Blood sugar diet and fast800 thread 20

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Thread 20, can you believe it?

@Borris I agree with kimlek, leftovers reheated or salad. I love salad! In September I will be working 5 days a week for the first time in my life (or at least since around 2003) and I know that being organised will be the key so I am looking for things I can prep on a Sunday and take in every day. A few ideas are to prep a big batch of roasted veg and cook a chicken then just add salad leaves on the morning; overnight oats/chia/fruit pots; leftovers; soup. I am actually looking forward to it as a break from the constant lockdown eating and hoping that I can streamline my meals a bit!

Today I'm 3lbs down after the weekend which is good although I still feel like I'm retaining water and my hands are stiff. Just having a coffee and then heading out to run.

I ate all day yesterday.why do I do this to myself? Started yesterday at 10 which was fine. This morning 10.2. so frustrated with myself. So just checking in and aiming just for one good day at a time.
Lunch falafel and salad
Dinner turkey chili.
No crisps!!

Ah @Bestbees we have all been there. The important thing is that you have a plan in place for today. One day off will not ruin it for you.

That horrible 'can't stop eating' feeling is insulin resistance in action, and there's lots of things that can make us more resistant to insulin (fluctuating on a daily basis) - things like poor sleep, cortisol, hormonal upheaval etc can all do this (sleep is the key one for me). The best way to reduce your insulin resistance is to fast, and gentle exercise while fasted especially helps as it gives your body chance to metabolise the excess insulin and 'clear' your blood. The worst thing as we know is more carbs, as they will cause more insulin. I think in the book he describes it like you're starving because insulin is preventing you actually using your resources. If you feel like that it can be very helpful to get outside for a brisk walk, both for insulin reasons and also for sanity reasons 

Hope you have a better day today @Bestbees

Thank you @thenewaveragebear1983 it's horrid, like some mad desire to eat until I feel sick. Think it is psychological not physical. But onwards and upwards (downwards?!) and hoping for a good day for everyone!

"some mad desire to eat until I feel sick"
@Bestbees - be kind to yourself, it's not just you. We've all done it. My hypothesis is that modern Western diet (post-1970s) has evolved to hack some loophole/s in our psychology, some vulnerability not previously exposed or exploited. Probably related to disastrous shift away from "unhealthy" fats? Clearly, lifelong struggle for many of us, including me, to patch those holes, get back to healthier eating.

But it's one day, like @thenewaveragebear1983 says. Don't be downhearted. Write it off. New day today!

So I weighed myself this morning and again it was a gain!!’ I’m really intrigued what’s going on. So before I was eating white bread, fish and chips, chocolate, crackers, butter etc etc and seemingly that was less calorific than zero cal noodles, fish, courgetti broccoli, cauliflower rice etc etc. It’s very puzzling.

Anyhow I’ve no set my carbs to 20g, protein 60g and fat 53g. Breakfast was tinned mushrooms, one rasher of bacon and three spears of asparagus. Total cals 120. Then two cups of decaf tea with skimmed milk which I haven’t calculated the carbs of yet. I need to weigh the milk in my next one and see what it’s looking like.

I’ve stayed the same since Sunday - the effects of booze and carbs! Out tonight for my “hen party” (pub dinner In garden with 4 best friends) so not expecting a loss until that’s out of my system. Will try to make sensible choices. Then I need to knuckle down for the rest of the time til the wedding.

Another gain this morning, and another 400g. Have been sticking to diet, so no rhyme or reason to it in short term. On the other hand, scales claim today is 18.8% body fat, vs 19.2% yesterday! Best not to pay too much attention to daily swings. Keep head down, trot on.

Ham and cheese omelette for lunch. Never used to like omelettes, now rather fond of them. Not good at flipping them though.

I’m going to take a leaf out of your book and try not to obsess over daily fluctuations Outwest. 400g isn’t a massive amount is it?
Does anyone have any recipes for soups that they swear by please? I’d love to make my own and freeze for work lunches.

@outwest that's the right attitude I think, it does fluctuate. It's interesting that you experience that too as I've always felt it was a hormonal thing

Just a few things that have piqued my interest from recent posts and thought may be of interest to you all:

@bestbees and your manic eating yesterday, you can try eating more foods that promote Seratonin production, these can help fill that emotional void. When we eat compulsively it's is certainly psychological not physical hunger, and similarly to how binges cause dopamine in an addictive response, carbs in general flood our brains with seratonin which is why we can crave them so much when we're feeling blue or stressed

www.purerecoveryca.com/foods-to-boost-serotonin-mental-health-mood/

Similarly, there is some evidence that we crave foods we are actually intolerant to, because when we eat them we produce endorphins to cope with the pain we experience, and can get addicted to the endorphins rush. This sort of links into @outwest 's point about modern diets being flawed in that way. Gluten particularly is very irritant to our digestive system. There's also evidence that some irritant foods (such as dairy) contain proteins that cause opioid like reactions which can be addictive and can also blur our judgement (kind of how we are determined not to eat crisps until we've had one glass of wine and then all judgement goes out the window) - and obviously all people will have their own triggers/irritant foods.
There's a lot of info online about gluten causing anxiety and behavioural issues in children with adhd too. I certainly notice when I avoid gluten (never deliberately but it's easy to do on this plan because gluten tends to be in those carbs we don't have!) I am less jittery and generally feel better.

Just thought this might provide a point of research for anyone who likes disappearing down a googlehole. I find this stuff fascinating. It can sometimes be helpful to know that these cravings/behaviours are not always just because we've cut calories or carbs but actually that they can have a physiological cause which may take longer to stop than just the initial 'detox' phase.

My bold text is going haywire today sorry

Thank you @thenewaveragebear1983 I find all of that really interesting. I definitely need to look into serotonin foods, as the hunger I get is not real hunger but crazy hunger where I’m eating frozen cookie dough 🤦🏼‍♀️. It seems to build up over a period of a few days and is all sugar connected when I don’t even like sweet things very much!

Can’t believe the amount of carbs in an apple!! 😮

Thank you @thenewaveragebear1983 that's really interesting. And you know what? I know it and I still do it! Definitely lower carb helps and I am sure fish and chips on sat night spiraled this off.

@outwest thank you for your kind words, really gave me a boost.

Hope everyone is having a good day.

Closing the kitchen at 793 cals.
B: Black coffee.
L: Ham and cheese omelette.
Snack: 1 Braeburn apple.
D: Salad with lemon and salt (no oil) and Vietnamese sea bass from p.107 of the Fast Diet Recipe Book. Except used salmon (fatty, delicious), not lighter, whiter sea bass, so actual calories roughly twice 185 listed in the book. Pencilled in at 370.

Weigh-in aside, not a bad day. Will work in woodland tomorrow, earn lots of exercise calories. Have big lunch, supper.

Hi all - so interesting to read your posts about psychological hunger versus physical hunger. I have have PTSD and it's so interesting to me that when I'm in a depression phase I crave carbs and sugar non-stop, but if I'm in an anxious phase I am expert at controling & feeling hungry, like I borderline enjoy making myself hungry. I'm convinced it's (my appetite as well as my mental health) is hugely impacted by hormones but now I'm looking at gut health too. I hate both phases but at least feel more 'in control' in anxiety.

Down a pound today so the lowest I've been in lockdown and only 11lbs from goal, 4lbs away from my goal for my holiday in 2 weeks...

Well done @PhoenixMama, 4 pounds should be doable. I can totally relate to the control thing. It’s funny how I can vividly remember past events and I can remember whether I was on a diet and what I weighed at that time, it’s really sad really that I’ve spent most of my life judging myself by my weight.

Anyway closing at 925 today. I went over as I had two hotel dark chocolates but I really enjoyed them rather than mindlessly eating the whole box!

"sad really that I’ve spent most of my life judging myself by my weight."

But at least you're fighting.

Strongly believe acceptance of personal agency / responsibility crucial to success in all aspects of life, so don't want to (and don't) blame anybody but self. BUT I remember as child in 1970s/1980s very few kids/people fat. Human nature has not changed in 40 years (average person no greedier), nor have human genes changed, but something has changed. "Obesogenic environment" concept done to death, but has kernel of truth nonetheless.

Until ~40-50 years ago fight was about getting enough cals. In terms of maintaining healthy weight, we were wading with the flow - not hard to do. Then direction of flow inverted; shift away from fat towards HFCS the key catalyst here?

Now we wade Sisyphus-like against a current of cheap calories, driven back a step for every two we take by sheer volume of water. Stumble once, lose five, ten paces. Only solution: move to river banks where current is gentler, eddies form, fish dream, damselflies perch on reeds. Quieter place. Can make progress there without being washed away.

Corollary: veer away from obesogenic environment by making certain food types unavailable / hard to access. Blood Sugar Diet and/or fasting?

Ok day today

Scrambled eggs, grilled tomato and avocado
Chicken salad
Milk for tea
And skinny latte and 2 squares dark chocolate

I’ll be over on cals and carbs today - prob more like 1000. Just find adding everything up so boring. But if I don’t keep track it creeps up! Calling this week an ease back in. I’ve resigned myself to a 3-4lb gain this weigh in I think after week off and prob not doing enough to mitigate.

Still that’s ok. I am finding my way back and am determined I’ll get there. Loving all the support for each other and interesting theory on weight gain on this thread. Good time to say thanks thenewaveragebear1983 for running it. I def wouldn’t manage without it.

Sounds like everyone's had a good day.

I do agree @outwest about the obesogenic environment; if you read various literature available it demonstrates that food is literally engineered to be addictive and override our natural instincts. Sticking to a plan like this where the bulk of our intake is natural food that grows or roams, and is eaten as close to its natural form as possible is hopefully going to benefit us.

I've had a pretty good day although I did eat a tiny cupcake (made 35 teddy bear cupcakes for ds's nursery party tomorrow!) on top of my allowance. Worked out the calories and they were over 200 each! I did run 9km this morning though and did a gruelling circuits class this evening. So ending on 1400 cals instead of 1200 and 80g carbs, 17k steps. I also had sea bass for dinner, never had it before and I was impressed with its meatiness.

Tomorrow, I'm going for a short run in the morning, then I'm going kayaking on a local boating lake with dd and ds (enjoying our last day of peace with little ds at nursery!) I've planned an 800 cal menu as I could do with a bit of a kickstart (egg, avo and smoked salmon for lunch, and spicy chicken and lentils from the BSD book for dinner)

Another who had sea bass for dinner. We have it a lot. Intrigued by your Vietnamese style outwest have 3 BSD books but not that one.
I’m going to be researching foods that raise serotonin levels. Could be useful for my eldest DD.
I’ve not counted today and although wasn’t bad I had nosecco and 85% chocolate so not ideal.

Another 2 down today (although that's still not back to where I was last week at my lowest!) but I'm happy it's going. I feel a lot less creaky and bloated today, I think I was holding a lot of water around my muscle as I did quite drastically increase my exercise last week!

Have a good day all!

@outwest I love that water analogy, beautifully put.
All he Sea bass talk has made me put fish on the menu today!
Down 2lb today and hoping for another good day today.
Menu lunch onion soup and cheddar
Dinner cod and prawns in Ratatouille

@Bestbees @Kimlek @thenewaveragebear1983 Seabass recipe attached. Has potential, but find sauce a bit strong-tasting. Next time maybe halve ginger, reduce soy, reduce oyster, leave fish sauce as is? (Photo edited to remove incriminating notes.)

Thank you outwest
I’m up to 10.4 today ☹️ and have a pub lunch booked with the kids and DH as he’s taking a couple of days off work. It involves a dog walk but probs only an hour and with them it’ll be a stroll rather than brisk. I’ll ensure BSD friendly but it’ll be another day of no counting.
I’m very envious of your kayaking bear. I’m so missing our holiday as they are always quite active but everything seems such a struggle to plan and organise here. This time last year we were cycling across San Francisco golden gate bridge.