Monday, August 31, 2009

Day 8

Sunday, the day of rest. Except for me, that is. As a person who works from home and sits in front of a computer all day, Sundays tend to be anything but restful. I drive more, speak more, and interact in person with more people on Sunday than any other day of the week (yesterday's popcorn sale notwithstanding).

That's why I decided that on Sunday during weeks 1 and 2 I'd make breakfast my big meal. Breakfast this day was a massive 3-egg omelet, with half a cup of cheddar, half a cup of diced ham, and three slices of bacon.

Because Sundays are so busy for me, I actually neglected to have my mid-day snack altogether. Lunch was late, and by the time I got home it was almost time for dinner. Thus, my overall caloric intake was down considerably. I still can't figure out whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.


GramsCalories%-Cals
Calories
1,502


Fat
84.7
760
50
%
Saturated
39.7
355
23
%
Polyunsaturated
7.2
64
4
%
Monounsaturated
27.1
243
16
%
Carbohydrate
25.2
99
7
%
Dietary Fiber
0.8



Protein
160.1
657
43
%
Alcohol
0.0
0
0
%


In any event, my spirits and energy levels are still high, and my hunger is practically non-existent.

Week 1 Report

Week 1 of this 6-week plan has ended. Is it possible to evaluate a diet or fitness plan after only a week? I don't know, and will let the numbers speak for themselves. I will refrain from making an overall judgment until the very end, and try to present just the facts where the plan itself is concerned. When I stray into opinion, I will try to stick to describing how I feel at any given time.

Now it's time to review the results. So after the first week on the plan, I have lost 5.4 pounds, and a little bit off my waist, hips and chest. In that week, I haven't felt deprived of anything. My sleep has improved, and I seem to have more energy.









Start

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

*Weight and Body fat taken on a
Tanita Body Fat Monitor
immediately
upon waking.

Weight (lbs)*

216.4

211.0

Body Fat % *

32.0

31.4

Waist (inches)

46.5625

45.875

Hips (inches)

45.875

44.0

Chest (inches)

44.0

43.50

SAD (Standing)

12.0

12.0

SAD (lying down)

11.375

10.25


You'll notice that I've added two measurements to the chart that weren't in the first chart: namely, the SAD, or "Sagittal Abdominal Diameter" values. Without complicating things too much, this measurement helps to determine how much of your abdominal fat is on the surface as opposed to being packed in the abdominal cavity. The latter fat is the more dangerous of the two. Evidently, gravity affects the two types of fat differently. Taking the same measurement standing and lying down provides you with two different numbers.
To quote briefly from the book, "The closer the two readings are together, the  more likely it is that there is a significant amount of middle-body fat stored in and around the vital organs within the abdominal cavity." A more thorough examination of abdominal fat is presented in Chapter 3. How to take and interpret the measurements are described in Chapter 5.

As I noted at the beginning, the plan is divided into three 2-week phases, so I'm half way through the first phase now. I'm actually looking forward to the second phase, but I'll until next week to describe it.

Day 7

As I mentioned previously, today was the day of our Scout Troop's popcorn sale. Today was also the day that Hurricane (Tropical Storm?) Danny brushed New England, so it was cold and wet the entire time. As it happens, this was the first of four or five such sales. Our Popcorn Kernel (yes, he's actually called that) decided that because we were so successful, selling almost our entire stock in five hours of rain, we'll order more and do it again. Oh well, it's for a good cause, right?

I was a bit concerned about being around all the popcorn for a long stretch of time, particularly since we were supposed to be offering free samples. Fortunately, our entire stock consisted of various varieties of caramel corn (which I don't like) and microwave popcorn. Thus, no temptation.

After the sale, coming home and drying off, it was time to sit down with the family for dinner. We had chicken breast and broccoli. The rest of the family ate it served over steamed rice, which I declined. I passed on dessert.

Today's nutritional chart is below.



GramsCalories%-Cals
Calories
1,442
Fat
55.2
496
34
%
Saturated
29.0
261
18
%
Polyunsaturated
4.1
36
2
%
Monounsaturated
13.5
121
8
%
Carbohydrate
32.4
125
9
%
Dietary Fiber
6.8
Protein
208.9
839
57
%
Alcohol
0.0
0
0
%


My next post will detail the results as of the end of week one.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Day 6

The first week is rapidly coming to an end. Like the past couple of days, I experienced no hunger today, forgot my afternoon snack, went out and played tennis for over an hour, and am just now getting ready to sit down to a late dinner with the family.

Tomorrow, as I mentioned earlier, is our scout troop's popcorn sale at Hunter's IGA in Wolfeboro, NH, from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. I've also set up a landing page on my web site for anyone to use. One of the coolest things they offer is a link that lets you send a donation of popcorn to our military troops serving abroad.

On my way home from playing tennis today, I passed the track at the local high school. Running around the track was a woman in a sweatsuit, and she had to be 300 pounds. She was barely moving. You have to admire the drive and determination, but it saddens me that people have bought into the myth that you have to exercise to lose weight, or that you have to eat fewer calories than you burn. It just doesn't work that way, at least not for most people. In fact, your body's first response to a lower caloric intake is to go, "AH! Starvation! Quick, shut down every non-essential movement!" You won't fidget as much. You'll feel very tired, and you simply won't want to move. Here is a post that describes the phenomenon much better than I can. If you're looking for a better authority, here's an older post from Dr. Mike Eades' blog where he discusses runners and their health.

Today's nutritional breakdown, according to FitDay.com, is as follows.




GramsCalories%-Cals
Calories
1,439
Fat
56.8
511
35
%
Saturated
30.4
273
19
%
Polyunsaturated
3.0
27
2
%
Monounsaturated
15.0
135
9
%
Carbohydrate
31.2
121
8
%
Dietary Fiber
3.5
Protein
204.1
827
57
%
Alcohol
0.0
0
0
%


As you can see, a much lower caloric load today, and I'm not really sure how that happened. Carbs are still where they belong, and protein is over 200g. I'm absolutely astounded at the amount of energy I have on so little food. It's amazing.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Day 5

Today was grocery day. My wife and daughter left around 9:00 this morning with a shopping list that included everything I'll need for Week 2. What else she brought home almost had me in tears: three of the largest peaches I've ever seen, a big bag of seedless grapes, a basket of apples, and a big box of Oreo Cookies. The fruit is diet approved, in moderation, but I need to stay away from the Oreos, which happen to be my favorite brand of commercial cookie. Fortunately, she also got a fresh pound and a half of steak. Yes, I know we just had that on Monday, but I love steak.

I feel as though I'm finally into a groove with this plan. I'm almost never hungry anymore, even when it's time to eat. As I did yesterday, I had to force myself to have my 3:00 snack. The book doesn't mention anything about skipping meals or snacks one way or the other. However, as part of my agreement with the authors, I promised to stick to the plan as best I can.

Tonight's dinner was the aforementioned steak, of which I ate almost half, or approximately 12 oz. I grilled it with just a bit of sea salt sprinkled on it. With the grill just touching 400 degrees, the steak was almost a perfect medium/medium-rare after 22 minutes. Eaten with the steak was a salad of romaine lettuce, baby spinach, real bacon bits, and a little olive oil.

I don't have too many weeks of grilling left, I'm afraid. As the summer comes to a close, keeping the grill at a decent temperature after dark gets more difficult. The outside temperature drops quickly as soon as the sun drops below the treetops. The grill takes longer to heat up, and requires a lot more fuel to keep the temperature high enough for grilling. Once the winter rolls in, the outside temperature can dip into the single digits. At that point, it's almost impossible to use the grill, even if I do shovel a path through the snow to get to it. Oh well, that's life in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire.

FitDay's breakdown of my nutritional breakdown is as follows:



GramsCalories%-Cals
Calories
1,926
Fat
86.2
774
40
%
Saturated
33.4
301
15
%
Polyunsaturated
11.7
105
5
%
Monounsaturated
29.2
261
13
%
Carbohydrate
29.8
118
6
%
Dietary Fiber
3.7
Protein
259.5
1,063
54
%
Alcohol
0.0
0
0
%


It appears that no matter what I do, I'm going to end up around 1900 Calories. Notice that protein was 54% of my total, and carbs were below 30. This seems to be a pretty good balance.

Even though I'm only on day 5, I can already see results. My clothes and wedding band fit looser and I seem to have a slightly slimmer profile in the mirror. I'm looking forward to Saturday night's weighing and measuring. The book recommends weighing yourself only once a week, so I'm sticking to that.

I've also started noticing something non-weight-related. My knees and knuckles often have pain on and off throughout the day. I'm told it's the beginnings of arthritis, which runs in my family. Since starting this plan, I've experienced no knee pain at all, and my fingers feel much better too.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Day 4

I didn't sleep very well last night, though I don't believe it was diet-related. I kept having the feeling that I had forgotten to do something important. After waking multiple times and struggling to go back to sleep, it finally occurred to me what was wrong. Tuesday nights are when we have our weekly scout troop meeting. We didn't meet last night because we're doing our Fall Popcorn sale this Saturday.

Each year, scouts all over the US sell popcorn to help fund their various activities, such as summer camp. Our troop has a lot of grand plans for the upcoming scouting year, including a doubling up summer camp in 2010, skiing and snowboarding this winter, and doing some night snowshoe hikes at a nearby ski area. They're going to need  a lot of money, and most of it comes from fund-raisers like this popcorn sale.

If you happen to be in Wolfeboro, NH on Saturday, August 29, please stop by Hunter's IGA downtown between 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM and help support Scouting in New Hampshire. If you aren't local but would still like to support scouting, you can now do it online here. It's going to be hard passing up all that popcorn - it's not part of the plan. Nor is their fantastic trail mix. However, I may buy a package or two of chili lime almonds and enjoy them during weeks 3 and 4.

Sorry for that off-topic digression. A peculiar thing happened this afternoon. I forgot my 3:00 snack. I wasn't hungry, and when I finally started to get hungry, it was 3:30. So I went into the kitchen, made my snack, and took it back to my desk.

Dinner was early tonight due to an activity at my oldest son's school. My wife took him to that event, and I took the other two to the local tennis court. Exercise isn't necessarily prescribed during the 6-week plan, and the way I play tennis probably can't be called exercise anyway. In any event, it felt good to be out. I really haven't left the house since Sunday.

Tonight's dinner was an 8oz ham steak, broiled, with half a cup of steamed green beans, drizzled with a tablespoon of olive oil, then sprinkled with coarse sea salt and black pepper. Oddly, that's all I wanted. As I mentioned above, I'm simply not hungry today at all. I didn't even bother with a dessert. I sort of had a Homer Simpson moment when he was in the steak eating contest and couldn't finish it. He said, "What has happened to me? There's still food and I don't want to eat it. Oh! I've become everything I've ever hated!" Well, maybe it wasn't that bad.

FitDay reports the following as my entire day's nutritional summary.

GramsCalories%-Cals
Calories
1,580
Fat
77.3
695
43
%
Saturated
31.8
286
18
%
Polyunsaturated
11.6
104
6
%
Monounsaturated
24.8
223
14
%
Carbohydrate
21.9
86
5
%
Dietary Fiber
2.0
Protein
203.2
823
51
%


So as you can see, I'm consuming fewer calories, but more importantly keeping my protein high and my carbs low.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Day 3

I was very tired early today, though that's a result of staying up too late and getting up too early. By lunch time, I couldn't sit still, so took an hour "lunch break" to go outside and mow the lawn. I started a new audio book, Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston. I've enjoyed some of his other works, and this one is starting off interesting. I rip the audio book to my iPod, listen to it, and then delete it when I'm done. It's great for yard work, commuting, etc.

I think I blew it today on my large meal. I had smoked sausage, which is technically not on the plan, but I ate it anyway. I think I may regret it. With it I enjoyed a cup of steamed green beans, drizzled with a tablespoon of olive oil, then sprinkled with coarse sea salt and black pepper. If you're experiencing deja vu, it's because I did the same thing to my broccoli last night. Also the same was dessert: half of a fresh peach, grilled over medium heat for 5 minutes, then served with a sprinkle of Splenda and cinnamon.

FitDay reports the following as my entire day's nutritional summary.


GramsCalories%-Cals
Calories
2,221


Fat
143.3
1,287
58
%
Saturated
53.9
485
22
%
Polyunsaturated
13.5
121
5
%
Monounsaturated
27.2
243
11
%
Carbohydrate
47.9
186
8
%
Dietary Fiber
8.1



Protein
188.6
751
34
%


Judging by this chart I really blew away the calories from the past two days. Of greater concern to me is the high carb count. I think that's why I should have passed on the sausage.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Day 2

Hunger improved a bit today. I'd have to rate it about  a 3-4 (out of 10). I felt satisifed for most of the day. At one point, I did experience a little bit of a head rush when I stood up. Dr. Eades suggests that this is a potassium shortage, so taking extra potassium should solve that problem. Other than that, I have no complaints whatsoever.

Tonight's dinner was one of my favorites. We had grilled sirloin tips and steamed broccoli. I had 9oz of the steak and one cup of broccoli. The broccoli was drizzled with a tablespoon of olive oil, then sprinkled with coarse sea salt and black pepper. Dessert was half of a fresh peach, grilled over medium heat for 5 minutes, then served with a sprinkle of Splenda, cinnamon, and half a tablespoon of heavy cream. Very delicious.

FitDay reports the following as my entire day's nutritional summary.

GramsCalories%-Cals
Calories
1,980
Fat
90.3
809
40
%
Saturated
38.7
348
17
%
Polyunsaturated
6.7
60
3
%
Monounsaturated
31.3
279
14
%
Carbohydrate
38.4
148
7
%
Dietary Fiber
7.6
Protein
258.0
1,043
52
%


It appears that I ate more calories and protein than yesterday. Note that the plan doesn't call for you to track calories, carbs, fat, or anything else. I'm doing this as an academic exercise.

Until tomorrow...

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Day 1

On Saturday I went to the store to purchase all the food I'd need for the first two weeks of the plan. I spent $85, including an $8 package of multi-vitamins. I wasn't able to find exactly what Dr. Eades recommends in the book, so I got as close as I could.

It probably wasn't a great idea, but I decided to binge a bit on my final two days before starting the plan. I'm sure I'm not alone in doing this sort of thing, but I loaded up on McDonalds, chips, ice cream, and other junk food. This is something I rarely do in the first place, as I have followed a low carb maintenance diet for most of the past decade. Shocking your system with two days of sugar and junk food when you're not used to it can be a brutal experience. I don't recommend it.

As you might imagine, the first day of any new dietary experience always brings with it some adjustment. I had no idea what to expect. Would I be hungry and tired all day? Would I get headaches or have other unpleasant side effects? As it turns out, it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it would be. I would rate my overall hunger level at about a 5 (with 10 being very hungry and 0 being not at all). Other than that, I've suffered no ill effects whatsoever.

At the beginning of my six-week journey with Drs. Mike and Mary Dan Eades, I offer the following starting measurements. They will be updated at the end of each week:

Day

Start

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

*Weight and Body fat taken on a Tanita Body Fat Monitorimmediately upon waking.

Weight (lbs)*

216.4

Body Fat % *

32.0

Waist (inches)

46.5625

Hips (inches)

45.875

Chest (inches)

44.0

For breakfast today I had a massive 3-egg omelet with two slices of bacon, about half a cup of cubed ham, and a quarter cup of shredded cheddar cheese. I washed it down with a half liter bottle of Nestle Pure Life Kiwi-Strawberry Splash. Very filling and satisfying.

 I put my entire day's meals into FitDay and was a bit surprised by the results.
GramsCalories%-Cals
Calories
1,808
Fat
95.2
855
47
%
Saturated
44.5
400
22
%
Polyunsaturated
7.9
71
4
%
Monounsaturated
28.8
259
14
%
Carbohydrate
30.6
120
7
%
Dietary Fiber
1.7
Protein
209.8
851
47
%

As you can see, this is certainly not a low-calorie diet. If you happen to be lipophobic, the high fat content is likely to scare you off. However, don't dismiss it too quickly. The fat shouldn't be a concern, as Drs. Eades point out repeatedly on their blog and in their books.

An Introduction to "The 6-Week Cure"

I was recently fortunate enough to be selected for a limited preview of the latest book by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades, titled The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle: The Simple Plan to Flatten Your Belly Fast!

The book arrived a few days ago, and I eagerly dived right into it, finishing it late Friday night. The idea is simple: If you are middle aged and have a lot of visceral (internal abdominal) fat, you're in greater danger from this fat than just simply being overweight. The plan described in the book is presented as a safe, fast, and effective way to lose the abdominal fat. The plan is divided into three two-week periods, with a different eating philosophy for each of those weeks. 

While I was not asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, I feel that it would be ungrateful to the authors to reveal the book's details in this blog. That is not my intention. Instead, my goal for this blog is simply to serve as a public journal of my experiences in following this 6-week plan. If you are familiar with any of the Eades' other works, you will probably guess that the plan is low carb. You would be correct. If you want details of this plan, I recommend that you order the book from Amazon.com or your favorite book seller. If you aren't familiar with their works (or maybe you aren't middle aged yet), you might want consider purchasing any of the Eades' books.


That said, I will reveal this much. The philosophy is that you need to de-fat (my term) your liver. Evidently if your liver is full of fat, you can't lose fat, regardless of what you try. Thus, the plan is specifically geared to get your liver de-fatted (again, my term) and primed to do its job. So basically, in week one you're limited to two small "meals," one "snack" and one large "real" meal. You may eat the real meal at any point during the day. I have chosen to break down my days this way:
  • 7:00: Small Meal
  • 11:00 Small Meal
  • 3:00 Snack
  • 6:00 Large Meal
On Sunday I reverse that and have a very large breakfast. Keep in mind that this is only for the first two weeks.


As I progress through the next six weeks, I plan to submit a daily brief describing my emotional state of the day. My intention is to detail each day's large meal, and a breakdown of that day's nutritional information. At the end of each week, I will offer a summary of the week, as well as my latest measurements (weight, chest, waist, hips, etc.). I had blood work done prior to beginning this plan, and will have it done again when I'm finished. I will include the results of those tests when available.

I'd love to get comments from others who were also accepted into this early test so we can compare experiences. I will try to field any questions I get as best I can, but can't promise I will be able to answer them all.