A Follow-up Spike?

I really didn't intend to post so soon again but I had forgotten to mention in my last post that for the first time in months I had finally decided to buy some new dress jeans and belts; it's been frustrating because the dangerous weight around the middle seems to stubbornly defy visible loss. I end up wearing bigger waist slacks which otherwise run baggy on me. Nevertheless, I have noticed that I've lost a few inches around the waist and have had to tighten up my belt a few spokes. I still can't find anything bigger than say 46 inches at a WalMart so I still have to go mail order/Internet. (I know, some people's heads can't imagine 46 inches, never mind anything bigger. I was in the best shape of my adult life around 24, and I wore around 34 inch waist slacks. I ran across some of them during a recent move and it was like they were mocking me.) So I took a little gamble and tried ordering slacks and belts about 6 inches smaller in the waist (without a tape measure); maybe I'm a victim of wishful thinking. It may depend on the cut of the clothes, but even if they run a bit small, it gives me more incentive to lose a little more.

I was actually surprised to break my blog jinx (i.e., a weight bounce the day after a post) and temporary break through a ten-multiple threshold; was I in the middle of a monster whoosh? After all, my last bounce only peaked a couple of pounds before whooshing back down a couple of new pounds. Alas, no. I weighed it this morning with a 3.5 lb spike--and initial indications that it could double or more tomorrow. The only thing I can do is keep in mind, no, I did not go on an eating binge; it's likely just water retention. Probably it will coming off a pound or two a day over the coming week; there have been days where I seem to be going to  the restroom constantly. I have had 6-10 pound bounces on multiple occasions over the past year. But sometimes these bounces can recur for weeks without hitting a new low and/or come off very slowly like losing the same weight all over again.

Why water retention? Could it be a serving or two of lightly salted quinoa tortilla chips I purchased recently from Sam's Club? I don't think so. That probably didn't help, but it's not like I'm eating bags of chips. It reminds me of my old Yahoo low carb recipe days when a woman complained she wasn't losing weight and had posted her diet, and the Atkins fundamentalists quickly decided the corn kernels in her mixed veggies were the problem. I suspect it's part of a bigger picture of my body stabilizing to a lower weight.

I hope the weight spikes peak with tomorrow's weigh-in; but if it continues for a third day, I'll probably stay off the scale for a while. I register my weight at a web portal, but I refuse to record my weight during bounces; if I report a 3-lb bounce on the portal, I'll get a patently absurd warning that I'm on track to put on another 1000 pounds this year.

As I mentioned above I made a recent trip to Sam's Club--and found another shopping staple has disappeared: a natural, no-nitrates-added thickly sliced bacon multi-pack (in addition to sandwich thin mega-packs). (There are multiple 4-lb. bacon alternatives, including frozen meats.) Some of the new staples: as mentioned above, quinoa tortilla chips (they carry a couple of brand), and New Zealand grass-fed cheddar cheese. I'll usually grab some grass-fed ground beef and typically one of their imported lamb options (including ground lamb and boneless leg of lamb, which I'm pretty sure is pasture-raised). I had a look in their processed meats/sausages section and found some already-cooked grass-fed beef sirloin slices (seasoned) for roughly $11+/lb., which is not a bad price. For the occasional dessert or treat, there are various things like dark chocolate bark (with seeds and/or nuts) and various clusters with ingredients like coconut, chia or other seeds, There are also boxes of Nature's Bakery flavored (e.g., raspberry) fig bars made with 100% whole wheat. They are also hyping anything "organic" or "free range". For example, they have various free range chicken sausage varieties. I'm generally a skeptic when it comes to processed meats (I literally do not remember the last time I ate a hot dog), but I noticed they had linguiça which I decided to try (there is a heavy Portuguese population in my folks' hometown of Fall River, MA; in fact, my mom's cousin worked in a Portuguese bakery, not to mention one of my sisters in law is of Portuguese descent.).

Next, I flirted with the idea of posting a Butcherbox link, which might provide a slight incentive to me if anyone clicked on the link. I've mentioned Butcherbox in recent posts. Basically, for about $130/month (including shipping) they will ship 7-10 pounds of mostly premium cuts of grass-fed beef, organic chicken or heritage pork (or mixed meats). I subscribe to the beef program. In any event, I didn't want to make it look like I was a shill for any vendor (I've mentioned WalMart, Vitacost, Netrition, and certain food brands, in the blog, and I've not gotten so much as a discount coupon from any of them, never mind free products. I spend my own money and do take advantage of occasional sales, open to the general public.)

So if you are interested in what Butcherbox has to offer, go to butcherbox.com. They often run a new  customer promotion like, e.g., a free add-on package of heritage bacon with your first shipment and $10 off your first box.

Some of the worst temptations come from your fellow workers. For some reason, my co-workers celebrate Pizza Thursdays. Even the late shift guys; I've temporarily rejoined the late shift and saw my two principal co-workers walk in with small pizza boxes; I don't mean one or 2 slices, but whole pizza pies. (Neither guy is thin, but they aren't my size.) If and when I eat pizza, I like the works, but like many, if not most people I savor pepperoni (and sausage) pizza, I don't think I've bought a slice of pizza since last August when I lived in temp housing. It's pure envy; a protein bar or cookie is no alternative to freshly baked pizza: pure pizza envy. But it does show I have willpower.

Finally, I've had a nagging cough/cold over the last few weeks. My supervisor thinks it could be local allergies and suggests consuming locally produced honey. I'm not sure it's allergies, but in fact, if you check into mainstream health portals, you'll find honey listed with many beneficial effects including a natural cough suppressant. So I'll take the extra 21 calories in a teaspoon of honey; yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Forgetting to Eat?

It's spooky how often as I reach a diet low and publish a post here, I immediately go into a bounce which takes a week or so to resolve.The good news is this time I went past my new low and have lost the next couple of pounds which had been foreshadowed by earlier interim weigh-ins. I think I've taken out the low I set during my Nutrisystem phase; my new target is about 20 pounds away; this was based a BMI index ceiling for my height that many health insurers set for the individual coverage market. (I really didn't want bundled services, just bare bone coverage for catastrophic risks.) It also serves as an upper bound for my weight range during my workout 90's and 2000's and about 15 pounds over my low-carb diet low in 2004, which stalled out. Easier said than done, because even at a 1.5 lb/week clip, which hasn't happened during this diet experience, it will take at least 3 months to take out that upper-bound target and another 2.5 months to reach my 2004 low.

I did have one of my funny diet anecdote moments yesterday. I sometimes vary my diet; I'm currently on a later work shift and so I'll bring one or 2 protein bars and/or cookies for my dinner period. For breakfast this week I've been doing 2-3 slices of bacon. an omelette (a couple of eggs, fresh mushrooms, onions, jalapeno peppers and some KerryGold cheese; I'll stick it in the microwave for about 2.5 minutes), which I'll often stuff into a low-carb tortilla and add some picante sauce/salsa--the hotter, the better. (I'll often add a handful of nuts, this week dark chocolate covered almonds.)  For lunch this week, it's been a grass-fed/finished burger on my Foreman grill, condiments including sriracha sauce, Roma tomato slices, and onions on a whole-wheat sandwich thin bun (which seems to have disappeared from my local Sam's Club but I can find in more expensive units at WalMart).

So anyway, I stuck my omelette container into the microwave after retrieving my bacon slices. Apparently the bacon fat satiated my appetite, and I didn't hear my microwave timer go off. I later go to warm up a cup of coffee to take to work and find my untouched omelette container in the microwave. So it turned into a mid-afternoon snack (not bad, even cooled down).

Some brands/names I like on this phase of the diet:

• MiRico low carb breads. Hard to get locally and usually bread shipment costs are prohibitive. I think Netrition stocks them: they usually have a flat, nominal shipping charge like $5. The loaves sell for around $6.30. It's a different type of bread, which I would describe as having a chewy texture, but I like it. For the occasional post-work snack, I might spread some Braunschweiger (organ meat spread) I had found recently at my WalMart on a slice.
• Guy's sugar-free BBQ sauce. I think I also ordered this from Netrition. 
• Quest Blueberry Muffin bar. I'm really not into protein bars made to taste like souped-up candy bars (I just noticed some even are made in a birthday cake flavor; it just struck me it's been years since I had a slice of wedding or birthday cake; for some reason, it's like families and kids have transitioned into cupcakes, at least for my grandnieces/nephews.) I bought a lot of discounted "crunchless" vanilla almond bars from Quest and had also ordered a box of their new blueberry muffin flavor. I tried one for the first time yesterday evening, blew me away.
• ButcherBox Beef. They recently included a couple of thick filet mignons in a monthly shipment. I have yet to be disappointed in a cut, but these were so tasty off the Foreman grill: I thought I was in heaven.

One of my co-workers owns a small ranch and raises ducks (among other things). He recently gifted me with a half-dozen duck eggs I've been dying to try. So I may include my review in the next post here.

Defensive Over Email Spam?

Well, finally since Jan. 28, I've finally reached a new diet low--by about 3.5 lbs. I almost hesitate to mention this, because it seems each time I post a new low, it turns out to be a resistance point it can take weeks to move past. I often do an informal weigh-in after work, which suggests whether a whoosh will continue. This test sometimes fails. There have been times I thought I had another pound or 2 left based on an informal weigh-in, and I actually get a bounce. But there were signs I could take another 1.5 to 2 pounds out in this whoosh.

What helped, unfortunately, I've had some cough/cold/flu thing going on over the weekend, which adversely affected my appetite (and I really don't eat that much to begin with). I know--some jock somewhere is snickering at a fat man who says he's got no appetite, like he wants to buy a ticket to see the show. I usually don't get colds or flus, but there's been a thing going around with co-workers and as an IT person, I often have to work in cold server rooms (computer servers and peripherals can get very hot) and in this area of the country, the outside temperature is already reaching or topping 100. So the swing between temperatures can seriously mess with one's body. I'm almost out of it (famous last words), but it's also possible I was somewhat dehydrated during the period and will replenish any water loss.

I don't know why (I've occasionally purchased big men's underwear from famous brand and are on their email lists), but it seems lately I've been deleting at least one bra sale email a day. I realize they probably think I'm married and have a wife or daughters with undergarment needs, but it's not like I have need of man boob support.

When your waist as a man, exceeds, say 42 inches or so, your clothing options diminish; yes, there are ultra-expensive specialty big & tall men's shops, but for the most part I've never been able to shop for suits, dress shirts, etc., and/or find the styles I prefer; I've generally done mail order or the Internet. Now granted, being over 100 lbs. overweight, I can stand to lose inches almost everywhere but even around my waist I don't "shake like a bowl full of jelly".

I can only imagine how hard I would be to fit if I were a woman. I inherited a barrel chest from my Dad's side of the family (the only one in my family). I never went into the serious bodybuilder or gym rat mode, but I would do some modest weight training; when I worked out every couple of days or so, I could easily max out the Universal bench pressing machines (at 320 lbs. or so, much more than I weighed), leg presses, etc. I looked more like a weightlifter than a bodybuilder. (Weightlifters are bulkier while bodybuilders have more defined physiques). I didn't really do weights to attract female attention (I'm straight), although I secretly hoped that they would notice. As a geek and a younger college student (I earned my first degree at 19), I've had a modest dating history, but I've struggled with my weight over my adult life. What I've noticed is that young women flirted a lot more when I was at a more normal weight. Whereas I was a couple of inches taller than my Dad, I was a normal height, not tall, which most women seem to prefer.

I have a naturally massive chest (about 56-58 inches), and trying to buy suit coats and dress shirts was a headache. Even with modest workouts I couldn't get my arms into the sleeves and shoulders; I had to buy athletic cut suits (with room for the chest, shoulders and arms, more tapered in the trunk and slacks); I would be lucky if I could find one or 2 suits I could try per store, and even then I would have to have many alterations made. I used to wear suits all the time as a business school student, professor and consultant. Thank God as an IT professional, I can wear business casual. I don't think I've had to buy a new suit in 10 years; I still have a couple I can wear when necessary.

So let's just say I have a little empathy for the problems naturally very well-endowed ladies go through trying to get fitted, (I think, like most guys, I find curves attractive (maybe signifying fertility?), although I've never dated a curvy woman. ) I suspect, though, they would be even harder to fit if they had my rib cage. But seriously, I could do without the bra ads.