Health for life

Ed is a 59-year-old father of three from Queens, New York. Though an avid golfer and fisherman, he struggled with his weight most of his life. Then, in the ‘90s, a complete lifestyle overhaul helped him drop almost 110 pounds, sending him from 287 to his current weight of 179. He’s never joined a gym or a diet program. This is his story.

(Incidentally, for transparency’s sake [and so I will not receive a beating from my mother], I will henceforth er to him as Dad.)

(Also, parts of this interview were edited for length.)

(Also also, thats not his real head in the pictures. But you knew that.)

KRIS: So Dad, when did you weigh the most?

DAD: I weighed 287 pounds in November of 1991.

K: Why do you think you were overweight? What are the reasons?

D: Well, I was always overweight. When I got out of high school I was about 195, and I slowly put on a lot of weight over the years until I got about to 250. It was my steady weight once I was out of the service.

K: And you’re 6-foot-1?

D: I’m 6-foot-1.

K: But you gained more weight after that.

D: I used to smoke. When I was 42, I quit smoking cold turkey and at the time I was about 255. I had trouble once I quit smoking pushing myself away from the dinner table, because there was no cigarette to end the meal. So I would hang around the table and eat just about anything that was left. Whether it was rolls, bread and butter, potatoes, spaghetti, meatballs - anything. And I put on another 32 pounds in that winter of ’91, and wound up at 287.

K: 287 was your top weight.

D: 287 was my top weight.

K: So, you were eating a lot of starches.

D: I was eating everything.

K: Did you have a particular food that you really kind of …

D: All food. I love bread and butters, pastries. Sunday was practically an all-day eating experience. I would go out to the bakery in the morning and pick up a bunch of rolls and pastries and sit down with the paper for an hour-and-a-half or so, eating continually, and then break for a couple of hours and then watch a couple of football games in the afternoon on Sunday and continue eating. So, there was a lot of eating and it was always two large meals, sometimes three.

K: So you’re 42-years-old, you have three wonderful children and a lovely wife. Why do you decide to lose weight at that point? Why do you go on a diet?

D: Well, when I quit smoking I told the doctor I was worried about gaining a lot of weight. And he said, “Don’t worry. If you have the willpower to quit smoking, you can lose weight.” So I kind of took him at his word. And when I got up to 287, I couldn’t fit into most of my clothes anymore. I had outgrown extra large shirts and all my pants. My waistline was between 44 and 46 inches, and I was in XXL shirts. I felt huge. And I decided I had to do something about this, and I started on a diet in early 1992.

K: How did your weight affect your everyday life? Did you have limitations?

D: Well I was still relatively young…

K: Hee. Relatively.

D: Well, when you’re 59, 42 sounds great. I used to work on the car a lot, and it was difficult to get up and down, move around. You lose a lot of agility because you’re carrying this extra person, really. 287 is a good weight for two people. It’s just a huge amount of weight, and you just don’t feel right at all. I still did what I liked. I played some golf. I still went fishing. But everything was an extra burden. It was harder.

K: So what kind of changes did you make in your diet when you decided to start losing weight?

D: Well, I decided I was going to try to get by on 1500 calories a day. So, I was working at [redacted] at the time, and I used to eat practically non-stop all day there. I would come in with a couple of bagels and I’d say, “Well, I don’t have any butter on them, so it’s okay.” And then at break time I’d have something, and then go out for a full lunch. And then I’d have a snack in the afternoon. And then I’d go home and eat a big dinner. I was probably taking in about 5000 calories a day.

K: Wow.

D: I decided I was going to try to cut down to 1500 calories. To do that I cut out my snack in the car on the way to work – I forgot to mention that. And I cut it down to two rice cakes, which comes to 100 calories. And then at break time I’d have two more rice cakes. The caramel kind. Quaker.

K: Delicious.

D: Delicious. As rice cakes go, it doesn’t get much better than that. So, by the time lunch came around, I’d had 200 calories so far for the day. And I’d try to keep lunch between 500 and 600 calories, and then dinner about the same. And at night I’d have 100 calorie snack before I went to bed.

K: What did you have for lunch and dinner?

D: For lunch– maybe if I’d have a hamburger, it would be without cheese. Maybe a couple of hot dogs. No French fries. If I had a sandwich on a bagel, it would be a low-calorie meat like boiled ham. One slice of cheese for flavor, but not loaded up on cheese. Dinner in those days, we always had two vegetables, meat, and usually a piece of bread. And I cut almost all the butter out of my diet. We used to have spaghetti and meatballs every Tuesday night and I’d have two meatballs and some spaghetti, but instead of four or five slices of bread with butter, I cut it down to two slices of Italian bread with no butter. So, cutting back all around.

K: What kind of changes did you make to your exercise plan?

D: I just played golf. I wasn’t into walking for its own sake back then. I lost ten pounds a month for seven months. I went from 287 to 217 in seven months. It felt good.

K: How did you keep track of the calories?

D: I would read the labels on the food, and I also had a little booklet I bought at the checkout at the supermarket. It was a little pocket book that had about 30 or 40 pages, and it had a nice index of foods and calories in it. … Basically I was cutting about 35,000 calories a month out of my diet.

K: That’s a lot.

D: Yeah. Doing the math, I was losing 2-1/2 pounds a week.

K: Hunh.

D: Right. And that’s how I lost the weight. I strictly believe in counting calories and exercising for losing weight. I don’t think there’s any fad diets that work over any length of time.

K: Did you find you were eating less meat or more vegetables? It sounds like you definitely cut out the dairy part of it, but what about those two?

D: Well, I watched the quantities more than the types of food. But one thing I insisted on any diet is I had to have pizza once a week. Any diet I’ve ever been on because I absolutely love pizza. But it would be two slices. My days of three, four, five slices of pizza at a meal are over.

K: So it was a portion control issue.

D: It was portion control. I believe you have to have things you like. You just can’t be continually eating rice cakes. Once in awhile you have to treat yourself.

K: Are there any other big changes you made to your lifestyle? You mentioned you had quit smoking.

D: That was it. It was seven months at ten pounds a month, and it just worked out.

K: At this point, when you were losing 70 pounds, did you ever consider joining a gym or Weight Watchers or anything?

D: No. I’m not a joiner. I don’t like the crowd aspect of joining things. I can’t see myself at a gym.

K: Okay. So you stopped at 217, but you still lost around 40 pounds after that.

D: No. What happened was, over a period of about 12 or 13 years, I slowly put on about 20 pounds. A pound one year, a couple of pounds the next, and when we went on vacation to Spain, when I came back, I was 237.

K: Were you really?

D: Well, I was 217, and over those years I gained 20 pounds. So, I said, “This is not good. I’m well into my 50s, and I’m only 13 pounds from being 250 again.” So I decided it was time to start a diet again. And the first couple of months I lost quit a bit of weight, as you do on most diets. Maybe 15 or 16 pounds. And then I decided … I want to change my lifestyle so I don’t have to constantly be worried about losing all this weight and then putting it back on. … So, I would start losing, get down three pounds a month, two pounds a month. Sometimes there would be something special going on, like a vacation, and I might put on a couple of pounds or only lose a pound or break even that month. But slowly, over the course of a couple of years, I got down to my low weight, which was 179, which is about where I am now.
K: What about your eating habits now?

D: [On] weekends [I eat] two meals a day instead of three. I have brunch and dinner – maybe a light snack during the middle of the day. … And then it’s certainly a more structured environment at the office, and I think it’s easier to lose weight. I bring in some dry cereal in the morning. I like dry cereal because I think you get more flavor out of it, and I think it takes longer to eat. … And then I have a little snack in the middle of the morning. Always 100 calories or less. At lunch I have either a sandwich or soup.

K: But we’re not talking pastrami with mayonnaise.

D: No. … And then in the evening a normal meal. And I have my pizza once a week, and on the weekends I eat two good meals each day. I mean, they’re hearty meals. Sometimes I go for pancakes. Sometimes I go for Polish food. Whatever I feel like – but only two meals. … [Also] I do a lot of walking. I walk about 30, 35 miles a week. So, that helps, too.

K: Whoa.

D: Well, I get off the subway in the morning, about a mile from the office. I leave the house a little earlier to do that. In the afternoon I walk to a different station, and another mile. And then at lunchtime, whenever I can, I walk up to the promenade in Brooklyn, which is almost another mile to and from – a mile each way. So, just in those four things, I’ve already walked four miles for that day. And on the weekend I play golf and I go fishing at night. I always walk a mile or two. And it adds up quickly. It doesn’t have a lot of stress on my joints. At my age, I’m not into – I never was a jogger. I never saw somebody jogging who was smiling, so I figured it can’t be too pleasant an experience. They always look kind of pained. So … it’s kind of a lazy man’s exercise, but what I don’t have in quality, I make up in quantity.

K: Okay. So were your diets difficult to maintain? Did you ever feel deprived or anything?

D: Well … when I’m into a diet, it becomes a way of life. … Once you get used to it, it’s fine. … And this latest one, where I altered my lifestyle and still had big meals when I feel like it - it’s almost a guilty pleasure you don’t have to pay the price for all the time.

K: So it’s easier now.

D: It’s easier in that I kind of changed the way I manage my intake. I don’t go to the bakery and sit at the breakfast table for two hours anymore either. That doesn’t happen. And I don’t eat those massive quantities of pizza. I went from having pizza twice a week to having it once a week. So, it’s definitely a cutback, but that’s okay. I still get my pie.

K: What have been the benefits of the weight loss?

D: Well, I’m a lot more agile. I can, despite my bones starting to creak and stiffen up a little, I can get up and down relatively easily. I have a bad back, and the weight loss certainly helps my agility and my mobility. And of course, with all the walking, I can walk a pretty good distance. I walked to your office tonight from Downtown Brooklyn, which is about four miles. I did that in a little over an hour, so that’s a good pace. Good for someone my age.

K: Okay. So here’s a question: Grandma, your mom, was a big woman.

D: Yes.

K: Did you ever look at her and say to yourself, “That can’t happen to me when I’m that age”? Was that part of it at all?

D: Well, what I did notice – my mother lived to 88.

K: Oh yeah. I missed that.

D: There’s that. But I noticed that you don’t see a lot of big, old fat guys. They tend to die off relatively early. And I’ve been blessed with pretty good blood pressure and a good heart from what I understand, a strong heart. So, I didn’t want to make it any worse. I wanted to have a long, happy, healthy retirement, and part of that was not being overweight.

K: And with Grandma, she lived until 88, but she was not mobile for the last …

D: Listen, if I can get to 83 and suddenly not get too mobile…

K: Good point. So, for the diet and the lifestyle change, what was your support system like? Did anyone help you?

D: No.

K: Oh no.

D: Well, people say positive things. “Oh, you look great.” “Oh, you lost weight.” That’s certainly – that’s supportive. So, it’s a positive thing that you’re doing and people remark on it. And a lot of people have trouble losing weight, [but] you know, I guess for me, it hasn’t been … extremely difficult to do. But for some people it’s a real struggle, and I understand that. Positive feedback is always appreciated.

K: Got it. What are your plans for the future?

D: Retire, fish, golf, sex, drugs, rock and roll. Not necessarily in that order.
~~~

If you liked this post, you might also dig:

• 15 Reasons I Gain(ed) Weight (And Two Reasons I Didn’t)
• Little Meals for One
• Understanding the Childhood Obesity Epidemic Part III: Small-Scale Solutions

Its been about a couple of weeks since Ive ranted on anything, and I really apologize for that. The fact is... Ive really been exhausted. Ive been exhausted, and in a lot of pain. Id call it chronic pain, but its only chronic in the sense that other events keep happening, and happening, on top of one another, to not let the affected parts of my body just take some time to heal. Its like this stupid domino effect, of sorts, except, well... every time a stupid domino falls, it hurts, and I feel every bit of my 35 years of age.

Where do I start?

Well, lets see... About two weeks ago, while I was walking to our corner supermarket, I fell hard on some ice. And I mean, I fell REALLY hard. The kind of hard where you sit there, wondering if you broke anything, and unable to get back up after a few minutes. (The driver, passing by at about 20 mph, must have had a really good laugh at my expense.) The fall itself was painful, but then the pain didnt seem that bad after a few hours, and the next day, everything was fine.

Except for day 2, and day 3... which were utter hell. Then I felt 70, instead of 35... and in need of some kind of walker. (With apologies to 70 year-olds, who can probably run laps next to me, right now.) Leave it to me, to fall on some almost non-existent ice, on the mildest Winter weve had in at least 30 years. On the 4th day, I felt distinctly better, though not completely healed... But on the 5th day, I had to work -- and as some of you may know -- I work unloading trucks for a local department store, a few days of the week. Of course, I had to help unload a very atypical, large truck of merchandise, so that on day 6, I was back to feeling like I felt on day 2.

At work, I *also* hurt myself... by smashing my left shin against a flat of merchandise, which is still black and bruised, and throbbing, and overall, my joints just dont seem to be holding up so well. Im having some pain in my left ankle, which actually began BEFORE I fell, the week before, from the constant stiffness of needing to walk on ice, and slippery sidewalks.

Many baths with Epsom Salt, and stretching exercises later, and Im still one very achy feeling "old" lady. I also, still have to work tomorrow... It will be my third day in a row, when we usually have some off days in between.

Carpal Tunnel hasnt exactly been playing nice, either, with my poor wrists and elbows (at least on my left arm) not letting me get a good nights rest. I might yet consider some kind of joint support supplement, before this is all over. I mean, I feel like my warranty expired.  Are you tired of the whining yet??? I am. LOL And I have to live with me!

So... reading through one of my dear friends blogs, I found a great, happy post... to sort of help focus some of my crappy attitude right now. My friend, A Diabetic Ballerina, wrote on adding a touch of "bling" to our diabetic tools. She gave me some inspiration to give it a little of my own twist... I may not be able to change a lot of my circumstances, but I can at least laugh while Im doing some of the stuff I have to do.

So Ive decided... that I cant freak out too much about having off diabetes days, from the pain, or whatever else comes my way... if my meter looks like this:

Baby boomers have long been spending millions to save their sagging skin, fix their crows feet, and plump their lips. Now, however, boomers are turning to brain boosters to fight an invisible effect of aging: memory loss.

While body parts sag and wrinkle, the brain actually shrinks with age, neural connections slow down, and fewer nerve cells are created, experts explain.
The process begins as early as your 30s and affects tens of millions of Americans, leaving them not only frustrated but also causing a loss of self-confidence, social impairment, and loss of enjoyment of life that can sometimes lead to self-neglect and serious health issues.

To thwart age-related memory loss, many people have turned to brain exercises and brain games such as chess, crossword puzzles, reading aloud, brushing teeth, and computer games like MindFit and Posit Science that promise mental sharpness if you practice enough.

But do those activities really work?


Brain Booster No.1: Exercise

Exercising is one of the most frequently cited activities to improve age-related memory.

"The one that has the most robust findings is physical exercise," says Molly Wagster, PhD, chief of the behavioral and systems neuroscience branch division of the National Institute on Aging.

And it helps if the exercise is aerobic, Wagster says. Studies have shown that older people who exercise -- and were talking fairly easy exercise of moderate walking a few times a week -- outperformed couch potatoes after six months.

Experts do not fully understand why exercise helps boost brainpower, but it could be for several reasons. First, exercise diminishes stress, a key drain of brain energy, and it also helps overall health. It also helps people sleep better, which improves memory and keeps the blood flowing to all parts of your body.

"In general, whats good for the heart is good for the brain," says Gary Small, MD, director of the UCLA Center for Aging and author of iBrain, which examines, among other things the effect of the Internet on our brains.
Brain Booster No. 2: Eating a Rainbow of Fruits and Vegetables

Experts stress that people must pay attention to their diets and eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, five to seven servings daily ranging from leafy greens to blueberries to tomatoes to sweet potatoes. While there is no one "brain food," antioxidants -- which are often found in fruits and vegetables -- help to curb free-radical damage to cells.

"Our brain kind of gets rusty with age," explains Small.

Also, experts say theres no magic brain vitamin or supplement that will protect against memory loss. P. Murali Doraiswamy, MD, chief of biological psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and author of The Alzheimers Action Plan, says that B vitamins may help, as could the spice turmeric, but that studies are inconclusive.

Brain Booster No. 3: Mental Workouts

To keep your brain sharp, many experts say, you need to challenge it regularly.

"Its just like it is with muscles," says Randolph Schiffer, MD, director of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

There is some evidence that mental gymnastics can help preserve memory, but some of the promises of computer games outstrip the reality of the benefits, researchers say.

"Nothing has met the gold standard," explains Doraiswamy. "If they had, theyd all be sold as prescription drugs."

Still, the games cant hurt, says Brenda Plassman, PhD, a professor in the department of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and the principal investigator of the Aging, Demographics and Memory Study. Plassman says she would simply caution older people not to spend money on something that hasnt been proved to work to help age-related memory loss.

"I would encourage people to look at various options for free," says Plassman.
Brain Booster No. 4: Sleep

Healthy sleep patterns are crucial for cognitive performance, especially memory, the experts say. That means at least seven hours of sleep each night.

Sleep is essential to lower levels of stress hormones, to relax and resh your entire body, and to literally turn off your brain. "There are parts of sleep where memory gets archived," says Doraiswamy.

While it may be tempting to take over-the-counter -- or even prescription -- sleeping medications, be aware that many may impair memory. Check with your doctor about side effects of sleep medications, as well as all drugs.

Also, limit your intake of alcohol if you experience sleeping problems, as it can disrupt sleeping patterns.
Brain Booster No. 5: Red Wine

Some studies indicate that red wine is good for the heart and thus the brain, the experts say. Not all the reasons are understood, but many researchers believe red wine may be good for you because it contains the antioxidant resveratrol.

There is a possibility, however, that the benefits associated with red wine could come from other factors, such as the social aspect of wine drinking or income level associated with those who drink wine.

A 2007 study of elderly Italians showed that drinking alcohol in moderation may slow the progression to dementia in elderly people who already have mild mental declines. Defined in the study as less than one drink a day, low to moderate drinking was associated with a significantly slower progression to dementia among people with mild age-related cognitive declines, compared with nondrinkers.
Brain Booster No. 6: No More Multitasking

One of the biggest causes of failing to remember something, explains Small, is that "people arent paying attention."

"As our brain ages, its more difficult to do several things at once," says Plassman.

Multitasking thus becomes an impediment to remembering names, a recipe, or something you just read. Thats because the brain first has to encode information before it can retrieve the information as memory. Unless the brain is paying attention and taking in the information it will later need, the brain cannot encode the information.

Brain Booster No 7: Learning New Memory Tricks

Small, who also authored the best-selling book The Memory Bible, says he teaches a technique called "look, snap, connect" in which participants are taught how to focus on someone or something and make a connection that will help them remember.

"These kinds of techniques can be learned very quickly," Small adds.

Long-practiced strategies such as linking a persons name to something else or another person are also helpful, or using sound associations, says Plassman. Check your local library, senior center, or hospital to see whether free classes might be offered.

While age-related memory loss is typically minor, be on the lookout for more serious memory loss in yourself or a loved one. "Forgetting where you parked your car is one thing," says Doraiswamy. "Forgetting that you have a car is another."

If memory loss is making an impact in your everyday life or getting worse, consult with a doctor.

Also, try to laugh a little about the age-related memory loss while doing what you can to curb it. While the loss is real, its not as if you are losing control of your brain. The loss is relatively subtle, and in most cases, your brain still works like the incredible organ that it is.

In the same way that a little wine may be good for the heart, it might also help avoid depression, a Spanish study suggests.

So while drinking a lot of wine or other alcohol may be a sign of depression or other mental health problems, alcohol in moderation may benefit mental health, the study authors contend.

"One drink a day, preferentially wine, may help prevent depression," said lead researcher Dr. Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, chair of the department of preventive medicine and public health at the University of Navarra, in Pamplona.

But several mental health experts not involved with the study had reservations about the findings. And the research only found an association between moderate drinking and emotional well-being; it didnt prove cause-and-effect.

Martinez-Gonzalez said he thinks the apparent benefit of wine in preventing depression may work the same way that moderate drinking helps prevent heart disease.

"Depression and heart disease seem to share some common mechanisms because they share many similar protective factors and risk factors," he said. However, he added that depression prevention is not a reason to start drinking.

"If you are not a drinker, please dont start drinking," he said. "If you drink alcohol, please keep it in the range of one or less drinks a day and consider drinking wine instead of other alcoholic beverages."

The report was published Aug. 30 in the online journal BMC Medicine.

Tony Tang, an adjunct psychology professor at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill., said the new research "is consistent with other studies suggesting modest health benefits of very modest drinking."

But, Tang said other factors may be at work in the potential connection between wine and depression. He noted that compared to nondrinkers, those in the Spanish study who drank a moderate amount of wine were more likely to be married men who were also physically active.

Being single or divorced, living alone and being sedentary "are well-established risk factors of depression. Thus, perhaps the correlation between modest drinking and depression is a coincidence caused by these other known factors," he said.

"An adequate social life is the most important factor we know that protects people from depression," Tang said. "Perhaps not drinking is a sign of serious social isolation in Spain while drinking a glass of wine a day is simply a sign of having a normal social life."

For the study, researchers followed more than 5,500 light-to-moderate drinkers for up to seven years. All the participants were part of a large Spanish study on nutrition and cardiovascular health, and were between 55 and 80 years old.

None of the individuals had suffered from depression or had alcohol-related problems at the start of the study. Over seven years, with medical exams, interviews with dietitians and questionnaires, the researchers kept tabs on participants mental health and lifestyle.

Wine was the most popular drink and participants who drank two to seven glasses a week were the least likely to suffer from depression, compared to nondrinkers.

These findings remained significant even after the researchers took factors such as smoking, diet and marriage into account.

Eva Redei, a distinguished professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, in Chicago, also expressed doubts about the direct effect of wine on depression.

"Considering the increase of major depression in the age group examined in this study, the finding of protective effects of moderate alcohol consumption is intriguing," she said.

However, it raises more questions than answers. "Is moderate wine consumption related to increased socialization, decreased cardiovascular events, or as it seems, increased activity? These questions are not answered by this study, but the findings are definitely worth noticing," Redei said.

"Is it possible that in vino veritas [in wine theres truth] reflects a bigger truth?" she asked.