Scrumbles' diary...life after losing a third of me...

[Kat1e]

Hi Scrumbles,
I guess the point of OWL is what works for you. I am very careful with sweet stuff eg fruit as i seem very sensitive to insulin spikes...how do i know? it makes me hungrier! So my personal rule is fruit after meals not as midway snack.

My other trigger is peanuts - physically incapable of stopping eating them! Otherwise just got to play it by ear - have fun experimenting.
Xx

 

[Kat1e]

Ps also just re-read taubes "why we get fat" - a good reminder of how it all works

 

[Alpaca]

If I ever get back to what I was in July I shall kiss the ground I walk on! ha ha... but I do hope that the diet break has been a huge warning shot for me that when I have a break in future - its not a 'burn my bra and go for broke' one. It needs to be measured and planned and carefully thought-through.

Because getting head back into gear now is really hard as I've unleashed stuff that I had so carefully got under control... grrrr!! lol

You're an inspiration Scrummie... xx

 

[Scrumbles]

Hi Scrumbles,
I guess the point of OWL is what works for you. I am very careful with sweet stuff eg fruit as i seem very sensitive to insulin spikes...how do i know? it makes me hungrier! So my personal rule is fruit after meals not as midway snack.

My other trigger is peanuts - physically incapable of stopping eating them! Otherwise just got to play it by ear - have fun experimenting.
Xx

Aye, I guess the point is to find what works for you, but it's structured in quite a specific way, and frankly, I've been taking the p for the last week or so, lol. I mean, the book says that in OWL fruit should be treated more as a garnish not the main component of a dish, but somehow I've managed to read that as "you can eat whopping great bowls full of raspberries (and whoopee! they're half price in Sainsbury's!)" Not quite in the spirit of it, lol!

Perhaps my "problem" is that I haven't yet found anything that really affects me. I haven't tried any truly sweet fruit yet, but I did eat some sweet stuff on my diet breaks and never found myself overly troubled with hunger or plagued by cravings. I strongly suspect that my achilles heel is wheat, but I haven't tried to prove it yet.

If I ever get back to what I was in July I shall kiss the ground I walk on! ha ha... but I do hope that the diet break has been a huge warning shot for me that when I have a break in future - its not a 'burn my bra and go for broke' one. It needs to be measured and planned and carefully thought-through.

Because getting head back into gear now is really hard as I've unleashed stuff that I had so carefully got under control... grrrr!! lol

You're an inspiration Scrummie... xx

You will get back there, Di...and beyond!

I think your best approach would be to move very carefully through OWL taking the rungs slowly and steadily to find out exactly how different foods affect you - as written in the book, in fact(!) Sudden changes of gear don't appear to sit well with you, so probably best to avoid them.

You'll get there, don't you worry - and the great thing is that you'll know precisely what you can and can't deal with food-wise by the time you do! xxx

 

[sammy1]

Morning scrumbles, what you are doing is working, keep it up.

 

[coffeelover]

Morning Scrumbles, I think it's scary for all of us moving on from the 20 grams, but you seem to be doing it the right way for you. I can't have wheat either, it's a big NO for me. Fortunately there are a lot of alternatives out there. x

 

[ladyfelsham]

Evening Scrummie - just popping in to say hi

 

[Scrumbles]

Thanks, guys! Bit of a weekend wobble there, I think!

Weighed in this morning and I'm 1.5lbs down from last week, so that's about par for the course for me, in spite of the porridge (!) I averaged 1480 cals and 31g carbs daily - carbs would have been more but I pulled them back towards the end of the week.

If I can do what I've been doing and keep losing slowly and steadily, that's fine by me, and I should probably stop beating myself up for no particularly good reason . So I've decided to continue my experiments with fruit this week - peaches and plums! Then if that goes well, I might risk nectarines next week - I adore those. I don't know if it actually does make a difference, but I always have my fruit with a splash of double cream to offset the sugar, and thus far I haven't noticed any insulin spiking. Or maybe it's just that the fruits I've had - even in the quantities I've been guzzling - haven't been sweet enough to cause a spike anyway. We shall see, I guess.

I'm also going to broaden my veg options a bit too. I seem to have gotten stuck in a cabbage/broccoli/cauliflower rut lately, so I'm going for runner beans this week - ooo, the excitement! I wish there were more greens that I actually genuinely like (as opposed to tolerate!) but I don't think that's likely to change much at this stage of my life. Atkins has conditioned me to at least have some greens every day, so I guess that's an improvement!

Anyway, the sun is shining...hope everyone has a great day!

 

[ladyfelsham]

I shall watch with great interest, I love fruit too so want to have more.

And well done on the loss - and on not beating yourself up We all do it, silly really, it doesn't achieve anything positive

 

[Alpaca]

Evening Scrummie... good luck on the tweaking! And 1.5lb loss is AMAZING!!! Well done! xx

 

[stubbsey]

yes well done, any movement in the right direction is wonderful!! and enjoying it is such a bonus. We all do beat ourselves up over what we eat though dont we? We get paranoid about it all. Women!

 

[sammy1]

Well done on the loss, your stats are looking good...Fruit is what I miss most on Atkins

 

[Kat1e]

Evening :wavey:

 

[ladyfelsham]

Hi Stubbsey - hope all is going well xx

 

[Scrumbles]

Hey guys,

Been feeling really low these past few days - moody, down, angry, anxious, you name it - then lo and behold, my period arrives a whole flipping week early That never happens to me - a couple of days, perhaps, but not a whole week. So I don't know what gives. Random occurrence? Dietary tinkering having an effect? Early signs of menopause? Whatever, I ain't happy! Bad enough having it once a month let alone every 3 weeks

Anyway, I've been sticking to plan...well, *my* version of it (hellooooo porridge! ). Tried a peach this morning - de-stoned and peeled it was 90g, so near enough 8g carbs in one hit. I had it with a generous splash of double cream, though, and can't say I've felt any adverse effects. I've no desire to rush out to the kitchen and eat another one (or anything else!) so I guess I'm okay with it.

I have a culinary disaster to report Tried a carrot cake version of moonlights' almond bread and obviously got it completely wrong 'cos it ended up like a sweet, cinnamon-y carrot omelette, with bits in it, lol. I was trying to adapt a favourite recipe from a muffin book, but was clearly way off the mark. I ate it anyway, by the way! - bunged cream cheese on it and it tasted sort of okay even if nothing like a cake/muffin! I'll give it another go and if I get it right I'll post the recipe - it does have potential, but that's all at the moment!

OH is still doing his fasting nonsense and losing nothing, basically because he's being a complete and utter pig on the days he isn't fasting. Honestly, I've never seen him eat so much junk, and I'm sure it's because he feels he needs some kind of "reward" for getting through the fast days I'll be glad when he gets bored of it and goes back to normal because muggins here is the one who has to do all the planning for these fasts, and trying to squeeze as much food as possible out of 600 calories is doing my head in. I've even had to give up precious fridge space to low-fat foods (the shame!) and cupboard space for things like Ryvita (bleurgh!)...that's just not on!

Anyway, I'll pop round the diaries and see how everyone's doing over the next couple of days - trying to finish a project at the moment so I'm a bit pushed for time

Hope everyone's well and having a great Atkins-friendly day! xxx

 

[Scrumbles]

Hi Stubbsey - hope all is going well xx

I have no idea, but I hope so too!

(I must have been gone a looooong time, lol!)

 

[moonlights]

Hey Scrumbelina - and mixed up Susie

Sweet carrot omelette. Hmmm not sure! Re: totm - I have heard of lots of people having extra periods when they start dieting or drop a lot of weight suddenly, but never as a result of adding carbs. I don't know how old you are so can't say with regards to menopause but sometimes the body just does odd things for reasons too mysterious to ascertain. I am a total nightmare with pmt so appreciate not wanting to deal with it more regularly.

Your hubby sounds exactly like I would be on that fasting program!

Have you tried flax porridge? So much better for you than oats and really unexpectedly nice. I used to love hot sweetened oatbran and this reminds me of it a lot. It's just flax, sweetener and alpro milk added, microwaved. Last time I added cinnamon. I don't really like flax in mim form and was surprised how much I liked this. Does need sweetening though.

Hope you get more free time soon xx

 

[ladyfelsham]

I have no idea, but I hope so too!

(I must have been gone a looooong time, lol!)

Ooops sorry love it's old age lol!

 

[sammy1]

Afternoon, I will be waiting with interest for a carrot cake up date, I love carrot cake,

 

[Scrumbles]

Strike 2 on the carrot cake, I'm afraid!

I cooked this attempt in my silicon muffin tray, and outwardly it resembled a tasty-looking carrot muffin, but the inside was a bit of a soggy mess and not particularly cake-textured.

I think one of the things I'm failing to take into account is the moisture of the carrot; a drier mix than the one I'm currently making might be the way to go.

Still, like #1, it was sort of edible and improved no end by a nice dollop of cream cheese! Watch this space for more culinary catastrophes...

Hey Scrumbelina - and mixed up Susie

Sweet carrot omelette. Hmmm not sure! Re: totm - I have heard of lots of people having extra periods when they start dieting or drop a lot of weight suddenly, but never as a result of adding carbs. I don't know how old you are so can't say with regards to menopause but sometimes the body just does odd things for reasons too mysterious to ascertain. I am a total nightmare with pmt so appreciate not wanting to deal with it more regularly.

Your hubby sounds exactly like I would be on that fasting program!

Have you tried flax porridge? So much better for you than oats and really unexpectedly nice. I used to love hot sweetened oatbran and this reminds me of it a lot. It's just flax, sweetener and alpro milk added, microwaved. Last time I added cinnamon. I don't really like flax in mim form and was surprised how much I liked this. Does need sweetening though.

Hope you get more free time soon xx

You know, I haven't actually tried anything made with flax. Ever. (And I call myself an Atkins dieter!) So I've ordered some flaxmeal to give it a go.

What proportion of soy milk to flax gives a nice consistency? For normal porridge I use about 170ml milk to 28g oats - would that be anywhere near?

I suppose I ought to try making a mim or two while I'm at it as well - nearly a year on Atkins and never tried a mim...shocking!

So today's food has been/will be:

Not-quite carrot cake, with cream cheese

Atkins meat loaf with buttered cabbage and carrots

Big, buttery omelette with red peppers and frankfurter

Coffee with cream, tea with Alpro unsweetened soy milk, couple of squares of 85% chocolate

Gallons of water

Should be around 1500 cals and 33g carbs

Weigh in tomorrow - eek! Don't know what my strange hormones and porridge scoffing of this week will have done - probably looking at a STS if I'm lucky...