Perfect Health Diet Challenges

Alright, so I'm a little over two weeks into a three week spring, so here's a progress report.

Meh.

So basically I'm running a slight energy deficit, so I haven't gained in any weight or size. But I haven't had the kind of large caloric deficits required to cut into my fat mass. So that's a problem.

The simplest and best reason is I'm cheating a lot on this diet. Ugh. Probably in the past 15 days, I've had at least 5 in which I ate significant amounts of non-PHD food (anything wheat/cereal grain except rice, sugar beyond really small amounts, etc). And I've had a handful of other days where I have eaten PHD foods to proportions that have pushed my calorie limits up.

But, the main issue is the cheating.

Following the PHD diet perfectly, but not optimizing it to weight loss, I land at around 2300 calories or so. My maintenance level is something like 2500, so obviously this tiny deficit isn't going to produce much loss. This is similar to eating low carb, actually.

Except low carb was easier to optimize.

Except low carb was causing a large, very noticeable uptick in anxiety symptoms. Symptoms that have vanished since adopting the PHD!!!!!! ARGH!

Are there also other reasons (excuses!) for the cheating? Sure. They aren't important because you know, personal responsibility, but worth considering.

1. Cold - I got one. I rarely get sick so when I get a cold I tend to act like a baby about it. Colds for me either cause me to lose a bunch of weight or gain- mainly because the over the counter cold meds make me apathetic to food. So I either eat a bunch because I don't pay attention, or eat little for the same reason. This has been a push this time I think.
2. Stress - We are pushing towards an important deadline at work and I think the stress was affecting me. This is abating now, fortunately.
3. Daylight savings time shift - This wrecked my circadian rhythm which I had tuned really well in February.

On the exercise front, I was in general doing much better until the cold. I'm still averaging over 1500 steps more per day than the previous month, however.

Alright, so with low carb I barely cheated at all despite the severity of the diet. Whereas on the more permissive PHD I cheat a lot more. WHAT IS GOING ON.

I think the PHD's strength is also its weakness: in giving the dieter so much freedom, you start to allow that little voice in your head to give you liberties: "well, you aren't desperately trying to restrict carbs, so....." Those of you who do not struggle with weight cannot possibly know the insidious internal negotiation that goes on in your head, constantly. It takes great mental focus to tune this out. It goes something like this:

Voice: "Oh wow, there is delicious food that is off plan in your home. Hey, just have a bite. Just a bite won't cause you to fall of the wagon."
Me: "No. I'm not hitting my calorie goals because I constantly have to go off plan."
Voice shuts up for awhile.

Later, usually after kids are in bed

Voice: "You made it through another day! Well done good sir. You know what would feel good? Some dopamine. I can make some for you, real fast, if you eat DAT FOOD."

Me: "I gotta admit, dopamine sounds great. But..... I probably shouldn't."

Voice quiets down.

Later, usually after my wife goes to bed.

Voice: "You know, you got through the WHOLE day. Treat. Yo. Self. You know you HATE going to bed hungry. You HATE that feeling. Because night eating is a thing you've struggled with in your life, so if you go to bed a little hungry now, you know there is a 30% chance that something happens that wakes you up, because you have kids and cats! And if you wake up at 3AM, you'll be so ravenous you'll probably plow through that entire carton of ice cream in one sitting. So why not have that food now? Just a little. I'll even through in dopamine, for good measure."

Me: "well, ok. You know what? I deserve this. Just a little bite...."

*at least 500 calories later*

Shit. *Opens up loseit app, logs the results, gets sad*

So basically my running theory is that low carb probably lowers enough of the feel good chemicals in my brain pan that I find it easier to use my will to resist over eating (or, in the case of many days on the PHD, eating to maintenance). Unfortunately this same brain chemistry seems to hurt me in other ways.

So, going forward, I realize I need to optimize the PHD structure to my situation. This probably requires lowering carbs to something to around 100 a day. My hope is that doing this will allow my brain to not "go nuts" while at the same time assisting my willpower in telling that "voice" to shut the F up.

The PHD allows one pound of safe starches a day. This, for me, needs adjustment. I should probably reduce this. Something that would get me to 100 carbs or so a day. I believe I'll do this via the following:

Rice: reduce this to one serving (cup) a day, maximum. Understand that stuff like rice crackers, tapioca flour based things are DESTROYERS OF WORLDS similar to how peanut butter destroys me on low carb.
Potato: The vastly superior safe starch in every way. If possible I should try to make my entire day's safe starch allotment potatoes. Potatoes are nutritionally awesome and way less energy dense than rice- they have half the calories per pound and almost half the carbs.

I should probably also reduce the amount of fruits/sweet vegetables, although to be honest I don't eat so much of these currently that I think it's a big deal.

Make it a huge priority to get the 1 lb of non-starchy vegetables in. The fiber is great and hunger controlling.

No change in the meat. Do what I do.

For today, though, I'm going to fast, to try to catch up a little. If I do that, I should at least have a chance of actually accomplishing a loss on Wednesday, however meager that is.

Future challenges:

I have guests coming and therefore special meals. It's going to be a very challenging time, but one of my health goals is to have a way of eating that doesn't just stop when anything out of the ordinary happens. My hope is, even with tweaks, the PHD will allow me to take friends to restaurants and still have enough of the "menu" available to enjoy.