I've been eating mostly according to the Almost Hungry? plan for about a month now.
I know that no specific number has more meaning than another, and 0 and 1 and 9 are all just digits. But, psychologically, the decade numbers take on increased significance when you are aiming for some target that is far away. So this morning when I weighed in at home at 270.5 pounds it was exciting. I knew that when I went to the gym I would weigh less after working out, since I sweat, and then I would weigh still less if I use the sauna for any significant time. After work out, (on a different scale, at the health club) I was 269.3, and after the sauna 268,8. I can't remember the last time my body weight has been in this range.
I just got back from a week in Quebec (Quebec City and Montreal) where it felt as though I was eating huge volumes of food. But the difference is I was making choices, not just eating like a madman. The marketplaces were full of fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and fish, and the restaurants offered alluring varieties of food. Today's weight is three pounds less than before I left.
I am quite happy with this plan, and am confident it is a lifestyle choice I'll be able to keep up with for a long time to come, as my weight comes down to a healthier level for my body. My one concern is that my body fat percentage, as measured by bio-impedance, seems to have crept up a bit over the week. I'll take measurements for a few more days before I get overly worried.
Monday, August 15, 2016
Friday, July 22, 2016
Always Hungry? Not Now.
A few weeks ago, a chance conversation with my sister, Lori, led to my reading about the nutrition ideas of David Ludwig (MD, PhD). He's spoken and written extensively, and has published a book detailing his recommendations called Always Hungry?
I do not consider myself an expert in this by any means, but some of the key concepts, as I understand them, are that the endocrine system of the body reacts to glucose by producing insulin, which then sends that glucose to fat cells. So, eating a diet rich in easily digested sugars and starches results in a short-term blood glucose spike, followed by a crash. After the crash, we get a feeling of hunger, because our glucose is down.
It's basically a futile cycle. Once our body is used to this pattern, we eat (because we're hungry), the body sends much of that food energy to our fat cells, we're hungry again, and we eat more. As over-simplification you can say rather than being overweight because we eat too much, we eat too much because we are overweight.
In the short term, you can control this with will-power. But eventually the feelings of hunger almost always win, and any weight loss experienced from self-control and exercise is cancelled by a later weight gain.
Calories are not all the same. Turns out that fat calories don't trigger the insulin response, and so we maintain a "not hungry" feeling for much longer. If you can get your body used to this, you can wind up eating less, feeling hungry less, and actually reducing your body fat stores. The book goes into considerable detail, with references, on the research foundation for this concept. It also contains a detailed plan, in three phases, to change the way you eat in order to change the way your body reacts to food.
Those five paragraphs are preface to my comment that I've begun trying to eat according to the Always Hungry? plan. From the very first day's breakfast (I'm currently on my day 12) I was astonished at how filling the food was, but also that I wasn't hungry at all for over four hours after breakfast. That's the most astonishing thing for me. I've always been a grazer, nibbling on this and that throughout the day. But on this plan, it isn't even a matter of self-control or will-power when I don't nibble or eat. I'm just not hungry for long periods of time throughout the day.
Body weight fluctuates too much to make a day-by-day analysis meaningful, but the so-far trend on my consumer grade bathroom scale is that I've lost eight pounds since starting this plan. I'm still significantly overweight, but can already see a visible difference in my face, and in my body profile. I will move on to phase 2 Monday, and intend to continue this plan, as it is almost effortless to follow. I am experiencing no feelings of sacrifice. Rather, I eat delicious food until I am full (not stuffed) and otherwise do what I have always done in my life. Honestly, this feeling of not being hungry is quite enjoyable.
I do not consider myself an expert in this by any means, but some of the key concepts, as I understand them, are that the endocrine system of the body reacts to glucose by producing insulin, which then sends that glucose to fat cells. So, eating a diet rich in easily digested sugars and starches results in a short-term blood glucose spike, followed by a crash. After the crash, we get a feeling of hunger, because our glucose is down.
It's basically a futile cycle. Once our body is used to this pattern, we eat (because we're hungry), the body sends much of that food energy to our fat cells, we're hungry again, and we eat more. As over-simplification you can say rather than being overweight because we eat too much, we eat too much because we are overweight.
In the short term, you can control this with will-power. But eventually the feelings of hunger almost always win, and any weight loss experienced from self-control and exercise is cancelled by a later weight gain.
Calories are not all the same. Turns out that fat calories don't trigger the insulin response, and so we maintain a "not hungry" feeling for much longer. If you can get your body used to this, you can wind up eating less, feeling hungry less, and actually reducing your body fat stores. The book goes into considerable detail, with references, on the research foundation for this concept. It also contains a detailed plan, in three phases, to change the way you eat in order to change the way your body reacts to food.
Those five paragraphs are preface to my comment that I've begun trying to eat according to the Always Hungry? plan. From the very first day's breakfast (I'm currently on my day 12) I was astonished at how filling the food was, but also that I wasn't hungry at all for over four hours after breakfast. That's the most astonishing thing for me. I've always been a grazer, nibbling on this and that throughout the day. But on this plan, it isn't even a matter of self-control or will-power when I don't nibble or eat. I'm just not hungry for long periods of time throughout the day.
Body weight fluctuates too much to make a day-by-day analysis meaningful, but the so-far trend on my consumer grade bathroom scale is that I've lost eight pounds since starting this plan. I'm still significantly overweight, but can already see a visible difference in my face, and in my body profile. I will move on to phase 2 Monday, and intend to continue this plan, as it is almost effortless to follow. I am experiencing no feelings of sacrifice. Rather, I eat delicious food until I am full (not stuffed) and otherwise do what I have always done in my life. Honestly, this feeling of not being hungry is quite enjoyable.
Monday, October 19, 2015
Turnkey
I understand a Turnkey system as something that only needs to by switched on in order to run. You turn the key, and it operates.
In the education world, they seem to like to use "turnkey" as a verb meaning "train somebody else on a procedure you've had 45 minutes of training in." I don't know why they don't just say "train." It's a perfectly good word, and it so neatly describes the activity usually being attempted. But, no, gotta "turnkey" it. I'm going to turnkey this to you and then you turnkey it to your departments, and they'll turnkey it to the working groups. All this turnkeying.
It just isn't what turnkey means.
In the education world, they seem to like to use "turnkey" as a verb meaning "train somebody else on a procedure you've had 45 minutes of training in." I don't know why they don't just say "train." It's a perfectly good word, and it so neatly describes the activity usually being attempted. But, no, gotta "turnkey" it. I'm going to turnkey this to you and then you turnkey it to your departments, and they'll turnkey it to the working groups. All this turnkeying.
It just isn't what turnkey means.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Rational Weight #5
I seem to have plateaued for a while. Vacillated just above and just below 270.
But for the past few days, my home scales has had me below. This morning, the official scale at the health club (MY official scale, nothing else is official about it, other than high repeatability) showed me at 267.9. I'll take that as indicator that I may have broken through the plateau.
I was thinking about plateaus, though, and talking with my son yesterday. I rationalized that maybe a plateau now and again could be a good thing, since it might give the skin a chance to catch up to the body. Not sure if that's at all true, but it made me feel better.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Rearview Mirror Installation
Without wanting to, I've learned how to install a rear-view mirror on a Subaru Forester. I assume these skills mostly transfer to other vehicles.
Most auto parts stores stock an adhesive specifically for this purpose. I bought in Queens, and paid $4.
The key is the "button" for the mirror. This is the piece that physically attaches to the window glass. The mirror then attaches to the button. It was not immediately apparent to me that I even had a "button" and I wasn't looking for it when the process started. Fortunately, the adhesive packaging mentioned it in the instructions. I had to figure out how to detach the "button" from the mirror which had fallen off the windshield.
For my model of Subaru, it turns out the mirror and button are held together by a very tight spring clip. To separate them I had to twist them, almost to the point where it felt as though it was breaking. But then, snap, they were apart.
The rest is pretty straightforward. Clean the glass, clean the button. Apply the adhesive activator to the windshield. Apply the adhesive to the button and hold in place for two minutes. Supposedly I can attach the mirror after 20 minutes, but I let the chemicals cure overnight instead. Air temperature didn't drop below 60 F (package instructions advised to use above 50 F). The next morning I snapped the mirror back onto the button, which was by now firmly affixed to the windshield. That was a week ago, and things are still good, so I suppose I didn't muck things up.
One more thing, my mirror has an auto-dim feature, and an electronic compass. I had to recalibrate the compass after plugging the connections together. This involved driving slowly in a circle about three times. Everything is good again.
I was surprised how good visibility is out of the front without a mirror in the way. But changing lanes is a bit scary.
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Rational Weight #4
This morning I weighed in sub-270 for the first time since I have no idea. Maybe sometime around 2004 or so. The official reading was 269.0.
It is encouraging that I'm able to do this without surgery, and without painful changes to my patterns of life. I think most people are unaware I'm doing this. Although my sister, who lives in a different city from me, noticed on seeing me this week. But I notice many things. For example, shirts fit much more comfortably. For example, a pair of jeans which used to be snug now require a belt.
The loss had slowed for a while, which made me nervous that somehow my body might have adjusted to my eating habits, and found a way to extract more calories from the food I eat. But I guess that isn't the case.
My very short-term goal had been 260, and that is now within spitting distance. My longer term goal, just for a psychological milestone, is to reach 100 kgs. That would be pretty cool. And, of course, the longest term goal is a BMI under 25.
It is encouraging that I'm able to do this without surgery, and without painful changes to my patterns of life. I think most people are unaware I'm doing this. Although my sister, who lives in a different city from me, noticed on seeing me this week. But I notice many things. For example, shirts fit much more comfortably. For example, a pair of jeans which used to be snug now require a belt.
The loss had slowed for a while, which made me nervous that somehow my body might have adjusted to my eating habits, and found a way to extract more calories from the food I eat. But I guess that isn't the case.
My very short-term goal had been 260, and that is now within spitting distance. My longer term goal, just for a psychological milestone, is to reach 100 kgs. That would be pretty cool. And, of course, the longest term goal is a BMI under 25.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Rational Weight #3
I have been afraid to commit to a "goal" for rationalizing my weight. I am afraid of failing, and the failure will be more concrete if I commit to a number.
But, it's helpful to know when you've hit a milestone, as it helps spur you on. My current weight is 273. My short term goal is to get into the 260s, just a few pounds away.
The longer term goal is to be a healthy weight. My current weight is considered "obese" in almost all health assessments for US males. So perhaps a longer term goal should be to drop from obese to overweight. For me, that won't happen until 233 pounds, which is a whopping 40 pounds away. To continue from overweight down to normal I need to hit 194 pounds. Wow! That feels impossible. But I've got to at least do the 233 (as a long-term) and I really should keep the 194 (as a still longer-term) goal.
What I've noticed is how easy it is to fall back into old habits. I've been "grazing" lately. Nowhere near the level I used to do, but still, it is a habit I must not allow to regain its foothold.
But, it's helpful to know when you've hit a milestone, as it helps spur you on. My current weight is 273. My short term goal is to get into the 260s, just a few pounds away.
The longer term goal is to be a healthy weight. My current weight is considered "obese" in almost all health assessments for US males. So perhaps a longer term goal should be to drop from obese to overweight. For me, that won't happen until 233 pounds, which is a whopping 40 pounds away. To continue from overweight down to normal I need to hit 194 pounds. Wow! That feels impossible. But I've got to at least do the 233 (as a long-term) and I really should keep the 194 (as a still longer-term) goal.
What I've noticed is how easy it is to fall back into old habits. I've been "grazing" lately. Nowhere near the level I used to do, but still, it is a habit I must not allow to regain its foothold.
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