You Can't Go Home Again

When you go on the Optifast diet, if you follow it and do not cheat, it is like being in a nice secure bubble. You are insulated from all the bad things that you were doing that turned you into a Thanksgiving Day float. But eventually, you have to leave the bubble. The rest of the world doesn't live in there. That's when your time comes and it's "fly little bird, fly!!" It's time to do the hard work. It's time to look at the real world and address all the things that contributed to the XXL or XXXL person who walked through that door on day one.

At week 12, I hit 219 lbs. I had now shed about 60 plus lbs of ugly fat. 12 weeks is an incredibly fast time to lose that amount of weight. It is weird in that you just seem to be hitting stride and now it is time to think about managing your life OFF the diet. My original goal as set by the doctor was 215. My personal goal was 205. I was basically where the doctor thought I should be. Next week, we would talk about adding another meal to the daily plan. As I have said, I was on three shakes per day plus one carefully measured dinner meal. I now had to consider a diet that was 100% real food. The Miriam Hospital program, in my opinion, excelled at showing you how to manage your eating like a normal person. Strike that. Our country is now comprised of a population where over 50% are considered overweight, obese and morbidly obese. This condition is becoming the 'norm.' So this program was teaching us how to eat within the boundaries of a normal human body, not at the levels we have become accustomed to as a society.

To do this, the education program in broken into behavior and dietary management. I have said this over and over, but the diet management was the most valuable to me. I am going to cover some of the topics in the next few blog entries.

A man of 210 lbs burns about 2000 calories per day. If you want to lose weight over a long term, you should restrict your intake to about 1600-1800 calories per day. Exercise plays an important role. First, you need to have enough energy to exercise. Second, you can burn a large amount of calories depending on how much exercise you are doing. On my diet I was taking in 900 calories per day. I was burning about 2000 normal calories and about 400 exercise calories. The exercise calories came about from my speed walking which I did daily. On weekends, in addition to the walking, I would mow the lawn etc. I was running a daily 1500 calorie deficit. The weight, at this tempo, comes off at a speed that has been reflected in my progress.

Start to think about your sex, height and weight. Look at a chart that will show you your normal calorie burn. That is what you work with daily. The most important thing you need to know now, coming off of Optifast, is how many calories you are burning on average daily and how much you are taking in. We could go into the detail about the type of calories but let's keep this real simple. My 'off-diet' calorie intake should be about 1800 calories daily. I could manage this because I had decided that I would exercise 3-4 days per week and figured I was burning around 2400 calories per day. That number gave me some leeway for any small indiscretions. We aren't perfect and we aren't robots either. So that's my number 1,800.

One of the most astonishing things I learned in the education classes was how many calories I had been ingesting. I had absolutely convinced myself that, before this diet, I didn't consume that many calories. The day it really came home to roost was the day our class covered the "Dining Out Guide." This is a compiled list of meals and their calorie content from some of the most known restaurants in the United States. If you are serious about losing weight, you should go out and buy "The CalorieKing Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter 2009" by Allan Borushek. If you eat out even one night a week, you should just take this little baby with you. It lists the calories in most foods but it also has a section like our class "Dining Out Guide," only even more extensive. It tells you just how much you are stuffing into that chubby little frame when you eat out in restaurants. You won't believe it. I didn't .

Here are a few examples. As an appetizer (the meal hasn't even arrived yet!!), an order of fried Calamari (3 cups)....1,037 calories. That was more than my diet allowed ALL DAY! Here are some more appetizers. Ruby Tuesday's low carb Spicy Buffalo Chicken Wings with dressing...1,090 cals. That's right football aficionado's, don't even try to tell me that you limit it to one serving either. Especially during the playoffs and on Super Bowl Sunday. Don't rationalize this one...the restaurant doesn't matter! Check out TGI Friday's Buffalo Wings...1,010 cals. Whew!! But you may actually be making a relatively HEALTHY choice! Check out these! Stuffed Potato Skins with sour cream...1,260 cals. The Bloomin' Onion with dipping sauce (because it tastes awful when it's plain)...2,130 cals. Here is the all time show stopper appetizer, Cheese Fries with ranch dressing...3,010 cals. Make sure you have the diet-cola!!

Here is something you figure out pretty fast using these guides, and take it as a tip. The appetizers listed above had more calories than the entrees. They also have more calories than dessert! The golden rule, SKIP THE APPETIZERS and SKIP THE DESSERT. If you are going to eat the meal, an appetizer could multiply your calorie intake by (depending on choice) a factor of 4!! Add a dessert and multiply that intake by 6!

I could cover this forever. Go and buy the book. It will be the best education and investment you can make. Go and find a chart of calories you burn daily, print the number in BIG BOLD CHARACTERS on a sticky label, and put that label on the cover of the guide. If you are serious about weight loss, you may never have another appetizer OR dessert.

Other major thing to consider in restaurants:

(1) Watch the alcohol. It is a source of empty calories and makes resisting the dessert and appetizers hard. You will thank me when you get the bill and see the difference between the cost of two Brown Ale's and two Ice Water's with Lime.
(2) Watch how the meal is cooked. If it says "fried" or "baked", ignore it. Go for grilled or steamed. Watch the sauces. Go light. Pick "marinated in juice" over "marinated in butter."
(3) No pasta and no starch. Go double veggies always with your protein.
(4) If all else fails, go with the Grilled Chicken or Fish Salad.

My pre-Optifast life was one of excess. Absolutely. No exercise. Much food. Much drink. I was King of my castle. My castle of fat.

The walls are down and it's time to live like a person who hopes to see the finish line. It IS possible. But...you can't go home again. You don't want to anyway.

Next: Stay with the new life plan, don't listen to them!!

Day Two - Crunch Time

It has occurred to me that I have said that I lost 80 lbs on this diet. I did NOT however say how long it took me to do that. I have included the chart above. Not only did I lose more on this diet than any other diet I have been on, I lost it faster. I started on July 17th, 2008 and by November 6th, 2008, I had lost 76 lbs. So in total, about 16 weeks to lose 76 lbs or about 4.75 lbs per week. Since November, at times, I have weighed as little as 199 lbs. I fluctuate within about 202 and 206 lbs depending on how much exercise I do and how well I maintain the diet. I have been in this range for about 5 months now and am still going strong.

Day one of this diet was not real tough. Aside from the headache I got briefly that first afternoon, it wasn't too bad. The fact that it was a Friday helped a lot. There were lots of distractions to keep me from thinking about the diet. Day two was a Saturday. This was not going to be quite so easy. The weekend is the toughest time for a diet. We have a big family with lots of gatherings. This means one thing. Lots of food. Heaps of food. Plenty of beverages to wash it down with. This is where you separate the fat men from the skinny boys. This was crunch time.

I got up that morning and drank the shake. That's right...you got it. One suck. I felt kind of strange. I had this weird energy. It wasn't something I was used to because Saturday is a day I like to sleep in and really relax. I couldn't do it that morning. I felt like a had to go do something. So I put on the exercise stuff, strapped on my MP3 player, and went for a 2.6 mile walk. I hadn't planned on going this early but it couldn't hurt, hell, it was just a walk. So I did that. Came in sweating. But I couldn't stop...so I mowed the lawn. My mower is a push mower, not a rider. Not like you could tell from my adorable pear (bowling pin?) shaped frame. I looked like "Kung Fu Panda" pushing the thing...which I did for about 2 hours. I drank quite a bit of water doing this, but the diet said to do that...so cool. I finished mowing. "Gotta do something else here. What has gotten into me?" So in the corner of the garage was a ton of cardboard boxes I had intended to cut up for the trash. I had intended it LAST summer. So I went and got my boxcutter (which, incidently, until 9-11 I referred to as a blade knife) and began to slice and dice. By noon, I had walked, mowed, sliced, diced, drank water...my wife came outside looking for the alien pod that had spawned me.

I finally felt a little tired and went inside for my 8 oz lunch. Ate in about 5 seconds.

I took my shower and heard the phone ring. It was the in-laws. A usual summer gathering at one of their homes was being quickly put together. These usually went from mid-afternoon until...ugh...basically until you were kicked out. This should be a challenge (to my patience)...since I can't drink. I mentioned this in a previous blog but, just in case, drinking is verboten on this diet. So I packed my evening dinner. One can of spinach, one can of tuna, one apple. I brought a shake in case this party went the distance. I couldn't remember the last time one didn't!

There are occasions when you have an epiphany because you are so bored stiff that your brain does some extra handiwork and comes up with ideas. This was one of those afternoons. I went out to the patio and sat down at an outdoor table. The food started flowing...and flowing...and flowing. OK, maybe I was extra conscious of the food. When you can't eat it, everything looks like food. Even waxed fruit. So the table was full. Dip. Chips. Veggies. Veggie dip. Coolers of beer. Mexican cheese and bean dip. It started at 3PM. At 5:30PM the table was cleared for the food (?, seriously) as the grill was emptied. Steak, burgers, hot dogs...you name it. Potato salad, salad, corn on the cob. The whole time, the beer was just flowing.

This must be what it is like when you are paralyzed and in the hospital. You just watch everybody doing their thing and, well, you just watch. The dinner finished and then out came desserts. Brownies, cake, pies...did we really do this weekly? This was bigger than most people's Thanksgivings. No wonder I am as big as a house.

Somewhere in this smorgasborg of activity, I ate my spinach and tuna. I ate the apple when I was done...for some reason eating seemed like a natural reflex. But I didn't eat anything else...no cheating.

When dessert was done, the dips and stuff came back out. At no time from 3PM to 10:30PM when we left did the table appear barren. Never. Nothing that had to do with food got by me on that day. I had my last shake at 9PM. Hey, if I could get through that day, I could do anything.

I told my wife about my observations on the drive home. This was the beginning of my reformed fatty period where I would be telling everyone why overeating was just wrong.

I had done it. I would do it again. Over and over. For 16 weeks.

In retrospect, it was all worth every moment.

Next: An Inspirational Break