The First 3 Weeks on the Program

When you weigh over 300 pounds it is really hard to find a good scale to use to see how much you weigh. Most common sacales only go to 300 pounds or maybe 325 so it puts you at a disadvantage from the very start. I was weighed in the hospital because the bed was set up to do it and then in the doctors office because they have a special scale since they have the HCG weight loss program there. So three weeks into eating low glycemic loaded foods I only had a few choices with regard to weighing myself. I could go to the doctors office and weigh in there, but I was worried that I hadn't lost enough weight. Since I was concerned about what I weighed I decided to go with my second option. The Lansing City Market has a scale that they used to use for weighing in items for market that goes to 500 pounds. That is where I decided to go to weigh myself. I was totally amazed to see that I had lost 23 pounds. I didn't think it was possible so I had my wife get on the scale because she had weighed herself that morning before we went to the City Market and the scale was registering correctly. So how did I lose 23 pounds in 23 days? I did it by following some very simple rules. I cut out all processed food. It does take some work to do this, but it is well worth it. I make everything from scratch now. There are no more boxed dinners full of things that you can't pronounce. I cut out high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup and suger. For sweetners I try to only use a supplement called Stevia which is all natural. I read labels now and if has stuff in it that it shouldn't I don't use it or buy it. I quit drinking carbonated beverages of all kinds diet or regular. I tried to drink 1 ounce of water for every 20 pounds that I weighed. This was by far the hardest thing for me to do. Since weighing over 360 pounds meant that I had to drink 180 ounces of water per day. Holy crap is that a lot of water. I made a list of foods that have glycemic loads of 10 or less and then used those foods in all of my recips when I cook. I eat 5 - 6 times per day, but the portions are small. Even though the portions are small I don't feel hungry because of what I am eating. Because the foods I eat have a low glycemic load they don't spike my blood sugar and then cause cravings. On a typical day I will eat 2 apples, a salad and two other meals. All three meals that I eat have protein in them as well. This helps your body to maintain muscle mass. When losing weight you want to keep the muscle and lose the fat so you need to have protein in your diet. I didn't exercise. I walked one time and that was it. It makes me a little annoyed because if I had then I would have lost more weight. I did go out to eat a couple of times, but I have had no fast food in my diet. My wife and I went to Applebee's a couple of times, but we made smart choices. We ordered the 7 ounce sirloin steak and split it so that it would be the right portion size for each of us. Then we both opted for steamed broccoli for our vegetable. Most people feel that a diet is confining and the truth is that it is. In this case though by changing what I eat it has been liberating. I eat a lot more variety of things than I did before. I am always looking for new things and recipes to try. There are plenty of things to eat that are healthy and taste great. Eating this way is almost like stepping back in time to the 1930's or so. Back then they didnt have processed instant foods. They had to make everyhthing that they ate. While what we call food today is more convenient time wise we have given up nutrition and healthfulness. it is because of this that Diabetes and obesity are so rampant in our society. It took me almost 40 years of my life to realize that there are better ways to do things than to just go ahead with what our society makes out to be normal.

Tips that I used for losing weight:

1) Drink 1 ounce of water for every 20 pounds that you weigh

2) Cut out all fast food

3) Cut out all carbonated beverages

4) Cut out high glycemic load foods such as pasta, rice and breads

5) Eat 5 - 6 small meals each day

6) Eat 2 apples or 2 grapefruit each day

7) Follow a list of Low Glycemic foods (I will share the list as a seperate post)

8) Use only naturally derived sweetners such as Stevia and Xylitol

If you follow these guidelines you will lose weight. Right now there are 3 people including myself that I know are following this lifestyle to varying degrees.

Weight Loss To Date Since October 27, 2009:

Aaron 23 Pounds

Tasha 9 Pounds

Michele 20 Pounds

Orange Chicken Recipe

I am always looking for new recipes to try out as long as they fit within my low glycemic load diet. Tonight I made an Orange Chicken recipe that is made as many all natural products as possible. It also incorporates all but 1 ingredient that has a low glycemic load which is defined as having a glycemic load of less 10 or less. Only the raw orange juice has a higher glycemic load and it is only 12. The Orange chicken turned out wonderful. Here is the recipe for this great tasting dish.

Orange Sauce

1 1/2 Cups Water
2 Tablespoons Raw Orange Juice - Equal to juicing a small orange
1/4 Cup Raw Lemon Juice - Equal to juicing a regular lemon
1/3 Cup Rice Vinegar
2 1/2 Tablespoons Low Sodium Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Grated Orange Zest - Sold in spice section
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar Splenda - Packed
1 Teaspoon Minced Garlic
1/4 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

3 Tablespoons Arrowroot Powder
Sold in same aisle as cornstarch but has no glycemic load
2 Tablespoons Water

2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts cut into 1/2 inch chunks
2 Green Peppers - Chunked
2 White Onions - Chunked
1 Can Water Chestnuts - Drained
3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil or Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions:

1) Combine water, raw orange juice, raw lemon juice, rice vinegar and soy sauce into saucepan at medium high heat.

2) Stir in orange zest, brown sugar splenda, minced garlic and red pepper flakes - Bring sauce to a boil and then remove from heat. Allow sauce to cool for 15 minutes.

3) Place chicken in ziploc bag and pour 1 cup of cooled sauce into bag. Place remaining sauce in covered container and store in fridge.

4) Place ziploc bag with chicken and marinade in fridge and let marinade for at least 2 hours

5) Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Place green peppers, onion, water chestnuts and chicken in skillet and cook for 5 - 7 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Remove peppers, onion, water chestnuts and chicken from skillet and place aside in bowl

6) Wipe out skillet and add remaining sauce. Bring to a boilover medium high heat. Mix together arrowroot and water. Stir mixture into sauce. Reduce heat to medium low and add peppers, onion, water chestnuts and chicken into skillet. Simmer for about 5 minutes stirring frequently.

Serve this great tasting dish in medium sized bowls for a very tasty and healthy meal.

Struggling for a lifetime

My Grandfather once sat on a bench and asked the overweight person next to him "Why did you let yourself get like that?" He said that she really didn't have an answer. Old folks can sure cut right to the chase when it comes to problems with society. I am a memeber of the ever increasing portion of our society that is overweight or obese. Over the past 15 years I have been fat and I have been skinny. I can tell you that skinny is best. When I graduated from high school I weighed just over 200 pounds and had be active in sports including varsity football and baseball. When I went to college I went from being overweight to being obese. I gained weight all the time with no activity from sports and the famed on your own college diet. By my fourth year in college I knew I was seriously overweight, but I hadn't weighed myself in a long time out of shame and denial. Just before Christmas of 1994 I finally broke down and weighed myself. I was astounded with what I saw. I had reached the unthinkable at the time. I weighed 303 pounds. I was so upset that it galvanised me to lose weight. I asked for weights for christmas and I took all my christmas money and bought extra weight lifting equipment. Then I went out and bought a supplement kit from my local GNC called Cybergenics. I followed their workout plan and diet plan and took the dietary supplements included in the program. It wasn't long til I started seeing results. Over the course of the next year I went from weighing 303 pounds down to 175 pounds. I lost a whole person. A person that weighed 128 pounds at least. The problem was that to reach this weight I had to workout every day. It was a constant battle. A battle against obesity that I thought I had won, but only to find out I was really still losing. I approached my obesity like a surgeoon tackles cancer. I surgically attacked it from all sides, but I didn't get any directions on post-op care. Just like recovering from any invasive procedure there are steps you have to follow to recover correctly and I didn't do them. I learned a lot about nutrition, but not how I could apply it daily in my life. As time went by, I exercised less. I gained a little weight back, but nothing that seemed too major. I was still under 200 pounds and happy with my new body. It was around this time that I started working a new full time job that averaged 55 hours per week. It was at this point that exercising stopped. I soon started seeing a girl and that was when the pounds started coming back big time. Dating means movies, eating out and other unhealthy habits. Slowly but surely the obese me was making a come back. Flash forward to 2009, some 15 years later and I am faced with the battle of my life. In April of 2009 I was admitted to the hospital with a severe infection following the passing of a kidney stone. It was during this hospital stay that I learned that my weight had ballooned to over 360 pounds. I also learned that I was on the verge of going from pre-diabetic to facing full blown diabetes. When I got out of the hospital I resolved that I wouldn't let myself continue to kill myself. I didn't want to ever have to inject myself with insulin or face the thought of dialysis. Once again I started to watch what I ate. The hospital gave me a two page pamphlet on diabetic food intake, but it wasn't the most explanatory piece of reading material that I had ever seen. I was able to eat better for a little over a month, but I slipped back into old habits. Over the next five months I did little to help my situation. One day I was at the laundry mat washing clothes when I spotted an ad in the Lansing State Journal. It simply asked the question, "Are you male? Do you want to lose weight?" it had been placed by a local doctor who was running a study on the weight loss effects of the hormone HCG. They were comparing the effects of injected HCG versus oral drops. I called the Wycoff Wellness Center and inquired about the study. They referred me to their website and told me to call back if I was interested in participating. I looked at their website and then did some research on my own about HCG. I talked with my wife about the pros and cons of participating in the study and finally decided to do it. I was already killing myself why not take a chance and see what happens. The cost of the study was $200 and when you only work part time and have no health insurance that is a lot of money. I knew that if I committed myself to doing the program I would have to follow thru. I made my appointment to see Dr. Wycoff and gathered together the money for the study. On October 27th I saw the doctor. They weighed me and took readings on my body mass and basal metabolic rate. I weighed in at 368 pounds. I don't know if this was the heaviest I have ever been, but once you get so heavy it is tough to find scales that can weigh you. My BMI was 57.6 and of my 368 pounds, 148 of them were nothing but fat. Over 40% of my body was made up of fat. Because of my size my basal metabolic rate was 3120 calories. Meaning if I did nothing all day, essentially stayed in bed, my body would burn 3120 calories in a 24 hour period. This was actually a good thing because your body has to burn 3500 calories more than what you take in in order to lose one pound of excess weight. Conversely or perversely, depending on how you look at it, your body only needs to take in 10 calories in order to maintain one pound of excess weight. The doctor went over the program and gave me some paperwork that included recipes and the do's and don'ts of the program. They also wanted me to get bloodwork done before I started the HCG hormone so they could compare the results with bloodwork after I had completed it. The first phase of the program is to last around 4 weeks to get you used to the necessary eating habits and diet restrictions and prepare your body for the second phase. I am currently in phase one and have been now for 25 days. It will be a couple more weeks before I move on to phase 2 since I need to come up with the money for the blood tests. On Friday November 20th I weighed myself for the first time since starting my program. I was amazed by the results. I had lost 23 pounds in 23 days!!! In my next post I will talk about how I got there and share a recipe or two.