Shoelady,

The first thing that stands out is the low-carb bars - there is a lot of controversy over the carb labeling and many people find that they cannot eat the bars and lose weight. In addition, Schwarzbein really discourages artificial foods, and bars are about as artificial as you can get. Try to eat real foods for breakfast - leftover meat & veggies from dinner if you're short on time, or hard-boil some eggs ahead of time.

After that, your lunch is pretty carb-heavy with 2 slices of bread plus the pineapple, and short on veggies - try the turkey & cheese on salad.

Almonds, sunflower seeds & peanut butter can all add up. I have to be extremely careful with them (or I'm eating way too many), but you may not have the same issues. Just be sure you keep the quantities really small.

Last, but not least, you don't have a lot to lose, if I'm reading your numbers right, so it may go slower.

On the cravings, I think if you really concentrate on the good fats, veggies & protein and lose the bars & bread for a few days, they will go away.

Hang in there, and let us know how it goes.

Lila

Breakfast

Either fruit (blueberries or cantalope) with cottage cheese and low carb bread with all natural pb or omelet with cheese, asparagus, canadian back.

Snack

2 pieces of cheese or nothing

Lunch

Salad with scoop of chicken salad or leftover dinner from the night before i.e. meatballs over zucchini noodles and salad with blue cheese dressing

Snack: Cheese and pepperoni

Dinner

Meat, salad and veggies or last night I had tacos with only the meat, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream and salsa

Any tips or advice is very welcome as I keep gaining. Do you think I am eating too much cheese? I also drink about 64+ water a day.

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!

Hi,

I haven't decided on which low carb diet to use yet. But, through past dieting I've found that taking 400 mg of Magnesium a day really helps with the sugar craving. I don't know about the salt craving. Wish I did! Good luck.

I have also heard from many low carbers that too much cheese can cause a gain or a stall - this may be due to the high sodium content in cheese. Just a thought.
Susan

I find it is very helpful to keep reading the book. particularily the chapters on foods. The cottage cheese is a carb and protien as Betty mentioned as is the nuts. One thing my sister has started to do is roast her own turkey breast to use that for snacks and meals. I'm going to be doing that to. You can freeze left over meat and it can be handy to not buy the deli stuff which can be a danger zone.
I posted a link in the desert section for a custard recipe my sister gave me. It is really good if you substitute real heavy cream for the half and half, and don't use the artifical sweetner. Eat it with fresh berries and it is good.
Tanya

Duncan2002 and Shoelady,
Please see the post about weight gain. It might help explain some of what's happening to you.
Susan

Hi Shoelady,
I am new to this diet also. i have not gained any weight, but i did hear that until your body adjusts, you might actually gain a bit of weight. this may not be true in your case, but i thought any word of incouragement could help.

photofreak