Que Sera,Sera
Whatever Will Be,
Will Be
I spent some time recently pondering the meaning of things that have
been happening in my life. Basically I started questioning the purpose of life.
In January 2004 I had the big one after losing 90 pounds. Having reached 260
pounds, from my starting point of 350, my life was basically over at fifty-seven. Due to getting a defibrillator installed, my
truck driving days were over and I had to sell my truck and go on disability.
Really it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The doctor informed me the
next morning that if I had not lost the weight we might not have been having
our conversation. He also explained they had lost me twice in the operating
room, but bought me back. The first time they hit me with the paddles twice and
I did not respond. They were giving up and one of the techs in the operating
room said, 3rd time is a charm and they hit me again. It worked and
I came back. Need to find that person and thank him personally for his part in
the matter.
For twelve years things went on pretty
good. In the fall of 2016 I had a very bad case of pneumonia and really
wondered if I was going to survive it. In the spring of 2017 they diagnosed me with
type II diabetes and I started taking insulin. If that was not bad enough I
started putting on weight and found myself back at 350 pounds again. Even dieting and watching what I ate I could
not get rid of the weight. I found
myself at the same weight in the summer of 2003 and took measures to shed some
pounds. Back then fasting and exercise were my weapons along with a controlled
diet. My goal had been to reach 220 pounds so I could start skydiving again.
Skydiving had been the center of my life in the 60s and 70s and I had my
instructor rating. It quickly hit me that this time was going to be more of a
challenge. I can’t exercise and the many meds I am taking seem to defeat my
normal way of dieting.
A
few days before Easter of this year a pound of hamburger changed my view of
life. As I opened the door of the freezer to get something a pound of frozen
hamburger fell from the top shelf landing end first on my right foot, right
behind my toes. It cracked a bone and busted a blood vessel and took almost
three months to get to the point I could walk again. This unfortunately was the time of year when
I usually started working in my greenhouse. This year the greenhouse did not
happen. Since the bout with pneumonia my stamina and physical condition had
been on a steady downhill slide. The battle lines had been drawn and I started to
study my options in this new battle.
Because of thirteen years in the Army I understood that the chances of
winning any battle are much improved by knowing your enemy. I spent almost my
whole life working in logistics. A big part of winning any battle is having the
supplies or weapons you need, when you need them. After a year of trying to
follow the six times a day dietary program my dietician was telling me to use I
realized I did not have the discipline to fight my battle that way. The weapons they wanted me to use were not working
for me. Google and YouTube became my weapons of choice.
The first thing I learned is that what works for one person may not work
for another. The diet I was on when I lost my 90 pounds would still work for
me, but it would require a couple of small modifications as I can no longer go
for forty minute walks. My youngest daughter Glenda put me on what she called
The Way Down Diet. It will work for about anyone. It is working for me now. I started
at Easter and have lost twenty pounds since Easter which is about five pounds a
month. It is a lot slower than the last time, mainly because of my inability to
exercise. It has required me to use two or three different diet techniques and
modify them to make a plan that works for me.
The Way Down diet is really pretty simple and only has about six simple
easy to follow rules. What I like most about it is that you can eat whatever
you want and you don’t count calories. At the time I started it I was a truck driver
and ate buffets for breakfast , lunch and supper. Usually a couple plates plus
desert. This diet works if you follow the simple rules. It may take a while to
see the difference. This is really more of a life style change and learning
what your body really needs, not what you think you want.
Rule #1 Reduce your portion sizes every
time you eat. I was eating two plates for every meal when I started. This rule
is the key to success. You know how much you eat. You serve yourself and you
always try to make your servings a little smaller. If you want a piece of cake
and ice cream, eat it, but it must be within your portion size and it counts as
one of your meals. You may have to give up other items, but make sure you stay
within your portion size. If you feel full quit eating. Do not clean of the plate, your full or feel full quit. If you do not feel hungry do not eat. You do not have to eat because it is meal time for everybody else, let your body tell you when it is hungry. You will be surprised to find it is not near as much or as often as you think.
Rule #2 No snacks between meals. Period.
Rule #3 Never eat anything after 6PM.
Rule #4 Drink lots of water.
Rule #5 Walk 20 minutes every day. If
you hit a plateau and quit loosing increase
your walking time.
Rule #6 Cut out sugar and snacks
containing sugar.
The first six rules are all that apply
to The Way Down Diet. As a diabetic I had to add a couple rules to win my
battle with fat.
Rule #7 Cut out all starches and carbs.
Yep that means no pasta, no potatoes, no pizzas, (I still eat pizza but I order
double toppings and scrape them off onto my plate and do not eat the crust. You are now on a high fat, high protein and
low carb diet and it works if you follow it.
Rule #8 Fat is good. If you want to see
how this one works, Go to YouTube and watch the video entitled. Butter MakesYour Pants Fall Off. I can’t explain it,
but know it works. It is about eating in what is called a Keto diet style. It
is hard to watch because the guy never looks at the camera, but he is sincere
and what he says works.
Rule #9 Is more of a life style change
than a rule. It works for me. I use what is called intermittent fasting. I eat
at 9AM and 5PM, between 5PM and 9AM you eat nothing. Rules 7 thru 9 are to help
control my sugar levels. It is called a 16-8 plan. A couple days a week I eat
supper at 5PM and go till 1PM the next day which is a 20-4 plan. The longer the
better, it helps to get your body to start burning the fat in your system. I go to the gym right before I eat and it
helps get the fat to burning off.
This is not intended to be high speed dieting, but for someone healthier
it will go a lot faster than for me. I finally realized I still would like to
jump again and unless I get under 240 pounds that will not happen. There is a
weight limitation on the equipment. You can buy for bigger, but starting back
at it I would rather rent the equipment. A complete rig can be in the $7 to $9,000
dollar range.
I also included a YouTube testimony about a lady who lost 145
pounds on this diet. As she says it is
more about a lifestyle change than about a diet. If you intend to keep it off,
it has to be a life style change. It
requires learning that all calories are not the same. Having a 16 ounce serving
of Pepsi is a lot more fatting than having a 16 ounce serving of lettuce. To
win you have to know what you are eating and what it is doing in your
body. It is not calories in versus
calories out. That Pepsi has about 200
calories. The 16 ounces of lettuce has
virtually no calories. They will both fill you up, but one will take a lot
longer to get out of your body than the other one.
