The Perfect Health Diet - Take Two!

It’s no secret that I’ve been having a tough time lately in the food department. I’m doing my best to stay positive and get myself back on track. Toward that end, I’m giving the Perfect Health Diet (PHD) another shot. The first attempt was an utter disaster, mostly because it was during the holidays and I was not only incorporating starch and fruit into my diet, I was falling prey to holiday treats (aka sugar). This time around, I’ve got a solid plan in place and it’s going well so far (Day 4 as I write this).

I have determined that sugar just has to be a “no” for me, in the way I view gluten. It’s super scary but I know in my heart it’s true. I’m not saying that I’ll NEVER eat another bit of sugar again, but for now, I’m putting it in that category so I don’t have to think about it or agonize over how much is OK. In a similar vein, I’m avoiding anything that might trigger me. During my first attempt, I tried to make some rice pasta. Big mistake! I fell headfirst into my first bowl of “spaghetti” I’d had in years. Totally sent me over a cliff. For starch, I’m sticking to starchy veggies and rice for now because it’s easy to measure out a half cup and not feel compelled to eat more. If that goes well for a couple weeks, I may try some other things every now and then, but in a portion controlled way (only make enough for that meal so I’m not tempted to eat more).

To keep my blood sugar stable, I’m using what I learned back when I was doing the second step of the Metabolism Miracle. If I limit my carbs to just a single portion (one piece of fruit or about a half cup of starchy veg or rice), I don’t send myself reeling on the blood sugar rollercoaster. I’m incorporating that one portion into each meal and one snack a day, trying to evenly space out my dose of carbs every 3-5 hours. This strategy is keeping my total net carbs to about 100-125 per day, taking into account that there are also small amounts of carbs in the non-starchy veggies and nuts I eat as well.

I am not attempting the intermittent fasting that is an option on the PHD, at least not yet. I’m trying to send the message to my body that there is abundant nutrition – not too much, not too little. My whole day seems to go better when I have a big whack of protein in the morning. I’m doing my best to get in the 3 egg yolks per day, but am otherwise taking it easy on fat. I’m not afraid of it, but I know that with the addition of the carbs, I don’t need quite as much as I did when staying very low carb. I’m still eating regular versions of things (no low fat junk or anything), but I’m cutting back on how much butter and other added fats I cook with and put on my food (not eliminating, just cutting in back).

I’m making vats of bone broth in my crock pot and drinking it by the mug-full as well as using it to flavor my food (cooking rice in it, reducing it down for sauces, making soups). My nails are the strongest I’ve ever seen them (I’ve been hard core about the broth for about a month at this point). Another benefit is that the flavor it adds to food is a good way to reduce the amount of fat I want use. I alternate making chicken and beef broth since those are my favorites.

It’s only been a few days, but I’m feeling pretty good so far. I’m keeping up with my Smarter Science of Slim workouts, which are low in time commitment and high in results. It’s amazing how strong I’m getting! There is something about following through on a plan that really boosts my mood and confidence. And with only two 15 minutes workouts to worry about, it’s pretty easy to keep that commitment.

I should also mention that I'm continuing to keep the focus OFF weight loss. That tends to make me a bit crazy. My goal is to take the very best care of me and do the things that I know will help me feel my best.

Any updates on your end? What have you been doing lately to further your healthy goals? 

Time to Reboot

I need to work on my follow-through these days. After my last post about jumping into the Whole 30 program, I decided to go in a completely different direction. I think I was just feeling a bit burnt out and low energy. As a result, I did a couple weeks of what was basically the second step of the Metabolism Miracle (using Paleo carbs like fruit/sweet potatoes). It felt nice to just eat a few more carbs for awhile, you know? But, the cravings started to creep back, my appetite was primed, and I found myself snacking a lot. So, it’s time for another reboot.

Since I already follow a Paleo Diet, doing The Whole 30 is about being more mindful of my choices and tightening up on the “iffy” parts of my diet. How this will look for me includes focusing on eating 3 good-size meals a day, each of which will leave me satisfied until the next one and thereby eliminating all the snacking. I’m also going to limit fruit and starchy veggies to once or twice a day with a meal, only if I want it and have room after the protein, fat, and non-starchy veggies. I have bone broth and herbal tea for in between meals or right before or after them and a bag of nuts for “emergencies” (times when a normal meal is unexpectedly delayed or I’m in a place where there aren’t any good choices).

Another biggie for me is the darn coffee. It’s just not working for me, sadly. I can’t seem to do it without any sweetener (I’ve been making my Bulletproof Coffee with a bit of maple syrup), and my energy levels have been decidedly lower lately. I find myself craving the caffeine jolt, which is not something I want to be dependent upon.

Lastly, there are a few borderline items that I’ll be nixing this month as well: grocery store salami, the aforementioned maple syrup, Kerrygold butter (I’ll use ghee only), heavy cream (I’d been splurging occasionally on ice coffees at Starbucks), my dark chocolate, and the coconut milk ice cream I’ve been buying (intended as an occasional splurge, but was turning into a nightly ritual – I AM proud that I was able to keep it to the actual serving size, having a pint last 4 days – progress!) I must admit to a bit of “last supper eating” last night, though. I ate the final 3 servings in my current pint all at once, knowing there would be no more after that. I haven’t done anything like that in awhile and refuse to feel bad about it.

Today is off to a great start. I’m feeling good despite no coffee and I enjoyed my bacon and eggs breakfast. My next goal for breakfast is to start incorporating vegetables into that meal, not just lunch and dinner. I like how the It Starts with Food book (by the Whole 30 people), talks about Meals 1, 2, and 3. There is no law that the first meal of the day has to be “breakfast food”.

I think my goals are pretty manageable and I am super excited to see how this month goes. I’m ready to start feeling better and kicking these lingering cravings to the curb. I’m working on shifting my focus away from losing weight as a gage of success, so how I’m feeling will be the ultimate barometer by which I judge this experiment.

P.S. This is such as great book. Check it out!

Another 180?

Weight Watchers junky to Intuitive Eating purist to the Metabolism Miracle… Have I lost my mind and succumbed to a fad diet? No… please hear me out…

I’ve talked a lot about how dieting has not worked for me (to lose weight or in terms of my mental health). I was thrilled to discover intuitive eating and have gained a great deal of peace through that type of approach to food. It feels great to no longer be a slave to cravings and it still amazes me how easily I can decide I’m full and just stop. No big deal! But somewhere there was a disconnect – if I was doing such a good job of tuning into my hunger, etc. why was I continuing to gain weight steadily? I understood the rebound affect after stopping with the restriction, but after almost two years, there has been no end in sight. I am not afraid of being fat, per se but there came a point where I came to terms with the fact that I just don’t feel good and my health was starting to be affected.

I felt lost – not wanting to return to calorie counting but not really knowing what else to do. That’s when I discovered the Metabolism Miracle. I know it sounds faddy and I really wish it had a less sensational kind of name so I wouldn’t feel so foolish. I heard an interview with the author in a podcast and what she had to say stopped me in my tracks. The premise of the book and of the author, Diane Kress’s work as a dietitian, is that about half of those who are overweight have a problem with insulin. This manifests itself in conditions (when actually diagnosed!) like insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, PCOS, and eventually, Type 2 diabetes. The symptoms manifest at different times in our lives for different people. Some might start having issues early in life, others not until they get gestational diabetes during pregnancy, or even not until menopause. Regardless of when symptoms arrive, all of these folks have what she calls Metabolism B. Men can have this too, I just tuned in more to the female life stages since I am one :)

People with this type of metabolism have trouble losing weight and/or keeping it off, tend to gain weight around their middle, and often suffer from mood swings (among many other symptoms). But there is a way to see it in blood work as well – fasting glucose over 85 (mine was last checked at 98), history of low-normal blood pressure earlier in life which creeps up to borderline high/high as the symptoms manifest (that’s me!), high “bad” cholesterol (yep, although I also have high “good” cholesterol…), and either really low or really high triglycerides (I have the latter). Trying to combat this by merely limiting saturated and trans fats won’t help because the real culprit is the carbohydrates – the nutrient that sends people with this predisposition into a blood sugar/insulin tailspin that leads right to fat gain – either in our blood or on our bodies (or both!)

Because our bodies are going haywire by overproducing insulin we wind up in a cycle of high to low blood sugar which leads us back to carbs and more carbs just to try to make ourselves feel better; when your blood sugar drops low, you get a signal to follow the quickest route to relief – fast carbs! Add that to the fact that if we don’t eat carbs often enough, our liver will release glycogen stores into our bloodstream to keep us going (which also sets the insulin response in motion). So we’re still getting fatter when we DON”T EAT. This is crazy making, when you think about it.

Diane Kress explains the science behind this response pretty well but I don’t even need all that to recognize the pattern in my own life. This totally explains why I get hungry again quickly after eating quick carbs, why I’m cranky as hell if I don’t eat every few of hours, why I get dead tired in the middle of the afternoon and need coffee just to make it through the rest of the day, and why I’m normally NOT hungry in the morning (my liver’s been dumping sugar into my bloodstream for hours since it’s been so long since I last ate – sometimes since 7pm the night before – over 12 hours!)

So what can I do about it? Well, her plan is pretty genius and completely doable. There is an initial low carb phase where you let your liver and pancreas (that releases the insulin) rest. That is 8 weeks and is low-carb, not no-carb. I’m a couple weeks in and it’s not that tough. I get to put my intuitive eating skills to use – there’s very little counting. It’s basically just a way to treat my body well. Those carby foods weren’t making me feel good so it’s not such a big challenge to avoid them for awhile. I cannot express how much better I’ve been feeling in terms of energy level and mood lately. And it’s a beautiful thing to know that this isn’t forever, that I will get more of those foods back when I’m ready for them.

The big difference between this program and those like Atkins or South Beach is the idea that the important thing is to keep a steady stream of low impact carbs coming to keep the insulin response in check and block the self-feeding mechanism from the liver so that it doesn’t kick in and exacerbate the insulin problem. After the first phase where you’re blocking this cycle by just not ever having enough carbs at a time to trigger an insulin release or build up the sugar stores in the liver that would allow the self-feeding to happen, the second phase switches the focus to controlling insulin by giving the body controlled amounts of carbs on a regular basis to keep the system humming and on track without over stimulating the pancreas to over-release insulin. Basically, it involves never going more than 5 hours without a serving of carbs (each time you eat carbs it’s a single serving of low impact carbs like whole grain as opposed to white, etc.) She even advocates a snack if you wake up in the night to prevent the overnight release. At the very least, we should eat one serving right before bed and shortly after getting up. It is so counter to what we’ve always been taught (don’t eat after 8!) but makes a lot of sense to me now. The final phase is maintenance or simply a plan to live your life after the goal of losing weight is off the table. It’s the same as phase 2, but includes more carbs (the amount is based on your personal stats).

I really feel like I’ve found the missing piece. I don’t see this as a return to dieting but rather a way to treat a medical condition I didn’t even understand I had! Looking at my lab work, I can see that I was on this train and that if I didn’t stop the cycle, I’d be diagnosed with pre-diabetes and most certainly put on meds for my high cholesterol sooner rather than later. Having this information makes me feel so empowered with a feeling like I’m finally on the right track. I don’t feel restricted or deprived, I feel free knowing that I’m finally addressing the root problem, not just the symptom (the weight).

Learn more on the book’s Amazon page (you can “look inside” to get a good bit of text before committing to buy it) and the Metabolism Miracle website.

Anyone else heard of this approach?