Put down the Prozac

Motivation:

Today's motivation is a followup letter from the fake interview with Dr. Chester Zelasko (this is also fake)

Chazz, I have been reading and enjoying your blog. I see that you have been refreshing your core values and reconsidering your goals. This can be the point in time when things get a little old. Your old life was a lot of fun--eating what you wanted, when you wanted, and getting all the exercise that working a channel changer could give you. You miss that, I’ll bet.

Well, get over it.

You have to bring the right attitude into this lifestyle change process--and it can get old. Here’s the question: do you want the body you had or the body of your dreams? I’m assuming you don’t want to stick with your old body, so quit whining and BRING IT.

Bring what? The attitude it’s going to take to get this thing done. Face it. You weren’t happy with your old body, were you? So get your head in the game and do what it takes to keep it there until all this new stuff is part of your life. Read a self-help book, listen to a positive-attitude tape, visit a nursing home to see how life could turn out--whatever.

Find a way to bring the right attitude with you every day. It will get easier, but you’re going to have to learn that by doing.

Bring it.

Diary:

D: hard-boiled egg open sandwich, fish (tilapia), corn, ramen noodles
B: bagel and peanut butter (men's group)
S: protien bar
L: homemade chicken noodle soup, hard boiled eggs, vitamins
S: orange, celery & peanut butter
g: elliptical 1.84 miles, 374+ calories, walk 1 mile, sauna

Notes:

As I mentioned yesterday, I started looking at my current foods and what I need to change to make this whole thing work. I found one thing for sure I should change.

Bowl of Ramen Soup (Calories = 453, Fat = 17.1g, Carbohydrate = 65.5g, Protein = 9.3g). As bad as those numbers are, however, there is an even scarier number with this food item. The worst part of Ramen is the Sodium count of 1,160mg. This amount of sodium at the end of a day. Some Ramen also contains MSG which I have found to be troublesome in the bathroom, if you know what I mean.

I could just stop eating Ramen, however I crave this tasty treat, and it fills my stomach at the end of the day. I think I just need to find something of equal quantity that will be filling but won't cause me to take two steps back during the night.

To fill this need, I am proposing the Potato! Historically, I have been a "meat and potato" type, growing up on a farm in the midwest and all. I remember helping my Grandfather pick potatoes from a patch that he planted near my uncle's home in Nebraska. Very fun and good to eat, and you can do a lot with them. I haven't been eating potatoes for a while, however, due to being somewhat brainwashed by the Atkins and other low-carb diets. I need to tread lightly here, as I did have great success when I did the Atkins diet for 6-months several years ago, however I couldn't sustain the intensity of watching the daily carb count. It restricted a lot of food, including potatoes, that I enjoyed. I did pretty well, limiting my carbs to under 100 grams a day for several months, but in the end it felt like boot camp, and I eventually dropped off and regained all the weight. I decided that with this "2006 Challenge", I would not concern myself as much with carb intake, but try to be more balanced, and to keep my metabolism going strong.

Here is the comparison makeup of a Potato.
1 medium potato (Calories = 212 , Fat = 0.2g, Carbohydrate = 48.7g, Protein = 4.9g). So, not as bad. 1/2 the calories, almost no fat, less carbs, and the best part is the sodium count of 16.2mg.

One of the resources that I have read in the past was Kathleen DesMaisons' "Potatoes not Prozac." In this book she talks about curing medical problems through food. Serotonin and Beta-endorphins are two things she discusses. Here is a synopsis, taken from her website:
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Brain Chemistry 101
Your brain is designed to communicate information. Billions of brain cells talk to each other moment by moment via a network of interconnecting cells. However, these cells do not actually touch one another; there is a tiny space between them. Information is passed across this space by way of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. The mood-elevating brain chemicals serotonin and beta-endorphin are both neurotransmitters. Each neurotransmitter has a unique molecular shape and carries a unique message.

The message of serotonin, for example, is "calm down". When one brain cell wants to send a message to another, it releases the relevant neurotransmitter, which floats across the tiny space between cells and looks for the receptors in the target cell that match its molecular shape. A serotonin neurotransmitter, for example, can only pass its message to a serotonin receptor. The same is true with beta-endorphin. If any other kind of neurotransmitter hits the receptors, nothing happens; the message does not get delivered.

Serotonin
When your serotonin is at an ideal level, you feel mellow and relaxed, hopeful and optimistic. You have a sense of being at peace with life. You are creative, thoughtful, and focused. You also have a lot of impulse control, which enables you to "just say no" more easily. Insufficient serotonin level in your brain isn't giving you the time you need to make good decisions. Besides being impulsive, you may feel depressed and find yourself craving foods such as bread, pasta or candy. This craving is the work of your brain, not your ego, because your brain knows that getting you to eat such foods will temporarily raise your serotonin level. Unfortunately, it will also have a devastating boomerang effect and cause all sorts of negative feelings. Having low serotonin can cause these feelings:

• Feeling depressed
• Acting impulsively
• Feeling blocked and scattered
• Having a short attention span
• Craving sweets and simple carbohydrates

Beta-Endorphin
The brain chemical beta-endorphin acts likes a powerful natural painkiller. You may have heard of the "runner's high" (also called an "endorphin rush"), when the body responds to the pain of long-distance running by flooding the brain with beta-endorphin. Beta-endorphin produces a sense of well-being, reduces pain, eases emotional distress, increases self-esteem, and even creates a sense of euphoria. Sugar and alcohol cause a release of beta-endorphin. It can make you feel high and can reduce both physical and emotional pain.

Sugar can make you funny, relaxed, silly, inappropriate, talkative, and temporarily self-confident. You feel great -- and you long to feel this way again and again. You have probably noticed this drug-like effect after eating sugar. Having low beta-endorphin means:

• Feeling isolated, depressed, and hopeless
• Having low self-esteem
• Having a low tolerance for pain (emotional and physical)
• Feeling emotionally overwhelmed
• Craving sweets

Eat a Potato
Have a potato (with its skin) every night three hours after dinner. It will help your body raise your serotonin level and make you feel more confident, competent, creative and optimistic. You can eat your potato baked, mashed, roasted, cut into oven fries or grated into hash browns. Just be sure you eat the skin. Top your potato with anything you like except foods that contain a protein. (Protein eaten along with the potato at bedtime will interfere with your serotonin-making process.) Good toppings are butter, salsa, mustard, spices, or olive oil. Toppings you should NOT use are cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, or cream of chicken soup.

The potato creates an insulin response that effects the movement of the amino acid tryptophan from your blood into your brain. Your body uses tryptophan to make serotonin, the brain chemical that makes you feel mellow and happy. Serotonin also helps you to "just say no" to sweets and other things by putting the brakes on your impulsivity. If you find that you are having wild dreams on the nights you have your potato, this is a clue that you have low serotonin.

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So I am planning on adding potato as an ingredient for my evening meal and see what happens. If it doesn't help, I can remove it, but if it does all of the things that Kathleen indicates come true, it could be the missing link to jump start the next phase of the challenge.

Countdown:

This week's countdown is a list of the current challenges. I hope I can remember them all:

1. The Biggest Loser Challenge: ends April 7. This 'blind' challenge is overall weight loss %.
2. Ecumenical Crosswalk on Good Friday: April 9. This is not necessarily a challenge by nature, but I will be challenged to do this. There are several churches in Eagan participating in this event, all of different backgrounds including Easter Lutheran, St. John Catholic, All Saints Lutheran, Advent United Methodist, Community Church of Joy, BridgePointe Covenant, and Sts. Martha & Mary Episcopal, that all join together for a 4.6 mile journey remembering Jesus' passage through the valley of death. There are several spots to stop and pray, and I believe there will be some scripture readings and meditations. I haven't done this before, mostly becuase I wasn't sure that a 5 mile walk was in my bag of tricks, but I think I am going to try this year. The good thing is that they advertise "Transportation is available at one-mile locations to shuttle people to their preferred starting point." so I know that I will have a possible "out" if I need one.
3. Opening Day Challenge: April 11. This challenge is to get huge ass into tiny baseball seats.
4. (ongoing) Fat % Challenge: to lose 34.04 lbs. The next weigh in is April 8, and I have lost 7.4lbs so far. The current milestone to hit is 'under 30%'.
5. Fat to 5K Challenge: From May 7 - Oct 7. This challenge consists of several parts, from finishing a 5K in August(ish) to get a starting time, to training and competing in another 5K in October to beat the first time. This is going to be an interesting challenge.
6. The 2006 Challenge: ends Jan 6, 07. Lose 180 lbs overall and 10+ inches of belt. So far, have lost 62 lbs and 4 inches.
7. The Alfalfa Service Coat challenge: to fit into X-Large jacket. My dad's neat jacket - If I can fit into the jacket, I get it. If I meet the 2006 Challenge Goals, this should be doable.

I am sure I have forgotten something. Maybe this is enough. There are more possible challenges that I have had to pass up. I was invited to participate in an MS Walk, and I know many family and friends who are in the Race for a Cure and AIDS Walk. There are many good causes that I would be happy to walk or run for, but I think I will get myself right first, then sign up for the next step.


more later...

Chazz