The Holidays are OVER!

Thanks to an article in Slate, Kafka's Calisthenics, I started remembering to breathe more again and am starting to stabilize early this year.  As I go through this part of my cycle again, I will be trying to figure out how to keep from losing track of so much.  Although, honestly, I did pretty well.  I even managed to my food journal until about Christmas.  So only about a month of not keeping it this time.  And, I wasn't happy with the one I had made.  It was ugly and did not track all the stuff I wanted to track.  So I designed a new one yesterday.

This isn't a very clear shot, I'll print it later as a pdf.  (Really need to get a usb hub for home.)  I added weekly and daily goals and also space for tracking fats and carbs, which the other one did not have.  And more space for listing food, the old one didn't have enough. 

So I'm back on track to keep track of my food again.  I'd say it doesn't really change how I eat much, but I think it will help me identify nutrients I might be missing out on.  I have a list of potassium and calcium rich foods, as I don't seem to get a huge benefit from supplements, as well as list of minimum dailies for a person of the weight I wish to be.  

Today I am going to try to work up some sort of "totals" for the day table that I can insert into this blog.  I know no one reads this, but I would like to be able to see changes online.  Probably going to put my "before" pic back up.  Took it down for some reason a few months ago.  Yes, possibly shame.  It was taken when I was over 320 pounds and . . it ain't pretty. 


I'm also working on a very comprehensive calorie counter book.  Found a text only database of foods with calories, fat, pro, etc and made it almost spreadsheet ready, just going through and tweaking some places where "find and replace" failed.  As soon as I sort out how to print it nicely, I'll offer it for download.  It's got a LOT of foods.  That is where I run into trouble food journaling, as I hate to look everything up at some of the food/diet sites.  There's good ones.  But it gets sooooo tiresome.

This morning I found an old . . .notebook . . it's sort of a cross between just a notebook I carried around to plan menus and shopping lists and a diary.  It's from 2001.  The first entry, if only I would remember what I learn, was in July, less than 2 weeks before I agreed to marry Mike.  I was having doubts.  I wanted to wait and sort out the Michie thing.  And then ten days later he found out he had gotten the job in CA and in the excitement I forgot my own wisdom.  I let myself get caught up because I had a limited time to choose.  Ah well, who's to say it would have turned out better if I had stayed in CO . . would probably never had a tv show for half a decade.  Although I'm so lonely it doesn't really matter a lot of the time.

Okay, that way lies crawling back in bed and crying.  Need to do some research and then off to work.

Current Regimen

As I'm sure I've commented somewhere, I tend to be a person of extremes.  When I decide to bring change into my life, I go overboard.  A couple of months ago I did that.  It did not turn out well.  Going forward I am trying to be more reasonable about it.  I'd already established that I can tolerate fish oil and about a third of the recommended dosage of calcium.  (I'll write about my experience with taking the full dose sometime)  So on 9/20/10 (my mom's birthday . . .not sure if that had anything to do with it) I started keeping a food journal again.  And I added cayenne to my regimen. One of the things I've found is that I tolerate all supplements better with lunch rather than breakfast.  Especially the cayenne, which gave me some problems at first. 

So now I have my alarm set to remind me to go to bed at 10p.  I usually don't make it until 11p but it's way better than the 1a I was staying up until a couple of months ago.  I am also pretty consistently getting up and walking just a little bit every morning.

I will try to create a digital version of my food/activity diary to use here, so I can track my progress online.

Trying to get started again

A couple of months ago my blood pressure suddenly jumped from it's usual 130-150/70-90 to 180/102.  I only know this because I donate blood twice a month and they take my bp.  The first time I just put it down to stress . . .being a passenger with my son driving.  But when it happened again 2 weeks later, I realized it's a wake up call.

The next day, I picked up some potassium and a diuretic.  I started taking them on a Monday and by Wednesday I was starting to feel puny.  But with me it's hard to tell when something is new bad or just old bad acting up.  By the next Monday I was feeling like crap, plus my nearly gone period had shown up, so I stopped taking the supplements and tried to stablize myself.  Of course, because I suck at keeping record, I am relying on my memory to sort things out. And my memory is not all that great for stuff like this.

I have experimented with various digital ways to store variables like supplements taken, level of pain, etc.  But the best thing for me seems to be good old paper and pen. 


That was about a month ago.  Last week my bp was 158/98.  Something is working.

Better than Prozac

Treating depression with common food components might be as effective as using traditional drugs.

If you walked into your therapist's office and he told you to stop taking Prozac and start eating more fish, you'd probably think he was crazy. But a study has found that a combination of common food components might be as effective in treating depression as traditional drugs.

Scientists at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital looked at how uridine and omega-3 fatty acids could prevent depressive-like symptoms in laboratory rats. They found that each substance has antidepressant-like effects but together they are more effective than either is alone. It's a case of one plus one equals three.

Despite their powerful therapeutic effects, both uridine and omega-3 fatty acids are naturally occurring ingredients found in ordinary foods. Cold-water fish such as salmon and sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, as are walnuts. Molasses and sugarbeets are good sources of uridine.

Researchers tested the two agents on rats that were forced to swim, a situation from which it was impossible to escape. It creates severe stress that induces a depression-like state of inaction and immobility. The stress, mediated by hormones, activates genes in key brain regions known to influence activity levels and mood.

When fed alone to rats, uridine had an immediate effect in relieving depression,; the rats became less immobile in the forced swim test. Omega-3 fatty acids also reduced indicators of immobility, but it took a solid month of steady consumption of dietary supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids for the animals to show signs of improved mood.

Researchers then performed another experiment in which they fed the rats normally ineffective amounts of uridine with supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids. After ten days of treatment, rats showed signs of reduced immobility, increased swimming and increased climbing.

No one is sure why the combination of uridine and omega-3 fatty acids is so effective at relieving depression, but the researchers have some theories. Uridine affects the synthesis of nerve cell membranes and their fluidity, which in turn has an impact on all transactions that must take place.

In addition, uridine influences the levels of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norphinephrine. Both are important brain chemicals that effect mood, moobility and general arousal.

Omega-3 fatty acids are also known to affect the fluidity of nerve cell membranes. They may be affecting the ability of serotonin to dock at the cell membrane, the first step before it unloads its cargo. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which plays an important role in depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety.

Indeed, it is possible that uridine and omega-3 fatty acids act like a good song and dance act. Uridine may rev up membrane synthesis and then the omega-3s are on hand to slip smoothly into the nerve cell membranes. There they can facilitate a whole range of processes, including improving the action of serotonin.

Membrane fluidity may be especially important for mitochondria, the little energy factories found inside all cells of the body, including nerve cells. Omega-3 acids seem to boost the flexibility of mitochondrial membranes while uridine delivers raw material for the mitochondrial furnace.