Britt's 30th Birthday Challenge! (September 22 - January 21)
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Absolutely, I fully believe that everybody is different and what works for one person will not work for another... Best of both worlds sounds awesome and sounds like it totally fits in with your lifestyle. Good luck on your new plan!!1
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It definitely takes some tweaking and experimenting to find that sweet spot. I hope this is it for you. It sounds like it fits in with your life so I believe it will work for you. Rooting for you all the way!1
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Thanks, @tlblanksfit, and congrats on entering maintenance!!!0
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Today's OMAD (eaten around 2:00 - we got a late start this morning):
Chocolate waffle with cream cheese maple syrup (I should've whipped these instead just melting them together, but I was super lazy)
Pan-fried swai over cheese grits
Eggs
Broccoli
Mango-carrot applesauce pouch0 -
brittdee88 wrote: »@tlblanksfit @minigrrll thanks, ladies! Not eating enough bit me in the butt, and I ended up having another meal about 12 hours later when my hunger and headache became unbearable, but I am prepared for my big breakfast tomorrow.
Getting too aggressive almost always backfires for me also. Some can do it but I'm not one of them. Slow and steady is what I need to do.1 -
brittdee88 wrote: »Weighed today to see where I am after all that mess: 159 - I am actually REALLY happy that my body is seeming to stay put in the 150s even with crazy eating. It sucks because I always seem to get stuck in the 150s, but I guess the silver lining is that I most likely will not see the 160s again.
I have abandoned keto because although I was satisfied, I just know that it will not work long term. My fiancé is Puerto Rican, and we eat a lot of Caribbean food that is absolutely NOT low carb. I know our future together will include lots of family get-togethers, and I just don't want to set myself up for failure. It's funny because I tried to "moderately" add carbs back in during a trip to Puerto Rico 3 years ago after being keto for months, and that was the beginning of the spiral to gaining back the almost 50 pounds I lost. Puerto Rican food will be plentiful in my life moving forward, so it really makes NO sense to think I will stick to keto religiously. Carb weight regain is so quick and substantial, and I think that would really throw a wrench in my maintenance.
Also, our relationship has already been improved just by my re-inclusion of fish because now we can order from the same places if we eat out, and we have gone back to cooking together at least one night a week. I don't think I realized just how much intimacy is involved in cooking and eating meals together. I don't want to go back to the way it was by restricting my diet anymore (beyond pescatarianism). I want to continue to eat carbs, and I know OMAD is the only way I can really make that happen without calorie counting.
I'm toying with making breakfast my OMAD and just changing it to later meals as needed for special occasions. I have always been a breakfast skipper, but when I have had it, I do enjoy starting my day with a nice meal. I have been reading a lot about the metabolic benefits of eating a big breakfast, and because it's my fiancé's favorite meal, we will get to spend weekends making big breakfasts together like we did when we first started dating without it impacting my weight loss goals. I miss those, and I am looking forward to that again. I also know that if I eat enough at breakfast that I am definitely not hungry later.
Unlike when I made this thread, I am not looking to make anything complicated anymore. I have exactly 11 weeks until my birthday and a lot of weight to lose, but I want to take things one day at a time and let others emerge organically as I go through the process. I don't know that I can lose all I want in these 11 weeks, but I will be entering maintenance on my birthday no matter how much I weigh.
I ate today around 9:30. It was a decent-sized meal but not enough because I hadn't decided fully what I was going to do, but luckily I can sleep most of today. I will be ready tomorrow with a nice big breakfast, and I will be posting here from now on.
Full-time keto for me is a no-go. DO NOT LIKE IT! Anyways, I still use it as a tool and if I'm eating multiple meals in a day, I usually try to make the early meals keto style, that way I don't get the carb crash and hunger later on. I save my carbs for the evening meal usually. Any protocol can work if we stick to it, it is just what is easier for us to do. Eating breakfast for me would be very hard but it might just be right for you. You can try and see how it goes. You can mix and match strategies, you might make your breakfasts low carb and eat carbs later or do the opposite if you eat multiple meals. I've got a friend that just snacks all day and doesn't gain (probably not good idea for me). Just make sure you weigh so you know if what your doing is working or not. Good luck!
PS I just discovered a new co-worker lost 70-lbs doing IF (16:8) in just 4-months. He is a big guy about 6'2" and started at 290 and is now about 220. He eats a little snack at about lunch and then he eats a small meal at about 2:00pm then a little snack (protein bar) at 4:00 pm, then a small dinner, then another small snack at about 8:00pm. That worked really well for him. Lots of ways to skin a cat!2 -
brittdee88 wrote: »I keep flip-flopping, but my new plan is exactly what I need. My best friend is following a traditional weight loss plan with MFP, and I have decided to join her because I really need the support. Doing this alone is just not working. This community is absolutely amazing, but I need someone I can call at 2 AM to talk me off the ledge. Having an eating disorder just complicates things. So we are calorie counting together, which is actually very easy because I eat on campus during the week, and there are calorie counts available for everything. We both began yesterday and are both already feeling more successful doing this together. I dropped 1.6 pounds overnight by sticking to my calories and eating 3 meals without any urges to binge.
On the weekends and for events/special occasions, I am going to follow OMAD because I know it works, and it's incredibly convenient. This way, I can enjoy my big breakfasts with my fiancé every weekend without having to worry about calculating recipes, and I can also attend events where there is homemade food or food without available calorie counts. These are what put me off calorie counting in the first place because breaking all the recipes down or trying to eyeball measurements for the purpose of guessing calories became really complicated and annoying.
This seems like the best of both worlds: eating 3 square meals a day completely stopped binges for me and OMAD provides effortless weight loss without counting and the benefits of fasting. I firmly believe that this is what I can and will stick to after all of the changes and experimentation, and this seems like a very reasonable structure for my lifestyle moving forward.
Thanks for your continued support, everyone! You are all gems.
I will post my weekend/special event OMADs and Monday weigh-ins here.
Again, I think you can mix and match to what works for you like others have said! Just weigh yourself and you will be able to tell. As long as it is sustainable to include food prep, counting, hunger, etc.. you can succeed! For sure check in and let us know how your doing. Good luck!1 -
Thank you so much, @blambo61! You're always so supportive and thoughtful
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I didn't get a pic of today's OMAD, but it was a small gluten-free pizza (~900 calories) eaten around 2:30 PM. We were too lazy to cook today, so we got Domino's.0
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Hi Britt! Happy to hear you're working out the kinks and finding what works for you Excited to see how your progress goes 1
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Thanks, Steph!
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I didn’t post last Monday because I don’t weigh on my period, but my weigh-in yesterday put me at 155.4 (-3.6).
Because of my crazy midterm schedule, I have been following OMAD pretty much every other day and following the Food Addicts Anonymous plan (which is amazing) on off days. The plan puts me at or a little under 1200 calories a day based on a bunch of calculations I did of my typical intake that would fit within that plan, so I’m happy I don’t have to do daily calorie counting while following it. I’m basically just eating according to that plan when I am hungrier and following OMAD when I’m not as hungry. The FAA plan does something to my appetite, so I haven’t binged at all, which is my ultimate goal. This seems like it’s working pretty well, so I’m not going to make any more changes.0 -
Congrats on the -3.6!1
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Glad you found a system which works for you.
I never heard of FAA before.1 -
I've never heard of FAA either!1
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Nice loss 1
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Thanks, everyone!
FAA had been suggested to me in the past when I was first diagnosed with BED, but I think I was too proud to admit that I am an addict. Following it has completely changed everything. No binges, no eating when I'm not hungry, no obsessing about food constantly. It is absolutely amazing. And because of it, I have been following OMAD almost daily this past week because I have not only not been craving food, but I haven't been eating or thinking about food at all until I'm hungry, which only happens once a day!0 -
So glad FAA is working for you!1
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brittdee88 wrote: »Thanks, everyone!
FAA had been suggested to me in the past when I was first diagnosed with BED, but I think I was too proud to admit that I am an addict. Following it has completely changed everything. No binges, no eating when I'm not hungry, no obsessing about food constantly. It is absolutely amazing. And because of it, I have been following OMAD almost daily this past week because I have not only not been craving food, but I haven't been eating or thinking about food at all until I'm hungry, which only happens once a day!
Nice, on the main boards, under a Jason Fung thread, a guy was getting skewered because he said that he had fixed binge eating with a keto diet. Folks railed on him that you haven't been diagnosed with BED and stop saying you were, and that it is something that can't be fixed and must be delt with everyday. Seems like you have been helped a lot with your diet choices with BED.1
