3 Day Cranky-free Diet

[poppy1963]

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/joybauernutrition/11884/cranky-free-diet

What do you think? Do ya buy it? I just don't know......

 

[M's girl]

Do I buy what? The diet looks healthy and yummy and I'm sure a healthy body makes you feel good and good about yourself which should lift your spirits. In that sense there is some truth in this. But besides that it's just another diet. It only works if you work on other things at the same time. No miracles here; your ever so cranky boyfriend will be the same after this diet if he decides he wants to be

 

[Bidin~Time]

I developed a health issue that requires me to eat a very similar diet to the one in the article. Low, very low carbs for me, though. When I eat the right foods, I don't experience crankiness, so I'd vote yes on this one.

 

[poppy1963]

Well...you know...you both make good points! Personally, when I eat more healthy (non-processed foods), I feel better...I am also more inclined to do other healthy things like get a bit more focussed exercise and treat me "gentler" in general.

There was a point in time, also, that I stopped eating white flour/sugar foods and damn...those were some of the best years for my mood fluctuations as well as losing a BUNCH of weight.

So remembering these things...I guess it would make ya feel betta...but 3-days is too fast for the full effects! It took a while for my body to adjust to the "new ways" and THEN is when I really started to feel much better.

How soon we forget, huh?

 

[intruder52]

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/joybauernutrition/11884/cranky-free-diet

What do you think? Do ya buy it? I just don't know......

Well I like it, at least mostly. I have been eatling like that for more than 3 years on pretty much a daily basis. Sometimes I cheat and eat a burger and fries....lol. I have lost over 100 pounds and feel great. The great thing about low carb or diets with mostly complex carbs like the one in the artical is you almost never feel hungry. Just don't cheat with junk carbs ever because then you will get cranky.

 

[poppy1963]

Well I like it, at least mostly. I have been eatling like that for more than 3 years on pretty much a daily basis. Sometimes I cheat and eat a burger and fries....lol. I have lost over 100 pounds and feel great. The great thing about low carb or diets with mostly complex carbs like the one in the artical is you almost never feel hungry. Just don't cheat with junk carbs ever because then you will get cranky.

You are so right! I ate low-carb for like 5 years. Lost and maintained the weight loss of 80 lbs for all that time. Comes a Christmas season and a hectic schedule (working full-time & going to grad school)...and I got sloppy. Started to eat....holiday cookies.

Eating them made me physically ILL...but I kept eating them til that wore off...but the point is, returning to those foods actually made me FEEL SICK...and, of course, then....cranky.

*shakes head*

 

[done_got_old]

It sounds good. I'd like to see more than three days menus to determine if some of the foods appear again. I live alone, so things like cottage cheese last forever.

 

[Bidin~Time]

Well...you know...you both make good points! Personally, when I eat more healthy (non-processed foods), I feel better...I am also more inclined to do other healthy things like get a bit more focussed exercise and treat me "gentler" in general.

There was a point in time, also, that I stopped eating white flour/sugar foods and damn...those were some of the best years for my mood fluctuations as well as losing a BUNCH of weight.

So remembering these things...I guess it would make ya feel betta...but 3-days is too fast for the full effects! It took a while for my body to adjust to the "new ways" and THEN is when I really started to feel much better.

How soon we forget, huh?

If I break over and eat white flour or anything made with white flour i feel as though I've been hit by a truck. All those carbs hit my system and....well, I think from your post, you know exactly what I'm talking about. i never really missed the white flour/white flour products, maybe because I had recognized how poorly I felt when I ate them. I do miss my occassional baked potato.

That diet would be fine for me for the rest of my life.

 

[NaughtyLil1]

You are so right! I ate low-carb for like 5 years. Lost and maintained the weight loss of 80 lbs for all that time. Comes a Christmas season and a hectic schedule (working full-time & going to grad school)...and I got sloppy. Started to eat....holiday cookies.

I try to stay low-carb. I found by doing so, I'm much more energetic and just feel better.

 

[PowerLifter84]

People make dieting more complicated than it has to be. The concept is rather simple: Calories in versus calories out. The calories that are going in need to be 'clean calories'. Processed foods, foods high in sugar (High G.I.), sugar free products with aspartame and splenda, and the like are considered 'bad calories'.

Exercise, eat right and sleep. You will feel much better.

Also, I feel people who cut carbs on weekdays need to have a 'carb up' day on a weekend. Carbs are important for energy needs along with maintaining muscle mass.

 

[poppy1963]

People make dieting more complicated than it has to be. The concept is rather simple: Calories in versus calories out. The calories that are going in need to be 'clean calories'. Processed foods, foods high in sugar (High G.I.), sugar free products with aspartame and splenda, and the like are considered 'bad calories'.

Exercise, eat right and sleep. You will feel much better.

Also, I feel people who cut carbs on weekdays need to have a 'carb up' day on a weekend. Carbs are important for energy needs along with maintaining muscle mass.

It really is NOT that simple when it comes to "successful" weight loss and maintenance....especially the maintenance part. So please...don't unwittingly offend so many who achieve many difficult goals in life and are very strong, focussed human beings by saying such things.

The formula you prescribe is just the beginning...the process and success of it all is very complex for many people.

 

[PowerLifter84]

Where did I say that it was easy to lose weight? I only said it is simple (which it is) but still extremely hard to consistently follow through. Losing weight really isn't about 'dieting' as it is a lifestyle change. You cannot 'diet' and lose the weight, then go back to your normal routine and expect the weight to not pile back on. The lifestyle change is pernament if people truely want to reap the results they want and the overall feeling.

Drastically altering your body composition is one of the toughest things you can do because it's not an over night process. For many people, it takes a few years to be where they want. Many people often quit because of this. You must stay focus in order to win the battle.

On the oppisite end of the spectrum, adding muscle mass is easy. Eat my 5,500 calories a day, sleep 8 hours and consistently change my training up when my body becomes accustomed to the adaptation. Talk to any bodybuilder or powerlifting and they'll tell you learning your body and figuring out what YOU need is a task that takes years to figure out. Then it can be broken down into a science for those who want to be in the upper class or elite.

In essence, everything we need is right there and laid out, obtaining the results is the tough part.

Primarly what I was getting at earlier was that people get too detailed in their diet and training. I've seen some who would fret about an extra 3g of carbs in their diet. The basics are the most important thing when it comes to altering your body image and the 'little things' might be looked at later on down the road.

It really is NOT that simple when it comes to "successful" weight loss and maintenance....especially the maintenance part. So please...don't unwittingly offend so many who achieve many difficult goals in life and are very strong, focussed human beings by saying such things.

The formula you prescribe is just the beginning...the process and success of it all is very complex for many people.

 

[intruder52]

You are so right! I ate low-carb for like 5 years. Lost and maintained the weight loss of 80 lbs for all that time. Comes a Christmas season and a hectic schedule (working full-time & going to grad school)...and I got sloppy. Started to eat....holiday cookies.

Eating them made me physically ILL...but I kept eating them til that wore off...but the point is, returning to those foods actually made me FEEL SICK...and, of course, then....cranky.

*shakes head*

Oh yeah, I was being real strict on my carbs for like a year. Went to the University Picnic that is held here every summer and ate a HUGE strawberry shortcake, I got real shakey, and sick. Not a good feeling. I won't do that again.

 

[poppy1963]

Oh yeah, I was being real strict on my carbs for like a year. Went to the University Picnic that is held here every summer and ate a HUGE strawberry shortcake, I got real shakey, and sick. Not a good feeling. I won't do that again.

It is amazing the "poisons" our bodies will learn to "adjust" to...but when we are free from them and then, for whatever reason, ingest them again, we experience the rejection alerts our bodies warn us with. But if we insist, our bodies will acquiesce. Amazing!

 

[christabelll]

I to have suffered from the weight yoyo... high carb low carb etc

There is a corolary (sp) with out ancient past that some people don't remember.
We are primarily carnivores (even if we no longer hunt with tooth and claw). Grains and fruits and veggies were only available 6-8 months out of the year. Then we learned to grow it and store it then eventually to preserving it. Sugar as a whole only became readily available in the past 4 hundred years. And its only been in the past hundred or so that canned or processed foods have been available. THese days its been dickered with so much its barely recognizable as a nutritious food/fuel source.

Our bodies will make do with what its given. And we as a species can tolerate quite a range of toxins before we begin to break down.

ONe of the biggest culprits in my life for weight gain was Coffee. Yes I said coffee.

I drank on average three large pots of very strong coffee. WHat I didn't realize was what a boomerang affect it had on my body.
Coffee raises insulin levels, thus suppressing the appetite (great right? Wrong!)
It would suppress mine so much that I wouldn't eat at all. I barely eat why I am huge???? I would be cranky and moody and fly off the handle angry and then when I finally did eat I would gorge. MY body - having been in starvation mode for upwards of two and three days at a time would SAVE everything. Hence the weight gain. I figured well if I eat enough protien I wouldn't get the other side effects of coffee... Didn't matter I gained close to 150 lbs before I saw myself - really saw myself again.

I stopped drinking coffee. I drank tea. I started eating something - anything for breakfast and I dropped 80 lbs in 3 months. The rest took three years. Slow steady loss with plateaus reached and breached.

I developed a severe allergy to soy. Hospitals and everything with that! I had to take a good hard look at what I was eating. I discovered that close to 85% of ALL packaged and processed foods contained soy in one form another. WHile its touted as the superfood of the new millenium it has several side effects for many people included allergy, weight gain, breast tenderness (m & f) early puberty etc. This does not include all the other stuff they put in our food either at source or during processing.
I literally had to give away 90% of what was in my pantry and freezer.
Since then I have pretty much altered what I eat and when dramatically.
Becuase of some ongoing health issues exercise that involves any kind of impact is crippling. SO I walk in well padded shoes or when I can I swim. So I am minimally exercising.
I eat 5 - 6 meals a day. and while they are not large meals, every single one of them contains a large amount of protein. I eat rices and whole grain breads/pastas. Tons of fruit and veggies and everyday I get a treat of some sort whether its chocolate or candy or cookies I get it.

A typical day for me includes
3 cups of black tea with cream and honey (real cream)
2-3 apples
1 nut granola bar
1 whey protien & yohurt smoothie
1/8 block of semi hard cheese (swiss asiago gruyere etc)
2 to 3 servings of eggs or fish or shell fish or beef pork or poultry
1 huge mixed green salad tomatoes carrots nuts
two pieces of toast (healthnut or oatnut)
with nutrional yeast and real butter

and long about 8 pm I have three cookies with a cup of tension tamer or tea for sleep or lemon ginger tea.

I have lost a total of 178 pounds in 4 years.

I made mistake recently and started drinking coffee again. I stopped drinking it when I realized that all my clothes had gotten tight on me....OOOOPS!!!!
NO more coffee for this girl.

Anyway.... MY hat goes off to all those who look for and find a way to battle their cravings and to curb sugar intake. MY thoughts are if it aint real food I don't want it. I get organic or whole foods as much as I can, and I read all the labels.

Perseverence, research, and plain common sense is what is needed. More power to all of you. ANd yeah I crash HARD if I have too much sugar.... nearly fainted a few times over christmas from the sugar crash LOL...

PRAISES AND HIGH PRAISE TO ALL

 

[EJFan]

Where did I say that it was easy to lose weight? I only said it is simple (which it is) but still extremely hard to consistently follow through. Losing weight really isn't about 'dieting' as it is a lifestyle change. You cannot 'diet' and lose the weight, then go back to your normal routine and expect the weight to not pile back on. The lifestyle change is pernament if people truely want to reap the results they want and the overall feeling.

Drastically altering your body composition is one of the toughest things you can do because it's not an over night process. For many people, it takes a few years to be where they want. Many people often quit because of this. You must stay focus in order to win the battle.

On the oppisite end of the spectrum, adding muscle mass is easy. Eat my 5,500 calories a day, sleep 8 hours and consistently change my training up when my body becomes accustomed to the adaptation. Talk to any bodybuilder or powerlifting and they'll tell you learning your body and figuring out what YOU need is a task that takes years to figure out. Then it can be broken down into a science for those who want to be in the upper class or elite.

In essence, everything we need is right there and laid out, obtaining the results is the tough part.

Primarly what I was getting at earlier was that people get too detailed in their diet and training. I've seen some who would fret about an extra 3g of carbs in their diet. The basics are the most important thing when it comes to altering your body image and the 'little things' might be looked at later on down the road.

finally... an informed voice of reason. thank you PL.

 

[PowerLifter84]

Thanks.

I just wanted to add that those who cut carbs should be careful in how much they cut. If you cut carbs below 40-30 grams a day, you should include a 'carb up' on the weekend. Carbohydrates are protein sparring. Protein breaks down into amino acids and amino acids are the building blocks of your muscle. If your body does not have sufficient carbs, it will pull the amino acids from your muscle and covert into glucose via gluconeogenosis. Decrease in muscle mass = decrease metabolism = decrease in weight loss.

Carbs are especially important to those who weight train and cardio. Do not fear low GI carbs. Carbs will not make people overweight -- excess calories will.

 

[GentleSub_Ivy]

Thanks.

I just wanted to add that those who cut carbs should be careful in how much they cut. If you cut carbs below 40-30 grams a day, you should include a 'carb up' on the weekend. Carbohydrates are protein sparring. Protein breaks down into amino acids and amino acids are the building blocks of your muscle. If your body does not have sufficient carbs, it will pull the amino acids from your muscle and covert into glucose via gluconeogenosis. Decrease in muscle mass = decrease metabolism = decrease in weight loss.

Carbs are especially important to those who weight train and cardio. Do not fear low GI carbs. Carbs will not make people overweight -- excess calories will.

I agree. For me balance has been a key issue. I try not to overdo any one food anymore. I'm giving myself 2-3 years to reach my goal weight. I'm not quite at the first year mark but I've lost 20 pounds and one dress size and toned up a bit. I've never tried "low carb" but more of a modified Zone diet where I lowered the amount of carbs (more cutting out crappy snacks) I was eating and changed the quality of carbs.

I'm not really on a diet but just making slow life changes including diet quality and exercise. As I age I realize "slow" is the way to go for me. If I try to go too fast or go on a fad diet I eventually binge and start to gain the weight back. I also have always been muscular no matter what size I am. After years of doing a physical job and now sitting on my arse for a living I want to consider strength training and want to eat correctly for doing that. Right now I'm doing mostly cardio to build up stamina.

Thanks for your post.

Ivy

 

[TBKahuna123]

Well I hate dredging up old threads, but this one actually applies ot me and I've been gone a while, so I'll take the liberty of chiming in.

I've done it all and tried it all to lose weight, and mostly failed. I used to think this was simply a lack of willpower, but I now understand it is much more than that. Powerlifter is right, it's about a lifestyle change and that is the toughest.

About 6 years ago I made a huge change. I found out I had high blood pressure. Pretty common, but not when you are 28!!! So I decided I had to get some exercise, so I started playing hockey. The drive to be able to pick up this sport at my age is what drove me to diet and change my lifestyle. Gone were the McDonald's lunches, the gorging on pasta(my weak point), the candy when I was bored. I started eating a ton of protein and dropped my carbs down, not out, but way way down. I ate no processed breads or pastas and ate an obscene amount of protein. I worked out, lifted, trying really hard to get back in shape after 10 years of sitting in front of a computer.

It worked pretty well. I lost 35 pounds in 6 months, I put on a ton of muscle mass(too much I later found out), and I lost 6 inches off my waist. Then I started playing and did pretty well. I worked out during the year to keep up my strength and all went well, even though I sucked at playing hockey.

Then I started getting cocky. I started playing well as I learn the game. I got really busy at work, so I figured I could stop lifting since I was obviously back in shape. Then my wife got busier at work, so we stopped eating at home and started eating out more often. Then we started working opposite scheduels, and not wanting to cook alone, we both turned back to fast food. That convenience becomes a habit, and pretty soon you are hooked.

I've steadily put the weight back on over the last few years. This year I played hockey 4 nights a week and over the course of the last 9 months I gained 8 pounds and 2 inches on my waist. How is that possible? Because when I looked back I was eating fast food 10 times a week! 10!!!! I coudl feel that crap in my body, my energy was shot because I wasn't absorbing anything. And of course my blood pressure is elevated again. Still under control, but not where it has been in the past.

I let my lifestyle dictate my diet, and if you life a crazy lifestyle like mine, it'll drive you right to fast food. So a couple weeks ago we made a decision to do something about that. We've done fast food, but it's eating salads or Subway for low fat subs and such. I'm trying to cut back on how much I eat as well as what I eat, trying to avoid those processed foods again, the heavy fat stuff. In just two weeks I can feel the results, even though I haven;t lost any weight.The weight will start dropping when I start working out next week, but I've been taking a couple weeks off to rehab a hockey injury. Still just having all that proccessed crap out of my system has made a world of difference in how I feel.

There are two things that drove this change. First I want to look and feel better. Anyone who struggles with their weight feels that, the problem is that it isn't enough. Either you get depressed about it and that makes you give up, or in my case you just decide that you are who you are, you're wonderful as you are, and to hell with anyone who disagrees. Either way you give up ont he lifestyle changes. You have to find something else that you are passionate about that can help you drive toward that goal. For me it is hockey. This year we were 30 seconds away from winning the championship, the first championship I would have ever won, only to lose it on a broken play. My team all said to me that there was no way I could have made that save, that I would have had to have had cat like reflexes to recover that fast and make that second save. That got me thinking about everything I've accomplished.

5 years ago it was guys telling me to keep my head up, that I'd keep getting better, usually after they had just lit me up. Now it is guys cursing at me because I'm shutting them down because I had learned how to play. I've studied and practiced and learned to play goalie as well as I can, and this year I was one of the top goalies in our league. I realized that what was holding me back was weight and conditioning. Of course I can't recover fast enough, I'm packing an extra 50 pounds of fat around wiht me. How much quicker was I when I started playing? What if I had the knowledge and skills I have not with the physical attributes I had 5 years ago? How good could I be? I worked hard to get in shape, then I worked hard to learnt o play, but let myself get out of shape. Now I need to remember why I started playing hockey in the first place, my health.

Sorry for the ramblings, but I just felt the need to share. The point is, there are no gimick diets, no master plans that work. If you talk to any dietician or nutritionist, they all say the same thing. You don't just lose weight, you have to lead a healthy lifestyle. That doesn't mean starving yourself, that doesn't mean eating nothing but chicken. It means balancing your choices, controlling your amounts, and avoiding high sugar/highly processed foods. The fact is our minds have evolved, but our bodies really haven't. Our digestive system is still besigned to breakdown raw foods and pull nutrients from them. When you get heavily processed products our systems just can't efficiently break them down, and thus most of those nutrients pass through our bodies without being extracted. You can make a significant impact if you simply avoid highly processed starches, like pasta and breads. Eat whole grain breads or pasta, it really does make a difference. Avoid sugary sweets and eat fruits and stuff instead. Avoid foods high in fat, even if you don't go all the way to no fat products. And avoid the burgers and fires!

Just doing this will make an impact, so long as you accompany it wiht exercise. Just walking is enough, but it gets your metabolism up. These all sound so simple, but they aren't easy. It's a lifestyle change, and that sucks. Hard to do, hard to stick with. Once you start though and once you've done it for a while, it gets easier. I wish EVERYONE the best of luck if you are trying to make this kind of switch. Just stick with it even when you are frustrated in the end it does pay off.

 

[PowerLifter84]

Awesome post, TB! When people start seeing the results and having others point it out, it kind of hits them and lets the person realize that the hard work is paying off. That's one of the best motivational things, IMO.

Good luck next year at getting that championship.