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unwisely 's review for:
There are two reasons I eat too much. One is emotional, one is plain hunger. As in, I am crazy hungry really quickly after I eat. Like 2 hours after a meal. Which is insane. I have always thought it was some sort of moral failing, but this book was at the library so I figured I'd give it a shot.
The book itself made a good case that the way most people eat is unhealthy. A little background on how the American nutrition system got here, lots of footnotes (which I didn't check or anything, but that sort of thing gives me a warm fuzzy). Interesting and readable. I began to believe I probably should eat more protein.
The recommendations weren't of the STOP EATING THIS, it was sensible things - see if you like meditation! Exercise! Cut out really sugary things and see how you react to other things (there were spreadsheets on the website, which of course I approved of)! The suggested food regime was all about ratios. There was even a whole plan of attack, with alternatives for vegetarians and vegans for every meal, which I approved of. They offered enough options that if you absolutely couldn't stand something, it was avoidable, so it seemed pretty usable.
I am usually skeptical of any diet thing, but this first phase was two weeks. I felt like that period was reasonable to establish whether changing my eating habits would be worthwhile - not too long and also with a defined end-time, not "if you don't like it, keep doing it until you do!" (running! I quit after 3 years, because, man, that was awful). Given that, I figured I'd give the first part (high fat, basically no added sugar) a shot.
The book has an included meal plan, which is, by my standards insane. Maybe I'm extremely lazy, but following the plan you would be cooking different things to eat for almost every meal, every day. There is a weird leftover aversion that I don't understand - cooking once and eating it for a week is awesome. Also I've had basically the same breakfast 6 days per week for almost a decade, I can't even imagine switching every single day. Also there is a weird presumption that you're going to sit and eat, and not just grab something quick (or to take it into work - even the "grab and go" suggestion had like four separate parts, which is basically a bento box). So I knew right away I wasn't going to follow it exactly. Even the "simplified" menus had different things every day for every meal, just on a 4 day cycle instead of 7. Yeah, no.
I decided to roll my own plan, using their recipes. This went south on Day 1, because I wasn't paying attention to how I was assembling meals, and I learned about something the no-carb people call "ketosis flu". After that I made a spreadsheet to check what I was eating and it went better. (And yes, I did the same breakfast and lunch every workday.)
It turns out going cold turkey on sugar was easier than merely cutting back (which I have attempted). I also learned that for me personally, being that low-carb just makes me really tired all the time. I stuck it out, but by day 10 or so, I was sure that joy was a myth. But I wasn't hungry, so that was cool.
I didn't really stick with the official plan for Phase 2 - for one thing, there's a weird hate-on for popcorn, which is not high on any of the glycemic index lists I checked. And popcorn is my main grain. That said, it's been around 2 months (I kept renewing the book to keep the recipes, shh) and I have kept the higher protein part for daily life (and yes, I still do those breakfast and lunch recipes. More or less from Phase 1, because the Phase 2 breakfast shake has banana and yuck.) So I found the book useful for my life; how many books can you say that about?
The book itself made a good case that the way most people eat is unhealthy. A little background on how the American nutrition system got here, lots of footnotes (which I didn't check or anything, but that sort of thing gives me a warm fuzzy). Interesting and readable. I began to believe I probably should eat more protein.
The recommendations weren't of the STOP EATING THIS, it was sensible things - see if you like meditation! Exercise! Cut out really sugary things and see how you react to other things (there were spreadsheets on the website, which of course I approved of)! The suggested food regime was all about ratios. There was even a whole plan of attack, with alternatives for vegetarians and vegans for every meal, which I approved of. They offered enough options that if you absolutely couldn't stand something, it was avoidable, so it seemed pretty usable.
I am usually skeptical of any diet thing, but this first phase was two weeks. I felt like that period was reasonable to establish whether changing my eating habits would be worthwhile - not too long and also with a defined end-time, not "if you don't like it, keep doing it until you do!" (running! I quit after 3 years, because, man, that was awful). Given that, I figured I'd give the first part (high fat, basically no added sugar) a shot.
The book has an included meal plan, which is, by my standards insane. Maybe I'm extremely lazy, but following the plan you would be cooking different things to eat for almost every meal, every day. There is a weird leftover aversion that I don't understand - cooking once and eating it for a week is awesome. Also I've had basically the same breakfast 6 days per week for almost a decade, I can't even imagine switching every single day. Also there is a weird presumption that you're going to sit and eat, and not just grab something quick (or to take it into work - even the "grab and go" suggestion had like four separate parts, which is basically a bento box). So I knew right away I wasn't going to follow it exactly. Even the "simplified" menus had different things every day for every meal, just on a 4 day cycle instead of 7. Yeah, no.
I decided to roll my own plan, using their recipes. This went south on Day 1, because I wasn't paying attention to how I was assembling meals, and I learned about something the no-carb people call "ketosis flu". After that I made a spreadsheet to check what I was eating and it went better. (And yes, I did the same breakfast and lunch every workday.)
It turns out going cold turkey on sugar was easier than merely cutting back (which I have attempted). I also learned that for me personally, being that low-carb just makes me really tired all the time. I stuck it out, but by day 10 or so, I was sure that joy was a myth. But I wasn't hungry, so that was cool.
I didn't really stick with the official plan for Phase 2 - for one thing, there's a weird hate-on for popcorn, which is not high on any of the glycemic index lists I checked. And popcorn is my main grain. That said, it's been around 2 months (I kept renewing the book to keep the recipes, shh) and I have kept the higher protein part for daily life (and yes, I still do those breakfast and lunch recipes. More or less from Phase 1, because the Phase 2 breakfast shake has banana and yuck.) So I found the book useful for my life; how many books can you say that about?