Road Food and a Diet

I know, they really don't go together. It is always better to shop and make your food from scratch, as you can get a better price and better nutrition.

Nonetheless sometimes you just want something "bad".

I fit these into my diet plan and do appreciate stopping for a Fresco Chicken Soft Taco at Taco Bell, or a breakfast burrito at McDonald's. There are a couple of tricks to keeping your calorie count low when you make these stops.

The main one for me is to have a ready choice when you arrive. Where I live, menu boards have to have the calorie count posted if a restaurant is of a certain size, if it not, you have to go by an educated guess, so sometimes larger chains are easier. I created a small spreadsheet of common fast food joints and their low calorie options, linked below. It is by no means complete, as I did not include much over 300 calories and nothing I don't care for.
Please note, there are no fast food salads worth mentioning. Either they are too high in calories, or will be once you put anything on them. If I wanted rabbit food, I would get a bag and packet of dressing at the supermarket for far less than the cost of a fast food salad. I really like the single serving packets of dressing you can find at WinCo and I will add a Carl Budding 100 calorie turkey package to make it more interesting.

My favorite fast food go to is the McDonalds Sausage Breakfast Burrito. For only a buck, you get a decent amount of food and only 300 calories. (If you are counting where the calories are coming from, forget fast food anyway.)

Here is the result of my short research:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Oh1ukF4mSpqHtyjZb4W3XoUJUhdoddJJBqqABDWIk6Q/edit?usp=sharing

Most of the data was gleaned from https://fastfoodnutrition.org/.
What they did not have I used the company web site.

Other great resources are Calorie King and Eat This, Not That. (Both are also available in book form.)

On a related note, I suggest keeping a calorie log. There are apps for them out there, I use the one that is part of my FitBit app. But I have used My Fitness Pal in the past.

How Am I Feeling?

Pretty good, thank you for asking.

I am optimistic about actually getting to my long term goal. Here are the facts:

• I started this diet on the 12th of June.
• My long term goal is to make it to a 22% body fat measurement.
• For me, as currently calculated, that would be a weight of 208 lbs.
• I am 22% towards that goal.
• I have been loosing 5.5 lbs per week average since starting this.
• That puts my long term goal projected date before the end of the year.
• An interim goal for me is getting to 280 lbs.
• This is half way to the finish line. 
• I should hit that in mid September, based on my average weight loss numbers.
• My other goal is to get below 250 lbs before our big trip in late October. 
• That puts be below a BMI of 35. I will still be fat.
• It will be close, based on projections. But I can try.
• I know that I will gain a couple on the trip, but I will do my best not to.

I was thinking that, once I make it to my long term goal, I will re-create this photo.
Yes, that is Penn Jillette, before his big weight loss.

A Couple of Days Into the New Plan.

Well, I have gone for two days, now into the third, on my lower calorie plan.

There is always the low level hunger. But I can deal with it. Tuesday, my first day was basically an oatmeal breakfast, some catfish for lunch and a couple of meal replacement drinks throughout the day for a total of just under 1,000 calories. Wednesday, It was the oatmeal, a couple of meal replacement drinks and a large salad with a grilled pork chop for about 1,300 calories. I did fill up on salad, but I did not feel well after eating so much.

Today the plan is oatmeal, meal replacement drink, salad, another meal replacement drink, and some ham. This should put me just under 1,000 calories. There is plenty of wiggle room at this calorie level. I could splurge and get a small hamburger if I need it this evening, but it would be better if I did not.

Temptation is always around. Today a co-worker is retiring, so there is cake. It is far enough away that I won't be tempted too much.

I have noticed that I am not as easily sleeping since dropping the calorie count so far, But I expect that will pass.

My Next Diet Stage

I think I am about ready to start the next phase of my diet plan, taking my caloric intake down near 1,000 calories a day. Still closely monitoring my glucose levels.

I am now able to deal with a 1,200 calorie diet and am not really that hungry. I was at 1,100 calories yesterday, and a projected 1,200 today. Last week averaged 1,700. I am getting used to carrying my test kit with me every day and having something available for raising my glucose levels if I find them too low.

Early in the diet I had some serious craving for carbs, particularly chocolate. That seems to have subsided and I only eat chocolate if I am below a glucose level of 50 mg/dl.

My current meal plan is still:

• Breakfast: Oatmeal with honey.
• Snack: Berries
• Lunch: Garden salad with low cal dressing and some "Carl Budding" meats.
• Dinner: Another salad or, today, and Avacado.
• Evening snack: Low calorie fast food. (It hits the spot, don't judge.)

I plan on keeping the oatmeal. It is very satisfying and I need something through my colon. Likely I will keep the berries, they are like candy and very satisfying. But my other meals I plan on replacing with protein shakes. That should get my calories down to about 1,000 for a daily deficit of about 2,000, this should get me a loss rate of about 4 pounds a week if I keep up my exercise levels.

I am keeping in contact with my physician via e-mail, and expect him to be concerned about my blood glucose levels and happy about my dedication.


Follow up:
I did it for Tuesday. Less than 1,000 calories for the day. I can feel the hunger now, Wednesday afternoon, but I like the results I am getting.

Shedding Pounds and SMART Goals

There is a philosophy out there that you should never "Loose" weight. Something lost can be found again. Psychologically a person may feel deprived at loosing something. So it helps sometimes to consider that you are not loosing anything, but gaining health benefits, fitness, energy, etc.

It's something to keep in mind when you are craving that bag of chips.

On goals: An accepted strategy for setting any goal is to make it "S.M.A.R.T."

• Simple
• Measureable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timely

Two examples of SMART goals would be "I want to loose 5 pounds this month" or "I want to get 10,000 steps a day for a full week." 

• It can be stated in one sentence.
• It has a measurable goal.
• It is reasonably attainable.
• It accomplishes what you want.
• And it has a time limit in the near future.

A few examples that do not meet these criteria would be the following:

• I want to loose weight.
• Not specific.
• No time boundary.
• I want to be skinny.
• Not specific.
• No real metric for "skinny."
• I want to loose 150 pounds.
• Too big.
• Not timely, even if you give it a deadline.
• I want to fit into my college clothes.
• Seriously, do you even have them anymore?
• Is it actually reasonable to think you could?

I try to keep a couple of goals on the horizon in my strive for a lower weight.

• Short term:
• Can I loose 10% of my initial weight before my wife's birthday? 
• Yes, I have 2.5 weeks before then, and only 10 lbs. It will be a push, but I believe I can do it.
• Mid term:
• Reduce my body fat percentage to 45%.
• This would be a loss of 105 lbs. It isn't likely I will get all the way to this goal in a set time frame. And I will be re-adjusting this goal over time as I reach my short term goals.
• Long term:
• Reduce my body fat percentage to 22%.
• Very long term, but I keep it on the horizon in my charts. At my current rate, it would happen next summer. I am not sure I can manage that and it is a long time away. Between now and then, I have a 2 week cruise and the holidays.

Of these, only the short term goal meets the SMART guidelines. I know this and don't stress over the mid and long term ones, I just look at the projected dates when I enter data into my logs. It is nice to see a projected "Finish line" for this work.

Insulin and Dieting

Like my other recent post, "Diabetes and Dieting", this one will focus on the implications of a hard diet and my blood glucose levels.

The main thing is: You have to test more often, and, under the supervision of your physician, adjust your insulin appropriately.

As a diabetic who takes insulin, you have two methods of controlling your blood sugar levels.

• Changing sugar intake.
• Changing insulin intake.

When your glucose levels are high, lowering glucose levels is usually just done with reducing your sugar intake, with your doctor's recommendation for your NPH insulin. If your sugar levels are too varying, you may have a fast acting insulin you adjust to your intake of sugars. If you are on insulin, this should be not be news to you, if you didn't know this, get more educated about your program.

When dieting, especially one as hard as I am working at, you are more concerned with keeping your glucose levels above 75 than you are with them being high. I have had only one reading above 150 in the last month, four below 55. When on a restricted calorie diet, such as I am using, correcting a low glucose level can add 300 calories to what you were hoping was a 1,500 calorie day. The best way to prevent this is by adjusting your insulin over the course of the day and checking your glucose levels when appropriate.

For different insulin types there are different time ranges. The two I use are:

• NPH

• Intermediate acting.
• Onset in 1-2 hours.
• Peak in 4-12 hours.
• Lasts up to 24 hours.

• Lispro

• Rapid acting.
• Onset in 15-30 minutes.
• Peak in 30-90 minutes.
• Lasts 3-5 hours.

(charts are from https://sites.google.com/site/diabetesmapp/insulin-action-curves)

I take the NPH twice a day, morning and evening, to maintain a consistent level of available insulin in my body. I am now reducing my dosage to 40 units, down from 50, on the advise of my physician based on my glucose levels. Per my doctor, if after a week, my glucose levels are stable, or a little low in the mornings, I will reduce it more. The up side to this is that, with the lowered insulin levels, I will not have to be as concerned with dropping too low during the overnight.

The Lispro, on the other hand was initially prescribed at 10 units after dinner. This seems to have been the culprit in my recent low glucose crashes at night. so, now I test about an hour after eating, before taking the Lispro. If my glucose levels are acceptable, I have been told to not take it. If they are a little high, I am taking 5 units, if really high, I take 10. The real trick here is to re-test 2 hours later and see what the levels are at. If I end up dropping too far, I have to change my program, maybe reduce the dose, maybe increase the glucose threshold.

I have found an app that helps me remember to test my glucose. I am still learning it, and it doesn't have the best interface. But if you are determined, you can get some good use out of it. It is called Diabetic Insulin Log/Alert. It is free, but they also have a $2 version that I cannot seem to find. Support the author if you find it useful. When you use it, you enter your glucose level and press the "Log Glucose" button. When you take insulin, enter the dose and press the type of insulin. That's it. a reminder is automatically set for your next test.

Another app I encountered was Diabetes diary. I much preferred the interface on this one, but it is set for mmol/l instead of mg/dl, so not as useful to me for logging my glucose levels. It also wanted a lot more permissions for just a log.

On a side note. I am finally free of the pepperoni sticks I was consuming on my drive. I worked the last ones into my plan and they are now gone. I also took advantage of a shorter than normal commute and cleaned out the car of my non-appropriate snacks. If it isn't there, I cannot eat it right?

Diabetes and Dieting

Whew, it happened again.

My internal low blood sugar "Alarm" woke me up this time. At least this time I had the sense to get up and verify it. Down to 49 mg/dl. A hand full of chocolate covered granola, and 20 minutes later it is back up to 90 and I felt comfortable going back to bed, as the strange feeling and sweats were absent. My morning blood sugar was at 79, about where it should be. When I took my evening blood sugar level, before taking my 'fast' insulin, it was at about 120. I cut my dose in half per my doctor's instructions but it still dropped me too low.
This

A few days earlier, I had a similar experience and so I can recognize the symptoms a lot better now.

I think the main trigger for last night's episode was a 1 day "Crash" diet, just over 1,000 calories, in an attempt to overcome my perceived plateau. I ended up at 1480 calories for the day. The crash did force a downward plunge in the weight, but I will have to be more careful of what and when I eat and medicate.

Today's plan will be:

• Breakfast: 210 calories
• Quick oats: 150 calories
• Honey: 60 calories
• Snack: 160 calories
• 16 oz Strawberries: 160 calories
• Lunch: 333 calories
• Salad: 53 calories (Just bagged lettuce mix)
• Sesame Ginger dressing: 100 calories
• Carl Budding Turkey (2): 180calories
• Afternoon caffeine: 30 calories
• Wired energy: 30 calories
• Dinner: 140 calories
• Protein shake: 140 calories
• Drive home snack:
• Pepperoni sticks: 375 calories

A total of 1,248 calories for the day. Or a deficit of 780 calories from my calculated BMR. And 2250 below my expected actual burn according to Fitbit. As long as I am careful of my blood sugar levels, I should be able to keep up this plan.

The trick, for me at least, is that I could have whatever I want. But, I have to account for it. A 16 minute mile accounts for about 275 calories. If I want that slice of cheesecake, I have to work it off, or skimp elsewhere in my daily intake. Frankly, I am lazy and will eat a pound of strawberries instead, to me they taste better, don't upset my blood sugar level as much, and I am lazy besides. I would rather that walking be done to remove weight than to compensate for a momentary pleasure.

By strictly measuring my intake I am also less likely to graze. Absent minded eating while doing other things. I can have that cup of chips, but I have to measure it out first and record it. Meanwhile I am trying to get my wife to start monitoring her intake as she was complaining that her progress is stagnating. 

Weight Loss Plateaus Suck.

Well, I officially calling this a weight loss plateau. I am at the same weight I was a week ago. A half pound higher, a half pound lower over the week. But all the same, I am calling it.

Yeah, over a week, it doesn't sound like I really got stuck. But it can be discouraging. I am taking it as a reminder to more closely watch what I am eating. I think I know the culprit though, beef pepperoni. Each one isn't that bad, 130 calories each, but it is really easy to just keep eating them when you buy them in bulk. So, no more buying them. Damn, I liked those things. Tomorrow I will be sorting through the stash I have in my car and will be disposing of bad things, i.e. sending them to the grand kids. I don't think there is much to get rid of, but it doesn't hurt to check.

So, recognizing this as a barrier to overcome, I am redoubling my efforts. Today's intake plan is as follows:

• Breakfast: 300 calories
• McDonald's sausage breakfast burrito: 300 calories.
• Morning Snack: 289 calories
• Fresh blueberries, 510 g: 289 calories.
• Caffeine kick: 30 calories
• Wired sugar free drink: 30 calories
• Lunch: 230 calories
• Winco garden salad: 90 calories
• Sesame ginger dressing: 50 calories
• Carl Budding chicken: 90 calories
• Dinner: 230 calories
• Same as lunch, just before leaving work.

My logger shows it at 1,079 calories. I will likely have a little something on the way home, but will keep it under 300 calories. This should keep my deficit at least at 700 calories under my base metabolic rate of 2,031 calories as calculated by my scale, with any exercise as an added bonus to that deficit. I have a second BMR value of 2,461 calories from another source. I will use the lower value for now. Yes, I am of the belief that as long as (calories in) < (calories out) = (weight loss). I know it is more complex than that, but the calories have to come from somewhere, as long as I am getting exercise, it shouldn't be from muscle mass. There is some interesting graphing software on this from fourmilab.ch called "The Hacker's Diet". Note the subtitle for the program, the plan is entertaining as well as informative, taking an engineering approach to the problem.

I found an article last week saying that fitness trackers are not that great for actually getting healthier, even the ones with heart rate monitoring can be incorrect with the number of calories used over the course of a day. So I am changing my focus from the calorie deficit that my Fitbit Charge 2 is reporting to an actual deficit from my calculated BMR instead. This should at least get me over the plateau, then I can bring it back up when the weight loss is showing again.

On a side note, I get to do a cardiac stress test on Tuesday. I am not looking forward to it.

Postscript: I ended the day at 1480 calories after having to rescue my blood sugar level at 4 in the morning.

Items mentioned in this post:

Vacations and Weight Loss

Two concepts that don't go well together, Vacation and Weight Loss.

I did take a week off of work. This included Independence Day and a 2 night camp out at the coast. I am really glad I had already been working on the diet before the trips. I feel that I was able to make smarter choices than I had in the past. I drank a lot of water and managed not to gorge on camp food. Marshmallows don't count anyway, right?

All in all, my blood sugars were managed OK enough, waking numbers below 100, no bedtime crashes. A couple of days before, I experienced my first low blood sugar episode since I was diagnosed as diabetic. I was having sweats at bed time and started not thinking right. My wife asked me to check my glucose level and it was below 50. I self medicated with chocolate and a half hour later was up to around 100. Not a fun experience, it could have gone badly, as I had just taken my slow acting insulin and my blood sugar level could have gotten pretty low by morning.

The truth of my week off of work is in the numbers, I lost 3.5 pounds from the 3rd to the 12th. I think it is going OK.

Here is a startrail image I tried to make from the campsite. One of these days I want to try to stack images to get a single image instead of a trail image.

This was created using a free software for Windows called Startrails. Images were taken with my GoPro 4 Silver with an external battery pack.

What a difference a scale can make.

I know I mentioned this scale last week, but I kinda hit a plateau and the extra features of the scale are making a difference in attitude.

This is the scale I am referring to. Using the app, it can report many things. I believe they are based on body capacitance, and a number of them are inferred by other measurements. but here they are as reported by the app:

• Weight
• BMI
• Body Fat %
• Fat Free Body Weight 
• Subcutaneous Fat %
• Visceral Fat
• Body Water %
• Skeletal Muscle %
• Muscle Mass
• Bone Mass
• Protein %
• BMR (Base Metabolic Rate) Kcal
• Metabolic Age

As I said, most are calculated by the BMI and Body Fat % numbers. I did have to enter my height, frame size, and gender.

Back to the difference it is making in monitoring my progress. While, I can see that the weight is wavering at this first plateau, I can see than the fat % is decreasing while the muscle mass is increasing. This is to be expected as I am exercising more, and it shows in my waist size and not my weight. I am two notches smaller on my belt than I was 3 weeks ago.

If you are at a plateau in your weight loss struggle, try using a scale that measures more than just weight, you may be turning fat into muscle.

Fitness trackers

Well, as I said in my last post I started down another weight loss trail on the 12th on June of this year. I was finding that my shirts were not fitting well anymore and I was just getting tired of it all.
I was walking through Costco and saw a deal on the Fitbit Charge 2. I decided to grab it up and start taking charge of my life. (See what I did there?)

Now, I wear a watch and really don't want a "Connected" timepiece, so I have notifications turned off as well as having the auto display turned off via the app. I do wear both it and my regular watch.
The battery life seems to stay true to it's forecast 5 days, I will see it at a medium level two days after charging it. I bring the charger cable in my lunch bag so that I may charge it when I am sitting at my desk and not at risk of taking a walk.
I appreciate the hourly "Move it" reminder. I have my walks set out at my various work sites so that I can just go on a "round" when the alert goes off. Every little bit helps.
I am nowhere near the 10,000 steps per day, but the tracking helps me move toward that goal. My friends list also helps to motivate me so that at least I am not at the bottom of the list.
I have my connected scale linked to the app, so that is one less thing to enter in the morning.
The app also is good for tracking calorie intake, my favorite part of this is being able to scan the bar code of an item and easily enter the item in my meal counts.
I used to use a Fitbit One. A similar device, but without the pulse rate monitor. I like the pulse rate monitor on the Charge, as it does a better job of monitoring my sleep habits and calculating my exercise levels. However the One is better suited as a device you keep in your pocket, so it is more appropriate for some dress options.

I am going to add, If you do get the Charge 2, it is always nice to protect the display. I found these and found it very easy to install and you have plenty if you need to replace it later.

Where did this come from?

Ok, I know it has been a while, but here goes.

Today's posting:

Today is day one of a month long challenge to NOT use Facebook, therefore this post, as I want to document things anyway.

I woke up, picked up my phone, and instead of going to the Facebook feeding trough, I hit all three of my email inboxes and took care of the 200 or so unread e-mails. Mostly just select all, go through and look at the senders, deselect ones I want to check, and delete the remainder.

I did my morning weigh in. Great news, still loosing weight! On June 12th I decided that I needed to loose weight. So on that day I started. My initial weigh in was 351.8 lbs. I am 6'2" but that isn't tall enough for this weight, I cannot get any taller, so I must loose the weight instead. Since the 12th I have upgraded my scale to a connected one, it wasn't necessary, but I like the better information such as BMI and fat percentage that it provides. Since the start of this, I have lost 15.9 pounds. I am not kidding myself, I have more than 130 to go until I am no longer considered obese, but it's a great start for 3 weeks into it. I am doing this by watching calories more than anything else, I am increasing my steps per day, but I am still pretty sedentary on work days. One side benefit I am seeing already, besides less strain on my shirt buttons, is that my blood sugar is down from 130 in the morning to 90. It is amazing, when you are trying to count ALL calories, how some simple changes can make a huge difference. But that's enough of that.

Here is the scale I am using. I had my doubts, as I didn't want to have other people's measurements interfering with my logging, but the phone only logs the information when the app is open to a user profile, so any number of users can use it, each with their own profile. The scale reports back a number of items besides just weight. It will give you BMI, body fat percentage, water percentage, muscle mass, etc. For me the important ones are weight, BMI and body fat percentage. I am charting them on a spreadsheet and like seeing the trend on my graphs. From the information the scale provides, I have the spreadsheet determine my ideal goal weight, one with only 22% body fat, and projecting a completion date based on my past week's loss rate. I have an intermediate goal weight, which was just a number picked from the air of 100 lbs less than when I started, or 250 lbs.
Here is my goal date graph.

I didn't expect it to stay as good as earlier weeks, but it's really nice to see a future with healthier numbers.