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!

Say "Less" to Sugar

I attribute at least some of the weight loss progress I'm making to watching my sugar intake. I try to eat things that are low in refined sugar. I also stay away from high fructose corn syrup (and derivatives) as well.

This morning I ran across this post on the Sugar Content of Common Food Products.  About the only thing on that list that is even close to being in my repertoire is the Tropicana orange juice. I don't have it often but it is in my refrigerator and my son and daughter drink it.

I drink at least 4 oz of V8 Fusion every day. It has no added sugar or high fructose corn syrup but the sugar content per 8 oz is a whopping 26 grams! Perhaps I'll switch to the "light" version which only has 10 grams of sugar per 8 oz serving . The "light" version only has 50 calories instead of 110. Bonus!

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.

Back in the Saddle

A little more than a week later and I'm at 328.5 lbs. My intent is not to start logging my weight per week, but reflect a bit on what happened over the intervening 8 days. It certainly was a lesson on my lifestyle changes and also of a willingness to keep at it.

The "seeing myself" mark gave me a great feeling of euphoria - it was a goal I had been after for a year. I felt so good in fact that I rewarded myself with some of those Girl Scout cookies that were still hanging around. In fact I ate a lot of them - binged I did.

Add to it that there were some rather emotional events going on within the family and familiar comfort food (and lots of it) became an emotional outlet. By Saturday I really started to feel the additional consumption but didn't want to stop the process. Funny enough, my body wouldn't let me continue down that path.

On the weekends I usually don't have my breakfast smoothie yet by Saturday night, that's exactly what I wanted for breakfast on Sunday. No eggs, not bacon or sausage but my fruit smoothie - a new comfort food? Perhaps but what does it say about the power of change when the craving isn't for the old familiar comfort foods but the new one? I didn't resist the urge since I knew it was right. Sunday AM I had my new familiar breakfast and was able to better control my eating binges. By Monday I was back in the groove again and starting to add my evening hour walks again, as the New England weather permits.

Loosing 1.5 lbs over the course of 8 days won't set the world on fire but it's progress and good progress at that. Overcoming emotional eating with new comfort food is comforting indeed.

Seeing Myself

I've arrived at a point in the journey that I've been after for nearly a year now. My first post was on March 22, 2009. At that point I weighed 351 lbs. Since then I've read, researched, walked, gone without food, counted calories, logged what I eat, given up, started over and more. Through all of that I've had a single initial objective - I wanted to see my weight on my home scale.

There have been a number of "almost" moments, only to discover that my heals or toes or sides of my feet were off the scale. As a result I've taken to weighing myself 3 or 4 times in a row just to check that I'm not getting a false reading. I've tried to limit my weight check to once or twice per week so I don't get to fixated on it. 

For nearly a year the scale has said "E" - too much weight. Well today is said 330, 329, 330, 330, 329. No matter how I stood or where I put the scale it never said "E"! I have to tell you that I smiled and despite the rough day at work, I kept on smiling! I'd finally hit my initial objective - I see myself, as I am and can measure change. 

Now, I have no idea where I was weight-wise when I restarted this time, but I know where I was when I first started and that was 351 lbs. I'm at 330 now - so put me down for 21 pounds.

I need another objective now, besides just staying below 330. I'm not sure what it'll be yet - I'm still thinking about it. I want it to be achievable but far enough out there that it'll be challenging to get to. My initial thoughts are:

• 309, basically another 21 lbs (would be a good theme, another 21)
• 300, a nice "round" number
• some non-weight target, like see how far I can get in 6 weeks (probably too much pressure)
• below 317 - the lowest weight I've been at in the last 3-4 years (I'm liking this one).

The below 317 is interesting - it's personal, has no time limit and since I can now track weight gain/loss I can see how long it takes to get there. Humm..

I do want to remind myself of a few things:

• I'm still eating what I enjoy/like, just less of it (hot dogs, tacos, burgers, meat loaf)
• I've changed a lot at once - quantity, timing of types (1 meat, 1 pasta, etc)
• I'm eating some new things - sardines/fish, avocados, green tea
• I'm eating healthy things - lots more fruits and veggies
• I'm conscious about my sugar intake - sweets are limited, but still enjoyable (and home made)
• My alcohol consumption is way down.

This is the path that I've wanted - better diet but I can still eat the things I like, e.g. hot dogs, pizza, meat loaf, etc. I just don't eat them all in the same week and week after week. I'm eating them spread out over time. I see my biggest change as eating less red meat - 1 time per week as a main dish. And now that it's getting warmer, it's time to start walking again.

Calorie Sampling

Breakfast - 259 calories

• Fruit Smoothie - 250 calories (3 oz each of blueberries, strawberries, berry mix, 1/2 banana, and 4 fl oz each of light soy milk, V8 fusion)
• Green Tea - 4 calories (16 oz loose leaf brewed in tap water)
• Flax seed Fiber Supplement - 5 calories (1 tsp in 8 oz of tap water) 
• Vitamin/Mineral Supplement - 0

Snack - 140 calories

• Kashi Honey Almond Flax Granola Bar - 140 calories

Lunch - 457 calories

• Salad - 457 calories (2 cups Romain lettuce, 1/3 cup each of cucumbers, carrots, croutons, grape tomatoes, scallions, 1 whole avocado, 2 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette dressing)

Dinner - 1115

• Flax seed Fiber Supplement - 5 calories (1 tsp in 8 oz of tap water) 
• Stir Fry ~ 500 calories (vegatables in oyster sauce,  6 pcs of fried extra firm tofu )
• Rice ~ 350 calories (long grain cooked in chicken broth w/green onions and garlic)
• Egg Roll - 260 calories (2 total)

Snack - 4

• Green Tea - 4 calories (16 oz loose leaf brewed in tap water)

Daily Total: 1975 calories, give or take, but certainly less than 2500!! That's a win in my book.

My original salad included almonds and a honey-lime vinaigrette dressing. With everything else the same that came in at a whopping 778 calories. By substituting tomatoes for almonds and going to a balsamic dressing, I saved 321 calories. I added in the Kashi bar since it helps with my "daily list" (nuts and whole grains) and still came out ahead by 181 calories!

Originally I made the stir fry with tofu (my first time) and after about 6 pcs I gave up. Texture was all wrong for me. I probably cooked it wrong but chicken, shrimp or even plain veggies would be better than the draining hassle coupled with learning the cooking technique. ICK!

I'm glad I'm not doing this every day, but occasionally will help me understand where I can cut and where I can eat more.

At this point in the day I'm still full and not really hungry for anything. Time to make tomorrow's smoothie!

Progress, but..

I'm doing reasonably well with keeping to the 4 lists. I'm doing very good on the "don't eat" and "once per week" lists, and a little better on the "at least 3x" since I've incorporated avocados. The "every day" I'm still not 100% on. Still I and others (mainly my spouse) have noticed some differences:

• I definitely have more energy
• My pants and shirts are not as binding as they used to be. In fact I've had to move down a notch on my belt to keep my pants on
• My midsection doesn't protrude as much as it used to
• Bending over at the waist to pick items up from the floor isn't as difficult
• Tying my shoes can be done without having to strain

I try to reflect on those when I feel there's not enough progress being made, a state that I find myself in right now. I'd really like to be able to see what my weight is on my home scale, but it still registers "E" despite all the above being true. I could just get one that will register at least 350 and be done with it but it would be nice to know I've crossed that threshold. I feel I'm close - perhaps within 5 or 6 pounds. 

I know I'm eating less and eating better foods but one thing I don't know is what my caloric intake is on a daily basis. I'm not really interested in keeping track every day but once a week or once every other week would give me a good indicator of what I'm consuming. I believe I'm consuming somewhere between 2000 and 2500 calories per day but without counting I'll never know.

Today will be a counting day.