Body Composition

I don't want to leave you with those last two posts without giving you some practical ways to improve body composition. Body composition is the ratio of lean tissue to fat. The ideal ratio differs depending on gender and individual differences. In general, 10% and 20% bodyfat are good targets for men and women, respectively. There's no need to measure however, as the eye is a pretty good judge.

The most dangerous fat is visceral fat, or the "beer belly". Fortunately, it's also the most responsive to lifestyle changes.

The strategies I recommend all have one thing in common: they work to restore insulin sensitivity. This will not only improve body composition, it will normalize your metabolism on a fundamental level, reducing the risk of all the common chronic diseases. I may cover these topics again in more detail at another time.

1. Carbohydrate restriction. This is by far the most effective way to improve body composition. It will even benefit people who are already profoundly insulin resistant. Eliminating grains, legumes, potatoes and sugar is the simplest and best way to do this. That includes wheat, corn, rice, beans, oats, honorary grains like buckwheat and quinoa, and especially their derivatives. Carbohydrate is not the devil, but restricting intake to moderate amounts from vegetables and fruit is ideal for someone trying to lose weight. I think starchy root vegetables, soaked or sprouted legumes and soaked, sprouted or fermented non-gluten grains are OK for people who already have a healthy body composition.

2. Exercise. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had a word for exercise: "life". Exercise helps improve insulin sensitivity by increasing the muscles' demand for fuel. It also builds muscle mass. Any exercise is great, but the best kind is brief and intense (anaerobic). This includes sprinting and brisk weight training. It's more effective than jogging at improving muscle mass, decreasing fat mass, decreasing insulin and improving other markers of metabolic health. Chris at Conditioning Research covers this topic regularly. Traditional sports like soccer and basketball are effective because they have anaerobic and aerobic components. Even walking up stairs or down the street have measurable health benefits, however.

3. Intermittent fasting. This is very effective at improving insulin sensitivity and body composition. IF isn't starvation; it simply postpones calorie intake. Nor is it unhealthy. In fact, it's probably closely in line with the variable energy intake to which we are fundamentally adapted. My method is one 24-hour, water-only fast per week. No juice; that defeats the purpose. If you have elevated insulin like most people, it's best to get into IF gradually. Try skipping breakfast first. If you can skip breakfast and lunch, you've completed a 23-hour fast.

4. Lose the soda! Soda and other sweet foods are the enemy of body composition and general health. Fructose, found abundantly in high-fructose corn syrup, table sugar and agave nectar, seems to have a particular talent for causing insulin resistance. It's rapidly converted to fat in the liver, which is partially stored on the spot, and partially exported into the bloodstream as triglycerides. Diet soda isn't much better. It's been associated with weight gain in humans, and actually causes weight gain in rats. Normalizing insulin through carbohydrate restriction and fasting reduces cravings for sweet foods. A moderate amount of fruit is probably fine.

Bring on the Cookie Monster!

Hello and Happy Monday Everyone!I hope you received your You Have Arrived Newsletter today and found some delicious and nutritious cookie recipes you could use. If you aren't a subscriber yet simply click HERE to learn more about our free email publications.Do you want to make that cookie snack even more nutritious? Here are few "throw-in" ideas for adding more nutrition to the recipes:Add 1-2

Walking the Weight Off

Laura wanted to lose a lot of weight. One hundred and thirty pounds. It took her two and a half years but she succeeded by beginning a very rigorous walking program. Now four years later, the weight has stayed off. But she walks an average of about 50 miles a week!

She's written a book about her experience; Commit To Get Fit: The Secret to True and Everlasting Weight Loss

At sabotage point

Ok folks...

Weight 16 stone 2 pounds and holding...

The time has come, and I am now sabotaging my weightloss. I am doing it consciously.

I get to this point on whatever diet I am 'doing' where I decide I just cant take it any more.

Admittedly, there are quite a few things going on right now that could also be making me revert to type, but I also feel that this particular weight is a point I don't believe deep down that I will ever break through.

I spent ALL of today in bed. ALL DAY! At 2pm I had a glass of squash and 2 weetabix. I then went back to sleep. I got up at 6pm and drank the cold coffee that was at my bedside which had obviously brought in by DH earlier to tempt me to get up.

Then I made dinner for DS and also for myself. I made some spinach and ricotta tortellini and topped it with some puttanesca sauce that I had frozen from a couple of weeks ago. I managed to eat half of the plate.

Then I later had another glass of squash.

Good day so far... then I started looking at the web at pictures of Stoma's and illiostomy bags and all kinds of stuff about colorectal cancer and other peoples stories.

FUCKING MISTAKE

I grabbed a box (!) of toffifee that Carina's Mum had sent to us in a big parcel full of goodies in a 'Thank You for having my daughter and looking after her' gesture.

Each toffifee is 45 calories. I ate 13. do the maths.
I then went back to the cupboard about half an hour later and grabbed bag of Lindt Nougat eggs that also came in the package. I had 4 of them, as DH swiped one. I also had half a bottle of red wine - in total and lucid knowledge that I am going to SERIOUSLY regret it tomorrow.

So today my intake of calories was 1913 and I am feeling like a sad sack of shit.

My calorie intake is calculated by the daily plate to not exceed 1650 cals per day so that I can lose 2 pounds a week. I have never exceeded that amount.

I feel totally sick and ashamed of myself, but at the same time kind of pleased too.

Boy am I glad I have a fill coming up on Saturday. I knew it was a good idea to book that bastard. I have been the same weight for the last 3 weeks. I cant help but think that the daily plate is in fact wrong because I have not gone above 1500 cals during that whole time, and mostly less than 1000; According to them I should have lost 2 pounds a week. Just shows not everyone is a statistic that fits an equation huh.

I can feel the pressure of being in the 15 stone somethings and there is something in me that does NOT want me to get there. I am hoping that when I push through that barrier I wont have any more head-fucks like this, but I am guessing the barrier between 14 and 15 will be the same.

So I might not weigh for a couple of weeks (did I just say that?) and see if not knowing takes the pressure off or drives me out of my mind and straight into the nut house.

Virtual me at 18 stone 12

ME RIGHT NOW 16 stone 3Virtual me at target weight of 11 stone 7lb
I need these boosts occasionally. I have been really really bad the last week or so. I haven't eaten over 1500 cals on any day, but its all been crap. I have tried to include my veggies and stuff, but my Dad's operation and situation is really taking its toll on my eating. I don't even bother to try and stop myself. I look at chocolate and just eat it. Its like I am resigned to it.

Bunk mate - I am sorry I haven't been in touch. I was calling around all the rest of the afternoon trying to tie up a fill with Dr. Dillemans. Sadly he is on holiday next week so its not gonna happen. However if you phone EOC they have now got a new deal with www.WLSgroup.com and they have spaces on the 5th April... that's next Saturday. The first is a consultation and stuff for £120 for EOC patients, and then fills are £85 a go. You can go there every 2 weeks, and if its not right within that 2 weeks you can get it filled/unfilled again for free. I was already going to see them the last couple of times, so I have booked another appointment with them on Saturday at 12pm. If you wing EOC they will arrange a time. After that we were going to take DS to the Natural History Museum if you wanna bring Your DH and the DD's.

It would be nice to catch up.

I have just come home from Mum's. Tensions are running high and everyone needs Dad to get better. He has really been going through it the last few days. The stuff they never tell you about before an operation man!

Here's a run down... (If you are queasy... don't read!)

Tuesday: in Hospital in the morning. Enema's and nothing to eat or drink

Wednesday: in hospital waiting for operation first thing in the morning... and waiting... and waiting until 3pm when he was finally taken down to theatre. Out of theatre and into the Intensive Care Unit at 8:30pm. No visitors all day. Had tumor removed from rectum, bowel cut and hole cut into the side of stomach. Bowel pushed through stomach wall and secured with a plastic rod and wing nuts making 'the stoma' where he will wear a bag over for the next 8 weeks. Reality is this 7cm round red raw bit of gooey meat hanging out his side. Massive 40cm incision vertically from breast to pubis stapled together and covered with dressings. 8 cannula's in various parts of the body... back of hands, arms, neck etc. Drain on opposite side of the stomach leaking blood into a bag, and a catheter for urine.

Yea Gods.

Thursday: In hospital in High Dependency Unit. Blood pressure raised and very bloated from surgery. In obvious pain and wincing at ever couple of words he said.

Friday: In normal hospital ward. Developed chest infection and having to cough up sputum into a pot. in pain. Epidural dosage doubled by his surgeon as he said its not high enough for him (2 days too late me thinks!!). Not in pain except when coughing. Was very sick after having first 'meal' of an ice cream and soup. Brought up green and black fluid.

Saturday: in ward looking flushed. All cannula's removed except one administering a drip with antibiotics in it. Epidural removed because if fell out during the night and soaked into the sheets. Was in increasing pain, doctor called to administer Morphine. Immediately unconscious and slept all night. In the morning awoke to feeling very bad stomach pains. Nurse inserts tube through the nose and down back of the throat and draws off 6 large syringes of green and black watery liquid. Apparently this has FECAL matter in it as the bowel stoma is swollen and everything is backing up into the stomach again! Tube left down back of throat to drain waste water and faeces from stomach into a bag. No food allowed, just clear liquids... like water.

On top of all this awfulness my Granny throws a fit and gets in a strop about not being picked up because we are obviously a taxi service. She upsets my Mum, and in turn Me, DH and DS. She should be supporting my Mum not making herself another burden. My Mum doesn't know which way to turn.

We have come home now and hopefully she can then have some peace and quiet and space to get her head around everything. Although she obviously loves having us there... 3 extra bodies makes 3 lots of extra mess and bother and DS is boisterous and jumping up and down. Its not conductive to thinking straight!! If she needs me, I will be there in a blink. I think that the thing she needs most now is to just be thinking about herself and Dad for a bit and being able to do what she wants rather than what everyone else wants for a change. Everyone worries about the person in the hospital bed, but no one really gives much support to the one trying to keep everything together and cheer everyone up and keep everyone's spirits up.

So, when I have more news I will post it. A simple operation it was not. This is one horrible nasty little cancer that hopefully has been stopped in its tracks.

Poor Dad. I would rather do this for him myself if I could.

Coddler Fever & Fun Friday

Greetings Neighbors!Coddler Fever? Have you caught it yet? Link HereHas Spring Sprung in your part of the world or perhaps a nip of fall is in the air for our Down'Under friends. Either way, the weather is always perfect at the LivingAfterWLS Neighborhood!Today is the final Fun Friday of March 2008 and it puts a song in my heart to invite you to participate in our weekly get-to-know-one-another

Act As If You Are already Slim

Here's some good advice about the positive benefits of visualizing yourself as already being at your ideal weight;

The law of attraction states that you get more of what you put your attention on. When you are overweight your attention is focused on fat, food, diets, calories, etc. You are negatively focused. You are focused on the problem. The key to using the law of attraction for weight loss is to stay focused on the solution.

One of the most powerful ways of doing this is to act as if. Act as if you have already manifested and created the body and weight loss you want! Act like the thin person you want be!

Acting “as if” creates a powerful energy shift. Your actions will begin to align with your new intentions because it creates a positive expectation of success.

See more weight loss secrets and good advice at Secrets of a Weight Loss Master.