THE (MODIFIED) VIRGIN DIET - THE END OF THE DAIRY CHALLENGE AND THE DIET

Yesterday, I ended the dairy challenge portion of my modified version of The Virgin Diet. 

And because I have no intention of challenging peanuts, soy, corn, gluten or sugar/artificial sweeteners, this is the end of The Virgin Diet.  Starting today, I am back to eating the regular way, with a few modifications based on what I learned doing The Virgin Diet.

MY SYMPTOMS OVERALL

• Acne - I still get an occasional outbreak.  Stopping all of the FI foods did not change that.
• Chronic mucus/stuffy nose - No
• Constipation and/or diarrhea - Every now and then, I still have both problems, but I can see it is direct response to eating certain things which I will now be more careful with
• Fatigue - I still get fatigued in the afternoons on the days that I have to get up at 4 am to work.
• Food cravings - If I track my food, I do not want to overeat.  On the days that I do not track my food, I usually overeat.  I guess I need to keep tracking.
• Gas and bloating - No
• Headaches - No
• High blood glucose - No
• Inability to lose weight - No - Starting weight 147.8 with 37.7% body fat - Current weight 142.6 with 36% body fat - Goal weight 136 with 30% body fat - To reach my goal, I need to lose 10.5 pounds of body fat and I need to gain 3.9 pounds of lean mass.
• Insomnia - Yes, rarely
• Joint pain - No
• Thinning, limp, lackluster hair - No
• Muscle pain  - No
• Nausea - No
• Swollen fingers - Sometimes I wake in the morning with a little bit of swelling, but I have not been able to link it to anything I am eating.

DAIRY CHALLENGE RESULTS

In case you are just tuning in, I spent the first four weeks of this diet eliminated all of the following:  eggs, dairy, soy, gluten, peanuts, corn and sugar, including artificial sweeteners.  To be more exact, the only things I actually gave up were eggs and dairy, because the other things have not been a normal part of my diet for years.

I tracked my symptoms during that four week period.  I started out having to write "Yes" next to each of the symptoms I listed above.  As you can see, they now mostly say "No".  For week five, I ate eggs for four days in a row and then got back off them for the next three days, and during the next week, I ate dairy for four days in a row and then got back off of them.  During the time I was challenging dairy, I was not eating eggs.

Basically, I don't think that I have a big problem with dairy, based on my symptoms.  But something is a problem, because giving everything up improved my symptoms of inflammation.


MY CONCLUSIONS

My first conclusion is that I am going to eat eggs no more often than every two days, because eating them every day may cause me to build up an intolerance to them.

My second and last conclusion is that I am going to eat dairy no more often than every four days.  At around the third or fourth day of the dairy challenge, I had a little constipation, but it was not an immediate response - it took a few days for that symptom to show up, so holding off on dairy for three out of four days should take care of the problem, according to what I read in the book.  


NUTRITIONAL KETOSIS

I am going to test my blood ketones and blood glucose once per week.  I tested my blood for both ketones and glucose.  My blood glucose this morning was 94 an hour after eating, which is only a tiny bit high, 83 being my goal.  My ketones were 1.6, which not bad, but I would like it to be higher.  The last time I was doing this, my average was 1.8 and I was losing weight.  My protein level right now is around 55-57 grams per day and my carbs are 24 grams or less.  I was hoping that the ketones would be high enough so that I could increase protein a little bit.  This coming week, I am going to reduce carbs by a few grams and replace that with protein, and I'll see how my ketones look next week.


MY CHARTS

I updated my charts and decided to post them here, in case anyone likes to look at charts.  You will notice that my weight and measurements went down last summer when I was seriously tracking my food.  Then, in mid-November 2012, I stopped tracking and tried to "eat when I was hungry and stop when I was full."  This was a epic fail, as you can see by looking at my charts.  It was not that I stopped eating high fat, moderate protein and very low carb - it is that I obviously just ate too much of the foods that are good for me.

There were a few reasons why I did not get back on track until several weeks ago, and they all caused me so much stress that my weight was the last thing on my mind:

1. I was having financial problems
2. I was packing and moving my household
3. A family member was seriously ill
4. I started a new job that was going badly

Anyway, most of those problems have settled down a little bit, and I was motivated to start tracking again.  Here are my charts:

If you are interested in getting a short synopsis of how this plan works, you can click on the link at the beginning of this post or you can listen to Jimmy Moore interviewing JJ Virgin by clicking here.