Pratfall

Well it's been a hectic few weeks!  I thought I'd catch everyone up.

Besides my being hella busy - as always - I've had a fully toddling Fiver, Bodog ill, petrol stations out of gas, hay and grain still at record highs, a new haircut, a decision for whom I'm voting, and I managed to take one of my famous tumbles.

Yeah, I fell.

I know those of you who know me are familiar with my penchant for hurting myself, usually in the barnyard, with or without various hand tools.  Well, this time I managed to fall inside the house.  No, I didn't go down the steps, though I've fallen down both sets before.

I was walking my supper plate and glass back to the kitchen, actually.  Now, our hall is long, narrow, and dark (and cuz it's my house; cluttered) - it was originally the covered porch that connected the house to the detached kitchen.  I have a lamp out there from when I needed to see when I put in the new water heater and I hooked my foot in the cord as I was walking.

Well, because of my bum knee, when I fall, I go down like a building.  So I fell, sprawling face first in the hall.  Remember the glass and plate?  I landed on my right forearm (never let go of the glass) and raised a hoematoma the size of a half a baseball between my wrist and my elbow, and the plate (a heavy ceramic dinner plate) hit the floor, broke, and cracked me across the bridge of my nose.

Ouch.

Aside from the broken blood vessel in my arm, I had an inch and a half long gash across the bridge of my nose!  The next morning I had two lovely black eyes.  I looked like a prize-fighter.

And, yes, I had to go pick up my children from school like that. Jeez.

The weird part is that it took me several days to decide that I had also broken my nose.  It was swollen up hugely and painful for days afterwards and I just thought that was because of the cut, but 3 days after I fell my nose was STILL so tender that if I touched it it almost brought tears to my eyes!  It also crunched, which was really creepy. That and the black eyes convinced me that it was broken.

So, uh, yeah.

I think I might need to be wrapped in bubble wrap.

Another diet tip and a progress report

Diet tip: buy yourself some measuring cups and spoons.

Srsly.

You can get both at the dollar store for, well, a dollar.  Get a set of measuring spoons and the long-handled measuring cups in individual sizes (1/4 cup, 1/3 cup) JUST for dieting purposes. Look for ones that are smooth and will be easy to get sticky foods out of.

Now use them.

 I was eyeballing stuff - I bake and cook, so I just assumed I could accurately judge.  WRONG!  I was stunned at how much I was overestimating tablespoons and divisions of cups!

-----

I'm pleased to report that I am now only 10lbs away from my goal weight (of 170lbs)!

I began dieting in mid March (2007) about 10 days after my last child was born and I've lost 132lbs total so far.  I've lost 19lbs of  that since I've been following the Lacto-Paleo lifestyle (about a month and a half).

Article

Oh arrgh!  This dieting article made me tear my hair.  Are humans this pathetic?

"When it comes to dieting, Americans put on a good show, buying millions of diet books, watching TV programs about weight loss, obsessing over celebrities and their baby weight. But in the end, that may be all it is: a show. (snip)

"Our interest in losing weight is waning," says Harry Balzer, lead food and beverage industry analyst for The NPD Group,(snip)

Dieting was once practically a national pastime. In 1990, the same report found that 39 percent of women and 29 percent of men were on a diet. So, what's happened? Balzer, who's tracked Americans' eating habits since the 1980s, believes the answer is that dieting is simply too hard. "It's much easier to change your attitude," he said, than to sustain the willpower to eat less."

Amazing!  And the most astounding part is that people are like this about everything these days!  Relationships, parenting, breastfeeding (yes, I went there)!

That view is echoed by Kelly D. Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, who says that diets are "notoriously ineffective," and posits that many overweight people may have simply given up.


Marge McMillan, 60, is one who says she's given up on diets, if not on slimming down. A veterinarian who lives in Medford, McMillan tried the low-carb Atkins diet and Weight Watchers but threw in the towel on both. Now, she's just trying to eat healthily. "Diets don't work," she said. "You lose the weight but regain more."

Not true!  I vented about this over on my Thrifty Dieters Blog.


Dr. Sasha Stiles, medical director of the Obesity Consult Center at Tufts Medical Center, offers additional reasons why dieting is on the wane: "A lot of people are saying I don't have enough money to spend on a diet, or I'm going to try surgery."

Patently absurd.  You don't need a lot of money to diet, I can testify!  As for the surgery, well that's unessessary in most cases, IMHO.  "I'll just get my insurance to pay to dramatically and dangerously and permanently alter my body because I can't be arsed to put the fork down."




There's another possible explanation: Fewer people are dieting because there's no exciting new diet on the scene. In 2004, the top-selling diet book in the country, "The South Beach Diet," sold 2.4 million copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, a data provider for the publishing industry. In 2007, the most popular book, "You: On a Diet," by Oprah Winfrey's health guru Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Michael Roizen, managed only 706,000 copies. This year's top selling book, "Eat This Not That!" has sold a mere 552,000 copies so far, and is more reference than diet book.


After years of being sucked into one weight-loss phenomenon after another - low-cal, low-fat, low-carb - serial dieters seem to have fallen into a fallow period. With no miracle plan animating dinner-party and workplace conversations, it's the same old, same old. That gets boring, says Amy Kropke, 41, of Newton, who says she'd be "fabulous" if she could shed 20 pounds.


"I love that moment where you're like, 'This is it. This is definitely the one," she says, her voice tinged with nostalgia for the days when South Beach thrilled her. She wants to be seduced again, preferably by "something that was easy, that you could lose 10 pounds without having to do too much."

Well butter my broad bum and call me a jumbo bisquit.  Perhaps she'd also like to sit at home all day and veg in front of her 'stories' whilst Zachary Quinto fetched her soda and brushed the cheesy poof dust off of her ratty sweatshirt?

(oh, wait ... that was MY fantasy ...)

If only reading diet books triggered weight loss, we'd be all set. Even without a new hit title, the number of weight-loss books sold in 2007 hit 4.8 million, up from 4 million in 2006, and 3.6 million in 2005, according to Nielsen BookScan. Still, sales aren't what they were in 2004 when the "South Beach" juggernaut was in full swing. That year, 5.3 million diet books sold.
(snip)
"I keep wondering if it's market saturation," said Oliver, professor of political science at the University of Chicago. "You have people who are interested in dieting who tried South Beach and tried Atkins. Some were successful, but they may have gained the weight back. We may be in a cycle where we're waiting for the next new Scarsdale, South Beach, Atkins . . . the whole rigmarole. Someone who is a clever marketer may see this as a time to strike."


So should I begin working on my Paleo Diet book now?  Should I? :excited:

Fascinating article on dieting

I came across this article that moves me to blog on two blogs (this one and the ThriftyMom Blog).

What an interesting thing:

"When it comes to dieting, Americans put on a good show, buying millions of diet books, watching TV programs about weight loss, obsessing over celebrities and their baby weight. But in the end, that may be all it is: a show. The number of people on a diet - 26 percent of all women in the United States and 16 percent of men for the year ending February 2008 - is the lowest it's been in more than two decades, according to a soon-to-be-released survey.


"Our interest in losing weight is waning," says Harry Balzer, lead food and beverage industry analyst for The NPD Group, a market research firm, and author of the survey, the Annual Report on Eating Patterns in America.


The report, which asks 5,000 Americans to keep a daily journal for two weeks about their eating habits, also found that despite high levels of obesity nationwide, a declining percentage of people want to slim down or, for that matter, consider excess weight unattractive. In 1985, 55 percent of those surveyed "completely agreed" with the statement, "People who are not overweight look a lot more attractive." Today, only 25 percent completely agree with it.


Dieting was once practically a national pastime. In 1990, the same report found that 39 percent of women and 29 percent of men were on a diet.

(snip)


Kelly D. Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University ... says that diets are "notoriously ineffective," and posits that many overweight people may have simply given up."

Marge McMillan, 60, is one who says she's given up on diets, if not on slimming down. A veterinarian who lives in Medford, McMillan tried the low-carb Atkins diet and Weight Watchers but threw in the towel on both. Now, she's just trying to eat healthily. "Diets don't work," she said. "You lose the weight but regain more."

NOT true.  Diets DO work if you are willing to actually DO IT.  If you want to diet, lose weight, then turn around and sit on your backside and eat whatever you want, well, then, yeah, your 'diet' didn't work. You must want it badly enough to be disciplined and change your lifestyle to a healthier one ... permanently.

As a person who has lost a HUGE amount of weight, I am saddened that some Americans are so lazy and overindulged as to really think that a simple diet - getting healthy for your loved ones and yourself - is SO tough.

We are in control of our own selves.  We are responsible for our own actions.  If we overindulge and gain weight to the point of ill health, we have the ability to change our habits and lose the weight (barring a medical condition).  Simply DO IT. Put forth the effort.

Folks want something for nothing.  They want a magic pill.  They want to be able to eat whatever they want, sit in front of the telly all day, and still look fabulous.

How many times have you heard someone say, of a diet: "I felt so deprived!"

Well, duh, honey.  It's a DIET.

Yes, dieting is hard. It bloody sucks. But it's do-able.


The key word here is "DO".  What did Yoda say?  "Do or do not.  There is no try."

Fascinating article on dieting

I came across this article that moves me to blog on two blogs (this one and the ThriftyMom Blog).

What an interesting thing:

"When it comes to dieting, Americans put on a good show, buying millions of diet books, watching TV programs about weight loss, obsessing over celebrities and their baby weight. But in the end, that may be all it is: a show. The number of people on a diet - 26 percent of all women in the United States and 16 percent of men for the year ending February 2008 - is the lowest it's been in more than two decades, according to a soon-to-be-released survey.


"Our interest in losing weight is waning," says Harry Balzer, lead food and beverage industry analyst for The NPD Group, a market research firm, and author of the survey, the Annual Report on Eating Patterns in America.


The report, which asks 5,000 Americans to keep a daily journal for two weeks about their eating habits, also found that despite high levels of obesity nationwide, a declining percentage of people want to slim down or, for that matter, consider excess weight unattractive. In 1985, 55 percent of those surveyed "completely agreed" with the statement, "People who are not overweight look a lot more attractive." Today, only 25 percent completely agree with it.


Dieting was once practically a national pastime. In 1990, the same report found that 39 percent of women and 29 percent of men were on a diet.

(snip)


Kelly D. Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University ... says that diets are "notoriously ineffective," and posits that many overweight people may have simply given up."

Marge McMillan, 60, is one who says she's given up on diets, if not on slimming down. A veterinarian who lives in Medford, McMillan tried the low-carb Atkins diet and Weight Watchers but threw in the towel on both. Now, she's just trying to eat healthily. "Diets don't work," she said. "You lose the weight but regain more."

NOT true.  Diets DO work if you are willing to actually DO IT.  If you want to diet, lose weight, then turn around and sit on your backside and eat whatever you want, well, then, yeah, your 'diet' didn't work. You must want it badly enough to be disciplined and change your lifestyle to a healthier one ... permanently.

As a person who has lost a HUGE amount of weight, I am saddened that some Americans are so lazy and overindulged as to really think that a simple diet - getting healthy for your loved ones and yourself - is SO tough.

We are in control of our own selves.  We are responsible for our own actions.  If we overindulge and gain weight to the point of ill health, we have the ability to change our habits and lose the weight (barring a medical condition).  Simply DO IT. Put forth the effort.

Folks want something for nothing.  They want a magic pill.  They want to be able to eat whatever they want, sit in front of the telly all day, and still look fabulous.

How many times have you heard someone say, of a diet: "I felt so deprived!"

Well, duh, honey.  It's a DIET.

Yes, dieting is hard. It bloody sucks. But it's do-able.


The key word here is "DO".  What did Yoda say?  "Do or do not.  There is no try."

Arrr! Ahoy ye wenches!

Yep, it's Talk Like A Pirate day!  w00t!

Go check out Evil Genius Tees' own new specialty store: our PIRATE shop!

Get booty for all your mates and wenches, maternity / pregnancy t-shirts, baby onesies, and toddler tees with their fave pirate designs, and more.

Here's the blog post over on Evil Genius Tees, oh, and check out the newest post on the Thrifty Dieter's Blog, too.  We don't talk pirates, but you can chime in on my newest diet attempts, lol.

Cool tool

One of the most helpful tips I can share about dieting for weight loss is to write down what you eat.

And I mean EVERYthing. Write down that stick of gum, the creamer in your morning coffee, that glass of water, everything that goes in your mouth.  It REALLY helps.

A cool way to track what you're eating and how healthy it is, via Rebecca's excellent new diet blog, and Barb on our own Evil Genius Woman Forums.

Personally, I keep a log in Excell with a few funtions thrown in to calculate number of calories and carbs per day and I use Calorie King to look up nutrition info.

However you do it, it really pays to track your food intake.

Oh please tell me you are JOKING

There is just NO WAY.

DELTONA, Fla. – An angry Deltona father whacked his teenage daughter's boyfriend with a metal pipe after finding the boy naked in his daughter's room. Authorities say the father, 45, didn't even know his daughter had a boyfriend or that the youngster had been sneaking into the home for more than a year.


When he heard noises coming from his daughter's bedroom Thursday morning and saw a stranger standing naked on the girl's bed, he swung a metal pipe. He then chased the teen out the front door and called police.


The boy was taken to the hospital where doctors closed a head wound with staples.


The father was charged with aggravated battery on a child and bonded out on $10,000.

Do WHAT?  "The father was charged with aggravated battery on a child"?

What would YOU do?  That "child" was trespassing, exposing himself indecently, and assaulting your effing daughter!  I would have beat him unconcious and stripped darling daughter's room of everything she owned but furniture and her clothes. 

They should charge the BOY and toss him in DJJ.

Food allergies and the Paleo way

Hmmm.

I just noticed that of the 8 most common childhood allergies, half of them are things not eaten with the Paleo Diet Lifestyle: milk, wheat, peanuts, and soy.

Of course the other four are: eggs, tree nuts, fish and shellfish.

I could argue that Paleolithic man came across these four things rarely and so we are not yet evolved completely to deal with them.  I mean, being serious, man in the stone age would have had plenty of access to fruit, veg, roots, seeds, insects, and meat in various quantities.

Eggs would have been hard to get to, mostly being up in trees; nut trees would not be common; fish and shellfish, hard to catch/collect and much less available to non-coastal groups.

Makes sense to me.  What do you think?

Food allergies and the Paleo way

Hmmm.

I just noticed that of the 8 most common childhood allergies, half of them are things not eaten with the Paleo Diet Lifestyle: milk, wheat, peanuts, and soy.

Of course the other four are: eggs, tree nuts, fish and shellfish.

I could argue that Paleolithic man came across these four things rarely and so we are not yet evolved completely to deal with them.  I mean, being serious, man in the stone age would have had plenty of access to fruit, veg, roots, seeds, insects, and meat in various quantities.

Eggs would have been hard to get to, mostly being up in trees; nut trees would not be common; fish and shellfish, hard to catch/collect and much less available to non-coastal groups.

Makes sense to me.  What do you think?

There's such a thing as too little!

I think I'm now UNDER carbing.

Sheesh!

When you eat no bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, beans, peanuts, or corn and virtually no sugar, cutting calories means your carbs hit rock bottom!

Srsly. This whole thing is just too easy.  I have no cravings and I'm not hungry.  Cutting calories has been a cinch but my carbs have dropped below 20g per day several times this past week.  That's TOO low.  I'm not feeling bad or seeing any side effects, but it's bound to happen.

So I've resolved to up my veggie consumption to compensate.  I just boiled down some collards fresh out of my garden yesterday. Those should help a LOT!

Mmmmmm, collards.

Confessions of a 100 calorie addict

Great article here.

"Two new marketing studies found that some people tend to consume more calories when junk food portions and packages are smaller. For some, it's because they perceive small packages to be ... get this ... diet food.



[snip]


Manufacturers are releasing more and more products in smaller packages. And in recent years, several brand-name products, from chips to cookies to candy, have been released in smaller packages promoted as having just 100 calories. In terms of sales, the tactic has proven successful, past research shows.
The strategy might seem counterintuitive, because in many past studies, people tended to consume more when given more. In a 2005 test, for example, people who were offered 12-inch sandwiches ate more than those given shorter sandwiches.



But one of the new studies, led by Rita Coelho do Vale at the Technical University of Lisbon, found people believe smaller packages help them "regulate hedonic, tempting consumption," but in fact their consumption can actually increase. Large packages, on the other hand, trigger concern about overeating.


The participants watched episodes of "Friends" and were told the study was about evaluating ads. Bags of potato chips - of differing sizes, of course - were slipped into the test.


The result: Smaller packages are more likely to fuel temptation. "Because they are considered to be innocent pleasures ..."


I have to agree wholeheartedly!

I, myself, became addicted to those 100 calorie packs of Cheetos and Doritos. I shamefully spent huge amounts of money, cringing every time, for these 'treats' that were only to 'help me lose weight'.

I'd eat my tiny bit of starchy, carb-heavy foods and feel hungry again an hour later, so I'd grab one of those packets of crisps. Hey, it's only 100 calories, right?

Then an hour or two later: hungry again.  Rinse and repeat.

While I do believe that eating all through the day in several small meals is natural for us and so helps us regulate our hunger and blood sugar, I DON'T think that those wee, carby, overprocessed snacks are the answer!

Veggie tips for Paleo dieters

If you're not a big veg person but want to go Paleo, here are some tips:

If you're doing Lacto-Paleo (not giving up milk), like me, then dips are wonderful.  You can usually find the store brand spinach, ranch, and onion dip seasoning packets (I plan to experiment with the italian dressing seasoning, too) for a low price.  I grab the store brand neufchatel cheese (same carbs, fewer calories), soften and mix.  Very inexpensive, easy-to-make, low cal and low carb!

I thin my dips down (you can use water, milk, or sour cream for a tangy taste) even more to save calories.  Dip doesn't have to be thick like brick morter, despite what the big-name dip people tell you!  They make them so thick so that you'll get enormous globs on each tablespoon-sized chip and thus run through the dip faster whilst adding more flab to your backside!

Anyway, once thinned, you have a creamy dip for raw cucumbers, broccoli, celery, and zucchini.  Yum!

I even thin this same 'recipe' down until it's easily spoonable, and substitute it for dressing over spinach or iceberg lettuce salads.