Zoe Nutrition Testing

[Wombat27A]

Not sure this is the right place for this...

Anyone else doing the Zoe Nutrition Testing?

My results were poor, so now I'm tackling my diet. I thought it was pretty good but it's clear it needs a major overhaul. So much information but finding it good.🙂

@chutneypig my mum got me a kimchi kit this weekend. I am giving Mr Luge a ver hard Paddington bear stare as he promised to get me some Chinese cabbage today. Other than yoghurt I am not on the fermented stuff yet.

That is an interesting overnight line! Be very curious when you get your results with that baby!

I think I've mentioned earlier in the thread that I use kefir a fair bit, tho usually in cakes and pancakes, so that probably kills it. Use it as a rising agent with bicarb, rather than baking powder.

But I really should try kombucha. The kimchi I bought in a jar is now lurking in the fridge...

I didn't really analyse my blood sugar graphs enough, I needed to be later to start when you all discussed it more.

I think that given the current state of energy prices, there's no way that I can justify the cost of actually doing the programme, but I am very much enjoying lurking here and getting tips from those of you who are doing it. I've upped my fruit, veg and spice intake, aim to have something fermented with every meal, have switched to Waitose no1 dark chocolate which is the cheapest I've found without added vanilla, and am cutting down on meat and increasing pulses. And am starting meals with a small crudités with pulse or kefir based dip course to get in more veg and fibre at the start of each meal.

@DaisyWaldron

I'm more than happy to expand on any bits of info.

As ever with this sort of thing, it's not the knowing, it's the doing...

Thanks Wombat, good to know what's coming up.

I'm currently on the '3 colours of veg' challenge, I often have scrambled eggs with tomatoes so instead today I made it into a kind of salsa with tomatoes, spring onions and orange pepper. It's all good on days like today when I'm not in a rush, but busier days not so easy, more planning needed I think.

I'm eating a wider variety of veg. I had got into a routine of buying the same things each week. Now, anytime I'm out I choose veg as sides which I don't usually eat

When doing our online order, I regularly pick alternatives on top of my regular purchases.

Together this gets me to 30 different types of veg each week. Including fresh herbs and spices.

@DaisyWaldron one of the things I find most useful is the meal combinations and working on abundance. Glucose Goddess covers quite a bit on this (I follow her on Insta and I know a few have her book). Essentially it's about adding foods in not taking them away. So adding nut butter to a banana, Greek yoghurt to mango, avocado to toast etc.

I was very scared about this as I thought I would over eat but I genuinely don't. I possibly have a bigger breakfast especially but I feel full and better able to cope with stress eating etc.

It's movement week for me. My very very worst thing. I struggle so much with not being sedentary as a rock.

My problem is that I eat a wide variety of nutrient-rich food (I've been counting up the different types of plant I've eaten in the past week, and I've been able to list 41) but I also eat a lot of additional ultra-processed junk. I've been have perimenopausal shitty sleep, and eating sugar to keep going, which is making my sleep worse...

I'm off to a festival this weekend, which will probably not help, but I'll try to do a bit of a sleep hygiene week when I get back.

I think after the tracking that it was the sugar dips waking me up in the night. This may be correlation not causation but I eat nuts now as my 9pm "Statin" snack. 😁

Hrt has helped with sleeping, I think, too.

@DaisyWaldron is it worth doing some 'junk' prep? Like brownies made with black beans or chickpeas, or little packs of chocolate almonds or stuff? Go through the outer reaches of instagram to find those recipes designed to look like sweet stuff but are basically good stuff in disguise?

I agree the sleep makes stuff tough (peri as well) and although I know everyone says not to have crap in the house, if you live with a junk food loving husband and a couple of teens that ain't gonna happen. So looking for less bad alternatives is probably more realistic (although I am sure you don't need me to tell you that!),

Also magnesium and no liquid past 7 helps my peri shite sleep.

@lugeforlife

This popped up on my social media this morning and I read it and thought it might be worth a post in here. It's about managing the gap between optimal and realistic when it comes to food. Some of us need to manage this more carefully than others but it's an interesting read.

Precision Nutrition junk food mgt blog post

Obviously, they are trying to sell the coaching but I've followed PN for years and a lot of the stuff they've blogged turned up in my recent course with the health board dieticians.

@Wombat27A thanks for posting that. A lot resonated. The emotional health bit especially. I was really upset by the long thread on AIBU re plus sizes and the comments on health etc. whilst I know they are true, so much emphasis on being weak and greedy (at least that's how my rather upset brain read it).

For me, my goal is to get to a consistent 14/16, eat well and be active. I will still be overweight at that size but not obese. It's not optimal I know but it's not awful either and it will allow me to have some 'bad' food and drink and to live a jolly life.

I know in the past it's the all/nothing/having a life thing which has caught me out as I have tried to be perfect all the time. I am getting that isn't realistic but it's hard to unpick 30 years of diet culture innit

The poster who said fat people should be shamed for eating cake was a total arsehole.

Yes, same here. It was another thing I thought I was doing 'right' - no evening snacking. Then with the sensor on I could see when I went into the red between 3am and 6am, usually if I'd had a early dinner and nothing since. Evening snacking is not so bad after all!

Has anyone experimented with kefir? I don't like milk so the thought of drinking it neat is horrible, but wondering about smoothies?

Yep, stick in smoothies, mix it in yoghurt (saw Tim do that) and also use it as a rising agent in cakes!

Feed it the dog neat, she likes it.

Make pancakes with it too.

Yes!! I had some dark chocolate and nuts at 10pm last night. Thought I was doing something ‘wrong’ but didn’t wake up in the middle of the night sweating, and it was the first night I didn’t go into the red since I’ve been wearing the monitor (a week now)

Sadly half a box of Ritz crackers before bed is a blood sugar DISASTER which of course I knew…but yum…

I keep wanting a teacake. :-)

By the end of this you'll be having the crackers with cheese...

@lugeforlife I've been having a bit of a think about your post, before replying.

I think I'm older than you but were probably in a similar place when I was younger. So in my late 30s, I was a size 20-24 and very unfit, couldn't move well, etc. I got really fit, lost 14kg, etc. Cleaned up my diet with IF, then paleo, the whole kit & caboodle. The through my 40's gradually gained all the weight back (tho interestingly, I'm now a 14/16/18, not entirely sure, so much more compact) and not as fit but still better off than I was, can move better.

I have got very shirty with people saying things like that thread over the years, including online groups, GPs and dudes down the gym.

However, I now know I eat better than the majority of them (same diet as DH, who is 70kg @ 6ft), my bone health is probably better & my muscle mass is sufficient. I'm managing a load of autoimmune stuff, the ND issues and the stress about things/people in my life but beyond my control...

Best to stay away from those threads, as MN is notorious for competitive undereating & fat shaming. And one thing I did learn off my PT course is that people do not understand the risks of continuous undereating on bone and brain health. Seriously, better to be a bit fat, statistically the best place to be!

The other thing is shame and the pervasive & destructive nature of it. Brene Brown is a good read/watch on this. I would never have thought that I suffered from shame but I do and it's apparent in food (never ate in front of people from when I was a kid, as I knew I'd get judged) and the state of my house (don't let people come visit...that's still a work in progress.)

Your goals are excellent. Manageable, realistic, pragmatic and fit in with your life and how you want to live it. Add in a bit of resistance training (weights/bodyweight/pilates) and you'll get more solid and protect your muscles and joints, bit of walking (heart, bones and fluid movement) and you're golden!

I will say tho that regardless of the progress above, I'm better with outside help. It doesn't have to be particularly onerous, just a bit of coaching or a course, just to keep me on track.

The other thing is keep on top of menopause/thyroid/arthritis issues. Do not ignore slowing down,being abnormally tired or feeling cold or anything where you say "it's just my age!".

Great post Wombat!

I had my first 75+ day yesterday, I've been less than 50 every day since starting the coaching last week. I managed it by having a breakfast of eggy toast (using Livlife bread which scores 94 for me) and baked beans for breakfast, prawn stir-fry for lunch, pearl barley risotto with loads of veg for dinner and my snacks were dark choc, cherries and nuts. I can definitely eat like this a few days a week at least!

@Wombat27A you are a guru. That post was a great read! I have often suspected what you said was the case but there is so much noise around it all it gets confusing.

RIGHT I am back from hols, next week the middle child is starting school and the baby is a great napper 🤞🏻🤞🏻 so I am back into it all full force!! Going to catch up on the week of coaching I missed and get back to it with lots of exercise. Hello all!

I'm with you @MassiveSalad22 - back from holidays and back at it.

I dabbled last week and it was useful to see what higher scoring foods I could get out and about. My daughter really enjoyed a bean salad I bought and is keen to take that sort of thing to school. That'll help a lot at weekends if we can double up on food like that.

That blog was very insightful @Wombat27A, thanks very much for sharing.

Great work on the 75+ day @BarryKentPoet. What score does dark chocolate come out for you? It was my go to healthier treat option but was 42 - although I've not tried pairing it with anything yet.

Off to the supermarket to stock up soon. I'm trying to add spices in as well having listened to the Zoe podcast on that.

Hi everyone! I'm on the waiting list for this, does a referral from an existing member help you to get on the programme quicker?

@caramelchaos yes it does. I may have one left if you pm me.

@chutneypig dark choc is green for me - about 50. I have yoghurt with fruit and/or nut butter for my sweet stuff (except for yesterday when dd made me eat the whipped cream from her milkshake obvs).

@MassiveSalad22 lovely to see you back!

@BarryKentPoet I am also loving the food. I enjoy finding fakeaways- this week was bang bang cauliflower using gram flower!

@Wombat27A you da man. I did appreciate your post.