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

Hey all!

I'm still clinging on to my plan by my fingertips.

Got a bit dicy on Saturday night when I experimented with some low carb mulled wine (same as normal mulled wine only with artificial sweetener instead of sugar). I found I couldn't get the "right" kind of sweetness with just Hermesetas, so I caved and added a teaspoon of real, actual sugar to it. That pushed me up to nearly 60g of carbs for the day, so I was chancing getting kicked out of ketosis, but it appears that I got away with it. I had my mini mince pie with the wine and enjoyed it, but don't think I'll do it again because the booze-plus-sugar hit made for quite an uncomfortable evening cravings-wise. :/

Saturday 22nd is the day I'm properly going off plan, and if I'm honest it's scaring the whatnot out of me. I do believe the only way I'm going to cope with it mentally is to still have a rule or two of some kind - no bread would probably be the best one (I'm conveniently ignoring the fact that there is bread in both stuffing and Xmas pud, btw :p). If I can stick to that, then at least I will have retained some semblance of control.

Yesterday's Bad Thing was a mint-choc ice cream, but I can't say that I enjoyed it all that much - might donate the rest of the box to OH who not only likes them but can hoover up that crap till the cows come home and not put on an ounce :rolleyes: With hindsight I'd rather have had some potato with my dinner, but eh, too late now! :(

Today I'm having another mini mince pie and a Lindor choc truffle alongside my usual low carb fare of a flax muffin, tinned mackerel, gammon with cauliflower cheese, leeks and a small amount of carrot. I've taken a serious look at my caffeine consumption and realised it was getting way out of hand, so I've cut back to one mug of coffee (with cream) and one mug of tea (with soy milk) per day and replaced the rest with water (my water consumption had seriously slipped!) and the occasional decaff coffee and peppermint tea. I have some pretty decent food habits these days, but what I drink is still an issue it would seem :/

Anyway hope everyone's keeping well and enjoying the festive season... :cool:
 
Break has officially started - had a raisin whirl for breakfast :eek: No way will I be in ketosis after one of those, lol.

The rest of my day looks quite good though: carrot and lentil soup for lunch, then Atkins meat loaf with cabbage and cauliflower cheese for dinner. I may chuck in a glass of red with dinner, but haven't decided yet. I seem to be far more excited about food than alcohol at the moment, so we'll see.

Weighed in at 159.6lbs this morning, so that's my starting point for the break. I'll be weighing myself every day as usual but I won't change my ticker until the end of it. I reckon I'll put on 8-10 pounds, but as I know that most of it will be water, I'm determined not to let it upset me. I've given myself permission to enjoy this Xmas period guilt-free, and that's what I intend to do :)
 
Right. I've clearly been going about this the wrong way for the past year: weighed this morning after my 95g carbs yesterday and I've lost half a pound - down to 159lbs exactly. Lol!

(I'm sure my Xmas carbs will catch up with me very quickly, but that amused me so I thought I'd make a note of it. Heh.)
 
......aaaaaand today I'm down again: 158.6lbs!

Clearly I need to make merrier than I am at the moment - I suspect tomorrow will sort me out, though!:eek:;)

A very happy Christmas to you all! :109::xmastree::new_year:
 
Thanks Susie! Hope you have a lovely day too! :D

Mine has started off pretty well, I have to say. Weighed in this morning and, goodness only knows how, but I was down to 158lbs exactly :eek: That's nearly 2lbs I've lost since I started munching the Xmas goodies on Saturday...I shall be writing The Lindor and Mince Pie Diet come the New Year, lol :p

I said I wasn't going to change my tracker, but I couldn't resist, because, *drumroll*, whether it lasts more than a day or not, I have now lost 6 stone! Six frickin' stone. I'm not proud of having gained it in the first place, but I'm actually pretty amazed that I've managed to lose it in 13 months...eating butter and cream, no less! :D

Anyway, no doubt the 3000 calories and 300g carbs I eat today will mess up my figures, but I couldn't let that milestone go by without recording it.

Once again, Merry Xmas everybody! xxx
 
Thanks, guys...it was quite a good pressie, wasn't it! :D

And miraculously, it seems to be sticking even through the last 3 days of carby excess. I've been eating well over 100g of carbs everyday (pies, potatoes, chocolate...you know the score!) but I've only put back 0.4lb. Really don't see how that's possible tbh - I should be piling on the glycogen + water weight, but I don't appear to be :confused: Bizarre!

Having a quieter-eating couple of days now before Christmas dinner #2 on Sunday, which will include roast pots and parsnips (for the third time in a week), stuffing, and Christmas pud. Yikes. New Year's Eve will probably involve a bit too much to drink, New Year's Day will be the hangover curry, then that will be IT. Festivities will be over, and it will be time to repair any damage.

And tbh, though I can't say I've been suffering from the unusual food (haven't had to take a single indigestion remedy this year), I definitely don't feel "right" eating like this. I'm not eating as many veggies as usual, and my protein consumption has taken a massive hit. I'm not sure that I'll be going back to Induction (probably too severe for me at this stage), but it will be nice to get back under 50g carbs and lose all the sugary crap that's been replacing my protein!

Anyway, hope everyone's been enjoying Xmas and that Santa was good to you! :D
 
Ugh. I'm not well :(

Started with a slightly scratchy throat last night and woke up with a raging sore throat this morning. Can hardly swallow and feel like crap. Merry Xmas! :/

Just as well I'm off plan I suppose since that puts the full array of cold/flu remedies at my disposal. But it's ruined my plans for Xmas dinner #2 tomorrow - won't feel like either cooking or eating it, so it probably won't be happening :cry:

Weight was 158.6lbs this morning, so 0.2 of a pound up on yesterday. Sound the alarms, lol. I haven't the remotest idea how I'm getting away with it, but if I'm going to be off plan for longer than anticipated while I shift this virus, I'll take it!

Back to bed...
 
Still sick - New Year's plans now out the window. Oh well...there's always next year...

On the bright side, I've lost another pound - down to 157lbs now. Not surprising really as I can hardly swallow anything.

Yay for the Nasty Virus diet :rolleyes:
 
Sorry to hear you aren't well. Hope it improves soon - happy new year!

Xx
 
Still nowhere near 100% but I'm getting there :)

Today is the delayed Christmas dinner #2 (should have been last weekend if I hadn't got sick), so I won't be back on anything remotely resembling Atkins until tomorrow at the earliest. Bit annoying, but oh well - couldn't be helped.

Been in two minds about how to resume my diet. For one thing, I'm only trying to lose half a stone at this point which would suggest starting at a later phase than Induction. For another, I've lost 2lbs over my Xmas break whilst eating a daily average of 133g carbs(!), so if my body can handle that amount and still lose, I don't really see any value in going for a very low number of carbs.

So I think I'll start in Pre-maintenance (or my version of it ;)) and aim for about 80-90g carbs per day, eating from all the food groups, including small amounts of grains (I've known for a while that I can eat oats and rice with no untoward consequences, though I'm still avoiding wheat and corn). My main meals will still be based on protein and foundation veggies, but there will be the odd jacket potato or tablespoon of rice now and then for variety, and I'll be able to have my root vegetable/pulses "winter warmer" soups too.

With any luck this should see me lose my remaining weight very slowly over the next few months, and then hopefully I'll be able to concentrate fully on keeping it off.

Here's to a happy and successful New Year for all of us! :)
 
Hi Scrumbles, HNY! I have no doubt with your focus and attention you will find the perfect way to enjoy food and life AND lose any remaining weight you want to.
It's interesting looking back over my maintenance journey in 2012 I apparently lost about 4.5 kg extremely slowly - not bad for a lifestyle I was enjoying. Now just got to decide on what next...!
Enjoy your 2nd xmas dinner:)
 
^^^ I think I must have enjoyed it - I'm a pound up this morning, lol.:D

It's interesting looking back over my maintenance journey in 2012 I apparently lost about 4.5 kg extremely slowly - not bad for a lifestyle I was enjoying.

That's really how it should be in the later stages. I guess most of us could blitz off the last few pounds if we set out minds to it, but that doesn't teach you a whole lot about how to eat to maintain your new lower weight. I should know because that's what I've done in the past and ended up yo-yoing horribly before giving up and starting to pile all the weight back on again. :rolleyes: That is sooooo not going to happen this time if I can possibly avoid it.

The Xmas treats have dwindled to almost nothing at this point - just a few choccies and some Xmas pud left - so it shouldn't be too much longer before I'm properly back on plan...:)
 
So I think I'll start in Pre-maintenance (or my version of it ;)) and aim for about 80-90g carbs per day, eating from all the food groups, including small amounts of grains (I've known for a while that I can eat oats and rice with no untoward consequences, though I'm still avoiding wheat and corn). :)

You know, that sounds really sensible to me - I love stuff like porridge, lentils, pulses and so on - what's a typical day's menu on that carb level?
 
Well, my home-made lentil and carrot soup comes in at 17g carbs per portion (that's with 55g red lentils, 50g onion, 1 clove garlic, 50g carrots being the carby elements). My oat/flax porridge has 20g flax, 20g rolled oats, and 180ml soy milk (plus sweetening of choice) and has 13g carbs per portion.

A 45g dry weight portion of brown rice is about 30g carbs, so if you were to have all 3 of these things in one day that would be 60g of carbs, which still leaves 20-30g carbs to spend on the good stuff like your foundation veggies, berries, bit of full-fat yoghurt etc. By the time you add in all your carb-free stuff (meat, fish, cheese, fats etc) you have a pretty decent day's nosh, and all for less than 90g carbs! :D

That would be an example of how it works out for me. I find I can tolerate potato without problems, so I might swap 200g potato for the rice. Or instead of having a starchy carb with my main meal - I'm not really used to having them any more after all these months of Atkins, and I don't often feel the need to - I might choose to have a few oatcakes or rice cakes with some cheese as a snack. As long as I keep a strict tally of what I've had - and don't try to have everything all in one day, lol! - I'm fine. :)


Weight was slightly up again this morning - I think my Xmas pud is finally having an effect where all else failed, lol. Oh well, it'll be finished tomorrow, then I can concentrate on trying to lose my 3lbs for the January challenge :character00115::D
 
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