tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1268847293460790272024-02-20T07:33:39.611-06:00Sancho Panza's Weighty ThoughtsA Formerly 40-Something, Now 50-Something College Teacher's Would-Be Weighty Thoughts
About Food, Life ...
and Yet One More Attempt to Lose 100 PoundsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-27389836705129716012020-01-01T14:17:00.002-06:002020-01-01T14:22:57.093-06:00Beginning a new decade ...So the scale announced this morning (well, actually, early this afternoon) that I am starting out the new year and the new decade at 236.6 lbs. I am not complaining: that's 27.6 pounds lighter than a year ago today. It's 66.4 pounds lighter than my peak weight of 303 - nearly a 22% weight loss. And it's actually within realistic striking distance of seeing a number beginning with "1."<br />
<br />
What do I need to work on, though? Consistency. I am nowhere close to consistent. I actually lost those 27.6 pounds between September and now. (Which, by the way, was a real win: often I gain weight starting with my birthday right before Halloween and through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. This year I weighed, measured, and tracked all through the holidays.) But during the first eight months of 2019, I initially gained 10 pounds in January and February, then yo-yo'ed within a 20-pound range until August. That was the month when I finally got myself back down to the New Year's Day weight, then starting in September I managed to keep going in the right direction. I actually had to lose 38 pounds to get my highest 2019 weight down to today's scale number.<br />
<br />
On one hand, I'm encouraged that I did manage to lose nearly 40 pounds in the last five months of the year. That certainly seems to suggest that I'm capable of losing more than that over 12 months. On the other hand, I'm annoyed that I had so little discipline from January through July. I do not want to repeat that this year - but I also can't help worrying that my mental switch might yet again flip to the "off" position and I'll suddenly find myself at the grocery store on Friday evenings, deciding what kinds of cookies and ice cream I'm entitled to as a reward for making it through another week. It takes me so much less time to gain weight than to lose it!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-40590976633283986522019-05-20T14:43:00.001-05:002019-05-20T14:43:56.065-05:00Two Years Later ...I have a hard time imagining that anyone still checks this blog, two years after my last post, even though I've at least forced myself to keep recording my weight three times every month. But here I am on May 20th, 2019, two years to the day after stepping onto a new digital scale that told me I weighed 303 pounds. As you can see, by a fluke I'm currently down exactly 50 pounds today, which counts as real weight loss. At the same time, though, it's still 90 pounds north of the top end of the normal BMI range for my height. I am still morbidly obese, even if noticeably less fat than before. And I still have intervals when I lose my will power and gain weight back; at the end of last summer, I was actually 20 pounds lighter than I am right now, but last fall and winter I fell off the wagon and its wheels rolled back and forth over me a few times. But 50 pounds is still 50 pounds. I'd rather weight 253 than 303 any day. And I still believe that within a year or two (more likely two), I will see a number on the bathroom scale beginning with "1."<br />
<br />
Over the last two years, I've learned some things and made some changes. I've read enough about some diet myths I used to accept to finally get them out of my mind, where they used to sit making me feel doomed to long-term failure. I get daily encouragement from reading some of the weight-loss and fitness groups on Reddit, where there's a lot of common sense and where so many successful people demonstrate that losing large amounts of weight is possible. Thanks to my employer, I've also joined The Organization Formerly Known As Weight Watchers, as much for the encouragement I get from the meetings as for the actual points system and eating plan. This has all helped. <br />
<br />
Now I just have to push on. I'm not even halfway through 2019 yet, and I want to finish this year lighter than I finished 2018. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-39157543013857156112017-05-20T12:45:00.000-05:002017-05-23T16:03:02.725-05:00Anxiety & ReliefToday I got a new digital bathroom scale delivered from Amazon - purchased in large part because my previous scale has been giving an Error message since mid-November, meaning that I'd passed the dreaded line into numbers beginning with 3 (older bathroom scales didn't go higher than that). I kept thinking that surely my weight would dip back down and I'd see an actual number again, but it hadn't happened since the January 31st weigh-in, which gave me 297 right after the liquid fast and purge for my colonoscopy the week before. Other than that, it's been all "ER" since November 20th. <br /> <br /> Finally, the anxiety of having no idea how much more than 299.5 I weighed conquered the fear of seeing some horrific number, and I ordered a better one with a higher limit - because how can you monitor or motivate yourself when you can't even know if you're losing or gaining unless you drop back into the scale's range?! Given that it's been nearly 6 months of error messages, I was imagining that my weight was still climbing upwards - 310, 320, who knows how far I'd gone?! <br /> <br /> So today the scale arrived, I unpacked it and put the batteries in, and fired it up. And much to my relief, it only said 303. (Yes, I know: "only.") I've obviously been hovering right in that just-above-300 range all winter/spring rather than continuing to gain. That's just 7 pounds ahead of where I was in May last year, which at least doesn't indicate a catastrophic spin out of control. Of course, though, the relief is mixed with the sinking feeling that this must be my body's new set point that I don't exceed but also have trouble dropping below - like the 280-285 set point I used to have 5-10 years ago. I'm hoping that actually being able to see numbers again will be helpful in motivation, though.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-85142703618078151572015-03-31T07:47:00.000-05:002015-03-31T07:49:00.391-05:00Quarterly Report<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bFT6ipdhUWB2U8t_D0jVoPrX0V187nxJWmpxj1GNsTfenH-VQ-9Pu02oU2jdTQx8UatByc8gF0N7gqQVxd-aBpvnDOFAKPN7dYtKJzFqL00gpuo6LDMjL1k7arGWKweUFJ8ysigcF_vd/s1600/Sticking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bFT6ipdhUWB2U8t_D0jVoPrX0V187nxJWmpxj1GNsTfenH-VQ-9Pu02oU2jdTQx8UatByc8gF0N7gqQVxd-aBpvnDOFAKPN7dYtKJzFqL00gpuo6LDMjL1k7arGWKweUFJ8ysigcF_vd/s1600/Sticking.jpg" height="279" width="320" /></a></div>
Consider this a quarterly report. <br />
<br />
As you can see over to the right, this first quarter of the year was uneven, with plateauing and even weight gain, but in the latter half of March, I managed to refocus and end up precisely on schedule. Of course, if I'd stayed focused the whole time, I might be ahead of schedule now, but I'm focusing more on not repeating those mistakes in the future.<br />
<br />
While we're on the subject, what were those mistakes?<br />
<br />
1. I let myself slide away from the intermittent fasting part of my new system, the part where so many days/week I'm supposed to go from dinner one day to dinner the next day without eating anything in between. Those intervals are when fat gets burned, because no new fuel is coming in. But I started allowing myself nibbles and noshes at other times (in the name of "energy", of course) as long as the calories were low and the foods were healthful; even though those small pick-me-ups weren't adding much to my calorie total, they were keeping my system from going into "fast mode" and dipping into the long-term fat reserves.<br />
<br />
2. I let the number of calories on the fast days creep upwards, seduced partly by MyFitnessPal's running calorie count. I started thinking, "Well, my weight maintenance total is around 2000-2400 calories/day, so if I restrict myself to 1200 calories, I'm still running a deficit." But even though holding the line at some decent percent on what were then only nominal fast days was good behavior and prevented any serious collateral damage, a 50% day is still not a fast day and it isn't going to yield those results. Fast days need to be down around 25% (600 calories) for the serious fat burn effect, and there need to be a few of them each week.<br />
<br />
So, live and learn. I know at least part of what I was doing wrong, which is at least part of avoiding the same traps during the next 3 months. <br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-18371850050896374692015-01-01T14:42:00.001-06:002015-01-01T14:42:21.488-06:00Not Giving Up Quite Yet ....<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdLO_P9fASqyPXG1IQhOcnKwMzFggUpbl-pQLesWOtFkmqsa7FB5Az2UxJRUrSGpL9UR2gbtaAFBHssdWVWDgoeiDeUsbcarPev-mEcHqymfmrDlHP-G9SqSG2D2DNU3az_FQ7M2biu25Z/s1600/optimism-nzc83trq1-87901-500-425.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdLO_P9fASqyPXG1IQhOcnKwMzFggUpbl-pQLesWOtFkmqsa7FB5Az2UxJRUrSGpL9UR2gbtaAFBHssdWVWDgoeiDeUsbcarPev-mEcHqymfmrDlHP-G9SqSG2D2DNU3az_FQ7M2biu25Z/s1600/optimism-nzc83trq1-87901-500-425.jpg" height="272" width="320" /></a><br />
Yes, I have the weight blogger's typical (but totally understandable!) habit: I put off posting for weeks and months if I don't have anything to boast about. In 2014 I did keep updating my weight in the log to the right, no matter how depressing the numbers might be, but otherwise the first nine months of 2014 did nothing to motivate me to write new entries: I started the year at 289.5 lbs., then stayed in lose-a-little-gain-it-back mode all the way through September. I was not very happy about this, weighing so much and making no real progress. <br />
<br />
In October, though, my birthday started approaching and so did (more distantly) a December trip I had planned to New York. I don't like feeling trapped in a weight rut when my birthday rolls around, partly because that's so often been my target date for major weight loss goals that didn't materialize. And the New York trip would of course involve plane travel, and I hate Flying While Fat: I hate imagining as I walk down the aisle that people are thinking, "Please, God, don't let him be sitting by me", and I hate worrying that this will finally be the trip when I have to ask for a seat-belt extender. <br />
<br />
Whether either of those feelings was the actual cause or not, in October I somehow started gaining a bit of traction, eating more carefully and saying "no" a little more often. I also tried to get on the elliptical more regularly. <br />
<br />
Then in November I became curious about various kinds of intermittent fasting/calorie restriction, approaches like Michael Moseley's 5:2 diet and Krista Varady's Every Other Day diet. Being me, of course, I bought used copies of their books on Amazon, then based on their ideas decided to try eating only 500-600 calories two or three non-consecutive days a week, but to let myself go (within reason) the rest of the time. No forbidden foods, and no day-in-day-out regimen. <br />
<br />
So far I'm getting good results from it: today the scale put me at 250.5 pounds, 39 pounds down from last January 1st and 43 pounds down from my worst 2014 (and lifetime!) weight, 293.5 on July 10th. I like not living in perpetual self-denial, too. <br />
<br />
The question, of course, will be how well this might still be working in 6 months or a year. Like every chronic dieter, I've had initial success with various approaches that didn't prove effective or sustainable in the long run. Intermittent calorie restriction seems more promising right now, but only time will tell. And in the meantime, I feel a bit like that elephant in the picture!<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-37881394104385474912014-03-20T13:01:00.000-05:002014-03-20T13:01:32.986-05:00Back to the very beginning, it's a very good place to start ....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirbgsiNsjo0A9MdAzewQCOcfD5X5-Vh-BDV8B7C5oeYqGzdQTIhfRyPxq6FvewVBosjMARlF6Q9Li2OzEEwKNHBT89l86Kt1lWLGn86FewTMHpZiN2qddJ3NkOK-hC2kTNnmhxyELzhXXE/s1600/The+Beginning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirbgsiNsjo0A9MdAzewQCOcfD5X5-Vh-BDV8B7C5oeYqGzdQTIhfRyPxq6FvewVBosjMARlF6Q9Li2OzEEwKNHBT89l86Kt1lWLGn86FewTMHpZiN2qddJ3NkOK-hC2kTNnmhxyELzhXXE/s1600/The+Beginning.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
So the scale was kind this morning, especially so in light of my lack of
elliptical time lately: for whatever reason (maybe because I haven't left the
house since Sunday and I've been living on Lean Cuisines, low-fat cottage
cheese, non-fat yogurt, and fruit), I somehow dropped 4 lbs since the 10th. (I
need to go to Panera less, I think.)</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Depressingly, though, my refrigerator spreadsheet and this blog tell me that I'm <i>exactly</i>
where I was on February 1st ... of 2009! That was when I had an epiphany and I
decided I was going to dig in, take charge, blah blah blah. And I was going to
weigh 100 lbs less when I turned 50. Ha! So, after all the intervening upping
and downing and running and ellipticalling (hey, if I say it's a word, it's a
word), I'm exactly where I was 5 years ago, except with a 5-year older and
slower metabolism. <i>*sigh*</i></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
I suppose, on the bright side, it's better than being worse off than I was 5 years ago. </div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-61593226939341379392013-08-31T13:53:00.000-05:002013-08-31T13:53:31.603-05:00Persistence - Virtue or Willful Stupidity?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvWxbtoijNxZvq-Oa3oH3Z9p5JIX5hTfDF8X-ZXzJL0qahOTB2AQh4nCMoO3Xnp_Q1zA4pOlDJcDGVOLEdlGYYHzzU9G6WbnFzPK29dSXS9vkJedhlZGZrk3XVZastFtdJ1XPjKAMny6Y/s1600/kanji_persistence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvWxbtoijNxZvq-Oa3oH3Z9p5JIX5hTfDF8X-ZXzJL0qahOTB2AQh4nCMoO3Xnp_Q1zA4pOlDJcDGVOLEdlGYYHzzU9G6WbnFzPK29dSXS9vkJedhlZGZrk3XVZastFtdJ1XPjKAMny6Y/s320/kanji_persistence.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I keep a spreadsheet on my refrigerator door. It tracks my weight back to 2004. During that time - almost a decade now! - I've weighed as much as 294 and as little as 202. It shows my best efforts, like the 18 months when I managed to stay below 225, and my worst, like the most recent 20-plus months, when I've remained stuck in the 270s and 280s. Anything encouraging on this spreadsheet seems more than cancelled out by the rest of it: not only have I failed to maintain substantial weight loss on the relatively rare occasions I've achieved it, but the weight losses I did temporarily achieve were never even enough to move me on the BMI chart from Obese to Overweight. A rational person would not predict future success based on this decade's worth of hard data. <br />
<br />
But yet, I keep stepping onto the scale and recording my weight on the spreadsheet 3 times every month. And every so often I summon up a surge of will power, clean out the kitchen, and try to be more conscientious about using the elliptical machine. I'm not even sure why, because I honestly have a hard time imagining that (or <i>how</i>), at nearly 50, I'm going to be able to achieve and maintain the kind of weight loss that's consistently eluded me throughout my 30s and 40s.<br />
<br />
But yet, I never quite give up. Maybe it's the fear that if I ever listed the elliptical on Ebay and gave my running shoes to Good Will, then soooner or later my weight would cross the 300-pound mark, I'd turn into a recluse, and someday I'd be on the news when the EMT's had to cut a hole in the side of my house to get me out! Or maybe it's the simple vanity of still hoping that someday I can reach and maintain a weight which wouldn't be the first thing people noticed about me.<br />
<br />
So, I'm persistent. But, given years of only insufficient and temporary successes when my body was younger and responded to diet and exercise more readily, is persistence still a virtue? Is it even smart? I have no idea. <br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-22612880779956647632013-05-20T15:33:00.001-05:002013-05-20T15:33:54.503-05:00Why It All Seems So Futile Sometimes ....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhksZOCB-TJm5G4MBhVdM4boEviIRJML7RmSb4vBl3SC8bpf88uZnuX47lU2QGh2WmVOkPRCINN91bCo438UuaQH0iGKcJJacGYHatQ3xA5Sh4WQ_1CA2JCdCKYHXVwH3hY3UHXTyKc1VUX/s1600/Charlie-Brown-Lucy-Moves-the-Football-Again.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhksZOCB-TJm5G4MBhVdM4boEviIRJML7RmSb4vBl3SC8bpf88uZnuX47lU2QGh2WmVOkPRCINN91bCo438UuaQH0iGKcJJacGYHatQ3xA5Sh4WQ_1CA2JCdCKYHXVwH3hY3UHXTyKc1VUX/s320/Charlie-Brown-Lucy-Moves-the-Football-Again.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
That feeling of futility .... <br />
<br />
<a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/many-fronts-in-fighting-obesity/">http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/many-fronts-in-fighting-obesity/</a><br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
I quote:</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
"When an overweight person cuts down significantly on what he eats, the
body defends itself by using fewer calories. The effect can be long-lasting: If
a person’s weight drops to 150 pounds from 250, significantly fewer calories
must be consumed daily to stay at that weight than would be necessary if the
person had never been overweight. </div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
"Even if a 170-pound person loses 20 pounds, he needs 15 percent fewer
calories to maintain the new weight than someone who always weighed 150."<br />
<br />
Really, the dispiriting thing about an article like this is that it basically
says, "If you're already overweight, forget those fantasies of losing weight and
living like a 'normal' person, because even if you do, you won't. Oh, and did we mention? Once you've
been overweight: there's about a 99% chance it's already too late." <br />
<br />
*SIGH* </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-74673063879450864642012-03-11T19:27:00.002-05:002012-03-11T19:40:33.854-05:00... and start all over again!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1kNlcJnrE8B6TQ4xDvKjx09QGPTmSzSqADRi7WmiPJgzT6_2UPOAJtQ7iWDSRW8yXPy5XMyM9T0xNX4C1c-rjegkWHokbqB0UhOL_Uaj95BnIlTkGmHmFwB2T83kWKHLebcucEVH8wBsi/s1600/Pick+Yourself+Up.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1kNlcJnrE8B6TQ4xDvKjx09QGPTmSzSqADRi7WmiPJgzT6_2UPOAJtQ7iWDSRW8yXPy5XMyM9T0xNX4C1c-rjegkWHokbqB0UhOL_Uaj95BnIlTkGmHmFwB2T83kWKHLebcucEVH8wBsi/s200/Pick+Yourself+Up.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5718801115585182562" border="0" /></a><br />"Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again." That's the attitude I'm taking right now, faced with the reality that not only did I fall off the wagon, I tumbled all the way down the hill, too. <br /><br />As the graph and the weight log to the right show, over the last several months I've managed to surrender all the territory I won since I started <span style="font-style: italic;">Sancho Panza's Weighty Thoughts</span> back in February 2009. I decided, though, that I wasn't going to delete the blog or even reboot it - pretending that I didn't lose over 70 pounds and then gain it back is not going to help. <br /><br />Instead, I'm leaving the unvarnished truth up here for anyone to read who stumbles onto this blog. Yes, I lost a substantial amount of weight, and yes, I gained it all back. But I'm going to focus on the first half of that statement. I did lose it. That means I can lose it again. My new target date for losing those unnecessary 100 pounds: October 26, 2013. The day I turn 50. It would be very cool to weigh myself that day and see a number representing a real achievement like that.<br /><br />Wish me luck.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-65161419894809445682011-08-06T11:23:00.007-05:002011-08-06T12:06:31.939-05:00Making Myself Scream<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiU8oEZtdGk2uWjLN7nzc8_70Zjbzo1amC7HKvFJ6Qq7jL59PvovQSlrAtUCupicyprXd4SgRAoixahSlKr76pFxP56LE0L-CGbCnSsbaxQjiXtAJdYuYcSaHWSlsfeE7rf6n7g3HGAaqB/s1600/The_Scream-WR400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 134px; height: 200px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637781881197223650" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiU8oEZtdGk2uWjLN7nzc8_70Zjbzo1amC7HKvFJ6Qq7jL59PvovQSlrAtUCupicyprXd4SgRAoixahSlKr76pFxP56LE0L-CGbCnSsbaxQjiXtAJdYuYcSaHWSlsfeE7rf6n7g3HGAaqB/s200/The_Scream-WR400.jpg" border="0" /></a><div> </div><div>In her excellent book <em>Refuse to Regain</em> and on <a href="http://refusetoregain.com/">her website of the same name</a>, Barbara Berkeley has coined the phrase "scream weight" for a previously heavy person's new upper limit - the number which will trigger Full Diet Mode the moment it shows up on the scale, heading off any further backsliding before it gets out of hand.<br /><br /></div><div> </div><div>I like this concept a lot. Setting this kind of limit seems good common sense. But, speaking as someone who's gained back a lot of lost weight over the years, I can also say there's a problem with it: you have to regularly and ruthlessly climb onto the scale to see your Scream Weight in the first place.<br /><br /></div><div> </div><div>This has always been a problem for me. The moment I start to backslide after a successful spell of dieting (excuse me, "lifestyle modification"!), I also start avoiding the bathroom scale - denial is part of backsliding. I'm aware that I'm eating food I shouldn't, I can see and feel that I'm putting weight back on, so it's very easy to talk myself out of finding out exactly how bad things are getting. And if I don't get on the scale and see a number greater than my Scream Weight, then that dietary and fitness "red alert" (cue <em>Star Trek</em> claxon sound here) doesn't kick in.<br /><br /></div><div> </div><div>Usually, of course, once I've eaten my way back into my fatter clothes and my wardrobe options narrow, I do finally force myself to climb onto the scale and assess the damage. By then, though, I've exceeded my Scream Weight by thirty or forty pounds, and it will be months before I get back there, much less below it.<br /><br /></div><div> </div><div>Scream Weight is a great concept for catching a bad trend before it gains traction. But it only works when you have the self-discipline to keep checking your weight, so there's a paradox in play. If you have the self-discipline to do that, you're probably also able to maintain at least most of your good eating and exercise habits, so there's less chance you'll have a Scream Weight crisis in the first place. The people who really need those regular reality checks, though, are also the ones, like me, who are most likely to persuade themselves to let the scale gather dust "just until they get back into the groove" or whatever. And then the damage mounts.<br /><br /></div><div> </div><div>Self-monitoring: it's obviously necessary for long-term success, but it's hard, especially on the days you know you won't like what you see on the scale. </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-87432052420378925152011-07-26T18:40:00.005-05:002011-07-26T19:01:31.049-05:00Trench Warfare<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXnp5kIy_l4rkbGQAkCRyA8Yc7H4WRI048yQP7QD5Gi-WuCBSCD_CWW__lIvgjmEYzGWFMXv_atHdKKtCgJMXrJ8_bJRWasiqx1sIaF5k1XFCyjFjvGJaEgC5_BrNOOsMKC6UlRo-oa0yL/s1600/Trench-Warfare.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 200px; height: 117px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633810369565217266" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXnp5kIy_l4rkbGQAkCRyA8Yc7H4WRI048yQP7QD5Gi-WuCBSCD_CWW__lIvgjmEYzGWFMXv_atHdKKtCgJMXrJ8_bJRWasiqx1sIaF5k1XFCyjFjvGJaEgC5_BrNOOsMKC6UlRo-oa0yL/s200/Trench-Warfare.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div>Dieting is like trench warfare in World War I.<br /><br /></div><div> </div><div>Obviously, dieting can't compare to actual trench warfare for sheer horror and misery - but there are similarities. Trench warfare was an agonizingly slow process, where one side could spend months struggling to advance only a few hundred yards across a battlefield strewn with barbed wire; then, of course, the other side would often recapture those few hundred yards, equally gradually, and after months of struggle, everyone would be in the same trenches where they'd begun. Even worse, sometimes those soldiers who first advanced, then retreated, lost even more ground.<br /><br /></div><div> </div><div>You see where I'm going with this, don't you? Dieting feels like that to me: months of striving to take off however many pounds, followed by gaining most or all of it back and then desperately trying not to surrender any additional territory beyond that. It feels as though I were back to Square One, but scarier than that is the anxiety that I could end up back to Square Minus-One! <br /><br /></div><div>On the other hand, fighting in the trenches is better than surrendering, right?</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-18577402728064002172011-05-20T12:16:00.007-05:002011-07-26T19:05:01.320-05:00Call Me Sisyphus<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Y9atwOIRh-G3SMeYdaj-bXTwshSWSgkDkKZ-Focx9EfY8xSKDQ2-_YB8zrobG85lTv53GGc5OvNBH2mddmfM_9vcmMLmEvC2056gxQovHxOxtPOx0mOSYnsru7RaYziDsy68Mrudmyxp/s1600/sisyphus.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5608848694865723154" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Y9atwOIRh-G3SMeYdaj-bXTwshSWSgkDkKZ-Focx9EfY8xSKDQ2-_YB8zrobG85lTv53GGc5OvNBH2mddmfM_9vcmMLmEvC2056gxQovHxOxtPOx0mOSYnsru7RaYziDsy68Mrudmyxp/s200/sisyphus.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Okay, I'm convinced: posting self-confident blog predictions is a sure way to have those predictions not come true. Tempting fate is always a bad idea.<br /><br />And so, here I am, right where I was weight-wise two years ago this month. Last fall the wheels started coming off: I completely lost my motivation, first to drop more weight and then even to maintain the loss I'd already achieved. Starting around my birthday in October, I craved all kinds of high-carb foods, and I ate them - always telling myself that I would behave myself "starting tomorrow" or "after Thanksgiving" or "after the holidays" or whatever. But tomorrow did not come, and the weight gain was fast and steady. Worse, I stopped checking the scale, deliberately avoiding the hard numbers which would might have rattled me enough to change my McDonalds fries- and Panera pastries-fueled momentum.<br /><br />There's not much good news to take from this, except these small consolations:<br />1. I did manage to get back on the scale last week, knowing that what I'd see would motivate me.<br />2. I stopped before I exceeded my previous peak weight; it's one thing to gain lost weight back, but it's even more demoralizing to gain back even more.<br />3. I did do an Atkins-centered grocery run, filling my refrigerator and pantry with the kinds of foods I need to start eating again and throwing out the bad stuff.<br />4. I started eating those foods again.<br />5. I do know how to lose the weight now.<br /><br />On the other hand, it's also discouraging to feel as though not only will I never achieve my 100-pound weight loss goal, but I can also never trust myself not to backslide. Ever.<br /><br />Just call me Sisyphus.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-47414239376536133442010-05-21T14:10:00.003-05:002010-05-21T15:14:23.945-05:00Living Low-Carb, One Year Later<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXwhadVzHgekTaSvoZJgBKsatwrp87Ll1F7RU4Fl0LVf-T3zF27C7R5xSH5e6cYgv6wJAp-zbkdeCF4OKpaBS8p8-3JacEs7CBcmySXH9RhFOjxXedTTVI6w4_I3hrnAII8WLoq-uJ4cr8/s1600/atkins_diet.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 173px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXwhadVzHgekTaSvoZJgBKsatwrp87Ll1F7RU4Fl0LVf-T3zF27C7R5xSH5e6cYgv6wJAp-zbkdeCF4OKpaBS8p8-3JacEs7CBcmySXH9RhFOjxXedTTVI6w4_I3hrnAII8WLoq-uJ4cr8/s200/atkins_diet.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473803113372186242" /></a><br /><div>It was one year ago today that I decided to try a low-carb diet. I'd begun yet another diet (and this blog!) on February 1st, 2009, and I hadn't made much progress on the low-fat, restricted-calorie system I'd always previously used to take off excess weight (though, obviously, not with long-term success!). But after reading a lot about the low-carb approach online and buying the original Atkins diet book, I decided to give it a shot.</div><div><br /></div><div>And here I am, one year later and 65 pounds lighter - from 273 lbs. on May 20, 2009 to 208 lbs. on May 20, 2010. Am I pleased? Oh yes. It hasn't always been easy, and there was one period between my birthday in late October and New Year's where my sugar cravings got out of control and I got lazy about exercising; on the other hand, as I've commented before, that might have been good for me, because I learned that I could stop that kind of slide before it got too far out of hand, instead of feeling powerless like I had in the past. </div><div><br /></div><div>More important, I'm nearing the best weight I achieved on my last low-fat, calorie-counting diet: 202 lbs., in the early summer of 2007. (In fact, that's the best weight I have recorded for myself going back to 2004, when I was in the 250's; I don't have records from prior to that.) But then I got an injury that put a stop to my running and my will power evaporated, and I quickly started gaining weight back. Worse, I stopped weighing myself out of avoidance, and by November of that year I found myself over 250 lbs. again, well on my way to passing the 280-pound mark yet one more time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Looking back, though, I think at least part of the problem in 2007 was that even before I got injured and couldn't run, I was already nearing the end of my "diet rope" with the low-fat system. I was bone-tired of never feeling full, never eating any rich foods, and practicing the various other kinds of daily, even hourly self-denial that kind of lifestyle requires. (And I'm sure all the low-calorie carbs were not helping my glucose and insulin situation, either.) Right now, though, I'm not feeling that way about living low-carb. I'm still enjoying what I'm allowed to eat, the occasional sugar cravings are manageable, and I'm seeing my best weight in 3 years and perhaps my best fitness level ever. I definitely feel that I can maintain this for some time to come, though it's impossible to know for sure.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the meantime, though, I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Wish me luck as we head into summer. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-42155215734018594882010-05-15T14:50:00.007-05:002010-05-15T18:30:56.042-05:00The Tortoise and the Hares<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCeg8hyphenhyphenC8k6gXfguGhpKz5TPSICH7v6ODMSQDVX_QSb6iIASgLS6hhSQh8KfwFBa-QEIo0mg8vGxKs8JWGyM6hyMY3fQuwyLaFcJprVYC98uTrmEBHnI8-b62fsPZajUYgkBsQ3H22HLOm/s1600/SeeSpotRun.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 136px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCeg8hyphenhyphenC8k6gXfguGhpKz5TPSICH7v6ODMSQDVX_QSb6iIASgLS6hhSQh8KfwFBa-QEIo0mg8vGxKs8JWGyM6hyMY3fQuwyLaFcJprVYC98uTrmEBHnI8-b62fsPZajUYgkBsQ3H22HLOm/s200/SeeSpotRun.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471586648309803490" /></a><br /><div>This morning I ran a 5k for the third time since last fall: the cleverly-named <a href="http://www.theseespotrun.com">See Spot Run</a> in Guthrie, Oklahoma, a race to benefit the no-kill Free to Live animal sanctuary north of Edmond. It's a good cause and a good motivation to keep pushing myself while working out, so I figured, why not? </div><div><br /></div><div>My time was also okay - a 31:33, only 2 minutes and 17 seconds faster than today's winning time for the 10k, which certainly keeps my speed in perspective. On the other hand, that's a minute faster than the two 10k times I logged last September and October, so obviously I'm improving, however slowly. And I was not the slowest guy in the 45-49 age group, either, which I believe is a first for me! </div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, whatever time I post, I can never let myself forget that running a 5k represents a personal victory for me. It's a fitness victory, since I would never have done this when I weighed 285 pounds and had a hard enough time just hauling my body off the sofa, much less moving it faster than a slow walk for 3 miles.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even more important, though, it's a self-esteem victory. I know I'm no longer enormous, but I'm also well-aware that I don't exactly cut an athletic figure out there, weighing as much as I still do. There was a time when I would not have wanted to expose either my out-of-shape body or my less-than-graceful running style in front of race spectators, but I'm much better with that now. They might not know how much weight I've lost and what running a 5k represents for me, but I know it, and that's enough. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-49517484536702629222010-04-25T20:58:00.019-05:002010-04-26T01:17:05.432-05:00I Love Marcella Hazan!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzggPkCC1oGp_4c8BzU5rJ-y5zFb_KsmE1pvY_20wgVRuwL9Of1oM4qE1ZIMdaUv25amIy4Ug96GxSBwg5-1RBUNxHtEGn_bACK-FMeaQyAjuP09vT8tzI26_8xL4nMZJE9OrGIMI0wAID/s1600/DSC00323.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzggPkCC1oGp_4c8BzU5rJ-y5zFb_KsmE1pvY_20wgVRuwL9Of1oM4qE1ZIMdaUv25amIy4Ug96GxSBwg5-1RBUNxHtEGn_bACK-FMeaQyAjuP09vT8tzI26_8xL4nMZJE9OrGIMI0wAID/s200/DSC00323.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464260092111057170" /></a><div><br /></div><div><div>I was so pleased with how tonight's dinner turned out that I took a picture of it! The chicken is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1Rf9ck3sE8">Marcella Hazan</a>'s Roast Chicken with Lemons from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Classic-Italian-Cooking-Marcella/dp/039458404X"><i>Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking</i></a> - an utterly simple, totally rewarding recipe. On the side was fresh asparagus from the local farmer's market, roasted in the oven with some olive oil. Very healthful and very yummy!</div><div><br /></div><div>Marcella Hazan's recipe (<i>Essentials</i>, pp. 327-328):</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.</div><div><br /></div><div>2. Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, both inside and out. Remove all the bits of fat hanging loose. Let the bird sit for about 10 minutes on a slightly tilted plate to let all the water drain out of it. Pat it thoroughly dry all over with cloth or paper towels.</div><div><br /></div><div>3. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and black pepper on the chicken, rubbing it with your fingers over all its body and into its cavity.</div><div><br /></div><div>4. Wash the lemons in cold water and dry them with a towel. Soften each lemon by placing it on a counter and rolling it back and forth as you put firm downward pressure on it with the palm of your hand. Puncture the lemons in at least 20 places each, using a sturdy round toothpick, a trussing needle, a sharp-pointed fork, or similar implement.</div><div><br /></div><div>5. Place both lemons in the bird's cavity. Close up the opening with toothpicks or with trussing needle and string. Close it well, but don't make an absolutely airtight job of it because the chicken may burst. Run kitchen string from one leg to the other, tying it at both knuckle ends. Leave the legs in their natural position without pulling them tight. If the skin is unbroken, the chicken will puff up as it cooks, and the string serves only to keep the thighs from spreading apart and splitting the skin.</div><div><br /></div><div>6. Put the chicken into a roasting pan, breast facing down. Do not add cooking fat of any kind. This bird is self-basting, so you need not fear it will stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the preheated oven. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken over to have the breast face up. When turning it, try not to puncture the skin. If kept intact, the chicken will swell like a balloon, which makes for an arresting presentation at the table later. Do not worry too much about it, however, because even if it fails to swell, the flavor will not be affected.</div><div><br /></div><div>7. Cook for another 30 to 35 minutes, then turn the oven thermostat up to 400 degrees, and cook for an additional 20 minutes. Calculate between 20 and 25 minutes total cooking time for each pound. <i>[If your chicken is bigger than the recipe suggests, increase the time spent cooking the bird on both sides at 350. Don't add to the 20 minutes at 400 or else you might dry out the meat. - Sancho.]</i> There is no need to turn the chicken again.</div><div><br /></div><div>8. Whether your bird has puffed up or not, bring it to the table whole and leave the lemons inside until it is carved and opened. The juices that run out are perfectly delicious. Be sure to spoon them over the chicken slices. The lemons will have shriveled up, but they still contain some juice; do not squeeze them, they may squirt.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-52275299642248525072010-03-17T20:13:00.005-05:002010-03-17T20:44:52.428-05:00The Other Kind of Exercise<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LWa6LYsZXfuHzHbdBJBzIwjJ8Elkv5fxEX23i5QNzJB3Untr8SOD1MvhquLh1BUyPh4dc50CYwTD5GvtmyDZ5iZFIlJ6N1HXRlbtT0nT8FRS4R00mXzej4fXlDHx5YDdDnqoVLkZzfIu/s1600-h/American_Gothic.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 156px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LWa6LYsZXfuHzHbdBJBzIwjJ8Elkv5fxEX23i5QNzJB3Untr8SOD1MvhquLh1BUyPh4dc50CYwTD5GvtmyDZ5iZFIlJ6N1HXRlbtT0nT8FRS4R00mXzej4fXlDHx5YDdDnqoVLkZzfIu/s200/American_Gothic.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449778701467551634" /></a><br /><div>Modern exercise is a funny thing, you have to admit: it's an imitation of and a substitute for the actual exercise that people in earlier generations did as part of daily life. To burn calories and improve our cardiovascular fitness, we go to the gym, where we have machines that allow us to pretend we're climbing real stairs or running actual distances or biking up and down genuine mountains. This is synthetic exercise, a simulacrum of true exertion invented and very profitably marketed by the fitness industry to compensate for the one-two punch of the Standard American Diet and a convenience-based, efficiency-oriented, and technology-driven national lifestyle. </div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, I'm as guilty as many people of buying into synthetic exercise, since I have an elliptical trainer which allows me to stay indoors in bad weather rather than venture outside, and which I use to compensate for a college professor's very sedentary daily routine, where the big exertion comes when I have to carry books to the library and back. I'm in no position to scold, but at least I'm <i>aware</i> of the modern irony of fitness: if people didn't insist on driving everywhere and parking within 20 feet of their destination, for example, they might not need to spend so much time on the treadmill in the first place.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was especially aware of that irony today, when I skipped the elliptical but spent two hours in my back yard, using a shovel and a pitchfork (hence today's picture!) to turn the soil for this year's vegetable garden - in this part of the country, we need to get the cool weather veggies in the ground by now if we want them to grow before the hot weather rolls in. I don't have a huge garden, but digging even a small one for two hours means a fair amount of genuine exercise, one sort of real manual labor that existed long before elliptical machines and stairmasters. And better still, that work I did had an actual purpose beyond burning calories: in a couple months I will be eating healthful, home-grown food from that garden, which will make me healthier still and save me money besides. Nowadays this might be the "other kind" of exercise, but there's definitely something to be said for it. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-42297031470548604802010-03-12T09:14:00.006-06:002010-03-12T10:29:21.908-06:00I Just Can't Hold My Yogurt!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg1DYI7mHh1ee3zo2KdCDXXldc_cw0CPD4dKg7T5AkA3g27jhdQ5SNfYo4Y5x06WIEWyF4id7IFr7JVN-47ZCgNu-tRu21RiGIDFPEG6C23WVjZC0wR5ef53yct9qr9ek9YHnRriKa178N/s1600-h/greekyogurt.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 155px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg1DYI7mHh1ee3zo2KdCDXXldc_cw0CPD4dKg7T5AkA3g27jhdQ5SNfYo4Y5x06WIEWyF4id7IFr7JVN-47ZCgNu-tRu21RiGIDFPEG6C23WVjZC0wR5ef53yct9qr9ek9YHnRriKa178N/s200/greekyogurt.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447766583188703298" /></a><br /><div>A big part of losing weight for me is avoiding foods that make me hungrier - the dreaded "high glycemic index" foods that cause havoc with insulin levels and trigger binges. Based on that concept and on my other "rules", I recently decided I might be able to add some Greek yogurt to my diet - no added sugars, classified as low-GI, and a carb count per serving that I could make work. Since I like my yogurt tart, I'm not tempted to mix fruit or jam into it, either. A few tablespoons should have made a great dessert or snack.</div><div><br /></div><div>The results? I found out I just can't hold my yogurt - or at least, I can't hold the line on how much I eat! It was amazing how quickly every new (and expensive!) container of Greek yogurt ended up empty in the sink. Worse, not only did one serving of yogurt make me hungry for more, it also gave me cravings for other sweet foods and made me hungrier in general. I don't keep sweet stuff in the house and I always summoned up enough will power not to grab the car keys and head out in search of my biggest vices: chocolate, dried fruit, or worst of all, a combination of those like chocolate-covered raisins. However, I couldn't stop myself from doing a few late-night "mini-binges" of the meat, cheese, and other low-carb foods which I do keep in the house. And as everyone who's ever tried to lose weight knows, that sense of weakening control over your appetite is a terrifying feeling. If I'd been in a 12-step program, I think I would have had to call my sponsor! </div><div><br /></div><div>There's some disagreement online about yogurt consumption when a person is trying to lose weight (those probiotics are very trendy right now), but it does seem that yogurt has a very high insulin index, in spite of its acceptable glycemic index. Apparently some foods which are not high-GI nevertheless elicit a major insulin response - and of course that elevation in insulin production can trigger the usual cycle of hunger pangs and fat storage in someone like me, bringing weight loss to a dead stop.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, I guess I will be giving up the Greek yogurt for now. Maybe I'll add it to my "Someday in Moderation" list. And in the meantime, I can at least feel better about saving money and not adding more plastic containers to my recycling bin. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-35178481089341059772010-02-28T19:43:00.004-06:002010-02-28T19:50:46.541-06:00A Shout-Out to Sheryl at *Bitch Cakes*<div>This is a great entry on rebounding from missteps and lapses by one of my favorite weight-loss bloggers, Sheryl at *Bitch Cakes*. Check it out! </div><div><br /></div><a href="http://msbitchcakes.blogspot.com/2010/02/reader-question-how-do-you-recover-from.html">Bitch Cakes: How Do You Recover from Tough Times?</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-85818601801977702352010-02-28T16:08:00.006-06:002010-02-28T16:30:39.108-06:00Lost Territory Regained<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><em><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Lake Mileage: 9k</span></span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span><em><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">MP3 Player: Madonna, The Immaculate Collection</span></span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span><em><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Currently Reading: Satyr Square: A Year, A Life in Rome (Leonard Barkan</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">)</span></span></span></em></span></i></span></div><div><br /></div>I was <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">pleased</span> with the number on the scale this morning: 226 lbs. Not only is this figure comfortably past the 50-pound mark, but it's also the weight I'd achieved late last September, before I started to backslide through early January. <div><br /></div><div>Obviously, I wish I'd spent the months between late September and now losing additional weight rather than re-gaining and re-losing some poundage, but at least now I'm back on track. In fact, I'm once again on track in the overall "100 pounds in 2 years" plan, as shown by the graph on the right-hand side of this page. I'd like to start putting up some numbers below the tracking line, but at least I'm no longer sitting above it. </div><div><br /></div><div>And who knows? Maybe this recent delay allowed my body to get accustomed to weighing less than 280+ pounds, and that will help in the long run. Only time will tell about that. Right now, though, I'll happily settle for being on track again.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-47033637227068500262010-02-01T11:22:00.005-06:002010-02-01T11:53:10.050-06:00One Year, 43 Pounds Later (and Lighter!)Unbelievably enough, it was a year ago today when I decided to add weight loss blogging to my list of ways to motivate myself. It's definitely been an up-and-down year in terms of success, but here's how I would sum it up the key points.<div><br /></div><div>-I began with yet another effort at low-fat and restricted-calorie eating, which wasn't nearly as effective as it had been in the past, and then in May 2009 I tried the low-carb Atkins approach, which was definitely more effective and did take some weight off. I really appreciate an eating plan where I'm not feeling food-deprived all the time, which I'm sure was part of the reason that the restricted-calorie diets didn't work in the long term for me - that, and the fact that carbs messed up my blood sugar and made me even hungrier. </div><div><br /></div><div>-I had periods of solid weight loss, but I also hit some plateaus and had one dangerous backslide in the fall, when I regained 15-20 pounds after reaching a good low at the end of the summer. Unlike a few other times in my life, though, I didn't stop weighing myself and gradually give up when I saw things heading in reverse. (A definite benefit of blogging: if I hadn't committed myself to posting my weight here every 10 days, the scale might be gathering dust by now while I played the Denial Game!) </div><div><br /></div><div>-I made a lot of progress in terms of exercise. Last year I was satisfied with 25 minutes on the elliptical machine; now I do at least an hour every time I climb onto it. </div><div><br /></div><div>So here I am, one year later, with a lower resting pulse and a net weight loss of 43 pounds. How do I feel about that? Honestly, I was aiming for at least 50: my goal was - and to some extent still is - to take off 100 pounds in 2 years, so I fell a little short this past year. On the other hand, I got most of those 50, and 43 pounds is still a substantial amount of weight; the calculator tells me that's over 15% of the 280.5 pounds I started with. </div><div><br /></div><div>So overall, it was a good year. I guess I should celebrate by starting Year Two off with an hour or so on the elliptical! </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-32868305952010477882010-01-31T12:10:00.004-06:002010-01-31T14:11:01.764-06:00Speaking Too SoonI'm starting to suspect that blogging about weight loss awakens mysterious unseen forces which keep us from getting too confident: that is, no sooner do I write a confident post than whatever positive trends I'd noticed will change. It's enough to make a person superstitious, in a "don't tempt fate" or "don't get the gods angry" kind of way.<div><br /></div><div>Clearly, my most recent post was overconfident to some degree. I expected to have dropped at least a couple more pounds in the 10 days between that post and this one, especially since I've remained steady in my commitment to working out and I've actually increased the length of my sessions on the elliptical; I never do anything less than an hour now. Annoyingly enough, though, the scale this morning didn't say what I wanted it to. I'm not ecstatic about the single, solitary pound it says I've shed: at my size, 1 pound can be a totally normal daily variation based on water retention, how much food is in my system, etc. But it does at least mean that I haven't gained any net weight over the last 10 days, which is reassuring to someone like me who can easily acquire poundage with no effort. Also, it goes to show how unpredictable the whole process with all its countless variables can be.</div><div><br /></div><div>So what to do now? Get changed and climb back on the elliptical! Whatever the scale says, today's workout will bring me to a total of 24 days during January. That's a good number for me - it means I spent an entire day this month working out! </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-2966451924709242332010-01-20T11:45:00.002-06:002010-01-20T12:05:46.967-06:00Gaining TractionOver Christmas, we had a blizzard here. Driving in the snow and ice for the next few days took me back to growing up near Syracuse, where bad roads and blocked driveways were a fact of life from December through April. My car even got stuck once, which meant I had to to-and-fro a lot, alternating forward and reverse while trying the steering wheel at different angles, until my faithful Toyota found enough traction to get me off the patch of ice and snow and out of the ruts my tires had spun themselves into. <div><br /></div><div>Obviously, there's a diet metaphor here. For the last few months of 2009, my weight-loss tires couldn't find much traction at all, and I wasn't going in the direction I wanted; I was even sliding backwards into higher numbers on the scale. In the last ten days, though, I've been more rigorous about cutting carbs and doing hard workouts, and today the scale showed definite progress: I got myself off the icy patch of the 240's, where I've been spinning my wheels, and at least for the time being, I feel back in control. Let's hope it lasts ... </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-49011530862626882132010-01-14T17:19:00.004-06:002010-01-14T17:47:28.846-06:00Diet and Exercise, Exercise and DietIf there's one thing on which there's pretty much a consensus in the world of weight loss, it's that effective and sustained slimming-down requires both diet and exercise. This isn't exactly news, despite the fact that every couple weeks another magazine or newspaper or website treats it as if no one had ever suggested the idea before:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.usnews.com/health/diet-fitness/fitness/articles/2010/01/07/for-fitness-cutting-calories-may-not-be-enough.html">For Fitness, Cutting Calories May Not Be Enough - US News and World Report</a><br /><br />In addition, the authors of autobiographical weight-loss books and blogs can't sing this same chorus enough, constantly proclaiming the joyful synergy of the two sides of the process - how their athletic endeavors make them eat better and how their healthful eating fuels their workouts. <br /><br />But me? I have to admit that I have a really hard time doing both at the same time. Right now, for instance, I'm exercising regularly, and that is a rare change from my usual winter lethargy. I'm doing an hour on the elliptical 5-6 days/week, and even going out running occasionally when the sun comes out. <br /><br />But does this uncharacteristic motivation spill over into my eating? Am I able to euphorically control my appetite and thus maximize my weight loss? Nope. Of course, this is partly because the exercise makes me <em>hungry</em>. <em>Very hungry</em>. Worse still, it makes me hungry for sugar, which is a very bad thing. <br /><br />Similarly, there are periods of time when I have no trouble following my diet plans, resisting the temptation to snack, ignoring the siren songs of the vending machine at work, the bakery counter at Panera, and the ease of obtaining drive-through McDonald's french fries on my way home from work. During those times, I have my appetite under control - but am I usually exercising regularly, too? Nope, almost never. Why? Because I don't have the extra energy!<br /><br />Even beyond this interplay of appetite versus energy, I often feel like I only have a certain amount of will power in reserve - and it's enough will power to control my eating or my exercise, but not both at the same time. I can will myself to exercise, but if I do that several times a week, there's not enough left in the tank to also will myself not to eat candy at the movies. And I can will myself to count carbs and stop eating when I reach my daily allotted maximum, but most of the time I can't also force myself into my shorts and Nikes.<br /><br />I do know one solution to the problem: being a different person, an athletic, fit guy with a cooperative metabolism who naturally lives the right way. But I'm me. I like rich foods, and I don't like exercise. Given my druthers, I'd just as soon eat lots of unhealthful foods and sell the elliptical on Ebay - but then I'd get fat to the point of having to buy two seats on the plane, and that's also not acceptable.<br /><br />There are never any easy answers, are there?!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-53311722807270061362010-01-01T11:35:00.008-06:002010-01-01T17:51:42.395-06:00The Envelope, Please?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQm87UejctXChoDcJ9W9uVZVKqSx3F0ZZraO5UdM_MXS8nvQWQcdxLhio8VJrhFdSH8cFGa76yN3SKbbqGQ1xIucyjF6Dd0vcF7Hj77ZYOUHe2ho-BSHdcc-kxrw8sVw5TL3PgNnHDQinO/s1600-h/241.png"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 199px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5421863060472254322" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQm87UejctXChoDcJ9W9uVZVKqSx3F0ZZraO5UdM_MXS8nvQWQcdxLhio8VJrhFdSH8cFGa76yN3SKbbqGQ1xIucyjF6Dd0vcF7Hj77ZYOUHe2ho-BSHdcc-kxrw8sVw5TL3PgNnHDQinO/s200/241.png" /></a><br />Well, it's January 1, 2010, the first New Year's Day of a new decade (at least as popularly measured), and this morning I hopped on the scale to see where I stand. The envelope, please? I'm starting the Tens (or whatever we'll end up calling it) at 241 lbs. <div><br /><div>This number is not spectacular, I'll be the first to admit, and I'd actually hoped to kick off the year in the 230's rather than the 240's, just because it would feel like more of an accomplishment. There's also been a bit of backsliding beginning with my birthday in late October and extending through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's - I'd gotten down into the mid-220's but hit a plateau and then lost some ground.</div><br /><div>But on the other hand, 241 still shows real progress. A year ago, on January 1, 2009, I weighed in at 276, so I'm exactly 35 pounds lighter today. A month after that, on the day I started my latest diet campaign as well as this blog, I weighed 280.5, so I'm nearly 40 lbs. thinner than that now. And my heaviest weight in 2009 was 284, so I've lost 43 pounds from that worst point last year: 15% of that peak weight. All of these numbers are good.</div><br /><div>Also, a look at my exercise logs - okay, that's a fancy way of saying my kitchen calendar, which is where I scribble down how far I run or how long I do the elliptical machine - tells me that I've doubled my workout duration in the past year. Last January I was doing around 25 minutes on the elliptical, but now I'm doing 50-60 minutes every time I use it. That suggests I'm significantly more fit in the cardiovascular area than I was a year ago, and that's probably even more important in terms of my overall health, given that I'm at the age when guys start having their first heart attacks. Not only that, this fall I ran two charity 5k races - I wasn't fast, but I finished them both and wasn't either the oldest or the slowest guy running. They provided me with good motivation (and t-shirts!), so I'd like to do a few more of those this year.</div><br /><div>So where do I go from here? What are my plans for 2010? Obviously, I need to start moving the number on the scale downward again, so I want to go back to the Atkins Induction Phase for a jump-start. I have to cut the carbs way back again to try for measurable results. I want to keep upping my workout length and/or intensity, and this may require a visit to a sports medicine specialist, to find out why I still sometimes get leg pains and cramps when I run. And by this time next year, I'd like to be able to fit into some clothes hanging in my closet that I'm close, but not close enough, to wearing again!</div><br /><div>Happy 2010 to all!</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126884729346079027.post-62326898013316635922009-12-30T00:21:00.009-06:002009-12-30T10:54:51.791-06:00In Praise of Alec Baldwin's Belly: Talkin' 'Bout My Inspiration!<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOh4S0VdqLbzTYJfA8SN6oe0VzrFSD6MLtIxdaPqPfEe-ecgVNpv4mpxETEqgrFupiyaT8SgtLhQU_7891zVALmGKytTRdKAEhIPN7980K7G7DxgiDpHdWFeqDqY9URVrKwTYUslN6vjcW/s1600-h/its_complicated4.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 165px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420911266633806706" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOh4S0VdqLbzTYJfA8SN6oe0VzrFSD6MLtIxdaPqPfEe-ecgVNpv4mpxETEqgrFupiyaT8SgtLhQU_7891zVALmGKytTRdKAEhIPN7980K7G7DxgiDpHdWFeqDqY9URVrKwTYUslN6vjcW/s200/its_complicated4.jpg" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJF9n38eyEIOLPhJs2gJjJpgPCMP0PMGr7oqZz7ts800496ajT789VDsssWaHmlqnpDkjTSaxD4NuUiTS7SHc8VVWSeN14RHoCzd5Kt_xnv4jfJMSKTlrw4t_l2hyy3zEgKp762brXOH6/s1600-h/its_complicated3.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 165px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420911264065097746" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJF9n38eyEIOLPhJs2gJjJpgPCMP0PMGr7oqZz7ts800496ajT789VDsssWaHmlqnpDkjTSaxD4NuUiTS7SHc8VVWSeN14RHoCzd5Kt_xnv4jfJMSKTlrw4t_l2hyy3zEgKp762brXOH6/s200/its_complicated3.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><span style="font-size:78%;">(Alec Baldwin in <em>It's Complicated</em>)</span><br /></div><br />Now, I'm not usually prone to giving movie stars blog space - they already have publicists to make sure their pics are everywhere. I also don't like to overpraise Nancy Meyer's fun but formulaic romantic comedies aimed at "women of a certain age", especially given their complete absence of any characters who aren't white and wealthy.<br /><br />However, I've got to give a shout-out here to Meyer's newest offering, <em>It's Complicated</em>, for one simple reason: its presentation of the far-from-svelte and no-longer-youthful Alec Baldwin as a 50-something, overweight guy who nevertheless still has that make-her-knees-buckle alpha-male vibe and is still hot as hell, hairy paunch be damned.<br /><br />I'm old enough to remember Baldwin in his <em>Streetcar Named Desire</em> days, when he could make an audience catch its breath by tearing off his shirt (which he did regularly on Broadway!). Unlike a lot of aspiring heartthrobs then and now, Baldwin didn't shave or wax his chest and abs, but you know what? He was amazingly hot, partly thanks to his muscles but even more thanks to his take-no-prisoners, sex-on-a-stick attitude.<br /><br />Well, here we are a couple decades later, and Baldwin has definitely put on some extra poundage, as the pics above show and as anyone can see by flipping on their television Thursday nights for <em>30 Rock</em>. He's somewhere between beefy and stout now, but the old swagger is still there and in this movie he is totally credible confusing the hell out of ex-wife Meryl Streep with his renewed ardor for her.<br /><br />Better still, Baldwin is comfortable enough with his weight to use it to texture his characterization. Standing in his undershorts after sex with Streep, he can slap his hairy paunch and comment on all the weight he's gained in his second marriage - but with no trace of embarrassment. He can banter about his weight with Streep, asking her, "Why do you keep calling me 'Big Guy'? Is it because I'm fat?" And he can sprawl naked on Streep's bed, then explain afterwards that he thought she'd find that tactic "irresistible" - even though he's doughy and not buff these days.<br /><br />Any guy with issues about his weight should see this film, just to watch Baldwin be sexy despite being substantially overweight by most standards and downright fat compared to the media's presentation of buff (not to mention hairless) guys with toned abs as the masculine ideal. Baldwin's Jake looks his age and carries the extra pounds that many middle-aged guys (yours truly included) can't manage to shed, either. But he's not a hapless sidekick or a pathetic, deluded loser: he's the movie's leading man, he's bracingly virile, and he exudes self-confidence, either in spite of - or because of - that paunchy body.<br /><br />Am I saying we should all give up on losing weight? Hell no, it's still a healthful thing to do. But should overweight guys hide indoors until we lose enough weight to consider ourselves publicly "presentable"? Hell no, again. We need to learn to unbutton our shirts and slap those bellies of ours as long as we're still carrying them around.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0