Healthy & Fitness - September 2014

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Harmony To be honest, this is the first time I've ever seriously looked at a diet book but I have done WW since 1998.

My success was with WW and I managed to keep weight off for long periods with it. When I stop measuring or start eating out all the time, that's when the weight comes back on.

I judge all programs against WW (i.e. could I follow this program and WW at the same time and not break the WW rules?)

With this Now Eat This! diet, there is no science aside from common sense, limiting calories, figuring out filling foods and cutting sugar as much as possible. It mainly portion control and remaking recipes so they are 1) quick and 2) healthier but still taste good so you'll be happy eating them for years.

It was my cousin's results with the program (he's 3 years into it now) that inspired me to get the book from the library. Certainly, I had very low expectations. I'm actually very pleasantly surprised. I have been interested in trying to expand the meals we have and this gives me 100's of recipes to study and learn from. He's also excellent at giving the underlying principals for his cooking methods - why he is choosing which pan or ingredient. So I'm learning more about cooking than I am about dieting with his book. And I think that is a good thing.

The downside with this program is that eating out is almost impossible (he is a chef so he knows how there's no control over how the kitchen prepares even a 'healthy' food when you are dining out.) Of course, with WW, I was also guessing point values of food, especially when traveling outside of North America and faced with different foods. On the ship, portion control is easy so my guessing may be off but if I avoid breads and the breakfast buffet my weight stays steady or drops. But when I get too many days of eating out when traveling regularly, I start to make more and more unhealthy choices and my weight almost always goes up (but doesn't fall again when I'm home.)

I'm not sure how dh will take to not being able to eat out regularly (i.e. more than the 2 nights a week he was eating out when we lived in the country.) That was one of the things he looked forward to once we moved to the city. I wasn't because I don't see the point in spending big bucks on food that gives me a big butt.

[Twins' Mom]

Eating out is an issue here as well. I think that dh would just as soon go out most evenings, and he eats out for lunch every day, except occasionally having to skip lunch for some reason or another.

We are eating out again on Wednesday evening - friend celebrating an anniversary and we are joining them.

I'm fine cooking a simple dinner for when dh is going to be home, but he is awful about letting me know his plans. Last week he got home while I was going after pet meds at the vet and wanted to know what was for supper - I told him I had already eaten hummus and crackers. If he planned to eat at home, he should have let me know if he expected something cooked.

On most days, I'm at least getting close to or just over 10K steps. Because of my working upstairs, I'll easily go over 10K today at least.

I am really thinking I should buy a better scale but the one we have has worked beautifully for at least 20 years. There are some things I spend money on easily, but somehow a new scale isn't one of them.

[Harriet]

Way to go gals you are working on this so many pages for this mo. Already on this thread!

I was noticing that too, Nancy. Good job getting into smaller jeans!

Harmony, that was funny and so accurate. I have certainly been caught betwixt and between the two smart ideas of vegan eating and low-carb eating.

Still, yes I do think they are both smart in their own ways, and here is my take on it for me, myself and I:

The vegetable-based diets, specifically vegan, are proven to do the most for avoiding diabetes and all the other ills that stem from hikes in blood sugar. It's kind of counter-intuitive, because you would think low-carb would hold that distinction, but it's actually vegan. President Clinton is an example of someone who publicly turned his health around with this. (Ornish, Barnard)

Also, they seem to help avoid dementia, and it has been shown that in the wild, animals who are meat eaters have dementia if they live long enough. Vegetarian animals usually don't have dementia (and, it turns out, neither do vegan humans ), so that's worth thinking about. You're likely to get a great variety of the good stuff like vitamins and phytonutrients. You do need to supplement your Vit B12, because that's probably not in the diet.

But I personally don't find that I am able to keep vegan eating up. I find it good for short spates. I like vegan meals that don't mean I have to eat the leftovers at the next meal! HRH went vegan for months because the dr called him "pre-diabetic". He was blessed to learn how to cook a lot of oddities that took the place of meat entrees, yet he was handicapped by hating some helpful veggies, like mushrooms. But he did it. His blood sugar responded much better than it had to typical type 2 diabetes diet recommendations. He was eventually just dreaming of getting to the end of that and eating a "square" meal. But he still does some vegan meals or days, because there was also a lot he liked.

The low-carb diets are excellent for losing weight (which is a good for health all by itself). Your B-12 stays up. They are much, much healthier than we used to think. A low-carb meal helps keep you from cravings before the next meal, so people who are "addicted" to carbs get a break from constantly climbing weight. The hunger stops being in charge. A truly low-carb diet is going to keep the grains to a minimum, and that's important with the new studies that blame grains for brain ills.

My usual problem with low-carb is having to watch out for constipation. Also, HRH's problem is flare-ups of arthritis. His dr actually told him that if he stuck to Atkins induction religiously it could put him in the hospital. It's not for everyone, and you have to ask yourself, then, if you have a little bit of arthritis would you feel a little bit bad on true low-carb, and would that be worth it. Hmmm...... These days, the berries added to Atkins recommendations helps with both problems. (not enough for me, but it helps)

So, bottom line for me is I appreciate both and am delighted when HRH makes us a vegan meal. (So virtuous! We usually feel very well afterwards.) Also I love my eggs - LOVE my eggs. Bacon egg veggie omelet is so ME. Almost always feel guilty with too much bread. I just know intuitively - wrong, wrong, wrong. So I beat myself up .

[Nancy]

I like a cheese and veggie omlette too. Prunes help and getting enough water and salads. Pumpkin is a great asset for me this time of yr.

Did my walk tonight.

[FelineFriend]

Twins' Mom, I got a Conair scales at Costco, which is the same one W.W. endorses and shows in photos in their magazine ads, too. It's an acrylic clear plexiglass, I'm "assuming," and it has a digital read-out in large numbers, with the tenths on it. So, sometimes I'm 174.3 Lbs., instead of only 174 Lbs. I love mine. I've had it for about 10 years now, have only needed to change batteries in it one time. It's nice your friends have invited you and your DH out to help celebrate their anniversary, too.

Kathryn, "Now Eat This!," sounds good, to me! Go, Girl! (Also, you look lovely and pretty in your photos.) The things you listed that you're doing, reading, etc... sound very SMART and motivating, to me! It sounds like you'll have better success with the proactive actions you're taking, too!

LadyMaverick, I'm with you, as far as shoes and exercise go, which is go for COMFORT! It makes the exercise experience more pleasing.

OH, HAPPY DAY to you, DNancy! That's terrific news about your #'s and the too small jeans, fitting NOW! WTG!

Harmony, It's so HARD to pick a diet program and stick with it. I bet you could get a LOT of info at this site, where I've read on different diets before. Just put diets into their search engine at their site:

http://www.about.com Also, there is The Mayo Clinic Diet at their site.

My weight was up +2 Lbs. more, but we ate chicken-mozzarella raviolis for dinner last night. Sodium could have well been the culprit, plus it sounds like a higher fat higher calorie dinner. It didn't agree with me that much, because this a.m. I was having Gastritis problems. Also, last night, since I'm allergic to many preservatives, I felt "funny" in my head/brain, from dinner, after dinner. To combat this or help it heal itself, I drink more fluids. I went to bed at 11 p.m. and slept straight through until 6:30 a.m.! I woke up from a dream, dreaming how my grandchildren had moved into our area and I was getting to watch 2 toddler grands while their parents went to town, for a short while. I woke up happy to see them. ♥

My stomach and digestion wasn't 100% today, so for dinner, I ate about 1.5 cups strained no-fat, plain Greek yogurt with Optifiber, a powdered fiber, stirred up in it. I usually eat that for breakfast, but couldn't this a.m, since I'm not to have dairy within 4 hours of my thyroid med. I ate a Fiber One Bar with Almond Butter on it, for breakfast. I'm not supposed to have anything fried, need to stay away from margarine and butter, so couldn't fry or scramble an egg. I wasn't hungry, because of my stomach upset, so figured the Fiber One Bar with the Almond Butter wasn't full-fledged dairy and it was nutritious with protein. Quick, very little mess, and it tasted so nice. When I see the Dr. for my annual exam later this month, I find out if we'll do that H. Pylori test. If it comes back positive, this means I would have had the "bad" bacterial infection in my stomach/intestines, since about March or April, when it first showed up. I didn't see the Dr. for it until May, at which time he started me on a Prilosec generic and special diet with rules to follow. Right now, compared to last March/April, I admit I feel a LOT better. But am not 100% cured. I had a problem with Gastritis in the summer of 2013, too, but with treatment, it went away in Autumn. This time, it's lingering longer, because it started in early spring. IF this can be treated with antibiotics, I'm ALL for them! I read, this is how they treat H. Pylori infections, too.

Oh, all-of-a-sudden I've gotten way tired. I don't know why. I'll go wash my face and put eye gel in my eyes, which does help a LOT to get more alert and awake. I enjoy reading through everybody's posts here, about all of our individual journeys, too.

[Lady Maverick]

Staying on track and consistent.

I found myself a bit frustrated this morning when the scale only went down .1 I heard my thoughts say .....REAALLY? That's it?

I had to remind myself that if I lost .1 lb a day that would equal losing 36.5 lbs a year. That is nothing to be frustrated about! I am perfectly fine with losing slowly. As long as the scales are headed downward then I need to get rid of my frustration. This is a negative coming from my desire to win the Dietbet. I also experience this frustration when I was paying to be weighed in each week at WW meetings. I want bigger & faster results when I'm paying $$ to lose weight.

Yesterday calories = 1250. Some of my food selection were good (breakfast & lunch) but afternoon snack, dinner & late snack could definitely be improved. I want to blame my poor selections on being tired from taking LO to his activities but I do know how to plan for better choices so it is something that I can improve. At least I kept the portion small.
B: Protein/fruit smoothie
L: Stir fry vegetables (2 cups) and 1/4 cup of shredded brisket
3pm snack - pigs-in-a-blanket, jello
D: Grilled cheese & ham sandwich, chips, jello with whipped cream
8pm Snack: Fried chicken.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Here's my first negative assessment of the "Now Eat This!"

He relies heavily on Agave nectar (syrup - they seem to be interchangeable according to my local health food store.)

On Sunday I subbed in maple syrup instinctively because I didn't have the agave syrup. Since I intended to make several of his snack recipes that include agave and many of his sauces are sweetened with it (and salad dressing too), I bought some yesterday. The benefit is the low glycemic index compared to honey or regular sugar. At the health food store I asked if she knew how it compared to maple syrup and the answer was that maple syrup also has a low GI too.

This morning I googled for a comparison and came across multiple articles of people reversing their position on agave (starting with Dr. Oz - who also wrote the forward to one of Rocco's books.)

Seems that agave is 75% fructose (according to the website for the manufacturer of the brand I bought) and that makes it worse than HFCS (55% fructose) for the liver. As you recall, I'm nursing both my liver and pancreas (because of the hepatitis and the 2 bouts of pancreatitis) and so it seems to me that switching my body's handling of sweeteners from a 50/50 split (regular table sugar) to 75/25 on the liver is a bad idea.

I'll try and return the agave today. Or at least get a store credit to use toward maple sugar which they do have. It is slightly higher in glucose than regular sugar but is also sweeter than regular sugar so I'll be using less on my cereal, and already I only have a 1/2 tsp of sugar in the morning so that meets my comfort level.

Obviously, I should have double checked this all out before buying the stuff in the first place.

(The other thing that bugs me is that it was implied that agave has been used as a sweetener for centuries in Mexico. Yes, that's true, using a method that is eerily similar to the maple syrup production. BUT that's not the same process or end product as agave nectar which is much more processed than the traditional way and only been around for a couple of decades so I feel the book misrepresented agave to me, as if it was something like honey or maple syrup.)

I'm a great believer that sugar is sugar is sugar and is poison in too large a quantity. So I'm happy to cut back as much as possible. I got caught up thinking that the inulin in agave would make it a better choice to use. Nope - poison is poison so simply limit amounts and choose the poison that offers the best flavour hit.

And I'm disappointed that so many of the recipes in this book rely on a sweetener that is as questionable as the rest of the sweeteners out there. To his credit, Rocco says he never heard of agave before working on The Biggest Loser and it was the only sweetener they allowed but his use of it for those menus is what convinced him it was a wonderful alternative.

[Harriet]

Kathryn, what do those who have reversed themselves now recommend? And can you get an accurate estimation for substitutions so that you can still enjoy the recipes? If you like his recipes otherwise, and your dcousin did as well, that's probably worth some research to be able to use them with corrections. Until you can learn what they think, maple syrup is natural and wholesome, so you did well on that.

Twins' Mom, I meant to say you have really increased your steps.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dr. Oz went back to honey.

Really the issue is that people have to stop kidding themselves that there is a 'healthy' sweetener and just use as little of whatever they want.

Rocco is big into Stevia and Truvia as well but that ain't going to happen with me. I'd rather sub out a few grams of fat and have real sugar or just eat less. If it is really about calories, sugar doesn't have a lot except when you use a lot in things like baked goods, which should not be a staple in any diet, but an occasional treat.

I'm used to not having desserts so haven't even bothered to look at Rocco's desserts (although when researching his brownie recipe was completely panned.) Fresh fruit, or a cup of tea with a square of chocolate is all I need when I do feel the need. Want is another issue completely and tomorrow I will be having whatever is offered me.

But I won't need it.

Tonight I'll probably break down as well unless the dessert at the dinner tonight is pathetic. This is usually when I get a piece of pie, though.

[Nancy]

I did my walk last evening with my friend. It was breezy today felt a bit rough whe I got up a scratchy throat and
Some sinus issues from the winds allergies I think. Yd. Work was excellent ex. Yesterday! it looks better too.