Tag Archives: diet

A special weight milestone for me

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Today (MyFitnessPal streak day 2,824) is an important weight loss milestone for me. But what is it?

I’ve lost 49.8 kg so far, which is almost 50 kg.

That’s 109.8 lb lost so far, which is almost 110 lb.

I’m down to 79.2 kg now, but I already reported breaking through the 80 kg barrier recently.

I weigh 174.6 lb now, which does break the 175 lb barrier, but 5 lb milestones are minor.

And I still have 3.8 kg = 8.4 lb to go to get down to a “normal BMI.”

So what makes today’s weight milestone so special to me?

The answer: As far as I can tell, from all my records and memories, today marks a record low weight in my entire adult life.

Weight loss is proceeding extremely slowly. But I’m ok with that. I’m eating healthily (whole food plant based), staying within my calorie limit, doing moderate exercise, not doing intermittent fasting, and I don’t feel deprived. I go for new quarterly blood tests on Saturday. I’ll get the results on the 20th. I’m curious how it goes because my doctor took me off of blood sugar medication in November. My blood pressure the other day at my local clinic was a great 114/60.

I think I might take up some resistance training. I need some muscles in my upper body. That should also increase my metabolism and help me lost these last few pounds.

But it’s all new territory from here on…

Major weight milestone

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As of this morning, I broke the 80 kg barrier, and my weight is 79.8 kg = 176 lb.

I’ve looked through old records and blog posts going back years and this apparently matches the lowest weight I’ve ever been at in my entire adult life, which was in January, 2007, briefly, before I started a long stall and eventual rebound.

My total weight loss is now 49.2 kg = 108.5 lb.

It also marks a 70 lb loss since recommitting to WFPB a year ago September after reading Dr. Greger’s, “How Not to Die.”

And it’s MyFitnessPal streak day 2,804.

To get to a normal BMI I need to lose just another 4.4 kg = 9.7 lb.

You might recall I was frustrated about a long stall in the 82 kg range. Eventually things just started moving again. I’m not sure exactly why. It could be partly due to eating more calorie dense foods like potatoes for breakfast, and having lighter calorie meals for dinner (though still lots of volume). I haven’t really increased exercise at all. It might also have to do with getting a new puppy. Thanks, Pao!

Anyway, after the stall I moved swiftly through the 81s and 80s, and broke into the 79s this morning.

Since I’m not feeling deprived at all, and not really worried anymore about how long it takes, I’m thinking I finally found a sustainable way of keeping weight off. Time passes whether you’re eating healthily or not, so you might as well continue to eat a healthy diet and not worry about the speed of weight loss.

For me, I’m sticking with healthy WFPB (whole food plant based) eating, which means mostly vegan foods, no oils, extremely limited nuts, tracking calories in MyFitnessPal (I really do need to do that, some people don’t), no intermittent fasting, limited added sugar and salt, lots of healthy vegetables, including potatoes and salads and other satisfying things, keeping to the low end of the calorie density chart, and moderate exercise.

I’m still thinking of taking up resistance training to build upper torso strength and some muscles, more for increased metabolism and arm strength than anything else. It might help in getting these last pounds off, which are in my stomach.

And onward!

“How Not to Diet” – my rating 2 out of 5

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First, let me point out I am a big fan (pun intended) of Dr. Greger, and his first book, “How not to Die”, which inspired me to get back on the whole food plant-based bandwagon.

After getting back, I have lost 103 pounds, and just need to lose another 13 or so to get down to a normal BMI. All my blood test values are fantastic, and I believe getting back on WFPB turned my life around for the better.

I cannot imagine leaving the WFPB way of life, and I have turned into sort of a WFPB evangelist among my friends, some who tolerate it, and some who have actually been inspired by Dr. Greger’s first book and have started WFPB journeys of their own.

I was hoping his new book would have some more information on the best ways to lose the weight I still need to lose. However, like the song “Windmills of the Mind”, there are circles within circles, spirals within spirals, tunnels leading to tunnels of their own, and really not much conclusive, even after reading almost 600 pages.

I am glad he pointed out that calories are important for losing weight. Of course I did know that. And I am glad he confirmed my suspicion that intermittent fasting is no more useful for weight loss than general calorie restriction. But overall, I really didn’t learn much new.

His style of writing makes quick skimming all but impossible. That’s because he loves teasing you with possible scenarios, and then talking them down with his research analysis results. It’s hard following his train of thought sometimes. And his endless use of analogies drives me crazy. I keep on thinking, “get to the point already!”

The only thing new I really learned was that he feels that front-loading your food by eating your large meals earlier in the day and having a light dinner seems to change the way calories are metabolized. Chef AJ has been saying that for some time, but he presented research supporting that idea.

And he also claims that we should stop eating after 7 pm and that, too, somehow helps with net calorie reduction and metabolism.

But beyond those two points – in nearly 600 pages of convoluted discussion – I didn’t find much useful in the book, to be honest.

A friend of mine asked me yesterday if she should get the new book because she wanted to start WFPB and needs to lose 60 lb. I think I was fair in my reply that she should start with the original “How Not to Die”, which is much more informative, and then tweak from there, as I have done.

There are probably lots of you who will disagree with me. But that’s my conclusion after reading both books.

“How Not To Die” is an A+!

“How Not to Diet” is a C (to me).

Just released – “How Not To Diet”

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I went ahead and bought Dr. Michael Greger’s just released, “How Not To Diet” (Kindle edition) after reading the free sample, even though there was an extremely weird passage about obesity skeptics (see below).

After all, “How Not to Die” inspired me to get back in the WFPB (whole food plant based) groove a year ago September, and I’m now down a total of about 104 lb, without about 14 lb to go to a “normal BMI.” And my blood sugar is normal, cholesterol fantastic, and things are going very well.

I’m looking forward to diet (s o r r y – “not diet” advice) to get me across my final goal. The free sample was overall interesting. I did want to mention my buying experience though.

  • You can’t purchase the Kindle book from inside the Kindle app.
  • You can’t purchase the Kindle book from inside the Amazon app.
  • You can purchase it from iPhone Safari at the Amazon site, but it’s like $25.
  • You can buy it from a computer web browser going to the Amazon site, and that way it’s $16.99, which is what I did. Why is it so much less expensive from my Mac’s web browser than it is from my iPhone’s web browser?
  • At the Amazon site, when making the Kindle purchase it says it comes with the free audio book. I don’t like audio books, but I figured, “If it’s free, why not?” So I chose that option. At which point the purchase price jumped to over $40! So I dropped that and just bought the Kindle version and had it delivered to my iPad.
  • After making the purchase, it said the audio book was available for free download now, so I clicked that. But it said there was a problem delivering that.
  • Then I opened the Kindle book, which works very nicely on my iPad. I noticed there was an audio play button at the bottom, and I touched it. Sure enough Dr. Greger’s (rather annoying) voice was narrating the page I was looking at in real time. So I have the audio narration anyway. So what was all that business about getting the audio book? Anyway, I turned off the narration because I’d rather just read it.

I’m reading the book now, but was just wondering – why all the confusion about how to purchase, and the vastly differing purchase prices depending on what device you are doing it on? Am I the only one to experience that?Anyway, the Kindle price is $16.99. So be sure you are paying the right price.

And here was that really weird passage about obesity skeptics I read in the free sample. It created quite a conversation in the Whole Food Plants Based group on Facebook:

Health at Any Size?

There are “obesity skeptics” who argue that the health consequences of obesity are unclear or even greatly exaggerated. They are a motley bunch of unlikely bedfellows, ranging from feminists, queer theorists, and new ageists to “far right wing, pro-gun, pro-America websites where the idea [is] that obesity alarmists are nanny-state communists who simply want to stop us from having fun.”

“How Not to Diet” by Dr. Michael Greger, page 47.

Strange, yes? Controversial language? He certainly could have written that better. But he just feels strongly about the health dangers of obesity and so I think was being intentionally provocative. Still, feminists and queer theorists (whoever they are) in bed with far-right gun nuts?

Anyway, I look forward to reading the book to see whether there is actually new, useful information in it as I am (very) slowly continuing my weight loss quest.