Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Tonight at the wine club meetup I attended, a waiter brought out an appetizer tray of cheese, olives, berries, pate, fatty deli meats, olives and dense white bread. A Swiss member who arrived in the U.S. two weeks ago told me that was typical fare in Switzerland. (In fact, it was typical of what my best friend and I ate on vacation .) I'm not a fan of bread, but overall, the appetizers were real, traditional foods with natural fats and a moderate amount of carbohydrates. Perhaps eating this kind of food is why the Swiss enjoy one of the lowest rates of obesity.

Have you seen the new government food plate? What do you think? Here's my food plate. It's pretty typical of what my best friend and I ate during our vacation of biking, dancing, clubbing, shopping, and generally running around . (Full disclosure: she ate quite a bit more carb than I did.) Clockwise from the top, we have the fatty meat group (pepperoni), the full-fat dairy group (the caramel colored food is a bit of sweet Norwegian cheese), the fatty vegetable group (olives), and the carby vegetable group (tomatoes). To the right is the wine group (Sterling syrah from California's central coast; we also loved Bicyclette from southern France). My weight gain on the vacation: nada. Except for the wine, this is how I normally eat; I just upgraded for my best friend's visit. How it works: carbs aren't the only source of energy for your body. It can run on dietary fat, too. (In fact, your body needs dietary fat for maintenance and repairs. Unless your blood sugar is cras

Over the past few weeks, I've been on a break from blogging. In anticipation of a visit by my best friend (from out of state), I whipped the yard into shape. I weeded, planted, trimmed, and hauled about 10 lawn and leaf bags' worth of trimmings to the alley. It still looks a bit like a "before" picture, but an unusually cold spring has put everything behind, and the yard is designed to explode into blooms in summer. I've also been painting. The last time I painted the living and dining rooms was almost 15 years ago and it was time for a fresh coat. I didn't finish, but I'm off to a good start. Since my friend arrived, we've been cycling around Denver, shopping, dancing, clubbing, drinking, and eating gourmet food (her generous description of my cooking, and honest assessment of most of the meals we've eaten at restaurants--from a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place on Federal to a high-end Italian wine bar on Wynkoop). We've even had time to do some

Tonight at my party place I was standing at the dessert bar when an old guy came up and started loudly asking for service. He spoke to me and I told him I indulged in a gluten-free cookie once in a while (it would have been the first time since I started the cavity healing diet). I didn't mention the cavity healing diet because I just wanted to get a snack and go back to the dance. Nevertheless, Mr. vegan preacher made his spiel. Stuff this dude said: "I came all the way up from Cherry Creek [one of Denver's high rent districts] to get a half price dessert." (He said this twice.) "We've been eating wheat for tens of thousands of years without a problem." "Japanese eat plenty of soy and they don't have a problem." "Fruit isn't acid." "What's acid reflux?" "What do you eat for protein?" (Answer: meat. Unspoken answer: we've been eating meat for millions of years.) "I wish I could help you."

"Let's keep a record of the fool things we have done and criticize ourselves." -Dale Carnegie All winter, I've kept reading about how sun exposure isn't as dangerous as we've been led to believe. I also tested as mildly deficient in vitamin D . So today, I went to the park for a long walk for a couple of hours. My dog splashed in the water. When you've been sunburned in Florida in early February, when you've sunburned in 15 minutes in the summer in Colorado Springs, when you have visible blue veins, you should probably ignore expert advice and use sunscreen. D'oh.

To make it easy to stay on track with Molly's diet, I've created a meal planning spreadsheet. I've listed the foods and amounts she commonly eats along with calories, carbs, fat, and protein. I just enter how many servings of various foods I'm thinking about feeding her on a given day, and the total nutrients show up. You can download the spreadsheet here: http://www.slideshare.net/lorimiller/nutrient-counter Of course, you can insert rows for other foods if you want to do a little bit of research on nutrient content (like, Nutritiondata.com or copying data from a food package), copy and paste the formulas from the orange (or gray) part of the spreadsheet, and re-do the Total row if needed. Needless to say, you can use this for your own diet if you wish.

It just goes to show that we all react differently to the same diet. My dog, Molly, and I eat pretty much the same thing: a lacto-paleo, nutrient rich diet that I hope will heal our minor cavities. I've lost one to two pounds, but Molly has gained weight: she's 73 pounds and I had to loosen her collar. Of course, it may be that her owner is simply feeding her too much; even on a low-carb diet, some people and dogs gain weight with too much food. It could also be a thyroid problem, which the vet is checking. Looking around the web, it seems a 60-pound dog (which I'd like Molly to be) should eat around 1100 to 1200 calories per day. Molly may be eating a little more than that, but she probably needs fewer calories on the diet we follow. Another site recommended about 1.25 pounds of meat per day for a 60-pound dog. (The vet recommended diet dog food to get the calories just right. I didn't ask him if he weighed out his own food and counted calories to avoid going over.) In