Loading again

I know, I know. Just over 2 months ago, I thought perhaps it would be the last time ever I'd do this. But I never did reach where I wanted to be for our vacation at year's end. If I want to do it and have it locked in, I have to do it now. Like last time, it may or may not 'work'. I may be where my body wants to be. Plus, my dh helpfully pointed out that I'm not really a suitable candidate for this anymore. If someone came to me and said they only wanted to get rid of 10-20 lb. I'd tell them no way. But I've been bike riding, and playing tennis, and doing yoga...and I haven't lost the last bit with just regular eating and activity. So, I'm going to try again.

Besides, there has been a thought running around in my head for a few weeks now, and it seems I will get no rest until I let it out, so I'll share it here. I also need to test the theory, which means I go another round.

When I was in Michigan on vacation over the 4th, we went to one of our favorite restaurants in Traverse City. It used to be Bower's Harbor Inn. The casual dining area is now The Jolly Pumpkin, and the formal dining area is Mission Table. Anyway, the place has recently changed hands and changed names, but the legend of Genevieve remains.

In a nutshell, her story is that she was an obese and jealous woman who committed suicide when her husband left all of his wealth to his mistress. He left her only the mansion (at what must have seemed the ends of the earth at that time) and it is said she still haunts the place today.

However, every time I’ve been there, I’ve wondered why they called her ‘obese’, or why she considered herself such. All of the pictures show her as completely ‘normal’ weight as far as I can tell. This time when we were there however, I had an epiphany: The definition of ’obese’, official and the public perception of obese, has changed over time. Not only that, but it is different in different places now. ‘Fat’ is a subjective observation. Personally, I consider myself quite svelte now, but my Wii still says I’m overweight and many would still consider me fat to look at me. I don’t consider size 6 ‘fat’, but some really do.

If you read message boards about obesity, you find derogatory, even abusive, remarks from Europeans about ‘fat Americans’ and our gluttonous nature. And here is where a couple of thoughts came together regarding the Simeons hcg protocol ‘loading days’ that I feel are important.

‘Loading days’ are the three days before beginning the VLCD (very low calorie diet) wherein one consumes as much fat as possible. From Pounds and Inches: A New Approach to Obesity by Dr. Simeons:

“Most patients who have been struggling with diets for years and know how rapidly they gain if they let themselves go are very hard to convince of the absolute necessity of gorging for at least two days, and yet this must he insisted upon categorically if the further course of treatment is to run smoothly. Those patients who have to be put on forced feeding for a week before starting the injections usually gain weight rapidly - four to six pounds in 24 hours is not unusual - but after a day or two this rapid gain generally levels off. In any case, the whole gain is usually lost in the first 48 hours of dieting. It is necessary to proceed in this manner because the gain re-stocks the depleted normal reserves, whereas the subsequent loss is from the abnormal deposits only.”

Note that he actually uses the word, ‘gorging’. I keep up with many lists/groups for this protocol, besides talking people through the process. And over the last year and a half, I’ve come to see that there are many interpretations of what this means.

Taking these directions quite literally when I began, for me this is what a loading day might look like:

Breakfast: 1 Egg McMuffin with cheese and bacon, hashbrowns, coffee with cream and sugar
Snack: 1 donut
Lunch: Peanut butter sandwich and 1-2 cups potato chips
Snack: 1/2 cup Ben & Jerry’s
Dinner: 1/3 of an order of Fettucini Alfredo (most places serve about what, say Olive Garden does) and ½ to ¾ of a piece of cheesecake, depending on if I split it with my husband or tried to eat it on my own.

A day like that would leave me feeling absolutely full and ill all day and into the night. I didn’t sleep well. As I talked to other people, I found that for some, this entire day is ONE meal! For some, ‘gorging’ for a meal means a pound of bacon and a 4 inch stack of pancakes with a side of potatoes for breakfast; 2 or 3 Big Mac meals with shakes and a whole package of Oreos for lunch; an entire pizza and quart of ice cream for dinner.

So with my own clients, I started stressing that while Simeons did say to eat as much fat as possible, and he did say to ‘gorge’, the point is NOT to feel as horrible as possible. I also emphasize that this is not a ‘carb load’. People who choose to load up on sugar are likely going to have a ‘sugar hangover’ with irritability, a headache and perhaps shakiness for the first few days. It is far better to ‘load’ with healthy fats like nuts, cheese, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, oily fish, etc. than garbage, BUT if there is something someone will miss, like that piece of cheesecake, they should have one. ONE.

Ok, so how does this stuff on loading relate to Genevieve and my epiphany? Well, another thing I tell people is that we have to look at what Simeons wrote and practiced in context. The protocol works if we stick to it as closely as possible, but for instance he didn’t list tuna on his approved foods. In the 40s and 50s when he was working on his theory and helping people in Italy, tuna was packed in oil. It is a wonderful low-fat protein if it is packed in water, which is easy to find now. Another example would be that he allows lipstick, but not lipbalm. It might be that lipsticks known to him contained mineral oil, whereas lipbalm might have consisted of those nutritive oils that are absorbed by the skin, like olive oil. OR it might just be that being a male doctor in a chauvinistic time and place, he could not conceive of a woman not wearing lipstick.

Putting all of that together, it occurred to me that ‘gorging’ might likewise be a relative term. What exactly did Simeons mean by it? Remember, he was in Italy. Prior to that, he worked in India, and he was from England. Even today, European portion sizes are vastly different than what Americans consume. Not only that, but looking at this graph you can see that what was considered a serving size in the 40s and 50s was about 1/3 (or less) than what a ‘serving size’ is today. This link is a visual of the serving sizes just 20 years ago.

So what did Simeons really mean? I think that, like with Genevieve who may or may not have been ‘obese’ by today’s standards, we have to take into consideration what Simeons really meant considering the time and places that his ideas originated. He did not mean consuming an entire week’s worth of groceries in one day, I’m sure of it. Yes, he allowed a lot of crap, but besides the amount of calories in that crap, there is a psychological benefit to allowing oneself to eat something that, if they tell themselves they can’t have it for 3 months, is going to make them feel deprived and tempted.

So, this time, I am going to test my theory.

Physically, I don't think I could consume the amount I provided in the example of my first loading day even. Since that time, I've not loaded to that extent, just because I didn't want to feel as gross as I did the first time around. Granted, that first round worked the best of all of them, but I felt horrible for those 3 days of loading. This time, I'm not purposely 'loading' to a point of discomfort, but I am going the full 3 days, and I am staying away from sugar for the most part. I had snack that consisted of a piece of sugar-free cheesecake today, for instance. It was a 2" x 2" square, with blueberries. I had a bagal with cream cheese for lunch. I had 2 pieces Ezekiel Bread with butter and 3 slices of bacon for breakfast. I intended to have a couple of ounces of cheese or cottage cheese too, but I was too full after the toast and bacon. It is more bread than I planned on (even though the toast is sprouted and not flour) and I'm hoping that doesn't come back and bite me. Frankly, I still feel almost uncomfortably full right now and it's after 2:30 pm, so I'm thinking the hcg is doing it's job and tomorrow I'm super ready to just get on with it.