Cris, YMMV on the number of carbs you can tolerate at your LC meals (I may have mispoken when I said you "have" to keep it at 5 or below. I do know that is what "I" have to do). I don't think that is in the book. I know I've seen it "somewhere" on the net recently(more than once).
So, yes, you might want to give it a try. I found for myself that if I had a salad and green beans for lunch with my protein, that it was too many carbs and I gained weight that day. (That's the great thing about fitday.com. It helps you to keep track of everything, and you can pinpoint problems. This was a very subtle problem for me. If I had not been keeping track closely day-to-day....and knew that that (the combo of salad and beans) at lunch that day was the "only" difference, I would not have found that out. So, now that I've tried the "Mock Danish" and find it completely delish
; because it has 4-5 carbs in it (depending on which flavors you add) I'll only be having it with my RW until I get into maintenence.
And, as far as combining carbs from 2 LC meals into one; I wouldn't do that either. Again, the idea is to keep "your" body from releasing insuling during that LC meal.
Good luck and keep trying to see what works best for your body!
CALP does take a lot of fine-tuning. But, it is such a wonderful way to eat. It is more than worth it if you can find that happy medium.
And, one more hint about the cream in the coffee. On the MyCAFriends site, one of their recommendations is: You are allowed one cup of coffee with max. 2 ozs. cream (half
and half or milk) outside your RM once a day. Make sure to finish it
within 15 minutes. There are no time limits for black coffee.
Again, you are trying to stop insulin release; it's possible the cream may be effecting you.
Take care,