Tag: low carb

Ask Fatty Felicity

Welcome to Ask Fatty Felicity, the write-in column where you get to ask all your burning questions about Fat, Diet, and the Meaning of Life! Let’s get right to today’s burning questions, shall we?

Fatty Felicity, what a lovely name. Is it in reference to your personal tonnage statistics? 

–Jenny

Thank you, Jenny. In fact, I’ve taken this name in reference to my favorite food group, fat. Contrary to popular expectation, increasing my daily fat intake from around 30 grams a day to 200 and switching from “heart-healthy” oils to saturated fats like coconut oil and butter has been very good for me. It has helped me lose 145 pounds, put on muscle, and improve all my markers for good health–from cholesterol levels to blood pressure.

Fatty Felicity, I’m in a quandry. I’ve been invited to a friend’s party and I think the only things to eat will be nachos and pizza. Should I take up a life of monasticism?

–Artimus

Artimus, Artimus. Let’s leave the extremes for the vegans, shall we? There’s no reason to avoid people or parties. Here’s some handy tips for you, though:

Continue reading Ask Fatty Felicity

Reading For Fun and Profit

Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood.

― Jane Yolen

It’s not actually books I have to recommend to you today, but interesting news in the world of science and nutrition. I’ve been sick, you’ve been sick, we’re all busy. So when you have a few minutes to relax, have a look at these and see what analysis you come up with. I’ve given mine, naturally.

  • Ancient Greek athlete training diet. I found this particularly interesting, as modern trainers overwhelmingly assure us that it is “impossible” to be any kind of high-performance athlete without lots and lots and lots of carbohydrates. Apparently the Greeks didn’t think that at all and recommended abstaining from bread for six months prior to any serious competition. Interestingly, the Greeks also didn’t think it was normal for someone to be a sobbing, shaking, emotional mess by the end of a race, either: something we think perfectly normal.

Continue reading Reading For Fun and Profit

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly I

There’s a patch of old snow in a corner
That I should have guessed
Was a blow-away paper the rain
Had brought to rest.

It is speckled with grime as if
Small print overspread it,
The news of a day I’ve forgotten —
If I ever read it.
–Robert Frost

There’s good, bad and ugly in the news. How about the roundup? We’ll start with the good.

The Good:

Experimental Fun

While you are experimenting, do not remain content with the surface of things.

–Ivan Pavlov

In the last post you’ll perhaps recall our Calorie Math™ conundrum. I had exercised about 400 calories worth and then eaten over 2,800 calories that day. Despite being told that I should eat 1,300ish calories to lose a pound in the course of a whole week and 1,660 calories to stay at the same weight, I somehow managed by the next day to reach the smallest number I’ve yet seen on the scale.

After eating all that, I wasn’t particularly hungry for a few days. I ate what I wanted; and I have now gone to the trouble of figuring out that it ran around 1,500 calories a day. Yet despite under-eating for several days, I didn’t lose any weight. Stayed the same. This is fairly typical.

The other day, however, I wondered: What if I ate 2,800 again, only this time with a large proportion of carbohydrates?

LET’S SEE!!

Continue reading Experimental Fun

2 + 2 = 4ish

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.

–Albert Einstein

Anymore, I can’t resist the ads that pop up on my screen inviting me to investigate some surefire way to lose weight. I almost always know what I’ll find, and I’m always excited that it might be good fodder for the blog. Since I’m regularly researching health news now, the ads come fast and furious no matter what I’m doing.

Plus, I like to blow up online calculators.

Continue reading 2 + 2 = 4ish

Eggstraordinary

An egg today is better than a hen tomorrow.

–Benjamin Franklin

When you saw the title you probably thought I was going to talk about the amazing goodness of eggs. I could, but I’m not. If you want to know more, read here.

No, what I’m going to talk about is how I managed to eat eggs, being allergic, and one recipe for a fun way to eat them.

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Who’s Hungry?

The belly is an ungrateful wretch. It never remembers past favors; it always wants more tomorrow.

–Alexander Solzhenitsyn

It’s time to think about some more recipes! There are, by the way, some great sites out there to search for Primal or Paleo style recipes. If you haven’t already found some you like, I’ll provide some links. Some of them will or will not use dairy–if you use dairy, you might have more luck googling “low carb” and “primal” than “paleo.” Some of them fully embrace the whole carbs-that-aren’t-carbs idea, which I’m not a huge fan of. But there’s some great recipes, as well as ideas to get you using your own imagination. It’s not all just bacon and eggs people!

It’s mostly bacon and eggs, but not all.
Continue reading Who’s Hungry?

A Dairy Good Time Was Had By All

After cheese comes nothing.

–English Proverb (from the Latin)

Having discussed whether we should avoid dairy entirely solely because our supposed Paleolithic ancestors are believed not to have eaten it, let’s now consider a couple other thoughts, shall we?

The next thing to think about is this:

2. What’s up with the conflicting studies? Why does one study show that dairy will kill you, while another claims that it is a health food?

Continue reading A Dairy Good Time Was Had By All

Fallout II

There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.

–Unknown

After the catastrophe that was yesterday’s loss of all my writing (catastrophe to me; relief to some.) I am going to try again on the subject of idiocy that gets thrown about over the holidays.

Continue reading Fallout II

Sång till Norden

Ensam är stark. “Alone is strong.” 

–Swedish Proverb

Forgive the long silence. I cracked my head on a wall last week and writing has been difficult till now.

My favorite Swedish proverb is actually Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder. “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing.” However there’s no doubt that the Swedes are standing alone just now; they are certainly also standing strong.

Continue reading Sång till Norden