Physical Activity

Yesterday, we finally got a weekend day where we were both 1) home and 2) blessed with good weather.   So, we planted a 15 by 6 foot garden, with peas (very late to be planting, not sure what will grow), sweet corn, carrots and zucchini.   Took about 4 hours total to work the ground, including the mid-morning decision to go rent a tiller.   We were both sore by the end of the day, but felt better today.

So . . . stepping up the activity a notch.  There is a measured indoor walking track at my current client's facility.  8 tenths of a mile each way from my building to the far end of the complex.  So I walked just over a mile and half at work today.   Then after dinner I went around the block twice and the next block over once, chasing little boys on bikes.   Probably 2 miles or less.

And to top it all off, this evening after the boys went to bed, I resumed push ups and sit ups.  When I was 17, the wrestling coach expected us to do sets of "Twenty-five, twenty-five" which was 25 push ups and 25 sit ups in 60 seconds.   We did no less than 8 of them each practice and some times as many as 16 sets.   Wonder if he'd be proud of me doing 5 and 5 tonight.  :-)   Well, I'll work my way up.

As icing on the cake (so to speak -- both icing and cake are off limits) -- my wife also did 5 push ups and 5 sit ups.

Phase II

We have completed Phase I of the South Beach diet, as of yesterday, and the results were beyond my wildest expectations.

I lost a total of 18 pounds over the two weeks, and my wife lost 15.  We celebrated briefly by "splurging" at first a cookout at my parents and then a pot luck at church.  

This morning, we began re-introducting limited carbohydrates to our diet.  Breakfast this morning was whole wheat pancakes (interestingly, my kids didn't notice the difference), with fresh fruit in lieu of syrup.  We had strawberries, blueberries and bananas.

I have never avoided fresh fruit, but never really sought it out either, with one exception.  In the early 80's on a backpacking trip, when all the food was freeze-dried, I began craving a fresh apple.   The craving lasted for days, until I finally had the opportunity to give in to it at the end of our trek.   This fruit was almost as good as that was.

The boys have been asking for tacos for dinner for the better part of a week, so that's what we are doing tonight.  One small change, though, for the dieters.  Tortillias, even corn or whole wheat, are still off-limits in Phase II of the South Beach diet.  Whole wheat pitas are accaptable though, so now I'm apparently now a "Middle-Eastern/Mexican Fusion" cook.  I'll let you know how it works.

Milestones

Had two significant milestones yesterday.   First, I've now lost 15 pounds on the South Beach Diet.   The second was much more fun.   Yesterday, for the first time, someone at work looked at me and said "Are you losing weight?".

To quote Phinneas Fletcher: "Yes, yes I am"

We are doing a little advance planning . . . carbohydrates start coming back into the diet on Sunday.  It's a little like putting together a Christmas List for Santa:  "I want brown rice.  No, whole wheat bread.  . . or new potatoes.   Can we get fruit?"  We're having a lot of fun with that.

I'm hoping to reach 20 pounds off by the weekend, and then in Phase 2 of the diet we're expected to lose a pound or two per week.

First Week Totals

In those makeover shows, they call it "The Reveal" -- and this one will be at the bottom of the post. 

For now the diet is going well.  I've been surprised at the relative lack of hunger -- although we ARE taking care to eat ALL of the portions allowed, and having our snacks on time.  (Not so much on the weekend -- no one's snacked today, but we will tomorrow)

Temptation generally comes in the form of the "under four feet tall" set, who teamed up on us leaving church with one wanting McDonald's and one wanting the local Chinese buffet.  Self-control won out, with the boys getting leftover cheese pizza for lunch.   I had a salad and Karen had roasted eggplant.

Dinner tonight is slightly dangerous territory -- for the first time in over a week, we're going to try beef.   We have a very lean cut of skirt steak, already sliced for stir-fry.  It's going to get marinated in a little balsamic vinegar, with some fresh oregano and garlic.  Then we'll stir fry it with some fresh asparagus from the farmer's market (also where the oregano came from)




Finally, the big reveal -- in the first 7 days of the diet, here are our weight loss totals

Patrick -- 12 pounds

Karen -- 9.8 pounds

Excercise on Phase one of the diet.

Friday night, my boys stayed with my parents.   As a good 40-something, I took the opportunity to 1. Go shopping for groceries and garden stuff with my wife 2. clean up the home office some and 3. spend my morning planting flowers.

Planting these was a lot more difficult than it actually looks, because we left the underlying layer of gravel in place when we added the mulch last year, and under the gravel is a layer of burlap to keep the weeds down (although it's at least 10 years old and doesn't do a very good job). 

Doing this level of exercise (about 3 hours work) in the hot sun with no carbs . . . well let's just say you can get a little light headed.   We took a little over an hour at lunchtime to relax and recover, and we put off the vegetable seeds we've purchased for another day.

I did manage to cut the grass after we finished the flowers, but within an hour of when I finished that, everyone in the house except me was asleep.  I lasted until about 9:30 before I dozed off in my chair (good thing I was recording the NASCAR race).

Looking forward to tomorrow, when I'll have an official weight loss total for the first week, and of course we'll be halfway to adding back a few carbs.

But what about drinking.

I know, for two days I've blathered on about eating and blood chemistry and tendons and whatnot.

You're probably wondering, "what do these people drink all day?"  And if you're not, just humor me.

Since I was a boy I've ALWAYS consumed a lot of water.  20 years ago I had way too much soda and a minor health problem in 1991 got me to slow down my rate of consumption of that. . .

So, before my doctor's visit last week, a normal day would see me drinking a diet coke in the car on the way to work (mostly for the caffeine), another at lunch and iced tea with my wife.   In between I'd consume all of a 1 liter bottle of water at work, and frequently at least another half liter at home between dinner and bed.  My wife and I drink, and are partial to Illinois wines, but we don't have a lot of alcohol.  In fact, when the doctor told me last Wednesday to cut down on alcohol, I laughed.  When he asked what was funny, I said "I had a cocktail 5 weeks ago, and haven't had any since.  About three weeks before that, I split a bottle of wine with my wife -- because it was a Thursday and we had Italian (like you need a reason for wine from Blue Sky Vineyard in Makanda IL).  Before that, Champagne on Valentine's day.   I also enjoy both Scotch and Bourbon, but if a bottle doesn't last a year, something's wrong.  So not really cutting down on the alcohol - except none for the first two weeks of the South Beach diet.

I did, however, cut down on the caffeine.   New routine is a glass of skim milk with breakfast (which is no longer eaten in pastry form in the car), and a large travel mug of tea in the car.  (Hey, the doc said cut down, not eliminate!)   Lunch has become caffeine free diet coke.   Dinner is still the same iced tea, but when we use up this stock of teabags, we're considering switching to decaf.

Still drinking a liter and a half or two liters of water a day.

I was expecting the lack of caffeine to be a problem, but so far -- so good.

Progress

At the risk of sounding like a participant in an infomercial . . .

The diet seems to be really working well.  I'm averaging more than 2.5 pounds a day at this phase.  (Not that I expect this to continue, but it's nice).   I'm also thinking that by the weekend, I'm going to have to punch another hole in a couple of belts.

Food tip of the day (actually a couple of tips, all related): 
1.  They MEAN it when they say to use eggplant as soon as you get it home.  Sunday afternoon, we bought a beautiful, firm eggplant, but also fresh fish.  We decided to hold the eggplant until Tuesday night and eat the fish first .  . . and the eggplant was already starting to get soft when I peeled and roasted it last night.  
2.  Eggplant can cook faster than the recipe says - the instructions from a Food Network recipe said 30 minutes at 450.  My oven runs hot, so I started at 425.  And 15 minutes in, the eggplant was done (and almost overdone in some places)
3.  Seasoning matters.  Before last night I had never cooked eggplant except by dredging in flour and deep frying (pretty good, but not allowed on the diet).  So last night's got a drizzle of olive oil, a coating of rosemary, minced garlic, fresh cracked black pepper and a pinch of salt.  Even overdone it was wonderful.   Since there were only two of us eating eggplant last night, there's a half an eggplant left.  I was planning to dice and saute it, but I've been requested (ordered?) to do the same thing as last night.

Today could be interesting: the last few days I have eaten alone at my desk, but it's likely today that I'll eat lunch with a former colleague.   Be interesting to see if he comments on my salad -- crab meat mixed with spinach greens, celery, carrots and a homemade dressing (3 parts olive oil, one part balsamic vinegar, black pepper and a little lemon zest).  Last week when we met for lunch I was eating leftover pasta. . .