You’re on a low carbohydrate diet plan and you’re having success. Your waistline is shrinking but you don’t want your social circle to shrink with it. The holiday season looms with its parties, casual get-togethers and big family dinners. You’ve even committed to hosting one of these food fests. What’s a low carber to do?
Here’s a few tips to help you through:
Tip 1: Serve a predominantly low carbohydrate menu (sample menu and recipes below).
If you guessed I’m doing a links round up because I’m too busy to write a real blog entry you’d be right. I’ve got too many balls in the air and a few are threatening to hit me in the head as we speak. So check out the links below and see if they tickle your fancy.
First check out our new sister site The Incredible Shrinking Ladies. I’m proud and honored to be their newest contributor. (Right now I’m only on the About Us page but I’ll be posting soon).
Next up is another one of our own, check out the newest post at How-Tos By The Who-Done-Its. My husband – who does property maintenance and remodels – has written an easy fix-it tip on bathroom sinks. This article and others to come are also available at Get Your Honey Dos Done Right.
Today thousands of bloggers, through the group Bloggers Unite, are joining together to write about stopping abuse. Many topics will be covered including child abuse, elder abuse, domestic abuse, animal abuse, drug abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, political abuse, sexual abuse, and other forms of abuse.
Abuse touches nearly everyone in one way or another. I have a 16 year old dog who was rescued from a local animal shelter by friends of ours. Junior, who’s the sweetest dog I’ve ever had, had a history of being abandoned three times. After my friends rescued him when he was 13, they realized he was afraid of water hoses so someone obviously beat him. We babysat him when they went on vacation and ended up keeping him. Now, three years later he’s a happy dog and spoiled. He no longer shows fear of hoses but occasionally flinches if you pat him on the back. The after effects of abuse are forever.
On the other hand abuse does not have to be an endless cycle handed down from generation to generation. My husband suffered physical and verbal abuse as a child from both of his alcoholic parents. He left home at 15 and worked to support himself while he finished high school. He grew into a fine man with an easy going and fun loving nature. The closest he ever gets to being abusive is stamping his foot at the cats when they're somewhere they don't belong. He ended the cycle his family had been mired in.
But I want to discuss a very different form of abuse seeing as my blog is about dieting and fitness. I want to bring up the topic of food abuse. Also known as food addiction, food abuse like drug abuse is a self inflicted and misunderstood problem. And it is as widespread as any other form of abuse or addiction.
Millions of people abuse food every day. The whys of food abuse are numerous; people overeat because it soothes, distracts, entertains, and in many creates a near drug-like high. Food becomes their friend, companion, lover, drug of choice. Food covers up or stuffs down emotions like loneliness, frustration, anger, fear, boredom, and is used in place of sexual satisfaction.
"Food addiction includes such symptoms as:
• food obsession; • absence of self-control; • pleasure and comfort created with eating; • eating results in a cycle of bingeing in spite of the intellectual judgment of the individual or negative consequences; • using food creates a physical craving which negates of food power over the person.
Some who abuse food feel helpless in the presence of food—as if bewitched by it. Their behavior is ruled by appetite and desire, not hunger—at least not biological hunger.” – Clarocet.com
What are the consequences of food abuse? The obvious one is weight gain and obesity (unless the food abuse is combined with a purging disorder such as bulimia or exercise anorexia or compulsive exercising). With obesity comes a number of health risks like heart disease, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.
Beyond the physical consequences come social consequences. Although more of us are overweight or obese than ever before prejudice against fat people persists. Overweight and obese people earn less, are less likely to be promoted in the workplace, have less choices in partners, often marry less desirable partners. Even medical doctors and therapists have been found to hold negative views toward overweight patients. On July 25, 2006 a flaming session got out of hand at the Kevin M.D. website. Insults between supposed physicians blasting the overweight and obese and fat acceptance people blasting back went on for page after page. (Kevin M.D. was not personally involved, and if anyone want to read the flaming session and can't find it online I have a transcript). And the list goes on.
Many food abusers react to the emotional distress of weight prejudice and weight gain by eating more and a vicious cycle is set in motion. A food abuser overeats to soothe emotions, later feels guilty for overeating, faces the prejudice of others, feels bad again, and overeats again to escape and feel better…temporarily.
If you suffer from food abuse or addiction there is help. You can enter recovery, mitigate and sometimes reverse the damage to your body, your physical and mental health, and your social life.
Below are links to determine whether you suffer from food abuse and where to get help:
"You’re crunched for time. You have children to get off to school, errands to run, a demanding job, and extra-curricular activities with you kids in the evening. You’re sorely tempted to pick up a burger and fries at a drive-thru or grab a candy bar and soda at the 7-Eleven. What are you to do to keep your diet from flushing down the tubes?
The best strategy is to plan ahead and be prepared. If you don’t you’re leaving yourself wide open to every high carb / high calorie temptation in your path. Read More Here.
Tomorrow’s Kudos For Low Carb blog entry will be dedicated to Stop Abuse!
Abuse is a horrible and reprehensible side of human behavior and so prevalent it has virtually touched all of our lives in some way, shape, or form.
I invite you to join in and write about your views and insights on abuse and how to stop it tomorrow. Remember, every one of our voices count.
From Blog Catalog:
“Thousands of bloggers from around the world are joining together this Thursday, September 27th with a single message: Stop Abuse!
BlogCatalog would love for you to be one of them!
On Thursday, September 27th, post about any abuse topic you care about - child abuse, domestic abuse, animal abuse, drug abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, political abuse - and let the world know you stand united with thousands of bloggers as part of the Bloggers Unite "Blog Against Abuse" campaign. Depending on your topic, you can even link to local, regional, national, or international organizations that you care about or support. Every post will count!”
No, it’s not about how to murder your boss or steal your best friend’s boyfriend.
Okay friends and readers, are you a blogger or writer with something to say on nearly any topic? I opened another blog and I’m hoping some of you fellow bloggers will join me in this endeavor. It’s actually an experiment until others actually join me because I don’t want to carry another blog alone.
My objective is to put together a collection of articles on topics including low carb lifestyle, fitness, health, nutrition, cooking, spirituality, opinion pieces, crafts, recreational activities, product reviews, and other topics. My husband might join us with handyman and remodeling how-to articles.
The only requirements are that the articles are informative. You don’t need to be a professional or authority on the subject(s) you write about it, just a “Who-Done-It” who can write factual and accurate how-to articles. The writing can be any style and any length within reason. You can submit already published blog articles or post the same piece wherever you like. You can submit one piece one time only or submit as many as you want. Feel free to include a short biography, photos and links. If you submit even once you’ll receive a link to your blog and/or website on the Contributors blogroll. The Who Done It site will be linked to my other blogs and get it's share of mentions (like posts announcing every new article) at my blog with the heaviest traffic Kudos For Low Carb. Unfortunately that’s the only compensation I can offer.
The blog will be advertising free and no profits will be made. All writing will remain the property of the authors. I only ask that you proofread your work for typographical errors. I see this blog – if successful – as a community project with one objective; to share our knowledge.
Some article idea examples:
“How To Begin A Low Carb Diet”
“5 Must Have Exercise Videos”
"What you can do about global warming."
“How To Start A Resistance Training Program”
“7 Ways to Get Kids To Eat Vegetables.”
"When to see a doctor and what you need to tell him/her."
“Starting a blog people will read.”
“How I lost 50 pounds.”
“My adventures in cooking quiche.”
“How to tile your bathroom.”
“Beginning a hobby that pays.”
"Fun with low carb cooking.”
“Where to go for a thrilling equestrian vacation.”
“Why I recommend buying the XYZ exercise machine.”
“Easy ways to cut 250 calories a day”
Use you’re imaginations and come up with your own titles and subjects. But most of all have fun!
If you're interested in participating as a regular poster, an occasional contributor, or as a one time guest writer/blogger, feel free to post a response here at my Kudos For Low Carb blog or my How-Tos By The Who-Done-Its Blog or email me at how_to_who_done_it@yahoo.com
First step of a kitchen remodel...Clean the microwave?
Demolition Work.
Nice View! I Like That View!
One Thumbs Up
Bruno Enjoying The Chaos.
I Love My New (Used) Stove!
Jerry and Bruno
Even Arlie Approves!
Gratuitous Cat Photos
Paula Deen's on Food TV making cornbread, pie, and taters. She's wearing an apron that says "Country Cooking Makes You Good Looking." And I'm thinking "Country Cooking Makes Us Fat Diabetics With High Blood Pressure and Heart Disease."
Okay, we spent Sunday in Kitchen Remodel Phase 2. We previously tore out the old pantry and added new streamlined basket-style drawers.` We'd planned to tear out everything beneath the sink and opt for an open look so the cats could keep the mice at bay. (Jerry found two places the mice had chewed through the wall and patched those). But we hadn't planned on replacing our stove. Though it was old I thought it was just fine. Boy was I wrong...
Friday night Jerry was perusing Craig's List (he's a Craig's List addict) and I was sitting next to him reading too. He was`in the Free section and I spotted a free electric stove in Carson City. I said click on it and he says "It's electric." Our old one was gas. I said, "I've always wanted to try an electric stove." So he emails the people and asks where they live and can we pick it up Saturday if they still have it."
The next morning he comes in the bedroom and wakes me up a little after six am and says "We have a problem." That's his most used catch phrase. He'll call me in the afternoon and say "We have a problem," and I imagine things like his van broke down, he's in the emergency room, etc. And then he says "They're out of our brand of mayonnaise." For heavens sake, man, out of our brand of mayo is NOT a problem! Twelve years together and I still fall for it every time.
Anyway, the people who listed the stove got so many inquiries they decided to put the stove by the curb and emailed everyone that whoever got there first got the stove. Well, lucky for us, my husband's the original early bird (up at 1 am weekdays) and he was up at 4 am. So he was the first to get the email and off we drove at 6:30 am. Long story short (oh, too late, I blabbed long already) we got the stove.
It's a double oven Magic Chef and has features we didn't even knew existed like a digital temperature display that shows the temp as it heats up (200 degrees, 250 degrees, 300 degrees, etc.) Even at 450 degrees the oven door stays COOL. And now I know what a sh!#y stove the old one was! The pizza come out perfect now! (Hey, I save carbs up just so I can have pizza. I'm Italian!)
Reminder to Hugh Laurie / House M.D. fans, tonight is the premiere of season four!
Tune in at 9 pm Pacific on Fox.
My dilemma? Dancing With The Stars is on from 8-10 pm, The Biggest Loser is on 8-10 pm, House is on 9-10 pm, and Boston Legal is on 9:30-11 pm. All my favorites in one night and they all overlap! Thank God I have a TIVO, two TVs and two VCRs in the living room! Now I just have to figure out the recording logistics.
Frankly I had never heard the term ‘eating competence’ before I ran across the Science Daily piece below, ‘Eating Competence May Lower Risk Of Heart Disease’. But if you Google “eating competence” 17000 plus results come back. Although they can’t all be relevant here’s a few that are:
Reminiscent of mindful eating, eating competence is an innate ability in humans until they’ve been tainted by media, a plethora of processed and junk foods that alter our body chemistry, and a society that makes us overly conscious of our bodies and appetite. We would all benefit from bringing competent eating back into our lives. See Making Food Our Friend.
Eating Competence May Lower Risk Of Heart Disease
Science Daily — People who are confident, comfortable and flexible with their eating habits may be at a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease than people who are not. Researchers at Penn State suggest that a curriculum that helps people understand their eating habits could prove to be an important medical nutrition therapy.
"We wanted to see if people were at higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease if they were not eating competent to begin with," said Barbara Lohse, associate professor of nutritional sciences.
Lohse and her colleagues Sheila G. West, associate professor of biobehavioral health, and Tricia L. Psota, graduate student, measured eating competence among 48 men and women aged 21 to 70, who were at risk for cardiovascular disease. Eating competence, as defined by registered dietitian and mental health professional Ellyn Satter, is a nutritional model -- termed ecSatter -- that incorporates processes such as awareness of hunger, appetite and eating enjoyment with the body's biological tendency to maintain a preferred and stable weight.
"This population was already at high risk due to high levels of LDL -- the bad cholesterol -- and elevated total cholesterol, but did not have any other type of chronic disease," said Lohse.
Based on their responses to a questionnaire on eating competence, and readings of various biological markers of cardiovascular disease, the researchers found that participants who were not eating competent were five times more likely to have a LDL greater than the cutoff prescribed by the American Heart Association, and seven times more likely to have levels greater than that for triglyceride.
Lohse says that rather than only providing people with dietary information to lower their LDL or triglyceride levels, it might be more prudent to train people in becoming eating competent. She, however, cautions that the results offer only a snapshot in time indicating that future longitudinal studies will be required to reach a more comprehensive conclusion.
"What we have shown with this research is that we now have an instrument to measure eating competence. We are developing a curriculum that we are going to test until we know it instills eating competence," said Lohse, whose findings appear in the current issue (September/October) in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. The journal has published a special section on the ecSatter eating competence model and studies evaluating its effectiveness.
Such a curriculum, the Penn State researcher said, might provide a viable successful option to encourage eating behaviors that we know are associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease. The journal's special section is partially funded by Penn State's Department of Nutritional Sciences and College of Health and Human Development and the Sunflower Foundation.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Penn State.
If you're new to low carbohydrate diets and don't know where to start, or you're just ready to learn more about the science and research supporting this healthy way of life here's some great places to start.
Science Daily — Scientists have shown that when either lean or obese individuals exercise after eating a high fat meal, their fats are broken down and oxidized in skeletal muscle, making them healthier. These results show for the first time how a high fat diet and exercise stimulate the breakdown of fats and may help design ways to reduce excessive fat in the body.
Fat is broken down inside fat cells to generate energy by a process called lipolysis. The resulting fatty acids are released into the bloodstream and carried to tissues that require energy. In obese individuals, too much fat accumulates, compromising lipolysis, but the details of how this happens are not well understood. Also, obese individuals can show altered responsiveness to the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine in their subcutaneous fat.
Max Lafontan and colleagues investigated how fat is broken down in both lean and obese subjects who exercised after either fasting or eating a high-fat diet. They noticed that after eating a high-fat diet, fats were broken down in both lean and obese individuals. Under fasting conditions, the breakdown of fats was more pronounced in the lean subjects, but the high fat meal enhanced lipolysis in the obese subjects.
The scientists also studied the effects of long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) -- which are found in high fat diet -- on cultured fat cells. They noticed that LCFAs increase lipolysis when it is induced by epinephrine, one of the hormones known to stimulate lipolysis.
By showing for the first time how a high fat diet and LCFAs affect hormone-induced lipolysis in fat cells, this study paves the way for further research on the role of various fatty acids on the metabolism of muscle and blood vessel cells, the researchers conclude.
Article: "Acute exposure to long-chain fatty acids impairs alpha2-adrenergic receptor-mediated antilipolysis in human adipose tissue," by Jan Polak, Cedric Moro, David Bessiere, Jindra Hejnova, Marie A. Marques, Magda Bajzova, Max Lafontan, Francois Crampes, Michel Berlan, and Vladimir Stich
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Science Daily — Researchers report that fasting or eating half as much as usual every other day may shrink your fat cells and boost mechanisms that break down fats.
Consuming less calories and increasing physical activity is usually what people do to lose weight and stay healthy. But some people prefer to adopt a diet which consists of eating as much as they want one day while fasting the next. On each fasting day, these people consume energy-free beverages, tea, coffee, and sugar-free gum and they drink as much water as they need.
Although many people claim that this diet, called alternate-day fasting (ADF), help them lose weight and improved their health, the effects on health and disease risk of ADF are not clear.
Krista Varady and colleagues studied the effects of alternate-day fasting on 24 male mice for four weeks. To assess the impact of ADF on the health of the mice, the scientists not only tested mice that followed and didn't follow an ADF diet, but they also studied mice that followed the diet only partially: a group of mice consumed 50 percent of their regular diet every other day (ADF-50%) and another consumed 75 percent of their regular diet every other day (ADF-25%).
The scientists noticed that the ADF-100% mice lost weight and the fat cells of both the ADF-100% and ADF-50% groups shrunk by more than half and by 35 percent, respectively. Also, in these two groups of mice, fat under the skin -- but not abdominal fat -- was broken down more than in mice that did not follow the diet.
These results suggest that complete and modified ADF regimens seem to protect against obesity and type 2 diabetes but do not result in fat or weight loss. More studies will be needed to confirm whether the long-term effects of ADF regimens are beneficial for health and reduce disease risk, the scientists conclude.
Article: "Effects of modified alternate-day fasting regimens on adipocyte size, triglyceride metabolism and plasma adiponectin levels in mice," by Krista A. Varady, D. J. Roohk, Y. C. Loe, B. K. McEvoy-Hein, and M. K. Hellerstein
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
My Husband’s a Comedian? House M.D. on the Horizon, Power 90X, More Links, and Summer Snow In My Neighborhood
This morning after I got my munchkin off to the school bus I called my husband at work (an everyday ritual). He asked how I was doing and I said, “I already opened the pasture gate and petted the thoroughbred.” And he replied, “You already had sex!” Apparently HE thinks what I said sounded like a metaphor for sex.
House M.D. starring the multi-talented and handsome Hugh Laurie has it's fourth season premiere Tuesday night on Fox and we are in countdown mode. House is hands down my favorite show and one of the few shows my husband will actually watch. Not to mention he ends up laughing like crazy at least once per show.
If you're a fan or curious check out House M.D. Quotes for lines like these:
House MD (Hugh Laurie): Another reason I don't like meeting patients. If they don't know what you look like, they can't yell at you.
House MD (Hugh Laurie): Could we get off my screw-ups and focus on theirs? Theirs are bigger.
House MD (Hugh Laurie): No, there is not a thin line between love and hate. There is, in fact, a Great Wall of China with armed sentries posted every twenty feet between love and hate.
House MD (Hugh Laurie): What would you prefer - a doctor who holds your hand while you die or one who ignores you while you get better? I suppose it would particularly suck to have a doctor who ignores you while you die.
Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard): That smugness of yours really is an attractive quality.
House MD (Hugh Laurie): Thank you. It was either that or get my hair highlighted. Smugness is easier to maintain.
I had a great Power 90X workout yesterday and am I sore! And I enjoyed one heck of an endorphin rush. Woo hoo! Then last night I received an email from Beachbody announcing that NEW Power 90X workouts are in the works! I am so excited!
Below are a few Power 90X videos including the preview of new workouts coming.
And if you haven’t already, check out Jimmy Moore’s Low Carb Discussion. I finally joined yesterday and it has a friendly and helpful atmosphere. I’m not much of a forum type but I’ll be dropping by Jimmy’s when I can.
__________________________________________________________________________ In The News - Sierra Gets Summer Snow
Here in Northern Nevada we’ve had snow flakes fall in July. Yes, one July I saw snowflakes flutter down though they melted on impact with the ground.
Well, yesterday we had summer snow again, this time Mount Rose Highway between Reno and Lake Tahoe had snow tire restrictions yesterday morning. And this time the snow up on the mountaintops stuck for awhile.
The first Sierra snow of the season beat fall by three days this week as a fifth of an inch of rain fell in Minden Wednesday night. Minden Weather Watcher Stan Kapler recorded the rain amount dropped by a storm that left 2-3 inches above 7,000 feet on the mountain tops.
Wind associated with the incoming storm on Wednesday knocked power out to about 3,000 people at about 11:40 p.m.
Sierra Pacific Power Co. spokesman Karl Walquist said power was knocked out by a tree limb hitting power lines in downtown Gardnerville.
Customers in Gardnerville, the Gardnerville Ranchos, East Valley, Markleeville and Woodfords were among those affected. Most customers had their power back on by 12:10 a.m. The storm brought winds gusts of up to 40 mph in Fish Springs.
