Extended "48 hour reset" or back on plan?

[ej_nz]

Hi de hi!!

So glad that school holidays are drawing to a close!! Phew!! Didn't know how much more I could take of the wee cherubs!!! LOL!!

Anyway...after all the festivities and school holiday fun, I am now the owner of a few extra kgs!!

I am still within my Cohen's range but as it's nearly 4 kgs I would like to lose I am wondering do I go back on my original plan (should hopefully still work as I'm within my range) or do I do an extended "48 hour rest" (you know no carbs etc) but for like a week or two?

Help!!

I hope everyone else had a lovely Christmas New Years...in fact I only put on a small amount over Christmas New Years, the remainder was down to my hubby going back to work and ME not making time for myself, just eating all kinds of things...alot to stuff down my frustration of being out of my "normal" daily routine I have when everyone at school and work.

I missed having my set routine, and my lions share of ME time! LOL!
Even a hassle free shower would be good, without a teary eyed child interupting me to nark on the others!!

xoxoxoxoxo

[ej_nz]

Oh just adding that even though the weight has gone on, I am making good progress with my running these days.I did my PB for the distance 6km the other night, 33minutes 16 secs. I was very pleased with this!!

So, if I do go back on OP I will have to stop exercising as per the OP rules. So thats why I wonder if I just stick to an extended 48 hour reset kind of thing? As I would need the slight extra protein that the 48 hour reset allows but just minus the extra carb amounts.

Thought about knocking milk, new proteins and bad fruits on the head for this period also? So a little more sympathetic to OP without actually being on OP.
Also keep to the 5 hours between meals and reduced cracker amounts?

Thoughts/ideas please??!!
Thanks
xoxoxo

[Kohinoor]

Hi EJ,

With your new exercise regime, I'd think you would STARVE on Plan amounts.

Read here (link below) for what could be a better idea. In the end, you have ALL of the Cohens tools available to you now, so choose a tool that you think will suit, try it out, then go for a different tool if the first choice doesn't seem to work out.

http://newyouforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6408

"If your only tool is a hammer, all problems will be seen to be nails" - a hammer is not much good if you are dealing with a screw, or if you need to cut wood to a specific length

Koh

[ej_nz]

Hi Koh!!!

Thanks for your reply xoxox

I have been sticking to Cohen and refeed foods but not plan amounts, no carbs and no sugar/alcohol etc and it seems to be going well thus far.

I can't believe how "clearer" my brain feels! And also no sore tummy?!

Amazing!
xoxoxo

[toothfairy]

I agree on how clear the brain seems on Cohens, I've had a deviation over the summer and new by the feeling of my body and mind that I needed to get back onto Cohens. Amazing how good you feel and ones body feels cleansed I'm sure.
Glad to hear you had a great summer and now the children are back you can focus on your and Cohens some more.

[Kohinoor]

Hi EJ,

Good news rhen ....

And also no sore tummy

Could be there's a food you've been eating that was not identified during your Refeed (??)

Take it nice and slow when re-introducing other foods after you get back to ideal weight. Maybe you can forever ban some food items (once identified), and stick to those foods that have you feeling great !! Won't that be cool?

Koh

[ej_nz]

Hmm, yes, not sure if it is bread? Or the mixing of proteins?

I was allowed bread from day one of refeed but didn't seem to notice any adverse reaction straight away?

Oh the other likely culprit to having me feel so yuck will be sugar, blerch!
i have noticed since abstaining from sugar, my face is clearing up and also my glands in my neck have gone down, or is it flour??

Hmm...yes you are right baby steps! Refeed happens so quickly! And then I found it hard to ascertain what was making me feel bung.

I definitely know that eating sugar makes your body crave more sugar.
Amen to that!!

[Blommie]

Just a question as I can't seem to find the answer. Do you continue the "48 hour" reset until you have lost the weight you picked up? I.e. as example, you find that you have gained 3kg, do you do the reset until you have lost the whole 3kg?

[JayCee]

There's not really an exact answer here (to my knowledge) Blommie. Personally I have done up to 5 days cause I couldn't get my kg's to move. Extended reset certainly won't do you any harm as it really is just limiting the "extras". I suggest you go day by day and see how you're travelling ....

[Ciors]

I did reset until the number was "right" on the scale, sometimes that was 3 or 4 days depending on how bad my choices were, or occasionally I didn't do reset when I should have....now I do everything by feel, so bad choices means 48 hour reset or until my skinny jeans feel right...sometimes that's more that 48 hours

[Stumbling-Sammy]

Hi all... Can I please put in my 2 cents worth?
And PLEASE know this is only my own experience. Perhaps if it can help anyone out there...

When I first started struggling to maintain, I would do a reset, which usually lasted 5 days (Monday to friday) and then over the weekend I would eat "normal"... Now this worked well initially, but slowly but surely everytime I tried to reset, I would miss goal by a few hundred grams... But it was ONLY a few hundred grams, so I didn't fret too much about it... Eventually those few hundred grams started adding up and, well, my ticker shows where I ended up.

When I asked my consultant, she explained it to me this way: "When you reset for 48 hours, that is enough time for your body to get rid of any retained water, which is why the scale had gone up. 48 hours without carbs is no big deal for your body, so it doesn't think anything of the "missing" carbs... Now if you stick to 100% Cohen's for 72 hours, your body starts to rebalance your hormones which basically means, your body is now starting to once again become extremely sensitive to carbs.

So say you keep going, you are simply making your body even MORE sensitive. Say you now get to goal and you start your maintenance eating again, the moment you add carbs, your body is going to grab on and hold on for dear life because it has no idea when the next reset/carb famine is coming...

Instead of doing this, she advised that we should up our water intake, cut carbs out for 48 hours and perhaps reduce our portions. See where you stand then. This is a "milder" reset and not a shock to the system. On day three have 25g of carbs, keep going with your water and smaller portions. Day 4 do the same as day 3. If you still not on goal, cut out those 25g of carbs again for 48 hours. This way you are keeping your body guessing.

Resets and jumping back on the programme should always be our LAST resort. Basically we need to learn how to "manage" our weight, gains and losses, through our maintenance food...

I really hope I explained this properly... My consultant obviously explained it to me SO much better!

Best of luck!

Oh and before I forget, she advised me that if I am on plan for ANY amount of time longer than 7 days, that I should look at refeeding, even if I do a shortened version thereof... So don't just jump back into how you were eating before the reset, but slowly bring things in again...

[Ciors]

Hi SS...well, glad I found that reply, this is one of the MANY virtues of the forum. Different clinics have varied advice on these things, and I will certainly be giving that a go in the future.

[ej_nz]

Hi Stumbling Sammy!

What a gem your consultant is....this was never explained to me in such detail, infact I was advised by the clinic consultant I visited that if you knew you were going out for dinner on a Saturday night to go carb free all week in the lead up to the saturday night meal (Mon - Fri) and then then whole week after the meal (Sun - Sun).

I am now not at all surprised that my body has been so sensitive....which made me feel like such a failure because even when I was "good" my body was obviously holding onto food because I had given it such a dry run.

This made me upset so then I would indulge as I would give up on "being good" as the scales weren't showing my hard work!

Wow....it all makes sense now!
Thanks so much for sharing....I think you may have just made me feel human, and not a failure after all!

Blessings to you for that!! xoxo

[Stumbling-Sammy]

Hi ej-nz.... I am SO glad that my post has helped you! Trust me, I kept feeling like the biggest failure because everyone else I was chatting to who had done cohens, were maintaining easily and even losing weight!
I have realised that none of us are failures, and none of us are experts... we are all equal and simply - maintainers! Some have learned the lessons of how their bodies work, faster than others, some will stumble more than others, but the fact that we are here, that we are doing something about our gains, the fact that we are not giving up and are determined to find the answers we are looking for, makes us the complete opposite of failures! Best of luck!
xxx

[ej_nz]

Hi SS!

Thank you for your words of encouragement...you are so right, everyone that comes back is trying to succeed so for that reason alone we are not failures! xo

You are doing awesome...a 50s gal!!!! Yay!!!

I am looking forward to being a 50s gal too soon!

xoxo

[Not2Much]

OMW! I am also glad that I found this reply - it makes perfect sense although I'd have never figured this out for myself - in fact, I was thinking that I was doomed to be on Cohens 'forever' from Monday to Friday, and relax on the weekends - now I realize that this is the worst thing that we can do to our bodies and ourselves!

Thanks for sharing Sammy - you explained it perfectly well!

[Busybee9]

It explains a lot to me too....after having the most stressful six months right in refeed I've put a few kilos back on and was feeling a real failure and doomed to cohens plan forever to which I'm having such a hard time sticking too....it's all part of the maintenance road...

Still....I'd better stick to plan until I get back to where I need to be!

[Busy Mum]

Hi SS and Ej-Nz,
this the perfect post, have been struggling of late and the weight has been slowly piling on, exactly like you SS, few more hundred grams per week, my range was 59-62. But am now up to 64.8kgs. I just measured out all my veggies and meat to go back on the plan for 2 weeks but am now scrapping that and will work on your plan instead SS. I was thinking of just doing the refeed for 2 weeks mine was initially 17 days, so I thought I would start at Day 3. what do think? Thoughts? I'm the person that needs a plan written out so I can achieve it. thanks a lot For reading.

[Blommie]

What a gem of a post thanks Sammy. I will def be using this rather than the extended 48hours.
Busy Mum, I would suggest that you try Sammy's advise and see how it works for you. Your reply will be greatly valued on your personal experience using this format

[BellaandMeg]

Sammy your post was linked in my diary, and that makes such perfect sense, thank you! I, too, am going to follow your advice and see if things stay a wee bit more stable. Thank you for sharing this.