I can eat dairy items, I just have to pay attention to the carbs in them - they unfortunately have a lot in some cases. Most hard cheeses are fine, as well as most semi-soft cheeses. Meats I can eat,as well as all non starchy veggies. I can eat fats as long as they are natural fats (not things like shortening or most margarine). Fruit is pretty limited for now, although I can have small amounts of berries and nuts occasionally. I can have things like pickles & olives too.
My staples when reducing carbs tend to be the following:
eggs, avocados, chicken/turkey sausage, Canadian bacon, hard semi/soft cheese, salad, chicken breasts, steaks, fish, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms
There are other things I can eat, but those are the ones I end up eating most often as they are available and affordable, plus both dd and I will eat them.
It is a real pain to maintain low carbs, but I know for my body it always works. I usually am able to get off a nice chunk of weight and keep it off a long time. Unfortunately, I do eventually want to start eating breads and rice etc again and I just have to really be careful about limiting how much of those kinds of foods I eat later on, because it certainly will come back on.
I usually try to be careful to just maintain a steady healthy weight, but the weight I gained through my divorce process was a lot more than I usually would put on and it has been beating me. I am finally fed up and want my body back, so I am going to tough it out and try to get all of that off asap. Since I no longer have the divorce hanging over my head, I don't anticipate gaining as much back - but I will still need to be careful about the baked goods and stuff like that.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone
