Mom and Mike
MD and I got back a couple of days ago from a long trip that took us from Santa Barbara to Texas to Maine to Michigan and finally back to Santa Barbara. We had some business to do in Maine and we couldn’t get that close to Michigan without stopping to see my folks whom we hadn’t seen in almost two years. It was great to see them and to see my two sisters who also live in nearby. What with all the visiting and all I didn’t really have the time to blog.
Along with the visit we had a lot of good food. As you can see from the photo below of my breakfast plate, Mom hasn’t lost her ability to make perfect fried eggs over easy. Nor has she lost her ability to make the best carrot cake imaginable, but we won’t go into that.
Once we got back, we were inundated with calls from everywhere wondering if we were safe from all the fires raging through Southern California. We are. Although the upper end of the fire is in Santa Barbara County allowing the talking heads to claim that fires are burning from Santa Barbara to San Diego, we are not in danger at this point. And thank God the high winds have finally stopped, making the fire fighting much easier.
As we flew in I took a few pictures of the fire from the plane. The one below was taken from the left side looking toward San Diego. The one below that was taken from the right side showing the fire below the plane.
Speaking of flying… We flew US Air for every leg of this trip save one, and all the flights went like clock work. I started this journey with great trepidation because it required us to make seven different flights. I figured just the law of averages (not to mention my lousy luck with the airlines lately) would militate that at least on leg was screwed up. But such wasn’t the case. Maybe my luck is changing.
Along with fielding all the phone calls about our safety that we received after returning, I had a major project to complete, which also kept me from my computer. I just put the finishing touches on it moments ago, so I can now devote some time to the blog.
I forced myself to go through and delete all the zillions of spams that had come in during the big spam blast I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. Within those zillions of spams were sprinkled valid comments that I plucked out, some almost two weeks old. These added to the ones that have come in over the past couple of days put the total to a little over 50. I will not go to bed tonight until they are all posted.
If you’ve had a comment languishing, you should see it by the end of day. If you don’t see it, you should resubmit because it probably got deleted during my great spam deletion. If so, I apologize. The new system now installed requiring the typing in of a series of letters and/or numbers has reduced the new spam to virtually zero. I know it’s a pain to use, but it saves me at least 30-45 minutes every day in not having to go through the spam one by one, making sure there isn’t a comment buried in there.
Thanks for your patience while I was AWOL.
I did get online to look at a map and figure out where the fire was. I knew you were in Sta Barbara, but a friend said that was not in jeopardy so I was relieved. I was starting to get withdrawals from the blog.
I left you a long post on the http://www.mreades.wpengine.com/drmike/2007/10/06/cholesterol-and-heart-disease-no-correlation/#comment-61219
I am assuming that you get a notification when someone posts a comment, whether it be on a current or older blog entry.
Regards,
Alex
PS I am interested in going back to school to do some premed work, I already have a degree so it would basically just be about18-22 hrs of bio, chem, biochem, etc.
I was wondering if you have suggestions for any “overview” books that nicely put it in a nutshell. My preferred learning style is from general to specific and not the other way around. My experience so far is that professors begin with technical chapters, and eventually they somehow come together. I like to know why things are relevant. Sorry for the rant, I hope you have some suggestions.
I have always been interested in the medical field. In the first grade my parents gave me a first aid kit, and I would spend my lunchtime by the area where kids were playing a little more dangerously, eating my lunch, until an accident took place. On one particular instance this kid fell and scuffed his knee and I cleansed the wound and bandaged it. When they got to the school nurse she was puzzled as to why she was needed. I would spend evenings reading this comprehensive book called “Donde No Hay Doctor” written for healthworkers in underserved rural areas. It was my favorite book from 1st-2nd grade!!! Your books and blog have re-lit the interest. Thanks!
Hi Alex–
Thanks for your concern.
A good overview of biochemistry that is written in a fairly accessible style is book titled ‘Biochemistry Primer for Exercise Science’ by Michael Houston. You can find used copies through Amazon.
Best–
MRE
Man, those eggs look delicious! I like my eggs over medium personally, but they always get screwed up even in a non stick pan…
Believe it or not, I had my eggs that way every day I was there. It was great.
Cheers–
MRE
Exactly how I like my eggs! had some this morning made in a brand new non-stick pan. perfect! You’re proof, Dr. E that if you want something done quickly give it to a busy man.
Those eggs look like mine. I baste mine instead of turning in the pan. Off now to have breakfast, NY steak and eggs. Yum.
MD bastes hers – my mother uses a non-stick pan and kind of steams them.
Cheers–
MRE
You were in Maine? Had I known, I would have made you awesome free range eggs. With tomatos from my garden and sausages from the half pig my buddy just gave me!
I don’t know if I would have had time to eat them since I was busy from dawn to dusk. Maybe next time.
Cheers–
MRE
Hello,
I’m not sure if this is where I’m supposed to ask questions but here goes.
I am wondering about the starvation mode stuff. I am a 26 year old male. I’m 6″1′ and I have Crohns Disease. I weigh 270 lbs. I guess my concern and question is if I ate around 800 calories per day and of course less than 20 carbs per day until I’m at goal(which would probably comprise of a couple of grilled chicken breast, a salad and 4 eggs with canadian bacon throughout the day and of course lots of water) then would I be able to say, start doing the IF w/o low carb at an average of 2000 calories per day? My biggest concern is that if I eat the 800 calories per day until goal that I will have screwed up my metabolism forever and that I will always have to eat that low in order to keep the weight off. What would happen if for another example once I am at goal I start eaiting say a Body For Life style(not that I would) then would the weight come pouring back on me? Am I making sense? Probably not! Please weed through my unintelligent way of putting all of this.
Thanks,
Miguel
Hi Miguel–
There is a third option. You could follow a low-carb diet of about 1600 calories, which would allow you to lose plenty of weight quickly without being hungry. And you would probably see an improvement in your Crohn’s as well. I would add about 5 grams per day of L-glutamine to the diet, which will also help with the Crohn’s.
In my opinion, this would probably be a better option than a 2000 calorie IF if a lot of the 2000 calories were carbohydrates.
Hope this helps.
MRE
Inspired by your lovely photo, I did our eggs today in my cast iron pan, covered with its glass lid, and they came out looking just like your Mom’s! Beautiful – and tasty.
My husband and I just enjoyed a 2-week vacation in Montreal, one of the great food cities in North America, and we are very happy to have come home weighing the same as when we left. Quite an accomplishment, I think. This was a big test for us to see if we could stick to our low-carb eating style in such a food-centric spot. Except for drinking a bit more wine than usual, we did quite well. As in any city, fast/junk food is abundant and readily available, but there are so many other choices – no need to waste your calories on junk.
Surprisingly, we found It fairly easy to stay on track there, as long as we ignored the patisseries – their confections are just gorgeous to see! We were staying at my brother’s place, so we fixed up a good breakfast (which included delicious sausages available at local butcher shops) most days that kept us going until evening, even with miles and miles of walking during the day, with maybe a stop at a cafe for afternoon tea or coffee.
Meals that we had at a several very nice bistros and restaurants actually didn’t come with a lot of high-carb foods, they had plenty of protein and vegetables. In one instance, we asked for a salad instead of fries – no problem, it was cheerfully substituted. This was a steak dinner at my brother’s favorite deli that came with an appetizer of beef liver and a wiener, a 14-oz. steak, fries and cole slaw. It was all delicious. Everyone in the place was gobbling up steaks!
One of the highlights of our stay was visiting one of the city’s large food markets. Awesome. You can see photos here: http://www.montrealfood.com/jtalon.html
I must admit to indulging in creme caramel for dessert a couple of times, but this was a vacation! Overall, we came home feeling like we’d eaten just about everything we’d felt like having without falling off the low-carb wagon completely. It all worked out well.
Hi Barbara–
Thanks for the travelogue. You’ve got my mouth watering. I haven’t been to Montreal in about five years, but after reading your comment I’m ready to book a flight. It’s truly amazing how well one can eat on a low-carb diet and not gain weight.
Cheers–
MRE
HI,
I am not sure if your still having a lot of trouble with blog spam or not. I looked around a little bit at the tools available and this one is made by some of the wordpress developers. http://akismet.com It looks like it is basically free unless you are a really large commercial user. They claim it doesn’t have the problems from verifying images and such, and they claim it has a very low false positive rate for spam.
Good Luck
Jamie
I use akismet already, but it doesn’t grab everything. It’s far from perfect.