What do you do when your significant other ,who you love with all your heart, is thin and can eat anything, goes grocery shopping and buys different things that drive you nuts because you can't eat them. She doesn't do it on purpose but she says she wants the snacks for the kids when they come over. And on the other hand I don't want to deprive her of things she likes.

She tries to hide them but she's running out of hiding places.

Don't tell me just use will power because thats a bunch of bull. Being overweight is a disease of sorts and after awhile it just gets to you (especially during induction) to snack.

Don't get me wrong ,my wife is super and is very supportive and doesn't temp me ,but if you don't have the problem of a sweet tooth or an eating disorder,(which I believe overeating is) you can't understand what it's like.

I may have explained this kinda weird but I think you get my drift.

Thanx for listening and any advice would greatly be appreciated.
CP

Two words: locking cabinet.

Hi Craig,
I know what it's like to have snack food around. My husband doesn't think a meal is complete without dessert and now my 3 kids are pretty much the same way (least at this moment!). If I feel really weak, I don't buy any snacks, I don't make any snacks, and I insist they don't bring any home. Usually doesn't last too long. DH has taken the oldest to DQ and that was fine- just DON'T bring it home. Usually I can do ok, but there are times if it's available- it's gone!
Sounds like a heart-to-heart talk with your wife and ask her to avoid buying these snacks until you're stronger, able to resist more. It's not going to hurt any kids to not have a sugary treat, give 'em fruit!
Best wishes, Carol

I have to disagree with you. Saying will power is a bunch of bull is what is a bunch of bull.

My husband is trim, for the most part. He has an amazing beer belly that is there on Monday from weekend beer and then gone by Friday sometimes. I have two kids, 3 and 8. My house is full of lunch snacks and TV dinners and other convenience foods because I work at home and sometimes I can't make dinner. My home is also full of great healthy food and I am blessed with kids and a husband who love vegetables, meat, fish, etc.

Will power is the control of one's own impulses. Everyone uses will power every day for all kinds of things, and not just food. I don't eat anything I don't want to, period. I assume responsibility for what I put into my body and what the outcome will be. My husband can eat what he wants when he wants. The kids are restricted from snacks and sweets and generally like whatever we eat as a family. Just because non-LC food is in the house does not mean I have to eat it, and it's not about will power. It's about committing to losing weight. Eating is conscious decision about what you are going to fuel your body with. Chosing to succumb to foods just because they are there is an excuse. Deciding you want to eat something you think you probably shouldn't is a choice you make in spite of the WOE you are moving to. Go ahead and make it but know that it was your choice to eat it. Eating something non-LC doesn't make you a bad person. It means you are making a choice to eat something. Deal with it. Decide to eat it or not and move on. Tomorrow is another day.

I agree. An excuse is an excuse no matter how you justify it. Whether it's an addiction to foods, drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.

She's running out of hiding places? Why do you keep searching? Can you imagine how guilty she is feeling that everytime she brings something in the house you're going into "gotta find moms stash!!!" mode?

This is something that you're going to have to deal with if you're going to start losing weight and keep it off.

There are a couple of great orginazations that help people deal with food addictions. One is a 12 step program and helps you to understand your relationships with food and how they effect you and those around you. There is more than likely local support in your area for one of them or there is support on the web.

www.oa.org
www.greysheet.org

Im around junk food all the time at home, school, everywhere. you are not alone. lowcarbers getover having carbie foods around and not letting them taunt us into going crazy(I still wine sometimes though dont know why?). It's all in our mind! I droped 17 pounds in April (while being surrounded by the most hellish carbs) you can do it! I got an Idea to show your thinner half how much control you have feed her carbie food and smile

fight the chaos and earn the glory.

Well, sometimes I can resist easily and sometimes I can't. I have one trigger food that constantly causes me problems, but I don't have anyone else living with me. When the gks come for the summer, lcing is much harder for me.

I have eventually gotten to the point where I can say, this is off limits for X number of days and then reevaluate at the end of that time period. But I have been at this a long time and it is a fairly recent development. Marty

Even if your wife hides her treats or she stops buying them altogether, you will not be able to hide from sugar forever! It's everywhere - shops, offices, commercials on TV. You can't tell the whole world to hide the cookies!
If you need to snack, snack on legal foods. And stop thinking about what you CAN'T eat, think about what you CAN eat. Yummy LC food.

Craig,

Have something you like available to you....I have continually found things that make me happy in this lifestyle and I don't feel slighted in the least.

Recently, I have found TastyKakes that are low-carb (4) and they are orange finger cakes. I take one of these, make whipping cream and slice strawberries. Very good dessert. I also found pistachios - habanero seasoned - today. They are relatively low carb. I have decided to leave them in my car for times I am out doing errands, get hungry and want to avoid fast food. I also have protein bars and bottled water in my car for the same reason. I also found a shaker cup that you can store protein powder in the bottom for protein shakes. This works great for in my car as well.

However, I digress. What I am trying to say is...arm yourself with your favorite, low-carb items and have them readily available. If you can hold out, past that hunger/crave for a moment, if you just eat something you CAN have....you will be satisfied, because you are full. Be patient and don't think about what it is that you can't have, but think about what you can have and have it near and ready.

Good luck!

Yes, but it's a different thing to feel uncomfortable in your own home. I noticed that you said "when the kids come over". Does that mean they don't live with you or are they grandchildren?(haven't seen your stats, so I hope you're not offended by that).

Couldn't your wife just wait until she knows they are coming for a visit to buy those things? Also, your wife might be thin, but if she is eating this way herself, she is not healthy. I too was not truly overweight but boy was I sick!

Bottom line is, you need to talk to your wife and explain the situation. If the problem was alcohol would she keep it in the house? Probably not because she loves you. She needs to realize that you are addicted and to treat it accordingly. Good luck.

i dont agree with that at all craig. i use to be the worst eater ever, and had absolutely no self control. now i have been two years+ cheat free and will never cheat or eat anything off plan ever. whenever i go to my parents i see all their doughnuts and junk food sitting right there for me to eat, but i have absolutely no desire what so ever to put that crap into my body. its extremely unhealthy, and its just not worth it. you have to be strong and decide what you think is best and most healthy for you. have a little bit of self control. im sure your wife can find SOMEWHERE to hide them that you wouldnt find them, unless you are intentionally snooping around looking for them. good luck with getting past the temptations. be strong. you can do it.

If you hope to make a change in *your* life, then you need to look inside yourself. You can't expect everyone to make it easy or to put more effort into it than you are willing to put in yourself.

I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but some people are able to eat sugar in moderation without going off the deep end. It sounds like your wife is one of these people. She does not have a problem. This one is yours. It's one thing to ask for support (like not offering you foods you can't have or keeping a few specific trigger foods out of sight), but to ask someone to change their lifestyle to suit yours seems very selfish.

And yes, I do understand where you are. I have a fit and trim husband who eats whatever he wants, but magically seems to live on very small portions. He can bring home a gallon of ice cream and it will take him 4-6 months to finish it. My son is allergic to or refuses to eat anything that isn't carby or starchy or sugary, so our house is filled with high carb foods. It's a choice you make for yourself. No one else can do it for you.

Very true but, as we all know now (and Thank God), that eating sugary treats at anytime is just not good for you, whether it throws you off the deep end or not...and whether you're thin or not. Junk is just junk and I cringe whenever my daughter wants to eat it. It might not hurt today, but sometimes we get a wakeup call (like I did) and find it hard to change.

Craig, I don't think it's wrong for you to ask for some support in the beginning while you're trying to curb your addiction, but these people are right...you will need to eventually stand on your own two feet and decide what to put, and more importantly, what not to put, into your body.

What a sad, sad thread. A bunch of people who went on a low carb diet in large part (whether they will admit it or not) because they were addicted to carbohydrates (couldn't control their consumption of them), are now verbally lashing someone for a putative lack of willpower.

If your willpower is so damn strong, why did you bother going on a low carb diet in the first place? Why not eat a "balanced diet," and use your mountain of willpower to control your eating? It's so easy, after all. And then you'd get to eat -- in moderation, of course, and your willpower will allow you to do it -- all the foods many people here whine about missing all the time. The cake, the cookies, the chocolate, freshly baked bread oozing with butter -- all of it would open right up to you, and you wouldn't have to waste time on the fake substitutes so many people here spend so much time making. It's all a matter of willpower, after all. It would save so much time and money. And the convenience! In fact, one wonders with all this willpower around, how the people in this thread got fat in the first place.

I can see the responses from the virtuous already: "Oh, I didn't low carb just because I wanted to lose weight -- I also did it because it's a healthy way of eating!" Sure you did.

This thread is nothing more than a bunch of people playing the game the public at large does: blaming the fat person/food addict for a "lack of willpower," instead of acknowledging that different people react to food, and its availability, in different ways. Had life not taught me better about human nature long ago, I would have expected to find better here, of all places.


I know someone who's a recovering alcoholic. She works as a foodserver and sometime bartender at a popular bar/restaurant. She has thus far been able to avoid drinking while she works (going on a couple of years now), but won't have alcohol around the house, and won't even go to parties where alcohol will be served, because she knows, from experience, what would happen. She knows other recovering alcoholics who wouldn't work anywhere near liquor, in fact, has a friend who quit their job because it was next door to a liquor store.

This brings up two questions for all the righteous people with mountains of willpower in this thread: if she has enough willpower to work around alcohol, why doesn't she have enough willpower to have it around the house? And if she has enough willpower to work around alcohol, why doesn't she have enough willpower to have "just a sip" or two every once in a while? The health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption are, after all, well known these days.

Willpower. The ultimate sucker's game: pretend you have the ability to look into someone's heart, and see what is, or isn't there, based on your own experiences, preconceptions, and prejudices. And it makes you feel better: you get to dump on someone because they lack willpower, but you don't! Yeeehah! After a lifetime of being told you lack willpower, you get to dump on someone else! Yes! I think I'll jump in! I could use a self esteem boost right about now!

Welp, time to get back to it. Let that guy have it! He's weak -- you know it, make sure he does when you're done with him.

By the way, I think there's a cool new recipe for low carb cheesecake in the recipes forum. When you're done dumping on the OP, you might want to get down there and take a peek at it. Or, you could use your willpower and go out and get a piece of the real thing. Hell, get an entire cake. Having just one piece is only a matter of willpower, after all.

I can't let this one go unanswered...



Nothing we make here is a "fake" substitute. We just substitute fresh ingredients for other fresh ingredients. Who's to say that the so called "normal version" is not just a bad-for-you version of what WE eat?




Sorry to burst your bubble on that one but I was never truly overweight. My heaviest weight in my entire life, including two pregnancies, was 122 and that's at almost 40 years of age. I was diagnosed with hypolglycemia...that's why I lowcarb. Those foods you mentioned could someday be deadly for me. But for whatever reason I did it...you have ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to tell all of these good people that they have no willpower. You know nothing about their lives, situations or level of metabolic resistance. We are all educated now on what to do and are taking steps to do it. I learned early on that sometimes the hard line is the only approach.





Why? Because at work, it's easier to turn off your emotions and just do your job. At home, we are faced with all types of dilemnas, heartaches, lonliness, whatever and it's just too hard sometimes for some people to not overdo.



You'll get no boost here. You can't even be honest. I see that you have no stats listed. Why is that? And for that matter, why are you posting on a lowcarb forum when you clearly don't follow one? Eating cake and cookies is NOT lowcarb no matter how much you balance it out. Sugar is poison. Period. Meanwhile there are good and honest people here trying to change their lives for the better. I'm one of them and I think I'm in GREAT company.

Signed,
A thin, supportive, healthy person