Reconsidering Nutritional Science, and farts.

I was planning to write an entry revisiting the questionable orthodoxy around the belief that salt is bad for you, when I stumbled upon a recent article on Lifehacker that buzzes by this topic in a much bigger scope: why the general public seem to think there is so much 'controversy' in nutrition, while the science itself is much more decisive. It hits a lot of notes that I've strived for in this blog, but real talk: they do it better.

This article is a good round up of the economic, political, social, psychological and environmental reasons that make answering simple questions like, "What is a balanced diet?", "What is a healthy food?" and "What is an unhealthy food?" damn near impossible to answer if you're not a scientist or political operative. Read it now, I read it twice this week to get my head around it.

I know a single damn link is poor substitute for a proper FBIWC entry, so let me tell you a story about farts...

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For ENB, my BFF (Best Farty Friend)

I don't remember where I clipped this cartoon from, but it was from around the end of high school. Since then, it has followed me from the corner of the mirror in my childhood bedroom, to bluetacked on the wall of my first dorm, to the refrigerator of an off-campus crash pad, to a cheap plastic frame on the shelf of my first rental apartment, and now resides between neat modernist panes of glass hung high on my wall, above the direct view for my kids. Why?

I never asked why this cartoon struck such a direct chord with my base sense of humor. However, my oldest child, a little girl soon to turn 5, is reaching the height of poop-pee-fart-burp humor. She sings of butts (pronounced BEE-yooots) and rants about farts (FAH-rrrrrts), and any bodily function that is auditory will result in peels of laughter, which my 2 year old boy immediately picks up on and will empathetically start cracking up, too. On one hand, it's so damn cute, on the other hand....ick! I found this stuff funny as an adult?!

And to be honest, I probably found it all uproariously funny only up until a couple of years ago. What changed? It wasn't having kids; they definitely predate my new-found distaste for such base humor.

Other than not wanting my (future, more mature) kids to be scarred by a father who giggles hysterically at every fart and dirty diaper, there is my increasing comfort with my body, and all that it entails. Getting healthy and losing weight over the period of this blog are ends in their own right, of course, but there is also a side-effect: the internal tension that laughing at the body's sillier things relieved just isn't as prominent anymore.

I still love the clipped cartoon above, but not so much for the smile it used to bring to my face, but more as a reminder of where I came from, who I used to be, and an appreciation of the journey from there to here.

"Beavis, you monkeyspank." -Butthead  “Shut-up fart knocker!!” -Beavis "Uh huh huh, fart." - ENB

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2956

So I bit the bullet. I haven't been making the 2200-2300 calorie daily limit that the nutritionist recommended pretty much consistently for over a month, pretty much parallel with the the beginning of the biking season. Based on the confidence that the 5 lb loss has given me last month, from now until the end of the month eat 2800-3000 calories a day, and see where I end up on the next weigh in. This assumes two things:

1. My bike riding stays at about 100 to 125 miles a week
2. I'm increasing portions of the good stuff, and not tacking on snacks at the end of the day to meet my non-compulsive, honest physical hunger.

When I first started counting calories, before I started changing my diet, I estimated I was taking in about 3000 calories a day. Part of me wonders if this level was set by my hungry bike days, and continued unchecked during the non-bike times.

Has my diet actually changed my metabolism? Whats going on? Well, if I gain more than a pound or two by June 1st, we'll know I'm fooling myself, and if I lose weight, I'll do Jagger's chicken dance...

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MONDAY COUNT: 2800

SLEPT: 10pm - 5am, 7 hrs
Again, just a primal hunger after dinner, not a compulsion. Gotta think on this.

AM SNACK: 5:15am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am, steel cut oatmeal, 400 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, falafel with greek yogurt dip, health salad, Fairway chicken soup, pickles, 640 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, momma salad, veggie straws, 230 cal

DINNER: 6;15pm: Ethiopian lentils and cabbage, poppa salad with lite Italian, 570 cal

EVENING GORGE: 6:45pm, cheetos, 5 chewy granola bars, 800 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 3075

SLEPT: 9pm - 3:30am, 6.5 hrs
Inspired by yesterday, I double downed on breakfast and added an extra patty to dinner, rather than let my children's sweet snacks go down my throat at the end of the night.

AM SNACK: 3:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, fage yogurt with almonds, honey, and vanilla, 490 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, channa masala, pickles, 715 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, cinnamon pretzels from grazebox, 230 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm: three jamaican patties, poppa salad with ranch, +/- 1280

EVENING SNACK: 6:45pm, 2 chewy granola bars, 200 cal

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2515

SLEPT: 8:30pm - 3am, 6.5 hrs
Lowest consumption day in a while, credited to being tired but not TOO tired.

AM SNACK: 4am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:30am, steel cut oatmeal, 400 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat toast, health salad, pickles, 630 cal

PM SNACK: 3 pm, momma salad,rice crackers from graze box , 200 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, poppa salad with light Ranch, 120 cal

PM SNACK: 6pm, cashews, 340 cal

 DINNER: 7:45pm, Subway 6" veggie burger sub, potato chips, diet lemonade, 665 cal
The diet lemonade was kinda gross, only 8oz, but wanted something indulgent but without caffeine, as diet coke-Wednesdays had been messing with my sleep.

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THURSDAY COUNT: 3580

SLEPT: 9pm - 3:45am, 6.75 hrs
Good sleep. Woke up at 3 to ride, rain coming down pretty hard and steady, back to bed for a bit then up for a weight lifting session. Nice dinner out with a friend, but exhausted when I got home and ate on the edge of compulsive, booooo.

AM SNACK: 4am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 7am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am, fage yogurt with almonds, honey, and vanilla, 490 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, vegetarian meat balls, steamed string beans, madras lentils, pickles, 630 cal

PM SNACK: 3 pm, momma salad, nut & legume mix from graze box , 240 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, poppa salad with light Ranch, 120 cal

 DINNER: 7pm, pork scallopine and potatoes, beef carpacio, asparagus, crusty bead & butter, water, +/- 750 cal

EVENING GORGE: 9:30pm, small cup of ice cream, sleeve of oreos, pack of digestive cookies, 1190 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 2810

SLEPT: 11pm - 3:30am, 4.5 hrs
Woke up earlier than I would have liked, stomach felt icky from yesterday's late gorge, not surprising, also pleasantly sore from the weight lifting. Briefly considered riding, but raining again.

AM SNACK: 3:45am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 7am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:15pm, chicken sasuage, Ethiopian collard greens and potatoes, bowls of Raisin Bran and Special K with whole milk,  +/-900  cal
New Ethiopian prepared meal, easily the worst of the bunch. Potatoes were just OK, but the greens weren't cooked right, and retained a solid dose of astringint bitterness. I've had Ethiopian-style collards before, and they're fantastic, but these were near inedible.

PM SNACK: 3:30 pm, momma salad, cracker sticks and bbq sauce from grazebox, random slice of pizza from work, +/- 400 cal

 DINNER: 6:45pm, fancy burger & fries, fancy ice cream dessert, +/- 900 cal