Eating the right kinds of fat

Well, what do you know.  It is important to eat the right kinds of fat and I just found out that I don't know nearly as much about that subject as I fondly imagined I did.

Dang.

Very inspiring article in the Huffington Post: Time for an oil change
(Give it a read, lots of useful information there.)


I have noticed some of these symptoms but had no idea that these are clues: brittle nails, dry skin and aching joints.  Because of my high cholesterol I try to eat as little fat as possible and eat more omega 3 rich foods than other greasy and processed foods.  It seems that I have't identified the right kinds of food yet.

I am doing okay in eating salmon but I was clueless about walnuts and brazil nuts.  These are good for me?  Dammit, I love those and I've been trying to stay away from them!

I can't believe that I didn't know that.  I feel a bit stunned.  Pulled up.  It is really good to find out now: I can start to do something about this.

I thought for a while that I want to find out more about nutrition.  My diet is not great and I know it could be a lot better.  I'm beginning to get the feeling that my diet might actually be quite a bit worse than I thought - the lovely thing is that I can actively do something about it and the best place to start is knowing what kinds of foods to try that I haven't given a chance.

It is even better that between writing the last bit and this, I went and got busy in the kitchen.  I had courgette and broccoli stems in the fridge that were fresh, lots of onion and made steamed rice with it.  I'm munching on that now.  Nothing to do with fats (I used a touch of olive oil) but I am doing something about my vegetable deficit.

My problem is that I don't really know what tastes good.  When standing in a big supermarket it's just so hard to try and decide what I feel like. And when I find ingredients or sauces and marinades that sound tasty then I don't know how to cook them.  I am just clueless. If I do ever date again then I will need to warn the poor guy: I boil a mean pasta (just the right side of nicely al dente. A lot of the time anyway) and I'm a terrific warmer-upper of pasta sauce, but apart from that...

I had a lime and sweet chilli marinade that works well with these vegetables plus a can of chopped tomatoes. I added plenty of salt reduced soy sauce and then went to town on some herbs that I felt like: Italian mixed herbs, chilli powder and lemon pepper.  A bit of chicken would have improved the meal but that's the only negative.  I very much want to try out all sorts of flavours so I know what I like - I'll be able to shop with specific dishes in mind and I just know that that's going to make things so, so, so much easier!

I will be looking out for walnuts and omega 3 eggs next time I'm in the supermarket (I can already picture which aisles they're on) - I would add them to my shopping list, if I made one, whoops (another point for that list of: might be a good idea/could try that).  Now all I need to figure out is: what the heck is cold water fish when it's at home?

Isn't it a good thing that I like figuring things out?  Another opportunity for my favourite pastime: diving into this there Internet thingy  - with abandon!

Fun.

What does sleep have to do with weight?

What I came across today: really interesting information when you're desperately trying not to gain weight but something unfathomable is going very, very wrong. You try and try and it ain't happening.

Well, are you sleeping enough? Well enough, early enough?

I never thought to connect the amount of sleep I get with my fluctutions in weight.  Stands to reason that other things work out better as well when you get enough sleep, - but your weight?  Blimey, that's a really good point - I will definitely watch out for a bit to see how I am doing on this.

Here is the link to the article: "People who stay up late eat more, eat worse, study finds". There is the link to the source data on Obesity, a research journal, this also mentions previous studies on animal feeding times and their weight regulation.  One of the big conclusions of the present study (about humans, obviously) is that eating after 8pm increases the risk of obesity.  Who'd have thought that there's scientific evidence for this. In-ter-est-ing!

Years ago I saw an Oprah Winfrey programme where she mentioned that she doesn't eat after a certain time in the evening ("Not even a grape!"), which happened to be earlier than 8pm, and was and is way too early for me.  I would think that her work day starts a lot earlier than mine though.  I'd arrived at a 8pm cut-off time as a good time for me and I was very happy to find that I lost over a stone and a half in weight.  It took about 8-9 months.  The nice thing was that I wasn't doing anything all that differently except for just not eating after 8pm.  (Most of the time: aiming for doing the right thing 80% of the time is good.  It is achievable and that percentage gives you optimum effect and the best chance of success)

The trick is to find the right time to make the change into the new regime.  Our habits don't let go of us so easily, it takes a bit of time and effort to adapt to a new habit and stick with it.  When I had success with this (rather a while ago...) it was because I started on a Friday evening when I didn't have anything on and a whole relaxing weekend to get into it - there was no pressure, no stress from having to be anywhere or do anything.  I think I'd like to do that again: look out for the right time and then go for it.  Might be useful to make sure I have healthy food in the house and an idea of what to cook so I can do that in time for the cut-off point.  Always useful to have a plan...

The bit about not eating even a grape is to do with the acid/fruit sugar in a grape: it does a great job in increasing your appetite.  Not the sort of thing you want to happen late in the day: you've already eaten your evening meal and you really don't want to have to deal with getting hungry again.  Particularly when you had enough food...  Makes sense, don't it?

The increase in appetite is down to, I think, the effect on your stomach juices (or are they called digestive or gastric juices?  Basically, the liquid stuff that breaks down food).  Plain water is good: there's nothing in there with unwanted side effects and it fills your stomach.  Some people prefer not to drink anything with a meal, they say that it dilutes those stomach juices and makes digestion less effective, or something along those lines.  I am not sure what I think of this thought yet, I'll have to look into it a bit further.

There's another good article: "Are you getting enough good sleep?"

This also relates consequences of poor sleep as "increased fat storage" as well as "reduced insulin sensitivity" amongst other factors.  I thought the reference to magnesium deficiency was very interesting.  The problem is that symptoms of magnesium deficiency are extremely hard to interpret correctly.