Survey Says: Don't trust yo gut

Actually, don't.

My line of thinking about my recording-habits have lead me to explore whether it could be a symptom of an eating disorder. When you don't really pay attention or think straight, it's easy to fall into vague, feel-good so-called diets like "eating clean" or if you think damn too much, it's possible to pick up a specific obsession with healthy eating, orthorexia. Both involve a kind of mindfulness, one is fuzzy and deceptive, and the other is out of balance to the rest of your life. One could argue that maybe NOT thinking (or counting) about your food is the way to go.

"Intuitive eating" is "an approach that de-emphasizes dieting in favor of attending to bodily signals, like feelings of hunger and, more important, fullness." Basically, it's what yo momma taught you when you were a tot -- eat when you are hungry, drink when you are thirsty, and stop eating and stop drinking when you've had enough. So, what do you think happened when it was put to the test?

Well, in a controlled study, one population was told to just eat until your full, and the other group was tasked with counting the calories.

The intuitive eaters began well, according to Anglin, losing slightly more weight during the first three weeks, on average, than the calorie cutters. But then their discipline, luck or bodily self-awareness apparently deserted them, and most began regaining weight. At the end of the six weeks, few had lost much weight and some had a net gain of nearly two pounds.

Discipline, luck and self-awareness are all toothpicks compared to the oak tree of our physiological drives to gain and store as much energy as possible in case a coming famine threatens our survival. Our hunger and biological signals are all set to that oak, not to the toothpicks we stand up to it. So basically this is an argument FOR calorie counting.

And then he ate the sign, for fiber.

Calorie counting not nuts, it's the only sure way to counter act our innate drive to get fat, from a time when maximizing consumption meant the greatest likelihood of survival. Now that it means an ever-increasing chance of obesity and mortality, our bodies just can't evolve fast enough. Big Food has caught on to this drive to sell us ever-more regardless of the effect on our waist lines. Anti-government yahoos refuse to assign responsibility to anyone except the individual. So unless you start voting differently and enable some things like soda-taxes and stricter nutrition guidelines on all food,  it's on you and your children to do more than intuitively eat, because the combination of our fat-for-survival drive and Big Food profit-for-survival drive aren't going away any time soon.

WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2967

Three grand seems to be my comfortable spot. I wonder if my weight will remain steady this month.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2610

SLEPT: 11pm - 6:45am, 7.75 hrs

AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1 : 10:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2 : 11:45am, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:15pm, beef patty, momma salad, 430 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, chocolate bar, 420 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, lemon sole, asparagus,  poppa salad with dressing, 750 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 7:15pm, popcorn,  +/-400

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TUESDAY COUNT: 3170

SLEPT: 8:45pm-3am,  5.25hrs

AM SNACK: 3:15am,  iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, Greek yogurt with honey, almonds, vanilla,  450 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, poppa salad with dressing, veggie straws,  330 cal

DINNER: 6pm, shrimp lomeain, pork dumplings, +/- 1200 cal

EVENING SNACK: 6:45pm, ice cream, +/- 800 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 3215

SLEPT: 8:30pm-4:15am, 7.75 hrs

AM SNACK: 4:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 9:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, fruit smoothie, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm,steamed string beans, lentil curry, chicken meatballs, pickles,  680 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 8pm, chipotle burrito, ice cream, diet coke, 1425

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, pringles, 190 cal
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2980

SLEPT: 10pm-3:30am, 5.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 4am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, steel cut oatmeal 450 cal

PM SNACK: 12:45pm, momma salad, veggie straws, 230 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, bacon and poppa salad with dressing, 440 cal

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, slice of streetza, +/- 300 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, burger, fries, dessert, 1 beer, +/- 1400 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 1570
FRIDAY COUNT:2860

SLEPT: 9pm-2am, 3:45am-6am, 7.25 hrs

AM SNACK: 7:25am, half the usual juice, 80 cal

BREAKFAST 1: 9:15am, Greek yogurt with honey, almonds, vanilla,  450 cal

BIKE SNACK: 11:30am, homemade granola bar, 300 cal

BIKE SNACK: 12:30pm, brownie, +/- 400 cal

BIKE SNACK: 2pm, streetza and diet coke, +/- 300 cal

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, pint of chocolate milk, 500 cal

DINNER: 5:30pm, fried fish, fries, ice cream, +/- 1500 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 7:30pm, chocolate, bowl of cornflakes & milk, +/- 900 cal