The Journal

Julia · The Journal

Guess it’s time to start a journal. I’ve been eating very low carb for almost two weeks now. Yesterday I decided I was going to eat like I normally would and see what it did to me. It was terrible. Absolutely terrible. My blood sugar totally bottomed out and it took 40 minutes after eating for the shakes to go away. Screw that. I’m sticking with meat from here on out.

I’m 25, 6 feet tall, and weigh 190lbs. My Mom, her sister, and my sister are all obese, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and are diabetic (type 2). My dad was apparently “pre-diabetic” though he never had diabetes. (He had the weird hypoglycemia thing like I do) Aren’t genetics wonderful?

jeff

Julia, welcome to Journaland! If you faithfully follow a ZC diet, you should see all of your problem areas improve.

Welcome aboard the bus, and enjoy the ride.

Dean

to Journaland, Julia.

How VLC were you? I think doing ZC can be very healing to you, both physically and psychologically, but, you might also need to deal with other issues if you are to gain control of your eating. You might not, but, you might. For me, I was able to get used to the idea of not being hungry and having to eat tons of calories, and could easily ignore carbage that was all around me at social gatherings, because by sticking to ZC for awhile, I trained myself to do this. However, I also had to deal with managing stress through more sleep, and many other methods, in order to be more free from carb cravings.

I'm no longer doing ZC but have conditioned myself toward eating mostly animal foods and therefore the amount of carbs is very low, and the amount of calories is also. I don't think about using carbs as a coping mechanism, which I was doing a lot before. The idea seems odd to me now. Sorta like reaching for a cigarette, which I gave up nearly 8 years ago. It just doesn't appeal to me at all.

Good luck on your journey, no matter which way you decide to travel. Cool

Heather

Hi Julia, that's a very pretty name! Welcome to journaland! Welcome

Julia

Thanks Jeff.

Hi Dean, I was/am keeping carbs in the 5g range. Cheese, butter, and eggs are the only carbs I'm eating. It's wonderful to be able to actually feel real hunger without the dizzy/shaky/heart pounding that I'm so used to. My lapse (well, it was a conscious decision so not really a lapse) into normal eating behavior for that day proved to me that carbs just aren't any good for my body. Besides the physical effects it had on me that day I was also a mega beotch to the Husband.

I think my biggest battle will be only eating when hungry. I've had some major mouth hunger. But, I've taken up knitting and that seems to help. If I'm busy doing something constructive I have less of an urge to shovel food into my gullet.

Thank you Heather. Happy

I have noticed something odd and maybe someone here has an explanation for it. My legs are tired. For example, when I walk up the stairs to my apartment my legs burn like I've been doing squats. They never used to do that. Anyone have any idea what the deal is? Does it have something to do with glycogen?

jeff

Julia, the tiredness in your legs is probably just a temporary thing while your body adapts to burning fat and ketones. If it is an adaptation issue, it should be better within a few weeks.

Regarding your "lapse" back to "normal" eating. I'm glad you learned from it. One thing that everybody needs to understand, though, is that eating carbage is not normal! We think of it is normal, because that is all that most of us have ever known. But many of these "normal" foods didn't even exist 200, 100, or even 50 years ago. It's no wonder our bodies cannot deal with them. A normal diet for humans is a diet based mostly on meat and fat.

Keeping busy is a good idea to help with eating only when hungry. It gets easier with time. Many ZC'ers eventually end up eating only once or twice per day. It just sort of happens naturally. In fact, Bear says he likes to eat on a schedule, otherwise he can forget to eat.

Heather

Julia

Naw, I'm a LC virgin. Oops

Seems like the burning and weakness in my legs is getting better. It's less frequent. It's not painful, just annoying. I had headaches for two days then they went away. Another adaptation symptom I suppose.

The great news is I'm down to 184. Water weight or not, I like seeing smaller numbers on the scale. Yup

Billi-Jean

Welcome Julia! Glad you've started a journal. I'm just getting back on track too so I look forward to sharing the journey. Sunny

Julia

Still chugging along. I'm down to 179 (have been to the past two mornings so I'm claiming it). I've noticed another improvement. I used to get tension headaches pretty much every day. Sometimes multiple times per day. They're gone. Grin

Life is so much better when my head doesn't hurt.

This weekend I ate a bit of lobster and shrimp and got terrible cravings for carbs. I thought I was going to crack. So I ate some fatty meat and that squished the cravings. All hail animal fat.

My weird rubber leg thing is completely gone!

Oh, and my Mom decided she was going to try this WOE. I don't expect her to stick ZC/VLC forever but if I can get her to hang on for a bit I'm sure she'll start seeing benefits. Then she'll think twice about eating a whole box of cookies and a bag of gummy worms in one sitting the next time she says, "hmm, I feel like getting a little something sweet." Confused

That woman needs a keeper.

kateryna

Hey Julia. Welcome Cheer

MetalMama

Hi Julia - congrats on the weight loss!!

Julia

Thank you ladies. I'm down to 175! Shock

This is crazy. How am I losing weight this fast? Water weight can only account for a few pounds of it. Just tried on a pair of jeans I haven't worn in 5 years. I got them on. Still too tight in the thighs but I buttoned and zipped them with no problems. I didn't have major muffin top either.

Ugh, why didn't I try very low carb years ago? LOL

My Mom is down 9lbs her first week. Happy

jeff

Some people do lose weight very quickly, especially in the beginning. You're right about the water. That is gone within the first few days.

Enjoy your success!! Don't necessarily expect it to continue at this pace, though.

y0u

MetalMama

Fantastic loss!!

Julia

Thank you, thank you. The scale is still going down. Slower than it had been, but still down. I feel lighter but honestly I don't really notice any difference in body shape. I took some measurements so I can better track losses.

I set out to do pushups the other day and realized I can't do them anymore. Cry

I guess the old saying is true, if you don't use it you lose it. So I'm going to start weight training. Simple stuff at first till I get some base strength, particularly in the upper body. Yesterday I did wall push ups, tricep presses, dumbbell rows, and shoulder presses all to failure. Boy howdy am I feeling it today! Whew!

I plan to start cardio interval training too, working my way up slowly to something that resembles HIIT.

Hopefully between those two things and eating right I can start seeing some real changes in my body instead of just on the scale.

Thanks again everyone!

jeff

Good job with the contiinued weight loss and the exercise. Keep it up!!!