No More Mr. Fat Guy!

That’s what the scale at the Patrick Wellness Center in Fayetteville says. That’s the gym where I walk. I just got back from another 2.5 hour walk. That’s a total of seven hours walking since Sunday. I did an hour and a half, then took a break. Unfortunately, the water at the gym was shut off for repairs, so instead of rehydrating with H2O, I had little choice but to buy a can of pop. But that’s OK; that’s only two pops so far this week, and I haven’t had an A&W root beer in quite a while. So I had the pop, stepped outside and smoked a cigarette (yep, I’m still cool!), and got back to it. Did another hour, and then headed home.

And boy, am I starving. I had a cantaloupe this morning, and 24 ounces of goat milk. I’m trying to eat more fruits and veggies, and Dollar General had some cantaloupes that are a little past their prime for fifty cents each. I picked out two that were still nice and firm, and I’ll have the other one tomorrow. I mix in this health drink called Rice and Shine with the goat milk, along with some peanut butter to make it more filling. It’s actually pretty good. But after a 150 minute power walk, I’m famished. So I’m having some goat meat chili, courtesy of two male goats I took to the butcher a couple months ago.

Back at it tomorrow. Same Fat Time, Same Fat Channel!

I’m still at my friend’s house, but I should be home sometime Tuesday. I’m on a terrible sleep schedule-going to be around 10am and getting up around 5pm. I’ve really got to figure out how to get back to the standard circadian rhythms and be a normal human being again.

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When I was a kid the idea of a pop machine at school was unthinkable.  Now, they’re in  schools everywhere, and kids are getting fatter and fatter, and they’re becoming hooked on these drinks for life.  But it’s not just the kids who are hooked on soda pop.  It’s the schools themselves.  Many of them made deals with the devil-taking large sums of money from Coke and Pepsi to allow the placement of the machines.  In many school districts, the money has been a windfall, and now, as pressure mounts to remove soda pop machines from schools, they’re finding that their hands are tied.  Many of them signed long term contracts, and if they remove the machines they’ll have to return hundreds of thousands of dollars to Coke, Pepsi, or one of the smaller companies.

Less than a year after the nation’s largest beverage companies pledged to remove high-calorie drinks and limit sugary beverages in all schools, districts across the country are finding that they may not be able to afford the switch because of contracts they signed several years ago with bottlers for the companies.

When Portland, Ore., recently wanted to remove diet soda and sports drinks from high school vending machines and cafeterias, school officials found that they would have to pay the local Coca-Cola bottling company $600,000 to do so. In Racine, Wis., officials decided not to remove high-calorie drinks from high schools earlier this year after they learned they would have to pay the local Pepsi bottler $200,000.

A majority of schools have exclusive marketing agreements with bottling companies — almost 75 percent of high schools, 65 percent of middle schools, and 30 percent of elementary schools.

First, the bad news. I bought a pack of cigarettes last night. Smoked several of them, and the rest are still in the truck.

Now the good news. I went back over to my house for a cookout last night. John has a bunch of relatives in, so I’m staying with a friend to make room for them, and last night they decided to grill hamburgers so my friend Deb and I headed over there about 5. Now, I did have some Dr. Pepper, but not a whole lot, and some chocolate fudge brownie ice cream, also in moderation. By the way, if you like your cookies and cream ice cream to contain whole, uncrushed Oreos, go with the Wal-Mart brand. They had a half gallon of it last night, and they found three whole cookies in the container. I’d never seen that before.

Anyway, one of John’s relatives is into biking, and he brought along his nice Raleigh road bike. My bicycle has been sitting in the garage disassembled since I moved here a couple years ago. I never put it back together after moving because I wasn’t able to ride it due to the numbness problem. But I thought it might be nice to give it a whirl since I’ve lost some weight and see if anything’s changed. John and his brother in law were nice enough to put it together for me (I’m not mechanical at all), and I took it out for a spin. Actually a couple spins, about 25 minutes each time. And, while it wasn’t the most comfortable experience due to my weight, I didn’t suffer from any numbness. Which is really good news. I’ve had to cut back on walking due to my plantar fasciitis, and I thought I couldn’t ride a bike. But I was able to ride last night. So if I can ride for a half hour to 45 minutes a day, and maybe walk for 15-30, I think my heels might be able to handle that, and I can continue to exercise, while also eating better.

Riding was tough, though. I haven’t done it in years, and I’m still way overweight, and I probably need to adjust the seat height for a proper fit. I couldn’t even make it up a small hill without getting off and walking. And then last night in bed my legs were sore (in a good way) that wasn’t the same kind of sore I get from walking. So I’m using different muscles. And I only averaged about 8 miles an hour according to my wireless cyclometer. But it’s a start, and there’s no where to go but up. Look out Lance Armstrong!

Oh yeah - the scale says 275 this morning/afternoon!

A carton of Marlboro Light 100s, a case of Pepsi, or at this point Mountain Dew, a bottle of No-Doz, and about three of those 1 pound Hershey Bars. And I want Christmas to be tonight.

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I’m spending a week or so with some friends, as of yesterday.  I was busy traveling and settling in, so I didn’t post for a day or so.  I’m at about 280 right now.  It’s headed the wrong way, which I knew it would when I quit walking.  Most of my weight loss has come from two things-walking, and quitting soda pop.  And lately I’ve replaced a lot of the sugar and calories I was getting from Pepsi with iced tea.  I’ve been drinking two or three quarts of that a day, for a total of 500-750 calories a day just from sugar.  Not quite as much as I was getting from 6-7 Pepsi’s a day, but still plenty.  Still smoking, too.  I really need to do something about the sugar, caffeine and nicotine intake.

So, since yesterday, I’ve been nicotine free–no cigarettes, no gum, no patches.  It’s easier when I’m around other people to go without.  I’ve also been without tea, except for one glass to prevent getting a headache from caffeine withdrawal.    And my body is certainly noticing the difference.  It’s bad enough when I cut out either caffeine or nicotine.  But doing both at once is double the fun.  On top of the cigarette and and sugar cravings, I can hardly function due to lack of energy.  It’s very strange-I sit here trying to read, and not only am I overcome by the desire to lay down, I also can’t stop yawning or nodding off.  But when I give in and lay down, I can’t sleep, even though I can’t stop yawning.  So I try to read in bed, and keep nodding off and yawning uncontrollably.  It’s very strange.  I’ve been through it before, and it lasts a couple days.   I knew what to expect, and so did the friends I’m staying with, so I just brought a bunch of books and I’m either in the reading chair or in bed for the most part.   And I do somehow manage to make a little progress in different books.  It would be really great if I could kick all three–caffeine, nicotine, and sweet drinks–for good.  But I’m not going to worry about that right now.  I’m just going to try to drift off to a good night’s sleep by listening to George Noory.

There’s a new report out in the American Journal of Public Health that says that soda pop is one of the main reasons we’re all getting fat, if not the main reason. They reviewed 88 studies to tell us this? But it’s not just the calories in pop–it seems that the more pop people drink, the more calories they consume from other sources. We all know that soda pop isn’t filling, but they seem to be saying that it’s also an appetite stimulant, which leads to even more food intake.

Of 21 studies, 19 showed that as people drink more soda pop, the number of calories they consume rises. Moreover, the studies using the most reliable statistical methods showed the largest effects.

Instead of satisfying a sweet tooth, soft drinks may do just the opposite. Several studies found that the caloric increase is actually greater than that contained in the soda, raising “the possibility that soft drinks increase hunger, decrease satiety or simply calibrate people to a high level of sweetness that generalizes to preferences in other foods,” the authors say.

“These results, taken together, provide clear and consistent evidence that people do not compensate for the added calories they consume in soft drinks by reducing their intake of other foods,” the reviewers say.