Metabolic Starvation
Seth Godin wrote an interesting blog post yesterday about how organizations need to realize that an insatiable appetite for a resource is a sign of a problem.
An insatiable appetite is a symptom: There’s a hole in the bucket. Something’s leaking out. When a system (or a person) continues to demand more and more but doesn’t produce in response, that’s because the resources aren’t being used properly, something is leaking.
If your organization demands ever more attention or effort or cash to produce the same output, it makes more sense to focus on the leak than it does to work ever harder to feed the beast.
It occurred to me that this is a pretty good description of metabolic starvation. When your level of circulating insulin gets too high, it blocks the proper routing of nutrients into the cells where they are needed. Some portion of what you eat gets diverted into being stored as fat.
So, instead of the normal cycle:
- your cells need nutrients
- you get hungry
- you eat
- your body sends the nutrients to the cells
- you are satisfied and stop eating
You get this vicious cycle instead:
- your cells need nutrients
- you get hungry
- you eat
- some of the nutrients get diverted towards fat storage
- your body grows more/bigger fat cells
- fat cells trigger more inflammation and insulin resistance
- only some of the nutrients get sent to the cells
- your cells still need nutrients
- they signal that you are still hungry (or hungry again shortly after eating)
- you eat some more
- you get obese
And of course, obesity leads to less activity which leads to more insulin resistance, etc.
So, despite taking in lots of nutrients, your body is still metabolically starving because it is unable to use them as efficiently as it should.
So telling an obese person that they just need to eat less and move more really does not address the problem. You need to address the source of the problem, which is insulin resistance.
Father’s Day Marketing Mania
I know marketers will always seize any opportunity to promote their product, no matter how far fetched, but the 2 offers I got in my email this morning are really ridiculous!
- HP Father’s Day Gift Guide “A gift for every kind of dad.” Conveniently groups all dads into one of four types – Sports Dad, Business Dad, Musician Dad, and Traveling Dad, and suggests an HP product that would be appropriate.
- Matrix Direct: “This Father’s Day, give your family the security of term life insurance.” Because nothing says Happy Father’s Day like a reminder that you’re going to die!
I’m sure there are others out there just as bad, if not worse. Seen any you care to share?
Finally!
I think we can officially declare the big kid potty trained now. Today he willingly peed in a potty (the big toilet, no less) at a friend’s house – despite being hassled by their extremely large dog. He also pooped in the potty at home (twice) and used toilet paper to wipe his butt.
Most surprisingly, he wore his underwear to bed last night, and woke up dry this morning. Although, he wasn’t willing to try it again tonight, so that one might take some more work.
He’s also peed in public toilets, and pretty much goes all by himself while we’re home with only minimal reminders.
There’s clearly more work to be done, especially on the ‘stay in the bathroom until your butt and hands are clean’ front. Still, whatever’s left in the process is merely fine-tuning and practice. The major hurdles have been overcome.
There is light at the end of the diaper changing tunnel!
Best game of tag, evah!
Today, the big kid, the baby and I were sitting on the couch, and everybody was in a happy mood (for once). So I leaned down and kissed the baby, spontaneously, and then tried to lean over and kiss the big kid, but he ducked away. So I tried again, and he ducked again, but on the third try, I caught him and planted one on the top of his head.
Thus started the game, where I would lean over, and he would try to avoid me, which eventually led to me trying to kiss him, and him running away.
And then, his compulsive need to order everyone around kicked in, and he was like “Ok, Mama, you run, and I’ll catch up and kiss you.”
This seemed like a reasonable plan to me, so I ran off down the hallway, with him at my heels. Unfortunately, this didn’t really lend itself to many kisses, seeing as how he was behind me, but then I surprised him by cutting a corner, and was able to hug him and get a kiss.
After that the game was really on, with us running down different directions in order to end up face to face with a kiss. And, of course, I took many detours in order to plant kisses on the little kid and the baby as well.
We tried to get the little kid to join in the run around and get kisses game, but he wasn’t terribly interested. And, eventually we all wore ourselves out, and were too tired to keep running.
Still, that was the sweetest game of tag I’ve ever been involved in 
Sometimes I think they’re trying to make me think I’m crazy.
The little kid: “I need to get some lotion.”
Me: “Some lotion?”
LK: “No, raisins!”
Me: “Raisins”
LK: “Yes, raisins.”
Me: “He did say ‘lotion’ the first time, right?”
Dan: “Yes, yes he did.”
Then of course he comes back from the kitchen with a bowl of strawberries…
Growing Up Too Fast, Big Kid edition
It’s good to know we’ve set a good foundation for the teenage years. The big kid has already learned the most important word in the teenager’s vocabulary (at least when dealing with parents) – “Whatever!” Delivered with attitude, no less.
We had several instances the other day, where something wasn’t done his way, and he reacted with his usual “throw myself on the floor and cry” thing, but this time he’d yell “whatever!”first or say “whatever, Mama” before refusing to talk.
Another case of the “you don’t realize how much you say things, until the kids start saying them too” phenomenon.
7 Quick Takes Friday
1
I just discovered that there’s a whole community of nerdy, book-loving, analytical, Catholic moms that blog! So, if I pick this blog back up again, I’ll have people like me to share it with. I’m rather excited about this discovery, and figured I might as well let them know about it by sharing this post. (And sorry to anyone who objects to being called nerdy; feel free to sub “intellectual” if you’d prefer)
2
The Novena to the Holy Spirit starts today, not yesterday, so I didn’t miss the beginning (for once). I’m new to the practice of Novenas, at least as an adult, so hoping to actually complete this one.
3
Blinding flash of the obvious: I need God and prayer in my life now, and can’t wait to revive my religious life until the kids grow up and can take care of themselves.
Yes, I’m sad to say that this is a fairly recent revelation for me, and I had been putting my faith on the back-burner while I focused on the kids.
4
Part of the reason for that is my fondness for philosophy and apologetics. I like the process of arguing for why I believe what I do, at least in my own head, if not so much in actual debates with other people, because it helps me clarify what I truly think about various issues.
But then I feel like a hypocrite to be having these discussions when I can’t even consistently make it to Mass on Sundays, and measure the gap between confessions in years.
5
But then again, I think it’s also a sin of pride to hold yourself to an impossible standard. The beauty of our faith is the fact that God takes all of us flawed, imperfect, sinful people, and still manages to use us to create miracles.
I keep wanting to stay away from God because I’m not perfect, when the truth is that the only way I’ll ever get any closer to becoming perfect is to let Him in and acknowledge all
those various flaws and failings as things I need to work on with His help.
6
Enough with the heavy stuff, here’s a cute video:
The kids kept replaying this one over and over and laughing their heads off 
7
And here’s one more:
We tried imitating this one, but our baby’s not quite as amused by the tearing paper as the one in the video.
Aha!
So the boys were playing with their trains tonight, as they are most nights, each with his own circle of track and his own vehicles.
This peaceful state is a fairly recent development, in that the big guy has just realized that if he sets up the little guy with his own toys, he is more likely to be left alone to play with what he wants. Not that this stops him from bossing the little guy around at all – “No A, put the train on the track. The truck stays on the floor! No, no, no, the train goes this way!” (etc.)
Still, both of them are completely distracted by what toys the other one is currently playing with, and, under the “grass is always greener” illusion, are always trying to take the other toy.
The big guy is more direct, in that he either just takes the toy (and then gets scolded and told to give it back) or he tries to negotiate a deal where he substitutes some other toy in trade for the one A has. This can get funny sometimes, because his idea of a fair trade is not really based on reality. “Here A, play with this sippy cup while T plays with the train!”
The little guy is more sneaky in his toy-stealing. He generally waits for T to be distracted by something, or walk away (or be called away by Dan or me to do something), and then he swoops in and takes over playing with whatever toy T was playing with. Generally, T runs right back over, grabs the toy back, and does his whole “no, play with that train!” routine. And usually there’s some pushing involved, which leads to a scolding and often a timeout, depending on the circumstances – and thus the little guy ends up with the toy anyway.
So, back to tonight. They were each playing with their own track and trains when we announced that it was time to change their diapers before they went to bed. Disregarding their protests, Dan picked up T, put him on the changing table, and started to change him. Without missing a beat, A moved over to T’s track and started playing with those trains instead of his own. I noticed this, and pointed it out to Dan, saying “Look, A was like ‘Aha!’ and got to the trains as soon as you picked T up.”
As soon as I said this, the little guy yells “Aha!” with a smug little smile on his face as he continues to play with the trains.
Dan and I both completely cracked up! We were laughing about it for a good few minutes, even as we were reassuring T that he would get his trains back in a minute since as soon as he was changed it would be the little guy’s turn, and then he’d be back to his own trains again.
A gave up his ill-gotten toy with pretty good grace, and went back to his own track without too much protest. And they both went up to bed shortly after, so there wasn’t too much more opportunity for disagreement to crop up.
The “Aha!” was perfectly timed, though, and was definitely one of the funniest things either one of them has said in a while.
Halloween 2010
Halloween is Dan’s favorite holiday, I think. He’d tell you it’s Thanksgiving, but given the size of our ceramic Halloween decoration collection, I think I’m right. Also, the number of spooky movies, holiday specials, etc. for Halloween are only outnumbered by the Christmas ones (and I think Christmas falls into its own league, not to be grouped with the other holidays).
Anyway, there are certain things we always do for Halloween, and we want to keep these traditions up, despite the kids. We also want the kids to have fun on the holiday, without it turning into the all out candy grab and sugar-rush nightmare that it seems to generally be.
So, this year we carved pumpkins, with the big guy consulting and supervising while Dan carved. We watched It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, although we have that on DVD, so it tends to get watched every few weeks anyway. We watched Spaced Invaders, which you should check out if you haven’t already – it’s a great kid-friendly Halloween movie. And, (wait for it…) we went trick-or-treating!
We were going to opt out of that particular practice this year, and we did opt out of all the Halloween parties we could have gone to, because the kids didn’t seem terribly interested in the costume part or the spooky stuff part or any of the parts that they could really get into. And, of course, their food allergies (and the fact that sugar is poisonous and addictive) keep them from really participating in the candy part.
2 days before Halloween, though, I got out the Thomas the Tank Engine costume that I had bought for the big guy last year (that he refused to wear), and he was really excited about wearing it. So Dan and I decided that we would have him Trick or Treat in our neighborhood – basically walk down the street to the cul-de-sac and back. He’d get to ring doorbells, get some candy (but not too much), and be within a few minutes from home if he ended up being overwhelmed by the experience.
We figured Dan would go trick or treating with him, and I would stay home with the little guy and give out the candy to any trick or treaters that came to our door. We gave out individually wrapped Hostess baked goods, which seemed to be very popular. I don’t know the varieties, having not grown up here, and Dan says he only bought ones he personally didn’t like so as to not be tempted to eat any leftovers himself.
Our strategy actually worked out pretty well, although apparently the people in our neighborhood are really generous and T ended up with a lot more candy than we thought he would. Even after we weeded out all the chocolate (that he’s allergic to) and all the gum and choking hazards, he still has about a month’s worth if we limit him to a piece a day which is what we’ve done so far.
T was really excited about the whole experience. Dan says it took him almost the whole circuit to figure out that he had to say “trick-or-treat” and he kept wanting to go into people’s houses, especially if they had dogs. He also didn’t want to walk on the road (yeah, we have no sidewalks), and he kept wanting to cut across people’s lawns. But everyone loved his costume 
And, like I said, he got a ton of candy!
The little guy was content to stay home and play – he had unfettered access to all the toys with his big brother out of the way. And he got really excited every time someone rang our doorbell, although he did keep trying to get outside, and I kept having to bring him back in since he refused to wear any pants
Dan and T got back after about 45 minutes, with a huge stash of candy. Dan actually had T ring our doorbell and say “trick-or-treat” and I let him have an oatmeal-raisin Hostess cookie. We got a few pictures of him in his costume before he couldn’t stand it anymore and needed to take it off. Then we all went out into the front yard for a while to look at the lit Jack O Lanterns, and let the kids run around and burn up some of that sugar-rush energy. I don’t think even the most endorphin-crazed runner’s high people get as much sheer joy from just running around as a 3 year old does
This year was our biggest group of trick-or-treaters since we moved in – probably 2 dozen kids. Twice what we got last year, which was three times what we got the year before. I didn’t see any terribly inventive costumes; my favorite was the girl dressed as a mime holding a trick-or-treat sign.
I call this year’s halloween a resounding success. Next year will be trickier, since the little guy will be old enough to want to go trick-or-treating too, but his allergies are much more extensive and severe, so there pretty much isn’t any candy he can eat. Not to mention the fact that there’ll be a new little guy or gal around as well. Still, with any luck, I won’t be pregnant this time next year, which will by itself make it much easier for us to do stuff.
We do need to work out a sugar management strategy, though. Right now, we’re sticking with the “one piece a day” rationing. The concern with this is that it gets him used to the idea of eating candy every day, which is not a habit I want to encourage. And the “it’s only once a year so let them pig out on it until they get sick” strategy doesn’t really interest me either.
Apparently there’s a church in Salem that does a candy buy back on the day after Halloween – kids get a dollar per pound of candy, and then the candy gets shipped overseas to the troops, which I think is a really neat idea.
I suggested to Dan that we introduce the idea of the “candy fairy” that takes away all the candy overnight and leaves a small toy in its place. I think it would work well, and we could still let them eat one or two pieces the night they bring it home without needing to worry about rationing it out for the next few weeks.
I’m still looking for other creative ideas. I want the kids to fully enjoy the dressing up, going around after dark, and collecting treats part of the holiday. I just don’t want the sugar-rush and all that goes with it. I want to switch us to giving out something other than sugary treats ourselves, but that’s a battle with Dan I haven’t been able to win yet. Anyone have any or hear any really good ideas for what to do with extra Halloween candy?
Kids’ clothing sizes
As a follow-up to the previous post, here’s the clothing sizes the kids are currently wearing.
T wears 3T tops and 2T-3T bottoms, and size 8 shoes
A wears 24m/2T tops and 18m bottoms, although he should start fitting into the 2T bottoms soon. He wears size 7 shoes.
