Lies My Doctor Told Me [Part 1]

Week 1 of the Last Grand Experiment has produced some interesting results. I spent the last 7 days doing extensive research on the High Fat-Low Carb lifestyle and trying to go as carb-less as possible, and here are the early results:

* For the first time in my life, I've been able to kick the carb cravings. I guess when you eat food that actually makes you feel full, you don't need that constant hit of sugar to keep you going.

* For the first time I've been able to stop eating in the middle of a meal because I'm full and not still want a cookie or a piece of chocolate.

* I've been coming home from work and foregoing the obligatory handful of snacky stuff I normally have to grab to keep me going through dinner prep.

*TMI - my normally cloudy pee is clear

* I have not had an incident of acid reflux in a week

* Most amazing of all: My chronic back pain that usually leaves me hobbling in the morning when I wake up has subsided. When I tell you, for several years, I've woken up every morning cringing because my back hurts. I've blamed the mattress, blamed the position I sleep in, blamed my two epidurals and naturally blamed my weight. Every time I've mentioned back pain to a doctor in the past, even when it's been due to an injury, I've been told that my weight is a factor {naturally in medical school they teach you that skinny people NEVER have back pain}. The times I've lost 10 pounds or 15 pounds or more, my back pain has never resolved. On day 2 of this eating plan, I woke up with my back pain reduced to almost non-existent. Guess what, it's NOT my mattress. My mattress is fine. My back pain was caused by inflammation. What caused the inflammation? Not weight - since I only lost about a pound in those first 2 days. Could wheat, carbohydrates, flour, sugar, gluten?? be causing inflammation that's responsible for my back pain? Hard to believe. But what else could explain it?

* Weight loss on day 7: 2.6 pounds.

What did I eat this week? Eggs, steak, broccoli, spinach, olives, cheese, pork chops, spare ribs, chicken, cream cheese, protein shakes with heavy cream added, bacon, quiche, nuts, pumpkin seeds, shrimp, strawberries, a small amount of dark chocolate and about half the bananas I usually eat.

2.6 pounds

And no back pain.

Could it really be that the medical industry and the diet industry have been blatantly lying to not just the American public, but the entire freakin' WORLD for decades? Is low fat really the key to the cash cow obesity epidemic? Is it the machine that generates customers for doctors who have patients with obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, acne, arthritis, and a million other ailments that keep them coming to the doctor all the time?

I'm torn. I mean, first of all, it's only been a week. Who knows what next week will bring. On one hand, I'd be thrilled beyond belief to have finally found a 'cure' for the many problems I can't go to a doctor about because all I'll be told is 'eat less and exercise more' and when that bland, pathetic prescription doesn't work, it's all my fault for 'doin' it wrong'. How great would it be to finally be in complete control of my diet and not feel like food is controlling me?

On the other hand, what a horrifying realization - that an entire industry - well, more than that, medical, pharmacological, food industry, diet industry... are ALL LYING - all the time. ALL. THE. TIME. That's terrifying. It's depressing. Is it really just lack of knowledge, poor studies, a desire to be politically correct? Or is it something a LOT more insidious. A desire to profit from the pain and suffering of billions of people??

That's dark.

It's unthinkable. I'm not sure I can really process how awful it would be if it was really true that what we've been told about how to achieve good health is all A LIE.

Yet, the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center has a Ketogenic Diet Center. [For the treatment of epilepsy in children]. Nevertheless.

The jury is still out.

But so far the case against the medical profession is stacking up in an alarming way.

The last experiment

About 7 years ago, I embarked on what I now call ' the last diet'. Research has shown me that dieting is so many things - wrong, stupid, pointless, a lie - it's just a way for the diet industry to make money and usually ends up causing more harm than good. That belief is backed up by a lot of research that the average person has been conditioned not to believe.

I decided then that the best I could do was to try to be as healthy as I reasonably could keeping in mind that perfect health doesn't exist, nor does good health ensure anyone a long life. 

I changed my eating habits drastically - and the resulting weight loss didn't last. Despite keeping a lot of good habits and getting rid of a lot of bad ones, I ended up back where I started. This only gives credence to the idea that most conventional medical wisdom is a pack of lies. 

This week I began what I'm planning to call the 'last experiment'. I've tried all kinds of eating plans hoping to find the one that will make me feel good, allow me to enjoy my life, not turn into a full time job and be sustainable. I tried DASH and Paleo recently and while they have good points, they make no difference in my health in my opinion. 

Now I'm trying something new. A last ditch effort if you will that is allowing me to flip the bird so to speak at the establishment. If it works, I'll REALLY flip the bird to the establishment. In fact, if it works, I might even make a doctor's appointment, just for the joy of rubbing their faces in it. 

If it doesn't, then I'm officially and finally done worrying about what I eat and trying to make a difference. 

The photo above is my lunch. A spinach salad with bacon, feta, pumpkin seeds and a collection of deviled eggs. This meal actually carried me over for seven hours - with no snack - and when I finally got my dinner [after 7:00 PM] thanks to a specialist who was running THREE HOURS late on his appointments, I didn't even have the urge to overeat or pig out on a donut as desert. 

So far, so good. Let's see how it goes. I'll get back to you.

A bigger better terrarium

The marathon garage sale day turned up this loot - a fantastic, giant glass jar for $1.00 [complete with blue gravel], a bitters bottle, a miniature clear vase and a cute hurricane lamp that will be a great home for a tiny plant - which I haven't found yet.  I ran right out to buy something for the big jar because it needed to be a home to a needy plant ASAP.  Here's how it turned out.

The tree-like plant turned out to be bigger than I wanted it to be. I was really hoping to find some tiny plants, so they'd have a lot of room to grow big, but this isn't the season apparently for small plants. Hopefully the tree plant won't grow too big too fast. I added the spare bird's nest - and I'm pretending it's a blue-footed booby nest rather than a robin's nest. I set this in the bedroom window, we'll see how it does. I also grabbed the last of the ivy from outside [I did a much better job of eradicating it than I had really planned on, so I cut two small springs and planted them in the round open jar where i used to have the polka dot plants that weren't doing well.

I'm starting to outgrow my very limited indoor area for plants and I've got to bring my lemon tree inside soon, so things are going to get crowded for the winter. I think I have a plant addiction. Is that a thing?

Ridiculous happiness

So much time and money is spent on trying to find happiness. If anyone asked me, I would say the problem, why no one seems to be able to find happiness, is because everyone is looking for something big. Happiness is winning the lottery, having a huge wedding, getting a new car, a bigger raise, a bigger house - but those things don't happen to people every day, so they spend most of their lives unhappy, waiting for one of those big happy moments to happen.

The 'secret' to happiness, I would say, is to find happiness in the little things that can happen any time. This weekend, I was ridiculously happy - because of potatoes. The ones I planted in the summer from that vine that was growing in the pantry were finally ready to pick. So yesterday, while it rained like crazy, I dug them out of the container. This is what I got.

Gorgeous, right? Most of them were tiny but the I was really surprised by how big the biggest ones were. I'm inspired now to plant a lot more next year - I can't wait. My goal this season has been to grow enough of something to make a side dish for a family dinner and tonight I did that.  Here they are, cut up in preparation for roasting. 

Even more gorgeous, right? And they turned out great! A little olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder and they were amazing. I've never eaten a potato that was picked yesterday. To be honest, I was really proud of myself. I really feel like I've succeeded in changing by brown thumb to green.