Spiritual Aspects of Your Daniel Fast

"For I know the plans that I have for you" says the Lord. "Plans to prosper you. To give you hope and a future."

As we are doing this 3 week Daniel Fast. I have been talking a lot about how much physical good it is doing for your bod. Now let's talk about the spiritual aspects of this process.

I believe that God will honor this time of sacrifice on your part to reveal Himself to you in ways that you never knew before. The reason that Daniel refused the King's delicacies was so that God would reveal the secrets to him about how to interpret Nebuchadnezzer's dream.

Like wise when you do this fast, you would do well to pray to God that He reveal secrets about His character to you. That He shows you things that will help you to prosper and help you to love other people with God's love in a greater dimension. If Daniel had not got the wisdom and understanding from God, he would have been killed, so I think that he was highly motivated.

During my first Daniel Fasting time God revealed things to me about the tremendous power of His grace to mankind. I have been a Christian for over 30 years and I thought that I had the grace thing pretty well pat. But I now realize that there is so much to His grace that I did not know about or understand.

We all understand that grace means God's unmerited favor. It's basically the fact that we get what we really don't deserve. We don't deserve eternity in heaven because all have sinned and we just can't make it to heaven by trying to be a good person. Grace comes by accepting the free gift of Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross. This good news is available to everyone!! Not just a few "religious type people." The fields really are ripe unto harvest, even in our so called post Christian society.

Another little known aspect of God's grace is that He gives you the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life to equip you to overcome temptation and sin. I found that His grace compels me to say no to fleshly things as my desire is to be pleasing to Him. I find this also true in the arena of food choices. So even the dieting thing carries a deeper spiritual dimension to it.

B.M.I.

I just thought to throw the bmi- body mass index table out tonite. Some of you may have seen it before. But I think it is informative to help establish goals for where you would like to optimally end up being weight wise. Click on the link and plug in your height and current weight.
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

My peak weight bmi was 31.8 which yes sports fans qualified me as being officially obese. My current bmi is 23.7 which falls into normal body weight category, but not by much. So be advised that the index is not very forgiving.

If however you make it through Daniel Fast time with flying colors and want to get really serious here. I will tell you that a normal BMI is within your capability.

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I went to a family get together over the weekend to celebrate my father's 84th birthday. Way to go dad! Relatives that had not seen me in awhile were somewhat shocked to see my skinny profile. They complimented me almost to the point of being embarrassing. I think I actually blushed. I hope that you have similar "problems" like this in the future to have to deal with.

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One of the ways that you can judge the amount of progress that you are making is what I call the lateral waist pinch test. If you pinch the fat on the side of your waist and roll it between your fingers... If it is just solid, you still have a ways to go. If you pinch it and roll it and it starts to feel granular or bumpy, that means that your green is really starting to do it's thing. This is especially true if you are working out. You are burning calories and the fat is melting away.

Woooo Hooooo!!

Another test is the wedding ring. Mine was as tight as could be on my finger before my weight loss. Now it easily spins and fits loosely especially in cool weather.

I hope you are staying with the game plan, or are catching up if you are behind. Keep up the good work and you will be handsomely rewarded for your efforts.

Maximizing Your Palate Confusion

Marilyn, Thank you for your comment the other day. I am encouraged to know that there are people out there that still care. It has helped me to keep going to see this task to it's full completion.

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Today's post is going to be a very important one from a philosophical point of view. If I can adequately explain this, I believe you will be set up to be thin and trim for the rest of your life.

We have spent the last 5 weeks with a lot of "how to" type of information. Do this, don't do that kind of stuff. Today I'm going to explain to you the "why" behind the "how to."

So why have I encouraged you to try a whole bunch of different types of vegetables in your salads? Why have a I been a stickler about drinking herbal teas during our Daniel fast time, instead of just saying go ahead and drink decaf coffee? Why are we temporarily doing away with all sweets instead of me just saying go ahead and use a bunch of splenda?



The answer is that I am purposely trying to force your palate to experience change.


The P90X exercise program has coined the phrase "muscle confusion." They use the concept that by doing different things every time you work out you are breaking down multiple areas of your body. You don't do the same exercises over and over and get a "comfortable" muscle challenge. Likewise I am coining the phrase "palate confusion." We are challenging your palates prior notion of only eating what it perceives as tasting good.

Remember back earlier in the blog, we were talking about having thousands of food choices at the supermarket. Researchers have indicated that with all of these choices, a large percentage of people stick to only a few core foods... That is one of the reasons that people won't stay on a diet for very long. They end up going back to the prior stuff...

By forcing your palate to experience change, we are combating the notion that you are going to end up trapped by going back to your old malnourishing core foods. If you will stick with me through the Daniel Fasting time. Your palate will conceptually look like this. -->



Your new palate will very willingly reject foods that may taste good to you now but will not taste good later. For example I do not like apple fritter pastries anymore when before I could eat 3 of them at one setting. Now they just taste greasy and heavy to me.

So What about Coffee?

Sherry brought up a good comment the other day. She doesn't want to give up her beloved A.M. cup-0-joe. So I will talk about this for todays blog.

First of all, I have to tell you that I just love coffee. I consider it to be the nectar of Yaweh!!! Oh the glorious bean. In fact I used to own a small coffee roasting business.

So why is Bob being such a buttinski by being a coffee nazi? A very valid question, I am glad you asked it? ;)

Bob is NOT a PERMANENT coffee nazi, I am only asking you to become coffee free during this 3 week period. After that you can do what ever you want. What I want you to experience is getting your system totally into the green zone and to feel the effects of the veggies sans caffeine. You should be well into militancy by now and going without caffeine, while difficult, is the very best way to go here.

It is also very important to understand that I do not want you to stop caffeine cold turkey. I want you to gradually ween your self off of it. I don't want you getting coffee withdrawal headaches or to feel totally drained by losing your coffee energy all at once. I would like you to take at least 4 days to get caffeine free. So cut your normal amt in half for 2 days, then split that in half on the 3rd day, then split the 3rd day amount in half for the forth day. Then on the 5th day, go caffeine free and be on your merry way.

The other issue is that for those of us that are borderline diabetic or have full blown type II, coffee should only be consumed in moderation, that is probably a max of 1 cup per day. Recent studies have shown that caffeine messes up you insulin levels and this is not good.

So what about the comfort of having a warm drink in your hand, or when you go out for coffee with others as a social occasion? Well lets fire up that Herbal Tea idea and make that work as a substitute. This morning I had 2 cups of red safari spice rooibos tea. Was it as good as coffee? No. Was it OK as a temporary substitute? Yes, absolutely. Remember we want noncaffeinated herbal teas only.

So go to the store and check out all of the possible fun herbal tea choices. There are a lot of them out there!

Still More Hits to this Site

OK so I had another conversation with my wife concerning the blog. Should I quit or keep on posting?



When I complain about the site running out of gas, she keeps on telling me not to throw in the towel. She told me that people are still just lurking on the sidelines. I think that she is right. I need to keep on keeping on even though its really difficult for me right now.



I think it was truly easier for me to lose 50+ pounds than to continue to work in a vacuum of noncommittal in the blog. I perceive this as a time of testing for both blogger and bloggies. I am reminded of one of my favorite movies: Galaxy Quest. Tim Allen quotes the infamous one liner. Never Give up, Never surrender. So OK I will not give up on you!!!! I will not surrender!!!

Wanda Said

Wanda said...
Ok so I weaned off the caffeine, sugar and meat. You really don't need those things as there are so many other good for you foods. I haven't been hungry either. Feeling all right! and like Jesus is really helping me through it this time.My husband and I walk almost every day, getting in more hills; that is the cruncher but really good for us. And Corvallis has lots of hills. Thanks Bob for the encouragement!





Thanks and qudo's back to you Wanda. Please make sure you are getting plenty of protein as this is pretty important over the next 3 weeks.





I am a little bit puzzled as to why no one else besides Wanda is participating at this point. Actually we are at a place where things are really going to get exciting as we go forward from here.





I am feeling like people are bailing out and the worst possible time. Like Yoda said to Luke as he went to meet Darth Vader. "Incomplete is your training padiwan."

Is it you or is it me? Am I paranoid or are you really not even reading anymore? Do I continue? Please respond, send me an email. bdiddy2330@yahoo.com

The Joy of Cottage Cheese

I would like to let you know about another food to help you get through the Baron Von Munchies Syndrome...
It is glorious fat free cottage cheese. A 1/2 cup serving is only 6 grams of carbs. That means that you can have a 1 1/2 cup serving and only use up 1 carb choice. Plus it's fat free so this can really go a long way to help you stay on track and still curb your appetite.

Actually, since Wanda and I are doing the Daniel fasting thing. I will now make fat free cottage cheese my comfort food of choice instead of ice cream. Ice cream is 17 grams of carbs per 1/2 cup so I am saving 11 grams. Wow that is pretty significant. Now if I can just get over not having the sweet part.

After going off sugar on my first Daniel fast, I have noticed that it is easier to do the second time around. Don't get me wrong, I like sweets just like everybody else, but unsweetened stuff tastes OK and the little bit of natural sweet in milk or peanut butter is quickly noticable and appreciated.

Peanut Butter is also a good source of protein if you not eating meat for a while. Get the reduced fat kind and its pretty great smeared on celery. Again I will plan on eating quite a bit of Peanut butter for the next few weeks.
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Concerning the exercise part. I hope you are doing something this week to get your heart rate up a bit. Be it walking, jogging or some other aerobic exercise, any of these will help you if you haven't been working out.

Are You going to Beat Anorexia Too?

So are you going to beat anorexia? or are you going to commit to go farther with me?

Week 5

Wow, here we are at week # Johnnie 5.



Earlier in the year our church decided to corporately fast for an extended period of time. 3 weeks to be exact. Not everyone in the church participated but many did, I was one of them.



The purpose of the fast was for spiritual reasons and was based out of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. This "Daniel fast" was not meant to be a total fast, but rather to give up some of our comfort food. The goal in mind was for us to receive wisdom for the church to fulfill our potential in 2009. During this time I felt that God was leading me to be willing to share my weight loss adventure with other people. I had no idea at that time that it would eventually end up being the blog you are now reading.



This Daniel fast took place right about 2/3 of the way through my militant phase. It also propelled me much further into weight loss than I had expected to be able to go. The results from a physical standpoint were just phenom.



I have said all of this to prepare the way for you to have an intense 3 week adventure like I did on my Daniel fast. I would like you to start doing what I did this week.



If you haven't noticed, I have been kind of hesitating here a little bit because what I'm going to ask you will take a pretty big commitment on your part. But remember it is only going to be for 3 weeks then you can decide if you want to make a lifestyle change or just chalk this up as a temporary adventure.



OK are you ready???? On my Daniel fast I made the commitment. to not eat any refined sugar, I had no caffeine and I did not eat any meat. To some of you that might not sound like such a big deal (you are wrong) To other's it may sound totally not doable, but you really can do it.



So how many of you are willing to take this big step with me??? The rewards will be well worth the adventure.

WEEK 5 ASSIGNMENT:

OK are you ready? -I need you to understand the following
1. No Caffeine-You will not stop caffeine cold turkey. You are going to be weened off of it. I want you to have half your normal amount for 2 days then go down to 1/4 of your normal amount for 2 more days. then after 4 days total no more caffeine for the rest of the 3 weeks. This is all caffeine including tea, and energy drinks as well as coffee. Decaffeinated Herbal tea's are OK to drink.

2. No refined sugar. My experience was that my morning oatmeal without any sugar tasted bad for 3 days. Then suddenly I could actually taste the sweetness of the milk. And from that point on I did not miss the sugar. I would like for all of you to give it 3 days try also. Please no splenda either for these 3 days to really give your palate a chance to get sweet free.

3. No meat. But you need to still get adequate amounts of protein. This can be accomplished by eating more eggs for other meals besides breakfast, or use tofu for dinner, or eat more nuts. Also eat more dairy products like cheese.

If you are willing to step up and do this, I want you to reply by making a comment to me at the bottom of this post. I will also do the fast again with you if you respond. If no one is willing to comment on their commitment, then I will just change gears on the future content of this blog.

48 Hours

Greetings fellow bloggers:

Tonite I'm at the beloved fire station. I am working a double shift this weekend, meaning that I am here for a full 48 hours. These usually end up being pretty killer on the old bod. But I'm feeling pretty good so far and I did get a full 60 min run with sprint intervals in earlier today.

Being in good physical shape has really helped build the stamina I need to be able to perform at my job. Even though I'm now eligible to retire, with the economy down the drain I'm choosing to continue on in the workplace. I feel very blessed to be in good health physically to carry on.

My hope for all of you as you continue on this adventure, is for you to also build up endurance and strength and overall positive mental and physical health. The bible states that God wants us to prosper in all things, to be in good health even as your soul prospers. We often tend to think in terms of financial prosperity, but there is so much to be said about being physically fit and healthy and prosperous!!! If you continue with this program you will be very prosperous.
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Bob's High 5/ Low 5
So now lets explore some of the very best and very worst possible food choices for you decide on. For most of you this probably won't be too shockingly revelational but still may be helpful:

LOW 5:

1. Hot Pockets: Maybe the single worst food on the planet.

2. Any fast food super sized: The main purpose of super size is to make you personally super sized.

3. Large candy lollipops: You know the ones that you get at the state fair. There are 200 grams of carbs in one of those!! At our Wells Fargo carb bank budget of 4-5 carbs per meal, this bad boy clocks in at about 12 carbs or = to 3 meals for a woman.

4. Big bagels: This one may surprise some of you as many folks think that bagels are really healthy food. These guys are chocked full of carbs and will ruin your budget in a hurry. In playing raquetball if you get beat by a score of 15-0 you get a "bagel." If you eat these big boys you also get beat 15-0.

5 The entire chip group: These are so not healthy for you as they are dead carbs with really no nutritional value. Remember what we talked about early on about our bodies craving more food because we are malnourished. I personally believe that these foods are the ones most responsible for making America malnourished and ravenously hungry at the same time. I know that we all love them and weening off of them may be difficult, but I can honestly say that I do not miss having them on a regular basis. I hope that you will be able to say that too. I will still rarely have just a few of them for taste, but that is all!!

HIGH 5:
1. Spinach: Popeye really did get it right!!! If there is one single food with the most nutritional value for you, I would rate spinach as numero uno.

2. Fat free plain yogurt: A good source of protein, very low in carbs and filling. The acidopholis aids in digestion.

3. Eggs: Even though the yolks contain cholesterol, they are extremely high in protein and we are really built to have them be a regular part of our diet.

4 H20: Yea we're still talking water around here. If you think about how man didn't always have a supermarket handy, so he had to go out a hunting for his food. He may not get 3 squares a day. So water would be a great "tide me over" until Mr. Hunter could get his next meal. We can also do the same and should be getting about 8-10 large glasses a day.

5. Apples: Nutritious and delicious. You all know the saying an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Hey Bob that High 5 was just a rehash of some of the foods that what we have been eating for the last 4 weeks...
10-4 good buddy!!!
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Tomorrow I will try to post week 5 assignments. If I'm too hammered at work, I will post them on monday.

Friday night

So here it is Friday night and I'm suffering from a little blogger block. That coupled with 3 basketball playoff games running at the same time including my beloved blazers has got me a little less than enthused. I am an absolute basketball nut and I play in fantasy leagues every year.

But never fear I will have to just pull something out.
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I know that I need to do a lot more for all of you in the area of exercise. I kind of wish I was able to be your personal trainer like a Jillian on biggest loser, that way I would physically have you locked in with me while doing the recommended workouts. This blog format definitely leaves a lot to be desired in this arena.

I do hope that you will take the exercise thing seriously and engage your brain to figure out doing somethings that are both fun and make you sweat. You really need both the nutrition and the exercise pieces of the puzzle to fully get the impact that our strategy can offer you.

So I think I will just for fun talk about my workouts. At least I will have something to blog about this evening.

I love to play racquetball, and I try to play 2 out of 3 days for approx 1 1/2 hours. I play over the lunch hour and my buddies that I play with are VERY GOOD. So I am forced to bring my "A" game every time I step onto the court. I used to just get beat almost all of the time. But now that I have lost the weight and done a lot of other cardiovascular exercises, my endurance is giving me a competitive edge so that now I hold my own and sometimes win more than I lose. After racquetball is over I will do another 20-30 minutes of cardio at the gym. I use either an elliptical runner or a stair stepper or a treadmill or a rowing machine. I vary my workout and get different muscle groups working. When I'm finished there is not a stich in my t-shirt that isn't soaked with sweat.

When I'm on duty at the fire station, I will try to get in a long run if I'm able to. I will go from 30-60 minutes which ranges from about 3 to 7 miles. I also try to include sprint intervals in the middle of the runs and those can be killer, but I know they are very good for me.

Another thing that I have done to work out is that I have walked up all of the surrounding hills around the Lebanon area. I just love doing this, as I get a chance to just get away from schedule and I make it spiritual as well. Jesus went away to high places by himself to pray. I like to do that too. If Jesus did it, I think I should do it too. This is also a fairly low type of aerobic and something that many of you could do as well.

So thats my workout story. Yours may be much less intense or comparable to mine or even put me in the dust. My purpose to share this with you is not to boast about what I do or to make any of you feel bad. I know that 50 lbs ago, I would probably have been very intimidated by trying to do my existing work out routine. So I share this with you so that as you begin to lose weight and feel healthier and stronger you may very well be able to put some serious cardio workouts together. I hope to inspire you here and tell you your future is very bright.

Blazer game is calling!!!!
g-night

So where do you put your snacks?

Tonites title is the question of the day. Where are putting those candy dishes and snack trays? Are they in or on your desk at work or on the coffee table by your favorite recliner??? Are they some place where you can quickly and easily grab them in a moment of weakness? So why am I getting in your face with personal questions tonite? You know exactly why I am d;^}

Just making those bad cheater foods harder to access distance wise is going to pay off large dividends in our warfare on your waist line. So head up... move em out!!!!
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Now lets talk about beans. They are good and very good for your bod! You should be eating them at least 3 times a week. They are high in fiber and also very filling so its a great way to invest your carbs on.

As Forrest Gump and his friend Bubba would wax elegantly about Shrimps. Bobby will do the same with beans: Black beans, baked beans, green beans, pinto beans, navy beans, great northern beans, garbanzo beans, red beans, white beans, kidney beans, pink beans, lima beans, brown lentil beans, yellow lentil beans, red lentil beans, black eyed peas, green split peas, yellow split peas.

You can resurrect that Crock pot that everyone has and no one ever uses. Throw them beans in the pot, let em simmer all day and come home to a healthy salad and bean dish dinner. This fits perfectly into our mean green regimen. And puts you smack dab in the middle of the sweet weight loser zone.

Cheese and Ice Cream

Hello again all. It's true I was at work at the fire station again last night: hence no post. I am probably not going to continue to post on the blog on my duty days.



Just so you all understand my work schedule, I work a 24 hr shift every 3rd day. So it bumps back 1 day the following week for e.g. If I work Mon, Thurs the next week I will work Sunday, Wednesday.
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So lets talk about cheese. I just love cheese, like the Irish love their mothers. But not all cheeses are alike nor are all of them friendly. The reason for varied desirability has to do with fat content. Obviously the higher the fat content the greater the need for us to either say no or only have it on rare occasions. Some of these may surprise you as you may think you are eating a relatively low fat cheese when its really not.



The diabetes class that I went to broke out 4 different categories of cheese types based on fat.

1. Non Fat- 0 grams of total fat per oz.

2. Low Fat- <5>
3. Medium Fat- 5-7 grams of total fat per oz.

4. High Fat- > 7 grams of total fat per oz.



To give you a rough idea on portion size

1/4 cup of shredded cheese = 1 oz.

One standard slice of cheese = about an oz.

One serving of string cheese= 1 oz.



String cheese actually clocks in @ 6grams of fat per oz. so its in the medium fat range... I still do recommend it for staving off the munchies. but be advised to only do 1 and not have a second one if you are still hungry.


You can look at the following graphic to see where your favs stack up. Click on the graphic to magnify it.

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Now how about comfort food. You know when you want something sweet and it's gotta be good and it's gotta be alot and you want to have it now.... what do you want Cracker Jacks??? No... it's Ice Cream!! Of all the sweets, Ice cream is the best cheater food that I have found. You spend about 1 carb per 1/2 cup, so if you fill up a small coffee cup that's about 2 carbs. and really not too bad. If you go for the lower fat kinds that's better. and the ultimate ice cream weapon is the Skinny Cow Ice cream sandwiches. They taste wonderful and the sandwich part is actually made with wheat flower so you get some fiber in there as well.

I hope you are all doing well and staying on track!!!

Love, in Christ-
-Bob

Week 4

Greetings to all:

Well here we are, ready to start week number 4!!!
Thanks Marilyn for the report that you are excited and doing well losing some lbs.

Now I will give you your...

WEEK 4 ASSIGNMENTS:
1. Continue to eat your eggs and fruit for breakfast 2 out of 3 days. On the 3rd day remember that you want a high fiber breakfast like 5 min cook oatmeal.

2. Continue your daily lunch salad and also do a dinner salad every other day. I also want you to really explore that produce aisle in the grocery store and buy some new less known type of veggies to put in your salads this week. Be bold to try something new, make some variety happen.

3.Follow the 9" plate example for your dinner. Ladies this should work for you, men can cheat a little bit, but not 2 full helpings worth.

4. Try to get as many 3 carb lunches as you can this week.

5. When you are hungry between snacks or meals, try to use some of my hints for fighting off the munchies.

6. We are going to start to exercise this week.


The rest of today's post is going to be about the exercise part. I now have a very difficult problem in determining where to take this blog in the realm of exercise.

There are so many variables in age and level of fitness for you guys that I'm kind of overwhelmed as to where to start. So I guess I will start with those of you that haven't been working out at all, or those of you that think that running a remote control should count as some form of cardiovascular work out. d;^p

First of all I want you to make sure that you are physically able to do some form of exercise. Check with your doctor if you think you might have issues. Second, it is very important not to overdo it in the beginning phases. I would like you to set a goal of doing some cardiovascular exercise of your choice for 20 minutes 3 times a week. That may not be realistic for some of you this week, so start out slow and plan on working your way up to reaching your goal 1 bit at a time. Walking or swimming or some other form of aerobic exercise is what you need. Also plan on stretching before you exercise to build flexibility and prevent injury.

For those of you that are already working out... good for you. I don't have time today to address you folks so I will save it for another post.
Have a great day all!!
Remember life is a puzzle... but you can figure it out
-Bob

How to Handle it When the Munchies Hit

So what do you do when you have just finished your snack and you are still hungry, or you are sitting there after a meal but before your scheduled snack and you are feeling those hunger pangs? Those doughnuts or cinnamon rolls or cupcakes or (fill in the blanks) are calling out your name!!! Well you need to have a game plan in place because sooner or later this is bound to happen.

There are going to be times when you just go ahead and cheat and eat the whatever: but this really needs to be the exception and not the rule i.e. only about 10-20% of the time. That means that 8 or 9 out of 10 times you are going to say no thank you, this is especially true for those of you that are in the militant stage right now.

So in order to be a good soldier you need to figure out something that will get you by and not be very carbalicious. Here's some tricks that I have found to work:

1. Dill pickles- they are carb free and a different taste from your regular salad green. I'll eat 3 and see how that works. One word of caution for you ladies that are retaining water. The sodium content in these pickles are comparable to your chips group, so you need not over do it. I would say for you to just limit it to one.

2. Herbal teas- With splenda for sweetner. I like a little dash of fat free milk in there too.

3. More Herbal Tea- You are trying to buy just a few hours time here so a 2nd cup may be just what you need to see you through.

4. A few almonds- Carb free but some protein and fat so don't eat 7 handfuls.

5. String Cheese- If the first four options just are not working, then eating a string cheese is helpful to satisfy without being too bad of a cheat.

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Now I hope that all of you are doing really well on staying in the green zone this week and taking full advantage of that appetite suppression we have been talking about. Some of you should be sending me reports about what a phenom week you have had. I'm very interested to hear how you are doing. If this week has been OK but not stellar, just hang in there with the program and things should be unleashing for you very soon.
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Tomorrow will be your week 4 assignments so stay tuned....
Remember, Life is a puzzle, but YOU can figure it out!!
-Bob

P.S. I'm still working on trying to figure out the commentary part of this blog. I have realized that I have needed to moderate or review all comments before they make it as posted. I have changed the setting for future posts so anyone can directly make comments without my oversight. Hope that helps all who wish to post something.

Audience of One?

OK so thank you Marilyn: You may be my audience of one, but I doubt it.... I will keep going.

So tonite I would like to give you some insight for when you go out for Mexican. There is quite a bit of not so very kind things available there. But if you are tenacious and stick to your guns, you can get out of the place with little or no damage.

First off they want to give you those chips and salsa and here lies your first challenge. You are usually very hungry and they are calling out to you, they will just get airborne and fly into your stomach if you don't exercise some self control. The salsa is good and good for you, but those chips will go directly to your fatty deposits. So what I do is CHOOSE to limit the # of chips to 3. I make it a spiritual thing and say 1 for the Father, 1 for the Son and 1 for the Holy Ghost. I load em with as much salsa as they can possibly hold and then stop until the main course arrives.

Next, I have all ready decided that I'm either going to get a tostada or a taco salad before I even begin to look at a menu. I feel by making this decision in advance, I will not be tempted to get something harmful on the menu. I also know that at the end of the meal I am very satisfied with my choice, so I'm not losing out at all. I choose chicken over shredded beef or hamburger. I get the guacamole and just love it. The guac is actually very good for you in spite of what others may say about its high fat content. Now sour cream, I really love it but to be your very best you should not go for this item. You should also leave the taco shell or the tortilla base alone, but if you want to cheat a little and eat a taste or 2 that's OK .

So when you leave the place you will have probably about 4 carbs worth on board and be just fine. Again remember water is your drink and drink lots of it with your meal.

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Another pearl of wisdom I learned from the diabetes class is when you are eating at home, you need to get to a place where you are focusing on the food you are eating and only do that alone. No multi-tasking i.e. computer, TV or reading the paper.

I personally didn't pay much attention to this during my weight loss adventure, but the dietitian in the class made a very big deal about it and said that some people really tend to overeat when multitasking because they can't even remember if they ate at all. So if she is keen on that, I think that this could also be helpful for some of you as well. This may be very difficult for some of you, but if you are struggling with reducing your portion size and being satiated, you should really try to be good about doing this.

Tomorrow I'm on duty at the Fire Station and its getting difficult to blog and do my job also so I will not be making a post. Look for me again on Saturday.

Are you all Afraid?

No comments on your part = no posts on my part!

Click the blue text that currently says '0 comments' just below this paragraph to at least let me know that 1 persons cares.

Loss... Lose.... Loose...

OK now that I'm an established web blog publisher, I have been admonished to clean up my grammar and get my act a little bit better together. For some time I have been writing the word loose when I mean lose. I am taking this all in stride and will make every every effort to get my loss...lose... and looses right. d:^)

For some reason the word lose just doesn't look right in context to me... it sounds more like an l and single o, like in Lois or Lowes... But my mind is right, so from now on we are:
1. Into weight loss.
2. We will lose weight by following the weekly assignments in the blog.
3. We want God to loose the chains that bind those that don't know Jesus as their saviour and lord.

I'm on duty at the fire station again so I will be relatively brief with the post.

What I would like to do tonite is to open up the blog to any questions that any of you folks out there may have.... I know we have covered a lot of information and I feel a little bit like I'm working in a vacuum. I don't even know if I have lost some people after some of my prior posts. So could everybody just hit the comment button and let me know you are still in here, and also try to think of a question or 2 to ask me about.
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I also feel like I need to bring at least 1 tidbit of info, so I will talk about pizza.

So how does a St patty's green freak like yourself handle the trip to the pizza parlor? Well, we really want to stay on our carb reduced journey so here is the best answer. 1st of all most all pizza joints have a salad bar, so don't skip that part, you can also enjoy the pizza part by eating it with a fork. Scrape the topping off of the crust and just eat that. Actually the toppings for most pizza's are not too bad for you. You may take a ribbing from your friends for leaving the crust behind but tis worth every bit of it my friend. Please also plan on forgoing the 44 oz. pop to wash that pizza down with. Again H2o will help bring you to the promise land.

Please hit that comment button to let me know you have a pulse.
-Bob

Bob's 3 Carb Lunch

OK so we are continuing the discussion from yesterday about my 3 carb lunch. If you look at the food I listed as a template, it actually looks fairly large. Especially if you were to pour the water into 3 separate glasses. This visualization is important for your brain to process. You are getting a 3 carb meal that is going to be intellectually satisfying to your cerebrum size wise!!!



Also I would like for you to fully appreciate the amount of carb deficits that you are accruing on your (2 out of 3) egg days combined together with your 3 carb lunch. Ladies you save 3 carbs for breakfast and 1 carb for lunch for a total of 4 carbs deficit. Men save 4 carbs for breakfast and 2 carbs for lunch for a total of 6 carbs. You may not realize this yet, but the deficits you are building is... like totally radically huge dude. For you ladies, you save the equivalent of 1 meal which is a 1/3 reduction of your total meal budget for a whole day. Men you save even more than 1 whole meal budget.



Since our budget in the plan is already way below what you were consuming before we started this blessed blog, and now you are becoming a budget beater, you are primed to start to see some very dramatic results in the very near future.



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So what about starchy vegetables? This is something that I have forgotten to discuss with you prior, so I will do it now. Certain veggies are fairly high in starch and actually need to be counted as a carb portion when consumed. They are still good for you, but you still have to count em. They are peas, corn, potatoes (which we already know about) and "winter" squash, (zucchini's are not winter so they don't count.) You may have noticed that I do have pea pods present in my power garden salads, but I don't put them in very often and when I do, I use them very sparingly so I personally don't count them as a carb choice. However if you are going to do a full serving of one of these types of veggies such as corn for example. It's not free, it must be counted as a carb.



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9 " Plate:



I now want to talk with you a little more about dinner portions to be able to give you a visual idea of what you want to target you evening meal portions to be. I have alluded to this already for your Easter dinner but I want to give you a graphic to help reinforce this concept.

I still would like you to have a dinner salad 50% of the time in addition to your lunch salad. This will help you to keep your green firmly established. But on the other days, I would like you to incorporate stir fryed veggies or 2 different veggie servings to make up 50% of your plate. Remember to only occasionally do the veggies I listed in the paragraph above. 25% goes to starchy foods such as potatoes or pasta. The final 25% goes towards the protein of your choice.

Also understand that this is a 9" plate, that means it is the small one that you have in your cupboards, not the large one.

You can click on the graphic to enlarge it to see it better.

For Everything Else there is... Master Card

Happy Easter to all! Christ is Risen indeed ;^) Church was just awesome today!!

OK today is a big day, and I am really excited for all of you guys as we are entering in to the wonderful 3rd week of our plan. You have put in some hard work to get into the St. Patty's green zone and this week is going to be PAY DAY for you. Some of you have already experienced some dividends in weight loss, appetite suppression and increased vigor. Now we are going to enter into the MILITANT zone.

Remember our Carb budget is:
Breakfast: 4 carbs for ladies and 5 carbs for men
AM Snack: 1 carb for everyone.
Lunch: 4 carbs for ladies and 5 carbs for men
Aft Snack: 1 carb for everyone
Dinner: 4 carbs for ladies and 5 carbs for men
Eve Snack: 1 carb for everyone

Now for this week for those of you that are experiencing noticeable appetite suppression: we are even going to go lower on some but not all meals. Which leads us right into our ...

3rd Week Assignments:

I don't know if you have realized this or not, but on the day that you eat eggs and fruit for breakfast you are only getting 1 carb. (Which is really quite cool) This week instead of doing eggs every other day, we are going to eat eggs 2 out of every 3 days. (This works out pretty well for most you that have all those extra dyed Easter eggs. We are going to put them to good use this week.)

The next assignment is to try to cut back 1 carb on your lunch meal. Ladies this may be a little more difficult for you than for the men. But I know that you can do it. If you can't do it every day this week that is OK, just try to do it 3-5 days out of the 7. Men you can actually do 3 carb lunches also and be just fine. This is the TRUE SECRET to my 25% weight loss from my peak weight. I strung many 3 carb lunch meals together day after day for probably about 6 weeks. During this time my weight dropped like a sky diver jumping out of an airplane.

Now I want to show you exactly what a 3 carb lunch looks like so you have a template to follow. You don't have to eat the exact same foods as i illustrate, but if you are willing to just mimic this meal for the week you will be doing really well.

BOB'S Lunch:

1 large garden salad with romaine lettuce, spinach, celery, broccoli, carrots, green or red peppers, parsnip slices, rutabaga slices, pea pods, zucchini, cucumber and cauliflower, topped with some sunflower seeds and a small amount of blue cheese crumbles and fat free dressing for flavor... ZERO CARBS

3 Large glasses of ice water... ZERO CARBS

8 Almonds... ZERO CARBS

7 low fat Triscuit crackers, topped with Kraft fat free cheese slices and a low fat lunch meat of your choice (read the dietary labels on these meats and look at total calories and calories from fat. I like the ratio to be around 50% or less)... 1 CARB

1 Nonfat yogurt, make sure it is the low carb kind, (again I mix a little unsweetened applesauce with Nancy Plain Honey yogurt)...1 CARB

1 Small apple... 1 CARB.

Feeling full on a 3 carb lunch meal.....PRICELESS

For everything else... there is Master Card.

You can use this card to make withdrawals from your Wells Fargo Carbo Bank Account!!

Have a great evening all
Love In Christ,
-Bob

Easter Conundrum

Greetings again for another fun filled episode of the blog.

I feel the need to apologize a little bit for the dryness of the most recent entries. I have been trying to cram a whole lot of information at you and in the process kind of lost sight of the verbal spiciness that I need to bring to you. But I'm reinvigorated and I am reeeaaady to ruuuuuuumble.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday!! So you will have a good opportunity to make this the day you will start attending Church. Most all the churches are excited to have visitors come to their services on Easter. If you are in the Lebanon area and do not have a regular church to attend, then come to the River Center and be my church buddy. Our main service starts @ 10:00 and I will be hanging out in the front foyer before hand, so if you want to be with someone you know instead of around strangers, look me up.

It's soul food, it's good.... getcha some up in here.

So what about Easter dinner tomorrow? Do I let you throw caution to the wind and say just eat whatever you want and then get back on track on Monday? Or do I get militant with you and say you gotta stick with it? Ahhhh yesssss grasshopper... we have ourselves a true conundrum here for sure. I normally would say that you should just have at er... enjoy it and think long term... but the flip side is that many of you are at the critical point of appetite suppression from your solid green right now this very minute hour and day.

So what I will do is... I am going to cop out and let you put on your big (boy) (girl) pants and make the decision yourself.

If you can stay the course tomorrow, you will be in a great position to probably lose about 2-4 lbs next week. If you cheat tomorrow you will need to rebound green for awhile before you get to some serious weight loss, I estimate it will take another week to get back on that marvelous green threshold.

If you say no to Chocolate Candy Cadberry eggs and yes to the real hard boiled Easter eggs (sans yolks) that will help. If you fill 1/2 of your plate with vegetables, 1/4 of your plate on starches and 1/4 of your plate on meat you will be golden on Monday with your week 3 assignments. The other big issue is CANDY! If you can only do 1 little cheater taste of your favorite you will be OK on Monday.

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I attended the Diabetes prevention class @ Lebanon Community Hospital yesterday and was very encouraged by the content. I have learned some new things from the class that I will be sharing with you in the near future. I also am happy to note that a large percentage of the information that I have been giving you lines up very closely with the philosophy of the nutritionist that taught the class.

So an important question to address is... how much weight would you personally like to loose on this adventure? The class recommends that you target a 7% weight loss to significantly lessen the odds of getting diabetes. So if you don't have a specific goal other wise, I would like for you to shoot for that here initially, then see how things go from there. So take your peak weight, multiply times .93 and that will give you your target weight. I personally have lost right at 25% of my body weight since starting, so I think that 7% should be obtainable for most of you. For those of you with complicating medical problems that I have talked to you about, we will just try for the very best that we can for you and not set a specific target.

Tomorrow we will look at my daily food journal and get our week 3 assignments. I hope to see some of you IRL at the River Center tomorrow.

Happy Easter
-Bob

Good Friday

Good Friday Friends:

Today is Good Friday and this is a very special day!! We celebrate this day as the day that Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins by choosing to lay down his life as a sacrifice, and was crucified on a wooden cross. You see, you never will be able to make it into heaven by being a "good person." Being good just isn't good enough BUT believing that JESUS died for our sins and accepting His free gift of grace is good enough!!! This is by far the most important thing that I would ever share with you in this blog. I would like for all of you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour and get to go to Heaven!!!

Today we are also going to talk about meat. Obviously meat is not a carb, it is protein and fat. We do need to be careful and not overdo meats because they are potentially fattening. Portion control is the golden rule concerning meats. There are different ways to measure a proper size portion, but the one that I like to use is that it should be no larger than the size of the palm of your hand. It's pretty easy to estimate for everyone. Portion control is especially important with beef products with marbled fat. So when you go out to a restaurant to eat your steak, petite ones only... That includes the guys as well. Likewise for hamburger make it palm size and please go with the lowest fat content possible. Hey how about going for a garden burger with a slice of fat free cheese on it instead. In any case you should limit your beef to 2-3 servings per week!!!

There are better meat choices than beef that you are allowed to eat more often. Venison, Elk, Turkey, Skinless chicken, and fish are my favs. Baked or broiled is best and you would be using your brain well if you avoid the breaded and deep fat fried kinds of these foods. Especially that goes for fried chicken, I know we love it, but that skin holds the majority of the fat and that just has to go into the trash can and not in your stomach!!

Now about Hot dogs, franks and brats. You probably already know that they will take you instantly into the danger zone. If you are at a picnic and just have to have a hot dog, ladies just cut one in half and share the other half with another poor soul. Guys have 1, but make that your ABSOLUTE limit. It's the 2,3, or even dare I say 4 of those bad boys that are absolutely horrible for you and will kill your green advantage that you have been working so hard for. Also there is good news here. Go for the Turkey Kielbasa instead, as they are much better for you. Again, this is another example of a small palate change that will result in huge results in your favor.

Your Future is So Bright- Ya Gotta Wear Shades

OK Here we are on the back side of week 2 and the good reports are starting to come in. Many of those who are following the plan are beginning to feel your body tell you how much it loves the green you are giving it. Several have reported that appetite suppression is now noticeable. Some have lost 2-3 lbs.

Well this is just the tip of the iceberg, there is so much more good news coming your way so you better get on your sunglasses.

If you are consistently following the plan and you haven't had less appetite yet, please just be patient. I would guesstimate by Sunday you are going to be ready to hit week 3 in militant fashion.

It is important that you are cutting carbs only when you can do so and not be hungry... I don't want you to feel like you have to starve yourself to make it happen. I also must make it very clear that I do NOT want you to skip breakfast to try to cut carbs. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day as it sets your metabolism. I also don't want you to be skipping your snacks either. It is important to try to keep a fairly level blood sugar through the day and your snacks play an important role in that. Its going to be those 2-3 carb meals that are going be golden for you. Ladies I want you to know that even if you are doing 4 carb meals, you are still going to loose weight. Men like wise @5.

We really have covered a lot of territory since the inception of the blog. You are learning how to eat for the rest of your life. We have established the Q.A. benchmarks and we are only on week 2!

Our goals for weeks 3 and 4 are going to be about making a journal of what you are eating for each of your meals and your snacks. Learning to be within your carb budget and learning how and when to break the budget to down side. We will be continuing to learn about carb cutting shortcuts that can easily put you in negative carb territory. We are also going to start to work implementing an exercise program if you are not already working out.

Next I would like to talk about the drinks part. This is another biggie!! Regular Pop is chalked full of sugar hence it is also chalk full of carbs, so we really want to work on reducing this food that doesn't do much to make you feel full, and makes your hips and waist swell like there is no tomorrow. Sports drinks like regular Gatorade are not very friendly to you either. A very good brain engaged strategy is to cut back on these foods, and here is how you do it... if you normally drink a 16-32 oz pop, drink 16 oz of H2O first then drink 2-4 oz of pop and be happy that you had a taste of it, but didn't tank up on it. Especially after you have worked out and you are soooooooo thirsty. Drink lot-so-water 1st then finish off with 1/3 of that Gatorade bottle. Your carb savings will help you to keep the advantage of that workout you invested in to its fullest.

I am also not too keen about you drinking a bunch of diet pop. I know its carb friendly but there has been research done that people who drink diet drinks tend to actually be more obese than the general population. They are not absolutely sure why, but speculation is that folks think they are doing so good by drinking diet that they just throw caution to wind when eating everything else because they deserve it for drinking diet. The other issue is that there is a lot of sucralose or splenda in these products and I would like you to reserve splenda for foods that you would like to sweeten a little bit.

That will about do it for the day. Tomorrow lets talk about meat.

Another hectic day on duty at the fire station. Sorry no energy to post tonite. I will pick it up again tomorrow
-Bob

You Won 1st Prize in the Contest

I need to make a correction from yesterdays post about rye breads. They actually have 13 to 14 grams of carbo per slice, not 17 grams. So your carb reduction with these types of breads is even better than I stated yesterday.

So today's post is going to be very different from the norm. I would like to talk about the results that you folks have sent me in response via email earlier this week.

First of all, thank you for placing a certain level of trust in me... I feel that this is pretty important stuff, else I wouldn't be prying into your personal lives. The responses were good in the fact that many of you actually participated. But there was a very alarming trend in the tone of all most every single email that I feel must be addressed.

I have to admit that I was quite surprised to see all of the guilt and shame that so many of you are carrying around with you. Some also stated that they haven't been able to even do the week 1 assignments for various reasons. (As I read these posts, I felt like someone sucker punched me in the gut when I wasn't looking) I must do something about these issues and believe me, I have been praying alot for wisdom in how to motivate and help you. I will address 2 separate issues here today.

1. Why in the world are you not doing the assignments for the 1st week????????????????????????
This blog is not intended to just be an entertaining read, this is NOT a spectator event. I need you to get in the game NOW. As Nancy Reagan said "just say no to drugs" I say to you "just say no to lame excuses that are going guarantee your failure." That's exactly what they are, they are lame!! Week 1 was not that hard to do. And if set your mind to commit to actually doing it, you will be successful.

2. Concerning the guilt and shame, I want you so badly to change your mindset here. The bible talks about taking every thought captive that acknowledges itself against God. Your thinking is so destructive... and is against the God of the universe that declares "I know the plans that I have for you says the Lord, plans not to harm you, but to give you a hope and a future." I will be bluntly honest and say that your shame is sinful to God. It's like you won 1st prize in a guilt and shame contest and you have a trophy on your wall. Every day you get it out and polish it up and look at it with admiration. This may sound odd to you, but I think that you are actually in love with your shame. I APOLOGIZE here for sounding so harsh, but this is really important stuff.

How about entertaining this concept in your mind instead. I want you to ponder how you are going to respond when people say to you... Wow (insert your name) You are sure looking good, how in the world did you ever go about loosing all of that weight. Please say it out loud to yourself. Wow (_____) You are sure looking awesomely good. When guilt and despair knock at your mental gym door, say that they are no longer welcome here.

Please feel free to send me another email to talk about these issues as I really want to get resolution. bdiddy2330@yahoo.com

"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" [II Corinthians 7:10]

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

This is going to be a pretty short post tonite. I am off to OSU to watch a creation vs. evolution debate. I am very interested in Intelligent Design so I am looking forward to this event.

Lets talk about Bread. Bread is another one of those foods that gets Bob pretty excited. You can cut carbs without a big sacrifice on your part. If you look at the carb level on breads. they clock in at about 17 to 24 grams per slice. The difference of 7 grams per slice or 1/2 of a carb is big. Over time,Wow that is a big difference. These carbo cheapie breads include various rye breads (I really like Dill Rye) and whole grain wheat breads, 9 grain 12grain... Next time you are at the store look at the dietary labels and do some homework. Small carbo savings over 6 months time can make a very big difference. So put your brain in gear and buy "smart" bread instead of white glue bread. Force your palate to make a small adjustment to make a thrilling adjustment to your waistline.

While I'm on the subject of bread. There is even a better way to drastically reduce your carb intake and that is by reducing the number of slices of bread during your meal. Ladies if you make that sandwich open faced with just 1 slice of bread that will make a HUGE difference. Comprendo? Guys that eat 2 sandwiches at a pop. Make one triple decker sandwich only using 3 slices of bread and you cut 1 carb, better yet drop down to just 1 sandwich and you cut 2 whopping carbs of your meal. Now this is the insider information that I'm talkin about dude.

If You can cut 1-2 carbs in one meal...you my friend are gettin jiggy with it!!!!

Gotta run the debate is calling

Dinosaur?

So I was talking with my wife over the weekend and she asked me... So Bob why is it that you are going to restrict the blog to members only? I flatly replied that I want to be able to interact with the peeps, and have a sense of commitment for those involved. The essence of her reply back to me was basically... so you want to become a dinosaur huh? Why would you want to restrict access to someone that could benefit from the site and even possibly even find a relationship with Jesus in the process? So that got me thinking again, if I restrict the site, I could well go the way of the Palm Pilot or the Commodore 64 (remember that?) So I will go ahead and leave the site open after all. According to the stats I'm getting on my account, over 200 different people have at least come in here once. I do wish that all would be followers. There is a tea tasting blog on blogspot that has over 300 followers there. I guess maybe I've got a case of a little blog follow envy.

OK on to business.

Other Health Benefits of Going Green:
So Bob... you sure do rave and rant about salads dude... It's just a salad for crying in the night. Get a life already! Well I hope that kind of thinking either is already gone from your mind or that it soon will be. The health benefits of getting yourselves firmly in the green zone are tremendous. We all want to loose those evil fat deposits, but we don't tend to think about all the other bennies we are receiving.

I bet you haven't considered this, but I will declare that a significant % of you reading this post are either pre-diabetic like I am, or you actually have Type II Diabetes and don't even know it yet. This is a rampant disease for western nations in our generation- as obesity and type II go hand in hand. I'm convinced that going green is the very best way to combat the big D.

Diabetes also links directly to Coronary Artery Disease and greatly increases the chances of having a heart attack, or other cardiac related issues. Going green can literally save your life in these respects.

Another big area of health concern is relating to various forms of Cancer. Unfortunately I am not a dietitian and don't have the expertise to wax eloquently about the antioxidant powers of celery or how fortified radishes are in phyto nutrients. But I am convinced that getting a whole bunch of different veggies regularly into your system really can help in Cancer prevention. This is a big deal for me personally and the also for all my firefighter buddies. Life expectancy for our profession is much lower than the normal person and cancer and cardiovascular disease are prime candidates for our demise.

WEEK 2 ASSIGNMENT:

This week I would like for you to continue to do week 1 stuff (including going to the church of your choice) In addition I have 3 new things for you this week.

1. I want you to have a dinner salad every other day in addition to your daily lunch salad. So we are ramping up your green to the next level. Pretty soon you are going to have a serious appetite reduction, then we will get into the militant stage about carb watching.

2. I want to increase the amount of fiber you consume. We will accomplish this at breakfast.(Don't ever skip breakfast!!) I want you to keep your egg regimen in place and add a high fiber breakfast every other day this week. You can accomplish this by eating oatmeal (old fashion 5 min cook please) or raisin bran, bran muffin, or non sweetened whole grain General Mills cereals.

3. I want you to start to implement eating 6 times per day instead of 3. That means a little smaller on the meals, and having a morning, aft, and evening snack after dinner... Fresh fruits make an excellent snack offering during the day and popcorn (sans butter) is a fun and good choice around 9:00 p.m.

Also don't forget to drink lots-o-water. I want you to drink it until you are almost uncomfortable drinking any more. This includes those of you who think you are retaining water. If you are retaining water, we want to reduce your sodium intake, not your h2o.

That's about it for today, I hope you are all on track and doing OK. Your future is very bright!!

The Low Down on Yogurt

YOGURT:
I really am going to talk about yogurt and I'm going to do it now (finally). Yogurt is a very good food. The acidophillis aids in digestion and is very healthy. If you don't ever eat any of it, I would like to change that. It is also a food that you can drastically reduce your carbo load with the same size portion... and that kind of news really gets me excited!! (I get excited pretty easily these days)

So how many carbs are in a small plastic yogurt? The answer is 1, 2, or 3. depending on what brand you buy. You really need to look closely at the dietary label. The kind with the really high sugar content pack a walloping 48 grams of carbo per serving. For you ladies that just about shoots your entire carb budget for a whole meal!!

The 2nd choice of yogurts contain sugar substitutes like splenda and aspartame. They clock in at about 1 carb per serving. That is OK but I'm not too keen and you loading up on a lot of splenda. There is a great debate concerning how safe it is.(We will talk more about splenda later) I am in the camp that says that it probably is not going to hurt you done in moderation, and the value of carb reduction is worth it.

The 3rd choice of yogurt and the one that I think is the very best is to Get Nancy's plain honey yogurt and then mix in a small amount of fruit of your choice to sweeten it a little bit. I personally like to add unsweetened applesauce. This concoction yields about 1-2 carbs depending on how much fruit you add. This is a tiny bit more hassle to mix yourself but the benefit is definately high.

One other thing to note is that I want FAT FREE yogurt for all of you.

SURVEY RESULTS:

Well the response to the questions that I gave to you earlier this week was enlightening. I had only 4 people respond. This is a bit troubling to me as to why this is the case. I am not going to try to embarrass or harass you in any way concerning this confidential information. I need you to be brave and send me that info. Every one on the planet has a height and weight number, so it's not that big a deal to let me know what yours is. Shoot me an email. bdiddy2330@yahoo.com

The other interesting note concerning the survey was that everyone found it difficult to even know where their current carbo load is at. So I have some more work to do to be able to help you in that area. I will spend more time with you next week. We will look at each meal and snack individually.

NEXT POST:

Tomorrow I will give you your WEEK 2 assignments and talk about the other health benefits of going green besides weight loss... stay tuned.

Life is a puzzle, but you CAN figure it out.
God Bless,
-Bob

The 3 Stooges... Oops I Mean Stages

Greetings friends.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD [Jeremiah 29: 11-14]

As much as I want you to lose weight and be healthy, I also want you to be prosperous and know Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour and Lord. I am as passionate about this as I am in coaching you all to go green!!! I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Gospel means "good news" As moderator I bring you good nutrition news. I also bring the good news that if you haven't accepted Jesus yet, you can and should do that right away. Send me a comment and ask how!

Last night I was talking about quality assurance or Q.A. and I want to share with you how I have arrived at the place of making this kind of life commitment. For me their were 3 separate and distinct phases of my journey.

The first stage was the NOVELTY STAGE. (This is where most of you are at right now.) This is exciting, I think one minute... I can really pull this off. The next minute I'm full of doubt. I am also learning things about nutrition a mile a minute and my quest for knowledge is a driving force in my life. Most importantly I'm starting to feel the green kick in.

This green kick transitions me into the next phase witch I will label the MILITANT STAGE. Now I'm getting really serious about this. I have learned how to count carbs really well and since my appetite is reduced, I'm getting alot of 3 carb meals instead of my 5 budgeted. The weight is really starting to come off now and friends are starting to notice.... Hey Bob there is something different about you... did you get a haircut or something? This is a good phase but looking back at it now I kind of laugh a little bit about how serious I was about everything. When you guys reach this stage you will be militant too which is actually a good thing. You will start to hone in on your target weight. (Right now one of my main goals is to see you through phase 1 and get you all to phase 2 without losing any of you.) It was also during this time that I started ramping up my exercise routine.

At the end of this phase I am now 40 lbs lighter in the loafers. People now realize it wasn't a new haircut... that Bob is looking seriously trim. This begins the MAINTENANCE STAGE. Now I feel like I'm at my target weight and I can start eating to maintain my weight rather than loose it. I'm on budget @5 carbs but I'm actually kind of hungry because I've been training hard. So I'm actually ramping my carbs up further to 6 and occasionally 7 on 1 meal per day. In spite of the increased carbs the weight is still coming off and I have lost another 10 Lbs. So now all I have to do is understand that I need to just keep up my Q.A. and I am golden for the rest of my days here, until I die and go to be with Jesus in eternity.

I sincerely hope to be able to reproduce these 3 stages with each and everyone of you!!!

I still haven't got to yogurt yet but I want you to kind of dwell on what was just written so I will delay it again.

Please sign up as a follower: Mondays deadline is approaching and you won't be able to get in here without it.

Bloggin Bloggin Bloggin... Keep Them Doggies Bloggin

Bloggin Bloggin Bloggin... keep them doggies bloggin... head em up, move em out, ride em in... Rawhide.

Another glorious day living the dream at the Fire Station... I'm hoping for a window of time to get this in... and now the alarm has sounded just as I have typed this...

Now I'm back, to try it again...

Have you noticed, I changed the blog layout. I wanted to make it green to help reinforce the fact that we all need to get our green on and keep it on. We are going to celebrate Saint Patrick's day everyday. (because the Irish,, they just love their mothers) Actually by eating a wonderful nutritious and delicious garden salad daily we are going to want to celebrate St Patty's day 90% of the time for the rest of the days that God allows us to suck Oxygen on this planet. This is called quality control or quality assurance which is very familiar to the corporate world, or medical profession. You set a benchmark of required parameters... (another call.. gotta run)

OK I'm back again. This is becoming difficult to keep up with work and blog too and I am behind in my paper work so I will just finish this thought and close out tonite. I will try to bring a double portion tomorrow. So back to benchmarks, you know them right? We will do something X% of the time.
I have made a lifelong Q.A. policy of eating 1 salad per day 90% of the time, and I will eat 2 salads a day 50% of the time. This is also the kind of mindset that I want you to develop... We are not going to be guilt ridden if we mess up a day here or there (Holidays Happen, chocolate fixation happens) we are just going to get back on that pony and ride and round up them doggies.

One other item to note... I have made the decision to go ahead and limit access to the blog to followers only. Its not fair to use valuable time and energy to recruit the resistant. This will take effect on Monday. I will give the weekend for stragglers that don't follow the blog daily to have one more chance, then I will be done with it and we can move on to more important things.

Life is a puzzle... but you can figure it out
-Bob

Pudgy Bob

Greetings Again for another fun filled blogaramus. I have some housekeeping chores to do here 1st then will get into it.

I could pull an April fools here, but I will resist the temptation. The only fool around here is the person(s) that is(are) still lurking around and still refusing to sign up as a blog follower. I am pouring forth the content here at no cost to you. I have the ability to limit the blog so only followers can see it and I'm very tempted to shut you down... show me some love and click that follow button.

Also if you are new to the blog over the last few days I would ask you to scroll down and go back to the start. I know that will take a true commitment for you as I am competing with other web content for your precious time, but i am worried that you are missing some valuable information. Partial information pulled out of context in this arena could be harmful.

So now lets talk a little bit more about "pudgy Bob." I tried to be funny last night about how I rationalized the amount of food I was eating, but I don't think I was too far from the norm for your ave. American male. Looking back now I am almost embarrassed about how much volume of carbs I was consuming, but remember I was doing this because I was MALNOURISHED (remember the core concept that we discussed at the very beginning) - my body was still telling me I needed more input (Johnny #5). It also was hoping and craving for me to get my green on, I just didn't know it at the time.

Pudgy Bob was basically getting 3 times the amount of carbs needed, so every day he was making deposits into his Wells Fargo. So the next question is dear blogger friend... how much over budget are you? Please take some time and figure out what your typical days carb load is, just like I did in last nights post. I need to know this information to be best able to help you. I also want you to tell me what your current height & weight is. You can comment in the blog or if you really want to be confidential send me an email bdiddy2330@yahoo.com It's time to get personal and I want all of you to respond.

I know that I promised to talk about yogurt, but I am going to wait one more session before doing this. Yogurt will be the 1st of many foods that we will talk about that help create little carb shortcuts that combined together will help you stay within your budget or even become a budget beater.

HOLY COW it's the Fire Dept.

So I had every intention to blog last night but someone triple-dog-dared me to stick my tongue against a frozen flagpole. I did and then bellowed out stuck...stuck...stuck... I cried out for Ralphie and Flick to help me. But they just said that the bell rang and they headed to classroom with out me!!! (That was at least somewhat amusing or it was meaningless. If you have watched the Christmas Story movie.... ju got it dude.) So what really happened was that I was on duty and was totally busy during blog prime time. 4 trips to Corvallis, 1 to Albany and a 1st alarm fire call. I left the station @2:00 PM and didn't return until shortly after 1:00 AM.

So how many of you would be willing to admit that you came here to the blog more than once last night, hoping I would post something? Do I hear 2? Do I hear 5? Do I hear 10? Just kidding, but I am very honored to have more and more people interested in viewing the content here. I have the pleasure of bringing my Fire Dept Buddies and my Church Peeps and my Racquetball Cronies and my Facebook Mcbookerson's all together for a party every night. I hope that you are all starting to feel empowered to be equipped to conquer the beast. That is wonderful but I have a lot more that I need to teach you.

It's also been great to chat with some of you IRL, (IRL means both "in real life" and "I'll retire later.")(April, Stacey, Ken, Jason and Annette) it helps me to get a pulse beat of where you are at and what kind of content I should bring in here... Jeremy soon and very soon you are going to be a... lean mean fightin machine!!

OK on to the business at hand. I want to talk about what I used to eat on a regular basis. I hope to impress upon you how carbocentric the normal American diet is. I also want you to start to see the errors of my ways when I was in that lifestyle. I don't know what most of you eat regularly so I will use myself as the example.

But 1st I forgot to talk to you the other night about POTATO'S- We all love em, we eat em for breakfast,we eat em at lunch and we eat em twice for dinner via 2nds. Hashbrowns, potato salad, potato chips, mashed, escalloped baked and double baked, fries, tots, shoe string, wedges. They don't have a food label on them so what kind of carb value do we place on them? Well my friends the results are in and they are not pretty, any way you fix em. For example baked potato's (they are better than fries right? part of a healthy diet right?) small=2, medium=3 large=4 HOLY POTATO(E) SNIIKEYS Dan Quale. A woman could spend her whole dinner budget on a tater, and that's with it plain, never mind the butter, sour cream, chives, cheese, bacon bits, and chili and onions. So I have a long term goal in working on reducing how much and how often you have them. Just say no to supersize. I understand that this is not good news for some but don't give up. If you place your trust in me, I will see you through the valley of tater withdrawal.

Now a typical day for "pudgy" Bob.

Breakfast- A large bowl of frosted shredded wheat with skim milk to the top = 5 carbs
A piece of fruit =1 carb. 3 cups of coffee with cream and a glug glug glug glug of torani almond syrup (4 glugs= 1 carb) So 1carb per cup makes total of 3. So my breakfast total is 9.

AM Snack- I'm at the fire station and somebody brought donuts... allright, my little sugar beacon is honing in on the score. Oh yeah there are some Apple Fritters in there (and I just love Apple Fritters, just like the Irish love their mothers.) Well I should only have 1 I say to myself, but when the carnage is done. 3 of the bad boys jumped into my stomach against my will. Stack up 4 carbs per. so a nice tiny little total of 12 on that foray.

Lunch: 2 sandwiches. with bologna cheese and mayo= 5 carbs
Fruit = 1 carb, yogurt (the really sweet kind) 3 carbs. Glass of milk 1 carb Brownie 3 carbs. Total for lunch is 13.

Afternoon Snack... hey I am a man of principle so I don't have an afternoon snack.

Dinner: Wow I am really hungry now and the shift is having spaghetti and garlic bread. So I load up a big plate of noodles probably about 4 carbs worth and I start with 3 pieces of bread so that's 3 carbs. Oh yes there is also salad in a bag there but I didn't realize it was there until I all ready had the spaghetti on my plate so I will just skip the green and not have any of that... its pretty boring food anyways. Now I have finished my plate and boy that sure was good, in fact it was so good that I'm going to repeat the whole thing one more time with 2nds, so add another 7. That makes dinner 14 total. Oh i forgot to mention 2 glasses of milk to wash it all down so 2 more carbs for 16 total.

Evening Snack: Well there is pie and ice cream for desert. I was sooo full from dinner that I had this at about 9:00 pm. pie is 3 carbs, ice cream is 1 carb Total 4 carbs.

So at the end of the day I would say that with 44 carbs I was a little over on my budget... yeah right the truth was that I was waaaaayyyy over budget . But with all of that Bob was just pudgy, not really obese. Your body can really take a lot of damage even accumulating day after day after day. The good news is that when you get your green nutrition in you and can get into a proper carb zone 2 things happen. 1.You don't feel hungry being within budget and 2. If you are overweight you will shed pounds like there is no tomorrow!

Tomorrow lets talk about Yogurt. Life is a puzzle, but you can figure it out.

The Garden of Eatin

Welcome back, if this is the 1st time coming into the blog today, you need to scroll down and read the Flight 77 post first, then come back in here. As a matter of fact after talking personally with some of you I am beginning to realize that many are not familiar with the fact that blogs start at the bottom chronologically and work their way up. Folks have been asking me questions about things that I have already covered. So every time you come in here I would encourage you to scroll down to see if you have missed anything. I don't want some important info to slip through your hands.

So welcome aboard Jeremy. I am quite pleased to have reached my goal of having 10 peeps to hang out with me here d:^}

OK now about the foods that don't have any labels on them. This really is my very favorite part. All green vegetables count as ZERO CARBS Wait a minute here, doesn't lettuce and celery and spinach and broccoli have carbohydrates in them? The answer is yes absolutely. However these types of foods have such low caloric density that they are truly the very best of foods that God has to offer us.

In the beginning its interesting to note that it was the GARDEN of Eden. I believe its safe to say that before the fall of Adam & Eve they did not eat meat. Its also safe to say that they didn't eat Pringles or Doritos either :)... So do I want you to become a vegetarian? Not particularly. Do I want you to eat more green vegetables and not have them just sit in the fridge and get wilty and moldy? 10-4 GOOD BUDDY!!! So on your next trip to the store I want you make a hard right turn at the door and run dont walk to the produce aisle. I want you to hang out there for a while and look over all the different veggies that you could combine to make a salad with a wide and interesting variety. Also look for any obese people in this section. Where is Waldo?

When we read about the garden of Eden in the book of Genesis the focus seems to always be about Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit thus causing the fall of man. We don't often think about all the other wonderful plants and fruits that God made available to sustain mankind. So I have found a bit of spiritual connection in going green. Not the reducing greenhouse gases type of green but consuming the nutritious vegetables green. We will be talking alot about salads in the near future.

Now on to Fruits. Fruits constitute the 2nd best category of foods for us to consume. A "normal " serving of fruit counts as 1 CARB. Many experts would quickly argue with me that some fruits are higher than 1 carb and you know what, they would be right. But I have a very good reason for counting them as just 1. First it makes counting much easier throughout the day. Second I cheated on your carb budget in the snack part. You could really have up to 2 carbs on your snack. But I want you to be eating fruits on your snacks and not brownies or cookies or donuts. So if I label fruits as 1 and your snack is 1 we are in harmony. Also its OK to have a cookie or brownie every 3rd Friday or so. That might sound militant but that's OK because we are in a war with Iraq and Afghanistan and your waist line.

There are a few exceptions to the fruit being 1 carb, the first is Mango's - You know the dried ones that you get at Costco. The glycemic index on these is extremely high so I would like you to avoid them. But if you must have em, be sure to look at the portion size carefully on the label and moderation must prevail. The other is melons. They also have a fairly high glycemic index. They are still good for you, just make sure you keep your portions reasonably small when you eat them.

WEEK1 ASSIGNMENTS:
So now here we go we are gathering speed, the wheels are leaving the runway and we are airborn. For some of you this week will only see very minor changes for others this is going to be an adventure. I am here to help walk you thru every step of the way.

ITEM 1: I want you to have eggs for breakfast every other day this week. Ladies get 2 but remove one of the yolks. Men get 3 eggs but remove 2 of the yolks. I also want you to not fry them. You can either poach them or boil for 3 min if you like soft yolks, 5 min for hard. The reason for this is that I want to start to ween you off of fried foods. As Hans and Frans -(Arnold Schwartenager) would say listen to me now and believe me later. You will thank me for doing this to you. You should also have some fruit of your choice and at least 1 large glass of water for breakfast.

ITEM 2: I want you to commit to eating at least one garden salad every day this week. I would prefer you to do it at lunch but if your schedule wont allow it, have it at dinner. Dress them up with sunflower seeds or blue cheese crumbles to enhance flavor. I also want you to use fat free dressing, and please say no to croutons. Also you need to drink 3 large glasses of high quality h20 Bobby Buchier with your salad. Do the salad and the water 1st, then you can finish your meal with absolutely anything your little heart desires. If you are on the road and have to do the fast food mickey dee thing order the salad and water 1st eat that then go back to the counter and get whatever you want. I bet by the end of the week you will start to feel full and will not want very much else off their menu.

ITEM 3: I want you to go to church this week. I know for many of you this is a no=brainer that you all ready do. For others I would be amiss if i just teach you about physical food and skip the soul food. Some of you may be skeptical but how can you know about something until you check it out? How can you taste and see that the Lord is good if you don't taste? The bible says that God wants us to have prosperity in all things, to be in good health, even as your soul prospers. Your soul will prosper when you seek out the things of God.

Thats it for this post... Next I will talk about what the old Bob had to eat...