The RDA method

I've become increasingly oriented towards buying only produce that's in season. Going to the Farmer's Market for years had this effect on me. Before, I barely thought about it. Now, I am tuned into the seasons and I can hardly bring myself to buy things that I know are not fresh from a tree or a field. Of course, you have to take imports into account. Here in Central Texas that often means Mexico, and sometimes Central or South America.

This time of year, there is more tropical produce available here. Mangos are now fresh - maybe a little unripe still. I have been getting really fabulous and cheap honeydew melons lately. Citrus is now at its peak and you can get those yummy little clementine tangerines and ruby red grapefruit. I'm still buying the last of the honeycrisp apples, but only for a week or two longer. Apple season is about over. Pears are now past peak. Peaches, cherries and nectarines are long gone. Lettuces are getting better. In Texas, you can still get tomatoes and peppers from southern Texas and Mexico - pretty much all year long. The prices are creeping up a bit though.

The grocery store I shop at has those scales that print out a price tag. You put your bagged produce on the scale, punch in the produce code number for it, and out pops a scannable price tag. I've been using these for all my produce. It helps me to really pay attention to the cost of things and speeds up checkout. This has made me very aware of the fact that fruits cost much more than vegetables. Vegetables seem like an incredible bargain to me. I really don't remember what they cost in Virginia, so maybe they are cheaper here. Three servings of romaine, broccoli or green beans costs a dollar at most. Bell peppers, even red ones, are under a dollar - and very large.

My husband was just talking to me about how our food expenses have gone down lately. That isn't obvious to me, but maybe my shopping is more careful. It's a lot like doing my food diary. Recording what you eat and then looking at it and thinking about it makes you really aware of which foods seem worth the calories. Weighing the veggies and fruits and seeing what they cost has the same effect.

We've settled into a pretty steady routine of meal planning. We shop maybe twice a week, buying 3 or 4 kinds of meat or fish. We fill up the produce drawers at the same time. A big basket of fruit sits out on the counter and gets eaten methodically for snacks, desert, or breakfast. We make a dinner of some reasonably healthy protein source, plus 2 or 3 vegetable dishes and sometimes rice. Leftovers get eaten for lunch the next day, or we make a sandwich. Everyone fends for themselves for breakfast and lunch. Dinner is a pleasant sit down thing with civilized conversation (and no television or other distractions). This makes eating pleasant, easy and fairly inexpensive. The quality of the food is generally very high. Even when I make something that sounds bad for you, I usually come up with a healthier version. Like tonight, we had tamales with chili. But, it was homemade turkey chili with lots of added bell pepper and onion - a very low calorie, almost no fat version. And the single tamale (180 calories) was a chicken and tomatillo version. Lunch was 2 oz of roasted chicken breast with blackberries and a piece of whole grain bread. Breakfast was low sodium V-8. I had a snack of salsa and tortilla chips - but it was only an ounce of no salt chips and 6 oz of low salt salsa.

This past weekend was a dismal failure CRON-wise.

My father-in-law came to visit, so we had an early Thanksgiving dinner with him. I seriously overindulged. In fact, I was so far off track I couldn't even estimate what I had eaten by the time the weekend was over. My COM entries are just blank for those days.

This, of course, doesn't sit well with me. I like for things to be perfect. Having blank entries is admitting that I'm human and fail just like everyone else. But it's the truth, and there's no point denying it.

In fact, if I don't acknowledge my mistake, it's difficult to move on, and there's a temptation to just let everything slide further downhill. A few blank entries becomes a week's worth of blank entries, which eventually leads to a month or more of not tracking what I'm eating. Do I want this? Of course not. Better to say, "I screwed up this weekend," than to say nothing and let the problem get worse and worse.

So I'm starting again. There will probably be many little stops and starts like this as I try to get back into a more disciplined mindset about CRON. And that's ok. I don't have to be perfect. I just have to keep trying. Eventually, it'll stick.

This last week I have been busy doing web genealogy. My sister-in-law has been a genealogy hobbyist for many years and has extensively researched my husband's family. I did a little bit of researching on my family 5 years ago or so. She asked for family information from me, to fill in my son's chart. I sent her the family tree that I had constructed 5 years ago. This got me looking again. She pointed me to a Missouri death certificate site, where I was able to look up the deaths of many of my great-grandparents.

I have lots of information on my mother's side. I can trace them back to when they came to America from Germany and France. My father's side is more difficult. The trail is dead on my grandmother. There must have been some difficult circumstances there. Her mother died when she was very young and she married at 16. I cannot find her father and mother in the genealogy information, even though I know their names.

My father's father's family is more interesting. I don't know who my great-great-grandfather is. He is the one who came to America from Belgium. However, I most certainly know many of my relatives from the 1700's. How is this possible? My maiden name is Lignoul. There are only a couple dozen Lignouls in the United States and a couple dozen in Belgium. They are all related to me in some way. Someone had done some research on Lignouls in the 18th century in Belgium. It's all online and I can see 5 generations there. It's very interesting to think about

One thing I learned from this genealogy is that my family is long-lived. Many members lived into their 80s. That's a comforting thought. Only 1 of my 16 great-grandparents died of cancer. The rest of them died of heart disease or falling and breaking bones. This helps to reinforce the value of CR for me, since it will really prevent heart disease. And, I need to watch that bone density, since fractures killed 2 of my grandparents in their late eighties.

I was chatting with my youngest brother on some of the genealogy findings and he mentioned that he had been contacted by a Lignoul in Belgium via Facebook, just this week! I contacted the Belgian Lignoul right away and exchaged some info. The most interesting thing I found out was the origin of the name. I had found something earlier to indicate that it was a French version of Lingle - which mean the thread that sews shoes. The Belgian Lignoul informed me that it was actually Lognol, and had been misspelled by city clerks since the 1700s. Lognol is the name for people who lived in Logne. Logne was a small village in Belgium that was attached to a mildly famous castle, built in 883 and destroyed in 1521. The castle is a tourist attraction now, so it would be possible to visit it.

All my Belgian relatives live 50 km or less from Logne. That just blows my mind. It's so different from my family. Roots that deep seem amazing. The idea of living within 30 miles of the place where all your ancestors lived for 1000 years is a powerful idea. That would be your place in the world. But, the rest of the world would not be home to you at all. My attitude is just the opposite. My family has scattered across America, though there are many in Missouri, Texas and Illnois. I feel at home in several places and have a connection to them - including places that I love to vacation like Boulder, Colorado or southern Utah. I guess my ancestors were the ones with wanderlust and adventuresome genes came to America, not the conservative ones. Those are the genes I have. I'm just glad they were long-lived, relatively healthy adventurers.

I can't sleep. Like, at all. Like, ever.

I didn't sleep in Texas. Actually, I slept the first night. The second night I slept about four hours. Last night we were up late working in the hospital and then I couldn't sleep and I basically catnapped for four hours without really sleeping. Caught a catnap on the plane. Now I'm home and I can't sleep.

I am way too excited about all that's going on in my work to sleep. Also, to eat. I didn't eat much while away. A few Dannon light and fit yogurts from the hotel breakfasts, a big Mexican meal on Wednesday night, and a pretty yummy Cajun meal today at dinner before we caught our plane, but very little else. I lost weight. I can see it even though I haven't gotten on the scale.

Worked out three days out of four, both cardio and self-taught Pilates and yoga. Treadmill three days. Skipped today cause I hadn't slept at all and figured that I shouldn't work out.

Didn't eat as many South Beach Diet Bars as I thought.

It's now MR's birthday and I am about to go get in bed with him. Tomorrow he will wake up 38. Cute!

Today I went out with some co-workers for lunch at Bertucci's. I hadn't been there in a while, but I remembered they had some decent salads the last time I went there, so I figured I'd be fine. What I hadn't counted on was the incredible shrinking salad.

Yes, today I ordered a salad that ended up being about 1/3 the size of the very same salad I ordered just a few months ago. For some reason, Bertucci's has apparently decided to scale back on the green, leafy veggies. What they served me wouldn't feed a baby rabbit. Oh, but they happily offered me an endless supply of rolls and butter. I ended up ordering a side of veggies, which were, sadly, covered in oil and cheese. Thus, my calorie count is way higher than I wanted it to be today.

Very annoying.

Now how's this for a weird twist on a Philly favorite?

One eggplant, microwaved for three minutes and hollowed out
Quorn tenders (you could use real chicken or any other chicken-esque meat sub you want too)
Fat free cheddar singles
Red onion, diced
White mushrooms, diced
Garlic, worschtershire
1 tsp olive oil

Pre-steam the onion and the mushrooms for a few minutes, thaw the quorn. You can do this on the same plate as you pre-cook the eggplant, that's how I did it to save energy and space.

Mix up the onion, garlic, mushrooms, and Quorn tenders with a few drops of worschtershire (can use the vegan version from Whole Foods if you care too... we just use the cheap stuff from the local supermarket) and stuff it back into the eggplant shell. Top with two slices of nonfat cheddar. Microwave till the cheese is all melty.

Top with 1 teaspoon of olive oil right before serving.

MR really liked this one. It was weird. I love doing bizarre variations on all-American favorites. It's my super-easy, super-healthy fusion thing. I've got this entry working in my head on silly fusion cuisine, but I haven't had time to spit it out yet. I'll finish it while I'm in Texas or on planes and write it down for you when I return... unless I have an insomnia attack there, in which case I'll grab the hotel business center and write it up while I'm there. I'm not bringing my computer so I may not be able to blog... don't worry, I'll be home late Saturday night.

Thanks to all for your nice comments. I missed you while I was away this summer. It's good to be home. :)

I'm going to get in a yoga class before I head to the airport. Good to stretch well before sitting for a long time. It takes quite awhile to get to Texas, it appears. Not nearly as long as it takes to get to California.

Paul Simon's "Train in the Distance" just came up on my Ipod shuffle. I love this song. My freshman year in college boyfriend put it on a mix tape for me. I live close enough to a train that I often can hear it in the night. I do indeed love the sound of a train in the distance.

The song has a combination of lyrics that I find very appropriate to the work of organizing. I think the last verse summarizes:

What is the point of this story?
What information pertains?
The thought that life could be better
Is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains.

A long time ago, I remember writing some post where I basically ridiculed the concept of keeping kosher. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to dig through the archives and find it). Well, now that I'm going through the process of converting to Judaism--yes, I'm really going through with it--I find myself having to eat my words (no pun intended).

You see, I used to think of keeping kosher as nothing but superstition. But recently, I heard a rabbi speak about Maimonides, the medieval Jewish philosopher. Maimonides tried to come up with reasons for Jewish laws, and he had a very simple explanation for rules governing kashrut---they are designed to prevent gluttony. That's right. Not just because God said so, but because God doesn't want us to overeat. By forcing Jews to think carefully about the foods they keep in their homes and put in their mouths, kosher laws created a certain mindfulness around eating that Maimonides argued would help prevent gluttony.

I'm not sure if that's true. Are traditionally observant Jews less overweight than non-observant Jews or non-Jews? Maybe, maybe not. But what I find interesting is that even back in medieval times when people knew nothing about nutrition or psychology, a Jewish philosopher recognized the value of paying attention to what you eat.

I doubt I'll ever follow all the traditional rules of kashrut, but I *can* embrace the spirit of keeping kosher as described by Maimonides. Actually, in a way, that's what CRON is--being mindful of what you eat. Maybe what CRONies do is just as holy as separating meat from dairy, just in a different way.

Food for thought.

South Beach Diet Bars. A variety pack. 4 peanut butter, 2 chocolate, 2 apple cinnamon. And 6 little pre-measured bags of whey protein. And genmai cha tea bags. Lots of genmai cha. Can't live without it.

If I were just going to Austin to hang out, I wouldn't be packing so much food, as I hear that Austin is a good town for food. But... I'm going to work. So the events will include bagged lunch, a reception with no doubt very heavy food, and then being in a hospital doing meetings. So if I don't bring it myself, I'm not counting on finding food. I will be so sick of South Beach Diet Bars by the time this is over. I've been stocking up on my heathy foods for days now, trying to get as good nutrition as I can before I hit the road.

The other thing about my work, as opposed to say, MR's job, is that what I eat simply can not be an issue in my work. I have to blend in. I can't be doing weird stuff like weighing my food. I can bring some of my own, but I can't let the issue get attention. I can't make time to run around shopping for food like MR does when he travels, and I have to travel light and be prepared to have no refridgeration. So I do the best I can.

When I'm on the road I often enjoy the opportunity to try new foods, but this time I'm really needing to focus, and if it's at all like the conference we went to in September in San Francisco, the food will be plentiful and heavy at the Austin event. Then we'll be going to Houston to work. I'm looking forward to it... I love being immersed in "the bubble" as Susie likes to call it, and going with Susie and Jeannie will be fun, as will be hanging out with our new friends. I've been isolated in the PARSNIP bubble for so long that I'm like a kid at Christmas when I meet other grown up organizers. I didn't realize how lonely I was until I started meeting others.

Anyhow, we're getting ready for our trip, and I'm about to pack my one bag. I never travel with more than one bag. It is an article of faith. Airlines like to lose my bags, so I don't let them.

Then I'm doing a once-over of the house so it's all nice and clean for MR. Weekends are my usual cleaning time and we get back super late on Sat night, and then... it's MR's 38th birthday! Yes, happy birthday to MR! The man whom I feared was too young for me when we met because he was 33 is now safely on the right side of 35. My mother warned me not to date anyone under 35, and she was right. MR was unusually mature for his age, but he improves every year. I love his birthdays. He looks younger but gets older. Perfect.

Appropriate rally clothing, two days worth of meeting clothes apparently. And then a whole lot of easily packed food. And my workout clothes... I can't go without working out. It makes me an unpleasant person, and Jeannie and Susie won't put up with that, so I'd better make sure I'm in a good mood. That means either cardio, Pilates or yoga every day. Or better yet all three.

Time to get dinner on the table... something cruciferous for me.

Et voila!
Not too shabby for my first day back on the CRON wagon.
It always feels so good to get back on track. I feel healthier already. Seriously. Whenever I eat a bunch of gak, I can literally feel my blood pressure rising and my heart pounding. Tonight, there's none of that. It's as if my body knows and appreciates the nourishment I've given it.

Ok, I'd love to write more, but my eyes are closing as I type. More later.

Perhaps I am the only one to have noticed this, but I doubt it.

Along with all the historic firsts of the Obama win, there is the undeniable triumph of a skinny man.

Oh yes. Skinny, dorky, in great shape... call me a partisan, but there is nothing I love more than skinny organizer boys. And our President Elect Obama is nothing if not a skinny organizer boy.

Can it be? A skinny guy is going to be president? It's a victory for skinny guys everywhere!

For all the guys who can't find pants that fit because the average American male is too fat to wear skinny jeans. For all the skinny guys who got made fun of in high school because they were skinny and had big ears. For all the guys who actually need a belt to keep their pants from falling off. Our president is one of us! A skinny guy!

I have quite a few types: you can ask my long term friends for a catalog, if you must. A few years ago I settled down with my very favorite, the geeky blue eyed science boy, super skinny, a bit spaced out, very loving but easily confused. I have quite a few other types too, but they all have one thing in common: they are skinny.

I love skinny boys. Too thin for fashion. Just a tiny bit starved. I always thought, on some barely conscious level, that skinniness (and dorkiness) indicated intelligence on a man's part. And there is nothing I find more attractive than intelligence.

So tonight I try to bring myself out of the extreme sadness I've felt since I found out about my friend Chris' diagnosis and rejoice in the fact that skinny men all over the world now have a wonderful role model: Barack Obama, president-elect, skinny man!

Skinny men of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but...

What does this say about RDAs? Large doses of Vitamins A,C, E and magnesium prevent 80% of hearing loss when taken before and after the exposure to loud noise. It's this sort of thing that makes me wonder if RDAs are enough. RDAs are basically the intake levels needed to prevent disease - as we know it. The question is always on disease that we don't know about.

I always take mega-C - 1000+ mg a day. My magnesium level is just the RDA - in balance with calcium. I have in the past taken mega-E, but cut that out when Dr. Fontana made the case that it might be bad for you. However, I've restarted taking more E lately - using yassohealth.com formulations of balanced E. It makes me feel better, especially my muscles. I always get lots of beta carotene, usually something like 500% of the RDA. It's too easy to just eat Vitamin A foods. A handful of carrots, greens, orange and yellow colored fruits and vegetables.

Why do I take mega-C? Because humans have a genetic defect relative to other mammals. Other mammals make their own C - except for our ape relatives. The amount of C they make varies greatly, depending on their physical needs. When they are exposed to the sun or challenged with microbes, they make more. The RDA is not enough for challenges. So, I take enough to handle unforeseen - and perhaps undetected - challenges.

As you may have guessed by the infrequency of my posts, I've been a bit distracted lately, which means I haven't focused on CRON as I should, and I'm beginning to feel the effects of it. I don't like it one bit.

So...

Time for CRON bootcamp. Starting tomorrow, and for the rest of 2008, my plan is to get back to basics. I'll be logging my food into COM every day, and I plan to post my menus and nutritional profiles each day over on the Skinnybitch Data blog. I find that reporting my food intake in a public space forces me to think much more carefully about what I'm eating. It also helps keep me honest.

Before I begin this little exercise, I should mention that aside from fish, I no longer eat meat. This decision has nothing to do with CRON. For the record, CRON does not require a vegetarian or pescatarian lifestyle. In fact, I think it's much easier to get all your nutrition if you eat small amounts of meat. But for my own personal reasons, I've decided to go pescatarian, so that's why you won't see any meat in my menus.

I should also point out that I'm not posting my menus for other people to model. For example, you shouldn't assume that my calorie goals apply to anyone other than me. In fact, I'll be having a lower-than-normal calorie goal for a little while just because I've picked up a few unwanted pounds and I'd like to get rid of them. So just realize that I'm eating less than I need to maintain my current weight, which is somewhere around 110.

What else? Oh, I apologize in advance for how boring my menus will look. I tend to eat almost exactly the same breakfast and lunch every day, just because that makes things much easier for me. Dinner is where I tend to insert at least a little variety. Even then, my menus tend to be extremely simple and therefore somewhat tedious.

Ok, that's it for now. Much more tomorrow.

Have you ever heard of someone actually getting hit by a bus? Other than the guy in the first episode of "Six Feet Under," I never have.

However, it's a common refrain among those who object to CR. Why put in all this effort if you could die young anyway?

I was thinking it because I was thinking that the kind of cancer that Chris has is much like getting hit by a bus. Could happen to anyone.

My initial motivation to do CR was to stop a process that I recognized as acutely destructive. I was gaining weight, feeling awful, getting sick, and lacking the energy I needed to do my extremely demanding job. And it worked! I got energy, stopped getting sick, and felt great.

If I found that CR detracted from my overall quality of life, I don't think I'd do it. Not so much because of some philosophical decision about quality vs. quantity, nor because of a cost/benefit analysis of the chances that CR will work in humans, just because I don't think I could bring myself to go to the trouble if I didn't immediately see positive results. And even if I knew for certain that it wouldn't give me any more years of life, I'd still do it. Having spent the better part of the year in the "healthy eating" but certainly not hardcore CR'd camp, I can honestly say that I feel better on serious CR. There is a weight below which I never, ever get sick. There is a calorie level below which I never experience anxiety (worry, sure, but not anxiety -- they're very different.) I actually like looking thin, even if it means dealing with all the people who say, "You're not all that skinny!" or "We liked you better with more meat on you."

But I would never try to convince someone else to do it who felt like it would compromise his or her quality of life. Now when people have asked me what to do about weight gain or chronic health problems, I tell them about CR and about how I've used CR tricks to help people lose weight in a healthy fashion, even if not going all the way to real CR. But I only tell if I'm asked. I do wonder if some people might like it much more than they think, once they tried it. It's amazing how much, once you get into the groove, it really does feel good. But I have no interest in "converting" anyone. It doesn't help me, and it's annoying. CR is good for me, so onward I go, to the best of my (occasionally meager) ability.

I'm putting together my survival kit for my trip to Texas later this week... it's going to be a very big food challenge, especially as I'm trying very hard to count all my calories. I'm packing a whole bunch of whey protein powder in individual packets that I make up in ziplock bags and can mix into skim milk. I picked up some South Beach diet bars. We'll be so busy that I don't know where or how I'll get food at all, but I figure I can hit the occasional convenience store for a hardboiled egg or some cottage cheese or yogurt. If I'm really lucky I might find a Subway. We'll only be gone for four days so it won't be too bad. It's a work trip, so I'll be totally focused on my work, and I don't like to have to think much about food when I'm working. So I'll pack what I can and probably eat a bit less than I'd like, just because proper food will likely be in short supply. And we will be too busy to eat anyhow. Susie and Jeannie are coming too. I'm really excited.

I will pack many bags of genmai cha. Jeannie tried it on Thursday and loved it. I brought her a tea bag to try on Friday, along with some whey protein.

I'll be very careful to look both ways before crossing the street when in Texas.

Thanks so much, Anne, for filling out your form! Yay! Under 30! And thank you Lin for your thoughts and prayers. You'll be pleased to know that I am eating something cruciferous every day.

Off to shower before yoga. Thanks to all of you for filling out your forms and sending your love and prayers. Who knows how these things work, really, but I hope that somehow all of our energy can help. In the meantime, you'll be rewarded with a recipe later today.

Part of why I am not blogging much lately is that the world outside my door is so devastatingly perfect right now. The weather is fabulous - sunny, dry, seventy degrees. When it is a bit cool, the sun shines on my back deck and it feels heavenly. Everything smells great.

We have more or less finished our back yard terracing project and are now just tending all the little plants we have installed. All my wildflower and native grass seeds are up and turning into cute little plants. Many of the larger plants are in bloom - mexican mint marigold, scarlet sage, lantana, and copper canyon daisy.

My husband has been clearing out little juniper trees beyond the garden area. This opens up the view a little and makes all the other interesting plants more visible. We've also blazed a trail to the back of our lot - 500 feet beyond our house. This has been really fun. Our ravine is so beautiful - a series of travertine and limestone waterfalls under the canopy of big oaks and juniper trees. We can now easily go down there any time. I feel twelve years old when I am down there, like my husband and I are two children playing together in the woods. We've been working on the trail making it easy to negotiate. At some point, I will plant some shade loving native plants along the way. Right now, there are a fair number of nolinas, yuccas, sages, and yaupon hollies along the way. But I will add some columbine, turk's cap and cedar sage as well.

When we bought the house, I suspected that the land would give us a lot of pleasure, but it has far exceeded my expectations. The sensory experience of just being in my own back yard is something I just cannot get too much of.

This week has been a blur for me. I have alternated between very good CR eating and silly eating. Election day was especially a challenge for me, since I am a stress eater. Apparently I am a celebration eater, too. I am pretty happy to see that democracy works after all. My other blogging is often political and I have a very low dailykos ID number. If you know what that means, you are a leftish political blog person, too. But, really, congratulations to all of us here in America. We did a good thing.

I was very invested in Howard Dean's candidacy in 2004, contributing money and time. This time, I was sort of shell shocked from that experience and didn't do as much. I did try to talk various people I knew into voting out the Republicans - who I believe deserved to lose big regardless of whether you support Democrats or not.

Any way, I am glad to be past the elections. Perhaps I can eat very good CR through most of the holiday season now.

Today, I ate odd food that I would rather have not eaten. In retrospect, I probably should have said no to some of it. My husband made spoon bread for breakfast. I ate too much of it, even though it was rather bland. Then at lunch I ate some french fries and onion rings at Ski Shores, a very old, classic Austin dive on Lake Austin. I also had a grilled chicken sandwich, which did not taste very good, so I threw half of it away.

When I eat silly like this, I record it all and then reflect on the foolishness of it all. Then the next day or two, I eat very well. This makes everything better as quickly as possible.

Thanks so much to all who have already sent in your forms or your request for forms! MoMR, Jessica, Mary, Luke, Jeannie (I'm using blog names for people I work with) and also to both my parents who have agreed to do so and to Lauren, who can't due to her own status as a cancer survivor but who offered well-wishes and prayers. Thanks also to my parents who are working on theirs.

I found a site for friends of Chris, and they say they're hoping for a lot of people under 35 or even 30. Another thing I'm too old for... blergh. I'm 34. But to my readers under 30... please, please please read this beautiful post by our friend John and email in the form. Anyone else, please do fill out the form, you never know who might have the supercharged cancer fighting cells.

I've been really shaken up by the death of Judy followed so closely by news of Chris' diagnosis. It's hard to describe, but Chris is the kind of guy who seems absolutely unshakable. The kind of guy you figure could easily carry you to the nearest hospital if you were to take a bad fall. He'd have your back in a fight. He wouldn't collapse under pressure. I'd love to see him organize (she says with the same tone as the hockey player in the film "The Cutting Edge" saying to the figure skater, "I'd love to see you play hockey.") He'd be intimidating if he weren't so friendly. The thought of a serious illness threatening his life is almost more than I can process. I don't know him well at all, but I'd thought of him often since we met and always figured that life being the way it is, we'd eventually find ourselves in the same place at some time and get to hang out. I'm sure I'm one of very many people who feel this way.

Meanwhile, I am feeling more protective of MR than ever. If you're the kind of person who tends to be overprotective of your partner, I strongly encourage you to date a life-extensionist. He wears his seat belt. He does CR. He looks both ways before crossing the street. He does not ski.

I am so grateful for every day I get to spend with him. I barely want to let him out of my sight at the moment, both because he is so cute and because he is so precious to me that I feel like I must be on hand to make sure he's safe. I am still however managing to go to work and get my nails done and such.

I'm contacting everyone I know to get them to be screened as potential donors for Chris. I even wrote with a little suggestion for potential media... perhaps all the hell of CR media I've done could come to something? I wish there was more I could do. Even though I only met him briefly, I can't imagine a world without him and his contributions.

If this works though, and if he can achieve any sort of improvement in his cancer, then history will be made and I've no doubt it will jump start research on therapies that could help millions.

It seems odd to remember arguing about CR with the extremely vibrant, funny, brilliant and super cute Chris Heward (is it untoward to describe someone facing a life-threatening illness as super cute? I think not. I think that of all times, that is the time when one should be reminded that one is a creature much loved and admired both by those who can understand the science and those who do not. If I am ever facing a life-threatening illness, I want to be reminded that I am cute. With specifics, please.)

He didn't think that CR would work, and that the trade off of perhaps a slight increase in health was not worth any loss of quality of life. I argued that my own quality of life was much improved by CR, and that for me there was no sacrifice.

Now, having slipped off and on my CR and re-visited what it's like to be a "healthy" eater but not CR'd, I can say for sure that for me, I have a greater quality of life on CR. And that if I were to know that I would die in a year or five, I'd still want to enjoy every last minute of my life, and for me, that would mean doing CR. I've never felt so alive as I did when I was at my very severest CR.

I'm sure that Chris would not have felt the way I do, and that for him, CR would have been the wrong choice. We were both right: we were both putting a high value on quality, not just length, of life.

Surely I will be employing every means I have available to me, whether it's organizing others to volunteer to donate, possibly donating myself (I'm 34 but in great health!) and praying up a storm, to help. Perhaps it's a false sense of agency, but it's better than nothing.

I'd just like a chance to buy him a beer and argue about CR again, with both of us confident that we're looking at many years of healthy life ahead of us.

It's not often that I ask you to do anything, other than eat your eggwhites This time I'm asking you to help a friend of mine who is very likely to die unless we help.

I met him just two years ago at the CR Conference. He bought me a beer and we argued about CR. He was in great shape, full of life, vigorous and funny and quite a bit sexy, which I did happen to notice but noticed with a great deal of respect to his wife who is of course the rightful owner. :)

Then just yesterday I read that he's been diagnosed with a cancer that is very likely to end his life within the year. But being the genius that he is, he has an idea. It may work, it may not. Either way, you and I could be part of making history.

Below is the summary MR wrote for me of the very complex technical detailed explanation of what Chris is trying to do. The short version is that I need you to complete a form and email or fax it in. If you are selected, you can donate little critters that live in the blood called granulocytes and a) find out if yours have the potential to fight cancer b) have the opportunity to help save Chris' life.

If you have lost weight and felt better with help from something you read on the blog... please fill out the form and do what you can to help Chris. If you have ever enjoyed a recipe, fill out the form and send it to everyone you know. If you even vaguely enjoy the blog, please fill out the form and do what you can. We could be a part of research that would save millions, and we could help save one of the most incredible men I've had the honor of meeting.

And let's face it, cute guys with brains are just way too rare on this planet. We can not let our own laziness contribute to losing one who has at least thirty more years of sexiness left in him, and obviously so much more to contribute to the world. No we can not. Fill out that form!

MR's summary:

ALL:

This post is both a plea and an offer: a is a chance to possibly save the life of a person who has helped advance life extension research; to contribute to advancing important cancer research that is currently stalled in bureaucracy; and to get what appears likely to be important data on your own, intrinsic anti-cancer defenses in the process -- data that you literally cannot get anywhere else in the world today, and at this rate may not be able to for a decade or more.

Chris Heward, one of the directors of Kronos Science Laboratories, has been diagnosed with Stage IV terminal esophageal cancer. His chances of surviving a year are less than 1%, even with the best available care.

After considering his options, he is trying to offer himself up as a human guinea pig for an experimental new cancer therapy under development by scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. In brief, scientists discovered that one of their mice was completely immune to any transplanted mouse or human cancers, resisting a million times the dose of cancer cells that is 100% lethal to other mice. The trait turned out to be heritable, so the scientists now have an entire line of these mice, and the key appears to be in a kind of white blood cell called a granulocyte. When the researchers looked in people, they found that there is a wide variation in the cancer-killing activity of these cells: some people’s granulocytes are extremely aggressive, others are quite effete.

The lead researcher presented at the Methuselah Foundation-sponsored scientific conference, Understanding Aging: Biomedical and Bioengineering Approaches. A video of this presentation, discussing all this in more detail, is available here:

http://www.vimeo.com/1650186

A proposed formal clinical trial is now on hold for rather dubious bureaucratic reasons, and the Wake Forest scientists cannot offer the potentially life-saving therapy to Chris (or anyone else). However, Chris may well be able to perform the proposed protocol himself, using the resources available to him. This might save his life, or give him a little more time, and whatever the results they will contribute to the advancement of science.

However, even for a person in his unique position, Chris can’t pull this off without help from a lot of people. First and foremost, he needs people to donate their granulocytes.

Granulocyte transplantation is already in routine clinical use to treat a variety of infections. However,to get enough granulocytes to carry out this desperate gambit will require donations from many donors, screened first for blood type and immune system compatibility, and then for maximum cancer-fighting activity.

If you donate and are selected, and if this experimental therapy does pan out, you might help save first this one man’s very valuable life, and later, be one of the people that played a crucial role in advancing a new treatment or cure for untold more victims of cancer patients. On top of that, we (yes, “we” – I’m offering my blood for screening, despite my terror of needles) will be in the unique position of knowing how robust an anti-cancer potency is harbored in our own white blood cells, decades before such a test might become as routine as a cholesterol panel is today.

Terrible as it is to ask, please do not contact me, Wake Forest, or Kronos with pleas, however desperate, to be included in any trial of this therapy. Wake Forest’s hands are tied, and Chris is only legally able to do this because it is entirely self-experimentation: none of these scientists or organizations can offer to perform this experimental protocol until duly authorized to perform human research. Chris can barely help himself, with out help; sadly, he cannot help anyone else.

If you are interested in volunteering, please send an email requesting a screening form to Wendy DOT Bezotte AT kronoslaboratory DOT com , subject line “Chris Heward Granulocyte Screen”, as soon as possible, and link to this post

Also, Chris has set up a Facebook page where he tells his story in a more personal way, and posts updates. Search "Chris Heward" and you will find him -- he's the smiling bald guy.

That's all folks. Let's see what we can do.

Today is one of the most exciting days in my life. There just aren't words to describe how happy I am. After eight long years of darkness, the dawn is here at last.

Nothing will ever be the same after today. The world has changed forever. I'm more proud than I can say just to be here and to play my small role in history.

The problems are all still there--they didn't just disappear overnight--but for the first time in a long time, I feel real hope for our nation. I believe we finally have a true leader who will help us rebuild the world.

It all starts today.

Thank God.

I woke up at 3:30 am on election day, not on purpose but I couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up to make vegetable trays for the campaign headquarters. This one turned out really well, and is extremely pretty.

Confetti Veggie Dip

1 carton fat free sour cream
1 packet McCormick's vegetable dip seasoning
Red, yellow and orange bell peppers

Mix the sour cream and seasoning. Finely dice red peppers and stir in, enough to make sure that every bite has several. Top with diced peppers.

I think I'm going to make this one at Christmas with red and green peppers and turn the topping peppers into a Christmas tree!

I also made my spinach artichoke dip, and served them with two absolutely huge trays of veggies, everything from celery to peppers to tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, not sure what else, every veggie I could grab at the produce store.

When I walked in with the veggies, the volunteers descended in a frenzy. The woman who had asked the day before for veggies actually hugged me. The dips were warmly received.

MR and I spent the day canvassing. It was a little rainy but the leaves were beautiful. Then I went down to Philly for an election night party and it was amazing... I'd never seen anything like it. The train down was an Obama victory party, with people who had never seen each other before in our lives chatting and asking each other if we'd voted and practically jumping up and down with joy. Then in Center City there was an impromptu Obama rally with people carrying signs, horns honking, everyone hugging each other. I'd never seen anything like it.

Everyone on the street was asking each other if we had voted already, as there was still time to get to the polls. One man who looked to be Indian asked me if I had voted. I said of course, and asked if he had. He said he couldn't because he's not a citizen yet, but he just had his citizenship interview and planned to vote the next time. He was wearing multiple Obama buttons.

It was a wonderful moment to be in Philadelphia, to be an American, and to be grateful for our right to vote and to carry signs and speak out. I've lived in this town at times when free speech was persecuted and prosecuted, and it was amazing to see the city come together. People of all races were united in a way that I've never seen in this town. Mayor Nutter gave a great short speech, and if I had to guess I'd say he'll be president not too long from now. (I called it! I called it!) Philadelphia has a long history of racial divisions, but last night it was as though we weren't black, white, Latino, Asian... we were just Philadelphians for Obama.

Even if you voted for McCain, try the vegetable dip. It's really, really good.

I took a vacation day from work today to spend phone banking for Obama at the Montgomery county headquarters. There was tons of junk food, everything from TastyCakes to hot dogs and saurekraut to potato chips to blueberry muffins. Some bagels with every sort of cream cheese you can imagine.

About halfway through the morning someone drops off a vegetable tray. The volunteers descend upon it like lions on a fresh buffalo. "I haven't seen a vegetable in days!" exclaimed a phonebank captain. "I'm diabetic," said another volunteer. "I can't eat all this crap. I want veggies!"

"A vegetable tray, a salad, anything!" exclaimed another volunteer. Am I in a bizarre alternate universe here a truly honorable man is about to become president and regular folks are begging for vegetables?

I pledged to ring a giant vegetable tray tomorrow, complete with my homemade fat free spinach artichoke dip and some roasted red pepper dip. Fresh, low cal, and yummy!

Please get out and vote. This election is truly historic. I will be doing my calls and making my veggies.