Day 16 - Starch Solution

Today’s stats:

Back to work today and I was up early despite not sleeping that well. I tried going to bed reasonably early for me (about 10:25) but then just enjoyed the view of a darkened ceiling. Not ideal. This supports my long term theory that if you’re not tired there’s very little point going to bed and trying to get some sleep. Might as well simply wait to be sleepy and then retire.

Still, I was up early which meant I was able to get my measurements in without any trouble. Once again, the weight has dropped quite significantly which is a real surprise. I was convinced it would have retraced slightly but it seems it’s still on its downward course. I will be very surprised if tomorrow isn’t an increase though, because I’ve never seen a case where weight continues to decrease like this. I’m not complaining of course, just surprised, but maybe this is to be expected on the Starch Solution?

It did actually occur to me that in another of Dr. McDougall’s books The McDougall program for maximum weight loss, the key to losing weight fast is to keep off the replacement milks (especially those from nut sources) and to avoid refined starch such as bread and pasta. Well, I’ve had some bread recently, especially over the weekend (thanks to Subway), but apart from that I’ve been eating mostly whole foods (although I’ve been eating white rice rather than brown rice). On the front cover of that book, Dr. McDougall claims up to 15lbs (6.9KG) can be lost a month - and I’m close to hitting that in two weeks. I guess some people just lose weight faster than others, but I’m expecting this to settle down and plateau. This amount of weight loss is not sustainable (even if it’s currently welcome).

Breakfast today was beans on toast. I found a special offer on the beans and after checking the ingredients, there was no added oil or other nasties (well apart from some sugar in the sauce). Still as a change from the oats, I don’t think it’s really all that bad and it’s pretty filling. Come midday I wasn’t hungry and it was until 12:45 I started to have some of my lunch box. I finished about half of it and saved the rest for later.

During lunch I caught up with another lecture on the Plant Nutrition course. This one focused on the chemical causes of cancer and really reaffirms the original idea that whilst chemicals might load the gun, it’s diet and the environment that pulls the trigger. The evidence strongly suggests that cancer is reversible even when it has left the promotion stage and entered the progression stage.

I didn’t get peckish again until a meeting at 3:30 and an apple took care of that. I then got roped into another meeting and was pretty hungry by the time it wrapped up (around 5:10), so I polished off the rest of my lunch box. Glad I kept it on stand by!

Dinner was a bit different as it was pretty big (it was in a big bowl, but I’m sure it was a much larger amount) and had carrots in it. I haven’t had carrots during this experiment so it was an interesting change. Nice and sweet too, though it left me stuffed. Then came the grapes. Really starting eating into the pain (bad idea), but interesting this is the first time I’ve felt full since I started. This meal I think will be with me tomorrow…