On the road...

[pam61371]

I haven't introduced myself yet! lol Hi! :D

I started low carbing March 2002 -- more off than on (as attested to by the 50 lbs I gained).

I was at my highest weight this past Jan 16, 2006 -- 322.5 (F, 5'3").

While I was feeling the worst about myself that I have in a LOOOOOOONG time, I read My Big Fat Greek Diet (sorry, don't know how to link it) -- a medical doctor himself lost 270 lbs. The first half of the book is his story; the 2nd half is devoted to behavior changes. The key theme is "You have to change the way you SEE to change the way you LOOK".

I decided to do a medically-supervised liquid diet. I wanted to get food away from me, and regain control of my emotional/stress eating issues. So I designed some shakes, modified them according to the nutritionist and doc, and got started. I'm also working on reprogramming my behavioral eating. When I go back to eating food, I'll have to then start putting into practice what I'm mentally working on right now.

My shakes are low carb. The nutrionist did not like this -- she wanted high carb, low fat, moderate protein. I knew I wanted low carb, though, so changed them behind her back. I read PP and modified my shakes to reflect a better, low carb/high protein balanced diet.

Since Jan 16, 2006, I've lost 59.1 lbs. Here's my website: http://www.drnickshousecalls.com/HealthStewards/Sarah0121/steward.php although they got hacked in a major way a couple days ago, and as of 10 min ago, it was still down. The main site is www.healthsteward.com (http://www.healthsteward.com).

I don't have bloodwork results, I need to get copies from the doc. But exercise results:

started barely being able to keep up with a 30-minute Richard Simmons video; now can complete my Taebo Energy video
started barely making it through 10 minutes on my elliptical trainer at the lowest intensity; now I can do a 30-60 minute workout (while watching a Buffy DVD! lol), depending on the day/workout
started with a full closet of clothes; now I'm down by literally one half! When summer comes, I'll have to do some shopping! (gee, that's too bad! lol :D)I'm not a finished product yet, but I'm on the road and feeling great. Thanks for this great board!

[mcsblues]

Hi Pam and welcome aboard!

Congratulations on your loss so far. I am impressed by your commitment and I totally agree about the need to change the way you feel about yourself as well as what you eat before a meaningful new lifestyle can be adopted. I agree with the author of your book that you also need to examine and deal with the reasons for your overeating behaviour.

But (yes, isn't there always a 'but' :)) I think you are doing lasting damage to your metabolism by adopting an ultra low calorie liquid diet as your means of achieving short term weight loss, even if it is a low carb (and yes I do understand that you want to introduce real food once weight loss has been achieved - just like Yphantides).

IMHO the very best way to handle your issues with food is to confront them head on - not put that bit off while you limit yourself to an artificial diet. And because a low carb way of life is about so much more than weight loss, the sooner you adopt the simple dietary changes and start reaping all the rewards the better - and if you do this, the changes you will make once you have lost the weight you want to lose really will be minimal. Believe me you really can permanently change your way of eating to what it will be for the rest of your life today!

You are clearly a strong willed person. You have just proved that. If you haven't already done so, I would highly recommend you read both the Eades books and see the whole picture about eating real food from now on.

[pam61371]

Hi Malcolm, and thanks for the welcome! :)

I'm not actually doing an ultra low calorie diet, it's just low carb. My minimum caloric intake is about 750, max around 1150, depending on how hungry I am that day. My goal per day is to have 96g of protein (my "prescription" right now), 56g fat, and 9g net carb. I confess I did try the very low cal route, around 550, for almost 2 weeks. YUCK! I had no energy, I lost no weight, it was awful!

Given that I've lost weight, gained lean body mass (not a lot - 2.5 lbs so far), and improved my blood results for both ferriting and one of the thyroid tests (sorry, my results are at the doc's I should really have copies), I just don't think I'm doing lasting damage to myself.

As for the behavioral side of eating, yes, of course, one possibility would be to say "well, I have to eat food on maintenance, may as well learn how to deal with that now" while losing the weight. The problem that's specific to me is that have done that NUMEROUS times, and always failed, for a variety of reasons.

This time, I decided the best way for me to effect change would be via a different approach: to separate the issues. So right now, I'm learning and reprogramming myself about WHY I eat and HOW I eat. When I'm at or near my goal weight, I'll start adding to the mix, learning/reprogramming WHAT I eat.

I've read PP closely, but only skimmed Lifeplan. I look forward to reading it closely as well, it looks like it goes more in depth in some things than PP.

I look forward to getting back to normal eating habits. I used to have them, until a few years ago and "stuff" happened, etc. I can remember having a healthy attitude toward food, and eating healthily. Now, eating healthily will be a low carb WOE, along the lines of PP and Atkins 4th stage Maintenance. But I want to get back to those good habits I once had. As one of my friends put it, "Food is just food! You ever said food was Valium?" lol :)

[Billie]

Pam welcome to this board, lots of nice people here and very knowledgable ones so I hope you feel welcomed and as will heed some of their advice.

While you have lost a lot of weight, we really don't recommend the shake route here at all. Reprogramming ourselves to eat healthy is very difficult and everyone does it a bit differently. But eating real food, real protein and veggies and fruit is really very important. Everything you eat affects your metabolism and bodily functions, I too would think that you are not doing your body a great deal of good and in the long run of life, that is what we have.

I think that your calorie level is dangerously low, you need to fuel your body, your organs, and blood with more calories, you are kind of starving your body of the nutrients and calories it needs to keep you healthy.

I certainly want to be encouraging to you and to smile at your successes and I agree with Malcom you must be a very strong willed person, so I would just suggest perhaps now since you got that initial weight off, you start following this program more closely. Maybe even starting with one meal a day and two shakes and then gradually moving more into real food.

Dealing with life issues is a hard hard job but give yourself the best opportunity to do it by fueling your body with some "good stuff".

Again welcome in to the board, great people are surrounding you and hope that we can assist you with your program and your roadmap to health.

[Gaelen]

Pam, congratulations on your weight loss; it is an achievement to have stuck to your plan for three months and to have made the gains you've made in fitness. However (like Malcolm said, there's always a 'but,'), to continue seeing progress and gains without damaging your body and your metabolism, you do need to address how long you plan to stay on your self-designed liquid diet--which, no matter how successful--is neither low carbing nor Protein Power as it was designed to be done.

I'm not actually doing an ultra low calorie diet, it's just low carb. My minimum caloric intake is about 750, max around 1150, depending on how hungry I am that day. My goal per day is to have 96g of protein (my "prescription" right now), 56g fat, and 9g net carb. I confess I did try the very low cal route, around 550, for almost 2 weeks. YUCK! I had no energy, I lost no weight, it was awful!:)

According to the charts in Protein Power Lifeplan, a woman who is 5'3" and weighs 260 (which, by your story, should be pretty close to your current stats) should be getting a minimum daily intake of at least 120g protein. That's around 25g more protein per day than you're getting...and as you know from reading Protein Power, getting your minimum daily protein in is even more critical to creating a healthier metabolism than your level of carb restriction.

Your goals of 96g protein, 56g fat and 9g net carbs only equal 924 calories...and that is considered 'ultra low calorie,' for someone of your size. You are not eating enough nutrients to maintain your basic body functions, and the longer you do that, the more they will be compromised. While the weight loss in the first months may be dramatic, at some point you will run the risk of compromising your body systems--and the weight loss will slow, although you're doing nothing different. That's the first sign that something is wrong. Unless carefully medically supervised by a doctor who does understand low carbing and how to do it correctly, and who is on board with your preferred way of eating, you could risk compromising organs, your digestive and circulatory systems, and your long-term metabolic health. As you discovered yourself, your own body rebelled and refused to lose at 550 calories. It's still rebelling at your current intake--it's just doing it behind the scenes. By the time the rebellion shows up in your bloodwork, it may be too late to reverse the trend of damage.

You have a lot of weight to lose--I'm guessing you'll have a goal weight in the 140-150lb range, so you're at least 100 lbs away from that. Staying on the protein shakes alone until you're close to your goal weight could take six to eight more months, or longer...and could change your metabolism and ability to handle solid food forever. You won't just have to relearn to eat from the emotional eating standpoint; your body will have to relearn how to handle solid food. As someone who's been through two major abdominal surgeries in the last year, even brief periods of having to do liquid diets have wreaked havoc on my digestive system when I added solid food back in. No, I didn't have gastric bypass--I had liver resection and colon surgery--but I can promise you, the road to solid foods after even a brief period on liquids only was not an easy thing.

And one more thing, Pam...and please understand that this comes from a very deep well of support, not from criticism...

As for the behavioral side of eating, yes, of course, one possibility would be to say "well, I have to eat food on maintenance, may as well learn how to deal with that now" while losing the weight. The problem that's specific to me is that have done that NUMEROUS times, and always failed, for a variety of reasons. <snip> I look forward to getting back to normal eating habits. I used to have them, until a few years ago and "stuff" happened, etc. I can remember having a healthy attitude toward food, and eating healthily. Now, eating healthily will be a low carb WOE, along the lines of PP and Atkins 4th stage Maintenance. But I want to get back to those good habits I once had.

Pam, trying to 'diet' numerous times and failing for various reasons is absolutely, totally not 'specific to you.' If it were, there wouldn't be forums like this one, WeightWatchers, Nutrisystems, and 500 variations of diet books on the shelves at your local bookstore! Nearly all of us have had to deal with this particular issue. You're not alone, nor are you unique, in this struggle unless you convince yourself that you are. So don't try to reinvent the wheel. ;) As for wanting to get back to 'those good habits I once had,' -- go take a look at some of the things that have been posted for the April Challenge, which is all about building one good habit during the month of April. Over and over, behaviorists repeat that the only way to embed a good habit is to practice it. If you want to learn to eat healthy, then you have to start and practice healthy eating. It's fine to have separated your issues, and to tackle each separately--but if you want to have long-term success at healthy eating, you need to start to practice it as soon as possible to build your skills. You can't pigeonhole making healthy low carb food choices to a certain part of the program--they are part of the program from the beginning, and you need to learn how to handle them long before you hit maintenance.

Welcome in...we're here to help.

[mcsblues]

Hope you are still with us Pam. As you can see, you will get nothing but support and constructive advice here and as an overeater myself, while eating a diet of 99% real, whole, low carb foods doesn't solve every issue that I have ... it sure does make dealing with them a whole lot easier!:)

Keep us informed because we really can help.

[SherryJ]

How "funny", Malcolm... I, too, have had Pam on my mind!

Pam, I DO hope you are still around... I KNOW these people, and have for YEARS... believe me, they ONLY have YOUR best interest at heart.

Even if you're mad, or hurt, ask WHY, and let us help you understand... perhaps in all that, YOU will be helping someone else as well.

Sherry

[pam61371]

Oh man!! I just typed a long thanks/explanation, and got timed out or something!! :(

Okay, here goes again:

Thank you everyoe for all of your input and concern! It was apparent, I was not hurt or offended! :) I should have included more info in my first post, which I'll do now.

PP comes into play b/c that's what I'm basing my low carbs (they say you actually don't even need any, but my body doesn't like that) and protein grams on.

Per PP's diretions, I calculated my LBM, and multiplied by the requisite activity factors, adding one fctor b/c I'm so overweight right now (something else PP recommends). So I started at 117 lbs LBM, .7 activity factor, for ~81g protein. Now I have 121 lbs LBM, .8 activity factor (more exercise!), for ~96g protein. That's how I got that number.

Before I started this business, I got the blessings of a nutritionist well-experienced w/ Optifast (commercial liquid diet vendor, NOT low carb) and my doctor. Since I've started, my doc has checked blood/kidney/liver every 2-4 weeks, and keeps track of my EKG (have had 2, I think, so far). Everything a-okay, and improving. I don't have the blood tests copies, but I remember 3 that have plagued me for years: ferritin level has now gone up to smack dab in the middle of normal, and same for whichever thyroid test she did (I mix them up in my mnd, sorry), and c-reactive protein has plummeted. I don't remember my blood lipids, but those have never been a problem for me.

Folks, I hope you'll tell me if this is not the correct forum for me to be on right now. I understand that this is not "by the book" PP and I haven't been on the board enough to get a good "flavor" of the place, I know that some LCarb boards are pretty strict, others not so much. I came here b/c I was so excited about reading PP and my protein prescription. When I'm back to foods, my WOE will be combo PP and ATkins Maintenance (must watch cream and gluten products, those trigger me big time!)

Also, just to let you know, I'm 35 and have been dieting 20 years, always trying the "build the habit for life" route, regardless of the actual diet. This time, I want to be the LAST time, and the time that STICKS. So I decided enough beating my head against the wall trying to deal with all the facets at once, let's split it up. So I go to a behavioral mod counselor who is helping me with this, and is onboard with my wanting to separate the issues.

I do understand that all of us who are/were heavy got here by eating inappropriately, many for the same reasons as me. Just for me, I felt like it was insane for me to keep trying to change in the same way, though.

So anyway, thank you everyone for your concern. I'm being well-monitored, I'm on top of things for my part, and so far everything is going well. If my doc says anything otherwise, the first thing to go will be the diet -- I mean, my GOAL is to get HEALTHY! lol

Please do let me know whether I shouldn't be here right now, I will not be hurt or offended, I understand that all these boards are specific to people with similar circumstances/likes/tastes/WOEs/etc. :) Doesn't mean I can't come back when I'm enjoing the PP lifestyle!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter, or a really great Sunday (for non-Easter-ers), or a really great Monday, since I guess I have NO IDEA where everyone's from! lol ;)

[edited to add:]
Oops, I forgot time length. I will run out of stuff around July 27, so I plan around July 17 to slowly start reintegrating food -- like shake still for breakfast, lunch, real dinner maybe, something like that.

[Billie]

Glad that you got a chance to revisit us Pam.

You are welcome to be apart of this board certainly, no problem. It is about 98% based on protein power with discussions on other programs as to how they may or may not relate to PP. Since the Drs. Eades are the ultimate managers and certainly fiscally responsible for the board, we do adhere for the most part to that kind of lpw carb program.

As you are getting ready to transition to eating more foods, I would suggest taking some time and studying the books and the program. YOU can choose the carbs you want to it and you can choose the protein, so if gluten and cream products trigger you--heck you can choose not to make that part of your plan. We all have our triggers, but the beauty is WE can choose what we are eating. How great is that!! And also make yourself comfortable around the board, ask questions, get mentally ready to eat solid foods, that will be an adjustment not only for your body but your thinking, at least it would be for me!

At any rate, glad you checked back in and hope to see you around often!

[Nean]

Wow Pam, sounds like you are super prepared & really committed. Good job finding/ creating a liquid diet that meets your needs. Keep us updated please. The liquid way is not for the majority, but I'm so glad it's working for you!

[Belfrybat]

Welcome Pam. It appears you are following very closely to a program designed by Dr. Mike Eades several years ago -- "Thin so Fast" in which he recommends 4 shakes a day and one small meal. He then has a good section on transitioning to a Low Carb lifestyle which, of course, a few years later, he wrote a book about. I've never read anything from him that indicates he would not support this program, and it seems that for some folks it's better in the beginning to start on something that person can manage. The issue, of course, is transitioning to a healthy eating plan that can be maintained for a lifetime, which is where "PPLP" comes into play.

You can find "Thin so Fast" at www.half.com (http://www.half.com) for just a few bucks and I highly recommend it to you for when you are ready to transition into regular LC eating. I think it would be a good bridge between the liquid diet you are currently following and PPLP.