DoingTheCaveman

Looking out from paper mountain & Why, why, why

Yay :) great to return to blogland.  After mopping up all the loose ends of moving house and the struggle to fight my way out from under paper mountain I've had a gum infection under my wisdom teeth.  This seems to happen every single time I move house and left me far too grumpy to blog -- Boohoo --  Isn't strange how stress seems to manifest itself in your mouth!!  Anyway, as things start to calm down and brain fog and grump induced by housemoving and toothache lifts justoofat has taken the pressure of a return blog topic out of my hands and laid down the challenge of listing all the reasons why we want to lose weight. 

Great timing as I'm at the gateway of a fresh start in more ways than one, albeit with a weight problem. This is a useful visualization exercise to conjure up each and every-time I pass the addictive cheesy pastries and donuts at the uni coffee shop.

So, WHY, WHY, WHY am I doing this ...  

Cosmetic and self-esteem:

1. Recognise and *connect* with the person I see in the mirror.
2. Not to be the ugly sister.
3. I used to be described as self-assured and I I no longer feel this way. Currently I even seem to have developed a minor stutter. Despite weight-loss confidence is at an all time low.
4. To shop in 'normal' places and not pay a premium for over-sized clothes. Goal reached!!
5. Have a tiny waist and one chin again.
6. To melt into a crowd and to take up less space.
7. Wear a swimsuit on a beach and feel comfortable.

Health

1. To wave off the diabetes and alleviate the symptoms of PCOS (as far as is possible). This is a goal where I feel is I am well on the way!
2. Not to have knee pain.
3. Visit the doctor and be confident in the knowledge that he/she will investigate any problem appropriately, in the same way that would investigate the same problem presented by someone of a normal weight.

Fitness & incentives:

1. Rain-forest canopy and zip-line trip. This is the kind of activity that inspires me to lose weight.
2. Tennis, yeah I'd like to return to playing tennis. Actually if I lost weight I'd like to beat my mum who at 62 is still an awesome tennis player.
3. Major one - go skiing again. Perhaps have a go at snowboarding as this hadn't been invented the last time I was able to ski.
4. Canoe in rapids.
5. Go hiking in the Alps and not worry about slowing down the group.
6. Try surfing or at least go on one of those banana rides!!!

Finally a secret reason I'll let you in on another time, maybe.

Although I'll proably think of loads more once I post this to sum it  up I want to feel healthy, fit, agile, nimble again, and not to be the ugly sister!

 

 Don't worry i will survive, sis pic used with permission!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Overdue roundup and BIG babies

This morning I woke to the news that my cousin's 15 year old son broke his back on Monday after falling 35 foot from a tree.  It was her birthday and while I a Facebooked her birthday wishes they would have been having a terrible day.  Anyway thank goodness it looks as if he's going to be OK although will have to wear a brace for a while, one lucky boy! 

On the weight front, it occurs to me that I haven't for done a monthly weigh in for a while.  You I go into avoidance mode when I've strayed. Isn't this a lesson I should have learned by now... the one time you need to keep a closer eye on your weight youI instead start wearing comfortable  elasticated trackies weighing yourself myself 2 years later to find you're I'm 5 stone heavier than you I thought.  Today I weighed in today at 87 kilos (191.8 lb). 

It could have been worse.  

I've been re-motivated -- It was put to me, as my diet recently slipped to the wayside, that perhaps I should start eating 'normally' again.  That I was possibly consuming more calories whilst still doing the paleo thing, but at the same time as going off the paleo rails.  How horrifying was that! 

Not horrifying because of the increased calories but in terms of perceptions of what is a 'normal' healthy diet.   I think it is the fact that I managed to keep to paleo at some level, despite the few slip ups, was the saving grace and meant it's been easier for me to return to my WOE.   I  didn't completely rip out the roots of the lifestyle change that I've been so carefully nurturing.  It's probably because my underlying diet has remained balanced that my weight hasn't increased horrifically over the last few weeks. At the end of the day, I don't want to return to the lifestyle that made me fat in the first place, caused me to overeat and develop unhealthy cravings.  It makes me feel good when I eat something I know to be nutritious and lowers my mood when I eat dead food.  

Now to change the subject away from myself,  I have to mention this programme I ended up watching this week about big babies. I'm sorry I'm afraid it's now going to turn this respectably short post into a whopper.

I was misled, I thought it was going to be a light programme about bonnie babies, but instead turned out to be a fascinating and worrying documentary about the increasing numbers of big babies currently being born, and the relationship of this phenomena with obesity and junk food.  Now we really are talking BIG babies here!!  Babies over 12 lb (although in the UK they're classified big at > 9 lb).  The largest baby was from Russia at 17 lb and the largest baby in Britain was 15.8 lb.  Disturbingly the documentary discussed how increasing numbers of big babies are suffering broken limbs, collar bones, neck injuries and even fatality, whilst their mothers are also at high risk of mortality.  From the programme 50% who die from childbirth do so because of obesity.  Historically they said that having a big baby used to indicate health but these days 'signals a problem in society'; large babies tend to stay large, also become junk food addicted and, as we know, the weight problem tend to stay with them into adulthood.  One surgeon speaking on the programme said that undiagnosed diabetic women are 4 more times more likely to have a stillbirth!

Several years ago I used to work as a PA to a Consultant Endocrinologist (conincidentaly around the same time as I found myself also to be suffering endocrine problems), and I was intrigued by the fact that he dictated a noteable factor in a patient's history being about big babies (macrosomia).  Noting whether the patient had been a big baby, or indeed had produced one or more big babies.  Now I'd always equated the notion of having a larger baby with health and eventually curious I asked Dr M what a history of having big babies had to do with diabetes:

Simply, if you have a sugar disturbance or eat a diet weighted in junk food.  Note you don't need to be diabetic, then that glucose is going to be passed onto the developing baby, the babies are certainly going to get bigger and may possibly even be a contributory factor as to whether they  develop diabetes in the future. 

It's of consequence to me because my mother has told me in the past that when she was expecting me she had a craving for ice-cream, whereas for my sister she had a craving for oranges.  You get the gist of my problems but my sister on the other hand has always been slender with curves in the right places. I wonder?

The following day looking for the link to the programme I googled it and found forum discussions about the programme.  Mainly it was by women who had found had been offended by he notion that because their baby had been large it implied they had an obesity/junk food problem.  I don't understand why offense should be taken, it's afterall simply a clinical sign of a possible problem and surely you'd want to know if you or your child were at risk of developing diabetes. 

*contemplating* Perhaps in reality even though they believed they were eating a healthy balanced diet as prescribed, from a paleo diet perspective it could be argued that the so called balanced modern diet, inclusive of grains and dairy, is only balanced in terms of the prescribed food triangle but not a realistic 'natural' diet.  Hence the diabetes.  

Anyway to close, having a big baby isn't necessary a sign of good health and can be quite a strong indicator of a potential problem.   Since I was probably one of the few people in the UK to be watching it (the rest of the country watching the final of The Apprentice) I thought that I'd mention this in by blog since it could be of interest to anyone considering starting a family who might be unaware of this.  We're led to believe that gestational diabetes is something that affects the occasional woman indiscrimately during pregnancy.  This unfortunately would not appear to be the case and you are more likely to suffer gestational diabetes if you have a bad diet.  Indeed, anyone who's considering planning a family surely wants them to have the best start in life and this knowledge could be a useful motivational diet tool.

Say Cheese

Over the Christmas break my sister and I spent some rare time together sorting through old photo albums; putting some order into them in an attempt to preserve memories and faces from happy times and of people that we've lost. 

Anyway it struck me then, there comes a time in my life after which the photos fizzle out and I'm left with nothing that provides a photographic memoir of my life. 

I'm of course the one who ducks at the sight of a camera so it's partly my fault, however the last photos I have are probably from around the age of 21 (and I'll post these when I get back to my dull, what happened story).  These photos with friends are probably the last time I have any pics to record my life. I ask myself, do these pictures represent the last time I ever truely felt happy and content?  After then all the pictures stop. Actually, I tell a lie, there are a few sporadic photos from times I didn't have the opportunity to make my predictable escape. The problem I have is that I simply do not know who that imposter is. 

The sad truth is, from aged 21 (ish) I haven't been able to recognise, or acknowledge, the person who has looked back from the mirror - SHE surely cannot be me. 

Cook!

In many cultures cooking is an expression of love and a skill that's passed down from generation to generation, but it's also a skill that's being lost and with that loss takes away ones ability to control their own fat and sugar intake.

How many times have I heard someone say they can't cook?  This simply isn't true, anyone can throw together a wonderful meal but it takes a bit of practice to become confident in all the basic elements.  So, if someone grows up being involved in the production of their meals they would themselves learn and enjoy producing increasingly complex meals.  However, if a child grows up observing their parent bunging ready-made meals in the microwave or oven, where are they going to think their food comes from?

By now we're all getting the message that eating out and convenience foods play a part in our increasing waistlines, but also by the way we live we are disassociating ourselves from food and the cooking process and this is stripping our confidence in our ability to produce even the most basic of foods. 

Convenience foods stop us handling, understanding and interacting with our food.  Instead we judge what we eat from what we can ascertain from the ingredients, if we even understand the them.  I've heard many people say they could eat a slab of chocolate in one go, a packet of biscuits, whatever.  Would they really have eaten them if they'd personally measured all the cups of sugar and fat that had gone in?  I'm sure someone who had actually prepared and baked the cookies would be less inclined to eat so disproportionately. 

To demonstrate the point that few people have the time, knowledge or inclination to cook for themselves I have a vague memory some years ago of there being a bread shortage in the UK.  I don't recall the full details although I think it was probably something to do with a strike rather than grain shortage.  Anyway there was some panic buying and people were stocking their freezers with bread.  I remember being puzzled at the time as to why people would give over so much freezer space to loaves of bread when all they needed to do was buy a few ingredients (that would take up comparatively little space) and then bake the bread as they went along.

 

Anyway, the reason I'm writing this is because it is something that I do recognize in my own weight gain.  Being involved in cooking was integral to our family life, however because of time constraints since leaving home convenience food has crept into my diet and I relied on reading the ingredients.  However, personally I'm not very good at visualizing weights and measures that are displayed as percentages or grams and have never really equated this to, oh that's 6 tsp of sugar I shouldn't eat it. 

 

I could ramble on and on about but I'll end by saying one of the best gifts you could give a child is to teach them to cook.  Cooking teaches chemistry, maths, biology, healthy eating knowledge and develops team working skills, time management, patience and above all independence.  Learning to cook may develop a passion that could even provide an eventual career opportunity.

Appetizing and nutritious?

Let me ask you this, if you were preparing your own food would you choose to eat at least 3 tablespoons of oil in one serving? 

I went to the canteen at work today for a social lunch and, for a change, there was meat on the menu (beef casserole) so opted for this with vegetables.  Previously I may have added rice or potatoes to this but of course being on the Caveman diet didn't have this to absorb the sauce, nor did I eat the sauce, picking out the meat and vegetables.  I was horrified by what was left!  Having gone cold the sauce and fat had separated; I found a dish and skimmed off what I could to get a measure of it -  six dessertspoons of oil, and this is just what I managed to skim off (I very much doubt this was olive oil).  In fact, previously I probably would have thought this was quite a wholesome balanced choice. Problem is this is a canteen that's supposed to be providing nutritious meals to university staff and students - a captured audience. For many of the students it’s possibly their only meal, although it’s certainly not the cheapest option, so you would expect better value for money. 

Moral of the tale – be suspicious of everything; you cannot know what you're inadvertently eating.  Prepare your own food and don't let others decide what you're eating!

Foie Gras - addendum

A quick addendum to the foie gras post.   I talk about the over consumption of fatty food and its effect on the liver.  To be more specific I am talking about unhealthy trans fats here and not healthy fats - to be discussed in the future post.

Foie Gras

               

               

TASTY?

Many food connaisseurs will at some point have tried ‘foie gras’ and am sure that most readers would be aware of the controversy that surrounds the method used to produce this delicacy, but for anyone who is not ‘foie gras’ literally this means ‘fatty liver’ and is produced by the force feeding young ducks or geese.  The feeding is usually consists of cornmeal being delivered to the throat of the animal via a metal tube, and often causes death and injury to the animal by wounds to the oesophagus or a ruptured stomach and liver.

 

Additonally, the overfeeding causes the liver to swell up to up to 10 times their normal size, otherwise known as ‘hepatic lipidosis’ and if they were not slaughtered would cause their eventual death.

But was does all this have to do with the Caveman diet?

I have used the above is to illustrate the effects of eating too much fat on our liver.  Recently I watched a UK programme (‘The Diet Doctors’) regarding ‘foie gras' and programme enabled me to use visualisation as a method of controlling my eating habits.

The programme noted the production of ‘foie gras’ and resulting fatty liver of the ducks or geese.  The fact is this is also the consequence of over consumption of fatty food on the human liver.  The ‘Diet Doctors’ went on to present healthy liver and describing how a healthy liver should function and compared it with ‘foie gras’, a liver that simply crumbled when touched.  Notably the liver disease is similar, or same as the effect on the liver of alcohol (it is not just alcoholics that may suffer from a cirrhotic liver)!

Where simply mirror images have not succeeded in preventing my weight gain, conjuring up the image of a fatty liver has been an effective visualisation tool to prevent myself consuming unhealthy fatty food over the last six months, and equally I have been able to visualise the positive effects of consuming healthy foods and reverting the effects of an unhealthy diet.

So, next time you're reaching for a tub of butter, slice of cake or biscuit - VISUALISE!