Hi everyone!

I'm new this board although I have lost weight before with CAD years ago. When it crept back on tried many WOEs until I finally realised this is the one for me. I did the carb addicts test in the Hellers book and got 100%!!


I have been following CAD/CALP and hit a stall, and now am appalled to find I've actually PUT on 2 pounds after an initial weight loss of 8 pounds, even though my period was last week and any extra weight gain from that should have dropped by now. (I have another 20lb or so to go to get back to the weight I was two years ago - 136lb - a good weight for me)

Having read the stall/craving/gains sheet I have a few questions about what may be throwing me off and would appreciate some advice.

I LOVE cheese Have been sticking to the 2 ounces per meal thing coz it's such a handy source of protein, but I'm wondering if it's a stall thing for me (didn't seem to be at first - feta seemed ok and the hard cheeses worse for me) what is it about cheese that causes problems - the fat, or is it the salt?

I have been having a CM of 4oz of meat/tuna/3 small eggs with green salad and trying to stick with that and just a snack during the day (a smaller version of the initial meal) With my RM in the evening. Could not having enough veggies in the day stall me? Or not enough protein? should it be 4oz each meal?

I like to drink tea with unsweetened soya milk. The tea is caffeinated and I usually have one first thing in the morning and one with each CM. The soya milk I use contains 0.1 grams per 100ml. Should I treat it like coffee with cream and finish it within 15 minutes, or is the carb content too low that it doesn't matter? Should I restrict the number of cups a day because of the caffeine? It's not particularly strong tea, but it does seem to perk me up a bit and I enjoy it.

My boyfriend is veggie and a wonderful cook. Our main meals are often veggie chilli (soya mince red and green peppers, kidney and aduki beans and tomatoes), with tortilla chips, rice and sour cream. Or Vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese, Or Veggie roast dinner which I look forward to because of so much meat and/or fish in the day. I used to be veggie but started eating
meat again after 20 years because it seems to help stop me being anaemic. I'm aware that the veggie protein often is a source of carbs too, so that bumps things up, also does 4oz of soya mince/veggie sausage etc count as 4oz of protein?

Should I always have a salad before my RM?

Now the biggie: I have given up sweets and puddings, chocolate etc, which I don't miss and don't have a pudding, but my treat is a few glasses of dry white wine or cava with dinner. Actually I'm going to fess up here - I start timing my hour from my first sip of wine (which is usually about 20 mins before RM, eat my RM then have a bit more after finishing my RM and finish my last sip bang on the hour. I usually have 3 (or sometimes 4!) 150ml/5oz glasses. I'm thinking that counts as bit of a binge - even though I drink the lowest carb white wine, it's the old carb addict mentality sneaking in...
I then drink lots of sparkling mineral water for the rest of the evening...

Lots of questions here I know !!
Many Thanks

hi-
thanks for posting and welcome!
This is my opinion- take it or leave it. I think the problem is the wine. If you really want to see if that's the issue, try cutting it out for a week and see what happens. If I have a glass (ONE glass) with RM more than a couple/three days in a week my weight goes up. When I was losing weight either alcohol or sugar for RM carb more than 2 days/week would stall me. What I have read is that even thought the actual carb count in the wine is low, the body treats alcohol like sugar.
JMHO!

I think you re okay with all the soy- one of my friends is a vegie CALPer, but it would not hurt to try having fish instead (if that is okay with your friend). If you arae not hungry after CM then it is fine. I don't measure amounts of protein. I always have a salad with RM, and lots of veggies.

please come lots and post and tell us how youare doing and what you decide to do!
E

Thanks so much for your reply - I couldn't figure it out because the actual carb value of the wine isn't that high because it's dry wine - but of course - it acts like sugar! That makes sense

Seems a shame to undo all that hard work for a few glasses of wine

Yep - my boyfriend eats fish so no problem there.

Will keep you posted

Thanks again

you are welcome! So much of this journey is YMMV- (your milage may vary)- we have to figure it out!
Spend some time on the other areas- there is a lot of information on this site.

Where are you in the UK?
E

Hiya!

You're so right with the YMMV thing.

I've implemented big changes yesterday and weighed in at a pound heavier today and I had to remind myself that my body is probably not going to respond that quickly even if it's my 'weigh-in average day' tommorow and it'll muck up all my statistics!! Had a momentary feeling of 'sod it - I'll pack it all in an pig out on chocolate' but was surprised how quickly that moment passed - because I actually don't WANT to pig out on chocolate and I feel so much healthier eating this way.
The momentary urge to fast all day passed too - I'm not going to punish myself any more to trick the scales into giving me a more 'acceptable' weight tomorrow. Who am I competing with? No one. I am 21% on the way towards my goal and that is an achievement

When I used to spread my carbs across the day, whether it was chocolate, or whether it was humous and ricecakes, or rice n' lentils, I was hungry within an hour and spent most of my day hungry,thinking about food. my boyfriend used to say -"you can't be hungry, you've eaten plenty today"!
I don't feel that way now and that is a huge change. I am so used to thinking with a 'diet' quick-fix mentality that I'm used to trading in hunger and deprivation for the pounds dropping off the scales and that way of thinking is such a short term fix mentality and what has got me here. I have to keep reminding myself that this process is about learning what suits my body and makes me feel good in the long term, rather than thinking about what makes me feel relief in the short term then punishing myself.
I was a bit hungry after my reward meal last night so have decided instead of try to get by on one CM and my reward meal I'm going to have two CMs during the day, and see how that works out.

It amazes me how this way of eating is also so much about a change in mental processes and not just the physical. I, like most people here I guess, have been on hundreds of diets and have trained myself so well to think that way. This is a re-education all right.

I feel so much better now. I love that this forum is here and many thanks for your support Enomarb

To answer your question (finally!) I live in Bath, in the South West of England.
I don't know whether you know it but it's where they film all the Jane Austen movies and things like 'Vanity Fair' it's a very beautiful city, especially today with the sun shining

Many Thanks again

good morning and welcome.
i drink wine and find no problem. i also start the hour w the first sip. that's legal. i do stick to one glass, though.

my opinion; the vegetarian meals may be too carb heavy especially if you are insulin resistant as all.

i know w CAD it is not supposed to matter but many have found that they need the balance of CALP for success.

i am a former vegetarian and never struggled w my weight until i gave up meat. then i struggled for about 20 years until i gave up the vegetarian idea. by then my health was ruined!!

this is something to think about. many low carbers are former vegetarians who developed syndrome X or some of the symptoms by eating a diet that was way off balance.

i'm not saying that you can't eat vegetarian meals but you may need to balance w a true protein and cut back on some of the carbs.

keep following the pros here and you'll see the pattern that those w success have discovered.

i'm sure others will chime in w more ideas.

oh and because wine/alcohol would be considered a carb, too much would thow it off even more. so that's just in addition to my previous post.

you'll have to check the nutritional label to find out how much protein and carb is in your meat replacement.

if i remember right, in CAD, the salad was added to keep peop from going carb crazy during their hour.....?