181.2 On The Road Again

Heading back to see family on the east coast including the wee little Zuzu. Check in now and then but for sure I'll be back at it on the 15th of September. I'll be weighing everyday and watching those carbs. How can I fail?

181.2 Carbs and Fat - Yikes!

My brother in law Phil sent me this article from Men's Health magazine. (http://www.menshealth.com/travel-center/diet-strategies-travel-and-weight-loss?cm_mmc=Twitter-_-MensHealth-_-Content-BestLife-_-TravelingMansEatingPlan.) I am reprinting a portion of it, because it really makes sense about the carbs in our diets and how they work against us as we try to control our weight.


"Rules of the Road

Any man who travels regularly needs a flexible, no-thought eating strategy. So we asked Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D., a nutrition researcher at the University of Connecticut, to create an effective diet that allows for indulgence without the need for calorie counting. His solution: a low-carb diet with benefits.

A quick explanation: Every time you eat high-carb foods—bread, pasta, rice, any product made with sugar or flour—the level of insulin in your blood rises. Insulin is a powerful hormone that signals your body to stop burning and start storing fat. How powerful? Volek and his colleagues asked 20 men to follow a strict low-carb diet for 6 weeks. But instead of telling them to downsize their portions, the scientists encouraged the study participants to eat all they wanted. When the results were tallied, the men had still dropped an average of 7 pounds of fat and had significantly lowered their risk of heart disease. "We calculated that 70 percent of the variability in fat loss was explained by the reduction in insulin levels," says Volek. "That's a powerful effect."

Now think about that in reverse. If you're constantly downing carbs, as most Americans do, you'll be in fat-storing mode all day long. And you don't need a study to tell you what that's done to our collective waistline.

So Volek counseled Baier to adopt low-carb eating as his default diet and to make high-carb meals an exception. Try it yourself and you'll limit your number of daily insulin spikes, keeping your body in fat-burning mode most of the time. After all, when it comes to your gut, "most of the time" is what matters."

This explanation of carbs in relation to storing fat will really make me think twice before eating carbs. I'm still hung up on wanting to eat a lot of fruit, but I guess I will have to become very aware of how many carbs a given serving of fruit has and plan well.

179.0 More Exercise, Fewer Carbs

I remember writing probably a year ago that exercise was easy to accomplish. Just do it, I wrote. But for some reason, now I put off doing it. I find all sorts of excuses for why I can't do it, and I'm writing this at this moment because I know I should get going but don't want to. It's odd that I find myself with this frame of mind. I think that it may have to do with getting out of the habit, and I could list lots of reasons (aka excuses) for that. I need to press reset and get back into the habit so that it is more automatic. Less thought Sue! Just do it!

I'm also thinking about limiting carbs, especially after mid afternoon. I do eat a lot of fruit for a late afternoon snack, and often for dessert, and again before bed. I don't eat the white carbs (potato, rice, pasta) much at all, any time night or day. So here we go on a new search to discover why I am stuck again. (I was talking to a great friend of mine last night about the haboob, the big dust storm we had out here recently. Maybe I need a big haboob in my life to shake me up. But wait! I just had one with the stroke diagnosis. Sue, sign off and get moving.)

178.0 The Carb Issue

This is not news to anyone, but the awareness of it in my everyday life is news. Carbs are not good for me! I had pretty much cut out carbs except for fruit at night, but slipped hard off the wagon while we were in Boston. Please don't ask why because I don't have a rational answer. But since returning home, I have pretty much cut out all carbs after breakfast when I usually have about a half cup of healthy dry cereal with fruit and yogurt.

Something I also became aware of is that when I was eating more carbs, I had more problems with my legs and ankles swelling. (Remember my cankles when I was much heavier?) So I'm still living (thank goodness) and learning (thank goodness)! And so it goes!

174.2 Keep The Weight Off

Like so many folks my age who have some form of arthritis, I subscribe to Arthritis Today, and monthly magazine published by The Arthritis Foundation. In the most recent issue there was a very brief article entitled "Keep The Weight Off".

Since this is my present and future challenge, I immediately turned to it. I must be a pretty visual person since I can hear things and not have what I hear have the same impact as when I read something. (When I taught elementary school in the olden days :), I would spend time on understanding how each of my students learned, either visually, auditorily or a combination of the two, and then try to teach to their particular modality.) Anyway, when I saw these tips for weight maintenance in print, it helped reinforce what I had floating around in my brain on some level.

Here's the gist of the article: cut way back on those carbs that cause your blood sugar to spike (high Glycemic-Index foods which means they contain a lot of sugar), and choose lean protein to help you feel full. By doing this, you'll curb your appetite and have a better shot at success. The article suggests that you eat "high protein foods [such as] skim milk, artificially sweetened low-fat yogurt, lean fish and poultry" and "low-GI foods [including] broccoli, cauliflower, celery, lentils, apples, grapefruit, peanuts, brown rice, and garbanzo beans".

I just checked out online whether an artichoke is considered a low-GI food. Last night we shared a huge one and it tasted so good. Since they take a long time to eat, they are super for slowing me down when I eat. And, I learned that they are right up there with cauliflower, broccoli, etc., so I'm off to Costco to buy a big bag of them. So good!

171.0 Actions Have Consequences (duh)

When I first started this weight loss adventure and Jennifer suggested - I think insisted is a better word - that I weigh myself everyday, I fought it. Doctors, weight loss gurus, everyone knew that you should weigh yourself once a week. Hello..!

But, as this blog attests, I did weigh myself everyday. And today I didn't like what I saw, but I knew it would be up. I could give all the reasons for this upward blip, but all I need to do is get myself back into my more disciplined place. I can't just eat whatever without consequences. That old cliche that actions have consequences plays into weight loss perfectly. So the consequences were staring up at me from my Walgreen's special scale this morning and I'm glad that I saw that 171.0. What if I'd waited a week and being oblivious, I probably would have seen a much greater jump and then would have felt so discouraged. Yes, it's been fun, but gaining weight is not worth the few minutes of yumminess I experienced eating sweets and other carbs.

176.4 Not Exactly Tickety-Boo

This morning I received a comment on an earlier post that described it as tickety-boo. I'd never heard that phrase before and Jeff and I had a lot of fun thinking about what it could possibly mean. I was ironing and was wondering if I was in a tickety-boo zone as I methodically moved the iron back and forth to get rid of the wrinkles. Ohhhh, that just reminded me of my face and maybe my wrinkles would respond to a tickety-boo treatment! And, we have already decided that our next dog will be named Tickety-Boo. And, it went on and on.

When I finished the ironing I looked the phrase up and learned, much to my delight, that it's a British term for informal, fine, excellent, in working order as in "that's the ticket". I still love the sound of the word, but Jeff and I had put a much more titillating spin on it by the time we were done.

So, facing the true definiton, my weight gain is definitely not tickety-boo, and I realized that recently I have relaxed a little too much for my own good. I quit eating salad, I quit eating two low calorie, healthy veges every night, I quit reinforcing the idea of not eating after dinner (you do have to make these things habitual, not a one shot hit, Sue), and I started eating more carbs. Let's hear a great big loud DUH! And, how about a loud "What were you thinking"?

Not exactly tickety-boo!

194.4 You Blew It, Sue

And I know why I blew it! Looking back it is so clear. I didn't take the time to check in with that wonderful inner spirit to ask for help in dealing with the food temptations that I knew would face me at our gathering of dear friends that we designed as a potluck supper. I thought I did okay with most of it so that I wasn't too alarmed.

But after our friends left, I had this huge nagging hunger and then I gave in to it. I ate and before I knew it I had downed about 2 - 3 cups of popcorn, at least 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, and a handful of raspberries. Again, I didn't go binge on favorites, but I just ate like there was no tomorrow. (Obviously I was wrong about that since this is tomorrow!) I think the cheese and crackers, the glass of wine, and the cake with fresh berries and whipped cream, and the slice of bread and the lasagna all played into triggering that hunger. The carbs really do a job on me.

Looking back I could have eaten much smaller portions, foregone the wine, ignored the bread, had more salad, had the berries without any cake or whipped cream and still had a great time. But I just didn't get with the program before our guests arrived. And, we supplied the lasagna and bread. I knew that I had to deal with that ahead of time. But I didn't. So, back to the drawing board, back to no carbs except fruit at night, and embracing that inner voice that so wants me to succeed.