April's CR Diary

Hello...again! Mmmm....hummus really is awesome. I like your ideas for creative...uh...presentation? heeheehehe.
Sorry about your achy-ness. That really stinks. I like an herb called Valerian - it's good for sleep problems, and as a kind of muscle relaxer. (Takes about an hour to work though)
Another great post! And thanks again for your comments. -Christina

The last two days at the office have been jammed packed full of ordering out and "potluck" style eating. For the most part I have stayed away from it, but it is not easy. I feel your pain. For sure. I had a great late lunch of Indian cuisine, but calulated the data determined that to make the whole day work, I needed to cut back on dinner. The good news is, I am learning the more "zone" approach to balancing fat versus carbs versus protein, so my Indian lunch actually helped me on the fat end of the spectrum, but not 100% on my vitamins, so that is where my megga muffin comes in. It is all about being aware and about balance. My goal is not to be overwhelmed, but to be aware.

Thanks so much for what you write April!

I'm sorry you've been feeling so awful! Cramps just suck. At least they don't usually last more than a day or so. Take care and I hope you feel better soon.

quote: obesogenic environment: my new buzz-word for 2007!

April, I feel so sorry about your cramps, what has helped me is a natural progesterone cream that I buy in health food stores. It will balance your hormones.

I havent had a heavy period or cramps in years. I think your C.R. would correct this, especially with all the flax oil that you consume.

all the best from:
Sheila

Thanks to all for your suggestions re: cramp remedies! They're actually much better than they were pre-CR. When I was a teenager, I had cramps so bad that I would take possibly dangerous amounts of naproxen sodium for the unbearable pain, so my doc put me on birth control pills at 15 to get rid of them. The pills worked, but eventually I went off them because I didn't want to be on them forever, and I suspected that they made me gain weight and they did weird things to my mood. Other than the pill, the only thing that's ever really gotten rid of my cramps has been very low fat diets, which have all kinds of other problems so I don't want to do that. I suspect that last month's holiday eating contributed to this month's bad cramps. I note that when I eat unusually, I tend to suffer for it later. All the more reason to not do it!

april

I'm sorry you're not feeling well. Thanks for posting about the hummus - I don't mean I'm glad you ate more than you intended to, of course, but it's good to be reminded that everyone, even you, has imperfect days, and that they're not (at all) the end of the world, or a reason to give up.

Hi Emily!

I have many imperfect days! Please don't ever think that I'm some kind of model of perfection... I'm constantly struggling and improving like the rest of us. I find it helpful to build in a little margin, by going a bit low most days, so that when I either a) eat something I didn't intend to or b) consciously decide to eat more, for instance when I go out for a special occasion to a nice restaurant, one excess won't throw off my whole week. I'm doing that less now that I'm taking my calories gradually lower, but it's still a helpful principle.

No matter what, don't give up! We all have slip ups. That's what I mean by not seeing food as a moral issue: you're not bad when you eat something you didn't intend to, you just made a suboptimal choice. We can learn from these things and make choices the next time that better correspond to our long term goals. Next time, I might just switch my meals around so that I eat beforehand... going into these situations hungry is a bad idea. Or I'll take home a doggiebag of hummus for later, pita-less enjoyment!

love, april

Thanks for the encouragement. There's a lot of wisdom in the idea of learning to stop seeing food as good or bad, (and myself as good or bad depending on my food choices). I think that's really key to eating well and being happy. I mean, sometimes I stay up too late and I'm tired all day the next day. That's a bad decision, but it doesn't make me a bad person. In fact, it's totally ridiculous to see myself as a "bad person" for not getting enough sleep. I need to develop that kind of attitude about food; one where I choose to make good decisions about my diet, but when I make a less-than-optimal decision, I just shrug it off and learn from it.

I completely admire you and your dedication to CR. I am slowly working my way there. However, before you condemn the food industry for selling obesogenic poison, please take a moment to calculate how many planets we would need just to provide the food consumed by even 300 million CR-followers. While its great that we have the opportunity to eat fresh vegetables and low-calorie protein sources, it simply isn't sustainable (nor affordable) for the whole world to eat like you do. Yes, you could probably help many people cut 500 calories out of their diets and be happier and healthier, but if everyone ate like you do, we'd run out of planet very quickly.

Thanks so much for sharing your life with the world, I really do appreciate it.

Great post as always, April!

Martha,
I'm not so sure that's correct. Even setting aside the fact that eating fewer calories means less food needs to be produced, there's also the point that CR means high nutrition density in the food that's eaten, and that usually means not meat. Meat production consumes vast amounts of our agriculture production.. if everyone was on CR, that would be replaced by high-quality fruit and veggie production.. if anything, the ecological burden would be less.

Still, I don't think that even 1% of the population will embrace CR, as the urge to stuff ourselves is a strong one, one that the majority of the population for many reasons will not resist. I'd love to be wrong about that however.

About Emily's comment, I don't agree, either. I think that this country consumes a disproportionate (sp) amount of "obesiogenic" food. The whole world does not eat as badly as the US does, and our obesity percentage proves it. The entire world's population wouldn't be changing their dietary habits as much, therefore I don't think it would increase the strain on our resources as much as you would think.
On the contrary, I wonder how this would decrease pollution, for one thing. Also, think of how much of our agriculture is dedicated to corn. A big percentage of that corn goes to make high fructose corn syrup, among other processed food ingredients. What if we used that land for more nutritous vegetables and fruits instead?
As for healthier food being less affordable, I also disagree. Much of the cost of prepackaged snack foods, cerials, microwave entrees, ect is tied up in packaging the food in those brightly colored boxes and bags, and in advertising. Fresh fruits and veggis, however, come with their own colorful wrappers. And I don't think that much of the money I pay for a gorgeous pint of bright red strawberries is going to advertising - they pretty much sell themselves.
And I don't even need to mention healthcare costs, ect.
Fewer junk food processing plants and more greenhouses would be a wonderful thing!

More and more, I find myself utterly disgusted when I go shopping for food. Not so much with the other shoppers, but with the store for selling garbage food. It is frightening to think of how few people really know when a fruit and/or vegetable is in season. I am one of those people, although I do have some idea. I feel that eating "in season" is absolutely one of the easiest modifications we can make to our diet. Naturally, cutting out junk food is powerful and important, but sometimes little shifts and steps are the best route for people.

Obesiogenic is not in Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org but good news, there is a great mouse picture in the article on Obesity. I'm a big fan of Wikipedia. As a librarian, I may be unusual, but I say that information needs to be free and open to all for evaluation and additions. Maybe one of you should contribute a note on "obesiogenic." Is it in the Oxford English Dictionary? They are taking new suggestions.

April, you said, "Unfortunately, CR has not yet absolved me of the curse of menstruation. My more hardcore CR'd girlfriends assure me that amenorrhea is right around the corner, but as yet, I have just as bad cramps as other girls."

It is actually kind of strange that CR women do still get their periods. I know that living for awhile with a negative energy balance, regardless bodyfat %, can cease menstruation. Hmm. But also everyone is different, so for some maybe it must be a combination of several factors, from weight to eating to bodyfat to exercise to stress.... That just made me think, "I bet if Nerissa was your average girl, she wouldn't be menstruating (given her love of stress, etc)"

Hehe.

Regarding your comments on amenorrhea: I guess I'm lucky because I stop getting my period as soon as I get below 115 lbs (yet I'm only 5'2") and I don't even practice as strict calorie control as April and the other posters to this blog do.

Despite the debate about whether menstruation is "natural," I still worry about osteoporosis, as I have every single risk factor for it except for the fact that I'm physically active. I can't find any info in the calorie restriction literature about preventing osteoporosis while practicing calorie restriction. Can anyone direct me to a source of info or an expert on the matter?

Regarding my statement that I don't practice as strict calorie control as most of you: I find that if I go below a certain caloric level that really isn't that low (1500-1800 calories/day), I don't have enough energy for strenuous exercise (if I don't exercise, I can go lower). Therefore, it's a trade-off for me in terms of calorie restriction vs. exercise. Do you also face this trade-off, and and if so, do you choose CR or exercise?

April, thanks for the great blog and any help you can offer!

Regarding your comments on amenorrhea: I guess I'm lucky because I stop getting my period as soon as I get below 115 lbs (yet I'm only 5'2") and I don't even practice as strict calorie control as April and the other posters to this blog do.

Despite the debate about whether menstruation is "natural," I still worry about osteoporosis, as I have every single risk factor for it except for the fact that I'm physically active. I can't find any info in the calorie restriction literature about preventing osteoporosis while practicing calorie restriction. Can anyone direct me to a source of info or an expert on the matter?

Regarding my statement that I don't practice as strict calorie control as most of you: I find that if I go below a certain caloric level that really isn't that low (1500-1800 calories/day), I don't have enough energy for strenuous exercise (if I don't exercise, I can go lower). Therefore, it's a trade-off for me in terms of calorie restriction vs. exercise. Do you also face this trade-off, and and if so, do you choose CR or exercise?

April, thanks for the great blog and any help you can offer!