Carb withdrawal
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rhiannacastro1
Posts: 2 Member
I recently found out I'm insulin resistant. I'm determined to get on track but I loooooove bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes. I'm going with the Atkins approach, but how can I subdue my carb cravings??? What are some good alternatives?
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Replies
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For me (doing Atkins), after 5 or 6 days it got easier. Now I just make substitutions for carby things. For example. tonight is steak and baked potatoes for the kids and hubby but for myself I will make mashed cauliflower with sour cream and bacon bits. For the first couple days it sucked. I craved carvs like crazy but someone suggested during a carb craving to eat some fat and it worked. Yes....I ate a little chunk of butter and it was amazingly delicious and took the craving right away. Another trick is broth (NOT the reduced sodium). Helps with the carb flu0
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I use nuts or coffee to squelch my carb cravings!0
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Definitely agree with AngInCanada about the cauliflower mash! So good! I've always had a sweet tooth, and for me the first week was the worst. But I promise you, if you stick with it - you won't even WANT the carbs anymore. Here's an article about "carb flu" that I found really encouraging: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/do-you-have-the-ketosis-flu/
My low carb replacement for chips is pork rinds, the spicy ones. You can even make nachos with them!
I love my lattes and I missed them, so instead I've been using 2 tbs heavy whipping cream & some sugar free caramel syrup from Torani. You can get it in the coffee aisle of your grocery store.
And when i'm really, really, just having a crap day and I need some choco-covered comfort, I go with either the candies that atkins makes (i usually find them in the vitamin section of the grocery store...weird right?) Or I make some fat bombs. My favorite fat bomb recipe so far is also the easiest one to make:
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1/2 Cup Coconut Oil
2 Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 Tablespoon Splenda, Stevia, Truvia, whatever you use for your sweetener =]
Microwave in a bowl until blended. Place 8 cupcake liners on a baking sheet or plate that is SMALL ENOUGH TO FIT IN YOUR FREEZER. Put 2 Tablespoons of the mixture in each cupcake liner, and freeze. Shouldn't take more than an hour. According to MFP, these have about 5.3 Net Carbs. Totally worth saving your carbs for the day for!0 -
I found the best thing I could do to reset and stop the carb cravings was to go "cold turkey" - I avoided all things with processed grains, and kept my carbs to 20 TOTAL grams per day. I didn't initially avoid frankenfoods like cloud bread or cheese-based breads, but I did avoid artificial sweeteners (I stick to stevia whenever possible, and I even limit that).
Very quickly, I was able to walk out of work and smell the bakery around the corner hard at work and NOT crave carbs. Once upon a time I'd have smelled that and, as though I was in a fugue, I would have picked up all SORTS of crap on my way home.
When you are craving anything, try a pickle, or a fat bomb. But first, ask yourself if maybe you're just thirsty. If you crave one food, and one food specifically, my experience is that the craving is emotional. If you start to feel hungry in terms of "I need some sodium," or "I need to up my iron," then you're already there.
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In the first couple weeks, I recommend just stuffing yourself as needed with keto friendly foods. Definitely cold turkey on the carbs, and just keep yourself full of low carb foods that you enjoy, even if that means eating too much initially. I didn't have the willpower to just ignore those cravings, but I promise after a couple weeks of being strict they do start to diminish for almost everyone!0
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Yup, fat load and sodium load any time you have a craving. Eventually they die. And I binge-ate an entire 17 oz box of chocolates by myself the immediate 3 days before I jumped in with both feel to LCHF.... So it can be done.0
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I started on a week ago Monday. It took me about 3 days of LC and then after that I felt better. In fact, I felt so much better, I couldn't remember the last time I felt so good. Then on Saturday, I went to an outing and ate carbs because that is what was on the menu. I felt awful that evening, like hungover and terrible headache. Yuck. The next day I went back to LC and amazingly felt better again.
If your experience is like mine, you really will figure out quickly that you don't even want the carbs anymore because it makes you feel awful.0 -
I started on a week ago Monday. It took me about 3 days of LC and then after that I felt better. In fact, I felt so much better, I couldn't remember the last time I felt so good. Then on Saturday, I went to an outing and ate carbs because that is what was on the menu. I felt awful that evening, like hungover and terrible headache. Yuck. The next day I went back to LC and amazingly felt better again.
If your experience is like mine, you really will figure out quickly that you don't even want the carbs anymore because it makes you feel awful.0 -
After trying to taper off carbs for two months and failing I just went off them cold turkey. The first two weeks was hellish then the cravings just faded fast. Because my pain level dropped from 7-8 to 2-3 on a 1-10 scale it was a no brainer to stay off carbs. Eight months later I am in better health than in the past 20 years and now am 64.
Actually there is a learning curve or was in my case. After 2 months I had a fair grasp of the concept but it was about 6 months in when I think I had the concept down OK but I still am learning weekly. I was very low and had I not moved to LC I expect my years were short to get back to physically functioning well. I wish I had known at 23 to do what I did do at 63.
If you are young you can get away abusing carbs but please do not wreck your good health like I did. Organ wise I seem ok but joint wise I am a wreck but for all those years I did not know the arthritis was from my eating lifestyle.
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