Vultaire's journal

[Vultaire]

Hello anyone who happens to see this. And as a first post giving some history, this will be a little long-winded and rambly as I try to summarize my story up until now into a few paragraphs. Skip to the end if you just want to see a chart of my progress and where I am now.

My name's Paul, and I've struggled with weight basically my whole life. I've had times where I've lost a lot of it - in Tops when I was a kid, and through brute force "Dance Dance Revolution" exercise for hours every week when I was single and out of college. I moved to Japan, and was doing pretty well there, running and ultimately getting down to around 182 lbs until stress and Japanese junk food sent me back up to around 220. ...Then I moved back to the States, and saw how easy it is to get fat here compared to over there.

At my absolute largest, I was around 320 or 330, and I thankfully was able to brute force that down to 182 like I mentioned above - bought myself years of time. But, while my eating habits improved, they did not improve enough, and here in the states I can clearly see I'm tending towards a 250 to 260 pound set point, and even higher if I don't work at it.

...In 2017, I got inspired by Penn Jilette's book Presto. That lead to reading Joel Fuhrman's Eat to Live, and then as I read the comments sections of YouTube videos related to plant-based eating, I kept hearing people talking about Dr. McDougall. Anyway, inspired originally by Penn Jilette's book, I decided to do the 2 week of potatoes he did in the book. ...Not 100% potatoes; my wife wasn't bought in and we have young kids that were learning to cook, so I felt had to make some allowances. But mostly potatoes.

2 weeks became 2 months, with major progress I couldn't believe - not really exercising, the weight was melting off.

I went off program for awhile and gained a little back - I forget why - but I got back on program, and another 2 months passed, with more crazy progress. Altogether, I went from 267.4 to 217.1.

I had trouble getting back with the program, because I basically only did potatoes and sweet potatoes, and wasn't doing enough to keep it enjoyable. I was doing lots of hot sauces with my white potatoes, but found that that made me crave sweets, and while sometimes I kept it healthy with fruit, sometimes I would succumb and go for the bad stuff. There was also the problem of me having too much initial success - I got overconfident and let myself revert back to old habits, because of course I could get the weight off again...

Anyway, my weight crept up, eventually erasing all the progress I did, because I didn't really make this a regular way of eating - I thought I would, but really I only treated it as a diet.

I'll avoid rambling too much, but as you can see from my chart at the end of this post, my weight went back to around 250-260, with a lot of oscillating as I tried various plant-based things and perhaps just tried to make things too complicated. (I can barely cook, and was trying out plant-based recipes, but only got a couple under my belt and none were satisfying enough for me to stick with as a regular thing.)

Anyway, fast forward to near the end of last year - my body basically was telling me I had to do something. I may have been overreacting, but some of the chest discomfort I was having, and the elevated blood pressure, and my wife threatening to throw away my skinnier clothes if I don't actually make progress again... Well, I got back on the potatoes.

I've done a lot of reading: Dr. Furhman, Dr. McDougall, Dr. Greger, Ray Cronise, and some others... but I think the philosophy that is closest to what I'm comfortable with, and closest to what I've been succeeding with personally, is Dr. McDougall's method. ...And that is why I've finally joined the forums here, which I've known about for some time.

Hearing Dr. McDougall talk and even suggest people try simply eating potatoes has been encouraging. And I get that it's not just that - other starches are great as well. And barbeque sauces, even some sugar, are actually OK?! Now the guilt goes away a bit...

And the latest bit for me personally has been: dressing things up while staying with the plan - again, at least for the meals I prepare. Almost every day for lunch, I have a potato salsa wrap - air-fried potato quarters (yes, steamed is better and I may make that change), wrapped in a tortilla and covered with healthy salsa, and some barbeque sauce on the side for the spuds I can't fit in the wrap. It's legitimately starch-based, and I legitimately love the flavor, no joke. I do need to find some healthier tortillas though; I do see there is some oil in the ones I'm using, and I'd like to get rid of that...

So... That basically gets me to current day. 243.3 lbs, certainly not my lowest but on a strong downward trend with no inclination to stop.

I've got a number of challenges ahead - my tendency to get bounced off diet in one way or another due to special occasions and the like, and my spouse's cooking, which I love - and which is healthier than the typical American diet (she's Japanese) - but which still uses more oil and animal products than I'd like. I'm hoping I can eventually get her on board, especially if there is a chance of the diet helping her with her migraines... But for now I'm doing what I can, and getting more assertive of my desire to minimize those off-diet foods. It's a work in progress, and I hope those of you who are truly on program will forgive me for not being quite there yet, but - I'm heading that way, and as I get more used to eating this way, I think the situation will improve.

I'll wrap things up here. Again, really rambly, and I'm not going to bother proofreading or revising this initial post - if I keep posting updates, I'll make the updates more coherent.

For those of you who've stuck with the post, and for those of you who skipped to the end Here's an annotated view of my journey thus far. Click if it's too small.



So - Nice to meet you all, and wish me luck. I'm gonna make this happen, whatever it takes. For my health and for my family.

[Ejeff]

Glad you found Dr. McDougall, this way of eating definitely works.

You could choose to make your own meals to avoid the oil and animal products completely. Cooking doesn’t need to be complicated. Some brown rice or potatoes in a big bowl mixed with veggies, some beans and canned tomatoes. Once you have success through consistency it will be easier for your spouse to join you. If she consumes diary it is likely triggering her migraines. My daughter had migraines several times a week, now she has zero.

Wishing you success, you don’t need luck really, just starches.

Erin

[deweyswakms]

Hello anyone who happens to see this. For my health and for my family.

Hi Paul,

Progress not perfection; you have momentum on your side now. I tend to do the same thing: too much initial success" I have lost lots of weight and gotten healthy blood work. Yet it is very easy to get complacent and think a little of this, of that, is OK now. But it isn't, for me.

Have you listened to Dr. Lisle and The Pleasure Trap? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX2btaDOBK8

I like to cook but really eating 'this way' (look at the MWL checkpoints) doesn't require great skill. I rely on my crockpot to make soups and veggie chilis.

Good luck, Marsha

[Susan5]

Hello anyone who happens to see this. And as a first post giving some history, this will be a little long-winded and rambly as I try to summarize my story up until now into a few paragraphs. Skip to the end if you just want to see a chart of my progress and where I am now.

Welcome, Paul. I read your whole post. You did a great job summarizing your story.

Then I moved back to the States, and saw how easy it is to get fat here compared to over there.

What, from your experience, actually makes it easier to get fat here compared to Japan, especially since you mentioned eating Japanese junk food caused you to gain weight while you were there? I would love for you to expand on the differences, if you don't mind.

There was also the problem of me having too much initial success - I got overconfident and let myself revert back to old habits, because of course I could get the weight off again...

Why do we do this to ourselves!? This is one bad thinking habit that I've had to work on letting go of; it really makes no sense! It's interesting to step outside of ourselves and see, from an outside perspective, the crazy ideas our mind will convince us of in order to stop us from making changes.

I've got a number of challenges ahead - my tendency to get bounced off diet in one way or another due to special occasions and the like, and my spouse's cooking, which I love - and which is healthier than the typical American diet (she's Japanese) - but which still uses more oil and animal products than I'd like.

One thing I do when I'm not in control of my food, I use napkins to soak up as much oil as I can. So, before you serve yourself something that your wife has made, maybe you can place a paper towel on your plate and then place the food on top of the paper towel so that it can help to absorb some of the excess oil?? Just a thought. Maybe your wife, seeing you go to such lengths to improve you health, will feel compelled to use less oil, or not oil, in order to help make it easier for you.

So - Nice to meet you all, and wish me luck. I'm gonna make this happen, whatever it takes. For my health and for my family.

No luck needed. If this is what you really want, you'll find a way to make it happen, even through all the ups and downs. Use your "downs" as opportunities to learn what caused you to falter, and how to set yourself up differently in the future so that it's less likely to happen again. Changing habits is about being aware of your behaviors and understanding what needs to change. If you just hope that your mind/habits will magically change simply because that's what you wish would happen, you're going to struggle more than necessary. Real change happens because you want it more than your cravings/current habits want you not to change. Yes, the cravings/years of bad habits can make it difficult, but, if it's worth it to you, you will find your way through.

[Vultaire]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and very accepting responses. I see this is a very active and positive community; thanks to everyone that replied.

I want to reply to a few things real quick:

Progress not perfection; you have momentum on your side now. I tend to do the same thing: too much initial success" I have lost lots of weight and gotten healthy blood work. Yet it is very easy to get complacent and think a little of this, of that, is OK now. But it isn't, for me.

Have you listened to Dr. Lisle and The Pleasure Trap? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX2btaDOBK8

Thanks; nice to hear from someone who understands. I think I've heard of the pleasure trap, but I don't think I've actually watched that video; it's queued up from now.

Without watching it though, I can just say that expecially recently, I've come to realize that if I eat these off-program foods without actually thinking about how much I'm eating, or thinking about "have I had enough"... I keep thinking I'm hungry, or I crave things even when I know I'm not hungry. Despite the successes I may have had, it was fairly recently that I saw I really cannot trust my feelings around some of these foods, and that "addiction", as hyperbolic as it may sound, might actually be a fairly apt way to describe how some food affects me...

What, from your experience, actually makes it easier to get fat here compared to Japan, especially since you mentioned eating Japanese junk food caused you to gain weight while you were there? I would love for you to expand on the differences, if you don't mind.

Very good question!

I'd say it's 50% mystery and 50% makes sense, because when I got really carried away, I had a lot of crap in Japan. Let me take two angles with this: the junk food and the fast food.

Regarding junk food (i.e. snacks and stuff I would eat between meals), I'd say that generally things were healthier - forgive me for talking specifics of potentially off-program foods, but it was less candy bars and more things like sweet breads, sweet red bean confections, or steamed dumplings... In other words, things that tended to be closer to real food rather than pure junk. There was legit "real" junk food as well, plus American junk food imports (but thankfully those were small portions and expensive), so... I tended to buy junk food like a Japanese would buy junk food, which is better than you'd have in America.

Regarding fast food (i.e. meals), I think it was less of a mystery. One word basically sums it up I think: rice. Sure, they have McDonalds in Japan (and I think it's actually cheaper than in America!), but there's healthier options for fast food. One such option is donburis. What's a donburi? It's a bowl of white rice (typically) with something on top, which typically is meat and grilled onions, but not a lot of meat really. Far more rice than anything else. And these are inexpensive, often costing less than a burger and perhaps even being served with miso soup and/or pickles. So, while some of these dishes certainly had meat, and perhaps may have been advertised for the meat, they were really mostly rice. ...Putting that example aside, you had other sorts of light fare you could get, like udon or soba noodles at little food stands, which, while not perfectly healthy in some cases, are complete health food compared to typical fast food here in America.

So, there you have it - lots of rice (even if mostly white rice) basically everywhere, some dishes actually being arguably starch-based even if not animal product free, and other meals at least having a better sense of "balance" than what you'd get in America. And often for a reasonable price. And with reasonable, satisfying-but-not-huge portions, in my opinion. That's why I think my set point in Japan (when I wasn't worrying too much about diet) was probably around 30-40 pounds lighter than here in America.

One last comment: I do see some overweight Japanese in Japan, and eating trends definitely are changing, but the difference when you look at people on the street is even today a night and day difference. If I visit Japan, then come back to the US, it's such an obvious visible difference - seeing overweight people basically everywhere you look here, versus barely seeing any overweight people in Japan, or when you do, they're nowhere near as overweight as people you see here on an everyday basis.

Anyway, sorry for the off-plan food references; not sure how touchy people are about mentioning that type of thing around here, but it felt necessary to answer the question. Certainly don't want to trigger anyone to go eat something they are trying to avoid.

Once you have success through consistency it will be easier for your spouse to join you. If she consumes diary it is likely triggering her migraines. My daughter had migraines several times a week, now she has zero.

Maybe your wife, seeing you go to such lengths to improve you health, will feel compelled to use less oil, or not oil, in order to help make it easier for you.

I'm hoping that I can kind of get her on-board. The funny thing is, she actually has been exposed to similar diets in the past - the main one she tried was a "genmai diet", which is a diet she read a book or two about which has some following in Japan. (Genmai is basically Japanese brown rice.) She doesn't really need to lose weight - or perhaps arguably only a little - she did it for health, and she still tries it occasionally to try to manage her headaches, but it's too boring and strict of a diet for her.

So... I've printed out and have the Japanese translation of the McDougall Color Picture Book sitting in my office, and have been waiting to introduce it to her at a time when she might be receptive.

She's watched "What the Health" with me, but time has faded its impact, and she cannot imagine herself really giving up fish or meat, so if I can get her to try the McDougall diet, it may just start as a tactic for migraine mitigation. But hey, even that would be a start. And I know in recent years she's been really turned off of doctors trying to fix everything with a pill, so obviously there's a lot of potential here, but at the same time - it's her call and her choice.

[Susan5]

Thank you for the great reply. That makes more sense. What I got from what you said is that basically their junk food is still miles healthier than our junk food, and portions overall are much smaller, regardless of the "health" quality of the food.

In regards to food, I don't cook with oil (hopefully you can convince your wife to at least do that), but if I don't feel like cooking myself a separate meal from my family, I will just eat what I make for them, but avoid the meat portion. Even if it's a stir fry type of meal, I will scoop out much as I can without the meat bits, and then pick out what meat did make it onto my plate, either throwing it back into the pan or giving it to a family member. Thankfully, my husband is willing to eat less meat, so there are many meals I make which don't contain meat at all. Anyhow, I know how it feels when you don't want to make something separate from everyone else, so that's an idea to help make it easier for you, along with the napkin trick. Sometimes, though, it is just easier to make your own meal. I'm just throwing ideas out there, trying to help you for various scenarios. It's better to have a few work around ideas at the ready rather than give up in frustration or fatigue. How does that saying go? "Fail to plan...plan to fail." I think there's a lot of truth to that. Part of this process is learning where you come up against struggles and developing alternative ways/plans for dealing with those moments.

You mention struggling with cravings when you're not really hungry, etc. I know a lot of people here are able to follow the eat when hungry method, but I can't do that. I've tried to do that many times, but it just does not work for me. The mind is very powerful, and whenever I try to do that, my mind works overtime trying to convince me that I'm hungry when I'm not. I got tired of fighting with my mind over it. In my signature, I quote myself saying the best thing I did for myself was to break up with food (I started a food obsession thread about it), which has been a recent thing, and part of that has been figuring out how to break free from all obsessive thoughts of food, including this issue. So, what I decided to do was to have set meal times. I even went so far as to set alarms on my phone for those meal times, so that I also free my mind of the compulsion to keep looking at the clock to see what time it is, and whether or not it's getting close to meal time. This way, I can go about my day not thinking about whether or not I'm really hungry or what time it is; I'm training my brain to realize, and accept, that it's not time to eat until you hear the alarm, whether or not you think you're hungry. So far, this is working wonderfully for me. It's another layer of food freedom that I'm figuring out for myself. As the days pass, I'm feeling more and more free...actually, I should go add this to my thread. Take care.

[Susan5]

Hey, Paul, how are you doing?