Is there a way to use FitDay if you cook your own food, or is there an alternate site I could use? Otherwise, it seems to only work for people who eat packaged food or constituent ingredients in isolation.

This is an excellent question. It’s also a question that’s very difficult for me to answer. All of the different calorie counters out there are slightly different. I’m not saying that fitday, which is the first one I ever used, is any better than the others. But it works just fine for me and I think it’s flexible enough to work for anyone who wants to make it work for them.

I don’t think that fitday is a perfect system for tracking calories. In fact, there’s a lot of room for improvement (searching the database can be a bear). But it does work for me. Just the act of inputting food into the website and watching the list of what I ate that day get longer is enough for me to be mindful of what I’m eating. The actual calorie count that I get from fitday doesn’t really matter. All that matters to me is that I’m close. Losing weight and getting fit slowly is what I’m after. If the weight coming off is delayed by a few days, weeks, or months because I’m off on my calorie count by a bit, I’m OK with that. Fitday helps me to make better eating choices and eat approximately the correct number of calories each day, that’s why I like it.

It sounds like skuud is more of a cook from scratch chef than I am, or at least she cooks things that are more complicated than I do. But I still think that she could make it work for her. Fitday is definitely much easier to use with packaged food because the nutrition information is right there on the box. All you have to do is type in the numbers and you’re good to go. But, it is also very possible to use if you cook from scratch.

But what about inputting foods? Tonight for dinner, I made broiled salmon with a honey ginger glaze, steamed jasmine rice, and corn with butter and salt. When I sat down at the computer, I didn’t add up all of the calories from the ingredients and divide by the number of servings created and then multiply by the number of servings I ate. That IS too complicated. Instead, I “deconstructed” my dinner. I made separate food entries for all of the ingredients in my dinner and then I estimated how much of each of those ingredients I ate based on how much went into the whole meal. I know my calorie count wasn’t perfectly accurate, but it was close enough for me to keep tabs on what I ate. And, since the meal was healthy, I don’t really care how much I ate.

Basically, if counting every calorie that goes into you mouth is very important to you, I think fitday would be a hard (but still possible) site to use. However, I don’t think that any of the other calorie counters out there would be much easier to use. But if you want to get a general idea of how many calories you’re eating, fitday is a fine tool.

update: I recently received another email from skuud. In it, she writes, “Recipezaar allows you to enter recipes and then get the per-serving nutrition facts. You can then fill those in on Fitday. It still takes a bit of effort, but less than the spreadsheet routine.”

—
Related Articles at Get Fit Slowly:

• Wednesday Weekly Weigh-In #1
• Online Diet & Exercise Trackers
• Food Propaganda Is Everywhere!

I think that the main reason people stop losing weight (especially if they’re still committed to doing so) is that their body gets used to the routine and starts to adapt.  After all, our bodies are genetically programmed to store energy in times of plenty for when things are scarce.  For many of us, the times of scarcity never come and so our bodies just continue to store the extra energy and we get fatter each year.

So what do we need to do when our weight loss levels off but we’re not quite where we want to be yet?

Don’t Give up!
This is the most important aspect of any life changing behavior. We have to work very hard to condition our bodies to adapt to the new habits and to drop the old bad habits. When I was a baseball player, my coach used to tell us that it takes 300 correct attempts IN A ROW for a new habit to replace an old habit. I’m not sure if his method was based in research, but the point is valid. It’s hard to change. Stick with it, deal with the setbacks, praise the successes and concentrate on them. They’ll come more often and things will get easier!

Shock Your Body!
I’ve been doing some reading online and there’s a new buzz word out there in the fitness and exercise world called “muscle confusion.” If you’ve seen one of those infomercials for the P90X program, you’re familiar with the term. Basically it’s a way to get better results from your fitness routine by not allowing your body to get used to what you’re doing. You shock your muscles and they respond faster and you get better results. So if you can afford it, or if you’re creative, totally change up your routine. Get a new weight training circuit or hit the elliptical instead of the stairmaster. Go for a run outside instead of the treadmill or try a jump rope. This is the reason that I’m thinking of getting a new workout every other week from a personal trainer at the gym. I want to force my body to get stronger, faster, and fitter and keep it from resting on its laurels.

Tweak Your Diet!
Just like your body can adjust to its exercise plan, it can also adjust to its calorie reduction plan. Whenever I’m being really successful counting calories, not only am I tracking my caloric intake, but I’m also eating many of the same foods each day because it makes calorie counting easier. Unfortunately, your body can also adapt to this system. It’s best to vary your intake of foods while keeping your calorie deficit about the same. This makes more work for you if you’re a fitday user, but it may be worth it. Another thing you may consider is taking a 2 week hiatus from calorie tracking. Still eat mindful, but don’t worry so much about what you’re eating. Then after two weeks, maybe your body will respond to your diet again. Finally, you may have to readjust your caloric needs if you’ve recently lost some weight. Now that you’re lighter, you may not need as many calories to maintain your weight so you might have to further reduce your calories to keep losing the weight.

Try A Supplement?
I’m not a big fan of supplements any more. I’ve used them, both the “over the counter” and the medically prescribed types, and have had some success with them. There are tons of “thermogenic” over the counter supplements out there. My biggest problem with them is that very few, if any, of them are FDA approved and therefore haven’t been subjected to the same rigorous testing procedures that the medically prescribed solutions have undergone. My advice here, take it for what it’s worth, is to avoid anything over the counter and only seek medical treatment for weight loss if you just can’t lose large amounts of weight on your own.

Everyone can lose weight. It’s a simple matter of arithmetic. Burn more calories than you eat and your weight will decrease. It’s not easy, but you CAN do it!

—
Related Articles at Get Fit Slowly:

• Weighing In For Wednesday
• It’s Hard To Raise Healthy Kids
• Stalled–But Not Discouraged

Lean Meat -

I eat chicken breast, turkey breast, and lean cuts of beef.  I try to buy hormone-free meat, but it can be hard to find.  I avoid processed meats, like those from the deli counter, and try to cook as much as I can at home.  I stir fry chicken in olive or coconut (yum) oil.  I do not use batter or flour.  I am not a fan of pork, so I don’t eat it.

Vegetables -

I eat various types of lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, and spinach.  I also eat carrots (on my salad) and various other green leafy vegetables.  I avoid legumes (beans), corn, and potatoes.

Fruits -

I eat green apples, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries.  I avoid overly sweet foods like watermelon, red apples, and oranges.

Fluids -

I drink water, and that’s it.  I haven’t had a soda in 108 days, and I don’t miss the nasty things.  Living in the south, it’s almost impossible to avoid Sweet Tea, but so far, I have managed to do so!

Nuts -

I eat a lot of nuts – almonds, walnuts, pecans, and cashews.  I try to avoid peanuts.  I will buy nuts that have been salted, if that’s all I can find, but I prefer (both the taste and the health benefits of) raw nuts.

Eggs -

I eat eggs, but only occasionally.  Why?  I’m just not a big fan of eggs.  When I do eat them, I scramble them and cook them with olive oil.

Oils -

I cook with olive oil, coconut oil, or grape seed oil.

Vitamins -

I take a mulit-vitamin, psyllium husk (for added fiber), and a pro-biotic.

Diet Plan -

I follow the Phase One diet as outlined in Doug Kaufmann’s book Fungus Link.

I have also incorporated some of Mark Sisson’s ideas from his Primal Eating Plan.

A good friend of mine turned me on to Doug’s work, and I’ve found great success following his plan – which focuses on removing fungus from our bodies and taking pro-biotics.  Another friend sent me a link to Mark’s site, and I really like what he has to say.

My goal?  I want to move away from processed, unhealthy, gimmick foods – and return to a much more basic, nutritionally rich diet.

I have found that when I eat from the list above, I really don’t have to worry about counting calories.  In fact, I haven’t measured a single serving size or worried about portions in over four months – and I’ve managed to lose (at last count) 27.8 pounds.

What I Do Not Eat -

Sugar -

I do not eat products that contain sugar.  I do not eat cakes, pies, cookies, or cereals.

Sugar Substitutes -

I do not eat store-bought protein bars.  I do not drink diet sodas.  If it taste sweet, and it’s not a real fruit, I do not eat it.

Starches -

I do not eat corn, potatoes, bread, or rice.  I have considered eating whole grain oats, but I get plenty of fiber from my diet, and I’m not a big fan of oats anyway.  Oh, and I don’t eat that southern staple, grits.

Overly Processed Meat -

I try to avoid sandwich meat, deli meat, and any other meat that has had sugar added to it.  It’s tough to avoid any processing, but I try to minimize my exposure.

How Much Do I Eat -

I eat when I am hungry and I eat until I am (almost) full.  Then, I stop eating.  I do not worry about what time of day it is and I do not follow a normal breakfast – lunch – dinner routine.  I eat four or five times a day, and most of the time, I’m eating almost the same thing, all day long.

I also ran 4 miles in 36 minutes on my treadmill and immediately ate a handful of nuts and a string cheese to replenish the calories lost.  I don’t think I ate enough today, but I still feel like I was eating all day.  That’s a good thing though, right?

• lost 22 pounds
• decreased my body fat by 6%
• went from a non-runner to a frequent runner
• competed in my first 10K race and 2 other organized races of shorter distances
• took my shirt off at the beach and didn’t worry about it

I didn’t accomplish all of the goals that I set for myself in 2008.  For example, I thought I would have reached my goal weight by this time.  Instead, I’m only about half way there.  I also would have liked to have been a little more consistent with my blog posting last year.  I have yet to figure out how to work ahead!  Everything I write is for today, maybe for tomorrow, but never for the days or even weeks after.  I’d like to get to the point where I spend a few hours blogging and get the weeks posts completed.  I don’t know if I’ll ever get there, but I can definitely improve on it.

So how about 2009?  Here are the fitness goals that I’d like to accomplish before the end of the year:

• lose another 17 pounds to get down to 175 pounds
• drop another 6% of body fat to get down to 18%
• complete a 1/2 marathon in under 2 hours

Here’s my POA so that my goals don’t fall by the way side during the first month.  According to the many calorie calculators available online, I need about 2600-2900 calories/day to maintain my current weight.  In order to drop a pound/week, I need to create a daily 500 calorie deficit.  So I’m going to shoot for 2000 calories per day.  I’m going to keep track of my calories using fitday.com.  And after workouts, I plan on immediately replenishing burned calories with a high quality snack that contains both a dairy product and a protein.

Dropping body fat is going to be the hardest of my goals.  Staying within my 2000 calorie budget, eating low fat foods, high quality carbs, and lots of proteins will be my diet plan.  Meanwhile, back at the gym, I plan on rehiring a personal trainer to meet with every other week.  Once a month, I want my body fat measured.  I also want him to give me totally different, high intensity weightlifting and cardio workout every other week that will raise my heart rate, build muscle mass, and keep my body guessing.  After I’ve dropped some weight and built some muscle mass, I’ll ask him to coach me up on the proper form of all the exercises in the stronglifts 5X5 program.

My final goal for the year will probably be the easiest for me to complete.  To complete this goal, I have to run a 9:10 min/mile pace for 13.1 miles.  If I find a relatively flat course to run, I think that I can accomplish this goal pretty easily.

Always keeping these goals in my mind will help me have another productive year on the fitness front.  I don’t think I’ve ever had two good years in a row–I’m confident that I can do it this time!

I have been without caffeine for 97 days – and counting!

I stopped drinking soda on September 29 – see The 929 Project and my Health Optimization Plan for more information about what I am and what I am not eating- and I haven’t had one since.  The only thing I’ve had, besides water, was a thimble full of grape juice for communion.  Other that that, it’s been H2O all the way.  And I feel great!

I don’t like talking about the past, especially now that I’m focusing so much on my future, but I will say that there was a time, not long ago, when I could drink a liter or two of Diet Mountain Dew – a day.  Ugh.  Now, I’m soda-free and caffeine free.

It took, maybe three or four days, to get rid of the craving for soda.  Caffeine withdrawal headaches are painful!  But now that I’ve gotten rid of the soda, I’m saving money at the grocery store, I feel much better, and I’m drinking lots of beneficial water.

Oh, and when I wake up, my brain doesn’t feel “cloudy” either.  In the past, I didn’t “wake up” until after a couple of cans of the Dew.  Now, I wash my face, brush my teeth, and drink a big, cold glass of water – and I’m wide awake.  Amazing.

Weigh in in the morning!!!

I’ve been sick for the past couple of days, and that’s made a couple of crazy things happen. I’ve actually applied two other reader tips!

Just do it
Some GFS readers encouraged me to just eat the damn vegetables. This might seem like lame advice to some, but it’s actually not bad. (Once during one of our phone-based training sessions, Lauren was tired of hearing me whine. Just solve the problem,” she said. I thought this was good enough advice to jot down on a sticky note that I keep at my desk.)

Last night, Kris offered me some acorn squash and roasted golden beets for dinner. She was just kidding around but I said, “Sure.” She did a double-take. “Are you my husband?” she asked. I smiled wanly.

I tried the squash but did not like the texture or the taste. It was mushy, and not in a good way. Plus I didn’t like the balsamic vinegar Kris had drizzled on it. Strike one.

But — gasp — I liked the beets. They had the consistency of potatoes, and they tasted like the earth. I could eat them again.

Eat what you like
Tonight I took another piece of reader advice to heart: eat the fruits and vegetables that you like.

“You know what I’m hungry for?” I asked Kris. She shook her head. “Watermelon,” I said. “I have an intense craving for watermelon.”

We don’t have watermelon in Oregon in late October. We do, however, have grapes — luscious purple Concord grapes.

I’ve always claimed that blackberries are my favorite fruit (followed closely by watermelon), but now I know that’s not true. During the last two weeks, I’ve discovered that I’m crazy for Concords. I love to suck the meat and juice from the skin, tasting the sweet-tart juice (like liquid summer!), extract the seeds with my tongue, and then slurp the grape down like an oyster.

So tonight, instead of watermelon, I ate an orange and a bunch of grapes.

Not the end of the world
I still feel sick. I have a mild fever (99.5 — my normal body temp is 98.2), and am exhausted. I can’t focus on anything but my book (The Godfather). But who knows? If I’m sick long enough, I may even begin eating broccoli!

Way back in the introduction, the book gives a bunch of stats and research about various topics relating to the American diet and micronutrients that I wanted to share with you. How’s this for scary:

The foods you eat every day…are doing much more than making you fat or thin. Their effects on your body are making the difference between the development of chronic disease and a vigorous extended life. They can prevent or greatly reduce your risk of vision problems, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and a host of killers. These are not just vague promises; they are facts that are now supported by an impressive and irrefutable body of research.

The doom and gloom continues with a list of 11 “disastrous developments” that ruin the health of most of the modern industrialized society. Here are just a few of the ones that I found most salient to my life:

1. Increased portion sizes
2. Decreased energy expenditure (NO EXERCISE)
3. Increased consumption of processed grains
4. Decreases consumption of fruits and vegetables
5. Increased consumption of refined sugar as an overall percentage of caloric intake
6. Decreased whole food consumption
7. Decreased consumption of anti-oxidant and calcium intake

The rest of the list mainly dealt with fats and the types of fats we’re eating as a society now.  I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about fats (maybe I should).  Mostly I think that if I’m eating a varied diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole foods, lean meats and low-fat dairy, then the fat problem takes care of itself.

Of all the items on the above list, the one that I find the most interesting is #7.  Just what is an “anti-oxidant” anyway?  We hear the word all over the place–it’s quite the buzzword in the health magazines and on the nutritional blogs that I sometimes read.  Superfoods Rx does a pretty decent job at describing what an antioxidant is and does.  Basically, an they are molecules, found in high concentrations in many of the superfoods that we’re supposed to be eating. Their main job is to defend the body from other molecules called free radicals.  Free radicals are very unstable because they’re missing an electron.    Searching for a replacement electron, they target other molecules in the body such as enzymes, DNA, important proteins, and cell membranes.  Now, instead of the free radicals being unstable, the important physiological systems in your body are weakened because they’ve lost electrons.  Free radicals are generated by the body’s own nutritional processes and introduced into your system from the environment.  Basically, an anti-oxidant is a sacrificial lamb that gives up electrons to free radicals so that your bodies important molecules don’t have to.  The more antioxidants in your body, the less damage that free radicals do to it.  Obviously this is a very simple explanation of a very complex process.  I hope it helps you to understand the importance of a diet rich in anti-oxidants.

I want to wrap up the superfoods conversation with how I plan on incorporating the superfoods plan into my diet.  I’ve never been good at following a specific diet plan.  I like to take information I read from all kinds of nutritional sources and meld them together into “Mac’s plan.”  I already eat lots of beans, berries, salmon, spinach, tomatoes, nuts and yogurt.  That’s half of the 14 superfoods.  I think it would be very easy to incorporate tea, broccoli, oranges and turkey as well.  I’m contemplating replacing half of my morning coffee with tea.  My kids love oranges, and I love a good turkey sandwich with avocado.  As for the other three superfoods (pumpkin, oats, and soy) I’ve got a little bit of work to do.  But if I manage to incorporate 11 of the 14 superfoods, that’s pretty darn good.

Also, In the back of the book, there is a ton of great information on how to eat more superfoods.  For example, there’s a section full of recipes that I’d like to try.  But even more helpful is a shopping list that has brand name foods that you can find in the grocery store that contain lots of superfoods.  Just pick one off the shelf at the supermarket and your good to go.

I’m really glad that the SuperFoods Rx book fell into my lap.  I don’t think it’s the be all end all to my diet solution.  I don’t think there is one.  But, it did provide me with a lot of information about food that I should be eating that I actually like to eat.  And to me that’s the biggest part of the diet battle.

Don’t get me wrong — I do like some vegetables. Corn is great, and so are carrots. I like both peas and asparagus (which are basically the same taste in different packages). I like onions and garlic and potatoes and lettuce and spinach. And…

Well, that’s about it.

I know vegetables are good for me, but for some reason I do not like the way they taste. (Or, in some cases, the texture.)

My number one nemesis is broccoli. Hate the stuff. But it’s not just broccoli. I hate all of the cruciferous vegetables, which is too bad — they’re full of nutrients.

I don’t like string beans, either, though. Or cucumbers or squashes or beets or tomatoes. (I do, however, like all tomato products — it’s just the tomatoes themselves that bug me.)

Because of my problems with vegetables, healthy eating is sometimes a challenge. (Note that I do like most fruits, however. There are some melons I don’t care for, as well as certain drupes, but mostly I’ll eat fruit.)

The question I’ve begun to ask myself is: does it matter that I don’t like these foods? At one time, I didn’t like onions. At one time, I didn’t like clams. At one time, I didn’t like wine. I love all three now. Might it be possible to learn to like beets? Or cabbage? Or — gasp — broccoli?

For the past couple years, Kris has been on a campaign to introduce me to one new vegetable per year. One year it was onions (success!), and another year it was cucumbers (stalemate!), and another it was tomatoes (failure!). On my own, I’ve been trying to force myself to eat despised vegetables in certain social situations. The first time Mac and Pam cooked dinner for us (back in 2000!), they prepared spaghetti squash. Oh, how my heart sank when I saw it — and yet I ate it and did not die.

To some, this aversion to vegetables seems childish. Maybe it is. It doesn’t matter, though, because it’s very very real. Telling me to “grow up an eat your vegetables” is like trying to force a debtor to save. It’s not going to work. The change has to be approached in different ways.

I’d love to hear how other people have learned to overcome food aversions. How did you learn to eat your vegetables? Do you have other foods that you hate? Have you managed to overcome your dislike, even a little? My wife hates legumes, for example, but she’s discovered she likes hummus. It’s a small beginning, but it is a beginning.

How do I begin with broccoli?

Blueberries are a wonderful source of phytochemicals, true, but so are grapes, apples and other berries. Many phytochemicals (but not all) are antioxidants, so that is good… And why focus on just walnuts? Peanuts (actually legumes) are a wonderful source of protein and good fat; all forms of nuts are great, though Almonds are actually some of the *best*, nutrition-wise. This diet seems to hugely exclude other foods that have a wider array of nutrients, and so you would be limiting your intake of these other nutrients.

One of the points (that I should have mentioned earlier) of the Superfoods Rx is that the 14 superfoods all have substitutes called “sidekicks.” Sidekicks are beneficial for a number of reasons. Maybe you hate blueberries and refuse to eat them. That’s fine, eat other types of berries. The 14 superfoods listed were deemed to be the best of best, but that doesn’t mean you have to eat only those–go ahead and vary your diet.

What I really wanted to write about today are the guiding tenets of the SuperFoods Rx. The plan was designed to be a simple one that rests on several important principles:

Superfoods Rx is the “best diet in the world.”
The superfoods Rx guiding goal is to “identify the best, buy the best, and eat the best!” The research for this book can be broken down into two general categories: analysis of the diets of the “healthiest societies in the world”, and analysis of foods that were proven to reduce the amount of free radicals in the body.

It’s been argued that two of the healthiest societies on the planet are the people of Okinawa and the people of the Mediterranean. The people of these societies actually have similar diets on the nutrient level.

• They are primarily plant-based.
• They contain a number of protective substances (such as selenium, glutathione, resveratrol).
• They have a good balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.
• They have high amounts of fiber, folate, antioxidants, vitamin C and  Vitamin E.

Dr Pratt analyzed these diets and identified foods that showed up repeatedly.  But he also contacted dietitians and food scientists from all over the world in an effort to identify which foods were proven to be the best health promoters.  After combining his two areas of research, the 14 categories of superfoods were announced.

Superfoods are whole foods.
Just what is a “whole food” anyway? There are many definitions of the word, but for the purposes of the superfoods diet, a whole food is one that “is unprocessed, or processed minimally and in such a way that none of their nutritional characteristics have been intentionally modified.” But why are whole foods important? Whole foods contain the precise balance between phytonutrients, fiber, vitamins, minerals and other substances. Since there hasn’t really been much research on the required amounts of these substances, it’s best to let nature provide them in the right amounts without us altering them in a processing factory. Theoretically, it is the balance between these chemicals that makes superfoods so effective at promoting health and fighting cancer. Supplements and processed foods have their place, but one shouldn’t rely on them to keep you totally healthy.

Superfoods Rx equals synergy
Food synergy is the ability of separate micronutrients found in the same food to work together, providing a health benefit that neither could provide without the other. There are many chemicals found naturally in food that we have little understanding of. Surely they play a role in nutrition and health. By eating a diet that contains as much whole foods as possible, you’re ensuring that your body can deal with these chemicals the way that nature intended.

Superfoods are simple; Superfoods are positive
Many diets fail because they’re too complicated. Superfoods is simple. Many diets fail because they concentrate on what you can’t do (a negative)–superfoods concentrates on what you can do ( a positive). The book is full of ideas about how you can incorporate these 14 foods into your diet every day. If you eat lots of superfoods, then don’t worry about the foods you eat that aren’t on the list. Eat well, get lots of exercise, and your body will pay you back in the long run.

That being said, I think I’ve found a diet that contains enough foods that I like that could make me stick to it. Recently, one of my friends loaned me a copy of SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life. I’m sure that most of you have heard the term “superfoods” and could probably name a few of them. But do you know all of them and why they’re good for you? Below is a list of the fourteen superfoods, some of the key nutrients that make them superfoods, and how many servings of each you should aim for per week if you’re following the diet.

What I found most surprising, was that I already eat a lot of these foods on a daily basis, that I like almost every one of these “diet foods,” and how much of them I’m supposed to eat every week. There’s no way I plan on eating 14 cups of blueberries per week, or 7 cups of broccoli. The point is, the more superfoods that you eat every week, the more your body will appreciate it. In the coming weeks, I plan on writing a few posts about this book. I’d like to write about the nutrients in these foods that make them so super, as well as some of the ideas that I found most interesting while reading it. Keep in mind that I’m am in no way advocating that you follow this diet–I don’t plan on doing so. But I did find some of the topics very thought provoking and I want to share some of them with you.

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/4 tablespoon honey

Caloric breakdown -

This week, I need to keep things simple and straightforward.  I’m not going to attempt to write about anything other than my actual diet.  I will not pontificate, speculate, complain, or opine.  I will simply list what I’m eating, track my water intake, and see just how much weight I can lose.  I’ll also mention any exercise.

Water Intake -

2 cups

Exercise -

None Yet

Current Weight -

250.4 pounds (Down 1.8 pounds since 09/29/08)

4 slices turkey bacon

1 medium apple

Caloric breakdown -

This week, I need to keep things simple and straightforward.  I’m not going to attempt to write about anything other than my actual diet.  I will not pontificate, speculate, complain, or opine.  I will simply list what I’m eating, track my water intake, and see just how much weight I can lose.  I’ll also mention any exercise.

Water Intake -

2 cups

Exercise -

None Yet

Current Weight -

250.4 pounds (Down 1.8 pounds since 09/29/08)

Exercise – I met some friends for a a round of golf.  We rode in carts and played 18, but I tried to walk as much as possible.  (With my tendency towards a snap hook, I spent most of my time on the left-side of the course.)

1 cup oatmeal (Maple and Brown Sugar)

4 oz. applesauce (Mott’s)

2 cups chicken with vegetables soup (Campbell’s)

Vitamins

6 oz. ham

6 oz. strawberry yogurt

6 dill pickle spears

Caloric breakdown -

This week, I need to keep things simple and straightforward.  I’m not going to attempt to write about anything other than my actual diet.  I will not pontificate, speculate, complain, or opine.  I will simply list what I’m eating, track my water intake, and see just how much weight I can lose.  I’ll also mention any exercise.

Water Intake -

8 cups

Exercise -

30 minutes circuit training

Current Weight -

252 pounds

1 cup oatmeal (Maple and Brown Sugar)

4 oz. applesauce (Mott’s)

2 cups chicken with vegetables soup (Campbell’s)

Vitamins

Caloric breakdown -

This week, I need to keep things simple and straightforward.  I’m not going to attempt to write about anything other than my actual diet.  I will not pontificate, speculate, complain, or opine.  I will simply list what I’m eating, track my water intake, and see just how much weight I can lose.  I’ll also mention any exercise.

Water Intake -

4 cups

Current Weight -

252 pounds

1 cup oatmeal (Maple and Brown Sugar)

4 oz. applesauce (Motts)

Caloric breakdown -

This week, I need to keep things simple and straightforward.  I’m not going to attempt to write about anything other than my actual diet.  I will not pontificate, speculate, complain, or opine.  I will simply list what I’m eating, track my water intake, and see just how much weight I can lose.  I’ll also mention any exercise.

Water Intake -

2 cups

Current Weight -

252 pounds

Karen at Best of Mother Earth has posted about a 12-year-old McDonald’s hamburger that she keeps as a prop. Why does she keep it? Because it still looks brand new:

Karen writes:

This is a hamburger from McDonalds that I purchased in 1996. That was 12 years ago. Note that it looks exactly like it did the very day I bought it. The flecks on the bun are crumbs from the bun. The burger is starting to crumble a bit. It has the oddest smell.

[...]

People always ask me – what did you do to preserve it? Nothing — it preserved itself. Ladies, Gentleman, and children alike — this is a chemical food. There is absolutely no nutrition here. Not one ounce of food value.  Or at least value for why we are eating in the first place.

Kind of makes me glad I haven’t had McDonald’s in 2008.

The thing is – I think (and please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) you guys view food much like a best friend that is always there to comfort you when you need it. You’re moving away from your best friend and now your future seems bleak and gray.  No one says you have to eliminate your relationship with food – it just has to be modified so it doesn’t play such a major role in your life. It can take a lot of time, but it can be done.

No corrections from me Brigid!  Lots of people have made comments such as these here in the past.  The best thing about Brigid’s comment is that it that it succinctly states a very real problem for me AND it does so constructively.  Thanks a lot Brigid!

Sally, writes well (and often) about her relationship with food and how she’s physically transforming her body and psychologically transforming her mind.  If you haven’t read her blog, you should check it out.  Recently, she commented the following:

Love the idea of eating to enjoy. Admitting to myself that I not only adore food but that I think it’s entirely okay to adore food was a big step in me moving toward a healthier relationship with food. What’s not to love? It’s pleasurable, it’s cultural, it’s sometimes passionate, it’s homey—food is at the heart of who we are. When I focus on making food to celebrate all of that, I realize I can make generally healthy food and thoroughly enjoy it while bringing myself closer to a healthy weight.

These two quotes beautifully sum up some ways about how to have a healthy relationship with food.  It seems that lots of people are moving away from dieting in the traditional sense of concentrating on foods that you can’t have.  Instead, they are now focusing on healthy foods that they can have.  Many people have even found that the healthy foods do taste good and that they don’t even miss the foods that they used to love so much.

I recently found an article over at NYT.com about this sort of thing.  Here are a few of the points from the article that hit home for me:

• People with weight problems are figuring out that diets don’t work.  They’re shifting away from deprivation diets and instead concentrating on “positive eating.”
• In just 3 years, from 2004 to 2007, the percentage of people on diets has decreased from 33% to 29%.
• 53% of consumers are cooking from scratch more than they used to.  This is possibly due to the increase in costs of processed foods and also from the “slow food” movement and the “whole foods” movement.
• Organic food sales have increased and the number of farmers markets has doubled from the mid 1990’s.

All of these things suggest to me that people are analyzing their diet habits.  They’re thinking about what works for them and what doesn’t.  And in most cases, dieting doesn’t work.  Sure, it works short term.  But in the long run, unless we change our perception of nutrition and fitness, we’re bound for failure.  I don’t want to fail and I still have a lot to think about and work on.  But I’m getting there.

Even though the above topics of conversation were great, the topic that I found the most riveting was of course, FOOD!  Here we were, two overweight men sitting down to a decadent meal with two normal weight women.  We all ate relatively the same thing–one drink, one appetizer, one entree, one dessert with coffee.

For this one meal, we all indulged.  And the conversation at one point talked about indulgences.  JD mentioned that he would eat chocolate chip cookies for every meal if he could.  We talked about how healthy food doesn’t taste as good as food that is bad for you.  The ladies frequently mentioned that they automatically budget their food intake and it comes naturally to them.  They never worry about it, they just eat what they need to eat and their weight is relatively stable.  They also mentioned that they view sweets and desserts as a reward, not a necessity.  However,  JD and I really treat unhealthy foods and desserts as staples.  Why is this the case?  I think that JD thinks it’s because of his upbringing, but I’ll let him expound on that.

I think my problem began back in grade school.  We moved cities, I didn’t have too many friends at first, and both my parents worked.  I was shy and I didn’t want to join a new soccer team in a new city and deal with having to make new friends.  I rode my bike to school in the morning, rode it home and spent a lot of time on the couch watching TV and playing video games with my two non-athletic, sedentary friends who lived on my block.  It wasn’t until high school when I had a car, more friends, and an interest in athletics that I became less sedentary.  But by then it was too late.  Habits were ingrained, I was already chubby, and it was a losing battle.

The other thing that really hit home to me during our dinner conversation the other night made me realize the enormity of the battle against food that I’m waging.  Pam asked about what happens when I reach my target weight.  Currently, I’m trying to reduce my caloric intake so that I drop a pound a week.  What happens when I no longer am in a reduction mode, but in a maintenance mode.  Really, there’s no difference between reduction now and maintenance in the future.  I haven’t done the math, but I’m betting my caloric needs now for reduction will be similar to my caloric needs in the future when I weigh less and have less to maintain.

This made me a little sad.  You see, I’m not fighting a battle against food at all but a full on war.  It’s true that every day is a battle.  But over the course of my lifetime, these daily battles qualify as a war.  I’m working on making each battle a little bit easier to win so that they become smaller and smaller each day.  Maybe some day they won’t seem like battles to me and then I can declare myself victorious in the war.  But  the only way this war ends is if I win.  I’ll keep fighting.

I did not eat anything else that afternoon.

In the evening, Kris and I joined Mac and Pam for dinner at a nice restaurant in Salem. Again, because it was my free day, I ordered what I wanted. I had an appetizer of three pork ribs in a sort of soy sauce. (And sampled some of Kris’ salmon fondue.) My entree was “penne diablo”, a pasta dish with crab and pork sausage in a spicy tomato sauce. It wasn’t subtle, but it was tasty. For dessert, I had apple pie and ice cream.

As we ate, Kris and Pam admitted they could not understand the struggles that Mac and I face every day with food. For them, eating sensibly is natural. For us, it is not. Pam asked about my current regimen, eating six small meals a day.

“Do you feel this is sustainable?” she asked. I admitted that I did not.

“Six small meals a day means about 300 calories per meal,” I said. “And it’s difficult for me to find interesting food. Spinach is fine, but I don’t want to eat spinach salads every day. That’s the challenge, I think: to find a way to make lasting changes with food.”

For me, those changes include creating sensible, balanced meals that satisfy my sense of adventure and my craving for food that tastes good. But more than that, I need to learn to eat in moderation. For Kris, one chocolate chip cookie is enough. Not for me. I want three or four — but eight is better.

Discovering this balance is a process, though, and I’m working toward it.

Craig, shucking oysters before book group. That’s me in the background,
taking a picture from a different angle. Photo by Courtney Cronk.

On Sunday, our book group gathered for dinner. We discussed M.F.K. Fisher’s The Gastronomical Me. Fisher was a gourmand, and The Gastronmical Me is a book devoted to her life-long discovery of food and the pleasure food brings. Reading her descriptions of honest wine, honest fish, honest bread, and honest cheese made me really very hungry.

Because I knew in advance we’d be eating well for dinner, I was forced to make a decision: Should I stick to the Body for Life six-small-meals-per-day plan, or should I do something else to prepare for the evening meal? I had no desire to limit myself to only 300 calories.

I chose to eat two small meals for breakfast and lunch, and then nothing between noon and six. This was a conscious choice, though it may not have been the best one. Actually, I did very well, sampling the pancetta-wrapped halibut, trying two oysters (my first two oysters), enjoying the asparagus, and limiting myself to two glasses of wine. (I did very well, that is, except for the bread. I ate too much bread.)

As we discussed the book, I tried to articulate the psychology of eating. “I think there are three types of people,” I said. “There are those for whom food is an experience, a thing to be loved. I’m one of those. For another type of person, food is merely nourishment, a source of calories. And a third type doesn’t notice food at all.”

Those weren’t my exact words, and in retrospect, I’m not making the distinction as clearly as I’d like, but I still believe it. I love food. I love to eat. While it’s true that I eat compulsively, and that this is a very real problem, it’s my love of food that will always make dieting a challenge.

“What you need,” Kris told me the other night (as she’s told me many times before), “is to learn to practice moderation. It’s fine to love food. But you need to do it in a way that makes sense.”

As always, Kris is right. While I continue to exercise on the Body for Life plan (which is going quite well, by the way), I need to think about ways to combine my love of food with a healthy diet in ways that are sustainable. I believe that moderation is going to be key.

I try to limit meals out, but especially since I’ve started working from home, it’s difficult. Now a cheap lunch at the local Chinese or Mexican place has become a way for me to actually see people.

When I’m focused, I’m able to make sensible food purchases. For example, there’s a little Mexican place a couple miles away that serves $2 tacos. For two bucks, you get two small corn tortillas topped with meat and veggies.

I’ve always assumed these tacos were relatively low calories, and so have purchased three orders at a time. (For a total of six tortillas and three mounds of meat.) But are they really low calorie?

Yesterday, I re-started the Body for Life program. As part of that, participants are encouraged to eat six small meals a day, consuming one portion of protein and one portion of carbohydrate at each meal. (A portion is between the size of your palm and the size of your closed fist, which seems rather vague.)

Yesterday, I also craved tacos. “Hm,” I thought. “Tortillas are carbohydrates. Meat is a protein. Maybe these are okay on the Body for Life mealplan.” I made a quick trip to the Mexican place to find out. I ordered my food to go, brought it home, and then dissected it.

Turns out each 12-centimeter (4-1/2 inches) tortilla weighs about 20 grams (3/4 of an ounce). Because there are two per taco, that’s 40 grams of carbohydrates. But how many calories are in those 40 grams? I checked our fridge. We had a bag of corn tortillas that contained about 2 calories per gram. This seemed about right.

Each taco also contains about 40 grams of filling, some of which is vegetables, but most of which is meat. An ounce (28g) of lean protein contains 55 calories, which is again about two calories per gram.

As a rough estimate, it seems fair to assume that my tacos each contain about two calories per gram. Since each taco was roughly 80 grams, they each provided about 160 calories.

What does this tell me?

First of all, I can figure out how many calories are in my favorite restaurant foods. That Grandma Jean’s pasta I mentioned last week? If I really want to know how many calories are in it, I could place a to-go order and bring it home. (It’s difficult to account for oils, of course, but I’m mainly after rough approximations.)

Secondly — and most importantly, in this case — I can have these tacos on the Body for Life plan, but I should only be ordering two tacos at a time, not three. A 480-calorie lunch is too high right now, especially if I’m eating six meals a day. Even a 360-calorie lunch might be a bit much, but can be more easily worked into the Body for Life regimen.

Does anyone else ever do geeky stuff like this? Some of the most fun I’ve ever had while dieting has come from being anal-retentive about measuring my portions on a kitchen scale. Strange, but true. I find that knowing the calorie contents of various foods, and knowing portion sizes, helps me to make better choices. (At least when I’m eating mindfully, that is.)

It’s easier to be sedentary than to make time to exercise every day..  It’s easier to eat at Sonic, Outback, Denny’s, and Taco Bell than it is to shop for and cook healthy food for your family every day.  And it’s definitely easier to go with the flow of the group that is doing these things than to stick to your guns and make the right choices when you’re out of your routine.

This is the situation that I found myself in this past weekend.  Every year for as long as I can remember, the men in my family–my dad, uncles, and cousins–spend a few days on a bird hunting trip in Arizona.  We get up REALLY early, stop at Circle K for coffee and doughnuts (I had a powerbar instead) and hunt until around 11:00.  On the way back to the hotel, we stop at one of those aforementioned restaurants for a VERY healthy meal.  Then, we take a nap, eat dinner at another one of those restaurants, go to bed early and do it all again the next day.  Oh yeah, there’s lots of beer involved  and an occasional trip to DQ for a blizzard.  Of course, there’s no exercise in sight, unless you count walking from the truck to the place where you set up your stool in the field for the morning shoot.

It’s really hard to make good choices when everyone around you is making bad ones.  None of the men in my family are skinny, a few might be considered normal weight, but most of them are overweight or worse.  It’s easy to see where I got my eating habits and body weight issues.  Unfortunately for me, my problems started earlier in life than the people in the generation above me.  This is why it’s so important for me to get my lifestyle under control.  So that my kids see a two healthy weight parents every day for as long as they can remember.  So that they know being inactive is not a choice.  So that they know that eating healthy is very important and something that can be done most of the time instead of only when life cooperates.  These are the things that I must continue to work on and can never give up on.

So, after a summer of moderate exercise, moderate diet control, and lots of time spent away from the house, I have allowed myself to gain a few pounds.  I’m back up to 192 this morning.  Eating and exercise is a struggle for me right now.  I’m allowing myself to make poor choices in both arenas.

We’ve got one more small trip planned for this weekend.  Pam’s running the McKenzie River 50K trail run this weekend.  The whole family is going down to support her.  We’ve got a cute cabin booked for the weekend and then next week, it’s back to school.

I’m looking forward to getting back into the routine of school and kids’ activities that start up again next week.  My diet and exercise habits thrive when we’ve got the daily schedule made up for us in advance.  I’m excited to get down to my goal weight by the new year.

Get in my belly
By one measure, eating at Claim Jumper is a good deal — you get two or three meals worth of food for your money. But by another measure, dining their is dangerous. And it’s no just Claim Jumper. Portion sizes in the United States have been increasing for some time. According to a USA Today article from a couple years ago, “a typical restaurant meal has at least 60% more calories than the average meal made at home.”

Portion size wouldn’t matter if we were able to limit our calorie intake. We’d eat what we needed and take the rest home. But that’s not how our minds work. As portion sizes have increased in the past twenty years — not just in restaurants, but in pre-packaged foods, too, and even at home — Americans have done a poor job of compensating. When offered large portions, we tend to eat large portions. And we do a poor job of adjusting what we eat later. Larger portions in restaurants make larger portions at home more acceptable, leading to a dangerous spiral.

Portion size research
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control published a wonderful plain-English review of the research into the effects of portion size. Among the points the paper makes:

• The fundamental rule of weight management is that people gain weight when they eat more calories than they expend.
• Short-term studies show that people eat more when they are confronted with larger portion sizes.
• Even though there is information available about appropriate serving sizes, people generally do not correctly assess the amount they are eating.

The paper recommends the following steps to reduce overeating due to portion size:

• When dining in a restaurant, either split your entrée with a companion, or ask the server for a doggie bag before the food is brought to the table. Reduce the portion size first.
• When eating at home, take steps to reduce the desire for “seconds” and “thirds”. Don’t bring the serving dishes to the table. Dish up reasonable portions on individual plates.
• When eating in front of the television, allow yourself a reasonable amount of food. Put the rest away before you begin eating.
• Control hunger between meals with healthy snacks like fruits and vegetables.

Grandma Jean’s pasta
I’ve noticed the affect of larger portion sizes in my own life. Though I try to do a good job in restaurants, it’s easy to give in. One of my favorite dishes is Grandma Jean’s Pasta at a nearby Italian joint. It features an enormous plate of penne coated in tomato sauce and sauteed with pepperoni and pork ribs. It’s great stuff. But the portion the restaurant serves is — I’m not joking — enough for three or four meals. Most of the time I’m smart, and I stretch this food over a few days. Sometimes, though, I give in, and eat most of it in one sitting.

Worse, though, are the pre-packaged foods. If a manufacturer is going to put a certain amount in a container, I’m often going to eat it all in one sitting, regardless of the “serving size” stamped on the label. That’s a habit I’ve been working to break, too.

Small and cheap
One final note: because I’ve become a frugal fellow, I’ve noticed something interesting. There are restaurants that still offer reasonable portions. They’re not the norm, but they exist. These restaurants generally seem to offer smaller prices. (Subjectively, I think the food tends to be better, too, but I have no data to back that up.)

One local Mexican place, for example, offers high-quality $2 tacos. Each one is just a bit of meat and salsa on a small tortilla. Simple, but delicious. I’m able to order one, two, or three tacos depending on my hunger and my calorie needs. I like this “build it yourself” approach better than only being offered four tacos for eight bucks.

[See also: Super Size Me.]

Coffee is very important to me.  I’m not picky about what I drink, how it’s made, or even how it tastes.  But I love a steaming hot cup of coffee in the morning.  So my mother in law did a great job, and she even brought half and half and sugar for us;  like I said, I’m not a coffee purist.

One morning, as I was mixing my coffee, I actually read the label on the half and half.  It read “Fat Free Half and Half!”  How can half and half, which is supposed to be half cream and half milk, be fat free?  I did a little reading and here’s what I came up with.

First I wanted to brush up on my knowledge of the various dairy based creamers:

Whipping Cream–Sometimes we have this laying around the kitchen for various cooking purposes.  When we do, I love to add it to my coffee.  But at 30-36% fat, the calories add up fast and I’m not so sure they’re worth it.

Half and Half–This is the stuff most often used in coffee in the US.  It’s very good in coffee, but obviously not as good as full cream.  At 10-16% fat, it’s a pretty good compromise between total creamy blissfulness and functional coffee drinking

Whole Milk–We always have this stuff in our house because our son is under 2 and still drinks it.  At slightly less than 4% fat, it’s not a very effective creamer, but it’s a lot healthier than any of the above options.

So, what exactly is “fat free” half and half.  Here’s the top 5 on the list of ingredients:

• nonfat milk
• milk
• corn syrup solids
• Artificial color
• Sugar

There was recently a question on Ask Metafilter about this stuff and of all the answers, the one that summed it up best was that it looks like fat free half and half is a mixture of nonfat milk, nondairy coffee creamer, and thickening agents.

While the taste of the stuff is similar to regular half and half, I’m not so sure I want to be adding those extra artificial ingredients to my coffee every morning.  In fact, Pam recently read an article that suggested if you really want to lose weight, you should avoid coffee creamers all together and stick to milk.  Those extra calories really add up over the course of a year.  And since we have whole milk laying around, I think I’ll be switching to that for the little bit of creaminess that I need in my coffee.

There’s new research from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (the same folks who publish the awesome Nutrition Action Health Letter) suggesting that some of the so-called kids meals found in fast food restaurants contain more calories than most children need in the entire day!

Ninety-three percent of 1,474 possible choices at the 13 chains exceed 430 calories—an amount that is one-third of what the Institute of Medicine recommends that children aged four through eight should consume in a day.

Losers (and a winner)

• Chili’s–94% of 700 possible kids meal combinations were too high in calories and one had more than 1000 calories.
• Burger King–A “Big Kids” meal has 910 calories
• Kentucky Fried Chicken–a “laptop meal” with popcorn chicken, baked beans, biscuit, Teddy Grahams, and fruit punch contains 940 calories.
• Subway–Really, there’s only one winner when it comes to fast food for kids, or anybody for that matter. The “Fresh Fit for Kids” meals (a mini sub, juice, and apples,raisins or yogurt) contain about 420 calories–just right for 1/3 of an average kid’s daily food intake.

What’s a parent to do?

Obviously, families should stay out of fast food restaurants whenever possible. But for a lot of us, that’s easier said than done. Here are some suggestions to help bypass the drive thru and start making healthier choices for your family.

• Get the family involved in meal preparations–I spend a lot of time in my kitchen with my kids–and they’re real young. My toddler runs around and plays on the floor while my three-year-old tosses ingredients together, mixes them in the bowl, and helps to set the table. It’s one of the ways that I get stuff done without setting my kids down in front of the TV. It also makes for great together time and leads to lots of fun discussions
• Get a slow cooker–Spend 15-20 minutes in the morning chopping and adding ingredients to the slow cooker and head out the door. When you come home from your day’s errands, the house smells awesome and dinner’s ready for your family. Just dish it up and serve it to the masses. I don’t actually do this but it’s something I’m interested in trying. I hear great things about slow cookers from lots of my friends who have busy lives.
• Cook ahead–There are lots of ways that you can cook for the future. Not only does it save you time, but some say it helps with losing weight. At least one reader of GFS has suggested cooking ahead for the week so you don’t have to think about the food you’re eating. And just look at all those diet programs that ship you your food so you don’t have to worry about it. There are lots of great ways to cook ahead. You can intentionally make leftovers so that you can have the same diner twice, or even three times in a week. Reheat the leftovers and you’re good to go. Personally, I would rather make a double recipe and freeze one of them. That way, even though you’re eating leftovers, you can eat them a week or two later than the original meal. This helps to eliminate the boredom that comes from repeatedly eating the same thing.

There are lots of ways that families can help themselves when it comes to staying out of the fast food trap. The trick is to find what works for your family, then practice and refine it until it becomes a habit. With a little patience, and some dedication, you can change eating out back into what it was when you grew up–a special treat for you and your family!

So before dinner, Megan and Pam made the brownies–mixing and stirring and frosting and sprinkling and of course carefully placing a few “M’s” on top. All was fine and dandy until dessert time. We all had a brownie and the kids went to bed. And then every time I walked past them for the rest of the night, I took a small nibble. A bite here and a bite there added up to at least another portion of brownies on the evening. I even had a bite this morning at 4:45 as I was leaving to go to the gym. Yep, I went to the gym this morning–before my family woke up. I did it on Monday too!

So you might think that I’m tempting myself today every time I walk by the brownies in the kitchen. But, I did the smart thing and set aside two brownies for the kids and painfully put the rest of the brownies on a plate for Pam to take to work so that her coworkers can get fat. Victory! At least for me.

What’s the moral here? You don’t need to deprive yourself of all the treats in the world. But you do need to recognize your weaknesses and exercise moderation. Then get your butt up early and head to the gym.

This is sometimes difficult for me since it’s well documented that when given a choice, I’ll choose to eat something (OK, anything) other than fruits and vegetables. However, I am getting better at this. In fact, I’m starting to enjoy reaching into the fruit bowl for a snack, or having a nice salad for a dinner.

There are lots of ways to incorporate fruits and vegetables into a meal plan. Searching the frozen food section at the grocery store yields a plethora of vegetable options. And it’s certainly easier to open the freezer and pull out a bag of already prepped peas, corn, carrots, or broccoli. But is easier the better option? What about the nutrition of these frozen vegetables? Are they just as healthy as their fresh counterparts? And what about canned veggies?

Fresh
One of the things I love about living in the country is that we have ample room to grow our own vegetables and fruits. We have cherries, peaches, pears, apples, and tons of berries. Lettuce, carrots, peas, tomatoes, corn, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, and asparagus are some of the veggies that we have been known to grow. There’s nothing like going outside and picking what you want to eat for dinner. Straight from the garden to the table is definitely the healthiest way to eat your produce. But just how fresh are those veggies at the megastore? The minute they’re picked, they start to lose nutritional value. How much time has elapsed from field to floor of the store? You never know.

Frozen
In 1998, the FDA confirmed that frozen fruits and vegetable can pack as much, if not more, nutritional value than their fresh counterparts. Since they’re picked, blanched, and frozen within hours of their harvesting, they have little time to lose nutritional value. Also, they’re picked at their peak of freshness–which only enhances their nutritional value.

Canned
Canned veggies and fruits on the other hand have been shown to have the least nutritional value because of the extensive heating during the canning process. This heating can sometimes cause a leaching of the vitamins and minerals out of the food and into the cooking water. Unless you’re drinking that water, you’re not getting as much nutritional benefit from those canned vegetables and fruits.

So, if you want to max out your fruit and vegetable nutrition, grow your own or buy from the local farmer’s market. If you can’t do that, buy frozen. But canned is still better than a box of doughnuts!

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a friend that told me he has gained a bit of weight due to a hard work schedule and lack of activity over the last 6 months and it’s time for him to shed those extra pounds. This system utilizes a 500 calorie per day deficit for a total of 3500 calories, or 1 pound per week weight loss. There’s a few key points in it that he wanted to emphasize:

• The plan assumes no exercise! If exercise happens, he replaces any calories burned with a high protein shake or a yogurt.

• There is a marked lack of processed foods in the diet. High fiber cereal and a white baguette from a local bakery are the only processed foods.

Here’s the plan. All lunches and dinners for the entire week are cooked and portioned on 1 day. They tend to be repetitive. Breakfasts vary and are cooked at the time of eating. There are 3 meals and 3 snacks each day–and one latte! Shopping, and cooking, for the entire week takes place on Sunday morning. It takes him approximately 2 hours to cook and portion into plastic containers his lunches and dinners for the week.

In general, I like this idea. Go to the fridge, pull out your meal, heat it up and eat it. Stop thinking about food. Realistically, I know that in order for it to work for me, I would have to add a whole other level of discipline to my life. After reading the email several times, I’ve come up with a list of advantages and disadvantages to this system.

ADVANTAGES

1. I don’t have to think about what I’m making for dinner any more.
2. I don’t have to cook during the week.
3. I don’t have to count calories.
4. I lose 1 pound per week instead of 2-3 pounds one week and then nothing for the next 3 weeks.
5. There is no hunger.
6. It’s a maintainable weight loss figure.

DISADVANTAGES

1. It takes a level of organization that I generally don’t possess.
2. I, and my family, eat the same meals for dinner each night.
3. I would have to buy a lot of plastic containers.

I really appreciate this kind of advice. There’s some great information in there that I can use as is or modify to fit my own habits and schedule. The main point of this plan I think, is that by preparing your food ahead of time, you start thinking about food as fuel for your body instead of the many unproductive ways that I tend to look at it. While I don’t think that my family would appreciate this type of diet, I might be able to modify it in such a way that it’s enjoyable for my family and healthy for me.

This was easy at first. Water is fine for a week or two, and I don’t crave alcohol under normal circumstances. But the last few days of the project were a trial. I began to crave jazzier beverages. I wanted a Diet Pepsi. Or some fruit juice. Or, especially, a glass of wine.

Actually, I only craved wine on two occasions, both of which were social gatherings with friends. Since then, I’ve come to realize that nearly all of my alcohol consumption comes in group settings. I use it as a social lubricant.

The results of my water-only experiment were great. I felt healthier and more alert. I lost weight. As Lazy Man noted recently, drinking water is an excellent weight-loss aid. Water is non-caloric. It’s essential for proper body chemistry. It helps to encourage a feeling of “fullness”. It doesn’t contain sugar or caffeine or man-made chemicals. And when you drink water, you’re making a conscious choice not to drink something else.

Ugly bag of mostly water
I’m ready to try this experiment a second time. During the month of July, I plan to drink only water. Though my fitness has been improving steadily for the past few months, my weight loss has slowed to a crawl. That’s fine, but I’d like to jump-start it a little.

“You get a lot of calories from drinks,” Kris told me the other day, and I realized she was right. By drinking only water, I have an easy way to reduce my calories and resume my weight loss.

I’ll make a couple specific exceptions to my water-only rule, but they’re minor:

• I have three chocolate protein shakes in the fridge that expire mid-month. My frugal nature doesn’t want to see these go to waste. I’m going to drink them. (Or maybe give them to Mac, if he wants them.)
• On my weekend training runs, I may drink forego plain water for sugar water.

These exceptions shouldn’t affect the overall experiment. My primary goal is to purge the caffeine, alcohol, and sugar from my beverages. This is going to be a challenge, but I know I can do it. I’ve done it before!

Image by Bohman.