THE HEALTHY LIFESTYLE JOURNEY CONTINUES

NEXT UP, LOSE 25 ADDITIONAL POUNDS AND EXERCISE MORE

Carrying around a second “me” in belly and other fat took its toll.

I started realizing that when in Turkey or Morocco – I would shun restaurants that had third story dining rooms reached only by stairs.

I would skip the museum on a hilltop for a walk through a neighborhood on flat land.

I threw a fit when a budget inn told me upon check-in that the elevators was broken and wouldn’t be repaired for ages – so I would have to walk not only to my room but to the rooftop café for included meals.

I was about 50 – and not a smoker or drinker or taker of much of anything stronger than Tylenol – but my knees were killing me.

Finally, my beloved wife Heidi told me I needed a plan.

No more thinking I would walk off a giant meal.

No more fad diet, or buying an armload to Lean Cuisine dinners and figuring those would magically shrink my size by delivering a lower cal microwaved lunch and dinner.

I got an app that rates the fat/sugar/carb/protein count of food.

I made a 3.5 hour trip to the grocery, buying a lot of stuff that barely made it to our fridge and cupboards before.

I slowly, methodically threw out dozens and dozens of treats, main dishes, sauces, sweets, breads, brownie mixes and other stuff I’d been mainlining forever.

I try to walk several miles per week, but I know that portion control and cutting out a lot of stuff that is darn near poison (albeit tasty, well-marketed poison) – is the key.

I have several remaining goals:

1)     Step up the walking even more. And bicycle too.

2)     Continue to cut out some once a week treat foods – even if they are in small portions and fit within my meal plan.

3)     Keep the 100 pounds lost off of me for six months – to make sure I’m not one of those folks that celebrate reaching a goal…by consuming a bunch of “cheat” treats that were the reason I needed to drop 100

4)     Drop another 25 pounds. Yep, your read that correctly. I’m not auditioning for the role of a man on hunger strike. I simply got so out of control, that to truly be the weight I should be – for my age and height under six feet – I need to drop about 125 total, from my December 2019 starting date.

Wish me luck.

I HAVE NOW LOST 100 POUNDS

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

It started around Thanksgiving 2019.

We went out to an upscale seafood holiday buffet at a waterfront restaurant.

Overweight almost all my life (well, since 3^rd grade, but that’s almost a half century ago), I went hog wild.

Oh, the grilled finfish and chilled shellfish might have actually been decent choices.

But somewhere along the way -- gumbo with rice, starchy side dishes, breaded crab cakes, fried fish, sauces, butters, sodas and too many dessert bar trips to count – I did what I always do: eat like a starving man.

And when we got home, I didn’t even feel bad.

This became such a routine, that I didn’t feel like I had a half dozen portions of full meals – in one body.

I think just about every one of us loves food.

We crave fat and sugar.

Back when there wasn’t a drive-through on every corner and a snack count at every convenience store and gas station, we had to work all day for a meal – so if we gobbled down a bit much, it was burned off.

For me, food has a magical quality.

I fell under its spell like a person with substance abuse issues chases the high from heroin, meth or hard liquor.

Have a miserable day. Boss tore into your over nothing? Parents 1,000 miles away not speaking to your over a trivial issue? Treated your spouse poorly and raking yourself over the coals trying to figure out not only how to apologize, but also how to stop yourself from repeating bad behavior?

Eat a half a giant pizza, down a whole bag of chips, eat a third of a pie, down 6 pieces of fried fish drowned in tartar and accompanied with a mountain of French fries.

But food also was a way of patting myself on the back, of making sure the warm feeling of success felt like a zillion calories inside an ever-expanding tummy.

So a family sized serving of whipped potatoes in butter, a half a box of gourmet chocolate, a PBJ on artisanal bread with Jif and high fructose jelly spread thick as an inch – those were the way to do a victory lap, to celebrate the front page story, the closed deal with a creative client, the first day in Europe on vacation with my wife.

While I had to (or should have learned to) own this behavior for a third of a century of being an adult – I did not.

It took me decades and decades to realize that even if I didn’t care about my appearance “because hell, I was not male model or movie star,” that I was risking my health.

(more on my healthy lifestyle journey next blog post – February 28)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO (A HEALTHIER) ME

I’VE TAKEN OFF ABOUT 70 POUNDS THIS YEAR

I’m not a big birthday guy.

Mine is the 22^nd, this Thursday.

We will probably do more for Halloween.

And we never go out on the date itself, unless it falls on a Saturday or Sunday.

Call us pragmatic children of the Midwest.

The big thing to mark this year, more so than accomplishing 56 years on earth, is my weight loss.

On Thanksgiving 2019, we went to a seafood buffet.

I turned it into a see food buffet.

I ate about 20 plates of everything in site including breads, starches and desserts.

Easily blowing up the healthy, low calorie value of seafood.

In early December, my bride of a third of a century suggested some lifestyle changes.

We focused on weight loss.

I’ve been fat all my life.

Actually, up to second grade, I was skinny as a rail.

But my mom fell into terrible mental illness in the early 1970s.

She said “sorry” by heaping on fatty food.

I medicated with mass quantities.

Let’s just say by the time I started looking at portion control and introducing more fruits and veggies, I was getting up to NFL lineman weight.

And that was on a 5-10 frame, not a 6-4 frame of a big boned left tackle.

I started learning stuff. Like that a granola bar seemed like a better choice than a candy bar, but that many have more fat and calories than a few squares of dark chocolate.

And I used to think I was doing great eating a half cup of raisins. Or a gulping a big glass of orange juice.

Till I found out sugar in those.

I knew eating the better part of a whole pizza, even a small one, was wrong.

Little did I know that once slice of a cheese pizza was more calorie than a healthy eater should down for lunch.

So here we are, 70 pounds lighter.

A flight of stairs no longer is the enemy.

My knees don’t feel like their 90 years old.

Pants are sliding down without a smaller belt.

I’m swimming in some of my fat dude golf shirts.

The frightening thing, considering how much I’ve shed, is that I’m still fat by any measure.

I have more than a couple pounds to go to get under 200.

I'd like to reach my ideal body weight for a 5-10 man over 50.

It's won't be easy. I’ve plateaued for a few months.

They say it happens.

I need to walk more.

While I’ve done great with the calories and food choices, I’ve not exercised enough.

I know that does great things for metabolism and even mental well-being.

I guess the same combo of stuff that kept me putting off healthy eating for more than four decades has continued to block my desire to schedule some walks around the neighborhood park.

I know I don’t have to join a gym, buy equipment and do cardio till I pass out.

A healthy body is two simple things. Eat less (and better) and move around more.

Here’s to calling myself out in public in this blog.

Guess my birthday gift to myself is pretty obvious.

Time to start walking.