THE VIRGIN DIET DAY 1

Yesterday, I completed Day 1 of The Virgin Diet.  It went well for the following reasons:

• I enjoyed the shakes I had for breakfast and lunch.  It was nice not to worry about what to eat for a change!
• I was not starving all day like I have been lately, even though I have been eating high fat.
• I had energy and did not feel sleepy in the middle of the day like I have been lately.
• My blood sugar was 84 an hour and a half after eating.
• I had normal elimination for a change.
• I slept through the night for a change.
• I woke up this morning at 6:30 feeling refreshed and ready to start my day, and I was not starving when I woke up.  Lately, I have been so hungry that I would feel real hunger pangs even in the middle of the night. 
• I lost 0.6 pounds yesterday.  To get back to my goal weight, I need to lose 11.8 more pounds.

I normally eat like this:

135g fat (78%)
57g protein
28g carbs

But yesterday, I ate like this:

114g fat (57%)
102g protein
89g carbs

I had a shake for breakfast and lunch that was comprised of coconut milk, water, non-dairy protein powder, ground flax seed, raw kale, frozen blueberries and a few drops of Stevia.  All that made around 16 fluid oz. of shake and it took more than a few minutes to drink it!  The first one I made was tolerable, but the next one I found easy to drink and somewhat tasty.

JJs plan is that you eat three meals per day.  The first one needs to be within one hour after rising, and the other two need to be 4-6 hours apart, with no snacks.  The last meal of the day should be no closer to bedtime than 2-3 hours.  Yesterday, I ate breakfast at 8 am, lunch at 2 pm and dinner at 7 pm.  For a change, I also did not feel like snacking after dinner.

Part of this process is making sure that you have good digestion by not diluting your stomach acid at meal times so that you can properly digest your food.  An hour before eating, I drink 16 oz. of water, then nothing while I am eating, then wait for an hour after eating to drink another 8 oz.  I like this better than trying to remember to drink water all day.

All in all, not a bad start.  In a few days, I will be traveling out of town to take care of a sick friend for the weekend, and I am a little concerned that I will need to be doing this while I am there.  But journaling here always helps to keep me on track, so I think I will do okay.

If you are interested in getting a short synopsis of how this plan works, you can listen to Jimmy Moore interviewing JJ Virgin by clicking here.

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NUTRITIONAL KETOSIS WEEK 1 RESULTS

Last week at the Low Carb Meet & Greet, I spoke to Jimmy Moore about the new n=1 experiment he is doing.  It involves eating higher fat and lower protein than he usually eats, because there is the chance that eating too much protein is causing it to turn to glucose in his blood, and stopping his weight loss.  He is also testing his blood ketones with a specialized meter that is usually used by diabetics to check for ketoacidosis.  (Ketoacidosis is not to be confused with nutritional ketosis, which is the goal here.)  The meter can also be used to check for ketone bodies in the blood as a way to measure whether or not you have entered ketosis and are burning fat for fuel rather than sugar.

Since Ive tried just about everything else, and still need to lose an additional 22 pounds of body fat, I decided to give it a go.  I ordered a ketone meter just like Jimmys (which arrived yesterday) and the strips to use with it (which will arrive soon) and I started tracking my macronutrients again.  The last time I kept track of all of that was almost a year ago, so it was a little tough getting into the swing of that again.  I came up with a plan for how many grams of fat, protein and carbs to eat each day:

187 grams of fat (85% of total calories)

54 grams of protein (based on my height of 53")

20 grams of carbs (not net carbs)

Ive been doing this now for 6 days, and so far, I am losing weight and inches for the first time in over a year.  Here are some of my charts:

In summary, in the past 6 days:

I lost 1/4" around my neck, 1-1/4" around my waist and 1/2" around my hips.

I lost 3.2 pounds on the scale (lost 3.8 pounds of body fat and gained 0.6 pounds of lean mass).

I went down 1.8 percentage points on my body fat.

I went down 0.021 points on my waist-to-hip ratio.

So I would say that this is working.  Im encouraged to continue another week.  And for those who have asked what I am eating, click here to see my daily menus, and then you can click the page numbers at the bottom to see each individual day.  I probably wont continue to post these each week unless I drastically change something, because its too time consuming and boring.

Here is the average of the six days that I tracked:

1950 calories

183.1g fat (84.5%)

54.2g protein (11.1%)

21.4g carbs (4.4%)

I came pretty close to the goal I set for myself that I shared at the beginning of this post.

The big question, obviously, is if this way of eating is sustainable.  As far as hunger goes, I think it is, because Im not hungry.  In the past, when I would go on high carb, low fat diets, I would sometimes lose weight, but I starved all day, and I just could not keep it up.  So, hunger wise, Im golden.

Another problem with it is whether or not I can keep up eating so little protein.  I have no problem eating all the extra fat, because thats fun.  Having very small portions of protein is a bit of a sacrifice for me.  Right now, I am eating about half the grams of protein that I am used to eating.  I feel a little deprived.

The only other factor I can think of is boredom.  Im going to have to come up with some creative ideas for high fat, lower protein meals.  Of course, if my choice is to be bored or to be overweight, Ill choose boredom any day!

I will really be happy to start testing my blood ketones so I can see how my ketosis level factors in to all of this.  Looking to the future, if this works the way it is supposed to, it means at some point I will need to increase protein or carbs or both in order to stabilize my weight.  So, right now, its possible that I could be eating a little more protein or carbs and still be losing weight.

Today started Week 2.  Im feeling good.  Im encouraged.  See you next week!

RELATED POSTS:

2012 Low Carb Meet & Greet 

Testing Blood Ketones with Jimmy Moore 

The Breakfast of Champions - Eggs and Fat and More Fat 
Fat Bombs 

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2 Week Challenge Day 1

Well I made it through day one of my simplified diet, only thirteen days to go! Im excited that so many of you are doing this challenge with me. Remember, today is the first day youll post your daily diary in comments section below. If you arent sure what to include, check out mine below!

Weekly weigh-in: 192.4 lbs

Food Journal
1 large Granny Smith apple
4 pieces of Xilo Gum
4.5 liters of water
2 Lemonade Diet detox caps
1 can lean, fat-free chicken
1 tsp. Louisiana hot sauce
1 Wasa cracker
1 c. broccoli
2 scoops Triumph Slim

Exercise: None, day off. :)

Accomplishment:
I did really well with drinking my water!
Area of improvement:
I didnt get in my second serving of veggies, I have a hard time doing that when I have class, but I think I can figure out a way to do it!

Hang in there everyone! We can do this! :)

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THE LEPTIN RESET DIET WEEK 1 RESULTS

I finished my first week of the Leptin Reset Diet.  I tracked my food every day this past week on Fitday.  Here are the averages of what I ate:

Since I started 1 week ago, I have:

Lost 1.25" total, which includes:
Lost 0" around my neck

Lost 0" around my biceps
Lost 0" around my bust

Lost 0.25" around my midriff

Lost 0.625" around my waist

Lost 0" around my navel

Lost 0.125" around my hips

Lost 0.125" around my thighs
Lost 0" around my calves

Lost 0.010 points off my waist-to-height ratio

Lost 0.013 points off my waist-to-hip ratio

Lost 0.9 points off my body fat percentage

Gained 0.9 points onto my lean body mass percentage

Lost 1.9 lbs. of body fat

Gained 0.1 lbs. of lean mass

Lost 1.8 lbs. on the scale

 Weeks completed: 1

Weeks to go: 7

Related post:

The Leptin Reset Diet

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THE MODIFIED VIRGIN DIET EGG CHALLENGE DAY 1

Yesterday, I challenged eggs for the first time on my modified version of The Virgin Diet. 

MY SYMPTOMS

• Acne - No
• Chronic mucus/stuffy nose - No
• Constipation and/or diarrhea - No
• Fatigue - No
• Food cravings - No
• Gas and bloating - Yes, in response to protein powder
• Headaches - No
• High blood glucose - No
• Inability to lose weight - No - Starting weight 147.8 - Current weight 144.8 - Goal weight 136 - To get back to goal, need to lose 8.8 more pounds.  Can button "measurement shorts" with a slight "muffin top".  Lost 1 pound yesterday for a total of 3 pounds in 22 days.
• Insomnia - No
• Joint pain - No
• Thinning, limp, lackluster hair -No
• Muscle pain  -Yes, because I went for miles-long walks two days in a row and hurt my calf
• Nausea - No
• Swollen fingers - No

MY MENU

Yesterday, I ate this:

120g fat (75%)
72g protein
18g carbs

Im trying something a little different with my macronutrient breakdown.  I looked back at my menus for the summer of 2009, when I first started to lose weight.  At that time, I was eating more like this:

108g fat (67%)
90g protein
27g carbs

I ordered some more blood ketone testing strips, and I want to see if I can eat a little bit more protein and still stay in ketosis.  Although I have not been testing, Im sure that I have been in ketosis this past three weeks, but its hard (as I have whined about before) to eat so little protein that I can only eat two meals a day to avoid getting only a few bites with each of three meals.

Anyway, until the strips arrive in the next 7-10 days, I am going to increase the protein a little bit and reduce the fat and carbs a little bit and see if I continue to lose weight.


EGG CHALLENGE

For lunch yesterday, I ate three scrambled eggs with onions and coconut oil.  What a delight to get to eat eggs again!  The challenge is to eat eggs once a day for four days in a row and track my symptoms.  So how did I do?

I really enjoyed my eggs and I did not notice any symptoms of intolerance.  However, after dinner, I was short just a little bit of protein, so I had 7 teaspoons of protein powder mixed with a little water.  Within 20-30 minutes, I experienced very sharp stomach pain for several minutes, and then it stopped.  I had forgotten that I used to have these pains on a regular basis.  The pain was so bad that I was a little doubled over!  I will stay away from that protein powder from now on.


MY EXERCISE

None.


BODY COMPOSITION

When I started this experiment, I weighed 147.8 pounds with 37.6% body fat, which comes out to 55.6 pounds of body fat and 92.2 pounds of lean mass.  This morning, I weighed 144.8 with 36% body fat, which comes out to 52.1 pounds of body fat and 92.7 pounds of lean mass. 

So, even though I have only lost 3 pounds according to the scale, I have actually lost 3.5 pounds of body fat and gained 0.5 pounds of lean mass.

To reach my goal of 136 pounds with 30% body fat, I need to lose another 11.3 pounds of body fat and gain another 2.5 pounds of lean mass.


If you are interested in getting a short synopsis of how this plan works, you can click on the link at the beginning of this post or you can listen to Jimmy Moore interviewing JJ Virgin by clicking here.

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ZERO CARB WEEK 1 RESULTS

 A little over a week ago, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.  I was both surprised and not surprised at the same time.  The doctor said he did not mean to offend me or upset me by telling me this.  I assured him that I was neither.  It really does answer some questions for me, like why I have had such trouble losing weight and why my blood sugar raises into diabetic levels unless I eat extremely low protein and low carb.  Also, there is a genetic component to this disease, and my maternal grandmother was a needle-carrying Type 2 Diabetic, and others in my family appear to have developed the disease, but have not been diagnosed.

During the time that I have been doing Nutritional Ketosis, I have been periodically checking my blood sugar with a home glucose meter, and I have found that eating around 130 grams of fat, 57 grams of protein and less than 25 grams of carbohydrate per day has kept my blood sugar at an average of 86, including both fasting and after eating.  Eating this way has also kept my blood ketones in the ketogenic level, meaning that I am burning ketone bodies for fuel instead of glucose.  So thats good.

But wait, theres more...

The reason I started Nutritional Ketosis in the first place was that I suspected that I was eating too much protein.  And testing ketones did confirm to me that eating about half of the amount of protein that I used to eat did, indeed, raise my blood ketones and lower my blood sugar.  Both good things.

I do lose weight and feel good eating this way, but there is a problem...  Although, at first, I found that my appetite had been satisfied with this small amount of food, it has become increasingly difficult to feel satiety after eating.  In other words, Im hungry!  Plus, with eating this small amount of food, I really have to only eat twice per day in order to get more than a few bites of meat at each meal.

So when my doctor advised me to change the way I was eating, I was all ears.  He said, simply, to...

Just eat meat.

He said that he, himself, just eats meat.  He said that he eats steak for dinner with a side of chicken.  Interesting!  I have been thinking about starting a zero carb way of life for several weeks and have been reading up on it, so, starting on July 21, I took the challenge to go Zero Carb, which does not mean literally no carbs, but only the trace carbs that come from animal products.  I am eating meat, a small amount of dairy, some healthy fats and I am drinking water only.  I am testing my blood sugar before meals and two hours after meals to see how I am reacting to cutting out all vegetable and berry carbs and increasing my protein substantially.  I am carefully tracking what I am eating.

Here is what I have learned so far about how my blood sugar reacts to food:

On July 22, I ate meat, healthy fats and water and found that my blood sugar was very stable and in the acceptable range, only a few points over my normal of 86.

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 On July 23, I added some dairy to each meal, based on my recent discovery that I am moderately intolerant of dairy, and I eat it no more often than every four days.  I also had some bacon for breakfast that had more sugar in it than my regular bacon.  My blood sugar was less stable, and close to 100 at times.  It is either the sugar in the bacon or the dairy that caused this.

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 On July 24,  it was back to just meat, healthy fats and water to drink, and my blood sugar went down with each reading, into a very nice range.

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On July 25, it was just meat, fat and water to drink, but I did try having the more sugary bacon for breakfast, and it raised my blood sugar.  The next time I eat dairy, I will then see if the dairy also raises it.

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On July 26, it was meat, fat and water as usual.  I saw a little bit of instability, but Im not sure why.  At any rate, it was still in the acceptable range.

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On July 27, something interesting happened.  I ate dinner at a friends house, and although I passed on the cake and ice cream dessert, I did have about a serving of vegetables and a very small salad.  With only that small amount of vegetables, I was surprised that my blood sugar went up to 110.  I know that it is not extremely high, but it is higher than what I am used to, and higher than a non-diabetic would get after eating a few bites of low-carb vegetables.  I had been wondering what would happen if I ate vegetables, and now I know.  I had been toying with the idea of putting veggies back into my diet, but I think I will wait a while before I think about that again.

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So this is my experience so far with eating zero carb.  Although the main reason I am doing this is to manage my blood sugar and be able to remain diabetic complications free, I also am hoping that it will help me lose these last few pesky pounds.  Along those lines, how did I fare eating zero carb?

I started new charts to show my progress.  You know how I love my charts!  Here they are, after the first week on ZC:

The charts speak for themselves, so I wont say much, except that my body size is going down.

RELATED POST:  Zero Carb Results by Week

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