Again.
For the hundredth time!
I looked back and read that post where I said:
So, what made me succumb to eating more than I needed and not exercising? ME. Just me. My very own personal lies, laziness, excuses, and indulgences. I'm like that. It's like I'm a five-year-old performing the vinegar/baking soda volcano experiment over and over again thinking that it might not work this time. But just as the little kid will delight in watching the bubbly liquid expand and flow, I watch as too much food + not enough movement makes my fat multiply. Crazy how that works, huh?I read that now and want to cry and laugh at the same time. I've learned so much over the past two months that I'm embarrassed as I see my former ignorance of the metabolic process written out.
What I do know, though, is that this experiment can be reversed with rewarding results. A disciplined diet + commitment to exercise makes ugly cellulite DIE.
I'll be posting what I've learned so that one day, when my grandchildren read this they'll say to their parents, "Why was staying a healthy weight so hard for Grandma?" - and my hope is they'll say that because the medical community will have finally become honest and the little known secrets today are widely known then. (I hear you all laughing).
I am not a doctor and my Google University degree doesn't mean much. But I have become my own guinea pig and have some fantastic discoveries to share.
In January I turned 40 and my cousin sent me a "your life in pictures" email that included a picture of me less than a year after our first child was born. I was 22 and almost 40 pounds lighter than I am now. It doesn't seem too drastic does it? Gaining 2 pounds a year over the course of time. Except those years really add up.
My motivation to start researching all that I have came from a peculiar source - his name is Fluffy.
We watched Gabriel Iglesias's, The Fluffy Movie where he talks about having lost 100 pounds on a low carbohydrate diet. He mentions eating all the fat and protein he wants he just stays away from carbs.
I've heard that story before, haven't we all? But this time, 40 years old, still overweight and frustrated I decided it was time to thoroughly research all of the pros and cons of a diet that virtually eliminates carbohydrates.
My biggest concern was my own self. I was a huge sugar tooth who craved different carb heavy foods all the time. I have previously attributed my inability to control my cravings to the sin of gluttony and that very well may be part of it - but it certainly isn't all of it. I'll go into more detail on this later.
As I mentioned, I'm only two months into making changes to the food that I eat. This would be a much more trustworthy series if I was a year in but I wanted to start cataloging the links to the information I've been reading and documenting my own progress.
I'm not starting from a point of poor health. I don't recommend anyone who is in poor health to do what I am doing without careful consideration and trustworthy advice from someone who is not me. (There's my disclaimer.) I started with a set point weight of 189, I'm 5'8" which means my BMI was 28.7. Today, as I write this I weigh 177 with a BMI of 26.9.
The benefits, outside of the 12 pound weight reduction I've achieved so far, have been nothing short of amazing for me.
I am no longer hungry.
I don't have cravings.
I have less joint pain.
I don't feel deprived.
I don't feel sad.
I don't hate everyone around me who can eat whatever they want.
I don't have cravings.
I don't have cravings! None. At. All.
I have not had a candy bar in over two months. Even during Easter. I didn't eat a single jelly bean and didn't feel sad. Something has changed so drastically in my system that I have not chosen to eat (cheated) a single food item that I've cut from my diet. Not one chip, piece of french bread, french fry...nothing. In fact, I have not tasted anything with real sugar in it for two months.
I've done this before. But I didn't do it exactly this way. I attempted to cut sugar and starches out of my diet by replacing them with "better carbohydrates" and protein and inevitably I would go through a period of depression. My brain screamed at me to cheat on my diet. Food consumed my thoughts. Not being able to eat food consumed my thoughts. Feeling very bad things about people who can eat the food I wanted to eat, consumed my thoughts. Failure consumed my thoughts. And then failure set in. "I'll try again tomorrow."
So, what have I been doing different this time?
I eat a lot of fat.
A LOT of FAT! Fatty, greasy, fatty fat FAT!
My fatty fat fat diet consists of about 70% fat and 30% protein. My carbohydrate intake is minimal at less than 5 grams/day. And, I still have cocktails with my husband in the evening.
The fats that I eat are: coconut oil, butter, lard, and the fats found in other meat, nuts, and diary products. I'll get into more of the food I'm eating later.
For now I'll end with this, no matter how this change of eating turns out for me, I went into it with the hope that I could overcome the emotional challenge of not eating sweets, chips, breads, and desserts. If you have the addiction I did, you know that it is likely one of the hardest addictions to overcome. I'll tell you more about what I physically went through as I "detoxed" later. It took about ten days. Ten days and I don't have a single temptation to eat sugar. The sweet tooth that made me fat has been defeated, with FAT.
With regards to coconut oil, you might want to investigate it because the oil at the store is white in color which means that it has been stripped of all its essential nutrients. The ideal coconut oil must be golden color and I avoid the oils in the store for that reason. I hail from an island where we use every bit of the coconut and my dad lived to a ripe old age of 90. We use it on our skin and hair as well as rub it into the scalp as well. You might want to ask HL about it, since he is from Hawaii.
ReplyDeleteI'll look into it. Yes, the "organic" tubs I get from Sam's club are white. I did a test with it on my hands. I had been gardening and had to scrub them hard which left them dry. I put coconut oil on one and Eucerin on the other. The coconut oil hand was much smoother and a lot less greasy than the Eucerin hand. I've also started using it in my hair.
DeleteI looked today while I was out shopping, the tub of coconut oil I have is not as white as the others, it has a bit of a yellow hue, but I didn't see a golden color option.
DeleteI'll be interested to follow your progress! Thank you for sharing so openly.
ReplyDeleteI've lost about 12 kg over the last year by reducing the amount I eat, eating more whole foods and exercising regularly (I did calorie counting for a while in there). I have about 3 more kg to go until my goal weight.
I have read before about a low-carb/high fat diet, but I've always been hesitant to jump in because a lot of sources say that severely cutting carbs puts your body into ketosis and that no one has studied the long term risks of this.
Is that something you've come across in your research?
Ketosis aside, I don't think I'm ready to say goodbye to carbs! Although I must say, your form of low-carb looks better than Paleo, which cuts dairy as well!
I'll be doing a post about Ketosis and dairy soon. We live in the "dairy state" in the US. RLB grew up on a dairy farm. Thankfully we all can eat dairy with no adverse reactions because it would be awfully hard to do here!
DeleteCongratulations on your weight loss! Have you struggled with cravings at all? Have you dieted before and then regained the weight or is this your first time losing weight after having children?
This is my first time losing weight after children, although funnily enough, I seem to lose weight during pregnancy and then gain it all back during breastfeeding!
DeleteI struggle with cravings on and off. I think I'm more of a "boredom eater" than an emotional eater. So I find when I keep busy during the day, I'm less likely to over eat.
I still have to stay vigilant about what I eat, but I feel like I have settled into a good rhythm with portion sizes and meal times, so I don't have to obsess any more.
I am an entertainment eater. I don't get bored much but when I sit down to watch a movie or a show I like, I'm trained to enjoy it with food. When we have company, I'm trained to put out snacks and fun food. When I was a kid, road trips were always accompanied with junk food. Wherever there is fun to be had here in Wisconsin, there is a lot of food that goes with it.
DeleteWhen I'd try to cut back on snacking, sitting down to watch TV or having company over or going on a trip without fun food was as hard to overcome (and as depressing) as a smoker on their first day of having a cup of coffee without a cigarette (you'd have to be a smoker to understand).
I'm doing the same thing -- high fat, protein diet. A week into it, and cravings are minimal. I'm eating a lot less in terms of frequency and volume, too.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by the notion of having cocktails. Most of the stuff I like requires sugary mixers, so I've cut those out and have the occasional white wine spritzer made with sparkling water. What sort of cocktails do you have in the evening?
We're vodka drinkers and we mix it with Diet Coke. We have a Soda Stream so we buy Diet Coke syrup and mix our own which ends up being less syrupy as the stuff in the can or bottle. I've found that everything tastes sweeter now than it once did (I'm having the same issue with salt and have had to reduce how much I salt my food) so I'll sometimes have a drink that's just an ounce of vodka and carbonated water with a hint of Diet Coke. I've also noticed that my tolerance has gone down - which doesn't bode well for our next big family get together (they're pros) :) .
DeleteThe wife and I are on the same track: Fat, little grain (carbs), coconut oil for almost any use imaginable, REAL SUGAR (insert panic, here--yes, we eat REAL SUGAR ON PURPOSE!), sea salt in place of more heavily processed (bleached) junk.
ReplyDeleteThe results are much as you describe; we eat less, have fewer cravings and feel a LOT BETTER in general. The value of real fat, sugar and salt outweigh the supposed horror of eating them.
Of course, a complete lack of self-control is entirely separate: I'm not advocating a diet composed of sugar-encrusted, fried lard. We ARE simply disconnected from the HF-corn-syrup-feed industry. Social issues and food issues look much the same under the surface: DISCONNECT from the MSM script if you want to survive and thrive.
Cheers,
Alan K
DISCONNECT from the MSM script if you want to survive and thrive.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the truth! I have been scouring over tons of information, studies, articles, videos...they get close to the truth but then put out completely inconsistent findings and advice with what the research shows/indicates. That and obviously our medical community has completely lost track of the difference between correlation and causation.