SD Blogger

Weight: 257

OK so it’s been almost a month since my last post.  A few days after that post my weight was down to 252 and I got cocky and figured I had everything under control. I stopped taking the oil, figuring if I could keep eating the same way minus the 400 extra calories, I’d lose weight even faster.  Wrong.  I slowly slid back into all my old habits, started eating fast food lunches and gained back nearly everything I had lost.  Lesson learned.

So, I’m calling a do-over.  I started back on the oil today and I’ll be keeping track of things here at the blog.  Next time I get over confident I’ll make sure I re-read this post.

Weight: 254.0

 I’m still using Friday as my “official” weigh-in day but I was curious so I checked my weight today and it was down a little.  Again I went off SLD for the weekend and didn’t worry about my diet.  I went out to eat on Friday, had a meatball sub on Saturday and a hamburger on Sunday.  Normally that would result in weight gain but with my reduced appetite I really didn’t eat that much on my other meals.  I was eager to check my weight this morning because yesterday I actually felt lighter, like I had lost some weight.  Odd how the mind can detect a half pound loss.  Maybe it’s just a result of paying more attention to my weight and my eating habits but I’ve noticed I can usually guess what my weight is, within about a 1 pound range. 

Weight: 254.6

I’ve finally broken through the 255 barrier.  I’ve been bouncing around it for a couple of weeks and it seemed like I was never going to get below it.  The weight is still coming off slower than I would like but it is coming off, and relatively painlessly too. 

I was ill last night and went to bed early, I didn’t take my ELOO.  Hopefully that won’t impact me too much today.  I plan on switching to sugar water during the week anyway, I want to see if it’s more effective.

Not much to report.  I was getting concerned about the extra 500 or so calories I was taking in from the SLD so I actually stopped over the weekend to see if it would have an effect.  It did, I started getting hungry again.  I started the olive oil again on Monday but now I’m just doing two or three tablespoons at night and have stopped the sugar water I was drinking during the day.  The SLD effect seems about the same so this may be a better plan.

 The biggest problem I’ve had lately is the standard food portions at restaurants are too much.  I ordered a salad from McDonald’s today, with lo cal dressing, total calories were around 300 I think.  I feel absolutely stuffed and it’s really not a pleasant feeling.  Why don’t I just not eat all of what I order?  I don’t start feeling full until about 20 minutes after I stop eating.  The obvious solution is to just order less food but it’s hard to convince yourself that you don’t need the same size portion that you’ve eaten your whole life.

I haven’t been weighing myself since Friday and I also haven’t been paying a lot of attention to what I eat.  I want to see if one of the main claims of the SLD is true, that I can lose weight without really trying.  Tomorrow is weigh-in day so we’ll find out then.

Incidentally, this post at the SLD forum mentions a decrease in alcohol consumption.  I’ve never been a heavy drinker but I like to have a beer or two during the week and a little Scotch on Friday night but since I’ve started SLD I haven’t had any desire for it.  I’ve had a brand new bottle of 12 year old Macallan scotch sitting in my cupboard for weeks now and it’s just sitting there.  I’ll try to “force” myself to drink some tomorrow night.

Weight: 255.4
Lost: 4.8 lbs

I was a little disappointed this morning when I weighed myself because it seems like I’m stuck again but then I noticed something when I entered my weight in my spreadsheet.  Even though my “official” weigh-in is once a week I still weight myself almost every day and keep track of it.  Today I pulled out just the weekly values and graphed them and there’s a pretty clear downward trend:

The weight isn’t coming off as fast as I’d like but it’s clearly coming off.  This is a good illustration of why it’s important to keep track of your progress.  In my own mind I was stuck at a plateau because day to day I wasn’t seeing  consistent loss.  But looking at the weekly numbers shows slow and steady progress.

I’m starting to see the first really noticeable physical changes from the weight loss.  I’ve written before that I can wear pants that used to be too small but I couldn’t see any difference in the mirror.  Now I’m seeing a couple of spots on my stomach where it looks like someone went in and did liposuction and sucked out a little fat.  For some reason I find that even more satisfying than fitting into smaller pants.  I’ve been looking at the same fat gut for so long, seeing it finally start to shrink is really gratifying.

I started the Shangri-La Diet on May 10, it’s now nearly a month later so I figure this is a good time for a review and see how I feel about it.   Let’s take a look at the claims made by the author and compare them to my own experience:

“The no hunger, eat anything weight loss plan”

• No hunger - Not exactly but there’s been a very real reduction in the intensity of my hunger, especially during the day.  The most dramatic difference is it takes less food to fill me up.  The only catch is I don’t feel the real fullness until about 20 minutes after I stop eating so I really need to pay attention to how much I’m eating.
• Eat anything - Well sure, you can eat anything and if you’re eating less than before you’re bound to lose weight.  The only time I eat “bad” foods is when I make a deliberate decision to do so.  I don’t have the same physical craving for cheeseburgers or pizza or ice cream but sometimes I do want to eat them just because I like the flavor.  I still eat things I shouldn’t and I think that directly affects the next point.
• Weight loss - Not so much.  I’ve lost maybe 3 pounds since I started, I was really hoping for a more dramatic and noticeable loss, maybe a constant 5 pounds.  I’m fluctuating between 2 and 5 pounds lost and seem to be stuck.  I think part of this is due to the fact that I reduced my exercise level right around the time I started this, for reasons that have nothing to do with the SLD.  Also, I sometimes think that the SLD has been so effective that I can go ahead and eat a few extra cookies or have some ice cream or eat a big hamburger.  Obviously that’s just defeating all the gains I made early in the day.

Some people have seen specific effects:

• Skip meals out of a lack of desire to eat - Eh, not really.  There’s been times when I could have skipped lunch and probably been alright but I ate something anyway just because I was worried about getting really hungry later.
• A desire to eat better quality food in smaller portions - Maybe.  I don’t crave a Quarter Pounder with Cheese anymore but it’s not like I’m hankering for foie gras and wine.
• Immediate loss of appetite after drinking the ELOO - No.  I noticed no effect on appetite immediately.  It seems to just enhance the appetite suppression I normally get from eating.  Feel full longer, don’t get as hungry and feel full on less food.
• Dramatic weight loss causes concern among friends - No but as noted earlier, people have noticed that I’m thinner.  Even though I haven’t lost much weight I’m definitely thinner, I can wear pants that previously did not fit and I my waist is measurable smaller.
• Lose weight without even trying - Absolutely not.  My appetite is greatly reduced but I still have to be very carefuly about what I eat.  Obviously I haven’t been careful enough because I haven’t lost much weight. 

So am I seeing everything I hoped for?  No.  Is it worth doing? Absolutely.  It’s really a trivial thing to drink olive oil or sugar water twice a day and I have seen some very real beneficial effects.  Even if I don’t lose anymore weight I’m sure my overall health is better because I don’t eat fast food anymore and I’ve stopped snacking between meals. 

From today on I’m going to be much more diligent about diet and exercise.  I’ve been careful but I’ve learned I can’t rely on any Shangri-La magic, I still have to make good choices.  SLD is a valuable tool but it hasn’t been a magic bullet.

I visited friends in L.A. this weekend, I hadn’t seen them in a couple of months and everyone noticed I’ve lost weight.  I also played softball on Sunday and was able to run around without as much difficulty as I’ve had in the past.  I’ve been running a couple of times a week in addition to my regular workouts, I think that’s really making a difference.

My unofficial weigh-in today was lower than my official weigh-in last Friday, despite a weekend of ignoring my diet.  I ate out every meal and while most of what I ordered wasn’t particularly healthy in every case I wasn’t able to eat everything I ordered.  Twice I ordered food with french fries and both times I only ate a couple of fries before I was just grossed out by them.  In the past I would have eaten them all, even if they weren’t very good.  I don’t know if it’s a direct effect of the SLD or just a side effect because now that I don’t eat those kind of foods every day my body has adjusted and I can see just how disgusting they are.

Weight: 256.0

I’ve been stuck at 257 and change for almost a week so the last couple of days I made a real effort to cut back on eating.  Dinner last night was a 200 calorie frozen Indian entree, the previous night I was weak and picked up some take out Chinese.  Fortunately the food was horrible so I ended up just eating the rice.  Breakfast and especially lunch have been very light the last few days too.  Preliminary results are promising, it looks like I’m starting to lose weight again. 

Aside from any weight loss I am definitely seeing a difference.  I’m currently wearing jeans that I couldn’t even button two months ago, and they’re actually a little loose.  I’m really curious as to how effective this is going to be in 3 months time, or 6.   Unlike every other weight loss plan I feel like this is something I can stick with for the long term.   I tried Atkins once, lost about 15 pounds and then gained it back because I was sick of eating like that.  With SLD I’m not limited in what I can eat, it’s just that I eat less of it.

I took my 3 tablespoons of ELOO last night.  Mixed with a little water it’s pretty painless.   It looks disgusting but if I close my eyes and drink it down I don’t really notice it.

Today I had a similar but smaller breakfast compared to yesterday and I’m still full at 11am.  Is it really the olive oil I took last night or is it a placebo effect?  Some SLD bloggers are expressing skepticism and I think that’s warranted given the lack of clinical trials.  I’m still unsure myself.   I know it’s helped me but I certainly haven’t seen the drastic effects some people have reported.  I simply stay full longer on less food and when I do get hungry it’s not the overpowering urge to eat that it once was.  The actual weight loss has been a bit disappointing, given that I no longer eat fast food lunches, candy bars or chips.  On the other hand I have been eating junk on the weekends, I think that has caused me to take 1 step back for every two steps forward.  I also stopped exercising for almost two weeks, for reasons that have nothing to do with the SLD.

The Shangri-La Diet has not been an “eat anything” diet, I still need to watch what I eat.  The main benefit for me has been the blunting of the hunger, it’s enabled me to make better choices.  Whether this is because of the “set point” theory, a placebo effect or just because I’m ingesting calories in a more spread out manner is irrelevant to me.  As long as I’m seeing a beneficial effect I’ll keep with it.

I was so busy yesterday I forgot to take my olive oil.  Normally I take 3 tablespoons around 10pm, mixed with a little water.  This morning I had a decent sized breakfast sandwich (provided for free at a meeting), normally something like that would keep me satisfied well into the afternoon.  I started getting hungry around 12 and by 1 I was really hungry.  I’m not going to jump to conclusions but it certainly seems like the SLD effect has diminished in just one day.

Regardless of what the scale says I’m getting smaller.  I tried on 3 pairs of pants I haven’t been able to wear in over a year, they fit me now.  I have two more that are another size down that I’m getting close to fitting, I can actually button them.