A good friend of mine’s father passed away this morning.  He lived into his eighties, married well and raised three good boys.  He worked hard, never had too much, but always seemed to have enough.  He was a quiet man and I did not know him well.  But just being around him, you could tell he was honest, kind and gentle.  He loved mountain music and golf, which he passed on to his sons.  He was loved and will be missed by his wife, his children and his grandkids, which is about all any of us can really hope for in this world. 

I weighed in today at 211 and feel happy about moving 2 more lbs closer to my goal!

Consumption:

Cheerios and Bran Chex cereal with milk
10 almonds
Bowl of tomato bisque soup
Cheese bread stick
1 cup of yogurt
Tequila and juice drink
2 fried green tomatoes
piece of cornbread
Grilled monk fish
Spinach
Mashed sweet potatoes
Small piece of carrot cake with a spoonful of ice-cream

Exercise:

Ran on the treadmill for 30 minutes

10 minutes of rowing machine

10 minutes of weight lifting

My Fitness Pal calculated that my exercise used 550 additional calories which I consumed at a nice dinner out – so I was even for my goal.

One of the best decisions I have made in a long time was to return to yoga.  At the end of last fall my body was feeling beat up by the preceding tennis season, my shoulder was hurting and I had a groin pull that would not heal.  I have taken a series of yoga classes twice before in my life and enjoyed both, but it had been a couple of years since I had last done it.   Since last October, every Sunday at 12:15 I have been in the back corner of my yoga class.  I am not very elegant and I am sure I have many of the postures wrong, but slowly and surely I am making progress.  My shoulder still has some pain, but it is definitely better.  The groin pull is totally healed.

In many ways yoga is very unnatural for me.  Unlike some people, I was never particularly flexible, not even as a kid could I touch my toes.  As I have grown older, I have gotten even more stiff and inflexible.  It is not as if yoga can totally reverse the process – I may never be able to touch my toes.  But I have found that with concerted, consistent effort, I am slowly becoming more flexible.  In addition to the benefits to my body, at the end of class, I feel centered and my mind is calm.  My mother-in-law has been doing yoga consistently for at least the 25 years I have known her.  She is still very flexible and fit and so with her good example I would like to make it a lifetime activity for myself as well.

I am sure there are those of you who say, yoga is not for dudes.  It is true that today I was the only dude in my class, and most classes there are not more than two or three.   However, a couple of years ago, we went to a Police reunion tour concert.  I could not help but notice that Sting, who I hear is a serious yoga follower, was in remarkable shape and had fantastic energy for his age.  His band mates had not fared so well with time and looked like the old men they are.   So guys if you do not trust me, take tip from Sting-a-ling-ding and get your Namaste.  I will see you next Sunday, but the back corner is mine.

Consumption:

Cheerios and Bran Chex cereal in milk
Banana
Apple
Flank steak and kale in tomato sauce
Bowtie pasta with yogurt and blue cheese sauce
Hummus and crackers
Flatbread crackers and blue cheese
Bowl of cabbage and kielbasa soup
Glass of White wine

Exercise:

1 hour of flow yoga

My Fitness Pal calculated that my calories consumed equaled my target plus the extra 250 I earned with my yoga.

Yesterday I went way over my daily calorie goal, consuming 2900 calories versus my target of 1900.  The worst part was that I had  had a great workout earlier in the day that I felt really good about.  Even though the exercise had given me 500 extra calories to work with, I still blew threw them and added an extra 500 I did not need.  How did it happen?  Unfortunately, quite easily.  Both kids had somewhere to be, so my wife and I went to a nice restaurant near our house.  In general, the restaurant serves smaller portions, but the food is very rich.  We split a bowl of soup, a three cheese plate (with bread), two orders of fried oysters served in a sauce, and a large salad with lots of dressing.  I topped it off with a couple of glasses of wine and combined with what I had eaten earlier in the day – 2900 calories.  It was a nice date with my wife, but I am sorry I negated the positive benefits of my workout.  One positive was My Fitness Pal.  By calculating my daily total it provided fairly immediate feedback that I had gone out of bounds for the and need to adjust course.  Before, I might not have thought twice about that level of eating and turned around and done it again the next day and maybe the next. 

Consumption:

Cheerios and bran chex cereal with milk
2 Apples
Chicken sausage
Salad with oil and vinegar dressing
10 almonds
7 pita chips with hummus
8 black olives
Flank steak with kale
Pasta with blue cheese dressing
Blue cheese
2 glasses of wine
1 piece of bread

I like the Talking Heads song Once in a Lifetime.  In it, the singer asks, “Well, how did I get here?”  Later he goes on to say, “this is not my beautiful house” and “this is not my beautiful wife.” I like my beautiful house and I love my beautiful wife, but I am overweight and sometimes I ask, “Well, how did I get here?” 

There is a picture I like of myself when I was in high school.  Back then I had more of a V-shaped torso from my shoulders down to my mid-section.  In the picture, which was taken at the lake, I am smiling cockily back at the camera, blissfully unaware of what the future held for me.  When I look at that picture, I wonder how did I go from there to here?

I am not from New England, but I have heard a few times that if you put a live lobster in a pot of boiling water to cook, it clatters around and makes a terrible noise.  However, if you put it in water that is at room temperature, and then heat the lobster and the water together, it never makes a sound. 

In terms of my weight, I am more like the second lobster.  As mentioned, I have always had a propensity to overeat.  Next, I concur with the assertion in Dr. Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating, that the food industry has put forward a lot more processed, unhealthful food since the 1980s, which roughly corresponds with my adult life.  During that same time there has been a documented increase in portion sizes as multiple restaurants vie to capture a bigger portion of the money Americans spend on “entertainment” eating.  Finally, as we Americans have collectively put on more and more weight, it all becomes relative as to what is too big, when everyone around you is large also.  Visit France for a little perspective, although I hear they are gaining weight too.

For me, the process was gradual, averaging a pound or two per year.  And after 25 years, voila, baste me with melted butter and lemon and serve me with corn on the cob.

Consumption:

Cheerios and Bran Chex cereal with milk
20 almonds
Chicken and cheese Panini
Yogurt
String cheese
Artichoke soup
Blue cheese, goat cheese served on toasted bread
Caesar salad
Fried oysters in sauce
2 glasses of red wine

Exercise:

Ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill - 5.8 miles per hour 
10 minutes on the rowing machine
10 minutes of weight lifting
According to My Fitness Pal, I consumed a whopping 2900 calories today, which more than negated the extra 500 calories I earned by working out – 400 over.

I used to work at a place where we were deluged around the holidays with gifts of food from clients.  We would get baskets of beautiful fruit and cheeses, large tubs of popcorn and candy, and several tins of roasted, salted, Virginia peanuts.  It was the tradition there that the gifts would be opened and shared, so it was a very tempting situation, especially for someone like me.  A good friend I worked with never ate the peanuts and one day I asked him about it.  He said if he ate one peanut, it would lead to a handful and then another every time he passed by (which is what I had been doing). 

I should point out that my friend is in great shape and I had heard him express this same sentiment before.  He grew up in a tough neighborhood in NY.  He told me about looking out the window of his apartment as a boy and seeing people who were drunk or high hanging out in the courtyard.  He felt like the negative forces around him were so strong that if he ever smoked one cigarette, or drank one beer, any tiny crack in the wall would lead to a strong addiction.  In fact, he saw that exact fear come to life with many of the friends he grew up with.  He is now a successful businessman with four kids of his own.  To this day he has never smoked a cigarette or tasted alcohol AND he stays away from the peanuts.

Fortunately, I did not have the same stresses that my friend did growing up.  However, maybe that security that I felt led me to be incautious or even cocky that I would not get my hand caught in the trap.  It could not happen to me.  Whiskers quivering, I reached in to grab just one more peanut.   and SNAP!!!

Consumption:

Bran chex and Honey Oats Cheerios cereal in milk
Half a grapefruit
10 almonds
Panini chicken sandwich with cheddar cheese (half the restaurant serving)
Carrots
Cheese string
Steak
Salad
Feta cheese
Roasted potatoes
Milk
1 glass of red wine

Exercise:

None

I love your cool creaminess
With that sour surprise ending
I contemplate your expiration date
Before I plunge in my spoon
Hey, you were sour to begin with
There is no end for you
Until you are old and moldy
You fill me up with your richness
You make Everything taste better
I want to ski down you with my tongue
And wallow in your perfect whiteness

Yep.

Consumption:

Chex bran cereal with milk
20 almonds
two string cheese
Chicken Pesto sandwich
Yogurt
Apple
Taco salad with cheddar cheese
With you guessed it, sour crème
Chips
Milk

Exercise:

Weight lifting for 20 minutes

The salad days are over.  Maybe I have used the term incorrectly, but to me, salad days means a day of light work ,as in the living is easy.  Today I stepped on the scales and registered 213 lbs – marking a 1 lb loss from last week.  Mind you this weigh in was after an intense (for me) cardiovascular workout with lots of sweating.  Those were the same conditions I weighed under last week, so at least it was a fair comparison.  I know I said the ideal weight loss program would yield one pound of loss per week – very sensible, very conservative.  Let me tell you, it sucks.  After two weeks in a row of five pound weight losses, I was hoping for three or four more.  One seems so little, so close to none. 

I was disappointed.  My daughter, who is very practical, pointed out to me that I ate out more last week and was less disciplined about what and how much I ate.  There were several days where I was at my goal or over for calories consumed.  From the mouths of babes.  I started by saying the salad days are over, but in fact, my salad days are just beginning.    The hard work starts now. 

Consumption:

English muffin toasted with peanut butter and honey
 ½  an apple
25 almonds
Chicken pesto sandwich
Yogurt
Orange
2 chicken sausages
Salad with olive oil and lemon dressing, parmesan cheese
Orange juice

Exercise:

Ran 27 minutes on treadmill

Rowed 10 minutes

7 minutes of weight lifting

My Fitness Pal calculated that I earned 500 extra calories from working out today so I was 200 under my allotment.

In my family growing up, being selfish was not encouraged.  We were taught to put others first.  While generally, I think that is a good way of being, it can present certain challenges when we all get together and try to figure out what we are going to do next.  Sometimes people are so deferential to others that no one is willing to step up and say, “I want to do X” or “I do not want to do Y” and that lack of clarity can be confusing.  It’s like the old car insurance commercial where four wagons pull up to an intersection at the same time and they cannot decide who should go first.  “No, after you.”   “No, after you.”

A buddy of mine after reading my first few posts noted that I wanted to be attractive out of respect for my wife and I want to be healthy because my kids are depending on me.  He challenged me to acknowledge that I want to be healthy for myself.  He thought it was important that I acknowledge that I want this.

I selfishly want to be as healthy as possible in order to maximize the quality and possibly the quantity of my remaining life.  There, I said it.  Now I can put the oxygen mask on the child sitting next to me.

Consumption:

Oatmeal, milk, walnuts and raisins
10 almonds
Bowl of chicken corn chowder bisque
Cornbread muffin
Apple
Turkey chili with a tablespoon of sour crème and cheddar cheese
Side salad with blue cheese dressing

Exercise:

None

My Fitness Pal calculated I consumed my goal for the day – 1900 calories.

 

  

In 2010 the universe began to send me subtle messages about my body and health, that the long run of taking both for granted could be coming to an end.  I had a cholesterol test early in the year that was headed in the wrong direction.  My level had hovered in the 230s for the past several years and this one was in the 250s.  That was enough to get my doctor’s attention.  He said current thinking had evolved and that cholesterol above 200 should be treated, especially for persons with a family history of heart disease, such as mine.  I was resistant to taking medication.  We re-tested and the level was back in the 230s, but the doctor still thought I should start treatment.  His soft sell was that there are rarely side effects from the medication and a potential positive side effect could be reduced chance of dementia in old age.  I asked for the summer to “get in shape” and “lose weight”. 

Meanwhile, I was nursing a persistent groin injury that did not seem to be getting any better, making it painful to do any type of sprint.  My doctor tactfully suggested I might need to work my abdominal muscles more in order to work through it.  In tennis, one of the great joys of my life, my shoulder hurt every time I tried to serve hard.  The worst was visiting my parents over the summer at the lake and not being able to get up on one ski.  Humiliating.  What was happening?  I was 45 years old and falling apart. 

Admitting defeat, I started taking the cholesterol medicine my doctor recommended.  Fortunately, I responded well to it and by taking one little pill once a day my cholesterol level went down almost 100 points -.ake that dementia.

As I stated earlier, at the end of the fall, I started a new job.  With the stress of moving through the learning curve, I overate and therefore ended 2010 near a personal weight high point.  It was not a pretty picture from the ledge I found myself on as the year ended.  Clearly, I need to make a change.

Consumption:

Small  roast beef sandwich
Salad with feta cheese
Pasta salad
Tomato soup
4 starburst candies
10 almonds
4 crackers with pepperjack cheese
Chips and salsa
Bean burrito topped with cheese and sour crème
Rice

Exercise:

None

My Fitness Pal indicates I consumed my target of 1900 calories today.

We are all looking for balance in our lives and it is so hard to find.  It has been interesting to me to monitor what I eat and convert it to a number of calories to compare with what I am trying to meet or be under.  Again, according to My Fitness Pal, my magic number is 1900 calories per day.  Depending on the amount of exercise I do, I can increase that number.  I have been really concentrating on it since the beginning of the year.  By avoiding sugar, fat and salt as much as possible, and trying to eat more normal portion sizes and healthy foods, I have generally been able to hit or be below my target without too much difficulty, feeling hungry, etc.  

The problem is when I do not concentrate, when I mindlessly grab a handful of this or that just out of boredom or to entertain my taste buds.  That type of eating is not only hard to monitor, but it quickly adds up and can tip the scale, literally, in the wrong direction.  It can easily occur in the course of a regular day.  Throw on top of that work stress, financial pressure, relationship problems to name a few examples and it is easy to see how the delicate quest for balance can be upset.  I am picturing the movie, Man on Wire, where the man tightrope walked between the top of the World Trade Center buildings, when they were still standing, while the high winds blew and the police waited on either side to arrest him.  He danced and stayed out there a long time.

Two things that I have noticed that help me find and keep my balance are meditation and yoga.  I have meditated sporadically for the last few years and I have been taking a weekly yoga class for the last three months.    For a while at least, after I do either, I feel centered and mindful.  I should continue and do more of both.