Major Carb and Sweets Addict Coming Back to ZC - Need Support!

#1

Hi Everyone - Just wanted to check in and say hello. I was ZC for about 18 months or so and stopped about 10 months ago. I was going through a high stress time and turned to back to old comfort foods. My eating during this time wasn’t bad at all compared to the average America, but…

This experience made it more apparent (if it wasn’t already) that my body just cannot handle carbs! I am an addict through and through. I get cravings that I can’t handle and lose satiety signals.

So, I am back! The biggest motivator this time is that I have regained almost the entire 15 pounds that I had lost when I went ZC a couple of years ago. So I am back to the point where I need to lose weight or buy new clothes.

But another huge motivator is I am just so sick of these food cravings.

I am back now to having nothing in the house that is not on my WOE, which is the only way right now I will be able to stick to it. But I am still getting the cravings every evening. So far the best treatment I’ve found is BACON! So I am cooking up a pound at a time and keeping it in the fridge to munch on when I get cravings, or just feel hungry between meals.

I’m also doing a lot of water with electrolytes, and have started moderate resistance training again. Working out and hydrating seem to help with the cravings also.

I’ve dubbed my new program “Three months of bacon, water, and weights.” Of course, I intend to do this a lot longer than three months (and obviously I’m eating more than bacon), but I want to just commit to three months right now and see where that takes me.

I’m glad you are all here, and welcome any thoughts you have!

(Robin) #2

So glad you are here! You know what to do and sharing here will help with resolve and motivation. You are certainly not the first to lose your way and then return, all the wiser.
You got this

(Laurie) #3

I can certainly relate. Carb. Addict. Evening. Cravings. Gained it all back.

Great that you’ve made those good decisions for yourself. Welcome back!

#4

Thanks so much!

#5

Thanks!

#6

Sounds good. Experienced practitioner back from a learning experience. And you know the cravings are cravings, and that they will subside, then fade, then be forgotten as health-giving nutrition takes over.

#7

Welcome back. Bacon was also my go to for survival. I can credit bacon with truly helping me get thru transition and ‘stay on plan’ later down the road. I am 5 yrs in, heading into year 6 now and I still got some hard days but overall life is wonderful on plan so you hang in there!! wishing you the best!!

#8

The good thing is the craving are not all the time - just in the evenings. So I need to remind myself how short lived they are. But they are powerful!

#9

Thank you! I love your posts. And thanks for the vote of confidence re bacon! I suspect I will be cooking a lot of it.

#10

oven is a good way to do it, but I still prefer just pan fry. You could try oven and see if it suits you. I fry up so many, eat them while I fry the next batch LOL Bacon is inhaled quick around me HA

See I also forget the oven. I put something in there then walk away and later think…omg I got whatever in the oven…and go racing back and sometimes I make it, sometimes I don’t save it.

I remember I put like 20 big old chick wings in the oven and then down to the barn I went. like 5 hrs later up I came and they were incinerated right into the metal baking pan. Lucky I didn’t burn down the house truly on that one :slight_smile: Pan and all hit the garbage and worst on it all I was irked I had no wings to eat!

(Marianne) #11

I think many of us here consider ourselves bona fide carb and sweets addicts. I do for sure. Not a doubt in my mind. It’s only taken over 60 years to finally surrender to that. Now, I don’t entertain even one bite of the foods that used to trigger me. That’s all it would take to go off the rails.

[quote=“Sophie107, post:1, topic:117133”]
But I am still getting the cravings every evening. So far the best treatment I’ve found is BACON![/quote]

Cravings can be maddening, but the longer you eat zc/clean keto (one ingredient foods, even if you put them together), the sooner they will go away and pretty much stay away. Now, whenever I think of former binge foods, it’s just a passing thought. It doesn’t trigger any compulsion or craving to consume those things. And yes, I have found that bacon is a secret weapon. It’s so fatty, comforting and satisfying that it really does a lot to bring me back to a manageable state of mind. Make sure you are eating to satiety and don’t get caught in the calorie trap.

Sounds to me like you got this! :wink:

#12

But ovens usually have a timer… I really enjoy that function :wink:

I imagine pan frying a lot of bacon would take way too long and I definitely wouldn’t want to stay there all the time either.

I haven’t the vaguest idea, more like it doesn’t matter much to me, don’t think about it and it’s mixed anyway. I NEED my desserts but it’s fine. I like sweets but it’s fine without them (for a while. I don’t do sweetsless months :slight_smile: I probably could but why would I do that? except this winter to break my personal record on carnivore).
I just know I definitely am no sugar addict as cutting out sugar was super easy and never missed it since. And I can’t be a carb addict as my body prefers extreme-low carb and I don’t even have such cravings near carnivore.
But various textures, desserts and maybe even some sweets? They have some serious pull. Sweets have the tiniest, they are merely good for variety. But I am better and better with sweets-like desserts without much sweetness.

My main craving is for pork, that’s clear. And yes, the evenings (more like midnight for me) are the worst and I totally fail most of the time…

Bacon sounds a good ally for people who like it :slight_smile: My version is fried fatty pork, vaguely similar but not the same :wink: But I shouldn’t snack on it at midnight so I do my best to be very satiated in the evenings and at early night so I am safe. I can’t get tempted when I have perfect satiation in the end of a very meaty day :slight_smile: So I just need to eat properly during the day.
One of the best benefits of carnivore for me that I lose my desire towards most things (sometimes it’s true for carni food too, not ideal but it can’t keep me from eating a lot so fine if it doesn’t happen too often) :slight_smile: But I should keep myself satiated and somewhat satisfied or I WILL eat something I probably shouldn’t (or too much of some good food. or at least at the wrong time but if I eat too late, especially a bunch of fatty meat, that usually wastefully, unnecessarily and slightly uncomfortably too much food).

#13

I’m a keto/carnivore newbie but I swear without bacon I couldn’t do this. Bacon is my go to, with or without other meats/eggs, a plate of bacon and a large mug of coffee with cream is the greatest luxury I can think of. Whenever I find myself missing old foods, which doesn’t happen often coffee with cream and bacon are my go to comfort treats. Generally the body gets more hungry in the colder months so if the desire to snack between meals, that definitely happens to me sometimes, then a piece a gammon or bacon rashers are the perfect snack foods. Considering you’re not a newbie and have been down this road before I’m sure you’ve got it all in hand. But best if luck to you anyway.

(Megan) #14

How’s everything going @Sophie107?

#15

I can’t work mine LOL never learned or bothered with it…really shows I am a ‘don’t care type cook’ cause I am just that HAHA Yea!! I guess I could do that but if I put food in the oven I can’t hear the timer at the barns as I do work anyway. I am a techno Dinosaur for sure :wink:

Same as you! I get physical triggers point blank from the body as real deal carb sensitive person and then I combo that with ‘mental eating issues’ of once I eat that crap and the body says eat more, darn right I am gonna binge out totally on all the crap I want…I want it cause if I go off plan and the body craves, the mind says, well just today you got a chance to eat it all and I did, but ‘back on plan tomorrow’…and HOW MANY friggin’ times I done that in my days? Millions it seems now LOL So can relate. body and mind. 2 massive issues to deal with on a personal level for all of us as we change and what it takes to get results and hit goals and STAY there for sure :sunny:

Bacon ‘made me stay on plan and change’ and I totally agree that bacon was my savior point blank in my transition to find me on an eating plan I could handle. Now heading into year 6 I only eat bacon ‘when I need it’ and some days, omgosh I NEED it but not like old days so I still will always bow to the bacon!!

In fact my brand was on sale the other day I shopped and wiped out. ALL gone. But I searched!!! There were 3 packs of my on sale bacon covered up by other brands but I went thru that load of bacon and found 3 and I was like hot damn! Yes my carnivore eyes find the prize!!

#16

It’s not for hearing it, necessarily though that can be useful when one wants to resume baking right afterwards, I do that with my roasts, they need to be turned and they lose the water below too easily.
But it’s mostly for being able to forget about cooking or leaving the house for hours and nothing will become charcoal.

I am very prone to forgetting about cooking sometimes so it comes handy. But when I bake something quick, I probably wouldn’t remember even if I was in the kitchen the whole time and it would burn. Some items are sensitive like that (I still didn’t give up on my thin, crunchy carni biscuits). A big roast not so much.

Bacon never was important for me, I don’t really like it except the crunch and yeah, a good bacon has nice taste (and not every bacon is good bacon), I even like bacon flavor without actual bacon. But it’s way too salty. I can do better.

It’s other processed meats for me. Sausage, smoked pork hock cooked into a lovely tenderness… That’s good.

But if I have my dessert and non-meat needs so I am glad I can have all the eggs and dairy I want if it’s a real need :wink: As normally I try to keep my dairy eating in check. Usually not hard but my saviour in need, it’s actually very useful not to overdo it willy-nilly so when I have it, it’s even better.

I can relate. I can be quite stubborn too when I want something and my feelings regarding my food are strong. One should be somewhat flexible as things may run out truly but a little digging when one is determined? Totally me too.

#17

oh yea us type of shoppers :slight_smile: we rule and find what we want if we put in a tad of effort. So cool me and you are equal on this one!!! love it

#18

@Sophie107
you doing ok now? all working fine? just wondering if all good :slight_smile: