The FastDay Forum

It's proving difficult trying to spread the word about sugar and high fructose corn syrup and processed food...

Careful there, Roscoe. They've have you on the curb handing out brochures!

June 8, 2018 Weight 169 BP 110/74 might have been 100/74
"Careful there, Roscoe. They've have you on the curb handing out brochures! "
LOL, ..... Roscoe says from what I've seen they'd probably eat the brochures.
Another day, no progress but that's good, I ate last night maybe 600 calories total and didn't gain three pounds so I consider that an "honest" weigh in.
I've been outside fighting with those saplings again and I'll finish mowing the back yard sometime today. Maggie and I walked out mile early while it was still cool The gout is gone, back dosn't hurt so the walking was easy.
Here's a really good one, https://youtu.be/3z-_6JgMiwA?t=4303
I started it where he give three reasons for eating. Hunger, Reward and STRESS.
Just hit the replay button in youtube to watch to from the beginning.
I go see mom tomorrow and it will probably be as stressful as last time. Last time I ate a can of pears ... heavy syrup can of pears, I poured the syrup off before I ate them, then later some canned peaches in light juice ... and what must have been a thousand other calories maybe. STRESS .... kind of weird but I wasn't hungry and didn't need a reward but I was wound up tighter than an 8 day watch. So I didn't really go off the deep end but I got off my weight reduction plan. Next day was when the gout hit. Tomorrow I've decided if things start to go bad with mom, I'll leave early and tell her I'll be back next visit day. Who knows maybe she'll get stressed and eat something?
I got the estimated taxes mailed yesterday and found a better than I was wearing pair of Levi shorts at the thrift store. Size 32 four bucks. LOL that's in the budget. Actually a pretty decent pair someone gained to much weight, or lost to much weight, got them for Christmas, maybe died? I always wonder that the story is when folks send perfectly good clothes to the thrift store. 3 miles on the bike yesterday.
A question..... "I'm wondering do you eat ANY sugar? I'm assuming you eat fruit. Do you allow yourself a certain amount of added sugar?" The quick answer is NO. The real answer is sure but only if it's like fruit, veggies, things like that. I've dumped the ketchup, salad dressings any of the processed foods with added sugar. I've got two boxes of "healthy" cereal with added sugar and eventually I'll probably eat that. I've got other stuff sitting on the shelves and I may or may not eventually eat it. I've got some canned sweet potatoes .... actually a lot of those ... and when I get to my goal I'll sneak those in very slowly over time... that's the plan. I quit buying 100% whole wheat bread because of the added fructose and I make some bread patties ( I guess that's what they are) out of whole wheat flour but I'll try buckwheat next time. I had some small containers of fruit yogurt and I'm using that up in the home made bread things. The sugar taste from it is very noticeable, when that's gone it's gone. So yeah, some sugar gets into my food chain but not very much. Nothing compared to what it was. 9 grams a day recommend for men, you could sprinkle that much on with a salt shaker. I've still got that 1/2 container of ice cream in the freezer. I won't even give it to my dogs, way to much sugar in the stuff.
I ordered a 1 TB hard drive for the old computer this morning. Gonna upgrade a bit since I got a notice the other day this one only had 10% free space available. I could have cleaned out a bunch on the hard drive but this will do until win7 isn't supported then I'll upgrade the whole system or move to linux.
That's about it, still 5 lbs away from "normal" till then I'm still officially overweight.
Later,
Roscoe

Thanks for the info! I want to work on cutting out most sugar, but trying to figure out what and how much!! Obviously, cookies, cake, all that stuff and my Starbucks chai latte is going to be out. But I still want to eat fruit and yogurt and things like that. I buy light wheat bread, so I don't think it has much sugar, but I'll have to check. I only eat it once a week or so. So, when you say 9 grams, that's "added sugar" or total sugar. I've read that women shouldn't have more than 25 g of ADDED sugar a day and men 38 grams (which is 9 teaspoons.) But I'd like to get it a little lower than that even.

Do you use any artificial sweeteners? I use Stevia, but suppose I should eventually eliminate that as well, but one step at a time!

You are correct, this is what I should have said, .... "The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends no more than 6 teaspoons (25 grams) of added sugar per day for women and 9 teaspoons (38 grams) for men." I guess that's what I should have said, but I'm going full Rambo on this weight loss thing and those recommendation would be for normal eating. Day in and day out to maintain a person's weight in a healthy way. I chose fasting because the results are visible and real enough for me to see that it's working. Trying to lose weight slowly didn't work for me.
Read those labels, watch the type II diabetes videos and clogged arteries videos and read about them, anything to do with sugar/HFCS and learn why it's considered so damaging. Fruits and veggies have fiber and that (they say) makes it OK. I wouldn't recommend what I'm doing for most people, like they always say consult your doctor, but I doubt any doctor would approve. I'm still pretty much old school, fat is 9 calories/gram, proteins and carbohydrates 4/gram. 454 grams in a pound so 3500 calories/pound of fat. The main thing I've learned from all this is how the food chain has been manipulated and processed to get us to eat eat eat and eat more. There is plenty of healthy nutritious food still available though, all we have to do is become educated and then start making decisions. An old saying I keep thinking about, "Eat to live, not live to eat".

June 10, 2018 169 pounds BP 120/75
I thought I'd posted yesterday ? Oh well, yesterday I got 167 on the scales but ate last night and salted the food, this morning back to 169. I ate a big bowl of cereal this morning, I had a banana and milk that were getting old. Reason five for eating? Perishable food starting to go bad.
The trip to visit mom went much better this time. She wasn't agitated like last time and much easier to be around. Mom even ate the most I've seen her eat, a small bowl of cottage cheese with some peach slices and a small bowl of apple cobbler. It was one of the better trips to visit her and reminds me of what a friend always says, "90% of the things we worry about never happen".
Maggie and I walked our mile early this morning. Nothing hurt! Back OK, feet OK, it sure makes walking easier.
I had a nice nap already, I might ride the bike some, it's pretty warm 97F but I wear a sun hat and sun glasses so it shouldn't be to bad. I also have the water bottle loaded and it stays on the bike. Doctor day coming up on Thursday that out to be interesting, Sunday morning is fill the weekly pill day and there aren't any meds I'm taking to put into it. Just baby aspirin and some supplements I take on my own.
Not much going on today. Nice and peaceful. What does a hundred calories look like .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSUtXePw7Aw
Later, Folks
Roscoe

June 11, 2018 168 1/2 this morning BP 120/78
I ate a couple of "meals" yesterday. The second one I shouldn't have but I did. I doubt there was 1200 calories total for the day but the rebound effect is still alive and well. I'll fast today and most of tomorrow and see if I can't get on down to that 164 I was first shooting for. Maggie and I had our walk this morning and I almost waited to long, Maggie was panting pretty good by the time we got back home, it was getting a bit warm by the time we got home. I got 9 miles more on the bike yesterday, out to walmart and Dollar Tree. That's my usual ride. I checked my blood pressure at walmart when I first got there .... 128/87 that's after the 4 miles out there on the bike, I roamed around the store a while and went to check it again and someone was using MY blood pressure machine! It's mine because I'm the only one I see that ever uses it there.... anyway the guy was let's say hadn't been missing any meals and the results were high, he told his also hadn't missed many ,meals girlfriend it was OK, I pointed to where it said POOR POOR POOR, and the blood pressure readings. And he didn't have any idea what the numbers had meant. Maybe they both will do something about their weight, probably not. Then I had my turn.... I punched the wrong icon and found out the thing can also do BMI (ut oh) turns out you put your feet on a bar under the seat and it weighs you! You put in your height and poof there's your BMI. It said my BMI was normal but that's not what I've been getting using my scales here. I'll go with mine.
The way my weight rebounded with some simple eating I'm thinking I'll probably have to go on down to 155 and try to stay in the 155 to 160 range to keep that no more than 160 forever goal. I intend to die healthy so that's what I'm going to do weight wise. Big talk we'll see if I can do it. Many have tried, few have succeeded. But so far this has worked amazing well, I thought it was a long shot getting rid of the blood pressure meds but the blood pressure is doing OK so far without them.
That's it for this morning, I'll probably ride the bike somewhere today maybe the "north route" and do a couple more miles that way. My poor scooter sits on the porch unused. I need to start it up or at least put the battery maintainer on it.
I hope everyone enjoys this day,
Roscoe

June 12, 2018 weight this morning was 167 BP up a bit 125/85
I did ride the bike yesterday, 9.36 miles, I could have done a an extra lap around the park on the walking trail there and added a couple of miles but that's good enough for an old man, my favorite excuse now days. A neighbor came over and showed her what I think is her problem with the AC on her vehicle. I could fix it but we know how that lawnmower thing went. Once you start working on something you own it till you get it fixed and anything else on it that needs fixing.
Today's project is unload the good junk in the pickup and load it with a bunch of junk junk and then visit the local landfill to dump it and try to not come back with more than I leave. That place is like a treasure trove to me. I got the pickup unloaded and taking a break now, Cool thing a skinny church lady that comes around to help a special needs neighbor noticed I'd lost a lot of weight and we got to talking about that and the people she tries to help get along through life. Their food habits she said was of of the many problems they have. She was well versed in nutrition, obesity, and the health problems caused by our food industry and HFCS. It was a joy talking to her and I got lots of "atta boys" from her. I told her about ketogenic dieting which she hadn't heard of and where to find the information about it. When ya see someone and they notice you're 39 lbs lighter they pay attention when they ask "how'd you do it?" 167 on the scales this morning seems like it's taking a long time to get on down to the magic 164 number when I can shout, " I"M NORMAL" but I'll get there. If I'm 165 I can tell the doctor I'm still overweight when the "You did WHAT?" happens. Thursday is go see the doctor day.
I suppose I better go get started on the load to the dump project. I don't think of all the stuff as hoarding to me it's excess inventory. I've got a couple of almost working microwaves that I'll put by the curb and hope someone gets them before I decide to put them back in the garage. It's pretty nice outside today 83F and that's good.
Oh yeah, Maggie and I walked out mile this morning while it was still cool enough for her to go along.
I guess I'd better get back to my spring clean up project that I started years ago, That's about it for now, remember if I can do you can do it,
Roscoe

I discovered a great way to get rid my 'junque' is to tell my brother that I'm throwing it away. He then takes it, I no longer have to store it, and I know exactly where it is if I want something back.

If there are blood tests involved with your doctor appointment be aware that fasting tends to impact the results in a way that doesn't readily conform with their standard overweight people-derived expectations.

If your doctor freaks out about fasting, just tell him/her that you are applying good science.

Retaining personal freedom for fixing something for others requires balancing the rule of becoming an expert with conforming to the Peter Principle. All you have to do to establish yourself as an expert is make three consecutive guesses that happen to turn out right. The Peter Principle states that everyone rises to their level of incompetence. Your freedom-to-choose comes into play by purposely (and harmlessly) applying the Peter Principle somewhere in those three guesses so that your reliability becomes suspect for future projects.

June 13, 2018 Weight this morning 166 BP 140/90 ! BMI 25.2 (still overweight)
Ut oh, BP came up. Probably because I got some new e-juice yesterday and they were out of the normal 18/mg I usually get and I wound up with 24. Or maybe the blood pressure meds are finally clearing from my system I took my BP a few more times till this afternoon and then gave up and got my blood pressure meds. My blood pressure isn't anywhere near stroke city but I'm not going to let it get out of hand. I've got a friend who had a minor stroke last week and I don't want to join him. Quitting vaping is on the list but not till I get the weight straightened out first. I went to vaping a few years ago from smoking but if I have to take BP meds because of it then I'm using a drug to fix a drug (nicotine)and that's what I don't want.
So the weight loss is going good, 40 down, 2 more and I'll finally be normal again, I have no idea when I last was normal .... decades ago for sure. Might have been in the 1970's. But I wasn't much overweight for many of the years since then. After I retired it took a while but I put on the pounds even though I knew better.
I noticed last night I have Batwings, that's what the neighbor said it is, the flab under my upper arms when you hold them straight out. I remember teachers in school writing on the chalk board and how their Batwings would flop around. I tried doing some honest pushups last night.... ONE and that was it. I can do a lot of inclined ones but ones like we did in the army.... ONE . I haven't even tried with the pull ups lately. But I'll get there. Gosh it was nothing to do 25 or 50 pushups when I was in basic training, and 10 pull ups, but that was 50 years ago.
The junk project, I got side tracked as usual. I wound up mowing the front yard and it was needing it badly. But I got stuff moved around so I'll be able to get the pickup where I need it to load the junk........ when the mood hits me.
So I fasted yesterday, I'll eat this evening. Fast tomorrow then eat Friday evening. That seems to be what works best for me. 500 to 800 calories when I eat. So not many calories per day. I'm still planning on getting down to around 155 then adjusting back to no more than 160. And hope to spend the rest of my life in that range 155-160. I'm not sure how I'll do that yet. I can see me creeping up to 160 and having to intermittent fast to get it back down.
I enjoyed reading ADFnFuel comment yesterday. I justified mowing the front yard yesterday telling myself I ought to mow it before putting those microwaves out by the curb. Curb pickers etiquette again... and a note on each telling them what I think needs fixing with them. Then again I might check to see if the parts might interchange and maybe get one working to keep.
OK, that's it for today, tomorrow is go see the doctor day, I'm kind of looking forward to it but also dreading it. No need to do much till I get stabilized weight wise. I made a list of things to tell him what why and how I've lost the weight. I'll wait to report how it went in tomorrow's post when I get back. A cliff hanger!
That's about it for today,
All comments good, bad and ugly are appreciated.
Roscoe

Good luck at the doctor today! Can't wait to hear about it!

June 14 Weight 166 BP 100/74
I'm back from the doctor's office, it went much better than I expected. The nurse or whatever she is took notes and I told her about reducing and quitting the meds. She didn't say much just rolled her eyes and looked worried. Later the doctor showed up and the much anticipated "you could have killed yourself, you could be dead now" didn't happen, all he said, "You lost a lot of weight, how'd you do it?" All I said was "keto" and he said " ah, that will do it" We talked about how and what I was eating and the fasting. He was OK with that, I think maybe he was a bit more than usual interested because he could stand to lose some pounds, actually a lot of pounds. He was happy for me and said I'd done OK with reducing then stopping the BP meds because I'd kept a close eye on my BP along the way and he was OK with not taking the statins. He did suggest I keep taking 1/2 of the lisinopril and he said he'd adjust the scrip for that. He ordered a bunch of tests, probably checking for problems that might not be showing up . I told him the weight loss is still a work in progress and the tests will just be snap shot of what is, he said he'd taken that into consideration already. So all in all it went really well. Once again 90% of the things we worry about never happen. Next appointment not for a year. I was joking with the gal at the desk, "I'll be an old man this time next time this year, 70 years old.
I was so happy I did a lap around the park on the walking trail on the way home, that's an extra two miles. 9 miles total, oh yeah, 100.4 F on the front porch but the heat doesn't bother me because the breeze keeps me cool as I ride and I don't go very fast. 8 mph average on the bike. A human only makes a 1/4 horse power when riding normally on a bike. Maybe a 1/3 for a short time.
Maggie and I walked earlier this morning and I found a zinger or some snack thing, actually Maggie found it, still sealed in the package. It sure looked good, kind of weird by the time I'd carried it home it no longer looked so good. I was thinking about what it was made of, the sugar, HFCS, processed flour, lots of cheap vegetable oil in those things also. I opened it and tossed it over the fence for the dogs as we walked down the alley. They can have it if they want it maybe the squirrels will eat it, they will eat most anything. It's come down to the long term satisfaction of being proper weight vs the short term it's sweet and tastes good but unhealthy.
Later I replaced a bad board on the fence and tightened a bunch of screws that had come lose. Then I got cleaned up and headed to the doctor's office. 3.33 miles said the google map and the bike odometer said 3.32 when I got there so it's pretty accurate. 8 mph that comes out to 24 minutes, so I timed departure to arrive on time. Which I did and then of course sit and wait and read a two year old magazine. And watch the TV in the waiting room which was set on ...................... The Food Channel.
So, I'm a happy camper today! 10 or 11 more pounds to go then get adjusted to staying between 155-160. Not sure how I'll do that but I'm determined to do it.
Sorry the doctor's office visit was so anticlimactic, but the doctor was really supportive. I told him about the youtubes I'd been watching and later the nurse wanted to know more about this keto/fasting thing. She wasn't real heavy but could also stand to lose a few pounds.
Oh that's enough for now, time for the news and probably a nap,
Later,
Roscoe

Happy to hear that the doctor was pleased with your progress and supportive of your efforts.

June15 weight 164 BP 120/80 BMI 24.94 !
I don't know what happened, I weighed this morning and there it was, finally a BMI of 24.94. That bumped me from the bottom of the "overweight" bracket to the upper end of "Normal" ! I won't be surprised if that doesn't go back up a bit but it was there, I checked and rechecked and then checked again. 164 on the scales. I rode the bike a bit more yesterday down to the grocery store and got some bananas and another 10 lbs of chicken quarters for the dogs. So the total bike riding yesterday was 13.36 miles.
Maggie and I walked our mile early this morning, a husband and wife were at the church we walk past, they were taking care of the flowers there and he was tugging on the water hose to put it away, Maggie saw it and got all excited thinking it was a snake. Maggie and Becky love to catch the snakes that are unfortunate enough to get in the back yard. Anyway I had to take Maggie over so she could see it wasn't a real snake she wasn't about to let a snake get away, she was finally satisfied it wasn't a real snake so then we continued the walk.
Later I rode the bike to the lab for the tests the doctor had ordered. No problem fasting for that one. I'd been fasting since Thursday evening. Once again a TV in the waiting room and yep...........................You guessed it..... The Food Channel. It seems they would have some kind of health something playing instead. The folks there weren't there because of healthy eating habits that was pretty obvious.
So it's going pretty well here with me. Nothing really planned for today. I ate a bowl of strawberries with a sliced banana a while ago. That filled me up for now. I'll eat more later. I'm still planning on fasting on down to 160 then probably eating more but want to lose weight on down to 155 but more slowly. That bowl of strawberries and banana, I feel rather stupid admitting this but it wasn't so long ago I would dump a container of low fat fruit yogurt on top of it all when I ate that. No way I'd do that now. I've still got one container of the stuff left, I'll mix it in with the next batch of what I call homemade bread. I'd feed it to the dogs but they won't eat it, that ought to tell me something when the dogs won't eat it.
Enough for now, this has been quite a trip. Much easier than I ever thought possible, so far... I keep thinking the hard part is coming, getting to the 155-160 area and staying there.
We'll see,
Later,
Roscoe

June 16, 2018 Weight 164 1/2 BP 120/82
Another fasting day here, Yesterday I ate a bowl of strawberries with a sliced banana, then later a bowl of oatmeal with another sliced banana and maybe a tea spoon of chocolate chips. So ... 700 ish calories? Maybe 600 ? I felt pretty good this morning, rode the bike a mile and a half, later I finally got after the clean up project. I got the pickup loaded now with old lumber, fencing and railroad ties. I've got some more to put on it but it might take two trips to the dump. I'm getting there, slowly but surely... well, maybe not so surely but I've got the slow part down pretty good. I'm glad I watched the youtubes about having energy while fasting or I'd be dog tired now. Instead I feel just fine, I guess I didn't know any better, I was taught you are tired when you do some work, 69 years later I learn different? I'm going to drink some water and maybe a cup of coffee and go somewhere on the bike. I'm out of apple cider vinegar and I want to get some magnesium supplements so that will be a place to ride the bike to and back. Maggie and I walked our mile early this morning. ... here's a kind of neat website, shows where the sun is and if it's light enough to walk a dog.... https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunearth.html
Not a whole lot else going on, I'm just waiting for the pounds to keep melting away. BP is behaving, no BP meds for a couple of days now but I'm watching the BP pretty close. The lab results should show up next week sometime, I'm curious what the cholesterol will be. I'm pretty much a vegetarian now and have been for 6 maybe 9 months. Last time my cholesterol was checked it was 106 total. I was taking statins then and eating vegetarian but I quit the statins a while back. We shall see.
Here's a weather thing of the state where I live, I'm about 80 miles NW of OKC. I usually use the Lahoma site for my temp and rain amounts and especially the wind. The wind can make a lot of difference when riding the bike. http://mesonet.org/
I unhooked some of the TV cable from the west antenna so I could move part of the fence so I could load the pickup. I'll probably finally get around to putting the booster on that one before hooking it back up. Those have to go as near to the antenna as possible so I'll be using a ladder. I know some old guys that got hurt falling from ladders and I don't intend to be another one of them so I'll be careful.
That's about it for now. 164 1/2 up 1/2 from yesterday but that's 41.5 down and 9.5 more to go.
Later, Folks and Happy Father's Day (tomorrow) to those of Us that it applies too. That sounds funny but it's what my fingers typed.
Roscoe

Wow! All this time, I did not realize you were in the U.S., too! Most people on this site are not! I guess the fact that you use pounds should've given it away!