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  #1   ^
Old Wed, Mar-23-11, 18:44
Patty47200 Patty47200 is offline
Shrinking Member
Posts: 471
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 242/236.8/160 Female 5' 8"
BF:ample
Progress: 6%
Location: Southern California
Unhappy I am so disappointed that I will have to spend the rest of my life on LC

Ok, this is a warning in advance that this is a whiney, pity party for me. I think I am wired differently than most people I have no will power, hate all exercise and love to eat. Let me start by saying I have lost the same 50 -75 pounds over and over and over again in my life. My most recent was in 2007 -2008 I lost over 75 pounds. I gained 10 pounds back and pretty much maintained it for two years. I kept trying to lose weight unsuccessfully, probably by eating too many calories, too many berries, cream, chocolate and nuts. I must admit by fall 2010 I was getting very tired of low carb. I was seriously missing eating the desserts, pasta, potatoes, bread, cereal, flavored yogurt etc. Well in November I had to put my 15 year old dog down and that hit me pretty hard, the next month in December my 3 year old dog who was like one of my children got sick suddenly, started having terrible sypmtoms, seizures and severe pain. and died and extremly painful death in mid January. I lost it, spent about a month eating everything I had been missing. Then I tried weight watchers and about 5 other diets. I failed miserably. Not only did I fail but I have gained another 25 pounds. I feel so out of control. Everyday I say " today will be the day I "Start" again". By 3:00 eveyday I had failed another day. I had no will power I cannot resist anything. I was buying candy when going to the store, eating french fries, bread, baking cookies. So today I started low carb again. I am so mad at myself that I cannot live in a controlled manner in the real world. Why can't I follow a healthy diet and have the occaisonal splurge like the other thin people around me. I am so depressed that I am back to meat, lettuce, low carb vegetables, eggs etc. Just feeling sorry for myself and needed to vent.
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  #2   ^
Old Wed, Mar-23-11, 19:02
LC_mermaid's Avatar
LC_mermaid LC_mermaid is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 3,737
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 374/297/168 Female 5ft 2in
BF:Um yes
Progress: 37%
Location: Eastern U.S.
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(((Patty))), I have been there right where you are, last week in fact. I just wanted to tell you that you are not the only one who feels this way. Hang in there and keep venting.
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  #3   ^
Old Tue, Mar-29-11, 07:11
Za'atar Za'atar is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 201
 
Plan: OWL
Stats: 280/249/175 Female 73.5 inches
BF:
Progress: 30%
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Hi Patty. It wasn't that whiney. I am sorry about your beloved dogs. I have two and yesterday one of mine swallowed a bone and now I am waiting for problems, so I know what you are saying.

All I can say is "don't compare yourself to other people." Most thin people are thin simply because they haven't gotten fat yet. The idea with low carb is that it is not meant to be a "diet," that is defined as something to lose weight, and that you can get off and on any time you want. It is meant to be a lifelong eating habit (aka a diet). Thin people have no more control than you or I.
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  #4   ^
Old Tue, Mar-29-11, 08:57
Patty47200 Patty47200 is offline
Shrinking Member
Posts: 471
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 242/236.8/160 Female 5' 8"
BF:ample
Progress: 6%
Location: Southern California
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I know it is not a diet. I know inwill have to eat this way the rest of my life. It means not getting to eat like everyone else. No pizza, no pasta, no chips, no rice at a Chinese resturaunt. It means not having cake at a birthday party, not being able to eat Christmas cookies brought over by friends etc etc, It means sitting at a table at a luncheon pretending to eat because there was not one thing on the plate that I was allowed to eat. It sucks, it really does. I live among a family that bakes,cooks wonderfully and most of them have nonweight problems , no self control. They can eat a cookie and it doesn't send them on a two day eating binge. So yes, I do feel like I am missing out.

I hope your dog recovers quickly
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  #5   ^
Old Tue, Mar-29-11, 10:06
Seejay's Avatar
Seejay Seejay is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 3,025
 
Plan: Optimal Diet
Stats: 00/00/00 Female 62 inches
BF:
Progress: 8%
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Hm, yes if you want something different, you can't eat what you used to eat, like you used to eat it. But if you are like me, you never did "eat like everyone else." I too have thin family members who eat all those things, but they never ate them in the amounts I did, because my body has no off switch when it comes to those things, and their bodies DO have an off switch.

I have two super thin sisters who are amazingly not judgemental.
One of them has never in her life eaten a whole sleeve of Girl Scout cookies. She always has one or two. She thinks we are nuts for even being able to. The other one eats whole boxes like me, but she has been a lifelong chronic cardio person to run off the sugar, well at least until her doctors told her she has now overdone it and her hips and knees are frail with poor cartilage.

After years of low carb, I can "eat like everyone else" when I can stick to the 3-bite rule for "pizza, pasta, chips, rice at a Chinese resturaunt" - but they honestly are not as good as they were when I first started to change my food.

Just wanted to validate your feelings of loss, I guess. But it's good riddance even if you don't feel like it right now.
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  #6   ^
Old Thu, Mar-31-11, 05:05
pinkmonkey pinkmonkey is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 101
 
Plan: Protein Power/Primal
Stats: 290/257/180 Female 66 inches
BF:
Progress: 30%
Location: New Milford, NJ
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Hi, Patty!
I understand completely what you are saying, because that was me when I started LC at the start of the year, too. I was out of control in epic proportions. Around the end of December, I sat down one evening with my boyfriend and ate an entire Sarah Lee frozen cheesecake by myself with a quart of egg nog. My boyfriend would never say anything negative to me about my eating, but when he saw all that I had eaten (after a huge dinner no less) he actually started to cry and told me he was worried I wouldn't be around for us to get married eventually.

So I started my LC journey. My boyfriend and I have a friend who lost a ton of weight last year on LC, and encouraged me to try. It was so hard at the start. You can find message board postings from me on this forum that say very much what you said...that I wanted to eat like "normal" people. But the truth is...and this is hard for all of us food lovers to handle..."normal" people don't eat like we do, and even those who seem to eat a ton and never gain an ounce are usually not *healthy!*

Of course, I didn't listen to any of that when I was starting out. I promised myself I'd give LC one year. Its just one year, right? If I really don't feel better after a year, then I have the rest of my life to eat junk if that's what I wanted. But something started to change. I cut out more LC junk...reduced my cheeses, bacon, and nuts. I started eating more natural foods. Suddenly, my daily focus was no longer on food, it was on being healthy. Carb binges now make me extremely sick, and the whole time I'm eating the carby stuff I'm realizing it doesn't really taste any better than meat and veggies. My appetite hasn't changed, but I no longer fret over what I can and can't eat. Two weeks ago, I made the leap to primal, eating only meat and green veg, as an experiment for a month. I can honestly say that I have never, ever felt better in my life. I no longer lay awake at night with panic attacks, thinking about taping a will to the fridge in case I died in my sleep. I think my biggest motivator when I'm craving, is thinking about my 5 year old son finding me dead in the morning from a heart attack with no one to care for him. It might sound morbid, but it is a distinct possibility with my weight where it is.

The bottom line is, we will all eventually have to lose this weight. It may not affect us directly today, but it will make tomorrow even harder. You can try the calorie restriction route, but that rarely works long-term for most people. The one thing I could suggest is to maybe get a copy of the Protein Power Lifeplan. The Eades do advocate a low carb lifestyle, but there is one plan in there (hedonistic I think) that still allows you to eat some carby things as long as it is under 40g per day, and no more than 10g per meal with an emphasis on protein.

Good luck, and don't give up. :hug:
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  #7   ^
Old Mon, Apr-04-11, 07:05
albiorix's Avatar
albiorix albiorix is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 365
 
Plan: atkins/i&NIPD
Stats: 157.0/139.6/119 Female 159cm
BF:32%+/31.5%/??
Progress: 46%
Location: UK
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I am sorry you are feeling so down about all of this.

Just to echo - we don't know how other people eat: some examples - my eating developed from one where I ate "normally" (not particularly healthily) and was slim, to someone who ate very abnormally - in my head I was eating the same - because I always ate "whatever I wanted", but what I wanted to eat changed to a cheesecake and a packet of cookies, 5 bars of chocolate and a loaf of bread and ..... in one sitting.
This was hormonal and emotionally driven. When a thin person says they eat whatever they want, I bet they want different food to me, and that sucks but hey ho. and actually much of the food that I ate like that I barely even tasted, it was as if I was in a trance stuffing it down quickly and feeling guilty afterwards, I didn't savour delicately cooked fine dining, I guzzled cheap carbs with transfats and salts, barely touching my tastebuds. So how much did I actually like it?

I have eating issues - so do other people, I lied about my food intake, and so do some thin people, not to be mean, but because they have their own issues, an old friend used to be very very thin, and eat "whatever she wanted", I used to marvel at her metabolism, she could barely keep weight on at all, and at one point completely stopped menstruating for 2 years. *light bulb* Because she had an eating disorder, she ate hearty meals in front of people and then threw them up, fanatically exercised and starved herself in private.

I'm not entirely sure what normal eating is, but I know it wasn't what I was doing, or what my friend was doing, and my eating feels more ordered now, I hope you are feeling better soon.
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  #8   ^
Old Tue, Apr-05-11, 07:47
miss_susan miss_susan is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 26
 
Plan: my own
Stats: 200/185/150 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: 30%
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Hi Patty,
You need to wrap your brain around this WOL. One thing I don't like about low carb is it's an all or nothing kind of thing. I didn't like that. About two weeks ago, I wanted brownies bad. I found some valentine's day brownies at big lots, a mix on sale for 69 cents. I made them, ate them, 1/2 the pan, and then threw the rest away and went back on my diet. I still am losing weight. I say if you're going to a party eat a small slice of cake and then the next day, eat low carb and healthy. Why suffer? If you want potato chips have a few. Or have some once a week and the rest of the week eat meat and veggies. Unless you plan on doing induction, do you have to extremely limit carbs? I have been losing weight just by watching my sugar intake and by not eating wheat. I think falling off the wagon doesn't have to mean you go on a week long carb binge, thinking oh well I failed so I am going to eat unlimited carbs. I think long term denial does cause binges and that's why once a week or once a month you need to eat one of those old faves.
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  #9   ^
Old Tue, Apr-05-11, 13:19
Sue333 Sue333 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 924
 
Plan: Paleo/Primal
Stats: 226/181.5/150 Female 5'7"
BF:Why yes it is!
Progress: 59%
Location: Saskatoon Saskatchewan
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I think the point Patty was trying to make is that she CAN'T just eat a small slice of the cake...she's going to eat the whole damn thing! (and so would I Patty...)

I'm just like you Patty. I'll be eating this way for the rest of my life because I can't just eat some of the brownies and throw the rest away. There is no off switch...once that sweet sugary goodness hits my mouth I will eat and eat and eat until there is nothing left...and hate myself for it.

I WILL NOT condemn myself for the fact that I cannot just take it or leave it. That's just part of who I am, just like having brown hair. I know how to control it though, and that's to just not eat any at all. It was VERY hard to accept this...I've been on this journey for over two years, and I would say only in the last month has the message really taken hold, and I'm OK with it.

Patty, you've got my sympathy and my support! You have to do what you have to do though...the carbs just aren't worth it (even if they taste good).
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  #10   ^
Old Fri, Apr-08-11, 16:02
chelles's Avatar
chelles chelles is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 387
 
Plan: Old School Atkins
Stats: 000/000/170 Female 67 inches
BF:
Progress: 0%
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I too am an abnormal binge eater.

It's taken a long time for me to admit that I have an eating disorder, and my family still doesn't understand at all.

I've found that the longer I am away from support like LC boards, the worse I get.

I'd love to be cured, but it's just not going to happen, and I've learned to accept it. Even if I don't like it.
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  #11   ^
Old Fri, Apr-22-11, 13:31
RolyLeo RolyLeo is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 134
 
Plan: carnivore w/ IF
Stats: 214/000/127 Female 5 feet
BF:plenty
Progress: 246%
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Patty47200
I know it is not a diet. I know inwill have to eat this way the rest of my life. It means not getting to eat like everyone else. No pizza, no pasta, no chips, no rice at a Chinese resturaunt. It means not having cake at a birthday party, not being able to eat Christmas cookies brought over by friends etc etc, It means sitting at a table at a luncheon pretending to eat because there was not one thing on the plate that I was allowed to eat. It sucks, it really does. I live among a family that bakes,cooks wonderfully and most of them have nonweight problems , no self control. They can eat a cookie and it doesn't send them on a two day eating binge. So yes, I do feel like I am missing out.


I feel all of this very strongly before I start low carbing and in those first couple of hard days, but once I'm into it I feel so much better physically and emotionally that the bad feelings recede a bit and are balanced by the good. It's so nice not to have that out of control feeling about food. If I had to have that for the rest of my life, that would be really terrible.

Plus, I plan on eating anything I want once I turn 80.
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  #12   ^
Old Fri, Apr-22-11, 15:40
Leizal's Avatar
Leizal Leizal is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 128
 
Plan: Atkins-ish
Stats: 232/207/166 Female 5 ft 6 inches
BF:52/48/30
Progress: 38%
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Your description of yourself as having no will power and hating exercise sounds exactly like me. I've spent a long time trying different diets, none to any avail, and low-carb is the latest attempt. I'm hoping very much that this one is the one that sticks!

I'm sorry that you've had such a hard time of it, and you have all the right in the world to vent. Good luck in your next attempt but if it makes you miserable, you need to find something in it that makes you happier! For example, the feeling of seeing pounds drop off, or the feeling of coming across a new, exciting LC recipe to try (the latter is always my favourite part of a new diet). I hope that you do well.
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  #13   ^
Old Mon, Apr-25-11, 10:35
WereBear's Avatar
WereBear WereBear is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 14,600
 
Plan: EpiPaleo/Primal/LowOx
Stats: 220/125/150 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 136%
Location: USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Seejay
After years of low carb, I can "eat like everyone else" when I can stick to the 3-bite rule for "pizza, pasta, chips, rice at a Chinese resturaunt" - but they honestly are not as good as they were when I first started to change my food.


This, a thousand times.

And it's never been more true than lately; because I've gone gluten free since last December. It started with me sitting at my desk eating a roast beef sandwich on a low carb wrap. I got so bloated I had to fasten my pants with a rubber band!

And now, I'm sitting at my desk eating a roast beef sandwich on a Rev Roll. And that is perfectly fine with me. Because I feel really good; joint wise, stomach wise, mood wise, when I stay gluten free. This means cheating on grains is no longer possible.

And that is perfectly fine with me. By recognizing that fact, and moving on, I'm not tempted any more. And isn't it the same for the carby junk we think is so appealing? The longer we stay away, the easier it is.

I'm so sorry that you had such losses in such succession. I, too, suffer from "stress eating." I had a terribly stressful winter before last that had me backslide into putting forty pounds back on.

The lesson I learned is that for YEARS it worked when my "indulgences" were small sized and surrounded by protein and fat. What triggered me out of control was a whole meal that was basically carbs. Once that started, I was out of control; it became one more meal and one more day and one more week.

And I didn't enjoy it; it was the addiction talking, plain and simple.
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  #14   ^
Old Wed, Jul-27-11, 20:40
kathleen24 kathleen24 is offline
Monday came.
Posts: 4,418
 
Plan: my own
Stats: 275/228.6/155 Female 5'4"
BF:ummm . . . ?
Progress: 39%
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This is an amazing forum. I've been around the site for years, but I am reading the posts on this forum like I can't get enough. Post after post I read and think that it could have been me writing.

I'm just pulling my head out of the food gutter after a year face down in the carbs. And jeez it's hard, and hard starting knowing that the loss of control can be so devastating and have such lasting repercussions.

I guess it comes down to this: really, what choice to we have? RolyLeo, you nailed it. Here's the choices: we control what we eat for the rest of our lives, or we eat without control for the rest of our lives. Damn. There is no Door #3 for some of us, and for most of us, that choice was made long before we knew a choice was being made.

But somehow, in a way, rock-solid knowing that is kind of peaceful.

Last edited by kathleen24 : Wed, Jul-27-11 at 20:56.
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  #15   ^
Old Wed, Jul-27-11, 20:43
Fialka Fialka is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,101
 
Plan: Less meat, more veg LC
Stats: 252/217/180 Female 5'10"
BF:
Progress: 49%
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Hugs. So sorry about your dogs.

Listen, I make a great LC cookie with almond flour. No need to feel deprived at all.

And the soy pasta from Netrition is a great pasta alternate (to be used sparingly).

Once you are at goal you will be able to 'visit' your fave foods. It's not all or nothing, it's just right now you need to avoid things.

Look for new recipes. Try new foods. LC food can be great but you have to put in the kitchen time.

F
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