Hello all,
My name is Rachel. I was in a 12 step program for a number of years for people with issues around food. The 12 steps make good sence to me. I would like to use the CA food plan along with many of the principles of the 12 steps. Anyone else out there doing the same?

I am not sure about having sugar even at a reward meal. To me that feels like a drunk having a beer only at dinner. I know this is a personalised program and I like that part a great deal and not having to weigh and messure my meals fits my life much better as well.

I did well in oa with a sponsor and the idea of commiting my food to someone every day. Helped me be accountable. If anyone is interested in doing something like that please let yourself be known!!

I would love to hear about other peoples experances and give and recieve the support we all deserve.

Best,
Rachel

Altho I am not familar with the programs U described, I can understand the concept of giving sugar to carb addicts--- beer to an alcoholic. I read the CAD book and knew that I couldnt have the "reward" meal they allow, thats why I choose atkins. I do however know people who have had great success with CAD. I wish U luck and hope to hear from from you.

Hi Rachel!

If you are still working the program, using a food plan is an excellent idea. I think the grey sheet is a bit harsh, although it does indicate what you have to avoid. A food plan is not the program, but it is one of the tools. It will help you to define what your abstinence is.

Personally, I find it best to avoid sugar, flour and all refined or high-carb complex carbs. I am an addict, and these are my trigger foods. My physical cravings for these are gone. That said, I can still binge or overeat on low-carb foods if I'm out of synch.

Have a look at our journal forum, you may want to start a journal there.

In addition to reading CAD, you may want to read CALP. It picks up where CAD leaves off.

You will do just fine here. Welcome aboard!

Karen

welcome! not in OA, but working through the emotional/addictive part of my relationship to food and dieting.

ditto what Karen said--find the carbs that you don't long for, that don't trigger symptoms or cravings, and have those with your reward meal if you like. I'd start with a glycemic index/glycemic load list and work my way up from the bottom, guessing those with lowest GI may well be safest. Green lentils and garbanzos are low GI foods, for instance. If you have 3 craving-reducing meals in a day, that's fine, too.

Best of luck to you!

Thanks Karen for the warm welcome. I see a food plan as only one part of the recovery process. I agree with you too about grey sheet, I felt ill much of the time on the food plan yet it taught me a great deal about foods I must not put inside of me. Not to mention issues about addiction.

It sounds as if you have been doing well with CAD and CALP (life plan?). Let me ask you, do you have a reward meal? And if so, given what you just said, what are safe reward foods for you? I fear it is the food addict in me that likes this "reward" idea so much. The truth told, a sweeter reward would be just to have a good life between meals and not thinking about what will be going into my mouth next.

I will check out the journal forum thanks.

Best,
Rachel

gwilson38,

I don't know anything about atkins, what is it about it that you like and that works for you?


razzle.
Where might I find this glycemic index/glycemic load list?

Thank you for your welcomes. It is so good to be reminded that I am not alone around all this.

Best,
Rachel

rachel, there's a GI list at

http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

an article with a bit more info at

http://www.health.harvard.edu/article.cfm?id=48

computing glycemic load (probably a more useful piece of information) from this is a bit complicated. Here's one description: "The glycemic load of a food is calculated by multiplying the glycemic index times the carbohydrate content of food divided by 50g. (GI x CHO content of food / 50 g)" There's a list out there somewhere...I'll keep hunting for it!

I don't follow CAD, but started with Protein Power. I've been LC for quite a while, so it seems that I am no longer following any particular plan and have created a new way of life out of low-carb principles.

I've read both CAD and CALP to understand how the plan works, but cannot get my head around the reward meal. For me it would be licence to binge. Even the name scares me. Reward for what? It's a bad idea to use food as a reward.

It really helped at first to find out all I could about LC worked, including the carb counts on food items, so I would know what to avoid. Sanity and losing weight has been part of my program so learning what I needed to know has worked quite well for me.

Karen

Hi Rachel, Karen is right...for many people the reward meal can trigger cravings that can set off a binge however like razzle stated maybe U can find the foods to incorperate so that wont happen to U. I like Atkins because I found I was able to eat until I was full and remained full for hrs and yet lost weight. Because I am maintaining now I am playing around with it and will start eating fruit on an empty stomach which the sommersizing program follows. Low carbing is a learning experience and what one person can tolerate another may not be able too.