Tag: Memoir

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Trouble in Paradise – Update and Threat Assessment 12.08.22

 This past Holiday season was the roughest in recent memory. I ate everything in sight. I binged on bagels every day for nearly a week. The cookies, cakes, and pies found their way into my mouth. The sheer quantity of food was my downfall. I put on the pounds and topped the scale at 202 pounds. Time to get back to my normal routine. I’m getting back to my usual habit of eating only when hungry. Avoid sweets. Shrink portions.

Journal entry 10 Years Ago

I was searching my journal on a different topic and found something I wrote 10 years ago. Back then despite eating healthy foods I continued to struggle with my weight. It was the Holiday season. I binged. Then I binged some more. Thankfully I’ve learned a lot since then like how diets really work. Source: Dr. Anthony Pearson.

In my last post Trouble in Paradise (it’s Weight Gain Season) I posted this picture of our dessert board on Turkey Day. It’s how I gained three pounds in three days. The cheese and crackers didn’t help. Nor did #10 twice.

Update and Threat Assessment

  • The three pounds gained were lost but it took two weeks.
  • I removed the beer from the house which was purchased for entertaining company.
  • Yes, I drank the beer.
  • M&M’s spelled correctly is TROUBLE.
  • Two pieces of pumpkin pie are in the freezer. This is OK because pumpkin is a vegetable (botanically a fruit so still OK).
  • Ice cream, normally not in the house but it is and calls my name every night.
  • COOKIES.

The Boss came back from a cookie exchange with the neighbors with several dozen dangerous tiny bites.

Threat Level 4 Red.

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Trouble in Paradise (it’s Weight Gain Season)

“Competition puts hurdles in front of you that you have to clear.” 

OKC Thunder coach Mark Daigneault

Life puts hurdles in front of you that you have to clear. Like Thanksgiving. TGTIO (Thank God Thanksgiving is Over). We were out of town for only three days. I gained three pounds. I’m not good at math but I think this equates to one pound per day. YIKES. There’s 35 days until the first day of the New Year. At this pace I’ll weigh 208 pounds…

But I am not alone. This chart is attributed to the New England Journal of Medicine but I could never find the original source article.

As the years pass I get better at understanding why I put the pounds on. This was our dessert board on Turkey Day.

I can’t get Tex-Mex in Oklahoma. So when in Texas I need Tex-Mex. At one of my favorite Tex-Mex stops I discovered a new favorite, the #10.

The numbers above are calories, fat calories, and fat in grams. 2950 mg of sodium too (the original chart has more nutrition information).

We ate Tex-Mex Wednesday and Friday, the perfect bookends to Thanksgiving.

I had #10 twice.

Take Home Lesson

Salt, sugar, fat and excess calories. Taking and/or keeping the weight off is simple when you reduce intake of these four items.

Restaurant meals will kill you. Literally.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with every now and then so long as it’s every now and then.

My skinny jeans fit fine. I’ll get back to my usual routine and diet and the three pounds should come off and I’m good until the next hurdle. Until then I’ll wear my black t-shirts because dark colors make you look thinner.

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Simple Cornbread Dressing (or Stuffing if you stuff your bird)

One of the pleasures of writing this blog is documenting how recipes change over time. I’ve already gotten a Cracker Correction for Squash Casserole – The Final Update 2022. Here are links to ALL of the family’s Thanksgiving Dressing recipes claimed as “we’ve always made it this way”. Comments and corrections as always are welcome.

Your Grandmother’s Dressing (this is the real deal)

Aunt Charlene’s Cornbread Dressing

(Not) Your Grandmother’s Thanksgiving Dressing

(Not) Your Grandmother’s Dressing – the day after at 10pm

Note the recipe that everyone has eaten when I make dressing is made with Texas Corn Bread.

I win.

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Exercise is Not Essential for Weight Loss. It is Vital for Your Health — Damon Ashworth Psychology

Alongside nutrition and sleep, exercise is one of the three pillars of our health. Before coming up with a realistic and sustainable plan, let’s see what types of exercise are most recommended and how much we should try to do each day or each week. Walking – is there anything to the 10,000 steps recommendation? […]

If you want to lose weight, please remember that nutrition, and not exercise, is the best way to do this. The type, amount, and timing of when you eat and drink are more important for how much weight and fat you lose than how active you are.

Exercise is Not Essential for Weight Loss. It is Vital for Your Health — Damon Ashworth Psychology

Building new habits takes time. My typical morning routine is bathroom, shower, dry off (don’t forget this step), coffee and either read or write before starting my work day. Today I’m starting a new routine which hopefully becomes habit. Coffee AND resistance training (shower later).

Another morning habit I didn’t realize existed until today was my morning dopamine hit from likes and page views. What? Someone from Down Under liked my Resistance is Not Futile post. And followed me! Naturally I had to follow back and reblog which is not cheating or stealing someone else’s hard work.

Thank you Dr. Ashworth. But more importantly THANK YOU for Josh Giddey. https://www.nba.com/player/1630581/josh-giddey

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You Are What Your Ancestors Ate

Humans also vary in their ability to extract sugars from starchy foods as they chew them, depending on how many copies of a certain gene they inherit. Populations that traditionally ate more starchy foods, such as the Hadza, have more copies of the gene than the Yakut meat-eaters of Siberia, and their saliva helps break down starches before the food reaches their stomachs.

These examples suggest a twist on “You are what you eat.” More accurately, you are what your ancestors ate. There is tremendous variation in what foods humans can thrive on, depending on genetic inheritance. Traditional diets today include the vegetarian regimen of India’s Jains, the meat-intensive fare of Inuit, and the fish-heavy diet of Malaysia’s Bajau people. The Nochmani of the Nicobar Islands off the coast of India get by on protein from insects. “What makes us human is our ability to find a meal in virtually any environment,” says the Tsimane study co-leader Leonard…

In other words, there is no one ideal human diet. Aiello and Leonard say the real hallmark of being human isn’t our taste for meat but our ability to adapt to many habitats—and to be able to combine many different foods to create many healthy diets. Unfortunately the modern Western diet does not appear to be one of them.

The Evolution of Diet — https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/evolution-of-diet/

Food for thought (pun intended).

This article is worth reading even if you remember just one concept.

There is no one ideal human diet.

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Mimi’s Kind of Secret Cookie Recipe

This recipe is the actual inside of a lid from a famous brand of oats. Mimi’s cookie recipe is kind of a secret because of her omissions, substitutions, and changes to the recipe after all these years.

Sometimes she adds nuts. Other times, no raisins at all. Usually more cinnamon. Or most times chocolate chips are tossed into the mix.

The exact substitutions and deletions, types of nuts and/or chocolate remain a secret. She won’t tell me.

Tiny Taste Tester Approved.

Photo by Sara Santos on Pexels.com
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Protein for Older Adults

There is reliable research that suggests that older adults need slightly more protein than younger adults do. A somewhat higher protein intake, especially when combined with resistance training can build muscle in older adults. This increased muscle can help to offset the muscle loss that is a part of the aging process. Muscle loss can increase the risk of falls and keep older people from doing the tasks they’d like to do.

VRG Blog – https://www.vrg.org/blog/2022/02/03/protein-for-older-adults/

The latest data from a decades-long health survey finds that—yet again—the vast majority of Americans have a poor diet and many of us are inactive. Specifically, just 10 percent of Americans eat enough vegetables, and only 12 percent eat enough fruit, according to recent responses to the CDC’s survey, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance system. Recent responses also reveal that 25 percent of Americans don’t do any exercise outside of any work activity.

90% of the US Has a Poor Diet — https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/even-before-covid-americans-were-failing-at-health-basics-diet-exercise/

Lee SH, Moore LV, Park S, Harris DM, Blanck HM. Adults Meeting Fruit and Vegetable Intake Recommendations — United States, 2019. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71:1–9. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7101a1

In this cross-sectional study of 10 837 adults aged 65 years or older in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the mean primary American Heart Association score had a significant 8% decrease. The proportion of older US adults with poor diet quality significantly increased from 51% to 61%, and the proportion with intermediate diet quality significantly decreased from 49% to 39%; the proportion of older US adults with ideal diet quality remained consistently low. These findings suggest that diet quality decreased among older US adults from 2001 to 2018.

Trends in Diet Quality Among Older US Adults From 2001 to 2018 — https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2789924

To say most of us know very little about nutrition would be an understatement.

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Beans for Breakfast – 02.13.22

There is reliable research that suggests that older adults need slightly more protein than younger adults do. A somewhat higher protein intake, especially when combined with resistance training can build muscle in older adults. This increased muscle can help to offset the muscle loss that is a part of the aging process. Muscle loss can increase the risk of falls and keep older people from doing the tasks they’d like to do.

Protein for Older Adults
February 03, 2022 The VRG Blog Editor – https://www.vrg.org/blog/2022/02/03/protein-for-older-adults/

I’ve lost those extra stubborn muffin top pounds. A dental procedure has limited my diet to soft foods. Peanut butter and soft whole wheat bread has been my savior the past few days. Cooked smashed beans too.

Breakfast today was cold cereal soaked in soy milk for about 10 minutes. Soggy cereal never tasted better.

I might make some Vegetarian Badass Black Eyed Peas – 2022 to have for the next few days. Filling, nutritious and smashable.

While no one ever said “I love going to the dentist” the silver lining is I’m back in my skinny jeans.

Applesauce anyone?

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