Thursday, December 30, 2010

Questions

I have a couple of questions I hope the other folks in the growing 4HB community can answer.

In the 4-Hour Body, Ferris forbids dairy, including cheeses and ferments such as yogurt and kefir. But why? Do they trigger a glucose spike or is it because of the fat content?

Also, while grains are verbotten on 4HB days, are substitutes allowed? What about chick pea flour? Or coconut flour? Are there other non-grain flours that could be used to create substitutions?

I can imagine that as a single person following the 4HB diet would be easy peasy. Even in a partnership shopping, prepping and cooking food on this plan would be easy. However, when you have to cook for a family that includes kids who are normally picky even when it comes to comfort foods is more challenging. Add in the budget constraints that our family has and suddenly coming up with meals that will be filling for us adults and appealing to the 3 and 7 year olds is daunting.

And, then, what happens after the experiment ends? Let's say, in theory, I reach my body recomposition goals, is it then safe to add back in some of the forbidden foods that make eating so pleasureable to me and my family?

I'm curious about other people's diet mods. How strict are other people?

My husband and I are going to be jumping in with both feet on Sunday, making Saturday our family's "Magic Day". This works well for us because we generally do our visiting and eating out on those days and it will be perfect for our main form of entertainment: watching DVDs and eating bowls of ice cream and chips. Until then we are easing into the new foodway by eating as many compliant meals as possible.

Our problem is, though, that we are snackers. Especially me. And while today we actually ate all compliant meals, I also drank an iced green tea, at a Snickers, had a bowl of ice cream for dessert... How the heck am I going to go all compliant all week?!

Any ideas, folks? I'm obviously in need of help.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Mamaloo,
    I started the 4 hour body diet nearly 3 weeks ago, and the first and most important comment I have to make is to STAY with the diet, in as strict a fashion as possible for 5 days - and then see if you still feel like eating snacks - I will bet you don't. In fact, after 3 weeks on the plan, there are quite a few meals that I eat because I am supposed to, not because I am hungry.
    I am a big guy, when I started out I weighed in at 288 pounds, and I am roughly 6 foot 6 inches.
    At the end of week one I had lost 8 pounds (really)
    The second week, I didn't lose nearly as much. My suspicion is that roughly half of that weight was water loss - the second week I had only lost 2 pounds - however I lost a bit over a pound each of the next successive 3 days. My free day is Saturday as well - I don't weigh in again until Tuesday - I weight in every day between Tuesday and Saturday morning (to avoid seeing what Saturday does to me).

    Anyway, here is the thing, you have to avoid sugar (carbs) as much as possible to kill the cravings. Snickers - just one - will wreck the day for cravings.

    Insulin makes you hungry - makes snacking almost impossible to resist - it is astonishing just how different you will feel after 5 days on the diet. I was a snack maniac - seriously. I work from a home office and I hit the fridge multiple times a day. That urge is TOTALLY gone. Week 2 was a miracle in that respect.

    Stick closely to the rules and they will begin to enforce themselves.

    Skip the flours, skip looking for substitutes, skip the dairy and especially the candy. The first week was the hardest, but the second is much better. As your insulin levels begin to fall your hunger and snack cravings will diminish - its is flat out remarkable. If you can make the first 5 days - without breaking down - the second week you will be astonished.

    Be prepared to be grouchy! the end of the day can be rough. but every day you stay on the plan you will feel better - for real.

    I am signed up to lose 90 pounds! I am more confident that I can do it now that I have been ever before - because I have my hunger under control for the first time in I haven't any idea.

    I don't know about everything in Tim's book, but the core, simple rules he outlines in the diet outline work to control hunger if nothing else. And for me, that might end up being a lifesaver.

    Good luck! and feel free to contact me if you need to talk.

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  2. Thanks, Bryce.

    One of my issues is that I have kids and I start getting a gag reflex after eating the same thing for too long. So, some of the substitutions like coconut flour or chickpea flour will help with variety for me. I'm dreaming of onion bhajis!

    BTW, have you ever read up on the benefits of coconut? It would be perfect for this diet and allow me to make "cream" soups without taters or cream.

    My weight loss needs are in line with yours. So I'm looking forward to following along with your progress. Thanks so much for the support. The community of 4HB bloggers that is growing is truly inspirational.

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  3. You have some really great information on your site.

    I just recently started a forum so that people who have read The 4-Hour Body can discuss the massive amount of information in the book.

    I'm trying to get some traffic to the site and get some discussions started, is there any way you could help out by creating a post on your site, adding it to your resources page and/or maybe tweeting about it?

    My site is http://www.4hbtalk.com

    ReplyDelete