Go-to foods: Breakfast

I'm a big believer in ritual and consistency, possibly born of my borderline OCD tendencies.  I aggressively seek ways of not making decisions in my every-day life as I feel that I've more than enough decisions to make in not-so-everyday life.  This is particularly the case when it comes to food.

I've often heard of people complaining that it's hard to stay on program because they get bored eating the same things over and over again.  When I hear this, I nod my head sympathetically and manipulate my facial muscles to express sympathy and understanding.  I can certainly understand intellectually how variety my be the spice of life for many.  I just don't relate on any kind of personal level.

I am more than happy to eat the same breakfast and lunch pretty much every day of the week.  I would have not much of a problem doing the same for dinner as well.  Case in point, I was known in my past life (read, plumper me) to buy a gigantic pizza, and then eat it for 4 to 5 days straight.  Preferably cold and hopefully not moldy.

It's not that I don't love food or that I'm afraid to try new kinds of food.  When it comes to eating, there are precious few things that I'm not willing to put into my mouth.  The list of foods that I won't eat is probably down to 2 or 3, with grapefruit still being the number one food that I really avoid (too bitter).  More the issue is that I cannot be bothered to summon the 12 IQ points necessary to make a food selection.

This makes having basic meals on program really simple (even for my little brain).  Take breakfast for example.  My approach here has been to start with some basic constructs and evolve them over time.  By way of example, here are my better breakfast software release notes:

• Better breakfast 1.0:  Quaker flavored oatmeal, Danon fruit at the bottom yogurt, and coffee w/ sugar and 2% milk.  This wasn't a terrible version 1.0, but it clearly contained a bunch of bugs.  By way of example, standard flavored oatmeal has lots of added sugar and flavors that may or may not be natural.  I'm not puritanical about the whole organic food thing, but coughing up 3 POINTS given the volume of food didn't seem a good trade off.  
• Better breakfast 2.0:  Quaker Weight Control oatmeal, Danon Lite yogurt.  Better, particularly since the WC oatmeal has more protein.  Still, not enough food to keep me full until lunch.
• Better breakfast 3.0:  Quaker Weight Control oatmeal (160 cal) w/ added banana and blueberries.  Also for this release is the introduction of Chobani 0% Greek yogurt with fruit (around 140 cal).  I have become a giant Greek yogurt convert:  lots of protein and not too many calories in the 0% fat variety.  Still, I was sensing that there might be too much added sugar -- probably an extra 2 POINTS worth.
• Better breakfast 4.0:  McCann's non-flavored instant oatmeal (100 cal) + fruit.  Fage 0% plain yogurt (90 cal) + grapes.  For this who aren't super fast with their mental POINTS calculator, my breakfast works out to about 6 POINTS.  Given that I get 31 POINTS per day (I'd prefer not to get flamed by those of you who only get 18 per day...  don't hate me just because I'm a tall guy on maintenance), this is a totally manageable total.  

Breakfast 4.0 is pretty perfect for me.  It's a ton of food without any wasted POINTS in the form of added sugar other than from the fruit.  Again, this isn't a moral judgement (I'm not one to spray paint on fur coats or picket HFCS plants), it's a purely practical one.  The reason this breakfast plucks my heartstrings is that it has been bulked up with fruit, so it is very filling.  This means that I really have no hunger-related reason to eat again before lunch.  

Now that I'm on Breakfast 4.0, I really don't foresee the need for a change in software.  Ever.  [Maybe there is a lesson for Microsoft in this somewhere.]  Therefore, the secret to my personal breakfast success has been iteration/optimization rather that constant exploration.  

I've applied the same logic to lunch and snacks, which I can share in a later post (including which Weight Watchers bars I eat and how I really feel about artificial ingredients).   

Feel free to share your own breakfast tricks.  I'm getting bored with mine.  

Cheers,

dk

A man, his weight, and his secret desire to be pretty(er): vanity and weight loss Part 1

Continuing on the theme of exploring mannish views on weight and weight loss, I have been thinking a lot recently about vanity.  [If you happen to know me personally, I would greatly appreciate if you could extinguish the snickering and withhold any snarky comments that might be traipsing down your tongue.  Just because I'm an easy target doesn't justify shooting me.  At least not all the time.]

For ages, it seems, women have been dealing with all the issues of body image, which has all sorts of impact on how they think about weight and weight loss.  Much has been written about this in too many places to count.  That said, I would definitely support the school of thought that the media does no favors with its ritual practice of creating unattainable and unhealthy body image.    If rock hard abs in a bikini or size -2 dress is the only definition of weight loss success, I suspect we are all quite doomed to a life of abject misery.  And frankly as a population, we deserve much better than that. 

But what about men and body image?  How does this work with the swarthy crowd?

As I often do, I will attempt to explore this topic by looking at myself and then naturally extrapolating to all men on planet Earth (I cannot speak for men from other planets or universes.  I just haven't met them.)  My plan is to explore this in a few posts, starting with the beginning of my weight gain.

To put this in a framework, let's kick it off with a fun fact.  According to regular polling done by Gallup over the years, roughly 33% people who are trying to lose weight are doing it for looks, 33% are doing it for health and 33% are doing it for both.  Said differently, despite all the recent (and extremely justified) focus on obesity as a health issue, vanity still plays a big part in the mix.  According to Gallup, men are somewhat more likely to cite health as a driver behind their weight loss, but not nearly as much as you might think.  But what role did vanity play for me? 

As I laid out in my very first couple of posts, I did not grow up with a weight issue.  In fact, I struggled to put weight on.  It seemed that no matter what I ate, I couldn't gain weight all the way through high school.  What I now realize is that my life before college was actually pretty nutritionally reasonable despite how I might have imagined my occasional binge behaviors.

Then college happened, and I started to gain weight through a regular diet of campus starch, beer, pizza, fried chicken, BBQ (to put it in perspective, I went to college in North Carolina).  I went from 6'3" and 175 lbs in high school to 210 pounds freshman year of college.  Truth be told, I much preferred the way I looked by the end of college as I was able to finally escape the heroin chic look that I couldn't quite shed in HS.  I also stayed pretty fit, so it was all good.

All of this would have been great had I not continued to keep packing on the pounds over the next 15 years.  Like a lot of guys, I would gain about 2-5 pounds per year, and then sometimes go back down a few pounds.  It was a slow, but inexorable creep.  However, when my career really started to pick up after business school, I shattered every weight milestone I had ever known.  At my measured peak, I was clocking in at a not too healthy 242 pounds (see reprint of the "who ate dave" picture to the right).

So how did that make me feel?  I've thought about that quite a bit over the past year.  I would not say that I was obsessive or grief stricken about my weight.  As a pretty tall guy, I was able to hide it with the right kind of clothes.  Also, it seemed that many of the guys I knew were dealing with the same issue.

Yet, I knew deep down that something was wrong with this picture.  First off, there was the doctor and life insurance person giving me a hard time about my weight.  I don't think they were doing so because they were bored or evil/spiteful -- I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  Second, there was the inescapable truth that I had to see myself without the benefit of camouflaging outfits every morning in the shower and in the mirror.  I remembered the TV ads from years ago with the line "if you can pinch more than an inch...".  Well, I could pinch an order of magnitude above that.  I did not like that way that made me feel.  That thing that women do when they describe performing a cruel body critique in the mirror?  I did that too.  You know what?  It's kind of a crummy way to start the morning.

So, if it made me feel badly, why?  First, the obvious answer.  It's not a great look.  I guess that makes me shallow, but I feel honesty is useful here.  No matter how hard I tried to suck it in, my layers of flab were an inescapable and not awesome looking truth.  Second, I didn't like what it symbolized about me.  I did not view being out of shape to be a great statement on me as a person.  I felt like it was evidence of a lack of discipline and hard work.  In truth, I was secretly embarrassed by the state of affairs. 

When I got my offer to work at Weight Watchers in early 2000, I publicly talked about the awesomeness of the opportunity when describing it to my friends, but I also was secretly  looking forward to a possible fix for this hidden (semi-hidden, anyway) and vexing issue.  I wanted Weight Watchers to make me look good naked.  TMI?  Fine.  I wanted Weight Watchers to make me look good in a swim suit. 

Health was an awesome reason to get in better shape, clean up my diet, etc., but want for vanity was my secret X factor.

To be continued...

Cheers,

dk

Note to self: put it all in perspective

I will admit to the fact that I sometimes throw myself pity parties (sometimes even bashes) when I think about the hard work of staying on program.  I have SO many obstacles and SO many derailers to sticking with the program:  e.g., endless travel, lack of good food choices at Bob's Big Boy, etc.  Then I meet someone who helps me put it all in perspective, and I use it as an opportunity to shut up and quietly get back to living happily in a healthy way.

(Jean & I with her new book)

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to Boca Raton, FL to attend a book signing and joint interview with Jean Nidetch.  She's 86 now, and she still has the energy of 86 people.  I've had the chance to read her new book (available in meetings), and I recommend it HIGHLY to all who have the chance.  It is an excellent reminder as to why the soft stuff is what ultimately matters in successful and sustainable weight loss, and it is an excellent reminder as to why meetings rock.  Effectively all of the profits of the book sales go to Jean, so I have no ulterior motive in supporting it.

But I digress (as I often do).   The book signing event in Boca was attended by a bunch of local area Leaders and Receptionists from our meetings.  In many cases, they brought a member or two so they could meet Jean.  One of the Leaders, Vicki Thomas (on the left), brought a very special member by the name of Kimberly Marino (on the right).  Kimberly is special for a variety of reasons:  she's a joyful, kind, energetic, hard working and enthusiastic person.  At age 34, she also happens to have the developmental disability of Down syndrome.

I did not realize that people who have Down syndrome are statistically much more likely to suffer from an overweight or obese condition.  It seems that this is primarily due to the fact that people who have Down syndrome also tend to have a lower basal metabolic rate.  With this in mind, some of our local staff in the Palm Beach area worked with the local Goodwill to begin providing Weight Watchers for people who have developmental disabilities including Down syndrome.  The effort has been funded by the State of Florida, and 24 people have now gone through the program.

Kimberly was one of those people.  At a relatively young age, Kim had to have a total hip replacement which disallowed her from doing an exercise for a long period of time.  At only five feet tall, her weight jumped to 157 pounds.  To help with the recovery of her hip operation, Kim's mother had her enrolled in the Weight Watchers program so she could learn about better food choices and proper portions.  Kim attended regular Weight Watchers meetings and had the immediate support of all the members in her meeting.  During her first week, she lost 5 pounds to the wild cheers of her group.  She was hooked.  She has since gone on to lose 52 pounds and keep it off for two years.  She has done so despite having a second hip replacement operation.

Today, she loves to shop, and she is a regular exerciser.  She regularly puts in 10K steps EVERY day, reportedly while singing Celine Dion loudly.  She approaches her healthy life with joy and enthusiasm.

She is a reminder to me about why I love to work for Weight Watchers, and she is a reminder to me that a healthy life is a gift, not a punishment.

Kim.  You rock hard and successfully.

Cheers,

David

You eat like a girl!

Before I get started, I wanted to provide a little context for this and other posts that get into man-weight loss…  One of the reasons I decided to start writing this blog was to take the opportunity to explore weight loss from a male (i.e., my) perspective.  While I do not claim to represent all men (I think that requires a majority vote of the population, not to mention getting a petition signed and perhaps an act of Congress), I do think that not enough men talk about this subject.  Based on my personal and professional experience, we are a tad bit touchy talking about both our weight and weight loss.  If in some small way, I can be a contributing voice to the nascent movement of the diminishing center of the man (e.g., the midsection), then maybe that serves some small useful purpose.   To further my aim of describing my own mannish perspective on weight loss, I may from time to time rely on hyperbole, self-deprecation and politically incorrect sensibilities to attempt to illuminate the topic.  I mean no offense resulting from any inadvertently offending statements. 

With that out of the way, I do, in fact, kind of eat like a girl.  And truth be told, I am sometimes a little self-conscious about it.  So what do I mean by “eat like a girl”?  Well perhaps the best way to illustrate this is to focus on stereotypical man-eating behavior.  Perhaps a brief review of some favorite cultural icons is in order:

• Fred Flinstone.  Need I say more?  I’m curious if anyone has ever tried to calculate the POINTS value of Brontosaurus ribs?  Anything large enough to tip your car over can’t be a proper portion.
• Henry VIII seemed to be a big eater and proud of it.  And he had a bunch of wives. 
• Most Roman aristocracy were not afraid of big banquet.  
• Dagwood had his shockingly large sandwiches. 
• Bluto from Animal House.  Remember the cafeteria scene?  “That boy is a P-I-G, pig!”  Of course, that slight didn’t go well for her, thereby creating a new use for mashed potatoes. 
• More recently Mad Men.  Always eating their steak, yet they never seem to gain weight.  Totally unfair.  
• “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche”.  OK, maybe this isn’t a good example, as quiche really is incredibly fattening and caloric. 

It seems that society continues to expect us to eat in a particular way. 

• Our mothers and mother-in-law’s become visibly upset not only if we fail to clean our plate, but if we don’t ask for seconds. 
• We are expected to order steak whenever possible. 
• We are expected to lunch on burgers and fries. 
• We are expected to consume large quantities of full-test beer. 
• If we watch what we eat, we may find ourselves being accused of anything from metrosexuality to prissyness.

So does it matter?  Maybe, maybe not.  I have to admit that I still feel a little self-conscious when I’m having dinner with a bunch of dudes and I order a lightly prepared fish with grilled vegetables while they are metaphorically killing, skinning and eating small animals with blood dripping down the cheeks.  If there is anyone who really shouldn’t feel strange about eating in a careful way, it’s me:  I work for freaking Weight Watchers!  Of course I have to watch what I eat!  But it does make me wonder how other guys who are trying to shift to a healthier lifestyle deal with unstated (or stated) peer pressure. 

Interestingly, these days if I order first (or early in the lineup) at dinner, the fellas who follow me often start ordering fish and lighter dishes too.  It’s as if they were given license to take their foot of the fat absorption accelerator pedal.  I can almost hear their cries to have me take them to a fern bar. 

I do think that male stereotypes around eating are and will continue to change.  There is too much at stake with obesity for them not to.  Obesity has all of the same health consequences on men that it has on women.  The bottom line is that we are all supposed to be eating the same things:  fruits, vegetables, lean meats/proteins, whole grains and low/non-fat dairy.  We are all supposed to be eating sane portions, and we are all supposed to be getting regular activity.  Those guidelines were not written for women in hopes that some men would get a clue.  They were written for all of us. 

So don’t judge me for my newfound love of salad, scallops, yogurt and fruit salad.  Just because I don’t finish everything on my plate doesn’t mean I have stomach flu.   Just because I didn’t order the steak doesn’t mean I don’t like movies where they blow things up.  My masculinity is unbowed no matter how many courgettes I order. 

Cheers,

dk

Can men be emotional eaters? Off the record...

For those who have never seen one, a focus group is a mainstay of market research that infinite companies use to gather infinite opinions on infinite topics.  I've been to a million over my ten years at Weight Watchers.  There are few that were as memorable and fascinating as the ones where men spoke about weight loss.  


Usually, the discussion starts off where the different men around the table start tentatively sharing their experience with being overweight.  During the first ten minutes, there is a lot of predictable chest thumping and joking along with proclamations such as "I've got too much pillow in the middle, but it's OK because I'm just gonna start hitting the gym" and "What does it matter if I'm heavy?  I'm married." or "I don't eat cuz I'm sad.  That's for chicks."  


Truth be told, men have a pretty humorous way of talking about weight, possibly because they are a little uncomfortable with the subject matter.  Comedy is a great way to skirt around a touchy subject.  


What was interesting about these focus groups is how the conversation would change over the course of 60 to 90 minutes.  By the end of the sessions, there was pretty heavy discussion about underlying emotions about being overweight, and how the condition made them feel about themselves.  These guys kept it together, and there was no weeping, but the conversation got pretty personal and very real.  


The conventional wisdom is that men have a very different take on weight issues than women.  Men are from Mars and women are from Venus.  Men eat because they just like to eat while women eat because eating is connecting to a myriad of other issues.  Is conventional wisdom true?  Are men and women all that different?  Can men be emotional eaters?  


So ask me the question.  Am I an emotional eater?  


Before I answer that question, let me first provide an honest and important caveat. I've been working at Weight Watchers for the better part of a decade.  You can't spend this much time at this company, spending this much time talking about weight issues, without developing estrogen deposits.  I'm a much more sensitive dude than I used to be, and arguably, some of my inherent manness has been obscured by frilly drapes. 


But go ahead and ask me the question anyway.  Am I an emotional eater?  Damned straight I am.  


The word "emotion" covers a lot of ground:  happy, sad, bored, stressed, relaxed, frenzied, etc.  Do I create ritual acts of combining crying and ice cream eating?  No (or at least I would never publicly admit to such a thing).  Do I eat for a million reasons that have nothing to do with physical hunger.  Most definitely.  So what are my emotional trigger points for unnecessary digestion?:

• Boredom: This is a big one for me.  I don't eat much when I'm in the midst of a flurry of activity, running from meeting to meeting or running errand after errand.  However, put me in a place of stasis, and I get ravenous.  This is almost always the trigger for a good grazing session.
• Stress:  If I really analyze it, I would have to say Yes to this too.  When I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders and the fates are conspiring against me, I am not above a little bit of food-based self-medication.  I deserve this bit of nasty food because life isn't being fair.  Putting something gross into my system would surely make me feel better.  BTW, it does make me feel better...  for about 3-4 minutes.  
• Reward:  This is a BIG yes.  I have done great things this week!  I deserve a giant reward in the shape of a calorie bomb.  
• I want to be happy:  like most people, I've somehow convinced myself that the act of eating has the capacity to create a state of prolonged joy.  At least for a few minutes.  
• I want something to look forward to:  I always look forward to my next meal.  Somehow, it will be one of the highlights of the day.  Even though the meal eating process may only last 15 minutes.  Kind of sad.  

So what to do with this self-examination?  Knowing what my trigger points are seems the right start to winning this battle.  The next step is identifying ways other than food for addressing these trigger points.  Somehow I need to rewire my neural synapses to recognize that eating is not the salve or reward that I think it is.  This is easier said that done, but I do believe I can learn to do it over time.  

Dealing with eating issues is not just about managing the calorie deficit equation.  I never cease to be amazed by how complicated the topic of weight is and the degree to which eating is connected to a million emotional issues other than the need for basic sustenance.  If it were just about calorie deficit, we could all just buy a diet book, get educated, and be done with it.  Behavior change is so much more complicated, but it can be solved.  That's why Weight Watchers exists.  That's why I have to admit that going to meetings has been a big help to me in making changes in the way I live my life.  And it's not just because I'm in touch with my feminine side (though I am).  It's because weight issues are about fundamental human nature, which is not gender specific.  

Ask any guy and he will tell you the same.  Unless he denies it.  If so, give him a hug and let him have a big cry and maybe a spoonful of ice cream.  

Other brave men care to jump into the truth telling pool?  Please do share.  

Cheers,

dk

You are hereby sentenced to healthy living for life!

There is something about maintenance that can seem overwhelming if I think about it too much.  Am I to live a life of nutritionally balanced drudgery?  Must I be conscientious for the rest of my life?  Will I always have to wake up at the crack of dawn to get my workout in?  Why can't I eat breakfast burritos every morning?  What about my beloved 3,000 calorie mega death cheeseburger and fries combinations?

The truth is this:  for me to stay healthy (and thinnish), I have to continue making smart food choices, and I need to exercise most, if not all, days.  Sadly or not, this is simply the way we are supposed to live and the way we are supposed to treat our bodies.  This shouldn't be such a bad thing as I am fully aware of the benefits of taking the healthier path:

• I feel better physically and mentally when I eat right and don't stuff myself
• I feel better mentally when I don't pilfer treats in the middle of the night
• I feel better physically and mentally when I am getting regular exercise.  I can't remember a workout that made me feel worse afterward.  
• I am improving my odds to live a longer, less sickly life, and hopefully spend as many productive, fun years with my family as is humanly possible.
• Truthfully, I look better in a fit state than in an obese state.  There.  I said it.  I'm not above a little (no snickering please) vanity.  

So with all of this big pluses, what's the problem?

I'm coming on one year at Lifetime, and I have been in fighting shape now for close to two years.  I've certainly been in better health over the full course of the 10 years I've been with Weight Watchers than I was pre-WW.  I really should have purged myself of dark thoughts by now.  Right?

Not so fast.  I still am tempted by bad, impure food thoughts.  I dream of four pound calzones, stuffed with sausages & onions, drenched with buttery red sauce.  My palms get sweaty when I'm around nuts and cheese.  I have deep seated lust for ice cream.  I fondly reconstruct mental scenarios of my old life, spending every weekend eating mountains of crap (nutritionally speaking) food.

I went to dinner last night with a big crew of friends.  They pretty much all ordered whatever the felt like eating, and I had a nice piece of cod.  Should I have thrown in the towel and succumbed to a massive piece of fatty red meat, basted in blue cheese sauce?

Is there any hope for me?  Am I ultimately doomed?  Can I survive maintenance?  Is it all just too hard?  There are two reasons for me to be optimistic about the future:  1) I'm not really depriving myself and 2) perseverance.

On the point of not depriving:

• My fish was terrifically tasty and satisfying.  It was a million miles from a hardship.
• I get plenty to eat.  I'm not really physically hungry much anymore, as I've found lots of ways to get lots of bulk eating in without very many calories.
• Exercise is no longer a hardship.  It's hard to push yourself while you are in the act, but the after effect is always worth it.  
• In other words, the feeling of missing the my old life is purely in my head, and the "truth" in missing it is pretty false.  
  

On the point of perseverance...  I attended a Weight Watchers meeting in Oakland, CA about a month ago that talked about this.  I kind of dreaded the topic as the word "perseverance" sounds like a quality that more disciplined people have, like Ben Hur in the slave galley, rowing away under the whip.  However, the Leader had an interesting way of recasting the concept.  She pointed out that we all have numerous examples in our lives of persevering during challenging times.  One member talked about getting her bachelors degree at night while taking care of her three kids as a single mom.  If she can do that, making the decision to eat fish and vegetables can hardly be that much of a challenge.

The point is, that I too have persevered and rose up to challenges many, many times in my life.  Perseverance isn't a quality that you develop or an asset that you acquire.  It's already there.  We are all much stronger than we realize, presuming we don't let the little, misinformed voices in our head tell us we aren't.  Did I just admit to having voices in my head?  Ugh.  Too much self-disclosure again.

Curious how all of you get the bad voices to cease and desist.

BTW, next week's topic at my Weight Watchers meeting is Physical vs. Emotional Hunger.  It begs the question:  are men emotional eaters?  Stay tuned!

Cheers,

dk

Sneaking! Airing My Dirty Laundry

As a successful Lifetime Member, I like to think of myself as the model of absolute propriety and righteous healthy living.  An upstanding member of the prudent life community.  A model Weight Watchers citizen.  A role model for all.

Except when I am secretly not.  A few weeks ago, my wife and I were winding down in the middle of the week after a typically long and busy day.  She announced that she was going upstairs, and I indicated that I would be up in just a little bit.  After I heard her go upstairs, my vision got fuzzy, and I headed over to the freezer in a somewhat frenzied state.  See, I knew there was ice cream in them there hills.  I pulled out a spoon like a trusty six-shooter, and dug deep into the vat of Edy's (the fact that it was "low fat" was hardly the point).  I was a fast and steady gunslinger, as I quickly brought spoon to mouth.  Then my wife walked into the kitchen.  Ooops.

As she put it, I looked remarkably like a seven year old boy caught completely red handed.  Red faced too. Busted!!!

All this has led me to wonder the age old question:  why do I sneak food?  Had I merely had some ice cream in broad daylight under the witness of others, no one would have thought anything about it.  You can certainly do this (in moderation) under the Weight Watchers program.  What is it about sneaking that almost makes the food taste better?  Why do I sneak even when I know that I will self-flagelate later?

Like most aberrant behaviors, I needed to go back to childhood for the answer.  You see, I have always been a sneaker (behaviorally speaking, not a piece of footwear).  When I was growing up, my bedroom was next door to the basement where we kept our deep food storage freezer.  My mother would keep a large inventory of frozen bread (don't ask, she was very frugal!) and other various staples.  As a little boy, I used to sneak into the freezer to sneak a piece of frozen bread (as I write this, it's hard for me to believe that I'm not making it up).  Put aside the fact that I could have gone upstairs and had a thawed piece of bread.  The frozen, stolen variety just tasted better to me.

My mother used to bake tin after tin of Christmas cookies during early December in preparation for the rounds of social events that transpired over the holidays.  She would, of course, put the cookie tins in deep frozen storage, which was conveniently located next to my lair of thieves hangout (i.e., my bedroom).  I would carefully attempt to orchestrate imperceptible cookie removal which required intricate rearrangement of the cookies within the tins so as to avoid loss detection.  Of course, I discovered years later that she knew all along that I was engaged in these nefarious activities.  She just didn't say anything as long as the shrinkage was at manageable levels.

I did the same with ice cream, attempting to employ the technique of perfectly removing 3 millimeters of surface across the area of the cylinder container.  I really thought that no one would notice the difference.  Of course, they always did.

I ultimately outgrew the freezer bread raids, but I never outgrew the habit of wanting to sneak food under the cover of darkness.

I really don't understand why.  I was not an overweight kid.  In fact, I literally could not gain weight until I went to college, and let's just say that my environment changed.  I was rail thin through high school, bordering on emaciated in elementary school (it's a tall guy thing).  Maybe I was insatiable because I was literally insatiable.  I could eat anything and still not gain weight, so perhaps that's why I ate so much.  People didn't eat as many treats back then, so maybe I simply craved what was forbidden.  If I had to guess, I would say it was the latter.

As it is for so many people, forbidden, private eating remains one of my weaknesses.  As it is for so many of us, I prefer to do my dirty food work in private.  Why?  A little dash of forbidden fruit and a little dash of embarrassment.  There is a freedom to being able to self indulge without fear of recrimination and loss of approval by others.  But all of this begs the question:  isn't our approval of our own behaviors the only approval that matters?  Clearly yes.

Isn't there a better way?  Yes.

Step 1:  put out my dirty laundry in a safe environment (this blog and a WW meeting is a good place to start) where others will relate and be supportive.  In 1961, our founder Jean Nidetch did exactly this when she held the first ever Weight Watchers meeting in her apartment in Queens, NY.  It is the whole reason that Weight Watchers exists today.
Step 2:  find ways to care less about what others might think of our indulgences.  I need to make healthy behaviors for myself, not for the approval of others.  Whether someone else sees me indulging or not is completely irrelevant and frankly none of their business.
Step 3:  understanding that it is the cover of night that allows our minor indulgences to blossom into monstrous food disasters.  Just because I can't be seen by someone else, doesn't mean that I can't see myself.
Step 4:  become more mindful of the situations in which I mindlessly head over for a sneaking run, and more carefully think about what I'm doing
Step 5:  plan indulgences explicitly into my routine so I don't feel the need to steal my indulgences

Feel free to share your own frozen bread story.

Cheers,

dk

Spinning Epilogue: You Wouldn't Like me When I'm Angry

Ummm.  It seems that my nice spinning teacher read my blog last week.  She came into the Sunday morning class muttering something about "I'll show you fascism, you communist..."  Or something like that.

She then proceeded the subject everyone in the class to 60 minutes of unadulterated terror with hideous hill climbs which went to hill sprints which led to flat sprints, doing this cycle over and over and over.  All the while she had a disturbing somewhat sociopathic/maniacal grin.  Before the class was over, about five people dropped out.  At one point, I heard a somewhat quiet, but clearly audible muttering of "b&%ch" from two bikes to the right (I've always wondered why more people didn't say that in group exercise classes).

Truth be told, it was a pretty awesome workout and a good testimony to the 50% harder work than cycling alone theorem.  Kind of like people who go to Weight Watchers meetings lose multiple times more weight than people who diet alone (oops, pardon my shameless, self-serving plug!).

So what's the moral of the story?  Talk smack to your spinning instructor.  You just might get an even better workout.  Or you might hurl.  Either way, nothing risked, nothing gained.

Contaminating my hermetically sealed fitness routine with human interaction -- yikes

As I've often told people, I really did have to attend my Weight Watchers meetings to lose my weight.  I needed the meetings for a host of different reasons, but first and foremost has been the value of being weighed by a Weight Watchers person.  In any case, when it comes to staying on the path of nutritional righteousness, I'm very much a group participation person.

Interestingly, I have never been one for group exercise.  When it comes to working out, I'm pretty much of a lone wolf (dark and mysterious, even).  My weight lifting routine is too much of a Rube Goldberg contraption to expect either 1) others to do it with me or 2) find room for a personal trainer in my complicated mix.  When it comes to cardio, I am also an individual player, preferring to jack in my own tunes on a Lifecycle and have at it at my own pace.  It's worked well for me, so my stance has been not to rock the boat.

Now I find myself on the precipice of slowing including social-exercise into my weekly routine.  It's kind of my New Years exercise resolution to start routinely including the following two group formats:

1. Spinning
2. Yoga

I've been to about three spinning classes over the past week at Equinox gyms in NYC and in CT.  Compared to solo cycling, there really isn't any comparison.  I find myself pushing at least 50% to 75% harder in spinning classes than when pedaling on my own.  I've been wondering why this is the case?  You can get a ridiculously hard workout on a Lifecycle, so why don't I?  The answers:

1. The spinning instructor:  she (Emma) seems like a nice, kind, decent person on the outside.  However, once the class starts, she becomes slightly fascist and a little bit abusive.  "David, you're spinning too fast, you need more resistance!"  "I need you to get to a place where you are kind of miserable."  "You should be feeling nasty by now."  This is not nice behavior, but strangely it works.  When someone looks you in the eye and tells you to push harder, you do.  
2. Peer pressure:  when I exercise on my own, I feel like pretty much of a stud.  In my solo-workout mind, I'm pushing my pedals harder than what anyone has ever attempted before!  I rule!  In a spinning class, I keep seeing everyone keeping pace while jacking up the tension on their spinning wheel.  I stink.  Therefore, I push to keep up.  [BTW, I cannot rule out the possibility that they really aren't increasing tension on their wheel, and it's all for show.  Not that I would ever do this.]

Bottom line:  my desire for the approval of others (Gold Stars are the best!) and my inherent competitiveness make this format pretty ideal no matter how much physical duress it creates during the actual class.  Based on this, I plan to make spinning a new part of my fitness scene.   

One side point on spinning class selection:  three key elements to a great class (my opinion, anyway). 

1. Good music:  no to house music I've never heard of.  No to really slow music (including dirges).  Never show tunes (really, never).  Yes to music that is hard and fast.  Yes to cheesy, spastic music.  
2. Instructor must have a sense of humor and must not take herself/himself too seriously.  Prefer if instructor can avoid temptation to be a life coach during the class.  Best spinning instructor I ever had was prone to violent air guitaring during the class.  
3. Class should be fun and slightly silly while also being challenging.  

My second area for exploration is Yoga.  I have historically been pretty skeptical about the whole spiritual exercise thing.  I prefer the route of the knuckle dragger, clinging to my free weights at all cost.  However, I decided to give yoga a try for two reasons:

1. Stretching:  I am probably the least flexible person I know.  I rarely stretch after exercise due to my lack of time and discipline about activities that I don't see directly leading to the improvement of my appearance/vanity.  However, it's a little sad that someone who considers himself to be in really good shape cannot touch his toes without a sizable knee bend.  Yoga is a pretty thorough way to get in a huge range of stretching that I would otherwise never do.  
2. Getting my zen on:  like most people, it feels like my brain is on constant overdrive, barreling from thought to thought without ever a break.  Meditation is increasingly used as a great way to settle the brain and improve concentration.  Again, the yoga classes I have tried have had a pretty heavy dose of concentration.  I have even been known to join in the chanting, albeit with my usual tone deafness (my singing voice sounds like a horrible cross between Frankenstein and Tarzan -- see old SNL clips w/ Jon Lovitz for an example).  

As was the case with spinning classes, I have particular preferences when it comes to Yoga.  Specifically, I seem to be gravitating toward birkenstock, crunchy, chanting yoga classes rather than hyperactive, hardcore aerobic-class style yoga.  To each, his/her own.   

So what does exercise look like going forward given these changes:

• Weights:  no change here.  Stick to 4X split each week.  Keep morning about physical fitness.
• Cardio:  use Lifecycle as 30 min adjunct to my weight lifting mornings.  It still has the benefit of easy in-and-out.  However, replace two of my 45 minute cardio-only Lifecycle workouts with spinning classes.
• Zen stuff:  try to get to one yoga class during the week at night and one on the weekend.  

Will I stick with all of this?  I hope so.  It feels like good blend of resistance training, ample cardio, and a little bit of stress management.  

What fitness changes are you guys doing this year?  

Cheers,

dk

11 Day challenge recap: I was totally fine until this thing called Potluck (very 50's of me)

I had no choice but to man-up today and give the honest results of my 11 day challenge, including today's weigh-in, which I really did not want to do.  So how did it go?


Day 1 (Wed Dec 23):  

• My plan:  Have a healthy breakfast.  Have a healthy lunch.  Spend time with family in the city doing the big Christmas thing, and pre-select my select my dinner options from restaurant menu on the internet.  And have a huge workout.
• What happened:  I RULED this day.  Great workout.  Oatmeal for breakfast (even though I was at a restaurant). Totally responsible lunch and dinner.  Yeah me!

Day 2 (Christmas Eve):  

• My plan:  Keep it together for breakfast and lunch.  Have a huge workout.  Abandon hope for Christmas Eve dinner at friend's house.  Choose not to have remorse.
• What happened:  Pretty much as plan again.  Good, cardio workout in the AM.  Was responsible until 6 PM or so. Even after then, I wasn't completely gross.  

Day 3 (Christmas Day):  

• My plan:  No exercise.  Rich food.  Candy.  etc. etc. etc.  Choose not to have remorse.
• What happened:  No exercise.  Rich food.  LOTS of treats.  Kind of like Willie Wonka's Augustus Gloop's (the one who swims in Chocolate) swan song reenacted.  

Day 4/5 (Boxing Day and Day After Boxing Day):  

• My plan:  I've never celebrated Boxing Day before, but why not?  Spending the weekend away with DSW.  Will plan to get workouts in (probably not huge ones) to mitigate some of the damage.  Not planning to be perfect this weekend.
• What happened:  Worked out both days (!).  Was good for breakfast.  Not very careful for lunch and dinner.  Pretty much as planned.

Day 6-8 (Mon-Wed):  

• My plan:  Exercise like a maniac.  Live like a cold-hearted Puritan for all breakfasts and lunches.  Keep it sane for dinner.  Seek to avoid stealing candy from my children.
• What happened:  The Puritan's would have put me in the stocks, or perhaps considered seeing if I sunk like a witch.  Had they done so, their punishment would have been a bit severe.  I worked out hard.  I wasn't awful for meals, but I definitely partook in some Level II Grazing.  

Day 9 (New Years Eve):  

• My plan:  Big workout again.  Keep it sane for breakfast/lunch.  Behave poorly New Years Eve.  
• What happened:  Again, not too bad, except after 6 PM, and I worked out as planned.  

Day 10 (New Years Day):  

• My plan:  Rub temples gently.  Get a big workout.  Keep it pretty normal for a Saturday.
• What happened:  Well, I did rub my temples, and I did get a big workout.  However, one could only call this Saturday normal if one's name was Nero.  We decided to have a New Year's potluck open house during the day to watch football, socialize, etc.  Bad.  Bad.  Bad.  Bad.  The attached photo is showing only about 50% of what was brought to the table, and NONE of it was good for me.  It was cold out, and I didn't care.  I had some of EVERYTHING.  And no remorse.  

Day 11 (Sunday):  

• My plan:  Back on plan.
• What happened:  True (mostly)!

Final tally:  it got a little dicey toward the end of the 11 days, but I wasn't a million miles off the game plan.  Final result:  I'm up 2.6 pounds from goal (and I got weighed after I had lunch).  Overall, it's a decent outcome.  


As a side observation, what is it about potluck that says " make sure to bring your most oil/butter ladden foods.  If you could lace them with chocolate and lard, that would be super awesome!" ?  


Any insights from this?  Sure.  I had a plan that I pretty much stuck too.  I lived much looser than I normally do, but I kept it sane and worked out much.  The final result was very much in line with what I expected.  Looks like you really can live in the world when you do Weight Watchers.  Phew.  


Hope all of you hung in there too!!!


Cheers,


dk