Protein Power Support Chat 2009

[ruthla]

How's everybody doing?

The monthly threads aren't going so well so maybe an annual thread is a better choice right now! :lol:

I'm not so sure what's going on with me, diet wise. My weight has been fairly stable for a year, in spite of sticking to 40g of carbs a day most of the time. I'm not sure what's happened to my weight in the past week when I've been eating higher carbs (starting with a tummy bug that left me eating rice cereal, then I never stopped the grain habit) but physically I've found that I've had the same energy level but I've been sleeping a lot better.

I'm thinking my body needs more than 40g of carbs per day to thrive. The question is, should I add in carbs equally around my meals, or stick to LC most of the day and have a serving of grains at night to help me sleep better? I mean, if my weight has been stable for a year, maybe this is all my body is willing to lose and I should think about switching to maintenance, right?

Besides, I've been feeling very drained lately, and I really need to focus on "healing" rather than "weight loss" right now.

[fujiwara]

I'm all about sleeping better. Maybe some fruit or grain, depending on season and finances? Let us know how it goes.

[MamaSara6]

Hi Ruth. Happy New Year! I think you should spread your carbs around at each meal like Dr. Mike suggests. Too heavy a load at any one meal could cause an insulin spike.

Certainly there is some benefit to switching things around, and if you want to do them all at once I'd do them at dinner. For sleeping, and because I'd binge all day if I tried to eat 60 carbs at breakfast. Even good ones, I think.

[ruthla]

Yeah, but I'm thinking, "should I add in extra carbs spread throughout the day, or only add them in the evenings?"

I'm afraid that adding in even a few extra grams of carbs early in the morning will affect my energy levels and appetite all day, vs keeping my food LC all day and then adding in a carb-rich snack before bed.

[lpioch]

One thing my sister found she needed was cereal at night for better sleep. She eats Fiber One most nights before bedtime. Yes, it's lots more carbs than PP would allow. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Try for a week, and it if doesn't help, then not much lost, right?

[ruthla]

Oh, fiber one isn't an option as I need to avoid wheat. I'm avoiding all gluten for now but I'm not 100% positive that the problem is gluten rather than a wheat allergy.

[aroundtuit]

Hi all. I cannot seem to find anything on low card AFTER menopause...not pre, not during, but after (I am in the fifth year past not having menses). I have blown up after eating way off the lowcarb. depression, menopause, and stress--and i wanted to know where I can find information on whether it makes sense to start that again with my hormones changed. Got any references? Thanks. BTW--my past: found PP in 2000 at 47yrs old. lost 50 lbs before the year was out, and started exercise/eating program to maintain. ran races, etc. started gaining little by little when menopause and death in the family both hit. tried the lowcarb woe during that time but i kept gaining weight. now i am back to 189lbs.

[ruthla]

Welcome Aroundtuit!

I'm only 36 myself, but I'm pretty sure there are other women on this website who are past menopause. You might want to try posting another introduction in the General Low Carb subforum, as it gets a lot more traffic than the Protien Power subforum.

[lisaz8605]

Hey Ruth! Thanks for starting a new annual thread. Considering the activity our monthly threads were getting, it does make more sense!

Anyhow, I just wanted to say hi to everyone here in the PP realm and let you know I'm "back" in the sense that all the craziness has died down a bit for me (shooting weddings every weekend from Labor Day to Halloween, followed by charity portraits, holiday orders, a holiday wedding, getting ready for OUR family holiday celebration and then finishing with a first birthday celebration for my son!). I probably won't be around often, but hopefully a little more. And after eating poorly on and off again and also reviewing other diet plans I'm reminded evermore of how much PPLP just makes sense to me and for me.

So I'm coming back to the fold... if you'll have me. :D

I'll try to check in again soon. Happy New Year everyone!

[lisaz8605]

Oh, fiber one isn't an option as I need to avoid wheat. I'm avoiding all gluten for now but I'm not 100% positive that the problem is gluten rather than a wheat allergy.

If you're looking for cereal, have you considered something like Cheerios (oats only, no flour, no gluten) or rice crispies (same idea only rice based)?


Aroundtuit, good luck with your search. I can't offer any advice re: menopause, but I'm glad to see you on the PP plan as I'm confident it will help keep you in balance at least in the ways food intake can.

[ruthla]

Nope, I can't have oats either (I even tried the certified gluten free oats- they made me just as sick as wheat) and Kellog's Rice Krispies is made with barley malt, a source of gluten.

But I really prefer hot cereal anyway. Cold cereal needs to be eaten with milk. I'm allergic to cow's milk and "don't do so great" with goat's milk. The unsweetened almond milk is pretty bland, and the sweetened is MUCH higher in carbs than I actually need. I find a bowl of hot cereal warm and satisfying, and I can make it extra creamy by cooking it with more water, making it a "bigger bowl" but with fewer carbs.

I was doing really well by eating my usual LC diet (focusing on plenty of protien, fat, and LC veggies) and adding in 2 starch portions per day, at lunch and dinner, or dinner and bedtime snack.

But things have been pretty crazy around here this week (we finally got bunkbeds for the girls on Tuesday, so that was insane crazy work cleaning the rooms to make room to move beds, going to IKEA, assembling the bed, etc) and I've been eating more starches AND sugars because they're quick and easy.

I've discovered that eating carbs at breakfast leaves me tired. Eating carbs later in the day, along with plenty of protien and fat, leaves me satisfied, and I actually eat fewer calories this way. But sugars leave me craving more carbs, and eating carbs by themselves (say, a corn muffin for breakfast rather than eating some eggs and then having half a corn muffin) leads me to consume more carbs and calories and feel lethargic and hungry. The only time I can tolerate sugars is if I didn't eat enough carbs earlier in the day and I need some carbs at bedtime.

I haven't been too sucessful the past week, and I feel some extra fat around my belly. I really do need to focus on my diet still. Eating 60-70g of carbs per day is working better for me than eating 40g of carbs per day. But I need to be careful not to let that turn into 120+ grams of carbs per day! Before it was "I can't have corn muffins, period." Now that starches are "legal" for me, it's hard at times to remember moderation.

Oh, and we almost had a house fire last night. The toaster didn't turn off properly and DD's English muffin literally burst into flames. I'm planning to post the whole story to my journal in a minute.