The 4-Hour Body / Slow-Carb Diet

I will be starting this March 9th (Lent) and I had a question. What about Almond Milk? I use the unsweetened almond milk with my protein whey shake instead of dairy. Will this be ok?

If you're going to be strict with the plan, then no. Tim refers to almond and soy milks as "sugar milk" at one point. And sugars are what you're trying to avoid. And sugars come in all shapes and sizes.....from the corn syrup we all love to hate to natural sugars in milk and fruit to the high GI carbs in "white" startchy foods.

I will be starting this March 9th (Lent) and I had a question. What about Almond Milk? I use the unsweetened almond milk with my protein whey shake instead of dairy. Will this be ok?

If you're going to be strict with the plan, then no. Tim refers to almond and soy milks as "sugar milk" at one point. And sugars are what you're trying to avoid. And sugars come in all shapes and sizes.....from the corn syrup we all love to hate to natural sugars in milk and fruit to the high GI carbs in "white" startchy foods.

I'm not sure about this one. Shannon. The Almond milk he's referring to contains no sugar. It only has 2g of carbs for 8 oz, and 1g of that is dietary fiber (which we know is good). The vast majority of this Almond milk is water and almonds. It does have "tapioca starch", which sounds like a no-no, but based on the carb count, I suspect the amounts to be trace.

I'd been considering using this with coffee or tea. Since 8oz has only 40 calories, I could have a 1/4 cup for only 10 calories. I suppose it's not really *strict*, but one of the reasons I'm considering it is that I finally ditched the diet cola this week and am looking to coffee or tea in the morning instead.

ok, so i don't know if this is normal, but i started the diet on monday, and i'm down 7.2 lbs, and inch and a quarter on the waist, and a half inch on the hips! holy mackerel!

before scd, i've been counting calories and exercising, eating back half my cals, and totally plateaued for 3 weeks. my diet already consisted of protein and vegs, no potatoes, grain, or bread, but lots of daIry and fruit.

i know its only been a few days but i hope this keeps up!

On the topic of coffee...

I've never been a coffee drinker, but since I've sworn off soda (and am trying to avoid artificial sweeteners), I've started having a cup in the morning for the caffeine. Eventually, I'd like to ween myself off of caffeine altogether, but, for now, a cup of coffee in the morning, and a couple of iced teas throughout the day are what I'm drinking. A couple of observations related to the book and stuff posted here:

As I recall, Tim says something about putting a TABLESPOON of cinnamon in. That's just nuts. I have a 24 oz cup that's filled about 3/4 with coffee today. I put a teaspoon in and that was WAY too much for taste. I think a "sprinkle" of cinnamon is the right amount.

I added 1/4 cup of almond milk to my 18 oz of coffee - unsweetened kind. It has 10 calories (for 1/4 cup) and no sugar. However, it really doesn't do the same job milk or creamer would. Almond milk is, after all, mostly water, and when you mix it with coffee, it just kind of disappears. So, I'm not sure I'll be doing this anymore. Perhaps just a sprinkle of cinnamon, or a couple of drops of vanilla extract.

I do prefer coffee with cream, no doubt, but, as I'm replacing a zero calories beverage (my morning diet cola), I prefer to be at or near zero calories. 1 tablespoon of cream is like 50 calories. In the grand scheme of things, that's not horrendous (if it's only once per day), but I'd rather not "drink my calories"...unless it's wine, of course (mua ha ha).

Mcferg, I am a coffee addict! Or at least I was. I switched to decaf 6 months ago, but I need that morning cup of decaf just because I love the taste. If you can get used to using Stevia powder, it is definitely sweet. I agree with the amount of cinnamon too. I use about a tsp, which i find to be quite a bit. But I do like cinnamon.

I was using about a cup of almond milk, which I had to warm in the microwave, before adding the coffee, otherwise the coffee turned out to be luke warm because of the amount of milk I was using.

I now use 2 tbsp of half and half, which is 35 calories. ( know there is a little milk in it). That seems to be enough to add that creamy taste to the coffee.
Anyways, try Stevia. It's supposedly the best most natural sweetener out there that doesn't alter GI.

Stephanie

Mcferg, I am a coffee addict! Or at least I was. I switched to decaf 6 months ago, but I need that morning cup of decaf just because I love the taste. If you can get used to using Stevia powder, it is definitely sweet. I agree with the amount of cinnamon too. I use about a tsp, which i find to be quite a bit. But I do like cinnamon.

I was using about a cup of almond milk, which I had to warm in the microwave, before adding the coffee, otherwise the coffee turned out to be luke warm because of the amount of milk I was using.

I now use 2 tbsp of half and half, which is 35 calories. ( know there is a little milk in it). That seems to be enough to add that creamy taste to the coffee.
Anyways, try Stevia. It's supposedly the best most natural sweetener out there that doesn't alter GI.

Stephanie

Stephanie,

Thanks for the reply. I've tried stevia in the past, but I don't want to use it in my coffee I'm really trying to avoid all artificial sweeteners, and I believe Ferris even said on his blog that stevia should be avoided. I doubt it's hurting you, but the truth is - I don't really want my coffee sweet. I like it creamy, but I don't really desire to add any sweetener. Even if Ferris said sugar was okay, I wouldn't use it.

A cup of almond milk seems like a lot. The amount of half and half you're using would be just about right for me, but I don't even want 35 calories, nor do I want the dairy. I've only been "on coffee" for three days, and I'm actually doing fine with it black. I don't love it, but it's tolerable and does the job.. If I can actually develop a taste for black coffee, that really would be ideal.

hey mcferg - i read in a ferriss blog post that his editor missed that correction, it was supposed to say a TEASPOON.

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/01/21/housecleaning-and-clarifications-blog-content-4hb-corrections-competition-winners-slow-carb-mistakes-and-more/

That makes sense, though - to me, that tastes like WAY too much. I think about 1/4 teaspoon would be better. Anyway - I've come to the conclusion that 1/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk does just fine - and it's only 10 calories. I don't think it contains anything that violates the SCD either. I did by some sugar free french vanilla non-dairy creamer today. 1 tblspoon has 20 calories. I was reading the ingredients...and other than "trace amounts" of corn syrup solids, it seemed to be fine (the rest is primarily water and oil). However, I missed the giant "sweetened with splenda" tag on the front. It's particularly odd, because, there is no splenda (aka sucralose) in the ingredient list at all. Anyway - much of my motivation to switch to coffee was to avoid the artificial sweeteners I was getting in soda, so I'm not using it. Other people around here will, so it won't go to waste.

hm, i think i also read somewhere that full fat cream is ok in coffee as it has less lactose? will have to look that up for you. i'm switching to black for now. i figure if i am super strict the first week and have good results, i can add things back in later to see if they have an effect.

What he says was that if you MUST have something in your coffee - use cream. The problem is that cream has 50 calories per tablespoon...BUT, IMO, you can get away with much less cream in your coffee than you can of other things. I'm going with black, though, too. And you know what they say...once you go... err... nevermind.

going out to dinner with a friend tonight. cheat day is not until tomorrow. i'll be ok if i just have meat and vegs, right? you don't HAVE to have legumes at every meal? not sure where we are going will have beans!

happy cheat day saturday people! oh man am i looking forward to beer!

Way to go, Shannon...

My cheat days have been Sundays, and I have been considering switching them to Saturdays now that football season is over. However, I have a gig tonight, which makes me NOT want to make today my cheat day, because a) I hate playing shows where I feel all bloated and b) I like to have a few beers on my cheat day, but I don't really like to have beer when I'm performing. I'll have a glass of wine or two, but I find that beer causes me to have to burp at inopportune moments. So, I may just keep it Sunday for another week or two. Or I may just not cheat this weekend. Honestly, I don't really feel like cheating.

As for the weight loss, though...I, too, am down 2 lbs (so far) this week after no movement on the scale the last 2 weeks. I've also lost another 1/4" off of my waist, and my body fat is down from the range that shows as 21.8% on the accumeasure chart to 20.6%.

I did make a few significant changes. I know that Ferris recommends changing one thing at a time so you can see what the effect of that one thing might do, but I just felt that some of these had to be made now. The changes were:

1. I eliminated artificial sweeteners. I did this more because I was drinking a lot of diet soda (~60oz / day). I'm not sure how I feel about its effect on weight loss, but I know that drinking soda just isn't healthy regardless, so I cut it out. The result of this is that I'm drinking even more water. I started having a cup of coffee in the morning and unsweetened iced tea in the afternoon.

2. I didn't have any protein shakes or bars. Part of this was because I wanted to avoid the artificial sweeteners, but the other reason was that I just wanted to get back to a more "pure" SCD plan. As a result, I found myself eating larger breakfasts that were of the true SCD variety as soon as I could after waking. I started eating before I left for work instead of in the car or when I got there (which forced me to eat as soon as I could get it ready in the morning).

3. The only exercise I've done starting Monday involved two armed kettlebell swings (more on that in a second). Up until now, I was doing 3 days per week of weights and 3-4 days of running. This week, I did a kettlebell workout Monday through Friday, and will probably do it again today and tomorrow.

When I look at these changes, it's easy for me to envision how they each played a part in the weight loss. It's also easy for me to imagine that these had NO effect, and that, after 2 weeks of no weigh loss, I was simply "due", but here's the beauty of it: it doesn't matter. The elimination of soda / artificial sweeteners is a healthy change. Eating a balanced breakfast made with "real food" is a healthy change. I think my workouts before were healthy, but I've been a running nut for the last 3-4 years, and I think altering my workout may be healthy. I honestly cannot believe how great I have felt this week. My energy level is very high. I actually think I'm requiring less sleep, because I found myself waking up earlier on my own everyday, yet not feeling tired throughout the day.

All of that said - if I had to guess which change had the most profound effect, it would be the exercise. This is my 8th week on this diet, and the only other time I had a weight loss this great was the one week I was sick and didn't exercise at all. I just think the stuff I was doing before was not necessarily conducive to weight loss. I loved running, and will continue to do that 1-2 times per week, at least, in addition to the kettlebell workout, but I hated the weights anyway.

So, as for the workout... I want to draw attention to the article that chrisdavey posted earlier on this forum:

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_metabolic_swing

This is the best instructional that I've seen for developing proper form. I used this in combination with some youtube instructions to learn the swing. I think I've got decent form. It is a technical move, and I think it takes time, but I'm not experiencing any back soreness, and I feel like I'm working the things that should be worked.

Anyway - for those interested...this is the workout I'm doing. It's based on the "best workout" on page 2 of the article mentioned above, with a few more details:

5 swings followed by 10 second rest
10 swings followed by 10 second rest
15 swings followed by 10 second rest
15 swings followed by 10 second rest
10 swings followed by 10 second rest
5 swings followed by 30 second rest
Repeat the above 5 times, then:
30 swings followed by 30 second rest
25 swings followed by 25 second rest
20 swings followed by 20 second rest
15 swings followed by 15 second rest
10 swings followed by 10 second rest
5 swings

Reading this - it seems like nothing - like a very short workout, and it is. I just count off the seconds (so they're not exact), but the whole thing takes 22 or 23 minutes. It goes by super fast. I always feel like I've worked out, but it literally feels like a 10 minute workout in terms how long it seems. Interestingly enough - the weight workout I was doing before (Power 90 Sculpt) was about 28 minutes including over 5 minutes of stretching at the beginning. I stretch prior to this workout as well, which makes it almost the same length, but I find I don't dread doing it like I did the P90.

OK...I know this was a long post, but I'm still new to drinking coffee, ahahhaahhaha!
Have a great weekend!