I come from a long line of breeders
of Toby Jugs.
If it wasn't for a bit of the old growth hormone kicking in, I'd be short and stubby with shoulders for a neck.
Thanks dad.
My family lineage does obesity to a treat when it sets its mind/belly to it.
I was doing OK for ever so long, then, as my chronic illness became more chronic and middle age descended upon my metabolism, I started laying down the padding. If I take the year I fell ill as a marker, I've put on a kilogram per year extra for each of the past 25 years.
It's not that I'm sedentary. Twenty five years ago my exercise quotient was rather intense and had been for several years up until then: swimming, cycling, running and hiking. Despite my tragic malady I maintained a focus on physical exertion mainly to overcome stiffness and pain but I had to negotiate a new threshold, a new handicap which meant that I could never attain athleticism as a lifestyle.
But the irony is that no matter how much I upped my investment in exercise
--if you follow this blog you'll know that I do indeed do a lot of physical stuff--
the weight didn't shift at all.I may be ill but I'm more active that most people I know.I box. Lift weights. Walk. Kickbike. We even put in a pool and I would work out in it 10 months each year, wearing a wet suit so I could maintain my exercise regime during Winter.
This is serious stuff and I am always focused and reasonably disciplined in my pursuit despite the fact that I'm so often bedridden or house bound.
But still...I gained weight.
BMI
It was only this week when I weighed myself on a public weighing machine that it struck me that I am within reach of my recommended Body Mass Index. I should attain that preferred BMI sometime around Christmas this year.
So if I am now losing weight, what's changed? Do I have a cancer?
At present I am losing on average 1.6 kgms per month. That's why I can project onto a Christmas timetable. I need time to slim down. But I am confident that my physiology will perform to schedule.
How is that happening? It's so darn simple that it is staggering: I'm eating less carbohydrate. Generally I try to keep my carb intake to around 100-130 grams per day. This is a sort of Diabetic Diet -- and that's why I'm on it .
I can eat anything just so long as I'm aware how much carbohydrate is loaded into it . In effect that means I cut back on rise, pasta, cereals , fruits....I try to keep the carb intake per item/serve to under 16-20 grams. If you do your sums, and consider that only so may items are carbohydrate dense, you can fit a lot of stuff in your mouth for 130 grams per day.
This approach more or less means that I cut out breakfast cereals and don't partake of rise, pasta, potatoes and the like for my evening meal. I still eat bread -- I bake with my own sourdough -- as I eat one to two slices per day. I still drink beer -- I brew my own with low GI sugar -- without any consequence that I can register. I'm fortunately not a sweet tooth and can live without cake.
...and I'm still losing weight.
I'm not hungry. I eat a lot of wonderful stuff. I partake of the fat universe without guilt.
..and I'm the lighter for it.
