Monday, May 31, 2010

Week Ten: Soaring over the Weight-loss Goalposts













I passed a milestone this week.  I should celebrate more, but it seems too easy in hindsight.

Two months before embarking on this diet I created my first “bucket list”.  Along with visiting all those “see before you die” places, and soaring in a glider, I also added a weight-loss goal that seemed as remote as Katmandu.  Despite consistent aerobics and numerous attempts at culinary restraint, I hadn’t seen such numbers on the scale in decades.

Ten weeks later I have touched down in the Lost World!

At the start of Week 11, I reached the initial weight goal I had set for myself – and ticked off another item on my bucket list.  That's 18 pounds in 10 weeks.

Along the “weigh”, I have picked up some fellow travelers.  Since my last post, two more friends announced their commitment to try the diet and started their treks.  Fare well!  This series had its start in the growing interest coming from my circle.  Several more may sign on before summer.  Saturday at a dinner party, I heard a lot of interest – as we lounged around a table laden with roast beef au jus and chocolate ganache torte!

On the home front, we’ve recently learned that the advancing years have made rising blood pressure more of a concern.  It was a relief to hear that losing weight is one of the most recommended non-drug approaches to reducing hypertension.  But how much weight?  I did a little research looking for a more scientific end goal.

The most important thing I learned?  There is disagreement among experts about “ideal weight”.  I don’t claim to have resolved these differences – only enough to pick a realistic final target for myself, and to help my wife do the same.  In the end, we’ve both chosen values just below the middle of the ranges of the various experts.  I’ve got another ten pounds to shake off!

Meanwhile, achieving my bucket-list weight has boosted my morale.  And the compliments my wife and I have both been getting of late – and giving each other – are sweeter than any ganache!


Resources:
Dr. Johnson's UpDayDownDay Diet™
Calorie Restriction (Wikipedia)
The series:

Nine Months - Tuscany on 500 Calories a Day
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Week Eight: The Guilt-free Diet









“I really enjoy this diet!”
My wife blurted out these singular words a few days back.
I decided to subject her to a mini-interview.  Here’s a little of what she had to say about our experiment in alternate-day dieting these past two months.
There’s no guilt!  If you go over on a “down day”, you get a brand new chance the day after tomorrow.  In between you get a day off – without penance – after which you can start fresh.
It’s self-correcting!  If you celebrate with dinner out on an “up day”, and feel like you’ve had a little too much to eat, you know you’ll climb right back onto the wagon the very next day.  It’s like New Year’s Day every other day.
There’s no drudgery!  You can always make it through that one day on the wagon.  And savour those special meals on the other days.
It’s fun to see it work!  Ten pounds off so far, and no suffering.  My wife tells me she hasn’t seen these numbers in years.  And she’s looking good!
Yes, we’re counting a success for both of us so far.  Eight weeks in, and we’re both almost 60% of the way to our final goals.  I pulled a couple pounds ahead of her in the early weeks, but she’s set to overtake me in the coming weeks if I don’t buckle down.  Let’s see if my new resolve not to “stock up” the night before can give me back the edge.


Resources:
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Sunday, May 9, 2010

Eat, Drink and Be Merry, for Tomorrow We Diet






In 2002, researchers at the University of Toronto published a study that claimed to show that “merely planning to go on a diet can trigger overeating in restrained eaters, reflecting the dynamic connection between dieting and overeating.”  Seven weeks into the alternative day diet, I’ve rediscovered that myself.  It’s a tendency I must learn to check.

On some non-fasting days, I feel an urge to “stock up”, especially near day’s end.  I’m not hungry.  I’m satisfying tomorrow’s hunger in advance.  For a while, I tolerated this, but I see it will work against me and have vowed to focus on actual appetite.

It’s ironic that this tendency has surfaced now.  In many ways the diet has grown easier in recent weeks.  On fasting days, I usually find that the last felt need for food is about two in the afternoon.  Once I make it that far, thoughts of food vanish for the rest of the day.  If I make it to mid-afternoon on only half my 500-calorie ration, the evening’s menu seems epicurean.

My wife and I both feel we could keep this diet up for as long as we need to.  Many nights we drift asleep or awaken, not quite sure whether we’ve just had our “down day” or are about to begin it.  “Breaking the fast” on an “up day” never tempts us to gorge.  (I might make an exception for Tuesday, which follows half-fast Sunday and a down-day Monday.)

Physical weakness during fasting days no longer plagues us, although we still save our most strenuous exercise for times when we have some carbohydrates available.  But I do notice the cold weather more on “down days”.  I’ve kept my sweater in service longer this spring.

While we might have to pay more for heating and clothes, we’re banking the savings on food.  500-calorie days rarely require much in the way of meal preparation.  Leftovers from other days last almost twice as long.  Our college-age boys give us a hard time about the paucity of food on the table on diet days, but they pretty much manage their own mega-meals anyway.  Now that we know we only have three or four good evening meals a week, we try harder to make them family occasions.

And that’s something else I’ve experienced directly:  the huge role that food and eating plays in our lives, beyond providing physical sustenance.  We socialize around food.  We eat for the pure pleasure of the experience.  We structure many habits and rituals around food, like ice cream at the beach, or Eggs Benedict for Mother’s Day brunch.  And sometimes we eat just for something to do.  Eliminating all these on fasting days leaves us with far more time on our hands – and the opportunity to take on new challenges.

Seven weeks into this diet, we know we can reach our original goals.  My wife “came clean” on her starting weight – with this revision, she is now half-way to her target weight.  In order to qualify as a lightweight rower, I decided to push my ultimate goal down a little further, and I’m 57% of the way there.  Almost three-quarters of the way to my original destination, I will report when I slide past it.  Those regions on the bathroom scale I won’t have toured in almost 30 years.


Resources:
Dr. Johnson's UpDayDownDay Diet™
Calorie Restriction (Wikipedia)
"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we diet: effects of anticipated deprivation on food intake in restrained and unrestrained eaters." by Urbszat, Herman, Polivy (Department of Psychology, University of Toronto).
Why I want to live longer and stay healthy.  (Yes, that's me too.)
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