F*** Calories by Krista Scott-Dixon. A free e-book. December 2011
I've just posted this in the Maintenance Library but I thought it might be interesting for people in this thread.
This is billed as a book full of rude words and, yes, there are quite a lot in these 41 glorious pages of Krista in a kind of structured free fall.
I’ve known Krista Scott-Dixon for about 10 years now, give or take. You know, on the web. And I’ve been weight training, on and off, since the early 80s. I first met her when I took up lifting again after having a baby. I can’t remember whether it was through her website Stumptuous or somewhere else. Anyway, it was good to read her enthusiastic words and see her demonstrations of form as I struggled through sleep dep. and all the rest.
I live a quiet life in the country but I do visit towns, cities and other countries. Up to now, though, I’ve never been to the Americas, neither North nor South, but voices from these places interest me. Krista lives in Toronto and she’s got some strong views and she lets people know them. I like this. I’m all in favour of people being assertive. And sometimes speaking their mind and taking others on. Oh yes, Krista has been known to do this, with vehemence and a vengeance.
Krista was an academic once upon a time and she’s got what she calls a Piled Higher and Deeper. She can write complicated sentences but she doesn’t do that at all in this book. What she does is elaborate on 43 statements – and handily, she lists them at the beginning, in case you really are too lazy to read any more than just this page. Random examples:
Quote:
If you’re a big person, use a big plate. If you’re a small person, use a small plate! Get dirty! Go ahead, put real cream in your coffee! Seek nourishment. Seek sustenance! You can’t “fix” your body because your body is not broken! As you live, so you eat!
But let’s just deal with the title of the book. Life is really too short to count calories so KSD advises us to be calorie-aware (and know which foods are calorie-dense and which aren’t) and not calorie-paranoid. This is a stand which accords with my own so I’m on-board from the beginning.
Quote:
Don’t turn eating into accountancy. And don’t try to defraud or embezzle your own body,’ she exhorts. ‘Cross calorie-counting off your to-do list. Now isn’t that a relief?
That’s the style of the book. From the pulpit chatty with excellent nuggets of information. You’ll have come across many of the nuggets before but that doesn’t detract at all from their value. There are some very good one-line pieces of advice. I particularly like:
Quote:
If you aren’t physically hungry, don’t eat.
The main theme is to get in touch with your body, to check in with your stomach, and to eat s-l-o-w-l-y – which is much the best way, as I know you know. And to eat real food, good quality food.
Krista also uses quite a few words to spell out something which many of us know but which is so rarely mentioned:
Quote:
Whether it’s your relationship with your partner, family, friends, coworkers, boss, mail carrier, or Starbucks barista – or most importantly, your relationship with yourself – your food and eating issues are almost always about your relationships. Fix the relationships, and you go a long way to fixing the food.
So, to sum up: 19 f*** 18 sh** (including bs) 3 a** on their own (but also in lots of other words like compassion, grass-fed and molasses) 3 g_d, one way or another.
Quote:
Guaranteed to offend, surprise and delight.
True, I say. Do read this book even if you think it isn’t your kind of thing or that it doesn’t fit in with your tried and trusted approach. Go to Stumptuous and search the name of the book.
"G-d it I am sick of reading posts on women's blogs about how they've "come to terms" with their grotesque and "imperfect" bodies. STOP APOLOGIZING FOR YOUR BODY. STOP TELLING US HOW MUCH YOU SUCK (BUT YOU'RE OK WITH THAT). YOU DO NOT SUCK. IF YOU ARE ALIVE YOUR BODY IS AWESOME. Own that s***, ladies. "Hey KSD, why don't you write articles about how fat/misshapen/genetically challenged/weak-willed you are?" "Because f*** YOU, that's why." "
I like the way this book sounds. I will add it to my iPad.
Practice last night was rough - we did a lot of stroke drills with a whole lot of equipment, including these awful little devices called "drag buckets". It's basically a web belt with an 8" long piece of small-diameter PVC pipe that rests in the small of your back; inside the pipe is a large ball bearing that rolls freely inside the pipe and when it smacks into the ends, you can feel the vibration and sort of hear it underwater. And attached to the pipe by about a 5-6' length of nylon rope is a 1 gallon plastic bucket. So you swim with this thing, paying attention to your hip rotation via the little ball knocking back and forth, and the bucket slows you down dramatically to give you time to think about it. Effective, brutally so. Practice FINISHED, yes, at the very end of the hour and a half, with a timed 500 yd swim. 7:38 was a pleasant surprise. Dang, I love this sport!
Which says, in part: "... if you decide, for some reason, that your deltoids are too small and “need” fixing before your physique is “perfect,” your goal is inherently about how imperfect you are and thus are in need of fixing. After you “fix” your deltoid size, you’ll find something else that is “wrong” and “needs fixing.” And you can do this forever, endlessly finding more and more that is wrong with you in the face of the recent “fix” you achieved, hence turtles all the way down. You may end up with a more beautiful body, but your journey there was on a wagon of self-loathing. In men, this is the root of the Adonis complex; in women, anorexia nervosa among others."
Rethinking my feelings about my foot drag while running, which I keep attributing to my heavy lower body, thick thighs and calves. I mean, it's not like it doesn't work really, really hard for me.
Which says, in part: "... if you decide, for some reason, that your deltoids are too small and “need” fixing before your physique is “perfect,” your goal is inherently about how imperfect you are and thus are in need of fixing. After you “fix” your deltoid size, you’ll find something else that is “wrong” and “needs fixing.” And you can do this forever, endlessly finding more and more that is wrong with you in the face of the recent “fix” you achieved, hence turtles all the way down. You may end up with a more beautiful body, but your journey there was on a wagon of self-loathing. In men, this is the root of the Adonis complex; in women, anorexia nervosa among others."
When I read things like this, I am split between a complete and utter relief that because it is "verbalized" by someone else, that I know that I am not alone in my craziness, with the other side a strong desire to scream "OMG Get out of my f**king head!!!"
I have never heard of Krista but I downloaded the e-book - thanks Silver! I have to make reading this a PRIORITY rather then putting it on the "when I get time" list - because that will be roughly 18 years from now!
jen
Last edited by CherryPie99; 11-26-2013 at 12:05 PM.
Watching the snow fall outside of my mother's window. I've been working from her house for two days now. She likes to talk to me while I'm trying to work; she'll often read whole sections of the Post-Standard to me while she's having her coffee. This is difficult when one is formulating sentences inside one's head, but I hold my tongue and let her do it, figuring she's hungry for conversation. I'm looking forward to the approaching holiday, when I can log off and go outside during the daylight hours. I've been waking up just after 4:15 PM to get to the gym, or to try to, and not getting to bed as early as I ought to, since I'm trying to keep my mother company on the couch during Her TV Shows in the evening. I need to get to bed early tonight, but I feel like I say that every single night.
I've been absent for a while but still reading all of your posts.
ICUwishing: that sounds like one heck of a workout! I'm tired just imagining it.
I was in Montreal for a long business trip and just got back. I think I held pretty steady weight-wise, not much exercise but also not much opportunity to eat. My arm is healing well from the bike accident, and today I rode my bike to work again for the first time (wearing the brace).
My parents and my sister's family went out of town for a mini vacation but I couldn't go (of course because of work). So, the DB and I are having TG with his parents. I just found out that I am doing the cooking, apart from dessert. I had said that I didn't want DB's mother to have to cook, meaning let's go out to a restaurant instead! But they don't want to go out. So, I am making the food and hauling it to his mother's apartment tomorrow. The good news is that I am making it vegan because hey, they left it up to me! DB and his mom will be fine with that and his dad is too out of it to notice. So, as soon as I can escape from work today I will go home and starting cranking out the tofurkey and whatever sides I can scrape together.
Well, the next installment in my ongoing saga of trying to get to a Better Place with regard to my weight and eating. I have now officially been labelled as "eating disordered" and told I should seek professional help for my ED, because I made the mistake of asking the Eat The Food group on Facebook (this is the group "founded" by the GoKaleo blogger Amber Rogers) whether anyone there had experienced the sort of increase in their daily calorie "burn" simply from increasing their calorie intake (which, in the dogma of the group, allows for the repair of a metabolism slowed down by over-restricting calories for a long period of time). I admit, I was a little too confrontational in tone in my first post (the sentence that provoked everyone was: "What magic metabolic reversal occurs simply through the process of eating more calories, that suddenly, the same number of calories that used to cause weight gain will now produce weight loss?") but I also had a legitimate question: "I guess I'm asking if there are any others on this board who are like me (short, long-time overrestrictor but already weight training) and still managed to "fix" an underperforming metabolism with Amber's plan. Can I really increase my daily calorie needs by ~500 cal simply by routinely eating more?" Along the way, I provided some basic information about myself, basically that I had been steadily gaining weight for the last few months on a daily calorie intake of between 1200 and 1800 cal/day and had started following the program that would hopefully upregulate my metabolism again, but was feeling pretty anxious and ugly because I was gaining additional weight very quickly (something which the members of the group all tell you will happen, so it wasn't unexpected, just unpleasant). It was apparently that last issue- that I was feeling fat - that got everyone up in arms. I guess I'm not supposed to feel that way if I'm not eating-disordered. When I replied by posting that, to be a successful long-term maintainer as a reduced-obese individual you have to have a pretty major aversion to regaining weight, it only made my situation worse. BTW, in over 30 responses to my original post, there was not ONE person who answered my actual question (did your daily calorie burn increase over time substantially just by eating more food). As a result, I'm feeling pretty discouraged, because what I take away from this experience is mostly that there is an anti-orthorexia movement that is at least as dogmatic in their views as every other dietary philosophy I've come across. And I'm still 10 pounds heavier than I was in April :>(
Wow... Sorry to hear about the ruckus. Challenging the dogma of any forum can lead to stuff--even on this forum from time to time. And it sounds like you were kind of confrontational. But still...
Only a professional familiar with the DSM-V (or whatever number it's got up to now) can diagnose you. If you are wondering whether there's anything to those comments, you can always consult one.
I guess I would say I'm "anti-orthorexia" in my food philosophy--in that I see ever-increasing restriction and food judgments (good foods, bad foods, good amounts, bad amounts, forbidden foods) as not the best way way to go.
Do you feel like going back to restricting your calories, based on this encounter? Have you really given the experiment sufficient time? In the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, the first rehabilitation period after reduced-calorie semi-starvation was 12 weeks long.
I do understand how frustrating it is to be gaining.
And here it is Thanksgiving. I'm sure you have much to be thankful for. I know I do. My partner survived radiation treatment and is cancer-free; we live in a lovely home in Florida, where today it is cold enough that I've laid a fire in the fireplace; I have work that I enjoy and will be able to retire soon; we have friends; all our needs are met; and we're going out for the "big dinner." Life is good.
Sorry that the responses to your legitimate question were unhelpful and (it sounds like) a bit accusatory or defensive. I completely get why you worded your first sentence as you did. After all, you are a scientist and medical professional - you cannot suspend your natural reasoning processes just because the topic is emotionally charged. I definitely feel both curious and skeptical about the notion of increasing metabolism just by eating more: what is the molecular mechanism, what percentage of people have that response, etc.
I have no wisdom to offer on this one, but JayEll's comment about giving it a bit more time seems worth trying, given the theory being put forth.
BTW, in over 30 responses to my original post, there was not ONE person who answered my actual question (did your daily calorie burn increase over time substantially just by eating more food). As a result, I'm feeling pretty discouraged, because what I take away from this experience is mostly that there is an anti-orthorexia movement that is at least as dogmatic in their views as every other dietary philosophy I've come across. (
You mean, they're responding to the emotion in your post rather than the factual content. Lots of people will do that, me included. I listen for signs of how the speaker or writer is feeling, and I address that first before moving onto the substance of what they're saying.
They heard pain and confusion and anger and skepticism.
The latter prickled the most. Their beliefs regarding weight management and living was what initially united them, and their deciding to follow a particular guru -- and what challenges believers is any expression of disbelief. So in pack formation, they went after the skepticism. Because to believers invested in a certain dogma, it's never the system that's wrong, it's the participant who's just not believing enough or doing it right. The fault is always in the individual who has to strive to be more perfect at whatever he or she is doing. (Including weight loss ... on these very boards ...)
People will not engage in a fact-based rational discussion when they hear emotion; the emotion will override the content.
And as for the content, I'm not going to quibble with them because I have always admitted that I have an eating disorder, only that it's morphed into different shapes and varied in its intensity.
My being fat was also a manifestation of my eating disorder, because I was always way too caught up in the moment and the sensations of eating, far more than people beside me eating the same stuff. Food was a drug for me, and that was a form of disordered eating. There were never any boundaries and too much was never enough. I had to have another hit, and then another. I have simply overcorrected in the other direction. Now my disorder is restriction and lots of rules and lots of self-monitoring.
The thing is, the restrictive disorder, including my mandate to exercise daily, has at least gotten my cholesterol and blood sugar and heart rate and other markers into a healthy area. I can lift up things that I couldn't. I can walk all day if I need to. Unlike the other end of the disorder which had given me Metabolic Syndrome and signs of emerging Type 2 diabetes.
As I've said before, and as you raised in your post, I do not know what the answer is for the reduced obese. When I was 107 pounds heavier, the problem was not just vanity or societal disapproval.
I'm sorry about your experience Andrea. My dd has mostly stopped visiting the Tourette's and service dog forums because of similar issues to what you describe. There are way too many know-it-all "experts" more than willing to share (ahem push) their views and agendas. I think that you, as a doctor, are more of an expert than they are.
F*** Calories by Krista Scott-Dixon. A free e-book. December 2011
