90 Days and a Few Sizes Later...

I know, I know... I pretty much abandoned you for a while.

I've been low-carb dieting for 90 days now.

It's been a busy month (or so). We took several little trips and one week-long one up to Bar Harbor, Maine, where we stay every summer.

I want to share with you a story about this trip.

Last year, when we went up there, I had an ankle that was riddled with arthritis.

I was 365 pounds.

I couldn't walk without agony.

I couldn't walk for long at all without getting exhausted.

I couldn't climb over the rocks and hills to get the kinds of spectacular photos everyone else was getting.

I did more sitting than exploring.

I was miserable but I kept telling myself that miserable in Maine is better than miserable at home.

That's true enough - the scenery up there in Acadia is GORGEOUS.

The place where we stay has a gorgeous pebble beach and you can literally sit on a bench two feet from the water at high tide.

I used to spend countless hours on that beach.

Last year I ventured down there twice during the entire week.

Why? Because there's also a huge hill involved in getting there and I could not even bear the thought of climbing it multiple times.

I was just too huge.

I had no energy.

But what did I have? I had the fried clams. Several times. I had ice cream. I had fudge. I drank a lot of the local root beer.

I had all those things, but I had a lousy vacation.

When we arrived in Bar Harbor this year, I was probably close to 80 pounds lighter.

I had a good brace keeping the arthritis at bay.

I was climbing over rocks and scaling hills all over the place.

And I got some great pictures.

I'll share a couple of them in a few minutes.

Here's what I didn't do:

I didn't eat any fried clams.

I didn't eat any ice cream.

I didn't drink any root beer.

I didn't have any blueberry pie.

I didn't cheat on the diet. Not even once. Not even when no one was looking.

I took my son to play miniture golf and for the first time in three years I didn't need to rely on him to retrieve my ball because I was too huge to bend over and get it.

We played 64 total holes of adventure golf that week. I bent over to get my ball 64 times.

I wasn't drenched in sweat in 75 degree weather.

I never lost my breath climbing the hill after visiting the shore.

I had enough energy to get up at 4:00 AM to catch sunrise at Cadillac mountain.

My SON asked to sit down and rest more often than I did.

I walked all over Bar Harbor, up and down steep hills, through dozens of shops and didn't feel the need to sit down very often at all.

I EXPERIENCED this trip. I didn't just live through it.

And here's the best part: I'm only about halfway to my goal.

I have a lot of weight left to lose.

I can't even imagine what I'll be doing next year.

I've considered learning how to kayak.

And my wife might be joining me now that she's starting the diet too in a couple weeks. :-)

P.S. I bought my first 2X t-shirt in about 5 or 6 years and it fits. All my size 42 pants fit and they're all roomy.

And here are the pictures I promised...

"Healthy" Cereal?

Well, it's nice to see that people are still reading even when I go away for a few days. Good for you!

And thanks to any newcomers that might be milling about, lurking in the shadows. Yes, I know you're watching. :-)

One of the things that my wife is really thrilled about with the advent of my low-carb diet is that I've stopped eating breakfast cereal.

Did you know that 60% of Americans eat breakfast cereal every. single. day.?

It's supposed to be healthy.

For a long time I thought it was.

One of my earlier weight loss journeys happened during the summer between my sophomore and junior years in college. I had ballooned up to about 260 pounds and I needed to get some of that weight off.

Starting in Mid-May and going through the end of August, my diet consisted of cereal for breakfast, a Slimfast shake for lunch and then whatever I wanted for dinner.

I didn't even worry if it was a "sensible" dinner. I might have had pizza or gone to Mama Mia's for all-you-can-eat pasta night.

I lost about 30 pounds.

I was also 20 years old.

But that experience formed the basis for my belief that cereal is good for you. The reality of it is that it just plain isn't.

My wife has been telling me this for years now.

Anyway, my friends at Huffington Post are at it again.

They've showcased what is apparently going to be a whole video series and it looks like it's going to be pretty decent, too.

The first one is about breakfast cereal.

Go ahead and have a look. 

In all fairness I've always wondered why the calorie count in Frosted Flakes was so close to regular corn flakes... ditto on the frosted mini-wheats. The sugar count is close too.

And we wonder why so many people are sugar-addicted.

Unreal.

I wish I still believed in Hell.

If I did, I would be convinced that there's an entire wing there waiting for food company executives.

But I don't and there isn't.

It doesn't justify their nefarious actions.

I don't think I could comment better on this subject so just watch the video and we'll pick this up tomorrow.

HuffPost Gets it Right AGAIN.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Huffington Post?

One of the things that Julie Kibe teaches in her Hypnosis sessions (yes, she lectures while she does her voodoo so you don't know you're being programmed) is to stop eating "fake food." 

This isn't as much an article as a slideshow but if you read the blurb for each slide you will learn some very interesting things about so-called diet foods that will likely surprise you.

For once I'm bashing something besides sugar.

Here's the thing, though... anything that we attempt to do to trick our bodies into behaving a certain way will ultimately fail. 

Our bodies know what real food is and they know what fake food is. 

The reason low-carb dieting works so well is because it breaks things down into the simplest of categories: meat and vegetables. 

These things are real foods that our bodies have known how to use since the dawn of time. 

Our bodies don't know how to use Aspartame.

Our bodies don't know how to use Stevia.

Our bodies prepare for certain nutrients based on taste. 

It's not just sugar - it's fat, salt, protein, you name it. 

So go ahead and have a look at the slide show and quit buying processed low-fat everything. It's not helping you.

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to go fry some asparagus in butter and crack a couple eggs to go with it.   

It's the Little Victories

I'm about to prove to you how effective a low-carb diet can be even if you're not All In.

I posted this story on another blog this morning but I know the rest of the world needs to have the opportunity to read it.


I remember the day my wife came home from the doctor in 2002 sobbing because they'd found sugar in her urine.

34 years old and she had Diabetes. It was inevitable. All her female relatives had it.

But getting it at 34 is just ridiculous.

I have always been a bit concerned with how she manages it and there have been a couple blood sugar scares along the way.

It's 11 years later now and things are starting to catch up to both of us now that we're in our 40s.

Once I started on the Program, I simply stopped putting things on the table I couldn't eat. I still make mac 'n cheese for my son. He's Autistic and only eats certain foods.

He gets a pass.

I've been serving nothing but meat and vegetables at dinner for the past two months now (I do 90% of the cooking at home). My wife continues to hit the drive-thru and continues drinking diet soda.

She says she's slowed down but I see the empty bags in her car.

I know how she defines "slowing down."

Here's an idea of just how well this program works.

She's eating like I eat for one meal a day.

She HAS actually been slowing down more than I expected on the fast food. I'll give her props for that. It's still a thing, but it's a smaller thing.

Following the diet one meal a day, she went to our doctor today and I got this text from her afterward:

"In just over 3 months, my blood sugar A1C has gone from a 10 to 7.5. Goal is below 7."

She's been following my lead at dinner and that's what has happened. I can only imagine what's going to happen when she's All In.

That'll happen when she goes for hypnotherapy, which I hope will be soon. 

Word is Getting Around...

Yet another article on why diet soda is a sham. It looks like it could be a re-write of the last one but it's still worth the time to read it since it comes from Huffington Post. 

Here are a few highlights:

"The researchers found that just like with regular soda, the consumption of artificially sweetened beverages like diet soda is also associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. Drinking just one can of diet soda per day is "enough to significantly increase the risk for health problems," according to the media release."

"Artificial sweeteners are hundreds to thousands of times sweeter than regular sugar, activating our genetically-programmed preference for sweet taste more than any other substance."

"They trick your metabolism into thinking sugar is on its way. This causes your body to pump out insulin, the fat storage hormone, which lays down more belly fat."

(Gee... where have I heard THAT before??)

Anyway, you can read the whole article here. 

This subject really boils my blood. 

Soda in any form is bad for you. Diet soda is exponentially worse and more and more people are learning this. 

The only healthy soda is seltzer water with no sodium. Add a squirt of lime. It'll be bubbly and it will taste good... 

...and it won't make you diabetic. 

Or you could just drink some regular water. Millions of years of evolution have proved that still works.

Oh, BTW, here's another "Before and During Pic" for you. I can't believe I EVER allowed myself to get that huge. Less than three months on a low-carb diet and this is what's happening.  

You might be interested to know what I had for breakfast today. I eat a late breakfast, around 11:00 AM most days so I have two main meals with a couple small ones in between. This was today's brunch:

2 eggs + 1 egg white, scrambled and fried in butter (because cooking spray is also terrible for you)

5 natural casing sausage links

6 pencil-thin asparagus spears and 2 large whitecap mushrooms, sautéed in olive oil 

about a tablespoon of ketchup (I don't actually measure)

Not exactly going hungry, am I?

About 60 Pounds Or So in Seven Weeks

Earlier this week I took the picture below.

I've mentioned that on this program I can't get on a scale so I don't *know* how much I weigh right now.

I do know that this is one of the last milestones that I will be able to accurately guesstimate. The only one after is about 265.

How am I doing it? Simple. I'm trying on old clothes.

So here's the scenario:

My grandmother died in 2010. At that time I didn't have suitable clothes for her funeral so I went to Men's Wearhouse and bought a suit, a shirt, suspenders and a tie.

The shirt is my gauge.

When I bought the shirt I was creeping up in weight after a successful period of weight loss. I was at 315 then, up from about 265 six months earlier.

It had been a stressful year already and Nana dying didn't help. Over the next six months I gained another 50 pounds. It was bad. In a year and a half I went from 265 to 365 and most of that was due to stress eating.

So, anyway, at 315 pounds I got fitted for  a shirt which I still own.

The last time I wore it it was stretching at the buttons. That was at about 330 pounds.

I tried it on earlier in the week and it was at least one size too big, more like two.

So here's how I know I've lost at least 60 pounds (and probably more like 70)...

I started the low carb diet at 365 pounds seven weeks previous.

I tried on the shirt I bought at 315 and it was too big by 1-2 sizes.

That leads me to believe that my weight right now is between 295 and 305 for a net loss of 60-70 pounds.

In less than eight weeks.

Eating animal protein and vegetables in balanced amounts.

Not eating ANYTHING sweet, especially nothing with artificial sweeteners.

Not eating nuts or any kind of vegetable protein.

Eating all the meat I want with an equal or lesser amount of vegetables.

That's it. I still don't go to the gym regularly. My ankle won't let me exercise on traditional equipment yet.

I keep the diet and I never EVER cheat.

And I'm losing over a pound of fat a day.

Here's proof:

Enjoy your Sunday! Talk to you soon....

See? SEE? SEEEE????

Stop what you're doing and read this.

I'll get you off that gol-dern diet soda if it's the last thing I do.

Here's a teaser:

"Are diet sodas worse for you than regular sodas? I think that's the wrong question," said Swithers, who is also a member of Purdue's Ingestive Behavior Research Center. "It's, 'What good are sodas for you in the first place?' "

I think I'm going to need to start blogging about all the wonderful things aspartame does to you. 

And Splenda. 

And Stevia. 

And everything else that flies in the face of our natural body chemistry,

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature. In fact, it could be deadly. 

Goodbye, Saccharin!