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February 26, 2007

Really Icky Time At the Doctor's Office

As all are aware, I get my blood tests done at least once a year to monitor my biomarkers, disease risk, nutrition stuff, etc. I turn in the results to the CR Society medical study, and I use them to update my nutrition or supplements, and to just plain know what's going on with my body. My doctor has been great about ordering the tests, and last time we had a very nice appointment, complete with a bit of comedy. So when I called up in January to schedule a new round of tests, I wasn't surprised that everything went fine. They even agreed that the CNN folks could video tape my blood drawing process for Sanjay Gupta's documentary.

So this morning the charming cameraman we've been working with arrives at our door promptly, we hop into his car (well, I hopped... it took MR awhile to get his shoes on... men always take so long to get prettied up for a trip out, don't they?) and we drove to the doctor's office just a few minutes away. The cameraman (who we really, really like, even though he doesn't wear glasses) got a shot of us walking in, attempting not to slip on the ice in the parking lot.

Almost as soon as we went in, trouble started. No one seemed to know what we were there for, nevermind that I had reconfirmed all the arrangements with the office manager on Friday, and that the CNN producer had spoken with them to clarify as well. The nurse was annoyed that no one had informed her of the plan, the other office staff was confused, and as it turned out, my doctor was on medical leave till March! Meanwhile, the office manager who had set the thing up wasn't in yet. So we figured out which bloodtests I needed (MR had to jump on a computer to download the file with the letter about what tests we want for the study) and finally the nurse set to drawing my blood, after deciding that since I'm an accomplished, experienced fainter, I'd better take the test lying down.

The nurse did a great job drawing the blood -- got the vein the first time, barely felt it at all. The cameraman filmed, and I tried not to look like I was about to die. I got through the drawing of EIGHT VIALS OF BLOOD by concentrating very hard on the image of Keith Olbermann sitting on a bar stool. A faint grin passed across my face as I envisioned him taking off his jacket to reveal a fabulous striped shirt. Hmmm... that fantasy has served me well. From the M&M's resistance to the survival of eight vials of blood being removed from my arm, Keith is there for me. Anyhow...

I sat up gradually and MR brought me my juice to get my glucose up. I had been fasting since lunch on Sunday, so I was pretty woozy to begin with, but I was starting to think I would make it through the event without incident.

Then the office manager arrived, and a kerfuffle ensued.

Apparently, she had been under the impression that another doctor, from the CRS medical study, had actually written the order for the test. I was under the impression that my doctor had ordered the tests, just like she did last year. The nurse was under the impression that she was supposed to draw the blood, so she did.

Well, the office manager and the nurse engaged in heated conversation (I had already figured out that they were not fond of each other) and it soon turned into the office manager yelling at me.

"You can't just walk in here and pick whatever blood tests you want off the internet and have them done without a doctor's order!"

I tried to explain that I was under the impression, since I had called TWO MONTHS ago to set up the appointment and the person I spoke to said she'd talk to my doctor, and then called me back to confirm, that my doctor had ordered the tests, like last year.

That did not satisfy the office manager.

"What are you doing these tests for? Who is running this study?"

I tried to calmly explain, but that wasn't helping. She continued to bark questions at me, and even threatened to throw out the blood if she couldn't get a diagnosis to put on the form.

Meanwhile, I am a fainter. I hadn't eaten in over 18 hours and I was feeling quite woozy, sipping my juice and being yelled at while the charming cameraman calmly waited in the front room. MR tried to help me explain, but we were just talking over each other and the office manager was getting more and more agitated. Finally, I said (I am very good at handling hysterical people, it's a large part of my job):

"It's clear that there's been a miscommunication. How would you suggest we proceed at this point? It certainly seems like it would be a waste of the nurse's time and my blood if we were to throw out the eight vials. So can we speak to my doctor, or another physician in the practice if she's unavailable, and get an order for these tests?"

The office manager said something to the effect of, "Yeah, you can bet I'm gonna talk to your doctor," in exactly the same tone that someone might say, upon catching a teenager vandalizing the neighbor's property, "You can bet I'm gonna talk to your mom!"

Needless to say, I was not impressed with the quality of customer service.

I remained polite and calm (as the blood drained out my brain) and promised to give her the documentation on the CRS Study and CR (which was supposed to be in my chart from my last visit, but had apparently been thrown out.) After the office staff members yelled at each other more, I handed over my $5 co pay and walked out, cameraman and boyfriend behind me.

I demanded that we drive immediately to Starbucks. Whose brilliant idea was it to do a media appearance on no food and no coffee???

The CNN cameraman was the picture of professionalism through the entire thing. What a guy. I wish we could keep him. I have learned that I love cameramen and photographers. It's their job to make you look good. It's the actual journalists who are sometimes the problem, but anyhow... hopefully this piece will turn out well.

I got home, still feeling quite lightheaded, and MR made me a big eggwhite omlette, plus a cup of nonfat cottage cheese with Carolina Treet! I felt a tiny bit better, and he drove me to work, since there was no way I was up to driving after all that.

I continued to feel quite lightheaded and dizzy throughout the morning, only feeling even vaguely like myself after my usual lunch of big salad, yogurt, almonds.

It was a pretty bad day, and tonight I have a late meeting, so I've stopped by home to lie down for an hour before I have to hit the road (in traffic) to do a big meeting that will last till close to 10 pm. I wanted to go to the gym today, but MR pointed out and I agreed that I am in no condition to work out.

My doctor did call later to clarify, and apologized for the miscommunication. I think I will write her a letter detailing the incident. She's a good doctor, and she should know that her office staff is behaving in an unprofessional manner that could really drive patients away.

At least I'll get my blood tests, and CNN will get some good footage of me losing a large amount of blood while fantasizing about Keith Olbermann.

I guess we all eventually have our fifteen minutes of fame.

Posted by april at 2:18 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

February 25, 2007

A Few Thoughts On How To Think About Nutrition

[WARNING: I am not picking on anyone in particular, though chances are most everyone will be offended by *something* in this post.]

There are a lot of little sayings about how to eat that circulate in the popular culture. "Eat around the outside of the grocery store." "Eat only whole foods." "Don't eat anything processed." "Don't eat anything white."

Those sayings often have some wisdom, and for normal people who are just seeking to avoid the horror of the Standard American Diet, they're probably pretty good advice.

But I strongly believe that people pursuing CR owe it to ourselves to take a more nuanced view of nutrition. CR is hard enough in itself: lowering your calories below what your body *thinks* it needs is a process that takes focus, concentration, and information. We minimize foods that are high in calories and low in nutrition, though many of us eat them from time to time and balance them with our other meals. But when you start to rule out entire categories of foods, not based on solid evidence-based scientific information but based on nutrition superstition, you may be putting unnecessary obstacles in your already difficult course.

That is not to say that there are not other valid considerations when making our decisions about food. People who are ethically committed to vegetarianism or veganism may put those concerns ahead of nutritional issues or convenience. It's possible to do CRON as a vegan, but I think it's a lot harder, and means sacrificing the convenience of getting a low-calorie, high protein meal of grilled chicken on a salad at a restaurant out with co-workers. If I never ate out, I would probably be a complete vegetarian. But alas, I'm not willing to make that compromise, as of yet. I may, soon. I frequently send little emails to Erin whining about my existential crisis as a former vegan turned CR'd attempting to live with my super-low calorie requirements and my social life and my ethical concerns. He is encouraging and helpful, but there are no easy answers.

Other folks value supporting local farmers, or organic farmers, or fairly traded products, so they might factor these issues into their food choices. I have complete respect for all of these choices.

My concern is when people are making choices based on either misinformation or just plain superstition. Classic example: this whole diet soda kerfuffle.

[Yes, Cat and Allswellinhell, it's coming.]

Objections that are, in my mind, valid, to diet soda:

-- If you don't like the taste, don't drink it.
-- It's expensive (as opposed to water)
-- It takes packaging (environmental concern)
-- There are some sodas that mix benzoic acid (or sodium benzoate) with vitamin C. When you mix those folks, you end up with benzene, which is carcinogenic. So to avoid this problem, don't drink sodas that list benzoic acid and ascorbic acid at the same time.
-- Some people who have serious sugar addictions find that anything with artificial sweeteners triggers their sugar cravings (but lots don't.)
-- I'm sure I could think of more and people will add them in the comments.

Here are some objections to diet sodas that I do not consider valid:

-- EEEEEK! It's not *natural*!
-- EEEEEK! It has artificial sweetener!
-- It's processed.
-- It's not found in nature (though I am still looking for the Diet Dr. Pepper tree, and will let you know when I locate it and plant our backyard full of them.)
-- Our ancestors didn't drink it.
-- It's not virtuous.
-- It keeps alive the idea of soda, which is a "junk" food, therefore we should not drink it, even if it can be proven that it does not harm our actual health. (The "it's the thought that counts" school of nutritional counseling.)
-- It's going to rot my bones (this one is not irrational, it's just most likely incorrect for CR'd folks, which I will explain in a moment.)
-- Some people have bad reactions to them.

'Let's take these one by one.

-- It's got artificial sweetener.

First: just because something is artificial does not make it unhealthy. Lots of things that are artificial are good for you. Lots of things that grow in the ground are not. Ask anyone who has swallowed a poisonous mushroom if you doubt this. Opposing foods on the grounds that they are artificial is an ideology, not to be confused with sound scientific information based on evidence.

That being said, it certainly does not follow that all things artificial are safe. We must take them one by one and evaluate the evidence. For instance, aspartame was introduced in the early eighties with what probably was too little testing. At the time, it was reasonable to avoid drinking it for a while, while we waited for more evidence to come in. Since then, however, it has been tested A LOT. Have a look at the survival curves of rats fed aspartame, in that study which was recently hyped as supposedly showing that long term aspartame exposure really does cause cancer, which as you can see from the survival curves, showed no such thing. The curves are about the same, and in females, there seems to be a tiny bit of lifespan lengthening in rats fed aspartame! Drink up, little rodents!) We also have over twenty years of actual people using the stuff, with very few documented problems (never mind that sugar, which is "natural," is ruining the teeth and health of Americans, especially children, in a very well-documented fashion. Call it "pure milled cane juice" on the label and sell it at Whole Foods, whatever!) Yes, some people have bad reactions to aspartame. Those people should not consume it. Most people do not have bad reactions to it, and even those who claim to, in double-blind studies, often have no worse reaction to it than to a placebo.

If you, personally, have a bad reaction to any substance, manmade or out of the ground, vegetable, fish or fowl, stop consuming it! I stopped watching sports on television when I realized that I have a bad reaction to it. A die hard Red Sox fan should not follow suit.

Sucralose is also quite safe... and certainly safer than sugar. Mary had a great treatment of this issue in a recent entry.

Okay, having dispensed with the artificial sweetener issue, on to the "processed" issue.

There are processed foods that are very good for you. Nonfat organic yogurt (unless you are allergic to it) is a good example. It doesn't come straight out of the ground or out of the cow, but it's one of the lowest calorie, healthiest sources of calcium you can find. There are other processed foods that may not be ideal sources of this or that, but are perfectly fine, and can help you keep your calories low and nutrition high while maintaining your job, housecleaning, and life. For instance, once a week or so I eat a Lean Cuisine frozen dinner, usually under 200 calories. I add my own unsaturated fat, usually flax oil and/or almonds, sometimes I put brewers yeast on the veggies. That's perfectly fine! It's low cal, doesn't have anything toxic in it, high protein, fills me up, and is a fine thing to grab when I'm running in the door two minutes before dinner. Most days I eat a combination of veggies, brewers yeast, sometimes more nonfat organic dairy. But a frozen dinner, as part of a calorie-controlled, nutrient balanced diet, is just fine! Just because something is processed doesn't mean it's bad for you, especially in the context of an overall extremely nutritious, low calorie diet. That's what I mean about we CR people being able to exercise a little more judgement than the average Joe who thinks that eating healthy is just avoiding processed foods. I am capable of reading the ingredients on a package, deciding if it's something I want to eat, and evaluating it in the context of my overall nutrition for the meal, day, week, etc.

Now there are some things that are processed that I'd drop like a hot potato. Anything with transfats, for instance. Gotta go. But not because they're processed. I'd drop a poisonous mushroom too, right back onto the ground where it came from.

On to the old "Our ancestors didn't..."

This argument is so absurd that I find it difficult to engage it. Our ancestors didn't live very long, had very different priorities in life (avoiding starvation, running from hungry wild animals, starting fires to prevent a freezing death) and didn't benefit from the tremendous wealth of information and technology that our more recent ancestors have provided us with. Things that we eat should be evaluated on the basis of what they actually do to us, not theories about what ancient people ate.

This is fun, let's do another.

"It's not virtuous." Or some variation thereof.

I've written extensively about how I find it most counterproductive to think of food in moral terms. Foods either make us healthier or they don't. They either fit into our lifestyle or they don't. They either taste good to us or they don't. There's only one way to find out: do the research and/or give it a try. I am not doing CR to prove that I am a good or moral person, and if I were, I think that would be downright silly because my ability to eat this or that proves nothing about my character. I wish that all this talk of food as morality would just go away. It sets people up for ridiculous guilt, which in turn sets them up for more binging, followed by more fasting or purging, followed by my eventual entry on that topic.

Ditto on the "idea of junk food." CR is not about how we feel about food. Most of us find that we feel better about food post-CR than pre, but whether we like "junk" or not, we can still do CR and improve our health, hopefully even lengthen our lives. Lower calories, more nutrition, that's all.

"It's going to rot my bones."

This one is not irrational. This one is just a misunderstanding, but not too far off. It's also a good example of how mechanistic thinking, when contradicted by evidence, can lead you in the wrong direction.

It goes like this: consuming phosphorus, and also "acid ash" foods, increases calcium excretion. So you'd think that consuming something with phosphorus -- especially as "phosphoric acid" (like diet soda), which is also an "acid ash" metabolizer -- might make your bones weaker. You wouldn't be unreasonable to make that assumption. But if you're Cat, and Cat is really who she says she is (as opposed to an elderly woman getting less than the RDA of calcium), then you'd be wrong.

The bottom line is that the increase in calcium excretion from these kinds of effects is very small -- so small that it's negligible, if you're getting enough calcium in your diet to compensate for it. In large studies where the diets of people are tracked long-term and compared to their health risks, it's been found that there is an increased risk of bone problems in cola drinkers -- but only in the ones who don't get enough calcium in their diets! (The same is true for people who eat a lot of protein, which is also "acid ash"). So Cat, who is getting sufficient calcium in her diet, and is even tracking it to make sure, can drink diet soda without weakening her bones. Cat is also doing tons of bone building exercise, setting a fine example for the rest of us. So Cat is doing a lot to protect her bones, and should drink diet soda if she feels like it.

The thing that gets me so worked up about people cutting out diet soda based on either myths or logical misunderstandings is that when you're in the midst of such radical change as going on CR, drinking that diet soda might be just what you need to make it to your next meal without snacking on something that has calories you don't need. Sure, if you want to get extra health benefits while you drink something calorie free, you can pull a Robin and drink a gallon of green tea. But if that little pop of Diet Coke just satisfies you on an existential level, for heaven's sake, drink it! Keep your calcium high, do your bone building exercise, and squeeze a bit of lemon or lime into that Diet Coke. Buy me one while you're at it.

We who practice CR have the overriding aim of eating as few calories as possible while maintaining nutrition. When a food ideology that is not based on evidence causes us to eat more calories, then I'd say, throw the food ideology out. That's not to be confused with genuine concerns that are other than nutritional, like the ones I mentioned early in the post: vegetarianism, environmental concerns, etc. What I'm talking about is an unsupported belief that food that is "whole" is better for you than food that is "processed." Eating sugar instead of artificial sweeteners because you're convinced that something is bad just because it's artificial (not because there's actual evidence to support your conviction about the particular artificial substance) is counterproductive for the person whose aims for CRON. If you want to play everything super safe and give up everything that might possibly be harmful, you can try to do that. But most people find it doesn't work. In the quest to give up the artificial, they all too frequently consume more calories, and usually of substances that we know are bad for you, like sugar and saturated fat.

Are you still with me? Can we still be friends? I know that a lot of people will find my position on this downright offensive. I hate to be the cause of controversy (not that you can tell!) but I've spent so much time angsting about Cat and Emily trying to give up diet soda that I just felt like it had to be said. If you find that green tea really does please you more than diet Coke, then go for it. I tend to have one diet soda a day, a ton of green, black and herbal tea, two cups of coffee, and a bunch of water including seltzer water. That works for me. You've got to decide what works for you.

That brings me to another point I've been meaning to underline. To do CR means to take on responsibility for your own health. I spent seven months in intense research (it helped that I was single at the time!) to design my own diet and decide what I wanted to eat and what I wanted to minimize. I did the work myself, searching the CR Society archives, reading cited papers, checking books out of the library, ordering books online, reading more articles, and experimenting on myself. My old blog over at blogspot chronicles the long tale of how I evolved my current practices. I made a lot of mistakes that you may find entertaining. My practice continues to evolve over time, and will probably never stop growing and changing. But I got to my own beliefs by doing my own research. You need to do the same.

As much as I believe in argument from authority when it comes to how to wash the kitchen floor, I don't believe in the kind of guruism that says that just because someone you like and respect does something, you should do it too. There are things I can warn you about, issues I can suggest you look into, ways of thinking that I can challenge, and mistakes I've made that you can learn from/laugh at. But in the end, it's up to you to make your own decisions. Your priorities can and will be different from mine -- we're different people!

Here are two great sources of information for you as you do your research.

CR Society Archives -- a place where you can find thoughtful people, some of whom know a lot, discussing issues that are of importance to you. And a lot of crap, but ignore that and read the good stuff. Especially follow up on the references. Use the userid seemysig@googlemail.com and the password simplepassword.

Pub Med -- that's where you can find the referenced articles, or just fall asleep trying.

Now here's something that you may be confused about: I've been ranting against the whole "natural" thing, yet I consistently tell you to get your nutrition from food, not from supplements. What's up with that? Why can't you just take a pill, or eat a fortified cereal? I wrote about that in depth here, but I'll paste it in for those of you who don't want to click:

Just what is the right amount of each nutrient for us, how do we best supplement, and what nutritients do we really need to get from food, vs. what nutrients can we supplement adequately?

Dr. Walford has an excellent treatment of this topic in Beyond 120, so I suggest y'all read it if you haven't yet. But a few quick points:

-- In lab animals, the ones fed their nutrients from real food live longer than the ones fed rat junk food plus supplements.

-- We don't know, for sure, what exactly it is in each food that is good for us, so by getting our RDAs from food we maximize our chances that we're getting whatever we need that might not be specifically isolated in a vitamin. There is no perfect vitamin pill.

-- Most multis have toxic levels of this or that, and varieties of the nutrients that are actually different from what's found in food. Synthetic beta-carotene, for example. Even if you have a great multi, it will still only fill in the holes in your particular diet by chance. You really must analyze your diet before you choose your supplements. MR doesn't take a multi cause his diet is too good. He'd be overdoing it on some nutrients if he took a multi. He supplements with specific nutrients, but doesn't take one single multi.

-- There are some nutrients that have to be kept in balance with each other, else neither will be properly absorbed or utilized. Zinc and copper are an example. If you have too much copper (which is found in fruits and vegetables) relative to your zinc, your zinc won't be properly absorbed and utilized, even if you're getting more than the RDA of both nutrients from your food and/or your supplements. And vice versa. So taking a random pill without analyzing your diet is likely to throw off the balance of your nutrients, or at the very least leave an imbalance uncorrected. You might think you're getting the RDA (the pill says so!) but you're not absorbing and utilizing it. The more you rely on pills without knowing what's in your food, the more likely you are to fail to correct imbalances, or make them worse. You're reasonably safe if you have the RDAs, or even proportional multiples of all the RDAs at once, since good balance is shown in the RDAs. But if you start taking a bunch of pills on top of your food, without knowing exactly what's in them and understanding how they interact with the nutrients in your diet, you're likely to perpetuate any imbalances.

There are still plenty of reasons why you might want to supplement. Insurance against occasional or chronic deficiencies (such as taking Vegetarian Booster if you eat a mostly vegetarian diet,) specific medical conditions for which certain supplements might be indicated (like my I-3-C for cervical dysplasia, which, btw, is GONE as of my last check up!!!) and more experimental supplements that may have a beneficial effect but definitely aren't necessary for a healthy diet. I've written a lot about what supplements I take, and I need to update some of the info because we've recently revamped my supplement program. Informed supplementation can improve your CR program, and uninformed supplementation can cause problems, so analyze your diet before you start taking pills.

There. Thus concludes old entry, now we're back to today's extremely long entry. But I know you're all sitting at your desks on Monday morning looking for ways to avoid work just a minute longer, so this entry may serve you in more ways than one.

Which brings me to another point (many a household chore has been sacrificed in the production of this entry): long ago, so long ago that the commenter probably thinks I've forgotten her, a reader asked why I'm opposed to oatmeal. That's a good way to illustrate another nuance in how we think about nutrition.

I do not oppose oatmeal. Some of my best friends eat oatmeal. In fact, one of my friends eats oatmeal almost every morning for breakfast. He is not on CR. He also looks like Richard Gere. That doesn't mean that eating oatmeal will make you look like Richard Gere... another classic error in thinking that people apply to nutrition (ie Elephants are long lived... elephants are vegetarians... therefore, we should be vegetarians!)

I find, however, that oatmeal isn't a good deal in terms of the nutrition you get for your calories. Therefore, I choose not to eat it. You may find it worth it. I'd rather have a glass of wine with those calories (though not for breakfast) and get my fiber from 1 tablespoon of wheat bran. I don't think that oatmeal is toxic, I just don't think it's a good buy. You might like it so much and find it satisfying and therefore decide to include it in your diet. I've also found that I need a high protein, low carb breakfast to stay satisfied till lunch. Ergo, eating eggwhites for breakfast works for me. That's the result of vast and entertaining self-experimentation, and you may find you're the same. But you may not. That's okay. That's what I mean by make your own decisions.

Either way, I hope we can still be friends.

Posted by april at 12:07 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack

February 23, 2007

I Can Feel My Risk Of Fracture Decreasing

That's what I said to MR when I got home from my first Pilates class. Wow! They say it's supposed to increase core strength, and I can tell it works from the very first class. All the work on balance and trunk strengthening will really help out when I'm walking on ice through all of our icky northeastern winters. Decreasing fractures is about both strengthening bones and preventing falls: I'm already working hard with my calcium, high-impact exercise, weight lifting and bone building supplements on the strengthening bones part, now I can work on the preventing falls part too! I found the class simultaneously difficult and relaxing, and I came out of it totally energized and ready to face the day.

I strongly recommend a Pilates class to all CR practitioners out there. I may even attempt to drag MR along to one. Improved balance... greater strength... sexy chicks in leotards... what's not to love?

Posted by april at 9:59 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

February 21, 2007

Health Is Not A Number On The Scale

"Is it possible, as a woman, to be too skinny?" asked Dr. Sanjay Gupta over dinner (in front of a lot of cameras and lights) on Friday night.

My answer went something like this:

Attitudes about weight are very culturally determined. I try to make my decisions about how much I should weigh based on scientific information and how I feel in my own body, not based on culturally determined ideas of what looks "right."

Most people who meet me these days don't think I'm too skinny. I still have, uh, feminine curves and plenty of body fat. But people who knew me when I was anywhere from 20 - 40 pounds heavier often think I'm too skinny now. And when you look at a population where 65% of people are overweight, half of those obese, being anything other than overweight puts you outside the mainstream.

The media likes the sensational sounding weights of some CR folks... it's very exciting to post that MR is 6 feet tall and weighs 115 pounds. But that's always taken a bit out of context: he weighed 145 pounds pre-CR, eating all the oatmeal and milk he could consume in a constant struggle to *gain* weight. Naturally skinny people will get even skinnier when they cut their calorie intake. Health is not the number on the scale. My tiny friend who weighed 90 pounds at my height but was sick every month or so is not gaining health benefits from her slightness.

I am in the habit of mentally "CR'ing" people. It's not unlike mentally undressing someone... you imagine what they would look like if they were missing an (unnecessary, in my opinion) layer. You take an already skinny guy, remove about 10% from his current calorie intake, and remove a corresponding amount of weight, and you get an even skinnier guy. And a healthier guy. Probably with better skin and hair. No excess fat, and if you assume that like all good CR folks, he'll be continuing to exercise to stay in shape, you get a guy who would be well worth mentally undressing. Take someone who tended to be a bit more plump to begin with, you might get a "normal" looking person once you mentally CR him. Personally, I like the skinny-turned-skinnier type, which explains why I only meet a man I find attractive once every few years. Lucky for me I got the best one! The pickins are slim, when what you want is skinny and geeky and you're in the market for something over thirty. Or rather, the pickins are rapidly gaining weight. With the obesity epidemic and the increasing popularity of laser vision correction, there are very few skinny guys with glasses left to lust after. I ran into one awhile back and it was downright distracting.

But before you all figure out that this whole CR thing is just a plot to get more men to conform to my ideal of physical perfection, onward to my point:

If you feel good, you are comfortable with the way you look (which doesn't mean it has to be ideal -- MR would prefer to be heavier if aesthetics were all that are at issue, but lucky for me, he's willing to compromise on his perception of looks because he wants to take his calories as low as he comfortably can), you're happy with your energy level, your quality of life is what you want it to be, you're doing your bone building exercise (you know who you are!) and your bloodtests are coming back great, then the number on the scale doesn't matter.

There's a great deal of psychological significance to certain numbers. Robin was concerned recently when she went below 100 as a result of an illness. I know I've always gotten a little nervous as I near the double digits. But the fact remains: health is not measured in weight. There are healthy thin people and unhealthy thin people. If you're healthy, and you're not anorexic, and your nutrition kicks some skinny butt, then I don't see any reason to worry about the numbers on the scale (as long as you're not losing weight too fast.)

MR rarely goes below 115 because he finds that's a weight and calorie level where he has all the physical strength he needs (enough to carry me around, do some serious exercise that keeps his gorgeous arm muscles gorgeous, and carry all of our groceries, including giant bales of cat liter). I don't know where I would bottom out... I've never gotten close to a weight where I felt like I was too skinny, and most people who have seen me would agree. My philosophy has always been that I'll take my calories as low as I can comfortably go, where comfortably means a) I feel great b) I'm not too hungry c) I'm still able to work in *occasional* eating out at really fabulous restaurants (but not frequent eating out at crappy restaurants!) It's the calories that count, not the weight. CR, it bears repeating, is not about weight loss, though weight loss is a side effect.

I think that those of us who start a little on the heavy side are the lucky ones because we get to enjoy weight loss! For anyone who has ever been even a touch overweight, you know what weight bias feels like. It's quite a revelation to become one of the thin girls. I was never much overweight, but I was always just a touch too plump for fashion. It's wonderful to be liberated from the demon of "Do I look fat?"

But in the end, if I get a bit too thin for fashion, I can live with it.

One thing I will never let determine my weight is the negative statements of people who see someone who controls her calories and is thin and scream "ANOREXIA!" There are some ignorant people out there (reality check: anorexia affects less than 1.5% of adolescent girls -- 65% of the adult population is overweight or obese! a little perspective please!) I get so mad when I hear about people picking on my bloggiegirlfriends about their weight. Don't let the naysayers get you down! If you're healthy (and that means getting your nutrition, doing your exercise, and monitoring your bloodtests) then tell those people to choke on a tofu macadamia nut smoothie.

In the meantime, I continue to gradually lower my calories. I've increased my exercise enough that my weight is remaining relatively stable, but if past patterns hold, it will probably drop a couple of pounds at some point soon. I'm feeling great, munching on a little 50 calorie pack of dried blueberries that MR made for me, and wondering whether or not I'll faint at my upcoming blood test.

I believe it was Twiggy who said, "You can never be too rich or too thin." As a CR'd union organizer, I disagree. If you got your wealth by exploiting others, you're too rich. If you got to be thin by starving yourself and being malnourished, you're too thin. But if you're doing what every CR'er should be doing (getting optimal nutrition, doing cardio and bone building exercise, getting your bloodtests and monitoring your health) you can be quite thin and extremely healthy. Healthier than those folks who say, "Eeeek! You're too thin!"

Health is feeling great every day of your life, so much so that you can't believe how you felt before. Health is having the energy to do what you want to do, knowing that you won't get sick with every bug that rotates through the office, and that you're very unlikely to end up in the cardiac care unit. Health is feeling good about yourself, whether your "skinny" or not.

Health is not a number on the scale.

Posted by april at 8:17 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

You Smell Much Better Than Burned Beans

"Awwww, honey, that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me!"

Just kidding.

I walked downstairs after my shower to microwave my coffee (I like my coffee strong and hot, like my men) and was confronted with the smell of overly toasted chickpeas. MR had cooked his chickpeas for his hummus in the crock pot for so many years that now that he cooks them on the stove, he sometimes forgets to add water and stir, leading to the sacrifice of many innocent chickpeas.

I had just tried out a new body lotion that I got on sale at the store this weekend. I seem to like body lotions that smell like something I would be unlikely to eat: butter cookie, creme brulee, and this one: mint chocolate orange.

It's interesting to smell like a dessert. I wonder if they have a lotion that smells like Butterfinger. Do people suddenly crave chocolate when they get close to me?

Posted by april at 6:40 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

February 19, 2007

Snark Attack

I was just listening to a local NPR show on which they were going to discuss a WWII battle in which many men died of shark attack. It suddenly brought to mind Rebecca Traister, and then I realized I had misheard "shark" as "snark."

In response to Istanbulwitchy and Shelia's comments, I have as of late instituted a policy that with rare exceptions, I will only do interviews with medical or science correspondents. People who are interested in freak shows and snark aren't welcome. Of course I can't control the random columnist who decides, without ever even talking to us, to pass judgement in a national magazine. But I can control whom I speak with, and I'm not going to talk to media who aren't interested in science.

That being said, I think that the Grazia piece was one of the best ever written about CR. While there was one massive misquote, the piece was almost entirely direct quotes from me. The pics were great, the tone was upbeat, and even the usual dietician quoted to say that CR might be dangerous just reiterated what we always say: "Don't do this unless you're willing to put in the work to get the nutrition you need."

I've actually turned down some requests for interviews, usually on the advice of friends who follow popular culture a bit more closely than I do.

No doubt there will be more snark attacks, but even those seem to yield good things. Chicago Cyclist Chris came to us from the nasty Salon piece... he was smart enough to see through the snark and get the point that Traister missed. And the New York Magazine piece brought us more readers than anything else ever has. So while these things often seem to go terribly wrong, they often come round right in the end.

Posted by april at 8:15 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

You Will Live a Long and Healthy Life

Sorry for the delay in writing... I have not had even a minute to sit down! CNN went fine. Sanjay and his producer were stuck in traffic on their way here from NY for 4.5 hours, so they were a bit late. Meanwhile, we hung out with their cameraman, who is a very nice guy, and I had lots of time to play with the food. I used our new white square fancy modern looking dishes that MR's parents gave us for Christmas. On them I lined up the tri-color tomato salad with basil and olive oil in one long line, followed by the fish, followed by the lightly steamed stalks of asparagus. The dessert (you guessed it, MoMR!) was MegaBrownie chopped up and served as a sundae in layers with nonfat ricotta, frozen (obviously thawed) organic strawberries, hazelnuts and hazelnut oil. It was all very pretty... wish I had taken pictures, but hopefully you'll see it on CNN! Sanjay was a very nice guy, and I wished he had been able to stay longer. He's coming out with a book on the topic of aging, so we'll look forward to reading that.

Then onward to a very, very busy weekend. Saturday I met two old friends whom I hadn't seen in quite awhile at an old favorite vegan Chinese restaurants. We split three old favorite dishes: tofu curry hot pot, "beef" and broccoli, and barbeque roast "pork" (all the food is vegan so it's gluten and seitan paradise) and a tomato bean curd soup. I skipped the rice and the fried banana, but ate my fortune cookie. My fortune was, "You will live a long and healthy life and be surrounded by luxury." Now that's something to look forward to! My friend got, "You love gambling and horses." Makes you wonder about the accuracy of these things.

I skipped dinner since I'd had a much bigger than usual lunch, and we were busy anyhow, as we went off to an event downtown with some of our friends. I noticed that my workouts have been paying off: we had to sprint to catch our train home, and whereas I would have been quite winded from the run (including many, many stairs up to the platform), I could do it with relatively little effort. I have to revise my statement on running: in general, I don't care for it, but I will run when a) a large animal is chasing me b) I am in danger of missing a train.

We got home late Saturday night (late for us -- we are early-to-bed people) and then up and at it again at 5 the next morning to get ready for a big party we had at our house at 12:30. I cooked a simple feast, including a tomato vegetable stew with tofu dogs, a fruit salad with Stoneyfield Farms "banilla" yogurt for topping, and black bean hummus with carrots and tomatoes to dip. A friend brought a cilantro/shrimp/lime dish that was delicious. He fed Kieffer several shrimp, winning Kieffer's eternal adoration.

Here's the recipe for the hummus, a nice variation on the traditional:

Purple Black Bean Hummus of the Gods

3 cans black beans, drained
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 - 2 tablespoons tahini, depending on your taste
half salt to taste
2 - 3 cloves of garlic, depending on their size and taste
fresh pepper

Throw it all into the food processor and blend till smooth. You don't need oil for this, but you can add it if you want. It turns a pretty pale purple color. You could also use chili powder of various kinds if you want to give it a slightly southwestern flavor.

Today is President's Day and I'm technically off work, though I'll end up working of course. However, I do get to take it somewhat easy this morning and relax a bit from the crazy weekend.

Posted by april at 6:20 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 16, 2007

Commitment

I used to have a terrible mental block on how to spell "commitment." I was forever putting two "t"s where one belongs. Don't spend too much time analyzing that.

It wasn't till I spent some time writing press releases for the Mprize and Aubrey de Grey, great proofreader that he is, corrected my spelling of commitment that I finally learned, once and for all, how to spell it.

Then MR and I fell in love the rest is history.

I was thinking about commitment a lot in the last few days because of course it was Valentine's Day, a day when we celebrate romantic love in all it's forms, but mostly in its high calorie, gaky forms. Now don't get me wrong... I am all for a nice treat here and there. There's nothing immoral about eating a piece of chocolate or vegging out in front of a whole series of Keith Olbermann videos. But we celebrated Valentine's Day with a version of MR's favorite dish, CR friendly lasagna, the nourish you in body and mind dish that I made this time with big portabella mushroom caps separating the layers, plus cauliflower, bell peppers, Quorn grounds, zucchini, and Muir Glen organic no salt tomato sauce, plus non fat mozzarella. Topped with olive and flax oil after removing from the oven.

The intimate details of our private life and relationship are no one's business, and I'm sure you're all grateful to be spared any further information on a topic of which you may have heard too much already. But I spent some time over the last few days reflecting that MR and I have been through a whole lot together in just over two years, and that I've had lots of boyfriends, but never before felt like I had a real partner, someone who would stand by me through the worst of everything. Now I do. I guess I finally learned how to spell commitment.

The other reason why I was thinking about commitment was that the producer for the Sanjay Gupta show called me yesterday. Now it's the producer's job to stay out of the picture, so I won't go on much about him, but I really, really like him, and not just because he's tall and skinny with glasses. Anyhow, he called asking for a kind of commitment that I find very, very difficult. When I wanted to join my life with MR, I had no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be with him with my entire body mind and soul. There was no question that he was the man for me, the orange angel I'd been waiting for my entire life. So commitment came naturally, and Aubrey no longer had to correct that part of my press releases. But the CNN producer was asking for a different kind of commitment.

He wanted me to commit to what I was going to serve for dinner tonight.

That's right: they're working on the show, and he needed to know in advance what I would be serving.

YIKES! I change my mind at the last minute *a lot* as I play with flavors and macronutrient ratios. I knew that in general, I'd be serving tilapia. But side dishes? Dessert? Could change at a moment's notice!

So I did it. I hemmed and hawed and whined, but I did it. I commited to a menu for tonight. It's a lot like what we made last time, but with a fancy surprise dessert.

As Don Henley says in my very favorite Don Henley song of all time, "Everything Is Different Now:"

I bit that bullet
I took that vow
And everything is different now.

Posted by april at 5:44 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

February 14, 2007

Bigger Fish To Fry

My message to the producer of the CNN documentary on aging in which MR and I will play a very small part:

"I know that CNN's medical unit has bigger fish to fry (I've been waiting awhile to make that pun!) but do you know if Dr. Gupta likes tilapia?"

That's right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is coming to dinner on Friday night. And he likes tilapia! Needless to say, I will not be frying it. I will be simmering it in white wine and lemon juice with a touch of garlic and pepper.

The dishes that MR's parents gave us for Christmas will finally get to be on CNN. And hopefully people will learn something valuable about aging.

Posted by april at 6:08 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

February 13, 2007

Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

It's snowing here on the east coast, and my mother was on her way back from New York, so she decided to stay with us over night so as to avoid driving in freezing rain and sleet. My night meeting was cancelled due to weather, so I've stayed home tonight working on the phone. I took a break to make dinner: shrimp cooked in wine and salsa verde with Trader Joe's Harvest Hodgepodge for mom, veggies for me but topped with brewers yeast, side of cottage cheese. MR got a stew of eggplant, yellow squash and zucchini with basil, oregano, and garlic in no salt veggie broth, with eggwhites for protein, flax oil for fat, and an apple hazelnut ricotta parfait on the side with hazelnut oil and Walden Farms chocolate sauce. My mom and I drank a very nice French rose (my mom is not a red drinker) and MR had his usual 3 oz of pinot. Kieffer had a few shrimp shells. We have to spell the word out: S-H-R-I-M-P to keep him from knowing what we're talking about. Then we have to pay him tribute in the form of a few shrimps and some shells or tails.

My mom and I are now watching Keith Olbermann videos online. I may not have a TV, but I can still get my Countdown fix!

Posted by april at 9:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 12, 2007

Cheap Tricks

[Warning: Do not read this if you are under eighteen, squeamish about women expressing thoughts of sexual desire, or Bill O'Reilly.]

Well, now that I've told the world about my superstar crush on Keith Olbermann, I may as well share with you a trick that I've learned recently to deal with sudden cravings for foods I don't, in my right mind, want to eat.

Here's the basic idea: when you find yourself contemplating consuming a food that you've made a conscious decision not to eat at this point (not in the calorie budget, something you're allergic to, high sugar gak that you know will shoot your blood sugar sky high and make you feel anxious, or whatever), think of a much more difficult to resist craving, but a craving for something that is not currently on offer. Get that image clearly in your head. Really relish the idea of having this thing you might want but would also make a conscious decision not to have, and in this case, isn't available to you right now anyhow.

I call it the "Keith Olbermann in a Hotel Bar Trick." I imagine Keith Olbermann sitting at the bar in a dimly lit, fancy-foo upscale hotel bar in New York. The light fixtures are modern and blue. There's jazz playing in the background. There is no smoking. Keith Olbermann is sitting alone at the bar drinking a glass of pinot noir (or seltzer water with a lime if he'd prefer... that guy would look so good with a slice of lime) and looking dashing. He's wearing a striped shirt with a blue tie. Or a red tie, I can't decide. His jacket is draped over the back of his chair. His hair is ever so slightly messed up, as though he'd just gotten off the show and run his fingers through it to disturb the ever so slightly too styled look he has on TV. In this fantasy, he's single, available to people of my sort (short, female) and exhausted from another fabulous night on the air but still energetic enough to make a new friend. (For the record, I have no clue whatsoever as to Keith Olbermann's marital or other status, and it's none of my business. I have no intention of actually seducing him, I just use him as a trick to avoid eating M&M's. I'm sure he wouldn't mind.)

There's an empty bar stool next to Keith Olbermann. And I have to somehow resist the temptation to sit down next to him, knowing full well that he's single and likes little redheaded leftist girls with long curly hair and glasses... and I have the key to a very nice hotel room upstairs.

And then, all of a sudden, resisting a handfull of cheap chocolate is no big deal.

In fact, I find that when I use this technique, I forget about food all together. Sometimes I decide it's a good time to distract my actual partner, my favorite example of male physical perfection (who will wear glasses upon request, even though he doesn't need them to see) from his work on reversing aging. Sometimes I drink a cup of tea. Sometimes I go for a skip on the treadmill. But I do not eat M&Ms.

I'm amazed at how powerful this trick is. No food is a match for the image of Keith Olbermann in a hotel bar. To paraphrase the founder of Weight Watchers' famous quote, "Nothing tastes as good as Keith Olbermann... looks."

Posted by april at 9:17 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

February 11, 2007

Blueberry Pop Tart

Okay, this is weird.

I love fruit teas. That part isn't weird. A lot of people like fruit teas. I am especially partial to Celestial Seasonings anything. Maybe it's the taste, maybe it's the picture on the box. Whatever it is, I love 'em.

So yesterday I bought Celestial Seasonings blueberry tea. This morning MR made, at my request, my usual green tea blended with blueberry tea, for Japanese Sencha green blueberry tea, with a tiny drop of pure sucralose.

It tastes exactly like a blueberry pop tart. I am not kidding. Seriously, I am drinking a blueberry pop tart, with none of the calories or sugar, and EGCG's to boot!

Life is good.

Posted by april at 5:13 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

de Grey Stew

No, curious reader, we did not make a stew out of Dr. Aubrey de Grey.

But I did make a stew for him to eat for lunch whilst he and MR conducted their business meeting.

Here's what was in it:

1 Quorn dog
85 g (one serving) Quorn grounds
130 g yellow squash, diced
130 g asparagus, diced
1 cup stewed tomatoes, no salt added
90 calories Trader Joe's frozen organic veggie mix (broccoli, snow peas, cauliflower, carrots)
veggie broth (Rapunzel vegan organic no salt)
1 teaspoon flax oil
Chipoltle and Garlic Tabasco to taste
Half salt and fresh ground pepper
side of hazelnuts

Dr. de Grey enjoyed the soup and continued on with his busy day of searching for ways to defeat aging.

My cat, Kieffer, slept on a dining room chair.

Posted by april at 3:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 7, 2007

The Extreme Difficulty of Recommending Calorie Levels

[Disclaimer: as you know, I'm not a doctor, nurse, registered dietician, or gourmet chef. I'm just a girl practicing CR who lost a bunch of weight, feels great, met the man of her dreams, and bought a house with an orange kitchen. I've done a lot of research and have quite a bit of experience, but I am not an authority. And even if I was, you still shouldn't take anything I say as absolute truth -- reasonable people can disagree, and it's always best to combine advice you get from others with your own research and self-experimentation to come to your own set of conclusions.]

I get a lot of questions along the lines of, "How much should I be eating?"

That question is very difficult to answer because it depends on individual factors that vary tremendously from person to person. Here's a list of questions I would ask before I would even attempt to answer that question:

a) How many calories are you eating now? Are you also tracking your nutrition to make sure you're getting your RDAs? Are you carefully weighing and measuring, or are you guessing?
b) Are you doing exercise, especially bone building exercise (the kind with impact?)
c) Height/weight/age/how much has your weight fluctuated over your lifetime?
d) Are you getting blood tests regularly, at least once a year?
e) What is your activity level?
f) How often do you eat out, and what kind of meals, where?
g) What are your long and short term goals? Lose weight, slow biological aging process, something in between?
h) Did you just start restricting calories, or have you been doing it for awhile?
i) How consistent are your calorie levels?
j) Do you drink alcohol? How much, what kind, when?
k) What are your other health concerns and risk factors?

For anyone, my suggestions will largely be the same:

1. Don't lose weight too fast. No more than two pounds a month if you're already thin, no more than five pounds a month if you're starting moderately overweight.
2. Search out a doctor who has some understanding of CR or is willing to learn, and will order you bloodtests and monitor your progress.
3. If you're not willing to put in the effort to monitor your nutrition, serious CR is not for you. A more mild version is the only safe option.
4. If you are willing to put in the work, the answer is still to start slowly, always leaning on the side of caution. I'm three years in and still fine tuning my calorie level.
5. Pay no attention to the claims of low calorie levels that you read here and there... most people have no earthly idea how many calories they're actually consuming, and if you try to eat very low calorie levels based on something you read, you may harm yourself, and at least set yourself up for a binge. People who don't weigh and measure don't really know, with the rare exceptions of people who have been doing it for a long, long time and have fairly consistent diets. (We have a few of those rare exceptions around, you know who you are.)
6. If it doesn't feel good, it's not working right. You should not feel lightheaded, weak, dizzy, or exhausted (unless your howling calico kept you up all night, which clearly is not a side effect of CR.)
7. Doing serious CR requires serious responsibility for your own health. You must commit to getting your bloodtests regularly, doing bone buidling and cardio exercise, eating your RDAs, doing your research to determine what is right for you. You can just lose weight and feel better with a lot less work, but if you want to take your calories lower for the purposes of slowing your biological aging process, you need to commit to doing it right. Otherwise, you risk harming yourself.

It's easy to give recommendations to people who just want to lose weight and feel better. Most people who are overweight can dramatically improve their health and quality of life with just a few small changes, especially if they're willing to weigh and measure their food and track calories and nutrition just long enough to get a clear idea of what they're eating. KNOW WHAT YOU EAT is the first rule of healthy weight loss, in my book. Most people have no clue. If you own a food scale and nutritional software, you are already way ahead of the game.

For most folks, the level of precision that I practice is not necessary. Most people's goals are moderate, so their practice can be moderate. After a few weeks or months of measuring and tracking, they'll get the hang of a healthy diet, get on the path to losing the weight they want, and develop a consciousness of how they got unhealthy in the first place. When you discover the magic of getting the right nutrition, problems with hunger and cravings tend to go away, as long as your keeping your total calories high enough for your body's energy needs (factoring in age, height, activity level, etc.)

For those who want to practice more serious CR and are willing to invest the time and effort, the answers become much more complex. The lab rats who lived the longest were much more severely CR'd than any of us would find tolerable, so we have to make a complex calculation based on our personal health risks and concerns, our quality of life issues, and what makes us feel our own personal best. My philosophy is that I want to live as long as I can, as healthy as I can, while enjoying every moment that I'm alive to the fullest. That influences everything I do, not just my CR practice. I don't see my CR practice as a trade off between happiness in the here and now and a longer life: rather, my CR practice both maximizes my pleasure today and my chances of having similar pleasure in the years to come.

Your philosophy, however, may be different. I have known CR practitioners who do consider their daily practice to be a sacrifice, yet it's a far smaller sacrifice in their minds to the long term sacrifice of life and health that they believe, based on their reading of the evidence, a non-CR'd life would cause them. We all have to make our own decisions.

If you're an actress and you want to look as young as you can for as long as you can, you may be willing to put considerable effort into CR, including turning down the snacks at the Oscar pre-party, in order to achieve your goals.

At the risk of repeating myself, we have to make our own decisions. We can learn a lot from each other, from the scientific research (more soon on how to read evidence) and from our on-going self-experimentation. But no one can tell us what matters most in our own lives, what our values are, and what our long term vision of our future should be. If you find yourself in a situation where someone else is trying to tell you any of those things, I'd advise you to take a step back and ask yourself, and if appropriate, any spiritual authority you like to consult, "Is this person interested in what's right for me, or for him or herself?" We've all had partners, friends, and family members who want to impose their values on us. Sometimes we come to agree with them over time, but sometimes we come to find a different path. I've observed that all of the life decisions that I've made that turned out well were made when I paid attention to what felt right *to me*, sometimes flying in the face of what others told me to do. To me, to me I say! Call it selfish if you want. Too many women (and men too, but we chicks I think are particularly prone to the people pleasing disease) have wasted too many years living inauthentic lives because we fear to stand up for who we are, what we believe, and what we want for ourselves.

If you choose to start down the path of serious CR (and you moderates beware... some of you may find yourselves headed in that direction in a few years... never say never, lest we laugh at you -- in a nice way -- when you change your mind) you will very likely face social struggles, people thinking you're weird, at least one person telling you you're too skinny, and a mysterious aversion to sports on TV. (Wait, the sports on TV thing is just me, not a CR side effect!) Maybe the world will become more accepting of our choices, but I doubt it, at least not any time soon. In a country where the overweight and obese outnumber those of "healthy" weight, where food is viewed as a moral issue, and where the public debate over what's sensible for human beings to consume is driven by lust for profit, not concern for health, I think we're going to be swimming upstream for a long, long time.

But then again, that's better than rotting on the banks with the rest of the dead fish.

Now that's a foul metaphor if I ever smelled one.

Posted by april at 7:42 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

February 6, 2007

Tall People

A tall person, to me, is anyone over 5' 2".

You see, I am actually just below 5' 2", but I round up because it sounds like I have some sort of complex about my height if I tell people I'm 5'1 and three quarters of an inch. You know how uncomfortable people often are with exactness.

I love tall people because they can reach things on high shelves for me. For example, at the grocery store, I am always asking tall people to get things. "Excuse me, tall person," I say, "You're so tall. I wonder if you might be willing to reach that last pack of Quorn tenders from the top shelf."

Tall people (especiallly women at about 5'6" who are not used to being addressed as "Tall Person") are always happy to comply.

Tall women are so willowy and statuesque. I've known a lot of people who only date tall women, and not all of them are tall. I think tall women are beautiful. And there are so many of them, as everyone over 5' 2" is tall in my book.

Yet I feel sorry for tall people. How uncomfortable they look on planes! Their legs just don't fold up into tiny packages. MR always looks like a skinny sardine in an airplane seat. (Luckily, he doesn't smell like one!) When I was dating, I didn't like to date tall men because I was afraid they would squish me. MR only gets to be an exception because he's light. He's like a giraffe: tall, stately, orangish. Calmly nibbling on foliage, at peace with the world.

Tall people can hide things from me by placing them in plain view, just above my eye level.

My two staff organizers are tall. They like to hang the charts so high I can't reach them. But when I'm around they hang them low enough for me, not because I'm the boss but because they're kind, generous, loving tall people. And because no one wants to hear me whine "I can't reach!"

I wear heels all the time. Except at the gym. There are people who have never seen me without high heels on. Most people, in fact. I also stand up very straight. People tend to think I'm taller than I am, but I'm not.

I bring this up because it has come to my attention that many of the newbie CR practitioners are tall!

That is very important because every inch of height means an increase in calorie requirements.

I have been doing CR for nearly 3 years, I am not athletic at all -- a day at the gym is 20 - 30 minutes treadmill and two to three exercises of weight lifting --- I space out my weight lifting exercises so that I never do too much at once, in an attempt to minimize the calorie need fluctuations. A lot of days, my biggest exercise is lifting my giant tabby cat and standing on my toes to kiss MR.

If I go below 1300 calories for more than a few days, I drop weight like a hot potato.

I think you can see where I'm going with this. If you're taller than I am, or more active than I am, or newer to CR than I am (I got here gradually) then you need to be eating more.

I don't mean to be preachy, but I really don't want to see anyone damage his or her health with overly quick weight loss. It just defeats the purpose. And eating too little sets you up for excessive hunger, which sets you up for a binge and makes you feel awful. If this doesn't feel good, it's a clear sign that something isn't going right.

Again, I am so impressed with how all the newbies are using software, focusing on nutrition, swapping tips on how to get the most nutrient dense foods. You are so much more advanced than I was when I started. So don't anyone out there take this as criticism, only a gentle caution that your long term success depends on eating enough calories now. And if you're tall... and almost everyone is... that means you need to eat more than Robin and I do.

I just got home from a great meeting that went late. I am very jealous because two of my favorite people in the world are off on assignment in Scranton hanging out, but I'm still happy to be home with my kitties and my sweetie. It's so cold here I feel l like I might lose a limb. In fact, I think it's time for me to crawl under some blankets and make MR squeal by attempting to warm my ice block feet (which take forever to warm up on cold days) on him. Isn't that what love is all about?

*** Note: Shelia makes a good point that metabolism can slow with age, so people with more planetary seniority can sometimes get away with eating less. Also, people who have gradually cut down on their calories can often eat less because they've trained their bodies to do that. But my warning remains: if you're brand new, it's better to start a bit higher rather than risk throwing your body into overly quick weight loss and setting yourself up for hunger and a binge.

Also, if you don't drink alcohol, it is likely that you can hold the same weight at a lower calorie level. For some reason (I don't have time to dig up the study right now but it was posted to the CR list within the last month or two) in lean women, alcohol calories burn off much more easily than food calories. So while, for instance, I don't drop weight like a hot potato if I'm eating 1300 calories of all food, no glass of wine, if I'm having a glass of wine with dinner, as is my custom, I can't go much below 1300 without dropping weight. Between the well-documented benefits of moderate red wine consumption and the personal quality of life issue for me (I love to have a glass of wine with dinner!) it's a worthwhile investment of calories for now. But I've experimented with doing it both ways, and definitely found that if I'm not drinking alcohol I can eat fewer total cals and maintain my weight.

Rachel -- I answered your question off-blog, with a series of questions that can help me formulate an answer.

Over time, we may be able to take our calories lower, if we decide that's the right course of action for our own personal circumstances. But in the beginning, be careful!

Posted by april at 10:12 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

February 5, 2007

Busy Monday

Okay, this is going to be a short entry because I'm exhausted.

5 am: Up. Feed giant howling tabby cat. Snuggle giant cat on couch. Fall back to sleep till MR (busy making our salads) wakes me at ten till six. Dash like a madwoman to the shower, demanding that MR make me coffee, since he was supposed to wake me at 5:30 and forgot, and I have to leave the house at 6:30 to make it to my morning meeting on time.

6:30 dash out of the house with a megamuffin and the lovely travel mug full of coffee that MR made me.

7:20: Arrive at McDonald's the location of my 7:30 am meeting. Drink coffee, eat nothing, meet with nurses.

8:30 am: Hit the road to sit in traffic for forty-five minutes on the way to the office. Eat megamuffin breakfast, take supplements.

9:15 am - just before 4 pm: work like crazy at office, where the building management turns off the heat over the weekend, so it was 42 degrees when we arrived! I didn't take my coat off till after noon when the heat finally made it above 60. Took short lunch break to join co-workers in conference room for a meal: they ate pizza and such, I ate my MR-packed salad with yogurt and almonds.

1:30 pm: Eat 3 dried apricot pieces off co-worker's desk, email co-worker nutritiondata.com info on calories, etc. in dried apricots. Offer to weigh a dried apricot on mini scale to report actual calorie content to co-worker who is working on losing weight the healthy way. Then realize mini-scale is in the car and it's too cold outside (11 degrees, colder with wind chill) to go outside. Probably slightly overcount calories in apricots, as not sure on the weight, and realize that people are terrible at estimating such things. Calorie count for today is give or take about 20.

Nearing 4 pm: begin to become resentful because it's almost time for evening phone calls (when day shift nurses get off work) and I haven't yet had time to go to gym. Since I work basically twenty-four hours a day, I try to carve out time during the day to pop to the gym. But today, like many days, attacked from every direction. Complained about situation to my partner in running the organization who is a devotee of exercise. He said, "Go now, right at this second, have a quick workout before you have to get back on the phones!" So I ran out the door, went to the gym, began to change into workout attire.

Realized that I had only one sneaker in my gym bag. Considered what sort of exercise I might do with one gym shoe. Clearly, my work heels wouldn't cut it on the weight room floor or the treadmill. Contemplated hopping on one foot for aerobic and bone building exercise all in one. Dismissed possiblity as too flamingo-like and potentially dangerous to lower leg health, went home.

4:15 pm: Pointed accusingly at offending shoe, left on the floor by the door where it had fallen out of my gym bag, and whined to MR about lack of workout despite best of intentions.

4:15 pm - 6:30 pm: Made calls to nurses.

6:00 - 6:30, while making calls: Created dinner for self and MR, chatted a bit online with a good friend.

6:30: Dinner with MR. I eat: soup of brewers yeast, veggie broth, carrots, broccoli, cauilflower, snap peas, shiitake mushrooms, and flax oil. Appetizers while cooking: two slices of nonfat cheese, pint of grape tomatoes, five almonds. He eats: stew of eggplant, artichoke hearts, asparagi, broccoli, eggwhites, basil, garlic, flax oil, olive oil, and hazelnuts on the side. We both drink a fab new pinot noir from my favorite wine store.

7:30: Dishes, more calls to nurses, begin to contemplate fact that am already tired, and must actually be at a meeting at 6:30 am tomorrow therefore will be leaving house at 5:45 am. With late night meetings till after 9 pm tomorrow, I'll need a good night's sleep tonight.

8:30 pm: Write to bloggiefriends, feeling guilty that have not had time to compose brilliant enlightening entry as of late. Sometimes, I have to work.

Total calories for today: 1200. Low today because I ate unmeasuredly on Saturday night at friend's dinner party, and even though I had gone very low the day of to make room, I know it was over cals.

When people ask me what I do when I go over to someone else's house for dinner, my answer is, "Eat the food, just in smaller amounts." As a hobby cook myself, I can't stand to watch someone work all day on a meal and then not try it. MR has no such reservations: he brings his own food, and you'd be surprised at the degree to which no one notices or minds. I had made him a dish with broccoli, mangos, tomatoes, eggwhites, avocado... a vegetarian version of my mango shrimp. He ate his dish at the same time as the rest of us ate lamb stew, and no one even noticed. My friend wasn't offended in the slightest: he is so grateful that MR became my partner and ended two years of my complaining about being single that he would probably not mind if MR sacrificed a goat on his kitchen counter and ate the raw meat for dinner while dripping goat blood onto the carpet. I had a bowl of the lamb stew, the tossed salad (lettuce, green pepper, grape tomatoes), a half slice of the Irish soda bread, a cracker with brie, one of my appetizers, and then a slice of the almond pie that another of our friends brought for dessert. Not a gargantuan meal by normal people standards, but way more than my normal dinner. I had gone very light the rest of the day to get ready for it: half my usual breakfast, followed by a small lunch salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, broccoli and fresh steamed beets.

To a lot of people, the way I ate at the dinner party would seem to be a more comfortable way of eating then my normal eating style. Eating this and that, unmeasured, way more calories than I need (I am small, so my margin is narrow) but hey, I was polite, social, and ate what everyone else was eating. Less attention to detail, which inevitably results in more calories and less nutrition.

Early in my CR, I tried to balance eating more like a "normal" person on a fairly regular basis (once or twice a week) with keeping my calories low by going very low on carefully measured and nutrient balanced weekdays to make up for suboptimal eating when I go out with friends or over to someone's house. But what I learned as I started to stick more consistently to my regular CR calorie level is that I feel so, so much better when I'm in my CR groove: eating only the foods that truly nourish my body and keeping my calories consistent. There's a feeling of unbelievable health that comes from a super-nutrient dense, low calorie diet... for those of you just starting out, you'll see what I mean when you get there. It's not calorie deficit or fasting, it's a state of optimal nutritional and calorie balance. When a social event forces me out of my groove, I'm willing to go along with the crowd to be friendly and keep the peace. But I wake up missing my happy, healthy feeling. It's not that I beat myself up for eating more or feel guilty... with pretty rare exceptions, I am way over looking at food as a moral issue. It's just that I've achieved a new level of health that *feels* so much better. I'm now much more sensitive to disturbances in my diet. While pre-CR I felt mildly bad most all the time, now I feel so very well almost all the time that I notice a small differences that would be indetectable to most people. As my CR practice has evolved, I've decreased the number of times per month when I eat suboptimally, and found that it's much easier and more comfortable to just keep consistent and nutrient-packed pretty much every day. Since my friends and family have gradually gotten used to the transition over a long period of time, the social struggle has been fairly minimal. And of course it helps that my partner is more than supportive.

It's still worth it to me to diverge from my normal eating habits once in awhile for social reasons, especially when work or close friends are involved. As has been rightly pointed out, it's the average that counts, and it is *possible* to make up for suboptimal eating with lower calorie eating at other meals and on other days. But it just doesn't feel as good! I've come to see the suboptimal eating as deprivation, not the other way around. My normal diet, full of veggies, lean protein, unsaturated fats, and the exact kinds of foods that I know I love and that make me feel great is my own personal happy meal. Regular people's food just doesn't feel as good.

I doubt that anyone who has never entered the state of optimal health that CR can bring will have any idea what I'm talking about. The feeling of vitality, absence of lethargy, total glowing health that I have with my normal diet is so far off from how most people live their lives that it probably sounds like I'm coming from another planet. When I think about my reasons for my ever-more-serious practice of CR, it's this feeling of constant humming vibrant health that propels me along just as much as the hope of slowing my aging process. Rebecca Traister may think we're dieting our way to a long, miserable life... from my perspective on the other side of the transition, what I was doing before was eating my way to a short, miserable life. Of course, had I never started down this path, I never would have known. So many people accept ill health that it's become the norm. And I suspect that most people really don't realize that there might be another way.

I still had a lovely time at the dinner party, and enjoyed the food and the company of eleven of my friends. My friend the host is an excellent cook, and his food always tastes great. The almond cake was especially fantastic, the kind of rich dessert that you only really need to eat once a year. But I've discovered that I have an even better time if the party is at my house and I make the food. I'm sure I'm not the first cook to have found that she prefers her own cooking to most anything she can get out and about. Unlike most cooks, I'm evaluating not only taste but the entire package of how food makes me feel.

Here is the center of the matter: when I'm eating my healthy, low calorie food, I don't sit around missing lamb stew, brie, soda bread, or almond cake. It wouldn't even occur to me to eat them because I'm satisfied with the food I'm eating, whether it's veggies, seafood, fruits, or some other odd concoction I've made up to serve for myself, my partner, or any family or friends who've come to dinner. But when I eat non-CR friendly foods, I do miss my state of optimal health. I never think, on a normal CR day, "Gee, I wish I had some (insert name of suboptimal food.)" But on a suboptimal day, I frequently think, "Gee, I wish I had some of the way I feel on a regular day! What the heck happened? I can't believe I used to feel like this all the time!"

I was happy to be back to my own healthy food on Sunday. Sunday breakfast, kale and napa salad for lunch with yogurt and salsa and flax, and green chili vegetable stir fry for dinner. Today was quotidian to say the least: all my favorites, minus my usual eggwhites since I was on the road for breakfast. Still got that megamuffin in!

I'm tired now and must cuddle cats and get some rest before another long, long day. How I did this pre-CR, I have no idea. I remember that I used to feel tired all the time. Now I have the energy to make it through my long days and still feel great.

Even on busy Mondays.

Posted by april at 9:23 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack

February 3, 2007

You've Gotta Fight For Your Right To Cook Seafood

Al: I appreciate all your comments, and your contribution to the lively discussion on this and other blogs. I never did receive your off-blog email, so try to re-send? It's great to have debate! Reasonable people can disagree.

However, reasonable people can not disagree with cats. Why? Because cats are not rational. Cats, unlike people, have no choice but to follow their biological programming. Why do I mention this? Because tonight I am going to a dinner party, and my contribution is shrimp and scallop appetizers for twelve.

You know what that means. Battle of the seafood.

You see, my cat knows what he wants. And it's seafood. Shrimp, scallops, tilapia, you name it, he's gonna eat it. He is a powerful kitty. Those of you who come to the house in March will see the majestic creature that is Kieffer. Opposable thumbs (like Hemingway's cats), a meow that could wake the dead, and a very muscular physique.

It's going to be a challenge.

I'm making chipoltle tomato shrimp and wine/basil/garlic scallops, then stuffing the goo into (separate -- not shrimp and scallops together) napa cabbage leaves, which are great substitutes for bread since they're crunchy and stiff enough to hold stuff. They also make very pretty appetizers, since they're leafy and all. I know it will make a gorgeous, healthy dish that all will enjoy.

But in the meantime, I have to battle the giant cat. Sometimes you've got to fight for your right to cook seafood.

Posted by april at 9:14 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

February 1, 2007

Another TV Spot

Our local news:

http://cbs3.com/health/local_story_031211552.html

Not bad, though not nearly as good as the Paula Zahn Now piece, which you can find by going to Matt's blog, entry on media here, and clicking on "April and MR CNN Piece."

Quick note: MR was quoted out of context re: creme brulee. He was in the process of saying, "If you want a creme brulee, you can have one, you just have to balance out the calories and nutrition elsewhere in your diet."

And anyone who knows much of anything about CR knows that there is no "cheating," you make a calorie and nutrition budget and balance it however works best for you.

Good shots of our kitchen though. How do folks like my new glasses?

Kieffer is upset that he didn't get in the picture. It is, after all, all about him.

In response to Mark's question:

Hi, I posted this question on the Jan 26th and did not find a response so I'm reposting. Thanks again. Mark

I’m wondering if CR’ers add the calories used when exercising to the total that they eat in a given day?

Put another way; if one normally eats 1500 calories per day but running uses 300 calories, would they eat 1800 calories or 1500 for that day?

Sorry for the delay Mark... my work has been very busy lately. I was kinda hoping a regular reader would chime in on this one because it's a question we've discussed several times in the past. The short answer is no. Calories eaten are calories eaten, and burning them off through exercise does not decrease the total.

If you search through the blog archives (search engine on the side, or do it with Google, which is a bit faster) you'll find many posts on the topic of CR and exercise. Here's one to start with:

Exercise and CR

I will shortly be posting a way to get into the CR Society archives (which are now somehow inaccessible through the main website) so that those of you who would like to do further research can have access to an excellent source of information and debate.

Posted by april at 5:29 AM | Comments (21) | TrackBack