Okay, so this is the end of the third week on my nutrition program and I continue to have success.  The surprising part is that I’ve had a couple of days this week that I totally shot my eating schedule, but I start again each morning.  I started having oatmeal smoothies in the morning which has been really good at eliminating my “need” to snack.  One 12 oz smoothie sipped at over about 30 minutes and I’m great.  I’ve actually had to move my stack back about 30 minutes because 2.5 hours is just not enough time to be even remotely interested in eating my mid morning snack.  I’m very excited that this is going so well.  It’s like eating myself skinny!  Here are my latest stats:

• Weight 213 lbs  (same – the only reason you get this today is because I had a doctor’s appointment)
• Bust 45.5″   (success – .5)
• Waist 44″   (success – 1 for a total of 2″ smaller)
• Hips 51″     (same)
• Thigh 27.5″  (success – .5)
• Upper Arm 15″  (same – for a total of .75″ smaller)

Why is Real Milk Really Good?

I love milk.  I don’t like it, I l-o-v-e it.  I won’t give it up and I won’t drink anything less than whole milk.  I drink about three 12 oz glasses of milk a day.  Why do I like milk?  Because it is rich, creamy and tastes fabulous.Raising nine children in Silicon Valley, California, my parents decided that it would be cost-effective to have a cow.  We drank two gallons a day, sometimes more.  That is approximately 14 gallons a week, give-or-take.  At today’s grocery prices that is about $35 a week just for milk.  The cow was cheaper and the milk was better.  Way better.  In fact, by today’s standards what we actually drank was half-and-half.  Y-u-m!For those underprivileged few who have never had “real” milk I would like to share a few things:

1. My personal favorite, is that the cream rises to the top of the milk.  This is great for many reasons.  Fresh fruit season and ice cream.  We had berry bushes and fruit trees on our small farm and we waited for each to be in season.  We could walk outside and pick fresh berries or peaches and then spoon fresh cream over them.  My favorite breakfast and snack.  Freshly churned ice cream made with real cream is indescribable in its deliciousness.  Add the fresh picked fruit and . . . . . <SIGH>
2. 

   Cream is at the top.

   The cream had to be stirred into the milk before drinking.  Now this is not always such a big deal but our cow gave use really creamy milk.  Like about one quart of cream to each gallon and it was thick pastry cream that you could almost cut with a knife.  If not stirred properly you would have globs of cream floating in your milk.  Of course we liked it but when we had company it was a little disconcerting for them.

3. Fresh milk goes sour not rancid.  When store-bought milk goes bad it turns solid and smells bad enough to turn you stomach.  Fresh milk does not.  It gets sour and may not taste so good, but it doesn’t get gross.  When fresh milk starts to turn sour it is great for making bread and biscuits.  It’s more like butter milk.
4. Is there a flavor difference?  Yes.  Real milk has a full and robust flavor.  It is like the difference between skimmed milk (white water) and whole milk.

The Milk Debate

Now, there has been a heated debate on the benefits of milk and whether or not it should be whole, 2%, 1% or skimmed.  Do I care?  Not really because milk has been good to me.  You would think that eating all that cream and drinking all that milk we would be fat children but you would be wrong.  We were all thin.  Even as teenagers and young adults we were thin and the only change in our milk habit was that we drank more as we got older.  Were we active?  Of course.  We had animals to tend, yard work to do and school activities like marching band and track.  Even when I graduated from high school and was less active I was thin.  It was not until after I left home and started to drink the store-bought stuff that I began having issues with my weight.

The “whole” milk you buy in the store is really only 3.5%.  This, if you ask me, is as low-fat as milk should get because the more you take out after that the more the milk tastes like water.  I like water, but not milk flavored water.  Now, I didn’t have a lot of issues with my weight, but I actually had to exercise more and I gained about 10-15 lbs. that never left.  I haven’t any intention of giving up my milk or even drinking the lesser versions.  But that’s okay because I am finding great success while enjoying it.

So, what do you think?  Does milk have an effect on weight loss?  If we mess with the natural balance of the food we eat will it change what it does to our body?

Here are a couple of articles that I have read recently:

Why Whole Milk is the Healthiest Choice — By Laine Bergeson

Does Milk Really Do a Body Good? — By Alan Aragon, M.S.on MSNBC

Milk Drinkers May Lose More Weight on WebMD.com