Sunday, December 30, 2007

Paleo Diet - Day 59

Well, I've dropped another 5 lbs since last Saturday and I'm now at 199 lbs! Goodbye to the 200's forever! Meanwhile, my blood sugar is now consistently within the normal range between meals, rising only slightly into the "pre-diabetic" range after meals. My prediction: that within another month or so, my blood sugar will be completely normal and will remain so for the rest of my life! And all of this without any medication whatsoever, proving that type 2 diabetes is purely a dietary condition that is preventable, controllable and curable by diet and exercise, alone.

Where my blood pressure is concerned, it has fallen into the "prehypertension" range, with today's measure being 128/88. This is with medication, though. So, where the blood pressure is concerned, I'm lagging behind a little, but, the good news is that it is coming down and should continue to do so as all other factors also diminish. I noticed my systolic pressure was a little higher than last time, but the diastolic, which is the more critical, has fallen. I'm not certain as to whether that's a positive development or not. My guess is that it is, since the diastolic did drop.

Meanwhile, the Total Gym has been shipped and is on its way. It should arrive by January 7th. Once I have it, I should begin to accelerate my weight loss, raise my HDL and lower my LDL and lower my blood sugar much more. My only concern is that the addition of strength training may cause a rise in my blood pressure, as well. So, I'll have to monitor that carefully and try to make my Total Gym workouts more "aerobic" by doing more reps at a faster pace and with less resistance, as opposed to increasing resistance and doing fewer reps. Also, increasing my walking time would help regulate my blood pressure. Overall, things are shaping up very positively.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Almost There on My Blood Sugar!

This evening, for the second consecutive day, my before-meal and after-meal blood sugar measures were 92 and 121, respectively. The 92, before the meal, is well within the normal range (which peaks at 113) and the 121 (after the meal) is only 8 points above normal.

So, these results indicate yet another threshold has been crossed. My blood sugar appears to now be normal between meals and just barely into what is called the "pre-diabetic" range afterward. I am confident it won't be much longer - perhaps a few more weeks - until my blood sugar is within the normal range, not only between meals, but all the time. When this occurs and when it becomes a stable norm, effectively, I will no longer be a diabetic.

This is due almost entirely to the Paleo Diet (exercise plays a role, also, but it's mostly the change in diet). As long as I continue to eat this way (and why wouldn't I?), I will remain a non-diabetic for the rest of my life, which will be much longer, due to the Paleo Diet.

Bear in mind that most type 2 diabetics are never cured. Of course, this is simply because they are (1) ignorant of the fact that diabetes is a preventable and curable condition that responds to changes in diet (as I'm proving) and (2) they are badly mislead by their doctors and nutritionists, who, like mine, have told them they can eat anything they want to, just in "moderation," and have hooked them on medications that never solve the underlying problem and only maintain their diabetic state until it progresses to full-blown type 1 diabetes.

At least some of these "healthcare professionals," if not most of them, know very well that diabetes is curable with changes in diet. So what motivates them to not share this information with the public? Money. Now, I'm not a socialist. I believe in free market capitalism. But, free markets only function correctly to the extent that all participants are honest, fair and ethical. For a doctor, who has sworn an oath to heal the sick and to do no harm to his patients, to then withhold vital information from his patients that would solve their medical problems - not to mention dispensing dangerous and damaging drugs to them, because it's more profitable than curing illness, is simply criminal behavior. If the majority of the public knew what their doctors are really up to and how they are being not only fleeced, but put at risk of injury and death, the medical profession would be forced to either clean up its act and return to the values of the Hippocratic Oath, or be subject to lawsuits and possible jail time. I'm not kidding.

My own doctor prescribed Metformin for my diabetes. I immediately looked it up on the web as soon as I got home from his office and found that it is the most dangerous drug for controlling diabetes on the market.

Had I blindly followed my physician's orders, I am sure I would be, not only in far worse health than I am now, but in worse health than I was when I went to see him, in the first place. What recourse do I have? Unfortunately, none, because he prescribed a legally approved drug for its normally intended use. As long as drugs like these are allowed to become legal medications, doctors will continue to prescribe them and patients will continue to suffer and die needlessly.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Paleo Diet - Day 51

Moderate weight loss, this time: just two pounds, down to 204 lbs. But, consider that yesterday was my office Christmas dinner, which we ate out at a BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse. This was my first adventure into eating out since beginning the Paleo Diet and I was curious as to whether I could pull it off in at least near-Paleo fashion, or if I'd have to settle for something a bit more or less Neolithic. As it turned out, I had the Sesame Chicken Salad, which was certainly filling enough. It consisted of chopped chicken breast, lettuce, carrots, red cabbage and, I think, a wee bit of tomato, all finely shredded and covered with some sort of "mystery" stuff. It looked to me like shredded deep-fried onion, but it was crispy and brown. As I couldn't determine what the stuff was, I worked around it as I ate and left it on my plate. The one ingredient that troubled me, though, was the clear oily dressing on the shredded veggies. I couldn't tell by it's sweet taste just what it was, but I'm fairly certain it must have been loaded with sugar, as, by the end of the meal, I was feeling a tingling in my feet and legs. Maybe it was just bad furniture design, but I think the effects I felt were a rise in blood sugar. I meant to check that after getting home, but forgot about it. Oh, and, no, my beverage of choice was not beer, but water.

Meanwhile, this morning, my blood sugar (pre-meal) is at 114, just one point above the normal range. This has been a trend for several days, now, with my pre-meal blood sugar being either within or just slightly above the normal range and the after-meal reading being somewhat into the low pre-diabetic range. But, the important thing is, this is now the trend or norm, at the moment, which is a good thing. So, the next downward movement should be deeper into the normal range, where it may stay entirely, even after the meal. That would be close to the ideal I'm shooting for, which is completely normal blood sugar and the end of my diabetes.

On the blood pressure front, I've bought a home monitor that works well and my reading, as of this morning is 115/89. My systolic pressure is in the normal range, while my diastolic is on the borderline between pre-hypertension and stage 1 hypertension. This is down from when I bought the monitor, a few days ago, so it does represent some positive progress, at least. I need to work on getting that diastolic pressure down a bit more. By the way, this is with the use of medication. My ultimate goal, of course, is normal blood pressure without medication. Obviously, that will take some more time, but, I've only been on the Paleo Diet for 51 days, at this writing. I've still got a long way to go and, as I progress, my blood pressure should come down, naturally.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Revised Weight Loss Goal

In considering where I am, currently, with my weight loss, versus what I still see in the mirror, it has occurred to me that perhaps my initial target weight of 190 lbs is a bit too high. I am presently at 206 lbs, as of yesterday. That's only 16 lbs above my initial target weight, yet, it's evident from what I'm observing, that I probably have at least an additional 20 lbs of fat left to lose before I reach my optimal lean body weight.

If that's the case, then my new target weight should be in the neighborhood of 186 lbs or so. In my thirties, I weighed in, at my leanest, at around 145 lbs. However, considering I gained muscle mass in my early-to-mid forties, I probably added at least 30 lbs of muscle tissue. Bear in mind that muscle tissue is more dense than adipose tissue (fat) and, thus, weighs more than fat. Even when my body was pretty lean, in my mid-forties, I probably had a higher percentage of body fat than I will have as a result of the Paleo Diet, when I get to the point at which I stabilize and begin maintaining my weight. As I recall, in my mid-forties my abdominal muscles were still covered by a thin layer of fat so they could not be revealed (a major source of frustration for me then) and, because I was on a high carbohydrate diet of mostly pasta and breads and very little meat, my triglycerides were high, in spite of my high exercise level. At that time, I weighed in at around 200 lbs or so.

Considering my dietary mistakes at the time, plus the additional fat loss I could have benefitted from then, I'd say my ideal lean body weight should be under 190 lbs, probably closer to 180 to 185 lbs.

Given that, I am resetting my target weight for 185 lbs and I'll see how I look and feel when I get there.

Now, there is just one complicating factor that needs to be taken into consideration, and it's one I've already mentioned: muscle weighs more than fat. So, as I continue to lose fat, I will also be gaining muscle, due to my coming Total Gym workouts. If this occurs, I'm sure it will mean, based upon past experience, not to mention exercise physiology, that my ideal lean body weight may actually creep upward. Instead of 185, I may find that, with added muscle mass, my ideal lean body weight comes out to more like 190 or 195 lbs. In fact, I may find it increasingly difficult to continue losing weight, while at the same time, I'm losing more fat. After all, the goal here is fat loss, not weight loss. Since weight can be composed of muscle, fat, even bone tissue, weight loss, in and of itself, is not an indicator of improving health.

So, I'll shoot for 185 lbs, for now, with the caution that added muscle mass may reduce the amount of weight loss necessary to reach a healthy lean state.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Still More Weight Loss

Today is day 44 of the Paleo Diet and I'm down to 206 lbs, a reduction of 5 lbs since last week! So, the additional walking exercise is paying off. That's now 27 lbs I've lost, in total, since beginning the diet on November 2nd.

I won't have the money to order my new Total Gym until next week, and after ordering it, there will probably be a delay of a few weeks before it arrives, so I won't have any Total Gym results to report until probably sometime in January.

Once I do begin using the Total Gym, however, get ready for some dramatic results! As I said earlier, I've had my old Total Gym since 1997 and, when I first began using it, I was already in pretty good shape, but, even so, there were remarkable improvements. Given the shape I'm in now, I expect the results of using the Total Gym will be even more impressive, as I tone my muscles and add new muscle tissue.

Meanwhile, there has been a light dusting of snow overnight, but the streets are still clear, so I will be doing my 60 minute walk this afternoon, which should help spur some further weight loss I can tell you about next Saturday.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Blood Sugar Progress

After yo-yo-ing up and down for a while, my blood sugar has now stabilized around the low "pre-diabetic" range (110 to 150) now. It seems to be headed in an overall downward trend and the next big push will be into the normal range. But, keep in mind, it's still early in my Paleo Diet program, with less than two months under my belt (which is too big for me now!).

This evening, I tested around dinner, with my blood sugar being at 126 before the meal and, after a couple of hours, during which I did some light exercise (treadmill for five minutes, a set of jumping jacks, some push-ups and some squat-thrusts, since we've had an ice storm today and I can't walk outside) and a spoonful of cinnamon, it was down to 120! Lower than before the meal. I love it when that happens. Proof positive that exercise and cinnamon are an effect means of blood sugar control. Much better than drugs!

Sometime around my next birthday (October 2008), I should be back to normal again, I estimate. That will be close to one full year, as I started the diet on November 2nd 2007. To celebrate my 56th birthday, I plan to eat out (as Paleo-friendly as I can find) and ask for the senior discount, just to see what kind of reaction I get. I have no doubt they'd ask for my ID even now, much less then.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

More Steady Weight Loss

Today, I'm down another two pounds from this time last week. Not a lot of weight loss, but it's consistent with Cordain's prediction of slower, steady weight loss, following the initial rapid weight loss.

This means, of course, that I've burned off 7,000 calories more than I took in during the week (a 3,500 calorie deficit equals one pound of burned fat). Not bad, considering all that changed was that I lengthened my evening walks to double what they had been; i.e., to about 20 minutes. I had an especially good walk last night, averaging around 4 mph, I'd say (based upon past experience). It was a good way to generate some body heat to keep warm with in the cold drizzle. ;)

Keep in mind that I haven't yet added in my 60 minute walks, the first of which will be this afternoon. With that figured in, I should expect to see a bit more weight loss by next Saturday than I've had this past week. Given that my total walking time by then will amount to just a little more than 37% more than what it was this week, I'd guesstimate my weight loss for next Saturday to be around 2.74 pounds. Again, not a staggering result, but one must consider that I'm now into the phase during which my continue fat loss is a reflection of how many calories I expend, though it's still typical for me to be losing fat while sleeping or sitting at my computer. It's just slowed down, that's all. I still have a lot of body fat, both apparent and hidden, to lose and as long as there is more fat than the number of calories I consume can support, the excess fat will continue to be used as fuel. Since I've increased my exercise, and will be increasing it more (especially once I get my old broken down Total Gym replaced) in coming weeks, that excess fat will not only continue to be burned off, but at an accelerated rate.

About that Total Gym, I've had mine since 1997 and it's been a great workout machine, but it has developed a defect in one of the plastic rollers that causes a loud popping sound when the gym's in use. It doesn't keep me from using it, but it's irritating enough I want to replace the gym (the part can't be replaced) with a new Total Gym 1700 Club (one of my "Christmas presents" to myself). Then, I'll really be taking off the fat.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

My First Taste of Venison

Today at work, I was given the gift of a rather large, nearly 2 inch thick venison steak. One of the guys I work with is a bow hunter and, this time of the year, can be counted on to have lots of deer meat on hand.

So, I took the meat home, slapped it on my new George Foreman Grill, and waited for some fat to come dripping out. It never came. This was the leanest piece of meat I've ever eaten. It even made Laura's Lean Beef look like something from McDonald's. I was amazed to find that not a speck of fat was produced during cooking.

As for the smell and taste, as it was cooking, it smelled a bit like the bison patties I'd had a couple of weeks ago. The taste was a little different and varied from a bison-like flavor to a more "gamey" taste, whatever that means. It came out a little more rare than I'm accustomed to with beef, but I had read that it is best to eat game meat a little on the rare side, as cooking it as long as beef renders it very tough and stringy. So, the meat was mostly very tender, although I did encounter some stubborn gristle in the middle that was impossible to swallow because I just couldn't chew it down to a manageable size. This beast was a buck, so I'm told, so it was a very muscular animal, not some overfed domesticated creature standing around waiting to be slaughtered.

There was enough meat to put some away for tomorrow's lunch and dinner, as well. Not bad for free. Had I bought this meat commercially, I'd have to have ordered via mail order and it would have probably cost me in the neighborhood of $30 to $50.

Now, the really good part: according to one seller of venison products, this meat typically has only 0.34 calories from fat and about 26 grams of protein per pound. Excellent! But, even as generous as my friend is, I expect this will be an occasional treat, at best.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Paleo Diet & Sleep Apnea - Addendum

It seems I was right on in my theory about whether the Paleo Diet's fat loss effect might reduce or reverse obstructive sleep apnea. According to the following abstract from a peer reviewed medical study, it seems that the amount of fat content in the uvula (one of the upper airway tissues also implicated as a causal factor in obstructive sleep apnea) has a direct correlation with the severity of obstructive sleep apnea:

Morphology of the uvula in obstructive sleep apnea.

J L Stauffer , M K Buick , E O Bixler , F E Sharkey , A B Abt , E K Manders , A Kales , R J Cadieux , J D Barry , C W Zwillich

"Alterations in pharyngeal structure and function are considered fundamental in the pathogenesis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). However, little is known about morphologic features of the pharynx in patients with OSA. We therefore studied the tissue composition of the uvula (midsagittal section) in patients with OSA, using a quantitative, morphometric point-counting technique. Uvula tissue was obtained by uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) in 33 patients (mean number of apneas per hour of sleep = 32.7 +/- 5.2) and by autopsy in 22 normal subjects not known to have OSA. All statistical comparisons were controlled for differences caused by age and body mass index. Patients with OSA had a significantly greater percentage of muscle in the uvula (18.1 +/- 1.9% versus 9.3 +/- 2.1%, p = 0.02) than did normal subjects. A significant difference in fat content was also found (9.5 +/- 1.4% in patients versus 4.0 +/- 1.0% in normal subjects, p less than 0.02). These differences between patients with OSA and control subjects could not be accounted for by anthropometric or sex differences. The percentage of uvula fat tissue was significantly related to the frequency of apneas and hypopneas in sleep (r = 0.43, p less than 0.01). Uvula morphology in 6 nonapneic snorers undergoing UPPP was similar to that of patients with OSA. We conclude that the uvula in patients with OSA contains more muscle and fat than the uvula in control subjects, possibly contributing to pharyngeal narrowing in OSA.
Mesh-terms: Female; Human; Male; Middle Aged; Palate, Soft, pathology; Palate, Soft, surgery; Sleep Apnea Syndromes, pathology; Sleep Apnea Syndromes, physiopathology; Sleep Apnea Syndromes, surgery; Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.; Uvula, pathology; Uvula, surgery;"


That's two sources that corroborate my theory! Given this discovery, I wonder if it's possible, after all, to entirely eliminate sleep apnea via the Paleo Diet? It would require significant fat loss, but that is exactly what the Paleo Diet provides.





The Paleo Diet As a Sleep Aid

I hadn't mentioned it before, but I have suffered from severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) for many years (it was officially diagnosed by a sleep study done in December 2004), as well as a mild case of Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) and occasional bouts of insomnia.

I was curious to see what effect, if any, the Paleo Diet might have on these conditions and, though my comments about it here are entirely anecdotal, I can tell you with some confidence that the Paleo Diet does play an important role in reversing, if not negating these conditions.

The RLS and the insomnia are gone. I noticed this within the first few weeks. Loren Cordain says, in The Paleo Diet, that your sleep will improve as a result of the diet and I believe he's entirely correct. This effect, plus possible repair of nerve damage that might be partially involved in my RLS, seems to have rendered it a thing of the past. As for the insomnia, I have had no trouble getting to sleep relatively quickly since about the third week of the diet.

Now, where the OSA is concerned, I didn't expect that to be affected by the diet, as the cause of it is a blockage of my airway by my soft palate and other tissues in my airway that relax when I'm asleep. However, this is not to say there hasn't still been a positive change in the amount and quality of sleep I'm getting - there has been. Nevertheless, I can still tell that I've had apneas during the night, as I still suffer some daytime drowsiness. But, the good news is that this has been reduced, at least to the point at which I'm feeling better rested, have more stamina and less drowsiness.

Even though I probably should not expect the Paleo Diet will reverse or cure my sleep apnea, a thought has occurred to me: if the soft palate, like all fleshy parts of the body, contains fat, then isn't it at least possible that the fat loss I'm experiencing as a result of the diet might also have the added effect of shrinking and tightening my soft palate? Pursuing this thought further, I did a little Googling and found the following on the Journal of Applied Physiology website:

Lateral pharyngeal fat pad pressure during breathing in anesthetized pigs

W. Christopher Winter 1, Tom Gampper 2, Spencer B. Gay 3, and Paul M. Suratt 1

Departments of 1 Internal Medicine, 2 Plastic Surgery, and 3 Radiology, University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908

"It has been hypothesized that the pressure in tissues surrounding the upper airway is one of the determinants of the size and shape of the upper airway. To our knowledge, this pressure has not been measured. The purpose of this study was to test whether the pressure in a tissue lateral to the upper airway, the lateral pharyngeal fat pad pressure (Pfp), differs from atmospheric and pharyngeal pressures and whether it changes with breathing. We studied six male lightly sedated pigs by inserting a transducer tipped catheter into their fat pad space by using computerized tomographic scan guidance. We measured airflow with a pneumotachograph attached to a face mask and pharyngeal pressure with a balloon catheter. Pfp differed from atmospheric pressure, generally exceeding it, and from pharyngeal pressure. Pfp correlated positively with airflow and with pharyngeal pressure, decreasing during inspiration and increasing during expiration. Changes in Pfp with ventilation were eliminated by oropharyngeal intubation. We conclude that Pfp differs from atmospheric and pharyngeal pressures and that it changes with breathing."


So, it would seem there is something to my theory, after all. The tissues of the upper airway are the chief culprit implicated in obstructive sleep apnea. Further, this study confirms that these upper airway tissues are at least partly composed of fat. These tissues are found to put pressure on the upper airway, thus constricting it, causing momentary cessations in breathing (i.e., apneas). Now, consider that when one loses body fat, the loss of fatty tissue is universal; i.e., it occurs all over the body, as the body uses fat for fuel. This fat burning is indiscriminate; the body has no preference for fat in any one particular part of the body (hence the myth of spot reduction; i.e., the incorrect belief that sit-ups and crunches will removed abdominal fat). Thus, as fat is lost from all the body's tissues at once, it stands to reason that these pharyngeal fat pads are also losing fat - they are shrinking. If this is correct, then the tissues of the upper airway involved in obstructive sleep apnea might very well respond favorably to the fat-loss effect of the Paleo Diet. This might, at least, lead to reducing my severe case of OSA to a milder case, much as it was during the mid-nineties, when I first suspected I might have sleep apnea. This is encouraging!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Oops!

Seems I misread that chart. It says exercise per 10 minutes. Anyway, I found a more appropriate chart: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/CalorieBurnChart.htm, which shows the number of calories burned per minute, which was what I was searching for in the first place.

According to the second chart, I'd be burning .036 calories per minute x my weight of 213 lbs = 7.668 calories per minute by walking at a normal pace on asphalt pavement. Given that, 160 minutes of walking per week should burn 1,226.88 calories per week, or roughly less than half a pound per week. Seems a bit low to me, as I've been burning more fat that this just sitting at my computer. I ate a sirloin steak just a couple of hours ago and I can already smell ketone waste in my urine, so I know I'm burning body fat just sitting here typing this. But then, maybe my metabolism is a little different than most people's. It seems a high amount of dietary protein significantly increases my metabolic rate. This makes sense to me, as I was a skinny kid and, back then, ate mostly meat because I didn't like veggies much. If my theory is correct, I should do better than a mere 7.668 calories per minute, thus I'll lose fat quicker the chart projects. This may be due to the extra muscle mass I gained during the nineties, as well. The more lean muscle you have, the more fat you can burn and the less effort it takes to do so.

Given all that, I'll at least round up the calories per minute to 8 and say that, for 160 minutes of walking per week, I'd burn 1,280 calories per week, which still seems low, though, checking with some other sources, most seem to say about 7 calories per minute. The factor they are not including is one's starting weight, however. The more you weigh, to begin with, the more calories per minute you'll burn because you're doing more work to move a heavier mass than someone who weighs less.

Using the calorie calculator I found at http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/jumpsite/calculat.htm, I determined I'd be burning about 1,290 calories per week, so I guess there is no arguing with the math, especially since this calculator takes your weight into account. Okay, then. So, at that rate, I'll lose a pound every two weeks or so. That's just for the effort expended during exercise, though. It doesn't account for the fat I'm obviously still burning while at rest, as a result of having more stored body fat than my body can find calories to maintain. That has to be considered, as well. It's hard to calculate how much that is, as I've been walking daily more or less since I started the Paleo Diet, thus, my walking has been adding to my calorie burning.

Another way of getting to a reasonable estimate of how much I can expect to lose is to consider that the exercise schedule I've proposed (20 minutes a day during the week, plus 60 minutes on the weekends) adds 3.2 times the amount of walking I've been doing. If I've been losing an average of 0.27 lbs per day since my water loss stabilized, then 0.27 x 3.2 = 0.864 lbs per day. If this holds true, then I can expect to arrive at my target weight of 190 lbs by December 28th. That's figured at 213 lbs - 190 lbs = 23 lbs to be lost divided by 0.864 lbs = 26.62037 days. So, my present weight loss from cutting my calories formerly supplied by grains, dairy and processed foods, added to the weight I'll be losing from increasing my exercise should get me to my target weight of 190 lbs by the end of the month. It's only 23 lbs to lose, so I don't see why not.

Further Weight Loss Progress - Addendum

Well, no sooner did I post my last entry than I consulted Loren Cordain's book, The Paleo Diet for some clues as to why my weight loss has slowed. I had forgotten reading that he said one loses weight rapidly, at first, then continues to lose weight steadily.

Of course, this is contingent upon continuing to follow the diet. Cordain says, "Most people experience rapid weight loss within the first three to five days. This is mainly water loss, and it stabilizes fairly quickly. After that, how much weight you lose will depend on two things - how overweight you are to begin with and how many total 'deficit' calories you accumulate. After the initial water loss, it takes a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose a pound of fat. It is not unusual for people who are obese (medically, this means people who are 30 percent or more over their ideal weight) to lose between 10 and 15 pounds each month."

According to a chart of calories burned per minute of exercise (http://www.coolnurse.com/calories_burned.htm), at my present weight of 213 lbs (as of December 1st), I should expect to burn over 70 calories per minute of walking, provided my pace is 4 mph. That's pretty close to my usual pace, and since the chart says 70 calories/min at 200 lbs, even if my pace is a little under 4 mph, I'd still be burning about that many calories per minute. Therefore, to create a calorie deficit of 3,500 per week (assuming I want to lose a pound a week), I'd need to walk for ten minutes, five days a week, which is what I'm doing now. I can do better than that, though. Even on my schedule, I can get in about twenty minutes a day during the week and up to an hour a day on Saturdays. If I do that, I'll be burning 11,200 calories per week (70 calories/min x 160 minutes of walking), or 3.2 lbs of fat per week. That would average out to 0.45 lbs per day of fat loss. That's 0.18 lbs per day more than I burned off during the last 15 days. If I continue at that rate, I'll be down to 190 lbs in 51 days, plus or minus, if I start now.

So, my new exercise goal, then, is to increase my walking to twenty minutes a day after work and an hour on Saturdays. Quite "do-able." My target weight: 190 lbs. My target date: January 22nd. Given the season, I may have to use my treadmill for some of that walking, but it should work out about the same. Also, given the season and the unfortunate fact that the majority of people don't eat anything like their paleolithic ancestors anymore, I should be losing weight over the holidays while everyone else is getting fatter.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Further Weight Loss Progress

Since I last reported on my weight loss of 15 lbs in the first 24 days of my Paleo Diet, I have lost an additional 5 lbs, or an average of 0.27 lbs per day over the intervening 18 days since my last weight loss report. So, it looks like my calculation of .6 pounds per day has slowed a little, possibly due to portion sizes in some of my meals. I've been eating frozen black angus burger patties, which are rather large, even after cooking, so I suspect they are the culprit.

Where the beef I'm eating is concerned, I have some positive news, in that, I've started eating Laura's Lean Beef meat products, which are all pasture-fed beef, free of hormones, steroids and antibiotics, as well as not being corn-fed. I highly recommend this brand, which is readily available at all Walmart and Homeland stores. I put a patty of Laura's ground beef into my skillet, the other day, expecting I'd see the usual puddle of clear liquid fat that I've observed when cooking those black angus patties, but, I was pleasantly surprised to see absolutely no sign of any fat emerging from the meat at all, right up until it was done. Not even the surface of the meat had the usual glistening of fat; it still looked dry. But, the meat was moist and tender and thoroughly delicious.

In addition to Laura's Lean Beef, I've also tried Dakota Naturals' Bison Burgers, which are 100% range-fed buffalo meat. Not quite as lean as Laura's Lean Beef, but pretty close. The taste and smell is slightly different from beef, but in a pleasant way. I enjoy both the Bison Burgers and Laura's and will be eating this meat regularly, as I can afford to. It's a bit costlier than regular beef or pork.

Meanwhile, my blood sugar, which has been dropping - though seesawing a little - has more or less stabilized, for the time being, in the low 100s. Still not where I'd like to see it yet, but then, it's only been a little over a month or so since I started and, by Loren Cordain's claims for the Paleo Diet, I should expect it to be at least six months to a year before my blood sugar, as well as my blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides are in the normal range consistently. One factor in all this is exercise, of course. I have been walking almost every evening, after work, but I haven't had time for a longer, more strenuous walk, yet. I have the time for this on weekends, and, if the weather's uncooperative, there is always my treadmill. But, the gist of it is that I need more exercise and, when I start getting it, I expect to see both my weight loss and my blood sugar normalization improve.