The reason I like it is as there is no button to say thanks for what you say and I agree to it but then I did gain weight on lchf so if it doesn't work for me i can always fall back on it. Every body is different, I can gain weight even on water and air
so it's ok.
Insulin production on Newcastle Diet didn't start to pick up until week four, and peripheral insulin resistance never really improved, so baseline improvement in fasting BG will be slow in coming. Your beta cells are just now starting to sluggishly wake up, but your cells are still stubborn when it comes to using that insulin correctly. Be patient
I don't know what my readings go down to as I only check at sort of fixed times on weekdays and random times on weekend, I don't really get into 5's anymore but having said that I have not seen a reading of 3's either but 4.1 is the lowest I have senn and normally fluctuations between 4.2 and 4.7ish. I also did one and 2 hour after shake and they stay in 4's toafter two hours. At one hour they could go to 5.1 or 5.2 which is interesting as the shakes are so sweet.
Peppermint tea, and for some of your water consumption use sparkling mineral water. Clean teeth after every shake you drink, and brush tongue gently too.
I'm going with the shakes but not every day, I prefer to know exactly what I'm eating and I have them only to be sure I'm getting all the nutrients I need. Somehow a powdered meal replacement feels very unhealthy and as you say very sweet. Still it's not for long.
You put into words exactly what has put me off the ND - I've spent the last 3 years eating minimally processed food with as few added ingredients as possible, so reading the contents of the Optifast shakes (we can buy them in pharmacies in Australia) absolutely turned my stomach. I've also put a lot of effort into my elimination diet to heal my digestion (still a work in progress), so messing it up with all those processed chemicals and fake vitamins really scares me. So for now I'm sticking to intermittent fasting and calorie controlled to try and reach my PFT. I'm so envious of the fast weight loss you NDers manage to achieve though.
I agree, wholeheartedly, @Indy51 . Artificial flavours, synthetic foods and such I would normally steer well clear of. The only way I have been able to justify in my mind the use of the meal replacement products is to see them as 'medicines'. As such I thought 'I have a chance of curing my chronic illness with chemicals just as my beloved mother had a chance to cure her chronic illness with chemo therapy'. It doesn't feel right to go against my usual stance of eating food with minimal processing, so I don't regard the shakes and processed meal replacements as foods. They are medicines.
On reflection I can't in all honesty claim to be following the ND stringently. I'm following my own interpretation which is very much a VLCD, I'm hungry almost all the time. I have a shake every few days in the morning (for nutrients, I like the idea of calling it medicine @Pipp) but have home made smoothies or salad during the day. I eat more protein than on ND but virtually no carbohydrate and drink lots of water. The first few days were tricky and I didn't excercise for over a week as I felt quite strange. However, the weight is now dropping, I feel amazingly healthy and fit and have so much energy. Best of all my BG readings have dropped into normal ranges which feels like a real achievement. I love the feeling of taking control of my body, wish I had been this motivated a long time ago. This has been a wake up call for me, my mind has focussed and I feel very positive going forward. My downfall is definitely carbohydrate and I've always known it makes me feel less than brilliant to overeat and I'm cross with myself that it has taken this to shock me into action.
