The three choices

I'm been contemplating what type of eating pattern to adopt during this transformation. The three choices I am most interested in are:

Pescatarian- Basically a vegetarian lifestyle, plus fish. Jack LaLane is advocate of this. Basically, it would be lots of raw fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, egg whites, plus grilled or baked fish. I have done this before, but I have had a hard time making past a month or two.

South Beach- The last time I got in shape, I did so using South Beach. I like South Beach, but after 4 or 5 months, it gets old.

Reduced Calorie- I hate counting calories. Gyminee (now Daily Burn) has a great application that allows the smart phone user to easily record calories consumed over the course of the day. It worked great when I had an iPhone. I may be getting a BlackBerry soon, and I read that Daily Burn is working on an BlackBerry app. For now, watching calories is out of the question.

My plan for now start off with pure South Beach as soon as next week is done. I will be eating every meal at conference center, starting with dinner tomorrow night. I am going to focus on portion control during this upcoming week.

Over the course of the remaining 31 weeks after that, I intend to slowly transition from South Beach to Pescatarian in hopes of making the latter the backbone of my long term eating habits.

Whenever I get a Blackberry or another iPhone, I will start recording calories using Daily Burn or other similar service with a decent input app.

Week 1 Day 5, BMI: 37.37

Day 5 was rough. My BMI slipped up again and not only did I commute to Richmond, but I spent the day moving equipment around in preparation for our big upcoming teacher orientation next week.

I ate:

• McSkillet Burrito, Iced Tea
• Turkey Sub Sandwich and Snapple Fruit Punch (which was nasty)
• Chipotle Carnitas Burrito (with sour cream and cheese), Iced Tea
• Way too many corn chips

No significant exercise other than the moving. I sweat the entire day. :-(

Week 1 Day 4, BMI: 37.22

After I wrote my update yesterday, I gave in to urges and had a bunch of crackers and cream cheese, and I finished off the chocolate covered raisins.

Typically, when I wake up the next day after this type of set back, I have lost my motivation to drive forward. This time, I awoke determined to get right back into the plan. This blog helps.

Today, I commuted to Richmond and had a fairly stressful and busy day. My lunch was delayed until 3, which I had to grab on the road. On the plus side, I did manage to get to the gym and do 15 minutes on the elliptical machine.

Today, I ate

• McSkillet Burrito, Unsweetened Iced Tea
• Pack of peanuts, PowerBar, and Sweetened Green Tea
• Wegmen's Tofu and Black Bean Burrito and Chesapeake Sushi Roll (Crabmeat, Avocado, and old bay), Some Tortilla Chips, Unsweetened Green Tea
• Two small slices of dark chocolate

My portly Nintendo Wii Mii

I really don't like hearing that I am obese from the Nintendo
corporation.

Week 1 Day 3 BMI: 37.11

I gave in to the temptation for a midnight snack of crackers and chocolate covered raisins again last night.

Today I ate:

• 4 hard boiled egg whites, nuts and seeds, peppers, spinach, and water

• Bowl of black beans and rice, and nori burrito with avocado, spinach, peppers, onions, and sprouts. Water

• Afternoon snack of nuts, crackers and cream cheese, and chocolate covered raisins

• Baked lemon pepper trout and a nori burrito with spinach, peppers, onions, sprouts, and smoked salmon. Chocolate covered raisins and water.

Did I mention that I really like the chocolate covered raisin from Wegmen's? They are 70% cocoa dark chocolate. I probably should just stick to buying small bars of dark chocolate at a time.

I rode my stationary bike twice today for 15 minutes each time.

I decided to stay home today instead of heading into Richmond. Ben has been very, very fussy at night and I am operating with limited sleep. I will have to be in Richmond for the next two days and then every day next week. This will be the first big test of how well I can stay committed to this transformation.

Nori Burrito with nori roll, onion, peppers, smoked salmon, sprouts, and spinach

Zeo Sleep Monitor

This looks awesome.

Inspiration: Tyler at 344 pounds

www.344pounds.com is my inspiration for starting this blog. Tyler has lost over 100 lbs since December of this year and is documenting the process with Web 2.0 tools.

7 Fitness Tips from CnnHealth

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/28/healthmag.one.week.slimmer/index.html

Interesting quotes:

Studies show that recording meals may help you lose up to 5 percent of your weight, says Robert A. Carels, Ph.D., an associate professor in the psychology department at Bowling Green State University.

Documenting meals with this blog should help, then.

...and...

"Yogic breathing offsets this. When you're relaxed, you don't have as much hunger pain," says Ralph LaForge, an exercise physiologist in the endocrine department of the Duke University Medical Center. "People make better food choices when they're relaxed."

I want to work meditation or meditative breathing techniques into my transformation, but I am still on the fence about how to do that. I do try to occasionally focus on breathing very deeply and slowly occasionally, especially when driving.

Week 1 Day 2, BMI: 37.25

I had some late night snacks last night. :-(

Today, I get to work at home, so it should be easier to stick to
healthy habits.

EVENING UPDATE

I had a great day. Lots of exercise: 20 minutes on exercise bike in the morning, medium length run on the Wii Fit after lunch, and a 30 minute walk with the family after dinner. Also, periodic lifting with my 25 pound dumb bells throughout the day.

Meals:

4 egg whites-hard boiled, nuts and seeds, tomato, sliced peppers, water

Nori burrito: nori wrap, spinach, sliced peppers and boc choy, hummus and a bowl of Vigo seasoned black beans and rice, water

Chipotle Veggie Bowl with pinto beans, cilantro rice, peppers and onions, tomato, some corn, and guacamole, iced tea.

Some dark chocolate covered raisins in the evening.

Tomorrow, I will be commuting again, but I don't have to sit in the same place for the entire day and I can chose my own lunch.

Week 1 Day 1, BMI: 37.34

Today is one of those typical hyper-stressful days. I didn't get much sleep last night because my son Ben is sick and fussy. I have to drive over an hour to attend an all day meeting that I don't feel prepared for. During lunch, my healthy eating options will be limited. My choices for breakfast will be limited as well. The rest of this week should be better, but next week will be the roughest week I will have all year: constant travel, meetings, stress, a bounty of easily available unhealthy foods. My big goal for the next two weeks is to totally eliminate sodas, even diet sodas, and be very deliberate about portion control.

EVENING UPDATE
I had a McSkillet Burrito and water for Breakfast. For lunch, I had a chicken salad salad, bag of chips, one of two available cookies, and a water from Padow's. For dinner, I ate some Ratatouille, which is basically just cooked vegetables, roasted tofu, Honest Tea Lime Tea, and two small squares of dark chocolate from Whole Foods in Richmond.

Also at whole foods, I picked up a pack of nori, which is the thin seaweed part of sushi. I want to use the Nori to make one of these wraps:




When I arrived home a few minutes ago, I tried the Nori with just some hummus. It was not unpleasant. No significant exercise today. Sitting in a meeting from 9-4 can really you out. Tomorrow should be a GREAT day!

33 Week Transformation Starts Today!

Why 33 weeks?

By my estimation, if I can lose weight at the pace which I safely have lost weight at in the past, I will be "normal" weight (as measured by BMI) in 33 weeks.

The single biggest reason I have fallen off the fitness wagon in the past is that every few months, I tend to get a nasty cold, the flu, or some other bug. For some reason, I've never been able to continue to eat healthy through those spells. When sick, and during other times of intense stress, I tend to reach towards comfort food, over-indulge, and then feel so guilty that by the time I am healthy again, I am pretty consistently eating junk food and not exercising.

Sometime over the next 33 weeks, I know I am bound to feel under the weather. Therefore, I may miss the BMI target by the deadline, but the true victory for me will be in feeling bad or being very stressed but still managing to stick to the lifestyle transformation program all the way through.

This is the BMI chart for adults according to the CDC. My goal is to go below the 24.9 mark by the end of the 33 weeks (March 7, 2009).

BMI	Weight Status
Below 18.5	Underweight
18.5 – 24.9	Normal
25.0 – 29.9	Overweight
30.0 and Above	Obese