The Book and my takeaways

I finished the book I mentioned in my last post - The obesity code - Unlocking the secrets of weight loss by Jason Fung. 

I took away some very interesting concepts in the book regarding weight loss, the usual gain after the loss and how our bodies work. 

He writes that the key to weight loss and beating obesity is to regulate our insulin levels in our body as  it is insulin that actually makes us fat. Not calories, not carbs - although carbs are basically insulin creators, but it's managing our insulin. 

One key to regulating and managing our insulin is through fasting. I know that when I eat, my insulin levels rise and then has to recover so if I'm eating every 3-5 hours, my body is constantly building up insulin and then recovering, but then before it can stay low long enough, it goes up again because I've eaten again. 

I'm not ready to do a 24-36 hour fast. Yet. I do really want to do one.  But not yet. Soon, hopefully as I know a longer fast helps do a full reset in our bodies which I do believe we need every once and awhile. 

One tip that was mentioned in the book was to eliminate snacking.  It makes sense as it's added calories but the reality is that it's not the added calories that causes the problem, but the constant fluctuations of insulin in our bodies. 

So my first thing I'm going to try is to not snack between meals. I don't eat breakfast but I count my coffee as breakfast so I will try to have my coffee (breakfast), lunch and then dinner. Nothing else. At least Monday to Thursday.  I know on the weekends, it's a bit harder to manage as we are usually out and about or visiting/entertaining. 

I tried this yesterday and let me tell you, snacking is literally a habit. I finish work and I usually go and grab my cheese plate, maybe some meats or veggies with dip and flop in front of the TV and eat. I'm not hungry, I just do it out of habit. 

Typically, I eat lunch at 11:30.  I then grab a handful of nuts at 2. Then I have my "after work" snack at 3:30. Then dinner between 5:30-6:30. Usually, I'm done eating after dinner,  but on some occasions, I might grab a quick snack at 7:30 before bed. I'm in bed at 9. 

So I eat at 11:30, 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30??? Seriously... I'm eating all day long! 

Yesterday I changed it up. I had my coffee at 7:30, lunch at 11 and then dinner at 5:15. That was it. And I didn't die. I wanted my snacks out of habit. I thought I was hungry but after 10-15 minutes, any hunger feelings were gone. I grabbed a cup of green tea at 3 as my "snack" to hold me over. 

So, I'm going to give this a try. My food tracking sucks but I think I can easily track WHEN I eat. Sometimes my lunches are a bit small, so I might up the food a bit more at lunch or dinner to ensure I'm getting enough calories in the day to sustain life! :)