December 22, 2010........It is finished!

This is my last post and now I will go on to my other blog.

The final results are in:
 

Name	Standard Range	11/20/2007	12/4/2008	12/8/2009	12/21/2010
CHOLESTEROL		213	229	267	232
TRIGLYCERIDE		70	77	78	92
HDL		60	57	76	76
LDL		139	157	175	138
RISK		3.6	4.0	3.5	3.1

  

As you can see.....My total cholesterol went down  13% this year and my LDL went down 21%.

The only thing I changed in my diet was to eliminate sugar.  Exercise pattern stayed the same which is the reason my HDL remains high, that's a good thing.

My experiment was a success in my eyes.  I was a bit disappointed, I guess I had unrealistic number drops in my head but I am satisfied with these numbers.  The only thing the doc noted on my lab report is "Ideal LDL should be below 130".  Crap, why couldn't she say, "Great job lowering the LDL 21%"?

I guess I need to add my weight in here too, my weight this morning was 129.8, that's 5# less than on November 2, another benefit of eliminating sugar.

Day 49, 0 days to go............

The doctor's office called yesterday and ordered lab work so I can have my blood drawn this morning.  What do I wake up to.....5 inches of snow and it's still snowing.  I'm disappointed to say the least.  I could just take my shower, have my coffee, and drive through the snow to Prevea in Howard but I'm torn.  It's not really necessary that I go today so but I want to but I don't want to drive in the snow but I want to finish this experiment but..........!  If I could only make up my mind. 

After the labs are drawn what do I do?  Do I continue without the sugar or go back to eating an occasional sweet and/or ice creat treat?  I was weak the other night and bought a container of Peppermint Stick ice cream, of course, I have not opened it......yet.  It's my favorite ice cream and it happens only during the holiday season and it was on sale.  Yes, I have all the reasons to bring it into my house.  What about the 17 grams of sugar per 1/2 cup serving?  And who, really who, would only eat 1/2 cup of of ice cream?

1:00 pm......I'm headed to the doc's office to have the labs drawn........yeah!

I'm home from the clinic and as I sit here typing, very well fed!  I made a big breakfast when I got home:  ham, eggs, potatoes and toast.  That will be it for the rest of day except for a bag of popcorn while watching tv tonight.  Results should be posted tomorrow.  I am so excited!

Day 42, 7 to go...........again

Today was the day the experiment was to end.  Would my cholesterol be lower, higher, stay the same?  I'm going to have to wait a while longer to find that answer out.  The doctor's nurse called yesterday to reschedule my physical, Dec. 24 is the only appt available this year.  I asked if I could get in prior to that for blood work, Dec. 21 is the first day possible.  The doc won't be back in the office until Dec. 20 to write an order for the lab tests so there is no way I can go in before that.  Ummmmm, how disappointing.  Waiting this long with a goal in mind, then not being able to obtain that goal without any options, no control.  I believe my Lord is teaching me a valuable lesson in life: I can not control everything.

Weight today 128.6, down 5# since giving up sugar. 

Interesting tidbit I learned through the book, "Mindless Eating".

In many western countries, America in particular, people are trained to eat until they are “full.” Okinawans are trained to eat until they are “no longer hungry.” Consider the impact this shift in perspective might have on your eating habits.

"How do you know when you are no longer hungry?" Many of us are use to simply eating until we are full which is quite different than eating until we are no longer hungry. It takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to communicate with the rest of the body that it has had enough. If we continue to eat during those 20 minutes we won't get the message that our stomach has had enough until 20 minutes too late and by that time we are stuffed.  In Okinawa, Japan they have a saying that goes "Hara hachi bu" which means "Eat until 80% full." One way to do this is to plan how much you are going to eat before hand. Eat what you've planned and then stop  Then notice how you feel 20 minutes later. You may be surprised that you do indeed feel full even though you weren't when you stopped.
Okinawans call this "Hara hachi bu." 

Oatmeal Harvest Cookies

Oatmeal Harvest Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup date sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/4 cups oatmeal
3/4 cup dried raisins and chopped dates
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat over to 375 degrees.
In large bowl cream together butter and date sugar.  Add egg and mix until blended; add vanilla and applesauce and mix well.  In separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.  Add to butter mixture and mix well.  Fold in other ingredients by hand.
Drop by tablespoons 2" apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Flatten with your fingers.  Bake for about 15 minutes until lightly browned.  Cool on wire rack.

Day 40, 3 to go.....

It's Saturday....and the snow is coming down.  We are expecting 6 - 12 inches to fall before tomorrow.
Weight this morning 130.2.  Steel cut oatmeal is on the stove cooking and I can't wait for it to be done.  I want to feel the fullness that oatmeals gives me. 

Found one of my sticky notes...info I wanted to remember.
*Fat plus sugar, fat plus salt, fat plus sugar and salt.........each stimulates food intake (we eat more because it takes good) but this combination of food does not fill us up and we keep eating.

Another sticky.
*Between 1995 and 1997 48 cases out of 1000 were dx with diabetes.   Between 2005 and 2007 that jumpted to 91 cases out of 1000.

*Train our satiety, retrain ourselves to feel full and satisfied.

Christmas season doesn't seem right without the baking and if I baked, I would have to eat what I baked or give it all away.   Somehow that just doesn't sound right.  If I am not eating sugar because it's healthier for me than why would I want other people to eat sugar???  Maybe after Tuesday I will feel differently.  I do want to try the recipe for Date Oatmeal Cookies and I did buy all the ingredients so next week I might be baking them.

DRATS........the doctor's office just called and cancelled my appt. for Tuesday.  The nurse will call me on Monday to reschedule! 
...............so the journey continues!

Day 38, 5 to go.........

I weighed in this morning at 131 and I am feeling comfortable with that.    There's absolultely no bloated feeling in my stomach.  Actually, now that I am thinking about it,  I feel pretty darn good!  There's no regrets in the morning, I know that I am not putting a lot of wasted calories into my body.   I'm sleeping sp much  better than I was 2 months ago but I know that has almost everything to do with getting off Ambien and a little to do with getting off sugar.

The Women's Christmas Celebration on Tuesday night was a lot tougher than I ever thought it could be.  Of course, I feel that the devil tempted me with all he had.  The  meal was a pot luck meal and the organizers had three huge tables set up.  Two tables were set up with appetizers, entrees, and salads with room to walk around each side of the table.  The other long, long table was desserts and it was full.  Four hundred women turned out for this event which made for really long lines.  By the time our table got into line the line was all the way  past the dessert table.  Now I am hungry, it's 7 pm, and I have to walk slowly past every inch of the dessert table.  I really tried concentrating on my friends and our conversations but the visual presentation of every kind of beautiful Christmas candy, cookies,  pies, and everything else one could possibly imagine was ALMOST too much to handle.

The negative self talk started about 1/4 of the way past the dessert table.  I started asking myself why I was doing this, would I really be able to live without eating sugar, and why would I want too.  The taste, the smell, the texture (Sugar, fat, and salt) of these desserts is what I wanted.  I know that if I had just started my journey (experiment) I would of caved in and ate.  Last year I went back to the dessert table 2 times and filled my plate up with several different desserts and although some looked better than they tasted I probably ate for 1500 calories of these desserts before being full enough to quit.  Toward the end of the line I wanted to cry, I felt so sorry for myself, it was such a self-defeating emotional time.  It was like was was in crisis and why...........it was all caused my sugar and feeling I was depriving myself of some type of joy in my life.   Now that I am looking back and writing about those feelings, it's crazy what food can do to you.  Is my life really less joyful because I can't have a peanut butter ball????

I wanted to add my recipe for Lentil soup.......gives  you something hot to eat when your sooooo cold! 

This is a hearty soup and gives you the feeling of being full. 

1/2 lb of dry lentils........wash them before adding them to the soup
8 cups of water
1/8 cup of barley........estimated, I just through in a handful :)
2 teaspoons of Better than Broth Beef Boullion
2 teaspoons of Better than Broth Veggie Boullion
2 stalks of celery-diced
2 carrots-diced
1 medium onion-diced
salt (to taste but I would probably say I used 1/2 teaspoon)
pepper to taste

You can add everything all at once and just simmer.  Approximately 2 - 3 hours.

If you haven't tried lentils before give this a try.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Day 36, 7 to go..............

My doctor appt. is one week from today.  Weight today 130, it seems to be really stable right now.  My days are getting so much better, foodwise.  I don't obsess about sugar or snacks.  As Dr. Kessler would say, I turned off the cues because the option for me to eat something that is sugar filled is non-existant.  I made my decision 36 days ago and I don't have to keep making the same decision over and over again.  My brain knows this now and has started looking for different options.  Popcorn, Carb Check Bagel, or an apple are my usual snack options. 

Tonight is the Women's Christmas Celebration at church.  It's a pot luck meal that always has way too much food and the dessert table goes on and on.  I'm not worried one bit about being tempted by the desserts but what I am worried about is what I will do while everyone else at my table is eating their plateful of goodies.  Not that eating a plateful of goodies is bad, especially at Christmas because there are so many choices, who can choose just a couple?  But the questions will start which will give me an opporturnity to share my journey.  Maybe I can go back and get a plate of salad or some other dish I didn't get to try on my first way through the line, ummmm, that sounds like a plan.

I'm not making much progress on the new Jillian Michaels book, by the time Trent was done with me I was even too exhausted to read.  But what I am learning is that hormones play a much bigger part in our metabolism then I previously thought.  I will list the hormones that play an active part tomorrow and today I will blog Jillian's information on how metabolic activities work:
She states that all metabolic activities work in one of two ways:

• Catabolic activities are about destruction--they break apart larger molecules (like carbs, fats, and protein) to release the fuel that allows the body to function.  This process gives us energy and also builds body tissues in anabolic activies.
• Anabolic activities are about construction--our cells take the glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids from catabolism and turn them into body tissues like muscles, fat, and bone.

Hormones are typically put into one of these two catagories.  She explains that cortisol is considered a catabolic hormone and growth hormone is considered an anabolic hormone.  Neither catabolic or anabolics hormones are fully good or fully bad, you need both kinds for a healthy metabolism.

She states that when we give our body the foods it was built to understand, you support your hormones to do what they are meant to do and by doing that we can make our metabolism work for us and not against us.

So there it is again, we have to feed fuel our body with healthy foods.  As Michael Pollan writes in his book "Defense of Food", he breaks down our need for fuel in seven words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants!

Wish me luck tonight on my pillaging the pot luck tables.

Sidenote:  I listed my Motorola Defy phone (gift from Oprah) on Ebay today.  What an awesome phone with so many functions, I was really impressed with it in Madison.