On healthcare costs

Forgive me as a venture into politics, just slightly.

A few weeks ago, a political columnist and blogger whom I read daily (grrrr, and I can't remember which one) had a throw-away line in a blog post, in which they said "Doctors and insurance companies have no business attempting to regulate health-care costs."   This is, of course, patently ridiculous.  Both the health care field AND insurance companies have a great opportunity, and obligation to do just that.  Two examples to prove my point.  

First, and most obviously, the diet that I'm on and the lifestyle changes I'm making.   My doctor did not say "You should lose weight so your clothes will fit better" or "You should lose weight so your office chair will creak less when you sit in it"  Although both those things are true.  What he actually said was "If you don't lose weight, your knees and ankles will get worse and worse.  But that probably won't matter after the heart attack you're going to have, unless the high blood pressure causes a stroke first"   (OK, so I'm consolidating what he really said)   The point is, taking the somewhat unpleasant action of limiting the foods I consume, and exercising when I'd rather be reading or playing with the kids is MUCH cheaper than an MRI, or an EKG or all the other acronyms that the doctors use.

Similarly, a flashback 7 years to when my wife was expecting our first son.   I was intrigued to discover that our insurance company would pay 100% of the costs for a car seat, up to a huge sum of money (I think it might have been $100 -- it was more expensive than the best car seat I could find).  But they would only pay for the car seat, if we'd provide proof that we had attended at least 3 parenting classes and a prepared childbirth class, and that my wife had seen her doctor for at least 4 prenatal visits.   Although the people at Blue Cross/Blue Shield are nice folks, and I'm sure one on one they would have a great deal of empathy for a family with a small child . . . the fact is that the insurance company doesn't REALLY care about us.  The reason they did these things is because their actuaries had said "If you pay $100 for car seats, you'll save an average of $110/per policy on auto accident claims".  And "If you pay for prenatal care, you'll save $1.25 in claims for every dollar that you pay."

In this way, both the medical profession and the insurance industry do, indeed, save all of us lots of money over time.

Since this is supposed to be a diet blog, I'll take a minute to announce that as of 6/30, which is day 47 of the diet, I'm down 29 and a half pounds.

Good Morning!

Today's post is brought to you by Patrick's wife-Karen.  Patrick is on his way to work right now, so I am filling in as today's blogger.  On Thursday, Patrick weighed in 25 pounds less than he did when he started this diet, and I was down 17 pounds. 

Well...today is a different story.  Patrick was down 27.5 pounds over the weekend, and I was still down at 17 pounds. However, Patrick's lack of willpower got the better of him over the weekend, and this morning he weighed in at 251, which is 26 pounds lost. I, on the other hand, weighed in at 165, which is 20 pounds lost since this diet began.

I am pleased with my weight loss, and I am still pleased with Patrick's as well.  He stated that his next goal is 30 pounds lost by his doctor's appointment on July 11th. My next goal (don't know how feasible) is to be 140 pounds by Labor Day. This is the weight that I was BEFORE having my 2 sons, who are now 5 1/2 & 6 1/2 years old.

Milestones

Finally getting back to the swing of phase 1, and it shows.

As of this morning, I'm 25 pounds lighter than 40 days ago (which is when I started this grand adventure).

Dinner last night was a spinach salad with a home-made mustard vinaigrette (My wife made the salad and the dressing).   And the entree was a shrimp and zucchini stir-fry, with just enough fresh lemon juice over it to really make the flavors pop.  (This is the sort of meal that we'll continue to eat after the diet is over -- except maybe with a little rice)

After dinner, we went grocery shopping.  That's the downside of this diet.  We have food for about 7 days for all four of us, and the take was about $25 more than our usual pre-diet grocery bill.

That said, it IS a lot of fun pushing a cart full of fresh vegetables and seafood and raw meat through aisles filled with shoppers whose carts are laden with frozen dinners similar things.

On to 30 pounds!

Back to Square (or at least phase) One

Two big events happened over the weekend.  My wife's cousin got married in southern Illinois, and my brother had his annual Father's Day cookout.  We semi-behaved, but between a wedding banquet and a cookout, I put on two pounds, and Karen put on a little less than a pound.   So . . . back to Phase 1 we go. 

Since Monday morning we've been totally free of carbs and even veggies with a high sugar content.

And Phase 1 works, as advertised. . .  Monday morning, I was at a total weight loss of 19 pounds.  By Wednesday morning, the total was 23 pounds.  Karen has gone from 13.8 pounds lost to 16 pounds lost since Monday.

We'll continue carb free until 4th of July weekend.  (Gotta get ready for the next cookout!)

Breaking through

Ten days ago, I blogged about "The Elusive 20" the wall at 20 pounds that I could not seem to break through.

It appears that I've done so, and I'm starting to move again.  As of this morning, day 34 of the diet, I'm at 22 pounds lost -- the lowest weight I've been in years.

However, my lovely bride has hit a similar wall, at 15 pounds.  She had a chance yesterday to speak to our doctor about the diet while seeing him for something unrelated, and he's said once we have been on Phase 2 for two weeks (which is to say, June 12), we can switch back to the more strict "No Carb" routine of Phase 1 for no more than two weeks and no less than a week.  We are considering doing so, to jump-start her weight loss.

Thirty-one day reflections

Yesterday marked 31 days on the South Beach Diet, and overall I think it's been a very positive experience.  My peak weight loss happens to have been the last day, when I ended 21 pounds lighter than when I started.   However, I first hit 20 pounds of weight loss 10 days ago.  Then again 7 days ago. Last weekend, I "slipped" a little, but got back to 20 pounds down yesterday.

Hopefully I've broken through that plateau -- although I have a wedding (and reception) to go to this weekend, so we'll see.

Overall the experience has been very positive -- not just the adding holes to my belt loops and not being able to wear my jeans anymore, but also the change in energy levels, blood pressure and the reduction in overall aches and pains.   And of course, the side benefits in the kitchen.  I walked into the kitchen last night at 9 to get the boys their bedtime snack and could still smell the rosemary that had gone over the veggies at dinner.

Side benefits

I promised this blog would MOSTLY focus on the food, but I wanted to spend a few minutes on the most important single side benefit, and a few slightly more fun benefits.

If you scroll back to my very first entry in this blog "In which we begin" from May 16, you'll see that the previous week at my doctor's visit, my blood pressure had been 146/75.   This caused the doctor to assume his "lecture pose" and commence to lecturing me.  Specifically, this was the reason behind the weight loss (well, that and cholesterol issues).  So . . . Since Sunday May 15, I've been taking my blood pressure every night.  As yet my fancy BP machine hasn't been calibrated against the doctor's, but the trend is good.   The first night I took a reading was 135/72.  The high was 146/92 on May 19, but most of the time it's down in the low 120 or high 110 range.  Tonight's was 119/75.  I'm pretty pleased with the improvement. 

The second benefit has been in my still pretty minimal exercise routine.  I've been walking at work, both on my lunch break and by sneakily scheduling meetings as far as possible from my desk.  This morning and later in the day, I had two meetings in the far southeast corner of our complex -- eight tenths of a mile from my desk.   Between the two meetings and a walk at lunchtime, I walked over 5 miles.  I can now walk a mile in 12 minutes, with my laptop and briefcase, without either getting out of breath or sweating noticeably.

The third, and most fun, is that my wardrobe is going to need some adjustment soon.  My most recent round of dress clothes came from Men's Wearhouse -- which luckily for me has guaranteed tailoring.  Their website says "We guarantee if we have altered a seam once, you will never have to pay to have it altered again, within the limitations of the original garment, should you gain a few pounds or lose weight" I'm planning to hold them to that.  But shirts and some of my older work clothes (and all of my jeans) will need replacing eventually.  Karen still has "skinny clothes" so she's enjoying fitting back into favorite old outfits. (She recently wore the dress she bought for our first "Really Important Date" back in 2001).  I'm impressed.    

The elusive 20

My timing was impeccable.  We started the South Beach Diet on May 15, which means that we moved from Phase 1 to Phase 2, and started adding carbs back to our diet, on Memorial Day weekend.

I lost 18 pounds in phase 1, and added back two of those pounds over the holiday weekend.   No problem, we also added some new excercise and after the hoiday we cut back on the "splurging" and so on June 4, I just touched my first goal weight, 20 pounds lost.  Of course that was a weekend, when we were travelling (more impeccable timing) and so between Saturday morning and Monday morning -- I gained 2 pounds again.  But progress is being made, as of this morning, I'm holding at 19 pounds lost.

Today's challenge is the corporate cafeteria -- I have a free lunch coupon.

The diet is wearing on the kids a little bit, at times.   They would like to eat out more often than we do -- the younger one, especially, is a fan of the local Chinese buffet.   We just don't have the willpower for that yet.   They are pretty happy about meals like last night.   Karen and I had scallops and broccoli and mushrooms.   The boys would have not eaten any of that, so we didn't even try.  They had chicken nuggets.

But tonight they'll be eating with us again -- baked chicken and a veggie (one of the boys likes corn on the cob, so I'm thinking that's what it will be), and some whole wheat pasta.

Anyway, I'm hoping that if I get to the elusive 20 pounds lost, I'll be able to hold that weight for awhile.

But the next goal is coming.  I have a follow-up appointment with the doctor on July 11.  I am hoping that before that, I'm down 25 pounds.