weigh-2-go.org

When I am hungry, I feel nervous. I’m like a squirrel, darting around to find a nut. In the kitchen, when I am impatient to eat what I’m cooking, I get butterflies in my stomach. (There’s an old Joan Rivers joke from back in the day when Elizabeth Taylor was fat and microwave ovens were novel: “She stands in front of the microwave and yells, ‘Hurry up!’”)

I’ve noticed lately that I have conditioned myself, conversely, to eat when I am nervous. Aha! I’m in the habit of responding to nervousness with food–whether or not the nervousness is about hunger. I bet a lot of people do something like this.

So I was interested to read a passage in “Change Your Brain, Change Your Body” by Daniel G. Amen, MD, discussing the brain’s responses to food.

MIT researchers demonstrated that simple carbohydrates, such as cookies or candy, boost seratonin levels. [Seratonin relieves anxiety, depression, and obsessive thinking.]

[Researchers Matthew Gailliot and Roy Baumeister] write that self-control failures are more likely to occur when blood sugar is low. Low blood sugar levels can make you feel hungry, irritable, or anxious–all of which make you likely to make poor choices. Many everyday behaviors can cause dips in blood sugar levels, including … consuming sugary snacks or beverages, which causes an initial spike in blood sugar then a crash about thirty minutes later.

Therefore, anxiety and eating is a vicious cycle. I eat to relieve anxiety. If I happen to eat something sweet, then my blood sugar level crashes. When it does, not only do I crave more sugar (especially if I am still anxious), but I lack the mental self-control to make a healthier choice.

I wonder if this cycle leads to all-or-nothing thinking in dieting: if I eat one cookie, then the diet is blown and I might as well have another, and another.

Being aware of this vicious cycle, and the physiological goings-on that cause it, are helping me see it when it happens and say “Stop already.”

My weakness: the drawer full of Zone Bars (evil disguised as health food) at an office where I work. Stop already.

Really?!? (This is not Dawn, nor me for that matter.)

I want to start perpetuate a new catch phrase: “Really?!?”

I think I picked this up from Dawn. When someone doesn’t get the real point, or is hung up on the weaker argument, or comes at an issue with an incomprehensible perspective, Dawn creates a pregnant pause, squints, and then, with just the right hint of exasperation, asks, “Really?!?”

Jenn sent me to this article on MSN:

Fat epidemic linked to chemicals run amok: Fast food not solely to blame for obesity, new research suggests

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35315651/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition

Notably, the title of the web page, which appears in the browser, reads: “Don’t blame fast food for making you fat.”

In searching for that one, I also found this one:
Stealth Health: Your favorite prepared foods may be getting healthier. You just don’t know it.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/235011
“Forget about fat. What’s really killing Americans is salt.”

Pause. Squint. Really?!?

To my marketing-manager’s eye these articles smack–smack!–of public relations gurus trying to take the heat off fast food companies, and prepared food manufacturers, respectively, for the nation’s obesity problems. They divert attention from the ginormous elephant in the room: the sugar and other simple carbs that make their wares oh-so-tasty and oh-so-profitable.

I am a believer–and a scared one–that chemicals and salt are dangerous. When I read about PVCs and Teflon® I feel like I’m in a sci-fi horror movie.

But the symptoms we’re talking about are obesity and diabetes. The culprit, pure and simple, is sugar.
(The lead “Forget about fat. What’s really killing Americans is salt” forgot to mention high fructose corn syrup.)

Food makers must be developing nervous twitches over the spotlight being thrown on the obesity epidemic, and they’ve sent their PR minions to divert that spotlight to other risky substances. Risky, yes, but the “real” sources of the problem?  Really?

Be afraid. Be very afraid. And be skeptical of the news.

It’s a song by k.d. lang: (listen here)

Three days that I dread to see arrive,
Three days that I hate to be alive,
Three days filled with tears and sorrow,
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

There are three days I know that I’ll be blue,
Three days I’ll always dream of you.
And it does no good to wish these days would end,
‘Cause these three days start over again.

My three days are yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But mine are a little different from k.d.’s: they don’t start over again.

Mine are the three days I withdraw from sugar.

Once in a while, when I suspect that my body and mind are poisoned by sugar, I go cold turkey for three days. Today was Day 2. It’s not terribly strict–but no wheat or refined sugar. Today I craved granola–the sweetest, crunchiest, nuttiest, most “granola” (i.e., California) kind of granola. I had oatmeal instead, with cinnamon and stevia.

For me, weight loss depends on reducing my appetite. And reducing my appetite depends on lessening the cravings for food. Not hunger, but craving. And for me, the cravings subside when I forget what bread and cookies taste like. Forgetting takes about three days.

My experiment with simple carbs is done for now, or at least on hiatus. I am reading Potatoes Not Prozac by Kathleen DesMaisons (mentioned in recent posts), which explains how sugar effects the brain in some people, and why sugar-sensitive people (like me) have the symptoms they do.

Years ago, I read Sugar Blues by William Dufty. I still carry around the notion that sugar is an addictive drug, and that food companies are perpetrating a sugar conspiracy. Despite this notion, I still act like a sugar addict. Perhaps that notion is a crutch–the classic “It’s Not Your Fault!” headline grabs me. It is comforting to think that I don’t have a problem but those evil food companies are victimizing me.

DesMaisons is not a conspiracy theorist, but instead focuses on the human body’s reaction to sugar, and the heightened reaction to sugar that some people experience.

I also have a bookmark in  The End of Overeating by David Kessler. Kessler does support my conspiracy notion. Simply stated, sugar sells because people like it. So why wouldn’t food companies sell food with more sugar (and fat and salt)? It’s free-market economics.

Meanwhile, even with all of this information “occupying mindshare,” as the marketing gurus say, I’m living in a la-la land where I get to eat anything I want anyway: pizza, cookies, alcohol, candy, all in the last 4 days. WTF? I am acting like an addict.

In previous posts I have commented on Radiant Recovery’s 7 steps, at www.radiantrecovery.com. Here is a synopsis of the last 3 steps.

Step 5 is challenging: Shift from white foods to brown foods.

• White foods include alcohol, sugar, baked goods made with white flour, and regular pasta.
• Brown foods include brown rice, whole grain bread, and a potato with the skin.

Many people I talk to say they can’t live without pasta. Three years ago, I thought I might be one of them. But pasta is a food I can live without. But bread is a tough habit to break for me.

The difference between white foods and brown foods is the complexity of the carbs. Simple carbs have fewer molecular bonds, break down faster in the bloodstream, and cause a sugar rush. Complex carbs break down more slowly, providing energy in a slower burn.

Step 6: Reduce or eliminate sugars.

This is the step that I jumped to, cold turkey, when I began losing weight 3.5 years ago. The more I read about sugar sensitivity, the more convinced I am that, as a sugar sensitive person, I owe my weight loss success to this step. I also suspect that all the anecdotal evidence about the success of Atkins is due to sugar sensitive people having the same breakthrough.

I’m glad that Dr. DesMaisons recommends that people do whatever works for them–go cold turkey, or eliminate sugar gradually. For me, only cold turkey works.

Step 7: Create a new life.

Wow, this is an important step–one that I skipped and need to come back to. This step involves replacing sugar–and the highs and lows of sugar sensitivity–with other, more fulfilling and rewarding things in life. On the Radiant Recovery web site:

Early Step 7 can be boring

You no longer have the rush of sugar feelings. It takes a while to settle into this new way of living. Over time you learn to create those things that raise “soft” beta endorphin – the kind that flows rather than spikes. Work on building these things into regular life everyday.

All the horror stories we hear about people regaining the weight they lose–could they be due, in part, to not replacing food with something better? This step rings true to me.

“Potatoes Not Prozac” and “The Sugar Addict’s Total Recovery Program” are on my immediate reading list, and I’m going to be investigating this program carefully in the coming weeks.

A strange thing happened to me yesterday. I got hungry–alarmingly, distractedly, uncomfortably hungry.

I had lunch with friends, consisting of a big green salad with chicken. That is a normal lunch for me–but i waited too long to eat it. I got too hungry.

Two hours later, I was home to work, and I couldn’t concentrate. “Feed me,” the voice said. “Anything–just feed me.” I had cottage cheese–a good low carb snack.

The voice would not be satisfied until I ate–oatmeal. Healthy, but high carb.

And then a bad thing happened, and that little switch in my head flipped. “Forget it,” or some other F-word, said the voice. “I’m hungry, I’m out of groceries, I’m going out to dinner.” Tofu scramble with salad–and a biscuit. White flour. Lots of simple carbs.

Today, I was ravenous again at lunch time. I ate two lunches–another tofu scramble (jonesing for the tofu with sauteed veggies), and also a large burrito, including tortilla, rice, and beans.

What does it all mean?

• When I lost 50 pounds on a low-carb diet, I had 80 pounds to lose. Perhaps my body at 150 needs more carbs than it did at 220.
• When I lost 50 pounds on a low carb diet, I didn’t worry about how much I ate–I ate low-carb foods until I was satisfied. Perhaps a low-carb regimen and trying to control the size of my appetite don’t mix.
• After 4 weeks being carb conscious, I do still crave bread, cereals, and corn. But I don’t crave sweets–that is a blessing, and a worthy benefit of this entire experiment.
• I’m no nutritionist, and perhaps I am playing with proverbial fire. But I do feel fine, and I am eating healthy foods. Although my compliance with the requirements of the experiemnt is rocky, the results are still interesting.
• I’m going to consider adding some starchier foods back into the regimen, such as beans and rice.

It’s about as scientific as a sample of 1 can get in three weeks, but here are the results so far of my low carb experiment.

Bottom line: I have way exceeded my allotment of Weight Watchers points, but I have not gained weight.

Here’s how to read the graph:

• It is really 2 graphs. Green and Yellow are Weight Watchers Points per day (numbers on axis on the left). Yellow is where Weight Watchers wants me to be: 20 points per day. Green is what I ate.
• Blue is my weight (numbers on the axis on the right).

In this brief time frame, there is a correlation between points and weight–note that my weight spikes a few days after my points spike. But with an allocation of 25 points per day (20 daily plus 35 weekly), Weight Watchers expects me to gain steadily as I consume more than that most days.

What does it mean? Here’s what I think. All these are hunches so far.

• Sugar sensitivity impacts my success in weight loss, and in Weight Watchers specifically, because the types of points I consume matter–that is, a high carb point “counts more” than a low carb point for me.
• Carbs affect me more than they affect most people. Otherwise, all of Weight Watchers’s science would be consistent with my experience.
• I hear friends say, “Weight Watchers doesn’t work for me–I stay within my points and still gain weight.” Maybe these people are sensitive to carbs like I am.

I’m not out to prove Weight Watchers is wrong or bad. I adore WW. But WW alone doesn’t help me control carbs–in fact their products wreak havoc on my appetite and make me crave carbs. And I’m curious to know whether all points are created equal. For me, I suspect not.

I’m going to keep charting (although my food journaling is admittedly less than perfect–there will be gaps in the numbers).

In two previous posts I have commented on Radiant Recovery’s 7 steps, at www.radiantrecovery.com. I admit I have not yet read Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons books, or embarked on her program in earnest–but I’m looking at the steps carefully on the web site, and comparing and contrasting to Weight Watchers and some of my own experience.

Step 3 sounds simple: Three meals a day. Yeah, yeah. But specifically, Dr. DesMaisons prescribes:

• The right amount of protein for your body
• A complex carb
• Eat meals a intervals no greater than 6 hours
• Nothing between breakfast and lunch

This is profoundly different from Weight Watchers, which suggests that you snack. (Some may argue that Weight Watchers makes its money selling small portion low point snack foods, so naturally they encourage snacking. I don’t believe WW is purely profit-motivated in their advice to snack–but yes, this case can be made. This article excerpts another blog’s post–all of which merits a discussion on its own.) I’m intrigued to learn why there are no snacks between breakfast and lunch.

Also, as in Step 1, the combination of complex carbs and the “right amount” of protein (calculated by body weight) is important on this plan.

Step 4 is the most intriguing of all to me: Take Vitamins. Have a Potato Before Bed.

First of all, I have always wondered which vitamins and how much are conducive to weight loss and maintenance. Dr. DesMaisons recommends Vitamin C, B-Complex vitamins, and Zinc. She refers to her book Potatoes Not Prozac for the full details. It’s on my reading list.

And that brings us to potatoes. Wow. I refer to you to the Radiant Recovery web site for the dish on potatoes. I’d a never thunk it. I am eager to try potatoes as recommended here and gauge the effect on my mood and sleep pattern. Another experiment to look forward to.

Ironically, potatoes were the food I missed the least when I first lost weight, along with pasta. What a relief to discover that I can live without a food that used to be a “go-to” food for overeating. But it sounds like potatoes, used well, could be beneficial after all. Fascinating stuff.

It’s true. I just jogged for about an hour and I smell funny.

Bear with me–I won’t get too graphic.

It isn’t the usual sweaty smell that we all get after exercise. This smell is different.

I remember this smell.
It’s the smell I smelled when I was losing the major pounds.
I think this is the smell of fat burning.

I’m no scientist, but I know that when my body is burning fat instead of glucose, the chemical reaction is different. My body breaks down fat and the result is ketone bodies in my blood stream. (Here’s the article about ketosis on About.com.) Ketosis occurs on a low-carb diet, when the blood stream doesn’t have enough glucose to burn for energy, so the body resorts to burning the fat.

My hypothesis: I am in ketosis, and the ketones come out in my sweat. And I can smell them.

Wow. I admit, it’s a little disgusting. But wow.

Last week, I blogged about Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons’s 7 Steps to radiant recovery on RadiantRecovery.com. I wrote:

As for me, I think I am skipping straight to Step 6.

To which Dr. DesMaisons immediately commented,

Whoa!!!!! Wait, no, no, please oh please…

skipping straight to step 6 misses the point of the whole program

…

For the entire exchange, see the original post with comments here.

Dr. DesMaisons’s Radiant Recovery is worth a serious look, especially from me, who has felt the effects of sugar sensitivity. And the good news is, I haven’t really skipped straight to Step 6–I have also followed some of the other steps, even though I made these changes before I was aware of this program. So I’d like to examine these 7 steps here.

Step 1. Eat breakfast with protein.
Complete information: http://www.radiantrecovery.com/1r.htm

The recommendation is a breakfast consisting of one-third of your daily protein (protein grams needed = your weight in pounds / 2), plus a complex carbohydrate.

Personally I have always been a breaksfast easter. Dr. DesMaisons explains why some people avoid breakfast (which I cannot fathom–I love breakfast, even if it is just a yummy protein shake).

She recommends combining the protein with a complex carb, and provides several menu ideas.

Step 2. journal what you eat and how you feel.
Complete information: http://www.radiantrecovery.com/2r.htm

Food journaling is a tried-and-true technique, but adding how you feel, both emotionally and physically, is an inspired idea. How else can we know how food habits correlate with real results to our bodies and minds?

Weight Watchers gives me eTools for the food and activity tracking, but there are no POINTS for feeling blue, energetic, euphoric, or cranky. I’m an avid journaler, but I put feelings in a separate book. Should I combine my journaling systems? Something to think about.

More steps in future posts.