<p>
</p>
<p>[Artificial</a> Sweeteners Linked To Weight Gain](<a href=“http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080210183902.htm]Artificial”>Artificial Sweeteners Linked To Weight Gain | ScienceDaily)</p>
<p>Everything I’ve read suggests that there is little conclusive evidence, one way or another, on artificial sweeteners. I’ve always disliked the taste and have never really used them, but that’s just a personal preference issue. There are all kinds of theories about how they might or might not impact a diet, but nothing very conclusive.</p>
<p>Anecdotally, some people seem to think that artificially sweetened drinks trigger increased cravings, but that’s pretty hard to test and maybe because soda drinks in general are designed to make you want to stimulate the appetite and drink more!</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t worry about drinking an occasional sugar-free Barq’s root beer if I liked them. For me, I think I’m just better off wiping my memory banks of sweet beverages, sticking with water, coffee, and unsweetened ice tea. I think that, if I started consuming sugar free soda and juice, I’d be back drinking Pepsi, Coke, Raspberry Snapple, cranberry juice, lemonaid, and so on and so forth. We’ve each got our own little thresholds of what it takes to stay off the fattening junk.</p>
<p>You can’t win with a sweet tooth.</p>
<p>As I’ve mentioned before, sugar (especially dark brown sugar) is one of my favorite foods. And I have no history of diabetes or obesity in my family, or in me. I weight 104 (103 on some days) and I’m. Not. Giving. Up. Sugar. So there.</p>
<p>The fact that you weigh 104 pounds is a very strong indication that you are genetically wired to have no problem metabolizing the amount of sugar you eat. It’s really clear that each of us has our own specific threshold points – some with a greater tendency to store fat, some with a tendency to be skinny, some with a tendency to get big butts, some to get big bellies, some with a tendency to build muscle easily, and so on and so forth.</p>
<p>Even for the rest of us, the use of table sugar is the least of the problems.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sugarstacks.com/[/url]”>http://www.sugarstacks.com/</a></p>
<p>I think most of us have figured this one out already, but USA Today…</p>
<p>[Study:</a> Short bursts of exercise good for heart - USATODAY.com](<a href=“USA TODAY - Breaking News and Latest News Today”>USA TODAY - Breaking News and Latest News Today)</p>
<p>I stopped drinking diet drinks about 10 years ago. I listened to an interview on NPR with an epidemiologist who had just written a book on environmental/dietary evils and how these impact our health. At the end of the interview, Terry Gross asked the author if she were to recommend just one of these evils to avoid, what would it be. The author quickly replied–artificial sweetener. For some reason, that made an impression on me and I never drank another diet soda and I didn’t really crave it. I’ve never had much of a sweet tooth, so maybe it was easier for me. I certainly wish I could have a similar experience with pasta and butter and good breads. Cutting down on those is a real challenge for me. In fact, sometimes I think it’s easier for me to avoid these completely rather than just have a small amount.</p>
<p>Just got back home from an 8-day vacation–it’s got to be difficult for people who travel often for business to keep up with exercise. I managed to workout 2 days at the hotel gym and to walk outside (did 3 miles with fast intervals) on 2 days and that was it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I wonder about this personally. I have always been on the thin side, and I wouldn’t say that I eat any differently than most people, probably more sugar than most (horrible sweet tooth), but both times I was pregnant, I was borderline for gestational diabetes. I had to really watch what I ate, and gained a lot of weight both times. But I went back to normal afterwards, and for the most part, do not have to watch what I eat. It is fairly easy for me to lose weight, and at times I have to watch that I don’t lose too much weight. I guess this is good.</p>
<p>^^^Agree – this is good. </p>
<p>I only gained about 20 pounds with each of my pregnancies. I tried, really tried, to gain more, but I never felt good and both pregnancies ended prematurely (six weeks for one, four weeks for the other). Healthy babies, thank goodness.</p>
<p>I gained 32 pounds with my first and 40 with my second. I am only 5’4", so that was a lot. I don’t really remember feeling that big, but I must have looked huge, LOL!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That is a perfect illustration of why people like Gary Taubes insist that there is a strong hormonal component to fat storage. It’s not like you suddenly became a “bad” person while pregnant, with uncontrolled laziness, gluttony, and sloth and then miraculously became a “strong” person mentally again the moment you gave birth. We know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that hormones control weight at multiple points throughout our lives, so it’s almost impossible to believe that they don’t play a role at all times and that obesity may not be a simple puritannical model of being too “stupid” or “lazy” to “just stop eating so much”.</p>
<p>If you accept that premise, then it’s really a matter of trying to figure out what steps each of us can take to shift the balance a little bit towards more hormally driven calorie buring and less hormonally driven fat storage and to find our own thresholds. For example, I can clearly maintain or even lose fat on 100 carbs a day. Just as clearly, I store fat and gain weight on whatever level of carbs I was eating before (with the Pringles, Cokes, Snapples, Doritos, etc.) Somewhere in between is my threshold. Would my carb threshold be different if I had a lower fat diet? Probably. I mean surely total calories do play a role. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, I have a strong feeling that getting below my “threshold” (whatever that is), changed my metabolism and shifted the balance to less fat storage. This means that my body wanted to burn calories from my fat stores and, therefore, I had a surplus of energy that was making me want to exercise five or six days a week, even though my “calories in” have been less than my “calories out”. Other than the first couple of weeks when I was breaking the binge fat food snack routine, it’s never felt like willpower (although clearly it helps to psychologically reinforce the changes, such as fitting into smaller pants, posting on the internets about your workouts, etc.)</p>
<p>D says that this years’ Boston marathoners were fast 
Judging by the photos of the event, the weather was not bad.</p>
<p>The weather was amazing. US runners did very well, with Desi Davila (a Brooks runner) finishing 2nd for the women! My local friend who is 70 ran 3:23 (male) for 2nd in his age group.
No world record (despite it being the fastest marathon ever run (2:03:01) because Boston is not a world record eligible course because of the elevation drop- even though it is NOT an easy course. I guess that’s why I have no interest in going again- I would hate to have my record not count! :)</p>
<p>BB & MoWC - DH was giving me all the details about Boston - running junky that he is. He always says he could sit in a lawn chair at the quarter mile mark, stay hydrated, do a little stretching and warming up AND he STILL would not be able to run it in with the leaders!</p>
<p>He told me about the drop in elevation and I said pfft, well then, I am not impressed with those times! </p>
<p>Seriously - it is beyond my comprehension! MoWC/BB - is that about a 4:40 mile? Whoa. That is just incredible - elevation drop or not!</p>
<p>Wow. I’m toast. I did the NROL4A version of going out too fast in a distance race. Got greedy in the core segment. My weights are all in the basement now, but the best place for ValSlide alligator walks is in the upstairs carpeted hall on the second floor. So for core:</p>
<p>*a) suitcase walk with one 50 lb DB up two flights of stairs. </p>
<p>b) alligator walk the length of the hall and back.</p>
<p>c) suitcase walk with 50 lb DB down two flights of stairs.</p>
<p>d) suitcase walk with two 30lb DBs (one on the shoulder, one at the waist) up two flights of stairs.</p>
<p>e) alligator walk the length of the hall and back.</p>
<p>f) suitcase walk with two 30lb DBs (one on the shoulder, one at the waist) down two flights of stairs.*</p>
<p>That was all well and good, but then I had to do the power superset (throwing a med ball and jump squats with 60 pounds). And, two strength supersets. The last set was alternating between those sadistic 1 and 1/4 squats and chin ups for ten minutes. That was about as spent as I can be. These workouts never get easy. As I get stronger, I do the exercises harder and end up even more gassed.</p>
<p>My Boston marathon story: H&I met and married in Boston. We were part of the Boston running scene in the late 70s/early 80s. H took a job in NJ and sadly we moved away when I was 6 months pregnant with my D. I was very homesick for Boston. As my pregnancy wound down, I developed some complications…went for my weekly visit where the doctor told me to go to the hospital for bed rest. I came home, calmly watched the entire Boston marathon on TV (first time in about 10 years I wasn’t there in person), called my husband to come home, and then we headed to the hospital (about 7 hours after doctor told me to go). D was born, rather unexpectedly, early the next morning. D will be 25 later this week. </p>
<p>D is also an avid runner. She qualified to run the Boston marathon and managed to register in time, back in the Fall. Unfortunately, her work/training schedules did not coincide, so she decided not to run today. She’s kicking herself since she found out the weather was perfect with a tailwind. However, she DID manage to complete her first triathlon yesterday. I prefer to think that her intense in-utero exposure to the marathon just hours before her birth made her the healthy, active person she is today.</p>
<p>Good workout for me today. Biked and then did pushups, weight machines and kettlebells. I am a little stiff and sore already so I must have pushed it hard. Had grilled tilapia with a sesame ginger marinade and sauteed green beans in EVOAA/garlic/low sodium chicken broth and a bowl of mixed berries for dessert. Tired so I may head to bed shortly.</p>
<p>I love that story, Mansfield!</p>
<p>nminn:</p>
<p>That sounds like a pretty darn good day! Nice workout. A little stiff and sore. Good dinner. Early to bed. Can’t beat that.</p>
<p>I pigged out for dinner after my workout. Huge blue cheese salad and a big slice of the pork roast I cooked yesterday, heated up with my homemade “Jimmy Bentley Good-Enough-For-Lafayette Middle Georgia Bar-B-Q Sauce” (which being mostly ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, and black pepper is hardly low-carb).</p>
<p>Tile goes down tomorrow I think, so I won’t be able to set foot in the kitchen. I’ve got it pencilled in as my once-a-month carb-fest cheat day – Italian sub for dinner.</p>
<p>I really appreciate the conversations here. I look forward to checking in and seeing whether today it’s sugar and insulin or a personal success story.</p>
<p>My own goal right now is to get through the next three weeks without resorting to former bad habits. I had two students in my office today, and another one emailing, saying “I know I didn’t turn in what I was supposed to, when I was supposed to, so what can I do about it now?” They are not especially pleased that the answer is “Nothing.” Previously potato chips have helped me cope with these conversations but so far I am resisting.</p>