Slender and Elegant

I have decided that is what I am going to aim for. I really dont know what weight that will be. Most advice is to return to the weight you were as a teenager. That wont apply to me as I was an obese teenager! I am trying to think back as to when my weight problem started. I remember my sister and I going to ballet class, I looked like a pink baby elephant in my tutu, sister looked like a ballerina! I am pretty sure at 6 or 7 I was in the back row.

I saw myself in a mirror in the spare room the other day and thought yes I can see I am looking thinner round the hips. I dont normally look in mirrors. When you are nearly 100kg you try and avoid them.

I am trying to send motivational messages to friends and family who also want to try a low carb diet. At the beginning it is so difficult to get your head around the foods that you can now eat. After 50yrs of low fat, low calorie eating I find it strangely liberating to be able to eat fatty meats and butter and bacon and still see the weight reducing.

This has also given me hope that finally I have found the answer and once I become slender and elegant I wont turn round 6mths later and find myself fat and obese again. None of my previous weight loss attempts have given me a guide book to eating as a thinner person. This one does. I can eat like this happily for the rest of my life.

I have started making the flax bread again since getting home from holiday and having 2 slices with lunch. What I decided to do was add 2 chopped prunes to the 2 cup flaxmeal recipe. I worked that out as giving me roughly 2gms carbs per slice because of the carbs in the prunes. However I feel so much better on adding the prunes. I would not eat them on their own as I have always had a problem with dried fruit. I dont have a stop button. But adding it to the bread gives it a hint of sweetness and does not set off a binge reaction.

This is a slow diet. I hope to lose about 2kg per month. So still got about 8mths to go before getting down to a 'normal' size. That I would be about a 14 UK or 10 USA size. But for now am just happy to get into a smaller size jeans and feel I have healed my body from the binging.

Lost weight on Holiday

I have just got back from two weeks at Mauritius followed by 2 weeks in Joburg. Mauritius was wonderful. We stayed in a guesthouse facing west over the sea and had beautiful sunsets. I had deliberatly not booked an all inclusive holiday with wall to wall buffet foods that we had already paid for. That is a recipe for disaster as far as I am concerned. We had beautiful breakfasts, cafe lunches and take away suppers that we could eat at the guesthouse watching the sunset.

I did have some indulgences, some mini magnums a few days and a tirmisu with rum and coconut. I thoroughly enjoyed them without guilt.

Got back to find I was half a kg less than when I left which I have never ever been able to do before.

Bought some roasted seasame oil in Joburg and taking half a tspn of that after lunch each day.

Its great to be able to go the whole afternoon without a binge. Been able to do that now since the beginning of January.

Started making the flax bread microwave recipe again and this time adding 2 chopped prunes to uncooked mix. That works out at 1gm carb extra per slice so is worth the extra carbs. 

Cravings are Gone

Eating in the afternoons is something I just do not do any more.

Since I started taking 2 zinc at lunch time and a low carb diet I find I dont need will power, I dont need to actively resist food in the afternoons. I no longer need it and that is a big break through for me.

I have my lunch at 12.15, cup of tea at 15.15. Then a alcoholic drink at 5 with a no cal mixer. Then dinner about 6.15. Again no need to eat after dinner. I dont need to go to bed early as I have run out of calories!

I worked out the food intake at about 1400 cals and the carbs about 55 gms per day.

That is giving me a weight loss of about 1.2lbs per week. Not a vast amount but the first time I have been able to lose comfortably each week without a binge to set me back up the scale again.

Wonderful to finally figure what is going on. Wish I had discovered this 40 yrs ago. When I think of the years of misery, low fat low carb dieting only to binge it all back on again it almost makes me cry!

My 'Special' Body

For about a week now the scale had been fixed at one weight. I found that disappointing but it did not lead me to giving up or eating more than is on my meal plan, or less.

I just kept on with the same meal format and supplements and still found that the awful hunger for sugar and starch in the afternoons was kept at bay. So I knew that eventually the scale would have to reflect what I knew was happening in my body.

Have finished my Zone books. Just read the Anti aging Zone but also ordered Age Zone and found they are the same book!

What I am rereading now is Protein Power Lifeplan.

I have a 'special' body. It is not like normal peoples and does not respond like a normal body. Maybe there are many of us like me now. Certainly more than there used to be when I was a child.

My body is intolerant to carbs. My insulin goes sky high when I eat them, All the energy from the carbs is locked into the cells by insulin. My body is then starving for energy as the fat cant escape the insulin trap. My hormones and eicosanoids are all influenced by the high insulin and my system is geared to making bad ones that inflame and cause fatigue. I didnt get enough good essential fatty acids to keep my body processes running smoothly.

Going on low fat, low calorie diets only made the whole sorry mess worse.

I tried the Atkins diet a few years back but I did not get the relief from the binging and un natural hunger that I should have done. I dont know if my carbs were too high or I am just a stubborn case.

Since starting on the 2 zinc a day I have found out what it is like to eat a normal lunch and then not feel any hunger till supper time. Those 5 to 6 hrs when I can concentrate on things other than food have shown me that I dont have to suffer like I have done in the past for the rest of my life. There is light at the end of the tunnel. 

This time because I have got the fundamental body chemicals running smoothly there is no danger of putting the weight back on. It may be coming off a bit slower than I would hope but it is better to lose 1lb and keep it off rather than losing 2lbs and gaining back 4!

Normally diets make me feel tired. I watch the clock in the afternoons to see if it is snack time yet. This one the afternoon just drifts past and I can do productive things and suddenly it is time for dinner. 

I have not yet got to the point of missing a meal because I forgot to eat but food is not my top priority any more!

So happy to be in the 80kg range, now aiming for the 70's.

Plan to never in my life be in the 90kg again now I understand why my eating was so out of control.

I want to be slim

I am not sure about how it will be living as a slim person.

For over 50 yrs I have been at least 4st or 25kg overweight. My meetings with me as a slim person have been very fleeting.

I have struggled and fought with myself to keep my calories low and in the past have lost 40 to 60lbs but the desire for carbs in the afternoons never went away. So inevitably once the diet was finished the weight started to return, slowly at first and then rapidly.

This zinc assisted eating plan feels different. For a start I am not losing weight in the usual places. I have noticed my face and wrists and legs are reducing quicker than I would have expected.

Because of the lack of cravings in the afternoons I can enjoy a no carb drink late afternoon. I have been having vodka and diet sprite. Followed by a substantial low carb supper with meat, chicken or fish and vegetables.

This is what normal people feel like but I did not know as I have never been normal.

Maybe now I have a chance at eating like a normal person and looking like a normal person!

Fragile Diet

I have come to realize how fragile my diet is. As I put each day behind me I congratulate myself on getting through another day without a binge or inappropriate eating.

I have dieted and lost weight many times before. Each time I have felt that was the last time but have put the weight back on. Each time I have eaten what was on the list, done the exercise and have lost weight but have never gone more than a week or so without being overtaken by a binge and have to pick myself up and start again. It just seemed to be the way I was made.

I never understood where the need for sugar and starch in the afternoons came from but the cravings were undeniable and almost uncontrollable. It was eating on auto pilot without a stop button.

Dr Barry Sears says it because of brain starvation. If the brain cant get hold of the nutrients it needs it drives you to eat. It like putting a glorious meal in front of a starvation victim and saying hold off here till tomorrow. Almost impossible to do.

Dr Sears calls it the fat trap. The body has all the fat hanging off the body but it like a prison for the fat. All the doors are locked and insulin is the jailor not letting any fat out of those cells into the corridors and up to the brain. So the brain calls out for a take away!

So the first step is to reduce insulin, give it shorter shifts! So eat less food that produces insulin. Eat more good fats and they and protein can unlock the fat cells doors.

Check for signs of inflammation from Dr Sears book Toxic fat and take steps to increase the levels of essential fatty acids in the diet, fish oils and evening primrose or borage oils.

And last but not least see if you feel better taking zinc tablets. Start with 2 a day and then reduce and see if that stops the cravings and allows you to be in control of the food you put in your mouth.

The beauty of this is that I have always enjoyed my food and looked forward to my meals, I trained as a Home Economics teacher, but because of the binging my evening meal has not been enjoyable as I try to undo the damage done earlier. Now I can have enjoyable evening meals as I know I will not be tempted to overeat in the evenings.

Perhaps this is the final cure for me? Maybe I will be able to get rid of my big elasticated trousers? Maybe this will allow me to lose the weight and never ever put it back on again?

Certainly I am foreseeing a slimmer future for myself and that is a new feeling. 

Zinc and Zone

I am being very cautious with this latest eating plan.

Looking back over my life I can pin point with exactitude the times I have been a 'normal' weight. Last years at school, at my wedding, between pregnancies and recently at my daughter's wedding.

However I never solved the problem. I would struggle for 8 to 10 mths with cravings and will power and feeling terrible to lose maybe 40 ot 50lbs and then within 6 months the weight would be back.

This got to be such a regular occurrence that I began to think what was the point of all the effort and deprivation if I was going to be back at the start weight so soon. Why bother in the first place?

I have clothes in my cupboard running between 4 different sizes. The nice clothes that are too small, then the elasticated clothes that are my regular outfits.

I know there are reports that 95% of obese people who diet return to their previous weight within a year. Those that dont are still on low calorie and doing regular exercise to keep their new figure.

I could never go from lunch time to dinner without some sort of snack. Within 2 or 3 hours of eating I would be climbing the walls with a form of hunger. Once I started on eating when that feeling arrived it was almost impossible to stop till I was bloated and feeling sick. This has been going on since childhood and I never thought it would go away, but it has.

Since I started trying the Zone Diet plus 2 zinc tablets a day my afternoons are what normal people experience. I can forget about food, the hours seems to pass quickly and I can keep busy. I have my tea around 3pm. A vodka and diet sprite at 5pm and supper at 6.30pm. After that I do not need to eat again till the morning.

My crumbling split broken finger nails are suddenly growing beyond the ends of my fingers and I can now shape and polish them. Something I have never managed to do before.

All in all I finally have a shoot of hope in my life that I am finally in a position to understand why I have struggled with this all my life. Too much insulin and not enough zinc.

The zone diet is allowing me to finally access my fat stored in my fat cells so my brain is happy even though my calories are around 1200 per day. The zinc is stopping the cravings and binging in the afternoons and evenings.

Miracle of miracles I am finally enjoying my meals and am satisfied with the choice and quantity I am eating.
As Dr Sears says if you are not hungry losing weight is so much easier.

Zinc is what works for me

Over the last few months I have been again attempting to get my weight down. Seems a never ending job, like rolling stones up hill only to find them back down at the bottom of the hill the next day!

However this time I am working with my body rather than against it. Instead of endlessly punishing my body by depriving it of food I am taking a zinc supplement 2 x 15mg tablets at lunch time and that gives me the ability to not eat during the afternoon and I have a nice meal waiting for me in the evening with an alcoholic drink beforehand.

It is early days yet, but I am 5.5kg down from Christmas. So thats about 12lbs. I have never felt the urge to binge since I started on the zinc. I got the idea from the book Primal Body Primal Mind. I think I have been suffering from zinc deficiency for years, maybe ever since I was a child.

I have had other symptoms of zinc deficiency but at the the time I did not know thats what they were. One is horrible soft flaky breaky nails, the other is lack of smell. That and craving for carbs in the afternoons and evenings are all linked to not enough zinc! Nails are now past the ends of my fingers and worth a manicure and the other day I could smell garlic! Both signs that I have been short of zinc.

On other diets every day I would wake up wondering if this would be the day I failed and ate myself senseless. Now I wake up with hope and looking forward to finding my clothes looser and planning what I am going to eat.

I am not entirely low carb. I allow myself some small biscuits with lunch and an apple a day and some homemade yogurt. I am also having zylitol with my yogurt and apple. Nice to enjoy something sweet without the guilt.

Maybe I have finally found something that works for me.

Ketones, brain starvation and Brain Insulin

All trips and medical visits over so can settle in back at home.

Expected to put on some weight and eating was out of control some afternoons. More on that later.

However overall am pleased that my weight did not go sky high to the point where I would yet again give up!

Have been continuing with my research into my problem. That uncontrollable need to consume glucose in any form in the afternoons.

Found some help in the on line carb smart emagazine. It is from Dana Carpendar and I would recommend you get a subscription.

In there they advertised a book about Alzeheimer's by Dr Newport. She has been doing research on brain chemistry as her husband is suffering from early onset of the disease.

What she found was that they have discovered that the brain makes insulin. So it is not just the pancreas that makes insulin.

Her hypothesis is that in Alzheimer's the brain stops making insulin and the cells of the brain start starving and dying as they cannot receive the glucose they need to stay functional.

She found that her husband improved tremendously with replacing most oils and fats in his diet with coconut oil.

I then transposed this into the obese body. What if the brain is starving but the body is obese?

If the brain cant get the glucose it needs to function it is going to make you eat regardless of what your body looks like and how much extra fat you have available.

If I can get my brain to run on ketones in the afternoon then maybe I wont get the cravings and binging that have caused me to be obese.

Started this yesterday. Have started making bullet proof coffee using coconut cream and coconut oil instead of butter.

Hoping to buy some MCT oil over the next week or so.

Yesterday afternoon I definitely noticed a difference in my brain. Usually I feel lethagic in the afternoon and really dont want to start or finish anything. Yesterday I completed the wage program.

Early days yet but if I can keep my brain happy and content and also lose weight it would be so wonderful.

I did get on the scale this morning for the first time in 6 weeks. Thought if I dont know what I weigh now how can I know this is working?

Other things I am monitoring.

Whether I can slide my rings off my fingers easily.

Whether my new jeans fit.

Whether my muffin top stays away.

Whether hips and waist measurements reduce.

Whether cravings and binging stop.

Hopefully that way I wont get fixated on the scale as I usually do.

Finger Nails, obesity and Essential Fatty Acids

None of my nails have broken, split or torn in the last 2 months. I started on evening primrose 3 months ago and take enough to give me 360mg GLA per day. So that works out at 2 borage oil or 4 evening primrose ( 1000mg).

All my life I have wanted 2 things. To be able to control my weight without starving and to have pretty nails that I could paint and file and that would grow beyond the ends of my fingers.

Looks like I am well on the way to achieving both those goals.Years ago I took a picture out of a magazine showing a hand bag ( louis Vutton!) with a picture of a hand holding the bag with beautiful nails. Not particularly long pointy ones. Just a nice curve to the shape and they were painted red. I now have the same nails.

I keep waiting for this to stop working. For the cravings and binging to come back and my nails to go back to their usual soft flaky tearing selves.

Would be interesting to know if any other obese people have problems with their finger nails. I think Ann Gittleman in her Eat Fat lose weigh said that people who are deficient in GLA will not have strong nails and will not have smooth hair.

I have got enough supplements to last me till the end of this year and will be ordering more then. Reading Inflammation Nation. Not got to the end yet but he also believes part of the problem facing us is a lack of EFA in the modern diet.

I believe first comes the EFA deficiency, that causes cravings for sugar and starch, that causes excess insulin which causes inflammation resulting in obesity.

Sort out the EFA deficiency and the rest will fall into place.

Buy the book Obesity, A Deficiency Disease? on Amazon for your kindle, ebook download.

Dieting with Avocados

Found some very nice avocados in the market yesterday. They are the nice creamy butter ones. Bought 10 as we had a party yesterday evening.

Planned a light lunch so had half an avo with half a tin of tuna in oil. Was not tempted by any of the sugar and sweet treats on offer in the evening.

Had more avo plus cream sauce with steak and farmers sausage for supper.

Drinks were decaf coffee and water.

Just because the food is there I dont have to eat it! I am sure that need to eat and uncontrollable picking at food while preparing food is caused not by low blood sugar but by the body's need to find the essential fatty acids it is missing. If you give it those EFA then suddenly your eating is under control and not something that you need will power to control. You eat meals and then naturally stop after one portion. No deprivation or agonising for hours over whether to eat something or not.

10 bars of chocolate in the fridge! My brain not even thinking about them. Not on my menu any more!

So nice to have the freedom to eat nice food without guilt.

Check out

Obesity, A Deficiency Disease?

Available for download to your kindle from Amazon.

40lbs

Thrilled this morning to find I am at  81.8kg which means I have lost 40lbs since my heaviest.

I have still no idea how my body works! Total mystery. Yesterday I had a nice piece of steak for lunch and then instead of my usual fish had some of the cooked chicken livers for supper.

Was reading the other day about the curlecue graph of weight loss. Thats where you lose weight and then it comes back on for a few days and then you drop lower than the last lowest weight and then up again. That seems to be what my body does. So I will expect that number to go up again tomorrow for no good reason but hopefully it will drop again later in the week.

Have been ordering some little books on evening primrose. The one I got last week said it has been documented that weak and splitting nails improve within 1 month of starting on evening primrose. A Dr went so far as to say that he would say that a deficiency in omega 6 fatty acids, GLA, can cause weak and flaky nails. I have not had a finger nail tear or flake in 2 months now. Getting to the point where I will have to file them!

What I find interesting is that reading the results of adding evening primrose to the diet are all good but very little has been documented on using a low carb diet plus evening primrose. Plenty of low fat plus essential fatty acids, but there I think the effect of the high insulin, due to the high carb of the diet, would negate any effects shown by the adding of EFA.

Like Dana Carpendar in her book 'How I gave up my low fat diet and lost 40lbs" I have done no exercise to lose this 40lbs. I have not been going to the gym, or getting the dance DVD's out.

My body has been more active purely because I have felt better. I am up and doing stuff. Not sitting in my chair watching TV all day!

I have been working out how long it takes me to lose 1kg. This last one took 14 days. The one before took 21 days. I found that for me it is better to take my EPO in the morning and not take my omega 3 fish oil at the same time but take it in the evenings. When I was taking the 2 together that was when it took me 21 days to lose a kg.

Every day on my previous diets could have been failure day. The afternoon I would lose control and eat myself into a stupour. With evening primrose that fear has left me. I have found the cure for me.

At 2kg a month I should have a normal body by Christmas! I will also have a normal eating pattern and a normal appetite and normal size clothes!

Childhood Obesity

I have been reading some books on obesity in childhood. Children who have BMI's over over 30 before they start school. Babies of 6 months being continually hungry and so being fed formula and solids, their weight is then far too much for their age and size.

As far as I know I was a normal size baby. Photos of me aged 3 or 4 show a normal sized toddler, but by the time I got to school age at 5 I was already tubby. I loved my food and would also be ready for seconds. I did not seem to have a stop button when it came to food. We always had starch with our protein, meat and potatoes, rice and chicken etc. And we always had a pudding probably with custard.

I struggled with my weight and trying to fit into normal size clothes all my school years. I did not want to be fat but could not cope with alternative which as far as I could see was to be hungry all the time! Various diets were tried but they all ended in a binge and failure.

From what I have learnt about myself now, 50 years later, is that my body does not make enough gamma linolenic acid from any linolic acid ( sunflower, soya corn oils) that I consume. As most of my diet has been fat free for the last 50 yrs this is not surprising. After my early experiences in dieting the one food I never added back into my diet was fat and oils, until now.

Because I was short on GLA my body was not able to make the good prostaglandins PG1 and any omega 6's that were consumed went to make the PG'2 which are the inflammatory ones. I did  not have much fish oil either so PG'3 were also in pretty short supply. So the only EFA I was ingesting were the ones designed to make my obesity and inflammation problem worse.

I also had cravings for sugar and starch ( notably bread) in the afternoons which I believe were a direct result of the shortage of GLA. As soon as I started adding Evening Primrose and Borage oil to my diet the cravings and binge sessions stopped. From the very first day!

So my recommendations for the obesity epidemic is that all pregnant women should take EPO during their pregnancy so that the unborn child received the EFA he/she requires. While the mother is nursing she should also continue the EPO. This will also help with any weight gain due to the pregnancy.

Babies fed on formula are supplied with EFA in the baby milk. If a baby seems to be continually hungry then I have read that it is possible to pierce open a capsule of EPO and then rub the oil onto the thighs and arms of the baby where it will be absorbed. Please read up about this and check with a doctor first before you do this. Once the child is eating solids it is easy to add EPO to food and to try and cut out as many sources of sugar and starch and trans fat and empty oils as possible.

Children should never be put on a fat free diet. They should be given full fat milk and not skim milk. Water should be given instead of soda. No child should be given fruit juice unless with a meal and then it should be diluted with water. Butter is better and olive oil is good. Breakfast should be protein with fat. Boxed cereals should be banished from the breakfast table.

The last 40 years have been an experiment in how not to advise a population to be healthy. We can all see the results. Good fat and oils do not cause heart disease and do not cause obesity. In fact they do the opposite. They protect the heart by reducing inflammation and if the body gets the EFA it needs, the appetite reduces to normal and weight loss is possible. Calories have very little to do with it!

Evening Primrose stops cravings and binging

Have been rereading my books to see if anyone has written about the effect of EPO on cravings and weight loss. Ann Louise Gittleman wrote a book in 1999 called Eat Fat Lose weight. How the right fats can make you thin for life.

She definitely was on the right track there but I think put more emphasis on the fish oils ( omega 3) compared to the seed oils Omega 6 and GLA. I have found that I get a better result when I take my EFA separately  So EPO in the morning and at lunch time and the fish oils in the evening.

What I did find was the diet she recommended at the end of the book had too much glucose for me. She was advising drinking orange juice with breakfast and or fruit plus a low carb bread. Her lunches and dinner recommendations are fine.

I am much happier having a protein breakfast with fat and that sets me up for the day. I rarely feel hungry and have no trouble sleeping at night.

I am staying away from fruit completely, I may see if I can have one piece of fruit as part of a meal once I have lost the weight I need to. If I find myself binging on fruit then I will have to stop eating it again.

Looking forward to getting to the 40lb loss mark and under 80kg. First should take me about 2 weeks and the second about a month or two.

Finger Nails and Obesity

All my life I have wanted pretty nails. Not particularly long talons but nails that would grow beyond the ends of my fingers and that I could file into a nice shape.

Never happened, unless I paid or bought false ones that stuck on my nails and turned the nail underneath into soft tissue paper!

As regular readers here will know I started taking Evening Primrose and Borage oil supplements just before Christmas last year. I now take 2500gms to give me 350mg GLA each day. I take this with Vit E but I only take my fish oils Omega 3's in the evenings as I believe the GLA and Omega 3's compete for the enzymes needed to process these fatty acids.

The books say it takes 6 to 7 months for a finger nail to grow from the nail bed to the end of the finger so I was not expecting to see any finger nail growth till towards the middle of the year. But surprise surprise it is only 3 months and already I have nails that are so much stronger and more flexible and dont flake and tear and they are just beyond the end of my fingers now. Today they have red nail polish on them! They dont look like my nails!

I have been deficient in essential fatty acids all my life. I dont know if I have not been consuming the mother fatty acids needed to make these, or if my body does not make the enzymes in enough quantity to process the Omega 6's in my diet. I dont use a lot of grain/bean oils so it could be 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

What I do know is when I take the EPO and Borage oil, on its own, my appetite is completely normal. I no longer get cravings in the afternoon and evenings. I no longer binge. I can eat my supper and then stop eating and dont even think about food for hours at a time.

I never want to be so out of control around food again. It was not hunger it was a deficiency.

Buy the book

Obesity, A deficiency Disease? available now from Amazon for your kindle.

Essential Fatty Acids in Children's Diets

Here is an email I have just written to my Daughters and daughter in law.

EFA have been forgotten in children's diets because of the anti fat anti obesity drive.

I believe the 2 things are linked. The anti fat drive has caused the obesity!

'I am doing more research on essential fatty acids. These are essential
fats that our body is not able to make and must come from food every
day.

Unfortunately the modern diet does not contain foods with good sources of EFA.

These would be grass fed milk, meat and butter.
Omega 3 enriched eggs
Tinned fish in their own oil ( not soya or veg oil)
Fresh oily fish

When I was a child I was given cod liver oil every day ( I hated the
fishy taste!) it was provided free for all children on the NHS in UK.
Dad was also given cod liver oil and malt every day.

I have now bought cod liver oil and malt from Link and Dawns kids are
starting to get accustomed to taking it!

Many of the formula milks available are also short on EFA. The
importance of these fats was not understood and soya oil or corn oil
were added to formula milk instead of the saturated fats ( coconut and
palm) that used to be added.

Can you supplement all the children with sources of EFA?

Give them cod liver oil and malt.

Use butter ( kerrygold) instead of margarine.

Get full fat cheese and milk and not low fat anything!

Try and give them fish once in a while!

Cut back on the use of vegetable oils, soya sunflower etc and increase
extra virgin oil oil use.

good fats and oil are very satisfying so children should be less
hungry between meals!

This is what I studied at college but we never looked at the
importance of fat! Rather it was the less fat you eat the better!'

Fat Fast Dana Carpendar

Just downloaded Dana's new book. It is available on Kindle only within USA so I had to get the PDF version.

Have printed out the introduction which is the first 27 pages, With recipes it is 96 pages so will only print out those ones I need.

Basically it is a short sharp shock to the metabolism to break a stall. Five snacks a day ( you cant really call them meals) high in fat and low in protein and veg.

I have not tried it yet as I am still happy with my weight loss. The GLA and fish oil capsules are still doing the job for me. Stops me snacking and binging in the afternoons and evenings.

Also download

Obesity, A Deficiency Disease?

Onto your kindle.

Michelle

Obesity is fixable

Finally got the book out there. Now available for Kindle

Obesity A Deficiency Disease if you are in UK

Obesity A Deficiency Disease if you are in USA.

What the book says is that cravings and binging are not caused by normal hunger. They are caused by a deficiency. The deficiency is fatty acids, the ones needed to make the hormones. 

The body is not a very precise machine and instead of sending messages craving specific fats Gamma Linolenic Acid it send a message craving for sugar ( the body does try to make GLA from sugar!). 

If you take GLA as a supplement ( Evening primrose or starflower  (borage oil) then the cravings just stop. They no longer happen and you no longer binge on sugar in the afternoons and evenings.

Buy the book to find out more.

Michelle

Obesity, A Deficiency Disease?

Now available to download to your kindle!

Link is here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Obesity-A-Deficiency-Disease-ebook/dp/B00BE7RI9O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360641919&sr=8-1

This is the book description

What if the calorie theory is wrong? What if your metabolism is making and keeping you fat? What if it is possible to change your metabolism by what you eat and what you don’t eat? What if eating low fat, high carb, low calorie foods makes the deficiency worse? What if you could finally understand why you binge and learn how to stop binging tomorrow? What if your body is unable to make one vital fatty acid and drives you to eat carbs to compensate? The GLA diet plan (Gamma linolenic Acid) teaches you about your body. You will learn how to work with it, to get your eating under control and finally slowly lose the excess pounds. This eating plan is for people with a BMI of 28 and above who have yoyo dieted for years. This is a medium fat, medium protein, low carb diet with vital supplements. You must get enough essential fatty acids in your diet every day or you will struggle, as you have with other diets. Eat healthy nourishing meals, 3 times a day, and watch the numbers on the scale decrease. Then keep that weight off, for ever!

I have finally got into the 29BMI range. I have not had cravings, binging or nibble need for nearly 2 months.

The low carb diet is only half the answer. The other half is the EFA that the modern diet is missing.

Try this if you are a yoyo dieter.

Up to Amazon now

Uploaded the book about 2 days ago so waiting on Amazon. If they say eating plan does not meet the Government guidelines of 6 to 11 portions of starchy carbs per day they will be absolutely right!

Checked back on last years weight loss graph. I was this weight about June 2012. Got another 0.9kg to go to get under that 30BMI again and then another 0.5kg to get to last years lowest weight. Then it is free wheeling downhill to under 70kg.

Six big plastic containers arrived via Amazon yesterday. 2 of cod liver oil and 4 of omega 3 fish oils so I should not run out any time soon.

I am taking omega 3 and omega 6 for life now as I never want to be so out of control around food again. Got a trip to UK planned for Sept so aiming for 70kg by then which would be great.

Obesity A Deficiency Disease?

That is the working title for my kindle book. Hope to get it ready to be downloaded within the next 4 weeks or so. Only thing that worries me is the cover as I am not very artistic and have not got photoshop and cant afford $'s to get someone to do it for me!

My eating is no longer punctuated by these eating jags ( binges) when I find I am eating everything in sight in the afternoons.

Since just before Christmas when I started this I have lost 5kg or 12lbs. My eating is under perfect control. I can forget about food in the afternoons and get on with projects until it is time for my next meal. I no longer snack at all. Not even low carb snacks. I dont need them. I dont find myself eating a couple of hours after a meal and I no longer feel the need to finish everything off!

Why has no one been looking scientifically at the process of binging to try and understand what is really going on and what the body really wants when you are driven to consume vast quantities of sugar and carbs in the afternoon? I know I am not alone with this battle, there are millions of you out there!

New Year New Diet

Dieting book is almost ready to be published. Just got to do some editing and tweaking.

Is amazing how the binging has just stopped. From day one on this I have had 3 nice meals each day with no snacks and no desire to binge. After 50 years of feeling out of control around food that is a first for me.

Lost 2" off my hips and 1" off my top half so its all good. Finding I have so many more productive hours in the day. Hours when I can start new projects and complete them. Something I found impossible in the afternoons before.

Obesity is a deficiency disease.

Started the book

Finally made a start on the ebook this last weekend. Not sure how long it will take me to get it ready to be uploaded to Amazon. I would guess it will be ready Feb/March 2013.

I was thinking the other day of how to tell if your eating is under control. First thing is that you dont crave carbs in the afternoon and you are in control of your eating habits. You can comfortably go for 4 to 5 hours without eating. You are not obsessing about where you next meal is coming from and what it is going to be and whether you will get enough on your plate! You can fit into the same pair of non elasticated trousers for months and years at a time and they are not outsize!

I am still a work in progress but I can fit into the same trousers I bought in July this year. So that is 5 months at a steady weight. Before I would either be wearing my smallest trousers for about a couple of weeks and then find I could not get them on again.

You dont have pads of fat at the back of your neck, on the inside of your knees and a roll around your liver.

These are all signs of an insulin imbalance. Watch this space for more news on the book that may change your life.

Going to write an ebook

Got the programs downloaded to start writing an ebook on weightloss and weight maintenance.

Been on holiday and put on 2kg of which 1kg has gone already so I feel that I have finally got a handle on my weight problem.

Nice to go into regular shops and buy nice clothes that will do up round the waist!

Until we are given the right information about how we get fat and how we can get unfat and obesity problems will just continue.

supplements that work

I have never been a big believer in taking supplements. I usually take a multivit and that is about it.

I have been reading up about serotonin and how it gets into the brain. It seems that binging is one way of ensuring the brain gets enough serotonin. To put it simply when you eat a lot of carbs the insulin produced sweeps all the other amino acids out of the blood stream into the cells and leave the one amino acid, tryptophan in the blood stream which then gets a first class ticket across the blood brain barrier. Of course the binging has other side effects, obesity, depression feeling of being out of control around food.

So there is a better way. First thing is the 5 HTP is the mid chemical between the amino acid and does not need a ticket to cross the blood brain barrier so I take it 40 mins before lunch and supper. 200mg per day.

The brain also reabsorbs the serotonin and ginko keeps the serotonin in the synapse instead of it being broken down again. So a capsule of ginko in the morning also helps.

The third new supplement I am taking is coenzyme Q10 which is needed by every cell in the body for energy production.

For the first time in my life I think I know what normal feels like. I can easily go all afternoon with no extra food or snacks.

I am keeping up with the scandinavian low carb high fat diet and am now waiting to see the kilos start going again.

The warning say dont take 5 htp or ginko if you are on drugs for depression as they dont work well together and it can be dangerous to your health.

5 HTP

I have been reading up about Serotonin and how a lack of serotonin or serotonin receptors can cause problems with overeating and obesity.

Also the amino acid that is made into 5 htp can also be made into another substance called kynuenine which cannot be used a serotonin and also cannot be changed back. The more insulin you produce the more kynuenine you make and the less serotonin. I got this from a book called Boost your Serotonin levels by Michael Murray.

I believe now I have been self medicating for years with carbs trying to make more serotonin but the insulin production has been halting the process. That is what causes binging.

The other thing that 5 HTP helps with is depression and sleep. I did not think I suffered from depression until I started taking 5 HTP and found my brain has another gear I never knew about. I am also getting 2 hours more sleep each night and I found that from the first evening I took a capsule.

I am now taking one capsule at lunch time and one in the evening. Decided I did not need to take one during the morning as I never overeat in the morning and am not planning to sleep.

Am keeping on with this experiment and now have enough 5 HTP for 4 months at the rate of 2 a day so will see where this takes me.

So far all signs of binging and cravings have gone and no nibble need after meals. I feel more satisfied after my meal and dont think about food till the next one.

Window reflection

Spent most of last week staying at a hotel and doing business. Sorting out contracts and insurance. Went with DH which was nice.

Had 9 meals that I did not prepare myself so knew that even if I made good choices I would still find a weight gain when I got back. I now call that travelling weight and plan for it. Usually about a 2lb gain which I expect to go over the next 3 or 4 days.

I enjoyed watching my image in the shop windows as we walked past. Such a change from the reflection I used to see.

Was so nice to enjoy the moments and not be worrying about where the next meal was coming from or whether there would be enough. I did use my olive oil spray on some salads as I asked for no dressing as the dressing often contain sugar. So I would just spray the salad with my own oil.

Fading away

Went to our local show yesterday. Was a long day and I was tired by the end but DH wanted to stay for the fireworks and they were splendid so glad we did. Got home at 9 having left at 9 in the morning.

Tried to make good food choices. Had chicken burger with extras for lunch and no bun. Extras were bacon and cheese and more salad. By 5 I was hungry again so this time had a beef burger with the same. When I got home I fixed some veg with tinned salmon and melted some cheese on top of it. Did not get on the scale this morning. I only drank water.

Got some nice comments about how I looked. One girl has known me since I got married and she was asking me what I was doing. She said I though you could only do that for a week. I said no I am going to be doing this for the rest of my life as it is the only thing that has ever worked for me except for starvation and that never lasted very long and would end in a binge!

One lady was selling skin products so I bought a selection of her range to try. If I like it I may ask if I can be her agent her and sell for her. I have been looking for a nice beauty product I can trust and have a hobby with.

I am not fading away still got over 40lbs to go but I am a lot narrower round the hips. Lost 5" there since January.

Under 13st

Have been battling a bit this month. With the trip away weight has not been going steadily down. I did add the loss today to June so that is 1.9kg for June so over 4lbs.

I ordered some 5 htp and started taking that a week ago. I think it is helping with the afternoons and I am feeling better with it. Got enough for 2 months and then will order more. The book about it has not turned up yet.

Had a trip to town this week and bought a nice black sparkly cardigan which will go with black and white dress as well as black trousers. Also found some cheap T shirts in various colours. They have a very nice neckline but long sleeves so bought one in each colour and will make them short sleeves.

Finally into the 12sts. I expect to be here for about 4 months. It seems to be taking me that long to lose 14lbs. But for the first time I am not dieting down as hard as I can in order to get to the point where I am going to stop dieting. I have accepted now that I am always going to have to not eat grains and sugar if I want to have a normal figure. But I can eat fat and cream and enjoy nice meals. I am happy with that.

I am finding it strange to be getting more male attention these days. As a grandmother who has always been obese and not used to attracting attention it was a very unexpected thing to happen!

'Calling' the scale weight

I find it very difficult to call my weight each morning. On previous low cal low fat diets I would know that if I was 'good' then I would be rewarded with a weight loss. On this diet with high fat and high calories my weight the next morning has been a complete surprise. Sometimes it is a nice surprise but the past 4 mornings it has been a nasty surprise. The number on the scale has been increasing every day till I was 900gms higher than 5 days ago.

I was beginning to get frightened that this would be a relentless gain and I would carry on seeing the weight gains ( or not seeing it if I gave up weighing again) until I was over 200lbs again.

I did not eat less than usual or watch my calories but ate my usual LCHF meals. This morning 500gms have gone. Had I tried going back to my low fat low calorie approach yesterday then I would have attributed the weight loss to that. Fortunately I did not do that.

I do need to get walking again. Been too busy recently and also watching Wimbledon on TV. I know the low carb high fat approach is right for me because the binging episodes are no more. They are not just under control, the urge has left me.

Reading Tales from the Scales and am seeing where I have come from. these girls weighing over 300lbs are just the same as I was. I am so relieved I have finally found this way of eating and my appetite is going to be normal.

Garden of Eden

Had 3 days away in the Zambezi Valley below Kariba dam. Have never been down there and it is beautiful. Later in the year it would be very hot but it was just a pleasant temperature with a bit of chill in the evening. I would love to go there again. So peaceful with the river drifting past the open door of the rondaval.

I made the best food choices I could. Did have a couple of gin and tonics before dinner. Had the full sugar tin and shared with husband. Skipped the starters as they were very carb heavy, pasta and rice. Did not have the dessert and ordered coffee while everyone else had their dessert. Kept to mainly meat salads and veg with olive oil. Breakfasts were full english and I asked for no beans. We went out on the river at least twice a day. Saw elephants and plenty of hippos, crocs and some Kudu. A lovely trip.

Feel much better about the shape of my body. Managed to get in and out of boats with ease. They did not tip too much!

Noticed nails are growing out again. Maybe the effect of adding fat and oil back to my diet 5 months ago. Will see if they start flaking and breaking again but maybe this diet is what my nails have been needing as well.

Forgot my weight!

Had to check my phone to see what weight I was 2 days ago. Thought when I got on the scale I had gained 200gms but have actually lost 100gms! Was surprised as I have never done that before. Perhaps my weight is becoming less important in the great scheme of my life!

Was reading a book yesterday and resting it on my midriff realised I could read to the bottom of the page without any difficulty!

Started on the life coaching course yesterday, they say a year but I hope to complete it in 6 months as being retired I have more time. I like working in the early morning as my brain is fresher then. But I am finding since starting on the fat diet that I can also work on things in the afternoons. All I used to want to do in the afternoons was read or watch TV and eat. Now I go for a walk with my little kettelbel and finish jobs that I might have started in the morning. Life is far more productive.

Kettlenetics

Got a set of kettlenetics with the weight last week. Had a go at the basic dvd and also the upper body exercises yesterday.

My arms ache when I pick up the kettle full of water! Will keep on with this as it is focussing on my core muscles and my arms. Legs are getting a workout when I walk but upper body is a problem area.

Putting chicken thighs, with the skin, into slow cooker for lunch. Plenty of onion and garlic and chilli. Is winter here now so hot food is very welcome.

Well under 84

Scale went to 83.7kg this morning so well under the 84 I was yesterday. This way of eating just keeps on working without starving or struggling or depriving myself. Looking forward to getting under 13 stone again. Should manage that in the next couple of weeks. I am expecting to be above 12 st when I go to UK in Sept but should be on the lower side of 12 and a half.

Had no birthday cake yesterday even though it was on offer. Did not even lick my fingers when I was cutting a piece for gs and got icing on my fingers!

I just do not want to go back to living in a glucose/insulin fog where everything is so much effort and I never get things completed and my afternoons are just a washout as I try to stay out of the fridge and pantry.

Did some exercise yesterday. Kettlebel in the morning for about 20mins and a walk with the dogs for 40mins in the afternoon.

Looking forward to my eggs and butter in a few hours time. Until then coffee will keep me going!

Down again

Scale first stopped at 83.9 but when I got on again to check fat levels went to 84 so I can wait till tomorrow to drop below the 84kg.

Started taking Monolaurin a week or so again so dont know if that is why my weight loss seems more steady. Just one capsule in with morning with my vitamins.

On part 3 of the Scandinavian Diet course. Looking forward to continuing with that. Think it is going to take another 3 months to complete and by then I should be another stone or 14lbs less than now.

I now trust this diet that it is not going to let me down the way I have been let down on so many previous low fat diets.

Not obese anymore oh joyous Day!

Got on the scale this morning and found another 200gms gone. Put that into the ticker without much hope and suddenly 29.9 BMI came up on the ticker!! Its official I am no longer counted amongst the obese. I am just overweight. I wondered a few weeks ago, as this was going so slowly, whether to increase my height just a tad! or put in a weight that I had not got to yet! Pleased I did not as this is genuine.

Yesterday I had 2 boiled eggs and butter for breakfast, some left over shin stew with spinach and cabbage ( cooked in butter) for lunch and ratatouille half a tin of salmon and 25gms of red Leicester cheese. The cheese comes in a 100gm square blocks and what I am doing now is cutting each block into 4 and using one a day. I am sure that some days I was eating half of a block in one go. One block melted on my ratatouille and the rest eaten in chunks as I waiting for it to warm up!

My next goals are going to be to get under each BMI level. 29.9 all the way down to 24.9! I am finally doing this and am feeling great. Not tired and hungry. The hours in the day simply zoom by and all of a sudden it is time for another feeding!

I love this way of eating and yesterday I was obese for the last time in my life. Now I am going to be slender!

Thirty BMI

Got to 30 on the BMI scale this morning. So these are the last few days I am going to be obese in my life. I will never ever get to this size again now I know the secret of losing weight and keeping the weight off. It has very little to do with calories and is mainly connected to how little carbs I eat and how much fat and oil I consume. lower carbs higher fat equals weight loss. Higher carb low fat equals weight gain. Simple when you finally understand it.

Good Kindle book by John Mclean the Low carb revolution. Only available as a Kindle edition. He like me is fed up about all the misinformation about obesity and the causes of obesity that have been aimed at the obese for so long and it is all wrong.

We are not fat lazy people who dont exercise. We are people who have a hormone problem and the main problem is insulin. We produce too much too often and it turns all our nutrients into fat instead of burning it off as energy the way normal people do.

I am going to be normal but I am not going to be eating a recommended 'normal' diet. My fat intake is going to be far higher than the food guidelines and my starch intake is going to be far lower for the rest of my life.

stable weight

Something I have never achieved has been a stable weight unless it has been at the top end of my weight gain. Then I could stay over 212lbs without any difficulty. But each time I lost and gained my top weight would be a bit higher. I never thought I would have the ability to get it under control.

Since I have started the LCHF diet my weight bobs around one weight for a few days and then does a little drop, bobs there and drops again. I never put on the 5 to 6 lbs I could put on overnight when I was binging on carbs. I have at last got control of that destructive behaviour. I thought maybe it was physiological, something to do with issues in my childhood or that I had emotional problems. It was something I had done for so many years I did not believe it was possible to stop the cravings and I would have to live with them and try and control them all my life. As soon as I added fat back into my diet the cravings and overeating stopped. They have never returned in 5 months.

 I am in control of my eating and my weight for the first time in my life. I no longer have to look at a starvation diet to keep slim for the rest of my life.

Antibiotic causes weight loss?

Since the beginning of the week I have been struggling with a 500gm gain for no particular reason. Not binged, not eaten more than I usually do.

Yesterday I started on a course of augmentin as I had a infection in my gum after a visit to the dentist. Dont want to lose the tooth. Today the 500gms have gone plus an extra 100gms so on a new lower weight!

Something to do with inflammation? I cant live on antibiotics for the rest of my life! Got 4 more days tablets and maybe will then see a weight increase again. Can only be water and not fat.

I can change a tyre

Yesterday I set off to collect milk from a local farm. On the way I heard a nasty knocking sound from the back of the car and stopped to find I had a flat tyre. My first thought was to phone home for help. Get DH and the mechanic to come and sort it out for me. So I rang but no reply. Managed to leave a message with sil.

Decided to get started on my own and see how far I could get. I was taught how to change a wheel by my father over 40 years ago. All his daughters had to learn how to do it before they were allowed out on the roads on their own.

I was trying to think the last time I had had to do that on my own. 25 years ago maybe? At over 200lbs I would be absolutely exhausted after crouching down for so long and manipulating all the different tools. This time it was a breeze. 15mins and the old wheel was off, the spare one on and tightened up and I was on my way again and I was not even breathing heavily!

It is not only the weight loss but also the walking for 40mins every afternoon that has made me fitter and given me more stamina.

I did not know I had it in me. When DH eventually rang me I was able to say it was all sorted and I was on my way again.

wetsuit

Signed up for a course on the Scandinavian diet yesterday. Here is the link.

http://www.scandinaviandiet.co.uk/

One of the first tasks was to visualize an outfit to be wearing when your weight has normalized. The outfit I visualized was a wetsuit. If you are obese you would never dream of trying to push all the rolls and bulges into a wetsuit. There is no where to hide. Every bump and saggy bit is on show.

I have had a dream of doing an open water scuba course but would never dream of doing it weighing what I do now or what I used to weigh 4 months ago.

But maybe by the time of my birthday next Feb I will be down to a standard size and can see if I would like to scuba dive. DH has said we can go to Mauritius so will look for a hotel that has a diving training course attached!

Maybe having a bit too much cream these days. It is nice to have a treat but as I have the cream I want to use it up! Only having it once with the main meal and then put some in coffee after supper but it is a good glug rather than a measured spoonful!

Scale up

Hi,

Scale is up 400gms this morning but I know my fat is not up by that much. Did a town trip, 8 hours round trip yesterday, that always pushes the scale up higher than when I have my normal routine at home.

So know that the diet is working, it has to work, it cannot fail so will get back into my home routine and see the scale drop back to my before town weight soon.

This is the only diet for me

I have tried so many things to lose weight. Gone to slimming clubs and paid good money! Bought bottles and bottles of tablets and capsules to try and get my appetite under control. Some of them helped a bit and I lost some weight at the clubs but as soon as I stopped dieting the weight all came back and brought friends.

This seemed to be something I just could not do. To lose weight so that it stayed off. My extended family would never know when they saw me on trips overseas whether I would be 10st or 15 stone.

I believed all the bad press about fat and oils. Far too many calories, if you are dieting remove all the fat, dry fry your food in a non stick pan. Never knowingly eat fat. I did what I was told and what I was taught. I am a Home Economics teacher so know all about calories!

It did not work. At 60 I was obese, fatigued and fed up! Then I read escape the diet trap by Dr Briffa. Fortunately I never gave up buying and reading dieting books. I had a dream that one day I would find a diet that worked for me, that solved my obesity problem for good and let me eat the food I enjoyed.

This is it and it contains a lot of fat. Good fats. My body just loves running on fat. I dont feel my age at all now. I am busy and productive the whole day. I dont get the afternoon slumps and binging. I enjoy all my meals. I can forget about food for hours at a time. I am finally becoming slim and am going to stay that way all the rest of my life.

A high carbohydrate, low calorie low fat diet was completely and utterly wrong for me. I should have been told 40 years ago that there are alternatives for people like me. I look around and know I am not alone with my problems. There are millions of us all struggling with misinformation.

Put fat back in its rightful place in your diet and your body will thank you in every way.

Fat metabolism

My body is now running mainly on fat. Fat from my body, 34lbs so far, and fat that I eat. I am no longer fat phobic and no longer 'dry fry' my foods or grill and throw the fat away.

My rings are loose, my watch has moved up my arm as my wrists are thinner than they have ever been.

I just dont get hungry until just before a meal and I dont binge any more.

I am enjoying cooking again. I like making nice cream sauces to go with my food. I add herbs and spices to my stews. I used to worry about doing the cooking as on a low fat low calorie diet I would be eating and picking all the time I cooked the food. Now I can wait and sit down to a nice satisfying plateful of good nourishing food and know that I am still going to lose weight. Lost just over 4lbs this month. Not a massive weight loss but if I can do the same for the next 6 months I will have lost another 2 dress sizes.

One thing I did find is that I was using a chilli and garlic spice mix and it stalled my weight loss for about 5 days until I went back to a small shake of cayenne spice instead. Some of these spice mixes have chemicals in that can stall weight loss. I love my ratatouille with some oil and hot spice on it.

Scandinavian Diet

I found 2 kindle books on Amazon yesterday about this very low carb diet. There is no doubt for me that this is the way I have to eat if I am going to finally say goodbye and good riddance to obesity.

I am looking at seeing how to become a licensed coach for the Scandinavian diet. I would like to help others get their insulin under control and finally feel good about themselves.

Once you get over the first couple of weeks on eating this way it becomes so much easier. You dont cut calories so you hardly ever feel hungry. You can eat rich fatty foods so your blood sugar level stays stable. You dont eat carbs so your brain stays clear and energetic all day.

Story of a girl of 19 in UK where they had to take the walls of her house down to get her out as she weighs 840lbs. She is now in hospital. Until the Drs and obesity 'experts' take a long hard look at the different effects of insulin they are never going to solve the obesity problem.

LCHF

Well it looks as though this is what I am doing.

http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2012/05/20/7533/swedes-lob-dynamite-into-a-controversy-high-f

Link there to a diabetes article about how this is a better diet for diabetics.

I believe is also a better diet for the obese. I have been losing weight without difficulty for the first time in my life.

Hope to be no longer obese in the next couple of weeks.

Half way

Just changed my ticker weight this morning and realised I am half way to 11st or 70kg. This has not been mind blowingly difficult. In fact it has been the easiest diet I have ever done as it has controlled the craving and binging from day one.

So that is 15kg down in 4 months. Even if it takes me 8 months to lose the next 15kg I am not worried as I dont feel this is a diet where I am ever going to lose control around food again.

One of the books said when you can walk past the sweet and chocolate racks at the supermarket without a pang of desire to buy and eat something then you are cured. I can do that now. I can buy chocolate for my DH and put it in the fridge and it can stay there open for a week or more but it has no hold over me. I dont want it. That is the cure.

Fat Feet

Over the weekend I had to adjust the straps on my slip on shoes. My feet were sliding too far forward in my shoes. I had fat feet!

I know the fat is going it is just going from places I never thought were fat! Total since the beginning of this month is 1.5kg which is about 3.3lbs. Not a mind blowing weight loss but at least it is downwards and not upwards and I do feel that my food intake control is at 100% whereas before it was about 80% in the mornings and down to 10% in the afternoons and evenings when on a low calorie diet.

My trousers that I could not get into 3 months ago and now feeling looser particularly around the legs. maybe it is the walking I am now doing. About 40min each afternoon and I even jogged for 100 paces yesterday. I counted them!

Major goal at present is to get below the obesity BMI. 29.9 here I come.

At Last

Finally seen some movement downwards on the scale. 500gms less than yesterday which is a lot for me but then no weight loss for the past 6 days.

I did say I would not change my ticker until I had seen the same figure 2 days running but I could not resist!

Funny thing was that the fancy scale showed a lower weight but a higher fat percentage. Am over the 40% again. So does that mean this weight loss was mainly water? Its very confusing.

The important thing for me is the scale is moving down and not up and I am still feeling satisfied with my meals and not craving or binging. Have cut down a bit on my supper portion but still not feeling starved before I go to bed.

Very keen to get under that 30 BMI and finally no longer be obese.

same weight

Weight is still the same as it was a week ago and I have been walking every day. On previous diets this would be the point that I would think blow it and give up. But not this time. I am eating well and enjoying the fat I have added back into my food. My eating disorder is cured. I no longer have any urge to binge in the afternoons or evenings.
What I did decide to try yesterday was to put my tuna cheese tomato melt supper into a smaller bowl and measure out less of it. I still enjoyed it and did not feel any hunger pangs later before I went to bed. So will try that for the next week and see if I make any progress.
This was never going to be a crash diet. I am eating too well for that but I was hoping to see even a half pound loss in a week. Maybe next week I will lose a pound!

To be un obese

That is my present goal. To get under that 30 BMI. I could maybe increase my height by half an inch or so! That would be one way to do it.

Worked out that I think the 29.9 BMI will be at about the same weight as when I drop below the 13 stone or 182lb or 83kg. At my present weight loss rate that is going to take about 6 weeks. I could get there faster by decreasing my food intake but then run the risk of craving and binging in the afternoons. So am going to carry on eating the way I am doing now.

I am thinking of getting some of those arm shakerators at the fitness shop in town to see if I can firm up my underarms. Maybe a lost cause but I can but try.

I find it quite interesting to see where the fat is going from this time round. I am no longer going low calorie anti fat dieting. This is a controlled insulin diet and definitely the fat is being mobilised from different places and being moved about! I find this quite strange. My fingers and backs of my hands were quite thin a few months ago and now they have got a new layer of fat on them. Makes the back of my hands look younger rather than thin and boney!

My body has its own agenda. It will do this in it's own time and it's own way.

What is the long term plan?

I was planning the future on my walk yesterday.

Decided one thing I would like to do is to help obese people get rid of their excess fat. I am quite good with computers so would buy a projector and set up a slide show to explain how this high fat low carb diet actually works. Then set up meeting and meet maybe once a week or every 2 weeks. No booing or clapping allowed!

The obese get so much flak and blame for their condition and I feel it is totally unfair as you have no control over your hormones and they are just taking dietary advice to eat more carbs and less fat which is completely wrong for their bodies.

I was also planning maintenance for when I finally get rid of all the excess fat. I dont want to go too low as I dont want to go all wrinklie and old. At present I am on 3 meals a day and about 28 gms carbs and 1500 cals and losing about 4 to 5 lbs per month. My eating schedules are 7am, 12.15 and 5. So what I thought I could do is leave the morning as it is as I am not particularly hungry then but add a snack maybe about 4pm and then put my supper back till 7. So the snack would be mainly protein and fat with a small salad. So adding about 300 cals and a couple of carb grams.

If I found I was putting weight back on then I could drop the snack and move my supper forward again. Will play with the schedule once I finally get to a 'normal' weight.

I Can Whistle

I learnt how to whistle when I was about 8. We had a three note whistle to call the dog and I could do it quite well.

I dont know when I lost the knack. I could usually manage a faint breathy sort of whistle but the proper piecing one was beyond me.

Now I have realised why. I have lost far more fat in my cheeks than I usually do on a diet. This high fat way of eating has blocked my insulin response and the fat loss is not occurring in its usual pattern. Usually my face stays round and fat while other parts of me get thinner.

The reduction in my cheek fat has increased my whistling ability. I was out with the dogs yesterday and one went missing. Tried my whistle and it was back to a full strength 3 note loud whistle. Something I have not been able to do for 40 years!

The dog found me!

Half life

Dr Atkins said that the degree of insulin resistance you suffered from is directly related to how much better you feel once you cut out the poison sugar.

Maybe he didn't put it exactly like that but that is my interpretation.

Since I have cut out all the sugar foods and re introduced good fats I feel like a new woman. I have energy in the afternoons and evenings. I start jobs and finish them. I am not constantly watching the clock to see if it is time for a feed. Dare I say it but I even forget about food for hours at a time!

This is the way I should have been living for the past 50 years but because I believed the hype about fats and oils being bad and making us fat I was stuck in a glucose fog for years. I suffered endlessly with different diets all cutting my fat lower and lower and allowing low calorie carb foods which made the problem worse. Like throwing petrol on a fire in the hope of putting it out!

Walking is making me feel much better and brighter and with an added bonus of losing 400gms over the last 24 hrs! Am sure scale will be up again tomorrow but as long as the general trend in downwards I am a winner.

walking

For the past 4 days I have been taking a 40 min walk in the afternoon. On previous diets I have been walking in the afternoon to get out of the house in the hope of preventing a binge. Afternoons have always been the worst times for me when it comes to will power. Sometimes it would just defer the binge to when I got back but sometimes having felt good that I had exercised I would be able to hold my food intake to a low level. This was the case the last time I dieted when I was on a low fat low carb diet.

I never realised that I could lose weight on a higher no of calories as long as I kept my carb gms low. It may not be a fast weight loss but the scale is gradually creeping downwards without me having to deprive myself and feel hungry most afternoons and evenings.

So far I am enjoying the walks and the dogs do too. The weather is nice, no rain and not too hot. At the end of the walk is the hill up to the house. Would be good to do that without taking a breather but at present I stop and admire the view! These walks are not designed to increase my calorie useage but I expect they will do that. What I hope they will achieve is to increase my sensitivity to insulin. My muscle cells have been resistant to insulin which is why the glucose has been stored in my fat cells for so long. If I can increase the mass of my muscles and also get more 'doors' opening on my muscle cells then my hope of staying slim for life is more achievable.

I can already feel an improvement in my thigh and calf muscles just from these last 4 days. What I must not do is obsess about the walking. If I cant go one day it is not the end of the world! Just take one day at a time.

Bracelet

The other day I bought a pretty charm bracelet. I dont do jewellery except for ear rings. I have 3 icecube trays with earrings on my dressing table and try to match the earrings to the outfit. When I was over 200lbs I did not even wear earrings. I tried not to draw attention to myself. Difficult when you are the size of a house!

Anyway I saw this bracelet a few weeks ago at the shop. Decided last week to try it on and it would not fit round my right wrist. So did not buy it. On the way home decided to get it anyway. Has lots of glass beads and trinkets dangling from it. Then discovered I can fit it on my left wrist. So have been wearing it this week below my watch.

I am making more of an effort with my hair and makeup. Maybe I have finally got a handle on this obesity. I certainly dont see that scale going up again the way it used to on the low calorie diets. It may not be fast but it seems to be consistent.

Have started walking for about 40mins each afternoon this week and feeling better for it. Need to exercise my muscles.

To answer sue. I dont have anything artificial so no fake sweets. Also I might have a glass of champagne for a celebration once in a blue moon but I dont drink. If you are going to drink then vodka and soda would be your best choice.

What I eat now

Hi

Yes I found the Briffa book Escape the Diet trap very helpful.

My daily food intake looks like this.

2 softboiled eggs with about 15gms butter.

Coffee with milk and cinnamon during the morning plus glasses of warm water.

Lunch is usually meat or poultry with the fat. Small amount of gravy plus any green veg I have available. One helping only.

Afternoon tea with milk plus water.

late afternoon supper

half a tin of salmon or tuna in oil. Or a tin of sardines. Ratatouille cooked with olive oil, cream cheese and 25 gms of hard cheese grated on top. Heated in microwave so its like a pizza without the base.

Evening decaf coffee.

If I have to snack which I try not to do. Cold meat, cheese, peanut butter. Try to go for protein and fat at all meals. I did have an apple with cheese yesterday.

This way of eating has stopped my uncontrollable binges in the afternoons and evenings. But I do sometimes nibble but I now do that in front of my family and not in secret.

Changed Metabolism

Is it possible to change your metabolism? I always thought not.

I have had an obese metabolism all my life. I always had cravings for sweet things and carbs in the afternoons. I could put on 50lbs over the course of 6 months after the end of a diet.

I would try all the low calorie diets I could find. I would eat bread and marmalade because they were low calorie without realising that the problem was caused by the sugar and starch in my diet.

Once I got that it became so much easier to work with my body to lose weight rather than fighting it the whole time.

I am no longer frightened of losing control in the afternoons and evenings. I may be going overboard at present and having too much fat and oil but the aim is to find a balance. How much of satisfying foods I can eat and still lose weight, then how much I can eat and maintain that new lower weight.

I dont mind feeling hungry just before a meal. I know I can have nice filling food when I do eat.

I was reading the 21 day womans weekly diet yesterday. Low fat and mainly low carb but each serving of food was under 300 cals. So that is 900 cals for the day! Far too low for a sustainable way of eating.

I am aiming for a 5lb loss each month. If I get it I am happy. If not there is always next month.

To binge or not to binge! Atkins is the answer!