Lots of things conspired against me taking my measurements this past weekend. I won't go into it too much but it involved a growth spurt, my father's visit, and the urgent early morning need for a muffin. I am going to wait until this coming weekend to do another measurement. In the meantime, here are some cute pictures of my cat and one of the biscuit (cat and kitten videos/pictures get almost as much traffic on the internet as guys getting nailed in the balls. Says something about us huh? I will go with kittens. Mainly cause I don't have any videos of guys getting reamed)
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
proof
Me and the biscuit decided to go for a walk this afternoon (read: the biscuit decided to take a one hour nap where he usually goes for 2.5 hours so we needed a peaceful activity) and I have noticed that my black, stretchy, cotton maternity pants have been falling off me so I thought I should change. And by falling off me I mean when I went to grab the kid out of the crib yesterday they fell to my ankles. With a trepidatious heart I went to my "workout attire" drawer (if you remember, the last time I put on work out clothes it ended in tears) and picked out a pair of black workout pants. And they fit--er, more snugly than usual--but I could wear them comfortably. I have not been able to wear these pants since I was 5 months pregnant. 8 months ago. I was so excited and pleased I grabbed a pair of my regular jeans off the shelf and pulled those on. Yeah, not quite yet. Those bad boys didn't really get up over my thighs so well, not without some bacon grease at least. But that's ok. I am making progress.
By the way, both the cat and baby were watching me from the bed and both reacted to my squeal of delight at the first pair of pants and my "ooohhhhhhhh. ok." sigh when the jeans didn't fit. And then I spoke to both of them like they were supportive friends I brought with me to the mall. "I know, I know. But come on, its been eight months since I wore the black ones, it wasn't outrageous for me to think that my jeans might sort of fit....Ok it was, don't be so judgmental. I AM going to get back into my regular clothes soon. You just wait." At this point the cat began to clean herself and the biscuit spit up, reminding me that once again, I am the only one with language skills in the house. I used to think my mom was crazy of her own accord. I now know that motherhood greatly enhances any latent craziness.
Seriously, when did everything become so dangerous? A storm that brings 20 inches of snow? I could hardly sleep because I thought one of our trees was going to crash through the baby's room. Norm riding his bike to work? I have to tell myself to wait till lunch to call and make sure he's alive and not be a nutter and tell him to text me when he gets there. I feel like wrapping my kid in bubble wrap a la Joey Tribbani at all times. I have never been a person who lives with anxiety and fear. Norm and I would be apart for weeks at a time, both doing an extremely dangerous job, not speaking for days, and I never thought twice about him getting hurt. Now every time he gets in the car to grab something from the grocery store I have a mini-attack. And my sister's kids, whom I love and miss when I don't see them very often, now seem like walking malicious petri dishes because they haven't been vaccinated. If they even sniffle in my house I have the urge to lock them in my garage and clorox the house. Hopefully this subsides or my children's memory of their childhood will involve mommy doing a lot of bong rips.
By the way, both the cat and baby were watching me from the bed and both reacted to my squeal of delight at the first pair of pants and my "ooohhhhhhhh. ok." sigh when the jeans didn't fit. And then I spoke to both of them like they were supportive friends I brought with me to the mall. "I know, I know. But come on, its been eight months since I wore the black ones, it wasn't outrageous for me to think that my jeans might sort of fit....Ok it was, don't be so judgmental. I AM going to get back into my regular clothes soon. You just wait." At this point the cat began to clean herself and the biscuit spit up, reminding me that once again, I am the only one with language skills in the house. I used to think my mom was crazy of her own accord. I now know that motherhood greatly enhances any latent craziness.
Seriously, when did everything become so dangerous? A storm that brings 20 inches of snow? I could hardly sleep because I thought one of our trees was going to crash through the baby's room. Norm riding his bike to work? I have to tell myself to wait till lunch to call and make sure he's alive and not be a nutter and tell him to text me when he gets there. I feel like wrapping my kid in bubble wrap a la Joey Tribbani at all times. I have never been a person who lives with anxiety and fear. Norm and I would be apart for weeks at a time, both doing an extremely dangerous job, not speaking for days, and I never thought twice about him getting hurt. Now every time he gets in the car to grab something from the grocery store I have a mini-attack. And my sister's kids, whom I love and miss when I don't see them very often, now seem like walking malicious petri dishes because they haven't been vaccinated. If they even sniffle in my house I have the urge to lock them in my garage and clorox the house. Hopefully this subsides or my children's memory of their childhood will involve mommy doing a lot of bong rips.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Bringing Sexy back: attempt #1
At my 6 week follow up exam with the midwives they barraged me with questions. A good thing but also a little funny once we got to the section about re-igniting Norm and I's love life. The conversation went a little like this (no topic is weird with these women anymore--after a year of visits and them participating in my delivery, there is nothing to hide):
Midwife: Have you and Norm started having sex again?
Me: No....can we? (I'm pretty sure I read/was told we couldn't have a go at it till 6 weeks)
Midwife: Yes you definitely can if you feel ready for it (they are so concerned about momma's well being).
Me: I don't exactly feel up for it right now, I don't seem to have any libido.
Midwife: Yeah, a lot of that has to do with the hormones associated with breastfeeding, or lack of certain hormones. It will come back, but it could take some time.
Me: I'm also so tired--Norm is too I think. Sleep just sounds better than sex. Plus I'm not feeling super sexy just yet.
Midwife: That's ok, it often takes couples a while to get back to being intimate. Do you and Norm talk about it?
Me: If by talk about it you mean when I fart in bed and turn to him and ask "So, wanna do it?"...then yes.
Midwife: [laughs]Well, have you discussed whether or not you'd like to try and have another child? (can I just say that EVERYONE asks you this question like 3 seconds after you had the first one. And after having a natural birth and not sleeping my inclination is to break out in a chorus of " hell to the no". I understand why she is asking me though)
Me: Yeah, we decided we aren't going to try until after Rory is a year old--probably after 14 months.
Midwife: So what kind of birth control are you planning on using?
Me: Er...I hate being on the pill, it makes me sort of crazy and depressed, so I think we will just start using condoms again.
Midwife: Ok, that sounds goo--
Me: [cutting her off] Actually...I'm lying. Norm and I have been using the pull and pray method since after our first year of dating. (I figured I should be truthful--knowing myself, I would go out and buy a bunch of condoms that would never get used because I would need to keep up the lie to my midwives)
Midwife: I know I shouldn't say this, but after learning so much about fertility, if you are in a committed relationship that can handle any "mistakes", its really not such a bad method.
Other Midwife: Yes, but you should know that you can get pregnant while breastfeeding even if you haven't starting menstruating yet. (I know this because my wonderful sister had both her kids by accident. I can understand--sort of--having the first one by accident. I mean, she's married and they have pretty stable incomes. But the second one? Good lord I wanted to smack her upside the head when she said "I don't know how it happened! I was still breastfeeding and it was only one time!" What are you, sixteen? Penis in vagina with no barrier equals chance of baby. Pretty simple AND since she went to the same midwives, I now know they had this talk with her. But I guess Fertile Myrtle skipped health in 8th grade. Her kids are 20 months apart. At first it was hard. Now that they are 2 and 4 and its awesome)
Midwife 1: There are some things you should know about the first time you try and have sex postpartum.
Me: Things aren't going to fit the same way?
Midwife 1: Not necessarily. But yeah, it will feel different for him.
Me: Hot dog down a hall way?
Midwife 2: [laughs] No, not after your first one (oh great). We suggest you use a good lube and take it slow.
Me: Oh. [long pause] Its gonna hurt?
Midwife 1: It might be rather uncomfortable. Honestly, since your husband isn't here, I'll just tell you what we tell a lot of women: you just gotta get through the first few times. Husbands don't like to hear that. (mine definitely wouldn't. Norm is all about me achieving an orgasm. I think he takes pride it in--or feels bad if I don't. For a guy who wasn't raised Catholic...)
Me: Alllright. Well now I REALLY want to have sex. (during the last month of my pregnancy Norm and I had sex almost every night to try and induce labor. Let me tell you, romance was in the air. A typical night of foreplay went like this: Norm "We should probably have sex." Me "ugh, fine.")
About twenty minutes later they gave me my first postpartum pap smear. It was about 200x more uncomfortable than usual (let me add that I didn't have any tares during labor so I can't imagine how much worse that would be). Definitely made me think twice about anything else going up there if you know what I mean.
Flash forward to this past weekend. Norm and I were both home during the day, both pretty well rested, and the baby had just gone down to nap.
Me: I'm gonna take a shower.
Norm: Oh, I need to take one too. (our water heater can only do one hot shower every 3 hours, so he was looking at a waiting period) Maybe we can take one together [eye brow wiggle]
Me: [laughing] I don't really get clean when we shower together.
Norm: [dejected] Alright.
Me: You know what, ok.
Norm: Sweet.
Me: I have to go to the bathroom first.
Norm: That's hot.
Me: Shut up.
So we take a shower together and keep that naked momentum flowing into the bedroom. I had told Norm about what the midwives said earlier ("Just get through it? That makes me feel great.") and so he was making sure to take his time and had some lube at hand. The moment (of insertion) finally came and it reminded me of an injury "I'm ok" "how's the pressure?" "its good, just give me a second." You know, really sexy and hot. I was using my breathing, my eyes closed, trying to relax and enjoy it. And then I opened my eyes and there, ten inches from my head, was our kitty. Sitting up, head tilted to the side, staring at me. When she saw me looking at her, she reached out and touched my face with her paw. I stifled a laugh and said to Norm "whatever you do, don't look at the cat". "Too late" he said, and we both chuckled and tried to refocus. So after it was over, (Norm eventually understood that waiting for me was futile) I asked him if the cat was really bothering him sitting there. He said that she didn't just sit there, she walked over my head a few times, played with the bottle of lube, and sat next to him pawing his side, not sure if this was a game or if daddy was hurting mommy. That definitely goes to show you, dudes will withstand a lot to have sex. I asked him if it felt different, less tight or whatever, and he said it felt softer. Well, softer is a better adjective than enormous I guess.
So the first attempt is past and it wasn't so bad. Wasn't toe curling good but at least I got through it, right? Sigh....
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Week 2 Measurements
And here we go again. The measurements are sort of weird. I guess I put on and take off weight (or hold bloat) in strange ways. I didn't get any workouts in this week and I cheated a bit more than I planned on. My fantastic friend Meghann came in from Seattle so I bent the rules slightly. And yesterday was St. Paddy's day and I definitely drank a bunch of mimosa's (see note below) and baileys in my coffee at our pancake brunch.
*People have this misconception about alcohol and weight loss. If you want to lose weight, there is not a "good" drink that is waaay better than another in terms of caloric intake, but there are some that are more beneficial to your health. Studies about alcohol consumption and weight loss or gain are tricky because so there are so many variables. Genetics and sex seems to play a role as does the sample givers themselves (people often underestimate/under report how much they drink). White wine, especially champagne, is possibly one of the worst drinks to consume while ONE or TWO glasses of red wine a night is good for your heart. But all the this "this type of liquor or beer is better for you" campaign is just marketing--your body burns alcohol first AND its extra calories no matter what. If you want to lose weight, 1 or 2 drinks every few nights is fine. Binge drinking, on the other hand, is ALWAYS associated with weight gain.
Even still, my abdomen measurements went down, my limbs stayed the same (though my neck went up? I am attributing it to its just an awkward area to measure in the same place correctly every time), and my weight went down another few lbs.
Weight:
194 pounds, 3 more pounds down
*People have this misconception about alcohol and weight loss. If you want to lose weight, there is not a "good" drink that is waaay better than another in terms of caloric intake, but there are some that are more beneficial to your health. Studies about alcohol consumption and weight loss or gain are tricky because so there are so many variables. Genetics and sex seems to play a role as does the sample givers themselves (people often underestimate/under report how much they drink). White wine, especially champagne, is possibly one of the worst drinks to consume while ONE or TWO glasses of red wine a night is good for your heart. But all the this "this type of liquor or beer is better for you" campaign is just marketing--your body burns alcohol first AND its extra calories no matter what. If you want to lose weight, 1 or 2 drinks every few nights is fine. Binge drinking, on the other hand, is ALWAYS associated with weight gain.
Even still, my abdomen measurements went down, my limbs stayed the same (though my neck went up? I am attributing it to its just an awkward area to measure in the same place correctly every time), and my weight went down another few lbs.
Measurements
|
3/4/2012
|
3/10/2012
|
3/18/2012
|
Neck
|
38 cm
|
36.5 cm
|
37.5 cm
|
Right Bicep
|
32.5 cm
|
35 cm
|
35 cm
|
Left Bicep
|
31.5 cm
|
33 cm
|
33 cm
|
Belly
|
107 cm
|
101 cm
|
98 cm
|
Hips
|
111 cm
|
108 cm
|
105.5 cm
|
Right Leg
|
66 cm
|
65 cm
|
65 cm
|
Left Leg
|
66.5 cm
|
64 cm
|
64 cm
|
Weight:
194 pounds, 3 more pounds down
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Sleep and Fat
I have never been, nor will I probably ever be, a good sleeper. I wish I was so much, but I have fought with insomnia, both onset (falling asleep) and middle (waking up a lot), throughout my whole life. So I guess I should back up and define what is a "good sleeper" or more importantly, what is "good sleep"?
Adults should get between 7-9 hours of good sleep a night. There is a very small group of the people who can get by just fine on 5-6 hours of sleep. Everyone claims to be one of these people. You are wrong. How do you know if you aren't getting enough sleep (and the right kind of sleep, which I'll talk about soon)? Have you ever nodded off during a routine meeting after only a couple of minutes? Feel tired shortly after you wake up? Does riding in a car or train (motion) make you drowsy on a regular basis? Without coffee, does your afternoon become non-functioning? (although this might be due to a diet high in sugars and simple carbohydrates--eating cereal for breakfast is the worst thing you can do for afternoon productivity) If you have any of these happen more than once, you are not getting enough sleep.
Scientists have a general understanding, as we all do, of how sleep is restorative to all the functions of the human body. But they are truly limited on the why, what, and how. There is a tragic hereditary disease called FFI, fatal familial insomnia, that shows how important sleep is to the body. There is no cure for the disease, once you stop sleeping it is only a matter of months till you are dead. You don't die of another sickness, like with other degenerative diseases, your other organs a still functioning normally. Why do I bring this up? Because what we know about sleep and how it affects us is still evolving. Sleeping those precious 8 hours might be more important to our health than we all know.
One of the things that they have found out about sleep is this: the less you get over time, the more likely you are to put on weight. There are two hormones, leptin and ghrelin, that have control over our appetites and they are affected by sleep. Simply put, ghrelin stimulates your appetite and leptin signals your brain that you are full. When you consistently sleep less than your body needs, leptins levels go down and ghrelin is more readily produced, meaning your body is saying "I feel hungry, I need food" when you actually don't. (well, I guess evolutionarily, you would have needed food if you were low on sleep because it probably meant you were under real duress. But none of us is foraging for berries and sleeping in caves, so for our discussion, your body is wrong) And you don't crave lean protein and greens, you will naturally desire comfort food, high in fat, salt, and sugars. Getting enough sleep ensures that these hormone levels are at a even, natural stasis.
BUT there is a way to sleep 8 hours and still have your hormones be out of whack. Wicky wicky whack. You could be one of the MILLIONS of Americans with sleep apnea, which even with 8 hours of sleep a night, causes those hormone levels to be off. Sleep apnea causes you to stop breathing/receiving oxygen throughout the night, maybe hundreds of times. This is obviously a bad thing. And more than just affecting dental health (a dry mouth leads to gum disease and tooth decay) and weight loss, sleep apnea can affect memory and cause headaches during the day. Most people are unaware they are affected by it, or by how severely they are affected by it. And it is often misdiagnosed. If you wake up with dry mouth, not feeling refreshed and your partner complaining about snoring, and have random headaches and brain fart memory issues throughout the day--you should look into treatment for sleep apnea. Sometimes its as easy as sleeping on your side and putting a humidifier in your room. Often, it is linked to being overweight. At any rate, it is keeping you from maintaining a healthy weight (among other things--like keeping your wife up at night).
Adults should get between 7-9 hours of good sleep a night. There is a very small group of the people who can get by just fine on 5-6 hours of sleep. Everyone claims to be one of these people. You are wrong. How do you know if you aren't getting enough sleep (and the right kind of sleep, which I'll talk about soon)? Have you ever nodded off during a routine meeting after only a couple of minutes? Feel tired shortly after you wake up? Does riding in a car or train (motion) make you drowsy on a regular basis? Without coffee, does your afternoon become non-functioning? (although this might be due to a diet high in sugars and simple carbohydrates--eating cereal for breakfast is the worst thing you can do for afternoon productivity) If you have any of these happen more than once, you are not getting enough sleep.
Scientists have a general understanding, as we all do, of how sleep is restorative to all the functions of the human body. But they are truly limited on the why, what, and how. There is a tragic hereditary disease called FFI, fatal familial insomnia, that shows how important sleep is to the body. There is no cure for the disease, once you stop sleeping it is only a matter of months till you are dead. You don't die of another sickness, like with other degenerative diseases, your other organs a still functioning normally. Why do I bring this up? Because what we know about sleep and how it affects us is still evolving. Sleeping those precious 8 hours might be more important to our health than we all know.
One of the things that they have found out about sleep is this: the less you get over time, the more likely you are to put on weight. There are two hormones, leptin and ghrelin, that have control over our appetites and they are affected by sleep. Simply put, ghrelin stimulates your appetite and leptin signals your brain that you are full. When you consistently sleep less than your body needs, leptins levels go down and ghrelin is more readily produced, meaning your body is saying "I feel hungry, I need food" when you actually don't. (well, I guess evolutionarily, you would have needed food if you were low on sleep because it probably meant you were under real duress. But none of us is foraging for berries and sleeping in caves, so for our discussion, your body is wrong) And you don't crave lean protein and greens, you will naturally desire comfort food, high in fat, salt, and sugars. Getting enough sleep ensures that these hormone levels are at a even, natural stasis.
BUT there is a way to sleep 8 hours and still have your hormones be out of whack. Wicky wicky whack. You could be one of the MILLIONS of Americans with sleep apnea, which even with 8 hours of sleep a night, causes those hormone levels to be off. Sleep apnea causes you to stop breathing/receiving oxygen throughout the night, maybe hundreds of times. This is obviously a bad thing. And more than just affecting dental health (a dry mouth leads to gum disease and tooth decay) and weight loss, sleep apnea can affect memory and cause headaches during the day. Most people are unaware they are affected by it, or by how severely they are affected by it. And it is often misdiagnosed. If you wake up with dry mouth, not feeling refreshed and your partner complaining about snoring, and have random headaches and brain fart memory issues throughout the day--you should look into treatment for sleep apnea. Sometimes its as easy as sleeping on your side and putting a humidifier in your room. Often, it is linked to being overweight. At any rate, it is keeping you from maintaining a healthy weight (among other things--like keeping your wife up at night).
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The death of sexy
When took the little biscuit out today to a coffee shop, (my excuse being we are out of coffee beans at home, the real reason being I needed to get OUT) I came across the grave of sexy. Let me extrapolate. While I was enjoying my cup of coffee and reading the paper (the biscuit slept in his car seat. I think he is trying to make it up to me for screaming for 45 minutes straight yesterday after getting his first round of vaccinations. There are 4 more rounds? Awesome, cause it wasn't hell on earth for four hours yesterday or anything. Poor little biscuit. And yes, I cried. Again.) a couple in their mid-fifties came and sat near me. Well, I noticed them the minute they walked into the coffee shop because I could hear the wife. The woman talked from the time they got into the door, while they were ordering coffee, while they were waiting for coffee, after they got the coffee and sat down, and kept going while they walked out the door. She never shut up. And her husband said maybe 20 words. She had super short hair and was dressed in casual clothes, no make up, no jewelry, and the ugliest shoes I have ever seen. Now, from the conversation she was having and the way her husband was dressed (polo shirt, nice khakis, nice watch, average shoes), it was obvious she wasn't an earth mother or a laid back individual--or unemployed, I heard her talking about her job (in fact, she may have covered every topic known to man in the 35 minutes I heard her). They were both relatively attractive people. She had just stopped trying (I'm sure he had as well, but at least he had on an 'outfit'). And I know, after 20 plus years, bringing the sexy is a little low on the priorities list. Maybe its not even about priorities, maybe its about interest--I get it, how interesting can the same old dick and saggy balls be after so many years? But I found it a bit sad. They both seemed in good health (she definitely wasn't getting winded) and in good shape. You might be saying, "Kate, not everything is about sexy good looks and a hot body" and I completely agree. The way I knew that the sexy had died was not about how she looked, though that is a good indicator, it was the lack of intimacy that was so obvious between them. Though she was talking, he was not listening. And though she seemed like she was talking to him, it was plain that she couldn't care less about whether or not he found her interesting and more importantly, that she wasn't concerned about engaging him. There was no give and take. And when you have no interest in involving the other person, you definitely aren't passionate about them. I'm sure they love each other very much (seriously, you'd have to really love someone to stick around through that unending barrage of utterly mundane topics). But sexy had died many years ago, and they were sitting there as a living gravestone marking the burial place.
So what does this have to do with my blog? Its because of the dialogue I've been having with a few people about it, mainly them trying to make me feel better about not looking a certain way. Trust me, writing a blog aside, I am not that worked up about being chubby. I don't like it for sure, but it is not ruling my life/thoughts. What the experience of pregnancy and new mommydom has got me worried about is the sexy. I will NOT end up in mom jeans and an asexual hair cut. Norm and I had our son at home with midwives (fantastic experience btw) and the midwives are big on letting your husband be the one coaching and encouraging you, they believe it is a very intimate experience for you as a couple and they are there to help facilitate a good, safe environment for that, not to be the ones in control. So Norm "caught" the baby, and I'm sure that was an awe inspiring, loving moment for him. What it was not was sexy. There is nothing sexy about watching your child's head emerge from your wife's vag. Norm, in his sweet nature, has delicately said he has a new "appreciation" for that area of my body and "won't soon forget it". So what we have here is a situation for Justin Timberlake.
Watching that couple today made me realize a few things: 1) I don't ever what to just let the sexy lapse until it dies 2) Sexiness, especially in a couple, has to do with the desire for the other person in all aspects, not just the physical 3) It is a state of mind more than artifice. Dressing skanky is not sexy (many a young woman gets confused about this. The sexiest girl in a bar could be in sweat pants if she is happy and confident) and 4) I'm glad I was married when I had the baby and so have no doubt that the man will stick around through this unsexy phase. (I am not crashing on single moms, nothing wrong with that, I know of kids that grew up happy and complete in single parent households. I know kids who grew up in two parent households that could say the opposite) and lastly 5) Sexy has been important to me in the past and I want it to be important in the future. I don't ever want to stop trying, for Norm's sake and for my own. If you are a woman and have never fully realized your sexy potential, you have never owned your sexiness, you don't know what you are missing. Its not just about men (or women) having sexual cravings for you. It is the feeling of potency and power you have as a woman, a confidence in yourself that is unique to that state, and it is quite enjoyable. Kids are happy and complete when their parents are happy and complete. And feeling sexy is part of what makes me complete. Especially sexy shoes.
So what does this have to do with my blog? Its because of the dialogue I've been having with a few people about it, mainly them trying to make me feel better about not looking a certain way. Trust me, writing a blog aside, I am not that worked up about being chubby. I don't like it for sure, but it is not ruling my life/thoughts. What the experience of pregnancy and new mommydom has got me worried about is the sexy. I will NOT end up in mom jeans and an asexual hair cut. Norm and I had our son at home with midwives (fantastic experience btw) and the midwives are big on letting your husband be the one coaching and encouraging you, they believe it is a very intimate experience for you as a couple and they are there to help facilitate a good, safe environment for that, not to be the ones in control. So Norm "caught" the baby, and I'm sure that was an awe inspiring, loving moment for him. What it was not was sexy. There is nothing sexy about watching your child's head emerge from your wife's vag. Norm, in his sweet nature, has delicately said he has a new "appreciation" for that area of my body and "won't soon forget it". So what we have here is a situation for Justin Timberlake.
Watching that couple today made me realize a few things: 1) I don't ever what to just let the sexy lapse until it dies 2) Sexiness, especially in a couple, has to do with the desire for the other person in all aspects, not just the physical 3) It is a state of mind more than artifice. Dressing skanky is not sexy (many a young woman gets confused about this. The sexiest girl in a bar could be in sweat pants if she is happy and confident) and 4) I'm glad I was married when I had the baby and so have no doubt that the man will stick around through this unsexy phase. (I am not crashing on single moms, nothing wrong with that, I know of kids that grew up happy and complete in single parent households. I know kids who grew up in two parent households that could say the opposite) and lastly 5) Sexy has been important to me in the past and I want it to be important in the future. I don't ever want to stop trying, for Norm's sake and for my own. If you are a woman and have never fully realized your sexy potential, you have never owned your sexiness, you don't know what you are missing. Its not just about men (or women) having sexual cravings for you. It is the feeling of potency and power you have as a woman, a confidence in yourself that is unique to that state, and it is quite enjoyable. Kids are happy and complete when their parents are happy and complete. And feeling sexy is part of what makes me complete. Especially sexy shoes.
Monday, March 12, 2012
BMW
In this post I am going to talk about pooping. If you have no interest in that end of the digestive system, stop reading. Now. (even though you should have some interest, as discussed below)
I think that my--well I wouldn't call it an obsession--but my interest in bowel movements comes from my mother. My mother was always concerned/interested in our bowel activity. "Have you had a BM?" or "Have you had trouble having a BM?" was my mother's first question whenever we said we weren't feeling good. Heck, even if we expressed a mood issue, i.e. we were sulking or annoyed, she went straight to asking if our BM's had been good. Often "eat something" and "put some fiber in it" were her solutions to a LOT of ailments. My mother never said poop or poo, it was always clinical: BM. She would talk your ear off about bowel movements--their consistency, size, color--but she wouldn't stoop so low as to use profanity. (I kid you not on the frequency of this topic. My sister and I almost made her a birthday card that said on the front "For your birthday, we got you a BMW" and on the inside there was to be a cartoon W made out of poop. We opted for flowers instead). Of course, my mother never swore and wasn't too fond of our sarcasm as we got older; to her, being sarcastic was a way of being unkind, no matter how funny it was. This dislike of low behavior extended into words that even sounded like swear words: Mom: "I don't like you saying that word freakin', you're just using it in place of the f-word" 14 yr old me: "So you'd rather me say fucking?" Mom: "I don't find that kind of talk funny Kate" (this does not mean my mom is a pill. Example: when Paul Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure, my mom dressed up like Pee-Wee Herman for Halloween that year and "exposed" the sock in her pants at my parents' annual Halloween party. That party was bad-ass, and I know that because we kids were always shunned upstairs by about 7 pm, and only parties that are gonna get a little crazy make sure the kids are removed. I only found out about the exposing later on).
So growing up the importance of being "regular" was drummed into my head. As a mom now, and having helped with my sister's kids for the past few years, I sort of get why she was so fixated on our BMs. Your days, for years, involve monitoring the poop your child produces. Having healthy bowel movements is a good indicator of a healthy diet and overall healthy child. My sister and I casually discuss my nephew and niece's poops on a regular basis.
And then you grow up and NO ONE talks about their toilet business, it is not polite. I understand completely. And so, unless you are in the GI biz, comparing notes about what is normal and what isn't doesn't really happen anymore. Enter, again, my experience hotshoting (and having a family member with Crohns). You see, when you are out in the woods with the same 20 guys, day in day out for six months, you often run out of creative/interesting topics for conversation. You spend every waking minute of your day with these people, and the conversation usually comes back to what is most on your mind. And with 20 guys, ages 18-30, (especially the type of guys that get into that job) away from civilization and the comforts of home, there are really only 5 things on their minds: booze, food, pussy (pardon my french, but it is true), sleep, and pooping. They want to get home, eat some real food, get drunk, get laid/go to a strip club, sleep in a real bed, and take a good shit on a real toilet. My point is, they talk about pooping. A lot. About how eating MRE's (military rations) for the past couple of days has affected them. Or how they had a unfortunate experience in the woods/in a port o john at camp. On any given day, I could tell you the poop statistics on anyone in my squad, and most of the guys on the crew. This person is pooping too much, this person hasn't shit in a few days, THAT person is afraid to shit because he has an internal hemorrhoid, etc. And with our workload often exceeding 16 hours of hard manual labor in a day, the effects of what you eat and how your body uses it up became interesting to me and here was a large group of people offering up information about it. What was healthy? What was normal?
The more I talked to different people (ones outside of my work), the more I realized people weren't analyzing their poo, which is one of the best ways to quickly assess your health. I am not being weird here, colorectal types of cancer are the third most diagnosed cancer in the country, more common in men than women.
The answers to these questions are found here: (I looked at a lot of sites, this one was the most concise) healthy BM . You should take a look at this list. And then a look in the toilet.
I think that my--well I wouldn't call it an obsession--but my interest in bowel movements comes from my mother. My mother was always concerned/interested in our bowel activity. "Have you had a BM?" or "Have you had trouble having a BM?" was my mother's first question whenever we said we weren't feeling good. Heck, even if we expressed a mood issue, i.e. we were sulking or annoyed, she went straight to asking if our BM's had been good. Often "eat something" and "put some fiber in it" were her solutions to a LOT of ailments. My mother never said poop or poo, it was always clinical: BM. She would talk your ear off about bowel movements--their consistency, size, color--but she wouldn't stoop so low as to use profanity. (I kid you not on the frequency of this topic. My sister and I almost made her a birthday card that said on the front "For your birthday, we got you a BMW" and on the inside there was to be a cartoon W made out of poop. We opted for flowers instead). Of course, my mother never swore and wasn't too fond of our sarcasm as we got older; to her, being sarcastic was a way of being unkind, no matter how funny it was. This dislike of low behavior extended into words that even sounded like swear words: Mom: "I don't like you saying that word freakin', you're just using it in place of the f-word" 14 yr old me: "So you'd rather me say fucking?" Mom: "I don't find that kind of talk funny Kate" (this does not mean my mom is a pill. Example: when Paul Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure, my mom dressed up like Pee-Wee Herman for Halloween that year and "exposed" the sock in her pants at my parents' annual Halloween party. That party was bad-ass, and I know that because we kids were always shunned upstairs by about 7 pm, and only parties that are gonna get a little crazy make sure the kids are removed. I only found out about the exposing later on).
So growing up the importance of being "regular" was drummed into my head. As a mom now, and having helped with my sister's kids for the past few years, I sort of get why she was so fixated on our BMs. Your days, for years, involve monitoring the poop your child produces. Having healthy bowel movements is a good indicator of a healthy diet and overall healthy child. My sister and I casually discuss my nephew and niece's poops on a regular basis.
And then you grow up and NO ONE talks about their toilet business, it is not polite. I understand completely. And so, unless you are in the GI biz, comparing notes about what is normal and what isn't doesn't really happen anymore. Enter, again, my experience hotshoting (and having a family member with Crohns). You see, when you are out in the woods with the same 20 guys, day in day out for six months, you often run out of creative/interesting topics for conversation. You spend every waking minute of your day with these people, and the conversation usually comes back to what is most on your mind. And with 20 guys, ages 18-30, (especially the type of guys that get into that job) away from civilization and the comforts of home, there are really only 5 things on their minds: booze, food, pussy (pardon my french, but it is true), sleep, and pooping. They want to get home, eat some real food, get drunk, get laid/go to a strip club, sleep in a real bed, and take a good shit on a real toilet. My point is, they talk about pooping. A lot. About how eating MRE's (military rations) for the past couple of days has affected them. Or how they had a unfortunate experience in the woods/in a port o john at camp. On any given day, I could tell you the poop statistics on anyone in my squad, and most of the guys on the crew. This person is pooping too much, this person hasn't shit in a few days, THAT person is afraid to shit because he has an internal hemorrhoid, etc. And with our workload often exceeding 16 hours of hard manual labor in a day, the effects of what you eat and how your body uses it up became interesting to me and here was a large group of people offering up information about it. What was healthy? What was normal?
The more I talked to different people (ones outside of my work), the more I realized people weren't analyzing their poo, which is one of the best ways to quickly assess your health. I am not being weird here, colorectal types of cancer are the third most diagnosed cancer in the country, more common in men than women.
The answers to these questions are found here: (I looked at a lot of sites, this one was the most concise) healthy BM . You should take a look at this list. And then a look in the toilet.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Week 1 Measurements
Ok, here it is, my measurements after one week of changes. I only got 3 workouts in this week. I did a few things from the 4 Hour Body this past week as well: the ice pack experiment 3 times, air squats before a few meals, and cinnamon in my coffee. I also tried to make everyday tasks involve balance movements. For example, while folding laundry, I stood on one foot for a minute each, folding and moving clothes from one end of the couch to the other. I also did things like holding plank position while playing with the baby on the floor. Those have less to do with losing weight as with getting my balance and strength back.
Weight:
197 lbs
*always use the same scale
Negative centimeters and weight!!! Woo Hoo. I don't trust the weight loss, 4 pounds is a lot to lose in one week. Healthy weight loss (meaning weight that is fat, not muscle) is at most 2 pounds a week. Although, as a fan of the Biggest Loser, I guess if you are severely obese you can lose a lot more in a week. I attribute part of the weight change to water weight. You eat a lot less sodium on the Paleo Diet. The increase in size of my biceps might be because Norm and I weren't sure where we measured it (or if we got right and left arm measurements confused) but now we have a set location mid-way up my arm, so we might use this week's measurements to start with for my arms. Or maybe I just got huge. Beefcake. And I have no idea what's going on with my legs.
My goal for next week? Be able to comfortably wear my wedding rings.
Measurements
|
3/4/2012
|
3/10/2012
|
Neck
|
38 cm
|
36.5 cm
|
Right Bicep
|
32.5 cm
|
35 cm
|
Left Bicep
|
31.5 cm
|
33 cm
|
Belly
|
107 cm
|
101 cm
|
Hips
|
111 cm
|
108 cm
|
Right Thigh
|
66 cm
|
65 cm
|
Left Thigh
|
66.5 cm
|
64 cm
|
Weight:
197 lbs
*always use the same scale
Negative centimeters and weight!!! Woo Hoo. I don't trust the weight loss, 4 pounds is a lot to lose in one week. Healthy weight loss (meaning weight that is fat, not muscle) is at most 2 pounds a week. Although, as a fan of the Biggest Loser, I guess if you are severely obese you can lose a lot more in a week. I attribute part of the weight change to water weight. You eat a lot less sodium on the Paleo Diet. The increase in size of my biceps might be because Norm and I weren't sure where we measured it (or if we got right and left arm measurements confused) but now we have a set location mid-way up my arm, so we might use this week's measurements to start with for my arms. Or maybe I just got huge. Beefcake. And I have no idea what's going on with my legs.
My goal for next week? Be able to comfortably wear my wedding rings.
CHEAT DAY!!!
My first cheat day! It definitely helped me resist temptation for the first week by thinking of all the indulgent stuff I can eat on Saturday. (I find that major shifts like this have a 2 week adjustment period. Once you've been doing it for about two weeks it just becomes habit).
So here's what I have had to eat today:
Breakfast:
Two eggs scrambled
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with blueberry compote and maple syrup
Cup of coffee with plenty of sugar and half n half
Lunch:
16 oz IPA beer
the Blutarsky burger from Diablo Burger
some fries
water
Dinner:
2 slices Fratelli's pizza
3 buffalo wings
1 Fat Tire "Dig"
2 brownies
water
Things I noticed: I felt really full while eating, I didn't finish my pancakes or the last bite of my burger. That is not normal behavior for me. It was like I felt overwhelmed by the food and I got real thirsty by the end of the day. And as excited as I was when I woke up to have a cheat/pig out day, it wasn't as great as I thought it would be. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but it didn't feel as special and I think I would have been ok having only one cheat meal instead of a whole day. Maybe I'll spread it out and do 3 cheat meals a week instead of one day....
So here's what I have had to eat today:
Breakfast:
Two eggs scrambled
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with blueberry compote and maple syrup
Cup of coffee with plenty of sugar and half n half
Lunch:
16 oz IPA beer
the Blutarsky burger from Diablo Burger
some fries
water
Dinner:
2 slices Fratelli's pizza
3 buffalo wings
1 Fat Tire "Dig"
2 brownies
water
Things I noticed: I felt really full while eating, I didn't finish my pancakes or the last bite of my burger. That is not normal behavior for me. It was like I felt overwhelmed by the food and I got real thirsty by the end of the day. And as excited as I was when I woke up to have a cheat/pig out day, it wasn't as great as I thought it would be. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but it didn't feel as special and I think I would have been ok having only one cheat meal instead of a whole day. Maybe I'll spread it out and do 3 cheat meals a week instead of one day....
Friday, March 9, 2012
The cutest little saboteur
I definitely should not put all this on the little guy. Its not his fault that I went a little overboard with cake while I was pregnant or that he needs me every few hours. But man, trying to fit a workout in is much harder than you would think with a baby that readily takes a bottle and sleeps well. If I don't pump, I feel like a jerk leaving the house, even though this kid can go 3 hours without eating. I feel bad that Norm might have to deal with a fussy hungry baby, if only for a couple minutes.
Need an example of why I feel bad leaving my two guys alone? The other night I went to work out, left at about 6:15 after feeding the baby. (I breastfed even though there was a bottle of pumped milk available for two reasons 1: that way I am sure the baby is fed and good for a couple hours, and 2: because running with full boobs is awful. Its like dodging water balloons) I gave Norm some instructions on how to roast the chicken and he was going to be fine because as I was leaving, the baby was going down for his last nap of the day. We had everything figured out. Hubris. I must have forgotten all I had learned over the years with children and planning: one hiccup can make everything go to shit.
When I pulled into the garage, I noticed the door to the kitchen was wide open. As I got closer to the door I saw that the kitchen was pretty smokey. (a little extra info, our hood above the oven does nothing. I think it was part of the Easy Bake Oven set from 1978, because it has no real world function). Norm is peering in the oven to get the chicken's temp and has a fan positioned to blow smoke out of the kitchen through the garage. It is about 70% effective. The baby has decided he has been sitting in his bouncy seat long enough and started to protest. Norm and I go into situation control and divvy up tasks. Actually, I believe Norm is about to take a sledgehammer to the oven hood, so its not so much a dividing of tasks as he just walks over, picks up the baby, and I tell him to "go into the other room" in a reassuring voice. I check on the chicken, determine there's only a few minutes left and just when I think everything is going to be fine, I realize the kitty never came to greet me when I came home. Our 9 month old kitten, who has never ever been outside. I ask Norm, "where's the cat?". His eyes get wide and he responds with a shrug "I didn't think about that". I run around the house, calling for her, looking in her favorite hiding spots. I stand in our driveway, calling for her. Nothing. Just when the tears start welling up (seriously, the hormones that go along with making a baby are nothing to joke about), I see a little paw on our back sliding doors. I rush over and get her and think "ok, so I guess I can just never leave the house again". Luckily, the moment passes and I know that the feelings of crisis and guilt are over exaggerated in my mind. I think new moms forget how resilient our babies (and husbands) are.
Need an example of why I feel bad leaving my two guys alone? The other night I went to work out, left at about 6:15 after feeding the baby. (I breastfed even though there was a bottle of pumped milk available for two reasons 1: that way I am sure the baby is fed and good for a couple hours, and 2: because running with full boobs is awful. Its like dodging water balloons) I gave Norm some instructions on how to roast the chicken and he was going to be fine because as I was leaving, the baby was going down for his last nap of the day. We had everything figured out. Hubris. I must have forgotten all I had learned over the years with children and planning: one hiccup can make everything go to shit.
When I pulled into the garage, I noticed the door to the kitchen was wide open. As I got closer to the door I saw that the kitchen was pretty smokey. (a little extra info, our hood above the oven does nothing. I think it was part of the Easy Bake Oven set from 1978, because it has no real world function). Norm is peering in the oven to get the chicken's temp and has a fan positioned to blow smoke out of the kitchen through the garage. It is about 70% effective. The baby has decided he has been sitting in his bouncy seat long enough and started to protest. Norm and I go into situation control and divvy up tasks. Actually, I believe Norm is about to take a sledgehammer to the oven hood, so its not so much a dividing of tasks as he just walks over, picks up the baby, and I tell him to "go into the other room" in a reassuring voice. I check on the chicken, determine there's only a few minutes left and just when I think everything is going to be fine, I realize the kitty never came to greet me when I came home. Our 9 month old kitten, who has never ever been outside. I ask Norm, "where's the cat?". His eyes get wide and he responds with a shrug "I didn't think about that". I run around the house, calling for her, looking in her favorite hiding spots. I stand in our driveway, calling for her. Nothing. Just when the tears start welling up (seriously, the hormones that go along with making a baby are nothing to joke about), I see a little paw on our back sliding doors. I rush over and get her and think "ok, so I guess I can just never leave the house again". Luckily, the moment passes and I know that the feelings of crisis and guilt are over exaggerated in my mind. I think new moms forget how resilient our babies (and husbands) are.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Not sure about the Paleo Diet? Read this...
Don't you need carbohydrates? Yes, of course. Do you need bread? No. Not high fiber, not whole wheat, not anything like that. This article written by a heart surgeon basically explains the Paleo Diet to a T, without ever mentioning the Paleo Diet. Inflammation on the cellular level is killer. Actually I should say chronic inflammation, aka continuous eating things our bodies were not designed to process everyday at every meal. The sticky bun he talks about doing so much damage? Its fine every once in a while. But you can't have a sticky bun, and then a soybean/corn derivative preserved bread/peanut butter/almost anything that has a food label sandwich/snack for lunch and then eat some pasta or potatoes for dinner.
Here is the article:
Here is the article:
Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease
We
physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire
a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are
wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong. As a heart surgeon
with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart
surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and
scientific fact.
I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labelled "opinion makers." Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.
The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.
It Is Not Working!
These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.
The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.
Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.
Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people in greater numbers every year.
Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.
Inflammation is not complicated -- it is quite simply your body's natural defence to a foreign invader such as a bacteria, toxin or virus. The cycle of inflammation is perfect in how it protects your body from these bacterial and viral invaders. However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods the human body was never designed to process,a condition occurs called chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute inflammation is beneficial.
What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or other substances that are known to cause injury to the body? Well, smokers perhaps, but at least they made that choice willfully.
The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream diet that is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. This repeated injury creates chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity.
Let me repeat that: The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine.
What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.
Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. you kept this up several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body right now.
Regardless of where the inflammatory process occurs, externally or internally, it is the same. I have peered inside thousands upon thousands of arteries. A diseased artery looks as if someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall. Several times a day, every day, the foods we eat create small injuries compounding into more injuries, causing the body to respond continuously and appropriately with inflammation.
While we savor the tantalizing taste of a sweet roll, our bodies respond alarmingly as if a foreign invader arrived declaring war. Foods loaded with sugars and simple carbohydrates, or processed with omega-6 oils for long shelf life have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades. These foods have been slowly poisoning everyone.
How does eating a simple sweet roll create a cascade of inflammation to make you sick?
Imagine spilling syrup on your keyboard and you have a visual of what occurs inside the cell. When we consume simple carbohydrates such as sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell where it is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works.
When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat.
What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.
While you may not be able to see it, rest assured it is there. I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who all shared one common denominator -- inflammation in their arteries.
Let's get back to the sweet roll. That innocent looking goody not only contains sugars, it is baked in one of many omega-6 oils such as soybean. Chips and fries are soaked in soybean oil; processed foods are manufactured with omega-6 oils for longer shelf life. While omega-6's are essential -they are part of every cell membrane controlling what goes in and out of the cell -- they must be in the correct balance with omega-3's.
If the balance shifts by consuming excessive omega-6, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that directly cause inflammation.
Today's mainstream American diet has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats. The ratio of imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of omega-6. That's a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation. In today's food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy.
To make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from eating these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar. The process that began with a sweet roll turns into a vicious cycle over time that creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and finally, Alzheimer's disease, as the inflammatory process continues unabated.
There is no escaping the fact that the more we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.
There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural state. To build muscle, eat more protein. Choose carbohydrates that are very complex such as colorful fruits and vegetables. Cut down on or eliminate inflammation- causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil and the processed foods that are made from them.
One tablespoon of corn oil contains 7,280 mg of omega-6; soybean contains 6,940 mg. Instead, use olive oil or butter from grass-fed beef.
Animal fats contain less than 20% omega-6 and are much less likely to cause inflammation than the supposedly healthy oils labelled polyunsaturated. Forget the "science" that has been drummed into your head for decades. The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is non-existent. The science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is also very weak. Since we now know that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, the concern about saturated fat is even more absurd today.
The cholesterol theory led to the no-fat, low-fat recommendations that in turn created the very foods now causing an epidemic of inflammation. Mainstream medicine made a terrible mistake when it advised people to avoid saturated fat in favor of foods high in omega-6 fats. We now have an epidemic of arterial inflammation leading to heart disease and other silent killers.
What you can do is choose whole foods your grandmother served and not those your mom turned to as grocery store aisles filled with manufactured foods. By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage in your arteries and throughout your body from consuming the typical American diet.
I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labelled "opinion makers." Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.
The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.
It Is Not Working!
These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.
The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.
Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.
Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people in greater numbers every year.
Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.
Inflammation is not complicated -- it is quite simply your body's natural defence to a foreign invader such as a bacteria, toxin or virus. The cycle of inflammation is perfect in how it protects your body from these bacterial and viral invaders. However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods the human body was never designed to process,a condition occurs called chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute inflammation is beneficial.
What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or other substances that are known to cause injury to the body? Well, smokers perhaps, but at least they made that choice willfully.
The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream diet that is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. This repeated injury creates chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity.
Let me repeat that: The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine.
What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.
Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. you kept this up several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body right now.
Regardless of where the inflammatory process occurs, externally or internally, it is the same. I have peered inside thousands upon thousands of arteries. A diseased artery looks as if someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall. Several times a day, every day, the foods we eat create small injuries compounding into more injuries, causing the body to respond continuously and appropriately with inflammation.
While we savor the tantalizing taste of a sweet roll, our bodies respond alarmingly as if a foreign invader arrived declaring war. Foods loaded with sugars and simple carbohydrates, or processed with omega-6 oils for long shelf life have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades. These foods have been slowly poisoning everyone.
How does eating a simple sweet roll create a cascade of inflammation to make you sick?
Imagine spilling syrup on your keyboard and you have a visual of what occurs inside the cell. When we consume simple carbohydrates such as sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell where it is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works.
When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat.
What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.
While you may not be able to see it, rest assured it is there. I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who all shared one common denominator -- inflammation in their arteries.
Let's get back to the sweet roll. That innocent looking goody not only contains sugars, it is baked in one of many omega-6 oils such as soybean. Chips and fries are soaked in soybean oil; processed foods are manufactured with omega-6 oils for longer shelf life. While omega-6's are essential -they are part of every cell membrane controlling what goes in and out of the cell -- they must be in the correct balance with omega-3's.
If the balance shifts by consuming excessive omega-6, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that directly cause inflammation.
Today's mainstream American diet has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats. The ratio of imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of omega-6. That's a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation. In today's food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy.
To make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from eating these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar. The process that began with a sweet roll turns into a vicious cycle over time that creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and finally, Alzheimer's disease, as the inflammatory process continues unabated.
There is no escaping the fact that the more we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.
There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural state. To build muscle, eat more protein. Choose carbohydrates that are very complex such as colorful fruits and vegetables. Cut down on or eliminate inflammation- causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil and the processed foods that are made from them.
One tablespoon of corn oil contains 7,280 mg of omega-6; soybean contains 6,940 mg. Instead, use olive oil or butter from grass-fed beef.
Animal fats contain less than 20% omega-6 and are much less likely to cause inflammation than the supposedly healthy oils labelled polyunsaturated. Forget the "science" that has been drummed into your head for decades. The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is non-existent. The science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is also very weak. Since we now know that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, the concern about saturated fat is even more absurd today.
The cholesterol theory led to the no-fat, low-fat recommendations that in turn created the very foods now causing an epidemic of inflammation. Mainstream medicine made a terrible mistake when it advised people to avoid saturated fat in favor of foods high in omega-6 fats. We now have an epidemic of arterial inflammation leading to heart disease and other silent killers.
What you can do is choose whole foods your grandmother served and not those your mom turned to as grocery store aisles filled with manufactured foods. By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage in your arteries and throughout your body from consuming the typical American diet.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Bitterness on the treadmill
“There is no disappointment so numbing...as someone no better than you achieving more.”
-Joesph Heller
Alright, I admit it. Tiny, young blonde woman and middle aged man on either side of me on the treadmills--I want to trip you. I see you looking at me out of the corner of your eyes; a look of, I don't know, disdain? concern? smugness? as you watch me get pale and sweaty trying to keep up a 8 minute pace for a quarter mile. I see you as well, Cougartown, smirking as I have to jump off after one of my "sprints". Yes I know going at a 7:45 pace for a tenth of a mile is not a sprint. But you better stop looking at me like that or I will walk over to your machine and step on the back, sending your ridiculously tight ass and fake tits flying into the wall. Don't test me, my hormones are all over the place. Maybe its the toxins from fat loss being released into my system, changing my usual "block everyone out and just work out" mode I have always used at the gym to a more "everyone is judging me and I hate them for it, almost as much as I hate their level of fitness. ESPECIALLY YOU, HOT GUY THAT JUST CHECKED ME OUT AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY."
No one said this was going to be easy. But I was not prepared for the bitterness. At least I don't have telekinetic abilities--I would have Carried that place up. Which, other than hurting people, might have been good for FAC West's cardio room. That mural has to go. Its not 1978 anymore, let's figure out something else to do with that wall other than keep the mountain vista that I'm pretty sure was done by the owner's 5th grade daughter. Or a very high hippie.
Next Post: Does sleep deprivation cancel out weight loss? Or, is my baby sabotaging my plans (quick answer--yes, now and always. Good thing he's cute)
-Joesph Heller
Alright, I admit it. Tiny, young blonde woman and middle aged man on either side of me on the treadmills--I want to trip you. I see you looking at me out of the corner of your eyes; a look of, I don't know, disdain? concern? smugness? as you watch me get pale and sweaty trying to keep up a 8 minute pace for a quarter mile. I see you as well, Cougartown, smirking as I have to jump off after one of my "sprints". Yes I know going at a 7:45 pace for a tenth of a mile is not a sprint. But you better stop looking at me like that or I will walk over to your machine and step on the back, sending your ridiculously tight ass and fake tits flying into the wall. Don't test me, my hormones are all over the place. Maybe its the toxins from fat loss being released into my system, changing my usual "block everyone out and just work out" mode I have always used at the gym to a more "everyone is judging me and I hate them for it, almost as much as I hate their level of fitness. ESPECIALLY YOU, HOT GUY THAT JUST CHECKED ME OUT AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY."
No one said this was going to be easy. But I was not prepared for the bitterness. At least I don't have telekinetic abilities--I would have Carried that place up. Which, other than hurting people, might have been good for FAC West's cardio room. That mural has to go. Its not 1978 anymore, let's figure out something else to do with that wall other than keep the mountain vista that I'm pretty sure was done by the owner's 5th grade daughter. Or a very high hippie.
Next Post: Does sleep deprivation cancel out weight loss? Or, is my baby sabotaging my plans (quick answer--yes, now and always. Good thing he's cute)
A picture is worth....
I promised some pictures, so here we go.
Coming up are my "before" shots. I am willing to disclose a lot, but I am not getting in my underwear and putting it up online. I don't like looking at myself in my underwear now and so I doubt anyone else wants to see it. But you need solid "before" photos if you are going to a)stay motivated and b) really see the change at the end of the experiment. So I picked a dress I wore to a high school dance (I looked and looked for the pictures from that dance but couldn't find them. What I did find is evidence of how ABSURD my high school body issues were. I always thought I was so big and so fat. It didn't help that I went to a wealthy private school in the South where we wore short skirts or that I chose to play volleyball, even though I was 5'7' and stocky, while everyone else was....well here's a picture (I'm the fifth one from the left, top row):
Here's a picture of me, junior year of high school, when I remember feeling like a "hoss" compared to the other girls I was going to the dance with:
Anyhoo, so I chose a dress that would be a good goal to get to and that would show off all my...curves? Lumps? So here, without further ado, are the before shots:
You might be thinking, "Kate, a dress from high school? That is a bit unrealistic for most anyone" (or you might be thinking "If she thought she was a hoss back then....") I have some counterpoints to that argument:
1) I went through puberty EARLY and my body stopped changing around age 15. I wore this dress when I was 17.
2) Study after study says that if you were a healthy weight and size when you graduated high school, you should stay as close to that weight as possible to remain healthy throughout your life. I can't remember the stat, but its something like people put on an average of around 1.5 lbs a year after high school.
3) A couple years ago, I wore a dress from that same year in high school. Here is what I looked like recently (disregard the drunk face--THAT is definitely different from high school):
It can be done. Maybe not in the three months I have set aside right now, but eventually I'll get back there. The three month limit is just to have a determined date to measure myself against. If I can change my habits for three months, I'm pretty sure I'll change them for the long term.
Someone wrote me and asked, "well if you liked the Paleo Diet so much, and it worked so well, how come you got so big, and why won't you just slip back away from eating right?" You don't have to get as big as I did when you get pregnant, I probably could've held off about 10 lbs. But seriously, it is one of the only times in your life as a woman where you don't have to worry about what you eat.
*ok that is not entirely true. You can't go completely crazyballs with food when you are pregnant because there is a very real threat of developing gestational diabetes, which is very bad. Also, gaining too much weight makes being pregnant that much more uncomfortable.
Also, the Paleo Diet restricts diary and most wheat products, and I didn't want to restrict the type of food my baby could be exposed to; cause who knows what can cause food allergies? So I made a conscientious decision to not be restrictive and enjoy the only time in a woman's life when people are delighted at the size of your belly (and my boobs, holy hell). Picture:
Coming up are my "before" shots. I am willing to disclose a lot, but I am not getting in my underwear and putting it up online. I don't like looking at myself in my underwear now and so I doubt anyone else wants to see it. But you need solid "before" photos if you are going to a)stay motivated and b) really see the change at the end of the experiment. So I picked a dress I wore to a high school dance (I looked and looked for the pictures from that dance but couldn't find them. What I did find is evidence of how ABSURD my high school body issues were. I always thought I was so big and so fat. It didn't help that I went to a wealthy private school in the South where we wore short skirts or that I chose to play volleyball, even though I was 5'7' and stocky, while everyone else was....well here's a picture (I'm the fifth one from the left, top row):
Here's a picture of me, junior year of high school, when I remember feeling like a "hoss" compared to the other girls I was going to the dance with:
Anyhoo, so I chose a dress that would be a good goal to get to and that would show off all my...curves? Lumps? So here, without further ado, are the before shots:
You might be thinking, "Kate, a dress from high school? That is a bit unrealistic for most anyone" (or you might be thinking "If she thought she was a hoss back then....") I have some counterpoints to that argument:
1) I went through puberty EARLY and my body stopped changing around age 15. I wore this dress when I was 17.
2) Study after study says that if you were a healthy weight and size when you graduated high school, you should stay as close to that weight as possible to remain healthy throughout your life. I can't remember the stat, but its something like people put on an average of around 1.5 lbs a year after high school.
3) A couple years ago, I wore a dress from that same year in high school. Here is what I looked like recently (disregard the drunk face--THAT is definitely different from high school):
It can be done. Maybe not in the three months I have set aside right now, but eventually I'll get back there. The three month limit is just to have a determined date to measure myself against. If I can change my habits for three months, I'm pretty sure I'll change them for the long term.
Someone wrote me and asked, "well if you liked the Paleo Diet so much, and it worked so well, how come you got so big, and why won't you just slip back away from eating right?" You don't have to get as big as I did when you get pregnant, I probably could've held off about 10 lbs. But seriously, it is one of the only times in your life as a woman where you don't have to worry about what you eat.
*ok that is not entirely true. You can't go completely crazyballs with food when you are pregnant because there is a very real threat of developing gestational diabetes, which is very bad. Also, gaining too much weight makes being pregnant that much more uncomfortable.
Also, the Paleo Diet restricts diary and most wheat products, and I didn't want to restrict the type of food my baby could be exposed to; cause who knows what can cause food allergies? So I made a conscientious decision to not be restrictive and enjoy the only time in a woman's life when people are delighted at the size of your belly (and my boobs, holy hell). Picture:
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
My baby's hands- a personal aside
I thought of another reason to change my diet today: my baby's hands. You see, my baby's hands stink. They smell like a mixture of palm sweat and buttermilk. I imagine if there really was a such thing as "fromunder cheese", it would smell similar to my 2 month old's hands. I would think most little babies' hands smell slightly, what with having their fist tightly clenched all day and the unbelievable amount of spitting up they do (I have no idea how my baby produces wet diapers as a lot of what he eats seems to come out of his mouth). But I don't remember other babies' hands smelling quite this bad (and I wipe his hands off with a wipey at almost every changing, and bath him almost every night)
So how is this my fault? Let me take you back to the summer of 2007, my first year on Flagstaff Hotshots. Hotshotting, for those who don't know, is being a member of a relatively elite wildland firefighting crew of 20 men. I say men, not people, cause there really aren't a lot of women hotshots. Part of the reason for this discrepancy (in my experiences there are many reasons) is because of the nature of the job. You are stuck in the woods with 20 guys doing an (at times) incredibly hard job, both physically and mentally. Because of the physical part of this job, and you know, the dirt and sweat and smoke (and wood chips from chainsaws. There is nothing more irritating than wood chips in your cleavage--both ass cleavage and titty cleavage) you are in a constant state of filthy. Not dirty. Filthy. You are lucky if you get to wash your hands every night before dinner and your hands are completely blacked in with dirt, smoke, grease, gasoline, etc. You haven't changed your underwear or socks in a few days, and haven't showered in two weeks (there are some nasty motherfuckers who don't change their skivvies THE ENTIRE 14 day assignment). So you can imagine, everyone smells and looks like a caveman. Its part of the job. The inside of the buggies (the 10 person crew carriers that also house all our gear) smells like a wrestling room. And if you got rained on during the shift, or a night when you are just outside in a sleeping bag? Wet dog smell for days. In a tight space. Observe: (the guy giving me the bird? his shirt was originally bright yellow. FILTHY)
The reason I am telling you all this is because even with all this stench, with everyone accepting that we, and all our stuff, are going to stink, I still got called out on my own personal body odor. Part of it may have been because guys don't want to give up the assumption that girls poop out roses, but mostly, its because my particular brand of BO (even with deodorant everyday I could) smells like cat piss. No joke, my first year on the crew, two of the guys approached me with a bottle of Febreeze and said "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way" Being an asshole, I said "Fine, the hard way!" So they held me down in my seat and Febreezed me. From that year on, I worked really hard a keeping a few "clean" t-shirts to wear around the buggy and stowed my sweaty dirty work shirts away. In my hard hat. That I also sweat in. Yes, I'm a dirtbag. All this is a way of explaining that I think I passed the powerful BO problem onto my poor son.
So what does this have to do with my diet? The only time I have noticed a marked decrease in smell production was when I was being super religious on the Paleo Diet. I am not going to be that dedicated now, you only have to do the diet about 80% of your week to see results. But maybe, with my change of diet, my sweet boy will get the change through my breastmilk and so maybe his hands won't stink as much. Maybe.
I know I promised pictures, I'm working on it.
So how is this my fault? Let me take you back to the summer of 2007, my first year on Flagstaff Hotshots. Hotshotting, for those who don't know, is being a member of a relatively elite wildland firefighting crew of 20 men. I say men, not people, cause there really aren't a lot of women hotshots. Part of the reason for this discrepancy (in my experiences there are many reasons) is because of the nature of the job. You are stuck in the woods with 20 guys doing an (at times) incredibly hard job, both physically and mentally. Because of the physical part of this job, and you know, the dirt and sweat and smoke (and wood chips from chainsaws. There is nothing more irritating than wood chips in your cleavage--both ass cleavage and titty cleavage) you are in a constant state of filthy. Not dirty. Filthy. You are lucky if you get to wash your hands every night before dinner and your hands are completely blacked in with dirt, smoke, grease, gasoline, etc. You haven't changed your underwear or socks in a few days, and haven't showered in two weeks (there are some nasty motherfuckers who don't change their skivvies THE ENTIRE 14 day assignment). So you can imagine, everyone smells and looks like a caveman. Its part of the job. The inside of the buggies (the 10 person crew carriers that also house all our gear) smells like a wrestling room. And if you got rained on during the shift, or a night when you are just outside in a sleeping bag? Wet dog smell for days. In a tight space. Observe: (the guy giving me the bird? his shirt was originally bright yellow. FILTHY)
The reason I am telling you all this is because even with all this stench, with everyone accepting that we, and all our stuff, are going to stink, I still got called out on my own personal body odor. Part of it may have been because guys don't want to give up the assumption that girls poop out roses, but mostly, its because my particular brand of BO (even with deodorant everyday I could) smells like cat piss. No joke, my first year on the crew, two of the guys approached me with a bottle of Febreeze and said "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way" Being an asshole, I said "Fine, the hard way!" So they held me down in my seat and Febreezed me. From that year on, I worked really hard a keeping a few "clean" t-shirts to wear around the buggy and stowed my sweaty dirty work shirts away. In my hard hat. That I also sweat in. Yes, I'm a dirtbag. All this is a way of explaining that I think I passed the powerful BO problem onto my poor son.
So what does this have to do with my diet? The only time I have noticed a marked decrease in smell production was when I was being super religious on the Paleo Diet. I am not going to be that dedicated now, you only have to do the diet about 80% of your week to see results. But maybe, with my change of diet, my sweet boy will get the change through my breastmilk and so maybe his hands won't stink as much. Maybe.
I know I promised pictures, I'm working on it.
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