Thursday July 23, 2009

Today went well. I finally submitted my "Milk: The Perfect Drink?" article. It should be published next week. I believe I updated the previous post to the submitted state. I had some good help editing and formating the article until it really conveyed my hypothesis.

Every once in a while I run into friends that don't really understand vegan. It is a very strict diet, but not as bad as the post-bariatric surgery diet. The vegan diet is a little different than the vegan "life style" which includes a lot of political activism against cruelty to animals. It's not that I like what happens with farm animals, but it's just not my focus. My vegan diet consists of no meat of any kind including my favorite, Lobster. As opposed to vegetarians, vegans do not eat any dairy or byproducts. I also severely restrict my caffeine and alcohol. I don't eat anything with processed sugar or corn syrup and I don't eat bleached flour. Sounds strict, but it's actually quite easy if you shop at a good health food store. You would be surprised at how many vegan foods you can find in King Soopers. I do take special vitamins aimed towards vegetarians and vegans and I monitor my food ingredients closely. For instance, today I had fruit and nuts for breakfast; pinto beans, salsa, and corn chips for lunch; and finally, for dinner, a lot of veggie rich salad with vinaigrette, some rice, and lots of broccoli. No butter; however, I do have some vegan butter that is quite good, but it doesn't melt as easily as dairy butter. If I really need desert, I have some vegan oat and raisin cookies or even a vegan "ice cream" sandwich. If I want milk in my cereal, I use regular soy milk. It's all vegan and it makes you feel great.

This morning I had my oncologist appointment. I had some time before the appointment to workout. I knew I was going to cut it close, but I rode my bike on my favorite BC reservoir loop. I really put the metal to the peddle to make sure I could get back on time to take a quick shower. With that motivation I rode as hard and as fast as I could. I believe my previous benchmark for this ride was 1.22.24 hours. Today, I plugged out a 1.04.10 hour time. It was a pretty serious 11.13 miles of hills and I feel it now. Tomorrow morning I'll swim some more laps and work out my upper torso with weight training. The oncologist appointment went as well as could be expected. My platelet count still hovers around 70-80,000. No real problem as long as I stay above 50,000. I did get my monthly B-12 shot.

I was tired this afternoon and needed to chill (aka. nap) for about an hour. I would still say my mental health is good. Probably a 4 out of 5. My calorie intake was fair yesterday. I'd give it a 4 out of 5. This morning I weighed in at 337.2 before my bike ride. As usual, I lost 1.2 pounds of water weight on the ride. I suppose that you could double that if I didn't push water so much during the ride. Boy, it was hot out there this morning. I have lost about 14 pounds this month, but I'm as concerned with my weight because I'm still building some great muscle tone. I'm actually caught up tonight. Maybe I'll watch an hour of "on demand."

Early Afternoon Post 7-16-09

Woke up and weighed in at 338.4 pounds. I knew I shouldn't have eaten so many salty pistachios and last night's salad bar my have been too much. All vegan, but still. My new scale for food quality and quantity is still 1 to 5, but now the bar has been raised due to the vegan diet. Taking for granted that I'm eating vegan, the new scale will measure volume. Yesterday was a 3.

This morning's bike ride was intense. Assume you're ideal weight; now strap on or pull an extra 150 pounds. That's me. The sun was blistering bright, but the temperature was only a dry and windy 85 degrees. I rode to and around the 11.38 mile Bear Creek Reservoir trail. Deadly lifts, but rewarding downhills. Earlier this morning, I ate a bowl of bran cereal (with soy milk) and drank some water. I drank a bottle of gaderaid and some water on the ride and weighed 337.00 pounds when I returned home. I set the benchmark for the ride time at 1.22.24 hours. An average speed of 9.3 MPH. I can live with that. I may go lift weights with my son after I return from the doctor.

I'm going to add a new measurement here. I think mental health is so important that I will rate my mood on a 1 to 5 scale. Considering the pending doctor's visit, I would still give me a 4. I feel pretty darn good.

July 11th 2009 Daily notes

After eating a banana and a pear, I hydrated as much as possible and hit the trail up to the reservoir. It was one of those Rocky Mountain sunny hot days and very beautiful. I rode around Bear Creek reservoir and then back up and over. The ride was 11.38 miles and it took 1.28 minutes. I drank two full water bottles; around 50 ounces and scaled in when I returned and found that I had lost almost a pound despite the water. I rehydrated and went to eat at Sweet Tomato's for lunch. Yumm! Before the bike ride I weighed in at 340.2. I'd give Friday a 4 on the food scale. Oh yeah, my biopsy infection has gotten worse. I have only been on K-Flex for 30 hours, but, due to my low platelet count, I think I may have to go back in. It just looks nasty.

Super killer day

Kind of quick notes: Slept good last night. Today was marathon day. I am genuinely exhausted. This morning, in 90 degree sunny weather, I rode my bike up BCR, then down the mountain trail and back up to the top. 9 miles that felt like 20. I was out riding for 1.45 hours. Did some chores, wrote July 10th's lesson plan for the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, then went swimming. Swam a mile in 44 minutes flat. Very tired. Second full day of vegan. It's really not that hard. It maybe an alternative to bariatric surgery. I won't schedule a surgery date until after the end of the month. I want to see how much I've lost by then. The restrictive diet you have to be on for the rest of your life with the surgery is harder than vegan. I prefer the soy milk, fake cheddar, yummy bread, and the ??? butter. I've used agave nectar as a sweetener for a long time, so that's not hard. I ate three great meals and had some fruit in between. Drank lots of water and one non- sweetened Gatorade today. Weighed in at 343.2 this morning.

I think I'll do so more research and write an article on dairy products. The "Skinny Bastard" book was a grizzly start, but I want to explore the benefits of a dairy free diet. Other than animal flesh and fat, dairy seems to be my personal weakness. Not milk. I hate milk. But cheese, sour cream and, OMG, ice cream! After reading their book I realized how horrible my "healthy," balanced diet was. I feel like I will greatly improve my weight loss with this vegan life change. My PCP said he tried to be a vegetarian when he was in Berkley (ha, ha, ha) and he said most of his veg friends were not thin (munchies), but the elimination of dairy is the key... I think After all, I am the Obesity Warrior! I need a chant or something. Like Tim the tool man. Huh, huh, huh. Not very convincing. Ho ho ho. Now, I'm Santa.

Bonus bike ride

Got board. Went with my 18 year old son on a killer mountain bike ride. Mud, rocks, serious down hill, sweat, and a sore butt. Happy and finally a little tired.