Blog.amhill

Pants optional.

Posts Tagged diet

Response letter to an alarmist anti-caffeine organization

Nov 13

Posted by Aaron in Rants | No Comments

Stumbled across caffeineawareness.org by accident… weird site full of bizarre alarmist propaganda against the consumption of Caffeine.

For example: “Consume 5 grams and you’re DEAD, and it’s perfectly legal!” is touted in an ad on the sidebar of the website. The website also claims that caffeine is “highly addictive”, which seems hyperbolic, given how Caffeine actually works.

As I discussed previously, prolonged exposure to a significant (over 200mg) amount of Caffeine will result in an increase in the number of Adenosine receptors in your brain (this is called “upregulation”, and is your brain’s attempt at recovering homeostasis). This results in a “diminished returns” benefit of future Caffeine consumption until the brain is given a break from the chemical, and can downregulate back to normal levels. (this takes roughly 2 weeks for most people — individuals with severe Caffeinism may require longer periods, but you would have to be a serious compulsory consumer of Caffeine, 800mg or more / day, to be that bad)

Moderation is key, of course. If we view coffee as a tool, rather than a necessity, it can be a very beneficial ally. Habitual consumption of ANYTHING is generally a bad idea, and Caffeine is no exception.

Caffeine is nowhere NEAR as addictive as cigarettes, for example, or any harder addictive stimulants (Methamphetamine, Cocaine, Crack-cocaine, etc.). In fact, those harder stimulants don’t even interact with your brain in the same way that caffeine does (meth & coke tend to hammer your Dopaminergic receptors predominantly, whereas Caffeine simply prevents your Adenosine / Purinergic receptors from being used for a short while — there is some dopaminergic side-interactions with Caffeine, but it focuses largely on the Adenosine A1 / A2 receptors because of the homologous chemical structure to Adenosine.)

Here’s my response to them: Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: , , , , ,

New Year’s Updates

Aug 20

Posted by Aaron in Musings | No Comments

A while back, I stated my resolve for doing three things differently this year.

Those three things were:

  1. Send greeting cards for holidays (I’m still deciding whether or not this includes “thank you cards”)
  2. Dress nicer for work
  3. Do the 12-week “Body-for-Life” program (which has its own goals within it).

The idea being, of course, that if I can get ONE of those things, it’s a win. :) So by that definition, I’ve “won.” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: , ,

Resolutions

Jan 5

Posted by Aaron in Personal | 1 Comment

As I’m sure tons of other people are doing in the blag-o-blags right now, I’m blagging about my New Years Resolution(s).

I heard a report on NPR recently about making New Years Resolutions stick. The key, apparently, is to set reasonable, attainable goals, clearly define what they are, and be persistent (i.e. “slipping” is ok, provided you get back on the wagon.)

My resolutions this year are:

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 2% [?]

Tags: , , , ,

Whirlwind of a Week

Dec 6

Posted by Aaron in Friends, Family & Pets | No Comments

The diet is still going well. I say this first because it’s still really challenging. Last night my wife decided she wanted to melt Barking Chocolate (like for covering pretzels or buckeyes) on some Vanilla Bean ice cream. I had a bite, just because I was curious, but no more. Today I was offered chocolate by my Organic Chemistry Prof during our Final Exam, and I successfully declined. Ditto for the chocolate donuts in the break room yesterday (ate NONE), and the various donuts and goodies they had at Exam Jam on Tuesday. Go me.

I haven’t been able to walk in the morning lately; Partly because it’s FREAKING COLD OUTSIDE and the snow and ice make jogging somewhat treacherous, but also because I’ve been up late studying and catching up with things.

Today was my Organic Chemistry Final Exam, where I was asked questions like:

“A newly isolated natural product was found to have the molecular formula C15H28O2. By hydrogenating a sample of the compound, it was determined to possess one pi bond. How many rings are present in the compound?”

(the answer is 1, I think, due to degree of desaturation). I think I did ok. With the bonus points I’ll be getting in the course (around 20) and my grade as of the last exam (88.5%), as long as I get at least a B on the Final I should have a high-B / low-A over all. Fingers crossed!

Last weekend, Melissa, Sullivan and I all flew out to NJ for my Grammy Westerdale’s Funeral services. My Grandpa Westerdale died earlier this year (March) and shortly after that, Grammy found out she had cancer already in metastasis. It only took about 8 months to do her in, and she passed on Thanksgiving of this year. The funeral services were very good – we interred her’s and grandpa’s ashes into the memorial garden of their church (St. Paul’s Episcopalian) and I got to say my final goodbyes then. There was no viewing like with Grandpa (her request), but this was just as good, I suppose. None of us were very surprised by it.

We all drove out to see her earlier this month, because my mom said it was “going to be any day now”, and I wanted Sullivan to see her one more time before she went.  It was a good visit.

I think in some ways, I still haven’t had a chance to fully deal with this all. Sure, I cried at the funeral, like the rest of my family; And yeah, it wasn’t really a surprise to anyone. But I think the back corners of my mind haven’t quite come to terms with her being gone.

The best part of the trip (for me, but probably not for Melissa) was the family gathering after the Funeral. All of the branches of our family, the Westerdales, the Watkins, and the Magnussons (along with some neighbors and friends of my uncles) all came over and everyone drank Whiskey Sours (the official drink of the Westerdale Family), Gin, Wine, and Beer. It was a grand old time. Sullivan got to hang out with my siblings and other family members. He’s getting more comfortable with them.  We’re going back in a couple weeks for Xmas. Non-stop this time. (Missed our connecting flight on the return this time..had to spend the night in Cleveland! Ick!)

For those of you who are wondering, yes the blog theme is different. My wife decided that she couldn’t be married to someone with an ugly blog theme, so she logged in and changed it. I think it looks nice. :)

that’s it for now, I have more finals to study for!

Popularity: unranked [?]

Tags: , ,

What I DIDN’T Eat today, part 2

Nov 28

Posted by Aaron in Personal | No Comments

  • Succulent lemon bars, lightly powdered with confectioner’s sugar
  • Rich Magic Cookie Bars, a mixture of that delicious trio of butter, sugar, and egg combined with chocolate chunks and other goodies.
  • Bronze-colored Donut holes, rolled in granulated sugar
  • Pert little brownie bits, a rich dark brown chocolate fudge color
  • Strawberries (only because they were on the same dessert tray as the rest of the things above, and I thought that if I reached for a Strawberry I’d accidentally grab a Lemon Bar)

Day 2 of the diet. I registered for my classes today, including a Weight Training and Conditioning course in the spring time. I was up late studying last night so I didn’t wake up early enough to take Bowie for a jog. My diet has been a lot more balanced. I eat just enough food that I’m not hungry until the next time I eat food. If I get some  hunger pangs in the meantime, I just drink water, and that seems to help.

I DID eat today:

Breakfast: 2 egg-whites fried in 1oz of Olive oil, 1-1/2 cups Kashi cereal with 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup cranberry juice.

Mid-morning snack: A large orange and some celery with natural peanut butter.

Lunch: Left over Tofu / vegetable stirfry and couscous.

Dinner: 5 Turkey meatballs in tomato sauce, a baked potato with cheddar cheese, and some romaine  lettuce with a glass of water.

In retrospect, I realized that the tomato sauce were enough starchy carbs that I didn’t need the baked potato. I should have just made it sans-potato. Maybe added some more romaine lettuce or something, for extra fiber.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Tags: , ,