Set Point vs. Settling Point
UPDATE – This post is no longer in line with my thinking in some ways. See newer post.
I overheard a young (and overweight) young man complaining that he had been having trouble losing weight. His slightly less overweight female friend suggested that his body might be thwarting is fat loss – that his body has a natural “set point” and that any attempt at straying from said point would be futile.
This idea seems solid on the surface, but as I hope to show, it’s a little off.
May 26, 2011
Garbage to Infinity
Warning: This is going to be one of those boring posts without any links to research or awesome graphs. Take comfort in its brevity. *I wrote this passage before this post became a rambly mess. Apologies.*
I don’t have much issue sticking to my diet – most of the time. So far, the only time I’ve had trouble is when I let myself off the hook ahead of time. Just this last weekend, I was visiting my parents and I was planning to loosen up a little bit. That little turned into a lot (a few beers, a few oz of m&m’s, and some frozen yogurt). I should have avoided the problem by making clearer plans. I’m not about to beat myself up about it, because it’s not worth the stress.
Instead, I’ll use it as a learnable moment, which works out great, because it happens to fit the standard spiel I dispense whenever the subject of adherence arises.
May 25, 2011
Manic Monday: Propaganda from Your Friendly Neighborhood CAFO
Way back in August, The Girlfriend and I were looking for grass-fed beef at a local grocery store. The butcher was kind enough to pass on a little propaganda pamphlet from the CAFO that supplies most of their beef. The front of the brochure pictures cows grazing on a gorgeous grassy hillside.
The back page offers a much smaller picture of cows at their actual facility:
Am I the only one who finds this a bit misleading? It seems like blatant cheating to me. They know that customers inquiring about grass-fed beef are interested in naturally raised cows, so they give you a big picture of some right on the front, implying that their cows live a life somehow comparable to those grazing on verdant pastures.
May 23, 2011
Self-Diagnosis: Recent Headaches
On Saturday, my workout started very successfully, with a Deadlift personal best of 400lbs. Then I got a brain-crushing headache that cut my workout short. The headache set in during my first heavy set of bench-press, with such force that I had to sit motionless for over a minute before I felt it was safe to walk. It lasted for the next 10 hrs and felt a lot like my only ever clinically diagnosed migraine (back in 2003).
2 comments May 18, 2011
Manic Monday: Low-Fat Faileo
This one will be quick because, frankly, it’s been addressed before, and I just want to pass on some key info.
“Faileo” is a pretty popular buzzword in our neck of the woods because it refers to a very common failure of the newly indoctrinated dieters among us; the mistake of eating paleo without the fat. Unfortunately, this particular mistake is bound to happen, considering the lipophobic society many of us have grown up in.
Melissa McEwan of Hunt.Gather.Love had a great post on this last year – another reason this will be short.
1 comment May 16, 2011
What’s Being Said