I Am Keto, Hear Me Roar

My nutritional paradigm recently shattered, and I am so glad.

Very recently, having just graduated and received my certificate from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies through Cornell University, I was eager to take up a routine of plant-based eating.  To the uninitiated, “plant-based” simply means vegetarian, or for the more intensely-focused, vegan.  Although I have been vegetarian in the past (for 14 years!), I was easing myself back into it this time, operating as a semi-vegetarian.  I was just dipping my toes into the routine not for lack of motivation, but simply to keep my household from staging a mutiny against me.  I figured that if I threw a piece of fish or chicken their way twice a week or so, they would not complain so loudly.  And naturally, when they realized how great they felt, they would want to ramp up their dedication to a low-fat, plant-based lifestyle.  

Except that’s not what happened.

We did everything exactly right.  We had the loveliest lightly-steamed vegetables, the crunchiest raw salads of many colors, a variety of earthy legumes, and the stingiest smidgen of extra virgin olive oil here and there, but nothing good was happening.   First of all, we were hungry all the time.  At least I was.  I was going through fruit like a spider monkey and I still couldn’t reach satiety.  (Oh, and all that fructose passing my lips earned me a remedial lesson about tooth decay from my dentist as he painfully re-worked a deteriorating filling.)   When we couldn’t stand the gnawing feeling in the pit of our stomach we would indulge in a “healthy” grain-based snack---some whole meal flaxseed chips or a handful of granola.  But I looked bloated and puffy and I felt bone-tired and hungry all the time.  Where was the easy, natural weight loss that was supposed to be happening?  Where was the boundless vitality?  It was very definitely NOT happening to me.

Although the plant-based diet was supposed to protect you from a whole host of chronic diseases, I also couldn’t help but wonder why I sadly watched no less than four semi-vegetarian friends succumb to cancer within the last 2 years.  And I began to remember the pernicious anemia (B12 deficiency) and regular anemia (iron deficiency) I would periodically have to manage during my previous incarnation as a vegetarian.  Meanwhile, all those jerks who knew nothing about nutrition and just seemed to willy-nilly fill their grocery carts with whatever, with nary a thought for their long-term health, seemed to never so much as catch a cold, let alone suffer from a chronic disease or deficiency.

But at a dinner party, I happened to have the good fortune of being seated across the table from an intelligent, animated young man who was on a ketogenic diet.  He must have commented on my plate as I sampled the salads being passed, and little else.  We began a four-hour conversation on health and human nutrition.  His regimen, a ketogenic diet, is most easily explained as a high-fat, low-carb diet.  The ketogenic diet is like if you took the Atkins Diet structure or the Paleo Diet structure, reduced the level of protein and increased the fat and fibrous vegetable quotient.  The diet encourages your body to remain in a low level of ketosis, or a state where your body metabolizes fat for energy instead of glucose.  As far as logistics go, the diet requires that you eschew all sweeteners, all grains/cereals, and starchy vegetables (like potatoes or GMO corn).  It asks you to avoid high-glycemic fruits and vegetables (like parsnips), as well as beans and legumes (the lectins in these foods cause them to be metabolized more like a sugar than a protein).

I was incredulous that anyone would opt to nourish themselves on a high-fat diet.  Wasn’t his serum cholesterol going to shoot through the roof?  Wouldn’t his insides be covered in arterial plaque?  Wouldn’t he damage his kidneys?  Wouldn’t his blood pressure skyrocket?  When I fired these questions at him, he had thoughtful, evidence-based answers to quell my incredulity.  He gave me a list of things to read and consider, so that I could fairly compare the ketogenic program to a plant-based program.  He did not give me fluff on someone’s fitness blog…he referenced the work of medical doctors and the National Institute of Health…like this 2004 NIH study linking the ketogenic diet to reduced levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) and increased levels of HDL (good cholesterol).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15148063

I was getting curious enough to try this guy's ketogenic diet, but based on what I learned though the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, I was committed to keeping my intake of plant-based foods high.  After all, vegetables are where we get most of our vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients that are so important to our overall health starting at the cellular level.  So I made up the following rules for my own experiment with the ketogenic diet:

1.    No processed food.  Ever.  Period.  No exceptions. 
2.   Breakfast and lunch will usually be vegetarian and include a healthy fat. 
3.   Dinner can be whatever meats or vegetables your heart desires, but meat shall never be over 5oz.  WEIGH IT.  5 oz.  Only.  The rest of the meal should include lots of  healthy fats. (My rule to regulate protein is based on the evidence gathered by T. Colin Campbell linking excessive protein intake to certain cancers.  A moderate level of protein is, however, absolutely biologically necessary.)
4. Do something active for 20 minutes every day.  Every day.  Period.  I don’t care what it is, just pick something and do it.  
5.   Drink 2 liters of water a day.  Flush out those toxins.

I literally posted my “rules” on the fridge and at my desk to scold myself into compliance, except I have not needed the prodding.  Increasing fat has led to a level of satiety that is so body-and-soul-satisfying that I have had zero desire to stray or cheat.  I have also experienced positive results that I will outline shortly but still, it has been hard to shake the ideas that the media, USDA, and health-businesses have indoctrinated all of us with.  Ideas like:   “Fat is bad,”   “Eat plenty of whole grains every day,”  and “You can’t have too much fruit.”  Despite the fact that those ideas create within most of us an insulin response that keeps us clinging to extra pounds and forever fighting internal inflammation, we have these messages ingrained in our minds.  

I am no exception.  I was very nervous about potentially playing Russian roulette with my health in order to try a diet.  So I have read the work of important nutrition-oriented biomedical researchers and I have closely monitored my health vitals.   Within days on the diet, the bloated look in my face and body disappeared, and the extra pounds I had picked up over the holidays began to disappear effortlessly.  I also began to feel a more even and steady level of energy throughout the day.  After about  a month, I have lost 3 points on the body mass index.  My blood pressure is 112/74.  My resting heart rate is 70.  My total blood cholesterol remains around 150, with an excellent ratio of HDL (“good” cholesterol).

I will, of course, continue to pay close attention to these statistics as I remain on the ketogenic diet and I would encourage anyone else curious to try it to do the same, as well as checking with their health care provider before forging ahead.  The diet can change insulin requirements for diabetics, it can change medication requirements for hypertensives, and it may be all wrong for someone already suffering from heart disease, kidney problems, or other chronic conditions.  I recognize that individual needs may not make this regimen right for the masses.

But DO recognize that much of the nutrition information with which we are pummeled by the media and wellness outlets is flat-out wrong.  But very few people want to move off of the perceived safety of the prevailing paradigm.  My advice is to try some different programs. Try vegetarianism.  Listen carefully to your body for a month or two.  Have your health levels checked.  Try a ketogenic or a low-carb program for a while.  Listen again and check those levels again.   Listen to your body before you listen to the dogma on the TV talk shows or in the latest diet best-seller.

I am finally listening to mine and she is thanking me!

Cutting Through the Fog with a Pickle

I wanted a pickle last night.  So I ate one. I ate a big, full-size baby cucumber preserved in a cloudy brine of salt and garlic. 

Not too long after that, I wanted some sleep.  So I got ready for bed.  I brushed my teeth, found some pajamas and took off my rings.  There were visible grooves in my fingers where my rings had been.  Some 8 hours later, upon waking, I put the rings back on...my normally average-sized fingers still looked pudgy.

Edema. Water retention.  We've all gotten it when we've gone overboard with the sodium.  My one cucumber, though only 5 little calories, manages to pack in nearly 300 milligrams of sodium in its pickled incarnation. I'm sure there are products out there with lots more sodium, but all things considered, that's a pretty high sodium-to-calorie ratio.

But I don't want to give you a sodium lecture.  I want you to see what the pickle showed me.

Within an hour and a half of eating that pickle, one of its ingredients changed my body. The change still lingered on 8 hours later.  Although I know I will eventually flush out all that retained water, it will take a while for my body's homeostasis to win out.

Consider the hours and hours of power that that one pickle has had over my body.  It is impressive and sobering.

Think of the other homeostasis-altering things we put into our bodies everyday. The steak we ate at the restaurant may still be laced with antibiotics and bovine growth hormone.  The cereal we ate at breakfast probably has chemical preservatives to keep it shelf stable.  The lovely apple we had as a snack was hosed down with pesticides in the orchard and was then waxed (yes, WAXED) to an attractive sheen to make a better display in your grocer's produce section.

Your body has a lot of stuff to filter out.  And it might take longer to filter out some of that stuff than it took to filter out the sodium-bomb pickle.  If all of your systems are tip-top, you'll do fine.  If there is a weak link in the chain that is your total body mechanism, you might start to feel not-quite-right.  If the weak link goes unfixed for a long time, you might come down with some sort of disease.

Kinda makes you want to eat more cleanly, doesn't it?  If one little pickle can throw a human off balance for hours and hours, what can that other stuff do?  And how long until it's out of our systems?

We just don't know. So hedge your bets, people:
-Eat a lot a lot a lot of fruits and vegetables.  Nature put 'em here for you and you've evolved to thrive on them.  Organic is great, but if you can't afford it or it's not available, wash your produce.
-Eat just a little meat.  And find out how it was raised.  If you are in doubt, just order the salad.
-Stay out of the bakery...talk about processed/refined/chemicalized.  Ugh.
-If it comes in a box, can, or bottle, read the label.  If you don't know what half of the ingredients are, don't buy it and don't eat it,even if the front of the package says "natural," "healthy," or "organic."

Remember that one little pickle owned me for hours and hours.  It temporarily made a negative change in my body.   Don't willingly let bad food choices own you for months or years.  The cumulative effect could make a negative change that is permanent.

Fixing Your "Broken" Heart through Food

No one wants a broken heart.  Many of us have had one, emotionally speaking, at one time or another and it's no treat, to be sure.  But when your heart is not well, physiologically, it's just as bad as having a broken heart, and very probably more deadly. 

February is American Heart Month and as far as your heart goes, a plant-based diet might be a pretty good idea.  When I attended the Cleveland Clinic's Obesity Summit last October, I heard no less than 3 top-level experts insist that a vegetarian or plant-based diet can retard or reverse cardiovascular disease.  So, if you have a troubled ticker (or aggravated arteries) and you would like to live as long as possible, it is to your advantage to learn to like your vegetables.

The 5 servings of fruits and vegetables recommended by the USDA, American Heart Association, and Center for Disease Control might be hard to fit in if you are filling up on bakery products, dairy products, and meat.  Here is what many people, trying to be healthy, use as their daily diet regimen:

BREAKFAST:   High fiber cereal with milk
LUNCH:  Lean turkey sandwich on wheat bread.
SNACK:  Low-fat granola bar
DINNER:  White meat chicken, rice, a few green beans
DESSERT:  Reduced fat frozen yogurt

Sorry but that's not a healthy diet.  Why?  Because it's not balanced.  It's all animal protein and processed grains.  There is only one "live" food in that whole day:  green beans.  You need "live" food to live!  The moral of the story is, when we are meat-focused, we often forget to take in our fruits and veggies.  But if we commit to limiting animal protein and processed foods we are forced to eat fruit and veggies.  Getting our "5- a-day" is easy.  Here is a day a live food-focused vegetarian might have:

BREAKFAST:  Bowl of fresh berries and nuts
LUNCH:  Salad with chickpeas and a crusty whole grain roll
SNACK:  Yogurt with fruit
DINNER:  Fresh Stir Fry of peppers, sugar snaps, carrots, and tofu over rice
DESSERT:  Poached Pear

This person's diet makes the cut!  He got his 5 servings in and is on his way to making positive changes for his overall wellness.  If he keeps this up, his heart is probably going to reward him with extended service.

Many of us are not ready to embrace the vegetarian lifestyle but DO want to improve our health.  I have been both a vegetarian and a meat eater over the years and am aware of the pros and cons of both---for example:  vegetarians get away cheaper at the grocery store, but meat eaters have an easier time navigating social situations or eating on the run.

For the not-quite-ready crowd, how about doing some vegetarian days a few times a week?  Do them when it is convenient for you.  Explore items and dishes that are new to you at your leisure.  Re-visit things you thought you hated.  See what a vegan entree is like.  Just try it.  If you can't get your 5-a-day in every day, then do it most days.  You are worth your best effort.

After your first heartbreak, you probably swore up and down that you never wanted to have another one.  Please keep that promise to yourself with your 5-a-day and have a beautiful, healthy February.

A New Years Suggestion for America or How to Stop Breakdowns at BJ's

I broke down in BJ’s Wholesale Club the other day.  Before you dismiss me as an unstable whack-a-doo, allow me to explain.

I was there on New Year’s Eve day with my bestie…it was my first trip inside a wholesale club and we were looking for a bunch of indulgent snacks to share with some hungry teenagers on this special occasion.  Nothing wrong with the story so far, right?

As we perused the aisles for supplies for four of us, I was unhappy with every box that was headed towards our shopping cart:

“Nah, that’s too large.”

“We can’t finish all of that.”

“No way, there’s only FOUR of us.”

It dawned on me that plenty of American households with members numbering four or fewer shop at BJ’s or Sam’s or Costco every single week.  They buy frozen pizza by the case.  They buy meat in giant slabs.   Milk gets purchased by the multi-gallons.  10 pound blocks of cheese.  Gigantic plastic tubs of perishable greens.  And they don’t always use all of what they buy.  These wholesale consumers think they are going to use all of their purchases.  They are worried about being caught short, running out of some important grocery item in the middle of the night.  Maybe they responsibly freeze some of their purchases, but they probably don’t.  Heaps and heaps and heaps of this food gets thrown away.

And that’s why I let loose a flood of tears in the freezer section of BJ’s.

I am not unlike your grandmother.  I sincerely believe that wasted food is an abomination.   When you over-buy your broccoli and let it waste in the veggie drawer, only to be thrown away as a sad, flaccid lump next week, you have just wasted a season of a farmer’s labor:  He bought fossil fuel for the farm equipment. He tilled.  He planted.  He invested huge sums of money in irrigation.  He lost sleep over weather reports.  He harvested in the blazing hot sun.  And you threw it all away because it turns out you weren’t in the mood for broccoli this week.   Worse than that is throwing away animal protein.   A life was laid to rest so that you could continue on with yours.   Except you weren’t feeling like that many hamburgers this week after all, and the ground meat was starting to get a little funky in the fridge, so you just pitched it.  Basically, you just had a cow killed for nothing.  And just to increase my grandmotherliness, there really ARE starving children in other countries who would be grateful for your broccoli.  This wastefulness is a crime on so many levels and the average American just doesn’t see it.  It hurts me to my very core, brings me to tears, in fact.

I’m not saying you can never buy in bulk…maybe you are doing some entertaining…maybe you have a family of 10.  But the rest of us should be buying little bits at a time, and really, only what we need  for the next week, or more ideally, for the next few days.  Take less, eat less, and waste less.  Your wallet, waistline, and the world will benefit.  Plus, it’s sort of disgusting to be the devil-may-care hedonist who just makes self-indulgent decisions at the expense of others.  Whether you see it or not, waste IS at the expense of a long chain of others.  Please don't be  "that guy" because it happens to be more convenient for you.

Pope Francis just publicized his New Year’s resolutions.  Among them is a vow to reduce food waste.   You don’t have to put spiritual credence in the papacy to see that the man has an accurate point about social justice as it relates to food:  He says: “We should all remember... that throwing food away is like stealing from the tables of the poor, the hungry.   I encourage everyone to reflect on the problem of thrown away and wasted food to identify ways and means that, by seriously addressing this issue, are a vehicle of solidarity and sharing….”

So please don’t make your New Year’s Resolution a mere promise to peel off some pounds.  Make a vow to buy only the bare minimum of what your household needs and then use every drop of what you have purchased in a timely manner.  You will probably wind up eating far less so you'll shed the pounds anyway…but you will do it with a conscience because your new food purchasing and consumption habits will indirectly help a farmer, an animal, and a person with hunger needs more dire than your own .

My Favorite Things

Apparently, Oprah Winfrey lists her favorite products at this time each year in case you are stuck for gift ideas.  I don't watch much television and I rather like editing extraneous products OUT of my life rather than rotating them into it, but that's TMI, as the kids say.  The point here is that I, too, have some favorite things worthy of an official list.  I am sure they help define my style of cookery...and if you like my style, well, you could try them, too.  I think these items are absolute necessities in the kitchen.  Worthy of note is the fact that  there are a few ready-made sauces I use at home when I simply lack the energy to pull some scratch cooking out of my hat after a long day.  Give them a whirl...let me know what memorable meals you make with them:

1.  FRANK'S RED HOT HOT SAUCE.  I'm like the old lady in the commercial: "I put that (bleep) on everything".  It's not the hottest hot sauce.  It's not the most complex.  But it is balanced and gives a beautiful zestiness when a recipe is crying out for some zip.  Mix it with fresh lime juice, generous agave nectar, and chopped cilantro for the best Pad Thai sauce in the world!
2.  TEXAS ROADHOUSE BBQ SAUCE.  It's not that chemical burgundy brown stuff you are used to.  This has chunks of real fruit and vegetables in it and it has an un-scary ingredients list...exactly what you would put into BBQ sauce if you were slow-cooking a batch yourself.  There are a couple varieties that swing from sweet to hot.  And if you still require a little more heat, see #1 above.
3.  CARDINI'S CAESAR DRESSING.  It's not exactly like homemade or steakhouse Caesar dressing.  I don't know if it is "the original" as the bottle claims, but it IS rich, complex, and delicious.  I like to dip baby carrots in it for a snack that fills me up without making me feel like a glutton.
4.  DOMINO AGAVE NECTAR.  It's organic. It's inexpensive.  It's relatively low on the glycemic index compared to other sweeteners.  It instantly adds a depth and subtle sweetness to your cooking without being cloying.  I hardly ever use sugar anymore.
5.  FAGE GREEK YOGURT.  Put away the sour cream.  Step away from runny yogurts with "fruit" flavors that smell and taste like air freshener.  Hands down, this is the best yogurt on the market.  Use it in place of buttermilk, sour cream, and creme fraiche. Or eat it plain with fresh fruit and/or honey.  Thin it down, add citrus and garlic for an amazing chicken marinade.  I make frozen yogurt with Fage and preserves when I'm jonesing for a sweet treat.
6.  LIMES.  In my opinion, there are very few things in the culinary world that don't benefit from a twist.  Beef stew too rich, heavy, and blah?  Twist of lime.  Your homemade Thai recipes not as good as the local restaurant?  Twist of lime. Boring, overcooked steak?  Twist of lime.  Flavorless, dry pork?  Twist of lime (and cumin!).  Need a change of pace for chicken or salmon?  Cook a smidgen of tequila down with a little agave nectar and add a twist of lime.
7.  HAIN IODIZED SEA SALT.  I love sea salt because I find it nice and salty, which means I can get away with a little less and still have well-seasoned food.  It is ground finely for better, more familiar culinary control (I still don't like doing a "3-finger pinch" with kosher salt cut like snow-melting rock salt.  Iodide keeps the goiter and cognitive impairments at bay.
8.  BETTER THAN BOUILLON BEEF BASE.  It's like demi-glace on the grocer's shelf. You can take sauces to the next level with this. I put it in the sauce for duck a l'orange and wow, is it a brilliant time-saver!  And even if you never use it for anything but making soup, you'll stop wasting money on watery, vaguely chemical-flavored broths.  Keeps for almost ever in the fridge.
9.  THAI KITCHEN FISH SAUCE.  Fish sauce alone is a little gross and funky, but blended with other things it adds a special complexity that nothing else but hours-long slow-cooking can (and frankly, who really has time for hours-long slow-cooking??) I put fish sauce in my stir fry last night.  It's great in soups and stews.  I faux-age steaks with fish sauce, garlic, and black pepper for 2 hours on the counter to make my cheap grocery store cut taste like a night out at Morton's.
10.  PALMOLIVE.  "You're soaking in it."  This is not a food item, but  this ugly, acrid green dish liquid in the out-dated bottle will help you clean up after dinner better than anything else.  I've tried 'em all, people, and rest assured that this soap cuts grease far better than the dish detergents with prettier scents, packages, and marketing campaigns-- I am finally resigned to the fact that Madge was right all along.

Getting Philosophical on the Mediterranean Diet

I did it again.  I bought another diet and nutrition book...which I happen to need like a hole in the head.  I wouldn't have bought the thing at all (I'm pretty sure I've got the subtle nuances of most major eating regimens down pat), but when I was scanning the pages in the store, I saw a section on the mineral phosphorous and thought this book might be more well-written and more in-depth than most.  Maybe this book would hold the key to simplify everything and will tell us all how to live to be 100 years old and fit as a fiddle the whole time.

But alas, it was just a typical overly-excited effort to convert others to some whack-a-doo regimen backed by the fuzziest excuse for nutritional science that the author sees as an inarguable truism.

What would make a really good diet book for me?  I want to see long-term studies.  I want some semblance of mortality data.  I want a real control group.  And for sure, I want less proselytizing.

Most doctors will admit it.  Even they cannot make a definitive mandate on what diet is the absolute best for general overall wellness and longevity.

Docs admit that a very low fat diet (the kind we all embraced in the 1980s) can yield respectable weight loss results and positive indicators for cardiovascular health...if a dieter can stick to it.  But we've all learned over time that with a very low level of fat, satiety is not always there for the dieter.  If, in an effort to feel satisfied, they down a whole pot of rice instead of the half cup portion allotted to them, a dieter can actually gain weight on a low-fat regimen.

Well, then, how about those high protein/low carb diets like Atkins or these new Paleo programs?  Aside from very low calorie liquid semi-fasts,  high protein/low carb diets are probably the quickest route to rapid weight loss.  But they may not be the optimal choice for dieters trying to correct a negative trend in their cardiovascular health or those on diabetes medication.  And sooner or later, someone is going to offer the dieter a piece of birthday cake which is going to instantly erase that arduous journey into ketosis.  This is another program that is tough to stick to for the rest of your days.

What about hardcore veganism, like the Engine 2 Diet?  It looks very compelling for cardiovascular health and it is gaining popularity...but it may not be so great for joint and bone health, and the average omnivore can't seem to make the conversion to a world with zero animal byproducts.

Gluten-free?  This regimen is an absolute necessity for someone with celiac sprue and it is  probably a desirable diet for someone who suffers from IBS, Crohn's, leaky gut syndrome or some other chronic gastro-intestinal disorder, but this diet is not necessarily designed for the average joe looking to shape up their general wellness. 

What about this Mediterranean Diet that is getting so much hype?  The Mediterranean Diet, which should read like an exercise in semi-vegetarianism, often gets misinterpreted by the average omnivore as a steady diet of chicken and turkey.  Actually, in a perfect world, the follower of a Mediterranean Diet would lean a little harder into the realm of vegetarian and seafood meals. Mediterranean Dieters also need to eschew white flour, bakery products, sugary sweets, and sweet drinks.   The medical world is excited about this diet because they feel it is sustainable...that even non-health-nut-type people can stick to it on a permanent basis and that it could therefore improve the face of public health (which really needs an overhaul as it pertains to diet-related disorders).

I agree that overall, the Mediterranean Diet looks pretty good:  The dieter gets all of the wonderful health-sustaining benefits of plant-based foods, steers clear of the atherosclerosis-causing microbiota found in red meat, stays full for longer than 10 minutes (since there is a nice film of olive oil in the tum-tum), can still eat some animal protein to blend in with the regular folk at a dinner party, and can be sociable and drink a toast  of red wine with the gang if they choose to indulge in that sort of thing.

I also happen to like the Mediterranean Diet because in addition to looking pretty nutritionally well-rounded,  it's just kind of how I choose to live my life and eat anyway (so I'm sure my tender ego feels vindicated in some way.)  But that's about all I know for sure.  In fact, I think that's about all that the "experts" know for sure, too.

Is the Mediterranean diet the key to being trim?  Maybe...maybe not.  Is it a way to prevent or reverse chronic disease? Maybe...maybe not.  Is it the key to a long life?  Maybe...maybe not.  Whether we follow the Mediterranean Diet or some other program that we think is good, does eating intelligently give us any guarantees?  Not really.  Even at the 8th Annual Obesity Summit at the Cleveland Clinic, the doctors were somewhat divided on the best program and there is very little data on mortality rates as it pertains to specific diets.

Whether you try the Mediterranean Diet, Veganism, Low Fat, High-Protein/Low-Carb, Gluten-free, or any of the myriad dietary plans out there, you may find you reap some short-term benefits.  And you may like the short-term benefits so much that you stick with the plan long-term.  But are you never ever going to have any cardiovascualr problems?  Sorry, no guarantees.  Will you never ever contract cancer?  Sorry, no guarantees. Will you be strong, mobile, and quick-witted as you approach your hundredth birthday? Sorry, no guarantees.

The only guarantee we have is today.  So just make wholesome food choices that make you feel clean, strong, and energized today.  Use that strength and energy to make it a great day that you are glad to be a part of.  And maybe you can use that strength and energy to something good for someone else out there, too.  Then get up and do it again tomorrow.  That effort to get the most out of each day is the only guarantee of a good diet, so I hope you find the plan that makes you feel that way.

Epic Fail: "Lifestyle Change"

I hate the word “lifestyle”.  It’s a dumb word, and it’s so overused that it has become sort of hollow and empty, especially as it pertains to diet and health.  Every day we hear,  “Don’t  go on a diet.  Just change your lifestyle.”  In an effort to do that, we decide we're going to adopt a couple new habits.  We join a gym, buy a bottle of olive oil, and swear we will eat baby carrots instead of potato chips. Our lifestyle changes last for a little while.  Sometimes the lifestyle changes don't make it past the 3-day mark, especially if we are under great stress and balancing 400 other things.  Sometimes the lifestyle changes go for a very long time-- 6 months or a year, especially if we are super-motivated and all the odds stack up in our favor.  And when we can persevere for a while with our gym rat/olive oil/baby carrot regimen and we've managed to make some good things happen to our body, we breathe a sigh of relief and say, “I did it.  I changed my lifestyle.”  

And then the wheels fall off.

Because, as challenging as those changes are, they're just not enough.  A bottle of Filippo Berio in the pantry and a much-begrudged periodic visit to Bally's do not a new "lifestyle" make.  You are on a collision course with your old ways and your old problems.

How can I be so negative?  Well, firstly because it is an absolute statistical fact.  And secondly because it has happened to me all of my adult life:  “Hey, I’m a lean marathoner and I’m capable of anything” rapidly turned into “C’mon sweetie, that new HBO series is starting and I made stew.  Let’s just take it easy tonight”  You can call it recidivism, you can call it relapse, you can call it whatever you want, but the numbers out there show that most of us who start a health kick really have a hard time making it our “lifestyle” for longer than a year.

But this tendency to not change our lifestyle is not an overarching lack of discipline...it is a biological system called homeorhesis.  Basically, our body regulates itself with hormones and brainwave patterns that we have  limited control over.  This regulatory process creates for each human body its own trajectory upon which it travels through life. Even if it is not optimal, your body wants to stay on this trajectory and it has a tendency to return itself to the trajectory it was on…even when you have done the work to go a different direction. So it is long-term fight against your own unseen biology to be a success.  Think about it in terms of your car.  Let’s say you’ve knocked the old jalopy out of alignment and it wants to pull dangerously left.  Now, unless you can afford to have major alignment work done, the old car is always going to pull left.  You are going to have to work every time you are behind the wheel and fight like the devil to keep it rolling straight.  You can’t let go of that wheel, or steer with your knees, or change the radio station, or lighten your grasp, because in the split-second that you do, you are just going to wind up veering left again.  It’s that fast.   

The moral of the story is, if you think you need to solve a health problem (whether it’s being overweight, having hypertension, having diabetes, etc.) through diet and exercise, you can never ever stop.  You can't let go of the steering wheel.  You can’t coast.  You can’t cheat.  You can’t make a deal that you’ll go back to being “good” after vacation.  You have to keep pulling that misaligned vehicle straight every day or you are going to drift left and get creamed.

That is a bummer extraordinaire, is it not?  You could find it very de-motivating and wonder, why even bother?   Most people are not lazy, and they are willing to do the hard work to get healthy.  But they are not willing to create a lifelong relationship with hard work…and yet despite the high failure rate of people trying to lose weight/get healthy, there IS a 35% success rate.  Yes, some folks really CAN do it long-term!  Better yet, that successful 35% who really stick with it can, miraculously, re-set their homeorhesis trajectory.   It takes like 5+ years of constant stick-to-it-iveness,  but these people re-program their brainwaves and hormones to those of a thin person!

So this 35% who beat the odds...what's their secret?  Are they harder workers?  Do they have an allergy to everything except broccoli?  Did they make a deal with the devil?  Why are they so lucky?

I'll argue that they didn't enact a "lifestyle change project"...they just flipped a switch and changed their lives.

More specifically, the success stories do share some similarities, mechanically.  By and large, all of the people who were able to make-over their bodies and their health as it pertains to weight and weight-related issues do the following:  they religiously exercise about 60 minutes a day, they find a healthy dietary regimen they can stick to every day, they periodically write down/record what they are doing and eating to make sure they are toeing the line, they weigh themselves regularly, and they maintain consistency all week and weekend long (no self-bargaining conversations like “I’ll start in fresh first thing Monday morning”)  

I would gander, though, that socio-culturally, the success stories also share similarities.  These folks don't just adopt a couple lifestyle changes.  On the contrary, everything in their world is re-framed.  Their closets probably look different, their pantries certainly must look different, their commute and daily habits may be significantly changed, and they probably made a few new friends whose habits mirror their own or in some way support them.  They might have even changed other things like career or relationships. They discard the dysfunctional habits of their old world, and openly embrace new ways of doing things.  They see the constant work as an opportunity rather than a burden.  And I’m sure you’ve heard people say things like “I’m a different person these days.  I don’t even want to go back to the way I was before.”   Their whole LIFE changes.  That is the key to lifestyle change.  Everything has to deviate from the way it was before.

Again, some people might be disappointed or flat-out angered by this.  They like their lives just fine, thank you very much.  And who the heck is this personal chef spouting off that they need to flip their world upside down to lose a couple pounds?  How dare she?  In all fairness, this assertion is not my personal invention.  I am relaying information as studied by the National Institute of Health and a host of scholars at the Cleveland Clinic’s 8^th annual Obesity Summit.   

To really create a change, forget the weak, watered-down term “lifestyle”.  Instead, realize that to improve your weight and/or your health, you have to change your life.