by Ethan Johnson
May 7, 2007

(Updated below.)

In providing my occasional updates regarding my fitness goals, I have been downplaying the dietary changes that I have made perhaps to a fault. Lest I give off the impression that I have only lost weight through exercise without changing anything else, I wanted to take a moment to rattle off what I've been doing. These aren't particularly major changes in my estimation, but here they are anyway:

• No bagged chips of any kind, including potato and tortilla chips.
• No fast food. "Fast food" is defined as any food sold in a building that has a drive-through window and encourages ordering by combo number. Some restaurants make and serve food quickly without necessarily fitting the definition of "fast food".
• No high fructose corn syrup, if I can help it. Some still gets past me, especially if I eat in a restaurant, where I don't have any say over what ingredients they use (as in, from where, made by whom). Gatorate contains HFCS, so that's enough of that, then. So does non-organic Heinz™ ketchup.
• No pasta.
• Occasional potatoes and rice. Not daily, just a few times a week at the most.
• No candy.
• No cookies, especially anything pre-fab in the cookies/crackers aisle at the grocery. Which means I have to bake my own, and I'm too busy to bake these days, plus it's getting hotter in Texas which turns me off to using the oven.
• No frozen novelties, including ice cream and pre-fab pies.
• Almonds and triscuit crackers as snacks, in moderation. Usually a handful here and there.
• High fiber bread, where each slice contains at least 3g of fiber.
• One soft drink per day maximum (12-16oz, not a "Big Gulp" or whatever).
• I cook almost exclusively with pure olive oil. I don't care what the recipe calls for; if there is sauteeing of any kind involved, or even frying, I'm using pure olive oil. I do use butter in rice however, but like I said, I'm not eating rice as often as I used to.
• No Clif bars or similar gimmicky or shortcut foods. (Sorry Beth.) No weird dietary supplements featuring grotesquely muscular men on the jar. No pills of any kind except for my daily vitamin and an OTC allergy pill.
• I don't add salt to meals. I eat whatever I'm given "as is" and only add table salt as a last resort. I will add ground pepper to salads here and there but not always. I figure enough salt is used in various ingredients and the cooking process itself, so why add more?
• Salad with meals at least 3 times a week. This can include eating a steak with a salad.
• Canned fish in olive oil (herring, sardines) once a week. The dogs love this new routine. I decided to have "fish Friday" for consistency. Sardines are a great way to get some "fast" fish into your diet without making a huge production out of it. Plus sardines don't have the mercury tainting issues of bigger fish.
• Stop eating when full. Full stop. Period. Doesn't matter how great the meal was, when the meter hits "F" I'm done. Get a to-go box and have the rest some other time, if possible. Warning: This really freaks people out when you lean back and wait for the plate to be removed. Was the meal bad? Are you ill? No, really, I'm full. So full that I'm really not having dessert, either.

Now, before anyone freaks out, when I say "no" I mean "none in the house." Not, "no, you can't eat that stuff ever again or you'll literally die." I ate potato chips with lunch yesterday, as that was what came with my sandwich. No big deal, I just ate half of them and threw the rest away. At the most, I eat potato chips "out" once a week. Hardly gluttony.

My biggest "no" is to not beat myself up if I eat something "bad." Exercise is the foundation of my fitness strategy, and despite going off the reservation here and there, I'm still steadily losing weight and becoming visibly thinner/more in shape. I view things like potato chips as a "one-off", and not something to get upset about. I think fitness strategies that are primarily, if not solely diet-based lend themselves to freak-outs when one eats a candy bar or a bowl of ice cream. I'm exercising anyway, and I figure I need the calories to get through each day's exercise or other physical activity.

Also, beating myself up about what I eat means that the food "wins" and has power over me. No it doesn't. I choose what to eat, and if I decide that a cookie is really going to hit the spot, I eat it, then exercise as scheduled. I don't drop to the floor and do push-ups or something if I eat the "wrong" thing. Between walking and now biking, those calories will sort themselves out anyway.

There are days when I am so not motivated to exercise, results be damned. I do have to struggle to not want to load up on pre-fab snacks and other detrimental foods. Face it, lots of food decisions are made because they are easy, not because they're beneficial. Hence fast food. Hence all of the starches we eat every day, like potatoes, pasta, and rice. It takes more to get past the easy "no brainer" food choices and try other things. I remarked to my neighbor that the presence of the same three side dishes on many of our plates reflects a lack of imagination on someone's part. Heck, for me, there was once a time when "side dishes" meant mashed potatoes and corn. They just seemed like appropriate side dishes that went with nearly everything. There are other foods, without ever once tasting tofu.

As I see it, diets fail because there are so many hard-and-fast rules, and especially rules that start with "no". And they mean "none, ever." See, most people I know rebel against those sorts of restrictions, no matter how well intentioned. You could say "no spinach", and the people who normally hate spinach would suddenly complain about this new directive. Beth passed along an interesting article the other day that said, essentially, diets are about saying "no", but exercise is about saying "yes". Not "yes" to eating lousy foods as such, but "yes" to challenging yourself not just physically but mentally. If junk food is the easy way out, what's the hard way? What's a recipe you haven't tried yet? What common ingredient could be swapped with something else, or omitted altogether? If you're accustomed to walking for 5 minutes a day, how about pushing for 6 next time?

Update May 8, 2007: How timely! An interesting post at the Collision Detection blog underscores the notion that dieting as the sole or primary means for weight loss/fitness is a non-starter. Check out the excerpted text on the page for some eye-opening material.

Finally, I repeat this a lot, but I can't stress this enough: DO NOT try to "be me". My choices seem to be working for me, but I'm not prepared to say that they're completely optimal, nor am I comfortable with assuring people that my way is going to yield similar results for anyone else. See your doctor. Do what feels appropriate. As Marlena was explaining the other day, hormonal issues may be in play and no amount of diet and exercise is going to change that. But you won't know that for sure until you get tested for hormone levels. And yes, I am not oblivious to the mental aspects of fitness, including the need to seek professional help. I am not judging anyone, and if anything, I am more empathetic as I go down my personal path because I know how much work goes into this. And I know how easy it is to "just" fall back on old habits or lose the battle with personal demons.

Never, ever underestimate the power of narrative. That's what works for me on a personal level, and that's what gets other people fired up and thinking that they could take 5 minute walks too, or whatever activities they're comfortable doing. Perhaps your personal narrative is that you heard about this guy online who lost 27 lbs in 3 months doing simple things and not crash dieting or exercising 23 hours a day. What's your story going to be? It's going to motivate you to finish your floor exercise or step onto the treadmill (or walk outdoors) when you otherwise don't feel up to it. It's going to steer you away from so-called "bad" foods and toward foods that you can feel better about eating. And if everything goes your way, you may achieve the holy grail of fitness: Dropping a clothing size and having to shop for new duds. My goal was to get down to a size 38 waist from 42.

As of this past weekend, I'm down to a 40 waist. I don't have to shop exclusively at "big and tall" places for pants anymore. And I need a new belt.

(Raising hand) Up top! <EM>