Dietary Revelations

Recently I've been learning a lot about the cause of most Western diseases such as obesity, CVD, diabetes and appendicitis. My two main sources of information have been Mercola.com and Gary Taubes book, Good Calories, Bad Calories.

My view on health and eating has been drastically changed. Dr. Mercola writes often about the dangers of sugar and refined carbohydrates and their effect on insulin.

Then I read Taubes' book and everything made sense to me. It was an Ah-Ha moment. But this was because there was actual fact and biochemical explanation behind the ideas.

To sum it all up, what I've learned has been that high insulin levels caused by too much sugar and carbohydrates in our body cause a defect in fat mobilization. Insulin in the bloodstream inhibits the release of fat from adipose tissue because it is a signal to those tissues that there is glucose in the bloodstream available for energy. Insulin also promotes the uptake of glucose into adipose tissue where it is converted to fat. This is a normal and necessary function. As we eat during the day, we have to store excess energy for those hours at night when we are sleeping and need that stored energy for metabolic processes.

The problem with this occurs when chronic overconsumption of refined carbs leads to the over secretion of insulin by the pancreas. This in turn leads to muscles and other tissues (except for the brain and adipose tissues, for the most part) becoming insulin resistant, requiring the pancreas to secreted even more insulin in response to carbohydrate ingestion. Therefore, glucose in the blood is quickly taken up by adipose tissue causing a quick drop in blood sugar leading to hypoglycemia. Normally at this point your fat cells should begin releasing fat for energy but high insulin levels in the blood inhibit this metabolism as previously mentioned.

To summarize, energy is essentially being trapped in fat cells while other tissues are being starved, leading to fatigue and decrease in energy. This cellular starvation causes us to be hungry and crave even more carbohydrates. And it continues in a vicious cycle.

Already knowing this was insulin's function, it's amazing I didn't recognize this effect and cause of obesity before now. Fat and protein do not cause such a spike in insulin levels and should be the primary macronutrients to consume when trying to lose weight. This allows the body to begin releasing energy from its own stores. Once fat metabolism is corrected by lower insulin levels, the body will begin to use its own energy, decreasing hunger as the body cannot tell the difference between energy released from adipose and energy ingested and absorbed by the gut.

This is only the basics of how insulin contributes to all of the chronic diseases that are plaguing developed countries.

I will continue to describe more effects of insulin, sugar and specifically fructose on metabolism and disease but I feel like this has been a good start.

April

I can't believe that it is already April. Today is also my half birthday. I only have 6  more months to be 21 years old. That's kind of scary. So this next month is going to be completely dedicated to myself. (Leah, stop making jokes.) I come first in April. I've recently discovered that I have a gluten sensitivity/intolerance so April will be about trying to figure out how to be gluten free and vegan without living on french fries. I'm also going to begin the Insanity workouts. I read recently that coffee an hour before exercise helps to give you energy and a more successful work out and that working out on an empty stomach also helps your metabolism to function at its very best. So my plan for the next month is to wake up quite early, drink ORGANIC fresh coffee and do some work and organizing for an hour before I do my Insanity exercise for the day. This is the plan.. This is what I want. Nothing is going to get in my way.
Also, in April I will return to cooking all of my food and enjoying healthy, organic vegetables.

On a more professional note. April is my last month of school. So I'm going to be focused to finish strong and not slack off as is normal for me at the end of Spring semester.

I'm also determined to get a job doing something medical. I have already applied to Medic so that I can hopefully get some phlebotomy practice. I only have one more weekend of volleyball so I will have a ton of free time after that to do all of the things that I want to do.

I'm going to relax, but I'm going to do it in a different manor. I'm going to be as productive as possible so that I will have much less to stress about. I think this is the only way to do it.

So, here's to April and here's to striving every day to be more of the person you want to be while always being the person you are.

What's been stopping me..

...from posting? I have no idea. But I've been so uninspired today that I'm compelled to post something. I've been stuck in a bit of a rut the past couple of days and I can't get out of it. (Maybe it's my vitamin D deficiency killing my mood). But what has really sparked my curiosity as I've been sulking all day is this:

The person I truly desire to be.

And more importantly:

What's keeping me from being that person?

I've always pitied the people who have not a clue what they want to do with their lives, what they are passionate about, and so forth. Not because I look down upon these people, but because I feel so blessed to have found my passion very early in life and to have family that has cultivated those passions and helped me to figure myself out.

But then it hit me. What's more sad, not having a direction and wandering aimlessly or knowing almost exactly where you want to go and simply not moving..??

I think that latter is worse, and perhaps that's what has me down.

So, that all-important question, what keeps us from doing the things we want to do, and being the person we want to be?

Some reasons/excuses could be very understandable: lack of skills, physically unable, financially unable, other responsibilities, other time commitments.

These seem like very reasonable things that get in the way of the person inside of use striving to be unleashed.

But, those things don't really seem to fit with me. What are the other things that keep me from being who I feel I was born to be?

I've questioned myself and the answers that come to my mind really aren't pleasant ones like: fear (of many things I'm sure), laziness, discipline, unfamiliarity, challenge, needing to be accepted, accepting I'm a bit different, lack of support, and the list probably goes on..

But, Leah once said, "Why waste your time doing anything that doesn't make you happy?"

This is so true. That also goes for wasting your time NOT doing things that DO make you happy.

So, I think for the next week or so, I'm going to get my life straight. I'm going to start being the person I want to be. It's true for me and probably most other people too, the person I want to be is a person who overcomes challenges and works hard. It's the hard work that attracts us, but also what drives us away.

I think support may be the one of the biggest things to accomplishing this. Support to begin and to continue. Also, self-respect. To love yourself enough to be yourself.

I was watching a clip of Ellen interviewing Lady Gaga today and Gaga says that she tries to spend 5 minutes everyone morning thinking compassionate thoughts about herself. Which is expressing love for yourself and the desire to alleviate any of the misfortune or distress in your life. So basically, spend a few minutes before you start your day loving yourself. Desire to alleviate distress from your life.
Give yourself compliments and encourage yourself to continue on to be who you are.

Try to find someone, or some outlet that you can tell of your accomplishments and reflect on your failures.

Live your life, love yourself. Interact with others and feed off of positive energy.

Be inspired. Be yourself.


*Born this way*

21 Day Vegan Kickstart

http://pcrm.org/kickstarthome/

All the recipes are free. You can download a weekly grocery list. And there's a ton of nutritional information on their site. Props to Kris Carr and PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine).

It has been forever.

Sorry I have been MIA. School has started back and I'm struggling finding time to finish the tasks that I need to, much less the ones I simply want to do.

I haven't cooked anything all week. It has been simply leftovers and such.
Hopefully I'll be able to make some food tonight to maybe post about later.

My first volleyball tournament is this weekend and I'm super excited about it.

I have so much homework to do all the time! I'm not really sure what to do about it.

This has just been a brief rant. There was absolutely no point to my post, but oh well.. it's just a reflection about how scattered my brain is right now..

I need some meditation.. but who has the time?

Colorful Diet

Following up on an earlier post about colored rubber bands/bracelets, I have finally gotten some. My friend gave me a set yesterday. They are just thin plastic bracelets. There are five colors: Purple, red, orange, yellow, and green. I have assigned each color a specific food group...

Purple (Protein): This would be a serving of beans, nuts, or a soy food.
Red (Fruit): Any serving of fresh fruit.
Orange (Vegetable): A serving of veggies!!!
Yellow (Whole Grain): Oatmeal, quinoa, whole grain rice.. you know, the fiber stuff.
Green (Green, leafy vegetable): Yes! Another vegetable!! I love my veggies. I want to make sure I'm getting more green than I normally do.

The whole idea is to start all of the bracelets on one wrist and as you eat a serving of a category, movie is to the other wrist. So, this morning I had all of them on my right arm. I had oatmeal and grapefruit for breakfast so I moved the red and the yellow to my left arm. I know that I'm eating a lot of grilled veggies and a quinoa and bean dip tonight, so I decided to get some green veggies in for lunch. About half of a bunch of asparagus.

Basically, these are just reminders not to let junk take the place of foods that I need every day. Like yesterday, I decided to have a salad instead of a calzone or pizza or a bread sandwich because I was lacking my leafy greens for the day.

This also seems like an easy reminder. It's visual and it's always right there with you.

Also, if I eat more than one serving of a group, I just move it back to the other wrist.

It's not difficult to eat a healthy, colorful diet. All you may need is a reminder.

Great new find!

So, I've been meaning to grab some non-dairy yogurt at Earth Fare for a couple weeks and yesterday I finally made it to that section of the store.. and I happened upon a great product!

It's yogurt made from almond milk! I should have known that this wonderful thing existed but I just never saw it. I try not to eat a lot of soy products (I mainly stick to tempeh and the occasional bit of tofu) and so I was thrilled to discover amande's cultured almond milk. I've never really liked the taste of yogurt because of that soured taste and most of them are overly sweetened. But this yogurt is very mild and doesn't have that awkward taste. I absolutely love it. And I'm so glad because I really want to add the benefits of the live active cultures to my diet to help with my digestive system.

I haven't been feeling very well the past two days and so Ben is coming over later to make some veggie soup with me  because that is all anyone ever wants when they are under the weather.
I am so glad to have someone so wonderful in my life. <3 He is so good to me, and we have so much fun together. It has been a long time since I've laughed so often. I really appreciate his curiosity for my vegan diet. He is eating completely vegan for this entire week, without any prompting by me. Next week we are going to start a half marathon training program. And I'm really hoping to get back into the routine of exercising, and we are both dedicated to making it happen. After playing volleyball on Sunday and being sore for so long afterward, I realized how out of shape I really have become.

No matter what stresses I have in my life (school, sickness, work), I can still say that I have never been happier. I'm always trying to improve myself and my life, but my emotional state has never been more stable and positive.

Be thankful, be active, be healthy, be happy.