Tag Archives: Dr Libby

Health and Wellness

Week 8: Refining and Moving Forward

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Here we are at the end of IQS Week 8 and the end of our little experiment.  In an effort to think about moving forward this week I decided on a further cleanse – internal spring clean if you will.  This took the form of a homeopathic based liver elixir and drops of a habit relief formula.

The first 2 days of this process was just awful – headaches, nausea and very low energy (in bed by 8pm those nights).  I also cut back on coffee to coincide with the cleanse so I am not sure if the two days of awful was actually just caffeine withdrawal?  However, by the third day I was feeling fine again.

I did experience a few odd cravings this week so I am not convinced those habit relief drops were actually that useful?  Spicy fruit toast and deep fried chicken were the cravings, although not simultaneously.  I am most certainly not pregnant!

With cutting back on the coffee I am trying to instigate new rituals around drinking tea morning and evening.  In the morning a cup of organic rooibos or green tea in a pretty cup is most rejuvenating.  And a chai infused milk in the evening makes a great dessert replacement.

Luxurious and fragrant chai ritual
Luxurious and fragrant chai ritual

So in conclusion:

  • Was sugar controlling my mind and messing with my body?  YES
  • Has this 8 week IQS process recalibrated my system? YES
  • Do I feel more in control of my cravings? Definitely
  • Has the past 8 weeks been worth it? Absolutely
  • Do I feel substantially better in my health? I do
  • More than anything else I have tried previously? Yes, again
  • And the question everyone is asking – did I lose weight?  Well, I have not gone anywhere near a scale or tape measure but I venture a yes here too based on my clothes fitting more comfortably, especially round the middle.

So moving forward once more:

Yes, I do think I will be incorporating the IQS principles “for life” and minimising sugar intake as much as possible without becoming an anti-sugar bore.  Mostly I will strive to be gentle with myself always.

I have a more balanced relationship with food and I want to keep it that way.  Food is fuel for every day.  I need to pay attention to the cues of my body (a different sensation from cravings).  I have the idea of no sugar more the 3 – 6g/100g at the back of my mind most of the time and certainly minimising processed foods as much as possible.

But I will also enjoy every moment of times of celebration with friends and family that invariably involve food and indulgence.

No more “cold” comfort on my own after a hard day at work.  I will look to new forms of comfort such as making tea, lighting a candle and meditating, walking on the beach, sitting in the garden, fresh linen on the bed, splashing out on a manicure, buying and arranging fresh cut flowers, etc.

So I congratulate myself for all the times during the past 8 weeks I did not give in to the cravings or temptations.  But also for all the times I bounced back from a small lapse.  I will not berate myself for the fried chicken or that bag of potato chips.

Ultimately I now think our relationship with food and getting a balance between mind and body is not ever a one-off process or stumbling luckily across one cure-it-all.  Rather it is a journey (like life is).  A journey of reflection, growth, refinement and finding your flow.

I am also looking forward to checking out Dr Libby’s new book – Sweet Food Story.

Good luck with your wellness journey!

Health and Wellness

Week 4: Face the Demons

So this is the half way point of our little experiment.  Sarah says we need to face the demons, that doubt will creep in and you will start to question what you are doing.  Well, she was right.  This week we faced some demons.  For me this was in the form of craving huge slices of chocolate cake, a tonne of Russian fudge would have been great too!  Actually, I think I would have been happy with a handful of berries or a breakfast smoothie with banana and kiwi. But no fruit allowed either.

When planning for this week’s meals we had intended to try a whole bunch of new recipes but when it came down to it, it seemed to make more sense for us to face a tough week by keeping things simple.  So it was tried and true favourites with as much veg and leafy greens as possible.  This seemed to help – too full to crave anything.  Looks like this ties in with week 5’s IQS mantra.

Best breakfast this week was the pumpkin pie and quinoa porridge.  Best lunch – haloumi salad with walnuts.  Best dinner – a vege lasagne (my sister’s secret recipe)….. so good and the leftovers even yummier the next day for lunch.

Going back to the doubts creeping in.  I ended the week reading Dr Libby Weaver’s new book The Calorie Fallacy.  What a fabulous second opinion.  So much of her message matches Sarah’s experience.  I have read most of Dr Libby’s books and have found them most enlightening.  The Calorie Fallacy was a good reminder of some things I already know as well as a trigger to pursue other avenues to health and well-being.  In particular, the link between sugar and your liver.

Dr Libby's new book, The Calorie Fallacy
Dr Libby’s new book, The Calorie Fallacy

Week 5 of IQS is all about being creative, experimenting and detoxing.  The last week of feeling deprived before we can add a little sweetness back.  I am going to focus my week 5 on a liver detox.  I think I can live without fudge or chugging down a tin of condensed milk for 7 little days out of my life ♥

Health and Wellness

Week 2: Operation Eat Fat

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Our mantra this week, according to Sarah, was “Replace sugar with Fat”.  Right, ok!?  I must admit to being pretty skeptical at this point.  Surely this is contrary all the healthy eating info out there?  You want me to eat lots of fat this week?  Really?

Apparently the science here is that wholesome, unprocessed fats and quality proteins such as eggs, cheese, nuts and coconuts will fill you up quickly and give you a satisfied feeling (you are not feeling deprived of the food comfort you crave).

Well, turns out it is true.  I experienced feeling full for the first time in ages for most of this week.  By Thursday I even skipped dinner, still full from lunch….. seriously.  I cannot remember skipping a meal voluntarily since high school.

An added bonus for me this week I have definitely trimmed down a few centimetres around the middle.  In 2 weeks.  And after a week concentrating on increasing my fat intake.  Go figure.

We cooked with butter and coconut oil.  We embraced animal fat and whole dairy, whole eggs and ate quite a lot of cheese and nuts.  Blissfully yummy really.

I wouldn’t say my sister and I feel completely different.  We still feel pretty tired in the mornings as well as being our usual exhausted selves after long days of work and family.  And it does take a lot of extra time and thinking to plan all these different meals.  But we do think there has been enough change to intrigue us as to the possibilities of continuing our experiment.

Intrigued.  That is where we are in this process.  Since embarking on this quitting sugar gig it seems everywhere we look is the “sugar is bad” message.

Did you catch Nigel Latta’s take on sugar last week on TV?  Apparently he has now thrown his weight behind the campaign to tax sugary drinks in NZ.  And since going sugar free himself he has lost 8kgs.

Friends, family and acquaintances around the world seem to be sharing their stories too  through the social media grapevine and the message is similar – overwhelming change in health after quitting sugar.

So, delicious recipes tried and enjoyed this week:

And one from Dr Libby’s Real Food Kitchen book (page 181) that we adapted:

beef, ginger and tamari stirfry
We can do trendy food pics too 🙂

Intrigued and enthused we head into week 3 simply entitled “Quit!”.  Guessing this week won’t be as much fun as replacing sugar with fat has been…..

Health and Wellness

Week 1: Start to cut back

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So this first week has been one of easing into the whole “no more sugar” idea.

We spent last Sunday planning – rejigging the weekly shopping list and planning everyday’s meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). We also included a 6am wake-up to exercise for 20 minutes Monday to Thursday.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me explain. I live with my sister, her husband and my two precious nephews (aged 7 and 4).

All the adults work as well as run around after our “full-on and fabulous” little boys. They eat different meals from us and dinner is pretty early in the evening. The adults often feel the need to grab comfort snacks later in the evening! We either eat with them, everyone at the table for quality family time over a meal or sometimes we will eat later when they are in bed.

Anyway, suffice to say managing 5 people’s meals in this household requires some planning, especially when we are trying to break some old, bad habits.

So, step one was plan, plan and plan some more, right down to snacks. Sarah’s book really helped us here. This week we tried the Chia Puddings (page 80), the Coco-Nutty Granola (page 76) and the Potato Skins (page 152). All of these we will definitely use again – delicious, filling and comforting.

Coco-Nutty Granola
Coco-Nutty Granola

My favourite meal this week was my sister’s adaptation of a Dr Libby Weaver recipe from her book Real Food Kitchen – the roast vege salad (page 201). This is a great combination of kumara, carrot, capsicum, mushrooms, garlic, red onion, eggplant, zucchini and sausage meat all roasted in coconut oil with fresh thyme, flat leaf parsley, salt and pepper. When cooked toss through fresh baby spinach leafs, chopped up almonds and a little apple cider vinegar. Delicious! And that is what I’m having for lunch tomorrow. We have planned most dinners that way, with leftovers for lunch the next day.
When we looked at Sarah’s “rules” for week one we found that we were doing most of this already, or rather we knew we SHOULD be doing all this already. For us it was a week commitment to stay away from sugary, fizzy drinks, chocolates, lollies, baked goodies, as much processed food as possible and no high fructose fruit.

Discussing how we feel after this first week, nothing earth shattering to report. We definitely craved our comforts – mine being chocolate and ice cream, my sister’s being dried fruits and Coca Cola. But because we weren’t calorie counting or depriving ourselves we found there were other goodies to snack on. Cheese after dinner instead of dessert, lots of tea and popcorn are some examples.

It was tough getting up in the morning to workout even just to stumble down to the lounge, stick in a DVD, push play and jig around for a bit. However, we think on the whole we do feel better for it. So same again next week.

We have both struggled with feeling unwell this week but we are not sure we can put that down to detoxing? Being both of us quite hormonal at present and my sister with a streaming cold has meant we found it hard to figure out what was making us feel a bit blah.

Right, so week two begins. Our planning is complete, the shopping done. I’m about to head into the kitchen to try making a few snacks for the week ahead.

Our mantra this week is “replace sugar with fat”….. Let’s see how that turns out.