April's CR Diary

I'm a big fan of bee pollen (bought fresh and local at farmers' market). It's high protein and packs tons of vitamins and trace minerals and enzymes for a relatively low-calorie count. Just google for many informative links, but here's one: http://members.tripod.com/~Bee_Mann/beepollen.html

the article was great! I liked seeing the photos of the food. for the less technical among us, seeing photos of your meals, is more helpful than seeing the amounts written out in grams... any chance you could photograph your meals for a few days? Just a crazy request.... Thanks again for your website.

HEY WHAT ARE THE LITTLE BLOG GROUPIES SUPPOSED TO DO WHEN YOU ARE AWAY?!?!?!

Carolyn: no kidding, eh! :)

April: Thanks for all those links in one place, that's very handy.. gotta bookmark it :)

Wonderful! I also thank you for so many great links in one place. I knew I could find the info on your blog, but this makes it so much easier to reference. Thanks!

Hey did I post that comment? Have I been sleep typing again?

April this peice is hilarious! I love the way you phrase the questions. My sister asked me today what I was doing and wanted a shot at it. Thanks so much for this post. It will be very helpful for her.

The comments about what anorexia is written by Liza May is wrong on so many levels. You should really do your research and so should she before making these points of view public. That article is insulting to anyone who has or has had anorexia.

April-withdrawal?!?! Most definitely!
In the meantime we can catch up on our reading and extra inspiration from an already incredibly inspiring blog.. What would we do without?

Hope the trip is a success and your little fridge is not quite overflowing anymore..only a couple more days..can't wait to hear the reports.

:-D

Here's the Chasing Life link from CNN...I think it just went up today

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/chasing.life/

Since we're answering questions...

I've been wondering how trustworthy the nutrition information on some of my foods is.

For example, Dry Soup X, in which you add 8oz or so of boiling water, has a beans-and-pasta soup. It says that a serving size is about 45g (one package), and the calories are 140. But I was like, "Well, wait a minute. Is that 54g wet or dry?" Because 130g (half a cup) of canned baked beans is around 140 calories.

I dumped the dry soup into my cup measure, and lo and behold, it was about half full. But again...that was *dry*. If, after it's bulked up from water, I go strain it out and dump the reconstituted beans and pasta into a cup, it'll probably be about a cup.

Of beans and pasta.

So aren't I actually eating about 280-300 calories? Four hundred, even, given how calorie-dense pasta is? Obviously that makes a huge difference.

I try to eat around 1500-1600 calories a day, and I do rely on foods like packaged soups, Lean Cuisine, and so on. I need to know that I'm really eating what I think I'm eating. Do you have any advice?

Yvonne,
I might catch flak from other CRONies on this, but the sad truth is that no nutrition data is perfectly accurate. On the whole/average, things are probably within range, but for each specific food item the FDA is fine if the stated nutrition is within 20% +/- of the "actual" numbers.

Now, how can they know the "actual" numbers, if they allow for 20% margin of error? You've got me.

My not so humble opinion is that if you are getting AT LEAST 100% of your daily RDA nutrients from mostly WHOLE foods (not processed), and you are eating less than you would if you were not CRONing while very slowly losing pounds (if heavy) or maintaining weight (if not heavy), then you are doing WELL.

Anyone else want to chime in on this?

Miss T: Yes, agreed, not only that but nutrition varies by season and by place of origin. It's a matter of best guesses. However, we can put a best guess on a best guess; it may not be right, but interpolation is better than nothing. At the end of the day the biological results are the only proof!

Mary: I'm interested why you find it so insulting. Any interest in defending that remark?

I think (in my rarely humble opinion!) that the difference between "eating less" and "eating fewer calories" needs to be made clear. I am eating much more than I ever used to but am consuming a lot fewer calories and am certainly much closer to getting the proper nutrients on a consistent basis. JD :-)

Has anyone tried the "Life Expectancy Calculator" (www.Livingto100.com)? Its a gentle reminder that our CR is not the one and only factor in having a long and healthy life. Dr. Thomas Perls provides a breakdown at the end of the calculator as to how you can add years. Its very interesting!

Thank you, Miss Tenacity and Brooke! Much appreciated.

I loathe the article on the supposed discrepancies between CR and anorexia, I must say.

First,
"Anorexics don't worry about nutrition. For an anorexic the only thing that matters is losing weight.
Anorexics starve themselves to death; and those who do eat at all choose only based on the low or lack of calories, never nutrition. Diet breath-mints, sugarless gum and no-calorie sodas are 'food' for the anorexic."

Incorrect. I am an anoretic. I consume a diet of 1000 calories per day, and not a single calorie comes from diet mints/gum, diet soda or anything of the sort. All nutrient-dense unprocessed foods. Weight loss is of vast importance to me, admittedly, but it is certainly not my SOLE concern. You may argue that this concern is separate from the ED itself, but because I have been severely bulimic in the past, my nutrition concerns serve to help combat the bulimia--while furthering my anorexia. I am
approaching emaciation but my nutrition is more than decent (I have no illusions that I haven't at least somewhat compromised my absorption of said micronutrients with insufficient consumption of macronutrients, but the point is that the concern is there).

"Anorexia is a secret, shameful state of mind; and for an anorexic eating is the most repulsive indulgence.
To the anorexic mind eating is evidence of failure, weakness, and one's despicability. It is one thing to know privately that you are all these things, but the idea of letting others actually see you indulging in the loathsome act is intolerable.
Anorexics -- those who eat at all -- do so in secret and shame."

To KNOW privately that we are all these things? To KNOW? Really? And also, well, yes, anoretics DO eat, for the most part. I can't speak for all, but then neither can the author. There are of course many marathon fasters to be found within the Wondrous World of EDs. And it may surprise the author to find that I personally am not ashamed to eat my 1000 calorie allotment. I'm not so certain that my disgust at my consumption of what you call "gak" is not quite similar to the disgust a CR practitioner might feel upon eating similar things (fries, pizza, cookies...what have you)? Perhaps.
No, anoretics do not all consume their alloted calories in 'secret and shame'. In fact some may eat ONLY in front of others so as to avoid suspicion of 'disordered eating habits'. I'm sure you're aware of this, but I want to be clear you see.

"For anorexics every aspect of food and eating is negative. Dread is the constant companion of the anorexic."

I experience great dread at the notion of consuming processed shite, but overall, eating is a positive experience because I am presently controlling it well while simultaneously maintaining an 'anorexic' weight.

Next, "Anorexia: Obsessed With The Scale On Your Bathroom Floor
… and the full-length mirror on your wall … and the scale at your gym … and your pants' size … and that fat globule on your left earlobe…"

This is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, yeah. But nonetheless. Personally I don't go near scales.

"Anorexia is about extremes. Anorexics inhabit a world of good and evil, perfect or flawed -- there is no middle.
For an anorexic eating is an 'on/off switch.' You're good when you don't eat, and bad when you do. It is the simplistic, black-and-white thinking of a child who wishes to transcend the subtleties and complexities of what it is to be
human."

This riled me up most of all. Attempting to rifle through 'the subtleties and complexities of what it is to be human' is something that drives me each day, something that excites me though few other things can. I suppose this point would have been perfectly valid had the author simply stated that black-and-white thinking when it comes to food often prevails in the mind of an ED sufferer, but to go on to suggest that one can extrapolate that a simplistic thought on food necessarily coexists with simplistic "childlike" thoughts on human nature is insulting. I suffer from anorexia, I suffer in general like all the
rest of humanity, and I am no simpleton. Eating is one of the few things in which I cannot seem to accept a gray area. Perhaps I crave this certainty when all other aspects of life are so hopelessly convoluted and muddled (much like my glorious run-on sentences).

Really, the overall problem with this article is that the author often attempts to speak for ALL anoretics and ALL CR practitioners. And what of the aforementioned gray area? I sense that there may be a great deal of overlap between CRON
and anorexia. In my view it is quite possible that at least a few CRONies may be diagnosably anorexic. Does this necessarily mean they are unhealthy? No, I don't believe so, not absolutely necessarily. Suppose more than a few cases of anorexia can be classified as, say, CRON+self-hatred? It is too late to be succinct I see...at any rate: overlap, gray areas, etc etc...I am afraid the lines between CRON and anorexia cannot be so well drawn (which provides a tidbit of irony when considered in conjunction with the last quoted passage, by the way). I do have some sort of hope that most people who've read this article are aware of these gray areas and take the points outlined with a grain of salt, but I cannot be certain. So it goes, of course.

Actually, I have quite a few problems with that article as well. EDs are way more complicated.

But the point remains: CR is a choice, an ED is a compulsion. Anyone who has been there knows the difference.

And when you look at an anoretic who has starved herself for years, vs. a CR practitioner who has eaten healthy and nutritious foods for years but in small amounts, you can see the difference.

I know quite a few former ED sufferers who are now successful, healthy CR practitioners. And I knew a few ED sufferers who are now dead.

It is not my place to diagnose or prescribe. I merely offer my experience, and wish all the best to those who think they may learn from or be entertained by it.

a

"CR is a choice, an ED is a compulsion."
Yes I shall have to agree, pretty much, though the gray area is still there. Reading back over my comment, it is clear how I myself illustrate the compulsive nature of an ED--I concern myself with nutrition HOWEVER this does not prevent me from eating insufficient amounts of nutrient-dense foods. I would quite possibly look atrociously haggard beside a CRON-type eating just a couple hundred more calories than me of the very same foods (though 100-200 is actually a good % of total intake in either case). I also wonder about the physiological effects that might occur in an ED sufferer experiencing extreme distress over body image as opposed to a CR practitioner eating not that many more calories of nutrient-dense foods who has a healthy body image and comparatively little anxiety...or whatever the "normal" level of anxiety might be (I could not say)...
I am sorry to have barfed my brain matter all over your blog. Just speculating.
But I think choice vs. compulsion is the best way to put it without being so presumptuous as this rather heinous article tends to be.

K --

I think you're right on both counts, and I completely agree that the discussion is complex, and filled with shades of gray. In fact, you've convinced me that Liza's article is sufficiently flawed that I'm taking it off my FAQ. I really wish someone would write another, much better article on the differences, as it's a question that we CR practitioners face all the time. I have a few articles that touch on it, but not in enough detail, and usually in response to a specific question or post.

a

Speaking of People are googling you...I googled brocoli today and Aprils blog came up at number 5!

Good job spreading the word. We love you April!