When talking about Chinese weight loss tea, a lot of people search for the best weight loss tea. Before we start to explain some very important aspects of the whole thing with green tea for diet and all the other slimming ideas and expectations it is definitely necessary to say that the best weight loss tea is that tea that helps you the most. If you tried Wu Yi tea for weight loss and it helped you then you are doing things right. If you tried some other very good traditional Chinese tea then you are also heading the right way. We have nothing against those issues that people are currently running into when trying these well promoted teas that are going to easily help you to get rid of the love handles and become slim. The articles and information that we are publishing on this site have nothing to do with those weight loss programs for idiots that some of the people sell and others buy. Our main goal for this website is to be able to explain the most fundamental aspects to people when it comes to the best weight loss tea that they can run into and what to expect after drinking it for a period of time. So let's find out if green tea can help you lose weight.
A best weight loss tea should have a very good effect from the very beginning. If you are drinking some kind of green tea for a very long time and you feel absolutely no effect then two things are happening. A) Either you are doing something wrong and purchased the wrong tea from a wrong recommendation or even without knowing how it really works and B) You don’t have the necessary patience and belief. When dealing with most weight loss programs, especially when applying tea for even some better results and a slimming green tea diet, people should understand that those things that come into mind are often the ideas that people don’t really pay close attention to and believe it or not these are the most important. When starting a weight loss program you have to actually believe that you are going to have success and there is no other way besides doing it fine and starting to see good results with it. Things are happening so fast and you don’t really understand what is going on. On thing is certain, if you have the firm desire to overcome your weakness and get rid of the belly fat you need to work hard and no great weight loss tea is going to help if you don’t start to acquire knowledge, experience, will to work and have belief.
The easy weight loss tea programs that are being advertised everywhere is nothing more then a waste of time for most people. Scientists have proven that most of the people that get involved into these programs and ideas are extremely skeptic from the very beginning and they don’t even want to see and open their eyes and understand or realize for at least one single second that this is going to bring good results in and is going to give them that premier level of confidence that every beginner needs when starting his or her weight loss program. Like we mentioned before and in our previous articles, it is a good way to start with a free weight loss tea program and slowly move on from time to time. Stop believing in everything you read and everything that you stumble upon. If you really want to know how to lose weight then take a cup of good weight loss tea and read what we have written so far. Follow us in the future and you are going to find out even more about the best weight loss tea that people are so much talking about lately. In the end we would like to know that we have always promoted only organic and natural ways to lose weight with tea and we are not going to give up on this method. People deserve to have results and know what is going on at the same time.
In case you encounter difficulties deciding on the proper slimming tea diet you should check my friend's weight loss programs site for more motivational tips, quality products and success stories. Good luck!
My friend Coco has a great website that provides a lot of useful tips called rapid weight loss today. Make sure you check him out!
To Your Success,
Huang Jiung
Kamis, 30 April 2009
Rabu, 29 April 2009
The race is on!
I must be crazy or stupid or both. A girlfriend of mine has been doing Medifast for the last 14 weeks and has lost 47.6 pounds. She needs to lose 25 more pounds to lose to reach her goal of 160 (she's 5' 9"). I've been doing Weight Watchers for 14 months, and I still have 20 more pounds to lose to reach my goal of 135 (I'm 5' 6 1/2").
She hasn't exercised once in 14 weeks (she's never been into exercise). She eats all pre-packaged liquid food (soups and shakes), and gets one "real" meal a day consisting of 6 ounces of chicken or fish and 1/2 cup of vegetables. The diet is about 800-900 calories a day. It sounds horrible to me, and I would never do anything so extreme to lose weight (okay, the old me would, but the new me, no way!).
The reason I'm crazy/stupid is because I agreed (actually suggested) a little friendly competition. Whoever gets to goal first wins. The prize is to pay the other person $1 for each pound lost. That will be $104 she'll pay me if I win, and about $75 I'll pay her if she wins.
The reason I feel like this was an idiotic idea on my part is because how on earth can I win when she's only eating 800-900 calories a day? Even if I really cut back and just consume my 19 Points a day, plus five extras, or 24 Points, that's still 1200 calories. I do exercise a lot. Lately I work out 1 1/2 hours in the morning, and if it's not raining, then an hour long bike ride at night (but I live in Seattle so it rains a lot!). I'm burning about 800 calories in exercise a day when I go to the gym and bike at night, if my heart rate monitor is correct. It usually displays half of what any machine displays so I think it's accurate.
I guess it doesn't matter. I made the commitment and there's no backing out now. I know it's going to make me be very diligent about tracking my food and drinking water so maybe this is a good thing. At least it'll get me back in the game and with any luck, $104 richer.
She hasn't exercised once in 14 weeks (she's never been into exercise). She eats all pre-packaged liquid food (soups and shakes), and gets one "real" meal a day consisting of 6 ounces of chicken or fish and 1/2 cup of vegetables. The diet is about 800-900 calories a day. It sounds horrible to me, and I would never do anything so extreme to lose weight (okay, the old me would, but the new me, no way!).
The reason I'm crazy/stupid is because I agreed (actually suggested) a little friendly competition. Whoever gets to goal first wins. The prize is to pay the other person $1 for each pound lost. That will be $104 she'll pay me if I win, and about $75 I'll pay her if she wins.
The reason I feel like this was an idiotic idea on my part is because how on earth can I win when she's only eating 800-900 calories a day? Even if I really cut back and just consume my 19 Points a day, plus five extras, or 24 Points, that's still 1200 calories. I do exercise a lot. Lately I work out 1 1/2 hours in the morning, and if it's not raining, then an hour long bike ride at night (but I live in Seattle so it rains a lot!). I'm burning about 800 calories in exercise a day when I go to the gym and bike at night, if my heart rate monitor is correct. It usually displays half of what any machine displays so I think it's accurate.
I guess it doesn't matter. I made the commitment and there's no backing out now. I know it's going to make me be very diligent about tracking my food and drinking water so maybe this is a good thing. At least it'll get me back in the game and with any luck, $104 richer.
Selasa, 28 April 2009
Excess Omega-6 Fat Damages Infants' Livers
A nurse friend of mine sent me an e-mail a few weeks ago with a very interesting observation:
The typical TPN formula contains soybean and safflower oils as the fat, both of which are over 50% omega-6 linoleic acid. Soybean oil also contains 7% omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid. You can't get the kids started too early on a "heart-healthy" diet!
The solution was to replace the vegetable oil with fish oil, which prevents or rapidly reverses the severe liver damage caused by TPN rich in omega-6 vegetable oils. I don't think this is a great solution, but it certainly beats vegetable oil. The ideal solution would be to replace the vegetable oil with a fat that approximates the composition of breast milk: mostly monounsaturated and saturated fat, with a little bit of linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid and long-chain fats such as AA and DHA. You could do this pretty easily with a mix of lard and fish oil; or palm oil and fish oil; or coconut oil, olive oil and fish oil. Breast milk composition varies with diet, and the amount of linoleic acid in the breast milk of Western populations is unusually high.
Excess linoleic acid, particularly when combined with excess fructose and insufficient omega-3 fat, is toxic to the liver. Modern Western nations are experiencing an epidemic of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which animal studies indicate is probably the result of replacing animal fats with polyunsaturated vegetable oils and increasing sugar intake (see links below for more detail). Fatty liver was seen primarily in alcoholics three decades ago. An estimated 1/4 of Americans now have NAFLD. It's the number one cause of liver damage in the U.S.
Where the liver goes, the rest of the body follows.
How to Fatten Your Liver
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
The Liver: Your Metabolic Gatekeeper
More Liver Functions
On the unit I work on we get lots of babies who have "short gut syndrome" due to a variety of causes who have to be on parenteral nutrition to supplement their nutrition while their GI system grows and hopefully heals fast enough. The big problem (among many) with TPN (total parenteral nutrition) is that it destroys the liver and kids get horribly jaundiced (which also causes brain damage) and often they die of liver failure or need a liver transplant before their GI system grows enough to take them off TPN.Babies born with short gut syndrome can't absorb nutrients properly due to their unusually short small intestine. They're temporarily fed intravenously (total parenteral nutrition; TPN), until their intestines can develop enough to digest food normally.
Boston Children's has done some amazing work showing that this is largely due to the fact that the lipids part of the TPN was a soybean based oil so they started using Omegaven instead which is a fish oil based IV lipid solution. So far the results have been amazing and reversed the damage in lots of kids livers and prevented it in those started on Omegaven at birth.
The typical TPN formula contains soybean and safflower oils as the fat, both of which are over 50% omega-6 linoleic acid. Soybean oil also contains 7% omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid. You can't get the kids started too early on a "heart-healthy" diet!
The solution was to replace the vegetable oil with fish oil, which prevents or rapidly reverses the severe liver damage caused by TPN rich in omega-6 vegetable oils. I don't think this is a great solution, but it certainly beats vegetable oil. The ideal solution would be to replace the vegetable oil with a fat that approximates the composition of breast milk: mostly monounsaturated and saturated fat, with a little bit of linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid and long-chain fats such as AA and DHA. You could do this pretty easily with a mix of lard and fish oil; or palm oil and fish oil; or coconut oil, olive oil and fish oil. Breast milk composition varies with diet, and the amount of linoleic acid in the breast milk of Western populations is unusually high.
Excess linoleic acid, particularly when combined with excess fructose and insufficient omega-3 fat, is toxic to the liver. Modern Western nations are experiencing an epidemic of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which animal studies indicate is probably the result of replacing animal fats with polyunsaturated vegetable oils and increasing sugar intake (see links below for more detail). Fatty liver was seen primarily in alcoholics three decades ago. An estimated 1/4 of Americans now have NAFLD. It's the number one cause of liver damage in the U.S.
Where the liver goes, the rest of the body follows.
How to Fatten Your Liver
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
The Liver: Your Metabolic Gatekeeper
More Liver Functions
Excess Omega-6 Fat Damages Infants' Livers
A nurse friend of mine sent me an e-mail a few weeks ago with a very interesting observation:
The typical TPN formula contains soybean and safflower oils as the fat, both of which are over 50% omega-6 linoleic acid. Soybean oil also contains 7% omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid. You can't get the kids started too early on a "heart-healthy" diet!
The solution was to replace the vegetable oil with fish oil, which prevents or rapidly reverses the severe liver damage caused by TPN rich in omega-6 vegetable oils. I don't think this is a great solution, but it certainly beats vegetable oil. The ideal solution would be to replace the vegetable oil with a fat that approximates the composition of breast milk: mostly monounsaturated and saturated fat, with a little bit of linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid and long-chain fats such as AA and DHA. You could do this pretty easily with a mix of lard and fish oil; or palm oil and fish oil; or coconut oil, olive oil and fish oil. Breast milk composition varies with diet, and the amount of linoleic acid in the breast milk of Western populations is unusually high.
Excess linoleic acid, particularly when combined with excess fructose and insufficient omega-3 fat, is toxic to the liver. Modern Western nations are experiencing an epidemic of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which animal studies indicate is probably the result of replacing animal fats with polyunsaturated vegetable oils and increasing sugar intake (see links below for more detail). Fatty liver was seen primarily in alcoholics three decades ago. An estimated 1/4 of Americans now have NAFLD. It's the number one cause of liver damage in the U.S.
Where the liver goes, the rest of the body follows.
How to Fatten Your Liver
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
The Liver: Your Metabolic Gatekeeper
More Liver Functions
On the unit I work on we get lots of babies who have "short gut syndrome" due to a variety of causes who have to be on parenteral nutrition to supplement their nutrition while their GI system grows and hopefully heals fast enough. The big problem (among many) with TPN (total parenteral nutrition) is that it destroys the liver and kids get horribly jaundiced (which also causes brain damage) and often they die of liver failure or need a liver transplant before their GI system grows enough to take them off TPN.Babies born with short gut syndrome can't absorb nutrients properly due to their unusually short small intestine. They're temporarily fed intravenously (total parenteral nutrition; TPN), until their intestines can develop enough to digest food normally.
Boston Children's has done some amazing work showing that this is largely due to the fact that the lipids part of the TPN was a soybean based oil so they started using Omegaven instead which is a fish oil based IV lipid solution. So far the results have been amazing and reversed the damage in lots of kids livers and prevented it in those started on Omegaven at birth.
The typical TPN formula contains soybean and safflower oils as the fat, both of which are over 50% omega-6 linoleic acid. Soybean oil also contains 7% omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid. You can't get the kids started too early on a "heart-healthy" diet!
The solution was to replace the vegetable oil with fish oil, which prevents or rapidly reverses the severe liver damage caused by TPN rich in omega-6 vegetable oils. I don't think this is a great solution, but it certainly beats vegetable oil. The ideal solution would be to replace the vegetable oil with a fat that approximates the composition of breast milk: mostly monounsaturated and saturated fat, with a little bit of linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid and long-chain fats such as AA and DHA. You could do this pretty easily with a mix of lard and fish oil; or palm oil and fish oil; or coconut oil, olive oil and fish oil. Breast milk composition varies with diet, and the amount of linoleic acid in the breast milk of Western populations is unusually high.
Excess linoleic acid, particularly when combined with excess fructose and insufficient omega-3 fat, is toxic to the liver. Modern Western nations are experiencing an epidemic of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which animal studies indicate is probably the result of replacing animal fats with polyunsaturated vegetable oils and increasing sugar intake (see links below for more detail). Fatty liver was seen primarily in alcoholics three decades ago. An estimated 1/4 of Americans now have NAFLD. It's the number one cause of liver damage in the U.S.
Where the liver goes, the rest of the body follows.
How to Fatten Your Liver
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
The Liver: Your Metabolic Gatekeeper
More Liver Functions
Senin, 27 April 2009
How to Make Healthy Choices at the Supermarket
To lose weight you need to reduce your calorie intake, which means selecting foods that are low in fat and sugar. Here’s a quick guide to making healthy choices at the supermarket to save you time sifting through the shelves.
The trick is to locate the product’s food label, find its nutrition information panel and look for the ‘per 100g’ column. Good choices are foods that contain the following amounts of fat and sugar:
Fat Content
Less than:
Cereals – 8g/100g
Biscuits – 5g/100g
Cheese – 15g/100g
Milk and yoghurt – 2g/100g
Mayonnaise and sauces – 3g/100g
Spreads such as cream cheese – 10g/100g
Meat products – 8g/100g
Frozen/packaged foods – 5g/100g
Sugar Content
Less than:
Cereals and biscuits – 5g/100g
For more detailed information see our article How to Read a Food Label.
The trick is to locate the product’s food label, find its nutrition information panel and look for the ‘per 100g’ column. Good choices are foods that contain the following amounts of fat and sugar:
Fat Content
Less than:
Cereals – 8g/100g
Biscuits – 5g/100g
Cheese – 15g/100g
Milk and yoghurt – 2g/100g
Mayonnaise and sauces – 3g/100g
Spreads such as cream cheese – 10g/100g
Meat products – 8g/100g
Frozen/packaged foods – 5g/100g
Sugar Content
Less than:
Cereals and biscuits – 5g/100g
For more detailed information see our article How to Read a Food Label.
Going back to basics
Ok darlings, Bunny's going back to basics.
Its simply out of frustration at not being able to eat jack that has got me into this state.
I truly didn't know that people out there in band land drink-eat their breakfasts and often lunches and its made me feel a lot better knowing that fact.
So as of today I am going to try and turn over a new leaf and deal with the eating situation as it is. I cant afford to change it (i.e. get all the fluid out for a cool £100), and its only making me the most miserable beeyatch I know fighting the band to armageddon and back.
The only other option is to go with it.
So today I had a coffee for brekkie, and some chicken noodle soup for lunch. I like chicken noodle soup because I can drink the liquidy part and get the band eased a bit so that the noodles slip down in there too. I think I will make pasta puttanesca tonight - who would call a sauce Prostitute sauce...
No seriously thinking about it, only the prossies would know the recipe right? So if my husband came home and said "Hey darling, why not try putting tomato, capers, red peppers and lemon - hey throw in some tuna to the pasta tonight hey?" I would ask him where he got the recipe... "Oh, you know some prostitutes made it for me whilst I was at the whore house getting my rocks off you know". Yeah of COURSE he would say that!! To be honest I would wonder that any Italian man in 1600 would come back with a recipe for anything. I am sure its just been glamorised. It's probably 'housewife sauce' in all reality. I cant see that the prostitutes would have any 'different' ingredients to the general population. So seriously - how DID that name get into common circulation. I am pretty sure that no-one would have promoted it as that. I even did wikipedia on it and I don't believe it at all.
My finger is still splinted. Its still killing me, and I hate the gravel drive more now than I even did. It has got to be block-paved to within an inch of its life. You know it didn't even apologise for tripping me up!! How very dare it.
I have kitties are climbing up my legs right now. They certainly got over their nasty toxoplasmosis thing. Poor little babies! If I hadn't taken them to the vets they would have died. Apparently there are so many kittens born with it that they are called 'fading kittens' and apparently a lot of people just think they were not born right, or defective and aren't going to survive and have them put down. So sad that it isn't widely known. For the sake of 2 weeks antibiotics all 4 are perfect again.
We also picked up our little puppy Geoffrey yesterday and he is adorable.
I will post a photo of him on here when I get the card thingy out.
So, I'm hanging in there. Thanks for all your messages. And Tina... I am holding you to that drink! ;o)
Its simply out of frustration at not being able to eat jack that has got me into this state.
I truly didn't know that people out there in band land drink-eat their breakfasts and often lunches and its made me feel a lot better knowing that fact.
So as of today I am going to try and turn over a new leaf and deal with the eating situation as it is. I cant afford to change it (i.e. get all the fluid out for a cool £100), and its only making me the most miserable beeyatch I know fighting the band to armageddon and back.
The only other option is to go with it.
So today I had a coffee for brekkie, and some chicken noodle soup for lunch. I like chicken noodle soup because I can drink the liquidy part and get the band eased a bit so that the noodles slip down in there too. I think I will make pasta puttanesca tonight - who would call a sauce Prostitute sauce...
No seriously thinking about it, only the prossies would know the recipe right? So if my husband came home and said "Hey darling, why not try putting tomato, capers, red peppers and lemon - hey throw in some tuna to the pasta tonight hey?" I would ask him where he got the recipe... "Oh, you know some prostitutes made it for me whilst I was at the whore house getting my rocks off you know". Yeah of COURSE he would say that!! To be honest I would wonder that any Italian man in 1600 would come back with a recipe for anything. I am sure its just been glamorised. It's probably 'housewife sauce' in all reality. I cant see that the prostitutes would have any 'different' ingredients to the general population. So seriously - how DID that name get into common circulation. I am pretty sure that no-one would have promoted it as that. I even did wikipedia on it and I don't believe it at all.
My finger is still splinted. Its still killing me, and I hate the gravel drive more now than I even did. It has got to be block-paved to within an inch of its life. You know it didn't even apologise for tripping me up!! How very dare it.
I have kitties are climbing up my legs right now. They certainly got over their nasty toxoplasmosis thing. Poor little babies! If I hadn't taken them to the vets they would have died. Apparently there are so many kittens born with it that they are called 'fading kittens' and apparently a lot of people just think they were not born right, or defective and aren't going to survive and have them put down. So sad that it isn't widely known. For the sake of 2 weeks antibiotics all 4 are perfect again.
We also picked up our little puppy Geoffrey yesterday and he is adorable.
I will post a photo of him on here when I get the card thingy out.
So, I'm hanging in there. Thanks for all your messages. And Tina... I am holding you to that drink! ;o)
Minggu, 26 April 2009
Portion Distortion: How to Avoid It
The size of a typical portion of food is increasing. ‘Mega serves’, ‘all you can eat’ and ‘up-sizing’ of meals has resulted in portion distortion, or confusion about how much food you should eat.
It’s important to know what an appropriate portion (serve) size looks like, because if you can train yourself to eat an appropriate amount of food you’ll be much more likely to enjoy a healthy weight.
What Does a Serve of Food Look Like?
Food Serve / Size / Looks Like
Vegetables / 1 cup / an adult fist
Fruit / 1 medium piece or ¾ cup chopped / a tennis ball
Milk / 250mL / an adult fist
Yoghurt / 200g / a child's fist
Cheese / 30g / a matchbox
Cereal and pasta / ¾ cup / a tennis ball
Bread / 1 thick slice (55g) / an adult man’s hand
Rice / ½ cup cooked / 2 golf balls
Fats (oil and butter) / 1 tsp / a large button
Beef, pork, chicken and lamb / 120g / the palm of an adult hand
How Many Serves Should I Eat Every Day?
It’s best to consult a Dietitian as the number of serves you should eat per day is dependent on your size, activity level and any special dietary requirements. However to give you a rough idea, the average person consuming 1800 Calories a day should eat:
Food / Number of Serves
Breads, cereals, rice and pasta / 5-7
Fruit / 2-3
Vegetables / 5-6
Beef, pork, chicken, lamb and fish / 1 ½ - 2
Milk, yoghurt and cheese / 2-4
Practical Tips for Reducing Your Portion Sizes
• Serve your meals on a small plate
• Eat slowly
• Buy a scale and a set of measuring cups and measure the amount of food that you are consuming for a few days
• Look at the Nutrition Information Panel of the foods you are eating – are you eating more than one serve size?
• Buy smaller packets of food at the supermarket. If you want to buy in bulk divide the content into smaller bags before you store it
• Don’t eat directly from a food packet - place your food on a separate plate and then put the packet away
It’s important to know what an appropriate portion (serve) size looks like, because if you can train yourself to eat an appropriate amount of food you’ll be much more likely to enjoy a healthy weight.
What Does a Serve of Food Look Like?
Food Serve / Size / Looks Like
Vegetables / 1 cup / an adult fist
Fruit / 1 medium piece or ¾ cup chopped / a tennis ball
Milk / 250mL / an adult fist
Yoghurt / 200g / a child's fist
Cheese / 30g / a matchbox
Cereal and pasta / ¾ cup / a tennis ball
Bread / 1 thick slice (55g) / an adult man’s hand
Rice / ½ cup cooked / 2 golf balls
Fats (oil and butter) / 1 tsp / a large button
Beef, pork, chicken and lamb / 120g / the palm of an adult hand
How Many Serves Should I Eat Every Day?
It’s best to consult a Dietitian as the number of serves you should eat per day is dependent on your size, activity level and any special dietary requirements. However to give you a rough idea, the average person consuming 1800 Calories a day should eat:
Food / Number of Serves
Breads, cereals, rice and pasta / 5-7
Fruit / 2-3
Vegetables / 5-6
Beef, pork, chicken, lamb and fish / 1 ½ - 2
Milk, yoghurt and cheese / 2-4
Practical Tips for Reducing Your Portion Sizes
• Serve your meals on a small plate
• Eat slowly
• Buy a scale and a set of measuring cups and measure the amount of food that you are consuming for a few days
• Look at the Nutrition Information Panel of the foods you are eating – are you eating more than one serve size?
• Buy smaller packets of food at the supermarket. If you want to buy in bulk divide the content into smaller bags before you store it
• Don’t eat directly from a food packet - place your food on a separate plate and then put the packet away
I hate it...I love it...I hate it...I love it!
That's what I was chanting this afternoon during my first bike ride in four years. The trail was only eight miles long, I was sure it was eight miles one way, but that was round trip. I added a four-mile ride through my neighborhood, but the fear of cars put an end to that rather quickly.
The trail is incredibly hilly. The "I hate it!" chant was during the long, painful uphill rides, where the self-talk went like this..."Oh my God! I'm doing to freaking die on this damn hill!" I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor, but I'm sure it was well over 140. I felt like my heart was going to jump right out of my chest because it was pounding so hard.
It's a gorgeous day of sunshine here in the Pacific Northwest so everyone was out and about, walking, running or bike riding. I was too damn proud to get off my stupid bike and push it uphill like I saw a lot of people doing. I gave it all I had and was able to get up every single hill and these weren't sissy hills, these were real hills. Damn near mountains if you ask me.
The "I love it!" part was the downhill coasting. It's so fun to just sit on a bike and go flying downhill. I totally and completely loved it. I felt like I was 10 again, riding down the hill that was in front of our house in Alaska. I spent many summers going up and down the hill in front of our house, riding as fast as I could go. It brought back some really great memories of my childhood.
I felt a little reckless because I couldn't find my helmet. I was the only person that wasn't wearing one. I had a tiny fear I'd hit a rock or something and go flying through the air and land on my head and die of a smashed head. It didn't happen, and I made it home safely (obviously).
It was the most fun I've had while exercising in a while. It beats the gym all to pieces. I loved the sun on my skin, the wind on my face and the bugs in my teeth (okay, maybe not the bugs). I was wearing a tank top and bike shorts and was completely comfortable. The temperature is about 65 degrees so perfect for biking. My tank top was totally wet with sweat so I know I got a pretty good workout.
I went by myself which is a first. Usually my husband doesn't let me go on this trail alone, but he has the flu and I guess he figured I could probably out run or out bike most people, plus I think he's too sick to argue with me (he swears he has the Swine Flu...um, I don't think so but that's a story for another post). The trail is well traveled by families so it seems really safe even if I'm by myself. Plus, I'm pretty fast on my bike.
The only bad thing about biking alone is that there's no one to take pictures of me. I took a few scenery pictures, so they're not very interesting. One thing that sort of freaked me out is that part of the trail goes under these huge electrical tower things. If I touch the metal on my bike I get a strong electric shock. I'm sure it's not very healthy. Probably causes cancer or something.
The trail is incredibly hilly. The "I hate it!" chant was during the long, painful uphill rides, where the self-talk went like this..."Oh my God! I'm doing to freaking die on this damn hill!" I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor, but I'm sure it was well over 140. I felt like my heart was going to jump right out of my chest because it was pounding so hard.
It's a gorgeous day of sunshine here in the Pacific Northwest so everyone was out and about, walking, running or bike riding. I was too damn proud to get off my stupid bike and push it uphill like I saw a lot of people doing. I gave it all I had and was able to get up every single hill and these weren't sissy hills, these were real hills. Damn near mountains if you ask me.
The "I love it!" part was the downhill coasting. It's so fun to just sit on a bike and go flying downhill. I totally and completely loved it. I felt like I was 10 again, riding down the hill that was in front of our house in Alaska. I spent many summers going up and down the hill in front of our house, riding as fast as I could go. It brought back some really great memories of my childhood.
I felt a little reckless because I couldn't find my helmet. I was the only person that wasn't wearing one. I had a tiny fear I'd hit a rock or something and go flying through the air and land on my head and die of a smashed head. It didn't happen, and I made it home safely (obviously).
It was the most fun I've had while exercising in a while. It beats the gym all to pieces. I loved the sun on my skin, the wind on my face and the bugs in my teeth (okay, maybe not the bugs). I was wearing a tank top and bike shorts and was completely comfortable. The temperature is about 65 degrees so perfect for biking. My tank top was totally wet with sweat so I know I got a pretty good workout.
I went by myself which is a first. Usually my husband doesn't let me go on this trail alone, but he has the flu and I guess he figured I could probably out run or out bike most people, plus I think he's too sick to argue with me (he swears he has the Swine Flu...um, I don't think so but that's a story for another post). The trail is well traveled by families so it seems really safe even if I'm by myself. Plus, I'm pretty fast on my bike.
The only bad thing about biking alone is that there's no one to take pictures of me. I took a few scenery pictures, so they're not very interesting. One thing that sort of freaked me out is that part of the trail goes under these huge electrical tower things. If I touch the metal on my bike I get a strong electric shock. I'm sure it's not very healthy. Probably causes cancer or something.
The electric bike ride - touch the metal on the bike under these wires and get a nice shock!
Going down, fun! Going up, torture.
The name of the trail is the B.P.A. Trail in Federal Way, WA. I have no idea what B.P.A. means, obviously it's an abbreviation for something.
My bike, on my way home and back up this hill from hell.
Another electrifying bike ride trail picture
Deal of the century
Best deal for workout tank tops - Walmart! Personally, I detest Walmart for many reasons. They built a new Super Walmart about three miles from our house about a year ago. I've been in it twice. Each time I swore I'd never set foot in that stupid store again. The people who shop there annoy me, the children that run rampant and cry and whine drive me crazy, and the checkers that work as slow as molasses in January drive me right over the edge. The lines are usually ridiculously long and they barely move. However, they have one thing I can't buy anywhere else. Blue Bunny no sugar added butter pecan ice cream. I love this stuff. So once about every six months I venture into Walmart. Every time I curse my stupidity and leave with my ice cream saying that's it. NEVER AGAIN!
Last night I decided to look around the store since usually I rush in, grab the ice cream and get out as fast as possible. I have found if I buy it in the electronics section (up to 15 items) I can usually escape without a mental breakdown. Last night I found the cutest workout tank tops for $5 each. They look just like the ones I buy for $20 at the sporting goods store, except they're cuter. They have cutout shoulders in back, that fit right over a workout bra perfectly. I love them, and only $5 each. I bought one in every color (so I don't have to go back for another six months).
Lovely
Hi there people,
Thanks for all your support. I guess I cant just put a statement on this blog and not explain :o)
Yeah, at the moment me and the band are not friends. I don't know whether its a head thing or what, but something ain't right. I don't seem to feel the way everyone else with a band feels.
My band wont let me eat anything half decent until at least 8pm. I spend most of my day starving hungry and only able to 'eat' liquids. When I get to the end of my tether I make some mash potato or something and try and eat it in nibbles, but it more often than not comes right back at me... this can go on for hours until the magic 8pm watershed and then all of a sudden I can finish the whole bowl off.
Then its bedtime and I know the whole rigmarole will start again the next day.
Some people suggest that my band is too tight. Well, I am sorry, but its not. I have been down the 'take some out' road with disastrous effect many times. They take out a bunch of saline and I spend maybe £400 getting it all topped up to the right point again... but staggeringly THAT POINT NEVER COMES!
I am not joking. I can be wide open and able to eat a whole pizza... go for a fill and be able to eat half a pizza, go for another fill and be able to eat 1/4 then another one and I suddenly can't eat anything, then I go back and have another tiny bit out (less that was originally taken out) and I can eat a whole flaming pizza again!!!!!!!!!!
This farce has got to end. I am so hacked off with my band I can't begin to describe it.
Couple that with the fact that I have had the operation twice and it still ain't working...
Obviously people are going to read this and think "well, if you eat pizza then...Pheph!" But I am just using it as an example. I actually cook all my food from scratch. I eat organic (heniously expensive) meat and veggies and limit oil etc etc.
The killer for me is actually the hellish nightmare BAND! Because I cant eat like a normal human being I actually feel my mood slide during the day and I feel like getting out the aspirin, a carving knife and a needle and thread and sorting the blasted thing out once and for all. It gets to 8pm and I am exhausted at the effort needed to eat. Every bite is a torture and I am fed up with it - then i grab chocolate and crap and sit in a puddle of dispair and self loathing feeling the pits of the deepest darkest prehistoric stinky swamp for eating rubbish.
I was 18 stone when I had this thing done 2 and a half years ago, and now I am 16 stone 9.
I am tearing my hair out and to be honest I think I would be better off without it. Like everyone, I was prepared to put in the hard graft, but I have been grafting for 2 and a half years and getting nowhere. Most of you who have struggled the same amount of time have actually lost loads of weight and life is looking great. My life is the exact same because every day I get on the scales it reminds me that I pissed £4500 down the toilet. I wish I had never bothered.
That's gonna annoy anyone off right?
Abuse and correct at will my freinds... somethings got to work.
Thanks for all your support. I guess I cant just put a statement on this blog and not explain :o)
Yeah, at the moment me and the band are not friends. I don't know whether its a head thing or what, but something ain't right. I don't seem to feel the way everyone else with a band feels.
My band wont let me eat anything half decent until at least 8pm. I spend most of my day starving hungry and only able to 'eat' liquids. When I get to the end of my tether I make some mash potato or something and try and eat it in nibbles, but it more often than not comes right back at me... this can go on for hours until the magic 8pm watershed and then all of a sudden I can finish the whole bowl off.
Then its bedtime and I know the whole rigmarole will start again the next day.
Some people suggest that my band is too tight. Well, I am sorry, but its not. I have been down the 'take some out' road with disastrous effect many times. They take out a bunch of saline and I spend maybe £400 getting it all topped up to the right point again... but staggeringly THAT POINT NEVER COMES!
I am not joking. I can be wide open and able to eat a whole pizza... go for a fill and be able to eat half a pizza, go for another fill and be able to eat 1/4 then another one and I suddenly can't eat anything, then I go back and have another tiny bit out (less that was originally taken out) and I can eat a whole flaming pizza again!!!!!!!!!!
This farce has got to end. I am so hacked off with my band I can't begin to describe it.
Couple that with the fact that I have had the operation twice and it still ain't working...
Obviously people are going to read this and think "well, if you eat pizza then...Pheph!" But I am just using it as an example. I actually cook all my food from scratch. I eat organic (heniously expensive) meat and veggies and limit oil etc etc.
The killer for me is actually the hellish nightmare BAND! Because I cant eat like a normal human being I actually feel my mood slide during the day and I feel like getting out the aspirin, a carving knife and a needle and thread and sorting the blasted thing out once and for all. It gets to 8pm and I am exhausted at the effort needed to eat. Every bite is a torture and I am fed up with it - then i grab chocolate and crap and sit in a puddle of dispair and self loathing feeling the pits of the deepest darkest prehistoric stinky swamp for eating rubbish.
I was 18 stone when I had this thing done 2 and a half years ago, and now I am 16 stone 9.
I am tearing my hair out and to be honest I think I would be better off without it. Like everyone, I was prepared to put in the hard graft, but I have been grafting for 2 and a half years and getting nowhere. Most of you who have struggled the same amount of time have actually lost loads of weight and life is looking great. My life is the exact same because every day I get on the scales it reminds me that I pissed £4500 down the toilet. I wish I had never bothered.
That's gonna annoy anyone off right?
Abuse and correct at will my freinds... somethings got to work.
Sabtu, 25 April 2009
Oh boy
...well, I am typing with a broken finger. I know that sounds lame, but TRUST me, it's totally terrible.
Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Tragically, there is no wicked amazing story to go with it. I just fell over at my doorstep - and No! I wasn't drunk either!!!
We got back from the cinema yesterday and I got the shopping out of the car then my ankle rolled over on the stupid gravel and that's it. Two very bruised knees, a sprained shoulder and a fractured middle knuckle on my left hand.
WAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Not fair man.
It was a totally RUBBISH day too. Started off excellent. I was lying in bed reading 2 Joanne Harris novels (Sleep Pale Sister and The Evil Seed, and yes I read two books at a time... I like to chop and change every half hour!) then whilst relaxing at 11:05am I remembered I had an opticians appointment at 11:25. IN THE NEXT TOWN.
So I raced off, got my eyes tested and ordered my prescription etc and then raced back as I was looking after a friends daughter for the day.
All was cool, we went to see Monsters V Aliens in 3D and it was on exiting the car after returning home that I did the ankle rick/falling over clumsy bit.
So I have a fracture to my PIP joint which will require 6-8 weeks in a splint and the therapy.
YAY
Today I tried to go to work. I got to my first appointment and decided I would never make it out of the village, so went home and told everyone they were welcome to come to my house, but there was no way I could get to theirs. They were all pretty cool about it, but only 2 of them actually came to have a lesson here. Ho humm.
When DH got home we decided to have a BBQ. We went off to Rainbow and bought some beef steaks, pork chops and sausages. When we returned Danie decided that HE was the KING of BBQ and told be how I was going wrong etc and how the fire was too hot and that to Brai or whatever they call it is like a ritual to them, and really really REALLY MUGGED ME OFF.
What a caveman. Seriously. I cannot believe that there are people out there who hate black people and think Women should be told what to do and Men are the best.
To be honest, I quite like a bit of "Oh honey, you sit down, I'll do this... its not good for you", but not to this extent. What a PIG IGNORANT SWINEHUND.
He is such a racists its unbelievable. I will not even tell you what he has said about black people in South Africa because its just so disgusting. He has only been here 6 weeks and I cant wait for him to go. He spent the last 10 days in SA and it was PURE bliss. The arrogant shmuck. His poor wife - seriously!!
So they are going on Thursday because they have found a flat. This is all his idea. She knows that its madness to take on a flat when she doesn't have a job and he hasn't even received his first pay cheque, but he knows what is best for them all. Idiot.
Web have a Romanian truck driver moving in on the 2nd May which should be good. Back to normal hopefully.
band - forget it. I wish the thing wasn't there.
Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Tragically, there is no wicked amazing story to go with it. I just fell over at my doorstep - and No! I wasn't drunk either!!!
We got back from the cinema yesterday and I got the shopping out of the car then my ankle rolled over on the stupid gravel and that's it. Two very bruised knees, a sprained shoulder and a fractured middle knuckle on my left hand.
WAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Not fair man.
It was a totally RUBBISH day too. Started off excellent. I was lying in bed reading 2 Joanne Harris novels (Sleep Pale Sister and The Evil Seed, and yes I read two books at a time... I like to chop and change every half hour!) then whilst relaxing at 11:05am I remembered I had an opticians appointment at 11:25. IN THE NEXT TOWN.
So I raced off, got my eyes tested and ordered my prescription etc and then raced back as I was looking after a friends daughter for the day.
All was cool, we went to see Monsters V Aliens in 3D and it was on exiting the car after returning home that I did the ankle rick/falling over clumsy bit.
So I have a fracture to my PIP joint which will require 6-8 weeks in a splint and the therapy.
YAY
Today I tried to go to work. I got to my first appointment and decided I would never make it out of the village, so went home and told everyone they were welcome to come to my house, but there was no way I could get to theirs. They were all pretty cool about it, but only 2 of them actually came to have a lesson here. Ho humm.
When DH got home we decided to have a BBQ. We went off to Rainbow and bought some beef steaks, pork chops and sausages. When we returned Danie decided that HE was the KING of BBQ and told be how I was going wrong etc and how the fire was too hot and that to Brai or whatever they call it is like a ritual to them, and really really REALLY MUGGED ME OFF.
What a caveman. Seriously. I cannot believe that there are people out there who hate black people and think Women should be told what to do and Men are the best.
To be honest, I quite like a bit of "Oh honey, you sit down, I'll do this... its not good for you", but not to this extent. What a PIG IGNORANT SWINEHUND.
He is such a racists its unbelievable. I will not even tell you what he has said about black people in South Africa because its just so disgusting. He has only been here 6 weeks and I cant wait for him to go. He spent the last 10 days in SA and it was PURE bliss. The arrogant shmuck. His poor wife - seriously!!
So they are going on Thursday because they have found a flat. This is all his idea. She knows that its madness to take on a flat when she doesn't have a job and he hasn't even received his first pay cheque, but he knows what is best for them all. Idiot.
Web have a Romanian truck driver moving in on the 2nd May which should be good. Back to normal hopefully.
band - forget it. I wish the thing wasn't there.
Jumat, 24 April 2009
Nutrition and Infectious Disease
Dr. Edward Mellanby's book Nutrition and Disease contains a chapter titled "Nutrition and Infection". It begins:
Dr. Mellanby was unsure whether the animal results would apply to humans, due to "the difficulty in believing that diets even of poor people were as deficient in vitamin A and carotene as the experimental diets." However, their colleagues had previously noted marked differences in the infection rate of largely vegetarian African tribes versus their carnivorous counterparts. The following quote from Nutrition and Disease refers to two tribes which, by coincidence, Dr. Weston Price also described in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration:
Dr. Mellanby was a man with a lot of perspective. He was not a reductionist; he knew that a good diet is more than the sum of its parts. Here's another quote from Nutrition and Disease:
P.S.- I have to apologize, I forgot to copy down the primary literature references for this post before returning the book to the library. So for the skeptics out there, you'll either have to take my word for it, or find a copy of the book yourself.
There is general agreement among medical men that the susceptibility of mankind to many types of infection is closely related to the state of nutrition. The difficulty arises, when closer examination is given to this general proposition, as to what constitutes good and bad nutrition, and the problem is not rendered easier by recent advances in nutritional science.Dr. Mellanby was primarily concerned with the effect of fat-soluble vitamins on infectious disease, particularly vitamins A and D. One of his earliest observations was that butter protected against pneumonia in his laboratory dogs. He eventually identified vitamin A as the primary protective factor. He found that by placing rats on a diet deficient in vitamin A, they developed numerous infectious lesions, most often in the urogenital tract, the eyes, the intestine, the middle ear and the lungs. This was prevented by adding vitamin A or cabbage (a source of beta-carotene, which the rats converted to vitamin A) to the diet. Mellanby and his colleagues subsequently dubbed vitamin A the "anti-infective vitamin".
Dr. Mellanby was unsure whether the animal results would apply to humans, due to "the difficulty in believing that diets even of poor people were as deficient in vitamin A and carotene as the experimental diets." However, their colleagues had previously noted marked differences in the infection rate of largely vegetarian African tribes versus their carnivorous counterparts. The following quote from Nutrition and Disease refers to two tribes which, by coincidence, Dr. Weston Price also described in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration:
The high incidence of bronchitis, pneumonia, tropical ulcers and phthisis among the Kikuyu tribe who live on a diet mainly of cereals as compared with the low incidence of these diseases among their neighbours the Masai who live on meat, milk and raw blood (Orr and Gilks), probably has a similar or related nutritional explanation. The differences in distribution of infective disease found by these workers in the two tribes are most impressive. Thus in the cereal-eating tribe, bronchitis and pneumonia accounted for 31 per cent of all cases of sickness, tropical ulcers for 33 per cent, and phthisis for 6 per cent. The corresponding figures for the meat, milk and raw blood tribe were 4 per cent, 3 per cent and 1 per cent.So they set out to test the theory under controlled conditions. Their first target: puerperal sepsis. This is an infection of the uterus that occurs after childbirth. They divided 550 women into two groups: one received vitamins A and D during the last month of pregnancy, and the other received nothing. Neither group was given instructions to change diet, and neither group was given vitamins during their hospital stay. The result, quoted from Nutrition and Disease:
The morbidity rate in the puerperium using the [British Medical Association] standard was 1.1 per cent in the vitamin group and 4.7 in the control group, a difference of 3.6 per cent which is twice the standard error (1.4), and therefore statistically significant.This experiment didn't differentiate between the effects of vitamin A and D, but it did establish that fat-soluble vitamins are important for resistance to bacterial infection. The next experiment Dr. Mellanby undertook was a more difficult one. This time, he targeted puerperal septicemia. This is a more advanced stage of puerperal sepsis, in which the infection spreads into the bloodstream. In this experiment, he treated women who had already contracted the infection. This trial was not as tightly controlled as the previous one. Here's a description of the intervention, from Nutrition and Disease:
...all patients received when possible a diet rich not only in vitamin A but also of high biological quality. This diet included much milk, eggs, green vegetables, etc., as well as the vitamin A supplement. For controls we had to use the cases treated in previous years by the same obstetricians and gynecologists as the test cases.In the two years prior to this investigation, the mortality rate for puerperal septicemia in 18 patients was 92%. In 1929, Dr. Mellanby fed 18 patients in the same hospital his special diet, and the mortality rate was 22%. This is a remarkable treatment for an infection that was almost invariably fatal at the time.
Dr. Mellanby was a man with a lot of perspective. He was not a reductionist; he knew that a good diet is more than the sum of its parts. Here's another quote from Nutrition and Disease:
It is probable that, as in the case of vitamin D and rickets, the question is not simple and that it will ultimately be found that vitamin A works in harmony with some dietetic factors, such as milk proteins and other proteins of high biological value, to promote resistance of mucous membranes and epithelial cells to invasion by micro-organisms, while other factors such as cereals, antagonise its influence. The effect of increasing the green vegetable and reducing the cereal intake on the resistance of herbivorous animals to infection is undoubted (Glenny and Allen, Boock and Trevan) and may well indicate a reaction in which the increased carotene of the vegetable plays only a part, but an important part.And finally, let's not forget the effect of vitamin D on infection resistance. Low vitamin D is consistently associated with a higher frequency of respiratory infections, and a controlled trial showed that vitamin D supplements significantly reduce the occurrence of flu symptoms in wintertime. Vitamins A and D are best taken together. Did someone say high-vitamin cod liver oil??
P.S.- I have to apologize, I forgot to copy down the primary literature references for this post before returning the book to the library. So for the skeptics out there, you'll either have to take my word for it, or find a copy of the book yourself.
Nutrition and Infectious Disease
Dr. Edward Mellanby's book Nutrition and Disease contains a chapter titled "Nutrition and Infection". It begins:
Dr. Mellanby was unsure whether the animal results would apply to humans, due to "the difficulty in believing that diets even of poor people were as deficient in vitamin A and carotene as the experimental diets." However, their colleagues had previously noted marked differences in the infection rate of largely vegetarian African tribes versus their carnivorous counterparts. The following quote from Nutrition and Disease refers to two tribes which, by coincidence, Dr. Weston Price also described in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration:
Dr. Mellanby was a man with a lot of perspective. He was not a reductionist; he knew that a good diet is more than the sum of its parts. Here's another quote from Nutrition and Disease:
P.S.- I have to apologize, I forgot to copy down the primary literature references for this post before returning the book to the library. So for the skeptics out there, you'll either have to take my word for it, or find a copy of the book yourself.
There is general agreement among medical men that the susceptibility of mankind to many types of infection is closely related to the state of nutrition. The difficulty arises, when closer examination is given to this general proposition, as to what constitutes good and bad nutrition, and the problem is not rendered easier by recent advances in nutritional science.Dr. Mellanby was primarily concerned with the effect of fat-soluble vitamins on infectious disease, particularly vitamins A and D. One of his earliest observations was that butter protected against pneumonia in his laboratory dogs. He eventually identified vitamin A as the primary protective factor. He found that by placing rats on a diet deficient in vitamin A, they developed numerous infectious lesions, most often in the urogenital tract, the eyes, the intestine, the middle ear and the lungs. This was prevented by adding vitamin A or cabbage (a source of beta-carotene, which the rats converted to vitamin A) to the diet. Mellanby and his colleagues subsequently dubbed vitamin A the "anti-infective vitamin".
Dr. Mellanby was unsure whether the animal results would apply to humans, due to "the difficulty in believing that diets even of poor people were as deficient in vitamin A and carotene as the experimental diets." However, their colleagues had previously noted marked differences in the infection rate of largely vegetarian African tribes versus their carnivorous counterparts. The following quote from Nutrition and Disease refers to two tribes which, by coincidence, Dr. Weston Price also described in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration:
The high incidence of bronchitis, pneumonia, tropical ulcers and phthisis among the Kikuyu tribe who live on a diet mainly of cereals as compared with the low incidence of these diseases among their neighbours the Masai who live on meat, milk and raw blood (Orr and Gilks), probably has a similar or related nutritional explanation. The differences in distribution of infective disease found by these workers in the two tribes are most impressive. Thus in the cereal-eating tribe, bronchitis and pneumonia accounted for 31 per cent of all cases of sickness, tropical ulcers for 33 per cent, and phthisis for 6 per cent. The corresponding figures for the meat, milk and raw blood tribe were 4 per cent, 3 per cent and 1 per cent.So they set out to test the theory under controlled conditions. Their first target: puerperal sepsis. This is an infection of the uterus that occurs after childbirth. They divided 550 women into two groups: one received vitamins A and D during the last month of pregnancy, and the other received nothing. Neither group was given instructions to change diet, and neither group was given vitamins during their hospital stay. The result, quoted from Nutrition and Disease:
The morbidity rate in the puerperium using the [British Medical Association] standard was 1.1 per cent in the vitamin group and 4.7 in the control group, a difference of 3.6 per cent which is twice the standard error (1.4), and therefore statistically significant.This experiment didn't differentiate between the effects of vitamin A and D, but it did establish that fat-soluble vitamins are important for resistance to bacterial infection. The next experiment Dr. Mellanby undertook was a more difficult one. This time, he targeted puerperal septicemia. This is a more advanced stage of puerperal sepsis, in which the infection spreads into the bloodstream. In this experiment, he treated women who had already contracted the infection. This trial was not as tightly controlled as the previous one. Here's a description of the intervention, from Nutrition and Disease:
...all patients received when possible a diet rich not only in vitamin A but also of high biological quality. This diet included much milk, eggs, green vegetables, etc., as well as the vitamin A supplement. For controls we had to use the cases treated in previous years by the same obstetricians and gynecologists as the test cases.In the two years prior to this investigation, the mortality rate for puerperal septicemia in 18 patients was 92%. In 1929, Dr. Mellanby fed 18 patients in the same hospital his special diet, and the mortality rate was 22%. This is a remarkable treatment for an infection that was almost invariably fatal at the time.
Dr. Mellanby was a man with a lot of perspective. He was not a reductionist; he knew that a good diet is more than the sum of its parts. Here's another quote from Nutrition and Disease:
It is probable that, as in the case of vitamin D and rickets, the question is not simple and that it will ultimately be found that vitamin A works in harmony with some dietetic factors, such as milk proteins and other proteins of high biological value, to promote resistance of mucous membranes and epithelial cells to invasion by micro-organisms, while other factors such as cereals, antagonise its influence. The effect of increasing the green vegetable and reducing the cereal intake on the resistance of herbivorous animals to infection is undoubted (Glenny and Allen, Boock and Trevan) and may well indicate a reaction in which the increased carotene of the vegetable plays only a part, but an important part.And finally, let's not forget the effect of vitamin D on infection resistance. Low vitamin D is consistently associated with a higher frequency of respiratory infections, and a controlled trial showed that vitamin D supplements significantly reduce the occurrence of flu symptoms in wintertime. Vitamins A and D are best taken together. Did someone say high-vitamin cod liver oil??
P.S.- I have to apologize, I forgot to copy down the primary literature references for this post before returning the book to the library. So for the skeptics out there, you'll either have to take my word for it, or find a copy of the book yourself.
I've never been so happy about a Friday
I really need this weekend. I need to be away from work for at least a couple days. It's stressing me out big time.
Next week I have to start the traveling again. It makes me laugh now that I thought this was going to be fun, flying off to exotic locations like Oakland and Dallas and Miami. Seriously, all I see is the inside of the airport and the hotel that's the closest to the airport. Usually it's the crew hotel, so it's not the fanciest hotel, but clean, safe and comfortable (like a Marriott or a Doubletree). So far the hotels have all had gyms, but my 12-hour work day plus travel isn't really conducive to me working out. Last time I was on the road for four days and only got in two workouts. My plan for next week is to allow myself a little more down time. I'm really too old for 12 and 14 hour work days. Maybe in my twenties, but not in my fifties.
This weekend I have a bike ride planned. I can hardly wait. There's a trail that's near our house and is eight miles one-way (I think, but need to check it out on mapmyrun.com). That would make for a 16-mile bike ride and there are some killer hills along the trail. I'm thrilled to get out of the gym for my workout.
The whole gym experience is starting to bore me. I went last night for an hour and half workout. I had a good workout, but I find myself doing the same exercises. The elliptical and treadmill, the same weight machines and the same free weight exercises.
I recently read that if you do an exercise for six weeks that your body becomes accustomed to it and you stop getting the results you were getting at the beginning. I know that's true because I don't feel like my muscles are responding like they did in the beginning (even with the 20-pound dumbells). I'm just maintaining my muscle tone, not building more muscle. Of course, I'm pretty sure if I'd drop this last twenty pounds, my muscles might pop out a little more.
Totally off topic---but I'm doing something different with my hair today. I'm letting it dry naturally, going in to work with my wavy, curly hair. Almost everyone telecommutes on Fridays so I don't have any meetings or presentations to do, so I'm just going to let my hair down today. I usually wear it this way on the weekends, so guess I'm getting in the weekend mode early. It's a jeans day too, woohoo! I love Fridays. Even my manager is taking the day off. The only person that will be at work today in my group is my best friend on the team. It's going to be a great day!
Next week I have to start the traveling again. It makes me laugh now that I thought this was going to be fun, flying off to exotic locations like Oakland and Dallas and Miami. Seriously, all I see is the inside of the airport and the hotel that's the closest to the airport. Usually it's the crew hotel, so it's not the fanciest hotel, but clean, safe and comfortable (like a Marriott or a Doubletree). So far the hotels have all had gyms, but my 12-hour work day plus travel isn't really conducive to me working out. Last time I was on the road for four days and only got in two workouts. My plan for next week is to allow myself a little more down time. I'm really too old for 12 and 14 hour work days. Maybe in my twenties, but not in my fifties.
This weekend I have a bike ride planned. I can hardly wait. There's a trail that's near our house and is eight miles one-way (I think, but need to check it out on mapmyrun.com). That would make for a 16-mile bike ride and there are some killer hills along the trail. I'm thrilled to get out of the gym for my workout.
The whole gym experience is starting to bore me. I went last night for an hour and half workout. I had a good workout, but I find myself doing the same exercises. The elliptical and treadmill, the same weight machines and the same free weight exercises.
I recently read that if you do an exercise for six weeks that your body becomes accustomed to it and you stop getting the results you were getting at the beginning. I know that's true because I don't feel like my muscles are responding like they did in the beginning (even with the 20-pound dumbells). I'm just maintaining my muscle tone, not building more muscle. Of course, I'm pretty sure if I'd drop this last twenty pounds, my muscles might pop out a little more.
Totally off topic---but I'm doing something different with my hair today. I'm letting it dry naturally, going in to work with my wavy, curly hair. Almost everyone telecommutes on Fridays so I don't have any meetings or presentations to do, so I'm just going to let my hair down today. I usually wear it this way on the weekends, so guess I'm getting in the weekend mode early. It's a jeans day too, woohoo! I love Fridays. Even my manager is taking the day off. The only person that will be at work today in my group is my best friend on the team. It's going to be a great day!
Kamis, 23 April 2009
Ouch! That one hurt.
I had an interesting comment left today on my post "confessions of the scale obsessed". It was left by "anonymous". I just read it after a very long day at work (I just got home and it's 10pm). The comment made me cry, in fact, I'm still crying over it. Perhaps I'm too sensitive to let an anonymous comment get to me like it did, but it really hurt my feelings. Apparently anonymous doesn't like me very much.
The comment said 1.) that I seem stressed out all the time and 2.) that I put other people down if they have different opinions than me and refer to those people as "them" and 3.) that I seem "kinda" hostile.
True, I am a bit stressed out. My work is out of control right now. There aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. That part didn't hurt. Although I think they were referring to my stress about my weight.
However, saying that I put people down cut me to the quick. I have honestly never meant to put anyone down. That's never been my intent. Usually I put myself down. When I said others aren't weighing themselves but that I couldn't do that, I really meant that I admire "them". I wish I wasn't obsessed by the scale,and that I could just not weigh myself and not be worried about it.
hostile: having an intimidating, antagonistic, or offensive nature
Hostile? Me? Wow, I didn't realize I appeared hostile. I certainly don't think of myself that way, and most people I work with and are friends with would never say that about me. At least I don't think they would. I'll have to ask around tomorrow if I appear "hostile". Maybe I just appear hostile on my blog, although I'm very puzzled by being called hostile.
I truly don't understand the point of leaving an anonymous comment that's so hurtful. I may appear to be a bitch to you, but I would never in a million years do that on someone's blog, regardless of what I thought of them. Really, what is the point? If you don't like someone it's really easy to just not read their blog.
Whoever you are, please know that you were just the icing on my cake of an absolutely shitty day. Hostile? Perhaps I am now. I wasn't feeling that way until I read your freaking comment. Oh, and I especially like the part that I put people down, that I seem hostile, and then you say "but you're probably a nice person". Yeah, right. I'm sure you really think that about me.
The comment said 1.) that I seem stressed out all the time and 2.) that I put other people down if they have different opinions than me and refer to those people as "them" and 3.) that I seem "kinda" hostile.
True, I am a bit stressed out. My work is out of control right now. There aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. That part didn't hurt. Although I think they were referring to my stress about my weight.
However, saying that I put people down cut me to the quick. I have honestly never meant to put anyone down. That's never been my intent. Usually I put myself down. When I said others aren't weighing themselves but that I couldn't do that, I really meant that I admire "them". I wish I wasn't obsessed by the scale,and that I could just not weigh myself and not be worried about it.
hostile: having an intimidating, antagonistic, or offensive nature
Hostile? Me? Wow, I didn't realize I appeared hostile. I certainly don't think of myself that way, and most people I work with and are friends with would never say that about me. At least I don't think they would. I'll have to ask around tomorrow if I appear "hostile". Maybe I just appear hostile on my blog, although I'm very puzzled by being called hostile.
I truly don't understand the point of leaving an anonymous comment that's so hurtful. I may appear to be a bitch to you, but I would never in a million years do that on someone's blog, regardless of what I thought of them. Really, what is the point? If you don't like someone it's really easy to just not read their blog.
Whoever you are, please know that you were just the icing on my cake of an absolutely shitty day. Hostile? Perhaps I am now. I wasn't feeling that way until I read your freaking comment. Oh, and I especially like the part that I put people down, that I seem hostile, and then you say "but you're probably a nice person". Yeah, right. I'm sure you really think that about me.
Happy Birthday To Me!
Hey Neighbors!!!Just want to send out a great big THANK YOU for all the good wishes and thoughts today as I celebrate my birthday! It's been a great day so far and I'm feeling quite pampered and adored. What did we ever do for birthdays before Facebook? So today, and always, I wish each joy, health and happiness. Thank you for being a treasured part of my world.And please - visit me, friend me,
Rabu, 22 April 2009
Introducing Walk Your Way Thin Kits by Leslie Sansone!
Hey all you Leslie walkers --- Good news today! (And for the record - this is not a paid endorsement -- I just like her products!) Brand new products that help you reach your weight loss goals! Available exclusively at select Target stores for $19.99! Walk Off Even More Weight with 2 lb. Weight
Confessions of the scale obsessed
Yesterday's post was me posting under the influence of my happy syrup (codeine cough medicine). If I'm really honest about my weight, I want to get to goal. I want to see that 135 number in my Weight Watcher weigh-in book. I want it so much that I can hardly stand it. I wish I wasn't so obsessed by that number, but I guess it is what it is.
I can't change how I feel. I read a lot of blogs yesterday about people not being obsessed by the scale. That they weren't going to weigh themselves anymore. It sounded like a good idea. Then I woke up this morning and thought what the hell was that about? I've weighed every day of my entire adult life. I'm not going to stop now, even if it does sounds like a good idea. Who was I kidding?
So as much as I want to be like "them", the people that are free of the scale, I can't do it. I'm obsessed by the scale, whether I like it or not and I have no intention of changing.
Exercise:
Great workout - 1 1/2 hours and now I'm going to be late to work!
Marriage:
All is good.
Selasa, 21 April 2009
Fructose vs. Glucose Showdown
As you've probably noticed, I believe sugar is one of the primary players in the diseases of civilization. It's one of the "big three" that I focus on: sugar, industrial vegetable oil and white flour. It's becoming increasingly clear that fructose, which constitutes half of table sugar and typically 55% of high-fructose corn syrup, is the problem. A reader pointed me to a brand new study (free full text!), published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, comparing the effect of ingesting glucose vs. fructose.
The investigators divided 32 overweight men and women into two groups, and instructed each group to drink a sweetened beverage three times per day. They were told not to eat any other sugar. The drinks were designed to provide 25% of the participants' caloric intake. That might sound like a lot, but the average American actually gets about 25% of her calories from sugar! That's the average, so there are people who get a third or more of their calories from sugar. In one group, the drinks were sweetened with glucose, while in the other group they were sweetened with fructose.
After ten weeks, both groups had gained about three pounds. But they didn't gain it in the same place. The fructose group gained a disproportionate amount of visceral fat, which increased by 14%! Visceral fat is the most dangerous type; it's associated with and contributes to chronic disease, particularly metabolic syndrome, the quintessential modern metabolic disorder (see the end of the post for more information and references). You can bet their livers were fattening up too.
The good news doesn't end there. The fructose group saw a worsening of blood glucose control and insulin sensitivity. They also saw an increase in small, dense LDL particles and oxidized LDL, both factors that associate strongly with the risk of heart attack and may in fact contribute to it. Liver synthesis of fat after meals increased by 75%. If you look at table 4, it's clear that the fructose group experienced a major metabolic shift, and the glucose group didn't. Practically every parameter they measured in the fructose group changed significantly over the course of the 9 weeks. It's incredible.
25% of calories from fructose is a lot. The average American gets about 13%. But plenty of people exceed that, perhaps going up to 20% or more. Furthermore, the intervention was only 10 weeks. What would a lower intake of fructose, say 10% of calories, do to a person over a lifetime? Nothing good, in my opinion. Avoiding refined sugar is one of the best things you can do for your health.
U.S. Fructose Consumption Trends
Peripheral vs. Ectopic Fat
Visceral Fat
Visceral Fat and Dementia
How to Give a Rat Metabolic Syndrome
How to Fatten Your Liver
The investigators divided 32 overweight men and women into two groups, and instructed each group to drink a sweetened beverage three times per day. They were told not to eat any other sugar. The drinks were designed to provide 25% of the participants' caloric intake. That might sound like a lot, but the average American actually gets about 25% of her calories from sugar! That's the average, so there are people who get a third or more of their calories from sugar. In one group, the drinks were sweetened with glucose, while in the other group they were sweetened with fructose.
After ten weeks, both groups had gained about three pounds. But they didn't gain it in the same place. The fructose group gained a disproportionate amount of visceral fat, which increased by 14%! Visceral fat is the most dangerous type; it's associated with and contributes to chronic disease, particularly metabolic syndrome, the quintessential modern metabolic disorder (see the end of the post for more information and references). You can bet their livers were fattening up too.
The good news doesn't end there. The fructose group saw a worsening of blood glucose control and insulin sensitivity. They also saw an increase in small, dense LDL particles and oxidized LDL, both factors that associate strongly with the risk of heart attack and may in fact contribute to it. Liver synthesis of fat after meals increased by 75%. If you look at table 4, it's clear that the fructose group experienced a major metabolic shift, and the glucose group didn't. Practically every parameter they measured in the fructose group changed significantly over the course of the 9 weeks. It's incredible.
25% of calories from fructose is a lot. The average American gets about 13%. But plenty of people exceed that, perhaps going up to 20% or more. Furthermore, the intervention was only 10 weeks. What would a lower intake of fructose, say 10% of calories, do to a person over a lifetime? Nothing good, in my opinion. Avoiding refined sugar is one of the best things you can do for your health.
U.S. Fructose Consumption Trends
Peripheral vs. Ectopic Fat
Visceral Fat
Visceral Fat and Dementia
How to Give a Rat Metabolic Syndrome
How to Fatten Your Liver
Fructose vs. Glucose Showdown
As you've probably noticed, I believe sugar is one of the primary players in the diseases of civilization. It's one of the "big three" that I focus on: sugar, industrial vegetable oil and white flour. It's becoming increasingly clear that fructose, which constitutes half of table sugar and typically 55% of high-fructose corn syrup, is the problem. A reader pointed me to a brand new study (free full text!), published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, comparing the effect of ingesting glucose vs. fructose.
The investigators divided 32 overweight men and women into two groups, and instructed each group to drink a sweetened beverage three times per day. They were told not to eat any other sugar. The drinks were designed to provide 25% of the participants' caloric intake. That might sound like a lot, but the average American actually gets about 25% of her calories from sugar! That's the average, so there are people who get a third or more of their calories from sugar. In one group, the drinks were sweetened with glucose, while in the other group they were sweetened with fructose.
After ten weeks, both groups had gained about three pounds. But they didn't gain it in the same place. The fructose group gained a disproportionate amount of visceral fat, which increased by 14%! Visceral fat is the most dangerous type; it's associated with and contributes to chronic disease, particularly metabolic syndrome, the quintessential modern metabolic disorder (see the end of the post for more information and references). You can bet their livers were fattening up too.
The good news doesn't end there. The fructose group saw a worsening of blood glucose control and insulin sensitivity. They also saw an increase in small, dense LDL particles and oxidized LDL, both factors that associate strongly with the risk of heart attack and may in fact contribute to it. Liver synthesis of fat after meals increased by 75%. If you look at table 4, it's clear that the fructose group experienced a major metabolic shift, and the glucose group didn't. Practically every parameter they measured in the fructose group changed significantly over the course of the 9 weeks. It's incredible.
25% of calories from fructose is a lot. The average American gets about 13%. But plenty of people exceed that, perhaps going up to 20% or more. Furthermore, the intervention was only 10 weeks. What would a lower intake of fructose, say 10% of calories, do to a person over a lifetime? Nothing good, in my opinion. Avoiding refined sugar is one of the best things you can do for your health.
U.S. Fructose Consumption Trends
Peripheral vs. Ectopic Fat
Visceral Fat
Visceral Fat and Dementia
How to Give a Rat Metabolic Syndrome
How to Fatten Your Liver
The investigators divided 32 overweight men and women into two groups, and instructed each group to drink a sweetened beverage three times per day. They were told not to eat any other sugar. The drinks were designed to provide 25% of the participants' caloric intake. That might sound like a lot, but the average American actually gets about 25% of her calories from sugar! That's the average, so there are people who get a third or more of their calories from sugar. In one group, the drinks were sweetened with glucose, while in the other group they were sweetened with fructose.
After ten weeks, both groups had gained about three pounds. But they didn't gain it in the same place. The fructose group gained a disproportionate amount of visceral fat, which increased by 14%! Visceral fat is the most dangerous type; it's associated with and contributes to chronic disease, particularly metabolic syndrome, the quintessential modern metabolic disorder (see the end of the post for more information and references). You can bet their livers were fattening up too.
The good news doesn't end there. The fructose group saw a worsening of blood glucose control and insulin sensitivity. They also saw an increase in small, dense LDL particles and oxidized LDL, both factors that associate strongly with the risk of heart attack and may in fact contribute to it. Liver synthesis of fat after meals increased by 75%. If you look at table 4, it's clear that the fructose group experienced a major metabolic shift, and the glucose group didn't. Practically every parameter they measured in the fructose group changed significantly over the course of the 9 weeks. It's incredible.
25% of calories from fructose is a lot. The average American gets about 13%. But plenty of people exceed that, perhaps going up to 20% or more. Furthermore, the intervention was only 10 weeks. What would a lower intake of fructose, say 10% of calories, do to a person over a lifetime? Nothing good, in my opinion. Avoiding refined sugar is one of the best things you can do for your health.
U.S. Fructose Consumption Trends
Peripheral vs. Ectopic Fat
Visceral Fat
Visceral Fat and Dementia
How to Give a Rat Metabolic Syndrome
How to Fatten Your Liver
Happy days
For some reason, I felt happy today. Perhaps it's the Tussionex extended release (12 hours) cough syrup I've been taking for my bronchitis. If I don't take it, I sound like I've been smoking for the past 40 years and that I'm hacking up half a lung. If I do take it I have to pop a caffeine pill so I can keep my eyes open (and then they're very open). I've noticed it puts me in a very good mood. I call it my happy syrup (I could totally become addicted to codeine).
Or it could be I heard from an old and very dear friend today. That always brightens my spirits, to know that someone I care about was thinking of me too. Or it could be the killer workout I had this morning, or the eight hours of sleep I got last night (love telecommuting days), or that I decided I'm not going to be overly concerned about my weight anymore.
I'm not saying I'm not going to work towards losing that last 20 pounds. I am saying I'm going to be more accepting of my body. Wearing size 10's and mediums is an okay place to be. It's not perfect (size 6 would be perfect), but I can live with where I am right now. If I never lost another pound, I'd be okay.
I'm still counting Points, still working out every day, still trying to lose weight. It's just that I'm not obsessed by it like I have been for the last fourteen months. There's more to life than being totally focused on what goes in my mouth and how many Points I've consumed. Frankly my dear, it's pretty damn boring stuff.
Summer is here, 76 degrees today in Seattle, and I have great plans for the coming months. Biking, kayaking, hiking, and camping. Yes, I've agreed to hike into the back country with a backpack, stay overnight in one of those fire-fighter cabins, and sleep in a sleeping bag. Go ahead, call me crazy, but it kind of sounds like fun, like when I was a kid. Remember, I grew up in Alaska and the outdoors is kind of my thing.
I'm also getting out those two brand new bikes we bought three years ago and rode once. What the heck was that about? Time to put those babies to use.
Kayaking in the Puget Sound is totally awesome. The last time we went was about 10 years ago, then I got too fat to fit into the kayak seat. I remember the last time we went kayaking and my hips being wedged into the seat. It was so painful and really humiliating to be so fat that I didn't even fit into the kayak. I can't wait to get back out there on the water.
I'll still be posting about what I'm eating, my weigh ins and my exercise, and all that other Weight Watcher stuff. It's always going to be a huge part of my life. If I start obsessing again about what the scale says, or if I'm up a few pounds and write a freaking-out post, you guys have my permission to slap me up side the head. I need to relax a little. I need to be happy in the here and now. I need to live in the present and not the future or the past. I need today to be my happy day.
Senin, 20 April 2009
Cordain on Saturated Fat
I recently signed up for Dr. Loren Cordain's Paleo Diet newsletter, and I just received my first update. For those of you who aren't familiar with him, Dr. Cordain is a researcher at Colorado State University who studies the effects of hunter-gatherer and modern diets on health. He's made a number of important contributions to our understanding of nutrition and health. He's in my "Nutrition Hall of Fame" on the right sidebar.
His update was about saturated fat. In the past, I've disagreed with Dr. Cordain on this issue, because I thought he felt that saturated fat contributes to the risk of heart attack (although he never described it as a dominant factor). He has recommended trimming the fat off meats and using canola oil rather than just eating the fat. I don't know if I had misunderstood his stance, or if he's had a change of heart, but his current position seems quite reasonable to me. Here are a few brief quotes:
The effect of a food on an animal's health has everything to do with what that animal is adapted to eating. Feeding a rabbit cholesterol gives it high blood cholesterol and atherosclerosis, but you can't give a dog high cholesterol or atherosclerosis by feeding it cholesterol, unless you kill its thyroid first. Feeding studies in Masai men showed that replacing their fatty, cholesterol-rich milk and blood diet with a cholesterol-free refined diet low in saturated fat caused their total cholesterol and body weight to increase rapidly. Adding purified cholesterol to the cholesterol-free diet did not affect their blood cholesterol concentration. Feeding cholesterol-rich eggs also has a negligible effect on blood cholesterol in most people.
I do still have a slight difference of opinion with Cordain on the saturated fat issue. While I think his numbers for pre-agricultural saturated fat intake are reasonable, his range is probably too narrow. Non-agricultural diets are so variable, I would expect the range to be more like 5 to 30% saturated fat. 5% would represent diets low in fat such as certain Australian Aboriginal diets, and 30% would represent the intake of Northern hunter-gatherers relying heavily on ruminants in fall and winter. During this time, ruminants store most of their fat subcutaneously, and their subcutaneous fat is roughly half saturated. Given that such a wide range of saturated fat intakes are part of our species' ecological niche, it follows that saturated fat is unlikely to be an important determinant of health in the context of an otherwise healthy lifestyle.
His update was about saturated fat. In the past, I've disagreed with Dr. Cordain on this issue, because I thought he felt that saturated fat contributes to the risk of heart attack (although he never described it as a dominant factor). He has recommended trimming the fat off meats and using canola oil rather than just eating the fat. I don't know if I had misunderstood his stance, or if he's had a change of heart, but his current position seems quite reasonable to me. Here are a few brief quotes:
By examining the amounts of saturated fats in pre-agricultural hominin diets, an evolutionary baseline can be established for the normal range and limits of saturated fats that would have conditioned the human genome. While these diets varied due to geography, climate, etc., there is evidence that all hominin species were omnivorous. Thus, dietary saturated fats would have always been present in hominin diets.And the conclusion:
There is also evidence that the hominin species that eventually led to Homo began to include more animal food in their diet approximately 2.6 million years ago. Clear evidence shows tool usage to butcher and disarticulate carcasses...
This data suggests that the normal dietary intake of saturated fatty acids that conditioned our species genome likely fell between 10 to 15% of total energy, and that values lower than 10% or higher than 15% would have been the exception.
Consequently, population-wide recommendations to lower dietary saturated fats below 10% to reduce the risk of CAD have little or no evolutionary foundation in pre-agricultural Homo sapiens... So we do not need to restrict ourselves to only tuna and turkey breast, avoiding every last gram of saturated fat.AMEN, brother. I'd like to point out that the average American eats about 11% of his calories as saturated fat (down from 13% in the 1970s), on the low side of what Cordain considers normal for Homo sapiens. This is from the NHANES nutrition surveys.
The effect of a food on an animal's health has everything to do with what that animal is adapted to eating. Feeding a rabbit cholesterol gives it high blood cholesterol and atherosclerosis, but you can't give a dog high cholesterol or atherosclerosis by feeding it cholesterol, unless you kill its thyroid first. Feeding studies in Masai men showed that replacing their fatty, cholesterol-rich milk and blood diet with a cholesterol-free refined diet low in saturated fat caused their total cholesterol and body weight to increase rapidly. Adding purified cholesterol to the cholesterol-free diet did not affect their blood cholesterol concentration. Feeding cholesterol-rich eggs also has a negligible effect on blood cholesterol in most people.
I do still have a slight difference of opinion with Cordain on the saturated fat issue. While I think his numbers for pre-agricultural saturated fat intake are reasonable, his range is probably too narrow. Non-agricultural diets are so variable, I would expect the range to be more like 5 to 30% saturated fat. 5% would represent diets low in fat such as certain Australian Aboriginal diets, and 30% would represent the intake of Northern hunter-gatherers relying heavily on ruminants in fall and winter. During this time, ruminants store most of their fat subcutaneously, and their subcutaneous fat is roughly half saturated. Given that such a wide range of saturated fat intakes are part of our species' ecological niche, it follows that saturated fat is unlikely to be an important determinant of health in the context of an otherwise healthy lifestyle.
Cordain on Saturated Fat
I recently signed up for Dr. Loren Cordain's Paleo Diet newsletter, and I just received my first update. For those of you who aren't familiar with him, Dr. Cordain is a researcher at Colorado State University who studies the effects of hunter-gatherer and modern diets on health. He's made a number of important contributions to our understanding of nutrition and health. He's in my "Nutrition Hall of Fame" on the right sidebar.
His update was about saturated fat. In the past, I've disagreed with Dr. Cordain on this issue, because I thought he felt that saturated fat contributes to the risk of heart attack (although he never described it as a dominant factor). He has recommended trimming the fat off meats and using canola oil rather than just eating the fat. I don't know if I had misunderstood his stance, or if he's had a change of heart, but his current position seems quite reasonable to me. Here are a few brief quotes:
The effect of a food on an animal's health has everything to do with what that animal is adapted to eating. Feeding a rabbit cholesterol gives it high blood cholesterol and atherosclerosis, but you can't give a dog high cholesterol or atherosclerosis by feeding it cholesterol, unless you kill its thyroid first. Feeding studies in Masai men showed that replacing their fatty, cholesterol-rich milk and blood diet with a cholesterol-free refined diet low in saturated fat caused their total cholesterol and body weight to increase rapidly. Adding purified cholesterol to the cholesterol-free diet did not affect their blood cholesterol concentration. Feeding cholesterol-rich eggs also has a negligible effect on blood cholesterol in most people.
I do still have a slight difference of opinion with Cordain on the saturated fat issue. While I think his numbers for pre-agricultural saturated fat intake are reasonable, his range is probably too narrow. Non-agricultural diets are so variable, I would expect the range to be more like 5 to 30% saturated fat. 5% would represent diets low in fat such as certain Australian Aboriginal diets, and 30% would represent the intake of Northern hunter-gatherers relying heavily on ruminants in fall and winter. During this time, ruminants store most of their fat subcutaneously, and their subcutaneous fat is roughly half saturated. Given that such a wide range of saturated fat intakes are part of our species' ecological niche, it follows that saturated fat is unlikely to be an important determinant of health in the context of an otherwise healthy lifestyle.
His update was about saturated fat. In the past, I've disagreed with Dr. Cordain on this issue, because I thought he felt that saturated fat contributes to the risk of heart attack (although he never described it as a dominant factor). He has recommended trimming the fat off meats and using canola oil rather than just eating the fat. I don't know if I had misunderstood his stance, or if he's had a change of heart, but his current position seems quite reasonable to me. Here are a few brief quotes:
By examining the amounts of saturated fats in pre-agricultural hominin diets, an evolutionary baseline can be established for the normal range and limits of saturated fats that would have conditioned the human genome. While these diets varied due to geography, climate, etc., there is evidence that all hominin species were omnivorous. Thus, dietary saturated fats would have always been present in hominin diets.And the conclusion:
There is also evidence that the hominin species that eventually led to Homo began to include more animal food in their diet approximately 2.6 million years ago. Clear evidence shows tool usage to butcher and disarticulate carcasses...
This data suggests that the normal dietary intake of saturated fatty acids that conditioned our species genome likely fell between 10 to 15% of total energy, and that values lower than 10% or higher than 15% would have been the exception.
Consequently, population-wide recommendations to lower dietary saturated fats below 10% to reduce the risk of CAD have little or no evolutionary foundation in pre-agricultural Homo sapiens... So we do not need to restrict ourselves to only tuna and turkey breast, avoiding every last gram of saturated fat.AMEN, brother. I'd like to point out that the average American eats about 11% of his calories as saturated fat (down from 13% in the 1970s), on the low side of what Cordain considers normal for Homo sapiens. This is from the NHANES nutrition surveys.
The effect of a food on an animal's health has everything to do with what that animal is adapted to eating. Feeding a rabbit cholesterol gives it high blood cholesterol and atherosclerosis, but you can't give a dog high cholesterol or atherosclerosis by feeding it cholesterol, unless you kill its thyroid first. Feeding studies in Masai men showed that replacing their fatty, cholesterol-rich milk and blood diet with a cholesterol-free refined diet low in saturated fat caused their total cholesterol and body weight to increase rapidly. Adding purified cholesterol to the cholesterol-free diet did not affect their blood cholesterol concentration. Feeding cholesterol-rich eggs also has a negligible effect on blood cholesterol in most people.
I do still have a slight difference of opinion with Cordain on the saturated fat issue. While I think his numbers for pre-agricultural saturated fat intake are reasonable, his range is probably too narrow. Non-agricultural diets are so variable, I would expect the range to be more like 5 to 30% saturated fat. 5% would represent diets low in fat such as certain Australian Aboriginal diets, and 30% would represent the intake of Northern hunter-gatherers relying heavily on ruminants in fall and winter. During this time, ruminants store most of their fat subcutaneously, and their subcutaneous fat is roughly half saturated. Given that such a wide range of saturated fat intakes are part of our species' ecological niche, it follows that saturated fat is unlikely to be an important determinant of health in the context of an otherwise healthy lifestyle.
Spring Flavors: Seared Mint Scallops
I found this terrific recipe in Diabetic Living, Spring 2009 issue, page 24. It is simple and brings a sweet balance of seared protein and the fresh flavor of mint and watercress. Look for the big sea scallops rather than bay scallops and cook in a searing to skillet for a nicely caramelized finish.Seared Scallops with Mint PestoIngredients:1/3 cup lightly packed fresh mint1/4 cup lightly packed
Minggu, 19 April 2009
Ending the Binge Eating Cycle
Monica Seles became a binge eater after a tragic incident occured in her life. Depression led her to binge on junk food for years. From being the top ranked female professional tennis player she became a recluse and gained forty pounds.
Now she's written a book about her struggles; Getting a Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self.
So much for that new plan
Taking pictures of my food was suppose to make me eat less. It worked until about 1:30am today when I woke up starving out of my mind and couldn't go back to sleep. Drat!
I got up and ate....34.5 freaking Points! Yes, I entered all the crap I ate into the online tracker. I had two ice cream cones with Dreyers Double Churned sugar-free vanilla (at least 2 cups), a chicken thigh and leg and a box of Kashi TLC brushetta crackers. Yes, I said a box, a brand new unopened box. Six servings at 130 calories/5 grams fat/3 grams of fiber...per serving. Which makes yesterday a 59 Point day. WTF?!
I don't know where that came from. I'm not depressed, and I certainly wasn't THAT hungry. It was mindless eating. I was totally out of control. It was a binge. Something I haven't done in months.
All I can do is get right back OP today and work my butt off at the gym. So much for the picture taking.
I got up and ate....34.5 freaking Points! Yes, I entered all the crap I ate into the online tracker. I had two ice cream cones with Dreyers Double Churned sugar-free vanilla (at least 2 cups), a chicken thigh and leg and a box of Kashi TLC brushetta crackers. Yes, I said a box, a brand new unopened box. Six servings at 130 calories/5 grams fat/3 grams of fiber...per serving. Which makes yesterday a 59 Point day. WTF?!
I don't know where that came from. I'm not depressed, and I certainly wasn't THAT hungry. It was mindless eating. I was totally out of control. It was a binge. Something I haven't done in months.
All I can do is get right back OP today and work my butt off at the gym. So much for the picture taking.
Sabtu, 18 April 2009
My new plan
I have another new plan for getting to my goal weight, plan #9,898. I'm going to take pictures of my food and post them here. A lot of people are doing it these days. I'm just late getting to the party, plus, it seems like a lot of work. If it helps, I'm willing to do it.
Several months ago I read this is suppose to help you eat less, and I'm desperate for something to help me reach my seemingly unattainable goal of 135 by my 54th birthday on August 7 (I still can't believe I'm so freaking old!).
That's just 16 weeks from now, and I'm about 22 pounds from 135. That means I need to lose 1.4 pounds per week, which sounds totally doable. I've been stuck in the 155-160 range for several months and I'm getting sick and tired of writing about it and thinking about it. I just want to get to goal and start maintenance. I started maintenance about 22 pounds too early.
This past week I went back to my old routine of counting Points all day, then eating too much in the evenings and not tracking my Points at the end of the day. Obviously this is a very bad plan and one that doesn't work for me.
It was a hell of a week at work, long hours, major stress, too many virus tiger team meetings, and a presentation in the midst of off this chaos. Only three workouts all week because by Thursday I was running on too little sleep and too many hours at work. Things are pretty much back to normal so I can't use work as an excuse for not staying on plan.
Breakfast: 6 Points
1 English Multi-grain muffin
1 slice 2% cheddar cheese
1 egg
4 slices Canadian Bacon
Mid-morning snack: 1.5 Points
2 Honey Tangerines
(picture is of one tangerine because I forgot I was suppose to take a picture)
Lunch: 5.5 Points
4 oz. chicken breast
1 Light Italian Flatout bread
2 T. non-fat mayo
spinach
1/4 cup onion
1/2 cup jicama
1 cup grape tomatoes
Afternoon snack: 2 Points
1 cup red grapes
1 Activia Light yogurt
1/2 cup Fiber One
Dinner: 8 Points
6 oz. chicken breast
1 T. barbecue sauce
1 cup roasted Brussels Sprouts
1 1/2 tsp. olive oil
tomatoes/carrots
Snack: 2.5 Points
2 cups strawberries
1 sugar-free vanilla pudding cup
Total Points: 24.5
I'm allowed 19 daily Points, so 24.5 is perfect.
APs earned: 4 (1 hour workout)
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Today's NSV
In the locker room at the gym today I watched a woman struggling with bolt cutters trying to cut her lock off her locker. She was about 40, and she didn't have any muscle tone in her arms. She was a little overweight, but not much. I asked her if I could help her and she gladly handed over the bolt cutters to me. She said her lock had jammed and she couldn't get it open.
When I took the bolt cutters I thought man, this is going to be really embarassing if I can't cut this lock. Luckily, I snapped it like it was a toothpick. It barely took any effort on my part. I love having muscles! It's worth every minute I spend at the gym lifting weights.
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My marriage
I'm discontinuing my marriage blog. I can barely keep up with one blog, much less two. So I'll post updates about my marriage here, as part of my regular blog, under the title of "The marriage". If people don't want to read about it, they can just skip it.
So how are things going with my husband and myself? They've never been better. I can't remember being happier in my marriage at any other time during the past 20 years, and my husband says the same thing. A little part of me is sad that we wasted so much time being so unhappy with each other. A larger part of me is delighted we seem to have found what works for us.
Contemplating divorce and almost losing each other has made a huge difference in how we treat each other. We're so much kinder and gentler and loving to each other. The book The Love Dare has also had a dramatic affect on how we act towards each other. We're only on day 25 because of me being sick with bronchitis, then the traveling, then this week my work was crazy, but we're still reading the book when we can and still doing the things from the past 24 days. I really believe this book has changed our lives.
We stopped marriage counseling. We went to two sessions and both agreed it was stupid. The counselor who is suppose to be really good and came highly recommended seemed to be an idiot. When she put that awareness chart on the floor and started explaining it, I knew it wasn't going to work. Then the Chakra shit, neither one of us could get into that. Too much hocus pocus junk.
We've had a few fights, but we fight differently. There's a kindness in him I've never seen before, even when he's really mad at me he doesn't step over the line and neither do I. I haven't mentioned the word divorce once, not even in the heat of an argument when I totally disagree with him. Divorce just isn't an option for us anymore, and that changes everything. When you really believe in a lifetime commitment to one another, it changes your behavior. At least it has for us.
Two days ago I received the email below from a coworker and friend. It's from a guy I worked very closely with for five years. In fact, he was my mentor when becoming a developer. I read his email and started to cry. He's 39 years old, married 11 years, two boys, ages 4 and 6. His wife works for the same company as we do and is in senior management. He's getting custody of the kids. His email broke my heart. I don't understand all these disposable marriages these days.
Although, I was totally ready to throw my own marriage away a few months ago, so I guess I should understand it. Thank God I didn't follow through on that insanity. I really don't know what to say this friend. I guess "sorry" is the only thing I can say. I'll recommend Love Dare, but I have a sinking feeling it's too late.
Hi All -
I've worked for this company long enough to know how quickly gossip travels and it's also been a couple months since anyone has asked me "how's Lea", so I thought I'd put it out there and let you all know that yes, Lea and I are getting divorced.
There is no big gossip here, we just got busy with life and quit working at our marriage, we let it get to a point that it could not be salvaged. We did not reach this decision lightly and ultimately decided we needed to do what is best for both of us and our children. Of course this is a difficult time, but we are both fine and working at making this as easy as possible for our kids.
So, please feel free to talk about it, I don't mind talking, I just don't feel like it's necessary to tell everyone when they ask "what's new".
Thanks,
Several months ago I read this is suppose to help you eat less, and I'm desperate for something to help me reach my seemingly unattainable goal of 135 by my 54th birthday on August 7 (I still can't believe I'm so freaking old!).
That's just 16 weeks from now, and I'm about 22 pounds from 135. That means I need to lose 1.4 pounds per week, which sounds totally doable. I've been stuck in the 155-160 range for several months and I'm getting sick and tired of writing about it and thinking about it. I just want to get to goal and start maintenance. I started maintenance about 22 pounds too early.
This past week I went back to my old routine of counting Points all day, then eating too much in the evenings and not tracking my Points at the end of the day. Obviously this is a very bad plan and one that doesn't work for me.
It was a hell of a week at work, long hours, major stress, too many virus tiger team meetings, and a presentation in the midst of off this chaos. Only three workouts all week because by Thursday I was running on too little sleep and too many hours at work. Things are pretty much back to normal so I can't use work as an excuse for not staying on plan.
Breakfast: 6 Points
1 English Multi-grain muffin
1 slice 2% cheddar cheese
1 egg
4 slices Canadian Bacon
Mid-morning snack: 1.5 Points
2 Honey Tangerines
(picture is of one tangerine because I forgot I was suppose to take a picture)
Lunch: 5.5 Points
4 oz. chicken breast
1 Light Italian Flatout bread
2 T. non-fat mayo
spinach
1/4 cup onion
1/2 cup jicama
1 cup grape tomatoes
Afternoon snack: 2 Points
1 cup red grapes
1 Activia Light yogurt
1/2 cup Fiber One
Dinner: 8 Points
6 oz. chicken breast
1 T. barbecue sauce
1 cup roasted Brussels Sprouts
1 1/2 tsp. olive oil
tomatoes/carrots
Snack: 2.5 Points
2 cups strawberries
1 sugar-free vanilla pudding cup
Total Points: 24.5
I'm allowed 19 daily Points, so 24.5 is perfect.
APs earned: 4 (1 hour workout)
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Today's NSV
In the locker room at the gym today I watched a woman struggling with bolt cutters trying to cut her lock off her locker. She was about 40, and she didn't have any muscle tone in her arms. She was a little overweight, but not much. I asked her if I could help her and she gladly handed over the bolt cutters to me. She said her lock had jammed and she couldn't get it open.
When I took the bolt cutters I thought man, this is going to be really embarassing if I can't cut this lock. Luckily, I snapped it like it was a toothpick. It barely took any effort on my part. I love having muscles! It's worth every minute I spend at the gym lifting weights.
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My marriage
I'm discontinuing my marriage blog. I can barely keep up with one blog, much less two. So I'll post updates about my marriage here, as part of my regular blog, under the title of "The marriage". If people don't want to read about it, they can just skip it.
So how are things going with my husband and myself? They've never been better. I can't remember being happier in my marriage at any other time during the past 20 years, and my husband says the same thing. A little part of me is sad that we wasted so much time being so unhappy with each other. A larger part of me is delighted we seem to have found what works for us.
Contemplating divorce and almost losing each other has made a huge difference in how we treat each other. We're so much kinder and gentler and loving to each other. The book The Love Dare has also had a dramatic affect on how we act towards each other. We're only on day 25 because of me being sick with bronchitis, then the traveling, then this week my work was crazy, but we're still reading the book when we can and still doing the things from the past 24 days. I really believe this book has changed our lives.
We stopped marriage counseling. We went to two sessions and both agreed it was stupid. The counselor who is suppose to be really good and came highly recommended seemed to be an idiot. When she put that awareness chart on the floor and started explaining it, I knew it wasn't going to work. Then the Chakra shit, neither one of us could get into that. Too much hocus pocus junk.
We've had a few fights, but we fight differently. There's a kindness in him I've never seen before, even when he's really mad at me he doesn't step over the line and neither do I. I haven't mentioned the word divorce once, not even in the heat of an argument when I totally disagree with him. Divorce just isn't an option for us anymore, and that changes everything. When you really believe in a lifetime commitment to one another, it changes your behavior. At least it has for us.
Two days ago I received the email below from a coworker and friend. It's from a guy I worked very closely with for five years. In fact, he was my mentor when becoming a developer. I read his email and started to cry. He's 39 years old, married 11 years, two boys, ages 4 and 6. His wife works for the same company as we do and is in senior management. He's getting custody of the kids. His email broke my heart. I don't understand all these disposable marriages these days.
Although, I was totally ready to throw my own marriage away a few months ago, so I guess I should understand it. Thank God I didn't follow through on that insanity. I really don't know what to say this friend. I guess "sorry" is the only thing I can say. I'll recommend Love Dare, but I have a sinking feeling it's too late.
Hi All -
I've worked for this company long enough to know how quickly gossip travels and it's also been a couple months since anyone has asked me "how's Lea", so I thought I'd put it out there and let you all know that yes, Lea and I are getting divorced.
There is no big gossip here, we just got busy with life and quit working at our marriage, we let it get to a point that it could not be salvaged. We did not reach this decision lightly and ultimately decided we needed to do what is best for both of us and our children. Of course this is a difficult time, but we are both fine and working at making this as easy as possible for our kids.
So, please feel free to talk about it, I don't mind talking, I just don't feel like it's necessary to tell everyone when they ask "what's new".
Thanks,
Kamis, 16 April 2009
A Testament to the Flexibility of the Human Mind
I'm sure you've heard that humans have five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. But we actually have far more senses than that. The canonical list doesn't include equilibrioception-- our sense of balance-- the result of fluid sloshing around in the inner ear. It also doesn't include proprioception, the ability to detect the position of our limbs using nerve endings in our tendons and muscles.
Furthermore, the sense of touch is actually several different senses, each detected and transmitted by its own special type of neuron. The sense of touch includes vibration sense, pressure sense, heat sense, cold sense and pain sense. The sense of smell can be divided into roughly 400 senses in humans, each one tuned in to a different class of airborne molecules. Vision can be divided into cells maximally responsive to four different wavelengths of light. I could go on but the rest are less exciting.
This brings me to what I really want to write about, the development (or perhaps refinement) of a new human sense: echolocation. Echolocation is the ability to gather sensory information about your surroundings by bouncing sounds off of objects and listening to the echo that returns. It's what bats use to hunt in the dark, and dolphins use to navigate muddy water and find food under the sand. There are a number of blind people who have developed the ability to use clicking sounds to "see" their surroundings, and it's remarkably effective. This represents a new use of the human mind, or at least a refinement of a rudimentary sense. Here are a few links if you'd like to watch/read more about it:
Human echolocation- Wikipedia
Daniel Kish- You Tube
The boy who sees without eyes- You Tube
Furthermore, the sense of touch is actually several different senses, each detected and transmitted by its own special type of neuron. The sense of touch includes vibration sense, pressure sense, heat sense, cold sense and pain sense. The sense of smell can be divided into roughly 400 senses in humans, each one tuned in to a different class of airborne molecules. Vision can be divided into cells maximally responsive to four different wavelengths of light. I could go on but the rest are less exciting.
This brings me to what I really want to write about, the development (or perhaps refinement) of a new human sense: echolocation. Echolocation is the ability to gather sensory information about your surroundings by bouncing sounds off of objects and listening to the echo that returns. It's what bats use to hunt in the dark, and dolphins use to navigate muddy water and find food under the sand. There are a number of blind people who have developed the ability to use clicking sounds to "see" their surroundings, and it's remarkably effective. This represents a new use of the human mind, or at least a refinement of a rudimentary sense. Here are a few links if you'd like to watch/read more about it:
Human echolocation- Wikipedia
Daniel Kish- You Tube
The boy who sees without eyes- You Tube
A Testament to the Flexibility of the Human Mind
I'm sure you've heard that humans have five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. But we actually have far more senses than that. The canonical list doesn't include equilibrioception-- our sense of balance-- the result of fluid sloshing around in the inner ear. It also doesn't include proprioception, the ability to detect the position of our limbs using nerve endings in our tendons and muscles.
Furthermore, the sense of touch is actually several different senses, each detected and transmitted by its own special type of neuron. The sense of touch includes vibration sense, pressure sense, heat sense, cold sense and pain sense. The sense of smell can be divided into roughly 400 senses in humans, each one tuned in to a different class of airborne molecules. Vision can be divided into cells maximally responsive to four different wavelengths of light. I could go on but the rest are less exciting.
This brings me to what I really want to write about, the development (or perhaps refinement) of a new human sense: echolocation. Echolocation is the ability to gather sensory information about your surroundings by bouncing sounds off of objects and listening to the echo that returns. It's what bats use to hunt in the dark, and dolphins use to navigate muddy water and find food under the sand. There are a number of blind people who have developed the ability to use clicking sounds to "see" their surroundings, and it's remarkably effective. This represents a new use of the human mind, or at least a refinement of a rudimentary sense. Here are a few links if you'd like to watch/read more about it:
Human echolocation- Wikipedia
Daniel Kish- You Tube
The boy who sees without eyes- You Tube
Furthermore, the sense of touch is actually several different senses, each detected and transmitted by its own special type of neuron. The sense of touch includes vibration sense, pressure sense, heat sense, cold sense and pain sense. The sense of smell can be divided into roughly 400 senses in humans, each one tuned in to a different class of airborne molecules. Vision can be divided into cells maximally responsive to four different wavelengths of light. I could go on but the rest are less exciting.
This brings me to what I really want to write about, the development (or perhaps refinement) of a new human sense: echolocation. Echolocation is the ability to gather sensory information about your surroundings by bouncing sounds off of objects and listening to the echo that returns. It's what bats use to hunt in the dark, and dolphins use to navigate muddy water and find food under the sand. There are a number of blind people who have developed the ability to use clicking sounds to "see" their surroundings, and it's remarkably effective. This represents a new use of the human mind, or at least a refinement of a rudimentary sense. Here are a few links if you'd like to watch/read more about it:
Human echolocation- Wikipedia
Daniel Kish- You Tube
The boy who sees without eyes- You Tube
I want a divorce because you're fat.
I had lunch with a friend yesterday. A year ago his wife gave him an ultimatum, lose 100 pounds in a year or I'm leaving you. When he told me this last year I told him, oh, she doesn't mean it. She's just saying that because she loves you and wants you to get healthy. He told me then that she was serious.
It's been almost a year and she was indeed serious. It's been a year of hell for him. All physical contact cut off, even touching or kissing, until he lost weight. He's about 150 pounds overweight. He hasn't lost an ounce in the past year. My heart broke for him as he told me how hard he tried to lose weight, but that he didn't do well under pressure. His wife has found an apartment and is moving out with the kids (13 and 15). After 19 years of marriage, he says it's over.
I told another friend about this, that I just didn't understand how a wife could do this to her husband, an otherwise kind and gentle man. I was really surprised when he said he totally understood this guy's wife. He said if his own wife gained 100 pounds he'd consider it a breach of contract and would consider divorce if she didn't make a concerted effort to lose weight. What!? This shocked me. As a person who has been 100 pounds overweight more than once in my life, I just couldn't believe my value as a person and a spouse would ever be based on my weight.
What do you think? Is it a breach of contract? Would you ever consider divorce if your spouse gained 100 pounds and didn't lose the weight? Most likely if you're reading this, you have a weight issue yourself and can't even imagine such craziness. From what I'm hearing from normal sized people who have never experienced being overweight, this breach of contract seems to be a common thought. I know there's two sides to every story, especially divorce stories, but seriously, I don't understand this line of thinking.
Note: I gave him a copy of The Love Dare and he promised to read it and try the love dares. His wife sounds like she's totally opposed to a reconciliation, but you never know.
It's been almost a year and she was indeed serious. It's been a year of hell for him. All physical contact cut off, even touching or kissing, until he lost weight. He's about 150 pounds overweight. He hasn't lost an ounce in the past year. My heart broke for him as he told me how hard he tried to lose weight, but that he didn't do well under pressure. His wife has found an apartment and is moving out with the kids (13 and 15). After 19 years of marriage, he says it's over.
I told another friend about this, that I just didn't understand how a wife could do this to her husband, an otherwise kind and gentle man. I was really surprised when he said he totally understood this guy's wife. He said if his own wife gained 100 pounds he'd consider it a breach of contract and would consider divorce if she didn't make a concerted effort to lose weight. What!? This shocked me. As a person who has been 100 pounds overweight more than once in my life, I just couldn't believe my value as a person and a spouse would ever be based on my weight.
What do you think? Is it a breach of contract? Would you ever consider divorce if your spouse gained 100 pounds and didn't lose the weight? Most likely if you're reading this, you have a weight issue yourself and can't even imagine such craziness. From what I'm hearing from normal sized people who have never experienced being overweight, this breach of contract seems to be a common thought. I know there's two sides to every story, especially divorce stories, but seriously, I don't understand this line of thinking.
Note: I gave him a copy of The Love Dare and he promised to read it and try the love dares. His wife sounds like she's totally opposed to a reconciliation, but you never know.
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