JANUARY

JANUARY
SUCCESS
one complete month eating well
no chocolate chip cookies, no Oreos, no Hot Chocolate, no chocolate cake, no Hi Ho's, No M&M's (plain or peanut) No Potato Chips, no Bugles, no Hamburger, no Pizza, no Soft Pretzel, no gas-station hot dogs, no free cookies at the hotel, no flavored oatmeal, no Culver's, no Chick-Fil-A, no bacon, egg, cheese bagels at McDonald's, no White Castle, no Tacos at Taco Bell, no Whoppers, no cheeseburgers, no Klondike Bars, no milk shakes, no Brownies, no Hershey chocolate bar, no donuts, no doughnuts either.... In fact, no snacks since this decade began!

I will weigh myself Sunday to see just how much progress I have made.
January was a success!

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NO SNACKS!

23 days in.... and I have 'survived' with no snacks (not even a relatively healthy snack like an apple)
Nothing... no snacks!
No wonder I am dropping some weight.
In a recent typical day prior to January 1st,  my snacking exceeded unbelievably high calories every single day. It could make you sick.  Actually it did.

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SNACK ATTACK

My four month streak of refraining from snacking has ended.  Last evening I still had not checked into my hotel by 11PM.  After a late workout at the YMCA in New Hope, Minnesota I drove to where I thought my reservation was being kept.  I had made a reservation at this hotel, but I did subsequently cancel it when I learned that the elevators were out of order.  But I forgot that I had cancelled it.  I had had a late workout and now I was getting a bit frustrated and I gave into my desire to eat a snack.  I stopped at a CUB FOODS MARKET and purchased 4 RED DELICIOUS APPLES and 60 GRAMS of RAW WHOLE ALMONDS.   I had been wanting to add nuts to my diet for a couple of weeks now - I just have to remember to really monitor the portions.  I did purchase .12 lbs of these nuts and divided the bounty into two equal halves so that I could enjoy some last evening, and enjoy some today, 28 almonds is 170 calories.  I believe this to be a healthy food - It would be easy to have 300 almonds at one seating if one was not careful - therefore portion control is of great importance.

28 raw whole almonds is 170 calories.
A good healthy snack choice - as long as portion control is followed.

Thursday.  My total SNACK was 522 calories.  While this was quite a bit - considering what I have been eating recently - I think that I still made some good choices.  My total caloric consumption for the day was still 'only' 1532 calories.  This is the most amount of calories that I have consumed in four months - and yet, the time is nearing when I should start ratcheting up my calories consumed per day. Recently, I have felt a bit sluggish and I do think it is time to increase my calories per day up from 1000.   I have no intention of returning to my previous habit of consuming 5000+ calories per day - but I am under the impression that anything under 1900 calories per day should still result in slow steady weight loss of 1 or 2 pounds per week.   Still, I am not ready to bring my calories up to 1900 so quickly.  I am not going to fret about this one day when my calories exceeded 1500.  I am still very proud of all that I have accomplished.  One day of eating 1500 calories only seems outsized compared to what I have been doing - but it is still a very low caloric total - even for a man who would weigh 200 lbs and wanted to shed a pound or two per week - which does not describe me just yet - my last weight was 214 lbs.

The conclusion that I am drawing from yesterdays 'binge' was that a 522 late night calorie snack (fruits and nuts) will not derail my efforts for the week and that I should just continue doing what I am doing.  And this is precisely what I intend to do! 

WEDNESDAY MENU

breakfast  cup Quakert Oats Instant, Apple, two eggs scrambled                                 380 calories
lunch       JIMMY JOHNS BOOTLEGGER UNWICH, PICKLE, orange                   315 calories
dinner     JIMMY JOHNS BOOTLEGGER UNWICH, PICKLE, orange                    315 calories
SNACK   four RED DELICIOUS APPLES, 28 ALMONDS (approx 30grams)   522 calories

TOTAL CALORIC CONSUMPTION 1532 CALORIES

CALORIES BURNED
New Hope, Minnesota YMCA elliptical machine set to "HILL CLIMB" 40 minutes 485 CALORIES

WEDNESDAY NET CALORIES   1047 CALORIES

'HILL CLIMB' WORKOUT - 40 MINUTES

One thing that I have read over and over again is that it is not desireable to do the EXACT SAME workout each day. I have almost always set the various elliptical machines to CALORIE BURN or something similar. Today, I selected HILL CLIMB which meant that the first half of the workout continued to get progressively more challenging.  There certainly was the sensation of not stepping quite as quickly as I have become accustomed to - but I was able to tell by the calories burned and my own level of sweating that I was working plenty hard.  My intention is to continue trying different workouts instead of selecting the same type of workout each time.

I know perfectly well why I selected HILL CLIMB.  There is a little hill in my future which I find myself thinking about every day - It can be found in Yosemite Park and it is called HALF DOME.  I know that referring to HALF DOME as a hill is like calling an ocean liner a boat.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE?

My five day, four night tour of the Kansas City area ended yesterday.   I left Independence, Missouri at 11:30AM after a particularly good early morning appointment.   I was in a hurry to arrive home so that I might possibly meet my family at the Pediatrician as my daughter was suffering from a virus.  I knew I would not have time for lunch, so I departed Independence with two bananas and two apples.   That was my lunch.  (Not quite as satisfactory as lunch at Jason's Deli or Panera Bread) I drove 500 miles for 8 hours straight  with only three extremely short breaks.    I met my family at the doctor and finally arrived home in Chicago at 8:00PM.   Admittedly I was hungry.  Nevertheless, the very first thing I did was spend twenty minutes on my home elliptical machine. Now I have a baseline for what I can and cannot do with this type of exercise.   On my home machine I set the 'resistance' to '10.' (This was a low level.)   I struggled yet still managed to complete a twenty minute segment.   The machine indicated that I 'burned' 275 calories.   My heart rate at the conclusion was 150 BPM.   Had I set the 'resistance' any higher it would have been futile - I was struggling enough as it was.

Thursday marked the 21st consecutive day that I have managed to consume less than 1000 calories.  I continue to surprise myself.   This is the same guy who one month ago was eating and snacking virtually 24 hours per day. (Only sleep kept me from eating.)   For the past three weeks I have not had a snack.   There have been times when I was hungry - but my willpower to train myself to eat only breakfast, lunch and dinner was stronger than my desire to eat something. My resistance has not been futile.   I guess resistance is futile only applies if confronted by The Borg.  Perhaps that is not quite true. Didn't Captain Picard mustered just enough resistance to help the good folks of the U.S.S. Enterprise?

This morning, I resisted the urge to step onto my scale.  I am simply going to wait until tomorrow morning.   It was almost futile to resist the urge to weigh myself today - but I managed.

This afternoon I have gum surgery scheduled.   I am looking forward to answering a question that is always asked when I go to the dentist.  "Are there any changes in your medical condition since your last visit?"   My answer this time will finally be emphatically, "Yes."   I have gotten healthier.   In fact, I am eager to have my blood pressure checked this afternoon as I will be able to see if there has been any improvement from past readings, and especially the reading that I had during my 'wellness' exam way, way back on  December 24, 2014.

The BORG were wrong.  RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE.

TRUE MEANING OF BREAKFAST

The word 'breakfast' was created from two smaller words: break & fast.   I checked my dictionary and  'fast' is defined: 'to abstain from food.'   In this context, the word 'break' is defined: to end. Ergo, breakfast is the ending of the abstention from food.   In my previous lifestyle which ended way, way back on December 24, 2014 I would think nothing of having a snack at 11PM, or Midnight, or 1AM in the morning.  My overnight 'fast' could have been as short as six hours.  I am usually an early riser, so no matter what time I had eaten the night before, my day would start with an extremely non-nutritious 'breakfast.'   If I could go back in time and visit my former self sitting down to a 'breakfast' of two bagels, or two bowls of sugar flavored cereal, or two doughnuts... I might now say to myself, "I do not think this word, 'breakfast' means what you think it means." (Inspiration from this imaginary quote comes from Inigo Montoya in the movie,  'The Princess Bride')      Last evening, I finished my dinner at 7:00PM and now at 7:00AM the next morning, I am ready to BREAK MY FAST.   It is true that this chaffing dish of 'hotel eggs' might have looked less appealing to me a few weeks ago - I just spent 30 minutes in the fitness room walking two miles - I am hungry.   Bon Appetit.

La Quinta Hotel Breakfast : two 'egg' patties 200 CALORIES

THIS IS A SNACK?

As a man who spends approximately 10 nights per month on the road traveling from one account to another,  I was pretty guilty of 'snacking.'   I intend to spend my time on this blog looking to the future - but I must look backward this time to describe the type of purchases I might have made when stopping to fill up my tank with gas.   This trio of 'foods' often served as breakfast too.

                                                           TOTAL FAT    SATURATED FAT   CARBS    CALORIES

NABISCO OREO COOKIES (10-PACK)        23G                   7G                    79G                   530
HOSTESS HO HO'S (3 PACK)                      16G                 12G                    54G                   360
NESTLES 14OZ VANILLA MILK                      3G                   2G                    30G                   170

TOTAL SNACK/BREAKFAST                       42G                  21G                 163G                1060 

This is breakfast?
This is a snack?
For the past many years, the answer has been: yes
And one more thing, I could consume this 'meal' in ten minutes, maybe less....I never actually timed myself.   But one thing is for sure,  I never felt sated, or satisfied.   The one thing that prevented me from getting a fourth or fifth item was that I didn't want to overdo it.  Yes, I know - That's pretty funny.

This clears up the mystery of my elevated glucose levels and weight gain.