AMonger
Veteran Expediter
If you want your body to burn fat, that's what you've got to give it while depriving it of the stuff it would burn instead.
Issues Facing CDL Holders
- Thread starter blackpup
- Start date
I am all about the fat. I will burn fat faster than a barbecue pit master in Texas! lol
You can get all the info you need online for free. There are also multiple low carb websites that give you all kinds of ideas and recipes. The most important factor if you decide to try this diet, is you have to take in only 5 net carbs from things other than veggies per day. I usually use those on packets of sweeteners for my muffin or cup of coffee. 1 pack equals 1 carb, so you don't get a lot of options. The cravings will go away sooner than you think. I have always carried 300 lbs for most of my life, but I have always lifted weights and did martial arts and stayed at a waist size of 44 with a jacket size of 62, so I carried it pretty well and needed the size for my work. After being hurt and out of work for two years, I got up to 360 lbs and not being able to move around very much. Now I am at 270 lbs and feel better than I have in a very long time, even with a new hip just four weeks ago. This diet is not for everybody, because it is very strict, but it does work and you lose that constant hunger feeling, which will allow you to learn to make better decisions down the road when you are not on this diet. Good luck with this and you can find everything you need on Google.
This article might be of interest to drivers facing an sleep apnea test
On Men: The Controversial Rise of Home-Based Sleep Testing - US News and World Report
But the case for home sleep tests seems to be gathering steam. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced that it's planning to reimburse patients for the cost of their treatment if they're diagnosed with apnea using one of the home tests. Currently, reimbursement usually depends on a diagnosis from a lab. Some recent studies, including one that U.S. News reported on last February, have found that certain home-based tests can detect sleep apnea as effectively as laboratory tests. And there's little doubt that home testing will be cheaper and more convenient than lab testing, especially for people who are confined to their beds or who live in rural areas.
Would this the home test be accepted by trucking companies and or DOT?
jimmy
On Men: The Controversial Rise of Home-Based Sleep Testing - US News and World Report
But the case for home sleep tests seems to be gathering steam. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced that it's planning to reimburse patients for the cost of their treatment if they're diagnosed with apnea using one of the home tests. Currently, reimbursement usually depends on a diagnosis from a lab. Some recent studies, including one that U.S. News reported on last February, have found that certain home-based tests can detect sleep apnea as effectively as laboratory tests. And there's little doubt that home testing will be cheaper and more convenient than lab testing, especially for people who are confined to their beds or who live in rural areas.
Would this the home test be accepted by trucking companies and or DOT?
jimmy
So if I want to lose fat, I want to eat more fat? Would you not just stay the same weight?
AMonger
Veteran Expediter
For one, fat (good fat) enables you to metabolize nutrients. Without it, you could eat salad all day and be unable to process the nutrients.
Second, this only works if you aren't supplying your system with things it will burn more really, like carbs from flour, potatoes, pasta, etc.
geo; said:
Are you referring to the Veterans Administration?
If so, why? Is the VA more lenient?? Free???
I've only begun to use "them" in the last few years; when I DEROS'ed and ETS'ed those guv'mint facilities were considered butchershops among us EM and were avoided like the plague.
I only submitted to the Dingell Dangle Center in Detroit to be used as an emergency prescription service as a supplement to Medicare. What a zoo! Is the situation gradually improving?
Like Bigdogg says, it's also available for free online.
The problem with free online, as I see it, is the tendency to take it in piecemeal rather than getting the big picture of it all. It's not about cutting back on or cutting out carbs, it's about the reasons for it, what your body does under certain conditions, when and how to eat the right carbs, etc. You can certainly get all that online, but I just think it's better to read the book and have a fuller understanding of what all you're doing and why. Also, online, especially at the Atkins site, they tend to promote the products they're selling, and you don't want to get too caught up in that. If you're not careful, the Atkins products can be a crutch you're better off not having to rely on. It's the same with the book, actually.
The "NEW Atkins for a New You" is the latest book, but it, like the online information from Atkins, is rather weak. The Atkins people have bowed to, and are catering to, public perceptions and mainstream thinking (largely to sell more Atkins products). Dr Atkins is rolling over in his grave. His original book, "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution" by Robert C. Atkins himself was radical and controversial, but this new book written by these new Atkins people is written so that it won't upset anyone, especially anyone who would write about the Atkins diet in the press. Bad press upsets the apple cart, and and upset people won't buy your products.
You don't need Atkins products, or "special" diabetic meals if you are diabetic. Instead, you just need to eat right. You don't need fancy gimmicks or high tech food substitutes to lose weight. You just need to eat right. For example, butter is insanely more healthy for you than margarine is. Just don't put butter on white toast or pancakes. You do that and the butter becomes artery spackle. But butter on broccoli is perfectly fine and healthy. Well, maybe not for YOU, but it is for anyone not on blood thinners.
Margarine, and all trans fats (hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated), for example, contains a molecule not found in nature. It's no wonder your body doesn't know what to do with it. And it's why ingesting trans fats has a direct linear trend between trans fatty acid intake and LDL cholesterol concentration, and therefore increased risk of coronary heart disease. It doesn't matter if you are genetically predisposed or not. The heart, skeletal system and brain all use fatty acids to metabolize nutrients and for fuel, but trans fatty acids cannot be used by the body in any way. Since they aren't processed by the body, their presence results in a dramatic increase of the very bad LDL cholesterol (which again increases insulin resistance in trying in vain to use it for fuel, and increased metabolic resistance because the enzymes triggered by the insulin are otherwise occupied). Over time, months or years, that'll bite you in the arterial butt.
In the original book Dr Atkins articulates the science behind the philosophy so clear that anyone could understand it, and yet so detailed that any doctor schooled in the mainstream thinking could learn from it. In the new book, bowing to mainstream thinking and without the science to back it up, they tell you that you have to be careful with your fat intake and may have to count calories, which not only goes against what Dr Atkins teaches, but goes against the irrefutable science of it. In fact, the new book doesn't talk much at all about the science. Knowledge is power, and the original book gives you the knowledge and the power that the new book lacks utterly.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, my friend. I understand completely.
It used to be that one Subway foot long didn't really even fill me up. Now if I eat one I'm bloated and worthless the rest of the day. Like bigdogg says, if you do the Atkins Induction Phase, and eat something several times a day instead of once (like I used to do) or twice, the cravings go away very quickly. Like, within a week. After that you will rarely crave anything.
Same here. That's also the nature of expediting, which makes it doubly hard. Eating several times a day is still my biggest difficulty. After a lifetime of eating once or twice a day, eating several times a day is a hard habit to get into, even when I'm at home and have nothing else distracting me from eating. Couple that with expediting where any set routine is meaningless, and it's a significant problem for me.
Several years ago I was on Atkins and did very well. Then circumstance changed and my routine was shot, and I gradually went back to quick and easy, and got off the diet. But since being diagnosed with diabetes last fall, with the possibility down the road of having to go on insulin, and with a BMI of 44 staring me in the face and knowing the likelihood of having to deal with the DOT Doctors about that down the road, watching what I eat and losing weight became the only viable option. I'm certainly motivated. I've gone from 300 pounds to 240 since October, not by going on the Atkins diet per se, but by using the knowledge I gained from the book. I don't eat anything without thinking about what, exactly, it will do to my body. Initially that consideration was about what it would do to my blood sugar, whether it will spike it or not. Then it was about getting cholesterol down, and getting weight off which helps with both glucose and cholesterol levels, as well as increasing metabolism. But coincidentally, those same considerations are the foundation of the Atkins diet.
When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I went on a quasi-Induction Phase of Atkins. I didn't count carbs, but I did eliminate any that would spike by blood sugar. I was able to do that successfully because I've read the book and understand it all. For example, since last fall I have only eaten potatoes in any form (mashed) once, and even then I was sure to eat the proper foods before and with the potatoes to ensure the normally fast digesting starch in potatoes didn't spike my blood sugar.
You also want to be careful about losing weight too fast. Losing weight too fast also puts stress on the body. Bananas are good, but too many, or even eaten at the wrong time (depending on what other foods you have eaten recently) can be very bad, as it messes with both insulin and metabolic resistance. You have to balance the bananas with plenty of fat and protein, otherwise, as Amonger noted, the nutrients in the bananas cannot be utilized by the body, which increases insulin resistance, raises cholesterol, increases the plaque in the arteries and raises blood pressure. 60MPH, who was a friend of mine, lost 100 pounds eating primarily bananas, fiber and water, and then promptly died of a heart attack.
Any dramatic change in diet will cause a stress to the body, even the Atkins Diet does that. But the Atkins Diet, using the science behind it all, is less stressful than the others. Everything you eat causes the body to react to that food metabolically. Good foods eaten in the proper amounts and proper combinations cause the body to react positively. Bad foods or bad combinations do just the opposite. With the science behind Atkins, everything you're eating is for a specific nutritional purpose to invoke a specific controlled metabolic reaction in the body, with you in control and in full knowledge of what's going on and why. That's important, especially in the long run. In the short term, cutting back or eliminating "anything white" is good, but unless you know the whys and wherefores, it cannot work long term.
There are no tricks or gimmicks to losing weight. There is no shortcut. You have to learn to eat right, and learn why things happen when you eat certain things. Anecdotes from friends and online forums can be helpful, but it's mostly superficial and lacks a certain understanding and knowledge. The original Atkins book gives you that knowledge.
But even if you don't actually do Atkins, doing what you are doing now is certainly better than continuing to do what you've been doing. I still strongly encourage you to get some big picture knowledge that will give you the knowledge to deal with the details.
If you don't learn anything at all from Atkins or don't want to read the book, know this: Don't eat invented foods. And mostly eat stuff that comes to you in God's packaging. When you go to the grocery store, do your shopping around the perimeter of the store and stay out of the center aisles. If you can do those three things, you'll eat healthier by default.
Wow Turtle. I have been reading on here and have been impressed with your knowledge about the expediting, but HOLY CRAP, is there anything that you don't know about????? Lmao, it sounds like you were Dr. Atkin's assistant when this all first took place. I also agree with what you said about the Atkins products. I have not used anything except for a couple of the shakes since I have been on it. The dinners and packaged meals are all crap and for big money. I like what someone once said "eat like you are a caveman". That pretty much says what you just said, but in much simpler terms, which is what I can handle. I also think about anything that I eat as fueling the body, such as you can have a bag of chips, or as much chicken and veggies as you can eat, which is going to stay with you a lot longer and a lot better for you. I also agree this diet is a lot easier when eating at home and preparing meals in advance, so it is going to be tough out on the road, but still doable.
Oh, there's a lot of things I never comment on, usually those are the things I don't know about. But when I do set about to learn about something, I want to learn as much as I can about it, to prevent having superficial knowledge that can cause more problems than remaining ignorant does, or what is often called, "knows enough to be dangerous."
Regrettably, I do come off sounding like I'm shilling for Dr. Atkins and his book. That's not my intent. I just believe that if you're going to do something, you might as well do it right. And in the case of a dietary purpose, you need to do it safely, with the right information and science behind it. The original Dr Atkins book is how to do it right. I've use the information in that book for a lot of things, not just dieting. There's some good information in there about using vitamins and herbs and other remedies instead of prescription medication that I've found very useful (without having to become a homeopathic zealot who wears a skirt made of wheat and only drinks organic goats milk). While the Atkins diet is soundly based in science, the vitamin and herbal remedies talked about in the book should be understood to be based in "seems to" rather than "does" science. Homeopath and naturopathy, just like a lot of traditional Chinese medicine, "energy healing" and "detoxification," they're all steeped in pseudoscience quackery and largely practiced by quacks, based on a belief system rather the science. It's like religion. But, that doesn't mean it's all one hundred percent quack. There's some good information to be gleaned from it.
For example, if you regularly eat a clove of garlic (daily or close to it), your cholesterol will be lowered. Not a lot, but 10-30 points. If you have a history of coronary artery disease, 10-30 points can mean a lot. A daily garlic pill does the same thing. I'm doing that very thing instead of having to increase my dosage of Crestor from 20mg to something higher. My doctor was going to up the dosage and I said, "Before we do that, let me try and see if I can get it down by modifying my diet." She was skeptical. My cholesterol was right at 100, which is normal. However, if you have a history of heart disease (I have a stent) then 100 is not normal, it needs to be down closer to 70. Of course, I had been eating lots of beef and chicken because, you know, Atkins, and that certainly wasn't helping. So, I have replaced some of that beef and chicken (and other moving critters) with fruits and vegetables, and I started taking a garlic pill every day, and eating garlic stuffed olives (two birds with one stone, that one) and my cholesterol dropped to 70 in 3 months. My doctor was pleasantly surprised. Not so much that what I did caused it to drop, but the fact that I had the resolve to do it, which most patients don't, apparently.
I had the resolve for several reason. One is that I'm not a fan of prescription medication, anyway. Like all prescription medication, statins (Crestor, Zocor, etc.) have their negative side effect. Statins will royally screw up your liver if you are on it for to long or for too high a dosage. Sure, they do blood work on you to monitor it, but what they are monitoring is when damage HAS occurred or when it's so close that it will occur very soon. I'd rather keep the dosage as low as possible, and that means modifying the diet even further. Eating for a purpose.
The other reason is that Crestor is ridiculously expensive. A 90 day 20mg prescription at Walmart or Walgreens is about $450. It's available in generic in every country in the world EXCEPT the United States. Funny that. Brand name Crestor from Canada (which I think is really made in Juan Carlos' basement in Barbados) is $220. Generic Crestor made in Apotex Pharmaceutical's basement in Toronto is $88. I went with the $88.
I should also say that knowing all the stuff about eating right and actually putting it into practice, are two very different things. It's tough. A lifetime of habits is hard to change. Especially when you're out on the road and you really and truly NEED "quick and easy". But it's easier to do it with the more knowledge you have about it.
Regrettably, I do come off sounding like I'm shilling for Dr. Atkins and his book. That's not my intent. I just believe that if you're going to do something, you might as well do it right. And in the case of a dietary purpose, you need to do it safely, with the right information and science behind it. The original Dr Atkins book is how to do it right. I've use the information in that book for a lot of things, not just dieting. There's some good information in there about using vitamins and herbs and other remedies instead of prescription medication that I've found very useful (without having to become a homeopathic zealot who wears a skirt made of wheat and only drinks organic goats milk). While the Atkins diet is soundly based in science, the vitamin and herbal remedies talked about in the book should be understood to be based in "seems to" rather than "does" science. Homeopath and naturopathy, just like a lot of traditional Chinese medicine, "energy healing" and "detoxification," they're all steeped in pseudoscience quackery and largely practiced by quacks, based on a belief system rather the science. It's like religion. But, that doesn't mean it's all one hundred percent quack. There's some good information to be gleaned from it.
For example, if you regularly eat a clove of garlic (daily or close to it), your cholesterol will be lowered. Not a lot, but 10-30 points. If you have a history of coronary artery disease, 10-30 points can mean a lot. A daily garlic pill does the same thing. I'm doing that very thing instead of having to increase my dosage of Crestor from 20mg to something higher. My doctor was going to up the dosage and I said, "Before we do that, let me try and see if I can get it down by modifying my diet." She was skeptical. My cholesterol was right at 100, which is normal. However, if you have a history of heart disease (I have a stent) then 100 is not normal, it needs to be down closer to 70. Of course, I had been eating lots of beef and chicken because, you know, Atkins, and that certainly wasn't helping. So, I have replaced some of that beef and chicken (and other moving critters) with fruits and vegetables, and I started taking a garlic pill every day, and eating garlic stuffed olives (two birds with one stone, that one) and my cholesterol dropped to 70 in 3 months. My doctor was pleasantly surprised. Not so much that what I did caused it to drop, but the fact that I had the resolve to do it, which most patients don't, apparently.
I had the resolve for several reason. One is that I'm not a fan of prescription medication, anyway. Like all prescription medication, statins (Crestor, Zocor, etc.) have their negative side effect. Statins will royally screw up your liver if you are on it for to long or for too high a dosage. Sure, they do blood work on you to monitor it, but what they are monitoring is when damage HAS occurred or when it's so close that it will occur very soon. I'd rather keep the dosage as low as possible, and that means modifying the diet even further. Eating for a purpose.
The other reason is that Crestor is ridiculously expensive. A 90 day 20mg prescription at Walmart or Walgreens is about $450. It's available in generic in every country in the world EXCEPT the United States. Funny that. Brand name Crestor from Canada (which I think is really made in Juan Carlos' basement in Barbados) is $220. Generic Crestor made in Apotex Pharmaceutical's basement in Toronto is $88. I went with the $88.
I should also say that knowing all the stuff about eating right and actually putting it into practice, are two very different things. It's tough. A lifetime of habits is hard to change. Especially when you're out on the road and you really and truly NEED "quick and easy". But it's easier to do it with the more knowledge you have about it.
True, but there is a lot of good info for those of us who need it. I'm currently reading it and beating our friend, Guido, over the head with every word...lol.
guido4475
Not a Member
There is a whole heck of a lot information on this thread. A lot. And it it obvious I need to lose weight.A lot. But even though our studly friend, Rocketman, and OVM, mean well, And tells me things out of love, (Sniff-sniff) Too much hammering on a person will or could result in things going the other way as well.I am cutting back on things...I have explained to him this, and reasons, which he referred to as "excuses" but God's honest truth on certain things...I will lose weight, as I am now, but everyone has their own way of doing things...So be patient, and I appreciate the concern and loads of knowledge on this subject.
I've got a deal worked out with Lawrence where I get paid by the character, though.
I'm a little wordy, I know, but I'd rather provide too much information and be very clear than provide too little that can be misunderstood or misinterpreted and end up doing someone wrong. Goes back to that whole "knows enough to be dangerous" thing.
At the very least, I do hope what I write is entertaining, even if you don't get anything out of it. I figure if someone is going to spend time reading what I write, the least I can do is make it entertaining or interesting. Doesn't always work out that way, tho.
I've scaled back my replys too.
When you're overweight like you and I are (or at least like OVM says you are, I've never met you), one of the toughest things to do is sit back and take an honest look at what you've been doing food-wise all your life, and admit that it ain't working, that everything you've done is pretty much dead wrong. You can't make a little change here or there or cut back on this or that, because what got you here wasn't a little thing here or there or too much of this or that. It was everything. So you have to change everything. That's a hard thing to do.
My epiphany came when I realized that I had been duped for my entire life by the US Department of Agriculture's Food Pyramid that heavily promoted agricultural grains, cereals, rice, pasta and breads, coincidentally the most profitable farm commodity (it still does to this day). Before the Food Pyramid was invented (actually, it was the Basic Four food groups, with emphasis on 4 or more services per day of grains), Type II, or Adult Onset Diabetes, was a rarity in this country. Then, in 1956 they came out with the Basic Four food groups and the associated Food Pyramid (the actual Food Pyramid didn't become officially official until 1992). But they taught that 1956 version like crazy in school. I'm the product of that scam. Many of us are.
Turns out, they had a Basic 7 Food Groups thing during the food rationing days of WWII, that had a healthy balance of foods. It allowed you to eat nutritionally on a limited amount of food. But agriculture groups heavily lobbied and influenced the USDA to make some changes to the guidelines, and they did. The result was the 1956 food guidelines. It didn't take long, early to mid-1960s, before Type II diabetes was on the rise. Insulin has been around in injection form since the 1920s, but it wasn't safely synthesized for widespread use until 1978, and wasn't widely available until the early 80s. Prior to that, the recommended treatment for Type II diabetes was "cut out the carbs." And it worked. Imagine that.
Then, with insulin widely available, the recommended treatment was, "keep eating like an idiot because you can just take insulin and you'll be fine," particularly because there's so much money at stake here. My stepdad strongly adheres to that advice. He went on Atkins and two weeks later he was off his oral diabetes medication, and 4 weeks after that he no longer had to inject himself with the insulin he had been on for 20 years. It was truly amazing to watch. Then, after a year off insulin, the "keep eating like an idiot" got the better of him and he went back to his daily regimen of biscuits and gravy and rolls and cakes and pies, because "insulin will handle it."
Even on the new and improved Food Pyramid you can see agriculture's influence all over it. The milk section has the milk larger than scale compared to the other food items, the milk section is the easiest to see at a glance of all the groups, and their colors are brighter and more vivid than the other groups. The Dairy Lobby is a powerful one. Why is there even a separate "milk" food group in the first place? There ya go. It gives the distinct impression that daily milk is essential to a balanced diet.
Knowledge is power. But you still have to want to use that knowledge. So, get pіssed off like I did. LOL
Yeah that pyramid is a joke. Especially seeing who created and pushed it ahead. I've been on a vegetarian diet for around a month. So far, so good.