"The Diet That Changed Me" Insanity: Day 11 of 60

I am reading a book on nutrition called “Eat to Live” by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.  As I read it, it occurred to me how the diet of food that I eat today is so radically different than four years ago and how similar it is to what is being prescribed in the book.  The strange part is that, after you make a change, and after you literally ‘make it you’, you forget what you used to have as a routine.  When I begin to tweak my memory and note it, the contrast literally spells out how my physical appearance and overall health has seen its dramatic change.

I have been very open about needing to do a liquid diet called Optifast to originally lose the weight.  LOSING the weight is not the challenge we all face.  In fact, the Optifast diet has an 80% recidivism rate (they gain the weight back.)  The real diet is the one that has kept the weight off for almost four years now!

Breakfast

THEN: My breakfast over four years ago used to be that I would grab coffee in the morning and make myself toast with peanut butter and jelly on most mornings.  When I got to work, if I hadn’t stopped to grab a donut on the way in to work, I would hit the cafeteria around 10AM to get more coffee and a muffin. 

NOW: Oatmeal with all natural applesauce and cinnamon.  Coffee.  My mid-morning snack is usually a piece of fruit or nothing.

Lunch

THEN: At lunch, I would generally eat a sandwich wrap of some type, but if there was a hot meal (like ziti and meatballs or fried chicken or steak) I would have that.  Around 3PM, I would be hungry again and might grab a pack of pop-tarts from the vending machine.

NOW: Salad in healthy portions with lots of vegetables in it.  3-4 oz of lean chicken or fish.  At about 3PM, my mid-day snack is usually a protein bar.

As a side note here, at this point in my day I probably would have consumed about 1800-2000 calories on the old ‘meal plan.’  If there were an office birthday celebration or if someone had brought in snacks, all bets were off.  Today, at this point in the day, I am probably somewhere in the 1300 calorie range.  When it comes to dinner though, that’s where the real game changer happens.

Dinner

THEN: Whatever was cooked for the family in one big portion, sometimes two.  If it was spaghetti night, two portions easy.  If it was steak, the steak was a pretty big one.  Hamburgers?  Always two.  In the summer, many meals were complemented with macaroni salad (a starch and mayonnaise combo) and a vegetable.  At about 9PM, my stomach would be looking for something else, which three to four times a week would be ice cream from the refrigerator.  On the other nights, I would grab whatever was there.

If we ate out, I usually ate something very tasty…prime rib or some other meat portion, big seafood combo, etc.   Dessert was hard to pass up…that usually happened only if I had been such a glutton at dinner that I couldn’t physically put more in the tank.  Beer with the restaurant meals…usually two and not Coors Light…usually a hearty brown ale.

The weekends were also sprinkled with family gatherings that would bring on many more snacks, desserts and beer.

On the old “eating plan”, the calorie count from about 1800 at noontime could skyrocket easily to 3200-3500 on a weekday and probably 4000 plus on a weekend.

NOW: Shakeology at dinner with fruit blended in.  4-6 oz of nut and raisin trail mix.   At 9PM, after my recovery drink, usually another piece of fruit and one more nut and raisin trail mix serving.

If we eat out, I generally stick to chicken or salmon grilled on top of a large salad.  The same goes for family gatherings.  Grilled meat and salad is the choice 95% of the time.  Dessert is in play only when I am on vacation and even then, very infrequent.  On birthdays I will have a small piece of cake with a scoop of ice cream.  I may have a seafood menu item but it is usually some type of fish and double vegetables…never potatoes or French fries.  No alcohol…ice water and maybe a diet-coke here and there.  I am trying to completely avoid all the diet drinks these days due to the toxic sweeteners in them.

My current total calorie count probably goes to about 2000 during the week and a little more than that on the weekend.  If you are wondering how I keep the calorie count that low, the real leverage is the Shakeology meal replacement shake.  It has all the nutrients of a complete meal plus nutrients you would NEVER get in a meal.  When I blend in a banana and/or blueberries, it comes to about 220 calories and fills you for hours.  No kidding.  On the weekend, I usually don’t have a morning or afternoon snack.   

Epilogue

So the diet contrast is from about 3200-3500 per day then to about 2000 during the week and about 4000 plus to about 2200 on a weekend day.  With all these numbers, consider too that my diet now is almost completely made up of natural foods and vegetables instead of breaded items loaded with refined sugar and white flour.  The sugar content of my food has been cut by about 80% and is now limited to sugar in the form of solid fruit.

I had calculated, some time ago, that when I was eating this I was also not exercising.  I was probably burning about 2800 calories a day and consuming 3500 to 4500 calories on any given day.  I may have been burning less calories for the exceptionally sedentary life I was living, but it took some energy to push around 285 pounds of girth…so let’s say 2800.  The extra 800 to 1800 calories per day…where did that go?  3500 calories is equal to one pound of weight gain.  You can do the math or go and look at my ‘before’ pictures.

I now exercise every day and burn about 800 to 1000 calories during exercise (maybe more on the weekend).  That is on top of my 2200 calories that I expend on a daily basis just moving around.  So I am burning 3000 to 3200 calories per day and taking in about 2200.  Where is the 1000 calorie per day deficit going?  3500 calories is one pound.  Again, the math is the same!

There is no doubt that the exercise gives my diet extra leverage in terms of staying lean and in shape.  It also allows a few indiscretions here and there, like pizza for dinner on Friday night.  But, without the exercise, the weight would be stable.  My conditioning would be pathetic, but I would still be a healthy weight.

This change has also resulted in my cholesterol going from close to 270 to 163.  So I have gone from a solid diagnosis of "You need Lipitor" (for the cholesterol) to, "You did all this without drugs?"  All my blood test markers were optimal for a man of fifty.  My resting blood pressure is 100/80.  I am leaner and in better shape than when I was 25 yrs old.   

So there you have it.  This is how I changed from one person to another.  I enjoy eating what I eat, I just make very deliberate healthy choices.

Which of my two eating plans are you on?  That’s a question everyone should ask themselves in private.

Have a great day!

WORKOUT:

Last night was Cardio Recovery night so I did 35 minutes of Insanity and 35 minutes of P90X Triceps, Chest and Shoulders and then did 25 minutes on the treadmill.  The recovery night is kind of bland.  On the plus side, the P90X TCS workout went real and I was able to really push it hard since I only planned to do half the workout.

Have a great day!!