The FastDay Forum

Thanks Azureblue you are quite right to ask. I am 5' 10" my BMI is normally low around 18.0 normal weight around 126lbs I have small bones and am normally very "wiry athletic fit".

However over the last few years it crept up and I was at one point 150lbs BMI 21.5.

With fairly intensive physical work and exercise over last summer I was back in reasonable shape and by October weighed in at 144lbs with a BMI of around 20.7 but still about 18lbs over my normal. Most of this weight was sitting on my back gut and sides and was quite discernible and also grabbable.

I am now weighing in at between 132lbs - 134lbs about nine and a half stone and most of the excess has gone with just some around my waist which has not yet shifted 28" waist for last 2 months. Anyway I intend to take my weight down by around 6lbs more, which for me will be back to normal.

I exercise fairly intensely cycle everywhere swim run, and work sometimes doing distribution which seems mostly to involve running up and down stairs with heavy boxes.

My TDEE has me down for 1800ish calories per day but I normally consume between 2000 and 2400 on a high nutrient based diet depending upon how much physical stuff I am doing.

I have regular health checks (about the only time I ever have to visit the doctor) and these are coming back clear. My only health issue has been with reactive hypoglycemia (life-long though recently aggravated by bad eating habits) and I am currently addressing this through the management of my carbohydrate use, this is proving very successful.

The fasting for me is not entirely weight focused and I would like to be able to continue with it when I reach my target normal weight of 126lbs. When I go into maintenance it's my intention to spread the extra calorie requirement over my feed days.

BMI unfortunately does not account for body frame size; a person may have a small frame and be carrying more fat than optimal, but their BMI reflects that they are normal. Even when I was over 11 stone people were often surprised when I said I was overweight.

I remember once using a calculator where it was possible to put your frame size in?

The big important thing with diet is that you are getting the right nutrition and that you are fit and well and this is certainly seems to be the case with me.

Thanks again Azureblue it is nice to be thought about and definitely no raspberries required

caitlin Xx

Thanks for that Caitlin, glad to know all is tickety boo with you. I'm 5' 7" and used to be thin as a stick in teenage years but found each decade brought the next dress size, two bouncing babies started the rot!
I know my body has started to resent me losing more and refuses to drop below 70kgs for more than a day currently, so I'm eager to see your ways to balance the carb/protein/fat micronutrients. Carorees is under 150g a day with her carbs and losing steadily, I keep trying but nice things keep getting in the way!
Best of luck and do keep us up to date with how it's going :0)

Hi @Azureblue

I think the rot started with me when I was getting a lot of free bakery products and biscuits, I was working long hours on computer projects at the time and eating pizza most meals But now

I have been pretty intense about this for the last few months and trying to get a handle on it. This is what I am doing at the moment, I am not sure how much use it will be to others as I am still working it all out, but here goes anyway...

Carbs and their relationship to other things seem to me to be the key, this week I did not lose anything and definitely did not expect to as I have been changing my carb intake and I am playing around with my GL, for instance yesterday I made chili with extra beans lots of veg and half a bar of chocolate in it, around 80g carb per portion, pudding was extra thick double cream and blueberries (all together a low/high GI mix), last month I would have had this with much less beans and no choci.

At the moment I am trying to work out what my limits are in terms of blood sugar spikes and also what level I lose/maintain weight at.

My initial objective was to run my body in ketosis and get it used to not requiring refined carbs (which previously it had been doing all the time = sugar junkie). this has worked out well, with no major spikes, my homemade exercise tests have been fairly good.

When I started I took my carbs low to under 50g per day but over time I increased them to around the 100g mark, at which point I found that my body was still producing ketone's, if I spread the carbs throughout the day. I think that this phase was inadvertently the most effective in terms of weight loss.

I am now in the process of pushing the carb intake up to around 150g+ as I would like the food flexibility this brings. This obviously takes me out of ketosis (and will change the fat carb usage/balance) but that is fine as I want my body to be able to switch and to handle carbs better. The change in carb is the only notable diet change of last week (calorie and fat intake are fairly constant), and I will be doing exactly the same over this week, so next Sundays weigh-in will hopefully give me a better picture of the effect on my weight.


Things That Might Be Useful
I completely dumped four things; grain, added sugars, potatoes, and trans-fats. What I am working with is the other stuff and that makes it easier to tweak the nutrient balance.

I try to make whatever I eat count, so instead of just buying mushrooms I will get oyster mushrooms (iron), use miso instead of stock cubes etc. If I am making something from a recipe I try and think what stuff could be replaced with better stuff.

I make sure that I get my full amino acid complex by mixing up protein sources, example; eat nuts with cheese and legumes.

Minimum cook things and if you don't like salad use a wok. When you make stew cook the sauce separate and wok the veggies then mix together rather than stewing the veg.

Anecdotal I know, but I think this has had a beneficial effect on my fast days as I don't get stressed. I suppose what I am trying to do is get my body functioning at its optimal.

I will try to write up some more recipes and daily eating plans as this might be quite useful..
caitlin Xx

Great post Caitlin, wish you every success with your different experimental approaches to your diet.

Thanks @callyanna different is the key word I'm trying to do 3 things at once here and it's like juggling live cats sometimes, but it's getting there...

Have you read any of Fatdog's amazing thread. She's up in your kneck of the woods with similar intentions and fantastic results. There may be around a foot difference in height.
I've got as far as dropping gluten but but but
I have resisted temptation tonight, what a good girl.
I commend the clear skies and bright stars to you :0)

Thanks for the clear skies and bright stars @Azureblue Yes I'm a big @FatDog journal fan it was her who got me into the 5:2 side of things, and I keep nicking her recipes into the bargain.

...Gluten is a significant start though and one of the hardest to give up, I think I miss pizza the most especially the wood cooked ones, but I hope to get to the point where some badness is ok for me

Just off to watch Enchanted April, film on beeb iplayer but meant to say...

I did the celeriac mash thing with cream and cheese tonight, I found it nice but a bit rich, so will experiment with it...

Wishing a good night and a good morning to all.

caitlin Xx

Hi Caitlin - I love rich food, but even I found celeriac dauphoinoise too much - I think I'll stick to making chips from them in future

Hi @Minumonline
Yes the whole context of the celery taste with creaminess seemed wrong!
I'm not a big fan of sweet root veggies anyway apart from beetroot, although @FatDog does amazing things with them and I like these Thai type veggie crisps. Will try your chips idea next, fried in avocado oil plenty Maldon sea salt, hmmm!

Packet miso soup is not very exciting so I like to make this, it is from the Food For Thought cookbook...

Miso and Nori Soup Recipe

Ingredients
1 dessertspoon oil
1 clove garlic (crushed)
1 medium onion (finely sliced)
½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 dessertspoon tomato puree
1 tablespoon brown miso
1 medium carrot ( cut into fine strips)
2 sheets nori seaweed
2pts/1200ml vegetable stock - make it with good veggie boullion, or Kombu Dashi if you're non veggie
1 dessertspoon chopped chives

Method
Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan and fry the garlic and onion until soft (7-10 minutes).

Add the spices, tomato puree and miso and mix well, then add the carrots.

Lightly toast the nori. Either wave the sheets through a gas flame 3 or 4 times or place them under a medium grill for 1 minute. Tear the nori into small pieces and add it to the pot with the stock and the chives.

Bring the soup to hot and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning, it may want a little black pepper.

*Do Not Boil The Miso!

Fasting
I see lots of posts about how people manage their fast days so I thought that I would put my thoughts up here on my journal.

I was first introduced to fasting by a yoga teacher friend about ten years ago, although my mum who studied biology had also told me about rats that lived longer on fasts.

My early attempts at this were a bit haphazard and occasional, at the most every few months. I did not have proper information but went for it anyway. I suffer from reactive hypoglycemia but did not know about fasting hypoglycemia and to cut a long story short brought on a really severe fit, which did not react to the usual intake of a few carbs remedy, it took me a few days to recover fully. Fasting can be great but it is essential to check it against any medical conditions!

When I started the 5:2 way of life I returned to fasting but this time being wary and nervous about it, I built my fast time up really slowly, carefully checking how my body was reacting, always having high carb snacks on hand just in case. I zero calorie fast but I do not fast for 2 consecutive days ever! Fasting stresses the body and it needs time to recover!

The other very important thing for me is to make sure that my body gets absolutely everything that it needs nutritionally and that it is fit and well, if I feel low or have a slight cold or even a hangover, I do not fast that day. If I feel even slightly unwell while fasting I break it. When my body is happy my fasts are happy!

These are the important things. Now on to things I do to help with my fasts...

Keep warm - I get cold more quickly and this can be dispiriting, extra heat or extra pullovers.

Stay positive - Really work on the benefits of fasting, read about them and be happy that you are living them.

Drink black coffee and green tea, drink water - I have really got into the taste of different coffee's and keep new ones for my fast days.

Take some light exercise - I like to walk in the local Botanical Gardens.

Keep my environment well lit - Dark dismal surroundings are not conducive to a positive frame of mind.

Use psychology - I have a new look planned for the spring, there are clothes that I couldn't wear before but I will be able to now. I like to plan what I am going to buy.


Kind regards to all

caitlin Xx

Observations after two weeks of increasing carb from <100g to 150g -> 200g...

I wanted to get some idea about how my body was handling the carbs now, and whether there had been any improvements, no-way scientific, but enough to let me get my bearings.

Did high GI carbs still bring on overwhelming carb urges?

Could I use GL as an alternative to low-carb?

Is increased carb the way to do maintenance?

I think mostly the carb urges are getting less however I did have one moment. after eating several plums on their own for pudding after a meal with friends, I got a huge carb urge and ended up buying a large Yorkie bar and eating it on the way home. It is really strange but the rational decision making process in my brain just shuts down. Anyway that was the worst of it and done in the name of experimentation, so no worries.

When I tried the fruit thing again this time using GL I mixed the same amount of fruit with low GI foods and it was better, maybe a bit cravey, mostly better but I do start to feel a bit loaded. At the moment low GL principles are useful to me but only when used in conjunction with low carb principles, it allows me to push it out a bit on the occasions when a bit more carb is desirable. For the moment I would not rely on it solely to manage my reactive hypoglycemia, or indeed weight management (carb use still begets more carb use), it could quite easily become a way to slip back into excessive CHO use. This might change in the future as my body gets better at managing.
...A very useful tool though!

Is the slight increase in carb the best way for me to manage maintenance. I think a slight increase in carb would be fine but I would be looking to utilise this as the extra carb intake from things like nuts, a bit more tahini, more yogurt and fruit, and so on. So basically more of the same plus some room for maneuver, however...

The problem with upping my daily calorie intake substantially is that if for any reason I could not fast then I would gain weight, I might become used to all the extra food... At the moment it would also give me a lot more work managing GL.

So my idea for maintenance is to keep things mostly as they are plus a bit extra here and there, balancing it out but mainly having one blowout a week, a proper feast day using GL and keeping the nutrition quality up.

I have came to really enjoy the low carb eating, this has been a surprise, (I really had the carb thing bad) it serves me well as a way of managing my health and it lets me have the food that I enjoy most, whilst accommodating the occasional blowout. The fasting has provided a great context I feel the periods of ketosis have been instrumental in allowing me to break the carb habit.

I am nearing my target weight and will soon slow down the weight loss tweaking the inputs as I go. I want to be flat-lining at around 2lbs over my target weight. Then gradually tweak until things are constant within my 4lb margin.

Meant to say my weight loss slowed to an average of 8 ounces a week, will see if it picks up again now that I am back to normal low-carb, it might just be a slow down with nearing base weight. No worries anyway as I have achieved pretty much what I wanted to.

* I have just read Antony Worrall Thompson’s The GL Diet Made Simple. Recipes are a bit carbo for me but the tables and things are quite useful, it would be nice if they were available on a website!

caitlin Xx

Favourite Vegetarian Recipe Websites

Thought I would share my top ten recipe websites, special thanks to @FatDog for pointing me to Vegangela and Korasoi.

Vegangela - Great vegan food and some excellent low carb recipes.
http://vegangela.com/tag/low-carb/

Korasoi - Simple Indian classics, East African food, eggless baking and a passion for all things edible. Join this British-born Indian girl as she eats Channa Masala for breakfast, adds a pinch of spice to everything, and works full time to feed a dirty little paneer habit.
http://www.korasoi.com/

A Veggie Venture - Great practical veggie recipes and useful cooking info.
http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.co.uk/

The Hare Krishna Recipe Section - Contains nearly 2,000 wonderful vegetarian recipes from across the Indian subcontinent. (Wish they would open a restaurant in Edinburgh.)
http://www.harekrsna.com/practice/prasadam/recipes/recipes.htm

Naturally Ella - A site devoted to easy vegetarian recipes. Nice practical food.
http://naturallyella.com/

O She Glows - Nice tasty vegan things and enjoyable blog.
http://ohsheglows.com/

The First Mess - Pushing it out with natural foods, like her approach and pictures too.
http://www.thefirstmess.com/

Green Kitchen Stories - Healthy and simple vegetarian food with natural ingredients, whole grains, good fats, fruit and vegetables.
http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/

Love and Lemons - Mostly veggie recipes laid out by useful categories.
http://www.loveandlemons.com/

Cookie + Kate - Cute girl and dog blog that is all about celebrating good food—real, sustainable food that delights the senses and nourishes the body.
http://cookieandkate.com/

## WoL Principles
Fast 0 calorie 2 days per week
Low GI
Low carbs
GL balancing to allow higher carb intake and higher GI carbs
Ketosis 80g - with option of 100g -> 150g via GL
Minimal cooking
Optimum nutrition
Balanced protein sources for complete Amino Acid Complex
Principles of raw
Healthy fats
Limit Foodstuffs - Grain Sugars Potatoes Trans-fat Lactose
Exercise - cycle walk resistance swiming yoga

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*Edit - Typos