Week 4 - just got to KOKO

[SayrraT]

Morning everyone as BIWI is away I have the honour of starting the week 4 thread.

I going to give you all the usual reminder that in week 4 it is PERFECTLY NORMAL for weight loss to stall. So you may sts or even see a gain.

Do not panic! Just KOKO

spreadsheet

That looks a good menu minicooper - as long as you are having your water quota **

Ilove - I'm really sorry about your hair. I suffered a serious bout of alopecia areata a few years ago and it was extremely distressing. Is yours patchy or generalised thinning? Mine was patches, very clear cut, amounting to about a third of my scalp totally bare, the rest normal, I have dark hair so I was extremely self-conscious. What did help on the cosmetic front were camouflage creams, there are also thickening sprays which are supposed to be very good. I was prescribed steroid ointment and mine started growing back after about 6 months, I am almost certain it was down to stress. If you are patchy and have dark hair I would caution against a buzz cut as the regrowth will also be patchy, but for generalised thinning or if you are fair it may well help. I did actually get a wig, from a specialist shop and the shopkeeper was kindness and discretion personified. I never actually wore it, but it was good to know I had it (still have it, just in case). .

MiniCooper looks really good!

pretty I envy you for being able to have "just a little bit" in the future - I'm an all or nothing person and can't ever have "just a little bit"! It has to be all of it - "so it's gone and I'm not tempted any more." Ass backwards, yes? I don't crave the stuff any more, so it's safer all round for me not to have it!

Anyway. Food. Feeling quite virtuous as I have resisted carbs, but I may have over-indulged on cheese. Mondays are somewhat chaotic Chez WhoKnows and I have only just sat down for an evening bite to eat. cucumber, celery, 2 cheddar sticks wrapped in parma ham and some sour cream and chive dip. Lunch was tuna mayo salad, breakfast was cheese/mushroom/spinach omelette, snack was another cheddar stick and a lump of blue cheese. Too much cheese.

I think I've had 4-5 pints of water. On work days I am making myself drink a pint before, during and after lunch (luckily we are able to go to the loo whenever we need to not just at break times).

I would like to thank someone from the previous thread, sorry I'm not keeping up with names, Very? I bought the unsweetened almond milk today and it made a very acceptable cafe latte. I also investigated the Chai latte teabags, while I think I could cope with the cinnamon they also had cloves listed and I really cannot bear them (love the smell, hate the flavour), so I passed on those.

I've stayed the same this week which I'm a bit gutted about. Think it was because I was due on. Determined this week though. Still struggling with the water.

ilove i think it's time to go back to your gp and insist on a dermatology referral. It's just not good enough for a high street medical generalist to do a few blood tests, find no answers and fob you off that nothing's wrong. Don't jump to conclude it's your diet when you are eating fresh veg and all the right macros.

You need a specialist to properly investigate, diagnose and treat you. Don't take no for an answer when you firmly and politely request rightly demand a consultant referral.

Many local health funding boards stipulate a minimum of 3 gp visits with a particular symptom or condition before they are allowed to refer you. It's the premise that many symptoms disappear on their own, but it actually just delays or prevents proper treatment in many cases, where in the meantime the stress causes other symptoms or worsens the symptoms complained of.

I'm a national health service champion, but i recognise it has limits, it is rationed and you have to push hard for what you need sometimes.

Hippa (and others): I posted up a link to Gretchen Rubin's eating philosophy and why she was now a hard core low carber in a previous thread:

https://gretchenrubin.com/2015/11/what-do-i-eat-every-day

She explains that she is a hardcore "abstainer" - an "all or nothing girl" - and that some people are "moderators" (and provides links to learn more about the two types).

I need to look more at her "Strategy for Clarity" to see of it can help with changing some ingrained habits. I've used elements from her book "The Happiness Project" and found it good.

@WhoKn0wsWhereTheSlimeGoes glad you enjoyed it. I use the tea pigs chai, it doesn’t have clove in

I'll look out for that one next time Very.

I had total hair loss (from my head only) after a very traumatic event when I was a student. I always put it down to shock/stress, but after the event I lost a serious amount of weight (down from my then healthy 9.5 stone to 7.5 stone within a couple of months). I just couldn't eat for weeks I was in such a state. It resolved without treatment - gradually I just got better and my hair grew back - it always felt a bit finer than before, but lots of it. Weight loss is the only thing in common between now and then - except then it was down to never eating. it's clearly not (yet) as bad this time, and the loss hasn't been as sudden. Last time I think it all fell out within a month, and I'm not really nearly bald yet. But it's extremely thin in a large oval on the top of my head - about the size of a saucer probably, and all over the rest is thining rapidly. Or it could simply be the joys of bloody menopause I suppose.

@prettybird interesting link. I’d love to be a moderator but I am an abstained.

Love your posts, Holger, unMN-y {{{hugs}}}

Hello everyone.

I’ve had a 4lb loss in my first week. I’m very pleased with that because it took me a lot longer and it’s been a lot harder to lose the same amount in the past.

Right going to stop whining about my stupid hair. Que sera sera and all that jazz. No one died of baldness. My NSV was that I ran again today. And every day I swear my bad leg looks a little better. Possibly because I've lost some fat off my other one so the difference between them isn't so obvious to the naked eye, especially if I'm wearing thick tights. But it feels stronger, and I am starting to feel that it's working now, rather than only balancing me while the other does all the work. So that's really good.

Food wise, lunch was a mushroom omlette with spinach; dinner was a mishmash of leftovers - chicken, bacon, shallots, pepper and asparagus all sautéed together and broccoli on the side. I also had a coffee with cream and a square of my hotel chocolat 90%. I lost count with water, but lots.

I'd love to be a moderator as well, but I've always been an all or nothing kind of person. I swear I have switches where other people have dials!

God yes, I'm definitely an abstainer!

switches where other people have dials!

Ah yes, ilove, I recognise myself in this, too.

ilove I don't mean to bang on when you've moved on, but I have seen how down it makes you sometimes and how it matters to you. The two occurrences could be completely unrelated. They are after all quite different in type. Equally you may have also misattributed the first time to stress, when it was a treatable condition that may have been triggered by stress or something else. What I'm saying is, there is still real value in getting to the bottom of it now. Because it might result in the thinning being stopped before it gets worse. You are right, nobody died of baldness but with all your hard work on bc, I can understand how you would want the "new slim you" to be more hairy on top!

If I have learned anything in life, it is not to accept something that makes me miserable. It took me a long time to put myself and my needs forward (not even first by a long way), but I'm better at it now. Hope you can too.

Weighed myself three times within one minute and weight varied by 3lbs! Possibly my scales need new batteries...

I think I am an abstainer rather than a moderator too. Fascinating link - thank you.

Thanks YoLo. You are right of course. To be fair to my GP I think if I asked he would refer me, though he did do masses and masses of blood tests himself, plus scalp scrapings etc. He said he thought in the absence of any obvious imbalance it was probably quite soon to start drug intervention, given that I HAD made a massive lifestyle change in the right timescale for it to be simply telogen efflivium, in which case it would recover without intervention. He also pointed out that aside from weight loss, my body had had a lot of what he called 'insults' over the last few years, with several surgeries, extended use of morphine patches (and the stopping), long rehab etc, which might also have been a trigger for telogen efflivium. For me, it's also about the fact I've so recently escaped the clutches of the medical profession, that I'm so reluctant to go there again. but yes, I do want to be hairy on top, so I probably need to put on my big girl pants!

ilove my friend had telogen efflivium after bad car accident. I will see how long it took her hair to recover. I had forgotten until just now.

I swear I have switches where other people have dials! brilliant analogy @ilovecherries

Random question, prior to this boot camp I had been attempting low fat eating for years and my nails were weak and always broke/split. I have just painted my nails for the first time in years as they are actually growing and feel stronger. Im just wondering if the high fat content in the woe improve nail strength or is it a coincidence? Anyone else seen similar?

My DH and I were talking about this in relation to alcohol. Possibly like most people we went through spells of 'really must cut back', and it was never very successful. When we decided on 31 Dec that we'd have a dry year, it was actually easier than we'd ever imagined. Rather than multiple will we/won't we decisions which we had to engage with every day, we simply didn't even consider it. We didn't drink, so it wasn't in our choice set. It took up no brain space at all. And I think that's probably exactly how I've treated low carbing as well.

Lizard, I wouldn't be surprised, seeing as a lot of us are finding our skin is better on this WOE.

cherries, I love your analogy! I also think I'm another one with switches instead of a dial. Especially with alcohol. But I'm also a compulsive "finisher" of things. So if I had made too much food, my natural instinct would be to eat it all even if I wasn't hungry, so it didn't "go to waste". Fortunately I'm quite good at estimating how much ds and I will eat, so I usually cook the right quantities, but I find it really hard at buffets, for example, not to go round hoovering stuff up, so it's not left on the plates!