Log My Loss

Before we get to the Q&A, I have to give a quick update on the day:

First of all, I began the day right.  I walked 6.5 miles at a 14:18 pace!  Woot!

Second, eating was great all day until after supper.  Still not bad, I just ate too much.

<caution, gloating ahead>
Third, I had a great day all around today.  The big news of the day is the work I have been ultra busy with all last month concluded today — the results were better than good!  Due to confidentiality expectations, I cannot go into this any further, but just know it was a really big deal.  My boss told me congratulations on a job well done, then he told me to take the day off tomorrow.  Woot!!  There is so much more to this, but as I said, I am not at liberty to discuss it.

Forth, I gave my second scheduled speech at Toastmasters today.  The evaluator for my speech gave me the highest rating for the speech and said she could offer no real suggestions for improvement.  That feels really awesome, but I hope she was really looking at me with a critical eye.
</end gloating>

So last week I put a call out for your questions; today is the day I answer them.  I’ll go ahead an apologize, this is going to be a very long post.  I’ll find out who my marathon readers are with this one.    Honestly, I am still questioning the sanity of posting all this at once.  I seriously doubt many will make it all the way to the end.  There are good questions all the way to the end though, so you might want to read them all.  Here goes:

Q:  What goes through your mind when you see an obese person now?

A:  This depends.  Most of the time I want to encourage them and tell them they can lose weight.  Of course, I have to step back and realize that not everyone wants the help.  I have really come to the conclusion that if someone is ready, they will find the way.  There are times I really feel sorry for the person though, especially when I realize they have already caused irreversible damage.  The only time this really gets under my skin is when they are sucking on an extra, extra large sugar laden soda, all the while telling me diets do not work for them.

Q:  Have you ever thought about becoming a personal trainer?

A:  Have I thought about it – yes.  I don’t think that is where my heart is though.  The thing I think more about is motivational speaking to those trying to lose weight and get fit.

Q:  Do you consider yourself an athlete?

A: Until I read this question this had never crossed my mind.  I would say no, I don’t.  I am, however, much closer than I used to be.

Q:  What’s in your playlist?

A:  Honestly, I really don’t listen to music that much, and not at all while exercising (except for Rocky Tabata music).  When I do listen, most of the time it is eighties pop on Sirius 80s or instrumental jazz.  I like most all kinds of music though, including: country, pop, rock, some hard rock, bluegrass, praise and worship music, and blues.  Believe it or not, I like Celine Dion.  I think Celine Deion and Point of Grace (Christian Pop) both have the voices of angels.  I am truly a child of the 80s though.  To me, it is the best music out there.  Two of my favorite groups/singers from that era are John Mellencamp and Huey Lewis and the News.  I also like some music prior to the eighties though, including both extremes: The Beach Boys to AC/DC, and I like some music after the eighties.  Right now I am on a kick with music by The Eagles from their whole career.  A few years ago I realized that the thing I really desire in music is artists who sing with passion, typically artists who cannot sing their songs while sitting down because they need the full power of thier lungs to belt the tune out.  That is not always true (i.e., Huey Lewis and the News and the Beach Boys), but generally it is.  As you can tell, I am all over the place with music.

Q:  How do you handle negative comments or insults or criticisms about weight? Do you think it really is entirely their fault?

A:  This is an interesting question with a lot of variables.  I don’t handle criticism of anyone very well.  I used to be a real trash talker, but thankfully I got out of that 15-20 years ago.  I am quick to defend someone who is being verbally picked on.  That being said, there are times when I want to shake the person who asks me how I lost all my weight, then proceeds to tell me how hard they have worked at it, but nothing seems to work for them, all the while sucking on a 24 ounce sugar-laden soda.  I still feel sorry for them though, as I do know where they are at.  I was there just a short time ago.  Even though I knew I needed to do something different, I couldn’t seem to make myself do it.  So to answer the question of whether I think it is all their fault, no, not entirely anyhow, but I do think that they can make a difference.  I just wish I knew how to help them decide to do it.

Q:  Your wife seems to provide you with a number of temptations out of her love for you – making favourites which you’d rather not have but eat because they come from her love and good intentions. Have you talked with her about your desire not to have these meals?

A:  I have talked to her about this.  She thinks that it is occurring on an infrequent enough basis, and that I have enough control, that it isn’t harming me.  She knows that I have always loved her good cooking, and for years it was the best way for her to do something special for me.  I think it is a case of old habits dying hard.  Food has always been a big deal in both of our families.  As a result, this creates real hurdles sometimes.

Q:  What camera do you use to video yourself?

A:  The Creative Vado HD.  I love the quality of this camera, but the design is somewhat poor.  There is a USB flip out tab on the bottom that prevents you from balancing it on a table.  It even makes it inconvenient to mount on a tripod.  I am extremely happy with the quality though, and I got it really inexpensively.

Q:  What was your tipping point to decide to get healthy?

A:  This is a great question.  I wrestled with weight loss most of my life.  I had lost some weight as an adult, but I gained much of it back (that is another story).  As an adult, I have always had high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  I was also pre-diabetic.  Last July I am fairly confident I crossed over into full blown diabetes.  Intense, unquenchable thirst for ice cold water, frequent urination, sore muscles, etc.  I saw it as my wake up call, my one last shot to straighten my life out before the ramifications were permanent, and I wasn’t sure I could even make a difference.  Well, I think I have made a difference, and I have yet to be officially diagnosed as diabetic.

Q:  Were you always overweight or just as an adult?

A:  When I was seven and younger I was actually very slim.  As I got older, I began to find that I could out eat almost anyone, in quantity and speed.  I began to consume great amounts of food in incredibly fast times.  It was almost a side show at lunch.  Guess what that caused?  Yep, a ballooning weight.  As an adult I was actually smaller than I am now one time, but that was for a very brief period.

Q:  What person from past history would you like to meet?

A:  Hmm, this is one of the tougher questions.  If I could meet one person from the past I think it would be . . . Wow, this is hard.  I am thinking of Biblical icons, founding fathers of the United States, great leaders, revolutionary people (i.e., people who challenged the world on a principle they believed in), etc.  I don’t really know that I can pick just one.

Q:  What foods do you find most filling for the least amount of calories….very interested in this, plus how many cals do you tend to eat in a day?

A:  The one thing I have never done as far as dieting goes is count calories.  Yeah, I am familiar with the calorie count of many foods, but I have no idea how much I eat in a day.  When I am in a munching mood I tend to try to eat fresh, raw veggies such as celery, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower.  I also like cooked green beans as a low calorie food.

Q:  How do you balance the desire to encourage newcomers to this journey with the fact that many people fail/quit?

A:  This is such a tough thing to deal with.  The fact of the matter is that many of those who I begin to follow today will be back to their old ways in less than a year.  My goal is to encourage more and more of these people to stick with it.  I think most people just need someone to let them know they believe in them, and that they can do it.

Q:  Where do you come up with your inspiration for your recipes?

A:  My inspiration is sometimes just a thought that comes in my head.  Sometimes it is just experimenting with ways to incorporate good foods into different tastes.  I don’t consider myself real creative in this area, but I like some of the things I have come up with.

Q:  How has your family reacted to your weight loss? Has it added additional stress to them/you?

A:  This is an interesting one.  My wife feels she needs to lose weight, and I think it frustrates her sometimes to see me so close to my goal.  She is always supportive though.  As you may have noticed, I am a big talker, but what you don’t necessarily know is that she isn’t.  I think she gets tired of me talking about it, so I try to do most of that here.  Overall, everyone is very happy for me though.  I don’t know that it has changed the stress level at all, although it has caused some inconvenience since I have certain things I feel like I have to do, such as exercise.  Sometimes those things get in the way of life.

Q:  Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

A: I don’t know the answer to this.  Career-wise, I am really happy with my job, but I also have a strong desire to become a professional speaker.  Perhaps that only means giving presentations to small groups of people periodically, or perhaps it means something on a much larger scale.  I am not sure.  I really hope to find a mentor in this area, perhaps through Toastmasters, to help me find my groove in this.

Q:  What role does your faith play in your weight loss?

A:  One thing I think of a lot is that my body is a temple, and temples by their very nature should be taken care of.  Mine has honestly been in disarray much of my life.  I a doing some necessary repairs right now.

Q:  How hard was it to figure out and maintain a workout routine while traveling so much?

A:  This has been exceptionally tough.  I found that I can walk almost anywhere if I will just make myself do it.  I can also do push ups and planks almost anywhere.  That is part of the reason I do the exercises I do.  I wanted a program I could follow no matter where I was.

Q:  Did you follow the South Beach Diet the whole time to lose weight?

A:  Yes, although I would not say I follow it religiously.  I eat more fat than he recommends, but otherwise it is pretty close.  This diet works well for me and my body.

Q:  Why did you choose a low carb plan in the first place?

A:  I don’t really consider the South Beach Diet to be low carb.  I really eat quite a few carbs daily: fruit, lots of veggies, some grains.  I like to tell people I am on a diet that consists of lots of fresh vegetables, some fruit, limited whole grains, and meat/fish.  I avoid processed foods, and I try to greatly limit sodas, even diet sodas.

I chose this type of diet because of the positive effects it has on blood sugar.  As I pointed out in another question, diabetes was a reality for me.  I had to do something about it.  It was actually the South Beach Heart Health book that inspired my program.

I have been on a low carb diet before, and had great success with it, I am just not dedicated enough to follow that regiment right now.

Q:  What is he most valuable lesson you have learned on this journey?

A:  That no matter how long it takes, the improvements I am seeing day-by-day are worth it.

Q:  When you see someone who appears to be very overweight and look unhappy/is struggling to get around, do you feel an overwhelming urge to go up to them and hand them a business card with your blog address and a brief explanation of what it’s about on it?

A:  I had to smile at this question.  I have thought about this.  I am just not sure it would ever be taken well.  People are ready when they are ready, and they don’t want to hear about it when they aren’t.

Q:  What’s your favorite type of Tabata, and why?

A:  I do three types right now: squats, jumping jacks, and jump rope.  My favorite is actually the one I do least, jump rope.  I do it least because it has to be done outside, and I am usually ready to come in after my walks.  I like it best because it works your whole body.  Jumping Jacks would be second, and again, they are my second least in quantity.  My least favorite, squats, are the ones I typically do three days a week.  Don’t ask me why.  I don’t know.

Q: Has your focus, your primary goal, shifted somewhat, or become a bit more expansive (no pun intended) than when you started?

A:  Indeed it has.  When I first started, I just wanted to save my life.  Now I want to see others save their lives too.

Q:  What is your favorite food? Is that different from before?

A:  Hmm, there are two answers to this.  The food that I crave and would overeat on in a heartbeat is homemade lasagna.  I can eat WAY too much of this at the drop of a hat.  That has not changed from before losing weight.  My favorite food that isn’t because of an addiction or very strong craving is fresh honeycrisp apples with natural peanut butter.  That has changed.

Q:  When you lost all that weight with the very low carb diet, what caused you to gain it back? Was it the transition from a “diet” to a maintenance plan?

A:  I did so well on that diet.  I enjoyed it overall, and I was pretty healthy (at least by the numbers), just not as fit as I am right now.  I always looked at it as a diet, but never thought of it as a lifestyle change.  When I came off of the diet and started eating like I had always eaten, I began to gain weight like I always had.  So, in short, there was no transition.  It was pure foolishness.

Q:  Are you on a high protein diet?

A:  I know this question was recalled, but I’ll answer it anyhow.  No, I am on a diet that consists of lots of veggies, preferably fresh.  Some fruit, again, preferably fresh, very limited whole grains, and reasonable portions of meat.

Q:  You get up so early, you’re probably getting by on – what? – six hours?

A:  Not enough!    I average about six to seven hours a night, but I do better on eight.

Q:  How do you stay motivated to be as consistent as you are with your food plan?

A:  Consistent or boring?  I am truly a creature of habit.  I know what I am doing works, so I don’t vary it a lot.  I am a little afraid of trying some of my old favorites for fear of inciting a craving.  I am slowly introducing those things again, but I am taking it very slow.

Q:  Are you 40-30-30, higher protein or do you just cycle it up?

A:  I don’t really calculate this to know whether it is 40-30-30 or some other proportion.  I would say during the summer it was a lot higher on carbohydrates, as I was eating lots and lots of tomatoes, peppers, and fresh salads.  Now that we are in the winter, I suspect the proteins and fats will increase, as I don’t care as much for out of season veggies.  I will also begin implementing more intermittent fasting during the winter, perhaps a day a week.

Q:  Do you have any fitness books that you recommend?

A:  Let me think for a second . . .  Not really.  I have read some on plyometrics and interval training, but I haven’t found a book that jumps out at me yet.  This may sound crazy, but if I had more time, I would write a book.  Probably not strictly a fitness book, but a healthy lifestyle book.

Q:  Have you ever played on any sports teams?

A:  Only when I was very young.  I was never real good at sports.  In fact, my wife refers to me as the kid who picked dandilions out in left field (baseball).    I just wasn’t that motivated to do it well.  I was practically begged to play football, but I didn’t think getting tackled sounded like all that much fun.  I would enjoy things like that more now though, I think.  I did wrestle a lot growing up, but not on a team.  I also lifted weights for several years, but it was inconsistent and poorly implemented.

Q: What caused you to want to blog your weight loss journey? Was this your first blog?

A: I needed accountability.  It gave me something I felt like I had to be responsible to.  I also like to share things, and my wife tires of hearing my tired old stories over and over.    And no, this wasn’t my first blog.  My first one was a pathetic computer tips blog I tried to run as advice to my computer customers; however most of them only used their computers to check email and play solitaire, so that failed miserably.  My second one, which I have actually started twice, is a “get out of debt” blog.  I really want to start this one back up, but I don’t have the energy to devote myself to this right now.  I have also started a blatantly honest, talk about whatever I want to talk about blog.  None of these did very well, but I also didn’t put much effort into any of them.  This blog was different.  I didn’t really care if it succeeded or not.  It was simply an accountability tool for me.  In fact, I think it was six months or more before I had more than just a small handful of visitors.  None of my original faithfuls even check it now.  That part is sad to me.  I have to admit, I wonder how some people start blogs and have 40-50 comments from unique people on every post, and they do this after a month or so of blogging.  I guess people just find their stories more interesting.

Q:  Do you find that blogging helps keep you accountable or is the opposite true and it distracts you from your goals?

A:  Blogging definitely keeps me accountable.  I consider it a key component to my success thus far.

Q:  Do you have any pets?

A:  Here goes – yes, we have some pets.  A stray cat started hanging around earlier this year.  We also have a hermit crab and two snakes.  The snakes are my son’s: a black rat snake that is about 5-6 foot long and a corn snake that is about 3 feet long.  The corn snake is a really pretty orange snake.  My wife often says she cannot believe there are two snakes in our house.  I have to tell a pet story here.  My wife loves and dotes on all the dogs and cats we have owned, but they always love on me.  Neither of us understand it, but it has been true for every animal (dog and cat) that we have had. In fact, one cat, a black, six-toed cat, would come wake her up in the morning by gently slapping her in the face with his big paws when he was ready to eat, but when he wanted to love on someone he would come rubbing on me.  I wish I understood why this was.

Q:  Do you have a favorite restaurant currently?

A:  Well, I have a few favorites, but I am not sure which is the most overall favorite.  I really love Chima, a Brazilian Steak House I often eat at when I travel to Charlotte, NC.  I also like Saltgrass Steakhouses in the southwestern US.  The ones outside of the southwestern US aren’t as good.  Last, and probably the most healthy, is the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday restaurants.

Q:  Were you lucky enough not to have a lot of loose skin after the majority of your loss? If you do, would you consider having surgery to get rid of it?

A:  So far I have been very lucky with this.  I don’t have any loose skin yet.  I do have stretch marks from my rapid loss and regain when I did Atkins years ago.  I have also noticed that my belly skin hangs down more than I am comfortable with when I am doing push ups.  This is part of the reason I want the last little bit to come off slow.  I hope it is giving my body time to adjust and bring the skin on in some.  If I am left with hanging skin, I am not sure what I will do.  I think I would probably gain back to where I am now if I have loose skin when I get smaller.  I am at a comfortable place now, but it isn’t where I would ideally stop.  It is good enough that it outweighs the loose skin at this point though. If the loose skin had developed when I still had 50 pounds to lose, I would have a much different attitude.  The one thing that is for sure is that I would exhaust all other options before opting for surgery.

Q:  I want to know how you have time to workout, work, work a second job, spend time with family, prepare meals, AND blog and comment as much as you do! I miss my blogging. It has been key! But man, I can’t keep up!  So my friend, how do you do it all??

A:  It is tough, believe me.  I have just about reached my limit of what I can do.  I am getting by on two hours a night less sleep than I did eighteen months ago, which helps.  I am also not wasting much time on anything.  Efficiency is now the name of the game.

Q: Why aren’t you running? You are clearly in good shape these days, and you walk a LOT. Is there an injury that I missed that is preventing you from running? Or have you just not taken the plunge, so to speak?

A:  It is really a combination of a lot of things.  One is a lack of confidence.  I just have never seen myself as a runner, and I struggle to make myself do it.  Kind of weak, huh?  Also, I have a tendency to get bronchitis when I breathe heavy in the cold air.  Therefore, I am a little concerned to start trying to run now.  I have made up my mind that I am going to run a 5k this upcoming spring though.

Q:  How does God fit in to your life right now?

A:  Wow, this is deep.  My wife and I switched churches about a year ago.  I am finding that we are fitting in well there.  The big thing is that I am growing spiritually.  I have been studying the Bible more lately (the book of James the last few weeks), and my prayer life has improved dramatically.  Lately I have been feeling as if God is calling me to do something.  I just can’t put my finger on it yet.  I am trying to be open and listen, but I am not hearing the specifics yet.  I think God gives us talents and gifts, and if we aren’t using those gifts to the best of our ability, we are not only shortchanging ourselves, but we are abusing the gifts we have been given.  I really don’t feel as if I have been using my talents and gifts most of my life.  Now I am trying to figure out how to better do that.

Q:  I know you can be pretty strict and motivated, but what do you do when you blow it completely? Do you fall into self-recrimination? Do you have a strategy for getting yourself back on the wagon? And how quickly does that happen? From what I pick up from your reports, it seems you easily right your course the next day, if not already by the evening of that same day. What’s your secret?

A:  I haven’t “completely” blown it in quite some time.  I do mess up quite often though.  In the past, I always rationalized the rest of the day away when I blew it.  I would then end up rationalizing the week away, which soon turned into months.  I soon realize that I needed to prevent myself from really blowing it.  For me, it created a snowball effect.  When I do have a bad meal or day, I just make myself get right back at it.  Oftentimes, I am ultra strict on myself the next day to prove I can stop the madness.  I think the secret is that I have just been burned so much by this that I have resolved myself to never let it happen again.

Q:  Do you ever experience emotional eating? And if you do, what would be a good strategy to circumvent that?

A:  YES!  That is a big problem for me.  If I am stressed, watch out food!  I have found that I really don’t care what the taste is though, I just want to eat.  So, in those times I cut up a bunch of celery and salt it up pretty good, then eat away.  Sure, the salt isn’t the best thing for me, but it keeps me from pigging out on something I really don’t need, like potato chips.  I also like to cook up roasted chick peas, which are also salted down pretty good.  For some reason, this also keeps the eating at bay.  I think the best strategy is to stay busy.  If we are busy, we don’t think about eating as much.  Of course, that is supposing that we are busy doing something that either fully occupies our mind, or we are doing something we really enjoy.

Q:  Do you have hobbies other than blogging?

A:  Yes, I play chess at Red Hot Pawn, I enjoy playing with web design, I have really gotten into roasting my own coffee, and I am an amateur photographer (see some of my pics at 365 Days of Me).

So, there you have it, probably more than you ever wanted to know about South Beach Steve.  So, did you find anything out that surprised you? Was there anything that raised new questions? Or, did you have me all figured out before this?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 9:46 pm by South Beach Steve.
Filed under: Daily Dining, Exercise, Fasting, Garden, General, Goals, Medical
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