Thursday

The numbers for today:

• Fasting blood glucose:  105 mg/dl.  Textbook.
• Weight:  188 lbs.
• Exercise:  45 minute ride
• Mood 8.00  The fat man is coming back to town! 

Menu:

• Breakfast:  Banana, grapefruit, oatmeal with craisins. 
• Lunch:
• Dinner:
• Snacks:

Look good, feel good department:
Lose some weight, exercise and you start to get compliments on how much better you are looking.  That will really make you feel good that you look good.  So you want keep it going.  WebMD offers some skin care advice on what to eat to keep that glow of radiant good health glowing and radiating.  It's mostly the stuff we all hear we are supposed to eat anyway, but it's good that a proper diet is good for more than just the waistline.

This must be part of that holistic approach everyone is on about. 

A lot of the advice here depends on antioxidants. Does it work?  Not a clue. Can't hurt, but I wouldn't count on it, either.  I think it has more to do with genetics and what you don't do.  Has anyone seen a picture of Lindsay Lohan recently?  She's still in her early twenties and she looks as if she is in her early forties.  Rode hard and put away wet, as the saying goes.

 Lindsay's September 2010 mugshot after 

testing positive for cocaine and amphetamines.

 File photo from September 2010 court appearance.

I guess being a mean girl does have its cost.

The drinking man's diet

The numbers bright and early this morning:

• Fasting Blood Glucose:  114 mg/dl
• Weight:  188 lbs.
• Exercise:  45 minutes.  Good ride this morning.  It's very humid here and muscle just seem to love it. 
• Mood:  8.0.  It's Christmas.  All I want for Christmas is a big weight drop. 

Menu:

• Breakfast:  Banana, grapefruit, oatmeal with craisins. 
• Lunch:  Lots of leftovers from yesterday's company Christmas Lunch. I can't eat like this anymore.  I felt miserable all afternoon.
• Dinner:  Late night trip to the Petrol Station, had my usual hummus plate, which is a good sized dollop of hummus, cucumber, tomato, red pepper and pita bread and one beer.  Not two beers, one. I nursed the heck out of it. The Charming Mrs SWMBO had a cheeseburger.
• Snacks:  None. 

Anyone remember the Drinking Man's Diet?  I do.  I was in junior high school and delivering my papers on my morning Detroit Free Press route when I heard about this.  I used to carry around a little radio listening to WKNR, Keener 13, a top 40 station in Detroit.  The early morning, late night DJ at the time (I was delivering the papers before 5:00 am) joked about it often.  I think even Mad Magazine made a few jokes out of it for a while.

Well, the book is still out there and the author of it is still alive.  His name is Robert Cameron, he's ninety-three and he looks dapper and fit.  He was the first to promote a high protein, low carb diet.  Given his age and appearance,  the diet certainly works for him.  The book was beat up several years after it was first published as being dangerous because ignored , nay, promoted high fat foods.  You know, the foods that really taste good.  Sales dropped after that, but it initial popularity did afford Mr.Cameron a comfortable life.  He's still publishing, doing coffee table-type books.

Why cocktails as part of the diet?  No carbs.  I think a big underlying theme of his approach is to take care of yourself and enjoy life.  He seems to have done that all very well.

I can drink to that.

His book, first published in 1964 is still in print.  You can order it here:  Drinking Man's Diet.  When came out the price was $1.00.  Now it's up to $4.95. Heck of a deal.

Fat not so bad so I pigged out. Responsibly.

The numbers for today:

• Fasting Blood Glucose:  117 mg/dl.  Okay, but probably should not have had some ice cream and the hot fudge sauce the Charming Mrs. SWMBO made as a gift.  It was good, though. 
• Weight:  187 lbs. 
• Exercise:  45 minuted ride and a good one, too.  It's warm and humid out there and I loved the sweat.  Make me feel virtuous or something. 
• Mood:  7.5.  

Menu:

• Breakfast:  Banana, grapefruit, oatmeal with craisins. 
• Lunch:  Company Christmas Party.  Pigged out, lots of beef and chicken fajitas.  Only two tiny little deserts late in the afternoon.
• Dinner:  Not hungry after a large lunch.
• Snacks:  Apple.

The ten worst sandwiches
Also, ten of the best to substitute for the ten worst, all from popular fast food sandwich places.  Why do so many of the worst have bacon in them?

Fat not to bad?
Maybe. Some now argue the link between heart disease and dietary cholesterol and fat has not been proven.  What's more the culprit may be refined wheat flour, potatoes, white rice, sugary drinks and snacks.  I don't think anyone is going to argue against that, mostly.  This stuff is made into an endless variety tasty things to eat, it's cheap, it's plentiful and it's available everywhere.  (Well, maybe. There is the Twinkie Diet out there.) These are also the foods credited for the growing diabetes problem and there is a strong correlation between diabetes and heart disease.

I still think potatoes get an unfair rap.  I also think it is all about the quantity we eat.  It's just too easy to buy and consume the bad foods.  It's just too easy to fill up on this stuff and so many do that.  Cut that out and anyone will lose weight.   The paleo diet also gets a nod in this piece. I bet this view will change in the next few years to something else.  I think it ultimately comes down to quantity.  Eat too much of anything and you get fat.

Big problems for guys

First, the numbers for a Monday Moanin' (A tip of topper for the Monday Moanin' line goes to Bob Talbert.  It's amazing how little things just stick in my head.  That was the line he used for his Monday column in the Detroit Free Press for decades.) 

• Fasting Blood Glucose:  105 mg/dl.  Yippee!
• Weight:  188 lbs.  Miserably the same.
• Exercise:  45 minute ride with some seat trouble.  Hey, it's a Monday Moanin', right?
• Mood:  8.0.  It's Christmas time and I still have a job.  

Menu:

• Breakfast:  Grapefruit, grapes and oatmeal with craisins. 
• Lunch: Salmon Salad
• Dinner:  Leftover tofu lasagna and broccoli
• Snacks: Pretzels

Nineteen body problems for guys 
Sheesh, and women whine they have it rough.  

The Christmas eating edition

 Hey, everyone else seems to do some sort of Christmas Special, so I will give my hand a go at it. I love the holiday season. I love to get all sentimental at this time of year.  Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's are times to eat and drink and make merry with friends and family, all of which I dearly love to do.  A month of dedicated to happy indulgence and celebration.  What is not to love.

Yet always now in the back of my mind is my morning fasting blood glucose level.  It's like a steely eyed cop with a radar detector  lodged in my psyche.  It forces me to press the brake to slow the overindulgence that I would normally do.  There were many times past that if I didn't feel stuffed the gills, I was not having the best time I could.

So, how to eat, drink and be merry and not spike the BG, and the weight and everything else bad and still feel as if I had enjoyed the season to the max? And there is the alcohol issue.  I thoroughly enjoy a good drink; several just makes the event even better.

I sometimes think there is an angel and demon on each shoulder and my goal is to keep each happy without a war waged in the center of my brain.

So, with all of that rumbling in my head, here is an article form Nutrition Data as a primer to letting the good times roll in a responsible and satisfying way.  In a nutshell, it's called learning to be happily disciplined.  I followed this last night at the Christmas party we attended and it worked out well.  The shrimp was just right and as appealing as the large desert selection was, I skipped it all together.  The meatballs were killer as well, meaning a ate my reasonable share.  Not on the McDougall plan at all,yet even he allows that feasting on the holidays is acceptable. I did do my best, sort of, to enjoy the vegetables with a minimum of dip. 

What I did was have a Woodford Reserve, neat,  for a bit of desert.  I doubt that it would be on a diet article's list of good deserts, but the natural sweetness and complex blend of flavors in the bourbon really finished the dining for me. This stuff hits all of the right notes, and a fine whiskey just looks cool in the tumbler, brown and shiny and warming. Delicious.

More practical ideas here.

My numbers for today:

• Fasting blood glucose:  113 mg/dl.  Pretty good.
• Weight: 188 lbs.  
• Exercise:  45 minute ride on the bike.  Really worked it this morning.
• Mood:  8.0  It's Christmas.  First time, I really feel it now. 

Menu:

• Breakfast:  Banana, grapes and oatmeal with herbal tea and raisins.
• Lunch:  Cup of soup and half a club sandwich at the Mason Jar.  Too much fat.
• Dinner:  Friday, so it's two margaritas and pachuca gringa. 
• Snacks:  Nothing. 

For motivation there is also the real reason for the season, as Linus reminds us.

It's Christmas time

My numbers for today:

• Fasting Blood Glucose:  122 mg/dl.  Sigh
• Weight:  A sold 187 lbs.  Why is it when I drop some weight, the BG goes up?
• Exercise:  45 minuted ride.  Warm this morning, pleasant and sweaty. 
• Mood:  7.0  Up a bit, down a bit.  More sigh. 

Menu:

• Breakfast:  Banana, grapefruit, oatmeal with raisins and infused (I love that) with herbal tea.
• Lunch:  Business lunch.  I would like to call it a review of the current state of the AEC market.  Others may call it a bitch session.  Whatever.
• Dinner:  A cocktail party put on by one of The Charming Mrs. SWMBO's clients. I am wildly tempted to not be good. Note:  the food there was plentiful and outstanding.  The meatballs were killer and the shrimp piled high. 
• Snacks:  I will try to be good and avoid them so I can be bad.  See dinner. 

In short, I was a bad boy today.  It's Christmas and I can be bad at a couple of times when meeting with friends and colleagues. I did have vast amounts of shrimp, but as I live about 60 miles from some of the best shrimping waters in the country, so what.  I am happy to keep a bunch of Texas shrimpers bountifully employed.  I happily admit that I had no deserts other than a few grapes, so it was not a total food debauch.  The disciple remains, mostly. 

I also had one of my favorite whiskeys, Woodford Reserve to night.  Neat.  Here me, Santa? Water just ruins the flavor. 

The diet from 1 million years BC

First, my numbers for today:

• Fasting blood glucose: 113 mg/dl.  Ok, not great. Must have been the sweet potato fries from yesterday
• Weight:  187 1/2 lbs. 
• Exercise:  45 minutes on the bike. 
• Mood:  7.5.  A little bit up, a little bit down. 

Menu:

• Breakfast:  Banana, grapefruit, oatmeal infused with herbal and raisins.  
• Lunch:  Leftovers.
• Dinner:  Leftovers.
• Snacks:  Pretzels. 

A few days ago I was reading an online article about Obamacare, and the comments on the article veered off into a discussion of  individuals being more responsible for their own health, more proactive as we say today.

With or without Obamacare, the general consensus was that many of our ills are self inflicted.  We eat too much, we eat too much of the bad stuff and too little of the good stuff, we drink too much, we smoke too much and we don't exercise enough.  It all has its consequences, little of it good through the years.

Save for the smoking, that was me.

One poster told about his adherence to the paleo diet and the problems this diet was preventing.  He said he was in his 80's and gave full credit to the paleo diet for his good health. As with the other most of the posters on this thread, I had never heard of the paleo diet.

As I understand it this diet posits that we should eat what our paleolithic hunter gatherers ate, mostly grilled lean meats and seafood, fruits, vegetables and nuts.  It's the diet our genes developed around way back when.  No grains and no dairy. It's adherents say it will cure, prevent or at least improve a number of ills and conditions that are potentially diet related, including irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, autism, and multiple sclerosis.
 
Fine and dandy, I say.  If it works for them, that's wonderful.  Maybe it will work for you. You can learn more about here and here. 

I am not sure about that bug feasting bit, though.  It can be considered part of the diet.

I should also note that the Twinkie diet may offer similar results. Bugs optional.


Maybe the diet explains why these cave women looked so good .







Okay, this partly is just a cheesy reason to run this 1 Million Years BC/Raquel Welch video. 

Wow, two guilty pleasures in one post, 1 Million Years BC and the Twinkie diet.

It's no way to go through life, Son. Michael Moore loses weight.

The numbers for today.

• Fasting Blood Glucose:  104 mg/dl.
• Weight:  188 lbs.
• Exercise:  45 minutes on the trainer.  Thank goodness for global warming or it would really be cold out there. 
• Mood:  7.0.  Family issues. Nothing to do with the Charming Mrs. SWMBO.  She's great.

Menu.

• Breakfast:  Banana, grapes, oatmeal with herbal tea and raisins.  
• Lunch:  Too much.  A sandwich with sweet potato fries at Cafe Express.  The Charming Mrs. Swimbo and I snuck out for lunch together. Best way there is to spend the lunch hour.
• Dinner:  Stuff and stuff.  We have lots of leftovers to eat. 
• Snack:  Pretzels and soy yogurt.  Not together. 

Celebrity Fate in the News
Filmmaker Michael Moore is trying to loose weight.  Again. He was seen checking into the the Pritikin Longevity Center and Spa, described by the Daily Caller as a "luxury weight loss spa."  At $4,500 a week, I guess that would be an accurate description.  I don't know what problems Mr. Moore is having besides just weighing too much, but it's not hard to suspect high blood pressure, sleep apnea and diabetes and even arteriosclerosis as a possibility.  Each one leads to attendant problems and really they are all linked back to being obese. Good think we haven't done the full Cuba thing on health care yet, eh, Mike? 

This is not the first time he's done this I gather.   Here in 2005.   Here in 2007  Here in 2009.  Well, he is nothing if not consistent, and I would suspect that after four rounds of this, Pritiken and its program is not treating whatever his problem is. 

I wish him well, that's for sure, even if he is one annoying man and seems to lack any kind of self discipline.  Yet, if help is what he needs, and he can afford it, I say go for it.  At his present state, I think he thinks he hasn't too many years to go. That I can understand.  Every time I have seen him I always think of this bit from the movie Animal House. Separated at birth from Flounder?



To his credit, he has made a lot of money being a celebrity socialist, so he can't be that stupid.  He is richer than I am, that's for sure.   

Monday, back at it

Monday motivation for the week. 
Monday and it's time to get back to the morning routine: test, weigh-in, slip on the iPod and ride, and when that's over clean out the cat's litter box and make coffee and breakfast. My only exercise on the weekend is either cleaning up the yard or walking while shopping with the Charming Mrs. SWMBO.  Getting back into the routine even after two days takes a bit of resolve.  I would prefer to lie in bed and snuggle. It's tedious slog, but I do it.

Every Monday morning this little tune pops into my head.  Yes, it's corny, but it works. Yes, I have mentioned this before, but what the hay, it's a classic and Meredith Wilson did write it for the President's Council on Physical Fitness, so it fits.

Since the creation of the President's Council on Physical Fitness, our nation's youth has become much fatter and even more out of shape.  Why is it that all government attempts to do good things just never seem to work?  Can't blame the music, it's a catchy tune. 

My numbers for this morning.

• Fasting blood glucose:  104 mg/dl.  Wow.
• Weight:  188 lbs.  Well, I am consistent, give me that. 
• Exercise:  45 minutes on the trainer. It's cold out right now.  Winter is even coming to Houston, for a few days anyway. 
• Mood:  7.5  Sunny, if cool today and faster BG was great.  I'm normal!

Menu:

• Breakfast:  Banana, grapefruit, oatmeal with herbal tea and raisins. 
• Lunch:  Leftover chicken soup and an apple.
• Dinner: Pasta Rustica and a salad.  
• Snacks:  Pretzels and some soy yogurt. 

Keeping that motivation going.
Articles like this help keep the mood from flagging and giving in to my occasional urges to slack off on the diet or the exercise.  If these losers can do it, so can I.  That and the desire to live a long life with the Charming Mrs. SWMBO.  I want to hit 50 years of marriage and I will be 95 when that happens.  Gotta stay fit and motivated. 

It's (sensibly) splurge Friday! And just Friday in general, splurge or not.

Numbers for today:

• Fasting blood glucose: 100 mg/dl.  Sweet! (or lack thereof.)
• Weight: 188 lbs.  Sigh.
• Exercise:  45 min. on the trainer.  It's still cold out there, wuss that I have become. 
• Mood:  8.5.  It's Friday!

Menu:

• Breakfast:  Leftover pizza and a banana. 
• Lunch:  French onion soup.  Delicious, but maybe not the best choice.  The cheese on top was thick and gooey, meaning lots of fat. Well, it is spurge Friday
• Dinner: Tony's night. Two margaritas and probably the Carne Asada Gringa. 
• Snacks:  Pretzels.

Whole grains can help lower blood pressure: 
The Charming Mrs.SWMBO and I have been switching to whole grains as much as possible.  One good reason is that they taste better.  Whole grains add more character and flavor to the meal. We have gotten used to eating brown rice and whole wheat pasta.

Another good reason to consume for chowing down on them is whole grains can help lower blood pressure. I should also note the study involved a group like myself:  overweight guys in their 50's. That is encouraging. 

Advice for newlywed neurotics.
Lots of sex is good for your marriage.  I would think that would also go for non-neurotics, but whatever works.

Exercise and eat well and you will live longer.
Or so says this study.  I should add that well refers to the quality of the food, not necessarily the quantity.  Did they know about the Twinkie diet?  My guess is no.  I am still holding out for a Banana Flip diet.

There is always some SOB who has it worse than you.

Sometimes, things really aren't that bad.  They just seem that way.

I am the first to admit I can get a bit depressed on this lose weight, get healthy program.  I have been more or less at the same weight for several months now.  Why that is I am not sure.  I don't think I am eating more than I was, nor has what I have eaten changed.  To me it all seems pretty much the same.  Yet losing weight is just simple physics.  If you use more calories than you consume, you lose weight.  Very simple.  So something has changed.

My blood glucose has continued to trend lower and that is good.  That is mostly diet related, so I should take some solace I am doing something right.  It's also Christmas time and all of the good, and really fattening stuff that I love about Christmas food, is mostly on my do not touch list. Mostly.  Really, I am pretty proud of myself.  Maybe a little taste here and there and then it's back on the program.  The little taste here and there of the the really bad good stuff, like gooey cookies, seems to satisfy the craving. The discipline I have developed over this past year is holding.  So, again, I must be doing something right.

There is also this.

This is Terri Smith, whom the Daily Mail calls the fattest woman in the world. She weighs over 700 pounds.  She has constant headaches and needs an MRI in the hope to explain them and she can't fit in an MRI machine.  Her life is in danger, and I think doctors suspect a tumor.  She can't move at all and depends on her husband and daughter for even basic hygiene.  Just look at the pills she has to take.  That would be my nightmare come true.  Now she has to lose weight or risk death soon. 

So I don't really have it so bad, do I?  She is fortunate to have such a loving husband, Myron. He really sounds like a great guy. Her daughter is a sweetie, too.

My not so bad numbers for today:

• Fasting Blood Glucose:  105 mg/dl.  Sweet
• Weight:  188 lbs. Not as sweet.
• Exercise:  45 minutes on the trainer.  It was nippy this morning.  It took me a about 20 minutes just to stop shivering. 
• Mood:  8.5.  It's sunny and Christmas is 2 1/2 weeks away. Looking forward to it. 

Menu:

• Breakfast:  Grapefruit and herbal tea infused oatmeal and raisins. 
• Lunch:  Chicken soup we made last night.  Better the day after.  Apple for desert.
• Dinner.  It's Thursday, clean night, pizza night.  One slice only
• Snacks:  Pretzels.

Sunday morning and just catching up

My numbers for today

• Fasting Blood Glucose:  112 mg/dl.  Same as the past three days. This despite a very good Italian dinner last night at our new favorite Italian place, Fratelli's.  I had the Tagliatelle con Ragu Bolognese.  The Charming Mrs. SWMBO went with the Lasagna Bolognese again.  She's stuck on it.  We both passed on any desert, tempting as that was.  They were really busy last night, large Christmas parties and the everyone was ordering something fattening along with an espresso.  We just stuck to coffee.  
• Weight:  188 lbs.  Down a pound.  I bet I pay for my Fratelli's treat on Monday.
• Exercise:  None today.  Yesterday, just worked around the house, cleaning up the leaves, the back yard patio and hung Christmas lights.  Have to admit, the lights look good.   Also have to admit, the day's exertions and the dinner and wine really put me to sleep last night.  Mom used to call it the sleep of the just.  Works for me. 
• Mood:  9.00  It's Christmas time.  Stay happy. 

Menu for today:

• Breakfast:  Banana, tangerine, oatmeal with raisins.
• Lunch:  Leftover red beans on toast.  Real McDougall
• Dinner: Grilled salmon, broccoli and salad.  

We are putting up the tree today and I think a martini is in order.

Towards as color blind diet?  

Further reinforcing my good mood is that red meat, the stuff I grew up on, is at least not really bad for me.  Mostly.  This from Nutrition Data.  Color really should have nothing to do with it, red or white, light or dark,  it's all the same.  

The Twinkies Diet may have some of the most relevant diet research and revelations in a generation. 

Grapefruit: Miracle fruit or breakfast fruit of death.

The Numbers:

• Fasting Blood Glucose:  120 mg/dl.  Meh.
• Weight:  189 lbs. Sigh.  Double sigh.
• Exercise:  45 minutes on the trainer.  It's was cold this morning.  Cold for Houston, anyway. 
• Mood:  6.00:  Sales suck.  Stress is a recognized contributor to weight gain.  See number three of seventeen. 

The Menu:

• Breakfast:  Banana, tangerine, oatmeal with raisins.
• Lunch:  Leftover Pasta Rustica di Cecil over roasted vegetables and an apple
• Dinner:  Red beans on toast and turnips and turnip greens.  Very McDougall, but it will be hell on my BG tomorrow I bet.  I seasoned it all with a liberal slathering of Clancy's Fancy Hot sauce.  Kinda wish now I had gotten the extra hot variety. For a Yankee concoction, pretty good stuff.  Just wish I could find it down here. 
• Snacks:  Pretzels.  Careful to watch the portions. 

Reason 2,348 why I want to avoid having to take medications.

I love grapefruit and have loved since I was a kid.  It's a fixture, usually, at breakfast and the Charming Ms. SWMBO occasionally makes a to die for avocado and grapefruit salad.  I don't want to give it up and here's why.

I also know several people who are or have taken cholesterol lowering medications, such a Lipator. They were all told to avoid grapefruit.

In Texas we grow pink grapefruit in the Rio Grande Valley.  It's the best on earth and that is not Texas puffery.  Sweet and tart, it is either good for you or bad for you.  Good because it can be a nutraceutical,  food that can treat medical conditions or diseases.  Grapefruit contains chemicals that can treat or prevent hardening of the arteries and help prevent some cancers. Bad because those same chemicals can mix with some medications to prevent them from doing their work or worse by turning them toxic. For list of medications that should rendezvous with grapefruit check out this on WebMD.  

Reason number one on why I want to avoid having to take medications is the expense.