Skipping Dessert … and taking the stairs

My punishment for feeling prideful in resisting a late-night trip to fridge:  I gained two pounds this week.

262.

Why yes, I am disappointed, discouraged, and mildly disillusioned, thanks for asking.

I made extra efforts this week to avoid the bad stuff, only take one serving of dinner (even though dinners have been remarkably healthy) and generally be mindful of my eating.  And I was looking forward to breaking that 260 barrier.

I am instead rewarded with the lesson I would impart to you now:  Sometimes you can do everything right and still not move the needle in the desired direction.  This holds true for most of life’s endeavors.

Specific to my purpose here, remember that body chemistry is a funny thing (and mine has been waaaay off this week as I fight a nasty cold), and it’s often unpredictable.  Also, a week is a really short time in the great scheme of things.

All of which would be easier to accept if I could get into the 250’s consistently.

Regardless, onward and downward.  And starting tomorrow morning, only the first cup of coffee gets half-and-half.  Subsequent cups go black.

Thanks for reading, as always.

Hey, it’s Wednesday!  This week (after last week’s embarrassing no-show), on the heels of yesterday’s bonus edition, here are five ways to improve the food you buy.  The vast majority of everything on your grocer’s shelves is, sadly, not anything your great-grandmother would recognize as “food.”  Since most of us have insanely busy lives (which is a whole different health issue – check out my regular Sunday feature), we need the local supermarket to be our one-stop for nutrition.  Here are five ways we can help our favorite supermarkets help us eat more actual food.

1.)  Vote With Your Wallet.  The simplest, most essential step.  Find out which items you regularly purchase include things you don’t want to feed yourself.  Then start purchasing a competitive item that more closely resembles food.  As an example, lets say that after reading labels you find the brand of canned tomatoes you’ve been buying includes high-fructose corn syrup.  I’ll bet there’s another brand next to it on the shelf that doesn’t include strange chemicals.  Buy that brand.

2.)  Speak Up.  After you switch brands, make time to talk with the store manager.  Explain why you’ve switched brands. Don’t be confrontational, just let them know.  He (or she) will look at you as if he has no idea why you’re telling him this.  That’s OK.  You want him to know why sales of  brand A have dropped and sales of brand B have improved.  If you don’t share that information, somebody is going to assume their marketing worked (or stopped working), not that there is an actual nutritional reason you switched.

3.)  Catch up on Your Reading.  Let’s say your grocer doesn’t stock a healthy alternative to the aforementioned chemicall-y tomatoes.  Go home and hit the interwebs.  I’ll promise you, there is a company that makes a quality alternative to that product.  When you find the brand you wish your grocer stocked, have a conversation with the manager.  Make sure the store knows you want that new product, and that you will buy it.

4.)  Vote With Your Feet.  Or, more likely, your tires.  If the store manager is unable to offer healthier choices, or is simply uninterested in talking with a crazy hippie activist like you … find a different grocery store.  Loyalty has to work both ways – many of us enjoy being a loyal customer, but the grocer must recognize he or she has an obligation to hear his or her customer.  If you end up needing to change where you shop, that’s a great opportunity for you to look for a locally-owned grocer or co-op.

5.)  Tell Your Friends.  Today we have unprecedented opportunities to share consumer information with friends and acquaintances.  If you go through the steps above, tell people about your experience.  Use Facebook and Twitter.  Use email.  Use – gasp – conversations.  Let people know that if they want to feed themselves and their families wholesome products they can call “food” with a straight face, there is a way to get those products on the shelves at your favorite grocer.

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All of the above is predicated on the understanding that your supermarket wants you to keep shopping at their store.  And they do.  They need you.  And you need them to stock their shelves with good food you can feel good about feeding yourself, your family and your friends.  You shouldn’t be nasty or confrontational about any of this.  You’re offering them (free, exact) market research.  Your goal here should be to keep shopping where you want to shop and leaving with real food.  Their object should be keeping you as a customer so they can remain profitable and stay in business.

Clearly the steps above apply to more than canned tomatoes.  If you want more local produce, more organic food, food with fewer chemicals … but you want to keep shopping at your favorite supermarket, you are going to have to get involved in the process of choosing the food that goes on your grocer’s shelves.

For most of human history, finding food has been, in a word, hard.  For the past half-century or so in the US, we’ve come to understand that it should be easy.  We’re learning now that the process of making food easy is making food less nutritional, more dangerous and less food-like.  It’s time to devote a bit more effort to finding food that works for our bodies.

Thanks for reading!

Oh my.

First, I don’t know how this slipped past my radar for so long.  Second, ummmm, yuck.  Seriously, I can’t think of any other word to describe this.  Just imagine the sound of the last time you vomited.  That’s the sound I’m thinking of and for which I am unable to find a word.

Did you know you’ve eaten “Pink Slime?”  Neither did I until this morning.  If you’ve eaten a fast-food burger (or beef taco), congratulations, you’ve eaten pink slime.  Ugh.

Here’s the best description from the Wikipedia article:

“According to the Washington Post, the process involves taking USDA-approved beef trimmings, separating the fat and meat with centrifuges, then squeezing the lean beef through a tube the size of a pencil, during which time it is exposed “for less than a second to a tiny amount of ammonia gas.” The combination of the gas with water in the meat results in a reaction that increases the pH, lowering acidity and killing any pathogens such as E. coli.^[3] Ammonia is used extensively in the food industry and is found naturally in meat.^[1] The gas BPI uses contains a tiny fraction of the ammonia that’s used in household cleaner, according to the company.^[1]“

But this quote should make you feel better, right?

“It rarely comprises more than 25 percent of the final meat product that consumers purchase and eat.^[3]“

Oh, good.  The best takeaway from this is that apparently the big fast-food chains have stopped using this … stuff … as of Christmas Eve 2011.  So that’s good.  My question – and I don’t have an answer – is how many other sources use it?  Is it in the beef you get from your local supermarket?

I don’t want to stop using beef, but I’m darn sure going to make more of an effort to use local, organic cow.

Please do leave comments if you have more information and understanding of “pink slime” than I have.

OK … as you were … enjoy your (burger-less) day.

I think I should take this opportunity to remind you that it’s not my intention to scare the hell out of you every other time I post here.

That said, here I go again:  “Soda Contains Flame Retardants”

And the article ain’t talking about water, but brominated vegetable oil.  Seriously.  In soda.  Go read the article for at least two more reasons to stop drinking soda. Or pop.  Or Co-Cola.  Depending on where  you grew up.

In related, but unlinked news, Sprightly Daughter #1 attends after-school “camp” at the local YMCA.  As part of the program, she’s enrolled in a science club for a couple of weeks, which she really enjoys.  You know what they did this week?  Dropped Mentos mints into Diet Coke.   Which she said was really cool.  Of course it is.  But you knew that (unless you’re new to the interwebs).  That’s not the freaky part.  The freaky part is that then the counselors gave the kids the leftover soda.

Because the fact that that crap EXPLODES wasn’t a good enough reason to not feed it to first graders.

What’s that you say?  Yes, I will be having a conversation with them about that very thing this week.

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In more helpful and less frightening news, NPR this week gives us a new trick or two to help us avoid overeating.  Turns out eating on a big plate makes you want to eat more.  Even if you know you’re likely to eat more if you have a big plate.

The good news?  The converse is also true.

The takeaway?  Buy smaller plates.

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Thanks for reading!

“As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life.”
– Gautama Buddha

“We’re so busy watching out for what’s just ahead of us that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are.”
– Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes)

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Be where you are.

That’s the best advice I’ve ever heard, and it’s the best thing I can tell you.

Now, you might read this and think to yourself, “Where else would I be? This is where I am, and I can’t be in more than one place, can I?” On one hand, this is the simplest thing anyone could tell you – be where you are. “OK, got that one, I’m here, thanks Harv!”

But I think you know what I mean. Sure, your feet are (or, more likely, your butt is) planted at specific geographic coordinates, and that’s technically where you are.

Being where you are is one of the hardest things we can do. It’s so much easier to “multitask,” or just to let yourself drift. To be in the middle of a conversation with a friend and find yourself working on your to-do list in your mind. To check your email while having breakfast with your kids.

It’s easy to blame this drift on modern life. Note, however the first quotation above. You know when Buddha said that? About 2,500 years ago. Before texting, before email, before the interwebs. Before phones or faxes. Before Netflix.  Before microwave ovens took our attention away from the food we cook and eat, before automobiles and airplanes took us away from our homes.

What I’m saying is that this lack of focus, this inability to be where we are, it’s a problem of the human condition, not a problem of modern life.

Be where you are. Remember a few weeks ago when we were talking about slowing down long enough to breathe? I wrote then that I think of breath (life) is a divine gift. Which means wherever you are right now, whatever you’re doing, you’re using that gift of breath from God to be there. And if, instead of using that breath to do the best you can where you are, your mind is on whatever else you could be doing … well, that’s not showing a lot of gratitude for the gift, is it?

Let’s say you’re not a believer in any particular faith tradition. Atheist, agnostic, one way or another you just don’t believe in that “divine gift” stuff. In your case, it’s that much more important to be where you are. The advice from Buddha and Calvin (or is it Hobbes?) is even more important if your entire existence is limited to a few decades. If that’s the case, you’d better get focused, and right now!

And that’s what this is really about: Focus. Being fully present. Being there with the people you’re with, the work you’re doing, the nap you’re trying to take, the lunch you’re eating.

It’s a remarkable thing, focus. It’s what gets your best work done. It’s what gets novels written, paintings painted, buildings designed, etc. Shakespeare wasn’t checking his email while he was writing Hamlet. Van Gogh wasn’t revising his Amazon wish list while he was painting Starry Night. (Yeah, I know, give me a little poetic license.)

Great work doesn’t get done while you’re trying to do seven different things at once. Think about the last great thing you accomplished. Were you checking your to-do list, sending texts and planning dinner while you were doing it? Of course not. You were there. You were fully present to the work in front of you.

Being where you are gives you the chance to let your mind do its best work. You’ve been there. Those rare moments when everything else just kind of falls away and you dive into what you need to do – what you want to do – what you do best. It’s almost like falling in love.

Speaking of which, how many of you can honestly say you can “multitask” while falling in love? Generally speaking, that’s a process that gets your attention pretty clearly. Imagine applying that level of focus to whatever you’re doing all the time.

Thinking of it another way, have you ever missed – by just a fraction of an inch – while hammering a nail and pounded your thumb? I can’t think of many things able to bring me back to where I am more abruptly and clearly than intense pain. Not that I recommend you hammer your thumb. I just want you think about what focus really means.

Being where I am helps me eat healthier and with greater intention. How many times have you absent-mindedly munched your way through a bag of chips? How many fast-food meals have you missed almost entirely while you “multitasked” (You may be getting the point by now that I don’t have much use for the concept of “multitasking.”). Let me suggest that if you are fully present and aware of what you’re doing, your body will tell you the chips are a bad idea a long time before you find the bottom of the bag. And you won’t eat many more fast-food meals if you give your taste buds and your belly a chance to ruminate on that Big Mac.

Conversely, how many great meals have you missed because you were somewhere besides in front of your lobster? Make the effort to show up and actually taste your food, and you’ll find yourself making better food choices.

If none of the positive benefits of being where you are can convince you to slow down and pay attention, think of how irresponsible – and disrespectful – your lack of mental presence is to the people around you. Who is more important to you – the person sitting in front of you in conversation or the person sending you a text? If you’re waiting for a text that important, you probably shouldn’t be wasting your time in idle conversation in the first place.

Don’t you owe it to your boss/client/customer/etc. to be fully present in your job rather than playing Farmville or reading a blog (Any blog but this one, of course. You get a pass for this one.)?

If you have kids, parents, a significant other – or even pets – don’t you owe them your presence if you’re sitting right next to them? Or would you rather teach your kids that the machine in your pocket is more important than they are?

Harsh? Yes. And I’m not going to pretend I meet the high standard I’ve illustrated. But I’m working on it. I am completely convinced that being where I am, being fully present and focused on the matter at hand, whatever it may be, makes everything better.

That Buddha guy was onto something. I don’t want to miss my life by being somewhere else all day long every day.

Be where you are. It’s the best advice I can give you.

Yep.  260.

Still.

Again.

The good news is that I have a pretty good idea why.  Saturday my Lovely Wife and Sprightly Daughters and I had dinner at Chili’s.  The entree was quite good, and while fatty, not particularly bad – ribs with a dry rub.  The french fries on the side?  They were tasty.  But they were, you know, french fries.  And the pound or two of tortilla chips I ate before dinner, those weren’t even all that tasty.  But they sure were sabotage-y.

And then there was Wednesday dinner.  Institutional dinner at work, mostly flavorless, and generally not good for me, but I didn’t eat that much of it. The PB&J (actually PB and organic orange marmalade, which I like better than the garden variety “jelly”) I ate when I got home around 10 PM, that wasn’t smart.  Not the content, but the timing.  Fourthmeal just isn’t an option in this program.

Which brings us to Thursday, less than 12 hours prior to weigh-in.  Pizza night at the Girl Scouts meeting (Sprightly Daughter Number One is a Daisy Scout, you know).  Three slices of Little Caesar’s.  Have you eaten Little Caesar’s lately?  It’s like Wonder Bread.  I know better than to eat that crap.  But that’s what was for dinner, and I was hungry.

So.  While I actually feel thinner this week, I’m no lighter.

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In related news, I’d been planning to jettison fried food – all fried food – for Lent (February 22), but it occurred to me that if I know I’m going to do it fairly soon, and I know my occasional fried food binging (see the tortilla chips reference above) is sabotaging my health, now is better than later.

Hasta luego, tortilla chips and all your greasy, salty deep-fried pals.  I’m done witcha.  Just like dessert.

As I mentioned a post or two ago, it turns out there’s a big link between how much and how well you sleep and your health, weight included.  Scientists use words like Ghrelin, Leptin and Cortisol.  I just want to know if these crazy sleep hours my Lovely Wife and I have been living are making me use a bigger belt.

Of course I’m kidding, the belt is nobody’s fault but mine.

But wouldn’t it be awesome to know that if I could get better sleep (which seems to be happening, but it’s probably too early to count those chickens) it might be easier to shed pounds.

This piece from Psychology Today indicates that maybe REM sleep actually burns calories.  Which means the more deep, good sleep you get the more calories you burn.  In your freakin’ sleep.  As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.

Now, of course, actually getting as much sleep as this article advocates is tough to schedule for most of us.  If I prioritized sleeping for eight hours this blog wouldn’t exist.  Because I’m writing this at 11:10 PM, and the latest I’ll be sleeping is about 5:45 AM.  An even 5 AM if I’m going to spend any quality time with my running shoes.

Regardless, it’s promising to hear that, yes, there is a link to all that sleep most of us are not getting and the problems losing weight many of are experiencing.

In other weight/health related news, have you been following this Paula Deen thing?  I’ve only been paying minimal attention to it, and I have to say, good for her for talking about diabetes.  I do not care that she waited until the most commercially-beneficial time to discuss it publicly, she’s discussing it.  And did anybody think the fried chicken, etc. she’d been pushing was remotely healthy?  Really?  Of course not.  She never told anybody to eat that stuff all the time, and if you did, you had to ask yourself if it was a good idea, didn’t you?

So, from my perspective, better late to the party with the loud microphone than not to show up at all.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great rest of the week!

Deja Vu.   I’m feeling sure I’ve been 260 pounds before.  Seems like it was just last week, actually.

“Thbbft!”  As Bill would say.

It was not, however, a gain.  For which I should be pleased.  Here’s something more about which to be pleased.  About two weeks ago, I remembered we had a nearly-full bottle of B-Complex vitamins hanging out in the kitchen that neither of us had been taking, for no particular reason.  I read somewhere that B’s are really good for you, so I thought, what the heck, I’ll give ’em a shot, at least until the bottle’s gone.

Here’s the thing – I feel better.  And the only thing really different in my routine is the B vitamins.  I can’t tell you exactly what I mean by “better.”  Maybe more alert?  A little more energized?  I don’t know.  Just better.  I’ll let you know how it goes from here.  For now, however, I highly recommend you go get a bottle of B-Complex vitamins.

On the “hey, this is really awesome” front, Sprightly Daughter Number Three is now (pauses to knock wood) sleeping all night.  And (at least until the next full moon) the other two are as well.  The Lovely Wife and I actually slept more than six hours three times this week.  It’s too soon to tell, but this article at WebMD says that might help me kick the weight loss routine into a higher gear.  On the scale from good to bad, that would be good.

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Thanks for reading.  Remember, those cool little buttons below the story?  They help you share Skipping Dessert with all your social media best pals.  I’m just sayin’.

Yes, it’s Five Things Wednesday!  As some of you know, my Dad recently had a stint installed in an artery in his heart.  It’s a relatively simple procedure, and he’s doing very well, but it served as a reminder of the primary reason I want to lose weight (I want to live a long, relatively surgery-free life).  In humble commemoration of that event, here are Five Bad Things That Happen to Overweight Men as They Age:

1. )  Open Heart Surgery.  Yep. It’s a bad one.  The link is to a piece about recovering from open heart surgery, and includes this line:  “The bone in the middle of your chest (the sternum) was opened during surgery.”  No, seriously.  Sure, skinny men end up having their chests cracked open as well, but at a vastly lower rate than big boys like myself.

2.)  Strokes.  Again, yes, people who aren’t fat have strokes too.  But fat people – fat men particularly – are at a far greater risk.  Having up-close experience with one, I’m pretty sure I’d like to avoid having one myself.

3.)  Diabetes.  You know, sometimes they end up chopping off a limb, or at least a smaller appendage, because of this stuff.  I have a genetic predisposition to diabetes from both sides of my family, and I know living skinnier can help me avoid it.  So shame on me if I don’t do everything I can to keep it from setting in on me.

4.)  Dementia.  You didn’t think this one would have a correlation, did you.  From the link:  “A study at Kaiser Permanente found that people in their 40s who had the highest amounts of visceral fat were three times more likely to suffer from dementia in later years compared with study participants with less visceral fat.”  Yeah, I’d like to avoid dementia as long as possible, thanks.

5.)  Erectile Dysfunction.  Yeah, I know, some of us would rather deal with the previous four than this one.  But the research appears to indicate the market for little blue pills would, umm, shrink, if the collective American waistband shrank as well.  From the link:  ” In large-scale studies, nearly 80 percent of men who reported having erectile dysfunction were also overweight or obese.”

So.  There you have five really good reasons to skip dessert, at least occasionally, if not obsessively.  Next time, something lighter.  For now, be afraid and let that fear lead you to a healthier tomorrow.

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Thanks for reading.  Sorry about Monday – I could make a really excellent excuse or two, but I won’t.  See you Friday 🙂