For ONCE I just went with my eyes and my appetite instead of eating "sensible amounts"
...I'm afraid I was gluttonous and I'm worried. I am not on induction (so the cheese is fine). I've been lowcarbing for years now and have always held to "very reasonable and sensible" portions...I'm not a big person...but I just couldn't get full...and I ATE big time.

Starting last night

dinner out:
1 filet mignon, 6 pats butter on it, 2 cups salad with tons of olive oil poured on.

this morning, about 3 eggs with 3 egg yolks with 2 oz of low salt high fat/aged cheese and so much unsalted butter I'm way too embarassed to say how much.

Lunch - 1 chicken breast (plain)
, 1 cup broccoli, 4 oz no salt high fat/aged cheese, way way way too much unsalted butter (out of control I confess!!!).

Dinner - about 8 chicken wings fried in sesame oil/with skin and 2 turkey patties - 8 gms of fat each. Extra oil on the wings.

Is this alot of food or WHAT? I feel awful - I mean guilty - but clearly everything I ate was well within even the lowest carb menu. ...do I feel like I'm going to PAY for eating? Yes!! Will I? Probably NOT...

I don't think I'll ever shake the "eat until you are full" thing and "don't worry about the fat issue" 100% - EVEN THOUGH I spout those words to newbies daily (shame on me? what a hypocrite!).

No, not pmsing or stressing or angry etc. Everything is normal/not bulimic.

Should I just write today off as a fatfast/but I can't - too many cals!

I don't know how I feel right now about it. All I know is I my body said EAT and I did! Hoping for support and reassurance!

Nancy

Nancy, your body said eat and you did. Everyone's been there. PMS or no PMS... I remember non LC days like that. Stress, cravings, PMS.. who knows? Your body does. Better to listen and eat than to deprive yourself.

In the grand scheme of things what's a few days ? Don't sweat it, enjoy the fact that everything you ate was actually good for you

Nat

i totally agree with Nat

take it for what is was, have a good night's sleep and wake up tomorrow a new person.

please don't beat youself up over this. EVERYONE has been there, just like you have been there for everyone else.

be happy.
Brenda

I do the same thing too. I have out of control days. Yes, I could just say no, but I don't.

Now as Nat said, it could be as simple as your body telling you what to do. On the other hand, if you're addicted in any way to food, it's so easy to fall back into old behaviours and patterns.

Just keep an eye on yourself for warning signals. Have you been tired, angry, lonely or bored recently?

One day is not a lifetime and if LC is your WOL, it's your safety net.

I've been meaning to ask you Nancy, what do you mean by Ketogenic Atkins?

Karen

Nancy,
I agree with Karen to look at why it happened. Then don't betray yourself by being too critical! Be your own best friend. You'd forgive her if she did what you did, right? You deserve your own compassion and understanding. You have ours, too.

Let it go and put it behind you as a learning experience. In the words of Tracy Chapman (I'm a fan, too!) "We can resolve to start all over make a new beginning...."
Hang tough,

Wow, what great responses and so fast. I'm so glad I'm here.
Thanks everyone.

I don't claim to be perfect, no one is. My strictness and adherence to my diet is just as much a problem as some people's cheats...being this hard on myself makes me feel secure, but limited at the same time.

Okay, I probably consumed an entire stick of butter yesterday, at least 1000calories of fat alone and MUCH more protein than any human really needs - and I have not been out of CONTROL with food for two years.

...maybe it was going to happen sooner or later. I'm only human. Maybe I should allow myself one day a month/a week to do that???

For SURE it brought up all my OLD out of control FEELINGS of when I was eating nonfat carby foods in an out of control way??? And also exercising day and night and day and night to try to rectify that...oh now those days WERE torture!

Yes, you are both right. It was probably the anxiety that went along with flying on a plane. And my reaction to it all - past baggage from my problems with food before.

But that was yesterday. I woke up today with not much of an appetite but I'm conflicted as to what or how much to eat NOW.

Fat fast just to get back on track and into ketosis for sure?

All protein for a day?

My normal amounts (which is truly probably uneccesarily overly restrictive)?

Focus on proteins first or the fat? Or should I just refocus on normal portion sizes?

But other times I think "this is a high protein diet, NOT a high fat diet" - I've said that MYSELF so many times on this board.
...but when I focus high protein and not high fat I never seem to get full!?

SO Ketogenic Atkins

A KETOGENIC Atkins diet goes like this. Atkinsers focus on the protein...find/seek/eat the protein - don't worry about the fat content. But you will ONLY get that feeling of fullness sending the signal to the brain to stop eating after enough fat reaches the duodendum (a particular portion of the intestinal tract)...this takes about 10 - 20 minutes into any meal)...and until you get that fat into the intestine there, you WILL remain hungry. This happens for some people with less fat than others, and happens faster or slower for some people than others. Given THIS - it only makes sense to eat with the initial focus on FATs.
Ketogenic Atkinsers still eat low carb, but focus on getting the fats in first...Fat is what makes you feel full so approach food with the thought - where's the fat? And EFF/GFF
"Eat Fats First to Get Full Fast" approach -
made that up. A ketogenic diet focuses on consuming 75% of calories or more from fats. It is a diet intended to control seizures in children/and is also written about by Barry Groves in the UK version of Eat Fat Get thin book.

Still have not eaten today. Not hungry yet. No big surprize. All comments welcomed. I know this was long.

Hi Nancy -

Whenever you sense yourself about to go on a major Anti-Nancy campaign after doing something "stupid".... and then find yourself spending hours planning how to *fix* the stupid thing you did...

...stop and think to yourself just this one thought: "Forget the experience, remember only the lesson".

This will serve to simplify your issue and strip away the guilt and embarassment.

If you binged because you believe you are being overly strict with yourself and thereby creating a timebomb, then perhaps you should start to reward yourself on a regular basis. If some part of you believes you not being recognized for your good efforts, then learn to give yourself the strokes you need - food wise or other wise.

If you binged because you were doing the tempertantrum or the comfort thing (i.e. emotional eating) then what were the signs that it was coming on? Is there another fix in your life that needs to be made and you're not doing it?

It's fine to analyse. But only if you're analysing the right things. And you can't analyse from your emotional *box* - you have to be in your business *box* to analyse objectively.

It happened because I had to fly on a plane most likely and I had some anxiety going on...I suppose that would be comfort eating. But a few have said that since all the foods were low carb legal shmeegal, I should have no worries anyway. And this morning they are right. Also correct in "the body knows and regulates hunger automatically if you listen to it" have read this before on other boards. And, right again, no hunger this morning, won't eat til hungry anyway - my usual method of operation.

I had a need to feed, I fed, it's done and I'm no worse the wear for it. I won't punish myself but rather, like you say learn from the experience and even further - allow for it once in a while - afterall, I'm only HUMAN. thanks.

Nancy

I just wanted to congratulate you on flying. I've flown twice with my son since the 11th, and I'm glad I did it. We can't let fear control us!

--Kirkwood

Just focus on normal portion sizes. I think we have a tendency to over compensate when we think we've done something out of control. We become stricter and start looking for the antidote, when the best thing for our well being is just going back to normal. Normal is what we strive for.

Thanks for explaining Ketogenic Atkins!

Karen

I read this last night, and had to think about it a bit before replying, and now today there are even more terrific responses!

On consuming fats .... I routinely eat well over 1,000 calories of fat DAILY ... 125 to 135 grams. Fats from all different sources, animal and vegetable.

But, it wasn't always so ... for the first 6 months of LC'ing ... I was careful to measure my carb foods, and made sure to get adequate protein at every meal -- didn't pay much attention to fats ... Then I stalled out over the winter, and in frustration ... I kept "tweaking" the diet by cutting carbs back further to 10g per day ... with no success ..... then by cutting way back on the FAT. I only ate skinless chicken, I switched to egg substitutes, lowfat cheese, I ate salads dry, cooked everything in a non-stick pan ... etc, etc .... I tried the Stillman Lean Protein fasts with slight success.

And every now and then ... I BINGED on fat. I'd let thin slices of butter melt on my tongue, I'd pour extra oil on everything ... sip heavy cream from a shot-glass , spoon the pan drippings over my food .. etc, etc ... Probably had way over TWO thousand calories of fat each time. I never felt bad in the sense that I'd "blown the diet", since I didn't go overboard with CARBS ... but it did make me introspective -- and guilty -- on the emotional thing ... What was my body or psyche REALLY craving? When I wrote the Cravings article for the Low Carb Tips section ... I identified with many of the issues I wrote about, and did a lot of web-searching and reading on Emotional and Compulsive eating. However, there were still a lot of unanswered questions.

One day last spring, I was looking up some info. on essential fatty acids, to reply to a question here on the forum. I ended up re-reading Udo Erasmus' "Fats That Heal Fats That Kill" .. and it dawned on me that another reason for my fat-cravings may have been due to fatty acid deficiency. How many of us have spent years .... decades even ... obeying the lowFAT mythology. Yes, our bodies were storing fat ... but it was triglyceride fat, made from glucose and carbs, and NOT the essential fatty acids and unsaturates that our cells (especially brain cells) and hormones need for healthy function. Indeed, even in my highCARB days, when I binged on carbs ... I didn't care at all for pure carbs -- sugar, sweets and candy --- I went for the highFAT carbs -- plain chips, plain fried donuts, onion rings, etc ...

I'm not saying everyone should start eating vast amounts of fat. But maybe if you've still been heeding the "fat is bad" mythologies, and have been sub-consciously trying to do a "healthier" lowFAT version of a low-carb diet ... it might be worthwhile to think about adding more good-quality fats to your everyday menu. Think of it as a nutritional supplement ... choose x. virgin olive oil (or olives, or raw nuts & seeds) for the monounsaturates, flax and fish oils for the Omega3 & 6's, egg yolks for the lecithin, real dairy butter for the butyric acid, red meats with CLA's ... etc. One tablespoon of oil/butter/fat yields approx. 120 calories, and 14g fat.

My 2¢

Doreen

loved your response. you are truely brilliant. i am one of those thinking i need to eat way more portein than fat. i guess i'm scared (or conditioned to be scared) to overdo it. thank you for your insight!
Brenda

I'm so confused now. I know fats are good for me and I include healthy fats as you mentioned in my diet. They cut hunger fast and keep me full for a long time. I think eating a normal amount of fat with my meal is what is right for me...not overdoing it and not cutting it out or avoiding it in any way. Moderation is the hardest concept for me, but I'm working on it.

One thing is for sure, Nancy - you've come to the right place.

I haven't been on this board long, but I continually enjoy the intelligent, wise and well-thought advise and information here. If there are answers to the questions on low carbing, they will be here!

PS I notice your stats are indicated in an interesting way. How come?

Well, actually they are very truthful. I honestly don't know how much I weighed at the start/my guess 140 pounds - but it's not official. What I weigh now? Who knows - I never weigh myself - I go by clothing only...I used to be very exercise bulimic and fat phobic and spent years weighing and weighing myself and literally running myself into the ground/never sucessful. My goal? Not sure. Just being honest. Some days I feel like I'm "there", other days I feel like I'm right back where I started.

More accuately --- start size 10/12, now size 6/8, future size ?

Right, tell me I don't need to lose weight - many have - but I continue regardless...a bit in fear of returning to how I was and how I used to eat/exercise/not eat and hate myself. This place is better than any other I've been. No, maintainence is not a consideration/I like my diet as it is.

No sarcasm intended, just ED baggage.