magical Medicine

Here i go ... getting carried away with my own cleverness, and formulating a Personal Theory -- hear those echo-chamber sound effects!  ;-)  I've always been opinionated, but i'll try not to fall into the "it works for me so it must be UNIVERSALLY APPLICABLE" trap.

No.  NO.  I'm too put off by others who think that THEIR dietary path is The Only Path; i would despise myself if my ego let me sink into the same quagmire.  Now, where was i?

"The 'magic resetting' aspect of the SMD regimen"....  These are just speculations, mind you -- i have none of the credentials which a lot of COMPLETELY MISTAKEN "experts" do.  i just enjoy thinking about old ideas in the light of new science, and modern ideas from a vintage point of view. 

Dr. Donaldson tells us that 75% of his patients stuck with the weight-reduction instructions he gave them and did a great job (25% are non-compliant from the starting line).  He doesn't tell us outright that they all reach their goal weights but he kinda implies it.  Nor does he claim that they all maintain their losses afterward, but we know he had an enviable record -- i.e., better than the 2-5% successful dieters these days.

My thoughts about the mechanism of success:

It takes a lot of energy to metabolize protein, and it takes awhile to do it. Add those yummy animal fats, and the situation spells S-A-T-I-A-T-I-O-N (and satiety) in big letters.  This is how someone can lose a lot of fat without hunger.

Enthusiasts of the "food reward hypothesis" will say that the limitation of foods bolsters their argument; i contend that it goes much further. 

This diet breaks carbohydrate addictions and de-conditions snacking/craving behaviors.  More important, it EMPOWERS the person who employs it.  You feel you could conquer the world, it's so easy, mindless and effective.  Fast, too -- losing more than one plodding pound per week is encouraging.  I can't speak for everyone, but MY mood is great on this program.  And you don't have to spend hours carefully planning meals, shopping for arcane grocery items, and cooking.

You can easily avoid allergens and toxins on a mostly-meat diet, too -- just choose meats you don't have a problem with!  ;-)  Duh.

We know that one can get every required nutrient from "fresh fat meat" as Dr. Donaldson repeatedly expressed it ... with the caveat that organ meats are occasionally necessary for certain vitamins and minerals.  Therefore, the "Strong Medicine" prescription could easily be resolving nutrient deficiencies that people don't even know they have.  As a result the overeating-in-an-attempt-to-become-properly-nourished (well covered in The Perfect Health Diet -- lets call it OIATBPN) is solved -- there is much less temptation to overeat.  Your nutritional needs are thoroughly satisfied.

Chronic low-grade malnutrition (and i'd argue that most people in the western world suffer from it) MAY be behind the recidivism problem that dieters have.  Going off a low-carb or low-fat or low-calorie diet, one is extremely likely to progress to a diet that is not "perfect" -- people are too eager to be able to eat things they've denied themselves during the weight-loss process!  Going from a limited diet to a doubtfully-nutritious one WILL be problematic:  one has loosened one's inhibitions, and one will be missing dietary necessities -- how can this NOT be a recipe for OIATBPN?

Yeah -- i'm happy with THIS hypothesis,  Strong Medicine works because it's:
   hunger-free
   simple
   effective
   empowering
   non-toxic
   nutritionally replete during weight loss
   nutritionally replete after weight loss
 =reset fat/weight setpoint

we interrupt your regularly-scheduled program for this announcement

Sunday was a busy and discombobulated day.  Flying may take less actual travel-time than pursuing the same course on the ground, but it's far more upsetting to the routine.  Had i driven for the eight or nine hours which that  evening's trip monopolized, it would have been a piece of cake (piece of steak?) for me to comply with the Strong Medicine requirements.  Three half-pound chunks of meat and three coffees, a quart and a half of water.  Done.

Instead, i ended up eating a lot of cheese (for the first time this year), a little shrimp and smoked salmon, melon and nuts, and one glass of red wine for dinner.  Since then, not only is Ralph giving me more pain than usual, but my hips and legs in general are aching.  And one shoulder.  Even my eyes have been dry and itchy (not from the flying -- that's different), which i learned is a common symptom of this sort of food sensitivity.  It doesn't look good for casein!

I remember my surprise and delight after a stiffness-free drive of some 12 or more hours, two different days last month.  Opposite situation here, and one gets to move around a LOT more in a plane than behind the wheel of a car.  My mood, energy and sense of well-being have been disrupted too, though i concede that i had way too little sleep on Sunday night, to blame it ALL on diet.

New dietary conclusion and rule:  being freshly self-diagnosed as dairy-sensitive, cheese must be eaten IN EXTREME MODERATION.  Butter seems to be fine.  Cream definitely requires a careful test period.  Ditto for yogurt/kefir.

[sniff, sniff, pout]  Dammit, i love cheese....

synthesis (or lack of it)

I took "The Shangri-La Diet" on the plane with me yesterday; i thought i might be able to soak in and muse upon "the science behind the diet" in the enforced environment of low distraction.  It didn't work very well.

The philosophy seems to be based upon three unrelated research themes plus a generous helping of n=1 experience, and i'm darned if i can get any sense out of the stew.  Most of what Roberts put in the book is more of a "story" than an explanation.  ...So why the hell does it WORK???  I guess i need to find a better "explainer" online to approach the idea from a different perspective.

Also puzzling -- he described the use of the unflavored source of calories as a means of resetting the weight setpoint, but clearly warned that if one ceases to employ the technique, one will regain weight (i applaud him for telling the whole truth, as well as giving credit for improvements to those of his followers who tweaked and shared).  To me, this is not really RESETTING the "fat thermostat" -- it's more like the constant re-entering of the desired "temperature" on a thermostat which has lost its ability to store the programming which has already been entered.

I compare that to the results of the Strong Medicine technique, in which the long period of time that the patient has been eating the prescribed food list automatically makes him/her resistant to weight gain, once the ideal weight has been achieved.   Now, THAT is a reset.

While waiting for the shuttle at the San Francisco airport i started formulating my own version of the setpoint theory -- then the damn train arrived.  If this hotel has a hot-tub (i do my best mental work in water), i'll work on that line of thought again, from this starting point: 

Lean individuals have a very strong system in place which keeps their body composition remarkably balanced.  Many overweight individuals do too, at a higher number of pounds.  What they have in common is TIME SPENT AT THAT WEIGHT.  Most dieters are different because their weight is constantly on the move.  Perhaps homeostatic systems REQUIRE stability for awhile, to really function appropriately?  And the more one has dieted, the more this system is damaged, and it takes longer to make the body "confident" that this weight is the one it should be maintaining?  hmmmm....

I'm going to have to develop this theme more in a second post -- this one is getting a bit long already!  I was about to start speculating on the "magic resetting" aspect of the SMD regimen, and there's a lot of material there!

another challenge

Oh, i was BAAAD last night -- too much sake, which led me to get into the cashews.  BAAAAAD tess!!!

So now i'm going out of town for a week again, this time with no scale to help keep me honest....  I vow i shall stick to Donaldson's program when i'm "in" and Kresser's when i'm "out," with a little Roberts thrown in for insurance.  I would HATE to waste all the great progress i made last week because of carelessness.

California, here i come -- wish me luck!

damn, i love "Strong Medicine"

Another half-pound of loss, and i almost regret the contemplation of going out for sushi tonight!  ALMOST.  ...Naw, i don't, because i'm sure that occasional carb refeeds are a good plan, to keep one's system on its toes.  Kinda like hormesis.

Now that i've ironed out a few difficulties i found with this high-protein-high-fat regimen, and the weight is still coming off, i feel like i could conquer the world!  Although it calls for what other dieters might call "sacrifice," i don't feel deprived AT ALL.  Most western-world dietary practices are nothing but habit buttressed by bad science and corporate propaganda.  My appetite is satisfied and i feel great.  My nutritional needs are met -- i don't need to use food for any other purpose.

yes, it still works

The scale was down about the amount i predicted yesterday (it measures in 0.2 pound increments, so "half a pound" is a ballpark figure, not "documentable").  Success!  I'll continue being (almost) "perfect" today.

I confess to have had some concerns -- are you familiar with the concept of the One Golden Shot?  :-)  It's when something-or-other worked GREAT the first time, but you can never seem to replicate the success.  The first time you tried the diet it went swimmingly, but another time it totally let you down; the first time you made the recipe or sewed the pattern it turned out spectacular, but when you tried to do it again (for "company"!) it was a flop.  You know....

In the weight-loss realm, i suspect this happens because when we first learn about it our excitement level boosts our metabolism a bit, making it easier to lose, AND we are absolutely faultless in our application of the guidelines.  Later, we tweak (i'm BIG on this myself).  We remember what we were able to get away with the first time, and we start at that point, instead of at the prescribed beginning.  Furthermore ... we're older!  At this time of our lives, a LOT changes, and FAST.  I've already warned my daughter that she needs to be careful to maintain her normal weight, because losing it later is much harder.

So after the rule-bending i did yesterday (salting my meat, having full instead of half-cups of coffee with my meals, even drinking the last 3 tablespoons of wine that didn't QUITE get finished last week), i was pleased and yes, a little relieved to find that the formula still worked.  I'm counting my blessings, and vowing to be even better today.  Now that i'm caught up on my salt, i'm scaling it back (not omitting it -- that didn't work so well).  I'm continuing to use the stationary bicycle because it's kinder to Ralph while still elevating my heart-rate.  And since that wine bottle is now safely empty and residing in the recycle bag, i won't be teased by it sitting unfinished on the kitchen counter any more.  :-) 

I confess, i WILL still indulge myself with the full cups of coffee.  ...Since beginning to drink it without even coconut milk, i'm dumbfounded to find that i prefer my black coffee without the single drop of liquid sucralose that i tried last week -- who would have thought!  Am i going to end this experience by finding that only simple, plain foods suit me anymore???

back to the definitive program

I found the "limitation of matter" yesterday, lol....

The scale was down a scant 1/4 pound this morning.  Yesterday's intake consisted of the last patty of my chuck/liver/parsley/pepper mixture WITH SALT, four full cups of black coffee (half decaf), 3 glasses of water (plus the amount i drank while taking my supplements), 6 oz. of pot roast with salt and pepper, half a cup of german-style potato salad, 4 ounces of sake and 2 of traminette.  I didn't "exercise" at all (besides the innumerable stairs i climb as a daily necessity, in this house).

I woke after 8 hours or thereabouts, with more enthusiasm for compliance with the "Strong Medicine" than i have the last couple of days.  Between the lower calorie/protein intake and the splurge in wine, i saw on the scale what i wanted AND expected -- a small loss.  It's comforting to be able to predict what will result from one's actions!

So, this morning i DID get my before-breakfast activity (stationary bike), my single cup of coffee and fatty-meat ration.  Brother, does it make a difference when the meat is cooked RIGHT -- i put a nice marbled chuck roast in the crockpot yesterday instead of doing it on the stovetop.  (My stove is impossible to turn down far enough, even using a "flame tamer"!  Frankly, for any kind of "cheap" roast, the crockpot does SO MUCH BETTER a job of getting it tender....)

I'll continue to follow the program today, and anticipate a 1/2# loss tomorrow -- it will be reassuring if i'm right, but if the scale is even lower, i certainly won't cry!