Diary of a (Former?) Food Addict
I started this blog as a Medium “series” but found that too few people could easily access it, so I’ve converted it to a story and will update it here.
25 May 2020
My 22 year old son was the first person to actually use the word “addicted” to describe my relationship with food. “Well, of course I’m addicted to food — the same way I’m addicted to oxygen” was my wise-ass reply. That’s not what he meant, and he and I both knew it. And we both knew he was right. I was addicted to food.
Background: I’ve always had a weight problem. I’ve lost 50+ pounds four times in my 51 years. I exercise 3 to 4 times per week, sometimes quite vigorously, and have been doing so for the past ten years. I still gained a lot of weight over those years. As one friend put it “you can’t exercise your way out of a poor diet.”
I’m also a serious foodie. I’ve had the good fortune to travel for business regularly and I’ve enjoyed some of the world’s most delicious cuisines. Not just the ones you get in Michelin-starred restaurants (I’ve actually only been to a few of them) — I mean the kind you get at a Hawker Center in Singapore or in a little hole-in-the-wall in Milan or virtually any place in non-tourist Paris.
But this isn’t a story about restaurants. This is about what I’m doing to undo the cumulative effects of decades of unhealthy (albeit delicious) choices and to see whether I can achieve a similar level of culinary euphoria while enjoying food responsibly.
This is going to be a series of short posts, every week, on my adventure to getting back to my wedding weight (or there about) — 176 lbs = 80 kg = 12.5 stone — and re-establishing a healthy relationship with food so I can enjoy it responsibly for a long long time.
Today I tipped the scale at 238 lbs (108 kg / 17 stone), which is 18 pounds (8 kg / 1.3 stone) lower than the beginning of the year and 26 pounds (12 kg / 1.8 stone) lighter than my all time high last May.
I’ve been doing intermitting fasting most of this year: alternating between 16–8 (employing a calorie curfew for 16 hours and eating only in a eight-hour window each day, typically from noon to 8pm) and 20–4 (skipping breakfast and lunch and only eating between about 4pm and 8pm).
It was going quite well until COVID hit and I found myself eating and drinking far too much. Double-whammy: being overweight is a risk factor for the disease, and the effects of the self-quarantining for me was gaining weight. Well, no more.
I’m now back on the wagon and have adopted the following dietary choices:
- 95% of my calories come from whole-plant based sources, beans, seeds and nuts.
- No dairy*, no meat*
- No alcohol**
- Lots of the healthiest foods: broccoli, cauliflower, other fresh veggies and fruits
- Lots of inflammation — lowering foods like (purple) garlic, turmeric and ginger
- Supplements like B12, D, Zinc, etc.
*: I restrict meat/animal based calories to 5%, which equates to one portion per week. I’m not vegan, but nearly so.
**: I will reward myself with 2 drams of single-casque scotch when I hit 225 lbs (102 kg / 16 stone) and again at 200 lbs. I will resume limited alcohol once I’m at 190 lbs (86kg / 13.5 stone).
That’s it. Let’s see how this plays out…
30 May 2020
Today marks my 12th day eating an “all-plant” menu. Take aways from the week:
1) I wasn’t as hungry as I expected. I was strangely satisfied even when I experienced some hunger.
2) raw food tastes really good after your body “forgets” processed food.
3) I’m in a better mood.
My daily eating routine was simple:
1) no food from about 7–8pm until between noon and 2pm the next day. I gave my body at least 16 hours of digestive rest every day.
2) I ate mostly salads, a little brown rice, mushrooms, and nuts. No dairy at all. Zero alcohol. Last Saturday I had a small piece of (amazing) steak, which was my 5% calorie allotment from animal products for the week.
3) I consumed plenty of purple garlic and fresh ginger, every day, which helped keep the flavors vibrant. I also have a cupboard full of Indian and Asian spices: turmeric, coriander, cumin, cardamom, and blends that I experiment with almost every day.
4) I made up most of the meals myself, like searing Brussels sprouts and asparagus in a little olive oil before adding mushrooms, garlic, ginger and hot pepper flakes. Turned out to be delicious
5) I live with my wife, our 20 year old son and 18 year old daughter, none of whom is eating this way. In fact, I grilled them burgers one night and they had awesome pork chops another night that really tempted me. But like I wrote before, I’m in a mission and am accepting NO excuses. So I wasn’t really tempted. It just smelled great.
Now, the weight report. I’m not sure I believe my scale because I weighed in at 234 today and experienced a daily linear decrease over the past week at a rate of 5lbs per week. That’s probably too fast.
I’m now only 9 lbs from my first reward of two drams of scotch. At this rate, I’ll have that scotch on Saturday 13 June. :)
Some of the foods I had this past week…
My morning ritual includes a glass of lemon water (reduces hunger) with a teaspoon of turmeric to reduce inflammation.
7 June 2020:
It’s now been almost 3 weeks since I started the (nearly) all whole-plant based menu, and I’m liking it more and more.
I’m using lots of spices and mixing up both raw and cooked meals. I’ve continued the intermittent fasting: I’ve kept to the 7pm — 1pm calorie curfew and on two days this past week I extended the curfew to 5pm or 6pm.
This week I’m down another 4 pounds, weighing in today at 230. That means I’ve now lost 26 lbs since Jan 1.
I’ve also set a few rewards for myself: once I’m below 200, I’ll let myself take an on-line course on scotch production. It’s a bit pricy, so don’t want to spend the money unless I’ve done something significant. I think this counts. To give myself an incentive to keep the weight off, after 2 consecutive years below 200 lbs I’ll let myself take the 2-day in-person scotch course in Edinburgh.
We’ve signed up for a “fresh box” from our local farmer, so every week we get fresh greens and garden vegetables like bok choy, kale, spinach, radishes, asparagus, mushrooms, etc.
I’ve also started monitoring my blood pressure. I’ve been on a beta-blocker for about 6 years to keep my BP under control. It’s been working but let’s get real: don’t treat the symptom — fix the underlying problem!
With the weight loss, I should expect my BP to improve, and I don’t want it to get too low. The new machine arrived today and the first reading was the lowest BP I’ve had in over 15 years: 123 / 73. I’m still on the (old) meds, but I’m beginning to see the day when I get off.
Some recent dishes:
Dreamy, creamy hummus. I use less tahini than they call for and a little more chick peas. This recipe requires a bit of work but well well worth it. Get Soom tahini — it’s also worth it (https://www.soomfoods.com/recipes/the-best-hummus-recipe-ever/).
The key ingredient is freshly ground toasted cumin. I get mine from World Spice in Seattle (https://www.worldspice.com/spices/spices-india/cumin-seed-toasted) and I grind it in a mortar and pestle (seriously).
14 June 2020
Another successful week. I’m down 2.5 lbs this past week for a cumulative loss of 30 lbs from Jan 1 and 36 lbs from my high last May.
Since adopting the whole-plant based diet, I’ve averaged 3.7 lbs per week, so this past week was the slowest weight loss. To get back to the faster rate (I’m actually not sure that’s the best thing but I’m impatient!), I’ve added significant exercise to the mix. I’m now cycling 15–20 miles several times per week.
Two weeks ago I wrote that at my (then) weight loss rate, I’d hit 225 — my next rewarded milestone — by yesterday. I’m off by 2.5 lbs (= 1 week), so I’ll have to wait until Father’s Day Weekend to enjoy the scotch I’ve been waiting for. I’m not going to miss that!
I’ve continued plenty of interesting foods and added some really good hummus as I wrote last week. Fresh veggies and salads along with Indian vegan food (Chana Masala is one of my favorites!) make up most of my diet.
I’ve begun ordering beans and lentils from Rancho Gordo in California and they’re delicious. I’ve also just ordered nutritional yeast — I’ve heard that it’s a vegan standard for adding a cheese like consistency and nuttiness for food.
Something strange happened this week: instead of having my normal allotment of 500 calories of animal based products, I didn’t really want them. I had a small piece of grilled tuna but that’s it. I think I’ll have some next weekend when we grill for Father’s Day. The scotch may be enough, but we’ll see.
Credit where credit is due. Now that I’ve been at this about a month, and I really don’t miss animal products at all, I owe a big thanks to Dr. Andrew Chuma for finally getting me over the edge and starting a truly health-based relationship with food. His website is chock full of science-based nutrition and links to other science-based medical sites. It took me a long time of considering a plant-based diet before I finally did it, and he was the “straw that broke this camel’s back”:
21 June 2020
My goal of getting to 225 lbs has been achieved, and a delicious dram was my reward. First taste of alcohol in almost two months.
I continue the whole-plant diet and I stepped it up a notch this past week with 87 miles of cycling. In fact, I really don’t miss meat or dairy. I certainly will continue limiting myself to 500 calories or less of animal products — this past week I had zero calories of any non-vegan food. But I plan on having grilled chicken tonight.
The scale photo was taken just after almost 30 miles of cycling today, and I think that’s a bit low since a) I weighed 225 yesterday and b) I lost a lot of water weight in sweat while cycling.
If I am really at 222.4, that means I lost 5 lbs this past week and I’m now down 34 lbs on the year.
I’ve decided to add a dram of scotch reward for every 5 lbs I drop, so about every other week. Should keep me motivated to get below 200 quickly!
Some of the foods I ate this week:
Portobello mushrooms covered in balsamic vinegar and Indian curried chick peas together with roasted veggies.
Home-made hummus. Yes, that’s blue hummus. My daughter wanted me to add food coloring because “it would be fun.”
28 June 2020:
This week was purely vegan but much less intermittent fasting and I ate later than usual: as late as 8:30 pm. I’m having an easy time sticking with the whole-plant menu, so that’s good.
I didn’t do as much biking as I’d like / I logged 68 miles and today I put in 32 of those miles in one go. But my right knee was in a lot of pain after about 20 miles, so I will need to be careful of overdoing it.
Today I weighed in at 223, so I’m not quite sure what to count this past week as: is it -2 lbs or is it +1 lb? Either way I feel good and hope to get to 220 by next weekend or mid the week after.
Nutritional Yeast is a well kept vegan secret. This stuff is magic!
8 August 2020
I took July off of my weight losing (intermittent fasting) regiment while sticking with the whole-plant approach. I wanted to see if I could maintain my weight without feeling hungry and without measuring either calories or my weight.
Success.
A little over a week ago week, I weighed in at 224, just about where I finished June. Since then I resumed the intermittent fasting and today I weighed in at 220, so I rewarded myself with a delicious multi-grain, fresh tomato — olive oil drizzled, basilico — covered open faced breakfast capped off with a pinch of crunchy salt. Heaven. I’ve now lost 34 lbs since Jan 1 and 46 lbs since my all-time high last summer.
I’ve largely kept to the salads, fresh fruit and chickpea/bean dishes, and I’ve added “vegan cassoulet” to my list of inventions. I love cassoulet, so I made a version with no animal products. My French cousins don’t know, so please don’t tell them as they would NOT approve. But it’s delicious. Mushrooms, smoked paprika and fennel add enough of the sausage-like flavor that it’s actually delicious. I don’t mean delicious for a vegan meal — I mean delicious. As in, I’d serve this to carnivores delicious.
There was one weekend in July that I spent on Chesapeake Bay, and I did have seafood. Crab, fish, more crab. Maybe even some ice cream. And alcohol. But I still kept the weight stable.
I now feel the pressure to get into the teens: I’m itching to see a weight of 218, 215, 212. I think that’ll be my next reward point: 212. I love New York City, and 212 is its (original) telephone area code, so once I reach 212 I’ll have a glass of wine or scotch.
13 August 2020
I reached a small milestone today: I am now under 100kg, having hit 218.7 lbs = 99.4 kg. My BMI still says I’m technically obese and I don’t get rid of that label so I’m just ‘overweight’ until I get down to 214.5lbs = 97.5 kg which is 4.2 lbs (1.9kg) away. This will realistically take another 2 weeks or so…unless I do some drastic fasting. It might just be worth it for the psychological benefit!
