20 Stone 11 lbs. 114 collected, 0 processed, 0 projects, 0 complete
Yesterday I felt hungrier than I have since starting the diet. While I didn't snack a great deal, I did eat 2 slices of ham and a yogurt in addition to my normal tea.
I'm shocked at how many things I have that I know I have to do. 114 and counting. The list is tending towards shopping I need to do now, but still, I wouldn't be surprised to come up with another 50 or so today. Yesterday I was relaxed, happy and energetic, but not at my most productive (which seemed to me to be more related to the sort of work I was doing than my particular mood). I'm sure GTD has the potential to up my productivity by letting me discover small challenges to face, and by making bigger ones more approachable. Still, thats all going to begin on Monday, I guess.
Over the weekend, I'll try to start emptying my in-box.
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Friday, February 2, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Lose 22 pounds in 1 month, and take control of your eating by turning down your fat thermostat.
I began the Shangri-la diet on the 1st day of January 2007. I wanted to shed the extra pounds I gained over the Christmas holidays, and I wanted to shed a lot more weight I had put on over 28 years of eating. But most of all I wanted to test whether a seemingly impossible diet worked.
The diet has two simple rules:
Rule 1: Take between 1 and 4 tablespoons of flavourless oil (such as extra light olive oil or safflower oil) each day
Rule 2: Do not consume anything with any flavour for an hour before or after you take the the oil.
It shouldn't work. But over the last month I have followed it and had staggering results. As I followed the diet, I noticed it changing my appetite gradually, and blogged about the results. As the month came to a close, it seemed fitting that, rather than suggest people read my blog's day by day progress I try to summarize my discoveries and experiences. The weight loss isn't due to the diet, it is due to the fact I reduced the amount of food I eat. However, the Shangri-la diet, through reducing my appetite, has made dieting a cinch, and makes me feel full far sooner than I ever have before.
The Theory
The theory is that your body has a weight it wants to be, your set-point. If your body's weight falls below that set point, you get hungry. If your weight gets above the set point, you feel full. Its like a thermostat that keeps the room a set temperature by turning on and off radiators. What the diet does is lets you adjust the set point in a way which is almost as simple as twiddling a thermostat dial. If you eat food with a flavour your body associates with lots of calories, your body thinks 'food is plentiful, because I'm eating things I like. I had better stock up for the next time food is short' Your fat thermostat goes up, and you become hungrier until you have put on extra weight. If you eat food with low flavour, but still containing calories, you fill your body (because you provide it with enough food to keep it above the set-point), but your fat thermostat goes down because your body thinks 'there isn't much food around, no point in making me suffer, I'll just use the reserves I've built up'. For cavemen, with periods of plenty and periods of little, the fat thermostat works perfectly. but in the twenty-first century with McDonalds' burgers just waiting to cram themselves down your throat, periods of famine have become a distant memory. By drinking a few hundred calories of oil every day, you fool yourself into thinking there is less flavour, and thus less food around. Your fat thermostat gets turned down and you become less hungry. (This is an oversimplification, read the book and Seth Roberts' paper on what makes food fattening if you want to know the science behind the horribly mixed metaphor)
Whether this theory is correct or not, the effects I've experienced seem to fit in with what it predicts, each stage taking me a step closer to being thinner and healthier. It doesn't seem to work for everyone, but many people have had shocking results. It is so remarkable that if the diet works for you, you don't just want to lose more weight, you want to evangelize about it too!
Stage 1:
Each morning as soon as you wake up, take 2 tablespoons of safflower oil.
Do not consume any flavour for the next hour. In my case, this involved learning to wake up earlier on week days. Since toothpaste has flavour, there shall be no tooth brushing for an hour after consuming oil.
Each evening, you must not consume any flavour for the hour before you go to bed
Shortly before you go to bed, take one tablespoon of oil
Stage 2:
Return to work after a restful holiday
Substitute your regular lunch of a sandwich and peanuts with 3 chopped carrots, chopped celery or pepper, maybe a slice of ham and 4 Ryvitas
Continue with the oil. In the evenings, and weekends (outside of the flavourless hours which surround taking the oil) you may eat what you want
Stage 3:
Your appetite is reducing.
You begin to notice two new sensations: a sensation of warmth after eating (this can be uncomfortable, it is much like a hot flush, but it subsides into a nicer feeling after a week or so), and having an empty stomach without wanting to eat.
You decide the big meals you were having in the evening to counteract your hunger are now too much for you to eat. You cut them down in size, and start eating things with fewer calories.
I particularly like steamed vegetables on boiled brown rice, dowsed in soy sauce.
You also cut down the size of your breakfast, until it is more a symbolic gesture than a meal.
Continue with the oil
Stage 4:
At the weekends you find eating what you used to eat to be far too much.
Snacks you left in the fridge to fill a gap in your stomach go untouched and begin to pass their best by dates.
You realise you now have control over your appetite. It feels strange, supernatural almost, since it is something you have never before experienced.
Continue with the oil
Stage 5:
Your weight loss slows and plateaus for a few days, causing you concern.
You recall that a pint of water will add a pound to your weight.
You also notice a trend that your weight stays still for longer after eating starchy foods like white bread.
Your weight loss recovers after a few days
As you plateau, you find yourself getting hungrier. As you begin to descend again, the hunger decreases.
Continue with the oil
Stage 6:
Your weight loss is continuing. Taking the oil and eating less is integrated into your life. You notice more and more often how you are eating so much less than you did even one month before.
There is no reason not to stop the diet. It takes almost no effort and has fantastic results. The diet may well throw up more surprises, but you are ready for them!
Continue with the oil.
Tips and Tricks:
If I knew I was going somewhere where there would be food I didn't want to eat, I made sure I had my oil beforehand. Firstly, to give me a reason not to start eating, and secondly, so I would feel slightly more satisfied as the evening continued.
It is really comforting to cook a meal the size you would have eaten before the diet, and to realise there is no way you can finish it. Bonus points if you can't even bring yourself to serve the whole meal.
I chose my diet food to fit in with my lifestyle. I used to like to sit at work and munch my way through the packet of peanuts I bought for my lunch. These days instead I have a lunch of chopped carrots, peppers and celery. It allows my to nibble for the same length of time, but doesn't give me the calories.
As you see above, I take my oil first thing in the morning and last thing at night. This means I am asleep for two of my four flavourless hours.
Keep a blog where you track your progress, that way you'll have to think about the diet once a day, which means you won't forget about it or let it slip.
The diet has two simple rules:
Rule 1: Take between 1 and 4 tablespoons of flavourless oil (such as extra light olive oil or safflower oil) each day
Rule 2: Do not consume anything with any flavour for an hour before or after you take the the oil.
It shouldn't work. But over the last month I have followed it and had staggering results. As I followed the diet, I noticed it changing my appetite gradually, and blogged about the results. As the month came to a close, it seemed fitting that, rather than suggest people read my blog's day by day progress I try to summarize my discoveries and experiences. The weight loss isn't due to the diet, it is due to the fact I reduced the amount of food I eat. However, the Shangri-la diet, through reducing my appetite, has made dieting a cinch, and makes me feel full far sooner than I ever have before.
The Theory
The theory is that your body has a weight it wants to be, your set-point. If your body's weight falls below that set point, you get hungry. If your weight gets above the set point, you feel full. Its like a thermostat that keeps the room a set temperature by turning on and off radiators. What the diet does is lets you adjust the set point in a way which is almost as simple as twiddling a thermostat dial. If you eat food with a flavour your body associates with lots of calories, your body thinks 'food is plentiful, because I'm eating things I like. I had better stock up for the next time food is short' Your fat thermostat goes up, and you become hungrier until you have put on extra weight. If you eat food with low flavour, but still containing calories, you fill your body (because you provide it with enough food to keep it above the set-point), but your fat thermostat goes down because your body thinks 'there isn't much food around, no point in making me suffer, I'll just use the reserves I've built up'. For cavemen, with periods of plenty and periods of little, the fat thermostat works perfectly. but in the twenty-first century with McDonalds' burgers just waiting to cram themselves down your throat, periods of famine have become a distant memory. By drinking a few hundred calories of oil every day, you fool yourself into thinking there is less flavour, and thus less food around. Your fat thermostat gets turned down and you become less hungry. (This is an oversimplification, read the book and Seth Roberts' paper on what makes food fattening if you want to know the science behind the horribly mixed metaphor)
Whether this theory is correct or not, the effects I've experienced seem to fit in with what it predicts, each stage taking me a step closer to being thinner and healthier. It doesn't seem to work for everyone, but many people have had shocking results. It is so remarkable that if the diet works for you, you don't just want to lose more weight, you want to evangelize about it too!
Stage 1:
Each morning as soon as you wake up, take 2 tablespoons of safflower oil.
Do not consume any flavour for the next hour. In my case, this involved learning to wake up earlier on week days. Since toothpaste has flavour, there shall be no tooth brushing for an hour after consuming oil.
Each evening, you must not consume any flavour for the hour before you go to bed
Shortly before you go to bed, take one tablespoon of oil
Stage 2:
Return to work after a restful holiday
Substitute your regular lunch of a sandwich and peanuts with 3 chopped carrots, chopped celery or pepper, maybe a slice of ham and 4 Ryvitas
Continue with the oil. In the evenings, and weekends (outside of the flavourless hours which surround taking the oil) you may eat what you want
Stage 3:
Your appetite is reducing.
You begin to notice two new sensations: a sensation of warmth after eating (this can be uncomfortable, it is much like a hot flush, but it subsides into a nicer feeling after a week or so), and having an empty stomach without wanting to eat.
You decide the big meals you were having in the evening to counteract your hunger are now too much for you to eat. You cut them down in size, and start eating things with fewer calories.
I particularly like steamed vegetables on boiled brown rice, dowsed in soy sauce.
You also cut down the size of your breakfast, until it is more a symbolic gesture than a meal.
Continue with the oil
Stage 4:
At the weekends you find eating what you used to eat to be far too much.
Snacks you left in the fridge to fill a gap in your stomach go untouched and begin to pass their best by dates.
You realise you now have control over your appetite. It feels strange, supernatural almost, since it is something you have never before experienced.
Continue with the oil
Stage 5:
Your weight loss slows and plateaus for a few days, causing you concern.
You recall that a pint of water will add a pound to your weight.
You also notice a trend that your weight stays still for longer after eating starchy foods like white bread.
Your weight loss recovers after a few days
As you plateau, you find yourself getting hungrier. As you begin to descend again, the hunger decreases.
Continue with the oil
Stage 6:
Your weight loss is continuing. Taking the oil and eating less is integrated into your life. You notice more and more often how you are eating so much less than you did even one month before.
There is no reason not to stop the diet. It takes almost no effort and has fantastic results. The diet may well throw up more surprises, but you are ready for them!
Continue with the oil.
Tips and Tricks:
If I knew I was going somewhere where there would be food I didn't want to eat, I made sure I had my oil beforehand. Firstly, to give me a reason not to start eating, and secondly, so I would feel slightly more satisfied as the evening continued.
It is really comforting to cook a meal the size you would have eaten before the diet, and to realise there is no way you can finish it. Bonus points if you can't even bring yourself to serve the whole meal.
I chose my diet food to fit in with my lifestyle. I used to like to sit at work and munch my way through the packet of peanuts I bought for my lunch. These days instead I have a lunch of chopped carrots, peppers and celery. It allows my to nibble for the same length of time, but doesn't give me the calories.
As you see above, I take my oil first thing in the morning and last thing at night. This means I am asleep for two of my four flavourless hours.
Keep a blog where you track your progress, that way you'll have to think about the diet once a day, which means you won't forget about it or let it slip.
Day 31
20 Stone 11.5 lbs.
I've no idea how much I weighed when I started the Shangri-la diet experiment, just 31 days ago. I've made guesses that range from 23 stone (which seems to be correct if you do some simple maths involving measuring how much my waist has depleted) to 22 stone and half a pound (if you think I was lazy for the first 5 days of the diet). For my own personal statistics, I'm assuming I weighed 22 stone 12. This implies quite a weight loss in the first week, but when you consider how quickly weight was falling off in the second week, that's not outside the realms of possibility. For a saner figure that I can back up with some degree of confidence, I will assume I lost as much in the first week as I did in the second: a pound a day, or 6 pounds over all. That would put me at 22 stone 5 and a half pounds. From this I can say that I have lost 1 stone 8 pounds. That's 22 pounds. That's 10 kilograms. That's over 7% of my total body weight!
So, a month later, does the Shangri-la diet work?
Well, eating less food is what caused the weight loss. But the Shangri-la diet certainly seems to have reduced my appetite, and taken away my desire to snack. For at least a period of 1 month, for me, the Shangri-la diet seems to work exactly as advertised.
Do I recommend it?
From what I've heard, not everyone has the success I've had, and my weight loss is high because I weighed a lot to begin with. That said, a lot of people have been shocked by the level of control the Shangri-la diet gives them over their eating.
I am a little concerned that I've suffered from two colds this month, whereas normally I'm healthy. There are a number of reasons that could contribute to this: the diet, the fact I've worked longer hours, the increasing levels of stress regarding my forthcoming house move and wedding. I think before I recommended the diet to anyone, I would warn them of the potential affect on their immune system, but tell them also that I might simply have been unlucky.
But other than that, yes. I can and would recommend the Shangri-la diet.
What next?
Well, tune in tomorrow to see what I'll be doing next month (hint: that stress I talked about earlier, that's what I'm aiming to fix).
The Shangri-la diet is fascinating and deserves longer term study. I will continue following it for another 2 months (at which point, I'll decide if I carry on with it for longer). I will continue with a daily report of my weight on this blog and I'll continue writing about it when there is something interesting I have to say (look for tags shangri-la and sld, if I ever remember to add them)
Later on today, I'll publish my month's weight loss spreadsheet and an article I've written which sums up the method I followed, and what I experienced along the way.
I've no idea how much I weighed when I started the Shangri-la diet experiment, just 31 days ago. I've made guesses that range from 23 stone (which seems to be correct if you do some simple maths involving measuring how much my waist has depleted) to 22 stone and half a pound (if you think I was lazy for the first 5 days of the diet). For my own personal statistics, I'm assuming I weighed 22 stone 12. This implies quite a weight loss in the first week, but when you consider how quickly weight was falling off in the second week, that's not outside the realms of possibility. For a saner figure that I can back up with some degree of confidence, I will assume I lost as much in the first week as I did in the second: a pound a day, or 6 pounds over all. That would put me at 22 stone 5 and a half pounds. From this I can say that I have lost 1 stone 8 pounds. That's 22 pounds. That's 10 kilograms. That's over 7% of my total body weight!
So, a month later, does the Shangri-la diet work?
Well, eating less food is what caused the weight loss. But the Shangri-la diet certainly seems to have reduced my appetite, and taken away my desire to snack. For at least a period of 1 month, for me, the Shangri-la diet seems to work exactly as advertised.
Do I recommend it?
From what I've heard, not everyone has the success I've had, and my weight loss is high because I weighed a lot to begin with. That said, a lot of people have been shocked by the level of control the Shangri-la diet gives them over their eating.
I am a little concerned that I've suffered from two colds this month, whereas normally I'm healthy. There are a number of reasons that could contribute to this: the diet, the fact I've worked longer hours, the increasing levels of stress regarding my forthcoming house move and wedding. I think before I recommended the diet to anyone, I would warn them of the potential affect on their immune system, but tell them also that I might simply have been unlucky.
But other than that, yes. I can and would recommend the Shangri-la diet.
What next?
Well, tune in tomorrow to see what I'll be doing next month (hint: that stress I talked about earlier, that's what I'm aiming to fix).
The Shangri-la diet is fascinating and deserves longer term study. I will continue following it for another 2 months (at which point, I'll decide if I carry on with it for longer). I will continue with a daily report of my weight on this blog and I'll continue writing about it when there is something interesting I have to say (look for tags shangri-la and sld, if I ever remember to add them)
Later on today, I'll publish my month's weight loss spreadsheet and an article I've written which sums up the method I followed, and what I experienced along the way.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Weight Tracking Spreadsheet
As promised, blank spreadsheets for weight tracking. Ever use these in excel, or go to docs.google.com and upload them there.
Excel format weight tracking spreadsheet
Open Office format weight tracking spreadsheet
These are not identical to the spreadsheet I use for myself, but they contain all the numbers I have found to be useful so far.
My own copy comes after the month's final weigh-in tomorrow
Technorati Tags: spreadhseet, shangri-la, diet, sld
Excel format weight tracking spreadsheet
Open Office format weight tracking spreadsheet
These are not identical to the spreadsheet I use for myself, but they contain all the numbers I have found to be useful so far.
My own copy comes after the month's final weigh-in tomorrow
Technorati Tags: spreadhseet, shangri-la, diet, sld
Day 30
20 Stone 12 lbs
One more day to go...
I seem to have come down with a cold. This is my second cold in one month. Normally I don't seem to be affected much by colds, so this is a bit of a worry. Is the Shangri-la diet affecting my health? Oddly, the oil I'm using claims to be "high in vitamin e" and resultantly "good for the immune system"
Meanwhile my weight is still plateauing. According to the numbers on my spreadsheet, it should start falling tomorrow.
Technorati Tags: diet shangri-la sld weightloss daily
One more day to go...
I seem to have come down with a cold. This is my second cold in one month. Normally I don't seem to be affected much by colds, so this is a bit of a worry. Is the Shangri-la diet affecting my health? Oddly, the oil I'm using claims to be "high in vitamin e" and resultantly "good for the immune system"
Meanwhile my weight is still plateauing. According to the numbers on my spreadsheet, it should start falling tomorrow.
Technorati Tags: diet shangri-la sld weightloss daily
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Day 4
Waist: 51.375
Another late start: today I was woken by my alarm clock at 7am. This has upset my finely tuned oil breakfast arrangement, so I'm trying something different today. I drank oil at 7, and am postponing breakfast 'till after I'm at work (I'll have an apple and grapes between 8 and 9)
This has so-far been effective. No hunger this morning at all. I plan to space my lunch out between 12:00 and 14:00 in order to see what happens
This is actually working quite well. No hunger yet (15:15), and I didn't stop enjoying my lunch (though I think I enjoyed it more at the beginning than the end)
Summary: I made several changes between yesterday and today
1) I had a large evening meal last night
2) I had oil first thing, followed by a later fruit breakfast
3) I ate my lunch over a longer period of time
4) I had no sugar water during the day.
To test this, I will change back one or two of the options tomorrow
By 6:15 I was getting hungry enough to want to snack while my evening meal was cooking. I ate my tea with gusto and found it very filling. I ate through the feeling of fullness, which was probably a bad idea.
Shortly after eating tea, I felt large pangs of hunger. They didn't last for too long, but they were certainly there. I'm beginning to come up with a theory:
Hunger is related to the set point. When I get strong flavour, the set point rises straight away. This means I am ready to eat shortly after a good meal. This hunger decreases over time, I guess as my system absorbs the food (note that I don't know what I'm talking about here.)
There is also a feeling of fullness which is physical, probably related to the rate at which I can digest things - this goes away fairly quickly.
Both of these feelings can probably be avoided by eating more slowly, or by eating smaller portions with a gap between them (less food means let set-point rise, so a shorter time for food-eaten to catch up and exceed it. I can then raise my set point by eating more food, this time without hunger as the food-eaten is already there)
As far as the options go: I rarely feel hungry first thing in the morning (I guess my set point drops over night). This means it is best to breakfast late on, and have oil early on [for some reason, oil doesn't seem to quench hunger as quickly as food]. It is also possible sugar water raised my set point, and was thus responsible for some of yesterday's hunger pangs. The slow lunch fits my theory well. The large meal doesn't really interact with this theory, other than helping me not to feel hungry first thing in the morning.
To see if it has an effect, sugar water looks like the most interesting thing to test.
Another late start: today I was woken by my alarm clock at 7am. This has upset my finely tuned oil breakfast arrangement, so I'm trying something different today. I drank oil at 7, and am postponing breakfast 'till after I'm at work (I'll have an apple and grapes between 8 and 9)
This has so-far been effective. No hunger this morning at all. I plan to space my lunch out between 12:00 and 14:00 in order to see what happens
This is actually working quite well. No hunger yet (15:15), and I didn't stop enjoying my lunch (though I think I enjoyed it more at the beginning than the end)
Summary: I made several changes between yesterday and today
1) I had a large evening meal last night
2) I had oil first thing, followed by a later fruit breakfast
3) I ate my lunch over a longer period of time
4) I had no sugar water during the day.
To test this, I will change back one or two of the options tomorrow
By 6:15 I was getting hungry enough to want to snack while my evening meal was cooking. I ate my tea with gusto and found it very filling. I ate through the feeling of fullness, which was probably a bad idea.
Shortly after eating tea, I felt large pangs of hunger. They didn't last for too long, but they were certainly there. I'm beginning to come up with a theory:
Hunger is related to the set point. When I get strong flavour, the set point rises straight away. This means I am ready to eat shortly after a good meal. This hunger decreases over time, I guess as my system absorbs the food (note that I don't know what I'm talking about here.)
There is also a feeling of fullness which is physical, probably related to the rate at which I can digest things - this goes away fairly quickly.
Both of these feelings can probably be avoided by eating more slowly, or by eating smaller portions with a gap between them (less food means let set-point rise, so a shorter time for food-eaten to catch up and exceed it. I can then raise my set point by eating more food, this time without hunger as the food-eaten is already there)
As far as the options go: I rarely feel hungry first thing in the morning (I guess my set point drops over night). This means it is best to breakfast late on, and have oil early on [for some reason, oil doesn't seem to quench hunger as quickly as food]. It is also possible sugar water raised my set point, and was thus responsible for some of yesterday's hunger pangs. The slow lunch fits my theory well. The large meal doesn't really interact with this theory, other than helping me not to feel hungry first thing in the morning.
To see if it has an effect, sugar water looks like the most interesting thing to test.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Day 3
Waist 51.5
I slept in longer than normal this morning, failing to wake until 6:45. Unfortunately this threw off my schedule a little - I had planned to have breakfast and brush my teeth before that time. Instead everything was done in a rush. I found my bowl of cereal particularly filling, but guess this is as likely to do with my eating it so soon after I woke (which is a change from my previous routine) as it is to do with the new diet.
I took my oil only 40 or so minutes later, which is pushing the rules of the diet a little. By 8:15 I was still feeling full and uninterested in food.
By 10:30 I was feeling what I think is hunger (I'm confused about this there are several different feelings I associate with hunger, and while they can all be assuaged though eating I don't know if they are all the same thing... in particular the type of hunger today which I will call "under the ribs" hunger can often be solved by a cup of tea). At 11:00 I decided to have cup of sugar water, to see if it would cause the hunger to diminish. Indeed the hunger died down for an hour or so, although passing by the snacks in the kitchen I was tempted to (and indeed did) eat some of the fruit available there.
I'm becoming increasingly confused about what it is to be hungry. My lunchtime meal (at 1pm) became increasingly less appetizing, and after I ate it all, I felt satiated. However within 15 minutes or so, I began to get stomach pains similar to huger, both under my ribs, and in my gut. I will try some plain, cold water to see if it makes any difference.
I drank cold water and later at 15:00 hot sugar water. The sugar water made more of an impression, and tided me over until 16:00
I'm reasonably confident that I am hungry now. It isn't surprising, I've been eating far fewer calories than I normally, and especially more calories than I was eating over Christmas (in both cases, this is probably true even if you include the oil and sugar)
Given that I felt satiated after lunch, possibly I should break my lunch down into several smaller meals. It is also possible that because last night's pancetta chicken, despite being small, tasted so superb my set point was raised by too great an amount.
At 5:00 to tide me over to tea, I ate a banana and grapes, which satisfied the pangs.
I had a large tea at 7:00 and oil at 8. I havn't felt hungry since, which is a good sign.
I slept in longer than normal this morning, failing to wake until 6:45. Unfortunately this threw off my schedule a little - I had planned to have breakfast and brush my teeth before that time. Instead everything was done in a rush. I found my bowl of cereal particularly filling, but guess this is as likely to do with my eating it so soon after I woke (which is a change from my previous routine) as it is to do with the new diet.
I took my oil only 40 or so minutes later, which is pushing the rules of the diet a little. By 8:15 I was still feeling full and uninterested in food.
By 10:30 I was feeling what I think is hunger (I'm confused about this there are several different feelings I associate with hunger, and while they can all be assuaged though eating I don't know if they are all the same thing... in particular the type of hunger today which I will call "under the ribs" hunger can often be solved by a cup of tea). At 11:00 I decided to have cup of sugar water, to see if it would cause the hunger to diminish. Indeed the hunger died down for an hour or so, although passing by the snacks in the kitchen I was tempted to (and indeed did) eat some of the fruit available there.
I'm becoming increasingly confused about what it is to be hungry. My lunchtime meal (at 1pm) became increasingly less appetizing, and after I ate it all, I felt satiated. However within 15 minutes or so, I began to get stomach pains similar to huger, both under my ribs, and in my gut. I will try some plain, cold water to see if it makes any difference.
I drank cold water and later at 15:00 hot sugar water. The sugar water made more of an impression, and tided me over until 16:00
I'm reasonably confident that I am hungry now. It isn't surprising, I've been eating far fewer calories than I normally, and especially more calories than I was eating over Christmas (in both cases, this is probably true even if you include the oil and sugar)
Given that I felt satiated after lunch, possibly I should break my lunch down into several smaller meals. It is also possible that because last night's pancetta chicken, despite being small, tasted so superb my set point was raised by too great an amount.
At 5:00 to tide me over to tea, I ate a banana and grapes, which satisfied the pangs.
I had a large tea at 7:00 and oil at 8. I havn't felt hungry since, which is a good sign.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Oil Depletion
One of the problems I am having with Shangri-la is scheduling when to take my oil. The following is my day plan:
6:30ish : Get up, brush teeth (toothpaste has flavour and so is out of bounds)
7:00ish : Breakfast
7:30: Leave for work
8:00: Arrive at work. Drink Coffee
11:00: On Tuesdays Cakes arrive
12:00-14:00: Have lunch somewhere around here
17:30: Go home
18:00: Arrive at home
18:30: Eat tea
20:00+: Sometimes meet up with friends. Often involves snacking.
The way I see it, If I drink fruit juice when I brush my teeth, I can replace breakfast with oil at 7:30. I can move back my coffee to 8:30 and have a snack then (fruit would be ideal).
I should also stop snacking post 20:00. This means that 20:00 or later would also be a good time for oil.
Both of these have the advantage that I'm at home.
During the day I could have a 12pm sugar water, and eat at 1pm.
6:30ish : Get up, brush teeth (toothpaste has flavour and so is out of bounds)
7:00ish : Breakfast
7:30: Leave for work
8:00: Arrive at work. Drink Coffee
11:00: On Tuesdays Cakes arrive
12:00-14:00: Have lunch somewhere around here
17:30: Go home
18:00: Arrive at home
18:30: Eat tea
20:00+: Sometimes meet up with friends. Often involves snacking.
The way I see it, If I drink fruit juice when I brush my teeth, I can replace breakfast with oil at 7:30. I can move back my coffee to 8:30 and have a snack then (fruit would be ideal).
I should also stop snacking post 20:00. This means that 20:00 or later would also be a good time for oil.
Both of these have the advantage that I'm at home.
During the day I could have a 12pm sugar water, and eat at 1pm.
Day 2
Waist 51.875
I've noticed that my waist measurements can vary slightly (by plus or minus half an inch), so while I'll take regular measurements, they can only be considered to give a vague impression of how my weight loss is doing.
Waking up at 6 AM, I wasn't very hungry. Looks like the late night oil may have had some affect.
I started my day with a bowl of cereal at 6:40, and by preparing a packed lunch. I'll have to have oil a bit closer to food this morning as I haven't figured out a vessel to take it to work in (my best idea so far has been a miniature whisky bottle, but it occurs to me that swigging from that might look a tad unprofessional)
At 11pm I ate a cake (one of the benefits of where I work, on tuesdays at least. Not eating the cake isn't an option, it is a social as well as gastronomic benefit). I wasn't hungry beforehand, and following it, I still am not hungry. This should tide me over until my planned 1pm lunch.
12:30: 1tsp sugar in boiling water. I wasn't hungry at the point of starting this
1:15: Came over in a bit of a hot flush. Feel very energetic
1:40: Wasn't particularly hungry. Ate lunch but actually felt full and totally out of desire to eat. The feeling came on very suddenly. It didn't diminish my desire for a cup of tea.
3pm: I am feeling a bit odd. I have felt excessively hot all afternoon, and my mind is buzzing away at a rate of knots. Sometimes I'm very happy, but at others I'm down in the mouth a little. Neither emotion lasts for long, I suspect I'm the victim of reintroducing lots of caffine into my diet following the Christmas break. From now on today, I'll stick to the decaf tea. (I'll also avoid flavour from 4 - 6, so I can have a 5pm sugar water). Another weird experience is that I don't know if I'm hungry or not: I'm feeling pangs which are the signs of hunger I'm used to, but I don't feel like eating - the thought of food is uninteresting. If this is the placebo effect, then I'm wondering why I havn't been perscribed placebos by my doctor - they are some sort of wonder drug.
5pm: Decided to have another cup of hot sugar water. Feeling alert and awake. My head is now clear from the fuzziness earlier. I'm still not hungry. If nothing else, the sugar water is going to cut down my caffeine intake fro normal work days, which has to be considered a plus!
By 6:45 I was ready to eat a meal. I made one of my favourite meals, chicken in pancetta, with leeks and white wine sauce. It was as tasty as ever, and, after I finished eating and licking my lips I was still hungry. I decided to eat the remnants of my lunch. By the time I finished them, once more I was no longer enjoying eating. Not enjoying eating is new for me. Normally, even when a meal fills me so much that I think I'll physically be sick, I still enjoy the flavours of the food; When I was chewing the remaining lunchtime vegetable sticks, no enjoyment whatsoever - it was just something I was doing. Within ten to fifteen minutes after eating, I began getting feelings of my stomach being full. If this diet makes me not want to eat before I get to be full, then again, it will be a huge success.
As I was about to retire for the evening, around 10pm, I began to feel peckish. A single piece of dry Ryvita was the solution.
In summary, I'm noticing some unusual things. I'm far more awake than normal: this could be due to it being my first day back after a holiday, or an increase in caffeine consumption after a week or two of very little. But there could be a link with the diet. The hot flushes are concerning: they began after I had my first cup of sugar water. The quantity of sugar is only what most people have in a cup of tea, so I assume it isn't a terrible danger. I have had the occasional, very slight, headache. These are not a problem at the moment. But my appetite seems lower than I would expect for the quantity of food I've consumed, and I have a new experience of not enjoying eating.
I've noticed that my waist measurements can vary slightly (by plus or minus half an inch), so while I'll take regular measurements, they can only be considered to give a vague impression of how my weight loss is doing.
Waking up at 6 AM, I wasn't very hungry. Looks like the late night oil may have had some affect.
I started my day with a bowl of cereal at 6:40, and by preparing a packed lunch. I'll have to have oil a bit closer to food this morning as I haven't figured out a vessel to take it to work in (my best idea so far has been a miniature whisky bottle, but it occurs to me that swigging from that might look a tad unprofessional)
At 11pm I ate a cake (one of the benefits of where I work, on tuesdays at least. Not eating the cake isn't an option, it is a social as well as gastronomic benefit). I wasn't hungry beforehand, and following it, I still am not hungry. This should tide me over until my planned 1pm lunch.
12:30: 1tsp sugar in boiling water. I wasn't hungry at the point of starting this
1:15: Came over in a bit of a hot flush. Feel very energetic
1:40: Wasn't particularly hungry. Ate lunch but actually felt full and totally out of desire to eat. The feeling came on very suddenly. It didn't diminish my desire for a cup of tea.
3pm: I am feeling a bit odd. I have felt excessively hot all afternoon, and my mind is buzzing away at a rate of knots. Sometimes I'm very happy, but at others I'm down in the mouth a little. Neither emotion lasts for long, I suspect I'm the victim of reintroducing lots of caffine into my diet following the Christmas break. From now on today, I'll stick to the decaf tea. (I'll also avoid flavour from 4 - 6, so I can have a 5pm sugar water). Another weird experience is that I don't know if I'm hungry or not: I'm feeling pangs which are the signs of hunger I'm used to, but I don't feel like eating - the thought of food is uninteresting. If this is the placebo effect, then I'm wondering why I havn't been perscribed placebos by my doctor - they are some sort of wonder drug.
5pm: Decided to have another cup of hot sugar water. Feeling alert and awake. My head is now clear from the fuzziness earlier. I'm still not hungry. If nothing else, the sugar water is going to cut down my caffeine intake fro normal work days, which has to be considered a plus!
By 6:45 I was ready to eat a meal. I made one of my favourite meals, chicken in pancetta, with leeks and white wine sauce. It was as tasty as ever, and, after I finished eating and licking my lips I was still hungry. I decided to eat the remnants of my lunch. By the time I finished them, once more I was no longer enjoying eating. Not enjoying eating is new for me. Normally, even when a meal fills me so much that I think I'll physically be sick, I still enjoy the flavours of the food; When I was chewing the remaining lunchtime vegetable sticks, no enjoyment whatsoever - it was just something I was doing. Within ten to fifteen minutes after eating, I began getting feelings of my stomach being full. If this diet makes me not want to eat before I get to be full, then again, it will be a huge success.
As I was about to retire for the evening, around 10pm, I began to feel peckish. A single piece of dry Ryvita was the solution.
In summary, I'm noticing some unusual things. I'm far more awake than normal: this could be due to it being my first day back after a holiday, or an increase in caffeine consumption after a week or two of very little. But there could be a link with the diet. The hot flushes are concerning: they began after I had my first cup of sugar water. The quantity of sugar is only what most people have in a cup of tea, so I assume it isn't a terrible danger. I have had the occasional, very slight, headache. These are not a problem at the moment. But my appetite seems lower than I would expect for the quantity of food I've consumed, and I have a new experience of not enjoying eating.
Monday, January 1, 2007
Day 1
My first discovery is that it is hard to have a period of two hours in which you have no flavour: no coffee, tea or anything other than water.
I should add a few notes about how I'm going to do this diet:
I will be adjusting what I eat. I will be trying to eat less. And I'll be trying to make what I eat healthier, which means essentially: less fried foods, less sugar, more veg with each meal.
But I'll be recording if I'm hungry or not. Lots of hunger when it isn't eating time means that shangri-la isn't working
I will be exercising. I don't know how much. It will be a slow work up to vigorous exercise
At 11 am I woke up and drank apple juice
At 12 pm I had my first oil (2 tablespoons washed down with a cup of hot sugar water, 1 teaspoon)
Straight after this I got very strong hunger pangs.
At 1 pm I ate lunch
At 2 pm I went out with herself for a vigorous walk
At 3pm we arrived home.
I was hungry again. But also had a curious full feeling
At 4pm I am still feeling buth hungry and full. Hunger is possibly winning.
Ate tea at 6pm. Didn't feel full
By 8.30 was feeling hungry again
oil at 10.30
I should add a few notes about how I'm going to do this diet:
I will be adjusting what I eat. I will be trying to eat less. And I'll be trying to make what I eat healthier, which means essentially: less fried foods, less sugar, more veg with each meal.
But I'll be recording if I'm hungry or not. Lots of hunger when it isn't eating time means that shangri-la isn't working
I will be exercising. I don't know how much. It will be a slow work up to vigorous exercise
At 11 am I woke up and drank apple juice
At 12 pm I had my first oil (2 tablespoons washed down with a cup of hot sugar water, 1 teaspoon)
Straight after this I got very strong hunger pangs.
At 1 pm I ate lunch
At 2 pm I went out with herself for a vigorous walk
At 3pm we arrived home.
I was hungry again. But also had a curious full feeling
At 4pm I am still feeling buth hungry and full. Hunger is possibly winning.
Ate tea at 6pm. Didn't feel full
By 8.30 was feeling hungry again
oil at 10.30
The Scales Never Lie
But they do keep secrets.
I weighed myself today. Weight is sort of an important thing to know if you are going to keep track of how well a diet is doing. And weighing myself took planning: I had to free the scales from their hiding place behind the toilet, wash them )because they had been hiding behind the toilet) and find new batteries for them.
I took a deep breath. It was always possible that I was actually 12 stone and didn't need to do the diet thing at all.
I stepped forward. The weight shown on the little cracked liquid crystal began increasing. 18 stone. 20 stone. 21 stone. 21 stone 5 pounds. 21 stone 11 pounds. My heart was sinking fast. But the scales had heart. I might have wanted the truth, but the scales knew I couldn't handle the truth. All they would say is "OL". I hope thats and abbreviation for "Over Load" and not just that it can't fit "LOL" on the screen in on go.
Today I have resorted to a backup approach to measuring the effectiveness of the diet: Measuring my waist.
Today's result: 52.25 inches.
I weighed myself today. Weight is sort of an important thing to know if you are going to keep track of how well a diet is doing. And weighing myself took planning: I had to free the scales from their hiding place behind the toilet, wash them )because they had been hiding behind the toilet) and find new batteries for them.
I took a deep breath. It was always possible that I was actually 12 stone and didn't need to do the diet thing at all.
I stepped forward. The weight shown on the little cracked liquid crystal began increasing. 18 stone. 20 stone. 21 stone. 21 stone 5 pounds. 21 stone 11 pounds. My heart was sinking fast. But the scales had heart. I might have wanted the truth, but the scales knew I couldn't handle the truth. All they would say is "OL". I hope thats and abbreviation for "Over Load" and not just that it can't fit "LOL" on the screen in on go.
Today I have resorted to a backup approach to measuring the effectiveness of the diet: Measuring my waist.
Today's result: 52.25 inches.
Surefire New Year's Hangover Cure
The story starts last February, when I plucked up the courage to ask Herself to marry me. She said yes, and we began the process of getting all shopkeepers everywhere to double their prices when they heard us say the words "wedding"
Fast forwards until December. It was becoming painfully clear that if Herself and I remained at our current weights, our combined mass may well cause a universe collapsing singularity to form seconds after I am told I may kiss the bride. Something had to be done, if not for our happiness, in order to save the world from imminent disaster. Also, herself told me that she was going o a diet and I bloody well had to follow suit.
I am a man of the world, and by world, I mean blogosphere; and by blogosphere, I mean "lets invent a new word to describe gazillions of people typing stuff that is of interest to only about five others, then sending down a bunch of bing pipes into the special magic computer at the heart of the internets". I had read about a fantastic new diet. Fantastic is defined as "unbeliveable, unreal, fictional, sort of like dragons, care bears and Charlton actually winning a game this season". The diet in question, the shangri-la diet, had a lot of buzz earlier in 2006 when the guys who wrote Freakanomics mentioned it on their blog. Ever interested in such things, I picked up a copy of the book during a junket... err, I mean important conference trip to the states. Its a good read, and an interesting theory. I don't think for one second that it actually has any chance of working, but if Herself thinks I am dieting, then it will be doing its job.
Last night, I was at a new year's party, and the subject of resolutions came up. I explained that I was going to be testing out the shangri-la diet and people appeared interested: not only in the fact that I had become conned by a diet author who would make Gillan McKeith seem to be qualified to talk about how to lose weight, but also because they wanted to know if it really worked. And they convinced me to blog about it.
I decided that a month would be a fair time to give the diet a chance, and that if it worked, I would keep it on. I also came up with the idea of trying other self-help ideas for a month at a time.
Just Help Myself was born.
Each day I'll tell you where I am, where things are going, and if these things actually help. I may well be a better man by the end of December 2007
Fast forwards until December. It was becoming painfully clear that if Herself and I remained at our current weights, our combined mass may well cause a universe collapsing singularity to form seconds after I am told I may kiss the bride. Something had to be done, if not for our happiness, in order to save the world from imminent disaster. Also, herself told me that she was going o a diet and I bloody well had to follow suit.
I am a man of the world, and by world, I mean blogosphere; and by blogosphere, I mean "lets invent a new word to describe gazillions of people typing stuff that is of interest to only about five others, then sending down a bunch of bing pipes into the special magic computer at the heart of the internets". I had read about a fantastic new diet. Fantastic is defined as "unbeliveable, unreal, fictional, sort of like dragons, care bears and Charlton actually winning a game this season". The diet in question, the shangri-la diet, had a lot of buzz earlier in 2006 when the guys who wrote Freakanomics mentioned it on their blog. Ever interested in such things, I picked up a copy of the book during a junket... err, I mean important conference trip to the states. Its a good read, and an interesting theory. I don't think for one second that it actually has any chance of working, but if Herself thinks I am dieting, then it will be doing its job.
Last night, I was at a new year's party, and the subject of resolutions came up. I explained that I was going to be testing out the shangri-la diet and people appeared interested: not only in the fact that I had become conned by a diet author who would make Gillan McKeith seem to be qualified to talk about how to lose weight, but also because they wanted to know if it really worked. And they convinced me to blog about it.
I decided that a month would be a fair time to give the diet a chance, and that if it worked, I would keep it on. I also came up with the idea of trying other self-help ideas for a month at a time.
Just Help Myself was born.
Each day I'll tell you where I am, where things are going, and if these things actually help. I may well be a better man by the end of December 2007
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