April's CR Diary

March 14, 2010

A Post That Did Not Go Through the Fine Tuning Committee

There is an interesting phenomenon in the low carb world, the inner workings of which I will not reveal in detail, but I think this is safe to tell you about.

I have mentioned before that Dr. Richard David Feinman can be a bit fiery, and that's what I like about him. He can not be accused of lacking passion. But at times he can be accused of lacking subtlety or tact. Or something. He occasionally goes a bit overboard. But being very wise and knowing this, he many years ago instituted a check on his correspondence to prevent him from sending emails that might be just a bit over the top.

It's called the Fine Tuning Committee, and it's named after Dr. Eugene J Fine, his best friend and long term colleague. The committee used to be just Dr. Fine, but over time other people, including me, joined its ranks.

The funniest thing to watch is when RDF writes a post or letter, such as a letter to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, and then EJF edits it and tones it down. They have the most entertaining good cop/bad cop routine I've ever seen, except that they're not playing, it's real! RDF really is that fiery, EJF really is a nice person, and a great editor. The first line of my play, Discordia (the one about The Iliad, which at least Ela and my father have read in Greek!) was "You have to start from the assumption that everyone has the best of all possible intentions." EJF is the kind of person who makes you believe, at least for a few minutes, that this is actually a reasonable stance about life.

I respect that, even admire it. But I'm so much more like RDF. I get a lot of my passion from anger (surprise! I'm a union organizer!) and I'm always railing about something. However I've learned that you can't just go ranting all the time and expect to get anywhere (I actually knew that early... Southern women are taught practically from birth how to catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, though why one wants so many flies occasionally eludes me) so I sorta have my own internal Fine Tuning Committee. Remember all those polite and professional responses to the attacks on us in the media? I'm not really that nice. I just know that taking the high road is tactically usually the right way to go. So I may be thinking some pretty harsh stuff, but I edit it back and sound like I'm smiling.

I think we all have an internal Fine Tuning Committee. You know that voice in your head that says, "DO NOT HIT SEND!" right before you're about to send a potentially disasterously over the top email? Or the voice that says, "Perhaps you won't be so angry about this after you've had a nice yoga class and a glass of wine." That's the Fine Tuning Committee. Some of us even manage to externalize this phenomenon.

Well, I'm having one of those days when my inner Gene Fine has left the building. I'm pretty nice, really I am, I like to start from the assumption that everyone has the best of all possible intentions, but I've been running out of nerves lately and this commenter got on my last one.

Why must you weigh out very low-calorie foods like celery? Will you truly go over the day's calorie limit if you eat too much? As a fairly small woman, I find it pretty simple to eat well under 1200-1400 calories per day without weighing provided I eat exclusively whole foods.

Behaviors like needing to weigh every gram of food prompt even advocates of other "extreme" diets to ask whether CR prompts disordered eating behavior in some.

First, welcome. Please do not be discouraged from reading or commenting in future because I am about to rip your comments apart. You're not nearly as annoying as a great many commenters I've had in the past, you just happened to comment on a day when my last nerve was shot. Sorry.

[Wait, I think Gene snuck into my head again for a minute. That was so nice. I mean, the above comment was so nice. Gene sneaking into my head for a minute was just weird... I suddenly knew a whole lot about nuclear medicine and it was awesome, but then it was gone in a flash and I was the same bitter angry union organizer I usually am.]

FIRST: if you don't weigh and measure, how do you know you're eating 1200 to 1400 calories? The data on under-reporting is overwhelming. Did you once weigh and measure your food, eat 1200 to 1400 and remain weight stable, and now you don't weigh and measure and you remain weight stable?

How tall are you and how much do you weigh? Cause at 5'2" and no exercise at all several years ago, I ate between 1200 to 1400 and gradually dripped down to 99 pounds, at which point I stopped because I missed a mildly important detail at work due to excessive hunger and the persistent thought of a cup of cottage cheese. Right now, at slightly over 1400, I am losing weight consistently. Point being, I doubt that you're really eating 1200 to 1400. I suspect you only think you are. But maybe you're 4'10" feet tall, 90 pounds, and 60. That would be awesome, and I bet you look great if you are. There was once upon a time a CR blogger who about fit that profile, Minicronie. She was adoreable and actually weighed and measured her food. Her calorie numbers were like that and she was actually right. She was also so tiny as to make me look like a giraffe.

MR weighs every drop of food he eats because he's so close to his personal edge that if he doesn't, he will easily accidentally eat more than the calorie level he's carefully chosen. The body defends whatever weight it's settled on, and it's very easy to gradually go up in calories if you only monitor your weight.

That being said, I personally often don't weigh very low calorie foods like celery. I often consume an entire pint of grape tomatoes while grocery shopping and talking on the phone (yeah, that's what that noise is, it's me eating grape tomatoes) and I don't know their exact calorie count, it's just that I've weighed pints of grape tomatoes enough times to be fairly sure of their count. I often munch on unweighed celery while making dinner. I am not close to my personal edge right now so it seems kinda silly to weigh everything, especially when I still very occasionally eat out.

But here's the part that I really want to rip apart:

Behaviors like needing to weigh every gram of food prompt even advocates of other "extreme" diets to ask whether CR prompts disordered eating behavior in some.

Really? Does that prompt some people to ask about eating disorders?

Guess what:

I DON'T GIVE A FLYING Apo-E KNOCKOUT MOUSE'S DERRIERE!

In a nation where two thirds of the population are overweight or obese, where diabetes and heart disease are epidemic, and where there is just a lot of annoying crap on the internet, I am sick of answering stupid questions about CR and eating disorders. Yes, we are different from "normal" people. We are on a science experiment, and we take responsibility for our own health in a way that makes us downright freakish compared to the Cheeto eating population (wow I don't even know how to spell that snack food it's been so long since I ate it.) We don't have "orthoexia" or whatever idiotic made up disorder is in fashion this week. Anorexics don't run to their doctors for blood tests to make sure they're in optimal health on a yearly basis. Anorexics don't do their nutrition on software to make sure they're getting optimal nutrition.

I will be the first to admit that we, and my partner in particular, are a bit odd. MR has the kind of personality that craves a rigid structure. He's like that in general, and guess what: he's the happiest person I know. He loves routine, schedules, plans, and cute little packed pill boxes. He's just that way. At any given moment, I know what he's doing. I like that. I have more than enough spontaneity in the rest of my life... I enjoy the calm secure quiet of a partner who is the dictionary definition of predictable.

Life-extension is MR's life's work. He writes about it, researches it, and has made CR his big experiment. He tweaks his diet, messes with his calorie levels, and looks so much like a teenager at the age of 39 that I occasionally wonder if I am going to be arrested for having sex with a minor. His mommy however assures me that he really was born a solid four years before me, so I think I'm okay, but you guys would bail me out if I got into trouble, right?

CR has done incredible things for my partner, and I see the effects every day. He doesn't just look amazingly youthful, he is in unbelievable health. He weighs about the same thing I do, but can pick me up and carry me around anytime I don't feel like walking. He never, ever gets sick, even when he is forced to sleep next to and even cuddle a very sick girl who -- due to not being in proper CR state -- has a terrible cold, and he never gets more than a tickle in his throat. Even that is unusual. His moods are even, he's happy almost all the time except when I'm being a crazy psycho b*t&h and yelling at him for something stupid. Or if the amazon.com order gets screwed up.

It also does amazing things for me. I never got sick at less than 108 pounds. CR cured my anxiety disorder. When I'm in low calorie balance, even at a higher weight as I'm losing, I have this clarity of mind that is incredible. Granted, I do occasionally have flashes when I think I know a lot about nuclear medicine, but they pass quickly and are probably unrelated to CR. Though they may be related to CR, The Other, which is of course Carbohydrate Restriction. There are so many confounders, it's hard to tell.

As Paige says, CR brings out the scientist in us. We are running a human experiment, and MR just wants to run his under the most laboratory perfect conditions. He's serious about catching that bus to real life-extension, the kind that only biotech, not lifestyle, can make possible. I've seen him run for the bus before, and let me tell you, he's serious about it. He's willing to make sacrifices to that end, much like an Olympic athlete makes sacrifices to train to be the best in the world.

Does that bother you? Do you think that's weird?

Again, I don't care. I'm not doing this to impress you. I'm not doing this to impress anyone, actually. I'm doing a lot of other things to impress people, but not CR. This is for me. And, no, it's not even for MR. He's cute and all, but there's no boy cute enough to justify doing this kind of unusual, call it extreme if you want, lifestyle just to keep him.

[Well, what if he had a really sexy New York accent? On top of everything else that makes him perfect? Like, he still brought me my morning supplements and a tablespoon of inositol dissolved in Diet Mountain Dew in bed every morning, he still packed my little baggies of nuts and seeds, he still explained medical studies I don't understand to me over the dinner table just because I bat my eyelashes and say please, but he has a devastatingly gorgeous New York accent? Would that be worth doing CR, even if I didn't want to do it for myself? I have to seriously consider the possibility that it would. After I peel myself off the living room floor, onto which I have fainted while even considering the possibility. New York accents really, really wreck me. We all have a type. Sometimes you just have to own it and move forward.]

Yeah, we're weird, but we don't have an eating disorder, and we don't need to make the random commenter comfortable with our lifestyle. Do you find it triggering? Ohhhhhh poor dear. Go read something else if information about health triggers whatever problems you may have. Don't project your own issues onto me. It's like those idiots who oppose calorie labeling on menus: are you really so scared of information? I find the prices on menus very upsetting, but guess what: I deal with it and pay the bill. We all pay the bill in health when we eat as though it doesn't affect our health.

[Wow, I am on a rant. And I am having a wonderful time. I think I may have hit my head when I fainted while thinking about the New York accent thing... ouch... I'm sure I'll recover from any damage by the time I have to either a) cook lunch b) go back to working on my *very serious project* about which I assure you I am very serious. Cue putting back on the librarian glasses.]

The thing about MR is that he practices what he preaches. He doesn't just look at the science and say, "Wow, that's interesting, calorie restriction makes every animal in which it's ever been tested live longer, that's awesome, I think I'll have a cheeseburger!" No, he does something about it. And he does it with passion. It's what attracted me to him in the first place. He puts his broccoli where his mouth is... or something like that.

It's probably also what caught my attention the first time I met RDF. When I asked all the scientists if they believe that CR would work and if then they did CR or thought they should, they all had entertaining answers. I applaud their honesty, but none of them were acting on the data that they themselves produced. RDF was the last to answer, and he said that he had been on a low carb diet for eight years. After fifteen years of fat phobia, the only thing that ever got through to me was the biochemist from Brooklyn who actually walks the walk instead of just talking the talk. "Thank God for Dr. Feinman," says MR for the fiftieth time. He tried to tell me, over and over again. Eat more fat. Cut out carbs. He is very gracious about the fact that he's been telling me this for six years and it's not till I meet the biochemist that I really get it.

Of course, people still say stupid handwaving things when you tell them you're doing a low carb diet. Check out our new commenter's other comment:

A high protein, low carbohydrate diet has been shown to cause brain shrinkage in rats. The brain uses glucose as its primary fuel, so it seems prudent to give it enough through adequate (though not excessive!) dietary intake of complex carbohydrate.

Dude, have you been reading my food records at all? I'm eating at least 50 and more like 100 g carbohydrate a day, all healthy veggies. I don't think my brain is shrinking. People have been doing ketogenic diets of under 20 g carb/day safely since the seventies and probably way before... I don't have the energy to get into evolutionary arguments now, but anyhow, this is just ridiculous. "I heard that rats' brains shrink on Atkins." "My Aunt Lucy lost her mind when she went on a ketogenic diet."

WTFEver.

I think the other thing that made me immediately pay attention to RDF when I met him at CR was the flash of his eyes when he talked about how the low carb message, the raw data itself, had been repressed by the nutrition establishment. We CR folk have been so attacked in the media and misrepresented that I find anyone who has been through the same a kindred spirit.

People who actually walk the walk instead of ignoring the data, who actually feel passionate about their work and about changing the world: that's who I want to hang out with. People who are willing to take risks and take a bit of negative press and have their grant applications rejected cause they fall outside the mainstream.

I have no idea how EJF got funding for the cleverly named RECHARGE trial, but it kinda rocks my world. What if ketogenic diets really can help some people with cancer? This matters! While the nutrition establishment is wringing its collective hands about saturated fat, there are people out there doing research that might actually change people's lives. This makes me feel a bit less cynical and bored than usual.

I will declare victory when I get funding to do RDF's low carb diabetes trial. He doubts I can do it. I invite him to imagine what happened to the last guy who doubted me.

If they can find him.

Posted by april at 9:25 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Important! Take Action Now! From MR...

All:

This from the advocacy group Research!America, via LifeStar World Health Initiative and interim SENS Foundation Chair Barbara Logan:

Speak Out for NIH Funding Now: Contact Your Representative by March 17

Funding for the National Institutes of Health in FY 2011 is in the hands of Congress now and it’s time to take action. Please write to your representative immediately to ensure NIH does not lose ground.

Representatives Edward Markey (D-7th, MA), Janice Schakowsky (D-9th, IL), Rush Holt (D-12th, NJ), Susan Davis (D-53rd, CA), Joe Courtney (D-2nd, CT) and Jackie Speier (D-12th, CA) are inviting their colleagues to join them on a letter in support of increased funding for NIH in FY 2011. The letter states that the advocacy community is recommending a $35 billion increase for NIH and that the congressional members are “seeking an increase for NIH of at least 7 percent, with some of us believing that the appropriate funding increase would be as much as 12 percent.” ($35 billion) The deadline to sign the letter is March 17.

Each congressional office can also submit a Program Level Request to the Labor Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee recommending $35 billion for NIH in FY 2011. This is the one opportunity for all members of Congress to make their own funding recommendations to the leadership.

It is critical for representatives to both sign the letter and submit the Program Level Request. Urge your representative to do so immediately. Take action now!

Posted by april at 6:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 12, 2010

OMG

I just thought this was funny.

I'm going to Qdoba today to meet with some nurses. I have no idea what to eat there but have to eat something to justify taking up a table, so I'm looking up my options online. Their online nutrition calculator is awesome!!!

In looking at their Mexican Gumbo, I glanced at the nutrition info and saw that next to Cholesterol it said OMG.

Hmmmm, I thought. The cholesterol is so high that it prompted someone to put the standard abbreviation for "Oh my God!" (with apologies for taking the Lord's name in vain.)

I almost emailed the CR Society list asking if anyone could figure out what's up with that. Or RDF. He usually knows the answer to questions, and seems to enjoy teaching. How convenient as he is a professor.

I'm so glad I didn't.

Put a space between the O and the MG. You probably already figured that out.

In my defense, isn't mg usually listed in lowercase letters? And isn't there usually a space between the number and the unit?

Perhaps I have been on the internet too long.

Posted by april at 7:45 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

March 10, 2010

How I Love Calorie Labeling On Menus

[Warning: Do not read this if your day/life will be ruined by finding out bad news about blue cheese dressing.]

[Warning two: If in spite of Warning One, which like World War I is what we're not calling it because there is a Warning Two, you read this and feel that your life has been diminished by what I am about to say, don't say I didn't warn you!]

Yesterday I spent nearly two hours waiting for a nurse who never showed up for the meeting we had scheduled. This is actually fairly common, and I didn't much mind other than the fact that I was really sick (I have a cold, which never happened when I was on hardcore CR, but though I'm doing well and losing weight I'm not back to my CR fighting stage... I've observed that I can not, ever, get sick under 108 pounds. Not far to go now!) and would have been better off lying in bed at home drinking spiced tea.

But, I had my blackberry (whose name is David, named after the CNA organizer who made me get the thing last year) and I also had a new toy: TGI Friday's calorie-labeled menu! It's now city law that chains in Philly, just like NYC, have to put their calorie counts on their menus, and I was supposed to meet this nurse at the TGI Friday's, so I sat there for quite a long time reading their menu.

Wow! No wonder there's an obesity epidemic! Nearly every entree is over 1000 calories! Even the salads, which people think are "healthy" choices, are out of control. There was this one Southwest type salad for 1800! Of course it's covered in tortilla strips, cheese, and an avocado ranch dressing that goes for about 500 per serving.

That's what really gets the salads. The cheese and the dressing. The one decent salad on the menu, devoid of carby additives like tortilla chips (who needs chips on a salad?) was the Cobb salad, which is usually what I order when I'm out. Except that I usually order it with no bacon and no blue cheese, both because my partner doesn't want me to eat saturated fat and because that dramatically cuts down on total calories, and when you're a little girl, you don't have a ton of room to play with excess calories. But anyhow, the Cobb salad, assuming you have it with all the regular ingredients (veggies, grilled chicken, bacon, blue cheese, avocado, olives) was 580 calories. Not bad at all, especially for a normal person or even a male on CR.

But then add the dressing. Imagine you add blue cheese dressing to this lovely salad. 480 calories! Not sure the serving size but I'm guessing it's round a quarter cup or less, since that's the size of the little dressing on the side cups they give you. So your 580 calorie meal just became over 1000! The other dressings are about the same.

Even the "lowfat" dressing was 130 calories, and I'm sure it's all sugar. Gross.

That's why I get my salad with vinegar. I love vinegar, and it's nearly calorie free. I'd rather not spend my calories on salad dressing, but that's just me.

People watching in the Friday's was a ton of fun now that I could follow the calorie counts on what they were eating. Sure enough, the restaurant was chock full of overweight and obese people ordering meals that totaled anywhere from 1500 to 3000 calories. And it would be almost impossible not to do so! The only decent thing on the menu besides the steamed broccoli was a low carb shrimp entree that actually looked really good, for about 400 total, served with broccoli. I would get that if I were eating a meal there. There were also some fairly low calorie steak dishes, in the 500 neighborhood. Most everything on the entire menu, however, was over 1000. Wow.

Even the house salad was silly. I saw that it came in at 280 and asked what in the world was on it. The waitress wasn't quite sure but mentioned at least croutons and cheese. 280 calories for a little salad that people think of as a throw-away part of the meal?

I ordered a side of steamed broccoli (60 cals, nothing on it) and a house salad *with nothing on it but vegetables* vinegar on the side. It was iceberg lettuce with tomatoes and cucumbers. Quite satisfactory. I was just ordering to justify being there, not eating a real meal, so I didn't worry about the fact that I had no protein and no fat... I'd eaten a healthy turkey, yogurt and nuts and seeds lunch at work before heading out.

I love calorie labeling on menus because it means that I can order anything I want and just adjust my other calories accordingly. So what if I did want a basked of fries for 850 calories? At least I'd know where I stood.

I don't have much sympathy for those who say they are upset by the calorie labels. It's just information: you can do with it as you will. I argue that I am upset by the prices, and yet I still have to pay. It wouldn't help if the menu didn't list the prices, it would still be coming out of my budget.

Unless, of course, someone else was paying, which does happen from time to time.

Wouldn't it be neat if people could somehow pay for your calories? Like, "Don't worry about it, I'm under my calorie budget for today, I'll pick up this one! Go ahead, order the 1400 calorie brownie obsession, it's on me!"

Posted by april at 5:43 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

You're Doing What With Whom?

Back in the fall when we performed a play that I wrote in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. If I'd tell someone that I had a play in Fringe, they'd say, "Wow, that's great! What's it about?" and their face would be full of enthusiasm and curiosity. Then I'd answer, "It's based on The Iliad!" with my face all full of enthusiasm. Then their faces would gradually change, passing through several stages. First, the look that means, "I must have heard you incorrectly." Second, a look of puzzlement. Third, a look that says, "I hope you don't expect me to read or re-read The Iliad." Third, a look of near-defiance that says, "I will not read or re-read The Iliad and you can't make me!"

I've found a very similar reaction when I run into or talk with someone I haven't seen in awhile.

"What are you up to?"

"Well... (insert basic update on work, MR, the cat, etc.) and I'm collaborating on a book with a biochemistry professor who does work on low carb diets."

The face inevitably reads, "Huh?"

Now everybody knows I'm into nutrition. That's not new information. But the second you throw the word "biochemistry" into it, people glaze over worse than a Krispy Kreme original recipe donut.

RDF wants to teach the world biochemistry in an attempt to make them understand why and how low carb diets work. "For someone whose full time job is to teach biochemistry, Dr. Feinman seems to have a pressing need to teach people biochemistry," said MR, or something like that. RDF is testing the book out on me because a) I know no chemistry beyond what I learned in tenth grade and have had no science class since unless you count that class in fractals I took in college b) that being said, I'm pretty smart and passionately interested in the subject. I figure if he can teach me biochemistry, he can teach anyone.

So there's The Book project. That's hard enough to explain.

I discovered very quickly that there's no point whatsoever in explaining to anyone other than my mother and MR The Mystery Project. The minute I say the name of it my friends look like they want to fake a fire drill in order to get out of the building gracefully. Even the ever-patient Susan thinks that things have gone from weird to weirder.

"I'm working on an (x) with RDF and (y) who does (z) for his "real" job but does all this writing and research in (lcd) and the criteria we're looking for are (a) (b) (c) and..."

Clearly, I have fallen in with the wrong crowd. Run away to join the circus. Followed Obei-wan on some damn fool crusade... wait, it's a Princess Leia Complex that I have, not a Luke Skywalker complex. Right. World-view screwed on straight again. Whew.

The fact of the matter is: I'm having fun. Science makes me happy! Well, this kind anyhow. Let's not get crazy and start trying to teach me physics. Feynman himself would have trouble with that, though if he were around I bet he'd give it a try. He sounds like the kind of guy I would have really gotten along with. Sorry I missed him. Damn aging and death.

I used to joke that MR's idea of a bachelor party, were we to get married (which we won't because we don't believe in marriage... you know the line, we believe that marriage exists, but that it's the kind of thing that happens to *other* people, just like cancer and plagues of locusts) would be a big plate of vegetables and a quiet evening alone at home doing PubMed searches. These days, he sits in his office upstairs while I sit at my little desk downstairs, and we are both doing PubMed searches. I try to limit the frequency with which I bother him with questions, but he seems to enjoy helping.

"Well, it keeps you off the streets and out of the bars," Edward's mother, may she rest in peace, would have said.

All in all, science is good for domestic tranquility (assuming that I do indeed get off this computer and fulfill my promise to complete the housecleaning.) My brain is alive in a way that it hasn't been in years... not since the early days of CR, really, when I was researching that like mad.

I also feel much more engaged with my CR. It's going great, I'm losing weight but I don't seem to be losing my hard earned yoga muscle. I'm back to looking at CR as one big experiment, with me as n = 1. Female, 35 years old +/- 1, not-so-randomly assigned to a low carb but currently not ketogenic diet, participating in yoga and resistance training. As my dear CR friend Paige said a few days ago, "CR is just fun for the scientist in us. It's why we continue, even when it's difficult."

Like eggwhites, flax oil, and the Amy Grant song to which I am currently listening: "Good for Me."

Posted by april at 2:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

March 9, 2010

Old School

Lately I've been going back to a diet very similar to my single-girl diet. Why? Because that's what worked, and after years of experimentation, I still find that a very simple, high protein diet really helps me stay focused, satisfied, and generally happy.

However, there are some pretty significant differences.

First, I'm eating more fat in general. 2 tsps flax oil (that was there before) + 30 g almonds + 15 g pumpkin seeds, + more lowfat dairy vs. nonfat, + attempting to get in a little other fat per day, even if it's a tsp olive oil, an olive, or a bite or two of avocado.

Second, I'm eating meat now. I didn't do that as much in my early CR days, but I find that adding 100 g of turkey, very lean that I boil in water and red wine vinegar (to minimize AGEs and cause I love vinegar) really helps hold me over till dinner. Hunger before dinner used to be a big issue for me, and it's much improved by the addition of extra pure protein to lunch.

Third, when I was young and single, I didn't have a man to make me large batches of the world's greatest mashed cauliflower. Now I do. Cauli + a little chives + garlic + a little yogurt: perfection. Top with flax oil, and I melt Laughing Cow Light cheese into it. Heavenly.

Here's the basic template of what I've been eating on a regular basis for the last little while. Note the return of the classic eggwhite breakfast, the return of the kale salad with yogurt, and the return of the super crucifer dinner with the little half cup of cottage cheese on the side.

Calorie goal: 1400. So I still have plenty of room for a few additions, like wine, more veggies, even (gasp!) some fruit if I want.

Don't worry about the nutritional "targets" I've never edited them. Just look at the raw numbers.

I also cheated a little in the COM because they don't have an entry for Laughing Cow Light and I haven't had the energy to make one, so I just put it in as Fat Free Singles. So that means that the total fat numbers are higher and the total carb numbers are probably slightly lower.

Egg, white, raw, fresh 1 cup 116.6
Oil, flaxseed 9.05 g 80.0
KRAFT FREE Singles American Nonfat Pasteurized Process Cheese Product 1 slice 31.1
Kale, raw 100 g 50.0
Nuts, almonds 30 g 172.5
Seeds, pumpkin and squash seed kernels, dried 15 g 83.8
Yogurt, nonfat, plain, organic, Butterworks Farm 1 cup (ignore gram weight) 75.0
Cauliflower, raw 300 g 75.0
Turkey, fryer-roasters, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted 100 g 135.0
Mushrooms, shiitake, stir-fried 50 g 19.5
Oil, olive, salad or cooking 1 tsp 39.8
KRAFT FREE Singles American Nonfat Pasteurized Process Cheese Product 47.3 g 70.0
Cheese, cottage, lowfat, 1% milkfat 97.22 g 70.0

===========================================
Nutrition Summary for March 10, 2010
Report generated by CRON-o-Meter v0.9.7
===========================================

Lipids (56%)
===========================================
Saturated | 5.7 g 28%
Omega-3 | 5.1 g 319%
Omega-6 | 8.7 g 62%
Cholesterol | 100.5 mg 33%

Note: Ignore the potassium, I get plenty of it because I add a bit of No Salt to my night time mashed cauliflower.

I bet you're going to say: that's not many vegetables! Well, while 100 g kale and 300 g cauliflower are actually quite a lot, I definitely don't eat the huge quantities of veggies that most male CR practitioners eat. I don't have that much room in my stomach, and I find high protein, high fat foods more satisfying. Not that my Vit A K and C are quite sufficient... it's not like I need to eat a patch of broccoli per day.

I'm going back to Old School, with modifications, in part because it makes me feel best, and in large part because I don't want to spend much time thinking about food. I'm working on several very exciting projects and my work is heating up... leaves very little time left over for tweaking my diet. I've always been happier to keep my diet simple, leaving complexity for the rest of my life.

Posted by april at 11:50 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

April's CR Diary

March 14, 2010

A Post That Did Not Go Through the Fine Tuning Committee

Important! Take Action Now! From MR...

March 12, 2010

OMG

March 10, 2010

How I Love Calorie Labeling On Menus

You're Doing What With Whom?

March 9, 2010

Old School

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