The dieter mentality April 15, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in paleo diet.10 comments
I was thinking today about the whole dieting mentality. When you are overweight one is constantly bombarded by messages or testimonials of people who have lost weight. You know the ones ‘I am so full of energy now’, ‘I have so much more confidence’, ‘I make friends so much more easily’ etc etc. These messages lead you to believe, as an overweight person, that once you lose the weight everything will be great and all your problems will be solved.
This of course is a big problem for any dieter. Because when you begin to lose weight you notice that those promised things don’t happen and you begin to wonder if there is something wrong with you. Or you feel let down. This could be why when people have lost weight they keep trying to lose more and I believe this is what is just so addictive about dieting. The fact of the matter is when you lose weight you do feel better. But you don’t become this new person with all these personal problems solved. You still have your demons. Really, people need to be more reality based and focus on the here and now. I have for so long been living in this dreamland and its time for me to face that reality. I think this is one of the hardest things for any dieter to realise
Healthy Saturated Fats On TV NEWS!!!! April 11, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in Uncategorized.5 comments
I watched this video on one of the major New Zealand news channels the other night on why saturated fats might be good for us. We all know this is true but nice to see it hitting the media.
To view watch it here.
What is Fit Anyway? April 10, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in paleo lifestyle.Tags: fitness, paleo lifestyle
5 comments
I was reading this post over at conditioning research, and it highlights a study that showed that people who sat less on their bums were a lot more healthier long term. This got me pondering. There are two types of ‘fit’ in this world – I believe. The first type is the gym bunny or the jogger. The person who consciously goes to the gym and works out. Or goes jogging down the street on a fairly regular basis. Or even in the paleo world the person who does sprint training. This is also the type of person who is likely to be conscious of what they eat, know about what is healthy and what is not, and will be damned if they will eat something that is rubbish (even if they are basing this off false information).
But there is another type that I have had exposure too that seems to be either ignored or simply lumped into the previous category by default. When I was doing my PhD I worked at a marine laboratory and a lot of the people that worked there would have been considered to be pretty buff or fit. If they were walking down the street many people if asked would have confirmed ‘yes they go to the gym’. But they don’t. They lead active lives that doesn’t involve sitting around, but definitely doesn’t involve any formal sense of exercise. It is simply that there work and play requires them to be active. Lots of swimming obviously. In addition, this type of person is unlikely to watch what they eat.
So this brings me to my long winded point. Is formal exercise really worth it if you lead an active lifestyle. Sure if you work in an office then yeah you should go to the gym or plan exercise. But what if your a builder or as I said a marine biologist. What if you are just active in your everyday life. Should you still make time for formal exercise? What this study shows is that you can improve your life expectancy simply by being active in your everyday life. Should this be the new approach to fitness?
A Regular Routine April 8, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in paleo diet.Tags: paleo diet
10 comments
Well I am really at a loss for words as to what to report. I have got into such a regular routine I almost don’t want to bore you all with the same old stuff. But I basically wake up and fast until 1pm (between 16-18hr fasts), have a shrimp salad and then come home and feast on lots of meat and vegetables. So my fasting is going well. I have had some people mention I need to fast longer but at this stage Im happy with what I am doing. The reason is that I don’t want to bring out all the big weight loss guns until I need to.
At the moment Im fairly certain I am losing weight but I can’t know for sure until I get some AA batteries for my electronic scales. Which I will get tomorrow or the next day. So until then I will keep going with the short fasts and the low carbs etc. I am still counting carbs and calories except today I ate my meal and THEN remembered that I should have weighed my food.
Anyway I hope to bring a new element into this whole paleo thing by starting sprint training a few times a week. I would love to hear some tips so let me know what you think in terms of doing this! I will start it this weekend and will write a more thought provoking blog tomorrow but until then I leave you with my dinner tonight. It was beef brisket in a tomato sauce that I cooked with all the fat from the meat and added some courgettes too.
Prolonged Glucose Intake Causes Irreversible Damage April 6, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in carbohydrates, paleo diet.Tags: glucose
4 comments
I recently read this abstract and found it very interesting so I am just going to give it to you here.
Elevated blood glucose associated with diabetes produces progressive and apparently irreversible damage to many cell types. Conversely, reduction of glucose extends life span in yeast, and dietary restriction reduces blood glucose. Therefore it has been hypothesized that cumulative toxic effects of glucose drive at least some aspects of the aging process and, conversely, that protective effects of dietary restriction are mediated by a reduction in exposure to glucose. The mechanisms mediating cumulative toxic effects of glucose are suggested by two general principles of metabolic processes, illustrated by the lac operon but also observed with glucose-induced gene expression. First, metabolites induce the machinery of their own metabolism. Second, induction of gene expression by metabolites can entail a form of molecular memory called hysteresis. When applied to glucose-regulated gene expression, these two principles suggest a mechanism whereby repetitive exposure to postprandial excursions of glucose leads to an age-related increase in glycolytic capacity (and reduction in -oxidation of free fatty acids), which in turn leads to an increased generation of oxidative damage and a decreased capacity to respond to oxidative damage, independent of metabolic rate. According to this mechanism, dietary restriction increases life span and reduces pathology by reducing exposure to glucose and therefore delaying the development of glucose-induced glycolytic capacity.
Mobbs CV, Yen K, Hof PR (eds): Mechanisms of Dietary Restriction in Aging and Disease.
Interdiscipl Top Gerontol. Basel, Karger, 2007, vol 35, pp 39–68
In other words prolonged intake of glucose can permanently damage your cells. Calorie restriction or just watching your glucose intake it would seem can prevent this from occuring.
And now for the food. Well I fasted for 16 hrs then had my usual prawn salad with avocado. I am finding the fasting so much more easy now. For dinner I had some turkey drumsticks with some spinach.
My protein intake was way too high today. Im definitely going to have to keep an eye on this. At the moment I feel rather nauseous. I never used to eat this much protein and I can’t quite understand why my protein intake has increased and my fat intake decreased since I have not consciously changed anything in what I eat. But my carb intake was nice and low at 20g.
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A New Low Weight and 50,000 Hits April 4, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in Uncategorized.6 comments
Sorry I have not posted in the last couple of days. I have had a busy weekend. But I have been eating similarly to before with the fasts in the morning, a tuna salad for lunches, and a I made some roast beef which I had with brocolli for dinner.
The good news is that I have dropped to a new low weight of 101.8kg. So this is great news and I think it is in large part due to the fasts and lowering the carbs right down – except for one notable exception. The fasts certainly seem to be helping and whereas before I would be so hungry by lunchtime and my stomach would be rumbling like crazy now I hardly break a sweat. So who knows in the future I might try to extend them.
Also today I noticed that I have now had 50,000 hits so this is also more great news. I never thought that people would be interested in my little old problems but apparently so. Thanks to anyone who has been reading this blog and I do appreciate your support.
Wicked Wendy’s April 2, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in paleo diet.24 comments
I woke up this morning feeling great. Made my prawn salad and put it in my bag and then FORGOT MY BAG. So after 15hrs of fasting and lunchtime getting near I decided I would go to Wendy’s and get a salad. I work in an area where the food you can find is way too overpriced and I knew that Wendy’s sell salads so it was the least of all evils. But when I got there they had nothing I could eat – just salads with beans, or nacho’s but not salads with chicken. But at this stage I was very low on energy and I knew I needed food. So I caved and had a burger, small fries and some nacho’s. It wasn’t that great and made me feel really full and gross. To be honest its NOT what I wanted.
But when I put in my nutritional breakdown for the day I couldn’t quite believe how much that one meal blew me out. Remember I had a normal paleo meal for dinner and the only thing that differed was the wendy’s meal. Look at my nutrition breakdown.
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What amazes me is that people eat like this everyday and not just one meal but a few. TWO HUNDRED GRAMS of carbs and if I had that twice it would be 400g!!!!!!!! Amazing. In addition, despite my calories been way higher my nutrients were rubbish and way below what they should be. It is not surprising based off this one meal just how bad the modern diet is and Im glad I have been reminded of it. I can tell you now I will not be forgetting my meal tomorrow!!!
Twitter April 1, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in Uncategorized.Tags: twitter
2 comments
I decided to give in to the internet pressure and join twitter. Come follow at http://twitter.com/darwinstable
Mindshift April 1, 2009
Posted by Dr Dan in paleo diet.4 comments
Once upon a time what seems like a long long time ago I used to get very mentally f**ked up whenever I went on a diet. It was because deep down I knew that it was screwing me up. I knew that it was wreaking havoc on my body and my metabolism. My muscle would get eaten away, I would be fatigued, but most of all I knew that I would get hungrier and hungrier as time went on. That the job would get harder and harder and eventually I would break and binge and it would all be over. This was not natural for my body and it would fight it with every hormone it had at its disposal. Then I would boom back to my weight and be fatter than ever before. Thats why I gave up on dieting for two years. Because inherently I knew this was psychologically and physiologically damaging.
But lately I have realised that I have had a huge mindshift. This hasn’t come like a big wave or a sudden ‘A HA’ moment. It has happened slowly and creeped up on me without me realising it. These days I see the paleo diet as healthy for me both physiologically and mentally. I have discussed the physiological details in depth but its mental as well. When I reduce down my carbs and eat good healthy paleo food I feel like my insulin resistance is getting better along with many other ailments. I don’t have bleeding gums anymore, chest pains are gone, havn’t used the asthma inhaler in months, the gout has remained at bay, but most of all my thallasemia has corrected itself – something the doctors told me would never happen.
So now when I binge I think I need to get back to paleo. How weird. I want to return to a diet so I can start feeling better about myself and healing myself. This is the mindshift. I don’t see it as an enemy when Im doing it I feel much much better. The reasons I stray is because its ‘easy’ to stray and yes sometimes I want comfort food. But its never because Ive had enough or Im hungry. Also, I always come back on board no matter what because now, deep deep down, I know that this diet is good for me.
So now for the food. Today was a day of collecting what I had left over in my fridge and eating it. So I didn’t get to have my seafood. But I did have my greens. By the time I ate I had fasted for 16 hrs. I had some chicken drumsticks from last night and some salad with olive oil.
Then for dinner I had a stew. I had some chuck steak with mushrooms, onions and canned tomatoes. I know how boring. But here it is.
Here is the nutritional breakdown. As you can see my carbs were a little bit up at 34g. But this was only because I had to run on left overs. But I seriously did not feel hungry at all today. Even during the fast it was all completely manageable. I came home and was tired and low on energy but not so ravenous that I was shoving my face into any poor morsel that came in eyesight. So I think the combination of the fasts and the low carb is really working for me.
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