The Gift Part II

[Jerry Angelo]

​The Gift

I racked my brain on what to give my son for his birthday.

My son who has been vegan for several years, is very, very strict...
eats only organic, only wfpb... does not eat out, brings his own food to family get togethers and on vacations...
He does a tremendous amount of research on food and it's holistic's...
He is also on the autistic spectrum which does make him very laser beam
focused and quite passionate about this matter to say the least.
In the past he had asked me repeatedly to join him...

His birthday is in September and I wanted to get him a gift.
Problem is he does not want gifts, he doesn't like attention, just his personality...

And then I got this crazy idea that popped into my head.

On September 21st, 2014, I promised my son that I would go vegan for 6 weeks.
It meant a lot to him, my weight and health were not getting any better and since

"The measure of love is how much you are willing to sacrifice for it." - Geoffrey Fielding,

I did it, 'it' being something I would have never done for myself. Sure I wanted to lose weight and
get healthier but at what cost? No meat? No cheese? No eggs???

He assured me it was doable and that my health would improve exponentially.
Within two weeks I knew I was onto something...

My 3rd week I found this site, Dr. McDougall's books and 18 months later I'm still enjoying tremendous success. Namely:

A1c of 5.3 - which was in a range of 6.4 to 5.9 for 3 years
Eliminated Metformin
Eliminated cholesterol medication
Eliminated Acid reflux mediction
Eliminated water pill
Eliminated hemorrhoids which occured 3 or 4 times yearly
Lower dosage of blood pressure medication and hopefully still lower in the future
Eliminated 74 pounds
And most of all, confidence.that I have a sound plan, a WOE that I can live with for the rest of my life

So, I give him a gift and it ends up being my gift too!
I knew I would keep my word about the 6 weeks, it's just the way I am but I really had very little hope or belief that I would be doing it more than a minute past the 42 initial days!

The Gift Part II

Two weeks ago my son told me that I need to get serious again. I knew exactly what he meant, I haven't lost weight in 10 months or so... The good news is that I haven't gained weight, a huge victory.
The bread, pizza, pasta and nuts which had been forgiving (maybe because of my size) and had helped me stay on this WOE was no longer contributing to my success but to my detriment. I had gone from 312 to 238 but I still need to get down below 200 for my first goal and below 170 for my BMI to be in a normal range for my height. I have been stagnant for too long now.

So, on Monday March 21, on the first day of my 19 month, I promised my son again that I would do something for 6 weeks.
No flour products and no nuts, period. After 6 weeks, perhaps my addiction to these last few remaining foods would go the way of my SAD diet previously.

I know I will have pasta, bread and pizza sometime in the future but I need to lose more weight and finally break the addictive chain these foods have me tied up in.
I will be holding myself accountable on this board and hopefully getting some support from you all. If I can be successful, perhaps I can inspire others just as so many of you here on the McDougall boards have been to me the last year and a half.

My goals are:

Under 200 pounds by year end and eventually 165
No bread, pasta, pizza or nuts until at least May 1st 2016
After May 1st, eating any of the above foods would only happen on Sundays between 12 noon and 3pm

I will post updates, successes and failures. I will be honest.
Good luck to me. And you. And everyone.

[Jerry Angelo]

It's Wednesday afternoon...

Day 3 of no bread, no pizza, pasta or nuts...

My son is encouraging me to 'eat the rainbow' so that means lots of colorful stuff like sweet potatoes, black and red beans, beets and peas...

So far, so good.

[Werner1950]

What a great son you have! Congrats on doing this. Keep us posted.

[Jerry Angelo]

Thank you Werner!

[roundcoconut]

jerryangelo, I like your son's influence! He sounds wonderful.

For what it's worth, i've heard people say that it frames our journey in negative ways to count the days we abstain from a particular behavior. Like, the more you say, "I've gone six hours without smoking a cigarette", the more you keep the idea of smoking a cigarette front and center in your mind.

If it helps any, it might help to just tell yourself, "I'm eating lots of fruits, vegetables, legumes and unprocessed starches". Because that focuses your mind on EXACTLY the right things.

The counting bit -- I think it sends a signal that you are doing something heroic and unnatural. Like, "I have gone five days without a shower". It has a framework of "How long you gonnna keep that up?"

No one around here says, "It's been X days since my last arson attempt" because it's just not something we consider an expected behavior. We don't need to "abstain" from arson -- we just have other things to do with our free time. Same with eating -- you don't need to "abstain" from nuts and processed starches (in your mind) -- you just have other things you want to eat for the next month or two.

Just some thoughts! Do with them as you will.

[Jerry Angelo]

Thank you so much for your thoughtful post Roundcoconut!

I hear all your points loud and clear and I will certainly focus my mind like you suggest on thinking about all the wonderful food I enjoy so much that isn't off limits.

For example, I had sweet potatoes and peas today for lunch that were out of this world... It was delicious and filled me up and I felt so much better than if I would have eaten something with flour.

Thanks again for your support, I appreciate you taking the time!

[Yomom]

Congratulations on your Part 1 achievements!
Your progress is inspirational.

[Jerry Angelo]

Thank you Yomom!

[Daydream]

My son is encouraging me to 'eat the rainbow' so that means lots of colorful stuff like sweet potatoes, black and red beans, beets and peas...

I love that expression! I wish you all the best.

[Jerry Angelo]

Thank you Daydream!

He noticed that besides the white flour products, I gravitated towards white potatoes, garbanzos, white rice, cannelini beans...He's right, I do and not that there's anything wrong with any those foods but I can eat more of them than of their more colorful counterparts.

I can eat loads more white rice than brown for instance. Same thing with sweet potato but maybe not as dramatically, I can get satisfied faster with the sweet. So maybe intake can be a little less caloric, we'll see.

Also, with variety I would get more in the way of a smattering of nutrients by eating as many colors as I can.

[Jerry Angelo]

Well into Day 6 and I can report full compliance so far.
No PPBN (pasta, pizza, bread or nuts) whatsoever since starting The Gift II.

Two things that have helped me this week were having some raw carrots and celery to munch on in the office instead of the usual assorted nuts standby and making some non starchy soup to add to meals and for snacks. The veggie crunch helped one aspect, the filling soup another...Very happy with those 2 improvements, they are helping me stay on track and hopefully they will replace my old habit of PPBN.

[veggielou]

Congratulation. You can do it. Sounds like a good plan.

[Jerry Angelo]

Thanks for your encouragement Veggielou, I appreciate it.

[viv]

Congratulations Jerry on round two of your health journey to fit and fabulous! Your son's gift truly is a blessing. I can't wait for the book to come out! Take lots of pictures before and after and your son as well. Can you just imagine how many people you can inspire? Well I'm getting ahead of myself, meanwhile like all of us, enjoy the journey. You can do it!

Viv

[Jerry Angelo]

Thank you for the very kind words Viv! Yes, my son is truly blessed...
I will definitely post pictures once I get to ''One-derland" (< 200 pounds)!