Still going strong with the Slow Carb Diet... not really, but still loosing weight!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates once again. I haven't had time at all. Yes, I know, you shouldn't blog if you don't have the time. But I do anyways, because it is my blog and I can do what I want.. mine, mine, mine!!

So it has been more than month since my last post. But I can tell you that I have kept going and it is going great. I stopped the slow carb diet around and month ago and just started controlling my calorie intake. Still not eating fruit and milk products, and I am only eating very small quantities of carbs 3 times a week, on the days I have heavy weight sessions at the gym. Before I ate the carbs I was loosing too much in my lifts and was feeling tired, but with just a little bit of carbs, mostly brown rice and vita weet crisp bread I feel much better.

I have actually started loosing more weight when I got off the slow carb diet. It's really only about the calorie intake and eating a lot of proteins.

Remember how I told you I did 100 kg max in the bench press before going on the diet. I never thought I would be able to do it.

Here are my results so far.

I have lost roughly 8% of my body weight. I know weigh 79.8 kg, I started on 87 kg so that it is a 7.2 kg loss. In 2.5 months that's quite good. I have lost 9 cm around my waist, from 96cm to 87 cm. That is awesome and you can now clearly see a difference from my chest and waist. Now to the bench press. So I am weighing 8% less, but two days ago I tried a max lift and did 2 times on 100 kg. That is fantastic!

I am stilling going strong for another 3 weeks. I can tell you that by limiting the calories and doing good sessions at the gym together with good cardio sessions you will loose weight. No questions about it.

Hope you are all doing well as well. If the slow carb diet isn't working don't just quit. Mix it up with some other stuff. Try your own ideas. I can tell you that although I really like Tim Ferriss, some of the stuff is bs. The data is twisted and not completely honest. But hey, what do you expect, it is not like he was going to write a bestseller by saying he had accomplished mediocrity.

Peace out!

Still going strong

Sorry for the lack of updates. Have not been able lately to take the time to write.

Things are moving along well though. Will try to snap some pictures. I have lowered my calorie intake substantially. Due to low thyroid activity I am not eating more than 1500 calories a day. It is quite easy to count. Just google the food you eating plus calorie count.

I measured my waist which was 96 cm (at the bellybutton) at the start of diet. It is now after 4 weeks, coming up to 5, 90 cm. So I have lost 6 cm on the abdominal section. That is very good news.

I was afraid I was loosing too much muscle so I will do body fat measurement next week. Only down 4 kgs but the abs reduction is a good sign that it actually is fat and not muscle I am loosing. Will wait and see what the calipers have to say.

If you're doing the diet and feel it's not going fast enough don't give up. Make some changes, but keep going. You have to be thick skinned and really fight. Don't cheat and keep at it and you will most definitely see results. Pics coming soon.

Updated pictures in My measurements

Hi everyone!

I have successfully finished another week on Slow Carb Diet. It's definitely working, but it is not going as fast as was hoping for. I am going to do it for 3 months to start with, so I'm not stressed. I just have to keep at it.

Will update the measurements soon too. Check the "My Measurements..." page.

All the best,
David

Measurement update

R bi 33 cm
L bi 32 cm
Waist 94 cm
Hip 102 cm
R leg 61 cm
L leg 60 cm
R calf 39 cm
L calf 38 cm

Improvements!!! Maybe because it is hard to measure correctly but I have tried my hardest to be honest. Hopefully it is correct.

Pics after week two - one day after cheat day

I don't know if maybe you can see some differences. I think there is a slight change. But then again pics are hard because I can pull in my stomach or push it out. I try to stand the same every time.

Blood test results back

So was a bit worried about the absence of weight lost. So went and got my blood tested. Results came back with some very interesting values. I most certainly have something called hypothyroidism, which means that my thyroid doesn't work as it should, which means that my metabolism is much lower than for people with normal values. I will not let that bring me down and have not given up. I am just going to go harder and better!

I got my blood checked because I hadn't lost anything in two weeks while I was following Tim's plan to the point. I was even exercise quite a lot, and that without cheat snacking or anything like that. I eat plenty of proteins and drink heaps of water, and have never cheated. I haven't had anything even remotely white. I followed the simple motto, if in doubt, then don't eat it. On top of that I have even done the cold treatments. I have done my best to spike calorie intake on the cheat days and I have even been doing air squats and push-ups and drinking grapefruit to keep the food from getting stored as fats on cheat days. So I went and got my blood checked.


Not all was bad though. I could see the results of going on the diet. I had a lot values increased above the norm thanks to diet and specifically to increased protein intake and vitamin intake. My cholesterol was much better. LDL was down to 4.2, which is the lowest in a long time. But my TSH was 5.1 mU/L and it is supposed to be between 0.4 and 2.5, but never above 3.5. I will not start hormone treatment yet, but will wait to get some more tests done. It is nothing serious, you just have to take a pill to replace the lost hormones. It is usually a medication called Levaxin. But it might take a while before the right dose is found. You start on the lowest and work you way up until your TSH is where you want it to be.

Will instead try and order some virgin coconut oil and have that everyday to see if it can help me speed up my metabolism.

Probably going to see a huge increase in fat loss as soon as I start on Levaxin, but that has to wait. I am going to do it anyway. I just have to up the cardio even a bit more.


Don't give up -  never give up!

First week - not much change to report

Not much difference. Looks exactly the same. Will keep pushing on. More soon.

These were taken before the cheat day.

One meal left to chEAT day

I have made it so far and everything is good. I didn't do the morning cardio this morning. The alarm rang at 5.10 am but I hadn't gotten enough sleep so slept another hour and then got up to work. It is 42 degrees celcius in some parts of Sydney and I have no fan or no air-condition. My fiancee doesn't want to use the fan because it has got dust on it and she is afraid it will spread around in the room. I have told her that the fan is more like a vacuum cleaner when it comes to dust - it collects it, it doesn't blow it around. Anyway, a woman's word is law so no fan.

We tried ice treatment last night and I couldn't feel any difference, but my fiancee claims to have felt much hungrier in the morning, or at least that was a theory of hers. We will keep doing it and hope for the best. Anybody know where exactly to put it? Or does that not matter.

We have a whole eating day planned tomorrow. We are just going to eat all day. I will try to get some grapefruit juice after the meals and do some air square to minimize fat gains. See how it will go. I'm really looking forward to putting myself into a food coma.

Will try to review the pills I ordered in a post soon. I can say that some of them are so big I don't understand who can swallow them whole. I usually don't have a problem with pills.

See you on the other side!

Not a beautiful pic, but it's a tasty breakfast

Day 4 and everything is going according to plans. This was what was left of the chicken salad I had for dinner last night. It was actually more to start with, but I remembered to snap a picture half way through. I added a can of lentils. Picked up a siv at the supermarket and when you use it to drain the lentils and clean them properly with lots of water, they're actually quite alright.

Same lunch as always. Thai chicken basil without rice and added lentils. Hopefully the PAGG stack will work wonders. Have taken it twice now. I quickly realized that I must soon order again. It's a lot of pills everyday. PAGG plus multi mineral/vitamin and fish oil on top o that.

Also decided today to start with the ice therapy, but will dedicate a separate post for that later. Tonight I'm making omelette with a side lentils salad. Yummy! Will try to remember to take a photo so you can behold the beauty.

See you!

PAGG stack arrived last night

Finally the PAGG arrived with fedex. They were here a day earlier but since no one was home at midday on a weekday they took the package with them and returned the next day. My flatmate was lucky enough at home to sign for it. I was a little bit worried that all of it wouldn't make trough customs, but everything arrived just fine. When I ordered the stack from bodybuilding.com they didn't let you buy the policosanol to Australia because of country restrictions, but I managed to trick the online system buy having more than one tab open in the browser and in that way I was able to get the policosanol in the order. Don't know why they won't ship it to Australia - it's not like it is illegal here or anything.

This what the letters in PAGG stands for:
P - policosanol. Once a day, before bedtime.
A - alpha lipoic acid (ala). 4 times per day.
G - garlic extract. 4 times a day.
G - green tea extract. 4 times a day.

This creates the following pill intake schedule:
AGG before breakfast directly when you get up.
AGG before lunch.
AGG before dinner.
PAGG before bedtime.

Hopefully this help speed up the process. I am in the good shape and I have cheated in anyway and kept to the diet 100% so far.

My thoughts this morning goes out to the flood victims in QLD who by some unfortunate irony have now also been hit by the tropical cyclone Yasi. Yasi is the strongest cyclone in Australian history with wind gusts up to 295 km/h. Fitness and extreme dieting seem quite futile and unimportant in contrast to what people o QLD has suffered in recent times.

I'm however not quitting in anyway, but wanted to send my regards. I hope all ends well.

See you soon,
David

Tim Ferris building a kettlebell

This one is from the book. I haven't tried it yet, but Tim loves it and talks highly of it in the book.

End of Day 3 on the slow carb diet

So another day finished. It's been a good day and I have had a lot of energy and I have been eating plenty. Tim states that you can eat as much as you want if you follow the rules, in fact you are suppose to eat bigger portions to get enough calories and carbs and not get completely brain dead. So hopefully it will work. What do you think? Can that really be the case?

Had a good session at the gym tonight, but I have to confess that I didn't get up at 5:10 am this morning for morning cardio. I got to bed too late, and when I woke up at 5:10 I was simply too tired and opted to get some more sleep and not ruin the whole day. In hindsight, I think it definitely was the correct decision. It's not often you feel that way in hindsight.

Had a great green salad with mixed veggies, and fried some chicken breast fillets to go with it. Used a barbeque spice on the chicken and it was a hit. Damn, just realised I forgot to snap a picture. I have to get better and this. Sorry. It's early days and I haven't gotten into the habit yet.

Will try and tell you my training program in a few posts.

Till then. Take care!

Ciao

Questions and thoughts about the slow carb diet

So here it is - my beautiful face. What is that black thing you have on your face, you might ask. Well, it's not because I am afraid of showing my face online it's because I am hoping to surprise some people with my results. I, of course, haven't told them about the blog, but you never know. It is just another measure to try and keep it a surprise.

I have some questions about the diet and I hope someone could help me answer them.
Everything white is a no go. But you can have cauliflower. That's basically the only thin he mentions in the book. Can I have white kidney beans (cannellini)? And are the worse than red and/or pinto beans or lentils for that matter?

Dairy is another no no. But he talks about protein shakes and I assumed he meant whey protein. Which I have been taking for quite a while now. But whey is milk protein so these shakes actually contain milk. Eventhough it's not one of the ingredients it says that contains milk. Can't I have them then. They are a big part of my diet. I have roughly three each day. Also thought it would be good way to get the right amount of proteins early in the morning.

It's still early days and way to early to tell, but by Friday after the gym I should see some differences, or maybe not. New photos will be posted for you to admire ;)

Take care!

Edit: Forgot to tell you why I am looking like a cave man. I haven't shaved since the new year and wont until I have reached sub 10% body fat.

Another funny thing happened today. I have become such good friends with my local Thai restaurant close to work, that I just nod to order and today they let me out the back way, through the kitchen, because they know it's much closer back to work. That's sweet!

The slow carb diet (scd) according to Tim Ferriss

Going to quickly jot down what the diet is about. But first I have to apologize for forgetting to snap a photo of my dinner yesterday or my breakfast this morning which was the same as my dinner last night. Splendid by the way.

The scd is not about calorie counting and it's not necessary, but I downloaded an app I got recommended at work today. It is very clean and great usability. You add meals online and via your phone. It is called My Fitness Pal and is available for free in the AppStore.

So the diet. What's it about? It's quite simple to remember and you don't have to be a professor to pull it off.
5 points which if they are followed got Tim's test group of 194 to loose on average 20 pounds (9 kgs) in 30 days with no exercise.

#1. Avoid white carbs (or anything that can be white). You can't have rice nor brown rice (can be white). On the other hand you can and should eat cauliflower, cabbage, onions, white beans to mention a few white things that are ok.

#2. Eat the same few meals over and over again. The diet is not meant to be fun and if you're not a great cook you may struggle coming with new things and will therefore derail. On the other hand you may eat out. Simply substitute anything "white" for a side salad or similar. Mexican and Thai are particularly well suites for his diet. Remember though to look out for things high in sugar.

#3. Don't drink your calories. Drink lots of water, unsweetened tea or coffee. You can also drink not to vast quantities of no-calorie/low-calorie beverages (like Coke Zero or Pepsi Max). You can't drink milk, soy milk, normal soft drinks or fruit juice. Red wine is allowed, but keep it to no more than 2 glasses a day (merlot, cabsav or Pinot noir).

#4. Don't eat fruit. No fruit at all. Only exception really is avocado and tomato. And avocados you have to be a bit careful with. They are calorie dense. One per day max.

#5. Take one day every week off where you go completely bananas and eat everything in your path. Seriously though. It's a rule and therefore you have to do it. It is important to spike calorie intake so the body doesn't shift down and start burning less. So eat pizza, pastries, drink coke and beer and have a good time. Eat whatever you want.

That's it folks. Easy peasy.

There are of course more in depth question to how the diet works. But shoot away you questions and I will try and answer. I don't have all the answer but I will try and sometime I will also ask you for help.
Next post is going to be such a question accompanied by a pretty photo of my bearded face.
Ciao

Feeling good at the end of Day 2

I know it's only Day 2, but I am feeling great. Since I followed Tim's every advice almost, I started on a Monday. Did two gym sessions on Monday, and just finished a cardio session at the gym tonight. Had left overs from yesterday. So pork roast with sauerkraut. Today I added a nice salad and tried a new mash made with only white beans (cannellini). It was much better than yesterday.

I fried 4 garlic cloves in olive oil and then added two cans of cannellini and started mashing it to pieces. I then added salt, pepper and white pepper. Really good. I had A LOT of food for dinner and I am feeling very full.

Going up at 5:10 am tomorrow for another cardio session at the gym. And then back again after work for a back and biceps session.

Will to another photo shoot again on Friday and then take photos every Friday. Forgot to take a picture of the food I had for dinner, but I am bringing it to work for breakfast so hopefully I will remember to snap a pic.

I feel like I want to end with a quote but it's bedtime and I don't know any good quotes from the top of my head. So take care and hopefully see you soon.

Ciao 

Lunch on Day 2

Same lunch as yesterday, only this time with white beans. Don't know if white beans are completely ok in the diet. In 4hb it says "nothing white, besides cauliflower". But I hope white beans are ok. Posted question to Tim on his blog. Hopefully I will get an answer.

Dinner tonight will be almost the same as yesterday. Btw, the cauliflower and kidney mash was good. Tasted much less beans and more potato mash than I could imagine. So that was great. Eating the same thing but making mash without cauliflower tonight with white beans instead and make a nice little side sallad with avocado in it.

Just came from the gym and sitting in the car waiting for my fiancée to finish showering (girls take forever in the shower) and blogging. I have always weighed myself after training wearing only towel and flip-flops and today I had gained 1 kg - weighing 88 kgs now. Not worried though. Have been drinking like crazy.
If I can get some spare time tonight I will update you on what the diet exactly is about. Sorry. I know I am slow.

See you soon!

Yummy Breakfast - noooot

The colorful and lovely world of slow carb diet :) Honestly though. It's not as bad as it looks.
It is:
Half a can of lentils
Half a can of red kidney beans
Spinach leaves
Thin slices of roast beef
Added some garlic salt, but didn't use the Taco sauce today. Also. Keep in mind I already had my 30 g pure protein shake and two eggs this morning at 6.30. I got up at 6.15.
I am going to tell you more in detail about the diet soon. Promise. Maybe later today. Ciao

My before numbers

First though. I know the pictures aren't perfect. I opted to take them in the bathroom with the door closed and lights fully on to not cheat in any way. It is not very flattering lights, but the environment stays the same, not depending on outdoor light and other external factors. They are also taken with my iPhone, because I don't have any other camera. It will do. Now to the numbers.

As you can tell by the pictures I am not a big guy and not particularly muscular either. I did however max on the bench press at 100 KGs. Which I was happy with. That was my January goal. Reached it!

Height: 179.6 cm
Weight: 87 Kg
Body fat: 17.5 % (measured with calipers by physio using Jackson-Pollock alogrithm.)

Right Bi-cep: 32 cm (measured at middle of the muscle)
Left Bi-cep: 32 cm
Waist: 96 cm (measured at navel)
Hip: 103 cm (measured at the widest part)
Right Thigh: 58 cm (measured at middle of muscle)
Left Thigh: 57 cm
(R calf: 38.5 cm
L calf: 37.5 cm)

Next post I will try and pin down what this diets is all about and how I plan to do it.

Also. You might be able to spot some beard on one of the images. I haven't shaved since the new year and haven't cut my hair for a while and I wont until I have reached sub 10%. Kind of like a play-off beard similar to what the NHL players do. It also serves as a reminder that I'm not done and the faster I can finish the sooner I can stop looking like a cave man moron.

Ciao

MX SYDNEY proofs it

 

So here is the proof of how bad my body is at the start of his journey. MX Sydney is free newspaper, that contains little news, but more gossip and fashion. It is not quality literature by any means, but it serves it purpose here as proof of date for our little experiment. You can click the images to get them in large format where you should easily be able to read out the date on the front of the paper. At least on the close picture just above. 

The last pictures were taken one day before the SCD started, and these ones, we I'm wearing my orange swimmers are from today, close to the end of the first day. 

This is how this day went.

5:10 AM. Alarm rang. Felt quite tired and not at all ready for the challenge. Pushed myself out of bed and downed two eggs and Protein shake (Whey Protein Concentrate with 78% protein. Roughly 30 grams per serving). 

5:40 AM. Arrived at the gym and to my surprise it was packed. Aerobics classes, boxing classes you name it. There's something not quite right here in the Northern Beaches, Sydney. I was quite surprised as I was quite sure I would be the only idiot there in the morning. Completely wrong. Lots of idiots around. One bike was free. Jumped on it and had maybe 5 mins of warm-up at around 72 RPM. Then I started my session. I have chosen on purpose to start quite slow to ease my body into this cardio regime. But I am attempting something close to HIIT. I have the bike on 10 out of 20 resistance and cycly 45 secs at around 72 RPM and then gun it for 15 secs, up to around 155 RPM. So, kind of like a sprint and then a jog. I do this 15 times. 

Why this type of cardio? It is over quicker, so you're not wasting precious (my precious...) time. Recent studies have shown that your burn calories and fat for up to 8 times longer than if I would have done a normal jog-cycle for 40 mins. This way I can almost be burning the whole day. That is the theory at least. I will only cycle the first week, but slowly increase the sprinting time and decrease the jog/rest. 

Actually had a banana after this training, but have decided to only have bananas after really hard weight training. All accordning to Tim's 4HB.

6:35 AM. Back home. Packed up and went to work. 

9:40 AM. Had second breakfast. Pinto beans and lentils together with spinach leafs, roast beef and some taco sauce. Not the best tasting thing in the world, but I managed. 

12:30 PM. Lunch. My Thai place cooks whatever I asked them to. So I have gotten them to do a Thai Chili Basil Chicken, with extra chicken, extra vegetables, no sugar and no rice. Also less oil. I took it back to my office and poured on a can of lentils. Let me say that it was ok, but not more. Sugar seems to do a lot to Thai food. But it was far better than the breakfast.

3:30 PM. Next WPC protein shake.

6:00 PM. Back at the gym for Triceps and Abs. Quick session. Had another protein shake before training. Why before? Because recent studies has shown that you get more out of it then. Reference? I will dig it up.

After the session that contained 3 triceps and 5 abs exercises I had another banana. 

During the whole day I have probably had around 3 liters of pure water.

I am still waiting for dinner since I mis-read the instructions and the pork roast is going to take around 2 hours to get ready. Not good! But what can you do. I am going to have that with sauerkraut, and "fake potato mash" made from cauliflower and canellini beans. Hopefully it's good.

I know this was a long post. Sorry. Still waiting for my vitamins that were supposed to arrive today. Hopefully tomorrow. I am keen to add that into the mix.

Next post. Numbers of me before...

Over and out!

Not looking any good - good way to start

The dreaded before pictures. Look like shit. My hope is there will be some muscles underneath all the fat. After all I have increased in my lifts quite a lot over the last 3 months.

Today is the start of the slow carb diet (SCD) and I will do it until I am sub 10% in body fat (no longer than 12 weeks though). I am currently at 17.5%. According to Tim Ferriss I should loose around 8 kgs in 30 days. I am going to do heavy training as well so hopefully that will bring me faster result. I am currently 87 kgs, but weight is not the most important measurement.

I will update with pics once a week. Will tell you more about the diet and my training regime in the coming posts. I will aslo give you my starting measurements along with a photo of me holding today's newspaper so all you paranoid haters can see that I am not cheating.Will try to give you specifics on every daily training and what I have eaten. Hopefully that will be enough for anyone who wants to follow along once I am done.

Going into this it will be very interesting to see if I can still lift as much as I did before I started the diet and see if I am going to walk around like tired zombie because of the lack of carbs and calories. I shouldn't, according to Tim. We'll see.

See you soon!
Ciao