Always Looking for Something New

New Resources: Slow Carb Diet experimenters

2012-02-28T00:04:00.000-06:00

As I've mentioned before, everyone's methods for slow carb/the 4 Hour Body is a little different. And that's good. I've explained what I'm doing (sort of), but a lot of bloggers provide more comprehensive, structured advice about their experiences or resources.

For example:

The Four Hour Body Couple - http://www.fourhourbodycouple.com/blog/: They're making a business out of this, but that doesn't discount some of the good information they provide. Approach it with a critical eye, like you should with anything on the internet. Just take it with a grain of salt. And pepper. And, ohhhh, don't forget parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme!

William Hertling - http://www.williamhertling.com/2011/01/4-hour-body-fat-loss-cheat-sheet.html : A cheat sheet with a summary of all of the many many things Tim brings up in the book. Not a replacement for the book by any means, but a good summary.

Brian - 4 Hour Body Zone - http://www.4hourbodyzone.com/: I really like that he went from 4HB to Paleo. He also has lots of recipes and is (or has) working on a Slow-Carb Slow-Cooker book, which sounds good to me.

In order to make your own plan though, it's helpful to have a few resources for potential meals. I generally stick with the 4HB idea of eating boring - the same meals over and over. But I can't just eat the same thing EVERY day, so I mix it up with one or two recipes each week.

Recipe resources I like:

4HB Recipes - http://www.4hourrecipes.com/blog.html: Lots of recipes, but not currently updated.

The Slow Carb Cookbook (pdf) - http://robbwolf.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/The-Slow-Carb-Cookbook.pdf: A great collection to get you started with new ideas.

4HB Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/mckensiek/4-hour-body/: A pinterest collection devoted to The Four Hour Body.

Forgot to do the squats/pushups before eating, but did them 1 hour after breakfast and dinner -oops

Breakfast:
Breakfast bowl
Yogi tea with almond milk

Lunch:
Turkey Brat & Sauerkraut

Second Lunch:
Lentils & Turkey Sausage

Dinner:
Almond crusted chicken breast
Salad with raspberry poppy vinagrette (not actually on diet)
Healthy Vision green giant veggies (in a butter sauce that is also not actually on the diet)

New Diet: Slow Carb Week 1 Recap

2012-02-26T23:59:00.000-06:00

One of the interesting/cool/frustrating things about The 4-Hour Body Slow Carb diet is that Tim basically lays out some guidelines and then says (approximately): "Experiment on yourself. There aren't hard and fast rules - do what works for you!" That means that everyone's slow carb diet might be a little different.

So my diet rules for the last week were the bare-bones basics of 4HB:
1 - Avoid white carbs/foods. So I cut out bread of all types and potatoes of all types. (For some reason, the advice is to cut out sweet potatoes too.) I also cut pasta and rice. I already don't eat cereal. And no sugar. And no DAIRY. This was rough.

2 - Eat the same meals over and over. Yep, that fits with what's worked for me in the past. He says to eat breakfast pretty soon after waking up and eat every 4 hours.

3 - Don't drink calories. See, he says this, but then says he drinks wine every night. After the first few days, I added in a glass or two of wine a night.
4 - Don't eat fruit. Sugar appears to be the main reason for this again.
5 - Take one day off per week and go NUTS. That will be Saturdays for me.

The biggest changes for me were cutting out beer, all the white carb things I eat (tortillas, english muffins, biscuits, pasta, rice, and potatoes) and the dairy products (yogurt and cheese). Cutting fruit was also a big change, even though I probably only eat that once a day. Because of those cuts, all my go-to, frozen meals (Breakfasts and Lunches) and quick snacks (yogurt and fruit, generally) were out. It was a lot harder this week to have everything prepped and pre-cooked for all the meals I eat on the go (3-4 breakfasts, lunches, and dinners every week).

Ways I Deviated from 4HB in Week 1:

Ate corn.
Drank diet sodas.
Didn't eat every four hours.
Drank some calories with my wine.
Didn't really set up good "before" photos or metrics.

Plan for Week 2:

Cut out the wine. I get wild sugar cravings after only half a glass of wine. It's hard to maintain my discipline. For whatever reason, the terrible headaches are much much worse if I have even a little wine the night before.
Keep drinking lots of water. The water seems to be a key to keeping the headaches manageable. They keep coming back.
Start lifting. I have a plan for this (more to be written later!), so this week will involve figuring out what my starting weights are and getting into the habit of getting back to the gym.
Perhaps add in some brown rice, whole wheat pasta, or bread. These headaches can be killer. If I can make them go away with a little carb stuff, then I will. I'm also worried about feeling strong on the workout without additional carbs.
Remember to do squats and wall pushups before meals. Tim suggests this for a weird biochemical reason that doesn't sound entirely rational, but since I'm just doing this for experimental fun, I will give it a shot.

Breakfast:
Jack-in-the-Box Breakfast sandwhich (hangover food)

Lunch:
Almond breaded chicken tenders
Black beans
Last of cupcakes from the day before

Dinner:
Pazta & sausage meatballs

New Diet: Slow Carb Numbers from Week 1

2012-02-26T00:49:00.000-06:00

I used dailyburn to track my numbers for week one so that, if I need to tweak something, I know what my baseline is. It's actually pretty simple with the limited-menu I use, so here's the results from Week 1.

Day 1: 1484 cal, 130.4g prot (34.55%), 103.4g carbs (27.39%), 63.8g fat (38.6%)
Day 2: 1351 cal, 99.3g prot (28.43%), 94.2g carbs (26.96%), 69.3g fat (44.61%)
Day 3: 1415 cal, 137g prot (38.59%), 94.9g carbs (26.74%), 54.7g fat (34.68%)
Day 4: 1571 cal, 129g prot (32.85%), 73.8g carbs (73.8%), 73.9g fat (42.36%), Alcohol (6%)
Day 5: 1613 cal, 104.2g prot (25.84%), 114.7g carbs (28.45%), 60.5g fat (33.7%), Alcohol (11.94%)
Day 6: 1779 cal, 132.2g prot (29.72%), 69.6g carbs (15.64%), 85.0g fat (42.99%), Alcohol (11.65%)

I didn't track the binge day since that's sort-of the point. I'm pretty happy with the numbers for protein and am not really sure where I should be for carbs and fat. I guess I need to go back to the book and check on those!

Breakfast:
Pancakes

Lunch:
Corn Dog
Diet Cherry Limeaide

2nd Lunch:
Potstickers
Cupcake

Dinner:
5 beers at Clive
2 cupcakes

1 Wendy's Chicken Sandwich

New Drink: Nuun

2012-02-24T23:49:00.002-06:00

The girls on the rowing team have long endorsed Nuun tablets* for electrolyte drinks while working out the summer heat. They come in a ton of flavors and are sugar free, which is a big plus over Gatorade for many of them. I found them at the grocery store and bought a few that I've used during Week 1 to help me hydrate. So far, I've tried:

Gogi Berry Green Tea - light, refreshing, a little bit of sweetness to it. 4/5 stars.

Cucumber Mint - light, but not my preference. Maybe I'll like this in the summer, when I'm outside and it's hot, but it isn't cutting it now and will go to the back of the pantry.

Tri-Berry - I'm in love. Sweet, but not overly so. Supertasty. Love Love Love <3.

I just pop out one tablet and drop it in my 1L bottle of water. You can easily split them in half and add more or less to your taste.


They effervesce, but not so much that they blow the cap off if you put it on and not so much that you get bubbly water.

Basically, I think the combo of the electrolytes and the increased water consumption are why I only seem to need advil for my headaches on the day after I've had a glass of wine. Nuun is a LIFESAVER for me on this diet. Can't wait to try more flavors!

Breakfast (slept in, so I didn't eat till late morning):
Breakfast bowl
Diet Root Beer

Lunch:
Turkey brats & Sauerkraut

Cauliflower rice with parmesan cheese
Glass of wine

Dinner:
Grilled chicken
Green Giant "Health Weight" Frozen veggies
Glass of wine

*Nope, I didn't get any of these for free and all the opinions are my uncompensated, raw, unvarnished opinions about the product.

Nothing New: Day 5

2012-02-23T21:24:00.002-06:00

Nothing really new today. Well, I wasn't hungry today at all. Which was weird. So I didn't eat like I was supposed to. [chagrined face]

I went for a run this evening - 5 min warm up, 1 min hard/2 min easy x 5, 5 min cool down - which was the hardest workout I've done while on this diet. I wasn't able to push as hard as I wanted, and I got this weird cramp that (TMI ALERT) felt like the beginning of menstrual cramps. I ran through, but it was weird and unpleasant. Other than that...nothing new.

Breakfast:
Half a breakfast bowl

Lunch:
Half a breakfast bowl

Second Lunch:
Half a zucchini/sausage bowl

Dinner:
Half a zucchini/sausage bowl
Glass of red wine

(edited to add)
Late Night Snack:
Another glass of red wine
Almonds (1 oz)

New Side Effect: Headaches

2012-02-22T20:18:00.002-06:00

Apparently, one of the known side effects of low carb diets is a headache sometime during the first week. Oops, probably should have read more about this before I got started!


Note the in-bedroom giant jacuzzi tub. And pink marble. Niiiiiiice.


So the pic is from Day 2, but this was my "class" for day 1. The Chinese guy next to me works one building down from mine on campus. And the guy in red was maybe one of my favorite people I met on this trip - Barney. Who was unfailingly positive and generally an awesome guy.


There were better photos, but this one shows Isis making a silly face, so it made the final cut. Also note how attentive the doggies are - they know that the tennis shoes mean RUNNING!!


source (You should click this, it's totally worth it and super-funny)

Always Looking for Something New

New Resources: Slow Carb Diet experimenters

New Diet: Slow Carb Week 1 Recap

New Diet: Slow Carb Numbers from Week 1

New Drink: Nuun

Nothing New: Day 5

New Side Effect: Headaches

New Food(s): Zuchhini Noodles

New Measurement: Bio-Electrical Impedance

New Diet: Slow Carb

Race Report: 3M Half Marathon

What Exactly Do I Do?

Long Ramblings: Where We Are Today

New Trip : Tahoe

New Race: Sugar Land Surgical Hospital Turkey Trot (5 mile)

New Thing: So New, It Doesn't Exist Yet...Zombies, RUN!

New Recipe: Whole Turkey, Tabletop Convection Oven Style

Race Report: San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon

You know what's disappointing?

Still quiet on the western front

Noted and quoted

Something I Need To Remember

New Books: Read in September

All play and no work...

Post-a-day

Happy Birthday to Me!

New Recipe: Venison Backstrap

Running: Supplies

New Recipe: Pretzel Bites

New Thing (shut up, I'm not more precise than that): Polyvore

NaBloPoMo: Yes, another thing.

New Recipe: Pizza Pretzel

Noted & Quoted (sort of): Signs your new job is gonna work out

Nothing to see here...

Noted & Quoted: Music Monday

New Font: Yes, you read that right. I said "New FONT".

Stubbed toe

Masters Nationals: The Photo Spread

New Concept: "Free" time?

New Experience: Beach Condo

New Thoughts (for me): I'm so GLAD I ate that!

Noted & Quoted: Pinterest tells you about my new job (!)

New Endevour: Race a Half-Marathon

Qutable Tuesday: Surfer dude & Pinteresting: Regret

New Technique: mobile blogging

New Restaurant: South Congress Cafe

New Food: Healthy Choice Country Breaded Chicken

New Month: Septemeber Plans

Stoopid Fertility

Noted and Quoted

BEER: Glory to our Maker

Quotable Monday

Sunday funday

Reset

Overheard: Mexican Food

Awards!

Wordless Tuesday?

Sunday Musing: Goals