Wednesday, March 12, 2014

My one complaint

I only had one complaint while doing the Ideal Protein Protocol:  I was tired.  As in really tired, and sometimes felt like I couldn't make it through the day.

I went to bed a 9 or so each night...but somehow managed to easily wake up around 6 or 6:30 on weekends without my alarm.  I missed my lazing around and sleeping all morning.  I missed being able to stay up late and go out with friends or hang out and watch a movie with David.  Apparently, though, the sleep I was getting was good sleep because I couldn't go back to sleep and laze around even on a Saturday morning.

I felt weary a lot during the day too.  Especially as I stayed on the diet for a longer period of time.

****and I want to say here that I never cheated while doing IP.  I was "on program" the entire time***

I couldn't exercise even if I wanted to, and in general I just felt foggy and muddled.

David did not have this side effect, and after a good bit of discussion, some data gathering, and thinking, we decided that I was having a bad side effect to being deep in ketosis.  Getting out of dietary ketosis, or even lessening the effect of it, while on IP is rather difficult, so we talked with the diet nurse who told us about the "Alternative Plan" which is what they prescribe people who have health problems or diabetes.

Because I didn't want to jump completely off the diet, I went into the alternative plan very slowly adding one "carb group" for 2 weeks and seeing how I did and then adding another and so on.  I immediately starting having more energy and feeling better and actually started losing a little more quickly for a few weeks.

I doubt that I'm normal in my reaction to ketosis.  I get into ketosis very quickly and will stay deep in ketosis (as measured by the test strips) even after having a good dose of carbs.  I think my particular biochemistry requires me to be very careful when approaching such a low carb diet, and when I need to lose a few pounds in the future, I will need to remember to try to keep myself from going into ketosis for a long period of time.  I think that the worst for me was in October, and at that point, I'd been doing IP for 7 months.

I don't plan to gain so much that I have to stay on the diet for 7 months again.  I weigh myself several times a week and once I get 5 pounds above my middle number I will go on Phase 1 for a couple of weeks and lose the weight.  I'm hoping that by maintaining within 10 pounds I will be able to stay this size until I'm ready to lose the rest--if I do.  I'm really happy with my current size.

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I've rambled a good bit today, but I don't want to leave the impression that being tired is a terrible thing.  It was a side effect that I knew was diet related and temporary.  When my body told me that it couldn't take it any longer, I listened, talked with my diet nurse and came up with a plan to address the problem.  It worked and I have been very happy with everything since then.

In fact, I like that I "phased out" of the diet using the Alternative Plan and would recommend it for anyone who has lost a significant amount of weight on this diet or who suspects that they may have food allergies.  By adding only one food group and seeing how I did for a couple of weeks I was able to see if that particular food caused me problems and if it did to look into other foods within that group (i.e. fruits, grains, dairy).  For a while I did ok with dairy, then I realized that it was causing me problems.  I dropped dairy from my diet and am now doing just fine.  I knew wheat would be a problem, but I've tested out other grains so that I can have that food group in my diet and after a couple of months I know what causes me problems and what is safe to eat.


2 comments:

  1. I have to ask if you coffee? Not that one should use it as a crutch. Just in terms of you keeping such a clean / healthy diet. I hear so many mixed reviews on caffeine even in small amounts. I believe in coffee for myself, but I also know, I really can't have too much or I pay for it. I also wish I enjoyed it more without dairy and/or sugar. I can do it, I just don't, like so many of us without any discipline!

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  2. I definitely coffee...and I love the weekends when I can "coffee" until noon. My husband doesn't tolerate caffeine very well and gets addicted really quickly. I can stop at any time and don't even have a headache. I drink mine black, btw. And cold. My boss thinks I'm weird.

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