Anyone just started the ZOE nutrition testing?

[SomethingNastyInTheBallPool]

I’ve started today — and only managed one out of the three breakfast muffins (ate two but one came straight back up!) Anyone else fallen at the first hurdle??

Sorta regret asking an innocuous question elsewhere now 😝

Anyway shall we maybe see how we get on in here?

I actually think the muffins are OK, nice even! Definitely not like a blueberry muffin. Possibly helped by the fact that for most of the last year I've been gluten/diary/sugar free, so am used to things not being right. To me the overwhelming flavour is vanilla. I warmed them first. I'm on muffin 2 and struggling in terms of fullness.

I signed up recently and will receive in May then it occurred to me - am I paying £50 a month for nothing until May or will they delay the membership until I receive the kit does anyone know ? Seems a bit of a rip off if I'm paying for three months without anything

The month/4 month membership starts when you get your test results and basically it's a programme where you enter your food in the app and it scores how good a meal it is for you based on your test results, with the option to ask for advice via their chat function. The (somewhat annoying) daily lessons help to guide you to make choices that score more highly for you, there are suggested meals etc. You should contact support if you threw up one of the muffins as it will really affect your results. They were grim, particularly the first ones but I found having them with strong black tea and heating them for longer than suggested (I cut them in half so they were still warm when eating them) allowed me to get them down.

I didn't find it worked brilliantly for me as I hate logging food and found it made me a bit obsessive, but it was interesting.

@twentypoundcountdown yea you'll start to pay your instalments until you receive it - unless you opted to pay all in one go which I believe was an option

How many muffin meals do you need to eat?

3 for breakfast and 2 for lunch.

And they're hard to get down so I've got a little side glass of Diet Coke

They're very dense and not like eating 3 blueberry muffins. Which I'd manage with no issues

@picklemewalnuts now I've read your question properly

Just two muffin meals

Following with interest. My kit is due to arrive today. Am I best waiting until the weekend to start?

@OldTrot Your innocent question elsewhere got the full AIBU treatment 😆.

@SomethingNastyInTheBallPool ha! Shan't do that again!

Well I've eaten the muffins and managed to do so in about 8 minutes so that felt almost gold medal worthy! My blood sugar levels haven't gone above 8 ish yet so no idea what that means

Poo sample done - ugh that wasn't enjoyable! Now fasting until 1pm which is no hardship tbh as those muffins were filling but in a horrible way

@Popcornpirate not necessarily! Depends on your days really

Today is only described as 'busy' because you do need to ..

Eat the muffins
Scan the pack
Confirm eaten

Not eat for 4 hours

Eat the 2 lunch muffins

Fast again for a few hours

Do a finger blood test

Do poo sample - that can be done tomorrow however if need be

So it sort of sounds a lot but it isn't really. You just need to be able to eat those muffins and the other bits within the realms of your day

What if you can't eat the muffins?

I believe the advice is to log what you did eat but your blood sugar and fat response data (i.e. what you're paying forl) will be less reliable.

Thank you @OldTrot tomorrow it is then. I’m really interested to see my results. I know that if I eat certain foods it make me need to sleep.

I’ve now finished the three days of logging everything I eat and it’s time
to move on to the challenges. Except
I really don’t fancy eating crap in the name of science.
I’m just going to keep eating as I usually do and see what I notice about how it affects my blood sugar. Anyone else skipped the challenges?

How soon do you get your personalised results?

I was on the original trial for it a few years ago and it's really interesting to see it being rolled out to paying customers now. I found it fascinating and it gave me a good idea of which foods suit me best (although I don't always stick to it!).

@SomethingNastyInTheBallPool I'm not going to do the challenges as honestly, it's just time and inclination I don't particularly have

I've recorded my food today. Embarrassing really! Very very heavy on carbs, pasta, chocolate, trifle .. Jesus! I've seen the biggest blood sugar spike from a bowl of porridge this morning though

What was your porridge spike,
@OldTrot ?
My charts look very spiky but I’m finding it hard to tell whether they’re spikier than they should be.

What do the muffins taste like that is so horrible?

The muffins are not that bad. Think along the lines of airline food.

Did all my tests yesterday. Now I'm preparing for the challenges.

I'm really enjoying seeing how the CGM responds. So far I'm scanning about 40 times a day. 🤣

@SomethingNastyInTheBallPool my biggest spike has been 10. For a few mins after the porridge

Weird eh

@lljkk think very stodgy sponges!

Placemarking as I'm considering this, and very much interested in how you're all finding it.

Place marking too. Are any of you doing this post menopause?

I'm interested in it but not so interested in the cost!

I can recommend Aviva Romm 's book Hormone Intelligence as a DIY alternative - I'm following her protocol now and feeling a lot better and losing weight.