• The bugs that ate Monsanto
  I would love to see the “seed mob boss” Monsanto go the way of the dinosaur.
• Are Low-Carb Meat Eaters in Trouble?
  Hint …. the answer is no.
• Chris Masterjohn takes us to school on the scientific method (applied to hamburger intake) and randomization.
• Low-carb Liquor Ideas from Dana Carpender
• US Restricts More Antibiotics for Livestock
  It’s not a total ban but is a positive step towards reducing the abuse of human antibiotics in livestock.

I’m not usually interested in food porn, i.e. mouth watering pictures of food that you’ll never go through the trouble of making because it probably won’t turn out the same in your kitchen with your “cooking” skills. In this case I had to make an exception.

The other day I picked up a new cookbook, Low Carbing Among Friends, which very much does NOT fall into this category. Mostly because there are no pictures! And yet it’s still selling like hotcakes, which is quite impressive.  So after visiting one of the author’s blog, All Day I Dream About Food, which most definitely IS food porn, I stumbled upon this recipe.

Recipe

I had to try it. But I wasn’t ready to accept failure if they didn’t come out right. So I forced my husband to make them for me! This is why I love the man…

The result? They taste just as good as they look. The shortbread crust is crunchy, the middle sweet sticky and caramel like and the top is creamy chocolate awesomeness. Just one bar was enough to satisfy which is notable because normally I’m a “slowly sneak bits throughout the night until the whole pan is gone” kind of gal.

Each bar has 6 g of carbs and 2.3 g of fiber. So even if you splurge and have more than one, you’ll be okay.

If you managed to make it through my previous “woe is me” post, Adventures in not Being a Blorp, congratulations! If not the short version is that after many starts and stops, I have recently been doing Slow Burn workouts.

When I first started, cans of tomatoes, ankle weights and random dumbbells did the job, I was getting a pretty good workout. As I have progressed I am running into limits in how hard I can push myself with home made weights. Don’t get me wrong, doing it at home first was a great way to figure out if it was a good program for me.

Unfortunately, I have also manged to hurt myself twice. First, flaring up my knee doing modified pushups and then straining my neck doing crunches. So I have been on the lookout for a gym where I could continue my Slow Burn workouts and do them safely.

Jimmy Moore to the rescue! I learned about The Exercise Coach, from his interview with Brian Cygan. It is a gym franchise in the Chicago suburbs and they exclusively do Slow Burn or HIT (High Intensity Training). I just had a consultation and instantly signed up. Here are my initial impressions of their program and gym (in Niles).

• There was absolutely no sales pitch. They seemed geared towards people who wanted to be there, though maybe I would have gotten different treatment if I hadn’t already known about the basic principles of the workout.
• We discussed any health problems (like my knees) and made sure that I wouldn’t kill myself. It’s always a good sign when the trainer instantly understands my various issues and how to work around them. They even offered to let me use some PT equipment like foam rolls before or after my workout.
• I was paired up with a personal trainer and given a free 20 minute session. He kept an eye on my form, reminding me to breath normally and monitoring if the weight was right.
• I liked that I didn’t have to mess with the equipment. My trainer setup each machine for me, getting the angles, range of motion, weights, etc all right for me without any time wasted.
• I felt great at the end of the workout. I wasn’t sweating or tired. Though the next day I realized I had gotten a great workout judging by my muscle soreness (the good kind!).

Their program is very similar to Slow Burn but there were slight differences, not enough to matter.

• Each machine had a fan and the room was cool. No sweating allowed!
• Each set is up to 2 minutes and no mention was made of going to muscle failure. Maybe that will come later since I was getting an “beginner’s workout”.
• You take 5-8 seconds for each part of the movement, e.g. 5 seconds up, 8 seconds down.
• They use a metronome which is very helpful.

I feel pretty sold on it. It’s a workout that fits in my schedule, doesn’t seem to aggravate my joints, doesn’t play ping pong with my blood sugar, doesn’t involve sweating or the usual intimidating gym experience.

My goals are modest but I would like to build muscle, strengthen my joints and most importantly learn how to (safely) do this at the local gym. It is expensive enough (between $25-$40 per session) that it’s hard to think of paying this much long term. But well worth it for now when I really need all the help I can get.

I have been an athlete for most of my life. Though you sure wouldn’t think it if you saw me today… I played soccer from age 5 – 10, horseback riding from 8 – 14, cheer leading from 12 – 14, then varsity tennis and badminton from 14 – 18. Plus every summer I’d spend hours every day on the lake skiing, wake boarding, sailing and browning away in the sun.

I was a skinny kid, always in the top percentile for height and the bottom percentile for weight. I had serious health issues from around age 8 but they didn’t catch up to me until college. I had chronic sinus infections. My knees were blown out, sending me to PT a couple of times for limping, pain and instability. I had chronic tendonitis in my right hand and shoulder. I was in pain every day from the endometriosis. I had cluster migraines that would send me to the ER with a towel wrapped around my head. Oh and I started gaining weight, a lot of weight.

I tried a few times to play sports again but my knee and shoulder injuries just wouldn’t let me. When I lived in Seattle, I got turned onto running. I used to think (and still do) that running is pretty boring, however the pacific northwest is gorgeous, and the weather was good enough I could do it year round. So I did that for 2 years, running 2-4 miles a day. It made me feel virtuous, though didn’t prevent me from continuing to gain weight and was the final nail in the coffin for my knees. I was limping all the time now and my left knee would randomly give out without warning, taking me down hard. I felt old…

After 3 months of painful physical therapy, and a diagnosis of “stupid IT bands”, I was told that running wasn’t a great idea for me. So back to the drawing board!

After my diagnosis of diabetes and losing 60 lbs, I decided to try tennis again, since I love it and am a glutton for punishment. Every Saturday I’d play for 2 hours, turning my cheeks bright purple, sweating buckets while my arms and legs would grow pale and frozen. By the time I drove home I could barely walk and would crash for the next 4-6 hours. Turns out my blood sugar would spike while playing, sometimes over 200, then afterwards would come crashing down around 40-50. No wonder I felt like shit. I kept at it for a couple months, playing around with my protein, eating carbs beforehand, etc but no dice. I still would like to play but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to again.

I couldn’t  handle anything more strenuous than walking. Seemed like the end of the line when it came to me and exercise.

My friends over at DiabetesForums.com suggested that I try weight lifting instead of cardio exercise to control the liver dumps. I have always had a poor image of weight lifters and wasn’t interested in bulking up, drinking protein powder mixes or wearing MC Hammer pants so that seemed out. But then someone brought up Slow Burn. It’s a way of doing strength training that doesn’t involve countless reps and sets or living at the gym.

Work out for only 30 minutes, 2x a week? Easy on the joints? Prevents muscle loss and strengthens bone? SIGN ME UP! I picked up Slow Burn Fitness and tried it at home for a few months. I liked that I could do the workout without sweating, joint pain or a huge investment in equipment. It also didn’t screw with my blood sugar, which was a big win. So I have been doing Slow Burn 1-2x a week since September. I think I have reached the limit of what I can do safely at home, and am trying out a new program. More on that in my next post.

I don’t have some overarching “today I learned” platitude. Just sharing my rocky journey with fitness and blorpitude.

I recently shared my revelation that how I spread out my day’s protein across my meals really does matter. What I didn’t mention was how to figure out how much protein you should be eating in a day. Oops! My mistake. :)

Check out Calculating Your Protein Requirements for step by step instructions. Here are the highlights:

• No matter what your diet is, your body has a fixed requirement for protein. It is not a percentage!
• Multiply your lean body mass by 0.8 to find your minimum requirement in grams. If you are active, or building muscle, go with your lean body mass in grams.
• On average, 1 egg or 1 oz of meat has about 7g of protein.

So go forth and eat steak!