The diet...

I have been seeing a personal trainer to try and get my big 40-something butt into shape, lately.  He guides me through 2 workouts a week, then gives me a 3rd workout that I'm supposed to do on my own.  It's through a local gym that only charges $20 a month.  (They waived my initiation fee.  No contracts, I can drop at any time.)

One of the things they sold was "nutritional counselling" for $100.  When they asked me about my goals, I told them I wanted to drop 20 pounds.

First thing they said was, "that's going to come from diet, mostly, not from the exercise."

When I asked them what "mostly" meant, they said "about 85% of your weight loss is from the diet, 15% from exercise."

Blech.  I've lost a lot of weight and kept it off for a couple of years with insane workouts.  The idea of a diet just doesn't work for me, though.

Both the trainer and the owner of the gym went on and on about how, on this diet, I'll feel better than I've ever felt and my energy levels would shoot through the roof.  The hyperbole was pretty much a turn-off for me since I figured it was complete BS and no way I'd feel that way about it.

I laid down some ground-rules:  I'd give it a try, but it had to be stuff that was easy to buy and very little actual "making" of food.  I wasn't going to get some bizarre grocery list of wierd stuff at a whole foods market or whatnot.  Had to be stuff I could walk into a fast-food place and order. 

They assured me that the diet wasn't wierd at all.  That I could buy meals at Wendy's or other fast food places and that it wouldn't require elaborate recipies, etc.

So, before I left for Hawaii, I sat down with my trainer.  He mapped out a diet for me that I was supposed to follow for 2 weeks.  It was ultra-strict, but supposed to "clean out my system". 

I could tell from what was on the diet that I wasn't going to be able to adhere to it very much while in Hawaii.  However, I'd do what I could.  In hindsight, I could have adhered to it, exactly, in Hawaii, but it didn't seem like it at the time.

When I got back, I started in earnest.  (On Tuesday, 4 days ago.)

The diet is this:

Breakfast:  oatmeal and either a protien shake or egg beaters or egg whites.  Egg beaters are really easy to prepare.  Just pour some in a bowl and microwave for about a minute and 30 seconds.  Pause periodically to stir them.  Same for oatmeal. One of the types of the stuff in the round cardboard can is instant oats, but you have to cook them in the microwave, versus just adding hot water. The protien shake they recommended is called "Dessert" and I got it in whipped vanilla flavor.  It's delicious mixed with milk or almond or rice milk.  They said this isn't as good as pure whey protein, but because it tastes good, people are more likely to stick with it.

http://www.drugstore.com/products/prod.asp?pid=177866&catid=176669&aid=337953&aparam=bsn_lean_dessert_protein&CAWELAID=107673486

The oatmeal has to be the stuff out of the big round can because it has very little added to it.  NO SUGAR ALLOWED, IN ANY FORM.  So, none added to the oatmeal.  I could have artificial sweetener with it, or some sugar free jelly on top.  That was it.

The protien shake could be made with water or skim milk.  I've substituted rice milk for this week.  NO SOY MILK AND NO SOY ON THIS DIET. 

A morning snack of either an apple or a pear.

Lunch consists of a starch:  either a baked potato or steamed rice.  A rice steamer is a $30 appliance, btw, if you want a pretty nice one.  A baked potato costs $1.50 at Wendy's.  Chicken breast or turkey.  (I've been buying ground turkey at the supermarket.  Made a mistake and bought 85/15, which is higher in fat than ground turkey breast.  Ground turkey breast is 99% fat-free.  It's also twice as expensive, but that's what I'm going with.  It cooks in about 5 minutes in a pan.  Salad with clear dressing nothing creamy or like French, etc.

Mid-afternoon snack of either an apple or a pear.

Dinner:  same as lunch, but without the starch.

Snack:  either sugar-free jello cup or a protien shake.

TRY TO DRINK CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF WATER, LIKE A GALLON A DAY.  Basically, drink constantly.

NO:  carbonated beverages, milk, dairy products, sugars of any kind.  (You can have skim milk with the protien shake, but that's only like 4 ounces.)  No bread.  Almost goes without saying, but nothing fried and no creamy soups or anything.  Basically, if it tastes good, you can't have it.

OKAY:  Crystal Light (makes it much easier to drink a gallon of water a day.)  Coffee.  Artificial sweeteners for the coffee and for oatmeal.

The primary rule:  EAT EVERYTHING ON THE DIET.  OTHERWISE, YOUR METABOLISM MIGHT SLOW DOWN AND MAKE IT HARDER FOR YOU TO LOSE WEIGHT. 

This is the old "starvation mode" thing, which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine.  We're not a nation of big fatasses because we're starving.  But this important direction becomes critical once your appetite goes.  Yesterday, I felt like I could have gone much longer between snacks and meals and had to remind myself that I HAD to eat. 

For folks who are not on some sort of diet like this, don't worry about starvation mode.  Yeah, 1% of you will eat some jacked up diet that will throw your body into starvation mode, but the other 99% have blubbery butts and need a little more starvation in your lives.

Once per week, I can have an "amnesty meal" where I can eat whatever I want.  I have to admit, I haven't been that good about this.  I had one amnesty meal where I had a beef kabob instead of chicken and salad.  (Out with my son for his birthday and the restaurant didn't have a chicken-breast on a salad; it was a barbecue place.)  I took a second one today when I had a hot dog, chips and diet coke plus some ice cream at his party.  I know I broke the rule, but my first amensty meal wasn't that far off the diet.  (Lean beef instead of chicken). 

The first day and a half were the worst.  First, I didn't shop and get everything I needed.  I tried to eat the oatmeal but didn't have artificial sweetener, so I just gagged it down as best I could.  I also sprinkled some protien powder on it, which helped some.  However, I went to the store and got some artificial sweetener and now the oatmeal is just fine.

I was hungry all the first day.  Like, "HOW LONG TO MY ****ING SNACK???!!!"

Makes sense because my body was still basically running on the old, bad food.  It hadn't even been one complete digestive cycle, yet. 

Going out and buying crystal light and the sweetener was a big step. 

Crystal Light also sells boxes of 10 single serving packets.  I have them in my car.  So, if I'm at a restaurant or whatever, where they don't have a drink I can have (unsweetened ice tea would be fine, though), I can always throw one of the packets in.  They're really small.  Plus, I carry a little water bottle with me all the time and I can fill up the bottle and throw a packet in, anywhere.  Not as convenient as buying a can of pop, but pretty close.  Also, most fast-food places have a way to get cold water.  So, if your water bottle is low or on empty you can run in to Mickey Dees and fill it up with water.  I try to conspicuously show that I'm not taking any of the fountain drinks.

Also, I got some ground turkey to make up for the monotony of the chicken breast almost every meal.  Chicken breast is convenient, though, since almost every fast-food place sells a chicken breast sandwich, and you can ask for it without the bun or any sauce.  Almost every fast-food place sells a suitable salad with chicken breast on it.  Throw in a Wendy's baked potato, and you're good to go. 

Just make sure there's no cheese on the salad.  The Burger King salad is one of the better ones because it has the cheese in a separate container.  Also, Wendy's has some apple-something-something salad where you can ask them to hold the blu cheese.  Panera assembles all their salads by hand, so you can ask them to hold the cheese.

I've found that it's really convenient to just buy bag salad at the supermarket.  It's much more expensive than buying the component vegetables and making it yourself, but it's still only $2 or 3 for a bag of salad. This makes it much less expensive than buying a fast-food salad every meal.  I like spinach and go about half and half.  As most of you probably already know, iceburg lettuce has virtually no nutritional value, so I try to go for stuff like romaine mixed with greens.  Mixed with the spinach, it's probably better for you, overall.

I showed up for my Wednesday workout and was ready to tell the trainer that there was no way in the world I was going to stick to the diet because it was ridiculous.  I asked how long until we could re-introduce other items into my diet, and he stuck with "2 weeks".  Yeah, I already knew the answer to the question, but asking it was sort of my passive-aggressive way of saying, "THIS DIET SUCKS!!!"

Thursday, I had the amnesty dinner with a beef kabob, but my body was already adjusting to the diet. I wouldn't say I was happy with it or totally adjusted to it, but I was starting to see how it could work.

Friday, my body had pretty much switched over.  I had so little hunger that I had to remind myself to keep eating throughout the day. 

Today, I feel great.  Same deal.  I'll look at the clock and it'll be like, "Whoa, I shoulda ate an apple half an hour ago" or "oh, lunchtime already?"

I can't tell you what a departure this is from my normal eating behavior.  Honestly, I usually could sit down to a huge meal and 20 minutes later, sit down to another one.  The minute I leave a restaurant, I have to remind myself not to look for another one on the drive home.  I eat a lot.  A LOT.  If a normal adult male should consume a little over 2,000 calories a day, I bet, on an average day, that I'm between 3,500 and 4,000.

This diet should work out to about 1,500 calories a day, which is a good calorie count for sensible weight loss.  I've done 1,500 calorie diets before and they work.  Trouble is, I was hungry ALL THE TIME and couldn't sustain them.

Now, the theory behind this diet is that I'm avoiding eating things that spike my insulin levels (I hope the dietiticians and trainers out there will forgive any details I'm getting wrong.)  Those make you crave more food.  So, you go out and eat MORE food and it spikes your insulin levels, which makes you crave more food.  That describes my previous eating, perfectly.

There are some things I like about this diet, too.  It's more nutritionally balanced than some of the fad diets I see out there.  For instance Adkins and other zero carbohydrate diets will let you lose weight, but I think they're unhealthy for you in the long run.

This one is protien heavy, but still has plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and carbs.  So, it's relatively nutritionally complete.

I don't like the use of artificial sweeteners, but frankly, this is probably less artficial sweetener than I was getting with my six-pack a day habit of diet coke.  I know there are dietary theories that say that artificial sweeteners work counter to losing weight.

To that, all I can say is:  I'm on this diet, and I can feel it working.  There are diets where you don't eat any artificial sweeteners, but frankly, I can't be on every diet in the world at once. 

You have to find one that seems sane to you, and one you can stick with.  So far, this one has controlled my hunger, which has been the hardest part of any diet I've ever tried in the past.  (I honestly haven't tried many and have never really tried one seriously or for very long.) 

This one seems nutritionally complete and I'm not craving anything right now.  I can stick with it, at least for a while.  My goal is to at least stick with it until I reach my target weight loss of getting down to about 185. 

I'm at 200 on the button right now.  Might have lost a pound or two on this diet, and a pound or two while in Hawaii.  My starting point was right around 205 two weeks ago.  Maybe a shade more.

With the number of calories I'm consuming, though, I know I'll lose weight.  It wouldn't surprise me if I'm eating about 1/3 my usual number of calories.  Will keep posting as time progresses.

Now, do I feel better than ever before, with energy levels through the roof?  No.  But I feel really good, and most importantly, I don't feel hungry.  This diet has involved a lot of trips to the grocery store, but at least so far, it's one I can follow.

As they re-introduce foods to the diet, that should make it easier to follow, too.  Plus, I'll be working on the other 15% by continuing my workouts with weights.  I feel like I can see a difference, even after just a few days.  I usually don't stick with this sort of thing long, but I'm eager to see what I look like at the 30 and 60 day point.

(I'm also going to continue my running routine, but am taking some time off due to the fact that lava ground off half my back, right under where a waistband would be.  I want that to heal up a bit before I start running since clothes can really rub you when running and I basically have a giant, open scrape back there right now.)

This diet, like pretty much every other diet, works faster with men than women.  Estrogen makes a person hang on to fat.  (Maybe why so many chubby guys have man-boobs.)  In an odd stroke, that's why soy is banned.  There are some theories that it adds/creates estrogen in a person, which makes it harder to lose weight.

I had a long talk with the trainer about the diet yesterday and he said that basically everything recommended on the diet has a counter-argument that says it's bad.  A lot of it is based on belief and/or theories that may or may not have been thoroughly tested. 

So, he said if I absolutely have to have a diet coke, go ahead and have one.  The theory is that it's bad for you, but one every now and then won't kill you.

However, I haven't craved a coke or even any caffeine over the past couple of days.  Go figure.  So, maybe it is affecting my energy level.  Like I said, my usual intake was probably a six pack a day of diet soda... actually, probably more because there'd be a few bladder-buster sodas purchased at drive-thrus once or twice a day, too.

I think, honestly, this is one of those things where there's probably a lot of good science behind this diet, but a lot of nonsense crap superstition, too.  However, on-balance, it seems to be working.  So, sometimes you have to try not to nitpick the solution and just implement it.  I'll lose a lot more weight following this diet than by trying to perfect it.

Other than not being hungry, I can tell my palette is changing a little bit.  I don't quite crave the same foods I used to.  I also don't mind some of the food on the diet quite so much.  For instance, unsweetened iced tea tastes pretty good.  Same with unsweetened coffee, now.  Before, either one would need a LOT of sugar to be bearable.  Bullion cubes and onion salt thrown in the rice steamer make steamed rice pretty easy to deal with.

It also affects the way I think about food.  Before, life was just one continuous stream of delicious, not-to-be-missed meals.  I honestly felt that if I died without trying that new delicious whatever from Olive Garden that I'd have missed out.

Now, not so much.  It's just food.  It's out there, but nothing feels like I MUST HAVE IT NOW.  Not like before.  Now, the stuff I'm eating doesn't inspire food-lust, either.  It's all just food.  It's not that hard to walk past the ice cream and go to get packaged spinach.