<p>I make oven-fried chicken with Bisquick. I can’t remember the last I made it though! Years and years. I mostly use olive oil because I like the taste. My husband uses generic vegetable oil or canola oil in waffles. I use peanut oil in Chinese style food. And sometimes I grab the canola oil.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, is your grandmother my aunt’s mom? 
She had a restaurant in her farmhouse with traditional southern cooking.</p>
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<p>Pushups and variants on the floor
Dips between two tables and chairs
Planks and side planks on the floor
Squats or one leg squats (body weight or holding heavy objects like chairs, suitcase, etc.)</p>
<p>The hard part is finding something to work your back muscles. The bent over row may work if you have anything heavy enough to hold. If you are lucky, there may be a pullup bar in the hotel gym.</p>
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<p>Most low carb advocates seem to believe that all fats (except possibly hydrogenated fats) are good.</p>
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<p>Yes, but what they conveniently forgot to mention is that animal fat (the so-called “saturated” fat villian) is, worse case, only half saturated fat and half unsaturated fat. Lard, for example, is 39% saturated fat, and 61% mono and poly-unsaturated fats.</p>
<p>Saturated fat is “evil” because it elevates the “bad” cholesterol (LDL) while unsaturated fat elevates “good” cholesterol (HDL). But, low and behold, it turns out that there are two types of “bad” LDL cholesterol. Small dense LDL contributes to heart disease because the molecules are small enough to attach to the artery walls. Large fluffy LDL is harmless. Saturated fat from animals produces the large fluffy LDL. So basically, if you use lard, you are getting 59% good fat and the saturated fat you do get is harmless in terms of coronary disease. Hardly the message that we’ve gotten for the last 30 years.</p>
<p>[Lard</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lard]Lard”>Lard - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>One of the biggest travesties of the whole low-fat jihad was making McDonalds switch from beef fat for their fries to partially hydrogenated trans fat (vegetable shortening). That stuff is horrible, much worse health wise than the beef fat it replaced.</p>
<p>Oh, and guess what drives the production of the killer high density small LDL? Fructose. It metabolises into small LDL cholesterol and fat in the liver. So, for 20 years, we’ve been told to “lower our cholesterol” to prevent heart attacks by eating low fat and high carb – the exact thing that produces more high density LDL, the culprit in coronary artery disease.</p>
<p>And, that’s why I’m going to fry some of my grandma’s chicken in lard, just on general principle! :)</p>
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<p>Yes, much of the big scare on fat comsumption has proven to be wrong. It’s not particularly associated with coronary artery disease. The biggest downside to fat is that it is high calorie – just like carbohydrates.</p>
<p>The absolute worst case offenders are the transfats. These are artificially made vegetable oils that are altered to so that they are solids at room temperature: Crisco, margarine, etc. These are horrible. Bad news. Much worse than the butter and animal fat they replaced when they were sold as being “healthy”.</p>
<p>Olive oil is actually good for you. Fish oils are actually good for you. Peanut oil is good. Canola oil is fine. Corn oil and vegetable oils are not so great – unsaturated, but not much monounsaturated.</p>
<p>Butter is not horrible. Lard and animal fat are not horrible in moderaton. I mean, you don’t want to sit and eat sticks of butter or bowls of pork fat because it’s 120 calories per TBS, but there’s nothing in most animal fats that is particularly harmful to you. The saturated fat raises your cholesterol, but they also have as much monounsaturated fat at olive oil, which is good fat. These fats raise good cholesterol and bad cholesterol about equally and it’s the ratio that really matters.</p>
<p>Here’s an interview with Walter Willets, chairman of the Nutrition depart. at the Harvard School of Public Health. The whole interview is great.</p>
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<p>Not so much “good” (although some fats like fish oil and olive oil are literally good for you). The issue is more that an excessive effort to remove fat from the diet has had, and will have, negative unintended consequences – especially considering that there is little reason to remove fats from the diet. The only benefit to reducing fat in the diet is a calorie reduction, but that is typically offset by the calories from carbohydrates.</p>
<p>Run 1 mile (8:36)
Rest 3 minutes
Run 3/4 mile (6:02)
Rest 2 minutes
Run 1/2 mile (4:10)
Rest 1 minute
Run 1/4 mile (2:15)</p>
<p>That looks like a fun descending pyramid of running.</p>
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<p>I was back at the New Rules of Lifting for Abs workout again today. One superset of rear foot elevated split squat (2 x 20 lb DB) and plank position (hand on a bench) DB row (40 lb). One superset of single leg single arm deadlift (40 lb) and stabilty ball bench press with shoulders and head on the ball (2 x 30 pounds). These are just tough damn workouts. A lot of fun, but tough. This was the start of my fourth round of this phase and I’ve settled in and started to bump the weights up a little bit.</p>
<p>I stuck to my gameplan and substituted a round of plank and side plank with feet up in the suspension straps instead of the Turkish get up. I think my vertigo is compeltely gone, but why risk it. The TRX plank is plenty challenging.</p>
<p>arabrab:</p>
<p>Travelling for a week, you might look at it as opportunity to go full-bore on core exercises.</p>
<p>1) Plank and side plank anywhere.</p>
<p>2) You can do pushups with your hands on the edge of the tub, or a chair, or a desk, or even the bed.</p>
<p>3) Hook your resistance band to the doorknob of the bathroom. Kneel on both knees in front of the door at a 90 degrees to the door, so the band is coming at you at about shoulder height from the side. Grab it in both hands, extend your arms in front of you and just hold – the band will be trying to turn you to face the door. Resist the rotation.</p>
<p>4) To get your heart rate up, grab a pair of dumbbells at your shoulders. Bend your knees and push up while pressing the weights to the ceiling. These push presses will have you panting like a dog in no time. They can be done with just about any size weight. This can also be done with resistance bands under your feet to your hands.</p>
<p>5) Or extend two DBs to the ceiling. Hold one outsretched while you press one down to the shoulder and back up ten times. Then hold that one up while you press the other one ten times.</p>
<p>6) Mini band walks, forward/back and side to side.</p>
<p>7) Your choice of squats or lunges.</p>
<p>8) Wall slides. Stand with your back against a wall, arms and hands against the wall, at 90 degree angles (like making a touchdown signal). Slide your forearms up the wall and back down to the 90 degree position.</p>
<p>9) Hip Lifts. Lie on floor, feet on floor, knees bent. Raise your hips to form a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Hold for ten seconds and back down.</p>
<p>10) Toe touch squat to stand. Bend at waist. grab toes. Drop your butt into a squat position. Look up and lift your chest… Raise your arms overhead to form the letter “Y”. Stand up. Repeat five times. I love this exercise. It works and stretches everything. It’s only taken me three months, doing it three times every week, to be able to do it comfortably.</p>
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<p>Great job!</p>
<p>(I find running easier if I do not rest between the running segments :))</p>
<p>^^^^
That was the CrossFit workout a couple weeks ago. I picked up speed each time though the times may not completely show that…</p>
<p>hops_scout, I was kidding. Good job. That is pretty fast for someone who is not a runner.</p>
<p>No worries here… Normally I’m around a 10 minute/mile person but tonight I guess I was cruising right along. Also, I typically struggle once I stop like that. If I run and have to stop, my workout normally begins to spiral down at that point. It’s hard for me to stop and go like that…</p>
<p>The cover story on this week’s New York Times Magazine: “Sweet and Vicious–The Case Against Sugar” by Gary Taubes. Haven’t had a chance to read it yet.</p>
<p>It’s a good article. Based largely on the work of UCSF endicrinologist and childhood obesity expert Robert Lustig. Both Lustig and Taubes are writing books on the role of fructose in insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and obesity. Lustig believes that fructose, especially in the form of sweetened drinks, is the envirnomental change that has triggered the increase in obesity, Type II diabetes, and coronary disease seen in recent decades.</p>
<p>Even the most ardent disciples of low-fat nutrition agree that reducing the intake of sugar is key. There seems to be almost universal concensus that cutting refined sugar, sweetened beverages, and processed foods with added sugar or high fructose corn syrup is the first step in fat loss and/or preventing obesity, no matter what other diet concept you might be trying to follow.</p>
<p>Curiously, they all even largely agree that these simple carbs have a negative effect on metabolism, fat storage, and the onset of insulin resistance above and beyond their high calorie content. Even the poster boy of low fat, all-natural, vegan grains and veggies diets himself, Dr. Dean Ornish, acknowleges that sugars and fructose increase insulin resistance and fat storage.</p>
<p>There is further agreement that the only people who can really consume quanitities of fructose with impunity are elite athletes who are burning massive amounts of calories and have depleted glucogen energy stores – for example, a marathon runner, endurance cyclist, pro tennis player, NBA player, etc. Everyone else will see fructose converted to fat that is either stored or that is the precise type of fat and cholesterol associated with coronary artery disease.</p>
<p>The take home lesson for me is that sweetened beverages (soda, sweet tea, sports drinks, and fruit juices) and candy and all deserts have to go except as a very occasional treat. As far as fat, blood pressure, and bad cholesterol go, it would be better to eat **anything ** other than sugar – even eating pork chops fried in lard with a side of pasta. That single step would probably be enough for a lot of people to permanently control their weight without the need to either cut additional carbs from their diets or count calories and reduce fat on a calorie restricted diet.</p>
<p>Cutting out sugar isn’t new. Even the 1990s “food pyramid” that many criticize heavily limits sugars and sweets to tiny amounts, much less than the average American’s 20-25% of calories.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus – Yes, but – since I’ve been following a low-carb diet over the past month or so I’ve been rather amazed at the number of products with added sugar – and not insignificant amounts – and I’m not even eating anything in the sweets/bread/pasta/rice/potato family. One of the salad dressings we’ve liked at home turned out to have really a lot of sugar in it, and even the prepared salmon at WFM that I’d gotten as a treat turned out to have three different forms of sugar layered on it. (Cane syrup, brown sugar, teriyaki sauce.) Lots and lots of subterranean sugars. As I think I mentioned before, the Jif Naturals peanut butter that I always liked before now tastes way too sweet to me – it has 3 g. of sugar per serving, and sugar is the second ingredient after peanuts.</p>
<p>The other thing I’d noticed last summer, when we were making a lot of sorbets, was that the sorbet mixtures always taste way too sweet when they’re at room temperature – but when they’re chilled and then frozen in the ice cream machine the sweetness level is just fine. The same seems to be true of soda – room temperature soda always tastes too sweet; different story when it is iced. I wonder if the American preferences for iced treats is yet another way we end up taking in truly huge amounts of sugar. (And might explain some of what makes Europeans less frequently sugar addicts given the difficulty in getting reasonable quantities of ice for drinks there.)</p>
<p>Idad – thanks for the workout ideas. I’m taking that as a printout.</p>
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<p>Yes, of course, nothing is really new. It was accepted knowledge for 100 years before the 1970s that carbohydrates: sugars, grains, and starches made you fat.</p>
<p>What is somewhat new is understanding the biochemistry of the unique way that fructose is metabolized by the liver and its connection to insulin resistance, which is associated with the recent epidemic of obesity, Type II diabetes, and coronary artery disease.</p>
<p>The other new thing is the increase in the sugar/fructose consumption – in part because of the cheap prices resulting from the invention of high fructose corn syrup and in part because sugar has replaced the fat in the wave of “low fat” prepared foods.</p>
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<p>Yep. The one change I’m making in my diet is saying goodbye to my nightly frozen italian ice. Only 100 calories – because it’s just six ounces or so of liquid. But, 26 grams carbs, all from pure sugar. If I’m going to eat that fructose, better to do with three tangerines instead. Or a handful of peanuts for the same calories and no sugar. At least there is some nutritional value. I had one left untouched in the fridge for about five days, which I polished off last night and that’s the end of that as a regular item.</p>
<p>I had one of those that melted on me a while back. It was so sweet it was like syrup. Crazy.</p>
<p>In a variation on “turning the other cheek”, on Wed/Thurs I was dismayed to discover that my GOOD leg (good butt side, actually) was hurting. Yes- I know. Compensating for the weak left side was bound to mess something up. There did not seem to be much, if any, hamstring involvement- just deep in the butt. I wisely stopped running and frantically emailed my PT for some suggestions. I went to hot yoga (I had missed a week and a half while I was away) both Fri pm and this morning which also helped. I think I caught it early and it feels fine today.
Yesterday was a little rough. I had my 3rd (and final) epidural steroid injection followed by my annual physical. I was poked and prodded all morning- and couldn’t eat until 11:00am.<br>
My daughter ran a 10K PR this morning without anyone even there with her to cheer her on. It was a windy, wet day, so I’m really proud of her.
Interestingly, there were two other pretty elite older runners at hot yoga this morning, too. The word seems to be getting around that it is a good way to balance (pun intended) out running and help with injuries.</p>