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

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Further Update on J. J. Virgin Elimination Diet

Lost another couple pounds this week--hooray!  I owe it to adding fiber-rich beans to at least one of my meals in a day.  The other trick may have been eating cottage cheese.  With a hectic schedule, it is a boon.

I have found eating dairy gives me a stopped-up nose during the night, causing me to sleep with my mouth open and wake up with the temporary sore throat and dry mouth because of all that.  I can still have some dairy, but it needs to be minimal amounts.  I choose between cheese on my meatless taco salad (with garbanzos) or cream in my coffee, for instance.  The taco salad is good even without the cheese.

On the coffee note, I can still have my cold coffee drink first thing in the morning using up yesterday's leftover brew.  I cannot find unsweetened Coconut Creme in my local markets, but I dilute it with unsweetened Almond milk--with a ratio usually a little heavier on the CC side than the AM portion, say three-fifths CC to two-fifths AM.  Just to get it to that certain caramel-like coloring.  I have a particular glass I drink it from so the proportions work when I fill in the rest with yesterday's coffee and add ice.

I even have a couple cups of hot coffee with one scant teaspoon of real cream in it.

So I'm happy.  But the elimination diet version you will need is as different as you and I are.  So experiment.

I am avoiding processed foods as much as possible as well as white foods--although I think rice is exempt.  I prefer Jasmine and had it a couple times this week with my Crock-Pot chicken dish and still saw the old numbers on the scale go down.

But it is a balancing act and a substitution process--taking out the bad carbs and replacing with the good.  For example, if I am craving old-fashioned potato chips, I can usually talk myself out of it with either ten-to-twelve smoked almonds or a whole avocado.  If it is sweets that I'm craving, I look first to a drink:  adding Stevia to my coffee or brewing some mint tea with honey or having some of the uberperfect Good Earth Sweet & Spicy Tea & Herb Blend just as is--no sugar needed, but I do add in an extra tea bag to make it good and strong and sweeter.

If I need something sugary-tasting to chew, I can have old-fashioned oatmeal with real maple syrup or a tablespoon of almond butter mixed with a little bit of honey.  Or I indulge in raw dark-chocolate chunks where one equals a carb and I can enjoy three to five.

I now automatically rethink dessert recipes to take out the crust for fruit pies and cobblers and such, doing without the pastry altogether or adding an oatmeal-based crumble along with almond flour and Stevia.

And the best part is:  It's working!

Denise Barker, author + blogger +

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