Tip of the Day (3)

As I have mentioned I am on the path of eating healthier, getting rid of my many past bad habits which made me the unhealthy person I was. Unfortunately our lives are surrounded by many unhealthy food options. There is a fast food joint in every corner and restaurant options in many cases are no better. Something I have learned in this process is that I have to be proactive. I was addicted to bad food, addicted to highly processed carbohydrates. Addictions are hard to break, and so I have to be proactive and not let hunger build up to the point in which I eat the first thing I find in a world full of poor and unhealthy choices.

TIP OF THE DAY

Be proactive, have healthy snacks at hand. A great snack of course is history's first packaged food: fruit. Fruits come pre-packaged (peel) and are ready to eat. Every week I buy a week's supply of snack fruit (apples, pears, strawberries, blackberries, etc). I bring my fruit with me wherever I go. Keep that ravenous hunger at bay.

Being even more proactive is to to also buy less perishable snacks that although might be more processed than fruit are healthier than lets say, a Big Mac with fries. I keep these snacks stored in case I run out of fruit, fruit spoils, or if I am going somewhere where carrying space is limited. In my search for a snack in this category I made sure I found a snack that was convenient (small and easy to carry), high in fiber, low in calories and that satisfies my taste buds (if it is not satisfying, those fries might start pushing their way into my head). Below is a snack in this category. It is high in fiber and I find it to be delicious.

Please note that I eat these only in emergencies as they are indeed a processed item, and my goal is to replace processed foods for natural food (the less processed the better).

Bon Voyage: Day Four

I'm back on track! Writing yesterday's post did the trick. No way I'm going back to my old habits. And although today was pretty much uneventful, I do have an anecdote to share. At lunch today, I ordered a grilled steak salad.

I was expecting a full salad with strips of steak. I got strips of steak with lettuce. I felt a great deal of disappointment as it was jut plain lettuce. I thought to myself, boy I wish there were more veggies. Who would have ever imagined that I would be disappointed for not getting enough veggies! A guy who three months ago NEVER ate vegetables and detested salads.

Eat Healthy, Live Healthy

Oh no, you didn't!!! Bad Habits Part 2

Welcome to my "Oh no you didn't!! Bad Habits section, where I give examples of my previous horrible habits that made me the overweight, unhealthy way I was.

Bad Habit #2: Pizza Sunday's

For all of you who know me well, you remember my so called Pizza Sundays. So what's a Pizza Sunday? Well, it is basically a Sunday in which my whole day revolved around eating pizza. I would wake up late (on purpose) so that as soon as I woke up I could pick up the phone and order pizza (delivery). I would order one large pepperoni pizza and one large cheese pizza.

I would eat one of the pizzas as soon as it was delivered. The second pizza I would eat slowly, slice by slice, throughout the day while watching TV. Then, I would go to bed. I know this is hard to believe, but Pizza Sundays were a part of my life. I would have pizza Sundays once and sometimes twice a month.

And just to give you an idea of the calories:

I) Pizza Hut

a) Large Pepperoni Pan Pizza: 2,960 calories
b) Large Cheese Pan Pizza: 2,800

Total Calories: 5,760 calories

Bon Voyage: Day Three

Today was a bad day. Since I am traveling on business, decisions on food can get complicated. Breakfast which was under my control was fine, however, lunch was not. I was visiting one of my company's supplier today. In order to make most of the day lunch was to be brought in. I requested my lunch to be healthy option such as salad and chicken. There was a mix up in the order and everyone got pasta with Alfredo sauce. I was not about to create a scene so I ate the pasta, although my insides were bursting out. Fettuccine Alfredo is one of my favorite dishes, but it is the perfect disaster combination, high in simple carbohydrates which triggers the bodies insulin response quickly, and high in fat.

It had been months since I had eaten pasta and such a high amount of processed carbs. My body responded to this now new type of food. After a couple of hours my energy plummeted, I felt sleepy and tired. An hour or so after that and suddenly I was starving!! But due to a very long line to cross the Mexico/US Border (2 hours in line) I wasn't able to eat until 8 hours after having had lunch. I was so hungry by then I started having cold sweats and my mind turned foggy. My co-worker and I, both in the midst of insanity from hunger stopped at the first fast food joint. Needless to say I had the usual burger/fries combo.

And such is the refined carb trap. You eat them, they spike your blood sugar level, prompting the body to release massive amounts of insulin to bring the sugar levels back down. But after such a large amount of insulin blood sugar can fall too much, which then prompts the body to eat again in order to raise the blood sugar up again. Exactly what happened to me today.

At least I am now conscious of the way food interacts with my body. I have learned a great deal. In fact, I think I will share with you another of my past bad habits. Keep your eyes open for my next "Oh No you didn't!!!: Bad Habits" section.

Bon Voyage: Day Two

Day two was a great day for exercise! Woke up in the morning eager to have a walk in the open air. I turned on my MapMyRun app (refer to Tip of the Day (2) ) and started my walk. See my results below:

Sunny San Diego was; well, sunny. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful walk. Day two, success!

Bon Voyage: Day One

As I had mentioned, I was very anxious on traveling at this particular moment of my weight loss and transformation process. I have ALWAYS gained weight when I travel. Feeling a lot less anxious. Day one of my trip was a success! Even on trips its just a matter of choices. Choosing the best option every time. The sum of all those individual options is what makes an everlasting change.

When you are flying you are at the mercy of the limited options available. As such, I brought with me from home my favorite high fiber bars (USDA prevents transporting fresh fruit) and roasted peanuts, just in case the meals available throughout the day were not healthy I would have something to nibble on.

I was very lucky to get upgraded to first class on my first flight. Lunch on the plane consisted of chicken or pasta. I chose the chicken dish. Pasta is made of processed flour, which once eaten elevates blood sugar very quickly, inciting a strong insulin response within the body. The less processed the food you're eating, the better.The chicken dish consisted of:

1) Green Salad
2) Chicken Breast with steamed broccoli
3) Bread
4) Chocolate Cake

I ate  my salad (which I now like, refer to my older posts) and ate the chicken with broccoli. When the stewardess came around with the bread, politely said no. Finally, I tried a small bite of the dessert and made the choice of not eating it.

I was even luckier to get upgraded to first class cabin on my second flight as well. Dinner again was a choice between chicken or pasta. Chose the chicken again. This time the chicken dish consisted of:

1) Mandarin salad
2) Chicken Breast with roasted peppers and gravy
3) Bread
4) Lemon Pie

Ate my salad again (Loved it), ate the chicken (without the gravy as the gravy tasted very sweet) and ate all of my peppers. I said no to the bread, and this time didn't even taste the dessert. Both meals were very satisfying and I felt full. Boy my life is changing! I would have never felt this way 3 months ago.

I finally got to my hotel (13 hours travel time total), checked in and went to the gym. I was planning on doing my weight lifting circuit as well as 40 minutes of cardio. I completed my circuit training, but was too tired to complete my cardio. But it will be done.

In summary, its a matter of making the best choice possible in a consistent manner. That's the recipe for success.

The Travel Challenge

My stomach's in a knot! Why? Because I am traveling tomorrow for work, and traveling is one of the easiest ways to gain weight. It has always been extremely hard for me to maintain my weight while traveling due to so many unknowns (food options, meal schedules, dinner meetings, etc). I will also not have my scale to weigh myself every day. I trust I will make the correct options and exercise as much as possible and by the time I get back (a whole week) I will have lost weight.

I will post my weight loss graph once I get back.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Tip of the Day (2)

Here's another good tip. Variety is the spice of life, which is why I find the treadmill so incredibly boring! I much prefer doing my walking/jogging out in the open where I can appreciate the sky, the sun, the trees. But being a metric oriented engineer (here we go again!), I needed information that were limited by me walking/jogging out in the open.

Until I found the following application. Attention all you smartphone users!

The Map My Run app gives you all the nifty information you need. Even more than the regular treadmill; information such as: distance, duration, pace, calories burned, climbs and elevation among others. You can also see a representation of the route taken. Nice, huh?

Here's one of my short walks:

Oh, and its free!!! Feel free to share other good (and hopefully free) apps with me guys and gals.

First Mini-Goal met!

Today I accomplished my first mini-goal. I have now lost 20 lbs!

Starting Weight: 252.6
Today's Weight: 231.9

Total Weight Lost: 20.7 lbs


Mini-goals:

1) Lose 20 lbs (Done)
2) Lose 10% of my body weight
3) Lose 50 lbs
4) Be under 200 lbs
5) Be able to jog an entire 5k race
6) Be able to do one (1) pull-up
7) Try every single fresh vegetable in my supermarket
8) Switch to organic


My long term goals

1) Have my doctor take me off all of my high blood pressure meds
2) Have normal cholesterol levels
3) Reach my goal weight
4) Maintain my goal weight (+/- 3 lbs) for 3 months
5) Maintain my goal weight (+/- 3 lbs) for 6 months
6) Maintain my goal weight (+/- 5 lbs) for 1 year
7) Maintain my goal weight (+/- 10 lbs) for life


My end goal:

1) Eat Healthy, Live Healthy

Oh no, you didn't!!! Bad Habits Part 1

Welcome to my "Oh no you didn't!! Bad Habits" section where I give examples of my previous horrible habits that made me the way I was.

Bad Habit #1: Eating Fast Food

I know everyone knows that fast food is bad. I knew it was bad as well, what I had no clue of was the amount of calories I was taking in every time I ordered fast food. I'll give you two of my typical fast food dinner menus. I ate the particular meals shown below at least twice a week. I would eat fast food at least 4-5 times a week.

I) Wendy's

a) Baconator Burger: 970 calories
b) Fries (Large): 500 calories
c) Chicken Nuggets (4): 180 calories
d) Barbecue Sauce: 50 calories
e) Ketchup packets (5): 75 calories

Total Calories: 1,775 calories


II) Burger King

a) Italian International Chicken Sandwich: 710 calories (approx)
b) Large Fries: 500 calories
c) Large Onion Rings: 500 calories
d) Ketchup packets (4): 60 calories

Total Calories: 1,770 Calories


One of the first things I learned when I started keeping track of all I ate, boy was I eating a lot of calories!! An average of 4,200 calories a day to be more precise.

Father's Day weekend? No problem!

Not even the traditional Father's Day feast kept me from my goal. Sure there was lots of food, appetizers, fritters, lots of bread, rice, meat and desserts... Oh the desserts...  But no, kept my mind on the prize, ate only what my diet dictated and after our family gathering subsided, did my 40 minutes of exercise (2.5 miles).

Starting Weight: 252.6
Today's Weight: 233.2

I have now lost a total of 19.4 lbs.

As you can see I am tracking my progress in a graph (typical engineer). The blue line is my daily weight (yes, I do weigh myself every day regardless of what my personal trainer says), and the green line is the rate in which I need to lose weight in order to meet my goal. As long as I'm under the green line, I'm golden!

For those of you looking at the graph. That strange looking peak was a loooong 5 day weekend visiting my best friend in DC (you know who you are!). Trips/vacations are always the hardest! Keep your eyes open for more tips and a new upcoming section I will name "Oh no, you didn't!!! Bad Habits"

Tip of the Day

This is my first tip for this blog. I have learned many new things during the start of my journey, many tricks that have helped me along the way.

If you are like me (and I  know many overweight people are), you barely eat vegetables. I sincerely did not enjoy vegetables. I even removed tomatoes from my burgers as they took away from the real burger taste. I did not eat salads at all.

For me to switch my diet from a highly processed, to a more natural one I needed to start including lots more vegetables. How did I start getting around that? I started making vegetable/chicken soup (from scratch).

To make the soup I had to first go to the supermarket and expose myself to the vegetable aisle (which I had always by-passed). I was amazed by all the different varieties of vegetables there are, many I had never eaten, let alone seen.

Every couple of days I would make soup, using different vegetables. It was like an experiment for me, almost a game. Having my taste buds pick out the different tastes, the different textures. I started adding more and more vegetables as I went along. Onions, celery, squash, carrots, leek, pumpkin, green peppers, leafy greens, culantro, different roots, green beans, corn, etc).

Slowly but surely I started appreciating the different tastes. Now I can make myself a simple salad and enjoy it.

Pump it up!

The good news towards health continues. A week ago the company I worked for launched a new fitness program. As the keystone for the program they hired a Doctor (MD)/Nutritionist and active bodybuilder, who would pick 30 company employees (out of 1,200) to personally train and transform. Yesterday I received the news I was one of the chosen few. The remaining component of my transformation is now in place.

PUMPI IT UP!

First day and had to hit the gym with the trainer! One hour of quick paced circuit training + 30 mins of cardio in the treadmill while the personal trainer watched intensely all my expressions of pain! hehehe I swear he was counting all of my sweat drops. My routine from today on: Circuit training with weights 3 days a week, cardio training 5 days a week.

What are you waiting for?

Before I continue let me re-assure that all the tests turned out negative. The tender lump was probably due to a contusion in the area. However the blood work did show I also had high cholesterol. My path had begun. It was time to start getting healthy.

As a good engineer I decided to precisely measure and quantify all I was eating. I spent two weeks eating as I normally would and writing down and breaking down all I ate. The results surprised even me. I was eating an average of 4,200 calories a day!! And less than 10 grams of fiber. The results spoke to me clearly. My diet was all processed food. Nothing natural. Everything was high calorie, low nutrition.

And my new motto was born: Eat Healthy, Live Healthy

Immediately started to limit processed foods (flour, sugars, packaged food, etc) and starting filling my meals with natural food. Set a couple of goals I had to meet daily such as eating 1,800 calories a day (instead of my 4,200 calories) and eat more than 28 grams of fiber. To be able to meet these goals I automatically had to change my eating habits to include more vegetables and fruit and continued to limit processed foods as much as I possibly could (empty calories).

In 60 days and just with this diet (no additional physical activity) I have lost 17.2 pounds.

Starting Weight: 252.6
Today's Weight: 235.4

My cardiologist a couple of weeks ago listened to my heart and saw my electrocardiogram results and told me my heart sounded better than it had in years. He proceeded to take me off one of the two blood pressure pills I was taking. My goal? No pills. No high blood pressure, no high cholesterol. This body is mine and I will take care of it.

Eat Healthy, Live Healthy

How it all began...

Hello friends and family! This is my first blog. And why did I start this blog you ask? Here it goes...

I was born in October of 1979, into a beautiful and very close family, and ever since I have battled with my weight. At the beginning I was thin, for my first seven or eight years of life or so. I was an asthmatic child back then and suffered constantly from ear infections. These conditions; I believe, kept me underweight. I still remember hearing my grandma saying "Esta demasiado flaco ese nene" (That boy is just too thin!!). But when these two conditions were brought under control my weight went up quickly, and ever since I've been either overweight or according to those BMI tables; plainly obese. I remember I weighed more than a 100 lbs by the time I was in the sixth grade. I remember because I was not allowed in a ride at a birthday party (in Felicilandia) because I was too heavy.


AND THE JOURNEY BEGINS

One day I woke-up, a day like any other and suddenly I noticed a tender lump on my left breast. It was more than tender, it hurt. Being the type of person I am, quickly set up an appointment with the doctor. A couple of days later and I'm at my doctors. Before he even asks me why I'm there he weighs me.

And the scale read: 252.6 lbs

Denial was my first reaction of course. No way I was that heavy! One eighth of a ton!! I was dumbfounded. The doctor proceeds to go over my history, and without me telling him anything about the lump (which was why I was there) he tells me point blank. You are at 250 lbs, you have high blood pressure and you re only 33, what are you waiting for?