Back in the small city after a visit to the big city….

Well, I am back… I went to my optifast clinic and threw myself on the God’s… No, I did not keep to the fast… Yes, I did mostly only eat protein… Yes, I drank water and walked myself to death…

The God’s were angry and they demanded I get on the scale right then and there…  Well, I pushed.  No gain, No loss.  I think that is the first vacation I have been on that I did not gain 5 lbs. to 10 lbs.

So here I am at 385 lbs.  I started immediately back on the fast.  Tuesday will be my weigh-in again and I will be ending Week 7.  Just pretend two weeks did not go by….

Easter Break…

I have been in NYC for a week and will be here for another week.  We are here for Spring Break — showing our kids where we used to live before they were born.  I have spotty coverage and only an iPad for computer hardware.  So it will be a week or so more before I am back and in my blogging seat.  Please forgive the lack of postings.

Weigh-In — End of Week 6

Week 6 is over. This week was the easiest so far. After last week, which was very hard, this was very easy. It was like I was cruising through the week.  I was pretty busy and active.  I was not very hungry.  I did wake up at night and feel my stomach begging for food, but I drank water (Water!) and went back to bed. I was fine.  Honestly it was just kind of over before it began.  I kind of lost myself in time.  That makes it easy. If you can stay busy and lose yourself a little bit, then the week of fasting goes by quicker.

This week is -5.0 lbs.

Starting Weight: 449.8 lbs.

• Week:           Weight           Week loss         Total Loss           
• Week 1:          422.8                -27.0                -27.0
• Week 2:          414.6                  -8.2                -35.2
• Week 3:          406.8                 – 7.8               -43.0
• Week 4:          395.0                -11.8               -54.8
• Week 5:          389.8                  -5.2               -60.0
• Week 6:          384.8                  -5.0               -65.0

Before: Starting Weight 449.8 lbs.                                                                                      After: Ending Weight 384.8 lbs. -5.0 lbs.

64 oz. of Optifast Water…

Ahhhhhhhh Gulp.

I have finished my 64 oz. of Optifast Water.  This is the amount that Optifast says you should drink a day.  There are also those who say you need the water to flush the fat.  I have no idea if this is true or not. I know that with my size and my stomach that 64 oz. of Optifast Water is just fine. I have never had a problem with it.  In fact, before Optifast I drank about 128 oz. of daily water. 

I cannot tell you how many hours of discussion in Optifast Group Therapy you hear talk about water. Many people just cannot seem to get to the 64 oz. number. Several people whom I have spoken with say that 64 oz. actually hurts their stomach.

For those of you who have conversion issues, 128 oz. of water is 1 gallon. So it then is easy to add up — 64 oz. of Optifast Water is 1/2 a gallon of water. And 1/2 of that is 32 oz. which is a quart.  So 64 oz. of Optifast Water is just two quarts of water.

I have an old decorative souvenir cup from McDonald’s. It was a large soda that is a plastic mega cup.  It is 32 oz. in size.  One thing I will mention here is that a Large McDonald’s Soda is now 28 oz. They shrunk it when we were not looking.  Same price but 4 oz. less of soda.  Anyways, I fill the large cup I have from McDonald’s up with water in the morning.  I drink it with breakfast (which right now is a lovely Optifast Chocolate Shake — Yes, I wake up every morning to Chocolate!) and I usually have it consumed by 10am.  I refill it and set it at my desk and try to finish this new one by 12 noon. So by noon I have finished my daily Optifast Water.  Then I drink another between noon and 230pm.  Finally, I finish the last one between 230pm and 5pm.  By the end of the work day — which many of you know I really don’t work for a living — but by the end of the work day I have completed 4 McDonald’s 32 oz. cups of water or 1 full gallon of water.  I often drink additional water at dinner time and in the evening.  I try to stop all drinking except for lovely Optifast Shakes by 7pm.

So there you have it, an easy way to get over a gallon of water in a day.  If you simply want to stick to the Optifast numbers, you can be finished with your water consumption by 12pm each and every day. By the way, I will add here that if you hate plain water, there is always Seltzer (Northern Term) or Club Soda (Southern Term). Almost all carbonated water is made without sodium or any sugar.  I love to put a lemon or a lime wedge in my Club Soda and on Optifast that is allowed.  So basically you can drink 5 cans of club soda a day and get all of your Optifast Water in.

My issue is the limits of caffeine.  On Optifast you are limited to two cups of coffee and that ain’t the Starbucks Venti version either.  You are limited to two diet sodas as well.  This is an issue of sodium.  Sodium intake on Optifast will deter your weight loss.  It is not just about retaining water. It is rather about trying to keep you at healthy sodium levels going forward.  The USDA and the American Heart Association both limit sodium for a “healthy young adult male” to approximately 2300 mg.  For a “healthy middle-age adult male” the total daily sodium intake drops to 1500 mg.  It is hard for me at 47 to admit that I fall into the back side of that middle-age category but as my friend Don says — “I am middle-aged. How long do you expect me to live?” — So I must face the reality.

For a cup of Starbucks or McDonald’s coffee they list the sodium content to be 20 mg. Now that may not seem a whole lot to most people but for most people that is about 2% of their daily intake.  Remember this is a cup or 8 oz. of coffee.  Most people drink a large coffee and that can approach 5% of your daily intake of sodium for one big cup of Joe. Forget Espresso — 8 mg. of sodium per 2 oz. of Espresso.  Oh and those two Diet Cokes each day? 35 mg. of soda per 8 oz. of soda. The exact same for Diet Pepsi, so please don’t get me into the cola wars.  One more thing, I love this, many Coke distributors use the Coke concentrate from headquarters to flush and clean the engines on those big delivery trucks…. Yikes.

I get the sodium connection with retaining water and diets, but sodium also increases blood pressure and can lead to heart attacks.  So speaking of middle age males, this Irish heart has issues already genetically, and for that I am on the way to a healthy lifestyle with Optifast, but part of that has to be limiting my sodium intake and that means coffee and diet soda.

So as I said, I have no idea if water helps “flush the fat” out of you or not.  All I know is that part of this journey for me is to become healthy and happy and 64 oz. of Optifast Water is one big step on the way to a new me!

Have a great weekend — the weather is finally starting to turn…

Whew!… Much Better.

For those of you who wrote me and were concerned.  I am much much better. I went to the Optifast meeting and spoke with the doctor and she told me that three other people have complained about being sick to their stomach.  She also told me in her private practice she has seen a whole group of people that are sick this week with flu symptoms and other illnesses that are stomach related.  She told me that I could go see my physician or wait and see, but she thought it was passing for most of us.  Sure enough today I feel great.  I think I must have had a little bug or something.  But I am not sick to my stomach and I have lots of energy.

I appreciate everyone’s concern and all of the great emails I got.

Weigh-In — End of Week 5

Week 5 is over. This week was the worst so far. I have been sick to my stomach almost the entire week.  I cut out the soup because it was holding on to weight by being high in sodium. I went back to shakes only.  I keep feeling like I want to throw up.  I tried everything.  Water. No caffeine. Caffeine.  Nothing worked.  I am working with the doctor and nutritionist at Optifast trying to get rid of this.

This week is -5.2 lbs.

Starting Weight: 449.8 lbs.

• Week:           Weight           Week loss         Total Loss           
• Week 1:          422.8                -27.0                -27.0
• Week 2:          414.6                  -8.2                -35.2
• Week 3:          406.8                 – 7.8               -43.0
• Week 4:          395.0                -11.8               -54.8
• Week 5:          389.8                  -5.2               -60.0

Before: Starting Weight 449.8 lbs.                                                                                      After: Ending Weight 389.8 lbs. -5.2 lbs.

I had a dream…

Is this a Steak which I see before me,

T-bone toward my hand? Come, let me eat thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal steak, sensible

To feeling as to sight?

Macbeth, Act II, Scene 1.

I had a dream that I awoke suddenly and decided I had enough. I wanted to eat. But it was not just anything that I wanted to eat. I wanted Steak! I went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There was nothing in it but the nicest steak you have ever seen. I got it out and put the oven on broil. I heard a voice and it said that this steak was special and needed to be on the grill.

The next thing I was sitting in Ruth’s Chris steak house. They brought me a potato and sat it in the middle of the table. It was raw and had dirt on it. I made a comment to the people I was with that I thought they showed you the food they were going to prepare but I did not know they gave it to you raw.

The very high classed waiter came to my table with one of those crazy silver platters with a big cover on it just like you would see in the movies. He sat it down in front of me and pulled off the cover and said, “Tada!”

I heard a woman gasp and I heard someone say, “I know he ordered rare but this is crazy…” I looked down to see the reddest steak I have ever seen. I picked up what surely was the biggest and scariest knife and fork in the history of the world and prepared for my delicious first bite.

Suddenly the steak stood up. It had legs and arms and the cutest face you have ever seen. The eyes looked at me in fear and the little steak turned and ran. It hopped off the table and ran out the door. I got up and ran after it.

I was running and running and the steak was pulling away from me. I was suddenly in shorts and a tank top and I had this number tagged to my shirt. I looked at it and it said New York Marathon. I stopped and turned and looked at my reflection in the shop window that I happened to be running past. Wow! I was thin… I was handsome. Boy those are great arms! The legs aren’t bad either. It was a new me. The me after Optifast. I was so impressed. My gray hair was gone and no more salt and pepper. Just thick curly brown hair. Oh, and my eyebrows. They were not mixed with this wiry stuff that seems to be taking over my real eyebrows. Man — I am really… — Hey, that steak is getting away.

I ran and ran and, you guessed it, ran — but the steak got away. It was not meant to be. Besides those eyes and the mouth. I am not sure I could have really taken a bite. I sat down tired and dejected. Boy, I really would like a steak. I was so tired I thought I would just lay down and rest. I closed my eyes, but within seconds I felt a finger on my shoulder. It was poking me. “Leave me!”, I thought. Then I thought, “Hey maybe it was the steak.” I realized that something really was poking me. My arm was telling me — someone is poking you — Wake up!

I sat up with a start. I saw something in the room in the dark. Something in front of me. I screamed…. Ahhhhhhhhhh. The little figure in front of me screamed…. Ahhhhhhhhhh. We both screamed…. Ahhhhhhh. My wife woke up and yelled, “What is it?”

I heard this little voice coming out of the dark, “Daddy, you told me to wake you up if I was scared.” I thought for a second, “Is this a trick by the steak?” Then I noticed my scared little girl looking at me with the widest eyes I have ever seen. My wife said, “Jesus Ed. What the heck?”

“Ah, poor girl, I am so sorry. For a minute there I thought you were a steak.” I grabbed her and twirled her into the bed with my wife and I. “Daddy”, she said, “This diet is making you crazy…”

“I know,” I said, “I know I am a little crazy these days, but hey, it is working. I am losing weight.”

We all drifted back to sleep.