Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Surviving the Next Exercise Hurdle

Post Number: 115
Review of Yesterday's Progress
     Daily PPV Used/Left: 23/48 of 71 (Goal: 28/43)
     Pedometer Reading: 4851 (paused)
     Meetings Attended: None Scheduled
     Exercise Completed: Swam Laps at the Y (7 laps, 350 yards)
     M-W's Daily Word: Rutilant

A.S.:
Farinaceous and vegetable foods are fattening, and saccharine matters are especially so... 
THOMAS HAWKES TANNER, The Practice of Medicine, 1869. 

The ante-script is borrowed from "Prologue A Brief History of Banting" which opens the book Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. I put it on hold at the library today. The book had been in my Amazon.com Wist List for months. I put books there to look up at the library or possibly purchase. I include the link to the Kindle versions because that is what I have stored in my Wish List but also because Amazon.com provides a "Look Inside" preview. The electronic version of this book is what I have read because I don't actually have it in my hands at the moment. I still have to get out to the library to get it. That is why there are no page numbers in my references. This book was a delight to read through the first few paragraphs. I will have to set it down metaphorically as the book Start Strong. Finish Strong. is my current read and is due back to the library all too soon. The other reason I have to set it down is that the preview always runs out at the most inopportune time for me as a reader. The end point of the preview is probably picked for just that reason. But I had to share one paragraph. It's the last one I read before "putting it down." It works well as an example of the writer's wit and insight:
Banting's diet plays a pivotal role in the science of obesity-and, in fact, chronic disease-for two reasons. First, if the diet worked, if it actually helped people lose weight safely and keep it off, then that is worth knowing. More important, knowing whether "the sugar and starchy elements of food" are "really the chief cause of undue corpulence" is as vital to the public health as knowing, for example, that cigarettes cause lung cancer, or that HIV causes AIDS. If we choose to quit smoking to avoid the former, or to use condoms or abstinence to avoid the latter, that is our choice. The scientific obligation is first to establish the cause of the disease beyond reasonable doubt. It is easy to insist, as public-health authorities inevitably have, that calories count and obesity must be caused by overeating or sedentary behavior, but it tells us remarkably little about the underlying process of weight regulation and obesity. "To attribute obesity to 'overeating,'" as the Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer suggested back in 1968, "is as meaningful as to account for alcoholism by ascribing it to 'overdrinking.'"
I will be picking up my reading rate (hopefully) to get through the Finding Your Fingerprint from Weight Watchers and the Start Strong. Finish Strong. All of this while looking for work and getting in exercising and... and... and... We shall see.

One thing that you cannot see in the PPV I've used is that there are a couple chicken nuggets and half a dozen fries in the point count. That was a little off target for food selection, which made keeping to the point total all the more important. And while the food tasted good, I felt overly full after eating it and for quite some time afterwards. The discomfort makes me wonder how much my body has changed.

But now it's time to change gears and head to the Y. At my father's request, I am going to try hitting the machines as well as going for a swim. I combined my gym bags. And I've set out my gym clothes because I am going to use the recumbent elliptical machine ahead of my swim.

Yours in the hope for survival ahead of the trial, exercise or otherwise,

Eliot

P.S.: Luctor Et Emergo.

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