Back in the Saddle Again...

Hey everyone! I'm back. Sorry for the lapse in postings, but my mother was visiting from out of state and I just didn't have much time for anything beyond the scope of work and the visit. Not only was my time consumed, my routines were completely trashed!

So, in the spirit of my last post, and barring torrential rain, I will be out on the death march at 6:30 in the morning. No more slashing of tires. It's time to change the flat and get back on the road. Won't you join me? M.E.

Back from the Road, yet again!

Well, sports fans, I'm back from a 4-day trip to Detroit. And I fared pretty well, considering I was at a regimented class and eating out with others from the class. But what I really want to share with you was the wisdom I learned in the class.

I will be the first to tell you that I fall off the wagon and get off track, just like everyone else. That goes for diet AND exercise. So when the instructor in the class began talking about staying on track, even though it had nothing to do with diet or exercise, I listened.

Usually I expect wisdom to come from those who are older and wiser than me. But Andrea was young and cute and extremely bright. She said to the class "Close your eyes and imagine that you are taking a trip to a really wonderful place. It is a place that you really want to visit and you can't wait to get there. But as you're driving along, you suddenly get a flat tire. What do you do?" Someone offered "Call AAA." But she continued.

"You stop and change the tire. You have to approach everything in life in that way. But a lot of people get off track and give up; instead of changing the tire, they get out of the car look at the tire and tell themselves they have failed to get to the destination. Then they proceed to slash the other three tires. You don't fail if you change the tire and continue on down the road."

I've been thinking about Andrea's analogy ever since. She is absolutely, 100% on the money with her observation. So the next time you fall off the wagon, be it diet, exercise, education, job or life in general, make sure you change your tire and get on with it! M.E.

Home Again, Home Again

Well, Week 4 is over, as is my road trip. And it was a wonderful trip. I didn't lose any weight on the road, but I didn't gain any either, and that is a very good thing! Half the battle is not eating fast food while driving. In order to combat that eventuality, I kept a small cooler seat-belted into the front passenger seat loaded with bottles of cold water, fresh fruit and Kashi Go-Lean bars. It worked. I ate small normal meals where I was staying, but on the road, it was fruit, water and Go-Lean bars. I was even able to have a few glasses of wine on the trip with no deleterious effects! Works for me!

Total loss remains at 7.7 pounds. Hopefully I will get back on track quickly now that I'm back to the day-to-day routines. How are you all doing, now that we're four weeks into the challenge? I hope to try a few new things this week and I will share how they are working. M.E.

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.

Enough Resting on the Laurels!

...and enough time away from the blog! I'm home again, and though I can't say none the worse for wear, back to my computer. My latest disappointment is Cracker Barrel. They provide no nutritional information. They do tell you the total carbs for some of their low carb selections...but it doesn't take a genius to know that if you eat eggs and bacon or chicken or steak and nothing else, you are likely to stay within your carb allotment. They do have a variety of "diet" foods that can be substituted. But you need to carry a calorie book with you to determine your total ingestion.

Don't these restaurants realize that providing this information will attract the people who want to know what they are eating? It's just not that hard to give people at least a ballpark idea of the calorie content of any dish. Don't forget to write to your representatives and ask for a law to mandate full nutritional disclosure! And go to Bob Evans for breakfast. They tell you what you're eating! M.E.

Betsy on the Road!

So you're taking a road trip? That's what I'm doing at the moment. I packed up my car and headed to the St. Louis area...a mere 9-10-hour drive. The nice thing about traveling is that you get to try new restaurants. On this trip I had the pleasure of eating at a Jimmy John's Gourmet Sub Shop. It seems this restaurant that started near Chicago is spreading across the country, and with good reason. The subs are really good! And joy of joys, they provide complete nutritional info on the web site.

Not only is the information provided for all the menu items, but you can readjust the calculator to add or subtract ingredients. So if you want that BLT sub without the standard mayo, you can find out the calorie to or subtract from the sandwich of your choice. How good is that? Pretty darn good in my book!

So Jimmy John's makes it to my list of restaurants that you should be patronizing! Bon Appetite! M.E.

Another Good Place to Eat!

To my delight, I have discovered yet another restaurant that provides full nutritional information...Bob Evans. If you visit the Bob Evans Restaurant website, you will find complete information for everything on the menu. All information is printable, so you can take a copy with you, or just determine your meal preferences ahead of time.

If you've been reading this blog, you know my thoughts on full nutritional disclosure. It's very simple really. We need to patronize restaurants that provide this service and boycott those that don't. It is obvious to me that the restaurant chains that don't provide this information are afraid that making it available to the public will stop people from using their restaurants. Quite the opposite is true. If they provide the information, I will patronize. My choices of food are all on my head at that point. But if I don't know the nutrition of what is offered, I refuse to eat there.

On another note, if you haven't invested in an exercise ball, now is the time. They don't cost much...anywhere from 9-20 bucks. Make sure you buy one according to your height. There are quite a few books around that show you how to use it for exercises. But you can also tone your core muscles just by sitting on it. Try using it as a replacement for your computer chair...the very action of staying upright and centered strengthens your core muscles, improves your balance and straightens your posture. It is a good investment. Let me know how you like it! M.E.

Then again there is the rain and snow...

So what do you do when the death march puts you in danger of lightening strikes or frostbite? You rebound. What? Rebound. Go to your local sporting goods store and buy a sturdy mini trampoline. Mine is about 40 inches in diameter, but some are a little smaller. There is even a brand that folds for convenience. I just lean mine up against the wall when I'm not using it.

How do you use the rebounder? You walk at first. Get on the trampoline and walk. There is no need to bounce, and you can walk as fast or slow as you like. Don't be surprised if you find it feels completely different than walking on a solid surface. Your muscles get an even greater workout because each step goes farther down than the starting horizontal position. It is more like walking in sand. Eight minutes of medium speed rebounding burns the same amount of calories as two miles of walking on solid ground. And you might be surprised that after eight minutes on the rebounder you FEEL like you just walked two miles.

If you're worried that you're not steady enough to keep from falling while you're on the trampoline, there are brands that have a stability bar you can attach, and you can hold on while you are walking. As you become more comfortable with using the rebounder, you can begin to do more complex moves, such as bouncing and twisting. Music is great for rebounding, but it is also easy to watch TV while you're doing your rebounding. Don't be disappointed in yourself if you have to work your way up to eight minutes. But once you get used to eight minutes, you can increase it to 10 or 15. Twenty minutes of rebounding is the calorie-burning equivalent of a five-mile walk.

So what are you waiting for? M.E.

My Secret Weapon

You may not want to hear this, but exercise is essential to losing weight and keeping it off. I decided that the only way to burn off the calories was to get out and walk. I weighed too much for any other type of exercise. So I got up and got dressed early in the morning. I left home and only got about a quarter mile. I was tired, so I turned around and headed for home. I tried again the next day, but it started to rain and once again, I turned around and headed home.

It occurred to me that I was not mentally prepared to do what was required. I needed to be heading home the entire way, and I needed to have no option other than moving forward. So the next day, I got up and dressed and climbed into my husband's van. I asked him to drop me off on his way to work at a spot about 2 miles from home. He thought I had lost my mind. But really, I was just doing the logical thing. From an intellectual standpoint, I was headed home the whole way. I carried a cell phone for emergencies, but I had no choice but to walk home. There were no cabs or buses. I couldn't turn around if I was tired, or cut it short if it started to rain or if I got cold. I had no choice but to get home by my own locomotion.

I began to call it the death march. It represented death to my fat body. I did it every morning, rain or shine. And when my weight loss started to slow down, I started doing it every evening after dinner as well. I was walking 5 miles a day and losing weight consistently. I walked off over 70 pounds in about 6 months.

You too can do the death march. It is absolutely worth getting up a little early to lose that stubborn weight! M.E.

It is sad but true...

Repetitive dieting trains your body to gain weight more quickly, to be more efficient at absorbing calories from what you eat, to increase your fat stores and to hold on to the fat you already have stored. All this time, you thought you were doing yourself a favor by dieting when what you were really doing was teaching your body to gain weight faster and better than ever before and to resist each new effort to lose weight. It took me far too many years to realize what I was doing to myself.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t watch what you’re eating. I’m saying you should make intelligent choices designed to promote your health and well being. If you consistently eat intelligently, rather than emotionally, you can live with it over the long term. You won’t be dieting, and that will go a long way toward defeating your weight problems.

I’ve tried almost every diet plan on the planet. In every case, attempting to remain on any of those plans for the long haul was an unattainable goal. Yes, I lost weight, but when I was no longer able to stick with those programs, I regained the lost weight PLUS additional pounds.

In essence, I dieted my way UP the scale.

It took a long time to learn that successful weight loss and long-term maintenance only come from a combination of healthy eating and increased movement. I regularly eat 1200-1500 calories per day. But, if I don’t move, if I don’t get out there and do some deliberate calorie burning, I just don’t lose weight. Years of repetitive extreme dieting have ruined my metabolism. My metabolic rate is so slow that I gain weight on 1500 calories if I’m not extremely careful. I can occasionally take in more calories if I am burning off a lot of calories through aerobic exercise and strength training. In my next post, I’ll tell you what combination worked for me…to the tune of 270 pounds lost! M.E.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

Yesterday, I attended a Lake County Captains game. The Captains are one of the Cleveland Indians’ minor league teams. I admit, I had an ulterior motive for attending…I was honored to sing the National Anthem before the game. So I decided to make a day of it. And what does this have to do with losing weight?

Ballpark food…it smelled like heaven when we walked into that stadium. I was assaulted with the odors of hot dogs, burgers, French fries, popcorn, nachos and fresh baked pizza. Coupled with the fact that is was sunny and hot (close to 90 degrees), the lines to the food were incredibly long, and people kept filing by me with plates and containers emanating fresh-cooked smells designed to make even the strongest-willed person drool.

Considering the choices I had, which food should I have taken as the least of the evils? The pizza was about 400 calories, the plain quarter-pound burger w/bun was about 450. The extra long hot dog with the bun and works was about 380. The nachos were about 575 calories. The French fries come in at around 600 calories. So forget the nachos and fries. The pizza has both high fat and high carbs. The dog and the burger are running neck and neck, but a plain burger has more protein and less fat than a hot dog. So I ate the extra 70 calories for the sake of less fat, more protein and fewer chemical ingredients. Then I went light on dinner.

The choices we make are integral to losing weight and keeping it off. Everything we put in our mouths is a choice. We choose to sit in front of the TV instead of going for a walk. We choose to eat the cheese nachos instead of a healthy green salad. We choose to drink straight cola rather than diet cola or water. Every bad choice we make adds to the problem, even when each individual choice doesn’t seem substantial. Excess weight gain is the cumulative effect of all those seemingly unimportant choices.

We need to correct our thinking so that we can make the choices necessary to help us achieve and maintain our goals! This is not an easy task. We eat by rote. It is a habit to eat when the food is there and at specified times, even when we’re not hungry. It is habit to eat dinner and then sit on the sofa and watch the tube. Tomorrow we’ll give you some tips for breaking those bad habits and making better food and exercise choices. M.E.

Diets Make Us Fatter!

How does dieting make us fat? Isn’t this the thing we most often do to LOSE weight? Yes, it is. And the rising obesity rates in this country are a shining example of just how unsuccessful diets are at accomplishing their aim. Weight loss that is not permanent is not weight loss at all. Let me explain how this really works.

The body is a fabulous machine. We can train it to do just about anything. What we don’t realize is that we train it to do things we never anticipate. For example, let’s say you have 10 pounds to lose. Your body is used to receiving 2500 calories of fuel per day from you. You cut 1000 calories a day from your diet. Do you lose weight? Yes, you do. Then you stop dieting.

Your body was expecting to get 2500 calories per day, but you only gave it 1500. You starved it into submission. It doesn’t like being starved, so it learns that in order to be happy and maintain the weight it is used to, it needs to slow down it’s metabolic rate. If you give it less calories, it will slow down even more and burn fewer calories. And it protects itself from future "starvation" by storing as many calories as it can, and it stores them as fat. You gain back the weight you lost, and you quickly gain a few more. It’s the body’s way of giving itself a cushion against the starvation strategy you are forcing on it.

In essence, you originally had 10 pounds to lose, you dieted, which turned out to be the wrong course of action, you regained the weight back along with a few additional pounds, and now you have 12 or 13 pounds to lose. This diet caused a net GAIN of 2-3 pounds. So you find a new diet. You repeat the same procedure and you lose 10 pounds, but you lose it more slowly because your body is now fighting you all the way. You become frustrated and give up the diet, regain this 10 pounds and a few more for good measure. You’ve now been on two diets and have a net gain of 5-6 pounds.

Can you see where this is leading? Soon you are trying one diet after the next, and several diets per year can cause you a net weight GAIN of 10-15 or even 20 pounds…Ten years of this and you’ve become morbidly obese.

Stop dieting! You are only injuring yourself in the process. Even the very word "diet" is mentally equated with deprivation. It’s time you quit looking for the magic diet bullet and started making meaningful progress in your pursuit of a normal, healthy body! M.E.

Picnic Paranoia

Most people I know that worry about their weight dread the holidays. They bemoan Thanksgiving and Christmas and complain about winter weight gain. But for me, the dreaded food time begins in April or May and stretches out before me like an Iowa cornfield. First there are the confirmations and first communions. Then the wedding showers begin, at least two or three each spring, followed by their respective weddings in May and June. There is the usual plethora of graduation parties, and fears of overlapping with fellow classmates' soirees have them stretched throughout the month of June. The seasonal picnics...Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day simply cannot be ignored. You can add in the family reunions, usually three or four per season, depending on which families decide to go the extra mile. And, like me, I'm sure you have friends that throw an annual summer bash that you would never dream of missing.

The math is clear. I can barely find two consecutive weekends from now through Labor Day where food events are not looming large.

And who ever said that picnic fare isn't just as devastating to your health and weight as a turkey dinner with all the fixings? Fat laden hamburgers, hotdogs, kielbasa and brats on white bread buns are not healthy eating no matter how much you load them with chopped onions, tomatoes and lettuce (often the only fresh veggies on the food table). Those delicious baked beans your Auntie Mayme brought are doctored with enough brown sugar and bacon to make a cardiologist wince.

No matter how much you tell yourself a salad is a salad, if it's not mostly green it just doesn't measure up. Potato salad and macaroni salad are not "salads" at all. They are heavy, high calorie, low density carbs loaded down with high fat, high calorie dressing...think mashed potatoes and gravy...same thing, different color. As for fried chicken and corn-on-the-cob dripping in butter, you might just as well stuff them in your arteries and on your hips, because that's exactly where they're going to end up.

Lest we miss part of the picnic spread, lets not forget the wide assortment of potato chips and snack foods...a great way to fill up on nutritionally empty calories with high fat content. Thirty minutes of mindless grazing at the snack food table and you've ingested half a day's worth of calories before you've even seen the real food. And last, but certainly not least, there is the desert table...cakes, pies, brownies, cookies, and the latest decadent creations from the more creative cooks in the family. Don't forget to think about what you are drinking...a few regular colas or cold brews can add hundreds of calories to your daily intake.

How can you cope with this type of offering again and again over the summer months and NOT gain weight? How can you eat at such functions and stave off the heart bypass surgery? It isn't easy. At functions where you have absolutely no control over what you are served, such as weddings and showers, go for the fresh fruit, veggies and salads. Fill most of your plate with those things leaving little room for the heavier, higher calorie foods. If you cannot control the portion you are getting, eat only half of what you are served. It may still be more than you want, but at the very least you will have done some damage control.

If you are going to those hit-and-run graduation parties...eat a protein bar or a cup of raw baby carrots just before you arrive. You'll be full, and the offerings won't be as tempting. Find the healthiest things offered and eat small portions, staying away from the burgers, dogs and fried chicken. My favorite event is pot luck. I can bring what I want to eat. And I always bring two dishes so I have at least my own two offerings to consume. I often bring a large green tossed salad and provide dressings on the side, including the spray-on type. I also bring a veggie, such as fresh blanched green beans, drained and flavored with spray-on olive oil based margarine and tossed with fresh pressed garlic and a little McCormack's California Blend Garlic Pepper (the most versatile seasoning in my larder). Sometimes I will bring fresh fruit, artfully arranged of course. If I'm asked to make a desert, I will do so, but I won't eat any of it.

I have a mantra I say quietly to myself while walking the food line and eyeing the offered dishes...repeat after me...heart attack, stroke, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, diabetes... I do this because it is much easier to make the right food choices for the sake of my health, than it is for the sake of my vanity. Yes, I want to lose weight and look great, but if those things come as a benefit of long-term healthy eating, rather than emotionally painful diet deprivation, the chance of rebound weight gain is diminished. I have come to the conclusion that diets make us fatter, not thinner. And I'll tell you why in my next post! M.E.

It's not just WHAT you eat, it's also WHY you eat

So how did I do at the wedding? Not bad, actually. The food was excellent…prepared by the talented cooks of my newly acquired niece’s family. And there was plenty to be had. Fresh fruit was set out as appetizers before the actual meal, and I used that to my advantage. I ate a good portion of fresh strawberries, grapes, kiwi, pineapple and assorted melons. It was a healthy way to take the edge off my hunger and fill up with low calorie nutrients. When dinner was served, the lines were long. Unfortunately, they ran out of salad just before I got to the end of the table where you pick up your plate and flatware. So what is a conscientious eater to do? Veggies. Look for the veggies. I filled a large portion of my plate with green beans almondine. I took one thin slice of beef, half a cup of pasta and a small whole grain roll. When I finished eating, I walked around with my digital camera taking pictures of the wedding party, the relatives and the guests. In doing so, I missed the call to the desert table, and by the time they cut the cake, I was exhausted and ready to head home and get into my jammies. Eating cake was the last thing on my mind at that point.

Five years ago, I would have piled my plate full, eaten it all and waited anxiously for the cake. I love the tastes of food. I didn’t eat because I was hungry; I ate because I liked the tastes, and in doing so, generally used most eating events, like holidays and weddings, to eat to the point of being painfully stuffed. It took a long time for me to realize that it didn’t get better if I ate more. As a matter of fact, it got less tasty as I continued eating because my taste buds became numb to the flavors.

But tasty food wasn’t the only reason I overate. On a daily basis, I was an emotional eater. Food was the ultimate in almighty comfort. I ate when I was happy. I ate to celebrate. I ate when I was angry. I ate when I was upset. I ate when I was bored. I ate when I was sad. I ate when I was feeling guilty. Solving emotional ills with food is a never-ending, downward spiral. You eat because you’re upset; you gain weight; you feel guilty and ashamed. And how do you treat that feeling? You comfort yourself with more food. You have to fight this habit, this detrimental behavior. At the wedding, I busied myself taking pictures. If my hands are busy, I’m not using them to shuffle more food into my mouth. I fight the battle of emotional eating every day of my life. Some days are better than others, but I’m not giving up the fight. Are you?

This is a problem every emotional eater can attack right now! Find something you like to do with your hands that does not involve food. This will be your "food substitute." When you’re wandering around looking for something to put in your mouth, ask yourself, "Am I really hungry or am I eating because I’m angry, bored, upset, guilty, happy or celebrating?" If you’re not really hungry, then busy yourself with your new "food substitute" and soon, the urge to eat will be forgotten. Be creative. Draw, paint, read, write, sew, redecorate, garden, join a club, learn woodcarving, take a class, finish that elusive college degree…find something you can use as a substitute for food. Then use it! M.E.

Easy meals and weekend woes

How do you feed your family good nutritious food without resorting to fast food, carryout dinners and restaurants? Well, you don't have to resort to "from-scratch" food preparation to assemble a decent meal. There are plenty of ways to cut preparation time and still have that homemade feel and nutritional value without all the additives and preservatives.

Frozen veggies are quick to prepare, either on the stovetop or in the microwave and have better nutritional value and less sodium and chemicals than canned varieties. Some newer brands can be cooked right in their own bag in a matter of a few minutes. Most grocery stores carry bagged salad fixings, but how long does it take to cut up some greens and put them in a bowl? Spray-on salad dressings are great because you get greater coverage with fewer calories. Spray-on butter it great too, and you can get olive oil based products for better nutrition and less saturated fat.

If you want to serve carbs with your meal, how about an all natural, whole-grain bread? Many brands are available even at convenience stores. Baked potatoes are quick and easy with a microwave, but try it with sweet potatoes for better nutritional value.

What about protein? I find chicken is the quickest and easiest to cook in a hurry. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are great. Foil line your pan for easy clean up, spray it with cooking spray to prevent sticking. To prevent the chicken from getting too dry, you lightly coat the chicken pieces with cooking spray or spray-on salad dressing, then sprinkle with a light coating of bread crumbs. Your chicken will come out of the oven juicy and flavorful in as little as 35 or 40 minutes. (Put your chicken in to bake, and you'll have time to open the day's mail and check your voice messages and still microwave your potatoes and veggies before the chicken is done.) For even faster chicken, many stores have fresh cooked, cut chicken pieces packaged for your convenience. You can heat and eat or garnish your salad with the precooked chicken. For more economical cooked chicken, buy a whole fresh cooked chicken, take it home, strip the meat off, package and freeze it for quick easy meals later. My favorite is available at Sam's Club...spit-roasted chickens for less than 5 dollars each...and if you're really inventive, you can use the remains to make soup stock.

The crock-pot is a great way to make nutritious meals while you're at work. It only requires a little preplanning. A favorite of mine is lentil soup. It is high in protein and vitamins, easy to put together and ready when you get home from work. It takes me about 20 minutes to prepare, and I do it just before I go to bed at night. Cut up a large onion, some carrots, celery and a few cloves of garlic, dump them in the crock-pot with a pound bag of lentils and fill it with water. Set it on low and let it cook until the next day's dinnertime. Season to taste. It's delicious and good for you, too! Almost anything can be prepared in a slow cooker with a little forethought. Invest in a decent crock-pot cookbook, but try to use as many fresh or frozen items as you can. Don't be afraid to make substitutions to the recipes; get can still have all the flavor, but reduce the fat and calories, by leaving out processed foods, canned soups and sauces. If you're really pressed for time just throw that roast or chicken in the slow-cooker with a small amount of water and a little salt and pepper and turn it on. When you get home, all you have to do is nuke a few sweet potatoes and some frozen veggies and you have a healthy meal in less than half an hour. You wait that long for pizza delivery!
Save the carryout meals or restaurants for "occasions" and learn to make quick nutritious meals for a healthier family with fewer obesity problems.

Let's talk about the weekend woes...why do we have such a hard time with food on the weekends? We seem to ingest more and higher calorie foods, often managing to undo any good we've accomplished during the week. I think it's because we equate food with fun and relaxation. And heavy eating events are usually scheduled on weekends as well. This weekend I have a wedding to attend. I have no idea what will be served, so it is impossible to prepare for my choices ahead of time. When confronted with such a situation, I do my best to stick to the simplest foods being served. I'll go for the veggies and tossed salads, stay away from creamy dressings, and only eat half of whatever they're serving as portions for carbs and protein. You do have to know when to say NO to yourself. You can have a little of everything as long as you limit the amount you are eating. Don't eat until you're miserably full. You'll feel better, move better and sleep more comfortably if you're not stuffed to the gills. I regularly tell myself that I have a food allergy. But instead of breaking out in an itchy rash if I eat too much of an item, I break out in fat. And it's not treatable with OTC meds! Remember, if you're unable to plan ahead and have no choice about what you are given to eat, leave half of each item on your plate and walk away! You'll feel better, and you won't have the guilt you normally suffer after such an event.

M.E.

The Heartbreak of Obese Kids

I don't know about you, but my problems with obesity started long before adulthood. By the time I was in fifth grade, I had already developed a pattern of binge eating. This was by no means bulimia, because I wasn’t purging at all, but it was an eating disorder all the same. Of course, there were no experts naming such things back then. They just said you were fat and needed to go on a diet. As I continued to gain weight, I became tired and sluggish. The vicious cycle had begun. I realize that I was viewed as a fat, lazy child, but it wasn’t quite that simple. I know I didn't carry my share of the load when it came to chores in the house or the yard. My sister, Ann, shouldered the burden, and for that I owe her an apology. But as a result, she began to slim down, and the physical gap between us widened as I packed on every pound she lost.

Things seemed to worsen with each progressive school year. I was the last picked for any team physical activity at school because I couldn’t run as fast or throw as well as the rest of the kids, who teased me unmercifully. The resulting lack of self-esteem pushed me to bury myself in books and avoid the other kids. Soon I was living all my fantasies between book covers. Unfortunately, that meant that I was spending all my free time reading rather than moving. More sedentary time only sent me faster down the weight-gain spiral. My self-image was incredibly poor. When Ann teased me about having lollipop legs (fat at the top and thin at the bottom) or told me I looked like the dancing hippos in Fantasia when I wore my pink bathing suit cover-up, I was primed to be overly sensitive. Unfortunately, I took such comments to heart. And if you think such things don't have long-term effects, trust me when I say I was in my 40s before I ever wore pink again. (And it is such a good color on me!)

My heart goes out to all the overweight children I see today. There are so many more obese kids now than there were when I was in grade school. The reasons for this are dual. Kids don't get nearly enough exercise...they play their video games and X-Box instead of heading out to play tag or kickball. Then there is the food: the wrong food and far too much food. Parents these days work hard and lead busy lives. That tends to make them rely on prepared food, take-out food and restaurants. Those three choices are generally high in calories, lacking in balanced nutrition, and are served in portions that are two or three times what is recommended for adult consumption.

Kids don't have the where-with-all to make sound choices, so it is up to us to make sure that they learn what they should and shouldn't be eating. I guess we all need to bite the bullet and start doling out some tough love to our kids. Otherwise we are condemning them to a lifetime of obese misery, health issues and the jeers and taunts that ruin a child's self-esteem and mental well being. Sad to think that the biggest lesson a child may be getting at school is that he or she is worthless and an outcast. If you think that sounds extreme, then you were never a fat child. The cruelest critics of an obese child are the peers he spends every school hour attempting to ignore or avoid.

Okay, I’ll get off the soapbox. So how can we address the issue of preparing healthy foods when we just never seem to have the time? How can we make exercise more palatable for our kids? I'll have a few suggestions for you tomorrow!

M.E.

Just Another Diet Disaster...

We've all been on those lovely "crash" diets. If you are truly obsessed with losing weight, more likely than not you've tried the infamous Cabbage Soup Diet. This diet achieved its glory as a way to lose up to 10 pounds in only a week! But experts agree that losing that much "fat" in a week is not possible. Most of what is lost is water weight. The diet tells you to eat as much soup as you want, and that the more you eat, the more you will lose, touting negative calories (burning more from digesting the soup than the actually calorie content of the soup). It is indeed a low calorie item, but it is traditionally high in sodium (to give it enough flavor to make it edible) and lacking necessary protein. Folklore has it that the diet was developed for short-term weight loss so patients could lose weight quickly prior to surgery and lessen the chance of complications. Most members of the medical profession are opponents of the Cabbage Soup Diet, specifically because it lacks sufficient protein and calories to promote healthy weight loss.

Like all other diet-obsessed people, I tried this diet back in the day. It caused me to be tired, dizzy and nauseated most of the time. And like most people, I decided that if 7 days rid me of 10 pounds then 14 days should rid me of 20, and 21 days should rid me of 30, etc. But crash diets don't work that way. You lose all the water first. Then you start losing muscle mass because there isn't sufficient protein and calorie intake to maintain your muscles.

I know several people who used this diet repeatedly (not a recommended course of action) to lose large amounts of weight. Every one of them, yours truly included, gained it all back and then some.

And if rebound weight gain is not enough to stop you from using and abusing your body with this questionable regimen, perhaps the abundance of painful flatulence will. This soup produces enough methane in your gut to propel you across the state of Ohio! And it's not exactly the odorless type.

My recommendation...pass up the Cabbage Soup Diet. There are much healthier and more effective methods to achieve permanent weight loss.

M.E.

Chile's - a restaurant that cares about its customers!

I am thrilled to tell you that Chile's provides full nutritional disclosure! Every item on the menu is covered, complete with calorie content, total fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, protein, total fiber and sodium. This restaurant is a conscientious eater's dream. The information is readily available on the web site and easy to find. Just click on menu, then on nutrition. You can print out the extensive two-page list of items and decide ahead of time what you wish to eat. No excuses, just information! Kudos to Chile's on making informed choice available to their customers. This is the type of restaurant we should all be patronizing. And if we overindulge at Chile's, it's no one's fault but our own. That is the way it should be. Don't be shy...tell all your family and friends that Chile's is a good place to eat...and tell them why.

Every obese person has a weight loss fantasy, because everyone wants a magic bullet, a pill, an instant fix. I was no different than any other morbidly obese person who wanted to lose weight the easy way. I imagined many highly creative scenarios to rid myself of the excess poundage. But no matter how much I begged, I couldn’t persuade my doctor to wire my jaws shut for 6 months. I could not talk him into whole-body fat removal...the ultimate fantasy where you count back from 100 and when you wake up all the fat is gone. I used to water walk in the backyard pool at night (so no one could see me) and gaze up at the night sky, waiting to be kidnapped by aliens who needed human body fat for some nefarious purpose and would inevitably return me to earth after the "fat harvest" thin and beautiful! It finally occurred to me that if I spent as much time doing something about it as I did fantasizing that it would just go away, I might actually achieve a modicum of success. Needless to say, the aliens never landed in my backyard! What are your weight loss fantasies? Jump in and share them if you would like!

M. E.

Restaurants seem to think it's all about Spin!

I've found another major restaurant chain that's pretending to be helpful while not revealing a thing about the real nutritional values of their meals. Beware of Outback Steak House! This one is killing me because I love their steaks! But when I went searching for nutritional information all I found was smoke and mirrors. There is an entire web page of supposed nutritional information. But it is actually comprised of suggested menus. If you need to be gluten free, we suggest the following; if you have allergies, we suggest the following; if you need weight loss, low sodium, heart healthy foods or high protein/low carb choices, we suggest the following menus. The only one that even comes close is the diabetic menu, which actually gives food exchanges. But there is nary the mention of calories, grams of protein, grams of fat or any other key nutritional information anywhere on the site. Regardless of whether you follow their recommended menus or not, you still have no idea how many calories you are wolfing down at meal. So we can add Outback Steakhouse to the boycott list!

As for me, I'll share with you what I feel was my first huge mistake. I was a fat child and a fat teen. But when I was in high school, I competed for a college scholarship...and I won. The problem was that I had to pass a physical and I had to fall within a certain weight range. I weighed a hefty 185. The maximum weight for my height in the scholarship physical was 143. Now I have always been a procrastinator, so about five weeks before the scheduled physical, I decided that I had to lose the 42 extra pounds. I felt the most expedient way to accomplish this task was to just stop eating. This isn't as painful as it sounds. After about three days, the stomach stops producing the acids and enzymes it needs to digest food. However, since the acids and enzymes are what actually cause hunger pains, when they stop, hunger stops. After that, it's a piece of cake...very, very, dangerous cake. I was lucky. It was in the days of presweetened Kool Aid and I was downing 4-6 quarts of zero-calorie drink per day. I actually ingested nothing but that Kool Aid for 33 days. This venture resulted in the following:

I lost 43 pounds, which I promptly gained back (plus a few more) after I passed the physical.
I ruined my metabolism. My body thought I was starving it, and from that point on losing weight was incredibly hard. I ate less and gained faster.
I discovered that certain dyes are not assimilated by the body if no food is present in the stomach. On day 32, I urinated orange (orange Kool Aid) and on the last day, day 33, I was mortified to see that I had urinated purple (grape Kool Aid). After this ill-fated episode, I was unable to eat anything grape flavored for years.

My analysis of this method is "Don't Do It!" This strategy only achieved the objective on a very temporary basis and resulted in rebound weight gains! It screwed up my metabolism on such a huge scale that it is still having a detrimental effect on me four decades later. The lesson here is, you didn't gain the weight overnight...and no method exists that will rid you of if overnight. You have to go about it in a way that maintains your health and well being! And we'll talk a bit about that tomorrow.

M. E.

Welcome to 10,000 Pounds!

I'm glad to be here, literally! I hope you are, too.

I've called this blog 10,000 Pounds! because that's how much weight I think I've gained and lost over the past four decades. Or at the very least, it seems that way. If you have a long-term problem with obesity, then you know exactly how I feel. You've spent years beating your head against a wall, trying every diet plan that comes along, no matter how unlikely it is that it will result in permanent success.

My intent is to share with you my successes and failures over the last 40 years. I'll tell you what I did wrong, what I did right, and all the mistakes I made. I'll tell you the reasons I believe that I gained weight repeatedly. And I'll tell you how I finally found success.

But I'm also going to use this blog as a platform for change. I believe the entire population would be better off if we could make more informed decisions about the things we eat. Let me start with a little story...

I used to treat myself every Saturday morning to a large, hot chai tea latte with whipped cream...to the tune of about 300 calories. I knew it was high calorie but I was careful not to eat anything bad. The coffee shop had doughnuts and Danish, but they also had muffins...a much wiser choice, I thought. I really wanted the chocolate doughnut...all that nice cake fried in hot grease called my name, but I would not succumb. The coffee shop proprietor purchased her baked goods at Dunkin Donuts. Feeling righteous, I decided to see if I could find out how many calories I was saving by passing up the doughnut and eating a muffin instead.

I found the Dunkin Donuts website and perused their nutritional information. That chocolate doughnut that I craved was only 250 calories! It was less than my hot chai with whipped cream. I was stunned. Confidently, I pushed forward and found the list of muffins. The one I normally ate was called a coffee cake muffin...plain muffin with a crumb topping. Much to my dismay, I discovered that "better choice" I thought I was making was actually 720 calories...TWICE the calories of my decadent hot chai. I was sickened to learn that between the muffin and the chai, I had quickly ingested over 1000 calories in one brief sitting. That was almost an entire day's allotment of calories! And I had been doing it for months, completely oblivious that I was eating an excessive amount of calories and fat.

That episode prompted me to research other restaurant websites to determine what I should be eating when I went out. Amazingly, some of the biggest chains provided NO nutritional information at all. For example, Longhorn states that because they "custom" prepare food that they can't give out nutritional information. What a lame excuse that is! Applebee's provides calories/fat/fiber information but only on items listed as "Weight Watcher" choices. Most of these dishes are less than 500 calories. But what if you don't like anything on that limited diet menu? An independent web site that calculates calorie content from a variety of restaurants listed Applebee's Southwest Philly Roll Up with Sour Cream and Salsa at a whopping 2,231 calories and 160 g of fat! So if you choose to eat anything not on the Weight Watchers list, you have no idea how many calories you may be sucking down...and in this case, ignorance is definitely not bliss.

Some establishments do provide complete nutritional information. I normally don't eat at McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts, but I applaud their forthright disclosure. At least, if I do darken their doorways, I can make an "informed" decision. Panera Bread/St. Louis Bread Company also has full disclosure on their website. I have a friend who frequents Panera and other restaurants that provide this information so that she doesn't inadvertently eat more calories than she intends to consume. This tactic, along with frequent workouts, has resulted in a 100-pound weight loss in the past year.

I think it's time that the public demands full nutritional disclosure from all restaurants. The obesity rate in this country is rising daily. We have become a nation of fast food, or at least food we don't have to prepare ourselves. Blindly eating restaurant food about which we have no clue plays a definite role in the rising obesity rates. We need to take matters into our own hands and demand full disclosure.

So I am recommending the following. Call or write your Senator and Congressmen. Tell them you want a law passed requiring full nutritional disclosure from all restaurants, either posted on the company website or available as a handout to in-store customers.

In addition, I am asking you to join me in a boycott of restaurants that fail to fully disclose their nutritional information. I am starting with Longhorn Steakhouse. Don't eat at Longhorn, and ask your friends and relatives not to eat there as well. Explain to them why Longhorn needs to provide full nutritional disclosure. You can even send a postcard to your local Longhorn telling them that you are boycotting their restaurant until they provide complete nutritional disclosure.

Let's get the ball rolling!!

M. E.