Saturday, January 01, 2011

4. Stick to the crazy diet for at least a month

Huh. I thought I'd blogged about this...but apparently not.

I wrote a bit about it as it happened on Get Fit Chicks.

I wrote about the new diet it when it arrived here.

But I didn't really blog about completing item number 4. I'm sure I did though. So bear with me. I've been up since 5:00 am this morning.

I did the diet. I stuck with it as best I could given the events going on in our lives. I stocked the house with crazy diet friendly food. I drank lots of water. I ate lots of veggies and fruit and grilled and baked chicken. I was careful. I planned ahead when I knew I wouldn't have much choice so that I wouldn't have to eat much.

It didn't work. It was frustrating. I didn't feel any better.

UGH.

But I did it.

I also found out why it wasn't working. One of the things that was high the last time was my cortisol. I also had an unhappy liver and an unhappy pancreas. This time, my cortisol is low. So low. Usually if you saw a graph of your cortisol, it would start out really high in the morning, then drop quickly and then even out for the rest of the day. Mine is low and the curve is pretty flat all day.

Some of this is called adrenal fatigue. There are other things going on too.

The crazy diet and the GAPS diet have a few things in common, but a lot of things not in common. One likes wheat, the other likes nuts. One likes lentils, the other likes rice. One likes fermented dairy products, the other only likes fresh dairy products. Both dislike soy. Both like fresh meats.

So while the crazy diet didn't work for me (if you're looking it up, the term you want to search is low-tyramine diet) this time, I'm happy to say the GAPS diet is working. It's going to be longer than the crazy diet before we can start adding things in (3-4 months vs 1 month) but I'm game if the results are worth it and so far they are!

2 comments:

  1. I've been trying to lose the same 30 pounds for the last two years - I so hear you on that!!

    Something I tried a couple of months ago was called "ideal protein" which is a low carb (not no carb) high protein diet.
    I did it strictly for about a month and then scrapped the diet food because it was getting much too expensive to keep up but I continued to follow the idea behind it using my own recipes and such and so far it seems to be working. More slowly than it would have if I'd continued to buy the diet food but I'm okay with this.
    I'm not looking for an easy way out and I've found that I've made a huge difference in the way I make food decisions now... if that makes sense.
    I started that in August and I'm down 20 pounds so far.
    10 more to go!

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  2. Congratulations losing 20 lbs! The last 10 can be the most difficult...I'm a long way from my last 10 right now though!

    I'm a little bit surprised at how successful the GAPS diet has been so far. It's great, but we're finding it so much more expensive. Mostly because I have to make so much broth and we're eating meat pretty much every night and I'm eating it most lunch and some breakfasts too...we used to eat meat a few times a week and eat meatless dishes a few times a week and it really makes a difference to the grocery bill!

    My naturopath figures by the end of next month or maybe the end of March, I can start adding some carbohydrates back in, but I already feel like I will eat fewer carbs when I do add them back, so the three - four months on this diet is probably a good habit former for me!

    What kind of diet food did you have to buy for the ideal protein diet?

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