Getting Healthy

The Seemingly Unrelated

2011-06-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

For as long as I can remember, the heat has bothered me. I know it didn't when I was a child; I can't remember when it started. But I know that the summer I spent in Georgia in my early twenties nearly killed me--though I loved the slower pace and the proximity of the ocean, any notion of moving south was promptly abandoned when August struck.

Since that time, if not earlier, it's been a simple fact of life for me: I can't stay outside long in the heat, and I can't exert myself in the heat. I get dizzy, I get short of breath, sometimes little silver spots dance before my eyes and make me fear that I might faint (although I never have).

Until this year.

I've mentioned in previous posts that my daughter and I have been pretty steadily walking 2-4 miles/day, and sometimes even more. The other big change I've made is that I'm prioritizing sleep. I've learned that for me, 5-6 hours of sleep on a regular basis just isn't sufficient and if I don't average 7-8 my blood pressure and heart rate start to creep back up.

I've noticed a big change in my endurance recently, not so much in the course of intentional exercise but in the things I'll do without thinking about them. For instance, one night about a week ago I locked my keys in my car about a mile from home and just automatically walked home to pick up my spare keys and walk back. For most of my adult life, I would have had to stop and assess whether I was feeling up to the walk. But last week, I didn't even think about it.

It's been a big relief to see that I can, in fact, build endurance. That hasn't been my experience in the past, and I think it's because I never tried to combine regular exercise with getting enough sleep before. When my heart rate and blood pressure were up, more exercise just wore me down. But a few days ago, something even bigger happened. On a 93 degree day, I walked the 12 blocks from the train station to my office and back again. And, again, I didn't give it much thought. After nearly 25 years of having to be careful in the heat and suffering the consequences if I wasn't, I threw caution to the wind and suffered no ill effects.

I know this isn't a pretty thought, but I just have to share: it is such an incredible relief to be able to break a sweat again!

Just Walk

2011-06-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

For years, I've been seeing blurbs on the covers of checkout-stand magazines promising "secrets" for walking off pounds. I'll admit it--I usually flip open the magazine to see if they've really got something. Some of the "secrets" I've seen include short bursts of power walking, arm action and strapping on weights. And I'm sure that all of those things have health and weight loss benefits.

However, I'm here to tell you that there's no secret required. Over the past few months, I've taken to walking 2-4 miles per day on a regular basis. I shoot for 25 miles a week, though I don't always make it. I don't incorporate weights. I don't have a walking technique. I don't plan my walks for a certain time of day or place them a certain distance from my meals. I just walk.

And, in fact, I'm not dropping pounds like the magazines promised I would--so if weight loss is your goal, maybe you should pick up a few of those magazines and figure out which tips to incorporate. But I have dropped two clothing sizes in about two months, without losing a single pound. And though I know the number matters to some people, I am a lot more interested in my lean body mass, my health and how my clothing fits than I am what the scale says. So for me, the big secret is this: just walk. Every day.

It takes between 45 and 90 minutes a day depending on how far I walk, and I would have been the first to say that I didn't have time for that. But it's all a matter of priorities, isn't it? Surely there's a television show or a Facebook game you could swap for that walking time, if you want to be healthy and slip back into your thin clothes.

A Handy Tool for Anyone Counting Calories, Fat, Carbs, etc.

2010-10-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Recently, my doctor told me that if I lost twenty pounds, I might be able to eliminate my blood pressure medication--my last maintenance med. Although that's been my goal for a long time, the pros have consistently told me for the past few years that I'd be on that medication for the rest of my life, so I have a powerful new incentive to knock that weight off.

During that appointment, the doctor pointed me to MyFitnessPal.com, and I'm loving it. I don't entirely agree with the calorie/fat/carb recommendations for the day--the fat content is a bit high--but the tracking is invaluable. You can generate a report that tells you not only how many calories you've had each day, but how much fat, fiber, carbs, sodium and protein. You can also log exercise and get a instant count of how many calories you've burned.

We've all logged these things before, but what makes this system different for me is the huge database of foods, including brand name and grocery-store-brand packaged foods, so that all you have to do is type in the name of what you ate and all of the nutritional information is automatically pulled into your log. Helps keep me honest, too. And it's entirely free. If you're looking for an easy way to track exercise and calories, you should check it out. The site appears to have a great community as well, though I haven't really gotten involved with that.

The Simple Things We Don't Do to Get Healthy

2010-04-02T21:22:00.001-07:00

Earlier this evening, I happened to see that Mike Foster had posted a video about green tea on Facebook, and it made me feel just a little bit foolish. I've got a couple of kinds of green tea in my cabinet, along with a number of other teas. I like tea. I know that tea contains anti-oxidants. And I have high cholesterol and a family history of heart disease. I have high blood pressure,and anti-oxidants reduce the risk of stroke. Anti-oxidants may impact the risk for diabetes, which my father has.

But do I drink the tea? Not too often. And there's just no reason for it. No excuse, either.

There are medications I don't want to take because of the possible side effects. There are foods I just don't want to give up because I love them. There are times when I'm just too tired to prepare a healthy meal and take a shortcut. But there's rarely a day when I don't have time to boil water. There's never a day when I just can't stomach the idea of sitting down with a cup of tea. I just don't drink tea because I just...don't think about it.

So I'm setting an easy goal today. I'm going to drink green tea at least once a day. I don't know how much that will have on my various health risks, but I know it's in the plus column, and that there's no downside--not even one that's just a product of my own whims.

So what simple, painless thing are you NOT doing to improve your health? Are you going to change it today, too?

Photo Courtesy of Carlos Porto via freedigitalimages.net

Healthy Food Takes Time

2010-02-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

One of my biggest downfalls in eating healthy over the years has been that I often don't have time--or perceive that I don't have time--to prepare healthy foods. Ordering a pizza only takes a minute, and microwave enchiladas don't make dishes. Washing and chopping lettuce and other ingredients for salad, on the other hand, takes time, space, and dishes. Really...who wants to wash a strainer every day? Who has time?

When I got motivated to get healthy last year, I made some discoveries about the time-and-effort obstacles that had been getting in my way for years. Or rather, I made one discovery that impacted everything else: most of the obstacles are surmountable if you're motivated. The workarounds might not be perfect, but they're a far cry from throwing up your hands and ordering Chinese.

Plan and Prepare Ahead to Eat Healthy

When it's time for lunch and you're taking a quick break from work, chopping, dicing and washing might not be very appealing--or even be the best use of your time. But a lot of that legwork can be done in advance. Some fruits and vegetables hold up better than others, so think about what you can prepare in advance. My mother eats salad with every dinner, and so she chops enough lettuce for several days, spins it and then stores it in the refrigerator in her salad spinner. It stays crisp for nearly a week that way. Shredded carrots, diced or sliced radishes, and a variety of other salad ingredients keep even longer, and cherry or grape tomatoes eliminate the need to cut tomatoes for a salad. Wash them when you get home from the produce stand and then just grab a handful and toss them in your bowl.

The best part is that having things ready makes it hard to rationalize. It's easy to say, "I'm in a hurry, so I'll just grab..." It's much more difficult to sell that line of reasoning to yourself when it's just as easy to grab something healthy.

Let Someone Else Prepare the Healthy Food

I'm no fan of paying someone else to do what I can do myself, but sometimes it's worth it. For instance, when even though I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself, I don't have time. Or I'm just not going to do it. Or I know I'm likely to use the time involved as a lame excuse to eat pizza rolls instead.

Here are just a few cheats I've found that not only make it easy to eat healthy in a hurry, but also make it hard to convince myself that I have a good excuse not to:

-Pre-mixed salad: It's not quite as good as the fresh stuff, but it's still made out of vegetables, and all you have to do is dump it in a bowl and rinse it. It's faster than heating up a can of soup or microwaving some mozzarella sticks (which aren't really all that good microwaved, anyway).

-Grated cheese: I like to sprinkle some cheese on my salad instead of dressing. Dairy has many benefits, and most dressings are outrageously high in sodium. But (although I'm embarrassed to admit it), I'm too lazy to get the cheese grater dirty for an ounce of cheese at lunchtime every day. Resealable bags of pre-grated cheese solve the problem. Or, if you're just slightly more ambitious, so does grating the whole block of cheese at once and making your own bag.

-Gorton's frozen fish filets: I've written before about the magical properties of fish, but preparing it can be a hassle. Sometimes it's worth the investment to broil salmon with your own herbs or bake cod with lemon and fresh ground pepper...but sometimes that's not an option. And sometimes you just don't feel like it. Those pre-seasoned frozen fish fillets that bake for 15-20 minutes just might be the answer. They're fast, easy, taste okay and have all of the nutritional information you need printed on the box with no need for guessing at serving sizes or portions.

-Pre-packaged meals: Lean Cuisine makes some very nice fish-and-a-side frozen meals with the fat and calories right on the label and five-minute microwave instructions. I'm sure many of their other meals are just as good, but I stick with the fish because of the omega3 fatty acids and those magical properties I mentioned earlier. An even greater discovery for me, though, was the Healthy Choice microwavable lunches that don't require refrigeration. That means I can throw one in my purse and have it on hand for a quick lunch at work with no fuss, or even leave one in my desk drawer. Yes, the whole "no refrigeration" thing probably says something scary about the preservatives, but again, everything is relative. If I can't get out of the office or I'm on the run, it's a much healthier option than my usual fallbacks. And, as an added bonus, the ones I've had all taste pretty good and are quite filling.

Do Fast Food the Healthy (ish) Way

Sometimes you really do have no choice but to grab lunch on the run. The key for me is to throw out all-or-nothing thinking. It's so easy to say "I can't eat broiled fish and fresh vegetables today, so I might as well just grab some fried chicken and french fries." There's a lot of ground between broiled fish and fried chicken, and some of that ground is covered even in a fast-food restaurant. Salads are an obvious choice, but beyond that there's still a broad spectrum. A grilled chicken sandwich might not be ideal, for instance, but it's a far cry from a Whopper. Subway has all of those sandwiches with fewer than six grams of fat, and even Taco Bell has recently introduced an "al fresco" menu for healthier eating. Don't let the fact that you can't eat perfectly become an excuse to eat badly.

What tips have you discovered to make healthy eating quicker and easier (and do away with the excuses to fall off the wagon)?

So...Um...Well...Gosh...Really?

2010-02-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

After two weeks of completely perfect Weight Watchers-ing, I had lost a grand total of TWO POUNDS.

Yesterday, I researched other diets and finally admitted that I NEVER LOSE WEIGHT on Weight Watchers. It's too much food for my ancient, abused, creaking metabolism. I love the IDEA of Weight Watchers--I love the balanced, no weird gimmicks eating plan and the fact that it's flexible enough to allow some diversions like eating out. But after trying it at least ten times in the last ten years, I have to face up to the fact that I just don't lose weight on it. Since my goal is to actually, you know, take some weight off, maybe Weight Watchers isn't the best diet for me. (I know, I know--LIFESTYLE FREAKING CHANGE.)

Yeah, not the quickest to arrive at that conclusion. At least this time I didn't give the company any money. Score one for Barb.

So, yesterday while I was admitting Weight Watchers defeat and trying to figure out my new plan, I just kind of ate whatever I wanted. Within dieting reason --except for the several handfuls of tortilla chips I ate with my tortilla soup. I even ate some fruit sweetened cranberries for a snack instead of my usual mini-carrots.

And this morning?

I am down another two pounds.

Which...

I...

This proves... nothing. It proves that nothing in my life, much less my diet, follows any kind of prescribed path or conventional wisdom. I guess it's a good insight, really. That in the end, I have to find my OWN way and not just mindlessly follow other people along theirs.

(And if I have to 'fess up, I guess I have to admit to hoping I could do this mindlessly.)

I wonder how much weight I'd lose if I ate a cheeseburger?

(Not that I'm going to or anything.)

Getting Physical

2010-01-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

I have a secret.

Well, at this point, it's more of a secret plan, but it's been percolating in my brain for months. I'm going to do a 5k in October. Or at least, I hope I am.

For most people, that wouldn't be a big decision, especially 9 months in advance, but if you've read this blog from the beginning you know that I embarked on this journey for health reasons, and not just the usual "keeping fit". Though I'd had problems in varying degrees with my heart and blood pressure for years, it was in the fall of 2006 that I got seriously ill--that my blood pressure got so dangerously high that it impacted my ability to exert myself in almost any way.

I'd get a little jealous and a little frustrated when Barb talked about working out or Gerri gotall excited about TurboJam, but my process had to be different. I had to eat better, get more sleep, get stress out of my life, walk when I could.

It's working.

Like my friends (and most other dieters in the world), I've fallen off the wagon a bit and don't eat that magical oat bran and fish menu every day these days. But I'm still eating far better than I was a year ago, and something far more important than weight loss has been happening for me. I'll probably never be free of blood pressure medication, but for the first time even with medication, my blood pressure has been stable for months. This fall, I was able to play badminton and tennis with my daughter, and rarely had a day when I felt like I couldn't.

And I'm thinking maybe I can run. It's far from a sure thing and it will take every bit of those nine months to get me to a place where I'll be able to attempt something tens of thousands of people do every day. But I feel good almost every day, and it's possible.

Failure--I Spit In Your General Direction

2010-01-24T12:40:00.000-08:00

So, this is Day 5 of my diet. I took a little detour last night at a dinner out with friends. We had Tapas and I'll be darned if I could remotely count the points. Probably some obscene amount. I drank water and stopped eating when I was sated--which, I've learned, is not the same thing as feeling full. (As it turns out, part of my neurosis is that I don't like to FEEL full. When I do, I am miserable and consider ways in which I could NOT feel full rather immediately. I'm sure this is a leftover from my eating disorder days, but it's not healthy and that's a post for a different blog.)

Anyway.

I weighed myself on Day 3 and was up two pounds. I KNOW about weighing myself and weight fluctuation and how it's easy enough to gain and lose two pounds over the course of an hour and why I shouldn't weigh myself more than once a week. Don't write to tell me because I KNOW. I KNOW. And frankly, I didn't even flinch. Just sighed and consigned it to the craptastic life of a dieter. I mean, I've gone to bed hungry every single night (except Tapas night) and so NATURALLY I would gain two pounds.

No, seriously, it didn't make me flinch because when you're trying to lose 35 pounds, two pounds up or down just doesn't mean very much.

It's weird: I think my attitude is scaring people. I am normally a very enthusiastic person. (I am on a new Home Organization bender at the moment and when I announced the day's activities toward this end, my children and several pets kind of...well...cowered in the corner.) Everyone wants me to be all excited and gung ho about dieting and exercising. I'm just SO not there. I'm in the "slogging through this thing, hoping if I do it while ignoring it at other times, I won't lose my mind and eat my weight in cheese" mindset. I want to forget all about it, in between eating and exercising. (Well, theoretically exercising since I haven't really started that aspect yet, except for unwilling walks with our dogs.)

In an odd way, the fact that my attitude is terrible and fatalistic is the most hopeful sign yet that I'm going to do this thing. Normally, I get all excited and create spreadsheets and weigh myself at exactly the same time three times per day and write endlessly about how wonderful life is going to be when I am thin again--how I'll get a book deal and be on Oprah and the world will love me in my size six jeans. So, I keep that up for about a week and then--oh, look! something shiny! --I'm on to something else.

This time, I am grinding it out. I may never be a size six again. I may never be on Oprah or get a book deal. But neither am I quitting. Failure is not an option because I'm not freaking going to quit. I hate it. I hate it every single day. But I am not quitting because remaining this unhappy in my skin is also no longer an option.

A Bad Attitude, Ten Minutes at a Time

2010-01-21T09:05:00.000-08:00

Ten minutes.

That's all I'm promising.

Ten minutes.

For the next ten minutes, I will not eat anything off of my daily plan.

For the next ten minutes, I will exercise.

It's utterly pathetic but that's how I'm getting through this new (freaking) lifestyle I'm adopting. By only promising myself ten minutes of good behavior at a time. I can do anything for ten minutes at a time. ANYTHING. Even....trying to think of the worst thing I can think of...SIT-UPS. I can do SIT-UPS if I only commit to doing them for ten minutes.

For the next ten minutes, I will resist the pull of chocolate, the call of Starbuck's, the urge to run over that perky, cute jogger.

I'm not making any guarantees beyond that, though.

Except the next ten minutes.

Well, Here We Go Again

2010-01-20T06:53:00.000-08:00

Last year in March, I embarked on a diet with the aim of fitting into my skinny jeans by February 19 --my 45th birthday.

(Excuse me while I either burst into hysterical laughter or tears --whichever.)

Today I embark on that quest again, this time hoping to achieve my goal or hell, just some movement in that direction, by my forty-SIXTH birthday.

I start this diet, and this year, five pounds heavier than last year. I've probably lost 350 pounds but I've gained it all back, plus five. I'm embarrassed. I'm mad at myself.

I am actually hideous.

No, don't bother to write in about how fat does not hideous make and how I'm succumbing to the popular culture that equates thin with beauty. I know all that. But I also know what I looked like two scant years ago before I gained 35 pounds and I know what I look like now. My double chin has a double chin, my hair is having an identity crisis, my sweat pants are verging on too tight and my face is breaking out. It's not my best look. I might have all those same problems if my sweatpants were looser but I'd just plain look better thinner.

So, here I go again.

Damn it.

I just wish... I just wish that I felt enthusiastic. I wish I felt something besides a sort feeling of doom. Shouldn't I be more excited? I mean, what are those people on television taking and where can I get some?

I always need some sort of a plan (otherwise I just end up eating handfuls of chocolate covered raisins for breakfast, lunch and dinner) so right now, I'm following the Weight Watchers Diet. But I'm not joining the program because I just can't bear to throw more money at the diet industry so that someone can try to give me tools I already have. I have probably joined Weight Watchers at least ten times. I mean, I KNOW how to count calories or points and how to exercise and how to write down everything I eat. I KNOW WHAT I NEED TO DO. I'm not motivated by the group meetings. I've been there and tried that--both on-line and in-person. Fail for me.

I AM going to throw money at joining a gym though. There's one right down the street from me and it's pretty cheap ($20 initial fee and then $20 per month) and I think that if I go there after I drop my last child off at school, I'll get the workout in and it won't eat my entire day. The gym is brand new and doesn't open for another two weeks so until then, I'll ride the exercise bike at my house and try not to curse too loudly about it.

So, anyway, here I am. No epiphany, no illusions, no enthusiasm. But I'm going to trudge through this thing because I honestly can't stand to feel like this for one more day. I wouldn't even mention it except, usually, misery loves company and I sure am miserable. If you, too, find yourself totally unmotivated to make the changes you know you need to make and having conveniently looked the other way when the rest of the world was indulging in the annual New Year, diet and exercise resolution orgy, then waddle on over and we'll do this together.

Ready, set, go. No, seriously this time. If *I* can start, anyone can because there is no way your attitude could be worse than mine and here I go. And y'all, this time I'm serious.

A Moment of Humor

2009-06-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Unlike my co-bloggers, who sometimes wear me out with a passing mention of their workout efforts, my exercise options are somewhat limited by my medical condition. That means that I rarely have the opportunity to partake of that “something new to try” impulse that sometimes results in shelves full of discarded DVDs and sometimes results in an important discovery. Mostly, I walk, and most of the time my 13-year-old daughter accompanies me.

Last week while we were out walking, I told her that I was thinking about ordering some FitFlops. She didn’t know what they were.

As we walked, I explained how FitFlops were supposed to give you a workout just wearing them, and that they toned your leg muscles and might or might not have cardiovascular benefits.

She nodded slowly and said, “Or you could do that by walking.”

Good to get a fresh perspective sometimes And really, I’m well aware that I can’t mail-order my way to good health.

But those FitFlops are still tempting.

A Magical Workout for Someone Who Hates Exercise

2009-06-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

I readily admit I'm not a fan of exercise. Actually, I hate it. I hate to sweat, I hate to be sore and quite frankly, I've always felt that working out was boring. Walking on a treadmill is just too tedious for me to handle and gym equipment makes me yawn.

I do like swimming and gardening, and other activity that just seems more like fun than exercise. However, my current work schedule doesn't allow a lot of extra time for real world, accidental exercise. I figured that most people have jobs that require them to get up and move around, at least a little bit or sometimes a lot. During my jaunt as a paralegal, running stairs at the courthouse was a daily thing. Working at home in front of a computer doesn't give me that same level of unavoidable activity - and I've been doing this since 1997. I was much thinner and more physically fit as a paralegal, but desperately unhappy.

So, I had seen TurboJam infomercials a few years ago and was interested, just not to the point of ordering. To be perfectly honest, I had a friend who had the DVDs and loved the workout, but she is a former professional cheerleader so I thought it was way out of my league. Plus the DVDs are copy protected, so there was no chance of getting a loaner copy to try.

Anyway, I saw the infomercial again, and after being slack on my diet for several weeks, I guess the timing was right. I ordered it and was anxious for it to arrive. When it got here, I unboxed it and it sat there for about a week before I even tried the first learner DVD.

I liked it immediately and it seemed fun, but for some reason I stopped doing it after a few learner sessions. I got the moves down and promptly gave up.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to really make a commitment to giving it a serious try. That first week I did the 20 minute workout every day and added the first half of the Ab Jam workout on several days. The second half of the Ab Jam requires you to lay on the floor, so I won't do it. I love the standing ab work, it's so much easier on your back, shoulders and neck. No laying down on the floor crunches for me, ever.

The scale stayed the same all week - until Saturday. On Saturday I stepped on the scale and had lost 6 pounds overnight. That gave me a real motivation to keep going.

This past week, I worked out every day again and added Cardio Party a couple of times. All week, the scale stayed the same. I was okay with that because I know muscle weighs more than fat and I can tell that I'm definitely working the muscles. I actually have abs now! They were always there, I'd imagine, I've just never really realized it before now. They needed a good workout and they're getting it.

So, I stepped on the scale again yesterday and to my amazement, I've lost 5 more pounds. So that's a total of 11 pounds in just under two weeks and 36 pounds overall since January 1.

I'm not attempting to sell anyone on TurboJam, but I had to share what works for me. I think maybe I've unlocked a secret, which is not much of a secret, but took me this many years to discover: Find an exercise you love and you'll stick with it. I love TurboJam and just ordered the FatBlaster TurboJam DVD from someone on ebay. I also picked up Hip Hop Abs, which is another product from the same company. I want to be able to keep the workouts varied and interesting, and not allow my body to know what to expect from day to day.

I tried on a pair of new jeans I bought that are two sizes (four number sizes) smaller than what I wore at Christmas - and they fit. They didn't fit at all two weeks ago and one week ago were way too tight to wear in public (or anywhere else). These results are incredible for me because usually, even if I'm losing weight, I don't immediately go down in clothes sizes - which is extremely frustrating.

There you have it. I've found something I thought didn't exist - a workout that I really enjoy. The coming weeks will be a test as to whether I can stick with it and remain positive and optimistic about working out. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Momentum

2009-05-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

Good news--and very unexpected.

You know how when you start trying to lose weight, it seems almost impossible and moves so incredibly slowly, but then it seems like it takes two seconds and one decent meal to gain it all back?

THAT TIDE TURNS.

After losing 15 pounds, some life issues arose that have had me eating badly for the past four weeks or so. Not horribly--I'm still trying to keep it at a reasonable level--but I haven't had fish or fresh vegetables or any of the things I've come to live by for weeks, and I've ordered pizza on more occasions than I'd like to count.

And I've gained (are you ready?)....three pounds. In four weeks. I'm almost at the point that I can get back on track, and the damage is virtually non-existent. I can knock those three pounds back off in 4-5 days of fish and fiber.

This is a huge revelation for me and an important one because I (like so many of us) have fallen off the wagon in the past BEFORE I got to the point that the tide turned and my body wanted to maintain my new weight instead of start working quickly back toward the old "normal" weight. I've always believed that the pattern of taking a lot of hard work to lose and one little slip to gain back would be perpetual, and that once I reached my goal weight I'd constantly be weighing whether or not going out to dinner was worth gaining four pounds or eating a slice of my daughter's birthday cake was worth having to starve myself for a week...but it turns out it doesn't work that way. Plateaus, apparently, work in both directions. I can't tell you what encouraging news this is.

So It Turns Out Dieting Makes You LOOK Good, Too...

2009-04-04T00:19:00.000-07:00

I know this probably doesn't come as a surprise to anyone but me, but I've never been particularly looks-focused. I'm not a girl who wears nail polish or enjoys shopping for clothing. I can go from sound asleep to out the door in minutes, and I don't carry make-up unless I'm traveling for work. The whole appearance thing just isn't often on my radar. Until recently.

A lot of people start out dieting to get down a dress size or look good in a bathing suit or some such thing and then report happily that they FEEL great. I started out intending to improve my health and lower my blood pressure and cholesterol, and now I'm here to report happily that I LOOK great.

I'm pretty sure I've never said that before in my life, although once upon a time a couple of decades ago I looked like this:

I definitely don't look like that now and I'm unsure about the whole "before and after" picture thing because I really think that the importance of healthy eating and even weight loss is non-cosmetic. Obviously, the change in my blood pressure and the drop in my cholesterol will be more significant than the photographs, even though they don't draw the same kind of attention.

But suddenly, after many years of just being a mom and not really giving any thought to my looks one way or another, I find that the issue just keeps cropping up. And, more surprising, I find that it's making me feel pretty good.

A few days ago, the woman who runs the coffee shop at my local train station told me that I looked like I'd "lost a ton of weight". When I repeated this to my daughter, she said, "Well, you have."

"Actually, I haven't," I protested. "I've lost 14 pounds." She carefully appraised me and then said, "Well, I guess it was a significant 14 pounds." Frankly, I'm a little frustrated that I've been stuck at the 14-pound mark for a solid month, but a funny thing has been happening during that time--my clothes just keep getting looser.

This afternoon, my sister asked me whether I was wearing eye make-up, because my eyes "seemed more noticeable" and looked good. I wasn't.

Diet Danger Zones

2009-03-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

After dieting for a while, I usually reach a place that I now call “the danger zone.” This is not the fast food district, the kitchen, or any one location. It’s just a generally rough spot in the road. I’m now in that danger zone.

There is a big temptation to go off track after I lose a few pounds and feel my clothes getting looser. I know I’m not the only one; the yo-yo diet effect is very common. You lose a few pounds, think it’s great, and then start slipping. Before you know it, you’re back to your old bad eating habits. You gain the weight right back, and usually a few more pounds for good measure. Yes, I’m very familiar with it. I’ve been there a few times.

Now I get it – this is why they say diets don’t work. A light bulb has lit up above my head. I’m a believer.

The thing about the diet mindset is that you think of it as temporary. That’s why you can live with it, tolerate it, and put up with it. I mean seriously, I can endure pretty much any amount of deprivation for a couple of weeks. After that, things start to go haywire.

Crash diets work if you need a quick fix, but they’re not about getting healthy. In fact, starving yourself for two weeks to get into a dress is pretty bad for your body. You can be sure of two things – you will start eating normally again, and as soon as you do, the pounds will be back, and they’ll likely bring friends.

Why do we do this to ourselves? I’ve done it over and over again myself and just didn’t get it until very recently. We’re all about instant gratification. Isn’t that part of why we gain weight anyway? For me it was. Fast food is convenient, quick and easy, much more so than actually cooking a healthy meal.

I was a size 8 on the day I got married. Just for that day though. I starved myself to get into that dress and when it was over, all bets were off. I didn’t know how to eat healthy. I knew how to not eat and I knew how to eat junk. Those were my options.

So this time around, I’m doing it differently. I don’t need a quick fix, I need lasting results and a healthy body. Now that I’ve lost a few pounds, there’s the danger of getting slack about it and treating it as a diet I can go off, rather than a permanent change in my eating habits.

Recognizing the danger zone is a major step. I’ve seen this pattern before and I realize I am at a point that I could easily tell myself I’ve done enough and just quit. However, I have Barb and Tiffany as my support group and cheerleaders this time around and they’re fighting the same battles I am.

If I go off track, I’d have to admit it to them, and that wouldn’t be pretty. We’re in this together now and we’ll see it through. The threat of Tiffany’s “fish phase” is a very powerful incentive to stay on track. I’m trying to be really good so I might avoid it.

It's Not a Lifestyle Change...it's Just Food

2009-03-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

I suspect that I'm going to get some disagreement on this one, but I'm just sick to death of hearing, "It's not a diet...it's a lifestyle change." I recognize that there are some people--a small percentage of people seeking to eat healthier and/or lose weight, I think--for whom that statement is true. I sincerely applaud them for making those lifestyle changes, because no matter what any motivational speaker tries to tell you, it's much harder to change your life than it is to just tough out a diet.

But for most of us, it's just food, and the whole "lifestyle change" thing (have you ever noticed how there's always a sort of breathy sound to that, as if an exciting secret were being imparted?) brings to mind the sort of seminar where we're all encouraged to "be proactive" and "think outside the box".

This is how dictionary.com defines "lifestyle":

the habits, attitudes, tastes, moral standards, economic level, etc., that together constitute the mode of living of an individual or group

That is SO not summed up by what I put on my plate!

Three months ago, give or take a few days, I changed the way I eat. I did NOT change my lifestyle, which was pretty much to my liking, thank you very much.

Before I made this change, I was an active mom to a young teenager, and the one parent who was always willing to sit through the high school football game, ferry the neighborhood to the band concert, help anyone who was having trouble with her homework, and hang out in the parking lot until I was sure that the last kid had a ride home. I spent a lot of time with my extended family; I wasn't much of a partier and liked to see my friends one-on-one or in very small groups and just talk and talk and talk. I was a reader and a writer and not much of a television watcher. I loved the spring and the fall and couldn't get enough of the outdoors when the weather was changing, but I wasn't an outdoor person during the summer months. Money and material things didn't mean much to me, and my daughter and I preferred hanging out at the beach to action-packed vacations. I talked to my mother every day.

And guess what? Three months (give or take a few days) after I traded in frozen pizza for broiled fish and cinnamon rolls for oat bran, every single one of those things is still true. My life looks EXACTLY like it did back when I was eating crappy food. I sit down to dinner with my daughter every night just like before; sure, what's on my plate looks a little different, but is that LIFE? Really? Not for me.

What troubles me most about the whole "lifestyle change" thing, aside from the basic inaccuracy of the claim for most of us, is that cracking it all up to be so much bigger than it is seems unduly daunting to me. For most of us, the way we eat is simply a habit. Habits take a little time to change, but change they do--without requiring a fancy title, a press release, or an act of Congress. "Lifestyle change" sounds so dramatic, so all-encompassing...like such a big decision.

It's just not. Keep your life. Be who you are. Just put different stuff on your plate.

Plotting the Points

2009-03-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

I had a conversation a few days ago with a friend who is trying to lose weight. I'm not going to name any names, but she's fairly intense about the whole thing. She'd gained a pound or two, and wasn't taking it all that well. That kind of thing, I suspect, is why a lot of weight-loss programs and experts suggest that we shouldn't weigh ourselves every day.

I DO weigh myself every day--or nearly every day--so I know from experience that it happens all the time. At least, it does to me. And I just don't care.

I don't usually talk about my weight in public, but I'm going to use an actual example here. This is a graph of my weight over a roughly ten-week period:

You'll undoubtedly notice right away that it's not a straight downward trend. I haven't graphed every day here, but even so, there are several points at which this graph ticks UPWARD. In fact, it reminds me a little bit of a roller coaster, and I think that's apt. For many of us, losing weight is a lot like a roller coaster in a number of ways. There is the inevitable up-and-down of the scale, of course, but that's not the only the beginning. There's the exhilarating feeling of taking control and making progress, followed in rapid succession by the resentment, discouragement, second-guessing...a new wave of energy and resolve...it's not a stable process.

But in the end, it simply doesn't matter.

Let me show you what I mean:

Same graph. Same time period. I've just cut out the middle; that is, I've cut out the ups and downs. That's what scientists look at--not each individual point on a graph, but the trend, the overall relationship between the axes.

Sometimes, I maintain the same weight for a week or two because I'm just sick to death of fish. And yes, on at least four days (and probably several more) during that time period, I gained a pound or two. Sometimes, those pounds were mysterious. Sometimes, they were the result of a weekend of socializing in restaurants or ordering in. In either case, it was a blip. That's the upside for me to weighing in every day--it allows me to tell a blip from a trend. If I gain a pound or two, I just don't care. That's a blip. And it's trends we're interested in, not blips.

I can promise you that this summer, when I've reached my goal weight, I'm not going to be looking back and saying, "Oh, MAN...I know I look and feel great now, but you know, on January 23 I was actually back up TWO POUNDS."

Are you?

The Divorce

2009-03-20T03:10:00.000-07:00

I hate to tell you all this but I've gotten divorced.

The South Beach Diet and I have parted company. It was mostly amicable but it still stung a bit since I had almost completed the two week "hazing" ritual. (The things we do for love!) But it really came down to a question of fundamental values.

I really, really wanted to have bread. And SB really, really didn't want me to have bread until I'd already lost most of my weight. (Well, there's this stuff that sort of resembles bread. In the same way, you know, TREE BARK resembles bread.)

At any rate, I knew I could never be faithful to a diet like that. Not long-term. And it's not my nature to cheat once I've committed.

I ended up subscribing to The Best Life diet, which is the same diet that Oprah is on (because you know how Oprah and I are likethis.) To be successful on this diet you have to log your food every day and you have to exercise.

These were things I was really hoping to avoid.

But I'm doing it. And I am faithful about it. Yesterday, not only did I make dessert sushi for my daughter Ana's birthday party, I also made my little one (Jane, 8) chocolate chip cookies. And I never touched a single bite of either.

The good news about The Best Life diet is that it's based on all those things we all know and just don't do. It's reasonable: restricting calories and trans fats and upping the exercise. It's about being mindful of what we put in our bodies and I find that I'm really ready to do that. To focus on getting healthy and getting my body back.

I am a little peeved at having done two weeks already without any sort of wine, to now be embarking on another four wineless weeks on THIS diet. (What do these diet people have against wine??)

Oh well, call it the price of love.

I Hate Everyone OR Yes, My Diet's Going Just Fine, Thanks

2009-03-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

Today, I actually had to resist the urge to run over a cute, thin jogger.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Barb Cooper. I am a writer, the mother of two gorgeous girls, the wife to one gorgeous man and I, myself, am overweight. I could do a lot of explaining how I got into the position of needing to lose 30 pounds but it's basically the same story you hear from everyone else: I ate too much of the wrong foods and exercised too little and now none of my pants fit and I weigh more than I ever have in my life, save only when I had a small human emerging from my body.

So, I'm on Day 10 of the South Beach Diet. It's a good diet and I really need to be on it but, let's just face it, dieting sucks. There is no way around it. It sucks the suckage of NAFTA. The suckage of sludge. Major suckage. Sucks.

Given that my attitude is really stellar and I hate everyone, I thought maybe I'd write the Phases of the South Beach Diet, Barb Style.

(Obviously, I'm not talking about the ACTUAL phases of the diet, but more the phases of the DIETER. (Which looked a lot like a German name when I write it like that. One who diets, is what I'm trying to say.))

Phase One: Steely Determination, With a Side of Wanting to Eat My Own Arm

When first we meet our intrepid, if chubby, heroine, she is about the embark on on the first day of her diet. She has had The Epiphany and The Epiphany said, "There will be no Epiphany. Suck it up and do what you need to do."

This, frankly, made our heroine smack herself upside the head (Texas phrase) and use other, stronger (Texas) phrases and to admit that she'd been waiting for a bolt of lightening to hit her and a mighty voice to say, "Now, it is time to diet!"

Whatdya mean, that's not going to happen?

"Oh, well, okay, then," our heroine thinks. "I guess I will start the South Beach Diet. I wonder if I should read the book first? Nah."

By noon, she almost gets into a fist fight at the local gas station.

She assuages the murderous rage she feels toward every single living thing on the planet by sending copious whining e-mails to her friends. Friends don't let friends diet alone.

She goes to bed thankful that she is too weak from hunger to actually hurt anyone.

Phase Two, Days 2-4: Jubilation and Love for the Entire World!

The weight is FALLING off of her! She's happy and feels virtuous as she watches the scale at her morning weigh-in go down a pound every single day. "This is EASY," she thinks. "I can DO this. And in a month, I will be done! I will be svelte and happy and be invited to be on Oprah."

She sets up a spread sheet so that she can track her weight-loss every single day! She writes to her friends that she is learning so much. She is grateful for this opportunity to test her resolve.

Phrase Three, Day Five: I Hate Everyone Redux

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? Despite the fact that she ate twigs and fat-free cottage cheese (for the truly, truly desperate) yesterday, she weighs the same as the last weigh-in. She sighs in exasperation and heads down to make her breakfast of hard boiled eggs and black coffee. Her friends reassure her throughout the day as she chronicles her frustration endlessly.

Phase Three, Part Two--Day Six: Losing Not Weight But the Will to Live

One pound gained. Loss of will to live. Still sticking to diet but only because life already sucks so much that dieting doesn't make much of a difference one way or the other. Hate people. Wonder why ever born. Never want to see eggs again. Why diet when we will all soon be dead anyway? Oh, I know, why don't I make things even suckier by adding exercise? Yahoo. I wish I were dead.

Phase Four, Days 7-9: Acceptance and Hatred

Okay, so this is my lot in life. To diet and weigh myself and watch other people drinking wine. I've lost either three or five pounds, depending on what half hour I weigh myself. I accept that it's going to take me forever to lose this weight and that I better just hunker down and keep moving. But honestly, if one more person tells me that I'm not on a diet, it's a LIFESTYLE CHANGE, I'm going to commit a felony. My friend Tiffany sent me this uncharacteristically perky e-mail saying how cool it is to think that we're losing weight even while sitting at our desks. I thought seriously about sending her some elephant poo but she's been so remarkably patient with my six million obsessive and whiny e-mails that maybe I should make it a dozen roses.

God, I hate dieting. Would it have been too much to just be one of those naturally thin people whose metabolisms eat more times than they do? Perhaps I'll contract some sort of not-very-serious, not life-threatening disease where the only lingering effect will be unexplained weight loss.

I know, I know --what kind of sick thinking is THAT? I read a study one time that said that that most women would rather have CANCER than be fifteen pounds overweight. (As a cancer survivor, I would just like to say those people are crazy on legs. Dudes, let's not lose ALL perspective.)

I think longingly of the days when I could eat large cinnamon rolls, gooey with butter and almost melted sugar and drink coffee that didn't taste like lacquer remover. Of course, those days were pre-children, pre-40th birthday (Goodbye metabolism! I'll miss you FOREVER!), pre-foot injury that ended my running days. But details, people, details. I'm talking about the pain of dieting NOW, at this point in my life, and it really is PAINFUL, and all the hatred is exhausting.

But I am doing it and do you know why? Well, neither do I. I think it has something to do with tapping into some long dormant discipline that says I am a kick-ass, creative, smart woman and I'm tired of not feeling at home in my skin. I want to walk into a room full of women and not immediately feel like the fattest one there. I want to stop sucking in when my husband tries to put his arm around me--lest he feel my rolls of fat. I want to feel strong and beautiful and sexy and unstoppable. And if that means I have to stay on this freaking diet--sorry LIFESTYLE--for the rest of my life, so be it.

Besides, you know, five pounds (or three) in nine days isn't really that shabby.

Resource of the Day

2009-03-11T16:39:00.000-07:00

If you read my other blogs, you'll know that "Resource of the Day" might turn out to be a regular feature, or a sporadic one, or this might be the only "Resource of the Day" you ever get from me. Whichever it turns out to be, I think this one is worth checking out: the author has gone to a lot of work to assemble dos and don'ts, weight loss basics, words of encouragement, and a dose of realism.

How To Stick To A Weight Loss Diet - Special Report

The Evolution of Taste

2009-03-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

I didn't get on the scale for a few days after we got back from Disney. I knew how I was feeling (bloated, indigestiony, and a whole lot less energetic) after a week of cheeseburgers and chili dogs, and I frankly didn't want to know how it had played out in numbers. But after a few days I sucked it up and stepped on the scale--and found that I was exactly the same weight as I'd been when I left. Not exactly good news, but certainly not as bad as it could have been. I think one reason is that I did so much walking at Disney; I don't know exactly how much, but I'm sure that it was several miles a day. Another is that I just couldn't stomach a lot of food. Whether it was the type or the volume I'm not sure, but I didn't finish a single meal the whole time I was there. I guess HALF a chili dog isn't all that harmful, even if it's not the optimal food.

One glitch was that I had a hard time getting back to eating right. That was strange, because by the time I got home my body was fairly SCREAMING for fish and vegetables, but I'm pretty quick to form bad habits and almost automatically found myself making frozen pizza instead. I didn't want it. I couldn't eat much of it. But I cooked it and did my best. Over the weekend, I finally got back on track for real. The most interesting part of that for me was the radical change of heart.

Just a couple of months ago, I was seriously questioning whether I really WANTED to live a long, healthy life if it meant more years of having to eat like this. But this morning, that oat bran and berries was like a little slice of heaven after a week of grease and glop. It didn't just make me feel better...it tasted good. I wasn't at all confident that we could still acquire tastes at this late date, but it seems that with enough perseverance, anything is possible. Just think--you, too, may learn to love fish! Okay, that's probably a little over the top, but it appears that our tastes do change, and rather quickly.

Not a Diet - A New Way of Thinking

2009-03-08T12:38:00.001-07:00

Hi, I’m Gerri, a recovering binge eater.

As the start of 2009 approached, I made a decision about my life. It wasn’t an earth-shattering decision and not one I hadn’t made plenty of times before. Even so, it was an important one.

I had been making possibly the most unhealthy food choices a person could make. I had become a fast food junkie. I had also given in to binge eating – eating as a sport – and packed on extra pounds that I chose to ignore.

During the holidays, I found that although I was still eating plenty, it wasn’t satisfying. I was truly eating for the sake of eating and not enjoying any of it. The time was right for a change.

It had become time for me to face the truth, own up to my own poor choices and do something about the extra weight that was making me feel so blue. Looking in the mirror, I didn’t see myself looking back – I saw a stranger. Someone so miserable and so lost, someone who desperately needed a change.

I didn’t look like myself. The unhealthy choices not only showed on the outside through the extra pounds, but in my eyes. I looked defeated, the spark was gone, and I had only myself to blame. I was deeply embarrassed.

Sometime around the end of December, I informed my family and friends that I was making a change. As of Jan. 1, my eating habits would change. Fast food was out of the question, binge eating would be eliminated, and my kitchen would be stocked with only healthy food choices. I’m sure many wondered how long it could possibly last.

I didn’t go on a particular diet. I simply started keeping track of my eating, vaguely counting calories and trying to stay in the 1200 per day range. I rely heavily on pre-packaged foods and have learned to love Lean Cuisine. In the spring, I hope to become more physically active in the garden and possibly even use my swimming pool this year.

Finding the courage to actually weigh myself didn’t come easy. I was about two weeks into my new eating plan before I stepped on a scale. It was devastating to find that I had gained so much weight over the holidays, it negated whatever was lost over the first two weeks of what I perceived as this pain and punishment I am putting myself through daily.

Over the next month, my feelings about my new lifestyle changed. As I slowly started feeling the results of healthier eating, I felt less condemned. I now feel less deprived and less anxious, although the temptation of fast food is still there.

Today, two months and eight days in, I’m down 20 pounds. While I don’t believe I could stick to a diet, my newfound convictions about food are paying off. Along the way, I know there will be setbacks. However, I’m still confident and still motivated to overcome them through healthier eating.

New Authors

2009-03-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

Over the next few days, you'll see a new author or two here at Getting Healthy. I am excited to have some different viewpoints and experiences on this blog, because I strongly believe that there's no "right answer" for everyone--that success in anything we do requires finding what works for us and sticking with it...and what works for me might not be what works for you. The more of us share our strategies, stories and successes, the more likely you are to find that kernel of truth that grows into something useful for you.

Disney Discoveries

2009-03-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

I just got home from DisneyWorld, where I made an interesting discovery: I really feel like crap when I eat junk food. I've actually made this discovery on a smaller scale in the past, but after nearly a week of chili dogs and cheeseburgers, I'm actually craving the dreaded fish.

I assume that it's possible to find real food at Disney, but since I was eating all of my meals with a gaggle of teenagers, and since each dining establishment at Disney seems to offer only 2-4 selections, my options were limited. I have to admit that at the outset, that seemed like a bit of a license. I couldn't eat fish and steamed vegetables, after all, no matter how good my intentions...so why not enjoy it? And, beyond that, I was walking several miles a day, so surely that would counteract any ill effects of a temporary deviation. Yeah, I was rationalizing, but it wasn't much of a stretch.

Thing is, I didn't enjoy it all that much. It's possible that Disney has universally bad food, but I'm thinking that's not so likely. I'm thinking it was the nature of the food, not the location, that made me long for some nice grilled salmon and a big bowl of raw spinach. It made my stomach unhappy, too, and in a way that was most interesting because it was familiar; I'm pretty sure my stomach used to feel this way a lot--enough that I didn't ever give it much thought until it coincidentally disappeared when I changed the way I ate.

It's a bonus, because I'm actually looking forward to eating well again, when just a couple of weeks ago it was a chore. But it's also got me wondering about what else I might be doing to my body without ever realizing it's a bad thing, and how much better I might feel if I got it all figured out.

Common Threads

2009-02-08T08:44:00.000-08:00

If you've read my personal blog, it won't come as any surprise to you that my health is not the only area of my life that requires some clean-up. After two years of single parenting while commuting 3+ hours a day and then another year of working from home but putting in 90+ hours/week, a lot has fallen by the wayside. Now that I've returned to work for a sane company whose CEO says explicitly that work isn't life, and we work to support the lives we have outside, not the other way around, it's time to pull the expired food out of the back of the cabinets, get the boxes into storage, actually deliver the stuff we've been putting aside for charity for more than a year (there's a lot of it now) and find my house under all that's accumulated.

It occurred to me recently that this wasn't so much different from finding my optimum health under the lack of sleep and bad food and stress that had accumulated during the same time.

The common thread, I think, is in something I read in a book about restoring order--something so simple and obvious that it can't be denied once we think about it explicitly. Chaos will reign so long as we don't align our actions with our priorities. That is, if we focus on things other than what's important to us, we'll never get where we want to be.

It's what I did with work, certainly: there was never a time in which I would have said "Oh, staying on schedule with this job is more important than getting enough sleep to stay healthy" or "Cooking for my kid is just going to have to take a backseat to meeting this deadline." In fact, I said just the opposite. When I took the job, I made it known up front that I was a single parent first--that I didn't mind working extra hours in a crunch, but I could not let the job take over my life. But my words didn't match my actions, because I wasn't thinking consciously.

For example, I eat oat bran with three kinds of berry every morning these days. A year ago, that might have seemed like a good idea, but I would never have done it because I almost never felt like I had five minutes to spare to wash berries and cut up strawberries. I wasn't thinking consciously. Now, there are still a lot of demands in my life and a lot of mornings I have that sense of urgency that makes me FEEL like I can't spare five minutes to make a healthy breakfast, but when that happens, I ask myself explicit questions: What, EXACTLY do you need this five minutes for? How much difference will it really make in your day? Is that thing you want to use this time for more important than staying on track with healthy eating?

A funny thing happens when we ask ourselves conscious questions--the answers are usually quite obvious, and very often directly contradict the actions we'd have taken if we hadn't asked them. It's true about the use of time, and I think it's true about what we buy and what we eat as well.

These are real questions, not just reminders--sometimes, the answer will come down on the other side. Yesterday, for example, I ate a hot dog for lunch--quite possibly the worst, most unhealthy food known to man. But I was at an arts festival with my daughter and three of her friends, and they wanted to have lunch there. Hot dogs were what they had...all they had. I could have said no, or I could have let them eat and not eaten myself, but I weighed the negatives of one hot dog against the positives of sitting down with these girls on the cusp of no longer wanting to sit down and have lunch with me, and I decided a hot dog wasn't the end of the world.

The key, I'm convinced, is making conscious choices and thinking about how they do or don't reflect what's important to you.

I'll let you know if it works.

The Magical Properties of Fish

2009-02-06T12:34:00.000-08:00

I have to cop to this before I really get underway, because you're probably going to hear a lot of complaining about fish in the days to come. I don't like it. I really just don't.

The thing is, when I eat it every day, I lose a pound a day.

About four years ago, I read a magazine article about a diet. It was one of those check-out counter magazines--one that seemed to have a different diet or exercise tip on the cover every week--but this one caught my eye. The article was very brief, but the upshot was this: combine fish, fiber, dairy and cinnamon, and weight will magically melt away.

Of course, we've all heard that a million times, but there were some real upsides to this plan beyond weight loss. Cinnamon has a variety of health benefits, including speeding up sugar processing and reducing cholesterol. Omega-3 fatty acids and fiber also reduce cholesterol (noticing a theme here?) I thought it couldn't hurt to try.

What I ate was carefully planned: shredded wheat for breakfast every morning; a large spinach and lettuce salad for lunch; fish, steamed vegetables and two slices of cheese for dinner, every day. Oh, and a little bit of rice pudding with half a teaspoon of cinnamon each night.

I lost seven pounds the first week. After that, it slowed down, but I still lost a few pounds a week. In about ten weeks, I'd lost 25 pounds and was feeling great. Then some major life changes intruded and I didn't get to eat at home for months and very much fell off the program.

But I've gone back to it briefly a few times, and the results always seem to be the same: I lose 5-7 pounds in the first week and then it slows down, but continues.

As long as I eat fish. I can fudge a little on the other aspects, skip the dairy one day or the oat bran another, but not the fish. If I eat fish every day, I keep losing weight. If I stop, I maintain.

I've decided, this time, to back off a little. I don't want to lose a pound a day (or even every other day), and in any case couldn't do that for very long before I'd be headed in the wrong direction. So I'm aiming to lose about five pounds at a time, then maintaining for a couple of weeks. Each 5 pounds takes about 7-10 days after the initial jump start, and then I scale back to regular healthy eating for a while.

Have I mentioned that I really don't like fish? I mean, I REALLY don't like fish.

But this was too good not to share, because so many people have a hard time getting started and have a hard time keeping up motivation in the beginning and such when they're trying to lose weight. And this is a simple jump start that's not a gimick, doesn't involve colon cleanses or eating only berries for three days or living on liquids--it's real food that your body can work with.

Here's exactly what I'm eating in the pound-a-day phases:

Oat bran with berries and 2% milk for breakfast

A Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine meal (about 300 calories) for lunch, sometimes with a salad with cheese.

4-6 ounces of fish (usually pollock, salmon or shrimp) with something on the side (rice, vegetables, salad, or some combination thereof) for dinner

I also eat fruit or vegetables during the day when I feel like it, which isn't very often because all that fiber is pretty filling. I drink a lot of tea, but also 2-3 cups of coffee with liquid creamer every day--it's not exactly rigid.

There are thousands of books, magazine articles, blogs, websites, informercials and probably formats I haven't thought of telling us all how to get healthy or to lose weight or to jump start our metabolism or whatever sounds like a quick fix in the moment, but this one caught my attention a few years ago because it was made up of good, healthy food that looked a lot like the meals I knew I should be eating anyway. And it's never let me down.

Let Me Begin with a Confession...

2009-02-05T05:18:00.000-08:00

I've been holding out on you.

It's been over a month since I made the long overdue decision to take control of my health--not just to lose weight and lower my cholesterol, but to sleep a reasonable number of hours each night no matter what didn't get done and to start thinking of exercise not as an assigned half-hour a day but a more active way of life.

I was 19 when I was diagnosed with a minor heart problem and 33 when I first went on medication for my blood pressure. I had no significant risk factors for high blood pressure: I was too young, I'd never taken birth control pills, I'd never smoked, I walked a lot and, while I was a little overweight, the doctors made it clear that the difference between me and the "ideal" wasn't significant enough to be a health risk.

At 19, I was in denial. I went out and bought exercise equipment and determined that I was going to "build up" my heart. At 33, I was defeated--my health problems depressed me terribly.

I'm 42 now, and I'm just a little bit angry. I know I can't magically make these defects go away, and I know there are risks. I also know that how my body handles them depends a lot on whether or not its in optimal shape. It never has been, even when I was young and seemingly strong and weighed 115 pounds. It's certainly not today.

But I have a plan. True to form, I started implementing it behind closed doors--I had to try it out to make sure everything was in order before I let anyone see me try. I learned to walk and to talk the same way. But I'm about six weeks in now. I've lost 11 pounds. I wake up before my alarm clock most days. And I've learned to like Oat Bran.

Now I'm ready to share. It's not that I think there's anything particularly interesting about my story, or that I expect you all to cheerlead for me or anything like that. It's more that it's turning out not to be nearly so hard as I expected, and I want everyone to know that. I'm all about throwing up obstacles for myself sometimes, but I'm definitely in favor of removing them for other people.