definitely try the mashed cauli Thud posted- it is a hugely popular LC recipe for good reason

I love veggy fries, as suggested, but if you want something more potato like, try jicama baked with seasoned salt- others use turnips and such as well.....

welcome to the forum, and if you haven't already, scroll down to the diabetes forum. there is a ton of helpful info there for your husband. Congrats to you both! I'm a type I, and went low carb in college. it made a HUGE difference in my blood sugars, despite that i was super health conscious in school eating loads of fruit, veggies with fatfree (sugar laden) dips, fatfree cheese and yogurt, nutrigrain bars and microwave popcorn. yikes.....

My twist on this subject isn't about finding a substitute for what is being craved. It is about recognizing what the craving is. It is breaking free from an addiction and it won't be easy. LC substitutes will only help so much. To me they all lacked the one thing I was really craving... the sugar. The foods I craved the most all contained a serious dose of sugar (and starch in French fries, bread, or pizza is sugar). I didn't always see this as a real addiction. I thought that I just "liked these foods" and I figured I would always miss them. I thought the endless struggle to stay away from them would never end. It wasn't until I broke free from these things -- my old favorite foods -- that I realized that the addiction was real.

On failed diets gone by I always cheated and took off days to indulge those cravings. That was my biggest mistake. The best thing I ever did was to make cheating not an option. I started this WOE with the goal to stick to on-plan foods no matter what. After 2 or 3 months of not feeding the cravings those foods started to lose their pull. My brain started to let go. As the cravings started to fade I started liking my LC food more and more. After 6 months it actually got pretty easy to stick on-plan low carb food. After a year, I hardly missed those carb loaded foods anymore. I can be around others eating them and I have no problems with it. Even the smell of French fries or pizza does not drive me crazy anymore. I'm free from it. I got to this point by not giving in to the cravings. It is that simple.

I was diabetic, too. It was no fun. I had all the symptoms short of gangrene. Life certainly wasn't going to get any better if I continued down the path I was on. I had to change how I eat. I simply couldn't continued to indulge in foods like bread, French fries, cakes & candy. Those foods hit my system like a sledge hammer. I just have no business ever eating them again. Once upon a time piping hot McDonald's French fries were among my favorite foods. I ate them regularly. I am SO HAPPY that the cravings for such things are gone. I am free from them. I don't need them and I don't want them. Not even a McDonald's French fry? Are you kidding me? Nope (and I still find that hard to believe). But that is what will happen if you just don't indulge the cravings.

No cheating, no days off = freedom from addiction.

I read this differently than you may have meant. I'm getting "addicted" to seeing low numbers on my glucose meter. I'm getting addicted to lower numbers on the scale (please note the lower number in my stats - 5 pounds gone in the last month!). I've admitted to my husband that I'm obsessed with low carb & learning more about diabetes, but he says he doesn't mind. It's way better than when I was actively addicted to carbs & binging.

Bonnie, I like weighing myself and seeing the number go down too.
Always have, when I'm dieting, or at an ok weight that is. Otherwise, I avoid the scale like the plague!
I'm also one who keeps a little notebook with my daily weight, water consumed, type of food eaten and calories and carbs.
This is my first serious attempt at a hflc diet, I've always done a low calorie diet. So it's a big change for sure. I have to say though that I'm not hungry like I was constantly on a low calorie diet, which is wonderful. Of course, I'm only a week in...I think my challenge will be to get creative and try some of the recipes on the site, not just cook a steak and eat 2 cups of romaine, as I am a lazy chef! ;-)

Khrussva, I read your post to my husband, and he was impressed with your attitude and commitment. Fingers crossed your discipline and results will help inspire him stay committed as well. He doesn't have the greatest track record in that area.
Thank you for sharing.

I weighed 440 pounds. Clearly I didn't either. It only takes one time to get it right. For me the missing piece of the puzzle was my concept of what a diet was. It wasn't a permanent thing. I thought cheats and breaks were part of dieting. "Experts" even say that such things are helpful. They say that feeling deprived is a huge reason why people don't stick to their diet plan. So they say that occasional cheats, rewards, diet breaks are a key to successful dieting. That is the news I wanted to hear... a justification for getting to eat what I craved. That is bad advice for people like me. All I needed to do was deprive myself until I didn't feel deprived anymore. That is what made this work for me. Funny how sticking to your diet actually helps you stick to your diet. Go figure? Why I ever believed that cheating was 'helpful' is beyond me.

It took a few months of struggle -- but getting your life and your health back worth the pain. After that, this way of eating gets easy and you wonder why you didn't figure this out a long time ago. I'm in my 50's and I have not felt this good since my early 30's. I wasted 2 decades. I won't waste the next two (or three).

Maeve, would your husband be willing to join the forum? He doesn't have to let us know that he's your husband, if he's shy.

But there are a lot of men, like Ken, who are finding that eating LCHF really works for them, in both weight loss and enjoyment of life. He might enjoy sharing the journey with them.

Ken, Thud, Grav and others are not only successfully losing significant amounts of weight, they are also articulate, funny and kind. And Thud posts wickedly gorgeous photos of his from scratch concoctions, named, by KinMount "Thud soup."

He may find that he likes it here.

Khrussva, you are truly inspirational. I think you are spot on regarding "cheat" days. They only made me realize how much I missed my sweets..and I usually fell off the wagon, so to speak, soon after.

Mickisue, I'll speak to him about joining, but I already think I know his what his answer will be. He's terrible at finding the letters on the keyboard, and very s l o w at it. So he does as little as possible.
BTW, HE HAS LOST 6 (count 'em!) 6 lbs. since starting LC Sunday morning. He is very overweight, but still, that's amazing. Mostly water weight I know. Speaking of water, that is going to be a big issue for him. I told him he needs to drink at least 6 glasses a day, but I know he's not. I hate to keep reminding him, even if it is for his own good...it quickly sounds like nagging! He's a grown man....drink your water Dude! 😉

I used to nag my husband about that - he hates drinking water, usually has only 1 cup of coffee in the am (my coffee consumption is measured in pots ), and rarely drinks anything else. He never feels thirsty. There was a conversation about water drinking somewhere here (maybe someone knows?) - the upshot of that is that I stopped nagging. We're both happier.

I got my husband a fancy water bottle and kept it filled and handy. Helped him make a habit.

Also, flavored seltzers are a hit at our house.

Awww MS; the kindness goes both ways my friend.

Maeve, my journey was a fairly organic one at first, in that I didn't dive into any formal induction period or anything like that. It was more a combination of "I'm terrible in the kitchen" and "I don't want to just throw all this bad food away, that seems wasteful".

But while it sounded like I was kinda giving myself an "out", I was still strict on not buying any more carbs. That much was clear to me from the start at least. In effect, I gave myself the time to learn new meal options while gradually phasing out the bad old stuff. That way it didn't seem like such a big scary lifestyle change happening all at once.

Nowadays I'm "slightly less terrible" in the kitchen, in that I have enough options to carry me through the week. Although after 9 months, sometimes I still forget to take the meat out of the freezer before going to work in the morning.

I guess in answer to the question of how to deal with cravings, I would say replace them with something else, as I did over time. Once you've surrounded yourself with enough good options, it becomes easier to forget about the bad ones.

So what meal options do I make for myself?

Breakfast: sausages & cheesy scrambled eggs, or a 2 egg omelette filled with tuna and cheese.

Lunch I don't make for myself; I dine at a local buffet restaurant during the week where I choose whatever LC options they have going, and I don't really lunch at all on the weekends.

Dinner: bunless burgers, mince with tomatoes & mushrooms on zoodles, salmon with spinach & aioli, stir fry veges with diced chicken breast, steak with caulimash & mushrooms, vege soup with chopped spam instead of croutons.

Snacks are slices of cheese or spam, and/or macadamia nuts. Which I never need during the week, but I might have a nibble on the weekends in place of lunch.

There are heaps of other things you can try as you explore for options yourself. For example, I don't really like bacon, asparagus, avocadoes or olives. I don't even really like eggs that much, but by having them with other flavours that I do like, it helps me get through them. Just keep looking around and trying things, and before you know it, you'll have plenty to choose from and will soon forget about what you used to miss.

Finally, a tip regarding water: I find I enjoy it much better cold. Like WereBear, I bought a pair of insulated stainless steel water bottles, one of which I keep at work. The water stays cold all day, it's great!

I didn't like avocados until I salted one. Yummy!

Hi Bonnie, WereBear, and Grav...
Love the idea of the water bottle. I'll buy him a real snazzy one and he'll feel very special while he is gagging down his water, haha!
No, Seriously, I think having a bottle that keeps his water cold, (which is what he prefers like Grav) is going to help.
Thanks Guys!

Look for the brand Contigo, Maeve. They are really well insulated, so keep hot things hot and cold things cold for 5 hours.

And they look cool, too.