Day 5: Now we are three

Exciting news! Yesterday, we were joined in our Caravan by the lovely Michelle and her strong camel Humphrey. I look forward to hearing her mileage reports. Jericho seems less far away now that she has joined us. Her ready laugh and beautiful eyes do much to enliven our journey.

Sanako, Hassan, Clyde, and I added another mile to the mileage. Less problem with the yappers last night as our route took us further away from them. Clyde and Hassan do not like it when the yappers howl at them. Nor do I. It’s an eerie sound.

One thing I will note, although it is probably just a figment of my overtired imagination. Twice this evening, I saw -- or thought I saw -- a figure following us. In both cases, I glimpsed the figure among the trees. Neither Sanako nor Michelle saw whatever it was, and I cannot be sure what I saw. Shadows can play tricks on your mind. Perhaps it was only the wind, but it seemed to my straining eyes that it was man-shaped, but large. Very large.

My legs are still complaining about the walking. I expect to have a couple more weeks of this pain until I finally toughen up. I will be glad when I am able to devote more time and effort to Walking to Jericho. We still have 6880 miles to go.

Day Three, Walking to Jericho

Sanako, Hassan, Clyde, and I logged another mile today. The trek was hard, and we were dogged by yappers who loudly announced their territory whenever we drew near. Clyde chased one of them, but I was worried the yappers might be trying to lead my proud prince of the desert into a trap and reined him back.

We are not making the mileage I had hoped, but it takes a while for one to become adjusted to the pace. We have thousands of miles to go, so there is no need for impatience. Soon we will be making more miles as we and the camels become used to the traveling, particularly if others join the Caravan to Jericho. The Sage Manjarous often commented on how larger Caravans travel faster. I hope others join us in our adventure.

I will close now. My weary bones call for rest. I am not used to this travel, but I believe I will toughen up soon. 6881 miles to go.

Join the Caravan to Jericho

How do you join the Caravan to Jericho?

Simple.

1. Name your camel.
2. Post your daily, weekly or monthly walking totals, which will be subtracted from the total distance to Jericho. Remember that every step helps the Caravan move closer to Jericho. If you walk daily, you'll help the Caravan most, but every bit helps.
3. The trip will be non-linear. We'll be visiting all over the world and also visiting cities of the fantastic. There might be robbers, pirates, monsters, treasures, princesses and princes, lost cities -- who knows what we'll find. Do you want to walk to Jericho with me? We'll be leading camels -- my camel's name is Clyde; Sanako's is Hassan -- and treking across the United States and then along the newly discovered land route across the Atlantic Ocean. What wonders we'll see.
4. Join the Caravan. Walk to Jericho with me. Adventure awaits. Let’s go!

Walking to Jericho

Today was the 4th day of the 7-Day Potato Famine. Today was my first real test. I had a hamburger. And didn’t have French fries. Wahoo! Except … I had fried onion rings instead. I don’t think substituting one fried food for another fried food counts as a total victory. Or even as a major victory, but I am going to count it as a victory since I really, really, really wanted a large serving of fries. Still do. But I won’t eat them.

Last night I was tempted by mashed potatoes and scalloped potatoes at the annual smorgasbord at the local Catholic church. Those Catholic ladies know how to cook, and those potatoes looked good, but I contented myself with cheese grits and a vegetable medley. And really, French fries are my downfall, not the other potato dishes.

After eating my fill at the feast, I returned home and started the first major initiative of my Complete Body Overhaul. (The 7-Day Potato Famine is only a minor part of the CoBoO (pronounced Co bo oh. All the O’s are long.) The Soft Drink Drought will be a whole ‘nother matter completely, and frankly I dread it.) Anyway, I started walking to Jericho.

It's 6884 miles to Jericho from where I live, but I've walked one mile. Only 6883 to go. Do you want to walk to Jericho with me? We'll be leading camels -- my camel's name is Clyde -- and treking across the United States and then along the newly discovered land route across the Atlantic Ocean. There might be robbers, pirates, monsters, treasures, princes, lost cities -- who knows what we'll find. What wonders we'll see. Join the caravan. We're walking to Jericho.

The Potato Famine - Day Two

Truthfully I didn't expect to have much trouble with The 7-Day Potato Famine over the weekend. I don't usually eat potatoes over the weekend. It's the weekdays that are a problem because it is my habit -- don't judge me! -- to have a hamburger a couple of times a week, and I always, always, always have an order of French fries with the burger.

So today I've suffered no potato withdrawal. I should have no trouble tomorrow either, although I will be attending the annual smorgasbord at the local Catholic church so I will have access to delicious potato dishes. Sigh.

Speaking of famine, here's a bit about the terrible Potato Famine that the Irish people endured. From Wikipedia:

The Great Famine, also known as the Irish Potato Famine and the Great Hunger was a famine in Ireland which started in 1845, lasted – depending on the region – until 1849 or even 1852 and which led to the death of approximately one million people through starvation and disease; a further million are thought to have emigrated as a result of the famine. Some scholars estimate that the population of Ireland was reduced by 20 to 25 percent. All of this occurred while taxes, rents, and food exports were being collected and sent to British landlords, in an amount surpassing £6 million.

The proximate cause of the famine was a potato disease commonly known as late blight. Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland – where a third of the population was entirely dependent on the potato for food – was exacerbated by a host of political, social and economic factors which remain the subject of historical debate.

The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland. Its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political and cultural landscape. For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory and became a rallying point for various nationalist movements. Modern historians regard it as a dividing line in the Irish historical narrative, referring to the preceding period of Irish history as "pre-Famine." The fall-out of the famine continued for decades afterwards and Ireland's population still has not recovered to pre-famine levels.

The 7-Day Potato Famine

As part of my Complete Body Overhaul, I am embarking on a self-imposed Potato Famine. For one whole week, starting today, I will not eat French fries. I will not eat mashed potatoes. I will not eat each candied yams. I will not eat baked potatoes. I will not eat potatoes au gratin. I will not eat hash browns. I will not eat potato chips be they oven baked or kettle cooked. I will not eat sour cream potato soup. I will eat NO potatoes in any form, shape, or fashion for a week.

This is not to say that potatoes are the worse food out there, but they’re just loaded with carbs, and I’m going cut back -- need to cut back -- have to cut back -- on my carbs. A medium baked potato (2-1/4" to 3-1/4" diameter) has 33.87 grams of carbs. That’s a lot of carbs before you add butter or sour cream or anything else to make it delicious.

This is not going to be easy because I love French fries. Really love them. Like how Frenzied Feline loves Twilight. So send me good thoughts as I start my 7-Day Potato Famine.

Link roundup

The following items have crossed my path over the last week, and I thought y'all might find them interesting. Have a good weekend!

1. An article by a food critic who lost 150 pounds. "Loving good food and everything about it is a cherished part of my life, as well as the way I make my living. There is no place in my kitchen or life for mediocre food, whether junk or dietetic. I need the joy factor."
2. The science behind calories and taste.
3. Tips for eating at social gatherings.
4. A list of portion sizes compared to everyday objects.
5. And finally, since it's the time of year for Oktoberfest, a history of American beer. Beer isn't something that most dieters won't touch, but I'd rather have a good beer than bad bread.
   

The "E" word

Yup, you knew I'd get to it eventually. But here's the thing: there is nothing I can say on exercise that you haven't heard before. You already know to get 30 minutes of cardio at least three times a week. You already know that sitting in front of the tv or computer for long periods of time isn't good for you. You probably even already know what kinds of exercise your body will and won't put up with.

So why this post? Because I need the reminder.

In late June I took the final, comprehensive exam to finish a masters degree. As you might imagine, about April I started feeling a little anxiety about the upcoming ordeal, which affected my eating habits. In May I started studying in earnest and my exercise habits went right out the window. By mid-July--when I made it through the oral defense of the one question I didn't pass on the written exam--my eating and exercising habits were so thoroughly messed up that I'm only now starting to really get back on track with the food.

Getting back into my exercise routine, however, is proving more difficult. It's not so much a lack of desire as a lack of oomph. I love doing yoga and going for walks, and we've been having perfect weather for the latter. I even know that I'll feel better both mentally and physically if I get back on a routine. Twenty minutes of yoga once a week just doesn't cut it.

So what do you do when you've fallen off the wagon and can't seem to hop back on? Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated.

Reason #1 to eat only food that is actually food

A 12-year old McDonalds hamburger that hasn't decomposed. Seriously.

What I ate on Thursday #2

Tech asked about calories, etc., on last week's "What I ate" post, but that's not something I generally pay much attention to. Luckily one of my cookbooks has an index of this sort of information, so thanks to that and packaging labels, here's yesterdays' menu:

Breakfast (the usual)
oatmeal (150 cal; 3 fat; 27 carbs; 5 protein)
raisins (130 cal; 0 fat; 31 carbs; 1 protein)
unsweetened soy milk (40 cal; 2 fat; 2 carbs; 3.5 protein)
pomegranate juice (35 cal; 0 fat; 13 carbs; 0 protein)

Morning snack
plain, non-fat yogurt (110 cal; 0 fat; 18 carbs; 9 protein)
dark chocolate (63 cal; 4 fat; 7 carbs; .5 protein)

Lunch (PB&J)
2 slices bread (90 cal; 1.5 fat; 18 carbs; 6 protein)
peanut butter (210 cal; 16 fat; 6 carbs; 8 protein)
orange marmalade (40 cal; 0 fat; 10 carbs; 0 protein)
apple (81 cal; 1 fat; 21 carbs; 0 protein)

Afternoon snack
cookies (110 cal; 2.5 fat; 20 carbs; 2 protein)

Dinner (stir-fry over rice)
brown rice (150 cal; 1 fat; 32 carbs; 3 protein)
onion (31 cal; 0 fat; 7 carbs; 2 protein)
kale (42 cal; 1 fat; 7 carbs; 2 protein)
tofu (80 cal; 4 fat; 2 carbs; 8 protein)
bean sprouts (15 cal; 0 fat; 0 carbs; 1.5 protein)
sesame oil (130 cal; 14 fat; 0 carbs; 0 protein)
fish sauce (10 cal; 0 fat; 2 carbs; 0 protein)
Sriracha hot sauce (5 cal; 0 fat; 1 carb; 0 protein)
pear (60 cal; 0 fat; 15 carbs; 0 protein)
white wine (170 cal; 0 fat; 8 carbs; 0 protein)

Evening snack
frozen fruit bar (30 cal; 0 fat; 8 carbs; 0 protein)

Totals
calories: 1782
fat: 63 grams
carbohydrates: 255 grams
protein: 55.1 grams

whole grains: 2 servings
vegetables: 3 servings
fruit: 3.5 servings

Oh, and I drank four mugs of herbal tea, one mug of green tea, and one glass of water.

Gaining new habits--eating slowly

I suspect it started in college, when I'd often eat lunch between classes. Sometimes I'd get rushed, but it was usually doable. But then in my year as a copy editor we all often had to take 30-minute lunches because of deadlines. After that, it was all downhill--fast. I was firmly in the habit of eating quickly.

There are several reasons to eat more slowly. It gives your stomach time to tell your brain that you're full, which in addition to meaning you eat less also helps lessen the chance of an upset tummy. Eating slowly also lets you appreciate and enjoy what you're eating.

But knowing these things did not make my habit of scarfing any easier to break. The five things that helped the most were to:

1. Share meals with others. Conversation is a great way to slow down speed-eating!
2. Use chopsticks. Unless you already use chopsticks at most meals, this will slow you down considerably for a while. Especially when you try to use them on tricky things like peas. And steer clear of finger foods in general.
   
3. Set the table. Make the meal a little occasion. Use cloth napkins, nice dishes, and real wine glasses. This helps make the meal something worth paying attention to.
   
4. Walk away. When you've eaten what's on your plate, set a timer for 20 minutes and go do something else. Water the plants, change the sheets on the bed, clean off the desk. Whatever. Just give your stomach time to register the food you've given it, and your brain a break from thinking about food. If you're still hungry, fine. Have seconds--which I usually limit to half of a serving--and then...
5. Clean up. Clear the table, package up leftovers and pack your lunch for the next day (always best to do when you're not hungry), and wash the dishes. Wipe down the stove. Sweep the floor. And then, again, walk away.

Also, I want to show you this video of Michael Pollan speaking on his book, In Defense of Food, for those of you who don't have time to read it (or listen, as I've been doing). The talk lasts 37 minutes with the rest being a Q&A session

Eating well vs. dieting

I just saw this article in the NY Times. Entitled Instead of Eating to Diet, They’re Eating to Enjoy, the author talks about how people are choosing to pay more attention to what they eat than counting calories. The first paragraph:

AFTER decades of obsessing about fat, calories and carbs, many dieters have made the unorthodox decision to simply enjoy food again. That doesn’t mean they’re giving up on health or even weight loss. Instead, consumers and nutritionists say they are seeing a shift toward “positive eating” — shunning deprivation diets and instead focusing on adding seasonal vegetables, nuts, berries and other healthful foods to their plates.

A little further down:

The market research firm NPD Group gets a glimpse of national eating habits through the food diaries it has collected from 5,000 consumers since 1980. The percentage of those consumers who are on a diet is lower than at any time since information on dieting was first collected in 1985. At the peak in 1990, 39 percent of the women and 29 percent of the men were dieting. Today, that number has dropped to 26 percent of women and 16 percent of men.

The diarists also report eating more organic foods and whole grains, said Harry Balzer, an NPD vice president.

“Instead of trying to avoid things, they’ve started adding things,” Mr. Balzer said.

Even the Calorie Control Council, which represents makers of commercial diet foods, notes the percentage of people who are dieting has declined — to 29 percent in 2007 from 33 percent in 2004.

And there are other indicators of a shift in eating habits. In May, the market research firm Information Resources reported that 53 percent of consumers say they are cooking from scratch more than they did just six months ago, in part, no doubt, because of the rising cost of prepared foods.

And then there's this:

[T]he more time people spend on tasks like food shopping, cooking and kitchen cleanup, the more likely they are to be of average weight. The Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture found that people of normal weight spend more time on meal-related tasks than people who are overweight or underweight.

Since I can't remember how long the Times makes articles available before sending them behind a fire wall, I want to also note that the article references these books (none of which I've read, by the way, but all of which I've heard good things about):

Good Calories, Bad Calories (by Gary Taubes)
In Defense of Food (by Michael Pollan)
What to Eat (by Marion Nestle)

Gaining new habits--food choices

Before having lunch with me a little while back, Tech thought I was a vegetarian. There's good reason for this: I tend to enjoy eating "weird" stuff like kale and brown rice and tofu, which leads people to think that I never eat things like sausage or fried chicken or hamburgers. I love all of them! In fact, it's pretty safe to say that I love food in general. But quality counts. I'd rather have one of my dad's incredible hamburgers a few times a year than get a sad, pathetic excuse for a beef patty at McDonald's once a week.

In addition to avoiding fast food--which I'd been eating almost every day for lunch due to time pressures from the job--I also have added in as much unprocessed or low-processed food as possible. And I make sure to read the labels on everything. For example, instead of buying instant oatmeal, which has all sorts of additives and preservatives and things I can't even identify, I buy whole, rolled oats. Not only do they take a whopping six minutes to make in the microwave (good), but they're a whole grain (very good) and a whole lot cheaper than their processed cousins (even better). Generally speaking, for two equivalent items I buy the one with more identifiable ingredients listed on the label.

One thing I discovered through label-reading was that eating foods with high fructose corn syrup tended to cause my energy levels to drop much more quickly than when I ate equivalent foods without HFCS, which meant I got hungry faster and ate more. After a few months of avoiding HFCS almost entirely (can't vouch for restaurant food, for example) I noticed that I was no longer having such difficulty with hypoglycemia despite the fact that I hadn't yet lost much weight. And not getting hungry so quickly after meals eventually helped quite a bit with loosing weight. HFCS might not affect you in the same way, but paying attention to food labels will help you to figure out whether it is.

Now, the other side of food choice is actually eating what you buy. There's no sense, or cents, in letting food go to waste. A few months ago I was visiting a friend in Kansas City. While at the grocery store she bought a container of fruit pieces and I commented that buying the whole fruit and chopping it up herself would be a lot less expensive. However, she had learned that in order to have fruit in her diet she needed to make it as simple as possible. Sometimes we have to strike a balance between what we'd like to do and what is convenient. Since there was no sugar added to the packaged fruit, my friend felt like the added cost for convenience was an acceptable trade-off.

So if you want to add in more vegetables but don't like to wash and chop them, get the frozen ones. Just be sure to get the plain ones, not the ones with overly salty sauces added. If you like beans, cook them yourself instead of buying them canned. You'll be avoiding a lot of salt, and beans freeze quite well. For chicken, find packages of normal-sized, not gargantuan, pieces and wrap them singly to freeze. In addition to buying better food, this will also help you control portion sizes more easily.

I could go on and on, but for me food choice boils down to one simple rule: don't settle for foods that are bad for you. We think of convenience foods as time savers, but then end up spending more time exercising, at the doctor's, and at the pharmacy to make up for eating them.

What I ate on Thursday

A friend and I were chatting last night about what we normally eat in a day, and I thought y'all might be interested.

Breakfast
1/3 cup oatmeal (cooked in 3/4 cup water)
1/4 cup raisins
1/3 cup unsweetened soy milk
a dash of straight cranberry juice diluted with 1 cup water

1 mug of herbal tea (regular mugs, not the gigantic sort)

Snack
1 6 oz nonfat yogurt
4 triscuit-type crackers (about 1/2 a serving)
1 piece from a Ritter Sport dark chocolate bar (1/6 of a serving)

one mug of herbal tea

Lunch
(this is a little weird even for me)
1 baked sweet potato (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 tbsp low fat sour cream
1 pita bread
2 tbps babaghanoush
1 cup water

Tea
1 mug green tea
6 tea biscuits (one serving; very low sugar)
1 piece chocolate

1 cup water

Dinner
1 1/2 cups cooked corkscrew pasta
2/3 cup peas
1 tbsp crumbled bacon
1 hardboiled egg
1 tbsp unsalted butter
fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan
1 glass pino grigio

1 Edy's fruit bar (no sugar added)

1 mug chamomile tea

Oh, and I forgot to mention yesterday that one way to help with portion control is to use smaller dishes. Just like restaurant meals have gotten larger, so have the plates and bowls we're sold. I have a set of dishes from the late 1960's and the dinner plates are much smaller than, for example, a Fiesta dinner plate (which I also have--in pink!).

Gaining new habits--portion size

As I mentioned previously, for me the key to loosing weight was to relearn how to eat. There were several habits I had to break myself of:

1. large portions;
2. poor food choices; and
   
3. eating too fast.

Today I'm going to talk about the first one.

Portion size is tricky. Sometimes portions are given as weights and sometimes as cups or tablespoons, so having a food scale and a stack of measuring cups and spoons helps immeasurably (sorry, couldn't resist). Measure everything. Because I was overeating so badly, I would often consume six or seven servings of vegetables in one meal when I only need three in a day. Veggies are good for us, but in those quantities they'll contribute to weight gain just as surely as any other food.

Measuring allowed me to get a feel for just how much I should be eating, so now even when I go to a restaurant I can eye-ball the huge portion and only eat as much as I need. When I'm at home, though, I still measure on occasion just to recalibrate. It's easy for those portion sizes to slowly grow without us noticing. (There are some good equivalents listed here.)

While I'm not big on calorie counting, some of you may be. If so, take a look at this page, which shows 300-400 calorie meals. The people who took those photos have also designed daily meal plans that help you visualize how correct portions work throughout a day, and they show calorie and fat counts as well.

Introducing myself

Hello, all. Tech invited me to post here but since most of you don't know me well, if at all, a little background information seems in order.

The first thing you need to know is that I deal with stress by eating. Usually this isn't a problem because life cycles in and out of stressful times on a fairly regular basis and a few extra calories now and again are no big deal. However, for two and a half years I was stuck in a high-stress job and scarfed my way to nearly forty pounds of excess weight.

Given than I'm not even 5'3", it isn't too surprising that that weight had negative effects on my health. The biggest one--the one that was really the wake-up call--was that I became hypoglycemic. As y'all may already know, that means I was just on the brink of becoming diabetic.

When I was able to leave that job, loosing the weight became a priority. In order to do that, though, I needed to relearn how to eat. I'll get more into the specifics of how that happened later. The important thing is this: it worked. For two years now I've maintained a healthy weight.

I don't know whether what worked for me will work for you. Bodies are as different as our personalities and just as an introvert and an extrovert have varying needs, so too do bodies at different ages, abilities, health levels, etc. So what I will do here is present what I did as a test case. I might be a good example, but do your own research. Talk with your doctor. And let me know if you think I'm full of crap. It's entirely possible.

SmartOnes for Breakfast

I just saw this ad on SparkPeople and followed it. I'm not a huge fan of Weight Watchers frozen meals, but these breakfasts look yummy. Three of them are four points and the fourth is five points. The quesadillas have the best fiber content of the four and are only four points. To me, the Canadian Bacon English Muffin looks great (competition for MickeyD's Egg McMuffin?).

I know several of you are working with Weight Watchers, and breakfast can be a tough meal to do right. Maybe these will help -- or give you ideas for things you can do quickly and easily on your own.

Added: These all have 27 or 28 grams of carbs. According to my nutrition adviser, I'm supposed to keep my carb intake to 30 grams or less per day. If that's what you're being advised, these would be a no-go for us.

Nothing Special Right Now

I'm afraid I don't have anything special or even exciting to report. Weight loss has halted for now. I'm trying to keep it down. I love losing when it takes no work or thought, but when it stalls, I get frustrated.

I feel like it should always just fall off with little conscious effort. Yes, I know that's silly and foolish, but it's just the way I feel (and I doubt I'm alone about that).

I'm still checking in at the blog, and, while the dressing recipe is yummy, I really wanted to see something else at the top of the page.

LPT dressing

This is my LPT Dressing that I put on my salads. I really like it, and it's no points on Weight Watchers.

Lemon Pepper Tomato Dressing

1/2 cup of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of salt or salt substitute
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon of chives
1 small tomato
1 teaspoon of olive oil

Chop up the tomato and then place it and all the ingredients in a mixer. Mix well. Pour on salad. I often leave out the olive oil.

Unsettling info

Sometime back we had a poll here that asked if the respondent had considered gastric bypass bariatric surgery to lose weight. About half of us said that we had. One thing they rarely mention about bariatric surgery is the side effects.

Today I discovered that one common side effect is Dumping Syndrome. To quote the article from American Medical Journal: Dumping Syndrome is: "a condition where the stomach passes food too quickly into the small intestine. Patients suffer abdominal pain, weakness, profuse sweating, nausea, and diarrhea." Apparently more than half of the people who have this surgery experience Dumping Syndrome at least once a week while the majority experience it two or more times. A small percentage of unlucky souls have it every time they eat. Dumping Syndrome can be controlled by rigid adherence to a restricted diet that has no fat and no sugar in it and by eating extremely small portions at each meal.

I think I'll stick with Weight Watchers for the time being.