fumih it's good that you're eating foods from the economical rice stalls. That opens up a lot of variety and convenience for you when you eat out. I'm still paranoid about my carbs so the thought of hidden carbs puts me off. It can be very troublesome since I've taken to the habit of preparing meals and eating before I leave the house.

wow KFC cheese fries! It looks like you've attained carb-karma, can eat carbs and still maintain losing. I dare not leave this no-carb comfort zone yet. Congrats You have truly lost a lot of weight!

stormfall, no I get my splenda from all over the place too, mainly Aust and UK. And I get my granular hermesetas from the UK as well. I use liquid hermesetas (pure saccharin) too. It cannot be imported into Singapore, because of the strict labelling laws we have here. Equal is sold as an artificial sweetener because it is packaged as a health alternative. However splenda did not pass the labelling laws in Singapore because it's marketed purely as a "diet" low-calorie food, not a health food. But it doesn't explain how there are certain items here that are made with sucralose being sold (Eg Diet Swiss Miss, Baskin Robbins SF candies). I'm afraid I can't give you a more comprehensive answer, because this was the explanation given to me when I called the AVA up here. It is amazing how they have perfected giving the most cryptic answers possible, to an art.

As for aspartame, it is known to cause stalls in some people, so if you've started taking diet coke only since you returned to SG, then it could well be the culprit. I know that when I first started adding granular hermesetas to my food, it created such bad cravings in me that I ate a lot of it and it stalled me. So personally, too much of aspartame does stall me, but if taken moderately, it's ok. Do you drink much diet coke?

Alternatively, since you have friends visiting from the UK, you can get them to buy you Shapers fizzy drinks from Boots as well. It's made with sucralose and comes in Raspberry and Lemon/Lime. I keep an inventory of them, for times when I need a fizzy drink. I try to avoid diet coke as much as I can. But making cola chicken with diet coke is yummy. The UK has a far better spread of LC products. I like Carb Options Ketchup and BBQ sauce; they are very good!

Do you also watch out for hidden carbs? It's easier to LC eating angmoh cuisine, but back home our local fare's got hidden evils all over. Gravies have starches, and seasonings (eg oyster sauce, thick sweet soya sauce) can be really bad. Or maybe you've hit a plateau?

CNY's coming, how's everyone going to deal with the tempting foods???
List your 1) plan and 2) CNY weaknesses here!

Mine to start off:

1) plan: bring a bag of nuts or a pack of LC snack or chocolate with me to each visit! then suffer from sugar alcohols later...

2) weaknesses: Kueh lapis, Bakkwa, chocolate cream love letters, love letters.