The Journal of Campanella page 2

[campanella]

Something very odd going on here. I've had my usual amount to eat, but it's the end of the day, I ate a big dinner, and I just want to eat more - it is hunger on a full stomach.
Maybe I need more fat, it is hard to gauge. I just have to experiment from here.

And after dinner, I suddenly have energy. I am tired yes, but not weak. I think I just need more "real" food earlier on in the day.

[campanella]

Yesterday a big breakfast set me up for the day, delicious 2 egg omelet with spinach and mushroom. Lunch was grass fed yogurt, cream cheese with celery, cucumber, bell pepper. Dinner was meatballs with tomato sauce, romaine, lots of raw and cooked zucchini. The garden is beautiful, the mint and sage are rampant and overtaking the smaller plants so that needs some cleaning up. Maybe I can harvest some chard tonight. The beets are maybe a little small, but they will be ready soon.

I find myself eating carbs excessively for about 2 days each week. I'm interested in trying a carb refeed experiment. This is all hypothetical and I don't know if I can follow all the way through, but on Sunday-Monday I'll cut fat, eat lots of starches, and try to get my fruit eating done with then. Sunday I'll do some sprinting, either on land or in water, and if I'm not knocked out by that like I was last time, I'll also do PB Fitness. Monday I can do long, moderate cardio swimming. Lots of chicken and flounder, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, etc. Looking ahead, if this first trial isn't a terrible failure, this is something I could continue into early september.

Farm stand trip today, and later on a walk or a swim.

[DCarr10760]

I've had the same thing with just having eaten and feeling hungry still, particularly for fruit. Turns out that with me, it was really thirst. Drinking ice water throughout the day made it better.

[campanella]

Hmm, I will have to try that. It has been hot and humid and I rarely drink water. Thanks for the suggestion.

[campanella]

A good day, very little hunger. It seems that when I have a huge dinner with a lot of protein and fat, the next day I do not feel hungry as much. 6 oz yogurt in the morning, for lunch 1/2 grilled chicken breast with lettuce, cucumber, a tomato, some fresh, delicious strawberries. Right before dinner I had half a goat milk yogurt and some cheddar cheese. Dinner was 4 oz ground sirloin with yellow squash, and a huge amount of buttered orange cauliflower - about 2/3 of a head Exercise fell into the "play" category, beautiful long walk in nature. One of these days I want to sleep outside so I can hear the sounds of cicadas and crickets the whole while I sleep.

[campanella]

Tomorrow I will start my experimental carb refeed. I'd like to go walk, about 2 miles, to a grassy lawn where I can go do some sprints, I can't measure distances exactly but it will be 8 second all-out sprints for 20 minutes unless I need to quit sooner. Then, probably a light walk back, lunch, and a light swim, then dinner. Possibly I'll switch it up and do all the exercise after lunch. It mostly will depend on how much energy I have, sometimes i have very little in the morning, but I had a pretty good dinner tonight so we'll see.

[campanella]

Well, so far, so good. I'm a little worried though that I have not exercised enough. I spent most of the day sitting down, 15 min or less of sprint intervals, not even 100%, and now a short walk, but that's it... I fear it is not enough to balance out all the carbs. Maybe I can get in some PB Fitness too.
Breakfast was lowfat Greek yogurt, half a banana, some strawberries. Lunch was grilled chicken with sweet potatoes, at least 1 cup, I'm not sure how much. The hot weather prevented me from doing much sprinting. For dinner I'll have fresh flounder - yum - probably grilled. Roasted beets, basmati rice. Maybe some squash too, and an early apple.
I also had a few bites of watermelon. I'm enjoying the chance to savor all the carbs that I typically restrict. I think it is worth it even if just for stress relief, I feel like I am on vacation. I miss my fats a bit, however to be honest I'm having fun with practically unlimited carbs I bought some beautiful multicolored carrots at the farmers market for either today or tomorrow.

[campanella]

Update -
I really enjoyed dinner! Beets from my own garden, tender and sweet. Beets from the farmer's market as well, red and golden, roasted. Roasted carrots with sage, mild flaking flounder, lots of white rice, a little 1% milk... a Paula Red apple with a mouthwatering balance of sweet-tart. I went about 150 calories over what I planned, but this is probably the time to do it.

If there is one thing I'm learning from this, it's that I miss a lot because I don't savor, enjoy, and stay alert and attentive. I begin to think I am all alone and I close myself up... now, it is beautiful summer, I am immersed in nature and eating nonrestrictively, cooking and relaxing, and I am learning how much I love this feeling of being highly alive.

[DCarr10760]

It is a wonderful time of year, I love gardening, even the little bit that I do. Tomatoes are coming and some squash and even a watermelon or two. :-) I've been trying to keep fruit consumption to a minimum since I am trying to lose weight, but eating local fruit in season feels right and healthy.

[campanella]

That sounds wonderful... my relatives grow tomatoes and share their crop so I know how delicious home grown tomatoes are. Home grown food is always full of flavor.

This morning I didn't have any lowfat yogurt left... worried a little bit, but stuck with a banana and glass of lowfat milk, which tided me over until lunch. I took a trip to a lovely local hole-in-the-wall food shop, they had a big bakery where I found myself desiring nothing, but picked out herbed turkey and some quinoa for lunch, a delicious roasted chicken for dinner, and some beautiful lemon zucchini soup for lunch once I go back to lower carb.
Not much in the way of exercise, unfortunately, probably not my strong spot, but a lot of walking and standing and some pushups-against-the-wall business. In the afternoon, a stop by the farm stand and picked up a bag of gorgeous Paula Red apples.

I packed up dinner and enjoyed a picnic with the family. The roasted chicken, warmed in the oven, baked local russet potatoes, 2 of them for me, creamy enough to not need butter. More roasted beets, red and golden, from the farmers market. An enormous Paula Red, perfectly crisp with a refreshing tartness.

I feel like I've been on vacation. I've really enjoyed this "carb refeed." It's an experiment I did mostly because 1) Over time I've observed myself wanting to go overboard on carby foods in cycles about once a week, I consider it important to listen to these cues, 2) I've read a lot of opinions on MDA that on a low carb, low calorie diet it is important to replenish glycogen stores from time to time, and 3) I am not a heavy exerciser, but still I eat well but I have had difficulty losing just a few more pounds. I also spent some time in a very calorie restricted place and I don't want to mess up my metabolism. And 4) yes, I've been not sleeping quite enough, maybe not eating quite enough, maybe not relaxing, but- I've had very little energy a lot of the time, and some people say this kind of thing can restore energy.

Now that it is pretty much over, I have found several more benefits even,
I've freely enjoyed the bounty of the summer without restriction,
It's been a refreshing challenge and a change of pace,
It's good for a healthier view of calories to have a day or 2 days a week that are nonrestrictive, I felt stuffed a lot of the time and was not used to eating this much food - especially since carbs are less calorically dense than fats - and honestly, I enjoyed it. I looked at the calories during this time from a scientific perspective, not "you're going to get fat from this food" or other unhealthy thoughts.
Also, I've gotten a feel for how far away from primal I'm really willing to go. Quinoa - a protein filled grain, seems to be ok for me, ok for a carb refeed, left me a little brain fogged but nothing big. Nonfat and lowfat dairy also worked out ok, although not something I'd do every day.
Plus, it was kind of fun. I love potatoes. I usually try to restrict them, and this time I ate them big-time. Also, it motivated me to do some heavy exercise, and it gave me bouncy energy to do the exercise.

So I don't know what is going on internally, but I've enjoyed this culinarily and in eating, and I have felt like I have lots of energy, a good mood, waking up very early and ready to go. I was skeptical at first of how I would feel without fat but I was not low on energy at all.
I don't have scale access until Wednesday night, so I will have plenty of time for any bloat to go away and I will know if I lost any of the stubborn weight.

I basically did this refeed by keeping fat minimal, 1g of protein per lb of me, and the rest starchy carbs, abt 200 g/day (kept fruit and non-starchy vegetables down). Calorically, I ate at maintenance level these 2 days. The rest of the week I eat pretty much 20% deficit, high fat and moderate low carb(70-100 g a day).

Looking ahead, I bought some fresh greek yogurt (full fat) from the farmers market yesterday, have withheld during the refeed and am anticipating that with fresh blackberries for breakfast. It is good to fast a little between high carb and high fat days, so I may try to delay breakfast tomorrow, or skip until lunch. I'm interested in going out to a restaurant tomorrow night, not a very formal thing, but a nice break, a little celebratory, I think it's important to savor summer. I have chard in the garden so maybe for the next night, chard, summer squash, something on the grill.