My Journey On YOAD

Brown Rice Vs. White Rice

2009-03-06T10:25:00.002-05:00

Q. Why is brown rice healthier than white rice? Is there that much difference?

A. Yes! There is a big difference:

White rice has the outer husk (covering) removed; brown rice doesn't, which is why it is brown. Almost all the vitamins, minerals and fiber in rice is in this outer covering - white rice is just the starch part of the rice. That's why brown is healthier.

Liked puffed rice cereal or cakes? They make brown rice varieties!!

Pizza Nuts...and being healthy!

2009-02-01T11:40:00.002-05:00

My wife abnd I have been eating Papa John's Whole
Wheat pizza crust pizza now for about the last year.

We L-O-V-E the pizza, but unfortunately, the pie
is only available in the large size. It's 100%
whole grain, but one pie is nearly 2400 calories
with just cheese and a veggie topping. That's
a lot!! That's my entire day's allotment of calories.

We get the pizza delivered maybe once or twice a month.
It is convenient and fast and I have to admit
very, very tasty. And other than the
calories..as long as you stick to veggies
toppings..its very healthy and YOAD friendly.

Now comes along Pizza Hut.

Their "Natural" pizza is not 100% whole wheat.
It's about 1/3 whole grain. BUT, it IS available
in a medium size. A medium Natural pizza
with one veggie topping is about 1600 calories.

It's not as healthy as the Papa John's is..
but as in often as we get pizza...its not a huge
deal. 4 slices have about 2 servings of whole grains
which is nothing to sneeze at when we need to
get 5-6 servings of whole grains daily as recommended
by the YOU Docs.

Of course..4 slices of the Papa John's pizza has nearly
the YOU Doc's entire day's recommendation of whole grains,
which is good, too!

We like the flavor of both and we still get one
or the other from time to time.

It's nice we have that option!

There's another place not far from us called
"Mellow Mushroom" that also has some great, healthy
pizza. Their pizza, too, is about 1/3 whole grain
and has no HFCS or other bad stuff. But, we
get to sit down and have a nice, hot, pizza
delivered to our table. And it's oh so good!

Before we went on the diet, my wife and I would
get pizza at least once per week if not 2 or 3 times
per week. LOL. We were...and still are I guess..
pizza nuts! Now, we get it about once or twice per
month and we have choices to do it healthier than
we had before the diet.

Not to mention buying the 100% whole wheat Boboli
pizza crust and making pizza at home with some
organic pizza sauce, lowfat cheese and veggies.
That's yummy...too!!

All about Potatoes

2009-01-19T21:03:00.005-05:00

For those familair with my posts
on the YOAD message boards, I am
am advocate of including potatoes
in your diet, even following YOAD.

Now, I am not talking about
sitting down in front of the TV with
a big family size bag of Lay's and
eating the entire bag while
watching CSI. I'm talking about
1-3 servings (2 on average)
per day which is pretty typical
for me.

One of the reasons I include
potatoes is because I still
struggle with high blood pressure.
Granted, I am much, much better
than I used to be and my blood
pressure is normal now thanks
to one low dose blood pressure
med that I take everyday AND a
potassium rich diet.

Many people don't realize this
but potatoes are actually rich
in potassium. One medium potato
has about twice as much
potassium as a one
large size banana!

Baked potato, with skin, medium (844mg potassium)
Large banana (487mg potassium)

I pulled this off of a
high blood pressure web site -

High Blood Pressure - treatment

Potatoes, specially in boiled form, are a
valuable food for lowering blood pressure.
When boiled with their skin, they absorb
very little salt. Thus they can form a
useful addition to a salt-free diet
recommended for patients with high blood
pressure. Potatoes are rich in potassium
but not in sodium salts. The magnesium
present in the vegetable exercises beneficial
effects in lowering blood pressure

I do, quite often, have my potatoes boiled
but their is also benefit from having
them baked and, less often, fried
in a healthy, non-hydrogenated oil
like pure peanut oil.

I also include other foods in my
diet known to help lower blood pressure
such as dark chocolate, garlic, broccoli
and tomato products.

Here is a link you can read if you want
more information.

National Academy of Sciences Recommends More Potassium, Potato #1 Source

Awesome 100% Whole Grain Waffles

2009-01-04T13:15:00.001-05:00

I recently posted a recipe for some great
100% whole grain spelt pancakes.

My wife and I believe they
are the BEST pancakes we have ever
had....anywhere.

We bought a waffle maker last
year and played around with some
whole grain waffle mixes and
came up with some good tasting
waffles. But, they weren't
"awesome".

Well, I went online and read up
on several homemade waffle recipes
and figured out the best way
to modify our pancake recipe
to make waffles with it.

Sucess! And OMG were they GREAT
waffles..the best we have had
anywhere.

We believe that the spelt in the
recipes is one of the main reasons
for the great taste. The spelt
makes the pancakes and waffles lighter
and fluffier..and it has a naturally
sweeter flavor.

So..without further muss or fuss..here
is the recipe.

I hope everyone gets to enjoy them
as we have!

--------------------------------------------------
100% Whole Grain Waffles!

(Totally YOAD approved!)

7 oz whole grain spelt flour
(we use Arrow Head Organic Spelt Flour)
1 gram ground cinnamon (optional)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
20 grams baking powder
6 packets Sweet 'n Low (or Splenda)
1 & 1/2 cups lowfat milk or soymilk
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 oz pure peanut oil (canola works)

Mix ingredients VERY well and then
let sit 10-15 minutes.

Makes very light, crispy, tasty waffles!!

Enjoy!

Happy 2009 Everyone!

2008-12-26T09:56:00.001-05:00

Well, its been a good year. I reached my goal weight
Christmas day 2007 and I have managed to maintain my
stats throughout the year of 2008!

And it has been a wild year. I saw my oldest daughter again
that I had not seen in nearly 20 years. My wife and I bought our
first home. I got a new, awesome job. Went on vacation
to our favorite place in the Florida Keys. So as you can
see, it has been very busy for us!

Not to mention learning to maintain a health diet and a healthy
weight! Losing the weight was actually easier. Maintaining
it has been a bit more of a challenge. Sometimes you get
those thoughts "Okay, I am at the weight I want so now I can
have that slice of cheesecake". LOL. Well, I haven't
done cheesecake but last night I had the first slice of apple
pie I had had in over 2 years! :) It was Christmas dinner.
But, I have to make sure I don't let the thoughts that
everything is okay now and I can go back to eating all the
unhealthy foods that made me overweight in the first place.

I make a conscious effort everyday to exercise, eat the right
amount of fruits, veggies, whole grains and fiber. I try
to balance everything out. I keep a daily food journal to help
me keep track of what I am eating, and I weigh myself every
morning to catch any small changes. And then I can make
whatever small corrections I find I need to make. Its a lot of
work! But worth it!

My health is still good. My blood pressure has gone up
just a little. When I was losing the weight, I stayed on
my medications even though my numbers were getting lower and
lower. My primary care said that I can't have too low of
a blood pressure. Well, it got so low that I was getting
dizzy and light headed quite often so I went off the meds
totally. That was about a year ago. It took about 4 months
but my pressure slowly got higher to about on average...maybe
130 over 95. The funny thing is that before I went on
the diet, ON the meds, that was about as good the doctor
could get my blood pressure. Now, without the meds I was
looking at the same numbers. Hypertension runs on my
moms side of the family. The doctor now has me on one low dose
med and my pressure now runs about 120/83 most of the time.
I am very happy with that! :) Before, I was on 4 different
meds to get me to the 130/95 mark. Big difference!

My wife and I are still learning new meals to make all the
time that meet YOAD and we stay on the straight and narrow
most of the time. Lately we have been making these awesome
100% whole grain spelt pancakes every Sunday morning
along with some turkey sausage. Mmmmmm!

I hope everyone else has a had a great year, too!

On the left side of the blog I posted my stats for this
Christmas.

Happy New Year everyone!

The Good and the Evil...

2008-10-17T10:41:00.001-04:00

And God populated the earth with broccoli and cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

And Satan created McDonald's. And McDonald's brought forth the 99-cent double-cheeseburger. And Satan said to Man, "You want fries with that?"

And Man said, "Super size them." And Man gained pounds.

And God created the healthful fruits of the tree, that woman might keep her figure that man found so fair.

And Satan brought forth ice cream and candy. And woman gained pounds.

And God said, "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil with which to cook them."

And Satan brought forth chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter.

And Man gained pounds and his bad cholesterol went through the roof.

And God said, "Behold, I have given you legs that can walk," And Man resolved to lose those extra pounds.

And Satan brought forth cable TV with remote control so Man would not have to toil to change channels between ESPN and ESPN2. And Man gained pounds.

And God said, "You're running up the score, Devil."

And God brought forth the potato, a vegetable naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition.

And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fat fried them. And he created sour cream dip also.

And Man clutched his remote control and ate the potato chips swaddled in cholesterol.

And Satan saw and said, "It is good."

And Man went into cardiac arrest.

And God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.

And Satan created HMO's.....

Simple Spelt Pancakes

2008-10-05T10:34:00.007-04:00

My wife and I just enjoyed an awesome breakfast
of 100% whole grain spelt pancakes, uncured
turkey bacon and fresh Jamaican blue mountain/
Hawaiian blend percolated coffee!

My wife was resistant at first for me to make
the pancakes. It is true, back before the diet
we rarely liked any pancakes we would attempt to
make at home.

But, I found this great spelt recipe and I had
high hopes for success so onward I marched. And
my stubbornness paid off.

Spelt has such a wonderful flavor and the grain
hasn't been modified a zillion times over the
last decade like wheat has, so it retains
so much more nutrition!

I am posting the spelt recipe I went by, and then
beneath I will post some changes I made to make it
a bit more YOAD friendly.

If anyone likes the recipe, give me a holler! :)

-----------------------------------------
Simple Spelt Pancakes

2 cups (7 ounces) whole spelt flour
(We used Arrowhead brand organic spelt flour)
2 tablespoons (7/8 ounce) sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder (20 grams)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups (14 ounces) milk
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla (optional)
Instructions

To make the pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together the spelt flour,
sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the milk and melted butter, and the
vanilla if you’re using it. Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients,
and pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir the batter just until the dry
ingredients are thoroughly moistened: it will seem very wet, but will thicken as
it sits. Let the batter sit for 15 minutes before you use it.

To make the pancakes: Heat a non-stick griddle if you have one, or a heavy skillet,
preferably cast iron. If your surface is not non-stick, brush it lightly with vegetable oil.

When the surface of your pan is hot enough that a drop of water sputters across the
surface, give the pan a quick swipe with a paper towel to eliminate excess oil,
and spoon the batter onto the hot surface, 1/4-cupful at a time.

Let the pancakes cook on the first side until bubbles begin to form around the
edges of the cakes, about 2 to 3 minutes. You may need to adjust your heat up or
down to get the pancakes to cook through without scorching the surface, or being
too pale. When the cakes are just beginning to set, flip them and let them
finish cooking on the second side, about 1 minute more, until they’re golden
brown on both sides.

To make them a little more YOAD friendly, we substituted 1 ounce of
pure peanut oil for the butter, 6 packs of Sweet N Low for the sugar and 1 3/4
cup of lite soy milk for the milk. You could use low fat milk if you like.
We also added a cap full of almond extract along with the vanilla.

2 years on YOAD - results :)

2008-08-27T14:40:00.001-04:00

I have great news to share with everyone here.

For those that know me, I have been on YOAD for
nearly 2 years and have lost almost 140lbs
since starting the diet.

I had blood work done about 2 months before starting the
diet and I had some blood work done last week.

The change is very remarkable.

Before the diet (September 2006)
Triglycerides - 73
HDL - 43
LDL - 117
Total Cholesterol - 175
ldl/hdl ratio - 4.1
Fasting Glucose 100

And last week (August 2008)
Triglycerides - 47
HDL - 66
LDL - 70
ldl/hdl ratio - 2.2
Total Cholesterol - 145
Fasting Glucose 58

Wow! Its nice to know that not only can I see a huge
change on the outside, that there are excellent
changes on the inside, as well! :)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Keeping the weight off

2008-07-25T09:54:00.000-04:00

I have been maintaining my weight for thr last 7 months
and from what I have been reading it can be difficult for
many people to maintain their weight for a prolonged amount of time.

I thought I would share some of the steps I take to
keep my weight where I want it.

I would like my weight to stay between 155lbs to 160lbs.
Actually, for the last 6 days I have been 156lbs which
is kinda weird because most weeks I fluctuate 2lbs or
so which is actually quite normal.

So, here are some tips for those looking to keeping
their weight where it is.

I keep a food journal everyday. I write down each
meal and all my snacks and keep my calories at about
2300 each day. If I exercise (usually walking) I
add the calories burned to the total and that's how
much I can eat that day. Like this morning I walked on
the treadmill for 25 minutes at 4.5mph. I burned about
170 calories. So for today I can have 2470 calories.

I also work a job where I have a desk although I don't
sit there too often as my job involves me walking around
a large building fixing computer issues. But, I
keep a bag of snacks at my desk and have something
small to eat once every hour. Usually about 100
calories but I have some that are 50 and some that
are 200. This keeps me from being hungry throughout the
work day. I have a small lunch which is normally
around 300 calories and I also have around 300 calories
for breakfast and I allot 800 calories for my dinners
and other snacks after work. This formula works
great for me and keeps me on the straight and narrow.

On the weekends I am not as strict and although I
don't write in the journal, I do keep a running
tab in my head at approx how many calories I have
consumed.

And of course, I already mentioned the exercise.
Don't forget, exercise not only gives you the ability
to eat more during the day, but also increases your
metabolism to help burn more calories at rest, and
helps build muscle that burn more calories overall
compared to fat.

And finally, I try to stay within what YOAD recommends
as far as what to eat. I have my 4 to 5 servings
of fruits and veggies, keep my healthy fat intake to
about 30% of my daily calories, 90% or more of the grains
I eat are 100% whole, avoid the partially hydrogenated oils,
keep the sugars low, keep the saturated fat low, stick
to turkey, chicken and sometimes bison, have fish as
often as I can and get some dark chocolate and
nuts or seeds in nearly everyday.

Good stuff!

YOAD and ethnic food.

2008-06-26T19:13:00.001-04:00

For those familiar with my posts, I love telling
people how they can eat "normal" while staying on
the diet. After all, this is no longer a diet
to me. It's an ongoing lifestyle that I
follow everyday.

My wife and I used to eat out 60% or more
our meal each week. In this new lifestyle,
that number has been reduced to about 30%.
That still leaves a lot of meals to eat on
the run.

Some of the hardest places to find food
that fits YOAD are ethnic restaurants. Two
of our favorites used to be Tex-Mex and
Chinese. Until a week ago, we hadn't been
into a chinese place since first starting the
diet back in November '06.

Last week we went into a place recommended by
a friend because he had heard they had
a "diet friendly" menu. Just which diet
and how friendly we weren't sure. The place
is called "China in College Park" and is located
near downtown Orlando. I have to admit, the
food was awesome and VERY YOAD friendly.
The "diet menu" featured steamed chicken or
pork, steamed veggies, brown rice and sauces
on the side. WoW! So, I had some steamed
chicken with steamed broccoli and had the
garlic brown sauce on the side with a scoop
of brown rice. My wife had the same. we
also indulged in a cup of hot and sour soup
which is not all that bad as far as soups go.
We loved being able to control just how much
of the garlic sauce we added to our steamed
dishes. We added just enough to add flavor
without going overboard, oh maybe 3 tablespoons
fulls.

So now we have a Chinese place we can eat
and not feel like we are cheating. Kewl!

Tex-Mex, or Mexican, was also a place
we hadn't been to in a very long time.
In town there is a place called Tijuana Flats.
They brag that no transfats are ever used
to prepare any of their food, and they offer
whole wheat tortilla's in place of any taco
shell or white flour tortilla. We went
there tonight. We had three whole wheat
tortilla tacos each with grilled blackened chicken
topped with a little shredded cheddar
cheese, onions, jalapenos, lettuce
and tomatoes. They also have all these
different types of hot sauces that
we enjoy experimenting with and trying
on each visit. And, or course, you
have to add a serving a refried beans! :)
I've researched the whole refined bean
thing and most nutrtional websites
say they are healthy for the most part
in moderation. Since we visit them
once or maybe twice a month, that sounds
moderate to me :)

So, we now have our ethnic places
back in our lives, which is a good
thing! I know the YOU Docs stress
how important it is not to feel
deprived. And, after all this
time following YOAD, I hardly
ever feel deprived!

Papa John's Pizza Rules!

2008-05-27T09:28:00.001-04:00

Last nite my wife and I were watching some TV
(after our workout {grin}) and we saw
a commercial for Papa John's Pizza
made with a 100% whole wheat crust!

Stop the presses! That is AWESOME!!

One of the hardest parts of adapting to
YOAD was giving up pizza from restaurants.

We have been making pizza at home using
100% whole wheat Boboli crust...and I have
to admit it's very tasty! But, its still
wasn't as good as the pizza from places
like Papa John's.

So, it just happened to be dinner time
when we saw the commercial so we hopped on
the phone and ordered a large cheese pizza
with onions, mushrooms and tomatoes with
the 100% whole wheat crust!

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmm.
It was good! But, it was about 1100 calories
for 1/2 of the pizza. So next time we
will get a medium instead of a large which
will be about 800 calories for each half.

Up to now, the closest we could come to
having pizza out was from The California
Pizza Kitchen with their honey-wheat
crust. We found the ingredients listed
on the web and it looked about 50% whole
grain. We have had their pizza about 3 times
since starting the diet back in November, 2006.
And it is good. Just not 100% whole grain.

The funniest thing is that before the diet,
we rarely ordered Papa Johns. Our favorite
was either Hungry Howies or local New York
style pizza places. My wife also liked
Pizza Hut but not so much for me.

Speaking of Pizza Hut, if you have
looked up calories online, Pizza Hut
has the most calories for their
pizza than any other vendor. By a wide
margin! Dominoes has the least
(with their thin crust).

But, now Papa John has moved to the head
of the pack with their 100% whole wheat
crust!

And, it is VERY good for those of you
that are curious. We ordered ours
well done and it was perfect!

Pizza rules!

About HFCS

2008-05-22T08:56:00.002-04:00

The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Just some FYI stuff :)

My Typical Day

2008-04-25T08:13:00.010-04:00

5:15 - wake up
5:30 - treadmill 30 min medium incline average speed 3.7mph 200 calories burned
6:15 - breakfast -
2 egg beaters scrambled with olive oil Pam and two whole grain
waffles with sugar free syrup & sprinkled with ground chinese cinnamon.
eggs - 80 calories
Pam - 10 calories
waffles - 140 calories
syrup - 25 calories

Off to work

It was bring your chld to work day so we had rug rats running
around all day.

7:00 arrive at work - cup of joe
(I don't count calories for my coffee anymore. At work
I use sweet n low and no cream)
8:00 apple sauce snack cup unsweetened - 60 calories
9:00 "Special K" 90 calories peaches and cream bar - 90 calories

Not totally approved for the diet but it is one of the
things I have "allowed" all through the diet, It has
mostly whole grains, zero grams trans fat, and relatively
low in sugar considering they add real fruit.

10:00 medium banana - 125 calories
10:30 - One of the kids handed me a small bag of Peanut M&M's. I opened
the bag and ate half and gave half to a co-worker. It it wasn't for a kid
handing it to me and tryging to be friendly...... 30 calories
11:30 South Beach Diet brand Cranberry and Almond flavored
Granola Clusters. 130 calories.

I love South Beach diet stuff because it has NO transfat,
ONLY whole grains, and again relatively low
in sugar when consdering they add real fruit.

12:30 Lunch -
Sliced turkey sandwhich on 100% whole wheat bread
(no HFCS) with spicy brown mustard. - 200 calories
1 medium apple - 90 calories
1 Kozy Shack sugar-free (sweetened with Splenda) Apple Pie ala mode
flavored pudding cup - 70 calories
2:00 1.3 oz Dove dark chocolate candy bar - 190 calories
3:00 1 oz Lay's Lite potato chips (made with olestra) - 70 calories
4:00 1 oz Triscuit 100% whole wheat crackers - 140 calories
5:00 100 calorie snack pack Sun Chips (cheddar flavored) - 100 calories

No more snacks till I get home.

7:30 arrive home.
8:00 Dinner -
Baked chicken quarter white meat - 250 calories
Salad with Kraft Lite italian house dressing, sliced onions and
whole wheat crutons (Preperage Farms brand) - 125 calories
Birds Eye frozen Green Beans & Lightly Toasted Almonds (8 oz) - 160 calories
1 cup of Success brand pre-cooked brown rice (microwaved) - 180 calories

9:00 1 Ghirardelli dark chocolate square - 50 calories

Total net calories (subtracting 200 for my morning exercise) 2115 calories.

Coffee! :)

2008-04-08T08:52:00.003-04:00

I drink, on average, probably about 2 cups of coffee per day.
Did you know that worldwide, coffee is the #2 most drank
beverage only behind water?

And coffee is loaded with antioxidents. And although coffee
isn't the absolute highest in antioxident levels, most Americans,
who consume on average of a little over 1.5 cups per day,
get most of their daily intake of antioxidents from coffee.

Here is a great article which gives more information.

Don't forget, the YOU Docs recommend coffee as part of
a healthy regiment for the YOU diet!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9105892/

Living YOAD

2008-03-22T10:01:00.004-04:00

Maintaining my weight on YOAD is a different beast than losing weight on YOAD. I have been in maintenance mode now following YOAD since December, 2007. I started YOAD in November 2006 and I weighed about 290lbs. This past Christmas day I reached my target weight of 166lbs.

Losing weight is MUCH easier than maintaining. You reduce your calories, eat the right foods, do the exercise, or, just like on “The Biggest Loser” at the end of the week you won’t see the results you want on the scale or the measuring tape. Maintaining the weight means finding a balance of all the aforementioned things while not continuing to lose weight and not to start gaining the weight back.

Well, overall I give myself a B+ for trying to find the balance. I am now 159lbs so over the last 4 months I have still lost another 7lbs. I have slowly increased my calories and even have had a few more “cheat” days here and there (once a month instead of once every three months). But, I am no where near the “underweight” mark and I am still healthy and happy.

To be honest, I have been deathly afraid to increase my calories too much too fast. I can see myself so easily begin to overeat and put all that weight back on again. And, I don’t want to go back to being full after a meal. Sometimes I come home in the evenings and have a great, filling dinner and be totally satisfied and I realize I am 300 calories shy for the day. But, I do keep deserts in the house that are not YOAD but not crazy unhealthy, either. Like soy milk ice cream bars that are 100 calories and have 9 sugars. But still no hydrogenated oils or HFCS. I might grab one of those along with an apple for desert and enjoy the rest of my evening.

So, as I have already said, I don’t have that pressure on my anymore to lose weight and that has opened up a few doors for me that were closed during the weight loss phase. I find myself not as over worried about having something small off the diet. Where I work EVERYONE has some kind of candy at their desks. Mini Snickers bars, M&M’s, mini Reese’s cups, Life Savers, Laffy Taffy….the list goes on. On overage, I may take 2 or 3 pieces of candy per week. Last week I was really good and took none. It varies. But I don’t sweat over it. This past week was really bad because they had a BIG company luncheon last Friday and they brought in these HUGE cupcakes from Sam’s club…about 500 calories per cupcake at least, and they bought too much. They kept some in the fridge and broke out one new box each day this week and had them in the break rooms and on a couple of desks throughout the building. Yesterday I was sooooo tempted to have one. But, I didn’t and I was a good boy. I opted for a banana instead and that satisfied the sweet tooth.

I have also found other ways to be smart on the diet without going overboard. My wife is also on YOAD but she is still losing weight. She has lost about 70lbs so far but wants to lose about 40lbs more. One of the things we have continued to enjoy on the diet has been fried foods. Cooking at home we use 100% pure peanut oil and we take into account the extra calories the oil provides. Typically, you can add 50 calories per serving of whatever you are cooking and that is the true calories taking in any oil absorbed by the food. Of course, it can vary with how long its cooked and what you are cooking, but 50 calories is very close to what it’s going to be and that is what my wife and I always use. And we still don’t fry all that often. We do, however, LOVE fried fish. Recently, we found a great English restaurant near our house that makes the best fish and chips. They use haddock which is my #1 favorite fish! But, the serving sizes are outrages. So, about once a month we allow ourselves the little treat and go there and we split a dinner and get an extra plate. Doing that we have a nice meal, about 900 calories each including the dinner salad we order, and we get to enjoy some good food.

We have to live. We don’t want to be in a bubble and be so rigid that we can’t enjoy small pleasures like that. But, we are smart about going about it and not going crazy. YOAD allows us to live longer but we want to live while living.

Okay, I have ranted enough. I just wanted to share this and get this down on paper while it was in my head.

Hey Chris!

2008-02-20T16:43:00.002-05:00

Thanx for your message! :)

I am still here and kicking. Just working a lot which makes
it hard to find time to post here.

Yeah, I think I have found a good balance of exercise, food
and maintaining my weight.

Right now I am hovering between 160lbs and 165lbs and I am
happy there.

I'm more relaxed with the diet but I still follow it
about 90% of the time or more. I am less worried if I
have a small bite-sized piece of candy at work or
a small slice of regular pizza. But, its still not
often...just enough to enjoy my new lifestyle without
undoing what I spent all those months working towards.

It's a balance like anything else.

We still find new things to make on the diet. I recently
discovered lettuce wraps. I take a nice lettuce leaf
and plop some tuna salad or turkey and mustard into it
and fold/wrap it up and pop it in my mouth. Mmmmmm Good! :)

I am doing the treadmill for 30 minutes in the morning
at least 5 days a week, and I do a lot of walking at my
job so I am still getting in my exercise.

This morning I was 162lbs :)

I also started keeping a food journal which helps me make
sure I am getting my 3 servings of fruit, my whole grains
and other good stuff I should be getting each day. My calorie
intake is about 2100 (net) per day.

I'll try to keep the blog updated more often.

Thanx for checking in and you take care!! Respond
back and let me know how things are going with you :)

-- Marshall

Lettuce Wraps!

2008-02-08T07:53:00.000-05:00

Right down the street from where
I work, a new pita and salad
place went in. It's called "Mr Pita".

Unfortunately, they have no
whole wheat pitas on the menu
which was a downer for me at first.
Then, I saw on their menu "low carb
lettuce wraps".

I had one last night and it was
spectacular!! Mmmmmmm!

They take 2 good size leaves of
romaine, wrap your fixins
(I had smoked turkey, swiss cheese,
yellow mustard, onions and tomatoes)
in one of the leaves like a taco,
then roll that leaf upside down
into the next leaf and make another
taco.

It was so good, last night I got
my own head of romaine and made
myself a tuna salad lettuce
wrap for lunch today using the same
tecnique. It's gonna be yummy :)

Good health to everyone :)

Featured on "TheWeighWeWere.com"

2008-01-06T18:15:00.000-05:00

I was featured on TheWeighWeWere website for about
a week.

Here is a link to my story on their site!

Check it out!

My Featured Story

Great YOAD breakfast!

2008-01-05T18:58:00.000-05:00

My wife and I had a wonderful YOAD approved
breakfast this morning I wanted to share!

For Christmas I bought my wife and I a waffle maker.
It makes waffles shaped in oblong boat type looking
things :)

What's great is that we can put sliced fruit in the boat
and have that as a topping for the waffle.

The waffles were made with a whole grain waffle mix that
has just whole wheat flour and buckwheat flour. To that
we add one beat up egg (we're mean - LOL), one tablespoon
real maple syrup, 2 tablespoons pure peanut oil, 1 cup
lite soy milk, some ground cinnamon and one teaspoon of
vanilla extract.

The waffle maker is great at making the waffles crispy and
delicious! We then added some fresh sliced strawberries and
sliced bananas into the boat and then topped it off with
some whipped cream and some additional ground cinnamon!
The whipped topping is fat free with no HFCS and has just
1 gram of sugar per serving! Very YOAD friendly.

We also made some orgnic turkey bacon and some hot, fresh
coffee! MMMmmmmm!

Daily Report (12-26-07)

2007-12-26T18:57:00.000-05:00

Piece of dark chocolate, mini whole wheat bagel,
smart balance cream cheese, banana, coffee,
cashews & almonds, whole wheat pretzel,
whole wheat chicken veggie wrap, apple sauce,
lowfat cheese bar, piece of dark chocolate,
sugar free lemon italian ice cup, pringles
potato chips, dinner salad, whole wheat pizza,
pineapple

Daily Report 12/20/07

2007-12-20T12:05:00.000-05:00

Piece of dark chocolate, banana, whole wheat Total cereal,
ground cinnamon, lite soy milk, 50 minute walk, coffee, apple
slices, piece of dark chocolate, whole wheat pretzel,
pistachios, turkey sandwhich, sun chips regular flavor, lowfat
cottage cheese, strawberries, dinner salad, baked skinless chicken
thighs, baked beans with splenda, brown rice, soy sauce, sugar-free
lowfat ice cream bar

Daily report 12/19/07

2007-12-19T21:05:00.000-05:00

Piece of dark chocolate, banana, 50 minute walk, whole wheat bagel, lowfat
cream cheese, apple slices, pistachios, coffee, piece of dark chocolate,
whole wheat pretzel, turkey sandwhich, pineapple, lowfat cottage cheese,
tuna sandwhich, tater chips.

Afternoon munchies....go away :)

2007-12-19T09:34:00.000-05:00

Now that I am trying not to be at a
calorie defecit anymore, I am running
into problems during the afternoon
where I am hungry!

I am not sure why. I have a snack about
2 hours after lunch like I have been
doing but it's no longer keeping
me satisfied.

I sat down last night and wrote down
all I am eating and counted all the
calories. It appears I am adding
the largest percentage of calories
over what I was doing before to my breakfast.

I am adding a tiny bit to my lunch
and even less to my dinners.

This made sense to me as I have heard
you want a hearty breakfast and my
breakfasts have always been the least
percentage of my calories until now.
Dinner had been my most amount but I
have been working on redistrubuting
more during my other meals and snacks.

So starting today I am having a little
bit less calories for breakfast, and
putting much more during my afternoon
and cutting back a little bit on dinner.

I am also working many. many more hours
than before which could have also fueled
the new problem.

Hopefully today I will be less hungry,
especially after lunch where the munchies
were hitting me the hardest. Yesterday I
had to run down to the 7-11 and get
a BIG garlic kosher pickle to hold me over
until I got home. It worked but I want
to avoid that today.

I'll keep eveyone updated in a couple
of days on my progress :)

Still alive and well...

2007-12-18T09:50:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a little while.

I'm still alive, well and kicking.

And still following the lifestyle..of course :)

I have been enjoying my new job which has
been keeping me very busy. I am working
more hours than my last job so that is keeping
me from posting here. However, I still manage
to find time to post on the YOAD message boards.

I have been in maintenance mode now for about
2 weeks.

I have been keeping my calories between 1900-1950
a day and so far I have not fallen below 166lbs...yet.

Of course my tummy is excited about the new
calories and makes more demands for more food...
I just keep it all in check and try not to
be hungry and make sure I have a lot of low-cal
healthy snacks around me at all times.

My lovely wife and I are busy with the holidays,
as well. Getting all the gifts and trimmings
for all of my family and her's too.

Here's to eveyone's health and a Happy New Year
to all! :)

Marshall

New Chat Box

2007-12-02T13:42:00.000-05:00

I've put up a chat box on the blog.

I'll keep it up for this week to see
if anyone uses it.

It would be cool to chat with the
visitors of the blog that might have any
questions about the blog, YOAD or
just any other questions for me.
I plan on setting aside an hour
next Sunday to allow anyone to chat
with me.

I may have it set up where the chat box
is only up days I might
schedule a chat. We'll see how it
goes this week.

I only lost half a pound this week.
I am increasing my calories a little bit
more.

That half of a pound, though, got me to
120lbs lost since starting the diet. Yeah!!

Hope everone has a great week. If you have any
questions, you can respond below this post, send
me an e-mail or leave a short message on the
message board on the left hand pane of the blog.

Cya!

Marshall

Maple Syrup Mmmmmm

2007-11-29T16:10:00.000-05:00

Maple syrup may not be the best when losing weight, but now that
I am at a normal weight I am giving up my sugar free pancake syrup
for pure maple syrup.

Of course I still take into account the extra calories. Ounce per
ounce, though, maple syrup has less calories than honey.

I've been doing a lot of reading about maple syrup. Here are
some cool facts --

Maple Syrup Contains Manganese

The trace mineral manganese is an essential cofactor in a number of enzymes important in energy production and antioxidant defenses. The key oxidative enzyme superoxide dismutase disarms free radicals produced within the mitochondria (the energy production factories within our cells), requires manganese. One ounce of maple syrup supplies 22.0% of the daily value for this very important trace mineral that benefits our health.

Maple Syrup Is Sweet On Your Heart

Maple syrup is a good sweetener to use if you are trying to benefit the health of your heart. The zinc supplied by maple syrup, in addition to acting as an antioxidant, has other functions that can decrease the progression of atherosclerosis. Zinc is needed for the proper function of endothelial cells and helps to prevent the endothelial damage caused by oxidized LDL cholesterol and other oxidized fats. (The endothelium is the inner lining of blood vessels.) Endothelial membranes low in zinc are much more prone to injury. Additionally, studies have found that in adults deficient in manganese, the other trace mineral amply supplied in maple syrup, the level of HDL (the "good" cholesterol) is decreased.

Maple Syrup Benefits Your Immune Systems

Zinc and manganese are important allies in the immune system. Many types of immune cells appear to depend upon zinc for optimal function. Particularly in children. Researchers have studied the effects of zinc deficiency (and zinc supplementation) on their immune response and their number of white blood cells, including specific studies on T lymphocytes, macrophages, and B cells (all types of white blood cells important for immune defenses). In these studies, zinc deficiency has been shown to compromise numbers of white blood cell and immune response, while zinc supplementation has been shown to restore conditions to normal. In addition to the role played by zinc, the manganese in maple syrup is important since, as a component of the antioxidant SOD, it helps lessen inflammation, thus supporting healing. In addition, manganese may also act as an immunostimulant.

Men Benefit From Maple Syrup

Maple syrup may help to support reproductive health and provides special benefits for men. Zinc is concentrated more highly in the prostate than in any other human tissue, and low levels of zinc in this gland relate to a higher risk for prostate cancer. In fact, zinc is a mineral used therapeutically by health care practitioners to help reduce prostate size. Manganese may also play a role in supporting mens health since, as a catalyst in the synthesis of fatty acids and cholesterol, it also participates in the production of sex hormones, thus helping to benefit reproductive health.

Since I am stil very interested in maintaining my health, I think it's
a good decision to swap the sugar free syrup for pure maple syrup. And,
it tastes much better.

Do I have to eat more?

2007-11-25T22:22:00.000-05:00

Okay. Now that I am at my nearly at my optiumum weight,
I need to up my calories even more per day.

That's going to be rough. Over the last year I have
retrained my belly to be happy with me eating a meal
until I am satisfied and it has worked well for me. And
over the last 4 months or so I have been consuming around
1500-1700 calories per day.

But, if I don't increase my calories I will continue to lose
weight. For another 10 or maybe 15 pounds it would not be
a huge deal. Any more than that then I start to swing on the
other side of the unhealthy pendulum. Being underweight has
its own set of issues just as being overweight does.

I have recently increased my calories by about 100-150 more
per day. But, I still lost weight. I will give it another
week to see if it stabalizes but if not than I will bump it
about another 100-150 calories.

I can't believe I'm having worries about being
underweight. LOL.

My activity has been less, too. Over the last
two weeks it has dminished because at my new job there
are no stairwells so I can't run up and down the stairs on
my breaks like I used to. And, I have switched my daily
walk from the afternoon and three miles per day to the
morning and about two miles per day. I still work out
some evenings, as well, but even that hasn't been as often
as it was.

I just am not looking forward to eating more. That means
I will be full more often and I have so much re-programmed
myself not to get full anymore. Makes me feel like I am
going backwards.

I'll keep you all up to date on how it goes this week.

166lbs would put me at a 22 BMI which according to RealAge
is the "perfect" weight for me. So, I still have some wiggle
room to adjust. I just really don't want to go beyond the
166/165lb mark.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Another restaurant makes the grade :)

2007-11-23T12:01:00.000-05:00

It has been sometime since my wife and I
had indulged in mexican food at a
restaurant. Knowing that most taco shells
are prepared with corn oil or cottonseed oil
(very high in omega 6's) and many times
made in partially hydrogenated oils, has
kept us from venturing into mexican
restaurants.

We generally make tacos at home where
we can control the ingredients. Oragnic
taco shells made with pure corn meal
processed with only canola oil and made with
ground chicken, turkey or bison meat seasoned
ourselves to be healthy.

Or fajitas made much the same way with
100% whole grain tartillias and healthy
sauteed onions and bell peppers cooked in
pure macadamia nut oil (high in monounsaturates).

But, a few nights ago my wife just wanted
to eat out and chose a place we had
visited quite often before we started
the diet called Tijuana Flats.

It's a local dive that has now grown to
about 30 or more locations througout
the Greater Orlando area. And, of course, all
mexican food.

I knew I was looking at a tough time staying
to the diet until we got a glimps of their new
menu. They were now offering 100% whole wheat
tortillias and boasting nothing in the place was
prepared or cooked in partially hydrogenated oils.

That brought a smile to our faces :)

I was able to order two tacos, made in a whole
wheat tortillia, with refried beans and diced
grilled chicken topped with only lettuce and
tomato. They also offer a line of hot sauces
(their trademark) and we always have fun tasting
the new offerings and enjoying the ones we have
chosen as our favorites.

That makes another restaurant that we can
now visit and not have to worry about breaking
the diet!

Fasting may lower risk of heart desease.

2007-11-23T11:26:00.000-05:00

Foregoing food for a day each month stood out among other religious practices in members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS or Mormons), who have lower rates of heart disease than other Americans, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2007.

Below is a link to the full article.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Link to article.

My weight was holding me back.

2007-11-21T07:19:00.000-05:00

If you read my last post you know I just
got a new job.

I have been trying to change jobs for about
4 years or so now without any luck.

I was working in a call center doing
tech support but I wanted to do more
direct IT support; more hands on stuff.

My wife recently pointed out to me that the
last round of job interviews I went on was
before I started the diet. At that point I was
at 300 pounds. But, the first job interview
I went on after losing the all that weight,
I was offered the position.

My wife also says I look much more professional
now. So, being heavy was keeping me from getting
the position I was seeking.

Doesn't seem fair. I mean, I am happy and at a
healthy weight. And I much healthier overall.
But, shouldn't I have been interviewed back then
based on my knowledge?

I guess people are still judged by how they look
much more than anyone would like to admit.

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. Just have
been busy with family issues and with the new job
and other day to day stuff.

I hope everyone has a HEALTHY and HAPPY Thanksgiving!! :)

I Sat Up Front :)

2007-11-11T21:25:00.000-05:00

Okay. I know you're probably thinking I've lost my mind.
Well, not just yet :)

So, what am I talking about?

Roller Coasters! :)

Today my wife and I and a friend and his girlfriend all went to
Universal Studios Orlando. This is the first time my wife
and I have been to any theme parks since starting the diet
last November.

My adult daughter, Tabatha, came down to visit us from up north
last August and we went to Sea World. Yeah, that little girl
ran us ragged! LOL. Our feet hurt and just walking around all day
carrying my 300lbs was not fun!

I have always loved roller coasters but for the last 6 or 7 years
I have either been too big to fit into them or I had to sit in
a row that was "designed for our guests with special body dimensions".
Ummm, I believe that was just a politically correct way of saying FAT!
And this "special" row was always in the center of the ride car.

But today, I got to sit up in the front row of The Incredible Hulk
coaster and had enough room left in my restraint bar to fit one of
my nieces or nephews if I had wanted to! LOL.

We also went on Dueling Dragons coaster. I could have sat up front but
it would have been an extra 30 minute wait so I just sat wherever I ended
up. But, I didn't have to find any special row to sit in :)

All in all it was a pretty good day. We had a healthy breakfast at home.
Eating in the park was challenging. For lunch I had a plain grilled
chicken breast on a plate with a serving of french fries. There really
was no other side choice unless I ordered a $12 salad. For dinner, close
to the same, a hamburger with provolone cheese plain on a plate (no bun)
also with some fries. Both portion of fries were small. I was bad a little
and got 2 ounces of coffee flavored jelly beans from a candy store. It
wasn't my fault I tell you. We were about to leave and my friend wanted
to stop at guest relations and ask a question. Wouldn't you know..the
desk was located in the corner of a candy store...really. I actually
bought about 5 ounces of jelly beans but half or more of them I pawned off
on the other people with me. I told them the more they ate the less
I would eat. :) We all enjoyed them so it wasn't too bad. Just a treat.

Oh, and if you're asking why didn't I just have a salad for lunch
and dinner. Well, here's the deal. It's economics. Sorta. LOL.
They had no small side salad available. I asked. So, the salads
were $12 or more beacuase they were HUGE! Loaded with bacon bits
and croutons and pita bread slices and rice noodles and....I think
you get the picture. I could have asked for it plain, but I would
have basically gotten a HUGE bowl of lettuce and maybe a slice or
two of tomato for $12. And, they had no low cal dressing like I prefer.
So..the chicken and burger meals were cheaper so...I went with that.
Who wants to pay $12 for a head of lettuce chopped and served in a bowl? :)

Anyway...

Now we are back home unwinding.

Have a great week everyone!

Happy Anniversary! :)

2007-11-07T15:14:00.000-05:00

Today is 1 year after we started following You: On a Diet.

We started on 11/07/06 by cleaning ALL the bad foods out of ALL the nooks and crannies out of our house and spending three hours at the grocery store and produce market getting only YOAD approved healthy items.

We still very closely follow the diet.

Our philosphy is that if we can go to bed every evening, and close our eyes and think back about all the food we had during the last 24 hours, and if we followed YOAD recommendations at least 90% or more for the entire day, than we had a good day and were successfully following YOAD.

To us, it is no longer a diet but a way of life! We have chosen to eat to live instead of our old way of thinking which was living to eat.

I had a job interview today and my wife wanted to post my pictures in my monkey suit...so here I am :)
Here are our stats. I lost a total or 115lbs and have lost 18 inches off my waist. My wife

has lost about 60lbs and 12 inches off her waist. Yippee!!

Have a great day everyone! :)

Great analogy.

2007-11-02T10:03:00.000-04:00

Hope analogy is the right word. LOL.

I was trying to explain to a co-worker the problem with
simple carbohydrates and a bulb went off over my head.
I used how a car works to help him understand the problem
with consuming large amount of simple carbohydrates (in
the form of processed sugars and processed flours)

Here was the analogy I used. A car has a gas tank and it's
only so big. As the car drives along it burns fuel from the gas
tank at a certain rate. The gas is the fuel and when you start
having an excess of fuel, the car still cannot burn it any faster.
So, once the gas tank is full (your stomach) then you have to
put any excess fuel into gas cans (love handles, budankadonk butt,
big belly, etc) and store the gas cans in the truck, back seat,
floor boards and anywhere else you can find room.

Since simple carbohydrates have very little nutrition, there
is nothing else your body can do with them except burn it
immediately..or store it as FAT! Complex carbohydrates (in the
form of whole grains) are better because your body can use them
for other stuff rather than immediate energy. They have vitamins,
minerals and other nutrients that can be sent to our cells to help make
us healthy. Very little, if any, will be left over to be stored as FAT.

My rant for the day...have a great one everybody!

Exercise and accuracy...tips and tricks

2007-10-31T11:01:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I bought a new pedometer. It looked like
a good one although I didn't really research any particular one online
before taking the plunge.

After now doing the research, I am finding that some can be more accuarate
than others. But, for the way I am using mine, they are all about equally accuarate.
I am using mine JUST on my daily 3 mile (or however long) walks. If they are used
only in this fashion, walking at least 2.5 mph or more for a set duration, the accuracy
is pretty close to the same for almost any model.

Mine allows me to keep track of distance walked, steps, time and calories burned.
Hmmmm, how do they figure how far I have walked? You have to program your stride
into the pedometer. The way I figured this out was the distance toe-to-toe inbetween
normal walking steps. I recently walked four miles inside of a mall and they have all different colored equally sized and spaced tiles on the floor. Over the 45 minute period, I was able to determine that my stride covered 2.75 tiles. I grabbed a measuring tape and figured it
was about 36 inches. So, that is whatI programmed into my pedometer. It seems to be
pretty accurate. Later that day I drove exactly 1 mile, then got out and walked the same distance and wouldn't you know it, the pedometer said I walked exactly 1 mile. So, I was impressed with that. And my pedometer is not all that great ratings wise.

The calories are a different story. When I joined the local gym, I saw that the treadmill
and stationary bikeI was using had a digital readout for the calories burned by asking me
my weight. After doing research, I found out that the calories reported by such devices
can be overestimated by as much as 30%. Although most articles concede that it is
probably closer to a 10-15% overestimation. With this information I always subtract
15% from whatever the readout says and that is what I put into Calorie King. Likewise, the pedometer also overestimates. Using websites that calculate calories burned by weight and walking distance, I am finding my pedometer shows between15-20% more calories burned
than it should. Not to mention that the pedometer assumes you are walking on a smooth,
level surface. If you have hills or stairs on your walk, you are going to burn a few extra calories. But, I am now deducting 20% off whatever the pedometer reports for my calories and that is what I am putting into Calorie King.

One of the best parts of the pedometer is being able to finally figure out how fast
I am walking. Using distance and time I have been able to determine I walk between
3.5 and 4mph. This morning my average speed for my 70 minute walk was 3.77mph. This better helps in more accurately figuring out my total calories burned.

That is my rant for today :)

Several new things...

2007-10-28T11:44:00.000-04:00

Walking for Breast Cancer Research

I spent the morning doing a four mile walk in support of Breast Cancer
Awareness and Breast Cancer Research. The walk was held at a local
mall and was sponsored by Starbucks. They provided free coffee (mmm)
and donated money to the cause on behalf of all that participated. It was
a lot of fun and we had a great turn out!

New Pedometer

I just bought my first pedometer. I love it!
It not only keeps track of my steps, but the amount of time I have
walked, the total distance and the total calories burned. I tested it
this morning and it's pretty darn accurate! I am thrilled with it :)

My Sister is on YOAD

My sister, who has been watching my wife and I grow smaller and smaller over
the last year, has decided to start YOAD along with her family. She just
finished reading the book and she called me yesterday to say she was
starting to clean the house of the bad stuff. I wish her all the luck
and the best and I know she will be successful at it!

All About Trans-Fats

2007-10-23T11:38:00.000-04:00

Most trans fats are in baked goods!

Many people think of trans fat as a margarine issue, but margarine accounts for less than 20 percent of the trans fats the average American eats. The major sources in the American diet are actually commercially baked goods, like cakes, cookies, doughnuts, crackers and pies. The trans fats in these goods come from the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which increase shelf life. French fries, chips and microwave popcorn are other important sources of these partially hydrogenated oils. Small amounts of trans fat also occur naturally in butter, milk, cheese, beef and lamb.

If a standard serving of any food for sale has more than 0.5 gram of total fat, trans fat content will be listed on the Nutrition Facts panel on a separate line under saturated fat content. Since scientists have yet to establish what a reasonable amount of trans fat in a healthy diet is, labels will only list the actual amount of trans fat in grams per serving without any percentage of Daily Value or "% DV" beside it. The National Academy of Sciences has issued one guideline: That scientific bodies recommend keeping trans fat as low as possible in a nutritionally adequate diet.

I reached my goal!

2007-10-21T21:51:00.000-04:00

GOAL!

When I started YOAD last year (11/07/06) my
goal was 180lbs.

As of this morning, I am now 179.4lbs.

I started YOAD at 289.5lbs. That means since
starting YOAD I have lost 110lbs!!

And I thought the goal of 180lbs was unrealistic
back in the beginning. LOL.

Here were my stats when I started

Weight - 289.5lbs
Waist - 52"
Pants size - 44
Shirt Size - 3XL

I had uncontrolled high blood pressure, staying
about 130/110. I was diagnosed 6 months before
starting YOAD with sleep apnea and was recommended
I go on a CPAP machine. My resting pulse rate was
about 110. I had acid reflux and would get belly
cramps all the time. I was also starting to show signs
around my ankles of having peripheral vascular
disease (PVD).

Now, not quite 1 year later, and here are my
stats today

Weight - 179.4lbs
Waist - 35.25" (RealAge says I should be 37")
Pants size - 33/34
Shirt size - L

And ALL of those medical problems listed above
are gone. I'm off the blood pressure meds and
my pressure is running 111/71. My pulse at rest
is now about 60.

And boy, do I feel MUCH better now :)

I still wouldn't mind losing another 5
or 10lbs. I think I can do it

Have a great week everyone!

No more daily menus

2007-10-16T06:28:00.000-04:00

I've decided to remove the daily menus from the blog.

It is just too much work to keep up with.

If I make a spcial dinner I want to share, I'll post it in the
same spot on the side bar.

I'll leave up the history. There is almost 2 months worth
of meals and that should help anyone that might want to
see the kind of meals you can enjoy and still be on the
diet.

Have a great week everyone!

Whole Foods

2007-10-11T15:17:00.000-04:00

I can't say enough good things about our favorite
health food store "Whole Foods".

There is just one close to us but we go there about
once every 2 or 3 months. They have so much
great, awseome stuff for the diet!

Our idea for today was to stop in and pick up
a bag or two or Newman's Own spelt pretzels which I
have been trying to find. They had them! Yeahh :)
(Thanx Chari!) But, when it was said and done we
walked out with $80 worth of groceries. LOL.

It's so hard to go in and buy just one item. Here is a list
of what we got today.

Red pepper and walnut crusted fresh talipia (fish) filets
Two 1/2 lb bison burgers (mmmmmm!)
Organic thousand island dressing (meets YOAD)
Reduced fat oragnic soft cream cheese
Soy ice cream bars (my little weekly treat)
Two bags Newman's Own spelt pretzels
Whole Foods brand tater tots (no hydrogenated oil)
Natural pear butter
Red beans and brown rice (canned)
Some red wine (for my wife... I don't like wine)
Dried organic papaya bits (for our pet bird)

We're gonna made a great, romanitc dinner tonite
with the red pepper & walnut crusted talipia with some
fresh cut veggies (brocolli, summer squash, zuccinni,
white bell pepper, red bell pepper, sliced portobello mushrooms
and onions) all sauteed in some chili infused macadamia nut oil!
It's gonna be spectacular! :)

Oh, and this again is for Chari, we found some vietnamese cinnamon
there at Whole Foods. Its where the other bottled spices are. When
we run out of ours now we know where we can get more.

Okay, back to spending time with my beautiful wife!

Have a great day everyone!

As I Rant On...LOL

2007-10-10T14:47:00.000-04:00

I've spoke about this a little before but I guess it continues to bother me so
I continue to post about it. It still bugs me how the YOU docs have said that
all saturated fat is bad in their book. The YOAD book is filled with such
awesome information and for them to have something wrong really just eats
away at me.

I contiue to read about this daily. From what I can tell, MOST of the scientific
community agrees that saturated fat from animals are bad while saturated
fats from plants are good.

One thing that got my attention recently is dark chocolate. After 2 weeks of reading, I uncovered some amazing facts. Dark chocolate is composed of between 35-45% FAT!
And of that fat, 2/3 is SATURATED! But, all these studies show that dark chocolate
lowers blood pressure and lowers LDL.

Hmmm, there is controversey over one of the saturated fats in dark chocolate,
Palmitic acid, shown to lower LDL levels. And the other primary saturated fat
in dark chocolate, Stearic acid, gets converted by the body to heart healthy Oleic acid.
With so much saturated fat in dark chocolate, you would think these people in
these studies would be dropping like flies if saturated fat was as bad as we are told it is.

I'm so glad I never listen to just one source. Even many of the ideas introduced in
the YOAD book I have reseached to be sure they got it right.

Anyway, I'll try not to rant about this anymore. LOL.

Sleep Number Bed

2007-10-09T22:33:00.000-04:00

We just bought a sleep number bed (Select Comfort) and
it came in by UPS earlier today and we are piecing it together
right now. Ugghh..it's a pain but it's not that bad.

Can't wait to have my good night sleep to help my
aching back after putting the thing together. LOL.

I wanted to welcome Flash back to the main
YOAD message boards. She definately has been missed.

I did very well on the diet today if I do say so myself.

Looking forward to a great day tomorrow, as well.

Thursday my wife and I will be celebrating out 4 year
wedding anniversary. We had made plans to go out of
town but her car needed work we couldn't put off
any longer and so that's where the extra money went, instead.
Better to have her safe is my opinion.

My wife has posted in the Chatter Board under "Shalon".

I hope everyone has a great hump day tomorrow.

Good night..

Under the weather...and new Pics!

2007-10-08T10:10:00.000-04:00

I am taking the day off. I had an upset
stomach last night and I woke up with
the same. I had some waffles and then
proceeded to no longer have waffles. Ugggh!

I called off of work and went back to
sleep for a couple of hours. Woke up,
took another trip to the bathroom,
cleaned myself up, and the my wife
fixed me some scrambled eggs and toast.
So far I am keeping it down.

We went to a b-day party last night for
my niece. While I was there I had some
new pics taken of my wife and I. They
are at the link towards the top of
the page under "More pics of us".

Hope everyone has a better day than I have
had so far.

Corn dogs....

2007-10-06T18:12:00.000-04:00

I posted on the YOAD message board
recently on how I made some home
made onions rings. I took some
whole wheat pancake batter, mixed
in some seasonings, added only
water, made it thick, and dipped
in some fresh cut onion rings and
then dropped the rings in a hot
pan of peanut oil.

MMmmm. Were they tasty!

Tonite, I took it one more step and
tried the same recipe with a hot dog.
I bought some skewers and killed
my dog, dipped it in the same
batter mixure, dropped it in the
peanut oil for about 1 minute, took
it out and I had an AWESOME healthy,
home made corn dog!

Since this is a snack, I only had 1.
Maybe 300 calories total. Kinda high
for a snack but well worth it.

My wife and I will have to add this to
the list of our dinner options. :)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend

Dazed and confused..yet again

2007-10-03T10:54:00.000-04:00

My mom recently told me she did not want to eat
dark chocolate anymore because of a recent article
in the local newspaper that said that it was
actually unhealthy due to the saturated fat content.

Well, I decided to research on my own and I discovered
that about half of the total fat in dark chocolate
is indeed saturated fat.

Most of the saturated fat is a certain type called
stearic acid. When researching this I got
conflicting information.

What else is new. LOL.

Here are two reports but there are others
that support both views.

View #1

Unfortunately for chocolate lovers,
chocolate's high content of stearic acid
puts it in the same category of risk of
coronary disease as meat and butter -- i.e.,

View #2

Stearic acid is a saturated fat that's
mainly in animal products. It's also
in some plant foods like chocolate.
A relatively large percentage of stearic
acid consumed is converted to oleic
acid (a monounsaturated fat). Stearic acid
is used to form margarines, shortenings,
spreads, and as a cream base for baked
products. Even though stearic acid is a
saturated fat, studies have suggested that
it has little effect on blood cholesterol levels,
because such a high proportion is converted
to oleic acid.

So, what do I tell my mom?? How can I make an educated
decison when the more educated people can't agree??

I told her it was okay and was healthy and don't
worry about the saturated fat. But ultimately, it would
be her decision.

New Yummy Place To Eat!

2007-10-02T12:44:00.000-04:00

Good day everyone!

We have cut out so many of our favorite
restaurants when we started YOAD. We were
eating out like 50% of our meals each
week and that was very unhealthy. We now
stick to maybe 1 or 2 meals, if that,
per week out. And the calibre of restaurant
has also changed to those that serve YOAD friendly
selections like with American Pie Pizza.
They serve an awesome 100% whole wheat flatbread.
Mmmmm.

Last night we tried a place for the first
time called Pollo Tropical.

They serve chargrilled chicken, marinated in
fruit juices and served with healthy sides like
mashed potatoes, corn, tomatoes in balsamic
vinegar and baked sweet plantains (my
wife's favorite). I had the mashed potatoes
plain with a little salt, no gravy :)

Good stuff!

There ARE ways to eat out and to eat healthy.
You just got to fine them!

Good health to everyone!

Science sometimes ain't so...

2007-09-29T09:12:00.000-04:00

It's really difficult to do the best thing for your body
health wise when you read so may conflicting and changing
views about so many things day to day.

Margerine is good for you..wait, its bad for you. You
read one study that says coconut oil raises HDL and
lowers LDL and another that shows HDL is lowered.

Salt is bad..salt is good..

Makes you want to scream!

It is so hard to make educated decisions about
things. So, how do you wade through all the
"experts" and their own version of the "real truth"
and try to be as healthy as you can be?

Sometimes its a stab in the dark. Many times I'll
read as many articles as I can and try to find
the median truth and go with that, which means
whatever the majority of them agree with. LOL.

And sometimes we might still get it wrong. But, at
least we're trying :)

Hang in there guys.

Wal-Mart. The store we hate to love :)

2007-09-28T09:14:00.000-04:00

I know..Wally World. Its loved by some,
hated by others, but tolerated by most.

We have many Wal-Marts in our area, most are
either Supercenters or Neighborhood
Markets. For those who are not familiar with
the Neighborhood Markets, it's the grocery store
side of a Supercenter put into a building.

We have found Wal-Mart to be instramental
when following YOAD. They have a lot of items
that are cheaper and YOAD friendly and other
items we like for the diet that just can't be
found elsewhere.

Coconut oil. Yes, I have spoke of it in lengths
before. We use coconut oil on the diet. We believe
its healthy and beneicial despite what the YOU
docs say. It's not a cheap item at most
stores. Other grocery stores have small,
10oz jars of virgin coconut oil for $15
and the refined for close to the same price.
Wal-Mart (and ONLY Wal-Mart) carries the LouAnna
brand that I believe is a 16oz jar of refined for
$3.00. We still buy the expesive virgin
for sautees, but for deep frying like french
fries or fish, refined is best because it has
a higher smoke point. BOTH are healthy :)

A couple of the Wal-Marts around us also carry
bison. We enjoy bison every so often and
it's healthier than beef. Bison is not
easy to find and Wal-Mart has the best prices
for it in town!

And then comes the conundrum of thier own brand of
100% whole wheat bread. When we go to other
local supermarkets for 100% whole wheat bread
without HFCS, we generally would be looking at
about $3 per loaf. A few of the Wal-Marts
around us carry their own brand 100% whole
wheat bread made with brown sugar (no HFCS)
that meets the diet and for less than $1.50 per
loaf. The trick comes in that in other Wal-Marts,
the SAME EXACT BREAD IN THE SAME EXACT PACKAGING
has HFCS in it instead of brown sugar. Ugggh!
Why would they do that? So, if you are looking
to find some YOAD friendly whole wheat bread and
want to check out your local Wal-Mart, check
the label to be sure it's brown sugar and
NOT HFCS.

Wal-Mart also has a nice produce section
and other items such as South Beach
Diet brand that are less expensive than
most other stores in our area.

So, we have to say, Wal-Mart is a store
we love for helping us afford the diet
and staying healthy!

My menu today

2007-09-23T22:13:00.000-04:00

The weekend was so hectic I did not have time
to post my menu today. So, I'll post it here.

We ate at a new restaurant for breakfast. I
had three scrambled eggs, 1 serving
griddled hash browns and some whole wheat
toast with a little butter. And of course, coffee. :)

We kinda muched around lunch time because
breakfast was around noon-ish. After
breakfast we did some shopping and other
running around, then came home and did our
work out for about an hour.

It was then dinner time and we made some AWESOME
tacos. Here is what we used:

Organic taco shells (organic whole corn meal,
sunflower oil).

Also ground turkey with some organic
taco seasoning with lots of good stuff in it
including dried tomatoes and habaneros.

While the turkey was browning, in a seperate
pan I sauteed some diced fresh sweet onions and
orange peppers cooked in macadamian nut oil,
and then added it to the turkey with some
fresh diced tomatoes, pepper, kosher salt,
hot sauce, garlic powder and cajun seasonings.

To top the tacos we used some organic
pineapple salsa, lettuce, lowfat mozzerella
cheese and more hot sauce.

But, I think I made this batch a bit too hot for
my wife. I like mine a bit warmer than she
does. However, I have to give her credit.
When we first met she wouldn't eat
anything hot or spicy. Now she is just
a few notches below me. I try to keep
it just hot enough for her and that
works for me. Sometimes I miss the mark
a little. But, she still enjoyed it. :)

Good health to everyone!

Phychological issues

2007-09-21T11:12:00.000-04:00

No, I'm not a psychopath. But, then again, do
psychopaths know they are psychopaths? :)

Seriously, it has to do with my perception that
I am still FAT!

My wife says I am skinny, colleagues say I am
skinny, but I have some extra belly fat that I don't
like and to me that makes me feel like I am still
fat!

I have been told I am fat since the 9th grade so that
has been ingrained into me for a very, very long time
that I am NOT skinny. :)

I guess it's going to take a while to get used to the
idea I am at a normal weight.

I guess I am also worried once I "rest" and concede I
am normal, I won't work as hard to be sure I stay this
weight. But, I think that's just the worrier in me and I
really don't think that's going to be the issue.

Just me rambling on. But then, isn't that a point of
a blog? LOL.

Good day to everyone :)

5 pounds left to go...

2007-09-20T10:15:00.000-04:00

Okay, today is not an official weigh-in
day which is not for another few days. But,
I do weigh myself 2 or 3 times per week
at different times. This is to see trends
and to learn how my body deals with what I am
eating and stuff.

As of this morning, I was exactly 185lbs.

Wahoo! My ultimate goal when I first
started YOAD was 180lbs.

It's actually the ideal weight for my gender, age,
height and body type :)

I would be happiest staying within 175lbs and
180lbs from here on out!

So, I have to get this last 5lbs off.

My last problem is that my body fat percentage
is still a few points higher than what I like
even though I am at a healthy weight. Stubborn
belly fat!

Well, I'm even more stubborn and I've
started to work out more to get this
extra body fat off for good!

I hope everyone has a GREAT Thursday :)

In a pickle....

2007-09-18T11:59:00.000-04:00

This is kinda an update to yesterday's post about joining
the gym.

Up until yesterday, I had either been walking at work
OR going to the gym.

Yesterday I did both.

That would not necessarily be a problem. I came home,
and went to the gym before I ate dinner and then came
back home at about 8:00pm and figured out my total
calories for the day.

Oh boy! I was at at a 1300 calorie defecit for where I
I like to be for the day. Ummm..I don't normally have
1300 calorie dinners. LOL. Not anymore anyway *GRIN*.

Well, I squeezed in 1000 calories with my dinner
and dessert so I ended up actually not that bad.

So, today I plan on doing the same thing, go on my walk in
the afternoon AND work out at the gym tonite. So, I am
spacing the extra 300 or so calories between all my planned
meals ;)

It should make it easier on me tonite.

Of course, I am adding healthy foods like a banana, some
extra wheat crackers and some tuna.

I think I'm going to like working out more at night :)

Good health to you all!

I joined a gym :)

2007-09-17T08:50:00.000-04:00

About two weeks ago I joined
a gym. Well, I joined a rec
center that has a gym inside :)

The rec center is literally
a half a block away from my front
door so it makes it very conveinient
to pop in for a quick work out.

The hours, though, are typically
8-9 Mo-Sa and 1-6 Su. This makes
it difficult to get in a morning
work out as I have to report
to the man at 8am.

Since starting YOAD I pretty much
have not been doing any other
exercises other than walking.
My wife and I started out walking
30-45 minutes most evenings, but
then I started to walk on my lunch
breaks at work and then my wife
didn't want to walk anymore at night.

So, its been two weeks now as a
member of the rec center. I am still
doing my 45-50 minute walk during
my lunch break at work. In the
evenings I like to go down and get
some extra time on the treadmill.
Usually 20-45 minutes. I also do the
stationary bike and I tried my hand
at the eliptical machine, but I don't
care for it.

The last three times I was there,
I'm starting to hit the weight machines.
I looked up online how to use them
and I am not doing all of them.
There is a vertical press, a horizontal
press and an ab machine I have been
working on. Not too tough. 10-15 reps
using a weight to make it kinda tough
to get the last 3 or 4 reps in.

It's a start. LOL.

I don't want to get buff..LOL..me???
Heavens no. But, I just want to
stop losing muscle while I continue
to lose the last 10% of extra body
fat I still have clinging on for
dear life :)

I hope everyone has a great Monday!

Back to Sundays...

2007-09-16T10:38:00.001-04:00

Well, I am back to Sundays as my
"official" weigh in day. If you
check my dates to the left, you will
see most of them were done on Sundays,
a few on Saturdays and the last couple
have been on Fridays.

But, I am always off of work on Sunday
so it just makes it an easier day.

I have also added a Guestbook to my blog. This
should make it easier for visitors to simply drop me
a quick note or to say hi.

Well, I'm off to the gym in a few minutes.

Hope everyone has a great Sunday!

Mini-stall

2007-09-14T09:22:00.000-04:00

Good morning everyone!

Well, I'm the same weight today as I was
one week ago (sigh). Very surprising since
I weigh myself 2 or 3 times per week (to see trends)
and a couple of days ago I was 186.4lbs. So, I was
expecting to see at least a 1 pound loss this morning
if not a little more.

Weight is funny. We can usually have a 2-4 pound
difference within the same day.

And, I did increase both my calories and my exercise
last week for the first time in a longtime. Maybe
my body is still adjusting to the changes.

I hope to be down by this same time next week. We'll see.

Have a great day!

French Fries...Yummmm...

2007-09-13T11:49:00.000-04:00

Many of you have probably noticed we cook
french fries at least once per week as part of
our healthy diet.

What? French fries? The backbone of the fast-food industry
which lately has come underfire for causing the majority
of the obesity problem in the United States? Healthy?

Yup, french fries :)

True, prepared with transfats, cooked in trans-fatty
oils and consumed unchecked by the handfuls with other
unhealthy menu options can definately make french
fries unhealthy.

Is there a way to do better?

Well, as we all know french fries are just cut up potatoes.
Potatoes in themselves are very, very healthy. High in
fiber (with the skin), high in potassium and vitamin C,
having a handful of other necessary nutrients, potatoes most
definately can fit into a healthy lifestyle.

French fries are best when made fresh at home using a device
to cut the potatoes or by simply using a knife. They can
also be found pre-cut in your grocer's freezer; just be sure
to read the ingredient label to be sure there's no
partially-hydrogenated oils or butter solids listed that
were used in the preperation process. You CAN find them.
Just dig! :) Many common brands are now making
organic varieties which are excellent choices!

How should they be cooked? They can be baked in the oven
or fried in healthy trans-fat free oils. But, what are healthy oils?

There are two classes of oils. One is good for raw applications
like salad dressings. The other is best for high temperature
cooking applications such as making french fries.

The best oils for high temperature cooking are those highest
in monounsaturated fats, such as peanut oil. Oils high in
polyunsaturated fats such as canola, soybean, corn, sunflower
and safflower degrade when heated up and are very unstable.
When fats are heated these unstable fatty acids are easily
transformed into harmful compounds such as free radicals
and 4-hydroxy-trans-2-nonenal (HNE). When you cook
with polyunsaturated oils you create these toxic substances.

HNE is particularly insidious. Over the past 20 years an
increasing number of studies have found links between
HNE and increased risks for cardiovascular disease, stroke,
Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s
disease, liver problems, and cancer. Researcher A. Saari
Csallany, a professor of food chemistry and nutritional
biochemistry at the University of Minnesota calls it, “a
very toxic compound.” Based on her studies presented
recently at the American Oil Chemists Society annual meeting,
she recommends that people avoid all foods fried in
polyunsaturated vegetable oils.

You also have to take into account the calories associated
with the french fries. When deep fried, they absorb about
4-6 grams of oil per serving which adds roughly 50 calories.
1 to 1&1/2 servings is typically what my wife and I enjoy
which is normally between 200-250 calories, including the oil.

When eaten in the right amounts with other healthy meal
choices and cooked in a healthy oil, french fries can easily fit
into any healthy eating lifestyle!

Enjoy!

It's been a good Wednesday..

2007-09-12T21:07:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone has had a good middle of the week.

So far the day has been good to me.

Got some good exercise in tonite at the gym, had a good dinner
and soon we'll be hitting the old bed.

So, how's everyone enjoying the blog?

I hope you're getting some great insite of how it's possible
to be on YOAD and still eat normal meals.

That's the main reason why YOAD works for us. We still have
much of the same meals we had before the diet. We have just tweaked
many of them to be YOAD friendly. Or some we limit to once every
few months or so which works, too.

We plan to be eating this way for the rest of our lives so if we cannot make
it work for us in the long run, then we'll just end up going back to our
old habits.

Nope. We refuse!

Well, I'm rambling. LOL. We're watching the 2nd half to lastnight's "Biggest Loser".
Gotta go finish it :)

Night all!

Pizza!

2007-09-11T17:37:00.000-04:00

Tonite for dinner we are having some home made
pizza!

Boboli is a brand of ready-made pizza crust that puts
out a 100% whole wheat version...and it's VERY good!

We use a provolone/mozerella shredded cheese blend,
some YOAD approved pizza quick sauce and usually
some sliced onions, like we are doing tonite. Other
nights we may also add fresh mushrooms and
orange or red bell pepper slices. MMMMmmm.

Typically we look at between 1000 and 1200 calories for
the entire pizza. Which works great for my wife and I!

We once made some home made fresh pizza
dough using 100% white whole wheat flour. It actually
was good but much, much, MUCH more work. And, it
really wasn't that much better than the Boboli to really
think the extra time was worth it.

I hope everyone is enjoying their evening!

Have a good night! I gotta go put the pie in the oven :)

E-mail from a reader

2007-09-10T08:54:00.001-04:00

I got a great e-mail from someone reading my blog.

Since I think it may help others, I thought I would
post questions from the e-mail and then
my answer.

I am interested in your menu's from when you first started....
I'm sure your first weeks on the plan are different than your
eating habits now...
I have made quiet a few of the recipes from the Internet site
but would like to view your food plan especially the first
month you started...
I hope to be 70 lbs less a year from now...

DR

Here is my response to DR -

Well, what we are eating now is not all that different from
what we were eating then. We've just had 10 months to dig
and search for more stuff that would meet the diet. I
remember for dinners we had LOTS of turkey. Either ground
turkey for tacos (organic taco shells) or sliced rotissori turkey
from Boston Market and from a local grocery store.

Also, a lot of chicken. Esepecially skinless, boneless thighs. For
lunches back then I was having sliced turkey sandwhiches
with 1/2 tablespoon of canola mayo and some brown mustard
on 100% whole wheat bread. We have always been eating
whole wheat crackers. Either Triscuits or the South Beach
Diet brand.

Salads are a lot of what I eat and have been eating. Fills me
up with not a lot of calories. I tend to use Kraft Light Italian
dressing and other light dressings.

Turkey hot dogs were a good, quick staple as well as turkey
hamburgers, always on 100% whole wheat bread.

And turkey or chicken sauages. There
are a lot of brands and flavors out there.
Sausage like Keilobaska (but made
from Turkey or Chicken)

We did less french fries back then than what we
do now but we still had them. Organic and either
baked in the oven or fried in 100% peanut oil.
(or coconut oil but that's what we use and we know
it's not YOAD approved)

Baked potatoes, canned peas and green beans, steamed
brocolli and carrots...good stuff. And, of course, fruit.

Portions were the hardest for me. I ate much more back
then than what I do now. But, I was 100 lbs heavier :)
Start slow and try to reduce the amount without being hungry.
Listen to your stomach. Start with a small portion and go back
for seconds ONLY if you are still hungry, waiting about
5 minutes inbetween plates. If you are not still hungry,
don't get anymore. Also have plenty of fluids with your meal
as sometimes your body can send signals of hunger when
it's really thirst.

Most of what you see on my menus today would be
fine for just starting out. Especially the core meals, not so
much the snacks.

Hope this helps.

And, DR, I am SURE you can lose that 70 pounds!

Let me know if I can be of more help!

Another lazy day..

2007-09-09T18:34:00.000-04:00

It's been a day off for both my wife and I.

I had to reformat her computer and re-install Windows, she was
having some hardware problems with Planetside and this should fix
the problem.

We went to the gym earlier and worked out, then off to the store
for some essentials, stopped at Subway for lunch and now we're
back home.

Just finishing up the work on her PC.

The rest of the evening will be quiet. We have hotdogs and brocolli planned for dinner
and maybe some gaming later on.

Everyone have a great evening!

Bison for dinner

2007-09-08T22:05:00.000-04:00

Last night we bought $20.00 worth of Bison Top Sirloin Steaks. Which amounts to two 8oz steaks.

They were yummy!!

Bison is great to have as it gives you a lot of iron and protien without the saturated fat
typically associated with beef.

This is because beef is usually marbled and has fat throughout the meat. Bison has almost
no marble and most of the fat can be trimmed off the edges of the cuts. This gives you a much
leaner cut of meat.

Here are some nutritional data I just pulled off the web.

Ground Turkey (regular)
4 oz cooked
Calories 170
Calories from fat 90
Total Fat 10g
Saturated Fat 3g

Ground Sirloin (Beef)
4 oz cooked
Calories 150
Calories from fat 50
Total Fat 5g
Saturated Fat 2g

Ground Sirloin (Bison)
4 oz cooked
Calories 130
Calories from fat 30
Total Fat 3.5g
Saturated Fat 0.5g

For those that may not know, bison is another name for buffalo.

We have been enjoying bison since about 4 months before going on YOAD and we have enjoyed including it in our meals . The texture is nearly identical to beef as is the color (maybe a tad darker because it has a little more iron than beef) and has a taste very similar to beef albeit a little bit more dry. This is caused by the reduced fat content. When you cook bison, you will
see very, very little fat in the bottom of the pan. Instead, you will see mostly water.

The sirloin steaks we had tonight were tender and tasty! Mmmmm.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

For The Newbies :)

2007-09-07T14:11:00.001-04:00

My wife sat down last night and finally made the time
to read my posts on my new blog.

Oh, we talk all the time and she knew of what I was
posting but had not actually read each post.

She liked what she read but then commented that she
was worried newbies to YOAD would read what I was
saying and may get the wrong idea that things I
had posted like Big Macs and Ice Cream Bars
were okay for the diet.

I explained I simply wanted to post my real life experiences
following YOAD as best as I could as an indivudual and
I wanted to just share those expereinces.

But, I had to agree with her. I do not want to give the
wrong impressions to any new people first starting out
that may be reading my blog out of curiosity and maybe
perhaps seeking a little guidance.

I have been on YOAD for 10 months. That's a long time.
When my wife and I were first on the diet, we were very
strict about what to have and not to have and were still
learning the foods we could have and couldn't have.

No ice cream, no Big Macs, no Sun Chips and the list
goes on. It took us about 2 weeks to "detox" our bodies
where we no longer felt we were being deprived of anything
and actually did not want the bad stuff anymore.

The first 2 or 3 weeks or so are the most important for the
diet because it really teaches you to read labels and
figure out good from bad and reprograms the brain in your
gut what types of foods it should be telling you to eat.
It should also be the strictess you follow YOAD to help
achieve this.

Also, portion control is very, very important and I think is
one of the keys of my success with the diet. I used to eat
until my belly was burstin' and then I'd get up and waddle from
the table happy. Now, I have enough to be satisfied and
even sometimes a little bit full but never, ever stuffed.
And this is where you want to be!

Once the detox period is over, it's still not party time. On any
given week, 90-95% of the foods I choose are STILL YOAD
approved or YOAD friendly and I am happy with that.
You may want to be closer to 100% and that's great, too.
You have to find the best way to follow it for you while
trying to stick to it as best as you can, and then strive for
a little better! :)

You can do it!

I'm a Hybrid :)

2007-09-06T11:02:00.000-04:00

Having this blog is great and its enabled me to go
back and view my diet and what I write and I came
to a realization about how I am losing weight.

I think I am using two different weight loss methods,
both proven to help anyone lose weight. I follow YOAD
about 90% of the time. This helps me to not store fat,
to quickly burn more of what I am eating and more
imprtantly, making me much healthier.

I am also following just a calorie reduction method.What
this means is that I count my calories, and I know
exactly how much I need to sustain my current weight.
Which is about 2250 calories per day right now. To
lose1 pound per week, I should reduce my calories by
about 3500 calories per week or 500 per day. Which is
1750 calories per day.

Right now I am using a program called Calorie King and
it keeps track of everything and gives me cool bar graphs
of my calorie history and helps me stay on track.

Right now my daily calorie intake varies between 1500
and 1800 calories per day staying on the 1500 side more
days than not. This is taking into account my daily walking
and other exercise but NOT counting normal daily activities.
Just times that I set aside and dedicate for exercise.

So, I normally take a 50 minute brisk walk at work which is
about 250 calories that I burn. I put that into Calorie King and
it deducts it from my total calories and gives me my net calories
for that day which is between 1500 and 1800 calories.
Very cool!

Using the 2 methods works for me.

Mmmmm...Dessert

2007-09-05T22:13:00.001-04:00

Tonite for dessert I tried some celery sticks topped
with some new peanut butter I just bought last week.
It's 100% natural with cinnamon and raisins. It's
actually very, very good peanut butter and very
yummy on the celerey sticks :)

Everyone here probably knows by now I push the
limits of YOAD and I have been known to stick a toe or
foot outisde the "box" at times. But, that is allowed as
YOAD recommends a healthy lifestyle with many options
that allow you to roam outiside the rules within moderation.
The hardest part is that you have to be your own
talisman in determining what's having a minor diversion
within moderation and what would really be considered
breaking the diet.

Its not easy.

I am happy to say that with a clean conscious I really
believe I have not broken the diet in 10 months but I have
done my share of raoming staying within the bounderies
I have set for myself to be considered within moderation.

With that said I tried something new tonite. And, it was
not only a treat for me but a BIG treat for my wife. It is
called "Tofuti" and it's an ice cream that is diary free.
It's made from Tofu!

My wife has loctose problems and whey problems so milk
and ice cream are HUGE problems for her, even though she
loves ice cream. She just can't have it like when she was younger.
I stopped by a local grocery store to get a few items and I
wondered into the health food section and in the freezer case
I saw the Tofuti Ice Cream bars. Okay, the sugars were a
little bit high, but no HFCS and no milk. Just frozen Tofu
and small amount of white flour listed in the outer shell.
No biggie.

So, I bought a box that had 6 small bars, about 120 calories
each, and as I was walking to my car I was telling myself "Why did
you buy these? They are gonna taste like crud". LOL. Well,
when I got to the car I broke one out and....OMG! I would
have bet $100.00 it was real ice cream. It was sooooo good.
And when I came home I gave my wife one and she flipped
over it and it did not upset her tummy!

So, I was already enjoying one sugar free ice cream bar per week
on the diet as a small treat. I have now replaced that with
the Tofuti bars. They can now not only be a small weekly treat
for me, but for my awesome wife as well! :)

Have a great night everyone!

Why coconut oil?

2007-09-04T11:55:00.000-04:00

Why coconut oil? Isn't that unhealthy?

YOAD says all saturated fats are bad. And, they are 99% correct.

About a year ago I was reading a post on a message board while
researching canola oil and its health beneifts and I ran across how
healthy coconut oil was. Wait a second. Stop the presses. Back in
the 1980's, we were all brainwashed into believing coconut oil was
evil and unhealthy for us. But, back then they also said all
cholesterol was bad and margerine was good for us.
See a trend?

Okay. Not all cholesterol is created equal and the same goes for
saturated fats. Coconut oil, as well as Palm oil, has a unique chemical
make up that's different than 99% of the other saturated fats.
Different make up means it has different affects on our bodies. These
oils are made primarily of medium chain fatty acids. This makes the oil
very easy for us to digest. Once in our stomach, the oil is quicky used as
energy and very little of it is stored as fat in our bodies.

Compared to other oils like soybean or canola which is made up mostly
of long chain fatty acids which makes the oil much more difficult for our bodies
to digest. Much of the oil makes its way into our intestines where it is stored
as fat until needed for energy by our body.

It's also coconut oil's unique properties that has a documented affect of
increasing our metabolism and aid in weight loss. In the 1940's and 1950's,
farmer's were able to buy coconut oil very cheap and some decided to feed
it to their livestock to fatten them up. To their amazement, after adding
the coconut oil, they discovered that their cows were losing weight and
getting skinny! So, they stopped adding the coconut oil and the problem
went away.

Coconut oil also has anti-virul properties. There have been nermurous
studies done on HIV patients that when given coconut oil on a daily basis, it
significantly reduced the amount of HIV in their bloodstream.

My wife and I spent the better part of a month reading literally about
100 different websites as well as some books before we decided coconut oil
would be beneficial to us. Of course, we get only the non-hydrogenated kind.
Any oil that is hydrogenated is unhealthy.

Have a great day, everyone.

Last day of the long weekend

2007-09-03T21:14:00.000-04:00

Well, I've been off for 3 days. Days off are great except I don't seem to have
as good control of my calories on my days off as I do on days I work.

My work day is very structured with snacks and pick-n-sticks and
it makes it easier to stay within the range I want each day as far as
calories go.

But, I have enjoyed the rest and got some stuff done I needed to. So, I
can't complain.

Have a great Tuesday everyone.

Meatloaf for dinner....mmmmm

2007-09-02T18:16:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone.

I wanted to say thanx to everyone who posted under me "Hello" blog entry. It's great that
I can share experiences with everyone!

It's been a lazy day and I have spent the last three hours playing Planetside! Fun,
fun fun! But. my wife has to work and she is due back home shortly and she has requested
my homemade meatloaf. I haven't made it in 4 months. So, I've decided to post my recipe for all to enjoy!

Most of the ingrdients are YOAD approved. The only questionable one is
matzo meal. But, I don't use a lot and that's the way I have always made
it and my wife and I have decided not to change the recipe. Matzo meal
is not whole but not as processed as white flour so it has a tad more
nutrition than regular bread crumbs. You can substitute some a YOAD friendly
additive if you like.

Here are the ingredients -

1 medium size red onion
1 medium size orange pepper
2lbs of 96% lean ground beef
2 eggs
1/2 cup matzo meal
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons A-1 sauce
4 oz tomato sauce
A few shakes of kosher salt
Bottle of ketchup or chili sauce

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Cut onions and peppers fine. In a saucepan, sautee the onions and
peppers until tender. Any oil will work. Set aside and allow to cool
for a few minutes. Then, in large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients
starting with the ground beef. When onions and peppers are
cool enough, add into mixture and throughourly mix all ingredients.
In baking pan or other appropariate dish, place "glump" into pan and
form a loaf shaped...thing. :) Place into oven and bake with lid on for
60 minutes. Then, remove pan and add a thin layer of ketchup or chili
sauce on top of loaf, and then place back into oven with lid off for another
20 minutes. Take out and it's done.

Entire meatloaf will be about 1800 calories, give or take 100 or so.
Of course, we have only a slice or so for dinner and the rest
is left overs. MMmm...even better :)

Enjoy!

New day, New stuff

2007-09-01T11:15:00.000-04:00

Well, I usually post at night but today I am off of work and decided to make a
daytime post.

With my digretion from yesterday's unhealthy snack behind me, I start the day
fresh and ready to make only good choices.

I weighed in the morning at 189lbs. Wahoo. Officially 100lbs lost since starting the
diet on November 7th. But, better than that, it marks my baby steps into
not being overweight anymore. That's right! 189lbs is the threshold I needed to
be to achieve a 24.9 BMI. That puts me no longer overweight albiet on the high side
of normal...but still normal :) Yeah!!

My wife and I decided to eat out this morning. We rarely eat at resturants anymore
and when we do it's almost always for either lunch or dinner, so having breakfast out is
more rare. I think its because its hard to find YOAD approved stuff in resturants for
breakfast.

Behind where we live there is a neighborhood diner and they have a great breakfast I like
that has 2 eggs, 2 slices of whole wheat toast, 2 turkey sausage patties, 2 slices of tomato
and coffee. All of this is YOAD friendly. So, that is where we go when we want to have
breakfast out these days. And it was good!

Well, its off on my 1 hour walk so you all have a great YOAD day and I'll blog at you
tomorrow!

Big Mac Attack

2007-08-31T20:30:00.000-04:00

I had weekness tonite. I went to a Wal-Mart Supercenter
to pick up a few items, and I was hungry. I would have
normally have picked up a dark chocolate square or a piece
of fruit...but for some reason I walked into the Mickey D's that
was in the front of the Wal-Mart. And got a Big Mac.

How long has it been since I had a Big Mac? Or any hambuger
at McDonald's? Ummm..about 10 months. It just sounded
good. What can I say?

Over the last 10 months on the diet, I may have had 5 Krystal
hamburgers that I had at one sitting, a couple Arbie's Roast Beef Sandwhiches,
a couple Fish-Filet sandwhiches also from McDonald's and one Whopper.

Many times the offending food was purchased when I was stuck
somewhere or in some circumstance where I didn't have much
of a choice what to get. And, skipping a meal in my opinion is
worse than getting a hamburger.

And I'm sure it will be another 10 months or longer until I have
another Big Mac Attack. LOL.

The good thing is that even with my unhealthy snack, I still kept
my daily calories where I want them to be each day.

I have now confessed. Please forgive me. LOL :)

Good day on the diet

2007-08-31T07:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a good day for the diet.

It was the day before payday so I stopped on the way home from
work and splurged on some fresh talipia (fish) from a store called
Fresh Market. They are the bomb when carrying YOAD friendly
items. I also picked up 2 nice bakers (potatoes) and came home and
started to prepare the meal.

We had some corn on the cob my brother gave us and that completed the meal!

I heated up our fryer which I filled with fresh non-hydrogenated coconut oil
(it's healthy for me) and I took some 100% whole wheat flour that we bought
from an old grist mill up in the Smokey Mountains a month or so back. Mixed
in with the flour some pepper, kosher salt, picante seasoning and garlic poweder.
Got each piece of fish wet, and then dusted them with the flour and fried each
piece for 4 minutes. MMmmmm.

We baked both the potatoes and the corn wrapped in foil in the oven for 75 minutes
and they, too, were ready to go. I topped the baked potato with A-1 sauce and
I used Smart Balance zero calorie butter spray for the corn.

What's fish without tatar sauce? My wife makes us some homemade using Smart Balance mayo, dill relish and lemon juice. Very healthy and very good!

And that was our dinner.

Be sure to say "Hi!"

2007-08-30T20:32:00.000-04:00

Post comments and say "Hi!"

Everyone Welcome!