Sunday, December 16, 2012

"I'm not allowed in schools." - GOD

My haphazard, inartful assembly of thoughts in response to the "God is not allowed in schools, therefore violence in schools" argument...











Bath School Disaster, 18 May 1927, Bath Township, MI


"The Bath School disaster is the name given to three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, on May 18, 1927, which killed 38 elementary school children, two teachers, four other adults and the bomber; at least 58 people were injured. Most of the victims were children in the second to sixth grades (7–14 years of age) attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest mass murder in a school in U.S. history." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster

Pretty sure God was "allowed" in schools when the deadliest mass murder in a school in US history occurred.
___________________________

God's track record at preventing violence at places where He is allowed (or even explicitly invited) isn't particularly impressive.

From A Timeline Of Mass Shootings In The US Since Columbine:
  • August 5, 2012. Six Sikh temple members were killed when 40-year-old US Army veteran Wade Michael Page opened fire in a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Four others were injured, and Page killed himself.
  • April 2, 2012. A former student, 43-year-old One L. Goh killed 7 people at Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, CA. The shooting was the sixth-deadliest school massacre in the US and the deadliest attack on a school since the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.
  • October 2, 2006. An Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, PA was gunned down by 32-year-old Charles Carl Roberts. Roberts separated the boys from the girls, binding and shooting the girls. 5 young girls died, while 6 were injured. Roberts committed suicide afterward.
  • March 12, 2005. A Living Church of God meeting was gunned down by 44-year-old church member Terry Michael Ratzmann at a Sheraton hotel in Brookfield, WI. Ratzmann was thought to have had religious motivations, and killed himself after executing the pastor, the pastor’s 16-year-old son, and 7 others. Four were wounded.
  • September 15, 1999. Larry Gene Ashbrook opened fire on a Christian rock concert and teen prayer rally at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX. He killed 7 people and wounded 7 others, almost all teenagers. Ashbrook committed suicide.
And these are only examples of mass shootings since 1999. When we add in other acts of violence committed at places of worship or religious education, things get even more embarrassing for God.
___________________________

Is God allowed at shopping malls, post offices, movie theaters, city streets, banks (where the mammon, minted and printed, bears His very name), or people's homes? I've heard there has been violence those places, too.
___________________________

Is it even accurate to say that God is somehow not "allowed" in public school (nevermind the absurdity of such an idea when speaking of the supposed omnipotent, omnipresent Creator of the universe)? It's not even accurate to say that prayer isn't allowed at school.

From School Prayers - Are Prayers Allowed in School?:
Some people act and argue as though students [are] not permitted to pray in school, but there is no truth to this. At best, they are confusing the difference between official, state-sponsored, state-mandated prayers led by school officials and personal, private prayers initiated and said by the student. At worst, people are being deliberately deceitful in their claims.
The Supreme Court has never held that students cannot pray in school. Instead, the Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot have anything to do with prayer in schools. The government cannot tell students when to pray. The government cannot tell students what to pray. The government cannot tell students that they should pray. The government cannot tell students that prayer is better than no prayer.
This allows students a great deal of freedom — far more freedom than they had in the "good old days" which so many religious conservative seem to want America to return to. Why? Because students can decide to pray if they want to, when to pray if they do, and they can decide upon the actual content of their prayers. It is inconsistent with religious liberty for the government to make such decisions for others, especially other people's children.
___________________________

Many school shooting victims were believing, practicing Christians. Are they not entitled to God's protection when entering public schools?
___________________________

I find it incredible that so many people believe in a God so pitifully powerless that not only is He incapable of going where He isn't "allowed" (if one can even fathom such a thing), but He also, in the case of the Newtown shooting at least, apparently lacked the ability or willingness to intervene and prevent violence by disrupting either the killer's acquisition of weapons and ammo or the drive to what became his crime scene. Come on, God -- how bout a little forethought before the situation migrates to a place You aren't "allowed."

If you believe in God, please give the Guy a little credit. Play the "it was His will" or the "free agency" card or something. You don't really believe He's an impotent Being subject to the US Supreme Court's 1962 ruling in Engel v. Vitale, so please stop pretending that you do, and just say what you really mean: "I don't like that public schools can no longer force all students to pray to the God I happen to believe in, so all that violence in public schools? Yeah, you all deserve it."
___________________________

PS - Saw this just now (thanks FMH!).

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Jesus Christ: Prince of Peace?


I guess "Prince of Peace" is a common title for Jesus. I don't really know. There's that verse in Isaiah that mentions the phrase, and I suppose enough folks have applied it to Jesus. I know Mormon Church President/Prophet, Thomas S. Monson has. My question is, how is this title reconciled with Jesus's statement in Matthew 10:34-35?
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Just wondering...

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

¡AdiĆ³s Amigos!

Okay, so I think I'm done with the daily weigh-ins and food logs. I've hit my goal weight (passed it, actually -- though I do still have some fat lbs I'd like to trade in for some muscle lbs, but I don't expect the number on the scale to change too much more). But I do hope my little n=1 experiment has done at least a little to illustrate the point I've been trying to make: HFLC = weight loss, and with no calorie counting, no portion weighing, and no going hungry (except during IF's). Since I've started keeping track of my weight and food here a little over a month ago, I've lost over 16 lbs, and I did it by eliminating sugars, starches, and grains, while eating unlimited amounts of full flavored and satiating foods high in fat -- cream, butter, cheese, sour cream, nuts, coconut oil, bacon, eggs, avocados, cream cheese, etc. (And, yes, I've been working out, but the effects of exercise on weight loss are depressingly minimal.)

I'll keep posting here about stuff that interests me (nutrition included, of course), but the daily updates are done. Thanks for following along, and I hope you'll stop back by.

Wednesday, 12 December 2012 - 127.2 lbs


Down 2.4 lbs from yesterday and at a new low. Marvelous.

white chocolate flavored coffee with full fat cream, coconut oil, cocoa, and stevia

2 eggs cooked in bacon grease with diced onions, green peppers, jalapenos, mushrooms, and tomatoes

2 slices of bacon

handful of nuts

sugar free bread n butter pickle spear

turkey breast

another handful of nuts

strawberries and full fat whipped cream (sugarless, of course)

more turkey breast, only this time with bacon, avocado, and full fat sour cream ranch dressing

mug of gingerbread toffee flavored coffee with full fat cream and stevia

Good god, that's a lot of food! I was hungry, girl! Yeah, I'll be up tomorrow...

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Tuesday, 11 December 2012 - 129.6 lbs

Down 0.4 lbs from yesterday. Marvelous.

Fasting today.

Like I said yesterday.

Other than cinnamon gingerbread flavored coffee (drank black), I ain't had diddlycrap today.

Oh, unless you count water.

Intermittent Fasting: A Healthy Choice | HuffingtonPost.com

Monday, December 10, 2012

Monday, 10 December 2012 - 130.0 lbs

Birth of Jesus by Geertgen tot Sint Jans, c.1490

Up 1.2 lbs from yesterday. Marvelous.

I think I was up last time I had stuffed jalapenos, too, but that was before I started keeping track of everything so I can't be sure. Gonna make a note to make a note of it next time I have em. I just can't help myself with them little buggers though. They're so danged tasty in my mouth hole.

Anyway, I fasted once in November and lost 3 lbs, and I fasted last week and lost 5.6 lbs, but both those fasts came on the heels of a cheat day, so I've decided to fast tomorrow to see what kind of weight I lose after eating normally.

Today I had:

2 eggs and full fat cream cooked in bacon grease with diced onions, tomatoes, jalapenos, green bell peppers, and mushrooms, topped with full fat cheddar cheese

2 slices of bacon

handful of nuts

protein drank (after working leg meat which I hate real bad)

turkey breast, 1/2 an avocado

handful of nuts

sugar free jello with full fat whipped cream (sugar free duh)

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Sunday, 09 December 2012 - 128.8 lbs

Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence by Caravaggio, 1609

Down 0.6 lbs from yesterday and a new all time post-boot camp low. Marvelous.

Woke up, went to the gym, worked chest meat, shoulder meat, and triceps meat. Had protein drank.

Came home and had 2 eggs with full fat cream cooked in full fat butter with full fat cheddar cheese and diced onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, and turkey breast.

small cup of gingerbread cinnamon flavored coffee with full fat cream, stevia, and cocoa
(Why cocoa? See: WebMD.com - Cocoa Rich in Health Benefits)

Wee bit o' berries (straw and rasp)

small piece of salami with full fat cream cheese

handful of nuts

jalapenos stuffed with full fat cream cheese, full fat cheddar cheese, and bacon dipped in full fat sour cream ranch dressing (quite a lot of em, regrettably)

Another good one by Yeats:


He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
William Butler Yeats

Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet: 
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Did Jesus Experience so-called "Same Sex Attraction"?

Christ Blessing by Raphael, 1505

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) launched a new website this past week with the URL MormonsAndGays.org. I haven't spent much time on it, but what little I have read got me to thinking...

On the site's homepage, we read:
Where the Church stands:

The experience of same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people. The attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is. Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them. With love and understanding, the Church reaches out to all God’s children, including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.
Further down on the homepage, we see talk of "temptation," which, given the context of the page, must be understood to be in reference to so-called "Same Sex Attraction" (ugh, I hate that phrase -- more on that another time).

So follow my thinking here: SSA is, in and of itself, NOT a sin, but a mere temptation. In the Book of Mormon, we learn that Jesus "shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people" (Alma 7:11).

So would we be safe in assuming that Jesus experienced so-called Same Sex Attraction, but just withstood the temptation to act on it (thereby keeping him free of sin)? If so, I find the idea of a Homosexual Jesus (albeit a celibate one) to be quite a progressive move for the LDS Church and hopefully a sign of better things to come.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Saturday, 08 December 2012 - 129.4 lbs

Adoration of the Shepherds by Caravaggio, 1609

Down 0.8 lbs from yesterday. Marvelous.

This morning I did a practice PRT ("Physical Readiness Test": push-ups, sit-ups [or "curl-ups" as the silly ol Navy calls 'em] and 12 minutes of cardio on the Elliptical), and worked out my ab meat. Came home and had:

2.5 eggs with diced onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and mushrooms cooked in bacon grease

3 slices of bacon

sugar free bread n butter pickle spear

handful of nuts 

cup of peppermint flavored coffee with full fat cream, stevia, and cocoa
Check out FoxNews.com - "Coffee: An effective weight loss tool"

Went to the gym again to work back meat, biceps, and forearms, then had:

protein drank

monster salad (romaine, red cabbage, tomato, avocado, turkey breast, full fat sour cream ranch dressing)  

An interesting article appeared a couple days ago in the Sydney Morning Herald about a dude I've mentioned several times before -- the bestselling author and science writer, Gary Taubes (his website is linked to your right, under "CLICK 'EM ALL"). Titled, "The Fat and the Fiction," the article contains a ton of useful information about what Taubes has discovered through his years-long research into the studies used to formulate the US's current "low-fat, grain-centered" approach to weight loss and nutrition. The whole article is worth the read (as are his two books), but here are the highlights:
  • [Taubes's] premise? That the hormone insulin is responsible for obesity, and levels of insulin spike when we eat carbohydrates, leading us to get fat. 
  • Eating fat, he says, does not have this effect on insulin and therefore is not the culprit in making people overweight or obese.
  • The idea that people are fat because they eat too much says nothing meaningful about why excess calories get stored as fat[.] 
  • [C]arbohydrates, such as fructose, corn, potatoes, rice and grains, affect insulin, a powerful regulator of fat. Fat is readily stored in the presence of insulin because it causes the enzyme lipoprotein lipase to suck fat inside cells where it is stored. The body only makes insulin when blood sugar levels rise, and all carbohydrates are metabolised as sugar.
  • Thus, if we do not eat carbohydrates, there will not be excess sugar in the blood, the body will not make insulin and fat will not be stored by cells[.]
  • Meats, fish, eggs, butter and oil contain few, if any, carbohydrates and do not cause insulin levels to spike, which Taubes says means people can eat as much of those foods as they want so long as they also avoid carbohydrates.
  • ''So this idea all calories are created equal; well, in terms of the energy in the calories, yes … but in terms of the fate of the nutrient downstream, the same amount of calories of different nutrients will have a dramatically different effect,'' Taubes says.
  • Even Australian nutritionists who view Taubes as a conspiracy theorist because of his criticisms of those who pioneered the idea that fat causes obesity, admit his research has enough credibility and science behind it to be considered.
  • More low-fat foods are being produced and consumed than ever before. Red meat consumption is also declining, with beef consumed in the Australian market decreasing by 3 per cent in 2010-11. Yet, obesity rates in Australia are still climbing.
Today is the anniversary of the deaths of John Lennon (1980) and "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott (2004) (both victims of gunshot wounds -- Dimebag's whilst onstage performing), and since Darrell is the lesser known of the two, I'll post a video of his. Here's the first song (and one of my favorites still) I ever heard by his band, Pantera: "Mouth For War" (Dime is the one playing guitar (not bass) with the big hair and beard and razor blade necklace).

Wheat Belly - Quick & Dirty


Given the amount of interest generated by his appearance on the Dr. Oz Show, Dr. William "Wheat Belly" Davis has posted on his blog a "Quick & Dirty" breakdown of the main ideas of his approach to weight loss and nutrition. If you've been vaguely interested in the whole "wheat elimination" philosophy but won't bother to read Dr. Davis's book, take a couple minutes to look at his "Cliffs Notes" version and see what you think. (Dr. Davis advocates moderate intake of some foods I tend to avoid altogether, but, out of appreciation for his ideas starting to see widespread, mainstream attention [and even tentative hints of acceptance], I'll save my minor disagreements with him for another time.)

"This is the same diet," writes Dr. Davis, "I advise patients in my office to follow that achieves spectacular reductions in weight, provides relief from joint pain and acid reflux, reduces triglycerides, shoots HDL upward, reduces small LDL particles (the #1 cause of heart disease in the U.S!), and unravels diabetic/pre-diabetic tendencies. The diet starts with the biggest step of all: elimination of wheat. But a healthy diet cannot end there, else you and I could eat no wheat but fill our calories with soft drinks and jelly beans. So the next step is to limit carbohydrates if your goal is to lose more weight and correct metabolic distortions like high blood sugar and small LDL particles."

Friday, December 7, 2012

Friday, 07 December 2012 - 129.8 lbs

Christi Geburt by Lorenzo Lotto, 1523

Up 0.6 lbs from yesterday. Marvelous.

cup of toffee gingerbread flavored coffee with full fat cream, coconut oil, and cocoa

3 eggs with diced onions, green bell peppers, avocados, and mushrooms cooked in bacon grease, covered with full fat sour cream (too much food, as it turns out)

2 pieces of bacon

protein drank (after working my leg meat)

mini monster salad (which I guess would just be a normal sort of salad) - romaine, turkey, tomato, full fat sour cream ranch dressing (the monster salad was too much food last night!)

sugar free bread n butter pickle spear

Here's one of my all time favorite poems of all time:


IN THE DESERT
by Stephen Crane

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;

“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
Beast by Guillermo Careaga, 2011

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Thursday, 06 December 2012 - 129.2 lbs

Adoration of the Child by Correggio, c.1526

Down a pound from yesterday and at a new post-boot camp low. Marvelous.

Today I had:

cup of gingerbread cookie flavored coffee with full fat cream, coconut oil, and cocoa

2 eggs with full fat cream and diced tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and green bell peppers, cooked in bacon grease with full fat sour cream and salt and pepper

2 slices of bacon

protein drank (after working chest, shoulders, tri's, little bitta abs)

bread n' butter pickle spear (sugar free)

monster salad (romaine, tomato, avocado, turkey breast, bacon, full fat sour cream ranch dressing)

My Roy Orbison kick coincidentally happened to occur at the anniversary of his death. He died 24 years ago today. Since I posted my favorite Roy song yesterday, I think today, in tribute, I'll post my favorite cover of my favorite Roy song. David Lynch's amazacrazy 2001 film Mulholland Drive was my first exposure to Rebekah Del Rio, wherein she sang the haunting and beautiful "Llorando," an a cappella rendering of "Crying" en espaƱol. Here is her scene from the film (with some handy Turkish(?) subtitles in case you don't habla the espaƱol):

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Wednesday, 05 December 2012 - 130.2 lbs

Madonna of the Carnation by Leonardo da Vinci, 1478-1480

Down 5.6 lbs from yesterday. Marvelous.

So I stopped eating at about 9pm Monday night, I fasted completely all day Tuesday (except for a cup of strawberry shortcake flavored coffee -- black, no frills), and I didn't eat until about 3pm today. So that 5.6 lbs was lost over the course of a 42 hour fast (excepting the coffee). A surprisingly easy fast, to be honest -- no cravings or uncontrollable hunger or anything. Broke fast with:

2 eggs with full fat cream and chopped onions, mushrooms, green bell peppers, and tomatoes cooked in bacon grease, covered with full fat sour cream

2 slices of bacon

mug of toffee gingerbread flavored coffee with full fat cream and stevia

Later I had:

few hunks of turkey dragged through some full fat sour cream ranch dressing

couple forkfuls of raspberries and strawberries

Doesn't seem like much, but I just wasn't hungry for much else after this. I think this was the case last time I fasted, as well. Weird. I'll have to try to look into the reasons why. Stomach shrinkage, maybe? I'll get back to you.


FIDELIO'S FAST AND FUN FACTS ABOUT FASTING FROM FIDELIO

Since I began this blog a month ago, I've only fasted twice, and both times it was after a cheat day in an attempt to wind back the clock (or the scale, as it were) to my weight before the cheat, as a fast can be a great way to jump start weight loss. However, as I approach a weight with which I'm more or less comfortable, and as we come out the other end of this Holiday season (when unplanned cheat days will be much fewer and farther between), I'll (hopefully) have less need of fasting as a means for weight-loss. But the more I read about the other benefits of intermittent fasting (IF), the more likely I think I will be to continue the practice irregardless (oh my heavens that word irritates me so much when other use it, but I'm pretty sure it's okay for me since I'm being ironical).

So anyway, here's a couple things (all taken verbatim from the wonderfully informative site MarksDailyApple.com) you might keep in mind when considering if you should give IF a go (or, if you're a practicing, observant Mormon, here are some faith promoting facts to throw on top of your testimony of your monthly fast):
  • Numerous animal and human studies done over the past 15 years suggest that periodic fasting can have dramatic results not only in areas of weight (fat) loss, but in overall health and longevity as well. A recent article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition gives a great overview of these benefits which include decreases in blood pressure, reduction in oxidative damage to lipids, protein and DNA, improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake, as well as decreases in fat mass.
  • [C]aloric restriction and intermittent fasting may “turn on” certain genes that repair specific tissues that would not otherwise be repaired in times of surplus. One could surmise that this adaptation serves to allow certain cells to live longer (as repaired cells) during famine since it’s energetically less expensive to repair a cell than to divide and create a new one. That might help explain some of the extended longevity seen in animal studies using caloric restriction and/or intermittent fasting (read about here, here, and here). 
  • Intermittent fasting has also been shown to reduce spontaneous cancers in animal studies, which could be due to a decrease in oxidative damage or an increase in immune response.
  • One thing that is most interesting about the intermittent fasting studies is that slightly overeating on the non-fasting days (to make up for the lack of calories on fast days) yielded similar results, so it wasn’t so much about total calories as it was about the episodic deprivation.
  • IF is as or more effective than calorie restriction in improving metabolic syndrome markers in overweight women, and it’s a whole lot easier to stick with.
  • Alternate day fasting improved cardiovascular risk markers, including lowered triglycerides and LDL-C numbers (although it’s unclear whether the improvements were related to the weight loss alone or something unique to fasting).
  • Some researchers are speculating, based on substantial evidence, that fasting before and during cancer treatment should result in reduced morbidity, better tolerance of chemotherapies, and higher cure rates.
I could keep going, but I don't wanna. Go to MarksDailyApple.com and do a search for "intermittent fasting," and a buttload of articles will pop up. Weight-conscious or health-conscious or both: give IF a go.

Here's Roy Orbison performing "Crying." This was filmed toward the end of his life -- about 14 months before his death in 1988 -- and the dude sounded just as amazing then as he ever did. Love this guy. Love this song. Only Chris Isaak even comes close....

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Dr. Oz's "Wheat Belly" Episode

I mentioned it a couple days ago, and it looks like Oz's site now has Dr. Davis's segments (3 of em!) available for viewing: Are You Addicted to Wheat? -- DoctorOz.com

To my surprise, Oz pretty much just asked Dr. Davis questions and let him have the floor. No arguments, no challenges, nothin. In fact, it almost looked as if Dr. Davis made a convert of him (and this after years of Oz recommending whole wheat to his patients and viewers). Oz is even hosting wheat-free recipes on his site, for the love of crap. It'll be interesting to see what kind of advice Oz gives from here on out, though I doubt I'll take the time to see for myself....

http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/are-you-addicted-wheat

Tuesday, 04 December 2012 - 135.8 lbs

Adoration of the Magi by Andrea Mantegna, c.1495-1505


Up 4.8 lbs from yesterday. Marvelous.

I can't really blame it all on Singh's cooking though. Last night I developed a bit of an "in for a penny, in for a pound" attitude and helped myself to generous servings of gingerbread cookies, buttered popcorn, and ice cream with chocolate syrup.

Fasting today. Might have a bit of plain coffee on watch tonight, but other than that, just water and vitamins. Just weighed myself a bit ago and I'm already back down to 133, so yay for that.

Anyway, I picked up a copy of The Yeats Reader from the library a couple days ago to read in the bathroom (because, honestly, I can only make attempts at appreciating poetry in short bursts -- I just don't really like it, I've come to find out), but anyway, yeah, I found a winner: 
A Drinking Song
by William Butler Yeats, c.1910

Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.
But if poetry ain't your bag, here's "Cheater's Town" by Chris Isaak, probably my all-time favorite by him right now. And if Chris Isaak ain't your bag, I'm blocking you from reading my blog because you're a Nazi child molester (that is to say you are a Nazi and molest children -- not that you limit your molestation to Nazi children).

Why the idiot uploader selected a picture of Wicked Game I can't say. 
Other than they're an idiot.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Seen on MormonDiscussions.com

lol


http://mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27322

Monday, 03 December 2012 - 131.0 lbs

Virgin in Adoration before the Christ Child by Peter Paul Rubens, c.1615

Up 0.4 from yesterday. Marvelous.

Not really liking this increase the last two days. Yeah, it's only 1.6 lbs, but still.

That being said, it pains me to say that I was a bad boy today. Started the day off right with my coffee with cream, coconut oil, and cocoa, but freakin Singh cooked for everyone at work, and I regret to say I indulged. Actually, probably did a little more than indulge. I made quite the glutton out of myself to tell you the truth.

THERE WERE CARBOHYDRATES EVERYWHERE. Chicken curry, egg curry, samosa, white rice, pork fried rice. Ugh. I ate so much and I feel like total garbage right now. You'll think I'm exaggerating just to make an agenda driven point, but, hand to God, I feel bloated and gassy and sluggish right now. All day at work I just wanted to sit in my chair and keep eating. And what's more, I'm actually craving more carbs at this very moment! (Some Oreos and milk would really tickle my pickle.) I seldom ever get the urge to overeat when eating HFLC, and yet this was the norm for me before I gave up sugar, starches, and grains. I never realized how awful it felt until I had a new "normal" with which to compare it.

Ah, well. I suppose today has at least been instructive in reminding me that no matter how much I think I might miss foods like this, the pay off (such as it is) just isn't worth it. Going from burning body fat for fuel to burning sugar for fuel (that's what our bodies convert carbs to, ya see) really sucks -- depleted energy levels, "sugar crash," stimulated appetite, bloating/gas, and not to mention another pound or two to look forward to at tomorrow's weigh-in. Bleh.

Fast tomorrow?

Fast tomorrow!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Sunday, 02 December 2012 - 130.6 lbs

Freud's Perverse Polymorph (Bulgarian Child Eating a Rat) by Salvador DalĆ­, 1939




That painting makes me laugh.

Up 1.2 lbs from yesterday. Marvelous.

I think I'm more or less content with the number on the scale. Still have some fat I'd like to burn and some muscle I'd like to gain, but for my height, I think 130 lbs is in the neighborhood of being a relatively healthy weight.

Today I had:

protein drank! (after working out back and bi's and forearms and a little abs)

2 eggs with full fat cream cooked in bacon grease, with full fat sour cream and salsa

2 slices of bacon

"bread n' butter" pickle spear (sugar free)

chunk of Spam from the stew Heather cooked

Old Wisconsin beef stick snack thing

mug of gingerbread cookie flavored coffee with full fat cream, pat of full fat Kerrygold butter, couple teaspoons of stevia

Would have liked to have had a bit of Heather's stew, but just wasn't hungry enough! #HFLCProblems 

And now for your daily dose of Mr. Isaak, the suavest mofo I know:

Dr. William "Wheat Belly" Davis on Dr. Oz Show


Dr. Davis, preventive cardiologist and author of the bestselling Wheat Belly, will be on Dr. Oz's show this Monday, 3 December -- that's tomorrow if you're reading this today. I don't watch Dr. Oz, but I have it in my head that I don't like him for some reason. I don't know if he endorses the low-fat, high carb, grain based Standard American Diet (or, rather appropriately, SAD), but I imagine he probably does given the nature of his disagreements with science writer and HFLC advocate Gary Taubes when he was on the show back in the day. But I guess it's cool that Oz turns these guys loose on the mic for a little while, even if he uses the last word to disagree with them.

Judging from the preview, though, it looks as if Dr. Davis might have made a convert out of Oz. I guess we'll have to see. You can see a 30 second preview of the show at Oz's site.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Why Butter is Good for You


If you can't make out the text, click the link above.

Saturday, 01 December 2012 - 129.4 lbs

Ready or not tot by Marilyn Manson



That painting makes me laugh.

Down 1.8 lbs. I have officially surpassed my boot camp low of 130 lbs (when I reported to boot camp I weighed in the neighborhood of 160 lbs, and I probably hovered in that vicinity for years prior, so my guess is I'm at my lowest weight since 2004 or so). Marvelous.

I ended up having a few drinks last night at Rumor's: 2 Michelob Ultras (2.6g carbs apiece) and a Long Island Iced Tea (bartender told me it had shots of rum, vodka, tequila, and splashes of sweet and sour and Pepsi -- so not low carb). I've read that alcohol stalls weight loss, but I somehow came out all right (I'm wondering if the ensuing alcohol-related dehydration helped me out in the end). Woke up with a bit of headache though, so no more alcohol for me till Christmas and/or New Year's.

EVERY BIT OF IT WAS CRAMMED RIGHT INTO MY FACE MEAT:

2 eggs with full fat cream cooked in bacon grease with full fat sour cream and salsa

2 slices of bacon

giant mug of gingerbread toffee flavored coffee with splash of full fat cream and 2 tsps of stevia

what was left of my monster salad from yesterday

Old Wisconsin beef stick snack thing

bowl of turkey meat with salsa, jalapenos, and full fat sour cream

handful of raspberries and strawberries

Didn't work out on account of the headache and too little sleep.


FIDELIO'S FUN FACTS OF THE DAY FROM FIDELIO

Today's post on Wheat Belly had some tasty info nuggets worth passing on (emphasis in original):
Wheat stimulates appetite. It’s that gliadin opiate at work again: It makes you want to eat the whole pizza, it makes you want more carbohydrates, it increases calorie consumption by 440 calories per day, every day. With wheat in your life, control over weight and health is a losing battle. Remove it and the battle is won a lot more easily.
...After wheat, other grains are also problems. Grains are, at best, an expedient, a convenience, a source of cheap calories. But, like wheat, grains do not belong in the diet of modern Homo sapiens. Grains have been consumed by humans for 0.4% of the time we have inhabited earth, meaning 99.6% of the time we ate no grains. When Homo sapiens of 10,000 years ago consumed einkorn and emmer wheat, teosinte (corn), sorghum, millet, and rice, we experienced smaller femur size, a reduction in height, more iron deficiency anemia (evidenced by porotic hyperostosis in skulls), transverse ridges in the incisors signifying malnutrition, an explosion in tooth decay and loss, shrinking faces and jaws resulting in crooked teeth and deformities. This is why I say that, like wheat, consumption of grains is for the desperate or the misinformed.
As someone who has removed grains (and sugar) from his diet (more for their effect on insulin than anything else), I can attest to the fact that since doing so I have noticed an increase in my energy levels, a greater feeling of satiety between meals (and a generally reduced appetite overall), fewer visits to the bathroom to drop them dirty deuces and less gas (sorry, but it's true), and, of course, a significant decrease in body fat. If you're hesitant to adopt this approach but would welcome the benefits I described, give the book and the blog a gander before ruling it out.

November in a Nutshell

Start - 5 Nov: 143.4 lbs
End - 30 Nov: 131.2 lbs
Net loss: 12.2 lbs (yes, my scale gives tenths of a pound in even numbers only)
Average for the month: 134.4 lbs
Number of days I exercised: 18
Number of eggs eaten: 49.5 (not counting those from Singh's egg curry)
Number of bacon slices eaten: 60
Number of days I cheated: 2
Number of days I fasted: 1

In the event you are not a creepy stalker and have not read every entry from every day, here's a list of the links I posted throughout the month that I thought were worth passing along:

"Links" Get it? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!1!1

"Sharon Osbourne Weight Loss: Star Reveals 28-Pound Weight Loss" -- HuffingtonPost.com

GaryTaubes.com

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health by Gary Taubes -- Amazon.com

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes -- Amazon.com

"What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?" by Gary Taubes -- NYTimes.com

"Protein supplementation augments the adaptive response of skeletal muscle to resistance-type exercise training: a meta-analysis." -- PubMed.gov

"Why Fast? Part One - Weight Loss" -- MarksDailyApple.com

VIDEO: "William Davis - Wheat: The Unhealthy Whole Grain" -- YouTube.com

About the Author -- WheatBellyBlog.com

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis, MD -- Amazon.com

"Saturated Fat: What If Bad Fat Is Actually Good For You?" -- MensHealth.com

Correlation does not imply causation -- Wikipedia.com

Cholesterol Myths that May Surprise You -- Health.Yahoo.net

VIDEO: "Big Fat Lies" -- YouTube.com

Friday, November 30, 2012

Friday, 30 November 2012 - 131.2 lbs

Girl on a Donkey by Fernando Botero, 1959

131.2!! Down 1.2 lbs from yesterday and a new all time post-boot camp low. Marvelous.

DOWN MY GULLET THEY WENT:

protein drank! (after working out my leg meat)

2 eggs with full fat cream cooked in bacon grease with full fat sour cream and salsa

2 slices of bacon

giant mug of cinnamon gingerbread flavored coffee with full fat cream and 2 packs of sweet & low

monster salad (romaine lettuce, tomato, boiled egg, turkey, full fat sour cream ranch dressing -- couldn't even finish this mofo!)

couple forkfuls of raspberries and strawberries

Hasn't happened yet, but I'm going to Rumor's Cabaret tonight and I imagine I'm probably gonna have a few drinks. Gonna try to keep it low-carb beers (Michelob Ultra if they gots it), but can't make any promises. Hopefully I don't eff away my new all time post-boot camp low too bad! Have a bueno weekend, amigos!

Oh! And do yourself a favor and listen to a little Chris Isaak! I can't believe I'm just now realizing what a treasure this man is! A FREAKIN AMERICAN TREASURE. I feel my whole life has been a worthless, pointless waste up until today. I wish I could rewind my life and discover Chris Isaak when he first started crooning. Who knows where I'd be today? Hell, I'd probably be at my goal weight.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Thursday, 29 November 2012 - 132.4 lbs

Oil painting of Divine as "Babs Johnson" from John Waters's 1972 film, Pink Flamingos. Title unknown. Artist unkown (but maybe Amy Balot? She's the one selling it on Etsy.) I've heard Disney based their portrayal of Ursula the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid on Divine. I can see it.

Exact same weight as yesterday. Marvelous.

I think this is the first time I've ever weighed the same two days in a row. Fascinating, eh?

I ATE IT:

2 eggs with full fat cream cooked in bacon grease topped with full fat sour cream and salsa oh god i love this meal

2 slices of bacon

protein drank! (after working chest, tri's, shoulders, and a little abs)

monster salad (romaine, tomato, boiled egg, turkey, full fat sour cream ranch)

handful of berries (the rasp and straw type)

handful of nuts

German wine chocolate barrel thing

Too busy for the article spoon-feed tonight -- hopefully I'll have time this weekend.

Here's a pic from a couple weekends ago of my work buddy, Singh, and I at his house (he's the one who made all that curry I was eating a while back).