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Part Two

I thought that it would be easy just to keep truckin' along myself, after the first six weeks, but it seems there is still stuff to learn. I'm all about learning stuff (although we won't even mention how hard it is to fit my uni paper in at the moment! Or how rubbish the essay I handed in last night was...) so, I've decided to keep going and do the next six week part of the plan.  What have I learned? - That I need to do some strength/weights/resistance stuff. I do not like this at all, I never have, but not only is Chrissie telling me that I should, my closer-to-home trainer and friend, Beth , leaped at the chance to set me up a program when I suggested I could start using the weights room at the school I teach at. Hmm, I'm sure it's a conspiracy, but I will go along with it. - That buckwheat and quinoa are seeds, not grains. This may not seem earth-shattering to you, but having found that grains are bad (for me) in the first 6-week cycle, I had c

Re-entry day 6

The re-entry phase is so important, people! I think I am discovering as many interesting (sortof) things about my body in this phase of things as I did in the reset phase. Not only have I discovered that  dairy is good for me  in the first re-entry part, but I have also noticed a couple of other things as well. Last weekend, I was out birthday shopping with my daughter. We stopped in at a cafe and I had a little cake for morning tea, to keep her company (our birthdays are very close together, she's turning twelve, I'm turning a lot older than that). It was grain free, which was good (almond flour for the win!) but it did have sugar in. I didn't notice any sugar rush or anything, but boy did I feel the come-down! That afternoon I was so droopy and I felt totally meh.  So that's it, sugar is out. It pretty much was anyway, but that just reinforced it. The other thing, that I totally didn't expect, is my reaction to bringing red meat back in. I'v

Re-entry day 2

Well, here's something a bit weird... I don't usually write about my bowel function in a public forum (or in any forum for that matter!) but I feel that there may even be times when that could be considered appropriate. When, you ask? Now. So, in the reset phase, one main thing I noticed, that I kindof knew about already, was that when I eat grains, my system locks up and I am constipated for about a week. (Too much detail? Yeah, me too...) Anyway, sure enough, on cutting out the grains, everything worked again.  But then this weird thing happened ... when I cut out the dairy, my system locked up again! And I was bloated as well as feeling hungry all the time.  So my first challenge food on the re-entry was definitely going to be dairy. (Yoghurt, cheese, I missed you) And by day 2, my system is all go again. I do not understand this, but it is definitely a thing. It seems I need something that only dairy can give me. I need to do my measurements again tomorro

Reset phase - completed!

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And I feel good! This reset phase has been a challenge, but it has been so worth getting through.  I think it has taken me a week longer than it was supposed to, with various interruptions, but I have made sure that I did a full three days of each phase before I moved onto the next, and I think that has been effective. I was out exercising this afternoon, running not very quickly up my rather steep road home (why do I always live at the top of a hill?) and enjoying myself. I felt powerful and clear, and I had a self-belief that I will continue to feel this way, because I know now so much more about what my body does with what I give it. I'm about to start on re-entry.  I know that I won't be adding the sugar or the grains back in as I have noticed with each of them what a difference it makes when I have taken them out. I had thought gluten, and I hadn't thought I had that much sugar, but in both cases, the effect has told me that it is a bigger thing t

Reset phase part 7 day 2

I have learned three main things this week: routine, good fats, and exercise. So, the first thing - I am SO HUNGRY! I have worked out that I must be getting most of my fat from dairy, because having cut it out, I am eating the same things just with no dairy in, and when I am done, I am still hungry. It's simple changes, like coconut cream for milk in my breakfast, or leaving the cheese out of my lunchtime salad, but boy, I am noticing the difference!  As a consequence I am wanting to snack a lot more, and it is only the fact that there is nothing in the house to snack on that is stopping me. I have been hitting the nuts pretty hard... But the bit I am not sure about is whether this is a good or bad thing. I feel that I will need to put that dairy back in after I finish the reset, because that is what is making me feel satisfied after a meal. And I haven't felt any other effects of taking it out, good or bad. But maybe there is something else I could/should be d

Reset phase Grains Day 1

I'm totally losing track of which day it is, so I'm afraid the naming on these is going a bit haywire ... O well. Anyway. I am amazed at a thing - I have just done the coffee three days and I am not dead! In fact, not only am I not dead, but it was easy! This was not what anyone expected. I had warned my family and they were certain that if I wasn't going to die, then they certainly would, from the fallout. But no, we are all just fine. I was a bit sleepy the first day, early afternoon, but I think that was more the effect of the essay I was writing. I had a nap, finished it off, and drank some more berry tea. But what does this mean? Does it mean my coffee addiction (that I have always freely confessed to) is not actually a thing? Does it mean that coffee doesn't affect me? Could it be that having finished the house build, moved in and gone on school holidays, my stress levels have  lowered  so far that I don't need coffee? (No, that can't be right, I

Reset phase approx day 9

I say approximately, as things have got a little bit out of order, but I am definitely finishing up the no fruit stage and moving into no caffeine, which means that officially it's day 9. Anyway, sugar, you and I will have to break up. This separation is really working for me and it's going to be a divorce. I didn't actually think I had that much sugar in my diet, but being really strict on not having any (even in my coffee!) has had two very excellent effects: those wibbly bits are rapidly disappearing, and I feel generally a lot clearer and focussed and motivated - I no longer get to the end of the day and flake because I'm exhausted.  This is very strange. I am assuming that it is the sugar that I'm not having that had that effect on me, but I didn't know that it could be doing that. I knew of course that sugar is bad in terms of weight, everyone does really, and I also knew that getting energy from sugar doesn't last long, so I wasn't co