Dog Days of Summer

Here it is August and I see that then entire month of July evaporated with out a post. Between enjoying the outdoors during our brief New England summer and vacations, posting has not been on my mind.

On the exercise front I started jogging during part of my walking route. About 1/3 of the way is a slow to moderate jog while the rest is "recovery" walking. Although I had great hopes for this in early June, July's heat wave forced me from this new routine. I hope to get back into walking/jogging more regularly when the weather starts to cool again.

On the weight side I'm down to about 290 (give or take a pound or 2 - darn scale). That's 7 lbs in about 6 weeks or so. Not bad for summer time, traveling and out door gatherings. I feel pretty good about a pound a week.

That mark also (finally) puts me past the 50 lb loss mark! So I guess I need a new goal - I'm thinking 280 would be a good target. I've got a 5 lb head start on the goal and hitting it would be 65 lbs gone! My target date is Oct 31. That gives me some padding in case I plateau out.

As far as eating patterns go, I'm getting a little tired of my current lunch rotation - salad with either fruit/avocado or sardines. I'm going to try using tuna instead of sardines and work the avocado in some other way. 6 months of salads is about to drive me nuts!

The Process Continues

Not much to report this week. I'm down to 297 lbs this week. I seem to have gotten past the 30x weigh-point.

I think picking up my daily walking helped move me past that point. I'm trying to walk for 1 hour every evening if it's not raining out. So far I've only missed 1 night in 10 days. On Saturday's I end up walking in the AM and route myself so I end up at the Farmer's Market toward the end of my walk. I end up doing some veggie shopping and bring home local produce. Not a bad way to get in both exercise and healthy eating at the same time.

Numbers

There's really one number that I've been concentrating on during this odyssey and that's the one that shows up on the scale - 303.5 lbs. this week. However there are another set of numbers that need watching - cholesterol, triglycerides, HDLs, LDLs, etc.

I've been on Lipitor for a long time and it's been managing my levels, but they were never really great. Just marginal. The last time I had those numbers checked was about when I started this blog. Although I don't recall what my cholesterol levels were I do remember that my triglycerides were 417! Naturally the Dr told me I need to make a change and suggested banding - that went nowhere.

In order to renew my Lipitor and blood pressure medications I need to have the blood fat levels run each year. So this year I was really anxious to see the results. After reading them I feel like a kid with a great report card!

• cholesterol - 110, should be less than 200
• triglycerides - 136, should be less than 150
• HDL cholesterol - 34, under 40 is low, however this is primarily a function of genetics
• LDL cholesterol - 49, under 100 is best

So, with the exception of the HDL cholesterol levels things are looking rather outstanding. I can't believe the change in diet has had such a dramatic effect on the other numbers that my Dr and I care about. Ya the bottom weight/waist line is important too, but knowing that the eating I'm doing has such a positive impact on my blood chemistry is a nice bonus.

Weight To Believe

I don't know if I've written about this yet but I've been experiencing some mild to sever GI distress over the last 4-6 weeks. 'Nuf said. At any rate I finally decided to see my physician about it, but while I was in the office I took the opportunity to weigh myself on their scale - just for grins and giggles. 314 lbs. I was fully clothed, carrying my wallet, keys, and wearing boots not to mention it was late in the day. Somehow I don't think all that weights 8 lbs - 4 perhaps but certainly not 8.

Also that day I weighted myself at home early in the morning wearing nothing but a smile - 299 lbs. WHAT! Wait, that can't be right. Off and on for a couple of minutes and it really only varied by 1 lb, call it 299.5 lbs. I could not have lost 6 lbs in 1 week. No way, no how (have I mentioned I hate my home scale?).

This AM I weighed myself again - 304.5 lbs which is closer to reality for my home scale. So I guess I'll go with what got me here - using my home scale. And while I'm sure that my clothing and on-person paraphernalia add a few pounds and that I gain some weight during the day, I'm not prepared to believe that it's in the 8-10 lbs range.

Have I really lost weight? My physician's nurse noticed the weight loss and asked me about it, but I already knew I looked different. The real question is how much. At a minimum I've lost 24.5 lbs since I've been able so see my weight on my home scale. I had to loose some to get there however. The last "official" weight I had was 351 lbs on the Dr's scale. That's the upper bound. At 314 lbs on the office scale I've lost 37 lbs - nothing to sneeze at but not the 46.5 lbs that I believe I've lost according to the 351 upper bound and my current home scale reading of 304.5. There's a difference of 9.5 lbs somewhere (did I mention I hate my home scale).

My long term goal is to loose 100 lbs. I feel I'm close to 1/2 way according to my home scale but I can't account for the nearly 10 lbs I saw the other day on my Dr's scale. Even if I'm a little further away from the 1/2 way point I still feel good about where I'm at, what I've accomplished and how the process is going.

It's all good!

Weight Honesty

To be honest I think I was more passionate about the weigh issue when I couldn't see my weight on the scale. Since then I've been doing nothing but (*gasp*) loosing weight every week. To be fair I've not been entirely honest about my progress. I did start out writing what I weighed every week and to be fair to myself there isn't a weigh there that wasn't on the scale. My fudging has actually been on the under-reporting side - ya, I actually tend to weigh a little less than what I've been saying on a weekly basis.

My "reasoning", if you can call it that, was so I could "feel" I made weight loss progress even if I didn't for a given week. Turns out so far I haven't needed that under-padding. Every week I've lost about 1-2 lbs but now there's a large gap - like 5.5 lbs worth that will be hard to report on. Better just own up to whatever the scale says instead of fudging a higher weight - sounds silly.

In that spirit the scale said 306.5 lbs this morning. I don't believe that's actually correct since it's also said 308 but repeated weighting kept saying 306.5 so I guess I'll have to go with that. Hopefully I won't find out the scale lied to me and I'm actually 308 and change. I hate and am afraid not to loose something per week. I don't want to plateau and have to debug what's going on.

So, we're nearly at 45 lbs. lost and I'm really proud of myself for that. I may need to get a new belt soon, not to mention more new pants, since I'm also closing in on 4 inches off my waste line. I stared out as a snug 46 and am now a loose 44. I have a pair of old corduroys size 42 that I want to be able to comfortably slip on. They are really out of style but it's a clothing goal.

Old Clothes, New Feelings

Reaching in the back of the closet the other morning I discovered a pile of my clothes that I had not seen in ages. Evidently my wife put some "too small" pants and a few "too narrow" shirts away for safe keeping as I moved up the scale. For kicks I decided to give them a whirl and found that a couple of the pants and most of the shirts were now wearable, although horribly out of style. It made me feel really good that I'm making progress despite the fact that they are headed to the textile recycling bin at the dump next week.

Also as I look at myself in the mirror I see that my face is no longer as round as it was, but square to angular. I recognize the eyes looking back at me, but the face seems strange. There are other parts of my upper anatomy that look strangely new to me as well; my neck, shoulder muscles, arms and hand are showing definition (and age) that was hidden. It makes me wonder about the body that will emerge over time. I'm not going as far as the butterfly in the cocoon but that's the image that pops in to my head.

All this is getting me paranoid that I'll hit some plateau and not loose any more weigh, give up and regain it all. That's my greatest fear at this point. Still at 312 lbs. this week - 39 lbs total in just 4+ months! - I would be happy to maintain this status for a time. I don't want to sound satisfied but I am happy/ecstatic with my progress. Never the less I want to hit that next milestone of 299! It feels close and reachable now.

I feel as if I've crossed some threshold on the way down that I can loose as much as I want by managing how much and what I eat, and feel that I can manage it. I feel good about the food I'm putting in me, even as I feel I can eat less of it. It feels somewhat like when I kicked smoking - a feeling that I could manage it from here on out. I don't feel as "attached" to food as I used to be. Its there to nourish, provide some "spice" to life, a setting to enjoy with others but not something I'm focused on as I once was. It's a much better feeling!

Moving On Down

After a week at my moms and a bout with what appears to be an intestinal virus, I'm somewhere between 314 and 316 lbs - I hate my bathroom scale! We'll call it 316 lbs and be done with it. I'm quite sure having the intestinal virus helped with the weigh loss since I ate more than I needed to on vacation - Krystal's (only 4 during the entire trip though) and Red Pig BBQ (I can never resist).

Still, I was able to stay away from McDonald's while on the road and when we ate out at Fatz. I had fish, rice and veggies instead of beef and potatoes. I mostly stuck to my breakfast smoothie and salads for lunch. Dinner was almost like being at home - fish, pasta, chicken, etc. I think I only had beef one night (well except for the Krystal's). I made sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast for mom and I a couple of mornings. For snacking in the car I took Kashi granola bars, watter, and redskin peanuts. All in all not too bad - I didn't gain any and ended up loosing 2.5 lbs since my last weigh-in.

So at 316 lbs - 35 total pounds lost - I'm ready for my next goal - 299 lbs. That would put me 52 lbs down. Looking back I see that it's taken me a bit longer than a month to loose 10 lbs. Perhaps I can hit 299 by July 4th (sooner would be better!)

Close Enough to Taste It

This week finds me at 318.5 lbs. If I were not visiting my mother next week, I would think that the next goal was within reach. Alas, my mother always goes out of her way to feed me well while I'm there, but she also has plenty for me to do - help in the garden, with the lawn, the odd chores around the house, etc.

On the bright side, I let her know that I've lost 30 lbs so we've been talking about "AB's lists". Perhaps that'll help with the food intake. That and I got her a IngenuiTea tea pot with a green tea sampler for her birthday. I do have ulterior gift giving motives at times - I didn't want to have to take mine with me.

There's another factor at play here - I'm driving down with my wife and son. Long Drives = Snack Food. It's 18+ hours from where I live here in the north east to where she is in the south. I'm planning on making a healthy dinner to eat on the road for Friday evening as we leave but that leaves all day Saturday to fight the snacking urge. Nothing to do but drive and snack. Besides the obvious choice of nuts and granola bars, what else can I find to snack on? I also dread the "fast food" for lunch (and maybe breakfast). All in all I'll need to do some advance planning for Saturday not to mention the return trip home.

My goal is to maintain the weight I have and not get sucked into having high sugar snacks, fast food, cookies and pies, which is what usually happens when I visit Mom - she's a great cook!

Trac Check

I'm creping up on 4 months since I changed my eating habits. As I've noted, 4 months on any "new thing" is about all I can sustain before lapsing back into old ways. In some ways I can feel this pulling at me. I've drifted away somewhat from trying to maintain the "everyday" list and even unconsciously ordered fast food when the family decided to have Taco Bell - I did try one of the burritos from the "drive through diet" menu. That by itself violated 2 of the "don't eat" list items - fast food and any item with the word "diet" in it.

But I didn't shoot myself over it. I acknowledged what happened decided that it wasn't catastrophic and went on. Eating that "diet" burrito wasn't "wrong" or "bad" it was just something I ate. I enjoyed it, we had a great family evening meal together and that was better than sticking 100% to any plan.

Still I'm finding more variations that I'd like as I get closer to the 4 month line. I'm making measurable progress and now that it is warmer out I've added walking back into the mix - as long as it's above 40 and not raining, I'll walk for an hour in the evening.

On the plus side I'm getting used to the avocado, fruit and greens for lunch, but at the expense of everyday carrots in a salad. Broccoli is become at least a once a week thing. Still no soda, I'm eating breakfast every day, I'm spending more time and money in the fruit and veggies section of the store, sweets are way down. I feel best about the "no more than once per week list".

I think it is time to watch the "Live and Let Diet" episode again to refresh my memory - I have it saved on DVR. It's also time to remind myself that I have lost enough weight to see myself on the scale, which is a huge accomplishment for me. My weight loss continues at about 1-2 lbs per week - this week I'm at 321.5 lbs. I've  lost nearly 30 lbs and have 4.5 to go to hit my next goal of 317.

I'm trying to look past the 4 month line to see myself as a "thin-er" person. So far it's looking better than it has in a long time.

Downward Trend Side Effects

Another aspect of the new eating pattern is I’ve been able to impose parts of the lists on my family. Since I do the meal planning and grocery shopping I inflict the “1 meat and 1 pasta per week” rule on my family as well as putting more healthy food in their way – veggies, nuts, better snack foods, etc.

Obviously I can’t control what happens for breakfast and lunch, but by stocking the pantry with the foods I’m eating, they can either eat what I am or go out of their way to ask for special food.  My son for instance has started eating the Kashi Honey Flax Granola bars, yogurt, and drinking V8 Fusion Lite. He doesn’t need to lose any weight but I’m feeling better knowing he’s eating more than pizza, canned soup and Beefaroni. My daughter, who’s skinny as a rail, is also eating the yogurt and more fresh veggies. She doesn’t always like what I’m making for a main course, however.

The most interesting change is my wife who, while still drinking her daily dose of Diet Pepsi (can’t get her to give that up), is eating the same dinner I’m eating. Again, lunch is up to her, but it’s easier to “go with the flow” than against it. She’s cut out the frozen pizza she was having for lunch and taking leftovers. And while she has dessert more than once per week, it’s down from what it was mainly because I force her to share my left over weekend concoctions with her co-workers.

The result of that is her weight is down 10 pounds or so and she’s not “dieting”. Yesterday she showed me that she was able to wear pants that had become “too small” for her at some point – pants that were her favorite. She said “whatever that thing is that you’re doing with the food, it's working”.

So it’s nice to know that my family is eating more healthy items, and that the new regimen is having a positive effect on my wife’s waistline. It was getting kind of lonely there on this eating change all by my lonesome.

Oh and before I let “Weigh in Wednesday” get away from me, the scale indicated I’m at 323 this morning – 28 pounds down, 6 to go to the next goal of 317!

Mini Milestone

317 I'm not but the scale provided a nice way-point this morning. I've lost a total of 25 lbs. now - I hit 326 today! Perhaps I'll call it Weigh-in-Wednesday and just keep track and post my weight - gain or loss - each week.

As an added progress marker, I tried on some of my size 42 pants the other day. They went on fine and did not bind when sitting or squatting. I'll look forward to having an expanded wardrobe this spring.