Getting Back to Normal BMI

Danielk lost 15 pounds and this has moved him out of the overweight BMI position, back to the upper end of 'normal BMI'. See his success story here.

The beautiful photo here is by Wolfgang Staudt

Insulin Controls Your Fat

I'd like to point out a great post by Peter over at hyperlipid (keep in mind when you read it he has a sarcastic style). He dug up a bizarre paper published in 1998 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. In the study, they put 24 overweight subjects on a low-calorie diet composed almost entirely of meal replacement shakes and "nutrition bars". Half of the participants got the drug diazoxide, which reduces the secretion of insulin by the pancreas. The other half took a placebo.

The bottom line is that the diazoxide-treated group lost much more weight over time than the placebo group, and they continued to lose after the placebo group's weight had stabilized at around 8 weeks. Yes, these poor people drank meal replacement shakes and ate nutrition bars for 9 weeks.

This result makes a lot of sense. Insulin is the hormone that keeps your fat cells from releasing fat. It's also the hormone that tells them to grab fat and sugar out of the blood and store it. Overweight people tend to have elevated insulin. Low blood insulin is a signal to fat cells to release their contents into the bloodstream to be burned by other tissues. This is one of the reasons why I emphasize keeping insulin low. If you need some motivation, here it is. Here's how to normalize insulin without taking a toxic drug:

1. Avoid grains (especially wheat and its derivatives), and keep carbohydrate intake low for weight loss.
2. Avoid all sugar in any form except occasional fruit.
3. Exercise.
   
4. Intermittent fasting. A 24-hour fast once a week is a good way to start.

My Turn: 5 Day Pouch Test

Hello Neighbors!!Well, it's been a long time coming but I'm on my way to kicking butt on regain (again)! This winter some badly prescribed medicine (long story - I'll save it for another post) resulted in a ballooning gain for me. Seventeen whoppers to be exact all centrally located on my rear view and thunder thighs. Ok - a few may be on my upper arms too. sad-smiley-018.gifany whooooo...... I'm

Royally annoyed

Gained a pound this week. Can't say I am surprised as my diet has mostly consisted of chocolate and wine, but even though I have thrown up ever ounce of goodness I have consumed and followed it by crap, I still expected to lose.

So, feeling pretty darn shite, and that's about it really.

Does the pouch size change from morning to night?

Hello Everyone!Over in the LivingAfterWLS Neighborhood we have several great conversations going on right now. catsroomie, also known as Vivian, asked if our pouch size changes from morning to evening. Seems like many of us are familiar with this sensation - take a look at some of the conversation:It seems that my pouch is physically smaller in the mornings than the evenings - seems like it

5 NEW ARRIVALS

Mary the Mummy!

They started at 10 to 10 in the evening and she was all done by 2:30am. 5 beautiful bundles.

1.) All Black

2.) All black with white feet and little white patches on the back legs and white nose

3.) All black with white feet and big white patches on feet and white face

4.) White with black spots!

5.) All black and slightly smaller that number 1.

Will write more later...

Above: Number 2 at the top, Number 3 underneath it, Number 4 in the middle, Number 1 on the right and Number 5 on the left

Above: Number 1 on the Left, Number 2 on the right!

Above, a 5 minute old Number 4

Above: A brand new Number 5 with Number 3... after a nice 1 and a half hour break Mary delivered the last little nit nit.

Real Food VI: Liver

Liver was a highly regarded food among many hunter-gatherer and traditional agricultural societies. It's not surprising once you realize it's quite literally the most nutritious food in the world. It's because the liver is a storage depot, into which important nutrients are deposited in case of later need. A modest 4-oz serving of calf's liver contains 690% of your RDA of B12, 610% of preformed vitamin A, 215% of folate, 129% of B2, 24.5 g protein, and the list goes on. The nutrients found in liver are particularly important for development, but are also helpful for continued health in adulthood.

Preformed vitamin A is one of the nutrients Weston Price suggested was responsible for the glowing health of the cultures he studied in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. It's an essential nutrient, but it's different from most vitamins (except D) because it acts like a hormone, entering cells and altering gene transcription. Thus, it has its hand in many important bodily processes.

"Vitamin A" from plant sources such as carrots is actually a group of vitamin A precursors called carotenes, which the body inefficiently converts to actual vitamin A. The efficiency of conversion varies around 10%, depending on the carotene and how much fat is ingested along with it. Nutrition labels in the US do not reflect this. When a nutrition label on a plant-based product says "30% vitamin A", you can assume you will get about 3% of your RDA from it. This doesn't apply to eggs, dairy and liver, which contain preformed vitamin A.

I'm not sure how this happened, but somewhere along the line we decided in the US that muscle is the only proper animal tissue to eat. We are missing out on the most nutritious parts of the animal, and our health is suffering.

I recommend purchasing organic calf's liver, 100% grass-fed if possible. Chicken livers are also nutritious but ruminant livers are the most concentrated in vitamins by far.

Here is a recipe for a liver pate. I recognize that many people don't like the taste of liver, which is why I chose this recipe because it is very mild.

Ingredients

• 1/2 to 1 lb calf's liver, chopped into 1-in strips
  
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1/2 onion
• 1-2 carrots (optional)
• Sage and/or rosemary (optional)
• Salt to taste
  

Recipe

1. Saute the onions and carrots in 1 tbsp butter until they're soft.
2. Add liver and herbs and cook until the liver is just done.
3. Crack the eggs right into the pan and stir them until they're cooked.
4. Turn off the heat, add the remaining butter.
5. Blend until smooth.

Enjoy!