Learn, manage, share, track your health for free with SparkPeople.com

I’d like to introduce you to a totally rad website called SparkPeople.com. I learned about it from my sister Suzanne awhile back.

SparkPeople helps you live a healthy lifestyle, even if your goal isn’t necessarily to lose weight. You can:

• Set health-related goals and track your progress.
• Use an instant search to get nutrition statistics about thousands of different foods, including fast food.
• Explore tips about nutrition and physical activity.
• Find, contribute, and rate food recipes.

You already know my beliefs about the rebound weight re-gain when you reduce food intake to lose weight. So I really like SparkPeople because the emphasis is placed on healthy living. You don’t need to focus on weight if you don’t want to.

Say for example, you just want to concentrate on your sodium consumption, or fiber, or you want to drink 8 glasses of water per day. Perhaps you want to reduce (or eliminate) alcohol or caffeine. Reduce your triglycerides. Eliminate high-fructose corn syrup. Maybe you want a way to track how much physical activity you’re getting every week. Whatever your goal, SparkPeople will help you track it. Here are some of my goals, for example:

(NOTE: The items listed above are based-on my doctor’s recommendation for lap-band patients. Your actual goals and numbers may be much different.)

What else do I like about SparkPeople?

• It’s totally and completely free.
• No junk mail, no obligations, and NO CATCH. Unsubscribe at any time.
• Well-designed, easy to navigate, useful.

I like receiving the “SparkPeople Food Showdown” e-mail newsletter. Every day they pit two foods against each other, then tell you which one is better for you. What’s great is that they pick foods that you’d probably actually eat… the Whopper vs. Big Mac, for example. Sometimes the results are obvious, and sometimes they’re surprising. And often they’ll throw in useful tidbits… like “hold the mayo and save another 120 calories.”

There are a number of other features, some of which are useful, others not. You might find the community features helpful, and you might even create your own SparkPage or gather friends into a SparkTeam. Or you may just want to join to get the e-mail newsletters and do nothing else. You can pretty much decide what level you want to participate at, then go with it.

No matter how big or small you are. No matter if you’ve had weight surgery or not. SparkPeople has something for everyone, and I highly recommend it.

Lunchtime

Click above, or here.

Health

I am doing the following to improve my health (sleep apnea, among other things.)

• Getting ready to do another (home) sleep study. (Some doctors will let you do a simplified home sleep study these days, so you don’t actually have to go into a facility. Yay!) This will tell me how my blood oxygen levels are, and tell me how many apnea/hypopnea episodes I’m having.
• Per doctor’s advice, starting to take supplements of Iron, B12, Omega 3 and Folic Acid.
• Started getting more physical activity. (I’m not making any significant eating changes at the moment. More on that later.)
• Ordered-up a tongue-restraint mouthguard (intended to keep large tongues from blocking airways. Smart-ass remarks welcome.)
• Putting together some measurable health goals (besides weight. More on this later.)
• Having some nasal surgery done (see story below.)

Back in 1997, I had my tonsils and adenoids removed, then had the UPPP surgery (trimming of uvula and soft palate.) This was enough to treat my sleep apnea for several years. But over time, it came back.

In 2003, my doctor advised me that my adenoids had grown back. (“They can do that!?”) So I had them removed… again. Soon, I marveled at how well I could breathe through my nose, finally. That lasted for about six months. Then I was back to my same ol’ chronically congested self. (I’m a mouth-breather because it’s just not possible to breathe through my nose 90% of the time.)

Even after about two years of weekly allergy shots, I was still congested all the time. We also tried every possible decongestant, nasal spray and treatment.

So I had an interesting doctor’s appointment a couple weeks ago. He took a look back there, and figured-out (at least one of the reasons) why I still can’t breathe through my nose… there’s a lot of scar tissue still remaining from that second adenoid surgery. It was supposed to have cleared-out a long time ago… but instead it crusted-up and is now blocking my internal airways.

For that reason, I’ll be going under the knife. While I’m there, the doc will:

• Clear-out the 4-year old scar tissue from my last adenoidectomy.
• Laser-cauterize some of the tissue in my nasal turbinates.
• Clean-up some deviations in my nasal passages. (I don’t have a full-on deviated septum per se, but just some stuff that needs to be smoothed-out.)

I am really excited at the prospect of seeing some relief. I can’t even tell you what an awful state my health is in right now, on many, many fronts.

Physical activity

Recommend me a physical activity that:

• Doesn’t require a lot of coordination. (I’m clumsy.)
• Doesn’t require sustained running for long periods of time. (Yecch.)
• Might allow me to exercise my arms and upper body.

I’ve already got walking, biking, and a little bit of basic weight training in my plan. Need to add something to mix it up.

Basketball? Hmmm is there a way to play that with other “unskilled” players? LOL

Volleyball? Hmmm… I’m not good at that, but…

Rugby? Despite my penchant for rugby players, I don’t know that I’d be very good at it… or that I’m ready to get my bones crushed.

Any other ideas?

Health: Part 1

Mike, get your fat lazy ass off of LiveJournal and go out and get some exercise.

(No, nobody actually used those words, but I could sense it from some of the replies and e-mails! LOL)

Before we go any further. I’ve already begun executing my plan for more physical activity; in fact, I began that back on June 4th. Since then, I’ve been riding my bike once a week faithfully (except for a three-week lapse, which I don’t have any real excuse for.)

Each bike ride lasts between 60 and 90 minutes. Other local friends are invited to join me. The route is rotated weekly so we get some variety. Starting this week I move up to two bike rides per week, and within a month, I’ll be adding in walking once a week, and then twice a week. More will follow.

So yes, I am serious about getting healthy, and not just sitting on my fat ass.

Recently read in Bob Greene’s book “Best Life Diet.” (Yes, that’s Oprah’s trainer. Yes, it has the word “diet” in the title. I’m just doing research here. Now let’s move on.) I’ve gathered some good insight from it:

• Weight is not a good measure of health. (Well I kinda knew that part already, but Greene explains it very well.) Weight is basically the sum of three parts: fat, lean tissue, and water. Your goal should NOT be to lose weight, your goal should be to lose fat. (Though I will add, this is not the only measure of good health. More on that later.)
• Changes should be made gradually. I guess this makes sense. In the past, I’ve always jumped-in, whole hog. I cut way back on calories, did lots of exercise, and watched my scale like a hawk. I was proud of losing 20 pounds in two months. But according to Greene, all this is a recipe for rebound. He says to make changes over time. Start with physical activity first. Don’t make any real eating changes for at least 4-6 weeks after you start phasing-in physical activity. Weigh yourself once when you start, but then avoid the scale for the first 4-6 weeks while your body gets accustomed to physical activity. After that, weigh yourself once a week, paying more attention to your overall trend instead of the week-to-week variance. (To which I will add and reiterate, this is not the only measure of good health, nor should it be the primary measure.) Then gradually change eating habits.

There were a few things I didn’t like about the book.

• I understand the concept of emotional eating, but I don’t believe that it’s a problem for everyone. (Not all of us feel stuck in an abusive relationship or a crummy job.)
• I am always suspicious of books that refer you back to resources that are going to make the author more money. (Websites, co-branded food labels, purchase your own journals, etc.) This book (and its website) are chock full of ‘em.

Rode my bike last night, and will ride again towards the weekend.

Much, much more to post soon.

See I’m not ALL talk!

Click photo above, or visit SluggoBear on Flickr.

Weight.

Regarding that post from a month ago about my weight.

I still have a lot to say about this topic, and I will post more about it soon.

I also wanted to be clear that I’m not giving-up. I will not use the “rebound effect” as an excuse to be unhealthy forever.

It just seems like we set ourselves up for failure, and I want to break the lose-gain-lose-gain cycle. Dropping 40 pounds in 6 months is not the hard part. Dropping 40 pounds and not gaining it back within 5 years is the truly hard part.

The measurement of success is a complex issue, and I will deal with it in a future post. For now, let’s keep it simple and just say that one indicator of overall health is weight. Even though it’s not the most important indicator (nor is it a consistent one), it’s still a basic, overall metric that can help track some semblance of progress. I want to lose about 100 pounds. (There are other very important indicators that will need to be measured too, but I’ll cover those at a later time.)

Conventional wisdom would say that successful weight loss can be achieved with the following equation:

• Eating right + Exercise + Motivation + Support from friends/family + Lifestyle change + Discipline = success

However, this formula has not worked for me in the long term, and I’ve seen countless people follow this diligently, but can’t maintain their weight loss for more than 5 years.

Some studies show that the failure rate for long-term weight loss is around 90%. That is abysmal. To me, that says we’re not paying attention to the rebound effect, or arming ourselves with the tools and knowledge that might help us overcome it.

So what is the right formula? To me, it seems like the equation is missing something:

• Eating right + Exercise + Motivation + Support from friends/family + Lifestyle change + Discipline + SOMETHING = success

I believe that the “something” is NOT:

• It’s not Weight Watchers, Adkins, NutriSystem, South Beach, breakfast shakes, liquid diet, or any other weight loss program. While they may provide short-term results, I do not believe any of these are any better than just plain eating right.
• It’s not a simple matter of discipline or will-power. (I firmly believe that the human body counteracts any attempt at losing weight. Scientists are just beginning to understand this complex process works. Uncovering these secrets may give us insight into how to overcome the rebound effect.)
• It’s not a simple matter of having support from your family or friends. (Or shunning those friends who eat a lot.)
• It’s not an herbal supplement or any current over-the-counter drug.
• It’s not a simple matter of adding protein, water or fiber into your regimen.
• It’s not a simple matter of reducing (or even eliminating) carbs, cholesterol, caffeine, soda, bread, fiber, alcohol, processed food, trans-fats or partially-hydrogenated corn syrup.

Don’t get me wrong. Many of these things are beneficial. But are they THE critical missing ingredient to long-term success? I do not believe they are the missing link.

So, what is that elusive “something?” I honestly don’t know the answer. I’m not even 100% convinced there is an answer right now. But I’m doing more research, I’m reading articles, interviewing people, talking to doctors, reading scientific studies. I have a couple of leads that I’m pursuing, and I will report back here.

I’m not expecting to find a magic bullet. And I still firmly believe that exercise and eating right are required for long-term success.

I just think that we’re still missing something.

My weight goes down… but it goes up again…

(Click on the chart to see it larger.)

I sat down and crunched some numbers today.

At various times throughout the last 12 years, I kept a health journal. Among other things, I kept a log of my weight.

Putting these numbers together with some medical records I found, I was able to plot this graph, which shows my weight over the last 11 years. I then added a few notes, which appear in the colored blurbs.

On three separate occasions, I tried desperately to get healthier. I began eating right, exercising, and watching my weight for several months. You can see two of them on the chart. Throughout the course of the first phase, I saw a nutritionist regularly. Throughout the second phase, I had a personal trainer, with whom I met twice a week. You can see several big dips in the chart, showing marked improvement with my weight… but alas it was short-lived; I couldn’t maintain the weight loss much longer than 6 months.

From the chart, we can see the obvious trend: my weight has gone up… way up.

But the chart doesn’t tell you that my daily calorie/fat intake and my levels of physical activity have stayed roughly the same over the last 11 years. Granted, I don’t eat very well. At all. But this has been the case throughout my adult life. I was eating two fast-food meals per day in 1997. I could eat an entire large pepperoni pizza at one sitting then, just like I can now. Why am I nearly 100 pounds heavier now?

Granted, I’m a little older. But then again, I’m only 33… and the upswing has been happening since I was 25.

1998 was a good year for me. I had UPPP surgery, and the results were astounding. Relief from apnea was nearly instant. Within a week, I got my energy back. I was alert, I slept well, and I had no problems staying awake during the day. I maintained consistent results for three glorious years, and I really believed I had been cured permanently. (You’ll even note that I stopped recording my weight… no plot points on the chart during that time marked in green. I just didn’t feel the need anymore, because I just felt good. But the weight crept-up, and my apnea eventually returned in 2001.

The other trend I see is that every time I lost weight, I then gained it back and then some… as though my body was retaliating. It almost seemed as if my metabolism was trying to make-up for lost time and all the missed calories. The pounds returned, and with a vengeance.

There are many studies which suggest that the “rebound effect” is not a figment of my imagination. From a recent article on Intelihealth.com:

Even in the best medically supervised programs, nearly two-thirds of participants are back where they started within three years and 80 to 90 percent within five years, says Gary Foster, Ph.D., clinical director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

For people who lose weight on their own, the relapse rate may be even higher.

80 to 90 percent within five years. That’s an abysmal success rate.

How many people do you know have lost a significant amount of weight (say, 40 pounds) “and kept it off” for longer than 5 years? I only know of two. (Who I found on LiveJournal, by the way.) Anyone I know who has tried to lose a lot of weight has ended-up gaining most of it back… or more.

I am confident that I could lose 30 pounds, if I put my mind to it. I am not so certain that I can keep it off for more than 5 years.

Acknowledged: weight is not the only indicator (and it’s not even the best indicator) of health. Still, for reasons I will get into later, it’s an important metric for me because of my sleep apnea.

I have many more things to say on this topic, but I will let this suffice for now.

Anyone who replies with eating and exercise suggestions will be beheaded… especially any mention of “don’t call it a diet, call it a lifestyle change…” I’ve been hearing that one since I was 14. It means nothing when you’re staring at that giant cheeseburger during a moment of weakness.

Some research about losing weight

I am doing a little bit of research. If you know someone like this, please let me know.

I want to ask some questions to someone who has lost 50 pounds or more, and kept it off for at least 5 years.

This needs to be someone you know personally… not a “friend-of-a-friend” or someone you’ve heard of.

(I’m also not looking for weight loss tips right now.)

–Mike

Wow I biked for 10 minutes and suddenly I lost 90 lbs!

Click photo above, or view SluggoBear’s Flickr sets.

OK, I kid, I kid!

(And yes, I realize I forgot my helmet today. Bleh.)