Month: June 2018

June 24, 2018: weight 230 pounds (-10)

Hopefully, I have figured out what works for me. I have some food rules plus some do’s and don’ts for my path. This part of my story started in December of 2016 (1 ½ years ago). My wife and I went to my cardiologist for my annual appointment. He checked all my labs and electronic printouts. He said my numbers are okay except for my weight at 250 pounds. His next statement was clear, “I don’t want to see you ever again at this weight.” The Cardiologist suggested the Kaiser website and left the room. I looked at the website information and started eating better and lost 10 pounds. I was back to my regular 240. Next, in April of 2017, I tried the 21 day Standard Process Purification Program. I lost 7 pounds even though it wasn’t a diet. It involved a lot of juicing, taking their products, and eating whole plant foods.  However, I misread the directions and shorted myself of some important nutrients. Each afternoon I found myself tired and brain-dead. This program had a huge benefit for me as it allowed me to slowly add foods back into my diet to see what effects each had on me. I learned new preparations for fresh veggies and I learned about products I was unaware of like Quinoa. As I added foods back into my diet, I monitored how I felt and what I weighed. I was stopping after work for a cheeseburger. It became addictive. Very quickly I was right back where I started, 240 and my joints were sore. It all had a purpose, I had learned about me and food.

This is what I learned.

Rule: No fast food. Fast food is addictive for me. I don’t know if it has an additive which makes it addictive, but it would not surprise me. Watch the documentary “Food, Inc.”

Rule: Limit processed foods and read the labels on everything. Watch out for nitrates, sodium, high fructose corn syrup, and anything with a really long name.

Rule: Diet soda is not a diet food. Limit all soda intake. It is a gut builder like beer was for me.

Rule: Eat your fruits and vegetables. There is a huge trend in the health industry to turn us into vegetarians. They changed the wording, “eating a plant-based diet”, is still a vegetarian. Watch “In Defense of Food” or one of several documentaries on that topic. I am not going to do that at this time, I like meat. I want a plant-based diet, not a plant-only diet, The path is vegetables and fruits first in my meal and snack planning.

Rule: The cleaner the better. Buy fresh, in season, and organic when I can. These things can cost more so when my budget is tight, buy the cleanest and freshest I can afford. Meat has me looking at grass fed, free range, and wild caught as cleaner style products.

Rule: Limited bread and wheat-based products and watch the starches. This may be me and my gut, but it also helps cut out some other clunky stuff. This rule has helped me raise my food awareness as I now look at other products like rice noodles or quinoa.

Rule: All these rules need to fit under my calorie limit per day.

Here is what a daily dinner looks like and how I start. I start by shopping. I shop once or twice a week. I am fortunate to live in an area with lots of choices; all the chain grocery stores, Vons ect., Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, 99 cent store, and a number of Asian markets. The result is a dinner of organic broccoli from Sprouts, quinoa with spinach from Aldi and chicken breast from Smart and Final. The broccoli was sauteed in olive oil and fresh chopped garlic. The quinoa with spinach (99 cent store) was made with my favorite recipe from Standard Process which I will share with you. The chicken breast was baked, after marinating with a little soy sauce and Orange Juice. Delicious.

If you have a favorite veggie recipe, share with me and I try it and pass it on.

BEST QUESS QUINOA Recipe

Saute onion, garlic and chopped carrot and celery.

Follow 1 cup quinoa recipe with broth not water in the same pan

Add salt, pepper, a small amount of any hot spice and 4 cups spinach and cook with the quinoa.

½ onion diced

3 garlic diced

1 or 2 carrots diced

1 or 2 celery diced

¼ tsp cumin or red pepper flakes

4 cups spinach

 

In the Spirit, Dave

Dr. Keith Roach in the O.C. Register on June 12, 2018, wrote: “a diet that helps a person lose weight is great, but a diet for optimizing overall health is different…”. A patient quoted my lovely and talented wife, Dr. Robin Roemer Brown LA.c, PH.D. as saying to him, “a long way into the woods, a long way out.” It was a simple way of saying that sometimes there is no quick fix. I am going for a lasting change. On June 6th, 30 days into my new path my weight is 234 pounds (-6), my waist is down 1 belt notch. Here are the basics of my path to health and fitness. The 3 focus areas are food, exercise, and stress reduction.

Everybody knows they should eat more fruits and vegetables so plan for eating those things. My rule is every meal or snack must include a fruit or vegetable. I plan each meal around the vegetable instead of the meat product. Each snack must include a fruit or vegetable. How much to eat is a real issue for me. Moderation is not my best tool. I went to an online calorie counter. It makes me keep a food log. A log is necessary for any eating plan. I gave myfitnesspal.com my numbers and a goal of 200 pounds. It said to eat 2030 calories per day to lose 1 pound per week. I have this free program as an app. on my phone. I started to log my eating to see if this was realistic for me. It is and it is easy to use. This is how I started to moderate. I have more eating rules and information coming for you on my food program.

My friend Bill was in town for minor surgery this week. We met for breakfast at Polly’s Pies. I ordered a veggie omelet and fruit. Bill is 65 years old and retired. He ordered a regular breakfast with sliced tomatoes instead of potatoes. We started to talk about diet. This was not our regular topic of conversation but a needed one for both of us. After we talked about food choices and the path I am on, he asked about exercise programs. The answer to this is a moving target as the recommendations keep changing just like the diets do. You can not start a diet and exercise program without talking to a physician. Here is my basic program at the least end: 20 minutes of aerobic exercise 6 days a week or 30 minutes 4 days a week, 2 days a week of resistance training coupled with 20 minutes of stretching and flexibility movements. This is what I shared with Bill at our delicious breakfast. I am going to detail this out in another blog.

The next signpost on the path is Stress. All the literature says to meditate. This is decompressing from my hyperactive mind. All of my adult life I have worked on the mind-body relationship. First, it was goal oriented imaging to succeed in sports and business. Second, for the last 30 years, the daily practice of turning my life over to the care of a higher power with prayer and meditation. Now it is time to focus that energy on a healthy life.

I am still learning, but I will share the path with you. “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow-men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.” Ernest Hemingway.

In the spirit, Dave

 

 

I suppose I could have started blogging about those days back in college when I was a P.E. major and a scholar-shipped athlete. I stayed fit for years after that by hours of hard work and play at the hyper pace my body naturally ran at. I am not there now and I cannot recapture my 20’s. My only point related to this history is that I have the knowledge of how far down I have gone and the education which can lead me back to health.

What does a 70-year-old do when he doesn’t like what he has become? I have read about the new fitness programs. I have read the latest and greatest diet and nutritional information. I have tried a variety of supplements. I have watched almost all the food and western diet documentaries that “Netflix” has online. I have worked the edges of many food and fitness programs. Now I know what works for me.

Last month I made a change, THE Change. This small “lifestyle” change is working. It is not another diet, not a regimented fitness program and not another magic store product. The change is subtle. It revolves around a statement by my ex-wife’s Aunt Doll. Aunt Doll came from a line of long livers in the midwest. Her father died on his 100th birthday in his favorite chair, in the house he had built. Doll lived and died in this same house in her late 90’s.  She always had a critical eye and critical comment on everyone and everything. Doll said while complaining about her nephew (my then father in law) and complaining about me, “the secret to a long life is everything in moderation.” This was and is too harsh for me. I have added Oscar Wilde to my philosophy, “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” This is part of the path and the change.

The detailed information about my consumption, my physical activity plan, and my stress reduction will be in the next blog along with my 30-day results.

In the spirit, Dave

FIT TO FAT AND BACK

I suppose this blog is the sequel to a yet unwritten book on how to get FAT. This would be an unneeded piece of literature. It would describe my love for eating and drinking, my love for cooking, my emotional eating and my reckless disregard for dieting because of my youthful extreme fitness up to age 35.

The new path started 1 month ago on May 1, 2018. It was not out of some physical calamity requiring me to change or die. I had several of those years ago. This is the result of a slow realization that I need to change what I am doing. It is the same way I got fat; slow, creeping, and unavoidable. Creeping Obesity.

The starting point: weight 240 (I’ve been more), height 5’7” (I’ve been taller), and my once trim waist is a massive 46”. The body mass index (BMI) is 37.5. All of this puts me at a high risk for lots and lots of medical problems,