I woke up this morning with a headache, which is common for me on Stills. I think 4 days might be my Stills limit. I will take some electrolytes and try to finish this fifth day. Stillman’s is very effective, but I think it works best for me in repeated short runs with a lowcarb, slightly higher fat, base plan to fall back on. If electrolytes don’t fix my headache, I will add a modest source of fat...I have sardines in the pantry.

You are doing so well on your current plan. Maybe include a day or two of Stills here and there or even alternating days to keep it sustainable? Though I think you have been more successful doing longer runs than I have. I don’t tend to take vitamins and minerals though Stillman recommends them. Perhaps I would not feel so run down if I took them. Do you include supplements?

I am down 1/4 pound this morning, which suggests to me that I have released the temporary water weight gain from last week...1/4 pound per day is about typical for me on Stills once I drop highcarb water weight.

Bison is surprisingly milder than beef. I like gamey meats (lamb is my favorite, venison is also nice, elk is amazing). I keep bison around because I have picky eaters to feed.

Your menu sounds delicious, as usual!

I might poach eggs in chicken broth for breakfast.

I hope your headache cleared up. Repeated short runs of Stillman’s sounds like a plan. Personally, I’d like to do weekly stints but I have far more to lose than you do. I love sardines!

Yes I am doing well but weight loss has been slow and I think I’ve just found out why... I’ve been taking iron in quite a high dose because I was a little bit anaemic a few months back. I had no clue that iron therapy causes weight gain in women! No clue at all! Studies confirm this to be true and point out if women having iron therapy don’t compensate with diet they will gain weight. Needless to say I’m stopping the iron! So between iron and steroids I had no chance!

I take vitamin C and zinc and am experimenting with B12 shots. I also take Vit D because otherwise I’m far too low. I just received my order of Bio-carotene and a good multivitamin with minerals. It will be interesting to see if the multivitamin makes a difference to my health. I went with the Pharma Nord brand as they are suppose to be quite good and have decent levels of vitamins and minerals compared to other brands. I definitely think they are worth taking. So many people are low on vitamins and minerals or have suboptimal levels at best - I’ve seen this likened to running your car on poor quality fuel. I bought a 3 month supply so I’ll see how I feel by then and along the way.

Congratulations on the loss, great stuff!

I managed a Stillman day yesterday! Going for another but no pressure if I crumble and have some broccoli.

Is the eggs in broth, egg drop soup? Or actually poached in broth! I’ve never tried poaching eggs in broth, it’s sounds interesting, I’ll have to try it. It’s 6am and I’m just about to have breakfast which is going to be scrambled egg with ham, a sprinkle of low fat vintage cheddar (no more than 10g) and some mustard. I’m also going to throw some chicken breasts in the Crockpot because you’ve had me thinking about soup for the last couple of days. It will be ready for lunch.

Edit: I forgot to mention I take liquid magnesium. Definitely makes a difference when low carbing! Actually, it might have cleared your headache!

Iron causes weight gain!?!?! Is it supporting healthy lean body mass (muscle and bone)? Or do they think it causes storage of extra fat, I wonder?

Congrats on the Stillman day.

I had a modest Thanksgiving dinner which did not impact the scale (though, oddly, I feel like holiday weight gain tends to show up a few days after the holiday...not sure how that happens). I plan to do Keto today as a transition back to lowcarb then 4 more days of Stills leading up to my physical.

I like egg drop soup, but for breakfast I just poached the eggs in broth. Very simple and I like the combination. Some of the runny yolk ends up flavoring the broth. Not gourmet, but comforting!

Apparently, it’s down to fat gain - strange phenomenon.

Great that Thanksgiving dinner didn’t impact the scale - let’s hope it doesn’t show up in a few days. I know only too well what you mean by the weight coming on a few days later, it’s happened to me... I think I’ve got away with something I shouldn’t have eaten, then bam - I’m a couple of pounds up. I’m sure you’ll be OK though because you went straight back on to Keto so that should shrink any fat cells lurking around waiting to be filled. I’ve come to realise, it’s our fat cells that are greedy, not us!

I’m doing Ok, but ended up moving back to SB - weekends tend to be difficult. My chronic fatigue has gone up a notch too but there’s not much I can do about that. I’ve decided I’m going to go hardcore for a couple of weeks because I was just offered surgery and I don’t want to go under at this weight. They offered me NY eve! I refused because I’ll be with family and it would mean spoiling everyone’s plans. Then they asked if I could come in the next day! I again explained I couldn’t. I do need this surgery and I don’t want to keep turning down appointments but I would like some warning and for it not to be during the holidays. I’m hoping they offer me the end of Jan or early Feb.

How interesting on iron and fat gain in women! I have avoided iron in supplements for quite a few years due to my age/ummm stage of life (no longer losing iron monthly), but I do probably get a fair amount in my diet due to the amount of red meat I eat. I like the taste of chicken and fish, but somehow find red meat more satisfying when cutting back on carbs and fats. Sigh.

Sending best wishes on upcoming surgery (scheduling and success).

Does your chronic fatigue respond differently to different meal plans? It must be hard to navigate dieting with that additional complexity. It is hard enough with regular fatigue!

Ah, the trouble with weekends and going hardcore...we ended up having to do a fair bit of driving and visiting my in-laws again yesterday...I was unprepared and caved on eating...to make up for that I am planning to eat just one meal today, then fast 48 hours. I will eat 1 Keto meal Tuesday night then go to my physical 14 hours fasted. That plan might throw off my labs (I gather fasting and Keto and fat loss can temporarily increase LDL in some people) but it might be interesting feedback on fasting and labs, and it will help with the scale (which my doctors seem more excited about anyway). At this point, Stillman's alone might not be enough to avoid the dreaded calorie lecture!

After my physical, I will settle back into a more aggressive fat loss plan, emphasizing lean protein, as in Stills, with veg and extra fat as needed for energy and sustainability. I have always liked the flexibility of the Stillman 14-day Shape-up Plan. Just that little bit of veg helps somehow. It is soup weather here...hoping chicken and veggie soup can provide sharable family meals to make weekends easier to navigate through December.

Hope the rest of your weekend was lovely.

So sorry I haven’t posted in a few days. I hope you are doing well. I’ve been in a really dark place as my energy took a huge nose dive and I’ve not been able to get up. This happens, it’s unfortunately all part of the miserable condition I have - ME/ Chronic fatigue. I’ve managed to get up today and hope to be back posting tomorrow and will answer the questions in your last post. Really hope you are doing well and apologies once again x

I'm so sorry to hear how unwell you have been. I hope you feel better tomorrow.

I made it past my doctor’s appointment. Now my weight loss goals are just for me. Planning to stick with Stillman’s 14-day plan (allows a few veggies) during weekdays with Keto weekends. That is probably as aggressive as I can sustain.

Stillman’s “14-Day Shapeup” Weekdays with Keto Weekends

Day 1 - plan: broiled skinless chicken thighs, chicken soup containing up to 1c low-starch veggies with lunch and dinner. 10c water.

Stillman’s “14-Day Shapeup” Weekdays with Keto Weekends

Day 1 - down 0.5kg
Probably mostly water. I started day 1 up 0.3kg from the previous day. But this makes a new low for the year. I weigh in kilos because the numbers have less of an emotional impact on me.
Day 2 - plan: poached eggs, broiled skinless chicken thighs, chicken soup containing up to 1c low-starch veggies with lunch and dinner. 10c water.

Hope you feel better soon Nemaste!

Stillman’s “14-Day Shapeup” Weekdays with Keto Weekends

Day 1 - down 0.5kg
Day 2 - up 0.2kg
Got tempted by carbs last night at family dinner. But still feeling slimmer in waist.
Days 3&4 - Keto weekend - just trying to maintain until Monday

That’s excellent news! Yay! Sorry I didn’t get to cheer you on sooner. So glad all went well at your doctor appointment and that you made your goal!

I’m still low carb, will end on around 30 carbs today so all good. Still struggling with energy but seem to be turning a corner so I can at least function again.

You will soon drop the 0.2kg... no doubt just a bit of water.

Homemade chicken shish kebab sticks with salad and jalapeños tonight

Hey Nemaste! Glad you are feeling a bit better. Great sounding menus again!

We lost our power (and internet) yesterday due to a very bad snowstorm with many downed trees. We just got our internet back. Looking forward to being able to cook again!

Hope your weekend went well.

Thank you

Gosh, sounds cold. We’ve had it quite mild here so far. Our summers seem to be getting longer as does the Autumn. I wonder if we’ll get any snow this year? London doesn’t do well when when it snows, we are so ill prepared!

I bet your glad to have your internet back! It’s funny how attached we have become, I feel completely cut off without internet and wonder how I ever managed before. I’m trying to cut down my use as I tend to be glued to my phone or iPad which can’t be good for me.

Did you manage to stay on plan without power? Must of been difficult.

Alas I did not stay on plan through the outage. We had carby junk-food take-out!

So today was basically back to day 1. I’ll weigh and measure tomorrow!