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.

Relentless Positive Mental Attitude

Yeah, I know: PMA sounds like one of those - yawn - way over-used phrases that ought to get consigned to the dustbin never to see the light of day again.  I mean, come on: positive mental attitude?  There used to be scores of self-help gurus who kept spouting that and all sorts of nonsense that sounded good but suffered from the cotton candy syndrome.

That's what I call the stuff that looks utterly tempting, but as soon as you get your teeth into it... it just disappears into a sickeningly sweet coating on your teeth.  All style and no substance.  Nah, not for me thanks.

But there's a lot to be said for a positive outlook and in general terms: attitude.  How you look at things can make a huge difference.

I sometimes run around utterly grumpy and wonder why nothing will cheer me up.  Everything that happens seems to be designed to get on my nerves and get me down even more!

On those days it takes me a while (yeah right, if I stop to think) to realise that I'm impersonating negativity itself.  You could paint my world in sunshine, pick me up in a bear hug and twirl me around and it would, probably, not make a difference... (Hm, maybe a nice old hug would make things lots better).

There is one thing that I got myself into the habit of thinking positively about though.  That positive attitude does seem to stick whenever I think about it too.  A really good thing!



About 4-5 years ago I found out that I've got high cholesterol and need to reduce it by about 20%, just under.  At the time I was a week away from the major endeavour of moving house and really didn't have the head space to deal with this.

I made a conscious decision: I would put it off by two weeks and properly look into it then.  The GP surgery had given me a one page hand-out which wasn't hugely helpful (it quoted the outdated wisdom about eggs, if I remember correctly) but at least told me that I needed to avoid foods high in fats.

Saturated fat and trans fats in particular as I learnt later.  I think I managed to stay away from deep-fried items for the two weeks.  A good start.

There was a slight bit of misinformation I was initially given at the time: that the maximum cholesterol value was 6.5 (I was over by a bit) but I was then told the correct information: this value is 5 (in the US and continental Europe a different system is in use which, I believe, sets this maximum value at 200.  Oranges and lemons).

I wasn't unduly worried to begin with (because of that 6.5 figure) - a couple of weeks later I started to research the subject: online and a couple of books.  I found some useful stuff online, in particular a table of foods showing three categories: eat a lot of this (i.e. fresh vegetable etc), only eat those occasionally and the third was: avoid like the plague if you can (deep-fried stuff, innards, everything that's high in fats - all those beige looking, greasy items).

That was very useful.

Initially I found it annoying that I had to learn a whole new way of shopping: you can't just go up to your old favourites and chuck them in your shopping basket - you need to look at everything and check.

There was one thing I decided early on: I wanted to establish 'good habits' and not set myself up for failure by adopting the 'oh well let's eat the right stuff some of the time, but in reality stuff myself full of all the wrong stuff' - because, you know: it's a treat.

Except it isn't.

I had wondered, before that diagnosis, why I would feel particularly out of sorts, sluggish and frustratingly low in energy.  I would be hungry, pace up and down to try and think of what I wanted to eat but on investigating the cupboard find that nothing appealed.  There would be a lot of biscuits, crips, crackers, cakes, muffins and all sorts of other greasy foods.  If you can't check if an item is high in fat: if it leaves a bit of a coating on your fingers (like a biscuit or shortbread does) then it's high in fat.

None of those appealed.  The reason being: those high in fat foods were responsible for making me feel so sluggish - my cholesterol level just doesn't welcome more of the wrong foods, my body is craving the kind of stuff that's good for me.

Foods like: oats, avocado, fresh vegetables (let's not count potatoes though) and fresh fruit (I'm not keen on grapes and pineapple though) and there are others but I'll have to look them up again.

I think my cholesterol is a blessing in disguise.  I did mention that I was going to write about Relentless Positive Mental Attitude, right?  This is it.
When you think about it: it is a blessing in disguise.

What good are foods high in fat to you?  They are very "good" if you were a goose that's being fattened up to make fois gras.  That's the only reason: high-fat foods result in fatty livers.  Yum.

I would like to be slimmer than I am.  I specifically do not want to be a size zero nor anything approaching that.  A UK size 14 is my goal - this is the average size in this country and it would do me very nicely, thank you very much!  I am still one or two (more like two, sigh!) away from that, but I do see that as a gradual thing that I am moving towards.

And my cholesterol is helping me with that.  I do not want to feel low in energy and sluggish, I want to be slimmer because it would make me feel good about myself and very happy at my achievement.

So really, there's no need to get upset that I inherited familial cholesterol (Yup, it's the parentals' fault!) - I can most definitely see it as a good thing.  Avoid wrong foods, eat more of the stuff that I should, reduce my cholesterol, slim down, get very, very happy!

That's the ticket.

Just to add: I have had a couple of blood tests since the initial diagnosis.  I was told both times that my cholesterol level had come down and whatever I was doing was working: so keep doing that!  I may have to consider medication if my progress doesn't keep up, but so far so good.

Please note that I am not an expert in anything and please make sure you get proper medical advice if you suffer from high cholesterol or are overweight.  I would hate to be the cause for problems.  I just feel that a positive outlook can change the way you look at something, and that in turn may make it easier to follow a healthier lifestyle.

Please take everything I say with a huge pinch of salt and check it out for yourself.

I would love to hear from anyone about their experiences with high cholesterol.  And I just reminded myself that I need to get another test for an up-to-date reading.

The above image is from a site called EFN Your Health and Fitness Guide, and an interesting article: Good cholesterol can lower Alzheimer’s risk, worth a read!