It's A Conspiracy

Sitrep: Perfect Cardio 1 - warmup, abs, stretches (~20min)

Stopped at Wallyworld last night to pick up some freezer bags, and lo and behold, they've moved the pasta and tomato sauce aisle front and center. [Sob]

The main aisle on the grocery side entrance runs straight to the back of the store, with the groceries on the right, clothes and rest of the store on the left. The recent reorganization puts all the pasta and pasta sauces right along this aisle. The whole length of the grocery section.

OMG. What am I going to do? It was so much easier to avoid when it was an aisle I could skip. Out of sight, out of mind, you know? I have no impulse control. No will power. Not when it comes to tomato sauce. Now I have to pass it to get to anything in the grocery section.

I should sue. ;)

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Okay, more like knocked her over or something.

This insatiable drive I have to learn has finally caught up with me. Sometimes I wonder if it's just better not to know things, especially things you have no way of changing.

1) Food Inc: If you haven't seen this documentary, and like eating meat, don't watch it.  Okay, it's about a lot more than just meat. It's got some good info on how we get our food, and how the process has been changed. But disheartening overall. Did you know that something like 80% of the processed foods on the US market have genetically modified ingredients in them? It's just very depressing. And listening to what Mo.nsa.nto (for one example) is doing to the farm industry/individual farmers. You can't fight. No one has the money the corporations do.

But this definitely made me want to cut meat out of my diet (too bad that leaves me nothing else to eat, since I don't like most veggies).  The feed lots of the cows were ugly, ugly, ugly. And I thought I was going to puke when they showed the cow where someone had made an opening into her upper stomach (rudiment?) and kept it open with a plastic tube and cap. We're talking large enough for a man to scoop some of the food out that she was "digesting". OMG. Want to puke just thinking about it. And the chickens. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

I'm going to have to look up several of the books referred to in the documentary.

2) The Immortal Life of Herietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This one is a little harder for me to pinpoint. It's an astonishing tale on how one woman's cells made an impact on science. It's extremely easy to read, especially considering the science involved. But it's pretty light on that aspect. Enough to give an idea of what is going on, but no so much your eyes glaze over.

There's a suprising amount of interest for this book. At least at my library. I was number 5 on the waiting list, and there are 4 more people waiting for it. Considering it's the author's first book and was just released in February, I'm a bit surprised.

I'm not sure where I stand on the issues this book brings up. Ethical or unethical to use someone's cells without their consent? What about the commercial aspects? Shoudl they be able to make money off it? Off the top, my gut says "Hell, no, that's not ethical". But then I wonder where would science be? Medicine? It might be my cell, yet they're doing the work. But then there's the fact that it's my DNA. Pretty scary stuff to have out there for "all the world to see". So to speak. Tricky topic.

What definitely bothers me is learning that as of 2005

 "...the U.S. government had issued patents relating to the use of about 20 percent of known human genes, including genes for Alzheimer's, asthma, colon cancer, and, most famously, breast cancer. This means pharmaceutical companies, scientists, and universities control what research can be done on those genes, and how much resulting therapies and diagnostic tests will cost." [page 323]

One company owns the rights to the breast cancer and ovarian cancer genes, and charges $3000 to test for those genes. Insane!

"One survey found that 53 percent of laboratories had stopped offering or developing at least one genetic test because of patent enforcement, and 67 percent felt patents interfered with medical research. Because of patent licensing fees, it costs $25,000 for an academic institute to license the gene for researching a common blood disorer...and up to $250,000 to license the same gene for commercial testing." [page 324-325]

That's just to get permission to access the gene. Forget about the costs of the actual research! What the hell is going on here? How can a company be allowed to control our genes? Shouldn't this be open access for researchers and scientists and doctors? So everyone has access to the tests and cures affordably? And how has this happened with none of us knowing about it?

Pressure & Progress

Everyone handles pressure in different ways. Me, I eat. I eat when stressed, when happy, when sad, when excited, when celebrating, when bored. Anything and everything is a reason for eating. No wonder I've put on weight again. It's been especially bad since Scully died last September.

I've known for a very long time that I do this. It's not new. It's just that a few times in the last couple of months I've consciously caught myself doing this and been able to stop before I started. Which is definitely progress, for me.

One incident happened while visiting my sister in March. I'd gone with my BIL & niece G (six years old) to his hockey game. Sis had stayed home with the baby. While waiting for the game to start, we saw a player on another team get hurt. Nothing too serious, he was winded and then got up and walked off the ice. But this time G made the connection that hockey players get hurt, her dad is a hockey player, therefore her dad could get hurt. She promptly fell apart. In a big way.

We tried calling my sister on the cell phone, but no answer. BIL was in one of the locker rooms. Niece G was falling apart. I frantically racked my brain for something to distract her and my mind went immediately to food. But I caught myself and said no way was I going to use food to deal with this! So instead I decided we were going to go outside and try to call my sister again. We were just getting to the door when she called us back.

Long story shorter, we got my BIL out of the locker room, and my sis came to get us. But I was a bit horrified at how quickly my thoughts turned to food as a means of solving a problem. It is that ingrained in me!!!

The other most recent experiences where I realized what I was doing before hand were with my little sister. What with one disappointment or another lately she's been pretty down. I've had to restrain myself from "treating" her to lunch/dinner/ice cream, etc. to "cheer" her up. Instead I've tried to focus on extra time together, just the two of us. Maybe just taking the dogs for a walk, going to the library. Anything but food.

Who knew it would be so hard to find things to do that didn't involve eating?

Here we go

Philadelphia's mayor is proposing a 2cent per ounce tax on sweetened drinks to fill their budget gap and combat obesity. Think on it. That's 32 cents for a 16 ounce soda. Almost a dollar and a half for a 2-liter bottle. Yikes. And it applies to all drinks that have sugar added - not just soda. Sports drinks, chocolate milk... Yet they don't want to tax artifically sweetened drinks? Give me a break. I think artificial sweeteners are worse for us than sugar.

Did you know that Chicago already has this kind of tax? I didn't until just now. I wonder if anyone has actually studied what impact that has had on obesity & spending on beverages. Their tax includes artificially sweetened drinks as well.

If this spreads (and you know it will) they're going to start taxing anything considered not healthy. Watch out. The power of the dollar is going to buy even less. :(

Yes to CPAP, No to Corn & Green Beans

Sitrep: 1 hour @ gym - weights both arms & legs

Had my follow up with the ENT yesterday. I have mild Sleep Apnea. The way he was talking, it seemed like he was iffy on prescribing me the CPAP. Until I told him I have to go to bed between 7-8pm in order to just get through the day. I mean, seriously. What part of sleep deprivation does he not get? But he did prescribe it and I got it today. CT scan came back looking good; just a little spot that might cause issues. Staying on Rx nasal spray and starting on Neil Med Sinus rinse 2x a day. Allergy testing had some interesting results. They call mine an "intolerance" not allergies. Milk scored high (like I didn't know that already), tomato a close 2nd. The startling ones are CORN and GREEN BEANS. These are the 2 veggies I eat most often. Frankly, they're the top two veggies I like! These are the specific items I'm to restrict to no more than 2x a week, and rotate them (copied as-is from the list): Cheese, CORN, Corn Syrup, Egg White, Egg Yolk, Wheat, MILK (Cow), Butter, Cheese, hard, Cottage cheese, Cream, Cream cheese, Ice Cream, Sour Cream, Whey, Yogurt, Orange, Peanuts, Potato, White, Tomato No more mixed veggies for me. And corn? Is this even possible? I mean, corn is in everything. Which brings to mind CO's recent post blasting the corn industry's pro-high fructose corn syrup. I thought it was a great post when I read it, now it makes me want to cry. And say, did you know that "dextrose, glucose, dextrin, dexin, dextrimaltose, caramel color, Vitamin C (!)" all have corn in them? Vitamin C??? Good, God. What next? But they gave me a huge list of foods in all the food groups that I can have, and a sample 4-day rotation schedule. My Little's mom says that's what's bugging me the most. I have my grocery budget, my shopping list, etc, all planned out. Now I have to relearn how to cook, eat, and shop. Sigh. I never did like grocery shopping to start with...

Minor Miracles and Lessons Learned

Sitrep: I have a goal now. [g] Mt Helena on Saturday or Bust!

So yesterday was the monthly grocery shopping day. It's still going surprisingly well, using the typed list on the fridge and going only once for the main stuff, and 2 weeks later the other store for the meats (monthly supply again). Last night I came in at $4.84 over my budget. Because of a book, naturally. :) And this was also one of those monthly trips where I had to restock flour, sugar, shortening...all those baking goods I buy infrequently. And miracle of miracles, I actually made it out of the store without any chocolate, cookies, ice cream or pizza/tomato items. Which is saying a lot since a) I was really hungry and b) I was PMS-ing.

Then I ruined it by making oatmeal cookies at 9pm and inhaling several cookies worth of the dough. Not to mention the finished product. They're supposed to be for tomorrow's trip to Butte, America with my little and her family. At least that's what I told myself as I was baking them. (But we all know it's because I wanted the dough.)

Every so often I get these strange cravings or spells where I only want to eat one thing. Usually it's my favorite lime pasta dish, or egg salad sandwiches, or biscuits with eggs and gravy...lately it's been Oatmeal Cookies. This was my third batch in the last 2 weeks. All eaten by yours truly. Although one batch was an oatmeal cake (try it sometime. It's pretty good with coffee for breakfast). Interestingly enough, did you realize that you can (without adjusting the other ingredients)

1) Use less flour than called for
2) Use less shortening than called for
3) Use butter 1 for 1 instead of shortening
4) Use a mix of butter & shortening
5) Eliminate the eggs entirely
6) Don't add vanilla (I wanna know who closed the bottle last. It's un-openable!)

And the cookies will still turn out pretty decent? You can even do a multiple of the above in the same batch and the cookies are still edible.

And if you're using the recipe from the New Better Homes & Garden Cookbook (the same one my Mom's had since I can remember), you can substitute regular milk for the buttermilk, change nothing else in the recipe, and bake it in a cake pan? It's kinda like a cornbread, only oatmeal. With sugar. Yum. (It only works with the above cookbook's recipe. At least, that's the only one that's worked for me so far!)

But you absolutely, positively, can not use less oats than the recipe calls for without reducing all the other ingredients first. Because it just does not taste like oatmeal cookies. It tastes like a brown sugar flour cinnamon cookie. Which I suppose is okay. Just not when you're craving oatmeal cookies.

Not that that stopped me from eating a handful for breakfast.

How Many Food Choices??

So I was watching the Biggest Loser last night. (I love this show. Totally fascinated by it, lol). This year they're doing little multiple choice quizzes as they go to commercial break. Naturally, I got them all wrong. Holy moly I don't know much. But the one that got to me was this one:

How many food choices does the average person face in one day?

a) 10
b) 50
c) 200
d) 1000

Correct Answer: 200

Mind-boggling. Of course, as I went to sleep, all I could think about was that number. I mean, really. Isn't that high? I wonder what they count. Does it include every restaurant or fast food place or coffee shop or grocery store a person sees in the day? Or just the actual food items they choose between? It's gotta be the former, to hit that high of a number. Either that or I have a much more limited diet than I originally thought. Or I'm just a creature of habit. Which I am, but worse than I thought?

Or is it every thought about food? 'Cause then I can see it. I think about food a lot. Don't eat every time I think about food, but I think about it. Start planning my mid-morning break around 8:30 am, lunch "planning" (I bring from home, it's a done deal!) starts around 10 am, when I have my break, and so on. Then there are all those "oh, a chocolate bar would be great right now" and "I could always take a quick break and walk the 4 blocks to the health food store" moments. (Like a chocolate bar from the health food store is better for you. Hah. And then the phone rings or I check email or I'm just too lazy.

So this morning I decided to count the number of food choices on my way to work. Of course, I'm such a creature of habit that my choices this morning were: toast w/butter and...toast w/butter. LOL. Really. It's hard enough to get myself dressed in the morning without having to decide what to do for breakfast. So the count started with the corner store. Not that I've ever gone in there, or been tempted. But I look at it every day, and recognize it as a source of not-good-for-me food. (I love the name of this store, btw, it's called "The Man Store".) And the count promptly ended. Not because there aren't any more between home and work. There are tons! I just forgot I was counting because I got caught up in "To Kill a Mockingbird" on audio (just getting to the end).

I did briefly contemplate stopping at Starbucks for a Cafe Mocha non-fat milk with whip. But ever since tracking my meals on SparkPeople, I just don't enjoy those Mochas as much anymore. They blow my calorie count out the window before the day has even really started. Just not getting the same thrill out of them, darn Alden and the Gator Patrol. ;)

So. An estimate. There are 11 food-related places on the way to work that I can remember. 2 grocery stores, 2 restaurants, 3 gas stations, 2 fast food joints, 1 coffee shop and 1 gas-station type store with no gas station. Not too bad. Maybe I'm just below the average on this one. It's hard to imagine being faced with 200 food choices a day. So let's everyone weigh in on this one. How many food choices are you faced with during the day?

REVing Up

So I had an interesting light bulb moment last night. While eating the pancakes I made for my, umm, second dinner. Sigh.

I've been trying to get this whole exercising and eating back on track. Not doing too shabby on the exercising. Better than I was for awhile. Especially now that we have the BodyRev group on Sparkpeople.

Last week was murder on the exercise/BodyRev front, not because I didn't want to, but because of getting that nasty sinus/allergy attack while helping with JT's wedding. I even took my BodyRev & DVD with me for my overnight stay at my little sis's (her mom wants to try it) but that was the worst night for the sinus attack and I could not do it the next morning. It was hard enough to get to the wedding rehearsal to take the photographs and help set up for the wedding & reception. (MB and I were the photographers. Gulp.)

By the weekend I was exhausted! Although I did rake the back lawn (thatch issues) Friday evening. And mowed on Sunday. With an old-fashioned push reel mower, thank you very much. Okay, it's a small lawn and was done in about 30-40 minutes. But still. :) On Monday I didn't exercise. Can give a hundred excuses. But did QiGong on Tues and Wed, and this A.M. I did BodyRev Legs and Abs#1. I want to do the QiGong tonight because I've noticed I sleep better the nights I practice QiGong in the evening.

But I digress. As usual.

My Revelation: I'm becoming compulsive over food again.

Not sure when it picked up. I think over the last two weeks. It's not PMS related (sorry if that's TMI.) It is totally stress/anxiety related. Not sure why...I can't pinpoint any one thing I'm anxious about right now. Maybe it's another stage of grief from Grandma's death? Part of it is the whole water thing as Alden pointed out. But that's not all of it. Hopefully by posting here and being honest, it'll make me STOP. It's just compulsive. I'm not hungry. I'm eating simply because it tastes good. For the pleasure of it. I'm trying to make myself eat healthy stuff, apples and carrots. But overeating is overeating! And the pancakes last night, an hour after I'd eaten a perfectly substantial dinner.

I also noticed through tracking on Sparkpeople, that my food intake is skewed in a way I'd've never guessed. If you had asked me, I would have said I was doing great on protein, a little high on fats, too high on carbs, okay on calories (maybe a few hundred over occasionally.) At least, that's where I thought I was for the last 10 months since starting REVing. Because I had totally revamped my eating habits. Portions, ingredients, no fast food, etc. But the reality is:

PROTEIN is on the low side on a daily basis.

Who'd've thought? Carbs, fats, calories are within my "range". Usually the middle or top. (Lately I've had days where I totally blew it. Like today when I got a Grande Mocha, non-fat milk, with whipped cream. Blew my fat and calorie count sky high. Eeeeek.)

So how do I get more protein? I can't do a lot of nuts due to food allergies. Migraines, body aches, etc. I guess I'll be researching that!

Anyway. I'm a little bummed about this, but not giving up. I'm looking at it this way:

a) I've had the portion sizes under control for most of the last 10 months, I can do it again. I just need to be a wee bit more vigilant right now.

b) I practically eliminated fast food from my diet, and when I do hit the drive through, I'm getting salads, etc.

c) I've conquered my cravings for tomato. A seriously big deal for me! It could almost have been called an addiction, and something I've struggled with for years. Yet the BodyRev helped me with that. Because I felt GOOD when I revved, and somehow that made me want to skip the tomato because as good as it tastes, it makes me feel BAD. And I think I was confusing my cravings for tomato with a need/desire for WATER. [Thank you Alden!!!]

Focusing now on getting the right balance of proteins, carbs, fats, calories, etc, is simply the next step. It's something I'd've had to do anyway!

So to everyone out there that's REVing, or working on any other type of exercise or eating or self-improvement plan, I'm sitting here cheering you on! I know it's hard. Some days it just plain sucks. But it is worth it. Keep it up, and I'll keep it up too. Deal?