Attempt 2 Day 1

Today’s stats:

So today is the official first day of attempt 2 on the Starch Solution. Hopefully things will go better this time, although to be fair, they went very well the first time - nearly 10kg (22lbs) in two months with pretty much zero effort. What I have to do now is watch out for the slippery slope, get off it quickly if I do fall for its charms and remember to eat before I go out to eat. All sounds simple enough right?

I’ll also be adding some other ingredients to the mix such as a basic physical fitness routine. I’ll write more about this later, but I want to be clear up front that it’s not meant to be some fancy full on training regime. More likely it will involve walking an extra stop or two when I get off the train or doing some stretching in the morning to loosen up a little. I don’t think I need to do this to lose weight, and in many ways it is debatable whether you need this even for good health. However, I’d like to have at least a decent level of fitness (being able to keep up with my son would be a great start) and so I’m going to put the effort in. My only concern here is that people will mistakenly attribute the benefits in health to the exercise, and not to the diet.

On to the food :)

I’ll still be eating mostly oats in the morning. It’s simple, quick and easy, but on the advice of Dr Greger, I’ve added a pinch of cinnamon, some flax seed and a handful of berries. The cinnamon and berries are high in antioxidants as well as tasting great and the flax provides fibre and other useful nutrients. In any case they aren’t going to cause any issues, they add taste, texture and variety and may have the added benefit of making my healthier - seems win win :)

I’ve been brewing a flash of Hibiscus tea each day, again due to the famed levels of anti oxidants in the tea itself. You don’t want to drink too much of it though as it’s pretty acidic and can actually cause an upset stomach.

Whilst attending the Advanced Studies Weekend, I was introduced to Pero which is a coffee replacement. Honestly it doesn’t really look or taste like coffee (and everyone I’ve asked has said the same), but it’s not a bad alternative and like most things, you get used to it.

Lunch today was an interesting mix as the tofu was cooked with beetroot. Needless to say it has the classical hue of beets but also the unmistakeable taste. Fortunately I like beetroot so it was quite a tasty addition.

I still have a selection of McDougall pots which I keep for afternoon snacks. I seem to be better at more smaller meals than fewer big meals. I actually seem to have a pretty low stomach capacity which is ironic given the size of the rest of me. Still, it’s great to have these snack pots. They may not be the epitome of healthy eating but they’re a lot better than the alternatives I would have eaten I am sure!

I’ve also taken beer and alcohol off the menu save for special occassions. Honestly I didn’t really miss it much last time, but again I have to be careful that having a beer or two doesn’t suddenly end up with me having a cold beer with dinner each night. Once a week would be fine, once a month would be much better and of course the ideal would be never at all. I’m not planning to be too restrictive on this but we’ll see how it goes. Could be a challenge for social events and so forth.