Diet (4HB?) Update

Emm.. this was baked salmon, with fishcake soup (yeah slightly naughty I know!) and slaw. Iftar in Ramadan.

Along the way, we found our diet morphing into a low-carb version of Primal/Paleo. How did we do this? Basically we started eliminating suspected causes of hubby's joint pains, namely the dozens of conventionally-sourced eggs, and Carotino oil (blend of the healthy red palm oil and bad Omega 6 rich canola oil). Processed foods are to an absolute minimum, that we only eat them when socially we have no choice. We don't really go for cheat meals anymore.

On hubby's side, his stats have improved tremendously. Blood pressure has normalised, from 150/120 to 110/70. HbA1c was 9.7 in Aug, went down to 6.9 by Sept. In June his random blood sugar was between 8.0-14.5mmol/L (145-260mg/dL), nowadays it is 5.8mmol/L (105mg/dL). He started at 132kgs (291 lbs) in June, now he's at 112 kgs (246lbs). Weight loss has slowed down somewhat due to lack of rest (working overtime) & my not being able to cook for about 3 weeks (loooong story). He has been on glucophage and blood pressure meds for a few years already without much improvement before Slow-Carb/Primal/Paleo. His energy levels have went up, and he is down several sizes. I can't remember how many inches lost at the waist, but it should be around 10-12 inches. :-)

I have attained my goal weight, in fact I am now at 53 kgs (116 lbs), my original goal was 55 kgs. Total weight loss, 7 kgs (15 lbs). I have added back small portions of rice once a day, and the occasional fruit. Some days I go on a mini binge of rice, but as long as I don't do that more than 2-3 days in a row I think I am fine. My skin has worsened a bit when I added carbs back, so perhaps I need to titrate down to a lower amount. I have started to exercise a bit more, keeping cardio to once a week, and lifting weights and other forms of body weight exercises plus generally moving more. I feel good eating this way, although from time to time I get cravings. But lately I am not too worried about them, because I know once in a while I can be naughty. Usually this happens when I am with friends who aren't into this way of eating. Hmm, I think in real life I DON'T have any friends who are Primal/Paleo.

So far so good.. insha Allah... :-)

Sugar: the Bitter Truth

Update on Week 5 of 4HB (Slow Carb Diet)

Picture from Anizyn's Blog

Things have slowed down somewhat on the weight loss front. I lost about another kilogram, making total weight loss 4kg. My target is to lose 5kgs, to reach 55kg. So close, yet so far...

But on the other had I am quite pleased with my current weight, which puts my BMI to at about 23.4. If my weight loss stalls, I am happy to stay at 56kg. According to the reading I've done, at one point your body will have reached its ideal weight, and further weight loss will be difficult, and potentially unhealthy. At this point, it would be all right to add back small amounts of carbs during the week. I am going to give it another week before I start adding back carbs. I have lost several inches that I am happy about. I have also started some kettlebell exercises, using a 10kg kettlebell.

I did a lot of fasting last week, replacing the Ramadan days I missed last year, so definitely the fasts helped with the weight loss. Only thing is that I got dehydrated. I have always been bad about drinking water, and hopefully will be able to rectify that. I am making it a rule for me to drink a cup of water each time I set foot in the kitchen. I haven't kept track of how many cups I drink per day, but my chapped lips are definitely thanking me for it. I have also started taking B complex and mineral supplements as well.

My hubby, we have discovered, might be sensitive to arachidonic acid, which is found in eggs and meat. He has some joint pains, which he used to have before, but more frequently lately. So we are cutting down on both eggs and red meat, and he has stopped taking beef bone broth. I am preparing a new batch of chicken bone broth as we speak, using the recipe from Dr. Eades' blog here as a base. I have modified it to include some ginger and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to draw out the nutrients from the bone. Another suspect might be the fact that we switched over to conventional eggs instead of the organic eggs we usually have. It could be either the: increase in egg consumption; or the chemical-laden eggs that is causing the problem. Next week I am switching back to organic eggs and see how it goes.

On the other hand his blood sugar levels have continued to improve, with his random blood sugar now showing him to be pre-diabetic instead of diabetic. He has also started taking aged garlic tablets and green tea flavanol tablets. I tried taking these with ALA, but they proved to be too much for me. I became lightheaded and actually felt the energy being burned really rapidly. So no supplements for me, except for the usual vitamins and minerals.

Ah, yes, the bloodwork results! My hubby's is as usual, not that great, except his blood sugar has improved somewhat. his uric acid is also not too high. Mine is good, just that LDL is a smidgen high. Trigs are low, HDL is high, blood sugar normal, all other parameters normal. Bear in mind this test was taken 1 week into the diet, so I guess not much change can be expected yet. Also the day before we gave blood was Binge Day, LOL. I foresee in the future we might give up Binge Day altogether. Even last week on Binge Day we mostly stayed within the allowed foods, except for 2 small shot glass-sized custard desserts shared between us. We are, insha Allah, going to have another round of tests done 6 months from now.

Today is Binge Day, alhamdulillah, the one day in the week when we are allowed to eat whatever we want. So since we have chicken broth, I am making Mama Pongkey's Chicken Rice. The chicken is browning nicely in the oven, and the rice is simmering in my little claypot on the stove. I also bought 3 small mangosteens to have as dessert. Breakfast today was quite simple, organic hot chocolate with cream and cinnamon. What, no sugar? I guess I am used to it by now. Plus I don't want to spoil the drink with sugar because I'd crave it when I have the same choc drink without sugar during the rest of the week.

Okay my rice is almost done, and after a nice shot of grapefruit juice (ugh! too sour for me!) I am ready to begin my Binge Day proper. :-)

Update on 4HB Diet and Miscellany

So this is now Week 3. I have lost 2.8kgs to date, walhamdulillah.

Positive points:
• I seem to be cooking more and relying less on takeaways.. this made me realise that although I thought I was cooking at home a lot, in reality breakfast is often a takeaway, and lunch is often skipped, or also a takeaway. Making sure we get enough protein and good fats and staying away from grains requires a lot more home cooking.

• My skin seems to be clearer and looks healthier. At the moment I only cleanse and scrub my face once a week, or whenever it feels grimy, for a few months now. To be truthful, my skin started improving since I started to cleanse my face less religiously, a few months before beginning 4HB. Lately it feels less dry. I think it is all the good fats I am eating.

• My husband's weight loss has also been good, better than mine, in fact. Not a drastic drop, but steady, small decreases.

• Most of the time, I am able to stick to this diet, even though during the week I cheat by having a few spoonfuls of rice. I have switched over to Ponni rice, which needs 3 times the amount of water to cook. Before, we were consuming 1 cup dry (2 cups cooked rice) per meal. Now it is 1/2 cup dry (1 and 1/2 cups cooked rice) per meal. 1/2 cup dry Ponni rice has about 60 calories, according to the label. So we are getting 30 calories each, Compared to about 200 calories for a cup of cooked white rice.

• I do not have an exercise regime as such. Once a week, I go swimming for less than an hour. Occasionally I do stretches or yoga. So the weight loss is mainly from the diet.

• For the 1st 2 and a half weeks I did not use any of the recommended supplements. Yesterday I started popping 1 ALA (alpha lipoeic acid, from GNC) pill before breakfast. We'll see how this goes.

• My husband's blood sugar levels seem to be okay. We measure his blood sugar glucose, blood pressure, weight and pulse everyday.

• We are getting our bloodwork done, so I hope the results are good. We should've done one before we started on the diet, but we didn't have the time to do it then. The results should be out next week.

• I enjoy my Binge day, which is a Sunday so we go out to the movies and eat out. I am surprised that I don't eat as much as I used to. And somehow on Binge day, the thought of being allowed to eat anything makes unhealthy food lose its appeal for me somewhat.

• I only need to lose 5 kgs, so I guess I am halfway there now.

Challenges:

• I still crave unhealthy food. Perhaps this means I need to tweak my food intake a little more.

• In a culture that revolves around food, limiting carbs is very hard. Good thing when I spend time with my parents, they seem to understand. My mother (who is pre-diabetic) is now making a conscious effort to eat more veggies and less rice and sugar. Alhamdulillah.

• I still cheat during the week with some rice. Sigh. But I cook the rice in chicken fat or ghee or red palm oil so I hope the damage is limited.

• I am always cooking so my kitchen was a disaster the 1st few weeks. Things have calmed down a little now walhamdulillah.

• Need to get more veggies in.

• The last few kilos are the hardest to lose, or so I hear. I have a feeling unless I up the ante (exercise... ugh!) my weight loss will plateau.

• Hubby has some joint pain, which he had since before the diet, but it seems to be flaring up a bit. Either from the extra stress at work or perhaps too much protein = gout. I guess the bloodwork will show us which.

• We broke our scale so have to get a new one. Unfortunately the ones in the stores here, we don't like. So no weighings for a few days then.

Anyway we promised ourselves to try it for a month and reevaluate. The blood tests will come in handy then.

Things I am listing and linking so I can read for later (for some reason, I hate using bookmarks):

How the Ideology of Low Fat Conquered America
- interesting read on the origins of the low fat diet.

Where are the No Smoking Signs in Medina? Since they are No Longer in our Hearts, at least Put them on Walls

Despite Exercising More, Weight Continues to Rise
- illustrating correlation does not equal causation. The take home message seems to be exercise alone has less impact on weight loss as other major factors play a bigger role.

Effects of n-3 PUFA on insulin resistance after oral fat load
- "The current study showed that treatment with n-3 PUFA not only improved lipid profile in a baseline situation, but it also improved all insulin resistance parameters in a post-prandial situation simulated with an OFL."

The case for not restricting saturated fat in a low carbohydrate diet
- "we believe that the recommendation to restrict saturated fat in favor of unsaturated fat on a low-carbohydrate diet is unnecessary and may even diminish some of the beneficial physiological effects associated with carbohydrate restriction."

Comparison between low-carb diet and standard diet in severely obese people
- "In this 6-month study involving severely obese subjects, we found an overall favorable effect of a low-carbohydrate diet on lipoprotein subfractions, and on inflammation in high-risk subjects. Both diets had similar effects on LDL and HDL subfractions."

The case for low carbohydrate diets in diabetes management
- " These data show low carbohydrate diets to be comparable or better than traditional low fat high carbohydrate diets for weight reduction, improvement in the dyslipidemia of diabetes and metabolic syndrome as well as control of blood pressure, postprandial glycemia and insulin secretion. Furthermore, the ability of low carbohydrate diets to reduce triglycerides and to increase HDL is of particular importance. Resistance to such strategies has been due, in part, to equating it with the popular Atkins diet."

Help, I am a Sugar Addict! ~ rant

During my student days, my then flatmate went on the Atkins Diet. I honestly thought she was nuts (and also, a little vain!). What, no carbs??? You're eliminating a food group here! And high fat? What's that about? She showed me the cookbook, and said she is aware of ketosis, and because of the the induction phase was only 2 weeks. Okay, I said, but don't expect me to do the diet too (we cook together and share our food). So we ate Atkins-legal main courses, except I added my daily white rice must-haves. I was quite surprised that she actually lost weight, and tolerated the diet well, no hunger pangs and such.

Ah, those were the days when I couldn't gain weight even though I tried hard. I remained consistently underweight for my height. For years I maintained a UK size 8.

Now I have ballooned into a size 14. Argh! At first I was pleased, as I had always wanted some curves, plus it is a good excuse to go shopping. But then I discovered a lot of the stuff I liked was made for skinny Asian pre-teens. And people started commenting on my weight. :-P!

But still I didn't care so much, after all a size is just a number, right? Until a lot of chronic diseases hit home, to family members. Suddenly I started to realise being too fat may be bad for your health. So we did all the usual low fat, low sugar stuff, cutting down on processed food, etc.etc.

And now it seems that it's the carbs/sugar that is making us fat. Seriously????? Now you tell me???

I am the sort of person that NEEDS her daily servings of rice. Otherwise I feel hungry. And now I might just need to watch out coz diabetes runs in the family??? I guess being young(er) just made me feel invincible, like, it could not EVER happen to me, right?

This is Day 2 of restricted carbs. And I have these slight pangs of hunger, but when before I would just down some rice/noodles, now I should snack on eggs. Or nuts. Argh. Yesterday was the worst; I actually fasted yesterday, but managed to pretty much sahur and iftar on the diet. Alhamdulillah. So far it has been a frenzied cooking learning curve for me: adjusting meals so we get enough nutrients yet remain low carbs.

I recommend Gary Taubes' 'Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It' for further details.