Progress! (doctor, weight loss, lose, exercising)

[Niftybergin]

I've posted in other threads about this, but I've been off added sugar and processed foods since March 13. In early April, I went and had bloodwork done to find out where I stood. The bloodwork revealed a lot of brewing issues. However, the game-changer for me is that the bloodwork also showed that my total cholesterol and my LDL had both dropped by more than 50 points after just 3 weeks of not eating sugar and processed foods. Because of that, I shifted gears: it was no longer about losing weight; it was about getting healthy. So my mindset over the last 6 months has been focused on health, not weight loss. Don't get me wrong -- I'm happy to lose weight. I needed to, and I still have more to lose. But my main objective is getting healthy.

In April, my doctor and I set a 6-month follow-up appointment. That was today, and I got the lab results back. All good progress!! I'm very pleased with how far I'm come and the results I'm seeing. My health is DEFINITELY improving, and honestly, I feel like a whole new person.

(And to be honest, the BEFORE results were even worse than what we see captured here for April. For instance, I was at the doctor in February, and my blood pressure was 145/83.)

[photobuff42]

Congratulations! Very impressed with your hard work!

[Seija]

Congratulations!

[Mikala43]

That's great.

When you say no processed foods, does that include no bread or box cereal unless you make it? No yogurt?

No ketchup or mustard? No tofu?

I eat pretty clean, but would have trouble going no processed foods. Some things I'm just not going to make.

[chiluvr1228]

Congratulations!

[Niftybergin]

Originally Posted by Mikala43

When you say no processed foods, does that include no bread or box cereal unless you make it? No yogurt? No ketchup or mustard? No tofu?

No bread or box cereals, that's correct. I'm not opposed to WHEAT, necessarily, but bread and cereal (and pasta) in no way resemble their original foodstuff. They've been processed into something else, and I believe that this processing strips away a lot of the natural goodness of the ingredient. Then food manufacturers compensate by adding stuff back in to try to reclaim some of the nutrition that was lost during the processing. If I'm going to eat wheat, I stick with something like farro that's not been processed very much.

(Not to mention, my chief objection to processed food -- other than that so much of it is loaded with sugar and salt -- is that it's been manufactured to sit on a shelf forever: to be made in massive batches and then sit on a shelf at the food manufacturer...before sitting on a shelf in a semi as it travels across the country...before sitting on a shelf at another warehouse...before sitting in another semi as it travels to a grocery store...before sitting on a shelf at the grocery store...before sitting on a shelf in your pantry.... And to make food last like that, food manufacturers have to add all sorts of artificial stabilizers and anti-clumpers and preservatives, etc. I tend to think that THESE are also harmful to our bodies, especially if consumed frequently.)

No yogurt. This one is a little different for me. I don't stay away because it's a processed food, so much as because it's a high-sugar food. MOST yogurts contain a lot of added sugar, so they are on my no-go list because of that. Even some of the HEALTHIEST yogurts contain as much as 6-9 grams of added sugar in a serving. (I do love Siggi's vanilla yogurt, though.)

I use dijon mustard when I make my own balsamic dressing for my salad, but definitely no ketchup, which is loaded with sugar.

I don't eat tofu. :-)

In general, if it comes in a box, package, wrapper, or jar, I don't eat it. There are a few exceptions -- I use a commercially processed peanut butter that has 1 gram of sugar per serving; i use half & half for my morning coffee; I occasionally buy store-bought salad dressing (only buying those with no more than 2 grams of sugar per serving); I keep Bubbies pickles in my fridge; and I eat bacon. And obviously I use packaged things like dried spices, olive oil, butter, coconut oil, and vinegar.

I'm not a teetotaler. If I'm out at dinner or lunch with friends, I may have something I ordinarily don't consume. I was at brunch with a friend today and had a glass of wine -- not a customary part of my diet -- and we each had a little apple/cinnamon scone before our entrees (spinach salad with salmon) was served.

My "normal," day-to-day food, though, is low in sugar and as "whole" as possible. Dinner tonight is tabbouleh, shrimp, olives, and broccoli salad. (That's not one salad. Those are separate things I had in my fridge.)

[Mikala43]

You really walk the walk. I'm totally impressed.

I'm pretty good at eating whole foods and staying away from processed, but you make me want to up my game.

[Niftybergin]

There's no question my nutrition could be better. Like everyone else, I have a busy life and need to eat quick and convenient meals, which for me translates to a lack of variety. And I don't cook as much as I should. (I tend to do something like roast a whole chicken on Sunday, so that I can eat the meat throughout the week, and then I also make stock out of the carcass and my dog and I drink that throughout the week. Other than the one cooking episode on Sunday, there's not a lot of cooking involved, generally. Or if I do cook it might be something like salmon or steak just cooked in a pan and eaten with a spinach salad. Not a RECIPE, in other words.) My food is VERY boring. It satisfies me, because I don't need a lot of variety, but someone else might be bored with it.

I've struggled with weight all my life. I've been on every sort of diet. (That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but I HAVE tried several.) It always worked the same way for me: I'd start off strong, but by about month three, I'd get slack and slowly slide back into my old ways. I'd wind up gaining all the weight back and usually just keep gaining.

At the risk of sounding glib, this has been the EASIEST weight-loss I've ever experienced. It sounds hard-core on paper, I know, but it's been so easy. I think it's because sugar and processed foods make you want MORE of the same. When you go off them, you're not constantly feeding that addiction. It makes it easy to say no. I GENUINELY have no cravings for sugar or processed foods. And when I do have those foods, I'm satisfied after just a little. There's a strong suggestion out there in research that sugar interferes with satiety, with our ability to feel satisfied by the foods we eat. All I know is that after cutting out sugar (and processed foods), I'm now satisfied after each meal. I don't wander around wishing I'd eaten something else, or staring into the fridge or the pantry trying to find something that will satisfy that mental hunger that still wants to be fed, even though my belly is full. I think that's why this has been successful for me. There's no psychological component trying to derail my efforts; I'm not at war with myself.

I don't count calories, I don't count points, I don't measure portions. I just steer clear of sugar and processed foods, period. (And of course, I do move more...which seems a natural byproduct of simply feeling better physically and emotionally. And for the last month I've been doing strength training with a trainer. So it's not just the nutrition. I'm exercising, too. But I'm not a gym rat, I'm not spending 6 or 7 hours a week sweating myself into an exhausted stupor. I just get my 10,000 steps per day, do gentle stretching and calisthenics at home while watching TV, and do 20 minutes of high-intensity strength training twice a week.) I also eat a lot of fat -- in the foods I eat, like olives and nuts and some meats, and added fats like olive and coconut. Fat is tasty and satisfying! I think that's another reason why this has been easy. If you took away my olives and nuts, though, I might have real problems.

This is the first time in my life that I've truly come to understand what they mean when they say it has to be a lifestyle change. No sugar and no processed food is my lifestyle now. And it's COMPLETELY sustainable for the long-haul.

[tickyul]

NICE JOB.................CMFEO 4 yew (not really, but good job anyways!).