boring diet page, formerly known as the lo carblog.

Still in! I did it, somehow. I thought for sure the wine would have popped me out, but no. Cool!
binki 5:29 PM |

A quick update, since it's been a few days. My muscle pull has gotten much better and I'm pretty much back to my usual routine. It's a little tender but seems like it'll be okay if I'm careful. I'm still in ketosis; I've managed to stay in for more than a week now without a break. Thought I'd popped myself out the other night with some breaded artichoke hearts, but it seems like my carb limit is pretty high. The big challenge now is to get through turkey day without blowing it. I think that should be doable, fill up on turkey and the veggie thing we bring, plus usually there are quiches there and I'll eat those too (minus the crust, of course). I imagine staying in ketosis over Thanksgiving is kind of an impossible thing to do, but it's something to shoot for, a game to play. Morale is good. There are changes happening with my body but you'd pretty much have to be me to notice them at this stage.
binki 5:29 PM |

Salon had a story a couple weeks ago about hackers doing Atkins. Salon, of course, will only let you see the first few paragraphs if you're not a subscriber. Your options if you want to read the rest of it are to sit through an ad for O! klahoma starring Hugh Jass Jackman, or use your imagination to get to the source of the matter right here.

I am glad to see this. Somehow it helps make it more about science and control and power, and when smart people do it, it lessens the stigma a little. This web page aside, it's really weird for me to be on a diet, and especially weird to admit I am and to talk about it. My whole self-image is based on a carefree refusal to do something so regimented, and for such a stupid superficial goal. I really feel like I don't care what I weigh, and it shouldn't matter, but then I see a picture of myself from behind and it just doesn't fit with what I think I look like. So I want to change that, and this seems to be the way that will work. It's still weird, though. If I start getting really into makeup, somebody please shoot me.
binki 5:28 PM |

Another reason for the soy shakes revealed itself today. I'm reading about excessive protein and how bad it is for you. Each shake is 24 g of protein, and I should be getting 50-something grams a day, based on "target weight", aka the one you put on your driver's license. So two shakes and I'm done for the day, and that's without eating any actual food. No good. I've imposed a strict two shake per day limit, whereas before I kinda thought I could have one whenever I wanted. And I think I'm going to make them a little bit weaker, maybe two scant scoops of the powder instead of making sure they're full. The soy comes in because apparently protein from veg sources doesn't have the health risks of excessive animal protein, though it's tough to figure this all out since articles decrying the low carb diets tend to assume you're eating huge portions of fatty meats and tut-tut accordingly. Look at this article, for example. 6 pieces of bacon by lunchtime? It's a straw man. The nitrates alone would drop you if you ate that way for any length of time. And that diet ends up having double the protein I'm getting, and all from animal sources. But, the point is, the same site, with their anti-atkins attitude, says

The kidney-damaging effect was seen only with animal protein. Plant protein had no harmful effect.

This site seems to agree, and in fact claims that the veg protein goes the other way to enhance calcium retention and reduce the risk of osteoporosis and kidney problems. So the humble soybean wins again. I mean, I've never had kidney stones, so for all I know they may be one big party, but I have a feeling I'd rather not find that out. Off to drink some more water and look for more information.

See, here's another one. I'm trying to find people, ideally people with letters after their names, who don't like the low carb thing. This guy's another straw man builder. Fried cheese cubes wrapped in bacon? He only grudgingly admits that maybe people on these diets might eat a salad once in a while. (On Carb Addicts, two cups of salad are required before your Reward Meal each day.) He takes the extreme that supports his example in every case, for example, he says eating just 15 grams of carbs can stop ketosis. This amount varies from person to person and can just as easily be 100 grams, but he doesn't recognize that. And of course he leans heavily on the bacon straw man. (the Bacon Man!) I guess he thinks he's performing a public service, and he is if he saves some moron from thinking they can eat ten pounds of bacon a day. But the thing is, if you read any of the diet literature itself, of course they tell you you can't do that. The only people talking about "fried cheese cubes wrapped in bacon" are people like Dr. McDougall. Who is it helping to put this kind of misinformation out there?
binki 5:27 PM |

A good thing to know: the Keto brand of low-carb meal-replacement shake powder blows the doors off the vile Atkins brand. Even splitting them half and half (to use up the Atkins) is well nigh drinkable. The gross Atkins taste is fairly well covered up by the Keto. I'm looking forward to the end of the Atkins canister so I can enjoy the Keto straight up. They also make a soy-based version, which I have on order and will try when I get it. This could be very useful for my little vegan friends, and for anyone who needs more soy in her diet.

Another good thing: Gardenburger's Chik'N Grills were already pretty much my favorite food. I wouldn't have thought it possible to love those little patties of chickeny goodness more, but now I do. Five grams of carbs, and three grams of fiber. That means two effective grams of carbs! So delicious. And so easy! Heat pan, a little olive oil, plunk in Chik'N Thing, cook, put on bun with mayonnaise. You can add lettuce and tomato to make it special. Or, melt mozzarella cheese on it, and slather with spaghetti sauce. I'm crazy about these little things.
binki 5:25 PM |

Ok, I take back everything I said or thought about the wacky diet my friends were on. (Carb Addicts, and they're vegans, so it's completely insane.) I can't deny that they lost all the weight they wanted to lose—50-some-odd pounds—without a lick of exercise. In fact, one of them has lost too much and is eating her way through the leftover Halloween candy bars, trying to gain a little back. So I kinda sorta changed the carb/protein balance in my own life in an Atkins-ish way, and dang if I haven't lost some weight. I've been doing a little exercise and a little yoga each day, so that's certainly a factor, but the point is, I'm wearing my thin jeans right now, and comfortably.

A word of advice, though: the Atkins shake is unspeakably vile. You look at the nutritional information and it seems great, lots of protein and very few carbs, a delicious treat you can have without guilt. Unfortunately, it tastes like somebody crushed up a stick of chalk into some especially bitter seltzer water, then added cornstarch to make it thick and spritzed it with a totally-unwarranted delicious vanilla scent. Guh-ross.

I know there is nothing more boring than diet blogs, and that there are a squizillion things in life that are more important than weight, so this will be the last time I'll mention this stuff. I just thought it might be of use, since I know at least a couple of people reading this are looking to drop a few.

One more data point. Vodka? Zero carbs. Just sayin'.
* * *
I know I promised I'd drop it, but I wanted to clarify one thing. "Thin" jeans to me just means that the numbers on the back are within 10 of each other. I'm certainly not thin.

binki 5:24 PM |

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Diet stuff (specifically low-carb, Atkins-type stuff) will be on this weblog from now on, so as not to clutter the regular blog with its boringness. As I learn about new low-carb stuff I'll post it to this blog, so check in from time to time if you care to. If you got here directly from a search result and want to read about anything other than low-carb living, here's how you get to the rest of my site!

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Useful links:
Atkins All the Way boards
Active Low Carber boards
Low Carb Transformation boards
Low Carb Eating boards
First Step Tracker
USDA nutritional info
Glycemic Index
Liquid Splenda!
Honeyville Grain
CountCarbs.com
A La Carb
Atkins

The skinny people want what the fat people's got...