Lee Aase | Social Media University, Global (SMUG)

4-Hour Body: The Slow Carb Diet

Because of my interest in productivity sparked by David Allen and GTD, I also had encountered The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. And while I really liked my job and wasn’t looking to Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich, I found lots of his life hacks helpful.

What I really appreciated about his approach is his relentless desire to get the absolute best results from the minimum effort.

(Note: commissions earned through any Amazon purchases are donated to support partial HELPcare Clinic memberships.)

So given my newfound interest in a total body makeover (and Lisa’s frustration with the Trim Healthy Mama Plan), I checked out The 4-Hour Body.

This book is the result of Ferriss’ constant self-experimentation and measurement of results, to the point of eating two different ways on consecutive weekends, and weighing the resulting excrement. Or buying an ultrasound device that enabled him to make precise body fat measurements.

I figured I could learn from his experiments and recommendations.

So Lisa and I tried what Ferris calls The Slow-Carb Diet – Better Fat-Loss Through Simplicity. It’s all summed up in five simple rules.

Rule #1: Avoid “White” Carbohydrates – bread, rice, cereal, potatoes, pasta, etc. Cauliflower is the only exception.

Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again. Mix and match from three groups that include proteins (eggs or meat), legumes (beans), and vegetables (spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans.)

Rule #3: Don’t Drink Calories. No milk, soft drinks or fruit juice. Limit cream in coffee to two tablespoons.

Rule #4: Don’t Eat Fruit. Heads of dietitians everywhere are exploding at that one. As Tim says, though, my northern European ancestors didn’t get fruit in the winter, and yet here I am today.

Rule #5: Take One Day Off Per Week. On “cheat day” you can (and should) forget Rules 1-4, and eat whatever you want. Maybe even eat until you’re feeling a little sick.

We found the idea of a cheat day extremely helpful. Tim says it’s good for jolting your system, and preventing your body getting into caloric deprivation mode, which slows your metabolism.

But just from a psychological perspective it’s also great. As he says, when you go “on a diet” you will eventually binge. Why not schedule it in advance? Then you aren’t demoralized by failure.

Also, it makes it easier to comply during the week when you know you have cheat day coming. If you say, “I can never have ice cream again!” it seems onerous. Saying, “I can’t have ice cream now, but I can on Sunday!” is doable.

Tim also recommended getting at least 30g of protein within 30 minutes of waking in the morning. Lisa doesn’t like eggs, so she typically got hers from a protein shake.

For me, at least six days a week, I would scramble these together in a skillet for breakfast :

3-4 eggs
3 strips of chopped bacon or some diced ham
A handful of spinach
1/2 cup of black beans

After this was cooked and on my plate, I typically topped it with salsa.

Lisa had a harder time with this diet because, unlike the Trim Healthy Mama Plan, there wasn’t a cookbook to help with dinner planning.

But while she only lost a pound per month with the other diet, she lost 10 pounds in three months on the Slow Carb Diet.

I continued to lose weight, about 10 pounds, during this time. But it was probably 15 pounds of fat loss, offset by muscle gain.

In my next post I’ll share what I learned about building muscle through this book , and how that got me started for the first time on a weight-training regimen.

See the whole series about my health journey. Follow along on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Trim Healthy Mama Plan

That’s not the name of a diet I would have expected to find myself trying.

I guess the fact that I did it in response to Lisa’s invitation is a sign of my desperation.

In October 2016, Lisa got blood test results that showed her fasting glucose at 102, and her doctor said she should cut back on carbs and sugar.

Meanwhile, my daughter Rachel had been on a diet called Trim Healthy Mama Plan, and Lisa asked if I would try it with her.

If I had watched the video below that explains the basics, I’m not sure I would have gone through with it.

But I was getting it second-hand, interpreted by Lisa, so I was willing to go along.

As Peter Attia, M.D. says, compared to the Standard American Diet (SAD), almost any diet plan is an improvement.

As I understand it, this plan gets some important things right, which is why I think lots of people have found it helpful. I lost about 15 pounds using it. Some of those good points:

Eliminate sugar.
Choose carbs wisely, avoiding starches and other carbs that spike blood sugar levels.
A healthy view of fats.

They also have some tasty recipes in their cookbook. That was helpful for Lisa in meal planning.

I think their advice on fuel separation is somewhat dubious:

Limit carbs to 45 grams per meal in what they call the “E” or Energizing meals.
Eat until you’re full when you have “S” or Satisfying meals, but limit carbs to 10 grams.

Their biggest error: recommending that you eat every three hours to keep your metabolism going. Your body isn’t a furnace, and the flame isn’t going to flicker out if you go six hours without eating.

Did our ancestors eat six meals a day?

As I said, I did pretty well on this diet, losing about 15 pounds in three months. Lisa was somewhat scarred by her experience with it though: she only lost three pounds. It made her gun-shy about getting on a scale, because she worked so hard and the lack of results was demotivating.

Another of the downsides of this diet is that with the recommendation to eat every three hours, you’re literally always thinking about food.

Lisa is quick to point out that different diets work for different people, and that with her thyroid issues and being post-menopausal it makes weight loss more difficult.

But it meant that we needed to look for a different plan, and so in early 2017 we switched to something that worked somewhat better for both of us.

Before and After

While I used to joke that I was “working on my ‘before’ photos,” the reality is that three years ago I wasn’t eager to actually capture them.

So the following is the best I can do to show the before and after results from the changes I’ve made since then.

Tomorrow I’ll start with the story of our journey toward health and fitness, through eating and exercising differently, and I’ll continue to share on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

“Is this just the way it’s going to be?”

My first approach, upon recognizing that I did in fact have a weight problem, was to ramp up my physical activity.

After all, I thought I was eating a fairly healthy diet, and was following the basic proportions of the USDA guidelines.

And I had some successful experience with intentional weight loss in the years before I had been diagnosed with celiac disease.

In just six months, I had lost enough weight and also increased my strength and fitness to reach my goal of dunking a basketball on my 4oth birthday.

Since I had done this previously, I expected I could do it again.

So in early 2016 I started working out hard, six days a week, 30 minutes per day, on the Precor elliptical training machine at our YMCA.

I had two daughters getting married later that year, and I wanted to be at my best as I accompanied them down the aisle.

I stepped on the scale every day before my morning workout, and after several months I had lost…about five pounds.

Lisa asked, “Do you think maybe you should do some weightlifting?”

“How am I supposed to fit that in? I’m already working out at least three hours a week with heavy cardio. And it’s not doing any good!”

There’s a reason why our parents and grandparents called it “working up an appetite.”

“Eat less, move more” is trite and simplistic at best.

The reality of weight loss is a lot more complicated than fighting gluttony and sloth.

So by sometime between those August and October weddings, I was teetering between resignation and readiness to change.

I was willing to change, but had no realistic idea of what could work.

So I asked myself the question that is the title of this post.

A few months later, Lisa asked another question that started us in the right direction, together.

SIFI: Lewis Aase

My blog’s new name, when I eventually get to changing it, will be Stuff I Find Interesting (SIFI).

Today I’m using the same acronym but this time it means Someone I Find Inspiring.

Today is my dad’s 89th birthday.

Lewis Aase is a big reason for what both my brother Mark and I are today.

Along with our mom, LaVonne, Dad embodies love as described in 1 Corinthians 13: he’s patient, kind, long-suffering and isn’t envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, irritable or resentful.

Probably most importantly, he’s always been a big believer in us and has supported us in exploring and developing our strengths and interests.

And sometimes even when they weren’t really strengths, he still encouraged us to try. For example, I remember Dad telling me maybe I would be good at longer distance running. Looking back, that was probably a nice way of saying I wasn’t a fast sprinter.

Which, of course, was true.

When we were young, Dad regularly took us to different high school sporting events, so we could see what interested us.

He and Mom also gave us plenty of unstructured play time with the neighbor kids, too. I guess it was a different time, but I think that’s something lots of kids miss today, as Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff have noted.

Dad has shown us the value of persistence and consistency. He and Mom moved to Austin, Minn. 55 years ago, and they’ve just faithfully lived and served together.

I don’t remember him ever missing one of my junior high or high school basketball games, home or away. I’m sure he and Mom made all of Mark’s football games, too.

Mark and I have each gone through rough patches in our lives, and Dad and Mom were always there to support us. Not in a way that kept us from developing our own strength by working through the issues, but one that helped to look out for those who were depending on us.

Dad has taught us so much.

He’s great at just figuring out how to fix things around the house. Mark got all of that practical home repair interest and ability; it’s just not my gift. My expression of Dad’s inventiveness was directed more to creative use of computers and digital tools.

In his working years, Dad was an elementary school principal, and he never let “the way things are” keep him from exploring what could be, especially if it would make life better for kids.

He invented creative ways to help those who were struggling to have longer to catch up without the social stigma of being “held back.”
He led, with some like-minded conspirators, creation of the Math Masters program, a team-based math competition for 5th and 6th grade students in Minnesota, which has spread throughout the state and been sustained for more than 25 years.
After he retired, he continued his service as a member of the Austin school board.

I have fond memories of going with him to his school on Saturday mornings, where he would work in the office catching up on paperwork, while I got to shoot baskets in the gym.

In addition to serving through his work, Dad also has been active in the church and community. He’s been on the advisory board of the Salvation Army and served Meals on Wheels until a broken hip last year caused his retirement.

When I got the crazy idea to run for state representative at age 21, Dad and Mom were totally supportive. He led the lawn sign campaign. They’ve stayed active as political volunteers for 35 years.

Mark and I have been blessed that we could raise our kids in our hometown, and that they could grow up near our parents. As they did when we were in school, Mom and Dad made almost every one of their grandchildren’s sporting events, concerts or plays.

Now they’re attending activities of their great-grandchildren.

As he is turning 89 today, Dad isn’t quite as physically agile as he once was, but he’s mentally sharp and engaged as ever.

And that’s why I still find him inspiring.

He’s a big part of the reason why, at age 56, I’m going back to school to get an MBA. Realizing how much he has contributed in even just the last 32 years, I feel I should be hitting the accelerator, not the clutch.

None of us knows how long we have to live, but we should make the most of the time we’re given.

That’s also why I’m intensely interested in learning what I can do to make my remaining years as healthy and vital as Dad’s have been.

I’ll return to that story tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Dad!