end of week 3

Today is the last day of week 3. I was doing quite well up until Wednesday. All my friends at the office brought in a relative birthday feast! Although much appreciated and enjoyed, it was highly injurious to my progress. And of course there was enough for TWO days of gnoshing. This was complicated by a birthday dinner invitation I had already accepted AND a summons to escort a Board of Directors member at a company BBQ the following day. Talk about a major hindrance to my weight loss! I am happy to report I still lost 0.2 lbs. Needless to say that could have been 2.2 or 3.2 had not the demon birthday and event feasting gotten in my way. Sigh. But tomorrow starts another week...Week 4. To summarize, my 3-week total loss is now 7.7 lbs.

Week 4 will likely have some pitfalls as well. I leave Wednesday morning on a road trip...Nashville, Huntsville, Bremen, Atlanta and Chattanooga. I'll attempt to stop along the way and report on what I'm doing to defeat the food demons on the road! Stay tuned for more! M.E.

End of Week 2! A very good week!

I lost quite a bit of weight this week! 6 lbs as of this morning! My two-week total is now 7.5 lbs. This is an unusual loss for me. I am going to chalk it up to going raw for the most part and giving up the Diet Pepsi. Such a complete lack of sodium means no water retention. I can see my ankle bones!

I am very encouraged by my results, so far. Of course it is easy to eat fruits and veggies in the summer when everything is fresh and new. I am eating high protein lentil soup (homemade) and 2-4 oz of chicken or other meats for dinner. I'm also taking two teaspoons of cold-pressed coconut oil per day. But because I'm encouraged, I have no doubt I'll be eating raw next week as well. I'll be giving a new total loss next Saturday. Stay tuned! M.E.

Week 2, Day 5...things are progressing

Just to let you know...the scale is going down! I am starting to get excited over the prospects of a major drop on the scale at the end of Week 2...Saturday morning! Okay, what am I doing? A 16 oz glass of water with lemon when I get up in the morning. Raw foods all day...Fresh fruit for breakfast, hearty homemade lentil soup and fruit for lunch, fresh fruit or raw baby carrots or both for snacks, fruit, salad and protein for dinner...tonight it was scrambled eggs (one whole egg plus one egg white). I also had a Breyer's frozen fruitcicle. They taste great and are only about 50 or 60 calories each.

I'm drinking LOTS of water and today, finally, not one drop of Diet Pepsi! It has taken me a week to get off the demon caffeine and aspartame. I have to admit, I have had a headache every day...but they are getting less as I work through the withdrawal symptoms.

If you're working along with me here, make sure you are getting at least 1200 calories a day. Less than that and your body will thing you're starving it and slow down the weight loss to compensate.

Keep up the good work! M.E.

Week 2, Day 4...Diet Pepsi loosens its hold!

Things are looking up! I am still ingesting one Diet Pepsi per day, but my interest and craving for it is diminishing. Tomorrow I will attempt to go Diet Pepsi free. I have also gone to about 90% raw eating. Fresh fruits and raw vegetables, homemade soups high in protein and plenty of water. I am doing amazingly well, without any gnawing hunger pains. Normally I am eating even when not hungry. It is emotional, stressful, anxious eating as though if I don't imbibe, there won't be any food left when I need it. But I think I have found the cure for that, at least for me. I was introduced to Callahan's Technique. It is a system of tapping accupressure points to allay anxiety and cravings. So far I have refrained from eating between meals, eating after dinner or going after sweets. I will let you know if it continues to work! M.E.

Week 2, Day 2...How does conspiracy sound to you?

I'm getting to the point where I'm beginning to believe those people that are sometimes labeled as conspiracy theory nuts.

Once again the NIH has lost its collective mind. The National Institute of Health (NIH) has now stated that losing and regaining weight in yo-yo fashion is healthier than staying at a stable overweight. Are you kidding me? If I had never gone on that first crash diet, I might still be at that stable weight, which is 40 lbs less than I am right now! Instead, I attempted repeatedly to lose weight and drove myself to morbid obesity in the quest. I have 40 years of experience that tells me every time I diet, I gain it back and a few pounds more. The next diet is more difficult. The metabolism seems to slow down more with each successive diet. Hundreds of thousands of obese people have yo-yo dieted their way UP the scale.

Think about this. In Europe, the vast majority of the population is NOT obese. They eat late in the evening with meals loaded with high fat cheeses, whole milk, real butter and many other foods we would consider to be fattening, yet they don't seem to have the same health and weight issues we have here. In China and Japan, obesity started affecting those populations when American foods were introduced.

What makes our food different than theirs? Chemicals, preservatives, additives and growth hormones are simply overused here in the processing of food. But it is the disinformation that makes me believe what Kevin Trudeau is saying about the food and drug industries conspiring to make us fat and keep us fat, just like the tobacco industry conspired to increase addiction to nicotine. After all, if the public actually got to normal weight, the diet industry, the fast food industry and the drug companies would have no customers left, except the ones that needed help for an illness not caused by obesity, food additives and growth hormones in the food supply.

Think about it! M.E.

It's a Brand New Week!

Here we are on Week 2, Day 1. It's a brand new week, so if last week didn't go too well, you have the pleasure of starting over again. I am doing quite well on the Diet Pepsi front. I had one 20-oz bottle Saturday and two today. But I am sucking down water like there's no tomorrow. I also managed to lay in a supply of yerba mate tea and started downing that today as well. I took a very hot walk on the beach...long enough to produce a sunburn. And if I sleep tonight, I may actually get my rear in gear and do the Death March in the morning. I need to deliberately walk a minimum of two miles per day above and beyond my normal routines in order to start losing weight with any continuity.

I also need to have more control over my craving for carbohydrates. I am completely addicted to Craisins, dried cranberries. I know they are loaded with antioxidants, but they are also loaded with sugar. They are only marginally less sweet than regular raisins. And if I could restrict myself to one serving, that would be great, but I can't seem to do that. So for the foreseeable future, they will not be allowed in my house. I am also no longer going to use Zone Bars as meal replacements. I tend to over do it with things that taste like candy. When the current supply is gone, no more Zone Bars.

And I will be trying a new-to-me technique to eliminate food cravings. It is called The Callahan Technique. I will report to you on how well it works. M.E.

Day 7 - Week 1 Progress Report

Well I made it through the week successfully! Weight loss for the week was 1.5 lbs. Doesn't sound like much does it? But I readily admit, I did not stick to my plan 100% of the time. The plan is still in place, but I am having to work my way up to it! I am almost weened off the Diet Pepsi. I have increased my water consumption by about 300%. I have vowed to get 8 hours of sleep per night, but a recent and lingering head cold has made sleep a rare commodity for the last three weeks. But the virus is finally beginning to abate. It's tough to sleep when you can't breathe. Lack of sleep has been the main reason for the inconsistency in my daily morning exercise. It's hard to work out and sleep at the same time...especially when you spent half the night tossing and turning, blowing your nose and searching for the Breath Right Nose Strips in the medicine cabinet! When you finally fall asleep at 4 a.m., it's rather problematic to be working out at 6, not to mention staying awake at work all day!

As for the 4th holiday, this one wasn't so tough. It was a very normal day for me and I ate the very normal things I eat every day. We had no family commitments this year, so there was no picnic food to avoid. Sometimes things work out to your advantage! Onward into week 2! M.E.

Day 3, progress is a daily struggle...

I started out the day right! I got up early and did a 45-minute walk. I managed to keep my calorie intake at about 1500. I'm still drinking the Diet Pepsi, but I should be out of that by the end of the day tomorrow. Tomorrow I plan to add a lower body workout after the morning walk.

Do you have a hard time staying focused during exercise? I have found that if I listen to music or audio books I have no problem completing my walking tasks. I often take 3 or 4 audio books out of the library, download them, one at a time, onto my mp3 player and delete them when I am done listening to them. My player will hold about 10-11 book discs, so I can pretty much load an entire book on it. I so look forward to the time I am listening, that what I am doing while listening is imatterial. So if I listen while I walk, the time passes quickly and it takes the pain out of the task. Try it! M.E.

Day 2 - July 2

So, how am I doing so far? Could have been better today. I started out the morning by oversleeping. That did not help my plan for the day! However, I made up for the lack of walking by rebounding additional time before bed. Twenty minutes on the rebounder burns more calories than 20 minutes of running. I also have not cut out the caffeine quite yet. When the current supply of Diet Pepsi is gone...well, I expect to be downing acetominophen for the headaches and caffeine withdrawal. I know those caffeine-laden drinks are very hard to give up! And the withdrawal is physically painful, but it can be done! Don't forget to drink at least 8 glasses of water per day!

I will be back tomorrow to report on my progress! And don't forget to go back to archives and read the blog on holiday and picnic eating! M.E.

Today is the first day of the next 5 months!

Today is July 1st. Although I’ve lost a great deal of weight over the past several years, like most people out there, I still have a way to go. Eventually, I plan to have reconstructive surgery…which will probably entail excess skin removal from most of the major structures of my body. I need a butt lift and a gut lift, likely a breast reduction (with a definite lift there), then there is the thigh lift and lord knows I need a bat wing removal. As long as I’m at it, I might as well throw a face and neck lift in as well. But before I bite the bullet on what will amount to extensive, major surgery, I want to lose at least another 50 pounds. Between that loss and the skin removal, I hope to finally attain normal size and proportions for my height and frame. My mother is convinced that if I exercise enough, I won’t have any hanging skin. That is completely unrealistic. I used to weigh 450 pounds. Even if I had the resilient skin of a teenager, that kind of major loss would require some reconstruction. I would have to have arms like Gov. Arnold to fill up these bat wings!

But, in essence, I want to document this journey for you on the blog. I will be reporting weekly on what I am doing, what I am eating and what kind of success I am having in the process. I will be doing things as simply as possible. I will be walking 45 minutes every morning, rebounding every evening to the news, using the exercise ball as my computer chair to improve balance and core strength. I will also be doing a strength-training routine six days per week, three days of upper body, three days of lower body. That should take about 20 minutes per day. I will be trying to stick to a 1500 calorie per day plan. I will be using natural products such as yerba matte tea, green tea, pressed coconut oil and plenty of filtered water. I will be avoiding caffeine, artificial sweeteners and empty carbs. My goal is to lose the 50 pounds by December 1, 2007. (I put the year in there just in case there was any doubt.)

I am inviting any and all readers to join in the journey. Don’t be afraid to share your tips, your do’s and don’ts, your successes and failures. I will do the same! M.E.