Calorie/Carb Cycling

So....for a while now my eating has been quite good. No binging...no bad cravings its been great. And while I have been eating better and my exercise routine has really improved I am losing a lil weight but nowhere near my potential.

For a while (several months if not longer) i have thought about going paleo. For a couple of reasons....high protein no grains strikes me as the best way to really change my body shape. The other is I have a lot of issues with my ears blocking and sometimes vertigo at night when I roll over and my doctor says this is due to congestion and its definitely worse when drinking milk! It really clicked the other day when I had some milk and within 20 minutes my ear blocked! And was blocked for hours and when you work in a call centre that is not good! Anyway while I saw benefits to paleo I knew I couldnt stick to it day after day...I am just the person who does need some grains!!! So i remembered I had bought chris powells book on carb cycling altho I had never read it LOL.

Anyway its a great book! One of the great things I loved about it is how you need to make promises to yourself and STICK to them. So we really transform and believe in ourselves more when we make a promise to ourselves (like i will drink 3 litres of water per day) and then see that promise out. We do it one promise at a time but the more we do that....with every promise we stick to day by day....our belief in ourselves in increases and this is where transformation happens....while its not about the "plan" it really resonated with me!

So in relation to the plan when I first read it in the book my bthday and a reward day ;) So it will work like this:

monday : low carb
tuesday : low carb
wednesday : high carb
thursday : low carb
friday : low carb
saturday : high carb
sunday : reward day

So the way it works is...you eat 3 meals and 2 snacks....every meal and snack has 1 protein serve (for a woman) and unlimited vegies. On a low carb day you also eat a fat serve with every meal...but they are smart fat serves....so its things like olive oil, cheese, avocado, salad dressing,peanut butter etc. So for example my first low carb day looks like this:

breakfast: protein shake (made with almond milk)
snack:Greek yoghurt and 10 almonds
lunch:150 grams cooked chicken breast with salad of tomato and cucumbers and salad dressing
snack:100 grams cottage cheese and 1 bega stringer
dinner:150 grams (raw) pork steak plus salad and salad dressing

So as you can see incredibly clean...its actually a lot of food especially the amounts of protein. But you are only eating like 2 days straight then I have a high carb day! So the high carb day (wednesday and saturday) will look like this:

breakfast: protein shake (made with almond milk)
snack: Greek yoghurt and 25 grams oats/muesli
lunch: 150 grams cooked chicken breast, salad, 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
snack: Protein shake with almond milk with 25 grams oats
dinner:150 grams cooked chicken breast, salad, plus banana (for after)

So basically as you can say....low carb days you eat fats....high carb days you dont. Reward days which is sundays he recommends up to 2400 calories, still eating protein every meal and focusing on eating in moderation. I am only going to eat up to 2200. The first few weeks I will weigh each morning to monitor and see how my body responds to different days (especially the reward day).

Based on how well my body has responded in the past to calorie cycling I think it will respond really well to this plan. If no real change after a few weeks I will go back to food coaching but I am focused on this working.