i hear you amylou!! we had a baby shower last Sunday than Easter...ugh!!!

but i perservered!! no carbs, no desserts !!

look it this way, the warm weather is coming and i want to look good in my shorts and dresses!!

keep your eye on the prize!!! oh and when temptation hits - drink a big glass of water!!!

I get it Amy! And so does my DD. She has been eating keto for a little over a year now and has gone from a size 12 to a size 8. She still is large in the chest and always will be unless she has a breast reduction. But she has the will power a lot of people don’t. She does, however, go off keto for a short while sometimes, like during Christmas. She said she wasn’t going to deny herself a few carbs in celebration. And she will do it again on vacation, knowing she will go back to the discipline after returning home.

I find most people who provide food like you describe have no idea there is such a thing as gluten-free, carb free, or even vegan diets to be dealt with. Only occasionally do you find a big dish enough to be a main dish that will satisfy one of those requirements. While I don’t eat as strictly as my DD does, I find I just take a smaller portion if I need to eat in those situations, load up on a salad or other veggie side if I can, have some fruit and let it go. Good luck! I do sympathize.

Good luck...tough, tough diet. I don't need to lose weight, but have been trying to be carb free for awhile...to feel better? I seem to love every carb

ever thought of. Easier for me to quit the sugar.. quitting carbs is really

impossible...and even cutting down is a struggle.

Eating those foods in the workplace would send me into a food coma... Amylou, can you ask the person making these decisions if some healthy alternatives can be provided, too, such as salads, fruit, nuts, etc?

I'm also doing low carb/keto along with intermittent fasting. Lost 24 lbs so far. I also find I cannot eat just one of something... dh loves cookies - I asked him to not leave them on the counter so I don't see them. He is very helpful and understanding of my quest to lose weight so he put them away. Out of sight, out of my mind!

If you were hungry you could take the burger out of the bun and peel the coating/skin off the chicken... but probably easier to just not eat any of it. The pizza would've been very hard for me to resist!

We're going on a 10 day vacation soon and that has been my motivation to get what I call my "menopause weight" back off. Man it's tougher now than ever! I'm about halfway to my goal. But while I'm on vacation I plan to eat what I want and just get back to my way of eating as soon as I return home. I know that will be easier said than done!

I'm right there with you Amylou. My office always has stuff too. Donuts, cookies, chocolate of all kinds. Except I'm both fat AND lactose intolerant, and apparently don't have much will power either.

I'm a work in progress.....

Congratulations Share-oh on the 24lb loss! That is no easy feat... good for you.

Try thinking beyond the box for what I there. You can only do will power for the bars mentioned chicken and pizza. The first you can remove the crust and eat the insides. The second just eat the toppings and leave the crust.

I did enjoy Marilyn's gaining through dieting. Every time I used to try WW and other diets other than one I always gained weight because I was supposed to eat more than I normally did. Since my body was used to one amount it stored the rest as fat.

I'm with you Amylou. What I don't understand is if your company has this reward system and a wellness program why are they feeding their employees crap?

So serve them healthy choices and one piece of crap. This doesn't make sense because other employees must be in the same position as you.

I lost 42 pounds in 2009 and have kept it off. It took me 9 months so hang in there - you can do it. This was before the KETO rage, I just counted calories and I continue to do so and I do weigh myself every other day. That's part of my maintenance regime and while it wouldn't work for everyone it does work for me.

I am with you! Trying to get back on the sensible bandwagon after falling off it big time recently. I blame our house guests, they were a bad influence. :)

While it is nice to take weight off if you continually diet your body adjusts so make certain that the diet you are using can be used for the rest of your life. Any sensible diet allows for treats just not treats all of the time.

It's difficult. I did keto for a month but didn't feel well on it. I'm doing weight watchers now and I like that I can eat whatever but I have to balance it. The weight loss is slower but I feel like I can do it for the rest of my life without feeling deprived. The weekly meetings are really great and I find the accountability really helps knowing someone is going to weigh me each Wednesday.

Temptations are rough! I get the worst cravings and it takes all my willpower to ignore them. I'm also not a "one bite" moderation type person. If I take a bite, and it's good, I'm finishing it!

I actually did WW for 19 weeks, that is what my company paid for. I was MISERABLE and i gained 4 pounds. I like how low carb makes me feel,: not as hungry, more energy,etc. I think people really are either carb or calorie counters. I can really see myself doing low carb for life but i do think it takes awhile for it to go into "autopilot." I can honestly say that i dont really miss bread, rice, pasta, stuff like that. But i do miss specific dishes, like pizza and mac and cheese. And I miss the convenience of eating carbs. It is so much easier to just pick up something if you're not worried about carb counts.

I am actually surprised that with the keto craze going on, more chain restaurants or even frozen meal companies haven't jumped on the bandwagon to offer more options.

The doctor supervising my diet tells me that once i reach my goal weight, I can maintain it by sticking to low carb mostly, but with a day or two a week not really worrying about it. We shall see if that's true if i EVER get to my goal.

I honestly would NEVER try to make a suggestion to them as far as food goes. That seems obnoxious to me. Like, "Hey thanks for the free lunch and snacks but could you get ME a special low carb option?" That is not me at all. That seems so ungrateful and tacky! I am grateful for the thought and the gesture of providing us food when they don't have to, and a lot of companies don't even care if their employees have enough to eat when they are OFF the clock, much less will go to the expense to feed them all lunch every weekend during all this madness going on, I feel like the least i could do if i cant eat it is make sure that it doesn't go to waste, which it doesn't, There is always a willing recipient. I do try to work around it sometimes. Like it was suggested above,I might have eaten the topping off the pizza, or the burger without the bun. But I just thought it would be more gracious to give all of it away, not just the bits and pieces I couldn't have.

I am still working this out. I have figured out a way to have treats and stay in ketosis. SO brought me home a brownie before he knew i was doing low carb and i stayed in ketosis by eating a small piece each day and staying under my allotted carb count until it was gone, rather the the whole thing at once like i normally would. But I guess I have to get used to the constant temptation. The world and its eating habits don't revolve around me, so that's just part of it. But sometimes I want to scream.

My Doc sent me to a dietitian and what learned from her was the carbohydrate counting was critical, more so than calorie counting. My instruction was to limit my daily intake of carbs to 70 grams, and eat a balanced diet. That's not easy to do. After I dropped 10 lb, the diet restriction was eased, but not completely. I have to keep watch of my carb intake to keep from gaining weight.

Any, I love your brownie story! Now that took will power! As you know, but many don’t, staying in ketosis is what makes the diet work. And it is why you feel better as you stay on it longer. It is hard at first, that first month, but then you start to feel the difference. I know those 25 grams of carbs aren’t much but it really makes you take more note of how many are in the foods we eat every day. And DD has noticed the benefit in her skin too with no sugars and no carbs.

Jemdandy, glad to see you are benefitting from a lower carb diet.

Words matter. I read a blurb somewhere that I liked...if you say you "can't" eat something it sets you up for feeling deprived, sorry for yourself, excluded from the fun, etc. If instead you say I "don't" eat that, you retain your power, your confidence in making a good choice for yourself, and feel more empowered as a result. Just thought I'd mention it.

I'm not wanting to get into a thing, but just want to raise awareness of a Lancet study of keto diets long term so people can make informed choices of what's best for them.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30135-X/fulltext#

Both high and low percentages of carbohydrate diets were associated with increased mortality, with minimal risk observed at 50–55% carbohydrate intake. Low carbohydrate dietary patterns favouring animal-derived protein and fat sources, from sources such as lamb, beef, pork, and chicken, were associated with higher mortality, whereas those that favoured plant-derived protein and fat intake, from sources such as vegetables, nuts, peanut butter, and whole-grain breads, were associated with lower mortality, suggesting that the source of food notably modifies the association between carbohydrate intake and mortality.

Listen to your body, choose wisely, and recognize that for centuries, nutritionists have talked about the importance of a balanced diet. Frankly, I like how Michael Pollan summarizes what most nutritional studies have shown: eat real food, eat mostly plants, don't eat too much.

Amylou, after reading your explanation above, I realize how rude my suggestion that they supply other types of food would be. It's the fact they're offering food at all that counts.

Thanks for the article, Annie. Pollan's general advice works for me. I have a few general "rules" that I follow on most days: most of my food intake has no ingredient list (so basic, unprocessed food) and I eat at least 5 different vegetables of 5 different colors every day. These practices lend themselves to low-carb because many processed foods are full of carbs. I've also greatly lowered my meat intake because as I'm getting older, meat just isn't as appealing as it once was.

I also practice intermittent fasting. It's not for everyone, but it has taught me valuable lessons about how many calories I really need to be healthy and functional. (And I do exercise every day.) I do sometimes mourn that I cannot eat like I did when I was younger. Or like my kids, who can put away food like nobody's business.