Pounds Off Profile: Ricky Gervais

Gervais, with longtime girlfriend Jane Fallon (right)

Most of you know Ricky Gervais. He's a talented actor and comedian best known as the boss on the English version of the hit TV show "The Office".  Gervais' Office - the original version of the show - is brilliant, a cult-sensation in America.

Recently, Gervais decided he needed to get into better shape, not for a role, but for his health. Depending on which account you believe, Gervais lost anywhere from 22 to 42 pounds.  And he's proud that it wasn't because of a fad diet.

Ricky hit the neighborhood trails, jogging his way to a slimmer figure.  On the eating front, he curtailed late night snacking, skipping that second dinner at 11:30 PM.

Gervais' story is another example of a celebrity losing weight in a manner completely accessible to all of us.  Yes, he has a home gym, but that's not what he attributes his loss to. Rather, it's the running and eliminating the extra meals.  Oh, and his significant other Jane Fallon shared the journey.  By cooking heavy meals in a lighter way, she lost some weight, too - 18 pounds, in fact.  So get out and move, go to bed without stopping in the kitchen, and enroll your loved ones.  It can be done.

Photo credit: k-ideas/Flickr

America's Institutional Genocide

I have a serious side and a humorous side.  It was the latter that I was trying to engage this weekend by watching Saturday Night Live.  As I skimmed through my DVR recording, I stopped on an SNL news segment stating that the Centers for Disease Control have projected that one in three Americans will have diabetes by 2050.  The punch line: What do you expect in a country that considers fried chicken to be bread?

This story was not fabricated or altered for comedic effect.  It's really true.  The CDC really did issue a press release stating that diabetes will touch 1 in 3 to 1 in 5 American adults by 2050.  Yes, some of this is demographics driven.  But when the best case scenario is 20% of adults contracting a deadly (and very costly) disease, you'd think somebody would get pissed and do something.  

We currently have a food culture, food industry, and lax regulations that allow, accept and enable overly processed  and restaurant food to flourish.  Many items that contribute to diabetes and heart disease are marketed as healthy choices!  Do these claims look familiar?

- "Whole wheat!" (never mind that it's a sugary breakfast cereal)

- "Low fat!" (never mind that it's high calorie)

- "Low calorie!" (never mind that it has obscene sodium content)

Have you heard of "institutional racism?"  That's when nobody in an organization individually exhibits overtly racist behaviors, but the policies, resource allocation, and other factors create or sustain inequities.

What is happening with food in America is institutional genocide.  Yes, there is also a role for personal responsibility, but people are dying because of the system we have set up.  Nobody is trying to kill millions of Americans unnecessarily, but it is happening.  And it's on our watch.  

Photo credit: Eremita/Flickr

Week 40 Recap: A Joe Namath Guarantee

Before you read this post, I'm going to start with a "guarantee": 

I WILL BE DOWN 30 POUNDS ONE WEEK FROM NOW (and for the rest of my life).

The "guarantee" genre dates to Joe Namath's proclamation that his upstart New York Jets of the fledgling AFC would win Super Bowl III.  They did, and Namath's legend lives on forever.  Of course, guarantees don't always work out.  But this time, like another bearded guaranteer, I guarantee it.

Thanks all for your support.  I'll be worthy of it again this week.

Weigh-In

This week: +3.6 pounds

Total loss: 27.6 pounds 

NSV

N/A

P.O.P. Update

No Eating while Watching TV or Reading is eliminated.  8:00 Curfew advances to the semi-finals.

Here's the Deal

Like the '64 Phillies, No Eating while Watching TV or Reading collapsed down the stretch, coughing up a huge lead to blow a chance to go to the semi-finals. And it deserved it.

Two things contributed to its demise.  First, I got tired of it.  I know I'm not supposed to eat while I read and watch TV.  But that increasingly became a non-starter.  A part of the Pounds Off Playoff is to test the long-term viability of an eating plan, not just its effect on the scale.  The P.O.P. rules prohibit extraordinary means to carry out an eating plan.  If it's hard to follow the plan now, how will I follow it for long-term success?  Well, I couldn't do it - I could have denied the behavior for two weeks, but I just can't long-term.  

Second, this is one of those "if you do X (behavioral intervention), you don't need to worry about what you eat".  Well yeah, I do.  Not just because some foods lead to weight gain, but because some foods lead to eating more foods that lead to weight gain. I'm reading David Kessler's The End of Overeating, which spells out in great detail how food producers mix sugar, fat, and salt to addict you to certain foods.  I got caught up in that cycle this week, with pretzels, ice cream, pizza, etc.

Next week, I'll be back on track.  I guarantee it.


Postscript: After writing this, I accepted my sons' invitation to play soccer in our neighborhood park.  We have a special 2 on 1 game (one point for a completed pass between my youngest son and me, ten points for my older son to steal the ball and make a goal).  We played 30 minutes, the last ten in a cold rain.  A good work out, thanks in part to the guarantee.  

Next Up

No Processed Food

Photo credit David Smith

Pounds Off Profile: Joshua Smith

As we approach basketball season, I thought I'd throw up a story about a professional basketball player who had cut some pounds preparing for training camp.  Then I happened upon the story of Josh Smith, a freshman at UCLA, and something just clicked for me.

Smith, from Covington, Washington (a Seattle suburb), was (ironically) a McDonald's All-American.  No, not because he ate too much Mickey D's, though that appears to have been the case as well (not that I am one to talk). Rather, Smith is an incredible prospect.  At 6'10", he possesses deft footwork and shows signs of that combination of size and agility that coaches crave and that has made Shaq millions.

But Smith also weighted somewhere well north of 300 pounds, and it wasn't "all muscle," as they say.  In fact, it wasn't muscle.  It was Taco Bell and all other manner of food that you wouldn't expect an All-American athlete to be eating.

Upon arrival at UCLA, Smith for the first time in his life learned to eat healthy.  He began to read calorie counts.  He got to the point where his body rejected greasy food, instead of embracing it.  He turned his health around, losing 50 pounds.

I think what resonated for me is that the general themes of his story are just so common.  He has limitless potential (we all do, really).  A lack of knowledge and awareness resulted in obesity.  The extra pounds threatened to bring him down. But knowledge can be learned and awareness can be built.  The weight can come off.  And the potential can once again be without limit.

Photo credit: Steve Johnson

Salad Days

I've had two successful periods of weight loss in my life, before the Pounds Off Playoff.  One was a low carb phase about 10 years ago that was successful, but not sustainable.  The other was not so much a diet as a byproduct of the focus I experienced in my later high school years.  At the time, I was a serious, aspiring musician, and I spent two hours a day practicing my euphonium.

A typical summer day when I was about 17 involved a lot of time with my euphonium and a salad for lunch.  I'm not sure what started this habit, but somehow I found an easy way to make a salad and that if I made it large enough, it both filled me up and seemed to keep me thin.  I was pudgy almost all of my youth, but by my senior year in high school, I was 6'2" and between 195 and 200 pounds, a reasonably athletic build, actually.

Those salads would be nobody's idea of nutritional excellence. They typically consisted of a large bed of iceberg lettuce, bologna cut into strips, a heavily toasted slice of bread cut into croutons, and Italian dressing.  Maybe some cottage cheese, a diced tomato, or green pepper, if I was lucky.  Or tuna for a little variety.  But they were low energy density, low carb, and low calorie.  They were filling.  And I learned that salads get a bad rap. In fact, salad can make men fit and healthy that is in every way macho.

I mention all this because my current plan - no eating while reading or watching TV - does nothing to steer me toward vegetables, protein, or anything else.  As a consequence, I've been eating too many processed foods.  I need one of those simple salads.

How have you thought back to times when you were eating healthier to help you get on track?

Week 39 Recap: More Huskies, Less Husky

This Week's Plan
No eating while reading or watching TV

Weigh-In
This Week: -0.3 pounds
Total Loss: 31.2 pounds

Non-Scale Victory
I recently discovered a University of Washington XXL long sleeve t-shirt.  It had never been worn.   Bought it a few years ago, at least.  Fits perfectly now.

Last night, I wore that find, as well as a mid-90s era UW Football sweatshirt that was hanging out in my closet to the UW's 35-34 DOUBLE OVERTIME WIN OVER OREGON STATE!  It was a thrilling game, and I got to share it with my sons.  Sweet!

Here's the Deal
I've pretty much decided that the "no eating while reading or watching TV" plan is not workable, long term.  In addition to not limiting junk food, it's just not practical.  I had several times this week where I couldn't justify the restriction and went ahead and ate while reading anyway.  The most common example was lunchtime at work.  It really doesn't make sense for me to stare at the table as I eat a sandwich between meetings.

But the restrictive nature of this plan has had a few positive effects.  The main one is that I haven't gone out to eat by myself for an escape of eating and reading.  I also cut short a business trip.  It was a 50/50 call...the conference was basically over at 5:00 on Tuesday, though there was a dinner Tuesday night and product demo Wednesday morning.  The conference fee, which covered lodging, was the same regardless of if I stayed the night or not.  So it literally came down to whether I wanted to stay the night.  And since I knew that I wouldn't be able to eat and watch TV or read, I really couldn't picture what I'd do.  So I flew home Tuesday night instead of Wednesday morning.

I only lost a third of a pound this week, but I'm willing to bet I'd have gained with a night to myself, with playoff baseball, The New Yorker, and lots of caloric companionship easily available.

Project America Run Finishes Today!

Credit Roger Smith

On the 4th of July weekend, I wrote about Mike Ehredt's incredible 4,000 mile run across America to honor soldiers lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He has run more than a marathon every day for six months, with only a few   rest days.  Every mile, Ehredt placed a flag in honor of a fallen soldier.  Today, he reaches the Atlantic Ocean in Maine.

Mike has a blog and he's a beautiful writer.  For more about Ehredt's amazing journey and links to his blog and website, click here for my July 2 post on Mike Ehredt's Project America Run.
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Update: Video of Mike's Ehredt's arrival in Rockland, Maine.

Frosted Flakes? Say it Ain't So, Tino!

photo credit BaseballBacks

Babe Ruth.  Lou Gehrig.  Joe DiMaggio.  Reggie Jackson.  Jim Abbott.  Mariano Rivera.  Tino Martinez.

These are the Yankees I like.  There's a reason for each.  Tino's reason is that he was the underrated slugging first baseman for the miracle '95 Mariners.  So I continued to root for him even after he was traded to the hated Yankees.

Tino's trying my loyalties again.  Now in retirement, and almost certainly not needing the money, he has signed on to represent Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.

I hesitate to even drive traffic to this site, but check out the "Share What You Love About Kellogg's Frosted Flakes" page on Facebook (you don't have to have a Facebook account to access).  The contest invites dads to share how they have passed their love of Frosted Flakes on to their children.  The winner gets a practice session with Tino and Tony the Tiger.

Um, do I even have to say anything?

You can submit words, pictures, or videos.  How about this post, my "before" picture, and a video of me eating egg whites and salsa with my sons?  Do you think we'd win?

Passing on your love of a nutritionally bankrupt cereal to your kids?  That's not "Grrrrrrrrreat!"

Week 38 Recap: Typographical and Other Errors

Last Week's Plan
8:00 Curfew

Weigh-In
This week: +.4 pounds
Total loss: 30.9 pounds

Non-Scale Victory
N/A

Here's the Deal
Well, I gained .4 pounds.  No big deal, really.

Perhaps my blog should be called "Pretty Smart Guy, Dumb Eater".  That's how I feel after reading Tish's post about focusing, in which she documents that her weight goes up for two days after eating Thai Food (see point #1)...then having Thai for dinner two nights before weigh-in and leftovers the night before weigh-in.

Have you noticed my typos in Google Reader?
Just saw a segment on CBS Sunday Morning about two guys who travel the country correcting typos on menus, signs, and reader boards.  They also have a book, The Great Typo Hunt.

It reminded me of a problem I have been having with my RSS feed.  I usually write my posts in Word and then paste them into Blogger.  They look great on my blog, but if you read me in Google Reader, you'll notice that words sometimes run together.  Somtimessentences come out looking likethis.

So this week, I'm typing straight into Blogger to see what it looks like.  Maybe it'll save me time, although I like having the backup on my computer.

Two questions:

Have you noticed my words running together in Google Reader or another RSS reader?  Does that detract?  Does it make me look careless or sloppy?  Maybe you think it's a brilliant literary device to convey the urgency of my prose? ;-)

Do you do anything to backup your blog posts?

Thanks everybody!

This Week's Plan
No Eating While Watching TV or Reading
This plan had the most profound effect on my in round one and I'm already planning my week around it.  Stay tuned...

Pounds Off Profile: Roberto Luongo

Roberto Luongo (photo credit S. Yume)

My Canadian blogger friend Rae put in a request for a hockey post to mark the beginning of the NHL season.  Great idea, it’s just the kind of thing I like to do to keep the Pounds Off Playoff fun and topical. 

But have you seen an out of shape, overweight hockey player?  Me neither.  Some are guys are big, of course, but they’re all in amazing shape, and you wouldn’t want to get crashed into the boards without a little extra padding anyway.  So let’s just say the “Pounds Off Profile: Hockey Edition” will not become a regular feature.  Too bad iconic Philadelphia Flyers broadcaster Gene Hart never shed those extra pounds.

Indeed, the NHL weight loss poster boy has lost a grand total of eight (8) pounds.  His name: Roberto Luongo. 

Never heard of him?  You likely have, actually.  He was between the pipes for Canada in the epic gold medal game in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, where the host country defeated the United States 3-2 in overtime in one of the greatest, most watched hockey games ever played.  

With a gold medal and a new $64 million contract (and a YouTube tribute!), I might be tempted to rest on my laurels, but Luongo decided that getting back to his rookie weight would make him quicker and more effective.  This summer, Luango rode his bike over 1800 kilometers (about 1100 miles). He cleaned up his eating, introducing items like tuna and rice cakes.   And probably stayed out of Tim Hortons, eh?  In the end, Luongo dropped from 215 to 207, gaining the first ever hockey Pounds Off Profile.  

Managing Blogs Like You Use Your TV Recorder

My TV digital recorder gives me a model for managing blogs

Apologies if you saw a draft of this I accidentally posted earlier...

Quick: name the greatest technological innovation of the last ten years.  While my list would include wifi and smart phones, I might have to put the Digital Video Recorder (a.k.a. DVR, a.k.a. the “TiVo” brand name) at the top of the list.  The DVR puts you in control of your TV watching.  Much easier to use than a VCR, you never have to miss a show.    

The DVR changed my television watching forever, as I greatly reduced my channel surfing.  I started watching TV with much more intentionality, never missing an episode of The West Wing or The Office or Friday Night Lights.  But after a while I started missing the days when I’d run across shows at random, that rerun of an old movie like Bull Durham or a new cable show like Ace of Cakes or the entrancing drama of the Mars mission on the NASA channel.  So I try to balance.  And if I have too many shows on my DVR, I don’t get to those chance encounters.

How this relates to health blogging...

As I mentioned a few weeks ago in my post on using folders in Google Reader, health bloggers read a lot of blogs, and it can quickly become overwhelming.  As it turns out, my Daily/Weekly/Monthly system had a side effect I didn’t anticipate:  I never channel surf anymore.

My “Daily” list had grown to about 40 blogs, and I couldn’t keep up, which meant I was never reading any of the dozens of other blogs I’ve “friended” through Google Friend Connect.  This would be like only watching programs you record.  You’d slowly lose touch with all of news and culture, except for the tiny slice you watched religiously. 

So I set out to create a manageable “DVR” folder in my Google Reader, and returned everything else to the “Surfing” folder.  I decided I could hold no more than 20 blogs in my DVR folder, and everything else had to go in Surfing.  Starting from the blogs in my former Daily folder, it took me three passes through to get my “DVR” blog list down to 20.  The best way of differentiating was to ask of every blog, “Do I have a personal connection to this blog?”  Probably 17 of the 20 are by authors who’ve commented on my blog or replied personally to comments I’ve made to them.  The other three are a perfect fit for my interests and attention span, so I’ve kept them on. Twenty blogs probably still seems like a lot, but that's 10-12 posts per day, half of which I just skim.  Doable.

Just as I’ll watch all of the programs in my DVR, while surfing in and out of the rest of the TV world, I’ll be sure to check in with my “DVR” blogs, while surfing the others for posts of interest to me, milestones by other bloggers, or whatever strikes my fancy.  In the end, I expect to read more widely, interacting with a wide variety of bloggers, while not missing posts by the bloggers who have supported me the most. 

How do you manage your blog reading?

Week 37 Recap: It Depends *What* You Eat Before 8:00

This Week’s Plan

8:00 Curfew

Weigh-In

This week: +2.1 pounds

Total loss: 31.3 pounds

Non-Scale Victory

Saturday morning, I took my car in for some basic servicing.  In the old days, I’d have found my way to a nearby eatery with a sports magazine, or to Starbucks with my laptop if I was feeling industrious. 

This time, I took my bike, hopped on the nearby Interurban Trail in Auburn, WA, and rode to Tukwila and back, for a total of 17 miles – my longest ride ever! 

Here’s the Deal

I took the boys to the last Mariners game yesterday.  Ichiro had two hits, pushing his Major League leading total to 214, fourteen higher than runner-up Robinson Cano.  You practically expect him to get a hit in all 162 games.

Ichiro went hitless in 32 games this season. 

This week was a setback, but the lesson of Ichiro is not lost on me.  A temporary setback is just that.

I generally did well in upholding the curfew, except for two nights when my wife worked late and I couldn’t finish by 8:00.  Rightly or wrongly, I just felt it wasn’t fair for me to stop while I was struggling to chauffer kids and orchestrate their dinners, so I pushed those days back to 8:15 one night and 9:00 the other.   But mostly, I stopped eating at 8:00, even on Wednesday night where I had dinner at 5:30 due to a 6:00-8:30 meeting.

My problem is that I’ve eaten out too much, eaten too many chips, and eaten too much ice cream.  And I didn’t drink enough water.  Ironically, I felt thinner.  I guess we’ll see how week 2 reconciles these two perspectives.  Like Ichiro, I’m right back in the batter’s box.

Pounds Off Profile: Tony Sparano

photo credit Tommy Chang

Tony Sparano almost lost a knee.  No, he didn’t get whacked.  That’s Tony Soprano. 

Tony Sparano is the coach of the Miami Dolphins.  Last season, he topped the scales at 279 pounds, and his doctor suggested knee replacement surgery.  That’s not a really convenient plan for an NFL head coach.  Or, the doctor told him, he could lose weight.  One year later, he’s down to 209.

Al Michaels shared the tale of Sparano’s knees on Sunday Night Football this week.  It doesn’t quite go with the Miami Herald account of how Sparano ran stadium bleachers and participated in other football-like drills.  But hey, whatever works.

What was working was a revised approach to eating.  Sparano’s late night eating was a huge problem (sound familiar J), although his is an occupational hazard that isn’t totally avoidable.  So Sparano controls what he can, eating chicken and fish more often, and heavy Italian food less.

One thing I love about these profiles is that some folks have a much harder set of circumstances for losing weight than I do, and yet they still can succeed.  There are few jobs more stressful and demanding than head football coach.  When a football coach, or an opera singer, or the governor of a state can drop a ton of weight, it kind of bursts my “too busy” bubble.  I hope it’s motivating to you as well.