Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 1 Year Banting Anniversary! And what a year it has been, and not only for me, but for my whole family. But in today's blog I'm going to be a bit narcissistic. It's all going to be about the Big Me. Why? I can see the changes in The Wife, and The Girls. I can see how they have not changed just physically, but how they've changed mentally as well. But me, I've lived it all.

So, how have banting changed my life? Everybody knows about the weight loss, the better sleep, the more energy, all that nice things. The big things. This post is about the little things. About how the weight loss affected my day-to-day life.

A year ago, I had trouble getting up from the couch. I had either one of the three women in my life help me get up, or I slid down as if to lie on the couch, then throw my weight forward, using momentum to get up. Today if I sit down, I simply stand up. A simple action like that was all but simple a year back.

Taking a shower. That was a mission. I have one of those brushes with the long handle people use to wash their backs with. Only I used it for more than my back. I used it to wash my knees and everything below that as well. I could reach my knees, sure, but was completely out of breath when I straightened up, and more often than not got dizzy in the process as well. Bending over to reach my feet was all but impossible. Today I get into the shower, and use that brush for what it was designed for - to wash my back and the soles of my feet. A year back I struggled to wash the soles of my feet even with the brush! I had to lie against the wall to keep my balance while standing on one foot to wash the sole of the other!

Getting dressed. Not so bad. But I had trouble doing the buttons on my pants. I would button my pants, then pull it up! Became such a hassle that I started wearing pants with elastic instead of buttons. But that was a minor. The main problem dressing was putting on socks and shoes.

One of The Girls would give me my shoes, and I would put them on the bed next to me. Bending down to pick them up from the floor was simply too difficult. I would then put my one leg on the bed, put on my sock, then my shoe. Then I took a rest for a few seconds, before switching legs. I never tied my shoes. Not only was it too difficult to reach, there just never seemed to have been enough of the laces left to tie. Putting on my socks and shoes took at least five minutes.

Today, I do the same job in 30 seconds flat. And I tie my laces as well. Without losing my breath, without turning red, then purple, and without feeling I'm going to pass out!

A year ago I would get up in the morning, and have a bowl of cereal for breakfast. With sugar, and low-fat milk. Yeah, I thought it was healthy. By around 10 or 11, I would have a snack. Around 2 in the afternoon I would have four slices of bread, with margarine and some spread (sometimes jam, sometimes peanut butter & syrup mix), and a large glass of milk. I the evening I would have dinner. Dinner would be half a plate of rice, some potatoes, meat, and one or two veggies. Or maybe macaroni with cheese. Or Spaghetti with mince. You get the picture. At around 9 in the evening I would have another bowl of breakfast cereal, or a sandwich, before going to sleep.

Today I would get up and have a good breakfast. Bacon, eggs, and a veggie. Or I won't, when I don't feel hungry. Sometimes we would eat our main meal at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon, specially when we skipped breakfast. Else the main meal would be at about 5 or 6. Can't remember when last I felt the need to snack in the afternoon. A year ago if I skipped a meal I felt I was going to die. Now I can skip them at will, and it does not bother me. A year ago my plate was overloaded at dinner, then I went for seconds as well. Today I have about half that for dinner, and don't bother with seconds.

A year ago we would buy two 2L bottles of Coke a day. Sometimes we would have Cream Soda or Iron Brew or another cola. Today we drink only water. I have a soda-stream machine, so we have carbonated water with meals, and still water the rest of the time. Do I miss all the Coke? Hell no! And this does not even include the three or four glasses of milk I would have everyday, or all the sweets, chocolates and chips we would regularly buy as well.

Banting have changed my life. I will never return to the way I was. Life was hell. Things normal people takes for granted was a mission for me. I never want to be like that again. It took me many years to reach the condition I was in. I was told it would take many more to return from it. It took me a single year. Yes, I am still obese, but I can live again. I can walk further than fifty meters without feeling I'm going to pass out. I can get up quickly, and not suddenly have to grab a wall because I feel dizzy. Yes, banting saved me!

I hate feeling sick...

I've been sick for almost 3 weeks now. Been on anti-biotic and cortisone, and back on anti-biotic a week later. Not having the energy, I missed a few posts. Unfortunately, this is not going to be a big one either. Not only am I sick, the virus got hold of The Wife as well. The Girls luckily seemed to have missed the worst of it.

In total, all of us have lost over this 3-week period, although retaining water the one week, then getting rid of it the next, did make the numbers jump up and down a bit. My total loss was 1.3 kg. First week I held back some water, and had a +2.4 kg increase. Week 2 saw me getting rid of it, and I had a 4 kg loss. Week 3 saw me pick up 0.3 kg again.

The Wife had a much similar pattern, picking up 1.8 kg, then dropping 4.7 kg the next week, before regaining 1.7 kg again. Her total loss was 1.2 kg for the period. The girls were much more stable, with Eldest losing 0.4 kg, then 0.1 kg. Last week she had no change, for a total loss of 0.5 kg. Youngest lost 0.4 kg, then (for the first time this year) picked up 0.6 kg on the second week. She lost 0.9 kg in the third week to bring her total for the period to 0.7 kg loss.

I did add, after a number of requests, some photos of me and my family. Just click on the Photos - Then & Now link in the Pages box to view them. Till next time, and Happy Banting!

Ideal Weight and BMI

Last week I was gently reprimanded for not listing my sources when I use them in my blog. I tend to cut and paste interesting bits from pages I come across into a word document, and don't always save the source. Some of what I find I use, some I don't (and some I use only after a while). I will now copy the source as well, so when I do use other sources I can now list them for you for reference.

Anyway, today I want to talk about BMI, and Fat %. The BMI scale is outdated, and frankly, should never have been used at all. If you follow it to the letter, each and every NFL Football player is obese. The same will be true for most rugby players, and most athletes who participate in strength-based sports.

For an example, let's look at Dave Bautista. He made name for himself as a WWE Heavyweight wrestler. He also competed on the MMA circuit, and is currently in acting. Anybody who has seen Dave without a shirt would say, if anything, he has too little body fat. Yet, taking his height (1.98 m) and weight (126 kg), the BMI Calculator lists him as Obese Class I, with a BMI of 32.

Now if this does not show you how flawed the BMI calculation is, nothing will. So, what other way is there? The only thing I could find is using a Fat Calculator to find your current body fat, and measure it against the table below.

Description	Men	Women
Essential Fat	2-5%	10-13%
Athletes	6-13%	14-20%
Fitness	14-17%	21-24%
Acceptable	18-24%	25-31%
Obese	25%+	32%+

Is this a better way than using BMI? I do not know. It may be just as flawed as the BMI calculations, or it may not be. In the end, I don't think there is such a thing as a true ideal weight calculator. The weight you feel most comfortable with, I believe, is your ideal weight. Your body will know what is best for itself. So, in the end, use BMI or the Fat Calculator, or both even, but only as a guideline. Listen to what your body tells you. If you find a weight you are comfortable with, and your body can easily maintain that weight while on LCHF, you have your personal ideal weight!

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This week I learned a lesson - don't try to cheat the scale. It will only come back and bite you! It did me, anyway. After the incredible loss two weeks ago, I picked up 0.3 kg last week. The Wife was the biggest loser, dropping a nice 1.9 kg.

Eldest dropped a round 1 kg, making up for the 0.5 kg she picked up the previous week, while Youngest continued her run and lost another 1.4 kg.

Till next week, and Happy Banting!

Myths and your diet

Today, I will squash a few myths about saturated fat, and diets in general. Sorry if it is a bit longer than my normal posts.

Myth: Eating less will make you weigh less.
Eating less will not make you weigh less. It is an almost universally held belief that people who are overweight just need to eat less and/or do more. People look at you, and you can almost see the accusation in their eyes. Eat less!

Myth: Doing more will make you weigh less.
Doing more will not make you weigh less. Both the eating less and doing more beliefs make the massive and wrong assumption that the body is able to burn fat. The body can only burn fat when there is no glucose/glycogen available. Modern man rarely, if ever, allows his body to get to the state where it can burn its own fat – let alone will. Think about it: you lose your job, you don’t automatically dip into savings, you cut back on expenditure; the body does exactly the same.

Myth: Weight gain is the result of too many calories in
Weight gain is from fat being stored, not too many calories in. Equally, weight loss is about fat lost, not fewer calories in. The perfect way to store fat is to eat carbohydrates. It’s the carbs that count, not the calories.

Myth: Cholesterol will kill you
Cholesterol is life critical – not the bad guy in any way, shape or form. You would literally die without cholesterol. It is a key part of the structure for every cell in your body. Cholesterol is so vital that your body makes it, and cannot risk leaving it to chance that you would get it externally from somewhere. Statins stop the body from producing the cholesterol – they literally stop one of your fundamental body processes from being able to function. One in 500 people has familial hypercholesterolemia, and may have a problem clearing cholesterol in their body (rather like type 1 diabetics who can’t return blood glucose levels to normal). For anyone else to be actively trying to lower their vital and life-affirming cholesterol levels is deeply troubling.

Myth:
 You need to eat five-a-day fruit and veg
There is no basis for telling you to eat five-a-day. The pick-a-number-a-day campaign (it is not always five in each country) has spread across three continents and tens of countries. It has become the most well-known and promoted public health nutritional message ever. You would think, therefore, it was evidence-based and founded upon robust scientific knowledge. You would be wrong. Five-a-day is a marketing campaign with no evidence; it is fuelling the obesity epidemic, rather than helping in any way whatsoever. If parents knew what researchers such as Dr Robert Lustig and Dr Richard Johnson knew about fructose, they would never give their children fruit juice again.

Myth: Saturated fat causes heart disease
It does not. It has not been proven that saturated fat consumption causes heart disease. It also has not even been proven that there is a consistent association between saturated fat consumption and heart disease. It can't be proven, because there is no link. Saturated fat DOES NOT cause heart disease.

Myth: Fat clogs your arteries
Fat does not clog your arteries. Fat never clogs veins. By a process of common sense, therefore, fat also never clogs arteries. It is a reasonable assertion that fat is not even traveling freely in the blood stream. Fat and water don’t mix, so, since blood is effectively water, fat cannot travel freely around the blood system. Fat travels around in lipoproteins – along with cholesterol, protein and phospholipids. The idea that fat somehow leaps out of lipoproteins to attach itself to the arterial wall to try to clog up the system and kill you is ludicrous.

Myth: You must keep your blood sugar topped up, and eat little and often to achieve it
I don't know who said this first, but they ought to be shot. Every time you eat a carbohydrate, and your blood glucose levels rise, the body needs to release a substance called insulin (from the pancreas) to return your blood glucose levels to normal. Any “topping up” simply places a demand on the body to get the blood glucose levels back down again. This is now believed by many as one key reason for the explosion in type 2 diabetes – the body is asked to release insulin too much, too often and has no way of recognizing some of the foreign substances we consume in modern man-made food.


Myth: Butter is bad, man-made-margarine is good
Do you really, honestly think man knows how to feed us better than Mother Nature? Or, do you think there are huge profits to be made in manufactured, hydrogenated, Frankenfoods, and that’s why a campaign has been waged against real food encouraging you to eat fake food instead?

Myth: Fructose (fruit sugar) is good for dieters
It is bad for dieters, more likely to make them fat. Fructose, also known as fruit sugar, is being called the fattening carbohydrate in the world of obesity. It is uniquely metabolised by the liver, so it doesn’t get the chance to be used up as fuel in the blood stream – it goes straight to the liver where it can be turned into fat.

Myth: You must eat 25g to 30g of fibre per day
Here are two interesting facts about fibre:
1) Humans can’t digest fibre. So, how can something you can’t digest be so important for your health? and
2) Why on earth would you want to rush food through from the gut? The majority of nutritional absorption takes place in the small intestine, so why would you want to speed up this process, and disturb the nutrients being absorbed?
Don’t put nasty substances in the body (sugar and additives that accompany bran to make it palatable), and then you don’t need to rush nutritious, healthy food out of your digestive system.

Myth: Sedentary behaviour caused this obesity epidemic and exercise will cure it
Sedentary behaviour did not cause this obesity epidemic, and exercise won’t cure it. The UK government notes that exercise is only claimed to have a medium level of evidence for moderate preventative and therapeutic benefits for obesity – that is, the evidence is not strong for much benefit either as a prevention or a cure. Also, the idea that man is naturally active is another myth. Man is as evolutionarily disposed to being sedentary as to gathering food. What man would have done, and what we should do today, is natural activity – walk, talk, sing, dance, cook, clean and tend the land, not pump iron.

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Well, that's enough myths squashed for one week. On another note, I found a way to cheat the scale! But I doubt it will work for the rest of you. So, how did I do it? I took my water pills VERY early on Sunday morning. This caused me to get rid of quite a lot of excess water before we weighed. It just goes to show how big an effect holding back water can have on your weight.

My loss for the week came to a mighty 2.8 kg. The Wife lost a round 1 kg, while Eldest picked up 0.5 kg. Youngest lost 0.2 kg, and now have not picked up in any week since the start of the year. Good for her!

Remember, you can track our weight loss on the Weight Loss Totals page. Go have a look if you have not done so already!

Let's talk Muffins

Muffins. Most people consider them the healthy cousins of cupcakes. Some recognize them for what they really are - cupcakes in disguise. Well, this week we had some "Cupcakes In Disguise", and they were delicious. The Wife found a banting muffin recipe some time ago, and we tried it out. They came out nice. Nothing spectacular, but nice. Last week she experimented with the basic recipe.

We had three different types of muffins. There were Lemon & Poppy-seed, Blueberry, and Carrot. My brother was here, as was my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Needles to say, the muffins did not last long. Here is the basic recipe:

1/4 Cup Xylitol
1/2 Cup melted Coconut Oil
2/3 Cup Coconut Flower
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Vanilla essence
1 Tsp Baking Powder
6 X-Large Eggs, Room Temperature
1/4 Cup Water
1 Cup Dried Cranberries

Directions:
1) Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit).
2) Grease pan generously with butter or line with muffin liners (we use silicone cups).
3) Whisk the eggs until whites and yolks are well mixed. Stream in the coconut oil while continuing to whisk.
4) Add salt and vanilla essence.
5) Mix the remaining dry ingredients - coconut flour, xylitol, and baking powder - in a medium bowl.
6) Mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
7) Mix in the water, one tablespoon at a time. You want to get it to a consistency that will hold up the berries, but not be too thick. Add additional water (no more than 2 additional tablespoons) if necessary.
8) Gently mix in your berries, and divide among the muffin cups. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until just turning golden on top.
9) Cool and serve.

Now, for the fun parts. For Blueberry Muffins, just replace the dried cranberries with 1 Cup Frozen Blueberries. No other changes needed!

For Lemon & Poppy-seed, you replace the one teaspoon vanilla essence with five teaspoons of lemon essence, and add one tablespoon of poppy seeds. Add the poppy seeds to the dry ingredients in Step 5 above. Remove the berries.

Carrot Muffins take slightly more work. You take 1 large carrot, and grate it. The finer the better. You also need a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a teaspoon of mixed spice. Again, you remove the berries from the original recipe. You add the grated carrot to the wet mix in Step 4. The cinnamon and mixed spice gets added in Step 5.

And that people, is how you can have the great taste of muffins, with none of the carbs. And it's so easy, even I can make it!

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Weight-wise, we've had mixed results once again in the Hearn House. This time I was the one going the wrong way. I've picked up 0.8 kg last week, while The Wife lost 1.4 kg. That cancelled out her gain of the previous week, and also supported my theory that the gains she had over the previous two weeks was all water.

Eldest lost 0.9 kg last week, while Youngest had a tiny 0.1 kg loss. So, overall, The Hearn Family dropped another 1.6 kg total between us! Go Team Hearn!

Bad Start to the Week

The weekend was not a bad one. A bit rushed, as month-end weekends are, but pretty uneventful. On Monday, all that changed. Now most of my regular readers know I've been diagnosed with heart failure in 2012, and is permanently on oxygen. I can go without oxygen for a short while, as long as I stay calm and don't move around a lot.

Just after 13:00, on Monday, I heard a commotion from next door. Turns out my neighbor had a break-in, and was tied up for more than three hours. All this happened less than 50 meters from my study where I was working the whole morning. Her daughter's boyfriend was the one causing the commotion, as he could not get into the house, and shouted for help.

I went around, without my portable cylinder (which was locked in my car at the time), and did so faster than I have moved in years. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt (my neighbor was shook up, and bleeding from the mouth - they gagged her), and a number of items were stolen. The police (after The Wife called them) were remarkably quick onto the scene.

But that's where my problems started. Being without oxygen, and worked up as I was, I felt like crap once the adrenaline worked out. I was still very weak and tired yesterday, but started feeling like a human being again today.We're just thankful nobody was seriously hurt. End result? We are now at the wall between us and the neighbors every once in a while, checking up on her!

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Last week the wife gave me an idea. From now on, once a week, I will post a recipe. The recipes will not be my own. It may be something new The Wife tried, or it may be something I discovered on one of the countless sites I frequent. So, to start of this week, I decided to not do a recipe, but rather what I call a Cheat.

One of my favorite condiments is mayonnaise. I've tried quite a number of banting mayo's, and although I've found a number of them that tasted quite nice, none of them could replace the original. So I convinced The Wife we should return to it, seeing that we use very little mayo, and use it seldom as well. The reason we don't use regular mayo on banting is not because of its carb-levels. Regular mayo is full of the bad fats, those fats that have too much Omega 6 and very little (if any) Omega 3. And a while ago The Wife had a brilliant idea.

We mixed our mayo with double-fat plain yoghurt. We did the mix on a 1-1 ratio, and was surprised by the result. The mayo did not change in taste or texture at all. If anything, it became more creamy. So now we get even less of the bad fats in when we use mayo. Next time we use mayo, I will play around with the ratio's, and see how high a percentage yoghurt I can add before losing that mayo taste.

Now, for the weight loss totals. I lost 1.9 kg, but The Wife picked up 1.4 kg. However, I do believe she is holding water back. Two weeks ago she lost a lot of weight when she used some of my water pills. The doctor placed her on water pills, but a slight problem on MedExpress meant she only received her medication this week Monday. I believe she will show a huge loss again this coming weekend.

Eldest lost 0.6 kg, bringing a halt to her last two weeks of slight gains, while Youngest continued losing, this time chucking away 0.7 kg!

Till next week, and Happy Banting!

Diet Comparisons

I recently read an article comparing different popular diets with each other. The diets in question were Atkins, Zone, Ornish and LEARN. But first, let me explain what each of these diets are:

1) Atkins is a very low carb diet, much like banting.
2) Zone works on Blocks. One block is either 9 grams carbs, 7 grams protein, or 1.5 grams fat. Your meal consists of one or more blocks, and a One Block Meal with contain one of each of the three blocks, for a total of 3 blocks. Sounds confusing, but its not really.
3) Ornish is the almost exact opposite of banting. We like bacon. They hate it. We love coconut oil. They hate it. The only thing the two diets agree upon is processed foods. Both hate it.
4) LEARN is based on the USA National Guidelines, and it stands for Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitude, Relationships, and Nutrition. This is your basic low-fat high carb diet you've been brought up on.

So, how were the diets compared? The researchers used a group of woman, all aged between 25 and 50, all with a BMI of 27 to 40. There were other restrictions as well, most based on general health and current medication, as those could influence the results.

The study was done over a 12 month period. 311 Women were selected, and 77 were assigned to the Atkins group. Zone and LEARN each got 79 participants, and Ornish got 76.

Through the year a large number of participants withdrew. At the end of the study the researches were left with 68 on Atkins, 61 each on Zone and LEARN, and 59 on Ornish. Over 88% of the participants on Atkins finished the trial. Less than 78% finished the trial on each of the other 3 diets. One point for LCHF - it is a much easier lifestyle to commit to than the others.

One of the worries most people have with a high fat diet, is cholesterol. At the 2 month mark, LEARN and Ornish did do better regarding LDL (bad cholesterol). At the 6 and 12 month points, however, there were no significant differences between any of the four diets. On the HDL (good cholesterol) side, however, Atkins outperformed all three the other groups. LCHF - 2 points. The Rest - 0.

The next area of testing was Glucose, Insulin, and blood pressure. There were no significant differences between the groups for either the fasting insulin or the fasting glucose concentrations. However, the Atkins group had a significantly greater decrease in systolic blood pressure. On a personal note, I have recently been taken of blood pressure medication. And The Wife's blood pressure is also excellent. Another point for LCHF.

Now, for the one part that most of you are here for - the weight loss. Participants on Zone lost an average of 1.6 kg over the 12-month period (from 0.4 to 2.8). LEARN came in third with an average of 2.2 kg (0.8 to 3.6), while Ornish came in second with an average loss of 2.6 kg (1.3 to 3.8 kg). The Biggest Losers came from the Atkins group. They lost an average of 4.7 kg over the year. That was a higher average than even the best individuals from the other groups. The weight loss in this group ranged from 3.1 kg to 6.3 kg.

So, once again prove that LCHF is not only the fastest way to safely lose weight, it is also the easiest to follow (looking at the drop-out rates between the groups), and it has the biggest advantages in general health. The best of it all? Atkins people still take in relatively high amounts of sugar via sucrose found in fruit. By limiting the high-fructose fruits, we lose even more quicker when Banting!

And after this lecture, I bet you wonder only about one more thing... how did the Hearn Family do this past week? Well, we had some mixed results. The Biggest Loser this week was Youngest, with a 0.5 kg loss. I came in second with a 0.3 kg loss. The Wife picked up 0.1 kg, but after last week there is no way she can complain. Eldest picked up 0.3 kg. No real big losses this week, but no big gains either.

Until next week. Have a banting good time!