A Small Victory

I thought I'd start off with this comic. It's way too true...

Now my small victory. I took a day off from exercising last night and watch the very first episode of The Sopranos. I watch TV while I exercise anyway, but I wanted to point out that I watched the very first episode of The Sopranos last night. Anyway, I got the urge to forage in the kitchen, big time! I resisted though, I went upstairs and avoided the kitchen – walked right by it and went to bed. Man, I felt good about it this morning!

Hey – two blog posts in one day!!

Weight Loss Supplements Aren’t Worth It

Published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, is a study that analyzed over 402 dietary supplements that claimed to aid in weight loss, fat loss or increase metabolism. Their findings are published here:

Entrez PubMed - Availability of weight-loss supplements: results of an audit of retail outlets in a southeastern city.

Pretty interesting reading. They conclude: "“The general lack of research evidence for the safety or effectiveness of the many ingredients . . . even the most frequently included ingredients, is cause for concern.”

Though they do find that there is modest evidence of effectiveness exists for green tea, chromium picolinate, and ma huang (ephedra).

I stick with Weight Watchers, thank you.

Doin' Great!

HA! I knew I suck at blogging - I forgot I had a blog! Stupid blog.

Well, here I am - it’s Wednesday – a week and a half into Weight Watchers.

I visited my brother, who lives in Ocean City, on Saturday because my other brother from Michigan was there. Normally, in the past, I would have had a few drinks and gorged my ample gut with junk food and my sister-in-law’s great cooking. I was good I ate very small amounts of most things put out and I was satisfied! As for the drinking, I stopped drinking adult beverages a while ago. Not for any big reason, I just completely lost any desire to drink – I drank enough for two life times in the past so I guess I’m ahead of the game.

So, I get on the scale on Sunday and it reports 237. Whoa. I left and came back – same result. I was really hungry so I waited a while ate a light breakfast and hydrated myself. I jumped to 238.8 and stayed there for a while. I reported 239.8 to WW - so I got credit for 5.2 pounds for the first week. Right now I’m hovering at about 237 – 238.

This morning I squeezed into a size 38 pair of pants. The 40’s I was wearing seemed baggy and made me feel good – the 38’s are tight and remind me of how much work I need to do – get it?

I’m doing great with WW – I usually have a point of a half point left at the end of the day. I’ve also been riding my bike, set up on a trainer, for 30 minutes at night. When the weather’s bearable, I take a walk at lunch.

I have/had a problem binging at night – on WW they say that it takes 21 days to break a habit – so bingers count 21 day cycles: so if you haven’t binged 47 days it’s be C3D5 – cycle 3, day 5. I guess I’m C0D14 – I’m feeling good!

Some More Details

Here I am at my biggest - probably a bit over 255 - I was at this weight, again, about three months ago. I weigh in on Sunday and I'm thinking I'll be around 240, so I'm 15 pounds lighter that the me in that picture. The problem is when you weigh this much it's impossible for people to see any difference - but I can feel it.

I did good yesterday - stayed with points and got some exercise.

Weight Watchers is very good - to understand points go read up on it:

http://www.weightwatchers.com

Who the heck is YoYoNoMo? Well, at WW you have access to forums and one is called "Guys on a Diet" or GOAD. On of the guys there gave me that nickname - I like it; it's funny and motivational at the same time!

Let's Get Started

I’m a 55 year-old life-long weight battler, with all zeros in the win column - I’ve yo-yoed so much I could use the name “Duncan”. Consequently, I gave up years ago and just resigned myself to being fat – (5’8” 240 – 255 LBS.) – when I’d hit 250/255 I’d cut back a bit, so I did have my limits. My biggest issue is I’m one of the laziest guys I know – I love lying down and reading, watching TV or whatever – as long as I’m horizontal. Over the last several months I have tried to keep to a structured diet, especially not eating after dinner due to the fact I developed a wicked case of GERD and I didn’t want to deal with that anymore. It sounds good but I was still overeating, eating a lot of the wrong stuff and often snacking at night – waking up have aspirated my own vomit! YUMMY! That combined with heart burn caused me to lose sleep.

Well, after six years I decided it was time for a physical. I got a warning from the results – my cholesterol was 238 and my sugar was slightly elevated. Okay, that’s new… I was the guy who could stay overweight with no repercussions, right? Sorry, wrong. Now I’m serious about losing weight – I don’t want to take pills for that stuff – not when there’s an identifiable solution. So, my doctor said to lose weight and come back in the fall for a follow up on the blood work. Will do! It also got me to thinking about retirement and wanting to be healthy and able to enjoy my life then – something that may not happen if I don’t make some changes now. The first thing that came to mind was WW and here I am! About two or three months ago I was around 255 so I cut back and got down to 242 and man I was on a roll - but I slipped again and realized I couldn't do this without help - so I joined Weight Watchers (from now on refered to as WW). I had used WW in the past with much success until I strayed. My daughter uses WW and has done will with it over the years. I hated the meetings when I went before - but now everything is online and I LOVE IT! Also, I just joined Kaised Permenente and they contavt with WW to give us a great discount! The Doc's office weighed me in at 245, so signed up on Saturday at 245 pounds with a goal of 190 pounds. So far it’s been an easier transition this time as I just follow the structured meals I’ve been using – just that now I use the points to guide my choices! I have a stationary bike that I’ve used on and off, so I ‘m back in the saddle again and I make a conscious effort to get up from my desk every once and a while and move around. I don’t care how long it takes to reach the goal – it just needs to get done!

Here's the blood scores:

Component_________Your Value________Standard Range
-----------------------------------------------
CHOLESTEROL__________238_________<200>40 - MG/DL
CHOLESTEROL,NON-HDL__191______________- MG/DL
TRIGLYCERIDE_________149_________<150 - MG/DL
LDL__________________161______________- MG/DL
HGBA1C_______________6.2%________4.3-5.8%