Goya 2 Goya

What is salt but that which we spice up our food with? Unfortunately for most Americans, there is more salt in our food than just what we put in it. If you have high blood pressure: lower your salt intake. If you eat a lot of processed foods because you're in a hurry, you have too much salt in your diet.

How do we take care of this salty intake? It's been said once and may well be said again. And your mother said it a thousand times but did we listen? Noooooo. To reduce salt intake and to garner other health benefits: eat your fruits and vegetables; reduce red meat consumption; eschew white bread for grains; pass over white rice for brown. That sounds pretty simple, doesn't it?

I interviewed a non-meating eating friend in Tokyo last week. The interview was on the run - as we walked to the busiest train station in Japan (Shinjuku) after a night of drinking beers and rum-based drinks, I asked him about vegetarianism and protein.

About three minutes into the interview we enter Shinjuku station and the background noise level goes up. I think you can still hear him well enough to learn about kale, seaweed, and protein.

He mentions two words that may not be familiar to those less fortunate to have not been born in Japan: izakaya and yakitoriya. An izakaya is a food and drink establishment that serves a wide variety of food; everything from chicken and fish to tofu. A yakitoriya is a place that serves primarily fried chicken plus other foods including tofu and a variety of veggies. Both serve a Lot of alcohol: beer, sake, and shochu (rotgut sake, if you will).

Enjoy.

About 66% of Americans are either overweight or obese (30% of body weight is fat or more) and we spend about $20 billion on gym memberships. There has been a 500% increase in the number of Americans who are more than 100 lbs overweight since 1987. And Time magazine has a story titled: "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin." Which should actually be titled: "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin if You Gorge on Fat Foods After You Exercise." But how many of us will stop exercising because of it?

At 10 minutes into the show, our musical feature "Desert People" by 1000psi from musicalley.com begins. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.

Comment to goya2goya@gmail.com

We deal with the rain and alcohol. What's wrong with it and what's right with it - when dealing with weight loss. Then we talk about simple exercises you can do on your couch - crunches and situps. Finally, a short babble about food and what you should eat - not fat, obviously.

All included with two songs under the talking: Jim Tetlow's Song For a Virtual WaterPhone and Machinist's Cold in Hot Cities. Both can be found at podsafeaudio.com (I believe.)

In this episode I talk about some of the Advantages and disadvantages of walking.

Among the advantages are:
it's free, you can do it anytime, it's aerobic, you don't need special equipment, you can lose weight doing it, and when you stop - for whatever reason - you don't feel you're wasting money on a gym.

The disadvantages include:
cars, dogs, sometimes it's dangerous to walk, and it's hard to walk in a snowstorm, hurricane, rain, or when it's too cold. And if you go to a gym you'll have access to a trainer who might help you more than if you just walk alone.

Also, if you collapse at a gym, chances are high that someone will call a paramedic. If you're walking, you will have to rely on the kindness of strangers.

But mostly I walk because I like seeing new people and things and relaxing while I exercise and, hopefully, lose weight, lose fat, reduce my cholesterol, and work on a few muscles.

I talk about motivation, again, and the fact that my cholesterol (both good - HDL - and bad - LDL) has gone down. Why? I don't know: improved diet? exercise? eating more almonds and cashews? I also talk about lifting weights to exhaustion and how that might be good if you can't walk because of rain or sunshine or a favorite TV show. And we end with a 30 second Frankenstein song I've titled "Hello Chicago" and made with a lot of help from some creative people at http://freesound.org - Notofficial, Odington, and Flick3r. Thanks for listening.

Continuing our motivation diatribe. I talk here of setting attainable goals and finding inspiration in the 300 lb people of Alabama and Mississippi in my fat loss lifestyle. Clearly, we need to maintain a certain motivation and resist all attempts at breaking down our resolve - easier typed than done. Taking a tip from Alcoholics Anonymous, we should live one day at a time.

This episode finishes with a short tune titled "Fear." It was put together by me but I was merely the producer. The real talent lies with the following people I found at http://freesound.org : Flick3R, Notofficial, Walter Odington, and bebeto.

Fear is by Goya2Goya feat. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Fitzgerald Kennedy on vocals. Enjoy.

News coming out of the internet pipes today was that two states in these United States are competing for having, on average, the fattest people in the universe: Mississippi and Alabama are necks and necks in the tubby awards. And I'm not helping any.

I want to talk about Motivation for a moment: We Need Motivation and we Need Change. If we want to keep to our New Life Styles (not diets - diets don't work but life styles are forever. Maybe) we need Motivation, Rewards, and Goals.

We need, to coin a phrase, Change we can believe in.

On other news, fasting - not eating or limiting the intake of nourishment to a minimum as in a fruit fast or a juice fast - is a good way to jump start your new or continuing life style change.

In the audio portion, we have some electronica: Fast Like Mahatma Gandhi feat. the Dalai Lama on vocals. Please enjoy.

Fat. It does a body good. First, it protects internal organs - cushions the blow when you get into a fight or tumbling accident. Second, it provides us with healthy looking skin and hair - fat hair? Third, it helps our brains function normally - as normally as they can, I guess.

Is fat good? Yes. And no. Of course. This is nature, not partisan politics. The good fat in food is unsaturated - both poly and monounsaturated fats are good for us. Poly and monounsaturated fats can be found in nuts and canola oil (mono), and fish (poly).

Bad fat comes primarily in the saturated form. Saturated fat is found in animal products such as meat (of course), cheese, eggs, and milk. What does bad fat (saturated) do? It raises LDL (Bad cholesterol) and raises the overall cholesterol rating (it might also raise the HDL - good - cholesterol but not as much as it raises the LDL.)

What does good fat (unsaturated) do? The opposite, of course, it lowers LDL and raises HDL.

What we are aiming at in our daily life is health and that seems to mean less saturated fat and more unsaturated fat; more nuts and fewer cheese dips; more fish and less dead cow. Generally, in order to lower LDL and raise HDL and to lower our fat consumption we need to eat our vegetables and fruit. And exercise.

This week I did deadweights for about 20 minutes a day. I feel great. I feel like Tony the Tiger. I feel... like I should do it for at least 20 days - forming a good habit.

This episode includes two songs and a confession of depression. Depressed over gaining a little weight, I reacted by overeating. What a losing proposition that is. I overate for about two days and then realized I was making myself depressed by eating. So I stopped. And thought positive. I decided if I can gain weight fast, then I can lose weight fast, too. Perhaps I'm being delusional but that's okay, if I restart my new lifestyle of keeping fit, losing fat, and enjoying myself.

Included in this short confessional episode are two songs. A short (45 seconds) electronica featuring his Holiness the Dalai Lama on vocals and one by Naomi Yohani of Taiwan called, appropriately, Once Again.

Thanks for listening.

In Episode 16 of Goya2Goya I mock a wall. At least, that's what I say first, but I think I meant walk a mall. Also in this episode, I talk about carbohydrates and continue babbling about habit-forming habits.

First, wall mocking observations. Malls are 1) noisy, 2) crowded, 3) end - you have to turn around and walk back over the same ground - tedious? or exciting? You decide. 4) have too many distractions. i.e. bright shiny objects.

http://mamashealth.com/diets/goodcarbs.asp

http://hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/carbohydrates-full-story/index.html

Second, carbohydrates, like many things in nature, are both good and bad. Good carbs give us minerals, vitamins, fiber, and make us feel full longer. Conversely, bad carbs fill us up quickly but we're hungry sooner plus they load us up with unwanted fat.

Where can we find good carbohydrates? Fruit, vegetables, and beans. See a pattern here? What lowers our cholesterol? Fruit, vegetables, and beans. What keeps the fat off? Fruit, vegetables, and beans. Maybe we should be eating fruit, vegetables, and beans instead of French fries, potato chips and beer?

Third, habit-forming habits. First of the third is Timeless Habits. These are habits that require no extra time on our part. Eating a salad instead of a hamburger doesn't require extra time, just reaching for the healthier stuff. Second of the third is Half Habits. You don't start out running a marathon on your first day of jogging. You work up to it. Same with habits. Don't start with the goal; take baby steps to get to your goal.

http://www.zenhabits.net/2009/01/two-simple-ways-to-form-new-habits-without-really-trying/

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Current weight: 66kg/145.2lbs (minus 1kg)

I run through some contemporary Japanese traditions: long baseball practices and hiding emotions in public Plus the difference between a nice neighborhood stroll and walking to lose weight. Walking to lose weight is covered here:

http://www.prevention.com

and here:

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/

Plus, I talk about killing one bad habit while creating a new 'good' habit.

Next episode: more on habit forming habits and the difference between good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates (it's not just their pierced ears anymore.)

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Current weight: a stable 65.5kg/ 144.1lbs. (-2.5kg)
Goal for this week: Get It Under 65kg143lbs

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-88471a0d6e3aa81042593717a9b2b138}

A quick and speedy episode today because I'm talking about quick weight loss and why it's depressing for people who don't lose weight quickly. Should we? I mean, be depressed because we can't match the "35 pounds in One Month!" screams of advertisers for fad weight loss snake oil? Nyah. If we're losing weight, no matter what the speed, we should be happy because we're not in this for the short term.

We're long term losers.

I mean, we're shifting our lifestyles from sedentary, heart-attack prone, cholesterol-driven "Lost" viewers to movers and shakers - some of us shake more than others - who Get off our associated butts to get the fat off our collective asphalts. So to speak.

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Current weight: 65.25kg/143.5 lbs (minus about 2.75kg)

I discuss the benefits of walking while breathing heavily and strolling through a cemetary.

Medicinenet.com (http://medicinenet.com)has ten reasons why walking is beneficial to all who enjoy a good brisk walk. They include reducing the risks of breast cancer, colon cancer, and type 2 diabetes; strenthening your bones, brain, and heart; improving physical function, and alleviating the symptoms of depression.

The All in the Mind podcast (http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/mind.xml) has an episode about placebos and exercise alleviating symptoms of depression more than antidepressants, by the way.

My thoughts about walking include being able to see life at a slower pace and finding new things in your neighborhood that you can't see from the seat of a speeding Hummer.

(In this episode I say it's the end of June. This is obviously a timeshifted memory on my part; it's the end of May. It will still be hotter than blazes in July and August, though.)
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Current weight: 65.5 kg 144lbs (minus 2.5 kg)

I binged. I consumed a lot of stuff in a short amount of time and that caused me to wonder about eating. In this episode, I speculate about why people eat and why people exercise. Amongst my speculative ramblings for eating are survival and emotions. Do you have a comfort food? Many of us do. Do you eat when you're not hungry? Many of us do. If we can control our emotional eating, perhaps we can lose some of that less-than-desired fat that hogs our guts and hips.

About exercise, time and appealing to the sex of your choice are on the list, as are weight and fat loss, longevity, and the creation of energy. And being able to exercise.

I also wonder about the absence of bats on this cool spring evening. I ask if bats sleep and after I said it I realized, of course they do. When do they sleep? Days? That would explain the vampire stories about avoiding sunlight.

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Current weight: 65.5 kg/ 144 lbs (Down 1.5 kg/3.3 lbs.)

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