WHAT I DID TO LOSE 20 POUNDS

What worked: 1. Eating a low-carbohydrate diet with a caloric intake slightly below maintenance. This meant no bread, pasta, grains, beans, fruit, or high carb vegetables. Typical day: Breakfast: 3 eggs, two cups broccoli, 2 tbsp ghee. Lunch: 300 calories of sunflower seeds, two cups broccoli, 1 red pepper, 2 tbsp coconut oil, 1 bar of 99% Lindt dark chocolate. Supper: 7 oz salmon, 2 tbsp ghee, 2 cups broccoli, 2 cups coconut milk, 1 scoop vega protein powder. This averages out to about 1700-2000 calories. Drastic caloric restrictions would make it difficult to sleep, as would intermittent fasting. Anything somewhat sweet spikes the false hunger. 2. Cutting out natural and artificial sweeteners. These would create false hunger. This included Stevia, and Zevia (a pop made with Stevia). This was difficult as I was addicted to Stevia. 3. Maintaining a moderate work-out schedule. I used to work out hard in order to lose weight, which created a lot of hunger. I now use exercise as a body sculpting tool and for overall health improvement. My routine: hot yoga three times per week, Doug Mcguff’s Big Five workout once per week, and HIIT intervals 30 sec on/40 sec off for 8 minutes once per week. I combine the Big Five and HIIT into one session and do the intervals first. 4. Eating 99% Lindt dark chocolate and drinking coffee. I eat a bar of dark chocolate every day, which is expensive ($3) but worth it. Bitter tastes and bland foods seem to curb my false hunger. The addiction of dark chocolate has been one of the biggest factors in decreasing my hunger. Be careful of 90% or less dark chocolate, as I get addicted to it. 5. Taking a shelf-stable probiotic with a high bacteria count (30 billion). I have found the Now brand (50 billion) curbed my hunger a bit, but I’m now using a shelf-stable one from Healthy Origin, with 30 billion. If probiotics are not shelf stable, they can lose a lot of their potency in the shipping process. 6. Working on overall health, which includes aiming for eight hours of sleep, meditating (30-40 minutes per day), and journaling. 7. Eating protein powder. I eat the Vega protein powder once per day, which helps with satiety. 8. Counting calories. I used cron-o-meter to track my energetic intake, and would enter the caloric totals into an excel spreadsheet. Each week, I average out my caloric intake and make notes about how I felt. This keeps me on track, and also gives me data about what works for me. Repetition of food helps me to count calories. I have used myfitnesspal and find it helpful as well. I will often go back and review my spreadsheet when I find myself getting off track, so I can refer to what was working. 9. Avoiding any food that is addictive. Now that I’ve balanced my diet, I am aware of the intense cravings and preoccupation that certain foods could trigger. This means that I have to eliminate “safe” or healthy foods from my diet, as they are difficult to moderate. 10. Working with a nutrition specialist. Through the internet I was able to work with several nutrition specialists who were helpful in different ways. I would recommend finding someone who seems to be into self-experimentation and has a genuine passion for healthy living. Some of the people I consulted with: Jolene Park, Cristi Vlad, Stephanie Person, and Joseph Cohen. I watched many Youtube videos and read countless articles and blog posts. What didn’t work or had limited benefit: 1. Most supplements. Glucomannan (Now brand) did help curb the hunger, but it left me feeling gassy and bloated. I used to mix a teaspoon of the powder with cocoa and stevia, making a chocolate pudding. I have spent thousands of dollars on supplements over the past few years, and most have not made much of a difference on my energy levels or hunger. 2. Antidepressants. They did help curb my hunger initially and improve my sleep, but this only lasted for two months. I often felt tired during the day. I tried Trazodone and Zoloft. 3. Intermittent Fasting (IF). I love the idea of IF, and it did seem to make a difference with my hunger some days. However, it didn’t seem to impact my false hunger much overall. I even did a few 48 hour fasts, which were easier than I thought. However, I lost a lot of hair a few months later and wondered if this hair loss (telogen effluvium) was due to the shock of fasting to my body.