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!
thank you! :-D i'm doing a happy-dance....
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! Eat some fresh shrimp for me in NO. :)
ReplyDeleteAs I'm sure you know, such a low-calorie diet can be dangerous and should be done only under a doctor's watch. It's not good for your heart (remember Karen Carpenter?), and it's known to cause neurosis (see The Great Starvation Experiment).
That is, such a low-calorie diet as you mentioned (600 calories per day).
ReplyDelete:-) i figured that's what you meant.... the beauty of LC is, i've been eating in the neighborhood of 1500-1600, and as long as i keep certain foods out of my diet, i lose AND i feel good and not hungry!
ReplyDeleteYou've earned it Tess. Your sharing it with us is very much enjoyed and appreciated. Even the silent readers are so inspired and educated by you and the gang. <3
ReplyDeletethanks, X! :-) really, being able to share what WORKS for each of us is what makes blogging at all valuable (but it feels good to rant occasionally, too). all the theorizing in the world by thin people can't help a lot of us. and although what works for me may not be the right thing for some people, others MAY find something that will. that's my hope!
ReplyDeleteWhoa! Way to go, Tess! One more example of how important it is to take an informed approach to weight loss, and find out what works (and what doesn't) for you.
ReplyDeleteHave a great time in The Big Easy!
-Michael
thanks, Michael! it's hard not to enjoy that place -- we already have dinner reservations at Broussard's....
ReplyDeletecongrats!!!!
ReplyDelete:-D thank you!
DeleteWow, that is fabulous!! I am actually thinking of changing my diet as I can't take the no weight loss anymore.
ReplyDeleteAs for New Orleans, we lived there for 2 years when we first got married. We go back every few years and bring our kids now. That is a hard place to diet in. You will have to get some cafe au lait and beignets for breakfast and of course you need a Pat Obriens Hurricane drink. I would suggest the Mother's "Ferdi with debris" for a meal too,but that place is in town, not the French quarter.Too bad you didn;t have more time,you can eat awesome food everyday and never get sick of it down there. Have a great trip. :)
thanks, Ponchmor! my husband had a job in Meraux for a couple of years recently, and i'd visit for weeks at a time (while also working on renovations of our St. Louis house).... we had a place on Burgundy at Governor Nichols and got a chance to explore the Quarter as only a resident can. AH, the food! i could go on forever.... i already have dinner reservations at Broussard's, and thinking about sunday lunch at Commander's Palace. oysters at the Cajun Cabin, crab cakes at Oceana, muffaletta omelette at Pierre Maspero's -- i can hardly wait!
Delete20 lbs in a year is great IMO given that you don't seem to be consciously restricting food quantity, just the type of food you eat. Do you think the alcohol slowed your progress overall? I don't drink so it's just not something that ever entered my radar at all.
ReplyDeleteyes, alcohol definitely is "fattening." it seems to me, if you treat it as though it were a carb calorie source it doesn't HAVE to wreck a LCHF plan -- just moderate use. one or two glasses of still wine per day seem to be okay for me, but sparkling or sweet wines mess up ketosis, and beer is out of the question -- even low-carb beers are a lot more troublesome than wine, in this body.
DeleteHi Tess- I started reading Strong Medicine last night (love the antiquated prosody-if thats the right way to say it). He's made some intriguing observations in the first few chapters- like his statment about grandparents: "It is of course our grandparents that make us tick; more than any other factor in life they color our way of thinking. Parents are merely the carrier of traits."
ReplyDeleteAnyway, when you're not "cheating" do you try to closely adhere to the 3:1 protein/fat? Do you find yourself adding fat? I think I need to increase the fat % in my calories. I just spent a week of eating about 1500 kcal/day and was hungry much of the time and only lost 1/2 lb. At this rate it's going to take a long time to get to my goal, and I' won't make it if I'm hungry all the time. I haven't been eating my coconut oil lately, so I'm adding that back in to my diet this week too. What's your take on the 1/2 of coffee/meal? I don't think I want to live if I have to limit my coffee to less than 2 cups/ day.
:-) he's definitely an old-school kind of guy! modern readers (especial female ones) need to disregard his chauvinism so as to get the most of his wisdom. of course he's outdated on some things, but in the days when the science wasn't as well-understood, they used observation more, and stuck with tried-and-true methods.
Deletei tailored his plan to make it fit me better. after trying various types of meat for my meals, i found i best tolerated ground beef or pork which were, coincidentally, about the right proportion of fat-to-lean. i was grinding my own chuck roast into burger (untrimmed), and doing VERY well. :-) i also added all the salt i wanted -- my digestion requires it! i use more coffee than he allowed his patients, too, and i'm not afraid to use butter to augment the fattiness of beef tenderloin, chicken/turkey breast, fish or pork tenderloin. i also sometimes make my own mayonnaise for tuna or chicken salad, etc. ... and hollandaise is a great fat-adder, too!
yes, if you're getting a pound of meat a day and still feeling hungry, you DO need to add fat! that seems to be the big secret.
I made Fatbread today (Macadamia nuts, creamed coconut & eggs)-
ReplyDeleteAMAZING!!!! It's my new favorite food I think.
i made a version of it (being out of creamed coconut), and i was disappointed (i preferred my own hazelnut-chia recipe). but maybe i need to get more CC and try it again!
ReplyDeleteHah! We think alike- I just bought hazelnuts and cardamom today and was thinking of trying that...have you posted a recipe for that version?
ReplyDeletei don't think so.... i once put i on Mark's site, i remember. i guess i need to start a recipes page.
ReplyDelete