You're eating too many carbs for your own system, plain and simple.

Hi there! I'm going to try and add more to this discussion. Nice to meet you smc and shoelady. Lola, your input was great!

There's been some good advice here in this forum for this, read through the threads when you get a chance for more info.

LOSE the FAKE food, like anything that contains the word BAR. They are garbage and contain WAY more carbs than their labels let on. There was a thread a while back about this. Perhaps lisaf will recall where that was.

Also, make sure you are not eating ANY sugar. Make sure your peanut butter's ingredient label reads like this: peanuts. That's it, just peanuts, not sugar, no oil, no salt.

Salt will cause you to hold onto water and can--according to many lo-carb "doctors" cause weigth gain and fat storage. I have heard the Dr. Atkins goes into detail about this in his book, but I have not read it.

Cottage cheese MUST be whole fat and I wouldn't recommend eating it often. I, personally, have trouble with cottage cheese and it stalls me. Perhaps this is true for you, too.

Fruit AND cottage cheese AND bread at one meal is not lo-carb. Although you don't have as much weight to lose, it would be easier for you to start with the low end of the carb s[ectrum and add on rather than start at the high end and have to eliminate to see when you lose weight.

Remember, cottage cheese has carbs, even tho it's a protein. I would limit it to once a week or twice, or eliminate it and see what happens.

SP is a healing program, not weight loss-focused.

FAT FAT FAT FAT FAT! You must eat mostly fat, healthy fats that is. Fat is the important ingredient, then protein, then the non starchy veggies, and carbs are at the very bottom. Make sure you are getting plenty of fat from sources like olive oil, fish, nuts, butter and cream.

Always eat nuts with another protein. I know SP says we can eat raw cashews alone, but BELIEVE ME, this is not wise. It's important that you have nuts with some leftover chicken, or cheese or nitrate and sugar free cold cuts. Otherwise, the nuts will make you crave and possibly gain. They are carby.

I suggest that you make some sugar free whole cream ice cream and have a little with your dinner for dessert. You can add some berries for sweetness, but nothing else. You don't need sugar or articifial sweeteners, the berries will sweeten it, just don't add many. You can even make "bars" by pouring plain cream with berries into small size ziploc bags or paper cups and freezing overnight. It's fast if you don't have an ice cream maker. You can whip it first for liter fare.

Bottom line is too many carbs will make you crave and gain. Perhaps trying an Atkins style Induction would benefit you both. I understand there are no starchy carbs allowed for a couple of weeks. Maybe this will jumpstart you, then you can slowly add the starchy carbs and begin an SP style plan for maintenance.

Wishing you well!