[Non-IT] A bit of a success story



  • Wow. Just looked at the calendar and realized that it's two monts since I took a serious approach to what kinds of stuff I eat, and metabolic changes started kicking in.

    My blood glucose is a happy steady near-flatline around 73-76 mg/dL (4.05-4.2 mmol/l) for weeks. I spoiled it once by trying instant coffee, and another time by a "sugar-free" lozenge (well, fuck Ricola), but recovered amazingly quickly.

    I now go past bakeries and don't feel cravings for anything bread-like — something I used to graze on. Well, almost. I kinda remember that shit was good, I just don't feel like I need it right now, for the love of the Almighty Adipocytes. I think that's a success. Earlier it always depressed me a bit.

    Also, I shed 14 kilograms in these 2 months. Fucking fourteen kilograms! That's how much four newborn babies weigh.

    And I feel productive longer than before. Earlier, I could feel for all day as if I'm not totally awake.

    Now that's a bit of success, even if only a little one...

    (I just created this topic to have something to refer myself to when, like today, I feel depressed after another mind-numbing 9-hour work day of writing fucking JavaScript to parse fucking XML from a fucking API I need to integrate with.)

    P. S. Paging @gleemonk


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @wft said:

    My blood glucose is a happy steady near-flatline around 73-76 mg/dL (4.05-4.2 mmol/l) for weeks. I spoiled it once by trying instant coffee,

    What effect did the coffee have? Was is stuff added to the coffee? I wouldn't have thought that coffee would have much of an effect by itself.



  • @boomzilla said:

    What effect did the coffee have? Was is stuff added to the coffee? I wouldn't have thought that coffee would have much of an effect by itself.

    It was plain instant coffee (Jacobs Kronung of sorts, or Nescafe something) with plain hot water. Instant coffee is rather high in carbs, and to organism is almost like sugar, were it not dark-brown and bitter.

    I emphasize the instant bit, because regular espresso doesn't have this effect.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @wft said:

    Instant coffee is rather high in carbs, and to organism is almost like sugar, were it not dark-brown and bitter.

    Oh...I didn't realize that. Looking around, it seems to vary by brand.



  • Also, me and my fiancée learned to bake shit similar to this to eat with coffee:

    [img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mPM6bSOmQy8/UMnySNXDTPI/AAAAAAAAL2Q/GgKSqzulmYg/s1600/DSC_3006.JPG[/img]

    It can raise blood glucose by, maybe, 10 mg/dL, for a very short period. And it's totally low carb/ketogenic. A perfect "comfort food". A funny thing I don't want much of "comfort" foods anymore.


  • Winner of the 2016 Presidential Election

    I just ate two pizzas and a blackout cake. Maybe I should follow your example.

    The last time I tried to eat healthier, I managed to do so for 4 weeks. I lost 6 pounds that month. Then I broke up with my girlfriend and ate a metric shitton of chocolate.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @wft said:

    Also, I shed 14 kilograms in these 2 months. Fucking fourteen kilograms! That's how much four newborn babies weigh.

    Christ.

    I lost like 32lb last year... unfortunately I've put most of it back on since, so need to get back on the weight loss.



  • Well, it's not even half of the story, I have something like 22 kg more to lose...


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    I had another 16ish pounds to lose, just stuff got in the way, work got busy and shit, I developed a bit of a drinking habit and it kinda went wrong there.
    I'll get back on it in the New Year. Need to stop smoking at some point too.

    Good luck!


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    Congrats! I need to lose about 30lb, myself.


  • Winner of the 2016 Presidential Election

    @FrostCat said:

    Congrats! I need to lose about 30lb, myself.

    I need to lose around 20lbs. I'd love to lose 30 as well.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    I don't need to lose pounds, I need to get it to convert into real energy instead of hanging around in case of emergencies...



  • You could also try Xylitol. It's a sugar alcohol which does not raise the blood sugar levels (thus making it ideal for diabetics), has about 40% less kJ in it than table sugar and is metabolized in such a way that's actually a caries-preventative.

    Has the same taste and sweetness as table sugar, though if you eat it raw then it has a slight whiff of menthol (but only if you eat it raw). Can be substituted for table sugar 1:1 which makes it usable for cakes and stuff.

    Downsides: It's a bit on the expensive side (10 € for 1 kg). May cause diarrhea if you snorf it down like mad (though you'll quickly build up a tolerance). And it's absolutely deadly for dogs (not kidding there. Dogs seem to lack an enzyme which causes them to metabolize the stuff like humans do methanol, with similar results. Cats? Totally unaffected).



  • @Rhywden said:

    You could also try Xylitol. It's a sugar alcohol which does not raise the blood sugar levels (thus making it ideal for diabetics), has about 40% less kJ in it than table sugar and is metabolized in such a way that's actually a caries-preventative.

    Xylitol is partly digested (that's why diarrhea), so it actually affects (mildly) BG levels. Not as badly as maltitol and maltodextrine (commonly used in chewing gum), but still. I did many experminents on myself, xylitol notwithstanding, so I can tell. 😄 That 10 mg/dL raise in my BG after that cheesecake comes chiefly from it, as a matter of fact.

    Erythritol, OTOH, is completely inert towards digestive tract, and effect on BG is a total zero. The downside: it doesn't cook like sugar at all. It retains its winterfresh taste even after you cook it (there's no way you can melt it, even in the oven). It's less sweet than sugar (xylitol is sweeter to me than sugar, so not exactly 1:1).

    We use erythritol mainly for homemade ice-cream.

    I keep a supply of both erythritol and xylitol.



  • Do what I did. Discover a benign tumor1 embedded in your jawbone that's been suppressing your metabolism, get it surgically removed, then watch your metabolic rate magically double or triple and now you're hungry 100% of the time while still losing a bit of weight no matter how much you eat... It sucks having to buy food now that I can no longer subsist on 1500 Calories2 per day.

    1Honestly no big deal, the words just make it sound scarier than it was.

    2kilocalories



  • Your picture looks pretty slim. @wft looks like his retaining water too, that's not fat. He would probably look less round just by calming down.



  • @wft said:

    And I feel productive longer than before. Earlier, I could feel for all day as if I'm not totally awake.

    I get that quite frequently and I wonder what the causes may be.

    Did you stop eating wheat altogether?

    @wft said:

    That's how much four newborn babies weigh.

    Congrats on kicking the baby-eating habit. I found pig to be an acceptable substitute.



  • @gleemonk said:

    Did you stop eating wheat altogether?

    Sometimes I use wheat gluten, when it makes sense. I'm not gluten-sensitive.

    Also, vodka FTW.



  • @wft said:

    Sometimes I use wheat gluten, when it makes sense.

    Gluten good for the pig-substitute. What about other grains? Do you eat them?

    @wft said:

    Also, vodka FTW.

    Vodka is a poor substitute for beer 😦



  • Nope. No grains, no fruit. Almost no digestible carbohydrates.



  • Whelp, I could try this diet for a day and then decide I'm too hungry. I mean, what about potatoes?



  • No potatoes either. Starch -> carbohydrates -> BG skyrockets



  • What do you eat, then? I spent a few months on a low-calorie, low-carb diet, but by the end of it I just could not fucking look at chicken breasts and tuna anymore. It looks like everything beyond the most basic food requires at least some vegetables.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @wft said:

    Almost no digestible carbohydrates.

    So… celery?



  • @Maciejasjmj said:

    What do you eat, then? I spent a few months on a low-calorie, low-carb diet, but by the end of it I just could not fucking look at chicken breasts and tuna anymore. It looks like everything beyond the most basic food requires at least some vegetables.

    Look up "ketogenic diet" 😄 I don't do particularly the "low-calorie" bit. Actually, I eat everything pork, veal, chicken, red meat strongly preferred, mushrooms, dairy, and everything that has lots of fat (like whipped heavy cream), eggs, leafy vegetables, did I mention mushrooms? Also, bits of bitter chocolate once in a while. In desserts, a few blueberries or strawberries are perfectly ok (but only a few). Homemade tomato sauces. I reckon bigos would be perfectly ok, but then again, I hate processed cabbages with passion (I'm no true Pole; in fact, I'm not a Pole at all).

    I eat when I'm hungry, until I'm full. It's probably 10 more kilos to go until I need to start counting calories.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @wft said:

    I hate processed cabbages with passion

    What about passionless processed cabbages? :D



  • A few things worth mentioning in Poland:

    • Some Sphinx restaurants honor ketogenic wishes (that is, I ordered once fully meat dishes without side stuff and got a discount on that);
    • The local flavor of Pizza Hut offers salad bar you can pretty much compose yourself, and mushrooms baked with mozzarella cheese and bacon on top, which is a dish as ketogenic as it gets;
    • If your willpower is strong enough, you can order almost any kind of burger at McDonald's, leave out the bun, and the rest is good. I don't think my willpower is strong enough, tho', and I was raised with a thought that food better not be wasted.


  • @dkf said:

    What about passionless processed cabbages?

    I like broccoli, though.



  • @Maciejasjmj said:

    low-calorie, low-carb diet, but by the end of it I just could not fucking look at chicken breasts and tuna anymore.

    I think your diet was also low-fat, and that's a mistake when doing low carb proper.

    I tried low fat when I was just diagnosed, and that made me depressed, as almost all food turned bland. The doctor also advised cutting on coffee, and that made my life miserable. After a few weeks I binged on everything like mad, 'cause you know, I'd better die sooner and happy, than live a long and extremely sad life.



  • @wft said:

    it's not even half of the story, I have something like 22 kg more to lose...

    When you hit the plateau, try looking at it not as an obstacle on your way to your goal, but as an early chance to try out the weight maintenance skills you're going to need for the rest of your life.



  • @wft said:

    I think your diet was also low-fat, and that's a mistake when doing low carb proper.

    Eh... not very much low-fat. I tried cutting calories, so naturally I couldn't drink oil by the bottles, but I tried not to go full-protein either (that's bad for you, apparently).

    @wft said:

    The doctor also advised cutting on coffee

    OVER MY DEAD FUCKING BODY



  • @Maciejasjmj said:

    OVER MY DEAD FUCKING BODY

    Your call, of course.



  • Round here, "instant coffee" pretty much always means this (especially if you call it plain instant coffee):


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Maciejasjmj said:

    What do you eat, then? I spent a few months on a low-calorie, low-carb diet, but by the end of it I just could not fucking look at chicken breasts and tuna anymore. It looks like everything beyond the most basic food requires at least some vegetables.

    Only the most extreme diets ban all or almost all carbs, and even then, with stuff like Atkins, all that happens if you eat enough to trigger it is you stop losing weight for a few days until you get back into ketosis.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @wft said:

    food better not be wasted.

    Don't you have sky rats[1] where you live?

    [1] pigeons and/or seagulls.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    Gulls: like rats, but without the loveable streak…



  • @anotherusername said:

    Round here, "instant coffee" pretty much always means this

    Is there some other meaning?



  • Well, he mentioned two things: "Jacobs Kronung of sorts, or Nescafe something"

    The Jacobs Kronung instant coffee, as far as I can tell, is pure coffee without anything added; Nescafé, on the other hand, makes a whole variety of coffee drink powders, some of which contain sweetener and/or creamer.



  • That makes sense. Not being a coffee drinker (much less of the instant sort), I didn't think of the flavored varieties. (Same thing exists in the tea world, of course. Ick. I don't go near that stuff, either.)


  • BINNED

    @anotherusername said:

    Nescafé, on the other hand, makes a whole variety of coffee drink powders, some of which contain sweetener and/or creamer.

    Oh, those things.

    I don't generally like them but they can be useful in a pinch.


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