Equinox of Bluster
Mar. 20th, 2018 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoI had a strange and unrestful night last night. Lots of joint pain, lots of waking up, followed by sleeping long enough to have a weirdly specific and vivid dream about some well-groomed psychopaths who were using a thing like a smartphone, but before the invention of smartphones, to lure people to isolated situations and then rob and murder them. I wanted to warn the potential victims, but I was also trying to escape the killers myself before they realized I was onto them. As usual when I have this kind of dream, I woke up with my hypervigilance turned up to eleventy and lay awake for a long time before I could convince myself it was really not necessary to go get the Louisville Slugger out of the closet and recheck all the door locks.
So I woke up later than planned. I couldn't drink my tea till I had gone to the blood lab to get the tests my doctor reminded me to get when I saw her yesterday. Mostly just a check on my A1C, which was slightly elevated and then went back to normal. She wants to keep an eye on that. I'm hopeful that it will be good, because of this infernal eating plan I've been on for about nine weeks now. I've been saying that on some boring night, I'd describe it for those who are interested. People who are bored with food/diet neepery can stop reading now.
The Sparrowhawk and I had our genomes tested by 23andme. In January, they contacted us to invite us to be part of a survey they're doing to try to determine what types of diets work best for what kinds of genes. The study will last 12 weeks. It seems rather loosely constructed. They give us rules and advice, and every week we fill out a survey on how it's been going so far.
The rules for my plan are: try to avoid processed meat, red meat, deep fried food, drinks with added sugar, baked goods, and refined carbs of all kinds, such as white bread, pasta, and white rice. I should limit myself to one serving of whole grains and one serving of fruit per day. I can have a small amount of cheese, nuts, or dark chocolate as a snack. The rest is pretty much all lean protein and vegetables, with an occasional foray into beans, legumes, or soy if I want. I'm also encouraged to exercise, and the survey asks me if I've been walking, doing other aerobics, or doing strengthening exercises.
I know from experience that if I simply change my diet, I will not lose any weight. End of story. I did Paleo pretty strictly for about a year and a half, beginning with a totally compliant Whole30. I did not lose weight. I've been on the Zone diet. I've become a black belt in tae kwon do, which required working out for an hour and a half or more, three or four times a week at my absolute top limit. I became strong and improved my cardio fitness, but I did not lose weight. So I really didn't think it was at all likely I would lose any weight on this diet, either, but I decided to give it a shot.
I'm complying with their rules, and in addition, have SIGNIFICANTLY reduced my overall food intake. I eat two meals a day. The first one is more of a snack--something like two scrambled eggs with some vegetables and possibly a bit of potato mixed in, or maybe a sandwich made with one slice of whole grain bread and some sliced turkey or leftover fish. I don't eat this until 11 or 12 in the morning. Dinner is lean meat and veggies, salad, occasionally half a potato or some brown rice. I drink tea and coffee, and a couple of times a week, a flavored latte, which is going off the rules a bit. My other transgression is an occasional alcoholic beverage. I'm hungry literally all day, every day, except when my stomach is upset or when I have the flu and am coughing so much I don't want to eat. I'm keeping a food diary, so I know what I'm eating. I occasionally have the dread baked goods--like on my mother's birthday, when I had cake. But that's all the cheating that happens.
I really hate it. It's kind of like giving myself an eating disorder on purpose--the restricting, the obsessing, plus thinking about food all the time because I'm HUNGRY.
I've lost four or possibly five pounds. In the last month, I haven't lost any weight. Or, to be precise, I've lost two pounds and gained them back a couple of times. I'm sticking with it because I don't want to mess up the survey. I am determined to remain compliant so their results will be meaningful, because SCIENCE!
We had started going back to the gym in January, and were really enjoying it for a few weeks. And then we got the flu--probably at the gym--and couldn't work out for basically a month. Now the Sparrowhawk has started going back to his special Parkinson's gym, and I'm trying to gear up by taking a few walks before going back to the gym myself. I'll probably go next week, so I'll finish up this program with a couple of weeks of doing more exercise.
I haven't decided if I'll continue to eat this way after the official test period is over. If I'm going to be on a restricted food plan, this is a good one for me. Low fat, high carb diets are TERRIBLE for me. I know this by experience. The benefit to this diet so far is that it has improved my gastric reflux problems. Although that has been a lot worse since I had the flu and spent so much time coughing. Hopefully it will get better again now that the post-viral problems are going away. We're promised a detailed report on their findings from 23andme, so I'm looking forward to that . . . because SCIENCE!
So I woke up later than planned. I couldn't drink my tea till I had gone to the blood lab to get the tests my doctor reminded me to get when I saw her yesterday. Mostly just a check on my A1C, which was slightly elevated and then went back to normal. She wants to keep an eye on that. I'm hopeful that it will be good, because of this infernal eating plan I've been on for about nine weeks now. I've been saying that on some boring night, I'd describe it for those who are interested. People who are bored with food/diet neepery can stop reading now.
The Sparrowhawk and I had our genomes tested by 23andme. In January, they contacted us to invite us to be part of a survey they're doing to try to determine what types of diets work best for what kinds of genes. The study will last 12 weeks. It seems rather loosely constructed. They give us rules and advice, and every week we fill out a survey on how it's been going so far.
The rules for my plan are: try to avoid processed meat, red meat, deep fried food, drinks with added sugar, baked goods, and refined carbs of all kinds, such as white bread, pasta, and white rice. I should limit myself to one serving of whole grains and one serving of fruit per day. I can have a small amount of cheese, nuts, or dark chocolate as a snack. The rest is pretty much all lean protein and vegetables, with an occasional foray into beans, legumes, or soy if I want. I'm also encouraged to exercise, and the survey asks me if I've been walking, doing other aerobics, or doing strengthening exercises.
I know from experience that if I simply change my diet, I will not lose any weight. End of story. I did Paleo pretty strictly for about a year and a half, beginning with a totally compliant Whole30. I did not lose weight. I've been on the Zone diet. I've become a black belt in tae kwon do, which required working out for an hour and a half or more, three or four times a week at my absolute top limit. I became strong and improved my cardio fitness, but I did not lose weight. So I really didn't think it was at all likely I would lose any weight on this diet, either, but I decided to give it a shot.
I'm complying with their rules, and in addition, have SIGNIFICANTLY reduced my overall food intake. I eat two meals a day. The first one is more of a snack--something like two scrambled eggs with some vegetables and possibly a bit of potato mixed in, or maybe a sandwich made with one slice of whole grain bread and some sliced turkey or leftover fish. I don't eat this until 11 or 12 in the morning. Dinner is lean meat and veggies, salad, occasionally half a potato or some brown rice. I drink tea and coffee, and a couple of times a week, a flavored latte, which is going off the rules a bit. My other transgression is an occasional alcoholic beverage. I'm hungry literally all day, every day, except when my stomach is upset or when I have the flu and am coughing so much I don't want to eat. I'm keeping a food diary, so I know what I'm eating. I occasionally have the dread baked goods--like on my mother's birthday, when I had cake. But that's all the cheating that happens.
I really hate it. It's kind of like giving myself an eating disorder on purpose--the restricting, the obsessing, plus thinking about food all the time because I'm HUNGRY.
I've lost four or possibly five pounds. In the last month, I haven't lost any weight. Or, to be precise, I've lost two pounds and gained them back a couple of times. I'm sticking with it because I don't want to mess up the survey. I am determined to remain compliant so their results will be meaningful, because SCIENCE!
We had started going back to the gym in January, and were really enjoying it for a few weeks. And then we got the flu--probably at the gym--and couldn't work out for basically a month. Now the Sparrowhawk has started going back to his special Parkinson's gym, and I'm trying to gear up by taking a few walks before going back to the gym myself. I'll probably go next week, so I'll finish up this program with a couple of weeks of doing more exercise.
I haven't decided if I'll continue to eat this way after the official test period is over. If I'm going to be on a restricted food plan, this is a good one for me. Low fat, high carb diets are TERRIBLE for me. I know this by experience. The benefit to this diet so far is that it has improved my gastric reflux problems. Although that has been a lot worse since I had the flu and spent so much time coughing. Hopefully it will get better again now that the post-viral problems are going away. We're promised a detailed report on their findings from 23andme, so I'm looking forward to that . . . because SCIENCE!
induced eating disorders are *horrible*
Date: 2018-03-21 06:11 am (UTC):: pat pat pat pat pat ::
no subject
Date: 2018-03-21 07:30 pm (UTC)I think I will need a couple more big scares to go off sugar entirely. For example, the only way I can drink coffee without sugar is to have it with a lot of milk, which is different sugars. I am hoping lower/less processed carbs will be enough, along with less excessive eating. I seem to be doing better on the latter so far.