205 – The First Things I Notice

I basically lost 10 lbs since I weighed myself on Dec 30. I wrote about losing 10 lbs in 2 days sometime back and afterward wondered if maybe I read my scale wrong.

Nope.

I don’t know if this holds true for other low carbers, but it seems to me that when you’ve trained your body to live low carb, then eat carbs, it just doesn’t know how to properly manage water weight – of course, that’s what the 10 lbs is – water.

For those of you new to low carb, carbohydrates cause your body to retain water – remove the carbs  and you shed it. This happens with most diets, but it’s more like 5 lbs – 10 lbs seems a lot, but it is the second time this has happened to me, so perhaps it’s not a fluke.

Some other things I’ve noticed:

• I need less sleep. I was used to getting up at 4am – I couldn’t seem to do it anymore – probably the last few months. I wouldn’t hear the alarm – kept thinking the darn thing was broke. It woke me up this morning though. I had found that a combination of low carb and the supplements COQ10, ALA and ALC seemed to allow me to live on 6-hours of sleep rather than 8. The supplements weren’t working – until now – back on low carb.
• My hunger is changing. In my experience, hunger on a low carb diet is a different experience than when eating carbs. It is subtle and hard to explain, but there’s less of a ‘crazed ravenousness’ – I call it ‘carb-crazed’. Have a bowl of high carb pasta and in an hour I’m inventorying the fridge and cupboard for anything edible. Hunger on low carb is still there – it’s just a milder manifestation.

I know both these things. I’ve written about them in this blog (one I never posted), but as someone once said:

Those who know but do not act, still do not know.

For those curious as to what I’m eating: I made the crock pot chicken listed here (forgot the chicken broth – came out fine), had some cream cheese with Splenda, american cheese with slices of store-cooked chicken, lettuce and mayo, my almond cookie balls with some zero calorie jelly, and some stray blueberries.

I watched my family eat cake, fried rice, and other goodies with some wistfulness but no feelings of deprivation.

They can do it – I can’t. It is what it is.