Simeons Protocol -- P2 Week of 6/20/11

[1moretry]

Originally Posted by dbunny

Good Morning all~ Happy Sunday.
Lost 1.5 pounds from yesterday! That is a total of 11 since last Monday.

I went online and read some reviews about HCG. I think I will stop doing that as there is a lot of negativity out there. My personal reasons for doing this are because I continue to gain and lose the same 10 to 15 pounds (or 20) and cannot break past a certain point no matter what I do. I am doing this to break past that point, re-learn some better eating habits, and follow the program. I started locarb way back in 1999 with awesome results, but would go on and off and gain more each time, but take less off the next round. I would keep all the eating habits I had on Atkins (heavy cream in coffee, lots o' butter) but eat bad carbs and we all know what happens with high fat, high carb, right? I couldn't stop myself, though. I feel like I have been stuck in this cycle for too long. I am ready to stop the madness and retrain my body! So no more reading negative reviews! GO HCG!!!!

You might want to read Gary Taubes' new book. I have not finished it yet, but have already discovered the reason you craved those carbs and the effect it has on putting the weight back on, plus some more. It has to do with insulin and how it works in our bodies.

I can't go into the details here, but he explains it all in ways that make it clear that it's not that there's something wrong with you that you should beat yourself up about. Your body has been just doing what it's genetically designed to do and you (like myself) are genetically predisposed to gain weight because of the way our bodies respond to carbs. My husband and his whole family don't have this problem. He craves and eats carbs all of the time and never gains weight.

I am having to accept that high-glycemic carbs are out of my life for the rest of my life now and am planning on figuring out how to eat without them. P3 will be a new beginning for me and I intend to enjoy what I can without moaning about what I can't. I was diagnosed as allergic to gluten and the only starches I was eating (and those in very limited amounts) were potatoes, rice, and corn -- specifically the ones that are the worst for raising insulin levels and creating insulin resistance, which is what really makes us fat.

Taubes explains the cravings in physiologic terms and takes the "bad" out of the equation and puts the whole thing into a "cause and effect" perspective. If we are genetically predisposed to gain weight (I certainly am -- my mother and all of my siblings are obese, despite valiant attempts with Atkins, TOPS, etc.), then our tissues develop insulin resistance and we head down the slippery slope of gaining weight and can't seem to keep it off. It's not in your head. It's in your genes and there IS something you can do about it, but not without sacrificing those high-glycemic carbs for the rest of your life. Actually, once one gets that message, it's empowering -- or at least it is for me.

[1moretry]

Originally Posted by jabbok

I am down .8 today.

On a sad note we had to put down one of our 14 year old dogs this morning

Cindy,

I missed seeing that. I know how much of a hole a beloved pet leaves when their gone. Am sending you a cyber hug and hope that helps a bit.

[shelbyla]

New thread for the week here...

Simeons Protocol -- P2 Week of 6/27/11

[1moretry]

Originally Posted by dbunny

Good Morning all~ Happy Sunday.
Lost 1.5 pounds from yesterday! That is a total of 11 since last Monday.

I went online and read some reviews about HCG. I think I will stop doing that as there is a lot of negativity out there. My personal reasons for doing this are because I continue to gain and lose the same 10 to 15 pounds (or 20) and cannot break past a certain point no matter what I do. I am doing this to break past that point, re-learn some better eating habits, and follow the program. I started locarb way back in 1999 with awesome results, but would go on and off and gain more each time, but take less off the next round. I would keep all the eating habits I had on Atkins (heavy cream in coffee, lots o' butter) but eat bad carbs and we all know what happens with high fat, high carb, right? I couldn't stop myself, though. I feel like I have been stuck in this cycle for too long. I am ready to stop the madness and retrain my body! So no more reading negative reviews! GO HCG!!!!

This may come as a shock, but my doctor and Taubes both say we don't need those high-glycemic carbs at all. My doctor goes even further and says that we don't need carbs at all -- just protein and fat. He says eating carbs is like putting newspapers in your fireplace and burning fat is like burning oak -- the carbs burn hot and burn out quickly and the fats burn slow and steady for a long time. Taubes explains that our bodies burn carbs first in order to control our blood sugar from getting too high, but when we have gone through them, it turns to fat as its natural fuel.

I strongly suggest that you read Taubes' new book and leave out the grains and other starches the next time around. The madness comes when we think we can override what our bodies are designed to do, something like beating the odds in a casino. The body (or the casino) will always win over time and that means that unless we work with how our bodies work, we will only gain weight and not "win" by losing it.

I totally understand your frustration. I had the same experience over and over again and over the years, my insulin resistance got worse, no matter what I did -- even eating a moderate amount of carbs only held the ground on my weight, but my insulin and blood sugar (and blood pressure and cholesterol) kept creeping up. I had given up hope of ever losing this weight and because of all of the previous disappointments (I gained weight on Atkins the second time around), I reluctantly decided to give this one more try (hence my screen name).

I am just finishing up my first round on HCG, and it has been an experience of many ups and downs and having to come to terms with my own body and how it works (and doesn't). I have learned SO MUCH and knowledge is truly power. I had to revise my expectations several times, and am done with setting goals in terms of my weight.

I am now accepting that my body has its wisdom and its own way of doing things and am looking forward to P3 as a new opportunity to eat differently. I may not ever add back the starches and most certainly won't add back sugars in any form. I generally don't miss sweets and I am going to have to learn to like fats again, after so many years of trying to avoid them. However, this feels like an opportunity that I just can't pass up and while I feel like a guinea pig in my own laboratory, taking an experimental attitude is very freeing for me.

Now you have also learned what DOESN'T work for you, and that opens the door on a new opportunity to find what DOES work for you. We are all very different and it begins with our genetics. Coming to terms with the deck we were dealt is the first step to accepting our limits and enjoying ourselves within them. Beating ourselves up for something we have no control over doesn't help anything. Accepting ourselves as we are and working within that is empowering, once one gets over the judging of ourselves as having been "bad," when we were just being driven by our body's natural forces. Taubes explains this in such a reasonable and non-judgmental way, it's like sunlight on a dark day.

[snaggle]

Thank you for your posts 1moretry. I struggle with the whole issue of "giving up carbs forever" too. I think I will buy Taubes book. I do not have the sensitivities to them that you have, but do really feel that if I am to be successful long term at managing my weight, they will need to have a very small part in my woe.
Good luck.

[amylou]

Originally Posted by chicamala

Was down .6 yesterday morning and 1.2 this morning. I took my scale camping, so that kind of kept me honest...and believe me, it was so, so, so tough to eat my prepared protocol foods when everyone else was eating it up camping style! The other downfall, I forgot my dressing preparation and had to eat my salad dry. So not satisfying!

I am heading out camping too this weekend. I plan to just pre-portion out my meats, but I'm still a little concerned about the change in environment. Usually camping for us involves s'mores and the like. I will have to make some of the chili I've seen around here to get me by too.



Any other tips from anyone for camping during P2?

[amylou]

Originally Posted by 1moretry

Now you have also learned what DOESN'T work for you, and that opens the door on a new opportunity to find what DOES work for you. We are all very different and it begins with our genetics. Coming to terms with the deck we were dealt is the first step to accepting our limits and enjoying ourselves within them. Beating ourselves up for something we have no control over doesn't help anything. Accepting ourselves as we are and working within that is empowering, once one gets over the judging of ourselves as having been "bad," when we were just being driven by our body's natural forces. Taubes explains this in such a reasonable and non-judgmental way, it's like sunlight on a dark day.

Okay...one more point and then I'll stop my marathon of posts


I have also really come to terms with that fact that I am different from a lot of people. I know that what works for some may not work for me, and vice versa. I also have to just get over what people may think when they know/see me eating low-carb. Most of friends support me fine...it's more of my husband and other relatives that question and lecture me. Of course, my husband thinks I'm fine just the way I am; which is wonderful on one hand, but on the other it opens my thinking up to believe I can and should just have ice cream, chips, etc. etc.

Bottom line is I need to get over what everyone else may think and just stick with it for my own sake and health!

[1moretry]

Originally Posted by amylou

Okay...one more point and then I'll stop my marathon of posts


I have also really come to terms with that fact that I am different from a lot of people. I know that what works for some may not work for me, and vice versa. I also have to just get over what people may think when they know/see me eating low-carb. Most of friends support me fine...it's more of my husband and other relatives that question and lecture me. Of course, my husband thinks I'm fine just the way I am; which is wonderful on one hand, but on the other it opens my thinking up to believe I can and should just have ice cream, chips, etc. etc.

Bottom line is I need to get over what everyone else may think and just stick with it for my own sake and health!

Many years ago, as part of a sales training course, we were asked to consider the idea that if someone wasn't willing to DIE for you, they didn't have the right to tell you how to LIVE! It didn't quite "take" for a while, but down the road I began to think that I was the only person I could be responsible for and I was the person who had to live with the consequences of all of the choices I made as I went along. It wasn't just about fat. It was about pleasing others at the expense of harming myself in so many ways.

I really TRIED to "fit in," but it didn't sustain or nourish me and in the end I had to make choices that worked for me, even though it required me to go a different way than others I knew. I also met others who were more like me and have gained a lot from knowing them as well as enjoying their company on this journey called life.

My present husband loves to cook for me and give me the foods HE enjoys, but that has to change. He can eat anything he wants (and he LOVES carbs!) and not gain weight. It took me almost 6 weeks to weigh less than he does and he is a foot taller than I am! I will probably do best on dishes he would not like, such as sukiyaki made with Miracle Noodles and curry pilaf made with Miracle Rice, but that's how it seems it will have to be. We have other ways of connecting and sharing and I intend to cultivate those.

In my family, food was the center of our relationships with each other and was a focus as well as a favorite topic of discussion. It's the same with my husband, whose family is all in Europe, and a big part of his relationship/conversation with them is still around food. I have had to deliberately cultivate non-food ways of rewarding myself, connecting with others and sharing in occasions like birthdays and such, but if we can remember that it's our relationship with the person/people that is important, then things can be put in a more healthy perspective.

There is another factor to consider and that is the instinct to get rid of anything different. It is built into our immune systems and crucial to our defense against toxins and microbes, but it is also a built-in part of our animal heritage. Mother cats will kill a kitten that is born defective, for example.

There are strong social pressures to conform because that makes others more comfortable. Then they don't have to question their own way of being. I think we can all remember the pressures during our developmental years and those experiences don't just go away after a certain birthday. People simply feel more comfortable around others who don't challenge their way of being and living. I know I do!

That's why I am here on these forums -- to get support that wouldn't be appropriate elsewhere. In any event, the person I most have to please is myself and if others have a problem with that, I try to see if there's a place where we can meet that works for both of us. If not, I let it go. However, in a marriage, that can be more difficult.