back Kim!
on all your hard work so far!
YES! I definitely have the cold issue and always have since the beginning (almost) of the diet. However, my dear friend who does WW has the same issue. Frances Kuffel, the author of
Passing for Thin, a fantastic 'must-read' about her journey losing weight using OA, also says that she and all of the other people who worked with her sponsor all had problems with cold as they lost weight. I have to chuckle about it because, like you said, I always used to sweat profusely, and I would glare evilly at the skinny minnies who would say, "Oh, I'm soooo cold"
Well, now I'm one of them!
I have never been able to bear having anything on my feet any longer than I have to. I go barefoot as much as possible and eschew socks always. I actually only owned socks to wear to the gym! I even wore shoes without socks through the snow after moving to upstate NY from CA!
Are you getting the point here?
Guess what? I now own so many socks they fill two drawers in my dresser, and I spend September to May in socks unless I'm in the shower. This winter I had to wear socks AND slippers!
This has been a constant, even at the beginning, when I was losing, on average, 6 pounds a week. It's the same now, when I haven't lost anything for almost seven months. So I doubt that it's a result of losing weight too quickly. My friend on WW has been maintaining (and even gaining a tiny bit) for the last year and has been freezing the whole time. I'm not sure why it's that way, but it just seems to be true. Frances Kuffel says that she and her cohort from OA stayed cold long after they met their goal...years after. It's just a fact of lost weight, I guess? You might check with the maintainers to see if they experience the same thing.
As to the fatigue, that's another story.
I've never been more tired on SBD...in fact, I feel like I finally got my energy back! I have chronic fatigue syndrome and have been pretty much symptom free since a couple months into SBD. It's a new lease on life!
I'm so sorry that it's not doing that for you. There could be some reasons, like too much protein, not enough protein, not enough water (being dehydrated makes you VERY tired), not enough iron (if you are eating a lot of veggie protein and nuts, you may not have enough iron and that can be a big problem for women, since we naturally lose iron every month during TOM), or lots of other variables. I wonder, considering the cold and fatigue, if it's not a thyroid thing? I'm really glad you saw a doctor and that he's doing bloodwork.
That will help a lot.
It's not a bad idea to up your good carbs a bit. You might see if you can fit in a half serving or even a whole serving of starch (bread, pasta, sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa, bulgher, etc.) to help. At the very least, you can add in some small good carbs, like bell pepper, beans, hummus, and tomatoes. That will help. Milk and yogurt (which your body processes as carbs) can help too...and they'll add protein. You might try logging your food into
www.fitday.com to check what you're really eating calorie and otherwise. I know how awesome it is to lose so fast at the beginning. I did that too, and I can't say it caused any harmful effects. It eventually slowed down. But, in general, slower is better, especially in terms of keeping it off and reducing loose skin problems. So, even if adding a little more food makes your loss slow slightly, it might be worth it. If you're already full with what you're eating, you might try swapping foods with less volume to make more room in your stomach. For example, a serving of steamed broccoli instead of a 4 cup salad.
Please let us know what your doctor finds out and how you are doing, okay?
I hope this works out. In the meantime, I'll pass you the slippers and mittens and we can sit on the beach with our hot cocoa (nothing like hot cocoa and a hot cabana boy to go with it!
).