tweaking
 

You know, the last time I heard the word "tweak" on any sort of regular basis was when I hung around people who did meth all the time. It seemed to be associated with the hyperactivity and spastic jerkiness associated with stimulants. Funny I should remember that, since I haven't been around them for several years now. ;)

Anyway...

I'm always messing with my diet. I do one thing for a little while (mainly because I end up with a few days of food, and if I don't eat it, it will go to waste)...and then I buy or make something else, and the cycle repeats. Sometimes I get caught in little ruts, just because I don't want to fix anything. I get tired of preparing food.

I think I've had a bit of carb creep, actually. I've probably progressed from 20-30 grams when I started (a month ago) to anywhere from 40 to 100 (on a few bad days). Lowcarb dieting just hasn't been working out as well for me as I expected, and frankly, it's disappointing. Right now, I'm reading the "Low carb success" book (mentioned frequently here), and it goes into almost obsessive detail about finding the hidden carbs in one's diet. If that is what it takes to succeed with a LC diet, it just won't work for me. I'm not going to be that disciplined. I don't enjoy eating like that. But what I'm doing now has got to be better than my previous love affair with pastries. I have to keep telling myself that when the scale gets stuck at the same number for days. :rolleyes:

My latest tweak has been upping the intensity of my workouts, as well as splitting them into lower and upper body again. I always used to try different splits (years ago), but since I just started lifting again recently, after a long hiatus, I started with the good old whole body routine. Now I need to split things up again. I had an awesome LB workout yesterday. I'm getting more aggressive about treating my Achilles tendonitis too, because I would like to WALK for exercise again someday... *sigh*

I would also like to start exercising more often, say 5-6 times a week. I need to get more workout clothes for that to happen. I also need to work on a little time management, including spending less time on this site. ;)

I guess the tweaks at least keep us on game and motivated, even if they don't always work the way we're hoping. Today TOM is due (although its been showing up erratically since I started this WOE), and isn't doing much for my mood OR my bod. I'm sure you all know what i mean. But i did walk in this morning, and even though it was pouring down rain, it felt wonderful to be out and moving.

kiwi

I have energy, but it didn't wreck my sleep last night.

The scale and pant o meter were great this morning, but it's probably from my efforts before, but it's still nice to see it happen.

I've felt in a much better mood too, more upbeat and positive, but that could be the sun finally shining and spring coming.

My piano playing was better today and yesterday...mmh.

Beth

zandria: I am the same way w/ "tweaking" bc I have leftover food. I wouldn't say I am a wasteful person but I don't worry w/ wasting anything as much as I do food.
Re the tedious job of counting the carbes in everything: I finally resigned to the fact that there are carbs in EVERYTHING and since I was tired of being surprised by the realization that there were carbs in something I thought was carb-free, I just count 1 carb for everything I put in my mouth.
On another topic (myself :lol: ), went running last night and this AM and boy does my body ache, feels good though. The bad news is I had a pork rind attack last night and I ate a bunch of them in addition to what I posted I ate yesterday :cry: .
I was STARVING which makes wonder if the cutting calories is a bad idea. Conversely, this is what I want to try so I will continue for another week or so to see what happens and then I may try something different. I really want to get my metabolism tested. My gym has that new "breath metabolism tester". Anybody know how accurate those are? Unfortunately, they want like $20 to try it, which I think that is ridiculous when I pay a membership fee!

How about this purposely overeating and gaining
 

I'm not doing this, but it's very interesting and I wondered how many of you have read about or know about this method. It's the Heavin Method - Described in the Curves book. I just picked up a copy yesterday at my Curves it was the first day they had it available.

What he suggests doing is to purposely over eat/eat normally suggesting calories of 2,000 calories maybe moreuntil you gain 2 or 3 pounds. He says that probably 2 of those pounds will be water and 1 will be body fat. Then you drop your calories to dieting level for no more than 72 hours - it seems that's how long it takes before the starvation effect on metabolism kicks in. You then go back to eating at the higher calorie level again Then stabalize yourself at that weight and then again reduce your caloric intake to lose those couple of pounds . He says the key is to never gain more than you can lose in 72 hours. This method he claims will dissipate the starvation hormone and metabolism level will eventually raise until a person is able to eat at normal levels for 29 days of the month as long as they will drop to the dieting level when they gain 1 or 2 pounds. This is level 3 of the Curves plan and obviously involves daily weighing.

Level 1 and 2 are a choice between very lo carb or lo-carb lo calorie depending on whether you are sensitive to carbs, calories or both. Its too complex to describe the whole thing here. The Curves book is supposed to be free to members, I had to tell them I would give them 3 names and phone no.'s to get mine - phooey on that I paid my membership and I'm a hermit - I don't know 3 peopl :D

Koko, I bet the Curves principles have a lot to do with leptin, like I was mentioning. You don't want your body to get into too low of a caloric mode or else leptin is depleted and the body becomes reluctant to let go. Overfeeding every so often will lead the body to believe it is well fed and the fat will drop when the calories are lowered again.

Anyway, even though I'm sick I think I'm going to do my refeed today. I feel well enough to eat lots of candy! :) Will post an update tomorrow!

Hi Skamito,

Yes, Wanda and I have just been posting each other about it. I had not been paying much attention to the posts regarding leptin but on reading the Curves book realized that this must be what he is talking about. Although he is really talking about using this method once you have reached your goal weight in order to raise your metabolism and enable one to ingest a much higher level of calories than before. The other time he suggests it is if you are stuck in a plateau - exactly what you have been talking about. What he does not specify is what the calories should be composed of - I saw the thread that Natrushka had mentioned the sweetarts, rockets etc. on and that her research had shown it should be simple sugary carbs. The Curves book does not seem to care about the carb content of the calories.

Enjoy your candies....I'd be eating gummies if I was doing it :yum:

I definitely have gummi bears! :)

Have started carb-up as of 6pm! Already feel quite lightheaded from my protein drink with maltodextrine, three rolls of Smarties (per Nat's suggestion :) ) and a package of Skittles (and TrainerDan eats those!)

Can you tell I'm just ripping off the exercise gurus around here? ;)

Already feel nauseous (sugar kinda grosses me out) but I'm sure it'll pass. Will post my complete freaky menu and stats when I have it all plotted out.

Later all! :)

"Already feel nauseous (sugar kinda grosses me out) but I'm sure it'll pass."

LOL! Hard to imagine that...I mean, most people here probably loved sugar at one point. ;)

Ohhhhhhhhh Angela.... you're a brave soul!! With my hypoglycemia I can't even imagine doing such a thing. YUK!!! I do hope you get the results you're looking for, and I bet you will!!

Oh, I just love guinea pigs!!! :D

Heh.. yup, Teri, I'm a little guinea piggly wiggly! It's so crazy to me that there are folks who do CKD on a weekly basis. Imagine the craziness of going from ketosis to eating sugars and starches in huge quantities every week. bleh.

Well, my evening of this is almost over. Just one package of Twizzlers to go. :) I love twizzlers and this sounds gross. Amazing what living LC will do to your taste buds. I'm already looking forward to eating some eggs and caesar salad and chicken wings, etc. on Sunday. I hope all this carb saturation will give me some good energy though. Right now I'm sleepy due to serotonin and stuff though, I think. :yawn:

Posted my full menus in my journal, will do so in here later since I'm sure people might want to take a peek. It's unfortunate I don't REALLY enjoy it. Low fat high GI just isn't all that cool, though I have enjoyed the taste of some of the foods, I suppose.

Anyway, off to nurse my upset guinea pig tummy and get some rest so I can wake up early enough to start eating all the wheat and sugar I've been avoiding for so long. Why do I do weird things?

Well, if I can gain a few pounds and lose a few more, as well as give me some more energy for workouts, it'll all be worth it. Don't think I'm doing this again for a long time though! :)

It is funny that I should find this thread today… I decided to do the Fat Fast once again. This time my plan is a little different. I am doing The Zone, but three days a week I plan on doing the Fat Fast and just see what happens. Years ago I would fast and it was thought that fasting was good for you. I was one of those that believed it and maybe I still do to some extent. One of the ways to keep weight down was to fast 3 days a week and eat normally the other 4 days. So I am going to give this a try with the Fat Fast. I don't know how long I will keep doing it, or even if I will get through the first week... I have done the Fat Fast a few times before, but didn’t really have a plan how I would do it. I just wanted the weight off, but what came after… well, I have learned a lot sense then.

Update:

I forgot my yesterday afternoon dosage.

Moods...I seem to be more persnickity in an upbeat way. When I took my daughter to her karate class and she had to practice her kata I was quick to tell her when she did something wrong. I've watched that thing so many times, I could probably do it myself. Mmh, maybe I'll try it with her.

Same with music lessons. I usually correct mistakes in a soft, gentle voice. Now I'm quicker to jump on them, it seems to set the kids on edge and they make more mistakes at first, but then they do it perfect and I cheer for them. More proactive you might say.


I've also been doing a few very low carb days. Scale is looking down, will update on Monday.


Beth

Skamito-

Here's another "tweaky" experiment for you. I am currently doing an egg-fast. I heard on the tips and stalls board that someone did this and lost 4 lbs in 3 days. I have been stalled for 3 weeks now and have heard that sometimes if you can get past a stall, you will continue losing steadily again. So I'm on day 2 right now and it's about 8:30 pm.

I really haven't felt all that different except yesterday I had some cramping on both sides of my body inside my hip area... not sure why, I was drinking all 8 glasses of water...
The only other thing is occassionally i have felt somewhat light headed, but nothing major. The scale said I had lost 1.5 lbs overnight, so lets see what it says after tomorrow.
(my egg fast will only last for 3 days)

I'll keep you posted!!!

Katie :daze:

Its confirmed, I have broken my stall with the egg fast. I lost 4 lbs doing the egg fast for 3 days! Whooo hoo! :)

Katie