Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Weigh In - 4/9


Another week - another 4 pounds.

I'm at 282, tantalizingly close to the 270's. For some reason the 270's represent some monumental threshold for me. I think that's where I feel like I go from being really overweight to "my God, he's going to explode."

On a similar note, I'm starting to jiggle again. Now, I know for most of you skinny people who've struggled with 5-10 pounds your whole life, jiggling is actually a bad thing. But for the good and fat, our bodies can get so big and stretched to capacity that they hardly jiggle anymore. So I consider getting to the point where parts of my body are actually jiggling around again serious progress.

On to Step 10...

Step 9 - Breakfast



Eat breakfast.
Every day.

Skinny people claim eating breakfast every day is one of the most important things an overweight person can do to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Numerous studies show people who regularly eat breakfast lose more weight, consume fewer calories and fat overall during the day, exercise more and are better able to keep the weight off than those of us who skip out on the first meal of the day.

So if it's so good for us why is it so damn hard to do?

First and foremost, it takes time – something we all have precious little of in the morning. As much as I'd love to start my day with an egg white omelet with fresh veggies and a cup of oats, I'm not willing to sacrifice twenty minutes of sleep to get it.

Plus, I'm just not hungry right when I wake up or even before I leave the house for work. Which begs the question, why the hell did I used to stop for fast food every morning? As a fat man trying to shed a few pounds, it seems counter-intuitive to eat when I'm not hungry when I'm struggling the rest of the day to not eat when I am hungry.

But that's evidently the whole point. By "breaking the fast" in the morning, I'm less likely to gorge myself come lunchtime and I'm kick starting my metabolism for the day – something I must admit, scares the hell out of me. Eating begets eating with me, so I'm doubtful that having breakfast every morning will actually lead to me eating less.

Still, I've bought into the hype and have committed to forcing down breakfast every morning as Step 9. But what to eat? Much like everything else I've tried to do on the Rehab Diet, I know if I don't keep it simple I won't be able to stick with it. So it's got to be something I can make in less than two minutes and eat as I'm running around the house getting ready. Then it occurred to me when I read this article about the eight foods you should eat every day, that a certain frozen yogurt treat from my childhood would actually knock out half of them before 9am:

Yogurt
Nuts (Almonds, Walnuts, etc)
Oats
Blueberries

For those of you not familiar with the legendary Humphrey Yogurt from Counter Culture the basic recipe is unflavored real yogurt (it's got to have that twang), granola, fresh fruit and a drizzle of honey. To keep prep time to a minimum I've substituted the fresh fruit with a handful of mixed fruit (blueberry, strawberry, blackberry & raspberry) from a bag I keep in the freezer. It's quick and easy to make and tastes like I'm having dessert for breakfast.

How's that for getting a fat person to eat something in the morning?

Monday, April 7, 2008

Don't Eat That!!!













Or That! Or That!! And no matter what you do, don't ever eat that and that together!

Ever get tired of skinny people telling you what you can and cannot eat? Me too. First they told us to stop eating calories. Then it was fat. Then it was carbs. Carbs, they told us, were too easily broken down into simple sugars that wreak havoc inside our rotund bodies.

To make matters worse, these so called experts created the glycemic index – a handy little tool us fatties could use to see how everything from potatoes to oranges to carrots were spiking our sugar levels and making us tip the scales. Seriously. Carrots.

It's these kinds of absurd absolutes the diet machine spits out every few years that undermine the average fat persons understanding of food. By the time we've all purged our frigidaires of anything and everything orange, they've "tweaked" their warning by admitting what we already knew: eating a carrot is not quite the same as eating a handful of candy.

Remember Susan Powter and her truckload of potatoes? Has a particular food gone from canonized to vilified as swiftly and dramatically as the humble potato? Potato consumption in the US has yet to recover to pre-Atkins Diet levels — I still get a slight twinge of guilt every time I put a scoop on my plate. So we're eating less and less of them (except the french-fried variety), yet go figure, we're still getting fatter and fatter.

Could it be that the particular food is not the problem - the amount of the food is?

To tell a fat person a carb is not his friend is to take away one of his biggest allies in weight control. Not that I expect any of these nutritionists or trainers to understand, but when you're big, you're hungry. And what gives a fat person the biggest bang for the buck when he's hungry? Some good old fashioned carbs. And I'm not talking about the "good" carbs or even the "better" carbs. I'm talking (cover your ears skinny people) white bread, white pasta and white rice.

Yeah, I said it. But before you start in again, walk a mile in my 3XL shirt and then come talk to me about never eating a "bad" carb again.

Italians eat pasta all the time. The Japanese live on rice. Yet neither of these cultures has anywhere close to the obesity issue America has. Why? They don't eat anywhere close to the same amount we do in one sitting. A pasta plate in Italy is actually a second course and about two to three ounces served before the meat. Ever see the "bowl" of rice Japanese people have with their meals? It's about the size of a coffee cup – think old and porcelain, not the mega-latte-grande's we down every day.

Depsite my philosophy on the Rehab Diet, I don't believe I have to stop eating anything in particular (especially pasta and rice) to lose weight. I just have to eat less of it. This gal ate McDonalds for two months and lost 18 pounds. She wanted to prove with a little common sense, the documentary Super Size Me wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining.

My problem is I don't have enough common sense (or self control) to go to McDonalds everyday and not strap on a Big Mac and shoe box full of French Fries. But that doesn't mean I think the potato is evil. Or the bun or even the meat.

So what's obvious to me – but evidently, to no one else in the diet industry – is that good food is good for you. And too much of anything isn't.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Weigh In - 4/2


286 and back on track - 4 pounds lost for the week (skinny people, please read this before commenting).

Full Disclosure: I've actually started exercising more than 3 times a week even though I'm not slated to start that for a couple more weeks.

As I stated at the onset of the Rehab Diet, my hope is that after the twelve weeks are over some of these good steps will have evolved into good habits. It appears that the exercise and water are starting to stick.

I've been exercising around the same time every day and a few weeks ago I started getting restless about that time on the days I wasn't working out. I figured what the hell, and before I knew it, I was going five times a week. I'm not holding myself to that until Step 11, but I'm encouraged by the fact that I'm "skipping ahead" even though I don't have to.

On to Step 9...

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Step 8 - Fish



Eat more fish.

Why? Just look at the Japanese. Widely regarded as one of the healthiest people on the planet, they live longer than the rest of the world and their rate of obesity is just 3% compared to over 30% in the US.

They drink a lot of tea (which I've already extolled the virtues of), eat a lot of rice (Carbs!?! A lot of them? And they live longer? Have American nutritionists gotten this memo yet!?!) and a ton of fish. The Japanese people make up just 2% of the world's population, yet consume over 10% of the fish.

The American Heart Association recommends eating two servings of fish a week because of the benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids, which:
  • decrease risk of arrhythmias, which can lead to sudden cardiac death
  • decrease triglyceride levels
  • decrease growth rate of atherosclerotic plaque
  • lower blood pressure (slightly)
One other benefit - a serving of fish is most likely replacing a serving of meat that's higher in saturated fat and calories.

Of course, not all fish are created equal. It's the "fatty" fish that contain the highest concentration of
Omega-3 fatty acids. These include mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon. Halibut, flounder and cod are not as Omega-3 rich, but contain higher levels than "lean" fish like snapper and catfish.

But just like everything that's supposedly "good" for us, there is a flip side. Fish can contain large amounts of contaminants, most specifically mercury. Some skinny people even go so far as to advocate avoiding fish altogether (although, this guy admits his real concern is for the "poor fish" being eaten). According to Walter Willett, professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, the benefits of eating seafood "are likely to be at least 100-fold greater than the estimates of harm, which may not exist at all."

Good enough for me - I'm adding at least one serving of fish a week. And no, fried catfish does not count. I already checked.