Hi guys,

I am actually doing Atkins right now, but I read the SPII book and I think it might be good for me. Through bad eating and overexercising, excessive stress and mental issues, I have found myself to be a poster-boy for the hormonal problems Dr. S describes. Cortisol, insulin resistance, progesterone, DHEA - I'm messed up! And I have lots of immune related problems too. I have been LCing for a while now, but I think that to fix my hormonal problems, maybe I should do SBII. But when I eat as many carbs as she describes, I can't control my appetite and I end up getting sick. I think I have candida too (indeed, a homeopath diagnosed me as such) and I have been anorexic and bulemic which didn't help. But when I try follow SPII I seem to get more sick. While if I severely restrict carbs and even restrict protein, I do better. Not sure what to do. Any advice would be appreciated.

I restricted my protien for a while and didn't each much meat, mostly ate tofu, milk and cheese. When I started eating meat again I became sick. I knew more portiens would be good for me and it would take my system a little while to get back on track, so I stuck to it and was fine after a few weeks. Unfortunatly, I think you reached more of an extreme than I did. I eased into the SBP eating. I don't think you have to follow the plan to a T right off. Any drastic change to your body, espeically if it is damaged or confused will have adverse effects. I would suggest trying to make one change for a few weeks and then add other. Maybe this means changing one food group and increasing it over time. My first step on the plan was to replace all the refined stuff with healthy stuff. That took me 3-6 months alone. It wasn't until then that I started to pay attention to amounts of food. You might ready "The Program" too. She explains everything as more of a path to health instead of an instant plan. I'm sure that others here and myself would be happy to help you along if you wanted help with those first few steps.

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, the problem might be that I add stuff back in too quickly. It also took me quite a while to get used to meat. I'll try the slow route.

Both of you might do well with some digestive enzymes added to your program. I think even Dr. S mentions that in one of her books. I am looking at her books again, thinking I need to get
back on the program. I do well when I omit gluten foods. Those are the ones I crave and cause me to gain weight quickly. I think her last book has a gluten free menu.....

I think Schwarzbein says in her second book that when you actually are healing, you feel even worse, yet when you are hurting yourself with extreme dieting you feel better. She emphasised just getting through the transition, letting the body heal.

Good luck and I hope you feel better

Hi Elizabeth. It's very true. I am 10x as productive at work if I treat my body badly by undereating during the day, raising cortisol and adrenaline etc. Unfortunately, the transition sure is hard! U get fat, you feel tired all the time. It's unpleasant and it ruins my productivity at work. I'm not sure I can do it. I'm thinking of trying the warrior diet instead, but I'm not sure it's good for healing.