Weighing in on Weight

So, I've mentioned bits and pieces about my weight loss.  I thought I'd expand on it with my trademark blathering.  And yes, I will be throwing numbers out there!

I started on Weight Watchers in June 2011.  In my first weigh-in I came in at 191.5 lbs.  The highest that I had ever seen on the scale was 199, but I went several years once without weighing myself so who knows where I got to.

When I was looking for a horse, my main concern was finding one that could handle my weight.

I am writing this now at 126.5 lbs.  I lost weight steadily until December 2011 when I stopped fervently tracking and began just maintaining at around 140 lbs.  This kept up for about 6 months and I got back to it, getting down another 10 lbs.

After that I knocked around in the 130s for a while.  I couldn't bring myself to get back to tracking like I did, and I don't know why.  I knew it worked, but I just couldn't do it.

I eventually worked my way into the 120s, and I think this is where I'll try to stay.

The biggest revelation with Weight Watchers was the sheer volume of what I ate.  My attitude was that I was learning proper portions with my biggest ally being a food scale.  I still ate whatever I wanted, but I was now accountable.  Fruits and most veggies were free so I took advantage of that and realized that things like cakes were just too "costly" to work into my diet.  If I had that cupcake that was brought into work, then I couldn't have dinner.  Not worth it, and with the devaluation went the cravings and desire.

At the beginning of this year things began to change.

At this point you might want to stop reading, Mom, because you'll start to throw the computer around.

My father had many careers, the last being a nutritionist.  He said things that at the time (late 80s/early 90s) sounded crazy to me.  I never really listened.  I'm listening now.  I'm starting to understand and I am starting to realize that I took some of the things that he said wrong and now I see what he meant.  I am also starting to follow a similar path.

He had cried when I told him that I was shopping organic at a natural food co-op because of him.  I can't imagine what his reaction to this would be.

I have almost completely changed my diet.  The first push was the documentary Hungry For Change on Netflix.  Numerous documentaries on weight loss had been an inspiration to me in my journey, so when I saw this one pop up I thought I'd give it a go.

The main message from Hungry For Change is a diet without processed foods and without added sugars.

I read up some more, and am currently reading a book called Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease by Robert Lustig, M.D.  He is a pediatric endocrinologist who deals with many overweight children.  He explains in accessible terms the inner workings of the body as far as hunger, eating, digestion, satiety, and fat storage go, all from an endocrinologist's point of view.  A lot of time is spent talking about insulin, the hypothalamus, leptin, etc.  Different foodstuffs, environmental influences, diets, case studies,visceral vs subcutaneous fat, and so on are discussed.  Very interesting.  He also pulls no punches and sugar-coats nothing.  While noting the ulterior motives of diet gurus who just want you to buy what they are selling, he wryly admits that he's an obesity author now, isn't he?  But he's not trying to sell anything, just get people to eat more fiber, exercise, and stop eating so damned much processed food.

I am still a vegetarian as I have been for the past 8.5 years, so no changes there, but so many changes elsewhere.  So, I am eating whole foods now.  If it is unaltered from its original state and is recognizable, I will put it in my maw.  If it is messed with, I most likely won't.

At work there is a food cart that my co-worker stocks.  He bought a bunch of stuff for it from soda to chips to candy to ramen and I looked at the enormous piles and realized that none of it even looks like food to me anymore.  It just looks.... dead.  Instead, I can't wait to go home and have a banana.

I'm feeling great now!  I have stopped really paying much attention to how much I'm eating (but the WW residuals have me reaching for far smaller portions) and I am maintaining my weight just fine.

I went to my doctor Monday for a physical and told her all about it.  She was thrilled at my weight loss (I last saw her at 195 lbs) and liked the changes I had made to my diet.  According to her, this change will add 10-15 years to my life.  She would like me to see a nutritionist just to make sure that I don't have any gaping holes nutritionally, but I have to think that I am getting far more micronutrients than the average American.

Here's an example of what I now eat in a day:

Breakfast: bowl of whole oat groats, plain or with homemade almond milk, or a hard-boiled egg
Snack: plain non-homogenized whole milk yogurt from grass-fed cows sweetened with raw honey and with some blueberries dribbled on top
Lunch: salad of baby lettuce, spinach, kale, red or yellow bell pepper, beets, red onion, chickpeas, blue cheese (made from raw milk), roasted beets, tomatoes, nori.  Dressed with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar
More blueberries and a couple of dates
Snack: a variety of raw nuts, activated by soaking overnight in order to release toxins
After work snack: piece of fruit or more yogurt
Dinner: a huge version of the lunch salad with a whole avocado if one is ripe.  Or something like a homemade black bean and quinoa burger with salad.
Dessert: more dates

I do not feel at all deprived.  I am eating everything I am because I want to and in amounts that I want.  If I have cravings now it is for something like fruit or cheese.  As you can see, I am not worrying about the fat level of my diet (see the book where he talks about how eating fats does nothing detrimental on its own and the two kinds of LDL cholesterol that are so very different yet lumped together).

I do still have subcutaneous fat.  At the doctor's office, as I described my journey, I pinched an inch and said "I still have subcutaneous fat, but I like to think that I got rid of the visceral fat."  She looked at me, smiled, and said "I can tell you that you have."  Visceral fat being the fat around the internal organs and the dangerous type of fat.  Excellent.

Although I have not reached my WW goal of 125 lbs (although after a 3-day detox over MLK weekend I reached 125.5) I will be quitting WW.  I am now eating correctly and sensibly and my health is more important than a number.  Thank you to them for teaching me that I was eating several servings of everything and that I was out of control.  Thank you to them for getting me to a point where I am a good weight.  Thank you to them for putting me in a mindset where I could start to control my cravings.  But, it is time to move on and begin a new chapter.  The number goal is no longer all-consuming and my priorities have shifted.  Farewell.

The most empowering thing out of all this?  The change from "I can't eat that" to "I can eat that but I choose not to."  It's true.