Month: October 2009

8 Days in Ketosis and 10 Lbs. Down

I’ve been lax in journaling – I promised I would do so some time back.

Apparently I lied.

Anywho, I have been quite adherent to an Atkins induction-style diet, and have been in ketosis for about 8 days straight. When I started this, about 10 days ago, I had puffed up to 218.6 due to a ‘what-the-hell’ attitude, which I find I sometimes have to indulge to an extreme to exorcise it.

I believe: if you give in to ‘what-the-hell’, don’t do it half-hearted – go for it!

You will probably feel like crap the next day – a great way to steel one’s resolve and get back to your diet.

Last night I got on the scale and was 207.8 – nearly 11 lbs. down. Yesterday I was able to actually fit into a pair of pants that 2 weeks ago were cutting off circulation to my lower extremities – a nice indicator of progress.

So what have I been doing? Continue reading “8 Days in Ketosis and 10 Lbs. Down” →

Fat Babies Prove Being Fat Isn’t (Entirely) Our Fault

For those of us under 50 who need an excuse for being fat, here’s a good one: it’s not me, but the chemicals that I was exposed to before birth that made me fat.

I’ll let you read the Newsweek article yourself – I don’t feel inclined to do a book report at present, but to summarize: there is an epidemic of obese 6-month-olds, and since these babies don’t have the ability to go on a White Castle run or hit the cookie aisle hard, we can’t exactly blame them for being fat. Continue reading “Fat Babies Prove Being Fat Isn’t (Entirely) Our Fault” →

Update On Nicotine as a Weight Loss Device

01/25/12 UPDATE: Nearly 3 years of experimentation and

here’s my summary: My Last Post on Nicotine.

On April 13th of this year I started experimenting with nicotine, in the form of Commit lozenges, as a means to help stave off food cravings. As of today, 6 months later, I would say this:

  • The 4mg lozenges, taken on average 4 times per day, do reduce food cravings
  • I have lost no weight since starting this

The conclusions drawn from this can be many – especially because nicotine has moral implications. Continue reading “Update On Nicotine as a Weight Loss Device” →

New Fat is Needed to Clear Old Fat From Body

Interesting (though pretty heavy on the science) article that basically shows that zero fat diets are not healthy for us.

Here’s a redacted and bolded version – see the full article for all the detail and the lack of selective emphasis reflecting my personal confirmation bias. Seriously, studies like this need to be taken with a grain of salt because we are not mice genetically altered to not produce new fatty acids. It’s a clever trick that points to the body handling new fat from dietary sources and old fat from fat stores – but sometimes we get too clever and come to conclusions that might be more confounding than ‘conclusive’. Continue reading “New Fat is Needed to Clear Old Fat From Body” →

The Last Post On Chili – Promise

When does chili stop being ‘chili’?

If I were to scramble eggs in butter in a fry pan and call it ‘chili’, you’d question my use of the word.

“That’s not chili! That’s eggs, you idiot!” Or something to that effect.

So is what follows, ‘chili’? Beats me. You be the judge. Continue reading “The Last Post On Chili – Promise” →

Doctors Join Fight Against Obesity – And Use Low Carb While They’re At It

Here’s an article from USA Today that discusses the fact that physicians are trying to address the notion of obesity more, rather than ignoring it.

Why do you think that, all of a sudden, there’s some movement toward trying to help patients lose weight rather than ignore it – since we’ve known for ages that obesity is a contributing factor to so many of our ills? Continue reading “Doctors Join Fight Against Obesity – And Use Low Carb While They’re At It” →

The World’s Second Eggplant and Zucchini Chili Recipe

As mentioned last week, I cooked up a pot of chili where I added a number of vegetables not known for residing in chili – at the risk of spending 3 hours tending a pot of food destined for the garbage pail.

It came out really good, so I decided to tempt fate twice and purposely try to overdo the veggies. Part of the purpose here is to try and get more vegetables in my diet – as of late, I’ve found myself going for the veggies less and less – a result more of my busy schedule and ‘eat-on-the-run’ lifestyle than a lack of affection for them. Continue reading “The World’s Second Eggplant and Zucchini Chili Recipe” →

Vegetarian Chili With Meat

Yeah – it’s a dumb name for it – I know.

I originally started out to make my 4-alarm chili recipe, but instead of diced tomatoes, I added pureed – and it just seems to be too thin. So I decided to clean my fridge of a number of vegetables that had reached middle age, but were still good – at least good enough for chili. Continue reading “Vegetarian Chili With Meat” →