2 Day Diet: Developing Willpower

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.
Height 5'8" Age: 61
Goal weight: 165 lbs.
Total loss goal: 44 lbs.
Beginning waist size: 43 in.
Current waist size: 41 in.
Weight end of week 8:  193 lbs.
Gain/Loss this week: -1 lb.
Total Gain/Loss:  16 lbs.

Most people assume that what it takes to conquer an addiction or lose weight (same thing in some ways) is that almost mythical character trait, willpower. There is truth in that, but let's break down the concept of will-power and figure out what it is, so that perhaps it can be learned. I fear some people view willpower as something, like they see musical or artistic talent, as something you either have or you don't have, something you're born with. But I believe willpower can be learned.

Willpower starts with making a decision. Many of us, myself included, go for years thinking, I'd like to lose weight, but it's awfully hard. We might read about a diet or hear about one or have a friend who is on one or be told by a doctor we should try one, but when we start the diet we may not have truly decided to lose weight. As soon as it gets hard we decide, this must not have been the right time to start. We have a million reasons why: it's the holiday season, an upcoming vacation,  a rough time at work or with a partner or with the kids. Or fear that we lacke willpower.

But maybe it wasn't willpower that stopped us, but a failure to make a firm decision. To state it, if not publicly, as I did, but strongly to oneself, "I am going to change my eating habits. I am going to work hard to keep from gaining weight, to exercise more, to eat healthier food, to try my best to lose some weight. In my case, with the charts in the The 2-Day Diet: Diet Two Days a Week, Eat Normally for Five and some online tools I found, I determined a healthy weight for me and set a goal. I went shopping for more of the foods that were recommended. I didn't throw away any foods, but if I lived alone, I might have.

I realized that if I was going to be successful, it was going to take a long time. I estimated that if the diet went really well, it would take about nine months to reach my goal. However, I also acknowledged to myself that it might take years. The point is, I didn't look at this effort as a short term one, a sprint, a fast, a period of time when I deny myself the things that I love; I acknowledged that if I was to be successful in the long term, as in the rest of my life, I had to say pretty much say goodbye to some foods. I realized that to lose the weight and keep it off I would have to change my eating behaviors forever.

When I finally quit smoking, it was like that as well. When people ask me if it was hard to quit smoking, which had been part of my life from the age of 13 until age 40, I say no, I quit several times--it was easy! When I finally quit for good, it started with a decision that smoking could no longer be a part of my life…ever. There was no, well maybe I can smoke one once in awhile, or I'll do my best and see how it goes.

Having made the decision, I had an easier time when faced with temptations. First of all, every temptation is a decision itself. Will I satisfy this temporary desire, or will I stick to my decision to change? I have written at some length in previous posts about how the two days of restricted carbs each week in the 2 Day Diet, the generally small portions, and the healthy mix of whole grains and vegetables have reduced my cravings and my appetite, but they haven't eliminated them. At parties, I get bored, and I tend to find myself going back many times to the snack table, looking, nibbling. At first, I may have some vegetables and dip, or a couple crackers with cheese if I'm not on a restricted carb day, but eventually I face the temptation of the sweets arrayed around me.

At times like that, sheer willpower may not be enough. You need more tools in your belt than that. Here are some strategies I have used successfully when willpower has broken down and I've decided that this time I'm going to give in:

• decide which one item to allow yourself, then, if it's large, cut a piece equivalent to not more than two or three moderate bites
• ask someone (a significant other can help here) to give you a bite or two of theirs
• look for broken cookies or unevenly cut pieces of cake and put a couple small chunks on your plate
• don't eat it at the snack table at a party (I am SO guilty of this!), but take it to another area to eat it slowly and thoughtfully; if you're home, put the item away before you begin eating your small portion.

And one last strategy I've developed that sounds suspect, as if it could lead to an eating disorder. I came upon this one naturally, and I can't see the harm though if anyone saw me do it, I would understand their concern, if not disgust. I've only done this a few times. The first time I did it was a few years ago when I wasn't even dieting per se, just trying to keep myself from pigging out on the donuts and cake that seemed to fill the teacher lounge where I taught. I was alone in the room, and gave in. I started eating some cake with icing and for a moment I felt like I was eating lard. I spit the cake into a napkin and threw it in the trash. A few times since then, twice in the eight weeks I've been on this diet, I have given in to temptation and started eating something I know I shouldn't, but then decided, no, I'm not going to swallow this food. I spit it into a napkin, the trash, or a toilet, enjoying the sweet remnants. In this way I've enjoyed the flavor of the dessert, experienced the texture, the sensation of chewing, but not ingested many calories. As I said, I'm not sure this would be a healthy habit to develop.

When I see foods that I should not be eating, and there are ten million, from fast food delights like pizza (my plan allows it, but that's one food I don't know if I could limit myself to one small slice of), to chips and sweets, I have a designation for them that helps me put them out of my mind. I have labeled them "poison--the slow acting kind". If I thought of them as "not healthy", or "not good for me," that would be too weak. It's too easy for me to override that mental block. I'm willing to take risks and ignore things that I know are not healthy or not good for me. No, I need to think of these foods as POISON--they will KILL me. And that's true. Obesity leads to heart disease, and heart disease killed my father, his brother and his sister. People who have diabetes or are in danger of it know what I'm talking about. Too much sugar can kill them.

So the idea I'm trying to present here is that sheer willpower is a last resort. Perhaps I'm lucky or metabolically or psychologically different than you, but I suspect not: eating a healthy mix of whole grains, veges, fruit, and dairy with a small amount of carbs--the "Mediterranean Diet"--reduces cravings. Getting in the habit of eating small portions slowly and thoughtfully reduces appetite. Making a decision to limit or eliminate unhealthy foods from your diet makes it easier to exercise willpower. Having strategies such as the ones I mention above when your willpower is overcome will prevent binging. And finally, if you do "blow it" (and I have), you just start fresh the next day, forgive yourself, and reaffirm your decision to change the way you eat!

He Walks on Water, So Why Didn’t the Website Work?

“The Worst Year of the Obama Presidency;” “Obama’s Katrina and Iraq War Rolled into One;” “Too Cold a Personality for a President.” You would think the country is in really bad shape, and it’s the president’s doing.

Of course, if you listen to Fox News or right wing radio talk show hosts, that would be called liberal media spin on their beliefs: “Obama Sold us into the Slavery of Socialism;” “Weakening our Nation and Destroying the Military;” “A Tyrant Ignoring the Constitution.”

In fact, it bears remembering that five years ago only the extraordinary measures Obama and a briefly Democratic Congress took in 2009 to stimulate the economy and save the auto industry kept us out of a Depression.  But it seems increasingly clear this “jobless recovery” was because we stopped stimulus spending too soon. Nevertheless, the economy has finally shaken off the lethargy it was in. Despite the Government Shutdown, Sequestration, and despite 3 years of GOP austerity policies that limited stimulus spending to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to pump money into the economy, we have seen sustained growth reaching 4% of GDP and shrinking unemployment.

Where might we be if we’d had a second stimulus bill to fix our crumbling infrastructure instead of fretting about debt and deficits and facing Republican refusal to raise new revenue even by closing tax loopholes?  A conservative estimate is a million jobs and nearly a trillion dollars a year since 2011. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says the Sequestration alone is responsible for the loss or failure to create over a million jobs and almost a full percentage point of growth. That’s why it’s worth at least a sigh of relief that the recent budget compromise has delayed some of Sequestration's effects of and increased the budget for a couple years. The so-called Party of Fiscal Responsibility has cost us a fortune.

We shouldn’t be gloomy, we should be angry. When even the Pope comes out and says trickle-down economics doesn’t work, isn’t it time for Republicans to acknowledge they’ve been standing in the way of growth? In recent elections, they incessantly claimed businesses would not hire because of the “uncertainty” of whether taxes would rise on top earners as they finally did at the beginning of 2013. And look at how well the economy has done since then! There was something to their argument, only it was the Republicans causing the uncertainty, and the increasing inequality of income in our country.

“If you like your health care plan you can keep it.” He said it, many times. Was he lying, misled, or stupid? None of the above. He is, after all, a politician. In this case, as politicians do in campaigns, he oversold. Mark my words, something like the following will be reported in a tell-all book some day.

Obama: Maybe I should say, “If you like your health plan, almost all of you can keep your health plan!”

Campaign advisor: Not strong enough. Drop the almost all.

Obama: I don’t know, we put in the grandfather clause to let insurance companies keep people insured if their plans were in effect since before the law was passed, but some folks have bought inadequate policies since then.

Campaign advisor: How many?

Obama: Maybe 1 or 2%.

Campaign advisor: Look, 98% keeping their plan? That’s virtually everybody. Just go with it.

It turns out it was more like 5%. And of course, there is the Healthcare.gov website that took two months to get working right. Two months of bad press about how government can’t perform like the private sector. That’s mythology: 8 out of 10 businesses fail in the first year. The federal government can’t go out of business, so when it makes a mistake, it has to fix it. How does a failed campaign promise and a poorly designed website become the equivalent of a failure to provide emergency assistance to a whole city (Katrina) or of going to war on false pretenses (Iraq) and proclaiming victory months into a protracted disaster? Who died because of the website failure? How much did it cost to fix it compared to 8 years of war? (answer: don't know how much it cost to fix, but it was supposed to be 1/2 billion to build Healthcare.gov. A low estimate on cost of the Iraq War is 800 billion).

Is Obama held to a different standard by the media? Heck, the worst they can say about him is that he’s not as outgoing as other presidents; he doesn’t like to glad hand and schmooze as much as Bill Clinton or George Bush. Have his poll numbers dropped simply because people found out he’s not perfect? I saw a cartoon recently showing Obama walking on water, but sinking and now up to his knees. The last panel shows an elephant (GOP) on the bottom pulling him down with its trunk.

There’s a lot of good that Obama has done for the American people in five years, but he could have accomplished much more with a "loyal opposition" instead of a perfidious one. Background checks, immigration reform, closing corporate loopholes—these are issues large majorities of Americans favor, but Republicans are blocking. It’s time for us to stand up for this man and for sensible lawmaking. It’s easy to get stirred up by a great speech during a campaign; it's harder to cast aside your gloom and get stirred up to change public opinion. But that's what we need to do to convince the other side to support sensible, needed policies, or to mobilize to vote them out.

2 Day Diet: It's Working Out, and So Am I!

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.
Height 5'8" Age: 61
Goal weight: 165 lbs.
Total loss goal: 44 lbs.
Beginning waist size: 43 in.
Current waist size: 41 in.
Weight end of week 7: 194 lbs.
Gain/Loss this week: -3 lbs.
Total Gain/Loss: -15 lbs.

I came in from a bike ride yesterday, December 21, in the middle of a cloudy afternoon and it was 73 degrees in Charleston, WV. It was my first bike ride since October I think! I was wearing bike shorts and a t-shirt and I felt great. Bike riding has been my favorite form of exercise for a few years. Before I started the 2 Day Diet, I'd already been exercising regularly, so adding to my exercise regimen was not part of my weight plan, but continuing it is.

I started exercising pretty regularly when I started dating Rita (now my wife) in 1994. She was a runner then and in an attempt to find some things I could do with her since she was somewhat of a workaholic, two things were exercising and cooking. The running didn't last too long--she was out before daylight, not fun in January, and I couldn't keep up. Also, I was a much better cook than I was a runner. Soon our joint activities were cooking, eating, and sleeping together. But I did keep walking at least a couple days week, and after an episode with a stiff neck that required physical therapy, I continued using the exercise machines at the YWCA that were most like the exercise machines the PT had had me using to strengthen various shoulder, arm, chest, stomach and back muscles. Plus I added a few more strength exercises and every other day spent a half hour on Stairmaster or the elliptical strider to round out my workout. Bike riding during these years was something I did occasionally on my mountain bike, riding easy to moderate trails.

A few years ago I learned that I'd developed high blood pressure. Since there's significant heart disease in my family (my uncle died of a heart attack before the age of 50, his brother, my father, had bypass surgery twice before he died at age 82), it scared me enough that I started really exercising: making sure that I reached the target cardio heart rate for at least 20 minutes two or three times a week. After I retired a year and a half ago, I had more time and have been either riding my bike an hour in my hilly neighborhood or going to the Y and spending 40 minutes to an hour or more on the machines, getting my cardio 5 or 6, sometimes 7 days a week.

The only difference since I started my diet is that it's getting easier since I'm carrying less weight. In fact, I've noticed that the number of calories the machines claim I've burned has gone up, often by about a 100, so I guess I'm pushing harder and staying a few minutes longer. I'm sure that is helping in the weight loss, since I do not reward myself with food after a workout (sometimes a cappuccino at my favorite coffee house, though!).

Yesterday, I heard "What Do You Know's" Michael Feldmen, ask what most people would be resolving on New Year's. The answer, to lose weight. He followed up by asking, "how many of you have lost weight after a New Year's resolution?  Very few hands went up. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself and confident that my ongoing resolution to continue losing weight in the new year will be successful. Having lost 15 pounds already through the holiday season, which we all recognize is the hardest time of year to avoid eating too much of the right and wrong foods, I am going to continue using the basic guidelines of the 2 Day Diet: avoid all carbs for two days a week while eating a healthy Mediterranean diet consisting of small portions of lean meats, low fat dairy, vegetables, and some fruit. The rest of the week, add a few whole grain carbs in. I'm no longer counting portions or servings or snacks. I eat three meals a day, have one or two small snacks as needed: an apple and some hummus or cheese, a glass of V-8, a few crackers with low-fat cream cheese, some yogurt and fruit. I put one 3-5 oz. serving of protein on my plate at a meal and on carb days a portion of probably around 3/4 cup. I have as much salad and green vegetable as I want: green beans, peas, spinach, broccoli. I eat slowly, chewing my food, putting my eating utensil down, waiting for an empty mouth before taking another bite. When I've finished eating, after 20 to 30 minutes, I'm no longer hungry nor am I full. I'm satisfied, and I clean up.

This is a sustainable way of eating. If I continue losing 7 pounds each month, I will reach my goal some time near my birthday at the end of April. I think I'll want strawberry short cake with real whipped cream, but only one piece!

2 Day Diet: Week 6, Hidden Loss

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.
Height 5'8" Age: 61
Goal weight: 165 lbs.
Total loss goal: 44 lbs.
Beginning waist size: 43 in.
Current waist size: 41.5 in.
Weight end of week 6: 197 lbs.
Gain/Loss this week: 0
Total Gain/Loss: -12 lbs.

Unless you're as involved in this effort to change my eating behavior as I am, you might expect me to express disappointment or frustration this week, as I did last week. But I feel good about my weight loss prospects this week, even though my weekly Sunday morning weigh-in showed no loss. Why? Several reasons, which I'll get back to.

I was considering this week how I became obese. It took many years. I started gaining weight around the age of 13 when I stopped riding my bike all over the place, playing outside for hours at a time, and began spending more time in front of the TV or reading, and despite parental efforts to stop it, began smoking. By age 16, I'd reached my full height and weighed about 165 pounds, somewhat overweight. A series of bouts with strep throat during which I ate mostly soup helped me take off some pounds, and with my decreased appetite, I managed to get my overeating under control and lose some more. In my late teens and early 20's I weighed between 135 and 145: I basically lived an outdoor, rural lifestyle: gaining muscle, staying trim, eating whatever I wanted. At age thirty, I began working in an office and later, a classroom. My activity level decreased and my eating stayed the same. So in the next thirty years I gained sixty-five pounds, an average of two pounds a year. Actually, I gained sixty of those pounds in only 20 years, an average of 3 pounds a year. Probably once each decade, I dieted, losing from 5 to 25 pounds during a diet and putting it back on over the next two to five years. So probably in some years I gained five or more pounds while in others I stayed even or lost. The point is, while we might weigh ourselves every day, we actually get used to seeing a range of weights when we step on the scale, and we constantly adjust to what looks like an acceptable weight.

At some point, at many points, those of us who have been living overweight or obese, knowing how hard it is to lose weight, just try to hold the line. When we see a new high weight appear on our scales, we might eat a little more carefully for a few days and see weights a few pounds beneath that, but a few weeks or months later when a new high shows up, we've become used to weighing a pound more than we had previously, and little by little we get used to our new upper limit. In some cases, we go through a period where we say, to hell with it, I'm eating whatever I want (holiday season), and will go on a diet later. Only the diet as we know, usually doesn't last.

So, back to this week, and why I'm feeling good and not frustrated despite not having shown any weight loss for the last two weeks. Most of the weeks since I've started the the 2 Day Diet  (restricted carbs for two days a week and eating Mediterranean--small portions of fish/lean meat, whole grains, fat free dairy, more green veges, limited fruit--the rest of the week), my Sunday morning weigh-in has been equal to the least I've weighed when I weigh myself each morning (most diet books recommend not weighing yourself every day, but I can't help myself--I want to know). This week, on most mornings I weighed less than I did on Sunday; I saw 194 one morning. And, I'm sure you didn't notice this in the stats above, but my waist circumference showed another inch decrease this week, from 41 to 40. I ran out of notches on my belt this week and had to pull an old belt out of the closet. My wedding ring is feeling looser. Finally, I know that the last two nights during which I attended no less than three holiday parties, I ate more than I should have, and a few of those things were not on any of the lists of allowable foods in my guide book. So, I am patting myself on the back for staying even this week, and feeling confident that my scale will be more generous next week (as long as I can avoid parties or convincing myself that just one or two cookies or a small piece of pie, or both, won't make a difference especially when added to the couple crackers with artichoke crab dip).

2 Day Diet - Week 5

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.
Height 5'8" Age: 61
Goal weight: 165 lbs.
Total loss goal: 44 lbs.
Beginning waist size: 43 in.
Current waist size: 42 in.
Weight end of week 5: 197 lbs.
Gain/Loss this week: 0
Total Gain/Loss: -12 lbs.

No gain, no loss. Feeling disappointment and relief. On a couple days this week I gave in to temptations--stood at a snack table during a party and mindlessly nibbled on this and that, ate more at a restaurant than I'd intended. But most of the week I was highly disciplined--that is, before snacking, I asked myself, "Are you really hungry?" I find myself trying to decide if I'm just impatient or if my body has some superpower to get nourishment from air or somehow squeeze calories from waste (not to get to too detailed, but I haven't been expelling a whole lot lately--partly a case of less in/less out, and nothing a mild laxative couldn't fix :). If you've read the book, "2-Day Diet: diet 2 days a week, eat the Mediterranean way for 5, they say that your metabolism will slow down, making it harder to lose after you've lost some. But let me back up.

My wife, Rita, is petite: 5'3", 105 pounds. I used to ignore her comments about hunger and food, because like most overweight people, I just assume that it's easy for some people to stay thin. Their metabolism, I assumed, allowed them to eat more without gaining or their natural appetites do not drive them to overeat as the rest of us so often do. I did, however, listen to her even if I had no point of reference to comprehend what she was saying, and now I'm beginning to understand some of the concepts she was imparting about how she, a mother of two, has remained so trim all her adult life.

For one thing, Rita makes the distinction between being hungry and being empty that I never made. As soon as my stomach was “empty” I had named that being hungry. Now I’m learning to tell the difference, and doing pretty well. A few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to go without a snack between meals—I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone without something between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner (unless maybe I had a really late lunch and an early dinner). Since then, a couple times I’ve done so. It’s kind of sad that it seems like an accomplishment. I’ve laughed at Rita many times when, an hour before dinner time she’d say, “I’m really hungry!” And I’ve said, well, have a snack. And she responds, “but I had a few grapes and a cracker a couple hours ago.” And what did you have for lunch? I’ll ask, “an apple and some cheese, oh yeah, and a mocha at Starbucks. Those are really filling!” Don’t get me wrong, she can eat—she’ll chow down and eat as much as anyone, but you won’t see her do that two meals in a row, and snacks…rare and small. I’m learning, however, to make a small snack go a long away, and though I still would rather have a snack between meals, I've learned I can go without if I have to.

That’s a far cry from six weeks ago when if I knew I’d be out of the house most of the afternoon I’d be bringing something to snack on…pretzels, cheese and an apple, or I’d be thinking about which fast food place I’d want to stop at and pick something up from the dollar menu—a small chicken sandwich, burger, or maybe a soft serve sundae. “Now Rita, that’s a snack—what you call a snack,” I've said, “that doesn’t even count.”

Since the first week of my "new approach to eating", the weight hasn’t been exactly dropping off. Yes, I’m losing a pound almost every week, but it seems like I’m only managing that because I’m cheating. Yes, I hate to admit it, but the two low carb days, which are supposed to be the weight loss days, haven’t seemed to be weight loss days for me. I’ve ended up not gaining or losing the last three weeks after the low carb days (usually that’s been Tuesday and Wednesday for me), and then, because I really want this diet to work, I've eaten much less than the allowed number of servings Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and have ended up with one pound of weight loss.

I want it to be easier. It’s not fair! And you know how when you get into that state of mind, it's an easy step to tell yourself, "This is too hard, I’m not losing like I should be, I might as well just eat more and enjoy myself,” and you let yourself have that handful or two of pretzels at the party, or a cookie. And I did this week. But then I was around another friend who really should be thinking about losing some weight and saw how desperate she was to eat something when lunch was delayed. And, like I not long used to do, she stopped at a convenience store, bought a few snacks, and offered me some (I didn’t find it difficult to decline). Less than an hour later we were eating lunch. Her snack had not spoiled her appetite; she ate as much as I did. I know what that's like, that desperate feeling that leads to eating three or four pieces of bread before your entree comes, or stopping for a slice of pizza an hour before dinner. 

So, even if I don't lose another pound (and I'm pretty sure I will), I'm in a much better place in my "relationship with food" than I was. And I plan for this to be a long-term relationship.

Paul Epstein's Diet Challenge: Thanksgiving Week

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.
Height 5'8" Age: 61
Goal weight: 165 lbs.
Total loss goal: 44 lbs.
Beginning waist size: 43 in.
Current waist size: 42 in.
Weight end of week 4: 197 lbs.
Gain/Loss this week: -1 lb.
Total Gain/Loss: -12 lbs.

I actually chose to make Thanksgiving (okay, Thanksgivakkah), a "low carb day." This was partly because my wife and I had hosted a large contingent of family and friends for dinner on Tuesday, and I hadn't wanted that to be a low carb day.  If you've been following this blog, you know I'm using the book, "2-Day Diet: diet 2 days a week, eat the Mediterranean way for 5." On the two "restricted days," you eat low-fat protein foods in limited amounts like fish, lean meats, eggs, some dairy, vegetables, and a small amount of fruit, and the rest of the week you can add in carbs. Though the quantities are measured and smaller than I was accustomed to eating at each sitting, I've never gone to bed hungry or couldn't "afford" to have a small snack if I was hungry between meals. Sometimes my snacks have been vegetable based, like celery or slices of sweet peppers with salsa or hummus, sometime dairy or protein based, like cottage cheese or yogurt and canned fruit or a few crackers with low-fat cream cheese and canned fish (sardines, kippers, smoked oysters or salmon). The book suggests that a protein or dairy snack will stay with you longer.

After slowly working my way through a plate (I'm working on eating more deliberately, savoring each bite) with probably six ounces of turkey (a bigger portion than I might have had on a normal day), a small dollop of mashed sweet potatoes (not allowed on a low carb day), and a large portion of green beans, I sat back satisfied. I had fended off offers of home baked bread and suggestions that I must have some stuffing by saying, "I've got everything I want, thanks!" And after most had had seconds and pushed away their plates with complaints that they were stuffed to the gills, I was feeling quite self-righteous and pleased with myself: satisfied, but not full.

The book warns that weight loss will slow down as you lose pounds and your body adjusts its metabolism to your new intake levels, and that certainly is true for me. But so far, anyway, unlike other times I've tried a diet, lost a few pounds, reached a plateau and given up, this time I feel like I can stay in for the long haul. After all, this "diet" is truly teaching me a new way to eat that will be a healthy approach to food for the rest of my life, I believe. The Mediterranean approach, developed by studying how those who live in that area tend to eat: lots of oily fish and monoglycerides like olive oil, low fat cheese and yogurt (traditionally goat milk based, but of course skimmed cows milk here), and more fresh green, leafy vegetables and fruits than complex carbohydrates (not as much pasta and bread as you might think), is widely recognized as heart healthy, diabetes resistant, and longevity producing.

Honestly, I wasn't too far from this diet in my normal eating habits. I had long ago decided that sweets, cake, donuts, and such were pretty much off limits. If I gave in to them too much, I quickly gained weight, so had largely given them up. I did so by convincing myself that they are "poison." I used to be a pack a day smoker, so I know how hard addictions are to give up. Sugar, chocolate, donuts--these are potential addictions. If you allow yourself a little, your body will cry out for more and your mind will make excuses for your behavior. "Just this once," or "this is a special occasion," or "just a little--and just a little more." Of course, even my poison ploy hadn't completely stopped me--after all, saying to myself, that's poison to me, it will eventually kill me if I eat it has to compete with the voice that says, "you mustn't waste food," and "think of the children starving in India or China or Africa." So plenty of those big cookies that come with the Panera box lunches passed out at meetings I've attended found their way into the inner tube surrounding my stomach.

In the last couple years, my carb addiction has been tortilla chips. Somewhere along the line I'd decided that cutting out the shredded cheese melted on top of my standard nacho snack and limiting myself to just a few chips with salsa would be a fairly healthy low calorie snack. Wrong. It didn't take long to stop limiting myself to a few chips, and over time I was going through two or three family sized bags of chips a week.

So, I know addiction, and carbs are addictive. Especially the kind with sugar, but also just the kind that come from those "white foods" that your body can turn into quick sugar, like white rice, white pasta, potatoes, corn, and white flour breads. So the Mediterranean diet, at least as described in the 2 Day Diet book is fairly low carb, even on the "unrestricted" days. While it doesn't ask you to count grams or calories, it does ask you limit your servings to a recommended range for your age, sex, and weight. And there are charts to help you determine serving sizes of various foods. A "serving" of protein is about 1 oz., and after some online research and conversions of ounces to grams, I've determined "serving" of carbs is 10-15 grams. For my age and weight, I'm allowed 9-14 servings of protein and 11 servings of carbs. For most of the first three weeks I measured my servings and kept a tally each day on the number of servings I ate. This week, I slacked off, as I've adjusted to the portion sizes and amounts, but figure I will need to check and recalibrate myself, especially if I'm not losing the average of 1-2 pounds a week expected.

To any of you reading this who are trying the diet or thinking about it, I welcome your comments, advice, questions. I appreciate any of you reading this who are friends just checking my progress as well. I'm starting to hear comments from people who know me on how good I look. It's starting to show!

Paul Epstein's Diet Challenge -- 2 Day Diet

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.
Height 5'8" Age: 61
Goal weight: 165 lbs.
Total loss goal: 44 lbs.
Beginning waist size: 43 in.
Current waist size: 42 in.
Weight end of week 3: 198
Gain/Loss this week: -1lb.
Total Gain/Loss: -11 lbs.

First, a moment to revel in the glory of a third week of weight loss and a cessation of cravings, a better understanding of hunger, and, for the first time in probably thirty years, a sense that I have control of my ultimate weight. The 2-Day Diet: Diet Two Days a Week, Eat Normally for Five by Dr. Michelle Harvie and Professor Tony Howell is the book that has inspired me to -- pick your metaphor for diet: 'lose weight,' 'watch my weight', 'change my eating habits', 'adopt a healthy relationship with food' (I like that one today--it reminds me of the way many people are attracted to others who are dangerous or at least 'not good for them'). I heard about this diet on The People's Pharmacy, a radio show carried on West Virginia Public Radio. Dr. Harvie, a research dietician at a breast cancer center in U.K., was a guest on Saturday, November 2. I was so inspired by her scientific approach that I looked it up online, bought the book for my Kindle, started reading, and started my 'new eating regimen' the next day.

First, the 2-Day Diet is NOT a fasting diet or the "5-2 diet" that suggest you stop eating for x number of hours a day or severely limit your calorie intake a couple days a week, but eat however you want the rest of the week. Basically, the 2-Day diet consists of two "low carb" days and the rest of the week you are to adopt a Mediterranean Diet. In the language of the book, the low carb days are "restricted days," and the others, "unrestricted", which I find somewhat disingenuous, because it is certainly not an invitation to eat as much as you want of whatever you want those days. I would call the rest of the week, "balanced healthy eating" days. True, you are not restricted from eating any of the food groups, but you must restrict the types of foods and the amounts, otherwise you'll gain back the weight you lose on the low carb days.

If, like me, you've been struggling with your weight for some time, at one time or another you've probably tried or known someone who has tried a low carb diet. The (usually described as controversial) Atkins Diet is the best known example of that. This low carb diet, at least when I tried it and lost 25 pounds in the early 1990's, allows you to eat as much protein and fat as you want, but severely restricts your carbohydrate intake. The biochemistry of this is that without the carbs, your body cannot process the protein and fats, so they pass through. Your body is essentially being starved, so it turns to your stored body fat for energy. You lose weight. But there are potential risks to health in this regimen, and it's not a good sustainable diet for several reasons. First, there is some danger of damaging kidneys (you have to drink a lot of water to flush toxins), losing muscle tissue if a dieter runs out of fat to burn, and increased risk of heart disease and cancer from over-reliance on meats and fats. But probably the worst thing is that it does not teach you a long term healthy eating strategy. When I was on the Atkins diet, though my hunger was reduced because of the chemistry, I actually recall feeling kind of repulsed by the food I was eating after awhile, and I was craving carbohydrates. After going off the diet and bringing carbs back in, I found I was still used to eating the fats and proteins, but now I had my old carbohydrate cravings back. Within a couple years I'd gained it all back despite going back on the low carb regimen a couple times to try to control it.

The Two-Day Diet takes advantage of the fat burning advantages of carb restrictions, while avoiding the dangers of the Atkins Diet. First, during the low carb days you are given limits on the amounts and types of protein and fat you consume. Though the biochemistry might allow one to eat unlimited proteins and fats and still lose weight, that's not a healthy approach. Small portions of fish, lean meats, or beans, some dairy, plenty of vegetables, a very limited amount of fruit, these are what you are allowed on the "restricted," low carb days. As I've written in previous posts, I have not found it difficult to stay within these limits. The rest of the week, you add healthy whole grain carbohydrates in, and many of the limits stay in place. Rather than counting calories, you are allowed a certain number of "servings" of each food group.  I put 'servings' in quotes because, at least to me, in many cases it would take 2 or 3 of the portion sizes they call 'servings' of something to make a meal. But, for my age and weight, I am allowed up to 11 carb servings and 14 protein servings on healthy eating days. The serving sizes of a fairly wide range of foods is provided.

So, the two days of low-carb eating (it is suggested, but not required that the two days be consecutive) are weight loss days, but the quick biochemical shift your body makes from burning available carbs for fuel to burning stored fat does not put your body at risk like the extended periods suggested in the Atkins Diet. The rest of the week I think of as weight maintenance. This is the process of learning to eat in a healthy sustainable way. Dr. Harvie says, and my experience confirms, that the participants in her studies tended to restrict their eating more than the guidelines require on the "unrestricted" days. Success breeds success, and success in controlling hunger and losing weight after so many years of feeling helpless to do so is liberating. Because of this, many lost more than the expected 1-2 pounds per week. And so have I!

PS: This week I put copies of the book, "The Two-Day Diet.." in the mail to several friends who took my challenge and promised that if the diet worked for me, they would try it. I wish them the best of luck, and if they are successful as well, I will encourage them to let me know or post their results on Facebook or here. While I'm not buying more books to give away, if you've tried and failed in weight loss efforts, I encourage you to buy the book. It's inexpensive, easy to read, and contains charts and lists of foods that will help you get started. Good luck!

Paul Epstein's Diet Challenge - Week 2

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.
Height 5'8" Age: 61
Goal weight: 165 lbs.
Total loss goal: 44 lbs.
Beginning waist size: 43 in.
Current waist size: 42 in.
Weight end of week 2:  199
Gain/Loss this week: -3 lbs.
Total Gain/Loss: -10 lbs.

When I announced on Facebook that I was starting this diet (see Paul Epstein's Diet Challenge ), I got pushback from a couple friends about the dangers, or at least the unhealthy aspects, physically and/or emotionally, about dieting. "Diets not only DON'T work, they often lead to a greater rebound gain... they can be the gateway to some people developing life threatening eating disorders," said one, a nurse, pointing out that genetics and body type play a large role in weight and the BMI charts should be ignored. And a Wellness Coach advised, "Your body knows when it's hungry and when it's satisfied. If you're eating more food than you need, deal with why." To them I say, you're right, but the fact is, in order to 'change my eating habits' (I'm experimenting with euphemisms for 'diet'), and begin to recognize what my body is telling me about hunger, I needed a 'plan for a new way of eating.' I've never been prone to anorexia or bulimia, but I have set moderate weight loss goals (the upper end of the recommended weight for my height and age), and will trust that if my friends see me starving myself or threatening my health, they will make an intervention.

As my second week of my 'new relationship with food' begins, I'm still thinking about hunger (and wondering if as my 'new approach to eating' becomes an old approach, hunger will always be the main topic ;). During week one, I came to the realization that for years the feeling I had been identifying as hunger was not true hunger. "How could you be hungry? You just ate a half-hour ago?" Those words just popped into my head--the words of my mother, rest in peace. She well knew how, though, because she'd struggled with her weight all her life. Anyway, the false hunger I felt might have been feelings of a not quite full stomach. I don't say an empty stomach, because I rarely let that condition occur. Yes, I suppose in the morning my stomach is usually empty. But I never stopped to ask my myself why I was not ravenously hungry in the morning.

The next lesson I am learning in this 'course on eating right' is what it means to be full. I have long known that I eat too fast. Sometimes I've off-handedly attributed it to teaching in an elementary school for twenty-five years and having only about 20 minutes for lunch, but the fact is, I've always eaten fast. "Chew your food before you swallow!" Maybe it was an effort to escape the unpleasantness of dinners at the family table or to get my share (I'm joking: there was always plenty, and more often than not family dinners were, well, family dinners--sometimes unpleasant and sometimes uproariously funny). It takes fifteen or twenty minutes for your brain to register the fullness of the stomach, so eating quickly allows one to overeat without feeling it right away. Later, you find yourself wondering, "Why did I eat so much?"

Since I'm now deciding before I eat just how much I'm going to allow myself to eat at this sitting (and since that amount is considerably less than I used to put on my plate for a first serving in the past: and, trust me, I've always been a member of the clean plate club), I find that I am eating more slowly and trying to stretch the amount of time I have to enjoy this limited amount of food. When my plate is empty, I don't feel full, but I have almost always felt satisfied, or at least that my hunger was assuaged. If, after a half hour or so I begin to feel hunger or a distressing lack of fullness, I have a small snack (usually fruit, vegetable, dairy, or nuts). So this lesson on fullness seems to be that to feel full is not the goal of healthy eating. Fullness may be a sign of having eaten more than one needs. Now, before you jump in and say, but you're eating less than you need, that's why you're losing weight, I have to reveal a bit about my 'weight loss plan'. It involves a different balance of food groups on certain days than others, and most of the weight loss is intended to occur on those days, while the rest of the week is more or less a 'weight maintenance plan,' that is intended to be a healthy way of eating after you've reached your goal weight. And, if I continue to be successful on this plan for another week or so, I'll be revealing that plan and recommending the book (even buying the book for a few people who have decided to commit to trying it out if I'm successful).

So how has week two gone? As expected, not as dramatically as week one. Maintaining last week's loss would have been success, even regaining a couple pounds wouldn't have put me off my goal of losing 1-2 pounds per week. And indeed, my weight remained pretty even all week, showing a pound or two loss on some mornings, regaining that pound or two on some. Adding a pound at mid-week. The important thing is that the cravings I felt during week one have receded, and my feelings of hunger have greatly diminished. It gets easier every day to eat less and feel satisfied. In fact, that helped me buckle down and cheat on my diet a little on Saturday in preparation for my Sunday morning weight check: I cheated by eating less than allowed and ended up losing three pounds. I felt very empty when I awoke at 5:00 am, but the oatmeal with 1/2 banana and a few walnuts, olive oil based butter substitute (is margarine a bad word?), and Stevia sweetener were every bit as satisfying and delicious as any breakfast I've ever had.

Paul Epstein's Diet Challenge: Week 1

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209
Height 5'8" Age: 61
Goal weight: 165
Total loss goal: 44 lbs.
Beginning waist size: 43 in.
Current waist size: 42 in.
Weight end of week 1:  202
Gain/Loss this week: -7 lbs.
Total Gain/Loss: -7 lbs.


I started this odyssey Sunday morning, November 3rd. It wasn't the ideal time to start a new (pick your euphemism) diet, weight loss regimen, healthy eating plan, lifestyle adjustment. A relative had died, there was family in town, there would be restaurant dinners Sunday and Monday and a lot of finger foods. But such is life. I had not finished reading the book (I'm choosing not to reveal the book/diet name until I decide if it's working for me), so I had only a hazy idea of what the diet entailed. At the restaurants, I didn't worry about how the food was prepared, but knowing it was going to be higher fat than what I fix at home. I just did my best to eat in moderation and avoid the obvious culprits. By Tuesday morning, the scale said I had lost 1/2 pound. But Tuesday and Wednesday I got serious.

Tuesday was a little tough. The diet plan I am following calls for certain restrictions at times (oh, you thought I'd found a diet that allows me to eat whatever I want whenever I want?), and I had cravings. But celery and salsa, a few walnuts, an apple, or a little yogurt got me through the hard moments. By Thursday morning I'd seen dramatic progress: 5 pounds lost. But I also woke early and really hungry. I ended up having two breakfasts, both smaller than I might have had in the past, and all of it "allowable" food. Really, they were probably smaller than snacks I was eating last week on a regular basis. You know, the food that doesn't count. It was getting easier. I was taking care on portion sizes, which in the language of the book seem incredibly small, until I realized a "serving" was really just sort of a measurement tool--you were allowed enough servings during the day of most food groups that you could easily have 2 or 3 "servings" of, say, chicken at a meal without having to forgo protein the rest of the day.

On Friday I had a realization about hunger. I haven't always been obese. In fact, though I've known for several years that the charts say I am, I still have trouble acknowledging that I fit that word. I see myself as overweight, chunky. I have a stocky build, lots of muscle, which I've read, is heavier. When I look at the BMI charts, I think, "That might not apply to me." Okay, maybe it's healthy to have good self-esteem. Anyway, though I haven't always been obese, I've been overweight  much of my life, and obese by definition the last twenty years or so. My realization about hunger is that we obese folks define any mildly unfilled feeling in our belly as hunger. As soon as we feel "hungry" we begin to think about what we're going to eat next to fill it again. If a meal is too distant (like more than fifteen or twenty minutes), we want a bite of something…now. Then a bite turns into a snack, and maybe we turn on the tv and mindlessly put whatever it is we got out to snack on in our mouths.

So I continued to do that the first few days of the diet, only the snack was measured and healthy, and twenty minutes later, and sometimes even while snacking, the feeling which I'd interpreted as "hunger" was still present. I realized it wasn't hunger. Sort of a dull ache, only the word ache means pain, and as I thought about it, and felt it, I realized it wasn't pain, it wasn't an ache, it was….emptiness. The feeling of an empty stomach is something I hadn't allowed myself to feel in years, because if I did get in a situation where I had no access to food, my mind would start creating fantasies about what and when I'd next eat and start yearning for food; it manufactured the idea of hunger. How many times have I had that feeling, and said to myself, "I'm hungry." Literally! A voice in my head saying, I'm hungry. Well, I'm turning it off. I'm going to learn to live with an empty stomach. Maybe at first only for a half-hour or forty-five minutes, but maybe, like building up a muscle, I can learn to expand it. We'll see. If I can't, so be it. I'll just have to stick to the smaller, healthier snacks. That's really not so bad.

And so, my friends, it's Sunday morning and I feel successful. But I also feel determined not to allow one week of dramatic weight loss to lull me into complacency. I've been here many times before. The first pounds are easy (and in the long run, keeping it off is really all that matters). So, it's off to fix a (small) bowl of oatmeal with maybe a half apple and sweetened with 0 calorie magic powder (the natural kind). I will report again next week!

Paul Epstein's Diet Challenge

Friends and Family,
          This is going to sound like a commercial; for that I apologize in advance, but I'm not following a script and stand to gain nothing except (I hope) better health for myself and my friends. No secret, I've been overweight for years. I am not a serial dieter, but have tried a few over the years, and like most people, I've lost some weight on diets (up to 25 lbs. over a period of months of dieting) only to gain it back. In the last 20 years (ages 40-60) I've been between 192 and 212 pounds. I'm currently 209. According to the "Ideal Weight Calculator" at www.calculator.net my ideal weight is between 150-165 for my age depending on which of five best known formulas you agree with. Taking the top number, I would have to lose 44 pounds to reach it. Today, I am beginning a diet plan that I heard a doctor/researcher talk about on the radio. I bought the book and have only read the introduction, but I've decided to follow it and make it public (the public part has nothing to do with the doctor or book's recommendations, just something I've decided).
              According to the book, in clinical studies, the average amount of weight lost using this plan was 14 pounds in three months. Therefore, if I follow the diet, I should be able to lose 44 pounds in about 9 months (by August 2014). Now, here's the point of this post. From what I've read, this diet, which in terms of what you eat takes from other well-known popular diets, but what makes it different is that more people can stick to it, shed the pounds, and keep them off over time. So, while I'm not telling you what the diet is, friends, I want to issue a challenge. IF this diet works for me (I will post my weight weekly), I challenge you to make a commitment (if you feel you would be healthier by losing some weight) to try it out if it works for me. You can make that commitment by replying here publicly (or later to one of my diet updates) or in a private message or e-mail to me. If you make the commitment, and if I am successful, I will buy you the book (at least for the first 100 people who accept my challenge). I'll decide by February 1, 2014 if the diet is something I can support, and if I'll therefore purchase the books by then if I do.
              So, do you accept Paul Epstein's diet challenge? I'm going to post this to my blog as well…whether you take the challenge or not, need to lose weight or not, please wish me luck with a comment and cheer me on, because, after all, surely all of may friends and family would like me to be healthier and (presumably) live a longer and happier life.

note: I ended up with purchasing 8 books for friends and mailed them out before I made my announcement on 11/24/13. The book is titled, The 2-Day Diet: Diet Two Days a Week, Eat Normally for Five by Dr. Michelle Harvie and Professor Tony Howell