Slow and steady wins the race.

I think we have all heard the old fable of the Tortoise and the Hare or at least seen a cartoon or two :) .  What I always took away from the story as a child was to not let my pride (arrogance) in some ability cause me to fail. As I've grown older I view the story differently laziness never pays off, hard work and persistence will.

As I've said before I didn't gain all this weight because I worked hard, I choose the easy path, shortcut diets, or no path at all just ignoring it hoping it would go away. I sat on my butt when I should have been moving.

So I took a look at my progress last night (stepped on a scale) and seriously crunched the numbers trying to figure out, at this pace, how long it would take me to shed the weight. The answer? two and a half years give or take a few months. Granted that is assuming nothing in my routine changes, no additional exercise, just shedding about 2-3 pounds a week.

Ugh. The hare in me says, "come on there has to be a better way", while the tortoise (who seems to be speaking louder recently) reminds me, "nothing in this world is free". Sigh.

Yes I know that the less weight I have the easier it will be to start including consistent exercise beyond the parking further out in the lot at work, walking a lap around my floor every hour I am at work, standing when I can rather than sitting. Because even though I am doing these things they all involve pain now (aah the devils in the details isn't he) I do a single lap because after that my back is in agony.

So what should I do from here? This weekend I am going to start doing yoga (as best I can) or Pilate's with the goal of being able to partake in the Steps That Count event we do each year at work. We just wrapped up this years event so I have one year to work on my core (with yoga/Pilate's) to get the muscles in shape to support my back and making walking less painful.

Like I said slow and easy...

I keep posting my menu and I guess I'll share why. Making my menu public means I am committed to it, my friends and family can see my menu and see if that's what I'm eating. A little accountability goes a long way :)

Menu

Breakfast - Ah Kashi GoLean you make my morning infinitely easier. Kashi GoLean 1 cup, 1/2 cup 2% milk, 1 small banana sliced. Calories 345, Fiber 8g

Snack - TFPD Zesty Bean Dip and Chips Calories 210, Fiber 4g

Lunch - TFPD Pizza Wrap Bento Box modified no chocolate wafer cookies, creamy dip or watermelon. Calories 313, Fiber 19g

Snack - 1 med pear. Calories 100, Fiber 4g

Dinner - TFPD Szechuan Tofu & Green Bean Stir-Fry modified as I also added a cup of asparagus for additional flavor. Calories 245, Fiber 8g

Staying up late snack (if I am hungry) - Custom Cocktail (low salt) peanut and raisin mix 1/8 cup of each. Calories 150, Fiber 2g

Total Calories 1363
Total Fiber 45

Fiber, Fiber, Fiber, Fiber (ugh, you get the idea)

Get some fiber in your diet, sounds easy right? The daily recommended allowance currently being touted is about 30 grams. When i started the diet I thought "this is going to be easy, I eat all kinds of things with fiber in them."

Actually, no I didn't.

No matter how I crunched the numbers my daily was about 9 grams, 12 grams on a good day. So I began the task of punching up my fiber, looking at labels and adding it all up. My diet wanted me to shoot for 40 grams eventually.

40 grams!?! Where am I going to find that? Couch stuffing? I really didn't want to resort to Metamucil as I'm not a big fan of drinking water with sediment in it and I am trying to avoid sweetened drinks.

 I am now, on average, getting about 45 grams a day and the diet wants me to shoot for 40 and I am finding it easier to do than I thought. At points you will notice I am buying Oroweat Double Fiber bread and muffins and LaTortilla factory multi grain high fiber wraps, I could just go with good multi grain versions for a slight reduction on the fiber (and I may) but for now this is how I am doing it.

I am planning my menu pretty well now so instead of tracking just calories I'll be adding the fiber grams in as well.

Menu:

Breakfast - 1 cup Kaski GoLean, 1/2 cup 2% milk, 1 cup mixed berries = 345 calories and 8 grams fiber

Snack - TFD Zesty Bean Dip and Chips Calories 199 and 4 grams fiber

Lunch - Southwest Wrap 1 LaTortilla Factory Multi grain wrap, 1/4 cup no fat refried beans, 1/4 cup corn, 1/4 cup red onion (chopped), 1/8 cup diced Jalapenos, 1tbs Salsa, 1 cup brown rice, Calories 370 and fiber 18 grams.

Snack - Pink Lady Apple Calories = 130 and fiber = 5

Dinner - Summer Sandwich one more night. 2 slices Oroweat Double Fiber bread, 1/2 a med avocado smashed, 1/2 med Roma tomato diced, 1/2 cup spinach, 1 cup romaine, 1 serving of Oscar Mayer Deli slice honey ham (this really works to put a little non veg in the day low cal, low fat and the price is reasonable, I think I'll go with the Natural cuts next week to be a little healthier) 1tbs Dijon mustard calories = 382 and fiber = 22

Total Calories for the day = 1426
Total Fiber in grams = 57

I am never hungry, I am full of energy and I feel better than I have on any other regimen ever. I would say this is a win for the Full Plate Diet.

Variety

Variety they say is the spice of life... I tend to agree. It is to easy to fall into a rut when you are focused on a new way of doing things (like this diet) so I am spending more time, planning, thinking about and preparing my meals.

I have decided that I am fat because I am lazy. I am always looking for the shortcut, the easy path, the one that offers least resistance. The problem is that path is boring, full of ruts and leads to a dead end. So I am taking the path less traveled, for me at least, and committing to long hike this will be.

When I was healthy enough to hike, I would spend days planning the next trip, checking elevation, distance, points to place caches (or meet up with resupply), places to rest, camp and finally the end point my goal. I would prepare myself, check my gear over and over, repair or replace items as needed, load and unload my pack and get the best load out. I did this all so my time on the trail wasn't consumed by wondering where I would find a spot to stop for the night, or sitting by the side of the trail mending a broken pack or boot. I did all this so I could enjoy myself and the hike.

So, enough rambling, if I can be that committed to a hike I figure the least I can do is be that committed to my health, my life.

Todays food choices:

Breakfast - Oroweat Double Fiber English Muffin, with peanut butter (still need to make my own) and a small banana sliced up.

Snack - Celery stalks with a tbs of penaut butter (all hail the peanut)

Lunch - Repeat of yesterday Sesame Noodle salad, with an asian inspired cucmber salad (1/3 english cucmber sliced, 1 carrot sliced, 1/4 cup of red bell pepper slices, 1tbs rice wine vinegar, 1tbs sesame oil, 1tsp fresh ginger (grated) and 1/2 crushed red pepper flakes. the noodle salad recipie is out at The Full Plate Diet (TFPD) website.

Snack - 1 pear, sliced.

Dinner - Tofu, peanut and green bean stir fry, also a recipie from TFPD.

Note: from here on out I will refer to The Full Plate Diet as TFPD I am getting tired of writing it all the time :) (and yes I know it's lazy)

Time

My weekend was consumed by guests and activities that kept me on the go, only now that it is Tuesday do I feel like I've caught my breath.

The weekend went well, even though I BBQ'd for everyone on Saturday I was still able to hit my goals of my diet that day and one of the easiest ways to do that? I didn't BBQ hungry, instead I made sure I had eaten an excellent lunch and a filling snack so I wasn't revenous by the time I had meat on the grill. Instead I satisfied my self with a single kosher hot dog, and a great cucumber salad.

Sunday rolled around and my parents wanted to get together, they've moved to the sticks so it isn't as convienent to meet up, since they were in town. This meant going out to eat, I tried to pick a place I was familiar with knowing the menu and feeling confident that I could order and still stay on track. Instead my mom was concerned about having shade for their car as she had her baby with her (baby in this sense is her dog Mercy who is great but yeesh she goes everywhere my mom and dad go) . So instead we ended up at a Mexican food restraunt (I love the tex-mex) but that presents all kinds of conflict for me. Free bowls of chips, free salsa, wonderful grilled everything slapped between tortillas and fried with... ok you get the idea this was exactly not the first dining out experience on my new diet I wanted to go toe-to-toe with.

I'll claim success I ordered vegatarian fajitas with black beans, I choose corn vs. flour tortillas and I only ate about 2/3 of my meal before I called it quits. I took my time, listened to my body and stopped when I was full. I also portioned out 10 chips on a little plate in front of me and then turned my back on the baskets of chips :) in my previous incarnation I would have wiped out a basket of chips and part of a second basket (with my sons help but seriously way to much) before dinner arrived. Instead I drank a full glass of water before I ate chips, had a second glass before dinner arrived ad part of a glass during dinner. All in all a decent strategy.

Sunday weigh in? I've lost about another 2 pounds since my mid week weigh in last week. I'd call that progress.

Yesterday was a crazy day at work, but I made a point of turning off my monitor and paying attention to my meal at lunch rather than working or reading while I ate.

I have been working the breakfast menu around to try and include more than just Kashi GoLean and some fruit, or a Double fiber muffin with peanut butter and a small banana on it. So tonight I am going to make some polenta rounds and try the Polenta scramble recipie out at the Full Plate Diet website.

I'm having the Seaseme Noodle salad for lunch with grilled veggies and I think I am going to go all summer tonight and make a toasted vegitarian sandwhich. Toast 2 Oroweat Double Fiber slices of bread, layer 1/2 avacado (smashed into a paste to spread on the bread). 1/2 cup fresh spinich, 1/2 cup romaine, 1/2 medium roma tomato, 1/3 english cucumber sliced, bean sprouts, 1/4 cup sliced red onion and 3 pepperocini sliced, drained but leave the seeds. I add a bit of dijon mustard to top it off and this looks great. For a change up add a slice of thin cut turkey if you want some extra protien. Calories w/out the turkey about 315.

Caffeine a-go-go

So blah. So I went cold turkey on no caffeine (iced tea and Earl Grey for the mornings), trying to set the slate clear and I had already removed all of the diet pop, sugar free candies and other sugar free junk food from my diet 3 weeks before and that part was easy. Caffeine, not so much.

Headaches not so good, third day now, so instead I am lowering my tea intake to my morning cup of Earl Grey and see if that takes the edge off.

Now the good news, I know it has only been three days since I began the new diet but as I had said above I was already removing the sugar free crap a few weeks ago and I finally got the courage to step on the scale last night (three weeks since I got the 440 news). 428lbs. How is that good news you ask? 428 is south of 440 and anything moving south is good news for me :) I'll weigh in on Sundays from now on but I had to set my mark and start tracking this honestly.

Menu for the day.

Breakfast - Kashi GoLean 3/4 cup, 1 small banana and 1/2 cup 2% milk = 330 calories.

Snack - Pink Lady Apple 130 calories

Lunch - Vegetarian Torta 5" baguette (with the bread scooped out leaving just the crust) 1/2 a medium avacado, 1/3 of an English cucumber (seeded), dozen grape tomatoes, 1/4 sliced onion, 1/4 cup red bell pepper, 2 pepperocini (the veggies are tossed with yogurt dressing 1.8 cup 0% fat Greek yogurt, 1tsp lemon juice, 1tbs rice wine vinegar, 1tsp pepper, 1tsp minced garlic) calories = 354

Snack (if I'm hungry) - 1oz Food Should Taste Good Multigrain Chips and 1 serving of The Zesty Bean Dip (see The Full Plate Diet for the recipe) = 210 calories (my choice of chip bumps the traditional recipe by 20 calories)

Dinner - Baked Sweet Potato with warm Black Bean salad (see The Full Plate Diet for recipe), Greek cucumber salad (left over from the veggie torta at lunch) = 373 calories.

More later today (so long as my cuppa keeps the headache at bay, so far so good).

Planning is the Key

Two days down!

I made a menu/recipe book that I can keep in my kitchen to better plan out my meals. I am finding myself thinking about food the way you should think about a household budget, plan, measure out and balance.

What this all = is me thinking about my food rather than just mindlessly eating, grabbing the quick fix/meal. Now I have to plan ahead, gather my resources (shopping) and prepare it. This all eats up time but it also means I am engaged in the process rather than just being a consumer of food.

So the menu for the day,

Breakfast - Kashi GoLean 3/4 cup, 1 small banana and 1/2 cup 2% milk = 330 calories.

Snack (if I'm hungry) - 1oz Food Should Taste Good Multigrain Chips and 1 serving of The Zesty Bean Dip (see The Full Plate Diet for the recipe) = 210 calories (my choice of chip bumps the traditional recipe by 20 calories)

Lunch - Mediterranean  wrap (LaTortilla Factory EVOO Whole Grain soft wrap, 2tbs of plain hummus, 3oz broccoli, 1/2 cup of diced cucumber, 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper, 1/8 cup chickpeas, 1/8 cup Greek Gods plain yogurt, 1/2tbs lemon juice and 1tsp pepper) = 290 calories

Snack - Pink Lady Apple = 130 calories

Dinner - Sesame Noodle Salad (see The Full Plate Diet for the recipe) = 340 calories.

Thats it for now.

Keep moving Forward,

Mike

Here is what I miss. Being so heavy has made it impossible for me to enjoy what used to be my favorite past time, hiking around Rainer and the Cascades.

I moved to Washington because it reminded me of Lake Tahoe and all the camping trips I'd ever been on. I used to spend my summers in the national parks of California and Arizona. I love the outdoors and I have denied myself that joy.

So being fat sucks, I mean really sucks. Try going to Disneyland and being to big for your favorite ride, but not knowing that sad fact until you try to ride it and can't.

So I'll write a few times a day to keep myself honest and well its kind of cathartic writing in such a public fashion about something so... personal.

Keep Moving Forward...

Mike