Comments on: Mini-Fasts: My 4-Month Report http://www.lanimuelrath.com/blog/mini-fasts-a-4-month-report/ Lani Muelrath the Plant-strong fitness expert Thu, 17 May 2012 17:58:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Lani http://www.lanimuelrath.com/blog/mini-fasts-a-4-month-report/#comment-4598 Lani Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:01:30 +0000 http://thetruthaboutfatlossforwomen.com/?p=114#comment-4598 TD, are you working personally with Dr. Esslestynn? From your references, it sounds like possibly so. If this is true, then addressing your questions to him would be first in line. Next, 99 time out of 100 when women come to me and say they are hungry later in the day and can't seem to catch up with it, I suggest that they look to early in the day and eat more then to stay ahead of their hunger. Breakfast, you say 1 cup of oatmeal - is that cooked or pre-cooked? I always recommend almond milk as only a condiment as it will give you calories without a lick of satiety. Switching out those calories for more food with fiber makes a big difference. There is a reason for starting to hunt, peck and nosh later in the day. Usually this is borne of, as I mentioned, not eating well enough early in the day, and 2, withdrawal from foods and tastes that we have become accustomed to and love, but that aren't on our new ideal way of eating. Sugar, fat and salt are the big 3 that ring the bell there. It takes some time for the draw of these to work their way out of our systems, and to keep having a little each day keeps the desire alive and actuallly makes the journey more difficult . I would rather someone eat a little too much of the foods they want to incorporate than nibble on the edibles that can so easily hook our cravings and pull us back in. Making highly concentrated treats like cookies from fruit and flour, sweetener, and other ways to try to appease concentrated food cravings will make it difficult. With the complication of diabetes, I would be sure you are working with health care provider supervision and rather than think in terms of 'forever', it can be helpful to give yourself a window of time, say 21 days, to be true to the plan that you set up for yourself. Be sure to be well fed on all the right foods. TD, are you working personally with Dr. Esslestynn? From your references, it sounds like possibly so. If this is true, then addressing your questions to him would be first in line.

Next, 99 time out of 100 when women come to me and say they are hungry later in the day and can’t seem to catch up with it, I suggest that they look to early in the day and eat more then to stay ahead of their hunger. Breakfast, you say 1 cup of oatmeal – is that cooked or pre-cooked? I always recommend almond milk as only a condiment as it will give you calories without a lick of satiety. Switching out those calories for more food with fiber makes a big difference.

There is a reason for starting to hunt, peck and nosh later in the day. Usually this is borne of, as I mentioned, not eating well enough early in the day, and 2, withdrawal from foods and tastes that we have become accustomed to and love, but that aren’t on our new ideal way of eating. Sugar, fat and salt are the big 3 that ring the bell there. It takes some time for the draw of these to work their way out of our systems, and to keep having a little each day keeps the desire alive and actuallly makes the journey more difficult . I would rather someone eat a little too much of the foods they want to incorporate than nibble on the edibles that can so easily hook our cravings and pull us back in. Making highly concentrated treats like cookies from fruit and flour, sweetener, and other ways to try to appease concentrated food cravings will make it difficult.

With the complication of diabetes, I would be sure you are working with health care provider supervision and rather than think in terms of ‘forever’, it can be helpful to give yourself a window of time, say 21 days, to be true to the plan that you set up for yourself. Be sure to be well fed on all the right foods.

]]> By: TD http://www.lanimuelrath.com/blog/mini-fasts-a-4-month-report/#comment-4597 TD Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:09:26 +0000 http://thetruthaboutfatlossforwomen.com/?p=114#comment-4597 Lani, Thanks for your reply! I did get Boot Camp Mind. I'm working on lesson 1 now. I am very motivated - just not successful - yet. Some clarification: I am exercising daily. I do 40 minutes minimum either on the exercise bike or walking outdoors when weather permits. I also attend a Strong Women class for strength training twice a week. I think one problem is that my food is quite restricted now. As you know Dr. Esselstyn's plan permits NO meat, No dairy, No oil or added fats, No nuts, olives or avocados. In addition, I am allergic to wheat, tomatoes, mushrooms. He has also removed pasta and bread from my approved list since I haven't lost any more than 10 pounds since beginning his program. He has alos told me to eat 6 servings of dark leafy greens per day. He also has limited me to 3 fruits per day. When I started the plan, it felt freeing not to have to measure, etc...but now I'm just feeling restricted alot. No boxed cereals - everything from scratch, it's a lot of work. No dried fruit - I do cheat and eat raisins. I also cheat ans eat non-dairy chocolate chips - 1 TBSP per day. He wants me to use unsweetened almond milk and I have not been able to make that change - it tastes really bad to me. I have to find some way to do these things and be successful. About the hunger - I have 1 cup of old fashioned oats in the morning with 1 cup of almond milk original and one cup of frozen blueberries for breakfast and a cup of green tea. I then have a cup of coffee midmorning with 1/2 cup of almond milk. Then for lunch at around 11:30 or noon, I have a cup of brown rice cooked the Barnard style (boiled, drained and rinsed), plus 1 cup of peas, 1 TBSP Flax seed ground, 1/8 tsp sea salt, mixed up - then a banana, 2 cups of cabbage slaw mix with vinegar, a serving of kale, and a cup of chocolate lite soy milk. This is where I often overeat...going on to add another cup of rice, raisins, almond milk, etc... Dinner is at 5:30pm and usually consists of 2 cups of broccoli, a spinach salad with veggies, McDougal split pea soup, potatoes & kale or sweet potatoes and black beans or some other entree, plus the TBSP of chocolate chips and 1 cup of frozen cherries or an apple and a cup of black tea with 2 TBSP almond milk. I track my food with a computer program and if I can follow the plan I'm scheduled to get around 1800 calories with 10% fat and 10% protein and the rest carbs. I usually end up eating around 2500-2800 calories or more. One more piece of the puzzle is that I am diabetic. Not taking much insulin, tho scores are creeping higher. I use exercise to reduce the scores when I can - if I can't get it down in range, then I take a short acting insulin. This happens once or twice a week about. I am hoping that I can learn from you how to manage my food so I can lose weight and stay alive. I'm not being successful yet. PS. I never overeat on fat or meat or dairy. The problem is the fruit and sugar items (Never chocolate chips) and sometimes plain sugar. Sometimes I make cookies from gluten free flour - no fat. Sometimes I use splenda. I hope this gives you some useful info on where I'm making mistakes and answers your questions. I'm desperate to succeed. Lani,
Thanks for your reply! I did get Boot Camp Mind. I’m working on lesson 1 now. I am very motivated – just not successful – yet. Some clarification: I am exercising daily. I do 40 minutes minimum either on the exercise bike or walking outdoors when weather permits. I also attend a Strong Women class for strength training twice a week.
I think one problem is that my food is quite restricted now. As you know Dr. Esselstyn’s plan permits NO meat, No dairy, No oil or added fats, No nuts, olives or avocados. In addition, I am allergic to wheat, tomatoes, mushrooms. He has also removed pasta and bread from my approved list since I haven’t lost any more than 10 pounds since beginning his program. He has alos told me to eat 6 servings of dark leafy greens per day. He also has limited me to 3 fruits per day. When I started the plan, it felt freeing not to have to measure, etc…but now I’m just feeling restricted alot. No boxed cereals – everything from scratch, it’s a lot of work. No dried fruit – I do cheat and eat raisins. I also cheat ans eat non-dairy chocolate chips – 1 TBSP per day. He wants me to use unsweetened almond milk and I have not been able to make that change – it tastes really bad to me. I have to find some way to do these things and be successful.
About the hunger – I have 1 cup of old fashioned oats in the morning with 1 cup of almond milk original and one cup of frozen blueberries for breakfast and a cup of green tea. I then have a cup of coffee midmorning with 1/2 cup of almond milk. Then for lunch at around 11:30 or noon, I have a cup of brown rice cooked the Barnard style (boiled, drained and rinsed), plus 1 cup of peas, 1 TBSP Flax seed ground, 1/8 tsp sea salt, mixed up – then a banana, 2 cups of cabbage slaw mix with vinegar, a serving of kale, and a cup of chocolate lite soy milk. This is where I often overeat…going on to add another cup of rice, raisins, almond milk, etc… Dinner is at 5:30pm and usually consists of 2 cups of broccoli, a spinach salad with veggies, McDougal split pea soup, potatoes & kale or sweet potatoes and black beans or some other entree, plus the TBSP of chocolate chips and 1 cup of frozen cherries or an apple and a cup of black tea with 2 TBSP almond milk. I track my food with a computer program and if I can follow the plan I’m scheduled to get around 1800 calories with 10% fat and 10% protein and the rest carbs. I usually end up eating around 2500-2800 calories or more.
One more piece of the puzzle is that I am diabetic. Not taking much insulin, tho scores are creeping higher. I use exercise to reduce the scores when I can – if I can’t get it down in range, then I take a short acting insulin. This happens once or twice a week about.
I am hoping that I can learn from you how to manage my food so I can lose weight and stay alive. I’m not being successful yet. PS. I never overeat on fat or meat or dairy. The problem is the fruit and sugar items (Never chocolate chips) and sometimes plain sugar. Sometimes I make cookies from gluten free flour – no fat. Sometimes I use splenda. I hope this gives you some useful info on where I’m making mistakes and answers your questions. I’m desperate to succeed.

]]> By: Lani http://www.lanimuelrath.com/blog/mini-fasts-a-4-month-report/#comment-4590 Lani Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:02:45 +0000 http://thetruthaboutfatlossforwomen.com/?p=114#comment-4590 TD, thanks for telling your current story and searching for assistance. Fasting can be a good way to realign your tastes - I call it 'realimentation' but it is not necessary for weight loss unless advised, of course, by your physician. I do not know Dr. Esselstynn's reasons for advising fast, so of course can't speak specifically to that. When someone tells me they are struggling with hunger, I first ask at what point during the day. Then I ask about what they had for breakfast, how long it was after they got up that they ate, how long until they next ate, did they experience hunger in between and what they did about it - these are for starters. What I usually find is that people are not eating enough, and on time, early in the day. It results in what I call 'stored hunger' and heaven help anything that gets in your way when it's time to do make up eating. This is just a tip of the iceberg of that picture, but it conveys the message. Eating eough early and often is the best preventative for eating too much. From there, keeping only the approved foods around is very helpful. You may be trying to do too much with the dietary change and fasting (though you didn't say how much). <a href=" http://fitdream.eatstopeat.hop.clickbank.net/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Eat Stop Eat</a> is a great book for understanding the mini-fast experience. I haven't done mini-fasts now in a long time, just haven't felt like it and I enjoy eating so much the way I do no while staying trim. It can be easy to get hooked into a stuff-starve cycle with fasts. Just speaking from my experience. And you can end up overeating and staying the same weight or gaining. I'm not sure if this is what is happening in your experience, I'm just speaking from my own. It may be time to back up and focus on getting really good at the food plan, and then tinker with fasting later. OR if you are really motivated, then read ESE and pick one day a week. Start with 16 hours and then work up to the 24. Yet if you do, be very clear about why you are doing it and strategize for success. Working through all the confusion can be daunting and paralyzing when you are trying to lose weight, I know! That's why mindset and mastery of psychology are important, and why I stress them so much. Read my recent posts on Willpower. They are all linked here: http://www.lanimuelrath.com/stress-management/5-minute-anti-anxiety-paint-and-willpower-workout-how-to-meditate-in-5-simple-steps/ . Check out <a href="http://www.bootcampmind.com" rel="nofollow">Boot Camp Mind</a>. Are you exercising? Moving your body boosts your feel-good mechanism and helps with focus. You'll read about it the the Willpower articles. And finally, you have taken an important step by speaking up. In <a href="http://www.bootcampmind.com" rel="nofollow">Boot Camp Mind</a>, one of the Tools is Getting Support. When we let ourselves get isolated and just keep 'trying harder' or worse yet 'trying harder' in the midst of chaos, there seems to be no way out. Winners ask for help when they need it. It's one of the ways you show support for yourself. Lani TD, thanks for telling your current story and searching for assistance.

Fasting can be a good way to realign your tastes – I call it ‘realimentation’ but it is not necessary for weight loss unless advised, of course, by your physician. I do not know Dr. Esselstynn’s reasons for advising fast, so of course can’t speak specifically to that.

When someone tells me they are struggling with hunger, I first ask at what point during the day. Then I ask about what they had for breakfast, how long it was after they got up that they ate, how long until they next ate, did they experience hunger in between and what they did about it – these are for starters.

What I usually find is that people are not eating enough, and on time, early in the day. It results in what I call ‘stored hunger’ and heaven help anything that gets in your way when it’s time to do make up eating.

This is just a tip of the iceberg of that picture, but it conveys the message. Eating eough early and often is the best preventative for eating too much. From there, keeping only the approved foods around is very helpful. You may be trying to do too much with the dietary change and fasting (though you didn’t say how much). http://fitdream.eatstopeat.hop.clickbank.net/” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”> Eat Stop Eat is a great book for understanding the mini-fast experience. I haven’t done mini-fasts now in a long time, just haven’t felt like it and I enjoy eating so much the way I do no while staying trim.

It can be easy to get hooked into a stuff-starve cycle with fasts. Just speaking from my experience. And you can end up overeating and staying the same weight or gaining. I’m not sure if this is what is happening in your experience, I’m just speaking from my own. It may be time to back up and focus on getting really good at the food plan, and then tinker with fasting later. OR if you are really motivated, then read ESE and pick one day a week. Start with 16 hours and then work up to the 24. Yet if you do, be very clear about why you are doing it and strategize for success.

Working through all the confusion can be daunting and paralyzing when you are trying to lose weight, I know! That’s why mindset and mastery of psychology are important, and why I stress them so much. Read my recent posts on Willpower. They are all linked here: http://www.lanimuelrath.com/stress-management/5-minute-anti-anxiety-paint-and-willpower-workout-how-to-meditate-in-5-simple-steps/ . Check out Boot Camp Mind.

Are you exercising? Moving your body boosts your feel-good mechanism and helps with focus. You’ll read about it the the Willpower articles.

And finally, you have taken an important step by speaking up. In Boot Camp Mind, one of the Tools is Getting Support. When we let ourselves get isolated and just keep ‘trying harder’ or worse yet ‘trying harder’ in the midst of chaos, there seems to be no way out. Winners ask for help when they need it. It’s one of the ways you show support for yourself.

Lani

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