Interviews in Columbus, OH, Louisville, KY, and Cincinnati, OH

We were all glad for Jon to come home from his most recent interview trip.  Jon seems to be getting a little burnt out of traveling the country, but he is about half-way done.

Jon had a nice time in his current visits.  He stayed in some really nice hotels and ate some amazing food.  Sadly he left his electric razor at one of the hotels, but luckily he had also started using a strait razor occasionally, so he is still able to shave.

Jon has decided a medium sized program is what he likes best.  Currently, we have a tie for our favorite program.  When all the interviewing is done, we will have to look at the programs and cities closer to figure out how we will rank them.

Interview in Ann Arbor, MI

Jon interviewed in Ann Arbor, MI yesterday.  He seemed to like it there.  I went with him to the dinner the night before.  It was at a residents house, and they had Mediterranean Food (seems to be big in this area right now).  There were quite a few people there.  Most of the residents who were there were MedPeds (or doing Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the same time), which was a little disappointing.  It was interesting that we found ourselves talking to a resident who is also a member of the same religion as us.  We were able to talk about the wards and stake in the area, and stuff along those lines.

Turf War?

Jon was able to join us at the zoo last week.  We had some fun.  The weather was beautiful and the zoo was really busy.  We saw this.

Weird looking penguins!  Jon wondered why the penguins were not defending their turf?  Maybe it is because the penguins are rarely in the water, so they could care less if a few ducks take it over.

Interviews in Iowa City, IA, Milwaukee, WI, and Springfield, IL

Jon got back Wednesday after being gone for the four days doing interviews in the "Chicago area."  He did a lot of driving.  He started in Iowa City, IA, then went to Milwaukee, WI, and ended in Springfield, IL.  It was a very tiring trip, but Jon was able to see the differences in a large, medium, and small program.  He was put up in some nice hotels, had some good food, and was given lots of gifts including this box of chocolates that look like polished rocks.

This next week Jon will have four interviews!  They will not be as far from home.  We are enjoying this process of checking out residencies and finding the one we like best.  It is hard to have Jon gone so much though.

Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds

This is an awesome article from CNN.  I don't know that I would every try this diet to this extreme, but I do agree with a lot this professor has to say.

Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds
(CNN) -- Twinkies. Nutty bars. Powdered donuts.

For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals. To add variety in his steady stream of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Haub munched on Doritos chips, sugary cereals and Oreos, too.

His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most -- not the nutritional value of the food.

The premise held up: On his "convenience store diet," he shed 27 pounds in two months.

For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub's pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.

His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.

But you might expect other indicators of health would have suffered. Not so.

Haub's "bad" cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his "good" cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent.

"That's where the head scratching comes," Haub said. "What does that mean? Does that mean I'm healthier? Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we're missing something?"

Despite his temporary success, Haub does not recommend replicating his snack-centric diet.

"I'm not geared to say this is a good thing to do," he said. "I'm stuck in the middle. I guess that's the frustrating part. I can't give a concrete answer. There's not enough information to do that."

Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.

Families who live in food deserts have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, so they often rely on the kind of food Haub was eating.

"These foods are consumed by lots of people," he said. "It may be an issue of portion size and moderation rather than total removal. I just think it's unrealistic to expect people to totally drop these foods for vegetables and fruits. It may be healthy, but not realistic."

Haub's body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent. This posed the question: What matters more for weight loss, the quantity or quality of calories?

His success is probably a result of caloric reduction, said Dawn Jackson Blatner, a dietitian based in Atlanta, Georgia.

"It's a great reminder for weight loss that calories count," she said. "Is that the bottom line to being healthy? That's another story."

Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said she's not surprised to hear Haub's health markers improved even when he loaded up on processed snack cakes.

Being overweight is the central problem that leads to complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, she said.

How well are you managing your diabetes?

"When you lose weight, regardless of how you're doing it -- even if it's with packaged foods, generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved," she said.

Before jumping on the Ding Dong bandwagon, Blatner warned of health concerns.

"There are things we can't measure," said Blatner, questioning how the lack of fruits and vegetables could affect long-term health. "How much does that affect the risk for cancer? We can't measure how diet changes affect our health."

On August 25, Haub, 41, started his cake diet focusing on portion control.

"I'm eating to the point of need and pushing the plate or wrapper away," he said.

He intended the trial to last a month as a teaching tool for his class. As he lost weight, Haub continued the diet until he reached a normal body mass index.

Before his Twinkie diet, he tried to eat a healthy diet that included whole grains, dietary fiber, berries and bananas, vegetables and occasional treats like pizza.

"There seems to be a disconnect between eating healthy and being healthy," Haub said. "It may not be the same. I was eating healthier, but I wasn't healthy. I was eating too much."

He maintained the same level of moderate physical activity as before going on the diet. (Haub does not have any ties to the snack cake companies.)

To avoid setting a bad example for his kids, Haub ate vegetables in front of his family. Away from the dinner table, he usually unwrapped his meals.

Study: U.S. obesity rate will hit 42 percent

Haub monitored his body composition, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose, and updated his progress on his Facebook page, Professor Haub's diet experiment.

To curb calories, he avoided meat, whole grains and fruits. Once he started adding meat into the diet four weeks ago, his cholesterol level increased.

Haub plans to add about 300 calories to his daily intake now that he's done with the diet. But he's not ditching snack cakes altogether. Despite his weight loss, Haub feels ambivalence.

"I wish I could say the outcomes are unhealthy. I wish I could say it's healthy. I'm not confident enough in doing that. That frustrates a lot of people. One side says it's irresponsible. It is unhealthy, but the data doesn't say that."

CANDY!

This post is a little late.  James has discovered candy this Halloween.  He loves it!  I have to hide it from him and just give him a little at a time, or he would eat it all.  Here is James after our ward party counting his candy. 

We had already put most of the candy elsewhere. 

He collected lots of candy this year with "Little Boo at the Zoo," two ward parties/trunk-or-treats, and a package from Grandma Brower.  Jon and I have also enjoyed all his candy.

Fun At the Zoo

Last week, James and I took my friend Lacey to the zoo.  We love to go to the zoo!  James is saying more and more, and it was fun to hear him try to say the different animals.  For the tiger and lion, he would just growl instead of trying to say them.

James got to pet his first guinea pig. 

 

He loved it!  Though he also tried to poke the poor thing in the eyes.

James also liked running around Nature's Neighborhood. Climbing in the "honeycomb." 

If you look close at this one, you can see actual bees behind James. 

He would start giggling every time he pushed this button. 

It the tree there are some ping pong balls painted like bees and when you push the button air makes the balls jump around and a buzzing noise starts.

Toledo, Ohio Interview

Jon has started off the interview season right here in Toledo.  He is currently at St. Vs to begin his interview day.  He will also be at the Toledo Hospital for part of the day, since the Pediatric Program has rotations at both hospitals.

Last night, Jon and I were able to go to a dinner with two residents.  It was nice to go out without James (thanks Sacks!) and with someone else paying the bill.  We ate at Poco Piatti.  The food was excellent!  We started with Pita Bread, Saganaki Kasseri (Greek cheese flamed table side), and Beirut's Veggie Grape Leaves.  Then, we were able to eat Fresh Mozzarella, Basil, and Tomato Pizza, Artichoke and Spinach Pizza, Poco Beef Tips (served with humus), and French Fries.  It was interesting to listen to talk about the program and the questions the interviewees had.  Jon was even able to answer some questions that one interviewee had about the ER residency (her fiancee is going interviewing here too).

Jon and I are both excited about interview season and the experience it will be.  We just wonder where we will end up.  It is so uncertain right now.

Perrysburg, Ohio

Sunday, we went to the Perrysburg Ward Conference.  James struggled through sacrament meeting, but loved going to nursery.  It was nice to have my friend from high school, Lacey, join us for church.  Everything seemed to go well with the youth.

This was our last unit conference for the year.  It will be nice to be able to go to our own ward (unless we need to visit a unit).  We start back up in January with three conferences!  I wonder what next year holds in store for the Toledo Ohio Stake.