Lip Gloss for Weight Loss?

Over at Daily Diet Blog Mike Howard brings forward obesity researcher Betty Kovacs and Self Magazine editor Erin Hobday collaborated article on ridiculous weight loss methods. Now, I've tried some crazy things in my day including a self-made cling-wrap body suit (didn't work) and the infamous cabbage soup diet. But nothing nearly as crazy as some of these: take a look and enjoy!1. WEIGHT LOSS

Oh Joyous Day

I know that I shouldn't but I just couldn't resist it. I will probably live to regret it on Monday, but there we go. It feels great now!

I weighed myself this morning. I thought... what the hell and hopped on. 15 stone 7 it screamed out at me. I was shocked beyond belief. All I feel is proud and happy and so amazingly wonderful. 15 and a half stone???? OH MY!!!! This is like the best thing ever. I think I am actually believing in this band now, and cutting the crap out of my diet... i.e. wine and chocolate, sorts me out. It is simply those 2 things that cause me to feel shitty, guilty and to put on weight. They don't even make me that happy when I am eating them, so why do I (and 1000 of others who have the same problem...)?

Nothing feels as good as getting on those scales and hearing those pounds getting lower.

I really shouldn't have logged it today, but it felt so good I had to. I just hope that on Monday its not higher, because that makes me feel worse than anything. I had a bad experience last year that way just after having my band sorted... I lost about 9 pounds in a week do you remember? Well obviously I checked and checked and checked and the scales told the truth, but when I jumped on the following week it was higher again ad it really puts me backwards. Its like some kind of twisted mental game or something.

I have really taken on board Lapbandgirl's comment of the other week... Thanks Erica. I don't know why but this comment has REALLY helped me... like a word at the right time.
She said:

"...we shouldn't be eating by the clock, just when we're hungry. If you don't
feel like much dinner, don't eat it... but don't think you have to eat
something..."

Now we all know this is true right? However, until that moment I read that, I hadn't really GOT it. Why the Fuck do I eat if I am not hungry? Why??? Seriously? I honestly don't know. We get up and its breakfast so we have to have something to eat right... Then its lunch, so we better eat something. Then dinner.... etc.

(-what follows is a really weird post of my meanderings and righting the worlds wrongs so quit now if you don't want to be inanely bored)

Actually no. Just because I have a pencil in my pocket doesn't mean I have to sharpen it. I only sharpen it if I need to right? What happened to us? If you pardon the pun, why do we have the all consuming desire to keep the motor running?

Its taken me a about a week pondering this comment from Erika to really sort my shit out. I have been feeling guilty if I don't eat breakfast so I make sure I have lunch. So as I am puking the lunch up over the sink I am now worried that I am gonna drop dead from starvation. Was I actually hungry in the first place? The thought does not enter my mind.

So these last few days I have really taken stock of where I am at head space wise. I get up in the morning and the last thing I want to do is eat. I DO however want to drink. So that's what I do. Its half past 12 right now in the UK... about the time one starts thinking of ones guts... Why? I am not actually hungry... so I have to ignore this urge to stuff myself as that is all it is. Its not driven by hunger or need for physical sustenance. Its driven by the clock. I mean... what? Why do we do this?

*Shakes head with utter confusion*

So I am not going to eat by the clock. I am going to consider if I feel hungry before I eat anything. this is hard because obviously as wives/girlfriend's/mothers we have to feed our brood when they get hungry (which is oddly around the clock... so maybe we are making the same mistakes there... there really should be no time for lunch or dinner... it should be when you want it.) So to make it easier on us we call it lunch time or tea time or dinner time as it saves the poor woman having to slave her guts out in the kitchen endlessly when ever someone comes in and says "I'm hungry."

So Lunch, breakfast and dinner have become an institution that has been brought about by laziness in fact. Bare bones and all... if we really ate when we were hungry we would all eat at completely different times. You never see a rabbit stop whatever he is doing and sit down to some grass on the dot of 5pm do you?

To make it easier on ourselves we give ourselves times for these things... so we can plan our days around them. This is why it becomes such a bloody problem for some of us.

So is it possible to just eat when we want to...? Yes if we are all individually responsible for making our food. But for children this is not possible, and socially its not the best. Its really nice to sit down to a dinner and chat over it... but its not actually necessary is it. We could all sit around and chat at any time we wanted to... its just the fact that is a convenient time to do it when everyone is together.

Anyway, I have decided that if I am not hungry I will not eat. End of. So, thanks Lapbandgirl!

Lessons From the Pima Indians

At 38% and climbing in 2006, the Pima indians (Akimel O'odham) of Arizona have the highest rate of diabetes of any population in the world. They also have staggering rates of obesity (~70%) and hypertension.

Things were very different for them before 1539, when the Spanish first made contact. They lived on an agricultural diet of beans, corn and squash, with wild fish, game meat and plants. As with most native people, they were thin and healthy while on their traditional diet.

In 1859, the Pima were restricted to a small fraction of their original land along the Gila river, the Pima Reservation. In 1866, settlers began arriving in the region and diverting the Gila river upstream of the reservation for their own agriculture. In 1869, the river went dry for the first time. 1886 was the last year any water flowed to the Pima Reservation in the Gila river.

The Pima had no way to obtain water, and no way to grow crops. Their once productive subsistence economy ground to a halt. Famine ensued for 40 desperate years. The Pima cut down their extensive mesquite forests to sell for food and water. Eventually, after public outcry, uncle Sam stepped in.

The government provided the Pima with subsidized "food": white flour, sugar, partially hydrogenated lard, and canned goods. They promptly became diabetic and overweight, and have remained that way ever since.

The Pima are poster children for mainstream nutrition researchers in the US for several reasons. First of all, their pre-contact diet was probably fairly low in fat, and researchers love to point out that they now eat more fat (comparable to the average American diet). Another reason is that there's another group of Pima in Mexico who still live on a relatively traditional diet and are much healthier. They are genetically very similar, supporting the idea that it's the lifestyle of the American Pima that's causing their problems (no kidding, Sherlock? Can you picture a 5'5", 250 lb man running down a rabbit?). The third reason is that the Mexican Pima exercise more than the Arizona Pima and eat a bit less, supposedly supporting the "calories in, calories out" nonsense.

I definitely agree with the conclusion that their lifestyle is behind their problems; that's pretty obvious. I think most Pima know it too. If they got their water back, maybe things would be different for them. But there are huge holes in the other conclusions researchers draw from these studies.

The focus on macronutrients has them blinded to the fact that the modern Pima diet is pure crap. It's mostly processed food with a low nutrient density. It also contains the two biggest destroyers of indigenous health: white flour and sugar. There are numerous examples of cultures going from a high-fat diet to a lower-fat "reservation food" diet and suffering the same fate: the Inuit of Alaska, the Maasai and Samburu of Kenya, tribes in the Pacific Northwestern US and Canada, certain Aboriginal groups, and more. What do they all have in common? White flour, sugar and other processed food.

The exercise thing makes me laugh too. True, Mexican Pima exercise 2.5 times more than Arizona Pima, but the Arizona Pima still exercise way more than the average American! Women clock in at 3.1 hours a week, while men come in at a whopping 12.1 hours a week! I am a bike commuter and weight lifter, and even I don't exercise that much. So forgive me if I'm a little skeptical of the idea that they aren't exercising enough to keep the weight off.

The history of the Pima is a heart-wrenching story that has been repeated hundreds, perhaps thousands of times all over the world. Europeans bring in white flour, sugar and other processed food, it destroys a native populations' health, and then researchers act like they don't understand why it happened.

The Pima are canaries in the coal mine, and we can learn a lot from them. Their health problems resemble those of other poor Americans (and wealthier ones also, to a lesser extent). This is because they are both eating similar types of things. The problem is creeping into society at large, however, as we rely more and more on processed wheat, corn, soy and sugar, and less on wholesome food. Obesity in the US has doubled in the past 30 years, and childhood obesity has tripled. Diabetes is following suit. Life expectancy has begun to diminish in some (poor) parts of the country. Meanwhile, our diet is looking increasingly like Pima reservation food. It's time to learn a lesson from their tragedy.

Molded Rhubarb Rosemary Cucumber Salad Recipe

Elsie over at Simply Recipes presents a gorgeous spring jelled salad. This isn't your average pot-luck gelatin; it is stylish and sophisticated using spring fresh rhubarb, rosemary and cucumbers. Gelatin is a staple in may weight loss surgery diets but sometimes it can get a bit boring. This one, though a bit time-consuming to prepare, is sure to take the dull out of the everyday. Elsie's recipe

Another good one

Another good day. Am at home writing this when normally I would be at work, but have managed to change my late pupils to earlier in the day making an earlier night for me. Food wise its been a bit weird. I seem to have these odd few days where I cant eat much every now and then. In fact I think it was the same time as last week thinking about it. Anyway, today I have eaten 1 bite of toast and a slither of fried egg white. I was going to have 1 fried egg on 1 piece of toast for my lunch, but my band had other ideas, so all I got was a couple of teeny weeny measly mouthfuls which amounted to practically nothing. Then I went to work and en-route, during and on the way back, drank a carton of Tymbark Vega juice. Then when I got home DH had made Jacket potatoes, beans and salad for dinner. I managed 1 mouthful of salad, 1 mouthful of jacket potato and a few beans and then I was done. Since then I have had an orange juice. I am not actually hungry. I don't feel quite 'full' or satiated in any way, but I am most certainly not hungry. I might have a yogurt when I go to bed, but today's intake has been seriously low. I don't think I have even broken 300 cals to be honest.

Here are some beautiful pictures of Mary's kittens. They are 11 days old and terribly cute. A couple have just started to open their eyes and they are so teeny tiny!

The LivingAfterWLS Library

It's me again with my weekly Tuesday update. I find it hard to believe Tuesday is here again so soon! For the past several days and nights I've been face to face with my design computer writing code to finish the new and improved LivingAfterWLS Library - a project that has been back burnered several times since January. I am bound and determined to get it finished this week. Entering the content

Your Gut Talks to Your Brain

I've been reading through some papers on a gut-brain connection that regulates food intake and blood nutrient balance. I've learned some interesting things.

First of all, when fat hits your small intestine (especially long-chain fatty acids), it sends a message to the brainstem via the vagus nerve. This rapidly inhibits eating behavior.

The hypothalamus can also inhibit glucose production by the liver in response to fat in the bloodstream, by sending it signals via the vagus nerve.

A recent paper that got me interested in all this showed that when you put fatty acids on the upper small intestine, it sends a signal to the brain, which then sends a signal to the liver, increasing insulin sensitivity and decreasing glucose production.

The upper small intestine is not just a passive nutrient sponge. It's a very active player in the body's response to food, coordinating changes in food intake and nutrient disposal.