Yep, AGAIN. We've owed my MIL a visit for at least a year now, so are having a little extra fun while fulfilling a pleasant duty. :-) We took off on Monday (leaving Pip the canary, the pond fish, and the houseplants to the care of our erstwhile dogsitter), and headed north- and west-ward into Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota.
Along the way we saw field after field, mile after mile, state after state, of cornfield cornfield beanfield cornfield beanfield cornfield cornfield cornfield.... In one crop, maize provides ALL the major "neolithic agents of disease" -- grain, industrial-seed-oils, and the raw material of high-fructose corn syrup.
I like to think of it as the ultimate Native American revenge.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Friday, August 12, 2016
the pitfall of a hurried dinner
When we've been busy on a hot summer day like yesterday was, meal-preparation becomes a bigger chore than it needs to be. We had no leftovers ready to nuke, i had thawed some "tenderloin tips" and so i decided -- what the hell, i'll just make stroganoff, and serve it on some rice-noodles J ordered: THEORETICALLY fettucine, according to the amazon-dot-com description.
The stroganoff was good as usual, but the noodles were barely linguini-width, and despite all the good reviews, they didn't cook up as expected. I boiled them the maximum time suggested, and though some were tender, others were unpleasantly chewy and they stuck together badly. I do NOT recommend Tinkyada brand....
But here's the rub -- i had fries with my bunless lamb-burger at our favorite pub at lunchtime, thinking i'd work off the carb while shopping. But the noodles added too much carb for one day. I slept long and woke up dopey, almost as bad as in my pre-Atkins days. This morning i've had that can't-find-the-word-i-want problem -- every comment i wrote lambasting idiots on FB, i wrote much slower than usual ... and you know how important it is to insult idiots with words they'll probably have to look up in a dictionary! [evil grin]
Ya know all those Trumplodytes who can't handle vocabulary beyond the fourth-grade level? The ones who display a look suggesting they live on beer and Doritos? Do you suppose it IS the beer, Doritos, Little Debbies, and cheap doughy pizza which CAUSE them to be so dense and resistant to logic...?
On a more serious note, there HAS been some planned dumbification in this country. Textbooks for much of the country are printed in Texas, where the head of the state school board is a home-schooler who is a young-earth fundamentalist and doesn't believe in evolution; where REAL teachers protest listing MOSES as a founding-father of America, to deaf ears. Despite the inefficacy of ingested fluoride in improving dental health, most of our cities STILL insist on poisoning its denizens with the stuff, which has been credibly shown to damage developing brains (it easily crosses the placental barrier).
It's very hard to get anyone outside the paleo/ancestral community to believe that malnutrition affects mental function. Our credulous acquaintances have vague ideas about the virtues of protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber, but they usually get the details wrong. I firmly believe that PART of our appalling national foolishness -- irrational fundamentalism and deification of firearms, among much more -- is the fault of bad nutrition coupled with improper mental culture. Our society is encouraged to dope itself with "bread and circuses," mindless religiosity, absurd jingoism, and condemnation of "elitist" "intellectuals."
...In the country where Thomas Jefferson once praised our "aristocracy of Virtue*".... [smh]
**********
* By "virtue" TJ meant "great qualities" like intellect, upright behavior, etc.
The stroganoff was good as usual, but the noodles were barely linguini-width, and despite all the good reviews, they didn't cook up as expected. I boiled them the maximum time suggested, and though some were tender, others were unpleasantly chewy and they stuck together badly. I do NOT recommend Tinkyada brand....
But here's the rub -- i had fries with my bunless lamb-burger at our favorite pub at lunchtime, thinking i'd work off the carb while shopping. But the noodles added too much carb for one day. I slept long and woke up dopey, almost as bad as in my pre-Atkins days. This morning i've had that can't-find-the-word-i-want problem -- every comment i wrote lambasting idiots on FB, i wrote much slower than usual ... and you know how important it is to insult idiots with words they'll probably have to look up in a dictionary! [evil grin]
Ya know all those Trumplodytes who can't handle vocabulary beyond the fourth-grade level? The ones who display a look suggesting they live on beer and Doritos? Do you suppose it IS the beer, Doritos, Little Debbies, and cheap doughy pizza which CAUSE them to be so dense and resistant to logic...?
On a more serious note, there HAS been some planned dumbification in this country. Textbooks for much of the country are printed in Texas, where the head of the state school board is a home-schooler who is a young-earth fundamentalist and doesn't believe in evolution; where REAL teachers protest listing MOSES as a founding-father of America, to deaf ears. Despite the inefficacy of ingested fluoride in improving dental health, most of our cities STILL insist on poisoning its denizens with the stuff, which has been credibly shown to damage developing brains (it easily crosses the placental barrier).
It's very hard to get anyone outside the paleo/ancestral community to believe that malnutrition affects mental function. Our credulous acquaintances have vague ideas about the virtues of protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber, but they usually get the details wrong. I firmly believe that PART of our appalling national foolishness -- irrational fundamentalism and deification of firearms, among much more -- is the fault of bad nutrition coupled with improper mental culture. Our society is encouraged to dope itself with "bread and circuses," mindless religiosity, absurd jingoism, and condemnation of "elitist" "intellectuals."
...In the country where Thomas Jefferson once praised our "aristocracy of Virtue*".... [smh]
**********
* By "virtue" TJ meant "great qualities" like intellect, upright behavior, etc.
Thursday, July 28, 2016
disappointment and the opposite
EDIT: We returned to the Tulsa Rose Garden to get photos of the devastation; as we approached it from a different spot, though, we found this:
At least the garden was not just allowed to die of neglect -- twas a different kind of act! Probably some helpful-but-ignorant volunteer deadheader.... Some of the wasteland is here:
On the same premises, what they call the conservatory:
Here's a view of the garden at Philbrook, though, from just below the terrace:
If you're ever in Tulsa, i couldn't recommend strongly enough that you visit this wonderful house/art-museum! :-)
*****
Now that our sunroom addition and backyard renovations are pretty much done, my husband has become sadly restless, so we're facing a certain amount of short excursions to keep him from getting bored. Well, i'm certainly willing to see more of my native land, and i'm DEFINITELY inclined to enjoy it more by car than by plane!
So we struck out onto the road on Tuesday, to revisit the city we enjoyed living in for far too short a period. In the late afternoon we arrived in Tulsa and settled into our hotel with plans to start early the next morning, to revisit a few old favorite places and see some new ones as well.
We drove past our old house, which looked much like it did, except for the addition of a new dormer in the attic area. Hmph.... The front was also excessively festooned with flags, despite the length of time since the last two patriotic holidays. :-P My impression of people who over-display ANY indicator of alliegiance is a suspicion that someone doth protest too much....
Then we drove a few blocks away to view what i think was my husband's first object in our visit and thence the disappointment! The Tulsa Rose Garden, when we moved away, was a Victorian delight! But since we left, the bottom two or three terraces no longer held rose bushes, but perennial common flowers and a shocking number of weeds, even in the paths. The fountains and pools were either dry or full of green, scummy water. We were appalled!
Up toward the top of the slope, there were still beds of roses, but they seemed sadly neglected. Obviously, many bushes had died and been removed, but not replaced. The other plants, like big conifers, had weeds growing up under and within them.
We learned that the Garden now belongs to Woodward Park, which it adjoins. I don't know if it did at the turn of the century when we moved away, but the upshot is that it looked INFINITELY better then. Considering how stunning and glorious the azaleas of WP are, you'd think they'd at least TRY to do as good a job with the roses, but obviously they don't care.
From the Tulsa Rose Garden we progressed to the newer (unimpressive) garden space connected and the "conservatory" (greenhouse) which did look well-managed, and then the arboretum where we used to walk our dogs (okay but not impressive either).
Then we crossed a parking-lot and entered the museum belonging to the Tulsa Historical Society, which hadn't been open when we lived there. It was a good, but not great, museum which documented the significance of our first capitol of the petroleum industry -- good historical narratives, but not much by way of relics or material displays. Tulsa, despite its small size, has a distinguished history of innovation -- we enjoyed the museum.
After lunch at the Wild Fork in Utica Square (which we had also patronized during our residence), we went to MY first choice of sites in the city worth visiting -- Philbrook. NO disappointment there at all.
A little background -- my husband used to work for Phillips Petroleum, the creation of Frank Phillips (first class jerk, and i can tell you some interesting gossip about his wife, wink nudge...); Philbrook was originally the Tulsa home of Frank's brother Waite, who seems to have married a woman of a great deal more class/character. Frank's and Jane's "mansion" in Bartlesville is far from impressive, while one can see that Waite's and Genevieve's had some very nice touches ... and their garden is very impressive indeed!
Waite Phillips gave his house and art collection to the city of Tulsa, and also gave his property in New Mexico to the Boy Scouts (Philmont). I don't know if Frank EVER gave anything to anybody.
After spending hours perusing plants, historical relics, and works of art, i was ready to relax for the rest of the afternoon! This morning we checked out of our hotel and began a NEW adventure ... but more on that later....
On the same premises, what they call the conservatory:
Here's a view of the garden at Philbrook, though, from just below the terrace:
If you're ever in Tulsa, i couldn't recommend strongly enough that you visit this wonderful house/art-museum! :-)
*****
Now that our sunroom addition and backyard renovations are pretty much done, my husband has become sadly restless, so we're facing a certain amount of short excursions to keep him from getting bored. Well, i'm certainly willing to see more of my native land, and i'm DEFINITELY inclined to enjoy it more by car than by plane!
So we struck out onto the road on Tuesday, to revisit the city we enjoyed living in for far too short a period. In the late afternoon we arrived in Tulsa and settled into our hotel with plans to start early the next morning, to revisit a few old favorite places and see some new ones as well.
We drove past our old house, which looked much like it did, except for the addition of a new dormer in the attic area. Hmph.... The front was also excessively festooned with flags, despite the length of time since the last two patriotic holidays. :-P My impression of people who over-display ANY indicator of alliegiance is a suspicion that someone doth protest too much....
Then we drove a few blocks away to view what i think was my husband's first object in our visit and thence the disappointment! The Tulsa Rose Garden, when we moved away, was a Victorian delight! But since we left, the bottom two or three terraces no longer held rose bushes, but perennial common flowers and a shocking number of weeds, even in the paths. The fountains and pools were either dry or full of green, scummy water. We were appalled!
Up toward the top of the slope, there were still beds of roses, but they seemed sadly neglected. Obviously, many bushes had died and been removed, but not replaced. The other plants, like big conifers, had weeds growing up under and within them.
We learned that the Garden now belongs to Woodward Park, which it adjoins. I don't know if it did at the turn of the century when we moved away, but the upshot is that it looked INFINITELY better then. Considering how stunning and glorious the azaleas of WP are, you'd think they'd at least TRY to do as good a job with the roses, but obviously they don't care.
From the Tulsa Rose Garden we progressed to the newer (unimpressive) garden space connected and the "conservatory" (greenhouse) which did look well-managed, and then the arboretum where we used to walk our dogs (okay but not impressive either).
Then we crossed a parking-lot and entered the museum belonging to the Tulsa Historical Society, which hadn't been open when we lived there. It was a good, but not great, museum which documented the significance of our first capitol of the petroleum industry -- good historical narratives, but not much by way of relics or material displays. Tulsa, despite its small size, has a distinguished history of innovation -- we enjoyed the museum.
After lunch at the Wild Fork in Utica Square (which we had also patronized during our residence), we went to MY first choice of sites in the city worth visiting -- Philbrook. NO disappointment there at all.
A little background -- my husband used to work for Phillips Petroleum, the creation of Frank Phillips (first class jerk, and i can tell you some interesting gossip about his wife, wink nudge...); Philbrook was originally the Tulsa home of Frank's brother Waite, who seems to have married a woman of a great deal more class/character. Frank's and Jane's "mansion" in Bartlesville is far from impressive, while one can see that Waite's and Genevieve's had some very nice touches ... and their garden is very impressive indeed!
Waite Phillips gave his house and art collection to the city of Tulsa, and also gave his property in New Mexico to the Boy Scouts (Philmont). I don't know if Frank EVER gave anything to anybody.
After spending hours perusing plants, historical relics, and works of art, i was ready to relax for the rest of the afternoon! This morning we checked out of our hotel and began a NEW adventure ... but more on that later....
Thursday, July 21, 2016
hot, hot summer
...After a chilly spring....
Not much is going on with me, except an ongoing war with the squirrels in my garden! The bunnies seem to be stymied by the raised beds and knee-high fence on the side they could access, but the squirrels have stolen three or four ripening tomatoes. I daren't poison them, because if they die in the yards to the east or west of us, dogs might suffer. So we've bought some "critter barrier" netting and stakes, and will try to fence THEM out, too.
Not a single word of new information is coming from the nutritional world, that i've seen. Of course, there continue to be BS articles and studies reported by corporate media, and the slap-downs from our favorite researchers, physicians and journalists. There are also confirmations of things WE were convinced about a decade ago -- that's great for people just making up their minds now, but the rest of us are yawning.
My husband has independently discovered the efficacy of 2-5 intermittent fasting. He is becoming pretty consistent about designating Mondays as fast-days, and extending it at least until Tuesday supper, and is getting good results from it. I join him for Monday, but i usually have to start eating again at lunch-time the next day; individual tolerance of fasting is obviously quite variable! It works quite well for us to do it this way, though; the rest of the week, he eats pretty much whatever he wants, and i'm more liberal with myself than i might be otherwise.
The light-triggered not-really-hypomania-but-something-similar, which i noticed in the late spring, is getting better. Interestingly, i never noticed it before this year! I've been controlling it with valerian, and keeping dark chocolate at my bedside to help me get back to sleep if it wakes me up. I've cut back on caffeinated coffee some days, too (and i don't allow myself caffeine or nicotine after 4 in the afternoon, either). I'm inclined to hypothesize that the insomnia many older people face is because of a dysregulated stress-hormone system. Valerian seems to help control its secretion.
Self-awareness is truly the key to health when it comes to our diet. I've gotten to where i can tell what macronutrient i need, if i sometimes feel unsatisfied in the evening. I can tell when i need more B12 or iron, or magnesium, or salt -- definitely! I can tell when i've taken in more carb than my body prefers. Younger women with very-busy lives probably aren't going to be able to do it -- they're paying attention to too many other things to be able to devote attention to subtle physical clues, on top of their constantly-fluctuating hormonal balance.
You bet your ass, i wish i had learned 30 years ago what i know now, but i recognize how unlikely that would have been. ;-)
Enjoy the sunshine, friends! It won't be with us ALL year!
Saturday, July 2, 2016
"redundancy" redundancy ;-)
The other day when I posted, I named it before I wrote it, and then managed to forget to say something. Oh well, whenever I post while busy, I often make mistakes of that nature!
The redundancy I was referring to is what has been going on in the LC nutrition world I frequent. There is very little under the sun which is new, unfortunately. ;-) I'm the member of a few private groups on facebook, and a lot of the posted studies and articles are either repetitions or confirmations of everything we low-carbers are already convinced-of.
Resolved: that butter is good for you; that sugar is bad for you; that the amount of starch you can handle is extremely variable, depending on many things; that the people who make our policy are dangerously influenced by processors of junk-food....
I suppose I should be glad that good studies/articles that support my own observations are out there -- the best-written of them I pass along to my friends who are interested in diet-influencing-health but who don't have my free time or passion for the subject. I should also be unsurprised by the corruption of researchers (it's much harder to fool clinicians) who insist that metabolic and neurological toxins are okay "in moderation," but it still infuriates me.
In the end, that's why so many bloggers slow way down in producing fact-filled posts, or like me, change the discussion to observations of anomalies of experience. I really miss the frequent expositions that Wooo used to treat us to, concerning everything from sociology to pharmacology, to her entertaining rants. I sadly miss J Stanton, too, but he pointed this situation out a long time ago, here.
It's kinda like a version of "evolve or die," isn't it? ;-)
The redundancy I was referring to is what has been going on in the LC nutrition world I frequent. There is very little under the sun which is new, unfortunately. ;-) I'm the member of a few private groups on facebook, and a lot of the posted studies and articles are either repetitions or confirmations of everything we low-carbers are already convinced-of.
Resolved: that butter is good for you; that sugar is bad for you; that the amount of starch you can handle is extremely variable, depending on many things; that the people who make our policy are dangerously influenced by processors of junk-food....
I suppose I should be glad that good studies/articles that support my own observations are out there -- the best-written of them I pass along to my friends who are interested in diet-influencing-health but who don't have my free time or passion for the subject. I should also be unsurprised by the corruption of researchers (it's much harder to fool clinicians) who insist that metabolic and neurological toxins are okay "in moderation," but it still infuriates me.
In the end, that's why so many bloggers slow way down in producing fact-filled posts, or like me, change the discussion to observations of anomalies of experience. I really miss the frequent expositions that Wooo used to treat us to, concerning everything from sociology to pharmacology, to her entertaining rants. I sadly miss J Stanton, too, but he pointed this situation out a long time ago, here.
It's kinda like a version of "evolve or die," isn't it? ;-)
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
redundancy, self-ratification, and travel
This has been the busiest spring in my entire life (with second-place going to our move to college in '74)! On Saturday afternoon, we got back from an extended-family vacation, including a side-trip to visit my mother in Arizona, and a VERY sad trip to our daughter's veterinarian. :-( RIP, Spenser -- i miss you dreadfully!
He was the perfect poster-puppy for taking your dog off grain-based kibble -- only going to Taste Of The Wild was enough to improve his dental health, weight, and anal-gland problems. The breed is predicted to live 15-18 years, and he was 16. We woke one morning to find that he could not stand up anymore. ...It was time. He passed away peacefully in my arms.
We missed most of June in Missouri, going to TX, AZ, and FL (Disney and Universal parks with our daughter and family), and returned to St. Louis in a heatwave (97 degrees and 60% humidity). I could only laugh when i saw our garden again for the first time -- the dill and cilantro looked like they were on steroids! The zucchini with the weeds growing among them looked like a miniature jungle, and the tomatoes were sprawled like couch-potatoes in their grandma's basement. ;-)
I ate horribly during our Florida idyll! I drank lite beer in the parks, when available, to rehydrate and fuel my mad dashings (not to mention my standing in lines) between roller-coasters. I ate pizza and hot-dogs-with-buns, and ham sandwiches on rye....
And ya know what? I didn't gain fat. And ya know the difference between Florida and the Mediterranean countries we visited earlier this spring? SUN. Our rental house had a screened-in pool, beside which we spent much of our after-park-hours. Every morning I put on a hat and used zinc-based sunscreen on my nose, chest, and lower arms, but my legs soaked in the rays in a natural fashion. I made an effort to get sun on my shoulders and back, too. In Europe i wore trousers most of the time, and in Florida i wore shorts.
Over a comparable period of time, i walked a little less here than there (about 40 miles vs 50). I remembered my vitamins about as frequently, and had snacks more often in FL but dessert more often on the ship. (I also pretty much wore out my Vibrams by the time the second trip was finished -- i'm asking for new ones for my birthday!)
So what's the secret -- vitamin D? Other beneficial effects of the sun? Dopamine? I did have a lot of fun, riding roller-coasters and interacting with our grandchildren. I had a WONDERFUL time in both places, and though it was often exhausting, i wouldn't have missed either experience for the world.
He was the perfect poster-puppy for taking your dog off grain-based kibble -- only going to Taste Of The Wild was enough to improve his dental health, weight, and anal-gland problems. The breed is predicted to live 15-18 years, and he was 16. We woke one morning to find that he could not stand up anymore. ...It was time. He passed away peacefully in my arms.
We missed most of June in Missouri, going to TX, AZ, and FL (Disney and Universal parks with our daughter and family), and returned to St. Louis in a heatwave (97 degrees and 60% humidity). I could only laugh when i saw our garden again for the first time -- the dill and cilantro looked like they were on steroids! The zucchini with the weeds growing among them looked like a miniature jungle, and the tomatoes were sprawled like couch-potatoes in their grandma's basement. ;-)
I ate horribly during our Florida idyll! I drank lite beer in the parks, when available, to rehydrate and fuel my mad dashings (not to mention my standing in lines) between roller-coasters. I ate pizza and hot-dogs-with-buns, and ham sandwiches on rye....
And ya know what? I didn't gain fat. And ya know the difference between Florida and the Mediterranean countries we visited earlier this spring? SUN. Our rental house had a screened-in pool, beside which we spent much of our after-park-hours. Every morning I put on a hat and used zinc-based sunscreen on my nose, chest, and lower arms, but my legs soaked in the rays in a natural fashion. I made an effort to get sun on my shoulders and back, too. In Europe i wore trousers most of the time, and in Florida i wore shorts.
Over a comparable period of time, i walked a little less here than there (about 40 miles vs 50). I remembered my vitamins about as frequently, and had snacks more often in FL but dessert more often on the ship. (I also pretty much wore out my Vibrams by the time the second trip was finished -- i'm asking for new ones for my birthday!)
So what's the secret -- vitamin D? Other beneficial effects of the sun? Dopamine? I did have a lot of fun, riding roller-coasters and interacting with our grandchildren. I had a WONDERFUL time in both places, and though it was often exhausting, i wouldn't have missed either experience for the world.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
not just me fasting this time
Okay, i know i've neglected this journal horribly over the last month. All i can say is, i've both been exceptionally busy having a good time, and the victim of some bad internet service. It's not that i didn't WRITE, i just didn't post. I have quite a few observations jotted down, but by the time i had a good opportunity to publish, the right moment seemed past.
We're back home, but going to be taking off AGAIN after the first of next month. Dropping off the dog and bird in Texas again, we'll make a quick flying visit to relatives in Arizona before returning to TX, then flying off to Florida to visit the Disney and Universal parks with the grandchildren (and their parents). J has never been to the former at all, and i went to the original California site, half a century ago. Things have changed significantly since then (today's understatement).
This last "outing," though, hit J's waistline pretty hard. I stayed more-or-less level, but i STARTED that adventure with more subcutaneous fat than i can bear seeing in photos. :-P So despite the last half of our vacation including 50 miles walked and 344 flights of stairs (including the equivalent in hill-climbing), SOMEBODY (okay, both of us) really wanted to lose some weight before the next trip....
J joked, not for the first time, about simply NOT EATING to accomplish his goal. I took up the subject, and told him that if he does it right, fasting can be very effective He knows i sometimes fast briefly, in recovering from a feast or because i don't feel particularly good for whatever reason. He decided to give it a try.
The day after his birthday, which we celebrated low-carbily, we had our morning coffee as usual, and toward mid-day took off in the rain to buy some more plants for the garden. By the time we got home we were no longer hungry, so San Pellegrino was our "cocktail" of the afternoon. The evening passed in reading, word games and a long hot soak in the bathtub for me. We turned in around the usual time -- no fasting-insomnia with either of us -- and i woke up refreshed after only about six hours of sleep.
The absolutely BEST thing about being in ketosis, for me, is how clear my head is. All of my adult life, i'd wake with horrible brain-fog ... until i discovered Atkins. It was so extreme that i noticed at the time, after about the third day, that ... whoa, this is how "normal" people feel when they wake up! It was a revelation. A favorite writer once observed that we accept as inevitable anything we're used to -- when it comes to diet and other "paleo" practices, this is definitely profound. We accept the symptoms of aging as unavoidable, when "our brains on ketones," our knees without gluten, and our gut without problematic plants tell us that there IS something we can do about it.
J got on the scale this morning to observe that he was down four pounds. Even though it's almost all water, nevertheless one feels so much better when one's cells are not bursting with superfluous liquids. He feels very up for continuing. I gave him the next instructions -- that losing water this fast can result in malaise which can be remedied with the use of broth to resupply electrolytes. I don't know how long i'll continue with the regimen; I'm not as overweight as my husband is. But fasting together is even easier than being LCHF together. No meals to make or to clean up after, no shopping to do (we have plenty of allowed liquids) -- i'll be enjoying this period, as long as it lasts.
...And now to finish my coffee and started figuring out where to put the plants we bought yesterday.... While we were gone, it rained about half the time, and my garden hasn't been thriving -- the seedling tomatoes and peppers are hanging in there, but panting for more sunshine. The zucchini are larger, but in the same boat. The leeks are doing okay, but i fear for the scallions. On the other hand, the herbs look very happy, and i think i might harvest some chard to put in the broth, some time this week.
We bought hosta and colei and some other shade-lovers to plant under some of the trees; we got some more mature tomatoes to add to the previous plantings; we got some flowers, too, to add more color. When we break our fasts, i anticipate meals of gazpacho and white wine, and of mezes and retsina (J fell in love with tzatziki in Athens), or sushi and sparkling saki out among the day-lillies and iris. ...Which reminds me, i still need to get some snapdragons, foxgloves, and other old-fashioned cottagey flowers.... :-D
We're back home, but going to be taking off AGAIN after the first of next month. Dropping off the dog and bird in Texas again, we'll make a quick flying visit to relatives in Arizona before returning to TX, then flying off to Florida to visit the Disney and Universal parks with the grandchildren (and their parents). J has never been to the former at all, and i went to the original California site, half a century ago. Things have changed significantly since then (today's understatement).
This last "outing," though, hit J's waistline pretty hard. I stayed more-or-less level, but i STARTED that adventure with more subcutaneous fat than i can bear seeing in photos. :-P So despite the last half of our vacation including 50 miles walked and 344 flights of stairs (including the equivalent in hill-climbing), SOMEBODY (okay, both of us) really wanted to lose some weight before the next trip....
J joked, not for the first time, about simply NOT EATING to accomplish his goal. I took up the subject, and told him that if he does it right, fasting can be very effective He knows i sometimes fast briefly, in recovering from a feast or because i don't feel particularly good for whatever reason. He decided to give it a try.
The day after his birthday, which we celebrated low-carbily, we had our morning coffee as usual, and toward mid-day took off in the rain to buy some more plants for the garden. By the time we got home we were no longer hungry, so San Pellegrino was our "cocktail" of the afternoon. The evening passed in reading, word games and a long hot soak in the bathtub for me. We turned in around the usual time -- no fasting-insomnia with either of us -- and i woke up refreshed after only about six hours of sleep.
The absolutely BEST thing about being in ketosis, for me, is how clear my head is. All of my adult life, i'd wake with horrible brain-fog ... until i discovered Atkins. It was so extreme that i noticed at the time, after about the third day, that ... whoa, this is how "normal" people feel when they wake up! It was a revelation. A favorite writer once observed that we accept as inevitable anything we're used to -- when it comes to diet and other "paleo" practices, this is definitely profound. We accept the symptoms of aging as unavoidable, when "our brains on ketones," our knees without gluten, and our gut without problematic plants tell us that there IS something we can do about it.
J got on the scale this morning to observe that he was down four pounds. Even though it's almost all water, nevertheless one feels so much better when one's cells are not bursting with superfluous liquids. He feels very up for continuing. I gave him the next instructions -- that losing water this fast can result in malaise which can be remedied with the use of broth to resupply electrolytes. I don't know how long i'll continue with the regimen; I'm not as overweight as my husband is. But fasting together is even easier than being LCHF together. No meals to make or to clean up after, no shopping to do (we have plenty of allowed liquids) -- i'll be enjoying this period, as long as it lasts.
...And now to finish my coffee and started figuring out where to put the plants we bought yesterday.... While we were gone, it rained about half the time, and my garden hasn't been thriving -- the seedling tomatoes and peppers are hanging in there, but panting for more sunshine. The zucchini are larger, but in the same boat. The leeks are doing okay, but i fear for the scallions. On the other hand, the herbs look very happy, and i think i might harvest some chard to put in the broth, some time this week.
We bought hosta and colei and some other shade-lovers to plant under some of the trees; we got some more mature tomatoes to add to the previous plantings; we got some flowers, too, to add more color. When we break our fasts, i anticipate meals of gazpacho and white wine, and of mezes and retsina (J fell in love with tzatziki in Athens), or sushi and sparkling saki out among the day-lillies and iris. ...Which reminds me, i still need to get some snapdragons, foxgloves, and other old-fashioned cottagey flowers.... :-D
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
they're BAAAACK!
More correctly, WE'RE back. We're in Houston again after a grueling day of travel, the day before yesterday, from Athens.
It was a wonderful vacation. We had never been to the Mediterranean before, and we enjoyed it immensely, despite the quick-and-dirty way we visited the ports. From Barcelona we went to Marseilles, Villefranche (should have been Monte Carlo but the sea was too choppy), Livorno, Civitavecchia (Rome), Sorrento, Zakynthos, Crete, and Athens. We were intrigued with Spain, loved France, enjoyed Italy, and positively adored Greece. :-D
Despite walking about 50 miles over the last two weeks, and climbing fitbit's equivalent of 344 flights of stairs, i came away with perceptibly more fat than when i started, though my clothes still fit. It could have been worse -- my husband added more than i did.
I wore a hat during most of our shore trips, and used zinc-based sunscreen where i'm most likely to sunburn. Despite this, i got a nice little base-tan, which i will cultivate this summer. I feel that the naturally-garnered vitamin D was very good for me -- i think it buffered some side-effects of the increased amount of "bad carbs" and wine i consumed.
...Cuz i have to confess, i did allow myself more than usual. Not as high as the officially-recommended carb intake, of course, but decidedly more than i'm accustomed to. There were repercussions -- knee pain, mostly, and extra fatigue as a result of not having any days off between strenuous outings.
But it was a trade-off i willingly made. Eating local specialties in the places they were "born" was a deep pleasure. Sitting in a taverna, drinking the local wine, and sharing a platter of mezes, a stone's-throw from an ancient Roman marketplace has got to be one of the richest delights a history-buff and food-lover can enjoy. Coming back stateside and picking up supper at the kind of restaurant to be found in an airport was a sad business.
Food is supposed to fuel and rebuild us; it's an "extra" that it can be such a pleasure. As i've said more than once, i stay good most of the time so that i can let the stops out every once in awhile. On our last big evening out, i not only ate most of the risotto that came with my duck breast and foie gras (which followed tuna tartare), i had dessert too -- a variation on a theme by tiramisu. ;-) I don't regret a bite of it.
It was a wonderful vacation. We had never been to the Mediterranean before, and we enjoyed it immensely, despite the quick-and-dirty way we visited the ports. From Barcelona we went to Marseilles, Villefranche (should have been Monte Carlo but the sea was too choppy), Livorno, Civitavecchia (Rome), Sorrento, Zakynthos, Crete, and Athens. We were intrigued with Spain, loved France, enjoyed Italy, and positively adored Greece. :-D
Despite walking about 50 miles over the last two weeks, and climbing fitbit's equivalent of 344 flights of stairs, i came away with perceptibly more fat than when i started, though my clothes still fit. It could have been worse -- my husband added more than i did.
I wore a hat during most of our shore trips, and used zinc-based sunscreen where i'm most likely to sunburn. Despite this, i got a nice little base-tan, which i will cultivate this summer. I feel that the naturally-garnered vitamin D was very good for me -- i think it buffered some side-effects of the increased amount of "bad carbs" and wine i consumed.
...Cuz i have to confess, i did allow myself more than usual. Not as high as the officially-recommended carb intake, of course, but decidedly more than i'm accustomed to. There were repercussions -- knee pain, mostly, and extra fatigue as a result of not having any days off between strenuous outings.
But it was a trade-off i willingly made. Eating local specialties in the places they were "born" was a deep pleasure. Sitting in a taverna, drinking the local wine, and sharing a platter of mezes, a stone's-throw from an ancient Roman marketplace has got to be one of the richest delights a history-buff and food-lover can enjoy. Coming back stateside and picking up supper at the kind of restaurant to be found in an airport was a sad business.
Food is supposed to fuel and rebuild us; it's an "extra" that it can be such a pleasure. As i've said more than once, i stay good most of the time so that i can let the stops out every once in awhile. On our last big evening out, i not only ate most of the risotto that came with my duck breast and foie gras (which followed tuna tartare), i had dessert too -- a variation on a theme by tiramisu. ;-) I don't regret a bite of it.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
food-centric travelogue
Third full day at sea:
Two days ago we took the galley* tour and met the executive chef of the Seabourn Odyssey. His dining-room creations as well as the obvious organizational skills have impressed us so far, so when we heard that he is conducting a demonstration ... well, i didn't want to miss it!
Jes made his version of Tom Kah Gai, "spicy Thai chicken, coconut, galangal soup;" though he didn't have galangal he substituted fresh ginger. We got to sample it when it was completed, and it was VERY good!
I was particularly glad to hear his mini-tutorial on how to use lemon grass -- for some reason, i've found the written descriptions confused and intimidating. Actually, the way he described and demonstrated its use, it was remarkable simple. "Top and tail" the stalk, peel off the outer leaves, then batter it thoroughly with the flat of a heavy knife. Then, take it in your hands and twist and bend it, tie it in a knot, and throw it in the pot. The flavor comes through, and it's now easy to pull out of the soup, so that the diners don't end up picking tough strands out of their teeth. ;-)
Chef Jes promised to have at least one more demonstration on this crossing, which we'll be looking forward to attending. I approached him to ask his favorite use of black cod, as he had been discussing fish during the talk, and he gave me two great ideas; if i would send a note to him through Guest Services, he said he'd provide recipes -- nice guy!
It's both easy and difficult to "be good" with one's diet here -- easy, because the food choices are so broad, and difficult because there are temptations around every corner. J ordered danish on our breakfast room-service try, and i was proud of myself for not even wanting to indulge. I had the smoked salmon again, and the most "evil" thing i consumed was tomato juice ... today. ;-) The first morning i had a [gasp] CROISSANT! I've also indulged in two souffles so far. At least i've not indulged in any of the sugar-bomb drinks, but i can't claim any particular virtue there -- they just don't wind my clock.
Well, the pool-side lunch counter is opening for business -- i'd better go see what the choices are. Ciao!
____
* possibly, the most impressive thing we saw were the four HUGE stock-pots, and his description of how he makes his in-house reductions! One pot was simmering away, full of lamb ribs. I think i'm in love! ;-)
Two days ago we took the galley* tour and met the executive chef of the Seabourn Odyssey. His dining-room creations as well as the obvious organizational skills have impressed us so far, so when we heard that he is conducting a demonstration ... well, i didn't want to miss it!
Jes made his version of Tom Kah Gai, "spicy Thai chicken, coconut, galangal soup;" though he didn't have galangal he substituted fresh ginger. We got to sample it when it was completed, and it was VERY good!
I was particularly glad to hear his mini-tutorial on how to use lemon grass -- for some reason, i've found the written descriptions confused and intimidating. Actually, the way he described and demonstrated its use, it was remarkable simple. "Top and tail" the stalk, peel off the outer leaves, then batter it thoroughly with the flat of a heavy knife. Then, take it in your hands and twist and bend it, tie it in a knot, and throw it in the pot. The flavor comes through, and it's now easy to pull out of the soup, so that the diners don't end up picking tough strands out of their teeth. ;-)
Chef Jes promised to have at least one more demonstration on this crossing, which we'll be looking forward to attending. I approached him to ask his favorite use of black cod, as he had been discussing fish during the talk, and he gave me two great ideas; if i would send a note to him through Guest Services, he said he'd provide recipes -- nice guy!
It's both easy and difficult to "be good" with one's diet here -- easy, because the food choices are so broad, and difficult because there are temptations around every corner. J ordered danish on our breakfast room-service try, and i was proud of myself for not even wanting to indulge. I had the smoked salmon again, and the most "evil" thing i consumed was tomato juice ... today. ;-) The first morning i had a [gasp] CROISSANT! I've also indulged in two souffles so far. At least i've not indulged in any of the sugar-bomb drinks, but i can't claim any particular virtue there -- they just don't wind my clock.
Well, the pool-side lunch counter is opening for business -- i'd better go see what the choices are. Ciao!
____
* possibly, the most impressive thing we saw were the four HUGE stock-pots, and his description of how he makes his in-house reductions! One pot was simmering away, full of lamb ribs. I think i'm in love! ;-)
Thursday, April 7, 2016
additional thoughts
As an addendum to the last couple of posts, i have a few wrap-up thoughts....
To begin, i forgot to mention a point yesterday, which seemed quite significant to me when i first read it -- the question of homeostasis and plateaus.
The problem of plateauing when one has been losing weight is a PERENNIAL problem. It happens with every diet, but is at its most monstrous under the eat-less-exercise-more paradigm, as i discovered in my CICO past. You slow down or completely stop losing weight because your body has reduced metabolism to match intake -- countless studies as well as n=1 experiences have convinced even the CICOpaths. So what do THEY say to do? Eat even less and exercise even more -- hell on earth! When this happens in low-carb weight-loss regimens, gurus usually say to cut carbs to bare minimum (sometimes zero), reduce protein to what i consider dangerously-low levels, and eat more fat. Intermittent-fasting enthusiasts say, narrow your eating-window or extend your fasting periods, depending on what kind of pattern you prefer to use.
Now, for quite awhile i've noticed that "shaking things up" helps when weight-loss stalls. I will go for a day (or just a single meal) of upping one of the macronutrients, then after the pig-out, fast 24 hours and resume "normality." Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but it frequently gives an energy- or a mood-boost. If the feast happened to have been carb-heavy, carb apologists would take that as evidence that i should be eating more of them but that's not a reasonable conclusion -- as a matter of fact, continuation of the pattern with ANY macronutrient would be a mistake, and i think this is where ALL the gurus are mistaken.
Eating huge amounts of fat ALL THE TIME doesn't give our bodies the opportunity to tap body-fat for fuel. Eating lots of carbs all the time is even worse if one doesn't spend one's non-working hours exercising. Eating very large portions of protein tends to be self-limiting.
Fung's conclusions parallel my own -- that establishing a low baseline of insulin and sugar, but varying the postprandial peak size is a good thing. Our bodies never "get comfortable" at a particular intake or outgo, so the homeostatic plateau is less likely, and the occasional pig-out is shown clinically to not be counterproductive. I need to give a try to a different pattern of IF, one which has never sounded very appealing to me -- the 5-normal-2-lowcal regimen. Thanks, Doc, seems like sound advice!
****
Then we come to a subject on which i'm not in particular agreement.... Dr. Fung states that one cannot ease stress "by doing nothing," when it comes to hacking sleep and cortisol. I spoke about stress not too long ago, and this is a subject on which i have more nebulous opinions. Fung's recommendations on stress-relief are the usual -- exercise, social connectivity, meditation, religion, massage, sleep....
I suspect that some people's stress CAN be significantly relieved by "doing nothing" ... especially when they ordinarily do way too much. Yeah, that's probably not what he meant, but i am averse to telling people not to do nothing -- double-negative used on purpose, here!
It seems to me that our stress-relievers are going to be as individual as our stress-creators. Perhaps i'll give special attention to the subject during our vacation WHICH STARTS SUNDAY!!! :-D We're both elated by the prospect of some care-free weeks, and visiting a part of the world we've never seen before. We think we have our asses covered when it comes to home-worries, and since MY stress comes from my husband's worries, that's a big load off my shoulders.
To begin, i forgot to mention a point yesterday, which seemed quite significant to me when i first read it -- the question of homeostasis and plateaus.
The problem of plateauing when one has been losing weight is a PERENNIAL problem. It happens with every diet, but is at its most monstrous under the eat-less-exercise-more paradigm, as i discovered in my CICO past. You slow down or completely stop losing weight because your body has reduced metabolism to match intake -- countless studies as well as n=1 experiences have convinced even the CICOpaths. So what do THEY say to do? Eat even less and exercise even more -- hell on earth! When this happens in low-carb weight-loss regimens, gurus usually say to cut carbs to bare minimum (sometimes zero), reduce protein to what i consider dangerously-low levels, and eat more fat. Intermittent-fasting enthusiasts say, narrow your eating-window or extend your fasting periods, depending on what kind of pattern you prefer to use.
Now, for quite awhile i've noticed that "shaking things up" helps when weight-loss stalls. I will go for a day (or just a single meal) of upping one of the macronutrients, then after the pig-out, fast 24 hours and resume "normality." Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but it frequently gives an energy- or a mood-boost. If the feast happened to have been carb-heavy, carb apologists would take that as evidence that i should be eating more of them but that's not a reasonable conclusion -- as a matter of fact, continuation of the pattern with ANY macronutrient would be a mistake, and i think this is where ALL the gurus are mistaken.
Eating huge amounts of fat ALL THE TIME doesn't give our bodies the opportunity to tap body-fat for fuel. Eating lots of carbs all the time is even worse if one doesn't spend one's non-working hours exercising. Eating very large portions of protein tends to be self-limiting.
Fung's conclusions parallel my own -- that establishing a low baseline of insulin and sugar, but varying the postprandial peak size is a good thing. Our bodies never "get comfortable" at a particular intake or outgo, so the homeostatic plateau is less likely, and the occasional pig-out is shown clinically to not be counterproductive. I need to give a try to a different pattern of IF, one which has never sounded very appealing to me -- the 5-normal-2-lowcal regimen. Thanks, Doc, seems like sound advice!
****
Then we come to a subject on which i'm not in particular agreement.... Dr. Fung states that one cannot ease stress "by doing nothing," when it comes to hacking sleep and cortisol. I spoke about stress not too long ago, and this is a subject on which i have more nebulous opinions. Fung's recommendations on stress-relief are the usual -- exercise, social connectivity, meditation, religion, massage, sleep....
I suspect that some people's stress CAN be significantly relieved by "doing nothing" ... especially when they ordinarily do way too much. Yeah, that's probably not what he meant, but i am averse to telling people not to do nothing -- double-negative used on purpose, here!
It seems to me that our stress-relievers are going to be as individual as our stress-creators. Perhaps i'll give special attention to the subject during our vacation WHICH STARTS SUNDAY!!! :-D We're both elated by the prospect of some care-free weeks, and visiting a part of the world we've never seen before. We think we have our asses covered when it comes to home-worries, and since MY stress comes from my husband's worries, that's a big load off my shoulders.
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
saving the best for last
As i began reporting the other day, Dr Jason Fung started his book "The Obesity Code" with information which might be considered common knowledge for those who follow modern nutritional research. He even failed to impress through some questionable statements and assumptions. Fortunately for his readers, though, he followed a technique used by mystery-writers, and saved some worthwhile material for the last chapter.
This "When to Eat" chapter contains the best of what Fung learned as a nephrologist, treating the overweight diabetics in his clinic (with plenty of references to studies finding the same things). He explains how fasting differs from starvation (ie, low-calorie diets), and busts the myths originating from conflation of the two. He details why the infamous Minnesota Starvation Experiment did NOT set off the body's protective measures in the face of caloric dearth.
But the real gold-star moment is when he explains that there is not a big difference between the sexes when it comes to responses to fasting -- yep, that dog don't hunt! Miss ED over at Wolf's gym is WRONG. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong. SHE might do poorly with fasting, but it's because SHE is (and her agreeing friends are) fucked-up, not because women shouldn't fast.
In fact,
Another ruby-in-the-dust is that, "unique among animals," human brains can use ketones extensively during food-shortage to spare protein -- in evolving our big, expensive brains, we also evolved ways of protecting and feeding them. He also left absolutely no doubt about the centrality of eating-frequency to the creation of insulin-resistance and obesity in the first place.
So although there were rough patches in this book as far as i'm concerned, a good finale has atoned for previous shortcomings. I'm still finishing up the appendices -- one of which offers what look like some useful tips while fasting -- but i feel pretty good about recommending "The Obesity Code" to other laypeople like myself.
This "When to Eat" chapter contains the best of what Fung learned as a nephrologist, treating the overweight diabetics in his clinic (with plenty of references to studies finding the same things). He explains how fasting differs from starvation (ie, low-calorie diets), and busts the myths originating from conflation of the two. He details why the infamous Minnesota Starvation Experiment did NOT set off the body's protective measures in the face of caloric dearth.
But the real gold-star moment is when he explains that there is not a big difference between the sexes when it comes to responses to fasting -- yep, that dog don't hunt! Miss ED over at Wolf's gym is WRONG. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong. SHE might do poorly with fasting, but it's because SHE is (and her agreeing friends are) fucked-up, not because women shouldn't fast.
In fact,
Several differences are noted in fasting between women and men. Plasma glucose tends to fall faster in women, and ketosis develops more quickly. With increasing body weight, however, the sex difference disappears. Most importantly, the rate of weight loss does not differ substantially between men and women. Personal experience with hundreds of both men and women fail to convince me of any substantial difference between the sexes when it comes to fasting.
Another ruby-in-the-dust is that, "unique among animals," human brains can use ketones extensively during food-shortage to spare protein -- in evolving our big, expensive brains, we also evolved ways of protecting and feeding them. He also left absolutely no doubt about the centrality of eating-frequency to the creation of insulin-resistance and obesity in the first place.
So although there were rough patches in this book as far as i'm concerned, a good finale has atoned for previous shortcomings. I'm still finishing up the appendices -- one of which offers what look like some useful tips while fasting -- but i feel pretty good about recommending "The Obesity Code" to other laypeople like myself.
Monday, April 4, 2016
just another rendition of same ol' same ol'
I've been reading Jason Fung's new book, "The Obesity Code" -- respected sources have reviewed it, and i hoped to find some new insights although one critique observed that most of the material covered is already available on his website.
For about the first third of the book, i tended to agree, but soon i started seeing some disturbing patterns. I'm now 55% in -- and on the next-to-last chapter, not including appendices -- and my nebulous discontent has developed a distinct form.
For one thing, in speaking about weight regain after ANY diet, Fung resuscitates the old tired "weight setpoint" hypothesis. Granted, one seems to regain up to and slightly beyond one's original weight, if one is not damned careful to avoid weight-gain at all. Does this hypothesis otherwise have any legs to stand on -- does it "prove" there's a setpoint in any way whatsoever? NO. Nobody has ever revealed any mechanism legitimizing this concept, except a postulation that it might have something to do with leptin. I call BS until there's actually DATA provided -- he's merely begging the question.
He lies about the second wave of Atkins being a low-fat version of low-carb -- flat-out LIES. There is not only NO advocacy of lean meats in it, the "New Diet Revolution" is where we learn about fat-fasting! If Fung is merely confusing Atkins with some other brand that DID recommend combining LF with LC, it just makes him careless and sloppy -- not likely to make me have a lot of faith in his judgement.
In an early part of the book, he comes to the 21st-century conclusion that "calorie restriction as primary" (with his trademark acronym CRaP) is not a valid construct. Too many studies exist which make it clear that stand-alone "calories" are not as significant as the source of those calories. But when he comes to talk about various plans for weight-loss, Fung criticizes the "eat more ___" advice by saying, "To put it simply, you cannot eat more to weigh less, even if the food you’re eating more of is as healthy as vegetables." Sorry, Jason: you can't have it both ways when it comes to "calories counting."
Nor can you decry observational studies when it comes to "their" hypothesis but consider them perfectly valid when they support YOURS. This is a pet peeve of mine which has damaged my respect for nutrition-writers before now. Have this tattooed on the foreheads of everyone who cites population studies -- observations provide HINTS, not proofs. And for good measure, tattoo on their arms "healthy-user bias skews all observational studies."
I've still got a couple of chapters to go before i finish this book, and also the appendices to look over. If i actually LEARN something in the "What to Eat" and "When to Eat" sections, i'll let you know, but i'm braced for disappointment. At least i don't feel obliged to read through the recipe section for food ideas that might appeal to us ... cuz there aren't any.
For about the first third of the book, i tended to agree, but soon i started seeing some disturbing patterns. I'm now 55% in -- and on the next-to-last chapter, not including appendices -- and my nebulous discontent has developed a distinct form.
For one thing, in speaking about weight regain after ANY diet, Fung resuscitates the old tired "weight setpoint" hypothesis. Granted, one seems to regain up to and slightly beyond one's original weight, if one is not damned careful to avoid weight-gain at all. Does this hypothesis otherwise have any legs to stand on -- does it "prove" there's a setpoint in any way whatsoever? NO. Nobody has ever revealed any mechanism legitimizing this concept, except a postulation that it might have something to do with leptin. I call BS until there's actually DATA provided -- he's merely begging the question.
He lies about the second wave of Atkins being a low-fat version of low-carb -- flat-out LIES. There is not only NO advocacy of lean meats in it, the "New Diet Revolution" is where we learn about fat-fasting! If Fung is merely confusing Atkins with some other brand that DID recommend combining LF with LC, it just makes him careless and sloppy -- not likely to make me have a lot of faith in his judgement.
In an early part of the book, he comes to the 21st-century conclusion that "calorie restriction as primary" (with his trademark acronym CRaP) is not a valid construct. Too many studies exist which make it clear that stand-alone "calories" are not as significant as the source of those calories. But when he comes to talk about various plans for weight-loss, Fung criticizes the "eat more ___" advice by saying, "To put it simply, you cannot eat more to weigh less, even if the food you’re eating more of is as healthy as vegetables." Sorry, Jason: you can't have it both ways when it comes to "calories counting."
Nor can you decry observational studies when it comes to "their" hypothesis but consider them perfectly valid when they support YOURS. This is a pet peeve of mine which has damaged my respect for nutrition-writers before now. Have this tattooed on the foreheads of everyone who cites population studies -- observations provide HINTS, not proofs. And for good measure, tattoo on their arms "healthy-user bias skews all observational studies."
I've still got a couple of chapters to go before i finish this book, and also the appendices to look over. If i actually LEARN something in the "What to Eat" and "When to Eat" sections, i'll let you know, but i'm braced for disappointment. At least i don't feel obliged to read through the recipe section for food ideas that might appeal to us ... cuz there aren't any.
Saturday, April 2, 2016
psychic self-preservation
I just read ANOTHER "oh my god, i'm being treated for cancer and not only do i feel awful physically, but emotionally" post on facebook. I'm very sorry people go through this shit, but after a certain point, i HAVE to just harden my heart.
It's impossible to make most people see that they're being played for suckers by "health authorities." They just KNOW that moderation, lots of healthywholegrains and wholesomefruitsandvegetables, and chroniccardio are GOOD for them. They just KNOW that Science has learned everything about the human body, and every doctor knows ALL of it. They just KNOW that Americans live in the best possible country in the best possible world, and nothing could possibly be any better ... unless we could overthrow the government and put a wall around the place. :-P
Over and over again we hear the stories that people try LC and feel great, but aren't willing to stick with it cuz it means they have to forgo their Krispy Kremes. That their inoperable cancer goes into remission on a ketogenic diet, but it isn't worth it because they have to give up CARROTS of all things. Are modern humans so disconnected from reality that they cannot perceive what's important and what isn't ... because i find it very hard to believe that they would CONSCIOUSLY choose sugar over death, unless they were flirting with suicide in the first place.
We talk about people not wanting to exert themselves for their own health's improvement, but expecting a pill to take the place of effort, but are people really that dumb? Do they HONESTLY BELIEVE that such a thing is possible, or is it merely a facade they place knowingly before their own fecklessness? Is it a bluff -- "see, i DID SOMETHING, i took that pill!" -- that provides proof they weren't merely neglectful?
It happens politically, too -- many of us are familiar with the story of the man who finally got medical care via "Obamacare," then voted for a governor who PROMISED to take away that insurance ... and whined when he did! People consistently cut off their noses to spite their faces.
We are considered horrible people when we point out that stoopid behavior has bad results. We are accused of "blaming the victim" when "bad things happen to good people" and we saw it coming, AND WARNED THEM. Their blythe disregard of their own danger and subsequent wailings when the predictions come true result in caring people having their store of sympathy exhausted.
I HATE being "mean" to people who are suffering but when people bring it on themselves, it sometimes boils down to "look: this is a result of your own conscious action, and i refuse to suffer vicariously for you." There are plenty of people to feel sorry for in our society who did NOT "ask for it" that i prefer to save my sympathy and outrage for THEM.
Because -- ya know what -- it is stressful for the SYMPATHIZER too. Empathetic people truly get tied in knots, figuratively-speaking, imagining the sufferings of complete strangers let alone their loved-ones. The impotence to do anything about cruelty- and stupidity-inspired misbehavior is hugely productive of unhappiness in the sympathetic -- the fact that this has always existed is no consolation, or anodyne to lower those stress-hormones.
For the sake of our own mental and physical health, we have to be able to emotionally walk away from those who demand our commiseration when, against reason, they have persisted in a path to self-destruction. We have to take care of ourselves, as they obtusely refused to do for themselves. After coolly expressing condolence, we have to disengage, take a deep breath, and resume taking care of things where we actually have a chance of making a difference.
It's impossible to make most people see that they're being played for suckers by "health authorities." They just KNOW that moderation, lots of healthywholegrains and wholesomefruitsandvegetables, and chroniccardio are GOOD for them. They just KNOW that Science has learned everything about the human body, and every doctor knows ALL of it. They just KNOW that Americans live in the best possible country in the best possible world, and nothing could possibly be any better ... unless we could overthrow the government and put a wall around the place. :-P
Over and over again we hear the stories that people try LC and feel great, but aren't willing to stick with it cuz it means they have to forgo their Krispy Kremes. That their inoperable cancer goes into remission on a ketogenic diet, but it isn't worth it because they have to give up CARROTS of all things. Are modern humans so disconnected from reality that they cannot perceive what's important and what isn't ... because i find it very hard to believe that they would CONSCIOUSLY choose sugar over death, unless they were flirting with suicide in the first place.
We talk about people not wanting to exert themselves for their own health's improvement, but expecting a pill to take the place of effort, but are people really that dumb? Do they HONESTLY BELIEVE that such a thing is possible, or is it merely a facade they place knowingly before their own fecklessness? Is it a bluff -- "see, i DID SOMETHING, i took that pill!" -- that provides proof they weren't merely neglectful?
It happens politically, too -- many of us are familiar with the story of the man who finally got medical care via "Obamacare," then voted for a governor who PROMISED to take away that insurance ... and whined when he did! People consistently cut off their noses to spite their faces.
We are considered horrible people when we point out that stoopid behavior has bad results. We are accused of "blaming the victim" when "bad things happen to good people" and we saw it coming, AND WARNED THEM. Their blythe disregard of their own danger and subsequent wailings when the predictions come true result in caring people having their store of sympathy exhausted.
I HATE being "mean" to people who are suffering but when people bring it on themselves, it sometimes boils down to "look: this is a result of your own conscious action, and i refuse to suffer vicariously for you." There are plenty of people to feel sorry for in our society who did NOT "ask for it" that i prefer to save my sympathy and outrage for THEM.
Because -- ya know what -- it is stressful for the SYMPATHIZER too. Empathetic people truly get tied in knots, figuratively-speaking, imagining the sufferings of complete strangers let alone their loved-ones. The impotence to do anything about cruelty- and stupidity-inspired misbehavior is hugely productive of unhappiness in the sympathetic -- the fact that this has always existed is no consolation, or anodyne to lower those stress-hormones.
For the sake of our own mental and physical health, we have to be able to emotionally walk away from those who demand our commiseration when, against reason, they have persisted in a path to self-destruction. We have to take care of ourselves, as they obtusely refused to do for themselves. After coolly expressing condolence, we have to disengage, take a deep breath, and resume taking care of things where we actually have a chance of making a difference.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
being busy -- the enemy of "dieting"
All my life, i've needed to get away from people to recharge my batteries from time to time. It's finally apparent to me why that is the case, from a physiological point of view as opposed to the esoteric one (which i STILL believe is true, but on a different level).
Not only does the human brain chew up a disproportionate amount of our energy compared to other tissues (including muscle!), but that prefrontal cortex of ours which is responsible for much of our advanced thinking really sops it up. The busier we are, the more balls we're juggling at once, the more energy it burns -- we're using a LOT of executive brainpower! And as J Stanton explains here, we MEASURABLY use lots of prefrontal energy when we exercise willpower -- this "expensive" area of the brain.
Dealing with people, communicating, coping with the world, does the same damned thing.
Suppose we're "enjoying" a holiday with our extended families -- we're exposed to children's squabbles, drunk-uncle irrational political rants, sympathizing with drunk-aunt complaints, trying to figure out what to have for breakfast tomorrow and whether or not we can get away with using erythritol instead of sugar in tonight's dessert, etc: we end up having too many mimosas, and kick ourselves for it even though we know better....
Congratulations, "having a life" just destroyed your best-laid plans! Same thing happens with vacations, workplace deadlines, or a mere over-packed schedule.
We HAVE to prioritize our well-being BEFORE we can hope to have any success with food-centered health tweaks. Oh, the correction in our intake will help make the rest flow easier too, but we won't be able to stick with the program if our mental energy is being overused by modern-world worries.
Our poor taxed prefrontal cortexes! We have to learn to give them a break! Sleep is undeniably good for them, but if we're still trying to do too many things at once while we're awake, all the little things they do for us will suffer the consequences. This is why we're admonished to not sweat the small stuff.
Delegate. Make someone else do some of the deciding AND figure out how to make their decisions work -- it won't help for them to decide on a menu, if they're not doing the cooking! When things get noisy, go for a bathroom break (whether you need it or not) and spend twenty minutes locked in a quiet little room by yourself. You can always blame the excess time on something that was cooked by someone else. ;-)
Read something refreshing while you're in there, though -- if you continue planning and brainstorming it ain't gonna help. And no texting, either!
Not only does the human brain chew up a disproportionate amount of our energy compared to other tissues (including muscle!), but that prefrontal cortex of ours which is responsible for much of our advanced thinking really sops it up. The busier we are, the more balls we're juggling at once, the more energy it burns -- we're using a LOT of executive brainpower! And as J Stanton explains here, we MEASURABLY use lots of prefrontal energy when we exercise willpower -- this "expensive" area of the brain.
Dealing with people, communicating, coping with the world, does the same damned thing.
Suppose we're "enjoying" a holiday with our extended families -- we're exposed to children's squabbles, drunk-uncle irrational political rants, sympathizing with drunk-aunt complaints, trying to figure out what to have for breakfast tomorrow and whether or not we can get away with using erythritol instead of sugar in tonight's dessert, etc: we end up having too many mimosas, and kick ourselves for it even though we know better....
Congratulations, "having a life" just destroyed your best-laid plans! Same thing happens with vacations, workplace deadlines, or a mere over-packed schedule.
We HAVE to prioritize our well-being BEFORE we can hope to have any success with food-centered health tweaks. Oh, the correction in our intake will help make the rest flow easier too, but we won't be able to stick with the program if our mental energy is being overused by modern-world worries.
Our poor taxed prefrontal cortexes! We have to learn to give them a break! Sleep is undeniably good for them, but if we're still trying to do too many things at once while we're awake, all the little things they do for us will suffer the consequences. This is why we're admonished to not sweat the small stuff.
Delegate. Make someone else do some of the deciding AND figure out how to make their decisions work -- it won't help for them to decide on a menu, if they're not doing the cooking! When things get noisy, go for a bathroom break (whether you need it or not) and spend twenty minutes locked in a quiet little room by yourself. You can always blame the excess time on something that was cooked by someone else. ;-)
Read something refreshing while you're in there, though -- if you continue planning and brainstorming it ain't gonna help. And no texting, either!
Friday, March 25, 2016
on the next step
I probably don't need to confess to you that i haven't been on the strict regimen prescribed in "The Six Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle" all this time -- the kids came up from Texas for spring break, and we ate, drank, and made merry for six days. I still made every effort to keep my protein-consumption up, however. Then when they drove off southward again, i happily got back on the wagon.
Interesting thing, though: as the days passed on the three-shakes-and-one-meal protocol, my FitBit reported that my resting heart-rate steadily declined. I felt unfueled despite getting plenty of protein and being fat-and-ketone adapted. My metabolism was clearly being depressed.
Obviously in my case, amino acids from whey plus the BCAA supplement are not as beneficial as some people find them. Two days ago i went back to my "normal" pattern of coffee-with-collagen for breakfast and two ample meals per day, but still continuing the BCAAs, and my heart-rate is trending back upward.
I FEEL a bit thinner, though the scale hasn't been giving me any good news -- i presume the extra protein put muscle on me to offset any fat-losses i managed to achieve. Until our vacation starts, i'll pursue the VLC plan that seems to suit my body best, and avoid the little indulgences that i'm sometimes prone to treat myself to: staying away from the stray potato or rice i occasionally allow; having a pot of tea at the cocktail hour instead of wine; preferring LC recipes that don't include cheese or cream, because those ingredients (like nuts) seem to slow fat-loss for me.
Online diet-trackers having the shortcomings they do, i don't really know what kind of calorie-reduction i was looking at while experimenting with the 3shake1meal routine. I could have calculated it, but was too busy with host-duties and socializing to be motivated to do it. I ASSUME that i was just trying to be too active on too little food, although i didn't FEEL like i was going hungry at any point. To me, it just underscores the point that calorie restriction has many more downsides than are acknowledged by the CRaP* people: the body WILL slow down, no matter how much running around you do, if it thinks its fuel intake is suboptimal.
_______
*. I love Dr. Fung's acronym for "calorie reduction as primary" -- it's almost as good as the expression "CICOpaths"!
Interesting thing, though: as the days passed on the three-shakes-and-one-meal protocol, my FitBit reported that my resting heart-rate steadily declined. I felt unfueled despite getting plenty of protein and being fat-and-ketone adapted. My metabolism was clearly being depressed.
Obviously in my case, amino acids from whey plus the BCAA supplement are not as beneficial as some people find them. Two days ago i went back to my "normal" pattern of coffee-with-collagen for breakfast and two ample meals per day, but still continuing the BCAAs, and my heart-rate is trending back upward.
I FEEL a bit thinner, though the scale hasn't been giving me any good news -- i presume the extra protein put muscle on me to offset any fat-losses i managed to achieve. Until our vacation starts, i'll pursue the VLC plan that seems to suit my body best, and avoid the little indulgences that i'm sometimes prone to treat myself to: staying away from the stray potato or rice i occasionally allow; having a pot of tea at the cocktail hour instead of wine; preferring LC recipes that don't include cheese or cream, because those ingredients (like nuts) seem to slow fat-loss for me.
Online diet-trackers having the shortcomings they do, i don't really know what kind of calorie-reduction i was looking at while experimenting with the 3shake1meal routine. I could have calculated it, but was too busy with host-duties and socializing to be motivated to do it. I ASSUME that i was just trying to be too active on too little food, although i didn't FEEL like i was going hungry at any point. To me, it just underscores the point that calorie restriction has many more downsides than are acknowledged by the CRaP* people: the body WILL slow down, no matter how much running around you do, if it thinks its fuel intake is suboptimal.
_______
*. I love Dr. Fung's acronym for "calorie reduction as primary" -- it's almost as good as the expression "CICOpaths"!
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
RDAs, revisited
I think we all know that the Recommended Daily Allowances of nutrients don't even TRY to be in the "optimal" range -- they're there to indicate the bare minimum necessary to keep us out of frank deficiency. Even then, there are times in our lives when ingesting the suggested amounts isn't enough to keep us out of trouble; anyone who has difficulty absorbing nutrients, for example, is totally screwed if they take their multivitamin and eat their 50 grams/day of protein and expect to keep their health.
That quantity of protein especially: I reflect on how ravenous i'd feel if i tried to get along on so little! Eighty grams is my lower threshold, when if i don't have some solid MEEEEAT, i start pacing my cage restlessly and eye passing dogs for muscle-mass....
Eggs and cheese just don't cut it for me, either. It HAS to be animal flesh (or at very least a goodly quantity of fish/seafood plus fat). And as a lover of detective fiction, I am forced to conclude that it's about the right kinds of amino-acids, in the right quantity/proportion.
Which brings me to this month! In about thirty days, we'll be heading to Texas again, to drop off the dog and bird with our daughter, and to head out on another seagoing adventure. Last spring, immediately upon getting off our LC cruise, we were jonesing for a deeper-sea experience, and started looking at smaller ships and longer trips (the big ships don't offer the intimate charm that we fell so hard for almost twenty years ago when we "crossed" on the QE2). Lo and behold, we saw a "sale" at Seabourn for a trip across the pond on a ship carrying an EIGHTH the passenger-load of the behemoths which usually haul tourists around. We booked.
Next month. Yes, i'm VERY excited. I also put on enough weight this last half-year, so that my favorite evening dress is too tight for comfort. I MUST dump some avoirdupois. MUST.
It's not going well. Every time i try to "be good" something comes up, like special events and visitors. In desperation, i pulled out a book i bought several years ago -- the Eadeses' "6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle." I read it only once, and it seemed ... quirky. I read it again the other day, and the peculiar characteristics of the regimen made a bit more sense, in that i'm a few years older now and harder to reduce than i was when i first read it. These are the fail-safe tweaks which the weight-loss-resistant people of my cohort HAVE to employ to get results. I put the plan on the back burner while i waited for my order to arrive, comprising the nutrients i needed to add to what i use already.
Yesterday, they did, and i took my first leucine dose before bedtime, and started googling other "authorities" on BCAAs. Interestingly enough, the proteinpower.com blog mentions them minimally, and most of the sites which are more discursive are more into bodybuilding than ... ahem ... body-trimming. But an interesting exchange in the comment-section of a PP blog-post made me start thinking.... The discussion was on serum albumin, and how low-protein diets don't translate into a sufficient quantity of this important blood-component taxi. Albumin, specifically, is what is needed in the blood to bind THYROID hormone and move it around to the cells in which it's needed. AHA. A reader asked Mike how much protein he eats on a daily basis, and i was surprised to see that it was in excess of 200 grams. The reader was obviously surprised, too -- was that 200 grams of MEAT or of protein? Protein.
In addition, the discussion entered the realm of leaky blood-vessels, and how adequate albumin can keep one's fluids on the correct side of the wall. To one like me, who has the tendency to wake up a little on the waterlogged side, this was another lightbulb moment. One of the causes of that is the histamine issue, but where does albumin (and ultimately, dietary protein) enter the equation?
The regimen started to make a lot more sense to me. One starts out the first weeks on three protein shakes plus one real meal per day. I naively thought that was to neutrally fill up a person who is always hungry, and i could not see myself drinking that much whey powder with its extra load of added BCAA. But if these super-shakes were really designed to get the older fatty to ingest superior quantities of protein, the logic jumps out at you.
Other associations began springing to mind. I opened Fitday and entered the pound-and-a-half of (ground) beef that the Strong Medicine recommended per day -- over 170 grams. I reflected on the quantity of meat that some of the ZCers eat, way more than MY appetite will allow me to consume. More: perhaps the magic of the SM regimen is getting one's protein intake up to the albumin-adequate range, not just into the calorie-adequate, low-carb, low-allergen sweet-spot i assumed? Donaldson CERTAINLY stressed how important the protein itself is.
I've ALWAYS craved protein, from early childhood. Looks like my body was wiser than i ever gave it credit for. Perhaps the modern LCer's caution against "too much" is STILL excessively austere -- perhaps "adequate protein" is even more than the "moderate protein" which is the LCHF ideal?
I'll be tweaking my usual diet to include more protein, and not really worry about the fat-content. The red meats i prefer come with a healthy amount of their own fat, and heaven knows i can contribute plenty from storage.
That quantity of protein especially: I reflect on how ravenous i'd feel if i tried to get along on so little! Eighty grams is my lower threshold, when if i don't have some solid MEEEEAT, i start pacing my cage restlessly and eye passing dogs for muscle-mass....
Eggs and cheese just don't cut it for me, either. It HAS to be animal flesh (or at very least a goodly quantity of fish/seafood plus fat). And as a lover of detective fiction, I am forced to conclude that it's about the right kinds of amino-acids, in the right quantity/proportion.
Which brings me to this month! In about thirty days, we'll be heading to Texas again, to drop off the dog and bird with our daughter, and to head out on another seagoing adventure. Last spring, immediately upon getting off our LC cruise, we were jonesing for a deeper-sea experience, and started looking at smaller ships and longer trips (the big ships don't offer the intimate charm that we fell so hard for almost twenty years ago when we "crossed" on the QE2). Lo and behold, we saw a "sale" at Seabourn for a trip across the pond on a ship carrying an EIGHTH the passenger-load of the behemoths which usually haul tourists around. We booked.
Next month. Yes, i'm VERY excited. I also put on enough weight this last half-year, so that my favorite evening dress is too tight for comfort. I MUST dump some avoirdupois. MUST.
It's not going well. Every time i try to "be good" something comes up, like special events and visitors. In desperation, i pulled out a book i bought several years ago -- the Eadeses' "6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle." I read it only once, and it seemed ... quirky. I read it again the other day, and the peculiar characteristics of the regimen made a bit more sense, in that i'm a few years older now and harder to reduce than i was when i first read it. These are the fail-safe tweaks which the weight-loss-resistant people of my cohort HAVE to employ to get results. I put the plan on the back burner while i waited for my order to arrive, comprising the nutrients i needed to add to what i use already.
Yesterday, they did, and i took my first leucine dose before bedtime, and started googling other "authorities" on BCAAs. Interestingly enough, the proteinpower.com blog mentions them minimally, and most of the sites which are more discursive are more into bodybuilding than ... ahem ... body-trimming. But an interesting exchange in the comment-section of a PP blog-post made me start thinking.... The discussion was on serum albumin, and how low-protein diets don't translate into a sufficient quantity of this important blood-component taxi. Albumin, specifically, is what is needed in the blood to bind THYROID hormone and move it around to the cells in which it's needed. AHA. A reader asked Mike how much protein he eats on a daily basis, and i was surprised to see that it was in excess of 200 grams. The reader was obviously surprised, too -- was that 200 grams of MEAT or of protein? Protein.
In addition, the discussion entered the realm of leaky blood-vessels, and how adequate albumin can keep one's fluids on the correct side of the wall. To one like me, who has the tendency to wake up a little on the waterlogged side, this was another lightbulb moment. One of the causes of that is the histamine issue, but where does albumin (and ultimately, dietary protein) enter the equation?
The regimen started to make a lot more sense to me. One starts out the first weeks on three protein shakes plus one real meal per day. I naively thought that was to neutrally fill up a person who is always hungry, and i could not see myself drinking that much whey powder with its extra load of added BCAA. But if these super-shakes were really designed to get the older fatty to ingest superior quantities of protein, the logic jumps out at you.
Other associations began springing to mind. I opened Fitday and entered the pound-and-a-half of (ground) beef that the Strong Medicine recommended per day -- over 170 grams. I reflected on the quantity of meat that some of the ZCers eat, way more than MY appetite will allow me to consume. More: perhaps the magic of the SM regimen is getting one's protein intake up to the albumin-adequate range, not just into the calorie-adequate, low-carb, low-allergen sweet-spot i assumed? Donaldson CERTAINLY stressed how important the protein itself is.
I've ALWAYS craved protein, from early childhood. Looks like my body was wiser than i ever gave it credit for. Perhaps the modern LCer's caution against "too much" is STILL excessively austere -- perhaps "adequate protein" is even more than the "moderate protein" which is the LCHF ideal?
I'll be tweaking my usual diet to include more protein, and not really worry about the fat-content. The red meats i prefer come with a healthy amount of their own fat, and heaven knows i can contribute plenty from storage.
Friday, February 26, 2016
so what should we DO about stress?
For a really outstanding book, "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" ends pretty weakly. The author did a great job of everything except the very last chapter -- hell, the guy even managed to make the "notes" section interesting. Too bad the big shorcoming was the chapter in which he promised to give us some good advice about how to deal with our stress.
Amusingly, it kinda reminded me of a facebook disagreement i got into with some bro in the (you guessed it) ZC group; he had just discovered "Deep Nutrition" and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bacon! I commented that I was disappointed with it. Not that Dr. Shanahan didn't have interesting stories to tell and points to make (which are actually in just about every other ancestral/paleo book i've ever read, and most blogs as well); the big problem is that unless the start of your life was on the ideal side, there's only so much you can do about your future. I pointed out that, if one has not reproduced yet, there's still time to give your kids what you might not have had, but that an old broad like me is more or less screwed.
And so it is for the stressed amongst us -- we wouldn't BE stressed if we didn't have the genetic and conditioned predisposition, after all! The best chance to enjoy a life in which the troubles are viewed as challenges and the failures roll off our backs, IS TO HAVE BEEN BORN INTO A STABLE, HEALTHY, SOCIALLY-ACCEPTED, WELL-OFF FAMILY IN THE FIRST PLACE. I don't know about you, but i haven't figured out that can be arranged -- even with a time-machine there would be a lot of difficulties to overcome.
In fact, the best advice i've found for managing stress came from "Why Isn't My Brain Working," "The Magnesium Miracle," and the inkling i got from a magazine, many years ago, that B-vitamins can be helpful. Then, there are a few little tricks that i've learned on my own, which i'll return to later.
WZDGU doesn't really suggest anything that we haven't heard a million times before. Exercise, meditation, social support, therapy.... The best thing about this chapter, though, is that the guy has a practical mind and a sense of proportion. He says this stuff CAN help, but he cites the work of a couple of his favorite researchers about the shortcomings of each approach.
"When do these principles [...] work and when are they disastrous to apply? There are some rules." Exercise is good ...if you like the activity and want to do it; otherwise it's -- ahem -- even more stressful. Meditation works for those who choose to do it, WHILE it's being done -- beyond that, nobody really knows. This is one of those things that you can't really study in a randomized trial with a control group; how would you tell people NOT to sit quietly and reflect, which is basically what meditation IS?
A sense of control and predictability are discussed at length and widely shown in human and animal studies to be helpful in minimizing stress reactions, but in real life their practicality is limited. If you could predict and exert control, you wouldn't be unprepared for X, or stuck in a traffic jam because some idiot ahead got in a wreck, now would you? ;-) And as i wrote the other day, believing one has some control may be good for minor stressors -- if it isn't illusory -- but it's horrible in catastrophic ones.
"Having an illusory sense of control in a bad setting can be so pathogenic that one version of it gets a special name in the health psychology literature. ... As described by Sherman James of Duke University, it is called John Henryism. ... John Henryism involves the belief that any and all demands can be vanquished, so long as you work hard enough." Trouble is, this only potentially works in a meritocratic system. In modern America, for less-privileged classes or in other biased systems, it doesn't. People have been known to literally work themselves to death -- hence the name.
"The realm of stress management is mostly about techniques to help deal with challenges that are less than disastrous." Some people CAN cope magnificently in the face of catastrophe, but that's an n=1 situation -- "that’s never grounds for turning to the person next to them in the same boat and offering that as a feel-good incentive just to get with the program. Bad science, bad clinical practice, and, ultimately, bad ethics."
"Social support," too, may be counterproductive, as when one's networks are not truly supportive. I'm sure we've all gone to someone for comfort -- a pat on the back, an encouraging word, a shoulder to cry on -- and experienced the emotional equivalent of a bucket of icewater in the face. Some poor devils really learn who their true friends are the hard way. Religion and spirituality, though of use to some people is completely out of the question for others. It can't even be studied properly -- any retrospective is questionable and far from objective. Prospectively ... well, how do you assign your randomized groups and get them to believe in something on demand?
According to the author, learning to respond flexibly seems to be the only solid foundation when it comes to coping: if what you try first isn't doing it for you, doing the same thing MORE is unlikely to improve the situation; the patient must shift gears and try something different if s/he wants different results.
"Physical stressor, you want to activate a stress-response; psychological stressor, you don’t." It seems to me that glucocorticoids for physical stressors is kinda like an insulin-response -- you want a low baseline, and when the need arises you want ENOUGH but not too much, and you want a quick recovery.
He doesn't tell how to do that.
I've found a few tweaks, though. If your start in life wasn't ideal -- and i'm willing to bet that the vast majority of us did NOT have that privilege -- the very first thing to do is become nutrient-replete. Being short of any nutritional requirement will cause undue physical stress. Magnesium, particularly, gets chewed up at a faster rate when we're stressed, as well as B-vitamins. I think the carb-craving that comes upon people when life is crazy is actually a hunger for B-something.
When during the last year, i was suffering some pretty nasty stress, i consulted "Why Isn't My Brain Working?" -- a book which DOES offer some very sound suggestions from the point of view of a DHSc and DC who has clinical experience. Working from his suggestions, i found a supplement which supplied a little GABA as well as its precursors, and got a lot of relief. The book has LOTS of supplement suggestions along with a discussion on various nutrients and neurotransmitters they support.
As described before, magnesium helped me significantly this winter too, at about twice the RDA's suggested dosage. It's VERY easy to get into a vicious stress-circle, wherein an infection starts using up our "immunity stores," driving a deficiency, which makes the illness/stress worse, which makes the deficiency worse, ad infinitum. Just ONE bad day's eating encourages my h.pylori to act up, which lowers my stomach-acid, which screws my digestion, which lowers my thyroid-function, which impairs my digestion more, which makes me more nutrient-deficient, which lowers GABA, which adds to stress, which lowers dopamine .... You get it.
Ya wanna know the cheapest, easiest trick to raise dopamine which is the motivation-neurotransmitter for DOING THINGS to make you feel better? Sit down and play a video game you love. In the rush to demonize the activity that is blamed widely for obesity, why is it ME who has to point out that VIDEO GAMES RAISE DOPAMINE?
Yep, you heard it here first, folks. When you're sitting in the evening, so drained that the very thought of taking a walk makes you feel even more exhausted, pick up your laptop or ipad. Whatever you do, do NOT read the news or that "social medium" which tends to make everyone angry and frustrated! No, start up a solitaire game, or Flow, or JewelQuest (one of my favorites), or Bookworm, or whatever floats your boat. For every game you win or board you clear, your prize is a feel-good hit of dopamine!
Armed with the neurotransmitter of pleasant anticipation, who knows -- maybe you'll be motivated to take that walk and enjoy it, or devote a little time to meditation, or even to call your mother.
Amusingly, it kinda reminded me of a facebook disagreement i got into with some bro in the (you guessed it) ZC group; he had just discovered "Deep Nutrition" and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bacon! I commented that I was disappointed with it. Not that Dr. Shanahan didn't have interesting stories to tell and points to make (which are actually in just about every other ancestral/paleo book i've ever read, and most blogs as well); the big problem is that unless the start of your life was on the ideal side, there's only so much you can do about your future. I pointed out that, if one has not reproduced yet, there's still time to give your kids what you might not have had, but that an old broad like me is more or less screwed.
And so it is for the stressed amongst us -- we wouldn't BE stressed if we didn't have the genetic and conditioned predisposition, after all! The best chance to enjoy a life in which the troubles are viewed as challenges and the failures roll off our backs, IS TO HAVE BEEN BORN INTO A STABLE, HEALTHY, SOCIALLY-ACCEPTED, WELL-OFF FAMILY IN THE FIRST PLACE. I don't know about you, but i haven't figured out that can be arranged -- even with a time-machine there would be a lot of difficulties to overcome.
In fact, the best advice i've found for managing stress came from "Why Isn't My Brain Working," "The Magnesium Miracle," and the inkling i got from a magazine, many years ago, that B-vitamins can be helpful. Then, there are a few little tricks that i've learned on my own, which i'll return to later.
WZDGU doesn't really suggest anything that we haven't heard a million times before. Exercise, meditation, social support, therapy.... The best thing about this chapter, though, is that the guy has a practical mind and a sense of proportion. He says this stuff CAN help, but he cites the work of a couple of his favorite researchers about the shortcomings of each approach.
"When do these principles [...] work and when are they disastrous to apply? There are some rules." Exercise is good ...if you like the activity and want to do it; otherwise it's -- ahem -- even more stressful. Meditation works for those who choose to do it, WHILE it's being done -- beyond that, nobody really knows. This is one of those things that you can't really study in a randomized trial with a control group; how would you tell people NOT to sit quietly and reflect, which is basically what meditation IS?
A sense of control and predictability are discussed at length and widely shown in human and animal studies to be helpful in minimizing stress reactions, but in real life their practicality is limited. If you could predict and exert control, you wouldn't be unprepared for X, or stuck in a traffic jam because some idiot ahead got in a wreck, now would you? ;-) And as i wrote the other day, believing one has some control may be good for minor stressors -- if it isn't illusory -- but it's horrible in catastrophic ones.
"Having an illusory sense of control in a bad setting can be so pathogenic that one version of it gets a special name in the health psychology literature. ... As described by Sherman James of Duke University, it is called John Henryism. ... John Henryism involves the belief that any and all demands can be vanquished, so long as you work hard enough." Trouble is, this only potentially works in a meritocratic system. In modern America, for less-privileged classes or in other biased systems, it doesn't. People have been known to literally work themselves to death -- hence the name.
"The realm of stress management is mostly about techniques to help deal with challenges that are less than disastrous." Some people CAN cope magnificently in the face of catastrophe, but that's an n=1 situation -- "that’s never grounds for turning to the person next to them in the same boat and offering that as a feel-good incentive just to get with the program. Bad science, bad clinical practice, and, ultimately, bad ethics."
"Social support," too, may be counterproductive, as when one's networks are not truly supportive. I'm sure we've all gone to someone for comfort -- a pat on the back, an encouraging word, a shoulder to cry on -- and experienced the emotional equivalent of a bucket of icewater in the face. Some poor devils really learn who their true friends are the hard way. Religion and spirituality, though of use to some people is completely out of the question for others. It can't even be studied properly -- any retrospective is questionable and far from objective. Prospectively ... well, how do you assign your randomized groups and get them to believe in something on demand?
According to the author, learning to respond flexibly seems to be the only solid foundation when it comes to coping: if what you try first isn't doing it for you, doing the same thing MORE is unlikely to improve the situation; the patient must shift gears and try something different if s/he wants different results.
"Physical stressor, you want to activate a stress-response; psychological stressor, you don’t." It seems to me that glucocorticoids for physical stressors is kinda like an insulin-response -- you want a low baseline, and when the need arises you want ENOUGH but not too much, and you want a quick recovery.
He doesn't tell how to do that.
I've found a few tweaks, though. If your start in life wasn't ideal -- and i'm willing to bet that the vast majority of us did NOT have that privilege -- the very first thing to do is become nutrient-replete. Being short of any nutritional requirement will cause undue physical stress. Magnesium, particularly, gets chewed up at a faster rate when we're stressed, as well as B-vitamins. I think the carb-craving that comes upon people when life is crazy is actually a hunger for B-something.
When during the last year, i was suffering some pretty nasty stress, i consulted "Why Isn't My Brain Working?" -- a book which DOES offer some very sound suggestions from the point of view of a DHSc and DC who has clinical experience. Working from his suggestions, i found a supplement which supplied a little GABA as well as its precursors, and got a lot of relief. The book has LOTS of supplement suggestions along with a discussion on various nutrients and neurotransmitters they support.
As described before, magnesium helped me significantly this winter too, at about twice the RDA's suggested dosage. It's VERY easy to get into a vicious stress-circle, wherein an infection starts using up our "immunity stores," driving a deficiency, which makes the illness/stress worse, which makes the deficiency worse, ad infinitum. Just ONE bad day's eating encourages my h.pylori to act up, which lowers my stomach-acid, which screws my digestion, which lowers my thyroid-function, which impairs my digestion more, which makes me more nutrient-deficient, which lowers GABA, which adds to stress, which lowers dopamine .... You get it.
Ya wanna know the cheapest, easiest trick to raise dopamine which is the motivation-neurotransmitter for DOING THINGS to make you feel better? Sit down and play a video game you love. In the rush to demonize the activity that is blamed widely for obesity, why is it ME who has to point out that VIDEO GAMES RAISE DOPAMINE?
Yep, you heard it here first, folks. When you're sitting in the evening, so drained that the very thought of taking a walk makes you feel even more exhausted, pick up your laptop or ipad. Whatever you do, do NOT read the news or that "social medium" which tends to make everyone angry and frustrated! No, start up a solitaire game, or Flow, or JewelQuest (one of my favorites), or Bookworm, or whatever floats your boat. For every game you win or board you clear, your prize is a feel-good hit of dopamine!
Armed with the neurotransmitter of pleasant anticipation, who knows -- maybe you'll be motivated to take that walk and enjoy it, or devote a little time to meditation, or even to call your mother.
Saturday, February 20, 2016
"it's all MY FAULT!"
I've been reading a very interesting piece of non-fiction, alternated with a few other things -- this is a long-standing habit with me; whether it's a good or bad habit has to depend on the point of view! :-) I need a soothing and pleasant book to fall asleep with, something more technical to satisfy intellectual urges, and sometimes an atmosphere-setting book which can help me in my living-history impersonations. For example, when i portray Louise, the late-Victorian mixologist (bar-tender), all sorts of skills and background knowledge are valuable to make me a believable character, not just some modern person in an old-fashioned dress, mixing modern cocktails with anachronistic equipment.
So it's taking me quite a long time to digest this book, but going slow is sometimes preferable. Quickly-read books are often quickly forgotten as well! "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" is worth spending plenty of time to absorb.
Just now i read something that really resonated with me. In discussing some variables which modify perceived stress, the author notes a rat study in which a lever is supplied, pushing which the rat has been taught to associate with reduced shocks. A subject who believes that he has some control over his "fate" does not feel stress as strongly as a subject who believes he has no control at all. HOWEVER, when the subject believes he has some control, but that belief proves to be delusive, the whole thing backfires.
And this is why bad dietary and medical advice makes me fuming furious. The individual gets advice from a quarter which s/he believes to have true expertise -- eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and everything else in moderation; exercise strenuously on a regular basis; avoid red meat and concentrate on low-fat choices, making sure to keep animal-protein on the low side; cut sat-fats and get the fats you are allowed in PUFA form; eat 5-11 servings of whole grains daily, and reduce but don't cut out sugar entirely, or you'll feel deprived and end up head-first in the Girl Scout cookies.... When this advice fails, AND IT WILL, obviously the patient did something wrong!
For decades they've been telling us that the food of our ancestors was carcinogenic; remember when everyone was so shocked that Linda McCartney, a healthy organic vegetarian, died of breast cancer? That was NOT supposed to happen! Her whole lifestyle was what was supposed to save us from just that fate!
A low-fat diet was SUPPOSED to keep us from getting fat, but it didn't -- what was with THAT? Lowering cholesterol was supposed to reduce heart-disease -- how could it POSSIBLY have happened that the use of corn oil resulted in MORE death from heart attacks?
And don't get me started on Alzheimers....
We've been set up to fail, and to blame ourselves for the failure. It makes me want to go on a spree, Kill Bill style, against all of the "scientists" and "health-columnists" who persist in perpetrating this fraud against people who look to them for authoritative, evidence-based advice. There's enough data out there to demonstrate that what they espouse is one hundred percent WRONG, but they have reputations to protect, not to mention law-suits to deflect. They continue to do harm, because at this point it's not enough for new voices to contradict what has become Conventional Wisdom -- the old voices who originally gave the bad advice must step up and say WE WERE WRONG ... and they won't.
It's very difficult to override the ideas we once accepted as truth. I still find myself thinking that reducing the amount i eat will help me lose fat faster, although i have experience that this is not the case! I still find myself thinking that fruits and vegetables are "healthy," though the studies which Peter at Hyperlipid reported on MANY years ago proved to me INTELLECTUALLY that they don't actually do what is claimed for them, and my gut has confirmed are NOT my friends.
Convincing us that we have complete control over our weight, and a great deal of control over our health (except for that genetic crap-shoot, you know) has been an insidious tool of our own destruction. And the "truth" is out there -- it's just a 24/7 job of reading lots of different fields-of-study, and putting puzzle pieces together.
May the gods bless those who make it easier for us -- the Peters, and the Wooos, and the Eades, etc. Heaps of praise for people who bave brilliant and curious minds, who start with a narrow expertise, but who aren't content to remain in their own isolated fields. Curses on the professionals who think that everything they learned in school was the very last word on the subject, and DAMN TO HELL the ones who KNOW they're doing the wrong thing, but do it anyway.
So it's taking me quite a long time to digest this book, but going slow is sometimes preferable. Quickly-read books are often quickly forgotten as well! "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" is worth spending plenty of time to absorb.
Just now i read something that really resonated with me. In discussing some variables which modify perceived stress, the author notes a rat study in which a lever is supplied, pushing which the rat has been taught to associate with reduced shocks. A subject who believes that he has some control over his "fate" does not feel stress as strongly as a subject who believes he has no control at all. HOWEVER, when the subject believes he has some control, but that belief proves to be delusive, the whole thing backfires.
And this is why bad dietary and medical advice makes me fuming furious. The individual gets advice from a quarter which s/he believes to have true expertise -- eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and everything else in moderation; exercise strenuously on a regular basis; avoid red meat and concentrate on low-fat choices, making sure to keep animal-protein on the low side; cut sat-fats and get the fats you are allowed in PUFA form; eat 5-11 servings of whole grains daily, and reduce but don't cut out sugar entirely, or you'll feel deprived and end up head-first in the Girl Scout cookies.... When this advice fails, AND IT WILL, obviously the patient did something wrong!
For decades they've been telling us that the food of our ancestors was carcinogenic; remember when everyone was so shocked that Linda McCartney, a healthy organic vegetarian, died of breast cancer? That was NOT supposed to happen! Her whole lifestyle was what was supposed to save us from just that fate!
A low-fat diet was SUPPOSED to keep us from getting fat, but it didn't -- what was with THAT? Lowering cholesterol was supposed to reduce heart-disease -- how could it POSSIBLY have happened that the use of corn oil resulted in MORE death from heart attacks?
And don't get me started on Alzheimers....
We've been set up to fail, and to blame ourselves for the failure. It makes me want to go on a spree, Kill Bill style, against all of the "scientists" and "health-columnists" who persist in perpetrating this fraud against people who look to them for authoritative, evidence-based advice. There's enough data out there to demonstrate that what they espouse is one hundred percent WRONG, but they have reputations to protect, not to mention law-suits to deflect. They continue to do harm, because at this point it's not enough for new voices to contradict what has become Conventional Wisdom -- the old voices who originally gave the bad advice must step up and say WE WERE WRONG ... and they won't.
It's very difficult to override the ideas we once accepted as truth. I still find myself thinking that reducing the amount i eat will help me lose fat faster, although i have experience that this is not the case! I still find myself thinking that fruits and vegetables are "healthy," though the studies which Peter at Hyperlipid reported on MANY years ago proved to me INTELLECTUALLY that they don't actually do what is claimed for them, and my gut has confirmed are NOT my friends.
Convincing us that we have complete control over our weight, and a great deal of control over our health (except for that genetic crap-shoot, you know) has been an insidious tool of our own destruction. And the "truth" is out there -- it's just a 24/7 job of reading lots of different fields-of-study, and putting puzzle pieces together.
May the gods bless those who make it easier for us -- the Peters, and the Wooos, and the Eades, etc. Heaps of praise for people who bave brilliant and curious minds, who start with a narrow expertise, but who aren't content to remain in their own isolated fields. Curses on the professionals who think that everything they learned in school was the very last word on the subject, and DAMN TO HELL the ones who KNOW they're doing the wrong thing, but do it anyway.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
my pillows seem to have turned against me
As Rosanne Rosannadanna's daddy used to say, "it's always something!"
Good sleep is something the paleo world accentuates, and for good reason. Most importantly for many of us, it is central in what we experience as stress, and stress cascades into swamps of malaise -- fat-gain, pain, depression, disease.... Those of us using paleo principles to improve our health and well-being consider sleep one of our highest priorities.
Many different kinds of people suffer from poor sleep, and i belong to several of those groups: older than dirt, female, etc. I've done a lot of things that i've found helpful, and my husband too seems to appreciate the black-out window shades i put in the bedroom, as well as other improvements. We both benefit from separate blankets, for example, because we don't pull the covers off each other anymore. He even reminds me sometimes to put on my amber goggles, which is also a prompt to stop reading stimulating material in the evening and go for something a little more restful. :-) I don't know about you, but when you're dying to know what happens next, either in a mystery OR a well-written book of nonfiction, 2am comes around VERY quickly.
Be those hacks as effective as they are, it IS frequently easier to get a good night's rest when i have the bed to myself. J tries to move quietly when he needs to get up to pee in the night, but our bed creaks horribly. He also tosses a bit from time to time, for which he can't be blamed. But when he was working out of town and i was using the same bedding i am now, THAT never interfered with my rest. Maybe.
When my stress was really bad last year, i started waking up about a half-hour after dozing off, feeling a peculiar and very unpleasant sense of dread. Of all the sleep-hacks i tried AND KEPT, valerian as a stress-hormone inhibitor helped me not wake in the early mornings with an over-wired feeling, but didn't seem to do anything about these early-NIGHT awakenings. And sometimes the weird feelings didn't wait till i was asleep -- sometimes they started just as soon as i turned off the Kindle and snuggled down into the bedclothes. It was a version of racing-brain with worry ... but it wasn't REAL worry.
For the record, i'm a side-sleeper, so my face is often against both pillow and blankets. I began to suspect my pillows. They were getting pretty limp -- not FLAT, but inclining me to believe that the blobs of filling were breaking down. They still fluffed up, but compressed way too easily. At midnight a couple of days ago i padded through the darkness into the guest-room and grabbed what are some of the newest pillows in the house, swapped the cases, and tried it again. I slept much better. I even woke up better.
I slept better last night, too, and woke up less sniffly. I'll be keeping an eye on the situation, but i'm already disposed to believe some of my sleep woes had to do with the breakdown products of run-of-the-mill pillow fillers. Since i customarily remove the fiber-content tags on my linens i don't know what to actively avoid in future, but i'll definitely aim for hypoallergenic materials. (I LOVE feather pillows, but they definitely deteriorate too quicly for me.)
Life is full of those "always something" situations -- we have to remain observant, figure out what actually CAUSES our discomforts, and make changes as time goes by. Who says you don't have as many challenges in life as a retiree?! ;-)
Good sleep is something the paleo world accentuates, and for good reason. Most importantly for many of us, it is central in what we experience as stress, and stress cascades into swamps of malaise -- fat-gain, pain, depression, disease.... Those of us using paleo principles to improve our health and well-being consider sleep one of our highest priorities.
Many different kinds of people suffer from poor sleep, and i belong to several of those groups: older than dirt, female, etc. I've done a lot of things that i've found helpful, and my husband too seems to appreciate the black-out window shades i put in the bedroom, as well as other improvements. We both benefit from separate blankets, for example, because we don't pull the covers off each other anymore. He even reminds me sometimes to put on my amber goggles, which is also a prompt to stop reading stimulating material in the evening and go for something a little more restful. :-) I don't know about you, but when you're dying to know what happens next, either in a mystery OR a well-written book of nonfiction, 2am comes around VERY quickly.
Be those hacks as effective as they are, it IS frequently easier to get a good night's rest when i have the bed to myself. J tries to move quietly when he needs to get up to pee in the night, but our bed creaks horribly. He also tosses a bit from time to time, for which he can't be blamed. But when he was working out of town and i was using the same bedding i am now, THAT never interfered with my rest. Maybe.
When my stress was really bad last year, i started waking up about a half-hour after dozing off, feeling a peculiar and very unpleasant sense of dread. Of all the sleep-hacks i tried AND KEPT, valerian as a stress-hormone inhibitor helped me not wake in the early mornings with an over-wired feeling, but didn't seem to do anything about these early-NIGHT awakenings. And sometimes the weird feelings didn't wait till i was asleep -- sometimes they started just as soon as i turned off the Kindle and snuggled down into the bedclothes. It was a version of racing-brain with worry ... but it wasn't REAL worry.
For the record, i'm a side-sleeper, so my face is often against both pillow and blankets. I began to suspect my pillows. They were getting pretty limp -- not FLAT, but inclining me to believe that the blobs of filling were breaking down. They still fluffed up, but compressed way too easily. At midnight a couple of days ago i padded through the darkness into the guest-room and grabbed what are some of the newest pillows in the house, swapped the cases, and tried it again. I slept much better. I even woke up better.
I slept better last night, too, and woke up less sniffly. I'll be keeping an eye on the situation, but i'm already disposed to believe some of my sleep woes had to do with the breakdown products of run-of-the-mill pillow fillers. Since i customarily remove the fiber-content tags on my linens i don't know what to actively avoid in future, but i'll definitely aim for hypoallergenic materials. (I LOVE feather pillows, but they definitely deteriorate too quicly for me.)
Life is full of those "always something" situations -- we have to remain observant, figure out what actually CAUSES our discomforts, and make changes as time goes by. Who says you don't have as many challenges in life as a retiree?! ;-)
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
THAT'S why
A friend i've never met, on the opposite side of the world, pointed out the idiocy of what's going on in American politics right now. Yep, and it gives nobody a bigger headache than it does us, but there is a reason.
You see, American children are brainwashed with certain notions from earliest childhood, but the ultimate irony is the "freedom" part. It's largely bullshit, but it is feverishly embraced. Hell, i'll bet half the conservatives out there would die in an apoplectic fit if you tied them in a chair with their mouths duck-taped shut, and made them listen to an international panel discussing the subject.
[evil grin] ...i'd pay good money to watch that happen! [rubbing hands together, fiendishly....]
"They hate us for our freedom!" Fervently believed nonsense ... by some. They hate us because we arrogantly bomb other countries, and there's not a goddamn thing we-the-people can do about it, because our country is completely controlled by the Military-Industrial Complex. COMPLETELY. All of our media are controlled by their buddies down at the Rich Guys' Club, and some of their servants are clever people. They manipulate us into believing in goofy ideas like American Exceptionalism, Creative Design, and the importance of giving to health charities.
We have our moments in the sun every two to four years, when we have the glory of choosing between two pre-chosen leaders. The "primary" season, which we're in now, is like qualifying rounds at sporting events, evaluating which final contestants have the best chance of winning the gold.
Oh, there's also a side-show game at the carnival, in which we can dally with self-promoted "third party" candidates, but it's just a show that distracts attention enough so that representatives of the major parties can slip in and pick the audience's pockets.
The reason that THIS year is special is that "somebody up there" slipped in a plot-twist. We actually think we have an opportunity to burst out of our clockwork-orange country and into a wider world. You know -- that world in which Europeans have lived for quite awhile, with education instead of indoctrination, and the idea that society and civilization are GOOD things, not the silly, sissy, bleating of "sheeple." Where a man with clean fingernails is not sneered at as a "metrosexual."
The United States of America desperately needs to enter the 21st century. Some people don't want that to happen. Some want to go back to the 1950s, or actually the 1850s would be better.
GRRRR. I read the voices of the past -- i DO history. Not the idealized history of the appalling books that are used in schools, not the Old West of Hollywood, and certainly not the cultural myths that way too many people here embrace. All that is BULLSHIT. It never happened, so it cannot happen again.
THAT is why THIS election is important.
You see, American children are brainwashed with certain notions from earliest childhood, but the ultimate irony is the "freedom" part. It's largely bullshit, but it is feverishly embraced. Hell, i'll bet half the conservatives out there would die in an apoplectic fit if you tied them in a chair with their mouths duck-taped shut, and made them listen to an international panel discussing the subject.
[evil grin] ...i'd pay good money to watch that happen! [rubbing hands together, fiendishly....]
"They hate us for our freedom!" Fervently believed nonsense ... by some. They hate us because we arrogantly bomb other countries, and there's not a goddamn thing we-the-people can do about it, because our country is completely controlled by the Military-Industrial Complex. COMPLETELY. All of our media are controlled by their buddies down at the Rich Guys' Club, and some of their servants are clever people. They manipulate us into believing in goofy ideas like American Exceptionalism, Creative Design, and the importance of giving to health charities.
We have our moments in the sun every two to four years, when we have the glory of choosing between two pre-chosen leaders. The "primary" season, which we're in now, is like qualifying rounds at sporting events, evaluating which final contestants have the best chance of winning the gold.
Oh, there's also a side-show game at the carnival, in which we can dally with self-promoted "third party" candidates, but it's just a show that distracts attention enough so that representatives of the major parties can slip in and pick the audience's pockets.
The reason that THIS year is special is that "somebody up there" slipped in a plot-twist. We actually think we have an opportunity to burst out of our clockwork-orange country and into a wider world. You know -- that world in which Europeans have lived for quite awhile, with education instead of indoctrination, and the idea that society and civilization are GOOD things, not the silly, sissy, bleating of "sheeple." Where a man with clean fingernails is not sneered at as a "metrosexual."
The United States of America desperately needs to enter the 21st century. Some people don't want that to happen. Some want to go back to the 1950s, or actually the 1850s would be better.
GRRRR. I read the voices of the past -- i DO history. Not the idealized history of the appalling books that are used in schools, not the Old West of Hollywood, and certainly not the cultural myths that way too many people here embrace. All that is BULLSHIT. It never happened, so it cannot happen again.
THAT is why THIS election is important.
Monday, February 8, 2016
a picture is worth a thousand words -- a digression
In the morning while i'm getting my all-important coffee intake, i read on my ipad from the internet ... or if there's nothing appealing, i revert to whatever Kindle book with which i read myself to sleep the night before. This is why i often get inspired to write a piece after the caffeine kicks in -- something gives me a good idea or pisses me off to the point that i MUST express myself in a longer exposition than twitter allows.
And where am i coming from, today? Memes. People decry them for being facile -- well, that's my interpretation of their more colloquial expressions. ;-) Yes, i AM a snob about how ideas are expressed....
The richness of the American version of the English language, drawing on so many others as it does, gives us NO excuse for saying things imprecisely. ...Except when we try to express ourselves in 140 characters or less. Using a tiny little keyboard, inappropriate for our chubby little digits. Makes sense, that we should augment the written word with pictures which add not only a basic visual, but potentially-unlimited connotative content.
I saw it coming decades ago, when bumper-stickers took off. I ❤️ U -- here we go, i thought, regressing from LANGUAGE to elementary hieroglyphics....
Facebook memes take that much further, what with favorite characters in video stills being the basis for short screeds, passed around endlessly by people with whom they resonate. I've fallen into the habit of using them, but i like to think that in my case the cause is less "intellectual laziness" but that one cannot capture another person's attention in that medium without visual-aids ... and often audio-augmented ones as well.
A couple of years ago, i was searching for an epitomical cookbook from some area of the world previously unexplored by me; i always do this by googling "best _____ cookbook" and then visiting Amazon to read the reviews of the recommended works. One highly-recommended choice was criticized for "no pictures."
Funny, i've always thought that offering a photograph of EVERY recipe was a space-wasting technique, covering up the paucity of content.... But right and left in the recipe world, books and websites are lauded for the "beautiful photographs." :-P Even a favorite blogger on my list has the APPALLINGLY bad habit of including not just one but MULTIPLE almost-identical pictures of her finished product. Why? Multiple in-process photos make a certain degree of sense, but some of hers are obviously the SAME PHOTO cropped differently; the picture which cuts out the tabletop, napkin and fork isn't even a proper close-up, so WHY?
I might as well confess, i never grew out of the "WHY?" phase of intellectual development. I want to know "why?" about EVERYTHING. I search my own conscious mind first for reasonable hypotheses, and then i dig deeper. WHY do people sometimes have no interest in word-pictures, and tend to skip over them until a visual arrests their attention? Naturally, i have to assume that some of the issue is lack of imagination, but that's not the whole situation. Why is visual illustration so indispensible?
Damn good question, and i can't answer it definitively. But it's undeniable that we have become a video-centric society. We've also become a short-attention-span society, and i think the two phenomena are closely related. I think it's a pity.
We're disinclined to ponder ideas -- our national characters are less based upon what we THINK than on how we FEEL. A knee-jerk reaction to a picture defines our beliefs, and that is not a good thing. We prefer pretty, "likable" people to deliver the evening news rather than the journalists of yesteryear who had thought-(and worry-)wrinkles on their foreheads. Distracting characteristics take away from the substance of the messages offered us.
I won't stop using memes myself, because they ARE a quick-and-dirty means of attracting the attention i think an important idea deserves. However, i WILL try to be a lot more cognizant of the quality of the image....
And where am i coming from, today? Memes. People decry them for being facile -- well, that's my interpretation of their more colloquial expressions. ;-) Yes, i AM a snob about how ideas are expressed....
The richness of the American version of the English language, drawing on so many others as it does, gives us NO excuse for saying things imprecisely. ...Except when we try to express ourselves in 140 characters or less. Using a tiny little keyboard, inappropriate for our chubby little digits. Makes sense, that we should augment the written word with pictures which add not only a basic visual, but potentially-unlimited connotative content.
I saw it coming decades ago, when bumper-stickers took off. I ❤️ U -- here we go, i thought, regressing from LANGUAGE to elementary hieroglyphics....
Facebook memes take that much further, what with favorite characters in video stills being the basis for short screeds, passed around endlessly by people with whom they resonate. I've fallen into the habit of using them, but i like to think that in my case the cause is less "intellectual laziness" but that one cannot capture another person's attention in that medium without visual-aids ... and often audio-augmented ones as well.
A couple of years ago, i was searching for an epitomical cookbook from some area of the world previously unexplored by me; i always do this by googling "best _____ cookbook" and then visiting Amazon to read the reviews of the recommended works. One highly-recommended choice was criticized for "no pictures."
Funny, i've always thought that offering a photograph of EVERY recipe was a space-wasting technique, covering up the paucity of content.... But right and left in the recipe world, books and websites are lauded for the "beautiful photographs." :-P Even a favorite blogger on my list has the APPALLINGLY bad habit of including not just one but MULTIPLE almost-identical pictures of her finished product. Why? Multiple in-process photos make a certain degree of sense, but some of hers are obviously the SAME PHOTO cropped differently; the picture which cuts out the tabletop, napkin and fork isn't even a proper close-up, so WHY?
I might as well confess, i never grew out of the "WHY?" phase of intellectual development. I want to know "why?" about EVERYTHING. I search my own conscious mind first for reasonable hypotheses, and then i dig deeper. WHY do people sometimes have no interest in word-pictures, and tend to skip over them until a visual arrests their attention? Naturally, i have to assume that some of the issue is lack of imagination, but that's not the whole situation. Why is visual illustration so indispensible?
Damn good question, and i can't answer it definitively. But it's undeniable that we have become a video-centric society. We've also become a short-attention-span society, and i think the two phenomena are closely related. I think it's a pity.
We're disinclined to ponder ideas -- our national characters are less based upon what we THINK than on how we FEEL. A knee-jerk reaction to a picture defines our beliefs, and that is not a good thing. We prefer pretty, "likable" people to deliver the evening news rather than the journalists of yesteryear who had thought-(and worry-)wrinkles on their foreheads. Distracting characteristics take away from the substance of the messages offered us.
I won't stop using memes myself, because they ARE a quick-and-dirty means of attracting the attention i think an important idea deserves. However, i WILL try to be a lot more cognizant of the quality of the image....
Friday, February 5, 2016
EXTRA! EXTRA! CLASSIC DIET DESTROYS THYROID!
Well, DUH. Any diet can, if it's effective enough to make you, ya know, like, LOSE WEIGHT.
The accusation which one has heard a lot through the years by people who hate LC is that it "destroys" the thyroid. One particularly virulent hater, who actually had good luck with it before the mating-call of the wild truffle lured her back to orthodoxy, not only claimed her thyroid was fried but accused LC of bringing on premature menopause. GOK what she must have been doing, to upset her hormones that much! But she wasn't alone -- the gym-rats also chimed in agreement: "the thyroid NEEEEEDS carbs," they scream. "Just look at my lab test!" Those guys must spend half their disposable income getting blood drawn and analyzed.
The ironic thing is that in replacement of the classic Atkins regimen, the people under discussion advocate the very thing GUARANTEED to wreck your metabolism: that tired old ELMM routine, which Dr. Fung excoriates HERE.
Repeat after me: anything that makes the body fear starvation is going to lower metabolism to preserve body-resources including fat. The means of doing so are via the thyroid; increasing rT3 is a mechanism the body uses to MAKE you feel tired so you won't waste fuel or dilute your healing-energy. We heal while we rest and sleep, and surgery-patients need to concentrate their bodies' resources on reknitting tissues and fighting infections -- that's why their thyroid levels dip. If your body thinks that starvation is imminent, it's going to let your hands and feet get cold, rather than squander precious resources just so you'll be comfortable.
Of course, this does NOT mean your thyroid is "destroyed" -- not even close.
The bro's point to their lab-test numbers, but don't experience classic hypothyroidism SYMPTOMS. The LC dieters -- AND ELMM dieters -- wave their chilly fingers in your face, but feed them ONE sufficient-energy meal and they're all-of-a-sudden warm and cozy again. You can believe me on this: i know my hypo symptoms, and they're not only exceptionally diverse, but also brought on by lots of different causes.
I know i've said it a myriad of times, but it won't hurt to point out just once more: lower T3 in a low-carber is not hypothyroidism -- it doesn't coexist with higher TSH, and if that's "normal" the body doesn't perceive a requirement for more T. The body requires active thyroid-hormone to process carbohydrates in the diet; if they're not there, the body produces less of T3 and TSH, because it doesn't NEED as much.
Hell, I can tell a difference in my body's performance, depending on whether I've had enough sat-fat in my diet, or too much PUFA on a particular day. The body reacts to some really "minor" stuff -- in the case of fats, it's not conversion but cell receptors.
As Dr. Rosedale is fond of pointing out, a higher baseline thyroid reading is NOT a good thing in a euthyroid individual -- it means the body is "running hot" and in danger of "burning out" sooner. His schtick is longevity, and has made it a point to learn that centenarians tend to run on the low end of the normal range.
Dr. Donaldson, in "Strong Medicine," makes a point of discussing thyroid hormone in weight loss, debunking a popular myth:
"Excess weight" is just another subject on which Nature and Society don't mesh. Nature seems to favor a little bit, as being a kind of life-insurance policy, whereas our modern world looks on it as nothing but bad, ugly, and indicative of an inferior character. Too bad: as we age -- which is when Nature schemes to make us gain weight -- a little extra adiposity can mean the difference between surviving an illness or injury, and succumbing to it. If we look at it in the traditionally-sentimental way, Nature wants us to put on fat in the autumn of our lives, so that in winter we can hang on just a little longer.
Many different causes are responsible for thyroid-hormone fluctuations in a perfectly-healthy individual. We should look on them as feedback for what we're doing to ourselves, not panic and scream "this diet DESTROYED my thyroid!"
The accusation which one has heard a lot through the years by people who hate LC is that it "destroys" the thyroid. One particularly virulent hater, who actually had good luck with it before the mating-call of the wild truffle lured her back to orthodoxy, not only claimed her thyroid was fried but accused LC of bringing on premature menopause. GOK what she must have been doing, to upset her hormones that much! But she wasn't alone -- the gym-rats also chimed in agreement: "the thyroid NEEEEEDS carbs," they scream. "Just look at my lab test!" Those guys must spend half their disposable income getting blood drawn and analyzed.
The ironic thing is that in replacement of the classic Atkins regimen, the people under discussion advocate the very thing GUARANTEED to wreck your metabolism: that tired old ELMM routine, which Dr. Fung excoriates HERE.
Repeat after me: anything that makes the body fear starvation is going to lower metabolism to preserve body-resources including fat. The means of doing so are via the thyroid; increasing rT3 is a mechanism the body uses to MAKE you feel tired so you won't waste fuel or dilute your healing-energy. We heal while we rest and sleep, and surgery-patients need to concentrate their bodies' resources on reknitting tissues and fighting infections -- that's why their thyroid levels dip. If your body thinks that starvation is imminent, it's going to let your hands and feet get cold, rather than squander precious resources just so you'll be comfortable.
Of course, this does NOT mean your thyroid is "destroyed" -- not even close.
The bro's point to their lab-test numbers, but don't experience classic hypothyroidism SYMPTOMS. The LC dieters -- AND ELMM dieters -- wave their chilly fingers in your face, but feed them ONE sufficient-energy meal and they're all-of-a-sudden warm and cozy again. You can believe me on this: i know my hypo symptoms, and they're not only exceptionally diverse, but also brought on by lots of different causes.
I know i've said it a myriad of times, but it won't hurt to point out just once more: lower T3 in a low-carber is not hypothyroidism -- it doesn't coexist with higher TSH, and if that's "normal" the body doesn't perceive a requirement for more T. The body requires active thyroid-hormone to process carbohydrates in the diet; if they're not there, the body produces less of T3 and TSH, because it doesn't NEED as much.
Hell, I can tell a difference in my body's performance, depending on whether I've had enough sat-fat in my diet, or too much PUFA on a particular day. The body reacts to some really "minor" stuff -- in the case of fats, it's not conversion but cell receptors.
As Dr. Rosedale is fond of pointing out, a higher baseline thyroid reading is NOT a good thing in a euthyroid individual -- it means the body is "running hot" and in danger of "burning out" sooner. His schtick is longevity, and has made it a point to learn that centenarians tend to run on the low end of the normal range.
Dr. Donaldson, in "Strong Medicine," makes a point of discussing thyroid hormone in weight loss, debunking a popular myth:
At times thyroid extract can increase the cooking flame in the body, just as new sparkplugs may increase the efficiency of an automobile engine. It used to be thought that feeding it in small quantities might help to burn off excess body weight. With the exception of about four per cent, that happened regularly to people with the disease called exophthalmic goiter. They would usually melt away under the load of too much thyroid hormone in the blood. But it didn't work in simple obesity. Because so many thousands of fat people still uselessly take thyroid extract to lose weight, the subject needs to be more generally under stood."Prescribing unnecessary thyroid supplements used to be a tweak for weight-loss, but it fell out of favor because it's HARMFUL. I remember Muhammed Ali using the stuff in the course of his career. The practice was replaced by prescribing "diet pills" -- uppers -- instead....
"Excess weight" is just another subject on which Nature and Society don't mesh. Nature seems to favor a little bit, as being a kind of life-insurance policy, whereas our modern world looks on it as nothing but bad, ugly, and indicative of an inferior character. Too bad: as we age -- which is when Nature schemes to make us gain weight -- a little extra adiposity can mean the difference between surviving an illness or injury, and succumbing to it. If we look at it in the traditionally-sentimental way, Nature wants us to put on fat in the autumn of our lives, so that in winter we can hang on just a little longer.
Many different causes are responsible for thyroid-hormone fluctuations in a perfectly-healthy individual. We should look on them as feedback for what we're doing to ourselves, not panic and scream "this diet DESTROYED my thyroid!"
Monday, February 1, 2016
vegetables of doom
It's not just lettuce -- other things make my gut throw a tantrum, too. THIS is why i get so mad at the vegetation-pushers.
Bloating, obviously-proliferating bad-bugs, urgency, unusual sound-effects, need to waste time in "recovery mode".... And i had been feeling SO good on ZC! My husband grilled a chicken the other night, and chose to accompany it with steamed cauliflower and hollandaise sauce -- how could i refuse after he went to all that trouble? I took a small portion, and it was very tasty ... until some hours later. Then yesterday, i had a few macadamias because dinner was running late. I had a few green beans with mushrooms which usually go down just fine. This morning my gut is screaming at me.
It'll pass -- no pun intended. In a day or two of ZC the bloat will go away and all the other unpleasant details will fade. I'll feel great until some future time when i'll accidentally eat too much of a plant, and have to start over again from where i am right now.
Between clever marketing by produce-growers, ideological ignorance, epidemiological misfeasance, and fanaticism, we have a population which worships a destructive dietary paradigm. Plant foods are NOT what does a body good. Veg*nism will not only NOT save the world and the human race, it will hasten our decline.
Has everyone here watched "Dr. Strangelove"? It's that "purity of essence" thing. Plant-based "nutrition" is a pipe-dream, straight from the lurid imaginations of the psychologically-challenged. It's closely tied in with the fear of "calories" and obsession with the microbiome. It's PERVERSE.
Objective source after objective source SHOWS us what happens when people follow this kind of rationale. Observation of population X suggests that Z is a beneficial substance; a study isolating substance Z is made; substance Z is actually shown to be non-beneficial, if not actively harmful; rationalization is constructed which defends Z anyway ... often including the word "hormesis." Z retains its halo, and people are sicker than before.
In our attempts to improve the modern diet we HAVE to get market forces out of the discussion; their input muddies the waters -- hell, it POLLUTES them irreversibly.
We have to keep the mentally-damaged from spreading their infection into the "well" population; calling nutritious foods "unclean" and promoting anti-nutritious ones as "healthy" and "the only RIGHT way" CONTRIBUTES TO MORE MENTAL DAMAGE. You heard that right. Obsession with CICO, "moderation," and heavy exercise is not good science, it's BAD RELIGION.
The nutritional deficiency as well as the overload of deleterious compounds in the brain make its sufferers even more fanatical and sick. It promotes the kinds of neurotransmitter damage/imbalance which make healing nearly impossible. Insistence upon RITUALS like fermenting and sprouting and raw-processing is on a par with saying certain prayers when the clock chimes -- it's not rational.
People who want you to eat less meat (or less fat, or more vegetables, or whatever) than what YOU find makes you feel good, do not have your best interests at heart -- they're trying to make you a convert to their religion. Don't let them try to convince you that they have Truth and that you won't understand until you try their way; that is a form of brainwashing. Do not let their wild-eyed Faith deflect you from YOUR Truth.
Bloating, obviously-proliferating bad-bugs, urgency, unusual sound-effects, need to waste time in "recovery mode".... And i had been feeling SO good on ZC! My husband grilled a chicken the other night, and chose to accompany it with steamed cauliflower and hollandaise sauce -- how could i refuse after he went to all that trouble? I took a small portion, and it was very tasty ... until some hours later. Then yesterday, i had a few macadamias because dinner was running late. I had a few green beans with mushrooms which usually go down just fine. This morning my gut is screaming at me.
It'll pass -- no pun intended. In a day or two of ZC the bloat will go away and all the other unpleasant details will fade. I'll feel great until some future time when i'll accidentally eat too much of a plant, and have to start over again from where i am right now.
Between clever marketing by produce-growers, ideological ignorance, epidemiological misfeasance, and fanaticism, we have a population which worships a destructive dietary paradigm. Plant foods are NOT what does a body good. Veg*nism will not only NOT save the world and the human race, it will hasten our decline.
Has everyone here watched "Dr. Strangelove"? It's that "purity of essence" thing. Plant-based "nutrition" is a pipe-dream, straight from the lurid imaginations of the psychologically-challenged. It's closely tied in with the fear of "calories" and obsession with the microbiome. It's PERVERSE.
Objective source after objective source SHOWS us what happens when people follow this kind of rationale. Observation of population X suggests that Z is a beneficial substance; a study isolating substance Z is made; substance Z is actually shown to be non-beneficial, if not actively harmful; rationalization is constructed which defends Z anyway ... often including the word "hormesis." Z retains its halo, and people are sicker than before.
In our attempts to improve the modern diet we HAVE to get market forces out of the discussion; their input muddies the waters -- hell, it POLLUTES them irreversibly.
We have to keep the mentally-damaged from spreading their infection into the "well" population; calling nutritious foods "unclean" and promoting anti-nutritious ones as "healthy" and "the only RIGHT way" CONTRIBUTES TO MORE MENTAL DAMAGE. You heard that right. Obsession with CICO, "moderation," and heavy exercise is not good science, it's BAD RELIGION.
The nutritional deficiency as well as the overload of deleterious compounds in the brain make its sufferers even more fanatical and sick. It promotes the kinds of neurotransmitter damage/imbalance which make healing nearly impossible. Insistence upon RITUALS like fermenting and sprouting and raw-processing is on a par with saying certain prayers when the clock chimes -- it's not rational.
People who want you to eat less meat (or less fat, or more vegetables, or whatever) than what YOU find makes you feel good, do not have your best interests at heart -- they're trying to make you a convert to their religion. Don't let them try to convince you that they have Truth and that you won't understand until you try their way; that is a form of brainwashing. Do not let their wild-eyed Faith deflect you from YOUR Truth.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
vitamin A, or should i say A+
I guess I was distracted a couple of weeks ago when Chris Masterjohn posted his most recent article, because when i started rereading it this morning, it was all new to me. It's no secret that i'm an enthusiastic promoter of getting pre-formed vitamin A, and that it really chaps my hide that it's acceptable to say vegetables contain any -- CUZ THEY DON'T. CM gets extra credit from me for pointing this out, and also that there are a lot of people who CANNOT adequately convert the carotenes to the retinoids they need.
When i first began to concentrate on getting retinol into my diet-and-supplement regimen, i felt significant improvement in energy. This influenced me to make liver a regular part of my diet, because that seems to be the single most reliable source (for those of us who don't raise our own chickens/eggs, cuz GOK what even free-range commercial chickens eat).
But there were more interesting things to be read in this article, and he promises us EVEN more in the next. For one, he describes how a deficiency contributes to circadian disruption. For another -- and this prompts a great big toothy evil grin from me -- DRY EYES.
Dry eyes: the reason why a certain blogger claimed that a VLC diet made one "mucin-deficient"....
We've long known that THAT was hogwash, but here is a tidy little explanation of what he MIGHT have actually been suffering -- vitamin A deficiency.
The writer who annoyed me so much the other day claimed that we amateurs couldn't possibly know if we're dosing ourselves correctly because we can't "see inside" but again, if we have any insight concerning OUR OWN BODIES we can see an awful lot. I can long-distance diagnose my own mother's malnutrition in A and Mg simply from knowing her and her health history, not that she'd believe it as a "moderation with healthyfruitsandvegetables" kind of person. But "dry eyes," poor night-vision ... guess what?
Masterjohn also postulated another interesting thought -- since blue/bright artificial light degrades vitamin A in the eyes, perhaps those with light-colored eyes are particularly susceptible to depletion in the presence of lots of sunlight. He, with light-colored eyes, thinks that may explain why he seems to need more than average amounts of vitamin A. Coincidence that people evolving nearer the equator are more inclined to have brown or black eyes? I doubt it. My only excuse can be my genetics and the fact that my eyes are a rather LIGHT brown.
When i first began to concentrate on getting retinol into my diet-and-supplement regimen, i felt significant improvement in energy. This influenced me to make liver a regular part of my diet, because that seems to be the single most reliable source (for those of us who don't raise our own chickens/eggs, cuz GOK what even free-range commercial chickens eat).
But there were more interesting things to be read in this article, and he promises us EVEN more in the next. For one, he describes how a deficiency contributes to circadian disruption. For another -- and this prompts a great big toothy evil grin from me -- DRY EYES.
Dry eyes: the reason why a certain blogger claimed that a VLC diet made one "mucin-deficient"....
We've long known that THAT was hogwash, but here is a tidy little explanation of what he MIGHT have actually been suffering -- vitamin A deficiency.
The writer who annoyed me so much the other day claimed that we amateurs couldn't possibly know if we're dosing ourselves correctly because we can't "see inside" but again, if we have any insight concerning OUR OWN BODIES we can see an awful lot. I can long-distance diagnose my own mother's malnutrition in A and Mg simply from knowing her and her health history, not that she'd believe it as a "moderation with healthyfruitsandvegetables" kind of person. But "dry eyes," poor night-vision ... guess what?
Masterjohn also postulated another interesting thought -- since blue/bright artificial light degrades vitamin A in the eyes, perhaps those with light-colored eyes are particularly susceptible to depletion in the presence of lots of sunlight. He, with light-colored eyes, thinks that may explain why he seems to need more than average amounts of vitamin A. Coincidence that people evolving nearer the equator are more inclined to have brown or black eyes? I doubt it. My only excuse can be my genetics and the fact that my eyes are a rather LIGHT brown.
Friday, January 29, 2016
feet of clay, continued
I see that some of you figured out which once-respected paleo guru I excoriated yesterday? ;-) Stay tuned for the rest of the story....
Sure there’s some awesome science behind increased longevity and health being linked with caloric restriction and/or an abbreviated eating window – BUT if you don’t have all your ducks in a row (sleep, great nutrition, smart exercise, limited stress), then just NO ... Also, if you’re currently IF’ing and find yourself all, “OMG I’M GOING TO EAT MY ARM” hungry and can’t concentrate on a damn thing other than what you get to eat in two hours, then yeah, NO – not an awesome idea for you either.
As I suggested yesterday, not being able to IF indicates bodily malfunction. In the latter case, above, that malfunction is between the ears.
We actually KNOW the reason why exercise is particularly good for type-two diabetics, and it hasn't got anything to do with "burning calories." It's that exercise in an insulin-resistant person sucks the glucose out of the bloodstream and into working muscles independent of insulin receptors. MANY gym-rats advocate fasting workouts ... and what happens when heavy exercise is undertaken in a fasting state? You got it -- glucose is sucked up much faster than it can be created, and one becomes "OMG i'm going to eat my arm hungry." ... Do I detect a tiny little bit of cognitive dissonance here?
Nice of the writer to toss a bone to the increased longevity and health benefits of fasting, though. But be careful -- as we know, living a longer life that's worth living isn't nearly as important as looking like a badass....
**FYI** If you are drinking a cup or two of coffee with butter and/or coconut/MCT oil (AKA: Bulletproof coffee) and pretending that you’re IF’ing – stop fooling yourself. You just ingested 200-400 calories and um, that shit counts.OOH, CALORIES! [headbangwall] All this time and he still doesn't understand that FASTING IS NOT ABOUT CUTTING CALORIES, IT'S ABOUT FORCING THE BODY TO BURN FAT/KETONES AS THE PRIMARY FUELS. If the only fuel taken in is fat, you are not disrupting this plan.
But I made it with coconut flour (AKA – but the label says Paleo)… In case you don’t already know, this one REALLY lights me up – and not in a positive way… I mean really people, our Paleolithic ancestors were NOT baking ‘paleo’ breads, cookies, pancakes or other treats nor were they hitting the local Whole Foods and scoring ‘paleo’ bars and other -- READ: PROCESSED ‘paleo’ products. This probably means that you shouldn’t make a daily habit of buying, making and/or consuming these things either. I’m not going to expand on this any further here because I already wrote that story and you should probably read it if you haven’t. Here it is. You’re welcome.This is what is known as "adding insult to injury." We are too dumb to realize that even LC treats are still treats. ...And I was even gracious enough to ignore the "paleo" part of this tantrum -- WE are thoroughly cognizant of the fact that MANY paleo-approved foods, even though "whole foods," are horribly fattening to the carb-sensitive.
Many a time have I ranted, myself, about the constant barrage of low-carb treat recipes online. What the recipe-creators need to give us are easy, inexpensive, quick MEAL ideas. Treat recipes are wonderful for the first pangs of people moving from the SAD to a more nutritious diet, who miss their cookies and pizzas and are in danger of backsliding. Sometimes we need holiday-themed treats so we don't feel like the odd-man-out at Christmas or whatever. But once we get our desire for sweets and snacks tamed, and get back to eating ONLY MEALS, the sooner we get better.
Here we go again, taking a plunge into the broad-insult pool! WE are too stupid to supplement without help from a professional like him! HE, though never having met or spoken to us, knows intuitively what we need -- WHOLE FOODS, especially all those anti-nutrient-containing things advocated-for in yesterday's post. WE don' need no stinkin' VITAMINS!There is a time and a place for supplements and some of them are totally warranted, but if you’re doing what I refer to as “blind supplementation”, it’s time to open your eyes and see the light. I know this is super hard with all the information on the internet – but here’s what you do: STOP Googling your ‘symptoms’ looking for an answer in pill or powder form, instead go see a real (good) doctor and figure out what the issue is. Do NOT go out and purchase a plethora of vitamin, mineral, herbal, adrenal health or hormone supplements and try to figure it out on your own. That’s the perfect recipe for supplementing yourself sick. This is no joke, I’ve had a client that made herself Vitamin A toxic – not a good thing.
Welllll, unless, maybe, we don't have good digestion? Unless we're older, or have diminished stomach-acid, or a damaged small-bowel....
There probably are people who google a symptom and jump into a supplementation regimen that's potentially damaging, but there are also people who drive like shit and hurt themselves that way. Does that mean we should outlaw the sale of fuel-additives? [snort of derision] I know, false equivalency, but my point is that SOME PEOPLE ARE STUPID. I think it's well-established that it can't be fixed, and putting instructions on your bottle of shampoo is a worthless bandaid. Intelligent people, such as those who are kind enough to read my blog and comment on it, are quite capable of not only discovering which vitamin might help, but also in reading about the caveats of its use.
Here’s the deal, you don’t know what’s going on in your body and even scarier, you don’t know what’s in the supplements that you’re putting in your body. Those things aren’t regulated! For all you know you might be swallowing a capsule filled with dirt from some guy’s backyard that his dog peed on earlier in the day. Before you ‘go in blind’; get checked out, do your homework as to which products to buy and if you start feeling worse on the new miracle cures – STOP taking them. Do not consult Google and add more. That is totally NOT productive.YES, we do know what's going on in our bodies -- it's what the ART of medicine used before it became the depraved, lab-test-based mess it is now. SYMPTOMS. And really -- what kind of IDIOTS are their clients, if they don't know how to shop? Do they buy herbs from a stranger on the streets, REALLY?
But hang on -- the most risible irony is upon us:
My way or the highway… So, you know that paleo is great – it’s done totally awesome things for your health, body and life in general and yeah, you want to tell people about it. That’s great, in fact, you should talk about YOUR experience. What you shouldn’t do is villainize [sic] every other way of eating or try to convince everyone that paleo is the ONLY right way (I mean seriously, can you imagine the bacon shortage that would cause…). But really, if you take on an elitist attitude and stop seeing that there are other ways the work for other people and that in some (albeit rare) cases, paleo isn’t the answer – all you’re going to do is drive folks nuts. And sure, vegan bashing might be fun and all; but I’d venture to guess that there’s at least one or two super healthy vegans out there. Leave them alone.Do as I say, not as I do! I'm right, and you're not, and you should never copy my example. Tell everyone about YOUR experience, but leave the vegans alone! There might be, like, one or two, like, SUPER healthy ones out there!
Guess who's been sleeping with a vegan recently....
Different strokes for different folks. What works for one will never work for all, and it’s important to remember that when you’re talking to people. Judging people for the way they eat or really for anything is just not okay. You don’t know their stories, their struggles or their whys, and they don’t know yours. My guess is that you’ve probably got a few less than stellar habits too, am I right? And – let’s be honest – you haven’t been paleo forever and there’s probably quite a few of you that would say you were a ‘healthy eater’ prior to the conversion.More hypocrisy in spades, and that argumentative style which, when it runs out of logic begs "so people make MISTAKES -- have YOU never made a MISTAAAAKE?" To which I usually answer something smartass, just because.
Find YOUR groove and run with it – there’s no perfect recipe – health is a lifestyle, not a destination.But ... but ... but, at the beginning of this screed you were telling us that we were doing a lot of things wrong! We HAD found our groove but YOU weren't happy with it!
Health is NOT a lifestyle, it is a condition of the body in which things are running as Nature intended they should. Lifestyle affects it significantly, but depending upon a myriad of variables, what's sauce for the goose could be poison for the gander (if I may mix my metaphors a bit). Many of the things which the writer said I MUSTN'T do under any circumstance are exactly what benefit MY body best.
So no matter if Robb Wolf himself wrote these lines, or one of his bro's, or that dumb chick WITH THE EATING DISORDER, it came out of his gym and is therefore it is HIS responsibility. The biggest impact on me is that it lost him any remaining respect I might still have had.
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