Archive for the ‘Health & Wellness’ Category
Evils of Calorie Counting
Steve’s post about his Raw Food Diet has me thinking again about how having an unhealthy diet affects me physically and mentally. It seems that over the years (decades?!?) my diet has devolved into little more than fast food & junk food.
In 2002, I had experienced a significant weight gain (due to stress & overeating) and came across The Hackers Diet by John Walker, which was revolutionary for me. I had heard of calorie-counting, though it was typically phrased as “portion control”, and THD introduced me to what calories actually are and gave me a format/formula to follow.
Being a lazy programmer, the Taking the easy way out section was quite appealing; buy pre-packaged food with the calories labeled right on the package. It made counting calories easy. And it was easy for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was a bit more difficult since it wasn’t just for myself, but I managed to struggle through it “guessing” the calories I was consuming. I had faith in the feedback loop that I had setup (i.e. daily weigh-ins with weekly adjustments).
I was quite happy calorie counting this way and initially lost 10 pounds in about a month.
Problems started to arise slightly after this though. I found that while I was loosing weight, I was also not feeling very well physically nor mentally. I was eating a very unbalanced diet, probably close to 80-90% carbs. I started to get colds that would not go away. My mind would be “fuzzy” for most of the day. My emotions started to become very chaotic. I would get “sugar highs” shortly after eating followed by crashes.
This is when the real problems started. I was now addicted to carbs, namely mashed potatoes, spaghetti/noodles, and soda pop. I started to crave calorie rich foods and found I was eating more and more fried and/or fast food. It was at this point that I noticed that my feedback loop was broken (I began to gain weight), and that mixed with a negative emotional cycle pushed me to accelerate my weight gain even further.
I gained over 35 lbs before I was finally able to slow down and stabilize things. I began to cut out fast food, junk food & fried food. I still ate a carb rich diet, but at least that weight gain had stopped.
It’s been 5 years and my weight has been stable. I still crave carbs, but I try to have “good carbs” from fruit instead of from soda pop. Fast food is rare. Meals are a little more balanced. The feedback loop is still in place, I still do daily weigh-ins. I still watch (not count) the calories.
I still want to loose weight (50 lbs if I can) and think that I might experiment with some form of vegetarian diet for a few months, probably by replacing a meal a week with a vegetarian one. Of course, this means I’ll have to brush up on the meal planning skills and quite possibly the culinary ones as well.
I’ve learned a lot about myself since the last time I’ve tried to tackle my weight and know that I’ll need more than just a calorie feedback loop to succeed.
Here’s to figuring out what else I’ll need!
Cheers,
Brad
Grotto Canyon
A friend of mine, Craig, and myself went on a nice hike up near Canmore last Sunday. We were going to be heading further west, up to the Spray Lakes but nasty weather changed our plans. We decided to head over to Grotto Canyon instead. Over all, there are three things to see at Grotto Canyon (aside from the mountains that is).
The first site (which I’ll admit we overlooked on the way going upstream) are the Native drawings, which are quite faded from time. These are the only ones that are viewable from the ground. Apparently if you’re an avid rock climber there are other such drawings you can find.
The second site is a nice waterfall which feeds the creek. You can climb closer to the actual fall if you have the courage to do so. This is the end of the trail for most people.
Lastly, if you head up a dry creek bed (unless it’s spring runoff time) you’ll eventually come across a cave carved out of a sandstone hill. The cave is about 50 feet in the air, 12 feet high and maybe 30 feet deep. I was able to get fairly close to the entrance, but the last 5 feet caused me to rethink my priorities in life. Needless to say, I have in the past climbed into the cave and it is quite barren inside - it’s just sand and gravel.
Overall, this is an easy hike with lots to see if you want to take your time. If you love the site/sound of running water, I’d highly recommend this one.
Tags: hiking