Diet Update: I've lost 23.5 lbs (10.6 kg)

This is week 9 of the Green Smoothie diet, and, as of today, I've lost 23.5 lbs (10.6 kg).

I don't feel right calling this a diet, because that usually implies a temporary way of eating. I really do feel like I've made a change in lifestyle. I plan on eating more raw food for the rest of my life, and Green Smoothies at least once a day is an easy and healthy way to go.

One nice thing about dropping more than 20 lbs is that cardio is easier to do. I can now run a for 30 minutes without much trouble. I guess that's bad too. Increasing my running speed and distance in such a short time has resulted in several repetitive stress injuries. Live and learn, I guess.

Diet update: I've lost 18 lbs

Sunday mornings are my weigh-in days. I’ll sometimes weigh in on other days, but this week I was dreading the scale, as I had over indulged on Friday night and had skipped exercising on Friday too. I was hoping for 197, or at least not more than last week’s 198. I stepped on the scale and waited for my magic number. When it blurted out 194.5 in all its LCD glory, I air pumped a “YES” with my fist. That means I’ve lost 18 lbs now.

In addition to my green smoothies, I think one reason I lost a lot of weight this week (relatively speaking), is that I was finally able to jog a considerable distance. It’s about 3.5 miles from my house, around Lake Nokomis, and back to my door. It’s a path I’ve walked and ran many, many times. As I’ve been getting back into cardio shape, initially I had to walk, run 100 yards, walk, run another short distance, and repeat. In doing this, I’ve gradually been able to increase my running distance.

One mistake that I’ve made is to forget that I’m prone to plantar fasciitis. I do stretch nearly every day, but I need to give special attention to this. The tendons from my calf to my heel seem to be shorter in my left leg than my right. After a particularly great run this week, I awoke to discover I tore a tendon that connects to my heel. I could hardly walk for a couple of days. I’ve been icing it, stretching it, resting it, and I’m wearing a medical boot to bed that keeps my calf tendons from contracting at night. I’ve signed up to run a Halloween 5K race, and I really want to be ready for it. I’ve battled this injury for the last 10 years.

Regarding green smoothies, I was worried that I might grow tired of them, but I have not. I continue to experiment with different green leafy vegetables and different fruits. Eventually, I’ll experiment with spices, such as cinnamon, but for now, I’m just enjoying the natural sweet fruit flavors. I’ve been very consistent in using the green smoothie for a meal replacement. I always have one for lunch. I sometimes have one for breakfast, but sometimes I enjoy just slicing up tomatoes and fruit on a plate for breakfast.

In fact, my favorite snack is sliced tomatoes that are salted and peppered with balsamic vinegar drizzled over them. You know you’re on the right track when you think of sliced tomatoes and your mouth waters. Seriously, this freaked me out the first time it happened.

Another challenge to my diet is that we go out to eat a lot. To address this, I’ve decided that I will always order a salad when I go out to eat, and I’ll try to avoid salads that have a lot of the white carbs in them. This is meeting with success in my diet plan for weight management and in my health plan for more nutritious eating.

With my heel injury and substantial weight loss this week, I’m not expecting next week to be as good, but I’m going to stay the course the best I can.

Getting Stuck at a Weight When You're Trying to Lose?

If you've started a weight-management plan and had some initial results, but now you're stuck at a particular weight, or even worse, gaining ever so slightly. You may have plateaued or staled for some reason. You step on the scale chanting for a lower number and it eludes you time after time. How can we break through this plateau?

I had this happen to me recently. I felt like I was doing everything right--Lowered caloric intake, exercising every day and eating healthy foods, but my weight would not drop even a half pound.

There are several reasons weight loss stops, but the main three are as follows:

1. You're eating more calories than you realize.


2. Your "metabolism" has slowed due to its awareness of your caloric restrictions.


3. You're not moving enough or with enough exertion.

The best way to address the first one is to keep a journal and measure your portions until you have an intimate understanding of how many calories you're consuming on a regular basis and how many calories you need to lose weight. Remember to count how much sauce you're adding to your stir-fry, how much olive oil is in your salad dressing, those handfuls of nuts you're snacking on, that power bar at the gym, etc.

If you don't have a food scale, order one today off of Amazon. You can get a decent one for under $10-- mailed right to your door.

Keep track of your food for at least a week. There are several free calorie/exercise websites for tracking your progress. Make sure you understand exactly how many calories you need to eat per day in order to lose weight. Then, understand how many calories you're actually consuming.

I recently mentioned a free site I found, Cron-O-Meter; however, there are a number of these free sites available. Do a Google search for "Calorie Counting" and they will pop up. These sites will take your stats and give you a rough idea of the number of calories you need to being eating to lose weight. Then, they provide you with the tools to journal exactly how many calories you're actually eating in a day. In this way, you can see if you're really consuming too many calories or if you're body really is just slowing down its metabolism.

Which takes us to the second reason--a slowed metabolism. What exactly is a "slowed metabolism?" In dieting terms, it's really a misnomer. Metabolism describes the way our bodies convert food to fuel, but what is really probably happening is that our bodies are experiencing the “starvation response.” Millions of years of caveman evolution kick in, and our bodies think we might be starving, so our bodies release less of the hormone leptin and less of the enzyme lipase. This slows the release of fat cells for fuel. In fact, if you eat too few calories, you will have initial weight loss, but it will slow due to this. In starvation syndrome, our bodies will favor burning lean muscle instead of fat. Less muscle will slow your ability to lose weight even further, as your body will need fewer calories. The trick is to maintain a caloric deficit that is just under your target maintain weight, and eat the right kind of foods.

To keep your body from eating its own muscles, you have to make sure it has a constant supple of what it uses for fuel–-glucose. Your body makes glucose from carbohydrates. You know that you can overdo carbohydrates by eating the wrong kinds, such as the white starches, but if you give your body good sources of carbohydrates (from fruits and vegetables), you can avoid starvation syndrome.

In addition, studies have shown that too much fat in the diet can inhibit the metabolism of glucose. Years ago, a study was done by Dr. I.M. Rabinowitch that included 1000 case studies. The study was presented to the Diabetic Association in Boston. He proved that too much fat in the blood interfered with insulin (See http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/167140/title/Diabetic_Patients_Can_Eat_Sugar_If_Fats_Are_Eliminated).

So, eat right (a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in fat). The next thing you should be doing to combat starvation syndrome is weight lifting or some sort of resistance training that stresses your larges muscles, like your legs (quadriceps), chest, and back.

The third item to address is whether or not you’re moving with enough effort. Here’s a simple way to know if you are working with enough intensity. If you can have a conversation and get out several sentences while you’re working out, you are not working with enough intensity. You should only be able to muster short sentences or a few words at a time. If you are walking for exercise, that’s wonderful, but if you’ve been at the same pace forever, and you can tell your life story while walking, you need to pick up the pace.

As Jim Morrison sang in the Doors debut album, “Break on through to the other side.”

Useful website for tracking calories - Cronometer.com

Someone introduced me to this website: http://cronometer.com/

It's free (ad supported). It allows you to enter what you've eaten and it shows you how many calories you have left for the day in order to meet your weight loss goal. It's database of foods is impressive. It also maps out your nutrition.

There's an upgrade to go ad-free which includes support and a PDA application.

I was actually in the midst of writing my own software to calculate my green smoothie calories when I found this. This not only gives me the calories, but it will track my nutritional progress and record my exercise.

http://cronometer.com

It's a nice find.

Diet update

On Aug. 21, 2011, I decided to change the ratio of fruits and vegetables I eat on a daily basis. At the same time, I planned to cutting out some food choices that I know are causing weight gain. I also planned to increase the amount of cardio workouts I did per week to everyday, or as close to that as possible.

My hope was that I would lose weight, improve my health, and feel better about myself. I weigh in every Monday morning. Actually, I weigh in more regularly, but for sure every Monday. So far, I've lost 11 lbs in 23 days. The first 7 lbs came fast, and then things slowed down.

Initially, I made such good progress that I thought I might be able to keep some of my comfort calories, like a nightly nightcap of alcohol. I discovered that this had to cease. My progress almost completely stopped until I gave up the nightcap.

I'm using green smoothies as meal replacements for breakfast and lunch. Often, my breakfast will be the leftover smoothie from the day before (when I make too much).

You can view videos located in this blog on how I make the green smoothies. I use a Blendtech blender, made famous by the YouTube video phenomenon "Will it Blend."

For supper, I've been having a low fat meat, such as fish or chicken with a vegetable.

Specifically, I'm avoiding the white carbs that raise my blood sugar, such as breads, pasta and potatoes. I'm not eating sweets, but I've never really had a sweet tooth.

The weight seems to be coming off at a healthy pace. My goal is 30 lbs by Halloween, which is about 6 weeks away. With 11 lbs down, if I can lose 3 or 4 lbs a week, I'll make my goal. I feel confident that my current choices will get me there if I stick with it.

As a side note, I hope to make green smoothies and raw food a permanent part of my life--not just a diet. I currently do not plan on becoming a strict vegetarian or strict raw-food convert, but I do plan to substantially increasing the ratio of raw foods in my diet.