Vitamin D Findings

I got a little off track over the weekend with a trip up to visit a girlfriend in Akron. I still lost 1.5 pounds last week.

I talked to my mother today who's been reading up on Vitamin D. New studies indicate that people with a Vitamin D deficiency tend to be insulin resistant and have trouble losing weight. My blood tests gave me a value of 30 and sources I've looked up indicated a level between 50-80 is opitimal. I picked up some Vitamin D while I was out today...

Progress?

I got the blood work done last week. My fifteen minute appointment to get an order for the blood tests turned into a 2 hours physical including an EKG, additional blood tests, and even a little stress therapy. Oh, and my flu shot and pneumonia booster. Ouch. The doctor's office called to tell me my iron levels were good, but I have to wait on the rest of the results until my doc is back from a humanitarian trip.

I'm about half way through the book Dawn suggested I read. Unfortunately it suffers from the same thing all diet books suffer from, their own self-promotion. They all thump their chests and say, "I'm the best! I'm the only one that will work!" Besides that, it's a little repetitive. Hyman even delves into some of the politics of food in the United States. Remove all that and you get some interesting science. This relatively short book would have made a very good paper. Instead, the publishers method for getting the information to the public was the vehicle of a diet book and that's just unfortunate because it makes it more tedious to read than it should be. So far the book's single biggest strength is that it doesn't treat the body as separate systems. Hyman sees the body as a single working unit. Affect one part and all the others are also affected so the variables working on one's weight can be equally varied or out of balance. "The" diet to put them back into balance may be one of the commercial diets, but most likely is a return to whole and less processed foods.

When I began eating the higher number of calories, combined with the sustained effort at eating more whole foods, especially fruits and vegetables, I began to have energy I haven't had in a long time. I just feel good. I resent completely that eating this well makes such a significant difference. I don't want it to matter. I want to eat what I want, but still feel this good. My body has other opinions. The good news is that I'm not finding it a burden so far. I don't really even get very hungry any more. Like Hyman promised, the hormones and messengers that signal appetite are being reset. I'm still appropriately hungry, I'm just not desperate. That voice which demands that "I can eat what I want" is a much quieter whisper now instead of a roaring, stomping toddler.

I'm still exercising regularly. I lost a pound last week.