Food Sober Christmas 2018

Hello All,

I'm having fun with my family, friends, a little bit of time off work now, more later.

My weight is stable, yet high in the maintaining range. I don't really regret yesterday's salty BBQ. Not sorry. LOL. So meaty, so good.

Firehouse Ribs, San Clemente, CA. 

Christmas dinner with the fam bam, 2018.

Here's to abstaining from known trigger foods, having fun and living life free and clear from food addiction. This is my 8th year of food sober living. It's so worth abstaining from my food triggers.

Here are some cool holiday photos. Christmas in Southern California is different from Indiana. Play this song if you are a Hoosier celebrating outside the great state.

Here's what we do in So Cal for Christmas. There are plenty of opportunities indoors and outdoors that don't involve putting food in your pie hole.

Hang a wreath on the life guard tower, Laguna Beach 2018 

Check out the King Tides while staying safe on a cliff trail, Terra Mar Carlsbad, 2018

Check out the big surf, safely, watch for sneaker waves, Moonlight Beach, 2018

Decorate a tree, beach themed.

Cool sunsets and photography with the family.

Dana Point, CA Dec 2018

Eat, yes but hey, low carb, keto, Paleo, Carnivore. Dial in your own food template; the outcome Lean, muscular, and binge free during the holiday. Find what works, do that. Leave the binge brain excuses behind.

Choose wisely what you put in your body. Thoughts, food, physical and mental health.  Keep what works, leave the rest behind.

Happy Holiday's, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Here's to your own food sober living. 

Don't let the food pushers get you down. 

Slight change in food choices along with 18:6 or 16:8 fasting for the WIN Dec 2018

Here's that update, Dec 2018.


I'm getting better and better satiety signals. Whoooo, hooo!!!!! I've gone 45+ years without them, so I'm done getting mad when I do get them (why, why now? What the heck??)


The likely root cause:  That extra ghrelin gene expression I've had since the age of 6, coming out to play. Ghrelin is a hunger hormone. This SNP is one of many, so it does not act alone.

So why, why after all these years? Who knows. But I did stumble upon some very small food changes, along with early time restricted eating 18:6, or 17:7 or 16:8 work out great for me.

The food changes are these

1. Prioritizing Red Meat

Yep! Ribeye, ground beef, beef ribs, top round (leaner), chuck roast are all my favorites. I feel so young and good and thin when I eat meat. #meatheals  Indeed. I'm not carnivore, however red meat is super great for my mood, my attitude, how I feel health wise, and for my gym strength.

For me, red meat is essential to health, wellness, and weight maintenance.


2. Prioritizing meat off the bone- chicken thighs, drumsticks and sometimes wings, along with bone in ribeye, beef ribs

Thank goodness for the air fryer. I've become an expert on cooking bone in, skin on chicken thighs.

3. Animal Fat for cooking at higher temps I still use olive oil for dressings, but for cooking high heats- stir fry, getting a good sear on meat, etc

• rendering extra fat from cooking ribeye (I cut off the extra if there is a nice fat cap)
• grabbing the chicken fat from cooking thighs in the air fryer
• or pouring off lard from occasional baccon (I don't eat much but prefer lard in some meals)

DON'T worry, I'm not butter chugging here, just normal amounts for cooking

4. Adequate plants- the ones that I know don't jack up my glucose or gut.  Too many veggies and my colon is wrecked. Pain, bathroom troubles. bad stuff.  Too few and I get weird GI stuff. 

Veggies, Cooked or raw, but some volume with the meat seems to help with my hungry or full signaling, so volume. Big assett salads work for me, too. 

Sometimes more, sometimes less. I'm still at 27-50 grams total of carbs per day. 

• Kale, cabbage, broccoli, broccoli slaw, Brussels Sprouts
• Carrots, Red bell peppers, onions, garlic
• Occasional jicama, beets, lemon slices, lime slices

Beef Brisket, spring mix, broccoli, peppers, cabbage, beets

Onward and keep doing what works.  I'm 99% Neanderthal in my 23 and Me. Not too hard to imagine #meatheals for me. 

Glad to be rocking the heck out of my n=1. Here's to making your own best weight maintenance.

What didn't work in the past

0. I ate constantly- morning, noon, afternoon, evening, bedtime. Food addiction SUCKS!

1. Being afraid of red meat because I thought it would give me cancer- not true for me

2. Only eating non meat subs- like tofu. Oh, I felt terrible after I ate these.

3. Pretty sure that lard was going to clog up my arteries. Had I looked at my hs-CRP of 6.8 I would have figured out it was all those low fat, heart healthy grains that put me at risk. Sigh.

4. Not taking my glucose after eating potatoes, rice, and other starchy foods that put me at risk for type 2 diabetes. Measuring glucose 2 hrs post was super key for me not being a diabetic. 

8 years of Food Sober Thanksgivings- Keep Calm and Weight Maintenance ON!

It's my 8th year of Food Sober Living and Food Sober Thanksgiving.

Keep Calm and Weight Maintenance ON!!!! (#KCWMO)

I'm also taking David Garcia's Thanksgiving pledge. (link) He's been #KCWMO longer than I have.

A lot has changed. But my clothes have not. Still wearing my size 6 revenge pants.

Not dead yet from eating red meat. In fact, I'm living my best life ever. Lowest amount of pain, allergies, acne, and illness. So glad I figured it out, never would have thought I'd be aging in reverse.

You'd better bet I'm going to have a big plate of beef brisket, salad greens, and some 85% chocolate on my plate. And, yes, my clothes will still fit. 8 years of it. Love it.  Eggs and Kale for breakfast. Will probably make some bacon, too.

I'll be fasting after 2pm. Keeps me lean.

Keep calm, weight maintenance on #KCWMO

One thing that I still have to remember, since I've been food sober so long, is that I am still a food addict in recovery. I can still fall prey to my own slippery slope thinking.

So to my brothers and sisters who abstain from their binge triggers, please know that you are not alone. I will be abstaining again, for the 8th year in a row.

Thankful for all that I have and for my commenters. Thankful for thinking for myself and good risk assessment tools. A life better than I could ever imagine.

Thankful for the ability to take long beach walks!

Fall 2018 Challenges in long term Weight Maintenance- an example of a 10 day gain, and plan to return to normal

Here's my Fall 2018 Change (temporary spike in the scale)

Challenge: My weight wants to come back. I will not let it.

Normal stuff: I had a touch of something- probably viral, could have been a mild UTI but now it's gone, feeling better but my weight spiked a couple of pounds, and now I return to my cruising weight.

Challenge was I wanted to drop a pound or two.  I get what I get. I do not throw a fit.


What works:
I do manage my food and thoughts. I track my weight.

I wait for the root cause to be dealt with ( in this case sleep and time, and food and scale monitoring.)

Outlook: I expect to be back to 120-122 level here in the next 10 days.

What didn't work in the past: 
As a food addict in recovery, at Halloween and now Thanksgiving, I could have used it as an excuse to go back to food addiction. 

I don't sit there and cry about it. I Keep Calm and Weight Maintenance ON!   KCWMO.


Keep calm and Weight Maintenance on!  Let your root cause analysis determine risk, actions, corrections, and any preventive measure.

Calming Sunset, Carlsbad CA 92011

Tortitude from the IKEA Winter Cat House

Next post, I've had a small change in eating, so I'll be talking about that.

Hope you are staying within your Food Sober living parameters this Thanksgiving. This will be my 8th food sober Thanksgiving. Loving it!!!

New Cholesterol Guidelines 2018- What is an Artherogenic diet and more important, what is MY risk, whatever works!

If you don't read my whole post, read this tweet thread
(I'll repost with screenshots if the emedding doesn't work)

*Edited to update TG/HDLc ratio- (correcting ratio)
**Edited to update pattern A (outdated biomarker, but still on my lab work)

What’s an anti-atherogenic diet? https://t.co/YONSRjGdlv

— Ethan Weiss (@ethanjweiss) November 10, 2018

Q. “What’s an anti-atherogenic diet?” A. “Whatever works” 😳

I’m guessing it will take far more than a million dollars to answer this. Probably several billion, possibly much more. Certainly this is a question worth answering given the impact of heart disease on human health.

— Jake Kushner MD (@JakeKushnerMD) November 11, 2018

Where I stand as an interested party in cholesterol guidelines

My History, so I can assess my own risk. 

My opinion: YO! Dudes and Dudettes, risk assessment will help with decision making. And, I can ask or pay a small amount for a second opinion to top experts, with the most current info and are used to seeing people like me.

If you are accessing your own risk, then making risk based decisions = You are winning at life.

The details: long story

Before 2012
A. Perfect lipid panels while obese-

•  40 years of obesity and yo-yo dieting. 
• 20 years of WW style low fat dieting,
• f requent and painful binge eating sessions
• Nearly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (corrected by diet and fasting before diagnosis),
•  borderline high blood pressure, 
•  had to get off birth control pills to bring down blood pressure, still higher 
•  Hashimotos disease at age 31. 
•  My hs-CRP was 6.8. 
• My HA1c was 5.7
• My fasting glucose was 90-100's
• BMI was 35!!!! 
• Massive joint pain
• Frequent migraines to the point I missed work and travel.

DANG, the visceral fat tells a story

May 2011, perfect lipid panels!

B. SNP's: I have that 23NMe report with Promethease , so I don't shy away,

Genetics that code for

• multiple SNP's for childhood and adult obesity
• multiple SNP's 2 diabetes,  
• joint pain with statins, 
• poor outcomes on statins, aka- likely not effective
•  low cardiac risk, no family cardiac history, 
• one grandparent with stroke and high blood pressure. 
• Some funky gene SNP's that lend them selves to good outcomes with 16:8 fasting.

Now, I have to figure out what to do: Meds or No cholesterol Meds? LCHF? Fasting or no?

As most of you know, I'm a cholesterol hyper responder. Three of my cholesterol values run higher when I fast and when I eat Low Carb and fast 16:8

So I run high
1. Total Cholesterol
2. LDL
3. HDL


While my other bio markers are low and have gone lower or favorable.

4. low Triglycerides
5. favorable TG/HDLc ratio *
6. low Fasting glucose
7. low HA1c
8. low BMI
9. low Resting heart rate
10. normal Blood pressure
11. clothing size 6, petite
12  Joint pain super low, no ibuprofen in a year
13. No migraines after a 30 year history
14. Little or no binge urges after binging 40 years
15. 0% coronary calcium scores
16. Normal carotid medial thickness and vascular screening
17.  **Pattern A Lipporotein
18. Normal Lp (a)

October 2018, loving low visceral fat life

No one can assess risk except you ,with your doctor's help and some second opinions and biomarkers and imagining tests. 

• statins, no statins
• low carb, low fat
• abstain from sugars & grains, moderate all foods
• migraines (no meds) or eat migraine triggering food (cover with meds)
• skinny jeans vs XL stretchy pants

Hmmmm.  That's my N=1. Do your own. It costs me $130 a doctors office visit. Can you imagine my personal finance situation if I had stayed obese? Not to mention the many prescriptions I escape. I can cover my thyroid meds easily- I would have been on 5-10 other meds had I not changed up my situation.

Good risk based decisions means health outcomes I can live with , day in day out. 

Onward and here's to using good tools, new reference ranges, and getting second opinions as needed.

Time go get comfortable with personal risk assessment, decision making, and life in general. I can await and donate for new cholesterol reference ranges. I'm sitting on weight maintenance island. Waiting with and for others.

6 years and 8 months in long term Weight Maintenance- Holding steady!

May 2011 before, after October 2018

May 2011 before, after October 2018

Proof of weight maintenance!!! Beware of before and after photos. I promise I look the same or as close as possible ( camera angle and clothing matter) in these photos as I do in:

1. Other people's photos of me
2. How I look at conferences

Shenanigans on some pages and Instagram accounts with photoshop. Careful!
PS- for those of you long time readers with a good eye:

A. I haven't moved, but I have needed to grab a new photographer since my kid left for college.
B. I try my best to line up my shoes and head to give the right line up in the photos.

Yeah. I'm holding super steady in the 120-121 plateau  maintenance range.
Stats below


Time in weight maintenance 6 years, 4 months

Starting weight 187.4 lbs

Goal Range 113-125  lbs 

2017 best Goal Weight Range 113 to 116

2018 real life average to date 118.9

2018 three month average: 120.6

2018 one month average: 120.8

Current Weight  121.2 lbs

Keeping off    66.2 lbs

Age 52

Menopause 4+years

Hashimotos 21+ years

Height 5'1"

2018 Stats

BMI ave  Oct           22.8

BMI ave  Sept          22.8

BMI ave   Aug          22.7

BMI  ave  July          22.6

BMI  ave  June          22.4   

BMI ave May            22.4

BMI ave April           22.2

BMI ave March        22.4

BMI ave Feb             22.2

BMI ave January      22.2

Graphs, there will be graphs. At the end of my post

Goals November 2018

1.  Cut my fat% and eat a little bit more lean meat, mostly beef and chicken, some fish. In maintenance I eat 63% of my macros in fat. To "cut" and drop weight, I'll drop down to around 58%

of fat, trading for protein. Works

Negative side effects: I know this will increase my dry eye, but if I want to drop below the 120's and get a little leaner, I'll need to do that. I have over the counter eye drops. I'll need to use them. 

Positive side effects.: I'll feel most awesome in my favorite jeans and body. 

Exception: when I kayak or hike a lot, I switch to beef brisket, carnitas and ribeye. Because I get better hungry and full signals that way. Sometimes fueling with super high lean protein gives me bloat and joint pain, so on super high exercise days, fat is a better deal on that date. 

Your milage may vary. 

2. Food: I've reintroduced pork somewhat with good results

Positive side effects:  I can eat bacon and carnitas and short ribs while traveling and at holiday parties. I still don't eat bacon much, but I will tank up on carnitas and ribs with great results as far as satiety signals go. This keeps me food sober pretty well. 

Negative side effects:  1 pound scale gain due to salt. Who cares? I do not. Dang those carnitas were so good. 2 hours of Kayaking. Girl's gotta fuel. Yo! 

3. Fasting: 

18:6 fasting from 6am to noon as much as possible

Except when I want or need to eat. Examples, post Kayak, visiting my kid at college and I had a chance to eat at Cultured Caveman in Portland. I try to stick to red meat only or dark meat chicken if I eat after 2pm. This works best for me.

So to recap what's working for me:

1. Cut dietary fat to cut body fat, use eye drops to battle dry eye.

2. Know what I can and can't eat for food triggers.

3. Fast when it's right for me, break the fast when it's best for me.

What didn't work in the past

1. Eating low fat, always hungry. Always. I didn't know that my satiety was hormone driven.

2. Moderating all foods. Silly me, I can't do that and be food sober. I wasn't thinking and I trusted WW advise, when I shouldn't have. My fault. 

3. I ate 18-19 hours a day, a hand to mouth, sneaking snacks = fat pants earned. Ughhhhhh. Painful. Again, I take full responsibility for eating skinny cows spiked with M&M's at 9pm. Good lord. I ate like a 5 year old at a birthday party. All the nopes. Eating protein and veg is much more sustainable.

Hope you are all well and not constantly eating hand to mouth. Put that snack sized Halloween candy down. Food sober living tastes better. If you can moderate, continue. If you can't, I understand. Know yourself. 

GRAPHS below. Because fakers are going to not do this. Plus what gets tracked gets managed. 

No Halloween Candy here, just carnivore cats

Fat, A documentary! Kudos to Vinnie Tortorich and Peter Pardini - behind the scenes photos of the San Diego Filming!

I was proud to help Vinnie Tortorich, Peter Pardini and Serena Scott Thomas with the making of their ground breaking documentary during Low Carb USA 2018 in San Deigo.

If you want to help promote the cause, do these things

1. Please click through the youtube trailer
2. Subscribe to Vinnie's Youtube channel for more info 
3. Share this post
4. Share this youtube video
5. Talk about Low Carb and Low Carb USA and your own success and NSNG


BONUS!!! My behind the scenes photos and stories of Fat, The Documentary 2018
Enjoy! Helping on the first day of filming has been one of my favorite top 10 moments of 2018.

Many reasons to check out the film (releasing in Nov-Dec 2018)

Jeffery Gerber MD and Ivor Cummings are in the documentary

Jill is a local Low Carb weight maintainer, losing and maintaining over 120+ pounds via Low Carb, NSNG, and Keto. She's living the dream, as am I.  Check out Jill's Instagram, where she is very active.

Jill (weight maintainer), Vinnie Tortorich, Karen Parrott

Dr. Georgia Ede shares her own story and helps college students regain their physical and mental health. Dr Ede is also in the film. (Diagnosis Diet)

Karen Parrott and Georgia Ede, MD

Dave Feldman (Cholesterol Code) also makes an appearance in the film. 

Dave Feldman chatting to Dr. Eade

Gary Taubes makes an impactful appearance at Low Carb and in the film. Kudos for facing the heat and getting the word out. And for having me deliver key communications to VIP's. LOL. 

Karen Parrott (looking stressed out) and Gary Taubes

 Vinnie early in the morning, chatting with conference goers and telling funny stories about the room set up.

Vinnie Tortorich and Karen Parrott

 The ever awesome Vinnie Tortorich and beautiful Serena Scott Thomas. Love those two! Thank you X 1,000,000 for helping us get and stay well.

Vinnie Tortorich and Serena Scott Thomas

The many volunteers who also worked Low Carb USA, but covered for me while I was helping the film crew collect VIP's for their time slots during filming. 

I couldn't believe how much film equipment came out of this truck!

Thanks to my volunteer friends who covered for me while I was helping the film crew!

Hope you are all well. I'm about the same weight wise. Working on house projects and gearing up for a super busy fall at work.

Resource page: I'm working on it.

Early Time restricted eating super important to me in long term weight maintenance- quick update Fall 2018

I'm on day 7 of very purposeful 18:6 or 16:8 early time restricted eating. As I've discovered, my early time restricted eating plays a huge role in my long term weight maintenance.

I had a work insurance blood draw where I wanted to go 4 days or so doing 12:12 to trick out my cholesterol levels. I did, but it doesn't help me feel well or help me maintain weight.

It will take 1 month to lose between 1-3 pounds, since weight loss within my goal range is slow going.  Habit and repeating habits takes a lot of effort, day in day out. No room for slippery slope food addiction thinking. It's a lot of work. Huge effort for very little scale movement.

THIS IS my WEIGHT MAINTENANCE, long term. For me, anyway.

The results are worth it though. Long term maintenance. Clothes that fit. Rarely sick, 21+ years of only having one auto immune disease and not more (Hashimoto's in 1997).  It's like Weight Maintenance University or Grad School. LOL.

Dr. Satchin Panda talks a lot of circadian rhythms including gut microbiome curcadian rhythms, Dr. Sylvia (Secret Life of Fat) and Dr. Georgia Ede  (podcast with Daisy at Ketogenic Woman)  All of these sources cop to different variables of weight managment.

Here is proof of maintenance, even with a 7 pound gain, I expect to maintain this weight OR reverse it a few pounds anyway. I'm not sure I'll get back to the summer of 2017 weights or not. I'm well, that's all that matters.  I've got to find a new photographer, photos coming soon.

7+ years food sober, weights

2018, All weight gain

September 2018 maintenance

This cat is missing my teen even more than me. LOL. Just kidding

Tortitude

This cat is checking out the new towels, cares not about missing the teen

I've got to say: I'm not feeling the blogging so much as I transition to life with an adult vs life with a kid in high school.

It's super important for me to transition to fun, engaging hobbies ( active ones, yo!), connect with adults of many ages and families, too.

That being said, weight maintenance is woven into all my life's priorities. If I fail to incorporate my food template, my 20 tools in weight maintenance, life will immediately hand me a pair of larger pants. Oh, heck Noooooo.

Here's the fluff

Current breakfast eats

Still collecting beach glass and walking. Walking meditation while looking for beach glass is my zen.

Ohhh, amber sea glass

Turns out it's white glass. Love it!

Fun to meet new people of all ages playing Pokemon

 Off to hire that photographer to take my progress photos.

Labor Day 2018 check in, I'm still here! More summer updates coming

Here's what I've been up to the last month or so. August 2018

A. Moved kid to college far, far away.

Lots of walking on this 150 year old campus

What worked for me
1. Brought my own food in a cooler with a pack.
2. Ate from the salad bar for my two free meals in the cafe
3. I walked, a lot, and walked some more.

Karen's take away:  If you have younger school aged children and want to know if being fit mind and body is worth it for college move in: YES IT IS!!!!

Lose weight, maintain your weight loss. No elevators (that I could see anyway), lots of stairs, walking to new parent events. Lifting large boxes, carrying medium to heavy loads.

Life is for the living. Weight Maintenance is for living life well after 40 years of obesity. Moving my daughter in was busy, hectic yet very doable.

I earned this!

B. Packed my work desk to move on the day I return from vacation. 

What worked for me

1. Opportunity to clean my desk
2. Opportunity to ask for coffee brewer and a yoga mat (not sure if I'll get either, but I liked asking and holding my ground. Good ergonomics are key-IMO and caffeine makes me and you happy, happy, happy.

New cube, left handed desk, not my stuff

3. Opportunity to get away from the junk food in the break room. Guessing that there will still be junk food in the new break room, hoping that there will be less of it, less often.

4. Opportunity to answer more Low Carb questions with the same and new cube farm co-workers.


C. I played  Pokemon, Toon Blast and a few other iPhone games to keep my slippery slope thinking in check  Don't get me wrong, I'm still playing pocket frog, but Pokemon is fun, I can play it with my kid, and her college and the airport are full of poke stops.

What worked for me

1. Playing easy computer games are soothing for me and are an easy brain break
2. Remission from food addiction is no joke, so soothing with a few electronic diversions that I can easily put down and not be addicted to is a good thing for me.
3. I'll stop playing these during work, except for during my walks at work, so I can hatch a few Poke eggs.

Ooooh, a rare green banded Wingull, LOL.

Green Banded Wingull Sept 1, 2018

D. Weight Data

Highest Weight in 2018 was yesterday, Sept 2, 2018

What isn't working for me

1. Not tracking my food all the time
2. Not eating 18:6 most of the time.

I know better, I can do better. Now putting my talking head on my action body and getting to work.

Proof of maintenance & Summer brief check-in 2018

I've been off the blog quite a bit, for mostly good reasons. Okay, the Holy Fire in So. Cal was not a good reason.

Here are my excuses 

1. Proof of weight maintenance (at the top or just over my desired range and 3-5 pounds over my best range).

3 months weight maintenance June-Aug 2018

2. When the Holy Fire hit So. Cal. we all got reverse 911 phone calls and exited the building.
A spider decided to exit one side of my pants leg by biting me 5 times in a row. This resulted a 2-3 pound weight gain for 4-5 days. Ughhhhhh. Itchy.

I'm a normal blood donation (paid, IRB approved) for Histamine Release, so hey, I'm NOT taking any anti-histamines. That test is my cash cow, so I'm not going to mess it up.  My weight is finally returning to <120, which  is indeed my "scream weight".

I'm sparing you gross spider bite photos. You are welcome. LOL.

Holy Fire, August 2018, as seen from Orange County

3. Traveling soon, transitioning to empty nest. I'm so happy for "Jr Family Member"

Tortoiseshell luggage guardian, Summer 2018

4. Volunteered and had a great time at Low Carb USA 2018 San Diego- 

Standard of Care meeting Adel Hite and Gary Taubes

Traditional Poster Photo 2018

I helped Vinnie and Serena Scott-Thomas with the first few days of filming

Donate if you are able. The interviewees are my favorite people.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fat-a-documentary/x/6697619#/

I''ll be doing a separate blog post on Low Carb USA 2018. Soon!!! As long as the fires stay away.

4. Podcasts 

I have been a guest on 3 podcasts lately. Links coming soon!

Back to life, food sober living, and long term weight maintenance.

5. Home work for a future blog post. Keto Woman Podcast episode #41 Georgia Ede

Terrific Weight Maintenance topics:

Link to the podcast http://ketowomanpodcast.com/georgia-ede/

I took 2 pages of notes around this podcast. I'll blog about it soon.

What's working for me

1. Daily weighing, even though I want to be a lower weight
2. Staying safe and well during fire season
3. Dealing with a life transition as my kid goes to college, building my social life
4. Hanging with my tribe at Low Carb USA 2018, building the tribe.
5. Continuing weight maintenance education through podcasts

What didn't work for me in the past

1. Staying off the scale and lying to myself about my morbid obesity
2. Binge eating during fire season to soothe myself
3. Binge eating during life transitions to soothe myself
4. Hanging with the "all foods in moderation tribes" so I could binge eat and justify it.
5. Learning one thing (points counting" and not expanding my learning as I aged.

Onward and safe travels to all.