desperately seeking restart help
Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 11:23 am
Hi everybody, I am having a heck of a time restarting with some good dietary practices, and I believe I need some specific recommendations for transitioning from SAD to keto 12/3. I was doing great back in November and early December, and I don't recall any big transition issues, but since falling off (holidays), getting back to good habits with food has smacked me against the wall every time. I keep trying to get back on the horse, but getting bucked off by: nausea or hunger or light-headedness or dizziness or migraine--or some combination of all of those symptoms. I've cronometered my intake and my calories are high enough overall, actually too high if I were to want to lose weight, but I feel like I'm having to constantly stoke the fire to stave off the above symptoms, and I'm not successful unless I just throw in the towel and start the day with cheese toast and coffee with half and half and sugar and keep going like that all day! So it's an ugly circle. I can't quit the bad stuff because I can't quit the bad stuff. Recent attempts to get back on went like this:
After 12 or so hour fast:
Breakfast:
16oz smoothie with 1 tbsp hemp seeds, 10 macadamia nuts, cup or so of raw spinach, cup of wild blueberries, maybe half a tbsp of MCT (keep in mind that too many hemp seeds might cause nausea for me, and MCT is guessy as well)
Hungry within an hour of finishing. So then: 1/4 cup walnuts and a small square of 88% dark chocolate, and 1 small cup coffee with half and half. Holds me over for about 30 minutes.
Lunch:
Salad of romaine, arugula, cabbage, carrots, avocado, olives, pepitas, chicken with lemon squeeze and a tablespoon or so of evoo
Within an hour or two of the salad, I'm light-headed and back into the nuts and dark chocolate, looking for anything to stoke the fire. Ruined by 3 or 4 o'clock, willing to eat anything to try and stave off the symptoms.
On a different day, after 12 or so hour fast:
Breakfast:
Omelet with 2 pastured eggs and spinach cooked in ghee with a little swiss cheese (can't do eggs without cheese yet)
Pile of arugula with evoo drizzled over
1 small cup coffee with half and half
Within 30 minutes of eating the eggs--sometimes even WHILE I'm eating the eggs--stomach feels empty, head feels light. So . . . 1/4 cup walnuts with small square 88% dark chocolate--helps for about half an hour.
Lunch salad the same, but even earlier because I'm desperately stoking the fire. Sometimes having grass-fed ground beef with my salad gives me a little more time before I'm clawing through my drawer for food in the afternoon.
I usually fall off by late afternoon, overdone on nuts and vegetables, and hit the bagels or a cookie or a peanut butter cup . . . I can get back on for dinner, which is often chicken, wild salmon or gf beef with a veggie (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc.), salad greens, and a sweet potato, for example. Maybe a half glass of wine.
Yesterday morning I did the smoothie, and finished it as I was heading into a classroom for three hours where there are kids with nut allergies and a table full of crappy packaged snacks. Less than 15 minutes after arriving, I felt starving and light-headed. I went out to my car and ate a handful of walnuts and a tangerine, and that helped for another 15 minutes (while I hoped my walnut breath didn't ignite anyone's nut allergy!). Ultimately, I ate two small bags of Pirate's Booty, and still had a migraine the rest of the day (which could only be killed with Advil AND Tylenol--good grief). I ended up throwing in the towel completely and having a turkey/bacon sandwich and a cookie for lunch, and pasta for dinner--like I had to catch up on carbs or sugar or calories or something.
Sorry so long. Obviously, I need some help!
After 12 or so hour fast:
Breakfast:
16oz smoothie with 1 tbsp hemp seeds, 10 macadamia nuts, cup or so of raw spinach, cup of wild blueberries, maybe half a tbsp of MCT (keep in mind that too many hemp seeds might cause nausea for me, and MCT is guessy as well)
Hungry within an hour of finishing. So then: 1/4 cup walnuts and a small square of 88% dark chocolate, and 1 small cup coffee with half and half. Holds me over for about 30 minutes.
Lunch:
Salad of romaine, arugula, cabbage, carrots, avocado, olives, pepitas, chicken with lemon squeeze and a tablespoon or so of evoo
Within an hour or two of the salad, I'm light-headed and back into the nuts and dark chocolate, looking for anything to stoke the fire. Ruined by 3 or 4 o'clock, willing to eat anything to try and stave off the symptoms.
On a different day, after 12 or so hour fast:
Breakfast:
Omelet with 2 pastured eggs and spinach cooked in ghee with a little swiss cheese (can't do eggs without cheese yet)
Pile of arugula with evoo drizzled over
1 small cup coffee with half and half
Within 30 minutes of eating the eggs--sometimes even WHILE I'm eating the eggs--stomach feels empty, head feels light. So . . . 1/4 cup walnuts with small square 88% dark chocolate--helps for about half an hour.
Lunch salad the same, but even earlier because I'm desperately stoking the fire. Sometimes having grass-fed ground beef with my salad gives me a little more time before I'm clawing through my drawer for food in the afternoon.
I usually fall off by late afternoon, overdone on nuts and vegetables, and hit the bagels or a cookie or a peanut butter cup . . . I can get back on for dinner, which is often chicken, wild salmon or gf beef with a veggie (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc.), salad greens, and a sweet potato, for example. Maybe a half glass of wine.
Yesterday morning I did the smoothie, and finished it as I was heading into a classroom for three hours where there are kids with nut allergies and a table full of crappy packaged snacks. Less than 15 minutes after arriving, I felt starving and light-headed. I went out to my car and ate a handful of walnuts and a tangerine, and that helped for another 15 minutes (while I hoped my walnut breath didn't ignite anyone's nut allergy!). Ultimately, I ate two small bags of Pirate's Booty, and still had a migraine the rest of the day (which could only be killed with Advil AND Tylenol--good grief). I ended up throwing in the towel completely and having a turkey/bacon sandwich and a cookie for lunch, and pasta for dinner--like I had to catch up on carbs or sugar or calories or something.
Sorry so long. Obviously, I need some help!