The Challenge- eating well

The competitors: Chris Brogan and Myself

Lets do this Chris -

The bet:
Which one of us can lose the most inches around in the abdomen

Measured: 
one inch above the abdomen
We chose this because scales are often inaccurate, and vary from place to place. We can't use pant sizes because- well - you see. My pant size depends on my clothes: if I wear my "Lucky" brand jeans I wear a 33 inch. If I wear Nordstrom I have a 35 inch pant size, but one inch above the abdomen - 45 inches. That is the place where the weight will be lost.

There is a reason we don't use belt size

How Will I Do It?
Menu planning, eating at home, and increasing activity.

You can see it here:
Chris's girlfriend is a personal trainer, a nutrition aficionado, and his muse for personal health. She will be guiding him, as she has, through his journey. They gave an inspiring talk at the #140conf  #140You this year, and I talked a bit about my weight loss journey and how I have turned in my surgical scrubs for a chef's apron.

My Journey:
Ten years ago I found myself in a personal health crisis: my weight was up, my blood pressure was up, and I had little energy.

I was set for weight loss surgery, having done it for years. I had my surgeon picked out in a different city, and was ready for the process. Then I looked at my own patients who had lost weight and kept it off. I started to ask them what had changed. If I was going to have weight loss surgery, I wanted to set myself up for success.

What changed in them was the opposite of what I was doing.

I realized that over a period of three years I had gained eighty pounds by eating too often at restaurants. I was not eating at great restaurants, but chain restaurants. I had stopped cooking because I thought I didn’t have time. So I decided to see what would happen if I went back to cooking at home and away from restaurants. I didn’t want to loose all the weight at once. I wasn’t going on a diet⎯I was changing my life. I gave myself a year to change my life- and I did it! I kept going and didn’t need weight loss surgery.

I began to examine other patients who had surgery, patients who had clogged arteries, who had bad backs, who had bad knees. One universal theme to all who had shown improvement was that they were eating at home.

With the exception of the year my wife was pregnant, every year I have lost five or ten pounds. My blood pressure is low-normal and my weight is below where anyone would operate on me for surgery. I am still working at eating fresh, healthy, whole foods, and my energy is through the roof.

This is not a diet program. It’s just a way to live that is simple and easy. If a busy surgeon can do this, so can you.

Measure It and Manage It:
If you don't measure what you do, you cannot manage it. So I measure my food- I have a scale, and everything that I cook and eat is measured, there is not an issue with eye-balling the portion size.

If you don't measure it- you cannot manage it

My Menu Plan:
It is important to plan out what you are going to eat- so there is no question about what you will eat, and what you will shop for. Here is what I am doing today. A few words about the menu plan: I use soy milk because I have a lactose intolerance.  I use steel cut oatmeal because, unlike rolled oats, it is less processed and produces less of a glycemic reaction.

Breakfast Lunch Dinner Snacks Soy Milk Steel cut Oatmeal Raisins Banana Coffee Turkey sandwich apple Tea Salmon Apple Broccoli Fruit salad Tea Yogurt Almonds Raisins Smoked Salmon Blueberries Strawberries

The bread I use for my sandwich is Ezekiel bread - a true grain bread and quite filling. In fact for my weight loss surgery patients this is the only bread that I allow them.

For tea I drink Yorkshire Gold - there simply is no other. I add a "splash of milk."

The salmon I will get from the market today. I insist on fresh salmon, and if it isn't fresh I will get a different fish. It is expensive to get fresh and wild salmon - but I refuse any other. I like baking salmon- and I use herbs from my garden.

The smoked salmon is from Alaska- a good friend of mine, Dave (@gneicco) was generous with his.

Smoked salmon from Alaska- a favorite snack

Yogurt is a problem, because many yogurts are nothing but unfrozen ice cream -they are sugar filled snacks. So I am quite picky about the yogurt I pick, and often get Greek Yogurt-  I realize there are a lot of yogurts out there, so read the label.

If you want to see the recipes- you can find them at my site TerrySimpson.com

Activity:
I monitor my activity using the Nike Fuel band. Using Nike Fuel points I can see throughout the day if I have made my goal. It inspires me to walk the dog, take the stairs, and park farther away. It is the little bits of increasing activity every day that matter.I did discover that my 2 year old is great for increasing activity - just keeping up with him....