Sleep Post Correction

An astute commenter pointed out that I misread the numbers in the paper on sleep and fat loss. I wrote that out of the total 3.0 kg lost, the high-sleep group lost 2.4 kg as fat, and the low-sleep group lost 1.4 kg of fat out of 2.9 kg total.

In fact, the high-sleep group lost 1.4 out of 2.9 kg as fat, and the low-sleep group lost 0.6 out of 3.0 kg as fat. So I got the numbers all mixed up. Sorry for the mistake. The main point of the post still stands though: sleep deprivation negatively influences body composition.

The correct numbers are even more interesting than the ones I made up. Even in the high-sleep group, nearly half the body weight lost by simple calorie restriction was lean mass. That doesn't make calorie restriction look very good!

In the sleep-deprived group, 80% of the weight lost by calorie restriction came out of lean mass. Ouch!

That illustrates one of the reasons why I'm skeptical of simple calorie restriction as a means of fat loss. When the body "wants" to be fat, it will sacrifice lean mass to preserve fat tissue. For example, the genetically obese Zucker rat cannot be starved thin. If you try to put it on a severe calorie-restricted diet, it will literally die fat because it will cannibalize its own lean mass (muscle, heart, brain, etc.) to spare the fat. That's an extreme example, but it illustrates the point.

The key is not only to balance energy intake with expenditure (which the brain does automatically when it's working correctly), but to allocate energy appropriately to lean and fat mass.

Reference Page

Alcohol Update

1. Phillips, P. Carapetis, M. Stanton, C. 2008, ‘Alcohol and diabetes’, Medicine Today Journal, vol. 9, no. 4, pp.73-75.
2. Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), 2009, Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from alcohol consumption [Online] Available at http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/file/publications/synopses/ds10-alcohol.pdf

Small Loss in Weight, Big Difference to Health

1. Thomas, T.R. LaFontaine, T.P. 2001, ‘Exercise, nutritional strategies, and lipoproteins’, Resource manual for the guidelines for exercise testing and exercise prescription. 4th edition, Lippincott, Williams, & Amp; Wilkins, Baltimore.
2. Andersen, R.E. Wadden, T.A. Bartlett, S.J. Vogt, R.A. Weinstock, R.S. 2005, ‘Relation of weight loss to changes in serum lipids and lipoproteins in obese women’, Am J Clin Nutr, vol. 62, pp.350-7.
3. He,J. Whelton, P.K. Appel, L.J. Charleston, J. Klag, M.J. 2000, ‘Long-term effects of weight loss and dietary sodium reduction on incidence of hypertension’, Hypertension, vol. 35, pp.544-9.
4. Uusitupa, M.I. 1996, ‘Early lifestyle intervention in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance’. Ann Med, vol. 28, pp.445-449.
5. Felson, D.T. Zhang, Y. Anthony, J.M. Naimark, A. Anderson, J.J. 2002, ‘Weight loss reduces the risk for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis in women’, Ann Intern Med, vol. 116, pp.535-9.
6. Williamson, D.F. Pamuk, E. Thun, M. Flanders, D. Byers, T. Heath, C. 1995, ‘Prospective study of intentional weight loss and mortality in never-smoking overweight US white women aged 40-64 years’, [published erratum appears in Am J Epidemiol vol. 142, pp. 369]. Am J Epidemiol 1995, vol. 141, pp.1128-41.
7. Blackburn, G. 1995, ‘Effect of degree of weight loss on health benefits’, Obes Res, 3 Suppl 2:S211-6.
8. Tuomilehto, J. Lindstrom, J. Eriksson, J.G. Valle, T.T. Hamalainen, H. Ilanne-Parikka, P. 2001, ‘Prevention of Type 2 diabetes mellitus by changes in lifestyle among subjects with impaired glucose tolerance’, N Engl J Med vol. 344, pp. 1343-50.
9. Zimmet, P. 2002, ‘Diabetes Mellitus - One of Australia's top six health priorities’, Health Insite [Online] Available at http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/expert/Diabetes_Mellitus___One_of_Australia_s_top_six_health_priorities
   

Antioxidants and Energy Production

1. 'Better Health Channel and Deakin University’ (2010), [Online] Available at www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au.
2. Valko, M., Leibfritz, D., Moncola, J. and Cronin, M., Milan-Mazura, M., and Telser, J. (2007). ‘Free radicals and antioxidants in normal physiological functions and human disease’, International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, vol. 39, pp 44–84.

Back to work

I am now totally back to work since my Mumps hell. I did 2 lessons last week because they have examinations very soon and also they have whingeing Mothers and it was just easier to do them than ring up and say I couldn't. I hate pupils parents. They either don't give a shit, or they give 34 shits! There is never a happy medium.

Anyway, work was ok, but I was annoyed for most of the morning thinking about going back. I hate work so much its unreal. Well I don't so much as hate working, but just hate what I do. I would happily sit in our shop, or do something else, but I just hate teaching. I loathe it. There are a couple of lessons I really enjoy doing, but other than that, its pants. I keep trying to reason it out but I never can. Maybe its because I have only just finished dinner at cleaned up and put the NEW dishwasher on and its 11pm. That sucks so much. I have already been up and cleaned the house from 8am, then doing Shop accounts until 12, then helping DS with French, English, Geography and History homework, then cooking dinner and at 4pm when I am ready to have a sit down and a coffee I have to then get my hair washed, dress up all smart and go out to work for 5 hours. I get home at 9, serve the dinner to all 5 of us (I already rang at 8pm and told DS to put the oven on as the lasagna was sitting in there since 4 waiting to be cooked), then clear the table and put the new dishwasher together, tidy the downstairs - AGAIN - clean up the kitchen and sweep and mop the floors - AGAIN - and now I am on here. My evening starts at 11pm and my husband is already asleep on the sofa.

For fucks sake. Who invented womens lib man - cos its bollocks. Give me domesticity and stay at home FREEDOM any day fo the goddamn week. I would love to be a poor sad kept woman. I cant think of anything better!

If I was at home full time I know things would be better. for the 4 days I am here all day things run really smooth. When I go to work I leave a spotless house, everything in its place and I come back to a shit heap.

*BIG SIGH*

oh well, nothing has changed over the last 15 year when I have moaned about it, and I am sure it wont change if I continue, but I just wanted to get that load of crap out of me.

So, today had the prospect of being a shitty food day cos I feel annoyed and fed up and put upon, but I saved it. I skipped lunch at lunch time as I wasn't hungry and I had to get DH's taxes down on excel too. So when I went to work, I thought I would get a sandwich from the little shop, but they were out. I grabbed a Sausage roll and a lucozade - mainly because of lack of funds. DH had lovingly deleted my £5 from my wallet for parking without telling me, and they don't take cards in the shop under £10, and the cash machine charges you £1.75 for the privilege of getting your own money. So with £1.90 in my purse, I was a little low on meal options.

However, I hadn't had anything else, so drove to my first pupil munching away. I stopped halfway through because I had had enough, and I was at the house - well lucky I did cos there was 500 cals in that bad boy!!!!! I just hadn't thought. So i threw the rest away. they taste like shit anyway, so I would rather spend my precious calories on stuff I like than chew the rest of that cardboard pastry and grizzleage. The lucozade was 140 which was also hideous, but I was so thirsty i drank it.

So it was semi saved. The lasagna was made 'skinny' but it was still pretty high, however as I was serving up (the lasagna made 6 portions) I just knew I could not eat a whole portion so I just had half of mine which obviously also halved the calories for the dinner from 900 to 450. I had a roll and butter with it too, but today's total cals (including the daim bar I am about to devour) was a respectable 1367!

Here's the lasagna I made :

And here's my little portion:

I am so glad I can eat salad, as I really really love it. I am surprised that after my Mumps infection, I haven't had the craving for some foods like dressing or sharp things. I also have really gone off red wine. Big style!! I had 2 glasses at our mates house on Saturday night, and I was a bit disappointed. I had actually wanted to heave thinking about wine while I was sick, and even now I kind of feel a bit ill thinking about it. How random is that! I loved red wine! Oh well, its not going to do me any harm. thankfully Salad has been one thing I have really really wanted to eat over the last few days, and we have had it with every meal which was nice.

Anyway, I am off to watch telly and throw the occasional pillow or rock at my husband when he disturbs my viewing pleasure with his snoring.



Cheeseburger Pie

Ingredients:

• 500 g minced beef


• 150 g chopped mushrooms


• 150 g strong cheddar grated


• 100 mls double cream


• 50 g finely chopped onion


• 2 heaped tablespoons of mayo


• 3 egg whites


• ½ tsp salt & pepper

Preparation:

• Fry mince, onion and mushrooms together until cooked season to taste, remove from pan drain, add Lee & Perrins sauce.


• Place in a greased foil covered deep pie dish, flatten with spoon.


• Mix egg whites, mayo, cream and cheese.


• Pour over the top of mince, place olives around the dish and preheat in oven Gas mark 5 for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.


• Leave to cool before taking out of pie dish, remove foil.


• Cut in to portions and wrap in cling film.


• Serve with salad or cauli mash.

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving: 9 g carbohydrate

Flax Foccacia

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flax seed meal


• 1-2 packet splenda


• 1 Tablespoon baking powder


• 2 egg whites


• 3 eggs


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 cup water


• 1/3 cup oil

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.


• Prepare pan with oiled parchment paper.


• Mix flax seed meal, splenda, baking powder, salt, egg and egg white (A whisk works well)


• Add wet to dry, and combine well. Make sure there aren't obvious strings of egg white hanging out in the batter.


• Let batter set for 2 to 3 minutes to thicken up some


• Pour batter onto pan.


• Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until it is visibly browning even more than flax already is.


• Cool and cut into small pieces.


• YUMMY!!

Weight Loss Recipes Amount Per Serving(2 pieces): < 2 g carbohydrate 10 g Dietary Fiber

It's just the beginning

After my long, soul-searching post yesterday, I feel about a million times better about my life. I know it's only been a couple of days, but I feel so different that it's hard to put it into words.

For the first time in my life, I'm not consumed by thoughts of food. When will I eat? What will I eat? How much will I eat? Will I eat too much? Will I eat the wrong thing? Will I gain weight if I eat that? Will I have a binge today? Will I lose control?

It's like I've been under an evil spell for over forty years. A spell that was cast on me to always make me worry about what I eat. To always be fearful of food. To always have food be in control of me and not me in control of it.

It's like I found the source of my pain, which was actually compounded by how I've handled the pain, discomfort, sadness, and loneliness in my life. I avoided it. I ate to stop the feelings. I refused to face the pain because it just hurt too much. Instead, it was better to eat away the pain. The only problem with that little theory is that it doesn't work.
Today I canceled my Weight Watcher membership. I've only been going to about one meeting a month and honestly, I've lost interest in it. It's served it's purpose for me. I know what to eat, and how much to eat. I understand portion size and the Weight Watcher healthy eating guidelines. Now it's time for me to move on, to try something different. Not another diet. Not another weight loss plan. Instead, I want to stop my war with food.

Still, it's scary to leave Weight Watchers after almost three  years. I can always rejoin, however, I don't think I'll ever want to.

I weighed this morning on my scales here at home. 174.0 pounds. Afterwards I placed the scales on the top shelf in the back of my closet. I need a step stool to get to them.

I have weighed myself every day for the last 42 years. I've made myself crazy with those weighins. It's time to stop it. At least for now. I need to give the daily weighins a break. I'll weigh again next Saturday.

Today I followed Geneen's seven eating guidelines. It was not easy, but it made a huge difference. I bought her CD where she explains the eating guidelines in depth. She said it's all or nothing. You can't say you don't like doing one thing and then decide to just not do it. It doesn't work that way.

I know that's true because that's what I tried last summer when I read the book. I didn't like #3, Eat without distractions. Distractions include radio, television, newspapers, books, intense or anxiety-producing conversations or music. This one is the hardest for me. I'm getting use to it now, but it was very odd the first couple of times. It really makes me focus on what I'm eating, because well, there's just nothing else to focus on. Surprisingly, it makes me feel a lot more satisfied with my meal.

Today I ate what my body wanted. I didn't weigh or measure most of my food, except the oatmeal. I didn't write down what I ate or figure out the calories or the Points. I didn't worry about it. You can't even begin to imagine how this made me feel. It was very difficult, but it also felt like freedom.

In case you're wondering, here's what I had to eat today and all of this food is really what I felt like my body wanted. I won't be posting my food every day, because that bores me pieces to write about what I eat. I just wanted to show you what I ate when trying to not be totally restrictive with my food.

1 cup of coffee with Stevia and 1% milk (maybe 1/4 cup -?)
1/2 cup oatmeal, microwaved with a cup of water
some dried cranberries, maybe 20 (?)
a few walnuts, maybe 6 halves (?)
a splash of 1% milk
1 tablespoon of Splenda/brown sugar mix. I would have used honey but we didn't have any.
1 small banana

I savored every bite and it was delicious.

I somehow missed lunch and found myself at the gym at 4pm starving to death. That was a total accident because I was running errands and forgot to eat. I had some Kashi bars in my car, some new pumpkin pecan bars. I ate two. I checked the label because I still do that, and they were 120 calories each. This was the only time I didn't follow the not eating in the car guideline, but I was parked at the gym and not listening to the radio.

I worked out doing cardio for an hour at the gym.

When I walked in the door at home, I was once again starving. I'd burned over 500 calories during my workout.

I decided to have another snack before I made dinner.

1 small banana
about 1/2 a glass of 1% milk maybe 3/4 cup

I sat at the table, slowly eating the banana, drinking the milk. I really wanted to shove it in my mouth and drink the milk in one big gulp, but I took the time to taste the banana and enjoy my snack.

Dinner was simple and it really was what I wanted, which is oddly what I eat quite often.

A large chicken breast, much larger than my normal 4 ounces, but I didn't weigh it. It was broiled with the Costco Sweet Mesquite Seasoning (love that stuff), and served with a little barbecue sauce
Brussels Sprouts, more than my normal serving, maybe 1 1/2 cups
Cherry tomatoes
A big glass of water

About an hour after dinner I had a KozyShack tapioca cup. It was not sugar-free. Topped with a squirt (a large one) of non-fat Redi-whip, which I won't be eating again. The pudding was wonderful, the Redi-whip was gross.

I'm cutting back on the sugar-free junk I've been eating. I'll still use Stevia because I don't mind the taste of it. I won't be eating a lot of sugar because it doesn't make me feel good. When I eat a lot of it, I get night sweats really bad. A small amount is okay, a lot is bad for me.

It's almost 9:30pm, and I'm going to eat a smallish Honeycrisp apple before I go to bed.

This is a lot more food than I normally eat, but I don't think I'll be getting up and gorging myself on a 500 to a 1,000 midnight snack tonight

I'm really curious if a week of eating like this will make a difference. Am I being stupid thinking I don't need to count every calorie I put in my mouth? Is this a mistake? Yes, it's that voice talking to me again, telling me I'm going to screw this up and gain a hundred pounds.

It needs to shut up.

Aspartame is EVIL

For years I've avoided Aspartame. It's in all sorts of diet foods and soda.  I've said it for years, avoid it.

If something is not natural, we shouldn't be putting it into our body. When I say "natural" I define it as something directly from nature, unadulterated. Anything we put into our bodies that isn't natural, our body has to work extra hard to process it, if it can process it at all.

When trying to be healthy to lose weight, the least distractions you give your body the better.  I'm an advocate to keeping your diet simple and eating real foods.

Some disturbing info about aspartame I got from this article. This information also matches what I read back  when I was working on my Holistic Nutrition degree in: "Excitotoxins:The Taste That Kills.


It's a nasty substance, please avoid it for your own health.

• According to the Department of Health and Human Services, aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA.
• The maker of aspartame, Monsanto, uses genetically engineered bacteria to produce the “sweetener.”
• linked to blindness
• migraine headaches
• dizziness
• seizures
• nausea
• numbness 
• muscle spasms
• weight gain
• rashes
• depression
• fatigue
• irritability
• tachycardia
• insomnia
• vision problems
• hearing loss
• heart palpitations
• breathing difficulties
• anxiety attacks
• slurred speech 
• loss of taste
• vertigo
• memory loss
• joint pain. 

The following chronic illnesses are triggered or worsened by ingesting aspartame: 

• brain tumors
• multiple sclerosis
• epilepsy
• chronic fatigue syndrome
• Parkinson’s disease
• Alzheimer’s
• mental retardation
• lymphoma
• birth defects
• fibromyalgia
• diabetes.