Another great article from Mark’s Daily Apple today. This seems to clarify many of the ideas that have helped me in my path. 5 Helpful Analogies for Understanding Complex Health Issues 1. Insulin is a Doorman at a Fat Cell Nightclub Insulin is not a switch that goes from fat burning to fat storing. Fat is always going in and out of the fat cells. Insulin just makes it easier to get in. ...

So much of the weight loss self-help literature is about “motivation” and visualization and thinking positive and not losing hope and… and… and… A lot of these plans are very thin on PRACTICAL and USEFUL advice, other than just “Eat less food”. So if the plan is “Eat Less, Move More” and it’s just wrapped in a different flavor of motivation/positive attitude, it is really the same plan and will fail for the same reasons. ...

Of course I’m a big fan of low-carb. But I discovered something even more important: Experiment On Yourself. You will have to try dozens and dozens of things before you find the “recipe” that works for you. Keep track of what you’re doing. Ask others what they did, and try it. Keep track of how you feel. Find things that work and keep doing them. Fine-tune your plan as you go. ...

I posted this on Lose It but wanted to post here too. If you are making a life change (like let’s say, losing weight for example), that will be hard for the first FOUR WEEKS. But, if it is the right change, if it makes your life better, it should get easier, and it should be its own reward. So give your plan a fair chance and stick to it faithfully for four weeks. Reach into your reserves and pull out the stops during this time. Distract yourself, drink more water, write in your journal, sing to yourself, get psyched up, kick your own ass, and tell all your friends to kick your ass for you too. ...

I keep posting to folks suggesting that they add some good fats. If you’re stuck for ideas on how to do that, here’s something I wrote on Lose It, in the Whole30 challenge. Whole30 is like paleo boot camp. It is a naturally low-carb high-fat plan. I like really big salads with lots of olive oil and some salt. For more fats goodness I will often add an avocado. I also like veggies such as broccoli or cauliflower with lots of butter (clarified of course). Slivered almonds are great on salads or on green beans (more butter of course). I usually will have macadamia nuts by themselves, they are really rich. ...

A common bit of diet advice is that you have to eat enough calories, and that you shouldn’t go below your budget too far (or below your BMR or Base Metabolic Rate). But, this is one of the big differences between low carb and low fat diets. If you eat low-fat and high-carb, you are basically alternating between spiking up your blood sugar, burning it off, letting it come back down, and then starving your body of necessary resources until the next feeding time. That dance is a happy blend of sugar/starch feeding, treadmill cardio burning, being hungry but distracting/denying it, then eating again, in small quantities so as to get back into starvation mode again quickly. ...

What is Whole30? Whole30 is a paleo diet without the caveman. It is based on the book, “It Starts With Food” by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig. It’s a 30 day body detox, transforming journey to better eating and health. A great description is here: (Whole30 description) The short version: Eat real food - meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruit, good fats. Don’t eat sugar, grains, dairy and legumes. What happens after the 30 days? The Whole30 take on things is that we don’t necessarily want to eat this strictly for the rest of our lives, but we’re building a solid base and a safe place to come back to, if we get in trouble. It is probably the strictest interpretation of paleo out there, which makes it great for re-learning and adapting. But a lot of paleo folks do fine with adding some dairy back in or relaxing some of the other rules, and maybe having occasional treat days where we get to have our pancakes or pasta. ...

I posted this in July of last year, and I decided to repost it here, in case some folks didn’t see the LiveJournal version of it. In the nine months since this writing, I’m down another 25 pounds, have started a workout plan that I like, and still feeling great.

I decided to create a new Wordpress blog for myself at blog.nekodojo.org. I’m hoping to use it to express some thoughts which don’t fit nicely in a Facebook or Tweet format. I’ll try to make sure things are mirrored to Facebook, LiveJournal, etc. I will likely still be reading Facebook every day, and probably visiting Twitter and LiveJournal on a regular basis.

I’m making a list of things I have discovered which are either unexpected, or actually the complete opposite of what I believed before. For now I’m expressing them as “old story” and “new story” and avoiding charged labels like “myth” and “fact”. The old story may work for some people… the new story works better for me. Here’s one: The story about quality vs. quantity. Old story: A great diet plan means eating whatever I want, in moderation. New story: If I find the right set of foods, I can eat whenever I am hungry, and not stress about it other times. ...