response 38 of 61:

Sep 17 03:43 UTC 1998

Ok, I'm back.

Misti asked why I wanted to lose weight anyway. Good question. Keep in 
mind I am not one of these whiny-ass girls who can't eat a pea without 
going ballistic. If I am hungry I will eat, and not shuffle my food 
around on the plate. If a guy thinks I am a hog then he can just bite 
me.

It comes down to this:
1) I'd feel better
2) Less stress on my ankles, which are about shot
3) I could wear clothes that I like but are not entirely flattering 
with the physique I have now
4) I just want to. 


I am in grad school part time and working full time, so now I am doing 
good to sleep, let alone eat.

response 40 of 61:

Sep 17 23:46 UTC 1998

I don;t know about beeswing, but if I'm really hungry, fruit makes me quesy.
I'm much better off with brown rice, whole grain bread, cheese, or meat.  If
I'm only peckish, or if I eat it with other things fruit is wonderful, though.

response 42 of 61:

Sep 18 21:39 UTC 1998

I think the fruit sugar probably is the culprit since I susepct it shoots my
blood sugar way out of control if I'm really hungry.

Actually I find that a little fat on my  carbohydrates both makes them more
satisfying and slows the carb release so that my blood sugar makes a much
smoother upward and downward curve.  (Rather than a huge spike followed by
a dramtic drop.)

response 44 of 61:

Sep 22 22:23 UTC 1998

Well, I don't pretend to know the reason, but I do know that if I eat a slice
of bread, within an hour my bloodsugar goes up 30-100 points (I haven't
figured out exactly why the difference, and then at 3 hours is down to where
it started or less.  If I butter the bread, the rise is longer (3 hours or
so) but the peak is lower.

It seems like maybe the whole mess of carbs and fats is digesting slower so
my pancreas doesn't have to deal with 100 units of carb in one hour, but
rather gets 30 units per hour for three hours.

(That's a verbal illustration.  The units don't represent much of anything
other than percentage of demand on my pancreas.)

response 46 of 61:

Sep 24 10:23 UTC 1998

Eggs, dairy products, tofu. Or add protein powder to other things.

response 48 of 61:

Sep 26 00:33 UTC 1998

Re resp:42 and resp:43 - In his book _Mastering the Zone_, Barry
Sears has something to say about the role of fat in relation to
carbohydrates that supports Misti's observations:

    "...fat slows down the entry of carbohydrates into the
     bloodstream. In essence, fat acts like a control rod in
     a nuclear reactor to prevent an overproduction of insulin.
     The slower the rate that carbohydrate enters the blood-
     stream, the lower the insulin production. And the lower
     the insulin levels, the more likely you are to release
     stored body fat for energy. So in fact, fat is really
     your ally in chipping away stored body fat."

response 50 of 61:

Sep 28 11:29 UTC 1998

The Zone diet is neither vegetarian nor non-vegetarian. The core of it
is a 40%/30%/30% ratio of calories from carbohydrate, protein, and fat
at every meal and snack, together with regulating the total amount you
eat so that you get the right amount of protein per day for your lean
body weight and activity level. 

The protein can come from either animal or vegetable sources, although
admittedly it is harder to get the recommended amount of protein from
vegetable sources alone. However, it is possible, and there's a website
with tips and recipes on this (see below).

There's a lot of information on the Zone diet available on the web. A
good place to start is the "Zone Diet Information Center" at

        http://www.he.net/~zone/

which has links to other Zone-related sites. Barry Sears' "official"
zone site is "The Zone Files" at

        http://www.eicotech.com/

In particular, there's some information on hypoglycemia there. Click on
"Archives", then "Search the Archives", then search for "hypoglycemia".

Zone info for vegetarians is on "The Zone Vegetarian" page at

        http://hometown.aol.com/ajbloom/zoneveg/index.htm

I've said this elsewhere, but I've been following the Zone diet for
about three months and it works great for me. (I'm not hypoglycemic
though, to the best of my knowledge.)

response 52 of 61:

Sep 30 03:56 UTC 1998

Misti, we are actually talking about fat here, this was interesting
information and new to me.
Jim says he cannot be fit and fat, the things he wants to be able to do
require that he not carry a lot of weight around.  He is already carrying a
lot of heavy objects.  (Today a washing machine and a freezer).  And he cannot
bike as far if he weighs more, it is hard on his bike and his own body.  He
gets a sore butt if he weighs 15 pounds more.  He defines fit as being fit
for some particular thing you want to do.  If you do not want to carry
freezers or bike 50 miles, you can be fit and weigh more than he does.
He is fit for a particular lifestyle.  He also weighs less if he does not eat
salt, five pounds easily in fluid retained.

response 54 of 61:

Oct 2 18:47 UTC 1998

How do you resign from a conference?  There are several that I looked at and
never went back to.  (Or is this getting too far from the topic?).

response 56 of 61:

May 7 14:32 UTC 2000

***otter shakes this item until it wakes up***

My own basis for knowing if someone is the wrong weight, either fat or 
thin, is whether their weight is the very first thing I notice about 
them.
I am probably one of the fittest fat people (or the fattest fit people!) 
you could know. Based on my experience, I'm carrying about 40 extra 
pounds right now, but the nurse who weighed me last week stopped 
everything and had someone re-calibrate the scale before she was 
satisfied that it was accurate. 
I weigh a lot for the space I take up, because under my soft exterior is 
a lovely pile of well-developed muscle, especially legs and gluteals. 
(that's "major butt" for you layfolk <grin>) I am never still for long, 
and seldom eat anything that comes from a box. If you lined us all up and 
said, "walk 'til you can't," I'd be the one of the last to fall, because 
I've worked and worked on my endurance.
Which brings me, I think, to Misti's original point. You can't tell if 
someone is fit by simply looking at how fat they are, and that as long as 
you are physically fit, you will be healthier than most regardless of 
your weight. 

response 58 of 61:

May 9 11:08 UTC 2000

Nope, no idea of the percentage of fat to everything else.
I firmly believe in the immersion method over calipers, because I would 
know which places on me to pinch for the most (and least) favorable 
readings.
I do know that my blood pressure is 95/60, resting pulse 80, and "bad" 
cholesterol was under 150 last year. My DO often kids me that with those 
numbers, I will live forever unless hit by a bus.

Because of thumb reconstruction later today, I will have to nix weight 
training (a regular part of my life) until autumn, so I imagine I will 
drop some more body fat due to a planned increase in kinetic activities 
like power walking and wind sprints from three times weekly to four or 
five.

Wonder if WMU has an immersion scale...you have piqued my curiousity.

response 60 of 61:

Aug 13 15:09 UTC 2000

I've found that making a goal of "x pounds" is usually pretty frustrating for
people to maintain.  What looks like a better option is to make a goal of
"every day 30 minutes" or something like that.  Even walking around the
neighborhood could count.  Just doing something, anything, tends to get you
into the habit of doing it.