Back on Track

Got off "my Platue" and started down the path to a good healthy wieght again. Walking is tremendous exercise. Here is a calorie burning chart.

http://www.coolnurse.com/calories.htm

A 200 pound man walking quickly can burn 6.8 calories per MINUTE!

I weigh almost 250 pounds, at 4 mph I was burning over 8 calories per minute. I walked for 45 minutes in the morning and 35 at night. Besides the 640 calories I burned look at that view. Its not only free but beautiful. Walking is a low impact activity minimizing risk of injury. Remember consistency is the key.

Plateau

I have neither gained nor lost weight in the last 10 days. Commonly know as a Plateau.

This is a good thing to know, as when I reach my goal I will know the balance of exercise and food that will maintain my weight. But I have not come close to my goal so I need to make changes. As I look at the last couple of weeks my resolve has weakened. I still walk but instead of the two times a day for 14 walks per week I have been at 8 walks. I am the household cook and I have been snacking while preparing my meals. I have still avoided high fat high sodium foods more than before but I am having seconds at dinner and large lunches. I have had cocktails several times which are not conducive to weight loss or motivation. Its amazing with all of that and eating 4 meals per day I don't gain any weight.

I have a goal. Twenty pounds by the fourth of July and forty pounds within a year. It is comforting to have a goal because it keeps me on track. So with renewed resolve I am climbing down from the plateau and continuing my Journey to a Healthy Weight. Hope to see everyone there

A Good Product

I am not paid to recommend anything but I thought I would pass this one along. There are plenty of ZERO calorie dressings on the market and lots of low cal but this one is great. My family often uses blue cheese dressing on our tossed green salads, often the Marie's or Lighthouse brands. Both of those dressing are delicious but contain 160 calories per serving. This dressing tastes as good as any I have tried at only 50 calories, 40 from fat. We have green salad two or three nights per week. Over a year this dressing will save me over 14,000 calories without any sacrifice. That's almost 4 pounds of body mass less per year. Amazing. Weight loss is FREE and often times quite tasty. Try Bolthouse Farms Yogurt dressing, their juices are good too.

Waterboarding or My Bicycle

Water boarding or My Bicycle?

Trying to become more fit and having such a perfect day I decided to ride my bike. BAD IDEA! The seat position is such that it is fortunate I am not going to father any more children. To sit comfortably I lean way way back on the saddle. I can't adjust the seat, its fastened by a weird screw that the only known driver is owned by a bicycling monk in Tibet. At 6'6" my knees are in the wrong position and riding the hills is tortuous. I get to the big downhill leading back home. I pedal fast and go to stand on the pedals to enjoy the wind on my face. my reward for climbing all those hills! That's when I realize my right knee has locked up and I almost fall. I was safer eating potato chips and watching TV

But I will persevere. Twenty pounds by July 4Th and I am halfway there.

Back to walking tomorrow

Small Changes a big difference

We go out to Carrows about once a month. I usually get the following:

Salad with Blue Cheese, Garlic Bread
Large Prime Rib (12 oz), Vegetable,
baked potato with butter and sour cream
Glass of Red wine

Truth be told I would sometimes order a full one pound cut but for now we will go with this menu.

The big difference is I checked Nutrional information on-line Before I went to eat.

I ordered the following

Salad with a little oil and vinegar
corn bread with no butter
Salmon, Baked potato w/ sour cream
vegetables and water

I am just as full and just as happy. And even my improved dinner has too much sodium (over 1200 mg) so next time I will cut out the corn bread. It was surprisingly a major contributor to the total sodium. These small changes netted tyhe following differences

1305 Fewer Calories

49 Grams less fat (441 fat calories)

1057 mg less sodium

Little change make a difference. Over time a HUGE difference

Guilty Pleasures

I am not feeling the deprivation one normally gets with dieting. that's why I call it a lifestyle change. Today instead of being vegetarian I had meat at both lunch and dinner. Yet ate healthy! I was working at lunch hour when we stopped at Pollo Loco. I order a chicken breast and a cup of pinto beans and rice. I normally get a breast and a thigh and order the bean, rice and cheese burrito as my side. That meal has around 1000 calories with lots of fat. The way I ate yesterday including removal of the skin on the chicken brought my meal to barely over 400 calories. A savings of 600 calories in one meal! I went ahead and cooked steak for dinner. These very thin New York's weigh around 5 ounces each before cooking. The are higher in saturated fat than I like but the meat portion of my meal had No added sodium and contained less than three hundred calories. Add a baked potato, no butter, and some peas with pearl onions and I was completely sated and had a low fat meal. Weight loss is not only free, its cheaper.

Thanksgiving in April

LOSING weight but living my life as normally as possible. Please do NOT diet, Heal your life and your habits. I had my step-son and 3 of the four grandchildren with him. I cooked a celebratory meal. Turkey, dressing, mash potatoes and gravy, corn cobettes, rolls and ice cream. But I am still losing weight. I ate my corn without butter or salt. I bought the whole wheat rolls, ate only one and didn't use butter. No gravy for me thanks. I ate my fill. No deprivation. I even had a single scoop of ice cream. Life is to be enjoyed. I can be greatly happy with gluttony.

Good News

The weigh-in for week two finds me at 251 pounds, 7 pounds lost in two weeks. Despite an Easter Holiday with lots of ham and the seduction of chocolate candies calling my name from my grand daughters basket my weight loss continues. It is encouraging that even though there were obstacles I am still on course. If things go well I will weigh less than 250 pounds for the first time in years by next weekend. That positive thought made it possible to take my walk this evening. As you can see winter had returned to Northern California but despite wind and rain I took my evening walk. Building up my metabolism is an important key to losing weight when dietary habits are imperfect.

Expect Lies

There is a lot of money to be made in weight loss. Hence the name of my blog, Weight Loss is Free. People sell products, machines and even magazines but leave the truth behind too often. This headline is on the newsstand today. A mere 51 days until Memorial day. Yeah lose 47 pounds in 51 days. Maybe this article was written for 600 pound people who run marathons, they could lose that weight. Weight loss is full of really difficult things. PATIENCE and DISCIPLINE. I will loose 20 pounds over 3 plus months, and keep it off. Don't waste your money weight loss is free.

Doing What I Can

My stepson has run marathons in Florence and Paris. My best friend is 50 and can bench press more than his body weight on a free bar and is an A rated beach volleyball player. My friend the chiropractor, who is ageless, can spring ski all day in Lake Tahoe. I don't have the stamina, strength, nor flexibility to currently be their equal. I can easily briskly walk for 25 minutes and so can most of you. So I do, twice a day. When I get under 240 pounds I will increase the difficulty and length of my exercise periods. But right now I must do what I safely can to increase my metabolism.

It would be easy to make excuses and say there is no time. I am a caretaker, the sole support of a family of four, and a frequent babysitter for my energetic three year old granddaughter. But I can make time. I get up earlier and eat breakfast and then walk. I was rewarded with a view of the sun rising over the east hills near my home. I come home from work cook dinner and clean up the kitchen and then I walk again. I am not special. Anybody can do it. Weight loss is free but not easy. If it is important to you there is time.

The Weigh In

After one week the weigh-in. It was an imperfect week to be sure. I wanted to walk a minimum of once a day and was shooting for a morning and an afternoon walk. Consistent movement doesn't just burn a few extra calories it increases your metabolism over time. Unfortunately that part didn't go as I planned. I also had a couple of days out of the 7 where my lunches were higher in salt and fat intake I would have liked. Other than that I am pleased. The first week result is a three pound weight loss. I know after Friday's sodium filled sub at Quiznos that it is not just water weight loss. I would like to be around five pounds this week. The first two or three weeks are the quicker weight loss weeks and to reach my goal by the forth of July will take some discipline. Today is Easter Sunday so I need to make allowances for holiday foods. This is not a diet, its a lifestyle. I will enjoy a customary Easter celebration but continue with the common sense eating. I will limit the candy, avoid the gravy and butter, keep the ham at under 10 ounces and enjoy a nice day. Weight loss is free and does not have to be torturous. Happy Easter Everyone!

POP QUIZ

My Lunch is Killing Me

I work a job that has me in different cities every day. Sometimes multiple cities per day. I need a way to eat out that is healthy. I am not trying to be thinner out of vanity, I have extremely high blood pressure. So it time for a "SURPRISE QUIZ" (didn't you hate those in high school?)

The task is five lunches are described. You are to rated them WORST TO FIRST

A: Taco Bell. 2 grilled chicken soft tacos, pintos and cheese

B: Subway 6 inch chicken breast, bag of lays classic chips, and a chocolate chip cookie

C: Quiznos Regular Mesquite Chicken and a cup of water

D: McDonalds a quarter pounder and small fries

E: KFC Original recipe wing, thigh and coleslaw and biscuit

What do you think. Which is the worst lunch?
One of these is sooooo bad I would have been better off smoking a pack of Camel non-filters and getting a pint of Southern Comfort. It should come with a warning label "This lunch is bad for you and could kill you today!" The big looser ..... Quiznos

The Quiznos is worst for total calories, fat calories and SODIUM. This one sandwich has an entire days worth of sodium for a healthy person. Without chips or a side order of any kind it has 2285 mg of sodium. You finish this sparse lunch and would still be hungry despite consuming 920 calories of which 420 are from fat.

Here are the rankings:
worst for calories Quiznos, Subway, KFC, McDonalds, Taco Bell
worst for calories from fat Quiznos, Subway, KFC, McDonalds, Taco Bell
worse for sodium Quiznos, Taco Bell, KFC, Subway, McDonalds

In my opinion the McDonalds is definitely best with Subway second. Subway is the largest of the 5 meals but the McDonalds is the only one of the lunches with less than 1000 mg of sodium. Despite doing well in calories the Taco Bell lunch has 1720 mg of sodium and the rest of there menu is full of higher fat and higher sodium dishes. I would then in my real world diet take the KFC. If I threw out the biscuit and took the breading off the chicken it would reduce more than a 1/3 of the calories and sodium, and put it on par with the Subway. So its

1 McDonald's

2.Subway

3. KFC

4. Taco Bell

5. Quiznos

Yes, I had Quiznos today when out to lunch with the boss. I am done with them. I assumed (falsely) when I asked for their chicken sandwich I was doing a good thing. That is not even there worst regular sandwich. Randy's (the boss) regular classic Italian has over 3000 mg of sodium with over 950 calories.

So How did you do?

Weight Loss is FREE

I started with the concept of "Weight Loss is Free" as a way to say there is no excuse for not getting better. There is nothing you need to buy to lose weight. You don't need to join a gym or buy slim fast or anything. There is an easy and free way to achieve a healthy Body Mass.

But losing weight is better than free. In the last few days I have not used any butter or mayonnaise. Two of my greatest weaknesses. I cook in butter. I slather it on bread. I drown my sandwiches in mayo. I would take a piece of cheese and dip it in mayonnaise. I would take a saltine cracker and eat a pat of butter. Best Foods is nearly $4 a jar and butter is about $2.50 a pound. Just those two abuses being dropped from my life will save about $150 in the first 12 months. More of this common sense later.

Kind to Myself

I am not pleased with the way I appear today. I have not been perfect on my food choices. My lunch included a burrito with sour cream, beef and guacamole as well as a side of chips. But, I have decided to be kind to me. When I am angry with myself it triggers negative results including binge eating. The old saying by those in 12 step programs is, "Progress not perfection". I am eating and exercising better then I was last week or last month but I am not perfect. I am improving and if I continue to make a sincere effort to be better that is good enough for now. Better to my family, better for my work, and most important better for myself. It took years to get to the point I am at now. I must be patient and kind to myself. My better choices will bear fruit.

Portion Control

I have been eating almost exclusively vegetarian for a few days. The exception was a small piece of salmon. BUT, tonight I splurged. I had a thin New York strip steak. Eat anything you like. What? There is nothing off limits. If you like a food enjoy it. Be a little hedonistic. Here's the deal, if it is a food that is densely caloric limit the frequency you serve it and the size of the portion. Most nutritionists would tell you that your serving of meat or poultry should be approximately the size of a deck of regular playing cards, about 3 ounces. My New York was more like 5 oz but I just need to burn or drop 500 calories a day from my baseline. My normal serving would be 12-14 ounces. Enjoying my life, enjoying my food, and improving everyday.

The picture is from a nice website called http://www.treehugger.com/. I would also like to thank my friend and internet wizard Cheddar, better known on the web as Sublime driver. Thanks buddy, chubby people need internet love too. To see how Cheddar can help you with your web visit here http://top100affiliates.blogspot.com/

Goals

First let me state the obvious, we all must set goals. This is not just about weight loss, this is about life. How can you gauge your progress if you don't know what it is you are trying to accomplish? If my goal was to drive to New York within one week but after three days I was only to Reno I would know I was not effectively attaining my goal.

Set Goals that require effort but are obtainable. If I set a weight loss goal of losing 5 pounds over two months I would be successful but I would cheat myself of any feeling of accomplishment. I could lose 5 pounds in the first week. Conversely if I said I want to lose 20 pounds in one month I will fail. There is no healthy way to lose that much weight in so little time. I have set a goal of losing 20 pounds by the 4Th of July. That works out to 7 pounds the first week and then a pound a week for 13 weeks. A pound of fat would take a reduction of 500 calories per day. This will require effort but should be possible without great discomfort.

REWARDS. When you achieve your goals you should reward yourself. I know people that want to celebrate a successful weight loss program by treating themselves to a piece of cheesecake. That's fine but not that productive. You are still food centric. When losing weight you will look better. I would suggest rewarding yourself with some nice new clothes or a new hair style. Something that builds on the positive results you are achieving.

Enjoy yourself. In addition to caloric reduction you need to burn more calories. Make the activity enjoyable. Yesterday I walked to Lake Cunningham on a beautiful spring afternoon. The journey was its own reward. Eat food you like in a common sense way. Last night for dinner I had a little salmon teriyaki. I find it delicious but made sure I had an appropriately sized portion. Losing the weight is not a punishment and its not torture. Its beneficial and can feel good.

This is NOT a Diet. I want to loose weight for health, appearance, and improve my self-image but the new levels of activity and healthier meals are not temporary, they represent a lifestyle change. Its not a period of self-denial that I can't wait to end, its a new way to live. A healthier way to live longer and better

I am Almost Obese!

There are plenty of things I don't like about myself. We all have some. I was teased frequently as a child for having freckles, but I would not change my heritage for anything. Even if I wanted to I could do nothing about it. Genetics brought me some unsightly leg veins but the medical plan doesn't cover "cosmetic" procedures so I accept it. I would really like dental implants and to improve my smile but I don't have the $30,000 to spend so I accept myself as I am. I weigh 258 pounds and I accept that the aging man in the mirror is a bit overweight. Wait a minute. There is no reason I have to be fat. Losing weight will most likely improve my health, make me more attractive and improve my self esteem but I do nothing. There is no excuse, weight loss is FREE.

I bought a scale and weighed myself. I take that weight and plug it into a BMI calculator and see I have a Body Mass Index of 29.8. If your BMI is from 25 to 29.9 you are considered overweight, if it is 30 or over you are OBESE! I was a couple of pounds from obesity. Now as you look at the chart you can see I am in good company. As of 1994 almost 60% of American men and about half of the women were overweight or obese. The numbers have gotten worse since then.

I work a full time job. I pay all the bills for a family of four. Since my wife's strokes and heart attack I buy and cook all the food. I am the one who cleans the kitchen and does the laundry. I am frequently the babysitter for my three year old granddaughter in the evenings. My wife can no longer drive so I take her to dialysis on Saturday's. As the only income I don't have a dime to spare. But I will still loose 20 pounds by the forth of July. My point is none of us feel we have the time or money to take on any new struggles. In our stress filled society we want to just turn on the TV and zone out. But WEIGHT LOSS IS FREE. Its not easy but it is free. If I can do this anybody can. I am a stress or emotional eater. When I feel bad about myself or my situation I eat. When I feel sad or lonely I stuff my face. This will be a journal about success, self improvement and a journey to better mental and physical health. Any of us can do it, its a choice.

To find your own Body Mass Index Go Here: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/