Health 4 Life~The Science Behind Consumption

This is my new topic dealing with my diabetes and my sloppy eating habits---my NEW plan for 2017-2018. As many of you may know, I tackled my gambling addiction and made it officially One Year as of today! (July 17th,
2017.) Addiction By Definition. I am grateful to all of EvC Forum for your kind words and support this past year as I finally conquered a pesky addiction that I had for many years.My personal label for my last effort was called Sober 4 Life and I am happy to say that it was a success...though never finished, by any means.Now I move on to this topic. It has several distinctions from my last effort.

It is not strictly an addiction, but rather a lifestyle change. We have discussed this at length in Percys topic, Good Calories, Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes

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The science of dieting was discussed. I have done quite a bit of research into this science for my own particular dietary need and have settled upon The Rosedale Diet and Health Plan as my primary choice in which to follow...though I will also be exploring variations that are not quite as strict. Basically, I have concluded that this particular type of diet will be the most effective at battling my Type II Diabetes and in preparing my 57-year-old body to live another 20-30 years.

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In this topic I wish to discuss my personal journey as it unfolds (Yes I am a bit of a narcissist) as well as continue to discuss the science of dieting as seen by all of you...continuing the Gary Taubes discussions.

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Anyway...today is officially Day # 1.

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Chance as a real force is a myth. It has no basis in reality and no place in scientific inquiry. For science and philosophy to continue to advance in knowledge, chance must be demythologized once and for all. —RC Sproul
"A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." —Mark Twain "
~"If that's not sufficient for you go soak your head."~Faith
"as long as chance rules, God is an anachronism."~Arthur Koestler

I've lost over a third of my body weight (80+ lbs) since December 2016.I completely changed my diet and work out 5-7 times a week.My diet is not unlike the one you linked to.I eat mostly raw vegetable (with olive oil and vinegar) with almonds or beans for protein. I do eat chicken occasionally.I do not eat refined sugar or white food like pasta, potatoes, rice, or bread. And I do not eat processed foods.A couple of pro-tips:1. it is okay if you feel hungry
2. not every meal has to be delicious
3. learn to eat to sustain yourself in lieu of eating for pleasure
4. Take only small portions and wait for what you ate to settle before you go grab more - you'll find that you don't really need more if you wait a bitIt's cliche, but you literally are what you eat. And every ounce of weight that is on your body, you smooshed through your own face yourself.So stop doing that.And don't eat bad things. That'll make you be made of bad things, and that'll make you feel worse.Eating only good things and ridding my body of the bad stuff has made me feel completely different, physically. It's awesome and I feel great.Also, your mind comes from your brain and your brain is fed by your body. So, your body feeds your mind.Getting my body into good physical shape has done nothing but wonders for my mental health.So you can look forward to that as well

I've lost about a quarter of my body weight over three years on a modified Paleo diet.As with the above posts, no sugars, carbs, processed foods etc. Less wine, less beef (and that only grass fed), more vegs, chicken and fish.

And this applies to your food as well. For instance, One of the brands we like is Empire Kosher Chicken http://www.empirekosher.com/

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Our chicken and turkeys are raised on a proprietary, fully vegetarian feed blend that gives our products their consistent taste and flavor.

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Our birds are free roaming which means they are able to roam freely inside large houses, and they are not kept in cages. As required by organic certification, our organically grown chickens are provided access to the outdoors.

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Empire offers a line of organic chicken products. Please check where you buy Empire Kosher products for availability.

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Empire Kosher’s chickens are not administered any antibiotics. Empire Kosher’s turkey products that are labeled raised without antibiotics are ABF as well.

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This is the best tasting chicken I have tried. I have switched from butter and fake butter to olive oil for taste and health. Instead of buttering corn I pore on a little olive oil. For dipping lobster, steamed muscles and steamer clams (hey we live on the coast) I use olive oil instead of melted butter. Sometimes I add curry or other spices.I keep a supply of toasted almonds for snacking as well as fresh fruit. Diet without exercise is doomed to failure. We live in a small town and can walk or bicycle everywhere, even to supermarkets (one small local is a block away, another, larger, part of a chain, is a 2 mile bike ride). Biking and walking is part of our lifestyle now.It is a lifestyle change, not a temporary change.I credit my change in lifestyle for my continued remission from the cancer, going on 5 years now.Enjoy

No, that's what I meant. You are made of the food that you eat.If you eat a bunch of processed garbage, you're going to feel like it.If you eat a bunch of quality foods, you're going to feel like it. Cool, thanks. I'll check it out. I think I'm gonna start getting more real butter in my life. I'm looking for another source of fat to burn for energy so I can use all this protein for muscle growth. I forgot to mention that I do eat fish and shellfish...I've never tried either with olive oil instead of butter but I'm gonna give it a shot. I eat so many almonds its ridiculous, but I don't eat fruit. I dunno... I mean, it's just a simple math problem:If you burn off more than you take in, then you will loose weight.You can certainly increase what you burn off, but if that remains constant and you instead decrease what you take in, then you will loose weight. I would certainly never say don't increase your exercise, but you can, in fact, just starve yourself to weight-loss. It's not healthy, but it'll happen.One thing that I do think is important is starting small.Something that you can easily maintain and make routine. Like just a 30 minute walk when you get home from work but before you even sit down.Once you start getting basic simple stuff being routine, then you can start adding to it to increase your output.But if you go from zero to hero in one day then you'll never maintain it.Another thing that I think helps is starting with fasting before you go to increasing your exercise.Getting a lot of the bullshit out of your body up front makes it easier to be active.Then when you start getting active, it makes it easier to be active.Then you start feeling physically better, and that makes it easier to be active.Then you start getting into shape, and that makes it easier to be active.But baby steps, gradually over time, all the while not eating any shit-food that'll just make you feel worse.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that this sort of approach doesn't work long term. As you go on to say: But if I understand correctly, the working hypothesis is not simply that the lifestyle required is unsustainable, but rather that crash-dieting causes physiological changes in how you process food. The idea is that this is an inbuilt response to famine conditions, and when food is available you will convert more into fat supplies than usual as a buffer against the next famine.The above is all vaguely remembered stuff, and may well be bullshit.Something you and RAZD both said that provoked an interesting thought though. I'm familiar with the idea of feeding animals different foods to alter the taste (Gordon Ramsay swears by dark beer in pig feed); but how much do we know about the impact of what we feed our livestock on the nutritional value of their meat?

I found myself craving sugar insanely and gave in. The last starchy items are being consumed from my fridge, and so my home food is being replaced. The kicker, however, is that while at the store buying a stash of nuts and salads, I actually allowed myself to buy some candy! This early battle is physical and psychological. Physically I crave starches and sugars. Psychologically I find myself saying that this diet is gonna be boring and that I will get sick of this stuff! Officially, Day 1 was a failure but if I can rebound out of this rebellion within the week I'll keep my start date. I see that you guys (Cat Sci and RAZD) agree with this basic diet and have had success and gained wisdom on your own. Just like I did with Dr.Carnes and addiction research, I read up on this diet and my logical brain affirms its science. It's my emotional rebellion that is attempting to sabotage this effort right now. I agree logically, but will for the sake of this thread document my rebellious voice. My inner resistance makes no sense logically, but among other things, I fear trying to do my best and not succeeding 100% because of my years eating badly, my progression of diabetic neuropathy and my likelihood of getting foot ulcers. In other words, I feel as if I have already failed and would prefer someone or something to fix me or bail me out of this mess. I fear that I will get in touch with repressed depression and feel that I've failed at life...silly, I know. As of right now I am looking at the first 3 weeks as the do or die moment. If I can get 21 strong days in and follow the guidelines, I may feel inspired if my energy goes up. That science is correct. The metabolic rate will drop. In my case, however, I lived a sedentary lifestyle to the extreme anyway. Last summer as I began my gambling sobriety, I was walking nearly every day--but my diet remained roughly the same. This year, I rarely exercise, sleep ten hours a day, and do nothing more than work and get on the computer. In fact, I had a one year membership to a health club that largely went unused. Thus...this battle is psychological as well as physical. Stay tuned....

Rosedale agrees with you. The change from carbs to fats must be allowed to happen, however. Doing it halfway will not work for this diet. You sound as optimistic as I used to be in my younger days. I was a serious bicycle rider (25 miles a day average for one year) at age 32, and yet I ate like a fatted calf! (Mainly carbs) whereas now I am getting weak at age 57 and am mildly depressed....sobriety success from gambling notwithstanding.I have known of this diet for 15 years and have tried it twice before semi seriously...I managed roughly 3 months each time, I believe. This time, I believe that failure is not an option. I need to change my lifestyle. I really hope this depression lifts after a month or so....pray for me. I know intuitively that your advice is sound. Documenting my progress(or relapse) here at EvC helps me to stay accountable. I appreciate everyone putting up with my narcissistic diaries. Lets make this program work as well as the last one did!

If you don't exercise you will lose muscle mass and it affects your circulation system. The extreme case are bed-ridden people need help standing.enjoy

That's addiction. Practice the same mindfulness that helps you with gambling. It'll go away. And then you'll feel even better. Check yourself, Phat. Boredom is a luxury.Next time you have thoughts like these, pray for all the people in the world who face death from starvation and thank God that you are so fortunate that you have the priviledge of being able to choose to be bored with your diet. Changing your diet should help with your mental health. Exercise too.Start getting used to feeling hungry. And just don't eat that much.It's gonna suck, but not forever, and looking back it went by fairly quickly. Get back on walking every day.I like to use triggers and rewards. You like dicking around on the computer? Reward yourself with that only after you've taken your walk for the day. When you get home (trigger), have your walk at the top of your priorities and get it done before you do anything else."Shit, I'm home... time for a walk! Then I get to play on my computer." I've been operating under ketosis:
Ketosis - WikipediaAnd that does not work "half-way"... But I'm pretty sure that I am almost completely out of body-fat. Seriously, the diet and exercise has done wonders for my anxiety and depression.If for nothing else, try it for that reason. Consider it done. And you can do it.Once I started noticing the positive changes that resulted from my new behaviors, there was no struggle to maintain it - I wanted it.I think you need to change your outlook from this being something that you have to do to this being something that you want to do.Getting positive returns can be the object of that desire - but you're going to have to get started to get them. It's like a feedback loop. Well I like reading this stuff, but more so, I like writing about it. So I'll be around.

I think the biology behind nutrition and diet is too complicated and individualistic to be able to be broken down in to simple if-then statements like that.If you have little muscle and a lot of fat, then starving will make you loose fat.But again, I do not recommend starvation as a means to weight loss.I did fast quite a bit here and there, though.But that was more for, like, "cleansing" than a dieting strategy.Oh. Phat, do you have access to a sauna or steam room?I've also been doing what I call a "flush and fill" where I drink lots of water and sweat my ass off. That seems to help a lot too.

Interesting, thanks:

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Longer-term ketosis may result from fasting or staying on a low-carbohydrate diet (ketogenic diet), and deliberately induced ketosis serves as a medical intervention for various conditions, such as intractable epilepsy, and the various types of diabetes.[6] In glycolysis, higher levels of insulin promote storage of body fat and block release of fat from adipose tissues, while in ketosis, fat reserves are readily released and consumed.[5][7] For this reason, ketosis is sometimes referred to as the body's "fat burning" mode.[8]

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Sounds good to me. I'm an early riser, and I like to bicycle in the morning before brekky. I'm usually home before other/s rise. Exercise releases endorphins, nature's natural "feel good" medicine ... and one of the best ways to fight depression is to feel good. Indeed, and getting out for a walk or bike ride puts you in touch with your neighborhood. I greet people along the bike path, and it serves two purposes -- people I am coming up behind aren't surprised when I pass, and second, people smile and return it, spreading happiness. Do it regular and you will meet regulars.Enjoy

Feels good to me I used to get "food comas"... Not any more! I like to work out after work but before I get home. I think there's more to it than that, but I dunno. Yeah, I should probably consider that more.I work out hard, and am usually in a mental zone. So when I'm running through my neighborhood I've got tunnel vision and tune out most of the world. Ignoring others allows me to stay focused on what I'm doing, but I'm sure I have my "don't bother me" face on and I'd bet that I'd benefit from being a little friendlier. So thank you

Isn't that a bad thing? Clearly many people have too much fat, but isn't some useful? We degrade fat to generate heat when it's cold, don't we?

I dunno, it doesn't feel bad. And my doctor said to keep up the good work.So, I guess not. Well, I do get cold a lot easier than when I was fat... but it isn't a problem.Oh, I did have one thing I didn't like about being skinny. I bumped my hip into a door frame the other day - it felt like straight bone on wood and hurt so bad that I almost went to the floor.Gotta be careful out there