I have now completed the second week of Dr. Michael Mosley's program, The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet. In an attempt to lose the weight I gained due to Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), I will be following the 800 calorie per day diet as prescribed by Dr. Mosley. You can read my blog to see why I have decided to road test this program, and my review of Week 1. This week was a rollercoaster for me and definitely wasn't smooth sailing as I had hoped for.
day 8 - monday
Starting the week off with a loss of 0.3kgs/0.6lbs set my spirits high. I felt motivated, healthy, and was happy to see the scales shifting and felt ready to achieve great things this week. We are coming into Spring here in Melbourne, so the sun was shining and it was a perfect day to get outside and eat my lunch. The problem was that the two dogs and four chickens thought my lunch was for them. As I was trying to take a photo of the chickens milling around my feet, one decided she'd had enough of waiting, leapt up and grabbed a mouthful of my salad. And I just happened to take a photo as she did it!
Lunch: Tuna and green olive salad. Calories: 283
Sadly, my day wasn't all sunshine and naughty chickens. We received a call from the nursing home where my grandma has been living for four years. She recently contracted pneumonia and they called to say we should prepare for the worst. My sister, mum and I raced down to see her that night. My grandma had always been a vibrant, strong, energetic and healthy woman. Before us lay a tiny old lady who didn't know who we were. I'm not even sure she knew we were people. I suspect we were just shapes making noise to her. Emotional situations have previously been a trigger for me to overeat. It was with interest that I felt those familiar feelings return, but I didn't cave in to them.
day 9 - tuesday
Success! The scales told me I had lost 0.6kg/1.3lbs. There is so much elation when the scales drop, but it does leave me feeling a little concerned at what will happen when they don't. I had a super busy day today - so busy that I didn't take a single photo of my food. I had an all day coaching session in the city to attend. When we broke for lunch, we went to a nearby cafe. Their display cabinet was full of breaded items - rolls, wraps, cakes and sandwiches. I asked them if they could make me a salad using the sandwich ingredients, and to my delight, they were happy to do so. Sometimes it pays to ask the question, rather than to assume they can't/won't help you.
day 10 - wednesday
Wow! Another day, another loss of 0.4kg/0.8lbs. I had a busy day planned, but it then got a lot busier when the family I was house sitting for decided to come home early. That saw me cleaning, packing, walking dogs, feeding chickens and trying to get some work done, all before they returned in the late afternoon. Because of that, I had a second day in a row of not taking many photos of my food. However, I did manage a quick (and let's be honest, uninspiring) photo of my dinner which was grilled chicken on a bed of organic pumpkin mash, with steamed organic broccoli and carrots from my friends at Organic Angels.
Dinner: Grilled chicken on a bed of pumpkin mash with steamed vegetables. Calories: 495
day 11 - thursday
Day 11 saw another loss, albeit slightly smaller (0.3kg/0.6lbs). I had a business meeting to attend which ran over the lunchtime period. I had forgotten that they were organising lunch for us. To my dismay, they had ordered sushi. Now, normally I would have no problem eating sushi. In fact, I love sushi! But on this program, carbs are to be avoided. I was torn. Did I say no completely, or should I eat a few pieces to be polite? I went for the latter option, picking at a few small pieces. I immediately felt the spike in my blood sugar and wondered what impact that would have on the scales tomorrow. It was my father's birthday, so our family was gathering for dinner at my parents' house. Mum had made a delicious roast lamb, but after calculating how many calories I had consumed with that sushi, I was only able to eat the smallest piece. I filled my plate with vegetables instead, and drank plenty of water. I just hoped that by sticking to my 800 calorie limit for the day, that I wouldn't have undone any of the good work of late.
day 12 - friday
Disaster! This is where the wheels started to fall off my week and I experienced my first gain since starting. I put on 0.3kg/0.6lbs. That damned sushi! Even though I ate such a small amount of it, my system clearly didn't cope with the carbohydrates it received yesterday. I decided to tell myself that it was a very interesting experiment and that I now knew for certain that carbs have a significant impact on me.
Lunch was a very healthy warm grilled chicken salad with eggplant and green capsicum. I order a box of organic vegetables from Organic Angels every week, and I love coming up with new recipes with the vegetables they send me. I let them choose my vegetables, so it's a surprise every week what I will receive.
Lunch: Warm grilled chicken salad with eggplant and capsicum. Calories: 218.
day 13 - saturday
I had hoped that after a strict day yesterday that I would lose the weight I gained from the sushi. Frustratingly I only lost 0.1kg/0.2lbs. Small losses after hard work feel very unrewarding! I stuck to the program rigidly again today, having lean protein and vegetables for my meals. Organic Angels had delivered me some lovely looking kale, so I made a batch of my Warming Winter Kale Salad from my SIBO Family Favourites Cookbook, and paired it with a 120g piece of trout. It was a delicious meal.
Lunch: Crispy skinned trout with warm winter kale salad. Calories: 315.
day 14 - sunday
I was certain that I would drop weight today, but I stayed the same. ARGH! I was starting to feel really quite frustrated with this whole process. I also noticed that my bowel movements were becoming irregular. Could that really be because I ate a few mouthfuls of rice? The one thing I never want to return to is chronic constipation. After years of only going to the toilet once or twice a week, I enjoy going daily now. I will definitely be keeping a close eye on this, and have increased my intake of MotilPro, a prokinetic I use to support my Migrating Motor Complex.
I like to plan my week ahead on a Saturday or Sunday, so I sat down today and plotted out most of my meals for next week. I placed another order with Organic Angels so I knew I would have delicious organic vegetables to eat.
I was conscious that I hadn't eaten any seafood yet, which Dr. Michael Mosley recommends you do on this program. I went to the local markets and bought some lovely Australian scallops and prawns, and turned them into a seafood pasta, using zucchini noodles instead of wheat-based noodles. It was absolutely delicious, and very filling.
Dinner: Prawn and Scallop Pasta. Calories: 385.
week 2 results
On Monday morning it wathe s weigh-in for the Week 2. I stood on the scales nervously, and to my frustration had gained again, putting on 0.2kg/0.4lbs. However, for the week I had lost a total of 0.7kgs/1.5lbs, and have lost 3kg/6.6lbs in two weeks. That is a very respectable weight loss for two weeks, and my clothes are starting to feel more comfortable.
Rebecca x
| Weight loss to date: | 3kgs / 6.6lbs |
| Ease of program: | Pretty easy at the start of the week but increasingly frustrating towards the end |
| Mindset: | Positive and motivated overall with a few speed humps |
| Movement: | 12,741 steps per day on average |
| Sleep: | 7.5 hours per night on average |
| Yoga: | 0 / 7 days |
