The Team Tibbs Results are in...

[sanela]

Yes I had nausea too but not caused by hunger, more like the build up of uric acid and other stuff that the kidneys couldn't filter out. Even the smell of certain foods would trigger it. These days post tx I am still very sensitive to some smells, even some I used to love. No idea why.

Sanela

[Tibbs]

Well the walk was MUCH easier this year!

Almost made it the whole way around without stopping. Little sit down on the way to Tower Bridge (the last one) but aside from that, all good! We knocked over an hour off our time from last year, just goes to show the difference a year can make post transplant.

I hope those of you who did it enjoyed the day - there were over a thousand walkers so the purple was well represented on the way around.

[Unifluzie]

so pleased you had a good walk tibbs, maybe you can join me on a 25k one soon

unfortunately we were due in cornwall on the 12th but next year im hoping to trot round again

[Dixie1]

Well done Tibbs! That's brilliant.

[Tibbs]

Oncology yesterday, and all went well. I had a chest X-Ray and I need to have an ultrasound in September.

They're seeing me again September 2015, so I don't need to think about that for a while!

[Dixie1]

Sounds like they are very happy with the way it has all gone. That's great news!

[Tibbs]

Clinic next week, and things are going well, except for the fact that I feel very dizzy in the mornings.

I measured my BP this morning (pre-meds) and it's 121/77!

I've been on this Slow Carb Diet for the past 8 weeks and I've really been slimming down. I'm not weighing myself as I'm working out a bit as well, so I should be putting on some muscle as well as fat, but people have really started to comment on how much slimmer I am. I still have a way to go (204 days to reach my waist size target according to my nerdy tracker), but I'm hoping that it's fat loss that's causing the low BP.

If I can come off one of my BP drugs that will be a major win for me. I'm going to do my BP every morning before I go to work, so hopefully I have some useful data to take to clinic.

[rheaybou]

Clinic next week, and things are going well, except for the fact that I feel very dizzy in the mornings.

I measured my BP this morning (pre-meds) and it's 121/77!

I've been on this Slow Carb Diet for the past 8 weeks and I've really been slimming down. I'm not weighing myself as I'm working out a bit as well, so I should be putting on some muscle as well as fat, but people have really started to comment on how much slimmer I am. I still have a way to go (204 days to reach my waist size target according to my nerdy tracker), but I'm hoping that it's fat loss that's causing the low BP.

If I can come off one of my BP drugs that will be a major win for me. I'm going to do my BP every morning before I go to work, so hopefully I have some useful data to take to clinic.

I have some BP meds to prevent blood and protien leakage, however my Doxasosin was cut from as I kept getting dizzy and passed out a few times earlier in the summer. its holding at 120/70 so thats good news, maybe as I lose some of the excess weight I am carrying then I could get off this also. Let us know how it goes with the weight loss.....im struggling with knee issues at the moment so excercise is a struggle

[Tibbs]

From all the reading I've done exercise (particularly long, slow burn like walking or running) is NOT a good way to lose weight. It is a good way to get cardiovascularly fit though.

Counter-intuitive? Absolutely. I do 3 lots of 6 mins of exercise a week. I go by measurements, and I measure both legs, both biceps, my stomach and my hips. I've gone from a total measurement of 447 to 424 in 36 days. That's a loss of 5%.

How have I done it? I've radically changed my diet. For 6 days a week I don't eat any sugar (it was hell for the first few days, withdrawal headaches were pretty bad) I eat no carbs that are white or can be white. That means no Potatoes, bread, rice, grains. No fruit either (your body converts fructose to fat very very efficiently). On my day off I splurge on whatever I like, usually Pizza and Fish & chips. For the rest of the time I eat protein, lots (and lots and lots) of veg, and I eat beans (not baked beans, full of sugar) or lentils for bulk.

It's all about kick starting your metabolism - that burns way more calories than exercise. To do that I eat 30g of protien within 30 mins of waking up. My breakfast is typically 4 eggs, 2 rashers of back bacon (or 2 sausages) and a load of spinach. Takes a bit of getting used to, but it keeps me full for ages. I used to be dying for my lunch by 11:30 when I ate porridge, yesterday I didn't eat lunch until 5pm! I get habitually hungry at 12pm still (my mouth is hungry even if my stomach still feels full, if that makes sense...), but that's going away slowly.

Having said that, any diet that's healthy will work, as long as you measure. I measure myself every morning, and it provides great motivation to keep going, both when I see progress and when I don't!

Google Slow Carb Diet - if you can stick to it (you do eat a lot of the same things again and again, but I don't mind that) it works very well.

[rheaybou]

I am only about 8kgs above my ideal weight, im 83kg at the moment and should be about 75kg.

I have started to have 3 scrambled eggs in a morning for breakfast, but will give the bacon/sausage a miss as i really like to keep on top of my salt intake.

We do eat a lot less carbs now and that has helped keep the weight stable, need to look at light excercise that can help slowly move the excess without further damaging the knee cartilage(which is torn) and save getting another general to repair/remove it.

Thansk for the advice on the slow release carbs

[Tibbs]

I do a trade-off on salt as I don't add salt to anything else, and I make all my own food from scratch now.

You could always have chicken breast (weird for breakfast I know) as the important thing is to eat 30g of protein as soon as possible after you wake up. I find with getting full from protein is that I don't feel full right away, but if I give it 20 minutes I'm stuffed and stay that way for ages. With carbs I feel full immediately and hungry an hour or so later.

[jstuartrobson]

Tibbs, I'm very interested in your slow card diet. Would you be in a position to give an example of what you would eat on your diet on a normal day?

I could really do with losing some weight. My excuse is, that my job is awkward. I don't work in an office, I'm always travelling to a customer. Though I do get the odd day at home. So I find getting in to any form of routine pretty difficult! Lame excuse I know.....

John

[Tibbs]

The key is to eat the same thing every day. Pretty much everything I eat you can make in advance, or easily purchaseable somewhere (particularly breakfast)

I eat pretty much the same thing every day:

Breakfast:
500 ml fridge cold water as soon as I get up (kick starts the metabolism)
4 Eggs - fried in minimal oil (non-stick pan)
2 rashers of bacon or high meat sausages (at least 85% meat, and preferably 90%+)
4 cubes of chopped frozen spinach

Lunch
Chicken (usually marinaded and cooked in batches) 2 chicken breasts and 2 thighs cubed will do me 3/4 days. It was Jerk Chicken this week.
Broccoli that I chop into florettes and steam in the microwave (easy to precook and take with you)
1/3 to 1/2 tin of either black-eyed or butter beans (I prefer black-eyed)

Dinner (which I probably eat 2 days out of 6)
Some kind of protein
Salad
beans on my plate for if I still feel hungry (I usually don't eat any of them)
Olive OIl & Vingear dressing with dijon mustard

I also make on occasional Chilli. take 500g mince, the requisite spices, a tin of tomatoes and 2 tins of beans for bulk. Cook and it will do a week easy with some veg or salad.

The key is to eat veg, lots of veg. As standard, veg is typically more than half my plate and often for something like kale, piled high. For example, a big bag of curly Kale may just last me for 2 meals, but never more than 3, and a huge broccoli head will do me 2 meals.

For condiments, I will typically use hot sauce, mustard or some oil and vinegar dressing. Ketchup is a no-no as are all related products (brown, barbecu etc) as the sugar content it way too high. Mayonnaise is ok, as long at it's not got added sugar or any weirdness, since it's just eggs and oil, both of which are fine for the Slow Carb. I also make pan sauce by reducing down home made chicken stock (substitute in cubes if you get low sodium and don't use too much) in the meat pan after cooking. It goes thick eventually, but you don't get much.

I don't salt anything to allow for the salt in teh sausages or bacon.

For eating out, Mexican works well. We have Tortilla brand restaurants near me, and they do a Naked Burrito, which is filling but no wrap in a bowl. Swap out the rice for more veggies and you've got a filling meal. Thai is great as well if you don't have the rice, as coconut milk is fine ont he diet. You can also have indian, as long as you steer clear of the rice/nan/poppdoms (I know..) and have a curry without cream. Fill your meal out with tarka dhal (or similar) and veggies (no aloo!). Have Tikka meat for starters without the yoghurt. I'd avoid most of the dips aside from the lime pickle and the chopped onion salad.

When I get a minute I'll pop up some links that you may find interesting. The book it comes from is 'The 4 Hour Body' by Tim Ferriss. Only a small part of the book covers off the Slow Carb, and there are websites that do it much better. Ferriss's writing style can be rather hard to follow.

On cheat day I try to go nuts, but I'm at the stage now where I just feel a bit ill. 2 scoops of ice cream made me feel bloated on Saturday, and I have no interest in chocolatre, and I used to eat at least a bar a day at work, crisps too.

[AmandaClare]

Tibbs, I'm interested in the effects of weight loss or different regimes on bp so please do report back anything you find out. I can feel giddy when I'm sticking to my regime even though it's not particularly radical and the weight loss is glacially slow. ( I don't mind that as I'm looking for a way to eat healthily forever not a quick fix.) I'm going to raise it with my own docs when I go in 2 weeks.

I like your diet tho it's more difficult for a veggie to eat tons of healthy protein without becoming very windy! But I admire the quantities of veg you're getting.

[Tibbs]

I do think I could stick to this diet forever. Should I get down to my ideal weight, I may introduce more 'cheat dinners' and be more relaxed, but the breakfast and lunches are really easy and convenient. Right now I'm sticking to the diet as strictly as I can. Bear in mind that I'm right in the middle of the Obese chart @35 BMI, I would need to get down to 80kg from 112kg to be healthy. I'm not convinced TBH, and I'm aiming for less than 90kg.

I was amazed that the side effect of this diet (including all the beans!) is less wind not more. After my op, I take Lansoprazole and it does have a well-know side efect of causing flatulence. I've had it quite badly, and I used to regularly 'Granny Fart' when I bent over or sneezed. It can be very embarrassing, as I'm sure you can appreciate!

I burp and fart a LOT less now, but I'm not really sure why. I do wonder if I'm actually a little lactose intolerant. I'm a very enthusiastic dairy eater, and have never gone without for this long, so I wonder if it's linked to that.

The writings about this diet does acknowledge that it's very tough for a veggie to do. I do though think that the key to weight loss (allowing for the fact that I've been actively doing this for 37 days) is to measure frewquently. This keeps you on top of your progress and provides great motivation.

Tim Ferriss did say something interesting on a talk I saw on YouTube. He said the most effective gym for fitness would be to do the following: The gym costs $400 per month to be a member of, but you got $25 back every time you went. Everyone gets a 12 week goal. You also had to give pictures in of yourself in your underwear front, back & sides. If you don'tachieve your goals in 12 weeks, the pictures go on the internet! Now that would give you motivation. Prevention of loss is always more effective than promise of gain...