Weighing it all up

I just couldnt get to all the WW meetings as planned, there was always something come up at those times each week with either one or the other of the kids that I had to attend. Evenings didnt work out as other half too often away and not to be relied on to look after kids. Once I had missed about 4 weeks of meetings I decided it just wasnt worth it, I wasnt losing anything and frankly, I was sick of point counting..

Nothing changed then

I am going to just go low carbs as much as humanly possible and hope that makes a difference. At the very least it might help with my sugar issues.. cravings… and reduce the spikes and lows enough to make it managable. So I am going to healhy and avoiding the foods that I think I react badly too – carbs – I would like to avoid dairy too, but not sure if I can cut out everything and literally live on meat and non-starch veges alone. I am not such a bit meat eater either so would usually rely on carbs to fill me up as I couldnt eat so much meat….

Anyway. Another day another diet eh

So, its a new year, but not a new beginning (although thats what I am reading on all the various fatty blogs and forums at the moment). Its not a new beginning because I didnt actually ’stop’ and I am not doing anything ‘new’. However, I am going back to the WW meetings this time, since I have realised that the only time I was actually losing weight was when I was attending those meetings. I cant for the life of me figure out what it is about the meetings that helps the weight loss…. you hear the same things every week, see the same products (they seem to think we only want to eat chocolate bars and chips because thats all they sell at the Dutch meetings) and get the same information. Motivational technique seems to consist of repetitions of the phrase ‘ stick with the plan and you WILL lose weight’. So I dont know what it is, and we will see if this time it will have the same effect as last time! At least if it doesnt, I will take my food diary and see if anyone there can explain what I am doing wrong…. although I dont hold out too much hope for that, because in one meeting there was a cautionary tale about a woman who swore she was sticking to the plan but she wasnt losing any weight, and after months of this they did a ‘test’ on the woman that somehow showed she was in fact consuming over 2000 calories a day and was therefore lying about her food intake. Well firstly I wonder what kind of medical test might exist that could possibly identify a persons calorie intake over 24 hours, and secondly, why was it concluded that she was ‘lying’ = quite a deliberate act, when (assuming the rest of it is true) it would seem more probably that she was making point counting errors…

Oh well. Not sounding so positive so far! But actually I am, I just have to convince myself that I can do it, and work on ways to stay motivated. I think that to stay motivated best I need to plan for what to do during the times of no weight loss even when I am sticking to the plan, because I know now that this will happen, and that its what unmotivated me last time….

Ok. Off to re-join the various forums and support groups that I found last year and prepare some questions for the next meeting

Well its been a few weeks now. I dropped sugar from my diet first, nothing else. I added some artificial sweetners, at least just for the interim. After a couple of weeks I noticed almost…. zero. difference, not to my weight and not to how I was feeling. I havent re-added sugar though, I’m sure its better for me not to eat any. I am not being super vigilant on it, yesterday I ate a sticky bun… the day before a 2cm piece of chocolate, but compared to what I was eating before, I am almost eating no sugar at all now.

So anyway, it made no noticeable difference to me, so I then cut out dairy products. That was a bit harder, I was eating zero fat zero sugar yoghurt everyday, milk in my coffee (frequently consumed) and cheese of course. So now I have unsweetened soya milk in my coffee, which I actually really like, I eat no yoghurts or other dairy products, but I am occasionally eating cheese, although not in large quantities.

And the result? I feel a lot better, I dont get that bloated feeling I used to have in the evenings and in general feel a lot less puffy. I may have lost a little weight too, although I doubt a seriously significant amount, but considering I am not ‘dieting’ as such, not counting points or calories, just eating when I am hungry, I think any weight loss then is a bonus, and must be due to simply having dropped the dairy from my diet.

Encouraging?

I think so

More updates in a couple of weeks – with a weight loss report…

I was sent this article today, about food allergy and food addiction. It was extremely interesting and ticked quite a few boxes for me. Heres the link and an exerpt: ”

Have you ever eaten something – a bowl of ice cream, a piece of cheese, an orange – and felt hungrier than before? Do you have urges for a particular food and find it hard to satisfy your craving unless you eat that particular food?

If the answer is “yes” to either of these questions, then you have a food allergy. If you are also fat, then chances are your food allergy is making you fat.

Food sensitivities may cause allergic people to crave those foods to which they are allergic. Just as a drug addict suffers withdrawal symptoms when the drug is withdrawn, allergic people experience discomfort when they lose access to a particular food.”

_________________________

It goes on to elaborate on all this, with information about research thats been done to support the theory. Certainly if I think back to when I gave up smoking, and compare that to the cravings I get for things like, coffee, sugars, bread, there are seriously concerning similarities! Of course I had already heard about and understood about food addictions, but I have not seen it linked so strongly with food allergy – which I also know I have to a few things. So it has been an interesting discovery and caused a lightbulb moment for me. I have decided to cut out ONE food item this week that I know is a problem for me, and thats sugar. My first instinct was…. argh how will I manage that! But when I thought about it a bit I decided it would be quite do-able and would certainly be a needed change. My biggest sugar intake is probably via my coffee, so I am simply going to use a sugar substitute for that so I dont feel deprived of sweet stuff. In this way its a lot like giving up smoking, I remember the feeling well of anticipating that I would be ‘missing out’ on something I enjoyed and that I would somehow be lost without it. If I remind myself of that when I get the sugar cravings, I can also remind myself that in fact, once the cravings had gone away, I actually felt better and not like I was missing anything.

Check back next week for the outcome

I feel so blah. I cant figure out why I would be actually gaining weight at the moment, I havent changed anything regarding what I am eating, if anything I have actually reduced it because I am back to watching points again rather than just going randomly at the ‘free’ foods of the Slimming World program. All I can think is that its a serious lack of sleep messing me up- messing up my hormones and my metabolism. I have been averaging about 5 hours sleep at the most a night in the last two weeks. And that has been broken with the 2 year old waking up most nights somewhere between 2.30 and 5.30am. Then I get up again at 6.30am for the teenager to be around when she gets ready and leaves for school. Of course my own fault too that I stay up till 2am, but thats the only time I get to catch up on all the things I am wanting to do all day and dont get a chance to do….

I am so tired! Blah!

Maybe I will just focus at the moment on getting the right amount of sleep for a couple of weeks, and then get back to the food thing… I wont weigh myself for two weeks either, because I just beat myself up over that and that just makes me feel worse.

Thats it for today, no interesting information, no cute cartoons, no recipes or diet discovery, just……. blah!

I just read this article today, and it really made me wonder! A scientist is claiming that the huge increase in the number of overweight people around the world could actually have been caused by a VIRUS. Isnt that bizarre? He seems to be basing this conclusion largely on the fact that he has found the majority of overweight people he has tested were more likely to have had this strain of virus in their system, than normal weight people. He also talks about it ’sweeping’ across the US (for example) in the same way as a virus.

Well its an interesting article – have a read and see what you think here. I am not sure what to think. Maybe its not conculsive evidence, perhaps its simply a correlation that doesnt necessarily indicate cause, but if so, its certainly an interesting correlation! I also think its a very useful study, if nothing else, because it highlights the notion that fat-ness and weight loss truly isnt a simple issue that can be corrected with simple measures such as ‘calories in less than calories out’. Maybe that works ok (using this theory) on overweight people who have NOT had this virus, and perhaps that is his next research project?? Maybe I should write to him and suggest that

So, another month another .00000009 kg lost. Not so encouraging! However I have to say I havent been trying very hard. So at least I havent gained anything.

I blame my scales. They are inconsistant! First they say one thing, then another, then another, then they go back to the first thing and INSIST that ‘this is really it’ until the next day when I discover that actually I have (as suspected) gained at least 2 grams rather than lost 5 like it said the day before.

See its not my fault!

When I look at it in perspective, I think that the fact I am worrying about and attempting to track miniscule weight changes, tells me that I am just waaaaay too overweight and focussing on totally the wrong aspect of weight loss (the scales) when I should be focussing more on what I am eating, when, and how much.

So now I have my tickets booked to travel to NewZealand and spend time with friends and family. I have now a FIRM and SET date by which I utterly expect to be down at least to the halfway point of my target. I have 8.5 months to do this. Will I make it? Watch this space. Again. No, dont give up on me yet! I really mean it this time!

A plan…. I need a plan….

Just as an aside, and because I thought it was great – I have been watching a movie about food (is that good for me or bad?) – Julie and Julia, about Julia Childs and a  modern day blogger fan who makes every recipe in Julias book and blogs about it. Great movie and I can recommend it! Not so much about food actually as about life

You can check it out on IMDB if you like (and watch the trailer).

What I want to know is, of me and the two other women I know of currently seriously working on weight loss, why have none of us had any success? Between the three of us I think we have tried about five different ‘diets’, or should I say, “lifestyle changes”, but with no actual change…

In fact the only success was the Cambridge diet that “L” went on under the advice of a dietician – it involved not eating and drinking shakes. Have to wonder what kind of dietician would suggest a non-good diet eh. Of course she lost weight, but after 4 days her eyes turned yellow and she started getting quite sick and stopped the diet on the advise of her doctor…

So what is it that is preventing us from
Weight loss when we are all doing exactly want common sense and ‘everybody’ says will cause it? Ie. “eating sensibly” and reducing calories.

I am going to do some research on this . Watch this space for my soon to be formulated NEW THEORY

Ok, i did it for three days, the Dukan diet. THREE days of only protein, no fruit no veges. I felt very very sick and unhealthy so I stopped it. I toyed with the idea of going on to his next phase of alternating protien only days with protien plus vegetables, but by this time I was feeling so yuk I couldnt face it. Also my weight loss – day one .7kg, day 2 .3kg day three, I GAINED .3kg AND felt like crap.

Maybe it has worked for other people (Im sure it must have) but it isnt going to work for me. And on serious reflection, I dont think a diet that is missing whole portions of the food pyriamid are healthy are they?

So back to sqauare one. In the past month I have eliminated all snacking unless it is fresh fruit. I dont eat any junk food of any kind, I have reduced my sugar intake to only what goes in my coffee (because sweetners are horrid and ruin the coffee), I only eat lean products and only cook with olive oil when oil is required. I eat about one sometimes two slices of wholemeal bread a day and thats if for my carbs, and if I eat any other carbs (like rice or pasta or potatoes) I limit the amount to no more than 200grams.

I dont think thats an extravagant diet. I eat healthier than anyone I know. Am I losing weight like this? NO! Oh well, at least I feel healthy on the inside

I wish I could blame it on something specific. Seems like almost all the diets and ‘diet plans’ are based on the notion that you are fat because you eat badly – wrong food wrong amount etc. Based on that idea it is sensible to assume weight loss will occur once the person has stopped their bad eating habits and started on a healthy and moderate diet. But what do you do when you are already on the healthy moderate diet??

I have the idea that my body is very very good at adapting to food intakes quickly – for example, after one day on the dukan diet, in which my shocked body lost almost a kilo, I quickly (very quickly) decided that this was now our new ‘maintenance’ diet upon which I could get the most benefit possible from my food (what there was of it) and use it efficiently enough to maintain my weight on my ‘new’ intake level. This seems to happen every time I change my eating pattern with the goal of weight loss, within a VERY short time it stalls to the point of becoming the ‘new’ maintenance level rather than the weight loss level. I think in many people this plateau comes much later down the track, at least not in the first 3 weeks like with me. Its rather disheartening as you see your food intake shrink and shrink to no good effect, you have to wonder where it will stop. I even tried a week of eating more, just to get myself kickstarted again the following week back on plan – but no, I just put on some weight and kept it Damn!

So now. I am going to stick with my healthy eating. I am going to be extra vigilant about it, record everything accurately, and have a look in a few weeks for any kind of result – if there isnt one then I need to look very carefully at my records and see if there is anything I can change without starving myself or dropping entire food groups!

Wish me luck..

I bought a new book this week, the Dukon Diet. I bought it, fully aware that in the last couple of years I have created a small collection of similar books, and despite this collection my weight hasn’t changed. This is likely to be the last “diet” book I buy (not necessarily because it will be the ultimate success, rather if this isnt good then of course I will never spend another penny on yet another book that says all the same stuff. If it is good, then I dont need another…). Next I will just go back to straightforward recipe books so I can simply enjoy them without the “lessons” that every diet book wants to teach us fat people.

However , although this particular book has all the sane old stuff in it, about how the diet was developed and why it’s better than all the other “bad” diet books our there, it did have one interesting piece of info- it’s not a simple matter of calories in and calories burned, the type of calorie is also important , and for older women there are also explanations for why the weight gain and why it’s so hard to lose it. That does rather help with the guilt of not being able to lose weight as easily as others (can’t be trying hard enough, bad choices etc) and with the frustration of thinking it’s simple and you’re failing when actually it isn’t as simple as people think because of all the hormonal issues as well that effect weight. Dukan also explains a lot of about how weight is stored in our bodies, about fat cells multiplying, and about what influences the likelyhood of rapid (or slow) weight loss. In fact its one of the more informative books I have read.

Now, as for the ‘diet’ itself. Its simple. No carbs. Minimum fats. Eat as much as you like of the foods in the ‘good to eat’ list, and avoid EVERYTHING else. Well thats easy! Or is it. I have very nervous about my ability to eat so much meat – see its not just no carbs but also high protein. I can add tofu, and as much fish as I like of any variety, so there is some hope. But no fruit and no veges for the first week – thats just plain scary! At least I can choose – anywhere from 1-7 days on this ‘attack phase’ as the initial kick start. And I have to say thats what it is, because since I started yesterday morning, to my weigh in this morning, I lost .7kg! Now thats a LOT.

ok so I am really not interested in describing the entire diet here, so have a look if youre interested at this: http://www.dukandiet.co.uk/ Short of buying the book, its got the most information I have seen in one place on this particular diet. I am not going to sign up for the very expensive coaching, its meant to be simple, so why would I need a coach? Not sure…. However, well there is a lot of info to read, and I dont think its a diet to take on blindly, need to know the reasons for everything. And personally, I just have to add more fruit to it….

And finally, well I just just curious about a ‘French’ diet! How can that be?? I have also ordered the recipe book, so lets see if its as tasty as I would anticipate any French food to be. Not all the recipes were written by the Doctor so there is some hope ..?