Back into Ketosis

Ok, It's official. I feel much better when I am in ketosis.

I have just completed a 24 hour fast, and have broken it with some scrambled eggs. Yum!

So lets fill you in on what has happened over the last few days.

As you know, I felt an overwhelming urge for a few vegetables, so I gave in and ate some. Very nice they were too. I also ate a small handful of raw almonds with no ill effects. So on Sunday I made a loaf of 'bread'. It was made of 4 eggs, 1 cup of almond flour, one cup of LSA (linseed, sesame and almond) a bit of butter and cream, a few spices, and 2 stewed apples and one banana. The apples were, of course, stewed without sugar!

The loaf was WONDERFUL! I can post the recipe if you like, but you can take my word for it, it was absolutely delicious! I had 2 slices on Sunday, 1 on Monday and 1 on Tuesday at 11am. I also had a few vegetables with my evening meals. By 2pm on Tuesday I was asleep on the sofa. That has not happened in months. By 6pm I did not feel at all my usual perky self, I spent the evening on the sofa with a book, unable to concentrate on much for long. I also had tummy ache. I decided not to eat any supper, so I had not eaten since 11am.

This morning I broke my fast at 11.30am with scrambled eggs. I am quickly back in ketosis after the fast, and I feel fine again. I did not run today but I walked 5k with the dog.

So what have I learnt?

First of all, just how quickly one can progress from a few vegetables with ones evening meal if one wants, to making a fruit loaf. Carb creep anyone?

Secondly, I can easily tolerate a small amount of sugar and grain free carbs with no problem. But 4 slices of high carb food over 3 days is too much.

Thirdly, I think it is the fruit. There was a lot of fruit in that bread, and I have not had fructose in a very long time.

So, where to from here?

I think I will go basically zero carb again for my day to day living, however I will not be afraid of using a few vegetables as condiments or for variety.

If I go out to eat (I am going, to of all things, a vegetarian restaurant on 8th June!) I will eat gluten free and enjoy myself. I shall fast afterwards and then go back to my zero carb life. I do not think a very occasional foray out of ketosis will harm me, although I might feel sluggish and sleepy.

And I will look out for carb creep. If I am OK after one slice of almond bread it does not mean that 2 slices would be a good idea!

Hiding From My Blog!

I have been hiding from my blog because I am not sure what to write. I understand from my readers that many people who follow me are interested in living zero carb, and right now I am not!

I shall stick to the truth, however, and you can either follow me through the wilderness and confusion of life, or go and find other zero carbers.

So first....if you are looking for people who are currently zero carbing, you need to visit Charles Washington's site. Charles' site This is a mine of information for people who are considering giving zero carb a shot. The forums are great and full of information from people who are living zero carb every day. Their diaries document the ups and downs of this way of life.

If, however, you are interested in what happens when you STOP zero carb as a way of eating you are in the right place!

Again the disclaimer. I am not a nutritionalist, or a doctor, or a nurse, and I have no authority to give anyone dietry advice or information. All I am is a woman who wanted to lose weight, and decided to blog about my adventures. Please take my story as intended. An online diary of what I am doing and how much weight I am losing, and how I feel about it.

OK, on with the story.

I am as surprised as anyone to not be zero carb right now. I had thought I would carry on like this until I had lost a lot more weight. I was also interested in exercise whilst in ketosis, and I was excited about seeing just how far and how fast it was possible to run whilst in ketosis.

So what AM I eating? I am basically Paleo, plus dairy. For newbies to the wonderful, wacky world of diets, this means the hunter gather diet. If you can hunt it or gather it you can have it. It is grain free, and sugar free. It is also processed food free. (No McDonalds in Paleolithic times!). Because of my low carb background, I am not eating fruit either. This is easy as I prefer cabbage to apples any day of the week. Weird I know, but there we are. However, Paleo is not intrinsically low carb, although it can be.

So basically all I have done is added above ground vegetables, plus the odd nut, to my existing zero carb diet. It feels like a huge, radical departure though. I had eaten myself into a corner, and I was almost afraid of eating a bean sprout. Once I had started though, all was fine. I had steak and stir fried vegetables last night, and very nice it was too.

How do I feel in myself?

Fine. I am still alert, I still have energy. I am more interested in meals, and I have a bit of a backlash against meat at the moment. Just now, I have more vegetables than meat on my plate. I don't seem to have put on weight, in fact I am down another pound this morning, but I am also running quite a lot as the 10k race is on Sunday.

I have not cut off zero carb, as in never going back again. If I put the weight back on, I may have to zero carb again to shift the weight, but right now I am enjoying my vegetables.

One problem I have seen in other dieters and in myself in the past, is devotion to a particular diet against all the odds. Sometimes a particular diet does not work for a particular person, or no longer works where it did before. Yet one has put energy and money into this diet. The special foods have been brought, friends have been talked at for hours about the benefits of this particular way of eating and so on, and to turn around and say, "Changed my mind!" is hard. I am trying hard not to fall into this trap. Over night I decided to stop zero carbing. It's fine, all is well. I can go back to it any time I want, or change to a low fat diet, or a high grain one, if I want. It's all OK.

So back to Paleo I come. I'll let you know how it goes.

No Longer The Poster Girl for Zero Carb!

So, last night I ate some almonds, and some avocado and tuna. I am no longer the poster girl for zero carb.

What happened?

Well a number of things actually, and together they spell the end of zero carb, at least for the moment.

Yesterday was not a good day. Amongst other things my purse was stolen at the post office. They got my credit card, my business debit card, my EFPOS card (NZ cash card) my driving license, my library card...the list goes on. There were other reasons it was a stressful day as well, but that was the pinnacle.

By 6pm, I was home alone and ready to binge on sons chocolate stash! But I didn't. However later when hubby and I got home again at 8pm we had avocado and tuna. Yum!

So how did I get to this point? It wasn't just the stressful day, although that was the straw that broke the poor proverbial camel. Over the last week or so I have been having fantasies about becoming a vegan! I find myself drooling at the thought of cabbage...or leeks! Have you ever considered just how wonderful a leek is? Tall and white and smelling gloriously of mild onions!

I do know that for dieters "listening to what your body wants" is the kiss of death for a diet. I don't know about yours, but my body wants homemade ice-cream, and special handmade dark chocolate from the SHE community at Governors Bay. Yet when one starts craving cabbage, of all things, one begins to wonder...

And I have been wondering over this last week. The trouble is we want two things. We want to be slim and we want to be healthy. We know that being slim is no guarantee of being healthy, but we want both! And we want them both now!

It is rather like the self-improvement problem. Do we want to read the the Secret (The Secret) and other law of attraction books like this one? Then we can show gratitude and attract all the money we want into our lives. Or do we prefer enlightenment and a life of eternal bliss? Of course we do, so we read Eckhart Tolle (here) or Thich Nhat Hanh (here here and here). And then we find we cannot have both. As Jesus pointed out in the sermon on the mount, one cannot serve both God and money.

And does this apply to weight loss? Actually, the quickest way to lose weight, as any anorexic will tell you, is to simply stop eating. Works every time. Not exactly healthy though, is it?

The trouble with regular diets is that somewhere out there, there is an expert who will tell you that their particular diet is the only way to both weight loss and health. And of course, happiness, success, lots of friends and the ability to eat an occasional piece of chocolate without putting on 5kg overnight.

You want to eat low carb? Sure, try Atkins and co. Want lots of fruit and veg? Try vegetarian, vegan or Paleo. Like baked goodies, but don't want gluten? Then try the Wheat belly diet, or the specific carbohydrate diet. Zero carb? Charles Washington's your man. He'll prove zero carb is the way to live forever!

Maybe it is possible to both diet for weight loss and be healthy and maybe it is possible to be rich and enlightened.

But maybe in order to achieve this we need to start at a different point. If the goal of wealth is to be a philanthropist would you start at a different point than if the goal is to be simply wealthy? Well, maybe. You want want your business to be ethical, for a start, and you would consider ethical investments as well. Maybe environmental considerations would come into it, rather than abiding by the minimum required by law. You would certainly want good working conditions for your employees, even if that means spending a little more upfront. So, maybe it would take a little longer to achieve your goals than it otherwise would.

Can we apply this to dieting?

We want both health and weight loss. Are we prepared to take things a little more slowly in order to achieve both? And if we do, then we simply HAVE to enjoy the journey. If it is going to take 3-5 years to lose the weight, then we cannot sick to an unmanageable diet for that time. It has to be flexible.

And obviously we have to pick the right way of eating. Just like, if we want to be philanthropists we have to look after our own employees, if we want to be healthy we have to look after our own bodies. If we want to be healthy what do we eat? And there I am stuck. The only thing the experts actually seem to agree on is that sugar is bad.

So maybe we start right there. Sugar is bad.

I shall look at sugar in more detail in another post.

Falling off the Zero Carb Wagon

Honesty first! I fell off the zero carb wagon today. This is what happened.

I was very hungry when I woke up, but assumed it would pass. I had a cup of tea and went for a run for about an hour. Shower, another cuppa and on with my day.

Around noon I had to go to the post office, so I hopped on my trusty bike and cycled to the shops, and back again. Daughter 1 who works just down the road turned up at 1pm for lunch. She had brought some Kumera (sweet potato) soup and asked if I wanted some. It smelt fabulous, and I was soooo hungry. I declined and ate some scrambled eggs. I felt a little better for a while, but by 4pm I was ravenous again.

This is very unusual for me, I normally only eat once a day, in the evening, and I don't eat much then. I do get hungry from time to time but not like this.

Son arrived home after a difficult school day and begged for pancakes. He is gluten free so I cooked up some buckwheat pancakes. Hubby decided he would have some too. The smell of the pancakes was wonderful and it took everything I had to calmly go on making them, and not actually eat any.

By supper time I was done for. I ate some of the stir fry veggies I had cooked for hubby.

So I am not zero carb today.

Is this good? Is this bad? Should one follow what ones body wants? Or should I have been stricter and stuck to my guns and not eaten the vegetables?

And of course, where to from here? Back to zero carb tomorrow? Or try eating Paleo for a few days and see what happens? I suppose I can go back to zero carb whenever I want.

So many questions, and no answers.

I can assume that as I am running further and (slightly) faster my body requires more food. Yet we are told again and again, as runners, not to eat the calories back, not to have the sandwich after a run or you won't lose weight. But as Paleo and zero carb people, calories are not supposed to matter, so maybe I should eat if and when I am hungry. Part of the problem is that I have 2 goals, I want to be a runner and I want to lose weight.

I have no idea what I shall eat tomorrow.

5K Run. My First Race!

I did it! My first race!

So here is the story.

The race was organized by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, and was along Sumner Esplanade. It was a beautiful morning, cold, sunny with no wind. No surf either, which made it hard for the surf competition happening further along the Esplanade.

Son was also running. He is to attend Outward Bound in December, and has to run 3k in 23 minutes, so he thought he would give 5k a go and see how he did. Hubby, who dished his ankle 3 weeks ago, was driver and support. Both girls were also there. Daughter 1 was writing out the certificates and Daughter 2 was handing out drinks, so it was a family occasion.

The races consisted of a 5k race, a 10k race and a kids 2.5 race. It had a mass start, and everyone shot off into the distance! There was me, 2 walkers and another girl left at the back. The other girl soon stopped jogging, which left me and 3 walkers.....

I tried not to get dispirited right at the start, but it is kind of depressing when even the toddlers have left you in the dust. So I put it out of my mind, and looked out to sea, and tried to enjoy myself. Which I did once I had got used to being at the back. I settled down into my usual slow rhythm, and completed the first lap. When I got to the far end of the second lap I decided I would try and speed up a bit, so I did.

By the end of the last lap I was running flat out, in fact I was almost going as fast as the five year olds!

I finished in 43.52. Hardly the worlds fastest time, but a personal best for me. And when I feel bad about my speed, I try to remember I was walking with sticks 7 years ago.

Son finished in 28.47 so he should be fine for his course in December.

Right...the next one is the 10k on June 3rd! Here we come! I want to finish in under 2 hours, but as I have yet to actually run 10k I expect I shall be walking a lot of it, so we shall see.

Zero carb. Russian Roulette?

It is no secret that I am a zero carb dieter. According to conventional wisdom, this must be just about the unhealthiest way to eat on the planet. All that saturated fat, no 'good fats' at all, no fruit, no vegetables...what about your 5 portions a day? Where are your healthy whole grains? And you eat all that red meat!!!

It feels as though we zero and very low carbbers are playing some kind of Russian Roulette. If we are right, we get to lose weight, reverse our diabetes, get fit, and generally live long and happy lives. If we are wrong, we are on a one way trip to the morgue via cardiology department of the local hospital.

So what do we do?

All the traditional research seems to show that whole grains are good for us, we need lots and lots of fruit and vegetables, we need to drink lots of water, and we need to limit our consumption of saturated fats and red meats. Yet despite following this advice people are getting, well, quite simply, fatter and fatter and more and more sick. Heat disease is on the rise, diabetes has become an epidemic, the list goes on and on.

The 'authorities' put the blame firmly back on us, of course. It is our own fault we are fat; we eat too much fast food, drink too many sodas, and we don't exercise enough. If we got off the sofa and went for a jog every day, all would be well.

We, of course know this not to be true. We eat the low fat, high grain diet and jog 3 miles a day...and we are still fat. Yes, we may be a little more toned, but we are still fat. If you tell a conventional authority this, they tend to think you are lying.

So to my way of thinking the accepted wisdom is wrong. I tried it. It didn't work. Now I am trying something else, and I feel good, and I am losing weight and volume.

And I am playing Russian Roulette with my health.

Diet and Hunger

Getting hungry whilst dieting.

Yesterday I had a hungry day.  I woke up hungry, I was hungry all day, and whilst I didn't go to bed hungry, I certainly wasn't full. So what does one do about hunger when one is dieting?

Its a funny thing, hunger. One little word that covers everything from not really being hungry at all but, like Winnie the Pooh, fancying a little something just because it is morning tea time, right the way through to being so hungry you feel you would cheerfully eat the kids, or at least the puppy, if you don't get something soon.

Then there is starvation. This is not hunger, although the starving certainly feel hungry. I am sure we all know the difference. Please note, in this post I am talking about hunger, not starvation.

I will be 50 years old in a couple of months. I was raised in a small English market town, which had not really embraced the full flow of modern life, not even modern life as it was in the 60's and 70's. In fact the 60's seemed to pass it right by, and only actually arrived in about 1978. I went to a school that included hats in the uniform. When one was outside the school grounds, one had to wear the school hat. It was a girls school. We had a boys section, but they were on an adjoining site. The boys wore caps, and we wore velour hats in winter and straw panamas in summer.

When one was off the school grounds, and wearing ones school hat, one was not allowed to eat. This was a written school rule. Eating whilst walking down the street was shameful. It showed a number of things. It showed that one did not have the self discipline to wait until one got home. It implied one did not have a better place to eat. And of course eating whilst walking was neither tidy or elegant. People could see you chewing in public, and inevitably you dropped crumbs, thus making a personal mess in a public place.

In fact, back then, on the whole, people did not eat in the streets, in their car or when out and about. I remember the annual street fair. It was amazing, the streets and market place were filled with fairground rides, side stalls and toffee apple and candy-floss stands. And we ate candy-floss whilst walking in the streets! It was part of the delight of the thing. A time when you could walk around eating and people just smiled at you.

When out in the car, we might take a picnic, but we actually stopped the car to eat it. I remember turning off the main highways to find a quiet country road where we could picnic beside a stream, or at a farm gate where the verge was wider. Unless it was pouring with rain we would eat outside the car. A waterproof sheet would be laid on the ground, and a blanket would be spread on that. We would put coats and hats on if it was cold. We would use plates, and drink from beakers. Only if it was inclement would we actually eat in the car, and it was considered a far inferior experience.

And what about hunger? I remember being told to wait for the next meal. We had 3 square meals a day, plus maybe an after-school snack...which would of course been served on a plate, taken sitting at the kitchen table and cleared away afterwards. And that was it. We did not eat between meals, it did not occur to us. And whilst we may have got a little hungry, nothing terrible happened to us. We simply relished our next meal all the more.

The contrast between then and now is startling. Thinking back, I have to conclude that at my fattest I only ate one meal a day. I started in at breakfast, and then I would never go more than an hour or so without putting something else in my mouth right through the day. I would have a biscuit with my morning tea, I would buy myself a little something when out shopping, I would nibble on something whilst making the families supper, if I got bored I would make (or buy) myself a nice healthy wholemeal sandwich. And I certainly had no problem in eating wherever I was. In the street, in a park, in the car, at home, standing in front of an open fridge.....


So when and how did it change? When did we move from 3 meals a day, and it being unacceptable to eat in the streets to the all day, anywhere, any time eating pattern of today? And when did we decide it was terrible to be even a little hungry?

Hubby and I were talking about this and we wondered if it was about the same time as mobile phones first came in. Back then we had the whole yuppie, I'm-too-busy-and-too-important-to-stop-for-lunch senarios. Lunch was for wusies and sleep was for wimps. It was important to work all day and all night and be seen to do so. Remember when mobile phones first came in. People would hang them ostentatiously from their belts and shout loudly into them in public places.
"Yes, James, it's me! Sell! yes, now, just sell!"
We all thought they were idiots! But now its is unusual not to see someone tapping or chatting away with a mobile phone. Heck, it is even socially acceptable to break off from a conversation with someone, turn away and leave them standing there like a lemon, whilst we answer a text or a call.

And was it the same with food? That gradually we became desensitized to people in a hurry grabbing a snack on the go? And so we ended up with us all wandering around the streets, chewing and strewing crumbs and litter as we go?

And that, somehow, must have led to this amazing fear of being hungry. One reads it in all the diet literature, and most of all on the forums. "But what if I get hungry?" People ask it again and again. Ermm.... you had breakfast and shortly you will be having lunch, you have a snack planned to eat at some point, to say nothing about dinner. What do you mean "What if I get hungry?" You wait a little, and then you eat your next meal.

So yesterday I was hungry. So what? I truly enjoyed my next meal! A little hunger is not a problem, honest. A big hunger needs a little thought. Is this a one off, are you eating enough, are you eating too many carbs, which make you hungry. Ketosis suppresses hunger, could you try ketosis. Or just go with it for a couple of days. Does it go away again, or are you always hungry? Live with it for a little, and then make adjustments. Don't panic. A little hunger is fine. A regular big hunger may need a tweak or two to the diet.

As an endnote, there is a great diet out there, called the 'No S Diet', or grannies diet. No sweets, no snacks, no seconds. You can find it here . It may be worth a look if you are struggling with eating all the time. And take a look at the forums....see how many people are scared of getting hungry, even though, on the No S Diet you can eat whatever you want 3 times a day. Think about this. When you actually start looking at it, it is quite weird. Yes, we need to be afraid of starvation, it is a survival thing, it's hardwired into our genes, but we don't need to be afraid of a little hunger.

Zero Carb, Ketosis and Scurvy. Oh My!

"So, tell me, what do you actually eat?"

"But, if you don't eat fruit and vegetables, won't you get scurvy?"

"Don't you miss fruit/bread/doughnuts?

"Can you actually run and not eat any carbs?"

These are just a few of the questions I get asked so I thought I might try and answer them.

What do I actually eat?

I eat anything from the animal kingdom. I know this is not politically correct, but I don't actually eat much. In fact I eat so little I reckon I have a smaller footprint them many other 'normal' people. I normally only eat once a day, and not much then.

So I eat any meat. From mince to steak, to roasts. Pork, lamb, beef, venison, whatever. I also eat fish, and could eat shellfish, but sadly it makes me very ill. I have butter, cream, eggs. I could eat cheese, but I dislike it.

I don't eat sausages, or cured meat, except a bit of bacon very occasionally.

Basically if it comes form an animal I eat it. If it doesn't I don't. The exceptions are salt, pepper and a few herbs and spices for variety. I eat maybe 6-8oz of meat a day. In addition I have a number of cups of Earl Grey tea with heavy cream.

I don't appear to have scurvy, but believe me, at the first signs (bleeding gums I believe) I shall be running for the vitamin C tablets as quickly as I can, as well as changing my diet to prevent it happening agin. At the moment, however, I am fit and healthy.

I am not a slave to this way of eating. It suits me now, and it is an interesting experiment. But if it stopped suiting me, I would stop. I am not daft! I have a lot of energy, and mental alertness, and I like feeling this way. I sleep well at night, I have no reflux or heartburn and I have enough energy to run. I also have a very small appetite. Apparently being in ketosis suppresses the appetite. This is a good thing as I have a family...who all eat grains and sugar and I have those things in my cupboards and at my dinner table. It would be very hard to diet if I was still craving these things.

Do I miss sugar, grains, fruit or vegetables? And the related question, don't you get bored with your diet?

To be honest, yes I did at the begining. I really craved bread, or sweet things. Passing up chocolate was very hard, particularly when I was given some organic handmade dark chocolate at Christmas....
As time passed though the cravings became less and less, and now I don't really crave anything at all.

I do get bored however, and I tell myself that I can stop at any time. I could become a vegan tomorrow if I so wish. It is entirely up to me. So I say, just for today, I shall stick with the diet, and leave tomorrow to itself. This works for me.
Other zero carbers say that as time passes they cease to see food as entertainment and merely as fuel and so they don't worry about the boredom bit. I am not sure I find this reasuring. I like family gatherings, friendly get-to-gethers, and the like and the resulting sharing of food. But my main goal is to no longer look like the back end of a bus. So I shall deal with this first, and then, maybe, I can relax a little on special occasions.

Can you run and not eat any carbs?

Amazingly, yes. At least for the moment. This morning I did my longest run to date....11k. I took a very long time, I must be the worlds slowest runner...but I did it. People run marathons in not much longer than I did 11k, but I still ran for just over 2 hours with no problems.
I had a cup of tea with heavy cream before I set out, and at the domain at the half way point there is a drinking fountain, so I had a couple of mouthfuls of water. I did not take a drinking bottle. I did not appear to run out of fuel, and I certainly did not need any of those gels and special drinks. Maybe I would go faster if I had them, who knows? Maybe we need to look into this in the future, but for now it is fine.

Again, I am not a slave to this way of life. As I do longer and longer runs I may need carbs. In which case I shall have them!

So there we are, I live in ketosis, I run, and I eat zero carb. All seems well so far. I am getting fitter by the day, my mind is bright and alert...no brain fog....I sleep well at night, and whilst I don't actually like getting out of bed in the morning, it is not much of a struggle.

And yes, after 3 months of running, I am again losing weight! I plateaued with weight loss whilst I lost inches and gained muscle, but I am losing slowly and steadily again now.

Are you zero carb? Do you run? How is it going for you?

The Cost of Running

I was reading a book today about a woman who ran a marathon. Its called 'Short Fat Chick to Marathon.' Here or Here I thought it might be inspirational.

It had its moments, although it is not the most exciting book I have ever read, but what really got my attention was the bit about how much it costs to run a marathon. In fact how much it costs to take up running, period.

Well I don't know about you, but I thought part of the idea of taking up running against, say, golf, or motor-bike racing, was that it is cheap. You just need a pair of shoes and out of the door you go.

Apparently not.

Your personal trainer takes a big chunk of your money, of course, particularly if you want him or her to accompany you to specific races. Then there is the chiropractic pre-running assessment, to check you are in good shape mechanically to run, and the weekly check-ups to ensure you are not injuring your self. A check-up with the doctor is important too, and in many countries this is an added expense as well.

Talking of injuries, a weekly massage is another good idea to keep those muscles in tip top condition. And the cost of the specialist if, sadly, all this preventative work fails and you do actually get an injury.

Clothes will set you back about $200 a set, and you will need at least 3 sets, of course, plus another $200 or so for the jacket, and don't forget the reflective vest for those early mornings.

And the shoes, oh yes the shoes. It is important to get good shoe advice and a decent pair will set you back about $300, and you will go through a least 2 pairs whilst training for a marathon.

Food is important too, so you had better see (and pay for) a nutritionalist, and then there are the whey powders, and the gels and the special drinks to buy.

A watch is important and a good running watch with lap counters etc will cost at least $300.

Travel to various races adds up, and the hotel when you get there. You will need to run a couple of 10ks and at least one half marathon on your way to your marathon goal.

And on top of all this are the race fees, and having made this huge effort you are also going to want the race memorabilia, the t-shirt, the jacket, the mug, the key-ring and the cute little running teddy for your niece.

All told a marathon is, apparently, going to set you back anything between 2 and 5 grand.

Humm....

I don't know about you, but so far it has not cost me that much. Lets see.

I had a T shirt and a pair of shorts, and I also had a sports bra I had not worn for years as I was too big for it. The girls had shrunk a little by the time I started running and it fits fine now.
The personal trainer is the hubby. He says things like "Are you running today?" and when I get back he makes me a lovely cup of tea. If I ask him nicely he'll even massage my legs, so that is another expense avoided.

So what have I spent?

$15 to the second hand shop for a jacket.
$18 race fees for the 5K race on May 20th.
$35 race fees for the 10K on 3rd June.

AND......on Sunday I brought a new pair of shoes. They are called Brooks Pure Connect, and I love them. I have not had any pain in my feet since I got them. They are minimal running shoes, yet they have enough whatever so my feet don't get bruised.

They cost $230. Ouch! My feet might not hurt but my wallet does!

Grand total so far: NZ$289

I shall keep a record and we will see what its costs me by the time I run the 2013 Christchurch marathon.

Overeating, Sugar, Salt, Fat and Hyper-taste

So following on from the previous post, we know that the conventional dietary advice does not work for some of us, and judging by the bodies out and about, not for many of us.

There is the debate of the naturally lean but we will save that for another day.

I have been reading a book called "The End of Overeating" by David Kessler.  Amazon.com  Book Depository UK. This is a fascinating book, that exposes how the food industry manipulate food in order to make it hyper-palatable. They do this by manipulating the sugar, fat and salt content in order to make our taste buds want more and more and more of it. To the point we are actually eating ourself to death.

One point neither David Kessler or anyone he talks to seems to notice is that all this fat, sugar and salt is invariably carried on one grain or another, normally wheat. To us low carb people that is a huge point missed. The assumption throughout the book seems to be that the carrier is largely irrelevant.

Other than this the book is excellent, and as well as explaining how the food we eat has changed and how this affects us on a day to day basis, it ends with some practical tips about how to combat the problem.

The simplest way I have found to address overeating however, is mindfulness.

It is very easy to overeat whilst sitting in front of the computer or the television, and even when out with friends. That bread just slips down without being noticed whilst you wait for your main course to be cooked. And my biggest problem was standing in front of the open fridge door, just having a little taste....

Mindful eating is just that. You eat mindully. You set the table, prepare the food with love and care, and then sit down to eat it. You notice how it smells, how it looks on the plate. The texture as you cut it with your knife, the taste as it enters your mouth. You chew slowly savouring the taste, and you do not collect another forkful until you have finished with the food already in your mouth.

You only have to do this once, to realise just how mindlessly we often eat! It also takes a long time to eat anything! I tend to practice mindful eating once or twice a week to remind me how to eat slowly and to savour my food. I have also made a rule that all food must be consumed whilst sitting at a table. This cut out mindless snacks in an instant! It is hard to not notice that piece of chocolate slip down if you have to fetch a plate and sit at the table to eat it!

Do we eat too much? Or just too much of the wrong food? I honestly don't know, but for me, mindful eating has helped enormously. 'The End of Overeating' is a fascinating read and I wholly recommend it, but it is not terribly relevant to low carb people. All that sugar and all those grains are out of our diet anyway. However it might provide fascinating insight into how we got fat in the first place.

New Readers Start Here.

Hello to all my new readers. Its good to see you. I don't know who you are, so if you would like to pop in and say 'Hi' I would love it.

For new readers, my story is outlined over a number of posts made in early April.

The first post is here

If you then click on 'newer post' at the bottom of the page you can follow my story through earthquakes and weight loss and starting running, until we reach today.

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Eating and Overeating. Weight Loss, Weight Gain and Diet.

Eating and overeating. Weight loss, weight gain and diet.

The conventional wisdom is that we are fat because we eat too much and exercise too little. Too much food in, and not enough energy out.

OK, so, if this is true, why? Why do we eat too much, when only a generation or so a go we didn't? Have people, over the last 30 years or so, suddenly become lazy sloth's who cannot control what they put in their mouths, or is something else going on? And does becoming fat, in itself, change the ability to lose weight?

Phew, what a lot of questions!

Old photographs are really interesting things. Unlike paintings and drawings they often show what is really there. I say 'often' because even with old photographs they can be manipulated, but this is more common nowadays.

It is interesting to note that many early photos show quite obese women...as long as they are poor, yet richer women are almost invariably thin. Poor men and poor children are, likewise, thin.

These are fisher women from Scotland.

And these are more wealthy women golfers. I actually have no idea of their wealth but the fact they have the leisure and the resources to play golf makes me assume they have a greater disposable income than our fisher women.

Now let us make a few more assumptions. Fisher women would have worked very hard indeed. Historical records show this. And whilst our golfers obviously play golf, we can assume they do not work as hard..or burn as many calories... as fisher women.

Maybe our fisherwomen simply overeat. After all we know we get hungry after exercise. But what food would they have access to? Well, fish of course! But then fish is a cash crop to them. If they could sell their fish we can assume they would. They may only eat any fish they fail to sell. And with that fish, what else would they eat? Honestly I don't know, but I know women, and mothers. I know that if there was not enough food to go around, a mother would feed her children before herself. She would also give better food to the children. So let us say she had some potatoes, some bread or oat cakes and some fish, and maybe an egg or two. I think a mother would give the fish and eggs to her children, and probably her husband who has to go fish in the deep seas. She would say, "I'm fine, I'll just have some bread"

Now I know I have made a lot of assumptions here. But often in early photographs poor women are fat and poor men and children are painfully thin. Rich people are usually pleasantly slim, but not skinny. And yes, this is a generalization. 

So we can assume our fisher women, who are undeniably fat, have not been laying on the sofa eating chips. In fact they are probably working harder than most people today and eating less. And they are fat.

So what is all this about? Maybe something else is going on that doesn't just end up with fat people are just fat because they are lazy and they eat too much.

Now let us have a look at now-a days. In our current society obesity is a disease of the poor, but not exclusively of the poor. However the poor are over represented in the statistics. Just try googling 'the economics of obesity' if you would like proof of this. Also more women are obese than men (according the NHS statistics from the UK) but this gap is closing fast. So making an assumption again. Something makes women get fat more easily, or did, than men. But this is changing over recent years.

And I think we can safely assume that not many people actually want to look or live like this.

I think we can assume that these women would give a lot to be of normal weight and size. After all we know fat people get a raw deal in all walks of life, from getting and keeping jobs, to finding clothes to everyday humiliations of chairs and busses and toilet cubicles to the insults hurled at them by young men in noisy cars.

Now-a-days it is almost impossible not to know the message of healthy eating, so we can also assume our two women enjoying the sunshine above, know that they should not eat fats, and if they do they should only eat polyunsaturated ones. They should eat wholemeal grains and lots of them so they feel full and do not get hungry. If they do get hungry they should fill up with lots of fruit. They should eat almost no meat and if they could just have an occasional bit of fish or chicken breast then that would be best of all. Maybe processed carbohydrates are not too good for you, but don't worry, just have a small amount of cake made with raw sugar and wholemeal grain. After all its almost fat free, and it is the fat that makes you fat. And of course with healthy eating comes healthy exercise. These women should take up jogging.

It's not worked has it?

We stopped eating the fat, we ate the brown rice and the pasta and the wholemeal bread. We ate wholemeal bread for breakfast. No butter of course, just some low fat spread that said it was 50% less fat (less fat than what?). Or we had the muesli, with the rolled oats and the nuts and seeds and tiny bits of dates...and raw sugar of course. Lunch would be a salad with a no fat dressing ('all the taste none of the calories') and we would have this with a wholemeal roll with more low fat spread. Supper would be a grilled chicken breast with more salad and pasta. And as we had been so good all day maybe a desert of some strawberry fat free yogurt.

Or maybe we were desperate, and so we paid a lot of money to buy their 'meal replacements', the drinks and the bars. They were endorsed by doctors and we were desperate. This time, please, please, this time make it work.

We did it didn't we? We did what they said. We followed their rules. And it didn't work. 

We got hungrier and hungrier and fatter and fatter. And they said it was us. We were lying, cheating. If we had followed the rules we would be thin by now. 

But it wasn't us. We weren't lying and cheating and sneaking chocolate bars on the side. At least not then. the chocolate bars come later when we realise it will never work. When we did all they said and we were still fat, fatter even, so why should we bother? Why not just eat the chocolate and be blowed with it.

And the real tragedy of this is that it warped our minds. Food, once a source of celebration and family togetherness was now a source of worry and guilt. I'm fat so people must not see me eat. So we eat at night, or in the bathroom, or when we are all alone. And we become overeaters.

This post has to end. But I want to go further with this. I want to talk about what they did to our food, that made matters so much worse. That not only made us overeaters, but made sure we would remain so.

But just out of curiosity....did you, like me...put ON weight on the low fat diet? Did you get fatter with every diet you did? Let me know, and I will be back soon to chat about what they did to our food, and why.