Praise for Tomblin Where It's Due, but Criticism Too

(2 Day Diet stats and update at end)

Dear Governor Tomblin,

Thank you for vetoing HB 4588, the twenty-week abortion ban. A politically difficult decision, but the right decision for our state and the people of West Virginia. The claims of fetal pain were just excuses by the forces of the religious right wing to impose their beliefs on the women of West Virginia. Very few abortions occur between twenty and twenty-four weeks, and then it is doctors and patients together who must make decisions. women every day and help them through decisions about continuing or ending a pregnancy in dire circumstances. And you followed their advice. Bravo! I am a Democrat, I voted for you, and you have with this action made me proud.

But for all the children who are born successfully in West Virginia, I must ask you to reconsider your position on the EPA, and believe West Virginia must find alternatives to burning coal mined by mountain top removal (MTR) coal mining. Fragile infants should not be exposed to the health risks studies have shown exist in communities where MTR is used. It should be outlawed because of the permanent damage it does to our precious mountains, the streams it buries and pollutes, and the damage it does to the homes, lives and communities where it is employed. Not to mention the carbon and other pollutants the burning of coal adds to the atmosphere and the concomitant effects on climate.

Also, if young people are to live decent working lives, you must sign the minimum wage bill and stand with those who stand with the "97%": working people who deserve a living wage, free and fair elections, a trustworthy government that works in the best interests of ALL the people, not just the few and the rich. I am relatively well off, but I stand with those West Virginians who aren't, even if they hold and vote on their mistaken notions that their lives would be better with fewer government protections, regulations, and social welfare programs for those too old, sick, lacking in abilities. Minimum wage workers work as hard as they can and not earning enough for their basic needs. Even a teacher, if the sole earner with children, can be eligible for food stamps!

Governor, you listened to doctors, the experts on women's health and did the right thing. Now listen to the scientists and environmentalists on the effects of MTR on health of the community and on the economy. If you do, you'll come around to the point of view many of us share that without clean air, water, and protection of our wild places from huge industrial interests who want to take but not give back, the economy of West Virginia will continue a downward spiral into poverty such as we have suffered as a state in much greater measure than other parts of our great nation.

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Just a word on this week's progress on the 2 Day-Diet. As I'd hoped when read the book, I would be embarking on a new way of eating that would become, like my decision to exercise regularly after I first learned I had high high blood pressure, a way of life. It is now. If I didn't lose another pound, I'd be happy with my current weight and I don't think I'd gain it back overtime. I'm 2/3 of the way to my goal, in no hurry to get there, and feeling really good about the whole enterprise. It gets easier all the time to eat small healthy meals and avoid snacking too much. This eating program has changed my view and understanding of what the body needs, and I am certain that after I reach my goal I'll be able to maintain it without restricting myself. That's because, it no longer feels restrictive. I eat well. I enjoy my food. It's just a much healthier balance of carbs, protein, and fat, and much smaller quantities than I used to think I needed.

My 2-Day Diet Progress Week 21, March 30, 2014 

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.

Height 5'8" Age: 61

Goal weight: 165 lbs.

Total loss goal: 44 lbs.

Beginning waist size: 43 in.

Current waist size: 38.5 in.

Weight end of this week:  181 lbs.

Gain/Loss this week:  -2 lbs.

Total Gain/Loss:  -28 lbs.

A Setback or a Respite? Disappointed, but Far from Giving Up!

My 2-Day Diet Progress Week 20, March 23, 2014 

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.

Height 5'8" Age: 61

Goal weight: 165 lbs.

Total loss goal: 44 lbs.

Beginning waist size: 43 in.

Current waist size: 39 in.

Weight end of week 20:  183 lbs.

Gain/Loss this week:  +3 lbs.

Total Gain/Loss:  -26 lbs.

A bit of a setback this week, but in fact, I see it more like I’ve lost three pounds so far this month. Last week I reported a loss of three pounds, which followed a loss of three pounds the week before. Six pounds in two weeks turned out to be an anomaly. So maybe I truly ate less those weeks and made up for it a bit this week, maybe I had a metabolic hiccup, or was dehydrated last Sunday morning when I weighed in.

At any rate, this week’s momentary gain of three pounds is not troubling to me, and unlike other times I’ve dieted, this time my diet has truly changed…permanently. I will continue to eat less than I used to, smaller portions of everything except green vegetables, a higher proportion of vegetables and protein to carbohydrates, more fish than fatty meats, snacks of vegetables with salsa or hummus, or low-glycemic fruits (apples, pears rather than grapes, strawberries) with dairy: yogurt, cottage cheese, or a small amount of hard cheese, and of course avoid any high carb/high glycemic index foods such as sweets, pastries, potatoes, beer and wine. In short, a Mediterranean diet as recommended in the book I’ve used as a guide: Howell The 2-Day Diet: Diet Two Days a Week, Eat Normally for Five .

I have faced the fact that losing weight is difficult. There’s definitely a part of me that says, “Hey, why not just call 25 pounds enough? You look better, you feel better, why not just take a break from the discipline it takes to actually shed pounds, to force your body, in one way or another to make do with less nutrition than it needs to maintain your current weight?” And perhaps that’s some of the thinking that allowed me to regress a few pounds this week. One late night snack that amounted to a small meal, and one steak dinner in which I allowed myself probably about six ounces of meat instead of the recommended portion of 3 or 4 ounces, and, truth to tell, two, yes two glasses of red wine.

But it was worth it. I am not in a hurry to lose the forty-four pounds I’ve established as a healthy goal weight. I lived with those extra pounds for many, many years. I am down to a weight I have not seen since I’m not sure when, probably thirty years, half a lifetime ago. So today, I’m simply determined to make this a losing week or at least a week in which I maintain my current weight. I’ll cut back on that impulse to put something in my mouth every time I enter the kitchen (a couple walnuts, a couple grapes, a prune or an apricot…it all adds up), and I’ll keep in mind a new paradigm I’m trying to develop for mealtimes: eat as little as possible to reach a state of non-hunger.

In other words, before my new eating regimen began almost 5 months ago, I ate until full and then ate again as soon as I was no longer full, interpreting lack of fullness as hunger. After I learned to distinguish being not full from being empty I waited until I was empty and then had a snack because the feeling of emptiness was unfamiliar and somewhat uncomfortable. Now that I am beginning to be able to distinguish feeling empty from true hunger and getting more comfortable with emptiness, I sometimes wait until I’m actually hungry to eat rather than snacking to keep from feeling empty. The next step, eating only enough to keep from feeling hungry, which though leaving me not feeling empty as well, doesn’t come close to making me feel full, is the line I am now exploring.

I know that if you are reading this and are currently eating a fairly normal American diet these distinctions sound loony, but ask a skinny person, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they can make those distinctions. Meanwhile, I attribute the ability to even begin to having these understandings to first cutting back on carbohydrate intake far enough to break the carb addiction most Americans live with and consider normal. It is that addiction, in my experience, that makes people feel as if they are hungry when they really don’t need the sustenance, much like a nicotine addict craves a cigarette or a heroin addict craves a fix. Will power alone is rarely enough to break those addictions. Something to ease the cravings is usually needed as a transition. In the case of carbs, however, it’s much easier to find substitutes than to the falsely calming effects of nicotine or the euphoria of an opiate high. And it doesn’t require a complete end of consuming carbohydrates to break the addiction, just a drastic reduction through smaller portions, whole grains, and low or no calorie sugar substitutes if sweets are important.

So give it some thought, read about it and when you’re ready, give it a shot.

Learning the Meaning of Hunger

My 2-Day Diet Progress Week 19, March 16, 2014 

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.

Height 5'8" Age: 61

Goal weight: 165 lbs.

Total loss goal: 44 lbs.

Beginning waist size: 43 in.

Current waist size: 39 in.

Weight end of week 19:  180 lbs.

Gain/Loss this week:  -3 lbs.

Total Gain/Loss:  -29 lbs.

This week my euphemism for diet is a paradigm shift toward food. After many weeks of loss of a pound or having no loss, in the past two weeks I have lost a total of six pounds according to my Sunday weigh-ins. Am I doing something different? I don't think so, but maybe, in fact, I guess I have to say yes (how's that for an example of squishy thinking out loud?). Here was my thought process: Generally, weight loss has a direct correlation between calories in and calories expended, so maybe I was eating less these last two weeks. But in the 2-Day Diet I am using as a guide, the 2 days of highly restricted carb intake changes that equation so that your body can't utilize some of the protein and fats you take in. So maybe I was stricter about the carb restrictions these last two weeks. I think it's probably a little of both.

I have not been keeping track of how much I eat as I did in the first month or two of my new way of eating because I don't have to. I'm eating food in the amounts the book recommends, in part because I've learned what the recommended portion sizes are, but mostly for another reason, which is why, I think, I've lost more these last two weeks. I've turned some kind of corner, or at least gone around a slow curve. Now, I don't eat when I'm not hungry, and I'm comfortable being….empty for long periods of time. I've written about this before, this distinction between empty and hungry, and how when I was addicted to carbs (I do think that carbs are the key here), I felt compelled to eat as soon as I was no longer full, and I often felt desperate about needing to eat in ways I remember from when I was a smoker and needed a cigarette (not wanted, needed). I also used to eat faster, continued to eat after I no longer felt hungry, and often felt over full after eating. I binged at times, though I never purged. Now I'm beginning to learn to distinguish between an empty stomach and actual hunger.

It's sad that if a hundred random Americans read this, only about 1/3 or so are likely to think, "duh." That's because about 2/3 of us are overweight or obese. I'm hoping that if you're one of them, you will think hard about my words and try to imagine what it would it would be like to be free of the slavery of your food needs. And I don't mean by never being allowed to eat another dessert (OMG, I sound like a damn late night TV ad or an evangelist). What can I say, I'm newly converted and I want to share the Good News.  

As usual, as I write, I learn something new, or at least tease out my feelings to create coherance: the reason I've probably lost more weight the last two weeks is that now, instead of thinking of emptiness as hunger (as before I equated not fullness with hunger), now that I snack less  and allow myself to experience emptiness for longer periods of time, I've come to the realization that there is a distinction between emptiness and actual hunger. One can be empty (not a comfortable feeling at first, but one I'm learning to appreciate), for a few hours between meals or even between dinner and the next morning without experiencing hunger. Once again, my wife (those of you who've been reading this blog or know Rita know that she's petite) has told me this before, that is, she's described herself as empty and noted sometimes that she just experienced a hunger pang after she hadn't eaten in what, to me, in the past, would have seemed an impossibly long time. 

I know that reading this won't make you a believer. I heard a scientist on NPR this morning who  had first worked out the computations that challenged accepted theories of astrophysics concerning the age of the universe. In response to a question about why other scientists, who are supposed to be such rational thinkers, had so much trouble with this challenge, even though the equations do not lie, he said something to the effect that even scientists, who are trained to be objective, have "enormous biases," especially for theories they have worked on, supported and believed for a long time, and it is only with the help of the collective scientific community that big changes in our understandings take place over time. All this to say that as human beings, it's hard for us to accept truths that are counter to our current beliefs, such as, "I can learn to control my appetite," or "one bite of a dessert could satisfy me," or "I could have a late dinner without something to tide me over." But, you could. I can, and had you told me just a few months ago I could do those things, I would have laughed (or cried) as you may be doing now.

Healthy Eating, But What About Healthy Drinking Water?

My 2-Day Diet Progress Week 18, March 9, 2014 

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.

Height 5'8" Age: 61

Goal weight: 165 lbs.

Total loss goal: 44 lbs.

Beginning waist size: 43 in.

Current waist size: 39 in.

Weight end of week 18:  183 lbs.

Gain/Loss this week:  3 lbs.

Total Gain/Loss:  -26 lbs.

I continue to lose weight, 26 pounds since November 3rd. Three pounds since last Sunday (though I had not shown loss for two weeks before and attribute some of today's weigh in to gradual loss that just didn't register last Sunday morning because I'd had a large meal and snacks the night before). I rarely snack anymore, and when I do, I don’t have much. I just don’t need to eat nearly as much as I used to for a feeling of fullness, and I also don’t feel it necessary to eat until I feel full, so meals have been shrinking without measuring portions or keeping track of how many carbs, proteins, fats or fruits I’ve eaten (I’ve always figured green vege portions didn’t need counting—they’re healthy; graze as much as you want). It would be interesting to know how many calories I’m consuming. I don’t know how many I was consuming before I made my radical shift in gastronomical philosophy, but I’ll bet it was at least three times what I’m eating now. And I was able to maintain my weight fairly well, fluctuating within a range of about 10 pounds but not exceeding it for the past 10 years. News Flash #2: I’m losing weight primarily because I’m eating a whole lot less than I used to, and the fat in my body is packed with energy which as it burns, sustains my daily activity quite well.

And a quick Google search and calculation later, I have a better understanding of why losing a pound is so hard to achieve. There are 9 calories in a gram of fat, and about 450 grams in a pound, so one pound of fat has about 4,000 calories in it. Since a healthy number of calories a day to maintain weight for someone my age and level of activity is somewhere around 2,000 or so calories, I’d have to eat nothing at all for two days to burn off a pound of fat! Well, I think I’m going to stop obsessing over my weight every day from now on. With that science literally under my belt, it seems unreasonable, doesn’t it, that I’d lose a pound (or more) every week, which I’d come to hope for, if not expect.

However, that is what the 2 Day Diet book told me I might expect. The reasons they give are that by consuming proportionately more protein than carbs you’re preserving more muscle, and if you’re also exercising, you build muscle, and muscle they say, citing research, burns 7 times more calories than fat even when resting. Further, it seems to me that IF one is very strict about avoiding foods with carbohydrates for two days a week, you have a chance of achieving what’s called “ketosis”, or fat burning, that is the 'secret' to low carb diets like the Atkins Diet. The body needs carbs to metabolize the proteins and fats, and lacking them, passes them through. Lacking energy from the food one eats, the body turns to stored body fat for sustenance and produces keytones, a byproduct of the burning fat. 

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The weather has finally taken a turn towards Spring the last couple days, and I’ve ridden my bike more. I usually ride in my Charleston, WV neighborhood, called Fort Hill. It’s an old neighborhood of a couple hundred modest homes and few upscale ones. A solidly middle to upper middle class neighborhood. By West Virginia standards, most of us are probably in the top five percent of earners, however. Despite the number of snowy and cold days this winter, I’ve  had about 7 rides in February and March so far. And on these rides I’ve been asking people out walking their dogs or getting their exercise whether they drink the water. The answer is no. I would guess I’ve talked to almost thirty people who probably represent at least twice that many, since when I ask if their whole family does the same thing, they usually say yes. They often say about drinking the water, "not yet," or "I’m getting close." 

When I follow up with, "When, if ever, will you drink it?" I get strange, illogical answers. 

"Soon," or "I’m just not ready," or "When I run out of the bottled water I have left." Only two have said never, and one of those wasn’t drinking it before, only drinking distilled water because she and her husband believed fluoridation and chlorination were dangerous to health. The other said it was basically because she just couldn’t ever again believe public officials or the water company, she thought they may have been involved in conspiratorial cover-up or were just incompetent and that we’d likely been exposed to MCHM for a long time already from the tank leaking into the river over time. 

Almost everybody uses city water to shower, wash dishes, and wash clothes. One single woman, probably in her late forties, said she used it to make coffee, but drank bottled water.

And that’s, I think, one of the most interesting aspects of the aftermath of Aquageddon (I think it’s a terrible name that over-aggrandizes the seriousness of this event, but at least it’s short). It has undermined people’s sense of trust in our local and state government officials, and certainly in the water company. And while a few weeks ago I argued it was a form of post-traumatic stress causing people to be afraid of the water, now I just see it as revealing quite starkly just how irrational people are in making judgments. Because for most of them, when they will drink the water has nothing to do with waiting for a final report from a study being conducted or confirmation that the chemical has reached a certain level or can’t be detected, or a water test in their own home, or when they no longer smell licorice in the hot water, or when hum sees the governor drink it with hum’s own eyes (those were some answers I collected). 

What it usually boiled down to when I pressed the issue was they would begin drinking the water when they feel emotionally secure enough to do so, when some internal switch goes off, or some outside force like running out of bottled water makes it less convenient not to. News flash: most people are not rational decision makers.

                        

Our Water is Safe Now

(2-Day Diet progress at end of post)

I believe our tap water is now safe. Personally, I’ve been using the water to bathe since the “do not use” order was lifted. I didn’t drink it when it had the odor of licorice, but have since late January. I’ve had no adverse reactions.

At a Congressional committee hearing in Charleston on February 10, none of our top health or environment officials would say the water is safe. They were following the lead of scientists at the Center for Disease Control, who say they expect no adverse health effects if the level of crude MCHM in water is below one part per million, but they do not use the word safe. Senators Shelly Moore Capito and Joe Manchin both pressed officials on whether they would call it safe. Senator Rockefeller said in a television interview that he wouldn’t drink the water if you paid him. Dr. Rahul Gupta, Director of the Kanawha Charleston Health Department, who has been a champion in calling for medical monitoring and more transparency, has suggested that because the Safe Drinking Water Act uses the word safe, the CDC should as well.

But politicians wrote the Safe Drinking Water Act, not scientists. If scientists had written it they might have called it the Reduced Risk Drinking Water Act. Why don’t scientists use the word safe? The first definition for safe in Merrium-Webster online is “free from harm or risk.” Are we ever 100% free from harm or risk? Studies have found bottled water no safer than tap water. A small elevated risk of bladder cancer may exist from drinking tap water over the course of a lifetime. Most of us put these small risks aside. After all, the big picture is that people are living longer and healthier lives.

I am not a scientist, but in 25 years teaching elementary school I learned to simplify complicated ideas into easily understandable chunks. This is how I would answer a curious elementary school student asking, “Mr. Epstein, is the water safe?” The risk of the water is so small that it is now safe for any use including drinking for almost everyone.

“How small is the risk?”  Because of how little is actually known about this chemical, scientists can’t say exactly. However, because the scientists at CDC have studied other chemicals like this, both more harmful and less harmful, their expert opinion based on available information is that it isn’t a risk to health if you drink a normal amount of water and if the level of the chemical in the water is beneath the level of 1 part per million in water.

“How did they come up with the safe level?” Through some standard tests on animals that had been made on the main chemical present in the spill, they determined a level below which no harmful health effects were found. They then set a screening level, which I’ll call the safe level, 1,000 times less than that to account for various things they didn’t have information about; such as that it hadn’t had human testing.

“How sure are the CDC scientists that it’s safe now?” Very confident. The levels at the water company have been at non-detectable since about a week after the spill. That meant that either there was none of the chemical in the water or it was less than 10 parts per billion (ppb), 100 times less than the safe level. In recent weeks, using a more exact test, they have found the levels in most of the nine county area to be below 2 ppb or 500 times below the safe level.

“Why did it smell after they said it was usable?” Some people can detect the smell even down to 1 ppb.

“I haven’t smelled it for awhile. Does that mean there is none of the chemical in the water anymore?” It is likely below 2 ppb or not present.

I understand why the Governor decided to allay fears by starting home testing, but mark my words, those conducting the testing will not likely declare the water safe, even if they find no significant elevated levels of harmful chemicals. It will be up to our leaders, Governor Tomblin, Senators Manchin and Rockefeller, Congresswoman Capito and public health officials to show some courage and leadership and declare the water safe and that they will do everything in their power to keep it safe. They need to unmercifully prosecute those who contaminated the water, pass and enforce more stringent laws and regulations, and make sure that water companies have alternate sources of water for emergencies. If there is a next time, we might not be so “lucky.” It might be a highly toxic substance entering the system and causing immediate and tragic health effects.

My 2-Day Diet Progress Week 17: 

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.

Height 5'8" Age: 61

Goal weight: 165 lbs.

Total loss goal: 44 lbs.

Beginning waist size: 43 in.

Current waist size: 39 in.

Weight end of week 17:  186 lbs.

Gain/Loss this week:  no change

Total Gain/Loss:  -23 lbs.