Tag Archives: diet

Bits and pieces: Chako, diet, iPads

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Sad news to report about Chako

My neighbor, who had continued to feed Chako every day in secret from her husband, behind her house, said that after the huge 45 year record snowstorm last week, Chako has not yet returned. We strongly suspect she was unable to survive the snowstorm.

Sort of a lonely feeling that if she passed away she had to go like that. But if so, she did live the normal lifespan of a feral cat. Even though feral, she seemed sweet and quiet. We tried our best with trap, spay and release. But she could not get used to people, except for me occasionally “nose-bumping” her.

Purple did return after the snowstorm, and my neighbor continues to feed him.

Some old blog posts and pictures of Chako can be found here: http://lerner.net/tag/chako/

Diet update

I might have gone into a panic over nothing regarding my diet. Since yesterday, in one day, my weight dropped 2.2 kg = almost 5 lb. Obviously there must have been some water retention.

Nevertheless, I think all the high-glycemic foods I’ve been eating (white rice, senbei, corn-on-the-cob) has altered my hunger cycles. Plus rice has a large number of calories. So I’m going to stop eating rice every day and make a couple of minor, non-vegan, changes to my diet.

For example, I ate low-fat cottage cheese yesterday for the first time in 2 years. A container has only 224 calories, but a whopping 34 g of protein, and is very low fat, and very filling. Non-fat dairy is actually allowed on the Ornish program, so I don’t feel this is too far off.

I decided not to add chicken, but I did add some small amounts of fish (sashimi) yesterday and today. That is also very low calorie and filling. I don’t think I’ll wreck my heart trying this for a couple of months. My dietician and doctors all recommended it in fact.

In early April I have my next checkup. If my cholesterol goes up I’ll rethink. Otherwise I might continue to allow small amounts of dairy and fish as part of my diet to help control appetite and keep calories low. Everybody is different. We all have to find our best way.

iPads!

I like the iPad 4 I recently received (thanks again, Dave!) so much I’m thinking of selling it.

Sound contradictory? It makes sense to me, and I think it’s not just “gadget cravings” for the iPad Air.

The iPad 4 is such a huge improvement over my old iPad 2 in visual quality, speed and very importantly in the fact it has Siri, that I find myself grabbing for it even more than my Nexus 7 now. I really enjoy using it, even though it is heavier than my iPad 2.

Since I’ll be making a trip to the U.S. next month, it seems to me an iPad Air with cellular might be a perfect thing to take along. I can get a no commitment one-month contract with tethering in the U.S. and stay connected with all my devices from everywhere, and not bother with renting a mobile wi-fi, or separate phone, etc. The iPad Air would become my mobile hot-spot.

It seems it would be a perfect, utilitarian, light-weight carry along. And in Japan I can use a sharing data contract with my iPhone 5, so it will only be an extra 1,300 yen a month in running costs.

So I think I’ll sell my iPad 4 – and older iPad 2 – and even older iPad 1. I don’t know the combined values, but I think together they will go a long way to covering the cost of the iPad Air. So it seems worth doing.

And that’s my update for today.

642 days vegan – but gaining weight

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I’ve been putting on weight. This morning I was 2.4 kg heavier than just the last week. And I’ve been on a plateau for over 6 months.

The problem is probably just too many calories. And I think that is because of hunger pangs produced by eating too many carbs.  I’ve been overeating high carb foods like rice and senbei, which just leads to more hunger spikes.

Brown rice does not help controlling hunger any more than white rice. It is just as much a trigger food.

Tofu is much less calories, but also much less filling, and gives me some digestive problems.

I’m seriously thinking about going off the Ornish heart-reversal program for just a couple of weeks and low-carbing just to see if I can get my hunger under control.

I’ve been on this diet for 642 days now – going on 2 years. In the past, whenever I’ve dieted and lost a lot of weight, the rebound has always started about 2 years into the diet. I’m deathly afraid of that happening again.

Yet, I’ve been “basically vegan” and no oil, no nuts for so long now I am hesitant about eating animal products again and what that will do to my heart. My doctor and dietician both insist that certain animal products, such as skinless chicken and certain fish will not increase my cholesterol.

I don’t believe in the Atkins idea that somehow not eating carbs blocks weight gain. But I do know that low-carbing controls appetite, so I’m not thinking about food all the time.

Could it really hurt for just a couple of weeks to see?

Here’s what I think I’ll do for a couple of weeks to try to get things under control:

1. Instead of grains, like rice, I will have either boneless, skinless breast of chicken or tuna.

2. I will continue to eat non-starchy vegetables, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and mushrooms. But I will stop eating starchy ones, such as corn-on-the-cob and sweet potatoes.

3. I might also have some cottage cheese.

This will bring my carbs way down, protein substantially up, and be a low intake of cholesterol, though not as low as the heart-reversal program.

Hopefully it will help control hunger and not be bad for my heart. Anyway, I’m going to try it for a couple of weeks. I’m in a panic right now about what’s happening to my weight. I’ve gained 11 lb since February 1st! Half of that just in the last 3 days!

Kaiser Permanente to Doctors: Recommend Plant-Based Diet

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An interesting development. From the article:

In a startlingly reasonable development, health insurance monolith Kaiser Permanente urges physicians to make use of the abundant existing evidence regarding diet and disease prevention. Kaiser now encourages its 15,000 affiliated doctors to recommend a plant-based to all patients, “especially those with high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or obesity.”

That’s, of course, the diet I am on.

See the slightly larger article at: http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2013/08/24/insurance-giant-backs-plant-based-diet-for-all/