About a year-and-a-half ago, I started eating according to Dr. Atkins' plan. If you're not familiar with this, it can be summed up by saying that you're encouraged to eat natural food that won't elevate your insulin levels, i.e. lots of meat and vegetables and very few starchy or sugary things. I especially cannot have bleached, refined products (meaning no white rice and most pasta and bread) or table sugar. Confession: I do, rarely, still eat ice cream and some white rice.

Simply put, I don't eat anything that skyrockets my insulin levels (i.e. carby, starchy stuff). This makes me feel better in general; I don't turn into a monster when I get hungry and my blood sugar levels drop. Furthermore, insulin levels are really the culprit in cholesterol, not eating "cholesterol rich" foods like red meat, eggs, and cheese. How do I know this? Because I've done a lot of research on it and because I know my past.

When I had high cholesterol at the tender age of 20, I was a starving college student who couldn't afford to eat red meat. I didn't particularly care for eggs and cheese was considered "fattening" so I didn't eat much of it. I drank fat free milk if I drank it at all. I mostly subsisted on peanut butter sandwiches, couscous, Pop Tarts, and orange juice. I probably also ate a lot of candy because I was a sugarholic. I was also very active. I hit the gym to do Stairmaster and weights 5-6x/week. And my cholesterol was high. Isn't there something wrong with this picture?!

Now I eat according to the Atkins maintenance plan (I lost over 15 pounds on the induction and on-going weight loss Atkins plan). I eat red meat, cheese, real cream in my coffee, and at least 2 servings of vegetables (I love green salads with blue cheese or vinaigrette dressing!) every single day. I still exercise. Not as much as I did when I was 20, but still a lot by typical standards (ballet 2x/week, yoga 1x/week, kickboxing or running 1x/week, and BodyFlex breathing/toning exercises every day). All this and my cholesterol is excellent.

The USDA food pyramid is dead wrong. 5-8 servings of grains per day? They must be joking! Eat fat sparingly? Fat is not the enemy. Frankly, I'm appalled.

I also received some new CDs in the mail last night. I'll be adding Etta James, Miles Davis, Marilyn Manson's Holy Wood, and Led Zeppelin to my music collection. I can't wait to listen to them.

M and I rented Charlie's Angels last night. Good, funny movie! It was kind of similar to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in special effect techniques.

I forgot what else I was going to say, but I'm sure it was important. Argh!

Au revoir, friends!