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My Diet Diary:

Joseph B Gentzel

  The answer to why we are overweight is simple. We eat the wrong foods. Duh, you are saying, I am sure! Stay with me just a bit longer as it could change your life. I hate to say it but no one knows why obesity is so epidemic. The doctors do not know, the researchers do not know nor does any one other group know. Everyone thinks they know, but there is no data supporting weight reduction to normal levels in the Obese and upper obese groups for more than short periods of time. Essentially they all go back up in any long term study except for so very few it does not challenge the statement in essence. The misinformation is so pervasive that it is the norm. I just read a blog on a very reputable web site that I like and trust on many things. It said in essence that changes in diets could be accepted by people when 80% of the writers go along with the new diet information. They write this as if our physiology is changing and new nutritional information is needed. What they are saying is the fad or misinformation of the day has to be taken up by 80% of the writers to become the truth de jour on diet. It's all conjecturer without any real evidence. Even our hallowed food pyramid is so flawed that to eat it is to assault the body daily with a lot of inflammatory foods that eaten over a long period of time will surely cause problems in the body. At least 2 plus (about half of another) parts of the food pyramid are not very good for the body except for just a few foods in each part. Of course, someone set up the food groups, so its quite arbitrary. It seems like a logical grouping until someone critically looks at foods that cause inflammatory response in the body upon ingestion. Don't any of the great minds think; gosh, if grains cause an inflammatory response in the body that can lead to problems, should we be recommending that people eat the recommended amount on the food pyramid? Guess not, because the food pyramid, as anarchic as it is, is widely and almost universally applauded.  Anyone think a breakfast of raisin bran, skim milk and low or nonfat yogurt is a very healthful breakfast? Its the breakfast I ate for ten years minus the raisins as I ate plain ole bran flakes with skim milk. It has an inflammatory factor of minus 275 and is classified as strongly inflammatory. Add a cup of fruit, like cherries or blueberries and it gets worse. Four ounces of OJ adds to the misery. Don't even think about adding couple pieces of dry 100 whole wheat toast or the unthinkable, a bagel and cream cheese. All this is low fat and no or very low sugar and its killing us without some intervention from the rest of our diet. I am not so sure its even correctable by the rest of the diet as my personal experience tells me so far that to eat this breakfast  and compensate for it with other foods eaten along with or later in the day is to damage the excellent effects I get when I eat pretty strictly the foods my body was designed to eat. So what can you eat? Lets cover that later so as to not get bogged down too much with the details here at the beginning.

Surely there are a few individuals that have looked at how our bodies were made by the Creator. For some reason God has made it clear to me and since I was at the upper classification of morbidly obese i.e. near 50 BMI, I am the guinea pig to test and demonstrate the validity of this revelation. You can follow my morbid obese diary here to track my progress.

    It makes me so sad to see all the people who have no clue really why this is occurring. All the calorie restricted diets and exercise regimes will all fail eventually if the food we eat does not fall into the parameters of what God created our bodies to ingest. That is the key! To be successful one must also realize that obesity is only one of the many problems associated with the wrong diet we live on in our contemporary world. All those smug skinny people who have not developed the symptom of obesity from much the same eating plan essentially are developing other  severe health problems from a lifetime of eating the wrong foods i.e. foods our bodies were not created to ingest for good health. Unfortunately everyone thinks they know why we are obese, but no one can do anything about it. It is tragic to read such learned papers presented from experts in the field that describe the details of the condition in the most minute details, but have no data they can site to achieve a remedy for the problem. NO ONE!! Unbelievable really in this day and time. They cannot see the forest for the trees, but they surely know a lot about the trees and that is a good thing.

While it's not necessary that everyone believe in the Creator to understand this concept it helps at the implementation level.  To me it does so help with my understanding to know that my God made me in a particular way and all I have to do if follow his plan to good health. It looks like from my first three months experience with God's plan, I will eventually achieve my normal weight with a eating program that is very sane and full of good healthful foods. They are also quite delicious. I do not count calories, but eat in moderation as God instructs.  For those who don't think that our Creator was capable of designing evolution into His plan of creation, they can be successful believing that our bodies evolved this way by chance, just like it did that led to us having two legs and five fingers. What ever rocks your boat, but truth is truth and if God's plan is observed we will be healthier and the the obesity epidemic will be stemmed.

You have to be asking about now, who is this whacko who thinks he knows more than anyone else? Fair question. I am only God's servant. God has prepared me all my life for this moment. Even my obesity was planned by God from my childhood. He led me into a related medical field to get the professional knowledge and background. He blessed me with a world class mind. It is why He let me get very near to a BMI of 50 which is at the upper levels of the classification of morbid obesity. The next level is super obese of 50 BMI or greater. The success rate of maintainable weight reduction to normal weights for the morbidly and super obese is zero. Even the various drastic Bariatric surgeries have a very high percentage of people who return to their obese state. I just searched on Google for something else and saw the following ad:

Gastric Band  $2500.00 Down, monthly payments of $200
Prominent Surgeon, Great Hospital

How sad is that? We are lost!
 

They never understood what to eat in the first place, but followed the dismal failure of everyone else. While parts of many diets are good and some of them are much better than others, the wrong food will eventually cause health problems. Our bodies need the right fuel to run correctly. Long term ingestion of the wrong food will result in health problems, obesity being only one of them. Obesity is the "canary in the cage" in our "mine" of diets. The canary is dead and we must get out of the mine or we will be dead and unhealthy soon enough.

Maybe you should look at Our God Made Bodies now if you have not done so already.

All this is His plan. It's only because He loves us so dearly that this is happening. I am not questioning why He choose me as He may have chosen others that I simply am not aware. I am only doing my best with His guidance to present the truth of our bodies. Its pretty tame stuff, but so different than you might imagine. So open your mind and critically evaluate what I present. It can only help you. The missing link for me was the inflammation factor of foods. You will see a reference in Our God Made Bodies for the landmark work done by Monica Reinagel. While for my morbidly obese purposes I differ ever so slightly with her in places but its not worth mentioning. I suspect once back to normal weight and the CRP is down I would find no problem with most of what she says. I look forward to that date and testing that hypothesis. I have no idea if she believes in God, but I do know God choose her to do this monumental work. Again it's the missing link when viewed in its proper context as its a system of classification of the inflammatory factors of foods with an objective rating system that we can use to keep score. This is important, especially in the early days on this dietary program..

My Weight loss diary

Around the first part of March 2009, I was studying nutrition, looking for a better food for our dogs. In my study I came across a web site: www.nutritiondata.com.

I noticed a parameter of the foods that one can research there called Inflammatory Factor (IF). The links to the information about IF began a cognitive process that has led to my becoming aware of how our bodies were intended to ingest food for its optimum health. After hours of research, looking at all the information I could find and researching diets that claimed to be about what our bodies ate "in the beginning," I realized that the diet associated with the originator of the IF rating system, Monica Reinagel, contained a very important truth of nutrition I had never considered. Ms. Reinagel has published a book titled The Inflammation Free Diet Plan. I do recommend this book to anyone with an interest in nutrition.

I was confounded by what I thought I knew was not applicable under this criteria i.e. the IF values of food. Being a Registered Physical Therapist since 1968, I knew exactly how important inflammation was in the body and how many problems it is associated with in our bodies. I just had not ever dwelt upon food and body fat as having relevant inflammatory properties. When someone like me puts this information together with the food that mankind’s indigenous bodies (biblical bodies) ingested, I realized that early man ate a diet that was high in Ms. Reinagel’s IF rating scale. Anthropologists and Paleontologists tell us that early man ate a diet that was balanced in Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. We now, as a group, in our contemporary times ingest a 20 to 1 ratio level of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids. Our diet is overwhelmingly inflammatory. I looked at many of the diets in regions of the world where mankind has long longevity. This included the area where the Mediterranean diet originated. It also included an area that was is near and dear to my heart and mind, the area of Gascony in Southwestern France. I had been aware of the excellent diet from this region as it had almost become a second home to Maryann and I by our many visits there secondary to our interest in the Great Pyrenees Dog that originated there in the Pyrenees Mountains. We came to love the duck and goose and all its parts especially the foie gras. A diet that is so high in fats primarily from the duck and goose that scientists had began to list these fats as one of the good fats. Ms. Reinagel’s rating system showed both the goose and duck to be one of the really strong anti inflammatory meats available to us. Maryann and I knew that the foie gras and the comfit de canard and oie were a bit of gastronomic heaven.

When I went to my bible, it was all there for me "in the beginning; Genesis." My prayers centered on guidance to understand this information that was new to me and what relevance it held. I knew early on that God had brought me to this place of information. It was up to me now to put it together with the life experiences he had led me to live plus the mind and body he had provided for me. Simply said, I knew it was important. Soon my clinical mind was going crazy with the prospect of how many people could be helped if this was right in my assessment of this information.

So I looked at myself. Sixty six years old with multiple serious medical problems that included my morbid obesity. I weighted myself and was pleased that I had not gone up much from the 339 pounds from a few months earlier. I weighed 342 pounds about the middle of April, 2009. At five feet ten inches in height it put my BMI (Body Mass Index) at 49.1. Actually I would be surprised if I was still 5 feet 10 inches as we all shrink as we age, but dared not count anything lower, as 5 feet 9 inches would have put my BMI at 50.1. That would have moved me into the next higher category of super obese. Psychologically I did not want to be that, so I relied on my young adult height of 5 feet 10 inches. Close enough, at least for me.

I knew something important had occurred, not just for me, but potentially everyone one else. The foods that would fit into the eating plan that it seemed clearer every day was God’s plan for our bodies at creation continued to startle me. So many of the truths we all thought we knew simply were not true. Some old taboos fell into place as being good or not so bad. I was confused and puzzled. I now trusted none of my prior knowledge. I looked up the IF ratings on about all the foods I ate or wanted to eat. I do recipes to see how they come out in their IF ratings.

I realized that the missing link in my lifetime quest to understand why I was so fat had taken a serious turn to more complete knowledge. I also realized that many other health problems were linked to the inflammatory diet we all eat, some much worse than others. I knew even the best diets if they were negative inflammatory, ingested daily over 40-50-60 years would cause problems in the body. A body that I knew from my 40 years as a Physical Therapist was a miracle in itself. A body that constantly sought its normal or health point. A body that was relentless in its attempt to achieve good health, many times in the face of tremendous problems. So I realized how this body must be abused in order to surrender to disease from the food we eat or at best be compromised in its ability to fight disease by the foods we eat.

God began moving me to tell others and educate others about how He intended our body to be nourished. God is very concerned how we abuse the body He provided for us to inhabit while we pass our time here in His universe. I was and am overwhelmed by the prospect of trying to get the word out, but knew immediately I could not do this from my morbidly obese state with any credibility. God was calling and I am so scared that the obvious thing I need to do, was something I simply could not do. Zero percent of morbidly obese people lose the weight and keep it off. I am not sure any ever get to normal weights and maintain it. But I had no choice.

God has answered all my prayers. I was saved from 20 plus years of alcohol addiction. I have been sober for about 20 years now and look on those years as if it was occurring to someone else. My family is all well and happy.

I had a heart attack in 2002 that was treated with six stints. The doctors in Colorado said, I did not realize how lucky I was. They were right. They recommended that I have Bariatric Surgery as I had to take the weight off. I considered it but chose not, as I simply could not mutilate my body and then maybe have a big chance I would put the weight back on. I had no idea then, that continuing to eat the foods I was eating even when I, so called "ate healthy," later would have not solved any problems really. I slowly got my weight down to 313 pounds by 2005 from the 360 pounds it was in the hospital in 2002. Maryann’s ovarian cancer diagnoses in 2005 threw me for a loop. I slowly gained weight every doctor visit after that until the 342 pounds I weighed the middle of April, 2009. I was now battling, since late 2002, congestive heart failure. The battle waxed and waned, but was always handled by my world class cardiologist, Laurence Lesser, MD. It was just a matter of time though before he could not overcome the problems in my body caused mainly by my fat.

Maryann’s ovarian cancer was diagnosed in 2005 as stage 3 and a reoccurrence from her remission state occurred in mid 2008. While she is still taking chemo for consolidation, she does not show any signs of cancer again. Our financial world had been destroyed by her illness and my not being able to work since 2002, but I have never in my life been happier than I have been these past almost four years, even through Maryann’s courageous battle with her cancer. I realized the God given power of the gentle spirit as Maryann is the gentlest person I have ever known. All these gifts are from a loving God. Now he has brought me to the most important point maybe in my life. I had to make the commitment to do as he asked or not. I knew he would show me the way. He would give me the strength, power of the words and the ability to connect as necessary, but how to get started? Write a book? I started several. I knew each was not right and would get lost in the volumes already out there. Maybe later.

What was abundantly clear was I had to demonstrate on myself the power and wisdom of doing something that data tells us essentially cannot be done successfully for the long run without surgery. The surgery, with all its problems, has pretty dismal outcomes for the long run. A quote about the long term effects of surgery:

Five years after the operation, only 50 percent of patients have successfully kept the weight off, and at 10 years, as few as 26 percent of patients report successful weight maintenance.

That never sounded very good to me, but then you see this:

Studies show that seriously obese individuals find it almost impossible to achieve a healthy weight by traditional weight loss methods involving calorie-controlled diets and exercise. [1]

While the above quotes carry no great authority’s source, they are supported by much of the data you can find. Most outcomes study focus on the percent of weight lost after surgery and it is impressive. More in-depth and longer views are less encouraging when contrasted to the physical and financial costs of the procedures.

The quandary all us very obese people find ourselves in is, the less than good results of the surgery. When faced with the certain failure of diets and other means of getting our bodies back into a good health state makes surgery more attractive. The best of the worst. I felt and still do that any of the choices were not acceptable, but years of living with all the extra weight and the actual inflammatory assault on our bodies from the fat cells themselves is not acceptable. I knew that our loving God had a plan. He has made it clear to me. What I write now and do now is the result of that information and the effort to let others know. I follow God's plan so that my outcome will be a sane way to resolve the obesity problem, by God’s laws and by following His plan. The key to the understanding was understanding that He made our bodies to consume a certain nutrition. Our contemporary diets, as so many other things in our contemporary lives, go against God’s laws and design.

Outcomes data showed in large long-term study that the lowest BMI achieved in a large group of Morbid and Super obese post op Bariatric surgery patients was 28.8. This level is still classified as overweight. Its only 1.2 away from 30, which is obese again. That is the LOWEST and best they ever got as a group. After 11.4 years follow up the average BMI for the group was 33.6 which is obese. The super obese group though ballooned back to 38.3 BMI at 11.4 year which is just 1.7 away from these poor folks being classified as morbidly obese. Also at greater than 10 year time the mortality rate among the group was 3.1 percent. [2]  Some would have died anyway if they had lost weight without surgery and certainly some would have died if they never lost any weight, but that figure is pure speculation. The data for post op complications from the various surgeries is all over the board, but significant by any analysis. None of this even addresses the cost of the procedure in surgery and the cost associated with the complications. The proponents of surgical treatment will say that left untreated these mortality and complications figures will be acceptable or even favorable, but the point of this is, eating as God intended us to eat for the optimum nourishment of our bodies will avoid much of the outcome data except for the normal healthy data. Surgery is big business and big ego and professional bias in all these studies and outcomes. We will likely never see any studies that measure the long term outcomes via an eating program that I am advocating. My personal success, or not, is anecdotal, but with the zero expectation pronouncement we presently see, deserves notice, especially in the face of the marginal (the best description) to unacceptable (the most severe description) outcomes. I understood all this professional jargon from my many years in the medical field, so had a general nervousness about surgery.

After my research, I felt it was so simple. Follow God’s plan and nourish the body as he intended it to be nourished when He created us all. I had the knowledge and faith now to know this was the answer I had sought my whole life. I realize everyone else is searching as well.

Would it work? I have never doubted it. My results began almost immediately after I got on the right course. I knew it would need tweaking as I learned and I am still learning. I will leave the details for the diary entries, but just some general observations looking back just these three plus months. At the beginning I could not imagine giving up milk or bread. Bread came off early in the first week or so, but milk stayed in greatly diminished quantities for a few weeks. Soon milk fell in importance and I truly got on the diet the way it should be about the first or second week of May. Something miraculous happened then after about 5-7 days of being really on the eating program that fit the parameters God had shown me. All the foods I ate suddenly tasted much better. Just the simplest foods were now so delicious. Who knew? I thought; who would want to go back to the other taste level when they can have this? Maryann looked at me with a very curious look as I groaned in pleasure over spinach, tuna salad, tomatoes, etc. She had to be wondering if I had finally lost it. I wondered as well, but the weight began to fall off my body. No calories to count, just watch what I ate and eat in moderation. At times I felt I was eating too much at a meal and wondered if I would notice the results in a negative way. I never did, but knew innately, "moderate portions." I could snack on peanut butter on celery, nuts and legumes (peanuts) were handy and I love them. Every week on Sunday I cook a giant omelet for Maryann and I. It has onions, spinach, fresh tomatoes and sometimes mushrooms. I cook it in olive oil and slather it with salsa. I am hungry just writing about it.

I did keep a calorie count for a couple weeks just to see what it was. It varies between 1500 to 1800 calories daily. The average daily caloric intake is about 1600 to 1700 calories. Most importantly to me and this eating program, I could do an IF rating on my daily intake. I keep it, the net IF rating, between 100 and 300 daily which is highly anti inflammatory. That is the one most important parameter I believe and as I said I identified it early on as the missing link.

As I write this today, July 28, 2009, I am 308 pounds. I expect to fall below 300 pounds in the next few weeks and that will be the first time in over 25 years I have not weighted over 300 pounds. There are a lot of details I have gained in how to nourish this God given body and allow the body to take itself back to its normal point. I will share those details as my diary details.

Middle of April, 2009

I was 342 pounds as I so tentatively began this eating program. As I said above, I wanted to drink some milk each day and wanted to eat a sandwich or hot dog on bun on occasion. I also wanted to eat some hard crusted bread with some meals. As I began the program I continued to study the inflammatory foods and began to put together recipes.

I realized soon that bread had to go as did cereal and most dairy. Breakfast evolved from bran flakes and milk with almonds and yogurt to a whole grapefruit and maybe yogurt later in the day. I might eat a few strawberries was well. I was and am disappointed that bananas and most other fruits are not so great IF rating. You will see later how I have come down on this after some time and experience. I think I am where I need to be in this area of fruit. Its comfortable and healthy.

Lunch was now hot dogs sans bun i.e. wieners with mustard. I try to eat only good all beef wieners. Hebrew National are the best, but Nathans is good also. Oscar Meyer is good too. It’s amazing that so many wieners are really OK. That makes me happy. Lunch might also be tuna salad on bed of lettuce with fresh tomatoes. I make ham salad with an olive oil mayonnaise with lots of onions and a bit of pickle relish. It is delicious on bed of lettuce and the fresh tomatoes. Left over dinner from the night before is great. That generally includes the vegetables from dinner and maybe some meat.

Dinner is meat and vegetables with many salads. I carefully gauged the IF ratings of meats and married them with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and other stars of the IF world. Vegetables are carrots, peas, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and the monster positive IF rated food, spinach, which I adore and the family adores as well. There are others. Put fresh spinach in a salad to make almost any salad positive IF rating.

Salade Niçoise is marvelous sans potatoes (we leave off or use some steamed, roasted or baked sweet potato). Serve it with anything really but the classic tuna, even tuna salad is great, but baked chicken or salmon (any fish) is super. I would never hesitate to use pork chop or steak, either hamburger steak or little NY strip. Use the egg or not as you prefer. I prefer!

I always hated those nasty sweet potatoes. Those insipid things out of the can are the worst. I have found out that adding sugar to sweet potatoes is not necessary. They are quite good many other ways and sliced, roasted with olive oil make French fries taste pale by comparison. They are also very good for you and real stars of the IF world.  

None fat ranch dressing whenever on other salads. Mix olive oil with balsamic vinegar and you can eat almost anything you want in the salad. Zucchini soup (really pureed fresh zucchini) with poached cold water cod garnished with parmesan cheese and spring onions was and is a knock out. The real surprise was a quick dinner done at lunch time on one of Maryann’s chemo days of boneless skinless chicken breast, marinated in a bit of olive oil with minced garlic all across the top for a couple hours and baked. Taken out and refrigerated for the evening meal. Mixed a Caesar salad dressing of anchovies, lemon, olive oil, lots of fresh garlic, tobacco sauce, white pepper and Worcestershire sauce all pureed in the blender. Toss with Romaine lettuce and parmesan cheese. The cold chicken with the Caesar salad is too good to describe and so easy. IF rating of over 200 just for this meal alone. What a winner! I forgot how much I loved cold chicken and this is the best ever.

I do a variation of the Capri salad from Italy. I use very ripe tomatoes marinated all day in olive oil and balsamic vinegar with fresh mozzarella. It’s actually better the next day out of the refrigerator if it makes it that far.

I am careful with cheese. Basically I do not eat any, but parmesan and fresh mozzarella are not too bad. If I marry them with these mega giants in the positive IF world, they can be enjoyed in small portions easily. No slippery slopes here though as cheese is a concentrated dairy product that is a big problem in our inflammatory diets.

I love rice, but it’s a problem. So I have gotten away with small portions but rice done with turmeric, lots of onion, green peppers when it goes with the meat and garlic if I can figure a way to work it in moves the rice dish to positive IF status. Still, small portions of rice just in case. You can eat boneless pork chops or boneless skinless chicken with this easily. I may be pushing the positive IF goal a bit here, so be liberal with the garlic, onion, and peppers if possible. The turmeric really helps in the IF area. Don’t get carried away with the turmeric as too much can occur pretty quickly. Serve green peas on top of the rice.

We eat a little Chinese. The glutinous rice (minus 125 IF for a cup) the Chinese use is probably the best rice from an IF rating perspective. We get them to do broccoli, and shrimp in a lite white sauce. Snow or Chinese peas are good also. No egg rolls, steamed dumplings, or the wonderful won tons in the won ton soup. After glutinous rice parboiled rice is next and very good. Keep the water down to 1/1 ratio if possible like they do in Cajun country.

Basically I am staying away from the restaurant foods now while I am in the big battle. Once I get to my ideal weight I will play around with some of these foods, but not now. Part of my pact with God is that, once I achieve my ideal weight, I will never be heavy again as an example of how to eat His diet and how it will interact so positively in the body that He created.

You can see I am having fun and groaning in pleasure all the while the weight is falling off my body. I snack where ever I want on nuts and legumes (peanuts). Sometimes I eat a peach or some fresh pineapple or a naval orange. Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and other high or even moderate IF rated vegetables dipped in non fat ranch dressing is really tasty and so good for you at every level. I drink a cocktail of four or five parts lemon powered drink (Crystal lite) with 1 part OJ. It’s a great summer drink. I drink just a few diet sodas and some non sweet tea with artificial sweetener. I drink a lot of our own wonderful deep well water.

May 10, 2009

Weight at 339 and about the time of the picture above.

May 18, 2009

Weight at 335.

May 21, 2009

Weight at 333

May 27, 2009

C reactive Protein test was 4.70. Anything greater than 3 is classified as high inflammation. It is diagnostic of a very high inflammatory state in my body.

May 30, 2009

Weight at 327

My hip and joint pain that I had been taking Glucosamine Chondroitin for about 4 years is almost nonexistent. I discontinued the Glucosamine / Chondroitin. I have essentially no symptoms of this joint discomfort. I expect this to continue to improve with less weight on the joints going forward. The positive change is remarkable already.

June 16, 2009

Weight at 320

July 6, 2009

Weight at 315.

My sleep apnea is improved. It’s not normal yet but I am sleeping much better and feel much more rested. I expect it to continue to improve directly with the lowering of the weight. I am anticipating a decrease in the CRP value on follow up test, but we will see.

July 21, 2009

Weight at 311

During this time I was having problems with my diuretic meds and was retaining water. I was also experimenting with manipulating my diet to keep a net positive IF rating. I resumed eating bran and dairy at breakfast. I also tried some sugar in the form of ice cream, believing that as long as I was net positive IF I might be OK. I was subsequently unhappy with this practice. As soon as I returned to my tried and true eating regime, I resumed my prior level of weight loss. Also the water retention seemed to resolve itself.

Part of this assessment was eating a very small piece of my daughter’s birthday cake. The burning in my stomach within 2 minutes of ingesting the cake and the GI upset that occurred that evening and next morning made me realize how my system had purged itself to the inflammatory aspects of my old diet. The introduction of even a very small amount of a concentrated inflammatory agent caused a significant reaction from my body. If I was to ever doubt the anti inflammatory value of this eating program, this would have been the proof I needed. The result of ingestion of the cake was like striking a bell and then hearing the ring.

July 28, 2009

Weight at 308

I am much stronger than I have been in years. My endurance is improved. The shortness of breath is much better now which indicates to me that the congestive heart problems are improved. Also the absence now of any swelling in the ankles as occasionally occurred before supports this improvement.

August 4, 2009

Weight at 306.
Diet is working very well now. I eat fruit at breakfast (no cereal or milk as that seemed to be slowing down my results). Lunch is tuna salad on lettuce and tomatoes or wieners with mustard and peanut butter on stalk of celery. Sometimes leftover dinner. Dinner is meat, vegetables, salads. We are eating fish a lot now. Food is great tasting. When I am hungry I snack on nuts (peanuts are a legume, but I speak of it as a nut), peanut butter on celery sometimes, small piece. Sometimes an orange, peach, strawberries or few cherries.  If my other food in the day is high IF I don't worry about snacks that are fruit, but if the other foods during the day are lower IF or borderline positive IF, I will stay with the nuts and this actually increases the total positive IF of the daily food ingestion. I eat on occasion a 4 oz cup of fruit yogurt, non or low fat. I eat it for the active culture as I believe our GI tract needs this and I want to be sure this is maintained. I just have to make sure this minus IF food is compensated for in the other foods ingested. The only grain I eat now is rice. I limit the rice and marry it with some food that is high IF so that the net IF of the dish is positive IF, but I have learned no matter what, limit the rice. Even though I can manipulate the net IF values, its just a number and grains are not so good for you as they are, as a group, quite inflammatory.

August 12, 2009

Weight at 302

I am anxiously waiting for the report on the CRP and PSA lab work done on Monday, 9/10/2009.

August 13, 2009

Got my lab results. CRP was still 4.7. The PSA was 1.83, down from 2.7. I was initially disappointed in the CRP results, but I realized that even now, 40 pounds lighter, I am still morbidly obese with my BMI at 43.3 for 302 pounds. Fat cells produce inflammation; so this value will not go down until I am quite a bit lower in weight. Battling the inflammation with my anti inflammation diet is clearly the way to go. I found a remarkable statement in my research this morning that follows:

Adipose tissue (body fat) has been lately regarded as a separate body organ which can produce a number of different biologically active molecules - such as cytokine proteins that are associated with inflammation, and the hormone resistin, which is linked to insulin resistance and the development of type two diabetes  3

Fat is a separate body organ functionally. Quite a concept! An organ that produces inflammation and plays a significant role in insulin resistance syndrome. The chronic condition that fat puts the body into from this inflammation aspect is linked now to auto immune problems. There is much more here that is way beyond this simple blog. I am still tweaking this schematic and would appreciate any feedback.

August 16, 2009

Today is a real milestone in my life. I guess its special to me also being Sunday, a holy day for me. I normally weigh in late morning with all my work clothes on and I plan to keep it that way so that the changes in my weight are consistent. On Sunday's I take care of the animals in shorts, light boots and in summer a lite shirt, so its about 1-2 pounds less than the heavy jeans that are by late morning at least damp and more clothes generally. "Sunday's weight" is close to my birthday suit weight though, so I like to get a forecast to what my weight will be in a few days at a "official" weigh in.
Today, unofficially, I weighed less than 300 pounds for the first time in over 25 years. I have wondered many times the past 10 years as my health deteriorated if I would ever even get below 300 pounds again in my lifetime. That occurred today at 299 pounds, actually below 299 as I always round up if its half a pound or more in decimals.
God has shown me the way. He has given me the knowledge to know what the body he created, needs for optimum health. Everything in this diary and the other writing I am working on, just as hard as I can, communicates this very important information.
As I pass an important milestone on my way down to at least 180 pounds I can recap for you that not only am I steadily loosing weight eating the way God intended us to eat to properly nourish our body,

All these positive changes have occurred even though the inflammation in my body, caused by all the remaining fat, is still huge.

August 28, 2009

Weight 298. Officially under 300 pounds now for the first time in 25 plus years. A huge mental milestone for me, but one I had no doubt I would make once I saw the way. I know others can see the way as well.

I have had a bit of a problem going down at the same rate as the past few weeks. In looking at my diet I am eating a bit of pasta and rice. I am suspicious that while my body is so inflammatory from all my fat, I cannot eat these inflammatory foods now at all or very very little. I am still headed in the right direction and learning a lot each day about this way of eating to correct such a huge problem. My lesions learned now should help others later.

September 14, 2009

I have been so busy with other writing I am afraid I have neglected this diary on my web page. The news is good. I am 294 pounds this morning. I had difficultly at 300 pounds; a real psychological milestone and for a week or so afterwards. Looking back I think my sleep patterns got fouled up. Not getting enough sleep is inflammatory and it looks like it interferes with weight loss and fluid retention. I am back on tract now and concentrating on strategies to get a full restful nights sleep and really working on my deep breathing (abdominal breathing) and relaxation. It's surprising how well this so simple concept works. Abdominal breathing is one of the most powerful tools we have in our tool box for being successful with may things: pain, inflammation, sleep, diet, etc.

September 25, 2009

Weight at 291 this morning.

Great blog on NutritionData by Elaine Murphy on anti inflammation eating approach to good health. See it at http://blog.nutritiondata.com/dieting_weight_loss_blog/2009/09/a-new-diet.html. Ms. Murphy is a nutrition consultant who specializes in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, menopause, weight management, and lifestyle modification.

October 4, 2009     Feast of St Francis of Assisi day.

Weight 291 pounds.

Today we honor all our animals and pray forgiveness for our transgressions against any other of God's creatures. In honor of this day I offer his Prayer For Peace.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life

I am learning a lot about dealing with major problems that involve inflammation such as morbid obesity. The condition is a very complex interconnected one that looking back on my beginning I was quite naive to believe that simply putting the right food into my mouth would result in success. Even though that was the first and maybe the most important initial step, it goes much further. My continual study of the area, identified that the basis of the problem is the inflammation in the body likely started by our diets and lifestyle is the basis of the problem and so many others as well. I am frustrated by the ignorance in the face of tremendous research and data available. Data that is not been interpreted to mean what it indicates because of popularly accepted theories that have become preset ideas about the diet and causation. There are so many beautiful studies compromised by assuming theories never proved, but accepted as fact by years of repeated statement and now accepted as universal fact, when that simply does not exist. Too many examples to list any here, but they are everywhere I turn and once the mindset is adjusted to purge it of these false theorems, the path is so much clearer. I shutter to hear the term eat healthy or eat right, because what the practice behind these statements usually show is eating too many foods that are not good for the body.

I am having serious success, but also meeting barriers in the process. These barriers cause me to find out what is happening in my own body. The simple notion that the long term remedy is simply a dietary issue is yielding to the truths of a multifaceted approach. While my life example and my study of the data and research continue to tweak my approach and knowledge in this area. I am graced by more in-depth knowledge how to succeed against this condition that the data says has ZERO chance of long term success.

October 15, 2009

Weight 289 pounds.

I am finding it's more important than I realized to get a good night's sleep. Poor sleep is inflammatory and that reaction interferes with the bodies fluid retention problem. I am keenly aware of this because of my congestive heart failure problems. When I have a little shortness of breath and a little fluid retention in the ankles in the evening, I can trace it back to a poor night sleep the prior evening. The past two weeks have been frustrating as I seemed to be stuck on 291 and even 292 for a week or better. I was retaining water. I concentrated on sleep measures and I began to improve. I also am realizing I need to lower the inflammation in my body being produced by the fat cells themselves. So I am taking some  high Omega 3 fatty acid capsules. I have been on them a week. I think it is a very positive step for anyone with a generalized inflammatory problem.

October 17, 2009

Weight 286

BMI 41

I knew I was losing weight and I also knew I was retaining water. Suddenly the water retention problem improved and the weight from the water came off, thus in two days three pounds. The only thing different is the high omega 3 capsules I started a week ago to assist in diminishing the generalized inflammation from all the fat. If so it sure worked. Was taking 2400 mg twice a day but have decreased it yesterday to 1200 mg twice a day when I realized my blood got a bit too thin. I started 100 mcg of Vitamin K. A lot going on with all the meds, but I am succeeding very well and am so happy with the results. Today my BMI is 41. When I hit 278 I will be officially below the morbid obese category. What a blessing!

November  18, 2009

Weight 282

Since the prior note I have continued to experience problems of excess fluid retention that I notice by shortness of breath from CHF impact and my weight reduction being "stubborn". I know the fat is slowly coming off by how my clothes fit and just looking at myself, but it is masked some days by the fluid retention.

Saw Dr. Lessor my Cardiologist today. Modified my water retention medication to reduce the fluid I seem to be retaining. Lab results from C Reactive Protein test show my level of inflammation in the body has decreased finally to normal levels. I credit this success to the continued very close adherence to the diet and the addition of marine oil supplements with its high Omega 3 benefits as the critical elements. Also my HDL/TG ratio is 1.7 which is within normal limits and indicates that the systemic inflammation is improved.

I am working with others now with the diet from an anti-inflammatory aspect with surprising positive results. I am also using a modified portion of the diet principal with some of my dogs who have serious inflammatory disease problems. The results are dramatic and very surprising to me even. I will do a clinical study outline of these and others as they occur/progress soon.  

December 4, 2009

Weight 278

I continued to have problems with the Lasix Meds doing its job. I decided to add intermittent fasting to my regime and the results now in two days has been excellent. The Lasix is working as it should now. I believe it is from the anti inflammatory response in the body from the intermittent fasting. Not only is it showing up in the weight but I am having less shortness of breath and peripheral edema yesterday and so far today.

December 25, 2009

Weight 273

I am down 70 pounds and counting since the middle of April, 2009!

What a great Christmas present God gives me this special day that we celebrate the birth of His Son. Not only is my weight continuing to slowly diminish by following the plan He has led me too, but Maryann is doing well with her struggles with Ovarian Cancer. Her most recent PET scan came back good, with nothing suspicious even. We thank and praise our good Lord every day.

I am learning a lot on myself, but the greatest lesson is, if I eat the foods that do not cause an adverse reaction in my body i.e. inflammation reaction, my weight will continue to slowly decrease. This also applies to the arthritis, asthma, sleep apnea, and water retention that brings my congestive heart failure into play. I monitor this subjectively through my shortness of breath, peripheral edema, and pain and discomfort in my arthritis, especially my hips. I also can tell if my weight is up without explanation that I am retaining too much fluid and I must examine what I have eaten the past day or so. So far it has been quite successful. My last lab work showed the CRP was finally within normal and my TG/HDL ratio was 1.7 which is well within the normal range. The balance is fragile and it does not take very much to get me a bit off course and my body tells me almost instantly, if I listen closely. I still follow intermittent fasting. Basically this means I do not eat after about 9:00 PM till most days after 12:30 PM. On the weekends I eat again about 11:00 AM, so from about 14 to 15.5 hours without food and only water, PRN as much as I want. Strangely, I always did this as a young man i.e. I was too lazy to get up early enough to eat breakfast. Ironically I eventually succumbed to the accepted theories to eat often and that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Both are an example of the many information cascades that infect the world of diet and nutrition. Fasting, including intermittent fasting, has great benefits (documented clinically and scientifically), historically and biblically that is well documented. I think God made our bodies to fast when He created them.

If you want more information about information cascades, follow the link. It's a fascinating descriptive term that has helped me wade through and gain some understanding of all the drivel and insane mess encountered in the diet and nutrition world. Many times information cascades are offered and supported by very reliable sources, but the pure scientific studies do not support them. Some how the same wrong information continues, in stark opposition to abundant very good clinical and scientific information. That in itself is descriptive of an information cascade.

I pray that God will lead me on the path to help others who are suffering as well. We all benefit when we come to understanding how He made our bodies and what we can do to nurture these fine bodies to glorify Him.

February 1, 2010

Weight 265

I have added Vitamin D to the protocol (5000 IU qd)). Have to watch the grains as they sneak in everywhere. If I listen carefully to my body it tells me every time. Also some very good foods like bananas if eaten more than occasionally will complicate the process. When you have the amount of pathology I have, you have to stay ever vigilant, but the good health I am enjoying now otherwise is such a blessing and now that I can understand, it's more meaningful.  Increased pain in my right hip, poorer weight loss due to fluid retention, and also the fluid retention results sometimes in shortness of breath from my congestive heart failure are some of my signs I can watch accurately. Its amazing how sensitive this can be and how quickly the changes occur both positive and negative. I am officially not Morbidly Obese any longer, but still carry way too much weight. It is psychologically gratifying to now have the term morbid is no longer in my weight classification. All the praise and credit goes to God and how He led me to the knowledge and understanding of the Creator's Design implemented in our bodies. 

I am working very hard now trying to present this information so others can:

In that connection see the Therapeutic Nutrition Overview.

As R.A Miller always said: Lord Luv Ya!

March 21, 2010

Weight 259 pounds

BMI now at 3.75

Lab work done on 3/18/2010. hs-CRP now down to 1.8. Also the TG/HDL ratio is low at 1.25. VLDL Cholesterol is also low at 11. Total weight loss since April, 2009 is 86 pounds. My BMI has gone from 5.0 to 3.75.

All of these are objective evidence that the diet and lifestyle plan in effect is making a dramatic difference in my body, both externally and internally. These positive changes are consistent with my subjective symptoms i.e. pain, shortness of breath, decreased peripheral edema, diminished sleep apnea and general alertness and more positive mental mind set. I have now returned to work. I am feeling most positive about my physical ability and stamina to work a full day in a normal expected capacity for a Physical Therapist.

All the credit goes to our Lord God, who has lead me to the relevant aspects of good health and diet needed for these marvelous bodies He created for us to use while here on earth. He has also given me the understanding and focus to change my life in a way that results in good health. I am still on the long journey that has turned into a great and glorious adventure. I still have about 80-90 pounds to lose, but what a tremendous blessing. All this energizes my motivation to develop this fundamental principal of our Creator so it can be used by many  others. I know this now to be an absolute key to reversing the epidemic of obesity and associated health problems plaguing our contemporary world. A uncompromising belief in our Creator and following his laws of creation applied to our bodies are salient points to success. 

Lord Luv Ya!

I am posting a Excel spread sheet showing the correlation between decreased BMI/weight reduction and the improvement in the objective parameters indicating my greatly improved health.

Date hs-CRP   (1) TG/HDL Ratio (2) HDL  TG VLDL CHOL     (3) Weight Pounds Lost BMI  (4)
4/1/2009 4.7         345   50.94
8/13/2009 4.7         302 43 44.59
11/16/2009 ** 1.72 39.6 68 14 282 63 41.64
3/18/2010 1.8 1.25 43.3 54 11 259 86 38.24

1.    Average normal values are 1-3.

2.    Normal is 1-3

3.    < 20 desirable   

4.    50 or greater is super obese.
       40 to 40.9 is morbid obese.
       30 to 39.9 is obese
        25 to 29.9 overweight
        18.5 to 24.9 normal  

**  I had the CRP done on this date, but the lab mistakenly ran the regular CRP test which gave results that would not fit the same results format of the hs-CRP reporting. The result reported by the lab for regular CRP was at that time within normal limits.

 

 

 

 

 

Footnotes:

[1] http://www.annecollins.com/lose_weight/weight-loss-surgery.htm3

[2].http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1856611&rendertype=table&id=t2-18

[3] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/30761.php