Libby, when you say you found your trigger foods - at least some of them, did you mean there are foods you can't eat at all, or only foods you cant eat at your CMs, only at your reward meal? Can you give me an example?

Thanks
Rain

I'm obviously not Libby, but I thought I'd put my 2 cents in :-)

My worst trigger food seems to be pasta.

I can eat chocolate chip cookies after my reward meal and go to bed without a craving or wish for something else. If that meal includes pasta though.. sheesh.. I'm scavaging the kitchen in search of ANYTHING to satisfy my cravings.. and more often than not I gave into them. I rarely eat pasta now.. I only eat it in very small amounts and with lots of veggies on the side.

I substitue my pasta with cooked cabbage for spagetti or use spagetti squash instead.

Lisa

Hi,

Trigger foods are the foods that trigger your cravings. It's not that you can't have them, it's just that when you do... they create these uncontrollable cravings in you and cause you to fall off the diet.

Those are the foods you have to realise do this to you and you either have them in moderation at your reward meals, or eliminate them from your diet.

This is what being a carb addict is all about. Those darn foods that we're addicted to. It's like a drug for us. Those are the foods that we must try to stay away from. Just like a drug though, those are the ones we'll have the hardest time staying away from, and try the hardest to find a way that we can control the cravings somehow and still eat them.

Look at it this way: if you could control it, you wouldn't be on this diet to begin with. As I always say... if you keep doing what you've always done... you'll keep getting what you always got.

Food for thought...my 2 cents worth...

My number one worst, most horrid trigger food is pepperoni. I can eat a whole darn package of it like a starving wolf. I cannot eat just one or two. Never. It's awful. So I try to stay away from it completely. I was thinking that when I reach my goal weight that I would see if I can have it in moderation, but for now I am avoiding it like the plague

Sausage comes in second. I really have no idea what they put in some of it so for now I am just very careful of portion size. I try to keep it in my reward meals.

I was sort of stalled for about two weeks. I say "sort of" because I don't think it was a real stall, but I felt like it was. I re-read the CALP book where it talks about people who are particularly sensitive to carbs and some of the foods that are listed as Craving Reducing Foods possibly causing reduced weight loss. (CALP, page 121, bottom of page) I happen to eat ALL of the foods that were highlighted. UGH....... SO, I moved them all out of my Craving-Reducing-Meals and into my Reward Meals. These things weren't trigger foods for me, but moving them to RM seems to be helping.

Maybe I would have dropped the next couple of pounds anyway, but it happened right after moving those foods to my Reward Meals.

Seems to be working for now.......
Libby

My number one trigger food so far (Gosh, I hope there aren't others!) is potatoes . Every single kind of style, too! Mashed, chips and one of my favorites, french fried.

I would eat some potato chips with my RM and I would get the munchies an hour later. The same thing happened with fries.

Although I like potatoes, I have learned to substitute something for them. If I want chips, I have Doritos which are corn. If I want fries from the drive-thru, I get onion rings instead or rice if at a restaurant.

It's easy to give up trigger foods if you think about all the goodies you CAN have!

Have a great day!
Julie

Anyone else have triggers?

isnt it weird... these foods make me hungry. .... I have found it easy to identify because its not a normal hunger. Its a driven hunger. Im not sure I knew what real hunger was till I started CAD. I was always in that driven state, but controlling it with will power before.

eggs, cream, broccoli, cottage cheese, malt vinegar, porridge.

why it should be those, I have no idea ! only it goes a long way to explain why I felt so weak and dissatisfied with Atkins, I was eating egg, broccoli and cream every day

I seem to be able to handle it when its balanced in 1/3 at RM.
I would love to know why but I just have to accept it IS so.

I seem to recall that the Hellers said that broccoli was "iffy" for many, and that they could no longer recommend cottage cheese because of the additives that seem to be so prevelant these days. I think it was in the section where they talked about "carbohydrate act-alikes". I think that broccoli has an asterisk beside it in the list of CM foods, doesn't it?

And malt vinegar I think has naturally-occurring MSG in it.

Am at a complete loss to explain the rest.....eggs, cream and porridge....hmmmm.....maybe those hens, cows and porridge-pogs (or whatever produces porridge) have been out eating Chinese on their off time?

Good job at identifying these triggers so early in the game. You are obviously doing a great job of listening to your body!

thanks skyspinner ! its lovely to get a bit of praise... I feel good as if I got an A+ in school.
I was trying to listen on Atkins but just ended up taking no notice of myself Ive known for a long, long time, that broccoli makes me hungry... and a mock danish sends me nearly wild with hunger ! Ive been aware of that for 15 months LOL But although I was listening..... how can broccoli make you hungry ? Of all things, I was desperate to eat more broccoli . I thought it must just mean I was greedy and tried to ignore/fight it. Hard work.

Thats why I am so impossibly happy about CAD. All those things I knew at last having a reason that I could understand Im not greedy at all !! Im just reacting to broccoli ! hooray !

its been like a revelation and suddenly things are making sense. I cant tell you what a relief that is. I just could not understand why my Atkins didnt work. Last three weeks Ive felt wonderful.

PS. porridge - pogs sounds great. I can just see them.

Yeah, they're cute little things in the Spring, ain't they? Their fleece is all long and curly and gets sticky w/ the porridge and all......just makes ya wanna pick 'em up and cuddle them!!! ROFLOL