Wednesday, October 22, 2014

here we go again, again

Oh brother....

I thoughtlessly decided to "subscribe" and watch the "For Women Only:  The Weight Loss Solution" special event.  I'll never again get offended when people insult "paleo" because Oh ... My ... Gods....

Yesterday was Day One:  while I pressed and cut fabric for my next three projects, I listened in.  There was an introductory interview of Neely Quinn by Sean Croxton, in which he led her to say all kinds of stupid stuff, like:
"I used to say, 'Food is my boyfriend."'
"I had to break up with chocolate."
"When I gave up gluten, I cried."
You begin to observe, this is a woman with significant food issues.  No wonder she thinks that eating disorders can go back to your childhood, and how traumatic it was when you had to sit at the dinner table....  She also thinks that if you have carb-cravings, it means you NEEEEEEEED them!  She sounds very Freudian -- I wonder if she has daddy issues, too?

Neely also mentioned how the discussions at PaleoFX were SO anti-carb -- she complained that the provided food was, like, all PROTEIN and FAAAAAT, and there wasn't much of it!  So she went out and brought in a SAAALAD cuz she needed some CARBS ... and this guy was, like, harassing her, saying "you're eating CAAAAARBS!"....

But that gem was just the first course!  I skipped the next video, which was probably more intelligent -- Mark Sisson talking about The Dangers of "Chronic Cardio."  I'll never do THAT again, so i'm not really interested ... and besides, i've always disliked podcasts and interview-videos.  ;-)  The third and last installment of the day was Melissa Joulwan, "How to Lose Weight & Heal Your Thyroid" ... except she didn't, and she didn't.

Like so many faddish young things, she wandered through bad diets and ill health for decades, and it sounds like she continues the cycles of "better" and "brainless 'intervention' catches up."  At one point when she was visiting a doctor because she "didn't feeeeel gooood" (just imagine that spoken in a whiny California-girl accent...), he told her she had a nodule on her thyroid and proceeded to EXCISE MOST OF IT. 

Sorry, kids -- "healing" and "cutting out then having trouble adjusting supplemental hormone" are NOT synonymous.

With the help of alternative health-care providers she jumped through hoops of goofy protocols and senseless exercise regimens ... and considers herself something of a cognoscenti on this score!  She has two cookbooks out, and she spoke a little on how she deals with taking lunch to work -- you see, you put some frozen broccoli in the bottom of a Tupperware container, then add some lightly cooked meat that you prepared during an afternoon's-worth of work over the weekend (like broiling chicken-breasts), drizzle on a little sauce (tahini, she suggested); then at mid-day, you just nuke it for a minute, and there's lunch!  For a quick meal at home, open a can of sardines, garnish with a little parsley, and there it is!

Let me get this straight -- this woman has published two cookbooks, and this is her idea of paleo-quality meals???  Just because her chicken is pastured?

There's no doubt in my mind that these two women didn't get the memo about fat -- active people can't live on chicken breast, frozen broccoli, a drizzle of sesame paste, and sardines ... even if it IS better than what the majority of Americans eat.  No wonder they think they need more carbs.

I can hardly wait to see what the rest of the week brings!

^^^  sarcasm font...

13 comments:

  1. I am ready to bitch-slap when I read 'pastured'... It's becoming the new 'clean' buzz phrase. But I digress.

    There are a lot of sick f**ks out there, parading as 'experts' on nutrition and weight loss. I am getting adept at picking them out pretty darned quickly; sounds like you are too.

    p.s. please make it possible to comment as 'name/url'.... :o

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    1. according to my settings, one can comment using "open ID" -- one doesn't have to be using google. there's one more (looser) setting but it allows anonymous commenting, and i'd really prefer not to go there if i can help it.

      yes, there ARE some well-known names that seem to have some reputation for expertise, even though their published opinions seem to be pretty inane! one has to wonder how they got to that point!

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    2. yes, but every time I try open ID I get error messages that my account isn't recognized, and try as I might I can't get that fixed with the.

      So, I guess when I finally give up Google soon, I just won't be posting here anymore. Sorry. Still reading and wub wu! :)

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  2. Replies
    1. :-) oh, well -- what can one expect, for free?

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    2. Yes, it is just an entertainment ,it is nice to have something on a background doing crafts, a heaven, actually. However I doubt I would pay for any podcast or a video about nutrition or a weight loss, fortunately for life-style gurus, many people are more generous.

      I also hate it when the people who struggle with weight look stupid on the screen. I suspect it makes viewers think that actually weight loss is easy, only fat dummies crying about their chocolate need a payed tough love from a common sense coach. I am just ranting. Years of being hungrier than most people around me still make be bitterish.

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    3. :-) feel free to rant! I think you're very reasonable!

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  3. LOL, I'll remember that Gwen for any future recipe posts.... ;)
    I'm attending Paleo FX 2015. I suspect that those of us in our mid to later 40's and older are a higher percentage of the low carb, high fat crowd. Just a guess.

    I was surprised at the line up of the "weight loss" speakers. I would like to see more focus on weight maintenance since the time spent in weight loss part is very short compared to the time spent in weight maintenance. Add, in the low long term success of weight maintenance for the commercial plans and that's the area I'm really interested to see.

    I did not lose weight on Paleo (commercial diet) but I've only used it to maintain a large loss. Not sure how or if it would have worked for me for weight loss.

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    1. paleo seems to be less effective for weight loss than it is for detoxifying! if one is young and healthy, paleo-style diet is probably enough to maintain health, but when one is older and "damaged" one has to be a little more extreme, in my opinion!

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  4. This reminds me of Christopher Titus's explanation for why people go into psychiatry: they're trying to deal with their own crap.

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  5. Hey, I put horseradish sauce on pastrami for dinner. Can I write a cookbook, too?

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    1. you can write a cookbook on the virtues of the recipes on your blog! :-) of course NQ wouldn't buy them -- she broke up with chocolate....

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  6. Love your description of MJ: "faddish young thing" - so true! I bought her 1st cookbook back when I was following FTA closely... While I still use several of the meat recipes (esp like the brined chicken breast), I was disappointed w/meager assortment of vegetable options.

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