I hit a new low weight this morning, and I’m finally heading below 80 kg, towards my final weight of 70 – 75 kg. Losing these last 5-10 kg will be fun. I’m eating the way I want to, unafraid of any of the popular diet superstitions (e.g., “carbs make you fat”, or “fat makes you fat”), and watching my weight ease down to where it belongs.

I picked up 500g of fresh spaghetti from Assenti’s on my way back from spin class. I made traditional Spaghetti al Pomodoro, using some olive oil, garlic, and fresh basil. I ate 250g of the spaghetti, but I’m still hungry. I’ll probably pick up another 3 lbs of corn tortillas from Gabriel’s. Or maybe I’ll get a veggie burrito from Taco Rey on 4th. Or maybe I’ll just eat the other 250g of spaghetti. I’m not sure. All I know, is I’m still really hungry.

Rode the monthly Paseo de Todos with Urban Bike & Social last night, which went so smoothly, there was a 0 minute wait crossing the border back into the US. It didn’t even feel like an 80 km ride, nor did it seem like 1:30 am when I got back home. I got this Korean Asada taco from a food truck in San Diego. In Tijuana, I had a carne asada taco, a cheese & bean quesadilla, and a cane sugar Coke. (They tell me that Brasilian cane sugar is cheap, and they don’t subsidize corn in Mexico, thus no HFCS.)

I ended up eating more animal products than usual this week. I had about 6 eggs, 500g of meat, and some butter, totaling around 1500 calories. So about 7.5% of my calories came from animal products this week. That’s a bit more than my usual 5% average, but not too bad in the scheme of things. My meals never felt too heavy or greasy, as they always included plenty of fresh vegetables.

My neighbor has introduced me to a lot of things here downtown, including a 12 km walk around the park, and the fish taco truck on 30th in South Park. Two fish tacos, a fish soup appetizer, and a Mexican Coke made with real cane sugar, served in an enchanting al fresco dining environment, all for just $5.45.

I ran into a mini road rally of about a dozen 1920’s – 1930’s cars this morning near the Park. They drove down Texas St, all together in a little parade. I couldn’t resist passing them on my bike, and shouting through an open window, “Get a horse!”. (That’s what they used to scream at broken down motorists a hundred years ago.) All in good fun. They sounded their claxons while I took their picture.

Yes, these girls were on bikes tonight. This month’s San Diego Bike Party had a 50’s theme, and ice cream sandwich treats. We had a great turnout on this summer Friday night. It’s amazing to see perfect, full-detail vintage costumes in real life. It’s inspiring. I’d vote for a law that’d require us all to always dress in period costumes. I’m telling you, we missed out on an elegant era. Bring it back.

People have lost weight on an exclusive “McDonald’s Diet” before, where they basically show that calories-in/calories-out works on even the McDonald’s menu. It’s not very nutritious, and your health won’t improve much, outside of any weight you might lose.

A better McDonald’s-based diet would be the following:

1. All the McDonald’s hamburgers you can eat (240 cal/each)
2. You must add lots of veggies to each burger
3. You can eat all the additional fruit and veggies you want

This works as a healthy long-term diet, because you’ll get all the macronutrients (calories) you need from the hamburger and bun, but more importantly, you’ll get plenty of micronutrients and fiber from all the fruits and vegetables. The key to all successful diets is always the fruits and vegetables. Their micronutrients reduce inflammation throughout the body, and let the body heal and function correctly. The fiber fills you up, and keeps you from over-eating. You’ll stop eating hamburgers when you’re full.

Would anyone follow this diet? Probably not. Once you start buying produce, you’ll figure out that real food tastes a hundred times better than fast food. It’s just an example showing how we really derive our health from fruits and vegetables, and the macronutrient source doesn’t really matter.

This is my standard order that I pick up at Gabriel’s @ 24th & Imperial in Barrio Logan. They make the tortillas right there in the store, and you buy them fresh out of the machine. They taste so good right out of the bag when they’re fresh, hot, and steamy.

There’s 2700 calories in this 3lb bag, which I finish in about 3 days. They provide the bulk of my calories, and contain a lot of fiber and protein as well. They’re probably a better option than a loaf of bread.

I pretty much eat the salsa straight out of a coffee mug with a spoon. It’ll beat a multi-vitamin or a V-8 drink any day.

Hammered it tonight with the fast fixie crowd, from downtown, through Point Loma and Pacific Beach on Bojac’s monthly K.I.S.S. ride. There are some pretty fast riders and good athletes in the group. Mark Caporale got a KOM going up the Cañon climb in Point Loma. Sergio Soto got 2nd out of 1241 riders on a 5.5 km section of Pacific Highway. One of the riders, Todd Smithson, runs ultra marathons (50 & 100 miles). A dozen of us kept up pretty well near the front, and kept it moving pretty fast. Strava says I burned 1200 calories on the ride, but it felt like more.

That’s me on the right, feeling great, and within 10kg of goal.

This excellent talk from Stephan Guyenet at AHS `14 describes why individuals end up with runaway obesity when eating a poor diet of highly refined, low fiber, fattening foods. He shows how a diet, and obesity itself, can disrupt our leptin feedback system responsible for regulating appetite and keeping us lean.

The talk shows how poor gut health (from diets lacking fermentable fiber) causes inflammation in the hypothalamus that results in leptin resistance. He also shows that refined and processed meals themselves immediately cause inflammation, compared to whole, unprocessed foods. Not surprisingly, exercise reduces inflammation. Finally, he shows how obesity itself inhibits the effectiveness of leptin. (It makes sense for the body to protect its fat stores. This allows people to fatten up before scarce times.)

The bottom line is that we restore leptin sensitivity once we eat whole, high fiber foods, exercise, and lose weight. These same steps also restore insulin sensitivity.

Our feedback systems naturally keep us healthy in a real food environment. You can’t really blame evolution for not handling non-stop Cheetos and Ding-Dongs all those millions of years ago.