July 2004 Archives

My heart rate monitor gave me a nice birthday gift: it dropped the top end of my target zone from 162 to 161 beats per minute. Yay... quantitative evidence that I'm getting old!

This has gotten a lot of press in the last few days, but in case you missed it Medicare is going to cover obesity as a disease. What this means, I think, is that certain procedures, like the gastric bypass, may be covered. Now I'm all for the government trying to do something about the obesity "epidemic", but this seems a little ridiculous. I guess this is one thing I agree with Republicans on, but I don't see how obesity is a disease... there's no "cure" in a medical sense. Just stop eating so damn much and get some exercise. What I would rather see my tax money go to is more government research on diet and social issues. Take carbohydrates, for example. It seems that many people think carbs are as evil as Saddam Hussein and his WMDs. Is this really true? Not surprisingly, research from the Atkin's and South Beach camp say so. I'd like to see some more independent research on this, and have the government take an official stance on the issue. While I don't think the gov't should be diet nannies or diet cops, they should disseminate truthful and helpful information to allow people to make their own choice.

They could also look into more issues like why do people think they have no time to exercise? Can we reduce commuting times and/or work hours to make exercising part of the day? It's hard to find time to exercise when you have to commute over an hour and work 60 hour weeks. Can we teach kids good exercise and diet habits rather than cut gym and feed them fast food? Commuting is an interesting topic because it is largely a personal choice. No one forces you to work an hour or two away from where you live. But long commutes are at least partially influenced by city planning and suburban sprawl. Since city planning, zoning, and public transportation are government issues, it would be wise to see if future decisions can be made to reduce commuting times.

Patients are complaining about government certified pot. As one put it:

"It's not good," said Ontario resident Marco Renda. "I took two puffs and I put it out."

I've been reading Nancy Clark's Sport's Nutrition Guidebook for the past few weeks, and it's a great book. Since I am now at my target weight, I wanted to learn the right way to continue to eat healthy. While the audience is mainly active people, I think much of the advice given applies to "normal" people, too. For the most part, atheletes just tend to need more calories, rather than huge changes in diet. Nancy Clark is a registered dietitian specializing in sports nutrition, which means her credentials are solid, as compared to most diet book authors. The book contains a lot of factual information, but there's also many stories about her clients, too. Invariably, she was describing a client that had a similar problem or issue as I did, so I found these stories very interesting.

Part I is "Eating Strategies for High Energy" and describes the basic principles to a healthy diet. The main advice is a diet of 55% to 65% carbohydrates, 20% to 30% fat, and 10% to 15% protein. You'll notice that carbs are the foundation of the diet, not something "evil" to be avoided. Active people do need more carbs than non-active, though, since muscles easily convert carbs to energy. There is a whole chapter on carbhoydrates, going over why the body needs them and dispelling many of the carb myths. There are chapters on breakfasts and snacks, and why you should incorporate both into your diet. The chapter on protein is interesting. You always see these power athletes, especially weight lifters, consuming protein supplements, and I was wondering if this was something I should consider. I learned that protein needs, even for body builders, is not that high, and that supplements are very rarely needed. Most non-vegetarian people easily consume enough protein just by eating a balanced diet. And if you need to boost your protein, usually an extra glass of milk or yogurt takes care of the defecit. So I get to cross off yet another myth from my list, which is good because those GNC supplements didn't look very appealing, anyhow.

Part II is "Balancing Weight and Activity". My favorite chapter is the weight loss chapter. It describes how to setup a diet plan by first calculating your daily caloric needs. This part is actually very useful, even if you do not plan on losing weight. For example, if you are targetting 60% of your calories from carbohydrates, you need to know how many calories you need first. One fact I found really interesting is that craving of high sugar foods often indicates that you are not eating enough. Lately, I've been finding I have huge cravings for snacks. I've also started to bike a lot more, and I think my cravings have to do with this extra activity. Plus, I don't think I can lose much more weight, so my 1,800 calorie diet just isn't cutting it anymore. I calculated how many calories my body needs, and it comes out to about 2,600 calories. By taking 20% off for dietting, I should be consuming 2,000 calories to lose weight, not 1,800. And let's also assume that even 2,000 is not enough, since I don't really need to be on my diet anymore. Now, I'm really eating much too little. Instead of my 530 calorie meals, plus one 200 calorie snack, I could theoretically eat four 650 calorie meals a day, and still not gain weight. That's a lot more than what I was eating, and perhaps that's why I'm feeling so hungry lately. In any case, I'm going to try eating more for my meals. Not only will this be healthier than eating snacks, I tend to overeat the snacks, which means I probably consume too many calories, blowing past 2,600 on the way.

Part III is recipies. So far, I've only made the oatmeal blueberry muffins, and those were tasty! There are a few others I'd like to try as well, but I can't comment on most of them.

In conclusion, if you want to learn how and why to eat healthy, with a spin on active people, this book is great! I've learned a ton by reading it, and recommend it to any athlete. And I think that even non-active would learn a lot of practical information, too.

This article describes how Bush lied to fellow Republicans in Congress regarding the prescription drug bill. Apparently, there were 13 Republicans who would not vote for the bill, if it cost over $400 billion because, hey, Republicans are against big government, right? It turns out former Medicare administrator Thomas Scully "directed his chief cost analyst to withhold information sought by Congress about the cost of the Medicare prescription-drug bill". From the article:

It is crystal clear that the Bush administration deliberately misled Congress by arguing that its then-pending Medicare drug bill would cost just $395 billion for the first 10 years, when its own experts placed the cost at $500 billion to $600 billion.

Is there anyone Bush hasn't lied to, lately? How does he get away with this and not look like a complete imbecile to the "average" American?

I bought a new road bike over the weekend, a Specialized Roubaix. My old bike was a 7-8 year old tank of a mountain bike, and I realized I never use it off road. After trying a friend's road bike, I decided to take the plunge. Of course, as I was signing the credit card receipt, it began to rain, and continued to rain pretty much the rest of my available weekend. I took advantage of the brief pockets of sun and rode for 10 miles on Saturday and 25 miles on Monday. Yeah, I got rained on both times, but it actually felt good. The bike definitely didn't handle as well in the rain, though, so I don't plan to make a habit of that.

This thing just rides so much nicer than the mountain bike. It's less effort and I can go faster for longer. I am riding the LATE Ride this Saturday for the third time. The route goes back through the neighborhoods this year, as opposed to Lake Shore Drive last year. I love watching the sunrise along the lake shore path. If you've never done it, I highly recommend it. I may use my mountain bike just in case there is some rougher road with pot holes and such. Gimme at least a few weeks to baby the new bike.