Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Molly (left) has a svelte new figure after a month on a low-carb, higher-calorie diet. I radically changed her diet after noticing that the Taste of the Wild kibble she eats is high carb and low fat --and that Molly was putting on weight, constantly begging for food, and spending less time on the treadmill. When Molly started her new diet, I could pinch an inch of fat on her waist and back. Now I can pinch 1/4" on her waist and I can grab fat on her back only when she's lying down or sitting up. Her old diet was two cups a day of Taste of the Wild dog food and a snack such as a carrot. Her new diet is, on a typical day, 1/2 cup of TOTW dog food, 2 tablespoons of rice protein powder , a magnesium tablet, and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil for breakfast and 1/2 cup dog food, a cooked chicken thigh with skin and without the bone, and a carrot for dinner, and a handful of nuts and 2 tablespoons of olive oil for a snack. Macronutrient balance before: carbohydrate: 50% protein: 32% ...

I love it when I solve two problems in one stroke. Tonight, I got rid of the knee pain I've been getting when I dance. How? I danced in my socks. During the first dance, while I was wearing shoes, sharp pains in my right knee made me imagine having to retire from lindy hopping one day. But having read about runners correcting their foot and knee problems by running barefoot or in minimal shoes (see this and this ), I tried an experiment: I took off my shoes. Since you have to be able to pivot without sticking to the floor, I kept my socks on. My first impression was that I could feel the floor. Years ago, my dance teachers, Dan and Tiff, talked about the floor being the third partner in the dance. I finally understood what they meant. My heels, toes and especially the balls of my feet felt every step, slide and tap on the wood floor. But the pain in my knee didn't return. One partner was concerned that I'd slip and slide in my socks, but it didn't happen in socks any m...

What a wonderful day to live in Denver. The ground might have been covered with snow, but it was sunny and seventy degrees (about 20C) and hundreds of people and dozens of dogs went walking or running in Washington Park (left). My dog, Molly, even played in the snow to cool off. It was warm enough to wear a t-shirt, drive with the windows down and flirt at stoplights. When the sun goes down, another great reason to live in Denver is the swing dance scene, if you're into that. You can lindy hop four nights a week in Denver; more if you're willing to drive to Boulder or Colorado Springs. Of course, it takes energy to enjoy long walks and lindy hopping on a school night. My best suggestions for increasing your energy if it's flagging: stop eating sugar and flour. Start eating a high-fat, adequate protein, high-nutrient diet. Eat when you're hungry, rest when you're tired. If there's still no wind in your sails after two weeks, look into which vitamins and minerals ...

"One of the five worst scientists I've ever met." That's how Gary Taubes described a doctor he talked to several years ago--a doctor who took credit for getting Americans to eat less fat and consume fewer eggs. And poor science, said Taubes, is typical of the field of nutrition. Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, gave a talk at the Tattered Cover book store last night on his new book, Why We Get Fat. Taubes, whose education is in engineering and physics, is a science writer who has, as he put it, "recreated [or compiled] the history of obesity" through his research. His talk mostly covered what's in Why We Get Fat, an accessible book. Having only 45 minutes, he covered mostly why we don't get fat; he said he'd never given a 45-minute lecture in his life. For those who favor brevity, here's a highly condensed version of Taubes's message. Why we get fat: too many carbs. Why we don't get fat: too much fat, too little e...

Here's a funny AMV(1) on what it's like to be depressed, apathetic and overly sensitive. Note: explicit (but funny) lyrics in the video. Hearing this song brought a startling realization: I used to be emo, but with normal clothes. Sulking, sobbing and writing poetry were my hobbies. When I was a kid, my mother said that she wouldn't know what to do to punish me if I had done something wrong. And yet things got worse. Over a two-week period in 1996, my best friend moved away, I lost my job and broke up with my boyfriend. I lost my appetite and lived on a daily bagel, cream cheese and a Coke for the next few months. I had tried counseling, and didn't find it helpful; in fact, I found reviving painful memories was pointless. Not thinking about them, on the other hand, worked wonders. Later on, so did studying philosophy and learning to think through emotions instead of just riding through them. But what's blown away all the techniques is diet. Since I s...

What Would we Do without Experts? We've all heard the conventional expert advice to lose weight by eating less and exercising more. It seems to make sense: if you eat fewer calories, your body will have to burn some of its own fat. Or if you burn more calories by exercising, your body will have to burn some of its own fat. Calories in, calories out. Just look at serious athletes or starving people in Africa. And yet like a lot of things that look good on paper, this doesn't seem to work out in real life. In Why We Get Fat(1), Gary Taubes points out several groups of people who were hardworking, malnourished, and generally overweight. At one time, he adds, obesity was considered a disease of malnutrition.(2) If you've ever tried and failed to lose weight by eating a little less and exercising a little more, you're not alone. Several years ago, I started Body for Life, a program that involves exercise and eating a lot of protein and carbohydrate. I ate more th...

As of this month, I've been wheat-free (for the most part) for a year, and as of February, low-carb for one year. I'm also approaching another important anniversary: on February 8, it will have been one year since I saw a doctor for a medical problem. Coincidence? No. Up until mid-February last year, I saw my chiropractor for aches and pains in my neck and shoulders. A couple of weeks after my last appointment, I was well enough to skip the treatments for good. I recently thought of seeing my chiropractor again for a minor neck injury. While lifting weights, my neck felt strained, but being stubborn, I kept on and ended up in pain. There was a knot on my spine and a dip just above it, like a vertibrae had tilted on the x axis. It was painful to look left, tilt my head or do the Indian dance move where you slide your head left and right. Having had good results with my neck and shoulder healing on their own after I changed my diet, I decided to see if this injury would do the ...