"Never, ever give up" Diana Nyad - September 2nd, 2013

Since today is a holiday, I have been planning to update my weight history and write a little post for this blog, in my spare time, on my day off from work. I had only a couple vague ideas about what I might write as I sat down in front of the computer.

I thought I would check the news before jumping into this project and was instantly rewarded with just the right story. It turns out that just today, Diana Nyad stepped out of the water and on to a beach in Key West, FL after swimming the 110 miles from Havana, Cuba in 53 hours. In doing this Diana set a record for the longest ocean swim without a shark cage or flippers.

The title of this post, "Never, ever give up" is what Diana said after finishing this historic feat. She also said, "Your never to old to chase your dreams" which is a reference to her age of 64 years. Yes, Sixty Four, that is not a typo.  You see, Diana first tried this swim 25 years ago in 1978.

I guess I find this interesting because lately I have been wondering a bit about why I have been able to have some success with this body weight management thing considering just how difficult it is. I believe the answer has two parts. First, I think that when I recognize negative "self talk", I tend not to let it divert me from my ultimate goal.  Secondly, I haven't given up. Sure, some of the things that worked for me 25 or 30 years ago are not the things that seem to be working for me now. But I've kept at it. The things that still work (exercise), I still do. But when something isn't working, I move on in search of the thing that will.

Since its been awhile, I will remind all that I still consider my goal weight to be 160 to 165 pounds. The last time I have been in this range was December 10th, 2012. I am back to weight training and feel that I am headed in the right direction. My weight history is updated in the right sidebar.

This past month I read "Sugar Nation" by Jeff O'Connell. This book could have just as easily been called Diabetes Nation and gives a very scary account of what insulin resistance does to the human body.  From there I moved on to "Meals that Heal Inflammation" by Julie Daniluk. I find this book to have a lot of good information and it turns out, I seem to be doing a few things right, well at least according to Julie.:)

I will also note that my acclimation to life in Jacksonville progressed today with my initial exploration of a bike route to my office. I am not going to have the luxury of a rail trail for my commute here so I will need several more exploratory trips to make sure I have a safe route to work on two wheels. Due to my ongoing right shoulder issue I have decided it is finally time to give up the traditional diamond frame "wedgie" bike in favor of the recumbent I've been riding for the last year or so.

So, as we move through September, I can only second the statement that Diana Nyad made on the beach this morning in Key West.

Never, ever give up!

Wake up and be awesome !!!

First off, I would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Independence Day. I borrowed the title of today's post, Wake up and be awesome, from runner and 100 pound weight loser, Lonnie St. John who was recently featured in the Runner's Stories section of runnersworld.com.  While Mr. St. John is hardly the first person to lose a significant amount of body weight with the help of a running program, he has once again proved that this seemingly impossible task can and does happen.

In the past month I've made some small changes that seem to have helped my weight move in the right direction. As I've said before, small changes can yield big results. The first small change was to stop buying the pints of frozen coconut milk in favor of the individually wrapped fudge pops and ice cream bars. It's obvious that this change is all about portion control.

Secondly, I was much more diligent about recording my food intake on my Calorie King diary. I also made an effort to increase my exercise including weight lifting. While I think I am heading in the right direction, I know this journey lasts the rest of my life.

This month I started reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. This book was published in 1906 and is an expose about the Chicago meat packing industry. This book is credited with causing the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Federal Food and Drug Act, both of which passed in 1906. Sadly, the Humane Slaughter Act was not passed until 54 years later in 1960. I am still at the very beginning of this book and was told by a co-worker that it is one of the most depressing books he has ever read so it may take me several months to get through it.

I came across this poem recently by Edgar Albert Guest that I thought I'd share.  

It Couldn’t Be Done

By Edgar Albert Guest

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done

      But he with a chuckle replied

That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one

      Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

      On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

      That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;

      At least no one ever has done it;”

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat

      And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

      Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

      That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

      There are thousands to prophesy failure,

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

      The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,

      Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing

      That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

Now you might want to turn the volume up a bit and listen as Ashe Jaafaru recites this pretty poem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRAjx_zjq08

Let's make July a fantastic month.

Time for a fresh start.

Here it is, June, the year is almost half over. We have now relocated to Jacksonville and are starting to get settled even though our home in Sarasota is still on the market. I've been getting re-accustomed to Calorie King and getting myself in the right frame of mind to actually write down everything I eat. I know that is the critical first step to getting my weight back to where it is comfortable.

While my weight is about 15 pounds above where I would like it to be, it is actually only 9 pounds above where I started the year. Still, I know the answer is self discipline. I need to revive my mantra from last year which was "I need to eat less to weigh less".

As silly as it may seem, sometimes when I am trying to limit what I eat I remember the fasting that is required prior to some medical procedures. When I have had to fast it didn't bother me and I lived through it. So just because I might think I want to eat something, I realize that I will be fine and try to avoid picking up some food. Often the feeling of hunger goes away when I get interested in something else or at night, fall asleep.

I have weighed myself the last three weeks but I haven't gotten very far with recording my food intake. Today I have all my food noted in Calorie King and even a planned popcorn snack for later. I still have about 65 calories left today so I may add another snack even sooner.

I have also gotten my running program back on track and today took advantage of the YMCA summer promotion to join with no sign up fee. Hopefully I will be able to get my lifting program revived soon.

So with the arrival of summer in NE Florida the struggle once again begins. I know what I need to do. Hopefully by the time I post at FNS in early July I will have some good news to report.

Greetings Friends

OMG, time really does fly. I was all set to weigh in at Fear No Scale around the first of February and all of a sudden it is February 15th and I am working in Jacksonville. Now I am working 200 miles from home, looking for a permanent residence near my new place of employment, trying to get a little exercise and commuting home on the weekends.

The result of all these exciting developments can be seen in my weight history in the right column. When I got out of bed yesterday morning I was 6 pounds above the top end of my goal range.  I could make an attempt to explain this increase in weight but the real answer is I put too much food in my mouth and didn't move my feet (and the rest of myself) enough.

So while my thoughts have turned to things such as Jacksonville Neighborhoods, The Gate River Run, Intermittent Fasting and 26.2 with Donna, I've been eating to much. This reminds me of my mantra from last year when I lost some poundage. "I've got to eat less to weigh less"

So we have an exciting year ahead of us. Currently we are toying with the idea of intentionally buying a residence too small for us which would force us eliminate unnecessary items from our life. (Deb is thinking this means bicycles while I am sure that women's shoes would be more affected) It does not hurt that this smaller residence is right down the street from Tommie's Brick Oven.:)

Happy 2013

I would first like to wish all a happy new year.  Not only am I happy to see the end of 2012, I am also happy to get to the end of the holiday eating season.  I just love the end of one year and start of the next. It’s a new beginning, a fresh start, a time that I like to use to take inventory. I think about the things that I am doing well and also about the things that I think can stand a little improvement. 

One of the things that I thought could use a little improvement was the look of this blog. I swore this blog would never have photos but I realized that some readers have never known me at an unhealthy weight.   In the hope of earning just a little credibility, Deb helped locate a photo of me at an unhealthy weight which is now posted at the top of the left column. This photo is likely 30 to 40 pounds below my highest weight.  A recent photo is at the top of the right column.

Another thing that can clearly use a little improvement is my eating habits. In the right sidebar you will notice that my weight climbed above the top end of my goal range (160 – 165) at the end of the year. My goal range will remain the same for 2013 at least until I can get back to regular weight workouts.  I would like to get my weight back to the bottom of my goal range and hold it there until I feel a little more settled and can return to regular weight lifting.

I’ll try not to hurt my arm as I reach around and give myself a pat (or 2) on the back because I was successful in pushing my weight down about 25 pounds during 2012 and kept it in my goal range for most of the year.  However, I also know I can’t get complacent. I’ve learned that it is just too easy for me to ignore a 5 or 10 pound gain year after year until all of a sudden I start looking like the photo at the top of the left column.  The next thing you know my doctor is whining about my cholesterol or blood sugar and I hate to hear a grown man whine. I’d much rather make the small changes necessary to get to a healthy weight. I’ve know I’ve mentioned in the past that small changes can yield big results.

I actually took a break from nutrition reading in December and read a little fiction I had been trying to get to. I do have several works of fiction in my to read list right now but the other day I read a preview of Al Roker’s Never Goin Back about his struggle to maintain a healthy weight. I saw that it was being released on December 31^st so I had Amazon deliver it to my Kindle and it is now waiting for me. As soon as I get through it I will let you know what I thought.

So now you know what I will be working on for the next month. I will revisit Fear No Scale around the first of February to let you know how it is going.

 

A cruise and a book........

As I stated in this blog last month, I was on a cruise ship during November for the week of Thanksgiving. If you look at my weight information in the right sidebar, the weight on the 17^th was the morning we left for the cruise. The weight on the 26^th is the Monday morning after we returned.  Considering that it seems we spend half our time eating while on board a ship I don’t think a 3 pound gain is that bad. Furthermore, the 164 pound weight when we returned home is within my goal range.

On previous cruises, Deb has gotten a lot of special attention due to her gluten free diet. I thought OK; now that we have seen what they can do with a gluten free diet, let’s find out how well they handle a vegan diet.  When Deb made her trip to the maître d on day one to inform him of her dietary needs, I tagged along and after he assured her that they could handle her needs, I added that I was a vegan. They are used to preparing vegetarian meals; however, he knew a vegan consumes no animal products which is a bit tougher. He informed us to see him each day at our evening meal and he would provide the menus for the next day. We would then order our meals for the next day prepared in accordance with our needs.

I looked at the vegetarian offerings and then tried to figure out how to modify them to remove any animal products. I have to say they did an excellent job. There were a couple times when there was just no way to modify an appetizer or entree. I usually ended up with a fruit plate for the appetizer.  For the entree, the first time I was faced with this dilemma, I said to the maître d, could the chef maybe stir fry some veggies and throw in a little tofu? The result was fantastic and this became my default entree in the evening if no other options were available.

While cruising I was able to read a book that has been on my “too read” list for a while now. The book was written by John Robbins whose family is the Robbins part of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream business. The title is Diet …. For a New America. The title is a little misleading. This is not the type of diet book that offers a food plan to help the reader lose weight.

This book consists of 3 parts. Prior to part #1 is a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln. It is “I care not much for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it” A later quote by Gandhi is “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. Part #1 of this book discusses in extensive detail the supply of food in the United States necessary to satisfy the standard American diet.  As you might imagine, part #1 of this book is difficult to read. There is information presented that I am sure the meat and dairy industries would prefer the typical American not be aware of.

Part #2 of the book is preceded by a quote attributed to Thomas Moffett in Helth’s Improvement, 1600 AD. Mr. Moffett reportedly wrote “Men dig their graves with their own teeth and die more by those fated instruments than the weapons of their enemies”.  This section of the book is also very detailed and discusses the effect on humans of the standard American diet. Part #2 also has a lot of information about how special interest groups influence food policy in the United States and conspire to control the information that reaches the public.

The 3^rd part of the book is about the effect on our planet that results from supplying food for the standard American diet. In this section of the book a Pennsylvania Dutch saying is quoted “We don’t inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”. I have to say that the information presented in this section of the book is so grave that I noticed a depressive mood fall over me.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, those that have an interest in learning more about the food supply in this country and how it affects our bodies and the planet would likely find this a fascinating read. The copy of this book from my library that I read was published in 1987. I see on Amazon.com that a new edition is to be released this month.

  

  

Perception

November 8, 2012

Last month when I posted to this blog, my weight was 160.0 pounds.  As you can see in the sidebar to the right, my weight as of Monday was 163.2 pounds.

When I weighed myself this past Monday and found my weight to be up a pound from last week and 3 pounds higher than a month ago, I thought I could feel the extra 3 pounds.  I started thinking about how I perceive my body weight which I believe falls into the category of body image.  It seems odd to me that now at 163 pounds I feel that I need to lose weight and a year ago at a little over 180 pounds I thought my weight was pretty good.

I believe that part of the reason is that since my job ended in September I have not been getting my weight workouts. I think the regular weight lifting helps me feel strong and not focus on the extra "stuff" for lack of a better word, around my middle. I plan to get back to lifting weights as soon as possible.

In my post last month I indicated that I was taking Rip Esselstyn’s 28 day challenge and would be making an attempt to eat a gluten free, vegan with no oil diet over the next month.  I had blood drawn at the end of September to check levels of blood cholesterol and sugar which would be compared to similar tests done at the beginning of November. I also stated that I would be recording my food consumption in my Calorie King diary so I would know how many times I strayed from my food plan.

First off, since my weight was in my goal range I quickly abandoned recording my food consumption in Calorie King. My feel for my diet during this time period is that I stayed pretty close. I know there were a couple poor food decisions during the month and several other times that I either intentionally or unintentionally had a small amount of a food item I was trying to avoid. 

	5/24/2012	9/29/2012	11/5/2012
Total Cholesterol	161	161	149
LDL	90	77	73
Triglyceride	53	34	39
HDL	61	77	68
Glucose		88	87

So in the end, total cholesterol and LDL both went down and are in the range that Rip states makes one heart attack proof. However, Triglyceride went up and HDL went down which is the wrong direction for both of these markers to be moving.  I will say that I felt better eating primarily plant foods and that on the 2 occasions during the month that knowingly had a meal of animal foods, I felt worse and my digestion was much more sluggish.  While I don’t think I will become a zealot anytime soon and have no intention of giving up my wool socks like some vegans, I do intend to continue with primarily a plant based diet. 

I do want to share that I found a product during the past month that I think is wonderful and I have been using in place of salad dressing. I had been using regular balsamic vinegar on my salads and alone, it has a fairly strong flavor. This past month I switched to white balsamic vinegar. The flavor is milder and it is just fine alone with no oil.

So here we are through with Halloween but looking that big fat turkey straight in the eye.  My weight is now the highest it has been since August 27^th and the holiday eating season looms large. Plus, to kick off the holiday eating season, I will be on a cruise ship for 7 days the week of Thanksgiving. Clearly my challenge now is to get to 2013 within my goal range.  Stay tuned, I will post an update about a month from now.