James Meisler

This is it.  This is the year I get my act together and live healthier.  Weight loss is among the intended results, but I’m not doing this only to lose weight.

The background:

My father was a marathoner throughout his adult life, and I grew up with (or at least aware of) healthy eating habits.  I wasn’t particularly active when I was young, though.  I never played any sports and my activity was limited to occasional runs and one year when I joined the track team briefly.  I lost a lot of weight after my sophomore year of high school due to work.  I worked a number of service jobs that had me on my feet and running around every day after school and on most weekends.

When I got to college, I went from eating one or two smallish meals a day and staying on my feet to spending hours at my computer and eating two very large all-you-can-eat dorm meals every day.   Add to that sugary coffee drinks at Vienna, quickly prepared meals in my apartment, the discovery of beer, and a free bus pass and you have what amounted to 30 pounds of weight gain over 5 years.    After graduation, Kaitlin and I moved to Montgomery, AL where our busy work week and my 40-mile round trip commute led to another 15 over a year and a half.

The Goals:

Lose 20% of my January 1, 2010 body weight (205 lbs.) in one year by exercising more and retooling my diet.

The Method:

Fix the diet

I’ve never been a fan of dieting.  No one has.  I’m steering clear of radical changing and instead using with greater frequency my good eating habits and winding down, but not necessarily eliminating completely, the bad.

Kaitlin and I already eat pretty healthy when we cook at home.  We try to cook our own meals at least 5 times a week, and they are generally nutritious meals high in whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and lean meats.  We don’t heat much red meat at all and we cook with poultry at the most twice a week.  Oils and fats are kept to a minimum.  The unhealthy elements of my diet and practices are these:

• Lack of Breakfast – I almost never eat breakfast.  So far this year, I have made a habit of eating breakfast every morning.  This usually consists of a .5 cup of fat free plain yogurt and .5 cup of granola or fruit (cantaloupes have provided me with the most fruit/dollar so far.
• Lack of Portion Control – No matter how healthy a meal is, if you eat too much of it, you’re taking in more calories than needed.  I cook for two, but most recipes are written for four servings.  Now I serve my self less at first, eat more slowly, and make a point to wait 20 minutes after the first helping before deciding whether or not to get more.  This leads to more leftovers and takes care of the next problem.
• Poor Lunch Planning – Most days, lunch is a peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat or a cup of ramen.  The sandwhich isn’t bad, as it it comes in at under 300 kcal and provides a lot of fiber and protein.  The ramen, while by no means healthy, comes in under 300kcal but is high in fat and sodium and low in everything else.  Some days, if what I bought was insufficient or I was running late and forgot to pack something I’d head over to one of the many fast food outlets near by.  I was on a first name basis with Burger King McDonald’s cashiers.  Despite how effing delicious Chicken McNuggets and Whoppers are, you don’t need Michael Pollan to tell you why they’re bad for you.
• Baking - Cakes, cookies, artisan breads.  Enough said.
• Alcohol – Since my social life is basically nil, I don’t go out nearly as much as I did in college.  However, it’s nice to have wine with dinner or beer while watching TV.  As a result, we consumed on average 2 bottles of wine and 2 six-packs of beer a week.  Teetotalism isn’t my style so I’m just trying to cut back and so far consumption is down by more than half.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve done a pretty good job at keeping up these habit modifications.

The Tools:

1. I began counting calories with the iPhone app, Lose It!, but I haven’t kept up after the first few weeks.  Frankly it’s too time consuming.  Once I adjusted my diet, I tracked the calories for a couple weeks to get used to that amount.
2. The Reddit community has a fitness forum where people ask questions, post articles, etc.  I have found that enormously helpful.

A little later I’ll post part two of my method, which will include my running plan.

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