Running A Mini Tri in Sept.

Plan is to lose 10 lbs per month and ride, swim and run.  Here’s approximately how I’ll look:

Up 4 Pounds after Spain

I’m pretty happy with my weight after the Spain trip.  We ate light breakfasts of espresso and pasta (various rolls), lighter lunches and decent dinners with lots of delicious inexpensive red wines.  Part of the key to not gaining much was the tremendous amount of walking we did, probably six to eight miles per day.  Love Spain!  Now, I’m going to grind it down to 220.  Hope to be there by mid Dec.  After that, I’ll try to maintain for a month and then go down to 200 at which time, I’ll be a virtually perfect human being.  

Doing Semi Hard Things

OK, down about 17 or 18 lbs.  Two or 3 more to go before we leave for Spain Sept. 25th.  I’m happy to be back in the groove living fairly well on about 1200 to 1500 calories per day.  My goal in Spain is to maintain or lose a little more, and then when I get back home to focus really hard for a couple of months on the next twenty lbs.  The hard thing isn’t so much being hungry and feeling that low blood sugar feeling.  The hard thing is to get over my obsessive compulsive over-eating habit, especially at night or when I haven’t eaten for too long.  The thing to do is to take some of the legal snack foods with me for such emergencies.  And, I have some radishes in the fridge as well as Shasta Diet Cream Soda.  Love it!

So, success at last and I’m going down, way down.  I’m looking forward to mom getting worried that I’m looking gaunt and too thin, and Beau worrying that my head looks too big for my small body.  I’d also like to go into Weight Watchers and have them tell me I don’t qualify to go on the program.  Too thin.

You can do hard things.

I believe there are a lot of diet theories that can easily lead you astray.  For example, you can eat virtually as much food as you want on the Atkins diet and easily lose weight.  Or, very low fat diets may allow you the same thing:  you can eat a lot of food as long as it contains very little fat.  I was momentarily convinced that eating foods with higher alkalinity could be a good way to lose weight.  Bottom line, however, is that to lose weight, you have to eat significantly less calories and food than your overweight body naturally desires and when you do this, you will experience some hunger pains and sometimes suffer a little bit!!  Dang, I hate to suffer!!  Haven’t I spent a lifetime of making my life more comfortable?

When we moved into our new house, there was a little quote hanging on one of the bulletin boards that made me think:  ”You can do hard things.”  Hmmm, I thought, but why?  And, what are we talking about, read hard books?  Solve hard math questions?  Certainly not hike big mountains or run far and sweat a lot, or have less to eat than you want or sleep somewhere with no air conditioning!!  Perhaps I can do hard things, but I don’t really want to do hard things.  

And yet the phrase has stuck with me and I’ve realized more and more how profound it really is.  Rick learned how to do hard things.  Mary is doing some hard things.  My buddy Steve Roberts is doing very hard things and Dougie has always done a multitude of hard things.  Mom did many many hard things, so why can’t I and why don’t I?  So, note to myself, Doug, you too can do hard things, especially if the hard things will improve your overall well being, health and happiness.  And it turns out that doing hard things can be done in bite-sized chunks, in the case of dieting, 6 or 7 bite-sized chunks a day instead of the normal feeding frenzy with many multiple bite sized chunks three to four times per day, which of course, leads you into a world of high blood sugar, tight trousers, sweating while doing little easy tasks, and many other ugly things that I won’t mention here.

You can do hard things.  You CAN do hard things!  You can DO hard things!  You can do HARD THINGS!  Doug, you can do hard things, and really, they’re not that hard compared to the hard things my friends and family are able to do.

OK, people, laugh if you want, but I’m down 13 LBS

Unfortunately, I have not learned to eat properly, and, because we’re heading on vacation to Spain at the end of the month and I didn’t want to come back looking like a whale with my 42 trousers feeling tight, I decided to go back on the fairly gruesome Advanced Weight Loss Program that I was on two years ago.  It is medically designed to give you all of the protein and nutrients you need to avoid losing muscle mass, but to give you maximum healthy weight loss.  You get weighed in, measured, blood pressure taken, blood taken, counseled (hate that part) every week.  I have been very happy to be back in the saddle again, and this time, I’ve eaten a few more snacks and exercised moderately (golf and walking) and I feel fine.  I’ve watched my morning blood sugar count drop from a high of 135 to 88 over two weeks.  My PB has also returned to normal.  My 42 trousers are loose already!!  Love it.

They have increased the amount of food products available and I like them a lot.  They range from protein shakes to chili, soups, jello, tasty drinks, hot chocolate, tasty bars, etc.  You buy them once a week when you’re doing the weight in.  My goal is to be down 20 lbs by the time I leave and then, the tough part, to gain no more than a couple of lbs while I’m gone.  

For those of you who have bad habits and can’t seem to get in the WW groove easily, this is a very do-able and good program.  I believe I can be down by the end of Jan., and then I’m going to really work to stay on it partially, perhaps forever.  The lady running the program for Dr. Muse is amazing.  She was 70 lbs over-weight, kind of sluggish, wore muu muu looking outfits to work, etc.  She’s now this cute little babe with a whole new attitude and happiness about her.

If the real estate market stays bad, I might decide to go out and set up clinics in Southern California.  I’d love to be the Jack Lalaine/Richard Simmons type, inspiring people to get with it.

Your Favorite 8 to 10 Point Dinner (400 to 500 Calorie)

I explored the world of alkalinity/acidity for a few weeks.  I ordered the test strips and found that I’m already in the range I need to be at about 7.8 alkaline.  I was hoping that I was too low and that changing my status would cause an easy an dramatic drop in weight, but no such luck.  It is worth checking out especially if you have a lot of problematic conditions such as joint pain, arthritis, reflux, headaches, etc.  But, for me, it was not the miracle cure to what ails me:  the desire to eat about 2500 calories/day to keep myself at the weight my body seems to want me to be at.  

So I’m following the Weightwatcher guidelines which I believe are about as true and tested as any other program out there.  Go to this address and read the study:  

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1822118,00.html

Over time, there is no difference weight wise eating carbs versus fats.  It’s all about calories.  Geeze, isn’t that boring?  As the article points out, the one exception is transfats which seem to add weight by staying in the system.  People may be able to stay on a particular plan easier than other plans.  But, long term, it’s calories.  So, that’s why WW makes sense.  Overall health is better if you eat fresh fruits and vegetables as part of your daily calorie consumption, but points (calories) consumed is still king.  So how do I eat about 2/3 of what I’m used to eating?

Do any of you have favorite dinners you want to post that keep you happy and don’t make you feel like you’re walking away half through the meal?

I’ve been wasting time. Ready to focus now. I’ve been studying the importance of alkalinity.

A cute lady on our street has lost 40 lbs over the past few months by incorporating the principles of acidity/alkalinity to her eating.  Many people suffer from an acidic system and this can cause aches and pains, reflux, retention of fat, thick inefficient blood, high blood sugar and many other problems.  There are many books and plans about balancing the system and in most cases, the first step is to replace all drinks with high PH water along with a good concentration of green veggie powder which is good for you and gives you nutrition which helps balance the PH of your system.  So, for the first two weeks, I’ll be drinking about 64 ounces of this blend per day instead of regular water, diet soda, wine and even, gulp, coffee.

 You can look at various sites on the internet which show which foods are acidic and which alkaline.  Unfortunately, many fruits, most meats, dairy products, processed foods, sodas, alcohol, wheat and even oatmeal are on the acid side of the equation.  Almonds, most veggies, avocadoes, uncooked tomatoes,quiona, buckwheat, certain oils including coconut oils and other greens are on the alkaline side of the charts.  The trick is to eat enough of these products along with the water to get your system balanced.  Many people are able to lose weight and or balance their system with just the correct water intake.  

I’ll keep you posted.  

Gradual Loss Lately

I’m now down about 10 to 245.  I’m trying to stay fairly close to my weight watchers points goal and when I’m able to do it, I lose a little weight.  I also haven’t had an alcoholic beverage since Jan. 1 and that is helping a bit.  How are all of you doing? Heather, Rick, Julie, Jan?  

Enjoying the Core Weight Watchers Plan

I gained about 4 pounds in Cancun and starting the first of the year, I started to focus on the Weight Watcher’s Core plan which is based on fruits, veggies, lean meats, whole grains, healthy oils such as olive oil.  You can eat as much as you want but you should quit eating before you’re stuffed.  It’s a good healthy way to go and I’ve taken off about 6 lbs since Jan 2, getting me back to a slim and trim 251 with only about 65 lbs to lose.  Actually, it doesn’t feel like I’m sacrificing much.  I’ve also quit drinking alcoholic beverages, so at this juncture, I’m word of wisdom worthy other than coffee in the morning and iced tea sometimes for lunch.  I don’t like going in to weight watchers any more, but their online site is great.  I was watching the Today show the other day and a lady had gone from about 315 down to 145 doing WW online.  I do enjoy the crock pot and have done some good ham and split pea soup, Gigi made a great beef brisket etc.  

The Battle Continues

Well, after talking and procrastinating, I think I’ve decided to stay on the ww program.  There’s no easy solution, but being diligent about consumption and really watching the points and cutting out the no no’s is the final answer.  There may be quick loss plans that really work short term, but long term, you have to do what I’ve stated.  I really enjoy it when I’ve had a successful day.  Feels good.  Far better than feeling bloated and full.  I’m up three pounds from my recent low, but I hope to see that come back off in the next few days and then head down more.  Teaching old dougs new tricks isn’t that easy.