so, i picked up from my freecycle list, the book "the carbohydrate addicts diet", upon the recommendation of the freecycler that it may help me in my weight loss journey, as her husband has been able to keep 50 pounds off his frame for well over two years with it. so i thought i'd read it, and if it sounded feasible for me, give it a shot. why not?
the basis of the diet is changing around your eating habits so that you consume all carbs at night, therefore curbing hunger, overeating and fat storage by preventing carbohydrates from triggering the release of the hunger signaling chemical insulin. eventually the benefits of the diet lead to insulin being properly produced and used, less sugars in the blood, and weight loss and better health. i've read over 100 reviews about the diet and it seems possible and sound for many people, especially those who like me, have a dependency on carbs. it makes sense to me.
today was my second complete day of following the diet. i will admit, already the idea of no carbs for breakfast and lunch was a huge turnoff...which is probably just a testament to how utterly addicted to carbs i truly am. both days i had a bacon and egg breakfast with a cup of coffee (ok i cheated and added 1 tsp of sugar to my coffee) and a bottle of water to wash everything down with. the meal filled me for about two hours, and then i was getting really hungry again. but since i eat breakfast around 10am...i only had an extra hour to go until lunch, and it passed quickly.
at lunch today, i had a HUGE salad of lettuce, olives, red beets and 1/2 a tomato sliced. i added my usual amount of dressing (which was the standard serving size). i know cottage cheese has carbs, and the book says that as long as the carb amount is below 4g per meal, we can wing it. so wing it i did. i had about 1/3 a cup of cottage cheese with my salad, which was about 3g of carbs. and i topped it off with deli ham. it was delicious and actually filled me up. or maybe i was just that hungry (when im hungry liver tastes delicious). i drunk 2 more cups of water and felt pretty good. i was thinking of adding tuna to the mix, but since i had tuna and asparagus YESTERDAY, i didnt want to eat it again. too much tuna is really no good for anyone, with all the chemicals in the waters these days.
so anyway...i made it for another 2 hours or so, and then i was really getting hungry again. it's interesting how i can be really full, and then the food just seems to burn off instantaneously, leaving me feeling REALLY hungry. anyway...after another hour, i felt as if i hadn't eaten all day, so i made another salad...same exact way. so yeah, that gave me 6g of carbs for lunch. not too bad, it still only amounts to about 2% of the daily recommended intake. another 2 glasses of water...and i was held over just fine until dinner.
i have to interject here. technically, by eating the second salad, i broke the rule of strictly 3 meals a day. but reading the thyroid diet (you can purchase it here), i learned that (and tried and find that it works for me) people with hypothyroidism (me), should always eat at least 5, preferably 6, small meals per day. so i did not feel bad for tweaking that part of the book and eating the second salad.
so dinner came, and because my husband was late coming home today, dinner was not made. it was supposed to be fried fish, green salad and spanish rice, a dish that we absolutely love. since i cannot fry fish, it was up to him to do it...he came in too late so dinner plans crashed. tomorrow ill just bake the fish. anyway, that left me getting really hungry. so i decided to just make my favorite immediate fix--a good ole bowl of frosted flakes. i had the normal amount i eat, one full bowl. i topped it off with 2 cookies and a half glass of milk. because i didn't eat any fruit, i also chomped into a big ole wedge of delicious pineapple.
now, for those who dont know, i have a steel plated stomach. i can eat a myriad of foods in one sitting and not get sick. so pineapple, cereal, cookies, milk, seltzer water and olives all on the same plate is right up my alley.
i felt stuffed afterwards. this was at about 8pm. since the diet said to make sure to finish everything from the last meal within the hour, i did that, and felt pretty ok.
now, i'm slowly starting to feel myself get hungry again. eek! i know im going to break the one hour rule, just because i can't go to bed hungry.
as i see, im the person that cuts corners. due to my thyroid illness, i have to be careful with the way i eat. so i figured maybe (as many of the reviews i read suggest), that i could tweak the diet to fit my individual needs. instead of eating meat and fat all day, the idea is to eat my meat and eggs for breakfast, and once every few days, have a slice of low carb bread with it, and some butter, and maybe a touch of low sugar jelly. then to eat a huge thing of veggies for lunch, with lean meat, or seafood. this way, i am not depriving myself of my veggies for the day. then, when the evening comes, have my dinner early (this is easy because its summer), flesh it out really well, add at least 4 servings of fruit to it, have my regular meal and whatever goodies i want without the guilt. despite switching the meals so that carbs are always saved for the end of the day, i have to make sure i eat veggies and fruits too.
someone in one of the reviews said that she could not go absolutely with no carbs all day long, so she tweaked it to have a small serving of carbs for breakfast some days, and then none for lunch, and only a small serving for dinner on the days she had them for breakfast. on the days she has no carbs for breakfast, she treats herself liberally for dinner. she said this satisfies her way more and she's still maintaining her weight loss. so it can be an idea that if this works for me, i can have some tweaking too, with strict moderation, just to keep my thyroid at a healthy place. since there are some limitations to what i can eat anyway with thyroid issues, a menu is paramount daily.
also, the book has recipes for low carb breads, which are just fine to eat during the day. i find that in general, it's a great idea to REALLY start experimenting with recipes on this sort of lifestyle change. there are TONS of recipes that are low carb that people can eat for breakfast and lunch. and considering that most americans eat no fruits and veggies daily, it wont exactly kill them to hold off with eating certain veggies and some fruits until dinner.
i know two people personally (not including the freecycler who gave me the book) who have been on similar menu plans and it has worked for them. one person is an old college teacher, who lost 190 pounds on this exact diet, and has kept it off going on maybe 15 years now. the second person is my neighbor, who says she follows the diet and she feels alot better, at the recommendation of her doctor (who did not recommend the book, but recommended a similar style of eating--limiting carbs to 1 meal per day). she admitted to falling off the 1 carbie meal per day bandwagon, but is now considering trying it again).
this may not be such a bad idea for me.
my results are especially promising. between yesterday and today...ive lost 1.4 pounds. today was the lowest weight reading ive had in WEEKS. and i had to lose the weight because i weigh myself wearing the same thing daily, and the scale has never been so low. also, i immediately noticed that i have more energy. im not sluggish and i dont need naps during the day anymore. also, i know this is tmi...but im going to say it anyway. today my bowels moved the best they have in months. this is an immediate change.
the only downside is that i have to break up the strict 3 meals per day rule. i simply have been advised NOT to go that long between meals, it can wreak havoc on my metabolism. so i will not. still losing 1.5 pounds and cutting all of the corners i did yesterday sounds as if i can definitely tweak this diet.
i'm going to shop later this week for the ingredients to make the low carb bread, and im definitely going to search around for low carb recipes. i have to flesh out my breakfast and lunch more if this is something that may help me out. funny, but ive been praying for God to help me find the encouragement to cook and dibble dabble with recipes more. welp, here it is--the perfect reason to do just that.
i would have NEVER thought my carb intake could've been the cause of alot of my ill. here i am blaming my thyroid for the difficulties losing weight. but the more i think about it, the more i AM recognizing a correlation between my carb intake and weight gain, exhaustion after eating and yes, being hungry relatively quickly after eating.
i will definitely be reporting my progress with this dietary change regularly. with the way i'm going, i may even add a new label LOL. "dieting101" or something LOL. anyway, i'm just thankful to God for allowing freecycle to once again be the way to a blessing. even if this isnt exactly for me (and ill know within a few weeks if it is or not), ill never look at carbs the same, simply because of how good i feel.
any feedback about this diet, or others like that is appreciated....i'm definitely going to see where this road takes me!
