We should have a class while we are school age to learn how to listen to our bodies. I know when I was growing up I abused the heck out of mine. I would explore boundaries that perhaps should have been left alone. Silly things such as how would I feel staying up for three days straight. Staying in the winter playing with damp clothes until my skin and muscles became numb and stiff from cold – which is very painful during the thaw out process. Letting myself get badly sunburned when there was no real need to. Taking risks I should not have taken because of the possible long term injuries I could have suffered.
There are other more subtle things I did I never really paid attention to because I didn’t know they were important. Eating that last slice of pizza with my third glass of soda. Experimenting with tobacco and alcohol. Ignoring my body telling me it did not appreciate being poisoned. Trying to get by on too little sleep, or not getting the right kind of exercise.
There are a lot of signals our bodies give us that we should take notice of. I imagine that most people are not aware their body performs much better when properly maintained. I was taught as a young child that my body existed and I was in it. Other than eating, bathing and brushing my teeth, nothing else really needed to be done. My body would happily do its thing while I did mine.
 We eventually reach an age where our body starts giving stronger signals about what it does and does not like concerning how it is being treated. Some of the signs are: indigestion, anxiety, stress, tiredness, lethargy, and so on. We start to notice that we do not feel as good as we used to. At first we tend to project these feelings off on something else. Our body is getting old, we have bad genes, the air is polluted, our work is stressful. We make excuses rather than admit listen to our body.
Some people go on ignoring the signs their body gives them telling them something needs to change. In the mean time our body goes on doing the best it can with what it has to work with. When someone discovers they have acid indigestion they are more likely to take an antacid than give up eating greasy foods. We internalize it is our body failing us, rather than us failing our body. We take a pill to mask our symptoms of poor diet and maintenance.
If our heartburn goes away we think all is well once more. What we do not see, is the internal damage going on inside our body. All that extra fat in our diet is coursing through our blood stream. Animal fats are acidy and etch away some of the walls of our blood vessels. Our body in trying to keep everything working applies a cholesterol patch to the etched away areas. As our body is concerned, as it can do no more, but it creates other health problems.
Something I never knew, and it may be news to you too, is these health problems we develop as we go through life are our bodies way of calling attention to itself. When our bodies speak we need to listen. Instead of reaching for a pill, we should evaluate what we are eating and whether it is good for us or only tastes good.
If we are tired all the time, perhaps we should look at our lifestyle. Maybe more than our diet that needs changing. Better sleep patterns and exercise help. Alternatively finding ways to eliminate stress in our life makes us healthier.
Our bodies I have discovered are wonderful and amazing vehicles for us to toodle around in. Our bodies can take an amazing amount of neglect and punishment without slowing down. Eventually there comes a time when all the abuse and neglect on our bodies is too much, and our bodies respond by signaling us something is not right. When those signals happen, it is in our best interest to slow down and evaluate what we think may be wrong and try to correct the situation.
I was talking to someone about dieting a few days back. Something they said brought back memories of where I was for many years. I was explaining that dieting really means going hungry. If you are never hungry, you can not expect to lose any meaningful amount of weight. Dieting and hunger go together. Feeling hungry is one of our bodies attention getters. The discussion had been going on for about fifteen minutes and I was talking about my experiences.
I reminded them as you are dieting to lose weight, you will become hungry. Dieting in essence is a well planned form of long term starvation. Feeling hungry is not an unbearable all consuming feeling, but it is powerful feeling never the less. For the first few weeks it can be bothersome, but after a time it is just a feeling our body is giving off. It is best to accept the idea that you are going to feel hungry.
When you eat is very important. Generally you wish to follow that old adage, eat breakfast like a King or Queen, lunch like a Prince or Princess, and dinner like a pauper. In simple terms this means eating most of your daily calorie intake early in the day so your body has food energy available. This helps your body to burn up those calories before you burn up your day and end up in advanced relaxing positions before bed.
 If you do not wake up hungry, you are not dieting. If you do not wake up hungry, you ate too much the evening before. Your morning schedule should be defined by your appetite as you diet. You can not expect to lose any weight of you do not wake up hungry in the morning. If you are seriously dieting, you may find yourself waking before your alarm in the morning. There is nothing abnormal about it, as it is your body’s natural response to being underfed.
Some people have trouble limiting their last meal to a sensible portion. I am raising my hand here as one of those people. A good solution to this is to eat your last meal earlier in the evening. No matter what your diet plan is you should never be eating your last meal within a few hours of going to sleep.
Your body barely has time to do anything with the food you ate, let alone use any of the energy you will consume. Energy consumed and not used is energy stored and that really gets in the way of a successful diet. Eating is the way we bring energy into our body.
What was the comment that brought back so many memories? I heard another person say, “I can’t eat any less!”
I think that is a common handicapping statement for anyone who is more than a few pounds overweight. I am sure many people share this sentiment with everyone else who wants to diet and does not know how. We generally feel as if we are not eating that much food to start with. I know I didn’t think I ate much each day, and if I added up what I thought were all the calories I consumed in a day, I would feel I was not consuming that many calories.
Perhaps in general I would eat reasonably well. What I failed to do was account for those times when I ate more of the wrong foods than the right foods. Those days when without thinking about it, when the day is one continuous grazing session. I never really felt full, nor hungry, I would just feel like eating.
Those are days that hurt good diets. The second problem I had was I really did not relate portion size and what the food was to how many calories it contained. The biggest miss with this problem is fat calories. A cup of rice and a cup of macaroni and cheese are not even in the same arena when it comes to calorie counting. Neither is two slices of bread when weighed against a slice of chocolate cake. Substituting food by guess is not a successful diet aid.
To help you with diet success, as you weigh out portions and measure foods, pay close attention to what the thin people around you eat. Pay special attention to how often and how much. I found I can live on less. I can survive on what the thin people in my life eat in the same amounts. If you want to be a thinner person, you have to act like one when it comes to meals.
It has been four months now since I have been eating a Celiac or wheat gluten free diet. If you are not sure what that means, my understanding is Celiac is intolerance for wheat type gluten. This type of gluten is found in Wheat, Barley, and Rye for starters and perhaps a few lesser known grains too. Anything with malt or malt extract is code for gluten. Modified something you do not understand exactly what it is, is a phrase to be wary of. In my earlier Celiac post, I went over some of the symptoms that have been experienced both by myself and others.
It seems a Celiac diet is generally misunderstood, I read and have been told following a gluten free diet is a poor lifestyle choice which is simply not true. Lots of people around the world live quite happily on a gluten free diet. I suggest a lot of thought on going on a Celiac diet just for fun. It is a very restrictive diet if you are not adventurous. Eliminating gluten from your diet is no small undertaking.
After eliminating all the common places gluten sources exist in the average diet, there are other places gluten lurks. It is important to read each and every food label every time you shop because gluten lurks in almost every food you can imagine, from ice cream, to protein powders, some peanut butter, vitamins, and some medicines. What may be free of gluten this time, may have gluten in it the next time because the manufacturing of the product changed.
 A Celiac diet properly undertaken is very healthy and nutritious. A Celiac diet done wrong can also turn into a monster. If you are not open to trying new foods, food combinations, and tastes, the Celiac diet is very expensive and fairly bland. Trying to eat the same type of foods you always ate such as different forms of breads and pasta’s will send the cost of eating into the upper limits. If a loaf of bread used to cost you $2.50, you can now plan on paying two to three times or more for bread that never quite matches your memories.
If you enjoy snacking on an occasional pretzel, cookie, or doughnut, get ready to pay much more for the pleasure. If you like pancakes or waffles guess what? The price of pancake mix and waffles goes up too. If you always wanted to expand what you eat, and you can get excited about new vegetables, and fruits, you will find life pretty exciting. You can practically start at one side of your favorite produce section and eat your way around to the other side.
If you are in the middle in your eating needs, you will find your food bill has gone up, and you may find yourself eating more of the types of foods that you previously ate less of. Going to a buffet for example where everyone can find something they want to eat, your choices once you leave the salad area becomes limited. Most thick soups are out, so is most chili, cheese, croutons, crackers, and everyone’s favorite – most of the desert section. You are left with vegetables and some of the meats. You can eat those meats which are not breaded, barbequed, or marinated with a soy based sauce, because they are likely to contain gluten.
On the bright side, I have noticed the taste of wheat in some food is obvious. The first bite often tells me if there is wheat hiding in the food somewhere. If I do not notice which has happened a few times, upset stomach of some form is not far away. Talk about negative reinforcement, it only needs to happen a few times before the awareness level and attention to what I am eating went way up.
Contrary to some of what I have read, being gluten free is not the end of the world. With some willingness to say goodbye to what your diet used to be and hello to the world of vegetables and fruits you never tasted before, a Celiac diet is healthy and can be quite reasonable both in taste and expense.
If you do have a gluten allergy, you will know generally within a few weeks because you should feel better, and not just different. In my case, it was only a few days before I started feeling a difference, and a few weeks before feeling healthier
An acquaintance mentioned many people have an allergy to many foods, but our bodies for the most part are able to handle the reaction without our even noticing. Again though that is conjecture and opinion, so take it with a grain of e-salt.
If you are serious about a celiac diet, or have health concerns, you need opinion and advice from a more informed source than myself. While I have done my reading and research, I am by no more than a beginning novice on Celiacs, and much of what I say may not be correct or correct for you. I have some small gluten tolerance, as some people do, so my thoughts and opinions may not be correct for you.
I see a lot of searches for weight loss and dieting for my few blog posts. I looked for and found my eating journal (really notepad entries) from last year, and decided I would post what I have in order to help anyone looking for ways to lose weight.
 One great side effect of a diet is you have a lot of energy in general. The downside of a diet is you wake up at night, or at least I did from being hungry. After the first few weeks I became used to it, and it became a normal part of the night. Feeling hungry and getting cravings also is part of the process. I also felt pretty poor the first few weeks, and I was told it is not uncommon to feel ill for the first few weeks.
Reasons for feeling ill ranged from going without food to my body using fat that had bad things stored in it that I either ate over time, or breathed in. What the truth is I do not know, but I became ill feeling at any rate.
One of the things most diet programs also do not tell you is what happens to the fat on your body. I have forgotten the specifics, but generally we do not ‘burn’ fat as the commercials tell us we do, other than in a general sense. Our bodies use the fat for calories of course, but we do not burn it up and it is gone. What happens is the fat is used by our bodies and the remains that our body can not use is converted into water and air.
That sounds pretty simple, writing water and air. What that means in reality is dieting will increase your trips to the bathroom, and it will increase your gas output. Not a big deal, but I thought I would mention it. Also it should be mentioned that what your body uses and discards leaves in the liquid for the most part, and what it can not use is generally solids. So you may notice a change in your bathroom routine while dieting.
Instead of sending a list of seven days eating I thought I made a composite list. I ate almost the same foods every day anyway so it made more sense. My diet mainly came from the the book, “The Thirty Day Diabetes Miracle”. It was a diet that I thought I could maintain which is crucial for dieting. If you find any diet ‘severe’ you will not stick to it.
A few last items: First is the reason for the walnut oil. What I ate was almost zero fat, and our bodies need some fat both for maintenance and to burn fat (or so I was told after weight loss stopped). I was told to get a nut oil that was not cooked or heated. It worked well.
FInally, eating this way is cheap! It is a good healthy way to save money. The walking is crucial to speed up the process, so don’t skip it.
Two previous posts you may find helpful:
How I Lost 56 Pounds
Weight Loss, Happy Eating, And Celiac Disease
As with any change to your life style, use you own judgment. I am not a health care professional, and have no idea if what I did to lose weight is healthy or safe for you.
Breakfast:
Most days – 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup pinto beans or other beans, 1 cup blueberries, six whole almonds, 2 teaspoons walnut oil.
Once in a while – Two scrambled eggs or Tofu scrambled ‘eggs’ w/ onions, bell pepper, and chili, two slices Ezekial 4:9 bread toasted w/ almond butter.
Lunch:
Most days: 1 cup 3 bean chili, one serving Rosarita corn chips (about 10), salad w/ lowest fat strawberry dressing, and some days some steamed chicken breast.
Once in while: McDonalds Southwest salad grilled although the Asian salad is about the same, only it has higher sodium.
Ezekial bread and soy burger, corn chips, and fruit
Dinner:
Most days: Lentil, vegetable, pea, beef and barley, or other soup, less than, or about 30 carbs, and fruit, lately a whole pear
Some days: Ezekial bread and soy burger; chicken wrap and ice cream from McDonalds; steamed chicken on tortilla and fruit at home, beef or sockeye salmon, and either asparagus, or peas, and one slice Ezekial bread; two fruits
That’s about it. Sometimes I make the lunch chili and chips into an almost frito pie. Occasionally I drink some soy milk with these meals, although I use soy milk for refrigerator made oatmeal. The people who wrote the book [thirty day diabetes miracle] have a cookbook coming out, though they also have a weeks worth of menus, but I am lazy….
I walk twenty minutes at least after each meal, and on my days off I like to take a four or five mile walk about an hour after eating, and then walk after lunch and dinner. My after meal walks are about 1 – 2 miles, usually closer to 1.2 – 1.5 miles.
There is a new blog by a young woman, Amy who is very brave and sharing her weight loss saga with the world. I left this on as a comment because she asked what to expect on her blog. I did not come across much about how dieting really feels, and what happens. These are highlights that I jotted down as I typed. I have modified a few sentences from my comments to here.
If you are thinking about dieting, but scared of starting this may be a blog entry for you. If I can do it, so can you.
Between last Christmas and last May I dropped 56 pounds. I learned a couple of things along the way I am happy to share with you.
Eating less of the same food(s) does not work!
For the first two to three weeks I was feeling poorly. I have a friend who’s wife is a dietician, and he told me that is normal to feel fairly ill the first couple of weeks.
For the next weeks, I was teetering between hungry and very hungry. It goes with the territory. I wanted to lose weight at an optimum rate, so I chose to be very hungry. After about three weeks of very hungry it does not bother you any longer. It is like having a sore toe, you get used to it.
I woke up a some nights because I was hungry. I also needed less sleep because I was hungry. Hunger must make us want to go and find food to eat. You get used to it.
I also went through different types of cravings. Calcium, salt, vitamin C, etc. I imagine it was my body adjusting to new foods and not getting vitamins and minerals from junk food. This too does pass.
Over the months, even when I felt really ill in the first few weeks, I remained consistent, both in my eating and my exercise which was twenty to thirty miles of walking each week. Three times a day after eating I hit the pavement for anywhere from a mile to a six mile slow walk depending on how much time I had free.
I can honestly say, that other than the first few weeks when I felt like I was going to fall over from a puff of air, I never ran out of energy walking. I think I may have tanked out from running, but at walking speed my body was able to convert fast enough that I always had enough energy.
If you plateau, it may be you are not getting enough good fat in your body. I had to increase my extra fat intake to two teaspoons of walnut oil a day, up from a little less than one teaspoon to keep the weight loss going.
I find now that many foods I used to love, look and taste terrible! That is a good thing, although I know from experience you can make yourself like them, but the pounds will sneak back on.
Find a diet you can live with, and forget about the word ‘diet’. Think instead, New Lifestyle. Find a plan you can eat/live with/on the rest of your life. There is no going back to the way you used to eat, once you arrive on the other side, so make sure your choice is enjoyable, easy, and simple. Be creative when eating out, a few sides and some mixing makes a good meal too!
I picked the 30 Day Diabetes Miracle Diet, which is a plant based diet. I lost between 2.5 to 3.5 pounds a week. I like it because I like oatmeal, beans, and vegetables, and you can get them anywhere. It is cheap and healthy eating. I enjoy eating these foods even now, and will mostly eat this way the rest of my life, with some meat in the mix now and then.
McDonalds salads and wraps are good choices when you need to eat and are away from home. Salad bars are as bad as burger joints if you do not watch what you are eating – they hide fat and too many calories in soups and bread stuff.
Once you start losing weight, dieting experts will come out of the woodwork and tell you how you are doing it all wrong. Stick to your plan, and politely tell them you are happy with what you are doing. A doctor and a dietician argued against my diet, even though they could not argue with the results, or find anything lacking in it.
Fat breaks down to water and air, so get comfortable to the idea that there will be more output liquid than input.
Mar 06, 2009: I posted a recent entry on diet and weight loss that may be of interest to you if you found this post worthwhile.
I doubt everyone has done some soul searching over this, but I know I did. I had to decide for myself what was the right thing for myself and my family. People who study our behaviors have come to a few interesting conclusions. Only two have any relevance to this post. The first is that most of us spend too much time dwelling on our faults and not enough time celebrating our successes. The second behavior we share as humans is we are great at blocking out negative factors in our lives we choose not to think about. For us, it seems if we do not think about them, they do not exist.
The reality is they do not exist until they come to pass, then if we are still around to reflect, we chastise ourselves for not seeing this extreme risk, and taking steps to prevent it. A great example is smoking. Growing up in my generation more adults were smoking than not, or so it seemed. There was a major not smoking campaign throughout my school years, and of course like well brainwashed children I was convinced about the evils of smoking and would harangue my parents about their smoking.
After I was out of school a few years, I found myself buying cigarettes for my own pleasure. Over those few years from leaving school to that point, I managed to dull down the dangers of smoking, and turn it into something real men did, so I should be smoking too. There is nothing like a group of men all standing around smoking and joking to make a young man think about how fun it would be tpart of that small social club.
After some years passed, and I went to some funerals of friends and family members who all seemed to have died too early, smoking started to lose its appeal. The biggest factor in changing my mind about smoking was my children. I did not want them being exposed to smoking so they would be less likely to become smokers themselves. It didn’t happen overnight, but one night I smoked my (almost) last cigarette and started down a new life path.
Time marches on I arrived at forty, and a new set of challenges were waiting for me. Mostly about what and how I ate. All men see and hear of other men who were fine one second and dead the next. Men that fell over from massive heart attacks. At first it just seemed like it was the destiny of men to fall over dead form heart attacks. After all heart attacks caused the demise of several male members of my family. That’s just the way life was. Of course other men came out of the woodwork, and we now know that is not the way life is at all.
We have access to more and better information regarding our health and welfare than we ever had before. In just a few hours of serious net searching, we can become familiar with just about any health subject. One area we still lack in is denial though. There is no medical breakthrough to stop us from living in a state of denial. If there was, I doubt as free adults we would subject ourselves to that particular cure either.
The biggest health concern I see for us is the foods we choose to eat. We are surviving on some really poor food choices. Most of us pretend poor food choices are okay. If eating fast or fried food had the ‘side effects’ of smoking, many people would not be eating those foods. Because the major health problems poor food choices have on our bodies are not visible we go on pretending that eating how most of eat is okay. It is okay, until you find yourself falling over from your heart having exploded in your chest, then it is too late. Company advertising is not going to tell how deadly these foods are either….
I am urging everyone who finds that a major part of their diet is fast food, or fried food to really think about how good that food is, both in health and in taste. Are those food choices really so good that they are worth the risk hidden in those foods? If anyone has children, is eating fast food and feeding it to your children worth dying for and leaving your children to grow up without you around, and facing the same health problems? We can ignore a lot of bad things in our lives and usually it is okay, but poor eating choices have no warning signs until it is too late. Make aware food choices, and be there for your kids. Don’t allow them to grow up eating the poor food choices you are making.
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