My Self-Developed Diet and It's Success

     At the end of last year, when everyone was making serious resolutions, I decided instead of making a resolution that I could either succeed or fail at, I would instead make a resolution notebook.  This resolution notebook that I visualized would be better than a resolution, because it could: record my desires about self improvement, help me implement those desires, record progress with that effort, and be able to be changed if too ambitious.  However, I didn't rush out and grab a notebook and start writing down faults that I wanted to change.   I instead thought about what I wanted to change about myself, and how I might realistically achieve that goal.  Usually resolutions are all about what usually ends up being an unrealistic goal, whether it started unrealistic or not.  The problem with those types of promises to your self is that as soon as you fall off the wagon, it's over.  So, I came to conclusion that, like a normal resolution, I wanted to be healthier.  Specifically, I wanted to get to the BMI (Body Mass Index) that I should be at.
     Of those who know me, some would probably ask why I would bother.  And the answer to that is that although I might carry it well, I have been anywhere from 30 to 70 lbs overweight for well over a decade and a half.  And although I never let it get completely out of control, I was dealing with many food compulsions.  I was drinking several 20 oz. sodas a day.  Zero calorie, to go along with the snack cakes and the chips.  I would find myself doing this, even if I was completely stuffed, because I just ate dinner.  And everyday I told myself I wouldn't do that that day.  And again I would.  It ended up being a vicious circle.
     So, I was well aware of the type of behavior I wanted to prevent myself from doing.  And I figured out that I could not intellectualize these compulsions away, or make myself eat healthier by constantly thinking about it.  The problem was that I had a choice, and I constantly made the wrong one.  I decided to find away to discard my free will for enough time to achieve a goal and a new perspective.  It was at this time I started constructing a diet.
     The problem with diets are many.  Diets are hard to follow because they usually are expensive, people have different taste preferences, they usually involve a lot of investment in shopping time if you are cooking it yourself, and of course, you must take into account the meal preparation time. Or you could start eating a pre-packaged plan that will really cost you money, plus it is 100% processed food.  People are lucky when they find a diet that works for them. But the problem with success is the potential failure afterwards when you leave that diet.  I was already aware of these problems at the start.  I was also aware of my own characteristics which might be exploited for my own good.
     I am not particularly picky about food.  I like all kinds of food.  I am both adventurous and easily satisfied with food.  Not to say that I like bad tasting food, because I don't.  I just don't have anything that I don't like categorically.  This was good, because along with this ability to eat almost anything, I don't mind having to eat the same thing.  So..., the plan, come up with something healthy to eat that I like enough to eat everyday, put enough daily variety in to be both healthy and satisfied, make it easy enough to prepare that I was not enslaved to the diet, and keep it from breaking the bank.  I would need to find reasonably priced essential foods that I could eat everyday that provided me with a healthier diet that what I had consisted on to that point.
     I began this process by picking whole foods that I liked.  For breakfast, I decided to eat whole grains.  Not cereal, mind you, whole oats, barley, wheat berries, rye,...whole grain.  I had eaten whole oats before, by preparing them in a pressure cooker before hand (1/2 as long as stove top preparation), and eating them like cereal with milk.  They are easily prepared and taste great, unless you are texture sensitive.  Some people have a problem with some whole grain's texture after cooking.  They are cheap enough to find one you like, if interested, here's where you can find cooking instructions:Cooking Whole Grains.  There is a lot of research about the health benefits of whole grains, and they lose much of their benefit when processed and separated into different grain products.
  From there I added 1% milk to the diet, to go in my whole grain.  I then added a hard boiled egg.  We have 4 free-ranging, egg laying chickens, so I always have more eggs than we can eat.  Although, some would say that egg yolk is unhealthy, and I would be better off with just egg whites, cholesterol is a necessary component of a diet, and should not be cut out completely.  This can be read about at Egg Nutrition.  Also free-ranging chicken eggs have much less cholesterol than store bought eggs, due to their superior diet.
     Part of my criteria for the food selection was specifically designed around fiber.  I heard a woman on Dr. Oz talk about the benefits of a high fiber diet, and how most Africans eat around 40 g of fiber in their diet a day.  I decided I would try that, so I started incorporating fruit.  I added a banana, an apple, and orange, and half an avocado to my diet.  Avocados are expensive, but have lots of good fats in them.  This was part of the reasoning for halving it.  I added nuts to the diet too, almonds or pecans.  It could have really been any nut, aside from a peanut, which is not actually a nut at all, but a pea.  In order to round off the fiber, I added broccoli, beans, and rice.
  I really needed a source of omega-3 oils, and the easiest way to get that is in fish.  But, fish is expensive.  Unless..., you buy it in a can.  There are many choices for canned fish, but I had to rule out the most obvious choice, tuna, from the list.  No need to poison myself with mercury everyday.  Tuna is safe once or twice a week, but more than that is dangerous for you.  This is because it is a predator fish, so the mercury from other fish is readily absorbed and stored in the tissue of the fish.  So I decided on sardines for lunch, as I like them and they are cheap.  I get them with hot sauce.  

      I added chicken breast to the menu, because it is healthy, fairly cheap, and easy to work with.  I also decided that I would make the dinner protein the most flexible food item.  I based the protein serving on 4 oz. of boneless skinless chicken breast and decided that if I wanted to eat a different meat for dinner, that I would just substitute the amount of meat that would equal the same calories.  This allowed me to go with the family flow at dinner if needed.  Now all that was needed was a dessert of sorts.  I chose low fat yogurt, sweetened with honey.  I had actually never sweetened plain yogurt with honey, though I had made fresh yogurt several times.  I love making yogurt, as it is so much better tasting when fresh, and is super easy if you know how to do it.  ( I will blog on this at a later date).  But, it was fabulous with honey, and I was surprised at how little calories that you had to add to sweeten it nicely.  I then added a small amount of chocolate to my diet, in order to combat compulsions.  I decided to ration myself a quarter(3 pieces) of a plain Hershey's bar a day.

     So, now I had a game plan.  I had chose a diet.  I now had to figure out how to implement it.  And how to implement it into my life in such a way that would not cause utter chaos and ultimately failure.  I decided in order to make this the easiest plan to follow, that I would need to have a way of keeping up with my calories that would not be a chore or disruptive.  My answer: Google Docs.  For those of you not familiar, Google Docs is a cloud-based document editor, similar to MS Word.  Also, you can also create cloud-based spreadsheets, similar to MS Excel.  I am sort of a whiz at spreadsheets, so I designed a monster of one to make it simple to input my data, and track it.  I then proceeded to fill it up with my menu items, and all the nutritional data that I could find.  I went a-little-overboard with data, I must admit.  Because most of the foods that I picked did not come with a nutrition label, and even if it did, I wanted more information, I used the USDA database to analyse the nutritional value of the foods.  It was probably not necessary to add up every single amino acid separately in order to see if  I was getting the proper amount of each, but after all, I am a scientist, and I just couldn't help myself.  Better too much info than too little, I often say (out loud, in the nerdiest voice possible).  I designed the spreadsheet so that I had a menu page, where all the data of the food resided, and where I could say yes or no (y or n) as to whether I had eaten that food that day.  Also on the page was the amount of food eaten, which I weighed in grams.(with this: Biggest Loser Food Scale)  I had a separate calculation page, which is where the spreadsheet did all the calculations based on whether it was on the menu and how much was eaten.  I then made a results page, which told how many calories consumed, individual nutrient totals (such as total Iron), and percentage of the Recommended Daily Allowance.  These spreadsheet pages allowed me to accurately pinpoint the exact amount of calories I was consuming.  In addition, I made a food diary page, which allowed me to keep track of my calories over time.  I also calculated my daily water requirements here.  I subtracted the water from the food I ate from the total water I needed daily, and made sure that I always drank at least 85% of my daily water requirement.  I am always usually over 100%.
     In addition to those spreadsheet pages, I also track my exercise on a page and pit it against my alcohol consumption.  Not only do I count my alcohol calories with the rest of my calories, I also make sure that I exercise each one of those calories off.  I keep a running total of each, and track it with a percentage that is colored green when I am positive on exercise and red when I have drank more than I exercised.  This plan makes me more accountable for my drinking calories, and even makes drinking healthier for me, since I account for the calories twice.
     Using a spreadsheet to keep track of my dietary exploits has also allowed me to track several things.  For one thing I am able to track calorie density of foods.  Most of the foods I chose have a low calorie density.  This means that you get fuller off of less calories.  For instance, broccoli has a caloric density of 0.35 calories per gram (kcal/g), an apple has 0.52 kcal/g, where calorie dense pecans have 7.08 kcal/g.  All my calorie dense foods are on purpose and contain essential nutrients.  Otherwise, the less calories per gram, the better. I actually have this number reversed in the spreadsheet too, as in g/kcal.  It is a more useful number, in that I can easily tell which foods are better and by what factor, since I can just scan the column for the largest numbers.  Lastly, I am able to make a calculation on my metabolism, based on the fact that a pound of fat is lost by burning 3500 calories, or eating 3500 calories less than you need.
     So, how am I doing?  I have to say that after having done this for about a month and a half, and I am doing great!  Depending on how much my clothes weighed when I was first weighed at the doctor's office before I started this journey, I have lost somewhere between 20 to 30 lbs.  At any rate, I have reached a BMI of slightly less than 25, which takes me out of the overweight category.  I am still headed for a 22, but this has been much easier than I expected.  I was never hungry throughout this process.  I am still calculating my metabolism, as I want to be accurate, and it takes a lot of data to pinpoint it.  And, I had to buy some jeans that fit me now.  All my jeans were two sizes too big.  I have much more information to send out, so keep up with my blog, and be nice out there:)