Ellis tries again!

[Ellis]

Soprano, thank you!

Amy, Thanks. It does feel like this is my new way of eating. I think I've build a great foundation over the years with mods, but even though they didn't work out it did give me a good no-S training haha.

So yesterday was a pretty excessive S-day and I felt so full that I didn't have any desire to snack or have some sweets today. I wasn't planning to go for one S-day, but I think feeling this way after an S-day is a good opportunity to try it out.

[Amy3010]

An accidental green day on an S-day - this is the kind of progress that is easy to ignore, but in my opinion, this shows the habits are starting to be really ingrained. Nothing wrong with that!

[Ellis]

Well, it's not going great. I am going to te gym for 2 months now, and nothing changed, at first I thought my jeans fitted better, but it's not, I didn't lose any cm's. My weight is heavier than ever, and I am just at a loss. I changed no-S again from 2 S-days to 1 and I am still not losing weight. I am at a loss. It feels like I wasted all that time... and I feel so depressed about it. I just don't know what to do. Counting calories makes me so miserable and obsessive, I will go straight back to binging. I just want to see some progress, even if it's just a tiny bit. But there is none, my weight is going up. I feel like I will be this weight (which is way too high for my frame) forever and will be miserable forever.
Any suggestions? I can use all the tips I can get!

[Amy3010]

Hi Ellis - I hear your frustration and I understand feeling down and depressed about having tried everything and nothing seems to work.

When I am in this place, I ask myself what the alternatives are. Just give up trying and eat whatever I want? Further restrictions? Continue on this path of moderation? It's natural to feel like giving up when nothing seems to work, or to want to massively restrict (only to know it will make me crash and end up bingeing). But then I remind myself that I won't be happy with these alternatives, either.

When you are so close to your goal weight (I am in the same boat as you are) it can be incredibly frustrating. But you just have to keep thinking about how good it is that you are so close, and also that with your current habits, you are staying relatively stable. Then you might look at what little tweaks you can make to gently nudge yourself in the right direction. That could be what type of foods you put on your plates, the amounts, or other little things. I know you have the added worry of your blood sugars, but these can really be small things. For example, can you fill half your plate with salad and veg, and eliminate something higher in calories?

Think of it this way: your current eating habits support your current weight. You are very close to your goal weight, so you should not have to take massive action: your habits have gotten you this far, and now you just need to continue to adjust them to get to your goal and maintain there. I see it as a constant work in progress. I know it's frustrating but hang in there!

[Ellis]

Amy, thank you so much for your reply—it’s incredibly helpful. I honestly don’t have a better alternative at the moment. Yesterday, though, my blood sugars were all over the place during my S-day, and it made me question this way of eating again. It feels so doable and sustainable, yet my blood sugars just aren’t manageable on S-days.

I’ve been thinking about why I can’t seem to keep the S-days less "wild", and I realized it’s because my N-days are quite low in calories. That makes my weekly S-day trigger an “all-or-nothing” mindset. I wish I could be comfortable with the moderation that comes from setting a carb limit. The challenge is, to make it work, I’d need to allow sweets every day—otherwise I end up feeling deprived. But that could be bad for my LDL cholesterol, which is already too high. I’ll be retested in January, and if it’s still high, I may consider statins… though I’m worried about potential side effects.

Right now, it feels like I’m constantly torn between keeping carbs strict to control my blood sugars and avoiding deprivation to prevent cravings and bingeing. I just can’t seem to find an approach that works for both.

[Ellis]

Well, I’ve followed No-S successfully for almost 47 days, and if it weren’t for my type 1 diabetes I would have kept going. Unfortunately, the S-days still trigger an all-or-nothing response in me, which makes me eat too much in one go. It’s incredibly difficult to keep my blood sugars under control when that happens, and I end up correcting until deep into the night.

I know the alternative is really challenging — a carb limit — but I’m going to give it my best shot. I’m going to try it for 30 days to see how I feel. It will be an extra mental load since I’ll also need to watch my saturated fat intake. But I hope it goes well. Basically, it’s like a No-S structure with three meals a day, only I’ll see if I can include something sweet with it. I really hope it doesn’t trigger a binge. I’m on day 2 now, and my blood sugars are already much more stable.