Food Branding Hits at a Young Age

For the past few years I've been pretty disgusted during some of my trips to the grocery store.  It's not the particular store or the food selection, it's the fact that starting around age 6, my first born started asking for brand name food items.  I don't mean he wanted the Cheerios instead of the Tastee-o's (or however your spell that generic knock-off) - he was asking for crap food items by brand name.

"Mom I want Pepsi."
"Mom I want Dr. Pepper."
"Mom I want Mt. Dew."  -  AHHHHH

If I routinely allowed any of those, then it would have been understandable, but I don't!  In fact, at this point my husband and I don't really drink soda, and haven't for a few years aside from an occasional diet Dr Pepper.  Where was this coming from?  Pepsi?  Had he had this at a birthday party somewhere?  No, all the birthday parties he attended seemed to have soda in pitchers.  Mt. Dew??  Seriously!  Why does it seem that my now 8 year old is hard-wired to ask for a soda he's never even tried, which has got to be the worst of the worst for him?

Is this a test?  Is someone from the Commission on Dietetic Registration sending him scripts to read at the grocery store in hopes of catching me?  Are there hidden cameras at the store hoping to catch me at a weak moment?  Well, if so they can go watch someone else because I've perfected my eye-rolling and my firm "not in this lifetime" responses.

So I thought this would continue on, with every horrible-for-you food that was offered at the store.  Yesterday I got a pleasant surprise that really warmed my heart.  I had loaded up the boys and their bikes to go help a friend finish sanding her from porch railings and paint them so her significant other would have to eat his words ["she's never going to finish this"] when he returned home from a trip.  :)

We worked for a while and the boys got hungry.  She eats super healthy too... actually I think she has me beat by a mile in that regard.  So she made this most delicious chicken salad for us, and a sandwich for the boys using up some of the white bread that had only been purchased for recent house guest.  My 8 year old thought this was great since they have to suffer through 100% whole wheat bread consistently at our house.  I grumbled a bit and commented that, "...I like your healthy bod and I want to keep it that way.  If I didn't love you so much I would shove Spaghetti-O's in your face and not care."    ...wait for it... here's when my most fabulous moment arrived....

"What are Spaghetti-O's?"  AHHHHHH!!!  Success!  He really has no idea!  I was so giddy.  While I totally get that some parts of the country start their babies on this staple before they even introduce mashed up bananas, it's got to be one of the worst things to feed your child.  And acting as though it's nutritious in any way is just ridiculous.  Hold up!  Oh, wow they must be nutritious (insert: eyes rolling and most sarcastic voice you can imagine) they have added Calcium.  Ugh.  Here was my 8 year old brand whore with no clue what it even was!  Happy mommy/Dietitian moment.

I did go on to tell him that crap like that wasn't even fit for animals, as evidenced by the Beefaroni incident on Seinfeld.  Ah, I don't think Seinfeld references will ever get old for me.

The first part is just the feeding of the Beefarino, but the second video is the effects.  Horrible video quality, but seriously couldn't find another clip of it.  :( 

why oh why do I do what I do...

From time to time people jokingly mention how excessive my activity level is.  My favorite remark is that if I'm not burning the candle at both ends and twice in the middle I must be on my death bed.  But to be honest, I'm just one of those people that really likes to be busy.  This doesn't mean I'm incapable of sitting back and relaxing.  I do that too.  I will sit on my back deck and watch my boys run and jump in the pool, or we'll go camping and leave all technology behind.  But on a day-to-day basis I like to keep in motion.

I think this has always been the case for me.  When we moved to the west coast it seemed to get worse.  Our move to Whidbey Island, Washington was a result of the Navy base in Brunswick, Maine closing.  We were fortunate to be able to choose such a picturesque spot to call home, but I found myself missing all my friends and family.  I hadn't moved anywhere with the military, and really hadn't been outside of Maine, aside from my first three years of life in New York and then a short stint in Keene, New Hampshire for my Dietetic Internship.

So here I sat without my usual Thursday night of dance classes (and the dinner and beer afterwards), no shifts at Joshua's Tavern, and no sporadic days of work at Parkview Adventist Medical Center to cover for the regular Dietitian.  I was bored.  I hate bored.  "Only boring people get bored".  I was lonely too.  I hate lonely.  I tried to make friends, but I honestly stink at meeting new people.  It irritates me the amount of small talk you have to endure just to get to a point where you can figure out whether you want to spend any real time with these new people.  What a waste!  Over the years, incidentally, I've reverted back to my old "shock and awe" campaign whereby I say something completely intimate and somewhat ridiculous when I first meet people and then judge their expression to determine whether I've scared them (no friend potential), drinking it in (friend possibility), or invite you to hang out (BFF).

So here I sat in a new location, with essentially no intimate friends, and suddenly my husband was gone.  And then he was home for a millisecond, and then he was gone again... and let's just put that theme on repeat for the past 4.5 years.  I'd like to say this is an exaggeration.  But my family was seriously starting to think I had buried my husband in the backyard because he was never to be seen.  And my friends actually started acting surprised if they heard that he was home.  If there is a short-end of any stick to be drawn, he'll get it.  I take comfort in knowing that he is just really good at his job, and of course they want him doing important things somewhere overseas - but naturally I choose to tease him about his inability to give a good blow job or his pheromones that smell of wide open prison ass being the reason they don't want him around the hangar.  Teasing is my wifely duty, one I take very seriously.  I think it's sad when marriages lack sense of humor.  Seems dull to me.

So I started doing things.  Soooooo many different things.  I didn't want to have all this time on my hands.  I didn't want to be bored and start missing my husband - because there's nothing you can do about his job demands and missing him doesn't make it any better; it just makes you angry.

We were living in a rental house at the time.  So all my tools were collecting dust.

My eldest sister was chatting with me one day.  She had recently opened up her own salon (Oasis Salon, Presque Isle, Maine) after what... 80 years working for other salons?  Jeez, she looks good for her age  ;)   and she would kill me if she read this.  She asked if I had ever made body products.  Nope.  They kind of scared me.  I had been making candles for 5 years at this point, but nobody was rubbing soy wax on their body unless they were into some kinky S&M relationship.  They scared me because I certainly didn't want to craft something that someone didn't like on their body or that made them itchy, etc.  But I also was intrigued.  I started researching.  I researched oils, butters, herbal ingredients, preservatives, cosmeceuticals, you name it.  Clearly I had the time, so why not?  In the end I crafted a few products so she could offer her clients unique products for their lavish pedicures.  But it was a new endeavor to fill up some of my time, and Uforya.com was born, with more than enough room to grow and keep me motivated.

I applied to go back to school.  I had always wanted a Master's degree but didn't think I wanted it in Nutrition.  I thought maybe a complimentary field would be better (back when I was wrapping up my Bachelor's degre) - but at this point in my life I actually wanted to continue with Nutrition and really hone my knowledge and skills in that realm.  So from September 2011 to April 2014 I was a full-time graduate student.

In February 2012 we bought our house.  Now this was my kind of project.  It was a foreclosure that was literally 1/10th of a mile from our rental.  It has been one of my favorite projects so far - certainly keeping me plenty busy as it just needed some TLC in every room, on every wall and every floor, and then some.

A few months back now, having my Master's degree under my belt, I applied for and was hired on as the Dietitian at a senior community long-term care facility.  In addition to that I also took on a few freelance writing projects, writing up reports and nutrition tips on every topic you can imagine - and some topics that were so horrifically dumb I wished I'd never agreed to them.

Bored Now?  No way!  Quite the opposite.  I've got something I could be doing at any second of any day.  Some consider me to be Type A.  Like I'm somehow neurotic and don't know how to relax.  I don't think that's quite the case.  If I want to relax I have every opportunity, and I indulge from time to time.  It just so happens that my style of coping with my husband's non-stop detachments (deployments where only portions of the squadron leave) is a little more productive than most.

I'm not mad at someone who deals with their separation by pining for their missing partner, but that's just not my style.  I don't watch tv, aside from the occasional late night show when I'm going to bed... I <3 The Soup on E!  All these reality [garbage] shows irritate me.  I hate listening to people singing on shows just to win some sort of music contract that they haven't spent years in the trenches to earn.  I don't do much pleasure reading.  I honestly hadn't read anything fiction in years because I was so wrapped up in textbooks... that is until the 50 Shades of Grey movie trailer came out and I seriously then had to indulge in that trilogy.  Holy Crap!  I mean that stuff takes "pleasure" reading to a whole new level...  but I digress.

I'm a worker.  I like to keep busy.  And when my husband is gone, I miss a little adult conversation from time to time, which is what I occasionally use my blog for - like the most ridiculous sort of diary.  I don't do it because I think people will actually read what I write - because my life is not exactly a "page-turner".  But I do secretly hope some who stumble across it might find something they could do to occupy their time if they're feeling lonely - and maybe they'll stop pinning things and starting doing these things.  Maybe they'll see some project I worked on and think they could do that too.

There is no perfect time to start your life.  Imagine if I had waited for my boys to both be in school, or for my husband to be home to support me and grant me uninterrupted time to work on my hobbies.  I'd still be waiting... and look at all that wouldn't have been accomplished... and imagine how many useless hours would have been spent sitting on the porch watching the grass grow. 

The Dirty Dietitian

Where oh where has my motivation gone?  I find myself wrapping up my fall semester of classes and have pretty much lost all my momentum.  I'm still loving that I'm getting this degree and the material is certainly still very interesting.  I think I'm just ready to be done with these classes so I can move on to the next ones.  Big projects are coming due and a final exam next week will wrap things up.  I am amazed to find that I still have more space left in my brain for new information.  And I'm loving sharing everything I learn, though I have to remember that most people don't want to know all raw information I've put together. 

I decided, after my rant on shake diets, that rather than continue to be frustrated with the poor diet choices that others make I would instead start a little help page on Facebook.  I can post little tips each day and answer questions that people may have.  This way I can pass the information I gather along to those who want to know more about healthier eating/lifestyle.  There are a lot of people out there who want to make the best choices, but are not unhealthy enough to warrant an insurance-covered visit to a dietitian.  I've named my page "The Dirty Dietitian".  I wasn't feeling particularly clever, and figured this sort of summed up my take on nutrition education - delivery raw, crude, or "dirty" details.  Though as I think more about it now, it sort of sounds like some guy's fantasy.  Like after the Naughty Librarian would be the Dirty Dietitian?  Ah, whatever.  If I can manage to help even one person, then I'm content.

Pffffft. Yes, that's the sound my brain just made.

I'm pretty sure my brain has turned to absolute mush.  When I began my Master's program I was so excited and could hardly wait to dig into the material.  That really hasn't changed.  Every morsel I read seems to get stowed away in my now carefully categorized brain.  What has changed is the amount of detail I'm putting into all of my work.  And wow, the level of work that's coming out of me.  In my undergrad years I thought I was working hard.  I would be presented a case study in one of my nutrition classes, and I thought I was rocking the assignment if I managed to point out what deficiency the patient had.  At the level I'm at right now, case studies like that look absolutely ridiculous.  Over the past few weeks I created a case study.  And when I say "created", I mean from the bottom up.  I crafted the entire patient!  Pulled him out of thin air, developed his identity, drew a time-line of the evolution of his problem, and in the end I offered solutions that I crafted from reading the current research literature on his health care conundrum.  Over the weekend I became insanely jealous of others in my class who might be working in a hospital right now.  They didn't need to go to such lengths... they had a pool of sick individuals right in front of them, and only had to pick out the most interesting one and discuss nutrition interventions to help the patient.

Does it bother me that I probably put twice as much work into my study as some others?  Nope!  Every moment of the 15 hours I devoted to that project was worth it.  I learned a lot.  For example, did you know that if you want to convert mmol/L to mg/dL in regards to LDL cholesterol, you would divide the mmol/L by 0.0259?  Did you know you divide it by something else if you're dealing with Triglycerides since the molecular weight is different?  Was is 0.0113?  The real question is do you really need to use valuable brain space to remember this?  And how do I get my eye to stop twitching from the lengths I had to go to in order to find these conversion calculations???  But honestly, I really did learn a ton, especially about my innate desire to take that mediocre undergrad mindset and stomp it out of existence in this body. 

Leptin, the little brother of Ghrelin

Okay, so yesterday I ranted about ghrelin and importance of enough sleep to make sure you ghrelin stays manageable.  Ghrelin is what lets you know that you are hungry.  Leptin is opposing force of ghrelin.  Sort of like a little brother, it is always in competition with ghrelin.  But leptin does oh so much more.  Years back I recall a study being done with mice that showed those mice who didn't produce enough leptin were obese, and almost overnight people were trying to figure out how to gives themselves some more to help with weight loss.  Here's what we are learning about leptin.  Leptin is a hormone produced in our fat cells (adipose) that signals the brain that we are satisfied.  Leptin tries to help us maintain a leaner figure.  So, the more fat cells we have, theoretically the more leptin we are producing and thus the more satisfied we should feel.  Leptin also sends out a signal when we are eating.  So ghrelin tells us we are hungry, we eat something, and leptin tells us we are satisfied.  Seems simple enough.  The problem comes when we eat too frequently and/or we have too much fat tissue.  It seems that putting out large amounts of leptin would help us to lose weight because we would constantly be telling that part of the brain that we are satified - this is why everyone was so excited when the research first came out with those obese mice.  The problem is that the satiety center of the brain gets tired of listening to leptin yelling at it, and it starts to desensitize.  I liken this to when my boys are screaming/whining about pretty much anything and I start to tune them out.  This doesn't stop the boys from doing it, and it doesn't stop leptin from doing it either but it does make it harder to sense that we are satisfied.  So you would think we could just overcome this by continuing to send the brain more signals.  But our body is a wonderfully, mysterious thing.  While leptin is screaming at our brain, it's also working to tell our pancreas that we don't need quite so much insulin.  After all, we need insulin to process any carbohydrate we just ate, and if we're telling the brain that we are satified, then theoretically there won't be more carbs coming in and thus there won't be a need for more insulin.  You would think this is harmless, however constantly telling our pancreas that we don't need more insulin just keeps it alert.  It would be like putting a pot on the stove instead of keeping it in the cupboard - it's ready to be used even though you haven't called upon it to heat something yet.  So when food does enter our system and needs insulin to allow for utilization of all that nice energy, our pancreas has been sitting there, chomping at the bit - ready for action!  At a moments notice, it overwhelms the system with a push of insulin in an attempt to drive that nice sugar (glucose from carbohydrate) into our cells.  Too bad all that fatty tissue around our bellies makes it harder for insulin to get the job done.  Ah well, we'll just produce some more insulin (hyperinsulinemia) to bring down our blood sugar (hyperglycemia) all the while telling leptin to respond more because we are really satisfied but having trouble sensing it.

Phew, I'm out of breath just thinking about it.  Our body really is miraculous in the ways it tries to keep us on track.  Too bad we are so pig-headed that we constantly feel the need to work against it.  So what does all this mumbo jumbo above mean?  In order for us to improve the sensitivity of our brain, we are going to have to cut down on some of that fatty tissue we carry around, and stop constantly encouraging our pancreas to pump out more insulin... in other words, how about a little exercise and maybe no snacking between meals??  Seriously, everytime you put food in your system you are activating this pathway - don't you think it could use a little down-time between meals?  And... stop looking for that quick fix.  I mean really, if you're looking for a quick way to satisfy that part of the brain that leptin works with, I've heard a little crack/cocaine will do the trick too (note, I do not advise use of crack/cocaine for dieting purposes, just maybe for a hard day at work - hahahaha, okay not for that either).

A little heavy reading (pun intended)

So I'm reading pages and pages of research articles that have been done in the realm of sleep, sleep deprivation, and ghrelin.  Ghrelin is a hormone secreted by your stomach that lets your body know that it needs to eat something.  Ghrelin is complimented by Leptin which tells your body you are satisfied.  Okay, so what have I found so far.  Well, we need approximately 7 hours of sleep each night.  No kidding, right?  Getting more sleep than that and you are at risk for being overweight/obese.  Getting less than that... same problem.  But it's not just a matter of crawling into bed 7 hours before you need to wake up in the morning.  You also need to be getting quality sleep.  Quality sleep means you drift frequently from the lighter stages of sleep (stage 1 and 2) to the deepest stage of sleep (REM - rapid eye movement).  How can you tell if you're doing this?  Well, I found an application for my smart phone that senses it if you really want to test yourself.  Or if you share your bed with a very light sleeper you could ask them if you toss and turn a lot.  Movement during sleep (unless you have a sleep disorder) indicates you are in the upper levels of sleep, whereas sleep paralysis happens in REM sleep (thus you move about as much as a big rock).  Okay, so if you are getting 7 hours of quality sleep, with nice sleep waves, then you are setting yourself up for a good day with normal levels of ghrelin.  What happens if you aren't getting a good night's sleep?  Well, first thing in the morning your ghrelin levels will be depressed.  So the lower the ghrelin levels are, the less internal encouragement you have to eat.  Which sounds great... however, mid-afternoon into the early evening these ghrelin levels will spike up.  A low ghrelin in the morning lends itself to a high level at the time of day when we have the hardest time denying our cravings. 

Oh, but it gets better.  Okay, so let's say you are doing a great job getting plenty of rest at night.  This generally means that you would be on track for a great day with ghrelin showing up at meal times letting you know you're hungry but not encouraging you to overdo it.  For this next scenario, we are going to assume that you have started a diet and exercise program so you can shed a few extra pounds.  You've lost a little and are feeling good.  Now Mr. Homeostasis seems to want to add in his opinion.  Homeostatis is the body's natural way of trying to "maintain".  It doesn't like change and it wants things to stay just as they are.  In order for this guy to maintain your weight, he kicks in ghrelin as a last ditch effort to make you put that weight back on.  Ghrelin tells you that you are ravenously hungry and need to eat eat eat!!!  Everytime I think about this, all I can say is "where the heck was homestasis when I was putting the weight on????" and why didn't he want me to stay lean?  No use thinking about it now.  Just need to remember this information when you are starting to lose some weight and want your efforts to continue.  I think if you're anticipating that little push of hunger (from ghrelin) then you can be better prepared to handle it, instead of throwing in the towel and hitting up that bag of Halloween candy.

Coming soon, I will fill you in on the dirty little secret of gender differences in weight gain in regards to ghrelin.  Dumb female body!!!  For now, just "digest" the sleep and ghrelin tid bit.  It's exhausting to think about it.  Almost makes me want to take a nap (but don't since it doesn't count towards your 7 hours at night).

That's right, lit review . . .

... that was me that just rocked your world.  I bet you never saw it coming. 

You might want to picture me jumping around throwing punches in the air as I have just conquered an assignment that has been weighing on me all week.  For my master's program we have an option of doing a research project instead of writing a thesis.  Now, as interesting as writing a thesis about food recalls and 24-hour food diaries might be (bleh) I chose the research option.  It sounded really interesting and I love the idea of discovering something new that helps all kinds of people.  And bland writing about boring topics really makes me want to roll my eyes and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

So one of the first classes I have is about setting up your research proposal.  Making sure you have an appropriate idea with measureable objectives.  And for this week, we needed to do a literature review to show what research had already been done, and identify an area of need.  Normally this would excite me.  However, I don't know exactly what I want to study.  It changes every week!!  So I had to pick one of the many topics I have an interest in.  Then I had to look up current research on the topic, and put it together in a short review which read like a story as opposed to a book report with lots of quotes.  Ick.  I didn't want to do it.  It's that first sentence that kills me.  That first one that gets the mental engine to turn over and gets the ideas flowing. 

But I did it.  That first sentence came pretty easily, and it was amazing how I was still staring at a basically blank word document, but my brain had already drawn lines from my research notes to the place in the review where they would just naturally fall into place.  It was as if I could see the whole review outlined in my brain and all I had to do was to just sit down and give my fingers a moment to put it together.  It's done!  And not to pat myself on the back (which I'm doing anyway), but I think I rocked it.  I think if I wanted to choose this for my topic,  I put together a fantastic case for the research's need.

Pandora's Box

Last week's topic in my MNT (Medical Nutrition Therapy) class was pharmacology.  We read up on what sorts of drugs may have direct interactions with foods we eat, and also what side-effects drugs may have that involve our nutritional health.  So for the weekly assignment, I was supposed to look for two research articles that involved a drug of choice and discuss its effect on food consumption, absorption, etc.  While this is pretty easy to find, I didn't want it to be easy, I wanted to look at something new that I hadn't researched before.  And didn't I manage to open Pandora's box.

So I looked into weight loss associated with ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) because I had seen individuals lose significant amounts of weight when their medication for this was adjusted.  Granted the people I had seen were adults, so the weight loss might not have been as serious as it would be for a child.  I wanted to look at the kids on these meds.  The first article I came across showed significant weight loss and height loss in the first year of ADHD medication use.  The greatest losses were for the heaviest and/or tallest kids (as expected).  What the study did not and could not show was whether these losses prevented these kids from reaching their expected height/weight in adulthood.  This concerned me.  The prevalent use of ADHD meds as of late hasn't yet had enough time to show what the long-term effects are in this realm.

I investigated further.  No not into more information about what the drugs can do, but what the alternatives might be.  Along came a different study that followed kids who were newly diagnosed.  Each of these children were also evaluated and found to have very mild cases of OSA (obstructive sleep apnea).  Does that mean all children with ADHD have OSA?  Who knows, anything is possible.  So the parents of these children were given the option to not treat the ADHD, treat with medication, or treat by giving the child an adenotonsillectomy (removal of the adenoids and tonsils).  What did they find?  Well the kids who received no intervention, showed no improvement.  The kids who received medication or surgery both showed significant improvement in their symptoms, but those who received the surgery showed even greater benefits over those who received medication.  Oh, and the ones who received surgery weren't having to deal with possible medication side-effects!!

This put a lot of thoughts into my head.  First, wow sleep is so important.  Look what lack of sleep or poor sleep is doing to our kids!  Second, if there is a way to correct this problem without the use of medication, why wouldn't everyone use this?  So I went to visit a friend to pick her brain about it.  She has a child who takes medication for ADHD, and also a husband who had recently undergone surgery to correct his sleep apnea.  I asked her, when she visited the medical clinic and her child was diagnosed with this condition, if he was ever referred to a sleep clinic or an Ear/Nose/Throat (ENT) doctor.  And ask I suspected, he wasn't.  The diagnosis of ADHD was arrived at with a 20 page questionnaire completed by the parents and a short visit with an over-worked physician - I imagine their circumstances for diagnosis weren't unique.  As my mind began to wander I came across one thought:  Do you remember how removal of the tonsils was like a right-of-passage when our parents were kids?  Everybody had them out.  These days it's not the case but look at what a large number of kids could possibly benefit from it. 

Now where do I take this information?  I have absolutely no idea.  I don't work at the local medical clinic.  I can't change their protocol and have a sleep clinic or ENT consult occur before medication prescriptions are given out, but what I can do is put the word out here.  We, as parents, are our child's best advocates.  A lot of people are not aware that there are alternatives for some children with ADHD.  If your child was recently diagnosed or had been diagnosed a while ago, ask your doctor about a referral to rule out mild obstructive sleep apnea.  It's just one more doctor's appointment that could provide incredibly valuable information if your child is affected by this.

Miraculous Trick for Weight Loss

Got your attention, didn't I?  Do people really believe this crap?  I see advertisements for it everywhere so clearly someone is eating this stuff up.  I truly believe it was my frustration with patients and their intense desire for a quick fix that caused me to become burned out when I was still working full-time at the hospital.  They would come into my office for some diet education, but they weren't there to be educated, they wanted me to tell them the big secret.  That miracle food to eat... the secret exercise trick that could be done in 3 minutes without sweating or getting off the couch.  Couldn't I give them a pill?  They had, after all, tried "everything"!!  I mean why wasn't the weight coming off?  They were making at least 20 laps to the fridge every single night after eating dinner.  Doesn't that distance count for exercise?  Ooooh, I was right - some of my the bitterness still exists today.

So I would ask them what they ate on a typical day, and they would either lie to me, or be completely honest.  There was no in between.  Those that lied to me, were obviously smart enough to recognize what they were eating that I was going to tell them to modify, "I only eat a salad with light dressing for the whole day."??  Those that were completely honest had not yet come to understand how poor their choices were, and thus saw no issue with 3 ice cream sandwiches after their 16 ounce steak and loaded mashed potatoes.  So we would start talking about my recommendations, the first of which was always to avoid snacking between meals.  I would get looks of desperation.  What?  What did you say?  No snacking?  But the magazine I read at the grocery store said to eat 5-6 small meals and the lady on the cover has lost weight!  I believe I had one outpatient that actually followed this advice and reported back to me about it, because she had lost weight.  The rest were not strong enough to craft their meals to be satisfying nor could they avoid the temptation mid-morning and mid-afternoon.  Why no snacking?  Well, if we give our bodies and opportunity to use stored fat for energy... it will!  If we eat every time we have a little dip in our blood sugar, then it doesn't need to use the stored fat because you're shoveling more energy into your mouth.  Plus, we can only fit a certain amount of food in our bellies before we feel uncomfortable.  So if you filled up your stomach at your meal, the odds are you would be eating less total calories than if you ate some at your meal and then added in snacks. 

When did we become such weak individuals?  There are so many things that play into whether we gain, lose or maintain our weight.  Food and exercise are two of the primary things we do have some control over so why are we unable to make the right choices?  Why are we so quick to choose surgical procedures?  Liposuction?  Honestly, those that look at this as an option are typically too large to utilize this for the type of results they want.  You can only remove so much volume before you have major life-threatening issues.  Gastric bypass entered the scene a while back, and actually is a great option for those who were morbidly obese or with co-morbidities like Diabetes.  This has become one option that has improve life-expectancy and health for those patients - but not without huge lifestyle changes and occasional complications.  Gastric banding entered the scene afterwards. 

Now what is the difference?  Gastric bypass is cutting and stapling the stomach.  The intestine is then re-routed to a new outlet from the stomach.  The procedure creates a smaller stomach pouch, and also removes a portion of the small intestine from the digestion line.  It works because you can't eat as much at one time, and you have to think harder about eating methods and your food choices.  Eat too much?  You'll throw up.  Eat too much sugar?  It will dump from the stomach into the intestine and you'll start sweating and feel like you're going to pass out.  Manage your diet well?  You'll lose weight because you're eating less and you're missing that part of the intestine, thus causing some malabsorption.  Gastric banding?  Honestly, my least favorite.  Still a surgical procedure, where they essentially put a belt around your stomach.  Shrinks the available size of your stomach, but is completely reversible as no cuts are made.  No removal of part of the intestine, so no malabsorption.  With gastric banding, they have made it so you can't eat as much at one sitting, so weight loss occurs because you are eating less.  What?  What did I just say?  "Weight loss occurs because you are eating less."  Holy crap!  It's a miracle!  You are forced now, to eat less, and weight loss happens.  Imagine if we could toughen up and do it on our own?  Would we get the same results, without an expensive procedure?  YES!!!  What's the difference?  If you make the changes on your own, you'll stick to it.  If you have the procedure done yet don't make changes in your habits, you will lose weight initially, but the stapled stomach can stretch back out after a few years and the lap band can be removed, and then what are you going to do?

The rewards are sweeter when we toughen up and make those hard choices.  Is it a long road ahead of you.  Most definitely.  But so worth it.

Halloween Treats - The "Fun Size" Candy Bar

Ooooh, I love Halloween.  My pants don't, but for some reason I can convince myself that eating a dozen fun size snickers bars isn't really like eating a couple regular size ones.  I recently heard a story regarding the use of a small candy bar that is going to make it impossible for me to eat these in a couple months.  First let me throw out a little background nutrition information.  There is a growing incidence of Diabetes in this country.  Type 2 (previous called "adult onset") is expanding exponentially, to the point where adolescents are being diagnosed.  Type 2 diabetes is preceded by insulin resistance where if left unmanaged will lead to an individual's inability to maintain regular blood sugars.  The next step may be an attempt to manage it with changes in diet and exercise, but a large number of people are not identified early enough and often have to start taking oral medications immediately.  Some have let it progress too far, or the oral medications are no longer effective, and find themselves with daily insulin injections.  Okay, so for people who are maintaining their blood sugars with diet/exercise and/or oral medications the risk of running a low blood sugar is minimal, whereas those who take insulin injections need to be more careful and be sure to adjust insulin levels depending on what foods they are eating and when exercise is being done to avoid this.  Alright, enough with boring background crap.

So my friend tells me this story of 30-40 year old man who was told that since he has diabetes (we are assuming non-insulin dependent based upon his physical makeup and age) and is doing some extra exercise, he needs to be careful to avoid a low blood sugar.  In an attempt to prevent going into a diabetic coma (highly unlikely with non-insulin dependent diabetes) he must carry around with him a ziploc with a little tube of lube and a fun size candy bar.  He informed my friend's husband that if he passes out, they should turn him over and insert the candy bar into his colon.  ............  pffffft....  Excuse me a moment, I had to get a good laugh out again about this.  He was dead serious!!  He claimed his doctor had told him to follow this procedure.  My friend is going to school for nursing and had never heard of such a thing, but she wanted to see what my response was since I had worked with so many diabetics.  My initial response was to wonder why he needed the lube.  I mean really, if you're inserting a chocolate bar, like a Twix, won't the chocolate melt and become easy to insert?  Next I wondered who was going to step up and handle that particular task if this guy passed out.  And on top of that, was someone going to shove this tiny "fun size" treat all the way up to jejunum (small intestine)?  It wouldn't be as simple just popping it in his butt?  Your rectum doesn't do much, but put stuff out, and your colon (next up the line) isn't going to absorb carbohydrates.  Finally, if someone is passed out because of a low blood sugar, the first thing you want to get into their system is some pure high-octane sugar.  You don't want a candy bar because it has a nice combination of carbohydrate, protein and fat (which slows down the absorption rate of the sugar).

Take home message??  Sometimes your doctor might have a sense of humor and it helps if you do to!  Oh, and if you have diabetes and you want to carry around something in case your blood sugar runs low, how about some Gluco-Tabs or Glucose Gel packs - not a sandwich baggie with a Milky Way and lube.

Me in 1200 words or less?

As I started setting up my blog, this was my first hurdle.  How can I possibly describe my experiences and my thought process in a way that might make people feel a kinship to me?  And then how could I fit my experiences into 1200 words?  Well, I can't.  I suppose I wouldn't have started a blog if I had as little as 1200 words to say about anything.  Then I wondered who would want to read what I had to write?  I'm not a celebrity or the CEO of a major company.  Just a regular girl.  I have two boys, ages 3 and 5 (which I'm sure will provide a large amount of material for me to blog about).  My husband of 6 years is on active duty in the Navy and presently deployed.  I am the owner/operator of West Road Soy Candles as well as Uforya Body.  I was raised in MidCoast Maine and attended the University of Maine where I received my degree in Nutrition.  After graduation I worked as a Dietitian for 7 years and bartended on the weekends (which is how I met my husband).  I currently reside in Washington State and am about to embark on my Master's in Nutrition program in two weeks (eeeek!).

Wow, so I guess I have a little bit of a resume.  So what can you expect from a blog written by me?  I'll be honest.  There really isn't anything I won't discuss.  Takes a lot to make me blush and I haven't come across many topics that I shy away from.  My primary purpose for the blog was a daily outlet for me.  With my husband gone, I find that I observe a lot of different things over the course of a day and then have no one to share them with - preK boys don't want to listen to what I have to say unless I use the word "poop" a lot.  I would like to empower other military spouses to be strong individuals while still being great supporters of their loved ones.  I want to help people who want to take something they love to do and create their own small businesses (love a good entrepreneur).  I want to share my quick wit so that others can find the humor in every situation, because anyone who knows me is well aware that I can't take anything seriously.  Finally, I want to talk maybe just a little here and there about Nutrition, because it is a big interest of mine. 

Well, I think that's a good start.  Doesn't really let you know all that much about me, but I like a little mystery.