The Twelve Days Of Low-Carb Christmas Part II: The Aftermath

The Experiment: Twelve Days Of Low-Carb Christmas

OK, here we go. In the last article I wrote entitled “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” I detailed my plan to avoid gaining those dreaded “10 holiday pounds” that everyone gains. Well, needless to say, IT DIDN’T WORK! You know when those low carb “gurus” warned us about the one bite being the “kiss of death” on this way of life? Well, they were right! It is so hard to control the cravings and binge eating that the “one bite” produces.

So, here I sit at my computer five pounds heavier then I was prior to Thanksgiving. And to be honest, it was really eight to ten pounds heavier, but I’ve already lost some of the holiday weight. And all this in the same week that I’m being featured in the “First For Woman” magazine for the wonderful weight loss! Well, jeez, couldn’t they have run the article in early NOVEMBER before the weight gain?!?

Avoiding Bingeing and Over-Carbing During the Holidays

What I learned this holiday season is that for me one bite leads to bingeing and over-carbing. So, even though I felt like I was low-carbing on those days that I didn’t cheat, the over-consumption of carbs from my planned cheats prevailed. The repercussions of the “bites” were too much to overcome in such a short time. One pound of weight gain became two, two becomes three, etc.

The Low-Carb Holiday Plan that Worked – and What Didn’t

In “The Twelve Days of Christmas” article I wrote in November, I listed all the wonderful holiday food customs that surround us here in South Texas. These types of foods exude high carbohydrate counts just by inhaling! Tamales, menudo, and bunuelos…. Just being within a mile of them knocks you out of ketosis, and we had them all! I knew the verdict was going to be bad, even before I put on my nice size 12 jeans and they were… uh… SNUG! Then I went for my loose comfortable size 14’s only to find they were… uh…. SNUG! Amazing what a few pounds can do, huh? New Year’s Eve was my last day of indiscretion. I decided that the first thing Monday morning, New Year’s Day, I was going back to strict induction. So here’s my “NEW PLAN”!

• Aim for “ten carb days,” and hope to average 15-20 carbohydrates a day.
• Drink nothing but water, allowing myself one cup of coffee or one diet drink a day.
• Not get near a scale until at least day four of re-induction.
• Begin to exercise. (Whatever amount would be better then what I was currently doing.)
• QUIT THE “BITES” of things that set off the cravings. NO NIBBLES!!!

So far this plan has worked pretty well. I weighed in on Thursday, four days after beginning re-induction. I was eight pounds heavier then I was pre-Thanksgiving, but it would probably have been several pounds more than that had I weighed in on Monday! As of this morning, I have lost three of the eight pounds, am back in ketosis, have curbed the cravings, and am BACK ON TRACK!

I intend to follow this new plan for at least fourteen days. After the fourteen days of strict re-induction, I should have lost the bulk of the holiday weight. And I’ll tell you, I’ve learned that after three years of following a low carb way of life, no one is immune to weight gain. I will have to be careful what I eat and always monitor my indulgences. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still have “blow-it” meals, I’ll still do birthday cake, and holiday eating. But I won’t fool myself into thinking that I can do a low carbohydrate program on an intermittent schedule. It just doesn’t work.

Maybe I’ll have more control when I reach my goal weight, but, of course, that’s now five pounds further away than before the holidays.

Denise is a 38-year-old educator from Texas, she and her husband have been living the low carb way of life for 3 years.

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