Goooooo Dopers!!!
I will not post details in haste for regret at leisure. But suffice it to say that the person I described, down to arms folded, does exists in reality and was hiring as recently as 2 months ago. I know, I interviewed with her.
I thought she was a low-life prick and I factored in how much I would have enjoyed working for her when I left the interview. I may hate losing my job, but I still feel I made the right choice.
I have a big hate-on for my city’s traffic planning division (and also the transit planning division) - they have this strange, incomprehensible idea that we shouldn’t be driving on the roads here. Every time I drive somewhere, I see them taking away traffic lanes (they call them “traffic calming” devices); my neighbourhood has an egregious road closure that causes approx. 200,000 people to drive approx. five kilometers out of their way every time we get in our cars (a main road is closed off to all but transit); I get that they want to get people out of their cars, presumably to get onto transit, but where this all falls down is THERE IS NO FUCKING TRANSIT! You can’t get there from here in this city, and somehow the only people who seem to know that are the people who AREN’T making these decisions. All they’re doing is creating worse traffic congestion where we already had bad congestion; for some reason, whenever the city planners find out people are using a road, they take it away from us. What are we saving those for? The buses that don’t run? The bikes that are all on the sidewalks?
Good advice, but gotta respectfully disagree on the “lean meat” part - EAT FAT! It won’t kill ya - promise. A low-carb diet done correctly is actually a fairly high fat, not high protein diet. There’s lots of research coming out turning the old “fat causes heart disease” assuption on its head.
I’ve tried the sugar-free candy route, but my gawd - talk about becoming socially unacceptable. And taking Beano defeats the purpose because it just breaks down the chemical bonds, or something.
ETA: I know an awesome way to make “mashed potatoes” out of cauliflower if anyone’s interested - you can’t tell the difference!
MY minirant - we’re just over the Dante’s Inferno of a summer, now the abrupt temp changes in the evening are setting off my migraines, which are just like bad sinus attacks in character.
Given that many insulin resistant people have high cholesterol and triglycerides, more fat may not be such a good idea. Do these studies show a reduction in those levels, or at least not an increase? Or are they saying that cholesterol and triglycerides aren’t as important as they used to think?
I’ve been put on a low fat high carb diet because of problems with my pancreas and liver, but i’m trying to make sure I get as much of those carbs as possible in complex form because I don’t want to be diabetic also. Unfortunately that leads to gas, and I’m not sure what to do about that. Cravings for fat are just as hard to deal with as cravings for carbs though, sometimes I wish I could trade with you guys.
In general, people that stick to a low-carbohydrate diet will see, after a proper interval of time (at least 6 months in my opinion is optimal) a sometimes radical decrease in triglycerides, and a rise in HDL. (this is GOOD). We don’t believe the Total cholesterol is important so much as the ratios are, which I’ll have to look up momentarily!
As an aside, your LDL is a value that is ordinarily not directly measured, but calculated using the Friedewald equation, which is (in mg/dL):
LDL = TC - HDL - (TG/5). When triglycerides fall below 100 the Friedewald equation, which most labs use, becomes unreliable, resulting in artificially inflated LDL numbers. The LDL numbers, consequently, look horrible.
To delve further into what LC adherents who follow the research have uncovered, a LC diet results in your “bad” cholesterol particles, the LDL, becoming “bigger” and “fluffier” - a preponderance of big fluffy LDL is known as Pattern A and is beneficial, or at least, not harmful. Eating too many carbohydrate results in a preponderance of Pattern B - that is, small “dense” LDL - truly a bad situation.
The point of this isn’t to get between anyone and their doctor, especially in light of any specific medical situation (insert disclaimer), just why I make the statements I do. Here is a link to an article about saturated fat if anyone was wondering about my previous statements; not a direct link to research but does reference such.
That’s very interesting. Maybe the reason my grandparents all had heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure was because of the cornbread and grits, not the fried food and bacon grease. I do know that carbs don’t make you feel full like fat does, so it’s way too easy to overdo it with them.
What the hell happened to autumn? There were what - a week or 2 of nice mild days with highs in the 70’s. The forecast for tomorrow is a high of 66. That’s not so bad, but for Monday it’s 61. Maybe it’s my imagination but doesn’t it seem that in the NE we’re always getting cheated out of Fall and Spring?
I hate that when I make microwave popcorn, I have to choose between having a bunch of unpopped kernels in the bottom of the bowl or having the popcorn scorch and stink up the whole house. I mean, seriously, the difference between those two eigenstates is no more than a couple of seconds.
My dog is looking for my dad. She gets all confused and panicked sometimes since he died.
I don’t really blame her. I kind of feel the same way.
I never said don’t eat fat. I specifically suggested eating lean meat. There is a distinction and a difference there. You can get a reasonable amount of healthy fats from other sources, such as nuts and oils. The problem with non-lean meats is that they are often rich in saturated fats, which are not beneficial to cardiovascular health. The trouble, IMHO, with telling people on a low-carb diet that fat is okay without telling them to eat lean meats is that they think it’s okay to eat stuff like this. 44 grams of fat, probably most of them saturated, along with an unspecificied, but presumably ridiculously high sodium content. Yeah, brilliant. :rolleyes:
As a matter of fact, I do have a history of high cholesterol. I have improved it greatly by diet and exercise (although my doctor seems to think exercise isn’t much of a factor–I happen to disagree). My diet consists of lean meat, mostly chicken breasts and fish, with very occasional treats of beef (the leaner, the better, though buffalo is even better) and no pork (although loins would be fine if I ate pork). Mostly, I cook with and eat oils that are low in saturated fats and consume non-fat dairy and reduced-fat cheese. I don’t pay much attention to total fat content as I do to saturated fat when reading labels, but mostly I’m looking to get the most bang for my buck which means a high ratio of protein to said fat along with a very low carb (from sugar mostly) count. I do allow some complex carbs in the form of leafy greens (daily estimate around 40g, give or take) because I enjoy pooping regularly. Also, every morning I eat a quarter cup of oat bran and I put margarine with phytosterols on it. I eat fat…the right fats.
In summary, I’m paying attention to my diet choices and not completely avoiding any macronutrient. I’m simply adjusting the ratios (and avoiding problematic nutrients) to meet my own health needs. As a result, I’ve lost over 15 lbs and reduced my total cholesterol from 242 to 176 and my triglycerides from 212 to 57. My HDL cholesterol ratio is now 3.5:1 (ideal as per AHA and Mayo Clinic). I realize this is anecdotal, but my methods and results are not out of line with current scientific understanding.
IIRC you live in the north end of Calgary; is this the Center Street closure at Beddington Trail, or have they added another ridiculous one I haven’t heard about yet? (I’ve been out of Calgary about 18 months now.) For that matter, did they ever implement that asinine idea where they’d planned to close Memorial Drive every weekend for a street fair?
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the dietary cholesterol factor. Despite conventional wisdom that dietary cholesterol contributes negatively to blood cholesterol levels, I have personally found that my diet, which is somewhat rich in cholesterol, but low in saturated fat, did not prevent me from obtaining a significant improvement in my cholesterol levels. Years ago, I cautiously avoided cholesterol laden foods, opting for a pescatarian version of the Ornish diet, sans eggs and shrimp. I successfully lowered my cholesterol. This time, I achieved the same results on the Dukan diet (low-carb, lean meat) without restricting my egg consumption much (I love hard-boiled eggs). The correlation between the two diets is eliminating saturated fats and, according to the Harvard piece linked in my previous post, dietary cholesterol is less of a contributor to blood cholesterol than dietary fats. So, maybe we should be telling people that eggs really are incredible.
Oh, and my mini-rant for the day:
sigh I brought my personal, reusable coffee cup to Starbucks for an Americano because I’m trying to do my part for the environment. I do appreciate the ten cents off, but if you’re just going to mark a paper cup, pull the shots into it, pour said shots out of the paper cup and into my reusable cup, and then THROW AWAY the paper cup, it’s COMPLETELY POINTLESS!
I know I probably sound like a douche when I mentioned it, but really? Why would you do that??! smack
The leafers are coming. Thanks TripAdvisor. Now there’s going to be even more people going three miles an hour down the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The good part is that they bring their money. The bad part is that they don’t know how to drive on mountain roads.
[quote=“Brown_Eyed_Girl, post:291, topic:554833”]
I never said don’t eat fat. I specifically suggested eating lean meat. There is a distinction and a difference there. You can get a reasonable amount of healthy fats from other sources, such as nuts and oils. The problem with non-lean meats is that they are often rich in saturated fats, which are not beneficial to cardiovascular
My only point of argument here is that natural saturated fats are not, in fact, harmful, in and of themselves. I know this goes against the conventional nutritional wisdom that gets pounded into our heads daily, but I think the paradigm is shifting. Did you look at the link I gave? (Sorry I missed you were only referring to meat, BTW)
A few years ago I wouldn’t have believed it either. Now I happily eat eggs fried in butter for breakfast. Triglycerides are at 65, HDL 81.
Anyway, this isn’t the appropriate thread, and it’s my fault, I derailed it. Just wanted to clear something up.
Hey, you guys, you know we have a whole thread dedicated to talking about weight loss stuff, right?
Baffle - yup, that’s the Centre Street closure I’m talking about. I’m pretty sure if I started a petition, I’d get hundreds of thousands of signatures on it protesting the closure, because the only people who want it are the 20 people who live on that ONE block who don’t want their residential street turned into an artery. My husband and I have speculated on that it was a city council member living on that block that caused the original closure. 
I don’t think the Memorial Avenue closures ever happened - I think/hope someone slapped some sense into Druh.
Thank you, City of Alexandria, for the $700 tax bill I had to pay this morning for the privilege of owning a car. Oh and the $60 I had to pay on the other battered old POS car in the garage, but that’s my fault for not getting rid of it.
I’m sorry to hear that, SurrenderDorothy, and hope you and SurrenderDog feel more at peace with everything soon. Is there something (like an old pair of your dad’s pants) that you can leave on a chair for the dog, or do you think that will just confuser her more?
Seriously. Who lists a car on Craigslist without pictures? If I can email you for pics you can damn well include them in the ad.
Missing any relevent information? Like maybe what color it is?
ETA: And there’s no way I’m going to call,
Hey, thanks for the new electric meter, City of Calgary. That was really sweet of you to come out and replace that for us without us asking you or anything (or even wanting it). What would have been really cool is if you had LET US KNOW YOU WERE GOING TO CRASH EVERY ELECTRONIC DEVICE IN THE HOUSE! Three computers, two tvs, a dvr, a vcr, various clocks, stoves, microwaves and alarm clocks - I think I’ve got them all re-set and re-programmed and set up again. How much is one of those uninterruptible power supplies for an entire household again?
(I went out for one hour today - guess when they came and did this? Just…guess.)