Today has been good. Really good.
1st DH got the job at McDonalds. YAY. I can start to breathe again.
2nd My Dad is out of hospital and on the mend from his 'antibiotic resistant bacterial infection'... shall we just say MRSA??? Yep. thought so.
3rd I washed my car - by hand!
4th Terry 'The Scumbag' Spellman came over and coughed up £376.50 for the work DH had done for him last month. He wasn't going to but I 'out Jew-ed' him! DH was just gonna let it go and not bother... which I totally understand, but I was not going to let it go. I spent ages on the floor polishing all his gold and silver and arranging it in new ways and making it look good. It was in a complete and utter state when we got it. How dare he try and get away with giving us nothing. I made sure I made out an invoice for our services, and I got every penny I asked for as well I should. DH is really pleased and I am thrilled, because it means that we have actually saved ourselves this month. I mean the guy has damn near put us into bankruptcy. Its because of him we cant claim dole, or claim on our mortgage protection etc... So really he should pay more, but I was fair. I asked for what we spent out, and that's what I got. I had to work hard for it though. He now knows who has the balls of iron in this family though.
5th We got all the stuff we needed for a cool money plan we wanted to set up and sent that off. That should be started within the week, so that's cool.
And finally my diet today has again been really good.
Prozac and coffee for breakfast
clear chicken consomme with a little pasta floating in it for lunch
dinner was Pasta Puttanesca
I have had 3 big glasses of water and a half litre of orange juice too. Put all that together with washing the car and also walking down the village quickly to post the letters, I have had a good lot of exercise too.
Rock on.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
food diary
Thought I might add a food diary... whenever you see this title post... if you dont want to be bored rigid with the contents of my stomach for the day... then dont read it. Its more for me to remember what I did than anything else.
Prozac
Berroca
Coffee
1 carton Tymbark Vega Juice
Coffee
Coffee
Chilli con Carne (2 Tbsp) + Rice (1.5 Tbsp)
3 glasses red wine... to finish it up!! HA HA
Prozac
Berroca
Coffee
1 carton Tymbark Vega Juice
Coffee
Coffee
Chilli con Carne (2 Tbsp) + Rice (1.5 Tbsp)
3 glasses red wine... to finish it up!! HA HA
Fit Is IT Challenge
Hello Everyone!I hope you had a fine weekend and a lovely Mother’s Day. For us the day usually heralds spring but would you believe we woke up to snow this morning? I am reluctant to complain about our weather when so many other places are suffering terrible weather and unfortunate natural disaster. So I’ll simply put another log on the fire, count my blessings and send warm wishes to those
Giving myself the feel good factor
This time last month I was 16 stone 1
That's 5 pounds off in a month. Coooooool.
I am officially at my 6 month mark today. I have lost 32 pounds in 6 months.
I have to forget about the whole year that was wasted before this.
I should be feeling BLOODY FABULOUS right now. 32 pounds in 6 months??? UNBELIEVABLE Without dieting??? Its a MIRACLE.
But I am not feeling fabulous because of the wasted time I went through for 8 months putting all that fat back on again when it broke. How can I forget about it. this time last year I was feeling THE BUSINESS. I was full of confidence and self assured and all was right with the world. I had lost less than I have now at that time, but I felt better then than now.
the band break was a really disastrous thing to happen. It has made the process seem very very very slow... and actually...
I AM DOING BETTER THAN I WAS LAST TIME!
I am gonna try and think positively about it, and consider the second operation a completely different operation... maybe I can think of it like I had a better band put in, or an upgrade or something and then I might feel less annoyed at the whole breakage debacle.
I am feeling better just writing this actually. I am feeling really good at losing 32 pounds... 2 stone 4!! WOW in just 6 months without starving myself or having to combine different types of foods or cut out this or that. This is the most wonderful invention and I have to start believing in myself that I actually AM going to be slim... slimmer than I ever felt possible. I have to also believe that the band is NOT going to break. I am looking forward to May 21st with a feeling of dread. I am not superstitious, and I am not thinking that something will happen at all, but the thought that last year on the 21st May I was in such agonising pain and no one found out... makes me want to throw up. How did the leave me like that. I had x-rays and scans and all kinds and NO ONE SAID ANYTHING. They must have seen it as I saw it clear as a bloody bell and I'm no doctor. It makes me feel terrible.
But 32 pounds... when this thing is working its working like a wonder horse!
Dare I think about buying smaller clothes yet?? Everything is hanging off me... but I am so loathe to buy new stuff in case I cry like an idiot or something that it either fits or doesn't or whatever. God I feel like a complete emotional wreck today.
I repeat... I am 6 months out of my band upgrade (Hmm feels good)
I am 32 pounds lighter.
I feel GREAT.
Better post my 6 month photo I guess!!! check out my photo log later.
That's 5 pounds off in a month. Coooooool.
I am officially at my 6 month mark today. I have lost 32 pounds in 6 months.
I have to forget about the whole year that was wasted before this.
I should be feeling BLOODY FABULOUS right now. 32 pounds in 6 months??? UNBELIEVABLE Without dieting??? Its a MIRACLE.
But I am not feeling fabulous because of the wasted time I went through for 8 months putting all that fat back on again when it broke. How can I forget about it. this time last year I was feeling THE BUSINESS. I was full of confidence and self assured and all was right with the world. I had lost less than I have now at that time, but I felt better then than now.
the band break was a really disastrous thing to happen. It has made the process seem very very very slow... and actually...
I AM DOING BETTER THAN I WAS LAST TIME!
I am gonna try and think positively about it, and consider the second operation a completely different operation... maybe I can think of it like I had a better band put in, or an upgrade or something and then I might feel less annoyed at the whole breakage debacle.
I am feeling better just writing this actually. I am feeling really good at losing 32 pounds... 2 stone 4!! WOW in just 6 months without starving myself or having to combine different types of foods or cut out this or that. This is the most wonderful invention and I have to start believing in myself that I actually AM going to be slim... slimmer than I ever felt possible. I have to also believe that the band is NOT going to break. I am looking forward to May 21st with a feeling of dread. I am not superstitious, and I am not thinking that something will happen at all, but the thought that last year on the 21st May I was in such agonising pain and no one found out... makes me want to throw up. How did the leave me like that. I had x-rays and scans and all kinds and NO ONE SAID ANYTHING. They must have seen it as I saw it clear as a bloody bell and I'm no doctor. It makes me feel terrible.
But 32 pounds... when this thing is working its working like a wonder horse!
Dare I think about buying smaller clothes yet?? Everything is hanging off me... but I am so loathe to buy new stuff in case I cry like an idiot or something that it either fits or doesn't or whatever. God I feel like a complete emotional wreck today.
I repeat... I am 6 months out of my band upgrade (Hmm feels good)
I am 32 pounds lighter.
I feel GREAT.
Better post my 6 month photo I guess!!! check out my photo log later.
Getting smaller... slowly
Well the mega weight losses are a thing of the past now, but I am losing steadily. I lost 3 pounds this week... taking my weight to 15 stone 10 pounds. This is excellent. I am really really proud of myself. I just want another couple of good weeks so that I can be a bit slimmer for my holiday at the beginning of June. It will be a really nice feeling to be 15 and a half stone or something when I go away. I haven't been on a nice hot summer holiday weighing less than 16 stone since I was a teenager. It makes the heat so much more bearable, I remember that from last year in Sri Lanka. I cant imagine being 2 stone heavier than I was then... it would have been dreadful.
So total weightloss now is 2 stone 4 pounds since banding in February 2007 - or 32 pounds! YAY
food today so far... 1 berocca, and 1 carton of veggie juice to get my nutrients. tonight I am making chilli con carne with rice, so that will be nice. Off to work in a bit, not looking forward to that in this weather, but it brings home the bacon.
Talking of bacon... DH still hasn't heard if he got the job at McDonalds yet. I think he is secretly hoping that he wont, but on the other hand hoping that he will because we need the regular cash. That scumbag Terry Spellman really sold us down the river. If he had told us that he was not really in a position to do it, we could have claimed on our mortgage payments insurance when he was made redundant, but going self employed for that Shit head has meant we cannot even get dole money or any financial help whatsoever. I hope he fucking chokes on his money. The bastard hasn't even sent us the money he does owe us. I hope he goes bust. no one should treat people like that, especially my DH because he is so lovely and doesn't deserve it.
So now DH is carrying stock for his old company on a 10% commission deal and also another local supplier for 10% too... if he gets the job at McDonalds aswell, we will be laughing.
Bit of a come down for the poor guy, but beggars can't be choosers. We went out and got him a car yesterday... a fabulous bargain of a diesel saloon for £600 just like my old Rover I crashed. so I feel a bit awful driving around in my new MG whilst DH has no air con or any luxuries... but he says not to feel awful because its a nice family car and we need one decent car in the family anyway. There isn't any point getting a good car just to plow it around the country and run it into the ground, so he is happy, so I should be too.
will update later if i get any more news...
So total weightloss now is 2 stone 4 pounds since banding in February 2007 - or 32 pounds! YAY
food today so far... 1 berocca, and 1 carton of veggie juice to get my nutrients. tonight I am making chilli con carne with rice, so that will be nice. Off to work in a bit, not looking forward to that in this weather, but it brings home the bacon.
Talking of bacon... DH still hasn't heard if he got the job at McDonalds yet. I think he is secretly hoping that he wont, but on the other hand hoping that he will because we need the regular cash. That scumbag Terry Spellman really sold us down the river. If he had told us that he was not really in a position to do it, we could have claimed on our mortgage payments insurance when he was made redundant, but going self employed for that Shit head has meant we cannot even get dole money or any financial help whatsoever. I hope he fucking chokes on his money. The bastard hasn't even sent us the money he does owe us. I hope he goes bust. no one should treat people like that, especially my DH because he is so lovely and doesn't deserve it.
So now DH is carrying stock for his old company on a 10% commission deal and also another local supplier for 10% too... if he gets the job at McDonalds aswell, we will be laughing.
Bit of a come down for the poor guy, but beggars can't be choosers. We went out and got him a car yesterday... a fabulous bargain of a diesel saloon for £600 just like my old Rover I crashed. so I feel a bit awful driving around in my new MG whilst DH has no air con or any luxuries... but he says not to feel awful because its a nice family car and we need one decent car in the family anyway. There isn't any point getting a good car just to plow it around the country and run it into the ground, so he is happy, so I should be too.
will update later if i get any more news...
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Diabetes and Your Small Intestine
In the last post, I introduced you to the remarkable antidiabetic effect of gastric bypass surgery. It rapidly reverses diabetes in 83% of patients, and it seems to be due to bypassing the upper small intestine specifically, rather than caloric restriction. This points to a special role of the upper small intestine in regulating food metabolism. I told you I was going to look into the mechanism of why this effect happens, and here's the short answer:
It's complicated and no one understands it completely.
Now for the long answer. Nutrient homeostasis is very important and we have sophisticated ways of coordinating it among different tissues. Part of the small intestine's job is telling the body that nutrients are on their way into the bloodstream. Two ways it conveys this signal are by secreting hormones into the bloodstream, and by sending signals to the brain and liver via parasympathetic nerves.
The small intestine secretes dozens of hormones, one category of which is called the incretins. Incretins by definition increase the secretion of insulin by the pancreas, among other things. They were discovered when researchers realized that oral glucose elicits more of an insulin response than intravenous glucose. The reason is that cells in the upper small intestine secrete incretins when they detect glucose.
There are two known major incretin hormones that are secreted by the small intestine, GIP and GLP-1. There was a recent study by the lab of Blanca Olivan which looked into the levels of incretins in patients who had undergone Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, a common type in which 95% of the stomach and part of the upper small intestine is bypassed.
Their results are very interesting! Compared to controls losing an equivalent amount of weight on a low-calorie diet, the bypass patients saw a HUGE increase in their oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) GLP-1 secretion (9.8 vs 112.5 pmol/L), a large increase in GIP secretion, and a corresponding increase in insulin secretion (575 vs 769 pmol/L). Two-hour OGTT blood glucose levels went from borderline diabetic to "normal", by American Diabetes Association standards. Fasting glucose and insulin dropped substantially. The bypass group gained considerable glucose control, better than the matched controls on a low-calorie diet.
It looks like part of the mechanism involves whipping the pancreas to produce more insulin in response to glucose. It also affected fasting insulin, although that could simply be due to calorie restriction because it went down in both groups. Interestingly, non-diabetic patients who get a Roux-en-Y bypass often get reactive hypoglycemia, where their pancreas overproduces insulin after a meal and they get dangerously low blood sugar. Dr Mary-Elizabeth Patti calls it "diabetes reversal in people who don't have diabetes". So the effect doesn't seem to be specific to people with diabetes.
There is some suggestion that the effect on incretins is due to bypassing the duodenum, which is part of the upper small intestine. Here's how the (very sophisticated) reasoning goes: when the duodenum doesn't get glucose dumped on it, that somehow increases release of incretins by the small intestine further along the line.
There's actually an antidiabetic drug that mimics GLP-1; it's called Byetta. There's another that inhibits the breakdown of GLP-1 called Januvia. A second effect of GLP-1 is to delay stomach emptying, which both drugs do. They have been effective for some diabetics.
Well this turned into a long post, so I'll follow up on the parasympathetic (nerve) signaling of the small intestine next time.
It's complicated and no one understands it completely.
Now for the long answer. Nutrient homeostasis is very important and we have sophisticated ways of coordinating it among different tissues. Part of the small intestine's job is telling the body that nutrients are on their way into the bloodstream. Two ways it conveys this signal are by secreting hormones into the bloodstream, and by sending signals to the brain and liver via parasympathetic nerves.
The small intestine secretes dozens of hormones, one category of which is called the incretins. Incretins by definition increase the secretion of insulin by the pancreas, among other things. They were discovered when researchers realized that oral glucose elicits more of an insulin response than intravenous glucose. The reason is that cells in the upper small intestine secrete incretins when they detect glucose.
There are two known major incretin hormones that are secreted by the small intestine, GIP and GLP-1. There was a recent study by the lab of Blanca Olivan which looked into the levels of incretins in patients who had undergone Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, a common type in which 95% of the stomach and part of the upper small intestine is bypassed.
Their results are very interesting! Compared to controls losing an equivalent amount of weight on a low-calorie diet, the bypass patients saw a HUGE increase in their oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) GLP-1 secretion (9.8 vs 112.5 pmol/L), a large increase in GIP secretion, and a corresponding increase in insulin secretion (575 vs 769 pmol/L). Two-hour OGTT blood glucose levels went from borderline diabetic to "normal", by American Diabetes Association standards. Fasting glucose and insulin dropped substantially. The bypass group gained considerable glucose control, better than the matched controls on a low-calorie diet.
It looks like part of the mechanism involves whipping the pancreas to produce more insulin in response to glucose. It also affected fasting insulin, although that could simply be due to calorie restriction because it went down in both groups. Interestingly, non-diabetic patients who get a Roux-en-Y bypass often get reactive hypoglycemia, where their pancreas overproduces insulin after a meal and they get dangerously low blood sugar. Dr Mary-Elizabeth Patti calls it "diabetes reversal in people who don't have diabetes". So the effect doesn't seem to be specific to people with diabetes.
There is some suggestion that the effect on incretins is due to bypassing the duodenum, which is part of the upper small intestine. Here's how the (very sophisticated) reasoning goes: when the duodenum doesn't get glucose dumped on it, that somehow increases release of incretins by the small intestine further along the line.
There's actually an antidiabetic drug that mimics GLP-1; it's called Byetta. There's another that inhibits the breakdown of GLP-1 called Januvia. A second effect of GLP-1 is to delay stomach emptying, which both drugs do. They have been effective for some diabetics.
Well this turned into a long post, so I'll follow up on the parasympathetic (nerve) signaling of the small intestine next time.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Fun Friday in the Neighborhood
Greetings Neighbors!Happy Friday to you all! I hope you enjoyed a good week of treating your body well and living your best life after surgical weight loss.Today is Fun Friday in the Neighborhood. That means a quiz game with fabulous prizes and better yet, a chance to get to know your Neighbors. This week I ask the question(s) - Five questions to answer with one-sentence each. Quick and easy yet
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