No Magic Pill

The photo, taken in our kitchen, shows you what I eat most of the time. Home made whole wheat bread, tomatoes, fresh raw spinach, carrots, and cauliflower, broccoli and other vegetables are the bulk of my diet. I also eat Nabisco Triscuits as my main snack. Its not that I never eat less healthy things. But I really never eat potato chips or corn chips any more. For protein, I eat beans, chicken and fish.And I don't eat anything fried. When I go out to eat, I eat salads and/or salmon.

 

So I do not starve myself. And I like spinach and broccoli. I alternate between eating fresh and steamed vegetables. The main thing is that I have a routine and I do not crave variety. I eat fresh spinach just about every morning and raw broccoli just about every evening. Actually I'm probably a little obsessive about it. but that routine is part of what keeps me from gaining weight.

December 2009

There was a time in December 2009 when I was eating less, simply because I lost my appetite. After feeling ill Thanksgiving weekend of that year, it took a few weeks for me to feel more or less normal. I was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia sometime around 1998. At the time, I was told to control my acid reflux symptoms with diet. In December 2009, I was finally doing that for real. My weight topped out at 265 in November. Weight loss is a totally mental game. I had never before been in the mindset in which I found myself.




I began losing weight but I had done that many times before in short intervals that were followed by a rebound back to or above where I started. This felt different. It was different.


More to come...

I Do It Wrong

There are things I have made habits that go against the grain of what the experts tell you to do if you want to lose weight. It is a mental game so we are told to only weigh ourselves once per week. That way we will be less likely to become discouraged at the inevitable daily fluctuations.


I weigh myself every day. Some days more than once. The number that 'counts' in my mind is the one every morning first thing when I get up. I take care of my personal business and step on the scale. I never wear shoes or heavy clothes when weighing. Try to maintain a consistency, I record my weight on a graph. For me, the visual record serves as a warning when I gain some and an encouragement when I make progress. I am obsessed with not gaining the weight back.


More to come. 

How It All Began For Me

I was at work, in a call center, answering sales and customer service phone calls. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving 2009. As usual for a holiday, there was food in the break room. I ate a little more of the chips and onion dip than I should have. I also did not know how long the dip had been sitting out when I began eating. It had been awhile. By the time I got home that night, I felt horrible. Sort of Nauseous, but not throwing up. I had pain all over my gut. I thought it would pass in 24 hours like those kind of things usually do for me but by Saturday, I still felt bad.

And this was different. I felt like something was really wrong. Now, I am a hypochondriac so my wife was reassuring in a condescending sort of way that I would be fine. As a couple of days passed the only reason I did not feel horrible was that I had not eaten much at all. Not even on Thanksgiving day. I had lost my appetite.


My weight was somewhere a little over 260 pounds. At 47, I was beyond out of shape. I would get winded carrying the laundry up the stairs. I was taking two blood pressure medicines, and one for cholesterol as well as acid reflux. I was a mess. I finally had come to the point where my anxiety over my health outweighed my tendency to use food as an antidepressant.


More to come.