I guess I couldn't post this yesterday. I got through Days 3-5 okay, but Day 6, it was as if my body was saying to me, "Okay... this has been a nice little departure... can we get back to normal now? Let's get serious... I WANT SOME BREAD."
Maybe I am a carb addict after all.
The worst times are from about two hours after breakfast until lunch, and about two hours after lunch until dinner. It comes up fast; one moment I'm fine, the next I have a thought of eating, and there it is. Previous to Day Six it was momentary and I could dispel it with a cup of tea or another spate of work. Yesterday it didn't go away, and it became a matter of toughing it out, focussing on work so as not to think about food, then eating the subsequent meal desperately.
I really hope this goes away. I don't want to get into that whole cycle of fear and desperation that I have before with other diets. I guess I have to nip it in the bud mentally with some effective self-talk, if it does.
I know something that will help: RESULTS. I have been feeling a little lighter on my feet... or at least I have been imagining I do. Not sure whether it's real, or wishful feeling. Today is the first weigh-in, so we'll see.
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Everybody's different, of course- but my experience is that the carb cravings come and go. Sometimes I think I'm gonna die if I can't have some rice with butter in the next five minutes, but if I ride it out, then I'm usually fine for a few days.
ReplyDeleteI've had mixed results with allowing myself the occasional "cheats". Sometimes that got me over the hump and I was able to go back to the program with renewed resolve, and sometimes it just made me want the treats more.
I don't generally advocate the "YOU MUST BE *PERFECT*" approach to dieting or anything else- perfection is the enemy of the good, and therein lies the looming threat of eating one cookie and then going "I'm a failure, what the hell, I might as well eat four boxes now." However, I do find in this particular context that the carbs (in my case, anyway) do seem to have a partial aspect of real physical "addiction" as opposed to psychological. I don't want to use "addiction" of any type as an EXCUSE to fail, but I do like to understand what's going on (or couch it in a framework that I can choose to manipulate). In this case, I can look at my craving and say, "My body wants some carbs" or "I want some carbs because I'm tired" or I want some carbs because I'm stressed out about this meeting with my boss." When I feel like I understand what's going on, I can face it better.
That was kind of a long way of saying that during periods when I have *TOTALLY* abstained from crap foods and refrained from cheating at all, my body did seem to sort of "detox" and to some degree "forget" how much it/I wanted those foods more and more with time. It usually takes me a week and a half to notice the first significant drop in the cravings (for the first week and a half of a diet, I feel like a starving tiger). Then it takes about a month before there's a second noticable change, and at that point I start going for days at a time without even thinking about bad foods. I also find that at that point, it's easier to have the occasional small "cheat" and not have it cause me to backslide. That's also the point where when I *do* cheat, I often find that the food doesn't seem to taste as good as I remembered that it did. Sometimes I finish my "cheat treat" and think, "Hmm, that was actually kind of unsatisfying. That wasn't really worth it." Then I can pretty much quit craving that particular sin altogether.
Hi SK, thanks for sharing your experiences and sensations.
ReplyDeleteI'm three weeks in now as I write, and the cravings haven't faded really much at all... they weren't *that* bad at first, mostly disappearing if I ignored them, and they're the same now. I'm hoping they'll go away totally. It's always for things like toast and bread, crunchy carby things.
I'd love to hit the point where I don't think about them for days at a time. I wonder if that's possible in a household where I have two ravenous teenage boys eating them around me constantly...? Did you have others around you eating forbidden foods?
Yes, to some degree. I have housemates- if they have bad foods lying around, I can usually say "That's so-and-so's candy," Intellectually, I know they won't mind if I take a piece, but I try to maintain the boundary of asking first. Often I'm observing this candy when they are not home and I can't ask for a piece. I won't say I never snitch- but when I do, sometimes it ignites a craving for more, and I end up driving to the store and buying my own bag to devour. :P I'm a binger, it's hard for me to have one piece, I want to gorf the whole bag. It generally works out better for me if I can just consider those items off limits, cuz they're not mine, and try to avoid looking at them or thinking about them. In the past I have occasionally asked people to put something out of my sight, but they sometimes found that an irritating habit of mine- so I just trained myself to try to ignore the items.
ReplyDeleteIt's worse at work, where sometimes things are set out in the break room specifically for all to share. That can be a real slippery slope.
A couple of times,I've had to physically leave the break room and find another lounge to eat my lunch in due to someone eating something that smelled REEEEEEEEEEEALLY good.
Addendum- I feel that it comes down to "know thyself." I try a lot of little psychological tricks on myself to see which ones work for me. I also have a decent idea of what trips my triggers, so I need to avoid those to what extent I can. I feel that this is why "one-size-fits-all" diet plans don't work for everyone. You have to map your own strengths and weaknesses, and plan for how to use that to reach your objective.
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