Creating the Perfect Diet Plan?

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve tried a LOT of diets over the years: Atkins, The Zone, South Beach, Weight Watchers, Fat Flush, Low-Fat, Low-Cal… I’ve even tried a wacky one where you eat these gross mock-chocolate-flavored fibre pellets 6x a day instead of meals every other day. I lasted I think 1 day on that one… crashed and burned miserably on the rest, too. Some sooner than others. The benefit of trying all these things is being able to take a few bits here and there that did work, or that I did like, and incorporate them into my own eating plan.

I do know that as someone who is insulin resistant, carbs can be my downfall. Not only because refined sugars and starches end up straight on my hips thanks to the excess insulin that ends up in my system when my blood sugar spikes, but also because for me they’re as addictive as crack. I read somewhere once that the foods you tend to crave are foods you’re most likely sensitive or allergic to. That makes sense. I don’t CRAVE carrots or apples, even though I love them and they’re good to me. I crave pretzels dipped in nutella, or a whole bag of sea salt & vinegar chips! lol… So, from diets like atkins and southbeach, it make sense for my body to limit refined sugars, grains and starches like potato products, baked goods and sweets. 

I had great success doing Ann Louise Gittleman’s Fat Flush Plan, but it is pretty restrictive and requires you drink a lot of liquids like hot lemon water and cranberry water [or regular water after the initial detox phase] and I felt like I was constantly in the bathroom, which probably wasn’t a bad thing. There’s also no dairy, sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, potatoes, or SALT. It was that last thing that put me over the edge. I remember losing 13 lbs in one month doing that plan and I cheated on half the days. I couldn’t eliminate all dairy – I still used butter to sautée veggies in, and I still sprinkled parmasan cheese on things… but I still lost weight. Was I happy? Not really. I remember being tired and headachy, which was said to be expected as my body flushed out toxins. I did like the hot lemon water before meals to warm up the liver, and I did like the peculiar ‘long life cocktails’ that you’re supposed to take upon waking and before bed each day. I make my own version in the mornings, which I call my “mud” because that’s what it looks like. It actually doesn’t taste that bad, and it’s a nice start to the day, to curb my hunger before I workout without eating a meal beforehand [I always wake up famished]. I posted the ‘recipe’ for it HERE. 

I really liked Christine Lydon’s Ten Years Thinner plan as well, and think it is the most doable and sustainable plan I’ve come across. And I intend to try it soon. I took to her exercise plan right away and use it in my routine, just not 4 days in a row as she recommends. It was too much on my knees, so I alternate between that and HIIT on the bike and toss in some yoga as well.  I’m gearing up to finally give her diet plan a try. I just need to get organized and do some grocery shopping. Basically, you eat 3 meals and 2-3 snacks a day. The first few weeks are more restrictive and they they have you add whole grains, dairy and legumes, etc. back in eventually. I think because I’m in no rush to lose weight, I’m more about feeling better, I’d just skip to the maintenance plan, which is still worlds better than how I eat now. lol…

I also take a bevy of supplements most days. I’ve changed and refined my selection over the years, to the point where I take things I know are good for me, but honestly can’t remember why anymore. I’d have to look it all up. I liken what I take to a multivitamin. Except that I only take what I think I need separately because personally, I feel that most multi’s, while a great start, don’t give you enough of what you really need and throw in a bunch of stuff you really don’t, because they sound cool in their advertising, when in reality you get plenty of the tiny trace amounts of these ‘trendy nutrients’ in your daily diet if you eat even somewhat healthy [and eat a decent mix of meat, fish and poultry, preferable organic grass fed, wild-caught and free-range respectively]. I’ll do the rundown of what I take and why in another post or page soon. It’s way too much information to put all in one spot. 

So… All this being said, now I just have to start. I know I have the know-how, and I know it’s not difficult. But for some reason I’ve been hesitating. Probably because I love food so much and use it for more than fuel. It’s a source of pleasure, a reward, a way of self-medicating when I’m anxious or stressed out. I take in a lot of excess calories because of my emotional need for food. But my emotional needs will get worse if my body starts crapping out on me due to any number of diseases caused by years and years of eating excessive empty calories. I’m also afraid of failing YET AGAIN because I have failed so many times before. And I’m at a place where I don’t hate my body. I actually love my body, and because of that I’m starting to realize if I really do love my body, I’ll stop abusing it so regularly. An indulgence here and there is fine, but not every day. I am getting better with moderation, and I know that whatever I choose to do will be because I want to feel better – and that nothing is off-limits for all of eternity. If I really want some ice cream, I’d rather have a small scoop now and then and enjoy it vs. deprive myself and then downing a whole pint of Häagen–Daz Fleur de Sel. 

Anyway, I ordered some hypnosis CDs to help me reprogram my ‘back talk’ as I’ve heard the subconscious referred to as. lol… I’ll let you know if they work but I”m hoping that in conjunction with hypnosis, I’ll be able to change my inner feelings towards food and really make some life-long changes. I’ve learned from past experience that if the subconscious doesn’t agree with what you’re doing, you’re doomed to fail… I wish I had the time to meditate all day long and change that inner taperecorder the old-fashioned way, but I don’t, so I’ll gladly get help from technology [as long as there’s a money back guarantee…].  ;)

Image credit: prevention.com

New Research In Weightloss?

I just read an article on psychologytoday.com about some relatively new causes for obesity vs. the old standby cause – you’re lazy and you eat too much. I’ve read about all of these ’causes’ before, so it’s not that new, but it was nice that they put them all in one place. You can read the entire article on psychologytoday.com if you CLICK HERE, or you can read my take on it in summary below.

Anyone who’s dieted knows there’s a lot of information out there and a lot of so-called “plans” that claim to be the one true diet [sounds remarkably like religion, and I suspect for some, dieting is their ticket to the promise land of skinny heaven… but I digress…]. From low-fat to low-cal to low-carb, how is anyone supposed to know what will work best? Well, if you’re like me, you’ve tried them. ALL of them. And in the end you lost some weight, but it was too difficult to stick to within the constraints of normal life and you gained back what little weight you lost – and then some. I’ve stepped my way up to gaining a LOT of weight over the years, lost some, gain more, repeat. Over and over until hello size 16. GHAH!

So, what’s the latest…?

Evolution: We’re built to store fat and keep it – it’s a survival thing. But back then, when we relied on extra fat to get us through the tough times, we were sprinting to hunt and evade, and walking many miles a day gathering and following our food, so obesity was never in the picture. Things started going downhill for us when we started planting crops. We went from tall, strong, solid, lean people with perfect teeth and almost no disease, to shorter, fatter, sickly people with bad teeth, lighter bones and chronic illness. We weren’t getting the nutrition we were built to process – we were eating grains. We were staying put, tending our crops. Our new formed communities started to grow, making nice, ripe breeding grounds for bacteria, viruses and disease. Of course there were plenty of pros to living that way – it freed up a lot more time running for our lives to work on other things like tools, language, writing, music and the arts, sciences, and eventually the technology we know and love that makes our lives much more convenient these days. And there was far less chance of starvation or being another animal’s food – strength in numbers. But flash forward 10,000 years later and our bodies still haven’t evolved to function optimally with our current diet or lifestyle. So… our genes are one factor. Some of us have stronger survival genes than others – we put on weight faster and easier. In a starvation situation, we’d win. But that doesn’t help us with designer clothing…

Sleep More, Weigh Less?

Graphic courtesy of Stanford News Service

There are numerous studies on the effects of sleep, or lack thereof on hormone balance and the effects on metabolism. Generally, people who get 7-8 hours of sleep a night have faster metabolisms because all their hormones are in balance. Get less than 7 hours and your chances of increasing your BMI [body mass index] go up proportionately. And it works both ways – get more than 10 hours sleep, and that will also throw your system off. I read once that getting a full 8 hours of sleep a night can increase your metabolism by as much at 40%. That’s huge when you’re trying to control your weight. There’s a great article on the subject from Stanford University – you can check it out here: Stanford Report on Obesity linked to hormonal changes, lack of sleep.

That being said, I get more than I used to, but most of the time it’s between 6 and 7 hours, and it’s rare that I sleep soundly through the night. I’ve realized lately that where we live [on a main road] can get too noisy when we have a window open, or even just having an air conditioner in the window, so if I use earplugs I sleep much more soundly. Luckily my husband doesn’t need them, so he has become my alarm clock, since I never hear it anymore. It’s not an issue in the fall or winter – or even spring when the nights are still very chilly and the house is a comfortably cool temperature inside. 

But, in the periods where I’ve gained noticeable weight, I was definitely getting very little sleep – 4 to 6 hours nightly due to being young and not knowing better. Ever since I was a kid I hated sleeping because my parents both worked and got home fairly late in the evenings, so we’d eat dinner [finish your plate!], watch a bit of TV and then it was bedtime. I was so starved for their attention that I grew to feel like sleeping was a waste of time or even a punishment. I think I established those feelings towards sleep by age 4… 30 years later, I’m still trying to shake them and make sleep a priority – a reward, not a punishment.

Looking At Food Triggers Hunger…

I found the little article I referenced in my last post in Scientific American Mind magazine. Here’s what it said:

“Looking at food triggers hunger, and the culprit seems to be a gut hormone called ghrelin, which encourages eating and activates reward regions in the brain. McGill University neurologists used fMRI to measure the brain’s response to food and nonfood images. People who received an injection of extra ghrelin displayed the most activity in their brain’s pleasure centers when they saw images of edible items.”

I’m actually more interested in what the response was in people who were not injected with ghrelin, who were shown edible images… but either way, it lends proof that the ‘see-food’ diet truly does exist… eating food is pleasurable, and seeing food gets the pleasure party started in your noodle.  ;)

That being said, I thought of a little trick I’m going to try this week. I’m going to keep a fruit bowl in front of me at work and at home [I work from home two days a week] in hopes that when I get the need to nosh, I’ll reach for an apple or some grapes, and not hunt for potato chips or good & plenties. Fruit in itself is beautiful and really haven’t met a fruit I didn’t enjoy eating. Sure they have natural sugars, but they, unlike refined sugars, need to pass through the liver to be converted into glucose before being absorbed, which naturally slows the process of their sugars entering your bloodstream. Which means, no sugar spikes, no sugar crashes and uncontrollable eating as a result of said crash. And they’re sweet, delicious, full of vitamins and fibre. So… today’s task: going to the grocery store and buying 3 servings of fruit per day for the next 5 days. 

It may take some experimenting – maybe refrigerating my fruit bowl at night to prolong the fruits’ life, but I do believe that keeping them at room temperature lets them ripen naturally and promotes the most flavor – and flavor will keep me coming back for more. If that doesn’t work, then maybe multiple trips to the store each week will be necessary, but there’s always a grocery store within 5 miles of wherever I am at any given moment where I live.  =)

I just found the actual banana hanger/fruit bowl combo pictured above at StacksAndStacks.com for only $15.99.