self rules

Make the Effort to Serve Real Food

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Image by Mladen Gegic from Pixabay

I have a number of posts in mind—a great new muffin recipe, some more anti-fad-diet rants—but for today here are some ideas for you to ponder as you head into the rest of the summer with all of its get-togethers. I’m sure there are cookouts and weddings yet to come, family visits and maybe even block parties. (Jim and I are pondering that last one.) There’s always the temptation to simply check off boxes for the menu. We have potato salad from Costco—check. We have fried chicken from King Soopers—check. We have a cake from King Soopers or Costco

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Eating on Vacation with Enjoyment and Control

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Image by Quinn Kampschroer from Pixabay

I haven’t written much while we’ve been on our trip, although I hope you got the recipe in the previous post for the white chocolate-cream cheese frosting, a true winner. At some point I’ll do a calculation of the sugar content of it and the buttercream, but that’s a subject for another day. In this post I want to give some random ideas on vacation eating, a topic I’ve discussed rather thoroughly before. But hey! There’s always room for more info about eating mindfully and well.

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More Thoughts on Veganism

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Image by silviarita from Pixabay

I wrote last week about some of the complications that can arise from following a vegan diet, and I want to follow up with more, perhaps rather scattered, observations about this lifestyle. I’ll be including links to two articles written by young women who struggled while trying to follow veganism. One decided to start including some animal protein into her life and saw some dramatic improvements in her health; the other steadfastly refused to do that but was able to re-jigger things so that she was getting enough protein (understandable) and, you may be surprised to hear, cholesterol. Yes, that horrible substance that causes heart attacks. Too-low cholesterol levels are

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The Vegan Lifestyle and Its Complications

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Image by silviarita from Pixabay

So far I’ve discussed the keto, paleo, Whole30, food sensitivity, and Tom Brady diets, and there are many more out there. I’m going next to veganism as a lifestyle. As I’ve said before, there are two principles to keep in mind in looking at these various eating plans:

1) People are free to choose how they eat, and

2) Personal convictions/conscience should not be violated.

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My Personal New Year’s Resolutions

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Image by Mary Pahlke from Pixabay

I have a dear friend who said that she always looked at her birthday as the start of her own personal New Year. I feel the same way. Sunday was my 67th, and I had promised myself that I’d take an A1C test then, which I did yesterday. After a glitch with the first test, I got a result with the second. (Don’t worry—I’m going to get my money back.) It was (ta-da-da-da-a-a-a-h!) 5.3. If the test is correct, then I’ve managed to get down to well below the new, lowered threshold for pre-diabetes of 5.7. (There’s some controversy over whether or not this stricter definition is warranted, as people are being put on

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A Lesson Learned from Lessened Activity Levels

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Image by Mabel Amber, still incognito… from Pixabay

I mentioned in a previous post that I was facing foot surgery, which took place on March 11. So it’s been about 2 ½ weeks since then, and I didn’t feel that I could stand on the scale without my surgical boot or shoe until the 2-week mark. Guess what? I was four pounds up. FOUR POUNDS.

Why did this happen? Well, my activity levels had gone way, way down. I went nowhere at all for about the first week except for my doctor’s appointment, and I spent a lot of time lying on the couch with my foot up on pillows. I

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So What’s the Whole30, Like, For?

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Image by silviarita from Pixabay

Yesterday I ranted and raved about Melissa Hartwig and her crazy diet (that’s made her a very, very rich celebrity), but I went on and on without ever getting to the central question, which is:

Exactly what is this whole hoop-de-doo supposed to do for you?

Let’s get to that now. Remember, the idea for “going clean” for 30 days was an impulsive idea from Hartwig’s then-boyfriend, now-divorced-husband, Dallas:

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Is the Whole30 Diet a Whole Lotta Nonsense?

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Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Now you know what I’m going to say:

If it’s a fad, forget it.

And if there were ever a fad diet, Whole30 is it. It has become especially popular among young(er) people, with Facebook groups and the whole nine yards. Meanwhile, actual nutritionists and dieticians, people who study science, are clutching their heads and moaning.

I could just re-write the posts I wrote on the food-sensitivity tests for my material on this eating plan, but I won’t, because there are some additional fats in the fire (ha!) here. First, let me tell you a story:

So, this woman I know said that she had been in a town where she had lots of old friends, and a group of them decided to go out to dinner.

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All Calories Count, but Sugar Calories Count Especially

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All calories count, but they don’t all count the same, I said in my last post. So I ended with the horrible prospect of how many grams of sugar are in a 32-ounce Big Gulp regular soda. (At some point I’ll take on the diet soda industry, but not today.) 72 grams of sugar all dumped into the bloodstream at once constitute an EMERGENCY. Remember, these liquid sugar calories basically pass right through the stomach and into your small intestine where they’re absorbed. Alarm bells are going off and your pancreas is pumping out insulin at a mile-a-minute clip. And the system is proactive as well as reactive; your digestive system doesn’t wait for nutrients to hit it before swinging into action.

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My Boring Principles for Eating Well

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I could distill my boring principles for eating well into the following short statements:

1. Eat a decent breakfast.

2. Do not eat anything else until lunch.

3. Eat a decent lunch.

4. Do not eat anything else until dinner.

5. Eat a decent dinner.

6. Do not eat anything else until breakfast.

7. Don’t drink sugared beverages and drink lots of water.

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