$10 iTunes winner is #2- Jessica

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While I wholeheartedly think that exercise plays a vital role in health, if we really want to point the finger the gold medal goes to: Our diet. We (meaning Americans) eat garbage. We have a diet that is killing us slowly and its becoming a bigger and bigger burden on our already tragic healthcare system.

If you read In Defense of Food you will learn that even diets that are high in saturated fats (fats we’ve always been told are a big No-No) don’t have nearly the rates of health issues as we do. Asians eat starchy white rice day in and day out and they don’t have a fraction of the “western illnesses” either. Our downfall is the refined sugars, flours, food additives, salt etc. So much of what you find in the grocery store is not food. I find that when I go to the store these days I can usually walk past 2 aisles avoiding them completely: chip/soda aisle, crackers/cookie aisle. There is very little I ever buy in those aisles (I’ll admit there are always Oreos in the freezer- but those last us at least 1-2months). There is nothing of value in those aisles. In fact when I went to the store today I decided that I think the Pop Tart probably ties with the Bagel for the most worthless food on earth.

Because Im sure not everyone finds food science as fascinating as I do, lets have a little science lesson.

Carbohydrates are pretty much the mainstay of the American diet these days. This really was fueled with the 1980′/90’s notion that eating a low-fat diet was the way to go. What was fat replaced with? Carbs. Then the 2000’s had us all saying no to carbs and eating our weights in steak and bacon. Now….I don’t know where we are now, worse off than ever? Part of the problem is that we’ve got loads of carbs (sugar) in places we don’t expect them (spaghetti sauce, salad dressing, ketchup, peanut butter, etc). In fact its becoming increasingly difficult to find food that doesn’t have sugar in it.

Carbs can be split into two major categories: simple (this is your table sugar, soda, syrup, juice, and our very very favorite: High Fructose Corn Syrup -aka HFCS) and complex (whole grains (oatmeal, brown and wild rice, quinoa), starchy vegetables (potatoes, squash, yams) and legumes (peas, beans, lentils)). Carbs are broken down by digestion into glucose which is able to enter our bloodstreams (this is what people are talking about when they say “blood sugar”). Once there it triggers the release of, your friend and mine; insulin. Insulin helps glucose get into our cells where its used for energy  (glucose being the body’s primary source of energy).

Once our immediate energy needs have been met, extra glucose still remaining in the bloodstream can be stored in our muscles and liver for later use. If our muscle and liver stores of glucose are full (and most Americans glucose stores are FULL-ULL) but we still have extra glucose floating around in our blood, then insulin says ‘waste not, want not’ and helps our body turn this into fat. To be used at a later time. Except for most of us- there is no LATER TIME because we just keep adding to the fat stores like we’re bears amping up for hibernation. And we keep getting fatter and fatter and fatter. And once those fat cells are created they’re there for life. They can shrink but they don’t go away.

When we eat anything that is just straight sugar (ie the pop tart or bagel, soda, juice) it sends our pancreas into overdrive with insulin! insulin! insulin! Your blood sugar rises rapidly (in the case of juice/soda it rises so rapidly most diabetics aren’t allowed to have it. Like ever. Which is also why if a diabetic is going into shock you give them juice to quickly! bring their blood sugar back up). When it rises rapidly like that you feel all good and energized and your body is still working away with insulin! insulin! insulin! and then….you start to feel crashy and *hungry*. So….you reach for something sugary again. And the cycle starts all over again. You continue to feel hungry and get fatter. Its this roller coaster of sugar highs and lows that takes its toll on your body and, here the science gets more complicated than I can understand (A high flux of fructose to the liver, the main organ capable of metabolizing this simple carbohydrate, disturbs normal hepatic carbohydrate metabolism leading to two major consequences: perturbations in glucose metabolism and glucose uptake pathways, and a significantly enhanced rate of de novolipogenesis and TG synthesis, driven by the high flux of glycerol and acyl portions of TG molecules coming from fructose catabolism. These metabolic disturbances appear to underlie the induction of insulin resistance commonly observed with high fructose feeding (source: www.nutritionandmetabolism.com)).  Basically, this roller coaster of sugar highs can lead to insulin resistance. Our bodies just weren’t made to handle such an onslaught of sugar in our diet.

Most everyone has at least some vague idea of what a ‘balanced’ meal/snack is. As I mentioned above, when you eat a meal or snack that is composed of carbs/sugar it raises your blood sugar quickly and then it comes crashing right back down. You can avoid these peaks and valleys by consuming protein (and or fat) at the same time (think apple and cheese (squirty cheese does NOT count), banana and peanut butter, cottage cheese and crackers, etc). Diabetics have to eat this way, and really, it makes a lot of sense.

When you include proteins you will stay full longer, glucose levels stay more consistent, your metabolism will work more efficiently, and you will feel like you have more energy for longer periods of time. When you eat carbohydrates and proteins together, the carbohydrates are digested in about two hours, but the proteins take longer to digest. Proteins slow down the digestion of the carbohydrates, and energy from the carbohydrates is released slower (thus avoiding the sugar highs and lows).

When I was looking up info on this (no, not ALL of this info is stored in my brain ready to spew out at any minute) I saw this good analogy: Think of the carb/protein thing like a car on a highway. If you are the only one on the highway you’ll zip on down the road. If you have to compete with traffic you’ll move much slower. The same goes for glucose working its way through your blood stream. Eating protein along with carbs fills the blood stream with traffic that slows down the glucose. And the slower glucose moves through the bloodstream, the better. If it moves through too quickly, your blood sugar levels will dip and you’ll be tormented by sugar cravings and find yourself in a slump.

To sum it up: The reason we are big and getting bigger is because we are consuming far more than our bodies can metabolize.  When you eat foods that are heavy in carbs they raise your blood sugar quickly, wreak their havoc, and then send you crashing back down, reaching for more food. If we ate more well thought out meals our blood sugar would stay constant, we’d feel better, we’d eat less, and, at least in theory, we’d weigh less.

Some numbers:

-We eat roughly 150lbs of sugar a year (this also includes about 30lbs of natural sugar found in fruit). A can of soda has 10 tsp of sugar.  A container of fruit flavored yogurt has 6tsp. A tablespoon of ketchup has a TEASPOON of sugar in it. We should only be eating the equivalent of 8tsp a day.

-Obesity related health issues cost us nearly $150 BILLION every year

-190 million Americans (roughly 2/3 of the population TWO THIRDS) are overweight or obese

-From 1935 to 1996, the prevalence of diagnosed type 2 diabetes climbed nearly 765%

-childhood obesity rates have more than tripled in the last 30 years.

Next….how ( and what) we eat. (This is the last one, I promise).

*Since I lack any sort of credentials in this area, if anything I’ve written isn’t correct- I welcome corrections.

As I mentioned before my friend Stephanie got me started on running (really- jogging; walking breaks allowed). I would run consistently when Nathan was little and since having Mackenzie it sort of gets rotated in every once in awhile. And just so we’re clear- running isn’t fun per se. Its not like its enjoyable to feel like your internal organs rearranged themselves while your heart lodged itself in your armpit and you feel like you are going to barf last nights dinner and the whole time you keep thinking “damn Oreos dragging my ass down.” I’ve found it does get easier but its always going to be…should be- work. The route I’ve been doing lately sends me up a decent hill right out the door, I wind around over by the track, do a loop and go back down the same hill but different route. By the time I get to the track the worst is over. The part where I want to die is past and I can settle into a nice clip. And once you get to that its sort of euphoric. Im not out of breath, my legs aren’t burning, I can just run. But the best part is when its all over and the ‘high’ sets in. Whether its running or shreding or cartwheeling (ok, I don’t really do that), the high you get when its all over is the best part of working out…that is what makes it worthwhile.

I heard about the 30 Day Shred from Sundry, who, for last the year in particular, has been such an inspiration on the fitness front. I love her writing and it’s so motivating to read about her struggles and successes. For a long time I would run 3 days a week. That is all the time I was willing to devote to exercise and I felt like if I was going to stick with it I needed to be reasonable about how often I would do it. Sundry wrote a post about finding the time for exercise and how you just had to make the time. Thats it. No excuses. We’re all moms (or dads). We all have 100 things to juggle. We all want to dork around on the internet. We have the choice everyday to make time or not. As soon as I get up in the morning the workout gear goes on. I (cringe) drive Nathan to school like that, wearing flip flops, hair all kinds of crazy, and I come home and put my time in. I know Im not alone in feeling this way, but its not fun. Sometimes I have to really talk myself into doing it. Its not like I can’t! wait! to have my arss kicked and have sweat dripping down my face. Exercise isn’t supposed to be “fun”. Its hard work, its uncomfortable at times. But thats the point. “If you want results- they aren’t coming for free”, right? There are no secrets, no pills, and there are no shortcuts. Here, [brisk clap] lets have another motivational quote from Dean:

“…[People are] afraid or unwilling to demand enough of themselves and take the easy road, the path of least resistance. But struggling and suffering, as I now saw it, were the essence of a life worth living. If you’re not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you’re not constantly demanding more from yourself–expanding and learning as you go–you’re choosing a numb existence. You’re denying yourself an extraordinary trip.
As a running buddy once said to me: Life is a not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: “WOW!! What a ride!”

Yesss….that.

If you can push past the heart-in-armpit discomfort, the hard work does payoff. And the payoff of all of this is big. I’ve been doing the shred (in addition to other things) for almost a year, and while the scale has remained steady, my size/shape/strength has changed considerably. I never used to be able to do a real push up and now I can with ease. I can hold myself in a plank position…the Captain and I may or may not even have contests for who can hold themselves in a plank the longest. That whole notion of a strong core? I get it now. I have muscles I never knew existed. Jillian promised me a nice groove in the top of my shoulders and I’ve got that too. Im not trying to belabor the point (“yay for you, I get it, 30 day shred, shut UP already”) but the workout you get in 25 minutes far surpasses 40 minutes of phoning it in on the elliptical machine (for me). Because I do get bored with the shred I’ve gotten a few of her other DVDs and they are all based on the same premise (and many of the same moves) of combining strength and cardio to burn the most calories. I highly recommend it. In addition to the physical payoffs the mental payoffs are equally important. I feel strong, I feel healthy and fit and confident and beautiful and challenged and accomplished and muscle-y (?) and less stressed and just good. (shall I continue with more adjectives?) And on the days I don’t exercise- I feel like a sloth.

The bottom line is simple math (barring medical issues, which I know exist). In order to lose weight you need some combination of eating less and moving more. Brownies can’t be the mainstay of your diet (I’ve tried it, doesn’t work). You have to want it. You can’t be fit and healthy without being willing to put in the (hard) work. Its so much easier to talk ourselves into “acceptance” than to move ourselves into “action.” I’ve so been there.

Once you’ve found whatever it is you “enjoy” be it running or shredding or cartwheeling or bike riding or hiking or swimming or skiing or… (shall I keep going?) Im a big believer in ‘material encouragement’ (I made that term up just for you). Buy yourself some crap. You are going to be more motivated to run in a new, shiny, sparkling white pair of new kicks than an old pair of keds. Better to have some sleek running shorts than some elastic-was-shot-6-months-ago number to put on. Do your socks have holes in them? Time for some new ones. Getting hit in the face? Time for a new sports bra. Going to be a ’shredhead’ [oh gag] buy some weights. I say all this with the caveat– if its not financially possible, then make due with whatcha got. Your old shoes will work fine (my mom used to throw mine in the washing machine anyway). But I think its important to reward yourself from time to time if you can, it helps me anyway.

And, because Im helpful like that, I’ll share with you some of my favorites:

Nike Tempo Shorts: best running shorts I’ve found. Most important feature? They don’t ride up.

Athleta All That Knee Length Capri: because running shorts are no good for anything but running. These are awesome for everything else.

Nike Heartrate monitor: this tells me that, despite the fact that I may feel like Im dying, Im actually not. Also, how many Oreo’s worth of calories I’ve burned.

Nike Plus iPod: I mention it below but its a good motivator too

Saucony shoes: this brand is my favorite. However, running shoes are highly personal so you may hate them.

my wishlist:
-Lululemon pants. I’ve read so many good things about them. Very spendy though.

-a good iPhone workout app. I haven’t spent much time searching though (suggestions?)

In addition to swanky gear; music. Music music music. I have an iPod nano with the nike fit thing, I haven’t used it in awhile but I really like to see all my progress, runs and total miles- thats pretty neat. As far as the music goes, I have a mix of songs I like as well as some songs I wouldn’t normally listen to but are great for a run. Here’s what I’ve got:

Evacuate the Dancefloor- Cascada
Sugar- Flo Rida
Single Ladies- Beyonce (plus- if you’ve seen how she looks in the video– it makes you want to kick your butt a little harder)
Just Dance/Pokerface/Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
Viva La Vida- Coldplay
Alive With The Glory of Love- Say Anything (its a catchy little song– its from the season finale of Scrubs)

And the very best most motivating song I have, I just added it after hearing it on the radio….the one you simply must go put on your iPod after reading this? Black Box- Strike it Up. Do it- YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO. Its pretty much the best running song ever. Plus- it brings back fond memories of junior high.

And because not only am I nice- Im SUPER nice; and want to know what you like to do for exercise, what your favorite workout garb is AND if you have some good music– and when I say good Im talking like BLACK BOX good. Leave a comment and my faithful assistant (Nathan) will draw a name out of a hat?….a bowl? something (we’ll say Friday afternoon Japan time We’ll extend this a bit because I know of at least two people who haven’t chimed in because of sick kids. Also there are not as many comments as there are readers- what gives?). And the winner will get $10 to the iTunes store. Your first purchase better be Strike It Up.

My reason for boring you with that long dissertation is to say, I’ve got some ’street cred’. I’ve been on both sides of the coin. I know what its like to be on the pudgy side of the spectrum and I know exactly how hard it is/seems to be to change anything. There was a period of time where I did not own a pair of jeans that fit…I had jeans, and I was sure “I’d get back into them.” But I had work clothes for the week and stretchy for the weekend. Im so embarrassed to write that but its true. The thing is, nothing was going to change until I was really ready to do something about it. For me it took getting diabetes to be my wake-up call. The writing was on the wall for me if I didn’t make some profound changes in my eating and fitness habits. I don’t want to be diabetic and I didn’t want to wear stretchy for the rest of my life. This was ridiculous.

Several weeks ago I read something that got me all fired up and propelled me to write this (and Im intentionally trying to be vague, Im not trying to stir a pot). I was bothered by the number of people (and I realize this is only a small sample of the population) who were 1) plus sized 2) attributed their size to genetics/heritage 3) felt that size does not=health.

1) I went back to the US this summer. Whats more- I was in the midwest. The heartland. People are big and getting bigger. If I sat in the mall for an hour I’d say about 98% of the people that walked by would be somewhere on the overweight-obese-morbidly obese scale. What is even more concerning to me, is that overweight people are raising overweight kids. Its worrisome. I wonder what, if anything, will cause a shift/change? Im a sucker for TV shows that are medically related and recently I saw one on this morbidly obese man (1000-ish pounds) having to be physically removed from his house– they had to punch a hole through the wall to get him out on a stretcher because he wouldn’t fit through the door and I asked PC-how do you get to that point? No. I mean really. HOW do you get to that point? How do you get to the point that you have completely lost the ability to MOVE. How do you let yourself keep eating and eating and eating and not say WHOA. Not say STOP? I mean somewhere SOMEWHERE along the spectrum I just can’t believe, can’t begin to GRASP that people lack that much self control. That you can’t tell yourself to stop shoving burgers and fries in your food hole. I. don’t. get. it. Obviously that is an extreme case but my question is still the same– how does it happen?

I weigh myself every day. Im sure some people would disagree with this. I do it because it (along with the zipper on my jeans) is my “whoa” factor. I fluctuate about 5lbs. I accept that. Any more than 5lbs and we have a problem. I refused (esp. after diabetes) to be one of those women who “could never quite lose that baby weight.” I refuse to let myself hop on the scale 6 months from now and be like “damn….I gained 10lbs? How?” I don’t obsess about weight. I don’t freak out about calories. I don’t diet. I don’t deny myself any food. I do have a serious sweet tooth. I am at a healthy weight/BMI. I wear a size 8. I want to be healthy. I want to feel healthy and for the first time (meaning in the last few years) I do. After spending so many years NOT healthy.

The bottom line is that we are consuming way way more calories than our bodies can metabolize. That is the reason we are overweight. If we consumed fewer calories it would be better for our waistlines, our wallets and the environment.

2) To copy a line from somewhere else: We are all born with different body shapes and sizes but (aside from a medical condition) there is no reason for any of us to be seriously overweight. Our ancestors have nothing (or at least very little) to do with how big (round?) we are. I’m pretty sure that as a whole we’re several inches taller than our ancestors were (thats probably because of all the milk we drink with the extra! added! growth hormone! and calcium), and Im positive we’re a hell of a lot heavier. Dudes….we aren’t heavy because we came from “German/Dutch/Swiss etc. stock.” Furthermore– if you go searching on any other country on earth there is no population that is as overweight as ours. So, I think that also sort of discredits the ‘lets blame our heritage’ theory. In fact I’d say maybe the biggest familial factor in determining our shapes are the habits we learn and the things we’re fed growing up. I will agree that there is probably something in our genetics that may predispose us to certain things (ie alcoholism, being heavy, etc.) but I don’t think that necessarily means you are resigned to having/being X. I call bullshit on the ancestor theory. Its a cop-out. Its an excuse. Its interesting how with weight people use genetics as a reason to accept that “they can’t change their DNA” and yet when it comes to, say, being genetically predisposed to breast cancer women will go pre-emptively lop their breasts off (is surgery easier than a workout?) Yet both of those can kill you, why do something about one and not the other? And as a sidenote to this– Im almost finished with the book “In Defense of Food” and Michael Pollan says in numerous instances how much healthier our ancestors were and its our Western Diet that is literally killing us. (More on food/diet in part four).

3) Right now Im in the best shape I’ve been in. Wanna feel my bicep [wink wink]? I’ll get into the exercise portion a little more in part three of this four part series (did I get a laugh?) but while I wholeheartedly agree that just because you are thin doesn’t mean you are fit (and you can easily be heavier and be in very good shape as well) by and large the less weight you are carrying on your frame, the better. Right?

I like talking with people. I like helping and offering and making a difference where I can. I don’t want to cause any hard feelings and no one should take anything I have to say personally. I myself an am OVERLY sensitive person. I was just emailing back and forth with a friend the other day who was telling me she’s still trying to figure out her ‘calling’ and I keep finding myself circulating around these sorts of topics. I’ve seriously thought of going back to school for nursing, a masters in nutrition, some sort of health/wellness degree, physiology, environmental science, or maybe just getting a personal trainer certification (note- I have no interest in being a trainer, just interested in the knowledge). Im fascinated by the science behind food as it relates to health. I’ve always loved science and always thought I’d go to medical school. Chemistry deterred me. If I want any of those degrees listed above I know Im going to have to give chemistry another go. My point is I’d like to help people because I know its not easy. Weight loss is hard- its really really hard and that, I think, is why people don’t do it. Its not because of our ancestors. Its not because you’re taking a stance against the media making us feel we need to be supermodel thin. Its because its so damn hard. I know that is what held me back, I never appreciated that I had to push myself. Oh Lord I sound like a Jillian groupie but everything she says is right on, and when I want to stop running because I feel like I might throw up my left lung I hear her voice saying, “if you want change, its not going to come for free……if you want results you’re going to have to push” and I find the strength to go at least another 10 feet. ha ha

On one side of our fridge I tear out things of magazines or or write down quotes that I like. I particularly like this one from Dean Karnazes (and his book is next in my stack to read):
“Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think if we had every comfort available to us, we’d be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we’re so comfortable we’re miserable. There’s no struggle in our lives. No sense of adventure. We get in a car, we get in an elevator, it all comes easy. What I’ve found is that I’m never more alive than when I’m pushing and I’m in pain, and I’m struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there’s a magic.”