Keeping the weight off

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.

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!

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

The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Just some FYI stuff :)

My Typical Day

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! :)

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

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.