Lost 4 pounds in March

I gained 7 pounds earlier in the month, and then I lost 11 pounds over the past 17 days. The net loss for March is 4 pounds. I have graduated to eliptical and cross-trainers and cross-ramp machines. No more Treadmills for now. The eliptical machine is a lot easier on the knees and it is a much more intense work-out.

In March, I did 1,608 minutes of cardio (treadmills and elliptical/cross-trainers) over the span of 27 days (I took 4 days off). That averages out to 59.6 minutes of cardio per day. I worked out with weights on 14 days.

I am still sticking to my vow to cease blogging until I get under 300 pounds (after today). Hopefully by the end of April I will be under 300! Thank you to everyone that has left a message. I appreciate it very much.

Woman Loses 266 pounds!

(Excerpt from Sun Sentinel) By Brian C. Feldman, Posted March 20 2006

Patricia "Patty" Chirino, 38, of Miramar, has lost 266 pounds from her high of 396 and wants to lose 3 more before she calls Oprah Winfrey for a possible appearance on her national TV show.

Chirino, the owner of PMC Travel Management Services, a travel and tour service for musicians and personalities, was contacted to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show after Beyonce's personal trainer called the show's producers and told them about her transformation. She knows him through her gym.

"Sometimes I think to myself, `How did I get to that point?'" she said. It has been a long journey for Chirino. After two kids, and suffering from depression, she started wearing size 28 dresses to hide her girth. Classified as morbidly obese, she was at high risk for hypertension, diabetes and worse."I was just gaining more and more weight," she said. "I could go a whole day without eating, and then I would just stuff myself at night. I was just afraid that my heart would stop one day from being so overweight."

Hidden from the public and her clients by working from home, Chirino found it easy to ignore her weight gain. She turned down invitations to private parties and tickets to concerts to watch her clients perform "because I was ashamed of my looks." In early 2001, Chirino went to a seminar presented by Dr. Carlos Carrasquilla, director of bariatric surgery at Florida Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. Convinced she was on the right path, and after an exam and counseling, Carrasquilla performed a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, a minimally invasive, laparoscopic procedure that makes the stomach smaller and the patient feel full after eating less food.

"Unlike many of our patients who come in sad and depressed, Patty came in with a positive attitude right from the beginning," Carrasquilla said." I was determined that I was going to be successful," she said." The first week, I lost 25 pounds. I had no choice. It was like being born again. "She also works out in a gym about two hours a day, five days a week. After losing 150 pounds, she faced another hurdle, sagging skin that was not only unsightly, it was an easy place for bacteria to hide and breed infection.Dr. Nidal "Nick" Masri, a plastic surgeon at Florida Medical Center, performed body contouring."

All post-bariatric patients seeking body contouring procedures pose certain challenges, compared to the traditional plastic surgery patient." Masri said. Chirino said before she started to lose weight, "men wouldn't look at me, and women would not see me as a threat and offered encouragement. Now, I get help from men and stares from women, although I consider myself the same person."

She allows herself to stray from her diet with a cone of frozen yogurt over the weekend, and only weighs herself on Fridays to avoid feeling guilty, she said. She said her diet allows her to eat almost anything, but in moderation. Because of her restricted stomach capacity, food, even small amounts, takes a long time to digest. She avoids meat and said the only thing she really misses is bread. With her new trim look, Chirino has a greater selection in clothes, and at a size 6 she is happy to be more style conscious.

She would like to write an inspirational book about her experiences before she calls Oprah."When I see women who look like I used to, I want to go over to them and let them know that they can change their life and do what I did," she said.

The Big 3-0-0

Ever since I got to 317 pounds, I have had a lot of anxiety about getting down under 300 pounds. I am not sure why I am afraid of it, but I have come to the conclusion that in spite of doing a lot of exercise, I am working hard not to lose weight.

It is hard to explain how my brain can convince me that eating chocolate bars (or pizza) regularly is going to help me lose weight. But that is my sickness. I really am glad that I have been writing this blog, because at some level I am trying to be honest with myself and everyone that has helped me and given me support.

I must shamefully admit that I am enthralled with the idea of losing weight and then becoming the mascot for Toblerone Chocolate Bars. "Just replace two meals every day with a Toblerone and you can lose 200 pounds also." However, I have gained 7 pounds since re-discovering Toblerone. I am at 324 right now.

Dishonesty is a major part of this obesity disease. Being able to pretend that I am on the right track is why I am so far off the tracks. Most people with addictive personalities are also major bullshit artists, and they usually start with themselves, which is why most addicts are self-destructive, and why a fat person ultimately only kills himself (or herself). Why am I writing this? Because it is the truth. I am afraid. I am a long way from being at a normal weight, and nearly every day I am looking for a way out. Escape from trying. I am afraid that I will give up. So I wrote it down. This is who I am today. I am quitting this blog until I get under 300 pounds. If you don't see me post here again, then you will know that I failed.

Multiple Sclerosis & Exercise

Sunday afternoon I was able to get back to the gym, and I put in 60 minutes on the treadmill (130 minutes total on Sunday) and I did 17 sets of Upright Barbell Rows which is a good shoulder exercise. On Monday I only did 20 minutes on the Treadmill, and no other exercise.

I gained four pounds over the weekend. So much for my Toblerone Chocolate Bar Diet. I am at 321 today. Which just goes to show why taking diet advice from a fat guy is probably not a good idea. I wonder how the class-action lawsuit against Dr. Phil is doing?

Lately I have seen a new person working out at the gym who seems to have multiple sclerosis. He probably puts more effort into working out than almost anyone else in the gym. I found a very uplifting story regarding working out and MS. It is about Paul Stock, a competitive bodybuilder who has MS. I hope you will read it.

Update 2/22/06: Miss Chris is a young woman with MS who is working out regularly at her local Karate Dojo. Since she began working out again, her strength and energy have improved! Just a couple of days ago she put in an amazing work-out. Exercise is good for just about everyone, at any age, and any physical condition. Good luck Miss Chris! Thank you for sharing your story.

Supernaturally Early Morning Work-out

Well after I finished my last post, I sat around listening to Coast-to-Coast with Art Bell. On Saturday and Sunday nights, Art Bell hosts the show, and he is pretty funny and he also has some wacky guests. At some point they have an hour of people who claim that they are aliens living among us calling in. It is very funny radio.

So I got to the gym a little after five in the morning, and I put in 70 minutes on the treadmill and did 16 sets on the Rear Deltoid Fly machine. The machine in this photo is the one that is at the gym. You put the back of your arms into the pads, and then push back against the weight as if you were flapping your arms (Flyes).

The best part of my work-out was that when it was over I drove by a bakery and had a Cafe Cubano and then I ate a Toblerone chocolate bar for breakfast. My wife gave it to me yesterday, and I saved it for an after-work-out treat.

It may sound screwed up, but I have come to the conclusion that I cannot change the people around me, so I have to figure out how to make their attitudes about food and diet work for me. Or as the saying goes, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Treadmill Anger Story

I went to the gym early this afternoon. I got on the treadmill. Next to me was some guy in his late forties, in good shape, talking on the cellphone! He even gave me that 1970s John Travolta, Sweathog "I'm so cool" look.

Worse yet, he had a scruffy voice and was talking very loud to a woman about repairing break lines on an automobile. How could I tell it was a woman? He had his cellphone on the Walkie-Talkie mode (whatever it is called) and the volume was at full blast, so that I could hear almost every word that the woman was yelling back at him. The fact that they were on the Walkie-Talkie mode trying to talk over the music in the gym which was at full blast just frosted my butt to the next level. So I did something that I have never done before: I used my cellphone inside the gym (The Nuclear Option). From my perch on the treadmill, I called my daughter, and at the top of my voice I talked to her about her Barbie collection for fifteen minutes. I even talked her through opening a Bratz doll that has a mole on her face. We talked about Barbie Bazaar magazine, the Barbie website, and the My Scene dolls too. Really loud. Did Mr. Mechanic stop talking on his Walkie Talkie? No. He kept on going too, trying to be louder than me.

After fifteen minutes, I gave up. My daughter wanted to get off the phone, and everyone that could hear me talking about Barbie dolls was giving me some odd looks. So I went over to the weightlifting side and did six sets of Triceps Pulldowns. Not a great day for exercise, but then after that I took my dog walking for about an hour. I also ate a half a bag of Cracker-Jacks (one 99 cent, 3.5 ounce bag has 3.5 servings at 120 calories per serving), half of a Toblerone chocolate bar (180 calories per 35 gram bar), and my Mom made two Totino's frozen pizzas of which I had four slices or half of a pizza (Totino's Pizza has 360 calories per half-pizza). Am I optomistic to think that I may have lost weight? Well, I am off to the gym again. It is 2:47 a.m. on Sunday and I feel lucky.

Anxiety & Traffic Citations

Sometimes I am acutely aware of anxiety. It is like some kind of feeling of impending doom. Not paranoia, just a dull unending throbbing screeching sound. Anxiety probably affects many people in different ways? Have you ever had anxiety? How does it affect you? For me, anxiety is like some kind of urge to eat anything. Today I had a nice dinner of baked chicken with a bit of pumpkin and potatoes. I felt pretty good that I did not eat much. Then anxiety began nagging at me to eat more. So I ended up making a spinach salad with onions, croutons, salad dressing, and a chicken breast that was left over. Then I ate a bag of M&Ms. So I messed up what had started out as a good day for dieting.

I still feel this anxiety right now. Where does it come from? How do I get rid of it? I am thinking of going to the gym right now, but it is late at night and I am concerned about getting a traffic citation. Miami has a lot of police driving around at night. Especially on a weekday, the number of people driving around is lower, so going to the gym in the middle of the night can mean that I end up with a police car driving behing me. More anxiety. I live in fear. I used to work-out late at night more frequently, but after I got a traffic citation on the way to the gym I stopped. One of the bad things about driving to the gym after midnight on a weekday in Miami is that there are about 3 police cars driving around for every non-police car. I usually pass a few police cars on the way to the gym, and I have often passed someone on the side of the road getting a ticket. Most officers are usually very nice people, it is a shame that they have to issue so many traffic citations that are for ticky-tack violations like improper lane change, broken lights, not coming to a "complete" stop, etc. These kind of fines are also important for public safety, but should they cost $200 or more? The lowest fine in the state of Florida is now $151. So if you forgot to turn on your turning signal before changing lanes you have to pay $151.00 to the government. Is that Traffic Safety or just tax collecting? Whatever happened to the friendly neighborhood cop that got kittens out of trees?

Snacks V: Chocolate

Is chocolate a diet poison, a dietary aid, or just a great reward snack? I guess like any powerful weapon, it depends on how you use it. Many times chocolate has been my enemy, and it has derailed by best laid diet plans because of my lack of willpower.

Lately, I have tried to make chocolate my friend. When I got an e-mail from radio DJ Deena Lang explaining how she would use chocolate as a reward for working out, it got the gears in my brain slowly turning. As Marlon Brando said in Apocalypse Now, "Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror." In my case, chocolate is one of those foods that is more powerful than my very weak will-power. So now when I want to eat some chocolate, I make sure and put in a good work-out so that I can feel like the chocolate is a reward. So the next time you are dreaming about a chocolate bar melting in your mouth, go for a jog first, or drive over to the gym and work-out!!

45 minutes on the Treadmill

I went to the gym and did 45 minutes of Treadmill even though I did not want to. I have a wave of depression hovering over me. I am facing some difficult choices that I want to avoid. I have been avoiding these issues for years. Some things do not get better over time. I wonder what is going to happen? I need to put my faith in God and see things through even if they do not turn out well for me. Life is what it is.

Which reminds me of that song by Rush:
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that’s clear
I will choose free will
There are those who think that they’ve been dealt a losing hand
The cards were stacked against them ---
They weren’t born in lotus-land
All preordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate
Kicked in the face
You can’t pray for a place
In heaven’s unearthly estate"

Kirby Puckett dies at over 300 pounds

CHICAGO -- Baseball great Kirby Puckett suffered a massive stroke at the age of 44. Puckett died on Monday, an Arizona hospital said. University of Chicago cardiologist Kim Williams, said "If you look at the African-American community, there's more hypertension than anyplace else in the world."

Dr. Williams said high blood pressure is the single-most common cause for strokes among blacks, especially young blacks. "If they have a family history, if they're overweight, if they're diabetic, for example, they should be starting to screen themselves in their 20s for blood pressure abnormalities," Dr. Williams said.

Puckett's friends said he weighed more than 300 pounds, which is a major risk factor for hypertension and stroke. Other risk factors can include smoking, heart disease, diabetes and high cholesterol.

As someone that remembers Kirby Puckett during his baseball career, I am very sad about his death. He was a great baseball player who was always a very nice person. Kirby's Hall of Fame career was cut short by glaucoma, and his life was cut short by obesity. May he rest in peace.

21 minutes at the gym

I have been slacking off on the cardio and weight training. Someone posted a comment that my nearly daily updates on what I am doing in terms of exercise were boring to her.
I guess it is not very exciting to the casual reader, but I am trying to document exactly what I did on my way to success or failure. I am primarily hoping that someone else who is obese like me can benefit from my journey and share with me and others his or her own experiences. I would like to help other people who are in the same dire straits that I have lived.

Whether it is by example or with encouragement, I think that any person who is trying to lose weight, live healthy, and get in shape will benefit from every fellow traveller on this road to healthy living.

I appreciate the encouragement from Arlene, Nabeel, Micki, George, Chris, Leigh-Ann, Echo-Team, Sakti, Newbirth, Heidi, Loopy, Don, and everyone else (that I might have missed). Thank you for your help. There are times when these little remarks make a big difference in my life. Thanks also to the Perry Bible Fellowship for some funny cartoons. Thanks also to my family and everyone in my daily life who gives me love and support; and to God who (I pray) listens to my prayers. I need all the help that I can get.

Lifting Weights Attacks Belly Fat

(Excerpt by JAMIE STENGLE, March 3) - By just lifting weights twice a week for an hour, women can battle the buildup of tummy fat that often takes hold with aging, a new study suggests. And they didn't even diet.
The study focused on intra-abdominal fat, the deep fat that wraps itself around organs and is the most unhealthy because it's linked with heart disease.

"One of the most common complaints in women, especially as we continue to age, especially as we go through menopause, the No. 1 complaint is abdominal growth," said Dr. Tracy Stevens, a cardiologist who directs the women's heart center at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City. "It's the apple-shaped person I'm most worried about," said Stevens, who was not involved in the study. "The more central the fat, the more it's laid down in the arteries."

Women who did the weight-training for two years had only a 7 percent increase in intra-abdominal fat, compared to a 21 percent increase in the group given exercise advice. The strength-training group also decreased body fat percentage by almost 4 percent, while the group just given advice remained the same.

Using both free weights and machines, the women in the strength-training group worked out for about an hour and were encouraged to gradually increase the weights they lifted. Schmitz said the focus was on chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, lower back, buttocks and thighs. She noted that adding muscle mass can help overweight women move faster so they burn more calories.

Dr. Rita F. Redberg, a cardiologist at the University of California San Francisco, pointed out that since muscle burns more calories than fat, increasing muscle mass means losing more calories. "I think exercise is the fountain of youth," she said. "If it was a pill, everyone would be taking it."

Diet Enemy #6: Bread

I remember the time I asked my very skinny friend Sam if he never had food cravings. Sam looked at me like I was talking Chinese. Most people who are not overweight have no idea how a food addict thinks.

Every person is different. What foods have the power to derail your diet? In looking up information about bread, I found several websites that defend bread as a healthy food. I have always heard so much negative about bread, but where is the website that points out all the bad things about bread?

Part of the problem for me is not just bread, but the fattening things that I put on bread. Whether it is butter, mayo, cheese, cream cheese, peanut butter, jelly, or something else, bread ends up being a "gateway food" that brings along its fattening friends.
Cheese burgers and sandwiches are chock full of fat too.
Even though Subway's Jared Fogle claims that he lost 245 pounds eating submarine sandwiches, I doubt that he put mayo and/or olive oil on his subs. Not to mention the fat sloppy burgers and sandwiches that you can get at any restaurant or diner. How about warm baked bread?
Have you ever been to a bakery that sells the bread right out of the oven? Warm and soft, steaming baked delicious bread? Buttery flaky croissants? Delicious toasted bagels with cream cheese or lox (or both)? How about those friendly bakeries that serve a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes (country fries?) and a slab of toasted bread with butter?

Bread may not be unhealthy per se, but for me at least it has always been part of binging and over-eating. For that reason, Bread joins the Diet Enemies list. What's your diet enemy?

Honduran Nacatamales

It took a while, but I had a chance to eat a couple of the nacatamales that Dona Marlen was cooking. Unlike Mexican and Cuban tamales, which only have corn dough and pork (or ham), the Honduras Nacatamales has maizena dough, rice, onions, green peppers, raisins, pork, olives, garbanzo beans, diced potatoes, and peas. At least that is all the filling that Dona Marlen put into the ones that she made tonight. There are variations of the recipe for Honduran nacatamales, depending on the region of Honduras. Dona Marlen calls these the Tegucigalpa nacatamales.

Other latin nations also make nacatamales or tamales. Nicaragua has nacatamales, and Puerto Rico also has tamales that are wrapped in plantain leaf and have similar ingredients. However, these are very different from the Mexican and Cuban tamales which use corn dough as the main ingredient (and they are wrapped in the yellow corn leaves).

Even though Maizena (or Maseca) is a corn flour, it tastes very different from corn dough. Corn dough is made by taking the kernels from fresh corn, and mashing them and then adding some other ingredients and cooking all that into corn dough. Corn dough has a rougher texture (it is pure corn). Maizena is a refined, processed version of corn dough.
The Nacatamales certainly taste good. The maizena flour is cooked with boiling water until it becomes a soft dough similar to mashed potatoes (but maizena is yellowish). Then the maizena is put on the green plantain (platano/banana) leaf wrapper and the fillings are put into the middle of the nacatamal. Then the nacatamales are wrapped and tied with string, and then they are put into a big cauldron (caldero) of boiling water where they are cooked for about two hours. It tastes great. Muy rico! Gracias Dona Marlen!

Anti-Oxidant Power of Blueberry Juice

Blueberry Juice is chock full of anti-oxidants that help protect cells from the damaging effects of free radicals in our bodies. Free radicals can contribute to degenerative diseases, including cancer, heart disease, arthritis and cataracts. Antioxidants help protect us from these conditions by repairing cellular damage caused by free radicals and by binding to free radicals to protect cells.

Fresh or frozen blueberries are great to add to protein shakes because it gives a different flavor to vanilla flavor protein, and it has a health benefit. I usually put a couple of ounces into a protein shake, and the shake turns a cool purple color.

Most supermarkets have generic brands of blueberries in the frozen food section. Fresh blueberries are good too. Blueberries have a unique flavor. They are most closely related to cranberries, but I find cranberries are usually more tart than blueberries.

Today I bought Zeigler's Blueberry Juice at BJ's (similar to Sam's Club). It was $3.99 for a liter of the juice, which is mixed with apple juice and grape juice to give it a sweeter flavor. Grape juice also has excellent anti-oxidant benefits, so a juice that has blueberry and grape juice is not bad, except that like most juices, it is pretty high in calories.

What is your favorite healthy juice? What do you like to add to a protein shake when you are bored of the vanilla flavor?

317 today, I have lost 100 pounds!

Today I weighed in at 317 lbs. That means that almost exactly two years after I joined the gym when I weighed 417 lbs., I have finally lost the first 100 pounds. I am still huge, but a lot healthier than I was at 417 lbs. I spent 75 minutes on the treadmill.

For dinner, I ate some pork that my mother cooked because she is making tamales. Each tamale gets a piece or two of pork inside. Tamales are probably very fattening food, so hopefully I won't eat too many of them. They also take several hours to prepare. A lot of work goes into them. Dona Marlen is helping out too. She is one of my wife's relatives from Honduras. A very sweet lady, she is also a great cook. I put Ranch dressing on the pork chunks, and did not eat anything else. The tamales are not ready yet, and it is after ten. I can hardly wait to pound down at least a couple.

I have been drinking a lot of water, and hot tea. Drinking tea has helped me when I am tired of drinking water. I enjoy regular tea and the green tea, and just about any other flavored tea. I do put sugar in the tea. I like the flavor of real sugar a lot better than any of the sugar substitutes that I have tried.

318 lbs. 70 minutes of Treadmill, 8 sets of Rear Delts

In spite of the chocolate bars and the pizza crash, today I was at 318.6 in my stocking feet. I went to the gym and (here is the rest of the story).