The Time is Going to Pass Anyway…

I don’t think I’m the only parent in America that gave their child a hundred more hugs and kisses this week than usual. My little guy turned 8 months old today. He depends on me for everything, and still, I have him to thank for almost everything good in my life. He is my reason to make healthy choices. He’s my license to play, laugh, and generally be less serious. He is also my living reminder that time is flying by. With each day, I’m either working towards my goals, or I’m just getting older.

Thanks, Leland. I feel like we’re learning to walk together.

A Less Sweet Two Weeks

I have read countless articles and listened to endless dogmatic advice about cutting out artificial sweeteners from my diet.  I tend to think there is no major health implication to adding a packet of Sweet n’ Low to my coffee or drinking Crystal Light.  These sweeteners make my life more enjoyable, and they make it easier to stay compliant with my diet.

However, I’m results driven.  If I could lose weight faster by giving up or reducing artificial sweeteners from my diet, I would do it.  I’m going to be trying this out for the next two weeks.  On Sunday, I gave up my faux sugar until at least Saturday, June 1st.  If I see an increase in the pace of my weight loss then I’ll place sugar free sweeteners in the category of “occasional treat” instead of “diet crutch.”  However, if my sweet-less suffering makes no difference at all then it will be pink packets for me whenever I want it.

 

Weigh In Friday: 2 lbs more down

This post is a little late, but with a rambunctious and impatient 7 month old, I can’t always stick to my own schedule.  I weighed in yesterday, and I’m down two more pounds for the week.  That brings my grand progress total to 24 gloriously gone pounds.

I also took my measurements yesterday, and they made me want to weep.  I’ll preface this by saying that I went shopping with my mother as a Mother’s Day outing, and I couldn’t believe I was wearing clothing that was two sizes smaller in shirts and three sizes smaller in pants.  I didn’t think my weight loss had been so profound.  I quantified that loss yesterday to the tune of 27″ in 6 weeks.  It really makes me wish I took measurements at the beginning of the year when I started losing weight.

Let’s review the individual changes:

Weight: 284 lbs —> 260 lbs —> headed towards a goal of 175 lbs (5′ 9″ / 135lbs of lean muscle mass)

Chest: 48.9″ —> 44.1″

Bicep: 16.6″ —> 13.6″

Thigh: 31.7″ —> 27.6″

Waist: 45.2″ —> 42.3″

Calf: 18.7″ —> 15.7″

Hips: 54.2″ —> 50.1″

Shoulders: 52.2 —>49.6

Neck: 16.2″ —>13.6

Not to mention, I’ve defeated pre-diabetes.  I haven’t had a blood sugar over 100 mg/dl in over two weeks!It is embarrassing to put these figures out to the world to see even though I feel I have a lot to be proud of so far.  However, I think embarrassment can be a fabulous motivator.  It’s just one more thing sending me sailing towards my goal.

Strategies for Success: Photo Logging Your Diet

Everyone knows at least one person that annoyingly takes pictures of everything that they eat and blasts it over social media like its newsworthy.  Recently, a Canadian researcher told the Huffington Post that dedication to creating so called “food porn” is a sign of mental illness.  Well, brace yourselves.  I’m going to suggest you trample deep into lameness and psychopathy.  It’s time to start photo logging your diet.

I’ve been reading The Four Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss , and he had a tip for losing weight that made sense to me: keeping a photo diary of your meals.  I already use MyFitnessPal to track calories, but its easy to fool yourself into thinking you ate less or better than you actually did.  This is particularly true if you need to log your intake well after your meal, which frequently happens to me sense my 7 month old can be quite demanding at times.  A picture keeps you honest, “Oh I did add cheddar to that salad,” or “hey- I forgot about the almonds I had on the side.”

Beyond making it crystal clear about the quantity and quality of what you have eaten, a photo journal of your meals also requires that you log before you eat.  This provides you with a moment of reckoning.  It’s just you with your camera pointing down at a heap of food you are about to consume.  Are you happy with what you see?  Is it in line with your goals?

Finally, Ferriss recommends that the log be public record.  The threat of embarrassment can do wonders to dedication to your goals.  In that spirit, you can find my freshly started photo log here: http://imgur.com/vynHGqc

A Victory in Biohacking

After a couple weeks of testing my blood, I feel like I have successfully conquered my pre-diabetes with diet.  I have not recorded a blood sugar reading over 100 this month.

I realized my blood sugar was a problem while pregnant with my son last year.  I developed gestational diabetes, and my blood sugars were still elevated several months after birth.  A taste of diabetic life, with its injections and medications, was enough for me to realize that I had to do something before I reached the tipping point of type 2 diabetes.

From my experience with the Atkins diet ten years ago, I knew that some people had used low-carb dieting to reverse type 2 diabetes.  I did more research, and I decided I might benefit from a high-fat, low carb approach, also known as keto, more than a high protein, low carb method.  I chose this path because protein can still be converted to glucose by the liver, and it made sense that eating fat would have a high satiety level.  I assumed this would be essential to reducing my weight.

After a month of keto dieting, I dropped 16 lbs, which brought my overall weight loss for the year to 22 lbs.  More importantly, my blood sugars became normal. 

In this quest to fix my own looming health crisis, I implemented a well-know ‘biohack’- to use a low-carb diet to reduce my blood sugar readings during fasting and post-meals.  As a side note, I won’t say that this has ‘cured’ my insulin resistance because I have a distinct feeling if I ate a high-carb meal, I would experience blood sugars that are slightly elevated from normal.  I haven’t tested this though.  Instead, I have gamed my system into yielding the results I want to have, the results that preserve my organs from the damage done by high blood sugar levels.

I believe that modern medicine had done many great things, but it has much further to go before it unlocks the mysterious of human body.  I experienced this first hand during my complicated pregnancy.  I had twelve doctors over the course of my pregnancy, but they seemed to chronically be on different pages.  While I did have a healthy baby born at 36 weeks, I began to understand that my health and the health of my family is ultimately my responsibility.  I can not wait for these people to show me the answers.  They are influenced by politics, insurance companies, the corporation they work for, and most of all, our deep lack of understanding on how infinitesimal changes in our biochemistry interact to promote or degrade our health.

These experiences have left me hooked on biohacking.  There is an entire community of people researching and testing theories on themselves to see if they can improve everything from their sex lives to their cholesterol levels to their mental function.  I’ve been diving head first into the information others have collected.  I’m also very interested to conduct some experiments on myself.  In my early searching, I have yet to find a good source of female biohackers.  I’m sure there are some out there.  I’m very interested to know what they’ve learned given that feminine biology is so unique.

I have a feeling my blog is about to be repleat with biohacking.

Nerd Out with a Couple Great Diet Calculators

I have always heard to eat at least your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) otherwise, your body will at best go into starvation mode or, at worst, start to break down your muscles and organs as you attempt to lose weight.  I’m a tall, big woman.  I tried eating at my BMR, and my weight loss flatlined.  What the hell happened?

I figured this one out recently…  My body is composed about 50/50 between fat and lean muscle mass/ organs.  I know, I’m obese.  That’s why I’m blogging about losing some damn weight.  If I use just any calculator to determine my BMR, it will count much more of my weight as lean muscle than I really have.  Fat burns about 20% of what muscle does.  That means my results could be attributing 80% more burning power to half of my body than I actually have.  [facepalm]

I found a calculator that lets me put in my own BMI.  Just click on the advance settings.  I used this calculator to determine what my calorie goals should look like for my real body.

With this information, you can head over this other tool that will help you calculate your meal plan.  I love this tool because you can program your own macro-nutrients and how often you want to eat.  Moreover, if you were curious about what your diet would look like on other plans, like The Zone or Low-fat, it will show you.

For the Love of Ketosis… Ketostixs

When I first started my keto diet, I fell in love with the ketostix.  For those of you who are unfamilar, ketostix are test strips that identify ketones in your urine.  You pee on the stick and wait to see the color change from neutral, “no ketones here” all the way to deep purple, “whoa, you’ve got alot of ketones.”  The test can reassure a newbie keto dieter that they are doing the diet right because they are in ketosis.  Through food logging and testing frequently, they can also help you understand your carb-load limits.

I wanted to talk about ketostixs because I recently learned a couple bits of new information about them that I thought others might find useful:

1)  Darker is not better:  I lost over 100 lbs on Atkins about a decade ago.  I lived and died on seeing a ketostix reading almost every pee, and it had to be dark purple!  i usually got my wish.  Now, I’m dieting using LCHF, I couldn’t seem to get the sticks color to breech past trace or small on most occassions.  I thought I was doing something wrong.

In reality, I was doing something right.  There is no such thing as being “more in ketosis.”  Ketosis is a state that you are either in or you are out.  Thus, a darker strip reading only indicates that your urine is repleat with waste, and you are probably dehydrated- a big diet no-no.  If you only log small or trace amounts of ketones, you are drinking enough water to dilute your pee. 

2)  Don’t use ketostix all the time–  There is no reason to test every single urine stream you produce.  If you need to use these sticks to kick off your diet and understand your body, go for it!  I understand completely.  However, you will someday graduate from a keto newbie to a keto veteran.  When that day happens, trust that you understand your body and only fuss with these if you cheat.  People pay lip service to saying, “its a lifestyle change, not a diet.”  Well, act like it and build up your confidence.  Don’t look for validation from something you pissed on.

Wrong again, American Heart Association

Wrong again, American Heart Association

I’m not a fan of the American Heart Association.  I think their low-fat, whole grain rich diet recommendations are keeping insulin-resistant people fat and sick.  Apparently, the Institute of Medicine has taken issue with their recommendations to keep salt intake below 1500 mg daily. 

In much the same way AHA spent years pushing that less and less fat should be in the human diet, each time garnering more press for themselves, they are now doing this with salt.  Every couple of years we should be eating less.  I’m glad the Institute of Medicine has stood up with a contrary point of view.  Humans need salt.

Akkermansia muciniphila, the obesity-detering gut-bacteria that could

Akkermansia muciniphila, the obesity-detering gut-bacteria that could

There is interesting new research out about a bacteria that resides in the gut called, Akkermansia muciniphila.  Apparently, its plentifully found in thin people, but it is M.I.A. in obese folks.  Scientist have been able to introduce this little friend into the stomach of obese mice, and it cut their excess weight in half without any other changes. 

There’s a BBC story about this research, too.  You can find it here.

Of course, I’m not looking for these miracles to cure my own weight issues, but hopefully science is getting better at understanding how humans can have different biochemistry barriers and helpers towards good health. 

Yo Mama

Yo Mama

I celebrated my first Mother’s Day with my husband and seven month old son today.  In honor of the occasion, I give you this ‘Yo Mama’ thread.  Enjoy!