Easter Treat - what we learned
janette130
Posts: 66 Member
When my husband and I started keto 6 weeks ago we planned to have a keto friendly treat on Easter Sunday - to you know, reward ourselves!
Eating low carb and enjoying healthy fats has made us both feel terrific. No more sugar comas, no more headaches, no more hangries. We even introduced I.F. which has both made us feel great!!
Well... Easter Sunday came and not only did we eat our keto treat, we both ate two chocolate chips cookies - family secret recipe type (which are totally my weakness). About 2 hours later... we both were nauseated and sick to our stomach. As we laid in bed trying to sleep, both still feeling sick, we had a long conversation about what we had done - a planned sabotage!
What have we learned from this...
*cheating isn't worth it
*weren't missing much
*don't take ketoisis for granted (it's a wonderful thing)
*don't plan to sabotage yourself
*more committed
*we really like the way we feel when LCHF
*our reward is losing weight and feeling healthy!!!!!
Eating low carb and enjoying healthy fats has made us both feel terrific. No more sugar comas, no more headaches, no more hangries. We even introduced I.F. which has both made us feel great!!
Well... Easter Sunday came and not only did we eat our keto treat, we both ate two chocolate chips cookies - family secret recipe type (which are totally my weakness). About 2 hours later... we both were nauseated and sick to our stomach. As we laid in bed trying to sleep, both still feeling sick, we had a long conversation about what we had done - a planned sabotage!
What have we learned from this...
*cheating isn't worth it
*weren't missing much
*don't take ketoisis for granted (it's a wonderful thing)
*don't plan to sabotage yourself
*more committed
*we really like the way we feel when LCHF
*our reward is losing weight and feeling healthy!!!!!
5
Replies
-
I’m with you on this one. I went to a buffet for Easter and stayed within my limits with meats and vegetables. Then I decided, what the heck, I should have a dessert cheat. SO not worth it! I felt sick the rest of the day and felt super guilty for breaking down. Every time my husband and I cheat, I wind up miserable. When will we learn??1
-
I feel super guilty too. Had a good workout this morning and doing IF to use up the reserves - I was knock out of ketosis
not a surprise though. Even while I was eating the cookie I knew I'd be 0 -
It's good to reflect and know what works and what doesn't! How nice that your partner is doing this with you!
I think it sometimes takes nibbling on something we shouldn't to remind ourselves why keto/low carb is right for us
The temptations become much more tolerable and less frequent if you have those negative experiences, it becomes easier to stay away from those foods when we know, through first hand experience, that they make us feel crappy. 2 -
So true River_Goddess. Thank you for your encouraging words!0
-
I'm with you. I indulged, even more than you did, and I feel quite gross. I forgot how bad this felt.4
-
LOL before indulging yesterday, I was thinking to myself. "okay after Easter, I'll go off keto for my birthday in June". I'm thinking not!1
-
I stuck with the program. I had 5 net carbs for the day and 1273 total calories. No regrets...7
-
SUPER 2t9bty! That's a win! Lessons learned for me. In time, I hope I can become more committed as I see more rewards. We are such a sugar-filled society. Aisle and Aisles of it at the grocery store!0
-
janette130 wrote: »SUPER 2t9bty! That's a win! Lessons learned for me. In time, I hope I can become more committed as I see more rewards. We are such a sugar-filled society. Aisle and Aisles of it at the grocery store!
I am a T2 diabetic and am controlling my glucose levels with diet only, so a cheat is not just a setback with ketosis or weight loss. My glucose levels go wonky too, and I get that feedback in addition to feeling bad.3 -
janette130 wrote: »SUPER 2t9bty! That's a win! Lessons learned for me. In time, I hope I can become more committed as I see more rewards. We are such a sugar-filled society. Aisle and Aisles of it at the grocery store!
I am a T2 diabetic and am controlling my glucose levels with diet only, so a cheat is not just a setback with ketosis or weight loss. My glucose levels go wonky too, and I get that feedback in addition to feeling bad.
Yeah... my BG is going to take a few days to get back to normal. 0 -
2t9nty: My husband is also T2 and his sugar levels have been so great on this life style change. Good things to come!2
-
janette130 wrote: »2t9nty: My husband is also T2 and his sugar levels have been so great on this life style change. Good things to come!
My doctor took me off my diabetes meds at my last appointment. I get a blood draw this week to see what my A1C is without them. The keto diet has been really good for my T2 diabetes, but I will see if it is good enough at this point.3 -
janette130 wrote: »2t9nty: My husband is also T2 and his sugar levels have been so great on this life style change. Good things to come!
My doctor took me off my diabetes meds at my last appointment. I get a blood draw this week to see what my A1C is without them. The keto diet has been really good for my T2 diabetes, but I will see if it is good enough at this point.
Good luck!1 -
I've been taking a weekend off after each month, and I'm just back from the most recent one. Each time I get all that indigestion and bloating and the food is never as good as I thought it would be and I start to feel all out-of-control and binge-y and I don't like it...
...but then I do another month straight of keto and I start thinking it'll totally be different this time and I should just eat the cookie.
I think, in other words, that it can be good to experience that let-down from time to time, because otherwise it's easy to re-shape it in your mind. Sometimes we have to check in with what we're "missing out on" in order to remember that we don't really miss it that much. As long as it's not too often and doesn't become a creeping habit, it can just be a part of the process, right?4 -
I talked myself into bad snackies (large bag of S&V kettle chips) while I was on patrol this weekend. A mistake - one I know well by now, but it was an IDGAF sort of night. Ahhh well, hop back on. Unfortunately, I don't get very ill when I go off plan. Sometimes I think it would be easier to not stray if I did feel that horrible. I NEVER cheat on my Celiac diet, I should be able to do this better too.3
-
canadjineh wrote: »Unfortunately, I don't get very ill when I go off plan. Sometimes I think it would be easier to not stray if I did feel that horrible. I NEVER cheat on my Celiac diet, I should be able to do this better too.
Yes! Totally like the Celiac thing. It just wouldn't be worth it for you to eat something with gluten, almost ever! I really do think it's a benefit to have negative consequences after going off plan. For me, besides the crazy water gains, if I eat off plan I swell up with inflammation and feel sore for a couple days. I feel moon faced within minutes of eating sugar or grains. So it's really not worth it to me to experience that discomfort. Where if there were no negative effects of eating those things, I may be more easily tempted off plan on a more regular basis.
1 -
I ate all the bad things I could. I feel terrible and regret it. I dunno why I do it as it makes me feel awful every time! When will I learn.......2
-
I was very good, then I inhaled a white chocolate rabbit, almost swallowed that thing whole! Next morning a pound down...........I am now eating a white chocolate rabbit every day!
@ironmaidenchick what matters is that you return to plan, not that you fall off occasionally.3 -
janette130 wrote: »2t9nty: My husband is also T2 and his sugar levels have been so great on this life style change. Good things to come!
My doctor took me off my diabetes meds at my last appointment. I get a blood draw this week to see what my A1C is without them. The keto diet has been really good for my T2 diabetes, but I will see if it is good enough at this point.
Good luck!
Thanks! I will report the results - good or bad. I have lost a few more pounds which is going to help. Meter predicts a 5.9 or 6. The doctor convinced me that as long as I was sticking to the diet and was getting predictable results on the meter, I should check less often. I have been doing that, but I still have the averages it keeps. Every now and then I do a "reality check" reading to make sure it is about what I expect. It has been predictable.3 -
I'm finding I have a lot more indigestion and heartburn when I have bread or sugar, even if I stay within my calorie limits. I've never been diagnosed with a gluten sensitivity or anything like that, but I just plain feel better when I stick to the plan...1
-
canadjineh wrote: »I talked myself into bad snackies (large bag of S&V kettle chips) while I was on patrol this weekend. A mistake - one I know well by now, but it was an IDGAF sort of night. Ahhh well, hop back on. Unfortunately, I don't get very ill when I go off plan. Sometimes I think it would be easier to not stray if I did feel that horrible. I NEVER cheat on my Celiac diet, I should be able to do this better too.
@canadjineh - I so feel you. I hear folks going on about these horrible side effects, and I know it is so weird, but I WISH I had all that. Maybe then, things would be an actual deterrent...
That being said, all, I personally recommend journaling or recording a message to yourself at the height of your misery, recording all the gruesome details, all the pain, the stomach issues, etc.FlyingMolly wrote: »I've been taking a weekend off after each month, and I'm just back from the most recent one. Each time I get all that indigestion and bloating and the food is never as good as I thought it would be and I start to feel all out-of-control and binge-y and I don't like it...
...but then I do another month straight of keto and I start thinking it'll totally be different this time and I should just eat the cookie.
I think, in other words, that it can be good to experience that let-down from time to time, because otherwise it's easy to re-shape it in your mind. Sometimes we have to check in with what we're "missing out on" in order to remember that we don't really miss it that much. As long as it's not too often and doesn't become a creeping habit, it can just be a part of the process, right?
And as @FlyingMolly says, it's so easy for the brain to just...remember the good parts... I maintain that this is the same mechanism that allows parents to resume intimacy after childbirth...(especially if traumatic, etc.)...it is the body's natural mechanism to minimize the bad stuff and create "blurry, happy" memories of the good parts, else we might live in a perpectual fight or flight state of fear, etc.0 -
I kind of wish I had the feel bads after carbs, but I don’t really notice much (except of course the weight gain). I did great on Easter, ham, deviled eggs, and green beans. Then, I was home alone yesterday and ate banana bread2
-
We were head deep in taxes on Easter Sunday for a Monday appointment so nothing special to eat was made and I just don't purchase candy since I am the only one here who would eat it.
I've not been binge free over my last 4 years on MFP. A treat here and there has never bothered me physically. I have to go face 1st in a tub of ice cream or eat a whole batch/bag/box of sweet whatever...and then I get noticeably sluggish/lethargic a few hours afterwards and that remains well into the next day. I have no clue if carbohydrates in something like pasta or rice would do the same because I've not gone overboard on those.2 -
I know that I'm not in control yet - or does that ever come? My mouth still starts to drool when thinking of having a brownie, or roll or a cookie or an ice cream. Be right back I have to wipe the drool off lol.. Seriously though does it ever get better? Almost to my 7 weeks in keto.0
-
janette130 wrote: »I know that I'm not in control yet - or does that ever come? My mouth still starts to drool when thinking of having a brownie, or roll or a cookie or an ice cream. Be right back I have to wipe the drool off lol.. Seriously though does it ever get better? Almost to my 7 weeks in keto.
For me it was a few weeks - maybe two - before I lost the cravings. At least part of the bad eating habits are behavioral and not a physical craving though. I guess it depends on the individual.0 -
Chocolate bunnies at an insanely cut-rate price.....waaaaah!0
-
janette130 wrote: »I know that I'm not in control yet - or does that ever come? My mouth still starts to drool when thinking of having a brownie, or roll or a cookie or an ice cream. Be right back I have to wipe the drool off lol.. Seriously though does it ever get better? Almost to my 7 weeks in keto.
Wanting something for 7 weeks and declining to eat it sounds like control to me!
I haven’t, like forgotten that tater tots are delicious, personally. But there’s an interruption now between imagining the sensation of eating something I want and actually picking it up to put it in my mouth. I haven’t ever been able to separate those two behaviors in my entire adult life—longer, actually—so for me that’s a huge win.0 -
Something to remember, too, @janette130, is that the further you get in to your plan, the stranger and more different foods will taste. You'll suddenly realize that carrots themselves are really sweet, and a preferred item is sickeningly sweet now, to the point of wanting to spit something out.
However, some foods are that magic dopamine hit of sweet, salty, and fatty. They hit that craving point and give us an artificial mood boost that sometimes we just crave. The dopamine craving and reaction is a real thing, it's a chemical brain thing.
So please, please don't think that this is all about willpower and that you're just weak, because the real truth is that it is not that simple! If it was all that simple, the truth is that it is very likely NONE of us would have ever gotten to where we are today!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80c3VTbIiYE
This video is a real help in that perspective, as well as to work on picking up techniques to help you fight that pull. I'm not suggesting AT ALL that we abdicate all personal responsibility, but I think there is a certain freedom in acknowledging that there is a chemical brain reaction, and that brute force willpower is not the answer to that...or at least no alone...
So give yourself a break, ditch the guilt, and focus on what you can...3 -
janette130 wrote: »I know that I'm not in control yet - or does that ever come? My mouth still starts to drool when thinking of having a brownie, or roll or a cookie or an ice cream. Be right back I have to wipe the drool off lol.. Seriously though does it ever get better? Almost to my 7 weeks in keto.
This might just be me but I've found the more I try to control or stick to a very rigid extreme in anything I tend to give in to the temptation of whatever that extreme is. I know my brain is hardwired to always want green chile chicken enchiladas and green chile double cheese burgers with fries plus every donut and eclair I see elicits a "must have now" response in my brain. Knowing that, I will look at finding other low carb options that can satisfy that craving even if they might be a little higher in carbs than I like. It's weird but allowing myself to say "No" has helped a great deal, I was offered some Twix yesterday and I just said "no thanks" even though my initial response in my head was the exact opposite. It's almost mantra like, by saying "no thanks" aloud it pushed that initial internal response aside. Plus if you decline bad food offers enough people stop offering.
I think individually we all have to define just what "control" means and how to incorporate that into our lives.
Some foods will always be ingrained in my psyche but knowing that and knowing what they are has helped me navigate my reactions towards food and if I falter I know how to get back to where I was because it wasn't so extreme I just want to give up, if that makes sense.
1 -
I just bloat when I add back carbs sometimes indigestion. This is a lifestyle for me though and it has to fit for the long run. I've waxed poetic in the past about eating the "once in a lifetime time" or "special" foods. Food traditions are important to all cultures. But, be honest. Not all food is special.
It's easy to think it is.
We returned to Arizona last week for a long over due visit and I ate all the things I can't get at home. Yes, more "Carby" than usual but I've also signifixantly reduced the quantity I eat over the years so that has a huge impact on the lack of impacts.1
This discussion has been closed.