Cheers to Kirstie Alley?

Days 321 - 327

Remember when I voiced my doubts over diets and weight loss programs in this entry and then in this one?

Yesterday, the news broke that Kirstie Alley has recently lost 50 lbs. Congrats Ms. Alley, that is quite an accomplishment!


Wait.

Didn’t you slim down before? How did you do that again?

Oh yeeeaaaaaah:

"Last year, Alley, 59, confessed that she had ballooned back up to 230 pounds — after initially losing 75-pounds via Jenny Craig and announcing it on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2006."

Ms. Alley, I know it is hard to lose weight and keep it off, but I also know the best results I have ever reached for weight loss was from exercise and eating healthier—more vegetables, no meat, less sugar and white flour, as well as reducing my processed food intake. I am not saying you have to drop meat from your diet but please, see a dietician or nutritionist, one that doesn’t work for or endorse a weight loss center because it seems those places didn’t work for you. I am not saying weight loss centers don’t work at all, but you can’t depend on one forever to keep the weight off. That comes from you and nobody else.

So how long until the “Organic Liaison" line of foods fails you as well and you gain some or all of that weight back?

Not trying to be mean, just playing devil’s advocate.

Once again, congrats on the weight loss, Ms. Alley.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Meatless Man’s New Clothes

Days 314 & 315

Remember how I had to get a new suit a few months back?

Well, it only stood to reason that if a suit I bought just over a year ago was that loose on me then my regular clothes would be as well. And they soooooo were:

I donated them all to the Salvation Army. Just look at those piles of old clothes!

Hmmmm…what was I supposed to do with all that empty drawer space?

Why get some new threads of course!

And so in late June I went to Old Navy and Target:

And got new shirts and new pants that actually fit!!!!!

See?

It feels good to be trim and now it my clothes fit better too!

Talk to you soon!

meatlessman@yahoo.com

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Tidbits About What is Coming Up in the Meatless Year Blog

Days 311 - 313

August was a watershed month for this meatless blog. I had reached my weight loss goal and there were 3,527 visits to the blog last month alone. Instead of hundreds of visitors per month this blog is now getting thousands of visitors per month. People really are interested in what is on their meal plates whether it is meat or not.

Stay tuned as I have some pretty interesting entries coming up including:

- A guest blog entry by a dedicated meat lover. (I believe that a person’s opinion is worthless if they don’t keep an open mind and listen to the other side’s point of view as well.)

- An entry on buying new clothes because of all the weight loss.

- Interviews with other bloggers out there who took control of their lives and turned to healthier lifestyle choices when it came to what they ate.

Thank you all for your support and if you think you know someone who would benefit from checking out this blog then please, by all means, send them my way. I’ll be here for a bit folks.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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10 Months Meatless!

Day 306

The account of my meatless trip to Canada will conclude in the next entry because once again I have passed the 2nd of the month so…

I have now been meatless for ten months.

Yep. Ten. Whole. Months.

In that time…

-I have lost 66 lbs and gotten into better shape.

-I have increased my energy levels.

-There have been almost 9,000 visits to this blog—people are interested in healthier eating, even if not in by going meatless.

Ten months down and two more to go in this first meatless year o’ mine.

Keep reading!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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300 Days Meatless!

Days 298 – 300!

As of this writing I have reached 300 days of being meatless. There is just a little over two months to go for my first meatless year.

I still feel great. This is the best I have felt in years and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Once again, thank you all for your support and positive feedback. This blog has reached over 7,700 visits since November. I don’t really know how good that is compared to other blogs, but I am happy with all those visits just the same. It means that on some level people are interested in healthier eating and that is one of the main points of doing this blog, to inform others about better food choices.

Here are just some of the highlights from my first 300 days of being meatless:

Gave up meat in the first place.

Celebrated the holidays meatless here and here.

Started Exercising again.

Started a Facebook fan page.

Started blog Tweets.

Been asked to speak at the Y about the blog and healthier eating habits.

Added weight training to my exercise routine.

Foolishly tried to go vegan (no offense to any vegans out there) The end result can be found here and here.

Looked at some of my old, unhealthy eating habits.

Stopped taking vitamins.

Finally discovered why the women in my life take forever when shopping for clothes.

Got a new suit.

At long last, for the first time in my life reached my weight loss goal.

And now 300 days of being meatless!!!!!!!

(Don’t worry, I will write about my Canada trip soon like I promised!)

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Sweet Rewards

Days 285 - 289

I believe that it is important to give yourself some small rewards along the path of a fitness goal—especially when it is a weight loss goal. Everyone has that something special they like to reward themselves with—whether they consciously realize it or not. The best thing about a special reward? It doesn’t have to be good for you.

One special reward of mine I find irresistible is Reese’s Pieces. Mmmmm…. Reese’s Pieces.

Peanut Butter M&M’s are satisfactory but, to me, they simply pale in comparison to Reese’s Pieces. Mmmmm… Reese’s Pieces.

Oh E.T., you were so onto something wonderful. Why did our government mistreat you so? I love Reese’s Pieces to death even though I know they have little to no nutritional worth. They are ideal for the movies—especially the larger sized bags! Mmmmm…Reese’s Pieces.

Yes, I like a good bag of, okay, I will say it again… Reese’s Pieces. They are all right to have once in a while as a reward for losing weight or sticking to an exercise plan, but they shouldn’t be an everyday—or even every week (in my opinion) food staple. Eat the healthy foods regularly, save the sweets and bad fatty treats for a special occasion or a small (emphasis on small) reward for losing weight.

Still…Reese’s Pieces are not my only unwholesome self reward. I am sometimes sorely tempted to eat half a bag of these in one sitting:

Mmmm….Ore Ida Extra Large Cheese Sticks….why can’t you stay out of my life for good?!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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9 Months of Being Meatless!

Days 275 & 276

On Monday, August 2nd, I reached 9 months of being meatless! I totally didn't remember until early yesterday morning that I had reached that point in my meatless year!

So...

- I have now been meatless for 3/4 of a year.

- My eating habits in general have improved!

- I have shed many pounds!

- I have even built up some muscle!

- My energy levels are generally higher and more consistent too!

- I have reached a better understanding of how the food we eat in our western culture is raised and processed. Believe me, it makes it a bit easier to make better eating choices when you know exactly what is in your food and how (and why) it gets put in there.

Besides the great taste of it, I really don't miss meat—and I don't even miss that aspect all that much! There are plenty of other tasty foods out there that are not cow, pig, chicken, turkey or fish. One just has to look and they can discover them for themselves.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Over 8 Months Meatless!

Day 247

Last Friday, July 2nd, I hit the 8 month mark for being meatless!

I have now been meatless for over 2/3 of a year! I have lost a lot of weight too! How much at this point? Hopefully I will get to a certain milestone number within the next two weeks that will allow me to share exactly where I am at. Stay tuned on that front.

Has anybody else gone meatless or made a pledge to eat healthier and exercise within the past year? Write me at meatlessman@yahoo.com and maybe we can share your inspirational stories with others.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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The Doctor’s Appointment

Days 226 - 228

Last week, I blogged on here about making a doctor’s appointment to check on my vitamin levels. On Monday at 9:20 am I showed up at my doctor’s office.

The nurse called me in almost immediately and, as the usual when seeing my primary care physician, I was led right to the scale. As regular followers of this blog know, I have lost a little weight since when I saw my doctor last fall. The nurse was quite impressed with the weight loss, we talked about my new eating habits and how I wanted to see if I had any nutritional deficiencies. We also spoke about this blog and why I was keeping it—to let others know of my experiences going meatless and to use it as a tool to help keep myself off meat.

After taking my pulse and blood pressure, she left and I waited patiently for the doctor.

When the doctor came in he also expressed his happiness over my weight loss and we discussed what I was eating—no meat, more fruits/veggies, whole grains, less dairy and less junk food. For my protein supplement I told him that beans, walnuts, whey shakes and peanut butter helped give me what would otherwise be missing in a meatless diet. I also told him about how, after reading a few articles on the general ineffectiveness of vitamins, I gave up taking multivitamins as well.

He agreed that my diet was healthy and balanced but did say that vitamin D was lacking in most people and recommended I take 1000 IUs a day.

I told him that I was taking a calcium supplement with D already and would be upping the daily dosage to meet his recommendation. The doctor didn’t see the need for any blood work.

There you have it. My diet is balanced and I didn’t even have to undergo any tests!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Old Suit, New Suit

Days 222 - 224

Last year, around this time, I decided it was finally time to get a new suit. I can’t remember the last time before that I had bought a suit—it must have been years.

That spiffy 2009 model suit served me well up until this year when, after months of exercise and a meatless diet, the pounds started dropping off until I got to the point of having lost over 50 pounds.

The above photos are of me in my old suit. See how loose it is? I look like a 10-year old wearing my father’s Sunday best—not the impression I want to make with potential employers. Anyway, I needed a new suit and I took my sister and her oldest, Cailyn, along to get a new, better fitting set of threads:

And yesterday I tried on the whole package together for the first time:

A new suit for a new body. Wow.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Oh yeah, SEVEN Months Meatless!

Day 219

Last Wednesday, I hit the seven month mark for being meatless. The last ten days have been so busy for me I completely forgot I had reached the seven month mark!

I am still feeling great, am much leaner than I was back in November and am so very close to my weight loss goal! Imagine that! I have never been this close to a weight loss goal when trying to lose weight in the past. Never.

Here is to seven months and one week without beef, pork, poultry, fish/seafood and whole eggs. Only four more months and three weeks left to go in this first meatless year of mine.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Monday BMI Numbers for 6/7/10

Days 214 - 218

My BMI numbers for 6/7/10 are:

17.6 FAT
22.4 BMI
Waist 34"

My BMI has gone down from last week and so has my waist size. The fat number has gone up from 16.5 % to 17.6 %. The fat percentage number toggles up and down the most of the three numbers I record every Monday morning. I even did it twice this week to make sure I was getting those numbers correct. Weird.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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George Costanza: Diet Guru?!

Days 212 & 213

Jason Alexander, the Emmy nominated actor who played George Costanza on the TV sitcom Seinfeld recently made this commercial for Jenny Craig.

30 lbs in 18 weeks? Go Jason Alexander!

Mr. Alexander has also been doing interviews about his recent weight loss such as this one.

In the above clip he mentions how Jenny Craig helped him lose all that weight and how they are one of the few weight loss programs to actually intentionally wean you off their plan once one has met their weight loss goal.

So what if a person goes back to their old eating habits anyway after being weaned off of it?
What did you do for exercise, Mr. Alexander?
Was Jenny Craig REALLY your only option?

When it comes to weight loss, I have been doing well compared to Jason Alexander:

I lost 24 lbs in almost 14 weeks.
Five weeks later, I achieved a loss of 4l lbs in just over 19 weeks.

So I may have hit the 30 lbs weight loss mark sooner than Mr. Alexander. I can’t be sure as I do not have my weight loss marked down during weeks 15 – 18. I could have beaten him to the 30 lbs mark as early as week 15 or 16. I won’t agonize myself trying to figure it out for sure.

The point is that I didn’t need Jenny Craig to tell me how many calories to digest from day to day. I just cut out meat, increased my veggies/fruits and balanced the rest of my food groups as well. After just a few days of eating well I didn’t feel as ravenous as I used to because that is what happens when one eats healthier!

Oh yeah, I exercised too! I know that the Jenny Craig plan does have an exercise component. Why aren’t you and other celebrities endorsing the Jenny Craig weight loss service mentioning that? Hmmmm?

BTW - Sara Rue, if you are reading this, I just want you to know that you are hot at any weight!


Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Monday BMI Numbers for 5/31/10

Days 207 - 211

My BMI numbers for 5/31/10 are:

16.5 FAT
23.4 BMI
Waist 34.5"

My fat has gone down while my BMI ha gone up? Is that even possible? And my waist has gone up half an inch. Ugh. Anyway, Happy Memorial Day!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Monday BMI Numbers for 5/24/10

Days 201 - 204

Here they are folks:

16.9 FAT
23.0 BMI
Waist 34”

All three numbers have decreased from last week! Onward and upward—or is that downward since my weight is going down?

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Weight Update!!!!!!!!!

Day 184

The past week has been a great one for milestones here on the Meatless Year Blog.


- 100th Meatless Year Blog Tweet!

- A half-year of being meatless!

- 4000 visits!


And now as of yesterday morning…

I HAVE LOST 50 LBS SINCE NOVEMBER 2^ND!!!!!!!

I went from 212 lbs to 162 lbs over a period of six months and one day!

I still need to get down to about 147 - 149 lbs and tone up some more but having lost 50 lbs in a relatively short time span is exhilarating!

I seem to be saying this a lot lately but I will say it once again:

Thank you all for your support!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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A HALF YEAR WITHOUT MEAT!

Days 181 & 182

As of today, May 2^nd, I am at the halfway point in my meatless year.

Six months without beef, pork, poultry, fish/seafood or whole eggs.

I have lost almost 50 lbs, developed more muscle, more energy, more flexibility, feel sharper, have better digestion and overall feel GREAT!

If you asked me last year on May 2^nd to give up eating meat I would have laughed in your face. These past 26 weeks have taught me better. Why didn’t I try this sooner?

I feel so much better that, come to think of it, I don’t take midday naps or sleep in on the weekends as much as I used to. Every day off that I get I look for excuses to get out of the house as opposed to finding reasons to stay in like when I was more motivated to do so over six months ago.

Taking less lazy time also means having more free awake time and I have used it well brushing up on my Adobe Creative Suite skills (as you can see in this very blog) and other creative skills.

I don’t even know if I would have stayed with an exercise program, cardio and weight training, for as long as I currently have if I was still feeling rundown from eating meat and not balancing my meals properly. To my knowledge, this is the longest and most consistent that I have stuck with a regular exercise plan—five months of cardio and the last ten weeks of those have been with Nautilus weight training!

Leaving meat out of my meals has also kept me away for the most part from fast food places such as McDonald’s and Burger King—although I still have a weakness for some sweet or buttery baked goods every now and then.

Being an even better shopper has also been another great result of becoming a vegetarian. Not only do I look for healthier foods, but I am also better at hunting down better prices on them as well!

Another interesting thing, I no longer take prescription nasal decongestants. I find that I don’t need them anymore and it is a good thing—the ones I was taking had side effects of added drowsiness and hypertension. It also saves me money by not having to shell out co-pays for those three medications every month.

Taking meat out of my diet is the best thing I have done for my physical and mental health in years. It is almost like I am a new person when in reality it is just a much, much, much improved version of the one I was (Thanks for the clarification the other day Liz).

26 weeks down and 26 more to go for this year of meatless eating!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Random Monday Numbers

Days 174 - 176

Here are my weekly numbers, freshly measured today:

21.1 FAT
24.4 BMI
Waist 35.5 inches

The waist and BMI seem to be going down. You will notice weight is not listed on here. I still quite haven’t gotten to the point where I have lost 50 lbs yet. Getting closer…

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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What is your BMI?

Days 172 & 173

No, the item in the above picture is not a new video game controller. It is, in fact, a Fat Loss Monitor. When used properly it helps estimate the percentage of body fat one has, their Body Mass Index (BMI) and what body fat range one falls in; low (underfat), normal (healthy), high (overfat) or very high (obese).

I have asked the nice people at my local Y now to measure my body fat and BMI numbers with their fat loss monitor a few times in the past few months. Finally, I figured if I was getting it checked this often anyways why not just buy a monitor of my own? So a few weeks ago I broke down and bought one and when it arrived on 4/12 I went about using it for the first time.

After programming the fat loss monitor with my sex, age, height, current weight and another factor or two that I can’t remember right now, I was ready to find out my body fat percentage and BMI. After pressing the start button I gripped the handles of the monitor and squeezed as the monitor manual instructed.

My numbers were:

22.2 FAT
24.6 BMI

When I used it again this Monday (4/19) my numbers were:

20.0 FAT
24.6 BMI

According to this chart:


I am borderline healthy/overfat for my age group, 20 – 39. It also looks like my fat went down a little while my BMI stayed the same. I didn’t know that was possible.

147 - 162 lbs is the ideal range of weight I should be according to reverse BMI calculating. This calculator here is just one of the ones I used to find that range.

At the presentation I did on going meatless at the AAPC meeting two days ago (more on how that went in a future entry), a member pointed out that muscle gain may skewer the BMI number in the future when entering weight into the fat loss monitor. This is a good question to ask the people at my local Y. Sure, I have a neat new weight loss toy but will it be useless if I obtain more and more muscle?

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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5 months meatless!

Day 152

Today marks the five month mark in my meatless year!

152 days without any beef, pork, poultry, fish/seafood or whole eggs!

Since November 2nd I have lost 45 lbs, developed longer lasting energy, improved my flexibility and have better digestion!

Since starting Nautilus weight training at the local Y just over a month ago I am now beginning to tone up as well!

Five down and seven to go people!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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