Day 48

The last couple of days have been a little frustrating. For no reason that I can see, my weight has been up. It was at 187.2 on Thursday and 186.4 this morning. However, as I mentioned before here, it isn't always clear what is going on and I just have to relax. My next measurement update should tell me a little more. I know my clothes are still fitting loosely.

Meals yesterday were a cheeseburger bowl at noon and some leftover hamloaf for dinner. I added even more fat than usual to the cheeseburger bowl. It was very good and more filling than usual. I really didn't hungry again until late, when I had a little of the leftover hamloaf. I'm wondering now if I was truly hungry last night. I didn't get hungry until I smelled the dinner that K was cooking so it was probably triggered by an ancillary insulin response.

I had something interesting happen to me last night. The boys get a small bowl of ice cream twice a week. I was a huge ice cream hound before going ZC so this has been one of the things I have missed a little. I was scooping out some Tillamook Mudslide, which was my favorite, and got a glob of it on my finger as I was digging out the last of it. I absent-mindedly licked it off and found that it absolutely tasted terrible! It was very chemically tasting to me and left a horrid aftertaste. Not so tempting anymore.

I mentioned before that I had checked my blood pressure at Wal-Mart and it was down quite a bit. Well, yesterday I was at the doctor's office and they checked it. It was 110/77 ! That is very low for me.

I was on a weight loss thread on a board that I frequent (not a weight loss forum, though). Someone mentioned that they were doing "no carb". I mentioned to him how I have been doing and the good things happening with eating zero carb. The silence was resounding. I felt like the crazy person in the room.

However, that thread is definitely following the typical diet. People start out gung-ho and go low calorie while exerciing like madmen. They will drop a bunch of weight right off the bat (a lot of that water because by dropping calories, they automatically drop carbs). After a while, the weight loss slows or stops and the cravings start, because the insulin levels are still too high and the cells are internally starving. Injuries start showing up because of over-training. People start to fall off because they can't withstand the call of their starving cells.

The ones that grit it out find the weight loss slow or even starting to reverse since excess insulin will still store fat, despite being in a calorie inbalance. Because the cells aren't getting enough fuel, the bodies' metabolism slows, which makes it even harder to lose weight. With the slower metabolism, it is even harder to get up for exercise. It's a viscious cycle.

Here's a nice blog post that explains the siren call of starving cells:

Calorie Count Menu Laws

Here is another blog post about semi-starvation diets (any diet that cuts calories to create a negative calorie balance is a semi-starvation diet).

Semi-Starvation Diets

One guy who has fallen off the dieting a couple of times sniffed that "eating just meat isn't very healthy".

Well, let's see: I have found a diet that leaves me with no cravings, removes fat and adds muscle without working out all that much or counting anything, dropped my blood pressure to normal and leaves me with way more energy than I have had in years. If that is unhealthy, I'll take my chances.

In fact, I posted this on the ZIOH board this morning in response to the question of "what has ZC done for you?"

I'm still fairly early in my ZC journey (48 days) but this is it, so far.

Down about 12 pounds (it was 15 pounds, but I seemed to have caught Carolina's mysterious 3 pound gain bug this week). More importantly, I dropped from a tight 36 inch waist jeans to wearing a khaki shorts with a size 32 waist. They run big but I can button some old 32 inch Levis 501's from the old days. They are tight but I can button them. Not that long ago I couldn't get them over my butt.

I seem to be putting on a fair amount of muscle, despite not working out very much.

I have a lot more energy. I have done the bare minimum around the house with various projects the last few years because I have been just too tired. I think I have gotten more done over the last month than I had the last couple of years. I still get pretty tired after working around the house/yard, so I have a ways to go.

I went to the doctor's office yesterday to have a weird mole removed for biopsy. They checked my blood pressure and it was 110/77. For the last 10 years probably, it has been in the 140/85 range.

The middle aged men here may understand this, but I can pee a lot harder. It appears that my prostate gland has shrunk a lot. It would get really bad if I ate a lot of carbs.

I used to have a constant problem with tooth pain. It always seemed like I had one molar or another that would bother me for some reason that the dentist couldn't find. I haven't had any of that in four or five weeks.

I was having a chronic issue with both of my elbows. I had bad tennis and golfer's elbow on both arms for over a year and it would not clear, no matter what I did. They still twinge on my now and then but they are a lot better.

I wish I could say that it was helping my hair but I have actually been thinning more since I started ZC. I may have to look into MJH's Zero Hair program soon.

In general, my hay fever is better, though, with the pine pollen flying right now, it isn't so great. Better than normal, though.

My sleep isn't better but I have always sucked at sleeping.

My digestive system works correctly for the first time in my entire life.

Good stuff and looking forward to it getting better as I go.

Speaking of workouts, I have been doing a Tiger Moves and push-ups routine two times a week for the last four weeks. I do one set of Tiger Moves at high intensity, a joint warm-up routine, several sets of push-ups (I have been doing them against a counter that is about 2.5 feet high because I needed to strengthen my elbows before doing them on the ground), about 20 Hindu squats, 20 Good Mornings and one set of planks for as long as I can go (a little over a minute so far). I was able to do 105 push-ups (in sets of 30, 25, 25, 25) yesterday and felt good (not sore today). I should be able to go to the ground now since my elbows aren't bothering me.

Day 46

Yesterday was a weird day, hunger-wise. I wasn't hungry all morning. By about 1:30, I was thinking about food but still not hungry. Since I was going to cook dinner for G and I, I didn't want to eat a bunch that late so I would be hungry by dinner. I decided to have a few bites of pemmican and a cheesestick to tide me over.

By the time I got home at 3:30, I was really hungry. I had a hot dog and a slice of cheese. I then kind of lost my mind and had a handful of a mix of cashews and macadamia nuts. Not only were they super salty, I didn't even really enjoy them. It was a carb hit, too - about 15g. Ugh.

Dinner was a decent sized ribeye that had plenty of fat.

I was down .6 pounds, to 186.2. That is still up 2 pounds from my low.

One good thing, though. Over the weekend, I was in Wal-Mart and checked my blood pressure on their machine. I don't know how accurate those things are but it read 127/77. I used to be in the 140/85 range, so it is an improvement. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so will probably get it checked for real then.

I have decided that I am eating too much dairy lately. Originally, I wanted to use cheese mainly as a garnish but it has become a meal finisher and a quick snack when I am hungry but don't want to eat a full meal yet. There is nothing wrong with being hungry for a while until the meal, so I want to make a conscious effort to cut back.

Day 45 Addendum

The "beef bacon" ribs that I mentioned before are flanken-style short ribs.

Day 45

It's day 45, which puts me halfway through my original 90 trial run with zero carb. I actually don't see myself stopping or adding carbs any time soon. I will probably go at least six months before deciding whether to make this permanent. My feeling at this time is that I probably will make it permanent.

Yesterday was another hungry day. I wasn't real hungry early but had a small short rib and a cheesestick because I was going to mow the lawn. It's a three hour ordeal with my crummy lawn so I didn't want to run out of energy halfway through.

I was beat after mowing. I was hungry and craving carbs. I ended up having several bites of full fat cottage cheese. It is four grams of carbs per serving but I didn't have a full servings' worth.

I had picked up some ribs on clearance Sunday morning and they had been marinating over night. The ribs were a chunk of baby back ribs and also some thin cut ribs that were cut across the bone. I am not sure what the particular cut is called but they looked like big strips of bacon with four oval bone chunks.

I had marinated them in my "Crying Tiger" mix.

Marinade:

1/2 cup fish sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground pepper
4 stalks lemongrass, finely chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce or Golden Mountain sauce
3 tablespoons peanut oil

I grilled the back ribs until the meat was 150 gedrees. The "beef bacon" was grilled two minutes per side. With ribs, I turn the two outside burners to high and turn off the middle burner. I grill the meat in the middle over the unheated burner.

The "beef bacon" ribs were awesome. They were still quite rare and very, very fatty. I had to stop myself at four as I could easily have eaten all of them. The back ribs were also very good but not as good as the rib strips.

For dinner, I grilled up burgers and hot dogs, Even though I didn't think I was very hungry, I ended up eating three cheeseburgers and three hot dogs (less than a gram of carbs per dog). I also ended up drinking about 32 oz of ice tea during the BBQ. All of this was after 7 pm, so it was a pretty late dinner.

Probably because of the huge dinner, I was up 2.6 pounds, to 186.8. The weird thing is that last week my khaki shorts were tight at this weight. Today, I put them on freshly laundered and they fit fine and weren't tight at all. I don't know where the almost three pounds is but I am not too worried about it.

Day 44

Saturday was another "not hungry day". I didn't get hungry until noon-ish and had a lamb sirloin steak. I hadn't had lamb since I was a kid and we always had it with mint jelly. I was looking at the package and it mentioned different seasonings. One of them was dijon mustard. I didn't have any dijon, so tried it with stone ground mustard. It was very good that way. The lamb was also pretty fatty. The fat actually tasted better than the meat.

I didn't get hungry again until late in the day, around 7 pm. I had a big cheeseburger bowl that I added a little salsa (2 carbs), sour cream and a little guacamole.

My weight Sunday morning was 184.4 pounds. That was up .2 pounds.

Yesterday, I was much hungrier. We were grocery shopping in the morning and I got hungry while out and about. I had two colby/jack cheesesticks to tide me over 'til we go home. I then had another lamb steak and a small cheeseburger bowl.

I ended up getting hungry again around 7 pm and had a big chunk of meatloaf. The meatloaf as made with a 2:1 ground buffalo to ground up ham mixture with heavy cream, egg and crushed pork rinds to hold it together. It was good but a bit salty.

My weight this morning was 184.2, back down that .2 pounds. That is three days in a row of close to 184.2. I guess that whoosh was for real.

Day 42 - Six week update

I have been busy the last couple of days and haven't much time to update the blog. I was bummed yesterday morning when I weighed and found I had bounced up .8 pounds, to 187.4 for no real reason. I was surprised because I have not been hungry lately and have not been eating much.

I have been thinking lately that I have not been eating enough fat. Most of the meals this week have been fairly lean. I have added some fat in cheese and a little cream in my tea, but I don't think it is enough. I have been dragging a little and a little down, both signs of not enough fat. I also think it might be what has contributed to my weight bouncing all week.

Despite not eating much on Thursday, I didn't get hungry yesterday until 11 AM. I decided to up the fat with the meal, so I had four sausage patties and four eggs with cheese. The eggs were fresh farm eggs and the yolks were huge. It was very filling and I didn't get hungry again until right before bed at 10 PM. I had a short rib that I added a little tallow to and a slice of cheddar.

I was completely shocked when I got on the scale this morning and it read 184.2. That's an overnight loss of 3.2 pounds and a total loss of 15.4 pounds. I don't know how real it is yet because I didn't eat much yesterday, I weighed later than usual and I had a bathroom issue during the night. Still, I'll take it and did all my weekly measurements anyway, since it was the six week mark.


Here is list that shows my current measurements and the changes from last time (two weeks) and since the beginning.



My chest and biceps are actually up some since last time. I found that interesting, since I haven't gotten fatter there. I have been doing Tiger Moves and push-ups a couple of times a week the last two weeks. Maybe they are doing some good.

I haven't been very hungry today so far. I am wondering if the hunger is because I am dumping fat. With my insulin levels down, it seems like I should be unclogging those drains from my fat cells. With more circulating fatty acids in my blood, I shouldn't be very hungry, except for when I need protein.

Day 40

I didn't hungry until about 11 AM and had my ubiquitous cheeseburger bowl. I was hungry again about 5 PM and had a cheesestick to tide me over 'til dinner. For dinner, we had chicken fajitas and I grilled up some short ribs so I could get a little extra fat.

The chicken fajitas were a little carbier than what I usually eat. It was chicken breast, a little onion and red pepper, sauce (from a mix), some guacamole, cheese and some sour cream. I also had one rib. Unfortunately they were leaner than usual and I also accidentally cooked them too much. They cooked much faster than usual, for some reason. The ribs were marinated in fish sauce, soy sauce, garlic and little peanut oil for two hours.

I was down .2 pounds this morning, to 186.6 lbs. I had to move to a smaller pair of shorts since my other pair were falling off, even with a belt. These are a 32 waist and the last were a 34. I would be more excited about the 32 waist if I didn't know these ran big. I have some old 32 inch waist Levis from ages ago that, for some reason, I'm still holding onto that won't button yet. I'm getting there, though, and plan on wearing those Levi's soon.