Vacation picture - Thanksgiving dinner. Click to enlarge. -->Calories eaten Friday: 1727
Fat: 88g (48%)
Carbs: 42g (10%)
Protein: 91g (22%)
Calories burned in exercise: 77
This is a looong post. I've been busy.
Advent
First of all, happy Advent. Today is the first day of Advent, the start of the Christmas season. I found this page on Advent, which has this to say:
Advent is a term from the Latin word 'adventus' which means "arrival".
Advent begins on the Sunday nearest to 30th November (St. Andrew's Day) and lasts until midnight on Christmas Eve. Advent Sunday is the first of the four Sundays before the 25th December.
In the 5th Century, Advent began on 11 November (St Martin's Day) and took the form of a six week fast leading to Christmas. During the 6th century, Advent was reduced to its current length and later the fasting was dropped.
Let's take a moment to reflect on the meaning of His coming - that God Himself was born as one of us to die for us. There can be no death without birth, and so we celebrate His coming to earth. Thank You, Jesus.
This Weekend
There's so much going on I hardly know where to start. My step count was low on Friday, barely breaking 10,000, so Brad and I went walking around the lake Saturday evening to get my Saturday count higher than usual to make up for it. I managed to get 12,000 for the whole day - fairly good for a Saturday. After walking the lake, we went to the store to buy the things I'll need before my next payday, such as more meat.
At one point we passed a morbidly obese woman who was getting into line with her basket. I'm always curious what people buy and see if it connects with their weight at all. I didn't get a very good look but I did see a HUGE tub of whipped topping. Yike! Trans-fats and sugar, totally unhealthy. I'm willing to bet her basket was full of carbohydrate "foods" (I use that word loosely).
I bought meat (ground beef), salad, eggs, a pre-cooked chicken, cucumbers, scotch tape (to wrap presents), and three pounds of bacon. I'm worried that the cholesterol in eggs raises my cholesterol; bacon is high in fat and protein, but relatively low in cholesterol. I had two slices with one egg for breakfast today. :)
The pre-cooked chicken is for Wednesday. The annual department Christmas dinner is that night, so I have no way of counting calories or carbs. The chicken will be a good lunch. I will eat low-carb at the dinner. I'll probably get the steak, sub out the potatoes for broccoli, give away my garlic bread, get a side salad, and skip dessert. Diet Coke to drink.
For dinner Saturday I made Dreamfield's pasta for Brad and I.
Morning Excitement
This morning shortly after I got up there was a car accident outside my apartment building. One of the cars smashed into a fire hydrant, sending water spurting everywhere. The police and fire departments showed up and the firemen shut off the hydrant. Another car smashed into a parked car, breaking a couple of the windows. Both cars also slammed into each other I think. I heard from some people that they heard shots before this and that the people in the cars were shooting at each other. It's certainly possible, but I don't remember hearing any shots. I just heard the slamming of breaks and then all this crashing.
I don't think anyone was injured and saw no ambulance. I grabbed my camera to have something cool and unusual to post on Flickr. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.
Diet
Ate too much on Saturday of course and way overdid the peanut butter and ice cream. No matter. I'm on track today drinking lots of water and eating very low-carb, making sure to get enough veggies.
Made it to the gym today and did a full workout - 45 minutes of weights, 30 minutes on the stationary bike, and 20 walking on the treadmill. I felt I could have walked forever.
Interview with Dr. Michael Eades
Dr. Eades' has a great interview in Performance Menu magazine. You can get this issue for free by clicking here and requesting Issue #22. Dr. Eades' interview begins on page 13.
What I found especially interesting was this paragraph near the end:
I like to keep (carbohydrate levels) low. (No more)than 100 grams or so per day...(b)ecause I want my liver, not my pancreas, regulating my blood sugar level. Throughout most of our time on earth as a species humans have regulated their blood sugar with their livers, using their livers to produce blood sugar via gluconeogenesis at a slow steady rate that keeps blood sugar levels stable. The pancreas was poised to release insulin in an emergency to make sure blood sugar didn’t get too high...so the liver had to make sugar out of protein and a small part of the fat to keep the blood sugar level up. Certain cells in the body...can use only glucose for fuel. These cells require about 200 grams of glucose per day, but about 60-70 grams of the glucose can be replaced by ketone bodies...leaving about 130 grams that must be provided to keep these cells going, an amount the liver can easily produce. As long as dietary carb intake is kept below 100 grams per day, the liver has to produce the difference, and we can be sure that our blood sugar level stays under hepatic control. If we are eating the standard American diet containing 400 plus grams of carbohydrate, we shift from the precision control of blood sugar regulated by the liver to the blunt instrument control of the pancreas.
So when you eat sugar think of your body using a blunt instrument to keep blood sugar stable rather than the precision control and fine tuning that that liver can do. Low-carb really is better.
Do read the whole thing because he tackles lots of topics: his training and experience, diabetes and diabetic medications, post-workout nutrition, intermittent fasting, and saturated fat. Read it!
Technorati tagged: atkins, diet, atkins diet, low carb, weight loss, obesity, obese, overweight, fat, exercise, fitness, Harry Potter
