r u l y

It’s the last day of April and time to check in on my weight maintenance progress as well as recap the last two-months of posts focused on diet and nutrition.

You may recall that my theme word for the year is “routine.” Without intending to figure out a diet and exercise routine that works for me, that is exactly what happened over the last two months. You may have noticed that I didn’t post a routine checklist for April. Because my mind was so focused on maintaining the weight loss I had achieved in March, I didn’t really feel up to working on all my routines at once. I think this focus really helped me. Now in May, I really need to add back in new routines, particularly for cleaning up around the house and working on the garden, which have suffered.

Below is a blank May 2013 daily routines checklist. I changed the format a bit. If you are using these charts, please let me know what changes you would like to see in them.

• 2013-05-01-BLANKDailyRoutines

Before I reveal to you how my weight loss maintenance has been going, I wanted to combine some lessons learned with a recap of the past posts.

1) If the inspiration strikes, act on it! When I received the offer to review the DDP Yoga system, I wasn’t really planning on a big weight loss or exercise focus to my blog. I don’t know why I was so enthusiastic about the program but I am so glad that I let that energy carry me. Diet and exercise require an intense amount of self-motivation so if the inspiration strikes you, go with it! Don’t wait for it to come again at a more convenient time. It may not!

2) Hard change requires a bit of anger. The last thing I wanted to have to do on my health regimen was go on a diet. I don’t like restricting my eating patterns. At the time, I was listening a lot to Dave Ramsey’s radio show, and he always emphasizes that you know you are ready to change when you get so angry and fed up with a situation to the point that you yell out, “I’ve had it! I’m not living this way anymore!” At that point, you are ready to commit fully to whatever changes you need to make to get your desired result. I was thinking about that when I kept stepping on the scale and seeing negative progress despite my exercise diligence and made the commitment to try a diet. It was that feeling that helped me continue my diet despite changing conditions like the snowquester and to take it to the next level by limiting myself to just 1200 calories per day. And with that level of focus and dedication, I achieved success, losing first 7 pounds, then 4 pounds, then 1 ½ pounds, then an additional 1 pound for a total of 13 ½! I faced up to some hard lessons during this process including realizing that dieting or calorie restriction is something that will continue to be necessary as I age.

3) Keep perfectionism in check. It is so easy for us to want our bodies to look like models or athletes since those are the images we are faced with every day. Yet we don’t really want to make the sacrifices these people make to look like that. Portia De Rossi’s book exploring anorexia helped me to realize that the key endpoint of exercise is to focus on achieving a skill or getting better at something. Exercising to achieve a body type is almost impossible. Also, we have to be realistic about our own time constraints to exercise and fix special diet-friendly meals. Parents, in particular, may be suffering from sleep deprivation or lack of energy and may have a harder time sticking to a diet. Pick an achievable weight loss. It’s so much more motivating to hit your goal than to be endlessly seeking a goal you can’t achieve.

4) It’s the big changes not necessarily the small changes that matter. While I spent some time agonizing over small changes like using whole wheat flour in my pancakes or coloring healthy hard boiled eggs or swapping out snacks for my kids, or reviewing the difference in fortified versus non-fortified processed foods, in the end, I’m not sure these changes made a whole lot of difference in my weight maintenance.

5) It’s hard to override human nature. When I first went off my diet, I had a great time eating! I showed you the paintable Easter Egg sugar cookies I made for my daughter’s preschool class and the Matzoh lasagna and matzoh lemon cake we tried.

6) You must have a pleasurable distraction if you are going to diet! When I am not eating, I am knitting a lot more. I made Easter sweaters, have completed another project I will share with you later and am halfway through a third knitting project. I had no idea how much time I spent eating! I also spent some time bargain shopping.

7) Be open to alternative interpretations of your results. While I knew my diet was giving me success in the weight loss department, I wanted to know if it really was healthier. My blood test results helped me to realize that my diet still could use a few tweaks.

8) Even when you are successful, keep looking out for new things to try. I keep reading just about every article I see about healthy eating and exercise habits. I get new ideas all the time. I try them out, like eating more parsley and drinking green tea. I was also introduced to fasting, the latest form of dieting through Dr. Michael Mosley’s PBS series. Ramit Sethi also hosted a webchat with his personal trainers and it was eye-opening to see how many women were facing the same problems. Why can’t I lose weight? How do I get these pregnancy pounds off? The trainers made an interesting recommendation that people try 16 hours of fasting per day and noted that estrogen is a challenging hormone when it comes to weight loss for women. It was about then that I realized that dieting often comes down to a “what” or “when” decision.

9) Each person is different. My experience trying to help my husband eat a healthier breakfast was a failure. When it comes to weight loss, we are all motivated by different things and have different taste buds. It’s important to keep searching until you find a routine that speaks to you. I received many positive comments on the 400 calorie salad recipes that I shared, including a humorous one from my dad that 2 or 3 of those together would make a good meal!

10) Normal people have a lot to think about besides diet and exercise but that is not an excuse for why we can’t be successful. In our family, for example, I had to spend some time in April doing some detailed financial research to audit our accounts, get our taxes filed, review our college savings strategy, review our retirement savings plans, research ideas to improve our investing strategy and plan our children’s summer educational activities. I could easily have said that all this stressed me out and derailed my diet but I didn’t let that happen.

So now for the moment you are waiting for . . . did I manage to maintain my weight loss in April?

Yes I did! But it wasn’t as easy as these numbers appear. The first week after my diet, I managed to regain 5 ½ pounds eating a lot of Easter candy and lemon cake! I realized that something had to change. I contemplated going back on my salads but didn’t have quite enough willpower to do that. So I decided to continue with the one part my diet that was easy for me, the breakfasts. I also decided to experiment with fasting and added a one mile walk to my exercise program. So here is the “formula” that is working for me.

If I don’t do every single one of these things every single day, I will gain about one pound the next day. This program works for me because it allows me to eat what I want and the exercise is enjoyable. I love the one-mile walk because it warms up my muscles. I also have fun with my children along the way. After the walk, I like to do my 30 minutes of strength exercises right away while my muscles are still warm. It really helps with my yoga stretches.

I can maintain this diet even if I am on vacation or otherwise not in control of my eating situation. If I have to, I can bring a bag of chia seeds and mix them with water for my breakfasts. I can also switch up the timing of the fast period, etc. if there is a special feasting event. My diet does not really impact anyone around me except that occasionally they will have to accept that I am not eating and will be sipping my water. Over time, I may have to cut down the “forage period” to keep my weight in check but it seems feasible that I will always have at least one hour a day when I can eat whatever I want to. So I don’t have to “cheat,” I just have to wait!

I keep improving in my fitness and that is exciting. My legs feel strong and light. It sounds weird but it feels like it takes so much less energy just to do basic things like walk and climb stairs in this condition. My flexibility is returning. It has taken 60 days worth of exercise to finally feel like my muscles are loosening up. I even had one yoga-related injury along the way! I sought the help of a chiropractor who told me that my hip flexor muscles are too tight and that I need to work on stretches to loosen them. As I understand, the hip flexor muscles connect to the abdominal muscles in some way and as my abs are getting stronger, my hip flexors seem to be getting better as well.

Going into May, I feel confident that my new diet and exercise routine is under control and that it will take less effort to maintain what I have established. Now to tackle other areas of my organization that need addressing!

How do you feel going into May? What would you like to accomplish? Please share in the comments.

Reader Ben (also my wonderful brother-in-law) posted several comments this month on my nutrition series inquiring about how to evaluate the health benefits of foods that are fortified with various vitamins and minerals compared to natural, whole foods.

“I have been wondering if these ‘fortified foods’ are better for us, or if they have been overprocessed to the point of not being healthy. Some advocate ‘raw foods,’ or foods that have not been processed at all, are healthier and easier to digest.”

For example, the Bisquick pancakes made with white flour compared to the homemade whole wheat flour pancakes. It is a good question and one I needed to research myself.

Why do we fortify foods in the first place?

Fortifying foods began as a way to reduce public health problems. For example, iodine, a mineral naturally present in seafood, good soils and the meat of animals who consume plants grown in iodine-rich soils, was added to salt in 1924 to prevent goiters.

We now know that iodine may be vital particularly for pregnant women as it has been shown to impact fetal brain development. Although we hardly hear about goiters in the United States any more, it appears that iodine consumption is still a problem we need to monitor especially among poor populations. Some countries now mandate that iodine be added to all salt sold.

In 1943, many flours were fortified with niacin, thiamin, riboflavin and iron to prevent pellagra, a brain and skin-degenerating condition.

Since 1998, folic acid has been added to enriched grains to prevent neural tube defects in children.

Most of these enriched products appear aimed at the very poor who most likely do not take vitamin supplements or eat a healthy diet.

But what about the rest of us?

The debate about processed foods is confusing on many levels. Most of us have heard the message from various sources that we shouldn’t eat any processed foods and that we are better off eating “whole foods.” But what seems to get lost in translation is what a “processed” food is.

In today’s technology-rich world, I think it appeals to a lot of people to have one area of their life devoted to simplicity and relatively free of technology. For many people this area is food. It is easy to understand that a homegrown vegetable is better for you than a box of Mac ‘N Cheese. (and it most certainly is!) However, I think some people start to take this too far.

The case of flour is one example. You could grow your own wheat and grind your own flour (a processed food), for example. Your flour might be organic and pure and natural and all the other wonderful adjectives we can think of. But would your flour be better than an enriched flour that has been enhanced with various vitamins, such as folic acid and niacin mentioned above? Even though the enriched flour is produced by a large factory and probably grown in less desirable conditions, the answer might be that this “processed” flour is technically better for you. Similarly a yogurt with added fish oil might be healthier than one without.

*Note, I say might be, because there are factors like pesticide use and processing methods that could affect the final outcome.

What does “processed” really mean?

I also don’t think people appreciate that “processed” could also mean “cooking.” In my pancakes example, a whole foods purist would probably say that the healthiest pancake choice is neither pancake—that it would be better to just eat the eggs and milk (i.e. whole foods) in the pancakes alone and forget about making a cake out of them. We tend to deceive ourselves that just because there is whole wheat in a pancake it is less cake-like. There are some situations where cooking enhances the nutrient absorption of foods (like cooking tomatoes in oil) but most of the cooking we do probably “processes” our foods into less healthy versions of what we started with.

Recent nutritional trends also emphasize foods processed to remove “bad” ingredients, like high fructose corn syrup, gluten, and sugar. But what is amazing is the number of people who honestly believe that you can still eat the same products without those ingredients and it is somehow “healthier” for you. For example, you might buy “sugar-free” pudding at the store for your kids but when you look at the label, it generally has artificial sweeteners in it which could be just as bad for you. Perhaps you are buying gluten-free bread but bread itself is not that healthy for us and unless you have celiac disease or gluten allergy, the absence of gluten is probably of no consequence to you. Swapping rice milk for cow’s milk is not that great of a choice either as rice milk is converted to sugars in the body and has a relatively high glycemic index. Lately, a lot of “healthy recipes” I have noticed use rice milk in place of sugar as a sweetener. (For the record, I think rice milk is delicious but I don’t think of it as a health food.)

The Bottom Line

A whole foods purist would likely subsist on a diet that was almost exclusively vegetables, lean proteins and eggs with a splash of beans, nuts, whole grains and fruit. 99% of people don’t eat this way. But if you want a clear, simple, easy-to-understand guideline about what is healthy to eat, this is it.

We like our sugar, our carbs, our milk and cheese. In our family, we have come to accept that these foods may not be as healthy as we would like and should be eaten in whatever moderation we can summon. If we are going to eat these foods, we need to come up with our own hierarchy of evaluating bad versus less-bad food choices. I tend to go in this order:

1. “Banned” substances (There are certain things I won’t buy 99% of the time. Products with artificial sweeteners or trans fats are high on my list. The medical evidence may or may not support these choices but I think all of us have some things we just don’t perceive as healthy.)
2. Calorie count (At the end of the day, the calories have to stay low to maintain weight no matter what else is in the food. A low calorie count will generally only be overcome if the nutritional factors of the other food are extremely superior.)
3. Cost (Does it pay off enough nutritionally to justify the extra cost of healthier ingredients?)
4. Fat content (If it has trans fats, I will rule it out in favor of something that doesn’t. I will also go for lower saturated fat content.)
5. Dietary Fiber count (Higher dietary fiber is better.)
6. General vitamin and nutrient content (The more nutrients the better.)

Each person will have their own nutrition checklist based on nutritional needs and lifestyle choices. It is fascinating to learn what different people choose to eat and not eat. In some ways, we are all part of a grand experiment to find out what works.

How do you feel about the processed versus whole food debate? What is on your nutrition checklist? Please share in the comments.

Facebook fan Lisa commented recently to request a copy of the salad recipes that I used during my weight loss program last month. Lisa, you have no idea how much this thrills my heart! First, a comment! Hooray! Second, I don’t know if I have ever had original recipes to share ever in my life. So, of course, I wanted to fulfill Lisa’s request.

I went back through the calorie counting notes I took and compiled a list of 11 salads along with “recipes” to make them. These salads are so easy anyone can make them. It is not so much cooking as it is assembling a lot of basic ingredients in a salad bowl.

I condensed them into a one-page sheet that you can tack to your fridge for inspiration and even compiled the ingredient list for all the salads into a grocery shopping list if you are so inclined. The font is a tad small, however. If this gives anyone problems, please comment and I will try to modify it into a two-pager with bigger fonts.

• 400 Calorie Salad Recipes

Enjoy and happy eating! If you create your own low calorie salads you would like to share, please comment or link up!

It is especially hard to try to eat healthy when you have a fast-paced job requiring many hours in the office, travel and social events. As my husband has watched my diet and exercise transformation, he asked me to help brainstorm with him about what types of health changes would work for his lifestyle.

As we discussed his healthy eating challenges, we realized that breakfast was one of the main challenges. His work schedule varies. Sometimes he leaves very early in the morning to beat rush-hour traffic into the office. As he rushes out the door, he sometimes grabs a granola bar or a bottle of water but not much else in the way of breakfast.

We wanted to experiment with a portable, grab-n-go breakfast that would be healthy and filling. After some thought and research, I came across this recipe from Skinnytaste for healthy, breakfast cookies. The ingredients are bananas and oatmeal plus whatever else you want to add. You can find other recipes that are more like real cookies with sugar and butter and all kinds of yummy things added. I wasn’t looking to make a real cookie. I wanted to make the closest equivalent to a bowl of plain oatmeal.

I saved up some brown bananas and got to work cooking. I combed the cupboards to come up with 5 flavors. In some of them I substituted unsweetened applesauce for the bananas.

Banana chocolate chip	Banana walnut – the original recipe
Applesauce Raisin Walnut	Honey Almond Apricot

I counted the calories in my cookie dough and batched them out in huge cookies that were about 215-270 calories each since the idea was to have a calorie-friendly, meal replacement cookie.

I had to double the cooking time since my cookies were so large. Also, the applesauce cookies took an additional 10-15 minutes to bake to dry out the extra liquid in them and make them more cookie-like.

When the cookies were done, they looked pretty yummy.

I wrapped them up individually in plastic wrap and labeled them with the flavor and calorie count.

My husband was amused with my packaging efforts. When he saw the wrapped cookies, he teased:

Since the cookies were made of so many fresh (and perishable) ingredients, I stored 5 of them (one week’s worth of breakfasts) in the fridge and froze the rest.

My husband tried them out the first week. He said they were filling and pretty good. He preferred the banana flavored ones to the applesauce ones. I had a small taste of some of the cookies. They aren’t like regular cookies. They are not as sweet and they are dense and chewy. I like them (but I have never met a cookie I didn’t like).

However, after a few days of trying them out, I noticed the cookies sat in the fridge. So clearly, they aren’t a craveable breakfast choice. We will keep testing this but it looks like we might have to go back to the drawing table to come up with another idea.

What is your favorite portable, health-conscious breakfast? Please share in the comments.

When one person in a family adopts healthy diet and exercise routines, a funny thing happens . . . the effect spreads to the rest of the family. If that family member also happens to be the main cook and food provider for the family, the impact is especially strong.

There is a saying that children learn in 3 ways . . . by example, by example and by example. You can hardly expect your children to eat well or exercise when you, the parent, don’t.

In my household, my healthy eating habits last month didn’t really encourage the children to eat salad (wouldn’t that have been a miracle!) but it did get them thinking about which foods are healthy. They also liked to police which foods I could and could not eat when I was on my diet.

But there were a few changes my children were open to . . .

Snacks

My eldest daughter is the biggest fan of Cheerios as a snack. She loves to eat it dry. We get the plain Cheerios but even the plain variety has a little sugar in it. I wanted to switch her to something that did not have any sugar in it because I figured that must be healthier. After some thought, I decided to try mini shredded wheats (the unfrosted, plain variety). Since my daughter had seen by example all the sacrifices I had made to eat healthier, she understood that eating healthier foods was important. So, she didn’t dismiss the idea out of hand and, to my great surprise, she liked them! She calls them “crispy wheats” and all of my children enjoy eating them as a snack. What is the health benefit of this switch? Just like the Bisquick versus whole wheat pancakes question, it isn’t entirely clear cut.

Cheerios have fewer calories and are enriched with more vitamins and minerals, especially iron and folic acid. Shredded wheats, however, have lower sodium, no sugar, more protein and higher dietary fiber. For now, we still buy both cereals. If nothing else, it helps to expand her notoriously picky palate.

Veggie Pasta

For my 4-year-old fan of mac n’ cheese, she picked out herself a variety of mac n’ cheese from the grocery store shelf that claimed to have vegetables in the pasta! I purposely didn’t point this fact out to her and just said, “OK, that looks good!” and cooked it up for her. It cooks up exactly like regular mac n’ cheese. The only difference is that the pasta has cauliflower in it! We made the healthy version of the recipe on the box that has less butter and milk than the regular recipe. It tasted delicious and I noticed no difference between veggie and regular mac ‘n cheese. My preschooler loved it too!

*Note: There is a current petition in the blogosphere to have Kraft remove all food dyes from its mac ‘n cheese. From my own experience, my kids won’t eat mac ‘n cheese if it is not the right color, i.e. unnaturally bright orange. Nobody is pickier about what food looks like than kids! Note that Kraft responds that it already makes 14 different varieties of its mac n cheese that have no dyes or natural food dyes. So, there is a mac ‘n cheese for everyone!

What was the health benefit of this switch?

The health benefit is not as large as I would like but still an improvement. The cauliflower pasta has less sodium, three times the dietary fiber and is more enriched with Vitamin C, and iron. On the downside, there is more sugar in the veggie pasta and the calories are about the same. Mac n Cheese may not be the healthiest choice in general but if you are going to eat it you might as well go for the biggest nutritional boost you can get. There may be other varieties with even more nutritional content than the veggie version.

Milk

My children drink a ton of milk every day. Not chocolate milk, mind you, just the plain white stuff straight out of the milk carton. They drink soda only occasionally and rarely drink juice. Since they drink so much milk, I thought it might be a good idea to switch to skim milk from the 2% we were drinking. If nothing else, it saves a few calories for all of us as well as a few dollars at the grocery store, since skim milk tends to be the cheapest. What is the impact of this change?

The skim milk has fewer calories, fat and cholesterol but also less protein and calcium and (some say) more sugars. With the large quantities consumed in our house, the fewer calories probably has the edge for us but every situation may be different.

Recent research seems to say, however, that the fat content in the milk you feed your children has almost no impact on their weight and that, in some cases, low-fat milk could increase your child’s chances of being overweight or obese. Low-fat milk alone cannot cure other problems in your child’s diet and exercise program and full fat milk might help children feel fuller and eat less of other high calorie snacks.

Exercise

The other big change we made in our house was for me to start walking 1 mile a day with the children. My little one rides in the stroller and his big sisters take turns riding with him when they need a rest. Sometimes they run, sometimes they make me run, sometimes they skate or bike. When he can, my husband joins the fun and we all go together. It is a relaxing way to connect with the family. Since the children walk at an erratic pace, we are not going for aerobic intensity but it is helping everyone to relax and enjoy the outdoors.

Have you implemented any diet or exercise changes with your children? Do you find nutritional guidance as confusing as I do? Please share in the comments.

This month, I have been experimenting with various weight maintenance strategies to attempt to retain the 13 pound weight loss I achieved last month.

I have never had to be an active dieter before so I had no idea how to even go about this. Lately, I have been reading just about every diet and exercise tip I can get my hands on. There are so many different types of strategies and it can be very confusing seeing all this advice.

Maintaining weight is slightly different than dieting. In some ways, I think dieting is easier to plan because you generally have very strict rules to follow. But of course, no one can be on a diet forever. It’s too physically and mentally exhausting! Weight maintenance requires having more flexibility in your eating patterns and adjusting to different scenarios.

As I have been thinking about weight maintenance strategies, I have decided that it comes down to a choice between one of two general strategies:

Eat When You Want

Most dieting advice seems to focus on the “eat when you want” strategy. If you follow this strategy, your body is more driven by eating at specific times (or all the time!). So, the great thing about this strategy is that you never have to go hungry! But there is a catch . . . and it’s a big one. You have to monitor everything you eat!

Dieting strategies that focus on a “when” strategy include:

• “graze throughout the day”
• ”substitute healthy foods for the foods you normally eat”

Eat What You Want

If you watched Dr. Michael Mosley’s videos, you saw that the latest research in dieting advice is fasting. In this strategy, it is literally possible for you to eat whatever you want. Fried food, dessert . . . whatever you crave you can have! But there is a catch to this too . . . you can only eat at certain times and at other times you can’t eat anything at all!

Dieting strategies that focus on a “what” strategy include:

• 5-2 fasting and other forms of fast dieting
• calorie bunching (i.e. not eating all day then having a big dinner)

What kind of person does fasting appeal to? Me!! When I was dieting last month, I found it really sucked a lot of the joy out of life to restrict my eating to just vegetables. Yes, I got incredible results and that provided joy too but if there was a food that everyone else was eating and I couldn’t eat it ever, I could get very grouchy.

I can handle not eating if I just plan enough projects to keep myself occupied. Also, having a time limit on the fasting, really helps you get through it. It is easy for me to say to myself, “I am not eating during X time period but after that is over, I can have whatever I want!” We know that willpower is an exhaustible resource and the fast strategy puts a time limit on how long you have to exercise that willpower.

With the “when” strategy, you have to exercise willpower all the time to eat only the right foods. For some people, that might not be as difficult so long as they are getting other joys from the “when” strategy. As a mom, it is tough to do fast dieting because you end up making snacks for your family all day long. You have to keep your willpower as you smell and touch all the delicious ingredients that you cannot taste. That may be why you often hear of moms insisting on only healthy foods in the house. They don’t want to be tempted and derail their own dieting efforts.

How do you know which strategy works better for you? Look at the lists below and see which lifestyle statements apply more to you:

Are you a “when” or a “what” dieter? Please share in the comments.

In my quest this month to maintain my weight loss, I have come across so many interesting ideas about weight and health. None have been as shocking and interesting, however as these two videos from PBS where Dr. Michael Mosley investigates the latest trends in diet and exercise. They are not boring and Dr. Mosley presents the information as a grand experiment rather than preaching to us about what we ought to be doing.

I hope you take two hours to watch them both. The rest of the series looks fascinating as well!

Eat, Fast and Live Longer

Watch Eat, Fast and Live Longer with Michael Mosley on PBS. See more from Michael Mosley.

The Truth About Exercise

Watch The Truth About Exercise with Michael Mosley on PBS. See more from Michael Mosley.

Dr. Mosley has written a book to accompany the series called The Fast Diet that looks fascinating too. If anyone wants to join me in reading this for a virtual Ruly book club, please comment!

If you are a carb-lover like me, any news that avoiding carbohydrates is better for health is hard to take. Most American meals are somehow based on carbohydrates: pasta, pizza, bread, rice, etc. Eating low carb or no carb is so hard and takes tremendous discipline.

Last month, I managed to stick to a low carb diet for 30 days. It felt like a “no carb” diet because the only carbs I ate were oatmeal, whole fruit smoothies, an occasional amount of quinoa and any small amounts of carbs that happened to be in things like tomatoes, corn, or salad dressing. I didn’t eat a single slice of bread, not one bite of pasta. Hardest of all, I ate no sugars except for fruit and any small amounts that might have been in salad dressing. I ate tons of salad greens and vegetables, lean proteins like fish, turkey and chicken, healthy raw nuts, fruits and oatmeal. That was about it.

At the end of the 30 days, I wanted to scientifically quantify whether this type of diet is healthier or not. So, I had a blood sample drawn and analyzed to measure my cholesterol, blood sugar and other basic indicators of health. (It took so much discipline to eat this diet for 30 days that I was terrified some mixup would happen at the lab and they would lose the sample. Fortunately, all went well.)

I compared the results to the blood sample drawn at my annual physical a few months ago. At that point, I would describe my diet as “normal American.” It was not the unhealthiest diet (I rarely eat fried foods or red meat) but not the healthiest either (I have a weakness for sugar and carbs and don’t eat as many vegetables as I should.)

*Note: I am not a medical doctor and none of the information below is intended to be medical advice. It is only a report of my own experience. Always consult your doctor for advice specific to your own situation.

In general

Both before and after my diet, my basic blood indicators were all in the “normal” range. Likely, most busy physicians would take a quick look at the results and say, “Well, you were healthy before and you are still healthy. Congratulations!”

Looking a little more deeply

However, when you start digging in to specific numbers on the tests, some interesting results appear.

Factors Improved

So now, for those of us who resist low-carb diets, the bad news. There are several ways that a low carb diet improves health.

Lower Cholesterol

This was a little bit of a shocker to me. In general, I had been eating more meats than normal (lean proteins like turkey and fish mostly) yet my cholesterol went down! While most of us know that eating too much meat and saturated fats raises cholesterol, how many of us know that eating too many carbohydrates does the same thing?

Lower Glucose

With diabetes such a frequent health concern, we all should pay attention to our blood glucose levels. Not surprisingly, on a low carb diet, where you are ingesting fewer sugars than normal, the blood glucose level falls. In my case, it fell to the very lowest end of normal.

Decreased Bilirubin

While distinguishing differences in liver enzymes when both are in the “normal” range is almost pointless, it does make sense that when the body is having an easier time digesting healthful foods, the liver does not have to work as hard. A lowered bilirubin level generally means that the liver is functioning well.

Confusing Factors

The results below are counterintuitive to me. I am not sure how to interpret them and will have to ask my doctor at our next visit. Based on some online research, there are numerous ways to interpret these results.

Lower HDL Cholesterol

I am fortunate to generally have a positive level of HDL (“good”) cholesterol. It was interesting to see that while my total cholesterol dropped 19% and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol dropped 24%, my good cholesterol also dropped—by nearly 20%! I assume this might be related to the decreased acetyl co-A production issue mentioned above. Lowered HDL was also found in patients in this study of ketogenic diets. There is not a lot of research done about HDL so it is hard to say what this impact means. My HDL levels were still very good, even with the reduction so I am not worried.

Increased Triglycerides

The biggest shock was seeing my triglyceride levels increase by 23%! In general, you don’t want your triglyceride levels to increase as this is a risk factor for heart disease and other problems. Many studies of low carbohydrate diets only report that participants lowered triglyceride levels. Anecdotally, however, it seems that some people on low carb diets experience at least a temporary increase in triglyceride levels, which could reflect the body using fats as a source of energy. While we use terms like “burn off that fat” or “melt that fat” when we think about losing weight or exercising, what I was not connecting is that the body essentially has to process stored fat (through a process called ketosis) and get it out of the body. So, the fat has to circulate in the blood to get out and can be detected in your tests. One source I read indicated that this diet-induced triglyceride increase is not dangerous in the same way that increased triglycerides due to over-consumption of bad fats is and that the triglyceride levels fall over time as fat is eliminated from the body. I am not sure if this is a bad or good indicator of health.

Decreased White Blood Cell Count

My white blood cell count dropped 39% between the two diets! We have been conditioned to associate white blood cell counts with strong immune systems and the ability to fight off disease. So, a falling white blood cell count does not sound like a good thing! However, some additional research showed anecdotal evidence that white blood cell counts often fall when people are on ketogenic diets. Some researchers indicate that obesity and/or consumption of diets rich in saturated fats, trans fats and high glycemic index foods promote inflammation in the body and raise white blood cell counts. Therefore, when you start eating healthier, you see decreased inflammation and perhaps lower white blood cell counts. However, another study looking at ketogenic diets in children suggests that the lowered white blood cell count could also indicate a nutritional deficiency, such as Vitamin D.

Increased AST and ALT Liver Enzymes

While some of my liver enzymes were decreased on the low-carb diet, generally showing the liver having an easier time processing food, others were not so positive. My AST and ALT liver enzymes increased by 20% and 17% respectively. Anecdotal evidence suggests this may be connected to ketosis and that the liver has to work harder to process the body’s fat stores as a supply of energy than it does to process carbohydrates. Some suggest that over time, ketosis eventually results in lowered and better liver enzyme levels.

Other blood factors

I had a number of tiny changes in my blood factors that could be interpreted to show signs of dehydration and possible iron deficiency. I had never really thought much about iron before so I hope to talk about that in a future post. The changes were small but it does highlight that you have to be careful when you undertake any drastic dietary changes. Each body is different and has different dietary requirements for optimal health.

So, overall, how do I answer the question, “Is a low carb diet healthier?” I think the answer is that medical science is still catching up with popular dieting trends and the results aren’t fully understood yet. Most of us eat way too many carbohydrates and can have better health if we eat less of them and more of the healthy stuff like vegetables and lean proteins. However, we don’t need to cut out all carbohydrates completely and if we do, it might not be good for us. Eating more of the good kind of carbohydrates (whole grains) and less of the bad kind (simple sugars and candies) is another area we need to work on.

Have you experimented with low carb diets? Did you see any of the above health effects? After seeing this evidence, are you more or less convinced of the merit of low carb diets? Please share in the comments.

I made it! 40 days on an exercise routine (with 30 days on both a diet AND exercise routine)! Many people I have spoken with about my experiment express amazement for my discipline and self-motivation. Honestly, I do too! I am not sure why I was able to do it but it just seemed like the right time. I was ready for this change.

The last week of my diet and exercise program was to try to maintain my weight loss. I continued to eat oatmeal and salads primarily but tossed in a few additional snacks of nuts and dried fruit. I also was trying to clean out my freezer a bit so I substituted frozen broccoli and spinach for fresh as a base for my meals. It was just as effective and costs a bit less too.

I have decided that I absolutely love yoga! Yoga is the exercise that feels best for my body. It also works well given the limited time I have to devote to exercise due to my child care responsibilities. Yoga is a great multi-tasking exercise because you are doing several different kinds of exercises all at once.

The DDPYoga program is great because it is a unique twist on yoga. There are a lot of the traditional yoga poses and exercises but Diamond Dallas Page doesn’t get too heavy into the meditative aspects of yoga and instead pushes it more like a workout routine. There is no soft music (no music at all really) and no relaxing scenery (it is all shot on a workout stage in a studio). The people in the videos are real people who used the system to get results. Diamond Dallas Page is dressed in a relaxed fix shirt and shorts. You can tell he is very fit but he doesn’t throw that in your face. He basically steps back and is communicating that this workout is to help you the user and not to enhance his own image. He gently suggests how to modify each exercise either to make it harder or easier depending on your fitness level and encourages you to modify the routine however you need to to make it work for you.

What I think will be surprising to most people is that even though this workout does not require any running or jumping around, you are going to work your body really hard, define muscles and burn fat. The DDPYoga system is described as “zero impact,” which is wonderful because you don’t have to worry about injury and anyone of any age can use it.

Now that the weight loss portion of my routine has concluded, I have found that I really need to keep up the yoga daily to just maintain my weight. I actually look forward to the workouts (well, most of them) and enjoy how my body works and feels afterward. I am glad to have found a system that is sustainable for me and so grateful that DDPYoga sent this system to me to evaluate. What a tremendous gift in so many ways.

In the end I lost one more pound in my final week along with another 2.5 inches! (It seems once you start building your muscle base, your body naturally starts reshaping to burn fat). In total, my results were:

My body feels a lot better after my diet and exercise routine but, of course we all want to know whether I look any different! I dug in my closet and found the same outfits (yes I still have them!) that I wore about a year and a half ago after 30 days on my previous exercise regimen. I tried to duplicate the poses so you can judge for yourself.

November 2011 – just after finishing a grueling exercise routine but not dieting.	March 2013 – about 20 pounds lighter with DDPYoga and diet.
November 2011 – skinny jeans test.	March 2013 – skinny jeans test 20 pounds lighter.
November 2011. Looking pretty good for 3 months postpartum.	March 2013 – even skinnier in the skinny jeans, especially around the waist.
November 2011 – dress pants test. They zip!	March 2013 – dress pants test. They’re loose!
November 2011.	March 2013
November 2011 – Rosie tribute.	March 2013 – Rosie tribute.

I think you can see a difference! You can tell that I was carrying most of my excess weight on my belly and hips. Getting that weight off not only looks better but is supposed to be much better for health too.

But when I look at these pictures I also am glad that I didn’t beat myself up for 18 months worrying all the time about those extra 15-20 pounds and hiding from the camera. I don’t look horrible in the before pictures and in the top picture I even think I look better and less gaunt. (I also think it is time to update my makeup routine!)

Just as with all organizing projects, my diet and exercise work is not “done” but hopefully can be less intense this month. My goal is to stick with the DDPYoga system and make sure I maintain my weight loss by end of month.

Thanks a million to DDPYoga for allowing me to be a reviewer for their system! It was the email that changed my life!

**Disclosure: I received a free copy of the DDPYoga DVDs but my opinions and experience are my own.

Pancakes are a weekend staple at our house. There is something wonderful about having pancakes for a lazy weekend morning brunch. We generally stick with the old reliable Bisquick recipe on the back of the box. 2 cups Bisquick, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk. I usually then thin the mixture with a little water because they cook more evenly and taste a little lighter.

Recently, I was thinking about how to make these pancakes a little healthier. I came across this recipe for whole wheat pancakes and decided to give it a try. We have a ton of whole wheat flour to use up. I added 1/3 cup of Greek yogurt to the batter, since we had some we needed to use and the manufacturer’s recipe called for either butter or oil to make the whole wheat more delicious.

As you might guess, whole wheat pancakes are a little denser and thicker than pancakes made with Bisquick. But they were close enough for my children to eat them, which I consider a huge victory! Sadly, I didn’t taste them because I am still on my diet but my husband indicated that they were good but dense. He says eating a Bisquick pancake is like eating cake. The whole wheat pancakes were a little more substantial and strong-tasting and might be better with jam or berries.

I asked him if it came down to a nutritional choice between eating 1 Bisquick pancake or 2 whole wheat pancakes which would he prefer and he said that hands down, he would go for two whole wheat ones because more pancakes is always better.

We have all been drilled to eat whole wheat whenever possible but when you start looking at it from a calorie perspective the advice becomes a little less clear. Both whole wheat flour and white flour have a lot of calories.

With a difference of just 37 calories per pancake, you might think, “So what!” But if you usually eat more than one pancake (and who doesn’t?) then the difference starts to add up. If you eat a stack of 3, for example, you saved almost 100 calories with the whole wheat.

Now, here is where it gets complicated. Suppose you took the low-fat recipe that uses less flour in general and used Bisquick instead of whole wheat flour. The Bisquick is only 563 calories where the whole wheat flour is 550. It’s almost a negligible difference.

So what is the advantage of whole wheat?

The whole wheat flour is superior in several key areas: lower fat, lower sodium, higher in dietary fiber, lower in sugar, higher in protein. The Bisquick is fortified in various vitamins and minerals, however. I suppose the nutritional wisdom is probably that although pancakes are not the healthiest breakfast choice, if you are going to eat them, then you might as well maximize your nutritional intake.

WebMD gives 11 reasons to make the switch to whole grains and calls it “one of the most important things you can do for your health.”

I am still not sure I completely understand the difference between whole wheat and white flour products but fortunately I enjoy whole wheat so it’s just fine with me to eat that instead. I generally buy whole wheat pastas exclusively as well as whole wheat bread. My children eat it just fine too.

Where do you come down on the whole grain spectrum? Are there foods you must have with white flour? Please share in the comments.

P.S. Now I just have to learn which pancake toppings are OK. After thinking we were doing so well switching to agave syrup, I just learned that agave may be worse for you than sugar because it contains a higher fructose content. Eeesh! So much to learn in this area.