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.