Living Well

Portion sizes have changed

There's a great article on Divine Caroline that compares portion sizes from 20 years ago to today. She compares everything from pizza slices to coffee to plates with nice pictures to really show you. For example:

         

Getting rid of the hiccups ... in New Orleans

While at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, I got the hiccups. We happened to be passing a witchcraft/voodoo type shop and someone jokingly said, "You should see if they have something for hiccups!" So we went on in and met the rudest woman I've talked to in quite a long time. She said:

No, I don't have anything for hiccups. Lemon and bitters - everyone knows that!

So we went to the bar next door, asked for lemon and bitters. The bartender took a slice of lemon, added a few drops of bitters and some sugar and handed it to me. Five seconds later, the hiccups were gone!

Bitters are 45% alcohol so use with caution - it only took a splash on the lemon.

Shoes are bad for you

A really interesting article in the New York Magazine explains how shoes are bad for you: You Walk Wrong. The author explains that by adding padding to the heal, shoes actually make you step harder (you are looking for that feedback from the ground), by turning the toes up your foot doesn't have the same strike off motion, and much more. The article is a very interesting read.

The author recommends going barefoot a lot and switching your shoes up so your feet don't become dependent on any one shoe type.

Staying on a diet is hard when you eat with others

One of the hardest things about staying on a diet is eating out or eating with others who aren't on the same diet. You feel a bit weird ordering something not  on the menu or asking for substitutions. Whenever I order a hamburger without the bun, I cringe even though I like it, because it sounds weird. If you've felt like this before, try reading Steve Pavlina's thoughts:

One of the major challenges with dietary change is that the direction of improvement takes you far away from average because the average diet is pure crap. This creates a risk of disconnecting from other people as you continue to grow in order to avoid succumbing to social drag.

Here’s how I look at this situation. If I eat a crappy diet in front of other people, I’m subtly encouraging them to do the same. That does a real disservice to people who share a meal with me. I don’t want to be the kind of person who lowers the standards of everyone I eat with (or who reinforces pre-existing low standards).

If I put myself in the position of eating a healthy diet when I’m with other people, then I subtly influence them to improve their own eating habits as well. I don’t need to discuss what I’m eating to have this effect — I know from experience that it happens automatically. Try it for yourself by sharing a meal with someone whose diet is much healthier than yours, and see if you don’t feel slightly more motivated to make some improvements. We’re all subtly influenced by the people we connect with.

Eating with someone who makes strange comments about my food isn’t a big deal to me. The more important issue is whether I’m serving as a positive example to others.

When you order something strange, think about it as setting a good example. A good example for your kids, your friends and your family. Not self-righteous, just a good example.

Staring at the computer screen will hurt your sleep

I've noticed that if I work on the computer right up until I go to bed, I have trouble sleeping. I'm not the only one. This blogger's doctor told him to not stare at a computer screen at night for that very reason.

Why my doctors told me that if you are going to spend inordinate amount of time in front of a computer screen at night, you might have tough time going to sleep. The screen-flicker makes your eyes and your mind think it is day time, hence you have trouble sleeping.

I also find that the things I do on the computer are not relaxing. It's not like reading a story in a book.

Your genes are responsible for 50% of you body shape

A new study found:

"When controlling for age, and fat, they found that genes account for over half of the differences in womens' body sizes."

They were quick to point out that you can always work to change your body shape regardless of what your genes are. However, it really is easier for some than others.

Eat only food that doesn't rot

Michael Pollan, author In Defense of Food of and The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals gives some good advice:

"don't eat any food that's incapable of rotting. If the food can't rot eventually, there's something wrong."

He also blames many of our health problems on the "western diet":

we all know what the Western diet is, but to reiterate it, it's lots of processed food, lots of refined grain and pure sugar, lots of red meat and processed meats, very little whole grains, very little fresh fruits and vegetables. That's the Western diet -- it's the fast-food diet -- that we know it leads to those diseases. About 80 percent of heart disease, at least as much Type II diabetes, 33 to 40 percent cancers all come out of eating that way, and we know this.

He blames our society for making bad food cheap and recommends:

You need a farm bill that makes carrots competitive with Wonder Bread.

He goes on to explain how we add preservatives to food so we can transport it and then we spend lots of money (and contribute to global warming) by transporting the food around the world.

Read the whole interview at AlterNet.

Obese Women are Less Likely to Attend College

From the University of Texas at Austin:

Obese girls are half as likely to attend college as non-obese girls, according to a new study from The University of Texas at Austin. The study also shows obese girls are even less likely to enter college if they attend a high school where obesity is relatively uncommon.

How to do low carb the easy way

A lot of people start out on a low carb diet the Atkins way where you count all your carbohydrates and try to keep them under 20 grams a day. If you eat everything out of a package, the counting isn't too hard but keeping your daily diet to under 20 carbs is hard if you are eating all packaged food. If you aren't eating out of a package, it's hard to count. So either way, people starting out on Atkins are likely to quit just because it's too hard to count carbs.

Don't worry about the exact number of carbs you are eating. Just follow these simple guidelines.

1. Cut out all the high carb, starchy foods like:
   
   • potatoes
   • bread
   • rice
   • baked goods
   • sugar
   • pasta
2. Base your meals around a protein (chicken, steak, fish) and vegetables. Some meals we often eat:
   
   • ham and cheese stuffed chicken breast with broccoli
   • steak with asparagus
   • cajun chicken greek salad
3. Make smart choices where ever you can but don't worry about the occasional high carb food. I ate a girl scout cookie this morning - although it wasn't good for me, I didn't have the four or five I normally had. Guilt will often make you give up the whole plan, so just concentrate on all the good choices you have made!

What are your tips for staying on a low carb diet?

Why calories in doesn't equal calories out

Michael Eads in an interview on 4 Hour Work Week tells us why calories in doesn't equal calories out:

The energy balance equation states that the change in weight equals calories in minus calories out.

Δ Wt = kcal in - kcal out

Many people think that the items on the right side of that equation are independent variables. In other words, if kcal in decreases weight will be lost because kcal out stays the same. But it doesn’t work that way because those terms aren’t independent variables - they are dependent variables. If kcal in goes down, often kcal out goes down as well to compensate. If people increase kcal out by exercising, they end up increasing kcal in because they eat more. It’s called working up an appetite. And since exercise doesn’t burn a whole lot more calories than simply sitting on one’s butt, it doesn’t take a lot of food to compensate. This effect is called adaptive thermogenesis. (Here is a full text article that goes into depth regarding the mechanisms involved.)