Overwhelming need to STOP at week 2! Help!

#1

Help! I’m having urges to sabotage myself.
I just hit 2 weeks and I want CHOCOLATE and BREAD and I irrationally want to STOP keto!!! Aaaahhhhhhgg I’ve lost 10 lbs and 2 inches off my waist but I’m going crazy.
Anyone else hit this around this time???
Work does not help with all the junk around :sob::sob:

(Kosta Toyias) #2

Think about all the awesome things you can eat rather than the dreadful things you can’t. You’ve made huge gains in 2 weeks, shame to undo it all for the sake of a craving for food that, let’s face it… you know yourself is no good for you. KCKO!

#3

Got any strategies to take your mind off the urges? Strategies for when you are at home…at work…etc.

(Kali) #4

For me it was a few days in. For some, its the end of the first week.

Yeah, I’ve seen a pattern of people who get to somewhere around that point & suddenly really really just want to stop this & eat something non-keto Now.

I think its the body being resistant to change. Not wanting to make the switch over if there isn’t a good reason for it. Like, if you’re just not eating carbs cause you don’t wanna but there are plenty around that you’re going to start eating again any minute now so, it makes you crave them like crazy so you’ll just go eat some already.

If you refuse, the body gives up, accepts the new status quo & starts working on properly adapting to burning fat as fuel.

I can’t prove this, its just my guess based on my experience & observations of other people talking in various groups & forums about what they were experiencing.

(Ron) #5

I usually “trick myself” in past diets, “I’ll let myself have a little bit of whatever it is, as soon as I come back from an hour long walk” or “If I still want it on Friday, I’ll have some” then I either end up forgetting about it, or after the time goes by, I feel like it’s not worth it anymore.

On Keto, if I crave something sweet, I just eat some bacon :wink:

#6

I got over the chocolate cravings by making Carl’s Chocolate Mousse. It’s really quick and easy to make. I dish it up in portion sizes, so as not to over eat. Great way to scratch the chocolate itch without going off-Keto.

Bread is harder. Personally I haven’t been able to find a half-decent alternative, so I just made the decision to stop trying to replace it. Instead I grab a few nuts to nibble on whenever the (now very rare) urge to eat bread comes along.

Hang in there…it really does get easier.

(Larry Lustig) #7

You have a carbohydrate-loving monster living inside you. Until two weeks ago it was fat, happy, and sleeping. It’s begun to toss and turn a bit recently as the carbs that keep it happy have become scarce. Now, it’s fully awake and having a temper tantrum in your hippocampus. If you’re able to face it down it will eventually go away and bother someone else.

In the short term I’d try to drown that son of a bitch in fat. Carb monsters hate fat.

(Richard Morris) #8

LOL.

An urgent message that you NEED carbohydrates is probably a signal that you are running low on energy and your body has learned in the past that when it detected carbohydrates in your mouth it got a big rush of energy a little later on - so it is just saying “More energy things” and your brain is translating that as “Need a donut”.

Right now you probably aren’t great at moving fat into your cells for energy. That’s what this adaptation phase is … forcing your body to do that … and then you can get all the energy you want anytime you need it.

What I would do is specifically eat fats that are easy to get into your cells. Short and medium chained fatty acids. Such as the SCFA butyrate in butter, or the MCFA Lauric in coconut oil. Try getting a cup of warm broth or coffee or tea and whisking into it a tablespoon of butter. The Salt is always good during adaptation and the fat goes straight to the liver to be turned into ketones.

(Bart) #9

If it was not for Atkins Treats I probably would have stopped. I was seriously addicted to chocolate, ate a candy bar every day, I went Keto Andy had serious withdrawals. Then I found Atkins Bars and they saved me. I have since stopped eating them as I no longer have the desire for sweets like I once did, but they definately did the job at the time.

#10

I just got some choczero. It’s really good and only 1g of carbs per “square”.

You can put a small amount of natural peanut butter into some heavy cream and whip it into a peanut butter moose.

Have some bacon.

You got this.

(Paul Jaeger ) #11

Richard, I really appreciate this kind of insightful answer. Showing people the “WHY” of it is empowering. For those of us who used to obsess over where our next “treat” was coming from, it reminds us that hunger is hormonal and that when the system is working right, you are no longer getting unreasonable requests from your body to feed it even when it may be morbidly obese. Keto on!

(eat more) #12

i’ve noticed the only time i want things like bread, fries, etc is when i’m out and about and gone long past when my body needed outside fuel. (i’m not an intentional faster…yet)

for me i think part of that is laziness and instant gratification/relief …which wouldn’t even be instant because if i picked something up i’d still take it home lol

“ooh that amazing sandwich shop…(that i’ve only ever been to once in my existence)…is right there” and then i think “hey dodo…you have egg muffins already made at home…what’s faster than that? just wait”

the only time i crave chocolate is when i want to change the taste in my mouth…like after a savory meal.
pre keto i ate a square of dark chocolate with sea salt “here and there” all day/night long…hey it’s only one square not the whole bar…8x lol
couldn’t tell you how long it’s been since i’ve had any…and i have a stockpile of my once beloved dark chocolate with sea salt

the thing i think is so cool about keto is you can’t really excuse the science that’s going on…other WOE i would excuse going off “plan” because “it’s only one bite…big deal…”
now my brain goes “one bite could put you back to square one” so i just don’t…

i make sure i have plenty of keto food and “emergency” fats while at work…even if they don’t get eaten that day

keto on…you got this

(Tom) #13

When encountering behavioral change I prefer to “replace and overwhelm”, rather than delete, but sometimes I found I had to delete for my own sanity. I did that with the following process:

  1. sit down and close your eyes.
  2. imagine the food item you’re lusting over (In my instance, it was Coke. Vary the descriptors based on your own food).
  3. Picture the package, bright and shiny.
  4. Feel the smoothness of the can and the cold condensation making it slick.
  5. Hear the sssssssclick! and the fizzzzzzz as you open the can.
  6. Vivdly imagine lifting the can to your lips, smelling the hints of the sweet goodness delivered to your nose by the carbonation.
  7. look down at the opening of the can and realize that all of the hair from your showerdrain, slimy and covered in soap scum, is floating in the coke, just millimeters from your mouth.
  8. Open your eyes, get up and move.

Repeat as needed.

Edit: making the imaginary food vivid, bright, bigger than life, and engaging all of the senses is an important aspect of it. You could also sub the hair for toenails or a spider, whatever generates a visceral sense of revulsion in you.

eesh, just writing it out gives me the whimmies.

(charlson.melissa) #14

I’m going to try this!

(Roxanne) #15

I’ve given up trying to make keto bread, too. I’m fine without it, and figure that replacing it would just reinforce old habits. Instead I embrace the once-forbidden things that I can now eat without guilt, like butter and full fat cheese and sour cream and whipped cream, and chicken wings and bacon and crackling and pulled pork and chicken skin and eggs and mayonnaise and so much more!

(Nick) #16

If you want to eat chocolate and bread, try the following. Get a big bowl and fill it with FULL FAT Greek yoghurt. Throw in some FROZEN macadamia nuts, FROZEN pecan nuts, FROZEN raspberries and then take a square or two of FROZEN 85% or 90% chocolate and bash it into shrapnel. Add it to the mix. Sprinkle on a generous helping of cinnamon, a little cocoa powder and, if you need it, a bit of erythritol or other non-problematic sweetener of your choice. If you’re feeling really indulgent, mix in some of the custard I mention here Miraculous Microwave Custard.

Eat this glorious melange until you feel, as William from the Just William books put it, “pleasantly ill”. If some is left over, put it in the fridge for later. If you still feel like bread (you’ll have already had your chocolate!), eat a little more. And then, perhaps, have a nice cup of tea (I find redbush or similar goes well with this high-fat delight.

If you cannot shake off the desire to eat compressed grass after this luxurious bolus of fatty glory, I’ll be astonished :slight_smile:

#17

When I think I feel “hungry” I ask myself “would you like to eat a stick of butter?”

If the answer is “no”…i know the hunger will pass

if the answer is “yes”…I’m definitely hungry…and I eat (not butter, but bacon, steak, cheese…etc)

(Nick) #18

I do something similar: The Plain Boiled Egg test. If I feel I’ll be satisfied with a plain unsalted boiled egg, then I’m hungry. If I don’t, then it’s a passing whim, and it’s not real hunger. An almost foolproof tool!

#19

Thanks everyone for your all your help and guidance…I kept coming back to this thread whenever I wanted to sabotage myself, and it really does help me to understand how my body is adapting to this.
I’m going on week three without a cheating incident and I’m feeling great!!
In fact people at work are now asking me if I’m doing anything because my appearance is changing. :smiley:
I’m going to keep on, keeping on :wink:

(Will Madams) #20

FAT BOMB is the ANSWER!

over heat mix

  • 4 tbs of coconut oil
  • 4 tbs of almond butter
  • 3 tbs of butter
  • 3 heaped tbs of cocoa powder (unsweetened)
  • 3 packets of stevia

always fixes my cravings for chocolate i have one a day