Polarbear Descending

Finally...

2009-08-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

I've been really bad about keeping up here. So very busy at work and organizing the move to the new house.

My eating has been very clean. I did have a corndog at the state fair but that was planned and planning a meal that is not low carb, is not a cheat in my book.

This post is going to be short. I just wanted to start getting back into the habit. I have a couple of ideas on topics I want to pursue in the next few days. I've been following Jimmy Moore's menu blog and waiting for him to unveil this new eating plan he's embarked upon. He says he's really losing quickly, so I'm happy for him. His menu's seem low calorie, low carb and a good amount of fat. That among other things really has me thinking about how much calories matter in the later stages of a low carb weight loss diet. I don't think they matter much at all in maintainence. But perhaps for weight loss. Once our bodies have adjusted to this way of life, I'm thinking calories may take on more significance.

Menu - Wednesday, August 5, 2009

2009-08-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

Fasted until 3 or so.

Broke fast with cheese, ham slices, and macadamia nuts.

D: Bacon cheeseburger on a revolution roll. Lettuce, Mt. Olive no sugar added bread and butter pickles.

That was it for food yesterday. I'm not eating enough, but I'm not inspired by anything right now. Too much stress at the moment.

I feel the need to post something more than just a few lines or this is going to be more like a journal than a blog.

Today's Beautiful Thing

2009-08-05T04:01:00.000-07:00

Part of the back yard of what looks like will be our new home.

Menu- Tuesday, August 4, 2009

2009-08-05T03:54:00.000-07:00

No breakfast.

First meal was at 3. The meat from 4 very thin pork chops. The chops were 4 oz total with bone, raw, so I'm going to guess 10 oz of meat. 2 LC tortillas and 2 tablespoons salsa.

Dinner was 1/2 a NY steak, some mushrooms and maybe a 1/4 cup of mashed cauliflower, and 4 cherry tomatoes with blue cheese dressing. I was not hungry after having eaten all that meat when I got home.

I glass of red wine.

The scale is moving again.

Menu - Monday August 3, 2009

2009-08-04T05:54:00.000-07:00

No Breakfast of lunch today. I'm trying to go back to intermittent fasting to get off of this plateau. (I'm having trouble typing this morning for some reason. I'm feeling really shaky)

When I got home from work I was totally exhausted not having slept the 2 previous nights. I had 1 oz. of cheese, a handful of mac nuts, and a protein bar until dinner.

D: Small serving of meatloaf

Dreamfields pasta Mac and Cheese (by request from my dinner partner)

Broccoli

1 glass of wine.

Went to bed and slept finally.I know once I fully wake up I'll be fine.

Today's Beautiful Thing

2009-08-02T06:27:00.000-07:00

Menu - Saturday, August 1, 2009

2009-08-02T05:32:00.000-07:00

B: Blood sausage

L: Lettuce wrapped bacon cheeseburger at Carl's Jr.

D: Slow roasted garlic chicken

Leftover scalloped rutabagas

1 glass white wine

S: Cheese

Macadamia nuts

After listening to Jimmy Moore's podcast with Dr. Tea. I've started experimenting with tea drinking to the level he recommends for weight loss which is 6-8 cups per day. There was lot of information in that podcast on tea and I found it very interesting. Especially the suggestion of using tea bags more then once. Not only making it cheap, but rendering the tea virtually caffeine free by the third use. Otherwise it's a lot of caffeine. Certainly more than I'm used to. My coffee limit is usually 2 mugs in the morning and that's it except for an occasional Pepsi Max to get me going on a slow morning.

We'll see. I've been stalled for quite awhile and need something to bump my weight loss. I need to lose at least 25 more pounds to feel I'm close to being at my best.

Today's Beautiful Thing

2009-08-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

Working in beautiful Half Moon Bay, CA gives me the opportunity to buy flowers for very low prices. This is my attempt at floral design. The whole bunch cost me $12. The orchids were only $3.

Menu - Friday, July 31, 2009

2009-08-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

Pork Steaks

Scalloped Rutabagas

B: Blood Sausage

L: Chicken salad sandwich on revolution roll

D: Pork steaks with mushrooms and bourbon sauce

Scalloped Rutabagas

Glass of white wine

I've decided to include pics as often as possible.

Menu - Thursday, July 30, 2009

2009-07-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

B: 1 Blood Sauage, broiled

L: No lunch today

D: 10 oz. Hamburger, lean meat 93/7

2 oz Sauteed onion

2 oz Irish Cheddar

3 olives

Very small field green salad with blue cheese dressing

1 glass red wine

S: 3-4 oz Macadamia nuts

2 large Vodka martinis

Menu's and Recipes

2009-07-31T09:19:00.000-07:00

OK, I've decided to start taking the time to post my menus and recipes. I get a lot of requests for recipes and although I don't really use "recipes" I can always write up what I cook. There are some things I cook all the time and I can relay the technique and list the ingredients without posting it as a formal recipe.

So that's what you'll see most of the time. I will be posting each days menus the afternoon or morning after. I'll start with yesterdays menu later today.

There will always be things that I eat that will not be on the menus. That would be the food that I taste as I cook at work. They really are tastes, but some dishes require a number of tastes as I cook and they can add up to almost a small serving. Most of these dishes have more carbs than I would normally eat. This may even account for the stall I've been experiencing. So, if I've had quite a lot of something I'm cooking I will post it.

Zero Carb Part 3

2009-07-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

I began investigating the Zero Carb lifestyle more out of interest in using it short term to lose weight quickly or in case of a long stall. I was thinking that going ZC made some sense because if Low Carb is good Zero must be better. That's always been my mentality unfortunately. If one pill is good 2 must be better, etc. At least I felt it would be harmless in the short term no matter what people say about the need for plant matter in our diet as a source of nutrition. And of course, fiber.

There are some who claim that there are superior health benefits to eating ZC as opposed to a Very Low Carb (VLC) diet. They believe that eating carbs in any form is the root cause of all diseases of civilization. While it's clear to me that eating refined carbs, grains, and some fruit cultivars is responsible for the diseases of civilization and the symptom of obesity, it's really not necessary to avoid vegetables and fruit completely to achieve optimal health. Hunter-gatherer societies of the past and present included some forms of carbohydrates other than those found in meat. The exception seems to be the people of the far north where no plants were available. Otherwise, these people ate from plant sources, as well as the very lean meat available in the wild. Granted, most of these people ate one or just a few wild staples from the plant world. And no cultivated fruits and vegetables at all.

In conclusion to this little series on ZC, there seems to be only one reason, and one only that I can see, for eating ZC. It eliminates cravings for a lot of people. I've never had a problem with craving carbs or any food in particular. Those that do, might want to look to ZC for an answer if the cravings are unmanageable. But in the long run I doubt that it would be a sustainable diet for life. Boredom has always been the bane of weight loss diets that rely on one or two foods only. A few folks will be able to remain ZC for a long period of time. But most of us need more than just meat and water to keep our spirits up as well as our waistlines down.

Today's Beautiful Thing

2009-07-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

My Aunt Josephine, my mother Ann, and my Aunt Agnes.

Zero Carb: Part Two

2009-07-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

The following quote from Charles Washington says it all for me.

This is the most frustrating aspect for me trying to run this type of forum. So many people think that the answers lie in Science and perhaps it does. However, we know that science and the results can be easily manipulated in such a way that every conclusion is ambiguous. ZC is all about experiencing it on the individual level. We are our own control group so you can't come in here and tell us how it doesn't work or what science says based on some results concocted in a laboratory or some metabolic ward. We are science, we are evidence and we are history. Our experiences mean everything. We've done it (or are doing it) and that is the most important factor.

Zero Carb: Part One

2009-07-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

My recent experiences on a Zero Carb (ZC) forum is essentially what prompted me to make the effort to begin blogging again. First a short history of how I ended up on that forum at all.

I was at one time a regular poster and had my own journal on Jimmy Moore's low carb forum. I was fairly active on that forum, posted a lot, and really enjoyed the folks I met there. I had joined in December of 2008, only 1 month after beginning my low carb diet, this time around. (That's another story for another day). My weight loss at the time was great. I was losing at a good clip and happy with my progress. Then came my first true stall. Weeks of no weight loss was frustrating although I new I would never give up. I did however start trying various strategies for getting my weight loss going. One of the strategies I looked at was lowering my daily carb intake to zero to get the weight loss going again. I was familiar with the meat and egg fast so popular on Low Carb Friends (LCF) forum which is essentially zero carbs. Only a few from the eggs. I began having an occasional day of zero carb eating. So my diet was Very Low Carb (VLC) and an occasional ZC day. I posted this in a message saying something like "Well I eat very low carb and sometimes zero carb" When I viewed the message I had posted it read "Well I eat very low carb and sometimes very low carb" The filter on JM's site had changed the words in my post. The phrase now made no sense. And I was very upset. Some questioning led me to the reason. The banishment of the ZC folks from JM's site. And the ZC forum that was created as a result.

I became increasingly dis-enchanted with JM and his forum and blog as I began reading his menu and the kind of food this man was consuming everyday. This is a low carb leader. Someone people look to for advice on eating right to lose weight and gain health. Some of his days food was nothing but pizza topping and ice cream with diet sodas thrown in. I was appalled. It was how a child left to their own devices would eat. I stopped posting on his site and went back to LCF. The censorship of thought and the bad example left me completely disillusioned. It also got me to start reading at the ZC forum.

I was still flirting with the idea of eating some form of ZC diet. I knew that I would never commit to eating that way forever. Or maybe I would. I was undecided. I would occasionally read the ZC forum but didn't really jump in until I registered and discovered and entire thread dedicated to JM's menu blog and his eating habits. It was almost 500 pages and read like a soap opera. I read the entire thing in a little over a week to get caught up, posted a couple of comments, but really stayed out of site for the most part. My interest in that way of eating led me to do some research on the First Nation people in Canada and Alaska. Specifically the Inuit of the west coast. They are probably the most famous of people who's native diet is completely based on consuming animals. They eat no plant material. They eat fresh killed meat, usually seal, and consume the entire animal. Raw. Meat, fat, and organs. Although their diet is ZC, it's quite different from the diet advocated on the ZC forum which is beef and water. I brought this up in a thread in the Newbie section of the forum and that's where I caught a glimpse of how the people there view their diet.

My first post on that thread:

Inuit food
I just looked at a site featuring the food of the Inuit people and I have to say no one on this forum that I've seen so far is eating their diet. They eat every part of every animal they kill with the exception of Polarbear liver and feathers.

It seems to me the nutrition they get from eating raw liver, kidneys, brains, eyeballs, blubber, etc. is not contained in a diet of beef only.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm a newbie and still trying to figure this out for myself.
Bear

One of the first responses:

RE: Inuit food
sfpolarbear Wrote: OK that's fine. But where can I see the evidence that all the nutrients required by humans is contained in conventionally raised beef?
I say you can see it all over this forum, with so many people who are fit and in perfect health, and many others well on their way there, from an all-meat diet.

I don't need no stinkin' studies to call it "evidence"

End of part one.

My Before and During Shots

2009-07-19T06:13:00.000-07:00

I thought I would add these. I've come a long way. Down 75 pounds since November 1, 2008. I feel so much better.

Today's Beautiful Thing

2009-07-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

My God-daughter Lily and her brother Jack at their baptisim.

I'm going to start blogging again.

2009-07-19T05:47:00.000-07:00

I've let this blog languish for months on end and it's time I re-started. I'm going to make an effort to post to it daily. I will include menus from time to time but I won't commit to doing that on a daily basis.

I spend a lot of time on forums and other blogs and feel that I have a lot to say. Forums drive me nuts most of the time. One little comment taken the wrong way and people start getting their feelings hurt, then others come to their defense, more people trying to clarify what was originally said, more hurt feelings, sniping, and foolishness. I know you've seen it if you follow any LC forums. Or really any forum for that matter.

So, what can a person expect here? This will be a place for me to share what I see as interesting in the world of health and nutrition. The world of health and nutrition from a Low Carber's point of view for the most part. I've come across some great people, and some not so great people, since I began this Low Carb way of life on November 1, 2008. It's been an interesting time in my life.

I'll also share some of my personal experiences outside of weight issues and weight loss. What that means, I can't say at the moment. That will reveal itself as time goes by.

I will also continue my "Today's Beautiful Thing" feature. It's important to see and appreciate something beautiful every day.

So there you have it. Let's see where this goes this time around.

Today's Beautiful Thing

2009-01-05T12:57:00.001-08:00

Is this not the sweetest thing you've ever seen?

Jimmy Moore's Forum

2009-01-05T12:53:00.001-08:00

For those of you who don't know about it, Jimmy Moore has a great Low Carb forum that I can recommend highly. The people are friendly, non-judgemental and always eager to help with questions. You cannot ask for a greater source of support if you are starting a Low Carb way of life.

Check it out here.

Low Carb Carnival

2009-01-05T06:27:00.000-08:00

Kelly at kellythekitchenkop.com is hosting a Low Carb Carnival on Wednseday, January 7 2009. She asking folks to come and read and post Low Carb recipes and ideas. Sounds like fun.

You can get there from here!

How to Stay Sane

2009-01-04T14:27:00.000-08:00

I read this and had to post it. It made my day!

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't DisguiseYour Voice!

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ' For Marijuana'

6. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.

7. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

8. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go'.

9. Sing Along At The Opera.

10. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You have a headache..

11. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'

12. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'

13. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'

And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity

14. PICK UP A BOX OF CONDOMS AT THE PHARMACY, GO TO THE COUNTER AND ASK WHERE THE FITTING ROOM IS.

Today's Beautiful Thing

2009-01-04T14:23:00.001-08:00

Today is a Good Day

2009-01-04T14:15:00.000-08:00

Today is my best friends birthday. We started out at a family owned local pancake house and I had steak and eggs. My friend had an orange juice, an omelet, hash browns, sourdough toast and pancakes. When I told the waitress that all I wanted was the steak and eggs. No fruit, bread, potatoes or pancakes, she looked at me like there was something wrong with me. But who had the healthier meal?

We're going out to my favorite restaurant tonight, Boulevard, and I'm looking forward to an extraordinary meal. There are so many choices that are good choices for someone on a low carb diet.

All the meats and fish are from the best possible sources. I'll avoid the higher carb sides and have a taste of birthday dessert, but I'll have cheese from the cheese menu for my dessert.

Eye Opener

2009-01-03T09:01:00.001-08:00

I'm a big fan of Jimmy Moore. I think he's done a lot, and continues to do a lot, for the Low Carb world through his blog, forum and podcasts. I post on his forum regularly and was just over there ranting about how I need to learn patience because I'm not losing weight fast enough. Jimmy's advice?

"Consistency in a persistent manner, Bear. That's what will get you there. Be encouraged, my friend!"

I realize now that I've been trying to tweek my diet to get fast results, instead of sticking with one plan that will work for me over the long haul. This is not a diet that I will go off of after having lost the weight I want to lose. If I want to keep it off it has to become a lifestyle. I guess in some ways we all tweek this WOE so that it suits our needs. But at some point we have to settle in on a plan and stick with that plan. I'm wondering if I need to do that for awhile, without trying too many new things. Make a commitment to follow one plan for at least a few months and see where it takes me.

Now to decide just what that plan will be.

Another IF Day

2009-01-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

I'm very hungry today. I've noticed that IF is much easier on days that I work. I'm busier and have less time to think about my own stomach.

Maybe I need to talk about what I do for a living. I'm the Chef and Nutrition Coordinator for the Meals on Wheels and congregate meal program for seniors for a small Northern California coastal community.

So since I cook in the morning, I'm surrounded by food. Although very little of it is food I eat, I still can and must taste the food I'm preparing. I write my own recipes for the most part so tasting is essential. I pride myself on preparing wholesome food that does not look or taste institutional. I use fresh ingredients whenever possible but I'm limited by space in the amount of foods I can have on hand. We have very little storage or refrigeration. I cook for between 70 and 120 people per day, 5 days a week.

So tasting even small amounts of food does have an impact on my appetite and satiety.

Today's Beautiful Thing

2009-01-02T10:30:00.001-08:00

I took this photo of Koy at the Buddhist Temple on Oahu. I love this shot.

IF and Weight Loss

2009-01-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

I'm down nearly 5 pounds from Monday. Although I woke up hungry, I did not eat and will not until 3 o'clock.

The hunger has passed anyway but I do find myself thinking about eating not because I'm hungry but because it's something to do. Always a bad reason to eat. This way I can look forward to breaking my fast with something delicious and with the knowledge that tomorrow I will be a little farther along in my journey.

Today I will be cleaning out the refrigerator and throwing away all the old stuff, and all the bad stuff. This is the best thing about the new year to me. The fresh start. Having said that, I'm so glad that I made my dietary changes in November rather than waiting for today as so many people do.

Doing that has made it feel like a real life change rather than a New Years Resolution. I've seen too many people fail at those resolutions because they are not ready for that commitment. They're doing it because of the day and they feel they have to. I need to research how many people are actually successful at their New Years Resolutions. I have feeling the number is pretty small.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T10:09:00.000-08:00

Today is the Lovely Sophie's 1st birthday.

Happy Birthday Sophie!

This is Sophie shortly after coming to live with me.

Intermittent Fasting

2008-12-31T12:36:00.000-08:00

I started IF Monday and have already had great results. I've begun waiting to eat my first meal until 3:00pm and then eating pretty much what I want, as long as it's low to zero carb, until 8:00 pm and I've lost 3 pounds. It's great. I'm not really hungry in the morning most of the time anyway. Today when I get home from work I'll have some sardines in olive oil and a few olives. Later a few almonds, and then dinner.

I feel like this stall I've been experiencing is over. But I'll have to wait and see how it goes over the next few weeks.

Here's a link to what I'm doing these days.

http://www.fast-5.com/index.html

Carb Cycling

2008-12-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

Reading more on Carb Cycling I'm finding it to be a specific program used by serious weight lifters. It's interesting that in that world, low carb is considered 200 g a day. Or more. Not a keto diet by any means. What was surprising to me were the beliefs that carbs were necessary in high levels for health. Really the opposite of what I consider serious current science.

I think people often have belief systems rather than science that they base their lives on. They believe that low fat is good because that's what they are taught. I doubt that many people do any research at all on nutrition. They believe Weight Watchers works because it follows the traditional diet paradigm. And it seems counter intuitive that fat can make you lose weight. Fat makes you fat just sounds right.

Busy Sunday

2008-12-21T11:09:00.000-08:00

Not much to post today. I have a lot of shopping to do for the holidays so that will be most of the day. Eating plan is going well. I had lunch downtown with friends yesterday and stayed on plan. Head short ribs, skipped the mashed potatoes and asked for escarole instead. It was very good. I did buy the Panetonne for Christmas as and Italian Deli. Imported from Italy, expensive. Hope it's great. $23.00 for Panetonne is more than I've ever paid.

Also got some Cowgirl Creamery Mt.Tam triple cream cheese. This stuff is so awesome. I need to find some lower carb crackers to eat with it. I don't want to do too much damage.

Today's Beautiful Thing

2008-12-20T08:18:00.001-08:00

My Sophie.

TRT

2008-12-20T07:58:00.001-08:00

I have been on Testosterone Replacement Therapy for over 10 years now. Although I have only used the shots sporadically in the past 2 years. I need them, but the weekly injections can be a real pain in the butt. (Pun intended)

Since re-starting my Low Carb journey, I decided that I needed to re-start the injections as well. The benefits of appropriate levels of Testosterone in men are great. Low Testosterone can cause cardio-vascular disease, depression, low self esteem, hot flashes, loss of muscle mass, week bones, low libido, weaker immune system and increase the risk of cancer.

I've begun to wonder, though if there is a correlation between my weight stalls and the injections. It seems that my weight stalls or goes up the day after I inject. The problem with this is that having normal to high levels should make it easier to lose body fat. Look at the ease that younger men with high Testosterone levels have in losing weight. The weight falls off when making only the smallest change in diet. I believe that men who have a hard time losing and are still under the age of 50, should have their Doc check their Testosterone levels. Mine did because he had seen it so often in his practice. Most Doc's don't check for this so many young men may have the same condition I have and never know it.

I'm looking for evidence that the injections are causing my stalls. I will continue to inject because the change in my mood and overall feeling of well being has increased two-fold since I've restared my medication. Part 2 of this formula is restarting my weight training routine. Something I left behind after the second back surgery.

Today's Beautiful Thing

2008-12-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

2008-12-19T05:51:00.000-08:00

Well I'm stuck at another frustrating plateau and have decided to try Carb Cycling as my new strategy. I know my weight loss this time around is going to be slower than it was when I did Medifast. After all that was only 800 calories a day. But still. Last time I hit this kind of plateau it lasted almost 3 weeks.

So my new plan is carb up one day a week, carb down six.

I'm not sure about the numbers yet. Numbers as in how many carbs on the carb up days. I'm not sure that I'll even count them. I'll keep the carb down days to under 20 as before.

What's cool about this is that I'm not doing this as an excuse to eat junk, as I would have in the past. I have no cravings for sweets or starchy foods really. I'm doing it to accelerate my weight loss. I've become almost indifferant to food.

I say almost because I am having a planned splurge on Christmas. But that has more to do with tradition than with the food itself. Making Christmas a feast day is one of the few links to the little happiness of growing up that I have. For the most part, I remember happy Christmas'.

And now, Christmas can be a carb up day!

2008-12-18T12:52:00.000-08:00

OK A little more about me and where this journey began.

Being on a low carb weight loss program is not new for me. I've struggled for years to take off the weight I put on in the late '80's. Most of my life I was a fairly normal weight. Oh maybe a little tummy, but nothing to speak of really. I obsessed with my weight following College. Which is why I was never really fat. And when I say obsessed, we're talking Bulimia. I know it's rare for men, but for some reason I got it into my head that I was really fat, at 175. When I think back on it, part of the problem was I had no muscle. So I was soft and flabby at 175.

I found out later part of the reason I had no muscle to speak of was that I have Hypogonadism. (Yuck. I hate that word.) It wasn't until 1997 that I was diagnosed and started on Testosterone replacement therapy. That diagnoses was partly what started me on my most intense weight loss diet. I had gained to an incredible 355 pounds. Finally after five years and gaining to my highest weight, the testosterone and anti-depressants I was taking spurred me to do something to change my life. I was seeing a therapist whose wife was a Nutritionist. She was the coordinator of an Optifast program at a local University Hospital. He suggested I try it as a means of jumpstarting my weight loss. It turned out the my insurance covered a similar program. It was Medifast. I started the program in January of 1998. By July I was down to 210. I was doing the plan, going to the gym every morning. I even started running. Eventually running up to 6 miles a day, 6 days a week. I never felt better. I'm going to skip ahead here to after my second back surgery...when the weight almost all came back. That was several years ago. I started Low Carb dieting and could not seem to get past a few months and then stop. My weight was hovering between 260 and 300. Up and down. Finally in frustration I vowed to never diet again. Well in the past 2 years since taking that vow, I went back up to 336 pounds. I was disgusted with myself everyday. The only thing that comforted me was the food.Then on November 1, I woke up and it was as if someone had thrown a light switch. For the first time I felt as though I could do this. No worries no regrets. I started on that day and have not strayed once. After struggling so much in the past it's unbelievable.

So here I am. Ready to go on.

My First Post

2008-12-11T06:32:00.000-08:00

And it ain't much baby.

Just want to get it going. So here it goes.