Hi Bec
Hope you're feeling better today.
From various comments you have made over time, I wouldn't be surprised if you weren't suffering a stress reaction:
You're at university, you have exams, you have filming commitments, you work in the evenings, you are on a strict diet, and you are rapidly losing weight. What else are you dealing with at the moment?
Looking at your eating pattern, you are not introducing carbohydrate into your system until late morning. Fair enough, but you are also eating fruit later. Why not try having one crispbread immediately after the yoghurt, or having one of your fruits eg a kiwi fruit with the yoghurt. This gives you a carbohydrate and sugar boost early in the day without an insulin spike. The protein in the yoghurt will moderate the insulin response to the fruit and / or crispbread.
Also, your dinner seems to be very bland. Why not introduce a tasty marinade then cook your marinated meat in a casserole or a non-stick frypan rather than using the grill and steaming the vegetables most of the time.
For example, if you put the ingredients for dinner in a casserole with the meat in a slosh of balsamic vinegar, just score the meat, don’t cut it up, and sprinkle dry mustard powder or chilli flakes and other dried herbs such as coriander, oregano or powdered ginger over the meat, then put the chopped vegetables on top, when you come home just add one cup of water and put it in the oven for an hour while you have a rest for a bit, you may find the meal more satisfying rather than rushing all the time.
If you are going to work, cook the dinner the evening before, then it’s only a quick reheat in the microwave and the flavours will have had a chance to develop.
I found the casserole the most interesting meal, and now that I am back to family meals (my husband does all the cooking) I quite miss the casseroles. You get soup, too, so it makes two courses in one go!
The body does not recognise the crispbread as starch if the portion is two crispbread or less and there is at least two & half hours between each portion. Consider spacing your five crispbread out over the day – one each at breakfast, lunch and dinner and the other two as snacks. Don’t forget rice cakes for variety if they are on your program. I much prefer vita wheat to any other crispbread but occasionally had the rice cakes or the Premium Lites (yes, I know they’ve been removed) just to make a change.
I still take the zip lock bag with crispbread around with me, one vita wheat snaps into six ‘crisps’ so that’s six crunchy mouthfuls, and a change of taste. After all the water there is no taste left in the mouth, and that can be a bit wishy washy after a while.
Bec, this program is producing significant change, and no matter how much you may want the end result, do not underestimate the dramatic shift not only in the obvious, but also within the body as it goes about it’s chemical workings, and also emotionally and physiologically.
There can be a lot of grief in losing weight – after all, we are ‘losing’ ourself. Lots of ourself. For me, it was 30% of my body weight, for you it will be nearly half!
It is a very brave thing to face up to, that we are obese and finally, we don’t want to be this way any more. Whatever caused us to hide in our fat, we are jail breaking but it is very scary, takes a lot of diligence but most importantly, a lot of love for ourselves.
Loving ourselves also includes being respectful of ourselves, and recognising the work we are doing. This means we must not spend our whole waking day rushing from one thing to another. Wizzing in the door only to rush straight back out again! Somehow, somewhere in the day, even if it is only while driving between places, take an extra five minutes, drive a little slower, put on some music, just cruise for a bit.
You don’t have to be superhuman. You are only young (we are all, only young!), slow down just a tad and let your body catch up.
When you eat, stop whatever else you are doing and focus on the eating. Sit down. Use a knife and fork. Put your water in a clean glass and drink it slowly. Sit square to the table, not one leg out the side ready to rush off again. Be there, in the moment, for whatever you are doing.
Most of all, when you go to bed, before you go to sleep lie flat on your back, straighten yourself into a long position, tilt your chin up a little, and listen to your day. Thank yourself, tell yourself how proud you are of your achievements today, remind yourself ‘I did pretty well today’. Then roll over and go to sleep.
I come from an ‘interesting’ background. Statistically, I should be bitter and twisted and all mixed up. I could have chosen to live my life that way – who could have blamed me? But instead I chose to be fully in love with life, grateful for each day, thrilled with all the trivia of each moment, and always, always, thank God and myself before I go to sleep
Bec, whether or not this ‘blip’ will be solved with another crispbread does not matter. It seems to me that your tiredness is entirely natural, but that the weakness and nausea could come from simply – doing too much over too long a period of time.
Now that uni is nearly over, and before you start working like a mad thing to earn money for Christmas and the holidays, allow yourself some time to catch up with yourself. Sleep sounds like a good idea, too!
Take care of yourself, Oh Magical Shrinking Bec!
Cheers
Chelsea
... and that goes for all the rest of you Happy Cohenites, too!!
, you should have deviated with style without the carbs attack! At least a green chicken curry without rice would have been better choice, BBQ chicken without the skin with salad (not potato), grilled crayfish with cream butter sauce washed down with a white wine, even a few satays. Better stop before I make myself hungry...!