I have eaten nothing but sirloin steaks for months on end, but I do like eggs cheese, many cuts of meat, even organs like liver tongue kidneys and brains (although the Inuit never eat any of them- and most likely neither did the true paleo hunters). Fish and chicken are nice too, in fact I have never 'met' an animal I would not eat.Personally, I'll be going light on brains, tongues, and kidneys. Eggs and cheese should help me stretch my budget a little though.
I'm having to detox from the weekend, but it hasn't been difficult. Yesterday was not ZC but not terribly sugary either. Today I can feel that my blood sugar is running a tad low, but not so low as to give me the shakes, just a little weakness and a couple hours of mild nausea. I've had it much worse before. When I came off the SAD to do an elimination diet almost four months ago, hypoglycemia struck so hard I could barely move. My body totally shut down all unnecessary operations and made me sleep for a couple hours, shaking and sweating, until the worst of it wore off.
My appetite has been substantial. Using FitDay, I'd estimate I've eaten almost 1900 calories so far today and I am ravenous at the moment and will likely tuck in to a big bowl of eggs and cheese in a few minutes, for a grand total of 2400 calories. I've read on ZIOH that it's normal for those first starting out on ZC to have a lot of hunger at first, since our bodies were essentially starving before. Since I've been eating reasonably well (excluding weekend binges) for the past few months, I would guess that I won't suffer induction flu as strongly as I would if I had been coming directly from the SAD, but I don't know about hunger. I'm sure hungry right now. I'm planning on eating to hunger though, no matter how many calories that ends up being. It wouldn't be a fair test of the ZC hypothesis if I were to try to cut calories. Supposedly they don't count, after all!
I don't really have a weight loss goal. I'm just planning on eating to hunger and feeling awesome, hopefully getting lighter, smaller, and firmer in the process. Right now I am in the so-called normal range for my height (about eight pounds away from overweight), but I suspect that this range is heavier than our paleolithic ancestors would have been. I am 5'6". My best guess is that if I do not do much strength training or strenuous exercise, my weight will stabilize around 115 lbs, eating to hunger on an all-meat menu. If I do exercise a lot, I might stablize around 125.
During my 2 week vlc/zc experiment, I found red (grass-fed) steaks and coconut oil in tea as a very satiating meal. It would keep my hunger at bay for 5-6-7 hours at a time. Chicken/seafood/pork etc. didn't work so well (even with the coconut oil).
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to integrate fruit/nuts in the morning and low carb veggies later on in the day but I am struggling - binges are happening too frequently. Often I feel compelled to eat (like last night) despite feeling quite full. Last night, I ate a lot of salmon in coconut milk, salad / apples & walnuts, and a good size portion of asparagus. I should have supplemented with coconut oil in tea but I didn't...an hour later I was binging on nuts, dark chocolate, and later a bit of sugary crap laying around. BLEH! This didn't happen when I was eating straight meat for 2 weeks.
Hey, cool! Thanks for the update. I really like reading about people's experiences with ZC. It's encouraging to hear that you didn't feel like binging while doing the meat experiment.
ReplyDeleteFruits, nuts, and veggies just make me want more, too. An apple seems innocent enough, but for me it leads to ransacking the cupboards for stale sweets. Bleh, indeed.
I'm also finding that beef is way more satisfying than pork or poultry.