Eating has always been one of my favorite things. Unfortunately, I look forward to every meal and every snack. I believe I’m usually hungry when I want to eat, but I also realize that I eat too much because I just love to eat and snack and try different foods. In school, I was one of the few kids who loved hot lunch and I’d go back for seconds, always finishing my meals first. I have always eaten with too much gusto, too fast, too much. And I’ve always felt a little desperate to eat, forcing myself not to be the first in line at family parties and in buffet lines, but wolfing my food down once it’s finally on my plate and then going back for more. Surprisingly, I’m only about 50 to 70 pounds overweight. My wife doesn’t buy into my logic that if I weren’t so disciplined, I’d weigh twice as much as I weigh now, 250 lbs. Last year, I was able to get down to 215 with a doctor supervised protein diet. It was very difficult and I felt like I was starving a lot of the time. However, my blood pressure dropped to normal almost over night, my blood sugar levels went from 120 to 100 within a week, and I got a lot of compliments, bought some 38 waist trousers and felt good about myself.
However, with a two week vacation to Italy, time in San Diego, eating out a lot, within a year, I had gained all of the weight back at a rate of about 3 lbs per month.
I know I can lose the weight again the same way, but I’ve decided that a better way may be to join weight watchers and then lose the weight very gradually and at the same time, learn how to eat properly by finding out exactly how much I can eat to maintain my current weight, how much I can eat to lose 1 to 2 lbs per week, what kinds of foods make me feel the best, allow me to have enough energy to be enthusiastic about life, and get weighed in by a third party once per week. Weight Watchers really seems to work if you’ll let it. My brother Rick and my sisters Jan and Julie have done extremely well on the program.
Thus far, I’ve been pretty precise about measuring all of my foods and I’ve lost a fairly easy 9 lbs in about 3.5 weeks. I am eating 37 points per day with a five point buffer which I’ve used. 37 points is equivalent to 1850 calories, depending on what you eat. Higher fiber, low fat foods allow more calories per point and I have made an effort to focus on eating more fruits and vegetables which are low points and great to eat. There is a vegetable soup that I’ve made twice that is zero points. It’s the perfect thing to tide me over if I’m feeling hungry at bed time. Heaven forbid me going to bed hungry!! I’m such a baby about my eathing. I want my food to still be enjoyable, not too bland, I still want salt, although I’m cutting back on salt and enjoying less salty food, and I’m bothered with over salted food. I’ve had many breakfasts of 2 eggs fried in pam, a whole wheat muffin with two well cooked slices of bacon. This breakfast adds up to about 7 or eight points and is a great breakfast.
I’ve found that since I go out to lunch a lot during the work week, one of my favorite things to do, I tend to eat about 15 points at lunch which leaves me with about 12 to 15 points for dinner. My dinners are smaller and more controlled than my lunches. I especially enjoy Kashi frozen Chicken Coconut meals which are about 6 points. I add three or four jumbo shrimps to the meal and count the meal as 8 points. It’s delicious, easy and gets me by until about 9:00 when I have a few final snacks that add up to another five points or so.
I have high hopes and I’m feeling positive about this. I want to do this blog to keep a journal and to make it available to the public. I don’t really expect anyone to follow it, it’s about like watching someone’s home movies. But I’ll post a few pictures, give more of my insights and hopefully post at least once a week.
