Biohacking and Bulletproof Coffee

So part of this journey I am on has been about really looking into the right food for my body.

One of my colleagues at a client site posted a link on her facebook about Bulletproof Coffee. Clicking on the link led me to probably a couple of hours of reading posts at the time.


Initally, I was restricting my intake in a pretty extreme way, and I think I really needed to do that. So much of eating for me has always been about emotions and irrational thinking, and one of the main benefits of doing that was that I was actually able to take a break from my own brain, my own thinking.

What a relief! I even got really good at explaining what I was doing in a way that made sense to my own irrational thinking.

So now I thinking more about the difference between restricting intake to loose weight and retraining my body and resetting my metabolism.

The guy posting calls himself the Bulletproof Executive and has taken the concept of Biohacking to the extreme! I'll leave you to click on the link - his coffee, and concepts, are not for the faint of heart.

I can see that by doing a solely restrictive diet, there is a very real chance that my body will simply get completely confused, thinking it is starving and therefore slowing down my metabolism.

And this explains why so many people that do something like the Cohen diet lose heaps of weight - may 40kg - then put all that weight, and more, back on once they reach their goal weight.

I am trying to start replacing bad choices in my diet with really nutritious choices. Even though I have no idea how to prepare Jerusalem Artichokes!

Already I have noticed that I am more prepared to buy small quantities of really good products rather that stock standard grub from the supermarket. I am beginning to understand that price isn't the only factor when it may as well be toxic to me.

 

So today I am posting some of my recent purchases for your reading pleasure. And I am interested in how you think I could consider incorporating these into my diet

Real mozzarella balls - the fresh stuff is apparently really good as cheeses go and this tub has plenty of cherry tomato size balls.
Real wasabi - anything with intense flavourings is gonna be a winner and I've always had the cheap green horseradish variety.
Barrys Bay cheese - this is intended to be the opposite of the mozzarella, really tasty and designed for using just a small amount at a time.
LSA (linseed, sunflower and almond crush) - a friend sent a link saying this stuff is good for you. Only way I've used it so far is mixed through yoghurt.
Coconut Oil - apparently this is good for you. The Bulletproof Executive gets half his calories from fats, but always the good one. How is the next question ...
Steel-cut oats - a friend posted a link on facebook about making yoghurt crunch cups and the same site had a posting abut making steel-cut oats. Very soon after, there they were, tempting to be bought. Will let you know how they turn out.
Baby food - not sure if I already mentioned, but fruit purees are great for putting through low fat unsweetened yoghurt.
Clearwater Topless Yoghurt - I get this tub at a local market and it lasts for months as long as you carefully remove portions with sterile spoons.
Jerusalem Artichokes - apparently similar to potato but better for you and good at stablising blood sugars.
Free range, corn fed chicken - I try and buy a packet that is the right weight to easily split into meals. This packet is two meals for me.

This week I have been out with the girls for a Thai banquet and had pizza delivered last night. Which makes it even more remarkable that my weight this week is 85.2kg.

What did I eat today?

This isn't necessarily an average day, but is typical of what I am trying to achieve. Plenty of protein and low GI veggies, low fat dairy, limited fruit and gluten and minimal fat. This is deliberately restrictive as my goal is recover from Diabetes, which requires weightloss. And to have a food plan that stabilises my blood sugars at the same time.

Breakfast

Instant Apple Cinnamon porridge sachet made up with 1/2 cup trim milk and then mixed with a couple of spoonfuls of low fat unsweetened yoghurt.

Lunch
Half a serve of chilli beef and veggies, no noddles or rice from the Chinese at the food court.  I paid an extra 20c to have it served on a plate and have a takeaways container as well and I split the meal before I ate it. The remainder is still sitting in the fridge at work for the weekend. Whoops!

Afternoon Tea

A good few Peckish crackers - Salt and Vinegar. I love these ones though probably the Chilli are better and I love that they are gluten free.

Dinner
Veggies (sliced mushrooms, capsicum and onion) laid over the base of a square baking tin and topped with an egg then baked in the oven and served with a little oyster sauce and sprouts.

1/4 tin of drained Fruit Salad in Natural Juice.

Fluids

One glass of diet lift in the morning.

One small bottle of coke zero with lunch.

A couple of glasses of water and a couple of cups of instant coffee with trim milk no sugar - I never had sugar in coffee so this is just a personal choice

Snacks/Other

Two Shrewsbury biscuits before dinner - hey they did have magic in the middle!

A fish oil capsule and a glucose stabilising tablet from the health shop.

As I posted another time, this time is working for me because I am seeing food as helpful or not helpful now. So even though someone else may be eating something "delicious", I don't feel deprived.

This is a new feeling as I have always wanted to eat everything and probably been thinking about lunch the moment I finished breakfast. Now I don't even really think about food until I am ready for it.

Choosing to severely restrict my options is helping I think. It means that when I get home, I am thinking which of 100g steak, 100g chicken or an egg I will have tonight, and not the thousands of other choices I could be having.

I do find evenings difficult still though. I prowl for food while reminding myself why I am doing this. When this works, I go to bed happy.

Yummy Egg Fritters

A long time ago, before Sanitarium told us all to have Weetbix for breakfast, an egg was a really normal breakfast food.

I remember in Intermediate the Home Economics teacher spending the first week solely extolling the virtues of the humble egg. I took away from it that eggs are about the most complete food on earth and lack only vitamin C. Feel free to correct this 12 year old's information.

Eventually we were allowed to scramble the egg and finally whipped those eggs into a sponge cake. The baking never took, but I still love cooking eggs. I create a mean omelette or scramble. The trick to delicious eggs is not over-cooking them.

Ingredients
1 Egg
4 Button Mushrooms
1/2 a Courgette
1/4 a Capsicum
Finely sliced cabbage
Cracked Pepper
Lemon Juice

Directions
Prepare the veggies and place in eggs rings in a pan lightly sprayed with oil. Beat one egg with a little water and divide between the egg rings. Squeeze over lemon juice and season with cracked pepper. Cook until bottom is set, then remove rings and turn fritters over to lightly cook other side.

I served this with a side of lettuce, vinegar and lemon juice with a little cracker broken over as croutons.

Serves 1

I reckon this meal was on the table in less than 10 minutes. I could spend longer than that deciding on what to order while waiting in the queue at McDonalds!

Kiwifruit and Yoghurt for Breakfast

On most mornings since I have been following my food plan, I have been have been having low fat unsweetened yoghurt and fruit for breakfast. The quantity of yoghurt I have been eating is about four good spoonfuls over one serve of fruit.

I am happy with a chopped-up kiwifruit or some mango or paw paw. My friends prefer the yoghurt sweetened with sugar substitute.

Clearwater's Organic Dairy Yoghurt

Comes as several choices including the fabulous Cream Top Yoghurt, but they also have a low fat unsweetened version that they claim is milk and culture and nothing else. This yoghurt is mildly acidic and quite loosely textured. The Clearwater's website has some fantastic recipes using their products as well.

Cyclops Organic Low Fat Greek Yoghurt

This one is a lot thicker and and a lot more acidic. I really like the texture of greek yoghurt, but I know that my friends prefer it whisked a bit to smooth and loosen the texture.

Biofarm Low Fat Yoghurt

I haven't tried this one yet so I am not sure about the sugar content as low fat does not necessary mean low sugar, so I'll update this post when I know. Their website looks like it has a nice selection of recipes too.

EasiYo Low Fat Yoghurt

Has a range of low fat and low sugar choices. The Berry version has 7g of sugar per 100g, and you could sweeten to task with a substitute. I don't have an EasiYo maker at home, but think I need to borrow one and try these out.

DeWinkyl Natural Unsweetened Yoghurt

This is a mild yoghurt with a firmer texture than the Clearwater's but not as firm as the Greek.

Recently I bought a six-pack of a new dairy dessert range and discovered that these pots had a ridiculous amount of sugar and fat. Maybe okay occasionally for the kids, but I am finally beginning to realise that some foods may as well be poison to me.

Jenny recommends a smoothie with banana, low fat milk and protein powder. Yoghurt, berries and low fat milk would make a great smoothie too.

Other ways you could have this breakfast could be flavoured with cinnamon, grated apple and sugar substitute to taste or with mango microwaved with a bit of water and mashed, then stirred through the yoghurt.

Remember that low fat dairy has been shown to help reduce the risk of all sorts of bad stuff and may help carry fat away from the body. And a protein-rich breakfast will reduce your hunger. Low fat yoghurt is also low GI, which means you won't be spiking your blood sugars, which will help stabilise your blood sugars for the day. And did I mention the calcium in the yoghurt and the fibre in the kiwi?

So get some today.

Protein Reduces Hunger

Researchers don't really know why yet, but it makes sense to me that Protein reduces Hunger given our original diet as humans. We were designed to work most effectively on the foods that would have been most available back then.

Online reading suggests there are no dangers with a high protein diet unless you have kidney disease. And that based on existing research, we should be aiming for around 120gms a day total, so you need to decide if my plan fits your circumstances for yourself. Please they always say you should see your doctor to be on the safe side ...

So what is an appropriate serving size for protein? Well it changes depending on the item, for example Peanut Butter would be 2 Tablespoons vs a piece of Chicken Breast the size of a deck of cards.

I am eating protein with every meal and making sure that I eat three meals a day.

I have started with just a few options:

100g Lean Chicken

100g Lean Beef

100g Lean Fish

60g Low fat Cheese (Ricotta, Cottage)

60g Low fat Yoghurt

1 egg

maybe a few walnuts at some stage ... VNess has reminded me how fantastic nuts are ...

I am not particularly fond of shellfish - blurk - but Mussels, Oysters, Prawn etc all seem a fantastic choice for someone who is.

Image: vitasamb2001 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Incredible Shrinking Stomach!

OK. I admit I can be as gullible as the next person and I truly believed that if you eat smaller portions over a period of time, your stomach actually shrinks!

This was the theory I was working to when I deliberately reduced my portion sizes recently as part of this new food plan.

Apparently this fabulous myth is bollocks. Your stomach is like a balloon and can inflate or deflate as needed.

That's disappointing.

But there is good news! Reduced portion size may not shrink your stomach but it will shrink your appetite.

So I have found that with only a couple of weeks of controlled portions, I have already reset my 'appetite thermometer'. Which I am very happy about. This means that as long as I continue to saviour the food I am eating and choice smaller portions, I am feeling full and satisfied with less.

I definitely recommend that if you have begun to control your portion size, and you are struggling with hunger pangs: stick at it and you will notice a difference before too long.

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Too fat, too thin ...

I know that for all the overweight people in the world, there is another group equally battling to keep weight on.

Since I am such an expert, I thought I'd share my recipe for weight gain.

Step One

Make sure all choices relating to food are based on emotions: the more stress, the greater the quantities.

Step Two

Don't eat breakfast.

Step Three

I know it seems like not having breakfast might not help with weight gain, but trust me, by 10am, that pie or leftover pavlova is going to look really good. So go ahead and eat something that tastes really good and is either high fat, high sugar or both.

Step Four

Because everyone else is heading off for lunch at twelve, feel free to join them. Go to the local food court and pick anything you feel like. Make sure to add a drink to that, but avoid diet or water.

Step Five

Don't bother eating again if you get caught up in work, we can make up for that later. But feel free to drink as much coffee as you choose. At least enough that you have headaches on the weekend when your intake falls.

Step Six

When you get home, snack on anything. After all, it's been hours since lunch. But don't count it as dinner, more of a "late afternoon snack".

Step Seven

When dinner is ready, make sure to serve yourself a big plateful. You want your stomach to stretch and not feel full unless you jam plenty in.

Step Eight

Feel free to have dessert, if you wish. Same rules as dinner apply.

Step Nine

As long as we are still eating, feel free to pull out a packet of dip and chips and chow down.

Step Ten

Repeat daily.

Additionally, enjoy unlimited chocolate, lollies, birthday cakes or other food opportunities that present themselves. Make sure to also eat plenty of healthy fruit and vegetables.

Your body will be so confused, it will simultaneously think it is starving and malnourished. Because your stomach is so stretched, you will still feel hungry all the time.

Just keep feeding the hunger and the weight will pile on.

Image: zirconicusso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Spicy Chicken Soup

I am finding soup better at night because it fills me up more and makes me feel full for longer. This soup has protein, tons of vegies and garlic, chilli, a tiny splash of fish sauce, lemon and vinegar. I love loads of coriander.

Ingredients

100g Chicken Mince or finely chopped Chicken Breast

1Tsp Vinegar

1Tsp Lemon Juice

1/2 tsp Fish Sauce

Chilli flakes to taste

Coriander

Any combination of vegies including:

Courgette

Mushroom

Celery

Onion

Cabbage

Mushroom

350ml water

Directions

Brown the mince with a spray of oil. Slice, dice or grate the vegies and add to the pot. Cook for a few minutes then add water and remainder of flavours including coriander. Allow to brew and cool a few minutes.

Enjoy with a couple of crackers.

Serves 1

I've also tried adding the mushrooms and courgette finely julienned and the coriander at the end and leaving them to heat through with the leftover heat works really well.

The next time I made two nights worth. I had some that night and more waiting for me the next night. I am finding chilli, garlic, lemon and coriander make the food tasty.

My Achilles Heel is Kids Party Food

Here in New Zealand, almost every kids party held in someone's home will include some or all of the following:

Cheerios

Fairy Bread

Savouries (or party pies over the ditch)

Kiwi Onion Soup and Reduced Cream Dip

Salsa

Potato Chips

Corn Chips

Lollies

Cupcakes, slices and biscuit

Popcorn

Fizzy

Juice

I love party food!

For all of my currently displayed motivation, I faced my biggest challenge so far today going to a kids party with my bevy of boys.

I start innocuously enough thinking that a couple of corn chips and salsa might be okay.

Really this opened the floodgates for the rest of the afternoon and by the end, I had enjoyed two savories, several cheerios dipped in salsa, a ham sandwich, a small slice of chocolate peppermint slice, a few swigs of grape fizzy and of course, the cornchips and salsa and chips and dip. Oh and chocolate Birthday Cake ...

Soooooo good at the time, but more sugar than I have had for weeks and so now I am suffering a combination of headache and thick throat. I can't tell if my throat is trying to swallow down the food or my disappointment at myself.

I am choosing to pick myself up and keep going. Tonight I will have an egg and some salad for tea.

Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Food as Medicine

Since I have Diabetes, I am going to try starting with a food plan that addresses the main concerns of my Diabetes: sugar and anything that my body converts to sugar.

As you probably have too, I have seen many diets. Enough that I could probably create one myself. But I will start with something simple based on minimal carbohydrates with protein for every meal.

My plan is to mix low GI foods with proteins. Since vegies are carbohyrates too, that means staying away from root vegies etc. If I can eat low GI vegies, then it should cause a more gradual rise in my blood glucose levels.

So a serve of lean protein (including low fat cheese or yoghurt) with each meal and a combination of at least five vegies a day, plus two serves of low GI fruit a day.

Additionally I intend to have a few low fat crackers during the day as well.

So that's going to be my meal plan.

Image: Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dumb and Dumber

You may wonder how much I know about the practical stuff. Like what happens when you eat what.

I actually know far too much. Maybe even an overdose of knowledge. This journey has never been about ignorance. It's been something quite different.

In my life, everything fascinates me. I have YouTube'd videos of key-cutting machines and how to prepare a fresh squid. I get excited by seeing behind the scenes of anything ... a supermarket, a McDonalds, an Emergency Service Communications centre ...

Anything involving my health is the same. I can tell you all about Myopia and Astigmatism.

I can tell you all about eating as well.

But there has been a disconnect between my knowledge and my actions. I eat too much and I eat the wrong stuff.

I have never questioned whether you can have your cake and eat it too ...

I have been doing this for a really long time too. Twice I have undertaken 'dieting', once with Jenny Craig - great food but really expensive, and once with Weight Watchers. Both times I lost maybe 10kg and eventually put even more back on.

And three times I have undertaken healthy eating for the sake of another to varying degrees of success.

Unless I can get to the point where I am choosing to eat for health and choosing to do it forever (not just losing the same 10kg over and over ...) - I will be destined to the same fate.

Image: Dino De Luca / FreeDigitalPhotos.net