The Obesity Code and Radical Acceptance
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Ok, I hit a snag. I am not doing well with calorie counting. I got put on my first diet at age 9 at a time when I wasn't fat---I just had a little pre-pubertal pudge. The 1660 calorie limit isn't too low---it's just that it's there that raises my anxiety around food. The scale is also not my friend---I start to feel bad when it doesn't go down, which makes me focus more on the calories, which makes me crazier....it's a bad circle.
So I think I am going to try something different. Clearly my habits have to change. So I am going to find a carb counting app that I can use without having a calorie limit, and I will continue to keep my net carbs <25. That should solve the calorie-limit-panic reaction.
I will continue to use my blood glucose monitor to motivate me to mover more, and I will keep my goal of getting at least 30 min. activity/day.
I am *not* giving up, I just have to sneak around some eating disorder reactions and focus on the things that will give me the most bang for my buck: limiting carbs and moving regularly. Period. I've got to take the focus off the scale and give myself more mental room to stay the course.
I'll keep you posted on how the experiment works!
Rosey6 -
Very smart of you to change what is making you anxious. I totally have the same reactions - especially to the scale.1
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Roseygirl1 wrote: »Ok, I hit a snag. I am not doing well with calorie counting. I got put on my first diet at age 9 at a time when I wasn't fat---I just had a little pre-pubertal pudge. The 1660 calorie limit isn't too low---it's just that it's there that raises my anxiety around food. The scale is also not my friend---I start to feel bad when it doesn't go down, which makes me focus more on the calories, which makes me crazier....it's a bad circle.
So I think I am going to try something different. Clearly my habits have to change. So I am going to find a carb counting app that I can use without having a calorie limit, and I will continue to keep my net carbs <25. That should solve the calorie-limit-panic reaction.
I will continue to use my blood glucose monitor to motivate me to mover more, and I will keep my goal of getting at least 30 min. activity/day.
I am *not* giving up, I just have to sneak around some eating disorder reactions and focus on the things that will give me the most bang for my buck: limiting carbs and moving regularly. Period. I've got to take the focus off the scale and give myself more mental room to stay the course.
I'll keep you posted on how the experiment works!
Rosey
@Roseygirl1, atkins.com has both a pdf with tons of carb count info, if you want an app, if you log your food in their tracker, it will tell you the carb counts. The pdf file is good for helping you shop and plan meals out ahead of time. I don't use the tracker there, because I use Chrome and have the addin from the launchpad for showing net carbs.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10348436/enhancing-mfp-displays-for-low-carb#latest
Here is how that add in reports:
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Thank you, retirehappy! That's really what I want to do, add a net carbs feature to my diary. I'm a technophobe but I will try to get one of my sons to help me install the fix.
I found a way around the trigger for now: I upped my calories to 1800. That will keep me from the food limit panic and free me to pay attention to my body.
Rosey1 -
Roseygirl1 wrote: »I found a way around the trigger for now: I upped my calories to 1800. That will keep me from the food limit panic and free me to pay attention to my body.
Rosey
Rosey, I hope that works for you. I did that for a while and found it helpful. The red line and red numbers MFP giives really"messed" with my mind for a while and that was a way to get around it.1 -
Bumped up the calories to 1800 and that did the trick! Came in under 1600 yesterday and had all the room to experience my hunger (and lack of). A meta goal from all of this is to make friends with my body, to trust its signals. I think this is going to work!3
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My journey has been 3 years long.
Year one was mainly diet and exercise that was walking and very light work at the gym
Year two was more of the same lower carb diet but more cardio and better and better blood tests. I was dropping off that higher blood pressure, elevated glucose level, and burning off more calories with activity! I lifted a bit more and added more good fats to lower my cholesterol. I joined a cycling group! I added hobbies that were activities
It started to become apparent that a radical life change was actually possible. Hope. I looked at myself and fet hope!
Year three has brought on much more with bike races, my first 100K ride, 10K runs, triathlon events. But the diet is the same. The desire to just enjoy a new life that really isn't new anymore is still there
I don't have high blood pressure or high glucose or high cholesterol now. It all just went away with the bad diet and lack of exercise.
This way of eating is filled with hope and success stories. I hope you stick with it long term and enjoy seeing your goals come to pass5 -
@Working2BLean thank you for sharing your inspiring story! I hope to have one of my own at some point in the future.
I think I'm moving in the right direction! The blood glucose monitor is telling my 2 hour PP is 77mg%. That's after hauling my behind out for a 30 min. walk. I keep reminding myself that my goal is to fix my metabolism and create the conditions under which my body can be healthy. Low carbs, real food, intelligent activity, cultivating mindfulness and managing stress.
Shofar, so good. (A little Jewish joke about today being Rosh Hashana.)
Rosey2 -
Roseygirl1 wrote: »OMG, I am SO not hungry!
I walked for 30 minutes today. I ate a lot of fat for lunch: sour cream with almonds, nothing else! I'm making dinner but just barely hungry, won't eat a lot. This is AMAZEBALLS!
Woo hoo! So *this* is what they are talking about!
Rosey
yes, exactly this. for me this was totally liberating. went out for a 45 km bike ride today, without breakfast, just electrolyte drink. gone for 2 hours, hammered the bike really hard, got home, ate a tub of sour cream with some salt sprinkled on. magic. no hunger, totally fine and a great workout.1 -
Roseygirl1 wrote: »Ok, I hit a snag. I am not doing well with calorie counting. I got put on my first diet at age 9 at a time when I wasn't fat---I just had a little pre-pubertal pudge. The 1660 calorie limit isn't too low---it's just that it's there that raises my anxiety around food. The scale is also not my friend---I start to feel bad when it doesn't go down, which makes me focus more on the calories, which makes me crazier....it's a bad circle.
So I think I am going to try something different. Clearly my habits have to change. So I am going to find a carb counting app that I can use without having a calorie limit, and I will continue to keep my net carbs <25. That should solve the calorie-limit-panic reaction.
I will continue to use my blood glucose monitor to motivate me to mover more, and I will keep my goal of getting at least 30 min. activity/day.
I am *not* giving up, I just have to sneak around some eating disorder reactions and focus on the things that will give me the most bang for my buck: limiting carbs and moving regularly. Period. I've got to take the focus off the scale and give myself more mental room to stay the course.
I'll keep you posted on how the experiment works!
Rosey
I've found that what helped me stay on goal for calories was to first teach myself a very predictable manner of eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. These I tracked for 3 months, experimented with what would work every time. I resolved to make breakfast and lunch very predictable, always the same thing basically with a few variations and cook a few dishes for dinner. 2, at most, and be really careful with the carbs there, which I also taught myself by means of tracking. Then I stopped tracking and kept eating to the same pattern, not deviating from it. That seems to have worked. I did track ketones for a while with ketostix while I was learning. And didn't mind calories too much, but was very strict on carbs.
btw, your idea to weigh once a month: sounds good, but you can always try it and go back to another pattern that suits you better and stick to it.1 -
Roseygirl1 wrote: »Thank you, retirehappy! That's really what I want to do, add a net carbs feature to my diary. I'm a technophobe but I will try to get one of my sons to help me install the fix.
I found a way around the trigger for now: I upped my calories to 1800. That will keep me from the food limit panic and free me to pay attention to my body.
Rosey
I haven't read this whole thread but that's how I started keto - I upped my calories until I felt full and I had a good handle on recipes and carb counting, then I slowly lowered it. I think I went from 1800 to 1600 then finally where I'm at now, 1400. Even now some days I don't eat all my calories and other days I overeat on my calories, but I do my best to balance it out and stick to my macros
Another thing that helps is logging meals before you make them or eat them. Use myfitnesspal as a recipe logger. If you know you want chicken for dinner, plug in the recipe and add it before dinner, that way if you need more fat you can add it in while you're cooking, or if you need more protein you can take a little more chicken for dinner. Plus if you make a few servings ahead of time you can copy them over to the next day for lunch or dinner.
It's a big learning curve at first but you'll get there!2 -
I find myself focusing on fewer and fewer things. Since my understanding is that I have developed insulin resistance, my primary focus is on lowering my insulin levels, working on lowering blood sugar and getting my cells to wake up and take up the glucose.
It's coming down to mindfulness of a few simple things:
1. Restricting carbs.
2. Moving more, but gently, to avoid too much stress for my recovering, aging body. I've been going to the gym and working with a personal trainer, but it feels like too much, and I dread it. While I once was an athlete, I am an athlete no more, and I have a body that's been through 4 major surgeries in the past decade, Lyme Disease, cancer and total thyroidectomy, now adjusting to being on thyroid hormone replacement. What feels good and right to me right now are pleasurable activities: walking, dancing, yoga and stretching. C'est tout. That's all. So if I'm going to push myself it's going to be do those things! I have to trust myself!
3. Watching the effect of my choices on my blood sugar. My monitor is my new best friend. I am astonished at how powerful an intervention a 30 min. walk can be!
Rosey4 -
@Roseygirl1, talk to your trainer if you think it is too much. You need to strength train, your body needs that. It prevents falls, gives you the ability to get up if you fall, etc. Use lower weights till you rebuild some strength. When I got a personal trainer after retiring, I told her my goal was to be able to lift my bike onto the bike rack of our car. I can do that without a second thought now. It took some time.
You are wise to focus on a couple of critical areas.1 -
@Roseygirl1 - Just as point of clarification - strength training strengthens your muscles and bones, something we all need as we age. So even if you can add it in once or twice a week - there are ways to pare down the routines to take only 30 or so minutes. If you can do compound movements, even at the lightest weights, you can get more bang for your buck. But definitely talk with your trainer and get him/her to make your routine work for you - if not, you won't get anything out of it - because we all know you won't stick with it if you loathe and dread it!0
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Thank you @KnitOrMiss and @retirehappy. You are both right, of course. I think what I will do is make a commitment to take myself to the shallow pool at the Y and do my strength training there to start with, until I get some weight off my back and can do more. I can do step ups on the stairs, squats onto the stairs, and they have water weights that I can do a good routine with for back, shoulders and upper body. I can do pullups onto the ladders from the water. (I know enough from my Crossfit days about how to make this work.) I don't hurt myself when I do this in the water, and I don't dread it.
I will also look for a gentle yoga class. Some of the yoginis I know are pretty strong!
Rosey3 -
Rosey, sounds like a good workout to me. And yoga is the only exercise I can say I LOVE doing. I can tolerate some other things now but I don't love exercising. Walking and yoga are my main activities. I do like body flex, which is the strength training I have been doing for about 18 months now. But I don't love it, I like the results though so I keep at it. Moving into TRX workouts next.
Have fun in the pool.0 -
A friend just started this, says it works for her! All you need is 7 minutes a day.... http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/the-scientific-7-minute-workout/?_r=0
There is an app for it, might even try it myself!0 -
It's really difficult right now, my relationship with exercise. I mean, here's what I looked like at age 52, just 9 years ago:
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I was a Crossfit instructor (for a brief while) and a long distance cyclist. Now you can see from my profile pic I can hardly stand up straight from my spine surgeries and ongoing autoimmune arthritis. I have to work moment to moment on facing my losses when I exercise. Yes, I know that was then and this is now and I am laying the foundation for my future with the choices I make today. So just like raising my calorie limit helps me avoid the "Diet Panic Reaction", so engaging in exercise that doesn't trigger my intense sadness is needed. It's good to be reminded of how important strength training is....I *know* that! I just have to find a way to do it that circumvents all that grief. I'm looking forward to my first yoga class on Friday!
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Plan for tomorrow: pool exercise! Friday---trying yoga. Tomorrow morning check FBS.1
