Skipping Dessert … and taking the stairs

Or at least a picture.  I saw this post on Facebook recently (actually, my Lovely Wife saw it) from Michael Moore, and rather than post the link (because if you’re not on Facebook, you wouldn’t see it) or copy and paste the text (which might stretch the limits of fair use) I thought the best approach was to post a screen-shot here.  Now, set aside whatever opinions you may have about Michael Moore from a political perspective.  This is about healthy living.
The gist, if you’re having a hard time reading this, is pretty much what I’ve been saying all along:  If you want to work out (walk, run, swim, bike, lift, whatever), you should.  But you shouldn’t do it to lose weight.  If you contrive exercise specifically to lose weight, you might actually do that.  For a little while.  But as soon as you back off the exercise plan, it’s all coming back.

Fix your eating because you want to live longer and feel better doing it.  Exercise because you want to exercise.

If you force yourself into it, it ain’t gonna work.  At least not for the long term.  And isn’t the long-term the whole point?

Yes, exercise has tremendous benefits, and it can fit into the rest of your plan to live better.  But I firmly believe if you force it into your plan – into your life – you’re not improving your life, just beating yourself up.  I don’t advocate beating yourself up.

Speaking of improving your life, I’m assuming you like fruit.  If not, well, check back in a few days from now and we’ll talk about something else. Otherwise, give this link a shot.  It’s a list of 20+ “super fruits” with pretty pictures and a quick explanation of what makes each one “super.”  The challenge, as always, is finding a way to fit ’em all into your life without spending all day munching berries.

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Thanks for reading – as always, the comments are open and I and the other readers would love to hear from you.

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My Lovely Wife, in addition to receiving a shout-out for referring the Michael Moore link to me, deserves a shout-out for a little tech support.  Without her help the screen-shot you see would not have been possible.  The fruit link comes from the Research Department, now back in action!

Regular readers know Friday is weigh-in day.  My practice is to weigh-in first thing in the morning, before I eat or drink anything, just so I have a baseline that doesn’t deviate.  That works pretty well, but now and then other scales in other places come into play.

This morning the weigh-in was 264, just like last week. Which is fine, since I made some good progress the week prior.  Didn’t give it another thought.

And then I went to the doctor (minor eye infection, no big deal).  Where they make you weigh on their scale.  Right after lunch.  Fully clothed, including shoes and a jacket.  All of which (breakfast, coffee, lunch, a bunch of water, shoes and clothes) apparently weigh about ten pounds.

Seeing the scale up over 270 was not a happy-making thing for me.

But I suppose it’s a good motivator to be sure the number looks a lot different the next time I climb on that scale.  For some odd reason, they also measured my height.  In shoes.  At 45 years of age.  I’m not growing any taller, and am reasonably certain I’m not old enough to start shrinking just yet.  And if I was, as I pointed out, I was wearing shoes.  I asked if they would prefer me de-shod, but it was not necessary.

So … next time, if I’m wearing different shoes, I’m going to be a different height.  Which they’ll record, I suppose, as my new height.

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Thanks for reading.  Don’t forget to tell all your friends …

Those of you keeping score at home will remember that last week was kinda disappointing.  After a week on the straight-and-narrow however, I am rewarded with a four-pound loss, weighing-in at 264. Which is still seven pounds higher than I hit once or twice since this all started, but the direction is positive.  I am encouraged.

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Last year one of my resolutions was to eat (a lot) more spinach and broccoli (also salmon, but that isn’t relevant here).  That didn’t sound like a particularly tall order, because I like spinach and broccoli.  Turned out to be tougher than I thought.  Over the course of the year we acquired a juicer, and we have a good blender.  So I’ve been thinking the path to more cruciferous and leafy goodness might be through the appliances.

I’ll investigate and get back to you on it.  In the meantime, if you have some thoughts about juicing/blending this stuff for rapid consumption, please do let me know.

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Cool links on the way in a day or two.  Stay tuned – and as always, thank you for reading!

Remember the other day when I was waxing eloquent about our awesome new coffee maker?  Turns out my favorite coffee is available in a k-cup format, but you can only buy it at their shop.  Unlike most other brands, which are available at your local supermarket or pharmacy or office supply or the gas station on the corner for all I know.

So this evening after the Sprightly Daughters were in bed I ventured out into the night to pick up a 14-pack.  At Dunkin’ Donuts.  The place with the donuts.  And the muffins.  And the cookies.  And the munchkins.  You know the place, right?  Yeah, you know it (hey, you got a little drool on your chin, there).

It honestly didn’t occur to me that I would be face to face with all that baked awesomeness until I was face to face with all that baked awesomeness.  Or more to the point, nose to scent with it.

You may be thinking, “OK, so he went to Dunkin’ Donuts.  What’s the point?”

The point is that there was a time not all that long ago when I wouldn’t have been able to walk out of Dunkin’ with just a box of coffee cartridges (which is a phrase that looks kind of ridiculous now that I’ve typed it).  And probably not with just a donut – more like a bagful of donuts, muffins and assorted other aforementioned baked awesomeness.  Which I would have eaten half of in the parking lot.

Because, you know, Dunkin’ Donuts!

Tonight was different.  Yes, the temptation was clear and present, both visually and olfactorily  (Sure that’s a word.  I was an English minor and I know these things), but I didn’t have to talk myself out of it.  I browsed for my coffee, waited at the counter, paid my bill and moved on.  It didn’t even occur to me until l was in the car that two years ago I’d likely have been munching a sour cream donut before I buckled into the driver’s seat.

I get that this wouldn’t seem like a big deal to most people.  A minor win at best.  But for me, retraining my go-to food moves is a big deal.  I have a long way to travel, but surprise victories like this make it easier to move down the road.

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As always, thanks for reading.  Don’t be shy about telling your friends.

See, when you eat dessert and drink bad sparkling wine on New Year’s Eve, it catches up with you.  Also, if you eat an entire large and delicious plate of Thai Pork Curry (yes, with brown rice) from Tasty Buddha the night before weigh-in, weigh-in is sometimes not pretty.

However, it is what it is, and I trust it will get better.  268 on this first Friday weigh-in of my triumphant blogging return.

While I ruminate on that, here’s a fun end of year/beginning of year piece from The Salt, NPR’s food blog.

Thanks for reading, talk to you Monday if not before!

My thoughts on coffee, that is.

A little background:  My Lovely Wife bought me the most amazing Christmas present, one of those cool Keurig single-cup coffee makers.  I’ve been drinking about fifty percent more coffee every morning since the 26th.  And occasionally a cup at night, which I never did at home before because making a whole pot for just one cup seemed kind of ridiculous.

I had been on the fence about these machines.  I knew the quality of the coffee was just fine, and the opportunity to brew small batches quickly was tempting.  But I’ve long thought the best thing about coffee wasn’t the coffee itself, or even all the many health benefits I’ve convinced myself a cup of joe conveys (see below), but rather the ritual of the coffee.

For years now I’ve prepared the coffee before bed so we woke to the smell of brewing coffee.  The evening was not complete until the grounds and the water were in the Mr. Coffee and the green light was on, promising a happy morning.  Every morning I finished the ritual with some half-and-half and a warm-up about halfway through cup number one.

I need the grounding of consistent morning ritual, and the Sprightly Daughters provide enough morning chaos to make it all the more important.

You’ll be happy to know it’s really no big deal.  I feel slightly at loose ends right before bed, but the Keurig has provided its own morning rubrics.  Turns out I’m plenty adaptable, which is good to know.

Go get yourself a Keurig at your first opportunity, or get a kick-ass spouse who will get one for you when you least expect it.

As far as the many health benefits of the coffee itself, I’ll let Dr. Peter Martin, director of the Institute for Coffee Studies at Vanderbilt University (yes, there’s such a thing, why do you ask?) explain:  “What I tell patients is, if you like coffee, go ahead and drink as much as you want and can … If you are having trouble sleeping, cut back on your last cup of the day.  If you drink that much, it’s not going to do you any harm, and it might actually help you. A lot.”

Go read all about it in this nice long article from The Atlantic.  Now, the whole thing kind of comes full-circle, because my Lovely Wife is a Vanderbilt alumna.  She swears she knew nothing about the Institute for Coffee Studies, but I am not sure I believe her.

If that article was too much, as usual, the Huffington Post has a condensed version in the form of a handy slide show here.  All the normal stuff:  Fights off Alzheimer’s, lowers prostate cancer risk, wards off basel cell carcinoma, yada yada yada.  What?  No, I’m not making that up.  Go read the article.

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As always, thanks for reading.  Check back in on Friday for the weigh-in and in the meantime, tell a friend!

(See how I slid right past the fact that I haven’t blogged in about six months?  Let’s pretend that didn’t happen and I’ll promise not to let it happen again, mmmkay?)

I’m closing out 2012 at 266, which is a mid-week weigh-in, and will be back on the Friday weigh-in schedule this Friday.  I count myself lucky that, not having been exactly diligent over the past many months, I haven’t gained more than four pounds since my last public weigh-in.  Which represents a sustained 21-pound loss since I started this in 2011.

Here’s my specific goal for 2013, from a healthy-living standpoint:  A pound a week, just like before.  Which means I’m looking for the scales to read 214 in 365 days.

As far as Skipping Dessert (the blog, not the action) goes, expect regular posting, but maybe not as regimented as before.  My paying gig is just too much work to promise four or five posts a week.

Here’s to ya, 2013.  Let’s see what you can dish up.

One of the biggest impediments to a long-term healthy eating lifestyle change is, frankly convenience.  The western world wants us to eat crappy, manufactured, fake “food.”  Finding something to fill your belly is easy, cheap and fast. Finding actual food is another story.  Fifteen months into this project I have to tell you this issue hasn’t become any less frustrating.

I’m a lunch guy.  That’s my meal.  My body processes lunch far better than dinner, I’m hungriest at lunch, and I have the whole day to live it off if I do eat too much.  If I have plenty of time and plenty of spendin’ cash, there are several places that serve real food with real flavor near my office.  There’s one place around the corner from my office that serves actual food – quickly – but it’s not anything you could describe as inexpensive, and it’s not very, ah, what’s the word … tasty.

Recognizing that there’s a problem with finding quality food quickly and inexpensively, when I run into a place that fits the description, I feel like I should reward them with an endorsement.  So here ’tis.

Chipotle.  Yeah, that place.  Never mind the feds.  The food is fresh, healthy, fast, flavorful and relatively cheap.  Now, if you don’t dig on Mexican-y food, you can skip this.  Otherwise, beat a path to their door.  Don’t feel bad about eating there two, three times a week.  There’s probably one near you.  At least until the feds get done with ’em.

Thanks for reading – pass it along!

I want to point out right up front that during my extended absence from Skipping Dessert, the research department was hard at work.  Our Director of Research doesn’t take breaks.   Below are some of the fruits of her labors (“fruits,” get it?)

We’ve talked many times about the truth that anyone frequenting the Golden Arches or their competition isn’t really serious about living healthier.  Here are some reminders why.  I  think “depressing” is the word you’ll be looking for when you’ve finished reading.  If you can read it and still feel good driving through the BK, we don’t have much to talk about.

But there’s good news!  Beer, whiskey, popcorn and pig meat, turns out they can be good for you.  Which isn’t really all that much of a surprise.  If you buy the right kind of any of these, they should be fine, natural products. All of which I highly recommend.  

Thanks for reading.  Back on Wednesday!