140430 Time Keeps on Slippin'...

My diary is lonely, because I collapse into bed at night and wake in the morning. Once I made plans to utilize the wee hours of the morning, I quit waking. It might have something to do with my increased activity. I worked last week, and it kept me busy. Then, I returned to my goal of swimming everyday. I blew the diet and had to start over, because I didn't check a label. At least I didn't have another blood sugar incident.

140422 When Words Collide

My dad disagrees with my daughter's choices. For six years, she has been working towards taking the Advanced Class on the Way of Abundance and Power. She had taken five prerequisites, saved money, allocated time, and is finishing the final testing. It has taken some work  to accomplish this.

My dad and my sister want her to quit because they think it is a waste of money. I never should have told them about it, or else I should have kept them apprised of all the details as they were happening over the last six years. The Word of God is life, and this class will impact the rest of hers. I know. I'm still alive because of what I learned when I took this class.

What to do...

140415 Diet Pattern

Last week, I received what should be my final copy of AARP Magazine. In another post, I may explain why it is my last. One reason is the misinformation they promulgate. In the latest issue, there was an article on diabetes. In the very first paragraph, it said that "...following a low-fat diet can significantly reduce your odds of getting the disease."

Excuse me? What does dietary fat have to do with blood-glucose levels? Unlike carbohydrates, fat is glucose neutral. Body fat affects glucose, but dietary fat on a low-carbohydrate diet? I quit reading, because they would be quoting the same old spin on flawed study from the 1980s. 

When I do a Google search for diabetes, it gives me pages and pages that vilify dietary fats. This article is a discussion of actual studies from this century of low-carb, high-fat diets.  This diabetes forum has a lot of anecdotal evidence for the benefits of the low-carb lifestyle for diabetics. Natural fats are not evil, but Crisco, margarine, trans-fats, and anything used to simulate real fats are dangerous.

This study done by Temple University School of Medicine has one of my favorite quotes:

He discovered that study subjects did not eat less because they were bored with the food selection, and their weight loss was not attributable to water loss, two common speculations about low-carb diets.

Some people may do well on low-fat diets, but one of the worst parts of being overweight is the constant hunger. It has nothing to do with need, but ends in nausea and pain if not fed. The feeling of hunger demands constant input of carbohydrates. The Atkins and other high-fat diets kill hunger by removing the need for carbohydrates.

So my diet is this:
Breakfast:  eggs and bacon with stewed tomatoes
Snack:       beef and kale salad
Lunch:       chicken with mashed pumpkin, or other vegetables
Snack:       consume with salad greens, Atkins product, or other low-carb snack
Supper:      fish with cooked broccoli or other vegetables

I vary the spices and cooking methods daily to avoid boredom. Sometimes, I switch the order of meals, but this is basically what I have eaten for the last ten days. I have been mentally alert with no more blood sugar incidents. Also, I lost seven pounds in the first week. I weight on Sundays.

140414 Diabetes Oils

These oils are good for Diabetes, and also happened to be in my stock:



Each day, I take one capsule three times per day. Each 00 capsule contains:

Three drops of Lemongrass
Three drops of Fennel
Three drops of Di-Gize
Four drops of Christmas Spirit

With this capsule that I fill myself, I take one capsule of Chromium Picolinate, which I bought at the Vitamin Shoppe. I chose Di-Gize, Lemongrass, and Fennel because the Essential Oil Desk Reference recommended them. Christmas Spirit simply smells great and has another oil in it that EODR recommended. So, in summery, I take two pills before breakfast, two pills between lunch and supper, and two pills before bed. I am not sure what it is doing, but I have not had any more incidents.

140412 Diabetic Athletes on a Low Carb Diet

From an athlete's discussion of low-carb diets:

What if someone’s afraid of fat, but they understand they need to cut back on carbs.  So they eat a 14 ounce steak at night to get energy from the protein in the steak.  Are they doing what you recommend.The Inuit were not a literate culture, meaning they didn’t write down what they ate.  But people who lived among the Inuit and, I think, accurately recorded it, pointed out that the Inuit avoided actually eating lots of lean meat.  They had a name for an illness that happened if they ate too much protein and not enough fat.  The English translated the name of that sickness as “rabbit illness,” because, if the Inuit had run short of their winter supply of food, the spring rabbits they could hunt were extremely lean, and eating too many made the Inuit feel sick.  If the Inuit killed a caribou that was not yet fattened up in the Spring yet, they would preferentially eat the tongue and the bone marrow and the liver, which are the fattiest parts of the animal.  They would save the roasts and steaks, which we consider the delicacies, those were saved for the dogs, because that was more lean, and a dog’s metabolism is more suited to handling a high protein meal.  The Inuit instinctively understood that.  They saved the fat for themselves, and they gave the lean to the dogs.  That way they saved themselves from gastrointestinal upset, swelling, malaise and in the most severe cases, kidney disease. -- Steve Phinney

Primitive cultures don't have a lot of time for philosophy; they usually stick with what works. Our modern diet is based as much on philosophy as evidence. The latest dietary recommendations put out by the US government cite global warming as a reason to eat or to avoid certain foods. "Nutrition be d*****!" they seem to say. I am not liking this. I used to joke that people of the future would look back at these times, point, and laugh. Now I am sure of it.

The body's storehouse of carbohydrates is limited to about 1500 calories. Fat stores are limited to the amount of fat a person has, which for the average person at his recommended weight is 40,000 or more. This man was talking about how low-carb diets take two weeks to transition the body from burning sugar to burning fat. Once that point is passed, however, one never again 'hits the wall' during extreme exercise. Good to know. That means I have another seven days before I can assume that my blood sugar won't crash during exercise. Yesterday, I ran out of steam after an hour of low impact aerobics. This is still much better than I was a couple of weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, I had another low-blood sugar incident. I was shopping and almost collapsed. I had to be helped to the car. Agent Em said I smelled sickly sweet. It took me three days to recover. After talking with some of my diabetic friends, I learned that all my symptoms were similar to theirs. My last blood glucose analysis some years ago had me borderline. I am proceeding as if I were indeed Type II diabetic like my mom and grandmother were. I've also slipped into Stage III of obesity. More on that later. Time to swim.