Great Opportunity for Me

I have reached a plateau in my diet fluctuating between 121 and 123  (267 lb & 271 lb), ten to twelve kilo less (22 lb/26 lb)...  than when I initiated my low-carb experiment at 133 kilo (293 lb)... two month ago. This is the perfect opportunity to introduce my second phase, a rigorous consistency to a minimum amount of daily exercise.

Spring has sprung, and here in Japan we have the infamous Golden Week holiday (first week in May) when all of Japan takes to the highway. No better time to stay close to home, and get some walking done. With a more consistent schedule, progress should be possible.

Meanwhile... I have focused on finding snack and lunch habits while working, to assure a consistent energy level as I proceed through a day of teaching. Walking was a reliable friend when I was younger, but back pain has stole this solace from my life. Little by little, I need to reclaim our friendship. Loss of weight and a steady reclamation of my physical prowess is my path to a more Paleolithic aesthetic. Anyone care for some Caveman shuffling in the foothills of Kyoto?

John Durant occupation Caveman

John Durant creator/participant of the New York barefoot run, and a great urban caveman lifestyle, can be seen here discussing insights from the Chilean mine disaster (as an example of Paleo life-style survival skills). There is a fun interview of John Durant by Stephen Colbert here. Visit his site http://www.hunter-gatherer.com/.

Be a caveman too... 

Go Paleo!

http://www.meetup.com/barefootnyc/

Protein Power the audio-book

Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades are both author and readers to their popular 'three-tiered nutrition' Protein Power Life Plan audio-book. As a quick over-view of Paleolithic perspectives this 3 hour recording is a helpful crash course. Uncharacteristically, my audio download from Audible.com feels flawed, a bit wobbly, as if recorded on out-dated technology. But the material is worth hearing despite the wobble. The reviews in Amazon.com are also worth reading and you may find one of their many other books useful, if you are interested in low carbohydrate eating and Paleo rings true for you.

The Quickest Read in Low-Carb Dieting

I have talked before about the remarkable life of the author of this dieting classic The Drinking Man's Diet Robert W. Cameron. Cameron became wealthy and lived a long vibrant life as a publisher and photographer, to the age of 98. Much of this prosperity attributable to a copy of an old diet given to him by a friend. But what I find most remarkable about this story is that the book is the cheapest to buy, easiest to read, and yet still provides a solid introduction to low carbohydrate dieting. For $4.95 you can buy this book, which fits into your pocket and can be read in a couple of hours. It is the perfect pass-it-on format for friends who love an occasional (or more) alcoholic beverage yet want to watch their weight. "Also recommended for Teetotalers". If you are looking for the formula to publishing longevity this book is worth studying. You may also lose some weight while maintaining your happy hour life-style.

Grocery Store Wars (2005)

Not long ago in a supermarket not so far away.

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The Ketogenic Diet: A Complete Guide for the Dieter & the Practitioner

Some books become the gold standard for certain dietary disciplines, particularly those used in the body-building communities. One such text is The Ketogenic Diet A Complete Guide for the Dieter and Practitioner by Lyle McDonald. This takes the low-carb regime one step further. Here is a link for some clarification. In Japan this book is sold 'used' for $150 but may be found elsewhere for less. Also part of this text can be found on line via Goggle Books. 

Other descriptions of the Ketogenic Diet can be found on line, particularly in the Epilepsy community where, when drug therapy fails, this diet has proven effective.

The Ketogenic Diet: A Complete Guide for the Dieter and Practitioner is the first book to objectively examine the ketogenic diet. This book serves as a reference for the dieter who has questions regarding the physiology, adaptations, and effects of a ketogenic diet. The contents are fully referenced for health professionals such as dietitians, physicians, personal trainers and nutritionists. Anyone interested in the ketogenic diet will find this book a valuable resource. (1998)

Topics include:
Human fuel utilization and changes that occur during a ketogenic diet.
Adaptations during the development of ketosis, including a detailed discussion of protein sparing.
The impact of the ketogenic diet on body composition in terms of weight, water and fat loss.
An examination of the potential metabolic effects of ketosis including in the kidney and liver, brain function, and cholesterol levels.
Guidelines for optimization of a ketogenic diet for various goals such as fat loss, bodybuilding, and endurance athletes.
Basic exercise physiology concepts for aerobic exercise, interval training and weight training. The impact of exercise on fat loss is also addressed.
Two modified ketogenic diets, which integrate carbohydrates while allowing the adaptations to ketosis to occur.
Sample exercise routines for beginning, intermediate and advanced exercisers, as well as guidelines for pre-contest preparation for bodybuilders.

Always a Surprise

Body Scales, the haunting mechanism of bathrooms and club locker rooms, are the bane of the obese.   But, when the stars align and a diet works, the scale can be your friend. Today I weighed in at 123 kg (271 lb), down 10 kg from my original 133 kg (293 lb) less than two months ago. In the great scheme of things to crawl from "terribly obese" to "a little less so" is hardly an achievement. Yet to confirm my life-style choice, to take on a low-carbohydrate challenge and see results, is quite a rush.

By the way, I am a Withings diet scale user. These are the scales that links via the internet to a personal body-weight data base. The Withings scale is extremely accurate (in decimal points) and in our kitchen is a second scale (also digital) to reconfirm the statistics. Many dieters avoid scales, as there is fluctuation and some people find this frustrating, but in my case I want to confirm my choices while observing my daily dietary changes as closely as possible. I am attempting to root out self-destructive patterns while highlighting positive daily strategies. Learning more about my personal patterns and finding new ways to live healthy is a worthwhile hobby for my senior years. Seeing success on the scale is certainly reassuring and brings a smile to my face.

The Atkins Diet - safe, effective?

If you google "Is Atkins safe" you will arrive at a personalized essay by Kevin Davidson titled The Atkins Diet - safe, effective?  Having worked seriously with the Atkins' low-carbohydrate approach twice, I can verify, experientially, much of what he writes. Read the essay if you are interested in a low-carb approach to dieting and want a simple-to-read, fairly balanced, analysis.

 For a more 'scientific' analysis from Stanford University is the classical presentation by Christopher Gardner available on YouTube (January 17, 2008)

The Battle of the Diets: Is Anyone Winning (At Losing?)

A bit of diet humor...

Imagining Head Smashed In

Some useful comments about this book from a Paleo perspective were made on the Panu blog.

About the Book

At the place known as Head-Smashed-In in southwestern Alberta, Aboriginal people practiced a form of group hunting for nearly 6,000 years before European contact. The large communal bison traps of the Plains were the single greatest food-getting method ever developed in human history. Hunters, working with their knowledge of the land and of buffalo behaviour, drove their quarry over a cliff and into wooden corrals. The rest of the group butchered the kill in the camp below.

Author Jack Brink, who devoted 25 years of his career to “The Jump,” has chronicled the cunning, danger, and triumph in the mass buffalo hunts and the culture they supported. He also recounts the excavation of the site and the development of the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre, which has hosted 2 million visitors since it opened in 1987. Brink’s masterful blend of scholarship and public appeal is rare in any discipline, but especially in North American pre-contact archaeology.

Brink attests, “I love the story that lies behind the jump—the events and planning that went into making the whole event work. I continue to learn more about the complex interaction between people, bison and the environment, and I continue to be impressed with how the ancient hunters pulled off these astonishing kills.”

About the Author

Jack W. Brink is Archaeology Curator at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, Canada. He received his B.A. from the University of Minnesota and his M.A. from the University of Alberta. His interests also include the study of rock art images of the northern Plains, and he enjoys working with Aboriginal communities on heritage issues.

Staying on the Paleo Pyramid

There is something very gratifying about maintaining a Paleo-style diet, and, for many men, the point of reference are notches on a belt. The most dismal sign is when the very last hole, self-made often, no longer works. I discover how over sized I have become often just prior to formal events, when I drag out my Sunday best. Obesity is best hid in casual ware.

But, sometimes, when diets are being maintained, there are those surprised moments when the belt easily slips closed.

Fitness Insights by Jamie Atlas

jamie atlas

Personal Australian Trainer and Health expert blogger...

Former professional athlete, some fun weight loss comments, and bits of humor.

“The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.” - Julia Child

“The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.” - Julia Child

The primary advantage, besides losing weight, of a low-carb diet? Ask men who love their meat.

Living with a killer diet

To others, the diet you are attempting is about as tedious a subject one can imagine. 

Low-Carb diets are a curious exemplary of tedium to the uninitiated. 

What... you eat primarily meat and green vegetables? No white stuff like sugar, potato, rice, spaghetti, or bread? Is that suppose to be a balanced diet? 

Well ... yes ... it has actually proven effective, there has been weight loss. 

But mostly water weight and of course you have reduced your calories? 

Yes, all diets lose water weight initially, and, with the removal of the highly sugary mass-marketed junk foods, calories are seriously reduced... but there is more to it than that. It has something to do with insulin, and how we burn fat when on a low carbohydrate regime.

But how long can you maintain such a discipline, and what about the inevitable bounce-back, when you take down your guard?

We shall see. But considering the dangerous collection of physical symptoms we obese suffer, and the obvious self-esteeme issues, what real choices do any of us have? The low-carbohydrate diet allows me to feel satiated, and to enjoy my meals, while simultaneously keeping my weight in check. Raw Veganism, calorie counting, and all the variations between, could never leave me feeling satisfied... none ever fit into my lifestyle, nor complimented my sense of self. Paleo is plausible, and is more me, than the mathematics of weighing foods and counting calories. 

The final ingredient in the dietary mix is being physical. 

Exercise is my last frontier and most elusive nemesis.  

Much of Dieting...

Much of dieting is standing in place. Simply holding on to the dietary principals established, and avoiding one's lazy-boy addictions to quick-fix satiation. 

Spring Break Readings on Health and Dieting

Continuing my research, into the delirious smörgåsbord of dietary options, keeps my head spinning and my stomach confused. Here is a bit of my recent reads: 
To the moderate middle of Paleo-Atkins is The Sugar Busters written by a team of sympathetic doctors, with concrete advice on our cultural abuse of sweeteners... and some half-way measures negotiating between both the pro and anti-fat consumption communities. The scientific dietary debate, whether fat is best enthusiastically consumed or rabidly avoided, still simmers on the stove.
 An enjoyable journalistic approach to the conflicting dietary sciences is New York Times author Gina Kolata's Rethinking Thin. I can not say I felt any more reassured, to the correct dietary solution, but I was told being fat may not be as dangerous as I fear. Is that an encouragement to diet or to surrender, like most, in the plateaus of dietary futility? Perhaps I need to read her Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth about Health and Exercise or, better still, Sex in America: A Definitive Survey.
But beyond my reading in the Zoned world of South Beach Dieting  there was a temporary diversion into HGH (Human Growth Hormone) introduced to me with enthusiasm by a fellow traveler in the Philippines. Another massive topic and one requiring still more research. If I insist on not eating when reading, while continuing a steady diet of weight-loss podcasts when walking on my treadmill, perhaps there is still hope in all this nutritional and fitness research.

Calorie Creeps

From Dr. Bert Herring's Fast-5 lifestyle:

"Calorie creeps are foods that are casually consumed when location or labeling obscures the calorie content of the food, letting a lot of calories creep into your body, hampering your efforts to lose weight...

Calories can also creep into your diet using alternative names for sugar or substitutes that have significant calorie content, such as dextrose, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, glucose, lactose, maltodextrin, maltose, sorbitol, sucrose, invert sugar, juice concentrate, and molasses. Check the nutrition label for calorie content if you’re not sure."

At a restaurant with friends:

"Eat, but practice damage control. Restaurant chefs pile on the calories to make the food taste the best possible at the lowest practical cost. The portions are often excessive because the food cost for a typical restaurant is only about 10 percent of the total. Serving large portions lets the restaurant boost apparent value without adding much in cost. It’s culturally Un-American to serve a plate with room on it for more food. 

One method of damage control is to order the thing on the menu that you like the least. It’s likely to still be palatable fare, but it won’t compel you to push any more of it into your belly than necessary. Choosing from the low-carb options or the salads can help with damage control, too.

Apply the Sunk Cost Rule. Once you’ve ordered an entrée, the economic principle of sunk cost applies. No matter how much of the entrée you eat, the amount you have to pay will be the same, so you should make choices that maximize your benefit. Enjoy the food and savor each bite. There is no reason to eat it all. You’re better off with the excess in the trash than on your waist. If millions of people eat less, the portion size may decrease, leaving more supply at the source for the starving people of the world."

"An imaginary friend can help. As a last line of defense, try to mentally divide the portions in half, and imagine you are sharing with someone who is expecting to eat the other half. Leave half of everything behind."

The Lemonade Diet (Master Cleanse Diet)

I am a child of the 60's, so new-age fads were an integral part of my development. The Lemonade Diet, Master Cleanse Diet, or similar variations, were always around in the greater alternative medicine/life-style community.

What could be more 'natural' than Lemons? Throw in some cayenne pepper for zing, and organic maple syrup or perhaps honey for that sugar rush, filtered water for authenticity and, in the words of the great guru Steve Jobs, "Magical and Revolutionary" things happen.

Usually diet blogs and diet analysis are tailored to the prejudices of the author, often with an e-book to sell... but occasionally I find a review impeccable. This one on the Lemonade Diet by Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD for WebMD feels quite reasonable!

" The Lemonade Diet has been around for more than 50 years, but its popularity soared a few years ago after Beyonce announced she'd lost 20 pounds on the diet for the movie Dreamgirls.


The Lemonade Diet, also known as the Master Cleanse, was developed by the late Stanley Burroughs as a detoxification and fasting program. Originally intended to rid the body of toxins and internal wastes brought on by "improper diet, lack of exercise, and negative mental attitude," it's now also touted as a quick weight loss plan. "
Read the whole article for a deeper understanding of this classic de-tox. 

The Fast-5 Diet

"Living a Fast-5 lifestyle means setting a window of five consecutive hours in which you do all your eating for the day. It doesn't mean binge eating or overeating. The long fasting period (19 hours) lets your body use stored fuel instead of fuel being delivered from digestion. That time also lets your body measure how much fat is stored and turn your appetite down if there's too much around. With a lower appetite, weight loss becomes easy." The Fast-5 Diet is available on line for free or as a book. There is a Facebook community experimenting with this life-style diet, as well as a forum. Both seem to be carefully monitored by the creator Bert W. Herring M. D. 


He does have his detractors, like Alan Aragon, yet the muscle-building blogger world, and various testimonials, all seem to take much of what he says to heart and have applied variations in their own lives.

Intermittent fasting and Lean-gains

Fasting and feeding cycles are used by body builders such as Leangains blogger Martin Berkhan. I won't describe his receipt here, as extreme body development is well outside my area of expertise... my life being mostly a 'BEFORE' photo. Yet 'doing without' is 'food for thought'. Consider Intermittent fasting, after all it wasn't long ago the entire Christian world practiced fasting once a week (prior to communion, Fish on Friday) and something the Islamic community still practices with one month of Ramadan. Throw in most of the other world religions and the practice of some animals and there seems a great deal of circumstantial evidence for... 

Intermittent fasting.

http://thesameffect.com/my-experiences-with-intermittent-fasting/