Weight Loss 2016 Week 11 Lessons Learned

I weigh 2 lbs less than when I wrote last week.  The problem is its two pounds that keep going and coming.  That needs to stop.  My calendar says I have a DietBet weigh out March 16^th.  It’s not looking good.  A DietBet weigh out lasts 48 hours, which gives me through St. Patrick’s Day.  I am not so far from that weigh out I couldn’t stop eating and know I would make it.  But I’m not doing that.  I hate that behavior.  I did that the first time around.  It’s not a lasting win.  It’s an OCD win.  It doesn’t help me in the long run.  I’m too old to play stupid. 

If I lose that weigh out that means I didn’t lose 4% of my weight in the past 28 days.  I said if I did that three contests in a row I would quit contests.  I don’t wanna quit contests.  I don’t wanna starve.  I am absolutely positively going to figure out how to manage my eating within the context of my incredibly fun life to get the rockin’ hot body of my dreams.

I’m going to review things I learned about my eating in 2016, so you will know, in case it helps.

1.            Eating small portions throughout the day is better than three meals.  Three meals can lead to over eating dinner if the time between lunch and dinner is too great.

2.           Sugar is so bad.  I do not keep sugary items in the house.  If my daughter has sugar I know its hers, and I do not touch it.  Desserts are delicious.  I like them.  I tend to eat them if I am at a party.  I attend a lot of parties.  I can feel that sugar run through my blood stream after one swallow.  I know it’s not good.  Why do I partake?  Delicious.

3.           The eating of starchy carbs begets more eating of carbs.  Eating carbs makes me hungry pretty quickly.  I almost always just say no to bread, potatoes, pasta and rice.  There was one exception this week, it was all they were serving, I was too hungry to say no. 

4.           Diet foods.  Protein powders, puddings and bars.  I wish I could live on them.  I like that lazy eating.  I even like the taste, kinda like dessert.  Unfortunately they tend to give me indigestion and bloating.  I keep comparing ingredients to figure out why.   My latest theory is sucralose.

I look at people who can eat anything they want and not gain weight.   They are so fortunate.  Do they know how lucky they are?  They are right on a par with white men born in the United States. 

 I noticed a couple categories of these lucky people who can hit the Golden Corral with enthusiasm.  People like my daughter with a high metabolism.  May she have it her entire life, and may she live forever, happily ever after.  Her boyfriend took her to an expensive, Italian restaurant last night.  She came home and told me how much she ate and drank.  It was unbelievable.  I don’t think my daughter would eat at Golden Corral.  She is pretty fussy.

Then there are the muscular people.  I see the ripped, body builders from my gym on that patio of the Wilton Manors bakery near my house downing pastry.  I am so jealous.  I see the guys who work construction eating and drinking anything they want with impunity, shake my head.   I should start lifting.

Yesterday I went to Home Depot and bought 10 bags of dirt, a big plant and a couple pieces to fix my sprinkler.  Some guy, who does not work at Home Depot, specifically stopped to help me load the dirt into my car.  He said he wanted my cart.  I told him there were lots of carts like that inside the store and I could load the car myself.  He said he WANTED to load the bags into the car, something about it being the right thing to do.  Guys are so nice like that.  How could say, “No, I want to load my own bags of dirt in the car.”  I got to unload them at home.  I spread the dirt in places that needed it.  I dug a hole and planted the big plant.  I did my weekly pruning.  I thought I fixed the sprinklers, until I tested them when I saw one of my pipes is completely severed.  I thought it was a leak, but NO.  I watched a YouTube video that showed three ways to fix a severed pipe.  They involve using a “coupling”.  I like that word.

I go through phases of landscaping.  My handyman recently asked if I noticed the large bushes obscuring some of my flowers and pond.  I did.  He asked what I was going to do about it.  Nothing, they are two different indigenous, drought-tolerant, flowering bushes.  So long as they are not in areas people traverse, they stay.  Why fight flowers?  So long as I can see the pond from inside my house, I don’t care who else sees it. 

I looked around the yard and I’m thinking of rocks and stepping stones on the side yards that don’t get much light.  In the front and back yard I see places that need more soil.  I’m thinking about an herb garden in the back.  The flower beds need mulch.  We are in Daylight Savings Time.  I can build muscles in my yard and make both houses I live in prettier.

Hillmanns23 1924 We All Love Each Other Oh Yes!!! Lake Waramaug, Connecticut

The Hillmanns of Brooklyn

Chapter 23

1924

Lake Waramaug, Connecticut

We All Love Each Other, Oh Yes!!!

In Marian's handwriting

She tells us something that is apparent from the totality of her pictures.

I love this page.  It is framed and hanging in my house.

I believe there were members of Rose's extended family, Siegeles and Steffens, on this trip.

It's too bad Marian didn't know that about 90 years later her name sake granddaughter would be going through these albums trying to figure them out.

Marian tells us this was her first canoe. I'm guessing she means rowing alone.

I said earlier I thought they were with the Siegeles, but this girl has the face of a Hillmann

Meet Eric from Joisey

Marian tells us they are "funning"

I think Rose is funning.  I believe this is Rose with her oldest sister, Henrietta "Etta".  Etta was a dress maker.  She never married.

How fun does this place look?

I love tree houses

Hat Party!

Pa and Ma. Lake Waramaug historican, Craig Nelson, tells me he believes the Hillmanns stayed at the Loomarwick Inn, which burned down in 1967. Copies of the Lake Waramaug pictures have been donated to the local library.

Marian tells us this is Mrs. Fiske's island. Minnie Madden Fiske was a Broadway actress

Rose and Herman

They loved each other, oh yes!!!

Til death did they part

Can't get enough pictures of that tree house.

The twins. I don't know who they are, but I like their look.

  

Marian (age 14) and Herman, her Dad

Hillmanns albums come out on Tuesdays. Next week it's 1925 we're going to watch polo, go to a  beach party, watch a group of guys hitchike to Washington DC and vacation in Stony Creek.

Weight Loss 2016. Week 10. The Gift

In the early 1990s I joined a group called NAAFA, which stands for National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance.  I saw them on the Phil Donahue show.  Their message was “love yourself.”  I liked it. 

Think I don't so look so big in that picture?  What about this one.  

This pictures depicts true happiness.  Graduating from law school is a joyous thing.

NAAFA immediately asked if I was willing to make media appearances for them.  I was a new lawyer.  I said sure.  So off they sent me, numerous times, to talk radio.  Do you know what talk radio is?  Hostile.    

One morning I’m on the radio with some rabid anti-fat person, along with a professional from an eating disorders center, where they are far more apt to be treating anorexics and bulimics than obesity.  The radio host has the rabid woman coming at me incessantly.  I never bite.  Then he asks the Eating Disorders Specialists if she thinks I have an eating disorder.  The Specialists says not necessarily.  She says she is not in a position to diagnose me.  During that appearance she spoke of something called “The Gift”.  The Gift is when you know to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full.  Babies have this gift.  People can lose it.

I believe I lost the gift somewhere between first grade and fourth grade.  Sometime during that time period I went from skinny to heavy.  My grandmother and mother immediately started dieting me.  It didn’t work. 

Here I am on the first day of first grade.

This is my fourth grade school picture.

I did the exact opposite with my daughter.  I let her eat anything and everything she wanted.  The only exception being, and she gets angry at me for this to this day, is if she was going to bed and wanted to eat I told her to wait until morning, the kitchen is closed.  Now she eats whenever she wants.

When Lily was little my step-mother once cajoled her for not eating.  “You have to eat more.”  “NOOOOO.”  My father and I shouted in unison.  Dad added, “Leave her alone.” 

My lean daughter loves to eat.  She has the Gift.  She knows when to stop.  I have watched her closely.  I’ll give you an example.  Once we were driving just ahead of an ice storm.  I should have left Ontario the day before.  I was warned.  I wanted to celebrate New Year’s Day in Canada, so there we were, headed out in a little bit of freezing rain with the promise of much more later.  We were traveling for maybe an hour at a very low speed when Lily tells me she is hungry.  I tell her sorry baby doll, but we’re not stopping to eat.  I want us safely to Syracuse so we can catch a plane tomorrow morning.  My young daughter complained bitterly throughout that drive, but eventually I got us to a restaurant.  She ordered and ate maybe a quarter of what was on her plate.  She was full.  She stopped.  I was impressed.  I think one of the problems with people who diet for years is they get so hungry sometimes, when they get food, they over eat.  I hate to say this but my friends who have had weight loss surgery seem to have a much better long term success rate than the dieters.  My thinking is it’s because they have tiny stomachs. 

So how did my eating go last week?  I ate perfectly Monday through Saturday.  I ate just like when I lost the 110 pounds.  I brought all my food to the office.  I did not eat out.  I had salads and chicken and some prepackaged diet food.  I’m not naming the brand, because I’m not selling it.  I didn’t even like it.  I kept my calorie intake low.  I got 4 hours in at the gym.  My weight fluctuated within a four pound span all week.  It didn’t go down, it zig zagged like a roller coaster.  What a pisser.

Come Sunday morning I hang out with my friend Davilicious.  Davilicious, like Lily, has the Gift.  One of the first times he asked about going to eat I told him I don’t like to eat.  He said, “Yes, you do” as in everyone likes to eat, stupid.  Davilicious likes to drink, I told him I don’t like to drink.  “Yes, you do.”  I believe Davilicious thinks eating and drinking are among the pleasures in life.  Who wouldn’t like them?  Who?  People who have been dieting since they were eight years old.

So yesterday he took me on a journey of fun which included lots of eating and drinking pleasure.  First we drove up to West Palm Beach where we walked all around downtown and a marina.  It was a beautiful day with beautiful scenery.  Our first stop to eat was a gastropub where we each had a bloody mary and split an order of deviled eggs. I had two deviled egg halves.  He had three.  We shared everything that was ordered, at no time did we order separate entrees.

An hour later we were in Boynton Beach.  I drank water.  Davilicious ordered calamari.  Davilicious did all the ordering because I didn’t care what I ate.  Well, that’s only partially true.  There are foods I will not eat, like crab dip and oysters.  I had veto power, but I exercise that rarely.  I ate about 40% of the calamari.  Dave also ordered clams casino.  I had one. 

Next he takes us to the Two Georges in Boynton.  I had a frozen drink called a Dirty Banana.  It was the bomb.  Davilicious ordered shrimp.  I had one.  He said have more, but I was so full.  He asked how I could be full.  Davilicious has much greater capacity to eat and drink than I.  He is also much more muscular and a better driver.

An hour later we were at a bar in Deerfield.  I had a Sriracha Bloody Mary, so yummy.

A couple hours after that we were at another Two Georges, this time in Deerfield.  I had a Miami Vice.  I should have had another Dirty Banana, but I didn’t want to be repetitious.  We shared a tuna tower and two crab cakes.  Know how that day was?  Fun and delicious.  And where was my weight?  Still fluctuating within those four pounds. 

I want that Gift.  It’s a whole lot better than carting around tremendous volumes of salad and diet bars.

The Hillmanns of Brooklyn

Chapter 22

1924

Canoe Place Inn

Hampton Bay, Long Island

Today we are going to join the Hillmanns on a vacation to the Canoe Place Inn on Hampton Bay, Long Island.

According to Google, the Canoe Place Inn is a pre-revoluntionary war inn.  This picture was taken by one of the Hillmanns in 1924.

Rose, Herman and Marian (age 14)

Antique post card

I pulled this picture from the internet about 2-1/2 years ago

The latest on the internet says the place is in danger of being town down to build homes.

. Hillmanns albums come out on Tuesday. Next week we're going on vacay to Lake Waramaug.

WL2016 Week9 Lessons Learned. Keeping Up With the Joneses, No Sugar for me.

About 12 years ago my daughter was accepted to a very exclusive private school.  I was happy.  What a great place to leave her all day.  I thought it had superior education and any after school activity you could think of was right on campus, art, ballet, swimming, Chinese, chess club, canoeing, everything. 

One evening I was sitting next to one of my wealthiest clients, whom I respected very much.  He asked about my daughter.  I told him she was accepted to the preppy school.  He said, “Wonderful!”  I said I was concerned among the students we would be near the poorest.  I wondered how that would impact her, with the other children being able to have and do more.  Mr. Wells said, “Marian, my entire life I have had to learn how to deal with people who are richer, smarter and better looking than I.”  This was some of the best advice I ever received.  Mr. Wells was rich, smart and good looking. 

When you go on a diet people are going to tell you how to eat.  They think they know better.  Some are selling something.  I am appalled Oprah is telling people how to eat.  That’s pure unadulterated greed.  Oprah buys Weight Watchers while she is fat, goes on the program and loses weight so you should too?!!!  How much money does she need?  Oprah has not maintained her weight over the long term.  How can she give you advice?  I don’t know how you should eat.  I only know what works for me.  If I didn’t know it before, and I did know it, I now know absolutely sugar hurts me.

I told you last week I went to an event.  I ate light.  I had a couple fru-fru drinks.  I awoke in so much stomach pain.  It lasted three days.  The next two days I awoke with a headache.  I went to the gym a couple times.  I crapped out after an hour.  I have incredible stamina and strength for a person in a body that looks like mine.  Crapping out after an hour is not normal.  My friend, Joel, asked what I thought was wrong.  I told him I thought I had sugar poisoning.  Joel doesn’t believe in sugar poisoning.  I don’t care what he believes.  I know my body.

I am so tremendously impressed with my friend Nancy’s weight loss.  She did it strictly with portion control.  It doesn’t work for me.  By Monday I took my intake back to vegetables, protein and fat.  I allow myself a drink at night, but not a mojito or caipirinha.  I feel so good.  My stamina is back. 

I had my hair done last week.  I have been going to my stylist, Dennis, for 8 years.  He and I got to having one of those happiest of conversations, what would you do if you won the lottery?  I would write, go to the gym, travel and sing more.  I would go the spa more.  No, strike that.  My friend Alexandra goes to spas all the time.  Last week she told me she was on her way to the spa to get her fat rolled.  What is that?  She has no fat.  Fat rolling sounds painful.  I would not start with spas.  I would go to the best allergist and get checked out.  When I was a kid I was allergic to everything.  I was asthmatic.  I was so sickly.  I pretty much outgrew those allergies.  Or did I?  I think there are foods my body cannot process.  One of my good friends told me to go to an acupuncturist.  I would do that.  I watch Dr. Phil.  I would go to the PNP Center and get a complete work up.  Dr. Phil makes that sound fun.  

Listen to yourself.  Learn about yourself.  Oh, you want to know if I lost weight last week.  I sure did, and a lot of it.  Unfortunately it was the same pounds that came on during sugar intoxication.

Hillmanns 21. 1924. Manhattan and Brooklyn

The Hillmanns of Brooklyn

Chapter 21

1924

Manhattan and Brooklyn

We join the Hillmanns as they enjoy the year 1924. Marian is a freshman at Erasmus

As is always the case, while the Hillmanns of Brooklyn enjoyed their lives major news events were happening. In January 10, 1924 the British submarine L-34 sank in the English Channel; 43 are killed. Here we have the beautiful Marian with her mother, Rose,in Manhattan.

Marian is 14.  This picture was taken in Coney Island.

Elsewhere in 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb confess to murdering their 14-year-old cousin "in the interest of science." Clarence Darrow is defense lawyer, getting them life imprisonment instead of the death sentence. Who would have thought this type of thing was going on 1924?

Ira Gershwin , George Gershwin and Irvine Berlin dominate the music industry and Rhapsody in Blue is played for the very first time in New York City at Aeolian Hall.  I wonder what Marian was holding up to her ear in 1924 in Coney Island.

Another hit song is "Show Me the Way To Go Home"

New York's Computer Tabulating Recording Company is re-organized and will now be known as International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)

Marian was a freshman at Erasmus High School in 1923-24. Her group of friends called themselves the Kenmore Gang.

While the Kenmore gang played in Brooklyn, MGM was founded in California.

Mercedes Benz is founded by the merger of Daimler and Benz

The first regular airmail services start in the USA.

Two U.S. Army planes complete the first round-the-world flight in 175 days.

Ellis Island closes as an immigration entry point to the US. I am sure the majority of these girls' ancestors passed through Ellis Island.

King Tut’s sarcophagus was found in Egypt.

In 1924, Calvin Coolidge Jr., the 16 year old son of the President died. Three months earlier he got a blister on his toe after a tennis game. He developed blood poisoning in the blister. It killed him. Makes you appreciate antibiotics.

1924 saw New York City's first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 27th If the Hillmanns attended. They didn't keep pictures.

Jimmy Carter, Lee Iacocca, Doris Day, Marlon Brando, Don Knotts, and Lauren Bacall were born in 1924.

I don't know the occasion but it seems that when dressed as a colonist Marian required lipstick.

Dance as though no one is watching.

 Marian liked to take photos, here we have her father, Herman, reading the paper. Perhaps he was reading of the death of Lenin.

This pciture reminds me of Marian's German heritage, I'm thinking Heidi.

Hillmanns albums come out on Tuesdays, next Tuesday we will enjoy the Canoe Place Inn