I just wondered if there was anyone on here from Mt Barker, South Australia.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person low-carbing in this town.

Hi Mermaiden9,

Your post just caught my eye. The nice thing about the net is if we can't get support locally there is usually someone in the world that cares. So how big is Mt. Baker?

We're in the Northern Hemisphere so its cold here.

Do you like Pizza? My made this really great no crust pizza. Man I'm still stuffed. And I didn't eat that much. Too rich.

Have a great day.

Hi XV1942
Yes you're right. I'm very greatful for the support I've recieved from this site. The people here are fantastic.

Mt Barker isn't very big. It has a population of about 23000. We are only about 15 minutes from Adelaide which has about 1.1 million people.

It's funny, I know there must be other low carbers in Mt Barker, it's just that I've yet to come across any. I was just curious to see if any of them were members of this site.

Yes I love pizza. I've made a few different ones in the last few months. Most memorable would have to be the meatza. My husband has been asking me to make it again lately.

My husband is from Michigan so I've heard about how cold it gets over there. We are currently experiencing a heat wave. Personally I'd rather the heat than the cold.

All the best

Mermaiden, I don't know. I know that I live inner city Melb (with 3mil or so depending on the stats you read) and I don't know another low carber. They're there, they're just quiet. Like me, I keep my mouth shut.

Great thing is although it's always nice, you really don't need any local support as it's all whole foods and the like. And there are online forums to throw ideas around in

e

Hi Mermaiden9,

Sounds like a nice place to live, considering the -10 degrees C we're having here. I checked out Adelaide on Wikipedia and the summers there don't sound all that bad. So what's a heat wave there. Here anything over 32 C is a heatwave.

So I see by your stats that you're getting close. I'm having a hard time myself. I started at a bit over 200 lbs two years ago. I'm down to 173, give or take a couple, and things just seem stuck. I've even done the Intermittent fasting thing for a few days. I was breathing fumes. I could smell the acetone on my breath so I know things work as they should.

I did find out one thing. I can get my blood glucose to low. I've got a slight case of glaucoma and the retina is one of the groups of cells that has to have glucose. So if I get the blood glucose to low I notice it in my vision. Major Bummer! Found out something else. If you are doing Intermittent Fasting don't take Chromium Picolinate. It will drop your blood glucose level big time. Not a good thing. This diet is great but you do have to be careful. Of course with the Intermittent Fasting thing I wasn't eating any carbs. I've since bumped things back to around 20 to 30 grams a day. Usually on the low side.

I'm learning to listen to my body. What I've been able to figure out is "eat a lot of meat." Don't diet, as in "eat small portions".

From the land of Ice and Snow.
Have a Good Day.http://forum.lowcarber.org/images/icons/icon7.gif

Hi xv1942,

That's very odd. I must admit I haven't looked into how chromium works (though I will now hehe) but I've always suffered dizzy spells. It's not carb related (or doesn't seem to be) but I do get more when I haven't eaten in a while. Years ago when I started at the advice of my naturopath, my dizzy spells decreased dramatically. And I was taking four tablets a day. Now I take one a day and have a spell maybe once a month or less.

I always thought it was more to do with keeping your sugar levels stable, rather than lowering them. I will have to do a quick google now I think

e

Hi Bsheets

I lived in Melbourne for a while. First St Kilda, then Glen Iris. I really liked it over there. That was before I'd even heard of low carb.

I agree with your comments regarding support, There is a great network online and I've really been blessed by this site in particular.

XV1942
Today was 40C and there's no end in sight. As I said, I'm not a fan of the cold but then again, I'm not a fan of any extreme temperatures.

I am getting close to goal but my weight loss has slowed to such a crawl, it's almost stopped. I've just started exercising so hopefully that will stir things up a bit.

I've never tried intermittent fasting because I like my food too much. I don't snack between meals because I'm not hungry but I don't like skipping meals (I'm such a baby )

I think I'm on roughly 30 or so grams a day but in all honesty, I don't count carbs. Maybe that's why my weight loss has slowed down so much, perhaps some carb creep has entered my life.

I've never been one to count calories, carbs or whatever and rely on eating by intuition and estimation. I feel I can keep this up for life, I could never count carbs for ever.

If I find myself stalled for a length of time, I'll keep count for a week or so and see where I'm going wrong. I think I eat pretty well and stick to low carb foods.

I agree about portions, eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full.

Take care

Hi bsheets,

Before I got on the Low Carb way I used to be extremely susceptible to hypoglycemic episodes. It always involved the blood glucose levels dropping rapidly. Its the fast drop in the glucose levels that triggers the hypoglycemic reaction. Its a brain thing. Probably the hypothalmus. Prior to going Low Carb I used to used Chromium Picolinate regularly to prevent the hypoglycemic reaction and that seemed to work. But then I was eating a lot of carbs. I haven't seen and I doubt if there have been much in the way of studies on the exact mechanism of how Chromium Picolinate works. I do know that when I was eating carbs it did help. Well at least I thought it did. I think that it is basically an insulin mimetic. Sounds reasonable. Given my experience with the Intermittent Fasting and what happens with taking Chromium Picolinate , at the same time, I wouldn't advise using it in those circumstances. Your Milage May Vary. I'm sure we all have differing levels of susceptibility.

If you're doing Intermittent Fasting your blood glucose levels are already pretty low and your insulin levels should be pretty low also. So putting the Chromium Picolinate into the mix seems to be like suddenly uping the insulin level which tells the body cells to start burning glucose instead of ketone bodies. The only problem there is the glucose levels are then going to drop and fairly rapidly. So your system thinks it is in really bad starvation mode and all the alarms go off. Not a lot of fun unless you're a masochist.

So the lesson I learned, the hard way of course, is to be careful. Intermittent Fasting does work, and works pretty well, but you want to be careful. Don't ingest anything that will suddenly up the insulin level or act like insulin.

Have a good day.
From the still frozen North Land.

40C, wait I have to translate to F,...104 WOW!. That hurts to even think about. How bad is the humidity? I was in 104F once while I was in Phoenix. Driving in the car with the windows down and my ears were cold from the sweat evaporation. But it was still hot!
About ten years ago we had a summer with 100F days for about a month or so. Really nasty because the humidity was running around 70%. Thank goodness God invented air conditioning.

If you are on a stalled plateau doing the Intermittent Fast thing will definitely get you to into the keto state. I did it by at first just skipping breakfast. Well more like just putting it off. Then each day just putting off eating the first meal a bit longer. Got to the point where I wasn't eating till 6:00 PM or so. This was all in the middle of winter and without getting much exersize. The really odd thing about Intermittent Fasting is I was never hungry. Actually I was really getting to like it. It was sort of like being in one of the Zen meditative states. Calm and peaceful. Seemed to able to focus and concentrate on things much better. They say your brain works better on ketones and I think they are right. And the scales were going down.

Of course then I took the Chromium Picolinate. So I guess I start over again and this time be a bit more careful.

You know they used to fast and have visions. I wonder...

Have a good day.

Urgh 40C? That's horrible. Not humid though (I'm assuming from what I know of SA - it's pretty much the same as here) which is a little bit better. It reached about 32C or so today and yesterday. No need to put the air con on yet, but just a tad warm so I went without shoes where possible hahahaha

So with your weight, have you not been doing any exercise at all until now? Or are you bumping up the exercise from what you ordinarily do??

xv1942 thanks for the chromium update. I didn't get to do that net search I said I would so thanks for filling me in. What you said makes sense. Maybe in my travels (reading-wise) I will confirm it

No good to hear you had such a reaction though! Good thing the lesson has been learnt and thanks for sharing.


I assume you work, am I right? If so, what do you do during your lunch break?

e

Hi bsheets and xv1942

Thankfully It's not usually humid here. We have the occasional day of high humidity but it's not the norm. It's been hot and dry and in the last 9 days I think the lowest temp was around 36C/96.8F.

I'm not sure if I've really stalled as such, because although my weight hasn't really moved much, my clothes appear to be looser. It would be nice to see the scale moving but I'm not too worried yet. Maybe if I was a little stricter with documenting my food I'd have a better idea but I'm slack in that area.

My exercise plan has been non-existent although I'm certainly on the move quite a lot with a 3.5-year-old and a 2-year-old.

Twice a week I choose to walk to playgroup with a friend, pushing a heavy double stroller (temperature and weather permitting), so I guess I have some exercise happening.

We recently just purchased a treadmill, so I intend to do at least half an hour, 3 days a week. This will be especially handy on the weeks I am unable to walk to playgroup. I will up the length and intesity as I feel able.

I also recently started to do around 30 (girly) pushups every other day. Yesterday I was finally able to add 5 normal pushups. When I first started, I could barely do one!

It's not much as yet but I'm sure the added activities will help. We'll see I guess.

Do either of you have an exercise plan?

As for fasting, I have skipped or delayed breakfast so I guess I might be able to handle fasting if I do it they way you've explained. I've also fasted for spiritual reasons but that has a different focus, so for me it was different.

I will consider doing this if I find myself stuck for another month. Did you find the weight stayed off after you returned to 'normal' eating patterns? It's certainly an interesting topic.

All the best

mermaiden9 and bsheets,

I do get some exersize on occasion. Like when I have some work to do around here. With spring coming up I've got some trees to cut down, dead Redbud tree and a dead Apricot. They were getting a bit old anyway. Then there is the old shed where Joy used to have chickens. That has to come down and be cleared out. Haven't decided on building a new one or not. Not this year I think. Joy runs a nursery, mostly perennial flowers, and spring time there is always plenty to do. It usually takes us about a week to get back in shape from the winter. Neither of us do any kind of regular exersize in the winter. Just normal living.

No I don't hold down a regular job. I'm too old. At least that's what they tell me. Funny thing though I don't feel real old. And on this WOE I feel great!

I'd recommend reading Gary Taubes book "Good Calories Bad Calories" for some interesting discussion of exersize and weight loss. It comes down to exersize will help strengthen you muscles. But it will at the same time increase your appetite. It won't do much to cause you to lose weight.

Have a Great Day!

Sill Cold!

Hi mermaiden9,

About the Intermittent Fasting if you do that and you find yourself feeling cold what that says is that your body is slowing your metabolism down. Not what you really want to happen. That would just mean that normal metabolism would use less energy. So any weight loss will slow down too. This is where exercise can help as it stimulates the system to keep the metabolism up. Actually I think exercise has some effect on the pituitary gland which probably ups the thyroid hormone. The main cure for the cold system is to just eat more meat. That gets needed protein and fat into the system so the system doesn't go into shutdown mode. The important thing is to not eat any carbs. They'll just be stored as fat.

As far as gaining weight back after changing back to eating some carbs. I haven't as far as my scales show. They are not doctors scales so give or take a few pounds. Of course I've been on this diet for a bit over two years and its just habit now. I don't crave sweets or starches and Joy and I've figured out how to order when we go out. Last Christmas, you know how Christmas is, I didn't gain or lose. Joy gained a few pounds though. Her Sister visited from California for two weeks. They had a great time and enjoyed a few to many things. But afterwards she's getting back down to where she was. She swears she won't do that again. But with family and friends who has that kind of willpower?

The other thing I forgot to mention about the Intermittent Fasting is you still have to eat the full day's food intake. If you are on say 2500 calories a day then you have to pack in as much as you can. Say you go from morning to 6:00PM without eating. Then you have three or four hours to pack in those 2500 calories. It will be hard to do. What you'll probably end up is eating less. Which is fine. I just ate till I was full and that was good enough. I'm sure it was less than usual. The big problem as I said is to keep the metabolism from slowing. If you start getting cold or lethargic then you might not want to keep doing it.

Just eating normally without much in the way of carbs is probably best though. And some light exercise is good enough.

Have a great day!

Hi XV1942



I haven't read Gary Taubes book yet but I've heard about the exercise info from other threads.

I'm not really surprised to hear it considering I've lost all my weight thus far without an exercise plan. I'm not really that sedentary anyway because of the kids but I really hope to tighten things up. I also hoped that a bit of extra activity will rev up the metabolism and get the scale moving again.

Unfortunately with such extreme heat over here, the exercise has fallen to the wayside. I'm not even walking to playgroup at the moment, it's way too hot.

Thanks for sharing what you know about IF. You sound very knowledgable and are a great source of information. I have to say, it would be hard to pack in all those calories in such a short space of time, but I guess one could do it with added fats.

I'll see how I go, although for now I'm happy with the way I eat, despite the fact I'm not seeing much change on the scales.



LOL, I still feel the same way I felt when I was 20, except wiser and bit more confident about who I am.

It's a shame 'they' tell you you're too old to work. You probably have a lifetime of knowledge and experience that could really benefit an organisation.

If on the other hand, you're happy to retire and do your own thing, even better!

Take care

Hi Mermaiden9,

I recommend Gary Taubes book with the caveat that it is long and detailed. But I found it very readable. You'll not absorb all of it in one reading. I've only got five bookmarks in my copy. The book is basically a history of how the medical profession took a wrong turn.

As far as exercising goes, to get strength built back into the muscles, using the "Slow Burn" method is probably the best. See this site for a good explanation: http://walking.about.com/cs/fitness...a/superslow.htm or just look up Slow Burn.

If you've got kids running around doing the Intermittent Fast might not be very practical.

I'm thinking that the "Slow Burn" muscle strengthing program might be a lot better. I'm going to start doing that and see what happens.

Have a great day!