What Am I Eating Today? Part II

At 8:10 I had 1 ounce of Ionix Supreme and 8 ounces of cold water.


Keep walking!

Progress Better Than Expected

On Monday a friend visited and we took the day and enjoyed it with him. We ended up eating out twice and I ended up eating more than I might have.

After meeting at Barnes and Noble and then dropping his car off we drove down to San Diego State, where he, my wife and I took classes. While we are still here in the place where we grew up, my professor friend went on to finish his master's degree and he's now teaching sociology at St. Clair Community College in Michigan. First he wanted to visit some former colleagues and if you've ever been to SDSU you know that if you are going anywhere on campus and then in the neighborhood, you are likely walking at least two miles round-trip. (Walking is good!)

Our first stop for food was the 4.0 Deli and I had avocado, turkey and cheese with bacon. This was the first bacon I had in a long time and thankfully, no gout outbreak. It was good. Reeeally good. I wish 4.0 was near my house. (Or maybe not!)

Later we checked in at home and walked the dog and double-checked with friends in San Clemente. We met them at their home and after some conversation we went to Bad To The Bone and I ate more than I have for quite a while. While I'm using Isagenix IsaLean Shakes and other products I simply find that I'm not that hungry. Earlier in the day I was hungry finally for lunch at 1:15 after having a shake around 6:30 am. I actually found myself choosing to eat the whole chicken breast with cheese and tiny pieces of bacon. When I say a whole chicken breast, I mean it. It was sliced and laid out like a big steak. Along with it I had onion rings and sweet potato fries. So I really ate on Monday even though I could have eaten the fries and put everything else in a bag to go. I guess I was testing Isagenix a little. (By the way, I don't recommend this behavior, I'm simply telling the truth about what went on.) Yes. It was yummy.

Yesterday I had a shake and I did the same sort of thing a couple hours later. Again - telling the truth. I am a little sad to say that I had the rest of my son's pancakes as he didn't want them. Later I went to Souplantation with my friend Mary and I didn't overeat by my standards. Soup and salad only. Technically, soup and salad and more soup was what I had. I had an Isagenix snack a little before 4 and wasn't that hungry so I decided to try another shake. This was my first time having two shakes in one day. What I haven't said yet is that not long after having the Isagenix snack I weighed myself and even knowing it wasn't going to be good, I was disappointed when I compared this to past experience.

As I looked down at those numbers I was thinking, "OK. I've still lost weight over the entire time I've been on this, but will it be Saturday before I get back to where I was with my weight?" I know this works in the long run, but I was questioning my short-term judgement.

This morning I had a pleasant surprise when I stepped on the scale - I'm down to my lowest (or best) since I have been on Isagenix on all three measurements! Here are the numbers: 269.2 lbs, water - 51.4%, fat - 38.6%. (My Isagenix link is in the upper right - call me!) This GOOD stuff works!

Keep walking!

Did I Forget To Mention?

This morning the scale said 269.4 and that means I'm down 6.8 pounds in 6 days.  Ehhhxcellent!

Nice Surprise On The Scale This Morning

When I got on the scale this morning I really didn't expect much as it had only been a little less than 48 hours since I started using Isagenix. I was surprised to see my weight at 271.6. If you read previous posts you know that means I lost 4.6 lbs in 2 days without a flare-up in gout pain.

That last part is the most important factor to me. Sometimes losing weight too fast can cause an imbalance that just "revs up" that pain and once you've experienced full-blown gout you want to avoid that at all costs. I've told Sue Landis and others that gout is a great behavior modifier!

My other numbers improved, too - fat 39.3% (lower) and water 50.8% (higher). I am expecting good things from continuing to use Isagenix products.

Have I taken anything else so far? I've taken a couple of vitamin complexes I had left over, but I don't think that's contributed to weight loss. I also take Gout Control, which is basically herbs. Again, it's not really for weight loss, but for helping your body get rid of uric acid.

I didn't have a deli sandwich today, but I did have turmeric chicken with onions for dinner and a banana and a third with plain yogurt and some cherries for dessert. Brunch was 2 cups of Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice.

What will tomorrow bring?

Keep walking!

I Slept 6 Hours Straight!

For many of you, 6 hours may be no big deal. For some of us, we don't know the last time we slept 6 hours without interruption. I don't mean that it NEVER happens, but for me...sleeping that long without waking up has happened MAYBE 4 or 5 times in the last year.

Right now I'm happy with my Isagenix shake and cleanse. I am sure that different people react differently and maybe most don't feel the positive impact to their sleep on the very first night, but that's my result so far.

Yesterday I got my first shipment and weighed myself before I consumed anything. My scale also measures body fat and water. I weighed 276.2 lbs. and body fat was 39.9%, while water was 50.3%.

After going to see Despicable Me with my honey, we went to one of her favorite delis, Tina's Deli for a sandwich. I had turkey and avocado on rye with extra lettuce and she had egg salad. She says that sometimes her teacher colleagues all put in one order and after seeing her enjoy the egg salad, some of them have joined her and now the egg salad sandwiches make up a big percentage of the group's order. She gave me a bite of hers and it was good. I also ate both pickles. These are good deli sandwiches. I thought mine was a little dry, but I didn't want more mayo on it, so that's kind of what I expected - quality ingredients, though.

My expectation was that I would feel a little better today and that I hoped to "break even" on weight. Sleeping straight through so long is a bonus. Another bonus is actually losing weight!

This morning all my numbers improved - weight 274.6 (down 1.6), fat 39.7 (down .2) and water 50.5 (up .2). Plus, my knee feels a little better. I have assumed that the less-than-normal flexibility in my knee is gout as that's what the doctor said it was last time.

The other day I had my last coffee for a while and then the next day had green tea from Trader Joe's which has caffeine, but not as much. So I've been on caffeine withdrawal for a couple days and felt achy and tired when Marianne and I got home yesterday. I laid down for a couple hours and got up about quarter to five still not feeling my best.

This morning I definitely feel better than yesterday and Sunday and I suspect that has a lot to do with the Isagenix Cleanse For Life, which I drank yesterday morning, last night and again this morning. I've also had several cups of Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice Tea, which is herbal without caffeine. In my opinion, it helps to have something that you can enjoy regularly that's your favorite (in my case, tea) when you embark on a journey to better health.

I'm really glad that Sue Landis got back in touch with me to tell me about this. I thought this morning that she's like my business angel and my wife is my home angel. I even found some music by Tavares that fit my mood later when singing in the shower. You can check out the video on one of my Facebook groups - My Unexpected Song Selection. It's the video selected on today's date - 7/13/10.

I hope you're sleeping as well as you would like. If not, contact me.

Keep walking!

Down 11 Pounds In 7 Days!

If you're reading this in January you'll notice in the upper right a graphic for the World Blogger Championship Of Online Poker(WBCOOP). If you have a blog over two months old, you can ask Pokerstars to give you a ticket that gets you into several tournaments for free. Since a free Pokerstars tournament is how Marianne and I got to go to the Bahamas last year, I had to say yes.

After getting the start time wrong on the first day I just finished 15th in a field of 1634 players and that got me a ticket to another tournament. I won't go into a big explanation as I'm a little tired from over 5 hours of playing and I'm frustrated that I didn't win or even reach the final nine. So, about my weight loss...

Actually, I've lost the weight mostly because of being on Jordan Rubin's cleanse, but not completely. I did lose 9 pounds in 6 days and then I got a little pain that my wife thought might be early appendicitis. Yesterday I was enjoying some yogurt with honey - finally! Then I saw Dr. Duck (his real name) at 11:00 and he had the lab draw some blood. Just in case he told me to stick to a clear liquid diet and I decided to stick with chicken broth and tea, which is even more strict than Jordan Rubin's cleanse.

Today he called to say it wasn't appencitis and now I'm back to the early stage of the cleanse. You can read the previous couple of posts for more details and click on the title of this post for more information on Jordan Rubin's diet. If I can do this, so can you.

I have walked* 95.5 miles in 2010.

Keep walking!

From Big Bear To Jordan Rubin

My wife and I came home earlier than we expected on Sunday to stay ahead of the coming snowstorm and we listened hopefully to the Chargers - Jets playoff game on the radio. We had a nice time in Big Bear for a day and a half with a few other teachers and their loved ones. The plan was to leave and go to a sports bar in Redlands, but when we thought we could get home in time we hustled to clean up the cabin. On the way home we took a route I have always wondered about and the Chargers were still ahead when we arrived at our friends' place in Vista. The excellent dinner and yummy snacks took some of the sting out of the stunning loss.

Once a year at the end of October or beginning of November, our church has a retreat at Forest Home which is in Forest Falls above Redlands. It's really beautiful there with lots of trees and a big creek and awe-inspiring views. Near the end of the journey to Forest Home there is a fork in the road and I have veered to the right nearly 20 times over the years. If you asked Google Maps to give you a route, you'd probably miss using the 38 out of Big Bear because it keeps wanting to send you down the 18 to the 330. But, if you asked to go from Big Bear to Forest Falls, it will outline the route. This drive was beautiful and there were fewer winding roads. Technically it may have been longer, but not time-wise. I recommend it highly over the "Rim of the World" route, which to me feels like a much more treacherous route. I felt a lot more comfortable coming down from Big Bear than I did going up. Not only that, but there seems to be less traffic taking the 38 all the way down (and up?). One of the tough parts driving up on Friday as it was getting dark was all the headlights coming down at you on the somewhat narrow and at times very winding road. To be fair, it was early afternoon with plenty of sunlight on the way home.

Now we've been home for a day and a half and this morning we are starting Jordan Rubin's cleanse which you can read about on another blog by clicking here or on the title of this post.

You cook it through the night so be sure to turn the heat down enough after you bring it to a boil or you'll have less broth. You can have it at least 5 times a day if you want, but nothing else on the first day except distilled water. November 30th, 2008 was also the first day of this cleanse near the end of a very successful year health-wise. Read about the start of the cleanse and the beginning of the end of 2008.

Right now I am the same weight that I was on December 31, 2009. I am 271.92 lbs or 123.6 kilos. I'll call it 272 lbs. Read BigManWalking and watch my progress!

Keep walking! (And have some chicken soup!)