Saturday

Saturday was a mixed day.  From a standpoint of meals and nutrition I finally got back on track.  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all meals that I prepared, I think at the end of the day I finished slightly above 2000 calories because of a second tilapia fillet.  I probably shouldn’t have eaten it, but if it didn’t get eaten today I would have had to throw it out.  In all likely hood it probably only added about 180 calories but I think it pushed past the 2000 calorie threshold.

I had a chance to meet up with some high school friends who I haven’t seen since before my trip to Malibu.  It was a good feeling getting compliments from people that I hold dear, at the same time it made me realize that as great as I feel, I’m still just warming up.  Your friends tend to give you glowing compliments, because they genuinely share in your joy, it’s easy to get wrapped up in that feeling of success and forget about the work that still has to be done.  When I was younger and I lost a great deal of weight in less than a year, I reveled in that shock and awe from people.

The mistake I made at the point in my life was that I did not understand that the real work was making sure to keep the weight off.  I truly appreciate their genuine glee in my success thus far, but I still have to temper my own emotions as the real meat of my weight loss struggle doesn’t start until 300 lbs.  I’m a pre-race thoroughbred still just galloping around the track learning the terrain, feeling the soil in my hooves.

I’m not sure where I will end up on the scale tomorrow morning; I am in a bit of fat limbo.  I think I’ve been able to maintain last week’s 315 lbs, but hoping for at least a 1 or 2 pound drop.  The 3x shirts I’m wearing are starting to get to big, while the 2x size shirts are a hair to small.  Maybe I’ve jinxed myself a bit, but I went ahead and ordered workout clothes, and a few polo shirts, and shorts to accommodate my soon to be need to wear the size 2x.

This next week I will probably need to buy a pair of shoes, my present collection of running shoes is too wide.  Even if I pull the laces as tight as I can, the sides of the shoes have been stretched out so far, that my foot still moves around inside the shoe.  I am losing weight, and yes my feet are losing fat too.

I had a deep tissue massage today, and it was a welcome relief.  My calves, quads, and hamstrings were super tight.  Amanda the masseuse applied a small level of pressure with her forearm, and I almost squealed like a pig.  Halfway through the deep tissue massage, I fell asleep, and found myself waking myself up with my snoring. 

The snoring of big hairy guys like me must be a major occupational hazard.  A masseuse could end up with popped ear drums, contamination from slobber, or develop a level of paranoia from the random surprise loud snorts that almost every snorer bellows when he sleeps.

A quick note about the book I’m reading.  Omnivores Dilemma is truly changing my perspective on where our foods come from.  The author dedicates one chapter to a meal that he consumed with his family at a McDonalds.  In discussing this lunch on the road, he delves into how the menu’s are constructed at fast food establishments, which now include healthy alternatives purely to “deny the denyer”, essentially stating that the salads and yogurts are selling points that children will use to overcome objection from their parents about choosing fast food.

He examines further the high degree of corn products which comprise fast food, walking through the food chain, he learns that more than 6 pounds of corn found it’s way into his lunch.  Most of the products primarily used to enable the food processing.  In the middle of the chapter Pollen spends quite a bit of time extrapolating the ingredients that make up a McDonalds Chicken Nugget.  There are 38 ingredients in a nugget, 13 of them derived from corn, including a suspected carcinogen, dimethylpolysiloxane is a silicon polymer put into the nugget to prevent foaming during cooking.  It is also know to cause reproductive issues, it’s flammable.  If that weren’t bad enough they also use tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), it’s added as a preservative, and is a form of butane.  Ingesting 1 gram of TBHQ can cause nausea, and suffocation, 5 grams can kill you.  Yes I would like that with a side of sweet and sour sauce.

The nugget does contain chicken meat, but it is so over processed that they have add back in chicken bullion for the flavor of poultry.  By the way 6 chicken nuggets also have only 10 lest calories than a McDonalds Cheeseburger, so much for chicken being healthy. 

In a previous chapter Pollen describes the economic impact of traditional farming and food consumption.  With the population growing at a rate of only 1% a year it would make companies in the food industry unattractive for investing.  Typical wall street analyst want to see at least 10% returns, how do you do that when your consumer base only grows at a rate of 1% a year, they have to buy more, and by extension we have to eat more. 

This book is a huge eye opener.  I’m about to get into the chapter about organic foods, and his examination of the “alternative”, “healthier” food options. 

Sunday

Most of my Sunday morning was spent at work, putting out a few fires.  Around lunch time I was chauffeuring my cranking patient around aka as my mother, and the only place around was McDonalds.  I ordered her favorite Big Mac Meal, and I got myself a grilled chicken salad. 

After reading the recent chapter of Omnivores Dilemma, I purchased my salad with my eyes open.  When I opened the lid on my salad, it had been dipped in some sauce, a gluey consistency surely made up of something with high fructose corn syrup, so I skipped the Mickey D’s meal.  I ate a Luna Bar instead. 

I made the mistake yesterday of not being adequately prepared for what turned out to be a long day.  So for breakfast I had a Cliff Builders bar and an apple, and lunch was a Luna bar, and an orange.  I had bag of nuts, and until 8 pm I didn’t eat anything else.  It amounted to about 800 calories.

By the time I got home and cooked dinner I was starving.  I made a big ass salad, and broiled a chicken breast.  I also had a cup of soup.  It doesn’t sound like much, but in terms of shear volume I ate more than my stomach could handle.  As a whole my calories were less than 2000 but I don’t like the fact I pushed the limit in terms of the volume of my stomach. 

I found myself in a bad place with food this past week.  Overall I was able to maintain the same weight, which is a victory to some degree, but I would have thought I would have dropped at least a pound.  I guess what I ate was more than I realized, or the sodium levels have caused me retains more water than I want to, or maybe it was another adjustment week.