That means a lot to me. I almost did not post on this thread cause I knew you did not like me and this board is your home turf. I did not want to make you uncomfortable. I was sort of putting a toe in the water.
I am very direct, that is for sure. But, I do it because I care, honestly. I want everyone to be free from the addiction of carbs. I just remember the hell my life once was when I ate carbs and now I am so free.
For those who do not know me, I struggled with bulimia my whole life. I thought about food all day and everyday. My life revolved around me planning my binges.
Then I went zc. Now, I am a wife and mother. I live my life. I think about food once or twice a day for 5 minutes when I am eating.
I want everyone to find this freedom.

Hello to everyone whom I haven't met before. I have done some reading at ZIOH, but have only posted once. I think I fit in better over here, but I'm still over there reading and such.

I have found another benefit of ZC (for me anyway). When LCing last time, this was about the time my weight loss dropped to about a pound or maybe even less each week. I've been ZCing for 11 days, and in 9 of those days I have seen a loss of some sort. Yes, sometimes it is only a .2 pound loss, but it is still a loss. Having a loss in 9 out of 11 days is blowing me away. I'm down 3.8 pounds on those 11 days compared to 1 to 2 pounds every few weeks on LC.

It may end up that it is a bit faster for me to lose with ZC, and that's good, but more important to me (and my psyche) is that there is a constant downward trend. I haven't seen the stalls for a week or two at a time that I experienced on LC. Now, this may change, but it's what I feel at the current time.

jeff, you're eating dried sausages in your food intake, aren't you?
i think i read something about sausages once in your journal... right?
and you continued to lose weight even with the salt context of sausages, right?

i still lose weight drinking my decaf coffee w/heavy whipping cream and stevia..

so inspite of some of the things we are eating/drinking, we are still seeing losses..

i have to admit.. when i'm diligent with this WOE, the pounds come off.. when i go out and have a few beers with friends, or a fish taco...
it doesn't.. so cheating just doesn't work.

That is true. It never worked for me.

I am starting a LC support group at Whole Foods Market which will support all LC diets including ketogenic and ZLC.

that is excellent, Black.. i just wish they would lower their prices on their grass fed meat..
good luck with that and keep us posted.. would love to hear the naysayers excuses you get.

I haven't changed my meat eating habits at all. I still eat bacon, sausage, brats, and ham. All with normal seasoning and saltiness. In fact, I've been looking at my diet over the last few weeks and wondering if I am getting too much sodium. Trying to find things with less salt in them as I don't think I need as much as I am eating, but I am finding that it is not stalling me at all. So, if what I am losing is water weight, that means I'm losing water weight at the same time I am eating salty stuff.

Today, for example, I had 4 pieces of bacon and a brat for breakfast. I'll always drink at least 30 oz of water at work during the day, so I have the salt and water and, in theory, should be bloated and gain water weight today. We'll see what happens.

Looks like Dr. Eades just backed us up:

This is a MUST read by Dr. Michael Eades:

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/...t-ii/#more-3569

Here's an excerpt:

"It was our gradual drift toward the much higher quality diet provided by food from animal sources that allowed us to develop the large brains we have. It was hunting and meat eating that reduced our GI tracts and freed up our brains to grow. As I wrote at the start of this post, the evidence indicates that we didn’t evolve to eat meat – we evolved because we ate meat."

I've been thinking on something the last 2 days (no, I didn't hurt myself) and wanna throw it out there to see what you guys think. I've got my flack jacket on just in case.

PilotGal brought up the topic of cheating and she mentioned that if she cheats, it doesn't work. I've been thinking on the whole cheating thing. I wonder if that is the wrong approach.

Since this WOE is supposed to be an actual lifestyle change, and not just a diet to lose weight, doesn't it make sense that there has to be times when we aren't on plan? I know most of us cannot make it the next 50 years or whatever until we die eating only meat. I'm sure there will be a time or two that we slip up in the process.

So, I propose that we now ban the word Cheat. It has now become a Treat. As long as the treat is kept in the proper context and does NOT become part of your normal diet, it shouldn't be an issue. This may or may not become an issue for some people with cravings and other things. The key is to make your treat be something that does not lead you down the path to falling off plan. Maybe this way of thinking takes a stronger will. I don't know.

I just know that I LOVE the ZC WOE, however, I will not feel bad if I have a salad at one of my meals. It won't be very often, not even every week, but it will be a little treat for me. Some smashed cauliflower with butter, bacon, fried onions, and garlic should not make me hate myself for cheating, it should be thought of as a small treat to be enjoyed only once every few months or so.

Anyway, that's kind of what is ruminating in my head. What do you guys think? I know I am kind of new to ZC and may be saying something heretical here, but that's why I posted it - to get your opinion.

Maybe this is a case of trying to have my steak and eat it too.

Hey do what works for you. I cannot take that kind of chance with my life. One bite could send me back to the world of bulimia. I have seen too many people eat off plan and never get back on plan. I do not look 20 years ahead. I just think what I am going to eat for my next meal.

I think you can call a cheat a treat only if you don't get sick after you eat it. In my case, it will be a cheat.

i have the same problem.. if i stray from my WOE, it gives me intestinal distress.. very painful gas, cramps, nausea, diarrhea, things like that.
before i committed to this, i was eating fish taco's and drinking beer, once a month.. it didn't bother me, but it slowed my progress.
who knows, maybe when i'm skinny like suzanne, i'll be able to eat a fish taco and drink a cold Miller Lite and it not hurt me..
but for today, i am meat and water. and coffee.. and heavy whipping cream.
jeff, my fish taco's were treats.. my passion, if you will... i just decided to go clean for awhile after all, i have to set an example for everyone attempting this.
do what you have to do, only you answers to you...

Here is a post I made in another thread...

--

One must be cautious with zero carbs. If you do not intend on doing this for the rest of your life, you will just have aggravated your issues when you start eating carbs again.

While you are on a ZC diet, your body starts producing less of the enzymes that are necessary to digest carbs. Your whole metabolism shifts to a new fuel model. It feels good at first on ZC, but after a couple weeks you will feel like crap. This is normal and if your persevere, you will come out of this better than you ever were. BUT from this point, eating carbs again would be extremely fattening!

So my point is that ZC is not a tool, it's a way of life.

--

Do you ZCers agree with this?

Patrick

Hmm, some good feedback. I think you are probably all correct. I know that many things cause cravings in me, and I sure don't want to push anyone to sampling or eating things that will cause them to have them. I didn't know that people got sick from veggies while being on ZC. That's interesting. If that's the case, I can see why it wouldn't be a treat at all.

I guess it all started from the funny idea that I used to consider things like pasta, bread, and potatoes as cheats, and now I consider things like a salad, zucchini, and pickles as cheats.

Anyway, I guess the bottom line is to do what works best for you. I know ZC is working for me and I plan on keeping going this way. I am very much against cheating for the most part, especially with the amount of weight I have left to lose, so I guess the whole point is moot.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, that's why I posted what I did to see what everyone elses thoughts were.

i wrote in my "success" story about how i ended up in the ER because i was eating mass quantities of salad material.. i was trying to cut my food bill down.. and i ended up with diverticulitis.. that was ohhhh so painful..
i thought it was gall stones at first.. then an appendix attack.. little did i know that all that fiber got stuck in my intestines and brought me to my knees...

i learned my lesson then.. and it was a very expensive lesson as i have no medical insurance.