Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday. I have many things to be thankful for and it is important for me to review these circumstances and remember the people who sustain me and remind me that we are not alone, we are all a mess and life is short, so here we go:
I am thankful for: Having been given a fine education; a brilliant, talented, loving, beautiful and demanding wife; a loving family with dog and cat included; good friends; a comfortable home; health insurance; health; nature; meditation; my teeth (all original and greatly fortified); the use of all four limbs; electricity and running water; wholesome and delicious food; wood and steel; not living in a war zone.
What I would like to work on: Judging less; being less angry; forgiving more; playing more, loving more, spending more time outside, spending time with loved ones (outside, dog included), fearing less and taking nothing for granted.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Zealotry
I hesitate to reveal too much of myself in these posts because often TMI doesn't serve the reader. I also know, however, that one of the tenants of acceptable writing is to be invested in your topic and what can be more engaging and personal than food? Please bear with me.
I am a zealot because I demonstrate excess zeal in the activities that I engage in and I have been guilty, on many occasions, of buying into ideas, organizations and people with fanatical devotion. I am not so much bothered by the former characteristic but the latter quality has brought me both disappointment and disapproval. In these circumstances when my expectations have not been met or the chink I notice in the armor turns into a chasm I rebel, call attention to the flaw, and exit.
What does this have to do with fitness and health? Everything. In order to make the most of our existence we must launch ourselves into the causes we strongly believe because if we are going to jump we need to do it with both feet. The problem is that we often discover in free fall that we should have read the manual more carefully or maybe stuck a toe in first to see how things felt.
This has been the case for me in relationships, careers, exercise and diet. I have few regrets (except Shakira will probably never speak to me again) but many scars. And I am encouraged by the words of Ben Franklin:
"For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise."
This quote brings into focus the importance of learning. Learning is change and the more we can embrace change the more we benefit from our experiences.
So let's talk about diet (some more.) I forgot how personal diets are to people. By and large people responded positively to last week's post and I had a few passionate conversations with people who strongly disagreed with the low carb approach to eating. Since then I have read more about the topic and I can safely say that I don't know what-the-fuck to eat.
I continue to feel great on a low carb diet (although this week I consumed four pieces of gluten free bread and a few red bliss spuds with my venison rump roast) but for every proponent of this eating plan there is a detractor. What this experience has given me is a greater awareness of what I am putting into my body. I have less than 10% body fat and the stuff that I have resides in my belly region. That little bit has disappeared, I have not lost muscle or strength and my energy level is excellent, so I will continue with the diet.
There is, however, consensus when it comes to the consumption of calories in general. You should consume what you need and no more. The low carb diet has made me much more conscious of the "healthy" crap I have eaten in the past to stave off hunger or because I wanted to fill the bottomless void in the pit of my soul. These foods included organic non GMO blue corn chips, rice crackers, non GMO popcorn (and gluten free - really?) and beer (it's a meal), which is near and dear to me. I haven't been drinking beer (no, that's not true - I had one only to be gracious at a friend's gathering) and when others were reaching for the chips I had to remind myself not to do so. When I made this adjustment I was o.k. for the remainder of the party, and although salsa was problematic, cheese tasted better without a cracker.
It is a fact that if you eat fewer calories you are less likely to suffer from disease and you are more likely to live longer, so I can recommend that. And as far as learning from your experiences Ben Franklin strikes again:
"How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them."
Be courageous in all of your experiments.
I am a zealot because I demonstrate excess zeal in the activities that I engage in and I have been guilty, on many occasions, of buying into ideas, organizations and people with fanatical devotion. I am not so much bothered by the former characteristic but the latter quality has brought me both disappointment and disapproval. In these circumstances when my expectations have not been met or the chink I notice in the armor turns into a chasm I rebel, call attention to the flaw, and exit.
What does this have to do with fitness and health? Everything. In order to make the most of our existence we must launch ourselves into the causes we strongly believe because if we are going to jump we need to do it with both feet. The problem is that we often discover in free fall that we should have read the manual more carefully or maybe stuck a toe in first to see how things felt.
This has been the case for me in relationships, careers, exercise and diet. I have few regrets (except Shakira will probably never speak to me again) but many scars. And I am encouraged by the words of Ben Franklin:
"For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise."
This quote brings into focus the importance of learning. Learning is change and the more we can embrace change the more we benefit from our experiences.
So let's talk about diet (some more.) I forgot how personal diets are to people. By and large people responded positively to last week's post and I had a few passionate conversations with people who strongly disagreed with the low carb approach to eating. Since then I have read more about the topic and I can safely say that I don't know what-the-fuck to eat.
I continue to feel great on a low carb diet (although this week I consumed four pieces of gluten free bread and a few red bliss spuds with my venison rump roast) but for every proponent of this eating plan there is a detractor. What this experience has given me is a greater awareness of what I am putting into my body. I have less than 10% body fat and the stuff that I have resides in my belly region. That little bit has disappeared, I have not lost muscle or strength and my energy level is excellent, so I will continue with the diet.
There is, however, consensus when it comes to the consumption of calories in general. You should consume what you need and no more. The low carb diet has made me much more conscious of the "healthy" crap I have eaten in the past to stave off hunger or because I wanted to fill the bottomless void in the pit of my soul. These foods included organic non GMO blue corn chips, rice crackers, non GMO popcorn (and gluten free - really?) and beer (it's a meal), which is near and dear to me. I haven't been drinking beer (no, that's not true - I had one only to be gracious at a friend's gathering) and when others were reaching for the chips I had to remind myself not to do so. When I made this adjustment I was o.k. for the remainder of the party, and although salsa was problematic, cheese tasted better without a cracker.
It is a fact that if you eat fewer calories you are less likely to suffer from disease and you are more likely to live longer, so I can recommend that. And as far as learning from your experiences Ben Franklin strikes again:
"How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them."
Be courageous in all of your experiments.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Diet and Health
Recently I was listening to a pod cast interview with Mark Sisson, the author of The Primal Blue Print and he was discussing the importance of a limited Carbohydrate diet. Having been gluten free for three years now I was ready to step up my commitment to a grain free lifestyle. Once you give up gluten, which was difficult for me, the move to eliminating all grains doesn't seem so daunting.
Why in God's name would anybody A) want to give up eating bread and B) eliminate all grain from their lives? This is a good question that I can answer the same way I explained my rationale for bi-lateral hip replacement. It comes down to necessity based on quality of life. I feel 100% healthier not eating wheat products even though I am neither allergic to wheat nor am I celiac sprue. Without gluten I no longer make rapid and frequent visits to the bathroom shortly after meals as a matter of course and I suffer from fewer migraines. I eat fewer calories and the ones I do consume have more nutritional value as opposed to the carbs which are converted to glucose and later, if not burned, onto fat, so I feel leaner. And I no longer suffer from asthma which I treated with inhaled steroids, prednisone and albuterol for forty years.
Does any of this sound familiar to you? My body tends towards inflammation and at this stage of the game I am determined to make changes that will improve the texture of the second half of my life. Foregoing bread is a small price to pay to feel good.
Now I want to feel better. Much recent data has shown that the over consumption of carbohydrates (OCC) is caustic to your system and contributes to systemic inflammation. OCC is linked to Metabolic syndrome (if you don't know what that is click on the link) and many of the diseases that afflict wealthy post industrial nations. Thanks to OCC and the use of high fructose corn syrup in particular in processed foods and beverages we are poisoning ourselves. The dietary advice of the government and the medical-pharmaceutical complex have emphasized a reliance on grains in our diets because they are the "healthy" alternative to "evil" fats when consuming calories. This backwards and selective science based approach to nutrition is directly correlated to the explosion of obesity, type two diabetes and heart disease.
If you are looking for a good read about diet and health pick up Gary Taubes' Good Calories Bad Calories to learn more about the science and politics behind nutrition or The Big Fat Surprise by investigative journalist Nina Teicholz, who chronicles the history behind the cholesterol theory and its role in heart disease. Her book is really a sociological study of how bureaucracies and the egotistical bullies (Ancel Keys) who run them control information by negating contradictory and inconvenient facts at the expense of those they are supposedly trying to help. I am not a conspiracy theorist and I have benefited tremendously from modern medicine but money/power often trump truth in government and industry and medicine has often demonstrated some of the most egregious examples of this. Lest we forget the ostracism Semmelweiss and Lister received from fellow practitioners for promoting antiseptic procedures.
Back to diet: a low carb diet (between 100-150 calories per day) and a Ketogenic diet (about 50 carb calories per day) can be beneficial. In ketogenic diets you decrease your intake of carbs to such an extent that you remove glucose from your body's fuel supply, so that ketones take on the role of the primary energy source. Ketones are the product of your liver metabolizing fats. They burn cleaner than glucose, are less inflammatory to the system and any excess is excreted in the urine unlike glucose overproduction which is stored as fat. Of course there are health risks associated with this diet, which you can read about, but there are risks in any diet and in comparison to the high carb diet we have accepted as gospel it is much healthier and has fewer adverse effects. Several branches of medicine are currently conducting studies concerning the benefits of a ketogenesis which include beneficial outcomes in: Alzheimers, Parkinsons, Epilepsy (proven effective), depression, migraines and cancer. Many people who maintain a ketogenic diet report sleeping better, having more energy and focus, less arthritic pain and an elimination or reduction in food cravings. You lose weight on these diets, your HDL (good) cholesterol rises as do your good LDLs (yes there are good and bad subcategories within your "bad" cholesterols - actually LDLs and HDLs are really transport mechanisms of cholesterol - they are not cholesterol) and you consume fewer calories in general which is associated with longevity.
This diet, of course, means that you have to eat more fat, which many object to because for the past 50 years that has been a big no no. Fortunately the tide is beginning to change and we no longer have to deprive ourselves of fat while feeding our hunger and cravings with carbs. This is a complex subject and requires research to understand but the data can not be ignored.
This is my third day on a low carb diet and I feel great. I will fall off the wagon on Thanksgiving but I am determined to ride the low carb train through the holiday parties and into the new year.
Low carb diets will make you healthier and by inverting the USDA food pyramid you will find happiness in formerly forbidden fat.
Why in God's name would anybody A) want to give up eating bread and B) eliminate all grain from their lives? This is a good question that I can answer the same way I explained my rationale for bi-lateral hip replacement. It comes down to necessity based on quality of life. I feel 100% healthier not eating wheat products even though I am neither allergic to wheat nor am I celiac sprue. Without gluten I no longer make rapid and frequent visits to the bathroom shortly after meals as a matter of course and I suffer from fewer migraines. I eat fewer calories and the ones I do consume have more nutritional value as opposed to the carbs which are converted to glucose and later, if not burned, onto fat, so I feel leaner. And I no longer suffer from asthma which I treated with inhaled steroids, prednisone and albuterol for forty years.
Does any of this sound familiar to you? My body tends towards inflammation and at this stage of the game I am determined to make changes that will improve the texture of the second half of my life. Foregoing bread is a small price to pay to feel good.
Now I want to feel better. Much recent data has shown that the over consumption of carbohydrates (OCC) is caustic to your system and contributes to systemic inflammation. OCC is linked to Metabolic syndrome (if you don't know what that is click on the link) and many of the diseases that afflict wealthy post industrial nations. Thanks to OCC and the use of high fructose corn syrup in particular in processed foods and beverages we are poisoning ourselves. The dietary advice of the government and the medical-pharmaceutical complex have emphasized a reliance on grains in our diets because they are the "healthy" alternative to "evil" fats when consuming calories. This backwards and selective science based approach to nutrition is directly correlated to the explosion of obesity, type two diabetes and heart disease.
If you are looking for a good read about diet and health pick up Gary Taubes' Good Calories Bad Calories to learn more about the science and politics behind nutrition or The Big Fat Surprise by investigative journalist Nina Teicholz, who chronicles the history behind the cholesterol theory and its role in heart disease. Her book is really a sociological study of how bureaucracies and the egotistical bullies (Ancel Keys) who run them control information by negating contradictory and inconvenient facts at the expense of those they are supposedly trying to help. I am not a conspiracy theorist and I have benefited tremendously from modern medicine but money/power often trump truth in government and industry and medicine has often demonstrated some of the most egregious examples of this. Lest we forget the ostracism Semmelweiss and Lister received from fellow practitioners for promoting antiseptic procedures.
Back to diet: a low carb diet (between 100-150 calories per day) and a Ketogenic diet (about 50 carb calories per day) can be beneficial. In ketogenic diets you decrease your intake of carbs to such an extent that you remove glucose from your body's fuel supply, so that ketones take on the role of the primary energy source. Ketones are the product of your liver metabolizing fats. They burn cleaner than glucose, are less inflammatory to the system and any excess is excreted in the urine unlike glucose overproduction which is stored as fat. Of course there are health risks associated with this diet, which you can read about, but there are risks in any diet and in comparison to the high carb diet we have accepted as gospel it is much healthier and has fewer adverse effects. Several branches of medicine are currently conducting studies concerning the benefits of a ketogenesis which include beneficial outcomes in: Alzheimers, Parkinsons, Epilepsy (proven effective), depression, migraines and cancer. Many people who maintain a ketogenic diet report sleeping better, having more energy and focus, less arthritic pain and an elimination or reduction in food cravings. You lose weight on these diets, your HDL (good) cholesterol rises as do your good LDLs (yes there are good and bad subcategories within your "bad" cholesterols - actually LDLs and HDLs are really transport mechanisms of cholesterol - they are not cholesterol) and you consume fewer calories in general which is associated with longevity.
This diet, of course, means that you have to eat more fat, which many object to because for the past 50 years that has been a big no no. Fortunately the tide is beginning to change and we no longer have to deprive ourselves of fat while feeding our hunger and cravings with carbs. This is a complex subject and requires research to understand but the data can not be ignored.
This is my third day on a low carb diet and I feel great. I will fall off the wagon on Thanksgiving but I am determined to ride the low carb train through the holiday parties and into the new year.
Low carb diets will make you healthier and by inverting the USDA food pyramid you will find happiness in formerly forbidden fat.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Play
I have discussed the importance of having fun in past blogs and now I would like to look at the benefits of play. There is a growing body of scientific evidence which demonstrates that humans require play to shape their personalities. Play is an important aspect of childhood development but the relevance of this activity does not end when you become an adult. On the contrary, play scientists (yes, there is such a field) reveal that "play deprivation" not only compromises creativity but it is also a shared characteristic of all mass murderers. Yikes! That doesn't mean that if you don't play (I love double negatives) you will kill somebody, but if you do (play) you will be more content.
Play is an evolutionary trait that many animals share. Some, like wolves, discard it after puppy hood because they have learned from it what they need to survive, but other animals such as ravens play throughout their lives and it is believed that they do so because they enjoy it. Play is a "fundamental survival aspect" of all social animals according to Stuart Brown, MD who is the director of the National Institute for Play which is generating data that supports the belief that adult humans should play and that children must play.
One of the conclusions Dr. Brown reached is that for youngsters it is crucial to engage in play that has a relatively high degree of risk. Climbing is a perfect example. Kids love to summit anything they can and if you surround a tall climbable object with a fence they will climb that too. The risks that children take while playing teach them valuable lessons about trust, physical limitations and group dynamics.
When I was a middle school teacher I was fascinated by the way children behaved outside of the class room with very simple boundaries. There was always an enterprising group of athletes who would start a pick-up game of football or soccer, there were the boys who ran and slammed into each other for no apparent reason and there were the quiet kids who stood alone reading or playing with a toy, so every one was engaged. Unfortunately, recess has been truncated to create time for academics and any apparatus a child can injure herself with has been removed from the school setting. Remember the floor to ceiling climbing rope in your school gym? Children seemed much more engaged during these brief visits to the recess deck than they did sitting in my Latin I class (perhaps that had more to do with my own lack of interest in the subject matter.) And there is strong evidence showing that physical activity enhances learning throughout a person's life.
Play has broad parameters but what sets it apart from other daily activities is that you chose to do it. Reading is considered play, as is sport and hiking in the woods. The reason I find this topic compelling is that in this country we have structured our lives around achievement to such an extent that we don't know how to function without a concrete goal. And because of our puritanical heritage fun is not a worthy endeavor. Why not? Brown argues that whatever type of play you engaged in as a child is a good indicator of what your true interests are. These proclivities are what you should try to nurture so that you can include them in your daily existence i.e. how you make your living. If you discourage a child from playing how will she know what she likes to do? Brown asserts that if you don't allow yourself to play as an adult you will survive but the quality of your existence will be greatly diminished. Data reveals that adults who don't play are inflexible and angry.
It is important to continue to assess what you have chosen to do for fun. People change and if you no longer enjoy your fifty mile bike ride while cars try to run you from the road or the gym experience has become a chore then try something else.
And if you are uncertain about how to play adopt a puppy.
Play is an evolutionary trait that many animals share. Some, like wolves, discard it after puppy hood because they have learned from it what they need to survive, but other animals such as ravens play throughout their lives and it is believed that they do so because they enjoy it. Play is a "fundamental survival aspect" of all social animals according to Stuart Brown, MD who is the director of the National Institute for Play which is generating data that supports the belief that adult humans should play and that children must play.
One of the conclusions Dr. Brown reached is that for youngsters it is crucial to engage in play that has a relatively high degree of risk. Climbing is a perfect example. Kids love to summit anything they can and if you surround a tall climbable object with a fence they will climb that too. The risks that children take while playing teach them valuable lessons about trust, physical limitations and group dynamics.
When I was a middle school teacher I was fascinated by the way children behaved outside of the class room with very simple boundaries. There was always an enterprising group of athletes who would start a pick-up game of football or soccer, there were the boys who ran and slammed into each other for no apparent reason and there were the quiet kids who stood alone reading or playing with a toy, so every one was engaged. Unfortunately, recess has been truncated to create time for academics and any apparatus a child can injure herself with has been removed from the school setting. Remember the floor to ceiling climbing rope in your school gym? Children seemed much more engaged during these brief visits to the recess deck than they did sitting in my Latin I class (perhaps that had more to do with my own lack of interest in the subject matter.) And there is strong evidence showing that physical activity enhances learning throughout a person's life.
Play has broad parameters but what sets it apart from other daily activities is that you chose to do it. Reading is considered play, as is sport and hiking in the woods. The reason I find this topic compelling is that in this country we have structured our lives around achievement to such an extent that we don't know how to function without a concrete goal. And because of our puritanical heritage fun is not a worthy endeavor. Why not? Brown argues that whatever type of play you engaged in as a child is a good indicator of what your true interests are. These proclivities are what you should try to nurture so that you can include them in your daily existence i.e. how you make your living. If you discourage a child from playing how will she know what she likes to do? Brown asserts that if you don't allow yourself to play as an adult you will survive but the quality of your existence will be greatly diminished. Data reveals that adults who don't play are inflexible and angry.
It is important to continue to assess what you have chosen to do for fun. People change and if you no longer enjoy your fifty mile bike ride while cars try to run you from the road or the gym experience has become a chore then try something else.
And if you are uncertain about how to play adopt a puppy.
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