Ok, so that last post was negative, so I thought I'd write a short one about positive things about the PHD, so far-
1. Mental health. I kinda already said this in a couple posts but one weird symptom I got after about 6 weeks of low carb (net carbs < 60 daily) is a very noticeable increase in anxiety symptoms. This has vanished now. Great. No matter how I'm doing with being fat fat fatty, it's kinda hard to function when simple things like going to the theater freak you out. I'm even hopeful that the better nutritional profile will help in even the "non-weird" situations that I get nervous in, like flying.
2. HAIR. Lol wut? Yes- I have suddenly noticed an increase in the thickness and density of the hair on my super male pattern baldness head. No, I don't think I have discovered a magical cure for baldness. However, it appears that SOME of the thinning of my hair was shit nutrition. My huge bald spot is less huge and the hair on the center top of my head- getting dangerously close to comb over territory- has suddenly rebounded, and while not thick by any means, no longer looks embarrassing.
NICE.
So yeah, those are good things.
Saturday, March 24, 2018
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.
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.
Sunday, March 11, 2018
I'M BACK! And, I think, better than ever? (March 11th 2018)
It's been almost a year since I've wrote in this blog. So here is a quick recap on what has happened since:
I went on that ten day trip I mentioned and it was awesome!
I also did that stupid thing that you always do; I didn't get "back on the diet horse" immediately upon returning home. So that was bad.
Summer was a yo-yo affair; I had a really hard time recapturing the intermittent fasting mojo that I described in previous posts. Without a trip to motivate me, during a pretty brutal plan like that was just too hard.
In August, I decided to try "the potato hack." It seemed healthy but boring, so what the heck? I did drop a significant amount of weight in a very short time, *and* I felt great too- no weird side effects. Neat.
But, of course, eating only cold potatoes is, er, boring. So nopity nope to that.
Then I had a crazy stressful September-January. THE WORKS. Career stuff, life stuff, another move (this time just in-town move, but still a move).
In December I dug back into the diet book/blog literature, inspired by a work colleague who also did the same. This led me to go back into low carbing with new resolve in January.
In the past, I would do cyclic keto, as opposed to a true low carb diet (so keto Monday-Saturday, then a big refeed day). This worked well but the same boredom problems kicked in, since for cyclic keto, you want the carbs to be as low as possible, even eschewing some of the greens and ground berries you might allow on a typical low carb diet.
For this attempt in January, I did a more standard low carb diet which allowed for all the non-starchy veggies I wanted, and some ground berries. No cycles. Just pure low carb eating each day. For almost two months, I ate *cleaner than I ever have,* in terms of sticking to the diet. I think only two days or so did I fall off the wagon. In almost two months! Wow!
So what were the results of that?
The good:
Lost about 2 inches from the chest, and about 3 inches from the waist. Don't get too excited, I regained across the board since my post last year (I'll update the running totals in a bit, and remind new readers what those are). But it was good to do that!
I lost about 5lbs in two months. Not a great rate, but unlike intermittent fasting, I didn't feel like I was suffering: just eating more or less when hungry, with *some* tweaks made to lower the daily energy intake some. Again I'll update the running totals.
The bad:
The jitters. Anxiety. Uh oh. This was unexpected and pretty bad, to be honest. I've always had fairly mild, episodic problems with anxiety. I'm not on meds or therapy, as it mainly is stress based and goes away if the stressors causing it dissipate (sometimes the anxiety is a delayed reaction to built up/previous stress).
But a week or so after starting low carb, which is longer than I've ever done it (remember: I had only done cyclic keto before), I started to get increased generalized anxiety. Of particular worry was heart palpitations, sometimes worryingly at night when trying to sleep.
Objectively, it seemed clear that the palpitations weren't because of some new health malady (palpitations are usually harmless). I was noticing one, making myself nervous, the and the adrenaline from getting nervous makes you have more of them, and that's the negative cycle.
My first step in fixing this was upping my supplement game. On low carb, you can get low on electrolytes and minerals, particularly magnesium and potassium, as you pee those out as you lose fluids. I'm always pretty good about fluids/salt in take, so I focused on the minerals.
That seemed to fix the night time jitters, as did getting more diligent with my caffeine intake (cut way back to just a couple espresso shots* in the morning).
*To the ignorant, "a couple shots of espresso" seems like a lot, but in fact one shot of espresso coffee has only half the caffeine of a cup, so a couple shots is something like 1.5-2 cups of drip coffee. All in all I've cut back from the 3-6 cup habit I used to have to 2-3, at most.
But I still had more generalized anxiety. In particular, going to movie theaters was creating an agoraphobic response I've never had before. This was bizarre: in the past few years I've developed mild-to-moderate anxiety on airplanes, and sitting in a movie theater was feeling exactly the same. What was going on?
I figured out that it was likely a drop of serotonin levels in the brain as a result of the diet. So after two months, I decided I needed a change.
More carbs? Back to crappy SAD? What?
Nope, I was able to find a diet that addresses these issues, seems well thought out, and to be honest, is more fun than I thought. Enter Paul Jaminet's "Perfect Health Diet.
Paul Jaminet is a PHd as is his wife. These are ridiculously smart, "NASA level mega smart" people. They've done a lot of wonderful meta-research and their findings seem to align with my own personal experiences. Such as:
1. Low carb does indeed lower appetite levels, which is good.
2. However some carbs are needed, for a variety of reasons, and for many of us, lowering them to keto or near keto levels is not great.
3. Accepting that the paleo movement has uncovered some great truths, but hold the phone, let's not just throw out the baby with the bathwater on modern medicine.
And here is the website for the diet, btw.
They don't update the blog as much anymore because they are involved with an interested anti-Cancer startup company, but it doesn't matter: there is almost 8 years of regular posts to sift through.
So in the broadest possible strokes, the PHD can be summarized as:
1. Meats good! Just not pork so much (great series on the dangers of pork on the blog btw).
2. SAFE starches in moderate amounts, also good! Just no grains, legumes, or beans. Ground tubers and rice, basically. This means I can eat at Mitsuwa Market again!!!
3. Sweet fruits good! Sweet veggies good!
4. Seed oils SUPER BAD. Fish oils good but DO NOT GO CRAZY.
5. Intermittent fasting is good! But they advocate a moderate, 8 hour eating window approach.
6. Circadian rhythm SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT. Getting to bed on time for regular sleep is VITAL.
7. Supplementing with the right things SUPER IMPORTANT. Now, they have a huge array of things, but for most of us, I would say a good multi-vitamin+vitamin D covers the majority of daily needs.
8. ORGAN MEATS SOMETIMES! This led me to eat chicken livers for the first time in my life on Saturday. It was... surprisingly pretty good?
My friend Steven commented that it was too complex, and I would admit, yes, at first glance this seems that way. But to my surprise, in three days I've actually had a lot of fun tinkering. I think there is part of my brain: the part of my brain that likes video games, incidentally - that actually enjoys going this in-depth with a diet. And I can already tell it is getting simpler. Of HUGE BENEFIT is ALREADY being in the habit of using a tracking app like LoseIt!, which I've been using for years and years. With his, it is a simple matter to see at a glance what I've eaten and what I need to eat less of or more of in a day.
Early results seem to be similar to low carb in terms of energy intake: about 2300 calories if I don't tweak anything for weight loss at all. This is pretty good- I would lose weight if I did exactly this every day. It would just be very slow and inefficient, and of course like any human being I won't do this exactly (though I am hopeful this will be an "every day, permanent change").
On the PHD website, they of course have many suggestions in how to tweak it for weight loss, which I'm doing. It's basically to cut back on some added fats which means you get a fairly even distribution of carb calories, fat calories, and protein calories.
But that's the thing: this is a health diet, not a weight loss plan, which is why I'm excited about it. I think what I've been doing wrong for years and years is sprinting to short term weight loss goals, and not fixing permanent eating and diet issues. I think having this diet as a base, and tweaking to get my desired results, is a great start for me.
Early results?
Well, I don't weigh in and measure on a daily basis anymore because that is just stupid to do. I now do three week intervals, and I just kicked off a new three week stretch. But the anxiety symptoms are getting better! I went to the theater yesterday and for the first time since before the low carb diet, I felt totally normal. The heart palpitations and other nervous symptoms/panicky feelings are going away as well.
I also don't really feel the bad symptoms of excessive carb intake, like sleepiness, lethargy, etc. Clearly these sort of symptoms are from eating grains, sugars and other refined carbs. For me, the safe starches simply do not have these effects.
Hunger levels are fine, but I do expect to feel more hunger than the average perfect health dieter, since I am tweaking for weight loss.
OK!
CURRENT TOTALS/PROGRESS
To any newcomers, I do not put actual weights and measurements here. I just state what my progress is from the "Start" of the blog. This will remain the same. Alas, the end of 2017 saw some slippage (and to be honest, the progress made last year was short term probably water weight loss crammed in for my vacation anyway).
Weight Loss From Start: -5 lbs (instead of -17, lol).
Inches from chest: -2"
Inches from Waist: -3"
DAILY STEPS (For exercise, I am doing a goal of daily steps. 10k steps is the goal for each day, although I can't promise I'll update the blog each day, but I do plan to update often).
Yesterday: ~6000 steps. Meh. I did get outside for over an hour, but alas, it was with my kids, which meant lots of stopping to referee fights and arguments. This is why "just exercise with your kids!" type advice bugs me. The kids end up sapping my efficiency.
NEW! - Sleep - Since I am now very focused on sleep, I'm going to track this metric
midnight sleep time, awake at 8pm with daylight savings time shift. ~7 hours, which is my normal circadian rhythm, but the cat woke me up at 3pm, so low quality today, as expected.
I went on that ten day trip I mentioned and it was awesome!
I also did that stupid thing that you always do; I didn't get "back on the diet horse" immediately upon returning home. So that was bad.
Summer was a yo-yo affair; I had a really hard time recapturing the intermittent fasting mojo that I described in previous posts. Without a trip to motivate me, during a pretty brutal plan like that was just too hard.
In August, I decided to try "the potato hack." It seemed healthy but boring, so what the heck? I did drop a significant amount of weight in a very short time, *and* I felt great too- no weird side effects. Neat.
But, of course, eating only cold potatoes is, er, boring. So nopity nope to that.
Then I had a crazy stressful September-January. THE WORKS. Career stuff, life stuff, another move (this time just in-town move, but still a move).
In December I dug back into the diet book/blog literature, inspired by a work colleague who also did the same. This led me to go back into low carbing with new resolve in January.
In the past, I would do cyclic keto, as opposed to a true low carb diet (so keto Monday-Saturday, then a big refeed day). This worked well but the same boredom problems kicked in, since for cyclic keto, you want the carbs to be as low as possible, even eschewing some of the greens and ground berries you might allow on a typical low carb diet.
For this attempt in January, I did a more standard low carb diet which allowed for all the non-starchy veggies I wanted, and some ground berries. No cycles. Just pure low carb eating each day. For almost two months, I ate *cleaner than I ever have,* in terms of sticking to the diet. I think only two days or so did I fall off the wagon. In almost two months! Wow!
So what were the results of that?
The good:
Lost about 2 inches from the chest, and about 3 inches from the waist. Don't get too excited, I regained across the board since my post last year (I'll update the running totals in a bit, and remind new readers what those are). But it was good to do that!
I lost about 5lbs in two months. Not a great rate, but unlike intermittent fasting, I didn't feel like I was suffering: just eating more or less when hungry, with *some* tweaks made to lower the daily energy intake some. Again I'll update the running totals.
The bad:
The jitters. Anxiety. Uh oh. This was unexpected and pretty bad, to be honest. I've always had fairly mild, episodic problems with anxiety. I'm not on meds or therapy, as it mainly is stress based and goes away if the stressors causing it dissipate (sometimes the anxiety is a delayed reaction to built up/previous stress).
But a week or so after starting low carb, which is longer than I've ever done it (remember: I had only done cyclic keto before), I started to get increased generalized anxiety. Of particular worry was heart palpitations, sometimes worryingly at night when trying to sleep.
Objectively, it seemed clear that the palpitations weren't because of some new health malady (palpitations are usually harmless). I was noticing one, making myself nervous, the and the adrenaline from getting nervous makes you have more of them, and that's the negative cycle.
My first step in fixing this was upping my supplement game. On low carb, you can get low on electrolytes and minerals, particularly magnesium and potassium, as you pee those out as you lose fluids. I'm always pretty good about fluids/salt in take, so I focused on the minerals.
That seemed to fix the night time jitters, as did getting more diligent with my caffeine intake (cut way back to just a couple espresso shots* in the morning).
*To the ignorant, "a couple shots of espresso" seems like a lot, but in fact one shot of espresso coffee has only half the caffeine of a cup, so a couple shots is something like 1.5-2 cups of drip coffee. All in all I've cut back from the 3-6 cup habit I used to have to 2-3, at most.
But I still had more generalized anxiety. In particular, going to movie theaters was creating an agoraphobic response I've never had before. This was bizarre: in the past few years I've developed mild-to-moderate anxiety on airplanes, and sitting in a movie theater was feeling exactly the same. What was going on?
I figured out that it was likely a drop of serotonin levels in the brain as a result of the diet. So after two months, I decided I needed a change.
More carbs? Back to crappy SAD? What?
Nope, I was able to find a diet that addresses these issues, seems well thought out, and to be honest, is more fun than I thought. Enter Paul Jaminet's "Perfect Health Diet.
Paul Jaminet is a PHd as is his wife. These are ridiculously smart, "NASA level mega smart" people. They've done a lot of wonderful meta-research and their findings seem to align with my own personal experiences. Such as:
1. Low carb does indeed lower appetite levels, which is good.
2. However some carbs are needed, for a variety of reasons, and for many of us, lowering them to keto or near keto levels is not great.
3. Accepting that the paleo movement has uncovered some great truths, but hold the phone, let's not just throw out the baby with the bathwater on modern medicine.
And here is the website for the diet, btw.
They don't update the blog as much anymore because they are involved with an interested anti-Cancer startup company, but it doesn't matter: there is almost 8 years of regular posts to sift through.
So in the broadest possible strokes, the PHD can be summarized as:
1. Meats good! Just not pork so much (great series on the dangers of pork on the blog btw).
2. SAFE starches in moderate amounts, also good! Just no grains, legumes, or beans. Ground tubers and rice, basically. This means I can eat at Mitsuwa Market again!!!
3. Sweet fruits good! Sweet veggies good!
4. Seed oils SUPER BAD. Fish oils good but DO NOT GO CRAZY.
5. Intermittent fasting is good! But they advocate a moderate, 8 hour eating window approach.
6. Circadian rhythm SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT. Getting to bed on time for regular sleep is VITAL.
7. Supplementing with the right things SUPER IMPORTANT. Now, they have a huge array of things, but for most of us, I would say a good multi-vitamin+vitamin D covers the majority of daily needs.
8. ORGAN MEATS SOMETIMES! This led me to eat chicken livers for the first time in my life on Saturday. It was... surprisingly pretty good?
My friend Steven commented that it was too complex, and I would admit, yes, at first glance this seems that way. But to my surprise, in three days I've actually had a lot of fun tinkering. I think there is part of my brain: the part of my brain that likes video games, incidentally - that actually enjoys going this in-depth with a diet. And I can already tell it is getting simpler. Of HUGE BENEFIT is ALREADY being in the habit of using a tracking app like LoseIt!, which I've been using for years and years. With his, it is a simple matter to see at a glance what I've eaten and what I need to eat less of or more of in a day.
Early results seem to be similar to low carb in terms of energy intake: about 2300 calories if I don't tweak anything for weight loss at all. This is pretty good- I would lose weight if I did exactly this every day. It would just be very slow and inefficient, and of course like any human being I won't do this exactly (though I am hopeful this will be an "every day, permanent change").
On the PHD website, they of course have many suggestions in how to tweak it for weight loss, which I'm doing. It's basically to cut back on some added fats which means you get a fairly even distribution of carb calories, fat calories, and protein calories.
But that's the thing: this is a health diet, not a weight loss plan, which is why I'm excited about it. I think what I've been doing wrong for years and years is sprinting to short term weight loss goals, and not fixing permanent eating and diet issues. I think having this diet as a base, and tweaking to get my desired results, is a great start for me.
Early results?
Well, I don't weigh in and measure on a daily basis anymore because that is just stupid to do. I now do three week intervals, and I just kicked off a new three week stretch. But the anxiety symptoms are getting better! I went to the theater yesterday and for the first time since before the low carb diet, I felt totally normal. The heart palpitations and other nervous symptoms/panicky feelings are going away as well.
I also don't really feel the bad symptoms of excessive carb intake, like sleepiness, lethargy, etc. Clearly these sort of symptoms are from eating grains, sugars and other refined carbs. For me, the safe starches simply do not have these effects.
Hunger levels are fine, but I do expect to feel more hunger than the average perfect health dieter, since I am tweaking for weight loss.
OK!
CURRENT TOTALS/PROGRESS
To any newcomers, I do not put actual weights and measurements here. I just state what my progress is from the "Start" of the blog. This will remain the same. Alas, the end of 2017 saw some slippage (and to be honest, the progress made last year was short term probably water weight loss crammed in for my vacation anyway).
Weight Loss From Start: -5 lbs (instead of -17, lol).
Inches from chest: -2"
Inches from Waist: -3"
DAILY STEPS (For exercise, I am doing a goal of daily steps. 10k steps is the goal for each day, although I can't promise I'll update the blog each day, but I do plan to update often).
Yesterday: ~6000 steps. Meh. I did get outside for over an hour, but alas, it was with my kids, which meant lots of stopping to referee fights and arguments. This is why "just exercise with your kids!" type advice bugs me. The kids end up sapping my efficiency.
NEW! - Sleep - Since I am now very focused on sleep, I'm going to track this metric
midnight sleep time, awake at 8pm with daylight savings time shift. ~7 hours, which is my normal circadian rhythm, but the cat woke me up at 3pm, so low quality today, as expected.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
March Wrap Up, Into April
Ok! March is done, how did I do?
Goal: My goal was to lose 8 lbs. this month.
Result: I lost 9, so that was a success. More on how that happened in a bit.
Inches: My goal was simply "better," since losing actual inches is notoriously hard to predict*
Result: -1" from waist, just about the same on the chest.
TOTALS since starting the blog:
-17lbs. I had to check that a couple of times to make sure that was real. All of a sudden the numbers look not horrible!
-5" waist and chest. Nice. The inches are always so darned difficult to lose as opposed to weight, but it's coming along!
HOW and WHY:
So I started this month, as my previous post stated, attempting a low carb protocol. That did work for a bit as it usually does in the short term, but the same old problems of chronic hunger all the time kicked in (despite what you read, while low carb definitely helps with satiety, it isn't a cure all and you can definitely overeat this way).
As the month wound down, I began, inspired by my wife and my "nutritional advisor" to intermittently fast more. This started as a two day fast a couple of weeks ago, in which I had a big, mostly water weight based (but still exciting) weight loss. Far more important than the fickle short term loss, however, was how I felt: Once I decided I wasn't eating, I was sort of totally good with it. I find it utterly bizarre how much easier it is to eat nothing, while it is hard to just eat a little.
The next week I fasted again, Monday through Wednesday morning. This was the longest fast I've ever done (about 56 hours). I had an issue with "jitters" near the end, which I read can happen: when you enter a fasted state, your body goes through incredible hormonal shifts and you can get out of whack. My multivitamin did not have some minerals in it, plus I was probably consuming too much caffeine in this period. I went ahead and broke the fast, but again, I lose even more weight this time than the last. Nice!
However, after a weekend of pretty standard, non-pig out eating, I gained back virtually all the weight. Every last bit (this was just this past Monday!).
Additionally, I fasted Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday again, and lost... nothing.
Yep. I lost like 7 lbs the week before, gained it ALL BACK, and lost NOTHING AFTER THREE DAYS OF FASTING. WHAT. THE. HECK.
My "nutritional advisor" explained it well: basically what happens is that when you refeed after fasting a few days, you probably do not completely fill up the glycogen reserves to the point where you are going to have a huge water weight loss after week one (in my case, week two- week one for me was a very brief, 20 hour fast). Ok, that makes sense, but if you haven't even filled your glycogen reserves up (the fuel your body stores for short term energy use during a fasting period- this lasts about a day or so if you aren't eating, then you switch to fats and a little bit of internal protein**), how could I have regained so much weight, and why am I holding on to it?
Well, a little bit of it is "your body hates you," but the full answer is, look: when refeeding, did you eat carbs at all? In my case, heck yes. Carbs are water sponges, you see, and so if you refeed and even eat the slightest amount of carbs, you are going to soak up all that water you are drinking and hold it.
So, again, TRUST THE PROCESS. I was feeling a little jittery on Wednesday night so I did allow myself a moderate meal, but I was back in fast land on Thursday and Friday (so basically I fasted Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday this week), and finally, on Friday, 5lbs of water weight dropped off. And boy, I could tell: I was PISSING SO MUCH that day. It's amazing how long your body can force you to have a bad result on a scale, when you are actually burning fat internally. Then, this morning, another handful of pounds of water weight off. So now all that weight I regained is gone plus several more.
So for anyone attempting fasting I would tell them: beware these sorts of times when your body is a huge jerk and just holds on to a weight. Of course my nutritional advisor would tell me to just not use the scale at all, or at most once a month or something. I'm still checking regularly until my vacation to Japan (when all bets are off and I'm eating like a drunken pac man), but when I'm back, I may actually take this advice.
The most impressive thing to me was how relatively easy it was, most of the time, to just eat nothing. I went out with my family to a mall food court and I could just easily sit there and have an espresso and water while they ate and totally not care!
Also, while I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO BE A FASTING CULTIST (trust me, they are out there, and make silly claims on the regular), some purely anecdotal, unscientific observations from me:
1. I had a cold on Monday. It was totally and completely gone by Thursday. Shortest cold ever. Some theorize that fasting allows better immune response because your body isn't spending so much energy digesting things. That sounds like more "guys on the internet" talk, but hey, I had this result. So there is that!
2. When I was at the mall with my family, I felt unusually sharp mentally. I was able to corral my kids, quickly solve their minor issues with sharing, and in general be a much better dad, because I wasn't in this "hunger cloud" or a post big meal "food coma" state. I felt better driving: less likely to take a stupid wrong turn, more likely to actually plan ahead in terms of which lane to be, etc. Things I'm sure my wife appreciates!
April Goals:
Er, well, not regain all 17 lbs? Obviously I have a ten day vacation coming up, which in all honesty was a huge reason for this blog. I had personally hit an all time high in weight last year after traveling and didn't want to be at *another* all time high after that. Fortunately that is pretty much impossible to "achieve" now.
So I'll say my main goal is to not do what I usually do after a vacation: not take my eating seriously for weeks afterward, making a small temporary weight gain into a permanent "set point," a mistake I always make. So when that plane lands in America, and the jet lag is gone, I'll be excited to return to a fasting protocol of some sort. While some might suggest forty straight days, I think a regiment of 2 on, 1 off, 2 on, then the weekend of off, repeat, should work pretty well. We'll see. But I'm encouraged overall!
*One of the sucky things about losing weight is your body can and will be stupid about where that fat loss happens; it can be that sliver of fat on your forearm, on some bit that doesn't even seem fat, etc. Just gotta TRUST THE PROCESS as it all gets used eventually.
**Nope, I'm not terribly worried about muscle loss. In what studies exist, the proportion of fat to muscle lost is waaaaaaaay biased in favor of fat, and there is even some debate in some circles over what type of muscle you lose- some even postulate that the body prioritizes non-important "junk" protein you have sort of laying about. Even if that is just "dudes on the internet," the point is- getting the fat off is vastly more important for health, and you can build the muscle later.
Goal: My goal was to lose 8 lbs. this month.
Result: I lost 9, so that was a success. More on how that happened in a bit.
Inches: My goal was simply "better," since losing actual inches is notoriously hard to predict*
Result: -1" from waist, just about the same on the chest.
TOTALS since starting the blog:
-17lbs. I had to check that a couple of times to make sure that was real. All of a sudden the numbers look not horrible!
-5" waist and chest. Nice. The inches are always so darned difficult to lose as opposed to weight, but it's coming along!
HOW and WHY:
So I started this month, as my previous post stated, attempting a low carb protocol. That did work for a bit as it usually does in the short term, but the same old problems of chronic hunger all the time kicked in (despite what you read, while low carb definitely helps with satiety, it isn't a cure all and you can definitely overeat this way).
As the month wound down, I began, inspired by my wife and my "nutritional advisor" to intermittently fast more. This started as a two day fast a couple of weeks ago, in which I had a big, mostly water weight based (but still exciting) weight loss. Far more important than the fickle short term loss, however, was how I felt: Once I decided I wasn't eating, I was sort of totally good with it. I find it utterly bizarre how much easier it is to eat nothing, while it is hard to just eat a little.
The next week I fasted again, Monday through Wednesday morning. This was the longest fast I've ever done (about 56 hours). I had an issue with "jitters" near the end, which I read can happen: when you enter a fasted state, your body goes through incredible hormonal shifts and you can get out of whack. My multivitamin did not have some minerals in it, plus I was probably consuming too much caffeine in this period. I went ahead and broke the fast, but again, I lose even more weight this time than the last. Nice!
However, after a weekend of pretty standard, non-pig out eating, I gained back virtually all the weight. Every last bit (this was just this past Monday!).
Additionally, I fasted Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday again, and lost... nothing.
Yep. I lost like 7 lbs the week before, gained it ALL BACK, and lost NOTHING AFTER THREE DAYS OF FASTING. WHAT. THE. HECK.
My "nutritional advisor" explained it well: basically what happens is that when you refeed after fasting a few days, you probably do not completely fill up the glycogen reserves to the point where you are going to have a huge water weight loss after week one (in my case, week two- week one for me was a very brief, 20 hour fast). Ok, that makes sense, but if you haven't even filled your glycogen reserves up (the fuel your body stores for short term energy use during a fasting period- this lasts about a day or so if you aren't eating, then you switch to fats and a little bit of internal protein**), how could I have regained so much weight, and why am I holding on to it?
Well, a little bit of it is "your body hates you," but the full answer is, look: when refeeding, did you eat carbs at all? In my case, heck yes. Carbs are water sponges, you see, and so if you refeed and even eat the slightest amount of carbs, you are going to soak up all that water you are drinking and hold it.
So, again, TRUST THE PROCESS. I was feeling a little jittery on Wednesday night so I did allow myself a moderate meal, but I was back in fast land on Thursday and Friday (so basically I fasted Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday this week), and finally, on Friday, 5lbs of water weight dropped off. And boy, I could tell: I was PISSING SO MUCH that day. It's amazing how long your body can force you to have a bad result on a scale, when you are actually burning fat internally. Then, this morning, another handful of pounds of water weight off. So now all that weight I regained is gone plus several more.
So for anyone attempting fasting I would tell them: beware these sorts of times when your body is a huge jerk and just holds on to a weight. Of course my nutritional advisor would tell me to just not use the scale at all, or at most once a month or something. I'm still checking regularly until my vacation to Japan (when all bets are off and I'm eating like a drunken pac man), but when I'm back, I may actually take this advice.
The most impressive thing to me was how relatively easy it was, most of the time, to just eat nothing. I went out with my family to a mall food court and I could just easily sit there and have an espresso and water while they ate and totally not care!
Also, while I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO BE A FASTING CULTIST (trust me, they are out there, and make silly claims on the regular), some purely anecdotal, unscientific observations from me:
1. I had a cold on Monday. It was totally and completely gone by Thursday. Shortest cold ever. Some theorize that fasting allows better immune response because your body isn't spending so much energy digesting things. That sounds like more "guys on the internet" talk, but hey, I had this result. So there is that!
2. When I was at the mall with my family, I felt unusually sharp mentally. I was able to corral my kids, quickly solve their minor issues with sharing, and in general be a much better dad, because I wasn't in this "hunger cloud" or a post big meal "food coma" state. I felt better driving: less likely to take a stupid wrong turn, more likely to actually plan ahead in terms of which lane to be, etc. Things I'm sure my wife appreciates!
April Goals:
Er, well, not regain all 17 lbs? Obviously I have a ten day vacation coming up, which in all honesty was a huge reason for this blog. I had personally hit an all time high in weight last year after traveling and didn't want to be at *another* all time high after that. Fortunately that is pretty much impossible to "achieve" now.
So I'll say my main goal is to not do what I usually do after a vacation: not take my eating seriously for weeks afterward, making a small temporary weight gain into a permanent "set point," a mistake I always make. So when that plane lands in America, and the jet lag is gone, I'll be excited to return to a fasting protocol of some sort. While some might suggest forty straight days, I think a regiment of 2 on, 1 off, 2 on, then the weekend of off, repeat, should work pretty well. We'll see. But I'm encouraged overall!
*One of the sucky things about losing weight is your body can and will be stupid about where that fat loss happens; it can be that sliver of fat on your forearm, on some bit that doesn't even seem fat, etc. Just gotta TRUST THE PROCESS as it all gets used eventually.
**Nope, I'm not terribly worried about muscle loss. In what studies exist, the proportion of fat to muscle lost is waaaaaaaay biased in favor of fat, and there is even some debate in some circles over what type of muscle you lose- some even postulate that the body prioritizes non-important "junk" protein you have sort of laying about. Even if that is just "dudes on the internet," the point is- getting the fat off is vastly more important for health, and you can build the muscle later.
Friday, March 17, 2017
March update
So halfway through March, how are we doing?
So far I've lost -3 lbs from where I started at the beginning of the month. My goal was -8 lbs, which was aggressive but I think it is still doable.
This puts me, btw, at -12 lbs lost since August. Finally getting some respectable numbers. I'm also finally shed the weight that 2016 put on me, which, hey, it's still just March 2017 ;)
I haven't measured recently so I can't report on that.
TACTICS:
So in general I've been trying to stay at or around 1200 calories. Looking at the log I keep, my pattern is to sort of do OK during the week, and do mediocre during the weekend.
So in order to ramp things up during the week (and inspired by my wife who is also doing this), I did fast for two days this week, which definitely helped boost things. Yes yes water weight blah blah, but it isn't all water. :p
I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do going forward; but I think intermittent fasting is going to help get me to my goals faster.
So far I've lost -3 lbs from where I started at the beginning of the month. My goal was -8 lbs, which was aggressive but I think it is still doable.
This puts me, btw, at -12 lbs lost since August. Finally getting some respectable numbers. I'm also finally shed the weight that 2016 put on me, which, hey, it's still just March 2017 ;)
I haven't measured recently so I can't report on that.
TACTICS:
So in general I've been trying to stay at or around 1200 calories. Looking at the log I keep, my pattern is to sort of do OK during the week, and do mediocre during the weekend.
So in order to ramp things up during the week (and inspired by my wife who is also doing this), I did fast for two days this week, which definitely helped boost things. Yes yes water weight blah blah, but it isn't all water. :p
I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do going forward; but I think intermittent fasting is going to help get me to my goals faster.
Monday, March 6, 2017
February done, onto March with some optimism
February is in the books. So how'd I do?
Weight loss goal: -6 lbs
Actual result: -3 lbs
So I had a really strong rally at the end (more on that later) to give a respectable result. Otherwise it was a tough month- again, more thoughts later. But, I'm not unhappy with the results overall, as things are moving in the right direction albeit slowly.
Total weight loss since start of blog (back in, holy crap, August): -8 lbs (actually, it could be -10 lbs, depending on when I counted my start weight...)
Measurement goal: "better"
Actual results: -2" both waist and chest. Nice!
Despite dropping a good amount of weight in January, I didn't lose any inches (just gained a little, which was bizarre). I made up for it this month, dropping several inches across the chest and waist.
Total measurement loss since August:
Chest: -4"
Waist: -4"
Comments on the month overall:
My average calorie intake for the month was just a bit over 2000 calories. Several months ago, I would have been impressed by this.
However, both anecdotal experience and research has led me to conclude that this was silly to think 2000 calories a day was a good, weight loss inducing number.
"My" real number is less than that. Much less.
As I have discussed before on this blog, the basal metabolic rate you can calculate on the internet uses a couple of different formulas, both guesswork. One had it at a ludicrously high amount, well over about 2300 calories. The other more conservative formula put it at closer to 2000.
Only when I tried getting my calories to 1500 per day did weight really begin to move.
However, as my daily calorie intake average would suggest, I struggled some to stay at this weight. This is mainly because of CARBOHYDRATES. Yep. Carbs and sugar.
I always "forget" this because I do not want to deal with the boredom of a ketogenic diet, but going keto has benefits that have always helped me, even if it is NOT a silver bullet/magic solution (it isn't: dieting still sucks and is still very very hard).
It's main benefit is satiety. Again: not a silver bullet. I still get hungry. But even if I am slightly less hungry slightly less often, that helps me win the "war with my mind" on a daily basis. The other benefit is despite irrational fears from dumb people, I have no doubt that it is a pretty darn healthy way of eating as well.
So near the end of the month I decided to do two things:
Cut ALL carbs and SUGAR. Total zero keto diet with the only carbs coming here and there from veggies like spinach and the like (so basically no more than 25 grams per day).
Daily calorie goal: 1200 cals.
1200 cals is the lowest I have ever set a calorie goal. Even last year, I would have thought this was entirely unnecessary for a man my size. However, as I've researched this, it seems clear that the daily amount of recommended intake is just wrong: it optimistically assumes a pretty efficient metabolism (which is true: people who don't struggle with weight can probably eat a bit more, period, and not gain it; whereas people who have had a big weight loss in their life end up needing to eat less to maintain that weight versus someone naturally at the same number on the scale).
This will be my goal going forward. I managed to east 1200, 1200, then 1400 calories at the end of this week. I allowed myself a bit more calories and carbs today (about 100 carbs, still "low carb" but no longer "ketogenic"), so I won't be surprised is a have a big *WATER WEIGHT* regain tomorrow (I won't be freaked out).
MARCH GOALS:
-8lbs loss (2 lbs per week)
Inches: "better"
With going keto and going as low as 1200 cals, I think I can do this. Don't get me wrong: it won't be easy, but the effects of ketosis and eating low carb cut down the appetite juuuuuuust enough that I can battle through the super tough spots. I don't always need to eat this way for the rest of my life (keto, that is); but for now, to get things moving, I'm happy to do it.
Weight loss goal: -6 lbs
Actual result: -3 lbs
So I had a really strong rally at the end (more on that later) to give a respectable result. Otherwise it was a tough month- again, more thoughts later. But, I'm not unhappy with the results overall, as things are moving in the right direction albeit slowly.
Total weight loss since start of blog (back in, holy crap, August): -8 lbs (actually, it could be -10 lbs, depending on when I counted my start weight...)
Measurement goal: "better"
Actual results: -2" both waist and chest. Nice!
Despite dropping a good amount of weight in January, I didn't lose any inches (just gained a little, which was bizarre). I made up for it this month, dropping several inches across the chest and waist.
Total measurement loss since August:
Chest: -4"
Waist: -4"
Comments on the month overall:
My average calorie intake for the month was just a bit over 2000 calories. Several months ago, I would have been impressed by this.
However, both anecdotal experience and research has led me to conclude that this was silly to think 2000 calories a day was a good, weight loss inducing number.
"My" real number is less than that. Much less.
As I have discussed before on this blog, the basal metabolic rate you can calculate on the internet uses a couple of different formulas, both guesswork. One had it at a ludicrously high amount, well over about 2300 calories. The other more conservative formula put it at closer to 2000.
Only when I tried getting my calories to 1500 per day did weight really begin to move.
However, as my daily calorie intake average would suggest, I struggled some to stay at this weight. This is mainly because of CARBOHYDRATES. Yep. Carbs and sugar.
I always "forget" this because I do not want to deal with the boredom of a ketogenic diet, but going keto has benefits that have always helped me, even if it is NOT a silver bullet/magic solution (it isn't: dieting still sucks and is still very very hard).
It's main benefit is satiety. Again: not a silver bullet. I still get hungry. But even if I am slightly less hungry slightly less often, that helps me win the "war with my mind" on a daily basis. The other benefit is despite irrational fears from dumb people, I have no doubt that it is a pretty darn healthy way of eating as well.
So near the end of the month I decided to do two things:
Cut ALL carbs and SUGAR. Total zero keto diet with the only carbs coming here and there from veggies like spinach and the like (so basically no more than 25 grams per day).
Daily calorie goal: 1200 cals.
1200 cals is the lowest I have ever set a calorie goal. Even last year, I would have thought this was entirely unnecessary for a man my size. However, as I've researched this, it seems clear that the daily amount of recommended intake is just wrong: it optimistically assumes a pretty efficient metabolism (which is true: people who don't struggle with weight can probably eat a bit more, period, and not gain it; whereas people who have had a big weight loss in their life end up needing to eat less to maintain that weight versus someone naturally at the same number on the scale).
This will be my goal going forward. I managed to east 1200, 1200, then 1400 calories at the end of this week. I allowed myself a bit more calories and carbs today (about 100 carbs, still "low carb" but no longer "ketogenic"), so I won't be surprised is a have a big *WATER WEIGHT* regain tomorrow (I won't be freaked out).
MARCH GOALS:
-8lbs loss (2 lbs per week)
Inches: "better"
With going keto and going as low as 1200 cals, I think I can do this. Don't get me wrong: it won't be easy, but the effects of ketosis and eating low carb cut down the appetite juuuuuuust enough that I can battle through the super tough spots. I don't always need to eat this way for the rest of my life (keto, that is); but for now, to get things moving, I'm happy to do it.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Last week in Feb...
The last week in Feb is coming!
My weekend was pretty good, as was the week in general. Kept my cals low with the exception of Friday, and that wasn't bad. As a consequence, my weight is moving down, but I'm still a good ways off from my goal for the month.
However, I haven't given up hope yet, because I tend to lose weight in big chunks, and I'm going in the right direction!
My weekend was pretty good, as was the week in general. Kept my cals low with the exception of Friday, and that wasn't bad. As a consequence, my weight is moving down, but I'm still a good ways off from my goal for the month.
However, I haven't given up hope yet, because I tend to lose weight in big chunks, and I'm going in the right direction!
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