Past the halfway mark

Well, I lost four pounds this month. It was not a stellar performance, but at least I kept going in the right direction. I crossed the halfway point. I don't know if I will ever get to 195, as I have not been under 200 pounds since 1980 when I was still in high school. However, at 195 I would be relatively healthy and look pretty good even though I would still be overweight since I am only 5'9" tall.

Hopefully in June I will finally crack the 300 barrier. I had hoped to be at around 250 this month back when I started to reclaim my life in March of 2004, but the surgery prep last year and the many medical tests and evaluations made it hard for me to mentally stay on track. I did not lose any weight for about six months while I kept being scheduled, cancelled, and then re-scheduled for surgery five times.

Anyhow, that's enough for the excuses. I would like to have one totally maniacal month where I went on some kind of hunger strike and lost 30 pounds, but then again the slow weight loss probably makes it a lot easier for my body to adapt.

In May, I spent 1,970 minutes doing cardio (elliptical trainer) over the course of 27 days (I skipped 4 days). That averages out to 73 minutes of cardio per visit to the gym. I also did weight training on 19 days.

So if you are an obese person reading this, I hope you will realize that even though it is a lot more sensational to lose tons of weight quickly, it is not the only way. You can trim off about 50 pounds every year if you just try to lose four pounds every month. Perseverence, doggedness, and plodding dedication to getting back up after every failure will get you moving in the right direction. Have faith in yourself, your higher power, and some prayer never hurts. Next month: 299 or less.

Snacks VI: Popcorn

Popcorn originated in Central America. Popcorn was integral to early 16th century Aztec Indian ceremonies. Bernardino de Sahagun writes: "And also a number of young women danced, having so vowed, a popcorn dance. As thick as tassels of maize were their popcorn garlands. And these they placed upon (the girls') heads."

In 1519, Cortes got his first sight of popcorn when he invaded Mexico and came into contact with the Aztecs. Popcorn was an important food for the Aztec Indians, who also used popcorn as decoration for ceremonial headdresses, necklaces and ornaments on statues of their gods, including Tlaloc, the god of rain and fertility.

An early Spanish account of a ceremony honoring the Aztec gods who watched over fishermen reads: "They scattered before him parched corn, called momochitl, a kind of corn which bursts when parched and discloses its contents and makes itself look like a very white flower; they said these were hailstones given to the god of water."

Writing of Peruvian Indians in 1650, the Spaniard Cobo says, "They toast a certain kind of corn until it bursts. They call it pisancalla, and they use it as a confection." Popcorn is not really a diet food, but it is not a diet enemy either (unless you eat too much!). It is a snack that fills you up, especially if you drink a lot of water before, during, and after eating popcorn.

The Popcorn Diet was popularized in magazines a few years ago. This diet relied on dieters eating fat-free, unbuttered popcorn as the primary diet food. I tried fat-free, unbuttered popcorn a couple of times and it tasted like microwaved cardboard. You would have to be a very dedicated dieter to eat that. I have read that many bodybuilders eat low-fat or fat-free popcorn because it is filling and has very few calories.

However, I like regular buttered popcorn, and based on the nutrition information on the box of Pop Weaver popcorn that I am looking at; a typical microwave bag of popcorn has three servings, and each serving has 150 calories, including 70 calories from fat. It has 8 grams of Fat, and 2 grams of Saturated Fat (BAD). It also has 350 milligrams of Sodium and 15 grams of Carbohydrates. The good news is that one serving has 3 grams of fiber and zero sugars. Amazingly enough, one serving also has 2 grams of protein. I would guess that most buttered microwave popcorn would have similar nutritional values. I have probably tried all the brands, like Pop-Secret, Orville Reddenbacher, Jolly Time, Movie Time, Act II, and of course, Jiffy Pop.

Back in the old days, Jiffy Pop Popcorn used to be sold in a tin popping pan covered with tin foil. Jiffy Pop was like an event when the parents would bring some home. Cooking it up was a lot like a science experiment, and it was loud and fun! You would put that on the electric (or gas, or even barbecue grill) and in a few minutes the machine-gun popping sounds would start blasting through the kitchen. The tin foil on top of the tin pan would bulge up until the corn had finished popping. Sometimes it would literally explode from the mass of popcorn. You had to pop the foil apart to get to the hot, delicious popcorn.

I have not bought Jiffy Pop since around 1984, when I was in college. Somehow my friends and I nearly burned down a kitchen while cooking Jiffy Pop in oil (not in the traditional tin pan w/foil). Someone had bought the wrong kind of Jiffy Pop, and nobody really knew how to cook it in oil; so we just guessed and a few minutes later the kitchen was on fire. We were fortunate to get the grease fire out by running outside with the flaming cauldron and dumping the flaming greasy mess on the grass of the common area. Fortunately the kitchen walls had not caught fire. The kitchen had black soot stains all over it and it took us a couple of hours to get it reasonably clean. So while buttered popcorn is not the best thing to eat on a diet, it is not that bad either (compared to a box of donuts). Popcorn is filling, and it tastes great. If you can split a bag into three servings, it is a good food value that will only add about 150 calories to your daily intake. Of course, Cracker Jack, Kettle Corn, Gourmet, Toffee, and/or Caramel popcorn are NOT good for anyone on a diet.

Diet Enemy #7: Taffy, Tootsie Rolls, Bit O'Honey, Charleston Chew

I have been wanting to binge for days now, and every time I drive by a pizzeria it makes my mouth water, if not drool. I had been good, but today I got the job of going to Party City to buy a pinata and candy for the birthday party of a friend's child.

My daughter went with me, and at some point we saw a bag of saltwater taffy, and she said "I love taffy. We haven't had any in a long time." Like a slack-jawed stooge, I immediately agreed and ended up buying the bag of taffy, along with some bags of other candy to fill up the pinata.

The ride home took about fifteen minutes, and in that time my daughter had eaten enough taffy to get a stomach ache. I was still chucking them down my throat with reckless abandon.

Why? I don't know what transforms a man on a mission into a bumbling idiot. But this time it was taffy that done it. Taffy, and a little Bit O'Honey that was in another bag. A Tootsie Roll too. No Charleston Chews were around, but I used to love those too.

So in honor of all those chewy, rubbery, extremely fattening candies, I hereby add them all to my list of banned substances and declare them to be Diet Enemies.

Diet Friend #1-Water

Did you know these facts about water?

1. One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University study.
2. Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
3. Research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
4. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory; trouble with basic math and difficulty focusing on the computer screen.
5. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by45%.
6. Drinking 5 glasses of water every day can also slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and a regular water drinker is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.
7. You should drink 8 glasses of water (64 ounces) every day to lose weight. The body burns calories digesting water, and water has no calories!

Are you drinking the maximum amount of water that you should every day? Water is one of the best Diet Friends there is!

Fat Man Walks Across America

FAIRFIELD, N.J. - Steve Vaught has lost more than 100 pounds on his walk across the country, but he's regaining his sanity. At 410 pounds a year ago, the 40-year-old father of two from San Diego was battling a severe eating disorder and deep depression, caused by the guilt over accidentally killing two elderly pedestrians 15 years ago.

"It threw me into a tailspin. In the three years after the accident I gained 150 pounds," Vaught said. "When something like that happens, you lose the ability to care about anything. You don't put value on anything, because you know it can end at any second."

Vaught's tipping point came last year when he was so obese that he couldn't walk across a department store. So he decided a walk from Oceanside, Calif., to New York City would be just the cure.

He set out on his journey on April 10, 2005, hoping to complete the trip in six months. By early November, he had reached the halfway point after walking 1,400 miles. After taking a break for the holidays, he resumed walking in January.

He has kept a running log of his trek on his Web site, TheFatManWalking.com, which has gotten hundreds of thousands of hits, while others have watched him on Oprah Winfrey's TV show.

"People try to make this about calories and scales, but this is about living your life," he said Monday, walking briskly along Route 46 - about 25 miles from his goal - as cars hummed past and beeped, a large paunch still part of his 305 pounds. "I spent 15 years either regretting the past or fearing the future. Now I'm living in the present."

He says he's gone through 15 pair of shoes, 12 pairs of pants, three shirts, 30 pairs of socks and his own sanity - twice.
His first bout of deep depression was in New Mexico, where he stopped at a truck stop and didn't want to continue through the desert. The next time was in an Amarillo, Texas, hotel when he went off his antidepressants and stayed there for seven days.
Vaught's other problem on the trail has been a lack of healthy food to eat. Most of his options have been fast food. He says he eats what's available when he stops, trying to stock up on carbohydrates in the morning and eat protein about 70 percent of the time.

"This trip has been horrible and it's been wonderful," he said. "But the best thing about all of this is the people I've met."
Just then, as Vaught rested on a railroad tie just off the highway, 49-year-old Eddie Day of Montville pulled up. Day quickly jumped out, ran up to Vaught and told him what an inspiration he was.

"He tells America to get off its butt," Day said. "There are people who don't get off their butts to go to the gym in their own hometown, and he's out here walking across the country, you know?"
(excerpted from MATTHEW VERRINDER Associated Press)