Emotional Help! - long - sorry!

[nturtle]

Ok Gang,

I've started and stopped so often I'm myself all the time with my weight. I KNOW what to do. I KNOW how to do it. I WANT to do it because I feel fabulous about myself when I'm working out, losing weight everyday and eating better. I've successfully lost 40lbs on this WOE and I felt like a new person. I got to buy the smaller clothes and go out feeling like the 'me' inside was starting to show on the outside.

So, here's the struggle. I wake up in the morning and I think, "Ok Nicole eat your two eggs and start your low carb day right" then by 11am I feel like I want to sit down and cry because its almost lunch time and I have to restrict myself from eating anything I want to just eating low carb. I spiral into this feeling of total deprivation. I almost feel like I'm being punished or in jail. Its the strangest feeling. I get so sad I seriously want to cry. I keep telling myself that I'm not being deprived, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm not "free" and I hate it! Its not that I have a craving for a certain food and get upset that I can't have THAT food. Its that I have to limit myself to one category of food (low carb)

Help me! Help me! Does anyone else battle this feeling? It just seems so ridiculous! But I know it is the thing standing in my way of any long term success.

[chinadoll]

You need to make the mental shift. Looking at low carb as a deprivation is a sure way to fail. You need to start telling yourself in your head (Literally telling yourself) I am not depriving myself of anything. I can choose to have it some other time but today I AM CHOOSING TO MAKE MY LIFE BETTER AND EAT HEALTHY. Unless you see this WOE as a positive thing there is no way you will stick to it. You are giving yourself permission by having a pity party every day because "poor me can't have this" ___.
Whereas an empowered positive you would be saying "By choosing low carb I can have cream and cheese and butter and I am eating healthy and will look the way I have always dream I would look." Unless you believe what you are doing is a PLUS in your life you will continue to cave. If you say it enough to make it one day, then the next day you will have that first success behind you and you will know a clean day is possible. No one can do this for you.If a twinkie is more important than your life, so be it. And the deprivation is only temporary. If you get through Induction you WILL start adding back some of the things you miss, albeit in small quantities and over a periiod of time so it is just a temporary foregoing of many of these foods.

[pinkfusion]

Nicole, look at it as you are FREE to not eat the things that will make you feel bad. It really isn't a restriction. You are freed from the compulsion to do it. When you decide you want to eat something (like that Atkins INDUCTION friendly Key Lime Crustless Pie that I want to try.... had to get that in there) I may do so, but I no longer have to.

Self discipline is really liberty the way I look at it.

[imagood1]

I eat more of a variety of things and better food since I started Atkins than I ever have in my life. I don't understand why you think Atkins is restrictive and you are upset about it.

Maybe only eating 2 eggs for breakfast is part of the problem....I have 1 egg with a piece of deli ham, 1 oz colored peppers, a green onion and 1/2 oz of cheese mixed into an egg every morning...I don't feel deprived and most mornings by noon I'm not really hungry but I know I need to eat a good meal.

At lunch I have a variety of food - anything from meat left over from last night, a salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, and some veggies. Nothing depriving here. I look forward to my meals....I have been on so many no flavor, can't eat a thing diets that Atkins is a breath of fresh air.

I hope you can come to terms with the problem you are having and find a way to push through.

[RitaCeleste]

****, I am down about 70 pounds over a two year period. I still want chocolate so I found a protein shake that eased my craving for milk and chocolate. That out of the way, it made it somewhat bearable. Sometimes I outright go out and eat whatever I want to cause its my life and my body and it'll just set me back some days and I can live with that! But I picked Atkins cause I really like hamburgers and broccoli and cheese, bacon and eggs, chunks of cheese here and there. So most of the time I am happy. At first it was harder and I cheated with a Chinese Buffet almost once a week, I'd bloat and hold water for 4 days. After awhile I got to hate being bloated for days more than I loved Chinese even. But hey, it took awhile. And thats okay. Its okay to have set backs. Its not really a race unless you want it to be. I've went off the diet to see how I could eat and maintain. Mostly I tried to watch my calories, slowly pounds creep back on because I over eat on higher carb diets. I find if stay under 100g of carbs a day, I can maintain without so many cravings. But I am poor so Atkins cost more and on my budget what I can afford is HAMBURGER. Lots of people living Atkins happy have money for some frankinfoods and lots of things and variety I can't afford. They get defensive, say I should spend more on food, say its not Atkins because I don't have enough variety etc. I am in ketosis, it is Atkins. It is meat and veggies. I can't believe I am suppose to give up Banquet Beef Pot Pies (which I can AFFORD) and be all happy about it too! Not to mention a thousand other things I am too cheap to actually buy even if I'm not on said diet. Mostly I have to eat Atkins because I am a carb junky given half a chance. Its okay to mess up once in awhile, its okay to take longer to loose the weight. But mostly you gotta stop thinking about those evil foods that got you needing to diet in the first place!!! I keep a pair of jeans one size too small, and when I feel like I gotta cave, I go force myself into them. If I can button them, I keep them on a little while. Helps to have GOALS, hehe!