Pass The Oatmeal Please #4

   We have already talked about how I felt about a diet would not work for me, I wanted to completely change my eating habits, losing weight would be a benefit of that but not my ultimate goal.  I felt confident that my approach should be to eliminate foods, and eating habits that were bad for me.  For years after most, not all, but most meals I felt stuffed, like normal eaters would feel after Thanksgiving dinner. So I needed to eat less at meals and still be hungry.   I'm sorry but it's not going to be easy for us who have bad eating habits to change. If you're going to lose weight, and keep it off,  you're going to have to experience being hungry until your body and mind begin to adjust to the new you. And when you start losing that first few pounds you're going to feel good about yourself. And when you start having to tighten up on that belt, and clothes that were tight in the waist begin to feel just a little bit loser, you're not going to mind being hungry anymore.  It won't take as long as you thought and you'll begin to feel good about what your doing and believe that you can do this.
    I  knew if I eliminated red meat I was going to lose weight. The good thing for me was my eating so much meat, if I could give it up, that would be a major step in weight loss.  I would get the health benefits of a lot less red meat.  Now let me say this.  I am not a vegetarian, and I do continue to eat some red meat.   My wife makes vegetable soups, some with meat. Beef.  I am not a cook,  she could tell you how she does it, but I assure you the meat is not prepared in a way to make it more unhealthy.  You don't have to quit eating meat to lose weight and change to healthier eating habits.  It is all about you, what you want to do about changing. Being dedicated and ready to change.  Reducing red meat by 99 percent was one of my choices.  I simply got tired of meat, period, that includes chicken, turkey, and fish.  I am currently probably not eating enough chicken and fish for protein. Once every several  months I get hungry for my favorite meal, spaghetti. So I eat spaghetti.  But that's it for me. Some meat in some soups anytime I want it, and spaghetti, 3 or 4 times a year.  Remember my heart surgeon, the one  who wears cowboy boots.  My heart surgery was on my 42 wedding anniversary, we were suppose to have been having dinner at Houston's restaurant.  Prime rib would have been my choice.  Anyway he tells me when you get home from the hospital take your wife to Houston's and celebrate, bring some of your steak home and leave it in the refrigerator overnight.  Look at it the next morning, and that is what is going into your arteries.  I didn't order meat for my meal,  but I did do what he suggested and refrigerated cooked steak overnight.  You need to try it too.  If you have survived a heart attack and had heart surgery, do you want that going into your coronary system?
    Right now some of you who have had heart attacks are getting uncomfortable with what I'm saying. Maybe you're not ready to change some old habits, give up some foods. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.  My cardiologist and surgeon each told me the same thing. "You were lucky. Most people who are asleep and have the attack you had don't wake up." So if I have a another, final heart attack, there won't be a footnote, "he didn't take care of himself."  I know some guys who have had bypass surgery, no heart attacks, and they continue to smoke, drink and eat anything and as much as they want and don't get much exercise.  I use to be one of them.  I changed, you can change.
   Okay back to where we were.  I was not eating much in the way of fruits and vegetables.  So here was another opportunity, replace sweets, starches, fried foods, chips, soft drinks, with foods like bananas, strawberries, oranges, apples, and green vegetables.   I began by limiting myself to less than 1400 calories per day.  A general day went like this.   Breakfast large bowl of oatmeal,  I like mine thin, almost soupy, I use a 1 (oats) to 4 (water ) ratio.  Nothing else in the oatmeal, I  love it.  I know what you're thinking, my wife also says I'm weird about oatmeal.  Sometimes I eat it for lunch or dinner.  It's filling.  Mid-morning if I want a snack I have an orange or banana.  For lunch one small can of tuna packed in water, not oil, some dill pickles, 5 or 6 saltine crackers and mustard, a sliced small tomato and lettuce.  For desert an apple or orange and a couple of strawberries.  I buy the large bite size freshly packed berries.  Afternoon snack, back to the fruit.  Dinner normally is always either  soup, a  large salad,  or a plain baked potato.  Sometimes I will take maybe left over soup and pour it over the potato. There are a lot of things you could add to it without using sour cream or butter.   At night is always the toughest part for me, that was my old heavy snack time.  I normally will eat a very small serving of yogurt, or fruit, and before bedtime a small (child size glass) serving of skim milk.   I like milk so I save it every night as a treat to look forward to. It is always skim milk. No 2 % or regular milk. 

    I didn't weigh myself a lot.  Started at 240 pounds and got on scales the next time 6 weeks later.  I would have gotten discouraged had I weighed myself every day.

I'll tell you about it later.