[chrisinhouston]

A little background information. I'm working towards 58 years of age and I've slowly moved from being around 195-200 lbs to 225-230! A year or so ago a blood test showed an increase in the bad cholesterol and a decrease in the good kind and my blood pressure was high enough that I needed medication to lower it. Also my glucose levels were point towards being per-diabetic as they call it now. Why was this happening? No one in my family has or ever had heart disease or diabetes. The answer I had to accept was that I was overweight and not exercising enough. Up until a few years ago I had always remained very active. Everyone used to joke that I never seemed to take a rest or sit still for long. Now I seemed to find reasons not to get up and move about. I enjoy just about every kind of food, funny but about the only thing I don't like is really processed food and junk food. But the reality was I probably was eating too much food, even good types of food. I also seemed to get more stressed out. Now that the kids are grown and the parents are gone I seem to have focused my worries more on me and my wife and retirement, etc.

So I decided to make some changes. The doctors I had seen (heart Dr. for BP and a family Dr. for general stuff) both wanted to medicate me further and run all kinds of tests. Neither suggested any kind of lifestyle change. So I decided to just change what I eat and eat less. I switched over to mostly eating steel cut oats for breakfast. However I never liked sweet stuff much, funny but I rarely ever eat any sugary or sweet things. So I created savory oatmeal breakfasts. One of the things I really loved when in the UK was parts of the Full English Breakfast, especially fried tomatoes and mushrooms. So that's what I put over my oatmeal. Call it gross if you like but it works for me. I also put in a handful of walnuts, cashews, almonds or whatever nut makes me feel good. I also make my oats in a rice cooker with a handful of wild rice or farro or quinoa or other old world grain. I do eat eggs but just once a week, maybe twice. and no bacon. Yes I know, BACON!!! I do still have a bit of ham once and awhile!

I also started following a more vegan diet for 2 out of my 3 daily meals. I got the idea from Mark Bittman's book VB6 (Vegan Before 6). So most days lunch and breakfast are vegan and the only restriction on dinner is not to eat too much and not anything with too much saturated fat. I also began walking more... a lot more. I got a pedometer and my goal was 10,000 steps per day which is like 3.5-4 miles depending on my stride.

So after few months I had a blood test and my cholesterol had reversed and the numbers were pretty good. Not sure yet about the blood sugar as they didn't include that. Then I was in a used book shop and picked up a book by Bob Green. He was the diet/exercise guy who turned Oprah Winfrey's life around, I think it's called The Best Life Diet. Interesting book although I don't like how he keeps plugging his website and joining ($$) so you can get more information. Still I read it and he pushes 3 points in his diet plan. First of all just move more. Get up and walk or run or move and if you already are then perhaps increase that. Second, a basic healthy balanced diet eating more healthy things and less unhealthy things... very basic stuff indeed. Third, focus on what may be making you turn to food or less movement, perhaps stress from work or family, etc.

So I began to really think about my lifestyle and diet and why I wasn't loosing more weight. The exercise and improved diet made me feel better and have more energy but it wasn't enough. I came to the conclusion that my love of a few glasses of wine every night might be holding me back. I've been a wine drinker most of my adult life, my parents were international in many ways and they had wine most nights that I can remember. I enjoy paring wines with food and have a fairly good collection of fine wines as well as good ordinary wines for daily consumption. But I realized too much of a good thing is not good at all. So one night 3 weeks ago we had a really nice 2000 Bordeaux I'd been saving. I decanted it and my wife and son drank it and it was really a perfect wine. And that was the last glass I had. I decided the next morning that if I was really going to make changes this was a good one. No, I am not saying I will not drink wine anymore but at least not until my birthday in late July! On that day I will see where I am health wise and might open another nice bottle for dinner. The other thing that prompted me that for a week I was taking care of my 5 grandchildren as their parents were doing a cruise to celebrate their wedding anniversary (never did a honeymoon so this was to make up for it). I wanted to give myself fully to them and they have busy schedules with school and soccer practice many nights of the week. My wife was also away on a job so I had the opportunity to focus on my new diet without the burden of having to worry that what I was eating might not be what she wanted.

I also increased my walking and now typically do 6-8 miles per day, well I usually miss a day or 2 each week but I typically walk on 5 days of the week. I'm also working on portion control and slowly phasing down what I put on my plate. Another thing Mr. Green strongly advises is to not consume any food 2 hours before bed time. So I eat earlier and I am also getting up earlier to get my longer walk in. Funny thing is I am sleeping more soundly and have increased energy during the day. I through in a few healthy snacks like fruit, carrots, nuts, dried fruit and an occasional slice of cheese but not too much.

The reaction from family has been kind of amusing. My wife thought it was a great idea and has started to mirror my plan although a lot of things I eat she won't and her work schedule makes exercise more challenging. Last night we had a big family gathering for Mother's Day at my step son's home. I overheard one step son talking to the other about me, "He's not drinking anymore... has something to do with getting healthy." I even brought out some nice wines for them to enjoy and asked at one point how the wine was. Funny thing is I thought I would miss it and I do at times like as I prepare dinner which is when i used to pour a glass. Now I just keep drinking more water and also green tea which is the tea I really prefer. All I can say is all this water and a few glasses of tea and I pee all the time now! 4-5 times every night I wander into the toilet to let the taps flow! I also don't have reflux, something I only had infrequently but usually if I ate to late or drank too much.

So, for now I will keep on track with this. I plan to weigh myself after a month as Bob Greens suggestion. In the second month I will increase activity more, maybe through in more aerobic movement or weights. Also will cut back on cheese (I really love good cheeses) and continue to cut down meat consumption. I already only eat meat 2 times a week or so and eat a lot of seafood.

Well, this all I have to say about this now. I want to get back to the 200lb or lower range and try to get back to a 34 waist from the current 36. I'll post a followup at some point to tell how it has worked out.