That's inspiring stuff!

I like your approach of trying to do a heavy workout during the 34-hour shutdown. That's will be my plan too . . . although I suspect the first 2-3 times I'll be too tired to do much else than hit the rack!

 

This is a great discussion. I have just one thing to add to Frogman's suggestion about sunflower seeds and peanuts: according to the book "Diet for a small planet," if you combine them in the ratio of 5 parts sunflower seeds to 4 parts peanuts, they make a complete protein. For the last 15 years or so, these have been a staple part of my diet. I mix them up and bag them in single-serving amounts (I do 1/3 cup of the mix, which is 250 calories or so) -- otherwise, I tend to munch on them and end up eating 1000 calories' worth before I know it. They are a cheap, compact, and easily stored way to get healthy kinds of fat, protein, and calories. My typical quick lunch is a single-serving bag of these plus an apple or other type of fruit or vegetable and a couple pieces of crispbread.

If blood pressure/sodium issues are a problem for you, make sure you get unsalted nuts and seeds.

I'm not a fan of low-carb diets, having done better myself with trying to keep a balance of all kinds of nutrients, but I think you have to watch out for "processed" carbs, like white bread, commercial baked goods, sugar, etc. Much better if your carbs are coming from whole grains.

I say a big "Amen" to drinking plenty of water, and exercise of all kinds. As I get older, I am finding stretching/flexibility work to be more and more important.

I do pig out from time to time; my weaknesses are chocolate, and ice cream. Or any combination of the two. But if you establish good eating habits, I think you can pig out occasionally without killing yourself. I hope.

One thing I plan to take on the road is a bathroom scale. When I am looking at it every day, I keep my weight where I want it without much trouble. If I go a week or two without checking it, all of a sudden things are not so good, and it becomes a pain to cut back and lose those extra pounds.

 

I think you're right.

For one thing, we know that crash dieting does not work. If you place too great a caloric deficit on the body, your metabolism slows way down and your body will go into a self-protective starvation mode.

It's just as logical, therefore, to assume that crash binging also does not work to supply your body with an over abundance of glucose stored as fat.

You can see on the TV show "Survivor" that the big, rich meals that they're allowed as prizes once in a while, do nothing to change their slow starvation mode.

While we tend to focus on arbitrary periods of time like "a day" or "this meal" or even "this Thanksgiving weekend" . . . the body has no time parameter for fat storage. An extra 1000 calories today worries people. But an extra 30 calories spread out over 35 days is nothing. Of course,a heavy dump of carbs (sugar) will alter blood chemistry and insulin levels and may affect your health in other ways . . . but strictly speaking . . . you need weeks and weeks of consistent over-eating to get fat.

A pound of body fat = 3500 calories.

The Department of Agriculture says that an 8" apple pie contains 1800 calories.

So in theory . . . if your liver and other easy-access glycogen stores were full and your body was perfectly efficient and stored every single excess calorie . . . which it does not . . . and if your daily calorie needs had already been satisfied . . . you could eat two apple pies and gain only one pound of weight.

Or, check this out from a site called http://walking.about.com/library/cal...ngcalories.htm

Let's say you ate all this for Thanksgiving:

One mixed drink, One glass of wine, A cup of coffee with cream and sugar, A cup of eggnog, Three cups salad with diet dressing, Six ounces of cured ham, Six ounces of white and dark turkey, Half a cup of stuffing, Half a cup of cranberry sauce, Half a cup of mashed potatoes, Half a cup of gravy, Half a cup of green bean casserole, Half a cup of candied sweet potatoes, A dinner roll, A pat of butter, A slice of apple pie, A slice of pumpkin pie, Half a cup of ice cream . . .

Then later that night had:

A turkey sandwich with mayo and cranberry sauce,

Then just before bed had

An open-face turkey sandwich with stuffing and gravy . . .

You will only have eaten 4200 calories.

Remember, that your body needs calories just to function. A 6' 1", 200 lb man, 45 years old who does light exercise needs 2500 calories a day to operate his body. That means he has over-eaten only 1700 calories and would need to eat like this two days in a row to gain one pound!

And that assumes his body was perfectly efficient at storing sugar which it isn't.

So, my point is that you actually gain weight pretty slowly . . . which is why it also comes off pretty slowly.

That's why occasional binges or bouts of over-eating can be tolerated.

Bottom line: Enjoy Thanksgiving!

Never feel like you're cheating when you eat more than normal. It's like driving . . . occasionally going above the speed limit in some situations is much different than consistently going over the speed limit in all situations.