Speed bump

tinachris14

Hi all. I have been doing lchf since Jan 16th. It was going great up until the past few days. I ended up on a carby binge over the weekend. So thoughtless on my part. I was dealing with some health scare related anxiety that I was trying to medicate with food.

I learned a few things on my thoughtless binge.
1. Crappy carbs cause me to have heartburn. I used to get that everyday before lchf, I don't miss it one bit!
2. Those foods didn't even taste that good.
3. Diarrhea...enough said.
4. Anxiety was exacerbated. I woke up this morning on the verge of tears.
5. Nightmares!!!!
6. Laziness. I spent the entire weekend parked on the couch. No motivation whatsoever.

Sorry for the lengthy post. I am really hoping to make this into a learning experience for myself and think of this as a "speed bump" rather than a failure. My goal for this week is be better about logging food and exercise. Any new friends on here would be a bonus too. Thanks for listening!

Violet_Flux

I hope the health scare you mentioned is/was resolved without any difficulty.

Perhaps you could have some LCHF-compatible indulgences onhand, incase you have similar stresses or urges in the future? E.g. I used to much on potato-chips a lot, now I keep a bag of pistachios in the house. They're indulgent enough that I feel like they're a treat, and satisfy my craving for something crunchy and salty.

Good luck!

LEAS86

I've been eating LCHF for around a year now, and I've certainly been there.

I still occasionally eat all the carbs (and rarely the good ones - this weekend I had a Nutella and banana French toast sandwich!). Like you, I try to think of it as a blip rather than a major disaster, I'm planning on eating this way forever so there's no point expecting perfection all the time.
Also like you, I find that actually my old favourite go to binge foods don't taste that great any more and worse, they make me feel tired and bloated. As a result, I do it less and less often.
My brain is finally catching up with the fact that chocolate and cake doesn't taste as good as it used to. I crave the rubbish carbs less, even when I'm sad/poorly/tired/disorganised or whatever other emotion is playing havoc with my eating regime!

I hope your symptoms will improve soon. Don't beat yourself up, do learn. Best of luck to you.

cedarsidefarm

Don't blame yourself. It's natural to make mistakes. And you have a nice list of things you have learned. Better to have learned it so early in your discovery process. It took me a year to find out what you just wrote down. Keep your list and refer to it when you get the urge for carby crap again ( I think I will copy it and keep it for myself)....and you will get the urge again, I promise you.

I keep a really good low carb coconut and custard flan in the fridge that satisfies those crazy carby desires. For me it is just getting to the fat burning adapted part that is the hardest. I eat one day of carbs over 50g and I know it's going to be another 2 weeks before I start losing weight again. I feel like kicking myself when I do that. But I just keep pushing on, knowing that eventually I'll get there.

Knowing it is just a speed bump means you're on the right road.

tinachris14

Thank you both for the kind words. In the past I would have just quit and chalked it up to ruining my diet. But I am committed to change my WOE entirely and not just "diet".

Bonny132

Sometimes we need a reminder, don't beat yourself up, learn and move on. You are only human, this is a long term change to your eating habits, so yes there will be slip ups, but this is OK. It happens to everyone, just remember how the slip ups makes you feel.

Personally I have one higher carbs day a week, I allow myself a meal, which stops most of my cravings. Mentally knowing I can have whatever I crave at the weekend, makes most of my cravings go away, and by the time the weekend is here, I usually find my original craving having been replaced by something completely different or gone altogether. It helps me to keep my cravings under control, and the longer I eat this way, the more my taste buds seems to change, so when I give into cravings, they tend to be a bit of a disappointment. Nothing seems to taste the way I remember them no more.

mmultanen

I really try to think of this as a WOE or a lifestyle change. Diet's never work for me and like everyone says "it's just die with a t at the end. when you diet all you're doing is killing yourself"

To that end, I do have days where I eat the pizza, or have the french bread. But not many, and I try to plan for them so it's not an "accident" or a response to emotions. I also try to pay very careful attention to why I'm wanting what I'm wanting and why I'm eating it and how I feel after. Interestingly, I have a girlfriend who just got out of a long stint in the hospital with her kiddo. I met her at her house yesterday and she offered me a beer. I haven't had beer in so long, but I had one and it was tasty! Holy crap though, I crashed like, crazy crashed after. It was like I had narcolepsy NOTHING and I mean it, would have made me able to keep my eyes open. I can't attribute it to the alcohol (I drink my fair share of wine and whisky) but all the carbs in the pale ale? Maybe. Worth noting and definitely remembering when I want a beer again.

Anyway TL:DR version: good for you for dusting off and getting back up! Being mindful of what and why we eat is so important!