Monday, 15 November 2010

Fitness: Day 1 of The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet......

Ok, so, I have had a problem with food and eating for literally as long as I can remember.
Objectively speaking, I have never been massively overweight, even though I might have felt enormous (a UK 14 at my smallest and a UK 16/18 at my biggest) but the daily mental battle that I face just to keep at this size is becoming overwhelming.

I have worked out regularly for about 8 years. Sometimes I have even managed to eat well at the same time, and it is during those fleeting, magical times that I have experienced true freedom.
Then it is gone, and I cannot find my way back.

Last week, during some moment of kismet, I remembered a couple that appeared on Oprah a really long time ago. They were talking about their diet plan, which involved 2 low carb meals a day and 1 meal, lasting a maximum of 1 hour, during which you could eat whatever you want. Yes, you did read that last sentence correctly.

Anyway, I couldn't remember the name of the book or the couple but a couple of Google searches later I had found Dr Richard and Dr Rachael Heller and their book, The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet (for the bargain price of £1.01 on amazon, let's hope it's not money that would have been better spent on chocolate).

I have to admit that I did jump ahead to the nitty gritty of he diet so that I could complete my supermarket trip appropriately but now, having reading the scientific reasoning behind the book, I am actually quite excited to get started in earnest.

In the book you will find quite a few case studies, both of the Hellers and many of their successful clients. They all read very encouragingly with such quotes as "now I know what normal feels like" and " I feel like I can think now. I don't feel driven".
Chances are, if you are reading those quotes and wishing you could feel that way, you will probably score fairly high on their Carbohydrate Addiction Test. I scored highly enough to be considered "severely addicted", lucky me, apparently you can't get more addicted than that....

Now on to the diet itself.
They advise that you pick breakfast and lunch as your non-carb meals leaving your carb hour for the evening and I would have to agree with that logic, because, usually, the later in the day, the worse my cravings are.
Here's how today went:
Breakfast: cottage cheese, cucumber
Lunch: salad, cheese, soft cheese (as a dressing because I didn't have any oil. It actually tasted good!)
Supper: chicken in a bun, steamed veggies, chunky oven chips. Bassetts Nougat (for dessert).

I severely underestimated how much food I should have in my first and second meals and felt ravenous by about 5pm so a bit more practice is neede to get correct portion sizes but overall it was ok. No miracles have happened yet because I still feel like eating right now but the "entry plan" last 2 weeks so I shall give it my best and hope that my body responds as it should.

I should mention at this point that this plan is not for everyone. If you have no problem with carbs it probably won't help you but if you do then it might be exactly what you need.

I will explain a bit more about the chemical/hormonal aspects of this plan as the days go on so if you want to know more about and whether or not it helps me, keep coming back :)
xxxx

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