Over the winter I hit a plateau that lasted months after 30 lbs and never cheating. It was terribly depressing to be within 15 lbs of goal and yoyo-ing three pounds.
I had started adding artificial sugar-free liquid flavorings to my coffee in addition to the cream and blending it. While comforting, I doubt it was helping move the numbers down with the Splenda in it. I am going to finish the bottle I have and go back to just cream, which was working.
Both my doctors also said I needed to increase my carbs from 20 a day. The numbers seem to be moving down slllloowwwwlly even at the increased carbs.
I am grateful for the year I have been training my body to be innately low-carb and for the times I actually have cheated and neither gone to hell nor gained anything, because cheating is really now an occasional part of dieting, not cheating at all. For me, I had to do something radical, so I followed medical advice and bumped up the carbs and sometimes have a small bit of something not on the program--I actually have had two bran muffins (months apart!) and sometimes will have four Ritz crackers, I don't know why four, or a couple of cups of air-popped popcorn with cheddar cheese from Wise. I used to eat a whole bowl of it, buttered, with melted cheese.
I always read the labels first and carefully before choosing to have THIS over a potentially faster loss. I also have a Dannon Greek yogurt, frozen, about every day. It takes FOR EV ER to eat a frozen Greek yogurt, but it was one thing one doctor recommended. The other doc is on the program and takes weekends off, but carefully, not wildly, and like me he exercises. He actually enjoys it and while I just walk for half an hour, he's gotten me to see the many benefits.
I also take time to identify what is triggering the desire to eat, emotions or impulse or hunger?
I have been doing this since May 24, 2016 and expected to be at goal by one year but thanks to this site, I know such expectations are usually high. I appreciate everyone's input on every topic. You have each helped me tremendously to stick with it and to know I have support everywhere and will offer my two cents when it's appropriate.
Enough of my rant; thank you again and good luck to us all!