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Since this was essentially the diet I was placed on by a licensed nutritionist when I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and since I don't want a repeat diagnosis, I thought, what the heck.  I like meat.  Might as well start changing my diet habits now.

I started restricting myself to a certain number of carbs per day.  2 weeks later, reaching this goal proved to be so effortless that I lowered my limit.  2 weeks later I lowered it again.  I'm not going to lie; when I first started eating this way I was hungry and tired.  But that quickly went away.  I don't even get that hungry anymore.  I also have a history of blood sugar problems.  I already had to make sure I ate some protein at breakfast, or my blood sugar would plummet just before lunch, causing me to respond by stuffing myself with whatever was handy (usually chips or cookies).  I never have problems with my blood sugar anymore.  It's so liberating.

I've heard this kind of narrative uncounted times.  The hard part is learning successful patterns of eating that support long term change.  There's no secret to change.  You have to fail to succeed.  Get back on the horse, try again, make it easier, make it taste better, but eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, little fruit or starch, no sugar/wheat.

There Is A Secret - Gratitude

The time came, and we all strolled over to Book Passages, where Jacobs proceeded to talk up his books and his experiences enduring their challenges. The stories were enchanting, but it was during the Q&A that one particular question stood out: Which of his books/experiments had the most profound and lasting effect on his life? Which one stuck with him the most? A particular health craze? The Paleo Diet? Chewing your food 100 times? Loving thy neighbor? Knowing the capital of Bolivia?


The answer, he said, was none of those. It was actually a lesson from the Bible, a basic and seemingly obvious rule that was also irrefutable, timeless and unquestionable across all time and space and dimension. And it wasn't even about gay sex.

The rule was about giving thanks. Which is to say, saying thank you (often literally), offering gratitude, endlessly and always, for all that surrounds you. Tremendously simple idea, he said, but it changes everything.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/05/02/notes050212.DTL#ixzz1tvU6pkGr
 
Tony Robbins attributes this insight to an interview he did with Sir John Templeton - and since I heard Tony's comment on it, I have been practicing my gratitude "muscles" in the hope that they would work with greater efficiency and effect.  I highly recommend the practice.  Most of the ways I feel deprived are contrived deprivations, vice real ones.  Or as Tony puts it, "We believe ourselves to be short of resources when we are short on resourcefulness."  Imagine the odds of problem solving depending upon which mind set you are in - it would be the difference between life and death.

Attia: Insulin Is Powerful

Insulin is the most important hormone in our body when it comes to fat mobilization (breakdown) and fat storage.  This is a fact.  There is not one person who studies the endocrine system who will not acknowledge the following quote from Lehninger’s Principles of Biochemistry (the “bible” of biochemistry).

“High blood glucose elicits the release of insulin, which speeds the uptake of glucose by tissues and favors the storage of fuels as glycogen and triglycerides, while inhibiting fatty acid mobilization in adipose tissue.”

http://waroninsulin.com/nutrition/gravity-and-insulin-the-dynamic-duo

The above quote is from Peter Attia's excellent blog.  The entire post is a great read, showing how the universal laws (gravity, the action of insulin) apply differently to different humans, and why that may explain some of the exceptions noted to how people gain, or lose, body fat.

The BLUF:  better now than later.

Harper: "Thank God for Greg Glassman"

The link that follows is a video of a CF Journal interview with Bob Harper, of Biggest Loser fame. I've been enjoying this show for a couple of seasons, and for the same reason that I enjoy coaching people in nutrition and fitness - you can see them transform the defining reality of their lives. They are re-born, almost literally. The compelling element of the Biggest Loser is to see and experience what it's like to have life from death. This interview with Bob Harper is only 10 minutes but it's a remarkable manifestation of Greg Glassman's vision of elite fitness, and even of having CrossFit be the means to transform the state of what is called the "fitness industry" in our country. Here's the full CFJ link: http://journal.crossfit.com/2012/04/bopharper.tpl#comments

Here's a shorter, free version:
Mac: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFitJournal_BopHarper_PRE.mov
Windows: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFitJournal_BopHarper_PRE.wmv

If you can put a person that is 200 pounds overweight on a prescription of CrossFit and do better than other traditional training options for the obese - what other endorsement could CrossFit get? CrossFit for seasoned citizens? Yes, it's being done. CrossFit for Wounded Warriors? Absolutely. CrossFit for type 1 diabetics? Yes! CrossFit for kids? Uh huh!!

Why? Why do all these disparate populations train and love the same prescription (constantly varied functional movements at high intensity)? IT WORKS. IT'S THE RESULTS PEOPLE. What has been called fitness training for years is certainly better than nothing, but it pales in comparison to what happens to people who CrossFit. CrossFit makes them look better, sure, but more importantly it gives a practice field for participants to test limits, exceed perceived inability, and maybe more significant – CrossFit workouts seem to a trigger a hormonal cascade that makes us humans feel good. Were we born needing to feel the hormones we generate doing intense exercise? I think it’s at least possible. Jogging gives some of those hormones, as does any activity, but once you’ve tried a few CF workouts – it’s different.

I think Greg Glassman's vision of transforming the fitness industry is well on its way. Next up: the health care industry. Ambitious? Insanely ambitious. How could it be done? First, our health care system does a remarkable job of keeping sick people alive. But it is wretched at keeping people healthy, and at making sick people well. CrossFit can change that. The model of using drugs to treat symptoms of poor health - high blood pressure, dislipidemia, gout, pain/inflammation, blood sugar disregulation (IOW, metabolic derangement) - is a model that assumes the genome was build to fail. It's a model that makes sense if you think this much sickness is "normal." It would be easy to believe that if you were a physician applying the low fat, low salt, fad diet of the last 30 years, and noticing that your patients were not getting better as a result. From that experience, you could think "We have to use drugs, no one will do what it takes to take care of their health." Everyday, CrossFitters buck that set of obstacles and restore health, instead of treating the symptoms of their disease. Our health care system is collapsing under the weight of excessive government intervention, which has led to the low fat fad diet and worse - to the defacto subsidization of a food industry that is making us sick and at the same time the subsidization of the drug industry which helps us to survive (but hardly to thrive) our illness. If you think it's insane and absurd to suggest that CrossFit could save the nation's health care system and our national budget at the same time - well, I do too, but I'm not betting against it either. And I WILL do the microscopic amount that I can to support the potential for change.

I've been thinking "thank god for Greg Glassman" for years. Bob Harper, thank you, godspeed on your mission.

Kresser: Salt 3

Low salt diets contribute to an increase in hormones and lipids in the blood. A 2012 study in the American Journal of Hypertension found that people on low-salt diets developed higher plasma levels of renin, cholesterol, and triglycerides. (5) The authors concluded that the slight reduction in blood pressure was overshadowed by these antagonistic effects, and that sodium restriction may have net negative effects at a population level.

In addition, low sodium intake is associated with poor outcomes in Type 2 diabetes. A 2011 study study showed people with Type 2 diabetes are more likely to die prematurely on a low-salt diet, due to higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. (6) Additionally, a 2010 Harvard study linked low-salt diets to an immediate onset of insulin resistance, a precursor to Type 2 Diabetes. (7) These studies call into question the appropriateness of guidelines advocating salt restriction for patients with Type 2 diabetes.

http://chriskresser.com/shaking-up-the-salt-myth-the-dangers-of-salt-restriction

So tell me again why the "experts" keep saying that excess salt consumption is a huge public health issue?  

Between the cholesterol myths, saturated fat phobia, and high carb/high grain recommendations, the governments experts are zero for three and the public health is showing the results of this weird science.  Sometimes, it's difficult to believe it really happened this way.

For further reading, go here:
The (Political) Science of Salt

Get Outside, Doctor's Orders

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/your-brain-on-nature
There’s a term in Japanese — shirin-yoku — that translates as “bathing in the forest air”. Spending time in natural surroundings, such as a forest, influences a wide range of stress markers and physiology. Stress hormones and heart rate go down, immune systems and mood improve. Researchers from one study concluded that “shirin-yoku can effectively relax both people’s body and spirit.”

Dr. Logan concurs. “No matter what the stress, nature can undo it.”

Not surprisingly for a region whose traditional architecture seamlessly blends indoor and outdoor spaces, scientists in Japan are leading the research charge. But North Americans are picking it up. The science is accumulating like fat fluffy snowflakes.

For instance, researchers at Carlton University in Ottawa, a city gripped in winter’s clutches for six months out of a year, compared walking outdoors through green spaces with walking through weatherproof underground tunnels. While walkers underground were spared the season’s whims, walkers outside felt — and performed — better in terms of their mood and thinking.

“People do say they feel better in nature,” says Dr. Logan. “These studies just confirm what we already knew.”


But in contrast, he says, “green exercise” — i.e. exercise outdoors, in natural spaces,creates and maintains motivation. ”It elevates your mood and you’re effectively ‘out of your head’.”

Not only that, exercise in natural surroundings can improve performance. One early study compared novice runners on a wooded running path versus a plain open track. Runners were simply asked to run at any pace they chose. Runners in the woods ran faster.

“In the wooded environment, the runners felt better. They felt they were ‘outside of themselves’. They didn’t have the perceptions of fatigue and pain. They weren’t thinking about their side stitch. Sure enough, the runners in the woods ran better. Their finish times were much faster than the runners on the open track.”

When re-tested for runners on a treadmill, the results were the same. “People just run faster outdoors.”

When You're Hungry

How many of you have noticed that a bar like this with peanuts and sugar and chocolate and so forth is somewhat less of an appetite stimulant than candy bars that include fewer ingredients?  I've always assumed that was due to the peanuts - they seemed to have some quality of slowing the digestion of the rest of the bar's components.  

However, that's mostly a moot point if you eat well and keep good snack foods handy.  For me of late, if I find myself in the mood for a bite between meals or before my breakfast, my favorite is a spoon full of coconut oil with a few nuts or sunflower seeds.  This combo with 3-4 macadamia nuts is absolutely heavenly, and very satisfying.  By snacking sugar free, you can maintain excellent glycemic control (actually, the 1.5 million years of refinement of the genome does that for you).  

The fats in coconut oil - saturated medium chain triglycerides - have many interesting qualities including being easy to digest (unlike most fats), having antimicrobial properties, and others (books have been written about this food, this is likely the best one).  I'm not going for miracles though, I just like the taste and the satisfaction and the way it enhances the flavor of other foods.

The ad is correct - when you are experiencing reactive hypoglycemia, you are "not you."  This used to happen to a very important person in my life (and long before that, to me also).  Nothing good came from the black cloud of unanticipated sugar crash.  Now that person is thriving on a paleo style diet free of most sugars and wheat - and it's better for all.

My recommendation - don't get to the point of needing the emergency Snickers bar. Eat meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, little fruit or starch, no sugar/wheat.