This one is simple to explain. No eating after 8:00 at night. Any questions?
There are lots of variations of this plan recommended by many health advisors. Some go a little earlier, like 7:00, but I chose 8:00 because it fits my schedule a little better. But the basic idea is to cut out the time that you least need food, because you are least likely to expend energy. For me, the bigger concern about night eating is that it is when you are most vulnerable to eating crap. When I talk about unconsciously downing a bag of chips or a half carton of ice cream, it’s almost always night eating I am referring to. Know anybody who runs to the refrigerator at 10 PM for an orange and low-fat cottage cheese? I didn’t think so. If “nothing good happens after midnight” is a parenting staple, “nothing good happens after 8:00” could be a great rule of thumb for people maintaining a healthy weight.
One of the challenges of dieting is that you do have to eat. People who struggle with other behaviors often have the goal of stopping entirely. You frequently hear of recovering alcoholics and smokers noting how long it has been since they have had a drink or a cigarette. With weight challenges, you can’t completely turn the page. You have to eat.
Fortunately, you don’t have to eat at night. By essentially stopping at dinner, you’re building in as much as a 12-hour period that you don’t eat. It’s pretty empowering to realize you could go half the day without eating, and still eat regular meals and reasonable snacks. Let’s hope it works.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Week 6 Recap: Al Michaels Was Wrong
Week 6 Loss: +3.1
Total Loss: -8.7
This week was the 30th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice”, the improbable Olympic hockey game in which a team of college all-stars from the United States defeated the Soviet Red Army team, which by most accounts was better than any NHL team, although they were technically – ahem! – amateurs. A then young broadcaster named Al Michaels called the game, only his second ever hockey broadcast, and finished with the spontaneous line for the ages, “Do you believe in miracles? ...Yes!”
Apparently I tried the Al Michaels diet this week. I ate more, and made worse choices, and somehow expected to continue losing. I was hoping for a miracle. Those of you who read this blog for the rationality of the P.O.P. approach, well, when it comes to food I rationalize about it. It is the challenge I need to overcome.
So what happened? Why didn’t writing everything down work? Two things, I think. First, I quickly became desensitized to the cards (on which I wrote down what I was eating). I think I substituted recording what I ate as the goal for the true goal of reduced eating. The first couple days, I was terrified to put down anything bad and it deterred eating. This last week, the cards included more sweets and more chips and more food, period. Look at a comparison of the first and second weeks of “Write it all Down” in terms of number of items. This isn’t scientific – an apple and an entrée both count as one item – but it’ll do.
1st week: 8, 10, 13, 17, 11, 12, 12 (Avg.: 11.9)
2nd week: 12, 13, 12, 12, *, 16, 16 (Avg.: 13.5*)
Second, I got knocked off my game by stress at work. We are under a hideous deadline for a grant application that required me to work into the wee hours Wednesday night. Work went well on Thursday...but my eating was a disaster. Tired and overcaffinated – and in a conference setting offering an indulgent buffet lunch and unlimited snacks – I had that “crooked number” day I warned about last week. I was so exhausted and singularly focused on performing my job, I didn’t even start my eating log note card, hence the asterisk. (Think Ford Frick’s treatment of Roger Maris, but kind of in reverse.) If you were to replace that asterisk with the huge number that should be there, the 2nd week average would be even higher.
If you know me, you know an important part of my background is as a musician. One of the things you learn as a musician is that mistakes tell you more than when you play something correctly. They give you an opportunity to learn and improve. In the long run, this might be a blessing in disguise, even if standing on the scale this morning I’d have rather had a miracle.
Coaching point: Writing down what you eat can be a helpful strategy, but only when it’s preventing overeating, not recording it. Write down what you wrote immediately, in time to prevent that next snack. And as a bonus coaching point, remember that without proper sleep, it is extremely difficult to maintain a healthy eating approach.
Total Loss: -8.7
This week was the 30th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice”, the improbable Olympic hockey game in which a team of college all-stars from the United States defeated the Soviet Red Army team, which by most accounts was better than any NHL team, although they were technically – ahem! – amateurs. A then young broadcaster named Al Michaels called the game, only his second ever hockey broadcast, and finished with the spontaneous line for the ages, “Do you believe in miracles? ...Yes!”
Apparently I tried the Al Michaels diet this week. I ate more, and made worse choices, and somehow expected to continue losing. I was hoping for a miracle. Those of you who read this blog for the rationality of the P.O.P. approach, well, when it comes to food I rationalize about it. It is the challenge I need to overcome.
So what happened? Why didn’t writing everything down work? Two things, I think. First, I quickly became desensitized to the cards (on which I wrote down what I was eating). I think I substituted recording what I ate as the goal for the true goal of reduced eating. The first couple days, I was terrified to put down anything bad and it deterred eating. This last week, the cards included more sweets and more chips and more food, period. Look at a comparison of the first and second weeks of “Write it all Down” in terms of number of items. This isn’t scientific – an apple and an entrée both count as one item – but it’ll do.
1st week: 8, 10, 13, 17, 11, 12, 12 (Avg.: 11.9)
2nd week: 12, 13, 12, 12, *, 16, 16 (Avg.: 13.5*)
Second, I got knocked off my game by stress at work. We are under a hideous deadline for a grant application that required me to work into the wee hours Wednesday night. Work went well on Thursday...but my eating was a disaster. Tired and overcaffinated – and in a conference setting offering an indulgent buffet lunch and unlimited snacks – I had that “crooked number” day I warned about last week. I was so exhausted and singularly focused on performing my job, I didn’t even start my eating log note card, hence the asterisk. (Think Ford Frick’s treatment of Roger Maris, but kind of in reverse.) If you were to replace that asterisk with the huge number that should be there, the 2nd week average would be even higher.
If you know me, you know an important part of my background is as a musician. One of the things you learn as a musician is that mistakes tell you more than when you play something correctly. They give you an opportunity to learn and improve. In the long run, this might be a blessing in disguise, even if standing on the scale this morning I’d have rather had a miracle.
Coaching point: Writing down what you eat can be a helpful strategy, but only when it’s preventing overeating, not recording it. Write down what you wrote immediately, in time to prevent that next snack. And as a bonus coaching point, remember that without proper sleep, it is extremely difficult to maintain a healthy eating approach.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Week 5 Recap: No Crooked Numbers
Week 5 Loss: 2.1 Pounds
Total Loss: 11.8 Pounds
In baseball, when a team scores two or more runs, it’s called a “crooked number,” because of the way it looks on the scoreboard. Zeros and ones are symmetrical, but figures like 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are “crooked”. Pitchers are desperate to avoid crooked numbers, because they can ruin an otherwise good performance.
Say a pitcher goes five innings with this run line:
0 0 5 0 0
One way to look at it is that he threw four shutout innings – doing his job perfectly 80% of the time. But the reality is that the five-run 3rd inning renders those goose eggs irrelevant. His ERA would go up and if he kept this pattern up, he’d be back in the minors faster than he could say “cup of coffee”.
This week I had three very good days and four average days. The first two days I ate very carefully, as I was afraid to write anything bad on my note card, and on Saturday I was being extra careful before my weigh in. In between, I was OK. I did make some shaky choices – Cobb salad instead of a healthier choice, ice cream and cookies for dessert, etc. – but I never had the “disaster” portions: the plate of nachos for a snack, the two-scoop waffle cone on the way home before dinner, or the 10 PM smorgasbord of snacks. And as just a pitcher who avoids crooked numbers is a sure bet for a good ERA (or ERA+, or FIP, or whatever), I was able to keep my weight loss going without any dramatic sacrifices this week, and with only 70 total minutes on the exercise bike.
Coaching point: Just as a pitcher can lose a shutout with one bad inning, and a golfer can have a whole day ruined by a couple of double-bogies, a diet can lose traction with a few really bad days. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. You can say you’re taking a day off from your diet, but your body still counts it. The good news is this: you don’t have to be perfect, just consistent. A pitcher can get to the all-star game just by avoiding crooked numbers. A golfer can win the U.S. Open just by making a whole bunch of pars and avoiding bogeys throughout. You can reach a healthy weight the same way.
Total Loss: 11.8 Pounds
In baseball, when a team scores two or more runs, it’s called a “crooked number,” because of the way it looks on the scoreboard. Zeros and ones are symmetrical, but figures like 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are “crooked”. Pitchers are desperate to avoid crooked numbers, because they can ruin an otherwise good performance.
Say a pitcher goes five innings with this run line:
0 0 5 0 0
One way to look at it is that he threw four shutout innings – doing his job perfectly 80% of the time. But the reality is that the five-run 3rd inning renders those goose eggs irrelevant. His ERA would go up and if he kept this pattern up, he’d be back in the minors faster than he could say “cup of coffee”.
This week I had three very good days and four average days. The first two days I ate very carefully, as I was afraid to write anything bad on my note card, and on Saturday I was being extra careful before my weigh in. In between, I was OK. I did make some shaky choices – Cobb salad instead of a healthier choice, ice cream and cookies for dessert, etc. – but I never had the “disaster” portions: the plate of nachos for a snack, the two-scoop waffle cone on the way home before dinner, or the 10 PM smorgasbord of snacks. And as just a pitcher who avoids crooked numbers is a sure bet for a good ERA (or ERA+, or FIP, or whatever), I was able to keep my weight loss going without any dramatic sacrifices this week, and with only 70 total minutes on the exercise bike.
Coaching point: Just as a pitcher can lose a shutout with one bad inning, and a golfer can have a whole day ruined by a couple of double-bogies, a diet can lose traction with a few really bad days. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. You can say you’re taking a day off from your diet, but your body still counts it. The good news is this: you don’t have to be perfect, just consistent. A pitcher can get to the all-star game just by avoiding crooked numbers. A golfer can win the U.S. Open just by making a whole bunch of pars and avoiding bogeys throughout. You can reach a healthy weight the same way.
Eating Plan Profile: Write it All Down
So much of the Pounds Off Playoff is about becoming conscious of what you’re eating and being accountable for your choices. This method does both of those things.
“Write it All Down” is pretty self-explanatory and straight-forward. You write down everything you eat (and all caloric beverages). Everything. Since this strategy is different than the calorie counting strategies, I’m not writing any other information, such as calorie counts, although some variations do this.
This type of approach is fairly common in the diet literature, particularly by successful “losers” who have nothing to sell you. What caught my attention was this article by Laurie Beebe that concisely demonstrates how writing things down – without any other diet strategy – can lead to weight loss. Obviously, understanding foods well helps too, but anybody can benefit from putting all those nibbles on paper. The main point is just to prevent excess eating by giving visibility to everything that is “adding up” in your body.
The way I conduct “Write it All Down” is two-fold. First, I keep it simple. I write everything I eat and all caloric drinks – just the name of the food and, if relevant, the serving size – on a 3 by 5 card. The 3 by 5 card stays in my pocket for easy access. It’s an idea adapted from Merlin Mann’s “Hipster PDA”, which suggests keeping a stack of 3 x 5 cards on your person to capture ideas and action items to boost productivity.
Second, I share the cards with my wife. You don’t want to read everything I ate on the blog – too much information! But while on “Write it All Down,” I put the card in plain view in the kitchen at the end of each day. Remember, this is about accountability, and being transparent to a close confident is a great way to gain needed accountability.
So that’s it – a simple, inexpensive, and by many accounts effective strategy. I’ll leave you with a quote that, although I can’t find the original source, defines the need for journaling well: Your body keeps a meticulous journal, even if you don’t. Isn’t that the truth?
“Write it All Down” is pretty self-explanatory and straight-forward. You write down everything you eat (and all caloric beverages). Everything. Since this strategy is different than the calorie counting strategies, I’m not writing any other information, such as calorie counts, although some variations do this.
This type of approach is fairly common in the diet literature, particularly by successful “losers” who have nothing to sell you. What caught my attention was this article by Laurie Beebe that concisely demonstrates how writing things down – without any other diet strategy – can lead to weight loss. Obviously, understanding foods well helps too, but anybody can benefit from putting all those nibbles on paper. The main point is just to prevent excess eating by giving visibility to everything that is “adding up” in your body.
The way I conduct “Write it All Down” is two-fold. First, I keep it simple. I write everything I eat and all caloric drinks – just the name of the food and, if relevant, the serving size – on a 3 by 5 card. The 3 by 5 card stays in my pocket for easy access. It’s an idea adapted from Merlin Mann’s “Hipster PDA”, which suggests keeping a stack of 3 x 5 cards on your person to capture ideas and action items to boost productivity.
Second, I share the cards with my wife. You don’t want to read everything I ate on the blog – too much information! But while on “Write it All Down,” I put the card in plain view in the kitchen at the end of each day. Remember, this is about accountability, and being transparent to a close confident is a great way to gain needed accountability.
So that’s it – a simple, inexpensive, and by many accounts effective strategy. I’ll leave you with a quote that, although I can’t find the original source, defines the need for journaling well: Your body keeps a meticulous journal, even if you don’t. Isn’t that the truth?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Pounds Off Playoff Restaurant Study
This has turned out to be a lot of work! Just finishing now...come back soon!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Week 4 Recap: The Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day in the Same Week? Only in America...
Week 4 Loss: 1.2 Pounds
Total Loss: 9.7 Pounds
Game 1 Final: 2500 Calories per Day 9, No Eating Out .7
2500 Calories per Day advances to the quarter finals.
No Eating Out is eliminated.
Last night, for our Valentine’s Day date, Shannon and I renewed our vows* in a group ceremony. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with the love of my life. It also concluded one of those challenging weeks for American dieters, which started with the Super Bowl and ended on the eve of Valentine’s Day. The Super Bowl is the biggest party day in America (enough pizzas are consumed to cover 47 football fields), while Valentine’s Day encourages dinners out, heart shaped cookies, candy with pithy sayings, and, of course, chocolates. How did I do? I survived, and rebuilt a little forward momentum. But not without some tests.
* By the way, if you type “renew vows” into Google with auto complete on, the first suggestion is “renew vows in Las Vegas” and another is “renew vows in Hawaii” or “...Maui”. Hmm, why didn’t “renew vows in cold, dark, and rainy Seattle” show up? Others making the list are “renew vows in Gatlinburg” – “Honey, let’s go to the home of Dolly Parton’s amusement park to get re-hitched!” – and “renew vows Disney World”. Really??? (I’m waiting for the commercial with Drew Brees saying, “I’m going to Disney World...to renew my vows!”)
Anyway, last night illustrated one of the two big drawbacks of “no eating out”.
Drawback #1: You can’t eat out. Shocking, I know. I made it 13½ days, but after the ceremony we went to a great Italian restaurant in town, because it just seemed like a really bad idea say no to Shannon on this occasion. I was on my best behavior, sticking to a salad with shrimp and an olive oil vinaigrette and my favorite appetizer, insulata caprese. We split a fantastic piece of tiramisu and called it a night. It was a good learning experience – I could have easily consumed an additional 2000 calories of bread, pasta, cheese and meat, but I really didn’t miss it. Anyway, there’s no practical way I ever could, or would want to, never eat out. Reduce? Definitely. But eliminate? No.
Drawback #2: It’s what I am coming to think of as an “open loop” diet. By this I mean that “no eating out” does a great job of eliminating a major threat, but never “closes the loop” and eliminates other temptations, such as desserts and night snacking. A good example is the Super Bowl. The accountability of this blog kept me from a Category 5 pig-out, but I ate plenty once that devilish voice in my head pointed out that cheese and crackers, nachos, potato chips, ice cream sundaes, and oven baked pizza and mozzarella sticks are not, technically, you know, “eating out”.
On a positive note, I did hold my weight loss from the previous two weeks and take off another .7 pounds during the last 14 days. And weight loss doesn’t capture all of the positive benefits of not eating out so much. As you’ll see in my next post, the majority of entrees from the 25 largest restaurant chains contain more than half of the daily recommended amount of sodium intake. Not to mention that I saved a lot of money. Finally, this week I upped my top week on the exercise bike from 130 minutes to 145.
So we have our first “trunk slammer”. “No eating out” is going home.
P.S. Thanks to Shannon for all the great lunches and dinners she added to the mix to make these two weeks possible!
Coaching point: Eating plans that focus on eliminating problem foods or behaviors can be helpful, but they can’t work by themselves. If an approach has loopholes that allow for packing on the calories, you need to “close the loop”. That’s why limiting to “2500 Calories” beat “No Eating Out” handily. While “2500 Calories” prevented overeating 24 hours a day, “No Eating Out” left too many opportunities for snacking.
Total Loss: 9.7 Pounds
Game 1 Final: 2500 Calories per Day 9, No Eating Out .7
2500 Calories per Day advances to the quarter finals.
No Eating Out is eliminated.
Last night, for our Valentine’s Day date, Shannon and I renewed our vows* in a group ceremony. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with the love of my life. It also concluded one of those challenging weeks for American dieters, which started with the Super Bowl and ended on the eve of Valentine’s Day. The Super Bowl is the biggest party day in America (enough pizzas are consumed to cover 47 football fields), while Valentine’s Day encourages dinners out, heart shaped cookies, candy with pithy sayings, and, of course, chocolates. How did I do? I survived, and rebuilt a little forward momentum. But not without some tests.
* By the way, if you type “renew vows” into Google with auto complete on, the first suggestion is “renew vows in Las Vegas” and another is “renew vows in Hawaii” or “...Maui”. Hmm, why didn’t “renew vows in cold, dark, and rainy Seattle” show up? Others making the list are “renew vows in Gatlinburg” – “Honey, let’s go to the home of Dolly Parton’s amusement park to get re-hitched!” – and “renew vows Disney World”. Really??? (I’m waiting for the commercial with Drew Brees saying, “I’m going to Disney World...to renew my vows!”)
Anyway, last night illustrated one of the two big drawbacks of “no eating out”.
Drawback #1: You can’t eat out. Shocking, I know. I made it 13½ days, but after the ceremony we went to a great Italian restaurant in town, because it just seemed like a really bad idea say no to Shannon on this occasion. I was on my best behavior, sticking to a salad with shrimp and an olive oil vinaigrette and my favorite appetizer, insulata caprese. We split a fantastic piece of tiramisu and called it a night. It was a good learning experience – I could have easily consumed an additional 2000 calories of bread, pasta, cheese and meat, but I really didn’t miss it. Anyway, there’s no practical way I ever could, or would want to, never eat out. Reduce? Definitely. But eliminate? No.
Drawback #2: It’s what I am coming to think of as an “open loop” diet. By this I mean that “no eating out” does a great job of eliminating a major threat, but never “closes the loop” and eliminates other temptations, such as desserts and night snacking. A good example is the Super Bowl. The accountability of this blog kept me from a Category 5 pig-out, but I ate plenty once that devilish voice in my head pointed out that cheese and crackers, nachos, potato chips, ice cream sundaes, and oven baked pizza and mozzarella sticks are not, technically, you know, “eating out”.
On a positive note, I did hold my weight loss from the previous two weeks and take off another .7 pounds during the last 14 days. And weight loss doesn’t capture all of the positive benefits of not eating out so much. As you’ll see in my next post, the majority of entrees from the 25 largest restaurant chains contain more than half of the daily recommended amount of sodium intake. Not to mention that I saved a lot of money. Finally, this week I upped my top week on the exercise bike from 130 minutes to 145.
So we have our first “trunk slammer”. “No eating out” is going home.
P.S. Thanks to Shannon for all the great lunches and dinners she added to the mix to make these two weeks possible!
Coaching point: Eating plans that focus on eliminating problem foods or behaviors can be helpful, but they can’t work by themselves. If an approach has loopholes that allow for packing on the calories, you need to “close the loop”. That’s why limiting to “2500 Calories” beat “No Eating Out” handily. While “2500 Calories” prevented overeating 24 hours a day, “No Eating Out” left too many opportunities for snacking.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Week 3 Recap: No Restaurants for the Weary
Every once in a while over the years I would step on the scale, become totally ticked about my weight, and consider a draconian plan. One of those I’d consider from time to time was a “no restaurants for a year” approach. The commitment seemed concrete and it resonated with my occasionally obsessive nature. And many others have blazed a path of yearlong, almost monk-like dedication to various plans.
One example is a woman who gave up all foods with refined sugars for a year. She was featured in the Seattle Post Intelligencer (kids, that's what we used to call a “newspaper”). Another example is the inspiration for the recent chick-flick “Julie and Julia”, about Julie Powell, who made all 524 recipes in the Julia Child cookbook in a 365 day period. Interestingly, her blog has more profanity than a Lou Piniella tirade. Then there was Charla Muller, the “Everyday Eddie” of marital relations, whose 40th birthday gift to her husband was described in 365 Nights.
Well, I’m glad I went with the Pounds Off Playoff rather than a year without restaurants, even if it will take an extra eight weeks. The main problem is that “no eating out” is just a little too rigid. “Almost no eating out” is something I’d recommend, but cold turkey (pun intended, as I’m eating a lot of leftovers these days) is a bit much. Shannon, while initially showing enthusiasm for the savings windfall, now realizes she has been involuntarily committed to the plan with me. While I’m making those PB&J sandwiches for the kids (the answer to Sam's question yesterday was “yes”), she’s cooking more, too. And when she invited me to dinner in Seattle between gigs yesterday, we ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it for me to drive downtown to sit there drinking iced tea.
On the other hand, not eating out has been a great benefit. In addition to the “legit” meals I have replaced – lunches out, mostly – I can name a half-dozen specific situations in which I ducked unplanned empty calories:
1. Tuesday, my department provided pizza at an all-day training we conducted. I was invited, but stayed in my office with reheated pasta, chicken, and broccoli leftovers. I felt a bit antisocial, but was relieved to dodge the inevitable gut busting portion I inhale when I start eating pizza.
2. I avoided take out before my Wednesday night meeting, packing both a lunch and a dinner. And I avoided dinner out after the meeting. I’m sure if you had a detective track me, he could find times with these Wednesday night meetings where I got take out at noon and 5:00, and had a sit-down meal with colleagues after.
3. At a standing meeting held every Thursday, one of my cool, but obsessively generous teammates brought Starbucks coffee and those new, gorgeous Starbucks cupcakes. I had the coffee (black) and skipped the cupcakes.
4. At a meeting Friday morning, a different colleague brought fresh baked donuts from a local shop, which sat on the table right in front of me for three and a half hours. That chocolate coated donut wouldn’t have lasted 30 minutes if I weren’t on this plan.
5. I went straight from that meeting to a 90 minute meeting that straddled the lunch hour. A tray of half-sandwiches were available, again placed in the middle of the table, within arm’s reach. This is entrapment the police wouldn’t even think of! In the interest of full disclosure, I was starving by then and had the healthiest looking half-sandwich on the tray – a triangle cut of whole wheat bread, ham, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and mustard – that looked like something my grandmother could have made. But I stopped there (a month ago, I’d certainly have had three), even when a well-meaning colleague offered more as I left the room.
6. Yesterday morning I was back at Starbucks, where we took refuge during an ill-timed sequence of basketball games and team pictures. I’d normally have had a bagel, coffee cake, breakfast sandwich, or mini-scones, and not because I was hungry, just because it was there. I did have a coffee of the day, but again, black. (After the Pounds Off Playoff, I might need to start the “Coffee-Offee”)
Is anybody still reading? Probably too much information, but it shows how much damage can happen when you’re not conscious of what those temptations add up to. I certainly wasn’t.
Which brings me to the dilemma of the upcoming week. Valentine’s Day is technically the day after the “no eating out” game ends. But Shannon’s mom has generously offered to watch the kids while she’s in town this week, and as of now, we’re planning to go out. I’ll let you know how that goes next week. Ditto for Super Bowl Sunday, when we all know Planet Earth consumes half its weight in guacamole.
UPDATE:
Week 3 Loss: +0.5 Pounds
Total Loss: 8.5 Pounds
I wrote the above post last night, before weighing in. Then I weighed in at a half pound gain. As Julie and Lou would say, *#@$! Well, I’m pretty sure the gain part is a normal fluctuation. But it also makes me reflect on my eating and I think it’s fair to say I’ve eaten more carbs and less vegetables and protein. So far, pasta and sandwiches have been the eating out replacement of choice, and I’ve eaten more chips and sweets, too. Better buckle down on the “default plan”!
Coaching point: That extra food around the office adds up. It’s free, comforting to eat, and socially awkward to reject. But if you watch your thinner colleagues, most find a way to pass, at least most of the time. Get a strategy that works so that those donuts, cupcakes, pizza, and sandwiches don’t end up on your waist. They’re “free”, but they come at a cost.
One example is a woman who gave up all foods with refined sugars for a year. She was featured in the Seattle Post Intelligencer (kids, that's what we used to call a “newspaper”). Another example is the inspiration for the recent chick-flick “Julie and Julia”, about Julie Powell, who made all 524 recipes in the Julia Child cookbook in a 365 day period. Interestingly, her blog has more profanity than a Lou Piniella tirade. Then there was Charla Muller, the “Everyday Eddie” of marital relations, whose 40th birthday gift to her husband was described in 365 Nights.
Well, I’m glad I went with the Pounds Off Playoff rather than a year without restaurants, even if it will take an extra eight weeks. The main problem is that “no eating out” is just a little too rigid. “Almost no eating out” is something I’d recommend, but cold turkey (pun intended, as I’m eating a lot of leftovers these days) is a bit much. Shannon, while initially showing enthusiasm for the savings windfall, now realizes she has been involuntarily committed to the plan with me. While I’m making those PB&J sandwiches for the kids (the answer to Sam's question yesterday was “yes”), she’s cooking more, too. And when she invited me to dinner in Seattle between gigs yesterday, we ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it for me to drive downtown to sit there drinking iced tea.
On the other hand, not eating out has been a great benefit. In addition to the “legit” meals I have replaced – lunches out, mostly – I can name a half-dozen specific situations in which I ducked unplanned empty calories:
1. Tuesday, my department provided pizza at an all-day training we conducted. I was invited, but stayed in my office with reheated pasta, chicken, and broccoli leftovers. I felt a bit antisocial, but was relieved to dodge the inevitable gut busting portion I inhale when I start eating pizza.
2. I avoided take out before my Wednesday night meeting, packing both a lunch and a dinner. And I avoided dinner out after the meeting. I’m sure if you had a detective track me, he could find times with these Wednesday night meetings where I got take out at noon and 5:00, and had a sit-down meal with colleagues after.
3. At a standing meeting held every Thursday, one of my cool, but obsessively generous teammates brought Starbucks coffee and those new, gorgeous Starbucks cupcakes. I had the coffee (black) and skipped the cupcakes.
4. At a meeting Friday morning, a different colleague brought fresh baked donuts from a local shop, which sat on the table right in front of me for three and a half hours. That chocolate coated donut wouldn’t have lasted 30 minutes if I weren’t on this plan.
5. I went straight from that meeting to a 90 minute meeting that straddled the lunch hour. A tray of half-sandwiches were available, again placed in the middle of the table, within arm’s reach. This is entrapment the police wouldn’t even think of! In the interest of full disclosure, I was starving by then and had the healthiest looking half-sandwich on the tray – a triangle cut of whole wheat bread, ham, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and mustard – that looked like something my grandmother could have made. But I stopped there (a month ago, I’d certainly have had three), even when a well-meaning colleague offered more as I left the room.
6. Yesterday morning I was back at Starbucks, where we took refuge during an ill-timed sequence of basketball games and team pictures. I’d normally have had a bagel, coffee cake, breakfast sandwich, or mini-scones, and not because I was hungry, just because it was there. I did have a coffee of the day, but again, black. (After the Pounds Off Playoff, I might need to start the “Coffee-Offee”)
Is anybody still reading? Probably too much information, but it shows how much damage can happen when you’re not conscious of what those temptations add up to. I certainly wasn’t.
Which brings me to the dilemma of the upcoming week. Valentine’s Day is technically the day after the “no eating out” game ends. But Shannon’s mom has generously offered to watch the kids while she’s in town this week, and as of now, we’re planning to go out. I’ll let you know how that goes next week. Ditto for Super Bowl Sunday, when we all know Planet Earth consumes half its weight in guacamole.
UPDATE:
Week 3 Loss: +0.5 Pounds
Total Loss: 8.5 Pounds
I wrote the above post last night, before weighing in. Then I weighed in at a half pound gain. As Julie and Lou would say, *#@$! Well, I’m pretty sure the gain part is a normal fluctuation. But it also makes me reflect on my eating and I think it’s fair to say I’ve eaten more carbs and less vegetables and protein. So far, pasta and sandwiches have been the eating out replacement of choice, and I’ve eaten more chips and sweets, too. Better buckle down on the “default plan”!
Coaching point: That extra food around the office adds up. It’s free, comforting to eat, and socially awkward to reject. But if you watch your thinner colleagues, most find a way to pass, at least most of the time. Get a strategy that works so that those donuts, cupcakes, pizza, and sandwiches don’t end up on your waist. They’re “free”, but they come at a cost.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Revealing question
Shannon's having one of those "days from hell". She left for job #1 at 8:oo this morning and won't be back from job #2 until 11:00 tonight. So after basketball this morning, the kids asked if we'd be going out for lunch. When I told them we'd be eating at home and asked what they wanted, Sam (our 7 year old) asked me, "Dad, do you know how to make a PB&J sandwich?"
Like I said, we eat out a lot.
Like I said, we eat out a lot.
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