Ha ha ha! I can't win!

[Thumper]

I had a meeting with my dietitian the other day and she wants me to start eating breakfast every day. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE a good breakfast, I'm just not a regular breakfast eater. I normally just do lunch and dinner. Well, the idea is, if I eat breakfast, I won't want to eat as much at lunch. She said, ideally, I should eat very small portions all during the day, maybe 5-6 times ... eat like a bird I guess? But, I'm starting out on the breakfast thing. Cereal is the easiest thing to do in the morning I suppose. No cooking, etc. Just dump some cereal in a bowl, add milk and it's a done deal. Alright, I'm pretty much a Frosted Flakes kind'a guy, but I realize that would be defeating the purpose because my ultimate goal is to cut out the starches and sugars. Of course, I need to cut down on my calorie intake to try getting some weight off. I guess Frosted Flakes and any other sugary cereal wouldn't be the way to cut calories (OR sugar), so they're off the menu. Well, I had some of those little, individual serving, boxes of cereal here that have been picked up along the way during our hotel stays. Since the Covid mess, hotels aren't serving hot breakfast anymore, so they hand out little bags of things like cereal, a Danish, maybe an apple or orange, that sort of thing. So, we have a stack of little cereal boxes here that I'll eat and buy a regular, large box whenever Lynn goes to the store.

Alright, this morning I check the cabinet and all we have left is Total and Fruit Loops. The first thing that comes to mind is .... Fruit Loops are gonna kill me and just make me fatter! Total is the epitome of healthy eating (at least that's what the advertisers tell me), so it's a no-brainer ... a choice between high calorie Fruit Loops, or low-cal. Total. Then, as I was grabbing a cereal bowl, I happened to glance down at the boxes laying on the kitchen counter. The Total was in a tiny (comparatively) box and the Fruit Loops were in a larger box. THEN I spotted something on the top corner of each box! The TINY box of "healthy" Total has 120 calories and the LARGE box of those sugary Fruit Loops has 100 calories! WTF?

I guess there's more to this healthy eating than meets the eye. :(

(See the circled area at the top of the boxes)

12351

[BarryBobPosthole]

There is no cereal food, none of it, that is worth a red piss when it comes to nutrition. Just throw all that shit away and eat some food that you can look at and recognize where it came from. And no that doesn’t mean being able to recognize a cheerio.

BKB

[DeputyDog]

The last successful diet I was on, (lost about 40 lbs on it) had me eat 4-6 oz of protein and a little carb for breakfast.

I was never a breakfast eater because I was always the type to sleep as late as I could and just head out for the day. Plus, I have to be on duty at 6 Am so i need something kinda portable I case I have a call first thing.

What I would do a lot of days was just do a couple boiled eggs and a piece of toast or fry up a couple eggs and put them on toast as a fried egg sandwich.

The other trick is drinking a lot of water. I was drinking about a gallon a day. It helped to keep me feeling full. It sucked having to piss all the time though, but it did help me lose the weight.


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[Thumper]

Yeah Posty, I pretty much figured that, but I'm trying to do away with a bunch of groceries that we already have as I can't see throwing food away. I'm easing into this diet thing and just figured cereal was an easy thing to do in the morning and figured it was prolly better than bacon! ;)

I'm learning, but it's tough when advertisers push stuff that's "supposedly" healthy. Compared to what? (I guess that's the question you have to ask yourself) Yep Deppity, I loves me an egg sammich, but due to the starch/sugar thing, I'm supposed to be avoiding bread also. Of course I LOVE bread ... but that's also a double-whammy for me. I like WHITE bread ... total poison supposedly. Anything brown or full of seeds and all those other little things in that "healthy" bread, pretty much sucks IMHO. I told the dietitian I LOVE rice and eat it almost daily. I grew up on potatoes, but after spending time in Asia, I have preferred rice ever since. She tells me white rice is made by the Debbil, and like white bread is gonna kill me and if I eat rice, make it brown (or wild) rice. Of course I hate brown or wild rice ... I think it's mostly the texture I don't care for. Somebody just shoot me. :(

[Big Skyz]

Isn't eating Fruit Loops leaning towards cannibalism for you? ;)

[quercus alba]

A protein shake might be a good idea for breakfast

[BarryBobPosthole]

FWIW I’ve been fighting this type II thing since about 2007 nd its only been in the last few years that I’ve had any success at all at managing it the way I need to. Losing a kidney four and a half years ago gave me a new sense of urgency because kidney disease is one of the most common results of type II diabetes. So four years ago I went to work on not losing weight as my number one goal but decreasing my insulin resistance. My A1C results then were in the low 8’s. Made it to the low 7s two years ago and my last test result was last March and was 6.4. I’m actually looking forward to my next test next month because I’m pretty sure it’ll be 5 - something.
The best thing I’ve done is to not so much count my calories or carbs but to change the times of day I eat them. I fast until noon every day and consume no calories after 8:00 PM unless I have a low blood sugar or if I’m drinking alcohol which is once a month or so. I have found that itss caused me to value my calories more so I naturally choose more high value ones. I’ve been doing this about seven months now and its really reset my blood sugar readings. I just tested and I’m at 82. At noon. That was unheard of a year ago, impossible four years ago.
It has worked for me. I’m not sure what works for you.

BKB

[Penguin]

Very interesting Posty. I dated a girl way back in the day who was an avid rock climber and mountain biker. She was really fit but her diet was nothing unique. She told me her secret was to make sure she kept her blood chemistry stable and avoid insulin spikes at all costs... It obviously worked really well for her.

She was a bit of a fitness snob though. Thought that looking like a middle linebacker was very unhealthy and that I should drop 50 pounds. I remember our last date. I took her on a 10 mile trail in mid 90s heat and hiked her ass into the ground. It was sort of a Philadelphia one fingered salute on my way out the door. It was my first brush with the religiosity that some people inject into diet and fitness.

Will

[BarryBobPosthole]

Insulin makes you hungry, food produces blood glucose, which makes your pancreas release insulin, which makes you hungry....and so on. For me, leveling those peaks helps me avoid being hungry all the time.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

I lost 40lbs last year by most avoiding drinking anything with calories other than alcohol which I limited to the weekends. (I also increased my physical activity level somewhat.). I’d like to lose another 10 so I can be just regular old fat instead of obese according to those ridiculous BMI charts.

My main goal wAs to lower my BP which had crept up to the mid 130’s over mid 80’s and it’s mostly worked. It’s taken 10-15 points off of both depending on the day.


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[Thumper]

I'm knocking on the door of 300-lbs. The most I hear is the easiest way to get my blood sugar down is to lose weight ... hence looking at calories, carbs, etc. The docs seem to believe that if I simply get my weight down, the sugar levels will come down with it. It's all new to me and I'm just learning. Diet and exercise is what they're pushing the most. Exercise is a tough one. No ... they're BOTH tough actually. I was given a list of what is GOOD to eat ... and a list of what is BAD to eat. Needless to say, 99.9% of what's bad for me is what I love and vice-versa. I'm trying. I'll admit, not very hard, but I'm slowly changing a few things for the better. One problem right now is my nutritionist and my dermatologist both tell me I'm diabetic, but my doc says no, I'm pre-diabetic. I've been "borderline" diabetic for a bazillion years and pre-diabetic for a few years now. My last A1C was 7.2, so (to me) I'm guessing diabetic but for some reason my doc is backing away from that diagnosis. My next check-up is in March, so I assume I'll know more then. I KNOW I have to do something, it's just really tough to change after almost 70 years of eating whatever the 'F" I want.

Diabetes really doesn't run in our family for the most part, but even when I was younger and much healthier, I was borderline diabetic. That's always baffled me. I was lean and mean, got plenty of exercise and diabetes doesn't run in the family, so why have I been borderline diabetic for the past .... I don't know, 40 years? Now that my weight is up and exercise is down, I can understand the increase. During unrelated research, I did run into something that raises a question though. I was studying up on the affects of Agent Orange due to the fact I've been exposed out the ying-yang and am on the National Registry for A/O exposure, so this throws up a big red flag with me:

Type 2 diabetes is common among older adults, including Vietnam Veterans. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences published a report “Veterans and Agent Orange: Herbicide/Dioxin Exposure and Type 2 Diabetes” in 2000. This report, and its 2002 and 2004 updates, found evidence of an association between exposure to herbicides and type 2 diabetes. Veterans who were potentially exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides during military service do not have to prove a connection between their diabetes and service to be eligible to receive VA health care and disability compensation.

Now I have to wonder if it may have something to do with my VA doc being very hesitant about a type 2 diagnosis? I honestly don't think so, but it'll always be in the back of my mind. If I pressed the issue, it looks like there could be money in it for me. That's not what I'm about, but it's hanging over my head and might make me a bit suspicious as to motives.

[Thumper]

Oh, I almost forgot .... BITE ME Big Sky! ;)

[Arty]

There is no cereal food, none of it, that is worth a red piss when it comes to nutrition. Just throw all that shit away and eat some food that you can look at and recognize where it came from. And no that doesn’t mean being able to recognize a cheerio.

BKB

Cap’n Crunch would disagree and he’s a pirate so I’m on his side.

Damn, now I want some Cap’n Crunch!
Crunchitize me cap’n!


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[Arty]

I lost 40lbs last year by most avoiding drinking anything with calories other than alcohol which I limited to the weekends. (I also increased my physical activity level somewhat.). I’d like to lose another 10 so I can be just regular old fat instead of obese according to those ridiculous BMI charts.

My main goal wAs to lower my BP which had crept up to the mid 130’s over mid 80’s and it’s mostly worked. It’s taken 10-15 points off of both depending on the day.


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If you wanna lose a quick 10 pounds you could start by cutting off your nose.

That’d be 20 in thumps situation ....


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[Thumper]

I get no respect.

[Penguin]

It's a tough thing to do Jim.

I have always had one huge advantage whenever I decided to lose weight: I was always in pretty fair condition and I have rarely had injuries. Without that it would have been much tougher to manipulate my weight when I wanted to. Tough but not hopeless, so keep the faith.

You can get all kinds of great diets and exercise regiments from friends and online. And I won't argue that they are good ones that work. But honestly? The best bet, if you ask me, is to find something you really like to do. I know when I am just sitting around my appetite is much greater and I eat much more than if I am busy doing something that keeps me out of the kitchen. Hell, in the summertime it is not unusual for me to just forget to have breakfast or lunch or whatever because I've been so busy doing something.

Willpower alone is not enough I think. You have to help yourself by getting into a position to succeed. And remember this: If you can tough it out for a few days your stomach will shrink and quit bothering you so much. I know it for a fact as I've done it enough times to know. And when that happens remember to get as much exercise as your body can handle so that your metabolism doesn't plummet.

Do these things and THEN eating healthy will be easier I think... but I'm not putting myself out as an expert, just passing along some of the things I have learned.

Will