Erik's Journal

Everybody loves the weekend, right?  Everybody, perhaps, except our waistline.  Weekends can wreak havoc on our willpower and diet, sending an otherwise consummate calorie counter off the proverbial rails.

Monday Morning Misery

Ask almost anyone logging their weight on a daily basis and you're likely to hear the same sad old saw on weekend weight gain.  Whether it's the added difficulty of eating out in social situations, or merely the switch up in weekday routines, many find themselves back to square one Monday morning after two days and three nights of unintended indulgences.

Having personally suffered from the weekend effect, I decided to look back over my Calorie Count weight log and measure the actual impact during one year of weight history (2008).  Over this period of time, I actually lost more than 40 pounds by limiting my daily caloric intake using the number suggested with the calorie target tool and increasing my physical activity by taking up running, including training for and completing a half marathon.

In order to determine the weekend effect, I looked at my average daily weight loss or gain for last year, counting Tuesday through Friday as "weekdays" and Saturday through Monday as "weekends", since the weight scale represents a lagging indicator.  The results were staggering and confirmed my hunch - on the average weekday I lost about 0.75 lbs, but on the average weekend day I gained nearly 1 lb.  Yowza!

Damage Control

Clearly, the weekends were not doing me any favors, despite the fact that I was making every effort to eat healthy and continue my exercise program.  All too often, though, I found myself eating out or enjoying a few drinks, surrounded by unhealthy choices and friends or family encouraging me to bust my calorie targets.  As much as I tried to stick with my plan, it was nearly impossible to avoid the temptations.

So what can we do to avoid falling into the weekend trap?

Plan, Plan, Plan

Without a doubt, the best way to avoid going overboard on the weekends is to plan your meals and activities well in advance.  With a plan in place that you can stick to, you'll be able to avoid the bad choices that are so hard to resist when unprepared.  Of course, the hard part is actually sticking to the plan, so make sure you start by setting realistic plans, then either write them down or share them with your friends or family to hold yourself accountable.

For help on eating out, read our advice on making healthy choices at restaurants.

Stay Active

Have a little spare time?  Take up a sport or activity that will get your heart rate up and burn a few extra calories - even if it's as simple as enjoying a walk around the neighborhood or organizing some yard games with your family after a big meal.

Take a Cheat Day

It's important to remember that despite the fact that I gained weight on the average weekend day, overall I successfully lost more than 40 lbs.  Since it's possible to lose weight over the long run without getting too worked up over the weekends, some think the best bet is to loosen up a bit and take a "cheat day".  Of course, even with a cheat day it's essential to maintain some degree of moderation and ensure one day off doesn't lead to two or three (or more).

Above all, remember that weekends are meant to be a time of relaxation and rejuvenation.  Whatever strategy you decide to take, make sure you maintain a sense of balance and enjoy your time off.

Your thoughts...

Do you struggle with weekends?  How do you stay on track?

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Making healthy choices and staying in your daily calorie limit while eating out can be extremely challenging.  It's almost impossible to avoid eating out entirely, so having a few ground rules can help you stay on track while you dine out.  Here are some of my favorite tactics:

Prepare Ahead of Time

If you have the luxury of choosing a restaurant yourself, do some homework ahead of time and research your options online.  Our database contains most popular casual dining restaurant chains and fast food establishments.  For everything else, try using a site such as Yelp or MenuPages to find healthy restaurants and their menus.  Look for specialty organic, vegetarian, "raw" or macrobiotic restaurants.  Many of them are very tasty and extremely healthy.

Even if you can't choose where you eat, you can prepare for the meal by spending a few extra minutes working out or cutting back your intake the rest of the day.  Just make sure you don't starve yourself and show up at the restaurant famished and ready to eat anything and everything.

General Rules

Many restaurants prepare foods with lots of fat, oil, and cream (maybe that's why they taste so good), so avoid dishes that are fried, use fatty meats, or come with heavy sauces.  One of my friends has vowed to "never eat anything in a white sauce", though I find this rule just a bit too restrictive.

Drinks

Obviously the same rules apply as when you are at home.  Avoid all those empty calorie sodas, frozen drinks, and alcohol and enjoy the tap water - hey, it's free!

Appetizers

It's easy to cave with a delicious bread basket.  If there are a few different types of breads you'd like to try, break them into smaller size samples and go light on the butter.

Salads (with dressing on the side) and non-creamy or oily soups are great appetizer options.  If you can't find a suitable entree, you can always order two healthier appetizers.

Main Course

Again, the general rules of avoiding foods with lots of fat, oil, or cream apply.  Look for grilled lean meats, such as chicken or fish, with steamed vegetables or rice on the side.  Many restaurants are more than happy to make substitutions or prepare items not listed on the menu, so don't be afraid to bug your waiter with special requests.  Be sure to eat slowly and remember you don't have to clean your plate.  Some people find it helpful to divide their plate immediately into a portion they intend to eat right away and a portion they intend to take home as leftovers.

Dessert

A hot cup of coffee or tea (with sugar substitute if required) can provide a wonderful, low-calorie ending to a delicious meal.  If you're still hungry and craving a dessert, you can often find healthy choices such as fresh fruit or fat-free sorbets.  Make sure to get extra utensils and split it with the rest of the table.

Nobody's Perfect

We can't be expected to make healthy choices 100% of the time.  If you made a few bad choices, or even went off the rails completely, remember it's only one meal of many in your life.  Most of the time, we eat out to celebrate a special occasion or spend time with our friends and family, so while it's good not to compromise your diet, it's also an occasion that should be enjoyed.

What are your tips for eating out and staying healthy?

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Somehow, it happened.  I slipped.  I stopped logging my weight regularly, stopped working out, and stopped watching what I was eating.  My diet had gone off the rails.

By late last year, I realized action needed to be taken.  My BMI was showing me as moderately overweight, my clothes had stopped fitting, and I was feeling terrible.  How could this have happened to me?  Shouldn't I know what I'm doing!?

It was time to go back to basics and rediscover the tools here on Calorie Count.

I started logging my weight daily, watching my green trend weight, kept a food journal and made sure I was hitting my daily calorie goals.

Around this time, a friend encouraged me to start running again.  It was slow progress - working up from being able to run 2 miles without stopping, continuing to 3, then 4, and on and on.

As you can see from the weight graph above, I eventually got back on track, maintaining a healthy weight loss of 1-2 lbs a week and recently hitting my target weight of 180lbs, with a healthy BMI of 23.

Now, it's been a goal of mine to run a half marathon for quite a while and I've come pretty close to actually doing it in the past, but I've never quite felt confident enough or had the pieces falling into place at the right time.  So, it was with some fear that I entered the lottery for the Nike NYC Half Marathon this past March, finding out in early June that I had been accepted!

Well, this past Sunday, I'm proud to report I completed the course, running around Central Park, through cheering fans in Times Square, and down the West Side Highway past the World Trade Center Site to the finish line, ending very close to my goal time of 2hrs.

We all face challenges and occasionally slip up.  Just remember - it's never too late to turn things around.  Tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity.

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It was a real treat to be able to make it to another DC meetup this past Saturday - both Igor and I had a real blast and enjoyed seeing some familiar faces as well as getting to meet some great new ones!

After a quick train trip down from NYC, we made our way on the metro to King Street Blues restaurant in Crystal City, giving ourselves plenty of time to put together some gift bags for the meetup members. Soon after we spotted clairelaine outside the restaurant and got the party started! More Calorie Counters started arriving and pretty soon we had a real party going in our little corner of the restaurant.

We enjoyed a great lunch and had a chance to get to know each other, exchange some funny stories, and talk about Calorie Count Classic and Plus. Some great feedback and ideas were shared and Igor and I will be busy working on a lot of the suggestions we heard.

After enjoying our meal and taking some pictures, a smaller group of us headed out in the 90-something heat to check out the Air and Space Museum. What a blast! I've been hoping to visit for years but never got the chance. It's really amazing to see and touch such important components of mankind's quest to explore the skies and heavens.

Before we knew it, an amazing day had come to an end and it was time for Igor and I to catch a train back to New York. Thanks to everyone that could make it and we hope to see you all again at another meetup soon!

Picture from kallie67's gallery.

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If you've noticed a speed boost recently here on Calorie Count Plus, it's no accident!

Last week, we upgraded our servers and rewrote a whole bunch of code which should make pages load within the blink of an eye.

• Pages are now compressed before being transmitted to your web browser (where they are uncompressed and made visible to you). This seriously reduces the amount of data that needs to be sent and thus makes pages load much quicker
• We've overhauled code in our most popular features - our internal site search engine and the item nutrition pages.
• Server based caching has been optimized to ensure your requests get processed immediately.

As always, please let us know if you experience any problems with these upgrades!

PS> We've had a lot of requests for an updated CC+ toolbar, ticker, and clearer calorie coach (thumbs up/down). We've prioritized these items and are working as fast as possible to have them available!

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Notes from Eric Scholsser's (Fast Food Nation) talk on Sunday:

• "10 years looking at our food industry has not left me depressed...it?s left me angry and looking for change"
• Fast Food Mentality ? it?s important to see these problems as not problems that are solely due to the individual?this is about a system, a culture, a mentality.  These problems are much bigger than any one person.
• Impact ? landscape, workers, animals, environment?all of us spreading through globalization and all connected, "even if you are a vegan marathon runner in ideal health you are connected to this system"
• Good food is a foundation of good health and a good food system is a foundation for a good society
• Food industry is most important industry (without a food industry there is no other industry)
• The food we eat in this country has changed more in the past 30 years than in the past 30,000 years.  It?s a different thing ? an industrial commodity, manufactured in different ways and places.  This has all happened without our knowledge ? the industry does not want you to know.
• Society is at odds with itself ? body image ideal with advertising/media contradicting food choices
• "I don?t try to tell people what to do.  I let people think about what they?re doing."
• Dare to know.  Dare to think for yourself.  (the basis for real, permanent change)
• Sustainability is crucial.  For agriculture, for society, for each one of us individually.
• The opposite of sustainable ? disposable (fast food culture/mentality)
• Southern California ? cars bring individual freedom, aerospace industry (technology & science bring limitless fate ? that we can conquer and control nature), and Walt Disney reinforced this tomorrow of the future through technology?the idea that nature exists for our profit and control
• Freeways and roads in southern California brought about new way of eating ? "drive ins"
• McDonald brothers were in drive in business and were getting upset by costs (short order cooks for long menus, car hops, etc) ? instead brought factory system, division of labor and technology "speedy service system"
• Ray Crock discovered McDonald brothers and wanted to build an empire through uniformity, conformity, technology, and tough business practices (built new McDonald?s across street from original to put McDonald brothers out of business)
• There are about a dozen companies now that control all the food we eat
• Tyson ? largest producer of beef, chicken, 2nd largest of pork
• Fast food & restaurant industry ? largest private employer in nation and biggest employer of minimum wage employees (deskilled, easy to control, interchangeable and disposable)
• McJobs ? this employer mentality has spread to other industries (retail, meat packing, etc).
• The way we raise livestock has been transformed in last 30 years to supply fast food industry ? 60-70% of all antibiotics are being given to livestock in their feed to prevent disease and also encourages growth
• Poultry farms ? "flip over disease" where chickens get too fat and essentially have a heart attack
• Anabolic steroids ? illegal for humans ? are being put into cattle to bulk them up
• Average cattle produces 50lbs of waste a day?multiply through by large factory farms (100k+)
• Factory farm and feed lots have become number one cause of water pollution (vats "lagoons" leak)
• FDA has ruled meat from cloned animals is indistinguishable from regular meat and thus does not need to be labeled as such.  Cloned animals = essence of uniformity and conformity and control?only 10yrs
• Counterintuitive ? you would expect the more technology put into the food industry the safer, but actually the opposite
• Fast Food Industry has changed our diets and eating patterns, mostly through children (Ray Crock inspired by Disney)
• Neuromarketing ? young children put into MRI machines are shown junk food ads looking for part of the brain responsible for brand loyalty responding.
• Soda is most profitable item in fast food restaurants
• Obese children have been found to have more depression, risk factors for heart disease.  The poor are suffering the most.  CDC are estimating 1 out of 3 children will develop diabetes (1 out of 2 children in case of poor)
• The good news - there is nothing inevitable if you look at history (Apartheid, Soviet Union, segregation) ? things don?t have to be the way they are.
• After second world war, a differing movement to McDonald?s/Fast Food was developing in England ? organic movement
• Heart of movement ? interconnectedness (esp through soil)
• Reverence and humility of nature
• Aware of the limits of science
• Jerome Rodale brought this to America ? really took off in 1968 with back to the land movement, hippies (Vietnam war, distrust in politics)
• First step ? educate and empower others, fight the dis/misinformation and lies propagated by the industry
• Ban advertising of unhealthy products to children
• Paul Sears ? "All renewable resources are linked in a common pattern of relationship.  We can save any one of them only with measures that will save them all.  We are part of the whole that must be saved."

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Blood Type Diets

• Popularized by Peter D'Adamo and his son
• In Japan - "what's your blood type?" is similar to "what's your job?" or "what's your sign?" in the West.  Japanese men with type O are ideal (strong, powerful) and women with type A are considered ideal (domestic, gentle)
  
• Blood Types
• O - Oldest and most common blood type.  Evolutionary theory suggests this was the only blood type 25-30,000 years ago and has a hardy digestive tract and immune system with strong enzymes that can digest meat.  Often Type O is susceptible to wheat and corn allergies.  Commonly experience low thyroid, inflammataion, arthritis, ulcers, blood-clotting disorders.
  
• A - Theory suggests this blood type became popular with agriculture (25,000-15,000 BC).  These types can generally adapt well to changes in diet/environment and are best suited to vegetarian/vegan diets.  At risk for heart disease, cancer, anemia, type 1 diabetes.
• B - Theory suggests this blood type evolved from humans that moved to foothills/mountains after land shortages from agriculture.  These types can generally eat a balanced diet of meats and plants - classic omnivore - with strong immune systems.  At risk for type 1 diabetes, lupus, MS, chronic fatigue syndrome.
• AB - Rarest and newest blood type (only common since 1,000 years ago...it's been theorized Jesus was AB).  These types have a rugged immune system (benefits of type A and type B) and can tolerate mixed diets.  At risk for heart disease, cancer, and anemia.

Coffee/Caffeine

• Reaction is different for every person, but there are more and more people eating/drinking caffeine, especially soda
• "There is no energy (calories) in coffee - it buzz's your adrenal glands, so it's like buying on credit"
• "If there was no coffee, there would be no America"
• Theory that lots of hormonal problems are linked to caffeine consumption, particularly reproductive/intamacy problems.

Neil Barnard, MD (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)

• High-fat diets are pushing up estrogen.  Enterohepatic circulation needs fiber to remove estrogen.
• With low-fat vegan diets (high fiber, low fat) menstrual function pain duration/intensity fell, PMS duration fell and SHBG increased
• Many restaurants offering grilled foods as alternative to fried foods.  Public is not aware of serious carcinogen (PhiP) formed from grilling (the stripes found on a grilled piece of meat).  PCRM suing restaurants in California to disclose this information.
• Link between milk and prostate cancer.  Physician's Health Study at Harvard - men that had >= 2.5 servings of dairy/day had increased risk of prostate cancer.  Also shown by Ornish.
• Where are the calories in the foods we eat?
• One example - in Japan fat intake has increased and carb intake decreased.  Obesity rates are rising.
• Nearly all plants are low in fat, except nuts
• Sugar (carbs) are a hidden nutrient - added to many foods it's often not even noticed
• Fiber fills you up - every 14 grams of fiber added to one's diet usually decreased daily caloric intake by 10%  Beans are fiber "champions"
• Low-fat vegan diets have been show to lead to an increased thermic effect and increased insulin sensitivity
• 7th Day Adventists study - vegan diet shown to be more effective than any medicine at reducing diabetes
• Can foods be addicting?
• Sugar triggers an opiate release which increases dopamine
• This can be tested with babies - dip a pacifier in a mixture of 1 cup of water and 1 tsp sugar, give to baby and maintain eye contact for 3 minutes.  The baby will look at you when you come back (even with a crowded room and if you are not the mother)
• Chocolate - giving chocolate lovers Narcipan (opiate blocker used w/heroin overdoses) diminishes chocolate cravings.  (obviously not a viable treatment!)
• Cheese - casomorphins (opiates) that form as casein (milk protein) is digested.  Constipation is seen similar to opiates.
  

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corralled4ever and pamperedkeri2000 wanted to know a little more about Annemarie Colbin's list of bad foods for osteoperosis from my previous post:

BAD  foods - pasta, white bread, potatoes, desserts, nightshades (potato, tomato, eggplant, peppers, tobacco)

Nightshades (Solanaceae)

These plants contain alkaloids, which interfere with calcium deposits.  Specifically:

potato, eggplant - solanine
tomato - tomatine
peppers (not black/white pepper) - capiscium
tobacco - nicotine

Many nightshades are poisonous and toxic - datura/devil's weed, mandrake, brugmansia.

This is, of course, surprising as many of these foods are widely used in Western diets.  Interestingly, though, these are also diets that are rich in dairy.  Colbin believes the dairy helps offset the nightshade alkaloids.


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Speakers this week included Annemarie Colbin, founder of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts, and Mark Hyman, MD, editor-in-chief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine and best selling author.

Some select notes from Annemarie Colbin

• 3 Major Causes of Cravings
• Addiction/Allergies (mostly wheat)
• Imbalance (calories/quantity, protein, carbs, or fats)
• Emotion/Memory
• It's hard to eat too much when eating whole foods.  The "hollow leg syndrome" is most noticeable with prcoess/refined (fragmented) foods.
• Osteoperosis
• Causes: caffeine, sodium (not just salt, but also commercial additives in popular food products), lack of exercise/movement
• Harvard Nurses Study: only 13% of cases due to low calcium.  2 glasses of milk/day had twice the risk of hip fractures as those that had 2/week or less
• There are more fractures in European cultures, in cities vs countryside, and in present vs past
• Bone density tests do not take into consideration flexability from collagen matrix (bones = 65% ca phosphate + 35% collagen matrix)
• Vit D (aids calcium absorption from small intestine to bloodstream) severely reduced with sunblock.  Good Vit D sources - cod liver oil, parsley, shiitake mushrooms.
• Vit K in depositing also important - leafy greens & exercise
• BAD  foods - pasta, white bread, potatoes, desserts, nightshades (potato, tomato, eggplant, peppers, tobacco)
  
• GOOD foods - leafy greens, vegetables, protein (beans, meats), whole grains

Select notes from Mark Hyman

• Two simple diagnostic questions
• What do you need to get rid of to get healthy?  (Toxins, allergens, microbes, diet, stress)
• What do you need to add to get healthy? (foods, vitamins, light/water/air, love)
• "The most powerful tool I have is food.  Food is not just calories.  It is information"
• Common Myths
• Your doctor knows best - US is 27th in life exptancy yet spends more per person than any other country in healthcare.  We are practicing acute medicine and not prevention.  Major causes of death are lifestyle, diet/obesity
• If you have a diagnosis you know what is wrong with you - we "blame the name"  The end of diagnostic medicine is near.  Most doctors "stop thinking" when they make a diagnosis and specialization segmentation is missing many problems.
• Drugs cure disease - sometimes of course.  "A drug for every bug.  A pill for every ill.  But that's not how the  body works"  Most of the chronic diseases can't be treated with drugs.  We are over-medicated.
• Your genes determine your fate - yes and no.  It's not just a "roll of the dice".  Most of your DNA regulates your body's functions.  Food, lifestyle, fitness affect genes.
• Getting older means aging - most of what we see are imbalances.  First time in history our life expectancy is going down.  The body has the capacity to take care of itself at any age.  "Add life to years not just years to life"
• Fat is a four letter word - most are deficient in omega-3s (fish oils).  Sugar not fat causes cholesterol problems.  Dietary fat is not a major indication of body fat.
• You can get all the vitamins you need from food - the avg hunter-gatherer ate 12 lbs food/day.  92% of Americans don't eat the RDAs esp B-6, Ca, Fe, Mg
• The more calories you eat, the more vitamins you need.  They are like oil in your car engine.

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It's been a secret goal of mine for a few months now to run a half marathon.  Today, I finally registered to run the Ottawa Half Marathon with a friend on May 27th!

Now, I've never run anything more than a 5k (and never even done a particularly brilliant job with that!), so I'm starting to wonder if this is completely crazy.  I have been running about 3-4 days/week between 3 and 5 miles and seem to be doing fine with that, so apparently it's not completely impossible.  I'm following the Hal Higdon First Timer Half Marathon Training guide, which seems to put me right on track, however I've been running on a treadmill (1% incline, 7 mph), so we'll see what it's like when the weather warms up a tad and I hit the pavement.

I think the reality of this will set in at some point and I'll start freaking out....but for now I'm super excited!!

Nevermind!  Sometimes I'm an idiot...forgot this is the NYC meetup weekend (thanks nomo!)

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