265 - First day in my new job

Approx. 12 lbs lost in January (so far)

Well, it's the same job that I was doing before, Customer Service Supervisor in a large grocery store, just in a different city - Missoula. My work schedule is more regular now. I'll be working from 4.00 pm until midnight, Saturday through Wednesday, with Thursdays and Fridays off. Nice!

The chart on the left shows how I dropped from about 277 lbs at the beginning of the year to 265 lbs this morning, with a couple of little (pizza-induced) blips along the way. Seriously, I've learned that for me, on a low carb diet, pizza is as bad as eating pure sugar. As soon as I get into a place where I can do it, I want to learn how to make a really good cauliflower-based pizza crust.

It'll be interesting to see what effect the increased amount of walking will have because I'm temporarily living a lot further away from my workplace (2.7 miles) than before (1.2 miles) and there is a 135 ft elevation change now.

Fantastic trails and recreation areas really close to town

Also, once my housing situation is resolved and I have easier access to all of my gear, I'm looking forward to exploring the recreation areas nearby; Pattee Canyon, Blue Mountain and Rattlesnake, as well as the South Hills and the downtown Riverfront.

There are lots of exciting changes and opportunities coming my way soon. I hope you can join me for them, either in person or by following the blog.

265 - getting fresh

As I was looking at the website of a popular online shopping company last night, it occurred to me that I really couldn't use most of their food offerings. My cupboards will contain a few standbys for emergencies, sure, but the bulk of the food I'll be preparing and eating will be fresh produce. Fortunately for me, I work in a grocery store and have easy access to some good quality produce, including some exotic things like dragon fruit, jackfruit and kiwano melons (and everyday things like nopales, a.k.a. cactus paddles).

265.2 lbs (120.3 kg) this morning

You've seen and heard it be said elsewhere, I'm sure, that you should shop the perimeter of your grocery store, not the center aisles, because those contain all the packaged "convenience" foods that are full of artificial additives and preservatives and unpronounceable ingredients.

Food writer and journalist Michael Pollan says in his book "Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual": "Processed food products dominate the center aisles of the store, while the cases of mostly fresh food—produce, meat and fish, dairy—line the walls. If you keep to the edges of the store you’ll be much more likely to wind up with real food in your shopping cart."

This morning I tipped the scales at 265 lbs. I had to buy myself a new belt yesterday because the old one was literally hanging together by a single thread and was incapable of doing its job of holding my pants up. It's only a cheap Chinese belt because at the moment that's all I can afford (since I'm saving up to move house again) but I will allow myself something nice-looking once I'm more settled.

I spent the day thinking about food and cooking

With just a few days to go until I move 😃, I had a day off work today and I spent a large part of it thinking about food. As the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates said, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food". I also spent more than an hour on the phone with my daughter talking about her diet. She has been a vegan for quite a while now and has enjoyed excellent health as a result.

As I contemplated what kinds of foods I would be buying, preparing and eating in the near future (and also which ones I would be avoiding altogether) I came up with this list, almost a manifesto (in no particular order): spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, lettuce (not iceberg), kale, artichokes, asparagus, avocado, zucchini, chard, kohlrabi, tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, cabbage (red, green and white), cucumber, fennel, okra, green beans, turnips, rutabaga (swede), carrots (particularly purple ones, not baby ones), snow peas, Brussels sprouts, jicama, radishes. Also, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, nuts and seeds, lots of garlic and mushrooms.

Keen nutritionists will notice that these foods are largely low carb, high in vitamins and minerals, and have a low glycemic index. The list specifically doesn't include potatoes, corn or peas and avoids most fruits. Not that I'm opposed to things like apples, grapefruits, strawberries, cherries, plums, dried apricots or pears. I would just eat them in very small quantities. I would use citrus fruits like oranges, lemons and limes as garnishes and freshly-squeezed for a little bit of juice, but will definitely NOT be drinking orange juice or other fruit juices by the glass.

There will also be plenty of red (chili) pepper, turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, and ginger.

My list of things to avoid includes: refined sugar in any form, wheat and corn in its many forms (therefore, very little bread and no breakfast cereal), processed foods, rice and pasta and (for ethical/moral reasons more than nutritional ones) any products made by Nestlé ** or Kraft Foods ***.

I'll be looking to substitute zucchini noodles and spaghetti squash for wheat-based pasta; making "bread" and "pizza crust" with cauliflower instead of wheat; using rutabaga and turnips instead of potatoes in potato salads and French fries. I'll be adding nutritional yeast to some dishes that normally require cheese, and checking out Lighlife's Fakin' Bacon and Smart Ground products as well as Field Roast's vegan sausages, deli slices and Chao slices.

I don't think I'm ready to go full-bore vegan just yet because I want to still have eggs and fish and real cheese and yogurt from time to time, just a lot less than in my past. 

I've been thinking about adding a Recipes section to the main ERGOOB website (http://www.ergoob.org) where I can include step-by-step photo and video directions on how to make and adapt recipes so that they are "healthier". As I experiment, I'll post the results in this blog first, but I'd like to have a repository of tried and tested, tasty, healthy dishes that are easy to prepare and fun to share.


** Including brands such as Nescafe and Nesquick, Carnation, Haagen-Dazs, Buitoni, Maggi, CoffeeMate, and Cheerios.
*** Including brands such Grey Poupon, Gevalia, Planters, Jell-O, Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer, Velveeta, Kool-Aid, Philadelphia cream cheese and Claussen pickles.

267 - A good weekend in Missoula

267.2 lbs (121.2 kg) this morning

I spent a couple of days last weekend visiting my new home city (my "spiritual home") of Missoula, prior to moving back there permanently on January 25th. I was very careful about eating a low carb diet, opting for green salads most of the time. It paid off. At this morning's weigh-in, I was three pounds lower than at any time in the past few months.

One good discovery that I made was a new chain of fast-casual Brazilian restaurants called Five on Black (http://www.fiveonblack.com) with two locations in Missoula, one in Bozeman, plus one each in Denver and Boulder. You get to pick a base, a protein, a side, a sauce and a topping (hence the Five) in whatever combination you like. I opted for mixed greens of Romaine lettuce and spinach, with oven roasted beets, jicama and sweet potatoes, accompanied by steamed collard greens covered in a fantastic spicy coconut sauce, topped with a chimichurri verde (with cilantro, parsley, minced garlic, oregano and chili pepper flakes). For me, it had the perfect amount of 'heat' and was very tasty.

Endorphins - 271 lbs

"There is a close interaction between food, mood, and stress." Not my words but I agree 100% with the sentiment. Chronic stress can lead to increased consumption of "rewarding" foods (high in fat and sugar) leading to weight gain and further stress. Endorphins (a name contracted from "endogenous morphine") play a key role in this. The biochemistry is complex, so I will leave you to research it for yourself. Now, if only there were an easy way to break the vicious cycle, right?

One way is to remove the source of stress, of course, which is often easier said than done.

Another way is to do more aerobic exercise, since that triggers the release of endorphins. So, now that I have hit 271 lbs (gasp, shock, horror!) it's time to get back on the wagon. I sense that there will be some important changes taking place in the next few months which will lead to a renewed push towards my goal of being 178 pounds.

257 - Low carb is definitely the way to go, and IF works too

Before I start, the obligatory disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are based on my own thoughts and experiences. I am not a doctor or a dietician so please do your own research and consult the appropriate professionals before making any changes to your diet.

Eighteen months ago on this blog (http://blog.ergoob.org/2015/11/extra-days-off-lead-to-excessive.html) I wrote about some of the things I'd been reading about recently. As I was looking back to find references to "intermittent fasting" (IF), I came across the list again. Here it is, words unchanged, only in a slightly different order to reflect the importance (in my humble opinion) of these things to weight loss:

1. low carb diets, high in fats (like Paleo), with or without grains and gluten
2. the merits of intermittent fasting versus eating multiple smaller meals each day
3. the importance of fiber in our diet
4. the value of fermented food and drinks (pickles, sauerkraut, kefir)
5. how the human gut is the second brain

Based on my recent experiences, I'm utterly and completely convinced that we humans don't need nearly as many carbs as experts say we do. 

There are three macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates and fat. While there are essential proteins (amino acids) and essential fats (linoleic and alpha-linolenic used to build omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids) there's no such thing as an "essential carb". 

The process of gluconeogenesis produces all the glucose that the body needs. It happens in all of us, especially overnight, which is why some diabetics wake up with blood sugar levels higher than when they went to bed. Low carb diets use this fact to derive needed energy from stored fat. 

Whether you fast for 16 out of 24 hours a day (eating all your food in the remaining 8-hour window) or choose to fast (500-600 calories only) for two whole days out of 7 (the 5:2 diet), you are creating the conditions your body needs to burn fat. If you have an hour to spare and are interested, check out the BBC documentary from five years ago called "Eat, Fast and Live Longer" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihhj_VSKiTs. It's very interesting. 

244 - The fantastic year is ending with a bang

With only three weeks to go until the end of the calendar year, I've been contemplating what has happened in the past 12 months and what the future has in store for me. I'm excited! Usually, by now, I have already sent out my annual Christmas cards with their 'round-robin' letters. My friends all know how much I love to send (and receive - hint!) letters and cards in the mail. Anyway, it truly has been a fantastic year, and the best is yet to come!

January started out with me weighing 336 pounds (152.5 kg). This morning:

243.8 lbs (110.6 kg)

243.8 pounds, 92 lbs lighter in twelve months. Losing nearly eight pounds a month on average is a good, healthy amount. 

I was still living in Helena at the time (in January 2016), still working for the Dept of Public Health and Human Service in a job that had me practically tied to a desk all day answering a phone. I was walking the ⅔ mile each way to work (a 100 foot elevation difference so, yes, it was uphill both ways 😜), including in the middle of winter with all its snow and ice (and I can honestly say, I never missed a single day because of the weather). At this point I hadn't been riding my bike, which was still stored in my hall closet. I also hadn't substantially started hiking yet, although I had started to make plans to go to southern Oregon and see Crater Lake as part of a 100-mile PCT hike that was scheduled for the end of May. 

In July I had decided that I was financially stable enough to be able to leave my job and move to my "spiritual home" (where I'm actually living now) of Missoula, MT. There was a short 'blip' when I was in Sidney (eastern Montana) for a few weeks. My close friends know the details of that little escapade (temporary insanity? 😵) Anyway, I moved to the Garden City at the beginning of November and have been able to get back on my program (such that there is one - low carb diet and more exercise, basically) with great results. I've been riding my now-heavily-accessorized bike a lot (weather permitting), and walking more than ever before. 

So, next year I'm looking forward to finally reaching my final target - 178 lbs or (80.7 kg) which, for a 5' 10" guy (1.78 m) is still a BMI of 25.5 - so, technically, still overweight. I should be there by, say, mid-July. But, you know what? If it takes me until August, or September, or even December, I'm not that bothered. It's all a heck of a lot better than 405 lbs (June 2015) or 428 lbs (June 2014)!! Of course, there's the question of what to do about the 20 pounds of excess, flapping skin that will be hanging off me all over the place. "Surgery!" (I imagined myself saying that in a ringing, singing voice).

I still have some objectives to meet. I still want to find a place to do some boxing to help develop my upper body musculature. I still want to find a place to do T'ai Chi to help with the physical and mental/spiritual balance. I still want to do a long-distance bicycle ride (Portland, Oregon, is still looking attractive as either the destination or the starting point for that little tour). I really want to start dancing again. I have such fond memories of my daughter and I going to some contra dances in Helena, but that was six and seven years ago! I know that those things are all available here in Missoula, it's just a question of time and money, and making it a big enough priority. 

If you're in Missoula and you're interested in contra dancing, the Missoula Folklore Society has dances twice a month (first and third Saturday) from October through May (http://www.missoulafolk.org). Maybe I'll see you there? Oh, and Sara Bareilles? I'm still waiting for your phone call to ask me to be in a future music video of yours ("Brave" was brilliant! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQsqBqxoR4.) 

And, I haven't given up on wanting to complete my PCT hike, or climbing Mount Hood ("Go BIG or go home!", right?) I have unfinished business to take care of in Oregon, and I'm not going to let it beat me! 

I still want to expand my répertoire of mostly plant-based (but not exclusively vegetarian) recipes and learn some new cooking styles and techniques. I still want to learn and practise my own food growing, canning and preserving. Not that I want to be all "prepper" self-sufficient, but a little better preparedness doesn't hurt (interestingly, even after living in the US for 20 years now, I've still never fired - much less held - a gun. I get that question from my English friends all the time). 

In the short term, I want to start enjoying the winter (I never imagined that THOSE words would ever come out of my mouth!) I want to try snowshoeing (or cross country skiing, maybe). 

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom-of-night
stays this man from going outside."

2017 is going to be another fantastic year. If I can take some friends with me, old ones or new ones, it'll be that much better. If I can leverage the new-found knowledge and experience of healthy eating and exercise and weight-loss, and get myself a better job, or even just use it to HELP other people, I'll be delighted. 

259 - unstoppable at the moment (back on the low carb diet)

Another day, another pound or two off.

258.8 lbs (117.4 kg)

Now that I'm 100% in control of the food I buy and prepare and eat again, the weight is simply dropping off.

My new local grocery store had whole chickens (not organic, but "raised without antibiotics") on sale for 99¢/lb, so I bought a 5 lb bird for $5, trimmed off the two large breast pieces for another time. I had the oven-baked legs and wings this evening with some broccoli, and used the carcass for a tasty soup stock with rutabaga (swede), turnips, parsnips and carrots, plus some herbs and diced green and red peppers - no pasta. It was very tasty and made several large portions of soup.

I've also been able to eat my spinach and eggs for breakfast again, which has been great.

Eggplants (aubergines) were on sale too, so I bought one to slice and bake with some tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese - no bread crumbs (maybe I should get some fresh mozzarella too?). If I had access to a fully equipped kitchen, I would love to make baba ganoush all the time (basically, baked eggplant mixed with tahini, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and parsley). Interestingly (botanically) eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes and peppers are all part of the same nightshade (Solanaceae) family. I can happily skip the potatoes, but I love all the others.

Losing inches, not pounds, for now

It's been more than three weeks since I last blogged about my progress, and tomorrow it will be two weeks since I moved to Sidney, MT. In some ways it feels like I've been here longer than that - it's been so busy.

I'm still hovering around the mid-270s pound mark, the same as two weeks ago. The big change that I've noticed is that my new pants (trousers) are fitting better than when I bought them seven weeks ago.

In terms of diet and exercise, I know I'm burning way more energy now than I ever did before. I'm working two jobs at the moment - both requiring a lot more physical exercise than I've been used to for a few years. At the moment, I don't have an accurate way to capture all the daily steps, but I'll estimate that I'm easily exceeding 12,000 steps a day at the grocery store, and my newspaper delivery route easily adds 8,000 steps to the tally. I'm also riding my bike half a dozen times a week, which is good too. I know I'm eating a lot more than I used to, and that a greater proportion of what I eat is carbohydrates. I'm trying really hard to stick to salads and green vegetables.

On our way to Oregon today

The day has finally arrived! I've been contemplating this day and this journey for eight months now, thinking about it, planning it, dreaming about it, and now it's here. Birdie and I will be leaving Helena in just over an hour, heading up Interstate-15 towards the Amtrak station in Shelby. Our backpacks are packed. Hers weighs about 25 lbs, mine weighed in at 38 lbs! When I think of my personal weight loss journey over the past 11 months, I've lost the equivalent of two and a half big backpacks!

This morning, on the bathroom scales, I was at 306.4 lbs. We'll see how much I lose in the next 11 days (the next time I'll weigh myself). These last few weeks have been up and down much more than normal. My diet has had a lot more carbohydrates in it than normally (well, the 'new normal', anyway). I've also been struggling in a psychological battle with food. I'm determined that I'm going to WIN that particular battle, so there will be renewed action on that front when I return to Helena at the end of May.

I'm sad that we won't be hiking the 'real' Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) because of all the snow on it, but we've managed to come up with an alternative that is almost as long (still 72 miles), and that takes us past a nature reserve and bird sanctuary, so there should still be some sights to see on the way, and good photos to take and share afterwards. I also won't get to see Crater Lake up close - this year - but my plan is to come back in two years time (2018) and do it all again. Except, then, I'll come back in March - when there's a lot more snow, and I'll be properly equipped and trained to deal with it. How about that for making lemonade out of lemons!?

Once I get back home (Sat, May 28th) I'll upload all of my photos to an online album, but some pictures may get posted from my cell phone before then. https://goo.gl/photos/JvhZBZosKDhSAApT6 is the address of the album. There's a tentative schedule of where we'll be at http://www.ergoob.org/pct2016/schedule, and a near-real-time map of our whereabouts at http://www.ergoob.org/pct2016/where (also reachable via https://share.delorme.com/janesdaddy). The password is the name of the state that we are hiking in (with a capital 'O' at the beginning). 

I would like to thank all my friends and others who have supported me in the past eight months, either with the physical preparation, or with words of encouragement. Thank you. 

Need a forklift truck (not really) (PCT d - 6)

I think we're almost ready to go. Our Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) adventure has become the "almost-PCT" or "nearly-PCT", thanks to the 4-foot deep snow on the only part of the PCT in Oregon to have snow - the precise bit that we'd planned to hike on. I've been monitoring the monitoring stations along the way, and the snow is melting; just not quickly enough. The level is going down at the rate of about 2" a day (16 inches a week), but it's still at 52" (over 4 feet) today (see http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/nwcc/plot?time_zone=PST&intervalType=+View+Current+&sitenum=1000&report=SNOW&timeseries=Daily&interval=MONTH&format=plot&autoscale=true&legendpos=below for an example). As such, some of the steep hills would be simply too dangerous for inexperienced (but enthusiastic!) hikers such as Birdie and me. We don't have crampons and ice axes, or any of the other gear necessary for our safety on a steep, hilly climb through that much snow (good safety video at http://sectionhiker.com/winter-skills-how-to-use-an-ice-axe-for-self-rescue/), so we devised an alternate plan for our seven days of hiking.

This is only breakfasts and some snacks

Having acquired all the other equipment and consumables in prior weeks, the last piece was to buy our breakfast food and snacks. Yesterday was my pay day, so I was able to buy a load of tasty oatmeal bars (a brand I would highly recommend, if the company will send me a free box of them  ;-) some nut bars (some with dark chocolate), some fruit leathers, some beef jerky and some salami. Some of the stuff may get repackaged so as not to take up so much space, but it's really the weight that's going to be the big issue. When I've been going out on my practise hikes recently, my pack has weighed up to 35 pounds, and that was with no more than a few days worths of food. Including the train journey down to Klamath Falls, we'll be taking nine days worth of food with us. Full details of our schedule, our list of gear, the original (now revised) schedule, and our near-real-time location can be found on the main ERGOOB website at http://www.ergoob.org/pct2016/.

Fridges and freezers (PCT d - 12)

I had totally planned to write about my refrigerator, this lunchtime, but then got distracted by the map showing snow depth on the PCT. Yikes!

The point of the fridge photo was that there's not much in it, which reduces the scope and possibility for overeating. There's milk and half-and-half for my tea and coffee, with a pitcher of filtered water for drinking. A can of Spam, some mixed greens (kale, spinach and chard), some bean sprouts, grated carrot, a bit of red onion (all for salads), a cucumber, some lettuce, a small boneless beef steak, some butter and some eggs. That's it!

3-4 feet of snow on our section of the PCT - plans have changed now

The snow depth map comes from http://www.postholer.com/gmap/gmap.php?trail_id=1&depth=1, which shows several feet of snow on the trail itself, although surrounding highways are clear: https://www.tripcheck.com/Pages/RCMap.asp. 

If push came to shove, and we couldn't walk on the PCT at all, the distance from Klamath Falls to Chemult on US-97 is about 72 miles, but the scenery is not nearly as exciting!