Monday, June 27, 2011

Step 00 to Step 0

How do we move ourselves from not caring about our weight through becoming concerned enough to do something into the action stage? Extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation? and the related question, how do we maintain that motivation?  

We all know that we are overweight, obese, or otherwise have weight issues. This may not apply to those who have a few pounds to loose, weight lifters who want to cut, or to who are just got a little heavy for the first time. It applies to those of us who have had a life time of diets, obesity. First we must become desperate, defeated, willing to go to any lengths, to learn anything, to try anything, to step from the tested and known path and try something different. This requires a level of desperation that is difficult to maintain once we start having success.

Admitting complete defeat in regard to something is not something physiologists ascribe to. I am not saying that we remain defeated, just that we walk away from the methods we had been employing, go take a few classes or learn something more, come back and try a new approach.  There are many of us who have had some success through education, through learning other approaches to this vexing problem, and through learning about ourselves. Persistence is the venture we need to foster here, along with endurance.

Pain is changeful, if there is such a word. Pain can push the need for change. Change is painful also. Obesity is painful in so many ways. Anyone who is obese or has been obese knows these pains. We need to accept that the advice until now that we have received has not been enough to correct the problem. Any of those of us who have partly recovered will likely attest to that. But there is hope. Suppose we took the life lessons from those recovering obese persons, and assembled a list of what caused the life alternating changes, and then we went through the list and tried them, one at a time until we found a solution. There is hope of full and complete recovery. Obesity is a chronic disease; we can regress at any time. We will need ongoing effort for the remainder of our lives; I will need to work at this the remainder of my life.

We live at a great time in human history. We have technology, the internet, surplus of foods of superb palatablity. We have people who know how to sell that food to the obese with uncanny skill that we are unable to resist. The drug of choice to addicts if you like. Once we treat it as such, as an addiction, even if it is not, the problem can be solved, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, but often. We live in the information age, the shear volume of information is staggering. The issue becomes much of that information is wrong, and we must have some method of testing and verifying the information from first principals, basic science, or something. Even if it looks right it may still be wrong. Who is to ever know? But if it works for us, and helps us down our life, then it is better than what we had before.

Is this obesity problem solvable? For all time to the last 100 years, there were a few obese people,usually wealthy older people who stopped the need to do physical work. But the point is there were a great many thin or normal people who had no difficulty living thin. There are many today, but most of them are fussy eaters, who limit their intake of specific foods, or to specific foods. Either way, the effect seems to be similar. When we look at the recovered, some follow ritual eating programs, others do not. All watch the quantities of foods some or all of the time. Attitude is a major part of recovery, while we are recovering and maintaining. When we loose that suitable attitude, with respect to food, the problem comes back.

Any comments? Who would like to be part of this project?

Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Purpose of Blogs

What is the ultimate purpose of blogs? What are they becoming?

I guess each blog has it's own purpose, or the purpose of the main author, a place to express their beliefs, values, feelings,  ...  at the time of writing. We are all works in progress. Our views change, migrate, morph; some matter, some do not. Buddha said something like test the belief, if it works, live up to it, if it does not work, move on. Many paths lead to one solution.

It is my view now that if we ask for comments, we must just absorb and ignore negative comments, not respond to them, unless they are obviously misinterpreting what we are saying. Then perhaps the best way is to explain more clearly what we are saying, recognizing that the other person is just as stiff, stubborn, inflexible in their view, and may not understand, nor want to understand or even consider what we are saying.

What does all this matter in the overall picture? Nobody cares. We are each just doing life without parole in our own lives, bodies, situations. It may be best just to ignore the shit and carry on blindly down our own path,  observing what others are doing, testing if it helps us or not, and keeping my comments to myself.

Mathematics and physics are the ultimate test. Put a number on the value, and watch it over time by recording and even plotting the results. Those who do not want to do this, can do as they please, it makes no difference to me. I can sit back and watch them flail. I feel no pain, and little empathy for those who are carrying on without looking around for a better softer way. The better softer way may be the straight and narrow. Patience, tolerance, compassion and understanding can only be applied to those who have stopped flailing, and are ready to learn what I can teach. It is up to them, then to evaluate what they have learned and make there decisions. What I intended to teach and what they learned may be very different. Such is life.

It is now obvious to me that there are many out in the blogasphere that are offering there services for a price. They each are giving away samples, some good samples, others just a taste, but not enough to tell if they have a solution of just the bait. Some only have the bait, some have the goods, but do not know why it works. Some have the goods, but do not know it, some just think they have a solution. The only test is the numbers and processes, some show progress, some do not.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Mind - Health Connection

Mind - health connection is being explored at http://smartpei.typepad.com/robert_patersons_weblog/2011/06/how-your-mind-affects-your-health-a-series.html
There is a Low-carb, Paleo, WAPF comparison at http://idblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/dietcomparison.pdf

Note that these all generally comply with no sugar, grains, omega 6 oils or other manufactured eatable products.

On changing  http://missinghumanmanual.com/?cat=16

to the furture http://eutrapelia.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html

GI diet site http://www.the-gi-diet.org, keep in mind that glycemic Load is really important. A few or a dab of Mediums may not be a issue but a whole head of cabbage can be a problem due to the "Chinese food effect" (Richard Bernstein).

A look at us introverts-- http://www.carlkingcreative.com/10-myths-about-introverts

Artificial sweeteners become poison http://www.drbriffa.com/2011/06/15/formaldehyde-offically-cancer-causing-and-the-common-foodstuff-that-increases-our-exposure-to-this-chemical/

Friday, June 24, 2011

Overeating

Here we have one more opinion on how to end overeating that is worth a look. Perhaps a bit more information will help.

http://www.diet-blog.com/09/the_end_of_overeating.php

To me, sugars,  most grains, starches mixed with fats, transfats, manufactured oils are the issue. Saturated fat is irreverent, as our body makes it from excess carbohydrates. The sum of intake must be equal or less than outputs, each with our personal Atwater factor. When I look at the set of partial differential equations that K Hall came up with, it is obviously complex, but possible to define each of their variables, to relate body weight to intake, but delta mass is dependent on both sides of the equation, and also dependent on the components, (saturated fat, oils, transfats, Glucose, fructose*, whole proteins, damaged proteins, specific proteins and a bunch of others).

I need 50 to 100 gms starches, no sugar, no fructose and about 65 gms of protein per day. ( I am not an athlete nor do I do physical work, therefore can burn fat just fine), The remainder of the intake can be fats. Fats crosses the gut wall by simple diffusion; it cannot happen against a concentration gradient. If you do not absorb the fat, you pass it. Almost all carbohydrate is absorbed.

Insulin, stimulated by carbohydrates, sweeps everything, glucose and fats into fat cells. Once we eat carbohydrates, especially dense easily digestible sugars and starches, insulin is released and we soon will be hungry because everything is pushed into fat cells. Internal starvation, partitioning of  resources, what ever we call it occurs, a normal reaction, that we must guard against, and stop. When we cut carbohydrates, we need fats to run on. To extract fat from fat tissue, there is a series of enzymes, and that is rate controlled below our hunger threshold. We need fat to avoid getting hungry. If we get hungry for long enough, we will eat and be out of control. We need to dust the crumbs off and get back on the program.

Be wary of advise to cut sugars, starched and fats. It is not sustainable (remember KimKins). We can live without sugars, and caloric dense carbohydrates, but not without fats. We need 1 gm of omega 3, 2 gm of omega 6, and the remainder any saturated or omega 9 will do.

For me this is about 200 to 400 C of carbohydrates, 260 C of protein that comes with equal or more fat, and the remainder of the daily total as fat. When we take something out of our diet, we may need to add vitamins and minerals also.

To me, sugar, most grains, manufactured oils and manufactured eatable products are simple not human food. Vegetables, meat, fish, proteins and animal products are food. Fruit is OK as garnish, as are nuts, legumes, and seeds.

* trouble makers
 

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Hyper-palatable screws homeostasis

Hyper-palatable screws homeostasis. Ultra good tasting food causes us to eat more than we need. Sugar is one factor, and is the general desire for savorier foods. To loose weight, I must eat plain food, never allow food to turn me on. Food is not to be "enjoyed" it is only for nourishment. 

Any view or comments?

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Moving into Action

The first stage of recovery from obesity is moving from apathy to action. We all know we should loose weight, and can find many excuses and causes, procrastination, other unknowns for our lack of movement into the weight loss camp.

First, abuse from people around us is a common issue. One way to handle abuse is just walk away, shut down, stop caring type of reaction. That is the most common reaction to abuse. Anyone that provides an opinion without knowledge is guilty of abuse, from the view of an obese person.

People of the ELMM camp are typical, of not understanding bio-physics, and the changes in efficiency of conversion from food to bio-mechanical energy. Calories are a measure of heat, not bio-mechanical energy. The efficiency of conversion from heat to bio-mechanical is not the same for fats as carbohydrates. The efficiency is not the same, person to person, and will change within a range over time. Atwater factors are not consistent, person to person, or over time, or between various mixtures of food. These numbers vary by at least 30%. Therein lies the difficulty. Ignorance is a simplifying thing.

The drive for food is instinctual, and is governed at a cellular level, not in the head. Some of us go through life hungry, and others have no appetite. Those with no appetite are often abusive toward those who have excessive hunger.  Abuse leads to shutting down, so your abuse does not help the problem, it makes it worse.

Any comments?

Saturday, June 18, 2011

A frame work for resolving overeating

A rainy Saturday. Too wet to cut grass or work outside. I think like my mother. Incomplete sentences.

A frame work for resolving overeating is required to identify and classify the causes of overeating, with the hope that removing or addressing each individual cause, a solution for myself may be found. Bear with me here, this is just a growing list.

  • Uninterested in weight or controlling their weight - no hope of recovery (type 0's)
    • just do not care about themselves, or those around them, apathetic 
    • unwilling to accept that they have a problem
    • unwilling to make the effort
    • too low on their priorities to take the time
    • dislike in knowing the truth
    • too negative to learn
    • too intimidated to learn, unlearn myths, to correct
    • too intimidated, influenced by dietitians who are preaching the government wrong line 
    • just negative toward someone who is forced / obligated / dependent on them / forced to live with them, lack of choice
    • living under or around a control freak, working for a control freak, being unable to leave due to financial reasons, (fear of poverty), fear of being alone, fear of other people, 
  • Physical
    • Hunger / Satiety / Satiation issues
    • Hyper-palatable screws homeostasis
    • only three factor one can control, food choices, amount, spacing, if we can control them
    • Cravings - vitamin and mineral deficient diets
    • Cravings - Food effects, intolerance, allergies that cause cravings, 
    • Mal-absorption - producing deficiencies, causing cravings  
    • body chemistry, BG, insulin, leptin, ....full list... issues
    • carbohydrate intolerance ( Maffetone), what ever you call then
    •  insulin resistance (Eades), metabolic syndrome, hyperinsulinemia (many low carbers), internal starvation ( McGuff) , energy partitioning (Taubes), what ever you call it group of issues
    •  leptin resistance, leptin signal blocked by insulin (Dr Lustig) and fructose issues
    • Sleep issues (need a belly full to sleep)( no carbs, else adrenalin rush near morning), sleep apnea, sleep deportation, insomnia 
    • medications / hormones / drugs (munchies) causing cravings, 
    • some people say some of these are not real, other claim they are very real... what to we actually know... are they real to only subsets of the population, or only when a number of factors occur.
    • Lack of exercise, negative output of energy... cannot burn intake... before hunger occurs... suggest a nutrient problem
  • Spiritual - philosophical - mental -conceptual
    • Lack of knowledge ... food, bio-physics, bio-chemistry, and physiology knowledge that is compatible with each other, believing popular myths.
    • Social - poor food to choose from, unwilling to say no
    • unwilling to give up "unhealthy for individual" foods- sugar, grains, nuts, cheese, oils, transfats, chocolate, alcohol, artificial sweeteners, etc.
    • unwilling to go without real food, do not consider something food, unwilling to go without food, unwilling to fast as protest.
    • Denial that "those" foods are unhealthy, typically grains as above list 
    • Stress eating - unable to handle the stresses of life or situation, adrenalin, cortisol  
    • Habit
    • enjoyment of food, celebration, indulgence, rather than sticking to new lifestyle. dropping back to previous lifestyle, 
    • moving from external to internal motivation, conviction in being right, whats right not who's right.
  • Environmental
    • Poor economy - poor food to choose from, 
    • Chemical in food / Medicines 
    • low nutrition food, deficient vitamins and minerals in diets
    • Living situation, family relationships, livelihood 
    • Living with a negative person
    • unwilling to change there behaviors to accommodate low impulse control person
    • Unwilling to believe that other have a problem with their behavior, it may be the others problem, but will they like the solution, general negative attitude.
  • Emotional
    • Hedonic - pleasure seeking - reward summary at http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/06/food-reward-dominant-factor-in-obesity_18.html
    • cooping adaption
    • lack of learning of other methods of stress resolution
    • boredom,  indecision, dislike of our work, activities, or boredom due to lack of the same
    • frustration fixation
    • family enmeshment / family tradition / dependence / control freaks
    • ridicule / harassment / bulling defense / insular personality / isolation / more comfortable than being around the abusers
    • low impulse control
    • food temptation - living is a open food environment, usually with a practicing overeater (type 0)
    • food addiction / addiction like hedonic responses
    • Depression .. which came first? Eating pushes serotonin, the feel good hormone, hedonic
    • Obsessive - compulsive

My thoughts on HAES

Beth at http://weightmaven.org/2011/06/17/a-study-for-the-haes-folks/ brought up HAES and that got me thinking...

I have concerns with HAES, for I think it is a small step in philosophy from HAES to relapse. I personally have struggled to recover as much as I have, and have adopted a near paleo lifestyle, because as much as anything, after we remove the toxic food, there is not much else left.

Potatoes, rice, beans, dairy, nuts and fruits are so calorie dense that I cannot eat much of them anyway. Soy and oils have never been part of my foods anyway. Supplements are required as I am unable to burn the excess calories to obtain the nutrition from our modern low nutrition cultivars with chemical fertilization.

I think it is important to identify and remove all the cause of overeating, hunger and cravings. Once we do that the problem should become much smaller. (pun intended)

There is also a danger for me in not being willing to give up problem foods. Sugar, wheat, chocolate, nuts, cheese, or anything that tastes like more. I think that seeking pleasure from food (hedonic) is one of the problems, and HAES want to hang onto pleasure foods and social foods.

I think that for recovery, I must be willing to give up problem foods, and must give up problem foods. Many people are unwilling to give up sugar, grains, manufactured snacks and the like, and have a weight problems. I hung around TOPS for a while, and many of those were unwilling/unable to give up calorie dense foods.  Same with the other program. It is difficult some days, and other days easy to give those poisons up. If I do not want to slip, I must stay off slippery slopes. I, personally, also seem to have mineral and vitamin craving issues.

HAES thinks that fat is good, as long as one is healthy. This is the want to be able to overeat, and be healthy concept. It may work if one was to run out of food for periods of time, but that is not likely in our time and location. I will stick to my rigid bigoted do as I do attitude. It got me here.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Sharma, Satiety - Hunger and Hedonic Eating

Today Dr Sharma post stoked me up. http://www.drsharma.ca/obesity-never-eat-when-you-are-hungry.html

He seems to think that there are only two reasons to eat,
1) Satiety/hunger and 2) hedonic eating
what about 
3) the cravings/hunger produced by mineral and vitamin deficiencies
4) food allergies/effects, glutin, wheat ( Davis)
5) carbohydrate intolerance ( Maffetone), what ever you call then
6) insulin resistance (Eades), metabolic syndrome, hyperinsulinemia (many low carbers), internal starvation ( McGuff) , energy partitioning (Taubes), what ever you call it group of issues
7) leptin resistance, leptin signal blocked by insulin (Dr Lustig) and fructose issues

Those of us who deal with these in our lives are just being ignored, as if we are the problem, of it is all in our heads. I live hungry, that is my life. The other choice is continual eating and obesity.

And here is a government paid theocratic ignoring the major part of the problem and concentrating on the small portion of the problem for which he thinks he has a solution.

Oh well, what do I expect from government. After all, they brought us the "Canada good food guide", the Canadian version of the USDA ignorant document created by McGovern and Butz, that created the obesity problem. That and chemical fertilizer, which grows artificial carbohydrate enriched plants, creating a less healthy nutrient to calorie ration, and grain feed cattle, also less nutrient dense. But that is beyond the scope of the "weight wise people". We, the people, must learn to live, in spite of political caca el torro.

After all, I was busy loosing weight on low carb, which "weight wise" condemn, so they threw me out of their program.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Wallace Map

Every now and then something old and interesting shows up. From
http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.com/2011/06/human-dna-migration-and-how-to-extract.html













If we consider that a generation is 33 years, and if each couple produce 4 children, in one thousand years, we would have the earths population; therefor, each migratory group may not have been large.  This ma account for the similarity across each native culture. They all had a small group of common ancestors.

Two US maps

obesity map usa photo
above from http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/you-are-where-you-eat.php
from  http://www.foodpolitics.com/2011/06/u-s-food-politics-in-action/



Electrical shocks therapy

Electrical shocks to train ones self to not eat. Ok. Sharma provides the idea.
http://www.drsharma.ca/obesity-electrical-stimulation-of-the-colon-can-suppress-appetite.html
so I can just see that, the dog is hungry like hell, but if goes to the food dish, he gets a shock, so he just lays there being hungry. Do I want to live like that?

Seasonal Eating

Don at http://donmatesz.blogspot.com/2011/06/farewell-to-paleo.html raises some issue with Paelo eating.
It has always been that eating was a seasonal thing, when something was plentiful, we the people, ate more of it, and less of other stuff.

Some was seasonal, but as a kid, I remember the year that we ended up with a lot of chickens for some reason. I think the old neighbor died, and his prepaid chick order came to us or something, but that year there were a lot of chickens. We ate chicken all fall, and canned, jared, jelled, chicken all winter. I was so sick of chicken. Chicken for breakfast, chicken sandwiches for lunch, chicken for supper, and next day, chicken for breakfast, chicken salad, chicken until it was done. Reminds me of the storey, How do you eat an elephant? -- one bite at a time.

Well anyway, in paleo time, I expect it was the same. When the crops were in season, mono food meals would have been common. Then for most of a year, it would not be available. Constant change, with a few all year around foods, but even those would be spared during other food plentiful seasons. Perhaps that is still necessary, but not being done due to storage and shipping of foods. Maybe I will do more of that, and see how it goes.

Now that I have chosen to ignore the governments guidelines, I am responsible for my own choices, but I always was. I just stopped listening to the experts and became a nutrition dilettante, but it is obvious that some of the professional information/advise is garbage. Or as Robb Wolf put it, Caca el torro.

Having said that my revised lifestyle food is sort of sorted, as is exercise by trying McGuff's system, next is pleasure, and amusements beyond exploring weight issues.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The plan,~ good, bad and ugly.

Beth got me thinking again... what do I eat/what should I eat.. decision time.-- Action plan

First a note about our information: some portion of what we know or believe is just wrong. This is higher in our beliefs than our knowledge, perhaps. Sorting is the big issue. I understand a medical professor said 1/2, while in engineering, Stan T. (he is still around in his early 90's) said we were 75% right in technical information, and about 50% in decisions.

During this revision of my food program, I will endeavor to produce three lists of foods, one banned, one questionable, unknown amounts, disputed, unsure, and one permitted with quantities permitted. Although I am generally Paleo/ LoBAG/ Atkins like/ Maffetone/ R. Bernstein/ Whole food/ type, I struggle with some foods. Olive oil is not going to be consumed if I can taste it. In historical time, fat spared protein, as protein was short in the middle east and southern Europe. That is what I believe is basis of high oil use in the Mediterranean diets, with lesser proteins.

I am also low energy, and am not going to make mayonnaise or competitive cooking. Simple quick, fridge to stove to table, and the dog gets the plate, therefore no seconds. I would not dirty a second plate. Dog gets leftovers. Done. end. Maybe even paper plates soon. No plastic.

One word definitions just do not fit. Coleman, Microwave, George Foreman, Crockpot, Cast iron pot, or cast iron fry-pan, soup pot in the winter, or raw, thems the choices for the most part, but that is a lot of choices.

Prohibited foods list, the bad. These I do not consider as food any longer.

Sugar in any form, HFCS, etc, including honey.
Artificial sweeteners of all stripes and patterns, all bad, some real bad, some by association.
Most ground grains. Wheat for sure. As a kid, we fed pigs barley. I just think barley is pig food. A bit in beef  barley soup, when caught in a tight spot may be ok.
Rice raises my BG, therefore it is out. Oatmeal is out for the same reason. A few oat flakes in rhubarb in the spring is ok.

Manufactured oils are to high in Omega 6, therefore they are out.
Oils are not needed beyond a few grams of fish oil, O3, each day. We get to much O6.

Manufactured eatable products are just unknown, calorie dense, extremely addicting and unnecessary and therefore are out.

Processed potatoes, BG rise with any quantity more than a taste.

Trans fats, therefore Criso, margarine, deep fried foods, french fries, chicken wings, donuts, etc are all out.

The Ugly, watch the quantities, just a taste, only if as a fat vector, or for other reason

Traces of rice, beans, and the like in soup is not enough to worry about. I do need a bit of fiber.
Oat bran, for the fiber if required.
Nuts always taste like more. Avoid.
Milk. I do not like the smell.
Cheese, that I like, for it evaporates around here. Frozen may slow the consumption. It always taste like more.
Potatoes, quick fried to 140 gm,  - par boiled ok to 120 gms, no mashed or processed.
Processed meats taste like more, and a full of nitrates.
Pulse- legumes- beans, peas, legumes, lintels, a spoon full, perhaps 1/4 cup, wet plate ready, soaked in the can.
Fruits,  imported are sugar with nice taste, avoid.

The good
Meats, fish, eggs, ~~ 1 gm protein/ kg of lean body mass
Veg, stocks, shoot, and leaves, flowers - perhaps 500 ml/meal or
roots - perhaps 200 ml/meal
enough fat to eat the vegetables
local fruits, watch quantities

3 meals /day if possible

Volume of food. Satiety is a meaningless concept to me. Ideally, eat no more than the prescribed amount. In reality, I still am hungry, tough, or eat until I am able to stop. Intrusive food thoughts are always an issue.

Exercise: Try Doug McGuff's method, once per week to muscle exhaustion. Morning has killed the whole day, so I should try end of the day.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Yudkin

In 1975 Yudkin...

In spite of these difficulties, such studies have already shown that sucrose, in proportions within the range found in current human dietaries, produces an increase in plasma lipids, uric acid, insulin and cortisol; abnormalities in platelet behavior; reduction in glucose tolerance; tissue resistance to insulin; damage to the liver and the kidney, and an increase in lipid in the aorta.

John Yudkin, M.D., Ph.D.

More at http://stan-heretic.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-sugar-stupid.html

One more potentially cult following video:
http://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.com/2011/06/must-watch-video-how-bad-science-and.html

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Low Carb Cult

Thanks Beth, for making me express this concept.

I have been in a benign weight related cult for many years, knowing it is viewed as a cult; hence, sort of understand cults, about as well as I understand nutrition.

Cult is the root of culture, but it has come to have a negative connotation. The pure concept of placing a social negative concept in a dictionary correct usage may be just questionable overstatement. Sometimes over-statement is the "only" way to express a concept. Some old guy (I do not recall who, perhaps Mach) said "if you want to understand something, study the extremes". (Maybe not Mach, he threw out science garbage of the day.)

We "low carb people" are a group of people who are going against the social norm, the early adopters of a concept, which we believe is correct, before there is blindly obvious reason to do such when viewed from conventional wisdom. Once we switch to the cult thinking, the obvious nature of our decision become blinding, and our natural desire to help people, to serve others takes over and drives us.

It is difficult to maintain this anti social stance without support. I rely on my fellows in this cult for the support.

Most new social concepts grow slowly from an idea or concept. It took the introduction of sugar at least 100 years to become unquestioned mainstream. We Low Carbers have been a disjointed fragment of society creating change, each person acting as a individual without unity. We need to unionize to be heard, to spread our message. Does that not sound like a cult?

Cults are merely groups of people with common concepts, memes if you prefer. Our obvious informal leader, Jimmy Moore, is a socially gregarious person with little previous knowledge in the field of nutrition, health, weight loss, medical issues, and has learned along the way. He brings the ability to communicate, to  listen and be heard. We rely on our experts, each in there own bounded field as we trip and trudge through life, stumbling along the way. Like most of us our education in this health field is disjointed, incomplete, sometimes working without knowing why, sometimes failing to work, much like government. 

But you knew all this, you are one of the converted. It is easy to preach to the quire. Perhaps we need an organization  set up along the line of  internet version of TOPS to carry our message in a more organized fashion. Of course, the organizer would need better English than I. 

Cult Following

Here is one more video which has potential for cult like following:
http://weightmaven.org/2011/06/10/why-bbs/

Lustig -- like the others:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

and Gary Taubes found at:
http://lowcarbdudecom.blogspot.com/2009/04/llvlc-on-youtube-gary-taubes-adiposity.html

Friday, June 10, 2011

Vivid dreams / blood glucose

Last night I had Chinese. Bad Mistake again, but I "forgot" how I react to it. I like the taste. I like the carbs.
Blood Glucoes went high, I got hungry, likely from the carbs and insulin resistance. Slept well until 4 AM, then the typical vivid dreams woke me (adrenalin rush/cortisone, BG at 5.5. Why do I keep eating like this? Because I like the taste, reward of pleasure, it was offered, temptation, self-test, all of the foregoing, I just don't know. Dust off the crumbs, back to the routine.

The following graph from http://lowcarb4u.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html  suggest what this "should" look like, but without the vivid dreams.

I get hungry with high blood glucose, assuming insulin resistance is the cause of that one. The solution seems to be to not go there. Reference: http://www.drbriffa.com/2011/05/31/how-did-this-man-get-to-live-with-type-1-diabetes-for-more-than-80-years/.

[GTT.bmp]
I seem to fall between the the hypoglycemic/hyperinsulimic and the prediabetic on this graph.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Getting Started

To get started in weight loss, one must first overcome sugar addiction, wheat (grain) addiction, carbohydrate intolerance and carbohydrate addiction, and any other addictions we may have. We need to come to understand hyperinsulinemia, slow gluconeogenesis, insufficient glucagon, insulin resistance, mineral deficiencies, leptin resistance, (any of which can create excessive hunger) moving an idea from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation, self examination, cognitive correction of beliefs, values, concepts, and similar nebular concepts.

Identification and correction of eating disorders, personality disorders, social, emotional, and spiritual issues all can topple any diet program. Food knowledge and self testing is crucial, and well as understanding the physical operations of the human mind and body.

We need a support group. I suggest Overeaters Anonyomus. This is a program of self examination, once we get past the rituals and false starts. Start with http://storiesofrecovery.org/OA.htm, and find a meeting and attend that meeting until you find recovery.

We need to adopt a style of eating that we can live with. Avoid sugar, grains, oils and manufactured eatable products is a good start. Eat about 2 cups of leaves, shoots, stems or a 1/2 cup of roots or 1/4 cup seeds and a hand full of protein at each of three to five meals day. Reduce the number of meals to three with time.

Get as much exercise as you can. Drink as much water as you can stand.

Now comes the hard part, doing the above list.

Early in my revovery, I came across Carbohydrate Intolerance and the Two-Week Test, now at
philmaffetone.com/2weektest.cfm, and that got me started into self testing, the beginning of real recovery. 


Here are the 9 steps Chris Kresser recommends:
  1. Don’t eat toxins.
  2. Nourish your body.
  3. Eat real food.
  4. Supplement wisely.
  5. Heal your gut.
  6. Manage stress.
  7. Move like your ancestors.
  8. Sleep more deeply.
  9. Practice pleasure.

Mike Eades summary on important bits of Low carb

Monday, June 6, 2011

Understanding the problem

Dr Sharma's post today, http://www.drsharma.ca/obesity-plate-or-pyramid-why-nobody-really-cares-about-nutrition-guides.html, shows the understanding of some of the problem, without a clear solution. There are a different groups who have a partial solutions, each without a clear understanding of the total problem.

There is another side that must be looked at and that is excessive hunger. Each individual physical causes must be sought out and confronted before long term recovery can be assured.

Resentments are the number one issue for many of us. Any recovery program must include a big dose of self evaluation, resulting in a change of life style and thinking with respect to food, eating and all the ritual around weight. Our resentments toward others, and ourselves, must be examined. I have a resentment toward myself for not being able to follow a food program perfectly. OH well, shit happens. We need to look at our delusion, aversions, and attachments to foods and food behaviors as well as all our emotions and feelings. Judith Beck’s book makes a nice start in this direction.

We also need to have enough biochemistry and physiology to separate the myths about food from the real information. There is to much really wrong crap in the public media.

Dr. Sharma's series on surgery failures suggests that these fail for the same group of reason most diets fail, long term. That is lack of change in our thinking, attitude, intentions, and knowledge. We may need to adjust, our speech, actions and livelihood to adapt to the needed changes in our life to really deal with the food issues. This all will require a fair bit of study, and concentration to go along with the mindful efforts.

Keep up the struggle as we trudge the road to happy destiny.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Big Business

And I truly sorry about my attitude toward big business. Something like this (http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/06/02/all-those-little-brown-bottles/) is just more evidence that we are just marks to big business, to be used as a source of dollars to be fleeced. Buyer beware. Capitalism at its best. Good Marketing. Get what you can while the getting good. Greed. Sell what people are buying. Fleece’im. Then the government required warning of the “side” effects, which are hugely understated, and have little effect of purchasing decision of the purchasers, but are politically correct.


The concept of side effects was created by a lawyer and is an understatement. These are more truly unwanted effects.


I think it is sad that our populations (I am Canadian) are suffering so much that these drugs are even wanted. Here I sit, drug free, nearly free of all sugar, grain, oil, and other manufactured food sources, and nearly medically complaint free. (I could stand to loose a bit of weight.)




Yoni has a link to CSPI. There what Tom had to say about CSPI a bit back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39y-XErw3O0&feature=player_embedded

Friday, June 3, 2011

Boring Food Solution

Several have been suggesting that obesity is caused by food reward, that is we get something from the food beyond the nourishment. There may be something to that, but it is a common social delusion then that food should taste good and not be repetitive. Perhaps plain food is some of the answer; no spices, bland, consistent, more dependent on the seasons. But that is largely my life today. Oh well. I did have that social delusion, but I think that I can accept boring food, and repetitive food. The social delusions are not unlike John Powell's misconception theory, where he held that the individual had wrong ideas, delusions, in there mind as part of their belief system that need to be corrected. The differences is that these wrong ideas are held by us and our family, and our social group, tribe or others. Once we identify the wrong belief, cognitive therapy, evaluation of a better concept can root out the idea and replace it with a more serviceable concept. The old idea was a delusion, something that we thought was right, but is not serving us well at this time.
The first is how much food we need. 22C per Kg of lean mass + movement + exercise is all. for me that is 1400 C/day plus exercise.
Many of the primitive peoples lived on what was available; if insufficient food was available, they either moved on or did not survive. Such is life without easy food storage and transportation. But that is the way I was raised, we grew it or did not have it for the most part. We traded locally for some thing, honey, moose meat, fish, and had surplus grain, pork, raspberries, and strawberries. Most people had big gardens. I was still obese as a child.
It has more to do with our thinking and available calorie dense, nutrition poor convenience foods and a rushed life style chasing the dollars, and not taking the time to relax, cook, grow our own food, and store over the winter. I like fresh vegetables better. It is not worth the effort to grow and store some foods.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Responsiblity

Personal responsibility for what put into our bodies is the only way that we, as individuals, can operate and survive. The government and corporations have their interest as their driving force. This is true from the Canada Food Guide, through speed tax (photo radar), municipal bylaws that control development, to road signage. A mix of public safety,  but mainly about the money.

We are in a symbiotic relationship with those around us, and each is striving to get a bigger share. Such is the relationship of my mind and body. The body more food, the mind wants more carbohydrates.

We are responsible for what information we choose to believe, and why we believe it. As a professional in a different field, I realize all too well that our field of knowledge is severely bounded, often limited by our ability to acquire physical data, to do a test to determine a value of a mathematically derived "property", that if it existed would make the calculation simple. What we know is not the complete story.