I have done it, under the name of "The South Beach Diet, Phase 1" Your co-worker is either "yanking your chain" or being pedantic. Cukes, peppers, and almonds are NOT a problem in the two-week test. Botanically speaking, cukes and peppers are, in fact, fruits, but we eat them like veggies and they don't have a high glycemic index or glycemic load. That's what the test is getting after, not how botanists characterize the food. Tomatoes, squashes, and eggplant are also, technically, fruits and they are specifically identified as O.K. in "In Fitness and in Health" (as are almonds, of course). So sail on and don't worry about a re-set, just expect to get hungry if you're only eating nuts and veggies. You may also lose some weight, but in my experience a good portion of that is water weight shed as your body taps glycogen stores.

The toughest part about Maffetone/South Beach (for me) was transitioning back to adding carbs. It's very easy to overdo it. As I understand it, South Beach now has a formal recommendation about how to add carbs back, but when I did it it was very general. Maffetone has some equally general recommendation in "In Fitness and in Health." I also missed fruit a lot during the two-week test. I've not stuck to that diet. If you look at "Get the F Out" thread you'll see what I do now. For me, right now, the key is energy balance (calories in/calories burned) and eating mostly whole, natural foods, that are not dense with calories. Intermittent fasting helped early this year, but my body hasn't responded well to the reintroduction of IF this week. That said, I think Maffetone's plan can be a healthy, nutritious diet if done properly. Eat a lot of veggies, a moderate amount of lean protein, a litte fruit, and just a small amount of starchy carbs and fats. Just don't think you can eat as much as you want, whenever you want, for as long as you want and not gain weight. Also, if you're doing long glycogen depleting runs, you'd also need to tweak the recommendations to maximize your recovery - don't fear the carbs while running long or immediately after as you reload. Let us know how it goes for you - I'm curious to hear your results and thoughts on it.

For what it's worth, I cut out all meat, milk, and almost all sugar last December, while continuing to eat eggs and cheese. The one thing that I noticed after a week or so was that I didn't have hunger cravings anymore. For the past week I have given up the eggs and cheese. I guess I'm 100% vegan now, and I try to eat more raw than cooked. Overall, I feel better and have more energy and recover faster. However, I started maffing about 9 weeks ago and I'm not sure which one (diet or maffing) is more responsible for my good results. Flower indicated recently that she is becoming impatient with her results (or lack of results) and I started to chime in but I am not qualified to be giving anyone running advice, maffing or otherwise. All I know is that I am happy with my results so far, and I believe that the healthier diet and maffing go together well, especially for my age and relative condition. Bob

Hi Bob, I have been more or less following McDougall's recommendations, which is a starch based, low fat vegan diet. Been doing this since Easter 2007. Started running and maffing in August 2008. I, too, was getting impatient for results. Didn't want to believe that my diet was incompatible with maffing. Finally, this month, I am seeing progress in my MAF tests. Just had a big PR in the 5K.

I thought the Two Week Test how-to info was online.  I thought I remembered reading it sometime ago in PDF form

 

Does anyone have the link?

 

Thank you