Thursday, December 21, 2017

Back to Milk

I decided yesterday to switch back to milk in my coffee and tea.

While I had been enjoying the richness of the cream in my drinks I did not feel that my weight was dropping the way it has been.

I am happy to use cream in my sauces but have gone back to milk in coffee.

Cream is not that easy to get here and I was concerned that I would run out. I can always buy milk so less stressful. This is a rest of my life eating plan so I dont want to have to find special foods. It has to work with my life.

I saw under 200lbs again on the scale this morning. I first saw it about 10 days ago before I started the cream. So looking forward to slowly seeing the numbers reduce.

It is so empowering to find that I can reduce my weight without starving and without feeling deprived all the time.

I have now finished my Course to become a Banting Buddies coach and hope to be able to help other folk with the same problem.

To find a coach follow the link.

http://www.bantingbuddies.com/accredited-coaches/

Some of us do not have bodies that were designed to run on glucose ( bread and sugar). To become lean as we should be we have to get our energy from fat. Fat that we eat and fat on our bodies.

Fat is what we need to eat. To tell the obese to go low fat and low calorie just makes the problem worse.

It takes a leap of faith to try the high healthy fat diet but once you do you wont go back to the glucose.

I am not really too worried about how long this takes me. Maybe a year? I feel so much better and I know my diet is not going to change much once I get my weight down.

I never want to find I have put it all back on again as I have so many times before when I have gone low calorie.


Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Milk v Cream

I have never been one to drink a glass of cold milk, I gave that up as I grew up. I have always hated warm milk since the school days when they thawed the milk bottles near the school radiator after they had frozen in the winter. In those days all primary children had a third of a pint at break time.

But I do drink a lot of coffee and each mug used to get a splash of milk in it. Not milky coffee just enough to darken it a bit and make it less bitter.

The number of mugs might vary but would usually be between 4 to 6 in the morning including one with breakfast and one mid morning. The mid morning one would be the last for the day and I would have a cup of tea around 3.30 also with milk.

It was suggested on my Banting Buddies group that I try giving up milk and substitute cream instead. Some times I had to have black coffee as cream was not available. Dont like black coffee!

In the 2 weeks I have been having cream I have lost 1.6kg. In the 2 weeks before that I lost 1.5kg.

So not a great difference.

What I have been doing is using 1 tspn of cream to do 2 mugs. So when I have my 4 mugs in the morning only 2 get cream and I top up with coffee and boiling water.

I have also been putting a sprinkle of cinnamon on top which helps with the IR and makes it taste nice.

If I can continue to buy cream I will carry on with using cream. I had to make butter the other day as some of the cream I bought went sour as I did not use it in time.

Dont think cream freezes very well. If I could freeze in small amounts that would mean I would always have available.

I find if I have the coffee cream combo in the morning instead of the coffee milk combo I dont feel so hungry mid late morning. Thats not usually a binge time for me so the hunger does not worry me.

But interesting to note the difference.

Monday, December 11, 2017

Under 200lbs

Got on the scale this morning to find I have dropped below 200lbs.

Have vowed never to go back over the 200lbs again.

As long as I stay off bread and sugar and cereal I dont see that being a problem.

I know the symptoms of addiction now. Cravings for sugar in the afternoons, feeling tired and having no enthusiasm for anything. I know that even though bread is low calorie it does not suit my system and I have better having something higher calorie with fat or oil.

I am close to half way to my first goal which is 150lbs.

Will then decide whether to try and lose more or just stay there for a bit.

At my age I dont want to become an old wrinkly overnight so might be an idea to not be too drastic.

I was 147lbs when I married over 40yrs ago. After another starvation diet!

So between those 2 figures gives me some wiggle room.

Yesterday I had my first Christmas challenge. D had lots of pastry snacks and chocolate and dried fruit.

But she also had out dry wors ( thin dried sausage) and biltong ( dried meat) so I had those instead and dipped them in the cream cheese dip rather than the biscuits.

I took my own mayonnaise and salad with avocado feta and olives. Had that with a chicken thigh for lunch.

Daughter commented I was looking good!

Hope to be able to buy some more cream today. Cream with coffee is very nice and I am finding it stops me feeling hungry. I have 1 tspn and make that last for 2 mugs. Also putting cinnamon in the coffee which helps with insulin resistance.

Finding the weight is dropping faster now I have given up the milk in my drinks and switched the cream. Go figure!

I can see and feel this working. Trousers that were tight 3 weeks ago are now comfortable.

Should be out of my size 20's soon and into size 18.

Going to sign up for the whole of next year with Banting Buddies. Great to be able to get the support and advice to make this work.

Finally after all these years of struggle and misery.


Sunday, December 10, 2017

Average losses

I did a spreadsheet this morning to look at the time it has taken me to lose each kg.

Some of the early figures I have not got as I did not start recording until I was about 6kg down.

So I have taken the figures from then. Worked out the day between each new lower kg appearing on the scale.

The figures vary between 5 days and 18 days so the average is around 13 days to lose 1kg.

So that works out at about 2.5kg a month or 5.5lbs a month.

So at that rate a stone is going to take me two and a half months to lose.

I know this figure is going to drop as my weight reduces.

I have done this before the hard way. Then I would be losing 9lbs a month but every day was a struggle with my glucose levels all over the place, dealing with cravings and binging and worrying that the scale would show a gain and waiting to lose the weight so I could go back to 'normal' eating. Which I did and the weight came back on again rapidly. An exercise in futility.

This feels different. My glucose levels are stable. I dont get that awful need to eat in the afternoons when my glucose levels were crashing.

I am eating more, particularly good oils and butter so my plates of food are about my normal fullness but I am eating far fewer carbs.

I am finding jeans that a month or so a go were a bit tight are now comfortable. Maybe soon they will be too big! So I better get some wear out of them now.

I will soon be accepted as a Banting Buddy coach and hope to be able to help other people with weigh issues to finally understand what is going on in their bodies and solve the issue once and for all. As I am doing.




Friday, December 08, 2017

Some Big Goals coming up

Weight is continuing to drift downwards. Not major weight losses each week but about 400gms or so.

With the Banting eating I do not get gains. Either it hovers at the same weight for a few days and then there is a drop, or 100gms go in a day.

I have stopped being fearful of finding the scale showing an increase because I am finding this so easy and I dont feel the need to cheat. Why would I when the food I am eating is so filling and tasty?

Over the next few weeks I am going to see a drop from 90kg into the 80's. Also I am going to drop below 14st. Something I have not seen for 10 yrs or more. Also a drop below 200lbs.

So all achievements worth celebrating.

I have bought a colour printer and a projector so will soon be ready to start helping others with this weight loss journey.

I am training as a Banting Buddy lifestyle coach to help others start on the journey that I am doing.

It was never about the calories, it was always about the carbs.



Monday, December 04, 2017

Giving up Milk

Giving up milk is something I have always struggled with.

On a low calorie diet is fairly easy to switch to a 2% or fat free milk and carry on adding it to coffee.

I mainly have milk in the mornings. I make around 4 or 5 mugs of instant coffee. The ground coffee is just too strong. I might have one if we are out for breakfast but rarely more than that.

So back to milk.I know milk is highly insulimic, for the number of carbs in milk it produces a much higher insulin response than would be expected. Babies need milk and insulin to put on weight quickly.

So even a small amount of milk when you are going low carb can be an issue.

Having lost 15kg without giving up milk I thought I would try this week to give up the white stuff.

Instead I have some cream. So I put a tspn or so of thick cream in the first mug, then top up with coffee and hot water so the cream does 2 mugs.

I have some coconut cream on standby for when the cream starts to turn. I will probably have to make butter out of it so as not to waste it.

Since last wednesday I have lost 700gms. My usual loss for the week is 500gms. So as an experiment it has shown me that milk is having an effect on my weight loss and is slowing me down.

So I will continue to buy cream to put in my coffee. I have one cup of tea in the afternoon and that one I still have milk. I just dont think cream and tea go together!

I am already planning for Christmas. If I dont plan I know I am going to run into problems. Sweets and chocolates have always been a problem in the past for me. I can put on 3 or more kg over a few days at Christmas.

So meat and vegetables are not going to be a problem. I can steer clear of the starches as long as I have my caulimash to soak up the gravy.

Will buy some almonds and maybe pecans or macadamias and toast them with spices and xylitol so I have something nice and sweet to nibble at. Maybe a bit of dark chocolate as long as I can stop at a few squares.

Left over cakes and puddings have been my binge foods of choice so will try and get the family to take any of those sorts of left overs home with them so they are not in my fridge.

I am not going to give myself  few days off. I know that if I let the insulin genie back out of the bottle I am going to be in trouble for days or even weeks. I am doing so well and feeling so much better I dont want to lose the momentum.

This is now my eating plan of choice for the rest of my life and my body is showing me how much it approves of what I am sending down!

Sunday, December 03, 2017

Maybe Obesity is fixable?

Obesity is just something I have learnt to live with. I have had it all my life and no matter what I tried I always ended up fatter than before I started the diet.

I counted calories, I counted points and weighed my food. I could lose the weight, very slowly and struggling every afternoon to avoid a binge but if I had a goal function I could do it.

Of course I never added any fat to my meals as that would give me unnecessary calories which would stop me losing weight. So fats and oils on anything was always forbidden!

I have been low fat for over 60yrs. Till now.

Now I am embracing fat. I have at every meal. Good butter, cream in my coffee any fat that comes with meat. Yesterday was kidneys fried in coconut oil for lunch.

Guess what. I am losing weight. I can feel it I feel a sort of hollowness inside. In a nice way. I feel lighter on my feet. I find it easier to move and am moving a lot more.

Ok its not a crash diet. I am not going to lose 2 st by Christmas. But maybe this Christmas I wont put 7 or 8lbs back on!

I am losing about 1 to 1.5lbs a week, and it stays off. It doesn't come back once its gone.

My afternoon struggles with food are in the past. I could never understand why 2 hrs after a meal I was hunting for food again. And not just any food, I wanted carbs and sugar and would binge on them.

I have had that so long I did not believe it would ever stop. Even if I got slim I believed I would still have to fight the urges to eat in the afternoon.

I did not realize that I had a disorder in my insulin system. My pancreas over produces insulin in response the carbs. The extra insulin keeps the fat in the cells and makes my brain to tell me to eat more.

Now I understand that to keep the insulin in the pancreas I need to get most of my calories from fat and oils. Good ones, not manufactured  ones.

That way when my body has finished using up the fat I have eaten it can easily switch into the fat stored in the cells. Because there is no insulin to act as the door keeper and keep the cell doors shut.

I have endless energy and a new belief in myself.

I am not the weak willed obese female I always thought I was.

I had a chemical problem and this has fixed it.

So I can look forward to a slim future which I thought was something I would never achieve.

Saturday, December 02, 2017

Why did I not try LCHF Banting before?

Now that I have finally got into the groove and figured out what I can eat and still see the scale moving downwards, I am trying to figure out why I did not put the whole thing together before.

I have had all the books. New Atkins, New you. Why we get fat and what to do about it. Plus many many more.

I think the trouble was I was still in the calorie mode mind set. Right you want to lose weight? Then cut back on the calories. Those bits of fat recommended in the books? Why not leave it out and the weight loss will be much quicker and you can go back to 'normal' eating.

I think that was the way I was thinking. I did not join up the dots and realise that the good fat is a critical part of the LCHF banting way of eating. Without the fat, the insulin resistance does not go away and every day is a struggle to keep the calories low and see the scale go down.

Eating the fat in the diet just stops the afternoon need to eat something and after a few days it simply becomes a habit to eat lunch and then have no food till dinner time.

If someone had told me that 5 mths ago I would not have believed it possible. After 65 yrs of living in this body I thought it had no surprises for me. But I was wrong.

What I have also come to realize is that this is not just a diet to lose the weight and then go back to normal eating. If I do that the insulin problem and the weight will come screaming back. I never want that to happen again.

So I am finding a new way of eating which is going to be permanent. Bread for me is off the menu. I might try and make some low carb bread next year sometime. But if I find my addictions coming back then I will have to drop it again.

I dont miss the rice or potatoes. I do have to make sure I have some cauli mash ready in little freezer containers so I can heat that up to have with my dinner. So I do need to prepare a head of time.

I have some egg muffins always in the fridge to heat up for lunch with a salad. I thought I would need them as snacks but the need to snack has stopped Glory be.

In 4 mths I have lost 14kg or 30lbs and dropped 4 jeans sizes.

Thats good enough proof for me that this has finally fixed something in me I did not know was broken.