Week 9: Progress Report

Now this was a busy week, and as I’ve said before, these present the biggest challenge. Living live and doing the right things to get healthy. Well, there were some days that had my first meal starting with lunch, Some days with a weak step count, but overall, I am still making progress! My weight loss is becoming more and more apparent and I am getting comments from people followed by the question, how are you doing it? My answer is generally eating like a human and getting more active. I’m going to think about a better answer, that can be delivered quickly (not preachy), but with a very positive spin.

You can see, based on the last three weeks, I have more work to do. I like the little frowny face letting me know that this week was not great. Things should be settling down a bit with the house, school and work so I hope to get back to the “pink” levels.

I managed to lose a few pounds this week and continue to move the BMI dot in the right direction. Still working on getting the right mix of food, nutrients and C-F-P ratio.

The nice little bonus I noticed this week is that I was a bit to coarse in setting my latest goal. I was looking to move into obesity class I and thought a BMI score of 34 is what I needed. However, the class starts at 34.9 – so I have achieved this mini-goal! Actually did it last week. I am very happy with that milestone. Very much looking forward to getting out of the obese classification in the coming weeks!

My week 9 Carb-Fat-Protein ratio is: 64% – 14% – 22%. So still a little high on the carbs; I did have a few sandwiches this week. Still looking for a way to get more whole gain goodness without going overboard on “bread carbs”.

In tracking a few nutrition specifics, I’ve been doing pretty well.

Fiber
Recommended: 25mg / day
I’ve been above that for the last 6 weeks (range 27mg – 32mg)

Sodium
Recommended: < 2300mg /. day
Been working to reduce this as much as possible. I’ve had less than 23000mg per day for 7 or the last 8 weeks. Most below the 2000mg level. This is a tough one, especially if you eat out once in a while as not all restaurants provide nutrition information. With that in mind, the lower everywhere else, the better.

Water
Recommended: ~64fl oz / day
This is a huge change for me. I drink water almost exclusively anymore. I will have a decaf coffee every few weeks or a green tea (will try to get more of this when it cools down) and a beer once in a while. But that’s about it. I’ve exceeded the 64fl oz for the last 8 weeks, usually having 100fl oz or more daily.

Sugar
Recommended: < 32g / day (natural sugar outside this value)
This is a tough one, because the recommendation is for sugar that is added to foods and beverages. However, naturally occurring sugar (fruits) is different and not counted the same. I eat a lot of fruit and try to find the best kinds (high fiber, lower sugar), but it still adds up. I consume about 60g per day, but the majority all comes from fruit. I need to look into this a bit more to get a better idea of a reasonable target.

100 Days of Vitamins
One more milestone this week, I have had 100 days of taking a vitamin. I’ve tried to take multi-vitamins in the past and normally had a stomach reaction and have thrown it right back up. I have no idea why this was the case (not a good breakfast, brand?). Before I had my awakening, I picked up a bottle from Target and started taking them with no issue. I have since added an additional vitamin D3 and fish oil supplement to my daily regimen. Clearly this is super important when we consider the type of food that is available today and I’m glad I am back on the vitamin path.

Next Milestone – Weight=200, target date = 12-SEP-2010

This is a mini-milestone, I can’t remember that last time I weighed less than 200lbs.

Week 7: Progress Report

I skipped a week of progress reports, but this seems to be the way it will go as everything ramps up (school, work). Progress continues – which is great because the week was not stellar in terms of activity.

Lots going on this week, including a week long business planning session that included a night at a Brazilian steak house. If you have not been to one of these, think all you can eat salad bar and all you can eat meat. The meat consists of 10-12 types including beef, chicken, lamb, sausage, pork – cooked to perfection. There are a few restaurants of this style, we went to Boi Na Braza. I am pretty happy with how I did, First of all, never go to a buffet style restaurant. – the human mind struggles to make sense of all the sights and smells. Combined with the need to “get your money’s worth” this rarely results in a positive experience. However, if you do go, be sure to eat a good salad upfront and then go lightly on the rest. This is what I did, took advantage of the awesome salad bar before diving into the meat. Since there is plenty to like, I tried 4 different type of meat – which was too much. This was better than 10 helpings, but to be better, I could have eaten less of each type rather than polish it all off. Good lesson from experience.

The rest of the week consisted of a baseball game (a hotdog, Coke Zero and a few peanuts), but not much walking. Things picked back up later in the week, but the chart above serves as a great reminder that I need to Keep Moving!

Nutrition Update

This week looks a little better on the ratio’s. One other item to track is when I consume the calories. The chart below shows when they were eaten. A general guideline is to eat less than 30% of your calories at and after dinner.

One other item that I am looking into relates to pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. Many of my top food items are those that will absorb pesticides – awesome news. Must go organic.

Weight Update

I am still on track with regards to losing weight. I lost about 5 this week, a little higher than I would have expected. It looks like my range is somewhere between 3 and 5 pounds per week.

Next Milestone – Weight=204, BMI=34 (class-1 obesity): target date = 05-SEP-2010

I moved up the projection date a bit, may be aggressive, but based on the last few weeks seems like a reasonably aggressive date.

Okra, yum!

I have a neighbor with a giant garden who recently gave me some okra. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten it before. I’ve heard of fried okra, which seems to be the experience that most have with the vegetable. Well, I tried one last night and really enjoyed it. I just washed it, sliced it and ate it. The outer pod tastes a lot like a pea pod where as the inside didn’t seem to have a lot of flavor. The oil/juice inside is a bit interesting as well.

This goes on the yes list. Eating them plain or in a salad is likely the way to go.

Inspired to go grow some? Click on the photo and go check out Park Seed Company.

Stretch Break

We have software at work available to us that reminds you to stretch every 30 minutes. I’ve known about it for a long time, but never really gave it much thought. With everything else I am doing, I thought why not, let’s give this thing a whirl.

The software is called Stretch Break and pops up every 30 minutes to remind you to stretch. You can configure it to different intervals, but I left it in default mode. When it pops up, it give you three stretches to do then goes back to sleep. The stretches themselves vary in what they work and include both sitting and standing stretches. There are some for your hands, shoulders, neck and eyes. It does a pretty good job.

The thing that really got my attention was how quickly the 30 minutes seemed to fly by and the next session begins. As I sit in my office, I imagine there are times when hours go by and I am just glued to my computer – not really moving more than my hands. It definitely feels good to get up and stretch. I will keep this going and play with the duration to strike the balance between stretching enough and not breaking concentration too often.

Just another in a series of eye opening events.

Pleasantly Surprised

I got the results from my blood work this week and was very pleased and not a little surprised. Recall, I made my eating and exercise modifications at the beginning of July, so these results were influenced by one month. From September 2009 through June 2010, I made no effort to curb my eating and did no exercise. In some ways, those months were probably worse in terms of poor food choices.

That is quite a turn-around. Granted, I made drastic changes to what I eat. Focusing heavily on fruits and vegetables, very little red meat and virtually no chips and other junk food. I still would have expected this to be a more gradual shift, but will take and enjoy these results. All the numbers are in the “just fine” range, except HDL (good cholesterol). And you can see it hasn’t move much in the last several years. Ideally it needs to be above 40, but the higher the value, the better. So this will be a focus item as I consider the rest of the nutrition challenge.

My doctor told me to get exercise and omega-3 to help improve HDL. I’ve been exercising for the last month and started taking fish oil a few weeks back. These seem like things that will take some time to show results. I did some research on what else you can do to boost your HDL and came up with the following list.

Aerobic Exercise (duration may be the key to higher HDL vs. intensity)
Lose Weight
Stop Smoking
Cut out trans fatty acids (no partially hydrogenated vegetable oils)
Alcohol (Men: 1-2 drinks per day can significantly increase HDL)
Increase monounsaturated fats (canola, avocado & olive oil and fats in peanut butter)
Add soluble fiber to diet

The good news is that I am doing most of these things already. Will need to check ingredients more closely in addition to the nutrition labels to avoid the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Not too sure about the booze. There is a bit of playing the odds with that one. These are empty calories and the Heart Association strongly discourages drinking.

In any event, seeing results from making good choices feels fantastic. It is a strong motivator.

Nice Dinner

Here was a nice dinner we had tonight – very simple to prepare and cook. Jennie-O grilled turkey and vegetable kabobs. Sweet or Red potatoes, red onion, a green pepper and you are set. The recipe calls for Orange Marmalade + Dijon mustard to be applied while grilling. We only did the marmalade and decided that we would try the mustard only next time.

Calories: 240

Total Fat: 3.5g

Sodium: 810mg

Cholesterol: 35mg

Carbohydrates: 36g

Fiber: 4g

Protein: 20g

1 Serving = 1 skewer

Here is the recipe with all the details for an excellent, healthy meal.

Week 5: Progress Report

I think I am in the norm for weekly weight lose: 2-3 pounds. I’m ok with that – it seems reasonable and healthy. It definitely sets the tone for the next year to really get into the weight loss and general health I am looking to attain.

I dropped a few pounds this week and continue to move the BMI dial as well. I still need to dial in on the type of food I am eating. As you can see from the chart below, I am high on carbs. Part of this is the fruit I eat and the other thing I need to do is ramp up the protein a bit. I went to a health store today and picked up some flaxseed to add to my oatmeal and some protein for shakes. I’ll give that a shot. A few years (ok, maybe 7) I was doing some lifting and had been doing something similar. I’m going to start slowly and see what it does to the ratio. I did finally get some fish this week (tilapia) that was pretty good and introduced some lean hamburger. I am careful to watch the portions pretty closely. I grilled up a bunch of chicken today as well and will be taking that to work. It will be a good lunch and save some money at the same time.

From an activity standpoint, I am making progress (moving from sedate to very active) and achieved my incremental weekly goal. You can see this is largely due to the high activity at the beginning of the week. Very slow ending to the week. Consistency will be important going forward. Today was a great day; I got a really good swim in the morning and took a 40m walk in the evening. The colors on this chart are interesting. the pink means I made goal for the day and the green means it was a lazy day. A bit strange.

Looking Ahead

July has been a month of getting started, spending lots of time thinking about health, nutrition, activity and it has been great. August will start to get busier as things at work pick up and as school gets closer. Lots of this stuff has to be automatic and at the same time, I need to step up the exercise. Cardio and easing back into an active life is part of what I need to continue to do, but I also need to start doing calisthenics, resistance training and some weights. Looking forward to a good month.

I have made good progress on the book I am reading (The Way to Eat), about 100 pages. I’ve done this between other things and just need to carve out some time to get through it. The beginning talks about common issues and struggles and ways to cope. It has an interesting slant on why we behave the way we do – and why the results are different for different people. He ties the way the body works to our ancestors and how they had to adapt in order to survive. I’m pretty happy that a lot of the things I’ve been doing are recommended ways to stay on track. Some of the later portions of the book look good, so I will keep pushing.

I had my blood taken this last week and expect the results in the next week. The last time I had it checked was September, 2009. At that time I was doing nothing to improve my health. My doctor told me to eat right and get some exercise and come back in 3 months. I think I actually ate worse after that point. It will be interesting to see where I am now. Eight of the last nine months were carefree, eat what I want and let future me worry about exercise. July, the last month is where I really dug in. This should be a good baseline.

Next Milestone – Weight=204, BMI=34 (class-1 obesity): target date = 19-SEP-2010

17 Stones

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Move. Journal.

Month: August 2010