Day Three

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ Dec 18 2006, 07:41 PM) [snapback]364024[/snapback]</div>

This statement is uncharacteristic of you. It is usually religious folks who imagine that people have that much control over their fate. Lots and lots of people who desperately want companionship never find it. In fact, it is often the most desperately lonely people who do not find companionship. I'm not complaining. It's better to be rich and lonely than poor and lonely. All in all, I've got it better than probably 99% of the people in the world. But the simple fact is, girls won't touch me with a ten-foot pole.

 

Progress report, as promised:

I am still on the diet. I decided to allow myself more vegetables than the diet calls for because as given, you only get one cup of cooked veggies per day, and even extremely low-cal veggies like brussels sprouts and string beans are in this category, whereas raw cabbage is classified as a salad and is unlimited. Veggies like carrots and beets have more calories, but still not very many, so I am allowing myself a little more of these, but not a lot more. On the other hand, I am skipping the serving of carbs allowed at breakfast because the breakfast is already full of carbs, and both lunch and supper have plenty of carbs. A typical breakfast would be oatmeal, one serving of dairy, one fruit, and one serving of carb. I leave out that last carb.

This morning I weigh 151.2, but that may be misleading, because my weight fluctuates as much as 2 lbs from one day to the next, and this is the lowest weight I've been at since the diet began. I could be 153 tomorrow.

I have two more weeks until my trip. Then I'll be off the diet for ten days until my return, but will try to eat moderately.

I continue to exercise: one hour of walking up a 10% grade at 3 mph, with the occasional day off. I am addicted to exercise, so I have no problems motivating myself.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Dec 24 2006, 10:11 AM) [snapback]366317[/snapback]</div>

Americans have gotten so fat that obese looks merely overweight, and overweight looks normal.

Two reasons I need to get down to 135, and would prefer 130:

1. I am a jogger. The 15 lbs between 130 and 145 means a lot of stress on the knees.

2. I carry ALL my fat around my waist. This is the most unhealthy place to have it, increasing my heart-attack risk, and I have high cholesterol and a family history of heart disease. It also makes me look a lot thinner than I am, since you see my thin arms and face.

The height/weight charts used to say that a 5' 6.5" man should weigh 140 if he is medium-boned, or 130 if he is light-boned, which I am. Nowadays they use BMI, which ignores bone size, and I think they may have increased the weights, on the theory that recommending actually healthy weights would discourage obese people from even trying.

And, yes, I have gained weight since May. Probably 3 or 4 lbs. But it's worse than that because I lost weight over the summer at Mountain Trek (www.hiking.com) and then put it all back on plus some. So I probably gained 7 or 8 lbs since August. And that's a trend I need to stop. And I will. At the present rate I'll be back to my ideal weight around spring, and well in time for the summer hiking season.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Dec 24 2006, 11:50 AM) [snapback]366349[/snapback]</div>

I used to ride a bicycle. I loved it. Then I developed a persistent inflammation in the right illiotibial band where it crosses beside the knee, and I have not been able to ride a bike since. That includes stationary bikes (which I hate) both upright and recumbent, as well as rowing machines and elliptical exercisers.

I am the only person I know who can run but not ride a bike.

But since I learned to ride a bike when I was 30, it never became second-nature to me, as it does if you learn when you're 5, and so it was really not safe for me. I swerve too much, fall off occasionally, and cannot stop safely without a good 60 seconds advance warning.

Probably the best overall exercise is swimming, but I cannot do that either, because of persistent overuse injuries in both shoulders. Sometimes I do water walking, though, and next time I'm at the pool I'm going to try a kickboard. I tried out a deep-water aerobics class, but the ladies objected every time I put my head under water. But without a float vest, which I don't like to use, it's hard not to go under from time to time (wink wink). Anyway, I didn't like the loud pounding music.

I need a total body transplant.

 

Just over two and a half weeks on my diet and my weight this morning is 149.2 lbs. This represents about 2.5 lbs per week. The NutriSystem diet is a gimmick, but it seems to be just the gimmick I needed to keep me on a diet. I cheat a little by eating more veggies than the guide book allows, but I never eat the one serving of carbohydrates indicated at breakfast, because breakfast already has a lot of carbs (oatmeal or cereal or muffins or pancakes) and every meal includes an adequate amount of carbs. So I'm eating 100 calories less than indicated at breakfast, and probably 200 calories extra in low-calorie veggies. And I'm exercising way more than they suggest. They only suggest walking for half an hour. I either walk for an hour up a 10% grade, or I jog for 35 minutes. And I'm back to jogging again! At my doctor's recommendation, I got a cortisone shot for my chronic shoulder pain. It didn't help the shoulder, but it cured my hip pain and now I can jog pain-free.

And I had my annual physical and my TSH was high, so the doc increased my levothyroxin prescription (I have a non-functioning thyroid). This should help the weight loss. And may explain some of my recent weight gain. Everything else was normal. Even my cholesterol was good (taking Lipitor).

 

As promised, my weekly diet report: This morning I weighed 147.6. That's about 1.6 lb less than this same day last week, but I'm actually losing about 2 lbs per week. (My daily weight fluctuates a lot.)

I'll be off my diet while I'm in Mexico, and then back on it after I get home again.

I can see the weight loss in the fit of my pants.

 

An update:

I am back on my diet after my return from Mexico. I resumed the diet on Monday, but didn't want to announce that too soon, since it's easy to fall off a diet in the first day or two. Now that I've completed three days back on it, and have my second month's food shipment (delayed because I didn't want it to arrive while I was away) I am comfortable saying that I'm going again and will be able to stay on it at least until my operation.

My weight this morning was 148 1/2, so I gained a pound or a pound and a half during the two weeks I was off.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(livelychick @ Jan 25 2007, 12:53 PM) [snapback]380770[/snapback]</div>

Indeed it was. See this thread. I also swam with dolphins. The snorkeling didn't work out well (bad weather, rough seas, murky water) but the other stuff was great. I need to go back when the weather is more normal. Maybe in the fall after hiking season is over.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eclectcmoi @ Jan 25 2007, 01:13 PM) [snapback]380791[/snapback]</div>

I've been on levothyroxin for 28 years. I became hyperthyroid when i was 30, and lost a lot of weight (which was very good) before I realized anything was wrong (thanks to an observant employer) and went to a doctor. I got radioactive iodine tratment, and now basically have a nonfunctioning thyroid. I was stable, but when the atrial fibrillation began, they reduced my levothyroxin, thinking maybe it was a trigger. But that was a mistake. A bad call on the part of my then-doctor. Recently my present doctor put my dosage of levothyroxin back up.

For a long time I took Synthroid. Now I take generic, which is the same thing. The company that makes Synthroid put out scare stories, claiming that the generics did not have adequate dosage control, and then got into big trouble for supressing a study showing the generics were just as good. But a lot of folks still believe the propaganda and take brand-name Synthroid.

But, to answer your question, yes, if my dosage is low I believe I do gain weight. My problem is that I'm a compulsive overeater, so it's hard to say how much of my weight gain is thyroid-related, and how much is just plain old-fashioned gluttony.

 

This is a diet update, as promised earlier in this thread. Though I have not kept up on the updates, in part due to my medical problems, and in part due to the slower-than-expected progress, I have stayed on the diet (except for the trip to Mexico, when I made no attempt to diet) and have continued to lose weight slowly.

This morning my weight is 143.8.

My starting weight was 155, so I've lost 11 lbs in about ten weeks altogether. This is slower than I had hoped, and is a lot slower than some of the other folks who have posted their diet progress, but it works for me, because it is a rate I can keep up, and I believe I will be able to keep it off. When I lose weight too fast, I put it all back on. At Mountain Trek I'll lose 5 lbs in a week, and put it all back on in two weeks. At this rate I'll reach my goal weight before this summer's hiking season, and that's important for me.

And NutriSystem sent me a ten-pound bear with this month's food shipment. It's a little, red teddy bear with a "10" on him, and a tag congratulating me on losing ten pounds. (No, the bear does not weigh ten pounds.) My pants, which were a little loose when I bought them, and were tight when I started the diet, are now more loose than when I bought them. Soon I'll put them in a closet and bring out the pair they replaced.

My waist measurement is 32 1/2. It was 35 when I began the diet. It was 31 when I was at my right weight. That's exhaling as far as I can, and holding the tape gently-firm but not tight. If I hold the tape as tight as I can possibly get it, I was 29 at the start of the diet, 27 1/2 now, 25 when I was at my right weight.

As mentioned before, this whole NutriSystem thing is a gimmick. I could eat much healthier foods if I prepared my own entrees. (And I do eat much more veggies than the diet permits, which is probably why I'm losing weight more slowly.) But just having the cupboard full of diet entrees, which I've paid a rather exhorbitant price for, is the catch that enables me to tell myself, at the end of every meal, when I'm still hungry and desperately want more: "No! I'm on a diet now! I cannot have more." Self-control, of course, is the key to any diet, and the hardest part.

Next week I get 5 days off the diet again, as I go to SF to see the Tesla Roadster up close, ask questions, and get a ride in it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Feb 20 2007, 10:34 AM) [snapback]393382[/snapback]</div>

I agree with this. However, the scale shows progress from one week to the next, while it's a month before the tape measure shows a difference.

As for exercise, it's been sporadic since the beginning of last year, due to my arrythmia. With luck, if the surgery was a success, I'll be able to resume normal exercise in a couple of months. It takes that long for the scar tissue to form, which is the object of the surgery I had (to block extraneous signals from passing from the pulmonary veins into the heart.). Also, the prostate operation will prevent exercise probably until early- or mid-May.

And my bad shoulders have made upper-body weight work impossible.