I've noticed some new people so I thought I'd share my experiences. For me this program has been a bunch of gradual changes, and nothing overnight.

I started eating according TSP on August 21, 2005. I was 30 years old, 5 ft 3 inches tall.

I started out with slightly burned out adrenal glands, I think (never got tested, though). I ate according to the insulin sensetive/ healthy adrenal glands plan because I do aikido 2-3 times a week and am fairly active around the house. And I didn't want to have to keep track of how much saturated fat I was eating since keeping track of one food group (carbs) was hard enough.

I started out at 195 and kept that weight for a long time, despite gaining more muscle in my forearms and thighs. About May of this year, I weighed myself and found I was up to 209, and my clothes were tighter around the waist. I felt a little bad about that, but kept on eating the way I had been. The last time I weighed, I was down to 206 and my clothes are fitting again, so I am no longer worried about it.

I have noticed several changes over the last year:
1. My periods are less clotty and painful than they used to be.
2. My sugar cravings are mostly gone (for the last three weekends I haven't pigged out on sugar at gaming). They still peek out around my period, but no major binges. This is a recent thing.
3. My cycle changed. About 6 months ago it started getting shorter, then increasing.
4. The red, scaley, painful patches on my fingers have disappeared. I used to have to put hand cream on them almost constantly or the patches would spread and my knuckles would crack and bleed. My skin is a little rough there still, but it feels and looks much better!
5. A few weeks ago my ankles stopped swelling. I used to spend most of the summer with swollen ankles. They would really baloon up if I had any salt. Now I have to have twice as much salt to get the same effect.
6. My asthma got a little more frequent with exercising, but I hope this too will clear itself up soon.

Overall, I'm not down any weight from when I started a year ago, but I do feel better!

Hello Fujiwara,

Thanks so much for dropping back in and giving us some feedback! It sounds like your body is still on the mend. Please keep coming back and giving us a progress report!

Blessings,

-Don

Another update: I'm now up to 208, but my clothes are still fitting. I think I've gained some muscle from starting to exercise again. This week I did not get my two days of cardio, but I did walk about a mile rather quickly twice this week going to and from class and did yolates twice, and aikido once (planning on going again tonight for a total of two times).

I've been feeling hot lately. I don't know why. Perhaps it's because my body is adjusting to the muscle, but that seems unlikely. Is this just another stage during my healing, or am I backtracking somehow?

Another things I've noticed in the past two weeks is my ability to get anzious and upset. This is kind of unusual fro the past 8 months or so. For awhile it was hard to get too excited in any direction (joy, sadness, fear), then in the last little bit I've had a wider range of emotions. I'm not flying off the handle or anything like that, just can get worried or excited. (And no, I'm not on any mood altering substances perscribed or otherwise). I hope this isn't a sign of backsliding into the realm of adrenal burnout or insulin resistance.

I'm staying off the sugar pretty well, but have been feeling hungrier with the increased activity, so I'm eating cottage cheese and crackers or prune. Been eating a lot of nuts and a tropical mix trail mix (has a lot of high GI fruits with some sugar added, but I figure that's better than a candy bar). The trail mix is now gone at least.

I'm wondering if I'm going to blimp up even more and have to shop in the section of stores with NO SELECTION! because nothing I own will fit anymore. I need some moral support, or someone's experiences so I might know what to expect!

The dried fruit will affect you the same as a candy bar. Stick to higher fiber and lower GI items. I have an issue with too much sugar and anxiety too.

I might suggest you watch how many calories you are consuming. You still want to make balance healthy choices but there are a range of choices with each type of food. I find using low fat products help. I eat a lot of cheese so using a whole fat would be too many calories. I NEVER eat non-fat. It's just bad, but low fat cheese is just made from lower fat milk.

Something to think about.

I'm not on the Schwarzbein Principle, but on the "Banting Diet."

I'm not overweight either, and I'm 18 and I'm 5'2". I eat very similarly to the SP, but I eat a high fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate diet, and I've noticed that I went from weighing around 112 lbs. to gaining weight to be 119 or 120 lbs. This is from about six months ago to now. So in six months I've gained 8 lbs. mostly muscle but also subcutaneous (under the skin) fat all over my body and after I eat, there is more fat on my hips and thighs. I wear a size 8 pants and I feel like my thighs and butt used to look really good because I ran and ate a low calorie diet before, but now I have developed a bubble butt and there's cellulite there too. I emailed the author of the book Eat Fat, Get Thin! (Barry Groves Ph.D.) and he told me it is natural for a woman to have more fat on her hips and thighs as well as cellulite and that a woman loses this fat when she breastfeeds. I'm not exactly hoping to rush out and get pregnant so I can breastfeed, but I would like to think he is right and that I could lose my hip and thigh fat permanently when I eventually have a baby and breastfeed.

I'm kind of worried, but my mom is more worried about me gaining weight than I am, which makes me self-conscious around her. I advised her to do eat the same as me (high fat, low carb, moderate protein) and gradually cut out the sugar and stop the medications, but she hasn't. She more or less probably sees me gaining weight and thinks thats the wrong approach: I have to eat less to lose weight, which is what she is trying to do by the way.

I'm into this site by Barry Groves Ph.D.:

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/index.html

He wrote the health/dieting book that got me hooked on a high fat/low carb/mod protein diet, and has since renamed it to Natural Health and Weight Loss.

My sugar cravings are mostly gone, and I'm into my fat burning phase!

thks Fuji for giving us an idea of what a year has been like. I have adrenal fatigue (possibly Addison's - waiting for appt to find out) and I already feel better.

Ali

Fujiwara, in looking at your weights, was it from 198 to 135 in a year? Were you losing any while you were healing or did you not start losing until you were healed. I'm looking at another year (Maybe more?) at being this big and...well...I know I want to heal, but I am soooo big getting the weight off, or at least SOME of it, seems more important. But I have to be here for my son, so I DO need to heal. I was hoping Dr. S would allow me to lose at least a little while healing while at the same time setting a lifetime pattern for my son, once he buys into this and stops complaining about having to eat foods that are not labeled pizza!

HappyHeart,

I haven't gotten down to 135 yet, I'm still around 185. My weight loss is very slow, but it keeps dropping. For me at least, the fat loss started when it started, and there was nothing I could do to speed it up. In my case, stress seems to be a huge factor. When I can keep the stress low, I lose fat faster.

I am stuck and I just started! Well, no, not entirely true. I did Atkins induction for two weeks, now I've done SP for two weeks, well, it will be on Tues. I lost 9 lbs the Atkins 2 weeks, but was feeling light-headed and crummy. So switched and immediately felt better with some carbs.

But golly day! Today had some egg salad (check bs on that one yesterday, no real change and some cole slaw that had no change the day before) but today...1/2 of a ruby red grapefruit with the egg salad and cole slaw and I went to to 289! I don't ever remember being that high. That was a 200pt increase from the 89 where it was when I started eating!

I'm drinking lots of water, but floundering around 290 to 293 this whole past week. She says you might gain weight and indicated that you don't lose until AFTER you have healed. I was just wondering, did you lose any while you were in the "healing" phase? I guess that is what you are in now? so I supposed I just answered my own question is that yes you can slowly lose in the healing phase, just not as quickly as you do when you get past that. Is that correct?

All I can say is that I did the Schwarzbein principle for a period of maybe two years, with working out with weights, and all I got was fat. Eating the balanced amount of carbs to protein for me ended up having me put on 35 pounds of fat. I was eating between 1300-1500 calories a day. I'm 5'3". I didn't feel more energetic. So for me, SP was a bad idea. I think every person's body is different. SP was good in that it taught me about keeping away from coffee. I already stopped using sugar 10 years ago. But it didn't work in terms of removing fat! THAT'S for sure!
Eden

I started two weeks ago. It sounds like most people put weight on and stay status quo. I just lost my weight on WW, but I don't feel good at all - very fatigued which is why I am doing Schwarzbein. Women to Women recommend it to all of their patients. I sure don't want to put on any weight!!