I'm 42 years old and have been strictly following MWL for 18 days now. My reasons for starting are that my last physical, which I'm required to get due to the laws involving Commercial Driver's Licenses, showed that my blood pressure (145/92) has gotten to the point where my Dr. is about to intervene. Anything higher than 89+ diastolic, and I can't legally drive. He has given me three months to correct the problem or start me on medication. The thought of lifelong medication which my father is resigned to is not a path I wish to follow. The complications of years of daily pills (liver failure) is something that I think many don't consider but I am keenly aware of. My father does not drink, yet has a liver that resembles that of a long-term alcoholic, which requires yet more pills, ect. I have one more chance to avoid his fate. If I show up with a diastolic over 85, he will consider putting me on a diuretic (his rule, not the Fed). I'm 6'2" tall and weighed 280 lbs, the heaviest I've ever been. After 18 days, my weight is 268 lbs and my BP is 122/82 as of this morning. I'm fairly pleased so far, but I wish my BP was a little lower to give me a little room for White Coat Syndrome. I assume the drop in BP is due to the elimination in fat and increase in fiber and not the meer 12 pound of weight I lost.
My diet prior to MWL mimics Dr. McDougall's early upbringing almost to a tee. I was raised a "farmboy" and continued to eat like a farmboy throughout adulthood. I didn't eat a lot of processed foods. All meals were eaten at the family table. I ate out maybe once every three weeks. But meals were centered around a large meat main course (fried chicken, pork chops, meatloaf) with some potato and vegetable on the side. This worked for me up until the early nineties. Due to mechanization of my daily life, I was no longer burning off these meals like when life was more simple and financial success was determined by the strength of my back. Those days are gone and they're not coming back. I had to alter the amount of fuel going in.
I abhor the very notion of daily exercise for its own sake. Sorry folks; you won't see me at gym, walking/jogging down the road, or riding a bike. I did a lot of the gym and running stuff in High School and I hated it then, but it allowed me to legally crush someone on the football field or on the wrestling mat. Plus the girls just loved it. So I was willing to put up with the formality of exercise if the end justified the means. So now, in middle-age, I have to figure out how to increase my physical activity without demeaning myself. I haven't figured out exactly what to do yet. Perhaps I'll put out a garden this year. I haven't done that in years because the produce is so cheap compared to the time and effort required to put out a respectable garden. I would of course do this without a rototiller. I also purchase my firewood for the year. I used to split my own by hand, then got a log splitter, then just started buying it. I don't even know if I could still split wood by hand. These are just some ideas I'm mulling around that would be acceptable to my admitted warped sensibilities.
I ate two bowls of brown rice/mixed vegetables (maybe 3 cups?) for breakfast, a 2 bananas and 10 baby carrots for a snacks, another two bowls of rice for lunch, and two bowls for dinner. I may have a low sodium V-8 before I go to bed. Tomorrow will be a oatmeal day. Hunger or cravings were pretty fierce that first 5 days or so, but have become manageable. I lost all my weight the first 10 days, nothing the last 8 days. I've dieted enough in my lifetime to know that this is how it goes sometimes. Seven days from now, I could lose 10 pound, maybe nothing.
That's all I really have to contribute for now and in retrospect I've blathered on enough. I would like to know how to get the ticker on the bottom of my posts, however. I'm pretty naive on how this internet thingy works, so if some would be so kind?
