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Weight Loss

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2014 11:46 pm
by ViewsAskew
There are many associations between WED and overweight, but no one knows if there is a causal relationship...or if there is, which way it goes!

I've struggled with weight for years, but am not sure I would have if my mom hadn't put my on a diet at 12 - I was 5'7 and weighed 135. Supposedly I was overweight (!). I lost about 10 pounds on my first diet and have been yo-yoing ever since. Years ago I decided I'd never diet again. Either I'd figure out how to be comfortable with food and the weight would come off, or I'd be fat forever. I've stayed constant at the same weight now for about 5 or 6 years. That was a good thing - I'd stopped gaining. I wasn't sure I'd ever figure out how to lose without dieting and yo-yoing back to a higher weight.

My husband has high blood pressure and he started the DASH diet last year. He lost about 20 pounds. Then he was out of the country on a work assignment for several months and put on 15 of the 20. After the holidays, he decided to try it again. This time I did it with him mostly because it helped me prepare meals (in our house whoever cooks doesn't clean, so I happily cook!).

You get so many servings of different types of food per day. I think of them as minimums (must have 5 servings of veggies) and maximums (can only have 8 servings of carbs - and half of those must be whole grain, so only 4 can be white rice or french fries or a cookie). Each serving is based on weight or volume - 1/3 cup of pasta or 1 cup of fresh uncooked greens or 1 ounce of cooked meat, for example. Once you memorize the servings (pretty easy) and measure them out a few times, it's pretty easy to eyeball them and not have to look anything up.

I didn't apply it to myself completely as described in the book (my blood pressure is fine) - I use full fat cheese and I eat sweets when I want (they say to eat sweets no more than once or twice a week and to use non-fat or low fat dairy). But, the fascinating thing is that I've lost 14 pounds in 6 months. That's a little over a half pound a week - a perfect rate for someone who's not trying to really diet. The best part is that I do not see it, nor think of it, as a diet. It's just a way to ensure I get the minimum of certain things - beans, veggies, fruits, nuts, seed, whole grains - and not too much of others - snacks, protein, sweets, etc. And it's exceptionally easy - I don't have to count calories or limit things or buy special food. I just keep plenty of fresh produce and fruit on hand, and check the boxes each meal.

I've never been hungry following it. I've never wanted something I couldn't have. It's quite amazing to me how well it works! We have a doctor's office type scale - today when I weighed (I way every Sunday morning), I found I was the lowest weight I've been in over 4 years!

Not sure how it will continue, but I'm quite pleased with it. I think there now is a DASH book about weight-loss, but I doubt I'm doing what they say to do! If anyone else tries it, I'd be interested to hear how it works out.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 1:42 am
by Polar Bear
well done, both of you.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 1:37 am
by debbluebird
How is your DASH diet going? Since starting on my thyroid med, my stomach is worse. I tried the DASH diet and figured out that wheat makes my stomach worse. Also my doctor wants me to eliminate sugar. So I've decided to eliminate sugar, wheat, processed foods, chocolate, night shade veggies, (already have stopped caffeine), oil, dairy (mostly milk), and possibly citrus fruits. I will see how my stomach feels after I eliminate the other stuff. I'm not going to worry about my weight right now. Just going to eat. I'm also going to see it goes. I'm also changing to extra virgin olive oil.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 2:13 am
by EeFall
We have been doing the Paleo diet for two months now and my wife and I have both lost 16 pounds. Very unusual because I usually always lose more weight than my wife on a diet. We both really like it because it doesn't feel like a diet. Instead of potatoes she makes cauliflower that looks like mashed potatoes and actually, at least to me, tastes better.

Today she had a kind of candy bar waiting for me (haystack) when I got home. Made from chocolate and shaved almonds (and I don't know what else) but it was really a nice treat. She makes spaghetti out of spaghetti squash. We eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and meat. Different kinds of salads too. There is a Greek restaurant we go to that has excellent salads that fit the diet well. She has also come up with a BBQ sauce that we can have. She BBQ'ed steaks on the grill tonight. For breakfast she fills up cupcake tins with eggs and combinations of meat. Today it was spicy chicken sausage and bacon and egg (I nuke it in microwave for 38 seconds, so I can eat and run to work).

She also makes up trail mix with different nuts and dried fruits. I have that at work for snacks and we have it at home for snacks. Besides losing weight we have lost a lot of inches. We are going to both have to purchase new clothes soon. The major thing to not have is starchy food like bread and to stay away from sugar, and stay away from most products in boxes. We found ice cream made from coconut milk and it is very good. Some brands are not sweet enough so I use agave sugar on it which we can have. You can have honey too if you don't get carried away. Anyway it seems to work and the longer we are on it the less we seem to eat, we just don't get really hungry.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 3:06 am
by ViewsAskew
debbluebird wrote:How is your DASH diet going? Since starting on my thyroid med, my stomach is worse. I tried the DASH diet and figured out that wheat makes my stomach worse. Also my doctor wants me to eliminate sugar. So I've decided to eliminate sugar, wheat, processed foods, chocolate, night shade veggies, (already have stopped caffeine), oil, dairy (mostly milk), and possibly citrus fruits. I will see how my stomach feels after I eliminate the other stuff. I'm not going to worry about my weight right now. Just going to eat. I'm also going to see it goes. I'm also changing to extra virgin olive oil.


I've been where you are - I did a similar thing. I stopped what they call the deadly 7 - wheat, soy, corn, dairy, sugar, eggs, nuts. I ate nothing processed - only freshly made by myself. It was very helpful and I found that I cannot eat corn without paying, and that dairy is a definite problem. Never found out if it was casein or lactose - I just stopped eating it. I started again when I started using opioids - it does help move things through! Another time I eliminated nightshades - thankfully (I love some of them) for my tastebuds, they weren't a problem for me.

I'm still doing well on DASH. I'm continuing to lose about a half pound a week. Part of me dislikes that - wants to lose faster - but part of me really likes it. I put it on slowly and DASH is something I can do longterm - it doesn't feel like a diet or like a punishment to me. I also like that weight loss isn't the focus to me - when I lose faster, it's all about the diet. Losing slowly helps me just focus on eating better for my health in general.

We use primarily olive oil, though I do use some other oils, such as peanut for higher heat applications. That wouldn't work if I couldn't tolerate legumes (my brother cannot). And, I do use butter since I eat dairy.

I hope it helps with the inflammation issues you're having. And, since you did find that wheat bothered you, you might want to have a celiac test just in case you haven't had one recently.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 3:10 am
by ViewsAskew
More evidence came out this week that low carb is better than low fat. Seems the researchers really got that wrong about 40 years ago when fat became the culprit. I remember being a little kid and my grandfather having a heart attack - they soon had margarine in the house, stopped eating eggs, and all that other stuff.

I do find that without some carbs I am terribly unhappy, but as long as I can have fruits, I can limit my carbs without too much issue.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 6:29 pm
by debbluebird
Yeah, I'm just tired of feeling sick. I just have to keep that thought in the front of my mind. Time will tell.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 2:59 am
by debbluebird
This is working. I feel so much better eliminating wheat, sugar, milk, to name a few.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 6:15 am
by ViewsAskew
That is great news! It's not that hard to do (even if it sounds like it - it took me a couple months for me and my sister to finally do it after we decided to try). It's just making the decision and researching some alternatives so you aren't in the store wandering around like a blithering idiot!

I also think it's worth doing periodically. Things change over time, too. A periodic elimination never hurts. Of course, now that I said that, I'd been several years for me....

How are you getting around those foods? Do you have substitutes or are you just not eating them?

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 4:16 pm
by debbluebird
Right now, I'm just not eating them. The other issue, is that I am around pot luck dinners and meetings with food every week. I'm just telling people I'm now allergic. Before when I was "dieting" and at the events, people really pushed me to eat some of it. People just want to feed you all the time. I think that they feel guilty eating stuff, if you aren't. Tonight and tomorrow night is another thing to go to. We'll see how it goes. Yesterday I had some green chili. I can't eat that either anymore. :(

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:52 am
by ViewsAskew
Yeah, people do seem to have a hard time with the food thing - for whatever reason. My MIL HATES that I'm not a big eater. I tend to eat small amounts at a time - I'm just not hungry for huge meal, even if I haven't eat much. After 13 years you'd think you would accept it...but she doesn't :-).

BTW, what's green chili?

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:37 am
by debbluebird
Green chili peppers, put in most anything. The other day it was in melted cheese, eaten with corn chips.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 8:27 am
by ViewsAskew
Ah -I thought maybe you meant a regional dish called green chili :-). If those bother you, I wonder if all peppers do.

Just an idea....when I did my elimination diet, the only two things that ended up being a problem were....corn and dairy. They are often very high on the list of problem foods. Not saying it does you, but it surely does me. You mentioned to EeFall that you might have to eliminate other things - these are unfortunately very likely.

When I started the elimination, I didn't realize that even if there isn't an allergy or intolerance to the casein or other parts of dairy, most of us are lactose intolerant at some point in our lives, depending on your heritage. Asians often can't tolerate dairy even as children. May Jewish children cannot. Most Europeans can as children, but by the time we hit 35 to 40, it starts getting harder.

The first item I added back in after a 3 or 4 week absence was dairy. I didn't drink milk much, didn't each much dairy - I was sure it would be fine. I was running for a bathroom within 20 minutes! The next thing I added was corn. I LOVE corn - having grown up on a mini-farm in the Midwest, fresh grown corn on the cob was a summer staple. Within an hour after eating it I was so bloated I looked as if I were 6 months pregnant, with my belly hard and tight. My sister came home and was amazed at the result. It took almost a week for all of the bloating and associated symptoms (I had a hard time breathing) to go away.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 10:45 am
by Polar Bear
These reactions to certain consumables are amazing.

Re: Weight Loss

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 6:05 pm
by debbluebird
I realized that I should have been more specific. My first marriage was to a Mexican man. In his family they would make "red chili" or "green chili". They took the red chili peppers, that were roasted, dried, ground them in the blender. Added water, and maybe other stuff, like salt, etc. Then added that to a pot of meat and cooked that. Maybe even flour, because the red sauce was a little thickened. Then they might add that on top of other food. With the green chili peppers, they are roasted, peeled, sometimes cut up and frozen for future use to put in dishes.
Anything spicy is pretty much making my stomach sick now that I'm on the thyroid med. Before I could eat green chili. I don't know about the corn yet. I don't eat corn very often. I will make a note of that.
I do know that I have gained about 15 pounds in the last few months. I do hope that by eliminated foods, it will come off. I'm already over weight and gaining more is awful.