TRICK OR TREAT!

Tricks:

• high fructose corn syrup is metabolized at a slower rate than an equal calorie amount of cane sugar
• deceptive packaging - when I was growing we got our soda in 12 oz. cans. No way to put a lid back on and we were told to not to waste food. Even back then we were doomed. Now, sodas come in 20 oz bottles, at least now you screw the lid back on and save it for later. But who does that? A practical serving of soda is 8oz. for us obese adults. 
• hidden ingredients- yesterday I bought a rotisserie chicken from our local super market. I weighed out 4 oz and ate it. It was the first time since I started this plan that I had one of these. I usually cook my own meals. After I ate it, instead of the full feeling I normally get after eating 4 oz of chicken, I got wild cravings. This is the first time since I started this plan that I've had wild cravings. So my wife checked the package and we found that listed in the seasonings was sugar. Who uses sugar to season chicken? 
• Tricking our bodies into thinking we are cavemen and women - My theory for us metabolically challenged is that we still have primitive metabolisms. Think about early humans, they had to hunt and gather for their foods. So sometimes, after a big score they would have high calorie days. Then some days, pickings were slim so they they had very low calorie days but they had built in defense systems to help them survive. So, when we have big calorie days everyday, our metabolisms are overwhelmed and thus we gain weight. I know this is a major stretch, but hear me out. By setting our goals to "average out" a certain calorie amount say for a month, we can fluctuate our calories on a daily basis like our early ancestors. Some days we have higher than our targeted calorie amount, some days a lot less. Believe me this works. Trick your body, it's fun.

Treats:

• some food companies are jumping on the calorie bandwagon. They are making 100 calorie packs of our favorite foods. Not diet versions, but the real deal.
• Some bread companies are now offering thin versions of buns, they are half the calories of a  regular bun, not made with high fructose corn syrup and satisfy just the same as regular buns. Give 'em a try. Oh yeah, my wife pointed out this morning that they are now making thin versions of bagels also.
• Finally, eating a whole pizza is not treating yourself, it's a punishment. We now have to think of eating really high calories foods as allowing ourselves to be bad after being good for a long time and meeting our goals. It's not a "treat" or "reward". It's a bad thing to do. But it is OK to be bad once in awhile. Want to treat yourself, go for a walk in the woods on a crisp fall day when the leaves are turning, go for a run on snowy winter day, go dancing with friends, add 10 extra minutes to your "cardio" routine. Now, those are treats.

Have a fun and safe Halloween- Melting Man

STRATEGERY (part 3)

I read or heard somewhere that as the day progresses, our metabolism slows down. As I've stated before, I'm not a dietitian or physician, but that statement made sense to me so I incorporated it into my plan. So my thinking has been to eat my higher calorie meals for breakfast and lunch, when my metabolism is strongest and eat my lighter meals, like salads, fruits and vegetables, and cereals for dinner when my metabolism is slowing down. This works great for me because I do my workouts at night, and I don't like working out when I feel full. Again, I'm just throwing out ideas here, you can arrange your day however suits you best. If you workout in the morning, try working out before you eat. I also hear that if you exercise before a meal, that your metabolism will burn those calories more efficiently. Again, I'm not an expert.

When I look down at my calorie journal, I notice that my highest calorie meal is consistently lunch. I didn't plan it that way, it just turned out that way. For lunch, I also eat lean protein and fruit. On days that I'm hungry, I'll have a bigger piece of lean protein than days when I am not.

Sometimes we get hungry in between meals. So I like to have snacks to carry me to my next meal. On this plan, that's not only acceptable, but encouraged. Sometimes I'll have some mixed nuts, sometimes a piece of fruit. Just depends how hungry I am and what my body is asking for.

Now, don't be too rigid or too hard on yourself  on a daily basis. Sometimes I sleep in and miss breakfast, or  I'm busy and don't have time for lunch. Snacks are a good way to make up those calories. As long as you're eating enough calories as not to slow down your metabolism (remember your built in defense system) or eat too many calories all at once where you'll overwhelm your metabolism, you'll be just fine.

I was watching a late night talk show a couple years back and Ray Liotta was promoting a film he had just done. For the part,  he gained a substantial amount of weight, but on the talk show he was his normal weight. The host asked him how he dropped the extra pounds, and he said "he cut out carbs and didn't eat anything after 6pm". So I incorporated the 6pm deadline into my plan. I'll only drink water after 6pm (except on movie night where I allow myself to eat after 6pm). This has worked wonderfully for me. Again, you don't have to do this, it's hard to do at first. But I do recommend trying to not eat anything at least a couple of hours before bedtime (you know, when our metabolism is slowed way down preparing us for sleep).

STRATEGERY (part 2)

What do you usually eat for breakfast? Cereal?, Oatmeal? Breakfast burritos? Doughnuts? And how do you feel 2 hours later? Hungry, and can't wait for lunch? Tired, like you want to go back to bed? Yeah, I know. I was the same way. I want you to try this. This was a very important revelation for me. I hope it works for you. Please give it a try. I want you to have some lean protein first thing in the morning. If you cook a steak the night before, and you have some left over, just measure out 3 ounces and pop it in the microwave. That's just an example, you could also have chicken breast or pork loin or whatever lean protein works for you. I once heard   that having protein first thing in the morning keeps your blood sugar level on an "even keel" the rest of the day. You won't have those peaks and valleys of tiredness and hunger. I don't know if that's true, but I tried it and it does work for me. It keeps my stomach content until lunch and I have a lot of energy and don't feel tired. Now I'm not talking about a protein shake or protein bar, those are supplements and didn't work for me. I'm talking about the real deal. My favorite breakfast is this: spray some buttered flavored cooking spray into a non-stick skillet, heat that up a little. Then add 2 ounces of cubed ham (you can find that already packaged, I find the bigger cubes have more flavor than the really small cubes). Heat that through. Then I add 5 egg whites and cook that to the consistency of scrambled eggs. Add a slice of tomato on the side. Then I'll have a banana or half an orange, or some type of fruit. This gives me a lot of lean protein for not that many calories. And I'm good until lunch. I tend to eat my cereals and oatmeals for dinner. Hey, it works for me. Please give it a try.

And please,  make notations of what works for you and what doesn't. This is very important also.

STRATEGERY (part 1)

First order of business. I would like to acknowledge the talented Will Ferrell and James Downey (Saturday Night Live) as inspiration for the title of this post.

Sometimes, when we start a plan to lose weight, we set our expectations too high, or we put too much pressure on ourselves to accomplish too much too soon. Then, when we don't meet those expectations, we get discouraged and we quit the plan hoping for something new and improved to come along. I've been there and done it many times. But this time is different. I found away around this problem and it has been working for me. I hope it works for you too.

When I started out, I did the research I told you about in the Searching For Clues post and I determined how many calories I would need to eat per day to lose weight. But what I did instead of being strict about eating exactly that many calories per day, I thought about the bigger picture. Normally, what we try to do is create a calorie deficit each day to lose weight. I broadened out my scope to creating a calorie deficit for the month. It was an epiphany for me. Being older and wiser now, I know that our bodies fluctuate. Example: Some days we are hungrier than others and some days we crave certain foods over others. In other words, we have biorhythms. So I came up with a flexible plan that would accommodate our biorhythms . What I did was,  instead of limiting myself to 1800 calories a day with a risk of getting discouraged and quitting if I went over that 1800 calories, I  set  my goal to "average 1800 calories per day" for a month (you can use a week or whatever time frame works for you). So some days when I'm not that hungry I'll eat less than 1800 calories a day. On weekends we usually have a movie night, so I'll have my popcorn with butter and a coke (Classic Coke not diet) and I'll come in well over 1800 calories for that day. Some days  I'll crave some carbs, so I'll bake a potato, cut it in half and have that with a pat of butter on it. I might go over 1800 calories for those days too. But as long as I average 1800 a day for the month, I'll still have created that deficit and I'll lose weight. I've been on this plan for 4 months now and this strategy has worked to perfection. I usually come in well under my desired goal for the month and  I'm not deprived. Note:  1800 calories is just an example,  your calorie amount will probably be different.

I'll touch more on strategy in  tomorrow's post.

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR

For many folks here in America, this special part of the year signals a time for tricks and treats, giving thanks, worship, prayer, getting together with family, forgiving, and ushering in a new year. That's right, the next couple of months wreaks havoc on the American waistline. Well, this year I have a battle plan.

To keep me out of the Halloween candy, I have good quality dark chocolate. That way I'll still have my candy, it's less calories and I don't feel deprived. Those little fun size candy bars are good, but they pack a lot of calories. So be aware of how many calories they are and make sure they fit into your calorie allotment if you have some. And remember, lean protein helps with cravings.

Part of my weight management strategy is to "keep my body guessing". I'll touch more on that in a future post. I have my weight loss plan broken down into phases (1 month equals one phase). After phase 1 of my plan, I decided to have a free week where I wouldn't count calories  and eat anything I wanted. That was part of my "keep my body guessing" strategy. Well the first day of my "free week" went great, I had pizza which I hadn't had since I started. But let me tell you, the rest of the week was very long, I felt sluggish, bloated, tired and my body was rebelling from all the rich food I was having. I couldn't wait for the week to be over and vowed never to do that again.

So what I decided to do is to have free "DAYS" instead. My free days will be centered around holidays. Example: this year my I will have a free day on Thanksgiving and the day after. Then Saturday, I go right back on my plan. I will also do that for the next holidays in line. And I will do my best to maintain a steady and consistent "work-out" schedule (also good for battling "Holiday stress").

TIPS:    If you've been following along, your stomach has started to shrink, so you won't be able to eat as much as you used to. So if you decide you want to have "free days" also, you might want to keep your portions small, take a 15 minute rest and if you still feel hungry, then by all means have seconds.

And remember,  alcohol contains a lot of calories. It is known as "liquid fat" in weight loss circles. You can look up calorie amounts for specific brands and types of alcohol. Plus,  when you are inebriated, you're more likely to give  in to high calorie food temptations.  So if you plan on celebrating hardily with family and friends, make it a "free day" and you won't feel guilty the next day, then just get right back on the plan and you'll still be able to reach your goals. And by all means, drink responsibly and don't drive. We need you around.

These are just hints and suggestions. Do whatever works for you. The most important thing is don't put too much pressure on yourself and  have fun.

AH, YOU'RE JUST GIVING ME "THE BUSINESS"

When I was growing up, if you wanted to lose weight your choices were limited. There was Jack LaLanne on the television, maybe one or two "diet sodas", sherbert and ice-milk (to take the place of ice cream), and you could go to Weight Watchers meetings. But now, we have "low fat" this, and "sugar-free" that, tons of diet plans, some of which are endorsed by celebrities, vitamin stores, a multitude of various exercise shows on t.v. and DVDs, gyms in every community, and surgeries that will either suck your fat or staple your stomach. The weight loss business has blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Yet, after all this progress, we as a nation have gotten even heavier. How can this be? Well, I have my cynical, unprofessional opinions on that subject matter. I believe it is a combination of things. We do less physical work because of technological advances. It's scary out there so our children stay indoors and play video games, and we are an instant gratification society so we are easily duped into thinking that if we eat a steady diet of  magic cookies for a couple weeks we will all turn into movie stars. Then there is the not so innocent art of deceptive advertising. It is like there are a lot of people out there,  getting rich selling us "skinny in a bottle", that actually want us to remain fat. If we all got skinny they would lose their source of income. I'm sure I'm wrong but that is how I feel.

So we have to become skeptical when we hear about a new plan that is going to make us thinner in a short amount of time. There is no magic pill (believe me, I've tried them all). The only formula is to spend more calories than we take in and plan on losing 2 pounds a week. No lotion, wrap, or cookie is going to make us pencil thin. We have to do the work. Read the fine print on advertisements, you'll find it almost always says, results not typical, or this plan in conjunction with a sensible diet and exercise (just do the sensible diet and exercise and skip paying them the $50 a month), or the celebrity lost weight on diet plan "A", which is not available to the public, and we are selling you our diet plan "B".

Also, we have to be careful when shopping. Sugar Free usually means high in fat, Low Fat usually means high in sugar. There are 2 and a half servings in a 20 oz. bottle of coke. So be aware of serving amounts. I don't eat diet anything, no low fat foods, no sugar free foods. I only eat the original, high calorie foods. I just limit the amount I eat and I'm losing weight and I feel great.

Finally, and maybe the most evil practice of all,  unscrupulous doctors. I can attest they are out there. I went to a doctor once for a simple check up. It was the first time I ever went to him. His nurse weighed me, took my height and blood pressure (which was normal). Dr., let's call him "scumbag", Dr. Scumbag comes in and  feels my stomach, and proceeds to tell me that I weigh 315 pounds and says he is recommending surgery and that he had a friend in the same medical building that could preform it. Wow, first of all, at the time I only weighed around 275 pounds. He didn't ask me any questions about diet or exercise, (I was going to the gym 4 times a week). I didn't have any complications like high blood pressure or diabetes, and just like that he recommends surgery. Well, I left and never went back. Oh yeah, the kicker, he charged me $400 for an office visit. He is now in the weight loss business with his surgeon buddy, and I feel sorry for anyone that goes to them.

So be careful out there. There are a lot of people getting rich because we fail in losing weight. And they want to keep it that way. I don't, that's why I'm writing this blog.

Vita, Veeta, Vega...

This is an edited version of a previous post. I thought it was an important part of the plan for losing weight, but it wasn't getting very many readers, so I thought I'd spruce it up a bit.

I would like to recognize the classic show "I Love Lucy" (ask your parents) as the inspiration for the new title title of this post.

No, this is not the point where I sell you vitamins and minerals. Just read about my experience with diet supplements and maybe you'll learn something.

Supplements:  Vitamins, minerals, protein powders, sports drinks. Since I was a kid I have been taking some sort of supplement. One a day multi-vitamins, protein powders and Amino Acids for bigger muscles, vitamin C to prevent colds, vitamin E to prevent heart attacks, Vitamin B to battle stress, beta keratin to prevent skin cancer, various kinds of sports drinks for endurance and recovery, Acai Berry, Pomegranate Juice and on and on. Do they work? All I can say is I never got the muscles I wanted and I still caught colds twice a year like "clock-work".

Up until about a year ago, I took varying amounts of supplements (more when I was younger, less recently). But because we are now pinching pennies and vitamins are expensive, I basically quit taking them. This is what I discovered. I don't feel any different, if anything I feel better. As I mentioned before, this is the easiest I've ever lost weight, and I'm almost 50 years old. I still feel strong while I'm working out and my endurance is improving as I add more and more "cardio" to my routines. The biggest thing I've noticed, is I don't get wild cravings anymore. My eating habits used to be very erratic, and it was hard to stay on a plan. You know how sometimes when you take vitamins and they don't sit well on your stomach and feel you have to eat something to feel better?  I don't have that anymore. And, I now suspect that taking vitamins contributed to my once erratic eating behaviors. I'm suspecting maybe some "sugar" fillers led to my cravings. I don't have fluctuations of tiredness during the day anymore either. So I'm not sure if it is my improved eating habits that have made the difference or the fact that I don't take the supplements. You can experiment for yourself. Stop taking the supplements altogether for a few weeks and see how you feel. If you still think you need them, then slowly add them back one at a time to see what ones actually make you feel better. Keep notes. However, I would suggest that you take supplements made from natural ingredients and not chemical ingredients. But again, that's just me. And by all means, if your health care professional has you taking supplements, please follow his/her orders.

My new theory is, if you are eating a balanced diet, you don't need supplements. When I no longer have to pinch pennies, I will not go back to taking supplements. Personally, I'm doing better without them. I don't even drink Gatorade (or anything like that)  when I'm working out. I just drink water (room temperature) and that works just fine.

Remember, this is just my experience and this works for me. If you are able to maintain a plan and lose weight and you feel good, then by all means carry on.

SUGAR...AH HONEY HONEY

First order of business, I would like to acknowledge the Archies as the the inspiration for the title of this post.

 Now sweets is an area where I have a lot of knowledge. Only thing is, sugar packs a lot calories. If  I eat a lot sweets, it doesn't leave much room for the foods that actually make me feel really good. I don't deny myself sugar, but I've learned lately to limit my intake. In future posts, I'll touch more on some things you can do to limit sugar cravings.

 Now before I go any further, This post is intended for relatively healthy, over-weight people. If you have diabetes, please follow your doctor's orders.

I've found that a lower calorie substitute for sugar is honey. Now, honey doesn't work in all cases. I once tried to make home made ice cream sweetened only with honey and failed miserably. But grapefruit with honey, excellent, peanut butter with honey instead of jelly, fantastic,  honey in your coffee, absolutely, honey on your cereal, yummy. If you like honey, experiment and see where you can replace sugar to buy yourself some extra calories.  Side benefit of honey: Again, this is something I've read but not verified but it makes sense to me. If you eat honey that is produced locally, it will help with allergies that are caused by pollens produced locally.

If you have watched the news lately, you've probably heard about High Fructose Corn Syrup, a cheaper alternative to sugar,  that seems to be in just about everything we like. It seems high fructose corn syrup has taken a lot of the blame for the collective weight gain in the U.S. Until a week ago, I would have thought to myself, that's not right, people are just eating too many calories. It's all about calories in and calories out. But then I read an article by Tara Parker-Pope, of the New York Times.  In the article it stated that two groups of  lab subjects were fed sweeteners. The first group was fed high fructose corn syrup and the second group was fed sugar. Both groups were fed equal calorie amounts of sweeteners. The group that was fed high fructose corn syrup gained weight and the group that was fed sugar, didn't. So if we burn sugar more efficiently than high fructose corn syrup, I'm on board with avoiding high fructose corn syrup at all costs.

This summer I drank a "throw back Mountain Dew",  I think that's what it was called. It even had the old time label on the bottle. It was made with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. I couldn't tell any difference from the Mountain Dew of today. But now that I know that I burned off those soda calories faster than I burn off  the soda calories made with high fructose corn syrup, it makes me nostalgic. Nostalgia makes me feel good, and that's what this blog is all about.

Changes In Attitude

First order of business, I would like to acknowledge the great Jimmy Buffett as inspiration for the title of this post.

I don't know about you, but the two phrases that had the biggest impact on my physique (or lack thereof) was "clean your plate" (you know, because the starving children from less fortunate parts of the world...who were never around when you needed them) and "let's treat ourselves today". Yes my mom had a savage sweet tooth (but she never gained weight) and I was a good boy growing up so I got lot's of treats. Throw in my sister, who was a picky eater and I being the one who helped her "clean her plate" so we could be done with dinner already and go out and play, well, you get the idea.

So,  I credit a lot of my recent success for losing weight with changing my attitude about food. First, I still clean my plate. But, by measuring my food before hand and knowing how many calories I'll be eating, I can feel good about cleaning my plate. And by having leftovers, the next couple of meals are already cooked. If I get tired of what I'm eating, I just freeze the leftovers for a future date. If using smaller plates works for you, then by all means. Sometimes, I still feel  hungry directly after eating but I've found  about 15 minutes later is when I start feeling full. However, my wife (who doesn't have weight issues) seems to get filled up right as she is eating.

As far as eating something that has the potential to make me heavier, I no longer think of that as a treat. It's more like, I'm working hard and meeting my goals, I'm going to be bad today and eat a slice of cheesecake.  In future posts,  I'll touch more on this topic of attitudes and how "being bad" once in awhile is a good thing.

MARGARINE OF ERROR

I know I know, I told you I wouldn't get into what you can or cannot eat or what's healthy and what's not. That being said, I just want to relay these little anecdotes to you anyway and I think you're going to like them.

A couple weeks ago someone sent me an article about margarine. I haven't researched it or verified it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. The article claimed that margarine shares a lot of the same properties as plastic. It also asked the reader to do an experiment. It said place a tub of margarine out in your garage for a, I can't remember the time frame, maybe a week? Anyway,  it said after the week  go check on it and you'll be amazed at what you find. Supposedly the margarine won't melt, won't be moldy, and won't have any insects on it. Yeah, bugs won't eat the stuff. That article kind of stuck in my brain. And my wife added that she read an article once that stated women who ate margarine got more wrinkles in their skin than women who didn't.

So you say, "Melting Man, why you telling me this"?  I'll get to the point. The thing that I don't like about some butter substitutes is hydrogenated oils. I know what you're thinking, "there he goes again". It would seem so, but you would be wrong. When my wife and I eat things with hydrogenated oils, we don't feel very good afterwards. And the whole point of my weight management blog is for people to feel good or feel even better if they already felt good.

So I say this to you, why have butter substitute when you can have real butter? Butter tastes so much better. Now that you know how many calories butter has, you know how much of it you can eat and still make your calorie limit.

That's right,  I use real butter not a substitute. It satisfies and I don't feel deprived. That's why I've always said, don't deny yourself, you can eat anything you want. I knew you would like this post.

RESISTANCE!

OK...if you've have been following along you are now minding your caloric intake, keeping a record of the things you eat, and have introduced some cardio into your weekly routine. Don't worry if you feel behind, you can always start from the beginning and catch up. Go at your own pace.

The next important piece of the puzzle is adding some resistance training, like lifting some weights or using resistance bands, push ups, kettle bells, etc. Now,  I'm not talking you have to go train to be Mr. or Miss Olympia or buy a home-gym with tons of weight. No, start slow, especially if you've never done it before. Keep it simple.

The reason resistance training is so important is because we want to minimize the loss of muscle and maximize the loss of fat. Resistance training will help do that. The more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn. At this point you want to keep  the weight you are lifting "light",  but do a lot of repetitions. I call it "cardio lifting"  Example: Two sets of each exercise with little rest in between, and 15 repetitions each. You can probably do some research online to find various exercises and techniques, or go to the library. There is no need to spend a lot of money on this. Herschel Walker, the pro football player, said he never lifted weights. He did all his resistance training with things like push ups and sit ups, and pull ups. So there you go. Again, make sure of the proper techniques in performing these exercises so as to avoid injury. You'll want to do this 3 times a week as well, at least for a half an hour.  Again, be consistent. You won't see results  if you skip a bunch of days in between routines.

I'm just going to mention this in case you've ever thought about joining  a gym. I don't want you to be intimidated. A lot of people won't go to a gym because they are out of shape and feel embarrassed.Well, I've  been going to gym's  for a long time and most of the people that go are out of shape trying to get in shape. I have found that people in the gym won't judge you, in fact they are glad to see you and will cheer you on. The ones that are in shape will be more than happy to give advice and offer a compliment when you make progress. So don't be intimidated by going to a gym. I know, it took me a long time to build up the courage to go. Now I'm glad I did.

WATER WATER EVERYWHERE

Like I've mentioned numerous times before, I am not an expert, not a dietitian or physician. These are some things I've heard over the years that have helped me lose weight. I don't know if they are true or not but they make sense to me so I've kept them in my arsenal.

Water is very important. It is imperative to stay properly hydrated. I feel we are all different so being hydrated means differing amounts of water for each one us with variables to consider like physical activity, perspiration levels, temperatures we are in, etc. I don't want to be graphic, but I look at "output", if it has lot's of color, then need more water, if it is clear, then back off the water a little. If you are planning strenuous activity where you will be perspiring a lot, drink plenty of water before hand.

Water also aids in the calorie burning process, this is how. When you don't drink enough water, then your kidneys can't filter out all the impurities by themselves so the liver has to jump in and help out. That means that the liver isn't able to efficiently metabolize calories. So when you drink enough water, the liver is able to devote it's full attention to the task at hand which is metabolizing calories.

Your body has a built in defense system. Say you are stranded in a desert with little water. When you get a little depleted, your body's defense system kicks in and starts retaining water so that you can survive longer. So contrary to popular belief, the more water you drink, the less you retain.

We do perspire at night, so when I wake up I drink a big glass of water to get replenished, and also to get all my organs "up and running" for the day. I also like to drink my water at room temperature, especially after a workout. Supposedly ice-cold water will constrict your veins and we want to get as much oxygen as possible to fatigued muscles so as to aid recovery.

EXERCISE YOUR OPTIONS

It's true, if you want to reach your goals, you have to throw in some exercise along with eating sensibly. Hey, we're metabolically challenged so we better make the best of it. Fortunately,  you are reading Melting Man's blog and I can give you some ideas how to make exercise fun.

Remember, I'm not an expert on anything, so consult a physician if you are not sure about your limitations. First, I'm  going to talk to you like you don't exercise much for whatever reason, for those of you that do, I won't be long here, so just keep reading and bear with me.

OK... the objective right now is to do a little bit of exercise that will get your heart rate up, break a sweat. In other words, "cardio". That's going to get the weight melting off. You might want to start out with some walking, and after a couple weeks, pick up the pace, then maybe add some distance later on. Remember start slow, don't over do it. It's alright to feel a little sore, but you definitely don't want to feel pain.

Also, what ya might want to do is find some time when no one is around, put on some music with a fast beat, and dance like no one is watching, and hopefully no one is. It doesn't matter what you do, just move everything. I call it "free style". You've seen the Zumba commercials, and other fitness craze commercials, just watch what they are doing and do something similar. You don't need to buy the DVDs. Exercise should be fun. These are just suggestions to get started. At this point anything that gets your heart rate up and gets you sweating is a good thing. Do this a least 3 times a week, and be consistent. There might be days you don't feel like it, I find that those are the days I have my best workouts.

I'll touch more on exercise in future posts. Again, I welcome comments and suggestions. There is a box below The Daily Puppy  where you can write these.

WHAT TO EAT... WHAT TO EAT

I'm not going to tell you what you can or cannot eat, and I'm not going to get into the whole business of health food (whatever that is), or organics, I'll leave that up to you. The only scope of this blog is to get your weight to where you want it to be and to be able to sustain that weight for the rest of your life.

I do however have a few suggestions and again, these worked well for me, they may or may not work for you. But if they don't, hopefully they will at least  spark some ideas.

I suggest that "right out of the gate" you don't make any huge changes in what you eat, just eat smaller and smaller portions. If you have read my blog from yesterday and have done your homework, you've figured out how many calories you want to eat each day to reach your target weight. Those calorie amounts will have a great deal of influence on what you eat also.

Don't deprive yourself, if you have a craving for something, by all means have it. Just be aware of the calorie amount and the amount of it you eat.

What worked for me is:  the biggest percentage of my meals is lean protein. Steak instead of hamburg, skinless turkey breast instead of ground turkey, center cut boneless pork chops instead of sausage. I don't want to offend any vegans, vegetarians, or any religions, I'm a meat eater and these are just suggestions. If your main source of protein is Tofu, that will work too. I'm not saying never eat hamburger or sausage, I'm just saying that most days I stick with lean protein, that keeps my calorie intake lower, and I have plenty of calories to spare for lunch and dinner.

That's right, on many a morning I've eaten a 3 ounce steak for breakfast. It fills me up and sticks with me until lunch. Also, I'm not sluggish after I eat it, lots of energy. Throw in a half of an orange, and that's a good breakfast. My secrete weapon though is egg whites. Again, I don't want to offend anyone, this is just a suggestion for those that eat eggs. Egg whites are around 16 calories each, when I was starting out I would spray a butter flavored cooking spray into a non-stick pan and throw in five egg whites and cook them up on medium low to the consistency of scrambled eggs. Garnish with a couple slices of tomato and I would be full, only spent around 100 calories and got some good protein to boot.

Second:  Fresh fruits and vegetables. I used to think I could eat all I want of these, but they too have calories. Some more than others. I try to eat something green everyday. I don't know that you need 5 servings everyday like the government says, but I eat at least one serving of them a day, sometimes I eat more, sometimes less depending on what I'm hungry for.

Third:  Sweets, yeah I have a major sweet tooth. Probably my biggest down fall. Eating lean protein actually helps a lot with cravings. Also,  after I have my dinner, I eat a piece of good quality dark chocolate, 44 calories, and I just let it melt slowly in my mouth and savor every bit of it. This is huge because it tames my sweet tooth.

These are some ideas to get you started, I'll touch more on  this topic in future posts. I hoped they helped. Again, if you have any questions or suggestions, please post them and I will respond the best I can.

HOW MANY CALORIES IN A DAY?

How many calories do we need to consume each day? Good question. Well, there are a lot of variables to consider. Things like gender, height, weight, age, and physical activity. Thankfully,  there are a lot of web sites you can go to and find out how many calories you need to eat each day. From there you can find out how many calories you need to eat to lose weight.

The first you thing you'll want to find out is how many calories do you need to maintain your current weight. You can actually type that into your search engine. That should provide you with an ample list of web sites to find the answer. Now don't worry, a lot of these sites are free, won't ask you to register or won't ask you for any personal information. You might want to get your "daily minimum requirement of calories"  information from at least 3 sites to make sure the numbers are close (each site may differ slightly). Just be honest, plug in you weight, height, age, gender and realistic physical activity level.

The next thing you'll want to know is your BMR (no not BMI), BMR is your Basal Metabolic Rate or the amount of calories you naturally burn while you are resting. BMI is your Body Mass Index (which I personally  feel is something insurance companies came up with to charge us higher premiums). So type that into your search engine and find a BMR calculator.

Once you know your daily requirement and BMR, type how many calories to lose weight into your search and from there you can choose from a list of sites where you can plug in the numbers above and find out. Your objective should be to lose around 2 pounds a week. That's the safe way to do it.

That's it. That's the big secrete. If you want to lose weight spend more calories than you take in (calorie deficit). It's simple math. This works. I avoided it for a long time and I wish I hadn't.

Tip:  As you lose weight your BMR goes down (you'll naturally burn less calories) so you'll slowly want to decrease your calorie intake and check back every so often to find out what your new BMR is.

Once you know how much weight you want to lose, and you know how many calories you need to lose 2 pounds a week, you can determine how long it will take you and then you can set your goal and write it down. Goals are very important in this process, I suggest 2 sets of goals: short term goals and long term goals. But again, do what works best  for you.

SEARCHING FOR CLUES

Before we get started I would like to give an update to an earlier post regarding journaling. Seems I forgot to mention another option for journaling. I apologize. There are web sites that will let you record a journal on their site. It will add up the numbers for you and you can probably enter information from a cell phone or Blackberry or whatever device you may be carrying. Do a search on your computer with something like  "weight loss journal", check out the various web sites that pop up and see if you want to go that route. Just beware of sites that want to charge you money or want you to buy something for that privilege. I work at home and don't travel much so I don't have the latest gizmo for texting or phone apps and stuff like that. So you might also want to check out those options. I won't mention these sites because I don't want my readers (if I have any) to think that I'm promoting a certain site or product, or that I'm getting  paid in any way to write this blog. So make use of that search engine!

If you started recording in your journal you've probably ran into some situations that has led to questions you want to ask me. Questions like "How the heck am I supposed to know how many calories are in that Lasagna I just made?" or "How am I supposed to know how many calories are in McDonald's delicious French fries?"

Let's tackle the latter first. Surprisingly, there are web sites out there that will tell you how many calories are in a specific company's product. You ate some McDonald's fries?, type "McDonald's French fries + calories" into you're search engine and there will probably be 50 sites that will pop up and will tell you how many calories there are in McDonald's French Fries.  

OK...homemade cooking. If you mainly cook at home, calorie counting may seem a bit daunting. I think I can help with that.  The first time you figure out the calories for that Lasagna (and this applies to all recipes), it may be a little time consuming. But when you're  finished with the recipe and you've figured out the calories, just write it down in your recipe book or journal (or where ever works for you) for the next time you eat it. 

Again, you can find out calorie amounts for just about anything these days which makes calorie counting a whole heck of lot easier than when I grew up. How many calories in a cup of flour?  Enter  "1 cup of  flour + calories" into your search engine. How many calories in a large egg?  enter "1 large egg + calories" into your search engine. You get the idea.  So back to the lasagna...the first thing you want to do is to weigh your empty lasagna pan on your kitchen scale. Second, for packaged lasagna noodles it will tell you on the label how many calories per serving. It will also tell you how many servings are in the package. From there you can determine how may calories are in the package. "But Melting Man, I don't use the whole package when I make lasagna". Easy, count how many noodles are in the package and from there you can determine how many calories are in each noodle. Then just write down noodles and how may calories on your sheet of paper you're using to determine how many calories are in your lasagna. Once you're done finding calorie amounts  for each ingredient and you've  written it down, just add up the numbers. That will be the total amount of calories for the whole pan of lasagna. Now that you have your lasagna put together and  in the pan, just weigh it before you stick it in the oven. Subtract out the weight of your empty lasagna pan. From there you can determine how many calories are in each ounce of lasagna (remember 16 ounces in a pound). I like to break my food portions down into ounces because some days I might want to eat 5 ounces, some days only  3 ounces. In your journal (or wherever else you want that's handy) just record how many calories are in each ounce of your wonderful homemade lasagna for the next time. You can apply this method to all your recipes, I just used lasagna as an example.

My motto  "Eat ounces, lose pounds"- yeah I came up with that. So just credit Melting Man when using that little gem  :)

I hope this has been helpful. If you still have questions please post them and I will answer them the best I can.

WHAT THE HECK IS A SERVING?

What the heck IS a serving? Picture this, it's morning and a five year old girl comes down to the breakfast table. Mom pours the little girl a bowl of cereal, a half a cup of cereal because she saw on the box that a serving is a half a cup. Now dad comes down to the breakfast table,  dad is 6 feet 5 inches tall and works a construction job, and he pours himself a half cup of cereal just like the box says. What's wrong with this picture!

How did the cereal manufacturer arrive at  a half a cup is a serving for everyone? No one knows, it's a mystery, it's their little secret and they're not telling. To further compound things, the government's definition of a serving and the manufacturer's definition of a serving is different. What? That's right, but the last I read, the government is going to work on matching up definitions.

The cynical Melting Man in me thinks that the serving size is determined from the amount of a product equal to a low number of calories so that we will buy the food. In other words, it's just another part of the advertising and has nothing to do with nutrition. When you look at the label the first thing that jumps out at you is the calorie amount. Big, bold numbers. So we buy the cookies thinking to ourselves that a reasonable serving of cookies is only 100 calories. What we don't realize is that the cookie maker's definition of a serving of cookies is "a crumb". That's right, it's a little harder to find that serving size information on the label. The cookie maker determined how much of their product would be 100 calories, so that we wouldn't feel guilty about buying it, and that's how they came up with the serving size amount. Case in point: I was in the store the other day and passed a package of muffins, who doesn't like muffins...they're the healthy alternative to a cupcake, I picked up the package and looked at the label. The calorie count in these muffins was surprisingly low, and they looked delicious. I thought to myself, I could have one of these with coffee in the morning and still have enough calories left in the bank to spend on a good breakfast. BUT THEN, then I looked at the serving size, in wee small letters hidden on the label, it said:  Serving Size 1/3 of a muffin.  Who eats 1/3 of a muffin? I got so mad, I put it down. I was mad because they don't care that I'm trying to be a responsible consumer and that I'm working hard to lose weight , they don't care about my health, they just want to trick me into buying these muffins.

Yeah, no wonder we are all fat. When I was growing up we didn't have food labels, gyms to go to, exercise DVDs to watch,  diet food, low fat foods, whole grain foods, but yet after all that and many years later, we as a nation are fatter. It isn't all our fault.

So, I've determined that the manufacturer's serving size is just going to be a measure for me to determine how many calories of this product I'm going to eat. Some days I'll eat more of it, some days less.

Now, who knows what the heck a portion is?  :)

JOURNALING

OK...You're still with me. Good.  You can set your journal up whatever way works for you. I have mine broken down into breakfast, lunch, dinner,  and snacks (yeah, I eat snacks).  Next to those columns is a column for calories. I record whatever I eat each day, no matter what it is. Even if it doesn't have calories (like red wine vinegar on my salad) I still record it, just put a zero in the calorie column. You can eat or drink anything you want so there is no pressure to cheat. Be honest with yourself, if you eat or drink it, write it down. I don't record the water I drink though, you can if you want.  Writing everything down is probably the hardest hurdle to get over when starting weight management. But once you start, it becomes second nature. I can't stress enough how important this step is.  I've heard this for years, but I was stubborn just like you and thought I could manage without writing everything down. I was wrong.


So if you have your journal  and your ready to start writing everything down, then congratulations! You've just overcame the biggest obstacle to a thinner you. 


Reminder: There are previous posts for you to read if you haven't already. And there is a box for questions and suggestions.

Let's Get Started!

I'm excited, you excited? Good!

Let me just mention again, I am not an expert, if you have any health concerns please consult a physician. Other than being over weight, I'm pretty healthy. These are the things that worked for me.

What you'll need:  Relax, I'm not going to ask you to buy anything from me.

First:  You'll need to make a journal. Calculator, notebook and pen, or enter the data  into a word processing program, or for you "numbers people", spread sheet programs work really nice for this. I'll  give you suggestions on how to set it up in my next post.

Second:  A kitchen scale that goes up to at least 10 pounds. Battery operated digital scales are very precise and aren't very expensive. I bought mine on Amazon. No, I didn't get paid to say that, just a helpful hint.

Third:  Wax paper. When weighing my food, I put wax paper on the scale first to keep the scale clean. Smart, huh?

Fourth:  A "can-do" attitude and determination.

These are the only things I'll recommend you buy. From here on out  you'll be saving money (which you'll need to buy  smaller clothes).

I know what your thinking, "weighing my food, calorie counting, lettuce and carrots, writing down everything I eat. That won't work". Quit your whining, it's not carrots and lettuce, you can eat anything you want. Writing down everything you eat might be a pain, it's really not that bad once you get started, but studies show that you'll have a better chance of success if you write down what you eat. Plus, if you become ill, it's something you can show your doctor since a lot of illness occurs as a result of what we consume.

I know how you feel, I've been there. So just give it a try. You might be surprised.

What can you expect?

You can expect that I will keep my blog entries simple and honest. I am not an expert, physician, or dietitian. Things I say may be inaccurate, so make sure you verify. I welcome any corrections, comments, suggestions or constructive criticism.

We are all different, what works for me might not work for you. But,  by sharing my experiences it might give you new ideas to apply to your own situation.

I plan to blog often, so check back daily for hints, tips and inspirational sayings. I hope to expand this blog in the future with photos and videos and hopefully develop into a weight conscious community site aimed toward educating others so that they may avoid the bogus information and gimmick diets out there that will just waste their time and money, and may even cause them harm.

Blogger's Background

No, I'm not trying to bore you into losing your appetite. I thought I would provide a little back story so that someone out there might identify with my struggles and let them know they are not alone.

I've been heavy all my life. I've been on numerous diets with varying degrees of success, but always gained the weight back. I've always been active, lifted weights since I was a teenager, took up jogging in my 20s and have actually been eating mostly the right foods the last twenty years, just too much of the right foods.

Through my failures I have gained a lot of wisdom which I hope to impart to you so that you can avoid the mistakes that  I have made and find your own success in managing your weight.

The way I'm losing weight now is the easiest and most effective way I've ever tried. Not to mention fun! Over the years I've filed away little pieces of the puzzle that I thought would work. In July of this year, I read an article in the USA Today that hit home with me and kind of tied everything together. I actually started my weight loss plan that very day and within a month was getting compliments on my weight loss.

I hope that by telling my story and sharing the things that work for me, it may also hit home for you and you can begin your journey to a thinner you.

MY FIRST POST ABOUT WEIGHT LOSS

I think I can guess what you're thinking.  You're thinking that I'm writing this blog to make money, or I have something to sell or promote. Well "smarty pants",   you would be wrong. When Ben Franklin invented the Franklin Stove he did not make any money from it. Even though the invention was wildly popular, he felt that it was too important of an invention to profit from it. I guess I'm following his lead. We are in an obesity crisis in America, I think I can help.