My Surprising Seven Deadly Sins Test Results

Greed:	Very Low
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	High
Envy:	High
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	High

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

I thought for sure Gluttony would be high. But it is true about Sloth. I am lazy. That's why it's so out of character with me exercising as often as I have been lately. I'm surprising myself. Every day I think of having to go downstairs and walk on my treadmill before I can eat -- something I'm learning is the WRONG thing to do (we should all eat breakfast first thing in the morning). But since I stay up all night and sleep until noon or 1:00 each day, my days are all messed up. And I find if I eat something, I will want to eat more and then I won't be able to walk. I lose all energy after I eat and must sit and wait for my food to digest before I can do anything. Of course, that's a bad habit. What I should do is to eat a very little bit -- like a small bowl of cereal -- and then walk. I need to work on this. Also, I've been reading all over that we should eat small amounts every 3 or 4 hours throughout the day (but not close to bed time). It's called "grazing (see Julie? You knew what you were talking about!), not gorging." It's serves to make your metabolism work harder for you and burn more fat.

The reason all this is fresh in my mind is that I just watched a shameless bit of promotion and fundraising on our local PBS station involving a Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D., who was talking about ways to lose weight by "revving" up your metabolism. Actually, I've read most of what he had to say before in the health news service that I have set up on my home page of news, so I know that it's based on sound nutritional research. Otherwise I would have probably dismissed it as just one more lose-weight-quick formula. But the things he had to say were true. I'll try to include some of the basic information that was covered here later (I took notes).

Back in the Saddle Again...

It's been a looooong time since I last wrote anything here. And I'd apologize except I'm not sure if anyone's actually reading this. I can't say I've had any rousting comments on any of my prior entries. But I've resolved that I'm not going to write here for YOU, but for ME. Cheap therapy, maybe...but it will do. Actually, I've been re-inspired to blog again, having looked at some of the other blogs people are doing these days. Some very creative & interesting things being done out there.

So, because I haven't written since before last Halloween (!), let me catch up a bit: I'm still here!! Maybe not exactly "better"--but holding my own. One thing that I've been doing is walking on my treadmill--about 4-6 times a week, about 21-22 minutes a stretch. OK, not much, but hey, my heart is not cooperating on this project, you know? Any time I go over 23-24 minutes, I feel absolutely "flattened" later. So much so that I have to lay down and rest. I used to get a lot of heart symptoms when I do this, too--dull chest pain, palpitations--but I've started taking fish oil capsules and I have to say that I think that has helped a little. On the other hand, last Saturday I went with my 2 daughters to the Field Museum to see the current exhibition on Pompeii--a subject that has been near & dear to my heart since I was a child--and I got so tired out after walking about 2 revolutions around the main hall that I had to sit down and wait for a wheelchair to be brought to wheel me around the exhibitions. You just can't imagine how humbling it is to have to do this, but I had no other choice.

I find myself having to excuse myself a lot these days to other people for my physical limitations, and I'm not happy with that. Must I feel guilty over being ill?? Don't I have enough guilt heaped on me as it is? Guilty over being overweight, guilty over my food addiction, guilty over feeling guilty all the time! Where does this end!?! Take food... I've been reading an interesting online forum for local Chicagoland "foodies" (like myself, *blush*) called "LTH Forum" and I've had a real mind-blowing experience to discover that I am not the only person in the world to be absolutely obsessed with food! These people are totally bonkers for every minute aspect of food!! It really took off some of the pressure I felt, thinking there must be something wrong with me to think about food so much. (I have caught myself "chewing" in my sleep!) Once, many years ago, the now-much maligned, former Frugal Gourmet and pedophile, Jeff Smith once said that he thought the Chinese obsessed over food more than any other ethnic group. They weren't finished with one meal when they would mentally be planning the next one down to last detail. He also explained that they cut all their food in bite-sized pieces prior to stir-frying so that they wouldn't have to use anything more than their chopsticks to eat an entire meal--not like us in the West where one must use a "proper" fork, knife & spoon. That always seemed to me so civilized! Real foodies!!

So maybe it's OK to be a foodie after all. Of course, don't tell that to someone who isn't! You hear all these svelte, athletic types mouthing such platitudes as, "Eat to live, don't live to eat," and other such crap like that. I've always thought, poor you--you must never get to eat any really good food! Because good food is meant to be savored and enjoyed. And, my weight problems aside, that, inherently, isn't a bad thing. Unfortunately, I have some complex problem that I am sure originates on a chromosomal level, that predisposes my body to not behave optimally when it comes to food. Something that causes my body not to utilize food normally. I probably lack certain chemicals that would allow me to feel sated with smaller amounts of food. I'm also sure there is a psychological factor to all this that is learned as a young child growing up with mixed messages that your parents give you to eat, but not too much--and then to heap guilt on you when you did. So you learn stealth. Guilt breeds it. Candy bars slipped into your underwear drawer. Potato chips snuck up to your room after everyone has gone to sleep. Eating food off plates as you clean up the kitchen after dinner. It goes on and on. This can't be healthy. And it encourages eating to excess, 'cause you never know when the next time you'll be able to eat freely will be! So it snowballs.

For all of the the "Twelve Step" programs out there, I never could understand how Overeaters Anonymous could have any success. You can live without alcohol or drugs, but you can't live without food. And leaving portion control up to an addict? Forgeddaboudit! No wonder so few obese people can keep the pounds off permanently. However, I do have a lot of hope for the latest scientific research in this area to come to a greater understanding of the complexity of these problems. They have discovered the links that exist between the brain and the stomach/intestines and the role that hormones play in signaling the feeling of satiety to the brain. Patients receiving gastric bypass operations evidently have that section of their digestive system cut-off so as to stop those hormones from reaching the brain. Thus, they no longer suffer extreme hunger. In fact, many complain that they have little desire to eat and often must force themselves in order to maintain nutrition. Of course, over time, if they return to the same behaviors that brought them to obesity, their new stomachs will eventually stretch out and they will be suffering from the same problems all over again. See how complex this is?? It's that body/mind connection which makes it so difficult.

Back in the day, I went away to school in Rome on a "junior year abroad" program and lost 40 pounds doing nothing more than walking all over that beautiful city most days of the week, and eating pasta for 2 meals a day. Of course, I was 21 at the time, and, of course, I put all that weight back on and more when I returned home to the U.S. of A. and no longer had to walk any further than from my door to the car door. So I doubt whether that "diet plan" would work for me today. I'm too sick to walk great distances or fast enough to get that "aerobic" effect these days. But if I keep working at it, I'm pretty sure I can eventually work my way up to 30 minutes a day, 7 days a week (I started out being able to walk no more than 15 minutes). At least, that's my goal. Will that alone cause me to lose weight? Probably not. But I've also been trying to work on a big problem of mine: portion control. If I could cut down on the amounts I eat--or only pig out on lower caloric items, like veggies--I believe I could drop some weight. Which might mean that I'd probably feel better--some things at least would improve. So that's what my game plan is these days. On the other hand, I'm home all day long and have taken to cooking more and more. I've made some killer pizza from scratch and baked goodies from Julie van Rosendaal's, "One Smart Cookie" cookbook. So, I'm far from having a halo around my head quite yet.