Musings of a neurotic

So I started figuring some things out from the menus (I already have the 3rd week’s one) and the lack of proper documentation the nutritionist has.  Either people don’t ask more questions or the woman doesn’t care.

As I have already complained, many of the portions are simply stated as “big/small/medium chunk/slice” with no means of determining whether something is small because I have a big appetite vs it being a normal or even big portion for someone in my target weight.

Small changes in the diets from one week to the other are also not properly documented or noted: the first week I was allowed a fruit snack between meals.  Now, the operative word being “first” week, which wasn’t properly noted anwhere in the documentation given to me.  I continued the practice and later found out I shouldn’t have.  There are a few notes but they’re incomplete.  The snack lists watermelon, cantaloupe, papaya, pineapple and jicama (which looks like it’s the answer to one of those “which item doesn’t belong here?” quizzes), but there is no mention of forbidden fruits (pun intended) for the first week.  The second week does have a list of forbidden fruits and vegetables but, just as an example, does not list apples in either category.  Now, I’m on the side of the philosophy that states that if something isn’t explicitly forbidden then it’s allowed (I confess, I’m attracted to libertarian philosophy..  So I had apples for snacks.  Later on I learned that the nutritionist thinks the other way around: if I don’t explicitly allow it, it’s forbidden.  Well you should start out with that info, shouldn’t you?

Later on I would learn that two pieces of chicken isn’t as simple as saying “I’m gonna have two breasts” (insert your own joke here) but rather is more along the lines of a medium sized piece and a small sized piece.  A single breast counts as the 2 pieces.  I mean, really?  Double u tee efff maaan…  At any rate, these things are getting settled but I don’t appreciate the lack of detail.

The last complaint is that I feel I’m visiting a pusher.  An Amway pusher at that.  I’m pushed into buying lecitin, CLA and no something called no-carb.

The only thing that’s keeping me here yet is that I’m making steady progress.  I am asking a coworker about his nutritionist since he dropped 13 kg and seemed happy with her work.  He’s going back as he’s regained 10 of those kg but that’s not the nutritionist’s fault.

Not much to report today.  My wife’s grandfather has degraded quickly and is totally out of contact with the world now.  We spend only a couple of hours each day since kids are kids and asking them to be still for more than that is not fair or even possible.

Menu:

• Breakfast: Chilaquiles (1 tortilla. 1 kitchen spoonful of shredded chicken in tomato sauce.  This is nice.
• Lunch: 2 pieces of grilled chicken, 1 sauteed potato with lime juice, 1 bowl of stew with vegetables.  No stew, skipped it.
• Dinner: 1 bowl beets, carrots, jicama, with lemon.  Didn’t have this but I can’t recall what I did have.

Noticed we have the option of using pork rinds as a snack.  Went and bought a whole bunch but I might have overdone it.

Menu:

• Breakfast:1 bowl salad fruit with two tablespoons of cottage cheese.  No cottage cheese, skipped it.
• Lunch: Stuffed poblano pepper with tomato sauce., 1 kitchen spoonful steamed, white rice (yuck), 1 glass of V8 juice.  Had none of these handy, made do with salad.
• Dinner: 1 medium potato, baked.  1 bowl of salad with lime juice.  Sauteed the potato.

First day on the road.  It looks like we’re going to be at least relatively successful thanks to the support of my mother-in-law.  We went to visit my wife’s grandfather and he’s degrading quickly, it’s a good thing we came now, as it’s very probable that he will pass away soon.  As it is, he is lucid only about half the time.  In this context it would be very selfish of me to ask for any support, but apparently my mother-in-law welcomes the distraction.  The family is also resigned to the outcome, as one of the brothers is a doctor and keeps them informed as to the progression.

• Breakfast: 1 bowl fruit cocktail, 1 table spoonful of granola.
• Lunch: 2 pieces of chicken with vegetables (I swear this is the menu), 1 kitchen spoonful of rice,  bowl of chicken broth (the menu actually says broth and nothing else), 5 portions of tasteless, disgusting paste otherwise known as habanera cookies.
• Dinner: 1 bowl of vegetables with lime juice.

Now, as you can plainly see, the menu is full of holes.  The nutritionist reads through each item but I confess to spacing out during the reading.  I mean, I can frigging read right? why read it out loud to me?  Sheesh.  Still, when it actually comes to preparing the meals things that are stated in such broad terms become points of contention with the chef.  2 pieces of chicken can be 2 wings or two breasts.  Why not state a weight instead?

Bad news, expected, but still bad news.  In other news, pizza makes you gain weight.   It’s not a complete loss but it was a bad day.  I was handed next weeks menu but I’m not entirely certain I’ll be able to keep it.  My mother-in-law is a woman who loves to cook, she’s rather good at it, and support my wife and me, alas, I cannot ask her to prepare a meal for me, or even us, when 4 children (including 2 babies), my father-in-law (who has had a heart attack and thus keeps a special diet) and ocassionaly my sister-in-law and her husband are all eating at the same house.  I’m hopeful I can adhere to the plan as much as can be expected although the diminutive nutritionist gave me a stern talking-to stating she expects a 3 kg drop if everything is done properly.

Also I figured out that the fruit I was taking as a snack was only allowed the first week, so that didn’t help.  This is going to be a theme later on.

Results:

• Weight: 118.6 kg (1.2 kg gain, 1.4 kg net loss).
• Arm: 36 cm (no change, 1 cm net loss)
• Thorax: 122 cm (1 cm gain, 1 cm net loss)
• Abdomen: 116 cm (2 cm gain, 4 cm net loss)
• Waist: 127 cm (3 cm gain, 0 cm net loss)
• Hip: 115 cm (1 cm gain,1 cm net loss)
• BMI: 30 (3 points loss… hell if I know… faulty scale?)

Menu:

• Breakfast: 3 oatmeal cookies, 1 cup of cofee
• Lunch: 1 steak (should’ve been 2 but my wife made a mistake while preparing the meal), 1 kitchen spoonful of rice; 1 cup salad, 1 tortilla
• Dinner: 2 cups diet jell-o, 2 cups of fruit.  This part of the meal we had on the road, probably over did it a bit

Yesterday I found out that my wife’s grandfather, who has been battling cancer for quite a while now, is reaching the final stages.  We will have to travel to his side before he passes away.  Life and death issues are obviously far more important than my personal battle with weight.  However, this blog has been reactivated in order for me to document my progress (or lack thereof) so I’m obliged to continue with the updates.

What this means is that I’ll probably face a big, red FAIL on my next evaluation which has been rescheduled for… today.  Crap.

• Breakfast: 1 whole grain biscuit with margarine; 1 cup orange juice.
• Lunch: 2 cups of chicken in a green sauce (spicy sauce with green tomatoes); 1 kitchen spoonful of non-fried beans; 5 habanera crackers.
• Dinner: 1 whole wheat bread “piece” (this constantly drives me and my wife crazy: what is a piece? a slice? a loaf?) 1 small (tall for you Starbucks snobs) cup of coffee

Menu:

• Breakfast: 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup milk, 1 slice of whole wheat bread
• Lunch: 2 kitchen spoonfuls cortadillo, 1 cup cactus salad, 1 tortilla
• Dinner: 1 bowl fruit salad with 1 spoonful cottage cheese

Confession: I cheated this day, Mexico played the US in the world cup qualifiers and my office mates ordered pizza.  That was way too tempting for me so I ended up eating 4 slices plus a 500 ml (about 17 oz) Coca-Cola.

I’m beginning to catch up on the posts as I had two problems:

1. The camera memory was damaged by the Costco reader I used to print some pictures.  Fortunately I had downloaded the pictures previously.
2. My wife’s grandfather is on his deathbed, terminal with cancer.  We had to take a week’s vacation and rush to him. He was still lucid half the time when we got there, but now he’s lost all contact to the world.  If I weren’t close to the situation I might be more clinically interested in observing the Buddhist dissolutions at work.

I will slowly add all pending posts, minus the weight updates because of the camera snafu and the fact that we’re in another city.  Us geeks will tell anyone that asks that 900 feet or so altitude difference will make you weight a little bit less AND the scale at my in-law’s is definitely going to give me a different reading.

Starting the new week, still a little disconcerted over the weight disparity.  Ok, I’m freaking OBSESSED over it: is it the clothes? The time of day? Water intake?  Screw it, I still have to drop the same amount of weight regardless of a particular week’s reading.  Even with that “negative” result the overall result was pretty good, particularly the BP.

Menu:

• Breakfast: 1 cup orange juice, 1 slice whole wheat bread
• Lunch: 2 fish fillets with carrits and zucchin, steamed; 1 kitchen spoonful mashed potatoes with margarine; 1 cup lettuce.
• Dinner: 1 cup V8 juice (not really a fan), 5 habanera cookies with cottage cheese (no quantity specified, used 1 cup)

Currently having problems with the memory card so I can’t snap new or access old pics, however my weight was at 242 lb.

Mixed results from the nutritionist consultation.  Overall good results but I was taken aback by my official weight drop.

My official starting indicators:

• Weight: 120 kg
• Arm circumference: 37 cm
• Thorax circumference: 123 cm
• Abdomen: 120 cm
• Waist (if we can call it that): 127 cm
• Hip: 115cm
• Blood pressure: 120/90
• BMI (based on erroneous height assesment): 33

My current indicators:

• Weight: 117.6 kg (2.4 kg drop).  As I said, surprisingly low since my home scale indicated
• Arm: 36 cm (1 cm less)
• Thorax: 121 cm (2 cm less)
• Abdomen: 114 cm (6 cm less)
• Waist: 124 cm (3 cm less)
• Hip: 114 cm (1 cm less)
• BMI: 33 (no change)

I feel like this is a mixed result because I had really expected my weight reading to be around 5 or even 6 kg.  My home scale continues to show the 5 or 6 kg drop (no point in editing the pictures).  Other than that a big drop in pressure which is the best news.  The official chart now even says I have a bit of low BP.  We’ll see how this develops.

Menu:

• Breakfast: 1 cup cereal, 1 cup milk, half a banana.
• Lunch: 2 chicken breasts, 1 kitchen spoonful rice, 1 cup steamed vegetables
• Snack:  Who knows? I need ginkgo biloba.
• Dinner: Chilaquiles.  Since I skipped a lunch tortilla we used it here: 2 corn tortillas, 1 kitchen spoonful shredded chicken, 2 tablespoons of salsa, 1 slice of panela cheese.  Sweet! (Cool! What does mine say? Sweet! What does mine say?)