Food and Morality

Wondering One --

I used to have my blood-sugar checked quite
often, because I drank so much pop, and I am
overweight. I quit, though, about three years ago,
because I did not seem to have a problem. Maybe
I will go in tonight and get it checked.

I think I have nailed down why I am overweight. It
is worth checking, anyway. Too little water and
too many sweet drinks, to much meat and to few
vegetables, and no fruit. I clearly had a very
unbalanced diet. And that pan of chocolate candy
I made a week ago is still in the fridge. I only ate
a tiny bit, but it was almost daily.

Since I am fotunate that I can, I am going to start
walking. I find I can walk almost tirelessly. Last
time I did it, though, I had to walk back home, @
1/3 mile, on a sprained ankle. Think I will try again,
while watching where I am going instead of looking
at the gorgeous clouds! 8o)

- - - - - - - - - -

I will get it checked. I even woke up twice that
night, coughing from a dry mouth! I am hoping
that it is the pop, too. So far today, I have drank
over 48 ounces of water (I keep track), and I am
thirsty. Although I went off the caffeine-free
Pepsi, I was drinking a lot of 7-up mixed with
daquirie (sp) mix and a lot of those Kobe-type
drinks.

I went up and bought "Water To Go." It is much
better.

Changes I am making: more fruits and vegetables,
no red meats except on very rare occasion, more
grains, and tons of water. We'll see if it works.

Funny -- I am determined to do this.

 

For those who are serious about losing, there are some important things to remember which I don't think have been mentioned here (at least I didn't see them).

First, metabolism. For any given age group, men generally have a faster metabolism than women. This means it is easier for them to lose.

Second, again metabolism. If you cut your calorie content too drastically, your metabolism will slow down to 'starvation mode', meaning you simply will not burn what you usually burn, and the same amount of food which would be maintenance for you at any other time will cause you to gain weight.

Third, try metabolism again! The older you get, the more it slows. It is easier for a young person of either sex to lose weight than an older person.

Fourth, fat cells. Unless they are surgically removed, they are yours for life. They can be full or empty, but once you have added them to your flesh, they will never disappear, and they will always 'want' to be full.

Next, to correct a misconception Aaron stated and a lot of people have: you don't have to eat a pound to gain a pound. This is because your body will use more water the more weight you carry, so you do not need to eat a pound to gain a pound! The flip side of this is that when you do start dieting, often your initial weight loss is somewhat dramatic, since you will also be dumping water (urinating frequently). This is often the 'trick' used by various diet groups and even pills. That first dramatic loss is not because of them, but they sure like to claim it is!

Safe and healthy weight loss includes the following:

Keep added salts and sugars to a minimum. Salt retains water (but some is necessary for survival -- so if you have been working on a hot day, that Gatorade or handful of pretzels is fine!), and sugar triggers the pancreas to produce insulin, which promptly stores sugar and a lot else of what you have just eaten as fat in your ever-present fat cells! You DON'T want to trigger your insulin to go on 'high'. That is the major reason why most desserts are so horrid for you. You have just eaten a large, healthy meal and you have that super-sweet dessert which then triggers your pancreas to produce the insuline which stores much more of your dinner as fat than it would have otherwise!

Try to avoid refined carbohydrates. Carbs are important, but make sure they have the fiber in them that also helps a diet: whole wheat bread instead of white or 'wheat', whole grain pasta, oatmeal instead of sugared or refined breakfast cereals, etc. The carbohydrates convert to sugar fairly quickly and too many will also send your pancreas into overtime, which you don't want. So just don't overdo in this area.

Protein takes a long time to digest and will hold your hunger at bay for a long time in comparison to any other food. Lean protein three times a day really helps control the urge to snack.

Eggs are not evil. It's a good protein starter for the morning. Girls, add a little cheese for the calcium.

Speaking of which -- a high calcium diet will also help you lose weight, although I have not seen a real reason why yet! Unflavored yogurt with some cut up fresh fruit and a drizzle of honey is terrific. Add some sliced almonds for crunch. String cheese is a great snack. Add a glass of milk with one meal or before bed and you are set! (If you MUST have chocolate in your milk, at least make it a smaller glass, OK? )

Nuts are good guys. Protein and they also have been shown recently to help stave off diabetes.

Fruits and veggies are always good for you -- but you knew that!

Perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT thing in getting to a healthy weight (whatever that is for you!) is working. Exercise is a drag for most of us. So do your housework double time. Or get out there and hoe that yard and mow the grass. Walk the dog, or your friend. Most friends don't like to be on a leash, though... Play with the kids, sweep the driveway, wash the car, go for a hike, scrub dirty ceilings....you get the idea. Get active as part of a daily routine. There are plenty of things to be done even for an apartment dweller. The activity will not only burn those calories, but it will boost your metabolism as well, so you will burn more. It also strengthens you and that feels great!

Drink when you are thirsty. If plain water is not appealing to you, get carbonated water or add a little lemon or lime to your water at home. On hot days don't wait until you are thirsty. Drink more often.

If you are tired, your body needs sleep, not food... Don't mix up the two.

The above is a cumulation of many years of being a brittle hypoglycemic due to an angry horse whose hoof landed square in my middle when I was 21. I got what was intended for another horse and lost all of my spleen and half of my pancreas.

Yes, I'm a little overweight now, as is so normal, and would like to lose, which is also so normal, but now that I am outside working in the springtime garden, I can usually count of dropping a pretty decent amount of the cumulative winter fats.

One trick I have learned is to plan my meals and snacks the evening before. That way I don't suddenly stop what I am doing the next day and think "I'm HUNGRY!" and then go in and grab whatever is handy. Handy things are usually not what is best for me! So I'll cut up some fruit for the yogurt the night before or early in the morning. Then I don't have to fight my own rebellion against just eating because I am hungry later instead of eating what I had planned to have that helps balance my day.

I have water bottles ready to go by the kitchen sink, so it's easier to grab one of them than anything else. In other words, I pander to my own laziness by planning ahead!

Tricks I have learned. Dietary advice I have found valuable. Hope some of it helps whoever is interested.

 

I think that some of us tend to retain water, and I
think I happen to be one. Otherwise, I have no
explanatioon for why I lost more than 20 pounds
between Thursday morning and Monday morning
that time when I suddenly made a decision to go
off pop, canned foods, sugar. I know I could not
have lost much fat during that short of a period.

Certainly, I am hoping to lose a lot of water again,
but the problem remains that if I do carry 20
pounds water about, I am unaware of why I am,
thus unaware of how to keep it off. I use little salt,
unless I am eating steak, which I have decidedly
cut back.

Regarding dieting, I actually like the term for
myself, because I know that I will need to diet for
the rest of my life. It is just a fact of my life.
When I start thinking "life style" with regard to
food, I get sloppy.

Speaking of sufficient helpings, all my life, I have
only known only disproportionate servings. My
birth-family did not understand proportionate
servings, and I did not know that what I did with
my family was disproportionate, until my daughter
told me some years back. At her word, I began to
look about.

I saw the tiny individual boxes of cereal, which are
one serving, and I was shocked. When I ate cold
cereal, I always ate twice that much and added a
sliced banana to it. I looked at the bags of micro-
wave popcorn, and found that they contain
several servings. I used to eat one by myself. I
looked at the fact that one serving of meat would
not quite cover the palm of my hand and
wondered, "Then why is one steak usually more
than the size of my hand and fingers combined?"

I had adjusted accordingly, except where both
pop and meat are concerned. Now, I am adjusting
those, as well as my tendency to eat once a day.
I am going to try eating all day instead, but I am
not there yet.

- - - - - - - -

I had my blood-sugar tested today; I will be able to
learn the result tomorrow. I have lost 5 pounds of
water.

[ April 02, 2003, 06:13 PM: Message edited by: Abiyah ]

 

I know I need to lose weight... I'm 5'11" and weigh about 225... Not only watch what you eat... But "Never"... Eat in the buff in front of a mirror ... Brother Glen

 

You CANNOT gain one pound from eating less than ONE pond. It is a physical impossibility. If you could stand on a pair of scales and eat 15 ounces of food, you will NEVER gain one pound. Now, if you also drink an ounce of water, OK, but not from just 15 ounces of food.

I also wish to make a correction. In my first post on this thread I told about a "lifestyle" eating program called "1st Place". I said there was an article in Reader's Digest but it was actually in Prevention Magazine. I am sorry if anyone looked for it.

 

Calories from fats and sweets are metabolized
differently than are those from vegetables and
grains. It is the calorie intake and amount of
exercise, as well as (minorly) the body's
propensity to retain water and the number of fat
cells present which determine how much weight
one will gain from food. Calories from fats and
sugars are more slowly burned, thus they stick
with the body longer; calories from vegetables,
grains, and fruits are used up more quickly. That
is why old-fashioned diets usually failed -- they
did not take these things into consideration.

So I could eat 1 pound of vegetables and fruits
and not gain an ounce, but if I ate 1/2 pound of
steak and chocolate, I would gain. Also, 1000
calories of vegetables, fruit, grain, and fish will
not make me gain, while 1000 calories of steak
and chocolate will make me gain.

Someone mentioned earlier, to those of us who
are one-meal-eaters, that we should eat many
small meals, in order to get our metabolism on-
track. I know they are right, from previous studies
of nutrition -- that this does help burn calories.
Doing it is another story; I keep intending to, but
then I forget. Here it is, almost 9:30 a.m., and I
haven't eat yet.

 

I agree with those who have discussed how different kinds of foods are processed differently and lead to different weight gains.

I used to agree with the simple logic about eating 1 lb of food = 1 lb of weight gain (or something to that effect).

I used to believe that if I stopped eating red meats and, instead, ate mega amounts of vegetables and only had fish and chicken that I'd loose weight.

The problem that most of us have concerning diet is essentially the same problem that most of us have concerning theology. We take the words of others and neglect our own research. So what may seem logical to those of us who haven't done sufficient scientific research on how different foods, vitamins, minerals, exercizes, etc...impact the body, are vulnerable to suggestion.

Bottom line, if you really want to loose weight and then maintain a healthy weight, you are going to have recognize that, with the exception of the minority of folks who have medical problems that cause severe weight gain, your lifestyle is going to have to change. You will have to do the due diligence required to understand what you are eating and how it impacts your body. You will have to be willing to sacrifice the short term comfort of a sedentary lifestyle and "comfort foods" if you want to attain health.

Where this issue becomes theological is when the lost hear our message about turning away from the desires of the flesh and then they look at our lifestyle and see that we make exceptions in the area of health.

A post-modern generation is simply not going see much credibility in our message when our lifestyle doesn't match.

 

Folks, it's not a matter of how much you eat or drink -- meaning the weight of what goes in your mouth -- which determines weight gain or loss. It is a matter of what your body does with it. If you eat a pound of food and drink 16 ounces of water, you will NOT gain two pounds. You will use some as energy and some will be passed as waste. So please don't think of equivalencies here.

On the other hand it is also not a matter of 'water retention' -- which is a different matter altogether -- but of water use. If you eat a pound of processed flour food, such as macaroni or pretzels or whatever, your body requires a pretty decent amount of water both to process and store it. If you eat a pound of watermelon, the water is already there. The more fiber in the food, the more quickly it will pass through the intestines, pushing other stuff ahead of it. Processed foods tend to get a little more hung up in the timing.

Aaron, with so many people talking about being overweight, and thus attempting, at least, to diet, I simply wrote down what I have discovered through the years for a body that is a bit more medically fragile than the average. Cutting down on your portions is great. It also helps to have protein in the morning, at the least!

If you are not sure when you are hungry and when you are just munching, avoid the munching. You'll know hunger when it hits. Guys are usually fine sticking to three basic meals a day and exercising (formally or as work) some. Girls generally do better with smaller meals and some healthy snacks in between. I have found that I can split up my dinner and eat each half about three hours apart and I do fine -- this avoids snacking before bed on junk food or candy.

Again, refined carbohydrates and sugars will kick off your insulin production, which means you will store more of what you eat as fat. This is why the Atkins diet works -- it avoids both. However the disadvantages of that diet can include constipation and subsequent intestinal and bowel problems as well as high cholesterol.

 

Sounds right Helen, I know I like eating less, and then having a snack when I get hungry. I still think it's all in when and how much you eat, eating only when your hungry,and then stopping when your not hungry anymore.

 

That's me! Can you tell me what you learned about knowing the difference between real hunger and the munchies? Sometimes it's obvious to me and sometimes it's not. </font>[/QUOTE]Thansk you Aaron. I've been through a couple of chrsitan programs(one was questionable as to beibng christian) that was aimed at helping me to learn when I need food,and when I don't. The usualy begining to learnt he difference is to not eat again until you know for sure you are hungry, not just a little nug of hunger, wait till your stomach feel empty, you know when it rebels and wants to kill you if you don't eat right now. Fro a classic over eater it may have been years since they have felt this. As long as there is food in your stomach you don't need more, when it tells you you are empty, then you can eat again. Pay attention to how your stomach feels when you are eating, half way through your meal stop a few minutes and see what your stomach feels like, is it still hungry, or have you reached the feeling of being satidfied. When you feel satisfied (not full, thats too much food), then it's time to stop eating. I promise you it can be done, I've done it and I have no will power, it is not a diet, but a learning of how we were meant to eat, taking our focus off food and putting it on God. With one program there was numbers associated wih these feelings. Total empty, no food in your stomach is a 0, satisfied is a 5, and stuffed and miserable is a 10. Your goal is to learn to eat between a 0 and 5 to loose weight, going on to a 6 or 7 and you will not loose but stay the same weight. This was a very good program, I really liked it it has a daily bible study to go with it. I ended up quitting becasue I couldn't at the time afford the $10. month for the on line printable study.
If your interested in something like that pm me and I'll give you the web site. You can check it out for yourself.

 

Aaron, It happens. Changing a life long eating habit is hard, and you don't do it over night. Be patient, you know and understand the difference in the way eat and the way you need to eat, dedication to God is the key, and you have that. So don't beat yourself up.
And it's good not to jump on the scale all the time, becasue then if you do stop focusing on food, you have changed your focus to the scale.
Going to pm you now.

 

Aaron, we have a great buffet here called China King, great food, and lots of variety. I still get my usual 2 plates, but I'm careful to put less on it, and then if I don't like something I don't eat it. I end up eating maybe 1 1/2 plates. ok, still too much, but way better then I used to eat.

 

Well, I made it through this much of the week. I had
grandchildren most of the last half of the week,
which meant lots of kitchen involvement, but I
made it through that.

We took them out for pizza, and I had a salad. It
just felt good.

But today was more frustrating. I made them a
breakfast of eggs, toast, juice, fruit, and my
specialty: fake sausage patties. I had oatmeal, and
was fine with it, until we came home this afternoon,
and the fragrance of the fake sausage still lingered,
permeating the house.

But I was good to me. I had a baked potato with
Smart Balance margarine and plain no-fat yogurt
for topping and had tea with sweetener.

My immediate-gratification-head wanted me to go
take a steak out and cook it and have cheese-garlic
toast, but my delayed-gratification-head said to
stick with it.

I know that some diets suggest days off. Days off
have never helped me; they have only thrown me
off. Do you ever take days off -- successfully?

I found a dieting forum. Get this: I am the only one
on it! I kept hoping someone would show up --
like the creator or the moderator, maybe? No one
has. So I just write on and on, and I am the only one
who reads it!

 

Oh, I forgot to mention: I had that test for
bloodsugar and called Friday to get the result.
They said they would have to call back, so I said to
leave the info on the voicemail. They called back
while I was gone and said that they could not give
me the information, that they would give it to my dr
and he would tell me.

Ask me if I was frustrated! YES!! I called them this
morning and told them not to EVER attempt to
withhold information from me regarding My Body!!
Do they think they own us or something? This is
not the '50s, for good night!

I demanded the information and they gave it to me.
I am on the high side of normal and have nothing to
worry about, for which I thank my God. I will
continue to keep tabs on it, though, since it is on
the high side of normal.

I am looking forward to a weigh-in to see if I have
lost more water. I think this is more of a concern
than the bloodsugar, at this point, because if I have
lost significant weight in a single week again, it is
problematic.

 

Abiyah, I'm glad your blood sugar checked out ok, I was worried about you. But it sounds like you might be borderline, which means yur sugar does go above what is normal at times. Please keep that in the back of your mind as you diet, since if it goes up, it can also drop very fast and make you sick. Take care of yourself,

Carol

 

Carol --

8o) How sweet of you to be concerned for me.
Thank You So Much. 8o)

You said I could become sick. Can you tell me
what I should look for? How would I feel? I have
no idea what I would feel like if I were sick from a
bloodsugar problem.

Should I have some sugar if ill? (I don't want to if
I can avoid it. I do eat fruit.) Can the sugars in
fruit elevate the bloodsugar dangerously for one
on the high side of normal? Can too many
starches elevate the blodsugar dangerously for
one such as I?