Because of one thing and another, i'm slow in presenting the news -- my husband gave the Strong Medicine protocol the ol' college try, and concluded that it isn't for him. He faithfully played the game for three days, and got thoroughly bored with it ... AND said he wasn't feeling very well either.
Of course, three days didn't get him past the low-motility phase (i was doing it with him, and nor did i adjust in that fashion). However, i "allowed" him to quit at the point he did because of his first objection -- if the dietary tedium got to him so quickly, there's no way he can do this long-term. Sustainability is immensely important when choosing a dietary plan to live with for (essentially) the rest of your life.
I came up with a new way to compromise in our shared dietary future: he gets an additional side of bagged salad with home-made (low-omega6) dressing to add fat calories and bulk to every lunch and dinner we have at home. He's much more fond of salad than i am, and tolerates lettuce just fine (while i don't). Since i learned the stick-blender method of mayonnaise production, it'll be quite simple to churn out plenty of good dressings, especially since my daughter gave me the MDA recipe book of sauces and dressings for my birthday (thanks, L!).
For my part of the food landscape, i'll continue to go meat-heavy while being careful of what vegetable-matter i use by way of garnish. Realizing that some of my intolerances may be related to my intestinal flora, i recently began a probiotic containing C. Butyricum (and a couple of other "bugs" -- thanks for the inspiration, George!) in hopes of improving diversity of population in there. I've also been inspired by Kindke's recent post to increase my intake of carnitine, and i just ordered a bottle of a high-potency liquid version....
We'll see how these tweaks succeed! As Wooo pointed out, there's still a couple of months to profit from summer's seasonal benefits before autumn's fat-encouraging qualities descend on us again.
Showing posts with label Strong Medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strong Medicine. Show all posts
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Saturday, June 22, 2013
giving "medicine" to my husband
I can't get J to read any of the literature on dietary philosophy, but he declares himself willing to just eat whatever i tell him to; okay, you asked for it, buddy! ;-) I'm putting him on the Strong Medicine protocol.
This is THE most effective dietary regimen i've ever experienced. Historically, i've resisted the temptation to limit other people this way, though i widely recommend that people read the book. J has always been able to lose fat much more easily than i, so i haven't advocated it to him before. However, he's been expressing disappointment in his rate of loss this time (i'd be thrilled with it, but that just shows ya...), so i'm bringing out the big guns.
We'll see how it goes! Frankly, I LOVE the ability to forget about food. On this plan, you don't need to be creative or spend significant time in the kitchen. Just keep plenty of the right meat on hand, and forget about wondering what to have on tomorrow's menu! After forty years of marriage, i occasionally find meal-planning unbearably tedious. But with Strong Medicine, you eat fatty meat and coffee for three meals a day, and the pounds melt off. The first time i did it, i worked the bugs out -- i HAVE to add salt, and three 6-oz meals work better for me than 3 8-oz (though 2 8-oz seems to be okay). When i'm by myself, forgoing alcohol on this plan is easier than when i'm around other people -- but my husband is on the wagon for weight-loss purposes already! So....
Gonna go ZC for awhile! YES!!!!! :-)
This is THE most effective dietary regimen i've ever experienced. Historically, i've resisted the temptation to limit other people this way, though i widely recommend that people read the book. J has always been able to lose fat much more easily than i, so i haven't advocated it to him before. However, he's been expressing disappointment in his rate of loss this time (i'd be thrilled with it, but that just shows ya...), so i'm bringing out the big guns.
We'll see how it goes! Frankly, I LOVE the ability to forget about food. On this plan, you don't need to be creative or spend significant time in the kitchen. Just keep plenty of the right meat on hand, and forget about wondering what to have on tomorrow's menu! After forty years of marriage, i occasionally find meal-planning unbearably tedious. But with Strong Medicine, you eat fatty meat and coffee for three meals a day, and the pounds melt off. The first time i did it, i worked the bugs out -- i HAVE to add salt, and three 6-oz meals work better for me than 3 8-oz (though 2 8-oz seems to be okay). When i'm by myself, forgoing alcohol on this plan is easier than when i'm around other people -- but my husband is on the wagon for weight-loss purposes already! So....
Gonna go ZC for awhile! YES!!!!! :-)
Friday, June 7, 2013
and HOW can 1972 Atkins induction fail one?
I'll tell you -- and it ain't the lack of healthywholegrainsfruitsandvegetables. It's LETTUCE.
Vicious stuff. If you've read this blog for any length of time, you might have noticed my comments about the Salad of Doom; also that Dr. Donaldson of "Strong Medicine" fame says it's one of the hardest things to digest that there are. As a character reports in a book i love, he sometimes forgets he has asthma but asthma never forgets it has HIM -- it's the same with my digestive apparatus and that green leafy diet staple.
I wondered why i wasn't feeling a lot better and dropping pounds the way i should have. I was doing my damnedest to get plenty of good fats and calories, an appropriate amount of protein, and even forgoing wine. I've been sleeping well enough, not outrageously stressed, and although my allergies have been acting up a bit, it hasn't been miserable. The inflammation hasn't GONE from my left knee, but it's getting better. I realized early yesterday that one aspect of a healthily-running body wasn't quite what it ought to be ... and it HAS to be due to the lettuce.
That's the primary vegetable matter that Dr. Atkins originally sanctioned for the first week -- SALAD. I could happily have forgone any vegetable matter AT ALL (save coffee), but i wanted my husband's strict week to be less onerous. He's used to more variety in his meals than i had become accustomed to, and i wanted to indulge him as best one can, within the limits of induction rules. I can handle a leaf here and a leaf there, but a salad or two every day is too much for me.
Well, yesterday and today i topped off my morning coffee consumption with a cuppa that included a good chunk of grassfed beef tallow -- that trick has never let me down yet. I'm hoping that when the traffic jam disperses, the fat loss that HAS to have happened will become more apparent!
Vicious stuff. If you've read this blog for any length of time, you might have noticed my comments about the Salad of Doom; also that Dr. Donaldson of "Strong Medicine" fame says it's one of the hardest things to digest that there are. As a character reports in a book i love, he sometimes forgets he has asthma but asthma never forgets it has HIM -- it's the same with my digestive apparatus and that green leafy diet staple.
I wondered why i wasn't feeling a lot better and dropping pounds the way i should have. I was doing my damnedest to get plenty of good fats and calories, an appropriate amount of protein, and even forgoing wine. I've been sleeping well enough, not outrageously stressed, and although my allergies have been acting up a bit, it hasn't been miserable. The inflammation hasn't GONE from my left knee, but it's getting better. I realized early yesterday that one aspect of a healthily-running body wasn't quite what it ought to be ... and it HAS to be due to the lettuce.
That's the primary vegetable matter that Dr. Atkins originally sanctioned for the first week -- SALAD. I could happily have forgone any vegetable matter AT ALL (save coffee), but i wanted my husband's strict week to be less onerous. He's used to more variety in his meals than i had become accustomed to, and i wanted to indulge him as best one can, within the limits of induction rules. I can handle a leaf here and a leaf there, but a salad or two every day is too much for me.
Well, yesterday and today i topped off my morning coffee consumption with a cuppa that included a good chunk of grassfed beef tallow -- that trick has never let me down yet. I'm hoping that when the traffic jam disperses, the fat loss that HAS to have happened will become more apparent!
Sunday, February 24, 2013
the "metabolic advantage" everybody has looked for?
...Well, except for the CICO-apologists. ;-)
One of my link-following adventures led me to THIS paper, which led to THIS magazine article, which i can't read in its entirety for less than thirty bucks.... :-P Aw well, such is life. The abstract probably says the important stuff. (It's got enough acronyms in it -- Kindke might find it worth interpreting for me if he gets bored sometime!)
It looks to me as though this may be the secret of the success of Dr. Donaldson's fatty-meat diet, and possibly the Shangri-La (oil-bibbing branch) as well -- it's all about fats which prompt a squirt of bile for our bodies to process. I was "promised" a boost from coconut oil which i never observed to benefit me (although i love the stuff and intend to keep using it generously); this could be the big secret. Coconut oil doesn't require bile for digestion.
It turns out, then, that the fat IN THE MEAT of the Strong Medicine regimen is the trick -- and modern science tells us why. Donaldson clearly stated that dietary fat was important, as he had learned from Vilhjalmur Stefansson (all-lean-meat diet = BAD). As a matter of fact, his suggestion was that if you choose to eat a leaner kind of meat than his recommendations, you should buy extra SUET and chop/grind it into your choice to make it appropriately balanced. As an interesting aside, he observed that most of his patients adapted to a fat-burning metabolism in about five days. Also, his only recommended exercise (except for special stretching for certain conditions) was a daily half-hour walk.
So forget the low-fat diet (as if we haven't already)! Put the coconut oil on the back burner! We've already forgotten heavy exercise and calorie-counting. To lose fat weight and increase our energy, what we need is enough fuel to convince our bodies they can afford to rev up a bit ... and the best fuel of all is good old-fashioned animal fat.
Sure sounds like a LCHF metabolic advantage to me.
One of my link-following adventures led me to THIS paper, which led to THIS magazine article, which i can't read in its entirety for less than thirty bucks.... :-P Aw well, such is life. The abstract probably says the important stuff. (It's got enough acronyms in it -- Kindke might find it worth interpreting for me if he gets bored sometime!)
Bile acids induce energy expenditure by promoting intracellular thyroid hormone activation.Watanabe M, Houten SM, Mataki C, Christoffolete MA, Kim BW, Sato H, Messaddeq N, Harney JW, Ezaki O, Kodama T, Schoonjans K, Bianco AC, Auwerx J.SourceInstitut de Génétique et Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, CNRS/INSERM/ULP, 1 Rue Laurent Fries, 67404 Illkirch, France.AbstractWhile bile acids (BAs) have long been known to be essential in dietary lipid absorption and cholesterol catabolism, in recent years an important role for BAs as signalling molecules has emerged. ... Here we show that the administration of BAs to mice increases energy expenditure in brown adipose tissue, preventing obesity and resistance to insulin. This novel metabolic effect of BAs is critically dependent on induction of the cyclic-AMP-dependent thyroid hormone activating enzyme type 2 iodothyronine deiodinase (D2) because it is lost in D2-/- mice. Treatment of brown adipocytes and human skeletal myocytes with BA increases D2 activity and oxygen consumption. ... In both rodents and humans, the most thermogenically important tissues are specifically targeted by this mechanism because they coexpress D2 and TGR5. The BA-TGR5-cAMP-D2 signalling pathway is therefore a crucial mechanism for fine-tuning energy homeostasis that can be targeted to improve metabolic control.
It looks to me as though this may be the secret of the success of Dr. Donaldson's fatty-meat diet, and possibly the Shangri-La (oil-bibbing branch) as well -- it's all about fats which prompt a squirt of bile for our bodies to process. I was "promised" a boost from coconut oil which i never observed to benefit me (although i love the stuff and intend to keep using it generously); this could be the big secret. Coconut oil doesn't require bile for digestion.
It turns out, then, that the fat IN THE MEAT of the Strong Medicine regimen is the trick -- and modern science tells us why. Donaldson clearly stated that dietary fat was important, as he had learned from Vilhjalmur Stefansson (all-lean-meat diet = BAD). As a matter of fact, his suggestion was that if you choose to eat a leaner kind of meat than his recommendations, you should buy extra SUET and chop/grind it into your choice to make it appropriately balanced. As an interesting aside, he observed that most of his patients adapted to a fat-burning metabolism in about five days. Also, his only recommended exercise (except for special stretching for certain conditions) was a daily half-hour walk.
So forget the low-fat diet (as if we haven't already)! Put the coconut oil on the back burner! We've already forgotten heavy exercise and calorie-counting. To lose fat weight and increase our energy, what we need is enough fuel to convince our bodies they can afford to rev up a bit ... and the best fuel of all is good old-fashioned animal fat.
Sure sounds like a LCHF metabolic advantage to me.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
what is it about restaurant food?!
It's not like i don't use salt at home -- i LOVE salt. When i tried the Strong Medicine regimen the first time, i HAD to add salt (Donaldson proscribes it) because my stomach was screwed-up without the chloride.
Most of the time, restaurant food tastes about right, though on rare occasions it's too salty for me. So WHY does restaurant food cause more water-retention than home-cooked? Are other sodium products (such as one finds in processed meats) present in ground beef from their suppliers? I'm not talking about cheap fast-food outlets -- i KNOW there are additives there -- i'm referring to obviously-hand-formed fresh ground beef in my favorite pubs and dives.
???!
Vegetables, too. We ate out on Friday (Scottish Arms), and mashed turnips came with my pork cheek -- YUM. Then i introduced my husband to salsify on his second evening back home. Sunday lunch out with our dear neighbors at Hamburger Mary's -- i was "good" and with my bunless Proud Mary burger i had the seasonal vegetables as a side-dish. I got around the meat, and ate a cross section of the fresh-veg mixture (peppers and broccoli -- a third to a half of the serving). The root vegetables didn't seem to do the damage the above-ground crops did -- yesterday i felt the bloat.
Not only are some of us not designed to eat an animal-free diet, but i'm beginning to think that some of us aren't designed to eat many vegetable substances at all. Again, Donaldson's admonition to avoid "green" vegetables and to favor "yellow" ones hit the mark. The roots/tubers wear their toxins on the surface, and if you get past that you seem to be home free, but those that flaunt their leaves and flowers for all to reach are toxic (to me at least) through and through.
An update on the subject of cashews.... I had that one bad experience with the cashews that i bought "raw" and soaked and dehydrated last year. Well, i made a batch of the Fallon/Enig recipe Brazilian Shrimp Stew and got the same response from my digestive system. It's "cooking" them that does me in -- i can eat them with impunity otherwise! Fortunately, the almond,coconut and hazelnut flours i make "breads" with don't seem to have the same effect.
I know nuts are dangerously more-ish for me though, and i limit my quantities to a couple of ounces per day. When i DO have breads, cookies or cakes on hand, i use them sparingly. A treat is a treat, no matter how low the carb count!
Most of the time, restaurant food tastes about right, though on rare occasions it's too salty for me. So WHY does restaurant food cause more water-retention than home-cooked? Are other sodium products (such as one finds in processed meats) present in ground beef from their suppliers? I'm not talking about cheap fast-food outlets -- i KNOW there are additives there -- i'm referring to obviously-hand-formed fresh ground beef in my favorite pubs and dives.
???!
Vegetables, too. We ate out on Friday (Scottish Arms), and mashed turnips came with my pork cheek -- YUM. Then i introduced my husband to salsify on his second evening back home. Sunday lunch out with our dear neighbors at Hamburger Mary's -- i was "good" and with my bunless Proud Mary burger i had the seasonal vegetables as a side-dish. I got around the meat, and ate a cross section of the fresh-veg mixture (peppers and broccoli -- a third to a half of the serving). The root vegetables didn't seem to do the damage the above-ground crops did -- yesterday i felt the bloat.
Not only are some of us not designed to eat an animal-free diet, but i'm beginning to think that some of us aren't designed to eat many vegetable substances at all. Again, Donaldson's admonition to avoid "green" vegetables and to favor "yellow" ones hit the mark. The roots/tubers wear their toxins on the surface, and if you get past that you seem to be home free, but those that flaunt their leaves and flowers for all to reach are toxic (to me at least) through and through.
An update on the subject of cashews.... I had that one bad experience with the cashews that i bought "raw" and soaked and dehydrated last year. Well, i made a batch of the Fallon/Enig recipe Brazilian Shrimp Stew and got the same response from my digestive system. It's "cooking" them that does me in -- i can eat them with impunity otherwise! Fortunately, the almond,coconut and hazelnut flours i make "breads" with don't seem to have the same effect.
I know nuts are dangerously more-ish for me though, and i limit my quantities to a couple of ounces per day. When i DO have breads, cookies or cakes on hand, i use them sparingly. A treat is a treat, no matter how low the carb count!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
it still works -- rebop
With a secondary title, "...and i MEAN fatty meat!" :-)
My husband stands in the way of my losing weight -- no, that's an excuse for being more careless with my intake when he's around. We go out to eat often, i have more wine and cocktails when he's in town, he likes to cook, and he can eat a lot more carbs than i can and still lose weight.... On and on.
Having him out of town for a few days, i'm making hay while the sun shines. I'm doing the "strong medicine" regimen with the tweaks i learned the first time around (MORE SALT etc) -- and it STILL still works.
When i picked up ground beef over the weekend, however, i didn't go to Whole Paycheck for their outstanding grassfed ground beef in the family-pack -- the St. Louis store is horribly laid-out, and so a weekend-size number of customers make for an unbearable traffic situation inside. I didn't want to face it, so ended up at Schnuck's, and their "regular" ground beef isn't the same: it's too lean.
My body doesn't like a reduced-fat diet! I wonder if other hypothyroids have a problem with constipation AS A RESULT of doing what conventional wisdom tells them to -- eat more fiber and drink a lot of water. My intestines HATE that! BUTTER TO THE RESCUE!!!
A tablespoon of butter on top of your freshly-made all-beef patty.... Your colon will thank you.
My husband stands in the way of my losing weight -- no, that's an excuse for being more careless with my intake when he's around. We go out to eat often, i have more wine and cocktails when he's in town, he likes to cook, and he can eat a lot more carbs than i can and still lose weight.... On and on.
Having him out of town for a few days, i'm making hay while the sun shines. I'm doing the "strong medicine" regimen with the tweaks i learned the first time around (MORE SALT etc) -- and it STILL still works.
When i picked up ground beef over the weekend, however, i didn't go to Whole Paycheck for their outstanding grassfed ground beef in the family-pack -- the St. Louis store is horribly laid-out, and so a weekend-size number of customers make for an unbearable traffic situation inside. I didn't want to face it, so ended up at Schnuck's, and their "regular" ground beef isn't the same: it's too lean.
My body doesn't like a reduced-fat diet! I wonder if other hypothyroids have a problem with constipation AS A RESULT of doing what conventional wisdom tells them to -- eat more fiber and drink a lot of water. My intestines HATE that! BUTTER TO THE RESCUE!!!
A tablespoon of butter on top of your freshly-made all-beef patty.... Your colon will thank you.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
back to "normal" -- whatever that is
:-) At least, i'm back to an Atkins-level carb intake. Yesterday, black coffee for breakfast, lunch a "Cuban chicken melt" with mushrooms on the side and decaf to drink, then a couple of glasses of red wine with the dish our family calls "fake stroganoff," a "paleo biscuit" and generously-buttered broccoli. Today's menu will resemble the classic Strong Medicine regimen.
I still have more subcutaneous fat on my belly than i've had for months. :-( Tomorrow i MAY have guts enough to get on the bathroom scale, but i'm not promising anything.
What with all the vegetable matter i've been consuming this past week, i have less-happy intestines and gut-bugs than usual. My allergies are much worse, too. The vague aches in some muscle groups are back. 2012 has been eye-opening for me in how i've observed my body to perform on different foodstuffs! The only things that don't have ANY downside are fatty ruminant meat and water ... just as Dr. Donaldson wrote half a century ago.
It's fun to break the rules for a short time -- a change is as good as a rest, you know -- but once you discover what your body will put up with to maintain a decent quality-of-living, to stray from it very long is just plain DUMB. ... And for the record, i did NOT run out and try to buy a final box of Twinkies. Those things are NASTY.
I still have more subcutaneous fat on my belly than i've had for months. :-( Tomorrow i MAY have guts enough to get on the bathroom scale, but i'm not promising anything.
What with all the vegetable matter i've been consuming this past week, i have less-happy intestines and gut-bugs than usual. My allergies are much worse, too. The vague aches in some muscle groups are back. 2012 has been eye-opening for me in how i've observed my body to perform on different foodstuffs! The only things that don't have ANY downside are fatty ruminant meat and water ... just as Dr. Donaldson wrote half a century ago.
It's fun to break the rules for a short time -- a change is as good as a rest, you know -- but once you discover what your body will put up with to maintain a decent quality-of-living, to stray from it very long is just plain DUMB. ... And for the record, i did NOT run out and try to buy a final box of Twinkies. Those things are NASTY.
Friday, September 21, 2012
home stretch!
With another three-and-three-quarter pound loss, i will have met my immediate goal! I can't believe i'm so close. And in a nutshell, it's been accomplished all through the Strong Medicine regimen with quite a bit of cheating.
I'm fortunate that i'm able to tolerate the diet -- some people have problems with VLC -- but it might be the cheating that helped me. I use ample salt on my meat, and i try to keep the quantity to an ideal range of about 16-18oz. per day. I DON'T regularly take the walks Donaldson requires (though i go up and down my three flights of stairs countless times daily). I may not get in the six glasses of water a day, though it's hard to say how much i take in when downing all my supplements. I definitely have occasional alcohol, vegetables, chocolate, butter, cream, eggs, cheese and cultured raw milk. On the rare special occasion, i've had grains, too -- that's why it's taken me a year to lose 20 pounds! But considering my age and hormonal conditions, i'm feeling very victorious.
I COULD NOT have done this without VLC. Enough calorie reduction to get from moderately-overweight to within-normal-range? This is the woman who can fail to lose on 600 calories per day -- and i'm not unusual in that respect! Macronutrient makeup of the diet is centrally important for some of us. Because, although one would eventually STARVE off weight, any protein shortage would cause muscle wasting -- not a good idea for an old broad like me. NO. Forcing my body to burn its own fat by denying it any choice in the matter (hormonally) is the key to success for a middle-aged person who once believed the low-fat whole-grain mantra.
I will continue to eat as i have this week -- plenty of good meats and fats, garnish of low-carb vegetation, moderated use of alcohol -- for the next month, not caring if i go under my 140# goal. You see, my daughter and i are going to celebrate Halloween weekend in NEW ORLEANS!!! It would be a crying shame not to whoop it up while we're there -- a scant 48 hours. After that, i think i can guarantee a day of fasting will be in order!
I'm fortunate that i'm able to tolerate the diet -- some people have problems with VLC -- but it might be the cheating that helped me. I use ample salt on my meat, and i try to keep the quantity to an ideal range of about 16-18oz. per day. I DON'T regularly take the walks Donaldson requires (though i go up and down my three flights of stairs countless times daily). I may not get in the six glasses of water a day, though it's hard to say how much i take in when downing all my supplements. I definitely have occasional alcohol, vegetables, chocolate, butter, cream, eggs, cheese and cultured raw milk. On the rare special occasion, i've had grains, too -- that's why it's taken me a year to lose 20 pounds! But considering my age and hormonal conditions, i'm feeling very victorious.
I COULD NOT have done this without VLC. Enough calorie reduction to get from moderately-overweight to within-normal-range? This is the woman who can fail to lose on 600 calories per day -- and i'm not unusual in that respect! Macronutrient makeup of the diet is centrally important for some of us. Because, although one would eventually STARVE off weight, any protein shortage would cause muscle wasting -- not a good idea for an old broad like me. NO. Forcing my body to burn its own fat by denying it any choice in the matter (hormonally) is the key to success for a middle-aged person who once believed the low-fat whole-grain mantra.
I will continue to eat as i have this week -- plenty of good meats and fats, garnish of low-carb vegetation, moderated use of alcohol -- for the next month, not caring if i go under my 140# goal. You see, my daughter and i are going to celebrate Halloween weekend in NEW ORLEANS!!! It would be a crying shame not to whoop it up while we're there -- a scant 48 hours. After that, i think i can guarantee a day of fasting will be in order!
Friday, May 18, 2012
the power of "no appetite"
Since my LAST guest left, i put in about 24 hours -- 4 meals'-worth -- of the Strong Medicine protocol, which is to say that i ate 8 ounces of fatty meat and a cup of coffee for each meal, and nothing else but 3 cups of water between breakfast and lunch, 3 more between lunch and dinner, and NOTHING else except for the water and supplements i took first thing in the morning and before bed. My appetite left me.
This morning's weigh-in shows that i've re-lost the pounds i put on during this last trip. Now i can work on actually making some progress! It's annoying that i spend so much time "recovering" from the damaging effects of "normal" (albeit low-carb) food! Sometimes you can dig in your heels and say NO to the inappropriate things available to eat, but there are moments when it's rude or just plain unkind to resist. [sigh]
On those rare and golden occasions when i lose my appetite, i've learned that it's best to RIDE that pony as far as it'll take me! The first time i tried the StM technique, i was actually alarmed at how fast the weight came off, and i added in some vegetable matter at dinnertime to slow it a bit. Donaldson said that it's "safe" to take off three pounds a week, but that you want your skin to "follow" the fat reduction.... After two abdominal surgeries, my belly is unattractive enough without screwing it up more, so i got concerned -- or is that too much information? :-)
If i back off any plan while the going is GREAT, i lose a lot of impetus, AND re-entering the program is less effective than it was before. While it's working ya gotta HANG ONTO IT!!! Let the goodies pass you by, and explain to the disappointed face in front of you that you've developed digestive difficulties with whatever it is they're offering ... but that it looks SO GOOD that only the fear of later pain keeps you from digging in. ;-) In theory, anyone who cares about you will want to spare you PAIN, so it'll be a lot more acceptable than "you want me to screw up my diet for boxed cake mix and cool-whip frosting???"
So, one would think that having to detour from the StM for a couple of days would be a downer -- well, not THIS time, because the reason is different! Yesterday i was not hungry until late afternoon (i DID have some coffee during the morning...) so around 5:00 i had a tin of sardines, a little of my hazelnut-chia bread, butter, and some white wine. (It filled me to the "80%" level, so i really didn't feel the need to eat more, and i didn't wake this morning ravenous.) Success! I'm on a roll again, and i give full credit to the diet plan that CAUSES a lack of appetite.
Incidentally, i'm back to feeling good about skipping breakfast -- Dr. Donaldson frowned on this because it "put out the fat-burning fire." Kindke recently posted about the morning cortisol surge that's normal for us, and how it encourages glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, and fat storage if one eats during it. Now, this may be fine and dandy for gymrats who want to use it to put on muscle, but frankly i'm FAR more interested in how i can work around it to LOSE FAT. I simply am not hungry in the morning unless i've been eating too many carbs, so why fight nature? ... As a matter of fact, fighting nature at ANY time is just plain stoopid.
So, fighting natural appetite is HISTORY from my point of view! The thing that i've found workable is to manipulate it through food choice; i eat StM-fashion till my appetite is pretty much gone, and then i ride it with prudent low-carb variations like a surfer rides a wave.
Kowabunga.
This morning's weigh-in shows that i've re-lost the pounds i put on during this last trip. Now i can work on actually making some progress! It's annoying that i spend so much time "recovering" from the damaging effects of "normal" (albeit low-carb) food! Sometimes you can dig in your heels and say NO to the inappropriate things available to eat, but there are moments when it's rude or just plain unkind to resist. [sigh]
On those rare and golden occasions when i lose my appetite, i've learned that it's best to RIDE that pony as far as it'll take me! The first time i tried the StM technique, i was actually alarmed at how fast the weight came off, and i added in some vegetable matter at dinnertime to slow it a bit. Donaldson said that it's "safe" to take off three pounds a week, but that you want your skin to "follow" the fat reduction.... After two abdominal surgeries, my belly is unattractive enough without screwing it up more, so i got concerned -- or is that too much information? :-)
If i back off any plan while the going is GREAT, i lose a lot of impetus, AND re-entering the program is less effective than it was before. While it's working ya gotta HANG ONTO IT!!! Let the goodies pass you by, and explain to the disappointed face in front of you that you've developed digestive difficulties with whatever it is they're offering ... but that it looks SO GOOD that only the fear of later pain keeps you from digging in. ;-) In theory, anyone who cares about you will want to spare you PAIN, so it'll be a lot more acceptable than "you want me to screw up my diet for boxed cake mix and cool-whip frosting???"
So, one would think that having to detour from the StM for a couple of days would be a downer -- well, not THIS time, because the reason is different! Yesterday i was not hungry until late afternoon (i DID have some coffee during the morning...) so around 5:00 i had a tin of sardines, a little of my hazelnut-chia bread, butter, and some white wine. (It filled me to the "80%" level, so i really didn't feel the need to eat more, and i didn't wake this morning ravenous.) Success! I'm on a roll again, and i give full credit to the diet plan that CAUSES a lack of appetite.
Incidentally, i'm back to feeling good about skipping breakfast -- Dr. Donaldson frowned on this because it "put out the fat-burning fire." Kindke recently posted about the morning cortisol surge that's normal for us, and how it encourages glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, and fat storage if one eats during it. Now, this may be fine and dandy for gymrats who want to use it to put on muscle, but frankly i'm FAR more interested in how i can work around it to LOSE FAT. I simply am not hungry in the morning unless i've been eating too many carbs, so why fight nature? ... As a matter of fact, fighting nature at ANY time is just plain stoopid.
So, fighting natural appetite is HISTORY from my point of view! The thing that i've found workable is to manipulate it through food choice; i eat StM-fashion till my appetite is pretty much gone, and then i ride it with prudent low-carb variations like a surfer rides a wave.
Kowabunga.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
state of the weightion
We now interrupt our regular series of philosophizing and rants to bring you a progress report.... ;-)
The past month has been a little disorganized for me and my dietary explorations. With one thing after another after another, i haven't been able to stay in a dull little groove of eating what i know is optimal and systematically testing other things. The bad news is that i gained about three or four pounds, though half of it has gone already, and was probably mostly water anyway. The good news is ... i've lost my appetite.
During each phase of this experience, i tried to keep my carbs and omega-6s from getting outrageously high, while acknowledging that they WOULD be notably higher than usual. The problem with eating out is largely, to become satisfied one has to eat the potatoes, too. ONLY at Billie's is the omelette big enough and full enough to be a complete meal -- bless their little hearts! Most places, they're hopelessly wimpy. And it's shocking how few places have REAL saturated fats on hand. :-(
Feeling rather poorly one day in Virginia, when my husband planned a steak dinner i had him buy me a big fatty ribeye and cook it VERY rare -- that perked me right up. Lesson -- restaurant food is usually lacking in the "vital force" which rawtarians praise but can't definitively describe; i think it's a combination of enzymes and ... what vampires crave.
When we were back home, all my guests were gone, and i looked forward to eating "normally" again (for me -- "really weird" for everybody else), i plunged back into the Strong Medicine regimen. Only problem was, my stomach wasn't ready for it. Three meals of that and i felt overloaded. When i used StM before, i had a similar reaction which i attributed to lack of salt, but that wasn't to blame THIS time. And like before, i'm reminded of Stefansson's men and their early loss of appetite. I guess this reaction is to be expected EVERY TIME one transfers from a "balanced" diet to a VLC one. The full digestive process needs time to get on board.
So yesterday i finished the kefir for breakfast and had coffee-with-cream for lunch, before eating my last patty of ground chuck with the leftover roasted okra. (I put the leftover mashed yams in the freezer.) Later this morning, WHEN i actually start to feel hungry, i'll cook the tenderloin filet that i thawed the day before yesterday, and eat it rare with a big dollop of GF butter. I have another chuck roast thawing, to turn into more lovely juicy burgers, which i'll make a little smaller than the last ones: see if that doesn't reduce the load on my digestive equipment!
I have ANOTHER out-of-town adventure coming up -- a living-history event the weekend of Memorial Day, and a visit to my daughter. This time i'll do some preparation that will -- with any kind of luck -- keep me from confusing my body quite as much as the last trip did.
The past month has been a little disorganized for me and my dietary explorations. With one thing after another after another, i haven't been able to stay in a dull little groove of eating what i know is optimal and systematically testing other things. The bad news is that i gained about three or four pounds, though half of it has gone already, and was probably mostly water anyway. The good news is ... i've lost my appetite.
During each phase of this experience, i tried to keep my carbs and omega-6s from getting outrageously high, while acknowledging that they WOULD be notably higher than usual. The problem with eating out is largely, to become satisfied one has to eat the potatoes, too. ONLY at Billie's is the omelette big enough and full enough to be a complete meal -- bless their little hearts! Most places, they're hopelessly wimpy. And it's shocking how few places have REAL saturated fats on hand. :-(
Feeling rather poorly one day in Virginia, when my husband planned a steak dinner i had him buy me a big fatty ribeye and cook it VERY rare -- that perked me right up. Lesson -- restaurant food is usually lacking in the "vital force" which rawtarians praise but can't definitively describe; i think it's a combination of enzymes and ... what vampires crave.
When we were back home, all my guests were gone, and i looked forward to eating "normally" again (for me -- "really weird" for everybody else), i plunged back into the Strong Medicine regimen. Only problem was, my stomach wasn't ready for it. Three meals of that and i felt overloaded. When i used StM before, i had a similar reaction which i attributed to lack of salt, but that wasn't to blame THIS time. And like before, i'm reminded of Stefansson's men and their early loss of appetite. I guess this reaction is to be expected EVERY TIME one transfers from a "balanced" diet to a VLC one. The full digestive process needs time to get on board.
So yesterday i finished the kefir for breakfast and had coffee-with-cream for lunch, before eating my last patty of ground chuck with the leftover roasted okra. (I put the leftover mashed yams in the freezer.) Later this morning, WHEN i actually start to feel hungry, i'll cook the tenderloin filet that i thawed the day before yesterday, and eat it rare with a big dollop of GF butter. I have another chuck roast thawing, to turn into more lovely juicy burgers, which i'll make a little smaller than the last ones: see if that doesn't reduce the load on my digestive equipment!
I have ANOTHER out-of-town adventure coming up -- a living-history event the weekend of Memorial Day, and a visit to my daughter. This time i'll do some preparation that will -- with any kind of luck -- keep me from confusing my body quite as much as the last trip did.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
back in the saddle
Okay: i'm fired up to start being perfect again! :-)
It's SO easy to eat and sleep the way i should when i'm by myself ... it makes me feel guilty! Selfish. When others are around, even my husband who is supportive of my choices, i frequently sabotage my ideal diet. THAT is my weakness, MY failure of willpower.
Every failure, though, is a learning experience. What i learned on this last trip is that even though i know where to go and what to order in restaurants to get a low-carb meal, i have to be careful to get a large enough serving of protein, and i need to ask for butter to augment the usually-low fat content of commercially-available meat. I would have thought that i'd learned that before, but it took the Strong Medicine regimen to teach me what satiation properly feels like. Red-meat protein and saturated fat. Period.
The fact that i can SENSE additive ingredients in certain meat products is a clue to how i should order meals. I have to ASSUME that even a hamburger in a respectable restaurant is going to contain more carbs than one i make at home, and reduce vegetables in my diet accordingly. ASSUME that bacon will be sugar-cured (ditto for ham), and that "cheese" won't be like the stuff i choose at the grocery. ASSUME that the seasoning on a steak will contain suspicious ingredients, and the steak itself will be "select" grade*, rather than "choice." ASSUME that the olive oil EVEN IN SUPERIOR RESTAURANTS will actually be a blend. Disgusting but true. :-(
On the road, i'm going to have to assume that they're sneaking carbs into me, so the only way to be truly LCHF is to order like a ZC.
_____
* it's an interesting thing that, when i was in college taking animal-science classes, the grade which is now "select" used to be called just "good." the low-fat propaganda caused the industry to redefine its terms. "good" just doesn't sound good ENOUGH. :-P
It's SO easy to eat and sleep the way i should when i'm by myself ... it makes me feel guilty! Selfish. When others are around, even my husband who is supportive of my choices, i frequently sabotage my ideal diet. THAT is my weakness, MY failure of willpower.
Every failure, though, is a learning experience. What i learned on this last trip is that even though i know where to go and what to order in restaurants to get a low-carb meal, i have to be careful to get a large enough serving of protein, and i need to ask for butter to augment the usually-low fat content of commercially-available meat. I would have thought that i'd learned that before, but it took the Strong Medicine regimen to teach me what satiation properly feels like. Red-meat protein and saturated fat. Period.
The fact that i can SENSE additive ingredients in certain meat products is a clue to how i should order meals. I have to ASSUME that even a hamburger in a respectable restaurant is going to contain more carbs than one i make at home, and reduce vegetables in my diet accordingly. ASSUME that bacon will be sugar-cured (ditto for ham), and that "cheese" won't be like the stuff i choose at the grocery. ASSUME that the seasoning on a steak will contain suspicious ingredients, and the steak itself will be "select" grade*, rather than "choice." ASSUME that the olive oil EVEN IN SUPERIOR RESTAURANTS will actually be a blend. Disgusting but true. :-(
On the road, i'm going to have to assume that they're sneaking carbs into me, so the only way to be truly LCHF is to order like a ZC.
_____
* it's an interesting thing that, when i was in college taking animal-science classes, the grade which is now "select" used to be called just "good." the low-fat propaganda caused the industry to redefine its terms. "good" just doesn't sound good ENOUGH. :-P
Sunday, May 6, 2012
BIG discovery
Kindke finds the missing link. I am in awe -- quite literally; i sit and stare into space while contemplating the simple elegance of it.
It's very fashionable in some circles to sneer at what Dr. Atkins called the "metabolic advantage." However, for those of us who not only lose weight better on low-carb diets but FEEL significantly better on them, we know it's real. Dr. Lustig (who also works with REAL LIVE PATIENTS, not mice and rats) made a point in his talk at last year's Ancestral Health Symposium that quality of life is directly associated with the amount of energy one manages to burn. As a hypothyroid who has always had vitality limitations, i believe this wholeheartedly.
Finally, Kindke points out what the mechanism is. What makes it easy to "eat less and move more"? Eating the right things -- duh. For many of us, eating those lauded starches, those healthywholegrains, those FRUITSandvegetables, makes it HARD to do both. His discovery fits in tidily with Dr. Donaldson's observation that, round about the fifth day of his "Strong Medicine" regimen, his patients found their morning walks a lot more do-able.
You gotta go read it in Kindke's words....
Oh -- and by the way, you should read Fred's article, too.
It's very fashionable in some circles to sneer at what Dr. Atkins called the "metabolic advantage." However, for those of us who not only lose weight better on low-carb diets but FEEL significantly better on them, we know it's real. Dr. Lustig (who also works with REAL LIVE PATIENTS, not mice and rats) made a point in his talk at last year's Ancestral Health Symposium that quality of life is directly associated with the amount of energy one manages to burn. As a hypothyroid who has always had vitality limitations, i believe this wholeheartedly.
Finally, Kindke points out what the mechanism is. What makes it easy to "eat less and move more"? Eating the right things -- duh. For many of us, eating those lauded starches, those healthywholegrains, those FRUITSandvegetables, makes it HARD to do both. His discovery fits in tidily with Dr. Donaldson's observation that, round about the fifth day of his "Strong Medicine" regimen, his patients found their morning walks a lot more do-able.
You gotta go read it in Kindke's words....
Oh -- and by the way, you should read Fred's article, too.
Monday, April 23, 2012
we KNOW what to do in order to lose weight
Yes, we KNOW what we have to do: we just have to make ourselves do it. We have to turn ourselves into fat burners, and when you've reached this age, it can get tricky.
Most middle-aged women have damaged their metabolisms by trying to adhere to what we THOUGHT were valid recommendations for a healthy diet, and then -- when that proved not only to be empty rhetoric, but downright harmful -- we restricted calories time and again, in order to try to combat nature. A lot of us MADE OURSELVES into carb burners through decades of a low-fat diet, which effectually turned off our fat-metabolizing enzyme production. Dr. Wong tells us that we begin lowering production of ALL proteolytic enzymes at age 27 ... so at age 57 it may be darned hard to start making the "right" ones again. Dr. Donaldson doesn't say the same thing in so many words (i don't believe that the action of systemic enzymes was well-understood in his day), but he wrote about the magical age of 33, when he started seeing the effects of aging accelerate.
Changing over from burning carbohydrates for energy to primarily burning fats, then, is going to be WORK. If the individual has a rigorous schedule already, and struggles to find the energy to meet it, s/he may experience difficulty in "getting over the hump," which is generally known as the "low-carb flu." Some people, in fact, take an extended time to get past this , indicating that their metabolisms are the more screwed up. However, look at it this way: would you prefer to spend a couple of days (best case) to a couple of months (worst case) with lower energy reserves, or would you rather restrict calories FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, in order to avoid the damage which results in diabetes, NAFLD, senile dementia, heart disease, Parkinson's, etc etc etc....
When i was 30, i wouldn't have HAD to commit to either a glucose-based or a fatty-acid-based metabolism -- at that age i seemed to have pretty robust metabolic flexibility, compared to a lot of young people we see nowadays, who grew up swilling quantities of sodas and fruit juices. When this flexibility fails, however, one's choices become far more limited.
I'm sure my readers will have observed that every succeeding attempt at weight loss is more difficult and less productive than the one before it. What it boils down to is, we don't have time to waste in accomplishing what we want. In order to be able to do the everyday tasks that life requires, we need to create the strength and agility NOW. We have to make sure our bodies are not overburdened with fat, weight-damaged joints and deteriorated tissues NOW. Trying out the techniques which younger people swear works for THEM may put us so far behind in the race that we'll end by giving up in despair (e.g., the "leptin reset" protocol which a certain young woman said finally worked for her ... AFTER she put on a dozen pounds!) -- that just ain't gonna cut it.
I -- WE -- know what we have to do.
Most middle-aged women have damaged their metabolisms by trying to adhere to what we THOUGHT were valid recommendations for a healthy diet, and then -- when that proved not only to be empty rhetoric, but downright harmful -- we restricted calories time and again, in order to try to combat nature. A lot of us MADE OURSELVES into carb burners through decades of a low-fat diet, which effectually turned off our fat-metabolizing enzyme production. Dr. Wong tells us that we begin lowering production of ALL proteolytic enzymes at age 27 ... so at age 57 it may be darned hard to start making the "right" ones again. Dr. Donaldson doesn't say the same thing in so many words (i don't believe that the action of systemic enzymes was well-understood in his day), but he wrote about the magical age of 33, when he started seeing the effects of aging accelerate.
Changing over from burning carbohydrates for energy to primarily burning fats, then, is going to be WORK. If the individual has a rigorous schedule already, and struggles to find the energy to meet it, s/he may experience difficulty in "getting over the hump," which is generally known as the "low-carb flu." Some people, in fact, take an extended time to get past this , indicating that their metabolisms are the more screwed up. However, look at it this way: would you prefer to spend a couple of days (best case) to a couple of months (worst case) with lower energy reserves, or would you rather restrict calories FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, in order to avoid the damage which results in diabetes, NAFLD, senile dementia, heart disease, Parkinson's, etc etc etc....
When i was 30, i wouldn't have HAD to commit to either a glucose-based or a fatty-acid-based metabolism -- at that age i seemed to have pretty robust metabolic flexibility, compared to a lot of young people we see nowadays, who grew up swilling quantities of sodas and fruit juices. When this flexibility fails, however, one's choices become far more limited.
I'm sure my readers will have observed that every succeeding attempt at weight loss is more difficult and less productive than the one before it. What it boils down to is, we don't have time to waste in accomplishing what we want. In order to be able to do the everyday tasks that life requires, we need to create the strength and agility NOW. We have to make sure our bodies are not overburdened with fat, weight-damaged joints and deteriorated tissues NOW. Trying out the techniques which younger people swear works for THEM may put us so far behind in the race that we'll end by giving up in despair (e.g., the "leptin reset" protocol which a certain young woman said finally worked for her ... AFTER she put on a dozen pounds!) -- that just ain't gonna cut it.
I -- WE -- know what we have to do.
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