carrie - glad you found the info helpful. Let us know how it goes!

I've seen great improvement in my sleeping. I have started to go to bed at 9:30 (sometimes later) and not pushing myself to get up early for a walk. It's really paying off - I'm definitely sleeping more. From barely 7 hours to 8 plus. Some nights even 9!

I've been taking my walks in the afternoon, but have yet to start my Core Program exercise (similar to yoga and Pilates) or resistance training.

I am still reading a lot about diet and hormones. For now, I am sticking to paleo with occasional dairy indulgences. I'm not tracking my carbs, but I will continue my 9 a day plan. I estimate total carbs will be in the 60 - 90 range.

That's an interesting thing about total versus net carbs. The authors who want you to eat more carbs - like Schwarzbein - never mention net carbs so I assume they are counting total carbs.

The authors who recommend lower carb levels do use net carbs. It seems to me that because of this the two approaches are not as far apart as they seem.

Sharron - how's it going?

The campout was fantastic. The parents supervised their own kids during the meeting, but they used the play stuff I brought, so that worked out well. I loved sleeping in the tent!

Alice

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lc since 12/18/01

I'm just holding steady. Still waiting to be able to go to the doc and I've not even had a second to pick up my SP book! I ended up having to re-do the index for my book all last week and have just been flat out since!

As always, I feel best if I can get my carb sources from fruits and veggies, however I
can "tolerate" grain carbs. There seems to be this "fine line" between super strict (induction level) carbs and refined carbs -- I'm not sure which makes me feel worse at the moment! I can say I feel best with a fruit and a veggie or two veggies, though

It does seem that I really do need some "carb" source, at least at the moment to feel optimal. I lived for a very long time being super strict -- about 35 to 45 grams -- but I just don't feel well at all anymore doing that. Probably an adrenal fatigue symptom, but I don't know. I really do need to get to the doc!

Glad you had a fun campout

OOH, Sharron - doing the index even once sounds awful, re-doing must be the pits.

I sure love to eat lots of veggies too. I look forward to hearing about your new doc.

Alice

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lc since 12/18/01

Hi. I'm new to the board and to SP, but not to low carb eating. I started low carbing a year and a half ago, with Sugar Busters. Lost 33 pounds, then hit a wall. I stalled for 5 months, then began to count carbs. That helped me lose about 10 more pounds, and then I began to stall again. I'm evidently destined to be a SLOW loser I'm sure my age and perimenopause has something to do with it--another reason I like SP. I kept lowering my carb count, to about 40 (I never could do Atkins induction low--made me SICK!) I began to feel yucky--no energy, depressed. I found SP I in the bookstore 2 weeks ago. I felt she was talking about me! It was such a relief to be able to eat carbs with every meal and snack. I've been following her menus for about a week and a half. Two days ago I would have reported a 3 pound loss. But yesterday I found them again! Don't know what's going on, exactly, and trying not to be discouraged. But I definitely think SP makes more sense, and doesn't encourage manipulating food like Atkins (I drew the line at trying pork rind French Toast ). Sorry for the long post--I'm very new at posting, also. I hope you'll be patient with my mistakes

HI, Turtlewins, glad to have you with us!

You've lost a lot of weight so far - but I know what you mean about frustrating stalls! I think how great it would be if I had kept losing like in the beginning. I am 52 and going through menopause right now. They do say that the hormonal changes at this time make it very hard to lose, so I guess we're in the same boat.

Right now I'm yo-yoing the same 5 pounds, without doing anything different in my eating. So frustrating. That's why I'm concentrating on health and self-nurture to get through this time happy and not be pulling my hair out over stalled weight loss efforts. We can help each other. See also thread on menopause and weight loss in women's forum.

Sharron - forgot to say I'm looking forward to your new book coming out. We're all the beneficiaries of your hard work!

Alice

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lc since 12/18/01

Turtle, welcome to LCE

I can relate to your story, for sure! Have you taken the adrenal fatigue online diagnostic? This link http://www.womentowomen.com/LIBadren...ywords=adrenal is a short article about adrenal fatigue, then there is a "free profile" link on the right. I'm not recommending their program at all, but it is a useful tool. I'm just learning about the subject myself, having 3x been diagnosed with adrenal exhaustion, but never being able to follow through with a treatment plan.

You've got one up on me though: I've not been able to read the book yet! I'm about to page 10 :o

How funny, Alice -- we were posting at the same time AGAIN!

I think you'll like the new book, Alice. I felt very inspired with so many of the recipes!

And, no, no pork rind pancakes in this one

Thank you all for your welcome. Sharron, I hadn't realized you were a low carb cookbook writer (this is what I surmise from the posts?) It is so like me to open mouth, insert foot. I am very grateful to the low carb recipes I have that enable me to eat my favorite foods low carb. (Just couldn't do the pork rind french toast) It is quite an acoomplishment to get a book published. Congratulations!:great:
I still haven't lost those 3 pounds. I think it is the middle of my cycle, and I tend to gain a pound or two then. I used to lose those pounds before TOM and then gain them again in time for TOM, but lately I guess my body has decided that's too much trouble and so hangs on to them from mid-cycle until about a week after TOM ends. Why waste all that energy? I will definitely try the online test about adrenal fatigue when I have a few minutes to sit down with it. Thanks for the link. Slow and steady wins the race (I'm trying to convince myself of that).

No worries, turtle! I've actually just finished my 3rd book. Here's a link to my titles (the first 2 on the list are mine, the others are not!) http://www.lowcarbeating.com/cgi-bin...ong&mode=books

Let us know how you score on the adrenal fatigue chart. You might also want to take an online candida assessment or do a spittle test. The information is in my personal site here: http://www.thelowcarbcook.com/page8.html

Hello
I had been on Swartzbein for about 6 mo before I went on Fat Flush. I think Swartzbein was very healing, but I actually needed to detox too. Now I'm on a modified Fat Flush, closer to SP. I was a mess, burned out adrenals with high stress levels since childhood, over exerciser, severe dieting, emotional eating of high carb foods. But after being on the 2 programs, I have noticed that I can now eat a single piece of pizza and not desire the whole thing. I can eat a single chocolate and not binge. That is chemical, there is no doubt in my mind. But it does seem to require at least 1 day per week on FF just to detox. This thing is so complex.

BTW, if you have not bought any SP books, by far the easiest to understand is the most recent one. I have SP1&2 plus the cookbook, but the more recent one just gets right down to the plan without all the medical reasons. If you have an itch to understand more, the first 2 are always there for you, but I think that people eager to start would benefit from the program as set forth in the 3rd one better. JMHO
Dee Dee
Down 20 lbs, and losing in spite of not starting exercise yet. But I'm feeling good enough to do it, I'm just procrastinating. Afraid of adrenal issues I guess.

Hello all,

I'm new here and found this thread by a google search. I'm not trying to loose weight, but have heath issues that I believe have a root in my sugar addiction. To name the most prevalent symptoms, afternoon headaches and chronic monthly yeast infections. I also have my mother to observe to see what I will be like if I don't do something now. I found the Schwarzbein books and have been on the plan for 6 months now.

Quick history: Starting last July I got up the gumption to go completely off processed sugar for one month. I did it and felt good about myself, but felt like it was only part of the answer to my health issues. So in January,(I took a break for the holidays, didn't think I could have enough will power to survive) I tryed eating a Raw Vegan diet because I felt I needed to detox my body. This was difficult because I had to learn a how new way to prepare my food. I ate lots of veggies, sprouts of all sorts, raw nuts, fruit, and other natural sugars like agave nectar. I was very much into substituting "natural" sugar, with processed sugar.

I also in this time I tried detoxing with healing fasts and colon cleasing.

With no repreeve from my two main symptoms, I knew that a sugar was the culpret. So decide to start the dreaded "Anit-Candida" diet. I went for one week with absolutely no sugar. No fruit, no natual sugar, no bread, no pasta, no white rice or potatoes, no alcohol. I had the worst week ever! I couldn't think, I couldn't stay awake, I was aggitated, grumpy...I was crashing. Then my mom let me barrow The Schwarzbein Principle. I read that book in one week (had to let fruit back into my diet to accomplish this). I felt like this women knew exactly what was going on in my body and that I finally had the answer to what was going on. My profile: Adrenal burnout with normal insulin.

When I first started eating the amount of protein that Dr. Schwarzbein said (2 oz. per meal), I got heartburn...non stop heartburn. My body could not digest that small amount of protein. Now I have no problem. And because I had already gone through my week of detox from sugar, I found it easier to follow her suggestion of 15-25 grams of carbs per meal. She suggest self-medicating so that you don't hit bottom like I did, but I didn't get that info until after the fact.

She tells people like me to expect to gain weight (20-30 lbs.) while our bodies are healing, but I have maybe gained 5 lbs in the last 6 mo. because I have been able to control my carbs and I haven't been self-medicating. Ice cream is my weakness though, so it sneaks in once or twice a month, and I often get a headache afterwards, so in this case negetive reinforcement is a good thing.

Is anybody further along in their healing than I am? I feel like I am still experiencing a low hormonal state. Good news though is that since I've started I rarely get afternoon headaches and my monthly yeast infections are a thing of the past. I also have terrible PMS, Rosacia, a nonexistant lobido, and a foggy brain. I haven't seen any change in these symptoms yet, but I'm going to keep going till I do. Oh, and I could stand to loose some weight, but I'm confident that when my body is healed, it will be able to correct that.

Sorry for writing a book.

Hi. I started SP several years ago and lost over 50 pounds. My rosacea cleared up, my horrible pms and heavy flow eased so much I hardly noticed that tom. My libido also kicked into gear. I felt so good I went back to college!

I then got complacent. Over the last two years I've developed an autoimmune disease, my rosacea is back, my libido is kaput, I have the brain fog back big time. I looked for my SP book yesterday and restarted this morning. I know it will take some time to get my health back but this time I swear I'm not letting it go!

Glad to see someone else here who follows sp. Let's keep posting and encouraging each other!

Hello Idrial,
Good to hear that someone has seen relief from some of the same symptoms that I have. How long did you stick with SP before you began to see the improvements you mentioned?

I will be on my guard against complacency. I've felt it creeping in a little already. I go in next week to get my hormones checked. I'll finally be able to conclusively say whether my self-diagnosis was correct. I know checking hormones can be a difficult thing to do since they fluctuate all the time. Did you ever have your's checked? Hope the doctor does it right. I should probably be more informed before I go in. I need to read that section of the book again.

Hi MissChris! My blood tests showed I was hypothyroid, hypoglycemia, anemic, and that my RA factor was very elevated. Because I had a long way to go to get better, it took a couple weeks to really feel "good" again. My monthly flow was improved immediately.

Sorry it took me a while to respond, I've been out of town with son on his acting job.

I hope you're still around!!