THE VIRGIN DIET - DAY 3

Yesterday, I completed Day 3 of The Virgin Diet.

• The arthritis pain in my right hand has diminished greatly, as has the pain in my left foot.
• Due to poor planning, I ate breakfast at 5 am and then did not eat lunch until 2 pm.  I was starving.  I will plan better in the future.
• I lost energy and had to take a nap after eating lunch in the middle of the day.
• I did not check my blood glucose, but since I did nothing different, I assume it was good.
• I had a better day in the bathroom.  Almost normal.
• I went to bed at 10:00 last night, slept through the night and woke up to the alarm this morning at 4:30 feeling tired.  I was not starving when I woke up.
• I gained 0.6 pounds yesterday for a total loss of 0.8 pounds in 3 days.  To get back to my goal weight, I need to lose 11 more pounds.
• I could almost button my "measurement shorts" even though the scale said I gained weight.
• There is one symptom that I forgot to mention that I have, which JJ mentions in her book:  My hair has gotten thin and lifeless.  It just hangs there and looks bad.  I am hoping this will improve, as JJ says it should!

Starting weight - 147.8
Current weight - 147
Goal weight - 136

I normally eat like this:

135g fat (78%)
57g protein
28g carbs

Yesterday, I ate like this:

142g fat (65%)
96g protein
78g carbs

One of the requirements of this protocol is that you journal everything, including what you eat, what you felt like, how your symptoms are, how your elimination is, how your sleep is, etc.  So I'm going to use this blog as a way to keep track.  If your find this helpful, great.  If you are totally bored by it and want to make a snarky comment, please keep it to yourself and just stop reading.  I say this due to some snarky comments I got the last time I was blogging.  Anyway, on to my journaling...

I had shakes for breakfast and lunch that were comprised of coconut milk, water, non-dairy protein powder, ground flax seed, raw kale, frozen berries and a few drops of Stevia.  At lunch time, I also had one once of almonds.

For dinner, I had a quarter of a large can of wild caught canned salmon, onion and morel mushrooms sauteed in coconut oil and sea salt and a small serving of Bubbie's Sauerkraut.  I eat Bubbie's because it is prepared using traditional methods, unlike the sauerkraut that you normally get at the store.  I am going to try to eat a little each day in an attempt at getting fermented foods into my regular diet.  I would love to try making my own, but I'm a little intimidated.  Some day...

Yesterday, I broke down and bought a bottle of Carlson Norwegian Cod Liver Oil.  I will take 2 tsp. per day.  It has a slight lemon flavor and is not nasty to take.  Read about the benefits of cod liver oil here.

I ate breakfast at 5 am, lunch at 2 pm and dinner at 7 pm.  I did not feel like snacking after dinner.

I drank 72 oz. of water, but never within an hour before eating or an hour after eating, in order to not dilute my stomach acid.

Yesterday, I roasted a Pine Manor Farms organic chicken that I bought at Whole Foods Market.  I really need to find a source of chicken and eggs (hopefully) that have not been fed soy.  The chicken package said that it was fed an all-vegetable diet, non-GMO, etc., but it did NOT say that it was not fed soy.  I wrote to the company to find out and I'm waiting to hear back from them.  Everywhere I look, the chickens are fed soy.  Ugh.

After the chicken is eaten, I will be making bone broth from the carcass, using this new method I found.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  Bone broth is very healing to the gut and I would like to arrange my life and habits to include always having homemade bone broth on hand to drink every day.  

If you are interested in getting a short synopsis of how this plan works, you can listen to Jimmy Moore interviewing JJ Virgin by clicking here.

THE VIRGIN DIET - DAY 2

Yesterday, I completed Day 2 of The Virgin Diet.

• The arthritis pain in my right hand has diminished slightly, as has the pain in my left foot.
• I was not hungry until time  to eat, and even then, it was very mild.
• I had energy and did not feel sleepy in the middle of the day.
• My blood sugar was 85 an hour and a half after eating.
• I did not have a great day in the bathroom.  Lots of activity, but mostly very loose.
• I slept through the night.
• I went to bed at 10:00 last night and woke up to the alarm this morning at 4:15 feeling refreshed and ready to start my day, and I was not starving when I woke up.
• I lost 0.8 pounds yesterday for a total loss of 1.4 pounds in 2 days.  To get back to my goal weight, I need to lose 10.4 more pounds.

Starting weight - 147.8
Current weight - 146.4
Goal weight - 136

Every time I start something new, I usually take all my measurements and keep detailed charts of my progress.  This time, I am going to try to be a little less intense about it.  I will weigh in the morning, and not take my measurements.  What I will do to track my body size is this:  I found a size 10 pair of shorts in my closet that I have not worn in a while because they are old and worn out looking.  But they will make a great low-tech measuring tool.  Right now, I can get them on, but I cannot button them.  If all goes as planned, by the time I reach my goal, they should be able to be buttoned and also be a little loose.

I normally eat like this:

135g fat (78%)
57g protein
28g carbs

Yesterday, I ate like this:

129g fat (59%)
133g protein
69g carbs

I am a little concerned about the amount of protein I am eating, but I am losing weight, so I will try not to worry about it unless I stop losing weight.

I had shakes for breakfast and lunch that were comprised of coconut milk, water, non-dairy protein powder, ground flax seed, raw kale, frozen strawberries and a few drops of Stevia.  I am totally used to the taste and I look forward to my shakes.

For dinner, I had a grilled pork chop with sea salt and garlic powder, and roasted asparagus with sea salt and a little bit of coconut oil, and two slices of bacon.

Giving up butter has been hard.  I used to put butter on everything, and now I am at a loss for what kind of healthy fat to add to my meat and veggies.  I thought about bacon grease, but it turned out that my husband THREW IT AWAY when we moved to our new house last week.  I asked him what he was thinking.  He does not know.  Sheesh.  So I fried up a couple of slices of bacon, ate the bacon and saved the grease for meat and veggie toppings.

Yesterday, I ate breakfast at 7 am, lunch at 1:30 pm and dinner at 7 pm.  I did not feel like snacking after dinner.

I drank 72 oz. of water, but never within an hour before eating or an hour after eating, in order to not dilute my stomach acid.

If you are interested in getting a short synopsis of how this plan works, you can listen to Jimmy Moore interviewing JJ Virgin by clicking here.

THE VIRGIN DIET - DAY 1

Yesterday, I completed Day 1 of The Virgin Diet.  It went well for the following reasons:

• I enjoyed the shakes I had for breakfast and lunch.  It was nice not to worry about what to eat for a change!
• I was not starving all day like I have been lately, even though I have been eating high fat.
• I had energy and did not feel sleepy in the middle of the day like I have been lately.
• My blood sugar was 84 an hour and a half after eating.
• I had normal elimination for a change.
• I slept through the night for a change.
• I woke up this morning at 6:30 feeling refreshed and ready to start my day, and I was not starving when I woke up.  Lately, I have been so hungry that I would feel real hunger pangs even in the middle of the night. 
• I lost 0.6 pounds yesterday.  To get back to my goal weight, I need to lose 11.8 more pounds.

I normally eat like this:

135g fat (78%)
57g protein
28g carbs

But yesterday, I ate like this:

114g fat (57%)
102g protein
89g carbs

I had a shake for breakfast and lunch that was comprised of coconut milk, water, non-dairy protein powder, ground flax seed, raw kale, frozen blueberries and a few drops of Stevia.  All that made around 16 fluid oz. of shake and it took more than a few minutes to drink it!  The first one I made was tolerable, but the next one I found easy to drink and somewhat tasty.

JJ's plan is that you eat three meals per day.  The first one needs to be within one hour after rising, and the other two need to be 4-6 hours apart, with no snacks.  The last meal of the day should be no closer to bedtime than 2-3 hours.  Yesterday, I ate breakfast at 8 am, lunch at 2 pm and dinner at 7 pm.  For a change, I also did not feel like snacking after dinner.

Part of this process is making sure that you have good digestion by not diluting your stomach acid at meal times so that you can properly digest your food.  An hour before eating, I drink 16 oz. of water, then nothing while I am eating, then wait for an hour after eating to drink another 8 oz.  I like this better than trying to remember to drink water all day.

All in all, not a bad start.  In a few days, I will be traveling out of town to take care of a sick friend for the weekend, and I am a little concerned that I will need to be doing this while I am there.  But journaling here always helps to keep me on track, so I think I will do okay.

If you are interested in getting a short synopsis of how this plan works, you can listen to Jimmy Moore interviewing JJ Virgin by clicking here.

FOOD INTOLERANCE - THE VIRGIN DIET

Well, I'm going to try something a little different.  If it raises my blood sugar, I will be stopping pretty quickly.  I heard of a new book by JJ Virgin, called "The Virgin Diet."  It is about food intolerances, and the whole tenet of the book is that intolerance to certain foods are the real reason for weight gain.  Obviously, I think that is a little simplistic, but I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water just yet.



According to JJ, the seven foods that are the most likely to cause weight gain and other health problems are:

Gluten
Soy
Dairy
Eggs
Corn
Peanuts
Sugar (including Artificial Sweeteners)

If you are intolerant of any of these foods, going through a three-week trial elimination of them should make you feel better and lose weight.  After three weeks, you should try adding them back in to see if your symptoms return.  JJ does give her opinion that you should probably stay away from  some of these foods forever, in particular, gluten, believing that it is not safe for humans in general.

I have looked at what JJ says to eat, and it is relatively low carb by common standards (around 100 grams per day), but higher carb than what I am used to.  The fat is a little lower than my current way of eating and the protein is a little higher.  All in all, I see it as a healthy way to eat, but it remains to be seen if it will work for me.

SO WHY AM I DOING IT?

I heard a podcast about it, and some people that I admire have advocated it, such as Mark Hyman, Suzanne Somers and Jonny Bowden.  When I listened to the symptoms of food intolerance (FI), I saw myself.  Plus, I have been under a great deal of stress lately and have gained ten pounds in the past month or so.  I can put on five pounds in just a couple of days, and that should not be normal.  According to JJ, this could be a sign that something, or more than one thing, that I am eating is causing problems for me.

There is a long list of symptoms of FI, and these particular ones are the ones I have seen in myself:

Abdominal cramping
Acne
Arthritis
Chronic mucus/stuffy nose
Constipation and/or diarrhea
Fatigue
Food cravings
Gas and bloating
Headaches
Inability to lose weight
Joint pain
Muscle pain

Out of the 24 symptoms, I have 12.  So maybe I am on to something here.

Even though I have stuck with the high fat, moderate protein and extremely low carb way of eating, I have started to have food cravings that have been impossible to manage.  Is this due to stress?  I don't know.  Possibly.  It could also be that, due to the way I have been eating, I have had a lot more eggs and dairy than I used to and I may have become intolerant of them and intolerance will cause cravings.  I guess I'll find out.

Of course, many people reading the book will have a tough time implementing the guidelines required.  If you are eating the Standard American Diet of high, processed carbs and low fat, this will be a big change.  Probably the hardest thing to do is to give up your one million daily servings of "healthy, whole grains."  In my case, I do not eat grains at all, so that one is easy.  I also do not eat any soy, corn, peanuts or sugar.  I do have Stevia for a sweetener, but it is allowed on this program in small amounts, as is xylitol, a natural sugar alcohol.

So, basically, what I am giving up is eggs and dairy.  Before today, my diet was heavy in eggs (at least 2 per day, and sometimes more), sour cream, cream cheese and lots of butter every day.  JJ does allow ghee (butter with the casein removed), but I don't care for ghee, so I will just have coconut oil instead of butter.

The program calls for three meals a day (a snack is allowed, but discouraged), of which one or two are a special shake.  The meals you eat are comprised of clean, lean proteins, healthy fats, high fiber, low glycemic carbs, nonstarchy vegetables and nuts.

The shake is made of non-dairy protein powder, fiber (flax, chia or hemp), organic berries, coconut milk and green leafy veggies.  I added a few drops of Stevia to improve the taste.  Yes, I did have a shake this morning, and it was quite filling and not totally disgusting, but also not yummy.  An hour and a half after I drank it, I tested my blood glucose and it was only 84.  So there was no blood sugar spike like I expected.

Although JJ does not recommend tracking food, I am of a data-collecting bent, and I put the shake into my spreadsheet and found that it contained:

44.6 grams fat
33.1 grams protein
31.5 grams carbs

Right off the bat, that is more carbs than I usually eat in a day, and that is only breakfast, so I am nervous.  I will have another shake at lunch, because I am way busy today and will not have time to cook something.  So just in breakfast and lunch, I will have 63 grams of carbs.  Plus, the amount of protein I usually eat is around 57 grams per day.  Just breakfast and lunch today will yield 66 grams of protein.

Another part of the program is that the protein you eat needs to be grass fed/finished, pastured, hormone and antibiotic free, etc.  So it's more expensive.

MY CONCERNS

I am concerned that eating around 100 grams of carbs each day will be more than I can tolerate.

I am concerned that eating around 100 grams of protein each day will be too much and that a portion of it will be converted to glucose, which will cause blood sugar elevations and weight gain.

I am concerned that I will not be getting enough fat.

I am concerned that a part of the diet is so-called "safe starches", which I have not tolerated well in the past.

I am concerned that  leaving Nutritional Ketosis will cause weight gain.

However, I am willing to try doing all of these things and hoping for the best.  If it is a disaster, I can always do an about face and go back to what I was doing before.  Anyway, off I go on this new experiment.  What if it turns out that I have an egg or dairy intolerance?  That will be a bummer.  But JJ does say in her book that once your gut has been healed, you may be able to begin eating some of those foods in moderation again.  If you try it and it causes symptoms, wait another six months and try again.  It may be that I will not be off of them for life.  Hope springs eternal!  Wish me luck!