That Wascally Weight Loss Scale: Why I Ought to…

Saw Tooth graph

 

Daily weighing usually shows a roller coaster affect in weight values. A graph of dailies will look like a saw tooth while a graph of weekly weigh-ins will show a gradual slope down. Since emotions often follow the weight curve of which we are aware, it is best to not weigh daily.  

Professional weight loss consultants and authors from Suzanne Summers to Bill Phillips strongly suggest not weighing daily, but setting and striving to meet weekly goals. Be blind to the daily fluctuations and look forward to that lower number on Sunday morning.  

Slope graph

 

Why is this?  

Mostly, it’s part of a comprehensive motivational support system. Which is fanshy shmanshy speak for not wanting to get you all depressed every time you see something you didn’t expect which sends you into a feeding frenzy which empties your house of all food. Even the cat runs and hides when you start ripping open boxes of taco shells and eating that last, rusty can of sauerkraut hidden back behind the coffee filters over the fridge.  

Here’s why the body fluctuates so much.  

There are four types of substances in our bodies that are constantly gaining and losing volume. The blood, soft tissues and organs, disposable tissues, and waste. Disposable tissues are growth based like hair and nails but don’t amount to measurable amounts, unless you are the Count of Monte Cristo and really need a cut and a trim. But then, you probably wouldn’t have an excess weight issue.  

But, water in the blood and soft tissues, and the waste in your digestive tract can’t ever really be completely and precisely analyzed for weight (and who would want to?!). Therefore, even thin folks who have weighed the same for years experience fluctuating weight values and sometimes even differing linear measurements in waist, thighs, etc.  

“Be blind to the daily fluctuations and look forward to that lower number on Sunday morning.”

   

Mostly though, we are talking about waste matter. You’ll find many sources that underscore the importance of keeping your food undercarriage assembly clean as a whistle. One of the more famous (infamous) anecdotes is that of John Wayne. At his death, they supposedly removed around 70 pounds of matter that didn’t belong there. Most average healthy folks carry around 5 pounds of cycling fecal matter. Very average people (those less healthy/the majority of us) carry around up to 15 extra average pounds of sludge down there. So, 70 pounds was a lot of trail food for the old cowboy. That’s a lot of beans.  

For Elvis it was around 50 pounds. Lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. His business end wasn’t taking care of business. It was storing it up instead.  

So, even after you start eating healthiER, your body is constantly cycling the last couple of meals that went down the pie hole. Red meats take longer than other foods; fruit slides right through as does masticated lettuce and most other vegetables.  

What really builds up are the white breads. If you eat a lot of pizza with conventional white flour crust (the best tasting kind), you’ll have a lot of Elvis and John goin’ on down there. Add to that all of the fast food burgers and fries, hot dogs; whatever comes on bread… you can see where I’m going with this. White flour products are everywhere and they produce the most sticky, sludgy, pasty, glue like matter that coats the walls of our fecal factory. Fig Newtons might be a healthier snack because of the figs (very healthy!) but the sticky, “fortified” white flour the figs are wrapped in do us no good at all.  

Bones don’t lose or gain much mass after adulthood is reached. Muscle mass can move up and down the scale quite a bit depending on our activity scale. Blood and water content in the soft tissues also fluctuate a lot depending on the current rate at which our bodies are retaining or expelling water due to hormones and potassium levels, etc.  

But, waste products are the largest contributor to fluctuating weight.  

If you are one of those average Americans (like I was) and are used to eating whatever you want that pop culture is promoting at any given moment, then when you start eating healthiER, you’ll lose weight whether you planned to or not. In the summer of 2004, right before I finished my degree from art school, my wife wanted to reward me for squeezing a four year degree into three years by taking me to The Bahamas. I didn’t want to go there all fat and bloated, so I spent several months eating just salads and we went on vacation with me just fat, (about 315 pounds) and not also bloated.  

McDonald's Fish Sandwich.

 

I went from eating almost exclusively McDonald’s fish and chicken sandwiches before, during and after  

The McChicken

 

 classes at school (for almost three years), to only eating at home and that being salads. Caesar, cob, chef, Heinz 57, whatever. The weight fell off for about three weeks even though I increased the amount of food I was eating. Also, my bad knees cleared up quite a bit and my hay fever/asthma/bronchitis completely stopped for the first time in years. I went from 348 to about 315 and stayed there until school started again; when  I went back to eating fish and chicken sandwiches at McDonald’s.  

The salad diet lasted for months, like I said, but the weight loss only lasted for about three weeks. I theorize that I lost almost 35 pounds of sludge that I had been collecting when I went from ingesting 3 McWhiteFlour sandwiches daily to 2 giant rabbit food salads daily.  

The same sort of scenario occurred this year when I decided to start this blog and eat healthiER for the rest of my life. I lost easy pounds every week for over a month. I went from about 350 down to 300 in just a few weeks; losing over a pound a day on an average. Now, my weight just trickles off. I lose as much in two weeks as I did in a single day. I am very happy with this.  

All though I’d rather get down to 200 pounds tomorrow, I’m very happy with slow and steady.  

Here are some other things I learned while only eating salads for several months back in 2004. 

• Don’t eat a lot of dried fruits all at once, especially cranberries and raisins. Upset stomach, messed up bowels, and the loss of human companionship for a day or two, or longer. Raisins are so dangerous and potentially explosive that I even read in a pet care article that feeding a lot of raisins to dogs can kill them. This might explain the smells emanating from my poor raisin impacted body because it did smell like something had died down there. Maybe not an entire canine, but you get my point. 
• Don’t eat the same salad for every meal, every day. Besides getting bored with salads and the danger of reverting back to fast food or whatever being a real possibility, our bodies need variety and protein and many salads just don’t deliver. If you are going to be salad heavy in your meal line-up, add albacore tuna, chicken, sliced pork or beef, lots of beans, anchovies, nuts, quinoa, etc. If you are vegan… … … you’re on your own. I understand the draw, but I am too much of a foodie in all areas to limit myself and stay on a healthy diet. I will say this about vegans; given a choice between living on a vegan world and living on an all meat buffet world, the vegan world would reach population explosion parody much quicker than the other just from longevity standards. An all meat diet is very, very un healthy for the human body, excluding some sort of all fish diet. But, an all veggie and fruit menu wouldn’t hurt the human creature much at all. But, since God gave us animals to eat, and they taste really, really good, I eat them. Not a lot; not as much as I used to by a long way. But I enjoy them and sleep just fine at night. 
• If you are going to try replacing red meat with other meats, be careful of the “doubling up” syndrome. Many guys stop eating hamburgers, hot dogs and steaks only to find that they are gaining weight because they are eating more pork and chicken. Go back to my article titled Help for This Moment Right Now. I mention the fact that our bodies don’t need very much food in order to operate on a normal, daily basis. If we eat too much and do that for decades, we will only live for a few decades instead of many decades. 
• Watch out for the liquid sugar trap. For some reason, many guys think that they can eat a little more healthy but drink all of the Coke, Pepsi and Mountain Dew they want. Most soft drinks are not fit for human consumption. The same things we may drink all day long, year after year can be used to clean off car battery terminals. If you pour iced tea on top of an old corroded 12-volt battery, nothing happens. But, if you poor a can of Coke on the same battery, you’ll see bubbling and hear hissing as the acid in the Coke eats away and neutralizes the heavy alkaline deposits that caused all of that white powder to build up. Pouring that stuff down your thirsty gullet for years can’t be a good thing. And, I haven’t even mentioned that one can of Coke has enough sugar for several meals in it. 

See you after that next scale date.
Stu@283  

Links:
- http://nakedhealerblog.com/2010/05/27/elvis-presley-vs-john-wayne/
- Help for This Moment Right Now  

Weekly Grilling Tips: Grilling is healthiER than frying and it’s summer, I’m just sayin’…

 

   

  

From janedeereblog.blogspot.com

 

Keep your grill hot, clean and well oiled.  

Start with a hot grill grate. Clean it with a stiff wire brush, then using long tongs and a folded paper towel, oil it. Olive oil is healthier than many others and is a little less flammable.  

New Feature Tool on This Site

Power Boost Statements

 

The list of affirmations from which I get power to overcome weak food moments seemed to help several readers. So, I posted them as a separate Page. There is a POWER BOOST STATEMENTS button on the top banner of the site, now. 

Like Gia did, print it out and place it on the fridge door. Or maybe inside the fridge door. Or maybe taped over the jelly jar. Whatever works for you.

Go Exotic!

Crunchy, mildly sweet, somewhat moist, very filling. Good with chicken, pork or even fish.

 

 There is a new old grain in town for those seeking ultra high protein yet low carb and calorie.   

Quinoa is a tiny, light grain about the size of a mustard seed. It has a mildly sweet flavor such as celery or lettuce and soft texture when cooked. It is an excellent source of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc , copper, thiamin and riboflavin. (from FoodFit.com)   

About the size of a grain of mustard seed. Passively crunchy, like a miniature grape.

 

My wife rediscovered it recently and I have been putting some cooked up left-overs on salad and creating some very interesting and good flavor combinations. It is said that quinoa is the most complete protein food on the planet because it contains every amino acid that makes up our ingestible protein. Just think how our bodies will react to this superfood! Burn baby burn!  

Finding new, healthy food dishes is a real fun hobby of mine. When we go shopping, I often browse the fresh food sections looking for ideas.   

Click to enlarge photo.

 

Chopped romaine, chicken, cooked quinoa (chilled), sliced grape or cherry tomatoes, 1T Miracle Whip, ½ T Balsamic Vin drizzled over top. 

I must say what I imagine my sisters and mother must be thinking right about now, after seeing all of these super healthy foods I’ve been eating: “Who are you and what have you done with Stu?!” 

The old Stu tried most if not all of the superfoods that would appear on family get together tables, and then proceed to hunt for something eatable like the “real” potato salad instead of the cauliflower variety. Today, I haven’t completely replaced the old food list with the new one, I have actually just broadened my food horizons. It is true that I mostly eat salads, fish, chicken, instead of pizza, burgers etc, (Just had Taco Bell last night. Have you tried those chalupas? Woa!) but I enjoy such a broader variety of foods in generally smaller quantities that eating healthiER is actually made much easier than it used to be. 

A larger list means more variety. This computes to a more interesting food life week in and week out. 

See you after that next scale date
Stu@283

Help for This Moment Right Now

I was today asked for some encouragement from a fellow healthiER living warrior. Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately. Why was I able to finally go down a size in clothes when I failed so many other times?

Our bodies are amazing. God made them to do so much on just a smidgeon of nourishment. If cars could work so well, gas tanks would only be measured in table spoons and not gallons.

You’re probably not encouraged yet. It’s OK, you’re not supposed to be. I’m not there yet.

Consider stories of starving people who go days with nothing, not even water. But the body continues to operate, living off stored energy from fat, and then when that runs out, muscle, then when that runs out, not even doctors understand from where the human body gets the carbs, amino acids, or anything else to stay alive. They do know however, in every documented case, it was those with the strongest will and most optimistic nature that lived when all others died.

You may now begin to be a little encouraged.

One’s propensity to eat when the body doesn’t need food is entirely a learned behavior. This is a known fact and not up for interpretation. God, in His infinite wisdom tied the act of eating to our emotions, and not another part of our brain. Being a function of our emotions, our eating pattern is a part of our character, and not a part of our physical nature.

Therefore, it is a learnable trait, and as such can also be modified.

There are a few things that are such. Eating is not the only important function that is required for survival of the human race, but is driven by character instead by need.

The two obvious ones are sex and eating.

If sex and eating were not enjoyable, our race would probably not have lasted much longer than Adam and Eve’s life spans in the Garden.

But, God decided anyway to build us in this fashion. He knew what He was doing. The lord even had to warn us not to over indulge in pleasing these two human passions. Those who over indulge in the sexual realm have their own problems, usually much worse than those who only over eat.

I think it is really interesting that there is a natural ascetic connection between over eating and desiring sex. One who over eats will not enjoy natural sex with one’s spouse near as much as one who is more fit. So, God knew that there would be a natural balance of sorts as far as natural survival of the race in procreation. But, for the individual who has over eaten to obesity, like me, this is no help today, right now, this moment in the area of fighting the food battle every time I’m hungry.

For that, I need practical planning that works for the long haul.

Knowing that my eating desire is a learned thing, I am encouraged every week that I lose weight, because I know that it is getting easier, and will at some point become almost second nature. I have been battling seriously in this food war from the trenches, for over a decade. It has gotten easier, much easier.

I really enjoy riding my bike, working out, doing physical things around the house and working on physical projects whenever I can. I used to avoid exercise.

I really enjoy eating healthier: salads, fish, chicken, pork (the other white meat). I used to avoid salads and joke about rabbit food as I downed whole pizzas and packages of chips and cookies.

       “OK, get ready to be both encouraged and strengthened.”

During the difficult moments, I tell myself a short list of reoccurring truths; almost like a mantra, and it ALWAYS helps during those moments.

OK, get ready to be both encouraged and strengthened.

-God, please help me right now.
-I CAN eat right now, just a very small amount. A very small amount right now is OK. One small bite and just walk away.
-I’ve lost so much weight; I don’t want to waste all that effort over this one moment.
-If I pass this test, it will strengthen my resolve now and in the future, prove the naysayers wrong and me and God right, and I will lose weight again by tomorrow by acting now upon my desire to be thinner forever.
-Besides, I can always eat a little more later if I am truly hungry. Just one small bite and just walk away.

These are my daily and sometimes hourly tools to eventual weight loss.

OK, now you can be encouraged.

See you after that next scale date.
Stu@283

Baggy Pants: A Sure Sign of Weight Loss. ( New After Photo )

PART OF THE NEW STU UNVEILED in photo.

Well, it’s finally happened. I thought it would happen sooner, but who would have thunk that one could wear pants all the way down from 348 lbs to 283.   

All though my weight has stayed fairly steady at 283 for more than a couple of weeks, my shape is still changing. There are several technical reasons for this that I won’t get into right now, but it’s enough to know that my stomach is so much smaller, as well as my once overly large caboose, that my pants are just way too big. I can still wear two of my three suit coats without looking real frumpy, but once I shed the jacket, the overly long belt and the baggy pants are very evident.   

We’re going to shop for some pants today.   

This is the type of results for which I’ve been working: a change of shape more than a change in clinical values. Weight is no more than a point of reference for clinical reference. This is true because merely knowing someone’s weight value means nothing without knowing the rest of their health values and dimensions. A 6’ tall man can weigh 200 pounds (my goal weight) and look great. But, put that same weight value on a 5’11” man, and he starts looking a tad pudgy. 5’10” looks way pudgy, and 5’9” and the word fat becomes a reasonable term for that man’s appearance.   

At age 17, I was right at 6’ and weighed 185 pounds. I was very thin but wiry with lots of muscle mass. I was still in high school band and carrying around the bass drum during parades, football games and daily band practice. I was also a roller skating instructor and skating several nights a week for about 4 hours. My summers were filled with swimming and hiking.   

Today, I am 51 years old. I am 5’11”, weigh 283 lbs, and drive a computer for more than 50 hours a week (For those of you on the Left voting block, this means that I sit behind a computer and stare at a screen while typing and moving the mouse). I don’t roller skate or carry a bass drum. And, the last time I swam all day was back in my other life as a teenager. I did some hiking last year but my sport of choice is bicycling which this year has gone all but ignored as we are involved in way too many projects.   

So, I left “pudgy” way behind a long time ago on my way up to almost 350 lbs.   

In my struggle to start heading back down towards 189, I remembered that the 189 of age 17 was acquired with much strenuous tasks of which I have no part at my current age. So, against the US government’s unreasonable health charts, I am targeting 200 as my ideal goal weight. But, more importantly, I am shooting for a waist size of 36. Against my current pants width of 48-50, 36 inches sounds a long ways away. But, after today’s pants shopping, I will see just how far I’ve come towards that goal.   

In 1972, I wore a rented tux to my sister April’s wedding with a pants size of 32×32. It was then that I began to understand proportions. My bottom half was the same height as it was around. This might be just trivia to you, but it suggests to me today that I might never get to that healthy fit look of Hollywood fame where one has certain proportions, without some serious daily effort.   

Chicago Newscastor Jim Johnson, WLS 890 AM.

 

Radio newscaster Jim Johnson, on WLS Chicago, is a lot older than me, way smaller and thinner, and exercises daily. He gets up early, exercises, showers and goes about his daily tasks. This is true of many media pros; yes even in radio.   

The networks have made it clear that if one wants to be successful in The Business, then one must look successful as well. Representing the company out and about is no longer about the substance of one’s words and work. The healthful image is now a part of one’s professional attire.   

In any other industry a photo is taboo as part of one’s resume’. But in broadcasting, the glamour pic is usually looked at first.   

Stu Marks. Age 51. 283 lbs

 

Here’s my current professional glamour photo taken in my Adventure-Crew Chicago film crew shirt. Just took it yesterday as I scrunched down to fit within the webcam’s window. No, I don’t wear an earing: never have, never will. I forgot that I was wearing a BlueTooth device from a recent phone conversation. Not real glamorous.   

Yes, I need to lose weight, and tone up. OK, yes and wear a suit jacket over a blue shirt. I’m working on that. More to come. Today will just be pants.   

Today pants; tomorrow the world!   

See you after that next scale date.
Stu@283

Daily Water Intake Calculator

During the writing of the last post, I discovered a great tool for calculating how much water one should drink daily for good health. As always, other people’s advise is nothing more than a suggestion. Check out the advice for yourself to make sure you agree with it before taking it to heart.

The link was included at the bottom of the last post, and also included here.
Water Calculator

I’ll also add it to the side bar soon.

Stu

Operation Hydration

Drinking healthy will make us healthiER. No brainer.

 

In the realm of health and weight loss, not enough can be said about drinking enough fluids, primarily water.   

Yes, this post is pretty much about drinking. So, if you have this down already, then scan and file this article. But there is some interesting supporting theory in here about which you may have never thought.   

Our planet is a self-cleaning macrocosm made possible by the water percentage and flow inherent in the Earth’s water cycle we all learned about in grade school and Jr. High.   

The air we breathe would long ago have been made toxic if there wasn’t water vapor as a large part of the suspended atmosphere through which precipitation passes.   

Our planet’s supply of cleansing water would long ago have become polluted beyond life-sustaining if it wasn’t constantly being filtered and cleaned by passing through soil and then the saliniated oceans; leaving behind the collected particles of filth that get broken back down into their most elemental forms, becoming harmless again.   

Water means life.   

Our bodies are a microcosm of this planet. Why are our bodies so similar in design to the planet on which we live? The same designer made them both. God placed within us constantly flowing streams and rivers that carry supplied nutrients throughout our bodies, and carry away produced toxins and waste material. Our blood system is the main force that allows us to rejuvenate while we rest at night, digest food, remove waste products, build muscle, replace skin, grow hair and nails, heal from illness and disease, recover from injury and basically self maintain. As a matter of fact, God said in Leviticus 17 that “…the Life is in the blood…”   

If we do not maintain a good percentage of fresh water coming in to our body, weight loss and just general health maintenance is made more difficult for our bodies. Specifically, the removal of waste products from burning fat is slowed down.   

To facilitate fastest weight loss, make sure your body is well hydrated. I drink a lot of iced tea; probably too much. Water would be better. I go through over a gallon and a half of tea every day. I can tell when I haven’t had enough fluids. My blood pressure goes up (completely against pop culture theory regarding salt and water, I know), weight falls off slower and I am very thirsty. Go figure.   

My favorite drink, if calories were not an issue, would be orange juice. Looking towards the stuff that God has supplied is the simplest way to health, including weight loss. Drink healthy and we will be healthiER.   

Here's some more tips on drinking water daily.
WikiHow
NatureDoc
Water Calculator 

See on the other side of that next scale date.
Stu@284
Proverbs 3:5,6.

Mission Specific Motivation

Always having in mind a future event that will make you wish you were thinner. Family reunion, high school or college reunion, job interview, project pitch, etc.

Keeping goal events in front of you is a great source of success motivation.

  

One thing that has helped me go from 150 lbs overweight to 84 pounds overweight in only three months has been a chain of events that has given me some motivation. We had a family reunion a few weeks ago where I was meeting some family for the first time. We all know how important first impressions are, and I might never see some of these folks ever again. I didn’t want any of them thinking that their cousin, niece, whatever was married to this really fat guy. “Poor Corie. Sure, Stu is nice enough but the guy is a COW!” At least I looked a little better. “Poor Corie. Sure, Stu is nice enough but the guy is a small cow!”    

There were also these three radio production projects for which I am pitching. A lot of my work is done without ever meeting the principals in real brick and mortar face time. It just so happens that two of these pitches are occurring tomorrow, live, in a real building, and the third has a strong possibility of turning into a live meet because it is just up the highway a couple of hours. Large radio voices are a dime a dozen. But, guys who are in the business AND not large blobs are a little more in demand.    

After all of these events, we are planning a big trip out west to see family and friends as well as chase some work possibilities some time in the fall.    

All of these events help me to have a serious goal for which to shoot. These are not some pie in the sky happenings that might not ever happen. These are close enough to feel. They are on my calendar right now. I’m talking to folks on the phone, planning and coordinating for these events this month if not this week or this very hour.    

“…and have been on a mission that has cost some sacrifice and has real results.”

I have found that if I attach these upcoming events to my image, and convince myself that I can make a difference in my image, I work even harder to stay on track. Maybe I’ll walk into the room and shake hands tomorrow with the radio network exec wearing a loose fitting camel hair sport coat that I can button, or it could have been the tight fitting camel hair jacket that couldn’t possibly be buttoned to save my life. I had a choice. And, I know from firsthand experience that it DOES matter what the first impressions are at that momentous handshake. If nothing else, I have more confidence just knowing that I am on, and have been on a mission that has cost some sacrifice and has real results.    

Any guy would look better in his 2X clothes than he did when he was 3X in the same 2X clothes. That’s gott’a count for something.    

After this, and the trip in the fall, I have no specific event up coming so I have to come up with something. Any suggestions?    

Hey guys, I found a great collection of grilling tips that I’m going to start including with each post. Dieting is no fun. But a healthy lifestyle that includes healthier meals to which we can look forward just makes life that much more enjoyable.    

GRILL MASTER TIP #1. Two Grills Are Better Than One.
Own more than one grill. Gas grills may be convenient, but you still need a charcoal grill for true low and slow smoking.
from Bon Appetit Magazine, July 2010

More Options, Higher Odds of Success: Food Lists and Recipes

A large handful of healthiER snacks. image from Woman's Day.

   

In military tactics training, police tactical, and special agent tactical training, all are taught that to assist keeping the upper hand in any conflict and thereby upping the chances of operational success (winning), there should always be plans to include optional choices at every possible mission juncture. More choices keeps the team ahead of the circumstances. Never lose to the circumstances. Never lose to chance. One common characteristic of operational field agents, soldiers and police that stay alive longer and also happen to bring successful closure to more missions, is the ability to think ahead and prepare for the unexpected by having multiple options and be ready to use them.   

The objective of every mission worth winning is to win. It’s not to play nice, it’s not to follow rules, it’s not to be tolerant. It’s to win. If the good guys lose, more good people die, lose their freedom, etc. Dangerously, there are people who put more emphasis on how battles are fought than whether or not the right side wins. If you want to discover which politicians are actually engaged in fulfilling their oath to the US Constitution and those who elected them to their office, listen for the ones who are talking plainly about right objectives and winning battles and wars. Anything else is just empty rhetoric used to cover up embarrassing, hidden agendas.   

Earlier this summer, a retired military man living in Chicago came down stairs to find his family being terrorized by an armed man trying very hard to break down the door. The Retired Military ran back upstairs and came back down with a gun. At that time, the thug began firing a gun through the window into the house. Ret. Military returned fire through the window, shooting and killing the thug.   

Immediately, there was both praise and condemnation for Ret. Military. There were careful reports of Chicago Police inquiring as to his illegal possession of the firearm (thanks to nutcase Mayor of Chicago, the US Constitution stops at the Chicago City Limits. It is illegal to own a firearm in Chicago). But, so many of the public came out in praise for the heroic act of Ret. Military, that the gentleman was never arrested. (Thanks to NewsTalk Radio WLS 890AM for their public and honest reporting of the situation)   

Why is this relevant to having more options? The entire family of Ret. Military is alive and unmolested today because their grandfather, an 80-year-old Korean War Veteran decided to possess more options than the robber expected of him. A dangerous situation caused by the unconstitutional and unforgivable actions of The Mayor of the City of Chicago, and also by the coward alderman who continually fail to stand up to him, could have possibly cost an entire family their life, ended well in spite of everything working against the hero, because the hero decided to take matters into his own hands; he created options for himself in advance. He planned to succeed.   

At the election of the freedomphobic Barak Obama, I, along with tens of thousands of other freedom loving Americans, went out and bought guns and ammunition. I decided that I would fight for my family’s freedom because it is my responsibility. It is about at that same time that I decided that I would rather go into battle thinner than the immanent 350 to which I was fast approaching.   

The same frame of mind that found me planning ahead to fight the well armed criminals in northern Illinois who break into homes in order to rob and rape, found me planning better for the Battle of the Bulge; my bulge.   

In a past post, I assigned the theme of being in a battle to the task of losing weight. Even though I rarely mention that theme, it is truly the way I think. It is one of the things that drives me, keeps me going forward, helps me make right decisions, keeps me away from failure, helps me to pick myself back up again when I do fail.   

If one assumes that a war has several battles, and the winner of each battle defines the direction and culmination of the entire war, then it just makes sense to plan out in advance how to win individual battles. The battle that comes to me next will be the very next time that I am faced with an opportunity to eat because I am experiencing hunger pangs. These hunger pangs are inevitable. They will happen. If I am not prepared for them, I will have a greater chance of losing the battle than winning it. I must be prepared.   

For morning breakfast battles, I am prepared with one or two items from the following list
-yogurt & whole wheat toast with butter, 1 slice
-whole wheat toast with butter, 1 slice
-chilled grapes
-banana
-poached egg on toast, 1 egg, 1 whole wheat toast
-whole wheat toast or bagels
-strawberries, 1/4 cup
-cantaloupe, half or quarter
-oatmeal with 1t brown sugar
-granola cereal preferably with whole milk. “Whole Milk!”, you ask?  Yep.   

Whole milk, though made for baby cows, is a lot healthier for baby and adult humans than the skim milk or reduced fat milk that is so prevalent today. The casein in milk (pretty much what’s left after removing the fat solids) is almost empty calories. Not much food value there. But, whole milk has many energy, bone and digestive benefits that the processed milk products can’t provide. And, the naturally provided vitamins in whole milk are much more likely to be digested and infused into your blood system so your body can use them than the artificially added vitamins that really are very easily passed through instead of digested. When I was younger, I drank loads of whole milk (sometimes right out of the jug when mom wasn’t around). Wonderful stuff. I don’t drink much now because I very rarely eat cereal. If I drank it enough, it would be a staple of my fridge.   

My favorite weight losing breakfast is one vanilla yogurt cup (about 6 oz) poured over cut up pineapple, sliced strawberries, blue berries and raspberries.   

I don’t labor over decisions of volume much. I know what will over fill me so I stay away from that. This will be different for everybody and it has a lot more to do with sustainability than science. Your emotions are in play here. You want to make sure that you are going to look forward to breakfast every morning or this will just become another diet instead of real change. You might be more prone to trying to make this work by using a protein list instead of a carb list. I tried it and it doesn’t work for me. I only occasionally eat breakfast from the protein list because it slows my weight loss results. But, it might work for you.   

Below is a great protein and carb list. I suggest this for more active individuals. I drive a desk for more than eight hours a day, so it would take me over two hours a day in added time exercising to justify a regular high carb/high protein breakfast.
-Egg McMuffin. Buy it from Mac’s or make it yourself. Subway now serves eggs on whole wheat English muffin made your way. You can order egg whites or a regular egg and then ask for anything on their condiment menu like bell peppers, or pepperjack cheese and they also have sausage in the morning. They serve these until 11am and are usually less expensive than Mac’s (McDonald’s). Mac’s doesn’t offer whole wheat.
-potato and eggs. ½ a large potato diced and fried in 1T olive oil with ¼ bell pepper chopped and scrambled or fried egg. ½ or 1 piece of whole wheat toast.
-poached egg on toast. 2 eggs, 1 whole wheat toast.
-steak and eggs. 6 oz ribeye, 1 or 2 eggs your way, 1 whole wheat toast.
-hash browns and eggs. ½ a large potato grated drained and fried with 1 or 2 eggs fried your way.
-egg skillet. ½ a large potato diced and fried with bell peppers and diced ham or sausage with 2 eggs on top.
-bacon. 2 slices. Bacon is one of those things that if you really love, you are willing to adjust your diet to accommodate. If you are going to have a steady diet of bacon, I suggest eating whatever type and thickness you like, but you’ll have to cut down drastically in other areas. Bacon can only be counted as a protein breakfast if you are going to work it off during the earlier part of the day and if you do what you can to minimize the fat. Fry it at high heat in the skillet, removing the second it’s done so it doesn’t continue to cook in the rendered fat, then drop it right on to paper towels and soak up the rest of the rendered fat. Or mic it inside paper towels. 2 slices with 1 whole wheat toast and 1 egg your way.
-bacon and egg sandwich. 1 slice bacon with 1 scrambled egg and 1 whole wheat toast cut in half. Top with 1 slice tomato if you wish.
-pancake and sausage. 1 pancake and 2 sausage links or patties. An over large pancake with butter and syrup is really pushing the edge of reason for a lifestyle of weight loss or maintenance. I certainly wouldn’t eat this five days a week. Unless of course you are a lumberjack, ditch digger, drywall hanger, or water jug delivery person who runs up and down stairs all day.   

For after breakfast snack battles, I am armed with
-nuts, about a handful, or quarter cup (I like the Planter’s Deluxe Mix. No peanuts. Peanuts are not nuts; they are legumes which means they are more like beans than almonds so they digest differently. Mash up enough peanuts and what do you have sticking to the inner linings of your intestines that take forever to flush out? That’s right; peanut butter. Love peanut butter in small amounts. Not good for getting weight down in a hurry though. Be careful how much peanut butter you consume. Lots of additives and sugar in commercial peanut butter. Unless of course you are going to chop wood all day or run a marathon, then it’s a great source of carbs and protein.)
-dill pickles, 1 whole
-pineapples, cut up, about a half or quarter cup
-Nature Valley Granola bars
-Yogurt
-strawberries
-banana
-whole wheat toast with butter, 1 slice   

For lunch battles,
-tuna and tomato salad. Small can white albacore tuna in water, grape or cherry tomatoes sliced in half, all drizzled with 1T of fav. Dressing or just olive oil. Decide whether you want to eat the whole can.
-tuna, avocado sandwich. ½ small can tuna, ¼ avocado sliced, 1 slice whole wheat toast cut in half.
-tuna with olive oil. 1 sm can
-Caesar salad. Chopped or torn Romaine lettuce tossed in 1T of Caesar dressing. Ground black pepper.
-Caesar salad with chicken. Chopped or torn Romaine lettuce tossed in 1T of Caesar dressing topped with grilled chicken breast. Ground black pepper.
-fruit yogurt
-banana
-cottage cheese and fruit
-avocado and tomato salad. ½ avocado diced, sliced cherry or grape tomatoes drizzled with olive oil or fav dressing 1T.   

After lunch snacks,
same as the after breakfast snack list   

Dinner battles, Dinner is a little different than the rest of the day. I want to make sure that I am not going to bed with a full stomach that will keep me awake and wipe out all of the good weight loss efforts on which I have been working all day. I want to eat many hours before bed time.
-Anything I want in small quantities. Ya, really. It might be something from the lunch menu above or not. It could be pizza, or a burger. If pizza, 1 ½ slices or less. If a burger, it’s ½ a burger. Try taking off the top bun and eating the whole burger at least once just so you know what it’s like. Try eating the burger without the bun at all.   

The point is that my schedule makes it difficult to provide the wide variety I have listed for breakfast and lunch with snacks in between. If I am home, I eat whatever everyone else is eating in ½ portions. This is not a diet, it is real change. The evening meal lets us all get together if we can.   

For evening snacks, I try to keep it at 1 fruit yogurt portion or none at all. Going to bed hungry is a good thing for weight loss mode if you can get used to it. Eating small portions all day long (grazing) keeps the stomach smaller and helps reduce hunger pangs.   

Battles mobile,
I arm myself with dried fruit and nut snacks in the car. These do well in the heat and cold of the changing seasons. 1 or 2 handfuls is all I need to fight hunger. Beef jerky works well, also.   

A word about portions.
In America, we are blessed with government intervention. I am not a statist and certainly not a Lazy Lefty, but I believe in using the tools handed me by God. And God has decided that I get to enjoy well labeled food. Pay attention to portion size and you will be better able to judge how much you should eat of anything. I stick close to this without laboring over it. Once I learned that a quarter cup of nuts and dried fruit was about a handful, that’s what I began using as my point of reference for snacking in between meals.   

We don’t need to eat an entire meal every time we’re hungry. For some reason, God chose our hunger sensor to finally chime that we are no longer hungry several minutes the food has been setting in our stomach. If you are old enough to read this, then you already know this to be true. SO, use this information wisely. Learn when you are full based on what you put in your mouth, not what your body is telling you. YOU decide how much to eat, and then stop long before your body chimes in with, ** FULL **. It’s a little like living by faith. “I know I am hungry, but I just ate breakfast two hours ago. So, I’ll just eat a handful of grapes and then go back to work. In five or ten minutes, the hunger pangs will go away.” And sure enough, they do.   

These are my lists, not yours. Use them until you build your own favorite foods lists if you wish, but you must build your own lists.   

Options. Prepared for battle. Prepared for success.   

See you at the next scale date.
Stu@284.0

“Your Door Is a Jar”

"Your door is a jar"

 

Several years ago, automotive manufacturers began taking advantage of digital audio technology in the way of safety warnings in cars and trucks. If you tried to drive away with one of your car doors partially unlatched, the vehicle’s CPU (central processing unit) would trigger the enunciator to pull up a recorded, sultry sounding female voice to let you know that “Your door is ajar.” I always thought it was funny that a car would tell you something silly like your doors were now all jars. Thoughts ran through my head of glass jars being positioned where the doors were presently located. 

Now, whenever I hear a car’s safety system chime in with, “Your door is ajar” I have this weird vision. 

This whole scenario is a great opportunity to see what it takes to train our minds to respond to external stimuli. It only took one or two times as an adult in my early 30s to train my brain to think of glass jars whenever I heard a recorded voice say the word “ajar”. 

So, how hard is it to train my mind to think of healthy snacks every time I get a hunger urge? Does it take a strong will? Apparently not. I had no vested interest or motivation in training my mind about the jar image, yet in just a few actual seconds of repetition, I printed a new pattern on my adult brain. 

For the PDS (Perpetually Dieting Slave), the battle is always against the passionate urges for all of those comfortable, dopamine producing (thanks giovana) foods and drinks. Crunchy, soft, layered, smooth, tart, sour, sweet, savory, green, red, coral, peach, yellow, hot, cold, small bite, large bite, solid and liquid; these are the elements by which our long experienced pallet is triggered. What this means is that every time we think of these elements entering our mouth, whether externally caused by visual, aural or olfactory stimulation, or by authentic needs of the body, our brain will go into eating mode. 

“I’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungry…” 

There is nothing external that can stop that incessant chatter. Well, except maybe an immediate crisis. 

“I’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryI’mHungryOohMyGoodnessHereComesAVeryLargeTruckBetterJumpOutOfTheWayThatWasClose… where was I? Hmm. Not hungry any more.” 

Other than that, the chatter won’t stop without fulfilling that fleshly desire for food. So, why not retrain our pallet to crave something other than our old stand-bys of pizza, chips, candy bars, etc. (If you are truly expecting to lose weight because of your “life-changing desire to be thin”, and you still have that jar of jelly bellies setting on your desk, you are setting yourself up for failure and probably ought to have your head examined; really!). 

In the category of smooth and creamy, or slightly dry and cakey, my old stand-by for sweets was cheese cake. The graham cracker and nut crust holding that cream cheese/tart/sweet filling was almost overpowering to me, and sometimes was actually completely impossible to resist. Now, I head for a 100 calorie mini bucket of yogurt. I love peach yogurt, vanilla, and even some of the more exotic man-made flavors of the Pina Colada (and I’ve never even drank the alcoholic version) or key lime pie. And yes, there’s even a cheesecake flavor. 

For crusty/crunchy, I go for a half bagel with butter, or a Nature Valley Granola bar. 

Yes, I know that I early stated in previous posts that I don’t deny myself my favorite foods, but I do cut way back. If a family group is ending up at Aurelios Pizza, I eat pizza. Thus my crunchy/crusty hankorin’ is satisfied for a few weeks, and I just don’t eat as much as I used to, and I darned sure make it an imperative that my daily and weekly goals are still met. 

So, while I completely stay away from rules I can’t follow, like I’ll never eat pizza again, I still do some hard things that cause very strong results. 

The lesson here is that every time you’re hungry, you should probably eat. Just make sure that your weight loss goals are met. If you want to lose two pounds a week, you will have to make some drastic changes. Eating when you are hungry is one of my healthier living 101 rules. It keeps me from binge eating and losing control. 

But, if you are going to engage in this all important rule, you must make a drastic change regarding the food on which you’ll be grazing. Ya, grazing. I know. Cows grazing. Sorry, but it’s just so appropriate a term. Some of the healthiest cultures on this planet don’t know anything about three squares a day. They are grazers. Eating when hungry keeps one from feeling deprived as well as avoiding binge eating. But what one eats makes a lot of difference in the world of grazers. 

Try it. Try eating every time you are hungry. If you eat very small amounts of food that your body can use for health, instead of filling yourself to illness with empty calories your body just stores as fat, YOU WILL BE RETRAINING YOUR BRAIN. Your door will become a jar. 

So, happy Fourth of July, and have a dill pickle. They are free of many things, including calories. (I’m so lucky and blessed to be one of those that loves dill pickles.) 

See you on the other side of that next scale session
Stu@284.0