Discussion Board

Well I really missed having a place to blather about food and me. So I'm starting over with this journal. I don't want to set goals around weight loss or further trimming foods out of my diet. Something just feels wrong about that for me right now. If I stay at this exact weight for the rest of my life I'll be pretty happy with that. If I lose a few more pounds I'll be pretty happy with that. Not much difference!

I'm still eating the majority of meals and snacks from good choices, and some snacks from poor choices. Yet it feels like a good balance for me. I don't resent my food selections any more like I did when I was "trying" to get to 100% compliance. I really feel freer to enjoy those good choices, knowing they're not *all I get ever for the rest of my life except maybe once a year*. I know that allowing off-plan food regularly is a downfall for many, but somehow it's working for me right now.

I did wonder how on earth I was still avoiding weight gain. Here I'm having a bag of chips several times a week. Something clicked for me about that. Could it be my overall diet was still meeting the calorie density guidelines for weight maintenance? A quick calculation suggests it could be. I think I'm scraping by because I'm still on average only taking in 300 calories or so of the junk per day.

So, what if I'm eating 1500 calories per day of potatoes, and 300 calories of junk? How much do those 300 calories of junk raise the calorie density? I found 280 cals/lb for yellow potatoes, and I picked 2000 cals/lb for "junk" (which is somewhere in between the rice cakes and the doritoes). The 300 cals worth of junk only raised the calorie density of my hypothetical all-potato diet from 280 to 328 cal/lb. It's a jump, yes, but doesn't push it so very high.

So I could be scraping by with maintenance because most of my calories are still coming from the low density choices (potatoes, veggies, fruits, rice). I also have oatmeal, some beans, and ww pasta, but those are lesser amounts.

A couple really eye opening things I learned from looking closer at calorie density:

- OK, I've heard it over and over, but I didn't really believe rice cakes were that bad of an option. They're low fat, right? They have to be way better than chips! Well, not really so much better than I assumed. The ones I was buying were 1800 cals/lb, and the doritos were barely higher (a bit over 2000 cals/lb). I guess I've had the idea that low fat is the bigger factor. The only saving grace is that you do get more bites per calorie. 300 calories of rice cakes is half of one of those big cylindrical bags, whereas 300 calories of doritos is a smallish vending machine bag.

- My beloved Medjool dates are also unpleasantly high on the scale, at 1280 cal/lb, compared to the innocuous 430/lb for bananas. I would have never expected such a difference. Again there, I think I got away with eating them since I find them very satiating, so I was limiting quantities enough they didn't skew my intake too much. And the weeks I was overdoing the chips and rice cakes, I'd run out of fresh dates, so I wasn't having both at once.

(This all jives with my experience of partially doing the 80/10/10 diet. I was eating fruit and greens for all meals and snacks, except for a 410 calorie dinner of cheese pizza. Yet I dropped weight, and was still dropping when fruit season ended and I just couldn't keep it up any more. So the overall calorie density of my diet was probably still quite low, even with the off plan dinner.)

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So what has this really taught me? The main thing for me is about keeping the calorie density low. Thus I need to stuff in the veggies and fruits, and keep using potatoes often as my starch base. And of course... limit the high calorie density stuff. And lose my illusion that lowfat dry and/or crunchy stuff is good & safe. I'd already limited my flour products to ww pasta (after noting that bread seemed to be working against weight loss for me).

So I want to focus on eating even more and more water & fiber rich food. And keeping the level of good habits I've gotten to-- majority of meals and snacks from good choices.
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I'd also like to add exercise. This is an area that's tougher for me than changing my food. I think adding exercise will be a better focus for me than further dietary tweaks. I'm at "good enough" with the food, but far from "good enough" with the exercise.

I look forward to reading your journal! I admit I'm nervous about the maintenance stage (ie, rest of my life) because I can't imagine my current state of zeal lasting forever. Or will it? How much will I be able to let my guard down before the pounds and bad habits come flying back?

Very curious to see how you navigate the (to me) unknown waters of maintenance!

About exercise: you might find exercise easier and more enjoyable on McDougall than before. I know I have. It used to be that at some point during every run, I'd feel my energy run out and my body have to tap some hidden stores to keep going. I'd have to breathe faster and just in general force myself to keep going. Yesterday I went on the longest run I have in *years* and kept my strength and energy right to the end. Seriously, it felt amazing, and I credit lots of complex carbs and no energy-sapping fat.

I guess if all you are worried about from the "junk" food is calories than all is well. Many of us think it's not all about weight loss, it's also about health and good nutrition. This program is designed to promote health with weight loss as a side benefit, not the other way around. This came home to me this weekend. I found out my girlfriend from college, who was very trim, but a mess healthwise, just passed away. Weight is important, but it's only a part of the picture.
f1jim

Jim I couldn't agree more. That's why I've started this new journal to focus on continuing to eat lots of healthy food and add other healthy lifestyle habits, such as exercise, rather than focusing on a specific weight loss goal.

You know Debbie I did read of that idea that any oil in the diet damages the endothelial cells, and did some follow up research since I'd never heard of that theory before. I wasn't able to find enough information to understand the state of medical knowledge on that issue.

I certainly enjoy the water-only cleanup that comes from cooking without oil! I've quit using it entirely for home cooking.

Thanks Broadbean! I had the fear this might be a passing obsession as well, but I think the thing that will really make it stick for me is that I now truly have a system for shopping and cooking that works for me. I've gotten so in the habit of picking up my staple foods (basically Jeff N's staples plus some fruit) and making my staple meals, I can't imagine wanting to give it up and go back to my mish-mash of restaurant food, with wandering the aisles of the supermarket wondering what to buy or cook, and every so often trying to use recipes. I just really hadn't mastered the art of shopping & cooking at home regularly. It feels like a problem finally solved in life, that I thought I might never solve.

My own theory is that you WON'T see much about it in research until they find a drug or pill to fix it. When there is money to be made, it'll be all over the place.

Not that I'm hostile to pharmaceuticals or medicine, or making money!

The first I heard of endothelial damage - that I can remember, ha ha - is in Dr. Esselstyn's book. Then it is in Forks Over Knives too, a nice video explanation. It does seem, in the back of my mind, like I should have remembered something about this from my working days..... I did a brief stint as a coronary care unit nurse.

For years, the mechanism of nitric oxide's role in dilating vessels has been used in medicine, that's why people with heart problems carry their little bottles of "nitro" and wear patches of it during the day.

But, fixing the endothelial cells that MAKE the nitro - with potatoes? Wow, what a concept. And, maybe counter to the way most doctors practice too.....
not that I am hostile to most doctors either.... oh, I better stop now!

Have had a pretty good food week. It's been mostly just veggies, taters, and my usual oatmeal. I didn't make any stews yet. A couple evenings I just had a big plate of frozen veggies as a late snack or bonus dinner. It's an even easier meal than success rice! It feels good to eat a half pound of plain mixed veggies just for the heck of it.

Also doing well with nuking potatoes regularly at work. If I don't take the time during the crazy busy day, I'm managing to just stop by the kitchen on my way out and nuke & eat a tater as something to replenish me before the drive home. I've even had people comment on how it smells good or looks good.

I got a copy of an old 70's book called Total Fitness in 30 Minutes a Week. I saw it mentioned somewhere in a blog, and found it on Amazon for $3.44. Then when I get it I can see somebody bought it used for 59 cents! Oh well, that's quite enterprising of them, I was happy to be able to get a copy so easily (that price I paid included shipping). I hope I get some ideas I can use from the book. Surely I can do 10 minutes 3 times a week. Heck, I probably just spent 10 minutes writing this post!

Perhaps I'll learn something when I finish watching FOK. I think I just got started on it (streaming on Netflix) and put it aside.

Mrs D, I didn't realize you were a nurse (or an ex-nurse perhaps). That must have been eye opening.

Tried something new for dinner. I eat hash browns a lot, Ore Ida frozen ones cooked in a skillet. I normally eat them plain or with a bit of ketchup and/or mustard. Tonight I mixed them up with leftover pasta shells, corn, and greens, and put a squirt of ketchup over it all. It was veggie hash! Looked a bit odd (ketchup on pasta?) but it tasted great. I ate an enormous plateful.

Did the first of my 10 minute workouts tonight. It was 1 minute limbering, 4 minutes strength, 5 minutes cardio. The book claims you can get fit with just 30 minutes a week. I'm not sure if that's an accurate claim or not, but it will be better than how much I've been exercising lately (pretty much zero, expect for incredibly sporadic weight lifting).

The cardio is sort of jumping or running in place. Next time I need to wear my tennies. I was barefoot and ended up kinda hurting my feet from the hardwood and stone tile floors.

Today I noticed my smallest pair of jeans is starting to slide kinda low on my hips. The DF keeps teasing me about how my belly is gone. I can still grab a good couple inches though, so it's not quite gone. Definitely smaller though.

My back and various muscles and joints are sore today from the 10 minute workout. I hope it's better enough tomorrow that I can do it again.

Had a nice dinner of mashed taters and frozen veggies. Very basic. I barely added any water to the taters and used my old hand masher (nice metal 60's relic) instead of the electric mixer.

Tried steel cut oats for the first time today. I usually cook rolled oats in my rice cooker using the timed cook option, 9 minutes for a serving. I tried 20 minutes for the steel cut. Unfortunately it bubbled up and boiled over twice during that cycle. So that's a big mess. I've never had a boil-over in the rice cooker before.

I was kinda "meh" on the texture. It's chewier than rolled oats, and each little gran sort of pops. I'm not sure if it was perhaps undercooked still. So I'll try some more cooking experiments with it, but I'm eager to re-stock the rolled oats for my normal breakfasts.

My weight is still creeping lower slowly. I was in the 118's all week and was in the 117's today. I feel like I didn't get enough vegetables this week though. Did not get another 10 minute workout yet either. I'll surely do at least one time this weekend.

So it will feel good to pack in the veggies this weekend and get some exercise.

Something else I noticed lately is that fruit isn't very appealing. It's just tasting too sweet to me. Even one banana or one date is just seeming a little overpowering with the sweetness. Juicy fruit salad still sounds good though (it's just harder to keep on hand). And I'm still using lots of frozen cherries in my oatmeal. I think I'll just not buy any bananas this week.

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I really like this blog post about eating simpler food http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2 ... .html#more

It starts out with ideas similar to the End of Overeating and the Pleasure Trap, and ends up with some points on zen meditation. That's one of my several abandoned hobbies. It may be the prod I need to pick it up again.

Had a good weekend. I barely thought about my job, which is a big improvement. My weekends have been marred by work worries for just about a year now (started a difficult new project last November).

I did 5 minutes of weights Saturday, so today I wanted to do 5 minutes of cardio. I couldn't figure out what to do, so I just put on my tennies and jogged around the block (it's a long block, more like 2). I probably haven't gone jogging in 15 years. I felt pretty good afterward. I made it, got my heart rate up & worked up a sweat. I'm only mildly sore from the weights yesterday.

Food was pretty typical-- lots of potatoes, veggie mix, oatmeal. I had another steel cut oat cooking failure. I tried stovetop instead of the rice cooker, with the absolute lowest flame possible, and a really tall pan. It still boiled over in a matter of minutes! I just got some rolled oats instead.

Also did a brief meditation session yesterday. I've had trouble figuring out a good way to time the sessions. I had a timer I liked that had a flashing light rather than an awful beep, but it broke. I do not want to use my current timer and have the terrible typical electronic beep at the end. So I just counted breaths, up to 200. Kills 2 birds with one stone-- counts time, and gives my thoughts a focus. Otherwise I just followed the sensation of breathing.

When I was eating regular steel cut oats frequently, which take so long to cook, I found a much easier way to deal with them: I put them in the water overnight to soak. In the morning, I brought them to a boil, reduced heat to cook, stirring pretty much the whole time. Due to the presoaking, they only took about 5 minutes to cook.

If you like the creamier texture of rolled oats, another alternative is to mix them half/half with the steel-cut. Same presoaking. I used 1/3 cup of each in 2 cups of water.

These days, I'm using Coach's Oats from Costco. They look similar to a steel-cut oat but perhaps a little finer. They are toasted and something else probably done to them (maybe pre-steaming?) so that they cook in 5 minutes. The flavor and texture are good and they are a whole grain.

I wonder if I could do the presoaking then cook for the minimum time in the rice cooker. Oh well, right now they'll probably go uneaten until I run out of the giant package of rolled oats