Week 30

Week 30 - Life without Weekly Meetings

If you are following this blog to read about my progression through the program, then start with the first paragraph.  If you only want to read about results sprinkled with tidbits of lessons learned about healthy living, then skip down to "The Results"

Program changes - Phase II

It's been a month and a half since I went in for my 6 Month Assessment.  After my last post, the program switched gears and starts to only meet in person once a month with a personal consultation call mid-month. I also get some basic text messages about once a week reminding me to go do exercise or consider my food options. Another difference is the reporting method for our diary. Instead of providing a printed food diary each week, I upload calorie and fat intake totals per meal/snack into a website instead.  This is annoying, but an unfortunate necessity to continue participating in the program.

Then the BIG change.... the armband...... the armband I've been psyching myself up to wear.... brainwashing myself into being excited to wear every day for the next 18 months.... THAT armband..... the study had messed up their Ecel spreadsheet tables and accidentally had the groups reversed. I was NOT going to be a member of the enhanced group collecting data from the armband and getting specialized text message.  I was a part of the control group doing only what I described above.  In the first five minutes of learning this, I was really upset.  I spent a lot of time learning about the armband and getting excited about exercise data it generates. I had talked the armband up in my head as being a great way to find out how strenuous some of my hiking trips or runs (or lawn mowing) really were. The next morning. I woke up and put on a shirt. I looked at my nightstand where I was keeping my armband during the assessment. I smiled and realized I was glad I didn't have to wear an armband every single day for 18 months.  I don't even like to wear a watch!So while the website is annoying, I'd rather do that once every few weeks or so than wear an armband every single day.

Life without Weekly Meetings

There were a lot of people who were nervous about not having that level of accountability each week.  I was 50/50 about it.  I've gotten into a pretty good groove so the critiquing dietitian wasn't telling me anything I didn't know (As in, yes I realize that the restaurant meal where I ate 1200 calories was very high). So far, I am still using MyFitnessPal and recording everything and I've stayed at my maintenance weight with little variation.  The biggest two things I noticed were: 1) I miss having access to an elliptical once a week.  I really like that piece of machinery. I'd never really used one before the program.  It's a great low impact workout. 2) I have trouble remembering to actually enter food into MyFitnessPal still.  Without those weekly reports cataloging every bit of food, I get lazy about still logging an average day. So I end up trying to recall on a Tuesday what I had eaten on a Friday.  Sometimes, that's not so successful and I am guessing. I'll be working on that.

The Results

August 14 was our first monthly meeting. The lesson was about finding our calorie intake to meet our Resting Metabolism needs. The "high metabolism" so many people claim to have is not quite so common as one would think. Only a small percentage of people tested actually do have a high metabolism. This was a timely lesson for me because I am still trying to find my target daily caloric intake to minimize weight fluctuation and consistently maintain my weight. This will become more important once Oktoberfest beers start arriving.

We were given the results of the DXA body scanner report. The image on the right is me of course.
I extracted the bone density scan images from the report for side-by-side comparison and a created an image overlap comparison. For me, this report was a great motivator.  It was a visual reminder of the work that has been done so far.  I love finding these reminders as it helps to keep me motivated. Another recent motivating instance was when I got measured for my tux for the wedding. My neck size measurements dropped sizes from a 16 to a 14.5.

Back to the report.... the report had an entire section for body composition. It gives specific data about grams of tissue, fat, muscle, bone density, etc. It also shows total fat and total muscle percentages.  I dropped from a 37% body fat to a little over 26%.  It's a good start, but I was surprised to see my percentage was still so high given that my weight is only 163lbs. Ideally, I want to see this number be between 6%-17%.

So what does this mean?  Well, it means that I got off the Obese category for BMI, but THIS chart is still calling me obese (but in a different way).  At my weight, I am in my range for BMI and plenty of people tell me I'm skinny enough as is so weight is not really what needs to change. Out of curiosity, I Google'd "Normal BMI but high body fat percentage" and learned that there's even a TERM for it.... "normal weight obesity" and the handful of articles I skimmed said that about half of the "normal weight" Americans have a high body fat percentage. Another term that popped up was Skinny Fat. It usually results from a low cal / high cardio regimen without enough muscle building exercise.  Skinny Fat, which is what I apparently am, is ok in the short term, but can cause larger health issues over the long run..

EDIT: A Body Mass Index (BMI) number differs from body fat percentage. Your BMI number is calculated based on height and weight.  My BMI number is close to 23. Body fat percentage is a measure of your body composition.  This number will never be zero because some body fat is essential.

I'm only a few percentage points too high, but I'm no longer accepting the excuses of only being "a little overweight.... a little high cholesterol... a bit too much body fat" as a way to ignore the issue. I shaved off nearly 50 lbs from my "a little overweight... a little high cholesterol" body and my skeleton has been much happier.  My base level fitness is much higher and a previously injured tendon in my left foot gives me much less problems now that it doesn't have to haul around all that extra weight. So I see this high body fat percentage number and see a new challenge. Now I know where I need to go. I have always been trying to set goals to keep the momentum going.  My new goal, in addition to weight maintenance (EDIT: maintain a BMI of approximately 23), is to start adding muscle density through cross training and core workouts. In 6 months, I want to see the DXA body scan report list my body fat percentage in that targeted 6%-17% range. October through December is when I've historically packed on my pounds so I expect fall to be tough, but possible.

So after feeling like I was on a vacation with maintenance, I guess it's back to work! I have about 8 weeks before the wedding day.... Just enough to try for some crazy muscle program. Maybe I'll start one of those crazy 100 push-ups in 6 weeks and/or 200 sit-ups in 6 weeks programs. A more rounded program would probably be better, but I like the idea of trying to do 100 push-ups. (In actuality, that time would be better spent learning how to dance... but that'll never happen)


Current Weight: 163
Target Weight: 163

6 Month Assessment

A lot of time has passed since my last post. I realized that posting every two weeks about what I'm learning was not sustainable.  The groundwork for what I was doing was laid out in the other posts already. I meant to check in at least once a month, but I am apparently a lazy blogger. Today marks the 6-month assessment so I thought it warranted a new post. Here's what I've been up to......



Program Starting Weight: 210.8 lbs

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IDEA Goal: 10% drop in body weight as a starting point. This would have put me at 190 lbs.

Original Personal Goal: I set a personal goal of 179 lbs. This would have been a 15% drop in my body weight. I chose 179 lbs because it is what I weighed after I came back from Australia where I did a lot of hiking and was pretty fit. I had a similar starting weight and it took about 5 months to drop to that weight. It was also the beginning of "Normal" on the BMI chart. Sounds like a realistic 6 month goal, right? I practically hit that mark 3 months ago when I made my last post.

REVISED Personal Goal: Since I met my personal goal after only 3 months, I needed a new goal. I believe that part of being successful is setting realistic goals. I figured that since my weight loss was slowing down that it would be harder to lose more after going below 180. So I asked Maura, my dietitian fiancee, what an ideal body weight is for my height would be.  No surprise, there's a formula for that.

   Formula for Men's Ideal Body Weight

106 lbs +/- (6 lbs*[inches above/below 5ft])

Formula for Women's Ideal Body Weight

100 lbs +/- (5 lbs*[inches above/below 5ft])

       Example: I'm 5'11" so.... 106+(6*11) = 106+66 = 172

So my revised goal became 171.8 lbs. The additional .2 lbs meant that I'd be able to say I lost 40 lbs. I was still on a daily caloric intake of 1200 and up to 40 grams of fat with 300 minutes of moderate exercise (mostly fast walking). In reality, I was probably eating more like 1350-1650 calories and 40-50 grams of fat with 260-300 minutes of exercise. Yet, my weight loss was staying consistent. Ultimately, the REVISED Personal Goal ended up only taking a month. By May 27, I was 171 lbs and still on a steady decline. I had to rethink what was possible....

REVISED REVISED Personal Goal: If you asked me 6 months ago if I could get my weight below 170, I'd have laughed at you and told you that there was a better chance of hell freezing over. I haven't been that weight since middle school (MAYBE freshman year of high school). I liked the idea of being in my target BMI and wanted to get my weight a little more centered in the Normal range.  My Revised Revised Personal Goal became 165. That would give me a BMI of 23. I was also beginning to notice things like ribs and ab muscles.  Imagine that.... I've never seen my six pack, but I just got a hint of seeing a 2 pack. This got me motivated and I've been trying to add in more core exercises to help that 6 pack along.
 

- - - - - 

GOAL MET! In the last week of my 6 month marker, I achieved my REVISED REVISED Personal Goal. It took a month to lose the last 5 or so pounds.  For most of the month, I weighed in at 167 lbs every day. When I stepped on my official reporting scale that Tuesday and saw that I was 164.4, I asked to be switched from calorie restriction to maintenance caloric levels.

MAINTENANCE: Anyone can work at it and lose weight.  Maintenance is the hard part. I am starting to ramp up my caloric intake.  If I overshoot it, I'll start gaining weight.  If I undershoot it, I'll start losing more weight.  For now, I am going to try to maintain a daily caloric intake of 1800 calories a day and see what my weight does there.

- - - -

6 Month Assessment: Today was the 6 month assessment. I officially weighed in on the uber-accurate scale at 162.4 lbs. That means that I've lost 48.4 lbs. That represents a 33% loss in body weight since I began. Among other things, I had to perform a stress test. This test is where I am hooked up to an EKG and wear a head piece that measures my breathing while I walk on a treadmill at 3mph while the grade continually increases.  The result was that it took longer to get my heart rate to the base line rate. Then, it took 5 minutes longer on the treadmill to get to the maximum heart rate than it did the first time I did the test.  I'm excited to see what my before and after body scans look like too. Part of the assessment requires wearing the Body Media Fit armband again for a week.  I'm wearing it right now.  After this week is up, I will urn in this armband and get my very own Body Media Fit armband (the newer model, thankfully). From there, it's off to maintenance and maintenance and maintenance.

- - - -

Clothing: A note about clothing... when you lose 33% of your body weight, you find that you need a new wardrobe. I bought a new pair of shorts because I can swim in all of my clothes. The shorts are a size 34 and they are almost too big already. When I started, I was a size 38 waist and a large shirt.  Now, I am a size 34 waist (possibly a 33) and a medium shirt.  That part still surprises me.

Weeks 10-13

Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork.  ~English Proverb




My goals have been updated since my last post. My new goals are:
1200 calories/day
29-40g fat/day
250 minutes of moderate exercise/week

I'm not meeting the food goals yet, but I'm getting closer each week.  Over the last few weeks, I've been pre-making salads for lunch. By making them all at once, I can add things like broccoli and cauliflower. They take more time to chop up, but it's not bad if I'm making 5 salads at the same time. It's also nice to not have to worry about getting a salad together every morning. 


I'm a sandwich person... or at least I was... I've gotten tired of packing a sandwich with the salad. Now I just cut up the pita bread and lunch meat and throw it right in with the rest of the salad.  If you don't know Bolthouse dressings, you should check it out.  It's a low cal dressing with a lot of flavor. I rotate the dressings every day so I don't feel like I'm eating the same thing all the time (in addition to swapping out salad toppings).


I may not be averaging 1200 calories a day yet (more like 1300-1500 average), but I'm still losing 1-2 pounds a week.  Today's weigh-in marked 3 months since the start of the program. I've lost 30 pounds and none of my clothes fit anymore.  I'll be headed to the store for a new belt at the very least


One last thing... I rarely drink pop now.  I used to drink pop every day.  Now it's every few days. I originally switched to Diet pop, but didn't care for it. I started mixing half diet and half regular pop. Enter Pepsi Next. I believe I found my new pop.


Weigh-in Weight: 180.6

Weeks 8 & 9

If you don't make a big deal about it, it won't be a big deal.


Weekly Goals
Calories: 1200
Fat: 24-40
Exercise: 200 minutes


When the IDEA program told me that my new calorie goal was 1200, I flinched. That's low! I got my diet about as low as I thought I could get it already. Unfortunately, the "team of dietitians and doctors" are not actually providing individual advice like I thought. Luckily, my fiancee is also a registered dietitian.  She showed me some 1200 calorie meal plans online and we've been bouncing around ideas about ways I can meet 1200 calories. I get asked how I do it without being hungry all the time.  It didn't happen overnight. For starters, my stomach shrank. I actually eat pretty well.  I just do it very carefully. Here's what a day looks like.

Breakfast - 230 calories
Kashi Go Lean Crisps cereal - 190 calories
Almond Milk for the cereal - 20 calories
Gummy Vites vitamins - 15 calories
Black Coffee - 5 calories

Morning Snack - 105 calories
Bananas - 105 calories
Water - 0 calories

Lunch - 280 calories
Turkey and cheese pita sandwich with lettuce, tomato and cucumber - 190 calories
(I use a half piece of cheese, exactly 2 oz. of turkey meat, and a Flat Out low calorie pita wrap)
Side Salad with tomato, cucumber, croutons, and Marzetti italian dressing - 90 calories
Water - 0 calories

Dinner - 640 calories
Green Curry Tofu with asparagus and shallots on a bed of capellini - 640 calories (That's two greedy servings)
Sprite Zero - 0 calories
Water - 0 calories

TOTAL: 1255 calories


Some things to point out... I drink a lot of coffees, teas, water, and maybe a zero calorie soda for a change of pace (sometimes a half diet/half regular soda mix). Liquid calories are easier to cut than most other things. It also lets me have a pretty decent sized dinner. If I decided I wanted a drink or an evening snack, my dinner was 320 calories per serving and leaves me the flexibility to adjust my day if I stray from what I wanted to eat that day. I try to include a lot of veggies in my diet too.  They're filling and low in calories.


As for exercise, I'm having trouble staying consistent from week to week.  I did great on week 8 but I did horrible on week 9.  I'm conflicted between the program's "exercise" vs lifestyle activities.  If I mow the lawn, it's a lifestyle activity. It doesn't count as exercise because it wasn't done for the sake of exercising.  Yet, that still takes time and energy to do.


Weigh-in Weight: 188.6 lbs.

Weeks 6 & 7

More than a third of the USA is obese. In 2010, 20%-29% of Pennsylvania are now obese.

Weekly Goals
Calories: 1500
Fat: 33-50
Exercise: 150

A better name for this post would be Portion Control...

I'm cruising right along with the program so far.  The biggest differences I've done was to following through with a lot of things I already know I should have been doing all along.  For instance, I know that restaurant portion sizes are large and loaded with more calories than if I cooked the same dish at home. Before the program, I'd eat the entire meal.  Now, I try to pack half the meal to go. It makes for a great dinner the next day too.  I knew that I should have been doing that all along, but I rarely ever did it.

One of the difficulties I've had in the last weeks 6 & 7 is cupcakes.  I had a cupcake tasting, a "share the cupcakes with the rest of the fam" day, leftover cupcakes from the family tasting, and a birthday party.  To get past this, I tried to keep a close eye on my portion size throughout the week to balance out my calorie intake.

So far, it seems to be working. I am now moving below my usual summer weight and into what I'd weight at the end of a good summer. It's been noticeable too because it's happened in such a short period of time.  When I cross under 190, I'll be into weights I seldom hit in a given year.  However, my weight had a slight plateau despite the increase in exercise minutes. I still lost weight, but it slowed down considerably. I dropped under 200 and consistently maintained it. In this program, 200 is a magic number. My calorie goals are going to drop in a week from now. On top of that, my exercise goals will keep increasing towards 300 minutes a week.

The key to meeting this new challenge will be portion control.  I see a few areas where I can be even more stingy about what I'm eating and things like cupcake weeks are going to be nearly impossible to do while still maintaining my goals without doing things like eating half of a cupcake (again, portion control).  The calorie levels (1200) won't be high enough to have a few low calorie days to compensate for the higher days.  I was upset about this at first, but now I'm starting to view it as a new challenge that I'll have to figure out how to overcome.


Weigh-in Weight: 193.8

Weeks 4 and 5

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.  ~Plato

Weekly Goals

1500 Calories

33-50 g Fat

150 min. Moderate Exercise

Good news everyone! I've dropped 10lbs. since 1/24 and am back under 200lbs. again! However, this is a weight I usually hit every year. I'm now at what I like to refer to as my "Summer Weight." As in, by mid-summer, I usually weigh this much.  Given that it's the end of February, I am far ahead of my yearly schedule. The key to my success so far has been how close I have monitored my food intake. I eat in a much more regulated (portioned) manner.  If I eat a piece of cake and ice cream (like I did this week), then that caloric intake needs to be accounted for. One thing I didn't anticipate is how much it would prevent me from ordering take out food. It's easier to show self-control when there isn't a mountain of readily accessible food in front of you.  As a result, I do more meal planning to prevent the urge to take the easy road and order take-out for dinner.

This is Ugli Fruit. It's a grapefruit, tangerine, orange hybrid. It's also delicious.

I still see this program as behavioral modification and not as a diet.  For instance, I eat a lot more fruits and vegetables. I haven't done the math, but I may actually be getting the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Another thing I've started to do is to look for turkey cutlets in the store as a way to change up the meal from tofu and chicken without the alternative being red meat.  Giant Eagle now carries Natures Basket turkey cutlets and I was thrilled to see this. I was nudged towards organic food and I've come to prefer it when possible so I was glad to see this as an option. 

I'm already halfway to the program's goal of a 10% body weight reduction (190lbs.).  At the tail end of summer, I tend to hit this so my goal is to get my weight into the 180s.  However, getting there isn't the tricky part.  The tricky part is staying there. I was 179lbs. in 2005, but I inched my way back up (thanks to red solo cups of beer and pastas).  

One last thing.... my dog got a haircut this weekend. Usually, he goes from a fluff ball to a lean gentle giant. I switched him to a much better diet due to food alergies. Combine that with not enough long walks and he's really started to pack on the pounds.  Because my exercise goal will eventually be 300 minutes/week, I'll be doing a LOT more dog walking. I intend to slim down the pup while I'm working on me. I have an alternate goal for pup #2. I intend to refine some of her on-leash manners.

These goals won't be easy to meet, but any goal worth setting should always a challenge.

Weigh-in Weight: 199lbs.

Weeks 2 and 3

Rich, fatty foods are like destiny: they too, shape our ends. ~Author Unknown~

Weekly Goals: 1500 calories, 33-50g fat, 100 minutes of exercise

In week 1, I averaged 1500 calories and 50g fat, but didn't meet the 100 minute exercise goal by 7 minutes. I weighed in at 207.8 on 1/31, a 3 lb loss since last weigh-in.

In week 2, I encountered a few challenges: homemade sushi, an early valentine's day meal, and a super bowl party. Given all the extra foods I averaged 1650 and a little high on fat too. Since I knew the calories were going to be higher, I did two hikes over the weekend and got in 260 minutes of exercise to help offset the food. On the super bowl day, I kept my calorie count way low throughout the day too. I weighed in at 206.4 on 2/7, a 1.2 lb loss since last weigh-in. It had been a little lower before the super bowl happened.

In the weekly meeting, the IDEA people told my group that we were part of the "enhanced" group. That means I'm going to be a part of the group that gets customized text messages and has to wear the BodyMedia Fit armband. However, those interventions will start after the first 6 months are over.

So here's what I learned so far...

• California Rolls are easy to make and equally easy to snack on too. 
• Weight Watchers Stuffed Peppers are delicious, nutritious, and only 300 calories.
• Whiskey has 65 calories per ounce.
• IPA beers have 220 calories, Pale ales have 120. PBR has 150!
• Arnolds Pocket Thins Pita is only 100 calories like the Deli Flats I typically use it.  I like sandwiches for lunch, but not eating 200 calories only from bread.
• If I don't go back and eat seconds, then I hit 1500 calories without having to change too much of what I already eat.
• My scale isn't 2.5 lbs over like I always thought.  It's actually pretty accurate. Doh!
• MyFitnessPal is really easy to use.
• The first 5 lbs of weight loss if primarily water weight.
• You CAN eat out, but you have to eat about a third of the portion sizes to keep your calories where you need to be.
• I can cut out pop, but it's still good to have once in a while.
• Cold water fish has more calories and cholesterol than I ever realized.
• You can drop 1 lb overnight.  Just donate blood, but don't expect to exercise without almost fainting.