Why bother being healthy when you can medicate?

Quick! Get this man 20 years of healthy diet and regular exercise, stat!

Another study, another big hunk of noise to make people confused, upset and discouraged.  It seems controlling diet and weight loss is no more effective than the current drugs available to treat heart attacks and strokes in people with Type 2 diabetes. What gets lost, however, is this quote from the ass-end of the article:

“You can take more medications — and more, I should say, expensive medications — or you can chose a lifestyle intervention and use fewer drugs and come to the same cardiovascular disease risk.”

Jesus. No, diet and exercise is not a magic bullet to cure sick people of all that ails them, but it's a lot cheaper and has a lot nicer side effects than sucking on Big Pharma's teat, and JUST AS EFFECTIVE. Uggg, that's a BIG F'N DEAL. Instead, this study is being dismissed as a failure and a footnote. Blurg. And that is what I'll say about that.

Except for one little thing that bothered me for different reasons....

The diet involved 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day for those weighing less than 250 pounds and 1,500 to 1,800 calories a day for those weighing more. 

1,200 to 1.500 cal a day? Holy shitzu! My nutritionist recommended 2,200-2,350 a day, and I'm well below 250 lbs. I also don't have diabetes, but still. Now that I know what 2.200 cal really means, I don't know how I would be happy on 1.200 cal, unless I got all spiritual, yogic and slightly nutso (minus the calorie-laden nuts, of course.) But the voice in my head is saying, "Duders, if you want to see the significant weight-loss you desire and kick Tom Cruise's ass, you need to come to terms." Blurgy blurg.

------

This was an unusual week, not a lot of thought to diet, as you can see below. I was blogging daily over on my start-up's website. And kickstarter!
------

WEEKLY AVERAGE:???
This was not a typical week. I spent the weekend being mellow and avoiding getting the sickness that has been passed back in forth in the family for a few weeks, and the week was dedicated to producing knishes to sell at two events on the weekend. I just didn't have the time or energy to count calories, but rereading this log, I see I never lost control and gorged. I was probably over calorie budget, but not eat-a-box-of-donuts over. Still, I wonder if I'll lose weight this month, hurrrrr....

MONDAY COUNT:2350
Don't feel well. Slept 12 hours Saturday night and skipped a bike ride I was looking forward to on Sunday to try to keep an even keel. Taking 500mg of vitamin C every morning for the past 3 or 4 days. Did my weight routine yesterday as I had the luxury of time. Got 8 hours in last night. I really need to be straight this week to get through to a successful table at the Hester Street Fair, gonna play it as conservative as possible. And that's coming from a life-long Democrat!

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal
Last tea for the week, need the space in the fridge for knish production.

BREAKFAST: 11:45am, organic chex with whole milk, 300 cal
Also drinking water all morning as I have been doing the past few days. Drank about a pint up to this point, and about 2 quarts during the day yesterday.

LUNCH: 2pm, 6" veggie burger subway hero with potato chips and 20oz diet coke, 760 cal

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, baby carrots & a pickle, 90 cal

DINNER: 6:15pm, teriyaki chicken meatballs with whole wheat cous cous and sauteed spinach, 975 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, 4 homemade cookies, +/- 200 cal

------

TUESDAY COUNT: 2330

Put myself to bed last night at 10, didn't really fall asleep until around midnight. Woke up at 7:30 dazed, but not coughing. Muddled through basic knish prep, cooking kasha, cutting pastrami, roasting pumpkin, etc. Did a shift at the CSA in the evening, did a cleansing meal at McD's after. Had the "chicken select" thingies, not bad, but not really "good". Crust oddly peppery and the flesh wasn't moist, it was "moist", like injected with saline solution until the cells of the meat almost burst. Bleah. 

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, full fat fage with honey, almonds and vanilla, 440 cal

LUNCH: 1:15pm, eggplant hero with no moz, garden salad with dressing on side, +/-800 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, 7oz diet coke, 0 cal

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, baby carrots, 80 cal

DINNER: 8:30pm, weird chicken things, fries, diet coke, 1010 cal

------

WEDNESDAY COUNT: ???

Attempted to lift weights this morning, but gave up during stretches, just too tired.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, whole grain organic cheerios with whole milk, 300 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, 2 slices of streetza, 20 oz diet coke, ??cal

SCHOOL SNACK: 6:45pm, tiny piece of sauteed chicken, small amount of shrimp, small amount of Cesar salad, glass of apple juice, ??cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, almonds and chocolate chips, ?? cal

DINNER: 10pm, fresh whole wheat pasta with butter, parm, ?? cal

------

THURSDAY COUNT: ???

Woke up and knished. Tasted here and there, but did not eat the product. Ordered in lunch, ate dinner out when I went to restock for tomorrow's cooking.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, shrimp and string beans over brown rice, shrimp toast, 12oz diet coke, ??cal

DINNER: 8:15pm, 2 slices of pizza, small cup of ice cream, ?? cal
I bought a small single-serving cup of ice cream out of a freezer case, I guessed it had 150, maybe 200 cal. According to the packaging, the tiny 3.5oz portion had 310 cal. Wowzers. I could have easily eaten a portion 3x the size and still thought it was "reasonable".

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, half a pint of vegetable lomein, ?? cal

------

FRIDAY COUNT: ???

Woke up after 9 hours feeling good, everything is on schedule

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic whole grain cheerios with whole milk, handful of choclate covered espresso beans, ?? cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, sushi, shumai, smal green salad, 7oz diet coke, ??cal

DINNER: ????
I didn't write it down, it's Monday now and it's all a blur. I know it wasn't something stupid or excessive.