Back to the drawing board!

I have not posted in almost a month because I was scratching my head for weeks, about why I was stalling in my weight loss efforts.  It was a bit of a roller coaster.  I started to question everything.  Through-out all of this I’ve read a couple more books, and even actively been reading more health articles than usual, to see if there are somethings that I’ve been missing. Frankly, I started to realize that there was a trend to what I was reading. Whole foods vs. Processed foods and this includes meat products.  Shockingly even some of my favorite go to “low carb” food’s I was finding out that they weren’t so low carb after all.  Or were not as healthful as I originally thought!

Here is a brief list:

• Packaged shredded cheese is processed with potato starch presumably to keep it from clumping into one big piece again.  I was using a lot of this, especially in my low carb cauliflower pizza recipe.  Gone from my diet!
• Mayonnaise which is store bought all contain “Soybean Oil” as their main ingredient oil. Not to mention a whole host of other chemical preservative ingredients.  Gone from my diet!  However there are many other Paleo friendly, using olive oil, recipe’s out there to make your own.  I plan on starting to do this!  A simple Google search will produce some results for you to ponder.
• Canola oil is actually Rapeseed oil.  Which is not much healthier for you than Soybean Oil is.  A lot of dressings and other products out there are made with both of these oils. Gone from my diet! I’ve decided to cut them out completely.  Replacing it with Extra Virgin  cold pressed, Olive oil, salt and pepper.
• I’ve also decided that diary products, such as cheese, creamer, heavy cream, sour cream, and even high fat, plain greek yogurt is out.  My mother and grandmother were of Portuguese decent and had a lactose intolerance.  I believe “in part” that to be my problem as well.  Since cutting out the dairy, I have seen better results.  So dairy is gone from my diet.  (Although note that occasionally I’ll probably still have a Breve’ from time to time)
• Peanut butter.  It is a fairly low carb treat.  However, in small amounts   Not that it is easy to eat in small amounts but that is why I am cutting them out for now.  Also I would like to say that most “natural creamy” peanut butter’s are made with Palm Oil.  I’ve heard that it is okay to eat. Say’s “Dr. Aedes”  However, I still insist on buying the all natural “you must stir” kind.  When the ingredients say… “Peanuts” only.  If it’s not sweet enough I add in 2-3 packs of Splenda and mix it in, in the original jar.

Maybe I am starting to see the light more, and moving more towards a “Paleo” style diet.  The last thing that I want is to consume the “wrong” kind’s of fats.  This alone can make my weight loss and health issue’s worse.  And I don’t need anything else in the back of mind wondering if this food is okay or not.  Sticking to simple whole food’s even if that means eating eggs 3 times a day, because I’m out of everything else.

I’m finding that even store bought “Rotisary Chicken’s” are cured and cooked with sugar’s and tons of other extra’s.  It’s so disheartening to read ingredient lists today.  What happened to normal food?  Pure food?  It’s all chemically engineered and I start to wonder if this isn’t the true problem of our time!

Some other changes I’ve made:

• Reduced coffee and Splenda intake.  Increased fresh brewed “Iced Tea”.  Occasionally I’ll flavor it with “True Lemon” but mostly I like it straight.  This also has been keeping me more hydrated than normal.

So in the last two weeks I’ve been “trying” desperately to stick to the new rules.  And it is paying off.  9 pounds down, now.  And I’m just about to break into new low numbers I haven’t seen in a long while.

Look, if you are struggling like me.  Just remember, we got metabolically broken from years of poor eating.  It takes time.  It takes diligence   Eventually you will get to the point you know what you can and cannot do to reach your goals.  It’s all a learning experience because we all have been trained in the wrong thinking for so very long.  I’m so glad that the health community is growing in favor of low carb / paleo, more and more every day.  There are thousands of things out there designed to make you fail.  Avoid them.  Try them, if you must but remove them if you really think they could be part of the problem.  That is where I am at.  I just want to live a good, happy, healthy life without feeling starved.  Just like anyone else out there!

I am so glad that I have low carb, because it works naturally to make sure I never have to feel starved, while losing weight and getting more healthy while I am at it.

Snapshot of a what I’m eating daily:

• B: Eggs cooked in butter or coconut oil and/or a few slices of bacon.
• L:  Spiral sliced ham, cooked in the crock pot.  Bone in is the best flavor!
• D: Steak and broccoli or asparagus cooked in butter.
• S:  2 tablespoons of peanut butter (occasionally, not everyday)
• D:  Coffee + Splenda in the AM and late PM as needed.  Iced Tea brewed fresh each day.  I may add in some “True Lemon” sprinkles to flavor, but not typically.  And of course water.

God Bless

Week 7: Low Carb Overview

I’d love to sit here and report to you that I’ve lost some more weight but that isn’t what has happened.  I’ll explain why.

In the last two weeks, I’ve had to stop taking my pain medications which I had been on for about a year after a car accident and 2 back surgery’s only months apart from each other.  I had been slowly tapering off the medications for about two months.  Finally I was on my last week.  It wasn’t going so well and I wanted to stop taking them sooner than later.  And during a time that my husband was home from work to help me with the kid’s, to keep my own sanity in check while I went through the withdrawal that inevitably followed.  Thankfully 10 days after stopping the medications, I am feeling “normal” again.  I think around day 7, I started to really feel okay again.  It was a crazy time with nervousness, diarrhea, and lethargy.  But I beat it and it’s over.  And I am so thankful that I was able to stop.

With that said, I wasn’t as strict with my diet in these last couple of weeks.  However, I did not veer off of low carb too much.  The most I snacked on was natural peanut butter’s as it really helped tame any stomach discomfort for me.  Which did cause me problems daily.  Although, peanut butter is not very low carb if consumed more than two tablespoons at a time and it did spike my blood sugars.  But I still stuck to a lessor evil, rather than eating some high carb sweets to tame my need for comfort.

With all the emotional and physical uproar, I do think that it’s great that I’ve maintained my weight this far.  I feel that inflammation has been down, greatly in the past two months.  My energy levels are fairly normalized, assuming I stick to my proper eating and drinking plenty of water.

Things I changed this week: 

• Started to take a supplement called K48 (Krill Oil) instead of fish oil pills.  You can order it here: http://www.jdpremium.com/raycoon/products/1083/1 and you can watch a YouTube video for more information here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-OSKELzwGU
• Including SoL-RD (D3)
• Retested Glycosolve to see if it was in fact causing me diarrhea and it did, so I am stopping it again.
• Added in a pro-biotic supplement daily.

Goals for next week: 

• Drink more water (I don’t know why this is always a struggle for me)
• Reduce or eliminate coffee, Splenda, and peanut butter
• Find an alternative beverage without artificial sweeteners
• Research other blood sugar / insulin resistance or pancreas health supplements to replace Glycosolve. Also note that the Blueberry extract did nothing to help me.
• Increase activity level by walking 10-15 mins a day or psychical house projects.
• Eat more meats and fats in one sitting to help stave off hunger for longer periods of time between meals.
• Reduce or eliminate dairy.  With the exception of “maybe” plain Greek yogurt.

I would post a snapshot for what I ate this week but it really hasn’t changed much from the weeks prior.  I am frustrated and slightly feeling defeated with my diet hopes, right now.  I feel like I am doing so well excluding so many things but it’s still not doing the trick.  I wish I knew exactly the problem and how to fix it, but I don’t.  In the weeks ahead I believe I should just keep on going through trials, and eliminating the error’s as I see them.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week.  And even though I didn’t lose any weight, I am still thankful that I’ve beaten back a big obstacle to my health in these weeks.  Thank the Lord for that!!!

Week 5: Low carb overview

This week has had it’s up’s and down’s.  First off, early this week I started to take “Glycosolve” or berberine as a supplement.  Anytime I ate just a slight amount of additional carb’s I took 1.  Then before bedtime I also took one.  I averaged about two pills a day, at time’s three.  Within a few day’s I started having massive diarrhea and I could not figure out why!  So I did what any normal person does this day and age… I Googled it.  Trying to find more information regarding the supplement.  To no avail could I find anything negative regarding it.  Leading me to believe yet again that it is another product that may not be worth trusting.  As company’s spend a large amount of money trying to hide negative feedback on sites.  Then consequently over spamming the internet with positive feedback. All I could find for 10 pages of the Google search was marketed positive feedback.  Especially by “Leaner Living” which is whom I bought the product from.

This drove me to take more action and see if the person who suggested this product had more information regarding it.  Which was Jimmy Moore as he’s been taking it to control his fasting blood sugars for months now.  I emailed him my concern and by the end of the night I had two responses from doctors, which said:

“Hi Kisha some have had diarrhea from berberine so if you want to take less or stop to see if it goes away then add some back that seems to work. Legally I have to tell you to use supplements at your own risk and speak with your own doctor but this is what we have seen. Keep us updated!  Dr. Spencer Nadolsky”

And…

“Hi Kisha,  Dr. Spencer forwarded me your email, and yes we must advise discussing everything with your personal physician. But another consideration is that berberine is also an antibiotic and many people recommend concurrently taking a probiotic as there is a chance berberine could kill your “good” bacteria which can lead to diarrhea just like taking antibiotics. Let us know how it goes and if there is anything else we can help you with.
Sincerely,
Dr. Karl Nadolsky”

So for the day I took a pro-biotic and stocked up on plain “Greek” full fat yogurt. Which by the way even though it has 5g of carbs in it, it does not impact my blood sugar at all!  I also stopped taking the supplement that night.  In the morning my blood sugar’s were 146! And I still had the diahrea. I was beside myself.  So in an effort to quickly control the blood sugars, as I was frantic… I took a Glycosolve pill. Regrettably…

As the day progressed my stomach began to hurt, sour, bloated, and a generally unwell feeling.  I could barely eat anything without it feeling worse.  I finally went to sleep using TUMS and Anti-Gas pill’s.  I took no more Glycosolve. This morning my stomach is doing better however, I still have the diarrhea and my blood sugars are out of control.  I also heard from a family member that taking a pro-biotic can also cause diarrhea.   I have a feeling this problem will be with me for at least a few more days until it hopefully resolves itself as I stop taking the Glycosolve all together and replenishing my stomach bacteria with good bacteria.  Let’s hope anyway.

My final review of the “Glycosolve” supplement is that it’s not healthful nor safe to take.  I do not believe we should “need” to replenish our stomach bacteria daily in such a profound way to manage blood sugars.  Glycosolve does in fact control blood sugar levels.  However, at the risk of dehydration and messing with your stomach is not a viable option at least not for me!  I would much rather see someone use Metformin than use Glycosolve.  I personally cannot take Metformin because it does irritate my stomach also.  But some people can tolerate it.  You will have to find what works best for you.  But for me Glycosolve, only caused more problems, than it solved.

So I have Blueberry Leaf supplement on order and is being shipped to my house currently.  I’m hoping that helps.  If not, then I’ll go try 1,000 mg of Cinnamon.  There are several idea’s to try still.  I am not totally giving up.  All I need is to control those morning blood sugar’s and I’ll be golden.  Which is the unfortunate side effect of being an over weight type 2 diabetic.

As far as the weight loss this is the review for the past few weeks:

1. 10 pound loss
2. 5 pound loss
3. 0 pound loss
4. up to a 5 pound gain “Flux”
5. 6 pound loss, total from previous week 1 additional pound loss = total of 16 pounds to date.

Although I believe in part the reason my weight loss stalled those weeks was because I did   fall off the wagon a couple of times and because I still wasn’t able to control my morning blood sugars completely due to the “Dawn Phenomenon”.  Which I wrote about in another blog post.

I believe this week’s weight loss had been greatly due to the fact that the Glycosolve supplement did in fact help my fasting blood sugars.  Unfortunately with the consequences I will choose to no longer take it.

Also consider I have started to take a Diabete’s supplement health pack and fish oil daily.

I am not taking the Flaxseed oil separately right now because the Health Pack has a Fish Oil tablet already in it. However, I stocked up on the Flaxseed oil for family members or for when I run out of the regular pack with Fish oil in it.

I purchase my vitamins at Costco and recommend you do the same.  You can buy several months supplies at a discount price “typically”.  It’s worth the membership if you shop there regularly.   This pack has in it:  A multivitamin, Fish Oil with Vitamin D3 which I strongly recommend people taking D3 everyday during the winter.  You can get tested easily at the doctors office if you think you might have a deficiency in D!  Also, Magnesium, Vitamin C, Alpha Lipoic Acid with Green Tea and a Chromium tablet.  These also may help and contribute to your low carb success.  As no matter what diet you are on, you will need to supplement to ensure you always get the maximum micro nutrition that you can. Especially while trying to lose weight.

As far as Flaxseed.  I have heard rumor’s that adding in Ground Flaxseed to your diet has helped benefit people on a low carb diet to lose additional weight over people who do not include it.  I guess, since I do have some ground flaxseed, I could attempt to add it in my diet daily and see if it helps, for a while.

This week’s snapshot daily meal plan included:

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs in butter or coconut oil.  2-4 pieces of bacon.
• Lunch:  4-5 pieces of bacon.
• Dinner: Salmon and Broccoli both cooked in butter.
• Snack “Greek God’s” plain traditional yogurt flavored with lemon extract and 5 – 8 packages of Splenda per tub.
• Drinks:  Water and coffee with Splenda.

Next weeks goals:

• Drink more fluids
• Add in organic flax seed meal
• Find another alternative supplement to help maintain good morning blood sugars.

And that is it for this week’s overview!  Good luck everyone!!!