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.🙂

I love a snack, keeps my poor overworked brain going...

:-)

I'm feeling a bit disheartened at the moment. I'm coming to the end of my 2 weeks and I've found it quite hard to log consistently over a quite busy 2 weeks, including some time away.

I haven't done as many experiments as I'd hoped and feel like I've lost track a bit with where I should be up to. I've really enjoyed seeing the blood sugar results but can only assume they will recommend drastic reduction in carbs. And I am a bit unenthusiastic and wondering how sustainable eating nuts seeds and veg will be. We're a very carby vegetarian household!

I was hungry tonight and felt I easily could have dived into the sweet carbs. I didn't but I'm worried about setting up a low carb regime which I can't sustain and then falling into binge eating.

Obviously I need to wait for my results. Did anyone else feel overwhelmed at this stage but found it all made sense in the end? Worried I've spent a lot of money and not sure what I'm going to get out of it.

Yes completely @BishyBarnyBee. It’s much easier to log once you’re at the coaching stage. I found logging during testing a total pain and didn’t do that much of it and that wasn’t an issue.

Hang tight and wait for your results. And don’t worry about having to give up carbs. I have appalling blood sugar control and can still eat carbs! It’s about combining foods, adding stuff in (rather than making anything forbidden) in a way that best suits you.

Thanks so much. That's really reassuring. I think I'm panicking that the monitoring is nearly over and I might have blown my chance at this. Good to hear the coaching helps.

@BishyBarnyBee I completely agree on the carb front. My blood sugar control is poor, which I expected. To an extent low carb diets have worked in the past for me but I've not found them sustainable because of fitting them in with every day life. Or my running. The coaching is really helping on building up combinations that include carbs and it's much easier to fit in to life.

Yesterday we had a work event and I made a conscious decision that I'd just enjoy a bacon cob for breakfast. For the rest of the day I ate high scoring meals and hit 74.

Looking back I think I experimented too much with the monitor and ended up with a fairly ropey diet in places, all the trials led to spikes and being hungry.

I agree with that. I farted around too much & got a bit overwhelmed. Hence the original post. 😁

I have a dodgy thyroid to go with my poor fat/sugar control, so don't want to go very low carb. But actually DH is now complaining there is too much cake...this is because I have lots of apples, so pie!
But I like the combinations, food ordering, some of the glucose hacks, all pretty good. Do the coaching, it helps. Think process, don't get ahead of yourself. 👍

Thanks all. Really helpful.

I think I saw something about buying your own monitors - has anyone done that? The ones online seem to need a reader, I can't work out how to order the same as we've been using with our phones. I thought it might be good to do a bit of monitoring later on once I've got my recommendations?

Here for sensors, I think? It's v.v.early for me tho, so do check...

Libre link linky

I think the problem with the testing @BishyBarnyBee is that it focuses us on glucose as that’s what we’re getting ‘live’ data for. But the program is about so much more than that. Now I’m into the coaching I’m not as fixated on the glucose spikes thing as I was when I tested. Gut health and fat control is just as important - it’s just that you don’t get any live data about that during testing.

I’m realising that it really is all about the coaching stage - I’m learning so much more from it than I expected (having already been someone who knew plenty about the science of nutrition and ate healthily) and I’m surprised by how much better, in general, and more nourished I feel.

So really try not to get caught up in analysing the limited data you have available to you at this point from the CGM. Hang in there - it will all come good once coaching starts!

@chutneypig how do you get to 75 so consistently? I struggle to do it on a normal day let alone a day with an event!

Take today. I have the day off and dh wants to go to Wagamamas for lunch as dcs don't like it and he loves it. I have breakfast which scores in the 90s, wags but I'm picking stuff which gets me in the mid 60s, small dinner which scores in the 80s and movie pudding (said fake cheesecake) which scores like 77. My total is only just 75 and that's dabbling at margins/quantity etc. if I chuck in a latte at any point I'm screwed.

Even on a normal day, I don't seem to be able to manage. I eat a shit tonne of veg, try to have pulses once a day etc but if I throw in a bit of toast or some rice it tumbles. I do eat green scoring carbs (Bulgar is my fave) but this making your meals green stuff is so hard for me. One orange element and my day is screwed!!

The one thing I did think is that I don't actually eat that much in a day. Even though I am not calorie counting, it's not usual for me to eat more than 1500 cals a day really so maybe it's hard to add enough. Or my main meals are my 'bad' ones and proportionally I don't then eat enough 'good' stuff to balance out.

I don't know. All I know is my weekly average is stuck around 65 and I feel no better. Sulk sulk sulk.

I think it is very much harder to fiddle with food intake if your overall needs are smaller.

I'd be happy with 75, including a meal out. I don't think I was getting that eating at home. 🙄😁

@lugeforlife ive found adding stuff, rather than taking stuff away, is the best way to keep my score up! I always have chocolate after lunch. Having some nuts too boosts my score. It’s really hard to get your head around if you’ve previously restricted/ calorie counted… But I think for the Zoe ‘way’ to really work you need to let go of calories.

that being said, I also find it much harder to score over 75 if I’m eating out or on holiday.

I know wombat! It's because I had a birthday and a work dinner this week so I didn't track and I felt I had to try today.

Had a good chat with dh over lunch though and he pointed out I'm doing my usual all or nothing approach. I'm also not moving enough and I've also been a bit poorly on and off over the summer.

Trust the process!

Yes @Flockameanie I agree 200% but my issue is I can't get that much grub in . I am not consciously restricting cals in any way, it's just I can't eat as much of the healthy stuff. I'm actually making myself eat a bit more at breakfast/lunch

Ah, I see. Have you got to the lesson on food swaps yet @lugeforlife? I found that helpful too.

I stopped tracking once it was less helpful for me. I just try to implement the principles at each meal.

A lot of it for me is I only have to sort myself out on weekdays as I work away @lugeforlife. Not much navigating around other people. My breakfast smoothie comes in at 89, then in the week I'll take a lunch in but its the same every day - pulse/grain salad, seed crackers and PB, wasabi peas and my chickpea blondie. Dinners I vary a bit more but usually 70 plus. I haven't eaten much in the way of carbs for years so I've never really factored them in in the week, so that makes it a bit easier too. Weekends when I'm home are trickier but my husband is putting together a lot more options around 60+ now which helps.

What really tanks my score and seems very difficult to come back from is low quality fats. Nothing I add to that helps, but I can rescue a meal with veg if I'm having some carbs. Thinking about it that's the blood sugar impact isn't it, fats a separate issue.

Wagamama's really surprised me as to how low scoring it all was - I could barely find anything that scraped into the green for me. Really thought I'd have plenty of options there.

That's interesting around the calories - mine vary between 1500 and 2100, usually around 1800. I've only been keeping half an eye on them, so just looked back for the last couple of weeks. I do feel fuller with eating this way.

I’ve finally started - day one today. Thank you everyone for posting, I think (hope) the recent posts will help me to go with the process and not worry too much during the monitoring fortnight.

I'm a massive wimp about needles and got into a sweat about applying the glucose monitor so I asked my neighbour to do it. I honestly didn’t feel a thing 😁.

is it worth logging food in mfp or just wait until I can start logging in the Zoe app? At the moment I’m just noting food and drink in a notebook and logging glucose readings so I can look back on progress.

Log in the Zoe app if you can as the meals are retro-scored & it's useful.

Welcome. 😁👍

I agree with wombat that logging in Zoe if you can is helpful. I did a bit of both to start but it's very useful for the retro scoring.

Sorry for being an arse last week everyone. I had my period, work was stressful and my dd was sick so I really struggled. I had a lousy weekend Zoe wise - a plate of beige crap and cheese roasties and cake on Saturday, apple crumble and snickers yesterday.

Today I'm pulled myself together a bit. I food planned realistically yesterday, I sent dh shopping and I did a bit of prep last night. And I reflected that I do feel better. I am sleeping better, my peri pms is better, my poo is generally better. I ache less. All
of this is evident when I go off piste so I just have to trust the process.

Today came in at 79 with lots of lovely food and not trying! My new favourite lunch is gram flour pancake with Dahl in the middle. Lush cheap and filling, what's not to love!

Hope everyone else is ok. Newbies hope you are scanning your arm like no one's business!

The feeling better is boiled frog tho, you only realise when you go off piste.

Gram pancakes & Dahl sounds great.

We had sausage, pinto beans with everything (a tomato sauce, bits of veg, spices) & cabbage tonight.

A quick one while I’m winding down for bed, did everyone take a glucose test before sleep and then another within 8 hours? I’m shattered right now but trying to stay awake until 10:30 so that I can set the alarm for 6:20am. I’m still a bit jet-lagged from a recent trip to the USA and sleeping in a bit longer than usual. I really don’t want to set my alarm so early. Does it really matter if data is lost after 8 hours?

It doesn't matter at all. You just lose a bit at the start of your sleep cycle- the 8.hours before you wake up is kept. And it seemed to be a time when the blood sugars before and after the gap were very similar for me so really not losing much. Enjoy your sleep!

Thanks @BishyBarnyBee. I’ve been re-reading the thread so have stayed awake and can happily sleep until 7am now.

I usually wake up around 6’ish anyway, but if I get the slightest sense that I ‘have’ to be awake by a certain time it throws me off.

G’night 😴

I hope you enjoy the first few days @Itsnotallblackandwhite I remember them very fondly. Apart from the muffins. I'm with Wombat and would log as much as you can in Zoe. I found it a bit frustrating at first as MFP has more utilities but you soon get used to it. I wish I'd kept up the logging between the monitor and getting my results as it is useful to look back.

I finally got round to trying the socca you recommended @lugeforlife. I think it was you! Very pleased with that, but my husband was even more pleased. He's sensitive to gluten and hasn't really found a good substitute so I'll be playing around with the recipe to try different options. Stress is a kicker for anything like this, it's so difficult to put the effort into planning on top of everything else. My sleep is a huge amount better than it was a few years back but I can feel work has impacted the last few days and I've definitely ended up snacking more.

I'm also shoving beans in everything now @Wombat27A, even my daughter is. Ooo and I tried my first sourdough at the weekend, I was very pleased with myself but now share your pain on not being able to log it properly.