Of all the commercial weight loss programs out there, I think Weight Watchers (WW) is the best.  Recently, on this blog I reviewed some of the more odd diets I had watched my mom try over the years.  She also did Weight Watchers over a sustained period and got a good result.  To me the premise of WW is healthy and probably sounds familiar from these pages: 1) keep track of and limit what you eat 2) focus on eating more healthy food and 3) have some form of  accountability - the public weigh in.  In the 1970s when my mom did it, one negative was they really pushed their food products.  I recall my mom buying a bunch of frozen food, it not tasting very good, and it ultimately began to feel like a scam.  For her, the weight loss did not prove to be sustainable after she went off the program.  She, like many others who had initial success, expressed regret for not continuing. 

I also tried Weight Watchers several years ago, admittedly in a very limited way.   I was surprised to learn how many meetings there were and in many locations, so convenience was not an issue.  I am not sure if it was more shameful as a dude to go than for women, but I certainly had  lots of trepidation.  I remember driving to the building in my neighborhood after work, looking for an inconspicuous place to park and slinking  in to the meeting.  Who would see me?  Would I be the only man?  As it turned out, there were a few other guys, but not many, we were definitely out numbered.  I was surprised at the range of people's weight.  I guess I expected everyone to be fat, but the range was more what you see in any normal gathering of people.  It seemed a bit like a pep rally with people standing up telling their stories, both their triumphs and tribulations, with lots of encouragement and prizes from the leaders.  I mostly hung in the back and observed.

I cannot say that I worked the system.  I payed an upfront fee and joined, but I did not do it long enough or with any consistency to get a measurable result.  At the time, I seemed to think if I paid money, I would magically start losing weight.  I certainly was not consistent in recording what I ate in the little book they gave me or then converting that into "points".  At that time I was still fighting against the fact that the rules of nature applied to me.  Despite my failed experiment, from observing the success of many others, I conclude that the theory and methodology of WW is a sound and healthy  way to lose weight.  The best thing that I got out of my experience with it was  a good cookbook that I bought.  We still cook with it.  We found the recipes to be straightforward and the food to be easy to make, healthy and delicious.  

Consumption:

Cheerios and Raisin Bran Cereal with skim milk
Banana
Caesar salad
Portobello mushroom/red pepper sandwich with goat cheese
2 slices of cheddar cheese
Pear
1 and 1/2 crab cake
Artichoke dipped in butter and lemon

In the last books of Harry Potter, Harry and his friends are tasked with finding and destroying the horcruxes.  These are various evil objects that have been imbued with parts of Voldemort's soul - the bad guy.  The trouble is these objects do not want to be destroyed.  While they search for a way to destroy a particularly nasty one, they wear it on a chain around their necks. The longer they wear it, the worse it makes them feel, so they have to keep passing it back and forth so they will not feel too bad.

I thought about the horcrux when a woman I work with stopped by my office the other day and offered me a canister of pretzels and peanuts.  "Its organic" she said.  Actually, she asked me to please take it from her.  She said that while it was in her possession she could not stop snacking.  Since I had tried a handful a few days before and liked it, I said yes.  I do not think from a calorie standpoint one handful is so bad.  It is mostly pretzels after all which are fairly innocuous, except they are empty, salty carbs.  The problem is that after one handful, it is so easy to reach in again and again.  The canister, which sits on the corner of my desk, calls to me, "Hey, buddy."  I am starting to see clearly now that it is indeed an evil object which I need to pass on, or better yet, destroy.

Consumption:

Cheerios and Raisin Bran cereal with skim milk
banana
4 handfuls of pretzels and peanuts (not so innocuous after all - 400 calories)
Chicken pesto sandwich
cucumbers and hummus
3 black olives
Taco and taco salad with ranch dressing
Apple cider

Exercise:

None

Its Monday, need I say more?  At work today I spent the whole day getting ready to make an important presentation at 4 pm.  There was a lot of pressure to know my stuff and so I had preparatory anxiety all day and even over the weekend.  At 3:55 pm my boss called me to say a conflict had come up and we would have to reschedule.  It was very disappointing to know I will have to go through some form of this preparation all over again.

Still trying to make lemonade, I grabbed my gym bag and headed downstairs.  An hour later, dripping with sweat, I approached the scales feeling fairly confident I had lost more weight.  Making the necessary adjustments, it seemed like I kept moving it to the left.  Letting myself fantasize, I thought maybe I lost 2 or even three lbs this week.  When it finally stopped moving I looked eagerly to discover it was still solidly on 206.  I had lost no weight at all this week.  

Although it hurts to be turned away at the door like that, I know it is just part of life.  Certainly, the latest happenings in Japan remind us that a normal day where things do not turn out the way you want may not be such a bad day after all.  I recall talking with a good friend of mine who in the height of the recession had lost his job.  He has four kids and I expected him to be devastated.  Instead, I  was surprised to hear him say that life was not always going to be easy.  He expected there to be ups and downs and obstacles along the way.  As it turned out, within a couple of months my friend had found another job, one that was a better fit and his skills were needed and recognized.  All that to say I still wish I had lost a lb.

Consumption:

Cheerios and Bran Chex cereal with skim milk
Strawberries
Thai coconut soup
brie and crackers with red grapes
Side caesar salad
quesadilla with black beans, salsa and sour creme
2 breaded chicken strips
Orange
Pistachios

Exercise:

10 minutes of crunches and weight lifting
10 minutes of rowing machine
30 minutes of running 10 minute miles on treadmill 

I was talking with my Mom recently who had just gotten together with some of her college friends.  Somehow these ladies began comparing notes and laughing about all the various diets they had tried over the years.  My Mom has a great laugh and I would have enjoyed being there to have heard that conversation.  Some of the more outlandish ones I can remember were: the grapefruit diet, the rice diet and wrapping herself in Saranwrap.    Of these, I think on the surface, the grapefruit diet had the most merit.  I, too, still ascribe healthful, miraculous attributes to that fruit.  If I recall correctly, The Abs Diet suggested you burn more calories digesting  a grapefruit than you take in eating it, which makes no sense if you think about it.  Still, I like the taste and could eat a grapefruit about every day of my life.

Can you see I am building toward a crescendo here? I think the logic of the rice diet went something like this:  people from China eat a lot of rice and they are generally thin so...  I am sure at the time it was wrapped up in more scientific mumbo jumbo, but I feel certain my explanation is what sold it to the American public.  It is ironic now that white rice is viewed as a devil food and eating too much of it with a meal is like having a death wish.

Not the last, but certainly the most humorous was wrapping herself in Saranwrap.  This was not exactly a diet, more a scheme to sweat away your pounds.  Again, there is logic up to a point here.  Certainly, we are all aware of water weight and what wrestlers and others do from time to time to reach a certain weight goal.  And unfortunately for my Dad, it was not as sexy as it sounds.  I have a vague memory of my Mom going somewhere to get an outfit that looked  like a cross between a space suit and a garbage bag.  That one was short lived when she realized that unless you want to die of dehydration, the weight would be back the next day.

It is easy to laugh now, but at the time, each of those "projects" was approached with the utmost hope and seriousness, that this would be the thing, the miracle cure that would help you lose and keep off those unwanted pounds.  While we like to think of ourselves as more educated and sophisticated on these issues today, the truth is there remains a lot of sophistry at work among us and we are still just as desperate for a less painful way to lose the weight.

I have definitely been more grouchy since I have been losing weight.  I have a shorter temper and I have been more prone to lash out.  I am not proud to say that my family has borne the brunt of this changed behavior, specifically, my kids, my wife and some people at work.

What could be the cause of it?  Certainly, in the beginning, especially, I had some additional tension around reducing my food intake.  Would I get enough to eat?  What if I got too hungry?  But it did not take long to realize I was eating enough and I was NOT going to starve.

I think what is happening is that before I was more likely to hold in my frustrations and let anger and resentment build up.  It could be that to manage it, instead of dealing with issues as they came up, I would overeat, a classic passive-aggressive behavior.  Now I do not want to become an angry, bitter person, or treat others unfairly.   I may need to practice channeling my frustrations into more positive, timely, assertive communication, but I am sure the old way was not good either.  It is an interesting theory to think about.  The next time you see an overweight person (perhaps in the mirror) imagine those extra pounds as frustration, disappointment, or sadness turned inward and stuffed inside.  We have all heard the expression drowning your sorrows in beer, maybe we do it just as often by eating a bag of chips.  So the question becomes if you are fat are you really happy or have you just not dealt with some things that should be deal

For those of you Harry Potter fans, you know that the character Mad-Eye Moody believes in constant vigilance.  It is still amazing to me to have learned that two large handfuls of potato chips could equal 600 calories - almost one-third of my daily goal.  Maybe I shouldn't be, but I am stunned by that fact.  I could not tell you how many times in my life I have eaten that many and more with no thought at all about the impact.  That is probably how I found myself 46 lbs over a "normal" BMI index level.  It is just so easily done.  Potato chips are like eating air with that (momentary) salty, satisfying crunch.  When I was younger the best was to also dip them into french onion dip or even better, put the remnants from the potato chip bag in the last bits of dip and finish the mixture off with a spoon - who am I kidding?  - with my tongue.  The worst part of my potato chip binge was that that had been my hard work out day.  Even though I had "earned" 600 extra calories, through blood, sweat and tears, I used them all up with a few thoughtless moments of consuming fatty, salty air.  From now on I must maintain constant vigilance.

Tonight I was watching T.V. with my son.  I got up grabbed a big handful of potato chips and sat back down to eat them.  "Whoa!" my son said, "what are you doing?"  "Ask yourself if it is worth it?" he wisely counseled, as in why would you do something in direct contradiction to a goal you are trying to achieve?  Yep, I pondered, as I chewed the potato chips.

Consumption:

Honey Nut Cheerios and Bran Chex cereal with skim milk
Grapefruit
Chickpea salad
Spinach/cheese Croissant
Milk
4 slices of Havarti Cheese with Pita chips
banana
One piece of pepperoni pizza
Two large handfuls of potato chips
Apple cider

Exercise:

10 minutes of crunches and lifting weights
10 minutes of rowing machine
30 minutes of running on the treadmill at a pace of 10 minutes per mile

My Fitness Pal calculated I was inside my daily goal for calories after factoring in my exercise, however, it calculated the two large handfuls of chips at 600 calories.  The answer is they are definitely not worth it.


 

The other night I mentioned a fat man's trick of buying pants that are a little too big in order to make yourself look smaller wearing them.  Another is to buy a belt that is too big.  The logic is that if you have extra room in your belt then you must not be too fat, right?  Well, these tricks allowed me to fool myself anyway.  Maybe having a belt that was too big helped me avoid the opposite problem.  I have one of those belts as well, one that I have had for years that I am only barely able to still fit in the last notch so there is hardly anything left to fit through the belt loop.  Now, that is embarrassing.  

The good news is that the belts that I bought big are now almost really too big.  As my waist has gotten smaller, I have had to tighten my belts in order to keep my pants up.  I am literally down to the first notch in the belt.  For my frugal friends I do realize that it is possible to make a new notch,  however the belts are  so big they already  look silly.    Right now the whole delicate equation is still holding, but as I lose more weight it will be time to invest in new belts.

Consumption:

Honey Nut Cheerios and Bran Chex cereal with skim milk
Banana
Chickpea salad
Orange
Bread
apple
taco salad
Havarti cheese - 4 slices
crackers
Apple cider

Exercise: 

None

My Fitness Pal calculated that I was on target with my daily goal of 1900 calories.

I once worked for a man who was older and noticeably skinny.  I had worked around him for several years and assumed that he had always been that way (skinny).  One day he surprised me by saying that when he was younger, he was overweight and had had a heart attack.  Since then, he had worked hard to lose the weight and keep it off.

At the beginning of my career I worked with a woman whose father sent her and her brother to a heart health camp - part exercise, part diet and part education.  She was in her twenties at the time and it seemed silly except that her father had recently had a heart attack.  The father's hope was that by educating his kids early, they could avoid  what had happened to him.  

My hope for myself is that by taking the actions that I am now to lose weight, getting in shape and lowering my cholesterol with medication, that I can avoid getting heart disease and/or a host of other health issues.  Re-stated more positively, by taking these steps now, I am increasing my chances for good health, which will add to the quality of my life.  Toward that end I weighed 206 lbs today, which means I have lost another pound  and 18 total since the beginning of the year!

Consumption:

Half a bagel with creme cheese
Banana
Cup of chicken stew
Cucumbers with hummus
Handful of pretzels and peanuts
Apple
Re-stuffed potatoes
Breaded chicken
Gouda cheese
Apple cider

Exercise:

Crunches and weight lifting for 10 minutes
10 minutes of rowing machine
30 minutes running on the treadmill - 10 minute miles

There was an article in our paper recently about the god-like powers some people confer on their yoga instructors and the large egos that can ensue.   An example was given about a male instructor who walked up to a female student mid-posture and said loud enough for others to hear, "Your sweat smells like meat!"  The horrified student never returned.

I do not think my instructor suffers from such delusions of grandeur, but I have worried that she and others might notice that I smell like bacon.  I often cook it for my kids and myself on Sunday morning before my class and the smell clings to me.

I eat meat regularly, and while I enjoy the taste, I am morally conflicted about it.  I saw the movie Food, Inc. and I believe the way animals are treated in route to the mass production of food is unethical.  Yesterday I bought and cooked chicken breasts for my family.  Although they were "on sale" the size of the breast were larger than anything that could occur in nature.  Assuming that the birds were hormonally enhanced, then I wonder how much of the hormones my family ingested and what that is doing to our bodies over time.  Snort.  Because I have written down my diet you can see how much beef, chicken and pork I consume and that it is currently a major part of if not the focus of my diet.  

There has probably not been a day this year that I have gone without some form of meat.  It is so much a part of me that it is hard to imagine  becoming an all out vegetarian, although I admire my friends who are.For the moment, my morally compromised position is to try and consume less flesh from my furry and feathered friends, and when I do,  try to buy local, organically raised meat.

Consumption:

Honey Nut cheerios and Bran Chex cereal with skim milk
Banana
Breaded chicken
Re-stuffed potatoes
breaded brocoli 
Apple
hummus with pita chips
Gouda cheese
Blue cheese
Sharp cheese
Mushroom quiche
salad
fruit
Glass of red wine
Chips

Exercise:

1 hour of yoga
My Fitness Pal calculated I was 230 calories within my daily goals after factoring in the yoga.