It's true that in the past, I have occasionally waxed ineloquent about the potential evils of technology, particularly phones with the Internet, often grabbing our attention from the people right in front of us.
I do not retract any statements.
However, when it comes to exercise, I've gone all starry-eyed with the technology at my fingertips. You see, I'm a results person. I don't get out there and sweat for an hour in the Colorado heat on the odd chance that it might do something good for me. I want to know things about what I just did, specific things.
Here are some things my phone tells me as I run:
1) Runkeeper app (free) keeps track of my distance via GPS.
2) Runkeeper keeps track of my pace and tells me at the end how my average pace compared to previous runs. For instance, yesterday I completed my fastest 4-6 mile run ever. I like to know this stuff! It also tells me my current pace as I'm running, which makes me pick up my pace, especially at the end. Did you know that when people run these 100 miles ultra marathons they have a pacer who runs next to them at the end to help them with their pace so they don't burn out? Well, well, well, I may not have a personal pacer, but I have a pacer in my pocket. It's very handy!
3) Fitbit keeps track of my heart rate during the entire run and when I'm done, I look at a graph of my heart rate and compare it with other runs.
4) I get to listen to the one year Bible and free audio books downloaded from the library the entire time I run. It's like reading and exercising at the same time. And it makes the miles fly by.
5) And of course, as I've mentioned before and just can't help mentioning again, there's the resting heart rate measure on the Fitbit app. I exercise because I like the results, and seeing my resting heart rate drop by 30 beats per minutes is downright amazing to see. Amazing. That'll keep me running!
6) I may sound like a living, breathing Fitbit commercial but I'm just so crazy about it, so one more thing. When setting up the app on your phone (which was suprisingly simple and intuitive) you can enter in your weight, age, and gender. Based on these facts plus the number of steps you've taken in a day and the kind of exercise, the app calculates the total number of calories you've burned. Now here's the cool part. You enter in a weight loss goal, as in, I'd like to lose 1 lb a week, and it calculates at each meal how much you should eat based on how much you want to lose and how much you've exercised that day. Say you get to dinner time and you only have 100 calories left for the day to stay within you goal. Well then, you take a few turns around the block and it allots you some more calories. I often enter food in before I eat. You can also manually track sports like basketball for a half hour, skating, swimming, etc.
Some people like to get out there and sweat for the pure joy of it all. Well good for them. Others get a Fitbit. I would say it was some of the best money I ever spent, except it was given to me. A pretty good gift. You should get one.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
I used to be, well, not so smart about how I approached exercise. It went like this. I woke up one day and I said: "That's it! I'm getting in shape and I'm starting right now!"
When we so had many little kids and no income for a gym membership, I did what every good mom of young kids did, I plunked in a Billy Banks TaeBo VHS at nap time. My problem was that I bought the ADVANCED tape. And when I say advanced, I'm talking about not being able to move for the next week. I'm talking about your arms hurting so bad you can't even lift them, much less lift a child into a swing, or even push the swing. Mommy was useless for days, and that was quite a problem. So that was the end of my workout endeavors. Someone would get sick, or I would get sick, or we would go on a trip, and I would never get back on the bandwagon. My approach was all or nothing.
But as years went by, a very wise pastor would often mention the benefits of plodding on in any endeavor instead of doing life in fits and starts. The message began to sink in and then I was introduced to Couch to 5K. The concept intrigued me. Just because a couch potato can only run for 60 seconds before being so tired that they are about to collapse, doesn't mean they should run for 60 seconds and then stop for the day. Instead, for week 1, one can run for 60 seconds and walk for 90 seconds and do that repetition 10 times. Then on week 2, one can run for 90 seconds and walk for 3 minutes and repeat that many times. You only have to run three times a week so you rest a day in between.
I was hooked. It was the slow and steady I was after, with my own running coach in my ear buds telling me when to start and stop (there is a free app that allows you to listen to your own music and then interrupts to tell you when to walk and run.) This app became my best friend. In 9 weeks, one can go from complete couch potato to being able to run a 5K.
But the truth is, I'm a bit of a wimp. It took me more than 9 weeks. Sometimes I'd repeat weeks. If we went for a trip or I had a sickness, I might start back up a few weeks before when I had left off. Several times I made it to a 5K only to let winter keep from running for months and I'd have to start the program over. But it didn't matter how many times I started and stopped; the point was I was running. I had a program to return after each relapse into couch potato.
So my approach to exercise has now changed significantly since those early kill-yourself-or-nothing days. I don't mind being a little sore; it shows you're pushing yourself. But I will no longer go from absolutely no exercise to 1 hour sessions with Billy Banks kick-boxing. It's all about pacing now.
Truthfully, my 5 mile runs three times each week feel like no big deal, even though my first half is always uphill. I feel great. The hardest part of running for me was when, in C25K, we had to go from 10 minute runs, to doing our first 20 minute run, I think the end of week 6. I thought I would DIE. But once I conquered that, nothing was as hard. Not even uphill in Colorado thin air. It's all good, now that I slowly built up my endurance. Slow and steady.
When we so had many little kids and no income for a gym membership, I did what every good mom of young kids did, I plunked in a Billy Banks TaeBo VHS at nap time. My problem was that I bought the ADVANCED tape. And when I say advanced, I'm talking about not being able to move for the next week. I'm talking about your arms hurting so bad you can't even lift them, much less lift a child into a swing, or even push the swing. Mommy was useless for days, and that was quite a problem. So that was the end of my workout endeavors. Someone would get sick, or I would get sick, or we would go on a trip, and I would never get back on the bandwagon. My approach was all or nothing.
But as years went by, a very wise pastor would often mention the benefits of plodding on in any endeavor instead of doing life in fits and starts. The message began to sink in and then I was introduced to Couch to 5K. The concept intrigued me. Just because a couch potato can only run for 60 seconds before being so tired that they are about to collapse, doesn't mean they should run for 60 seconds and then stop for the day. Instead, for week 1, one can run for 60 seconds and walk for 90 seconds and do that repetition 10 times. Then on week 2, one can run for 90 seconds and walk for 3 minutes and repeat that many times. You only have to run three times a week so you rest a day in between.
I was hooked. It was the slow and steady I was after, with my own running coach in my ear buds telling me when to start and stop (there is a free app that allows you to listen to your own music and then interrupts to tell you when to walk and run.) This app became my best friend. In 9 weeks, one can go from complete couch potato to being able to run a 5K.
But the truth is, I'm a bit of a wimp. It took me more than 9 weeks. Sometimes I'd repeat weeks. If we went for a trip or I had a sickness, I might start back up a few weeks before when I had left off. Several times I made it to a 5K only to let winter keep from running for months and I'd have to start the program over. But it didn't matter how many times I started and stopped; the point was I was running. I had a program to return after each relapse into couch potato.
So my approach to exercise has now changed significantly since those early kill-yourself-or-nothing days. I don't mind being a little sore; it shows you're pushing yourself. But I will no longer go from absolutely no exercise to 1 hour sessions with Billy Banks kick-boxing. It's all about pacing now.
Truthfully, my 5 mile runs three times each week feel like no big deal, even though my first half is always uphill. I feel great. The hardest part of running for me was when, in C25K, we had to go from 10 minute runs, to doing our first 20 minute run, I think the end of week 6. I thought I would DIE. But once I conquered that, nothing was as hard. Not even uphill in Colorado thin air. It's all good, now that I slowly built up my endurance. Slow and steady.
Bye Bye White Stuff
There are some things you just have to learn for yourself.
For instance, even though just about every sane diet book, magazine, and website that's ever existed has endlessly preached the merits whole grains, brown rice, and the like, and has ranted incessantly the evils of all processsed carbs, there was a part of me that just never caught on. Call me slow, or maybe just skeptical. (I'm talking about real nutritional advice here, not: "See how you can lose 20 lbs next week with this ONE WEIRD TRICK.")
I used to believe in the difference between whole grains and processed grains with about the same conviction that I believe in eating all organic. I thought there were some slight health benefits that some overachieving health nuts were all crazy about, but that the difference wasn't really that significant.
But ever since I started the no sugar diet I've tuned in to my body's hunger messages and I've discovered something very interesting: white stuff messes with me. After eating something white and processed, even without sugar, I feel MORE hungry after eating it than before I ever ate.
I know that sounds loopy, and when I tried to explain it hubby, he was very puzzled. But maybe one can't understand it who hasn't experienced it themselves. And whether or not anyone understands why it happens, I have my own empirical evidence: this is how I feel. White carbs make me hungry.
I wrote before how a no carb diet also makes me also crazy hungry, and since that discovery, I wasn't watching carbs other than sugar. But I felt miserable eating white stuff. I never felt satisfied.
Now what I've discovered is that brown, whole grain stuff works in my system as if it were a completely different food than the white stuff. The difference isn't slight, it's astonishing.
Have you ever sat next to someone who has been thin their entire life, in fact, maybe who even wishes she could gain a little weight, but no matter how hard she tries, she just can't gain a pound? And have you ever watched this person eat and noticed that even though she just told you she thinks she is too skinny, she was only able to eat half her dinner and pushed the rest aside? "I'm stuffed!" she exclaims. She is not endowed with supreme self-discipline, she simply isn't hungry. Food is metabolized differently. Her hunger and full signals work. They're not broken like mine.
Have you ever wished you could feel more like that person when you eat? What I've come to discover about eating a certain way is that it has the potential to turn me more into that person in that I can feel full and satisfied like them. I might not feel exactly like that yet, but I am much closer.
Avoiding white carbs makes me have healthier attitude toward food. It's such a freeing feeling and that is what makes me want to keep going with the way I'm eating. And that's why I like my new approach to eating healthy. When I'm doing these things because I see how it affects how I feel, I'm so much more likely to stick with it than doing it simply because Oprah said to. I just needed to find out for myself.
It's great fun to be one's own science experiment: you should try it.
For instance, even though just about every sane diet book, magazine, and website that's ever existed has endlessly preached the merits whole grains, brown rice, and the like, and has ranted incessantly the evils of all processsed carbs, there was a part of me that just never caught on. Call me slow, or maybe just skeptical. (I'm talking about real nutritional advice here, not: "See how you can lose 20 lbs next week with this ONE WEIRD TRICK.")
I used to believe in the difference between whole grains and processed grains with about the same conviction that I believe in eating all organic. I thought there were some slight health benefits that some overachieving health nuts were all crazy about, but that the difference wasn't really that significant.
But ever since I started the no sugar diet I've tuned in to my body's hunger messages and I've discovered something very interesting: white stuff messes with me. After eating something white and processed, even without sugar, I feel MORE hungry after eating it than before I ever ate.
I know that sounds loopy, and when I tried to explain it hubby, he was very puzzled. But maybe one can't understand it who hasn't experienced it themselves. And whether or not anyone understands why it happens, I have my own empirical evidence: this is how I feel. White carbs make me hungry.
I wrote before how a no carb diet also makes me also crazy hungry, and since that discovery, I wasn't watching carbs other than sugar. But I felt miserable eating white stuff. I never felt satisfied.
Now what I've discovered is that brown, whole grain stuff works in my system as if it were a completely different food than the white stuff. The difference isn't slight, it's astonishing.
Have you ever sat next to someone who has been thin their entire life, in fact, maybe who even wishes she could gain a little weight, but no matter how hard she tries, she just can't gain a pound? And have you ever watched this person eat and noticed that even though she just told you she thinks she is too skinny, she was only able to eat half her dinner and pushed the rest aside? "I'm stuffed!" she exclaims. She is not endowed with supreme self-discipline, she simply isn't hungry. Food is metabolized differently. Her hunger and full signals work. They're not broken like mine.
Have you ever wished you could feel more like that person when you eat? What I've come to discover about eating a certain way is that it has the potential to turn me more into that person in that I can feel full and satisfied like them. I might not feel exactly like that yet, but I am much closer.
Avoiding white carbs makes me have healthier attitude toward food. It's such a freeing feeling and that is what makes me want to keep going with the way I'm eating. And that's why I like my new approach to eating healthy. When I'm doing these things because I see how it affects how I feel, I'm so much more likely to stick with it than doing it simply because Oprah said to. I just needed to find out for myself.
It's great fun to be one's own science experiment: you should try it.
Friday, May 20, 2016
Talking Myself into a New Obsession
I've always liked to read and research, from the time I was a young kid. I can remember going to the library and coming home with a large stack of books on a scientific subject. And I had my obsessions.
For a while it was dolphins. I may or may not have read cover to cover every last book the public library had on dolphins. To this day I have a vivid memory of how real the underwater experiences were to me as I read them. I spent so much time thinking about living under water that in my memory I can still see the water all around me as I imagined it as a kid. I can still remember the thrill of the dolphin rescue stories, and the heart tugs I felt as I read books about trainers who came to intimately know and love their dolphins.
I also may or may not have read every book my library had on raising domestic rabbits, and on Jacques Cousteau and his underwater adventures, and on submarines traveling into the Mariana Trench, and on shells and oceanography and marine biology. My obsession was animals and my specialty was those in the sea.
Because this is how I have always approached life--if you're going to read about something then read every last book--I've never known how to do life any other way. People naturally assume others think like they do, so imagine my surprise on running into a mom who didn't share my passion for reading every child-rearing book on the market. "You mean you haven't read Baby Wise and Child Wise and To Train Up a Child and Shepherding a Child's Heart and Don't Make Me Count to Three and Standing on the Promises? What about Hints of Child Training and Age of Opportunity and Instructing a Child's Heart and Wise Words for Moms and Bringing Up Boys and Future Men and Loving the Little Years and 100 Chores Your Child Can Do at Home?" (I may or may not have known how to put much of what I read into practice, but there are some pretty good ideas in the books in that list.)
But all that to say, I am attempting to channel my old research-obsession-habit into a health, exercise, and no-sugar direction. The age 39 equivalent to reading 14 books on a single subject might just amount to reading 1 actual book with a smattering of articles and YouTube lectures. But even a smattering of research keeps me motivated and anyway, it's fun to take up old habits.
A friend recommended Thinner This Year, with the explanation that even though the title is lame, it is full on scientific evidence and explanation behind the importance of exercise and nutrition, and that it's not just for people who want to become thinner but anyone who wants to be healthier. Instead of telling you what you should do, it explains why. All I had to hear was the word "science" and my interest was piqued. I may or may not have just met my new obsession.
For a while it was dolphins. I may or may not have read cover to cover every last book the public library had on dolphins. To this day I have a vivid memory of how real the underwater experiences were to me as I read them. I spent so much time thinking about living under water that in my memory I can still see the water all around me as I imagined it as a kid. I can still remember the thrill of the dolphin rescue stories, and the heart tugs I felt as I read books about trainers who came to intimately know and love their dolphins.
I also may or may not have read every book my library had on raising domestic rabbits, and on Jacques Cousteau and his underwater adventures, and on submarines traveling into the Mariana Trench, and on shells and oceanography and marine biology. My obsession was animals and my specialty was those in the sea.
Because this is how I have always approached life--if you're going to read about something then read every last book--I've never known how to do life any other way. People naturally assume others think like they do, so imagine my surprise on running into a mom who didn't share my passion for reading every child-rearing book on the market. "You mean you haven't read Baby Wise and Child Wise and To Train Up a Child and Shepherding a Child's Heart and Don't Make Me Count to Three and Standing on the Promises? What about Hints of Child Training and Age of Opportunity and Instructing a Child's Heart and Wise Words for Moms and Bringing Up Boys and Future Men and Loving the Little Years and 100 Chores Your Child Can Do at Home?" (I may or may not have known how to put much of what I read into practice, but there are some pretty good ideas in the books in that list.)
But all that to say, I am attempting to channel my old research-obsession-habit into a health, exercise, and no-sugar direction. The age 39 equivalent to reading 14 books on a single subject might just amount to reading 1 actual book with a smattering of articles and YouTube lectures. But even a smattering of research keeps me motivated and anyway, it's fun to take up old habits.
A friend recommended Thinner This Year, with the explanation that even though the title is lame, it is full on scientific evidence and explanation behind the importance of exercise and nutrition, and that it's not just for people who want to become thinner but anyone who wants to be healthier. Instead of telling you what you should do, it explains why. All I had to hear was the word "science" and my interest was piqued. I may or may not have just met my new obsession.
Vows
One month and counting
I am glad that I am doing this year without sugar--most of the time. But I could have picked better timing.
The problem is we went on a trip to celebrate our 20th anniversary and we kept thinking: wouldn't it be fun to bike and get an ice cream cone or wouldn't a dessert be nice tonight. I was wishing I had waited till after our trip to start my sugar fast. After all, celebrations seem to me to be the real reason that sugar exists. The goal of my year-long fast from sugar is not to never eat it again after a year, but to learn to eat it only on special occasions. And a 20 year wedding anniversary is pretty special.
Alas, my dilemma was put into perspective upon reading through the one-year Bible where I was reminded that much more detrimental vows have been made in history than missing dessert. Jephthah said to the LORD: “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
Then Jephthah is devastated to find his own daughter coming through the doors as he returns. And he does sacrifice her!
This passage had always puzzled me because I thought: "Well what did Jephthah think was going to come out of the door of his house? Don't only people come through the doors of houses?" But then I heard a pastor explain that often the first floor of someone's house was used as a barn for the animals and the family lived on the second floor. Makes sense to me. But the likelihood of a person coming out still seems pretty high.
So I am content with my sugar fast and feeling great. I will have many more celebrations in the coming year that will prove challenging, but I do believe I cleared the largest hurdle first.
I am glad that I am doing this year without sugar--most of the time. But I could have picked better timing.
The problem is we went on a trip to celebrate our 20th anniversary and we kept thinking: wouldn't it be fun to bike and get an ice cream cone or wouldn't a dessert be nice tonight. I was wishing I had waited till after our trip to start my sugar fast. After all, celebrations seem to me to be the real reason that sugar exists. The goal of my year-long fast from sugar is not to never eat it again after a year, but to learn to eat it only on special occasions. And a 20 year wedding anniversary is pretty special.
Alas, my dilemma was put into perspective upon reading through the one-year Bible where I was reminded that much more detrimental vows have been made in history than missing dessert. Jephthah said to the LORD: “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
Then Jephthah is devastated to find his own daughter coming through the doors as he returns. And he does sacrifice her!
This passage had always puzzled me because I thought: "Well what did Jephthah think was going to come out of the door of his house? Don't only people come through the doors of houses?" But then I heard a pastor explain that often the first floor of someone's house was used as a barn for the animals and the family lived on the second floor. Makes sense to me. But the likelihood of a person coming out still seems pretty high.
So I am content with my sugar fast and feeling great. I will have many more celebrations in the coming year that will prove challenging, but I do believe I cleared the largest hurdle first.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Two Weeks and Counting: Carbs, good or bad?
Thursday April 28
Today marks two weeks since I began this adventure. I'm thankful to have made it this far so that I could see that it gets easier, not harder. I still think the very first day was the hardest. It was like standing at the starting line before very long race and knowing that you still had the chance to back away. But once you are in full swing, once you find your stride, the danger of turning back is so much less.
This whole week I have not had the underlying sense of hunger and depravation that I felt the first week. The sugar addiction is gone and I feel great. I don't crave it in the least. Well, I should qualify that. I don't crave sugar just to eat sugar. But I do sometimes day dream about ooey, gooey cinnamon rolls, or chocolate chip cookie dough. But I can quickly snap myself out of such reverie.
But now that I've cut out sugar, which is unquestionably bad, I want to explore other carbs. Are they good or bad. How do they make me feel?
Although there are some nutrition facts that apply to every person, there also seems to be variety from person to person in how we process and react to foods. I think that carbs is one of those areas.
Since different calorie reduction approaches work better for different people, I decided that I was going to do an experiment where I would try a different approach for a week at a time and see how I felt and reacted at the end of the week. I'll spare you the blow-by-blow and give you the bottom line summary: low carb is definitely not for me.
I have heard some people say carbs give them blood sugar swings and when they cut out carbs they lose weight without feeling hungry at all. If that's true for their body type, they should run with it.
My experience is just the opposite. A low carb diet first of all makes me feel CRAZY hungry. Thanks to the explanation given by Sugar: the Bitter Truth I finally understand why this is. My brain gets glucose deprived which makes me feel starving, and it's very difficult and inefficient for my body to make glucose fast enough from either protein or fat. This slows my metabolism down and makes me feel like if I have to be on this diet for one more day I might die. I lost no weight the low-carb week while feeling horribly hungry, deprived, and miserable.
However, when I spent another week eating a balanced diet of complex carbs (no sugar of course), protein, and a small amount of fat, I hardly felt hungry at all even though I was experimenting with cutting at least 500 calories out a day. I lost 4 lbs in one week, while not feeling hungry. The difference is that whenever I began to feel a twinge of shaky, irritable, I-need-to-eat-or-I'm-going-to-die (aka "hangry"), I would eat a complex carb and immediately feel great again. On the low carb week, I would get that feeling but the cheese stick or the lunch meat or whatever low carb thing I ate did nothing to help with the horrible hunger feeling.
I really like the good old-fashioned count your calories method, although with modern technology, it's not really that old-fashioned anymore. My Fitbit tells me how many calories I've burned based on the exercise it's tracked, and so I enter what I've eaten into the Fitbit to keep the calories under my output. And the calorie value of every food on the planet is stored in the app on the phone so it's as easy as typing in the word: EGG.
But for those who don't have a Fitbit, there's many other free apps which will do the exact same thing for you. The most popular one I've heard of is My Fitness Pal. Entering food only takes about a minute after each meal, or sometime less.
But of course, I write all this down mainly for myself. I'm learning to be my own personal trainer, my own nutrition counselor, and customize a plan for me. Some people may hate entering food into an electronic device; they'd rather cut out a whole food group or follow the Paleo diet or South Beach, or Atkins. People are complex; personalities are complex. Everyone should do what works for them.
I'd much rather write everything down if it means I can give myself a little flexibility in what I eat. For instance, last night for dinner we ate a Mexican casserole that my family loves consisting of rice, black beans, corn, canned tomatoes and shredded cheese mixed together and baked in the oven. Because it has shredded cheese in it, I couldn't have eaten it if I was on Weight Watcher's Simply Filling, or South Beach. Because of the rice, I couldn't have eaten it if I was on Paleo or low carb. But I don't want to eat something different than my family every night or be super limited in what I can make them. Calculating the calories for this casserole was easy, we all ate the same thing, I felt full and satisfied, yet I ate 500 calories less for the day than I burned.
We all have to find our own groove. Sometimes it takes experimentation. Books and blogs can be helpful, but in the end, I am the one who has to find a way to make it work, and find something I enjoy sticking with.
Today marks two weeks since I began this adventure. I'm thankful to have made it this far so that I could see that it gets easier, not harder. I still think the very first day was the hardest. It was like standing at the starting line before very long race and knowing that you still had the chance to back away. But once you are in full swing, once you find your stride, the danger of turning back is so much less.
This whole week I have not had the underlying sense of hunger and depravation that I felt the first week. The sugar addiction is gone and I feel great. I don't crave it in the least. Well, I should qualify that. I don't crave sugar just to eat sugar. But I do sometimes day dream about ooey, gooey cinnamon rolls, or chocolate chip cookie dough. But I can quickly snap myself out of such reverie.
But now that I've cut out sugar, which is unquestionably bad, I want to explore other carbs. Are they good or bad. How do they make me feel?
Although there are some nutrition facts that apply to every person, there also seems to be variety from person to person in how we process and react to foods. I think that carbs is one of those areas.
Since different calorie reduction approaches work better for different people, I decided that I was going to do an experiment where I would try a different approach for a week at a time and see how I felt and reacted at the end of the week. I'll spare you the blow-by-blow and give you the bottom line summary: low carb is definitely not for me.
I have heard some people say carbs give them blood sugar swings and when they cut out carbs they lose weight without feeling hungry at all. If that's true for their body type, they should run with it.
My experience is just the opposite. A low carb diet first of all makes me feel CRAZY hungry. Thanks to the explanation given by Sugar: the Bitter Truth I finally understand why this is. My brain gets glucose deprived which makes me feel starving, and it's very difficult and inefficient for my body to make glucose fast enough from either protein or fat. This slows my metabolism down and makes me feel like if I have to be on this diet for one more day I might die. I lost no weight the low-carb week while feeling horribly hungry, deprived, and miserable.
However, when I spent another week eating a balanced diet of complex carbs (no sugar of course), protein, and a small amount of fat, I hardly felt hungry at all even though I was experimenting with cutting at least 500 calories out a day. I lost 4 lbs in one week, while not feeling hungry. The difference is that whenever I began to feel a twinge of shaky, irritable, I-need-to-eat-or-I'm-going-to-die (aka "hangry"), I would eat a complex carb and immediately feel great again. On the low carb week, I would get that feeling but the cheese stick or the lunch meat or whatever low carb thing I ate did nothing to help with the horrible hunger feeling.
I really like the good old-fashioned count your calories method, although with modern technology, it's not really that old-fashioned anymore. My Fitbit tells me how many calories I've burned based on the exercise it's tracked, and so I enter what I've eaten into the Fitbit to keep the calories under my output. And the calorie value of every food on the planet is stored in the app on the phone so it's as easy as typing in the word: EGG.
But for those who don't have a Fitbit, there's many other free apps which will do the exact same thing for you. The most popular one I've heard of is My Fitness Pal. Entering food only takes about a minute after each meal, or sometime less.
But of course, I write all this down mainly for myself. I'm learning to be my own personal trainer, my own nutrition counselor, and customize a plan for me. Some people may hate entering food into an electronic device; they'd rather cut out a whole food group or follow the Paleo diet or South Beach, or Atkins. People are complex; personalities are complex. Everyone should do what works for them.
I'd much rather write everything down if it means I can give myself a little flexibility in what I eat. For instance, last night for dinner we ate a Mexican casserole that my family loves consisting of rice, black beans, corn, canned tomatoes and shredded cheese mixed together and baked in the oven. Because it has shredded cheese in it, I couldn't have eaten it if I was on Weight Watcher's Simply Filling, or South Beach. Because of the rice, I couldn't have eaten it if I was on Paleo or low carb. But I don't want to eat something different than my family every night or be super limited in what I can make them. Calculating the calories for this casserole was easy, we all ate the same thing, I felt full and satisfied, yet I ate 500 calories less for the day than I burned.
We all have to find our own groove. Sometimes it takes experimentation. Books and blogs can be helpful, but in the end, I am the one who has to find a way to make it work, and find something I enjoy sticking with.
Day 12: Sugar, the Bitter Truth
Monday April 25
One thing that really fuels my motivation to keep this up is to arm myself with knowledge. I watched a lecture on YouTube (that's had 6 million views) called Sugar: the Bitter Truth by Dr. Robert Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology. Some of the chemistry in the lecture is technical, but the rest is easy to follow.
The most helpful information I gleaned was on the difference in how the body processes the carbohydrate found in bread, pasta, or rice (pure glucose) compared with how it processes both white table sugar and high fructose corn syrup (which contains some glucose with a lot of fructose). Without going into too much detail, here are some things to note:
1) Gram per gram, a much higher percentage of fructose ends up as fat compared to an equal amount of glucose eaten.
2) When equal amounts of glucose and fructose are consumed, fructose effects the body's endocrine system much more negatively than glucose, spiking insulin and taxing the liver.
3) Glucose is the natural fuel of every cell in the body and needed for brain function. It triggers fullness sensations in the brain which fructose does not. Fructose is not a natural fuel and must be processed in the liver to be used. Something which the liver has to process to use is also called a poison.
4) Despite the similarities in names, fruit does not contain large amounts of fructose, but has mostly glucose with small amounts of fructose. The large percentage of water and fiber contained in fruit offsets the small amounts of fructose, so the intake of fruit does not need to be limited.
5) And lastly, a real shocker: Soft drinks made with high fructose corn syrup are pretty much the worst thing of the planet that anyone could consume. Of course, we all knew they were bad for us, but perhaps few knew how bad. Since I've always had an interest in science, for me, there's no motivation in the world like knowing the facts behind something. A vague notion that something's bad for me is nothing like hearing a scientist say: THIS IS A POISON, and then explain exactly how it's a poison.
One thing that really fuels my motivation to keep this up is to arm myself with knowledge. I watched a lecture on YouTube (that's had 6 million views) called Sugar: the Bitter Truth by Dr. Robert Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology. Some of the chemistry in the lecture is technical, but the rest is easy to follow.
The most helpful information I gleaned was on the difference in how the body processes the carbohydrate found in bread, pasta, or rice (pure glucose) compared with how it processes both white table sugar and high fructose corn syrup (which contains some glucose with a lot of fructose). Without going into too much detail, here are some things to note:
1) Gram per gram, a much higher percentage of fructose ends up as fat compared to an equal amount of glucose eaten.
2) When equal amounts of glucose and fructose are consumed, fructose effects the body's endocrine system much more negatively than glucose, spiking insulin and taxing the liver.
3) Glucose is the natural fuel of every cell in the body and needed for brain function. It triggers fullness sensations in the brain which fructose does not. Fructose is not a natural fuel and must be processed in the liver to be used. Something which the liver has to process to use is also called a poison.
4) Despite the similarities in names, fruit does not contain large amounts of fructose, but has mostly glucose with small amounts of fructose. The large percentage of water and fiber contained in fruit offsets the small amounts of fructose, so the intake of fruit does not need to be limited.
5) And lastly, a real shocker: Soft drinks made with high fructose corn syrup are pretty much the worst thing of the planet that anyone could consume. Of course, we all knew they were bad for us, but perhaps few knew how bad. Since I've always had an interest in science, for me, there's no motivation in the world like knowing the facts behind something. A vague notion that something's bad for me is nothing like hearing a scientist say: THIS IS A POISON, and then explain exactly how it's a poison.
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