Wednesday Weigh-In 20120725

My allergies are bothering me. This usually happens in late August or early September. But because of the cool nights we've been having, my problems have started already. It doesn't help that it's cold at work.

Waist = 37.25"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Wednesday Weigh-In 20120718

I've been trying to reduce night time cravings for sweets by going to bed earlier.

Waist = 37.25"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Tired of Summer Attire

Every summer I see folks go out into public in appalling fashion.  It's as if they've just stepped out of the bath and threw on whatever they had handy.

It's the flimsy footwear that actually troubles me the most.  I just get the feeling that these folks are wearing some planks on their feet that are liable to fall off at any moment.  "How do they manage to walk?"  I wonder to myself.  What if they had to hike through some rough terrain, or scale a rocky cliff, or even chase after a haughty ice cream truck?

I guess that's the thing about summer.  It's the time of year that folks don't hike, don't scale, don't run.  They just indolently shuffle along like a five year old boy wearing his father's slippers.

If the saber-toothed tiger ever makes a comeback, these folks will be the first of our species to become extinct.

Rock from the Universe

This image belongs to someone who uses the handle jhamomlb, and is posted here with permission:

What do you think of this rock? What's his name? Where is he from?  Something to meditate upon...

Something To Read When Offended

Self-importance is man's greatest enemy. What weakens him is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of his fellow men. Self-importance requires that one spend most of one's life offended by something or someone. Self-importance is our greatest enemy. Think about it, what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone... Self-importance is not something simple and naive. On the one hand, it is the core of everything that is good in us, and on the other hand, the core of everything that is rotten. To get rid of the self-importance that is rotten requires a masterpiece of strategy.

Nagual Carlos Castaneda, Il Fuoco dal Profondo

Wednesday Weigh-In 20120712

My mini "Fat Tuesday" is behind me. "Fat Tuesday" is that period between having blood drawn for checkup and the consultation with the doctor to go over the result. It's a time that I fall back on bad eating habits -- ice cream, cookies and cake, mostly -- knowing that it won't show up in the blood work.

Remarkably my total cholesterol was down about 30 points and HDL was higher. But then again, it was nearly 300 previously. Actually, everything looked pretty good except that glucose breached the 99mg/dl mark. It was 104mg/dl. But I started to slide into "Fat Tuesday" several days before my blood was drawn. Next time, I'll be more careful.

Waist = 37.5"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Drink Coffee for Longevity

The June 30 edition of Science News reports the results of a study that suggests that drinking coffee may increase life span.  The effect is stronger in women and for those who drink six or more cups per day.  There's no mention of the effect of cream and / or sugar.  But decaf is just as effective as regular.  Read more:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/340733/title/Coffee_gives_jolt_to_life_span

Wednesday Weigh-In 20120705

I've had my blood test for my next doctor's appointment. It's my custom to eat with abandon between now and the day after my appointment. I'm surprised that I'm not 165lbs by now. Then again, it has been only three days.

Waist = 37.25"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Amazing Quotes From "Zoobiquity"

Some animal intestines perform an amazing trick. They expand and contract like accordions. This may not sound all that impressive, but its effect on weight can be profound. It allows the body to absorb varying quantities of calories from the same food, depending on the task at hand.

The mechanism is simple: a ribbon of muscle running the length of the intestine allows it contract and expand. When guts are clenched, they’re shorter, tighter and smaller. When relaxed, they’re elongated.

When intestines are in the longer, stretched-out mode, they expose more surface area to the food passing over them. This allows the cells to extract more nutrients and, therefore, energy. When the intestines shrink back to their shortened state, some of the food passes by essentially unused.

Could a similar accordion-like lengthening and shortening in human intestines underlie some unexplained weight gain in our species? ...there are intriguing clues. Our intestines are also lined with smooth muscle. And we know from autopsies that human intestines are some 50 percent longer after death, when smooth muscle control is no longer exerted. Perhaps, during life, dynamic muscle activity allows the human intestine to vary its calorie-absorbing length in response to medications, hormones, and even stress -- factors frequently pointed to when weight inexplicably increases even when a patient isn’t eating more. Many common drugs cause undesired weight gain through unclear mechanisms. It’s intriguing to consider whether smooth muscle effects of these drugs contribute to ... intestinal stretch leading to greater calorie absorption and weight gain.

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Psychiatrists studying eating disorders note that bulimic binge eaters rarely overconsume protein or leafy greens.  ...they focus their eating sprees -- sometimes with obsessive intensity -- on sugars and simple carbohydrates.

In the Yale study [of grasshoppers exposed to predatory spiders], the insects’ food choices were driven by external factors beyond their control, in other words, the ecology of fear.  In the presence of a predatory threat, they chose foods that would accelerate a lifesaving escape.  These animals provide an underexplored possible context for a human binge eater’s food choices.  They suggest an evolutionary origin.  A stressed person’s decision to forgo the chicken breast and vegetables in his lunch box and consume candy bars instead can seem pointless, weak and even self-destructive.  But knowing that some nonhuman animals prefer high-sugar foods when they’re fearful could help a human stress eater better understand his own candy binge.  While he knows it’s unhealthy for his waistline, blood sugar, and molars, the impossible-to-resist impulse may spring from a hardwired response to threats that for eons has saved animals’ lives.