I am Sheamus - Very Personal Development

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Some time ago I announced on this blog that I had made some successful changes to my diet.

I’ve experimented with different eating regimes over the years - for weight gain as well as loss - and as long as my focus is there I haven’t had a lot of trouble losing the pounds (or, indeed, putting them on when I felt it was necessary).

However, having shifted a pretty sizeable 41 pounds in just over three months earlier this year (18.8 per cent of my bodyweight) I reached a bit of a plateau - my weight seemed to ‘stick’ at around 178 pounds.

After the six-times-a-week intensity of my 41-pound losing workout regime, I let myself go a little bit for about six weeks and my weight inched back up to 187 pounds. Regaining my focus, I knew that I had to make some changes. I needed something new, that was for certain, but it also had to be a plan that, if successful, I could easily (and willingly) make a permanent part of my life.

But what?

Like many people, I’ve tried the Atkins diet, and like most others on that diet had some initial success. This was a few years ago, and I lost about 20 pounds in a couple of months. Pretty good. But the problem with Atkins - indeed, the problem with most diets - is that it’s very hard to sustain something that is so regimented. Limiting your carbohydrate intake to 20 grams or less per day is not only difficult, it’s extremely tedious. Eating all the bacon and eggs you like sounds great for oh, about a week, and then all that fat and grease starts to make you feel a bit gross. And if you decide to consume only lean meats and egg whites on Atkins, it’s about the most mundane diet in the world.

Life needs to be packed with challenges to have meaning, but if something is too hard, or too dull, you won’t last the course.

All that aside, I know that a low carbohydrate diet works for me because I am carbohydrate intolerant. I believe most people are. If, like me, you find that you bloat very easily when you consume certain foods - white bread, white rice, pasta and potatoes being the prime suspects - it’s likely you are carbohydrate intolerant, too.

Feeling stuffed all the time is not the most pleasant of feelings, but it’s usually not enough for most people to feel that there is anything wrong, or that they need to make any major changes. It was different for me, however - earlier this year I just got absolutely fed up of feeling like I was too full. Some things had to go.

I did some research, and read with interest an article Tim Ferriss wrote about a ‘slow-carb’ diet he had successfully implemented (and actually borrowed from Dean Karnazes). Ferriss claimed to have a lost a fair bit of weight over quite a short period of time, and a lot of what he says makes good sense, but his diet is, again, far too restrictive for ‘normal’ people.

Putting it more frankly, the idea of eating vegetables for breakfast has absolutely zero appeal. I also felt that his plan was unnecessarily strict - I know from personal experience that eating clean most of the time returns excellent results. You don’t have to do it all day, every day, and you don’t have to eat egg whites and broccoli (unless, for some mad reason, you want to) - eating healthy 80 per cent of the time is a recipe for success. For that other 20 per cent, do whatever. Not only will it not hurt your diet, it will actually help.

Moreover, it keeps you interested, if only because you know a treat is just around the corner. Any attempt to chase the perfect diet, or to reach perfect health - which is a myth - will always end in failure. Your goal should be optimum health, and that includes your mental well-being.

What is a slow-carb diet? Basically, you can break carbohydrates down into those that are ‘good’ and those that are ‘bad’ (for want of better terms). You do this by observing where they stand on the Glycemic Index (GI), which is a way of ranking carbs by how much they raise blood-glucose levels. Foods with a low GI - under 55 - affect blood sugar levels only moderately thanks to a slow release, while those in the high end of the scale - above 70 - send it through the roof almost immediately. The key is to avoid the latter while concentrating on the former (and some of the foods that fall in between).

(Click here for more information on the Glycemic Index.)

I liked the way this sounded, and after following a moderately low-GI diet lost 9 pounds of weight over 28 days. The thing is, I noticed in the mirror that I’d clearly lost more than this, as I was noticeably leaner and more-muscular looking. I’d been hitting the weights hard in the gym over this period, and figured that I’d probably gained a couple of pounds of muscle.

This intrigued me, and I liked the way it was going. However, as above, if something is going to be forever, I don’t want it to be difficult or boring. It needs to be somewhat interesting, or at least afford opportunities for mini ‘pig outs’ from time to time. (I’ll get on to why this is important later in this article.)

So I tweaked. And I tweaked. And this is what I came up with.

My Diet

Here’s what I eat, pretty much exactly. One thing to understand is that successful weight loss generally means eating the same kinds of foods fairly regularly. It’s important to me, however, to balance this with one meal per day, and one day per week, when I have a lot more flexibility.

Six Days On, One Day Off

This part is key. For six days a week, I stick to my diet pretty much 100 per cent. While I will allow myself the odd bit of chocolate or cheeky bite of a muffin if I really feel like I’m craving it, I’m careful to make it a rarity.

However, for one day per week - and I recommend that this is always a Saturday if at all possible - I eat whatever I like.

And I mean whatever. Cookies, ice cream, muffins, donuts, French fries, Chinese food, pizza, KFC, wine, beer. It’s all good. Anything goes on this day. Anything!

In fact, this day off is absolutely essential to this regime, for two main reasons.

1. It stops you getting bored. Knowing that each week you only have to get through six days before you can stuff your face makes that week go by very fast indeed.
2. One day of excess per week prevents your body from lowering your metabolic rate and going into any kind of ‘starvation mode’. You won’t be starving yourself, but once your body gets used to anything even remotely strict it will start to think that’s all it’s ever going to get and will make adjustments accordingly. Throwing it off-kilter with one day of madness keeps your metabolism busy.

Additionally, pigging out on this day makes it a lot easier to go through the rest of the week without temptation. More often than not, you’ll think you want these greasy or high-sugar foods more than you actually do want them, and while you may think there’s a risk in ‘anything goes’, even once a week, there’s only so much you can and will indulge before yelling ‘Uncle’.

Don’t take your day off lightly - it’s there for good reason. Eat all the things you wouldn’t normally eat on any kind of diet. Trying to be strict on this day isn’t the way this works.

For the rest of the week, this is how it needs to go:

Foods You Must Avoid

Basically, the secret is to avoid all the classic ‘white’ foods. This includes:

• Potatoes
• Pasta
• Rice
• Bread, or anything breaded
• Batter, pastry and dough

Wholewheat alternatives for these foods are fine, but to be taken in moderation. I limit my intake of bread, for example, to two small slices of wholewheat at breakfast.

I highly recommend wholewheat pasta. It tastes exactly the same as normal pasta - and I mean exactly - but you don’t bloat on it at all. Two servings for dinner per week suits me just fine.

However, I tend to avoid even the wholewheat versions of rice and bread for the rest of my meals. This is simply to avoid excessive (and unnecessary) calories.

Alcohol is off the menu, I’m afraid.

Remember that on the seventh day you are welcome to eat any and all of these foods, if you so desire.

Breakfast

I like cereal. In fact, I like it a lot. There have been many days when I’ve happily eaten 2-3 bowls of cereal instead of main meals. However, on a low-GI diet, most cereals are a total no-no. Cornflakes rates an 80 on the scale. Coco Pops, a 77. Even Weetabix and Cheerios crash and burn with a 74.

However, my favourite cereal is muesli. And that scores a 40.

I don’t drink milk, because I’m lactose intolerant. I mean, I can drink it, but it doesn’t do me any favours. So I buy soy milk, which I love. It has a nuttiness that is really appealing (particularly in a cappuccino). Both dairy and soy milk are low GI foods.

So, six days a week, I have muesli and soy milk for breakfast.

I also have a couple of slices of Warburtons wholemeal bread and sugar-free peanut butter. Both are low GI.

Finally, I have about 200ml of orange juice. Oranges are low GI.

This is the only time I eat bread or any kind of fruit throughout the day.

This is my breakfast, six days a week. Every so often I’ll replace the cereal and peanut butter with a couple of scrambled eggs for variety, but more often than not I’m happy with the cereal.

Lunch

Lunch is made up of about 100g of lean meat - steak mince, chicken, turkey, pork or fish. I don’t eat any skin and I leave any excess fat.

With the meat, I can have as much of the following as I want:

• Legumes (black eyed peas, butter beans, broad beans, pinto beans, etc)
• Any other vegetables (carrots, green beans, peas, etc)

I also have nuts with my lunch. Lots and lots of lovely nuts. I mix it up - cashews, macadamia (my favourite), walnuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts and almonds. I rarely eat peanuts, but will when pushed. All of these are very low-GI. Nuts are, in fact, one of the secrets to this regime. They eliminate cravings for sweet foods and are extremely filling and satisfying in and of themselves. I regularly eat 50-100 grams of nuts per day. Don’t worry about the fat content - it’s irrelevant.

I also like to add a small piece of cheese. The jury is out on where cheese places on the Glycemic Index because most variations are very low in carbs or have none at all. Cheese doesn’t give me the digestion problems that milk does, but I’m mindful of how much fat it contains, and tend to buy half-fat varieties if possible. But a small amount of normal cheese won’t make any difference.

Finish off the plate with a nice dollop of hummus, which is one of the lowest GI foods of all. (Alternative condiment options include guacamole.)

Dinner

More of the same with dinner - 100-150 grams of very lean meat with legumes and vegetables. As above, twice a week I’ll have wholewheat pasta with a tomato-based sauce. Another favourite is steak chilli served with no rice. It’s surprisingly filling if you pack it with kidney beans.

Snacks

More nuts. Again, buy different varieties and you won’t get bored.

Fluids

I try to drink a minimum of two litres of water per day. I have one small glass of juice for breakfast. Apart from that, on this plan I can drink all the diet soda and black coffee I want. Don’t drink your calories, and that includes milk.

Supplements

I take one decent multivitamin per day with breakfast - currently, this is Revive!, an effervescent vitamin sold at Sainsbury’s (which is identical to Berocca, but a third of the price.) I’m on the fence regarding the value of vitamins but figure for such a minimum expense it’s better to be safe than sorry, especially now that I’m running daily.

Conclusions

I’ve been on this plan now for a couple of months. For me it has been nothing short of revelatory - after feeling bloated, lethargic and irritable on and off for years, I now feel energetic and lean pretty much 24/7. This diet also provides a great source of fuel for my running - it’s filling and light enough to ensure I get out the door not too long after a meal, and the slow burn of the carbs I have eaten means my workouts are solid.

As above, knowing that each Saturday I can pretty much eat what I want just makes the rest of the week go by in a breeze. I can’t understate how simple this all is. There’s no measuring foods or counting calories - I don’t keep any kind of log and I don’t really pay much attention to food labels.

Possibly of more importance to my ego, my wife has been commenting on how ‘ripped’ I’ve been looking this past week. This alone, of course, along with all the other benefits outlined above, is enough of an incentive for me to know that I am committed to this for the rest of my life.

Other Articles You May Like To Read:

• Find Your Ideal Body Shape With An 80-20 Approach to Nutrition
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• 8 Easy Changes To Your Diet - Switch To Skimmed Milk
• 8 Easy Changes To Your Diet - Ditch The White Bread
• 8 Easy Changes You Can Make To Your Diet Today To Drop 7 Pounds In Just One Month
• Ten Days In; Seven Pounds Lost
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• How To… Eat Fast Food Three Times A Day, And Still Lose Weight