An Unsuspected Rebound; Plus, My New Favorite Grocer

 I think when I last blogged here, I had had some weird flu or something that pretty much knocked me out for a few days. I was wondering if I had been infected with COVID-19 (mostly because of saturation coverage, but the symptoms didn't fit, and for the most part, other than say brief grocery runs, occasional haircuts or medical appointments, I really haven't been exposed to other people since for the last 10 months I've mostly worked from home.) There were a few weeks I worked a day on site, but the nearest colleague worked diagonally from me several feet away. Over the years other than the occasional cold and of course my obesity, I've enjoyed fairly good health; I've held jobs where I've never used my health insurance.

I just reread my last post, and I think I ended up dropping another 3 pounds or so, so nearly a dozen pounds in less than a week. Now I've had some whooshes over the years up to that range over a few days, but that was usually after a water gain spike and never where I went through a period of being nauseated by the very thought of food. So I knew the loss wasn't sustainable and I was probably dehydrated a bit, and I expected to quickly regain some or most of that back as I regained my appetite (which took a couple of weeks). But little did I realize since then I would regain a swing of nearly 40 pounds! I remember putting on 20 pounds during 3 months in Brazil in 1995 (I ate well and wasn't working out at the gym). I'm not sure exactly what happened here; since then I've dropped about 8 of those pounds back, but I'm still about 20 pounds over where I was back around early September. There are some indulgences I've enjoyed: occasional dollar burritos, potato salad, canned soup and pasta, and/or jalapeno flavored kettle potato chips from Walmart but really I wasn't binge eating and for the most my diet followed the same regimen over the last few years.

I have to own up to my responsibility and it starts by phasing out my indulgences. But part of the story, i suspect, was a recent change in prescriptions a few months back. I know one of my sisters got diagnosed as bipolar maybe about 20 years back, and the prescriptions that worked for her condition had an unexpected side effect of a significant weight gain. My sister never had a weight problem through the first several years of her marriage and 3 kids. So I Googled my newer generic prescription, and sure enough one of the side effects include an unexpected weight gain. This doesn't mean it applies in my case, and it's not clear what are the specifics, e.g., water retention, salt metabolism, an adverse effect on metabolism. I have a follow-up with my doctor in just over 3 months or so to discuss it with her. I know I wanted a cheaper alternative to branded prescriptions that can retail up to or over $800/month, and insurance wouldn't kick in until I hit something like $6000 in deductibles. That's literally more than my car payment.

It's just frustrating going back to a point where I was a couple of years back. It came back stealthily; i hadn't weighed myself since my doctor's visit in January. At first I wondered if my scale had broken. But that would have been a state of denial. I have to take it one day at a time.

I've probably mentioned  Lidl in passing in past posts. It's a German-owned chain from the early 1970's, likely a top competitor to the Aldi/Trader Joe chains in the US. There are some nuances among the chains. For example, Aldi's requires a quarter to retrieve a shopping cart, but you get it back when you return the cart. You don't have plastic bags like at Walmart for your produce at Lidl but much of it is bagged or packaged; you probably don't need a bag for bananas, but occasionally you have to gather, say, multiple mangoes. Occasionally Lidl will provide shipping boxes for customer reuse. I don't think Aldi or Lidl offers free grocery bags (paper or bag) although you can buy them for a nominal charge at Lidl (like up to 20 cents). I don't think Trader Joe charges for double paper bags. I'll normally bring a couple of garbage bags I bought at Sam's Club and/or recycle some bags from Walmart for produce. At Lidl and Aldi, you're expected to bag yourself. I haven't been to Trader Joe or Aldi in a while, but Lidl has the self-checkout kiosks I adore. The only issue I have is getting a clerk's attention with some weird issue, like pints of blueberries weren't scanning and for God knows what reason, mangoes triggered a reading of grapes.

Trader Joe has a dizzying array of, e.g., nut varieties and nut butters, and lots of premium private label specialty foods, a particular emphasis on healthier foods, with a limited selection of branded items, like Food for Life's sprouted grain Ezekiel bread at a very competitive price (like about $4.50/loaf last time I shopped there). Lidl offers typically its private labels and occasional name brands like Coke (but it stocks just a few shelves of soda, not a whole aisle, like at Walmart). But I'm impressed by the brands it carries, like Wild Planet tuna and Banza chickpea pasta. I've bought Wild Planet directly in the past (I don't think they do that anymore). Sam's Club used to carry chickpea pasta, and I think Men's Health or a similar portal introduced me to Banza.

It's difficult to summarize why I like Lidl so much but a few examples:

• the selection, prices, and frequent specials on grass-fed/finished meats. For example, they recently had ground lamb for about $4.50/lb. Saturday, they had ground beef at $3/lb. Their shelves are the best stocked and varied I've seen locally. You'll find round steak, sirloin steak, chuck roast, ribeye steak, and strip steak. The steaks are often in 8-ounce packages, and they'll often chop $2-3 /each of a limited quantity purchase. They recently did a BOGO on sirloin  which amounted  to about $3/steak. One of these packages makes 2 dinners.
• as a low-carber, I don't ear a lot of bread, but the best deal at Walmart for a store-brand whole wheat is like $1.50, if in stock/usually isn't and the cheapest name brand is like $1+ more. So Lidl sells its loaves for maybe $1,05 and it's got a premium country version (reminds me of Arnold's) at about $1.25.  A package of whole wheat  English muffins at $1.49,
• once they had a sale on small lobster tails for like $2/pack of 3. I love these things; I still have a pack or 2 in my freezer. They sometimes put bags of scallops on sale at a good price.
• brick-oven marguerita pizza. Yeah, I know: not a diet food. I can't remember how I got turned onto this meatless variety; maybe Lean Cuisine back in the day, but I haven't seen it in ages. They had a 3-pack on special for like $3.50. Recipes vary; to some people these may be little more than glorified cheese pizzas, but the crust is thin and crisy and the topping tasty

There are other things about the Lidl experience; sort of a twist on the old Kmart blue-light specials. I mentioned in my latest journal post in the political blog an example of limited-time specials like boxes of 100 k-cup coffee pods for about $20. They also have an aisle or two of general merchandise, everything from clothing items to gardening supplies, often attracting lots of shoppers, so apparently some good bargains.

Another thing is they have some interesting customer purchase reward coupons. I was confused at first which category items were ineligible, but I was delighted to find I got a good deal on toilet paper over and beyond the sale price. I also ended up paying just over $2/box on Banza pasta and my ground beef at nearly $2.50/lb, the lowest price I've ever paid for grass-fed beef.

A Shitty Way to Lose Weight

 This year has one of those times when I put in a new weight floor (back in February) and then I struggle for weeks or months just to revisit my old low again. Sometimes even a modest change in prescriptions can have dramatic effects; one of my sisters gained a lot of weight over a mental health medication. I don't think I've had a year over year gain for some time  but it's embarrassing to weigh in at a doctor's office maybe 12-15 pounds you think over your weight. In one annoying case my BMI went up over a reading I had for an outpatient procedure earlier this year.

This, in the middle of the current COVID-19 madness a week back I got hit by some nasty bug from hell; no, not COVID-19 symptoms, but I rarely get run down, so this was new. It's amazing how unprepared I was just to take my own temperature, just to confirm no fever. I had bought a digital thermometer years back from Walmart, had never used it, and the weird batteries had died. I ordered a no-contact Chinese-made one via Amazon, and was unable to get it to work until I flipped position of one of the AAA batteries. I was about to order a replacement unit--no legible instructions on battery placement.

I have my scale in the kitchen and it can be sensitive with placement. Occasionally one of the batteries will dislodge and I have to reseat it. So I was skeptical when I first saw it dip below my February low. But down I'm down nearly 9 points since that target, almost ready to break another 10. Make no mistake; I'm still obese but I'm roughly in the middle of a range where I was during the 1990's.

But for the moment my appetite over the past week is crap. Solid food still nauseates me; I'm barely tolerating fruit and soup

The Struggle Continues; Food Dreams

It's been quite a while since my last post, and I wish I had an improvement to report, but immediately after reaching a new multi-year low, I went on the beginning of a monster bounce, which eventually peaked about 15 lbs.; as of this morning, it's back down to about 7 over my low, and that's after a whoosh over the past week or so. Part of the story may have involved going off an old med because the prescription changed but under COVID-19 office staffing issues, it had been delayed, and I transitioned to a new health plan which vastly increased my prescription co-pay to about my car payment. I'm now on a new med which costs less, and it may be helping my weight as a nice side-effect. Of course, it may just be a coincidence.

I don't know about whether other dieters dream about food, but I often do. I really haven't eaten college food since graduate school at UT/Austin. (I briefly lived in off-campus graduate school housing at UH but didn't subscribe to a meal plan on campus.) I did eat lunch on campus at two university clients in 2008. Anyway, I often have nightmares about old days as a college student pursuing 4 degrees. Quite often it's something like I'm sitting for a final where I haven't attended a lecture or opened the textbook all semester. Usually these aren't food related, so this was novel. I was back in a cafeteria line, and all the entrees  were crap. I noticed at the end of the buffet there were a couple of trays of succulent roast chicken sections, and I asked the worker for a portion; she refused saying that I had missed the afternoon deadline to place an order.

In a different dream, somehow involving WWE wrestler/executive HHH, I came into a room where obviously 3 or 4 colleagues had stuffed themselves with pizza. (Pizza is a staple for IT worker shared meals; I've had many at company/HR lunches and/or after-hours maintenance work.) But apparently the only pie left wasn't my desired pepperoni or supreme, but something that looked like gravy smeared over flatbread. Pass!

A Weight Threshold is Crossed

Well, for 2 months now I had a weight resistance level that seemed to defy being broken. This one was 3 pounds over an even 50-lb. increment on a physician balance scale. So the next time I go to the doctor, they'll finally have to go down a notch on the big slide. A pound loss is just like any other pound, but it's demoralizing to see nurses have to reset a balance scale from the last patient up a notch or two. So, yes, I finally took out a 2-month low--and overnight that 50-lb. barrier. I don't know if the new 3/3.5 net new low exhausts the whoosh. You might hope for maybe a 1.5-lb loss per week, maybe 6 pounds a month. The last time I went through a long-term resistance level, it seemed to lead to a more normal weight loss schedule for the next few weeks.

Ironically I was on yet another bounceback earlier this past weekend when I caught a nasty cold/flu. In a weird sense I've rarely had these for most of my adult life and until the last couple of years haven't taken the usual flu shot. I basically lost my appetite in the process; true, I welcomed seeing the latest bounce water gain drop off, but it's a shitty way of losing weight.

My New Year Diet Resolution Continues

I had to re-read my last post; in fact, shortly thereafter, I took out my 2004 low, only by a couple of pounds, but still... And then I had one of my rare demoralizing super bouncebacks, nearly twice or so the usual 6 pounds or so. And in the middle of all this I went to Texas for a week over the holidays with my Mom and also 3 siblings. I had two family holiday meals and went out to 3 restaurants (although I didn't get my usual BBQ plate, say at Bill Miller's, or fast food breakfast tacos (no, not McDonald's version)).

One of those was an all-you-care-to-eat Chinese restaurant, which is far different than the ones I've been to in the past, which were typically a line of buffet pans with eggrolls and Chinese-American dishes like chow mein and the like. This was analogous to the buffet I experienced at Biola University when I worked for SGHE 12 years back. That was unlike anything I experienced while boarding for my first 2 college degrees, typically single buffet lines where you might choose among 2-3 entrees. Biola had a bread island, a couple of entree lines, including a more natural foods line, a fast food island (where you could order burgers and fries), etc. The variety of offerings dwarfed what I remembered in campus cuisine or your typical pizza or Chinese food buffets. I'm sure I would have gained more than the freshman 15 pounds.

So this Chinese chain has an amazing variety, including racks of sushi (which I've never seen in a buffet before; personally I'm not into sushi--I remember my friend Ray in Sao Paulo, promising to find a restaurant that cooked fish). But they had a grill section where you could have a small steak cooked to order, crabcakes, crawfish, fried shrimp, pizza, sausages, the typical things you might see at a Panda's like Gen. Tso's chicken, side dishes (e.g., baked potato), soups, salads and more, not to mention a vast variety of desserts, fruit/melons and ice cream. I think it costs maybe $16 plus drink. I did not eat everything I mentioned; I did have steak, a crabcake and egg drop soup and a few other items.

But I find, especially as I've gotten used to small portion Nutrisystem foods and perhaps my aging metabolism, that I really can't eat that much food anymore. My Mom and I went to this seafood place (she particularly loves the gumbo); I also ordered the "catfish special" which came with so many fillets, I had to take a doggie bag home and made a full meal with the leftovers.

Long story short, I quickly dropped 4 pounds of water gain returning from my trip, maybe a typical bounce away from my new low a few weeks back. I can't predict when I'll revisit my low; I remember the last time I was in this situation, I dropped 6 pounds, just to see another 6-lb. bounce.

The nice thing is I now get fit into slacks 4 inches smaller than last year and I can use some of my late Dad's longer belts; also I can fit into shirts one or 2 sizes smaller. I still have a long way to go to get to my goal, but I'm probably in the weight range I had in the 1990's. I'm maybe 40 pounds from breaking the bottom of that range. Ironically, my cellphone holster slipped off one of Dad's old belts, and water-related damage required replacing the phone. (I recently wrote a related post in my core political blog.)

Nutrisystem wasn't happy when I postponed my next shipment by a month, but in part I knew I would be gone for a week, plus I had a backlog of certain products  Sometimes I just want a change of pace, like eggs or grass-fed beef.

Although I still follow a lower-carb regimen, in part for health reasons, I'm more price-sensitive relevant to nutritional elements. For example, I'm less willing pay a huge premium for food just because it has 'organic', 'paleo', 'keto', 'free-range', 'wild-caught', 'low-carb' or 'grass-fed' in front of it. For example, it may very well be that Eggland eggs or cage-free eggs have modest nutritional benefits over a dozen Walmart commodity eggs, but first of all, I don't eat that many eggs and if and when Walmart prices eggs at less than $1/dozen it's hard to justify paying double or triple that for premium eggs. Eggs are still nutrition powerhouses. Don't get me wrong: I still review nutrition labels and have preferences in ingredients. I am also more tolerant of potatoes which have gotten a bad rap; I simply eat them on occasion with protein and limit the serving size. But gone are the days I'll shell out $5 or more for a loaf of bread. For instance, I can buy Walmart Great Value 100% Whole Wheat bread for about $1.50 a loaf, with about 10 net carbs and 70 calories per slice. Some ingredients make me cringe a bit; I wouldn't classify it as a health food, but I've used it, e.g., to make a sandwich with Nutrisystem's BBQ chicken spread, and I don't eat bread most days.

This probably isn't a big item on most people's grocery lists, but as a native Texan, I love Tex-Mex and tortillas. Of course you can use tortillas for fajitas and various wraps, but I'll often use them for omelettes, topped with salsa or hot sauce. At any rate, I spotted some lower-carb tortillas in the Walmart bread aisle, including some sprouted wheat (like, although not, Food for Life) offerings at about $3+ a pack. I sometimes buy the Tumaros "ancient grains" packs on sale at Shoprite.

A Watched Kettle Never Boils

I've sometimes run across monster bouncebacks of up to 15 pounds to some extent I've exacerbated issues with my diet about 3 weeks back I had a job offer that fell through (paperwork contingencies) itlooked as though I would be moving to Pennsylvania I had a lot of canned goods that I didn't want to move or throw out good food. So maybe salt intake led to higher water retention , etc. But finally this morning I'm about 2 off my recent low. maybe 3 lbs away my 2004 low. I'm still well above my healthy weight target--enough to be classified as morbidly obese at a recent hospital stay. But  there is notable progress in the sense that I have run out of notches on my recent belt, and older pants are too baggy.

It used to be I could buy Australian grass-fed beef at ShopRite for about $3.99/lb vs. $5.50/lb at Walmart; I guess I hadn't shopped there in a while because on my last trip it was up a whopping $3 a lb; they were selling conventionally-finished T-bone steaks cheaper! (Yes, I bought the steak.)

Progress is Slow But Sure; my Favorite Part of Nutrisystem Food

Well, I see interesting patterns in my weight loss journey; in putting in a new multi-year low last month, I almost immediately started a two-cycle bounce, including on one day, a discouraging 5-lb spike. Those are the days that can sap your enthusiasm. You just know that you didn't binge over the previous day, maybe somehow your body is trying to reset an equilibrium. (I also have a bad habit of weighing myself multiple times a day, beyond my usual weigh-in in the morning after a bathroom break) So early this week I woke up after a late afternoon nap to find out I had suddenly dropped 3 lbs. taking out my prior low by nearly a pound. And usually that's a good sign because my morning weigh-ins improve over prior afternoon weigh-ins.

So now I'm about 4 pounds below my prior September low. There are a couple of interesting things about my current weight; I'm about 7 pounds away from my 2004 low-carb diet low, just before my folks' anniversary, and so when I reach beyond that, it would be my lowest weight in at least 20 years. Second, I'm so used to say I'm over 100 lbs. overweight. But technically I'm now less than 100 pounds over my weight when I passed my Navy physical many years ago. Make no mistake--I still have a long way to go, at least 1-2 years away, even at an aggressive clip of 1-1.5 lbs. a week.

The current pattern is interesting--I've plateaued at nearly the same low weight for 4 days in a row. I'm used to seeing rebounds/bounces after putting in a new low. I've seen hints of an additional loss, but I'm intrigued by the changed pattern.

What do I like about Nutrisystem assortments? Well, first of all, I may not be on the same plan as others because I'm concerned about maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. So you don't see a lot of egg or meat entrees. I do recall in the past an eggs frittata entree, but maybe they've discontinued it or it's not on this plan. Much more emphasis (breakfast) on cereal, oatmeal and/or presumably higher protein pastries, like blueberry muffins. I never much cared for cereals; if and when I bought them in the past, I tended to gravitate towards original Shredded Wheat or Grapenuts (no, not Nutrisystem options--they are more like bran flakes). I'll tolerate occasional oatmeal. So I tend to prefer the pastry options; granted, no one is going to confuse Nutrisystem blueberry muffins for the oversized variety you'll buy at a bakery, but given I never buy muffins on my own, it's still a "treat"; among other things, what I'm getting from Nutrisystem is consistent quality healthy food and portion control.

I usually choose a fair proportion of protein bars, etc., which are convenient to carry and ready-to-eat. But in part, I particularly like the comfort food/pasta options, like lasagna and ravioli., and the wide variety of options (Nutrisystem allows you to adjust your options from some baseline bundle). Make no mistake--no one is going to compare Nutrisystem lasagna with Olive Garden's. And I'm not going to order 28 days of lasagna. But when you pick it out after 3 weeks of no lasagna, it's almost a treat.