Scrumbles' diary...life after losing a third of me...
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Scrumbles
Dancing Queen
Hey guys, feeling a bit more like myself today 
I was fighting horrible cravings for most of yesterday until I eventually caved and ate a toffee, then of course I hated myself for giving in. Threw the rest of the bag in the bin (shouldn't even have had them in the house in the first place) and will make sure there's nothing else to tempt me whilst I try and get myself back in the zone. I did manage to keep myself under 30g of carbs though, so I guess it could have been worse.
My best guess at why I struggled so badly goes back to that Daily Mail article I linked to a while ago which said that when you've lost a lot of weight over a long period your body starts to fight back by ramping up the hunger hormones so that you eat more and begin restoring those lovely fat reserves that it never wanted you to lose in the first place(!) I know my hunger has been increasing lately in spite of ketosis, so taking ketosis away and chucking in alternate days of semi-starvation was probably always going to be a recipe for disaster. By midway through the second week my body was SCREAMING at me to eat high sugar/fat food with a force I couldn't have imagined, until I finally cracked and "had" to eat a big, sugary Danish pastry, something I hadn't even thought about doing since before Xmas. You can imagine how good that made me feel.
My theory is that JUDDD probably works best if you haven't been strictly dieting and losing for a while, because then your body chemistry isn't set up to work against you right from the off. It would also probably have helped had I been prepared to use the type of meal replacement products that artificially fill you up, but since that kind of thing flies in the face of everything I now believe to be healthy, it simply wasn't an option for me. There was no way I was going to be able to get my head round doing low-fat processed one day, then high-fat natural the next, and so on - that would have confused the hell out of me. And as there was no way I could feel even remotely comfortable on a down day on less than 500 calories of Atkins-friendly food, it just wasn't going to happen.
Anyway, onwards and downwards. I'm aiming for under 25g carbs of Induction food today, but I'm not going to be too hard on myself if I don't manage it quite yet. I know I'll get there sooner or later
I was fighting horrible cravings for most of yesterday until I eventually caved and ate a toffee, then of course I hated myself for giving in
. Threw the rest of the bag in the bin (shouldn't even have had them in the house in the first place) and will make sure there's nothing else to tempt me whilst I try and get myself back in the zone. I did manage to keep myself under 30g of carbs though, so I guess it could have been worse.My best guess at why I struggled so badly goes back to that Daily Mail article I linked to a while ago which said that when you've lost a lot of weight over a long period your body starts to fight back by ramping up the hunger hormones so that you eat more and begin restoring those lovely fat reserves that it never wanted you to lose in the first place(!) I know my hunger has been increasing lately in spite of ketosis, so taking ketosis away and chucking in alternate days of semi-starvation was probably always going to be a recipe for disaster. By midway through the second week my body was SCREAMING at me to eat high sugar/fat food with a force I couldn't have imagined, until I finally cracked and "had" to eat a big, sugary Danish pastry, something I hadn't even thought about doing since before Xmas. You can imagine how good that made me feel
.My theory is that JUDDD probably works best if you haven't been strictly dieting and losing for a while, because then your body chemistry isn't set up to work against you right from the off. It would also probably have helped had I been prepared to use the type of meal replacement products that artificially fill you up, but since that kind of thing flies in the face of everything I now believe to be healthy, it simply wasn't an option for me. There was no way I was going to be able to get my head round doing low-fat processed one day, then high-fat natural the next, and so on - that would have confused the hell out of me. And as there was no way I could feel even remotely comfortable on a down day on less than 500 calories of Atkins-friendly food, it just wasn't going to happen.
Anyway, onwards and downwards. I'm aiming for under 25g carbs of Induction food today, but I'm not going to be too hard on myself if I don't manage it quite yet. I know I'll get there sooner or later
moonlights
Gold Member
A few weeks ago I had a sweet in my mouth and was chewing then came to my senses and spat it out! Felt mental. People shouldn't leave bags of sweets around, it's evil.
Scrumbles
Dancing Queen
Lol...that deserves some kind of award - wish I'd spat my toffee out...it wasn't even nice!
It's a horrible feeling isn't it? I didn't experience the full force until I tried to do JUDDD and it shocked me to be honest. I've never felt as desperate - I think that's the only way I can describe it really.
Anyway, clean and green from now on. (I answered the question about the article in your diary, by the way...got my wires crossed!)
Scrumbles
Dancing Queen
Finally...my exercise ticker has moved!
I completed my June target and immediately set up July's, but, aside from little trips round the shops that don't count, I haven't walked a step since. The weather's been partly to blame, but I seemed to have no energy even on UD's, so that certainly didn't help. I thought I'd ease back in with a gentle mile, but as I was feeling good I went for 2 instead and did it comfortably, quite to my surprise. Next goal will be 2.5 miles, hopefully by the end of the week.
Food is still a bit random at the moment: haven't quite given up the 85% chocolate, peanut butter and almond bread yet, but I'm getting there. I was under 1500 cals and 25g carbs yesterday in spite of the non-Induction extras, so, not too bad.
Would be nice to have a loss this week, but I'm not bothered if I don't. My main aim is to kill the cravings, get my mood up and get exercising - any weight loss would be a bonus.
Have a good day, folks! xx
I completed my June target and immediately set up July's, but, aside from little trips round the shops that don't count, I haven't walked a step since. The weather's been partly to blame, but I seemed to have no energy even on UD's, so that certainly didn't help. I thought I'd ease back in with a gentle mile, but as I was feeling good I went for 2 instead and did it comfortably, quite to my surprise. Next goal will be 2.5 miles, hopefully by the end of the week.
Food is still a bit random at the moment: haven't quite given up the 85% chocolate, peanut butter and almond bread yet, but I'm getting there. I was under 1500 cals and 25g carbs yesterday in spite of the non-Induction extras, so, not too bad.
Would be nice to have a loss this week, but I'm not bothered if I don't. My main aim is to kill the cravings, get my mood up and get exercising - any weight loss would be a bonus.
Have a good day, folks! xx
ladyfelsham
Back to SW again
I really know what you mean, I had the same feeling on my one whole day of Slim & Save - in fact, it wasn't even a day, about 8 hours
By the evening I felt cold, really cold, starving and soooo unhappy. Knew it wasn't for me there and then. For me JUDDD is different because I have to eat and on the DDs I can sort it so I can pretty much graze on veg and stuff I've prepared during the day that meets my no salt, no additives criteria. Am getting very good at stretching the calories
But I know it's not for everyone. Others do really well on S&S and other programmes like that and my hat goes off to them. I think the important thing is to try something and if it's not making you happy, junk it and look for a woe that does
Sxx
Scrumbles
Dancing Queen
I think the important thing is to try something and if it's not making you happy, junk it and look for a woe that does
Sxx
Couldn't agree more. If you hate something, there's no way you'll stick with it anyway, so there was no point torturing myself any further, lol.
I think I've low-carbed for long enough now to accept that this is it for me. Even if I never lose another pound, Atkins, or some version of low-carb, is where I find the most comfort as regards food and I think it's something I can do for the rest of my life. It fits my personality, it fits my lifestyle, and I believe in it as a healthy way to eat, so it's probably time I stopped looking around for greener pastures because I suspect this is as green as it gets for me.
(so if I start talking about low-fat or VLCDs or WW you have my permission to slap some sense into me, lol
)
Alpaca
Gold Member
But without your clear analysis of different eating plans we won't have a clue Scrummie! Well I won't for a start... It's been really helpful to have you being our resident lab rat (in the nicest possible way! Really resident scientist - the eating plan researcher equivalent of Brian Cox) lol
Kat1e
This is for life
Hi Scrumbles, well done for tracking your experiences and helping us all. I'm with you that low carb works because you dont get the crazy highs and lows from junk and sugar plus you are not doing crazy calorie things. Now i'm maintaining i'm not tracking cals or carbs and it's such a relief - i know when i've stuffed my face, drunk too much or eaten sugar - cant afford to pretend it's some clever scheme like more cals of exercise or some such!
Anyway, happy to be your long term low carb mate and shout if strange thoughts pop into your head - keep going
Anyway, happy to be your long term low carb mate and shout if strange thoughts pop into your head - keep going
Scrumbles
Dancing Queen
Hehehe...lab rat - I like it!
Gotta admit, there is a part of me that likes dabbling with different plans just to see what happens, but I have to call a halt sometime, lol. And in truth, my experiences only apply to me: taking JUDDD as an example, I couldn't cope at all whilst others do brilliantly, and at the end of the day, who really knows why? (I can take some educated guesses, but that's all).
I think the most valuable thing I've "discovered" is the diet break. Finding out that I could eat as much as I did and gain as little as I did was very cool, and then to follow it with a significant drop in weight was even better. Definitely something that worked for me, but that doesn't necessarily mean it would be right for everyone.
Hi Scrumbles, well done for tracking your experiences and helping us all. I'm with you that low carb works because you dont get the crazy highs and lows from junk and sugar plus you are not doing crazy calorie things. Now i'm maintaining i'm not tracking cals or carbs and it's such a relief - i know when i've stuffed my face, drunk too much or eaten sugar - cant afford to pretend it's some clever scheme like more cals of exercise or some such!
Anyway, happy to be your long term low carb mate and shout if strange thoughts pop into your head - keep going
Thanks Katie - you are my maintenance inspiration!
I did Atkins many years ago and lost the weight I needed to, but I reverted to "normal" eating thereafter and put it all back on . This time I know it has to be for life, so long term low-carb mates are very, very welcome! xx* * * * * * * * * * *
Walked again today - 2.5 miles
. I'm trying to make up for lost time, so it'll be another 2.5 miles tomorrow, hopefully.I've managed to stay off the chocolate and peanut butter today, though I'm still eating the almond bread - nuts haven't stalled me in the past, so I'm rather hoping I'll get away with it! I had 18.5g carbs yesterday and it should be 17g today which is about what I want at the moment. Calorie-wise I'm trying not to be too consistent, but I'm aiming to average around 1400 a day. At that level I'm never too stuffed with food and not overly hungry either. We'll see how it goes.
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Scrumbles
Dancing Queen
Right. I'm going to do my old 3 mile walk today. I managed 2.5 miles just fine yesterday (though I was a bit stiff this morning) so I reckon another half mile won't kill me!
The daunting thing is that the route takes me over a dirty great hill halfway through, and I haven't done any hills on my walks thus far - it's all been pretty much on the flat. Yikes.
I've hydrated, I've fed the furnace with a nice big cheesy omelette and I've got my mp3 player loaded with "get up and move" tunes...so here goes.....
ETA:
.....aaaaand, I'm back! Call off the search party, lol.
Took me over an hour because I had two breaks, the first after a mile to set me up for the hill, the second at the 2m mark so I could let my beetroot-coloured face calm down a bit. Seriously, I look like this chap-> only without the scowl! What with that and the fact that I sweat so much I look like I got caught in a water pistol fight en route, it's really rather embarrassing. I just keep my head down and try not to think about it or I probably couldn't bring myself to do it at all .
Not sure what I'm having food-wise for the rest of the day except that I know it will be Toulouse sossies for dinner...yum!
The daunting thing is that the route takes me over a dirty great hill halfway through, and I haven't done any hills on my walks thus far - it's all been pretty much on the flat. Yikes.
I've hydrated, I've fed the furnace with a nice big cheesy omelette and I've got my mp3 player loaded with "get up and move" tunes...so here goes.....
ETA:
.....aaaaand, I'm back! Call off the search party, lol.
Took me over an hour because I had two breaks, the first after a mile to set me up for the hill, the second at the 2m mark so I could let my beetroot-coloured face calm down a bit. Seriously, I look like this chap->
only without the scowl! What with that and the fact that I sweat so much I look like I got caught in a water pistol fight en route, it's really rather embarrassing. I just keep my head down and try not to think about it or I probably couldn't bring myself to do it at all .Not sure what I'm having food-wise for the rest of the day except that I know it will be Toulouse sossies for dinner...yum!
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coffeelover
Gold Member
Well done Scrumbes, that's great. Glad your enjoying Atkins again we'll all find our woe and reach our goals! x
moonlights
Gold Member
Woop go Scrummie!! My mum (skinny cow and a regular exerciser) goes for long walks as fast as possible and comes back sweaty. I'd be horrified but she doesn't feel like it was a good walk unless she builds up a sweat. I bet no one looked twice xx
Scrumbles
Dancing Queen
Think I've overdone it.
I've woken up this morning with nasty shooting pains in my right hip when I try to move...not good. I was so keen to make up for last week's exercise fail that I forgot how careful I have to be to avoid injury even on something as non-taxing as a walking programme. I may try for a gentle mile later just to keep my momentum going, but that's all I can risk really.
:sigh:
I've woken up this morning with nasty shooting pains in my right hip when I try to move...not good. I was so keen to make up for last week's exercise fail that I forgot how careful I have to be to avoid injury even on something as non-taxing as a walking programme. I may try for a gentle mile later just to keep my momentum going, but that's all I can risk really.
:sigh:
