It's What's in My Head Wednesday

Welcome back to another WIMHW!  These are a few things on my mind that I would like to share with you.  I just finished walking at the mall and I am feeling pretty good about myself.  Yesterday's walk was skipped because of my bad back and I decided there would be no excuses today.  I was in some discomfort while walking and really wanted to quit, but as I was finishing, I decided I could go another quarter mile to help supplement yesterday’s shortfall.  Not long ago, I would have made an excuse not to go at all today.  Those days are gone.  Now on to other things in my head before I hurt my arm patting myself on the back.

I’d like to shout out to bloggergirl45, SDVB, CA, MS, JM, AI and all of the others that have contacted me and told me that they are renewing their efforts toward better health and following the blog.  You all can do this!  I am happy we are all traveling along this road together and I am proud you are along for the ride.

My Aunt H, one of the smartest and most insightful people I know, gave me invaluable feedback on the blog.  She posed a few questions that I will cover in upcoming posts, but today I will address one in particular.  What makes this time different than other times I have tried to lose weight and keep it off?  In the last few days since her email a lot of thought was given to this.  I knew I had an unfamiliar resolution for success this time, but why?

I believe there are several factors contributing to this resolve.  One is that I want a better life for my wife and me.  While she had never pressured me to lose the weight, she certainly wanted me to be healthier.  I owe that much to her, to us, but most importantly; to myself.  Another reason is that in the past I have always attempted to fit myself into someone else’s methods or programs.  This time, this is all about me.  My methods, based on my knowledge and developing something that fits my life.  I suppose it’s an amalgamation of all those systems with my own spin.  And of course, you all to keep me going.  That is one key difference.  You are, in effect, my sponsors.

Thirdly, and I want you to forgive me for this one, I have long felt that I am an exceptional individual.  I think I am smart, capable, talented and affable.  Traits that will take anyone far in life.  Now that might sound a tad conceited, but I need to believe in myself.  And up to this moment, I have been lax in living up to my potential.  The time has come for me to not think I am exceptional person, but to be that person.  I am finding it hard to think of a single area in my life that won’t be drastically improved by achieving this goal. That H, is why things will be different this time.

The last thing on my mind, this leap day, is that tomorrow is March 1.  I had decreed certain restrictions that were for the month of February and to be reviewed moving forward.  I gave up alcohol for the month of February.  That will continue through March.  I abstained from caffeine for this jumpstart period.  I will continue to do so for the indefinite future.   Another method I used to pull weight off early and get the maximum amount of vegetables in me, was to give up meat, except for fish.  While I do not crave meat at this time, I feel that for long term success, for me, I need a little more variety and flexibility in my eating repertoire.  I plan on having occasional lean meats inserted into my menus.  Perhaps, chicken once or twice a week, lean red meat once or twice a month.  The Stop ‘n Shop sells these petite 100 calorie steaks I have had in my freezer.  I can use those to mix things up a bit.  I’ll continue to limit dairy and eggs to small amounts as well.

Oh, and the proofreader is studying tonight.  I’m flying solo.

Cya tomorrow for cooking Thursday,

M

What I ate today and how I exercised:

Breakfast ~ Un-turkey pita sandwich and 1 grapefruit mixed with blueberries

Lunch ~ Panera again, as I was traveling with someone today on business.  Tomato soup and ½ a Caesar salad with salmon

Mid-afternoon snack ~ Decaf skinny caffe mocha

Dinner ~ A huge salad with a can of tuna and red wine vinaigrette.

Exercise ~ 1.25 miles, walked at the mall

Listen to Your Body Talk

Looking back at what I said in yesterday’s post, I gave some serious thought as to the comment, ”I honestly do not feel a whole lot different than I previously have.”  Honestly, I have never been all that in touch with my body and its feedback.  My wife senses things in her system as if she were a cyborg.  She’ll eat a single pomegranate seed and exclaim, “I feel more energized” or maybe have something with white flour, like three pretzels, and go, “This stuff makes me tired anymore.”  I am exaggerating of course.  (So no worries honey.  The world won’t think you are weird.)  It’s just to illustrate a point.  The point is that I, and perhaps you too, was clueless when it came to listening to my body.

For years I dealt with constant aches and pains, fatigue, and post food orgy fogginess.  My feet would ache, but nothing too bad.  I have had back problems for years. You just push through those.  I would tire easy, but you go on with what needs to be done.  After having a big meal (sometimes big enough to feed a community full of Amish after a barn raising) I would practically be comatose.  A quick nap would fix that.  And I learned to live with it all.  It was part of everyday life.  I’d been heavy for so long, my get up and go hadn’t got up and left, it never arrived in the first place.  I let food beat me down to the point where I accepted feeling crappy.

This experience has given birth to a phenomenon within myself, that, until yesterday, I hadn’t been aware of.  I am indeed getting more in touch with this sagging sack of bones I have been dragging around for forty eight years.  My body has been talking to me and I am starting to hear it.  When I said that I didn’t feel much different, I was looking for new things to spring forth that would be exhilarating, like a whole body Viagra.  What I wasn’t looking for was the dissipation of old things, the lack of maladies that I have dealt with for so long that they had become almost invisible to me.  IDIOT!  The truth is that I really do feel better!  Feeling less bad is feeling better.  DUH!

In the last three weeks I have not had the fatigue I had experienced for so long.  Also, I have been long suffering from something called gustatory rhinitis*.  That is a fancy way of saying that my nose would run almost every time I ate.  Despite trying to be very aware of what the triggers were, the answer has been elusive. Now the old sneeze gun is functioning normally and my sinuses don’t revolt when having a meal.  Caffeine was affecting me greatly before I gave it up.  I spoke of that the other day when only 3 ounces of wrongly served coffee set me off.  I can live without it. 

 I see this all as a huge breakthrough.  The realization that I do not have to tolerate what I once resigned myself to be burdened with is quite liberating.  It helps free me of some of the power that food has held over me.  Letting food lull me into complacency over proactively feeling good is one of the nasty tricks the addiction has perpetrated on me.  On all obese people.  Well, not any more.  The moral of the story?  Listen to your body talk…body talk.

For those expecting more of the “How Did I Get Here?” series today, I thought this more important.  I’ll pick that up again on Friday.  Oh, and my proof reader is off at school tonight.  If you find punctuation or grammer problems...oops!

Cya tomorrow,

M

What I ate and how I exercised today:

Breakfast ~ Kashi Island Vanilla cereal, ½ a banana and ¼ cup blueberries w/vanilla almond milk

Lunch ~ ½ a tuna on whole wheat and a bowl of black bean soup. 1 small apple. You can eat healthy at Panera with the right choices.

Dinner ~ Creamy Brussels sprout soup followed by ½ a grapefruit for a dessert of sorts

Exercise ~ I had every intention of walking today but my back has different ideas.  It’s really bothering me today.  I am going to try again tomorrow.

*http://www.chiactivate.com/articles/allergic-rhinitis/gustatory-rhinitis.shtml

Week 3 Weigh-in

Today starts Week 4 of the project and I am buoyed by the results thus far.  For those that may be newly joining us, I am trying to jumpstart my quest to hit 195 lbs. by curbing certain things in my otherwise normal repertoire, at least for the inaugural month of February.  I have sworn off caffeine, all meat but fish, and have given up alcohol.  We can reassess these measures once March 1 rolls around.  I am pretty sure I will stay the course on the caffeine and alcohol fronts.  Meat is still up in the air.  I may slowly introduce small allotments to improve the variety of my meals.  Don’t hold me to this, but it is the prevailing thought process right now.

To this point in the new lifestyle, I really couldn’t be happier.  My weight loss has been steady.  There haven’t been cravings of anything.  A week ago the barista at Starbucks gave me caffeine by mistake and I only knew because I immediately felt a ‘shakiness’ from the three ounces or so I consumed.  That alone reinforced my decision to steer clear of the stuff.  Except for the occasional desire for a beer with an adequate substitute of O’Doul’s, the alcohol thing has been a snap.  A veggie burger here and there or trip to Veggie Heaven to sample their meat substitutes has sufficed.  The devil on my shoulder is currently at bay and life is good.

The blog feedback has been amazing.  I am getting support from the blogosphere at large, almost on a daily basis.  People seem to be getting insight into not only who I really am, but also into the very serious matter of food addiction.  As I stated in my first post on February 6^th, I am not an expert in the field of nutrition or psychology, nor a physician; I am only an expert on me.  Yet, readers are relating to my experiences and telling me that the blog is affecting their own personal struggles, big and small.  That, as they say, is priceless.

On to the standard business of Mondays here at the project.  Today was weigh-in #3.  As I stated last week, coming off of an initial loss of 13 lbs. and having a less than a 3-lb. drop in Week 2 was a tad disappointing.  Yet, I know there is nothing etched in stone in this arena and I marched onto Week 3 with the same determination.  I incorporated walking into my regimen and managed to do over 3 miles this week.  I plan on trying for 7 moving forward or about a mile each day.  If you see a sweaty guy at the mall, pushing his way through the strollers and kiosk barkers, say “Hi Mike!”  It’s likely me.  Just don’t call me ‘Big Guy’. J

This morning I went through the typical weigh-in rituals.  Made my trip to my porcelain office, clipped the nails, blew the nose and Q-tipped the ears, all in an effort to strip away as much as possible before doing battle with my adversary, Mr. Scale.  I am happy to report another round in the win column for the good guys.  Today registered 343.2 lbs., for a one-week loss of 4.6 lbs. and a grand total of 20.2 lbs. in the first three weeks.  I honestly do not feel a whole lot different than I previously have.  I do have a newfound feeling of competence and self-esteem for making my vision a reality thus far.  The trip has been relatively issue-free.  (Where’s the wood to knock?)

It has been suggested that I post pictures, on occasion, to illustrate changes in my appearance and satisfy your curiosity.  Much like a home makeover show, I will be coy about the reveal until certain milestones are reached.  When someone is as large as I, dramatic changes do not come about in a 20-lb. loss.  I do very much look forward to forever leaving behind the 300s and as soon as I break that barrier, it is then I will, indeed, post a before and after picture.  Once again at 250 and so on. 

Today is a good day to share this blog with someone that might get something out of it.  Feel free to pass this along to anyone you like and grow our community.  If nothing else, they might enjoy the reading.

Cya tomorrow,

M

What I ate today and how I exercised:

Breakfast ~ 1 egg and veggie burger on a whole wheat sandwich round.

Lunch ~ Moo shu Basil Roll and vegan Chinese food, hard to describe.  Look at Veggie Heaven in Denville online for more info.

Mid-afternoon snack ~ decaf w/skim

Pre-walk snack ~ ½ banana

Dinner ~ A large salad with mixed greens, tomato, carrots, chick peas, toasted almonds and a can of white tuna in a red wine vinaigrette.

Exercise ~ Mall walking of 1.1 miles

And Don't Call Me Shirley...or Big Guy For That Matter

I’ll be taking a break from the “How Did I Get Here?” series and will likely get back to that on Tuesday, so today I will touch upon a couple of subjects.  I am thinking that, perhaps, Sundays might be dedicated to small tidbits that may not be fitting for an entire post, but are worth mentioning.  Maybe something like “Potpourri Sunday.”  I’m not married to the idea yet, but here are a couple of things that would fall into that category.

This one came to me as a result of a post-gig incident from a week ago Friday at The Publick House Restaurant (scene of the nasty fall I took on Thursday). We had a very good night and the small crowd of people were very much into it.  Tab and I were feeling pretty good about the evening.  After finishing their meal, one couple headed to the bar just five feet from their table.  They bellied up to the bar and listened to us for the remainder of the night over their cordials.  It’s a good feeling when folks stick around because of you.  Also, it’s good that the management notices these things.  As I was walking back into the bar from seeing Tab off to go home to tend to our furbabies, this guy cries out to me “Big Mike!”  I turned around expecting to see someone I might know.  It was still the same stranger that was enjoying our music; therefore, I was certainly in a mood to magnanimous.   I smiled and said “Hi.  Thanks for hanging out tonight.  We always appreciate it when people stick around to listen after dinner.”  What I wanted to say was, “Hey Buddy!  Do I call you 'Bald Fred' or ' Weed Whack Your Nose Hair Willie' or whatever your name is?” 

People really need to think before calling attention to the physical attributes of anyone, let alone a stranger.  It’s always been a pet peeve of mine when people call me ‘Big Guy’ or ‘Big Mike’.  We fat folk like to operate under the delusion that our girth is a well-kept secret and not known to the world at large (no pun intended).   So next time you are tempted to call someone ‘Big (insert rotund person’s name here)’, please pause and refrain.  Don’t burst our bubble.

Here is a quick thought that made me feel pretty good this week.  I was having dinner with a dear friend.  She told me that there was one night when she got home from work and just wanted to do takeout or get a pie instead of cooking.  The devil on her shoulder was trying to goad her into making a bad food decision when the ‘Mikey’ on her shoulder whispered for her to do the right thing.  (She is one of few people I will let call me ‘Mikey’ as I really am not a fan of the moniker.)  I was elated to know that I had somehow become the angel on her shoulder, motivating her to eat a healthy meal.  Who’da thunk it.

Cya tomorrow for weigh in #3,

M

What I ate today and how I exercised:

Breakfast ~ One egg scrambled with salsa on a whole wheat sandwich round

Lunch ~ I ate at Wegman’s in Bridgewater just before shopping for the week.  They have a nice sushi department and two things caught my eye.  One was a Chesapeake Roll, a roll with real lump crab meat, avocado and cucumber with Old Bay on the outside.  Lemon squeezed over it made it delicious.  The other was a delicious shrimp spring roll with avocado, Bib lettuce and sweet baby shrimp.  Both combined totaled around 500 calories.

Dinner ~ Homemade broccoli rabe and white bean soup.

Exercise ~ I walked the Rockaway Mall today, aside from a good deal of walking around Wegman’s pushing my veggie-laden shopping cart.  The mall walk came in at 1.1 miles according to my new nifty fitness watch.

How Did I Get Here?: Part 2

Yesterday I left off at the food we ate as kids.  One thing we never did was go to fast food joints.  I do recall once in ‘69 we stopped at a McDonald’s, for the first time, in Florida.  We were mortified that they put both mustard and ketchup on a burger.  My mother always put mustard on her burgers and ketchup on her dogs and told us it was a ‘Pennsylvania thing”.  That was weird enough, but both!?!  Gross!  Or at least it was then.  Other than that, the fastest food we ever got was Minute Rice.  Well, that and pizza a few times a month.  Interesting how even with very limited exposure to fast food as a youth, it became such a staple, practically part of the coat of arms, of my unhealthy lifestyle.

One thing I remember about being a ‘big’ kid is being made fun of by others on occasion.  It was sometimes a weapon in sibling arguments as well, being called fatso.  I wore a ‘husky’ size in my maroon Toughskins that my mom bought at Sears and somehow knew it was not the normal size for a kid my age.  Remember those jeans in maroon or green or red or brown?  In the mid ‘70s they often went with a Qiana shirt having a wild pattern and wide collars.  What were we thinking!?!  I know that finding clothes for me was never easy for my mom.  Still isn’t for me.  I think that is in my top five of things to look forward to…clothes shopping. 

I tried out for Pop Warner football when I was a tween, much to the dismay of my mother.  I wound up quitting because I was told that if I couldn’t get down to a certain weight by game day, I would sit on the sideline with my shirt turned inside out.  I knew I could never get to that weight and I refused to be mortified by being the fat kid on the bench, underscored by my shirt of shame.  So I quit.

I recall one holiday, Thanksgiving I think, my then uncle, Jim Harper, took me aside and told me I shouldn’t eat sweets and such because of my weight problem.  He told me that, perhaps, skipping dessert would be a good idea.  I remember wanting dessert so bad that day.  There were cannolis to be had, but I was too embarrassed to partake.  Uncle Jim was on my shit list that day.  I am sure he had good intentions, but he made me feel very bad…the frig.

High school was when I really started to be aware of my corpulence and became somewhat self-conscious about it.  I say somewhat because it didn’t stop me from doing what I loved to do, perform.  In my junior year, I got the lead in the musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, on the condition I lose some weight.  I recall being around 206 then. I think I got down to 195 by opening day.  During rehearsals for that show, I went to sit down in an auditorium chair and it broke under me.  I know that at 200 lbs, it could have been any adult male that sat in that particular seat, but it wasn’t.  It was me in front of some girls in the show and I wanted to crawl into a hole.  I’ve had several chairs give way under my girth over the years.  Those $12 white plastic drug store ones shouldn’t count, but they leave an indelible tick mark on the humiliating events list.  I’ve had several die a sudden death in my wake over the years.

In 1980, I got a job as a busboy at Echo Lake Country Club in Westfield, NJ.  We wore these oh-so-snappy, royal blue polyester waist coats.  Mine was royal blue until they couldn’t get my size anymore.  Then I was the sole black coat in the joint.  Stigmatized once again.  Couldn’t have been too bad, I guess.  I stayed there on and off for ten years.  It was at Echo Lake that I think I developed a love for food and potentially cooking.  We ate our meals at ELCC after our shifts and it was almost always something rich, fried, or fatty.  Prime rib, fried chicken, heavy sauces, left over hors d’oeuvres and desserts were a steady diet four to five nights a week.  I think it was then that I started to go from a big kid to something much more.  I heard the term ‘morbidly obese’ for the first time.  Yet, with all of what should have been reinforcement to lighten my load and change my ways, it only seemed to engrain a pattern of self-abuse that has continued for years.

More next week on how did I get here.

Cya tomorrow,

M

What I ate and how I exercised today:

Breakfast ~ Kashi Island Vanilla cereal with toasted nuts, ½ a banana and skim milk

Lunch ~ Miso soup, an avocado/cucumber roll and a tuna scallion roll.  Yes, I ate the fortune cookie too.

Dinner ~ 2 Mushroom Lover’s veggie burgers on whole wheat sandwich rounds (200 calories each and delicious btw) and a few carrots with hummus. Should have had more fresh veggies today.

Exercise ~ I bought a pedometer today at the mall.  It was a cheap one and didn’t work, but in spite of that I did walk in the mall.  I estimate about a mile or so given the time I walked and the pace I maintained.  I then went to Best Buy and bought a watch with a pedometer and other bells and whistles built in so that I can monitor my progress anytime and anywhere.

How Did I Get Here?: Part 1

I have been thinking as of late on how I got to this point in my life where I am on a quest to lose another 168 pounds, why I’m reaching out to all those I know and don’t know by writing this blog and forcing myself to take a hard look at my choices over the years in order to change my life.  Is it my midlife crisis?  I don’t know.  Perhaps, a rebirth instead.  Approaching fifty with one parent already gone does tend to make you introspective, especially when the prospect of putting in another 25 years is a dim one for a man of over 350 pounds.  So I will try to answer through a series of blogs the question, just how did I get here.  What we ate, what things stuck in my head over the years about being obese and what my mindset has been at various points in my life.

My story?  Okay.  It was never easy for me.  I was born a poor black child.  I remember the days, sittin' on the porch with my family, singin' and dancin' down in Mississippi.  Wait.  That wasn’t me.  That was Navin R. Johnson in "The Jerk."  I was raised in a lower middle-class family in a stereotypical hometown U.S.A. kinda place.  My father was very hard working and Mom was the stay-at-home domestic goddess that was the standard for the '60s and '70s.  Being Italian, or at least half (Dad always said it was the half that counted. In a humorous way, though), much of our interaction was surrounding food.   We almost always ate dinner together and our meals consisted of meatloaves, tuna casseroles, steaks,  breaded pork chops, pasta, etc.  When Mom and Dad went out to dinner dances on Saturdays we would get frozen pot pies, Swanson frozen dinners or, our favorite, Banquet fried chicken and Morton(?) frozen macaroni and cheese.  Our side dishes for family meals were usually some kind of boxed rice dish or potatoes and something that resembled vegetables.

Back in the '60s and '70s, fresh vegetables were not the norm and I guess an expensive proposition when cooking for a family of five.  Mom shopped once a week and it was more prudent to buy these frozen bricks of vegetables, which kept better, than the limited variety of produce available.  These bricks were boiled until they were gray.  String beans or broccoli’s color more resembled an army tank than a summer lawn.  The picture above , although very over-cooked has considerably more chlorophyll that what we ate.  I'm talking GRAY.  Lima beans were always something we fought over.  Not over who got to eat them, but over why we wouldn’t.  Well, Mom...because they sucked!  Mom did the best she knew how and I love her for it, but it was years before I would learn to like vegetables.  I absolutely love them now, but it was hard getting here.  So when I hear adults say they don’t like vegetables, I look back on the weapons of mass indigestion that were in our freezer and I sort of understand. 

Breakfast during the week was some sugary cereal like Cap’n Crunch, Apple Jacks, Sugar Frosted Flakes or Sugar Pops.  Just try to find a cereal with 'sugar' proudly displayed on its front panel these days.  Basically we were getting candy for breakfast except on weekends when Dad would make bacon and eggs or pancakes.  My Dad loved to cook breakfast.  I have fond memories of him standing over an electric fry pan and whipping out those delectable Bisquick flapjacks, which we promptly smothered with butter and Log Cabin ‘maple’ syrup.

Lunch was usually some sort of processed meat like bologna with Velveeta, perhaps, a PBJ or tuna salad laden with mayo, all nestled between two pieces of that nutritious Wonder Bread.  It was nutritious, right?  The commercials told us it was.  Bleached flour processed into an airy cloud that, when smooshed, turned into a gloriously doughy vehicle for whatever salt- and/or preservative-packed protein was being delivered.

While we seldom had soda in the house, there was always something in the cookie jar.  Grandma would stop by the Burry Biscuit factory store about once a month and we’d get garbage bags full of Fudgetowns and Scooter Pies.  Alas, the Burry plant burned to the ground on December 22, 2011.  R.I.P. kid crack factory.

Long story short (I know; too late, you say), we were fed crap growing up.  It was packaged as the wholesome American diet, but it was, indeed, crap.  I don’t blame Cathie and Sal.  They were amazing parents, just trying to get by.  They raised three great kids in so many respects.  It is no wonder, however, that I learned to like, no, obsess over, the wrong foods.

Cya tomorrow for more on how I got here.

M

What I ate today:

Breakfast ~ An Amy’s burrito, with 1 TB fat-free Greek yogurt and salsa on top.

Mid-morning snack ~ Half of a banana the wife threw my way.

Lunch ~ Un-Turkey pita sandwich and a HUGE salad of bitter greens, cukes, toasted almonds, craisins and more with a homemade lime and fresh mint dressing.

Mid-afternoon snack ~ ½ cup leftover mixed rice blend with some salsa

Dinner ~ Whole wheat pasta with artichokes, mushrooms, carrots and peas in a homemade fennel stock and a tad of grated cheese.

Cooking Healthy Thursday

It’s Cooking Thursday and each week I will lay out what I love to cook with, sources of great recipes and products that I feel are helping me (and, hopefully, you) cook healthy, great tasting meals.  Face it.  If you are to be successful in eating healthy foods promoting weight loss, you need to cook at home.  Few of you can afford private chefs.  I also know that it can be tough when you have a family to cook for.  But there is no reason you cannot whip up good food that tastes great in your own kitchen.  Okay, so you say you can’t cook.  Well, that’s not an excuse.  TRY. Then TRY AGAIN.  Prepare well, pay attention to what you are doing and practice often.  You'll do fine.

Today, I’ll clue you in on four items I couldn’t be without in my kitchen and my favorite cooking magazine that has never let me down.  Let’s start with four great tools that make cooking easier and fun.

The Magic Bullet is one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.  Thanks, Reagans!  This handy little blender is used in my home for two or three tasks.  1: Beating eggs.  I add some fresh basil for a nice taste.  Please don’t be making cheese omelets with your Bullet and limit your eggs to a few per week.  2: Salad dressing.  We have not bought salad dressing in years.  It is waaaaay too easy to make your own and it is eons better than anything on the market.  Much cheaper as well.  Experiment with cutting the oil in half and using water instead.  Mustard makes a nice emulsifier.  3: Spice blends are a good way to add a lot of flavor to meats and fish, without adding extra fat.  Throw in some salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic powder and fresh parsley.  Whiz it up in the Bullet and you’re good to go.  Oh, and the Bullet also makes a great coffee grinder.

The Salad Spinner is a godsend when making salads or sautéing veggies.  If you try to sauté wet vegetables you will wind up steaming them instead and wet salads are kinda gross. Love the salad spinner.

A good chef’s knife is essential to food prep.  Using that small steak knife to cut an onion or whack any large melon is unsafe and impractical.  I have Global brand knives, which can be pricey, but Victorinox makes a great knife for $25.  It has also won tests against much more expensive knives.  Also, keep it sharp.  My Tabitha says she never enjoyed cooking until she used good knives.  Makes all the difference.

A rice cooker rocks!  We have a Zojirushi model that costs a little over $100, but for me it’s worth it.  You can find less expensive models as well.  The rice is perfect every time and you set it and forget it.  (Scuse me, Mr. Popeil, for stealing your line.)

Lastly, a great source for healthy recipes; Cooking Light Magazine (CLM). And the best thing is you don’t need to buy it!  We get it delivered, but you can go to www.myrecipes.com and get all of the recipes online.  This site is also home to other magazines' recipes from the same parent as CLM, but look for the CLM ones.  Southern Living isn't kown for lowering your cholesterol.  The CLM recipes give you the nutritional values and you can even save your favorites in your own virtual recipe box.  Every one a winner to date.

More healthy cooking info next Thursday.  On a side note, I managed to get into a tussle with gravity today and lost.  I was walking out of a restaurant that I often sing at and tripped.  I took a nasty fall.  The bruises on my hip and ankle won’t compare to the ones on my ego.  Much thanks to the sixty-something lady that came flying out of the building from having her own lunch to see that I was ok.  She actually tried to help me up.  I guess she was a crane in another life.  I didn’t walk today as a result being so sore.  Going to try tomorrow, though.

Cya Friday,

M

What I ate today:

Breakfast ~ ½ a grapefruit, 2 egg omelet w/veggies and decaf w/skim

Lunch ~ Mesclun salad w/about 2oz broiled salmon, dressing on the side

Mid-afternoon treat ~ a big mug of broth whilst doing paperwork

Dinner ~ I ‘Iron Cheffed’ it tonight  Using what I had on hand I concocted veggies w/crispy tofu in a green coconut curry sauce over a rice blend.  Pictured here.

So These Three Old Ladies Walk into a Blog...

It’s What's in My Head Wednesday so here's what is rolling around in the vast expanse of my noggin.  I was driving home yesterday when I saw three women walking.  Now these were three old women.  Ain’t no way to be politically correct and say “mature” or “senior.”  I’m talking OLD.  One of them reminded me of the Shoebox Greetings lady and another of Clara Peller of “Where’s the beef!” fame.  The third looked like her social security number could be a single digit.  Seeing these three elderly ladies out for a late afternoon stroll, the first thing I thought was here are three women of advanced age and they are out getting exercise.  How sad is it that I haven’t gotten my butt out here to do the same.  Okay.  So that was the second thought.  The first was better hurry, ladies, before you miss the early bird  senior’s special down at the Sizzler.  But, honestly, I was a little shamed.

So this week my thoughts are about exercise, blog content and long-term planning.  Exercise first.  I am in a mental struggle about motivating myself to do this movement thing religiously.  As much as I want to be healthier and burn off calories (Did you know you never actually burn off fat cells?  More on that another day), I equate exercise with discomfort and boredom.  I'm trying to change my 'stinkin’ thinkin’' as someone i used to know would say.  But it is gonna be freaking hard.  Well, this whole thing is kind of hard so I will just add it to the 'suck it up' list.

Blog content is bugging me a bit.  I am doing my best to provide insight into my journey as well as entertaining, informative content.  A few weeks ago, in my inaugural post, I said I would be doling out small bites.  Well, damnit, I am having trouble coming up with enough bites that meet the above criteria.  But the writing is fun, cathartic and I know I am impacting some folks.  I do hear from them and it puts me on top of the world.  Several of you have been giving me potential material and I will be using much of it.  I am truly grateful so please keep the suggestions coming.  The daily writing thing is all new to me and I just need to get into a groove.  Enough on the blog content for now; let’s talk something long term.

I am dreading having reconstructive surgery.  Like so many things, exercise, for example, I want to procrastinate.  Avoid the unpleasant at all costs.  I’ve been lucky to be fairly illness-free and, let's face it, surgery is downright scary.  But just today I realized that, sooner rather than later, I should find a surgeon to get an initial consult.  It will be much easier if I find out his/her opinion on when I should do it, whether it’s multiple procedures or just one and how much money will I need for the whole shebang.  That info will likely either relieve any stress I have about the whole mess or amp it up considerably.  Good thing I don’t let too much get to me. 

Well, that's WIMHW for this week. 

Oh, and I did walk tonight.  Right before I sat down and wrote this, I walked 1 mile at exactly 3 MPH.  That burned around 248 calories.  If you want to know how many calories you burn when walking, go here http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc

Cya tomorrow,

M

What I ate today:

Breakfast ~ Kashi Vanilla Island cereal with skim milk, 1 banana, and toasted almonds.

Lunch ~ I was into a work flow today and didn’t make time enough for an adequate lunch.  I had ½ an apple with about 1 Tb of peanut butter.  Shame on me.

Mid-afternoon ~ Decaf iced coffee with skim milk

Dinner ~ Miso soup, a seaweed salad split with the wife and 2 Maki rolls (sushi) made with brown rice.  FYI, I wasn’t digging the brown rice in rolls containing fish.

Beware the Traps

My wife Tabitha is not only vegan, but also going back to school to be a nutritionist.  One thing she is always saying is that salads are traps.  People think they are doing themselves good when they order the Caesar salad and maybe adding some grilled chicken.  Well, if you would normally order a huge cheeseburger and fries, perhaps it’s a better choice…perhaps.  If you were going to The Olive Garden and ordered just that, here is what you would be getting; 610 calories, 40 grams of fat (Oyveh!) and 1230 grams of sodium.  If I am not mistaken, that  also comes with breadsticks and soup.  I could go into a host of other salad info, but know this; the dressing and croutons are not helping you one iota.  Get dressing on the side and hold the croutons.  You really know the right thing to do.  Just do it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I love the Food Network.  I love to cook so, of course, it is what I check first when channel surfing.  Rachael Ray fast became America’s sweetheart, whipping up meals in just thirty minutes.  Many of these scrumptious concoctions she purports as “healthy.”  Well, America’s Sweetheart must have stock in the folks that make the angioplasty supplies, because while she may not be Paula Deen, her shit is anything but healthy.  I am sorry, Rachael, but EVOO is still a fat.  A better fat?  Yeah.  Healthy in the copious amounts you glug into your orange pots and pans?  Not by a long stretch.  If you want to add the amount of oil, cheese and salt you do, please don’t give me that Joker-like smile of yours and say “A healthy and hearty meal in under thirty minutes!"  If you ask Tabitha, she’d tell you "Rachael Ray wouldn’t know a healthy meal if it banged her all night long."  

Chinese food is mostly veggies.  We all love it.  If you don't, then you're just weird.  You can stop reading here.  I think most people are smart enough to know the fried stuff ain’t Lo Phat Chow.  But even your typical Chicken with Broccoli can be a trap.  A serving of about two cups is 650 calories and at least 13 grams of fat.  Not too bad for the average joe, but if you are trying to lose weight, not a great choice.  Frankly, no one eats two cups.  Usually more.  Have it with pork fried rice and you are sabotaging your efforts even more, plus you are kidding yourself.  I want a nap just thinking about it.  As with the salad, get your sauce on the side.  Skip the fried rice.  They hide a lot of oil in there too.  Good tip; if it is at all shiny, odds are it has an enough oil to make it a poor choice. 

This all speaks to what I have been saying.  You likely know the right thing to do and often ignore it.  I did.  I still want to.  It's hard.  I get that.  Listen to your head and not your devil.

What I ate today:

Breakfast ~ One egg beaten with 1 Tb salsa,  then microwaved for 45 secs.  Served on a Wegman's sandwich thin.  Under 180 calories, yet hot, delicious and portable!

Mid-morning snack ~ Yeah, I had another Starbucks' Skinny Decaf Mocha while in a business meeting.  Last one this week, promise.  I only had the Tall at about 110 calories, but not a great choice. No nutrition here.

Lunch ~ Dined out and had steamed scallops and veggies, sauce on the side with brown rice.  Totally ingored the fried noodles and included soup option.  Really enjoyed it.

Dinner ~ Dined out again with one of my favorite people.  Enjoyed a salad with white beans, artichokes and mixed greens.  Had them hold the feta.  Broiled salmon with eggplant and radicchio. Decaf with a splash of milk.  Such a nice meal.

Progress is Progress

Week 2 comes to a close and a new one begins.  The call of exercise is even louder as the weight loss slows.  I knew week 1 was the initial jumpstart and never expected I would see anything even close to the 13 lbs that were shed.  And I did warn myself that it was as good as it gets and no matter what, progress is progress.  I remain ever vigilant.  This past week was a good one, as I challenged myself in typically tough scenarios for a food addict.  There was lots of time on the road and a number of meals eaten out.  I am really missing neither meat nor caffeine.   The little bit of white flour I’ve had is negligible.  So I will stay the course and keep doing what I know is right.  With one exception, MOVE!

This morning I approached my old adversary, the scale, and stepped aboard with anticipation.  I normally weigh myself on an electronic scale three times to get a consistent reading.  They can be kind of a pain to get a steady readout.  This morning I got numbers all over the place.  This was the initial reading, 347.8.  I couldn’t get the bloody thing to give me the same numbers twice, so this is the official number.  Frankly, I got frustrated and said, “Screw it. This is close enough.”  Down 2.6 lbs in week 2, for a total of 15.6.  Disappointed? Yeah, I have to I admit I am.  I was hoping for more like 5 lbs lost.  Deterred?  Not in the slightest.  I am moving in the right direction and I know in my heart that I ate healthfully this last week.  I might have done a wee bit better had I cut out the Starbucks.  Albeit, they were the skinny version and each under 160 calories, but they add up.

If I can keep up a 2-lb-per-week pace for the next year, I will be under 250 for the first time since 1984 or so.  One of my biggest worries is that I will look like a deflated Mike.1.  So it is then I will have to undergo reconstructive surgery (or surgeries) to remove excess skin and get a somewhat “normal” shape.  I am so not looking forward to that.  There will be some serious recovery needed and, I am sure, severe discomfort.  My guess is that the surgery in and of itself will yield about 20+ pounds of weight loss.  By the way, for those that don’t know me well, I stand just under 5’9” on a good hair day.  I wonder what size waist I would have at 230 lbs?  I’m not sure, but it will be nice to buy off the rack in a normal store for once.  I look forward to the day where the size tag doesn’t have a number before the XL.

Folks, I need your thoughts on topics you would like to hear about from me.  Trying to keep this from getting repetitive is a harder task than I anticipated.  Either comment here or on FB if you have an idea, a question or a general comment regarding the blog.

Cya Tuesday,
M

What I ate today:

Breakfast ~ Amy’s burrito with 1 Tb fat free Greek yogurt and 2 Tb chipotle salsa.  Decaf with 1 Tb ½ & ½ (I used the last of it and don’t plan on buying any more.

Lunch ~ Un-Turkey pita sandwich

Mid-afternoon snack ~ Honeycrisp Apple
Dinner ~ Pictured above is a Korean Bibimbop.  It’s brown rice with different veggies, crispy tofu and egg, all mixed up.  Very good stuff.  It’s from Cooking Light and the recipe is located here: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/bibimbop-50400000119700/

Resolve is My Umbrella When it's Raining Temptation

I knew that when I decided to do something about my addiction that I would have to make some drastic changes in all aspects of my life.  With any addiction, they experts say you need to stay away from people, places and things that trigger bad behavior.  I have mentioned my passion for wine.  I have quite a collection that I would like to enjoy as it reaches its ultimate maturity.  What’s the best way to enjoy wine?  With delicious food, of course.  I also watch a lot of food-oriented television.  I love the Food Network, Top Chef, Hell’s Kitchen or anything geared toward fellow foodies.

Being in outside sales, I drive past a gagillion opportunities per week to get off course.   I get into my car and it’s like the sun went down and I turned into Count Snackula.  Today I saw that Burger King is selling Cinnabon.  Come on, universe!  Gimme a break!  Two-for-one chicken sandwiches to boot?  It’s not easy for me to resist temptation.  I know too many of you feel the same way.  TV commercials are becoming increasingly harder to watch.  There are demonic people at work in the food labs of major corporations developing food crack targeted at my piehole.  I have to want my new life more than a gooey cinnamon roll or some fried piece of inferior chicken with bacon on it.  That’s one of the reasons I gave up meat altogether for the month of February; it takes out of play the fast food fare and helps me build my resolve in the initial stages.  And it’s working.  Planning and preparation are key to successful weight loss.  So getting up early enough to have breakfast at home, knowing exactly what I will do for lunch before I leave the house and knowing what raw ingredients I have on hand to make a healthy dinner are essential.

On a different subject, I’d like to address my writing.  I put about an hour a day into this from subject prep to writing and, honestly, a lot of proofreading.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t an English major in school and even after going over each post about six times, plenty of flaws can be found.  So for those of you out there who find such missteps and cringe, I am sorry.  I do try.  I imagine Heidi (a big time, real-life editor), also Stacey and Tabitha, reading through my blogs and, perhaps, shaking their heads.  Just know an effort was put in to make my thoughts as coherent as possible. Hopefully, the real message comes through clear enough.

Cya for weigh in #2 on Monday,

M

What I ate today:

Breakfast ~ Kashi Island Vanilla cereal w/ toasted almonds, a banana and Almond Vanilla Silk

Lunch ~ Carrots with roasted red pepper hummus.

Afternoon snack ~ An absolutely HUGE organic Honeycrisp apple

Dinner ~ (Pictured above) Whole wheat pasta with artichoke hearts, roasted red pepper, cannelini beans for protein, fresh peas and a sauce made from the braising liquid from last night's fennel side dish.  This was flippin' delicious!