They think it's all over...

This morning as I gasped my way through my 15C bath, I reassured myself that it would be my last.  It's Day 42!  Six weeks have passed (I added a few days to the end to make up for my gluttonous trip to France).  I can relax - or can I?

Actually, I quickly realised that it just can't end here.  I've been through six weeks of privation, chills, and annoyance - but rather than stop it all, I'd rather make sure I keep the gains that all this has brought me.  I've lost over a stone in weight (about 7 kilos), and I'm fitting my clothes better and looking much trimmer too.

Moreover, I haven't actually reached my targets.  I'd rather carry on while I've got some momentum, than leave it all for another year.  However, it does feel like a good time for a rethink.

What to keep?

The main components of the programme are:

1. max 60g carbs per day
2. cold bath - 15C for 15 minutes each morning
3. delaying food - waiting between exercise and your next meal - which in effect means skipping breakfast
4. three periods of movement each day (45, 30, and 15 minutes)

I'm sure the carbohydrate restriction is a good idea - there is a tremendous amount of research evidence for this, and it also fits with my intention to improve my brain health by restricting carbohydrates, hoping to prevent it becoming insulin-resistant.  It also just feels right - I feel physically better if I restrict carbs.

The cold bath is surprisingly bearable, and I know I am burning fat because the water temperature now typically rises by about 1.4C while I'm in there - and at that point in the morning I haven't eaten yet.  I am tempted to change my regimen rather than dump it.  For example, 15C is extremely hard going, and it also takes a long time - making my morning pretty rushed.  If I were to get up earlier, I could have a more relaxed morning, and have time to do some exercise right after the bath, to warm myself up a bit.

Delaying food turns out to be a lot easier than I expected.  Unfortunately, I'm noticing myself becoming increasingly hungry at my two main meals - the effect of skipping breakfast, I imagine.  Here again, my thought is to stick with the delay, but start managing my other meals more closely in terms of calories, not just carbs.  I'm generally having a healthy mix of protein, fat, fibre (from vegetables) and carbs at each of these meals, but afterwards I feel I've eaten too much.  If I can work out sensible quantities that will give me the energy and nutrients I need, I may feel better and lose more weight.

The exercise has been very hard to fit around my busy schedule.  Once again, an earlier start to the day may help.  It doesn't suit me to exercise in the evenings anyway, so pushing the first session early into the morning might well help.  If I do it after the bath, it could help me recover from the chilling as well.  The second and third sessions similarly need to be more carefully thought out - for example using every break and lunch to go for a short walk or run, and to time this so that I can eat my second and third meals after the designated delay.  It just needs more advance planning, so I don't reach the end of the day and find I haven't moved around enough.

To get my weight properly settled into my target zone, I have more work to do, which means continued work with the programme.  Moreover, I need to genuinely get used to these things in order to maintain that weight.  As you can see from the chart on the right, my weight has hit a plateau.  This is not just about gluttony in France - it's about metabolism.

Now, there is one small wrinkle in the past couple of weeks' programme: I take thyroid hormone because I have no thyroid gland at all, and this hormone regulates energy in the body.  I started running out of my medication a couple of weeks ago, and I was completely out by last Sunday.  Owing to mistakes and poor decisions made by the people at my GP surgery, I only managed to get hold of my medication today (by saying some very forceful things to their receptionist, in person, with other patients able to hear my concerns).  It probably helped that when your thyroid hormone is low, you tend to feel pretty grumpy anyway.

However, the low thyroid hormone levels will have also meant that my metabolism was a little slower than usual.  Not so much that I couldn't run, of course.  However, it may well be that my body just wasn't long maintaining the levels of energy that the cold bath is meant to kick into action each morning.  I should see my weight leave the plateau and start dropping again if I carry on with the programme, now that I have caught up on my medication.

In short, it's not over yet.  They say in the US, "it's not over til the fat lady sings" (a phrase originally coined with respect to opera).  In my case, it's not over til the fat lady is gone.

Days 26-28: what can I eat?

Dieting always has this frustration - what can you eat?  Each new programme has new rules, and either it provides menus you know you won't like, or nothing - so you have to invent your own, potentially quite unlike what you're used to eating, and not matching what's in your kitchen.

With that in mind, what I offer as diet foods on the OMG programme are unlikely to suit everyone, or even many.  Nevertheless, I'll share with you some of my favourites, which you can take or leave.

Breakfast

Black gold for breakfast

Breakfast is so easy!  You have a cup of coffee, black.  That's it - you're not supposed to eat until 3 hours after your morning exertions on the OMG diet, and that means skipping food at breakfast.  My advice: buy the best coffee you can afford, and invest in a decent coffee maker - pictured right is my Aeropress, which I highly recommend for a smooth, rich, relatively low-acid cup of the black stuff.

Lunch
Home: cheese omelette.  You need to count the carbs in cheese, but there's not that much in an omelette.  I'll usually have some green veg with this, or perhaps an apple or some grapes (if you have fruit, you have to count those carbs though).

Work: salad with protein and nuts.  Salad greens don't count on this diet, so they're a good thing to fill up on if you like them (I certainly do).  Add a convenient source of protein - cold leftover chicken, a tin of tuna fish, some smoked trout, or whatever works for you.  Then sprinkle with nuts - walnuts are particularly good for this as they're fairly low in carbohydrate - not something you can say of most nuts.  If at home, I drizzle with "Good Oil" - a brand of oil that is very high in omega oils.

Supper
I often have the same things I'd have for lunch.  However, if I have time, I'll fry some fish and serve with a squeeze of lemon, or roast a chicken stuffed with herbs and butter.  I like to have sauteed greens - spinach, kale, chard, or whatever is available fresh.  On Sunday I try to do a proper roast joint with "meaty" vegetables like broccoli.

The principles of this diet are pretty simple: make sure you get plenty of green veg (not beans, just leafy greens), and fill the other half your plate with meat, fish, or tofu.  You can use all the herbs, spices and salt you like to add different flavours, and you can fry, roast, or do whatever you like - fat is okay on this diet.

Snacks
Once again, this is an easy one - no snacks allowed!  So have another cup of coffee.

Day 3 Week 1 - not easy, but easier

Was I more organised this morning?  No.  I tried, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to get up half an hour earlier - as if the OMG routine weren't a big enough ask.

The hardest part is the bath.  It's painful, yes, but the point is that you've got to stick with it for 15 minutes.  That's a quarter of the hour I usually give myself for getting ready in the morning, and the routine didn't have me sitting and wondering what to do for 15 minutes - it's got to come from somewhere, and clearly my morning ablutions must have been quicker than 15 minutes.  Maybe 5.

At any rate, skipping breakfast today was remarkably easy, and my work day was unusually productive.  I even had an odd sense that I was living off my own fat - very pleasant, but I wonder whether it's that, or just that it was a sunny day.

Unfortunately, my thighs have still not recovered from yesterday's morning run.  I stuck with housework and walking for my movement today, but my legs feel like I have only just finished a 200m sprint.  I think I should avoid taking the cold bath right after a hot run.

Getting through the day with the low carb diet and exercise was easy, though not always easy to remember.  That is the hardest thing about this diet - every day I forget something important.