Intermittent Fasting

I started IF Monday and have already had great results. I've begun waiting to eat my first meal until 3:00pm and then eating pretty much what I want, as long as it's low to zero carb, until 8:00 pm and I've lost 3 pounds. It's great. I'm not really hungry in the morning most of the time anyway. Today when I get home from work I'll have some sardines in olive oil and a few olives. Later a few almonds, and then dinner. 

I feel like this stall I've been experiencing is over. But I'll have to wait and see how it goes over the next few weeks. 

Here's a link to what I'm doing these days. 

http://www.fast-5.com/index.html

Carb Cycling

Reading more on Carb Cycling I'm finding it to be a specific program used by serious weight lifters. It's interesting that in that world, low carb is considered 200 g a day. Or more. Not a keto diet by any means. What was surprising to me were the beliefs that carbs were necessary in high levels for health. Really the opposite of what I consider serious current science. 

I think people often have belief systems rather than science that they base their lives on. They believe that low fat is good because that's what they are taught. I doubt that many people do any research at all on nutrition. They believe Weight Watchers works because it follows the traditional diet paradigm. And it seems counter intuitive that fat can make you lose weight. Fat makes  you fat just sounds right. 

Busy Sunday

Not much to post today. I have a lot of shopping to do for the holidays so that will be most of the day. Eating plan is going well. I had lunch downtown with friends yesterday and stayed on plan. Head short ribs, skipped the mashed potatoes and asked for escarole instead. It was very good. I did buy the Panetonne for Christmas as and Italian Deli. Imported from Italy, expensive. Hope it's great. $23.00 for Panetonne is more than I've ever paid. 

Also got some Cowgirl Creamery Mt.Tam triple cream cheese. This stuff is so awesome. I need to find some lower carb crackers to eat with it. I don't want to do too much damage.

Today's Beautiful Thing

My Sophie. 

TRT

I have been on Testosterone Replacement Therapy for over 10 years now. Although I have only used the shots sporadically in the past 2 years. I need them, but the weekly injections can be a real pain in the butt. (Pun intended)

Since re-starting my Low Carb journey, I decided that I needed to re-start the injections as well. The benefits of appropriate levels of Testosterone in men are great. Low Testosterone can cause cardio-vascular disease, depression, low self esteem, hot flashes, loss of muscle mass, week bones, low libido, weaker immune system and increase the risk of cancer. 

I've begun to wonder, though if there is a correlation between my weight stalls and the injections. It seems that my weight stalls or goes up the day after I inject. The problem with this is that having normal to high levels should make it easier to lose body fat. Look at the ease that younger men with high Testosterone levels have in losing weight. The weight falls off when making only the smallest change in diet. I believe that men who have a hard time losing and are still under the age of 50, should have their Doc check their Testosterone levels. Mine did because he had seen it so often in his practice. Most Doc's don't check for this so many young men may have the same condition I have and never know it. 

I'm looking for evidence that the injections are causing my stalls. I will continue to inject because the change in my mood and overall feeling of well being has increased two-fold since I've restared my medication. Part 2 of this formula is restarting my weight training routine. Something I left behind after the second back surgery. 

Today's Beautiful Thing

Well I'm stuck at another frustrating plateau and have decided to try Carb Cycling as my new strategy. I know my weight loss this time around is going to be slower than it was when I did Medifast. After all that was only 800 calories a day. But still. Last time I hit this kind of plateau it lasted almost 3 weeks. 

So my new plan is carb up one day a week, carb down six. 

I'm not sure about the numbers yet. Numbers as in how many carbs on the carb up days. I'm not sure that I'll even count them. I'll keep the carb down days to under 20 as before.

What's cool about this is that I'm not doing this as an excuse to eat junk, as I would have in the past. I have no cravings for sweets or starchy foods really. I'm doing it to accelerate my weight loss. I've become almost indifferant to food. 

I say almost because I am having a planned splurge on Christmas. But that has more to do with tradition than with the food itself. Making Christmas a feast day is one of the few links to the little happiness of growing up that I have. For the most part, I remember happy Christmas'.

And now, Christmas can be a carb up day! 

OK  A little more about me and where this journey began. 

Being on a low carb weight loss program is not new for me. I've struggled for years to take off the weight I put on in the late '80's. Most of my life I was a fairly normal weight. Oh maybe a little tummy, but nothing to speak of really. I obsessed with my weight following College. Which is why I was never really fat. And when I say obsessed, we're talking Bulimia. I know it's rare for men, but for some reason I got it into my head that I was really fat, at 175. When I think back on it, part of the problem was I had no muscle. So I was soft and flabby at 175.

I found out later part of the reason I had no muscle to speak of was that I have Hypogonadism. (Yuck. I hate that word.) It wasn't until 1997 that I was diagnosed and started on Testosterone replacement therapy. That diagnoses was partly what started me on my most intense weight loss diet. I had gained to an incredible 355 pounds.  Finally after five years and gaining to my highest weight, the testosterone and anti-depressants I was taking spurred me to do something to change my life. I was seeing a therapist whose wife was a Nutritionist. She was the coordinator of an Optifast program at a local University Hospital. He suggested I try it as a means of jumpstarting my weight loss. It turned out the my insurance covered a similar program. It was Medifast. I started the program in January of 1998. By July I was down to 210. I was doing the plan, going to the gym every morning. I even started running. Eventually running up to 6 miles a day, 6 days a week. I never felt better. I'm going to skip ahead here to after my second back surgery...when the weight almost all came back. That was several years ago. I started Low Carb dieting and could not seem to get past a few months and then stop. My weight was hovering between 260 and 300. Up and down. Finally in frustration I vowed to never diet again. Well in the past 2 years since taking that vow, I went back up to 336 pounds. I was disgusted with myself everyday. The only thing that comforted me was the food.Then on November 1, I woke up and it was as if someone had thrown a light switch. For the first time I felt as though I could do this. No worries no regrets. I started on that day and have not strayed once. After struggling so much in the past it's unbelievable.  

So here I am. Ready to go on. 

My First Post

And it ain't much baby. 

Just want to get it going. So here it goes.