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February 18, 2008
The Woman Who Ate Her Own Subtext
"Sometimes I think my blog knows more than I do," I said to my lover, partner, salad of the essential beta-carotene of life MR a little over a week ago. After that long rant about fasting, I suddenly decided to eat three meals a few days later, starting with a huge breakfast of scrambled eggwhites *plus* my lunch salad with yogurt and flax oil. Quite the dramatic reversal. Once again, it's time to point out that there is no one CR-diet, no one way to structure the day's meals, as many ways to do CR as there are CR practitioners. No two are alike, as far as I know, and I'm in an almost constant state of experimentation.
I've been on the fence about breakfast. Sometimes I feel like starting out my day with a big shot of eggwhite protein, complete with cheese and salsa and brewers yeast, or sometimes the magnificent Texas Pete, is just what I need to feel strong and focused and healthy all day. When I'm feeling a little foggy or out of it or unwell, this always helps me. Even a nice whey shake with organic skim milk like Danny C and I drank heading up to Scranton the other day can make me feel really grounded and satisfied. I feel more like my usual self when I eat breakfast.
But there's something so seductive about fasting that I find myself skipping breakfast more often than not these days. Going without eating until lunch or sometimes later, even when I'm quite hungry, gives me an incredible kind of Zen-like clarity. Is it brain-derived neurotrophic factor? Is it CR induced euphoria? Is it just my imagination? Either way, it makes me happy, and it's fun to play with. I love playing with brain chemicals, yet I've spent my entire life being terrified of drugs (except for alcohol, which I should be terrified of but am not.) So playing with food combinations and fasting is my only way to turn my body into a chemistry lab. Also, if I know I'm going to have a big feast (like sushi day!) skipping breakfast is both a good way to keep my calories down and I appreciate my feast more after a bit of a fast. Which is not to say that I don't adore a sushi feast under any circumstances (heaven help that double negative) but the level of ecstasy (ever notice how hard it is to spell that word? I always think it's ecstacy, but it's not. And it would be really cool if it were exstacy, as though one had an ex named Stacy. I don't happen to have one, but I might be willing to acquire one just to make the joke. In fact, from now on, I think that all problematic exes should be referred to as Stacy. But I digress.) induced by a sushi fest after a bit of a fast is enough to just about kill me, which would be entirely contrary to the point of doing CR but would almost be worth it. And that which doesn't kill one makes one stronger, or at least that's the hormesis hypothesis, which has pretty much been disproven as a mechanism for why CR works, though people keep quoting it as though it's correct, further proving that Masoro is right that the only thing that never dies is an incorrect theory of aging, that being said, I'll take my chances that several weeks in a row having a sushi fest after skipping breakfast has in fact made me a stronger person, if not a younger one.
I'm not really interested in every other day fasting, that's just too much for a little girl like me, and I fear I'd have trouble getting in all the nutrition I need in one day's worth of food. It might be interesting to try one day a week fasting, but the nutrition concern remains. I'd have to really have my nutrition be perfect every other day of the week, and I'm getting there but not there yet.
Today I was feeling a little out of sorts, not quite all here, and so I ate breakfast and felt much better. Giant protein shot: 150 grams eggwhites, non-fat cheese, flax oil, brewers yeast, Trader Joe's salsa verde (my favorite!), flax oil. There's nothing that cures that spacey feeling like a giant shot of protein, at least for me. No wonder I stayed in a bad relationship for so long when I was a lowfat vegan. I have no brain without protein. Not to mention fat. Flax oil: for omega 3's, soft skin, and healthy relationships!
Lately I've developed an interest in neurological disorders, and I'm planning to buy and read Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. And along the lines of "When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail," I've started seeing symptoms of neurological disorders everywhere. Perhaps I'll start a blog entitled "Every Woman Has a Neurological Disorder," though I wouldn't leave it to just women, I'm convinced that half the men I know are suffering from a head injury, which would explain a lot. Anyhow, that's how I came up with the title, the Sacks stories floating around in my head.
For my next trick: "The Woman Who Mistook Her Lover for an Eggwhite Omlette."
Ouch!
Still, after all the complaining that this blog has become so much about my organizing work and so riddled with subtext that it sometimes seems to be merely a vehicle for me to make in-jokes with myself, so much so that in fact it's really not about Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition, the ostensible topic, you finally get an entry that really is just about CR.
Posted by april at February 18, 2008 7:15 AM
Comments
I'll get some egg whites for us.
Posted by: Marti Smith at February 18, 2008 12:19 PM
This isn't quite related to this post but I wanted to let you know that you made my mom feel much better :) She's been working really hard to eat better/feel better (no gluten, few grains, as little refined sugar as possible, lots of protein, etc.) and was beating herself up over not eating a what she perceived as a big variety.
Mom: "Everyone says we don't eat enough variety."
Anne: "Everyone is stupid."
I told her about your "quotidian diet" and she felt much better about how she's doing, so now she's just focused on adding more greens.
She's far from CR - nothing weighed or measured - but she's a post-menopausal woman who has managed to loose 13 lbs in 2 months and feels amazing. And she eats her eggwhites every morning :)
Posted by: Anne at February 19, 2008 1:20 PM
Have you read Phantoms in the Brain? It's very good. Read some Pinker as well - The Language Instinct is very interesting.
Posted by: Little MR at February 19, 2008 4:30 PM
Just read your fascinating blog on your mouse. Is she till with us? is she really 20???? I love my "rescued" lab rats and would love for them to live longer than their best before date of 2 1/2-3 1/2 years. Pls will you tell mne your secret? perhaps I need it too as I have CFS, Fibro, Toxoplasmosis, Wheat intolerance, allergies, seasonal rhinitis, insomnia and depression. All came with the cfs it seems. Thanks :)
Posted by: anna at February 19, 2008 5:01 PM
Thanks Anne! So glad to have helped!
Good tip Little MR! Thank you!
Anna... I'm sorry to disappoint you, but Chloe the mouse was a fiction. I made her up, to encourage people to donate to the Mprize. That's the best way to make more long-lived mice, and eventually, more long-lived humans!
april
Posted by: april at February 19, 2008 11:28 PM