Primal/Paleo-ish in October
 

Hello Gang :wave:

Whassup for October? I need to stay on track more vigilantly :yes: ... I gained one lb this month :frypan: ... When I look back on the first of each month, I lose one, gain one every other month *sigh* ... Will it ever stop?

October marks the month where I crack down even more. Watching nuts and cheese, and tracking often to make sure I am on track. I hope to lose 12 pounds this month. Actually I goal is to hit 8, and I really hope to hit 15.....so thats where it is! But then again I have alot to lose.

Tasks for October

1. Measurements weekely, so I dont become a slave to the evil black box in the bathroom
2. Tracking at least 4 times a week to make sure I am in target ranges
3. Supplements of Vitamin D, and maybe Omega 3 (this is a huge task for me)
4. Read more about 3:6 ratio and know the ratio of common foods I eat
5. Get into the habit of packing my lunch
6. 18 hour IF once a week

October is the month where I cut off a leg to get down into the 150s :(

Sandy - no leg cutting!! You will get there!!!

At a super quick glance, I thought Ilene's goals had something to do with virginity - oy!

I am SO very happy it's FRIDAY - what a week!

Heading out for a walk... will post Oct goals later.

Still wishing we had a "like" button like Facebook.

Have been mia due to sick kids and an idiot husband. :mad: After 20 years together you'd think he'd learn from his mistakes...

ANYWAY...Sandy...read about your blood glucose levels. :( My father developed type 2 diabetes in his late 50's and after losing a bunch of weight,was able to take a pill form of insulin. Not really what you want to hear but I agree with the others...don't worry too much about it. I'd even do another test to confirm. As for cutting off your leg...I'm ready to cut off my "girls" and pare down my butt to make it to onderland! Anybody else?!

October goals: -do the Nordictrack ski machine twice a week
-do the exercise bike once a week
-walk 2 km everyday
-up my water to 10 glasses a day
-reach 199 by Halloween

I hilited this in GCBC yesterday ...

... cells have the option of using fatty acids or glucose for fuel, but when surplus glucose is available, as signalled by rising insulin or blood sugar levels, the fatty acids are swept into the fat tissue for later use.

This notion has been a revelation for me!
Given its druthers, the body will use that easy fuel first, driving insulin and setting off a spiral of hormonal response that wears us out!
Even though my body has been doing this for many years, I'm confident that I can eat the foods that will help to make it better. Although we may never be teenaged athletes, women "our" age can be much healthier than is the norm. No matter what we've done thus far!

Finally...

Now I can concentrate on progress. My goals:

1. Monitor blood sugar response to meals.
2. Set-up my computer workstation on our treadmill and develop barefoot schedule.
3. Walk daily and bike daily (on my new birthday bike, thanks DH)
4. Get through GCBC.
5. Resolve concerns regarding pre-diabetes with Dr. and finalize treatment program as needed.
6. Plan another 20 gram challenge at month-end to get to low 150s.

PS. My doc suggested I should weigh between 120 and 130. Yikes...

LIKE!!!!!!! :D

So which leg was it...left or right? ;)

Congrats!!!

Neither leg ...
 

I think the combination of raisins and almonds plus tummy ache then 300 carb grams of that crappy orange glucose tolerance drink really through my old body for a loop. It is shocking how one reacts to carbs after a while. I thought this might be the case but I was so depressed with the pre-diabetes possibility and being stuck for two weeks that I wasn't sure.

I broke my IF with a big, juicy ribeye and cabbage to celebrate.

I am not going to have wine except to celebrate something. I think that it really messes with the blood sugar but I do not have my meter yet so I am not sure.

Do you know that you can get different skins to go on your meters? Like it's cool to have the latest glucose test meter and skin. It is an epidemic and it is sad. :(

Hi everyone ... back from my Midwestern trip to visit relatives and friends! Sandy ... congratulations on your weight milestone, and so sorry about the diabetes.

I do not have diabetes, BUT two years ago I had one fasting blood sugar of 103, and my doctor very casually told me that if I tested over 100 one more time I would be called "pre-diabetic". He told me I was definitely on my way to diabetes (which runs in my family, even the skinny people.) He acted like it was a foregone conclusion! I decided then and there that I would fight this thing and I have.

That was one of several things which kick-started this journey. I bought a blood-glucose monitor and started Atkins (originally). My blood glucose plummeted and now is in the 60's or 70's fasting and my A1c is 4.8 (you should have him measure your A1c). I still measure my blood glucose frequently and note what spikes it (oranges do it), but now it rarely goes over 100 even after meals.

You may have to tweak your diet somewhat as you seem very low carb. Some people do better with the blood sugar when then average in the 100-carb range, you will have to experiment. Also, I really like the Blood Sugar 101 website for basic info. Here is the link.

Good luck to you and hugs. CJ

Oh CJ,:hug:

Thanks so much for sharing this with me. I was hoping that someone else had had the same experience. My doc has not "labeled" me quite yet. I will ask about the A1C next appointment.

How soon after you eat do you test to determine if your blood sugar spikes?
Do you test occasionally in the morning to check your fasting BG or are you going by your doctor visit results? Did you have the glucose tolerance test or does your doctor not prescribe to it as Susan suggests?

I might be asking you many questions going forward, hope you don't mind.

How soon after you eat do you test to determine if your blood sugar spikes?
When I first started, I tested at both one and two-hours after eating. Occasionally I'll test three hours after eating just to see if there is some delayed action and how quickly my blood sugar comes down. Now I test usually first thing in the morning and occasionally one or two hours after meals just to make sure there is nothing strange going on. I have been doing this over a year, so I pretty much know how my body reacts.

Do you test occasionally in the morning to check your fasting BG or are you going by your doctor visit results?
I often test first thing in the morning. Going to the doctor once in a while does not provide enough data points to really see how you are doing and to make changes in your own diet. PLUS - your post-prandial (after meals) blood sugar is very important and doctor visits don't record that. Even the HbA1c is an AVERAGE and doesn't record spikes. Remember, you are your own doctor in many respects. My doctor has been amazed and floored at my turnaround in the blood sugar arena. (And weight loss also.) Many doctors seem to just throw their hands up and go into management mode when someone is diagnosed with an illness.

Did you have the glucose tolerance test or does your doctor not prescribe to it as Susan suggests?
I asked my doctor about that test, and he said it wasn't done much anymore. For me, it is more important to see the results of eating "real" food in "real" life. If you look at the website I linked to, she gives you a testing protocol so you can see what actually affects your blood glucose. I would also recommend your doctor do the HbA1c blood test which gives you an idea of where your blood sugar averages over the last 2-3 months.

Thank you so much for your response and the link...I am furiously reading it especially interested in the history of diagnosing women and the higher ranges that were used for so long. My mom was told she was pre-diabetic and when I have answered in health histories that my mom died of a heart attack and she was pre-diabetes, doctors have said there is no such thing. Pre-diabetes has returned, and rightly so, as a diagnosis with most using the term "Impaired Glucose Tolerance" (IGT). Which explains my mom's "no such thing" diagnosis.

I am beginning to think "Thank God" for this discovery as it seems many have to get to the point of organ damage, etc. to get correctly diagnosed. I am going to do as you have done eating-wise with even more emphasis on making this a forever way of eating.

Thank you for your help...

Like many of you, I spend quite a lot of time on science-based research, and although I am fairly smart, I am not a scientist. Thus, I rely on blogging "intermediaries" I trust to interpret some of the scientific findings for me.

I know there is a lot of craziness on the internet, but I have found a few sources I like very much, and one is called "The Healthy Skeptic." He has a very active Facebook page (and I rarely use Facebook, but he uses it kind of like a Twitter feed with links to items that he finds are important.) He also has a website (thehealthyskeptic.org) that has a big series on what he calls "diabesity" a combination of diabetes and obesity which might interest you, Sandy.

But today on his website he posted on a new study published in the journal Nutrition which systematically obliterates the government's dietary guidelines that recommend that we "all go on eating the same low-fat, high-carb diet that has contributed to the epidemics of obesity, diabetes and heart disease (among others)."

Anyway, you can read his take on it, and also the entire research article is downloadable as a pdf. This is the link to his blog post.

Thanks for that link CJZee! Off to read it in a bit.

I am feeling crappy today thanks to junk I ate over the weekend. Cheezies and popcorn and I am REALLY feeling the effects of all that salt. My head is throbbing and I swear I am up 5 pounds in water weight. Good thing is that I am not craving anything but protein and raw veggies...I'm sure my body is cursing me for what I ate.

Off to read that blog!

Great link. Forwarding it to a SIL with cholestreol/gout problems and son with Crohn's. I think these auto immune responses are linked and so am interested in current research.

You know, I had heard the concept of carb refeeding and probably still do not understand it. But my couple weeks of unintentional carb increases (raisins and glucose tolerance drink) has kicked in the weight loss again. When I report "I will never be in the 160s again", I know that the first time I get down into a ten pound range through intermittent fasting, I will bounce up a lb or 2 when I start back in eating. But this time I have really not bounced back into the 160s. The first (after IFing) weight was 158.6, the 2nd was 159.0, the 3rd was 159.8, the 4th was 159.2. I am IFing again today so hope to drop another lb. or so down to 157 something.

Keeping track is so interesting...

Does anyone have any experience with carb re-feeding - intentional or unintentional?

Hello, all,

I’ve been lurking on the primal/paleo thread for a while and thought I would join you. I’ve following the Primal Blueprint pretty closely since the end of August and feel pretty good. Of course I have had a few slip-ups as I transition from a grain-dominated diet to a grain-free diet. OK, it was hard and it is still kind of hard, although I don’t have the cravings I used to have (I just want a slice of cake or a pastry or whatever every now and then). I spend some time at MDA and keep a primal journal and have entered a few of the contests (but have not won anything!!)

Briefly, I am currently about 25-30 pounds overfat and was about 50-60 pounds overfat at my highest (stopped weighing for a while, so I am not sure). I was able to lose weight on a low fat, calorie-restricted diet, but I couldn’t maintain. After trying and trying and trying, I gave up and decided that I would settle for being healthy.

Early this year, my lipids started to become unbalanced (HDL creeping lower and triglycerides creeping higher) and blood pressure was creeping up. On my doctor’s advice, I started adding “good” fats like olive oil, avocados, and small amounts of almonds and macadamia nuts. That was soooo scary for me because I believed fat would make me fatter! Instead, I started to gradually lose some weight. I had already been eating lots of veggies and switched to mostly whole grains, but my diet was still grain-based.

At a re-check of my blood in late July, I learned my lipids had improved somewhat but that I was pre-diabetic with a fasting BG of 103. Just great. The first place I looked was the American Diabetes Association site. Well, their diet guidelines were how I was eating, and it certainly wasn’t doing me any good. It was on the 3fc diabetes support forum that I learned about the blood sugar 101 site. Further research and reading led me to the Primal Blueprint in August.

So while I started reducing grains when I got the news, I was still eating a lot … nearly 200g a day until mid to late August. I shudder to think what I was eating before, because this really felt like an incredible reduction. Towards the end of August, I ditched grains pretty much entirely. My primal journal describes some of my off-plan eating, some planned and some not planned.

I recently had a re-check of my blood and my lipids are pretty good now, except my HDL is still low, but at 46 it is the highest it has ever been. My triglycerides dropped to 30. My fasting BG was 100, so technically I am pre-diabetic, but I ate breakfast at Panera Bread the day before, which may have contributed to this reading. I purchased a BG monitor and plan to start testing myself so I can see what effect different foods have on my BG. Will track this all in my primal journal at MDA. My blood pressure has been consistently good, around 120/80 and sometimes a bit lower.

OK, this turned out to be longer than intended, but I thought I should stop lurking and introduce myself.

Hi Sparky,

I don't have any experience with carb re-feeding, but I have heard of it being used by diabetics and pre-diabetics who eat low carb to prepare for a glucose tolerance test. I've heard that when you are not eating a lot of carbs, your body is not able to process them as well (due to using fat for fuel, not glucose), and consuming all that glucose results in a false positive. I thought about this when I read one of your posts from last month about your glucose tolerance test.

I myself have not had a glucose tolerance test, I guess because my fasting BG is low enough. However, I am still concerned and want to make sure my BG doesn't get out of control. But if my doctor ever wants to do a glucose tolerance test, I may consider a carb re-feed to avoid a potential false positive. I wonder if my second fasting BG of 100 was due to an incomplete carb re-feed at Panera Bread the day before - maybe I should have done a re-feed for three days, or avoided grains completely before the test.

I think I spend too much time reading this stuff and not enough time working! I spent a lot of time reading the articles on "diabesity" last night - fascinating! I also downloaded and printed the article in Nutrition. It's just awful how skewed nutritional advice has been, and based on such flimsy "evidence".

CJZee, I also wanted to thank you for sharing your story with your initial fasting BG of 103. I hope I can report lower numbers in the future, but realize that I will need to really watch what I eat to do so.

The research seems to be pointing in that direction. As I read up on diabetes, I often see other auto immune responses discussed. My step-mother has rheumatoid arthritis and I wonder why she has never changed her diet. Her doctor, who is supposed to be one of the best around, has her on an expensive drug instead. I do plan to discuss auto immune responses next time we have a chance to chat.

Welcome sf40 :wave: I'm glad you came out of lurkdom you have a lot of great information...

Today I made a great stew I put small potatoes in it but didn't eat any at all... I ran 5k too so it's all good...

Carb refeeding
 

Yep. Sandy, I've been doing under 40 g carb since the end of June. A couple of times I've "unintentionally" overindulged on higher carb protein bars (yeah I know, not primal :^: but you may recall I'm a future primalist) which put me between 75 & 100 g carbs for the day. My most recent off-the-rails day was Saturday. I'd been hovering at 210 for about 2 weeks, including that morning. Sunday morning when I stepped on the scale I did a double take, stepped off the scale to see it read zero, and stepped on again. 5 lbs down overnight?? Apparently, and it's holding there. The previous time my weight dropped over 3 lbs. It has me thinking I might do this intentionally every 4-6 weeks.

sf40 Have you followed the links on the Mark's Daily Apple forum to cardiologist William Davis's blog? He posted a great item about HDL and the impact of different lifestyle changes that increase HDL. The most effective one in his practice has been Vitamin D3

My primal status: I've started slowing increasing my fat consumption, I'm now between 40 and 50% of total calories most days, still eating lots of veggies, and eating more meat, fish and eggs to replace the protein powders that have helped drop 54-55 lbs since late June. I expect I'll be posting here more regularly in a month as I transition off my current program.

Thanks, Ilene! :wave: I feel like I have sooo much to learn, and will share what I know.

Brown, I totally agree with you about the skins for the BG meters. My BG meter came with different skins. I threw them out - who cares?

Hi, I'm svelting! Yes, I have been reading the heartscan blog! However, I haven't gotten to the vitamin D3 posts yet; will do so tonight! So many people on the MDA forum swear by vitamin D3, that I recently added a small dose daily. I don't have to go back to the doctor until my physical, which is in the spring. I'll be anxious to see what my HDL looks like. I think I will also get my vitamin d levels tested.

Good luck in your transition to primal. And congrats on your weight loss! I, too, eat lots of veggies; more than I ate when I tried going vegetarian in an effort to reduce fat even more and lose weight. I love the primal focus on whole foods and that it is so unstructured ... except no grains! I seem to be pretty happy at about 60% fat. But right now I am focused on getting my BG under control, then I'll focus on getting rid of the last 25-30 pounds. I am hopeful it will just happen on its own, much as the first ~25 came off. :)

Morning everybody!

I had a darned good primal day yesterday after schlumping through the weekend with a cold (and donuts). Elliptical, weights and that beautiful salad you can only make the day you bring groceries home ;)

I've not done a structured carb load. If I've had a carb load it was celebratory grain-based baked goods. I'd have to do some reading to see why I would like to do a healthy carb load. Heaven knows I could load up on sweetpotatoes. Gosh they're tasty.

Oh and the results of the muffin on Friday and donuts on Monday? over two pounds and I feel puffy and gassy. Maybe I'll drop off tomorrow morning.

Re: carb loading ... I've never done it on purpose, but I have essentially carb loaded during these trips I have been taking because I tend to eat whatever is served me (although not sweets), and that loads me up on the carbs.

I always gain a tremendous amount of weight during the trips (3-10 pounds) even though, calorie-wise, I doubt I am not eating any more. But the weight comes off super-fast, too, so I think it's some sort of temporary storage thing.

Don't know if that helps, but it's just my experience. I don't feel it has helped me actually lose more "real" weight but I am an older person and that may have something to do with it.

Carb refeeding
 

Interesting experiences all...

I think I will incorporate a little re-feed every now and then like Thanksgiving and numerous birthdays in the fall.

Did not make it to 157 this morning but did do my first fasting bg test and it was 79. I fasted for 36 hours so I don't know if I should pay any attention to this number. Probably is inaccurate and low.

I can track this on myplate by clicking on the myplateD button. Retains all your info and you can go back and forth.

By the way CJ, I just turned 64... Can't get much older than that.

"Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64." ~ Beatles

This was my son's wedding post processional, he's divorced now :(.

Re: Carb loading : I've read that carb loading is when you eat lots of carbs -- or course :lol: -- in a day, but a low to no fat day and only clean carbs...

So I consider my weekends that are carb loaded, but loaded with junky and fat loaded carbs, not real carb loading per se.... Just a thought, what do you all think?

I re-read Mark's post on MDA and he does not recommend carb re-feeds for overweight folks but for those just trying to lose those last few pounds. So I think I will wait. I know the last ten will be torture and might not even be possible. Don't want to use up all my advanced strategies...

I also haven't started the heavy lifting, sprinting (are you kidding) and other Primal fitness stuff. Just long slow distance and now biking.

You know when you get older, you really don't feel older. You look in the mirror and wonder who in the **** is that old lady. So first time out on my bike (which has brakes on the handlebars) I ran into the recycle bin out in the street. The last bike (50 years ago) I road you peddled backwards to stop lol. My DH laughed and I swore at him. I think the neighbors were all at work.

LOL!!! I remember those kind of bikes! Hope you didn't hurt yourself! But yeah...I think we all feel that way. We don't feel our age and wonder how we are supposed to feel. I know I don't feel or act 43. Definitely not 20 something but not 40 something either.

Will be busy for another couple of weeks so will be sparse. I am the secretary for the PTAG and we are doing 2 major fundraisers...which will net us about $15-17 000. Lots of work for lots of $$. Helps our school immensely and it shows in the students test scores.

Have a great day/weekend/week!

Sprinting
 

Sandy, sprinting could mean something as simple as 3 (or 6 :)) cycles of running full out on a treadmill for 30 seconds then resting till you get your breath back. Or riding your bike full out for 30 seconds then going at a lower pace til you get your breath back. I'll be starting with sprinting in a few weeks, probably at 30-60 seconds. I'm told that our bodies adapt to the demand and that ability to go to more time or more intensity develops quickly. I'll let you know.

Last time I was on a bike, it was with a more athletic friend who wanted to ride trails. I was on her old 10-speed racing-style bike. Between the bike, the trails and my poor biking, I took a major spill. At least, my middle-school nephews thought the bruises and scrapes on my torso were cool. :?: :D

My bike is a pedal backwards to brake one. Seriously! Can't have things too complicated for me.

Once in a blue moon I do sorta sprints on the elliptical. I go like mad for the first 20 seconds of a minute then repeat. After a few rounds like that, I just finish out my 20 or 30 minutes at a slow steady pace.

We went out for DH's 50th last night. Pork chops, french fries, beer and cheesecake. I haven't reacted nearly as badly as I did to the donuts the other day.

Hello, everyone!

Bike riding is one of the activities that my husband and I like to do. We actually own road bikes (and the stretchy clothing required) and I have to say I sometimes feel a little silly because we are just cruising down the bike trail and being passed all the time by "bike gangs".

Every now and then we'll do a "sprint" on the bikes and it's really fun. We're in OK but not great shape, so we go as long as we can, which isn't very long. I also get in sprints on occasion when walking around the neighborhood. I will run just as fast as I can for as long as I can. Again, it's not real long. I'll do two or three of those. Sprinting is so much more fun than jogging, I think.

I need to work on the lifting heavy things aspect of primal fitness. I used to lift weights and I enjoyed it, but am having a hard time getting started.

Re carb-loading: For me, being pre-diabetic and a bit freaky about it right now, I would have to be real careful with any carb-loading. Yeah, I want to lose weight, but my ultimate objective is to be healthy and not get full-blown diabetes. If I have to stay a bit pudgy, so be it. But I do think (hope) that I will eventually lose this excess weight just by getting my eating under control. I've lost about half of what I would like to lose in total just by reducing grains. Alternatively, once my blood glucose is under control, then I will focus on losing weight. :)

Hi all! I'm new to this group, but not to 3FC. I am not sure how much of a regular I will be become, but I will say that I tend to be all or nothing on something.

Here's a little background about me:

I've always been overweight, ever since I was a kid, but it didn't get totally out of control until high school. Over the course of a couple years I ballooned from 180 to 240, and gained steadily until a few years ago when I decided that something had to be done or I was going to die an early death.

I managed to lose about 35-40lbs although I believe now my efforts were misguided. I severely restricted calories and exercised like a manaiac. Yeah, the weight melted off, but likely at the expense of my muscles and sanity. As soon as I stopped, the weight piled back on and doubled. I have never yo-yo'd before (or much less tried to diet), and decided that if each of my weight loss efforts resulted in gaining even more weight than I would going to be 400lbs before I knew it. Something had to be done.

So I tried a new strategy -- still calorie restriction and exercise, but not as severe. It works, but I easily got off track. I started this in November last year, and have lost and maintained 30lbs. Not bad, but for someone my size, I should be losing more. After I had lost about 20lbs, my husband found some information about grains that I suppose have changed my life. I never really thought of carbs as that unhealthy, I mean, I've heard of Atkins and such, but I always believed that in moderation, everything is OK. Once I cut out things like corn, potatos, and some bread/pasta/rice, I lost another 8-10lbs... but then the breads/pastas/rice caught up with me. Potatos and corn were easy, but the others? Not so much. Everything I eat is based on those three things. Obviously this is going to take a little more effort.

Then I found the Primal Blueprint... and so far, so good. I'm only a few days in and have already lost about 4lbs... and hopefully not muscle! And really, the concept is so stinkin' simple, I can't believe it. I actually feel like once I can get off this carb-dependence this is actually going to be --- dare I say it --- easy???? The hardest part for me is eating socially, or accepting food people present to me. Cooking and preparing for myself? A cinch.

We'll see how I feel a month from now... but really, I feel positive!

Welcome Rakel!

:welcome: Rakel!!