Today is Monday, so I hopped on the scale to see what a 20 g daily carbohydrate (with caveats) limit did as far as weight-loss this week.
(Again, I really want to emphasize that I was comfortable with the weight I was at at the beginning of this month. I knew that I could stay well in the healthy range if I lost or gained more and I liked the way my clothes fit and had pretty good self-esteem about it. I just have really been curious about the major premises of Taubes book - one being that a low-carb diet also gives you more energy - and wanted to really try to commit to the ideas for just one month to see if he may have a real point.)
Also, barring that one day when I was clearly dealing with some low blood sugar symptoms and wasn't psycho enough to mess with that (ice cream, gummy bears, and fried rice! stat!) plus this Saturday when I ate an "artisinal" sandwich and giant cookie from a fancy bakery downtown (straight out of Portlandia, I swear) to celebrate...something, I pretty much stayed at, under, or very, very near 20 g of carbohydrates a day.
SO, quantitatively, that has meant a 0.9 BMI point weight loss in one week for me. Which is a lot! (I was actually really surprised this morning because it was a bit of a drop from yesterday). I'm going to guess that tomorrow it will bounce back up a little bit - this seems to be my body's pattern - before continuing to go down in smaller increments (I hope smaller increments, anyway. 0.9 is a little bit high for my comfort, to be honest. I'm constantly checking in with myself to make sure I haven't tried to go into calorie restriction - which is really no bueno - and I really haven't. Maybe one day I should list everything I eat, that may be interesting/helpful).
Qualitatively, other than the low-blood-sugar day, I've actually felt much more energetic, it's true. I'm cautious to attribute that to Taubes since this week has been the first full week of a stricter sleep regimen for Hadrian (no more nursing 3-4 times a night, down to 1). And I honestly think it's mostly because I'm getting more than 4-5 hours of sleep, finally! I guess the real story here then is that I definitely don't think that a low-carbohydrate diet is energy-draining?
I guess we'll see as the month goes on if slowly introducing carbs back in makes me feel more or less energetic. Kind of hard to quantify that, but I'll try.
This week we add 10 g of carb leeway. Practically, this means that I can eat some fruit with dinner instead of just vegetables. Or have a cookie in the afternoon instead of yogurt or peanut butter if I want. Honestly, I'm kind of okay with just eating the peanut butter instead of a cookie, now that I think about it. I've come to love that chunky goodness.
(Again, I really want to emphasize that I was comfortable with the weight I was at at the beginning of this month. I knew that I could stay well in the healthy range if I lost or gained more and I liked the way my clothes fit and had pretty good self-esteem about it. I just have really been curious about the major premises of Taubes book - one being that a low-carb diet also gives you more energy - and wanted to really try to commit to the ideas for just one month to see if he may have a real point.)
Also, barring that one day when I was clearly dealing with some low blood sugar symptoms and wasn't psycho enough to mess with that (ice cream, gummy bears, and fried rice! stat!) plus this Saturday when I ate an "artisinal" sandwich and giant cookie from a fancy bakery downtown (straight out of Portlandia, I swear) to celebrate...something, I pretty much stayed at, under, or very, very near 20 g of carbohydrates a day.
SO, quantitatively, that has meant a 0.9 BMI point weight loss in one week for me. Which is a lot! (I was actually really surprised this morning because it was a bit of a drop from yesterday). I'm going to guess that tomorrow it will bounce back up a little bit - this seems to be my body's pattern - before continuing to go down in smaller increments (I hope smaller increments, anyway. 0.9 is a little bit high for my comfort, to be honest. I'm constantly checking in with myself to make sure I haven't tried to go into calorie restriction - which is really no bueno - and I really haven't. Maybe one day I should list everything I eat, that may be interesting/helpful).
Qualitatively, other than the low-blood-sugar day, I've actually felt much more energetic, it's true. I'm cautious to attribute that to Taubes since this week has been the first full week of a stricter sleep regimen for Hadrian (no more nursing 3-4 times a night, down to 1). And I honestly think it's mostly because I'm getting more than 4-5 hours of sleep, finally! I guess the real story here then is that I definitely don't think that a low-carbohydrate diet is energy-draining?
I guess we'll see as the month goes on if slowly introducing carbs back in makes me feel more or less energetic. Kind of hard to quantify that, but I'll try.
This week we add 10 g of carb leeway. Practically, this means that I can eat some fruit with dinner instead of just vegetables. Or have a cookie in the afternoon instead of yogurt or peanut butter if I want. Honestly, I'm kind of okay with just eating the peanut butter instead of a cookie, now that I think about it. I've come to love that chunky goodness.
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