<p>Idad, thanks for the debunk on the fish oil study! And the interesting info about nitrates. I admit I’ve always been a little biased against hot dogs and highly prepared lunch meat in part due to nitrate content 
Of course, the only real place I prefer a nitrate free zone is my well! Even though at infrequent outing at subway I choose chicken breast over cured meats, a part of me knows that the crap injected to produce that chicken-breast likely isn’t any healthier At some point, you have to just accept that your body is a filter and just hope your choices reduce the load that will ultimately end it’s utility :)</p>
<p>I’m optimistic that whatever little facet joint misbehaved this week to cause these spasms is abating, but I did have to resort to muscle relaxers. I am hopeful that the long trip in the car today and Monday don’t kibosh the improvement. I don’t want to fall off the exercise wagon and this is usually how said fall begins. But at least I know to watch for that.</p>
<p>I am coming up on my 6 month anniversary of the “diet-that’s-not-a-diet” and reviewed everything in my netdiary reports:</p>
<p>The status as of yesterday morning is -39.5 lbs.
The activities added to my life in daily or occasional ways include snow-shoeing uphill, Nordic walking, airdyne intervals, treadmill walking and jogging on an incline, aquajogging and water aerobics, bicycling, minor kettlebell experiments, holding a plank a minute at a time, and most recently, the capacity to kayak upstream without dying :)</p>
<p>During this time, the knee tricked out once for a few days, and now the back just once for a few days. I have otherwise not even been sick and maybe had one headache during the entire time. Not bad!</p>
<p>So in context, my fear of injury compared to the gains of my “program” – albeit a cautious one" is or should be teensy. (I will tell myself this as I get back on the short bus ;))</p>
<p>Someone asked about snacks – this one is not particularly low carb, but satisfies me quickly. My go to is a few blue diamond “nutthin” crackers made from pecans and rice with garlic hummus. (Gluten free, a bit of protein, and pretty low cal for the amount of satiety…eg maybe 60 cal for 7/8 crackers and about the same for the equivalent teaspoons of hummus.)</p>
<p>Note–my selections will not reflect a particularly low carb approach, but here are a few others, though I find it best in my case to seriously restrict night snacking and instead just have chai tea or a glass of wine:</p>
<p>On the sweeter front, cherries are fab. So too are cherry tomatoes. To replace a sandwich, I might mx up some mozzarella cheese balls with olive oil, chopped basil and cherry tomatoes. A very small handful of raw almonds will also take the edge off and deliver a bit of positive nutrition value. Another favorite is a cup of mixed raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.</p>
<p>If you are seriously trying to reduce your caloric intake, aka diet, though, many folks will recommend avoiding night snacks altogether. If you’ve had a satisfying meal it may be more habit than need. Or it ay be that the meal itself had fast sugars, eg. Regular pasta, bread base, mashed potatoes, that due to the simple sugar speed, can make people hungry a little later because they produced a lot of insulin in response to the fast sugar and now the body wants more food to deal with the excess :)</p>
So she and I were playing with them a little bit as well. It’s always great to try new exercises occasionally just to get a feel for them.</p>