Frustrated

[PinkBikini]

I'm so frustrated... I've been struggling with the last 5 lbs for what seems like forever. I lost very quickly during induction last summer/early fall. I tried to be good with OWL but I slipped and fell so many times because everytime I tried a new rung it would create all sorts of triggers. So I understood in January, WHY, I was still struggling to lose the last 5-10 lbs and did not succeed at the Christmas challenge.

But, after 2 months of relatively good behavior (yeh, I tossed in a couple cheat days so as not to go completely insane) I feel like I'm doing all the right things and not seeing the rest of the weight shed. On 3/1 I was still about 5 lbs from where I want to be.

On the plus side my cheats are improving. Instead of reaching for brownies or pasta as I used to I've been able to substitute a cup of homemade popcorn or a sugar free hot chocolate with water instead of milk. I'm also happy with 85% dark choc which is much lower carb.

My goal this month was to go back on induction and lose the last 5 lbs and be able to maintain... but it seems induction is not going to work like that at this weight. I dropped approx 0.5-1lb over the course of this month (of course, not little by little either...at one point I'd dropped 1.5 lbs) eating 20-25 carbs/day.

My husband has agreed to commit to a regimented exercise plan with me 6 days/week with rewards at the end of 6 months for sticking to it. It may be that my exercising has still been too spotty due to the frigid winter.

Sometimes I feel so let down that I can't get to goal faster when I've restricted all my favorite foods... except for the very occasional once/month treat. I have not even had a girl scout cookie this season...

Pink

[not2late]

Re: Frustrated

I'm so frustrated... I've been struggling with the last 5 lbs for what seems like forever. I lost very quickly during induction last summer/early fall. I tried to be good with OWL but I slipped and fell so many times because everytime I tried a new rung it would create all sorts of triggers. So I understood in January, WHY, I was still struggling to lose the last 5-10 lbs and did not succeed at the Christmas challenge.

But, after 2 months of relatively good behavior (yeh, I tossed in a couple cheat days so as not to go completely insane) I feel like I'm doing all the right things and not seeing the rest of the weight shed. On 3/1 I was still about 5 lbs from where I want to be.

On the plus side my cheats are improving. Instead of reaching for brownies or pasta as I used to I've been able to substitute a cup of homemade popcorn or a sugar free hot chocolate with water instead of milk. I'm also happy with 85% dark choc which is much lower carb.

My goal this month was to go back on induction and lose the last 5 lbs and be able to maintain... but it seems induction is not going to work like that at this weight. I dropped approx 0.5-1lb over the course of this month (of course, not little by little either...at one point I'd dropped 1.5 lbs) eating 20-25 carbs/day.

My husband has agreed to commit to a regimented exercise plan with me 6 days/week with rewards at the end of 6 months for sticking to it. It may be that my exercising has still been too spotty due to the frigid winter.

Sometimes I feel so let down that I can't get to goal faster when I've restricted all my favorite foods... except for the very occasional once/month treat. I have not even had a girl scout cookie this season...

Pink

The last 5 to 10 pounds is to be spent in Pre-Maintenance Phase, according to Dr. Atkins. Pre-Maintenance is the test ground for Maintenance Phase. Running to Induction to lose the last 5 then hoping that you'll be able to maintain your goal weight is reserving a space in the "Second Time Around Club" forum.

During your OWL when your cravings were triggered by foods you added, you were supposed to drop those foods---not drop the diet. Little cheats and sneaks here and there don't help either.

Do a proper Pre-Maintenance. You have to change your attitude about foods if you want to keep that weight off and not re-start Atkins or another diet again.

[PinkBikini]

Re: Frustrated

I appreciate the reply but I'm still uncertain about a few things...

It has been so frustrating to go month after month losing a half pound here or there.

My biggest struggle has been overcoming cravings for useless sugar these past 9 months. There were many days (even during the induction period last August) where I wanted food I couldn't have. I know now that "white foods" are not as satisfying as I once thought them to be and substituting with other "Atkins friendly" foods is more fulfilling emotionally and physically. My sugary sneaks always led to more cheats and I never really felt happy with them. That has been a huge hurdle.

But I'm afraid that I don't know exactly what my triggers were-- only that I was having them. And I was never really sure if it was due to TOM issues, diet frustration, a food I added... and then I would cheat just a little and it was just one giant mystery.

I thought it may be easier to maintain once I successfully reached goal weight (I am only 2 lbs away now after a large drop this week!) and then climb the rungs again more slowly (maybe one/month) with introduction of just 1 food/week (because I notice for some reason that sometimes it takes a day or so for me to realize that I've started craving a food again).

At this point I'm taking in approx 25 digestible carbs daily and ensuring that I get at least 3 cups, and sometimes 4, of veggies and also eating nuts and seeds, sour cream and usually one sweet/day like 85% dark chocolate or a sugar free pudding which apparently are not stalling me or triggering. I'm still not entirely clear about which foods triggered serious reactions in me (including a dark spot on my abdomen which my dermatologist has ruled as an allergic reaction although never biopsied to find out what it was a reaction to). So I guess it's a loose induction... but nevertheless I'm restricted as to how many carbs I'm taking in in an effort to lose the weight more quickly.

Pre-maintenance is just so... LOOSE... how do you stay on plan without falling off the diet when all of those foods (and higher carb levels) can be so triggering. I believe the higher carb levels last fall made it very difficult for me to stay committed and were a trigger unto themselves.

Thanks for working with me on this. I'm just lost as to how to take the next steps without ending up 10 lbs. heavier again...

Pink

I'm afraid that my frustration will overwhelm me as I fall into the "close enough" mindset and decide that I can let go gaining back significantly more weight and ending up back here in August with 30 lbs to lose all over again. It's not as though I'm dropping weight so rapidly with these foods that I'm going to perish while trying to add carbs back in to keep my weight up.

[not2late]

Re: Frustrated

I appreciate the reply but I'm still uncertain about a few things...

It has been so frustrating to go month after month losing a half pound here or there.

What are your measurements doing? When we lose fat and build muscle, that scale becomes inaccurate. See, if you lose a pound of fat and gain a pound of muscle that scale won't move.

Lose the scale, imo.

My biggest struggle has been overcoming cravings for useless sugar these past 9 months. There were many days (even during the induction period last August) where I wanted food I couldn't have. I know now that "white foods" are not as satisfying as I once thought them to be and substituting with other "Atkins friendly" foods is more fulfilling emotionally and physically. My sugary sneaks always led to more cheats and I never really felt happy with them. That has been a huge hurdle.

But I'm afraid that I don't know exactly what my triggers were-- only that I was having them. And I was never really sure if it was due to TOM issues, diet frustration, a food I added... and then I would cheat just a little and it was just one giant mystery.

I thought it may be easier to maintain once I successfully reached goal weight (I am only 2 lbs away now after a large drop this week!) and then climb the rungs again more slowly (maybe one/month) with introduction of just 1 food/week (because I notice for some reason that sometimes it takes a day or so for me to realize that I've started craving a food again).

At this point I'm taking in approx 25 digestible carbs daily and ensuring that I get at least 3 cups, and sometimes 4, of veggies and also eating nuts and seeds, sour cream and usually one sweet/day like 85% dark chocolate or a sugar free pudding which apparently are not stalling me or triggering. I'm still not entirely clear about which foods triggered serious reactions in me (including a dark spot on my abdomen which my dermatologist has ruled as an allergic reaction although never biopsied to find out what it was a reaction to). So I guess it's a loose induction... but nevertheless I'm restricted as to how many carbs I'm taking in in an effort to lose the weight more quickly.

Are you absolutely certain these foods aren't triggers for you? Nuts and seeds are a trigger foods for plenty of people. So is dairy.

Pre-maintenance is just so... LOOSE... how do you stay on plan without falling off the diet when all of those foods (and higher carb levels) can be so triggering. I believe the higher carb levels last fall made it very difficult for me to stay committed and were a trigger unto themselves.

Being successful on Pre-Maintenance hinges on being sucessful on OWL. There are no short cuts. During OWL, you learned how foods affected you and you learned about your body's reaction to them. You need that knowledge to muddle through Pre-Maintenance because if you add a Pre-Maintenance food and you feel your triggers coming up, then you know how to deal with them, because you've already developed those coping skills during OWL.

My advice to you is to do a proper OWL---keep a food journal, be accountable for everything you eat and drink, learn to recognize your triggers and develop coping mechanisms to deal with those foods.

[PinkBikini]

Re: Frustrated

Ok, I have been measuring. The top half is ok. My waist is about 2 inches smaller than last summer consistently (occasionally it gets another inch smaller) and measurements aren't changing in the past couple months. My bottom still looks heavy (the thigh width has been consistent since Sep though) and my butt could use some toning

I'm trying to move my focus onto my exercise... it's just a matter of knowing what my cclm is going to be. At this point I am thinking that I have to accept the weight I'm at now as my goal weight and understand that on a really great day I may drop 1 lb and on a water day I may gain a few lbs. I'm not fat... It's just not what I was expecting to look like at goal (on the bottom) I guess and it's disappointing. There's still quite a lot of reserves down there that don't seem to want to leave me anytime soon. And it's disappointing.

But I'll keep my focus on exercise and try to be more lenient with my carb intake while I climb the rungs of owl and manage changes only by a WEEKLY weight.



I will try to be aware and add the foods one rung at a time...

The almonds, dark choc and sour cream kept me sane.

[kate58]

Re: Frustrated

Two things you say kind of jump out at me:

yeh, I tossed in a couple cheat days so as not to go completely insane

But I'm afraid that I don't know exactly what my triggers were-- only that I was having them.

The first makes me think that you are not fully embracing this as a good way of eating and consider that cheats are necessary to keep you sane. The second that you haven't really done OWL - or rather that you've just done it by going through the motions, not by really examining how food affects you and your body.

Really doing OWL is slow, very slow. It's supposed to be, because learning how a very wide range of food affects you isn't ever going to be fast. It's not just about counting carbs, it's about adding foods methodically so that you can see what they do. I'd agree with Megs, you are adding foods that you like to eat and then sort of blocking out the possibility that they may be the source of your cravings, because you just don't want them to be. They may not be, but you just won't know if you are having them too regularly.

It's not necessarily that you can't ever have these things, just that you need to know the effects they have.

OWL has just taught me so much. I also have found that I can move my carbs up to well over 30g or even as high as 40g a day, but only provided that well over half of that amount (nearer two thirds really) comes from veg. If the veg proportion drops, the weight loss stops or reverses. I'd never know this if I didn't very carefully log what I eat during a slow OWL. There are often weeks when I lose little or nothing but call it a great success, because I've learned something about a food or a combination of foods and how it affects me.

I eat 85% chocolate too (Green & Black or Lindt) but don't call it a cheat because it's planned in - on the day I eat it I make sure my veg intake is good and high and that it is allowed for in my daily carbs. A portion is 10g, which is a square or two and has about 2 net carbs, at a time, maybe once or twice a week. I can happily look at the bar sitting there the rest of the time and not care a whit about it. But I know I cannot do that with certain nuts. Walnuts are ok, but a bag of pecans will haunt me till I've eaten them all, hazelnuts are fine, macademia nuts are so bad that if I buy them they will be gone before I get home from the shop and when I do get home I'll crave sweet things with a terrible intensity. It took time to learn this, but now I know which ones to buy, which to leave on the shelf.

The thing is that keeping weight off is the real challenge, not losing it. It is immaterial how fast or slow it goes, what matters is that you have the tools and knowledge and habits that will keep it away. That is what OWL and pre-maintenace, properly done, gives you.

[PinkBikini]

Re: Frustrated

Thanks for your reply.

I think you're right. I've measured my success in continued pounds and inches and had difficulty (even though I should have known better) measuring it in terms of learning which foods I could tolerate and which I could not.

I do have a small piece of my dark choc (approx 3-4 carbs) daily or a sugar free hot chocolate when it was cold (9 carbs).

I still use food for emotional reasons- like after a bad night at work. I'm doing my best to choose Atkins appropriate foods. But I know that this can be when my resolve is lowest and I wish I could substitute something healthier.

I find that when I add too many carbs (more than 40 total carbs) that I'm hungrier than when I'm on induction with lots of fats. The more carbs I have (even the good ones) the hungrier I get... that has been an ongoing source of frustration and a difficulty in identifying my trigger foods.

I guess it's hard to tell which foods are trigger foods as well because I may be strong enough to fight an urge on one day when things are ok but not on another day when I'm distraught over something at work.

It's a daily struggle.