Finding the Tweaks

No, the tweaks are not a strange family with magical powers living at the bottom of my garden ...

The tweaks are what we do that makes a generic eating or exercise plan work for us.

Sometimes the tweaks make sense, sometimes they are just mysterious leaps of faith, against all odds.

Shall I elaborate? Or do you want me to leave you wondering? Elaboration follows ...

Last month's off plan eating day consisted of one huge meal of garlic bread, chicken and sticky date pudding followed by a chippy sandwich in white bread at home. I put on about a kilo overnight that I think I've still got. The following days were filled with carb cravings and it took a lot to get things back under control.

Evidence suggests these suspicious elements
1. White flour
2. Sugar
3. Chips
4. Eating one large meal

Saturday night's off plan eating episode consisted of normal eating during the day followed by snacking on lollies, chippies, icecream and sausage rolls.

Gain = about 1 kilo - same as before. But there was a difference. On Sunday I got straight back on plan with no cravings. I have lost 0.8 kg of that newly acquired kilo already.

Evidence suggests
1. White flour may be the culprit
2. Grazing is better than saving up for a calorie or carb overload

I also suspect that sugar is not necessarily a trigger food for me. I won't be eating it day in and day out, but it appears to not have done that much damage. If I consider my "not on any fucking diet anymore" wanton eating behaviour [in the USA last year] I mostly ate pastries and fancy breads. If I had my way I would live on ... HOT CROSS BUNS!!! [and muffins]. So I am extrapolating that I can plan sweet treats and fatty treats at some point but nothing with flour.

The bright sparks will point out that there was flour in the pastry on the sausage roll and in the icecream cone, which is entirely correct -- so my theory has holes in it! But maybe it was only a relatively small amount. Of course there is always yeast that could be the culprit ...

The other tweak is to do with my macros [that's diet speak for carb/protein/fat ratios]. I had fallen into the trap that most low fat dieters do when switching to low carb which is still trying to eat lean meat and low fat diary. So now I am concentrating on keeping my protein under 75g [trying for 25g per meal] and making up the calories with fat.

I feel much more satisfied with more fat in my diet. I choose tinned salmon instead of tuna, mayonnaise for my salad and whipped cream for dessert. I am finding that I am enjoying this version of low carb. For example, where I used to have protein powder with my eggs for breakfast now I have melted butter instead. Yum!!

So part of this way of life is to find the tweaks that suit you -- more/less protein, more/less fat, more/less carbohydrates. You need to work out what gets the results you want.

For me, I want to lose weight, or at least maintain where I am; not be hungry; not feel deprived; be able to treat myself occasionally; not have to go through carb withdrawal ever again [YUK].

Tweaking the Atkins, Protein Powder and Rosedale plans to suit me achieves all those goals.

I shall call my diet the high good fat, moderate protein, low carb, high interval cardio, weight training, yoga, meditation, diet coke diet. What would the acronym be?
~ the hgfmplchicwtymdc diet~
Do you think it will catch on???