LEAP DAY

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Leap Day does not come around too often.... in fact, it comes around once every four years... I was curious how much I weighed on the last leap day 2016.... I looked it up... Actually it was a bit depressing... on Leap Day 2016 - I was 228 lbs.  On this Leap Day morning 2020 I weighed myself and I was 265.8 lbs.  Better I should remind myself that I was 297 lbs on New Years Day 2020.... I should celebrate that I have successfully lost 31.2 lbs this year. It's going to be a great Leap Year this year. I am going to lose a lot of weight. And the year will be capped off by an epic election in November!  (Hint: I am not rooting for Bernie, Bloomberg, or Biden!)

UPTOWN GRILL LASALLE, ILLINOIS

On Friday I was with a particularly good customer from 10AM until 9PM.
Afterwards we had a dinner at Uptown Grill in LaSalle, Illinois.
I am so used to eating virtually every meal at Red Lobster, Applebee's, Panera and Starbucks.
Now that I have trained myself to make (relatively) healthy choices - I selected menu items which although were not listed with calories - I was confident that I was making somewhat smart (and tasty) choices.


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ON THE PROGRAM FOR A MONTH AND A HALF

It is now the end of the day, February 15.

I have not swayed from my course.

I have continued to eat well for 1.5 months.

This is a bit of an accomplishment.

Even this short time represents 1/8th of year.

As long as I continue... I will see my weight continue to drop.

Unlike past 'health binges' this has been a far more sustainable plan.

In the past I consumed 1000 calories per day. 

It is true that my weight dropped faster - but when I ended that plan, I had not practiced safe eating.

This time, I am eating well.  I am not starving myself. 

And there is not really a plan to jettison...

I am trying (again) to get into the habit of simply eating well.

Someday, and I don't know when, I will have a cookie and maybe a chocolate bar...

But that day should not come soon.

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I have stayed 'on program' for 1.5 months... That is 1/8th of a year.  I just need to keep on doing  what I am doing.

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LONG DAY BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS

On Thursday I was out and about from 7AM until nearly 2AM early Friday morning... I am going to forgive myself for eating just a bit more than normal... I was pretty happy to find an open Applebee's at 11PM in a small town, Terre Haute, Indiana

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MONK FRUIT SWEETENER, SAY WHAT NOW?

Keto Dieters Love This Low-Carb Sugar Substitute—but Is It Worth the Hype?

BY NINA BAHADUR   JANUARY 2018

Monk fruit extract is appealing for three major reasons: It’s unbelievably sweet, won’t raise your blood sugar levels, and has little to no calories in its pure powdered form. Plus, there are no known nasty side effects, and the Food and Drug Administration categorizes monk fruit extract as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS), even if you have diabetes.
“It’s 150 to 200 times sweeter than sugar, so you can use very little,” explains Keri Glassman M.S., R.D.N., founder of Nutritious Life. “It also contains antioxidants and is said to support the immune system, digestive tract, glands, and respiratory system.” One study even suggests monk fruit sweetener might have anti-inflammatory properties.
So How Does Monk Fruit Sweetener Compare to Sugar?
Consuming too much added sugar can ruin your teeth, cause kidney stones, increase your risk of heart disease, harm your liver, and make you gain weight. Monk fruit sweetener has not been proven to do any of these things.
Monk fruit’s sweetness comes from chemicals called mogrosides, which the body processes differently from common sugars like sucrose and fructose.
While monk fruit extract may be a healthier choice compared to sugar and many other artificial sweeteners, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should add it to all of your meals, says Cara Harbstreet, M.S. R.D. L.D., of Street Smart Nutrition. Like anything, moderation is key.
“Monk fruit sweeteners are calorie-free, but that doesn’t mean they can be used with abandon,” says Harbstreet. “From a safety standpoint, there would be no negative physical effects. However, health encompasses our emotional and mental health as well, and low-calorie or calorie-free sweeteners are often associated with dieting behaviors that can damage one’s relationship with food.”
Translation: Adding any kind of sweetener to your food might make you crave sugary things, which can cause a vicious cycle, especially if your goal is weight loss.

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WEIGHT LOSS IS HARDER THAN ROCKET SCIENCE

reprinted from The Wall Street Journal

Weight Loss Is Harder Than Rocket Science

The equation behind body-mass index is simpler than the math used in space flight, but measuring human bodies is a tricky business

Credit: Tomasz Walenta

By Eugenia Cheng

January 30, 2020, 9:54 a.m. EST

We all have different ways to judge whether or not we need to lose weight. Some of us are always happy the way we are; some worry that our clothes are getting too tight or notice changes in the mirror; and others, especially doctors, pay attention to body-mass index or BMI.

BMI is given by a straightforward mathematical formula: weight (technically mass) divided by height squared, where weight is in kilograms and height in meters. The idea is that taller people should naturally weigh more, so we need some sort of ratio between weight and height. But why is height squared?

Mathematically, areas increase according to length squared, but volumes according to length cubed. A 12-inch pizza isn’t twice the size of a 6-inch pizza, but four times the size, whereas a 12-inch watermelon would be about eight times the volume of a 6-inch one.

Humans are three-dimensional, not flat like pizzas, but the formula for BMI seems to treat us as two-dimensional objects. One mathematical interpretation of the formula is that as humans get taller, their measurements should not scale up in all directions. Perhaps we expect tall people to be wider but not thicker from front to back.

The idea behind BMI was proposed in 1832 by the statistician Adolphe Quetelet, who wasn’t trying to define a healthy weight but to model a bell curve or normal distribution of human body sizes. He studied heights and weights and observed that weight tended to increase not according to the cube of height but with its square. The Quetelet index was renamed the body-mass index in 1972 by physiologist Ancel Keys, but it still wasn’t meant to measure the health of individuals, only to show trends among populations.

One reason the BMI model runs into problems when applied to individuals is because it doesn’t take body composition into account. It uses the crude measure of weight without distinguishing between muscle and fat, even though excess fat is much more likely to be detrimental to health than large amounts of muscle. Measuring fat composition directly comes with its own problems, however, so BMI is used as a simpler model.

The variations in our individual biology are always going to make it hard to model anything about humans precisely. It is sometimes said that “losing weight isn’t rocket science”—a field that is popularly invoked to indicate extreme difficulty. It’s true that rocket science involves much more complicated formulas than the one for BMI. But rocket science is arguably simpler than weight loss, in the sense that it involves less unpredictability and variation. We control how rockets are made, and they don’t change their material composition over time.

That is why the relationship between math and physics is generally much closer than the relationship between math and biology. But mathematical models are still helpful even when caveats and exceptions are needed. Just because an idea is expressed mathematically doesn’t mean it’s always right; but equally, just because a mathematical model isn’t always right doesn’t mean it’s completely wrong. The point of a mathematical model is to produce a theoretical version of a real-life situation, which sometimes involves trading precision for simplicity. It’s easy to dismiss BMI out of hand because of its flaws, but it’s more productive for us to use math appropriately, in full awareness of both its shortcomings and its many benefits.

RESULTS!

Sunday morning was the first time I was home and could weigh myself on my home scale.  I suspected that I would be cheered by the results:

On the morning of January 1st I did weight 297 lbs.
On the morning just today February 2nd, I weigh 272.6 lbs

January 2020, the first month of the year, and of the decade ushered in a weight loss of 24.4 lbs.

I did this without starving myself.
I did this basically eating three meals per day.
I did this eating zero unhealthy snacks, and for that matter, zero 'healthy' snacks.
I did not choose the absolute lowest calories choice at restaurants - but always had an enjoyable meal.
I did not forgo the baguette french bread when enjoying soup, but always skipped the crackers.
I did always have a glass of water with lunch and dinner - never soda, never diet iced tea.
I did walk away from free breakfast buffett - thinking I could have eaten more.
I did almost always stop and dine in for lunch and dinner, avoided 'drive-thru' meals.
I did lose 24.4 lbs in the first month of the year.
I did remember that I have done this before, and that I could do it again.
I did remember that the most difficult thing about changing a life pattern is deciding to do it...
...and doing it.
  

OK, now it's time to continue doing what I am doing....

Wednesday January 29

Wednesday January 29

29 days into the new year.
still no chocolate, no cake, no donuts, no ice-cream, etc
going strong

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Tuesday January 28

The month is coming to an end... and I keep rolling along...
Had a great meal today at Red Lobster.
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It turns out that it is far more rewarding to sit down, eat a decent meal than go through the drive-thru at Burger King, Chick Fil A, McDonalds, Culvers, White Castle.... Wow, when I slip, I really slip!

So far this DECADE, I have had no slips!

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Salmon New Orleans

This delicious New Orleans-style seafood recipe features pan-seared salmon topped with shrimp in a rich Cajun butter sauce. 

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SALMON POWER BOWL - NEW FAVORITE?

At a late Red Lobster lunch I carefully perused the menu and stumbled upon the Salmon Power Bowl.  A bit of a misnomer, as it was not served in a bowl, but a plate. That is quite a tiny quibble. The meal was delicious.  Not particularly low calorie, but highly satisfactory... And a high protein meal can't be too unhealthy. Besides, I am not really trying to eat the lowest calorie option at every meal - but I am (so far successfully) eradicating chocolate from my life.  Twenty days into the new year and I have been successful.  If I only keep the chocolate candy, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate ice-cream, chocolate milk, chocolate doughnuts, and chocolate donuts, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, and the like far away - my weight will drop - as it has already in just the first twenty days of the year.

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AT THE DAWN OF THIS DECADE I WAS NEALY 20 POUNDS HEAVIER

AT THE DAWN OF THIS DECADE I WEIGHED NEARLY 20 POUNDS MORE THAN I DO TODAY.
That 'dawn' was just 18 days ago!

The Dawn of this new decade started at sunrise just eighteen days ago. On that day, I weighed 297 lbs.  Just eighteen days later, I weigh 278.5 lbs - down 18.5 lbs in eighteen days!

On Monday morning, I retired my new Columbia Pants purchased in October and revived a pair of Ralph Lauren 46B waist Black Jeans.  They were tight on Monday, but I was happy just to be wearing them again.  By Friday they were absolutely comfortable. Next stop, they should get loose, then ill-fitting, and then retired as I rediscover some 44W pants I have lying around somewhere.

DOUBLE DIGITS

Double digits.
TEN DAYS
progress being made.

Perhaps in a couple of weeks or so I will be able to wear the XL long sleeve button down shirts my Mom gave during my last visit last October.

I didn't even bother to try them on.... but I will be wearing them soon enough.

On Saturday morning, I weighed 282.1 lbs.
Since I did weigh 297 lbs on January 1st.
I guess I am 'happy'

The ridiculous thing, is that back (a long time ago) when I was under 230 lbs and crossed that border into the 230's I was depressed.

The direction one is moving is everything.

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FAUX SHOPPING SPREE

On Thursday night I visited a convenience store and I used my myfitnesspal app to record the calorie content of much of the 'snacks' that I have been enjoying for the past year.... Even I never had all from this list in one day - but I surely had much more than than this list in a week.  Hmmm, I wonder why I gained so much weight in the past year.  Mystery Solved. I am disgusted with myself. Actually, I am not disgusted at all.... I just finished my 9th day of not eating anything even remotely from this list... It does not take too long to start feeling better as I do. Yeah, I know... shocking

I have not completely removed sugar from my diet. It is hard.  There is some sugar in many restaurant prepared foods. But I have decreased my sugar intake by a factor of alot.

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Day 4

The 'advantage' of making a new lifestyle choice on January 1st of a New Year is that it is easy to calculate how long one has been 'at it.  Saturday, yesterday was January 4 and for me it was Day 4.

Day 4 does not exactly signal to the world, or more importantly to myself that I have made a lifestyle change... But one does have to get to day 4 before one arrives at the end of week 1.

If at First you don't succeed, try, try again (and again and again)

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2020

New Year

The previous year ended with a constant weight increase

The fatter I got, the lesser I cared.

For the last half of the year I was afraid to step on the scale

Although any day is a good day to make a change, I waited until New Year's Day.

I was still over-eating on New Year's Eve.

New Day

New Year

New Decade

Time for a 're-boot' 

Weighed myself New Year's Day and I weighed 297.

Wasn't exactly shocking based on my belt loops, tight clothes and irksome mirrors.

Still it was shocking.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday ----> returned to a normal diet of actual food.

Re-discovered salads, Panera Break, Jimmy John's Unwhich, health(ier) choices at Starbucks.

Weighed myself Saturday morning....   287.5 pounds

Now obviously I did not lose 9.5 pounds in three days. 

Oh hell, maybe I did.

Maybe my weight was wrong on New Years Day... although I did step on an off the scale about ten times to be sure.

Maybe by weight is wrong today, Saturday January 4th.  Again I did step on and off the scale about ten times to be sure.

No matter, positive re-inforcement helps... 

I expect to be in New York before too long, it would be good if I could trim up a bit before getting back home... And although this won't be the first time... A national Quilt Market takes place in Pittsburgh in May - I will make it a goal to look 'good'  

Getting real tired of looking bad.

I know the secret.... NO CHIPS, NO FRIES, NO CHOCOLATE, NO DOUGHNUTS (OR DONUTS)  NO ICE CREAM, NO MILK SHAKES, NO McDONALDS, NO M & M'S (plain or peanut)



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Thursday May 30

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Not a spectacular day, I've eaten better, definitely eaten worse

Wednesday was an all day tradeshow in Shipshewana, Indiana.  At the conclusion of that show, I packed my bags and headed to Rockford, Illinois, in order to be in place for an appointment in Pecatonica on Thursday morning.





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It is actually surprising that I reached 10,000 steps yesterday without making an effort... I simply walked 10,000 steps living my life... walking back and forth during a tradeshow, and walking back and forth to the car to load and unload my samples.

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MORE EATING, NO WALKING (DAY 122)

SMILE, Y'ALL ARE IN HOUSTON (DAY 97)

Houston Saturday.
Woke up 4:45AM
Checked the weather: 57°
Checked sunrise 7:35AM
Left for my 10 mile hike at 5:03AM and returned to my hotel room at sunrise.
Great way to start a day!

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DAY 55

Day 55
I ate a bit more than usual, but still in the neighborhood of 1000 calories
Walked six miles.

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