47 at Forty-seven – The Mid-Life Crisis Diet Project - Part 10

47 at Forty-seven – The Mid-Life Crisis Diet Project

Part 10: Weeks Thirteen and Fourteen

Obese Wan Kenobi: Use the fork, Luke
Thirteen weeks is three months - one quarter of a year. At this point it truly feels as I have made a commitment, a sincere investment of time and energy. This isn’t a fad, a two-week cleansing flush, or a toe dipped in the weight-loss waters. This is becoming a life-style change. Thank God. Did you ever see my old life-style? Sheesh! And…most nutrition and fitness specialists will tell you, “The best way to keep it off is not by dieting – but by making a life-style change”.

Monday June, 1
Week Thirteen weigh-in (drum roll)…
214 lbs. (Down 31 lbs. 16 to go)

YES! I’m down over 30 pounds. I’m doing cartwheels - in my mind, of course. I’m a 47 year-old Jew.


The How and the Weigh
Many friends have been asking me about the specifics. What exactly am I doing from day to day to see my results? So, maybe this is a good time to look under the hood of this experiment and see how it’s working.

The first changes I made, I have been as up-front and honest about as I know how. I gave up my vices, my bad and profoundly unhealthy habits - well most of them, anyway. I still molest pandas. Oh, those sweet, sweet pandas. But the real vices went away. I stopped smoking weed and I stopped drinking. – cold turkey. I didn’t taper off, I stopped. Not a drop of alcohol has passed my lips in over three months. And, except for April, 20 – the pot holiday, I have not gotten high, either. These are things I was probably doing 4-5 nights a week – now, not at all. The surprise to me, three months in, is that even the inclination has gone away – especially for booze. I’m not drinking and I don’t even want to. I don’t miss alcohol in the slightest. (BTW, three months ago, I would have typed “shlightest”, hic.)

These changes alone have made a huge impact for me. I know it. The weed gave me the munchies (that’s part of its job), and I munched a ton of calories. I’m just really learning now how many freaking calories there are in booze. If we’re paying attention to our calories at all, most of us scrutinize what we eat far more than what we drink. It’s like drinking doesn’t really count. Well, guess what? It does. A glass of Red Wine is around 80 calories. One of those sweet martini drinks – around 150. Yipe.

As far as the eating goes, so many friends and well-wishers have offered wonderful advice, some of which I have taken to heart. Many of these tips can be found under the “comments” section of my posts on facebook. Fist of all, I’m not doing any one diet. I’m not on The South Beach, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, The Zone, Atkins, Nutri-System, The Macro-biotic Diet, The Cookie Diet, blah, blah, blah. That being said, I’m certainly making choices that are reflected in many of these, perhaps none more so than The Zone.

1. I’m trying to eat smaller portioned meals. Eat more often throughout the day (no more than 3 hours or so without a small snack). Someone used the analogy of a furnace that clicked with me. You don’t want to stuff a furnace full of wood or coal and have a roaring fire – then nothing. You want to keep a slow, steady, consistent fire burning. So you add a little wood or shovel of coal on a regular basis. Our body is the furnace. Food is the coal. I get that.

2. I’m trying to avoid white flour. So, I’ll have a wrap instead of a sandwich (less bread). I try not to have cookies, cake, pretzels – this kind of stuff.

3. I’m trying to avoid refined sugars. So I’ve been keeping fruit in the house – grapes, apples, cherries, oranges. Is this a good idea? I don’t know. It just feels like, if I’m getting my carbs from natural sugars (a bunch of grapes instead of a Snickers bar), my body should metabolize it more easily. A typical afternoon snack for me, to bridge lunch and dinner, is an apple and some string cheese – or a bunch of grapes and a small scoop of tuna salad. This is giving me that nice “Zone” mix of carbs, protein and dietary fat.

4. I’ve been trying to avoid pasta, fast food and fried foods.

Notice I’ve been saying “trying to avoid” and not “no”, as in “no pasta” or “no fried foods”. Diets have absolutes, life-styles don’t. Guess what? You’re going to get invited to that Memorial Day barbeque. Someone’s going to bring cookies into work. You’re going to occasionally have pasta. So what? Just know that you can’t have it very often and you’ll be fine. But if you make something “forbidden fruit”, then it’s all you’re going to be thinking about - like I’m thinking about those sexy pandas.

5. Exercise. It’s no surprise to me that exercise is my 5th point and not my first. I am definitely doing more than I was before this project began, but I haven’t exactly become a gym rat. The well-enforced regime has escaped me. Also, during my weeks of performing in “Fellowship!” (5 shows a week) I get pretty achy by week’s end, and I am reluctant to push too hard at the gym for fear I’ll break. Still, I recognize exercise as a key component. The weeks I do more, I lose more.


Four Syllables
Look this isn’t rocket science. Someone broke the whole thing down for me into four syllables…”Eat less. Move more”. When you think about it, that’s really the whole enchilada (although I should probably steer clear of food metaphors). Eat less. Move more. There are countless books and articles written about this every year, segments on every morning show, an entire aisle at the Barnes and Noble – and it all can be reduced to four syllables. And hey, isn’t reduction the whole point?

Monday June, 8
Week Fourteen weigh-in (drum roll)…
215 lbs. (Down 30 lbs. 17 to go)

Oh no! This is the first week I have actually lost ground. I gained 1 pound! Damn! I curse choosing Monday for my weekly weigh-in. “Fellowship!” opened this weekend. Well, this is just what we were talking about. Life happens. I guess I better stop typing, get up and Move More.