Dieting and such

Here's a theory: skip focusing on which diet is best and start focusing on changing eating habits.

This translates to stop focusing on what we eat and getting the balanced diet and change to focus on how we can get people to make healthier food decisions. Are we eating because we are stressed? Do we have bad habits related to the drive through where we make a quick stop on the way home and eat the food in the car?

Researchers look at all sorts of diets - Paleo, Atkins, Weight Watchers - and compare them all. The FDA issues the nutrition pyramid which is now a plate. But does anyone stop and look at the eating habits we have developed and why we have them?

We live in a world full of light this and fat free that and a widening population. Why?

I used to work with a woman who was a fairly healthy eater at work. She did not snack, she didn't go out for donuts. But she was quite large. I never really figured out why.

Then I went on a business trip with her and  she insisted we stop at the grocery store on the way to the hotel so she could get some stuff for her room. I was happy to go and get some seltzer (my secret addiction). She bought a couple boxes of crackers and cookies - for a three day business conference. I think she went out and made another grocery run later on. I think she was an evening snacker - hence her hefty weight.

So why does a normal, bright, well educated person, sit and eat for hours at night by themselves? That is the question to answer.

If you watch the greater loser shows, people talk about their bad eating habits and are taught how to eat healthy -  no soda, no drive through, healthy snacking. They also get exercise and lose weight. But they change their eating habits. Maybe they eat more salads and fewer french fries but often these shows are accompanied by tears and emotional breakthroughs as well.

I know my weight stems from three issues I have.

1. At my job, there are more snacks than any place I have ever worked and the kitchen is right next to my office.
2. I snack after dinner which I shouldn't do. (Why did I eat that granola bar after dinner last night? I didn't have dessert is my justification and I wanted something crunchy. But I didn't need it.)
3. Sometimes I eat when I am not hungry because I am bored, stressed or in pain.

So if I can get rid of those habits, I can lose weight. I have been working on them, my weight is going in the right direction. The funny thing is I am still eating desserts sometimes and normal food. I didn't switch what I eat. I switched when I eat. My goal is to modify my eating habits so I can get to and maintain a healthy weight but still enjoy eating. I will no live on lite versions of crappy prepared food.

Maybe that's what researchers need to figure out so other people can more easily lose weight.

Health discrimination

Discrimination can be in many forms. Sometimes its overt and sometimes insidious (I can use big words today but needed spell checker's help) and sometimes hidden away. But now health discrimination based on weight? That's taking it a bit too far.

A chef from South Africa was told by New Zealand authorities that he was too fat to live there. He has been there for six years and has lost 66 pounds since arriving. He now weighs 286 lbs which is not healthy unless he was really, really tall. Upon renewing his annual work visa, he was told his weight would cause health problems and they didn't want him. A little ironic since obesity is a big problem with 30% of New Zealanders being obese....

This is clear health discrimination. So what if I decided to move to New Zealand with my health background? Would I be welcomed? I have many more health problems than being fat. I would be a burden to any health care system....

So seriously New Zealand. Really? If 30% of your population is obese maybe its time to work on your national health guidelines instead of singling out a chef who has actually lost a fair amount of weight.
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Now on to happier news. I always wonder if anyone reads my blog and anyone cares about what I write. But apparently people do read it and do care. I am honored to say my blog was just named as one of the top 24 breast cancer blogs of 2013 by Healthline. I have a perky new label on the right and you can read about all the other blogs which also named here. I recommend following them to keep up on some great stories with coping with breast cancer.

Being decisive

I woke up this morning and think (so far) I am in a decisive mood. This doesn't always happen. I can waffle with the best of them. I have been doing a lot of that recently - waffling (but not eating waffles). I have been juggling some decisions recently and think I have finally decided its time to make up my mind.

Some decisions are not that big - changing our home owners insurance policy for example. Our old insurance company is just a pain in the neck to deal with so a change is needed.

Other ones will require some work - I really am going to lose weight - and won't happen overnight. I caught a glimpse of my flabby stomach this weekend and decided it really needs to go away. My problem is that there is limit to how much activity I can do before I have to take it easy for a few days to recover.

Still more decisions will require some confrontation - which I really detest - but in this case its needed. I am not ready to talk about that one yet, maybe I will later.

Unappreciation is taking its toll on me and I have to put an end to it. Its one thing to work as a team but another thing when the communication evaporates with no explanation. It makes one feel unwanted. When its chronic, it needs to end. I don't want anyone to think I'm leaving my husband or something because I'm not. He's stuck with me. Its a different issue completely.

I'm also going to clean the car and pick up the living room. Our downstairs bathroom is a construction zone again. The mess generated by construction gives me urges to clean other things up so there is one area I can be proactive. I can accomplish a lot in 30 minutes of dedicated cleaning. Besides cleaning will make me stop thinking about confrontation, and ailments, and flabbiness. But I can still be decisive.

After rereading this post, I decided I am being vague inmy decisiveness but that is what you get today.

Flab, honesty, and health care costs

First they tell us we can bet fat and fit at the same time. Then they (this is the evil them who secretly rule the world) tell us that as our bodies widen, our health care costs will spiral out of control. Make up your mind will you! I know its an evil conspiracy if they can't kill us, they can confuse us.

I am fat, I admit that. Well I am fatter than I wish I was but my BMI has not hit that evil O level. But I also go to the gym three times a week for 40 minutes of cardio followed by working with weights and other tortures.

I don't think my flabbiness has contributed to additional health ailments - I mean I have enough already. I know being overweight can contribute to all sorts of problems. And as obesity rises in the US, they project  health care costs will bulge to cover them. I can understand that but I question the math behind it.

How did they get the weights of people? They called them and asked them. If someone called you and asked you on the phone your height and weight. Would you tell them the truth? Oh, please.

"The CDC data indicate that the South is the most obese region of the U.S., but that may not be entirely true either, said George Howard, professor of biostatistics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. No one was weighed or measured in the collecting of the information; people were merely asked about their heights and weights via telephone -- so they could have lied.

Howard speculates that there may be bias in the data because "there's not a social stigma attached to being fat in the South," he said. "If you ask people how fat they are, they tell you."

Correlations between obesity and the South may be tied to other factors, Allison said. Certain ethnic groups, people from rural areas, and people of low socioeconomic status are more likely to be obese than others."

So maybe our obesity rates are tied to our honesty rates as well as our waistlines. Not that we are a nation of liars but have you ever deducted a few pounds or a few years if asked? Why don't we have a real survey where people are weighed and measured.

I chickened out

I didn't go bathing suit shopping. It quickly lost its appeal. I may go this week but I lost my motivation. I did productive things at home instead. I worked and got caught up on the DVR.

Maybe its time to return to plan A which is lose 20 lbs and then buy lots of new clothes. In order for that to work, I need to curtain my intake of flab producing calories. That would be a diet. I hate dieting. Dieting means you don't get to eat yummy things and the weight comes back when you stop dieting and return to normal eating patterns.

The way I see it is to change eating habits on a semi permanent basis. This would require examination of my current eating habits and decoding what is wrong with them. I do eat lots of healthy things but evidently I eat some less than healthy things as well. The things to get rid of will include chocolate and things from the snack box at work, the corn chips my husband insists on buying, red wine, and ice cream. Damn.

I can't exercise more because my body is ready to protest if I do anything more than 3 or 4 days a week. I have limitations there. Damn. I will have to decode my eating habits. I hate that. But then I can go clothes shopping.

Do I dare?

We all have our fears and our nemeses in life. Some of them we avoid - no ladders, black cats, spiders, crawly things, etc. Or hold our breath through - Friday the 13th for example. But some are unavoidable and must finally be faced. I can deal with the scale but bathing suit shopping? Egad!

I have a couple of bathing suits I (still) fit into but they are getting old to the point that I am concerned about the durability of the elastic which could potentially result in severe public embarrassment.

I can see in my near future several bathing suit opportunities which means it is time to bite the bullet and take my flabdomen bathing suit shopping. My husband even bought a new bathing suit this week. He has only owned one in the 11 years that I have know him. My bathing suits might be older than that. I am the slacker here. I need to motivate.

I have been avoiding this. The scale was supposed to go in the right direction for longer before I had to face this day. It has been amazingly uncooperative recently. Since treatment, it has become harder and harder to lose weight. Grr... I will take that dare and head out later.

Fat or fit

What's the worst thing about any doctor appointment? They weigh you. What's the nastiest machine at the gym? The scale - especially when it goes in the wrong direction. Has any doctor never said 'stop exercising and eating right'? No, never. They always say eat right, get plenty of exercise, and maintain a healthy weight - which to most of us means 'lose weight'. There is a problem between the 'get plenty of exercise' vs the 'maintain a healthy weight'. Muscle is denser than flab.

My husband used to be in the Army Reserves where he had a regular battle with the weight requirements which are based on a version of BMI. Being a heavy boned guy, he was always on the upper end and stressed. But the military requires physically fit soldiers so he would continually fight his own battle of the bulge. Someone at one point had pointed out that entire NFL teams, while being very fit, would not make the military requirements either.

Now at the Olympics some are calling the women athletes fat. Look at Misty May Treanor of beach volleyball fame. I looked up  her BMI. She's at 23.4 which is topping out the normal range. Does she look fat? No! She looks amazingly fit and on the edge of skinny. Some of the teams are calling the one's who beat them fat. Hello! You need many muscles to be that athletic and they are doing what they need to do to break Olympic and World records.

And why is it the media's business about what people weigh anyway? And why is it such a societal issue that women are supposed to be a size 4? Name calling never got anyone anywhere.

I do know I have a spare 20+ lbs to give to anyone who wants it.