Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds

Haub's "bad" cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his "good" cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent.

"That's where the head scratching comes," Haub said. "What does that mean? Does that mean I'm healthier? Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we're missing something?"
Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds - CNN.com

An interesting article, though it can't be called a "study". I did read the results of a study last week that directly contradicted this one, that found that the composition of calories was very important. If I can relocate it, I'll add it below.

But I still find this interesting. This should definitely serve as proof that no form of calorie reduction is more valid than another, that any way of cutting calories can give a good outcome. (!)

Support group

My eldest daughter got her driver's license at the end of August. It was a game changer for me. Now instead of having my morning schedule revolve around getting her to school and my afternoon-making dinner schedule revolve around getting her home, I have a lot more time to myself. I don't have to wake up early enough to get in strength training + cardio before I take her to school/make breakfast/start homeschool; it's like a miracle how I just have to wake up early enough to do strength training before getting the other kids up, and then just before I make breakfast I can go out for a really quick run while they clean their rooms, and then in the afternoons I can go out for a longer uphill walk.

I've been doing this since the beginning of September, and I feel incredible. My running endurance has increased. (I don't have high aspirations in the first place, I probably only want to be able to run 2 miles or so.) I run every day instead of taking rest days. I have hardly missed a day of strength training.

But I haven't dropped a single pound. In fact, weighing myself yesterday, I may have gained one. Sigh.

So I found a couple of weight loss support groups on LiveJournal. My old one no longer exists so I have to start out with a new group and try to get to know people and make a place for myself, but hopefully it will become something good. And I signed up for a challenge—between now and 31 December to lose weight rather than gain it. I'm hoping that little bit of accountability to a group outside of me will help nudge me in the right direction.

I already have good exercise habits established, and I'm making progress. This morning I ran a little farther than my minimum and still felt amazing; the only thing that made me stop was that I had to get home to the kids and make breakfast. This is really exciting to me!

But I need to work on my intake. So my goal is to track food @ SparkPeople for the next six weeks. I'm really out of the habit so it will be something new. And hopefully it will shine a light on what I need to do to make this all work.

Starting weight: 169.4 pounds. Good luck me!

I made it through!

First fast (in the current series) behind me! Breakfast this morning was scrumptious. Food always tastes better after I've fasted. And I tell you what, when I'm skipping up to six meals per week, I'm always certain that the ones I eat are good and worth the calories.

Always on square one

...is better than never starting at all?

Sometimes I look in the mirror and I say, “I look all right. I look okay. For a woman who has had seven children, I’m not bad at all.” I am pretty average.
Other times, I remember when I weighed 140 right around the time of my high school reunion, I look at those pictures, and I’m not nearly so contented with my current state.

Sometimes it’s so easy for me to adhere to smaller portions, to counting and reducing calories, to periodic fasting.
Other times, I get a twinge of hunger and my brain starts to shout YOU’RE REALLY HUNGRY! EAT! FOOD ISN’T BAD! and I think, that’s true, food isn’t bad. And I eat. And I’m usually pretty empty from fasting or eating tiny portions so I eat a lot.

Sometimes I get a little jealous about all those women in Hollywood who have a lot of money and can just plastic surgery their way through the 25 pounds I want to lose.
Other times, I get a little angry that I feel like I want to look like them at all, that I’ve bought into the arbitrary and unrealistic body standard they portray.

Sometimes I’m so glad I bought a Spanx body shaper, and figured out how to modify it so it worked for me. It goes from right beneath my bra to my mid-thigh, and it does wonders! But it didn't stay up very well. So I sewed on thick elastic straps, and now it’s perfect.
Other times, I wish I’d had this Spanx body shaper at 140 pounds, for my reunion. I only had a tiny bit of tummy then. Holy cow, I bet I would have looked great.

Sometimes I am beyond faithful with exercise—pushing myself to improve, not content with doing as much as I did yesterday. Sometimes I focus on cardio (jogging and walking), sometimes on strength training. For the last four months of the school year and hectic kid schedules I thought, “I can’t wait for summer I can’t wait for summer I can exercise every day!”
Other times, I wonder what the point is. Or I want sleep more than I want exercise. After more than a month building up to a really good speed and distance, for the last three weeks I haven’t exercised at all. This morning I got dressed for it, but here I am writing instead. And I’d sort of like to go back to bed.

---

Last night I decided I’d give a 24-hour fast a shot. Eat Stop Eat has worked for me before, and I know it can work again, if I can get around my sabotaging brain. If I can just train my brain to remember that food is merely fuel for my body, and that I’m not the meanest thing ever for not eating. If I can push past the few early first fasts, that are filled with hunger pangs, and get to those later fasts where skipping food is no big deal.

So I didn’t eat dinner, and made it just fine. This morning my stomach is protesting, and once again I didn’t exercise. So many excuses. But even if I don’t do everything, I can do something. Fingers crossed I can be strong.

----------------
Now playing: Muse - Resistance

A beginning is a very delicate time*

It strikes me this morning that the beginning is the hardest part. It's hardest to cut back on portions and step up exercise in the very beginning stage, when it's all deprivation and no reward. Later with some pound loss under your belt (so to speak, ha ha) it can kind of self-perpetuate, success begets will power which begets continued effort and continued results. But those first steps, where you're doing it and there's been no payoff yet, that's the part where it's hard not to eat the theoretical PopTarts in the cupboard.

* A line spoken by Princess Irulan in the movie Dune. I'm such a nerd.

----------------
Now playing: Muse - Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)

Keeping on

I think all is going pretty well.

The plan: to fast breakfast and lunch three days a week (six meals, that's the same as fasting two 24-hour periods, right?). Physiologically it might not be quite the same, since different hormones are secreted with longer fasts; but in terms of calorie-reduction I think it works out the same. And it has the benefit of allowing me to eat dinner with my family every night. Fasting dinners was somewhat difficult to explain to my children.

Fasted two yesterday, eating today, fasting two tomorrow. Exercising. Hoping for good things. Not weighing until Sunday, because I don't want to go "WHAT?!" and have it sabotage me.

New goal: to be able to run 1.5 miles without any walking. Did a mile yesterday, so excited about that. Trying to build.