Hello everyone! Just doing a quick blog to let you know how my smoothie experiment turned out. It didn't - lol! I got so excited reading all these new blogs about healthy smoothies and how great everyone felt on them that I had decided to give them a try. The only problem is that they contained fruit, which we all know is a big no-no on BFC or any kind of low carb really. But, I thought, I HAVE been stuck and it IS going back to the way we are "supposed" to eat. Lots of fresh veggies and fruit, right? I decided to try it for two weeks and see how I felt. Funny thing is I only made it through about five days. Drinking my breakfast and lunch didn't bother me at all, in fact I kind of liked the convenience of the whole thing and I wasn't any hungrier than usual, surprisingly. Stick everything in a blender, whirl and drink. Fast, easy and no pans to clean up afterwards. The problem was with how I felt. I started getting headaches again, and just a general feeling of not feeling great, you know what I mean. Plus, I was extremely tired in the late afternoons and early evening. I mean falling asleep over my laptop kind of tired. It had to be all the extra sugar in the fruit that was making me feel bad. Another negative was that after five days of doing this, I did not gain or lose one pound! Not one! So I gave it up about five days in. The one thing I did like was the convenience AND how much fiber I could get in my body this way. A ton! So what I did was I gave up the fruit/veggie smoothie and replaced it with a breakfast protein green smoothie. Here is what I've been putting in them:
Protein Green Smoothie
1 cup almond milk
1 scoop Vanilla Jay Rob protein powder
1 tsp. Psyllium Husk powder
1/4 tsp stevia
2-3 cups of baby green spinach leaves
1 TBS Cocoa Nibs
1 TBS Chia seeds
ice and extra water to get it to the coldness & consistency that I like
I figured that this has about 24.5 Carbs and 21 Fibers 0 sugars
Since switching to this smoothie I feel MUCH better. I sometimes have it for lunch too and sometimes add in 1/2 avocado, or switch the Chia seeds to Flax seeds.
I've been on these for about 3-4 days now and although I feel much better I still have not seen any difference in my weight. Still haven't seen so much as a pound difference up or down. I am not one of those people that weight shifts easily for I guess. I have to give things a while to see a difference. Plus the fruit may have screwed up my metabolism for a little while.
I've got to say that I'm really interested in Dawn's Atkins experiment. Not so much what foods you can and can not eat (I think all low carb diets are basically the same that way) I just really like the idea of tracking net carbs and trying to keep them below 20. It seems so much easier to me than figuring how many carbs make a serving and how to include a handful of afternoon almonds into which serving and so on. Plus when you get to subtract fiber from your carbs it makes you really mindful of the fiber. So I got out my old notebook from when I first started BFC and began writing down EVERYTHING I eat and tracking my carbs, sugar, and fiber that way - at the end of the day I total up my net carbs to see how I did. For me its so much easier to write it down then to try to enter everything into "My Fitness Pal". I've also noticed on "My Fitness Pal" that the ingredients you choose have a wide variety of nutritional counts depending on which entry you choose. If I check the ingredients myself I get the true count for what I'm actually using. It's still a great place to key in your own ingredients for a recipe you're using though to get the total counts for that recipe.
So that's where I am right now. At least I've gone from being neutral about my weight loss to pro-active again, so that's something right? In other news, it's just about tax time for me around here, with our business and our rental business, and I mustn't forget college FAFSA's. Yuck! Time to get everything in order and break out the old adding machine. Fun times ahead!
Good luck this week everyone!
I think that your experiment was a great thing! It is making you figure out what your body needs! I caught about 2 minutes of a gal on Rachel Ray yesterday that was making a protein shake. She used frozen berries, which you can have a few, so that might be a way to make your shake a treat every once in awhile. I still haven't gotten protein powder, maybe I should! I want to continue to hear about your experiment! That scale will move eventually! Did you measure your waist? I would go by that if you are starting to feel better.
ReplyDeleteJust think how smart you will be when you break out the numbers;)
I agree about myfitnesspal. It does have different answers on some things, but for the most part I like to have a general idea.
Great job Ms. Beth!!!
Beth, have you had your thyroid checked (really checked not just a TSH)? I'm going to do that - it's apparently very common as we age to have thyroids that don't work well. That will make losing weight more difficult. I think your protein drinks sound great although I personally would put some fat in there - your body only burns carbs or fats for fuel (and fat is the better choice). Add some full fat coconut milk (1/4 cup maybe) and that will take care of the fat - you should have lots of energy with that too and not feel hungry for hours (that's my experience with them). If you really read about insulin resistance and metabolic issues, no two of us are alike. Some may have to really reduce carbs (diabetics need to take in less than 10 gr/meal according to Dr. Davis and some others I've read). Dawn's experiment is a good one and should show her what her threshold for carbs really is. The hard part is always living under that threshold so you don't start storing fat again. I sure wish I was one of the lucky ones who didn't have to obsess over all this stuff ... sigh. Keep it up Beth!
ReplyDeleteHere's some reading for you :) http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2012/10/i-lost-the-wheat-but-didnt-lose-weight-2/, http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/.
DeleteHi Beth, hoping you get this. I read this on Maria's blog yesterday and though of your conversation with Dawn about beer/wine. Just an FYI - I learned something new too :)
Deletehttp://mariahealth.blogspot.ca/2013/01/cream-de-mint-brownies-and-giveaway.html.
"Alcohol Facts
When people go on a diet, they often choose the “light” version of their favorite alcoholic beverages in order to save a few calories. However, that is only a small piece of the puzzle. Fat metabolism is reduced by as much as 73% after only two alcoholic beverages. This scary fact shows that the primary effect of alcohol on the body is not so much how many calories we consume, but how it stops the body’s ability to use your fat stores for energy.
Alcohol in the body is converted into a substance called acetate. Unlike a car that uses one supply of fuel, the body is able to draw from carbohydrates, fats and proteins for energy. When your blood acetate levels increase, your body uses acetate instead of fat. To make matters worse, the more you drink the more you tend to eat; and unfortunately, drinking will make your liver work to convert the alcohol into acetate, which means that the foods you consume at this time will be converted into extra fat on your body.
If that didn’t sound bad enough; alcohol stimulates appetite and decrease your testosterone levels for up to 24 hours and increases estrogen by 300%. The infamous “beer belly” is really just an “estrogen belly.” Biochemically, the higher your level of estrogen is, the more readily you absorb alcohol, but the slower you break it down.
Muscle Tip: Drinking alcohol is the most efficient way to slash your testosterone levels; women…we don’t want this to happen either. Just a single event of serious drinking raises levels of the muscle-wasting stress hormone called cortisol and decreases the levels of testosterone for up to 24 hours. If you are working out to build strong fat-burning muscles yet consuming alcohol, this actually breaks down muscle further and you end up with a slower metabolism. This is because you break down muscle as you lift weights and you repair them as you rest if you have proper hormone levels...if not, you never repair your muscles properly!
Also, we all know that alcohol dehydrates us. In order for fat to be metabolized, it must first be released from the fat cell and then be transported by the bloodstream where it is pushed to the liver to be used as fuel. If you are dehydrated, the liver has to come to the aid of the kidneys and can’t focus on its role of releasing fat.
Alcohol also affects every organ of the body, it’s most dramatic impact is upon the liver. The liver cells normally prefer fatty acids as fuel, and package excess fatty acids as triglycerides, which they then route to other tissues of the body. However, when alcohol is present, the liver cells are forced to first metabolize the alcohol, letting the fatty acids accumulate in huge amounts. Alcohol metabolism permanently changes liver cell structure, which impairs the liver’s ability to metabolize fats, which causes fatty liver disease."
Thanks Trina. Knew Alcohol wasn't good for me but good grief that's a lot of things that it can affect! I usually only have it once or twice a month. If I could cut it out all the way it would definitely be better for me, just not sure if I would want to.
DeleteI do like having shakes but for me I need to eat food at my meals. I don't ever want to be tempted with anything bad anymore. The girls are right - you can add a few black and raspberries to your shake they are low in sugar and good for you and the coconut milk is a good idea too. Have a great weekend :-)
ReplyDeleteThe smoothie/shake that Kay was talking about (w/the berries) was from JJ Virgin, nutrionist and trainer to the stars. She uses vegan pea protein powder instead of whey (which is dairy) because it is the least allergenic of the protein powders. Her new book (which I got because it was free and I only had to pay for shipping) says that if you drop 7 foods (for a week) and then add them back in slowly you can see which foods your body is "allergic" or sensitive to or doesn't like. If you are allergic to these foods, they can cause weight gain or lack of weight loss and other symptoms. It sounds very restrictive, but it's not forever. I think the 7 no-no foods are sugar/fake sugar, gluten, eggs, corn, dairy, soy, and peanuts. It all makes sense, but I'm not sure I'm ready for a week of meat and veggies (although she allows quinoa pasta). Sounds like you've already found that your body does not like sugar in fruit :) Good Luck in your journey....I don't have a blog, but I've been doing BFC for almost 2 yrs and it seems to be working!
ReplyDeleteCarey
Beth, I'm intrigued by Dawn's Atkins experiment too. It does sound easier to track the carbs. I also agree about my fitness pal. I have the iphone app and I have been using the bar code scanner when products have that on them like eggs, flax bread etc. It's really cool because i just point my phone at the item's barcode and it puts it right into myfitnesspal daily totatl. So those items I know are accurate. I'm going to really try to write down too. I still think that's the best way. Good luck XO
ReplyDelete