that now I'm eating low enough calories to lose weight, without counting calories!
I won't lie, the first week was tough. It was a constant mental struggle to not reach for the sweets. But after that, honestly it's been smooth sailing for me. I still get cravings when I'm on my period, but they're manageable and I can tell the difference between "a cookie would be nice now" versus "a cookie now would just make me want more cookies and undo all my hard work so far."
My advice would be commit. Do not have ANY sugar or carbs for two to three weeks MINIMUM. You'll find you actually stop wanting those things when you're not constantly having them.
Best wishes on your health journey!0 -
I guess what each one of us are asking is.... How bad do you want what low carb will get you.... If you want it enough you will find a way to make it work. If you do not you will find excuses... I agree with going all in from the beginning. This killed my sweets craving the fastest. No hunger is a great inducement.0
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spunkyabroad wrote: »Do not have ANY sugar or carbs for two to three weeks MINIMUM. You'll find you actually stop wanting those things when you're not constantly having them.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
Carbs are a habit. You need to form a new habit. It takes at least a few weeks. Maybe a month. Then you'll be on autopilot.
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Think of all the foods you like that are not carbs. Eat a lot of those foods. Have you been on diets where you couldn't have much butter? What about mayo? You can have that now in abundance. I'm saying try to focus on the things you CAN enjoy instead of the things you can't. I'm still learning this, too, and that's what I'm trying to do. It's getting easier. I wasn't able to cut down to zero carbs immediately. I still can't do it even. But it does get easier. The more often you say no to the carbs, the easier it gets. If you find it too difficult to do zero carbs, maybe just try to do without the most obvious carbs at first - pasta, bread, cereal, sugary foods, and rice. Do that for a bit before actually starting to count carbs and the transition is a little easier. Many people complain of feeling flu like symptoms when they go very low carb but it's not so bad if you ease into it. At least it wasn't for me.0
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I have also heard that going low carb requires some more salt in the diet.0
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Dont forget that there are carbs in many popular veggies, which is fine. But if you have diabetes and/or you want to be on ketogenic diet, you have to take these into consideration.0
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Don't switch cream for milk! Milk has more sugar (and therefore carbs) than cream. Better to switch up to a heavier cream (most of us who put cream in our coffee use heavy whipping cream). Coming from the SAD way of eating, you'll have the baggage of all the 'healthier' recommendations built into that, and you need to chuck those out the nearest window, seriously! Rib eye, not sirloin. 70%/30% ground beef, not 90%/10%.. you want the fat. Fat is your friend. Fat will control your hunger (assuming no internal signal issues), whereas carbs will only make you spiral for more carbs.
I agree with everyone.. reducing your carbs a little at a time will be torture. Just cut them out entirely, or go niiiice and low, say max 20 TOTAL g per day, and only from vegetable sources. Try an avocado in the morning instead of a bagel, you can even find recipes for a baked avocado with an egg in the stone spot. I usually just have eggs and bacon (actually this week I made myself a big batch of egg salad and I just eat a little in the morning, what a time saver!). And watch your electrolytes, sodium/potassium/magnesium tend to flow out with the waste water, so you'll need to be replacing those.
So yeah, break ALL the rules the SAD handbook gives you: skip the grains, eat the fat, add more salt!0 -
You cut the cravings by cutting out the carbs. Seriously. I finally beat my cravings several weeks ago, but succumbed to a very small slice of gourmet carrot cake at Grandma's birthday party Saturday. I have been fighting cravings ever since. Five days! That one reintroduction triggered it all. Just commit to no carbs for two or three weeks--just will yourself not to--and you'll find those cravings disappearing.
One last thought: Artificial sweeteners trigger cravings for me, too, even though they're not technically carbs. Just a thought.0 -
The best way to stop craving carbs is to stop eating carbs. Simple as.Hello,
How do you control your carb craving and what snack ideas can you share with me. Thank you in advance for the input.
Try snacking on stuff like meat, cheese, boiled eggs, nuts and leafy green salads... having tasty alternatives on hand will make it much easier to transition.
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OP, at first its about how much you want to be low carb. After a few weeks it becomes normal. I find myself writing potatoes on my grocery list (for the rest of the family) and still coming home without them because they're just not on my radar anymore. I'm never sure how much bread we have and if someone doesn't remind me I won't even think to put sweets on the list. In the past a bag of Oreos had to be put in the cookie jar, by someone else, almost immediately. If I handled them I wanted one all. night. long. Now I can put them away without even wanting one at all. Hang in there, it gets easier. If you want to go slower at lowering the carbs, try keeping the carbs to veggies and dairy at first, maybe some berries. Don't worry about the number, just the type of carbs. Once you're adapted to that, then maybe check your numbers. Your mind and body both need time to adapt so be patient with yourself.0
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This is from your profile:Why I want to get in shape
To feel healthier
Live and long healthy life
This alone should make you stay strong and drop all carbage. You need to change your mind about foods completely. Think of processed food/carbs as poison to your body. The more you resist them the easier it will be. You're the only one who can change things for yourself and your family.0 -
I did the opposite. I cut back the carbs, didn't cut them out. I started with allowing myself 75 carbs. Now, I rarely count them but I know I'm in the net 20-30 range most days. I no longer crave them. Even diet pop is now too sweet most days. I have 2 water bottles on my desk, and 3 more in my purse. 2 months ago, that would have never been the case! I have found that the more I eat of one food group (used to be carbs, now is protien), the more I crave it. I was a carb junkie. Did not think I could give up carbs EVER. And now, I rarely have any and the ones I do, I get from veggies and berries. Bread/pasta/potatoes/rice ect never happen anymore. I have found one sub for bread that I will have on rare occassion that I need (ie want) a wrap or tortilla. But that's it, and it is low carb.0
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One thing that helped me when I first started is thinking about all the delicious things I CAN have and not dwelling on the things I no longer will eat. The gradual decrease would never work for me personally, I just had to dive in. I, of course, printed recipe after recipe and tried to make sure I found substitutes for some of my favorite things (pizza, tacos, etc.) so when a craving hits, I can make something similar but better and be happy with my choice.0
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I personally love this site for recipe and meal ideas...her reviews and nutritional breakdown are helpful:
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.html0 -
If you eat carbs you'll want carbs. That simple. If I eat one slice of bread I will eat ALL the bread, for the next 3 months. If you don't eat carbs, it's only hard for about a week, then you should feel completely in control. Best thing about low carb IMO is not letting food control you.
THis is sooooo true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!0
