I don't think there's anything more frustration-producing for a lot of people than trying to lose weight. There are countless diet/exercise plans and theories to choose from, not to mention unsolicited advice from surprising sources. Then there is the desire humans have to see what they WANT to believe is true. People WANT to think they can eat what they like and move as they like, and still get the results they desire -- and a lot of the time it just ain't true.
There's a mis-match going on, in many cases. Trying to use a diet or type of workout that produced good results for someone else can be like changing the fuel-filter in your car to try to improve its performance because that worked for your brother -- but if the problem is a clogged AIR filter instead, YOUR car won't run any better.
I have to conclude that the best way to choose a regimen that will work for YOU is essentially how i decide which of various similar products to buy on Amazon: you read a couple of the positive reviews, and a couple of the negative reviews, THEN think about the tone of each before developing an opinion of who is credible. So many diet books and sites give examples of success stories and testimonials.... It's only if the good reviews come from people LIKE YOU, and the negative comments are from dissimilar individuals, that you can reasonably assume they're relevant in your case!
Then, you may have to match your key activity to an eating style that will specifically support it (or vice versa). Again, there are SO many little tricks and tweaks that people have worked out for themselves -- intermittent fasting, supplement use, various carb-intake levels, starch VS fructose, etc. You may simply LIKE doing certain things, but if all of them don't work right TOGETHER for YOUR physiology, they might not be right for you in an "active improvement stage" even if they're fine for maintenance.
It's a good idea to start with basics again, and become thoroughly equilibrated THERE, then add in new techniques very slowly, one at a time. If weight loss is the aim, re-read the WHOLE Atkins book and follow the rules strictly for a goodly period of time. Usually, when we re-start Induction we aren't sufficient purists -- we use the compromises we learned some time ago, which COULD be the stumbling block that derailed us before. Also, the first time we read the book, it was all new and there was a lot to absorb; now that we're more familiar with the philosophy, if we read it again it's very possible we'll notice a point that didn't click for us when we were newbies.
Back when i was actively fencing, it was impressed upon us that the best way to cement one's own mastery was to teach the basics to someone else. All the little things that are so important may be forgotten or at least placed on the back burner as we progress. When we revisit the details that are important for the beginner to know, we tend to clean up our act and correct sloppiness that has infiltrated our style.
...I really do need to finish reading "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" -- sounds like an important key.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
on the road again, and misbehaving already
Is it the "holiday atmosphere" of taking a trip, or just the fact that side-dishes are limited in airport restaurants.... The waiter didn't blink when i asked for my bacon-cheeseburger without the bun, but the ONLY side available was fries, and i ended up eating a few. Ah, well, breakfast was only one cup of coffee -- i can probably "afford it." I'll just be extra good at dinner!
Yes, my husband and i are off again. My mother turned 90 a couple of months ago, but since she and my sisters live in the desert southwest, it was opined that the official celebration should be scheduled in a more temperate season.
My mother is one of those "moderation is all you need" believers. Of course, she grew up eating home cooking, drinking raw milk, and eating pre-goat-grass wheat products. In latter years she's had a few significant health issues but for most of her life she's been pretty illness-free. She was slender as a teen and young adult, put on "normal" overweight in mid-life, and now is ... medium-sized i'd say. There aren't a huge number of nonagenarians i know to compare with her! When your experience has been like hers, it's easy to believe in moderation....
She'll be returning with us to St. Louis -- she misses the changing seasons, where she lives now, but come winter is pleased to escape the ice and snow. Here's hoping we have a little fall color to show her when we get back!
Yes, my husband and i are off again. My mother turned 90 a couple of months ago, but since she and my sisters live in the desert southwest, it was opined that the official celebration should be scheduled in a more temperate season.
My mother is one of those "moderation is all you need" believers. Of course, she grew up eating home cooking, drinking raw milk, and eating pre-goat-grass wheat products. In latter years she's had a few significant health issues but for most of her life she's been pretty illness-free. She was slender as a teen and young adult, put on "normal" overweight in mid-life, and now is ... medium-sized i'd say. There aren't a huge number of nonagenarians i know to compare with her! When your experience has been like hers, it's easy to believe in moderation....
She'll be returning with us to St. Louis -- she misses the changing seasons, where she lives now, but come winter is pleased to escape the ice and snow. Here's hoping we have a little fall color to show her when we get back!
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
NF:CANN part two
A continuation from yesterday....
TWO THIRDS of Americans, and almost as large a proportion of Brits i understand, are at least OVERWEIGHT. Now, there IS reason to believe that the very classification of "overweightness" and obesity are ridiculously defined. However, that doesn't negate the fact that, when we look around us, we see evidence of dietary misfeasance all over the place.
Look at the pot-bellies, look at the obvious bloat, look at the unhealthy skin, look at the skinny-fat limbs, look at the pasty faces, look at the proportions that scream "badly unbalanced hormones." Whether one is technically overweight or not, food-caused ill health is ubiquitous.
"...I'll explain what happens when the brain encounters common ingredients like wheat, fructose (the natural sugar found in fruit), and certain fats, proving that an extremely low-carbohydrate but high-fat diet is ideal (we're talking no more than 60 grams a day -- the amount in a serving of fruit)."
Perlmutter goes on to tell his audience that they'll be shocked to hear his recommendations, especially those who are on a statin for high cholesterol. From his tone and his inclusion of this kind of statement, i think we can safely conclude that "Grain Brain" is directed at the kind of audience who MIIIIGHT just think that a "serving" of fruit is in fact the thing you find in a restaurant with poppyseed dressing on it, and NOT the "one medium apple" that Madame d'Harvarde interpreted it to mean.
For the TWO THIRDS of our population (a clear majority) who are overweight, and the additional ones who are unhealthy but thin, i don't think there can be MUCH doubt that decreasing their carb intake AND INCREASING THE GOOD FATS LIKE COCONUT OIL and DECREASING OMEGA-6s would be health-enhancing, don't you? Funny, but that's what this guy is endorsing....
So although i would not recommend this book to most of the blog-readers with whom i trade comments, here and on the other websites i frequent, i DO think it holds value for people who have tried to work with Convention Wisdom only to find that it lets them down. I think the average person, who probably gets her/his nutritional information from tv commercials and magazine articles, would be well-served by listening to Perlmutter's suggestions. Sixty grams of carbs as a limit would take a LOT of sugar and other garbage out of most people's diets.
If you're a nutrition nerd already, don't bother reading it -- but if someone you know is a caregiver to a person in the early stages of dementia, it MIGHT just be a good gift idea.
TWO THIRDS of Americans, and almost as large a proportion of Brits i understand, are at least OVERWEIGHT. Now, there IS reason to believe that the very classification of "overweightness" and obesity are ridiculously defined. However, that doesn't negate the fact that, when we look around us, we see evidence of dietary misfeasance all over the place.
Look at the pot-bellies, look at the obvious bloat, look at the unhealthy skin, look at the skinny-fat limbs, look at the pasty faces, look at the proportions that scream "badly unbalanced hormones." Whether one is technically overweight or not, food-caused ill health is ubiquitous.
"...I'll explain what happens when the brain encounters common ingredients like wheat, fructose (the natural sugar found in fruit), and certain fats, proving that an extremely low-carbohydrate but high-fat diet is ideal (we're talking no more than 60 grams a day -- the amount in a serving of fruit)."
Perlmutter goes on to tell his audience that they'll be shocked to hear his recommendations, especially those who are on a statin for high cholesterol. From his tone and his inclusion of this kind of statement, i think we can safely conclude that "Grain Brain" is directed at the kind of audience who MIIIIGHT just think that a "serving" of fruit is in fact the thing you find in a restaurant with poppyseed dressing on it, and NOT the "one medium apple" that Madame d'Harvarde interpreted it to mean.
For the TWO THIRDS of our population (a clear majority) who are overweight, and the additional ones who are unhealthy but thin, i don't think there can be MUCH doubt that decreasing their carb intake AND INCREASING THE GOOD FATS LIKE COCONUT OIL and DECREASING OMEGA-6s would be health-enhancing, don't you? Funny, but that's what this guy is endorsing....
So although i would not recommend this book to most of the blog-readers with whom i trade comments, here and on the other websites i frequent, i DO think it holds value for people who have tried to work with Convention Wisdom only to find that it lets them down. I think the average person, who probably gets her/his nutritional information from tv commercials and magazine articles, would be well-served by listening to Perlmutter's suggestions. Sixty grams of carbs as a limit would take a LOT of sugar and other garbage out of most people's diets.
If you're a nutrition nerd already, don't bother reading it -- but if someone you know is a caregiver to a person in the early stages of dementia, it MIGHT just be a good gift idea.
Monday, October 7, 2013
news flash: crossfitters are not "normal"
A certain blogger who shall remain nameless is reading a book i just finished, and so far just DOESN'T LIKE IT. If this turns around, the blogger assures us, we'll be informed....
Where do i start? Well, there's a reason she is no longer on my right-hand-column list -- it has to do with egotism.
To be honest, i'm rather disappointed with "Grain Brain" too. The author doesn't provide much meat on the carcass he serves up, and he's too fond of telling us what exciting things he's planning on communicating LATER which never seem to live up to the promise. He's probably trying too hard to be accessible to the average reader, and only succeeds in being bland and tepid.
But the biggest gripe the aforementioned blogger has to communicate at this point in her reading is -- Perlmutter suggests most people are best off eating no more than 60 grams of carb per day, and that's just WRONGGGGG! She needs lots more than that ... and by the way, she's a young mother/professional-woman/crossfitter.
It obviously never occurred to this egocentric idiot that not everybody belongs to her demographic, although she apparently feels that HERS is the only one that really counts. If you're not a Harvard-trained crossfitter, you obviously don't deserve to live, let alone have a book addressed to improving your health and well-being.
And by the way, she REALLY enjoyed and endorses that new book from "the trust-fund boy."
:-P
Where do i start? Well, there's a reason she is no longer on my right-hand-column list -- it has to do with egotism.
To be honest, i'm rather disappointed with "Grain Brain" too. The author doesn't provide much meat on the carcass he serves up, and he's too fond of telling us what exciting things he's planning on communicating LATER which never seem to live up to the promise. He's probably trying too hard to be accessible to the average reader, and only succeeds in being bland and tepid.
But the biggest gripe the aforementioned blogger has to communicate at this point in her reading is -- Perlmutter suggests most people are best off eating no more than 60 grams of carb per day, and that's just WRONGGGGG! She needs lots more than that ... and by the way, she's a young mother/professional-woman/crossfitter.
It obviously never occurred to this egocentric idiot that not everybody belongs to her demographic, although she apparently feels that HERS is the only one that really counts. If you're not a Harvard-trained crossfitter, you obviously don't deserve to live, let alone have a book addressed to improving your health and well-being.
And by the way, she REALLY enjoyed and endorses that new book from "the trust-fund boy."
:-P
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Kurt Harris was right, too
A discussion i had this morning with Sidereal inspired me to dig out an old Masterjohn post, which led me to a study about the effect of dietary polyunsaturates on thyroid function (PubMed, BTW, is closed down right now thanks to the Republican Party), which inspired me to re-read Archivore's "no such thing as a macronutrient -- fats" post.
Ya know, just reading this article gives me a good opinion of Harris' insight. It's only when i read his comments on other blogs that he irritates the hell out of me.
Speaking of the components of our diets in terms of macronutrients IS bullshit. To put corn oil and red palm oil in the same category is just plain ignorant. To equate tryptophan, tyrosine, taurine and glycine, ditto. And to compare whole-wheat flour and swiss chard (silver-beet to my international friends) is madness.
***
The evidence, then, that i hoped to show Sidereal is eluding me right now; i can only pass on the bare "fact" and save the discussion for a later day. :-( A rodent study looked specifically at how different dietary fats affected thyroid use in tissues. The "receptivity" of the cells was best in the presence of saturated fats, lower with monounsaturates, and SIGNIFICANTLY poorer when those hearthealthypolyunsaturates were fed.
It hardly matters how much T3 is in your blood, if it can't get into the tissues to work!
And again -- your starting point determines how much improvement you'll see when you make a dietary change. I suspect this is why some people feel they get a metabolic boost from coconut oil while i never observed it particularly. If you go from a high-omega6 "SAD" or Atkins diet straight to CO, yes -- i imagine you'll get a huge boost. I came to LCHF via Atkins, but have never been a fan of vegetable oils. I started using butter, olive oil and bacon drippings when i abandoned low-fat, and so the metabolic advantage i experienced with the lowered sugar and starch, and the raised saturated and monounsaturated fats came all at once.
I feel that my thyroid production, conversion and usage are optimal when i'm getting LOTS of grassfed beef and lamb fat. I feel GOOD when i fast (ie, my body is burning my own stored saturated fat), but the reduced food intake causes my body to downshift my thyroid.
I think this is where a lot of people get confused! A LCHF diet reduces the appetite, because one gains access to one's own fat for fuel, BUT the body senses a reduction in intake whether it be via leptin, FIAF or something else, i don't know. The "food scarcity" signal lowers thyroid production.
It is NOT that "low-carb reduces thyroid function" -- I CAN'T SAY THIS ENOUGH!!! It's that an "underfed" body lowers thyroid production. A carb-fed body requires more thyroid hormone to burn that potentially-harmful fuel flooding the bloodstream, so a euthyroid individual ramps up production. An individual with a "weak" thyroid may not be able to meet the challenge. THIS is why a low-carb-high-SATURATED-fat diet is so important to my well-being.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
redundancy
I HAVE been an enthusiastic reader of low-carb paleo/ancestral-nutrition groups on facebook, but i have to confess, it's gotten a bit stale and tedious in spots. For one thing, i get the impression that people just don't do their homework and due-diligence.
Maybe they're just trying to stir up discussion, but the "I just discovered such-and-such -- what does everyone think about it?" SO often covers something that was talked to death long ago that one just has to roll one's eyes and move on. Gotcha -- it's new to YOU, and you're excited about it. That's great, and i'm happy for you -- i hope it gives you help, support and success, but a lot of us have beaten that dead horse till our arms are tired and our backs bowed. I REALLY don't think ANOTHER discussion is going to bring up any fresh news.
Go back and read the archives.
I mean it. Literally. Sincerely. Go to the blog of whomever has helped you the most and given you the most effective advice, and read the archives, including the comments. You'll hear both sides of the argument expounded-upon at length. That should tell you if people's experiences agreed with the concept or not.
Or are they less interested in the information, and more into conversation? Depending on what your goal is, i suppose, you can open a topic YET AGAIN or go back and see how the long-term discussion has gone. Me, i'm after the informational overview. ...I guess i can just roll my eyes and read on.
Maybe they're just trying to stir up discussion, but the "I just discovered such-and-such -- what does everyone think about it?" SO often covers something that was talked to death long ago that one just has to roll one's eyes and move on. Gotcha -- it's new to YOU, and you're excited about it. That's great, and i'm happy for you -- i hope it gives you help, support and success, but a lot of us have beaten that dead horse till our arms are tired and our backs bowed. I REALLY don't think ANOTHER discussion is going to bring up any fresh news.
Go back and read the archives.
I mean it. Literally. Sincerely. Go to the blog of whomever has helped you the most and given you the most effective advice, and read the archives, including the comments. You'll hear both sides of the argument expounded-upon at length. That should tell you if people's experiences agreed with the concept or not.
Or are they less interested in the information, and more into conversation? Depending on what your goal is, i suppose, you can open a topic YET AGAIN or go back and see how the long-term discussion has gone. Me, i'm after the informational overview. ...I guess i can just roll my eyes and read on.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
driving your vehicle
Galina just inspired me with a comment.... :-)
She observed that diet/lifestyle tweaks often work for awhile and then cease to do so -- i'm sure most of us can agree with that! We are sailing along losing weight, or feeling better, or getting stronger, then wham, we stall -- or worse, we lose ground. And WHY (i said to myself) does this happen?
Operating your "vehicle" is very much like driving a stick-shift. In the mountains. When the wind is blowing. You can't just put it in one gear and feed it the same amount of fuel and expect things to be constant -- you have to push in that clutch while simultaneously letting up on the gas pedal, move the lever to a different position, then feed gas again while disengaging the clutch pedal. You have to speed up and slow down to deal with curves. You have to be on top of things, paying attention to what's around you and making suitable adjustments.
Our bodies are smarter than we give them credit for, and they have a very good memory. Some people can operate their properly-functioning bodies like an automatic-transmission vehicle on flat ground, using cruise control. They're constantly making little adjustments of which we're completely unaware. Have a micronutrient shortage -- they give us a craving which SHOULD take care of the problem. When illness or midlife changes up the terrain, we have to consciously manage things more -- our vehicles require us to swap over to standard-transmission, take it out of "cruise" and DRIVE.
So we have to deal with it. We have to "learn to drive a stick" unless we want to be stalled at the side of the road, because that is NO FUN. If we have to call the tow-truck because we've overheated or fouled our fuel-pump or burnt up the engine trying to get up that gradient in the wrong gear, it can get really expensive and the car might never run right again.
She observed that diet/lifestyle tweaks often work for awhile and then cease to do so -- i'm sure most of us can agree with that! We are sailing along losing weight, or feeling better, or getting stronger, then wham, we stall -- or worse, we lose ground. And WHY (i said to myself) does this happen?
Operating your "vehicle" is very much like driving a stick-shift. In the mountains. When the wind is blowing. You can't just put it in one gear and feed it the same amount of fuel and expect things to be constant -- you have to push in that clutch while simultaneously letting up on the gas pedal, move the lever to a different position, then feed gas again while disengaging the clutch pedal. You have to speed up and slow down to deal with curves. You have to be on top of things, paying attention to what's around you and making suitable adjustments.
Our bodies are smarter than we give them credit for, and they have a very good memory. Some people can operate their properly-functioning bodies like an automatic-transmission vehicle on flat ground, using cruise control. They're constantly making little adjustments of which we're completely unaware. Have a micronutrient shortage -- they give us a craving which SHOULD take care of the problem. When illness or midlife changes up the terrain, we have to consciously manage things more -- our vehicles require us to swap over to standard-transmission, take it out of "cruise" and DRIVE.
So we have to deal with it. We have to "learn to drive a stick" unless we want to be stalled at the side of the road, because that is NO FUN. If we have to call the tow-truck because we've overheated or fouled our fuel-pump or burnt up the engine trying to get up that gradient in the wrong gear, it can get really expensive and the car might never run right again.
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