Leptin part 1

I had hoped to have time to write a great posting and all of the information I found out this weekend concerning Leptin. But, I am short on time this week. So, let me just briefly spell it out for you and hopefully later I can list some supporting evidence.

Leptin is a chemical that your fat cells release to tell your brain not to eat.  Just about all people who are over weight are "leptin resistant".  Similiar to insulin resistence, leptin resistince is when the brain is no longer able to pick up the leptin to recieve the message to stop eating.  They have found that this is the case in almost all over weight/obese people because of triglycerides in the blood stream (in fact one article stated you would have to be a very special case to be over weight and not have this issue).  Triglycerides apparently stop leptin from crossing the brain blood barrier and therefore leptin can't communicate with the brain.  So, if you are like me and always feel hungry and never feel satisfied from your food this is probably a major reason (although don't under estimate the power of emotional eating which has the same symptoms).

Now, triglycerides are part of the lipid (fat) panel your doctor should be testing every year along with things like good and bad cholesterol.  But, triglycerides don't come from eating too much fat instead they come from eating too many simple carbs and sugar.  Traditionally scientists thought that leptin resistance was caused by eating fatty foods but now that is starting to be disproved.  Now science seems to be realizing that a low carb diet works better on correcting the leptin/triglyceride issue.  This is why so many people who have used a low carb/paleo diet may have been able to stick with those diets because for the first time in a while the person wasn't raveneously hungry and was able to lower their calorie in take.

But, new information is starting to come out about how to deal with resetting your body to better deal with leptin.  This information suggests that moderately brisk exercise does a better job at healing leptin resistance than modifying food choices.  In an article I read over the weekend (I believe it was in "First for woman") it quoted some studies that found moderately brisk walks of 30 minutes or more, done five days a week, will correct this situation as well.

Why is this so important to me? 
1) I am always hungry which is really annoying.
2) Low fat diets only leave me starving and in a bad mood.
3) About a year ago I did kettlebell training which was amazing but it is a very high intensity workout that left me ravenious afterwards.  I believe it was just too tough of a training workout and instead of helping me lose weight I gained weight on it.  But, I still believed if you didn't kill yourself working out you were not doing enough.
4) this study gives me permission to just do walking or kata as my workout because I can still lose weight while not killing myself or increasing my apetite.

(I wrote this quickly and don't have time to really proof read it so hopefully it makes sense)

piece of my puzzle

I don't have time to write a full blog now but I just ran across some research that I think is the missing part of my weight loss issue and will hopefully help some other people at the same time.  I hope to have it all written out by Monday.  Have a great weekend and see you Monday.

Sept.21,2011

I iced my foot a lot yesterday, took a ton of advil, and stayed off of it in general.  Today that pain has gone away.  Thank God!  I am going to do that same protocol for one more day and return to exercise tomorrow. 

Getting yet another injury made me so depressed yesterday.  When you start to feel you are powerless to change your life for the better it can really knock you down emotionally.  I had a long think over all of this yesterday and here is what I figured out:

1)  I am putting so much pressure on myself that there is no way I can succeed.  Don't get me wrong, I desperately want to get the weight off, get back to the dojo, and try for a baby.  But, I have to get the "desperate" out of my life or nothing good will ever happen.  I literally find myself thinking about this issue all of the time and frequently have small panic attacks over it.  No good can come from being that worked up about anything.

2)  In speaking with one of my good friends named Dori, I got a great perspective on dieting.  She and I bonded years ago over our weight issues.  We have gone around the same moutain over and over again doing every diet known to mankind but never really gettting any weight off.  The thing that we both have had success in is having some faith and just focussing on fruits and vegtables.  We both have indiviually done really well when we make certain each meal is built around several servings of vegtables and having some fruit for a treat.  Doing that seems to take care of everything else.  She has been really focussed on this since doing a "diet free" workshop with the dietician named Zonya Focco.  Doris isn't worried about every aspect of that program.  All she is doing is focussing on fruit and vegtables and she has lost a ton of weight.  She kindly reminded me this morning that when I have done the same I have also lost a ton of weight. (side note-I am starting to not like the paleo movement.  It is starting to turn into a religion instead of just a way of eating.  And, now a lot of important people in the paleo community are saying to only eat meat and not to even eat vegtables.  I think that is nuts. So you decide how you feel on that issue.)

3) The only exercise that has never hurt me is doing kata.  Especially when I go through each punch, block, and kick as a warm up and then go through each kata.  That usually takes me about an hour to do.  So, I really think that is all that I am going to do for a while.  As I get stronger I will add more.  For right now I think that is enough.  And, at least, it is working towards my goal of getting back to the dojo.

To sum it all up, I am just trying to get the stress out of my life, make things simple, and just try to get healthy.  The rest will take care of itself.
Hope you are having a great day!

9,000 steps forward, One major step back

I've been feeling pretty happy because I felt I was making some major progress with my walking.  That is until last night.  Injury strikes again.  The muscle that connects the front of your foot to your leg started giving me problem last night.  I was woken up all night with a seering, shoting pain that wouldn't stop.  It feels like an over use injury.  Which means somehow I hurt it yesterday while walking.

I am so frustrated.  I don't even know what to do at this point.  It makes perfect sense that a person over 300lbs. is going to hurt themselves when exercising but that I am doing it almost every week is beyond maddening.

It makes me think that what I need to do is count calories (or points on weight watchers, contrary to what I wrote yesterday) and just get off 30-40lbs. my cutting my food intake. Then start to work on exercise.  I honestly don't know which end is up so if you have any advice to offer I am totally up for hearing it.  Thanks!

Interesting article

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2039315/Sweet-cravings-triggered-falls-blood-sugar.html

This is a great article.  It explains the connection between blood sugar and sugar cravings/binges.

9/19/2011

Just wanted to post my steps for the day 9306.  I will try to do this most nights now.  Hope you had a great day!

Sept. 18, 2011

The great thing about having a blog this long is that I can go back and re-read it from time to time.  I've been thinking of revisiting Weight Watchers, that is until I re-read my experience with it in May.  Now, I am thinking that would not be the best move on my part.  Still thinking about just doing some general calorie counting for a few days just to check myself.

Although I am feeling extremely stressed out to get the weight off I am trying not to give into the stress.  I read a great article this week about how people tend to be more successful in their weight loss efforts if they just make small changes over time. Usually I do just the opposite.  I try to change everything all at once, get overwhelmed, and fail miserably.

Last week I started using my pedometer religiously and that has actually been the first really positive thing I have done in a while.  I love being able to track the number of steps I take.  It is so instantly gratifying.  So, that was the first small change I made that I was able to stick with.  Last week my step goal for each day was 8,000.  This week I am trying for 8,500.  I want to slowly build up each week so I don't blow out my knee.

The article I read (in this weeks Woman's World) listed four important steps to slowly impliment into your life in order to lose weight for the long term (apparently this is part of the "sparks people" website diet plan.  It is a free website if you are looking for a good weight loss program.  I personally know people who have lost a lot of weight using it).  The steps listed in the article are:

1) Start a food log-just by writing things down you will gradually start to make better choices and eating less.  So, there is no need to even get crazy about tracking calories or points at first.
2) Add "anti-hunger" food at each sitting-they said protein was the best "anti-hunger" food. (I know this to be true)
3) Eat five times a day-the article stated that research shows that people who eat at regular intervals have less hunger and slightly higher metabolisms.  This goes against what I have been doing which is trying to eat intuatively.  But, often I go too long without eating and then over eat due to being too hungry.  Thinking about giving this a try.
4)Add a little exercise-article stated that studies show that dieters who exercise lose about 3x's more weight than by diet alone.  Well, that is a nice thing to read but I was going to exercise anyway.

I have to really sit down with this information tomorrow and set up some small goals for myself for the next week.  More about that later.

Hope that you have a great week!