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!
Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Thursday, 24 May 2012
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.
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.
Friday, 18 May 2012
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.
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.
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