Cheated on Day 7

[KatrinaR]

I am not over-weight but in the past couple of months gained about 7 pounds following a change in my cardio routine due to back pain; also might be hormonal (I am 52). With the help of SB, I lost 15 pounds in 2009 and kept it all off until recently. I started Phase 1 again last Monday with the goal of losing 5-7 pounds, and have stuck to all the guidelines. I remember being hungry last time but this time the hunger is driving me nuts and I cheated today with a handful of whole-grain triscuits and a few glasses of red wine. Of course now I'm disappointed in myself and will get back on track tomorrow morning. Contributing to my frustration is that last time I lost about 7 pounds the first week and when I weighed myself today I was down only 2 pounds (on day 7). It's true that I am not exercising as vigorously as I did the first time, but I still feel disappointed, especially because it's been difficult for me to stick to the diet this week. I definitely am eating enough but it just never seems like enough. Any advice?

[DCLissa17]

It has been noted by others in the past that "returnees" tend to lose less weight on P1 than in previous visits. And in general, it seems people lose 10-20% of the total weight that they want to lose. So if you only are trying to lose 7 pounds, a 2 pound loss is already way over that estimate! So yay!

For more specific advice about why you are so hungry this time around, post a couple of sample days. Everyone will happily pitch in with recommendations. In general...make sure you are drinking enough, make sure to eat lots of veggies, eat a snack or meal every 2-3 hours, and maximize the "good" carbs - dairy and beans.

[KatrinaR]

Thanks, DC Lissa. A typical daily menu for me would be.....

B: 2 hardboiled eggs, glass of V-8, coffee with 2 T ff cream
S: hb egg and glass of 1% milk
L: Big salad with lettuce, chickpeas, and assorted chopped vegetables like mushrooms, radishes,cabbage,celery, red pepper, plus a couple of ounces of salmon, ff feta cheese, dressing with 1 T olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Plus, 1/2 cup ff cottage cheese or 1/2 cup milk
S: almonds and piece of low fat cheese
D: piece of meat, fish, or chicken with 2 or 3 servings of vegetables cooked in 1 T olive oil, OR chili made with soy crumble and meat, beans, veggies
S: FF yogurt with ff ricotta flavored with extract and 1 T unsweetened peanut butter

In between meals when I get hungry I eat celery sticks, sometimes with a little homemade hummus that is light on tahini and oil OR glass of milk

What do you think? Thank you!

[Jaylah]

Katrina, I'm wondering if it's really "hunger" you are feeling, or craving for the stuff you aren't supposed to eat.

I know that during my Phase 1, it seemed like I was eating my head off, but I was still "hungry" even after eating a good meal consisting of a generous portion of fish or lean beef or chicken, and several cups of veggies, either cooked, in a salad or a combination of the two.

What I finally realized was that I wasn't actually hungry, but I was resenting the fact that I didn't have my big baked potato with butter to go along with my dinner. Or, before I started SB, I was used to making a bag of microwave popcorn in the evening. Which I couldn't do on Phase 1. And I missed it. It was "brain hunger" not "tummy hunger."

I firmly told myself that I would be able to eat popcorn again (in reasonable quantities) before too awfully long, and I just needed to "suck it up" and finish Phase 1. I can't say that ended my "brain hunger" right then and there, but it seemed a bit easier to deal with once I realized what was actually going on.

[DCLissa17]

Your menu looks great to me! One thing that I thought of...we are so used to overeating that our bodies often mistake thirst for hunger. If you are between meals or shortly following a meal you think you feel hungry, try to drink some water and see the feeling passes. I know that I have always been TERRIBLE about drinking enough fluids...and interestingly enough, I would ALWAYS feel hungry and be snacking. Now, I'm not saying that drinking more has been a cure-all by any means, as I have been drinking more along with going through P1 and all the other rules, but I don't feel always hungry like I did.

I am also a huge mindless snacker. Basically if I was reading or watching TV (which is a LOT of both, lol!) I nearly always had some kind of food at hand. It wasn't even necessarily a hungry thing, just a habit. Breaking that habit has been the hardest of everything. So now I keep a bottle of water on my side table to take a swig of instead of shoving handfuls of chips/crackers in my mouth. I try to bring my snacks over and a great "snacking" item is a big bowl of raw veggies +/- hummus or FF refried beans to dip in. I can graze on that.

[Kimboroni]

Excellent point that it could be thirst.

It does look like a really good menu to me, other than not being sure how much "2 or 3 servings of vegetables" is. It should be at least 2 cups-- you can always have more than that, as long as it's not crowding out other foods like protein. And I'm assuming that when you say "cooked in 1 Tbsp oil," that's how much oil you're getting in the one meal, rather than cooking multiple servings at once so you only get a portion of that.

[KatrinaR]

Thanks for all the thoughtful ideas. My weight today, on day 9, shows a total weight loss of 1.5 pounds (now I'm gaining?), having followed the guidelines perfectly except for the one day of "cheating" when I had some crackers and wine. It's discouraging to see the scale stuck when I feel hungry day after day. I'll stay on phase one for another 5 days and see what happens. Thanks again.

[Kimboroni]

Hungry day after day? Yeah, that's not good. The whole purpose of p1 is to rid yourself of cravings, not weight loss, so it may not be doing its job.

Maybe there's added sugar sneaking into something that's causing cravings? Or you're accidentally eating a high GI starchy veggie like it's a p1 veggie? Or overdoing the beans/legumes?

[Calpoppers]

mmmmmmmmmMMMMMmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm......

Such a juvinile salad but I one have grown to love in my first couple days in P1.....

Shredded broccoli and cabbage and YES carrots, but let's be honest it's like two shreds every cup (it's the shredded mix for cole slaw in the cold section in the produce area in Kroger Speciality stores.... not the Dole or what not, but the Kroger kind)

Cucumber slices

Hard boiled egg

String cheese, yes, string cheese, because I am 12 at heart... and I tore it all up and threw it in.... yum, yum!

EVOO and lime juice

[Magna]

The word from the official site on carrots is that there's no need to try to pick them out of salad mixes, etc. So I wouldn't worry about it. String cheese is fine as long as it has no more than 6g of fat per 1-ounce serving, and all string cheeses I've seen are fine.

[niccirex2012]

Calpoppers, that sounds like a great salad. What is EVOO?