Closing in on the fat-killing goal, which I expect to make by the end of this week — possibly even tomorrow — I decided to drag out the hated blood pressure monitor and see what progress has been made in that department, if any.
Defies belief!
120/68, pulse 78
Holy macquerelle! That is a drop of twenty-nine points in systolic pressure since May 22nd, and twenty points in diastolic. Without benefit of prescription drugs.
That’s right: I threw over the Irbesartan because I didn’t care for the side effects. This is purely the result of eating better, losing weight, and exercising mildly.
I have not beat myself up with running or gym-crawling. I have not starved myself. I have not interrupted my drinking habit. Indeed, as we scribble I’m dosing myself with a gin & tonic. Not once have I felt in any way deprived.
This amazing result has come about as a result of these strategies:
1. Cut sodium intake from incidental and unintended sources.
• Quit eating two to four pieces of bacon every damn day of my life.
• Refrain from scarfing down sausage, pastrami, salami, and other kinds of salt-laden processed meat.
• Read the labels on packaged and canned foods! Seek out similar foods with lower sodium content.
• Eat less cheese, which is high in sodium.
• Avoid restaurant food, which is astronomically high in sodium.
2. Prefer real food to food-like substances.
• Avoid all processed food!
• Instead, seek out the most delicious of all possible whole foods, including candy-sweet ripe fruit, crisp fresh veggies, and delicious fresh greens.
• Buy the best quality food available on the market.
• Have at least one excellent salad a day, always containing a wide variety of good things to eat. Use a real salad dressing (not commercial bottled stuff) of olive oil and lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar.
• Make nutritious soups in quantities large enough to provide several meals. I happen to like cold soups such as xergis and gazpacho, which are extremely convenient to eat and (if you use low-fat yogurt in the xergis) low in calories.
• Evade eating in restaurants, most of which sell little or no real food.
3. Eat less meat but better meat. Much, much better meat…
• Cut meat-centered meals to two or three times a week.
• Seek out…
…wild-caught fish
…humanely farmed beef, lamb, and pork
…free-range chicken
…antibiotic-free meat
…hormone-free meat
…air-cooled meat
…meat whose packaging specifically says no extra liquid (i.e., brine or saline solution) has been added
4. Eat smaller portions.
• Serve food on smaller plates, so that it looks like you’re eating the same pile of food but in fact you’re consuming less.
• Eat slower and enjoy your food more.
5. Eliminate most starches.
• Refrain from eating potatoes, bread, and rice
• Include whole wheat in this ban
• Include brown rice, too
• And, alas, include the beloved PASTA! Oatmeal (the cookable kind) is OK, though…occasionally
6. Try to engineer about 40 minutes to an hour of moderate exercise a day.
• Walk one to three miles through the neighborhood
• Swim ad lib
• Indulge in yoga for relaxation and pain relief
• Bicycle when weather and traffic permit
None of these things (except possibly the business of staying out of restaurants) is difficult. None of them makes you feel especially deprived. Possibly the most difficult element is simply pulling them all together so you can engage them all at once.
The interesting thing about this is that once you do get all the strategies all engaged in a single project, falling off the wagon once in a while doesn’t seem to make much difference. Despite the shocking frolic at Tricks the other day, I still hit my goal of dropping to 132 pounds the following morning. And the weight did not go up a day or two later, in some sort of delayed revenge.
I think what works is to develop an effective plan, to engage it, and to turn it into a routine. The plan should not be so extreme that you can’t reasonably stick with it over the long term — and by that we mean “for the rest of your life.”
And speaking of the rest of your life, check out this interesting study, which suggests that pursuing whole foods and exercising moderately may actually reverse the ravages of aging. If you read what they report having tested, you find that the men in the study who achieved not only less aging but apparently reversed aging did exactly what I have described here. It’s pure serendipity…but it seems to work.
Cheers! 😉
I’m about a week into a new ‘morning exercise’ program where I’m doing 30-40 minutes of cardio or light weight training at a nearby gym. So far I’m just getting used to my body being active, but I love it. I’m hoping that I can stick with it and that it provides some benefits.
One thing I’ve noticed is that when you exercise you tend to be a little more aware of what you’re putting into your body, and I tend to shove a little less of the bad stuff down my pie hole, so not only do you benefit from the calories burned, but you also benefit from the calories avoided.
Good on ya. I found the best benefit from going to a low-gluten diet, even though I’m not gluten-intolerant – love the stuff. So no more fluffy white bread fresh out of the bread maker. The book “Wheat Belly” describes the gluten syndrome, where our bodies treat flour containing gluten (all flour, whole-wheat included) like glucose-fructose – convert it straight into fat.
And, strangely, the more weight you lose, the easier it is to lose weight. There’s something to the theory that there’s a “high-blood pressure” syndrome – that high BP and the usual symptoms – obesity, type II diabetes, kidney and liver problems, depression – are all inter-related. Defeat one symptom and the rest disappear. In my case, I got the BP treated with Hyzaar (wonderful stuff, worked immediately, no side-effects) and suddenly I could lose weight effortlessly.
Congrats! I think those strategies are something we should all follow!
Over the past few weeks I’ve been really stressed and pressed for time. I’ve been eating too much prepared food from take out/delivery, prepared stuff from the closest grocery store, and frozen meals. I’ve been feeling worse and worse as a result. The trick is to stop the cycle of declining energy and make time for preparing real food. I’m slowly clawing my way back.
One “convenience food” that I’ve been trying to add to my diet, though, is more fatty canned fish like sardines, kippers/herring, anchovies, and (to a lesser extent) tuna packed in olive oil. The little fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids (good stuff!), satisfy my need/craving for protein and fat, and are fairly cheap, too. I make the tuna in olive oil into a delicious salad to serve on greens or crackers using fresh lemon juice, chopped red onion/celery/parsley, and usually some chopped kalamata olives, too. Or I just serve some on top of a bed of greens with a few pickled dilly beans, some small cooked potatoes, and some olives for my quick version of a Nicoise salad.
Your exclamation also reminded me that I need to get back to incorporating more of my favorite fish into my diet: mackerel. Like salmon, it is high in omega-3 fatty acids, yet it is almost always wild caught (giving it a better nutrition profile), and the population bounces pretty fast from fishing so it is less of an environmental concern, too. I can get whole mackerel (likely previously frozen and not entirely fresh) and canned mackerel from my local international market. Now I just need to make the time to go there!
Good for you Funny!!! My husband and I have changed to where we eat lots of veggies (2-5 daily) and fruit (2-3 daily) and mostly grilled/roasted meat and eggs. Mostly salads if we go out; no fried food; no fast food. We both eat LOTS of Kipper Snacks (Polar is the best – about $1.13 at Walmart) He has lost 75 pounds in a little over a year. I have lost about 25 in three months. We both now go to the gym. Thanks for your added inspiration! (P.S. we are both in our late 50’s – very late).
Good job, Funny!! What is xergis? Google doesn’t seem to know, either.
Damn it I am so happy for you!
“twenty points in diastolic. Without benefit of prescription drugs.
That’s right: I threw over the Irbesartan because I didn’t care for the side effects. This is purely the result of eating better, losing weight, and exercising mildly.”
– Your regimen would probably solve 40% of the social diseases we have rampant in American today. It is so f’n frustrating to watch people kill themselves.
LOL! You kinda have to avert your eyes in the grocery store checkout lines, don’t you?
Other day a young woman — early to mid-20s? — was in line ahead of me at the Safeway. It was during the lunch hour and she had some sort of service worker apron on, so she must have been grabbing something that passed at lunch. The poor child was SO OBESE that it verged on disability. And what was she buying? Chips, candy, soda.
I’ll go to a supermarket for lunch sometimes (1/4 pound of a cold cut and 1/4 of maybe chicken salad or broccoli salad = Less than $5 and healthish) and I see the exact same thing. Makes me so mad. Then they say grocery shopping is expensive and it just doesn’t have to be!
IMHO it’s the product of poor education and relentless advertising campaigns for engineered edibles that really are not food. Some people just don’t know any better. And some are, for want of a better word, hooked on fake food.