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.

Demoralizing Weight Gain Spikes

My Taylor scale is very sensitive to placement; I used to place it near my apartment entryway (no carpet) but even the slightest bump could affect the readings--like a sudden 20-lh. drop. After dieting for years, I knew that was wildly improbable, and I'm not going to lie to myself. It was fairly reliable; you could weight yourself 20 seconds later and yield the same result to a fifth of a pound. So when, all of a sudden I was getting 5 different readings over 5 minutes, I was convinced the floor wasn't quite level and changed to the kitchen, which seemed more level.

So all this is a preface when I weighed in, as my custom, early in the morning after my bathroom break. All of a sudden I registered a 5-lb spike; don't tell me I'm running into the hallway problem again. But no matter how I positioned the scale, the same result stared up in my face.

To say it was demoralizing is an understatement; I've routinely had up to 6 lb bouncebacks after hitting new lows, but usually it was more of steps up to 6 pounds; I don't ever remember a 5-lb spike before.  Now this is not like I went on some carb binge the prior day. It's just that my body skipped the usual incremental bounceback to a more consolidated one. when all was said and done, the full bounceback was an above-average 8 pounds, demoralizing in part because it took me back out of that 50-lb. range I had cycled for most of my adult life, including the BMI target for my height used to deny individual healthcare coverage early in the Great Recession.

So, as I write, I'm back within 2 pounds of my low and about 3 pounds under that BMI target. My second Nutrisystem shipment arrived late yesterday. I'm somewhat confused about the monthly timing because I ran out a week ago and that was a 30-day shipment. It wasn't like I didn't have food in the apartment. (Among other things, I had a small stock of Hormel Complete shelf-stable entrees I have purchased during my recovery from eye surgery back in May). It's just I didn't even open up my first shipment my first few days, and it's not like I eat more my daily allotment.

I do allow myself an occasional indulgence. Walmart had a budget generic line Great Value. I've never really bought any chips, even before my low-carb days. I've been to Subway on occasion over the past few years (most often when moving or in temporary housing). I seem to recall they offered Frito-Lay Miss Vicky's Jalapeno Kettle Chips, which I developed a fondness for. I discovered that Walmart had 8 oz. bags in their budget line (almost hidden in their snack aisle near the popcorn section) which sells for about $1.32. During my occasional trips to Sam's Club, I'll often buy I think it's Wild Roots quinoa/chia tortilla chips. Occasionally I'll do microwave popcorn or a handful of unsalted mixed nuts (under Sam's Club Member Mark's brand).

It's hard to describe my approach to grocery shopping. I don't necessarily stick to a list. I'll sometimes walk down aisles looking for Walmart's rollbacks or clearance items.To give an example, I have a fondness for minestrone soup. So one day I noticed they had their Great Value canned minestrone soup marked down to $1/can (from maybe. $1.42/can). So I stocked up. I'm not happy they seem to be discontinuing carrying the item, but I'll take advantage of the opportunity.

I did notice in my last trip, Walmart seems to be now carrying Quest pizzas. I had heard Target is carrying them (I haven't shopped Target for years, but I was planning to just for that reason). A co-worker battling her own weight issues mentioned trying them. Now they are a bit pricey at nearly $7 for a medium-sized pie; to contrast, you can buy a large Tony's Supreme for about $2.50. (but that comes loaded with carbs).

My verdict: not bad. The toppings (I chose Supreme) are superior. Not much (if any) cheese on top. The crust came across as a little dry, crumbly and a bit bland. Nobody is going to confuse it with a slice of takeout. I've had more than my share of pizza over the years but I've almost never gone to a pizza joint, beyond an occasional work lunch with colleagues to Pizza Hut or Pizza Hut at an airport kiosk, mostly because it's an IT department staple for the very occasional work meeting or working (unpaid) overtime or upgrade activities. I've experimented a bit with cauliflower crusts, which do require a bit of an acquired taste.

But specialty food items, like low-carb, often come with a premium price. To give an example, I've sometimes ordered lower-carb bread from around $5/loaf from Netrition. I more recently discovered a lower-carb brand that Walmart stocks (I think it's Schmidt Old Tyme 647 at about 6 net carbs a slice) at just over $3/loaf. Not to mention, as I've mentioned in the past, Walmart now carries Food for Life's Ezekiel bread, in their frozen food specialty bread area, for about $5/loaf. But several weeks back, I discovered Walmart carries a Great Value 100% whole wheat bread (about 11 net carbs a slice), for about $1,50 a standard-sized loaf. The only problem? It seems half the time I go to Walmart I can't find it in stock. Now I almost never eat bread to speak of on a daily basis; I think Nutrisystem has some food items that require supplemental items, like a BBQ chicken spread, and I'll occasionally indulge in a favorite boiled-egg sandwich, a grass-fed burger, or maybe occasional turkey/chicken franks or chicken/seafood salad sandwich.

I also noticed Walmart was carrying a new selection of  "RealGood" frozen entrees, priced at about $4/above. I used to buy their chicken enchiladas regularly in that price range, when Walmart added about a buck a package. They're good, but not as big or filling as "real" Mexican food. So I decided to sample their spicy Italian sausage entree at about 9 net carbs.

How Much Credit Should I Give to Nutrisystem?

It's been almost one month since I resumed Nutrisystem. I've set a new low, almost 5 pounds inside my 50-lb. weight range since the 1980's and about 10 pounds away from my 2004 low-carb diet low. Make no mistake; I'm unambiguously obese, and even losing the rest of the 45 pounds in the range would probably leave another 45 pounds to get within a healthy range. If a healthy loss rate is 1.5 lbs/week, it would require more than a year to achieve that objective, and plateaus are a fact of life for every dieter. It took me literally months over the past year to break my last plateau. It still demoralizes me to remember how almost effortlessly I lost weight on my initial low-carb diet--almost 3.5 lbs/week until a horrible plateau. It does seem I've regained a more persistent loss track since finally cracking through the prior plateau.

I will say that I haven't lost the heavily promoted 11-13 pound first month loss, and to be honest I've occasionally strayed from the diet because the food is limited, for example, an occasional serving of pork rinds, popcorn, or canned soup. But we are talking maybe an occasional 200-300 calories, not like I'm binging on carbs or open buffet.

So do I credit Nutrisystem for my weight loss over the past month? Yes and no. Yes, I've been mostly eating their food, but I had been losing before resuming Nutrisystem, and it's not like I was eating that much more on my prior DIY diet. What's particularly good about Nutrisystem is its simplicity and variety. In particular, they offer nice comfort food twists like pizza and various pastas. Granted, no one will confuse them with takeout pizza or Olive Garden. And (at least in my specialty diet) I have a surprisingly high number of non-meat meals. (E.g., the pizza toppings are mostly packets of pizza sauce and cheese.) Not one egg-based breakfast. I'll admit my DIY diet was more generous with meat and eggs.

I'll probably stick with Nutrisystem for a few more months because I think a change of diet can benefit weight loss, and I do recall dropping up to 40 lbs. in the first few months my last go-round. (I eventually gained in all back, but that was post-Nutrisystem.

Unusual 3-step whoosh to a new low

So almost immediately after publishing my last update where I described nearing a 50-lb. range I had been in for several years since the 80's,  I dropped in (barely) with the third of 3-lb whooshes finally taking out my prior multi-year low for months. I've been enduing the usual 2-3 lb bounce back since then, but if you told me 2 months ago I would be where I am today, I would have been thrilled.

It's still not that much noticeable in the clothes I wear, other than I'm having to tighten up my belt a loop or two. I'm cautiously ordering new clothes/underwear down an even waist size.

As  I mentioned in my recent main blog, I made a first visit to my local Sam's Club  (more like 20-odd miles away). My shopping list has changed given my going back to Nutrisystem (although I made an exception for a rotisserie chicken for this holiday weekend). They've reorganized  the store since my last visit months ago, including a cooled separate produce section.  I didn't really do much grocery shopping, but I did notice for the first time they were carrying a mixed-flavor Quest protein bar pack and Bumble Bee flavored tuna pouch packs.

A New Multi-Year Low and a Zigzag Double Whoosh

For a few months now I've mostly been cycling above my existing multi-year low, rather annoying to say the least. Finally, two weekends ago I finally broke through with a 3-lb loss, to set a new low, just to "gain it all back" last week. And then a new a renewed whoosh that had me down another net 3-lb. loss. I haven't seen that happen since my 2003-2004 initial low-carb diet. So now I'm slightly above the BMI max for my height used by individual health insurance plans. Ir's also the top of a 50-lb. range or so I cycled between as a young to early middle age adult. So it's been a longstanding objective to get to that range. I don't know if the current whoosh has legs or whether it'll be another 1 or 2 week bounce back from here.

Where I had gone over that specified range was when I accepted my "job offer extortion" from California, a big mistake. I had been happily commuting from Chicago on weekends for over 3 months when my client boss told me either I accept his job offer or I don't come back Monday as I was getting to head back to SFO. I've always hated California, bur I hated being unemployed more, and I wasn't in the market. God knows how long it would have taken for me to find a new job. It turned out my fitness club at the time (Bally's) didn't have a location near San Jose, I was working 70-hour weeks as a perm employee, and I probably stress-ate my way to record weight; I still remember the utter shock when I randomly weighed myself and found myself at 300 lbs. So most of the last 20 years I've been fighting to get back to my original range.

The next objective? The low of my 2003-2004 diet was just before going to my folk's golden anniversary, about 15 pounds more. The weight plateaued and the diet was monotonous. It's not like I went nuts on carbs, but relaxing the diet led to stealth weight gain.

I decided to return to Nutrisystem for a while. I was shocked when I discovered the default option included frozen foods; I have problem getting my apartment managers to replace a broken refrigerator. I think Nutrisystem had been floating the idea of frozen food around the time I had left. Anyway I called and got my order switched to a more economical shelf-stable "core" system. One of the reasons I decided to go back was given my refrigerator issues I had basically gone to shelf-stable already.

Still maintaining my weight loss

It's been some time since my last post; the good news is that I'm still pretty much near my multi-year low; in fact, there has been exasperating vacillation. When I had eye surgery in early May, I weighed 20 pounds over this morning's weigh-in. In part, I'm back to doing the protein bar thing since  my return to work, but that 20 pounds was mostly, if not all, temporary water gain, not a rebound weight gain. I had to do another weigh-in as my doctor seemed to balk at extending my 3 prescriptions without more blood tests. They had replaced the traditional physician scale (you know, where you manual raise or drop notches and then adjust the amount between notches until the scale balances) with an oversize digital type that seems to take 40 seconds to warm up. This one resulted in a weight about 3 lbs more than my weight-in this morning.

I shattered my last home Taylor scale (mostly glass) and being cheap, replaced it with an old-fashioned scale which is hard to read. So I recently bought a Taylor digital scale replacement. The only issue with the Taylor scale is that it is highly sensitive to placement. I normally weigh in in the hallway, but it seemed to indicate I dropped 15 pounds out of sync with the manual scale. So I put it on my kitchen floor (more level) and got an expected weight. It always annoyed me in the past because if I merely bumped into the scale in the hallway, it would throw off the scale validity--did I really lose 5 pounds or is the scale out of balance?

Still, I'm worried I'm not drinking enough during these hot summer months (in which case weight loss is somewhat misleading and may indicate poor health). In part, I've had an issue with my apartment refrigerator, and my landlord has not replaced it. My freezer is somewhat functional, but I haven't had a cold drink for months, nor salads, etc. I'm close to buying a compact refrigerator.

I have since the surgery relied more on shelf-stable (e.g., Hormel Compleats (e.g., turkey or chicken breast, meatloaf, etc.) entrees), canned meat/fish, canned soup/chili, etc. I think I've kept carbs in check, although no doubt I should be worried about sodium, processed meat, etc.

I may soon reinstate my Nutrisystem subscription, if I'm going to resort to eating shelf-stable food. Nutrisystem's food items are generally healthier alternatives.

I did get involved on a food topic, introduced on a tweet from Congressman Massie. Familiar readers to my foundation political blog know I'm a libertarian. Massie was responding to a Democrat senator's reflection on a recent ICE bust of meat packing plants, suggesting legislation which provides liberalization of USDA inspection rules which make it hard for smaller farms and ranches to compete. (I'm in favor of this deregulation.) My first brother-in-law's father owns a ranch where he owns a few head of cattle. I remember visiting them early in their marriage, and my sister served a cut from "Blue Eyes".

So I remember maybe 10-15 years back my brother-in-law was looking at selling grass-fed beef and the family had set up a website, with my sister providing cooking tips for grass-fed meats, when all of a sudden things changed. He repackaged a business reselling premium steaks from presumably conventionally finished cattle. To this day my brother-in-law and sister don't talk about what happened (I think they basically shut down their new business years later, basically breaking even but no profits), but they were implying itt's almost impossible for smaller operations to comply with USDA operations. Of course, Walmart sells grass-fed roasts at just over $6/lb, and ShopRite also sells Australian ground beef for about $4/lb. Butcher Box still wants me to reinstate my monthly subscription, but it made more sense when I didn't have any options in Arizona.

Slow But Sure Weight Loss

It has become a ritual when I've gone on a series of office visits over the past few months--height and weight measurements. I understood the latter, although it always annoyed me I seem to weigh in about 4 or 5 more pounds than my early weight-in on my Taylor scale at home, which measures within  0.2 pounds of accuracy. Granted, I had eaten since then and was wearing clothes, a wallet, keys. On last visit, I finally weighed in 3 pounds lighter on their scales. My thyroid readings are significantly better (although still high). It's probably made a difference but not much.

I find the height measurements odd--after all, I probably stopped growing by early high school, decades ago. I know people might shrink a bit as they get older but over a follow-up visit days later? I was always a little bit sensitive about my height growing up, with my folks each 3-4 inches shorter than average. In sixth grade I remember being called a "shorty" by the tallest female student in class (actually tallest person in class), a full head taller (and inches taller than both parents). Over the next 2-3 years I grew to pass my Dad by about 2.5 inches and, of course, most women, although with a good pair of heels many are nearly as tall or taller.

Still, I don't feel all that tall. To give a minor example, I was having to wait in line to get a pass to a federal facility, just behind a fifth grade girl accompanied by her mother. (I think she needed paperwork to attend some summer camp. I overheard the mother conversing to others in line.) I was barely taller than the girl, who had a good 2 or 3 inches on her mother.

I suspect the real story is the calculated BMI measurement  And every visit I get handed this paper tape ragging me over my excessive numbers. Yes, I'm very aware of my BMI numbers. They disqualified me from getting reasonably priced health insurance during the Great Recession. (I'm still about 15 pounds away from the relevant target.  I haven't been able to shop normal men's clothing for years. I've shopped Internet and specialty (Big & Tall Men's) shops for years. There are some anecdotal signs of progress; I can't wear some older underwear; my one decent suit needs to be taken in, and over the holidays I ordered clothes and belts in smaller sizes--but nothing like diet pills or programs seem to promise mere days or weeks away.

I will say I got down to a new multi-year low (every new pound is another multi-year low) by about 2.5 lbs--and one subsequent informal weigh-in hinted a couple of pounds more, but basically I rebounded to basically a 4 to 5 pound range.

I find my tastes have somewhat changed over the years. I've almost never eaten at national pizza places over the past 20 years. (I have on a few occasions picked up one of those small individual pies at an airport, occasional (way back) visits to a Pizza Hut lunch buffet, or a slice or two, but almost all I have bought over the past few years have been frozen. Of course, pizza is often a staple in the IT profession (not that often--maybe 2 or 3 rimes over the last year and a half). We had one recently, and I could barely eat 2 slices--too doughy. There was a time I enjoyed pan/thick crust pizza, but I no longer do. I guess I'm just a thin-crust guy now. I sample pizza maybe once every 2 weeks or so. But even a Lean Cuisine serving will grab some 50 carbs. I'll probably go back to Atkins, about $3.50 each at WalMart. I'll probably make some other adjustments over the next few weeks, phasing out frozen burritos, nuts, etc., not to mention protein bars for work lunches.

The most interesting diet post I've recently read argued that diabetics should eat within a limited time period (like 6 hours starting around noon) fasting otherwise, that eating several small meals over a longer period actually exacerbates insulin issues. I haven't seen the data, but it's an intriguing idea and I may test it out.

Jealous of My Nephew's Success

I have a nephew who is earning his master's in meteorology at Texas A&M. He proudly announced in a recent Facebook post that over the past year he's lost something like 27 pounds (from 192 to 165). I wrote an unacknowledged lengthy response (advice, but maybe I'm subconsciously jealous of his success, his youth. No doubt his more active lifestyle--he's a member of his college's bowling team--also makes a difference.

My Mom will tell you that I was never fat as a youth growing up (I left for a residential college over 100 miles away at the age of 16).  I don't really recall pigging out on college cafeteria food (which really wasn't that good), but I definitely gained more than the infamous "freshman 15".  At one point, I became so alarmed at my weight gain that I sent away for a liquid protein mix; my friends intervened at that point, worried about the health risks of the diet at the time. But I have distinct memories of losing 75 pounds, which means I was well over 200 lbs when I started..

My weight continued to fluctuate, probably in the 160-175 range until I joined the Navy as a math instructor officer after getting my UT MA. I know I was in an acceptable range when I entered the Navy. The first thing I did was go to Officer Indoctrination School in Newport, RI. And the chow was fairly decent, compared to what I find elsewhere, e.g., in my Orlando assignment, with rubbery fried eggs where you might douse it with Tabasco in a search for flavor. (We junior officers generally avoided the Orlando chow hall unless it was "steak night".)

Now as a kid, I wasn't that picky about food, except for a few things I absolutely detested (and still dislike) like creamed corn, canned boneless chicken, and cold cuts. (My Mom and I can both be stubborn, and she would sometimes make me a sandwich for school that I didn't like (like in this one case some sliced sausage I think my Dad liked but I found disgusting). I was hungry, but just one bite of that sandwich nauseated me--and I tossed the remainder in the trash.) So here's the point--there was this place on base where we could order grinders (or what people call submarine sandwiches elsewhere). I remember being more of a skeptic when I joined other ensigns going there one day. I don't know if it was the crusty bread, the generous veggies (tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, etc.) and/or oil, etc., but it seemed the same sliced meats I would loathe in a plain white bread sandwich were tasty in this context. I wouldn't say I went to the shop daily during my 3 weeks or so of training, but I probably went there 3 or more times a week, sometimes on my own.

What I particularly remember about OIS was we got hit by a monster snowstorm during the last week of training, and flights out of Providence were a problem to go to our assignments, in my case Orlando. Sometimes when you're in the military, you end up dealing with unfair circumstances. For example, I was told that any delays (for reasons beyond my control) in getting to Orlando would come out of my annual leave.  I remember how bad it was going out of our residential quarters to grab a bite to eat. The wind was so cold coming off the water it literally made my eyes ache. And I recall walking through unplowed, knee-deep snow to get something to eat. A normal 3-minute walk took like 20-30 minutes.

Now we did do some group exercises, like coed volleyball, and one weekend my paternal aunt from Fall River picked me up for the weekend, and I know I ate well. (In particular, there was a Chinese-American restaurant, no longer in business, where we always went when we visited; in fact, my Dad regularly bought chow mein noodles from them mail order.) But to be honest, I don't really recall myself overeating. Maybe I had put on a few pounds since my physical during the holidays.

[That is another telling example of military life. I was living in Austin at the time, and I had to take a bus to San Antonio. They would put us in a hotel overnight for an early morning physical, the expected urine drug tests, etc. So I finally got my turn with one of the physicians, apparently checking on my hearing, and found ear wax buildup obstructing his view of my eardrum. He scraped off a chunk of wax to show me, went to the other ear, found the same, threw up his hands, and told me to go home and take care of it, come back again. I thought the whole situation was absurd. It  would have taken maybe 5-10 seconds to clear the other ear. Instead, the government would pay for a second trip, and I had to walk to an Austin ears, nose, throat clinic and spend $30-35 (this was several years back, a lot of money for an unemployed person with no health insurance). They had some water-jet gizmo that cleared both ears in mere seconds. The doctor couldn't figure out why one ear had more max than the other.]

Now I don't recall when they checked my weight after my arrival in Orlando, but the military is fanatical about personal appearance. I recall getting yelled at over my belt buckle not gleaming shiny enough. I had a good friend and colleague, Joe D., and we ate out a few times. So I weighed in at 193, and the military went apeshit. (Granted, 193 is definitely overweight for a guy about 5'9".) The military has its own form of fat shaming; in this case, I was ordered to attend the "fat boy program" after work (the 4 PM hour), an open-air exercise program, in full view of sailors going off work, walking by. Of course, it was humiliating. I think I was only there for 2-3 weeks, and I quickly resumed my jogging regimen I had started as a UT graduate student.

Roughly a year later I remember adding swimming at my apartment complex pool, working my weight down to 164, 34-inch waist jeans, probably the best shape of my life. This is before I started doing some weight training, particularly during my graduate studies at UH to about a decade ago. so to some extent the weight is somewhat misleading. Most people would think I weigh 20-30 lbs lower than I am.  That does not mean I'm in a state of denial over my obesity. I know I have a long way to go.

So my nephew's weight loss is remarkably similar to mine (192-165) vs (193-164) at similar heights. I think he wants to drop another 15. My message to him was to keep up the good faith, not to be discouraged if his weight plateaus. I crept up from 164 to over 200 lbs, and I've rarely seen south of 200 since my UH days (mid-20s-30). I don't think I've jogged since then, although I did do cardio (bikes, steppers, etc.) at fitness centers, and I've had stationary bikes for much of my adult years (not now). My nephew didn't respond to my comment; maybe he thought I was raining on his parade.

Anyway on to other matters:

-- I actually broke to a new multi-year low this week, not by much: a half-pound, but in one post-work unofficial weigh-in, I dropped another 2 pounds from that. For the past couple of weeks I've been in a 3-lb range from the old low.

-- My favorite new dietary toy: a Dash egg cooker Amazon had priced around $15. Boiling up to a half dozen eggs is as easy as it gets; you add a small amount of water to a steaming plate below, put the egg tray on top, cover, push a button--and you get perfect boiled eggs, easy to peel, about 15 minutes later (the gizmo buzzes when it's done).

-- A few food tips:

    Realgoodfoods. Some nice lower-carb frozen entrees. I found enchiladas and snack-size pizzas (roughly $3.50-5) at my local Walmart (near the gluten-free section. I thought the chicken enchiladas were  tasty; I looked for them again at my last trip to Walmart. They seemed out.

   Caulipower. Lots of companies (even Oprah) are promoting cauliflower-based, lower carb pizza. I found marguerita pizza at ShopRite recently (they had a store promotion for about $4/pizza). (I forget how I came across marguerita pizzas--I think it was Lean Cuisine, probably in my pre-low carb days: basically it's a meatless pizza, typically with tomato bits, cheese, a drizzle of olive oil, etc.) You definitely taste the cauliflower, which may put off pizza lovers used to traditional flour crusts, but it's a taste I could acquire. Not bad in terms of half a pizza for carbs and calories.

   Quest (I've eaten their protein bars, chips and cookies) is selling its pizzas via Target. I'll probably try them when my freezer has room. It's been a while since I've been to target--I didn't even know they carried frozen foods.

   Utz has a multigrain tortilla chip (quinoa, chia, etc.), about 15 net carbs, 140 calories a 1 one ounce serving. (ShopRite).

  Barilla has some chickpea and lentil pastas (ShopRite). Nor low-carb at about 24 net carbs a serving but a huge improvement over other regular pastas. I haven't seen Walmart carry any, even though Sam's Club used to stock chickpea pasta at my clubs maybe 1-2 years back. ShopRite also carries Banza chickpea pastas.

  ShopRite also has a paleo food vendor Birch Benders pancake mix at about 11 net carbs a 2-pancake serving. I bought a package but haven't opened it yet.  It also carries no-calorie Clear Sparkling waters at about 59 cents/liter. Now Walmart's store brand diet ginger ale, cola, cream, and root beer 2-liter/quart bottles at about 62 cents a bottle. Now of course you have to be careful with artificial sweeteners; for example, my Mom's body doesn't tolerate aspartame. Some argue that the calories saved by artificial sweeteners may be offset by adverse effects on hormones, etc., involved in metabolizing the food we eat. I do use artificial sweeteners  but on a limited basis. I even drink the coffee I bring to work without sweeteners or even a dash of almond milk.

I enjoy bargain-hunting at supermarkets and the strategy differs by supermarket. Let me give an example using soups which I've used as a tactic to stave off hunger by filling the stomach with more water volume. (Yes, I'm aware dietitians are critics of salt and other additives in commercial soups.) Walmart usually has lower everyday prices. I think, for example, Progresso Light varieties are about $1.58 a can, and Campbell Chunky maybe 20-30 cents more.  ShopRite regularly sells these around $2.89 each. However. ShopRite often offers a special where you can buy up to say 4 cans at $1-1.67. In addition, today they were offering their deli soups at half price a container (about $2.50). I really enjoyed some lobster bisque tonight. When I looked at my cash register tape, it read $117.58--and totaled my savings (coupons, store specials, etc.) at $85.73. It would take forever to explain my opportunistic shopping, but to give a telling example, I don't buy many commercial salad dressings, but I noticed a sale on Wishbone extra-virgin olive oil red pepper dressing at 99 cents a bottle. Maybe a bag of Starbucks ground coffee is on sale for under $6.

ShopRite usually offers Australian grass-fed meats at better prices than Walmart. I sometimes can buy ground beef at as low as $3.50/lb and certain steak at under $7/lb (I didn't see any today; hopefully they're temporarily out of stock). They often offer a wider selection of seafood like clam meat, mussels, and scallops at reasonable prices. I can find sliced Gouda cheese,

A New Multi-Year Low and the Inevitable Rebound

Well, I actually hit a new low (by a couple of  pounds even), probably the lowest since I had been on Nutrisystem back around 2011, only to rebound maybe 8 lbs. I've dropped a couple of inches on the waistline over the past year, but not nearly enough. I've had to go to the doctor a couple of times over the last few months, and the doctors aren't happy for a number of reasons (including blood sugar, despite a lower-carb diet). They finally did bloodwork on my thyroid (after I nagged multiple times); I got an almost frantic call from the nurse, telling me my readings were way out of control. You don't say; they took 6 vials of blood from me over the last 2 visits and they finally did the test. And this is after I specifically told them I had been taking a prescription for an underactive thyroid. I'm not crazy about the treatment because you routinely have to do a series of blood tests so they can set dosage. My late Dad and others in the family also took meds, but my dosage was like 4 times Dad's!

Now really it's my fault since I've worked nearly continuously for the last 2.5 years with company healthcare plans and so long as I was in good health, I didn't make the time to find and go to a new doctor. I knew that the thyroid issue wasn't going away, but I didn't want to go through another series of blood tests to set dosage. And I've paid a price with 2 recent infections probably the result for not taking better care of myself.

And I'm not going to excuse my obesity on a thyroid deficiency. I'm sure the slower metabolism makes it more difficult to lose weight, but I really need to step up my exercise regimen.

Nothing much on the dietary front except to note a couple of notes at Wal-Mart (at least my local one in north Maryland), both involving bread items. (I don't eat much bread, but...):

• Wal-Mart is FINALLY carrying Ezekiel bread (Food For Life). Probably for the lowest prices I've seen next to Trader Joe's, starting around $4.50/loaf. You'll find it in frozen foods like in many markets near frozen paleo bread, etc. 
• Schmidt, a brand at least offered in the local region,in the fresh bread aisle, is carrying 647 varieties, with slices at 40 calories and 6 net (of fiber) carbs.

It's like Arnold's seems to be the only vendor selling the sandwich thins J used to prefer (or maybe it's the only brand Wal-Mart chooses to carry, priced between $2.50 (Sam's Club) to $3 for 6 thin buns. That's too pricey since you can buy loaves making 50% more sandwiches at lower or competitive prices. I'll now occasionally buy a twin pack of Pepperidge Farm 15-grain loaves at about $4.50, and I'll sometimes eat open-face sandwiches to cut down the bread.

Temporarily Revisiting Last Year's Low

"A watched pot never boils." It seems the more diligently I record my daily weight, the harder it seems to lose  So more recently I skipped a series of weigh-ins, to find myself down 3-4 lbs. off my prior ongoing plateau. And then I weighed myself just before going to attend a family funeral in Massachusetts to find I had dropped back to last year's multi-year low, a similar recent drop. It had been a vicious bounce over multiple months, which ended up going up at one point over 20 pounds. And it wasn't like I was consciously overeating. I wouldn't say that that I was a spartan eater, but no radical changes in diet from when I was losing last year.

I drove up on a July Friday, roughly a 360 mile drive away up I-95 until Providence where I split off a loop that connects to Fall River (my destination), and I returned after a post-funeral luncheon on Saturday. I don't like to drink too much coffee or soda on my drives because of rest stops along the way. Friday night we had a family reunion at a favorite local restaurant (not that I had visited my folks' birth place all that often, especially since my military nuclear family stayed briefly with my grandfather while I was in sixth grade, maybe a half-dozen visits since then. I have a fondness for the cultural signature claim boils. (My granduncle, my grocer grandfather's partner/butcher, made the tastiest sausage links I've ever tasted, unlike any I've ever had since then.) A clam boil special was on the restaurant specials, and I think everyone (my mom, 6 siblings and myself) ordered it. Not as good as the ones I remember as a kid (my Dad was stationed at relatively nearby Otis on the cape from the time I was a Texas newborn to early primary school), but a rare treat. If I stayed longer, no doubt some lobster; when I've been at Shoprite lately, I've seen them promoting their live lobsters at roughly $7/lb., which is an amazing value. Oddly enough, for all the time I've spent in the Baltimore area since 2004, I haven't had the crabs.

I probably needed more refreshments (I did buy a couple of soft drinks on the way home) driving back on a hot Saturday afternoon through stop-and-go driving through Connecticut and NYC, but I was still stunned to find an interim weigh-in shortly after getting home to find myself at a point 2.5 pounds below the Friday weigh-in, but maybe as a result of a late dinner and lots of ice tea, I reverted back over the bottom.

I had a wound that opened while I was in Fall River, and I had to go to a local clinic to get some antibiotics prescribed. I ended up making two follow-up appointments (during a period of Sunday through Friday). It always annoys me how the weigh-ins at a doctor's office seem to be a few pounds over my morning weigh-ins: really, are clothes and shoes, or a modest breakfast/lunch really adding 4-6 lbs? But here's the real point: even though the doctor scale had me at 4 lbs. over my low. 2 days later on the same scale, my weight had gone up another 7 lbs! Maybe I should have been relieved that my Friday weigh-in was the same as my Tuesday one!

The important thing is consistency on weigh-ins of the same type. So that 7-lb. surge also seemed to transfer to my morning weigh-ins. And so while my weigh-ins were 3-4 pounds less than at the clinic, it seemed like for most of the last 3 weeks I plateaued at the higher rate,  roughly 7-8 lbs. over the low. It looks like I'm finally whooshing back down, to maybe 1.5 lbs. over that low in an informal weigh-in after a hot drive home from Sam's Club on a flex day off.  So I'm hopeful I'll be back at the low next week.

Some new favorites at Sam's Club. I love these Lipton's gallon ice-tea bags. It's like I run a cycle in my 5-cup coffeemaker, and fill the rest of my gallon pitcher with a small handful of stevia to sweeten. I'll usually stock up on KerryGold butter and cheeses. I wanted to replenish my sliced gouda slices I put on my grass-fed burgers; I don't know if it's discontinued, but I decided on baby swiss as an alternative. (The sliced cheeses aren't grass-fed, but I'll often use grass-fed with my omelettes.) I haven't seen cheap blueberries this summer, but currently you can buy a 2 lb. carton for just over $4. And I bought my first carton of fresh raspberries in a while, not cheap but reasonable. I've added watermelon to this summer's fruits. I like the fresh cilantro salsa; a current breakfast favorite is a 2-egg omelette with cheese, pepper strips and mushrooms, folded into a lower-carb tortilla and topped with fresh salsa. Buying a $5 rotisserie chicken is a no-brainer, as are sub $2/lb boneless chicken breasts. I'll sometimes add a bag of quinoa chips, and I'll usually stock up on nuts (almonds, walnuts, and pistachio nuts, mixed nut jars).

Around last-year's low, I bought, via the Internet,  black and grey dress jeans at a daring 4-inch smaller waist size than my regular pants and jeans (along with smaller belt sizes. I was too demoralized to even open my purchase bag after the monster bounce. I recently tried on the black jeans--a bit snug, especially when I sit, but wearable. I probably want to lose another 5-10 lbs.

Even my mom noticed that my suit coat that I bought I think around 2003 looked big on me, at my uncle's funeral. So at least I'm making progress, but I need to drop another 20 lbs to get into the weight range I had during the 1980's and 1990's.

Resuming After a Long Break

Weight scales drive me up the wall. It goes beyond the fact you can weight in at the doctors 6 pounds more: really, do your shoes, clothes, maybe one or 2 meals account for that much? And if you complain, it's like, "These scales are more accurate." My Taylor scale is highly reliable--five minutes later, I will weigh the same to a fifth of a pound assuming the scale hasn't moved. But is it valid? I don't know if it's an issue of uneven flooring somehow, but sometimes just relocating the scale elsewhere in the apartment can mean a difference of up to 5 pounds--which is discouraging when you think you finally dropped those 5 pounds.

No, I haven't fully dropped up that up to 25 lb surge after last year's low mark. I have made progress, but I'm still about 11-12 pounds over last year's low. I still have to up my fitness regimen and find a Maryland doctor (given my sluggish hypothyroidism).

Some basic tips/notes:

• Try shopping at different supermarkets. Note that the following discussion doesn't constitute an endorsement but just an example of actual shopping. For example, at Sam's Club, the rotisserie chicken at $5 is a must; if you're lucky, you can find trays of cold rotisserie chicken parts (dark or white meat) for maybe $4. I'll usually grab the bulk-packaged produce like mushrooms, spinach or romaine lettuce, Roma tomatoes, maybe a bunch of bananas or a bag of grapefruit (last trip, plums for the first time in years), KerryGold 1-lb tubs of (grass-fed) butter and cheeses. They also sell Gouda cheese slices (I'll stick my Foreman grill burger with a slice and zap it for about 20 seconds). Grass-fed leg of lamb at least every other visit. I finally saw Arnold's sandwich thins (new recipe, tray of 6 (not 8 SC notes)), not cheap at $2.50/package. Some other decent deals here and there; they sell protein bars with decent net carbs at a good price and I picked up a good 2 bottle pack of apple cider vinegar with the mother at a good price (not to mention these jars of roasted red peppers insanely priced at 91 cents a jar. Another staple are these garlic/jalapeno stuffed olives (I eat a couple daily). Bags of almonds, walnuts and pecans. Walmart is my main grocer with probably the best selection and pricing of grass-fed ground beef, roasts and steaks. I'll occasionally find Wild Planet canned seafood at good prices, low-calorie drink mixes, etc.  At Shoprite, I'll find ground buffalo and grass-fed ground lamb, good place to buy sandwich thins, they have sriracha-packed sardines (I'll sometimes eat sardines as a late-night snack), A&W root beer low-cal drink "sticks" (I recently bought a selzer soda siphon) and loaves of Ezekiel bread in the freezer. Oh, I finally tried the chickpea pasta which used to be stocked at my Arizona Sam's Club, not carried locally, but the Eat This website has recommended the Banza brand, which is also carried by Shoprite. I haven't shopped at Weiss in a while, but I found soon after my arrival here it stocks ground venison and also carries Ezekiel bread in the frozen food aisles.
• I recommend the eatthis.com website. They have changed my mind on a number of topics, including the use of artificial sweeteners (negative), eating potatoes, even pasta and underripe bananas (especially if chilled before eating: resistant starch) and more fiber-rich. I'm particularly interested in the satiating effects of potatoes, eggs, beans and meat.

Back to Trader Joe's

The weight gain spike continues to hold. I need to cut back on nuts, I think, and I really need to get back on a sustained exercise regimen.

I made a second trip to Weis and my first trip to a Trader Joe's probably in at least 4 years (no outlets in WV, SC, and AZ). First, I stocked up at Weis on grass-fed beef, and some venison and bison. I didn't find much on Weis' sources for grass-fed beef, but the some packages of bison and venison had labels I could search on. The bison steak (medallions) came from Great Range Bison, and venison bore a Durham Ranch brands. One thing I noticed about (American) bison from both brand: grass-raised but grain-finished. I'm not happy about grain-finished--that implies they are fattened up for slaughter, and the Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio is likely not as optimal, although I'm not sure the nature and extent; I would suspect it depends on the duration of the grain cycle. The venison was sourced from New Zealand (I hate to make generalizations, but I believe Australian and New Zealand meat is grass-fed and grass-finished. I know Butcher Box emphasizes its beef products are grass-finished.) I was mildly surprised that deer or elk were sourced from down under; I can remember when I worked in WV, there is an abundant deer population that has been known to reach the local interstate, and one proud papa showed off his 9-year-old daughter's first kill. I don't recall when I bought my first venison; I probably found it at a Trader Joe's, although I haven't found it in more recent trips. My boss in late 2004 was a strident Maryland Democrat, so unhappy over Bush's reelection that he went out and shot a deer. The smell of venison stew from his crock pot filled our office suite (although I didn't really sample it). I like to diversify my meat sources.

I know I've discussed Trader Joe's in past posts. I first discovered it (and other California signature businesses like the infamous In 'N Out Burgers) when I worked for Oracle on an Oakland project in 1998 and when I moved to California (for about 18 months) in late 1999 (not my idea: it's what I call the job offer by extortion: I had been commuting on a subcontract to Santa Clara; as I was preparing to leave for the airport back to Chicago, my client boss told me not to come back Monday unless I took his offer. I didn't think I could under the no-compete terms of my subcontract.)

I remember my first impression of going to Trader Joe's, seeing aging, silver-haired hippies exit the store. I've been in a few natural food stores before, and to be honest, never cared for those (I only went to those, e.g., to buy Ezekiel/Food For Life products.) I went a few times to a Whole Foods store within walking distance of where I worked for client USPTO in Alexandra back in 2009-2010, mostly with friends for some pricey lunch deals. I hate to make sweeping generalizations but Trader Joe's strike me as somewhere between a natural food/health store and an upscale Whole Foods. Trader Joe's mostly sells price-competitive private-label merchandise, with a few name brand foods in the mix. For example, I can buy Ezekiel bread for about $6 a loaf at Weis and around $4.50 at Trader Joe's. And its private-label merchandise is priced attractively; for instance, I can usually find one sandwich thin brand going about $2.50/package at WalMart, and Trader Joe's sells its packages for the same price.

I ended up spending about $200. There are a few things I particularly look for at Trader Joe's: an extensive selection of nuts and nut butters; meats and seafood; the bread selection; dark chocolate (I remember fondly barrels of dark chocolate pieces wrapped in cellophane; I didn't see those last week, but they have an extensive selection of dark chocolate/combination items, including very reasonably priced 1-lb. Belgian dark chocolate bars); various sauces (hot, BBQ, curry, etc.) They do have an excellent organic produce section, although I go there more for their high-quality branded items; almost any supermarket has a decent produce section. They do supply some sturdy grocery bags/double-bags with handles which one can easily appreciate given flimsy plastic bags elsewhere.

Although I did broadly hint at my shopping list in the last paragraph, here is a more specific listing (which is abridged, although I think it's fairly comprehensive):

• meat and seafood: seasoned rack of lamb;  2 pounds of ground  (1/3 lb) buffalo patties; a pound of wild-caught sockeye salmon; a grass-fed ground beef brick; multiple tins of branded sardines, uncured bacon
• dark chocolate: power berries (2), chocolate almonds (2), mega-bars of dark chocolate (4)
• breads: Food for Life Ezekiel bread (2), flatbreads, lavashes (2), and sandwich thins (2)
• seeds and nuts: sunflower (2), macadamia (2)
• sauces and condiments: various flavors of BBQ sauce (4); spicy mustard; Sriracha ranch dressing (2); hot sauces (2) and curry sauce (2), free-range chicken broth

I will say that I am annoyed I didn't find much about the sources of the meats, although I believe the lamb is sourced from New Zealand which is generally pasture-raised and finished. Generally the first few listed things ran at about $10 package or pound. Ground beef bricks (across retailers) tend to be $6-8/lb.

A couple of side notes:

• If you haven't noticed, there is a glut on the market of eggs. WSJ and others have pointed out the average price per dozen is down to about $1.33. (I've even seen occasional bargains at 39 to 49 cents a carton.) At these prices, eggs are a no-brainer (including the highly nutritious yolk) for superior nutrition at a low price. I like to scramble a couple, add some sliced onions, mushrooms, and peppers (maybe some ham if I have leftover), toss in some cheese, put in the microwave for 2.5 minutes (your mileage may vary; I have a cheap, small microwave), put onto a large whole wheat tortilla (optional) and cover with salsa. Eatthis, one of my favorite nutritional sources, has pointed out the hype on brown vs. white eggs; basically, brown eggs cost more because they are laid by larger birds which are more expensive to keep. (Incidentally Eatthis did a critical piece on Trader Joe's here; among other things, yup, they don't like the buffalo burgers because of the fat content. (Ask me if I care; I cook my burgers on a Foreman grill with a drip tray.)
• As you may know from my signature political blog, I have an aversion to political correctness, and this extends to various fads, including the anti-GMO movement, organics, gluten-free, free range and other assorted distinctions. I realize some readers may feel the same thing about my focus on grass-fed/finished meats, but I assure you I can taste the differences (and I've been intentionally focused on more Omega-3's in my diet, particularly in their more natural food form (e.g., oily fish)), although I will occasionally buy leaner ("loin") conventional steaks. There are obvious exceptions, and if you have certain rare allergies or medical conditions where you have been instructed to avoid certain foods, I don't intend to suggest abandoning professional advice based on specific knowledge of your health. But, for instance, minor nutritional variances can be offset by changes in your diet. I'm not willing to pay twice the price for produce because of minor alleged nutritional improvements (keep in mind there is also a trade-off in nutritional decay from the point of harvest). Trader Joe's was particularly promoting Angus beef. This distinction is largely marketing hype. Angus is more of a common breed of American cattle, not some genetically, nutritionally superior super-breed.

The Super Spike Continues

I had started an unpublished post at the end of April, a month after my last post:

I've occasionally encountered the super-spike; I think about a year or 2 back I got a 12-lb or so surge that literally took weeks to drop, almost as if I had to lose the same weight a second time. I feared the same would happen again when in my last post I noted a quick 6-point bounceback, and that extended in the days that followed up to 12-15 pounds. Since then I've slowly lost back to the 10-12 lb. level, which means basically 10 points net gain over the past month.

I'm currently cycling between 15-20 pounds over my annual low. A lot has happened over the past 3-4 months, including changing jobs and relocating across the country. I've been fairly lax over watching  the diet, including eating some frozen burritos and pizza. (I even did the ultimate cheat--I bought a pint of Blue Bell Cookies and Creme ice cream--I discovered by accident that my WalMart in Yuma was selling Blue Bell, a legendary Texas-based ice cream as I passed an aisle end display case and caught out of the corner of my eye. I probably hadn't had Blue Bell in 8 years.) I suspended my ButcherBox subscription, mostly because of uncertainty over the timing of my move. (I had a lot of grass-fed meat in my freezer back in Arizona but finished it off.)  I usually don't keep to a diet during stressful circumstances during my job changes.

And eating during a 2700-mile move with a U-Haul towing my car tends to be difficult--usually I ate at a gas convenience store or adjoining fast feed place for lunch and maybe a diner or fast food place near a hotel for the night. (I did eat some protein cookies I had brought in the truck cab for dinner in a WV hotel stay.) The "free breakfasts" at hotels were mostly a joke; the closest I had to a hot breakfast was a buffet pan of dried out cheese omelettes and bland sausages. Most of the time it was like the ubiquitous packaged blueberry or banana nut muffins. Why not go through a drive-through? It's almost impossible to thread a truck towing a car through many of these things. You have to find ways of turnarounds with right angles. Maybe shopping centers with lots of empty parking. I remember stopping at my first hotel, not sure if there was a path around the back of the hotel.

I'm now getting back to more of a routine and will likely publish on a more frequent basis (of course, I maintain a daily publication schedule on my flagship political blog).

I do have some notes on my core diet options. Butcher Box has rolled out a new custom option since I suspended my account about 3 months back. But returning to the Maryland area has resulted in some updated options, although I live in a smaller town not big enough for a Sam's Club and the nearest one is about a 30-minute drive away. It appears there are some nuanced offerings between the current and last Sam's Club, e.g., they don't carry some of the cheeses and grass-fed offerings in my current one. (My AZ one also carried ground lamb and grass-fed ground beef.) I usually end up buying a (grass-fed) boneless leg of lamb for $20-30 every other visit.  Neither carried sandwich thins ( for God knows what reason) which I had been buying for years.

I have discovered more grass-fed options at my local vs. AZ WalMart, including steaks and roasts. One day I even found the grass-fed burger packs on sale for about 1/3 off--still far more expensive than conventional grain-finished beef. I also visited the Weis supermarket chain (there was one near where I went to MVA to revert to my MD drivers license, auto tags, etc.) I also found them stocking a variety of grass-fed meats at competitive prices--including venison (listed as $10/lb ground--I found some discounted packages). I like to vary my meat sources; I recall buying ostrich and buffalo at BJ's in the past. One of the reasons I went to Weis is that Food for Life listed them as a local vendor of their sprouted grain products. (Just like when Safeway stocked it, I found a few loaves stored near other, e.g., gluten-free bread in frozen foods.) Given the current options at Weis and WalMart, I may defer resuming my ButcherBox subscription.

I have yet to return to Trader Joe's for the first time in nearly 4 years, maybe a 40-minute drive away.

Not to promote WalMart (I get no incentive of any kind from any vendor I've mentioned in my blog, also ncluding  Amazon, Netrition, Vitacost, etc.; I spend my own money across a number of vendors) But  after doing a search on Food For Life's Ezekiel bread, I noticed browser ads for jet.com, a relatively recent WalMart acquisition. If you do a search on the website, you'll find that they do carry grass-fed meats and Food for Life products (shipped frozen) for a flat $5 or so handling charge and shipment is purportedly free for orders at least $35. (This is similar to how Netrition handles some low-carb bread loaves.) Now granted the loaves aren't cheap (you should expect something in the $5-8/loaf), but I recall Amazon and/or its partners were also adding shipping charges nearly doubling the cost. I haven't tried jet.com yet, so I can't vouch for them, but I'll probably try them over the next couple of months. (Usually ground beef ranges $5-8/lb., roasts about $7.50/lb., cheaper cuts like stew meat about $10-12, and steaks $12-24/lb., depending on the cut.)

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.