My lunch today

Hi,

Just a quick one now,

The idea lunch should include both protein and carbs,

Since according to weight watcher points system I can eat two cups of cooked stuff on average then today I arrange the two cups as follows:

- Protein cup - Cooked beans.

- Carbs cup - Cooked Pasta.

And then I topped it with a huge layer of vegetables... - Weight Watchers said it's for free so I am taking full advantage here... - 

The truth is - I couldn't finish eating all the beans... - this was a huge lunch.

When I returned to my room I ate one boiled egg - well you wouldn't expect that as a vegetarian I shall rely on the beans for my protein supply - this egg is a wonderful and a complete source for the protein that I need.

Right now I am filling my huge stomach with food in order to feel full. But I think this is not the right solution. In a more advanced stage I shall start counting the calories in the salad and I shall also reduce the amount of food that I consume and hopefully the stomach shall be reduced naturally.

Aviel.

Planning according to Weight Watchers Points Plus

I spent several hours reading the weight watchers system and planning accordingly.

The way it works is as follows - Everything that you eat costs you points. For example if you drink one glass of 1% fat milk then it costs you 2.5 points. Another example, if you eat double Hamburger of around 150 g then it costs you 17 points.

Now according to your weight and age weight watchers provide you with the number of points that you can eat per day.

Vegetables cost 0 points.

The first 3 fruits that you eat per day cost you 0 points.

In addition, in case of emergency where you have to eat outside and you eat a lot and exaggerate, then weight watchers give you 49 points to spend.

In addition - if you do sports then you can credit yourself with more points.

Now since I weigh around 140 Kg - the weight watchers coach told me that I can eat 59 points. She was shocked when she read that number to me... - she said it's too much. Again - these people are used to deal with small women. So she kind of suggested that I eat 35-45 points. Anyway - the most basic thing that I need to know - I don't know.

So I took the old plan and arranged myself a weekly plan of around 42 points. 

Let me describe a typical day according to this plan

Early Morning (~6 a.m)

• 2 table spoons of oat mixed with cinnamon & flax.

Breakfast (~7:45 a.m)

• 1 slice of whole wheat bread
• 1 egg
• 200 g 3% yogurt
• 100 g 1% Cottage Cheese
• Big Salad with no salt, no pepper, no oil
• 10 Olives

Snack (~10:00 a.m.)

• One slice of whole wheat bread.
• One tea spoon peanuts butter or one tbsp Humus or one tbsp raw techina or half Avocado
• 10 gr walnuts or 6 pieces of Brazil nuts or 24 almonds

Lunch (~12:00 noon)

• 1 glass of cooked fool beans or lentils or peas.
• 1 glass of cooked full rice or pasta made of whole wheat or wheat groats.
• 1 egg or 1 soy shnitzel.
• Huge Salad with all 5 colors.

Snack (~16:00 afternoon)

• 3 plums or 2 big bananas or 3 apples or 3 peaches or 24 grapes or 1.5 cups of chopped mango

Dinner (~19:00 afternoon)

• 1 big salad
• 1 tsp olives oil
• 250 g 0.5% cottage cheese.
• 1 slice of whole wheat bread.
• 1 egg

few points here -

• I eat 6 meals per day - I should never be hungry.
• I am vegetarian since I was 7.5 years old.
• The 10 olives provides the oil that one need in order to digest the vitamins that we have in the salad. Unfortunately it contains lots of salt. I may have to look for an alternative.
• Even though I am diabetics - I decided to eat fruits cause weight watchers strongly recommended them. I selected fruits with low glycemic index.
• I know that building a plan according to weight watchers is not accurate and I do it only at the beginning - later I shall revert to relying directly on the USDA data base.

That's it,

Aviel.

Injury and Fatique

Since I started my diet & fitness regime 2 days ago - I am very tired. You would expect that people who eat less and move more - would be full of energy, but I am NOT!

I find myself falling asleep in the middle of debugging a difficult case. It is then that the brain is required to shift to a higher gear and it is then that I start to tear, yawn and eventually drift into sleep. Yes, in the middle of the day, at the office, even with a friend sitting next to me - I am becoming a zombie - very very tired. More energy is spent in the Gym, less energy is consumed in the form of food - and the result is a deep fatique. 

But while this fatique can be solved by sleeping - I am afraid of yet another problem - Injury. The most important thing is not to blow my heart or my brain. But then it's also important to shift my body into high gear without destroying my legs, my hands, my shoulders, etc.

Well - I think that my knees have had enough of this already. I thought that I was safe cause I am not running - I am only walking, but it seems like brisk walking is a problem. I use the 6% slant and walk quite fast, pressing, pressing and my knees are telling me now to stop that... So early into my fitness regime and I can't even walk. I can feel the pain when I climb the stairs. As I told you, I am not using elevators any more so I use the stairs. WOW - this is sooo difficult, I climb 3 floors from my office room to my office Gym and I can feel my knees in pain. I climb slowly, and when I reach the Gym I am breathing hard. I remember that day when I climbed 6 floors went down using the elevator, then climbed 6 floors then the elevator again - and I did that for 17 straight rounds - that's more than 100 floors in one session. And now I am so tired after only 3. 

Definitely there's a loooong way to go before I get back in shape.

I spent 20 minutes in the gym doing flexibility exercises. My body is so stiff, I can't reach my legs, I can't bend down, I can't lift my leg to my ass. And the cardio sessions are only making things worse, they are contributing to the total stiffness. I can really say that 20 minutes of flexing was a good thing.

Then I spent additional 20 minutes doing all sorts of weights lifting, minimal weight, no effort, I don't want to stress it, I know I was a champion but that was in the past, right now I am a wreck of a man and I don't want my shoulder to break just because I am trying to be a hero and lift weights like I used to. I know how fragile the body is even when it is fully trained and in high fitness.

After the Gym I went home, slowly, in pain, like an old man...

Aviel.

First Gym Session

So today in the morning I had my first Gym session.

As I already said, as part of this transformation I decided not to use elevators any more. So as I was climbing the stairs I could feel my knees, they hurt slightly and it's worrying. I need those knees.

Which leads me to my biggest concern at this time - Avoid Injuries!!!

First and foremost - I am not a healthy person - Currently I do and still am suffering from Hypertension. If I want to continue with this weight loss & fitness program - first thing I should care of is not to DIE because if I die then I wouldn't be able to lose weight properly! And second thing - I should avoid getting a stroke or a heart attack cause if I do then it will take me months to recuperate if at all - I mean I may end up in a wheel chair or with a dead brain - I don't want that and so the idea is :

D O N T   S T R E S S   I T !!!!

I spent one hour on the treadmill of which 20 minutes were moderate-high effort around 75% of my max heart rate and the rest were around 65% of my heart rate.

For me it meant 20 minutes on 145 hearts beats per minute and 40 minutes of 135 heart beats per minute.

How did I get there?

The formula is simple:

targetHeartRate = minimumHeartRate + (maximumHeartRate - minimumHeartRate) * percentage.

where

maximumHeartRate = 220 - age.

In my case:

maximumHeartRate = 220 - 50 = 170.

minimumHeartRate = 70 (I measured)

targetHeartRate = 70 + (170-70)*65% = 135 // for fat burn kind of effort

targetHeartRate = 70 + (170-70)*75% = 145 // for sugar burn kind of effort.

They say the fat burn is the lower pace that is more suitable for fat loss while the higher heart rate is for burning carbs. I am not sure about that. I know that in all heart rates you burn and lose fat, it's just that it's very hard to maintain a high heart rate, so the lower rate is more comfortable and you can stay in that range for one full hour easily and during that time you just burn fat.

So here's me on the treadmill - sweating like there's no tomorrow - 

In that one hour session I used 6% inclination and at the end of it I marched 5 Km and lost 950 calories... WOW!! :)

Aviel.

Turns out I weigh too much for Weight Watchers

So yesterday I had my first visit to weight watchers. I climbed up the stairs, all sweating and poofing and introduced myself. I asked Lital, the secretary there if she thinks I should lose weight and her reply was 'now what do YOU think?'

Then Vilma the coach tried to see how much I weigh... - turns out I was more than 135 Kg - that's the maximum that she could measure !!! She was so appologetic and I was very amused as you can see - 

Later when I read through the beautiful colored brochures I found out that we should split our goal into small chunks - the first goal is to lose 5% and the second goal is to lose 5 Kg.... - which made me laugh again - indeed if you are a woman that weighs 70 Kg then your 5% goal comes after losing 3.5 Kg and your second goal comes after losing 5 Kg - that's fine. But if you are a big man like me weighing close to 140Kg then your first goal comes after losing 7 Kg and your second goal .... the one that comes with losing 5Kg... that one should come first! 

So first conclusion is that weight watchers are not for very fat and big people :)

Then we had a discussion about flexibility and I found it to be very inspiring. We are in this weight watchers for the long run and there's gonna be ups and downs. We are going to skip our Gym, we are going to be injured in the knee, we are going to eat an oily pita bread in some party - but that shouldn't be the end of our road to weight loss. We should be flexible. We should do it the WAZE way - that is if something goes wrong - there are always other alternatives. And it's a clear message to me - After I reached my weight watchers goal years ago I noticed that I am adding weight. And then I told myself, if I added 1Kg then I am out of the program. No!! it shouldn't be like this - I may add weight but then I should keep on coming to those sessions and be part of this weight watchers thing no matter what - for good and for bed - no singular event should break it. It's a commitment for life.

Then I went to the Gym in the office and weighed myself... - 139.6 Kg - so that should be the starting point.

So there you go - this is the starting point - 139.6 Kg.

Aviel.

The last Supper

Today, 19:30, two hours from now, I step into the weight watchers gathering. They don't know me, I don't know them, I shall be new. I shall say I want to join, I want to lose weight. They will look at me just like they are looking at every fat slob joining in.

It's not my first time - I went through this weight watchers program two times. First time I started at 125 Kg I think and went all the way down to 86 Kg and I stayed there for more than one year. Then came the inevitable - I added weight and found myself fat again.

So I am an experienced dieter... and my experience, or let's say the way I do it is that on my first visit to weight watchers I look disgusting, very fat, fully loaded, totally saturated with food and fat, I even drink a bit - to gain extra weight.

And then - I start my diet - and it's a shock to my body. I eat according to the plan, I don't use elevators, I do my cardio, I do my fitness regime and my body doesn't understand what's going on. It is used to spend so many calories cause it knows that at some point in the future I shall replenish, I shall eat something - but I don't !! It takes few days of massive weight loss till my body realizes that it is under a real 'attack' here and by that time I am marching into the weight watchers losing 4-5 Kg on the first week and maybe 3 Kg on the second one. It is only then that my body starts regulating.

And believe me - it's tough - I am now in a position that I find it hard to walk or cycle, how can I give up elevators now? Yes it's tough, but after 2 weeks the body gets used to it, after 2 weeks you feel comfortable climbing up the stairs, doing your cardio, it is then that you start enjoying the glide down in weight and sooner than later you start looking good, and then you start looking great and everybody are cheering...

But, now, less than 2 hours before the bell - I went to look for my last supper. I wasn't eating much this morning even though I tried - I had to defend myself in court and the tension got my blood pressure up to 168-93 with a heart rate of 69 beats per minutes. But after the victory in court - hunger striked me. I ate bread with tons of eggs and cheese in Tel Aviv, then I had one hour rest in my office and then I went to Aroma where I ordered the double mozzarella bread and then I went to the taboon to eat 2 more pitas, the last half - I just couldn't eat no more - saturation. 

Here's the Taboon meal... - 

I am full now, all I need is to make sure I am hydrated, full of liquids and then take the bike and ride slowwwly on the flat road leading to the wight watchers gathering. I shouldn't spend no energy, I should be as fat as possible. I should scare the shit out of the fattest customer there - that's how I like to start....

Aviel.

How did I become such a fat slob?

At this point you are probably asking yourself – how did I get here? How can a 50 year old man become so fat?

Well let’s see what I have been eating in the last day…

Morning I arrived to the office at 6:30 a.m. and in the coffee corner there were remnant of a previous day’s party –

I had to munch a bit here –

So few Beigalatch (50 Kcal) + One average Burekas (100 Kcal) + Filtered Coffee w/o sugar… (0 Kcal but a good booster for my blood pressure)

Then I worked a bit and at 7:45 went to the cafeteria to have my breakfast – 

so here goes

I would say half a baguette (400 kCal), croissant (250 kCal), Salad (20 kCal), oil added to the salad (300 kCal), shaksuka using 2 eggs (300 kCal), 4 slices of yellow cheese (250 kCal) & 10 gr butter (70 kCal).

At 10:00 a.m. I had to drink my second coffee from the machine (90 kCal). Typically I drink 4-5 like these per day.

At noon around 12:30 I ate my lunch…

Falafel (630 kCal) + Another Falafel (630 kCal) + 330 ml coke (130 kCal).

And then when I was back to my seat I felt that something was missing so I took this grapefruit juice.

Absolutely delicious and it ‘helps’ washing all the falafel out… (130 kCal).

And after that I went home and I ate a very dietetic Omellette + a small piece of pie (100 kCal).

I ate also one 3% Yogurt  (70 kCal)

Then I ate one full cup of water melon (40 kCal) & maybe 20 grapes (50 kCal) –

And the summary is : 3510 calories for the day.

Now what do I do with this 3,500 kCal Number?

The web is full of those calculators that tell you how many calories you should consume in order to diet, etc. These are based on basal metabolic rate formula

Something like this :

BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )

I used  this calculator

and look what I found for my age, sex and weight I should eat 2962 kCal per day:

Well, as I said, this is just average, maybe my metabolic rate is a bit higher so I can afford more and maybe I ate today more than average… - everything is possible.

But just for the sake of game and in order for you guys to understand the deal – so here’s how much I should weigh to balance 3,510 kCal input.

So If I really eat that much every day and if I am having an average metabolic rate then at equilibrium I should weight 175 Kg… -

All right – now I don’t know how much weight I shall lose. I think a good target for me should be around 100 Kgs. Below that I look too skinny. And I think I should do it in 15 month but since this calculator provides a diet plan for only one year then I would say that at the end of one year I should weight let’s say 108 Kg – that is I aim to lose 30 Kgs in one year and then some more. I plan on being quite active so here goes –

So as you can see on the first week I should eat 3240 calories, then on the second week only 3228 and so on till on the last week I should eat 2,622 calories (you can’t see it in this snapshot).

So back to the original question - how did I get that fat? There's an equilibrium here - the more I weigh - the more my body consumes in terms of calories. If I am thin and I start eating as much as I can then my body grows and grows and as result it spends more and more calories till that point where the amount of calories that it spends equals to the number of calories that I consume. That's the equilibrium point. If I continue with my sedenary regime coupled with eating so much then my equilibrium point shall be around 175 Kg... on average :)

Aviel.