January ETL - Nutritarian New Year!

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  • OneTwentyThree
    OneTwentyThree Posts: 186 Member
    Just read the post above of someone mentioning headache as well. I guess it could be detox. Just never experienced anything like this. Ive given up gluten and caffeine previously and didnt experience headaches like this. Maybe protein detox is more intense.
  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Hey, I have a question for you guys. This is my 2nd day into the 6 week diet and I am having a really bad headache. I am not usually prone to headaches.
    I am still counting my calories and I've had 1200 calories today, I feel really full and I don't actually feel hungry but the headache is awful.
    Has anyone else experienced this ? I was really excited to try this diet but now I am really close to having a piece of chicken to see if that helps alleviate it.

    I don't recall ever getting headaches when doing the 6 week plan, but I was vegan before I ever tried it so it wasn't a huge adjustment. I think Dr. F says it can take up to 2 weeks before your body adjusts to the new diet and you stop having sort of like withdrawal symptoms. Now giving up caffeine, whew does that give me a headache for a couple days!
  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    edited January 2016
    Lisa, I was all gung ho for the gym when I started, but I’ve found it almost impossible to motivate myself to get there over the past year or so. I’ve gone a few times, but I just wasn’t as into it. I’d rather do something at home, at least for right now. Coffee withdrawal is over, it usually only takes a couple days. I’m drinking herbal tea at the office in the mornings, so I still have my hot cuppa.

    Lia, sometimes I give up caffeine on the 6 week plan and sometimes I don’t. I wouldn’t worry about it, you’re doing great! And I agree with you about exercise, if I don’t enjoy it I’m not going to keep doing it. I was doing some of the Leslie Sansone Walk at Home videos on youtube, since my treadmill died, and those were kind of fun. I can watch TV while I do them even, just mute the sound on the computer and follow along to the video.

    Terri, sorry things are so stressful. Hope it gets better soon. Do you find you feel better when you keep the starchy carbs to a minimum? I always do, but I do love my bread and pasta so it’s hard to keep them in check sometimes. I’m better off not allowing myself any at all since I really have trouble with portion control on those.

    Good to see ya here OneTwentyThree. Looking forward to hearing how your 6 week plan goes. The first week or so can be really tough, but it does get easier!

    Things are good here, work is crazy and stressful and way too busy, but I feel calmer this week. I figure that is probably getting rid of the caffeine. I was really overdoing it on coffee lately.
  • whats_her_name
    whats_her_name Posts: 716 Member
    Hey, I have a question for you guys. This is my 2nd day into the 6 week diet and I am having a really bad headache. I am not usually prone to headaches.
    I am still counting my calories and I've had 1200 calories today, I feel really full and I don't actually feel hungry but the headache is awful.
    Has anyone else experienced this ? I was really excited to try this diet but now I am really close to having a piece of chicken to see if that helps alleviate it.

    I did have headaches when I first started - lasted for the first week. One morning I realized that my headache was gone. So that'll come soon.

    I think it's mostly the withdrawal from carbs. Because I had headaches the first week of juicing, too...
  • whats_her_name
    whats_her_name Posts: 716 Member
    I got flattened the last 2 days by a brutal sinus cold. Stayed home from work. Didn't do any treadmill.

    Lia, I didn't start the Cize videos yet, but my kids are chomping at the bit to get started. I have guitar lessons tonight (my first private lesson), but we might give it a go after that. If we don't have time, or if the kids have too much homework, we'll start tomorrow after school.

    I have no idea what day it is for juicing anymore. Day 9? Day 10? I've lost track. And that's totally okay. I don't even care. Which is HUGE - I'm totally winning this mental game...

    As of this morning, I'm down 9.4 lbs. That's nearly 20% of the total weight I want to lose. When I came to that realization, things really clicked for me, and my mindset seemed to change. I haven't struggled with the juicing at all - something just fell into place for me this time around and I feel like I'm totally going to be able to do the full month without any problems!! YAY!! :smiley:

    I don't drink much caffeine at all - hardly ever - so I am fortunate to escape that problem...
  • OneTwentyThree
    OneTwentyThree Posts: 186 Member
    edited January 2016
    mihani: thank you for the encouragement
    whats_her: a month of juicing is really impressive. do you eat anything else during this time or have cheat days? good luck with the rest of the month and feel better :)

    Sorry for taking over this post with my questions but I have another one. During the 6 week diet has anyone worked out? I would like to continue to go to my cardio classes but nervous it will make me light headed? Should I add something extra to eat or skip the work out for now ?

    My headache went away and I woke up actually feeling pretty refreshed, as if I had better sleep than usual. I've decided I need to do this diet without caffeine. I've quit so many times, and always go back to it but I know it increases my appetite. At first it suppresses it but then later in the day it comes back twice as strong. Will be going cold turkey tomorrow. Whats_her_name you are lucky to never have started the caffeine addiction.

    I also decided I am not going to count calories, it's too many fruits and vegetables to weigh and record lol. I am just going to stick to Dr. Fuhrman's rules of eating 2lbs of veggies and 1 cup each of beans and grains.

    If you guys have any suggestions or things that helped you during the diet please share.
    Glad I found this group, I plan to implement this type of diet long term.
    I know Mihana mentioned she is a vegan, but how about others do you reintroduce small portions of meat after you finish 6 weeks?
  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Sorry for taking over this post with my questions but I have another one. During the 6 week diet has anyone worked out? I would like to continue to go to my cardio classes but nervous it will make me light headed? Should I add something extra to eat or skip the work out for now ?

    I know most of the people here were still working out or even began working out during the 6 week plan. You might want to go a little easier on yourself over the 6 weeks if you're feeling lightheaded though. I don't think I had any problem, but it has been so long since I did any serious working out I can't remember lol. I remember Terri was working out like a fiend during the 6 week plan, she may have some advice. Glad your headache is gone.

  • tdh1991
    tdh1991 Posts: 511 Member
    One twenty three: when I first started the program I had a hard time getting enough calories in and I was exercising 1-2 hours 5-6 x a week. I did become light headed but as I learned to cook etl and increase my avocado and/or nut intake that problem went away.

    If you follow his protocol you should be fine. If you don't might have problems. The GBOMBS really do work.

  • whats_her_name
    whats_her_name Posts: 716 Member
    10 lbs lost!! :smile: That's 20% of my total goal. Yahoo!!

    Yes, I'm on juice only, nothing else, but there will be 2 breaks.
    - Jan 21 for 4 days for my brother's wedding (we have to travel to BC)
    - Feb 12 for 10 days for our vacation to Mexico

    But I'm aiming for 60 days of juicing before & after those breaks. Then, my plan is:
    - transition out by following a 21 day raw-food cleanse from my nutritionist
    - then transition out of that by following two 30-day meal plans, also from my nutritionist

    I've used some of her recipes, but I've never followed the whole meal plans for long. I'd like to make it through them all and hopefully find some new favorite recipes. :smile:

    And hopefully, after 141 days on all these plans, I'll have experienced some good weight loss!!
  • liapr
    liapr Posts: 648 Member
    Hi guys!
    Happy Friday! It felt like a long week, probably because it was after the nice long holiday.

    I have completed my first week on ETL and I'm down 6lbs!! I was pretttttttty high for me on New Years Day though, so I expected a drop just because I am not constantly cramming my face. Still, it was nice to see it come back down and give me some confidence to keep pushing forward! I'll weigh again next Friday. I agree with Mihani, the first week is usually the worst!

    Karrie, woohoo!! Congrats on the 10lbs!! How are you feeling? Totally agree that it is so much mental!!! Is your cold gone?

    OneTwentyThree: welcome to the group!! I had headaches on and off earlier this week too, definitely detox for me (with a side of computer strain). Glad you are feeling better now! I've been vegetarian for a few years and only recently finally made the jump to vegan. I know a few people around here occasionally have meat though. Have to tailor it to you :)

    Mihani, Leslie Sansone vids are a good alternative to the treadmill too! I am finding that I need to concentrate on mostly food, OR mostly exericse. I'm bad at doing both REALLY well. For now, I'm just walking, although my back has been bent out of shape for a week so that is partly it. We discovered a great park nearby and have been taking the pup on weekend days for a longggg one.
  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Woohoo Karrie!!! You are rocking the juice.

    Woohoo Lia!!! 6 pounds down.

    I am down 4 which is great since I didn't really "officially" get started until Monday. I am waiting for the dreaded stall next week, but I'm going to stop weighing myself every day so I don't get discouraged by the stops and bounces.

    I'm proud of all of us! :)
  • sloth3toes
    sloth3toes Posts: 2,212 Member
    edited January 2016

    The wedding is in Campbell River, on the Island. :smiley:

    My inlaws are on the Island, I spend a fair amount of time over there, it's aweseome.

    Thanks to everyone for the congrats to my son. He's worked really #!$%&*? Hard to achieve this, and he totally deserves it. Yep, he'll be pretty far from home. It's what he wants.

    Karrie, your juicing goals and goals in general are pretty awesome. I was never able to keep it up that long... this time, I went 4 days straight juice, and that was it for me. It does seem to have been enough to give me a pretty good reset from my garbage eating ways. I'm like 9 days DDP ( Diet Dr Pepper for those who don't know... ) and cookie / binge free as well. I had headaches for the first week... probably a combination of no caffeine from DDP, as well as nothing but juice for 4 days.... so, headaches when making any radical changes I think are common.

    And OneTwenty.... exercise when changing things up, like going ETL, is probably quite an individual thing. I did straight juice for a few days 6 months or more ago... and I was exercising fairly hard ( for me ) at the time. I wound up dropping for just a second on the pool deck, and I realized I'd taken it too far. I think you just have to try to use commoon sense. As illustrated by my lack of..... :blush:
    liapr wrote: »
    I know a few people around here occasionally have meat though.

    More than occasionally, for at least one of us.... :hushed:

  • lisabinco
    lisabinco Posts: 1,016 Member
    Whoa! Down 9.4 pounds? That’s great! That IS a motivator.

    Glad the headache issue is gone. It is something Dr F mentions, that most people will have headaches while detoxing and not to give up just when your body needs the detox time. You did well there. I did get headaches when I ditched dairy, but it was gone by the 2nd day. To finally get rid of the rest of the animal products I was eating, that was a good thing. I haven’t eaten meat in over 20 years so maybe I didn’t have as much detoxing to do. I’m sure I will get headaches when I finally pull up my big girl panties and ditch the caffeine. Dr F did say that if a cup or two of coffee helps you stay on plan, then go ahead. It’s the 2-3 cups after that — I need to watch that.

    I don’t really count calories either. I do log my food, but more so that I can see sodium levels. Too much sodium is the devil for me. It was really useful, here on MFP, to log my food initially because I had no idea how much sodium or sugar or fat I was eating, and it became a great teaching tool for me, to learn what to steer away from and what to eat more of. It has improved my nutritional knowledge base a lot. That and Dr F, of course.

    I didn’t exercise much at all when I started ETL. I’m not much of an exerciser now either. I believe what you eat is more important than exercise. But when I do exercise, it’s because I have to mow the grass or shovel snow or clean out the garage, stuff like that. I do want to mark today, however, as the first time I’ve ever knowingly done over 10K steps. My new FitBit tells me I did 10,537 steps today — all without stepping in the gym. I shoveled snow for about 2 hours, then spent the rest of the day going up and down the stairs and out to the garage packing up Christmas tree, ornaments, decorations. Whew! No wonder I don’t do anything as active as this every day!
  • Mihani
    Mihani Posts: 3,879 Member
    Lisa, I think everyday activities are great natural exercise. I tend to get lazy sometimes and I'll think if I just spent an hour or so a day on cleaning and yardwork I'd be getting great exercise and my house would be a lot more neat and tidy lol.
  • whats_her_name
    whats_her_name Posts: 716 Member
    I never counted calories on ETL either - I just made sure every meal was heaped with veggies and I measured my carbs to make sure I didn't go over 1 cup.

    I did count one day, out of curiosity's sake, and it was only 800 calories for the whole day, and I was full to the point of bursting (I actually pushed away from my supper because I was over-stuffed), so I decided I didn't need to worry about calories at all. As long as you're getting all your servings of beans and fruits and veggies!!

    The cold is still nagging, but it's almost gone. I need to start making bedtime a priority so I can get consistent sleep. Not something I'm good about. I treasure my quiet time after the kids go to bed, and now that they stay up past 9pm, I tend to push my bedtime back too. And we all know that lack of sleep isn't good for weight loss and overall health (and it's probably why I haven't shaken off this cold yet...)
  • Carla_wfpb
    Carla_wfpb Posts: 1,331 Member
    Hi everyone! Nice to see familiar names and also some new people. I'm back after a rather long absence. I was eating badly and got back into all of my old bad habits.
    Today is day 6 for me back on ETL and so far I'm sticking to it. It feels good! My husband is on board too, which helps a lot. We're each cooking a big pot of something ETL friendly a few times a week - 1 for lunches and 1 for dinners. We eat them every day for 3 or 4 days straight. Not for everyone, but works for us.
    For me, this month is about being strict with my food. I'm not worrying about exercise or anything else for now.
    cheers to a successful nutritarian new year!
  • lisabinco
    lisabinco Posts: 1,016 Member
    Mihani wrote: »
    Lisa, I think everyday activities are great natural exercise. I tend to get lazy sometimes and I'll think if I just spent an hour or so a day on cleaning and yardwork I'd be getting great exercise and my house would be a lot more neat and tidy lol.

    Oh yes. Same here. But then housework would get in the way of my favorite (sedentary) activities -- knitting and quilting!
  • lisabinco
    lisabinco Posts: 1,016 Member
    I need to start making bedtime a priority so I can get consistent sleep. Not something I'm good about. I treasure my quiet time after the kids go to bed, and now that they stay up past 9pm, I tend to push my bedtime back too.

    Same here. We don't have kids at home anymore, but with hubby gone (visiting family) I tend to stay up well past midnight knitting or sewing, watching recorded shows on TV that he doesn't like, and that results in groggy mornings and dark circles under my eyes. I know I need to get more sleep. Hubby tells me I'm more pleasant that way. LOL!
  • lisabinco
    lisabinco Posts: 1,016 Member
    Interesting advice for sugar cravings: "If you're craving sugar, drink a whole 8-oz glass of water first and then wait 15 minutes. Your sugar craving might just be a craving for water. Or, after 15 minutes, you'll realize you are actually hungry. Then it's time for a healthy snack." First time I've heard of this. Wonder if it works?
  • lisabinco
    lisabinco Posts: 1,016 Member
    Carla, we do the same thing; cook big pots of something and eat on it for a few days. It means I only cook twice a week or so, and that's good for me. My crockpot is my handiest and most used kitchen appliance.