Hi everyone,
I'm new here. Have been low-carbing since 1st January this year but lapsed when on holday (walking holiday) for a week. My weight has stayed the same for the last month, so I looked for inspiration and found Rose Elliot's book, The vegetarian low-carb diet. This has saved my life. It is very practical. My only criticism is that she is too much into tofu but there's plenty of other excellent recipes in there and a good plan generally. The new me is counting carbs religiously and after 3 days my weight is going down once more. I don't care if my diet is boring now: I eat almost exactly the same things every day. It was going for nice tasty food that got me to my present weight. I like cooking but am quite happy having an easy life in the kitchen and I intend to cook for the week now and freeze stuff. I also eat lots of fresh uncooked things - salad, nuts etc.
Luckily I have some good vegetarian friends and a good vegetarian restaurant close to where I live. When we go out for a meal, all I have to do is opt out of the dessert. I think that holidays will probably be OK too, since we tend to hire a cottage and cook for ourselves when we go for a countryside break and when we go for a city holiday, there is usually less problem: I just look for the veggie restaurants. I think for the foreseeable future I will just have to avoid eating in friends' homes - I can always invite them out for a meal to a restaurant where I feel safe and know the menu. I am not sure what to do when I reach my goal weight: imagine it will be easier for me to avoid cakes altogether, perhaps allowing myself a cheat day. I hope my experiences are helpful to you too, FacingIt, I certainly have learned a lot from other people.