HCLF Two

Man, I'm really starting to miss lactose.

I mean the full-fat, melt-in-your-mouth cheesy ooey-gooeyness that only comes from full-fat beauties such as this one:

Me, before I came to my senses and started watching my health. D.P Dough's, you're the best.

Given that this is both high-carb and high-fat, and also has cheese and bacon, I haven't been able to eat anything as beautiful as this calzone in around a month. However, I have been able to find beauty somewhere else: the mirror.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. I have actually seen some sort of results now.

A couple of months ago, I realized that I had little crops of pimples crowding around my nose, cheeks and forehead. I freaked out, and didn't know what to do about it... and now they're gone. It's probably the combination of a number of different factors: sleeping a little more, cutting my caffeine intake, the cooler weather, etc. Nonetheless, I really think that my diet has had a big impact on this.

Some hard facts:

1. My weight has remained stable throughout the two weeks in which I've done HCLF, which is approximately 0.5kg heavier than my initial vegan endeavors. However, Ive also gone to the bathroom less in these two weeks, because my fiber intake has been reduced
2. My perceived hunger levels are lower (I'm less hungry) than before, even if my weight has increased by 0.5 kg
3. I'm drinking less water now than I was during the last diet, and I don't really know why. I don't get as thirsty as I did before. 

My staples at the dining commons have been the soups, salad bar and the tortilla chips with salsa. Sometimes the deli section in Pollock Commons is stocked with good options-- hummus and veggies, with the occasional fancy aubergine conserve. Sadly, a problem I've encountered with the dining commons is that it's really hard to find high-carb, low-fat options; all the good high-carb items (potatoes, yams) are usually served fried, not steamed, which loads them with fat. 

In this sense, this diet has been harder to fulfill than being vegan: the rules are looser, but it's harder to achieve properly, just because of the limits that the dining commons poses on me: it's exceedingly harder to eat significantly more carbs than fat, just because there is so much fat on everything. 

That said, some of the products and places I tried and really liked were:

Wegman's hummus. The best flavor to be found, for the best price. From Wegmans, $4.99

I bought this from Pita Cabana, for around $10. It was enormous, so I had half for lunch and half for dinner. It's basically a plate full of rice, with spinach, and falafel. Excellent. 10/10.























As for my favorite thing:

Did you know that Twizzlers are low-fat and high-carb? The best thing I learned during these weeks.

Overall, in terms of convenience, I would rank this diet to be about a four, on a scale of one to ten. This is mostly due to the aforementioned fact that the commons have virtually no high-carb, low-fat options, and I had to look elsewhere for diversity.

Any comments, or questions? I'll be really happy to answer them! Next week I'll be starting with the opposite of this diet, HFLC (high-fat, low-carb), which should be easier because:

1. The food at the commons is already fat-heavy
2. I've already done a similar diet before, and it worked

With that said, thank you for reading this week's post! I'm really looking forward to see what you think about this!