Just 4 Today, I’ll drink my fiber twice (done once), drink 2 liters of water (I’ve drunk about 1/2 liter), walk 5 miles (yesterday 3.05 not bad, considering the snow), NOT eat between meals & NOT take seconds.
Things I’m thinking about…
That study about how sugar is addictive (I think this is the most important health story of the year):
An astonishing 94 percent of rats who were allowed to choose mutually-exclusively between sugar water and cocaine, chose sugar. Even rats who were addicted to cocaine quickly switched their preference to sugar, once it was offered as a choice. The rats were also more willing to work for sugar than for cocaine.
The researchers speculate that the sweet receptors (two protein receptors located on the tongue), which evolved in ancestral times when the diet was very low in sugar, have not adapted to modern times’ high-sugar consumption.
Therefore, the abnormally high stimulation of these receptors by our sugar-rich diets generates excessive reward signals in the brain, which have the potential to override normal self-control mechanisms, and thus lead to addiction.
Additionally, their research found that there’s also a cross-tolerance and a cross-dependence between sugars and addictive drugs. As an example, animals with a long history of sugar consumption actually became tolerant (desensitized) to the analgesic effects of morphine.
Pearl Harbor. Now that we’ve invaded Iraq, The Day of Infamy is even more heartbreaking.
Bombshell’s list: It’s incredible. My only real disagreement is with number 6. And that’s only because I have software that calculates the calories in a serving of ANY recipe. Including casseroles. ALSO, I would add (to #6) that this is an especially important and difficult task when eating at restaurants. In fact, if she sees this, I hope she’ll clarify how she manages to eat out while tracking calories so closely.
Everyone who has deliberately lost weight has a lot of self-control. The problem is that it takes a lot more than that to keep weight off.
What are you going to do today?
Weird — First FAR loses a comment and the I lose a whole day’s worth of posts! I remember posting yesterday — What happened to it?
Argh! I wondered where you’d gone yesterday….
I made oyster stew here yesterday, and ended up taking nearly half of it home. Daughter Dearest was upstairs with a headache; but after I told her some stew was waiting for her, she got to feeling better after 45 minutes or so.
Most oyster stew recipes call for milk, so I hunted & gathered 3 Coffee-Mate creamer cups (plain) as a substitute. It seemed to work OK.
J4T I’ll listen to my reminder prompts to walk & take my fiber, and will drink my water w/o computer assistance (the humidity is below 20% so that’s coming naturally).
I didn’t lose comments at my place, but I made comments at other people’s places that never showed up.
That’s amazing about the sugar and the cocaine. Jeez, we could end the stupid war on drugs by passing out Pure Cane Sugar.
We’ve had the week from hell at the office here. Just unbelievably nasty stuff going on, so we’re all stressed to the max.
I’m trying to keep it all together, especially after last weekend at the hospital. Saturday night is a holiday party, though…
Today I went out to lunch with the Mr. and unfortunately ate enough to not need dinner tonight. Oh well.
I cannot tell you how glad I am that it is FRIDAY !
Hi kb. That story about the rats and sugar was pretty scary. I don’t think that blogger has the same problem with comments.
{{catdog}} I hope things get better in your office. And that you don’t think about it AT ALL during the weekend. Just Rest.
Hi FAR, kansas & Boran — it’s great to see you here!
Late to the party!
I visited Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor two weeks apart. Pretty moving, seeing the beginning and the end. The overall impression is one of tragic loss.
I tell people how addictive sugar is, and they never believe me. All it takes is one cookie or piece of chocolate, and I’ll crave it for days. If I can avoid it for 3 days, it’s out of my system and doesn’t call to me. At least physically. Mentally, I always want chocolate!
Good luck with the parties and celebrations. That’s the hardest, when it’s laid out before you. Moderation in all things. And think of wearing that bathing suit next summer!
Hope next week goes better, catdog.
My landlady used to tell me how bad sugar was for me. Of course I never listened to her since I’ve been a sugarholic since childhood. She did make a lot of sense and maybe I should start following her instructions.