Hi All,

I'm new to the forum and this is my first post, but I've been reading your postings for the past few weeks. I'm finally ready to try losing the extra pounds I picked up during my long hypo phase of healing myself from autoimmune thyroid disease this past year (I'm now in remission from that, which I did by eating really healthfully and making lifestyle changes.)

Thinking back over my dieting history, I think my most successful attempts have been the two previous times that I tried CAD, so I'm going to try again. My hope is to lose my extra weight and find a way to make it a livable long-term WOE for me. I definitely have at least a moderate form of carboyhydrate addiction. When I eat carbs frequently, I fight cravings and hunger all day long. And CAD totally takes care of that - it's my second day, and already I feel great with no hunger - yay!

However, both the other two times I tried CAD, it worked wonderfully for a while, and then I'd get to this point where I started feeling unsatisfied from the cm meals - I'd crave carbs and get a headache or worse if I resisted and kept to the plan. The second time I realized what was going on, and I was able to stay on the plan much longer by having occasional rm's that were really carb-heavy. I know that sounds really weird - doing better by eating unbalanced rm's! It may be because I don't think I do all that well on general low carb plans like Atkins or PP.

Anyway, sorry for rambling on in my first post. I look forward to joining you all. Any advice and encouragement would be very welcome!

Hi Pre3Teach!

Thanks for your reply. I will see how it goes and hopefully now that I have discovered this forum, I can get advice from others to help me through. Both the previous two times it didn't start being a problem until the two month point, so I have a ways to go to figure things out. And I totally agree with you about being able to join in with others and eat a normal meal and still be losing weight. It's awesome. The only trouble I have is with the timing when we go out to dinner or to friends as we tend to socialize over long dinners. But it's do-able and worth it! Also I love how eating the cm's keeps my hunger at bay. I love not being hungry all day long.

One way I have found to get some exercise in is to do my yoga first thing in the morning, before I eat breakfast or leave the house. Even if I only get in 10-15 minutes it makes me feel so much better that I am always motivated to do it. Also I can vary it - most of the time I do sun salutations, which are really energizing, but sometimes if I'm tired I do a more relaxing practice. Then the other thing that helps me when I am feeling tired and I know I should go for a walk is to promise myself that if I walk five or ten minutes and I am not in the mood, I can turn around and go home. That way I get myself out the door, and almost all the time it feels so good once I start that I am motivated to keep walking. That said, I am still sometimes lame about getting out there in the fresh air- even though it almost always feels great once I do it!

Welcome TwoCats!!!

Good luck!!!

Sometimes we stall at 2 months because we become a bit lax about what goes into our CMs. It might sound innocent but a diet soda, a few more veggies or a bit more salad dressing at CM can contain enough carbs (or act like carbs) to start the cravings up again. That's what causes our RMs to get out of control.

That's why a lot of us keep our CMs repititious and a bit dull. We think of them as fillers to get to RM and know that the simpler and cleaner we keep them, the better our results and the more our insulin is controlled.

Welcome TwoCats - having done this diet twice before, you'll probably be advising some of us soon, let alone the other way around. All the best to you!

thanks to both of you! I feel very welcome already. And Zuleikaa, you may be right about the cm's. I read your post about stalls and common pitfalls and there was so much good info there that was really helpful for me. I'm really excited to get back to the CAD way. So far so good today! I look forward to getting to know you both more.

Twocats: I have 5cats btw I like your idea with the walk! That is a very good idea. Things like that work well for me. I will have to try it! I really do like exercise...it beats me why I don't do it everyday!?!?!?! I feel like a slug at first and maybe that is what keeps me from doing it sometimes! If I give myself 5-10min.s I may just keep going...and if I don't I have aleast done something!!!!! THANKS

Hi Pre3Teach,

Yes - it totally works for me. It's like when I haven't exercised all day I feel so lethargic and icky from not exercising, and that feeling in itself sometimes stops me from getting out there and moving. And I do stick to my promise to myself. Usually my inertia totally disappears when I get out there, but once in a while I still feel tired after my warm up, and then I just turn right around and go home and don't feel guilty about it.

Five cats - wow! I have two Siamese brothers, and they are like our children. My husband and I totally dote on them. BTW, I am also a teacher, so we have lots in common! Though I'm guessing from your user name that you teach the little guys, while I teach high school students. Still, they have their Pre3 moments once in a while, LOL!

OK - take care

Hey 2cats..I too am re-trying CAD, and I am also hypothyroid. This IS the only diet that I've lost weight with in the last 2 years. I did it last August and I'd say quite easily, lost 10 libs in 2 months..the most I've ever lost in a significant short time! As I'm in my 2nd day for my re-start, I'm now remembering how IN CONTROL I feel on this diet, how grateful I am that I can have carbs 1x/day so I am able to wait out any cheats that tempt me. Plus....I figure if I was successful before, how crazy is it not to stick with something that works!!!

Good luck; hopefully we'll both have some good progress that we can report!!

Hi Way2Goal,

I know just how you feel. I remember reading once that most people who are successful losing weight do it after several previous, unsuccessful attempts, and the author of the book recommended that you take a look back over your diet history and figure out which was most successful for you. Then try that again, maybe with modifications or things you have learned from before. Well, CAD (or CALP or CAHHP - they all seem like variations of the same general plan) is definitely the most successful for me. The last time I tried it I didn't realize that I was probably a bit hyper (just beginning to get Graves' Disease then), so I dropped about ten pounds in just a couple weeks. In retrospect that was so fast I should have wondered, but of course I was just psyched to thin down, LOL! But a year or two before that I tried it and felt great for a long time and slowly slimmed down while maintaining my energy and good mood.

I'm impressed that you are able to lose while hypo! I could not stop gaining weight when my levels were low. Are you on medication? That should totally help with your energy and weight loss plan. I just decided to put weight loss on the back burner and focus on healing my immune system for the past year, but now I'm ready to give it a shot again.

Thanks for the support! I put my own advice into action this afternoon (to Pre3Teach), and talked myself into going out for a walk after school. It felt great and I ended up staying out even longer than I planned and working off some of the stress of the day. Yay! I'm feeling good - the honeymoon phase I know, but I'm enjoying the energy and lack of cravings that CAD brings. It's so nice to find out about this forum too! I love the support and all the great advice.

Take care and enjoy the process!

TwoCats (Gretchen)

Hi Gretchen....sounds like you have a plan. I too continued to gain weight until my levels of TSH settled around 1.0. I'm currently at 2.71, which is high for me; long story short, my endo left her practice, referred me to another (VERY BUSY)one who refuses to change my dose (even though I have FT4, TSH, etc #'s) until she sees me, and she can't see me until July/Aug! So, I decided to go find another endo (I live near Boston, so there are MANY good drs/hospitals here), and found one to see me April 20. I will insist again that I feel best at TSH around 1...so I'm assuming he'll dose me up a bit. I currently take 137ug of Levoxyl.

I've been maintaining this weight (from the 10 I lost in Aug) very effectively, while trying Atkins and PP...but CAD is where I always wind up again. Atleast I know what cheats etc I can get away with to maintain, but I REALLY need to lose 15-20 more, as I'm easily still 30lbs heavier than when I got married 10 yrs ago.

I'm only down maybe 0.5 lbs in 2 days (esp since I GORGED myself over Easter weekend)..but I'm feeling so in control and excited to see the scale hopefully move again.

I agree about the exercise; I am aiming for 20-30 min minimum 6x/week, even if that only means a walk. I'm glad summer is coming, as it's much easier to get out when it's nice out. It's KEY for us Hypos...who need to do everything possible to stoke the metabolic fire.

Well..it's nice to find someone working hard like me w/the same issues...let's get through this (and the dreaded 2month mark) together!!!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know...it is working! I am slowly going down since following the plan...very few mess ups! It feel great to be able to eat freely once a day...I am keeping calories low the other two meals...(usually I didn't worry about that at all I am just trying a different approach because of work) so far it is going great and I am satisfied!!! I am actually hungry for supper! (NOT CRAVING SUPPER!!!!!) YEAH
so nice to have the cravings and their power gone but I am not deprived of eating things I grew up with!!!!

so...twocats..how's it going for you? Hope you're down a little. I think I'm down maybe 1- 1.5 in the last 3 days.....I'm still a skeptic..so it'll have to be more than 5 for me to say it's working, especially since I've been gaining and losing the same 2-3lbs for the last 8 months!

Hang in there...let us know how you're doing!

Pre3..good job on going down! There's NOTHING more motiviational to me than a slight drop in weight....makes me want more, and makes me willing to work harder for it!! keep up the good work!

way2goal...It is hard not to be sceptical on this plan because of what we can eat...but it really works. My cravings are sooo much better. I think you are doing great. Hope it keeps up!!!!

Hi Way2Goal and Pre3Teach!

I've been so crazy with work that I didn't have time to check in the past two nights, but now it's Friday and I'm home at a decent hour. This week has been going pretty well for me. I got a little weak and hungry yesterday, and I thought about what I ate and realized that I had a yellow bell pepper with lunch. Ooops! It' so easy to convince myself that if I'm eating raw veggies, they must be low carb, but obviously that's not strictly true. So today I was very careful and just had very low-carb veggies with breakfast and lunch and I had no problems. Ah. Love the CAD way!

And I think I have dropped a pound or two recently. I'm just looking at my daily weights right now, but Sunday is the day that I do my weekly average, so I will know for sure by then. But Way2Goal, you are totally right, it is so encouraging to see the numbers drop.

My husband just left for France for more than two weeks! He is in the wine business, and it's time to check out the latest vintage offerings. Not only am I missing him already, but he's the cook around here, so I will have to fend for myself for a while. I'm good about making vegetables for dinner, but I am squeamish about preparing animal protein, and I do need to eat some to feel at my best. But I can do it! It's not that hard, right? And besides, there are many take-out options if I'm feeling really lazy on the way home from school.

OK - take care both of you, and have a great weekend!

--TwoCats (Gretchen)