| Author | Post |
|---|
Zara
Senior Member
|
Posted: 21 Mar 2007 04:44 pm |
|
Hallo 
I have tried FL4I and Forgetcalories and did in fact lose weight. I found that the amount and type of protein I had to eat was too much for my system and believe I need grains in order to balance my diet better. As they say *listen to your body*, which is exactly what I did!
I just bought the book and will read it in the next couple of days and start the plan either on the weekend or the beginning of next week.
I might as well be a pioneer on this diet too and give some feedback as there doesn't seem to be anyone on this forum that has tried it and posted.
I'll let you know how it goes  .
Blessings,
Zara 
|
Frankie
Senior Member
|
Posted: 26 Mar 2007 06:41 pm |
|
I am curious to know how this works for you.
Frankie
|
Zara
Senior Member
|
Posted: 28 Mar 2007 08:48 am |
|
Hallo Frankie,
I finished reading the book yesterday and I am beginning the new eating plan today. I will give updates, every few days, as to what I have eaten and how it's going.
It seems like a sound plan and one that I will have better success with. It is about long term health and I am looking for an eating regime that can sustain me and also one that is reasonable to maintain, after weight loss.
I'll be in touch soon
Blessings,
Zara
|
Zara
Senior Member
|
Posted: 30 Mar 2007 12:04 am |
|
Hallo again,
It's a simple diet to follow. As I am female, it says you eat 8-12 slices of diet whole wheat bread a day or 4-6 slices of regular whole wheat bread. You divide your meals up and eat every 3 hours or so. This would mean eating about 6 small meals a day This is for the first two weeks of the programme (stage one). After that you can substitute the bread for other carbs (stage two), such as wheat pasta, rice (not white), grains such as millet, oatmeal or pearl barley, cereal, potatoes, corn, legumes (lentils or other pulses) and sweet potatoes. These are examples but there are other choices and also recipes of what would be the equivalent grain and quantity for the bread.
You can put onto your bread a thin layer of spread. Examples include low-fat/fat free cream cheese, sugar free peanut butter, 1 slice of turkey or chicken, slice of smoked salmon, hummus, tahini, mashed avocados, canned or smoked tuna as possibilities. Condiments include mustard, ketchup, salsa, salad cream, soy spread. You eat as much vegetables as you want, either raw in salad form, stir fried, cooked or veggie soup.
You can eat poultry, fish and meat three meals a week during stage one and during those days, eat 6-8 slices of diet bread or 3-4 slices of regular bread, during that particular day. During stage two you can eat up to five meals of this kind, per week. You can eat 3 or 4 eggs a week and with bread, if you want.
You must include 2-3 Tablespoons of olive or canola oil a day. I have chosen to use it in veggie stir fries and also a balsamic/oil salad dressing with my salads. You may have 8 ounces of milk a day (no more) and I usually put it into coffee or tea. Take a multi-vitamin and a calcium supplement with vitamin D, a day. You may eat 1 piece of fruit a day if you desire. Drink plenty of water and if you choose to sweeten your tea or coffee or other drinks, use an artificial sweetner, instead of sugar.
That's it in a nutshell. The book has useful information and why carbs are better for your overall health. To put it simply, eating carbs raises your serotonin level, protein decreases it and can cause some icky side effects especially if you eat mostly protein and avoid carbs in your diet.
I'll give you an update in a few days and let you know my progress.
Blessings,
Zara
|
Nir
Senior Administrator
|
Posted: 30 Mar 2007 12:31 am |
|
Zara wrote: You must include 2-3 Tablespoons of olive or canola oil a day.
You may eat 1 piece of fruit a day if you desire.
My knee-jerk observations:
Only one fruit? For a moderate-to-high carb diet, this seems a bit unfair.
Meanwhile, shame they have you take 270-405 calories from refined oil without giving you the option of taking those calories from more nutritious nuts and seeds instead.
I'm glad veggies are 'free foods' though.
|
Zara
Senior Member
|
Posted: 30 Mar 2007 01:06 am |
|
I'm not a fan of fruit and to be perfectly honest more than one piece makes me feel ill.
Her reasoning is this: it is a healthy and fiberous food that obviously contains minerals and vitamins, but also sugar. People have a tendency to polish off quite a lot of fruit in one sitting (I've never been guilty of that!) and therefore the sugar level raises dramatically. It doesn't affect insulin as quickly as white or brown sugar but eating too much causes a significant rise in blood glucose and triglyceride levels and can cause weight gain also.
Her reasoning for oil is this: In spite of the caloric content of oil, it is important to your health. Those oils that are high in monounsaturated fats and low in saturated fats are healthy because they contain the fatty acids that are essential for good health and help reduce bad (LDL) cholesteral levels while maintianing good (HDL) cholesteral levels. A dietary bonus is that it makes the rest of the diet more enjoyable and one can eat salads that aren't dry or just with vinegar. Yes you can get the oil content from nuts and seeds but I know I have a tendency to overeat these kinds of foods as snacks and adding it to my veggies in salad dressing and stir fries is a much easier way for me to not overindulge.
Blessings,
Zara
|
Frankie
Senior Member
|
Posted: 30 Mar 2007 12:39 pm |
|
Thanks so much for the comprehensive info, Zara.
I have to admit that this diet doesn't sound appealing to me. It actually does sound a bit complicated, having to keep track of how many pieces of bread, how many meals with protein, how many pieces of fruit, how many tablespoons of oil, etc. Also, I've heard over and over again that canola oil is very dangerous, and I believe that to be true. So when someone tells me to use canola oil, it's like a red flag. Same thing with artificial sweeteners.
In any case I wish you success!
Frankie
|
Zara
Senior Member
|
Posted: 7 Apr 2007 03:11 pm |
|
Hallo again
This is my update on Bread for Life. It was a bit too much bread for me! I actually gained weight on it?! Now I am not saying this doesn't work, but obviously it was not for me, in terms of my needs. Too much carbs could be the obvious reason as to why it failed for me. I must be carb-sensitive and need less grains and maybe more protein for my body-type. I have decided to forgoe this diet and go back to what worked for me, initially.
I think it does have sound advice though, for those who don't have too many probelms with carbs. I am one of the *chosen few* who can only eat carbs in small amounts. Too much results in weight gain for me-oh well!
I am going to go back and try FL4I again as, it was easy to follow and I actually did lose weight on it. The only problem I had was not sticking to it after my weight loss. As a result I did gain some back and would like to try again to lose what I have gained and the rest of it too.
I believe the experience of this particular diet was a good one for me. I found what my body needs and doesn't need and as a result I am more aware of what my body can handle.
I wish everyone luck in finding the right diet for them.
Blessings,
Zara
|
Frankie
Senior Member
|
Posted: 9 Apr 2007 12:45 pm |
|
Hi Zara,
Thanks so much for the update. At first it does seem amazing that person could eat this much bread without incurring insulin spikes, but on the other hand, each sandwich is probably only about 150 calories. But for carb-sensitive people, that may just be too much. Just out of curiosity, how long did you try it for? How much weight did you gain (if I may ask. If you don't want to disclose that, I understand)?
I actually looked at this diet much more carefully after my last post, because I am getting slightly desperate. My weight just keeps going up, and everything I'm trying feels too difficult to stay on. This has the advantage of being different from other things I've tried and maybe not being as tough to keep track of than I originally thought.
I keep thinking longingly of FL4I, because it's fairly easy to prepare the meals and I lost weight on it. I just couldn't even stay on it for the 11 days; I would always go way off track somewhere in the middle.
Anyway, good luck to you!
Frankie
|
Zara
Senior Member
|
Posted: 9 Apr 2007 01:19 pm |
|
Hi Frankie,
I tried it for 2 weeks before I stopped. I gained about 3 pounds, which in the grand scheme of things isn't too much, but the last thing I needed was more weight gain! I had problems eating every 3 hours or so which came to 6 meals per day. I was following it quite closely and never felt hungry. I did however feel quite full instead. I think 6 meals might be an overload for me and was struggling to actually eat them on a daily basis. The meals themselves were bread, bread and more bread-also accompanied by veggies. I have discovered that I am carb sensitive and thought it best to just stop it, to be safe.
Now everyone is different so the possibility of it working for you or someone else is still quite likely. I think giving it a shot is the only way for you to find out . It is clear that I am someone who needs to limit my carb intake rather then increase it. It's that *trial and error* process we all must go through before we are familair with our body needs. I know mine now and feel that it was worth it, just to find out I can't handle large quantities of carbs.
I did follow FL4I some two years ago as I said and found the diet really manageable-I wish I had *listened* more to my body then and stuck with it. You live and learn as they say so back to FL4I for me!
Best of luck and if I can help in anyway, let me know!
Blessings,
Zara
|
Frankie
Senior Member
|
Posted: 10 Apr 2007 04:39 pm |
|
Hi Zara,
I did decide to try it after all. I reconsidered because I really wanted to try something else, but didn't know what else to try.
I am modifying the diet in response to Nir's very valid comment about the oil. Why would oil be better than nuts and seeds? I'm guessing she's afraid people will go overboard and have too many. I figure if I have 300 calories of nuts, seeds, avocado, or oil, it will be OK.
I do like her non-disciplinarian approach. It seems that she's tried very hard to devise a diet that even those who have no time to cook or shop can follow (as opposed to many, many diets that claim they are easy, and then have you eating an omelette with tomatoes, onions, cheese, and spinach, and a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Sorry, I don't have time for all that food prep, cooking, or cleaning in the morning. But I rant.). She allows you to have coffee, and doesn't ever seem to be saying "Follow my rules or you'll die FAT and MISERABLE!!!"
Anyway, I am doing OK with it so far. From now on, I'll post my comments about my experience in my diary, if you have any interest.
Frankie
|
Zara
Senior Member
|
Posted: 12 Apr 2007 10:35 am |
|
Frankie,
I wish you luck on this eating plan and I hope you have great success on it! Prepareing the meals on FL4I was not a huge problem for me, as I have the luxuary of doing some of my work at home. I also found that by having to prepare the meals, it helped me to focus on the food.
I will check in with you via your diary and you can also do the same with me. I have started my own diary, in the same section on my progress with FL4I. We can both see how we are getting on .
Good luck and stay focused. Till we talk next, keep the faith!
Blessings,
Zara
|
Current time is 02:15 pm | |
|
|
|
