Overcome Diabesity

Eating Healthy in Panama

Susanna — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:34:22 +0000

After moving from Florida to Panama, learning to eat healthful, nutritious foods is a bit of a challenge.

The good news is, I’m making progress.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Many of the things I took for granted in the US — a wide assortment of fresh vegetables all year round, for example — simply aren’t available here. They might be in Panama City, but I’m four hours away from the capital in a smallish town and they’re certainly not available here.

This morning my husband went to the store early and came back with a big grin. He’d found some good-looking broccoli and cauliflower for the first time. Up to now, the broccoli we’ve seen has been wilted and almost black on top. And cauliflower? Don’t ask. . .

The only veggies I can really count on finding, consistently, are tomatoes and peppers. They’re available in abundance, and they’re cheap, cheap, cheap. I can buy a bag of plum or regular tomatoes (I’m guessing they’re about two pounds) for $1. Ditto green peppers. Or I can get a bag of mixed tomatoes, peppers and onions for a buck.

The only lettuce is iceberg. There’s no spinach, no other leafy greens. The only corn they grow goes to feed livestock, so if I want corn it has to come from the freezer or the can.

Fruits are a different story, though. They’re plentiful. We’ve been picking papayas from our own tree, and mangos are everywhere. Pineapple and plantains are plentiful, bananas are available if you know where to look. Other fruits — apples, plums, and so on, are easy to find.

There’s a local fruit called a guayaba that’s supposed to be full of anti-oxidants. You have to peel the outside, and inside is a firm-fleshed fruit filled with small seeds. Think blackberry or raspberry seeds, just a titch bigger. It’s quite tasty and refreshing.

Meats and Proteins

The good news is, quality of meats and eggs is high.

We’re on the Azuero Peninsula, and they raise cattle in this part of the country.

Cattle here graze the fields. Chickens run around everywhere, even in our residential neighborhood. We’ve purchased chicken breasts that are very tasty and have a lot less fat on them than what we’re used to getting in the US, and my husband is especially impressed with the quality of the ground beef.

It’s flavorful and lean. Best of all, it’s only $1.92/lb.!

We tried some local bacon. It comes in rounds, not strips (but we’re talking the bacon-with-fat here, not Canadian bacon), and cooks up into a tasty breakfast treat.

But the best protein source here, in my opinion, is the eggs.

Just the regular, run-of-the-mill eggs you get in the grocery store have deep orange yolks, indicating they’re bursting with nutrients.

Entrainment: Still Useful After all These Years

Susanna — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 17:55:33 +0000

I’ve been using brain entrainment for a couple years now. It provides all the physical benefits of deep meditation without the learning curve.

When I listened to my first entrainment track it sent me into the deepest, most restful sleep I’d enjoyed in months — maybe years. Now that I’ve been listening to entrainment tracks every day, they don’t have the same kind of dramatic impact they did when I started.

But that’s a good thing.

When I started entrainment, I was battling depression and some ongoing chronic health issues.

I was chronically sleep deprived. Either I couldn’t fall asleep because my brain was racing, or I couldn’t stay asleep.

I was very anxious, and I felt as though my nerves were on edge almost all the time.

Now I’m sleeping better, I’m no longer depressed, and my health is substantially better. I almost never get that edgy feeling any more, and I’m able to take life’s curves in stride much better.

Do I still need entrainment? Could I stop?

Good questions.

The short answer is, yes, I probably could.

The long answer is, why would I want to?

Just because I’m not experiencing the same dramatic changes I noted initially doesn’t mean it’s not still helping me.

Frankly, I like feeling calm and in control. I like that I don’t feel on the verge of tears several times a day. I like that I’m getting better quality sleep.

How Does Entrainment Work?

I’ve explained here how entrainment works, in some detail.

To put it very simply, entrainment helps you produce more of the hormones that calm you down, smooth you out and help your body refresh and renew.

Other benefits include:

Stress reduction
Relaxation
Visualization
Peak Concentration
Enhanced Memory
Enhanced Learning Ability
Better quality sleep
Better blood pressure control
Reduced insulin resistance
Improved heart rate

There are two entrainment products I use. Click here to find out more about them.

I’d Really LIKE to Eat my Vegetables!

Susanna — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:30:41 +0000

From the town of Las Tablas, Panama

A few weeks ago moved from Florida to Panama.

I’ve been here three weeks now, and eating has been an interesting challenge. . .

I flew into Panama City and spent one night there before going to Las Tablas. I arrived here in the late afternoon, and the next morning I woke up early — about 6 AM — feeling sick as a dog.

Something I had eaten or drunk did me in.

I spent the day groaning in my hotel room. Fortunately by the following day I was feeling better, and was back to normal within a couple of days.

I had hoped this move would be good for my health

So far, not so much. For starters, I spent the first 2-1/2 weeks in hotels, forced to eat all my meals in restaurants. And while there are plenty of wonderful restaurants in Panama City, when you get into the country they all offer pretty much the same things.

And none of the things they offer are vegetables.

The more forward-looking places will serve an ensalada verde, or green salad. It consists of iceberg lettuce, two very thin slices of tomato, and possibly two very thin slices of cucumber. Sometimes onion slices are included as well.

Cooked veggies? I haven’t seen any.

The picture above shows the healthiest restaurant meal I’ve been served since arriving in Panama. Scary, no?

The grilled chicken (pollo a la plancha) was absolutely wonderful. It came with about 1-1/2 cups of white rice (you can find brown in the grocery store) and the teeny little salad you see. The little things on top of the tomato were kernels of corn (canned, I think).

I ate the chicken and the salad, and a few bites of the rice.

So it was a huge relief to find a house to rent and be able to get into my own kitchen.

In the grocery stores, vegetables are, well, pathetic is the word that comes to mind. So I need to find the best farm stands to get good produce.

Fortunately with all this, I’ve been getting more exercise. I’ve been walking a lot more, just to get around town, so my glucose numbers haven’t suffered too much.

Moving to a new place presents its own unique challenges when it comes to diet. Even if you’re just moving from one town to another in the same area, you need to find different sources for foods that will nourish you. When you move to a different country, though, the challenges become much bigger.

I’ll keep you posted. . .

Solve Your Blood Sugar Problems

Susanna — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:20:29 +0000

The beta test group I mentioned a while back has wrapped up, and I’m now free to share more about it.

During the test period I shed just under 15 pounds, my fasting glucose dropped from between 115-120 to around 90-92, I felt more energetic, I was sleeping better, and I felt more cheerful and optimistic.

Quite an improvement in just a few short weeks.

It wasn’t an easy program (although I found it easier than the Ultra Simple Diet plan I had written about previously).

But, man, did it get results!

Here’s the outline:

First, spend a couple of weeks eliminating all sorts of baddies from your diet including sugar and caffeine
Next, spend four weeks following a food plan designed to actually reverse your Type 2 diabetes
If your case is stubborn or you’re still not where you want to be, repeat for another four weeks
If you’re happy with results, gradually reintroduce a few foods and see how you tolerate them. Eliminate any that cause inflammation, blood sugar spikes or other symptoms
Rinse and repeat as needed

Oh, you want details? There are plenty of details to be had. You can find them all in the book, The Blood Sugar Solution by Dr. Mark Hyman.

I’m a big fan of Dr. Hyman’s. He’s a functional medicine doc, and his approach is practical, pragmatic and it works. He’s more concerned with helping you achieve health than he is with medicating disease, and he believes your fork is your most important weapon in the fight against diabesity.

He’s been all over the talk shows and the news with this book, and deservedly so.

You can order the book from Amazon.com, and I heartily recommend it. (If you order from the link below, I’ll earn a tiny commission. It helps me keep this site going.)

Sleep, That Knits the Ravell’d Sleeve of Care

Susanna — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:30:08 +0000

Sleep. We all need it and most of us don’t get enough of it. Here’s a great infographic that explains the problems caused by sleep deprivation.

Via: YourLocalSecurity.com

How Important is What You Eat?

Susanna — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:36:07 +0000

Anybody who doesn’t think diet and diabesity go together hasn’t been paying attention.

I posted recently about this new beta test program I was in. The food plan eliminated all the major inflammatory and addictive stuff that Americans tend to ingest — gluten, dairy, caffeine and sugar for starters — for six weeks.

After a very short time on this plan, my fasting glucose, which had been hovering between 115-120 for months, dropped. Then it dropped some more. I was getting readings of 91, 92. Big difference.

Then I went away for the holidays to visit family. While there, I did my best but it was impossible to stick with my food plan. Fasting glucose shot right back up to the high hundred-and-teens. Within a couple of days I had gained back 3 pounds.

I’ve been home now for less than 48 hours. This morning, my reading was 102. Not where I want it to be, but a big drop from just a few days before. And the only difference was diet.

I haven’t weighed myself yet, but judging by the way my clothes are fitting most of that excess poundage is melting away as well.

Doing the Happy Dance

Susanna — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:03:51 +0000

This beta test program I’m in is really working. I’m losing weight, my blood pressure (never a problem, but had been running a little high) is dropping. And yesterday morning I was doing the happy dance around my house.

Why? Because my fasting blood glucose was 92. Ninety Two.

ADA (American Diabetes Association) guidelines say a fasting glucose of between 120-140 is “normal” for someone with diabetes.

Wish I could tell you more about this program — and I will as soon as my obligations to the program have ended.

The goal of the program? To reverse diabesity.

Stay tuned — and I’ll stay smiling.

Finally Getting Back on Track with Diet and Exercise

Susanna — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:23:49 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted here, friends. I apologize for my absence — I got completely off track. My eating plan fell apart, exercise fell apart, I gained back a few pounds. . . you get the idea.

But now, happily, I’m back on track.

I’ve been chosen to participate in a beta study group for a doc who’s about to publish a book on how to reverse diabesity. I can’t say much about program I’m on, because I signed a non-disclosure agreement. But I lost four pounds the first week, and my glucose is low.

In fact, the other morning my fasting glucose was below 100 for the first time I can remember. (It was only 99, but still, that’s below 100, right?)

My blood pressure is down as well.

And the best news of all? I’m feeling (comparatively) energetic and optimistic again.

I’ll try to be better about posting.

Has your eating or exercise plan gotten derailed recently? How did you get back on track? Leave a comment. . .

photo by DMahendra on flickr

I Gained 27 Pounds Eating One Twinkie

Susanna — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:36:55 +0000

A few days ago my oldest son sent me a link to an article on CNN.com. The article is titled “Twinkie Diet Helps Nutrition Professor Lose 27 Pounds.” It’s been garnering a lot of internet attention, and shows up on Technorati’s Top 100 Blogs page as an “influential” post.

I can see it now – millions of unhealthy, obese Americans rushing out to the nearest 7-11 to stock up on these new diet foods, then wondering why they got sicker and fatter than ever.

Whatever the professor’s results from his 10-week junk-food binge, it’s not sustainable either as a weight-loss method or a lifestyle.

Lots of health bloggers have been writing about his experiment. There are good analyses here and here from people with science credentials.

I would like to point out that one person’s anecdote is not science – any more than my assertion that I gained 27 pounds eating a Twinkie. (Since I don’t eat them at all, that would be hard to do). I do know that for many years I’ve gained weight so easily, and lost it with such difficulty, that I’ve often told people I can gain 5 pounds just filling in the word “brownie” on a crossword puzzle.

I’ve seen my sister in tears because she couldn’t lose weight on a very reduced-calorie diet while swimming for about an hour each day. I’ve felt helpless for years as all my efforts at “sensible” weight loss plans accomplished nothing and I got sicker and sicker.

Heck, with all that I’ve learned in the past few years, I still am having a tough time losing weight, although it is coming off s-l-o-w-l-y.

Frankly, I think the professor, Mark Haub, has set nutrition back decades with his wacky experiment and the irresponsible publicity that followed.

That said, we’ll be taking a closer look at Mr. Haub’s junk-food binge over the coming weeks to see what its likely influence would be on his health in the long term. Not surprisingly, the words “leaky gut,” “diabetes,” and “chronic disease” will come into play.

Stay tuned. . .

Photo by Christian Cable on flickr

5 Pounds of Toxins Each Year

Susanna — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:32:50 +0000

I read recently that the average American woman absorbs five pounds of toxic chemicals each and every year from her makeup and personal care products. Every time you wash your hair, brush your teeth, rub on moisturizer, use a deodorant or spritz on a fragrance, you’re adding to your toxic load.

Did you think the FDA was protecting you? Not so much. However, there are some steps you can take to cut down or eliminate these sources of toxins.

First, though, you need to know what they are! Here’s a partial list:

Phthalates / DBP. Kids’ toys containing phthalates have been in the news in the past few years, but a lot of cosmetic products include them as well. Often in cosmetic or personal care products you’ll find the ingredient DBP, which stands for dibutyl phthalate. Phthalates cause cancer and interfere with your ability to reproduce.
Petroleum distillates are carcinogenic. Propylene glycol is derived from petroleum, is readily absorbed through the skin, and is so toxic that workers are required to wear protective gear when handling it. It’s used in industry to make things like hydraulic brake fluid and antifreeze. It’s found in very high concentrations in stick deodorants.
Parabens are synthetic chemical preservatives. They might show up as methyl paraben, propyl paraben, ethyl paraben, butyl paraben or PHB Esters.
Mercury and other toxic metals.
Formaldehyde. Even if formaldehyde is not listed on the ingredients label, it might be released by imidazolidinyl urea, DMDM Hydantoin or Hexamethylenetetramine.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) destroy cell membranes. It’s derived from coconut, so it’s frequently labeled as a “natural” product. However, after being mixed with other chemical cocktails, it damages your immune system, causes eye damage, and collects in the heart, lungs, brain and liver.
Triethanolamine (TEA) is a synthetic chemical frequently contaminated with nitrosamines.
Coal tar derivatives are found in dyes and colors.
Triclosan is found in almost all toothpastes and hand sanitizers, and is readily absorbed through the soft tissues of the mouth and skin. It disrupts thyroid activity, drops testosterone levels and increases the risk of cancer.

The FDA has admitted it does not protect the public health from toxic chemicals found in cosmetic products.

You Do Have Options for Toxin-Free Products

The Environmental Working Group maintains an extensive database to help you eliminate the damaging chemicals from your personal care and cosmetic products.

It’s divided into logical sections including hair, skin, nails, makeup, etc. You can search for products you’re currently using and rates them as low, moderate or high hazards.

I searched out the shampoo and conditioner I’ve been using for several years, and found both have a moderate risk level. While not containing carcinogens, their ingredients are linked to

development and reproductive damage
allergies
immune system disruption
neurotoxicity
endocrine disruption
organ system toxicity (non-reproductive)
irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs)
contamination concerns
biochemical or cellular level (DNA) changes

Fortunately, the EWS also provides lists of products with zero toxicity, along with links for purchasing online. Their disclaimer reads,

“Environmental Working Group is not associated with the manufacturer or distributor of this product and cannot guarantee the safety or quality of the product, the product formulation nor the service of the store owner.”

Mineral Makeup

Several years ago I switched from my liquid makeup to a mineral makeup, and I’ve been very happy with the results. It looks good, applies easily, is reasonably priced, and is much easier to travel with!

If you decide to switch to mineral makeup, make sure you avoid anything with talc or bismuth oxychloride, in addition to the baddies listed above. I use products from Everyday Minerals and Mineral Silk.

If you have found a good, toxin-free cosmetic or personal care product, please share your information here! Just click the comment link above (if you’re reading this article on the website).

Photo by dr_XeNo on flickr