Short Holiday

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Even one day off work -- and three days with DH -- feels like a refreshing break when we actually leave town without a laptop. We so often work one or both days of a weekend, or at least part of one or both days, whether in the office or on remote desktop. Getting away from emails is huge. We don't use "smart phones"although I'm thinking we are going to have to submit to 21st century pressures soon). But not being contactable is necessary to make me stop thinking about files!

Some "this was my life" reminiscences in my home town, some golf, some theatre, some time at one of Ontario's very best wild "oceanic" beaches on Lake Huron, with sand dunes stretching for miles: ahhhhh. We found a very comfortable place to stay. And we did not track nutrition: but continued to eat sensibly, so I'm not too concerned. There were a couple of delicious meals in there, though! And: one dish of ice cream too!

Now I've got to catch up with a few errands and get ready for work tomorrow.

OK, I'll be tap dancing a bit faster. But it was worth it: absolutely worth it!

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Further crazy diet ideas: Six Weeks to OMG!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

www.thestar.com/living/health/articl
e/1227831--critics-say-new-diet-book-s
ix-weeks-to-omg-get-skinner-than-all-y
our-friends-targets-young-girls

It must be the silly seaon: the Toronto Star newspaper had a review today of a new diet book by "Venice Fulton" called "Six Weeks to OMG". It's clearly targeted at teenage girls and encourages them to get skinnier than all their friends through such strategies as:

having a cold bath in the morning, then exercise and black coffee

skipping breakfast

blowing up balloons to "flatten" the abs

eating three meals, but no snacks

skipping all juices/smoothies; and

reducing carbs (without concern as to whether carbs consumed come from Coke or broccoli)

Hmmmm. This is not for me!

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8 hour eating

Saturday, July 14, 2012

In a recent Dr. Oz column, he suggested that limiting the span of time during which we eat to 8 hours a day results in 28% fewer calories, on average.

So: if you have breakfast at 8, your last meal would be finished at 4 pm.

Of if your first meal is 12 noon: all done eating by 8 pm.

I did try it and yup, I was at the low end of the calorie range . . . but there are many days when the 8 hour range would be tough to comply with. And: of course it matters what I eat during the 8 hours: if the limitation provoked me into scarfing down potato chips and cheeseburgers before the 8 hour time limit expires . . . then nope, isn't gonna work.

But given I do eat healthy, I'm thinking this is worth more experimentation.

What do you think? Sixteen hours a day food free!! Hmmmmmmm . . . . .

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Mint Floss

Friday, July 13, 2012

Mint floss tastes good, has no calories and is a great incentive not to eat anything more. If my teeth are super clean . . . yeah. Don't want to mess 'em up!

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Dessert for Breakfast??

Sunday, July 08, 2012

The August Oprah magazine has an intriguing article which suggests that the best time of day to indulge a sweet tooth is breakfast.

Two groups of dieters were assigned 1400 cals a day (women) and 1600 (men). One group ate a "modest" breakfast: the other ate a 600 cal big breakfast including 45 gm protein, 60 gm carbs AND a sugary treat. For example, cottage cheese and 2 whole eggs plus 1 white scramble, whole grain toast, 8 oz yogourt AND a brownie. Both groups lost the same amount during the first 16 weeks. But, after 8 months, the big breakfast group lost 38 pounds per person more than the small breakfast group. That seems to have been mostly because the small breakfast group began cheating and gained back 75% of the weight they had lost.

It's a pretty interesting article. Adrenaline and cortisol peak early in the day, so that the dessert calories were better converted into energy. In addition, the breakfast dessert apparently triggered happy chemical serotonin such that satiety levels were higher for the big breakfast group: they were less tempted by fatty and sweet foods for the rest of the day.

The researcher Daniela Jakubowicz concludes that if you're hungry before lunch, you didn't have enough protein at breakfast. And if you're craving a pastry midafternoon, you should have had a cookie for breakfast.

Do you think you'll give this a try? I'm pretty sure that for me . . . dessert at breakfast would be all about slippery slope/trigger foods. If the brownies were in the house, I'd be digging in the bag all day long!!

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