Month September 2018

Let’s Get Fat!

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Let’s Get Fat!
Doughnuts

Today, if you ask me if I have a sweet tooth, I will say no. In fact, I have always totally denied any leaning towards sweet things.

“Give me a rib steak over dessert any day!”, I would assert.

My history might suggest otherwise!

Doughnuts (or donuts!) are really cheap in my part of the country. If you buy them in a quantity of 6 or more, they are then considered food and are, therefore, tax free. The rough logic is that anything considered a snack is taxable, while anything considered food is not. A couple of doughnuts are a snack. A dozen are considered food for the family. We typically buy them by the dozen. Now it does make sense that a family pack of doughnuts would be tax free. But it’s not a family pack in our house, or at least not for me … they are nothing but a snack. All 12 of them!

As part of my “Let’s Get Fat” program over the years, the occasional box of doughnuts might find its way into our house. Everyone else would have one. I’d put three on a plate and grab a large glass of cold milk. The cold milk is essential if there are any chocolate doughnuts in play. It didn’t matter if I’d had a big breakfast, and lunch, and dinner that day … I always had room for three doughnuts after dinner. And then three more! After which I’d pray everyone would go to bed so I could have whatever might be left in the box. Without them watching me walk to the cupboard and fridge again. Well, in my defense … at least I felt guilty about it!

I consider myself pretty strong-willed. Capable of mustering the discipline and will-power necessary to accomplish most things I set out to do. And most folk who know me would probably agree with that. But not when it comes to doughnuts. Nor cookies. Nor apple pie. Along with a whole host of other products that have an addictive recipe of sugar, refined starch and fat. That modern blend is the perfect storm for getting fat. And I’m just one more outcome that proves the proposition.

It would be pretty delusional of me to imagine that I might ever lose weight by pandering to my addictions, wouldn’t it!?!

It might be even more delusional to think that I could maintain any weight loss achievement by going back there again.

Good thing I really enjoy my rib steak! 🙂

 

Fasting is Easy … NOT!

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Fasting is Easy … NOT!

Dew Drops

Today’s Diet is … Dewdrops!

Intermittent fasting is a big deal these days. The real beauty of fasting is that it can be blended with whatever your favourite dietary strategy is. There may be advantages to blending it with, for example, a low-carb or keto regimen. As opposed to eating junk food on eating days! The other great thing about fasting is that it requires no careful meal planning. And it costs less to boot.

It sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Nothing but good.

Why, then, do I find it so difficult most times?

I am a really big fan of fasting. I just don’t do it very well. There are many ideas out there as to what constitutes a fast. Some define it as a water only fast. Others think juice fasting is fine. Then there are those that say you can eat very modestly, like four, five or six hundred calories a day, depending on the diet, & the sex of the dieter. One of the latest is a fast mimicking diet that allows a very modest intake of some very specific prepackaged foods that trick the body into behaving as though it were not getting any food. The idea behind this is to have something nourishing to eat, while still promoting autophagy (cellular regeneration) for health. Sounds pretty good.

Fasting is also varyingly defined by duration. You can fast for one complete wake cycle, or you can do one meal a day for a twenty-something-hour fast. Some just skip breakfast & call it a 16 hour fast. Some love the alternate day fasting approach. There are longer fasts that run for days, or even weeks. These are typically only for those that are healthy & under medical supervision. One guy, in Scotland, fasted for 382 days & lost 276 lbs. I’m not touching that kind of challenge but it is pretty incredible. Fasts of short duration seem to be given a blessing for most healthy people but I don’t worry about it too much since I mostly can’t even make it through a full day anyway!

For no real reason that I can justify, I think a fast should be for one full wake cycle. And since I typically don’t eat breakfast, it would be a 40 hour fast if I make it to lunch the next day. In my case, aside from water, I allow myself coffee with heavy cream (35% fat). Should I ever feel a little off or light-headed, I may pop a few olives or a pickle for the salts. Mostly I fail my one day fasts & I find myself eating dinner in the evening. When that happens … I congratulate myself for completing a 22 hour fast!

While I like rules in many parts of my life, I’m not a big fan of dietary rules. My sloppy approach to dieting & weight loss has transferred to my half-hearted efforts at fasting.

Today, I’m going to try doing it correctly. I just had my first two coffees of the day … & both were without cream! Today, I am trying for one real, full wake cycle, fast!

Wish me luck!

 

Chow Creep

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Chow Creep

Peppers

I’d rather be eating CHOCOLATE!

Low-carb dieters are very familiar with the term Carb Creep. You start out with a target daily intake of 20g of carbs a day but mysteriously, if you check towards the end of the week, you’ll be up to 50g. Or worse! Unless you’re one of those people who carefully weights, measures, & logs every morsel, all the time, carb creep is almost inevitable. Interestingly, it doesn’t matter what macro-nutrient, or category of food, that is being limited, I’ve discovered they will all creep. Hence my adapting the name “Chow Creep” for what ails me.

I’m not following one specific dietary regimen. I’ve discovered that I can undermine just about any single-strategy dietary program with this creep phenomenon. If I’m going vaguely vegetarian for a few days, I’ll start out with a tablespoon of bacon bits (this is just for the flavour, you understand!) on Monday. But by Friday, there’s half a pig in the pot. Low-fat eating is not part of my approach but I do recall the gradual increases in the fat content of my meals when I tried such programs. It doesn’t matter what the banned macro-nutrient du jour is, I’ll find it creeping within days. I think this is true for most of us on most single-strategy dietary programs.

And that’s the beauty of the hybrid approach. I flip from one dietary philosophy to another. And I do that pretty frequently. It sounds a little heretical to go from keto to potatoes in such short order, but I’m not a purist. I don’t have allegiance to any one diet. Most dietary programs work, at least for a while. And then they creep. Okay, it’s me! I let things creep, it’s not the diet’s fault.

However, the notion of flipping from one, to another entirely different strategy, provides a mental reset with each new start. A new start usually brings tighter, albeit temporary, control. And, knowing that I’m going to flip again soon, it matters less when things start to creep. Indeed, there is less likelihood of creep, knowing that I’ll be getting a much-welcomed change tomorrow or the next day.

Now that’s the kind of dietary flexibility I can live with. And hopefully lose weight with.

Though there is that challenge with Chocolate Creep that I have yet to fully master! 😁🍫😁

The Chicken or the Egg?

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The Chicken or the Egg?

Stormy Weather

This is not about protein! It’s about the mental & emotional mood swings that sometimes happen during the course of our weight loss endeavours. Sometimes the diet is the downer. Other times it’s just the daily grind. Then there are those times where bad stuff is happening in our lives. Regardless of circumstances, it would be nice to think that we could have an eating strategy to help us through such times. A strategy that would help us hang in there ’til we reach calmer waters.

After a fantastic vacation, & despite trying to stay ahead of work during it, I was backlogged when I returned. Over a week later, I’m still backlogged. And I’ve got those projects that I really meant to finish before I left on vacation. But I didn’t! I developed a cold immediately after I returned & it still hasn’t quite gone away. A couple of challenging decisions have come along this past week, when I’m least ready for them, all adding to the burden. No wonder I was a bit down yesterday. The dark & stormy weather at the waterfront was the perfect accompaniment for my generally gloomy outlook.

So how is the diet holding up during this turmoil? Pretty good actually. Though I’m not in weight loss mode, I’m bouncing around at one or two pounds below my post vacation weight. I am eating a lot more than I typically might were I to be a little more focused on weight loss. And I’m eating some bad stuff along the way too.

To offset those bad impulses, I decided to make a big pot of comfort food. Something high volume, filling & very capable of giving comfort. It was a vaguely vegetarian curry. A cup of olive oil in the bottom of the pot to brown the garlic & onion. A heaping tablespoon of curry powder, along with salt & pepper, for seasoning. A litre of organic chicken broth for the fluid. To this I added three large potatoes, cubed small. These will help thicken the sauce, along with providing some much needed comfort! A full head of shredded cabbage adds some serious bulk to the pot. I do like a little meat flavour so this is where we depart to the vaguely vegetarian description. Three Octoberfest sausages, cut into quarter inch cubes, went in next. And finally, a cup, maybe a cup & a half, of whipping cream to enrich the sauce. A cup of basil leafs towards the end. Probably sounds awful but the sausage & cream overcome the veggie bias. And you can eat an awful lot without impacting the scale too much. For “normal” people, this might have made eight servings. For me, it’ll be gone in three, maybe four, sittings at most!

I wish I could say that was the worst I’d done through the past week but it wasn’t! Still, I’m surviving a little blue phase without totally destroying my program. Sometimes, just hanging in there for a little while longer is all that’s required.

The chicken & egg conundrum is based on my questioning if my mood is the result of eating poorly? Or if my downer triggered the poor eating spell? Perhaps it circular & both might be true?

The 2nd Month’s Results

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The 2nd Month’s Results

That’s 17 lbs total loss since the start of this experiment on July 1st, so it’s only a 6 lbs loss for this month. It really is pretty good but I’m totally depressed about it though. Why? Because I’ve just come back from a two-week vacation in Canada’s Maritime provinces & Quebec, during which time I ate more bread than I typically would in about 6 months. Maybe even in a year.

Now I thoroughly enjoyed eating the bread. It was on my plan to do just that during vacation. But, as I’ve written about before, bread seems to depress me. So I’m depressed writing this morning! 🍞😁

Let’s be not-so-depressingly realistic here though: that’s a pretty good result for a month that was half consumed by the culinary debauchery of vacation eating. It’s still too soon to say for sure but this flexible dietary strategy seems to be working. I’ve got some work travel planned during the coming month but I continue to be intrigued by the potential.

Though feeling as I do this morning, it’s challenging to feel optimistic about the outcome!!! 😂 😭 😂

Those emoticons are a bit of depression humour right there! LOL

PS … I’ll cover the vacation eating in a little more detail, & its impact, in another post.