I've Fallen Off the Wagon

Americana (Little red wagon and white picket fence)
Originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent

You may have noticed that I haven't updated in awhile. The simple fact of the matter is that I haven't been doing well on an eating plan. I know it is an excuse, but our house is packed full of stuff that I shouldn't be eating. There are five half gallons of ice cream in the fridge, three half-gone cakes on the counter and mounds of chips in the cabinet. My family went shopping at a warehouse superstore while I was sick and apparently they don't sell healthy food!

At the moment, I'm trying to decide what I can do to get back on track. I've been getting hungry in the after noon for no apparent reason -- I'm eating the same thing during the day that I was in January when I didn't have any hunger issues. I think that means I have to go through the induction phase again where I get my body back in to ketosis.

March 1st is coming up and that seems like a good time to recommit to eating correctly. That certainly doesn't mean I'm going to go on a wild bender the rest of the week but it does give me time to get all that ice cream in to the hands of family members who don't live in my house.

Ten Years Thin

Eat Fresh
Originally uploaded by williamhartz

Remember Jared from Subway? He's the guy who lost nearly 100 pounds in three months eating at Subway. I've read before that the diet he ate was dangerously low calorie, but Jared has been able to keep the weight off for ten years, so he must have found something that works for him. It probably doesn't hurt that he gets big paychecks from Subway as long as he stays their thin spokesman.

I didn't change my eating plan at the beginning of February. I was planning to change to the one supposedly featured in the book The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution but it turns out that the book was only an advertisement for another, The Protein Power Lifeplan. Instead of rushing right out and buying a second book, I just stuck to Atkins. It has only been two extra weeks, but that decision is wearing on me. I miss the rush of starting something new and the motivation that naturally comes with it.

As a result, I've decided to try Jared's plan for the next two weeks -- without forking over all that money to Subway. I picked up hoagie rolls, lunch meat and vegetables from the store tonight. Adding in some baked chips, the meal comes to about 400 calories. Three of those a day will put me at the recommended minimum. We'll see how it goes, and it is only for two weeks. That should be enough to jolt me out of my current plateau and then I'll start something new for March.

I'm Not on a Diet, I'm Living!

Diet
Originally uploaded by toyohara

The best weightloss advice has always been to make permanent dietary changes as opposed to making radical changes to lose weight quickly. The guys over at Fat 2 Fit Radio recommend eating like the person you want to become -- if you want to weigh 185lbs., eat like a person who weighs 185lbs. If your diet requires you to only eat apples, then the first time friends want to have a birthday party at the local dive, you won't be able to go -- or you'll eat something that isn't an apple.

It seems like the big diet brands have gotten the memo -- people need a lifestyle, not a diet. Well, sort of. I haven't seen that they've made any changes to their programs, other than to the name. Both the South Beach products made by Kraft and Weight Watchers changed from diets to a lifestyle in 2008.

Personally, I don't think either of those programs are a real lifestyle changes but if they work for someone and they can stick to them, then more power to them. It really just seems that the big companies are trying to pick up the language of the people to remain hip and trendy. After all, they have to compete with the deluge of new diets that come out each year just in time for New Years resolutions.

Atkins Nutritional Approach

at cracker barrel, a half-pound bacon cheeseburger qualifies as a low carb offering
Originally uploaded by andrew d miller

Inspired by my recent reading, I've decided to try a low-carb diet for the month of January and what better one to start with than the most famous of them all: Atkins. I know there is a lot of bad press surrounding the Atkins diet, but Jimmy Moore, one of the most vocal low-carb bloggers around, lost a lot of weight and kept it off.

As far as I can tell, there are actually four different Atkins diet plans available, only two of which were written by Dr. Atkins himself.

1. Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution Originally published in 1972, this plan aims to achieve "biologically zero" carbs for the first week. My only exposure to this book when I was in college. One of my co-workers handed it to me and said "I thought you might like to read this." I consider offering someone unsolicited weightloss advice akin to saying "Hey, you're fat and don't know it!" so I promptly ignored the book.
   
2. Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution In his new plan, released in 1992, Dr. Atkins recommended limiting non-fiber carbs to 20g per day during the induction phase. Later phases would allow the user to gradually add carbs to their diet to find the proper level for losing and maintaining weight. This plan also puts emphasis on good carbs over bad carbs (i.e. Glycemic Index).
   
3. Atkins Nutritional Approach Available online at atkins.com, this plan seems to be very similar to the 1992 book, however instead of counting vegetables by the cup, it counts them by the carb. It recommends eating 12-15g of carbs per day from vegetables.
   
4. The All-New Atkins Advantage Recently released, this book is a twelve week program designed to ease the reader in to the low-carb lifestyle. It includes both diet and exercise instructions.

Out of those four plans, I'm going to be following number three. Since not all vegetables are created equally, I would rather count the carbs in what I eat then limit myself arbitrarily to cups per day. Plus, the eating plan is available online for free. It looks like their business model is selling low-carb supplements like shakes and bars, but the actual nutritional information doesn't push the supplements.

Two Week Update

Sop Kacang Merah
Originally uploaded by ^-^liz

As promised, here is my two week update on how I'm doing on the How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise eating plan. I'd like to start off by saying that I am exercising, even if I'm just doing a modest amount of walking each day. I set my initial goal at 100 minutes per week, but I've actually done more than that and need to reassess my goal.

Breakfast
This is the meal that is really killing me. Eggs and peppers for breakfast is not big deal, but a cup of beans too? I've tried mixing them in to the omelet, but it just doesn't come naturally. Tim, the eating plan's author, mentioned this problem on his blog.

Breakfast is usually the hardest meal for most to modify, as we’re a country of toast and cereal-eating junkies. Moving to slow carbs and protein requires a more lunch-like meal for breakfast.

He also mentioned that its important for your breakfast calories to be atleast 30% protein. I'm seriously considering making a protein shake that I saw in this month's issue of Men's Health magazine that includes blueberries, peanut butter and whey protein. A shake for breakfast would fit more with my routine then a huge omelet.

Lunch
I've found that eating one cup of broccoli with one cup of kidney beans for lunch every day (with whatever meat I cooked that Sunday) is really working for me. It keeps me full way in to the evening and I don't even need the snack I used to crave at about three in the afternoon every day.

Dinner
Eating a large salad with beans and meat for dinner has really been making my evenings as well. I haven't tried Tim's suggestions for wine and an orange at bed time, because frankly, I'm not hungry (and I don't care for wine). Dinner time also gives me a chance to experiment with other beans. I've tried pinto, buttered, roman and garbanzo beans now. My favorite are habichuelas coloradas guisadas (Puerto Rican stewed dry red beans) that my mother-in-law graciously made for me in bulk when she visited this month. Since they have some tomato-based sauce, it makes a good salad dressing as well.

Cheat Day
I really feel this part of the eating plan was killing my progress. I'd work all week to get the scale down and then Sunday morning, it would jump back up to near where it was the week before. This week, instead of dedicating a whole day to cheating, I set aside one meal to eating junk food. I got the idea to treat, not cheat, from an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

All in all, I'm really enjoying this eating plan. This is the first time that I've stuck to a diet and not found my stomach grumbling in protest. I still look at bread longingly, but thats only because my wife isn't following the same plan. It is hard to eat a specific way like this when your house is full of things you can't eat. Ah, c'est la vie.

A Sly Bald Guys' Quest

MyWeigh Phoenix bathroom scale
Originally uploaded by D.L.

Tomorrow will be the halfway point of December and I plan to fill you in on how I feel my eating plan is going. I thought tonight I'd peek around the web to find out how other people have faired on this eating plan and I found one man's quest to lose 20 pounds in 30 days.

After reading over his summary, I realized that the author had the same trials and tribulations I am having now. It's tough to prepare snacks on this diet, although I suppose celery sticks would work if I cut them up and put them in Ziplock bags.

I would find myself in situations where I was hungry but hadn't prepared anything ahead of time that was within my plan. This caused me to snack on mixed nuts, peanut butter, and cheese.

Overall, the author considered the eating plan a success and attributed his failure to lose twenty pounds to his own behavior. He was able to lose weight while enduring Halloween and Thanksgiving, two of the three most fattening holidays each year.

Zucchini Noodles

Raw Zucchini noodles
Originally uploaded by Valerie's Adventures in Living

Since the bulk of my current eating plan includes vegetables, I've been looking for new, interesting ways to prepare vegetables. I love stir fry over rice and tomatoes in pasta, however, I can't eat rice or pasta right now. I was pretty excited to find this recipe for zucchini spaghetti noodles.

I love zucchini, although I usually eat it breaded and friend. This version is at least fried with olive oil and garlic. It requires a matchstick blade for a mandolin, which isn't something that I have, but the article mentions that they're pretty cheap. I might pick one up to give this recipe a try, especially since another blogger loves the noodles.

...we are... eating zucchini again and with no complaints...uh-huh...it was tasty, light, filling, zesty...

The Magical Fruit

Spilling the Beans
Originally uploaded by Roger Smith

When I first started this eating plan, I seriously increased the amount of beans in my diet. It went from an occasional side dish to one cup at every meal. While I was thrill with the weight loss, my wife wasn't too pleased with the... *ahem* super gaseous releases.

Beans contain indigestible sugars, so when they reach our intestines, the bacteria that live there go wild. The have quite a feast and the result is lots of gas. Its the same process that makes beer bubbly and bread rise. Except inside of the human body, its much less pleasant.

In addition to over-the-counter remedies for gas, dieters can also try gentler beans like lima beans and split peas. Lee Perkins, president of the Pacific Grain and Foods in California, recommends mixing beans with other foods to help digestion.

Adding an enzyme by including a carrot or onion can help break down the complex sugars to simple sugars...

Eating Plan for December 2007

The first eating plan I'm going to follow is simply titled How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise. It was written as a blog post by Tim Ferris, the author of the 4-Hour Workweek. I know what you're thinking! "Jon, didn't you just say you were going to follow a sensible plan that includes diet and exercise." Tim recommends both diet and exercise, so the post title is a bit misleading, but the point he is trying to make is that you can change your body with diet, exercise or supplements if applied correctly. The best results will come from doing all three together.

His eating plan is relatively straight forward with four simple rules:

Rule #1: Avoid “white” carbohydrates.
Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again.
Rule #3: Don’t drink calories.
Rule #4: Take one day off per week.

The recommended diet includes eating unlimited amounts of vegetables, beans, legumes and lean protein. I actually started this eating plan the day after Thanksgiving because I needed something to do with ~18 pounds of left over turkey. I packaged it up with broccoli and kidney beans and froze it. That's what I've been eating for about a week now. Other than that, I have eggs, black beans and salsa for breakfast.

When I started on Black Friday, I weighed 417. Today, on the first, I'm at 405.

Today is my first "cheat day" and I'm going to a Flyers game for my company's office party. I'm glad that this eating plan includes a scheduled day off, because I doubt there will be beans or vegetables at the game. I'm expecting cheesesteaks and soft pretzels as far as the eye can see.