073 Avoid Soy

This is a warning : avoid soy-based food.

One link and one excerpt.


The link (here) leads to a page on www.thyroid-info.com by Mary Shomon, that warns about the dangers of soy, especially for infants. The information doesn't circulate too much, given the huge financial interests at stake (dear food industry).

Let us just quote the conclusion: 'According to the Soy Online Service, for infants, any soy is too much. For adults, just 30 mg of soy isoflavones per day is the amount found to have a negative impact on thyroid function. This amount of soy isoflavones is found in just 5-8 ounces of soy milk, or 1.5 ounces of miso.'


The excerpt is from the best-seller The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris. It is found in the Appendices and Extras — but should really be expanded in a fullfledged chapter, IMO.

'A high percentage of vegans use soy as their primary source of protein. This is a bad idea.
Based on all the literature I've reviewed, the phytoestrogens in soy are dangerous for adults and, to a greater extent, children, even when used in moderation. Studies have demonstrated that just 30 grams of soy per day (about two tablespoons) for 90 days can disrupt thyroid function, and that's in Japanese subjects. The Swiss Federal Health Service equated 100 milligrams of isoflavones (phytoestrogens) to a single birth control pill in terms of oestrogenic impact. How many birth control pills are you inadvertently eating each day?

FOOD : TOTAL ISOFLAVONES (MG IN 100 G SERVING)
Instant soy beverage : 109.51
Raw soybeans (Japanese) : 118.51 (in less than half a cup)
Fried tofu : 48.35 (7-8 small pieces)
Tempeh : 43.52 (in less than two-thirds of a cup)
Common infant soy formula : 25

Estrogen overdosing isn't good for either gender, unless you're aiming for sterility.' (p.523)


How does this apply to us?
While experimenting with menus, two of the main ingredients were soy-based: tofu and natto. I wasn't ingesting half-assed rations and quickly found myself in an altered state (without knowing the cause then) which main trait was absolute lack of lust and sexual drive. Very, very eery. Only when I did a bit of research and reading did the dots connect. I quit eating natto and tofu, and everything went back to normal.

A side note. If you are in Japan, be careful with local soy bean-based dish — which are everywhere, really. If you think local is cool you might want to reassess your priorities.

072 Slow Carb Diet Breakfast

Just above is my usual breakfast: broiled eggs, broccoli, spinach, Korean kimchi. Ah, and a mug of black coffee, but that's old news.

I used to grab my first cigarette upon waking up ; now I cook a bit.

The point here: think of breakfast as a regular meal, like lunch or dinner, eat consequently, and you'll find it much easier to sustain the pace and keep wants in check.

Cheers!

071 What to Eat How to Cook: More Low Carb Menus

We'll now introduce a few ideas for some fun and variety within an ingredient-limited low carb diet menu. If you missed them, here are the basics, here is the detail.

Of course, this is no necessity, but you should try and give a thought not only to what you can cook and eat, but also how you can cook it. Make a habit of it. Creating new habits unrelated to cigarette helps a lot in driving it out of your head!

Quick links:
Minced meat
Fish

Minced meat is great — be it beef, pork or chicken — because of its texture, which mixes well with virtually any minced / mashed ingredients. A few examples:

With minced carrot, ginger root, garlic.
And the result:

A variant with minced carrot / onion, natto + spinach + broccoli as sidekicks:

Add some tofu for a fresh taste on the top:

Cooked well-done, for a crispy feeling:

Fish is often forgotten in low CH2O menus.
For protein, don't focus on meat only: tuna, for instance, makes a nice change from those chicken breasts (steak with soy sauce, & canned, below).
Besides, it is a precious source of calcium.

Sidekicks: spinach, broccoli, tofu / beans, corn, mixed veggies, eggs.

If you trust your fishmonger / fish vendor, sashimi is alway a great treat.
And don't forget wasabi ; ) 

07 Low Carb Diet Menus

A reminder of what you should & shouldn't eat:

SHOULDs: proteins (eggs, meat, fish), legumes (beans, lentils), vegetables (spinach, broccoli, lettuce, etc.), lots of liquid (water, tea, and coffee with moderation as digestion enhancer)

SHOULDNOTs: food & drink containing carbohydrates/CH2O (all starch, bread, pasta, cereals, rice, potatoes, beer, etc.), among which fructose (fruit juice, fruits except avocado & tomato with moderation)

That may not seem too sexy, but there's actually a whole lotta combinations. That said, simple is always best. Single out a few things you like, and rotate through the week. Here's what I eat & rotate through, for instance:

Protein: eggs / chicken breast / tofu / beef (minced, steak) / pork (thinly sliced, minced) / fish (any sort, raw in sashimi, cooked or grilled, canned tuna)
Legumes: natto / red & black beans in different forms
Vegetables: spinach, broccoli, lettuce, onion, carrot, renkon & other local (Japanese) veggies & picked vegetables
Drinks: coffee (x3/4 mugs/day), water & tea (gyokuro, sencha, maccha, hojicha, all green teas, mate & Western teas as well, ca. 2 l/day)

Two chicken breast favorites & perfect examples of what you can do / cook / eat while on the low-CH2O diet. Super quick & easy to prep.

1) chicken breast + broiled eggs on the top of boiled spinach + fresh natto (fermented beans)

2) chicken breast again, natto & boiled broccoli (with stem of course)

We'll add more menus and ideas later.

Also, remember to throw in light exercise in-between meals (ideally shortly before & 1h30 after), to trigger off muscle growth.

Don't forget — it's very important — to binge (& purge ;) on anything you want for at least one meal and up to one day per week, to prevent metabolism to adjust to the new regime. My day-off is Saturday and here was my breakfast this morning:

2 mugs of coffee, 2 glasses of grapefruit juice, 6 doughnuts (4 choco / 2 sugar — the remaining 2 sugar donuts will be for a light afternoon snack ; ), one chocolate 'melon-pan', one portion of cheese cake, yoghurt with home-made apple jam. That's pretty much it. ; )

And?

Two weeks after quitting smoking & having started the diet: same weight, lower bodyfat %, higher muscle mass.

There was on average a couple of days per week on which I didn't follow the diet (unconvenient working hours, overlapping with meal schedule, impossible to have a decent meal while working: sweets & snacks). But that's all right, the main point is here: not touched a cigarette since, and very minimal craving to do so — but sugarlust at times. So far so good.

More detailed menus next.

06 Quit Smoking & Diet: Advanced Advice, Basic Tips & Tricks

Time for some Basic Advice & Tips for our Dual Dieter & myself:

- Eat much & drink much! Very important. What to eat and drink? here & here.

- Don't worry about the scales or the number of calories / kcal. You needn't weigh or measure anything. How you feel in your body is what's important. The diet, even followed only approximately, ensures that you stay within your former weight range, 200% guaranteed.

- Keep Yourself Busy! KYB!
Inactivity is the moment you'll itch for... chocolate? And you know what? If you really must have a bite or two, go ahead. In case you've already forgotten, the main purpose of it all is, not to complete a Spartian diet, but to quit smoking with the least effort & stress.
Instead of creating additional stress because of food restriction, which might fuel cigarette craving again, just have a slice of pizza. Or a cookie.
But don't make the exception the rule. It takes very little to create a habit, for good or for worse. I have my cravings for sweet things after lunch (aaah, dessert) but never indulge into it (I'm just really looking forward to my day-off). As a compensation, I allow myself a cookie or some sweet while I can't follow the meal schedule properly (because of work, mainly).
To come back to our topic — KYB! —, the cigarette reflex is psychologically as much associated with inactivity (waiting for the bus, for the computer to launch, to pics to upload, breaktime / cigarette break, etc.) as it is with a specific activity (morning coffee, social time with friends, internet, etc.).
Don't tempt the devil and keep yourself busy. Too much free time and you'll fall. Fortunately, the diet is here as a safeguard: you'll crave for the restricted food first.
Alternative: create a new habit for the (additional) free time (smoking actually takes time, in case you didn't notice), be it push-ups or — thinking about what you'll cook for dinner. ; P

- If, on the top that, you want to redesign your body (lose or gain some weight, fat or muscle here or there), now is the time: that's another small challenge that will keep you away from even thinking about smoking.
Ideally, if you don't aim to turn into Superman or Wondergirl (none of our business really): light exercise (stretch, squat, push-up or wall-press, muscle contraction if not at home, etc.) shortly before & 1h30 after meals.
Anytime wouldn't do, but is better than nothing. Actually, if you experience those moments of inactivity & subsequent craving, you might want to make the best of those moments and create the habit of working out a bit. It's easily done, and only to your benefits.

- To follow, here are some ideas for no/low slow carb menus.

05 Dual Diet to Success

So here you are.

Summary: if you listened properly, you quit smoking and started a diet on the same day. Why? to distract yourself from the smoking / non-smoking issue, and unconsciously re-prioritize your goals.

You'll tell me — Well, if it's just to fool myself, then anything would do, right? Wrong. Quitting smoking induces a caloric proficiency for a same level of food intake, that provokes weight/fat gain and logically calls for management, and that's what this low-slow CH2O diet is here for.

The dual diet (smoking/CH2O) is a natural winner-winner combination. First, you shift your attention from cigarette to food. At the same time, you take care of the energetic proficiency problem.

This diet is quite tough to hold, even with one day-off per week, especially if you have a very sweet tooth like me, and even if it can be much fun actually (we'll see that later). And the sweeter the tooth, the better. It works also perfectly if you are a pizza addict, or a great pasta fan. Because you'll have a hard time with food management, and very little left to think about the smoking that you just quit —

Hey wait, when was that already? I know for sure I've been on this d*** diet for exactly 12 days (and I've had chocolate 5 days ago, and 2 more to binge some again), but it seems an eternity since I had my last cig and actually I don't remember when I quit, except it was on the very same day I started dieting... That's the idea. Way to go.

That's pretty much all the basics. Here are a few tips & tricks to put the basics in action.

04 The Quit Smoking Diet

It is as simple as that, we're here to testify, ongoing and feeling great. Starting a diet will make your quitting smoking feel like a joke and you won't even think about it so much. Even if you were smoking 3 packs a day.

Now, what about food? Independently of your weight, we'll go for a well-known low-slow carbohydrate, protein-focused diet.

Meaning:
- forget most carbohydrates (starch as in, bread, pasta, cereals, rice, potatoes, beer, etc.)
- which also means no fructose (fruits, fruit juice) nor glucose (cookies, sweet drinks, etc.)

Which leaves:
- proteins: eggs, meat (preference for chicken, beef), fish
- legumes: beans, lentils
- vegetables: spinach is the best, broccoli is VG, all the rest is fine

Now, no carbohydrates (CH2O from now on) means a huge dip in caloric intake. That's all right: you just have to eat more, and drink much while you're at it. You'll have to anyway, because you'll be hungry. And it's OK: caloric intake from proteins & veggies produces much less fat than caloric intake from CH2O.

While we don't want to fatten unconsiderably, remember that the goal is not to lose weight. If you want to lose weight, that won't be achieved by eating less anyway: you'll just starve yourself, which is never good.

Ideally, have 4 meals per day (breakfast, lunch, lighter second lunch, dinner) with roughly 4 hours between each. We'll give some typical menus later on.

Also, set one meal to one day off per week: we don't want the body to adjust to the new diet, but keep it burning fat & stuff like before, so this meal/day off — when you may eat absolutely anything and in whatever quantity you want — is necessary.

And these few points are all the basics.

Let's review.

03 Nicotine and the Body: Cause, Effect and Digestion

What happens when you quit smoking, anyway? A quick review, since all of this is pretty well-known.

- About 12 hours after your last cig, expect symptoms like head spinning, difficulty to concentrate, etc. And that's OK: it's your nicotine-addicted body craving for its treat (physical dependency). Physical dependency is actually quite light — unlike what pharmaceutical conglomerates &c. would like you to believe — and quickly got over.

- Then there's the psychological dependency — meaning: all the rest, mostly the behavior and habits linked with smoking, whether you'd grab a smoke while turning the computer on in the morning, while the coffee's brewing, or how you'd play with the cigarette between your fingers before lighting it, or you'd chain-smoke while thinking hard on a problem, or while waiting for the bus, and so on. Effect: urge to smoke while performing these patterns. That's the tough part — well, that is supposed to be the tough part, but you'll be so concerned about dinner that you won't even notice it.

Now, what happens when you quit smoking, diet-wise?

Well, you start absorbing, digesting food & drink like you should have: well.

Nicotine stimulates colon activity & slows down digestion process, meaning: food goes out quickly, unabsorbed for a large part ('laxative' effect). Add coffee on the top of cigarette, and it's rush time: you can basically eat whatever you want, and not gain weight, because almost all you eat goes directly into the toilets (1).

Take nicotine out of the equation, and you'll consequently feel really full and heavy, maybe for the first time in a long time. During the first days, you'll see you belly inflate like a balloon. And you'll worry that nothing comes out of it. And that won't feel quite nice. It was the worst feeling for me anyway.

And that's normal, don't freak out. That's not constipation, even though it looks like it: it's just normal digestive process getting back in business, and fine-tuning.

And we'll tweak that too.

Ready? So what do we eat now?



Notes

(1) Awesome, some may say. But don't start doing something as stupid as using cig + coffee to lose weigh, because, well, you're paying for it with your life anyway.

02 Introducing the Trick

Now you've thrown your cigs in the bin, what?

Let's go with the detail first:
- get changed, wash all clothes, get the smell outta there
- you might as well throw all lighters & matchboxes as well

Now what?

To stop smoking is no mean feat, especially if you smoke your pack a day. Plus, I'm sure you remember all the things you've been told about the weight-gain (1) (— Me? I took 3 kg in 3 weeks... — You mean you're lucky: I took 10.), which might come as an extra reason not to quit.

Well, that's it: start a diet, now.

Oh, I see, I just have to compensate for the gain, lose the weight I'm going to take. — is what you're thinking now, right? Well, that's about half of it.

How about taking that occasion to redesign your body?

See, I'm kind of skinny (ca. 63 kg for 180 cm), so I thought WTF I'll take those kilograms, and more, and put'em to the right places.

And just in case you haven't noticed it already, you have already won. That's the trick: the issue is not about quitting smoking anymore, it is about eating differently. Which requires much more involvement.

Believe me, you'll be a lot more focused and busy in a good way (about what's in your plate), than you would have been while trying not to grab a cig. The difference is huge: one solution is pro-active and positive (choose your body, change your lifestyle), while the other is reactive and negative (don't smoke).

First, let's consider the impact of quitting smoking on our metabolism and diet, and how it should be adjusted & compensated for former smokers.


Notes

(1) It takes the body a great deal of energy to try and mend itself from the damage it takes from the smoke — the lungs, for instance. In addition, nicotin has a laxative effect — couple it with coffee for bingo — which means lots of what you ingest is not digested and just fly past through you, literally.

01 Quit Smoking?

It all starts, as it always does, with some private matter, and with a heavy smoker (more than a pack of red Malboro per day) who loved smoking and took one too many hurtful reproaches from his companion who, on her side, hated the smell.

That night, I had had enough, and threw all the remaining packs & cartons in the trashcan. That was it, I quit.

I had already, vaguely, tried to quit before, a few years back, out of desperation and boredom more than anything else, but I had too much free time and too little will to succeed — in many things, mind you.

Then there's the routine, the habit in the mind, the habit in the body: that seemed to me like the obstacle.

That night, later in bed, I found the unexpectedly simple answer: I just had to fool myself.