It's been a while since I have posted. I have had relatives vising from over seas. The trip was great but I didn't do so well with the diet. I broke it more than once. I've noticed that in situations with work and situations with out of town visitors like this I tend to find myself in situations where it is very difficult to stay on a diet. Situations where it would just look plain weird not to indulge in carbs. Then inevitably once you get off the wagon, it's a slippery slope. You think to yourself, "well, I have already cheated, why not just one more time, why not wait until tomorrow." Then it goes on and on. Even more frustrating is that I don't have a functional scale yet to measure the damage done.
As an aside, I thought I would explore a problem that has always interested me. Bloody gums and heart disease. I have always wondered what is the scientific basis for the connection for bloody gums and heart disease. There is a correlation between bloody gums and the risk of heart attack. As with many bodily ailments, correlation does not equal causation. I have bloody gums and would like to know the risk I am running and exactly why. I have done some research on the subject and it doesn't seem very well proven, but there seem to be consensus on the causes. Bleeding gums allow bacteria into the blood stream. Bloody gums create a passage for bacteria to go from the mouth to the blood stream. Once in the blood stream, bacteria get bound to platelets. These complexes and perhaps others clog arteries. Once the arteries are clogged you get a situation very similar to other heart diseases with plaques causing clogged arteries and heart attack.
Looks like I need to go to the dentist. It would really suck to die by bleeding gums because I couldn't take care of my dental hygiene.
Transforming biochemistry knowledge into weight loss:
This page was begun as an experiment. An experiment I was conducting on myself. An experiment to test which conditions would allow me to loose weight. Now that I have been at it for a while I realize this page serves as more. It serves as a means for me to research. It is a way for me to pick health topics of interest, research them from a biochemistry stand point, and then share them with the world. Sharing them with you gives me an official feeling and keeps me motivated. However, as described below, I am still experimenting on myself.
How did this happen? I don't know exactly although I am almost sure it boils down to diet and exercise. I hope to find the answers as I explore my journey through weight loss on this blog. I was not always fat. Therefore, I know that I can be unfat again.
I am a biochemist. I should have known better. Of all people, I should have known how to avoid this predicament I am in now. I now wish to harness my scientific knowledge to experiment on myself as well as explore the chemical basis for weight loss methods.
Methods:
I will try new diets. I will experiment on myself. The diets will be chosen from among the most popular in our society. I will chronicle the results and my general experience in my blog here. I will also explore the biochemical basis for these diets as well as evaluate their effectiveness and truthfulness. I will also exercise as regularly as possible, 3-5 times per week, to avoid biasing the results. I will try to keep everything constant in my life except the diet. My method is not perfect. I don't necessarily want to lose raw pounds, but rather gain an understanding of what methods work best for me to permanently regain my health.
Hypothesis:
1. No diet will be clearly better than the others. Conversely, each diet will offer some truth, some piece of knowledge or methodology that I can take away with me to help myself. I think that in the end, I will be able to formulate my own diet based on a synthesis of all the things I have learned from all of these diets.
2. I have been on diets before, lost weight, and then regained it. I wasn't born fat. Given that, I think that my main problem will be shown to be psychological. I think that I may have compulsive eating problems- compulsive eating problems associated with very unhealthy foods.
3. I will lose quite a bit of weight. My blog will help keep my motivation levels high.
4. There will be a lack of clear scientific basis to many of the diets.
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