Progress Report #1

So far so good.  I’ve stuck with my training schedule this week!  I’m pretty proud of myself right now!

As our goal this year is become healthier, I happened across a diet book that caught my attention and I’ve been reading it for the last few days.

Did you know that you can download free books from Amazon to read either on your Kindle or you can download a free Kindle app that can be used on your computer, your I-Phone/I-Pad, or Android phones and read the book on it?  The list of free books is ever changing.  I think it is mostly new authors that want to give their book a boost by offering it for free so that people can leave reviews on it.  Then after a short time, they change the book price from free to regular price. 

Anyway, on the free list last week they had a book called The Perfect 10 Diet:10 Key Hormones that Hold the Key to Losing Weight and Feeling Great.  It has actually been quite interesting.  Oh sure the first couple of chapters he goes on and on and on about how wonderful and flawless (insert eye roll here- for real, he actually used the word flawless) his diet plan is and how awful the currently recommended low-fat diet is and also how bad the Atkins diet is for you.  While the explanation of why these diets don’t work in the long run was interesting, it got REALLY repetitive after a bit.  But once you get past all that, I think about a third of the way into the book he starts discussing 10 very important hormones in the body and how certain foods interact with those hormones and what foods should be eaten to booster the effectiveness of those hormones.  I thought this section of the book was extraordinarily interesting and well worth reading.

In the end his recommendations came down to eating only whole foods and staying away from refined and processed foods.  Which is something I highly agree with.  And while I do agree with that concept, I found his approach a little extreme and not really sustainable to me personally.  I guess I am more of a moderation in all things kind of gal.

Some of the more interesting points he made about food were:

1.  Eat full fat dairy instead of low fat.  The low-fat/fat free version causes spikes in your blood sugar and insulin levels.  Eating/drinking the full fat version helps the food/drink be digested more slowly and doesn’t cause spiking.  Those natural fats are actually good for you.  Also don’t buy into the 3 servings of dairy a day recommendation – 1 a day for most people is just fine.

2.  Eat a big breakfast, a slightly lighter lunch, and then make dinner your lightest meal. 

3.  Refined foods like white flour, white rice, and white pasta can spike your blood sugar even more than plain ol’ white sugar.

4.  He recommended eating lots of fish and seafood.  Like a lot, a lot.  Like 4 or 5 times a week a lot.  (Talk about expensive!!!!  I don’t think we’ll be doing this.  But we might try to add it in a little more often.)

5.  He also extoled the nutritious wonders of red meat.  It has all kinds of trace minerals and good for you things in it.  BUT – your body only really needs those things about once every three weeks. 

6.  Stay away from manufactured fats.  Like all the vegetable oils, margarines, and so forth.  Use BUTTER (I loved that he said that, cooking with butter tastes so much better), olive oil, coconut oil, and other natural fats.  Natural being the most important word.

7.  Manufactured soy products are a big no-no.  Apparently soy naturally has certain hormones in it and the manufacturing process can amplify the effects of those hormones.  Stay away from things like soy milk and soy protein products.  Especially people that have issues with thyroid.  The manufactured soy products can actually interfere with the effectiveness of thyroid medication.  (Surprisingly this is not the first mention I’ve heard of this, I’ve all read about this in other health articles and magazines as well)

8. Organic, organic, organic. 

9.  Read labels.  If it contains refined flour, lots of sugar, chemicals, artificial flavors, or hydrogenated oils, it’s probably not good for you, no matter what the front of the product may claim.

10.  Eat lots of fruits and vegetables.  Add in more natural fats to your diet, like nuts and avocadoes. Eat whole grains. (Pretty common sense stuff right there)

Now, do I buy into everything that he claims and do I plan to follow all of his recommendations?  No.  If there is anything that I have learned about doctors and scientists, it is that the studies are always changing and new information is always being found.  That being said though, I do think he presented some pretty sound principles.  Namely eating whole foods and staying away from processed foods.  I also plan to try to buy organic more often, because he is right, we don’t know all the effects the chemicals used in pesticides can have and so it probably is a good idea to try to lessen the amount you eat.  But I plan to be reasonable about it.  I mean, I do love a good Oreo, and I can’t imagine that having some every now and then is really that bad.  But, that doesn’t mean they need to be eaten everyday :)  I also don’t plan to eat as much meat as he suggests.  His menu plans have you eating meat at almost every meal.  That’s just too much for me. I like meat, don’t get me wrong, I just don’t crave it and don’t really think you need to eat it at every meal or even every day.  But that’s just me.

To get the free Kindle app go here.  Once you have the app, to get the book go here.  They have now changed the price from free to $1.99, but I still do think it is worth taking a look at, even if you just read the chapter that talks about the different hormones in your body and how food effects them.  It is very very interesting.