Advanced Mediterranean Diet

Contrary to my plans, I didn’t work out at all over the last week.  I’ve been working on some projects I’ll reveal in the near future.

Any eating transgressions?  Sure: about 10 pieces of left-over Christmas chocolates and a six-inch Subway sandwich.

I’ve had almost no wheat over the last five weeks.  Anyone with gluten intolerance or sensitivity or allergy would expect to have seen some improvement in his health.  I didn’t.  I’m blessed with good health to start with.

Current Weight: 170.5 lb (77.5 kg)

Starting Weight five weeks ago: 173 lb (78.6 kg)

Waist Circumferenc: pending

I’m not dropping anymore weight.  Two and a half pounds down ain’t too shabby for simply cutting way back on sugar and wheat.  I may have subconsciously restricted overall calories, too. 

Not sure what I’ll do to fit back into those suit pants.  Lots of options.  May start exercising more consistently.  I’m now a Personal Fitness merit badge counselor for my son’s Boy Scout troop, so I have to set a good example.

Exercise is good for me anyway.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Not a great week in terms of fitting back into my suit pants.

Weight: 172.5 (78.4 kg).  Up from last week.

Who knows?  I may be back down to 170 lb tomorrow.

No sugar?  Not quite: 5 of the tiny Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, one sugar cookie, too many sugar-dusted peanuts.  And I didn’t work out at all. 

Had to celebrate the New Year, dontcha know!  Woo hoo!

 Steve Parker, M.D.

I’ve been a bad boy.

I only worked out once last week. I ate 4 oz (112 g) of Planters Sweet ‘N Crunchy Peanuts, composed simply of peanuts, sugar, butter, and salt.  Also two small “white chocolate” pretzels.  At least I didn’t touch the pumpkin pie and lemon cake in our house.

Weight: 170 lb (77.3 kg).  Unchanged from last week. 

There’s always next week.

Steve Parker, M.D.

I confess a few transgressions.

1) I had a handful of peanuts coated lightly with sugar crystals.

2) About 10 grams of white chocolate.

3) A piece of frosted chocolate cake.  Hey, my wife insisted and I gotta keep her happy.  When the wife’s not happy, nobody’s happy.  (She’s not an unreasonable person.)

I did couple Core Performance workouts.

Weight at the end of week 2: 170 lb (77.3kg). 

That’s down 2.5 lb over the week (a bit over a kg).  I didn’t expect that.  I have consciously been restricting my calories a bit, knowing I’d have to weigh-in and report here.  And I want to fit into my suit pants again!  It’s my version of hari hachi bu.

As I noted at the start of this experiment, I’m going “off plan” around Christmas.  Wouldn’t be surprised if I gained a few pounds back.  A good strategy would be to get in three workouts in the next week.  Also, when I indulge my sweet tooth, perhaps I should skip a meal, instead of doing both a meal and dessert.  I’m not going to sweat it.  There’s always next year for  a fresh start.

I don’t miss bread.  I miss sweets.

If you’re serious about avoiding holiday weight-gain or a weight-loss stall, you need to commit to a specific plan before the holiday arrives.

I’m thinking lots about my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Merry Christmas to all my readers!

Steve Parker, M.D.

I had one inadvertent transgression.  To go with chili, my wife made some cornbread from a box mix.  I ate a muffin before reading the label.  It’s cornbread; I figured it was made of corn. 

Wrong. 

Ingredients in order: bleached enriched wheat flour, sugar, corn, etc. 

Even flour’s not flour any more.  The flour had six or seven ingredients listed after it parenthetically: additives.  What they took out in processing, they’re partially replacing.

So far I’m having no trouble bypassing the ever-present cookies, bagels, cinnamon rolls, and blueberry muffins in the doctors’ lounge at the hospital.  My public commitment in this blog improves my will power.  (You can get a free blog from Wordpress.)

Over the last week I’ve had a few servings of beans and potatoes.  I’m eating mostly meat, chicken, fish, salads with fatty dressing, low-carb vegetables, berries, and an occasional glass of wine.  Blackberries are very afforable in Arizona right now.

I shoehorned a couple workouts into the week, 45 minutes each.

Weight Loss Progress Thus Far

Weight: 172.5 lb (78.4 kg) so down a half pound (0.2 kg) in first week.  Had hoped for more, but not too bad.  At least I didn’t gain!  Weight yesterday was actually 170 lb but higher today.

I may yet fit back into those suit pants.  But I have a long way to go.

Steve Parker, M.D.

I’m NOT going to buy a new suit.

I don’t wear suits very often, but I had a meeting with a lawyer recently and wanted to make a good first impression.  You only get one chance to make a first impression.  So I put on a suit I hadn’t worn in a couple years.

The waistline of the suit pants had shrunk about two inches since the last time I wore it.  Very uncomfortable. 

I’m not going to have a seamstress let out the waist so they’ll fit, either. 

What Happened?

For most of the last two years, I’ve been eating 20 to 100 grams of carbohydrate daily.  And exercising pretty regularly.  The last two months have been different.

A little before Halloween, I started eating more carbohydrates and slacking off on my exercise program.  Why?  I’ve been working feverishly on two books that will be out in January.  That cut into my exercise.  Plus, I have a sweet tooth that gets the better of me periodically.  It’s no secret I have a weakness for Cinnabon cinnamon rolls, cookies, candy bars, pie, cake, ice cream, muffins, etc.  I’ve been indulging.  You could call it “carb creep” or just lack of discipline and will power.

My Current Stats

Weight: 173 lb (78.6 kg)

Height: 5-feet, 11.5 inches tall (181 cm)

BMI: 23.8 (in the healthy range)

Waist circumference: 37.25 inches (95 cm) when upright, 35.5 inches supine (90 cm)

If you saw me, you’d agree I just look like a normal-weight, healthy guy.

Prior Stats

Weight on March 6, 2010: 156 lb (70.7 kg)

Waist circumference on October 21, 2009: 34.25 inches (upright?) (87 cm)

What’s My Plan For Fitting Back Into My Pants?

Note that this is not a health issue; it’s vanity and stubbornness.  It’s also easier to get around if I’m not hauling any excess weight.  I’ve no doubt some of my weight gain from 2010 is muscle mass, thanks to Mark Verstegen’s Core Performance fitness program.  I have to think the majority of the extra weight, however, is fat (adipose tissue).

My Weight Goal: 162 lb (73.4 kg).  So just 11 lb (5 kg).

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there. Then I’ll decide if that’s too skinny for me. 

Two or three times a week, I’ll do a Verstegen-style workout.  

Did you notice that my favorite fattening foods are all sweet and most contain refined wheat? They have a fair amount of fat, too, but I don’t think that’s the main problem.  They are not protein powerhouses, so protein’s not a culprit.

I think my problem is concentrated sugar and refined starches.  Wheat in particular.  Many folks - probably a majority of the overweight population - have this same problem.  But not everybody.

Could my slacking off on exercise be the primary issue? Yeah, could be, but I don’t think so.

I fully expect I’d lose the weight without exercise if I just went back on the Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet.  But I want the long-term health benefits of exercise.  The Advanced Mediterranean Diet would do the trick, too, but I want to try something different, a more laid-back approach than I’ve ever used in the past.

What’s the best way to eat, in general?  Consider this: Eat Natural Food.  That would pretty much eliminate concentrated sugars and refined starches.  (I don’t consider the sugars in most fruits to be equivalent to the concentrated sugar in table sugar, cookies, muffins, and pies, but it’s debatable.)

Other than physical activity, the other component of my weight-loss effort is to eliminate concentrated sugars and refined wheat products.  The concentrated sugars I turn into fat are in man-made products, not God-made or from nature.  All of my personal fattening foods are seem to be man-made. 

I’m keeping fruit on the menu, although probably not more than one serving a day, if that much.  I don’t eat much now in the way of legumes, potatoes, corn, or peas.  I’ll keep these starches on the menu, too, in low amounts.  They’re nature-made.  I’ll eat cheese but not milk. No limit on low-carbohydrate fruits and vegetables. 

I bet eating this way will get my carb consumption back below 100 g/day.  But I don’t have time to keep a careful record.  Remember that most people in the U.S. eat 225 to 325 grams of carbohydrate daily. 

I’m planning to cheat already: a couple days around Christmas.

This is an experiment I just cooked up today.  Those tight pants were a real eye-opener.  It may turn out I need to get compulsive: keep a food diary, count calories or carb grams, set firm rules, etc.  We’ll see. 

Thanks for reading.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Update December 8, 2011

My household bathroom scale December 7 showed my weight at 175 lb (79.5 kg) compared to 172 lb (78 kg) December 6.  Today, December 8, the scale says 172 lb again (78 kg).This is either normal weight variation or my scale is innacurate.  The average of the three weights is 173 lb (78.6 kg).  It’s typical for weight to vary by 2-3 lb over 24 hours, depending on stomach and intestine contents and state of hydration.  My original post on this topic listed 172 pounds as my current baseline weight.  I changed that today to 173 lb.

Update December 12, 2011

Weight 172.5 lb (78.4 kg)