Well I've come to a decision - though bear in mind my decisions don't always last. I had an off plan weekend last month, and I have another two this month, and my usual pattern with these things is that the water weight piles on to a spectacular degree and then I cut right back to hardcore induction for a week to get rid of it.
Which I don't think is a bad thing when I'm only doing it once every three months, as I did last year. I do think it's a bad thing when I'm doing it three times in two months - but I've been on induction very nearly a year now and have turned down a lot of things and it's getting much harder to justify now I'm closeish to my goal (although maybe it should be easier to justify for that reason - I do know I could take this last stone off given a good couple of months run at it).
Anyway I've decided on an experiment I was thinking about doing before Xmas but never got around to.
I'm going to take myself out of ketosis and experiment with my own mix of a high-rung owl / paleoprimal way of eating. I want to see
A) if staying out of ketosis but eating moderately low carb will mean I avoid the huge water weight gains when I do go off plan
B) whether this works for maintenance in general.
I won't be expecting to lose but if I do it will be a nice bonus. Then I'll reasses after Easter and see if I carry on this way or if I take another good (uninterrupted) run with ketosis and my usual >30g carb induction/owl mix.
I do need rules though. These will apply to my on plan days (as I'll still be taking my planned off-plan breaks - they can be the 20 of my 80/20 approach).
So here is what I'll do.
Less than 100g carbs per day
Less than 30g carbs once per week
Calorie range between 1500-1800 (slightly flexible)
No wheat or grains except flax so-
No bread
No pasta
No rice
No oats etc
Potato/ sweet potato very rarely (probably Sundays)
Carbs to come from:
Vegetables - including butternut squash, carrot, peas
Fruit - including berries, apple, banana
Quorn products
Maybe full fat natural yogurt (undecided)
I'll probably still use soya milk instead of regular.
I'll still eat 60% fat or higher
No low fat / high sugar frankenfoods
No substituting honey/agave/maple for sugar and pretending it's healthier (it's not).
I will continue to use artificial sweeteners - aspartame and sucralose - and continue to avoid sugar alcohols.
Treats:
Occasional chocolate or ice cream
So! Mainly I'll be increasing my carbs by eating carbier veg like squash and introducing some higher owl level fruits. I reckon anything above 50 will take me out of K so I shouldn't need to add too much and I don't want to use this as an excuse to eat mountains of potato for example.