Hello UK! Newcastle Diet from Texas progress thread.

muzza3 said:

Well done Borzoi
When you consider the cold and the sleepless nights 2.6 lbs is a great result and 174 I still dream about. The Zoodles meal looks great. Are you still looking at Keto post diet? Will that be high protein and full fats?

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Yeah Keto is most likely as my transition diet. It's low carb, not no carb. 20g carb intake a day with a caloric limit on full fats and protein dependent on calculating my Macros once I'm done with NC. It's been recommended more often than ever for diabetics as of late. I'd like to use the diet for a few months to hopefully drive the nail into the coffin of this condition as it's very low glycemic as well and will guarantee more weight loss post NC.

Afterwards I'll switch to a balanced diet with lower carb intake like I had last year with increased workouts, 5 meals a day, small portions. Occasional cheat meal.

Hello again! Progress continues as usual. I'm starting to notice that the weight loss might have reached a plateau at this point. I'm so thin nothing fits anymore. Dare I say it I even noticed my underpants were too big. I still have some stomach fat but it must be some of the most stubborn midsection fat ever, hanging in there. I can't fathom cutting anymore calories than I already have, but am starting to wonder whether the next step might be waiting it out until the Newcastle diet terminates and not expect the next step of weight loss to come when I resume an exercise regime and more calories in my system.

Numbers are still stable. Today I actually had to go to a Chinese restaurant for a business meeting, decided to have an eggplant stirfry with garlic sauce, no rice. It was nerve wracking going out for the first time in nearly 1.5 months. There was definitely some sugar in the sauce so I did some cautionary post meal testing. Went up to 126 after the meal and back to 103 2 hours later. Interesting results. Haven't seen my sugar go down by itself like that.

Food stuff:


My wife surprised me with the smell of cookies in the morning. I had no idea how she was baking considering she was on a ketogenic diet but she explained that she'd discovered the benefits of alternate flours that were even lower carb than almond. Hazelnut flour is expensive but my god these turned out just like chocolate chip cookies. I could tell just by the smell she was onto something.

Didn't get a chance to taste them but she mentioned they were incredible, and I trust her judgement as a sweet tooth. Stevia sweetened with low sugar 85% dark chocolate chip and at 1.5 net carbs each, I'm really starting to look forward to the food I'll be able to eat when Keto time comes along. And working out. Can't wait to be able to do that again.



My average diet remains the same. Salads and shakes. I think my body has reached a point it can lose weight no longer by these means, but I'm sticking with it to see if the plateau breaks. Thanks for dropping by.

Thank you all for the encouragement.

Had a pretty hairy weekend as I did a test yesterday to check my progress. Pretty much a make or break test. Before I started my diet I told myself I would do a 6 week self administered carb test to check how my sugars would react. I chose to do so with a treat that would not break the bank- A large bag of popcorn. After a lot of discussion as to what would be a good way to gauge it as pure carb load, popcorn came out to be the only one without too many added ingredients to muck up the count.

Close to 100 grams of carbs in one sitting. I was scared out of my mind to step out of this diet but I needed to see if this was taking me anywhere. So we went to watch a movie to do this self administered test in a relatively relaxed setting. Keep in mind this was done after a day of eating a full 800 calories worth of Newcastle safe diet (Salads, shakes, veg).

I could not finish the popcorn but was able to eat most of it. The taste was so much more complex than I ever remember it being-It tasted like it had hints of honey? I was noticing flavors that would have been dulled on me previously. The benefit of such a strict diet I guess.

The results:
Before test: 90 / 5.0
After consuming (2 hr): 160 / 8.9
Post (4 hr): 91 / 5.0

My heart sank at the 2 hour result initially. I was convinced I had failed and the diet had been nothing. It's still above the normal range for a 2 hour test but I had to keep in mind I had probably shocked my system with this sudden influx of carbs, and sheer quantity. It made me a little anxious for the hours to come but I realized at the 3 hour test mark that the sugar had started to drop on it's own. By the fourth hour it had returned to normal range.

So despite how it didn't quite go down as fast as an oral tolerance test would prefer it (As well as the fact that an actual OT test requires you to eat carbs for days in advance), it is the second time I've seen my sugar go down on it's own. This never used to happen in the past without medication so this rollercoaster actually had a very encouraging conclusion. And it went down without any exercise, something I would have to do without fail on a daily basis to keep my numbers in check or lower them.

I'm feeling quite motivated now to see what bringing in exercise and the low carb diet following NC will do to further cement the possibility of making this insulin resistance a thing of the past. I'm really starting to get the idea that this diet actually does work...I never thought I'd see my blood sugar levels go down on their own again after 5 years of thinking my Pancreas had gone on vacation. Take this as you will-It was a self administered test.

The real bloodwork and testing will be happening on the 23rd. If I can get secondary confirmation from the Doctor regarding these results I'll genuinely be excited.

Thanks for dropping by. Back to the diet and progress continues.

Hi everyone! It's been a few days, been taking it easy.

I accidentally passed out for a minute a few days back which alarmed my wife, simply due to forgetting to eat in the middle of the day and going too long without calorie intake. We were out running errands and by 6pm I was only at 400 calories. Big mistake. Be sure to have regular meals on this diet..Can't stress this enough. I don't remember even blacking out but it was very temporary. So yeah, been very vigilant these last few days and attentive to not forgetting to eat, which I've never had a problem with historically haha. A fluke.

I'm a little late on the weekly update but another 2 pounds/.15 stone disappeared into the ether in the second week of February. Numbers have remained stable. A little higher than usual but still within normal range. Been introducing some more calories into the diet to offset the weakness that comes and goes.

Yesterday I completely removed Metformin from my diet. As of now I'm flying without any diabetic meds. And did another carb tolerance test to see how it would pan out. Sure enough, watched my sugar drop 90 points again off a 100g pure carb load over 3-4 hours. Did 30 minute tests and it went back to 90/5.0 with no Metformin in my system. I'm done with these tests, going to leave it to the doc to do the rest.



Food: More meetings this week, been going to an authentic Chinese place nearby and thankfully the owner has been willing to work with my limitations. Very little oil, mostly veggies jumped in a pan with some garlic and light salt. Really nice. As usual, salads and shakes for the rest. Progress continues.

T-6 days until bloodwork.

Update 2/23:

So I've been missing for a few days. Had a small family emergency so I was out of town for a few days. In preparation for this I actually took a cooler filled with my shakes as I didn't know how long I would be gone. This was a great test considering the amount of restaurants we went to during these days. Didn't stray one bit, and found things in the menus to work with.

So step one: Weight update-

Down to 169 lbs/12 stone, loss of 3.4 pounds / .3 stone from last week. Weight loss picked up again!
Numbers are as stable as ever, even after spending a weekend out of home. The log has been updated so please check the original post.

Did my bloodwork near the 2 month point today, will know results in about 10 days.

Food Update:

Some great breakthroughs in the last few days. Had to go hunting for some of these ingredients but I was pleasantly surprised (And disappointed I hadn't discovered these earlier)



So while I was in Houston for the family emergency, I basically had shakes and grilled veggies from restaurants I went to for 4 days. I even went to a steakhouse and had a blast just eating some sides: Wilted spinach, grilled artichokes (Delicious) and a side of cooked mushrooms.



The greatest discovery in the last 2 months came in the form of Kelp Noodles. That's right, noodles made from Seaweed basically. I WISH I had discovered these 2 months ago instead of floundering with other substitutes that were decent, but not quite the same. These will be in my diet for the rest of my life, but be warned: Do not pay heed to what the packaging says..These are not ready to eat out of the package. As a matter of fact, they are awful if eaten as such.



Please take note if you can find these, your life will be amazing under the Newcastle diet. 0 calories, 0 fat, >1 g carbs and when prepared correctly, delicious. You need to run these noodles under hot water for about 5-6 minutes, add a little vinegar and salt to wash out some of the bitter flavor and then pan cook it with whatever tomato sauce as they absorb flavor. After about 10 minutes of cooking the texture is nearly identical to spaghetti, and just as filling. I cooked them with a tomato sauce, mushrooms, onions and green olives and was amazed.

These are a great substitute to Shirataki/Miracle noodles which are much more artificial and require a ton of preparation to make them taste decent.

And no, it's not bunk. My numbers didn't even budge after eating a massive portion for Sunday dinner, even my wife thought it tasted just like spaghetti. Truly amazing stuff. My life is changed after discovering this! Just remember, do the prep or you will regret eating this as the default texture is crunchy.



As for tomato sauce? I found that Rao's is the best brand money can buy for low glycemic. No artificial additives, no added sugars..Just a good, clean sauce that I found at Whole Foods market. A little pricey, but the quality shows. A lot of the grocery tomato sauce brands are filled with a lot of added sugar and nasty preservatives. Read the label or regret it later!


In Conclusion:
Last week of the diet. Everything has remained stable, weight is still going down after a minor plateau, feeling better than ever. Looking forward to transitioning to the next diet with a little more variety of food. Thank you all for the support as usual and I hope this helps someone.

Debmcgee said:

Keep it up. Re the popcorn test - I'd not say your body failed it. You're only just over the two hour pass mark and if you've not had so much carbs in one sitting for so long, the body is bound to not handle them. Atkins advises re-introducing carbs at 5g a week (I think) for this precise reason. I also think I 'failed' my glucose intolerance test at hospital because of this same thing but the doctor didn't buy it although it makes sense to me!!

Have you been taking morning readings? Have they decreased?
Great news that you're off the met.
X

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You're right, after some discussion with my doctor I realized that was the case. The carbs came as a shock but my body ultimately regulated it quickly. So far so good! As for the readings they've been stable over a week since last posting.

The cookie recipe is here:
http://theprimitivepalate.com/2015/02/02/keto-soft-batch-cookies/

Intended for a low carb diet so mind yourself. My wife only used erythritol and stevia and subbed in 85% dark chocolate instead of the substitute chocoperfection bar recommended here and they turned out just as delicious.

Roytaylorjasonfunglover said:

Would just say that I am bumping this thread, very good work done here. Would be interesting to see what you do after the diet. May this thread long be a inspiration for other, the data speaks for themselves! Have you emailed Roy Taylor btw, and what does your doctor say about all of this? Most doctors inmy country says type 2 diabetes is an uncurable disease, and that drugs are for life, and there aint no cure, what is your experience about this?

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I did contact Roy Taylor under your advice, unfortunately he's quite busy and his nurse responded on his behalf. Basically, the results are good and keep up the good work. I hope this can inspire others as the results have been well, beyond my expectations so far. I'm already starting to transition into my low carb diet for the next phase. My doctor has been supportive, with the exception of some initial skepticism. Explaining the diet she warmed up to the idea.

As for the condition being incurable, I wouldn't call this a cure as I doubt I'll ever eat the same again but it's as close to a reversal or second chance as you can get. However if you do stray off course I'm sure you'll have the same symptoms knocking at your door in a short time. The long term maintenance will determine how effective this treatment has been. I'd say I still have a few months to go before I can make a call on efficacy. I am off all my meds though, so that in itself is something I was told would never happen.

Galja said:

Congratulations. I would still keep testing since your reaction to the popcorn was so massive but I am wondering what brand and how much you had, or how you cooked it to reach 100 carbs? btw, you have a reason for the Borzoi nick so where's the picture of your pooch??

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Hi Galja! So in terms of the popcorn test, I simply went to the movie theater and asked for nutritional information. Our local theater (The Alamo Drafthouse) had some available so I went off of their measurements seeing that I wouldn't be able to accurately predict the carbs if I made a batch myself.

As for the dog, yes I do have one and her name is Bianca. She's been a great source of support throughout this process, although she's not a Borzoi after all but a Shepherd Husky mix. :0) Here's a picture from the day before I started my diet.



Cheers.

Debmcgee said:

So we have it a go.....

...I don't know what went wrong but it didn't work for me - I ended up with a cheesecake-type mix that would never allow me to make proper cookies so I improvised and used a cake tin. And this was the result:
More like a dough-like cheesecake but tasted good all the same!

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Hey Deb! Asked my wife about this, the only theory she could come up with was a potential conversion error? Seeing that the measurements are done to US metrics, is it possible some of the quantities got lost in translation?

Either way still looks great, look forward to eating one of these cookies very soon!

ron77 said:

Wow awesome progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very inspirational!!
Hey, question on those kelp noodles, I took your recommendation and just ordered some, when you say 'some vinegar and salt', do you mean after rinsing, just put some of those on them, then add them to the food? Or what/how do you actually use the vinegar and salt?

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I'm still working on figuring out the best way to cook the kelp noodles. Only found out via other people's reviews that eating them out of the package was the wrong way to go.

So here's what I've figured out so far:
After rinsing the noodles for a a few minutes in hot water (Say in a colander) I add a little vinegar, toss them and let them sit before cooking to help offset the mild bitter flavor the noodles still might contain. The salt is just for taste.

I've found the noodles are very absorbent when cooked, so adding any liquid (Like pasta sauce) causes the texture of the noodles to change into something very spaghetti like versus being cooked alone, which will result in a crunchy texture. I'm thinking of boiling them tomorrow in water like a normal spaghetti tomorrow to see if that does the trick. Experimentation is key.

They're very versatile, so be sure to experiment. I've been eating them daily for a week now and I'm so **** happy, haha. I spent years not touching spaghetti so this was a pleasant surprise.

Jamrox said:

@Borzoi I'm on day 19 , having real food though , don't fancy the shakes .
I have a Friday off , don't go fully off but less strict.
Managing around 760-850 every day .
Lost 6lb so far and 4cm off my waist.

My side effect has been either overactive or under active bowels !!! and first few days I was freezing .

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Congrats Jam! So happy to see you're doing well with the diet. I've got a few days to go but the freezing still gets to me constantly, was wearing 3 layers today to keep warm. Be sure to stay bundled up during the process. Already got sick once.

Stay strong and the results are super promising so far. The bowel issues seem to be a common thread with a lot of people, I had a spell towards the end of the first month which required some supplements to break out of (Psyllium husk I believe?)