LOTRL One-year Challenge

Following Chef AJ’s UWL (Ultimate Weight Loss) program has been really good for me.  It seems to be the easiest program I’ve tried.  Now this is just me.  I think for a lot of people, it would be the hardest because we don't eat flour and sugar.  So to each their own, that is for sure.  The reason is works for me is because of calorie density.  I find that I have a hard time controlling my intake of any foods of high calorie density, even the healthy ones, like whole grain breads, or nuts or dates.   In Chef AJ’s program she draws this red line on her calorie density chart and says to eat only foods that are Left of the Red Line (LOTRL).  Her line is around 650 calories per pound but since chickpeas are about 700, I use that as my number.  i.e., the red line is just to the right of legumes which are the highest calorie density of the “permitted” foods.

I’ve been successful on the UWL program and have been at my goal weight for about 6 months.  I’ve been abstinent from flour, sugar and alcohol for 225 days as of today, and from any added salt for 40 days.   I’ve only been LOTRL for about 10 hours.  LOL.  --Because I occasionally have slip-ups with nuts and dates.  After so many days abstinent from flour and sugar I’ve lost my cravings and temptations for it (I hope I don’t jinx myself with that statement!).   So I feel so much more at peace around food this holiday season than in the past.  I would like to feel that way around nuts and dates, and it seems a good way is to try abstinence from them also.  So I’m curious to try an experiment of going LOTRL for one year, with one exception:  I will allow up to 1 oz of seeds in a day.  I hope they won't be triggering as the whole point of this challenge is to give me peace of mind around food.  But  I also want the best health for myself and eating 1 T of ground flax/sesame seeds gives me peace of mind around getting some healthy fats in.  And there might be times when backpacking or for weight management or some other health reason that I want to include more (up to 1 oz).

By the way, I keep track of the number of days of abstinence or other countdowns (and ups) with the “T-0” app on the iphone.  I don’t pay much attention to it.   Every once in a while I think, hey, I wonder how many days I’ve been abstinent, and then I look at the app.  So it’s not something I think about much at all.  I’m more trying to live my life.

Kristi asked what I eat in a day (below in the comments).  Here's what I'm eating right now:  Each meal has a starch, about 1 lb of veggies and a fruit.  My typical starches are beans & grain (oat groats, quinoa, etc), sweet potato, squash, or potato.  At breakfast I include chopped mushrooms with curry powder and 1 T of ground flax/sesame seeds, sort of as a delicious tasting supplement of healthy foods.  Fruits are whatever is in season.  Right now that's grapefruit, pomegranate or apple.  Veggies are cooked greens from my garden (I have a freezer full), raw carrots, brussels sprouts, beets, cabbage, and other winter type veggies.  In summer I like sweet corn and watermelon, in the fall squash, in the spring, fresh greens and berries.

I’ll post here occasionally to let you (me) know how I’m doing.

So the challenge is on, Dec. 1, 2017- Dec. 1, 2018.