My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 5-19-2014

This report is quite positive in several ways.

The immediate improvements were still modest but my leverage and ability to force more progress went up in several ways.

1.  Here’s my immediate progress section first:

a) I lost another half pound on the scale.  AND, I lost back the half inch on my waist.

Moreover I did this while ramping my exercise program back up to speed and just beginning to add and substitute a lot more vegetables in what I eat.

My measurement each month is done on Saturday morning on the date closest to the 18^th of the month.

b) And, just last Saturday night and Sunday, yesterday and the day before, I made some real progress on adding more lower-calorie vegetables to what I eat.

Best of all, since eating more vegetables is something my wife is already good at and has wanted me to do, she is pleased and even has helped the process along. 

I created a dish I call “Sweet Slaw” which is a slightly reduced calorie slaw but with a LOT more flavor and a bit sweet but with no added sugar.  I made enough that she and I will be able to have some today and possibly tomorrow and even Wednesday.  And, we each had some Saturday night and yesterday.

Then yesterday she showed me her braised Kale recipe and we worked together to fix it. We had some with our curried egg scramble with Parmesan cheese for brunch yesterday.  Here too we made enough to have some today and possibly tomorrow and even Wednesday. 

This isn’t perfect and it is NOT nearly as time efficient as using the VitaMix I plan to get for us.  But it IS a very promising and definite start.

You can only make changes you start at all let alone complete them.  And knowing how to make the foods that work to remove your excess fat taste decent or even very good also helps!

The braised Kale is an OK but not great dish.

But my sweet slaw turned out well enough we could take it to potlucks. My wife was actually impressed by it!

So, here’s the recipe:

We got a head of organic green cabbage and a head of organic red cabbage and an organic yellow onion and some organic raisins—all from Whole Foods. We also got a package of organic carrots.  The one lemon I got was not organic this time as I bought it at another store.  (Since we didn’t use the skin, that’s likely OK.) But Whole Foods carries organic lemons for next time.  The component that is most important to get only the organic kind is the raisins!

I made about a half cup of shredded and diced components out of the green cabbage, the red cabbage, some of the carrots, and the onion.  Then I added about half a cup of the organic raisins.  I put all these into a large metal mixing bowl. 

Then I used a very efficient, “smash” style juicer and put all the juice of that one lemon in.  Then I added two Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive oil.  The brand we use is relatively light and mild.

Then I stirred all these ingredients until the slaw was well mixed.

The health and nutrition this set of things delivers is extremely high: cruciferous vegetables, carrot with all kinds of carotenes and a large serving of onions.  The raisins have grape nutrients and micronutrients and minerals.  The extra virgin olive oil is a health OK oil. And the lemon has some other health benefits.

And, between the buffered lemon juice by combining it with the olive oil, the natural sugars in the carrots, and the raisins -- the slaw is modestly but not excessively sweet.

Plus this recipe has no canola oil* nor did I have to make our own real mayonnaise at home to make this slaw.  (Real mayonnaise uses extra virgin olive oil only.  The foods that are labeled as mayo in the stores use canola and or soy oil are health damaging substitutes – NOT mayonnaise.)

*In case you are unfamiliar, canola oil is far too high in omega 6 oils, is made with heavy chemical refining that tends to leave some of that residue, and over 90% if not 95% of all canola oil is made from GMO rapeseeds.

c)   Since last month, I was able to lower my immediate stress because I got some key and ongoing help with one recurring problem each month.

That’s a work in progress to be sure but it did remove some threats that relieved my more severe stress.

d)  AND, last month, just at the point my exercise program was seeing progress and I had just started adding new and proven information on how to get more sustainable fat loss from how I eat, I came down with a bad chest cold.

My estimated calories per week from exercise dropped from 2100 the week before to 800 during the bad week from my chest cold -- on last month’s report.

The much better news this month is that in each of its last two weeks my total calories from exercise were back up to 2300 calories per week each.

I set a new record on my Nordic Track.

And, I’ve managed to recover in my strength training and am again becoming stronger as well.

2.  I also made progress since last month on the how and why to eat a LOT more vegetables for fat loss AND how to make both the transition eating that way more doable for me and for most people.

Background:

Last time, I described the work of Joel Fuhrman, MD on his very high nutrition, low calorie plan – a vegan vegetarian eating style with lots of beans and lentils and NO grains.  (My sweet slaw recipe would work well in his plan for example.)

Also last time, I described the research and resulting eating style found by Weston Price nearly 100 years ago!:

“Weston Price and his work studying earlier and traditional eating styles in people still using them AND with very good health and very little if any obesity, found that virtually all of them DID eat some animal foods and/or seafood.  This ensures they get many nutrients not in plant foods and that are essential to good health.  (They also did NOT eat grains.)

Most people know that vegans need to supplement with vitamin B12 to stay healthy.

Most would do well to supplement with iron and zinc.  Some who rely too much on grains and eat too little of the dark green vegetables and nuts, would do well to supplement with magnesium while slashing the grains and adding lots of dark green vegetables and some nuts.

But Weston Price found that there was another nutrient of almost greater importance than all of those put together that some animal protein and animal fat from naturally fed animals contains.  We now know it is important for strong bones and teeth and heart disease prevention.  Even better,  people who want to be vegan for sustainability or religious reasons can get it now as a supplement.  It’s vitamin K2.

K2, it seems, directs calcium to go into your bones and NOT go to or to even come out of your blood vessels!

Note that most of these peoples did eat Dr Furhman style the other 80% of the time!

In addition, in my own case, I want to be more muscular than I am now.  And instead of weighing 140 pounds to lose my last 24 pounds of excess fat, I’d prefer to also gain 21 pounds of muscle to weigh 161 pounds.

The protein intake needed to support the gains I want is about twice what is in a Dr Furhman eating plan.

But, so far, even with more effective strength training exercise and some increased in strength I likely have only gained a pound at best -- and my at my age only be able to add a couple more.

That means I should jump from about 15% his style to at least 75% if I want to lose my belly fat, my reflux, and my slightly high blood pressure.

Since I want those things enough if I cannot have them by adding muscle, I’d better move my diet from 15% his style to 75%.

I won’t look the way I want.  But I won’t be as weak as I’ll look!  I’ll be faster.  And I’ll get great leverage on stopping my few health problems and living longer.

If the information is accurate and I can make that change that well, I should lose at least 9 pounds and maybe as much more as 18.  The average of those is about 147 less than I weight in high school.  And  losing 9 pounds would about put me at my high school weight.

So that’s next on my to do list.”

The key to making it happen:

As I’ve already posted getting a Vitamix to help me get to the 75% Weston Price/Furhman style that will remove fat best.  And they do and will make it more doable for everyone else.

(My sweet slaw was very good.  But it took 30 to 40 minutes to make.  My wife’s braised Kale took about 15 to 20 minutes to make.  Making a sweet slaw drink with the VitaMix from the same ingredients would take more like 10 minutes.  And, making a kale soup would take about 10 minutes with the VitaMix would take 10 or an unheated version as a juice would take about 5 minutes.)

Also, since last month, I found a second set of ways to eat a style about 98% the same as a Weston Price composite style.

Adopting it however, is at least twice as doable! 

It’s in a new book called, “The Wahls Protocol” by ms Terry Wahls, MD.

She had literally been put into a wheel chair and prevented from working by MS.

It occurred to her that if she evolved and ate a set of foods with ZERO harmful ingredients that might help reverse this set of affairs. 

She discovered that real foods have hundreds of micronutrients and complementary nutrients in addition to the things like vitamin C and beta carotene, etc.

So, Dr Price realized that it might be possible to not only get all the known nutrients from foods only with no supplements needed; but that by working until she had ALL the known nutrients completely supplied she might get enough better nutrition for it to have curative powers on her MS too.

With some help at first and extremely high motivation, she worked at it until she got it done!

She went from being quite ill and physically limited and feeling unwell to being completely mobile and virtually cured from the MS AND feeling unusually healthy and energetic even compared to herself before she became ill!!

WOW!

How does that help me or us eat that way?

IN two ways:

She did NOT have to fish or hunt or get ingredients only available a hundred years ago and half the world away.

She got all almost all her foods at her grocery stores!  She lives in Iowa.  So I seem to remember she had to buy her seaweed online.

(I’ve just scanned her book at the store but will buy and study it this week.)

The second way that her book helps make this way of eating more doable is that, the recipes she developed were mostly foods she also fed to her family also.  So she has found versions and recipes that taste good or OK to people not eating them for the health value!

That’s great!

It’s beginning to look as if a combination of using a VitaMix and recipes like hers and my Sweet Slaw begin to be an eating style even I can do every week and virtually every day!

And, other people who want permanent fat loss or dramatically better health can do them too!