Photo food diary Saturday Dec 6, 2008
The start of the Messiah Dec 6, 2008
Today was dominated by preparation for the Messiah, at least for MD. I helped minimally, mainly by giving her moral support. While she was at the Granada dealing with all the zillion last minute details, I was working hard on my own self-improvement program: I went to the driving range. Above is a photo of the moment the concert began taken from where I was sitting.
MD, for whatever reason, refused to cook today, so we started off with breakfast at a little local eating place. This was the worst breakfast we’ve had since this photo diary started. I would rather have stayed home and had a shake. The eggs were overcooked, the ham was dry, and the fruit was of weenie proportions and wasn’t all that good.
Breakfast Dec 6, 2008
After breakfast MD took off for all her tasks and I took off for mine. When I got back to an empty house hungry, I had to fend for myself. I sliced up a little salami, fished out a pickle from my jar and some peppers, and opened a can of sardines. Made a nice little early afternoon snack. Who says I can’t cook?
Early afternoon snack Dec 6, 2008
For those of you wondering about the crackers, they are Almond Nut Thins. They have about a gram and a half of carb per each. I always get out the 6 I’m going to eat, then put away the box. If the box is within my reach, I’ll eat a lot more than 6. These crackers taste great and are nice for those who are wheat intolerant because they’re made with almonds and rice flour.
Crackers and sardines Dec 6, 2008
MD came home mid afternoon and I listened to her recount all the things that had gone wrong and blown up on her at the Granada. What a wonderfully supportive husband I am. She took a breather for an hour or so, then she got dressed for the gig and headed back, leaving me bereft of a cook. I considered (for about two seconds) preparing something for myself, but abandoned that craziness and headed up to the local deli. The local deli had changed their menu, so the hot pastrami I was lusting for was no longer available. I opted for a corned beef sandwich, so I got one to go and brought it home. Here is how it came.
Corned beef sandwich Dec 6, 2008
Here is how I fixed it. I removed half the bread then put the two half sandwiches together, giving me a big, fat sandwich with only half the bread.
Sandwich with half bread Dec 6, 2008
But, as usual, I didn’t eat all the bread. I do this all the time. I start out intending to eat the bread on a sandwich or the bun on a burger, eat a couple of bites, then start picking the meat, tomatoes, etc. out of the sandwich and abandoning the bread. Here’s what I left.
Bread uneaten Dec 6, 2008
I took these bread remnants and threw them away immediately. If I had left them sitting there, I would have picked at them, eating a little pinch here and a little pinch there, until all the bread was consumed. That’s a lesson I learned long, long ago.
My daughter-in-law, my son (not the husband of the DIL, one of the other sons, the son of ER Dad fame) and his girlfriend picked me up, and off we went to the Granada. We got there and proceeded immediately to the Patron’s lounge, where we hit the champagne. And good champagne it was.
Veuve Clicquot at the Granada Dec 6, 2008
I had two glasses before the performance and two glasses at intermission. Here are the four of us drinking up awaiting the performance.
Scott, Amanda, Katherine and yours truly Dec 6, 2008
And here is our DIL Katherine, who was one of the underwriters. Since she is a lover of Veuve Clicquot, that’s what she provided as a part of her underwriting.
Founder of the Veuve feast Dec 6, 2008
We got to our box, the lights dimmed, and my lovely wife came out and gave a little opening address to the audience.
MD address to audience Dec 6, 2008
After the performance, which was a tour de force, we all retired to the Patron’s lounge to have snacks and more Veuve Clicquot (three more glasses for moi). Here is a photo of my plate of hors d’oeurves.
Food at Patron
I had three plates of pretty much this composition – one for each glass of Veuve. My wife couldn’t be involved without making sure that low-carb food could be had. The little meat things are bacon-wrapped veggies and proscuitto bundles – both really tasty. The little crackers were a vehicle to eat the avocado hummus (cutting hummus with avocado is a great way to pimp it lower carb.)
During this photo food diary session I’ve not eaten a few things I would probably have eaten had I not been doing this project. Tonight I made up for it. I ate something I wouldn’t have eaten had I not been keeping this diary. I had a cookie and a half. I didn’t really want them, but I figured no one would believe me if I showed only photos of a pristine low-carb diet. I actually intended to eat two cookies, but I could choke down only one and a half.
Cookies at Granada Dec 6, 2008
Here are the Prez and First Man of the Santa Barbara Choral Society posing in front of the mantel in the Patron’s lounge at the Granada.
MD and spouse Dec 6, 2008
And, finally, here is a photo of the whole group in the same setting.
Katherine, MD, MRE, Scott, Amanda Dec 6, 2008
The night was a huge success for MD. We came home and she hit the rack to get some beauty sleep before she has to get up and do it all again. Sans me this time, of course. I’ll be on the golf course.
ME: You may want to consider some magnesium to help with cravings. Take it at bedtime.
I am in the process of correcting a long term chronic magnesium deficiency that has only recently become blatantly obvious to me. So I have some observations on Dr. Eades comment.
For the past month or so I have been taking anywhere from 800 mg to 1500 mg of magnesium in various forms (mostly mgcl hexahydrate) a day in divided doses. One thing I noticed after about 10 days of high doses of magnesium was that my appetite suddenly began to increase. Before this my appetite had been well controlled and minimal. I seldom snacked and had adjusted to fairly small meals just as Dr Eades said. Some days I did not even feel inclined to eat. I rarely snacked. Now I found myself snacking frequently. I gained about 5 pounds over a short period. However, my appetite is now decreasing again and I am losing the weight I gained.
Dr. Eades recommends taking a dose of magnesium at bedtime. Like some others have reported I found that I initially could not sleep if I did this (although I now sleep very soundly). In terms of my energy levels, magnesium is like rocket fuel.
My symptom picture and the amount of magnesium I am able to ingest suggests that I have been severely deficient in magnesium for a very long time (I suspect about 40 years). The literature I have read on magnesium deficiency says that it can take anywhere from 3 months to 3 years of supplementation at high doses to correct a magnesium deficiency and that the results will vary greatly from one person to another.
In hindsight, I suspect that the reason for my increase in appetite might be that the supplemental magnesium is enhancing my insulin sensitivity and glucose transport into my cells causing my BG to drop lower than it has normally been dropping. If I had suspected this at the time I would have monitored my BG. It would be interesting to know if anyone has had a similar experience.
Dr. Eades, it would be nice if you could hook up a search function on your blog. I’ve tried to get a history of your take on lodoral and magnesium, for example, and it would be helpful just to search your posts through the words themselves rather than scroll through all the comments of all the posts. Just sayin. In the meantime, of course, I’m off to the vitamin shoppe to buy a good quantity of the same. Thanks thanks thanks for your availability to your adherents. Just had my labs done: HDL 78, LDL 104, Triglycerides 37. Fasting blood glucose is 105, hence the search for magnesium. Would you do a combination of magnesium aspartate and lipoic acid to bring it down? In what quantities? Can I safely add lodoral to that combination? Don’t need to unintentionally OD on the minerals & stuff …
There is a search function on the blog. I, myself, use it all the time. What there isn’t at this point is a search function on the comments. I have never posted on iodoral, but have discussed it only in the comments, which is why you can’t find it if you search via the blog search function. I have a comment search function in my blog software – I just need to figure out how to make it available to everyone else.
I can’t really comment on your specific blood sugar situation since I know nothing about you. I typically give my own patients 300 mg of magnesium at bedtime and 300 mg of lipoic acid per day. There should be no problem combining iodoral with these, but I would check my patient’s iodine status before giving the supplement.