The Next Hundred Pounds

RECIPE DAY: HEALTHIER ALTERNATIVES

Healthy eating does NOT mean eating stuff that doesn't taste good. Depending on where you're coming from, though, it might mean re-educating your palate. If you're used to the SAD (Standard American Diet, lots of processed and fast foods with a tremendous amount of added salt, sugar, fat, preservatives, and fake flavorings) adjusting to the taste of real, fresh food may take a little time and experimentation; but as you learn to eat foods that are fresher and less processed, you will lose your taste for too much salt, fat, and sugar. Here are some recipes that offer healthier versions of some favorite foods.

When you're trying to cut down on  carbs, you may find yourself missing pasta. Two great, healthy, low-calorie alternatives are spaghetti squash and zucchini.

For a delicious and refreshing raw meal, try peeling a raw zucchini into strips with a potato peeler and topping with a chunky fresh sauce whipped up in your food processor: about 1/4 of a sweet onion such as Vidalia or Texas 10-15; a small, firm tomato and a handful of sun-dried tomatoes; garlic to taste; a handful of basil from your garden. You could even add a handful of pinenuts or walnuts for additional flavor. Top with a little shredded Parmesean cheese.

Spaghetti squash is named for the look rather than taste of its pasta-like stringy innards (which bear more of a resemblance to Thai glass noodles than Italian pasta), but you get a similar look and mouth feel, and a mild taste. There's a very nice and simple recipe to try here; but I would suggest making your own pesto so you can control the amount of oil.  I make mine with a leafy green such as basil, spinach, or even cilantro; a handful of nuts such as pine nuts, walnuts, or pecans; a couple of cloves of garlic;  salt and pepper to taste; and just enough olive oil to make a thick paste. There's already fat in the nuts so you don't need to add much oil; just add water to get the pesto to the consistency you like. It's fun to experiment with different pestos -- I particularly like the walnut-cilantro combination.

I've been trying to use up some stuff in my pantry before it expires (too many cans of pumpkin purchased over the holidays), so I've been experimenting with various quick breads. We don't, as a rule, buy bread or make it very often, but every other week or so I'll make a batch of something yummy we can have for breakfast or an afternoon snack with coffee.

My homemade blueberry bread with a veggie sausage patty. Good breakfast!

CINDY'S BASIC QUICK BREAD RECIPE, with variations

You can use this recipe to make just about any kind of tea bread or quick bread. It's easy to make it vegan through your choices of protein powder and milk substitute. I'm going to show you the basic recipe, with a lot of variations.

1-2 very ripe bananas, creamed in the mixer;  OR 1 large apple, cored and pureed in a food processor
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed, mixed with three tablespoons water (let it sit for about 5 minutes)
1 cup pitted dates, pureed in food processor, OR 1/2 cup agave syrup OR 1/2 cup maple syrup
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 scoops whey or soy protein powder
1/2-1 cup almond or soy milk (or milk substitute of your choice)

Mix the banana or apple, flaxseed, and dates (or syrup of your choice) until well combined. Add the dry ingredients, then the vanilla and milk. Add just enough milk to reach a thick batter consistency.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Spray a bread pan with canola or other oil spray; fill the pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, and bread is pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Now, that is the VERY basic recipe.If you find it is not sweet enough for you, try topping it with some large-grained sugar before baking. You'll get an extra burst of sweetness on the first bite.

Now, the variations:

BANANA BREAD

For banana bread, I highly recommend using the dates (it will be SO moist) and adding some spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove to taste; and topping with a handful of toasted walnuts. You can also use orange extract instead of, or in addition to, the vanilla.

PUMPKIN BREAD

Leave out the banana entirely and use a can of pumpkin puree or pumpkin pie puree. If you use the pie mix, it will already have spices and sugar, so I strongly suggest cutting the added sugar in  half or 1/4.

BLUEBERRY MUFFIN BREAD

Add a cup of fresh blueberries. If you don't mind more fat, you can top with streusel: 1/2 cup walnuts, tablespoon of butter, tablespoon of maple syrup, 1-2 tablespoons of flour.

APPLE BREAD

Add a chopped up apple (leave the peel on for nutrients), and spice to taste with cinnamon.

CITRUS BREAD

Use orange or lemon extract, add some orange or lemon zest, and substitute fresh orange juice for the milk.

You can really do whatever you want with it; it's pretty easy to make adjustments. Play around with flavors you like. And don't stress --- if the batter's too runny, add a little more flour. If it's too thick, add a little more milk. If it needs to bake a little longer in your oven, so be it. It's best served hot, but it makes great toast slices, and for parties I love to cut it up into bite-sized pieces and pile several types on my cake stand. And I highly recommend using the dates instead of a syrup or real sugar --- they are very sweet, and high on the Glycemic Index, but they're unprocessed and also add a LOT of moisture and richness. If you're watching your insulin levels, you might want to go with the apple/agave syrup combination instead, as that will be a lot less sugar and lower GI.

Experimenting with cooking can be a lot of fun and help you discover foods you like! Try taking a favorite recipe and seeing whether you can come up with a tasty, healthier alternative. You might be surprised at how easy, and entertaining, it is.

 

 

SIMPLE STEPS

If I've been a little quiet lately, it's because sometimes you're just slogging ahead and nothing particularly interesting or exciting is happening; and this is one of those times. This has been put-one-foot-in-front-of-the-other time, as I continue to heal and rest up and prepare for my next opera adventure: six weeks in Sarasota, followed by seven in Miami, sandwiched between road trips of several days each. I might even get to go home for a couple of weeks after that, before reporting to my next gig.(I'm going back to the Princeton Festival --- yaaay)!

I'm excited about these engagements for a number of reasons, not the least of which because it means spending three-plus months in gorgeous Florida. Because we're driving, I have big plans to take my bike and ride to work, at least in Sarasota. I have big plans to walk, if not run, on the beach every single day. I'd hoped to be in better shape before I went --- hoped to spend my time at home in January working out like a demon --- but my mind/body had different plans, and I am okay with it. Perhaps this is a lesson I needed to learn now, better self-care. I thought I'd been taking pretty good care of myself, but apparently not. So a big part of what I'm doing right now it taking it easy and not pushing.

This means walking every day --- like we did this morning, first thing, enjoying seeing the waterbirds and deer, and the gigantic Longhorn in the pasture of the ranch across the street from the trail. It no longer tires me out like it did a few weeks ago; in fact, I'm walking farther and faster. In some ways it feels like a return to square one,  but gradually I have become okay with that. If that's what it takes. Some days, my legs urge me to run again. Soon, I'll give that a try.

I'm keeping up with my simple little Diva Warrior routine --- 25-30 crunches, 30 squats, 25-30 pushups, 15-25 tricep dips, one minute each side planks. It's already easier than it was when I started. I can do more, faster. In fact, I usually do all except the side planks in about five minutes, while I'm waiting for my French press to be ready.I'm already thinking about another set to add.

I've also been giving some thought to what to do about my eating. What is sustainable for me right now? What would make life easier, not harder? The answer that keeps coming to mind is to eliminate as many food decisions as possible on a daily basis. I'll have real kitchens in both locations, so that's not a problem, thank goodness! But I'm toying with the idea of streamlining my day-to-day food choices to a very limited selection of dishes, and pre-determined portion sizes. For example, nonfat Greek yogurt, a smoothie, or oatmeal with fruit and a handful of nuts for breakfast; soup and salad for lunch; chicken, fish, or a veggie protein with steamed, grilled, or roasted veggies for dinner. Snacks would be limited to a piece of fruit and homemade walnut butter, or a homemade smoothie. I'd program in a couple of days a week for a special treat like a "free" breakfast out, where I could have a pastry and some eggs; or an afternoon sweet with coffee or chai. An occasional glass of wine, an occasional lunch or dinner out. This sounds pretty doable, and would hopefully take the focus OFF food, because while I am determined to eat healthy, at the same time the focus needs to be on whole body/mind fitness, not on one single aspect of it.

So there it is. Nothing glamourous or earth-shattering. Glam is good, but so is restfulness and recharging. So is simplicity. Namaste!

INTRODUCING THE SHAMBASSADOR

I just have to give a shoutout to Dr. Barbara Berkeley and her Refuse to Regain blog (which, obviously, I need to be reading regularly). Check out this recent post about Paula Deen, the queen of health-horrible cooking. There's been a  Big Announcement about Paula Deen's Type II diabetes --- she's had it for three years, but is just now "coming clean" to her audiences , just in time to announce her signing as a "Diabetes Ambassador" for one of the giant pharmaceutical companies. Irony, anyone? A star whose entire brand is built around selling the most unrepentantly fattening, unhealthy food on the planet, is now capitalizing on her illness by dispensing health advice? And this same star has stated for the record that nothing will change about her cooking methods. In other words, she is going to unabashedly continue to encourage poor eating habits AND make money off her fans who are unfortunate enough to develop diabetes. What a sweet gig. And by sweet, I mean disgusting. Paula Deen, Shambassador!

Speaking as someone who has successfully managed her Type II Diabetes for seven years now, the last three without medication ... diet and exercise is the very best way to manage your diabetes, and the least expensive. And you don't have to lose very much weight at ALL to see really great results.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, folks: don't get your advice or information from the people who are trying to sell you something. They will never have your best interests at heart. Paula Deen is an ambassador for the Paula Deen brand, and that is all.

Before we leave the Refuse to Regain topic, be sure to scroll down and read the comments from Alexie about the current emphasis on the social obligation to be healthy. I've never heard anyone put it quite like that before, and she raises some very interesting issues that I want to explore further.

Continuing with the unhealthy food theme, here's a recent article about foods you most likely want to avoid, and why. Several of these I knew about: farmed salmon, conventional apples, cornfed beef, milk full of hormones. Microwave popcorn is an occasional treat for me, but after reading this, I'm striking it off the list. It's highly processed, anyway --- it's just a good idea to stay away from processed foods, because of all the low-quality ingredients, additives, and harmful processes that alter the basic food. The biggest, saddest surprise were the canned tomatoes, 'cause I do love my Muir Glen!

Last but not least, I tend to go on and on about the importance of organics, but this cute little girl and her science project is one of the best demonstrations of why you should eat organic that I've ever seen!

 

Way to go, Alyse!

And now, it's a beautiful, sunny, cool day, and I am off for my walk and Diva Warrior Resistance Training. Eat well today, friends!

 

 

DIAGNOSIS: STARLET

In 2004, I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes and was right on track for Metabolic Syndrome. My doctor put me on Atacand and Avandia right away, and I got busy figuring out how soon I could get off them. In my mind, I was too young to be taking a bunch of pills and worrying about my blood sugar levels all the time.

Trips to the nutritionist were depressing. The changes she wanted me to make seemed so drastic. But there wasn't really a choice. I got busy eating better and working out --- specifically, Eric and I started walking twice a day, read some Dr. Weil and switched to organics, cut out processed food and most fast food, and generally ate better. We both dropped weight, and my doctor was estatic at my next appointment, because there were major improvements to my bloodwork.

That lasted for a while, and then there was a stressful, busy fall where I was traveling almost every weekend, and the pounds not only piled back on, but brought friends. Still, Eric and I never went completely back to our old way of eating, and we kept walking. Somewhere along the way, Eric became a vegetarian, so I cut back on meat too, just to make life simpler. To this day I rarely cook meat at home.

In the fall of 2007, I'd suddenly had enough. I found The Beck Diet Solution, started to really educate myself about nutrition, and began to really make changes. Those changes have been chronicled here since 2008. There have been a lot of ups and downs, and that's okay. That's normal.

But around Christmas, I started feeling weird. Unusually fatigued, and overly emotional. Neither is like me. Sure, I'd taken a few weeks off P90X and hadn't done a lot of other exercise, but suddenly I could barely get through a workout --- and I'd been doing it for the better part of a year, and working out regularly for years before that.  You don't just suddenly lose all fitness and conditioning after a relatively short hiatus. Sure, there's ground you have to cover again, but it shouldn't feel like you've never worked out before. I could barely get through walking the Loop, not quite three miles. Something was Wrong.

Well, I've been to the doctor and my gynecologist. I've had an EKG, a complete physical, and a complete blood workup. And the good news is that, apparently, I am in AMAZING health. No sign of the diabetes coming back, cholesterol and blood pressure are great, heart's in great shape. It's not hormonal. I am a-ok (and really, really grateful that it's not the diabetes, which is what I greatly feared).

So what's up, then? Well, the doctors have some theories, but they don't really know for sure. My own theory --- based on feedback from my doctors as well as people who know me well --- is this.

You know how every once in a while, some pop star or Hollywood starlet will get hospitalized for "exhaustion"? I always thought that was a euphemism for "partied too hard" but it seems there's some validity to it. And while the hospital is safe from being invaded by this diva and her entourage of husbands and Dachshunds, apparently what I do need is to relax and take the pressure off for a while.  Looking back, the past year has been pretty stressful, with a lot of running from one project to another with little to no time off.

So long story short, I'm doing a lot better and taking the advice of a dear friend, which is "Stop beating yourself up.  Just keep doing what you can. You'll get back to where you want to be."

I've instituted a couple of self-care practices that are helping, and I walk pretty much every day. I also do my little resistance training routine every day I can manage it. It's an enormous relief to know that my bloodwork looked so great and I'm in good health. And when I am called upon to perform (as I was last week --- a friend asked me to do a charity concert), the performance energy  obliterates any fatigue I'm feeling at the time. It actually gives me a huge boost --- great news since I've got some important gigs coming up.

In some ways, it feels like starting over, but certainly not from square one. Let's call it, instead, regrouping. Refreshing.

And hey, now I've got something in common with Hollywood starlets.  An opera singer can out-diva a starlet any old day, and now I can prove it! ;)

THE VALENTINE'S DAY DIVA CHALLENGE

One of my friends added me to a Facebook fitness group composed of performers and their pals. I've belonged to such groups before --- Social Workout (which I loved before they radically changed formats thereby eradicating their established community) and another FB group called Athletic Performers. Groups like this are great because you get as much reinforcement and encouragement as you want and need,  you can offer the same, and you can also get some great advice and ideas.

And you can be challenged ... or issue a challenge. The ladies in the group were discussing how the guys are always posting about their muscles and their lifting workout, and the need for lady muscles. It was suggested that someone throw down a challenge. Well, you know me ... I went for it. Here's the Valentine's Day Diva Challenge, and any of you are welcome to participate, too. It's designed for people who are new to weight training and/or getting back to it after a hiatus ... like moi.

Duration: Between now and Valentine's Day

Frequency: Minimum 3 times a week

Exercises:
15-25 pushups  of your choice
15-30 tricep dips
 30-50 squats
Side planks, 60 seconds per side
25-50 crunches  of your choice

The only equipment you need is a chair (or bench, or the side of your bathtub) for the tricep dips. I started today, and incorporated each set as part of my walk. I paused at benches  and the workout area in the park along the way. So many more benefits when you work out in the fresh air!

For lunch, I cooked up a big ol' mess of chard with some mushrooms and garlic. MMMMM.  Leafy greens are so good for you  --- spinach is my favorite easy-to-use veggies. You can throw a couple of big handfuls in just about anything. Omelettes. Salads. Soups. Stir-fries. Pasta. One of my favorite things to do with it is fill a big bowl with fresh spinach and then layer anything else I was planning on eating on top of it. (Leftover Chinese food? Black beans? Vegetarian chili? A little pasta and sauce? All terrific on top of spinach). Pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes and you have a very filling meal, plus you've gotten your leafy greens for the day. Also, if you fill most of the bowl with spinach, there will be less room for the "topping" which is bound to have more calories, so you're getting plenty of TASTE of the "good stuff" without overdoing it on the calories. And you'll be strong like Popeye the Sailor Man. And who doesn't want THAT hot physique?

ON LIMITATIONS

I'm having a sort of crappy day, energy-wise, and it really pisses me off.  Everything's been great for a week, and bam! Today is a weepy, fatigued day, and I don't feel up to walking, which makes me mad. It's got to be hormonal. But I'm going to try not to stress about it; instead, I made an appointment to see my gynecologist, and next week I have a physical scheduled. It's pretty cold today anyway, so I'll stay in and ride the stationary bike later.

Meanwhile, there's been some great inspiration floating around the interwebs today. I love this post from Joshilyn Jackson, especially since I am usually the fattest girl in yoga class (even after having lost weight), and I especially love that my skinny Bikram-lovin' friend Chuck is the one who posted in on his FaceBook status, bringing it to my attention. I don't practice yoga as often as I'd like, but one of the things I was kind of thrilled to figure out about myself after years of Fat Yoga followed by Not So Fat Yoga is that my bendiness and/or ability to easily accomplish certain asanas has a lot less to do with how much weight I'm carrying and a lot more with how my body is put together. I've always been pretty bendy. On a good day, I can touch my nose to my knees from a standing position, and I can do the splits, and I could do them when I weighed over 300 pounds. My downward dog is great, despite chronically tight hamstrings. But I have never, ever been able to do that thing where you jump your feet up next to your hands or step your leg through to runner's pose. I can do a great, low lunge from a standing position, but I can't step through very far --- I always have to put a hand on my ankle and move the foot up, which if you practice yoga regularly, is SO ANNOYING. I always thought this was due to my fatness, but now I know that it's because I am simply not flexible through the hips, not in that direction. Anyway, this article was a great reminder that WE ARE NOT OUR FAT. It doesn't rule us and it doesn't have to limit us, if we don't let it.

In a world where we are so often reminded of our imperfections, mostly as a way to make us BUY MORE STUFF, I found this video not only funny but inspiring.

 

Don't get me wrong; I like makeup as much or more than the next girl; I get my hairs did; I love mani/pedis and facials and fancy shower gels and creams that promise all sorts of things but don't really do much more than feel and smell good; and quite honestly, at this point if I could afford to have everything that sagged tightened up, I'd totally do it.  There's nothing wrong in trying to look your best. But there is something wrong in being desperate about it. All this stuff should be FUN and if it's not, it's not worth doing. Besides which, if you are over 40 your goal should not be to look young --- it should be to look fresh. Current, age-appropriate clothes and makeup, complexion glowing from drinking lots of water and plenty of fresh air and exercise,  a good attitude, and lots of interests in life and the people around you will make you beautiful and fascinating until the day you die.

You are enough. Don't let anybody --- especially people who are trying to get in your pants (to get your wallet, or anything else, for that matter) --- tell you otherwise.

 

 

 

 

POOPER SCOOPER SQUATS AND OTHER "FOUND" EXERCISE

The weather is just glorious right now --- cool and sunny, though it's suppose to get pretty cold (for Texas) in the next couple of days. I hit the trail right after breakfast this morning, without the dogs today (poor Lila's little pads were scraped up from yesterday's walk ... she's older now, and I think like older humans, her skin must be thinner). I like to use this time to memorize music, so I plug in the IPod with whatever opera score I'm working on at the moment, and just run it. I get lost in not only the day and the beauty of my surroundings, but the music; ideas and insights about character, vocal technique, and musical expression come to me and percolate around. So this is productive and enervating time, both physically and mentally.

And I saw a heron in the creek.

I did the whole loop, which takes about an hour and twenty minutes, and it still tires me out more than I think it should. This is very frustrating. I would like to be working out harder than I am right now, and I feel guilty that I'm not. At the same time, it's very important to pay attention to what your body wants, and right now, this is all it seems to want. So, I am trying to honor that, while staying alert to making excuses.

The group fitness class I signed up for with Groupon --- dumping it. I feel bad about it, especially since I had big plans to use it to jumpstart myself back into regular serious exercise, but there were just too many strikes against it. Inconvenient location and time (5:30 p.m. on weekdays only, which put me right in the middle of rush hour traffic both coming and going); low-rent sorta sketch location and facility with no heating, cooling, or showers; and it just wasn't all that fun or motivating. I'm keeping my eye out for something better situated but in the meantime, it's the daily walk and sometimes a session on the stationary bike, which I dislike but is doable.

Today was a big score in the "found" workout department. First, there was Christmas Ornament Box Tetris, which is a mind-body exercise involving many trips up and down the ladder to put all the boxes of Christmas decorations back up on their shelves; and includes much rearranging of said boxes until they all somehow fit but not quite the way you had them before.  Swearing is optional. Then,  there's the Dead Morning Glory Vine Row, in which you pull and untangle miles of ugly dead vines from the side of the house and off the utility boxes. (Bonus round: the "Found Evidence of Former Rodent and/or Snake Trapped in Vines Squick Dance").  Last, but by no means least, is the Pooper Scooper Squat. You must carefully observe proper form with this one, making sure you're directly in front of the offending item (so you don't twist the wrong way and risk hurting your back or knees), and execute a proper squat for each and every item. It's cheating to do one squat and grab all you can within arm's reach. Incidentally, this exercise also works with your husband's dirty clothing or your kids' toys, but I leave this to your discretion.

Having done several rounds of each of the aforementioned, I feel better about "only" walking this morning, plus my house and yard are in much better condition.  The benefits of working out are many!

VIRTUOUS SOUP

I wrote a food plan today and stuck with it until dinner time. The afternoon turned cold, I was tired, and nothing in the fridge appealed ... you know how that goes.  I really wanted a piece of toast, of all things! But I don't regularly keep bread in the house, and resisted the urge to make cornbread or biscuits. Instead, I made Virtuous Soup. And it was really yummy.

What is Virtuous Soup, you ask? Well, it's a little something I whipped up on the spot from stuff in the fridge. And it goes something like this:

Sautee a chopped onion and some leafy greens (kale, chard, spinach) in a tiny bit of butter and olive oil. The addition of a smidgeon of butter to your oil adds a lot of richness to the flavor.  In my soup, I used only the chopped up ribs from the greens.*

Salt to taste. Add some chopped mushrooms (I used oyster) and about of cup of a whole grain of your choice (I used some brown rice left over from a visit to a Chinese restaurant). Add a package of Italian sausage style seitan, or some ground turkey, or some such. I'm a big big fan of Upton's Naturals.

Add about a cup of mushroom, beef, or veggie broth. My all-time favorite is Pacific Natural Foods Organic Mushroom Broth. Let that cook down, then add the rest of the broth and let it also boil down a little until you have a thicker soup.

*Earlier in the week, I made kale chips, and saved the tough ribs. I also had some rainbow chard, so I went ahead and stripped the ribs from that, too, chopped them all up, and put them in Ziploc in the fridge. The ribs are good to eat but you have to cook them longer than the leaves.

That's it. Start to finish it took 30 minutes, and it was AMAZING and satisfying and warming on a cold night.

But I still wanted something sweet. So I took a page from my amazing and beautiful friend Anya Matanovic's book and made truffles.This is my colleague who travels with her Vitamix (for which I still long and lust) and showed all of us in the Figaro cast how to make all sorts of yummies with it. But I still rely on the cheap but sturdy little Black and Decker food processor I've had since grad school; it doesn't get things as smooth as the Vitamix, but it works just fine.

CINDY'S VERSION OF ANYA'S HEALTHY RAW TRUFFLES

Grind about a cup of raw cashews (or almonds, or walnuts, or pecans) in your food processor until it turns into butter. Add about 1/4 tsp salt.

Add 1/2 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut and a cup of pitted dates; continue to blend. Add 1 tsp vanilla extract and three tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (my gold standard is Scharffen Berger).

And then just roll the sticky mixture up into little balls. They're pretty rich so don't make them too big. They are the YUM. Yes, they have a lot of sugar because of the dates and fat because of the nuts, but at least it's a very natural form. Anya was always bringing these to rehearsal; only one reason she is such a popular girl.

In other news, I got in a good little walk this morning, while the dogs chased squirrels, but I did not go back to the group fitness class and I didn't do any other exercise. Well, tomorrow is another day.

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION AND A REPORT

Do me a favor, folks.

Go to this link, read the rules, and nominate The Next 100 Pounds as your favorite blog in the Best Health or Wellness category. You have to make at least three nominations for yours to count, so if you don't have any other favorite blogs, may I suggest:

Dr. Grumpy for the Best Humor category.

Stonekettle Station for the Best Weblog about Politics Category (but only if you're progressive or open to hearing views not your own, please, because otherwise this site might give you an aneurysm).

Veterinarians Behaving Badly for the Best Pet or Animal Weblog category.

I'd really appreciate the vote. I don't do a lot of publicizing of this site, and it'd be great to get more hits.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program.

If you've been following along, you know that over the holidays I was experiencing a worrying amount of fatigue, so much so that I finally made a doctor's appointment.  Ironically, the day I visited the doctor was the day I started to feel MUCH better, and have continued doing so. But my EKG  was completely normal. My heart's in good shape; my blood pressure was great; the bloodwork just came back completely normal which means my greatest worry of all, that my Type II Diabetes was reasserting itself, was not founded.

I'm still planning on going in for a physical to rule out anything else, but on reflection,  I'm pretty sure it was the effects of longterm stress. This year has marked a big change in lifestyle for me, with a lot more travel and a great deal more rushing around; for five or six gigs in a row I literally ran off the stage at the final performance and jumped on an airplane to get to my next gig, sometimes flying overnight to make it. It's no news to anyone that the economy sucks and that has had some major implications for my industry --- opera companies are continuing to close left and right, and the ones that are hanging in there are heavily into cost-cutting mode. We've had our share of tension over jobs and money in my household, like just about everyone else in the world. And to be perfectly honest, there's been a sort of  Catch-22 centering around the stress of weight gain and lack of motivation to work out, which in turn contribute to the general stress level.

But, the important thing is to keep working on it, and I feel I have been doing that, and am finally starting to get back on track. Yesterday I cooked up a big mess of kale and it was so good that that is all I had for dinner. I ate two bunches of kale and it was delicious. I bought lots of veggies at the grocery store on Sunday, and am bringing no refined carbs into the house whatsoever.

So there is it. There is nothing magical about it --- it's a day in, day out slog and sometimes it's better than others. Find the tools that help you and don't be discouraged if you have a bad moment --- it doesn't have to become a bad day. And a bad day doesn't have to become a bad week. And even if it does, you can recover from that. All you have to do is start over, as many times as it takes.

Every one of them counts.

 

 

NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER

It should come as no surprise to anyone that you can't really trust what people who are trying to sell you something say about their products.  Ultimately, they are there for one thing only: to get your money; and while they may not (or in plenty of cases, may) outright lie about their product, they certainly are going to present it in the very best possible light, obfuscating anything negative as far as the law allows. And the law is often pretty flexible about this.

Nowhere is this as insidious as in the realm of food and medicines.  Marketing  techniques are  specially designed by experts to appeal, to make a product seem not only delicious but so good for you. And sometimes, it's fine --- if you eat the right amount. But the people selling you the product don't WANT you to eat one serving. They want you to eat lots and lots, and buy more. So they trick you with package design and buzzwords.

Bottom line, it's not enough to read labels --- you have to know how to intepret them. And here is a great little article to help you avoid some of the nasty tricks the food industry pulls on its customers, ranging from downplaying serving size to sneaking transfat under the radar. Just another reason we're all better off shopping in the produce, dairy, and meat aisles --- or better yet, the farmer's market.

There's an article in the NY Times making the rounds, The Fat Trap. I was interviewed for this article but my material didn't make it in (no big deal, that sort of thing happens a lot, and it was lovely to speak to Tara Parker-Pope again). I am not convinced of the usefulness of the study Dr. Proietto did --- he had people on a 500-calorie a day diet of Optifast shakes and low-starch veggies for 8 weeks. How big a surprise is it that the weight came back on when they started to eat normally?

The article could be rather depressing, if you hone in on its message of how difficult it is to lose and keep off weight if you've ever once been fat, and the evidence presented that many people may even be genetically inclined to fatness. But it's not an insurmountable condition, and I find hope in the findings of the National Weight Loss Registry, which tracks those who have maintained a loss of 30 pounds or more for a year or longer. Parker-Pope writes, "Registry members exercise about an hour or more each day — the average weight-loser puts in the equivalent of a four-mile daily walk, seven days a week. They get on a scale every day in order to keep their weight within a narrow range. They eat breakfast regularly. Most watch less than half as much television as the overall population. They eat the same foods and in the same patterns consistently each day and don’t “cheat” on weekends or holidays. They also appear to eat less than most people, with estimates ranging from 50 to 300 fewer daily calories."

So there you have it --- a sort of a sensible guideline for what you need to do to maintain. But what none of the commercial weight loss programs, diet books, or trainers prepare you for is how incredibly difficult it is to maintain. I know this first hand, and have been struggling, hard, for the past several months. When I first started losing weight, I was working out two hours almost every day --- usually an hour walk combined with some kind of heavier cardio such as an hour on the elliptical. Like Janice Bridge, a National Weight Loss Registry participant Parker-Pope describes in her article, I was strict about my food plan, weigh ins, exercise, and countering indulgences to the point of obsession. And that is what it takes for someone like me. It's an enormous amount of energy to expend every single day, not to mention time.

I became fatigued by this routine, and one of the things I've been coming to terms with is that I can no longer maintain two hours of day of exercise, at least not in the long term. I can do some exercise almost every day, though. Sometimes it's just "found" exercise --- parking the car in the farthest spot and walking, taking the stairs, making an extra trip to walk to the mailbox down the street instead of stopping on the way home in the car. Other days it's planned sessions, and in the short term, as I try to get back on track, I'm adding in some extra through daily walks.

I also can do better with my eating. If the research is correct, it's actually physically harder for me to maintain a weight loss. I have to exercise MORE to get the same calorie benefit as someone the same size who has never been overweight; and I have to eat significantly fewer calories to maintain my loss.

This isn't happy news, but here's the thing --- I think we have to look at it as part of the cross we have to bear, so to speak. Everybody has stuff they have to deal with. I'd rather be genetically inclined to fat than genetically inclined to stupidity. It may not be easy, but I can manage fatness. There's only so much you can do to manage stupidity.

And the Fat Trap is just another reason to focus on health and fitness over weight. I know I am never going to be a size 10. I don't care. But I do want to run a marathon. I do want toned arms and abs. I do want a healthy heart and normal blood pressure. Those are goals I can work towards, and as I wrote yesterday, weight loss is a result of working towards fitness goals. In my quest to find what is sustainable, I'm happier than ever about my decision to take weight loss off the front burner and concentrate on fitness.

Hey ... never give up, never surrender, right?