Those of us who have started the 4HB journey and diet have hopefully found out that there is a pretty tight knit community of people online that are getting healthy and helping others get healthy.

One of the first people I think I connected with online was Allison from  4HBParticipants on Facebook (if you haven’t done so already, please go there and “like” her page) and her weight loss blog.

Allison recently released a slow carb app for the iPhone and I thought it would be a great idea to interview her here and let her tell us about the app and more importantly about herself.

4HBZ: So first, introduce yourself – tell us a little about yourself and your 4HB journey

My name is Allison Reynolds, officially I am English, but I live in Australia and sound like an Australian. I am a 45 year old mother of 2 children (late teens, early 20s) and I have Multiple Sclerosis. In 2010 I had been working in corporate IT for over a decade and for several years been planning to leave my job, my children and my home to go live as a digital hippy in the bush of Australia with my partner. My dream was to create a software as a service development company arranged around internet business people.

Coincidently Tim’s book 4 Hour Body came out at the same time I was leaving my job and I decided that I would add slimming down to the list of massive changes I was planning to make in 2011.

I had started putting on the weight only in the last couple of years and was stuck in a lifestyle and job where I wasn’t able to exercise much, and my job kept me tied to a desk most of the time. Along with the more sedentary lifestyle came a lot of eating out and drinking a lot of caffeine-free Diet Coke.

I am 5 ft 8 and when I started on December 29th 2010 I weighed 93.3kg (205.6lbs) with almost half of my body composition being fat.

When I first started I was determined that I would make it work even though I went through at least three weeks of “intestinal distress” with a lot of discomfort. I started the 4HB Participants page on Facebook so others who were also doing the diet would be able to ask questions and cross check their experiences with others. I love the interaction on the page and there’s been some great results and information coming out of the wonderful people there.

My current measurements are – down 19.5kgs (43lbs) and 26 inches lost from arms, bust, wait and hips. I feel great! I am going for my DEXA scan next week to get a better idea of my current body fat %. I still want to lose my “mummy tummy”  and I have started using kettlebells and swinging (against my doctors instructions – people with MS can easily lose their grip on free weights) to see if that will get rid of that last pad of fat. I have another 5-10kgs (11 to 22lbs) to come off but that all depends on the muscle I build in the mean time.

4HBZ: what is the slow Carb App? For someone new to the diet how would you recommend they use the app?

Slow Carb App (not an affiliate link: BV) is an accountability and recording tool that helps those on any type of weight loss or body modification regime. It has three parts, meal tracking – where you take a picture and share with your social networks (or just store on your phone) . A measurement and graphing part where you record your measurements and a progress graph is drawn – again you can share that with your social networks, or just store for personal use. And finally the browsable recipe section.

For someone new to the diet this acts as that extra little incentive to stay on the path till the new type of eating becomes a habit.  Studies have shown that just being mindful of what you are eating, and sharing your results with others, have a huge effect on whether a person continues to their goal or not. Every little bit helps and making it convenient to do these things is one less excuse for someone to stray.

4HBZ: How many recipes/what types of recipes are available on the app? can you upload your own recipes into the app as well as use pre-loaded recipes?

There’s about 60 recipes currently on the app and there will be more added with the next version release. They are all based around the slow carb principles of low insulin peaking foods. The recipes are divided into meals (breakfast, lunch etc) and then by main ingredient (beef, chicken, vegetarian etc).

You can’t add your own recipes at the moment, but that’s a great idea and I will add it to the wish-list for future functions.

4HBZ: How long did it take you to develop the app?

I looked for an app in December and there was nothing available and it crossed my mind then that it would be a great idea for an app. I thought “surely someone will make one soon”. After moving house and getting settled down I checked again and found there was still nothing available so I made the decision there and then to make one. I started planning in earnest in February and kicked off the actual coding project in early March. A bug held it up for a while and Apple approved it for release in June 14th.

4HBZ: so right now the app is only available on the iPhone thru the app store? How much is it? Any plans to offer a free version?

The Apple version is available for USD$2.99 (not an affiliate link: BV) but Apple changes the prices in countries so check the App store in your country for the local price. Yes there is a plan to offer an ad supported free version which will have a smaller range of recipes. There are some extra functions for paid version also in the works with the addition of goal weights and percentages, and browsable food facts.

4HBZ: big question for me, because I own a droid – when the heck is the Android version going to be ready???

As soon as final beta testing is finished We are at the very end of that process, but as I don’t have an Android it is taking longer than the Apple version did… I must get an Android myself! Fingers crossed it will be within the next 2 weeks (it better be!)

4HBZ: any other developments in the works?

Got a couple of projects in the works. The next one is kicking off when I get back from travelling next week. I can’t say too much about it at this stage, but it is in the health and fitness area again. Also because I have been asked by quite a few people how I developed the app I have started an education project that will teach people how to create their own app called AppShipper

Thanks to Allison for taking the time out of her schedule to answer a few of my questions!  What do you think?  Is this something you think would help you out?  I plan on downloading the Droid version as soon as it’s released!

**two things: sorry for the infrequent updates – life has been hectic (with work and a new baby on the way), and sorry for all the weird changes around here – I’m playing with the site’s layout/themes and trying to find one I like best.  Please bear with me!**

I’ve decided that for this next month I will do my best to put the “4 Hour” into my 4 Hour Body.

By that I mean I want to see what happens if I commit to doing only 4 hours worth of work/exercise in this next month.  One hour per week, for 4 weeks.  I want to see what kinds of changes I can make.

Read more »

Dinner tonight was an easy beef stew recipe I like to make on weekends.

My typical version is not 4HB-friendly, but with a few tweaks it easily becomes a perfect slow-carb meal.

4HB Beef Stew

Usually I would use cream of mushroom soup, potatoes, and serve it over egg noodles.  Obviously that won’t work for our purposes.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
1/2 medium onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced (or 1 tbsp of pre-minced garlic)
1 Cup (or more) mushrooms (any variety)
1 Cup (or more) carrots
3 Cups beef stock
1 can of beans (refried works well)
1 pound of lean stew meat
Salt, pepper, and other seasonings to taste

Place carrots, mushrooms, and can of beans in crock pot or 5 qt. dutch oven or pot.  If using a pot, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Saute onions and garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil for about 10 minutes or until onions are translucent. When onions and garlic are done, transfer to crock pot (or dutch oven).

With remaining tbsp olive oil, brown stew meat on all sides, do not cook meat all the way through. Once meat is browned transfer to crock pot (or dutch oven)

Add in beef stock, salt, pepper, and any

additional seasonings. Stir all ingredients well.

Cook in crock pot on high for 4-6 hours or on low 8 hours. If using 5 qt dutch oven, mix all ingredients well then cover and place in 350 degree oven for approximately 3 hours. Check ever 30 minutes to hour to make sure stew still has enough liquid in pot. If liquid is too low add water or beef stock, 1/2 cup at a time.

Typically the cream of mushroom soup helps thicken the stew up along with the potatoes. Since we won’t be eating that on 4HB, we’ll use the can of beans as a thickener.

If you try this recipe, let me know what you think in the comments. Ideas for other 4HB slow carb recipes? I’d love to hear them, share with us!

I’m not going to tempt or terrorize you with my cheat day photos – some of you may have seen some of them on twitter…(by the way, you can find me there: @brian_valentin)

I will say this, today’s cheat day was much better than the last one…but again, I had no major cravings and I think the only benefit for me so far is the notion of a “controlled break” as Carsten put it in last week’s post. Without this break I think the temptation of having a cheat meal here and there would be too great – at least with a cheat (or as some prefer to call it “refeed”) day you have that too look forward to and help keep you in check.

So for my cheat day, I started out slow but finished with a bang I didn’t follow the 4HB “lost art of bingeing” method - I just did not have the hunger or drive to eat this morning. I woke around 7ish…and drank coffee (black), we finally got around to heading out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel (I can’t stand this place by the way – my wife and son love it though…) around 9 or so. By that time the amount of coffee and the empty stomach had me feeling hungry and sick.

Breakfast: 2 biscuits with jelly before our food (which honestly had me almost full) then I had 2 eggs over medium, 2.5 slices of crispy bacon (so good), and 1-1.5 pancakes with real maple syrup. I drank a lot of water…what I noticed? that I can’t eat nearly as much it seems as I could (or would) just 3 weeks ago. I noticed that I’m eating slower and more deliberate - not that that has anything to do with 4HB the diet, but I believe it is the aspect of being very aware of what I’m eating – and that is a result of 4HB the book.

Lunch: was basically 3 mini reese’s peanut butter cups and a scoop of Nutella and natural PB

Snack: well we took the kids to see “Tangled” (aside: great movie, a little “scary” in parts for little ones, but a typical great Disney Fairytale movie) and me and my son killed a Tub (literally a tub) of popcorn (covered in nasty/great movie theater popcorn!) and I finished off a large diet coke

Dinner: after the movie we hit a local restaurant and shared a pizza (and I had some of my son’s fries) – again, this was another thing where in the past I would have had a pizza to myself (they are not full size, but not exactly personal size either) – and this time my wife and I shared the pizza (and one slice went to the 2 year old) – I was full after two normal size slices and I drank about 4-30 oz glasses of water.

So, sorry no tantalizing photos today folks…I actually did take the pictures and my wife asked me why…I wasn’t sure, it is habit – a good habit (I just have to remember to delete the pics off my phone before it kills all my memory!)

If you had your cheat day, I’d love to hear what you had or what your experience were – hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed mine!

Back to beans and veggies and protein tomorrow! And looking forward to it too!

BV

Alright, I tried changing it up a little bit today with my breakfast – still was eggs, but no omelet – a little different.

So here goes with the food lust, er, list

Breakfast: 3 fried organic eggs, 1/2 cup black beans with avocado.  copious amounts of coffee (this is an everyday thing – thankfully I drink coffee black no sugar, so there’s theoretically no limit on my intake with regards to 4HB

Lunch: I had the leftovers from yesterday – chipotle ground beef on lettuce, tomatoes, black beans and avocado.  Nice and filling, with just a tiny bit of heat from the chipotle sauce – the recipe for the sauce is on the site

Snack: I was really having the hunger pangs today – not really having cravings, just feeling hungry.  While I was out at the store, came across beef jerkey and thought “hmmm, that should work on the slow-carb/4HB diet…”  280 calories, 52 grams of Protein, ~10 grams of  Carbs, and only 3.5 grams of Fat in the entire bag…I think, not a bad deal!

Dinner: mixed greens, tomato, guac, with “curry” chicken and black beans…not the best meal I’ve had so far, but passable and filled me up

So far my eating hasn’t been too bad, cravings have been minimal – shockingly minimal.  Like I’m thinking about what I will pig out on for my cheat day and nothing is really “calling my name”…I guess that’s a good thing.  I think I need to add more veggies – I’ve been eating a ton of salad and beans, but I feel like I’m missing out on the vegetables.  I am missing fruit.

There are going to be some changes coming to the site – I hope you will like them.  I’m going to be adding some pages and am thinking of moving the site to a self-hosted site to give me more flexibility in layout and design.

Let’s hear how everyone is doing in the comments

Tomorrow look for a “roundup” type of post – and if you like what you see here and are on the 4 Hour Body bandwagon please let people know about this site.

Happy Festivus!

BV

Today started my first day of Christmas break – I was worried about this day.  When I’m at work I’m a little better because my day is more structured.  When I’m home things are out of whack and it’s easier to eat “whatever”.  Today was a good day (food-wise) though.  I was very tired all day, had no energy and a headache all day.  I don’t think it was a carb-deficiency headache though.  I think it was more from the house being so dry and my head was hurting most of the day.

Meals:

Breakfast: 2 egg/1 egg white substitute omelet, salsa, and avocado (obviously there’s a pattern here – I’m trying to stick with what works!)  I had 1/2 cup of red kidney beans on the side.  I tried to change up my meal a little by microwaving some frozen spinach and kidney beans.  It smelled disgusting! It literally had me gagging (the smell, I couldn’t even bring myself to try it).  I like spinach, usually, and I’ve eaten it with eggs in the past – not sure if there was something wrong with the spinach today though (it could be that its been in the freezer for about 2 years probably ) **FAIL**

Lunch: I took the kids out to an indoor crafts/play place so I packed lunches for all of us.  They had PBJ’s and a banana, I had a mixed greens salad, tomato and blackened sauteed chicken with one slice of bacon crumbled on top.  Vinaigrette dressing to go with it.

Dinner: While hanging out with the kids I was checking out twitter and saw a photo posted by @alexknelson, I had to have something like that for dinner.  I made a chipotle sauce and mixed it in with browned ground beef, black beans, tomatos, guac, salsa, hot sauce on lettuce (with a bit of sour cream) – it was freaking great.  I’m adding a new category with recipes and this sauce and beef will be on that.

So far my meals have been very tasty – but I find myself craving PB on whole wheat and orange juice…I guess the cravings could be for worse things.  I’m also finding myself not wanting to use my “cheat” day on Christmas (which is my “scheduled” day)…I feel like I won’t get the most out of it, primarily because I’m wanting IHOP harvest grain n’ nuts pancakes – and they won’t be available on Christmas.

I weighed myself in today:

Weight: 191lb (-4lbs since 12/19/10)

What kinds of success are you having with 4HB?  I’d like to hear it – and if there’s some challenges you think would help motivate us write them in the comments, let’s make this fun and interesting!

BV

Day 3 is almost down…so far so good, although I haven’t noticed much “weight” loss on the scale.  But, it’s only day 3 and truly that isn’t my determining factor for doing well on this diet.  The way I feel and how clothes are fitting along with TI (when I get a chance to take the measurements) will be more of a guide for me.  I am interested in getting a BODPOD measurement – but the nearest one I could find online is about 45 minutes away and I’m not sure I’ll have the time to schedule an appointment and get the measurements done.

Yesterday I wrote about the base of the skull headaches I was having…I’m glad to say today (as I kind of expected) I didn’t have any and I felt much better.  Glad those went away – the only drawback to today is that I drank a lot of coffee and then switched to ice tea (unsweetened) – and started to get very nauseous around lunch time.  I waited a while and drank water and all was well – I need to drink more water obviously and stay away from too much caffeine.

Meals:

Breakfast: I prepped last night which helped with cooking this morning.  I had a 4 egg omelet (2 whole/2 egg white sub) with black beans scrambled in, some turkey breast avocado and salsa.  Another very good breakfast – only thing it was TOO much – I ate only about 3/4 of it as I was too full to finish.

I still didn’t eat within 30 minutes – but I started eating about 40 minutes post wakeup.  Again, I’m sure that’s not a huge deal but I’d like to try to get it to 30 minutes or under.  I may look into whey protein shakes to start the morning – but I’ve never found a brand that is good with water – if there are any suggestions I’d love to hear it!

Lunch: salad with veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) 1/2 cup of dark red kidney beans, tomatoes and pickles and lunch meat (ham).

Snack/2nd lunch: bowl of leftover chicken soup…very good

Dinner: wifey made a crock pot meal of chicken breasts in cream of broccoli cheese soup – I smeared away as much of the cream as possible and ate it alongside roasted asparagus and salad with tomatoes and avocado.  The chicken was decent – a little dry, and hopefully the broc/cheese didn’t run me off the track.

I’m feeling a little hungry right now – but I’m going to drink cold water and hopefully that will do the trick – although I don’t know if this works or is a placebo effect.

As for the workout from yesterday – the hips are a little sore, but on a scale of 1-10 (1o being hit by a truck and dragged 30 feet down an asphalt road)…I’d say I’m about a 2, not bad (but also, weirdly not good).  I’m thinking of throwing in some HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) – only because I actually enjoy doing those types of workouts – but I don’t want to overdo and burn myself out…I am a bit out of shape, and I know I tend to overdo it early on.

In a future post I plan on reviewing/talking about a similar diet I tried in the past and it showed some good results…I think it would be good for those people that feel that TF’s Slow Carb Diet is a little to strict and spartan.  Please look forward to it.

If you liked this post – I’d be thrilled if you would share it on Twitter or Facebook

Let’s hear how from you – post in the comments how your day went!

BV

In The 4-Hour Body (4HB) Tim Ferriss makes it sound like an imperative that you eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking, normally I don’t even come close to this – usually closer to an hour or so after waking.  Since I’m taking this seriously I am trying to make sure I eat within that first 30 minutes of waking (I’m defining “waking” as once I’m definitely done sleeping and I’m out of bed).

I think I ate at around 40 minutes post-wakeup…I’m pretty sure those extra 10 minutes won’t have any major effect on weight loss, but I will say I find it difficult to do my morning “routine” and get breakfast ready in that time frame.  One of the reasons is when I get up I try not to make too much noise in the kitchen which invariably wakes my 5 and 2 year olds up earlier than they need to be.  I’m trying to come up with night-time prep plans to make the morning breakfast routine quicker and quieter – any advice???

Meals:

Breakfast: similar to yesterday, 3 eggs (2 whole organic/1 egg white sub.) with avocado (I used the prepped stuff) black beans and some salsa (I don’t usually like jarred salsa – but this stuff from Target was very good)  ***I’m an IDIOT…I accidentally deleted the pic off my phone…but, it was essentially the same as yesterday except for the salsa***

Lunch: leftover salad with avocado, tomatoes, some chicken and a packet of tuna.  By the way, I’m pretty sure this is part of the very low carb situation – but I’ve been getting those lovely skull headaches…but they tend to go away after a short while.  I’m hoping day 3 brings these to an end.

Dinner: el wifey is trying to sabotage me!  well she’s prego and was craving ketchup (???) and wanted to go to Applebee’s – and I thought this would be my opportunity to show my resolve.  I ordered a 7 oz. sirloin with broccoli side and house salad in place of potatoes.  I also drank a bunch of unsweetened Ice Tea.  It was actually a very satisfying meal – the only concern I have about it is I know some restaurants (actually most) finish off their steaks in butter to add moisture and make them look a little better, I don’t know if the Applebee’s steak was finished like that.

Workout @ ~ 9pm, then had a “snack”: 1 spoonful of Smucker’s Natural Creamy Peanut Butter (I love this stuff!)

I thought it would be difficult doing this the week before Christmas, and although not AS difficult as I expected there were a few tough moments.

1. all of the goodies that were brought in – especially the breakfast casserole our secretary makes, I would have dived in but then I remembered she uses bread in it (DAMN!) and I would have had to take a pic in front of everyone and I didn’t want to do that
2. a student brought Christmas cupcakes around for us…and boy did they look good.  I was going to take a pic and post it as motivationNOT to eat it…but instead I smushed it into our secretary’s face, though I was paid back a little while later and wasspitting bits of cupcake out of my mouth so as not to swallow a disallowed substance!
3. French Fries…my daughter’s french fries were a big temptation, but again, I didn’t come close to breaking down.
   

   Lunch

   

   Dinner Salad

   

   Dinner sirloin and broccoli @ Applebee's

   

   Peanut Butter "snack"…delicious!

So far, I feel pretty good – I’m interested in trying the “PAGG” stack that is mentioned in the book as a supplement stack for helping with weight loss.  I think I will hold off for now though and see how the diet works along with exercise.  I also plan to do some sort of resistance training – the book recommends 2 or 3 days of posterior work using kettlebells and some of the minor additional work (crunches) – the problem with that is I have a 15lb kettlebell, which even in my untrained state probably won’t give much of a metabolic hit – but that sounds like an excuse, so I will do them anyway.

Day 2, just about in the books.  If anything changes I’ll update this post.

Have a great night!

BV

Okay, so I’m beginning my Rapid Fat Loss and “Flash” diet.  We’ll see how this goes – hopefully all goes well.  I am a little worried at the intelligence of starting this diet two days before beginning Christmas vacation and less than one week before Christmas.

One saving grace is that I can set the cheat day for Christmas day and pig out.  That will hopefully keep me safe and sane for the week!

Starting points:

• Sunday morning weigh-in (using a cheap, old bathroom scale): 195 lbs.
• Goal: 20 lb fat loss by Jan. 19, 2011.

I don’t know for sure how I will measure fat loss since I wasn’t able to get a bodyfat percentage, but what I think I will focus on is inches lost.  I need to take tape measurements of both arms (at the bicep), waist (at the bellybutton), hips (at widest point) and both thighs (at widest point) – add each measurement for my TI (total inches).  This is a measurement that will be able to help me keep track of progress along with scale weight.

Breakfast: 2 organic eggs + 1 egg white substitute, pinch of paprika, 1/2 cup of cooked black beans and 1/2 avocado

eggs, black beans, and avocado

I was worried about the black beans and the eggs…but it was actually very good.  I’ll look forward to eating this one again.

Lunch: leftover chicken “tortilla” soup (no tortillas actually in soup) and salad with 1 tomato and 1/2 avocado and balsamic basil vinaigrette

chicken "tortilla" soup, salad w/tomato and avocado

“Snack”: I felt like I was “starving” and had a nice, base of the skull headache – so I made a snack meal of 2 turkey sausage (which aren’t really that healthy, I’ll change to better ones when I finish this package) and a bowl of  mixed veggies

turkey sausages w/salsa and mixed veggies

Dinner: followed a salad recipe from the “Slow Carb Cookbook” that is the basis for the recommended diet in 4HB.  It was a salad with bacon, sauteed chicken cutlets, tomato, avocado (I had A LOT of avocado today!), and sauteed onions – it may have been the best salad I’ve ever made!

"slow carb" salad – tomato, avocado, bacon, and sauteed onions…umm umm good!

It wasn’t that bad, except for the slight headache and cravings for juice.  I’ve done a diet similar to this in the past (but not nearly as strict as this one) so I kind of new what to expect early on.  I’m just hoping that the next few days filled with holiday pastries and candies and such doesn’t destroy my willpower!  Wish me luck.

BV