Cum On Feel the Noize / Essential Yoga Truths

If you read the daily news about the latest in obesity research, you may find yourself getting stupider by the day. On one hand, society is heading over a cliff o' fatness and we're all doomed, and on the other hand, fat people seem to be healthier than thin people. Cum on feel this noize!

A report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was recently issued, entitled, "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2011". In a one year period, sixteen of the 50 states got more obese, and none declined. The report also looks at figures for the last twenty years: back then no state had an obesity rate over 15%, while now two thirds of all states are over 30% obese, and now only one state out of fifty is less than 20% super-chunky.

“Today, the state with the lowest obesity rate would have had the highest rate in 1995,” said Jeff Levi, Ph.D., executive director of TFAH. “There was a clear tipping point in our national weight gain over the last twenty years, and we can't afford to ignore the impact obesity has on our health and corresponding health care spending.”

Bobby "Wood" Johnson was teased about his name by fat kids growing up. Little did they know that he would get the last laugh....

There are break downs by race and income (summary -- the darker and poorer you are, the fatter you tend to be) and policy recommendations (summary -- the beverage industry will not be amused), as well as individual reports by state. My family's home state, NY, is the 11th least obese state, woooo! Still, at 24.1% of New Yorker's officially being Fatty McFattfatts, that doesn't seem so hot. Trimmest state? Colorado at 19.8%. State most super-sized? Mississippi at 34.4% Guess they need all those extra i's, s's and p's to help expel air as they try to pull up their pants.

Colorado rush hour commute. The fattest ones get eaten by bears.

To add some color to the story, the study's author gave some good quote to ABC News:

"With 6 million new cases of diabetes, 5 million cases of heart disease and stroke, and more than 400,000 cases of cancer in the next 20 years, we are on a tragic course that will have a horrible impact on the quality of life of millions of Americans and could overwhelm an already over burdened health care system," said Dr. Jeffery Levi, study author and executive director of Trust for America's Health.

We are heading over a cliff, sooner or later we will all be economically hobbled tubs o' goo enslaved to our P90X-worshipping overlords. Or will we?

In study after study, overweight and moderately obese patients with certain chronic diseases often live longer and fare better than normal-weight patients with the same ailments. The accumulation of evidence is inspiring some experts to re-examine long-held assumptions about the association between body fat and disease.

So what explanations are offered for this paradox?

1. More food delivers more calories, but also more nutrition. Skinny peeps might be skinny but under-fed.
2. Thin people are genetically programmed to become sick. Evolution has caused our bodies to seek out calories, and a survival-of-the-fittest has screened skinny people into the less-likely-to-survive group over millions of years.
3. Doctors give less attention to pretty skinny people than ugly fat people.
4. McDonalds is delicious so shut up. There is so much hype about obesity that we're missing a different factor.

And what could that factor be? The article hints that it may be "fitness". 

Research that does tease apart weight and fitness — like a series of studies conducted by Steven Blair at the Cooper Institute in Dallas — shows that being fat and fit is better, healthwise, than being thin and unfit. Regular aerobic exercise may not lead to weight loss, but it does reduce fat in the liver, where it may do the most metabolic damage, according to a recent study at the University of Sydney.

I'm living under the working assumption that to lose weight, I must eat less calories, but to feel good, I must maintain a certain level of fitness. This article would suggest that my "feeling good" also means maintaining a healthy, well-functioning body - regardless of weight.

There is another piece in the NY Times recently that looks at a study which looks at the relationship between exercise and weight-loss. In short, you do nothing, you lose no weight. You do some moderate exercise, you lose weight. You do a whole lot of exercise, you lose....less weight.

The men who had exercised the most, working out for 60 minutes a day, had managed to drop some flab, losing an average of five pounds each. The scientists calculated that that weight loss, while by no means negligible, was still about 20 percent less than would have been expected given the number of calories the men were expending each day during exercise, if food intake and other aspects of their life had held steady.

Meanwhile, the volunteers who’d worked out for only 30 minutes a day did considerably better, shedding about seven pounds each, a total that, given the smaller number of calories that they were burning during exercise, represents a hefty 83 percent “bonus” beyond what would have been expected, says Mads Rosenkilde, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Copenhagen who led the study.

The researchers suspect that the 60-min-a-day exercisers were not being totally accurate in reporting there calorie intake. Basically, the theory is that if you work out hella-lot, you get a lot more hungry and:

1. it becomes easier to over-eat.
2. encourages more periods of sedintariness as you're blown out from hard work outs.

A more moderate work out will leave you less hungry, less likely to over-eat, and instead of drained, you will be energized to be involved in a more active lifestyle.

Mitt Romney: "Perhaps if they were to exercise less and go get jobs, they'd be less hungry."

Not to brag (OK, I'm bragging), I kinda already knew this. I've been doing 100+ mile bike rides over the last decade, riding to work and riding for fun.  (That's, uh, three separate things, not 100+ mile fun bike rides to work.) And yet, multiple friends over the years have commented about how amazing it is that I ride so much, but still retain a nicely obese frame. Well, I ride off a certain number of calories, then I would thoroughly enjoy eating a certain number of calories... and then a certain number of calories more.

When discussing my weight routine with a close friend who shirked her own routine because it became too much for her, I told her I worked out twice a week for about 45 minutes. She was shocked, implying that wasn't nearly enough. I guess if you pay for a gym membership whose reason for existing is to get you to work out as much as possible, they're not going to direct you to the minimum it takes to see long-term results. My 2x weights, 1x long bike ride per week is working for me. I don't know if I'm "fit", but I'm definitely feeling good.

I feel the noize, and I'm trying to float above it while keeping my cool and not just throwing my hands up and giving in to my cravings for brownies and television. I had a close friend in 2000 who lived here but had residence in Florida, and she chose to use her absentee ballot to vote for Ralph Nader because she could not see any difference between Bush and Gore. She ain't my friend anymore. She could not feel the noize.

This is not a political blog, but when Big Beverage, Big Food and Big Farm kick up so much dust to create confusion about health to protect their profits, how can one not try to wade through the conflicting messages?

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Falling doesn't hurt that much  with a pair of gigantic invisible testicles. 

I took a yoga basics class with the HVS Friday evening, and an essential yoga truth was unveiled to me during the class. All those yoga people in crazy positions, like balancing their whole bodies on their pinkie fingers while splaying their legs? It's not because they are connecting to some magical spiritual force that allows them to deny the laws of physics. It is because they are as strong as hell. I guess a heady mix of vegan diet, comfy clothes, babbling in Sanskrit and doing stretches all day will do that to a person.

I only noticed because this was the first time I practiced yoga since I've purposefully been trying to lose weight and gain muscle. At first the poses seemed magically more easy and comfortable....am I connecting with the great Googamooga or Ghee or Yogurtmonster? No, I thought, I'm just a little more fit from regularly lifting up big round dumb pieces of iron. It would be nice to credit myself as being closer to the Ur-Spirit of Bacterial Enlightened Dairy, but I gotta keep it real.

At the KIR Church, they are strictly athiests, because they KEEP IT REAL.

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Housekeeping: Next Monday is the 1st, weigh-in day, so the next entry will be delayed by one day. 

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2339 cal
REFINE SUGAR %: +/- 10%

Seems every Monday I glide out the day easily while staying under my budget minimum, while by Friday it's almost impossible to stay below the budget maximum. I think this means two things:

1. I'm having a "calorie hangover" from the weekend of eating above the calorie maximum.
2. When I reach my final goal, my maintenance calorie budget will be higher than my current maximum.

This week's average was within budget, so that's a very good thing. While things that are straight up sugar (brownies, vegan ice cream, iced green tea) are counted, I do not count the sugar of the ricotta pancakes, the teriyaki pineapple meatballs, the smoothie, all of which are savory but have some sugar in them (other than the smoothie, which is sweet but has all the fiber and nutrition of whole fruit in it.) I'm of two minds, trying to get down to one....

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MONDAY COUNT: 2075
The weekend's eating was kept reasonable, with a ride to City Island on Sunday and a little bit too much homemade apple crisp and pie-spice ice cream that evening. While food shopping in the evening with Edie, decided I wanted to eat something fun for dinner -- had a very healthy lunch, could indulge for dinner. Got a box of 6 White Castle sliders, noticed the whole box's calorie count could work into my budget. A side of veg instead of fries and it's a reasonable dinner.

A year or two ago, at the end of a hard week at the restaurant, I'd get a box of these burgers, maybe match them with some frozen onion rings, then complete the meal with between a half and a full box of Entemann's donuts. Replacing onion rings and donuts with 6oz of string beans, it's what's for dinner now.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, kolon bloe and whole milk, 300 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, chicken sausage, roasted Brussel sprouts, baked potato with butter, 7oz diet sprite, 860 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, 60 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, White Castle burgers, steamed string beans, 7oz diet sprite, 830 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2200

Started the day with a homemade breakfast, finished the day with a dinner with two veg and without a starch component, wound up hitting my minimum. Went to sleep a little hungry, but was feeling down/angry/anxious about unrelated things, which I kinda harnessed into not eating more.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, lemon ricotta pancakes, bacon, 685 cal
Had another kid and parent over for breakfast before they took Edie out for the day, so I made a nice breakfast. Did not know the calorie count until after eating. I actually served myself about 440 calories, but since Edie did not eat some of her meal, I ate it for her and POOF, 685. So easy to over eat.

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 2:45pm, vegetable patty & a jerk chicken patty, 730 cal

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, 7oz diet sprite, 0 cal

DINNER: 7:15pm, teriyaki pineapple chicken meatballs, health salad, string beans, 660 cal
Had to remove the planned whole wheat cous cous to hit the calorie budget after this morning's pancakes. Large pile of cabbage and string beans helped a lot, only 150 cal all together. The rest went into 12 meatballs, out of a large pack I picked up at Costco. Suspiciously juicy, I had to check the ingredients after I tore through them. "Teriyaki" simply means sweetened with sugar, salted up with soy sauce, and dosed with umami with some miso.  The sugar syrup probably added to the juiciness. Still, surprisingly palatable, not overly sweet or pineapply.
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2305

Lifted weights in the morning, rode bike to Red Hook to do recruiting for my culinary class. Offered samples of brownies to lure them in, as tempting as it was to eat a bunch, it wasn't that hard to abstain. Took Edie up to Grandma's house in the afternoon. Despite an unmeasurable restaurant meal, felt hungryish in the evening so probably did not surpass my maximum budget.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, smoothie, 380 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, quarter pounder, fries, diet coke, 900 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30 pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, shrimp scampi over white rice, side salad, water,+/- 900 cal
Diner on the UES. Too many choices. Relatively healthy, but when this dish came, the whole surface of the plate was just a huge mound of rice. Pushed about 1/3 of it to the side, and other than a few nibbles of Edie's french fries, kept it relatively reasonable.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 7oz diet sprite, 0 cal

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THURSDAY COUNT: 2630

Went over the budget with a snack quickly following an unsatisfying dinner. After riding around 2 tots on a bike all over Brooklyn, was too tired to cook meals for the kids AND make myself proper dinner, so I popped in some  pizzas. Got too hungry to wait, and micro'd some pancakes. After eating, just not feeling satisfied, and ate some of Edie's chicken and the remnants of homemade brownies in the fridge. One thing you can say for sugar, when you consume it at the end of the meal, it switches off your hunger fast.

Don't feel too bad about going over the budget, the bike riding probably off-set  it to a reasonable degree.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, full fat Fage yogurt with honey, vanilla & almonds, 365 cal

LUNCH:12:45pm, two almond butter & grape jelly on whole wheat multi grain bread sandwiches, momma salad, 7oz diet coke, 965 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, 14 oz diet sprite, 0 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, Stouffer's french bread pizzas, 2 lemon ricotta pancakes, 1000 cal

PM SNACK: 7pm, piece of breaded chicken breast, homemade brownie, +/- 300 cal
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FRIDAY COUNT: 2485

A good day, got some chores done in the morning, had a nice afternoon out with the kids and friends. Got to take an over-due basics yoga class with the HVS and friends. A nice end to the week.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 9am, kolon bloe with whole milk, 300 cal

AM SNACK: 11:30am. momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 1:30pm, veggie burger sub, potato chips, diet coke, 760 cal

SNICKLE SNACK: 8:15pm, black cod teriyaki, hijiki, basmanti rice, "corn bread", +/- 600 cal

SNICKLE SNACK: 9:30pm, vegan ice cream cone, +/- 400 cal

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, slice of streetza, +/- 300 cal

Government needs a nutrition per calorie measure

Back in the '50s, when the government was cheesy.

The new federal nutrition requirements for school meals are continuing to cause ripples in New York City. A few weeks ago bureaucrats tried to put the kibosh on a program that had professional chefs prepare from-scratch foods on-site in individual schools rather than truck in pre-packaged, pre-cooked, pre-blanded food units from a central commissary. It was only last week when the city boasted that its school lunches were actually under the nation's minimum calorie-requirements:

(In) the case of the 860,000 school lunches served daily, (the Bloomberg administration) ignored a set of United States Department of Agriculture requirements written in 1994, without seeking permission. City health and education officials said their aim was not to lower calories, but rather to increase the nutritional value of the foods reaching students’ mouths.  

The city officials said new federal guidelines, which take effect this school year, proved they were right all along. The new rules reduce the minimum calorie counts by more than 200 calories in some grades and, for the first time, set calorie maximums as well. But the officials acknowledged that for older students, the new rules still demand more calories on the lunch tray than the city’s schools have been providing.

Bloomberg has overseen a few measures aimed at child obesity by adjusting policy in the schools. One example is a revision in how breakfast is served. For years breakfast was made available right in students' classrooms. But administrators and health officials suggested that the presence of food was an invitation for kids to overeat--hungry or not. Now breakfast is only served in the school cafeteria before the morning classes begin, not during them.

School breakfast in Texas.

Of course it can be argued that the city is more concerned with the fat kids than those without enough to eat but I don't buy it. School breakfast is still available to those who are hungry, just as unlimited amounts of sugared beverages will be available to the public once a 16oz cup restriction is put into place -- the policies just require more mindfulness.

Last year, the city said that the number of obese students, in kindergarten through eighth grade, had dropped 5.5 percent over the previous five years, based on the results of annual fitness exams. It was the biggest decline cited by any large city, but 21 percent of elementary and middle school children were still obese.

Those kinds of numbers are hard to argue with. Fact is poor kids without access to regular meals and fresh, nutritious food tend to get fat, despite living in what urban planners call "food deserts" and living under what sociologists call "food insecurity." When we don't get the nutrition we need from the food available, the body revs up and seeks out more calories to get the nutrition it needs. It's NOT just a calculus of counting calories, but a sum of the nutritional quality of those calories.

Water water food everywhere and not a drop to drink eat.

Counting calories is a nice, graphable measure for a large bureaucracy (or cough cough a small blog), but when the fruit & veg & whole grains are increased it is the nutrition that needs to be measured along side the calories. Perhaps some sort of nutrition-per-calorie scale would make more sense. In my counting I don't obsess about the nutritional side of it, I just up the veg and down the sugar, and hope for the best.
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Looks like the FBIWC weight loss plan is taking off! Two fellows in LA are claiming the idea that eating less will cause you to lose weight is the golden ticket....if only you buy their set of plastic doohickies.

(Berkowitz's gym trainer, Kates) said that to lose weight, it didn’t matter what you ate, — in fact, he insisted that Mr. Berkowitz not limit himself to grilled chicken and vegetables — but it was how much you ate. Mr. Berkowitz remained unconvinced, but took note of the portion sizes that Mr. Kates showed him with his hands. 

The next day, Mr. Berkowitz began to wonder if Mr. Kates might actually be right. “So I run out and I get clay,” Mr. Berkowitz said. “According to his measurements, my wife and I make bowls.” They took the bowls to Color Me Mine, a pottery studio, and fired them up. “I put a big ‘M’ under one bowl for meat. A big ‘C’ for carbs, and ‘D’ for dairy, because that’s how they’re divided. I started eating that way. My energy was up and the weight started falling off.” He ultimately lost 46 pounds. 

Mr. Berkowitz was intrigued by the simplicity of Mr. Kates’s plan. Unlike Weight Watchers, which also advocates portion control, there was no need to add up points or know how many grams of fat were in a piece of food. Also, Mr. Kates’s portion sizes were bigger than those of other diets Mr. Berkowitz had seen.

Silly me, why am I weighing food, reading labels, and consciously increasing my fruit and veg and lowering my carbs? What I should be doing is buying some plastic cups from some LA hucksters and letting them do the thinking for me.

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On Thursday, I ordered a "large" soda in honor of the ban. FORTY FOUR F@*%IN' OUNCES! TASTE THE FREEDOM!! Even the cup is obese...

So that is that. In a surprise to no one other than beverage industry lobbyists and a few morbidly obese diabetics waking up from a corn-syrup-induced coma, the NYC Dept of Health has decided to approve Bloomberg's "soda ban." It doesn't take effect for six months, so I imagine there might be more noise until then, with lawsuity goodness and big-money-backed efforts to protect our "freedom" until then.

Here is an excellent video from the NY Times 'splaining the "soda ban". Jezebel posted the video, and I was really impressed by one commentator named "Birthdaygirl" that's worth reposting in its entirety here (italics mine):

When it's framed as a ban, the people who want to preserve their personal freedom to eat/drink what they want are practically fighting the food lobbyists' fight for them. But if someone really wanted to nip this issue in the bud and they could successfully harness that "right to eat what we want" attitude, you could really throw it back in the food industry's face. 

I do believe that I have a right to eat what I want and, by extension, I believe that I also have a right to not eat what I don't want. I think we have a right to know what we're putting into our bodies and, just like cigarettes are clearly labeled to warn us that they may be carcinogenic, I think if the government were really on our side about it, a lot of foods would be labeled similarly. You shouldn't have to put on a pair of glasses to realize that Coke and Pepsi contain methylimidazole and you shouldn't have to do a google search to realize that methylimidazole is a suspected carcinogen. 

Labeling soda with warnings about suspected links to obesity and cancer wouldn't protect people from themselves as immediately as a ban will but, in the long run, it would do more to solve the actual problem by bridging the education gap and by forcing Coke and Pepsi (amongst others) to reexamine their ingredients lists. I'm happy to defend the right of adult Americans' to drink coke but I do feel concerned about whether the average soda drinker actually understands what he/she is drinking and I think it'd be preferable if that information was at least more easily accessible. 

True freedom necessitates having enough correct and accurate information to make an informed decision. Just like plenty of people still smoke, plenty of people will always drink soda in mass quantities regardless of what they are or aren't told about the health risks of doing so. But I still wonder if the very people who are so sure that this is an issue of "personal freedom" wouldn't be somewhat offended to realize what the manufacturers of their favorite junk foods aren't telling them about the food they're eating. When it comes to something like soda, it means not just knowing that "it's bad for you" but why it's bad for you. It means making that information easily accessible to people rather than hiding it in size 6 font. Until then, I'm not sure if the average American's decision to drink soda can be characterized as exercising a freedom so much as exercising ignorance. 

Right now, the food industry has got us all by the tail. They're too powerful and most people are too uninformed for the American public to win the fight for our right to know what we're eating and "personal freedom" to consume food about which stronger claims can be made than "it hasn't been proven carcinogenic in humans". A soda ban is something they can swallow because they can always bump up prices to cover the profits they're losing without 20+ ounce sizes. But if we're looking for an answer as to how to solve these problems permanently: I think we should look more closely at the outrage that many people feel over the idea of not being able to control what they're eating. Because I think a lot of these people would have a lot more to be angry about if they understood the full extent to which they already lack control over the food they eat.

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Stay up all night! Get riiiiipped!

When you drink 44 oz of diet coke at 3pm on a Thursday in celebration of a soda ban being voted in, funny thing is you will not be able to go to sleep for at least 12 to 13 hours after that historically gluttonous event. This, I found out the hard-way. One advantage of insomnia is catching u`p on all the latest infomercials

"P90X"  is a high-intensity work out in which users are told exactly what to do for 90 days, using the same equipment I have (a pull up bar and a set of free weights). One thing they glossed over very quickly is the one of the many "free gifts" you get when you CALL NOW: a companion book to the twelve DVD work-out videos that....tell you exactly what to eat for 90 days. 

A little internet thinkin' found this to mostly be a high-protein, low-fat calorie-restricted plan, with some cosmetic changes to make it into 3 matching "phases" to go along with the three phases of the work out plan. Huh, sounds similar to `how I eat, with additional hyperbole and complicating details.

A big deal is made up of "muscle confusion" as the secret to why the work out works -- high intensity on certain muscles, then a changing of the routine before "muscle memory" sets in and working on other exercises that work the same muscles. Just like Berkowitz & Kade's repackaging the tried-and-true concept that eating less will make you lose weight, P90X repackages two concepts:

1. Prison and buff inmates have taught us that intensity and repetition gets result, especially while out of our comfort zones, regardless of access to fancy equipment.
2. Working the same muscles with a rotation of different exercises over an extended period of ime will be much more effective than just the same exercise motion over and over. This kinda is standard practice for weight training since....the invention of weight training back in 1867?

Irving Weighttrainobergstein and his very flamboyant shorts.

But they do a lot through some jumping around, some "extreme yoga" (the thought of which makes me itchy), and LOTS of testimonials with before/after pictures. Oh, and it's also the work out routine Republican VP candidate Paul Ryan swears by. Ick.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE COUNT: 2460
% FROM REFINED SUGAR: 5%
The average has been distorted by the ride on Thursday, which made me eat a bit more to be reasonably comfortable. Happy with how much sugar I took in over the week; I kept it at a maintenance dose between the morning's iced green tea and, on a few occasions, the chocolate chips and peanuts.
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MONDAY COUNT: 2155
Saturday I ate relatively reasonably, but fresh banana bread kept jumping down my throat. I rode the NYC Century on Sunday and while I burned over 2,500 cal I certainly took in enough to make up for it. Proof was in the pudding:  I just wasn't that hungry when I woke up Monday morning.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 10am, fage full fat yogurt with honey and almonds, 230 cal
Half serving of all three ingredients still satisfies

LUNCH: 1pm, eggplant hero with no cheese, garden salad with dressing on side, +/-1000 cal
Edie wanted pizza for lunch and a total lack of food in the house supported her argument. Salad came with 2oz of dressing -- that's 4 tbsp of oil, about 400 cal. I put half of it on the salad.

DINNER: 6:30pm, breaded shrimp, baked potato with butter, roasted brussel sprouts, 7oz diet coke, 900 cal
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TUESDAY COUNT: 2450
Got a good workout in the morning. Went over in calories (I think) but lunch was an estimation, and judging by how hungry I was in the evening, the peanuts & chocolate barely satisfied me. Better to be on the conservative range, I suppose.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, fruit smoothie, 365 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, hijiki tofu patty, large spinach salad with carrot ginger dressing, chips & salsa, diet coke, +/- 900 cal
My dining companion ordered the chips and salsa, and they just compulsively jumped down my neck as we were finishing up.

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, manchego cheese sample, a couple of almonds, +/- 50 cal
Edie & I were in Wholefoods, and she went nuts for the cheese tray they had out. I only had 4 or 5 little squares, but cheese packs a punch.

PM SNACK: 5pm, momma salad, 90 cal

DINNER: 7pm, sauteed chili chicken breast, plain whole wheat cous cous, home made health salad slaw, 7oz diet sprite, 700 cal
Needed to change up the dinner game, getting a little boring. Plain couscous is a stupidly easy way to mix up the starches, and the 42g single serving looks tiny dry, but blew up big when hydrated. The health salad is a recipe from the 2nd Ave Deli cook book -- mostly shredded cabbage, dressed in mostly white vinegar, offset by olive oil and white sugar (though I cut the amount of sugar in half, and it did not suffer).

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, 320 cal

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2360

Slept poorly. Woke up with the baby for a diaper change and bottle at 4:30, found myself with acidy stomach and the need to "use the facilities". Took a swig of Mylanta and was back to bed by 5:30 -- I think the large serving of cabbage in the health salad (along with the acidy vinegar) threw my system a bit, but not enough for me to keep with it, as I think I'll adjust. I've been making the health salad for years now, just not for the last hot season, and not since I started restricting calories.

For those who care: Toss finely shredded white cabbage for a small, cored head with a dressing made with:

• 3/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup white sugar (adjusted from the original recipe's 1/2 cup)
• 1 tbsp white salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper

Taken from the 2nd Ave Deli cook book, adjusted. They add carrot and celery, but if you're trying so hard to be white white white, why mess with it?

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, steel cut oatmeal with butter, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt, 375 cal

LUNCH: noon, quarter pounder, fries, diet coke, 1 chicken nugget, 950 cal

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 6pm, whole wheat pasta with turkey meatballs, sauteed eggplant, roasted brussels and parm, 7oz diet sprite, 780 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, whole wheat pretzels, 130 cal

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THURSDAY COUNT: 2985

Had a good weightlifting session in the morning, increased my reps from 6 to 7 (when I hit 10, I'll increase the weight amount and go back down to 5) and spent a few extra seconds in the negative pull-up positions. Spent the day with Edie on the big bike, taking a meeting and some chores, ended up at Coney Island. 

Without thinking, I did about 30 miles on the bike. When I got to Coney, I allowed myself a second hot dog and it felt good. Thirsty, drank a 44 oz diet coke, blurg. Ate a small carb-free dinner which was the only thing that could fit the calorie budget, but an hour later felt the hunger build up in a way that I knew would be a problem. I poured myself a bowl of peanuts and chocolate chip, weighed but not measured. I estimated 350-400 calories. After I ate it, found it it was about double what I thought....such a tiny bowl! Regardless, I still went to bed feeling hungry enough to eat a lot more, so felt good about bending the budget today.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 10am, kolon bloe & whole milk, 300 cal

AM SNACK: 11:15am, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 hotdogs with kraut and onions, fried potatoes, humongous diet coke, 1360 cal

Ordered a "large" diet coke in honor the soda "ban" approved today (see above). 44 ounces, jesus, I was thirsty, but if that was sugared, it would have been over 1000 cal...

DINNER: 8pm, grilled spicy curry chicken breast, steamed string beans with butter, 7oz diet sprite, 500 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, 700 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 2350

Woke up tired and very hungry, which made me happy I ate the extra calories yesterday.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 9am, steel cut oatmeal with butter, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt, 375 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat, health salad, 7oz diet sprite, 610 cal

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 6:15pm, chicken with tofu, pork fried rice, shrimp toast, wonton soup, water, 1,240 cal

Too Much Ice Cream Will Make You Sad & Fat

Stupid Sad & fat is no way to go through life, son.

Last week, I took Edie & Mil to the Brooklyn waterfront to play with my old friend C and her daughter A, who is about Edie's age. I packed up some snacks for Edie and A to share: grapes, PB&J on whole wheat, whole wheat goldfish crackers, an orange, and a couple of "Motts for Tots" apple juice boxes, which have 40% the concentration of sugar of the average juice. This is pretty much the current standard snack bag for Edie.

When our first snack opportunity arrived I took out my bag o' momma salad: baby carrots with chunks of red pepper, cucumber, and red onion, which everyone helped me to consume. C took out two Pez dispensers and loaded them up with the strawberry-flavored candy. A offered Edie her choice of dispenser: Batman or Hello Kitty. Edie LOVES Hello Kitty. Candy flowing from Hello Kitty's mouth, it can't get much better than that.

I'm yo pusha man.

Flash forward, post naps, I find myself with Edie & Mil in the local playground, with a fine assortment of neighborhood friends frolicking about. H is there with her daughter A, and when we arrive and I say hello, H whispers to me, "We have a special treat for Edie, but we'll give it to you before you leave, since there are so many other kids around!" As we leave for dinner some time later, H & A lay a purple lollipop on us. It was a very sweet gesture, pun only slightly intended, and made me do a double take -- this is the second time today someone is offering sugared treats to my daughter. Am I not giving my kids enough sugar, so other parents feel bad for the kid with the tyrant dad?

And no lollipops for Edie!

Edie eats a LOT of fruit, it probably makes up close to half of her daily calories: bananas, grapes, oranges, cantaloupe, watermelon, apples, pears. And that's on top of her daily "noisy ice cream," which is the frozen version of the leftovers from my weekly fruit smoothies. She is definitely getting sugar in her diet, matched with fiber, nutrients, and a helping of water.

Even with the "noisy ice cream," she still asks for (real) ice cream during the rest of the day. She's 3, so I try to explain that non-noisy ice cream is only for special occasions, because too much ice cream will make a person "fat and sad."She seems to register this, think about it momentarily, then respond, "but ice cream is yummy in my tummy!!" The immediacy of the tummy yumminess trumps the abstract concept of someday becoming fat and sad. That, and those puffy peeps in Yo Gabba Gabbaland...

Her palate is starting to come into focus; she's becoming pickier, and increasingly attracted to sweets. Only this summer has she been introduced to hot dogs, and it's fast becoming a go-to food for her. I remember for many years my English friend's toddler son only eat "sausage rolls,"the limey equivalent of the dirty water dog. Oy.

Doin' some Internet thinkin' about kids and sugar, it all says pretty much the same thing: kids need more carbs, both complex and simple, than adults, and so long as they come from good sources (such as fruit and whole grains) instead of bad (such as sodas and candy), it's not so bad. When you depend on the bad, that's when you have issues with the big three:

1. Obesity: In 2004, American adolescents were consuming 13 percent of their daily caloric intake from sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) such as soft drinks, fruit punch, and sports drinks. A 2009 report on the negative impact of SSB on children's health, published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, indicated that the obesity rate for U.S. children ages 6 through 11 had quadrupled in the previous four decades. 
2. Tooth Decay: The American Dental Association explains the cause-and-effect relationship of sugar and dental cavities, or tooth decay: Bacteria are constantly forming a sticky build-up of plaque on your teeth and gums. If you don't brush your teeth immediately after eating sugar or starch, an acid forms that attacks the tooth enamel. Adults are as vulnerable as children to developing tooth decay from dietary sugars.
3. Hyperactivity: Anxiety, loss of sleep, restlessness, and general hyperactivity have been attributed to sugar and the consumption of soft drinks in children. Although this has yet to be proven by scientific research, it makes sense that refined, processed sugar could impact a child's behaviors. The National Institutes of Health explain that refined sugar is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, resulting in rapid changes in blood glucose levels. These fluctuations could trigger the release of adrenaline, a stimulant hormone

Edie enjoyed her Pez, and I held aside her lollipop for a more "special" time. I'm just as guilty -- I just fed two tubs of homemade ice cream to a short stack of kids at a Labor Day picnic (and one of them was chocolate laced with a shot of espresso, he he he, eeeevil, but I pushed the cookies n' cream on the kids so it's all good.) Sugar is a drug that has been normalized like alcohol but should be treated as such -- do not ban it, do not forbid it, it'll only cause it to be more mysterious and attractive. Regulate it, allow a little in, be mindful and aware and hopefully your kid will learn how to properly party and never be this guy:

Drunk & stupid is no way to go through life, son.

WEEKLY AVERAGE COUNT: 2,500
CALORIE % IN REFINED SWEETS: 12%

Welcome to the first weekly summary of my food consumption! Rather than ignore this part on a daily basis, you can now ignore it on a weekly basis. Looking at the numbers, I got hungrier as the week went on, and by Friday I was dun, dee yoo enn dun. Perhaps indulging wouldn't be such a big deal if I wasn't already breaking the budget for the past few days. Still, 2,500 ain't so bad compared to the 3K+ I was packing in before counting. Regardless, room for improvement.

Surprised by the large % of sugar, thought it would be less, as it feels like I'm not eating any sweets, but the logs don't lie. My morning tea has refined sugar in it, sure, but the special restaurant meal out with friends and Friday night's pig out added up quick.

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2,055

Didn't ride the bike; I was feeling a bit worn out after going out with friends Saturday night, then needing to be PIC (Papa In Charge) on Monday. Did get weights in on Monday -- my successful negative pull ups have been in the "hammer" position. This day, I did my first successful negative in the the "pull up" position. Small increment, but it counts.

Slept very poorly due to kids being up at various points, though to be fair my wife got the brunt of it because she's more sensitive to it, and more effective in resolving it. I know lack of sleep effects hunger and control (hey, that's a good blog topic!) so I woke up extra determined to be on the budget ball today after 4 days of winging it. Other than a bit too much ice cream, I went to bed feeling the low level of hunger that means I'm comin' correct two nights of the weekend, including last night.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea, 25 cal

AM SNACK: 10:30am, whole wheat goldfish crackers, half a homemade vanilla cookie, +/- 50 cal

Totally forgot to eat breakfast, too much going on in the morning, and once Edie's friend got dropped off, had to hustle.

LUNCH: 1pm, quarter pounder with cheese, fries, diet coke, 900 cal

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, baby carrots, 80 cal

DINNER: 7pm, whole wheat pasta with shrimp & eggplant, 7oz diet sprite, 1050 cal

Eggplant, onion and basil from the CSA bulked it up. Two tablespoons of olive oil and 40g of grated parm made it weighty. Salt, fresh garlic and dried oregano gave it a little pop.

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WEDNESDAY COUNT:2,400
Went slightly over, but that's ok -- I had spaghetti squash for the first time today, as it came with the CSA. I understand why I was never introduced to it in c-school: it tastes like nothing, it's "spaghetti-like" texture is kinda gross, and you'd have to be very delusional to be satisfied by this stuff when you really want pasta. But it vegged-up my meal, never again.

Tossed some chopped up little red peppers from the CSA not thinking they'd be very spicy, and my all-day black beans came out with some wicked heat, which sucks because my family can't/won't eat them. They taste good, and I appreciate the effect of spicy food on the appetite (it's a depressant), but I made enough for everyone for several meals. -sigh-

AM SNACK: 6am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, fruit smoothie, 320 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, Stouffer's French Bread pizzas, momma salad, 7oz diet coke 980 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, chicken sausage, black beans and brown rice, baked spagetti squash,  7oz diet sprite, 1075 cal

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THURSDAY COUNT:2450

Went out to fancy dinner with good neighborhood friends, another couple with kids our age, oh so adult. Tried to limit my calorie consumption during the day, but by the time 5 rolled around, thinking about waiting two more hours made me think how quickly the first two bread baskets would disappear, so I ate what was closest before feeling an energy bonk.

Dinner was pretty spectacular, good company, good service, good food. Portions were relatively small, and while my wife & dining companions chose dishes that I could probably do a worthy silacrum at home (butternut squash ravioli, wild boar lasagne), I chose a whole roasted fish, smothered in fresh lemon and thyme, and most importantly, cooked in a wood burning oven. Between having to find a fish that fresh, store it and gut it, then cook it just perfectly, it was the one dish on the menu that between the access to seafood, the deceptively tricky simple method of cooking, and the flavor of the oven, there was no way I could do justice to this nice piece of fish at home. And it was great. My entree was so healthy, roasted fish and salad, but the carb-heavy apps, the bread, the booze and the desserts made up for it.

Don't have a clue how many calories I consumed, felt satisfied but not stuffed. However, the two over-poured glasses of wine and the shot of grappa had to be about 500 liquid calories, so I've estimated slightly over my budget.

AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 8am, kolon bloe & whole milk, 300 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, two PB&Js on whole wheat, momma salad, 7oz diet coke, 670 cal

PM SNACK: 5:15pm soft serve ice cream cone, 200 cal

DINNER: 7pm, crusty bread with fresh ricotta and pomodoro, wood fired pizza, polenta & mushrooms, roasted whole branzino with microgreens, warm chocolate cake with gelato, warm apple crumble, 2 glasses wine, 1 shot of grappa, +/- 1255

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FRIDAY COUNT: 3,050
Fell off the wagon in the evening, got too hungry, and fresh banana bread was on tap. End of the week, stress, blah blah blah, it was a bit like sliding into home base. Can't beat myself up too hard, will just try to be moderate over the weekend and start afresh Monday.

AM SNACK: 6am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 8am, full fat fage with roasted almonds, honey and vanilla, 450 cal

Funny, most cereal's serving size is a laughable 30g, but one serving of full-fat Fage Greek yogurt is 227g, for a total of 220 cal. I think I'll be halving the serving next time, as a tiny 30g serving of almonds packs a heavy 180 cal.

LUNCH: 11:45am, chicken sausage, CSA baked red potatoes and butter, steamed string beans, 7oz diet coke, 670 cal

PM SNACK: 2pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER: 5pm, large green salad, 4 small slices of pizza, +/- 1105

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 2 slices banana bread, small amount of chocolate chips,  bowl of popcorn, +/-700

Housekeeping

If you love someone something, set it free. If it doesn't come back, shoot it.

I recently got a very sweet email from an old friend, where she said:

"I've finally checked in with my friends' blogs after months and months and months and months of not doing so. Since you are a near daily blogger it is hard to catch up. Very hard. However, I see you've got a new one and..." (compliments omitted for the sake of me not feeling like a goon.)

Embarrassingly, I have not written her back yet, but I have been blogging my guts out, carpet bombing my poor, patient twitter and facebook friends on a near daily basis. So I thought about it, and I'm going to start blogging weekly instead of daily.

The Good:

• I can focus on quality over quantity. My "research" is mostly Internet-thinkin', but I'll be able to take more time to contribute more original thought and less screechy opinion.
• Averaging. Only crazy people weigh themselves every day, and calculating every day's calorie intake like it means a lot is a bit doofy, too. I'll still be reporting my daily food, but also summarized with averages...and more jokes.
• More editing. My lovely wife is an editor by profession, but she can't keep up with me (he he he). I'll be submitting most entries to her before publishing for grammar, tone, logic and odor.

The Bad:

• Readership. My favorite blogs post daily, and I wish to emulate them. Hopefully despite not having a fresh biscuit to chomp on every day, you'll come back weekly for a three course meal with dessert and petite fours.
• Compulsion. I don't write about food, nutrition and what I eat because I have to, I need to. It feels good. I'll just have to budget and focus my appetite for it.
• More editing. My lovely wife doesn't think I'm nearly as funny as I do. Good thing I'm planning a set of entries about her and her eating!

My eating week ends Fridays, editing will take place over the weekend, and I hope to get a new post every Sunday night/Monday morning. The post that falls closest to after the first of the month will always be dedicated to the weigh-in and a "phun quizz", in case you were worried...

Sincerely,

the Management

Recent portrait of FBIWC blogger.

I probably cook up like bacon.

June 223.4----> July 222----> August 216.6

For the first full month of sticking to a calorie budget of 2200-2350 during the week, I lost about five and a half pounds, a significant increase over the previous month of 1.5 lbs (when I was limiting to 2,500 cal.) The new Tanita scale tells me I'm 36.8% body fat, which means:

1. I'm NOT just big boned
2. I probably cook up like bacon
3. If I were to lose 33% of my mass in fat, I'd weigh 144 lbs, which is....ridiculous.

About 33% body fat, I'd reckon...

Looking at the weight progression of the last three years above, I'm happy to say I have broken the pattern. Why have I always started gaining weight in August? My theory is that I have the most time to take day-long bike rides, which builds a huge hunger and capacity to eat. Before I changed my cyclometer to one that also measured calorie expenditure, I was probably packing in twice what I expended on ride days. Did riding help me stay fit and feel good and happy? Sure. Did it help me lose weight? Absolutely not.

Eat to ride, ride to eat and eat and eat.

My first belt as an adult lasted me through high school, college, and my first career change. In my late 20s, I had to get a new belt that was a little....larger. Now 41, I find my belt on the tightest notch and...my shorts are still drooping to my ass-crack. This week, a new belt.

My next belt: The "crazy fit massage slimming fat burning weight loss rejection of fat body sculpting belt"

I'm still not comfortable taking compliments because I look in the mirror and I don't look that different, maybe a little less bulbous, but still quite bulbous. One achievement this past month was the ability to do a negative pull-up, and all my muscles feel stronger, harder and slightly larger than ever before. The layer of lard over them, however, prevents my ego from running away in a vainglorious burst of self-love. 

I'm a bit surprised at the large size of this past month's loss. The plan going forward for this month is to stay the course. I'm starting to realize what "full but not stuffed" feels like, and I'm finding that going to sleep hungry is fine, as long as it's not TOO hungry.

Two midterm goals:

1. Focus on what 2,350 calories/day feels like, maybe test myself by weighing food but not counting and then guess before doing the math.
2. Get down to 200 lbs. Hopefully by February, when I'm usually at my fattest, I can be close to this.
3. Stick with the budget when I start teaching culinary/enter into some professional situations this fall.

Two long term goals:

1. Stop counting calories, know instinctively what 2,350 cal/day feel likes.
2. Get down to around 160 lbs, a "normal BMI"

As the winter arrives, there will be less summer-fruits (bye bye watermelon), less bike riding, more heavy, starchy foods on tap.  I assume keeping things the same will result in less weight loss month-to-month as my body adapts. Perhaps over the winter it will be time for another appointment with the nutritionist.

THE COUNT:2055
Didn't ride the bike due to feeling a bit worn out after going out with friends Saturday night, then needing to be PIC (Papa In Charge) on Monday. Did get weights in on Monday -- my successful negative pull ups have been in the "hammer" position. This day, I did my first successful negative in the the "pull up" position. Small increment, but it counts.

Slept very poorly due to kids being up at various points, though to be fair my wife got the brunt because she's more sensitive to it, and more effective in resolving it. I know lack of sleep effects hunger and control (hey, that's a good blog topic!) so I woke up extra determined to be on the budget ball today after 4 days of winging it. Other than a bit too much ice cream, I went to bed feeling the low level of hunger that means I'm comin' correct two nights of the weekend, including last night.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea, 25 cal

AM SNACK: 10:30am, whole wheat goldfish crackers, half a homemade vanilla cookie, +/- 50 cal
Totally forgot to eat breakfast, too much going on in the morning, and once Edie's friend got dropped off, had to hustle.

LUNCH: 1pm, quarter pounder with cheese, fries, diet coke, 900 cal

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, baby carrots, 80 cal

DINNER: 7pm, whole wheat pasta with shrimp & eggplant, 7oz diet sprite, 1050 cal
Eggplant, onion and basil from the CSA bulked it up. Two tablespoons of olive oil and 40g of grated parm made it weighty. Salt, fresh garlic and dried oregano gave it a little pop.