Sadly, the first week on very low carbs IS HELL. Your body, and the entire sugar loving batch of gut bacteria, go through quite the upheaval. But you should have stayed with it, because that is the worst part. After a week, all the cravings and bacteria die off symptoms go away.
Here’s how to get through that first week.
1. Decide what your go to foods will be. Shop and prepare. Ideas: a big tub of cooked yummy treat meat such as bacon ready to warm and eat. A roasted chicken, cooked and sliced or shredded already. High quality sliced sandwich meats. Good quality cheese and shredded cheese and any soft dairy with protein that you love, like plain greek full fat yogurt, ricotta, etc. all these things should be available during any moments of hunger,cravings, or snack time. Combine them with each other, seasonings or fats (butters, creams, olive or coconut oil), and vegetables. Lettuce, cabbage, spinach for wraps, surfaces (like what bread is for), pickles to wrap sliced meats around.
Favorite meats to prepare for meals. Chicken wings, steaks, whatever you love.
For sweet cravings, have lots of cooked greens (spinach, collard, kale, whatever) cooked with salt and garlic and olive oil. This one food kills my sugar cravings and satisfies some other craving that will lead to changing your cravings. Cooked greens with garlic is powerfully satisfying in its own way and helps take away cravings for sugar.
Make nachos with no chips or beans (after a few weeks you might add some beans into your diet as some of your carbs but not week 1). Lots of jalapeños, melted cheeses, guacamole, sour cream, salsa. Eat in bowl with fork or spoon.
Absolutely no fruit, sweet veggies like carrots, breads, tortillas, desserts, or fake sugars. Just salty stuff. Let pickles and bell peppers be your crunch foods.
No dessert or fruit for 6 months. No sweet tasting drinks, no fake sugars or sugars of any kind at all. Water, unsweetened tea or coffee only. The gut bugs respond even to fake sugars to keep your cravings for sugar active. Get rid of that species.
After week one you will start thriving and your gut bugs will change their populations. The species you will now have will not crave sugary junk. They will crave resistant starches. You can feed them by putting potato starch or inulin powder into water and drinking it. Even a tsp a day is fine at first. You can add the powder to your full fat yogurt too.
This will get you through week 1. Slowly you can add the best resistant starches into your diet as your allotted carbs. Root vegetables with peels will be best to feed those bugs, even white potatoes, but in small quantities. The gut bugs are your digestion, immune system, health, and moods. We need these little guys.
Will you never eat chocolate again?? Nope. I snack on it every day all day. 92%. Anything over 90% is really just a superfood antioxidant. It’s not sweet and to me it’s the most delicious thing. But you have to be off sugar for a long time until you learn to adore it. I do. Anything sweeter than 90% tastes a bit gross to me now.
Good luck. You’ve got this. You will definitely see weight come off even if (women, damn it) it takes a few weeks til the body really gets it on this new way of eating. After 6 months you can add in fruit, 1 serving a day, and still keep losing, but not before then.
It’s all so silly. Just eat what you want and stop at 1,700 cal/day and walk a few miles a day to speed up weight loss. You can eat what you want just not as MUCH as you want. That is the rick.
Excellent post, Yaelle. Good job!
The only thing I might add is to be sure to get enough salt, magnesium and potassium.
Many people do not get enough because our soils are so depleted from factory farming. This will help with leg cramps and any other odd symptoms. Bone broth is wonderful. I try to have a cup a day.
Thanks for your kind and detailed answer. Still chicken to try, but easing into it sounds doable.