Newbie - testing out how best to start
 

Hi everyone, well too busy but I know that I need some support in my low carb efforts. Felt inspired again after listening to the audiobook version of "Wheat Belly"which I feel is nicely aligned with low carb/ Atkins.

I felt a bit panicked when I jumped on the scales the other day and thought that I really do need to take myself in hand and start making some serious changes - specifically - in what I'm eating and drinking.

Not sure how I can do this, however, it's been nice to experience better eating - been more enjoyable - than being stuck in the eating lots of bread, chocolate and out of control binge eating.....

I am just new to the website, so I haven't figured out what to say where etc.... so I thought I'd follow the first advice/ tip given -
and open up my own journal.

Am looking at following the Wheat Belly plan - am still gathering information on it, so its early days for me

Welcome Michele.c. You've found a great place to learn and be inspired. Ditching the carby junk and eating healthy is so worth doing. For me, losing weight is not even the best part... getting healthy and active again tops my list. I wish you the best getting your plan together and getting rolling on your LC journey. There are lots of wise people here who are ready, willing, and able to give you hand if you need it. All you have to do is ask.

Hi Ken,

Thank you very much for the welcome and intro to yourself and the lc lifestyle. I can see that the site and people are awesome.... I've just got to figure out the mechanics and keep on going!

Well not too sure if the "journal" is supposed to be used like it's my own personal - journal or diary....
Anyways, so far been a bit hectic today, pleased that I haven't had eating urges, at moment - even though I'm feeling stressed.
The site looks really informative, and I look forward to making progress

Ate dinner tonight, a variety of healthy salads and homemade dressing - so nicely low carb meal. I don't feel hungry but it seemed to take a while to "feel full" but it's very different to the "usual feeling" of eating carbs inclusive of a meal.

Just wondering about a few things:

am going to be away next week for about a week, driving about 9 hours each way..... am thinking about low carb snacks, taking a chillibin with veges, cheese and eggs, plus chopping board and knives for food prep and glass lunch bowl -
just "realising" the implications of going away and know that realistically I can't expect breakfast, lunch and dinners at a conference to be particularly friendly towards:
low carb, zero wheat, no gluten, very little processed foods, very little processed condiments, lots of low carb vegetables,
so interesting times ahead!

Also wondering about living in a house with lots of carbs and wheat still in it and cooking carbs for the rest of the family.... I'm really sick of the whole -
Michele's on a diet..... or food plan - and all other members of the family eat whatever - because they don't have a weight problem!!
Anyway, I suppose I most notice - NOT have dried fruit, "normal" whole apple, whole banana and whole oranges etc....
Bit weird having raw nuts and cheeses available too - not used to eating those very much, without guilt - so that's a nice spin off.

Welcome, Michelle!

Did you have enough protein and good fats with the salad? Particularly in the beginning, have a large serving of meat/fish with plenty of good fats, like olive oil dressing, until full. Have nuts and cheese on salad or as dessert.

Conferences can be horrid and have trashy food, but if travel and eating out are part of your life, might as well learn tips to survive them now.
Here's one with reader comments added: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lo...wcarbtravel.htm
And there are many threads here too: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=441708

Profile says you teach health and science, and the Low carb Paleo movement has supporters in Aus and NZ...maybe there will be a change to serving real foods??

Thank u for ur feedback, suggestions and links, very encouraging and i will look more. I've got a bit of a cold coming on at mo, so can't spend too much time on internet.

Been having quite a bit of protein with salads n veges. Having less cheese n nuts - as i went a bit overboard with them yesterday.

Still feeling more positive, even tho i'm tired

Thank you Janet, I've managed to read through both of those links / threads. Very good!

I have recently become a grandmother for the third time. My son has 2 kids (3 and almost 2.... with another on the way!) and my daughter has just had a little boy - he's 6 weeks.

I mention this because I actually have every reason to live as healthily as I possibly can - I do want to be an active hands on Nana - who CAN chase children and has eyes in the back of her head! of course....

Anyway, I'm just mindful that it's not just about body size or food cravings - it's also about long term health and wellbeing.

I am still to research on Paleo stuff - I don't know anything about that yet.... let alone that "they" have something going in NZ! Very encouraging.

I have a couple of guy friends who I'm thinking about getting to read the Wheat Belly book and join the low carber group but basically be a WB Buddy.... still thinking. I think one thing that appeals is that it feels like more of a "guys approach" I don't know I notice that it's not "assumed" to be a feminine issue -
probably not making much sense but I noticed his writing style was refreshing - because it was personalised to him.

Hi, Michele. Welcome to a great forum. You'll find your way to plenty of information and encouragement here.

Wheat Belly is a terrific wake-up call for men, most of whom discover--in their 30s or 40s--they are acquiring a case of Dunlop's Disease. That is, their stomachs done lopped over their belts. :lol:

I am an adopted Kiwi from long ago. I attended high school in Wellington, and have wonderful NZ friends to this day, many in Auckland now. I was last there in 2006. Unfortunately, NZ was the launching place of my first battle with overweight, as I was not used to the massive amounts of lamb (hogget as was), butter, and cream. Can you say Pavlova? The combination of diet and stress caused me to gain 30 lbs in 8 months. I think it's still with me. :lol:

Now, of course, fatty meat, butter, and cream are ideal components of the low-carb diet. But without the bread, potatoes, and sugar.

Best wishes finding your own low-carb way.

Hi Barbara, that's nice to hear that you've been to NZ. I really like Wellington, it's a nice little city to get around. Have you been to Auckland as well?

Re: the guys, yes, after I get back - and rest - from my trip - I'm going to start shoulder tapping more people!

Enjoying have a great on-line place to come to!

I'm sure you'll be losing that 30 lbs!!!

We're on a lifestyle block so raise our own organic grass fed beef and lamb - so I'm spoilt.... I'm not really into pavlovas but sadly there's heaps of other sweets - that I have surrounded myself with for many years!

Yes, we spent several days in Auckland last visit in 2006. One highlight was a harbor cruise on one of the America's Cup yachts. Auckland is a super outdoors city.

Is a lifestyle block a kind of mini-farm, or what?

I too want to know what a "lifestyle block" is, but if you raise your own grass-fed meats, it sounds perfect for this lifestyle!
Adds laying hens too and you can buy Anchor butter (yum) and you are already "Paleo" :)
I lived in London 5 years and my DH in Sydney during our young careers, so now that we are retired, NZ is top of our bucket list. Chef Pete Evans had some gorgeous photos from a resort in NZ recently...wow.

The Wheat Belly success stories (scroll back through the timeline on the Wheat Belly Facebook page and Primal Blueprint) seem to attract more men than usual on weight loss boards. As Dr Davis said often in his first book...just try it for one month to see if they lose weight or belly gets smaller and feel better (but know that beer is out) :lol:

Hi Janet and Barbara..... nice to hear from you both!

Yeah it is a mini-farm kind of thing. We lived in Auckland - surburbia most of our lives and we thought - when we were buying it we were going to a "farm" - our kids still call it the farm.

However, once we got here, our friendly neighbourhood!!! let us know our place that it's a lifestyle block aka lifesentence block, lol. We're on about 15 acres - approx 6 hectares.

Yes we do have chooks, that do give us free range eggs, and we've hand raised a few chickens as well, not too keen on "despatch" side of it..... so we just seem to raise them - only got about 10-12 (that includes 2 roosters - we can't even give 1 away.... ) but anyway having to keep fencing them out or in... My hubbie has built a few chook enclosures but we kind of like letting them really free-range, they have 3 favourite places to lay.... but as we get towards summer we may lock them back up again.

Yeah, it is a good outdoor place, we're about 20 mins from the beach, so hopefully we'll get out there a bit more, for fishing and sailing.

We have a little cute calf at the moment that we're milk raising, for some reason her mother didn't even seem to feed her. So that's twice daily feeding, no we won't be eating her....

We should have a litter of puppies around Christmas time. The farming thing can be quite a tie, in terms of not just being able to take off, we have to ask friends or family to stay or day visit to help with the animals.

Anyway, I've been struggling with a cold / flu symptoms last few days and so have been staying off-line. Last day at home tomorrow but will be packing up for my trip and hoping that I can get internet access while I'm away all next week!

Food wise - tonight it was funny, I was worrying that I wasn't eating enough protein, but have been eating lots of low carb salad. And yes, I had 1 spoon of curry/ coconut cream "sauce" - it had lentils so I didn't eat it, but we were at a vegetarian friend's for dinner - it wasn't thickened but anyway there would have been some kind of additive - it was a stabilizer - in the coconut cream... but I'll let it go. Apart from that have kept to the "pure foods". I was disappointed at my failed attempt at making aioli. Maybe it was because I decided NOT to add the mustard... didn't trust the ingredient list, anyway never mind.

It's weird to feel full but not "really full." Yesterday, I made salad and bought some freerange chicken, apart from that I was a bit off my food.

Anyway, better go off to bed soon.

Well, its been an interesting trip so far. Rushed to make salads this morning, then had my snacks on way - celery, asparagus n sme nuts. Too busy driving. Just as well i had salad pre-made for dinner. Shocked 2 c - only options would hav been stew, potato, kumara, pumpkin, apple pie n custard, bread n margarine, fruit available but zippo veges!

Anyway, had my salad with some pieces of hot meat without gravy but i imagine still would hav been a bit of wheat contamination somwhere on meat but ok not perfect but workable.

Weird too, i used a coffee machine for white coffee, noticed it seemed sweet, then realised it is set to hav sugar automatically! I had to re-set it to hav no sugar - what a suprise. Anyways got my unsweetened coffee.

Interesting that just saying that i hav a wheat allergy,... Well am trying this out to c if it makes any difference. Lol. Was really easy n people much more accepting n dont bother arguing - rather what normally happens if i say i on a diet or eating low carb, so that part has been a relief!

Well it sounds like a farm to me too, and quite a lovely lifestyle, though hard work. I was raised on a dairy farm when very young with all the usual extras, including the dispatch side of chickens. Think I was scarred for life 😪

Sounds like you are making the trip work, picking out the meat, pumpkin is low carb too, though if they don't add some vegetable soon, maybe make that suggestion. Are these your "health" colleagues? :) Hello catering? How about a vegetable tray for appetizers?

The allergy or "doctor" excuse is a good one to avoid long conversations about diet. When I first started LC, someone suggested to say you are following your doctor's orders...But don't elaborate that your doctor is Dr. Atkins (or now, Dr. Davis!). And gluten-free is known just about everywhere. I lucked out with location because if I say following "my doctor advice at Duke University Hospital" (considered one of best in the US) people accept that, even if they think it's the Duke Diet and Fitness center (low calorie) rather than the program actually following. :lol: Hope the travel tips have helped you navigate the conference..enjoy.