Yesterday was a bad day in Food Plan Land.
Ironically, it was not eating enough carbs with breakfast (the first time I'd
eaten out on my new food plan. I estimated wrong.) I had
planned my lunch and afternoon snack lighter than usual to allow myself more at
my breakfast out... net result: I was hungry from about 10am until dinner at
7:30pm.
The good news: a) I didn't use
this as an excuse to eat everything in sight (and that's a lot at my office...
people constantly bring in goodies, and my department has an official Goodie
Pantry Pool...); b) after a normal plan dinner I felt MUCH better; and c) this
morning I feel WONDERFUL. I'm dancing, singing,
blogging....
My lessons: First, balance
is CRITICAL. If I mess up the protein/carb balance either way, I'm going to
feel it. Second, I am quite possibly better off with a lighter breakfast and a
heartier lunch. Third, given how hard a few carb grams hit me and the rate at
which I've been losing pounds (v. fast) I may need to INCREASE my total food
intake. I will be watching this to see if the rate of losing pounds slows
any.
It's not that I don't believe those
seven steps work... I'm just really not comfortable with them. The gradual
movement towards cleaning up my food -- it's just Not How We Do These Things in
my primary substance recovery groups. Maybe the gradual way is easier/better,
but I got sober at a time when no one went to rehab, unless the state put you in
the mental hospital. You just didn't use your substance. No matter what. You
sweated it out. You called people. You consumed horrible sweet concoctions so
that the withdrawal of alcohol/drugs didn't put you into convulsions. While I
didn't convulse, I looked like death warmed over, and I didn't sleep for two
weeks.
Once you're physically clean off
your substance, then you start working on emotional recovery so that you don't
go back. At least, that's how I learned
it.
I want my food to be clean, already.
And I want a clearly defined food plan that doesn't morph through seven stages,
that's flexible enough to deal with almost any eating situation, and yet that
gives me enough structure so that I can look at a meal and say, "That's a clean
meal," or "That's not a clean meal."
Nothing in Sears' work
contradicts DesMaison; indeed, they are complements. A Zone-favorable meal
resembles nothing so much as DesMaison's recommended eating plan for weight loss
(although DesMaison's bedtime potato would give Sears the creeps.) But the
advantage for me is that the Zone is quantified. It's clear how much I should
be eating, and of what. Yet, it's totally flexible for social situations, and
for physical situations (e.g. I either really start working out and need more
food, or I become ill, lose muscle mass and therefore need less).
I started eating according to the Zone
plan on Saturday. I've had no cravings. No hunger. No withdrawal. No
crabbiness. Before the infection hit me Monday afternoon, I was singing at work.
Yeah, it takes some time and effort to calculate the correct ratio of
carbs/protein/fat, but I'm sure it will become second nature
soon.
And I'm happier, because I KNOW
what I'm supposed to be eating, and I KNOW that my food is clean. Now. Not
several months from now.
Even better,
Younger Son has joined me in the Zone. He wouldn't even bother with Potatoes
not Prozac; even though he knew he was sugar-sensitive, the concept of a slow
detox with accompanying journaling did not interest him at all. But he is full
of enthusiasm for the Zone, and that counts for a
lot.
Right now, my plan is to follow the
Zone recommendation strictly for at least two weeks; if at that time I feel
depressed, I'll change the Zone bedtime snack to a bedtime potato. As far as I
can tell, that is the ONLY qualitative difference between the two eating plans
(at least, the final stage DesMaison plan).
Yeah, that's me. As I
blogged yesterday, I left work early to go get antibiotics at the urgent care
center. I don't know why I thought I would be OK to go back to work today, but
I went to work anyway, then dragged my sorry behind home two hours
early.
Thank heavens I realized that
bike/bus commuting was not practical. As a veteran L.A. commuter, I can drive my
usual route on autopilot, but I don't think I was either alert or strong enough
to deal with even the few blocks of traffic between my house and the bus stop,
and the other bus stop and my job.
Right
now I'm just trying to stay awake long enough to take my last dose of antibiotic
for the day at the prescribed interval after dinner; then I will clunk. I hope
these danged pills start kicking in soon...
V. tired. My turn to go to urgent care for
antibiotics. Would like to get up early enough to bike/take bus tomorrow, but as
it takes twice as long as driving, I suspect I
won't.
G'night, folks. If I stay here
any longer I will fall asleep face down on the keyboard, which I believe is
blogging bad form..........mmmmmmmmmmmmafsdddddddddddklsdfal...
Heath Ledger (mayherestinpeace) was the best Joker ever.
The production values of "Dark Knight" are if anything better than those of Batman Begins.
The story is... wonderful. Given that it concerns a billionaire vigilante in a bat suit and a criminal who wears purple suits and clown makeup, it has a gritty reality and tragic scope that are remarkable. It makes the 80's version look as campy by comparision, as the 60's TV series looked compared to the 80's movie.
Good grief, this is shaping up into a marvelous year for movies!
As noted in the ShoutBox, I took my bike, Lilith, out for a ride on my lunch break. This also means I rode her to the Commuter Express bus stop in the morning and back from the stop at night. I'm much more alert during the day if I bike. Somehow, walking on my lunch hour just doesn't work as well.... I just realized, writing this, that when I walk in the city I feel trapped, but when I bike I feel free. That means when I bike, I evidently don't get those bad "trapped" endorphins going. Cameron suggests walking, but I think that in this I will ignore her and go with what's working for me. Hiking in the hills occasionally will have to serve for walking.
Last week, I took Lilith out to my old favorite riding spot, the Sepulveda Basin. Her low gear made the steep berm around Lake Balboa ridable without getting off, even as out-of-shape as I am, and her high gear made the flats much faster. Nonetheless, I was still passed by a group of road bikers with enormous thighs. Twice. Same group. I still have work to do...
Everywhere I go with Lilith, I'm stopped with shouts of "Cool bike!" I'm constantly demonstrating her fold, and letting people know that yes, many local bike shops carry them; this model's in the medium high 3 figures, but models are available for as little as $200; yes, you can take it on the bus or subway... Perhaps I should write up an FAQ, or get some Dahon brochures.
I'm in my apartment in North Hollywood now; it's a fine summer night, about 73F, and I'm listening to my neighbors' air conditioners running. I feel virtuous because I've set up circulation with four window fans and a portable swamp cooler (getting my apartment quite cool while using a fraction of the electricity of the AC) but in fact my setup more than paid for itself last summer when I desperately needed to save money on power bills. With any luck, I'll be able to repeat my performance -- keeping the AC off until it's about 80F in the apartment, then only running it at 78F until it cools off enough outside at night to run fans and cooler instead. I hope we don't get too many more weeks when it just doesn't cool off at night (we had one in April(!) and one in June. August and early September may be tough.)
The three meals/day are
now supplemented with a bite or two of protein in the long gap between lunch at
noon and 7 pm, when I get to eat supper. I've even been moving more towards
green things (by having an enormous salad with protein in) for at least one meal
a day. Pants are -- well, not quite so tight. And if I actually get a good
night's sleep, I don't get sleepy in the afternoon. Onward and
downward...
I picked up a new book by Julia Cameron, "The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size." Not surprisingly, Morning Pages and the culinary equivalent of Artist's Dates figure prominently. She also suggests journaling every time one eats. It seems I can't escape DesMaison's Step Two.
[sigh]
I may yet try it. After all, I have everything to lose... At least Cameron's format doesn't have a format. I was not thrilled about the four-column stuff in DesMaison.
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Confession time...
Cleopatra...
"The Dark Knight" mini-review
, but I think that in this I will ignore her and go with what's working for me. Hiking in the hills occasionally will have to serve for walking.
OK... I give up...
In Honor of Summer
