starting my diet tomorrow - first day help needed!

[Mochagirl]

Well said, Z! That, plus the fact that it's soooo hard to eat lots of calories without eating too much protein and sodium.

[atomic sagebrush]

I think the problem with keeping calories high enough is that we're not eating until noon so that's half the day when we're not eating anything, then we're trying not to snack so trying to fit quite alot of calories into 2 or 3 meals and it doesn't feel good to be stuffing our faces to try and meet those allowances because we have in our mind that we're trying to simulate 'bad times' - also that squeezing in 3 massive meals at the end of the day will mean blood sugar levels aren't low at all!

I hope that makes some sense!

Well, the thing is, you're right that your blood sugar will rise during the time of the day when you are eating, but everyone eats at some point, KWIM??? Skipping breakfast just ensures that for many hours out of the day, your BS will be on the low side, if that makes any kind of sense. If it's too tough to skip breakfast, it's ok not to. Some people have had better luck skipping dinner instead, skipping lunch, or just not snacking at all. Whatever works for you is what is best.

[atomic sagebrush]

Well said, Z! That, plus the fact that it's soooo hard to eat lots of calories without eating too much protein and sodium.

Can I ask, how much is the sodium restriction impinging on your ability to eat enough??? Because I would drop it in a heartbeat (or at least relax it) if I had to choose one part of the diet not to do.

[zanacal]

Well, the thing is, you're right that your blood sugar will rise during the time of the day when you are eating, but everyone eats at some point, KWIM??? Skipping breakfast just ensures that for many hours out of the day, your BS will be on the low side, if that makes any kind of sense. If it's too tough to skip breakfast, it's ok not to. Some people have had better luck skipping dinner instead, skipping lunch, or just not snacking at all. Whatever works for you is what is best.

That's a very good point - if blood sugar is low during the night (particularly because you've had a carb fuelled dinner!) and then again all morning, you have 3/4 of the day/night with low blood sugar! The skipping breakfast scenario actually works very well for me. In fact, I'm sure you'll find it encouraging to hear that (as somebody with more weight to lose than perhaps others), I've not struggled at all with the LE diet. In fact, I've never stuck to a particular diet for this long without cheating! So if you're in a position where you could benefit from going on a weight loss diet - this one is perfectly fine in the long term.

I actually find it even easier lately because I used to keep a spreadsheet to record everything I ate but now I just check I'm having up to 500 cals / 20g protein / 500mg sodium at lunch and at dinner then grab a handful of sweets or some other treat once the kids have gone to bed!

[zanacal]

Can I ask, how much is the sodium restriction impinging on your ability to eat enough??? Because I would drop it in a heartbeat (or at least relax it) if I had to choose one part of the diet not to do.

For me, it's bread/bread products which are too high in sodium. For dinner I'll either have pasta or want a bagel or a wrap or something along those lines. The bread usually has too much sodium (particularly if I've had the same for lunch) but the pasta in larger quantities has too much protein. It's not a problem for me because I'm not trying to reach a higher level of calories but I could see it being an issue if I was trying to increase my intake.

[atomic sagebrush]

That's a very good point - if blood sugar is low during the night (particularly because you've had a carb fuelled dinner!) and then again all morning, you have 3/4 of the day/night with low blood sugar! The skipping breakfast scenario actually works very well for me. In fact, I'm sure you'll find it encouraging to hear that (as somebody with more weight to lose than perhaps others), I've not struggled at all with the LE diet. In fact, I've never stuck to a particular diet for this long without cheating! So if you're in a position where you could benefit from going on a weight loss diet - this one is perfectly fine in the long term.

I actually find it even easier lately because I used to keep a spreadsheet to record everything I ate but now I just check I'm having up to 500 cals / 20g protein / 500mg sodium at lunch and at dinner then grab a handful of sweets or some other treat once the kids have gone to bed!

That was exactly my thinking when I first came up with the skipping breakfast. That even if people ate straight off the boy menu for lunch, tea, and dinner, they would STILL have prob. 16 hours during which they were taking in no food. Plus, it's mostly during the night and a lot of people find that they skip breakfast just naturally anyway (like, 90% of the girl moms haha). It's meant to be easy for people to do, not hard.

I do find it very encouraging to hear that you find the diet easy and effective. I also found it easy to lose weight on my embryonic version of the LE diet. That was my goal, to come up with something that people could stick to for a long time so they could do all the swaying stuff they wanted to do without running out of sway window - people weren't getting pg for 6-8 months and then they'd have to go off the diet to let their minerals return to normal.

I really think a lot of this trouble we're having of late would never have happened if not for the stuff going on in my personal life with my husband's family and him struggling with that emotionally. For that I really do apologize from the bottom of my heart. I had fully expected to have a somewhat complete diet and cookbook done by this point, and not to mention having all my swaying threads in order and done, which still isn't the way I want it to be yet.

All I can say is that I hope you guys will bear with me and continue to ask questions and give me feedback on what is not working for people so I can tweak the diet and explain things so we can end up with sways that will work for everyone in every circumstance.

[Mochagirl]

atomic - absolutely no need to apologise - real life comes first, and quite honestly, you're always there to answer questions whenever we have them. No complaints here!

I actually find skipping breakfast to be the easiest part - I've never been a big breakfast eater to begin with. I did, however, eat breakfast as a matter of course while TTCing my other sons as I was making a concerted effort to be healthier while trying to get pregnant. I could be wrong, but back then (2008) I don't think skipping breakfast was an official part of swaying - that breakfast study had just come out and I was avoiding cereal because of it but was still eating toast and other things in the morning.

Oh, and to answer your question - sodium isn't the hardest part of this diet for me. For the first couple of weeks or so it was, but as soon as I stopped eating bread products unless I made them myself, it became a cinch. In fact, my sodium's normally so low by the end of the day that I can eat a whole serving of Pringles as a treat and still stay well under 1000mg! For me the hardest part by far is the protein - that and the no snacking rule! I'm a grazer by nature, so it's really hard to stop that.

[zanacal]

I really think a lot of this trouble we're having of late would never have happened if not for the stuff going on in my personal life with my husband's family and him struggling with that emotionally. For that I really do apologize from the bottom of my heart. I had fully expected to have a somewhat complete diet and cookbook done by this point, and not to mention having all my swaying threads in order and done, which still isn't the way I want it to be yet.

Absolutely no need to apologise, it's not like this is your paid job! I've got so much information from you in just the way that I like to get it (explained and analysed) and I always look forward to your responses. In fact, it's probably good that you're not online every evening because I only have time to stalk you 3 days a week

[zanacal]

PS - once you do get that cookbook and I'm done with my sway I'd be happy to look at adapting it for us English gals if others think it will be helpful!

[rainbowflower]

zana - I sent Atomic a pasta+lemon+parm recipe I found in a magazine (adjusted of course to remove onions, garlic, etc.) - perhaps you can pm her your simple pasta one to add to the book?