Book Review: The End of Overeating

It’s been a while since I did a book review, so I thought I would plug one of the most important books that I have read in a very long time: The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, by Dr. David Kessler.

Those of you who have attended my CHL classes have probably heard me mention my low-carb lifestyle, and how I managed to lose about 100 lbs back in 1999. At that time, I was at 350 lbs, or a little over double my ideal body weight. I was morbidly obese. Now, after losing 100 lbs, I am still substantially overweight, but 50 lbs over is a lot better than 150 lbs over. I probably would not even be here today if I had not lost that weight, and I certainly would not be up to standing in front of a CHL class for 10 hours. I figured I was doing pretty good, staying fairly consistently on my low-carb, low-gluten (100% gluten-free is a major hassle, and while I’m gluten-sensitive, I’m not in the category of Celiac) diet plan for nearly 10 years now. I did some yo-yo-ing around the 250 point, plus or minus about 15 lbs, and I’m currently at 262. I figured that unless I was willing to undergo weight reduction surgery that I was going to be pretty much stuck where I am now.

Until I read Dr. Kessler’s book. Some of the research Dr. Kessler reported on made my skin crawl. You see, for over 40 years, the Food Industry has been running a series of experiments on the general population, and even without fully understanding the science behind it, they have discovered ways to turn off your conscious control of your eating, and stimulate your subconscious into making you eat much more than you need — and continuing the food input long after you are no longer hungry, even to the point of discomfort. In short, we are being fed an array of what amounts to highly addictive narcotics that just superficially resembles food.

The term narcotic is not hyperbole. One of the studies that Dr. Kessler mentioned was testing rats to see how hard they would work for certain rewards; how many lever-presses, or how high they would jump, climb, etc. One researcher found that rats would work slightly harder (about 5% harder) for cocaine than they would for a small serving of chocolate-flavored Ensure.

Dr. Kessler put some of the loose pieces of the puzzle together for me. I knew, for instance, that low-carb works pretty well, and I thought I knew why. Turned out that I was still missing some information. Upon reading the book, I tried several little experiments, and I discovered some pretty interesting things.

One experiment was to simply quit using artificial sweetener in my coffee. I was drinking several cups (mostly decaf) of coffee every day, and I basically had coffee sitting in front of me at work just about all the time. When I finished a cup, I would go get another. When I stopped putting artificial sweetener in my coffee, the strangest thing happened. The taste didn’t really seem dramatically different. It was still coffee, and still a pleasant beverage even though not sweet. BUT — I would be working along, and grab my insulated mug to take a sip of coffee, and it would be COLD! That never happened when the coffee was sweetened. With sweetener, I always managed to drink the coffee fast enough that the very last sip was still warm.

Building on that datapoint, I asked my wife to cut back on sweeteners by at least 50% in everything that she prepared for me that normally used sweetener. I then noticed another startling difference: I felt noticeably fuller after my meager lunch (typically two boiled eggs, a cup of coleslaw, and a gluten-free high-fiber muffin) than I did when my lunch had more sweeteners. I also dropped a couple of pounds that week. I had pretty convincingly demonstrated to myself that artificial sweetener was a big problem for me, and I was just going to have to get used to eating stuff that wasn’t sweet.

That wasn’t the only thing I learned from Dr. Kessler, and it was not the only experiment I ran on myself. In fact, I’m still trying some new stuff, and going back and forth between different ways of eating to note how they affect me. Click here to go to Amazon, where you can buy the book for about $30. Or, if you have a Kindle, you can get the e-book version for $10. If you can’t afford to buy it, then try your public library. Either way, visit Dr. Kessler’s site, and watch the video of Dr. Kessler talking about his book. It’s a great teaser!

I was not particularly satisfied with Dr. Kessler’s “prescription” for how to deal with the problems of hyper-palatable food, but I now have a lot more information to use in the battle, and I’m feeling better about my chances of achieving a normal body weight than I have in a very long time.

A review: The SmartCarry

Back when I first got my CHL, my instructor warned me that I would probably spend more on holsters than guns. I didn’t believe him.

For a long time, I resisted buying holsters. I made one myself, and it worked well enough that I tried to sell them. I sold maybe a dozen of my shoulder rigs before I gave that up. Never had a repeat customer, so it was fairly obvious that I didn’t have The Formula. So then, I started looking at other holsters. First thing I tried was a belly-band, which wasn’t even as comfy as my homebrew rig. One thing led to another, and yes, I ended up spending more on holsters than I did on my first gun.

Up until I got the SmartCarry (http://www.smartcarry.com), my favorite was a Houston paddle-holster for my Bursa Thunder .380. But when I got the UC 9mm, I could not find a paddle-holster for it anywhere. I tried an IWB and a traditional shoulder rig, but neither was satifactory, and I was well on my way to spending more on holsters than on the UC9 when I got the SmartCarry.

I have no affiliation with SmartCarry, nor have they given me anything for this review.

I got the SmartCarry after reading the description, and watching the videos on their website. I got the “security” model, which was about $60. When it arrived, I thought, “I just spend $60 for THIS???” But the gun did fit in it, and when I tried it on, it was unexpectedly comfortable. It took a while to find the most satisfying combination of snugness and position, but I finally did settle on a fairly tight adjustment, and wearing the rig somewhat higher than recommended in the videos, and offset about one inch to my right. The offset keeps it from poking me in sensitive places, and makes it a lot easier to use the urinal in a public restroom.

I think I got my $60 worth, although the SmartCarry is showing some signs of wear. The elastic is pretty strong, but it’s still starting to stretch out a bit, and I’ll probably end up replacing it in another 5 or 6 months. The Velcro is the super-aggressive type that you see in hospital-grade leg braces, so it will probably last as long as the front pocket.

The concealment also better than I expected. There is a slight bulge in the crotch area, but that one-inch offset helps there, too. I have stood in front of several CHL classes, and asked if anyone had spotted my concealed handgun. So far, nobody had picked out the SmartCarry location without making several other guesses first. Seems folks have a build-in aversion to looking at a man’s crotch (well, at least the ones in my classes, anyway). It provides concealment as least as good as an IWB. And the concealment is absolute if I wear a Hawaiian-style shirt un-tucked.

Drawing from concealment is no harder than from my paddle or IWB. Actually a little easier than from my paddle, since I have to get the extraction angle just right on the paddle. I did initially have difficulty getting the drawn handgun back into the holster — that takes practice and two hands. Plus, I haven’t found any way to do it that I would consider graceful, but re-holstering a handgun is something that you don’t have to do quickly or gracefully.

The SmartCarry is (at least for now) my favorite concealment holster, with the Houston paddle coming in 2nd. When the SmartCarry wears out past the point where I can repair it myself, I will probably buy another. Maybe two.

My Marksmanship Epiphany

Epiphany (n): A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.

I wasn’t always a good shot.  I studied (and even taught) marksmanship in high school — I was in JROTC, and I tried out for the rifle team, and actually made it.  But I certainly wasn’t the best shot on the team.  In fact, I was usually the lowest scorer on the team in most matches.

Fortunately for my team, in a rifle match, you only had to count the top 5 scores (out of 6), so I was nearly always the “scratch man”.  Good enough to get on the team (just barely), but not good enough to really help them.

I could shoot really well in the prone and kneeling positions.  I would typically shoot 99/100 or 100/100 prone, and 95/100 or better in kneeling.  Respectable, but so could all the other team members.  I would then proceed to drop 30 or more points in the standing or “offhand” position, compared to 10 or fewer for the other team members.

I knew all the theory; BRASS (Breathe/Relax/Aim/Slack/Squeeze), natural point of aim, etc., but I just could not get my offhand score up into a decent range.  I tried a number of things.  I practiced nearly every day, coming in an hour before school started, and coming back to the range after school for an hour. I tried lifting weights and various other strength training exercises. All that helped, but not enough to move me out of “scratch” position.

During the very last match I ever shot with the Irvin HS Rifle Team, something happened that had a lasting effect on my marksmanship skills.  I went into the match with my usual 100/100 in prone, dropped only 2 in kneeling, and then… just by pure dumb luck, my first offhand shot was a scratch-bull.  I knew it when the shot went off; it felt dead on.  That did happen from time to time, so that wasn’t a Really Big Deal.

But then one of the coaches on the other team turned to his assistant coach, and said “I thought you said this Harkness character couldn’t shoot shit for offhand.”  Even with my hearing protection on, I heard it clearly.  That remark had a truly wonderful (in the original sense of the word) effect on me.  It was like a giant hand came out of the sky to steady my rifle.  The next shot was also a scratch bull, but this time, it wasn’t pure dumb luck; I simply COULD NOT MISS.  The next shot was a pinwheel, followed by another scratch bull.  I only dropped 4 points offhand that day, which moved me from “scratch man” to high scorer, and I finished with a 294/300, the highest I had ever shot, even counting practice sessions.

After the match, my coach came up to me, and asked, “What the HELL got into you, Harkness?”  I told him what had happened, whereupon he replied, “Shit.  I wish I’d thought of that two years ago.”

To this day, I can’t put the sights on target without hearing “I thought you said this Harkness character couldn’t shoot shit for offhand” in my mind.  And the effect has never worn off.

Independence Day Parade in Plano

Now that I’m no longer president of the Plano Early Lions Club (http://www.planolions.org), I should have a little more time for other things — including being more active in some projects that I had to delegate to others last year.

One item I really look forward to is passing along the button that says “Everything’s my fault this year!” to Lion Gordon Settle when I see him on Friday. I’ve already reassigned the president@planolions.org email address to him. Lion Gordon is a real go-getter, and I will be working to make his presidential year better than mine was.

The next big thing coming up is the Independence Day Parade, which is hosted by the PELC each year. This will be the 3rd year since we took it on. Unfortunately, the economy has hit us hard, too — so the parade will be somewhat smaller this year.

Which may not be entirely a bad thing. Saturday is likely to be really warm, and it will be good to be done before the heat of the day gets really out of hand. If you are planning to come out to watch it, be sure to cover up with sunscreen, bring plenty of water, and wear a brimmed hat!