My introduction

  • Hi everyone;

    I am so glad I found this forum, I am new to forums.
    I am 48 yrs old, 5' 5.5 " tall, medium bone structure, and I have been at least somewhat overweight all my life. I have osteo arthritis, and have had 2 related surgeries in the last 12 months. I have always enjoyed my sweets and carbs. I have never really been a big veggie eater. To be honest, maybe I ate veggies 1 or 2 times a week, unless you include peas, corn and potatoes.
    Since 2010, I had been turning down invitations to go places, even to the movies with my husband. I was embarrassed with my size; I did not want to be seen. I went where I had to and that was it. With a photographer in the family, I did not look forward to birthdays or holidays. I do not like how I look. I have an illness related to how I used to eat; Systemic yeast overgrowth – candida albicans.
    I have a neighbor who lost a lot of weight and I asked his wife what he was doing, because if it was working for him, maybe it would work for me. I had never heard of the program he was using, but decided to do it too. It is a low carb, no sugar, proper amount of protein diet. My order of protein packet meals, some vitamins, and other supplements arrived on Feb 25.
    I was really excited about this program.....until I received my order, read the specific ingredients on the back of the boxes and saw that some had artificial sweeteners, which I don’t like to use. Then I tasted the stuff. I did not like it, but I thought if this is what I have to endure to get to where I want to go I will do it for as long as I can. Along with these protein packs (3/day), I was to eat 2 cups at lunch and again at supper of veggies from a specific list (alkaline), and at least 2 cups of lettuce type veggies at those meals. At supper I was to have 5 ounces of lean protein, or if seafood 7 ounces. No dressings with fat, sugar, or carbs. We live ½ hour from town, we go to town once a week, many times my husband goes and I stay home. So I eat my salads with nothing on them. I doubt if there are any dressings without the above that do not have artificial sweeteners in them. If you know of any available in Canada, or have a recipe yourself that you don’t mind sharing please let me know.
    I was allowed 1 tsp a day of grapeseed oil, extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil. I used that to stir fry my supper meat and also sometimes to cook the veggies. When I figure out which olive oil does not have a strong flavor I will buy some of that.

    On my start day - Feb 26, 2014 I was at my highest weight in my life of 264.8 lbs.
    I weigh myself every day out of curiosity. I write down everything I eat. I record my weight and measurements once a week.

    I did not feel comfortable to stay on this diet, and I had a lot of questions and started looking for answers on the internet. I learned many things, such as there are protein meal replacement drinks, unflavored protein to add to meals I make myself, how important getting enough protein was, how much salt, potassium, fats, zinc, fiber and water I need on a daily basis; that a multi vitamin and essential fatty acids and a strong probiotic would also be very beneficial to me.
    I did not know how severely candida can affect someone until I started reading about it. I learned that sugar and grains will feed the yeast; that if I wanted to be healthy I had to take steps to heal myself. I think I am on the right track but since money is not in abundance I am trying to do this as inexpensively as I can.
    With my limited knowledge I have decided that I will use some powdered protein, follow the type and amounts of veggies from this diet, but as much as possible try to eat real foods. I know I can not eat sweet veggies, any fruits or any grains until I have my candida under control. I am still researching a good liquid calcium magnesium supplement plus a few other supplements.
    I have lost about 23 lbs so far, which I am very happy about, I do have a tentative goal of 140 lbs, as I get closer to it I will see if it is realistic for me.
    I will continue to learn as much as I can and if anyone has any ideas or suggestions I am open to listening to them.
    Thank you for taking the time to read this and learn a bit about me.
  • Hi Cleanslate.

    Before i get carried a way with all my ideas, to address your salad dressing matter. i use olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Its delicious. I usually put about 1tsp or 2 tsp of each on my salad in a ratio of 1:1. BEcause of the tiny amount used you do not need to worry about its sweetness. I am not sure where the sweetness comes from in the balsamic vinegar but i really don't think you should worry about it. I think its important that what you eat tastes really good and is really top quality. If you don't like the flavour of extra virgin olive oil, use light olive oil but its not as good as the extra virgin. You might also try one of the other vegetable oils. I can say that the first time i tried olive oil, i did not like it. And so i didn't eat it for years. But at some point in my life, i got it and now i don't look back. Its the best tasting oil on the planet in my opinion. and its a very very healthy option.

    While i commend you on ditching the program and be willing to try to find a more natural whole foods approach to your diet, I can't buy into the approach you've taken re the whole candida thing and low carbs. What does your doctor say. Being overweight is not caused by systemic candidiasis. Read the wikipedia entry on systemic candidiasais. Its technical but it should tell you enough so that you understand you probably do not have that problem.

    And so because of that i don't think you need to cut out all carbs and even if you did have it, medical advice would not be quitting all carbs. There are anti fungal medications to help with the disease you've been told you have but i think if you continue down the path of linking your weight with this condition, you are in for a lifetime of dietary difficulty.

    However, reducing your carbs is a good idea because most people who are overweight eat far too much. Myself included of course. For my diet, i quit sweets and all refined sugars. And i don't use artificial sweeteners either. I tried them once a long time ago but they just did not cut the mustard. Going without that sort of sweetness is not hard once you make the decision anyway.

    For a healthy balanced diet on which you can lose weight, it is important to increase fibre intake. And to include protein at every meal. This helps not just with nutrition but also with satiety. It doesn't mean you must eat meat at every meal. I try to be vegetarian for moral reasons not for dietary reasons. I am now relying on eggs, certain cheeses (because they have higher protein content) in small portions, nuts and seeds in small portions, and occasionally fish, preferably ones high in omega 3 fatty acids but not always. But i am trying to get most of my protein from legumes and have a big bean or lentil salad i try to eat often. Bean/pea/lentil soups are another high protein source. they are also all very high in soluble fibre which is what you are eating out of the bottle.

    Of course other sources of fibre are fruit and vegetables. And wholegrain carbs like whole grain bread.

    I notice you suffer from a lot of hunger. That's because your calorie intake is very very low. For me this is a sure recipe for disaster. I try to minimise the experience of hunger and so far what i've been doing is working for me. you can see my stats on my profile and i started at the beginning of January.

    I have found that just reducing my carbs by quitting sweets reduces my calories by so much it makes the rest of the diet quite easy. Of course i don't eat whatever i want with bread and pasta and so on. I do eat those foods but i can eat them in moderation. If i choose foods that are high in nutrition, then the foods that are low in nutrition will naturally be less. I put vegetables and fruit and protein first. I am less bothered by fat. I need dairy. I think low fat dairy is a mistake but it means i need to not go overboard.

    I started this diet having cornflakes and milk for breakfast which worked fine because i ate lunch about 3 hours later. But now i try to make more of breakfasts with a protein content like an egg on toast plus fruit and yoghurt. This balanced approach means i do not get very hungry. And by then its time for my next meal.

    But if i was doing what you are doing, i would eat real protein foods and not any sort of manufactured protein. I would not take supplements but try to find dietary sources even if they have fat in them like nuts. I include nuts on my salads and that way its easy not to eat too many.

    Anyway you might not go for this but at least consider trying it when what you are doing stops working. I list everything i eat in the link below. I'd start at the end and work backwards because i have refined things a bit from where i started, though of course i started out eating high calories than i am now. My new calorie level is 1400. I started out at 1650 when i was 179 pounds or something like that.

    Its mid march and i am almost in my healthy weight range. I have dropped a dress size and am starting to think i actually look good again. I also have hypothyroidism and depression and am 50. I do not have insulin resistance. If you have that, then you may need a bit more advice from a dietician but i know that here in Australia they still don't tell you to quit carbs.
  • Hi and welcome! You will find a lot of support here. Take a look around, there are a lot of different venues for you to check out!
  • Nice to meet you! It's easy to spend hours going from thread to thread!! =)
  • Great job on your 23 Lbs loss so far!!! with your continue efforts!!