Marathonmona's 8 week 800 calorie diet

[koukSundo1188]

As variety to avoid getting hungry i would fill coconut oil into a small jar, mix it with hot water and then pour the watery mix into a bigger jar of water. Result: very satisfying nutrient that can carry you for hours

 

[marathonmona]

Morning peeps,

FBG was 6
Weight 14st 11 and a half pound for a total of 8 and a half pounds since Monday 14th August.
Ended on 1063 calories yesterday *gasp*
I was at school yesterday for results so it gave me a bit of an idea of what a normal day is going to feel like for me as of next week (rather than the lie ins of the last 5 weeks!) and yes, I was more hungry but I stuck to a perfectly respectable 3 meals, all low carb, with the latest being the lightest.
Onwards and downwards then!

 

[Chook]

Good morning oops it's actually afternoon now

Well done in sticking to your three meals yesterday. I think it's easier for me because I don't go out of the house to work any more. Do you take a packed lunch?

I'm getting in to a routine with it now which is making it a bit easier. I've got a couple of weekday breakfasts and lunches which are low calorie but reasonably filling and some different breakfasts for the weekend (when we normally have brunch rather than breakfast and lunch) so it's just leaving me my evening meals (my biggest meal of the day) to work out which need to be about 400 calories each. I'm filling up on veg with a fairly small helping of some kind of protein.

 

[marathonmona]

I think it's good when you find what works for you. Sometimes in the beginning, you make foods you don't enjoy or eat too much or too little...
I will definitively be taking a packed lunch because the school canteen is a major danger zone with sausage rolls and home-made vanilla fairy cakes screaming my name
I've found a low carb bread in Asda (Schneider protein brot) and I love it; it tastes a bit like rye bread and has just under 4g carbs per slice. I found them very filling with a lick of butter, some ham and cheese.
I'll try and avoid nuts for now-my favourite snack food, as I just cannot stop at 'a small handful'.
I will probably take a quick salad with some chicken or tuna for lunch and a square of 85%.
Not so sure about tea yet but it'll be a quick affair: maybe some fish and vegetables. I've got to crack work as otherwise I'm destined to stay too fat and too sweet for the rest of my working life! Haha.

 

[Chook]

I shall have to look out for that Schneider protein brot - I get my shopping delivered by Asda but I haven't seen that product. I was wondering about the Warburtons protein wraps until I saw that they are 26.1g of carb each AND 184 calories. so neither low carb or low calorie. Its surprising how difficult it is counting both calories and carbs at the same time!

Have you thought about using time at the weekend to pre-cook and freeze some evening meals for the week - and then just warm through and maybe cook the veg/prep a salad to go with it. My husband does this ALL the time because he works 12 noon to 10pm - so only gets breakfast here on weekdays. We've got a freezer full of little plastic boxes with a huge range of meals in. It actually doesn't take much in the way of organisation. The only tragedy is that, occasionally, he forgets to label the containers....

I'm trying to figure out, at the moment, how (on paper) to make a sausage cassoulet (my old favourite) come in at under 400 calories / 20g of carb. At the moment I can only do it if I'm okay with a portion size enough for an anorexic toddler. Ho hum!

 

[marathonmona]

Haha. What's for tea tonight? It's a SURPRISE
It's not a bad idea; might give it a go one week!
Good luck with your sausage cassoulet

 

[Chook]

The problem with 'surprise' is that he never knows what to cook/prep to go with it. He's had some very weird combinations!

 

[marathonmona]

Ha. That's funny.
Just had my HbA1C results back. In May it was 59, down to 51 today. This bearing in mind I wasn't all THAT good in June and July at school. I was a bit more careful at the start of the holidays, then started ND on the 14th. Goes to show doesn't it...
My aim is to get under 42

 

[Chook]

You can do it, I know you can do it. If I can do it then anyone can!! (And I started off on a low carb diet on VERY high levels of insulin plus a couple of other diabetes meds.)

 

[marathonmona]

Thanks
What are you on now, level and meds wise?
That's if you don't mind me asking of course!

 

[Chook]

For diabetes I am on 2 x 500mg Metformin. I used to be on all kinds of meds and seven insulin injections a day before I started on low carb. At my last review my DN asked if I wanted to stop taking the Metformin but I chose to carry on as my family has a really awful history of heart attacks and strokes and Metformin is supposed to have protective qualities. (It must be doing something because I'm the longest living member of my family for three generations - they usually pop off between 40 and 50).

My last HbA1c result was low - 29 - which is the equivalent to 4.9. I'm mainly doing the ND to get some weight off as I have arthritis in both knees, both hips, spine, neck and - would you believe it - in the little finger of my left hand. I also have really annoying insulin resistance - which I'm sure is a relic from my insulin injection days - and my liver has an annoying habit of giving me an unwanted supply of glucose in the early morning (also known as Liver Dump or Dawn Phenomenon) - which is something else that ND will hopefully help me with.

How about you?

 

[marathonmona]

Yes, my father in law has arthritis in all his fingers

I was diagnosed in June 2014 with a Hb of 83. Whilst on 1000 mg Metformin, I stopped eating bread, pasta and potatoes and ate lower carb generally but found it hard saying no to treats and still ate too often and too much.
In June 2016 my blood sugar had reduced to 61 but I was not healthy: still too much food, not near enough exercise. I basically still felt like *****. My BP was also slightly raised so my GP put me on 2,5 mg Ramipril and upped my Metformin to 2000 mg.
I never took the extra 2 Mets but did start a strict(er) diet. Lost 31 lbs by October, dropped A1C to 53 and felt so much better.
Aaaaaand here is where, rather than steaming ahead, I became complacent, putting on 5lbs and managing to up bloods to 59. Like a bloody yoyo...
Anyway.
Here we are today. Im still only taking the two Metformin. I asked whether the surgery would check my bloods in 3 months but they refused and said the next one will be 6 months!

 

[Chook]

Oh God! Ramipril!!!! My worst nightmare. I was so ill on Ramipril - it started off fairly innocently with a bit of a cough which got worse and worse until I just couldn't do anything without coughing. I have no idea if it is related to what happened next but one day I was walking my dogs when I started coughing and literally coughed myself unconscious. I ended up slumped at the end of some poor bloke's front path and he virtually carried me home with my dogs trailing along behind. I didn't get any better and a few weeks later I ended up at my GB who decided there was something big time wrong with me. I got fast tracked as he didn't know if it was the big C but, luckily it turned out not to be and I had got an area of fluid around my lungs. I got taken off the Ramipril, they drained the fluid (not pleasant) which stopped me coughing and I am on a permanent 'watch' in case it comes back again - but I am convinced it was the Ramipril. My BP is still high and I think that it is a genetic thing so I just take the pills and try not to worry about it too much.

I find it easier to deal with the diabetes as I've found that I can make dietary changes which alter my test results. I have found it (reasonably) easy to get my BG under control with low carbing. It took a while but I do enjoy the food and have a husband who is very good at supporting me in the low carb diet - mainly because he enjoys it as well. We are very happy with the idea if its not in the house I can't eat it.

Complacency..... oh yes, I really know about that!! I gained back 2st of the 5st I initially lost on LCHF due to complacency. Recently I seem to be able to get BG under control (with low carb) reasonably easily but not weight and BP - which is why I'm really trying hard with the ND.

We'll get there. Just takes a lot of hard work and our beloveds don't understand quite how hard it is.

 

[koukSundo1188]

I'm lozenging on peanuts now after my first ESS* of the day
*Empty Stomach Sensation

I'm gonna prick myself before my next meal to raise awareness of the opportunity for optimizing energy via wise choices, and during the pricking I'm not gonna be using money waster test strips

 

[Chook]

I asked my DN if I could go on to yearly tests (I really don't like my DN) but she said no, it has to be every six months. She really doesn't support me at all on low carb and I daren't mention ND to her.....

 

[Chook]

I'm lozenging on peanuts now after my first ESS* of the day
*Empty Stomach Sensation

I'm gonna prick myself before my next meal to raise awareness of the opportunity for optimizing energy via wise choices, and during the pricking I'm not gonna be using money waster test strips

Good for you - I wish you well.

 

[marathonmona]

Oh God! Ramipril!!!! My worst nightmare. I was so ill on Ramipril - it started off fairly innocently with a bit of a cough which got worse and worse until I just couldn't do anything without coughing. I have no idea if it is related to what happened next but one day I was walking my dogs when I started coughing and literally coughed myself unconscious. I ended up slumped at the end of some poor bloke's front path and he virtually carried me home with my dogs trailing along behind. I didn't get any better and a few weeks later I ended up at my GB who decided there was something big time wrong with me. I got fast tracked as he didn't know if it was the big C but, luckily it turned out not to be and I had got an area of fluid around my lungs. I got taken off the Ramipril, they drained the fluid (not pleasant) which stopped me coughing and I am on a permanent 'watch' in case it comes back again - but I am convinced it was the Ramipril. My BP is still high and I think that it is a genetic thing so I just take the pills and try not to worry about it too much.

I find it easier to deal with the diabetes as I've found that I can make dietary changes which alter my test results. I have found it (reasonably) easy to get my BG under control with low carbing. It took a while but I do enjoy the food and have a husband who is very good at supporting me in the low carb diet - mainly because he enjoys it as well. We are very happy with the idea if its not in the house I can't eat it.

Complacency..... oh yes, I really know about that!! I gained back 2st of the 5st I initially lost on LCHF due to complacency. Recently I seem to be able to get BG under control (with low carb) reasonably easily but not weight and BP - which is why I'm really trying hard with the ND.

We'll get there. Just takes a lot of hard work and our beloveds don't understand quite how hard it is.

Your coughing fit sounds dreadful and reminded me of one I had this Easter. I ALWAYS end up with a prickly cough after a cold and it can get quite bad where the tickle makes me sound like an asthmatic who smokes 60 fags a day. It eventually goes but this year I felt an enormous tickle coming on (bit of an oxymoron, I know) and I coughed so badly I thought I was having an aneurysm. The back of my head felt like it was going to explode. Luckily the pain disappeared after half an hour or so.
Visited the GP the next day who said he thought I had hay fever and promptly prescribed antihistamines and an inhaler. They did naff all for my cough and it eventually just passed.
I've been for two chest X-rays but nothing showed up. I must say, I always cough after a cold; I can remember doing it as a teenager too. But maybe the Ramipril made it worse this time. I don't know...
By the way, your HBA1C of 29!!! That's the stuff of my DREAMS. Maybe one day...
Yes I love the whole LCHF way of eating too. It's great and personally I find it very flexible and tasty. I just wasn't losing weight on it at all so combining it with ND may just be 'what the doctor ordered' (alter another oxymoron ha).

 

[zand]

Ramipril made my cough a lot worse too.

 

[Chook]

I had the Ramipril cough for about three years - it was awful - we only put 2 and 2 together after I had an annual meds review with my local pharmacist (bless her) who went through all my meds asking the usual stuff - when do you take it / do you know why you take it - when I started to cough. After about five minute of me coughing and drinking several glasses of water, she asked me if I had read the PIL (patients information leaflet) that comes with my meds - I said 'no' - and she said that one of the known side affects of Ramipril is 'the cough' but that doctors like prescribing it because it is cheap. So I made an appointment next day, say a GP, said I wasn't taking it any more and got put on to Candesartan - two weeks later and the cough was completely gone never to return. I still don't know if there was any connection between the Ramipril and the lung thing I had while I was on it but I've not had it since.

I'm off to have a sneaky (off plan) glass of wine.

 

[marathonmona]

Cheers! Enjoy