Bummer Wet Blanket

            I have become a bummer wet blanket of a person.  When did this happen?   One of my friends sent me an email that a mutual friend (MF) is set for the gastric band operation.  She, being a positive person, was elated for MF.  I, too, am elated for our friend, but I’m a bummer wet blanket.  I had to ask if MF was going to get therapy afterward.  I have acquaintances who’ve had the surgery, and after a few years, they go back to being nearly as big as they started.  “She really needs to fix the broken eating patterns that she’s had her whole life,” I pompously wrote back.  My friend did not email back.  I don’t blame her.  What can you say to the bummer wet blanket who can’t be thrilled for MF who’s had a massive weight problem all her life?  MF’s wonderful mom died way too young, from a bad heart.   We don’t want that for MF!

             My bummer wet blanket is thrown on everything.  One of the teachers at school lost about 30 pounds with Weight Watchers a couple of years ago.  Last spring, I said to a friend, “It’s creeping back up.”  And, damn, I’m right.  I hate that I’m right.  I gained and lost in a very similar way a few years back—so now I’m an ‘expert’.  A neighbor lost 60 pounds on a rigorous diet, and in two years, she’s gained 50 back.  She was positive she would never allow herself to gain the weight again.  Bummer wet blanket that I am, I preached to my husband, that she can’t eat 900 to 1200 calories a day for the rest of her life.  I give her a year.  Okay, I was right again, but that’s no excuse to be the Eeyore of dieting tips. 

             I had the nerve to tell a friend who has lost about 30ish pounds, and kept it off for years, about how to keep it off even better.  Thankfully, he gave me a funny look and changed the subject.  Next time I offer someone maintenance advice, I’d better be rail thin.  But it goes to show what a bummer wet blanket I’ve become.  I can’t even let successful people alone.  I have to teach them about calorie intake and the food you get the calories from makes a difference.  I’m horrible!

            There’s a reason I’m writing this blog.  All this wonderful “advice” has to go somewhere.  Now, maybe I can leave my friends and family alone. 

Diet Mania

     I was reorganizing some bookshelves last weekend and discovered I’m even more of a Dilettante Dieter than I thought.  Here are the diet books and diet cookbooks that were scattered around various bookshelves in one room:

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Fattening

Intuitive Eating

How to Never Look Fat Again

I Can Make You Thin

Master Your Metabolism Cookbook

The Most Decadent Diet

Eat To Live

The End of Overeating

The Gluten Free Vegan

My Diva Diet

Cook Yourself Thin

The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen

Shortcuts To Big Weight Loss

The Biggest Loser Fitness Program

Zone Meals in Seconds

Fast Food Fix

Eat This, Not That

The No S Diet

When Food is Love

A Guide To Ending Compulsive Eating

The South Beach Diet

The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook

Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine

The Beck Diet

Health and Weight Loss Breakthroughs

8 Minutes in the Morning

Dr.  Atkins’ New Diet Revolution

Eating Well Diet

Low-Carb Bible

Eat to Live

The End of Overeating

Eating By Design

400 Calorie Fix: The Easy New Rule for Permanent Weight Loss!    [You gotta love the !]

You Can Think Yourself Thin

     See?  There’s a reason I’m crazy.  These are just the ones I forgot about over the past decade.  (I have many more scattered throughout the house.)  I learned from some, and others are not worth the time I spent reading them, or the space they take up.  Some of books were bundled into the “give away” pile.  One particularly condescending and ignorant book was thrown against a wall, then dropped into the garbage.  In other rooms, I have at least eight Weight Watchers Cookbooks and tons of point counters for restaurants, point counters for home cooking, etc.  I have been on nearly all of these diets at one time or another in the last fifteen years.  Not a single one of them helped me change my eating habits forever.  Not a single one of them helped me lose and keep the weight off.  Scary.  Crazy scary. 

Insulin and Carbohydrates--Who Knew?

            I have been reading some eye-opening books this past month.  The first one was: The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson.  That one led me to: Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, which led me to Why We Get Fat, also by Taubes.  Since my reading usually runs to mysteries, suspense novels and chick lit, I’m a little surprised that I’ve either finished or have nearly finished these books.  

            The big take-away, for me, is most of what I thought I knew about nutrition and weight loss may be wrong.  And, I’m not alone. 

            Here’s a pivotal fact, something I was already aware of, but never looked at in the proper light.   Everyone who’s gone through diabetes training (including my husband), is told carbohydrates raise blood glucose, then the pancreas produces insulin to counter the glucose.  If you spike your blood sugar by eating lots of carbs, or starchy carbs or sugary carbs, the pancreas has to generate more insulin to handle the “overflow”.  Insulin’s regular job is to transport nutrients out of the bloodstream and over to the liver, muscles and fat tissues.  When there is excessive insulin—this inhibits the release of stored body fat.  When there is so much insulin in the bloodstream, glucagon (insulin’s coutner-regulatory hormone) is low.  That means glucagon can’t access carbs protein and fat from your storage deposits and use them for energy.  That means you don’t have fuel in your bloodstream and the body cries out for something carby it can burn immediately.  That means stored fat deposits don’t get used for energy, they just stay as fat. 

            As Mark Sisson writes so well: “It’s as simple as this: you cannot reduce body fat on a diet that stimulates excessive levels of insulin production.”

            As long as we’re increasing our insulin by eating things like bread and cereal, we’re keeping our bodies from burning stored fat.  I don’t know about you, but that was life altering for me.  Why am I eating “healthy” pasta and breads, when they’re keeping my body from burning the stored fat? 

            Yes, I know certain people can efficiently burn off carbs.  They’re the skinny ones.  But as Taubes points out, if you’re overweight, or have become insulin-resistant, you are not one of the lucky ones who can. 

            Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories is almost textbook-like in his reporting of scientific research, the sources of conventional nutrition and historical information.  It’s an incredibly helpful book. 

            I’m going to test this and see if this way of eating works personally for me.  I’m going to eat animal proteins, vegetables (except for starchy ones like potatoes) and fruit.  Oh, and as much animal fat and olive oil as I want.  I’ll keep the amount fruit down, mainly because I’m not that fond of it, not so much because it contains lots of natural sugars. 

            I like eating zucchini and steak, or a big salad with chicken, peppers, carrots and almonds.  I think it’s healthy.  It’s certainly filling.  I’m hoping it helps me drop the weight, keep it off and have me be healthy.    

Exercise

                I don’t know about you, but I have never lost a pound by just doing exercise.  There were years where I ate a relatively healthy diet.  And by “relatively” healthy, I mean it was full of lean proteins, vegetables and fruits, but it was also full in ice cream, buttered popcorn and chocolate.  Oh, and anything you can cover in chocolate: caramels, donuts, nuts, cookies.  You get the idea.  Anyhow, every evening I would get on my exercise bike and do forty minutes.  I’d jump on the bike and watch TV or read and tried to keep my speed consistent.   Then on the weekends, I’d pull on my day-glow exercise shorts and jog-run at the park for two miles.  I was in decent shape.  I didn’t know about heart rates or the importance of lifting weights or leg squats, but from my limited viewpoint, I was doing what I could to keep healthy.

                Considering all the junk I was eating, the exercise probably kept the scale from inching up.  When I was eating “normally” I never dropped a pound from working out.  The only time I would lose weight was when I changed what I was eating.  But even when I was on a 900-1200 calorie diet, exercise would help with stamina and keep me toned, but it never dropped any tonnage. 

                 I envy people who say, “I just kicked up the exercise and the weight dropped off.”  I really do envy them.  I think it’s so much easier doing something, than not doing something in order to lose weight.  By that, I mean it would be great to decide to lose the weight by exercising like a maniac and watch it drop off.  Instead, I have to “not eat”.  Not eat certain foods, not eat at certain times, not eat as much, or not eat as often.  It’s hard for me to “not” do something.  But it’s what actually works.  (And sorry about the split infinitives.  I needed to do it to make a point.)