Anyone starting Zoe in November?

[alloutofcareunits]

Not just about weight loss but thought this might be the best place to post the thread. I've just signed up and should be starting in November, wondering if anyone else is and wants to share experiences?

What keto bread are you eating?

I do a 90 second bread

I don't measure though...

Melt a slice of butter about 3mm wide in a small receptacle, I use a square tupperware.

Into the melted butter I put about 1.5 desertspoons of ground almonds, then another desertspoon of milled flaxseed and/or chia seeds, and a large pinch baking powder

Crack in an egg and stir till well mixed. Microwave 90 seconds. Plop out, cut into two slices, then toast the slices. Any eggy smell disappears when toasted. I wouldn't eat it untoasted, it's a bit flabby at that point!

Hello, can I have more info about this please? Who is Zoe? Where do you all buy tge glucose monitor? Thank you

www.zoe.com is a good place to start.

I’m only on day three of logging food and I’m so over it. It’s fiddly and takes ages just logging one homemade meal.

I've got my results - quicker than expected. Much better fat control than glucose which is good news for me as a cheese monster 😁. There's a lot to take in and I need to work out how to improve my work lunches which seem to be my downfall. I predict a lot of veggie soups - but without a crusty roll. Will have to give keto bread a go!

I got my results too. Blood sugar not great, but others ok. It’s interesting looking at the scores for all my meals. Going to do a big shop with lots of gut boosters in there!

Blood sugar response: 49 (poor)
Blood fat response: 64 (good)
Mictobiome health score: 54 (good)
Diet: good

My results came today too, quicker than I expected!
Blood sugar 59 - good
Blood fat 74 - good
Microbiome 87 - excellent
Diet assessment 53 - good

I was very surprised at the gut microbiome as I had antibiotics recently, however, I don't eat meat and love pulses and veg so looks like it's paid off. I definitely need to start making soups for lunches to take to work as I tend to have the same thing everyday

What did everyone else's CGM graphs look like? Mine are very jagged during the day, but always in the green zone. (Do we all have the same green zone?).

@Incogg I think the green zone is up to 10 mmol/l unless you change it yourself. Mine stayed within range but spikes right up to 9.8 and one minute of 10.6 which didn't register as going over. I seem to have the worst glucose score out of everyone :-( . My glucose would take hours to return to normal, especially after high fat high carb food. I have found out that this is the "pizza" effect. And my glucose wouldn't rise much at all if I drank wine or champagne. I was tempted to drink every day but figured that would lead to other problems!😜

You prompted me to check mine more carefully. Yes, my green zone looks to go up to about 10, but I think I've only gone over 8 a couple of times. I don't really have low dips either. I do have a pre-diabetes average though, at about 5.6 or 5.7 :(

In the interests of science I ate a full pack of Oreos Double Cream, and that eventually got me to about 7. I was kinda hoping that would take me to 12. Not sure if a low spike is a good thing or not.

I guess the aim is to get a (sub-5.5) rolling hill?

Looking again, the worse spikes have been caused by the Zoe cookies, and an evening portion of chips.

My worst spike was a hot chocolate this afternoon (which I enjoyed in the interests of science). It was much worse than the cookie spikes.

My spike was a piece of crystalised ginger and being absolutely livid with 21 year old DS! My average was 6!!!

I've not been able to do the 'challenges' because a sort of family emergency meant we had to go away for a long weekend. So my experiments were different types of eating out. Not too bad, except for an M&S chicken salad sandwich eaten half way through a 4+ car journey which caused a massive spike - about 12. Malted bread eaten while sitting very still turns out to be a bad idea. DH had found something similar when he had his CGM with the same sandwich while driving. Maybe another time a wrap followed by a few brisk laps of the car park might be better...

@ErrolTheDragon I think malted bread is just bread full of sugar. Check the label for carb content.

Yes, it's sweet white bread disguised as brown.... not that any normal breads are good. The combination with a reasonable amount of chicken didn't seem to help but I'm pretty sure that the extreme inactivity of sitting in a car doesn't help. (DH has a sleep app on his watch which sometimes thinks he's asleep when he's driving on the motorway - wide awake and talking to me I hasten to add!- because he's sitting so still.

Are any of you logging meals now that you have your results? I find it too much effort to be honest - because I cook from scratch, often my own recipes so I can't scan them - and logging each separate ingredient seems painful.

I am managing to eat "better" snacks than before knowing which foods score high for me. Dinners are ok as were largely good anyway, and breakfast when I eat it is fine (oats, seeds, nuts, Greek yoghurt).

But lunch is a problem! For most of my life I've eaten a sandwich for lunch, I thought it was healthy as I usually have salad + other filling and I make my own wholegrain seed bread with a bread machine, but actually bread is really bad for my blood sugar. It's a revelation! I'm not always organised enough to have leftovers to reheat, and I'm damned if I'm going to cook from scratch twice a day!

Seems like bulgar wheat and pearl barley are my best carbs, so I will endeavour to make batches of grain salads but I fear I'll get bored of them.

Also, soup without bread is not really filling, even if the soup contains pulses.

@hippospot i agree re logging when you cook from scratch. Is Zoe more likely to offer re-tests if you’ve been logging though?

I'm not finding the logging too bad - I detest calorie counting, don't think it's as bad as that! - though while away I had to make a best guess for meals out.

Yes I am. Isn’t it the only way of knowing how your overall meal scores, because as you add each ingredient the meal score changes? Also it looks like you get individual coaching feedback at the end of each week, based on your meal scores.

I'm logging. It's useful to know my total calories and protein.

Maybe I should try logging. Maybe I'll start next week when I have more free time.
It's great to discuss this with people also doing Zoe. IRL I think I'm boring my family with it!

Hi Memeapple

Both your scores are substantially better than mine, my blood sugar was 32 and blood fat 30!

I followed up with GP and that translated into HBA1C of 37 (which is fine, but could be better) and cholesterol of 5.8, but decent enough HDL/LDL ratio (3.9) that they were happy for me to follow Zoe and do a follow up test in about 9-12 months.

I am grateful as I feel like I was at a tipping point, and hopefully am now able to take a proactive step towards improving before it's too late.

My food scores are high for nuts, veg, and some lean meat and fish.

I am only a few weeks in but just a couple of days ago I went to a conference where there were pastries laid out for breakfast and a delicious looking variety of cakes, cheesecakes and eclairs for pudding...and I just didn't want them, knowing the impact on my blood sugar and energy levels. I do feel better; less crushing fatigue.

I am logging

I do need a bit more inspiration for foods tbh - I have done stir fries, salads, and soups and it's hard to find anything else that scores well since my high scorers are mostly veg and nuts. I have eaten more nuts than ever in my life. Luckily I do love nuts, but I worry a bit about the calories. I still struggle to understand how eating an apple smeared in peanut butter is way better for my body than just eating an apple, when my main goal is weight loss (and health)...