Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Summer Food Struggles (My foray into NSNG eating)

Since graduating college in May so many things in my life have changed.  One of the biggest changes has been moving to ND and actually living on my own... and cooking for myself.

I have a natural metabolism that lets me get curvy pretty quickly.  Every year between swim seasons I would gain 10-15 pounds, but then I would lose it again once I got back in the pool again so I never really worried about it too much.

This year was different.  I was done with college swimming and I know I will probably never work out that much again.  So something needed to change.

Now that I was truly living on my own I tried doing some cooking and eating pretty healthy but I was still gaining that usual weight.  I discussed my dilemma with a buddy and he suggested that I check out Vinnie Tortorich's podcast.

Vinnie preaches a No Sugar No Grains (NSNG) type of eating, a low carb high fat style of eating.  When my buddy first mentioned NSNG I thought, "No way.  I love bread and ice cream and everything grains and sugar!  No way I'd ever be able to do this!"  But I figured I'd give it a listen anyway, it couldn't hurt anything, right?

The first couple podcast were entertaining.  Anna Vocino (the podcast's cohost) did not live a NSNG lifestyle and she was just as skeptical about the whole thing as I was.  She asked a lot of questions that I had and she even experimented with NSNG and reported her results.

Vinnie was always throwing out actual studies and science to support what he was preaching.   According to him  NSNG is a maintainable change in eating style which would keep you at a healthy weight without too much exercise (too good to be true, right?).  He said that as you cut out grains and sugar your body starts to run on fat instead of glycogen (sugar).  Eat sugar get fat, eat fat get lean.  He had a lot of good information to back up what he was saying.

But it was really Anna's testimonial that convinced me.  I decided to try it.

I went cold turkey into NSNG.  To put it simply it didn't work the first time.  I got really nauseous and my body was not handling the change well.  I couldn't just sit around and wait the nausea out since I had to be moving for work.  I went back to a grain and sugar based diet.

But I kept listening to the podcasts.  What they were saying made sense to me and I really wanted to do it.  I wanted to be healthier and not worry as much about my weight.  As I listened to the podcasts I began to make small changes to my routine and diet.

I switched out 1% milk for full fat milk.  I began eating more eggs and bacon and less cereal for breakfast.  I started reading labels at the supermarket so I could avoid buying (and eating) grains and sugar.  Especially sugar.

Now I am about two weeks into almost complete NSNG.  I became fat adapted sometime last week.  I realized I was fat adapted when I wasn't too hungry at meal times and smaller amounts of food were keeping me sated.  I have actually lost a couple pounds since before I began experimenting with NSNG and I weigh less than I did at the end of high school.

I am still struggling with this style of eating.  I have to learn new recipes and make sure that I am getting enough fat in every day.  I feel like this is a maintainable style of eating.  And as an added bonus I feel great about my body.

I will definitely be continuing NSNG.  I will try to keep you posted on my progress.

In the meantime, you can go check out Vinnie and NSNG on iTunes or at vinnietortorich,com

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