I visited my neurologist recently. Oddly, he’s the one who gives me the hardest time about losing weight. Harder even than my internist or cardiologist. Oddly, he’s the heaviest of the bunch too.  I deserve it though. Even with this blog I’m having a hard time getting started on that 100 pound weight loss goal.

A little extra inspiration started tonight in the form of the “The Biggest Loser: Families.”  The “lightest” male weighed in at 314 pounds!  I think this may be the heaviest group yet over-all,  As I’m writing this, the doctor is showing them the effect of internal fat on their internal organs  — the way it wraps around the heart and lungs impeding their function, fatty livers, and so forth.  Wow! That’s some serious negative inspiration.  It is working, but I’m looking forward to the positive inspiration of watching them lose some serious weight.

I haven’t been as diligent in my workout routine as I’d like. One of the reasons is that my son plays golf on his high school team. Someone has to drive him to the practices and games. I usually stay and watch the games. That means several hours out of my work week that have to be made up at other times.  Any exercise maven will tell you that you ought to fit in some exercise wherever you can — park at the far end of the parking lot, take the stairs, walk to the mailbox, and so on. Even moderate activity makes you more fit.  But we’ve become a society where we drive 4 blocks to snag a parking spot near the door at the fitness club so we can spend an hour on a treadmill.

Today I attended my first golf tournament of this season.  I usually rent a golf cart and drive along as do most of the parents who attend.  Occasionally, a parent will walk rather than ride.  (You know, those are the parents that are much younger and slimmer looking than the parents in the golf carts.)  Meanwhile, the kids are required to carry their own bags.  If you don’t think golf is exercise, you should try that sometime or, maybe, you could just wait at the clubhouse as a bunch of sweaty, tired teenagers come in from carrying their clubs for 9 holes in the Florida heat.

I’ve thought about walking before, It seems awfully lazy to ride while the kids walk.  However, I always have plenty of good rationalizations for riding — it is hot, someone may need to run back for a forgotten club, it may storm and the kids will need rides in, we need a cooler for drinks, the cart roof is good shade from the Florida sun ….  Of course, there are other reasons too like my feet will hurt, I’m tired, I may get heat stroke walking the 9 holes, I may not last 9 holes, ….

I was dismayed to discover that this golf course wouldn’t rent carts to the parents.  We were welcome to walk along, but no carts.  What to  do? What to do?  I hadn’t planned on walking so I wasn’t wearing sunblock or walking shoes..  I had on my Crocs, which are really comfortable (much more comfortable than my boat shoes), but I’ve only had them a few months and had never walked that far in them. To walk or not to walk that was the question.  .

I decided to walk the first couple of holes figuring that I could always break off and catch them again at hole 6, which was near the clubhouse.  I set off in my Crocs. Before I knew it, the first hole was behind me, and then the second, and the third.  Wow! I was a third of the way done already.  The fourth hole would be almost half way.  I made it all 9 holes (2 1/2 to 3 hours) and I wasn’t even that tired.  My feet didn’t even hurt! I may never rent a cart again to watch a game.  I’ll save a lot of money and work in a little more exercise without having to give up any more time.  I can watch the game, spend time with my son, and get some exercise too. What a deal!

So how many calories did I burn?  According to one calculator that I consulted, which allows for a weight adjustment, walking for pleasure for 2 hours and 30 minutes burns 1258 calories. That seemed a little high, but another says walking on a grass track burns 340 calories an hour if you weigh half of what I do so maybe 1258 isn’t that high. The ground was uneven, I was on grass, there were elevation changes, and I carried my sons clubs uphill from the 9th hole to the car so maybe I did burn that many or more.  Bottom line — a little extra activity worked into your usual routine could make a difference without another trip to the gym.

No matter what diet you’re on.  I think it is a good idea to watch your fat intake.  You need to prefer lean meats, avoid unhealthy fats, and eat healthy fats.  Here’s a fun little quiz from Fairview Health Services in Minnesota.  It is just 8 questions so it will take you no time at all. Find out how much you know about fat.

Have you ever refrigerated a can of soup?  If you do, you’ll find a layer of hardened fat sitting on top  when you open it.  You can then easily skim it off, which will reduce the amount of fat in the soup you’re about to eat.  Each gram of fat has 9 calories.  A gram is about the weight of one standard paperclip.

I had Progresso brand chicken noodle soup for lunch today.  There are only 180 calories in a can.  Out of habit I skimmed the little yellow globules of visible fat off the top.  You can do this even when the soup isn’t refrigerated first, but you’ll probably be able to skim more fat from a high fat soup if it is chilled first.  I then checked the label because I was thinking about writing this post later.  It turns out that there were only 3 grams of fat in the whole can of soup. None of that was saturated fat.  So maybe I saved 3 to 9 calories and 1 gram of fat, if I was lucky.  However, if this hadn’t been such a healthy soup to begin with, it might have made a bigger difference.  I might have been able to skim a couple of grams and some of that might have been saturated fat.  Of course, you can also do this with homemade soups, stews, and pot roast.

Accountability is a key component to successful weight loss, which is why I started this blog.  But what if you’re not into publicly baring your fat soul? No problem.  There’s a way to hold yourself accountable and double your weight loss. It is called (are you ready?)… a pencil and paper!  That’s right.  A recent study showed that those participants who journaled their food intake lost twice as much weight.  The average over 5 months was 13 pounds, but the group that wrote down what they ate lost twice as much.

Of course, you don’t just write down what you ate. You write down the total calories that you ate. You can also track other dietary concerns like total carbs, sugars, dietary cholesterol, and the like. This keeps you accountable to yourself.  It also starkly reminds you what was in the food you ate.  You can’t delude yourself about what you’re eating and the calories in it.  I’m starting my journal immediately.

A new study proves there is more than one way to weight loss.  The study involved tracking 322 moderately obese people at an Israeli nuclear facility for 2 years.  Those on the low fat diet lost the least weight, and also had the fewest health improvements.  Those on the low carbohydrate diet lost the most weight at 10.3 pounds.  Those on the mediterranean diet lost an average of 9.7 pounds while the low fat group lagged behind at 6.4 pounds.  The mediterranean diet group showed the most improvement in blood sugar, which makes this diet a clear choice for diabetics.  The low carb group showed the most improvement in cholesterol.

The low carb meal plan was described as

intakes of total calories, protein, and fat were not limited. However, the participants were counseled to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein and to avoid trans fat. The diet was based on the Atkins diet.

I didn’t think that the “traditional” Atkins diet encouraged vegetarian sources of anything.  This to me sounds more like a healthier variation to Atkins and more like South Beach.  I wonder if cholesterol would have improved as much if they were encouraged to take what I understand is the “traditional” Atkins approach? It may have because Atkins has made that claim for years. But I think these dietary guidelines should be kept in mind, if you want to duplicate these results in your own diet.

The low fat diet was described as

based on American Heart guidelines. We aimed at an energy intake of 1500 kcal per day for women and 1800 kcal per day for men, with 30% of calories from fat, 10% of calories from saturated fat, and an intake of 300 mg of cholesterol per day. The participants were counseled to consume low-fat grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes and to limit their consumption of additional fats, sweets, and high-fat snacks.

Although this diet specifically limited dietary cholesterol and calories, it did not result in the most weight loss or the biggest improvement in cholesterol levels.

The mediterranean diet was described as

moderate-fat, restricted-calorie, Mediterranean diet was rich in vegetables and low in red meat, with poultry and fish replacing beef and lamb. We restricted energy intake to 1500 kcal per day for women and 1800 kcal per day for men, with a goal of no more than 35% of calories from fat; the main sources of added fat were 30 to 45 g of olive oil and a handful of nuts (five to seven nuts, <20 g) per day. The diet is based on the recommendations of Willett and Skerrett.

This diet caused the biggest improvement in blood sugar and the second greatest weight loss lagging behind low carb by only .6 pounds.

Now I guess the bottom line is that the best diet is the one that you’ll stick with.

Eggs are one of my favorite foods for breakfast.  It seems more and more that they don’t deserve the bad rap they got for awhile. When I was a kid, they taught us that eggs were a wonderful food.  Dr. Agatston says eggs aren’t that bad in “The South Beach Diet” and they’re allowed on Body for Life.  I ate a lot of eggs while losing 50 pounds.  Now a study confirms that eggs should be part of your weight loss plan.

One of my favorite breakfasts is two egg whites and one whole egg, which reduces the overall fat and cholesterol while giving lots of protein and the good stuff in the yolk, and a bowl of steel cut oatmeal. The idea for the eggs I got from the “Body for Life” book.  The steel cut oatmeal I learned about in “The South Beach Diet.”  So what are the calorie stats on that breakfast?  109 calories for the scrambled eggs and 150 for the oatmeal for a total of 259 and that breakfast will stick with you.  Don’t say you don’t like oatmeal until you’ve tried the steel cut variety.  If you really don’t like oatmeal, then substitute another high fiber cereal.  For complete nutrition information, go here for eggs and here for one of my favorite steel cut oatmeals. Quaker makes steel cut oatmeal too now.

Okay, I’m the first to admit that when I wake up and it is pitch black out the last thing I want to do is go to the gym. The same is true when I get home from a full day of work. Those are the choices — before work, after work, or, maybe, at lunch. It can be hard to get started, but I know that exercise is habit forming. Once you get into the habit, you really miss it when you don’t get a workout. I’m nearly 48 now and my energy really seems to be flagging so I was even more worried about getting back into it. After my first work out, I had to come home and take a nap! I was exhausted.

The thing that is amazing me now is NOT how tired I am. Instead I’m amazed at how quickly I’m getting back into it. Like always I’m starting to feel so great I wonder why I ever stopped. The best example is the elliptical. Using the elliptical machine is like no impact running in place. I like the no impact, but I hate the running in place. The first time I got on the machine my thighs started burning immediately. I counted the seconds until I could get off without looking totally stupid. I tried 3 minutes the next time and my heart rate shot over 150. Then I went for 5 minutes and then 6 minutes. Each time I went a little longer, and a little faster. The burn in my thighs started a little later. My heart rate stayed a little lower. Yesterday I did 10 full minutes and might have been able to do 15, which I probably will next time.

Whatever your starting fitness level, just do it! You’ll feel a lot better.

It seems these days that everywhere you turn you run into another book about the “law of attraction.” Perhaps the best known is “The Secret”, which is responsible for the recent resurgence of this bit of baloney as “New Thought.” The basis of the “law of attraction” is that you can attract to you what you think about. But this baloney can be just as unhealthy for your diet as any other. The idea here is that you can get a better parking space or more money just by wishing about it. Sorry but it takes a bit more than just thought. Sure if you keep thinking “I want a parking spot by the door”, you will get one if you lap the parking lot long enough. Likewise, you will get more money if that is all you think about, but only if you also work for it. I was distressed recently to see a book that seemed to tout “the law of attraction” as the secret to weight loss. It isn’t.

Now I’m not saying that thinking about weight loss and muscle building won’t help you lose weight and firm up, it will. It is important that you focus your mind on what you’re are trying to accomplish and that you visualize the desired outcome. You need to see the desired outcome in your own mind just as professional athletes visualize the perfect swing of the bat or club before it ever happens. However, if you sit on the couch and eat potato chips while thinking about being thin, you’ll never be thin. You must combine that positive thinking with positive action. You have to get off the couch, put down the chips, and visualize the new thinner you while you’re huffing and puffing at the gym or eating your steel cut oatmeal. You can program your own mind but that alone won’t “attract” thinness and good health to you.

Now shut off this computer and get to work!

Years ago I participated in a sort of diet seminar program at our local hospital’s wellness center.  I picked up two practices from that class that I have maintained for years.  I stopped using butter on toast and baked potatoes and I began ordering salad dressing on the side and dipping my fork in the salad dressing.  Along the way we stopped buying or using margarine.  Margarine tends to result in acid reflux when I use it and butter doesn’t.  I think it is the hydrogenated fats in margarine.  As the news about butter got better, I relented slightly on the butter. It just tastes so darn good on a potato!

According to this video, which I found on Diets in Review, butter may even help you burn fat. And to think I had my new potatoes without butter for dinner tonight.  Nevertheless, butter is still a fat and it still has 100 calories per tablespoon.  So I think I’ll still be using butter sparingly or not at all. Oh, well….