Don't Wait Until That Heart Attack To Change Your Diet

Hello weight losing fans...

Today I stepped up onto the Magical-Mystical-Digital-Scale weighing in at 178.8-pounds.

I told you that I would come back in under 180-pounds. Nah-Nah-Bloo-Bloo...

Hey, you can't do that. You can't eat like a pig and then lose weight. You just can't.

Oh, contrary my good folks...I can, if I adjust the calories before and after the event. Oh, but you ate so much on Thanksgiving day, and so much on the next days.

Ah, but I knocked a couple hundred calories off on the following days. I quit eating at let's say around 1,300 to 1,500 calories, instead of 1,500 to 1,600 calories.

Did I cheat? No, I just adjusted.
Did I starve? Well, I felt some hunger.
What did you eat? I ate more proteins, like chicken, and bigger servings of green vegetables, with my sauerkraut. I also consume protein powder.

Let's not forget here, I can eat big portions of green vegetables like green beans, and the calories are negligible. One half cup of green beans is only 20 calories. One cup of sauerkraut is about 35-40 calories. So, I can scarf down vegetables, and fill the voids.

Also, I don't consume refined sugar all of the time. I had only one day where I pumped the refined sugar in with a chocolate shake. (Yummy) One week had passed since Thanksgiving day, I had already fallen back under 180-since then. So I was in good shape.

Well, David aren't you trying to get to 160-pounds?
Yes, I am, I am not going to kill myself to get there.

So here I am back under 180-pounds. What will happen from here I don't know. I don't have a crystal ball.

Strict Diet To Prevent Another Heart Attack Is Causing Frustration
Today I was talking to a guy who is currently repairing my car. He was telling me he had a heart attack while cutting his lawn this past summer. He said that he now has to consume a low fat diet, and take medicines. He said that his doctor blamed his diet.

As a result, this guy has to eat a restricted fat diet. He can't eat butters, gravies, real pastries, or anything that has fat. Golly, you talk about a boring life.

I noticed he has lost weight. I commented that he lost weight. He said he has, but he's already sick and tired of the diet. Well, of course he is. And, in a few years, he will eventually give up the diet, and go back to where he came from. This is conjecture on my part, but as I have seen with so many people, they get tired of the discipline, and quit.

Now, I think his diet might (I say might) be responsible for aiding in his heart attack. I don't think it's because of what he ate. I think it's the amount of food he ate that was the cause of his trouble. Also, he was a heavy smoker. This is really what was probably the biggest contributor to his heart attach.

Here was a man that smoked cigarettes. Every time I saw him in the past, he had to have a cigarette. He was obviously over weight. Did he get there because he ate the wrong kind of fat?
I don't think so.

I think he got there because of the amount of donuts, cake, french fries, big hamburgers, beef sandwiches, candy, etc., etc.. And, those cigarettes didn't help.

I think he got there because of the foods he didn't eat, large helping of green vegetables, large helpings of colored vegetables, not enough fish, protein enriched vegetables such as nuts.

I also think that he probably didn't take vitamin supplements. Most people don't even take something as simple as a multivitamin.

Our bodies go into to disrepair if we don't give them adequate nutrition. Well, if someone is fat, didn't they get enough nutrition?

Not necessarily. He may have been someone who ignored eating a balanced diet. Again, this is conjecture on my part.

I don't like restricting my food consumption any more than any one else would. However, I did it because I wanted to lose weight, and to post pone the next catastrophic event that would result from me being way over weight.

I don't worry about the kind of food I eat. I don't look at a blueberry muffin and speculate does this have animal fat (butter), or vegetable fat (corn oil).
I don't look at that bowl of chili and wonder did they suck the oil out of the meat.

I measure the food, or I weigh it. Then I can pretty much say to myself, "This muffin is 500 calories." Or, I can say this Chili is one cup, which is about 270 calories.

When I measure the food, and estimate the calories, this pretty much takes care of the fats and carbohydrates as well.

For example: Most fat, vegetable or animal fat is close to the same calories per tablespoon full, around 110-120 calories. So, if I have a tablespoon of fat in my muffin. I know there is 120 calories. And, that will be one incredibly soggy muffin.

If I use the food guides that are out there and watch my calories accordingly, then my fats, carbohydrates, proteins, etc. take care of themselves.

I don't make it complicated
The other day I was at my family members home. She offered me a Weight Watcher's Ice Cream Bar. I asked her how many calories was in the bar. She said it was so many points. I said no, I don't want the points value, I want the calories value.

I looked at the box, and saw this ice cream bar had 130 calories. I told her that's more calories than a regular ice cream bar.

Now, I don't care about how many points are in that bar. I care about the calories. My body isn't sitting there estimating points. It's looking for fuel. It wants fat, protein, and carbohydrates.

If I throw too much of anyone of them into my mouth, then I am going to see troubling results from it. I will get fat again.

The easiest way to calculate what I am eating is with calories.

When I cook an egg in fat, I add automatically 10 calories because the egg absorbs the grease.
When I use oil to cook, I add automatically 10 calories, because the food absorbs the grease.

I don't worry if it's a transfat, or vegetable fat, or any other kind of fat.

I do limit refined sugars. Those dirty little sugar calories add up quick. Only again, everything in moderation. I can have a donut for breakfast. I have to add that to the total calories I ate, or I will eat. There is also probably some fat in the donut. What kind of fat, I don't know.

At the end of the day; it's how much I ate, not what I ate.

I have written this all before. Look at the results of my simple plan.

Here is is:

1. I know I should have some carbohydrates: I eat fruits, like a banana, or a half cup of fruit cocktail. I limit myself to a biscuit or slice of bread at a meal, which is about 3 slices of bread a day.
2. I need protein: I eat some chicken, or eggs for breakfast. I try to eat around 9 ounces of protein a day.
3. I know I need fat: I use fish oil capsules each day. I usually get the other fats from the meats that I consume. Last night I had fried chicken. I ate the chicken fat from the skin. I ate the fat that the chicken was fried in.
4. I measure or calculate the calories, then I write them down.
5. I weigh myself everyday morning when I wake up. I write that weight down.

It's not rocket science losing weight the way I have.

The hardest part of this "DIET" is saying no to any more food when I am raving hungry. It's hard to say no when I have a table full of food spread out in front of me. It's hard to resist the urge to over eat.

I have my cut off points. I stick to them fairly regularly. Oh, I have those days where I blow the calorie count clean out of the water; like three or four days ago.

Even so, I only ate 1,200 calories more than I had alloted for the day.

Don't kill yourself to lose weight. Don't get neurotic on yourself, and all of sudden become real strict when you don't have to.

It took you years to get over weight. It should take you years to shave the pounds off. I advocate about one pound per week. I worry when I see people losing 5 or more pounds a week.

Here is why: That heart is a muscle. It has to have protein. That brain is a bowl of geletin like fat. It has to have fat. Those muscles that cause you to breath, have to have protein.

If someone is depriving themselves of so much food that he/she is losing five pounds a week, then where is the body getting it's nutrients from?

Recently I read about a guy who lost 196-pounds in less than a year. It was said he exercised six days a week, and ate a lot of apples. OK, maybe his heart is OK. I don't know.

I have to wonder, how much food did this guy eat to get to 400 plus pounds? What's the damage from that? I don't know.

I have seen the results of bad dieting in my family. One family member has dieted for years. Now her arms have no tone. Now, she has flab. She's old for sure but, she dieted the wrong way.
She lost much of her muscle tone.

Now, I can't vouch for some man that loses 196-pounds. I can vouch for myself. I lost around one pound per week. There were some weeks I lost more than that initially, but it tapered off.

As anyone can see, who's been following my blog, I am still alive. Also, my body had settled on around 180-pounds. I don't exercise vigorously every day. Maybe, I would knock off that last twenty pounds one two three. Maybe...

Here is my point: If you must lose weight. If you must watch your diet, then do it now. Don't weight for a major catastrophe like type-2 diabetes, or a heart problem. Take care of your weight now.

"Eat Less Food!"

Number counter when I finished today's post: 7820

Bye for now...

And that's the way it is...I'm David Dane