May 2013 Update on TBSS: The Blood Sugar Solution May Be My Final Solution

I think The Blood Sugar Solution is my final solution. I don't know if I started the program on March 5 or 10, but I'm through the initial round (two weeks of prep and six weeks of continuation). According to the book and the self-testing, I should need another six weeks to reset my body.

Still...I'm losing weight, albeit slower, even with a little cheating (I'm having two squares of 70% chocolate plus the allowed berries daily) and still no daily exercise (just weekly lawn work). Even with the stressors inherent in working freelance: lack of work followed by too much. Prefer the latter, please! Oh, yeah. And my car in the shop. Lord, make it a really cheap repair estimate.

And the biggest stressor of all: DIETING! But this doesn't feel like deprivation....

My flaky scalp has cleared up. Completely. Just halfway through the program, too. I'm not hungry all the time. The bad insatiable kind. In fact, I hardly eat two meals a day. Yet I feel actual hunger before I do eat.

Here are some other random thoughts:

• I'm still hung up on the guacamole with cumin recipe. When I'm working hard, I eat it as a meal in front of my computer. I add beans for more protein and LOVE adding pepitas on top for added crunch. Plus the green of the seeds looks pretty amid the black beans and the avocados. What can I say? I'm an artist. I appreciate these things.
• I'm recently enjoying deviled eggs. I was scrambling eggs for breakfast, along with my crisp sauteed onions and lightly sauteed mushrooms (which I prepared first), but then found I didn't want or need the eggs after my veggies. So, voilà. Deviled eggs. Ready to eat anytime. I took my fave recipe and tweaked it to fit within TBSS's parameters. I replaced the mayo with EVOO. I added more vinegar than usual to make up for the lack of moisture the mayo would give. And then just S&P and some paprika. Sometimes a dash of cayenne pepper when the mood strikes.
• I'm not eating breakfast within an hour of rising (gasp!). I'm eating it as a late brunch instead. So three or four hours later, if that soon. Works for me. Of course, coffee (decaf) fuels me until then.
• And I can see me eating like this forever. In fact, I have already moved into the lifetime event. I'm cheating occasionally but hopefully isolated within one day and not repeated for another week or so.
• I'm not worried about my cheats. I choose them carefully. Even with cheating, I'm eating probably 1% of the sugar (counting bread, rice, pasta too) than I used to eat daily. And I'm okay with that.
• My body is an MSG locator. And may be more sensitive to MSG now than it was before, and it was an automatic response before (well within one hour). I find that my itchy eyes is totally due to MSG. And the upset stomach.
• So while bread may not do my body good, I think my system tolerates Jasmine rice better. Just a hunch. Will test it more after this second six-week period.

Anyway, I'm loving the food plan. Never thought black coffee would taste so wonderful. Or that I could walk past artisan bread in the store or not have pasta every day or so. Well, I did. I have.

And I had none of the withdrawal symptoms I expected and had worked through on earlier plans before this one. No headaches. No tiredness. No fogginess. No irritability. No ravenous hunger.

Amazing. Just amazing.

Okay, back to work. Gotta pay for my car repairs—eek!

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

Update on TBSS

I'm in the early part of Week 4 for me (counting the intro two weeks) or beginning Week 2 of the actual program following the transitory couple weeks, for which I see no real difference in execution. I'm still losing weight (even with one daily sweet event, usually midafternoon: the 80 percent chocolate, ginger tea with honey, or a few Gourmet Mints, but just once, I swear!). And that's along with the allowed berries daily.

Still I consider that a victory considering how many tablespoons of sugar I used to ingest each and every day. But, yes, I could be losing more faster if I was rigidly sticking to Dr. Hyman's plan. I realize that. And every morning, I say, today will be the day with no added sweets. It's just for six (five, four) more weeks.

Maybe I need an added transition period for dealing with my last bastion. But I can see me living like this, reduced sugars and all. So that is a roadside historical marker for me for sure.

I'm convinced great wondrous works are happening within my body that do not register on the scale. Our health should not be designated just by how much we weigh.

I'm sleeping a tad less and get by great on seven hours. My energy is the same or better. I've always been highly efficient, productive.

I'm satiated. Yet experiencing true hunger before I do eat.

I haven't had caffeine for three weeks and two days! But I am looking forward to having a cup of my favorie Café Bustelo espresso after the six weeks of the actual plan are over (eight weeks if you count the intro program), even if just every four days thereafter. Depends on any racing-heart symptoms.

My nighttime stuffiness/congestion continues to improve.

I'm not daily craving anything (other than my sugar hit). Not any fast foods. Not Dr. Pepper. Now that is good.

I'm surprised I can live without dairy.

And artisan bread.

I'm enjoying steamed veggies without butter, adding instead olive oil and/or toasted sesame oil.

My protein consumption has veered from beef to chicken and fish. My serving sizes for protein have shrunk. In fact, I eat more nuts and beans than white meat or seafood.

So what does my standard TBSS daily menu look like? Here it is:

• To break the fast, I have three walnuts (helps ward off the charley horses at night) while I'm waiting on my decaf hazelnut coffee. I try to drink a glass of water each time I return to the kitchen to refill my coffee cup. I usually have iced green tea more in the afternoons.
• Hours later (not according to Dr. Hyman's plan to have a real breakfast within an hour of rising) I have a really late brunch. I'm presently hooked on crispy fried onion slices in olive oil and two Omega 3 eggs scrambled with fresh tomato dices or Rotel tomatoes added.
• Then sometime between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. I eat a final meal. (I have been going to bed earlier and therefore getting up earlier these past few weeks.) Lately, I've had the guacamole recipe with cumin from TBSS Cookbook. Love it! I add beans though to intro protein. I either mash up the bigger beans (like pintos), add some olive oil and mix in with my guacamole, or just rinse off a can of small black beans and add them as is. I've been making this daily, so the last time I made some, I doubled the recipe. It's great for any meal or a snack.
• For snacks, I eat a handful of mixed nuts: almonds, pepitas and sunflower seeds. I try to save my allowed fruit for a midafternoon snack to sidestep any other sweet craving. Not working as I seem to crave the palate-cleansing fruit following my brunch.
• Other nighttime meals have been a huge salad with nuts and my own lemon juice and EVOO dressing. Sometimes I add 1.5 ounces of tuna.
• Last night it was part of one breast of roasted chicken and a plateful of steamed summer veggies (carrots, squash, zucchini).
• Today I'm wanting salmon loaf (from canned wild-caught salmon) and will see if there is a way to prepare my recipe TBSS way.  Maybe using almond meal instead of white flour.
• As far as supplements, I'm on the poor man's version. I already had fish oil capsules in the house, and now I am actually taking them with brunch.
• What about exercise? I worked out one day. Total. Yeah, not according to Dr. Hyman's plan or my own. I'm trying to rectify that.

Still, with all my personal deviations from Dr. Hyman's stated plan, not to mention a weight-gaining hysterectomy in the mix, my faulty application of TBSS program works. Every week I've lost weight. In fact, I rewarded myself for staying on the intro part by buying two cute costume bracelets (one for each week and for $10 total). I'm intent on wearing them everyday now to reaffirm my past successes and to continue replicating them.

So reward yourself for your efforts and especially the results.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

Dr. Hyman on PBS Years Ago

Yesterday I found this video I don't remember watching before: Dr. Hyman on PBS. I have no idea what date this show on UltraMetabolism was aired, but since I haven't had cable for eight years, it has been a while.

I watched it yesterday and he espoused many of his tenets as found in his The Blood Sugar Solution of today.

However, he said one thing that really stuck with me. Here it is paraphrased: Americans eat 185 pounds of sugar a year. Which was probably more accurate a decade ago and has now risen exponentially.

So I wondered how many tablespoons that was. Something I could relate to visually. If one pound (16 ounces) = 32 Tablespoons, then 185 pounds is 18,532 Ts/year divided by 365 days = 50.77 TABLESPOONS a day or 152.31 TEASPOONS a day.

Wow!

It kind of put my sugar addiction in a new light. Dr. Hyman calls sugar a toxin. I agree. While our bodies may have arsenic, mercury and other toxic materials residing within, they are hopefully at such minute levels that they do us no harm.

It's the amount of the potentially toxic substance that matters.

Still, knowing that I may have been eating 50 Ts (or more) of sugar a day and now I am trying to go without any (none, zilch, nada, zero, nil) during each twenty-four-hour period makes me feel better about my struggle to conquer this beast.

Like I said in one of my previous posts, sugar is my last frontier.

I'm making headway. Which should give hope to others. And I find if I focus on getting through the first three full days without sugar or whatever, then the going gets easier.

I'm keeping that in mind. Plus staying busy.

Luckily, Dr. Hyman's plan allows for fruit (berries) daily. That helps.

Along with knowing that my body is rebuilding itself, stronger, healthier, more disease-resistant.

Hang in there, everyone.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

More on TBSS

I really like that there is a two-week intro phase before starting the actual plan of The Blood Sugar Solution. It's brilliant because we are allowed to digress and yet not label it "failing."

And for some reason, this time, this book, this plan, is kind of merging all the great parts from other plans I've read of, if not tried, over the years since my hysterectomy-related weight gain.

Like for instance, this one line from somewhere among Suzanne Somers's books about her Somersize program that, if you want to eat French fries, eat the best ones you can get along with a great big salad so the fiber counteracts the sugar. Good advice.

And from Marilu Henner's Total Health Makeover where she focuses on the whole package and our emotions and other areas of life which can affect our health. This is mindfulness on a bigger scale, like Dr. Hyman teaches in his TBSS books about changing the world, one forkful at a time.

Even my best friend's mother back in my school-going years would stop between each bite to lay down her fork. She was probably practicing the thirty-chews-per-bite philosophy too. We really should take time to enjoy our meals, the food and the company.

From the book Why French Women Don't Get Fat, I gleaned that, yes, I can have what I want just in more Euro-sized portions. (Although this is more for after I complete TBSS's plan.) Plus I understand their foodstuffs meet higher quality standards abroad than ours do. Probably all more organic.

Not to mention the sensitivity diet proposed by J. J. Virgin. Having gone through her twenty-eight-day elimination diet helps me journey through Dr. Hyman's TBSS.

Other changes I've implemented are that I started exercising yesterday and wearing my pedometer again. I see a recipe elsewhere that entices me, and I automatically start exchanging ingredients to conform with TBSS plan—ha!

While I am enjoying my ginger tea daily, I must admit the honey I am adding to it has stalled the downward movement on my scale. Since technically the sweetener comes after the six-week main plan, I'm trying something new today. I'm brewing blackberry-pomegranate green tea to add to my ginger tea, to see if the fruity flavors give me the balance of sweet and spicy hot I prefer.

Sugar is my last frontier.

But I'm invested in this and having already given two weeks and three days to see it work, I'm willing to do my part. I've already seen a nice weight loss during the transition into the main event, my nighttime sinusitis is almost gone, I have more energy, and I'm sleeping less and eating less. Although with the advent of exercise, I may eat more at the start, to level off once my body gets over the shock.

My grocery bill has gone down a bit as well since I'm buying less meat.

Overall, I'd say this is a success even right now, today. Dr. Hyman talks of great changes going on in our bodies aside from any weight loss seen on the scale. My experience confirms that in my own layman's outlook.

And once my body has reset my sweet tooth, I can look forward to adding in rice and honey to my lifelong eating plan.

Works for me. Hope something from these posts helps others out there too.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

The Blood Sugar Solution is Working!

Even with the added stress (on top of dieting!) of looking for more copyediting jobs to pay my mortgage and the IRS.

Even with some deviations (otherwise known as cheating). But, hey, I am in the entry transition phase of the plan.

Even with a faulty bathroom scale.

Even with all those caveats, I can see (downward) progress.

And this is just the beginning of Day Thirteen.

Tomorrow I am starting the real portion of this program. Which is just what I've been doing so far, sans detours.

But, you know, the last time I lost weight I was not journaling, so I have no clue what I did back then that worked. Still, I can tell you this: I had not cut out all sugar but honey from my eating habits back then. I had not cut out all flours back then. I certainly had not cut out all dairy back then. And I most definitely was not going all-decaf back then.

So I figure (in my diet-cheating mind), that even if I continue to veer off this plan, just to the degree I have already violated, I'll still keep losing weight. How awesome is that?

Plus in one of Dr. Hyman's recent blogs, he stated that cortisol (a bad hormone we don't want to encourage) is better controlled by yoga and the like than by running, which increases glucose in our bloodstream. Interesting. And good to hear, because I love yoga and weight training over aerobics any day.

Oh, but one thing: I'm not exercising yet. I plan to...soon.

As for particulars, here's a few:

• I'm enjoying eating crispy fried onion slices with my eggs in the morning. Satisfies that desire for potatoes.
• I find I'm eating less meat. After all, toxins are held in their fat, too, just like for us, right? I'm not trying to be a vegetarian. I just cannot afford organic meat prices. Although I do have some (nonorganic) seafood in the freezer that I'm looking forward to eating.
• Did you know canned salmon and tuna are both wild caught? How great is that? Plus the price/can is within my current budget. The cans may be problematic as there is no BPA-free wording thereon. Still, I am avoiding as many other toxins as I can right now. So I'm reducing the amount of pollutants my body has to fight. That's a good thing.
• Two of my lapses involved corn: Fritos and a Taco Bell run (crunchy tacos and a side of beans with no cheese). Didn't set back my bathroom scale. Didn't give me any sensitivity alerts. While I will continue to avoid those in the next six weeks of the main part of TBSS program, I feel confident I can work them back into my permanent lifestyle in moderation.

I am one happy woman. Now how many times do you hear a job-hunting dieter say that?

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

The Blood Sugar Solution: Snacks

I'm just starting this journey so I may deviate at some later point. But for now, my snacks are simple. First, there is this wonderful guacamole recipe with cumin in TBSS Cookbook that I eat as both a meal, with beans, or as a snack. Second, nuts. Did you know sunflower seeds have Vitamin D in them? I love them anyway, but what a bonus to get some Vit. D thrown in, too. I eat about four tablespoons of my own mix: sunflower seeds, almonds and pepitas (pumpkin seeds). Third, popcorn. I pop mine in coconut oil as it can withstand higher temps than EVOO.

Now I just read the Dinner Diva's post today (SavingDinner.com) about lectins in popcorn. So I'm on the fence. While popcorn is not mentioned in either of TBSS books, it is shown and mentioned in the online video of Dr. Hyman's pantry.

And popcorn raises the sensitivity issues that J. J. Virgin would question.

So for these iffy matters, I say: Listen to your body. Watch for reactions. If you get bloating, stop. If you get stuffy noses, stop. If you get weight gain, stop. If you get binge eating, stop.

A final note to others like me on a quest for perfect health (or near perfect). I find that the added fiber gives my stomach an unpleasant sensation at first, but that my body is adjusting to the increased fiber. Just try to differentiate that from true stomach upsets.

And the journaling that Dr. Hyman suggests is a wonderful way to make those food-body connections. Just focusing on how we are emotionally and what we tend to eat is a revelation.

It's a process. It's a discovery. We're all different. I'll share as I go along.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

The Blood Sugar Solution Continued

If you are interested in my usual breakfast under TBSS guidelines, here's my simple and fast omelet. Two whisked omega-3 eggs in a nonstick pan coated with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Once they start to set, I add a tablespoon or two of Rotel tomatoes and a few cilantro leaves (no stems). Finish cooking, sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper and you are done.

Spices may well be our most overlooked and underused good-health component. Try to focus on adding more to your cooking.

I add the Rotel juice to my regular veggie juice to spice it up a bit, too.

If you have some time, or don't like spicy foods, caramelize chopped onions in EVOO in your pan. Once they are as brown as you like them (I actually like them crispy), top with your whisked eggs. Add diced fresh tomatoes and a diced avocado. Yum!

In the book, Dr. Hyman gives us two choices for breakfast: eggs or a protein drink (from hemp). I'm of the school that we can eat dinner at breakfast and vice versa. So I'm game for having leftover salmon and asparagus. Or steak and eggs.

Although the author advises us to purchase organic meats and produce, I'm not able to jump fully into that pricey adventure. But when funds allow, I'm there.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

The Blood Sugar Solution (and TBSS Cookbook)

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. Hippocrates

I have read both of these books (including the many recipes) written by Dr. Hyman and it confirms what J. J. Virgin recommends via her sensitivity diet plan while also tracking other healthy eating plans such as the Mediterranean, the Paleo and the Daniel diet noted in the Bible.

As Dinner Diva Leanne Ely said on one of her recipe videos (see her website at SavingDinner.com), no one yet knows even 20 percent about our whole foods--veggies, fruits, spices, herbs. We have uncovered very little knowledge regarding all their ingredients, all their medicinal values. As evolved as we are in many ways, our knowledge base here is stunted.

But we don't need to know how they work to make use of them in our bodies, in our lives. Just like electricity, computers, cars, indoor plumbing.

So here is one tip for you as I begin the preparatory phase of this Blood Sugar Solution reset plan. I eat three whole walnuts in the morning while I'm waiting on my (now decaf) coffee. First, the author recommends we break our fast within an hour of waking. Not sure this snack counts, as I figure he means a meal, but there you go.

The reason I start my day with walnuts is because I have been experiencing nighttime leg cramps. They are not fun and the known magnesium in walnuts is the cure in my short experience. And since it is working, I'll continue with my walnut therapy.

The next thing I'm tackling is my nighttime congestion problem. Something about becoming horizontal stops up my nose and throat. I'm hoping removal of diary products will stop that. I'll let you know. If three days can confirm a food sensitivity (see Dr. Hyman's books for the particulars), then I'm hoping within three days of being fully off dairy in all its (sometimes hidden) forms, will lessen my overnight "sinusitis."

Of course, the main agenda for the two books, as well as the titles of each, focuses on our abuse of sugar in its many forms (actual sugars, then of course pastas, breads, grains, white potatoes, other starchy veggies, etc.). The doctor compares our ancestors' consumption of sugar to our present-day figures and it is a showstopper.

The Paleos of old ate 22 teaspoons of sugar a year (truly treating it as a spice not as a meal) to our present-day addiction of 150–180 pounds a year.

That's per person, folks.

Which means a minimum of thirty of those five-pound bags over a year or 1.7 each week. Granted we eat sugar is many forms, but I think this visual helps us all to see the folly of this continued practice.

To further add perspective, for example, take one 16.9 ounce Coke with its 55g of sugar or ~14 teaspoons (4g = 1 tsp) or 4.66 tablespoons (3 tsps = 1 T) or more than 1/4th cup (4 Ts = 1/4 c)! Comparing Red Diamond Sweet Tea, one 8-oz serving has 17g of sugar, or 34g if the serving size is doubled to 16 oz. to be closer to the Coke serving mentioned above.

If you can't go cold turkey off ALL sugars, as Dr. Hyman advises, then I would suggest cutting back. Instead of Coke, drink sweet tea, which would save you 21g for every 16 ounces. Then as you make your own sweet tea at home, keep reducing the sugar you add until you wean yourself off the sweetened variety and enjoy it unsweetened. In my mind, it is about finding better substitutions.

Of course, high fructose corn syrup should never be allowed into anyone's diet. Read labels. You'll be amazed where HFCS has been added.

I was surprised to find that Dr. Hyman didn't allow Stevia (an all-natural sugar) in his program. Although, after the initial reset program, 70 percent chocolate and honey are allowed in moderation. Even the Bible speaks of not eating too much honey, yet this is good food for us. In fact, the manna God made and gave to the Hebrews for decades in the wilderness was probably made of honey.

Proverbs 24:13 My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.

Proverbs 25:16 If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you be sated with it and vomit it.

Proverbs 25:27 It is not good to eat much honey, so be sparing of complimentary words.

Exodus 16:31 Now the house of Israel called its name manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

Exodus 16:35 And the people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land; they ate the manna, till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

But a small amount of fruit is allowed on this program, so that was a huge selling point for me.

There is a sage saying about a mind newly stretched by a fresh idea, a novel thought, can never resume its old size and shape.

There are many mind-stretching statements made in Dr. Hyman's books, but here's two I leave with you. First, even if you don't see a corresponding weight loss in the first three days, your body is already being greatly changed (my paraphrase here). Second, 80 percent of the people who follow Dr. Hyman's plan can reset their bodies within six weeks. (The other 20 percent may need another six-week session, or maybe three months. The more stubborn cases require a health care practitioner.)

With my many thanks to Dr. Hyman, let's see now about reshaping the body....
 

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks