In which we begin

Last fall, at age 41, I hit a milestone I never thought I'd hit (and never hoped to hit).  After too many years of fast food, snacks with the kids and sitting at a desk, I reached a weight of 100 pounds more than I weighed when I was a High School Wrestler.

An attempt to start an exercise program and lose some weight last August resulted in a progressively worse case of bursitis (an inflammation of the sacs the keep tendon and bone from rubbing against each other) in both ankles and my left knee.  Knowing my sense of humor, I'm sure you'll all recognize I was pleased to find out that the specific version I have is called Infrapatellar Bursitis, or "Clergyman's Knee".   The name comes from the old pastors who knelt on the hard floor of their church to pray.  Although in my case, the causes were tight tendons due to a lack of exercise and being kicked in a swimming pool last fall by my then-4-year-old son.   I limped through the autumn and early winter, finding it progressively more difficult to walk, until I finally saw the doctor in January.  He gave me some exercises to do, which helped tremendously. 

A second attempt to begin walking this spring ended with a mild sprain in my left ankle while I was getting ready for a business trip to Chicago.   By the end of a week walking on sidewalk , I could only wear one of the pairs of shoes I had with me, and only barely that one.  Three weeks of rest and ice got me back to walking normally, but didn't help with the weight loss.

The final straw was my annual physical last week.  Among other issues, the doctor noted that my HDL (good cholesterol) level was borderline low.  (Mine was 46 mg/dL, below 40 the doctors start to get overly concerned, they'd prefer above 60.)  And for the third visit to my doctor's office in a row, my blood pressure was just a trifle high (142/75 for the nurse and 146/75 for the doctor).

So we've made the following changes (so far) to my lifestyle - the doctor won't let me call it a diet. . .

Starting Sunday the 15th of May, my wife and I are on the South Beach diet.   Today is day two of phase one.  We're allowed no carbohydrates, and are being very lowfat.  We're sticking to the book on this.

Today's menu, as a sample:

Breakfast - One egg omlet with mushrooms and low-fat cheese.  Karen had coffee and I had Irish Breakfast tea and a glass of skim milk.

Morning snack - one ounce of almonds.  (Karen skipped her snack)

Lunch for Patrick - two turkey roll-ups (one slice lowfat turkey wrapped around a strip of cucumber, green pepper and a green onion, all wrapped up in a romaine lettuce leaf.)  I had a caffeine free diet coke with my lunch (South Beach allows caffeine, but my doc wants me to cut down).

Lunch for Karen - A Caesar salad (without dressing) and a glass of water.

Afternoon snack - Patrick - one ounce of carrots.  Karen - one ounce of almonds.

Dinner - steamed salmon (4 ounces each) with ginger, lemon juice and black pepper, plus lima beans.  Dessert was 2 ounces of plain yogurt with an ounce of mixed nuts (almonds, walnuts and pecans), with iced tea.

Evening snack -- cherry tomatoes, cucumber, celery with lowfat sour cream, and a glass of skim milk.

If the food wasn't enough, I'm also taking 4000 mg per day of fish oil in a supplement to try and build up the HDL cholesterol.

Finally, at the end of each day, I'm using the brand new home blood pressure monitor the doctor ordered me to buy.  Either it needs calibrated, or I'm better off when I don't sit in a lobby waiting for my BP to be taken, because last night's reading was 136/75 (which puts me back down into the "Prehypertension" stage).  In order to mock me, Karen takes her blood pressure too: last night's was 113/69.

The doctor would like for me to lose 15-20 pounds BEFORE we start talking about exercise, other than the stretching and isometrics that I'm doing for the bursitis.

I promise, future installments of this blog will focus less on my tendons and blood pressure and more on the food.

By the way, the authors of the South Beach Diet book are right, hunger pangs are minimal and we actually have seen a small weight loss in the first 24 hours.  I'll post a total after the first 7 days.