Before and After

Before and After

Do you realize that most available log books want you to make a before and after photograph?  Let's think about that.  You weigh 250 lbs. and are defined as clinically obese and you want to make a photograph of that.  Why?  Do you want to remember what you looked like then so that you can cleverly find ways to return to that old weight?  That's what a before photograph is inviting you to do.  Today I weigh 169.4 lbs (2710.4 ounces) and I took a photograph which I thought I might post.  I look much better than I did when my birthday arrived on February 12 of this year when I was weighing 204, but still, I have the places on my side above my hips and I don't like those so, why photograph them?  If I believed that this is the best I'll be, then I would, but my ultimate goal is 155-157 lbs. with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 24.6 (or less).  I can and I will reach that goal.  Then I will make a photograph and post it; and it will be the one that I'll want to keep in front of me, to remind me how I want to appear, to me and to others. And, ultimately, I hope what I have done and posted will help someone else.

Books (information) to help:

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.  It has a lot of information and may be technical for some, i.e. hard to read

Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It by Gary Taubes, the less technical and more easy to read version of Good Calories, Bad Calories

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable by Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek.  Did you see the words "Life-Saving" in that long title?  I read this book after all of the others and I found it to be an excellent guide on how to do it.  I've added 2 cubes a day of beef broth since I read it.

Dr. Berstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars by Richard K. Bernstein.  On this one, my only child, Stephen William Payne was a type I (juvenile) diabetic and died at age 36 from the complications of the disease.  I have to believe that this book and his execution of the matter in it would have allowed him to have lived much longer with much greater health.  It's a great book, and a great story.

The Inflammation Syndrome: Your Nutrition Plan for Great Health, Weight Loss, and Pain Free Living by Jack Challem.  I was looking for books on inflammation and Google helped me find this title.  It added to my knowledge of my illness.  I develop inflammation quickly from carbohydrate excess and it is painful and limiting.  I can raise my arms over my head now and use both arms and hands well.  I could not do that before I began to realize the inflammation syndrome in my life.

Protein Power: The High-Protein/Low-Carbohydrate Way to Lose Weight, Feel Fit, and Boost Your Health-in Just Weeks! by Michael and Mary Dan Eades.  The Eades' program was my first exposure to health through this diet and I still go back to it often.

The New Atkins for a New Your: The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great by Dr. Eric Westman, Dr. Stephen Phinney and Jeff S. Volek.  After I had followed the Eades for a while, I went to the original Dr. Atkins and this book is updated with anything that happened since he wrote it.

No before photographs but once I am at goal weight and health, then I will make a photograph which will be the new before and then the old and new after.

Stephen Joe "Red Boots" Payne
Body by Payne

March 2013 and Goals

March 2013 and Goals

 I set the major goal for March, 2013 to lose six pounds between March 1 and March 31.  The six pounds was based upon my program of losing four ounces per day for the month, or 124 ounces for the month, which computes to 7.25 lbs.  But I did not think I could lose that much so I set a realistic goal of 6 lbs. for the month of March.  I began March with a weight of 188.2 lbs. and completed March with a weight of 180.4 lbs. which resulted in a 7.8 lbs. loss of weight; that is 124.8 ounces, so I did better than I thought I would.  I have projected, based upon a loss of 2 oz. per day, reaching my goal of 160 lbs. in 163 days, or October 1, 2013.  The 160 goal is a first target and my true goal is 155-157 lbs. because that will result in Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 25.  This is the number that I am told by physicians that I should reach to be healthy.

I am following a low carbohydrate diet, and let's not be afraid of the word "diet" because whatever we do with food is a diet.  There is the old fashion and famous "See Food Diet" which prescribes "whatever I see, I eat."  A golfer began that one but I forget which golfer now.  If we eat unrestricted food, that's a diet; just not a very healthy one.  When I was a youngster, in high school, and the navy, and then later, I could eat what I wanted to without gaining weight.  My wife could too.  It's a given that for a great number of us humans, as we age, we lose some ability to eat everything and anything without gaining weight.  I see it in many friends and in myself.  From the Doctors Eades, Dr. Atkins, Drs. Phinney and Volek, and Gary Taubes, I have learned much about carbohydrates, insulin, glucose, glycogen, and other tools of our energy provision.

I've had to conclude that I have two issues; (1) carbohydrate sensitivity, and (2) carbohydrate addiction.  Carbohydrate sensitivity means that we respond to carbohydrates easily and produce insulin in over abundance and store fat from that insulin stimulation.  Insulin does several things but it's main function is to store fat in our cells.  Another hormone releases fat for energy.  

Carbohydrate addition is a need to consume carbohydrates, whether it is a real need within our bodies or an imagined need created by emotion, need for comfort, fun--such as popcorn and a Coke with it--or just a habit left over from our childhood.  It can be any number of things.  For example, from my early movie going experiences as a child and then teen, movies meant a Coke, popcorn, often a candy bar, in the proper venue, a hot dog, perhaps (later on) nachos with cheese and jalapeno peppers.  When I was in navy radar school in San Francisco, we could pay extra for a loge seat and smoke (cigarettes only; no pipes or cigars).

It was, for me, a near Pavlovian response; go to a movie, must have Coke and popcorn.  I now go to a movie and have only water, if I have that, in the gloriously overpriced plastic bottles ($3.50 for a bottle last time out).  It took me a lot to get past my staple of popcorn and a soft drink but I managed to do it when I began this program.

One of the things I did, as soon as I was able, was to buy some new jeans.  I wear Lee brand jeans.  I bought eight pair in size 34 waist with a 29 inseam and then, against my wife's wishes, or even her knowledge, I took 30 pair of jeans and slacks to the west side of town and gave all of them to a mission to help others there.  My wife suggested that I keep them "in case I gain weight again."  No; I chose not to because thinking that way sets me up to gain weight.  I refuse now to do so; that is, clearly "Failure is not an option."  Here is why; carbohydrates are more than just addictive to me.  They result in inflammation and in my case, as I am sure in other people, they cause depression.  It took me a while to understand that but I do now.

From Brian Tracy's program, "The Psychology of Achievement" I am learning, once again, to program myself with visual tools, goals and affirmations.

Stephen Joe "Red Boots" Payne
Body by Payne, April 22, 2013

Goal Setting

Goal Setting

March 7, 2013    Thursday

Weight: 186.6 lbs. BMI=29.66

Weight in ounces: 2985.6

March 8, 2013    Friday
Weight 185.4 lbs. BMI=29.47
Weight in ounces: 2966.4

March 9, 2013    Saturday
Weight: 185.2 lbs. BMI=29.44
Weight in ounces: 2963.2

March 10, 2013 Sunday
Weight: 184.6 lbs. BMI=29.35
Weight in ounces: 2953.6

March 14, 2013 Thursday
Weight: 183.2 lbs. BMI=29.12
Weight in ounces: 2931.2

Here is one of those plateaus.  I have weighed in at 186.6 lbs. for the last three days.  I have been running three miles each day, staying with my process of diet and exercise and it is knowing that I am following a process that prevents me from having emotional issues about not losing more now.  Early on, at a higher weight, my weight loss was quicker but I knew it would slow, and change.  As I reach a lower weight, with the exercise, some of the weight is the change from fat to muscles mass, and that will change again once I stabilize.

I am listening to Brian Tracy's audio program, "The Psychology of Achievement" which is a six CD program with advice.  I first listened to it in 1987, actually when it was on cassette audio.  The technology has changed, and he has updated the program, but the basic program is unchanged.  The essence of his program is success and it is a achieved by setting goals.  I've used the techniques I learned from Brian before, but like many of the things in life for us, I get away from it.  I get busy studying languages and get away from my daily program.

In setting a goal, it must be personal, positive, specific.  President John F. Kennedy said, "It is our goal to place a man on the moon and return him safely to earth by the end of this decade."  There it was, clear, visible, specific.  He did not say someday but before 1970, by the end of the decade of the 1960's.

When I began to lose wait for my program, I used what I knew about medical science, weight for a male my age, and I determined my weight should be 160 lbs.  I then subtracted that weight from my existing weight, multiplied that weight in lbs. by 16 for ounces per pound, and then divided that weight in ounces by 4 for my intended weight loss of 4 ounces each day and projected that information in time and allowed myself a reasonable time for errors.  So, I could then state my goal as:

My goal is to weigh less than 160 lbs. by October 1, 2013 by healthy choices and actions.

Brian Tracy says that we should have a present tense statement such as "I weigh 160 lbs." no matter what the weight is at the moment.  These are actually affirmations.

I weigh 160 lbs.
I earn $350,000 per year
I drive a new Subaru Outback

Affirmations are powerful tools.


I did not finish writing this at the time and I wanted to finish the goal statement before I moved on and began new entries.

Stephen J. "Red Boots" Payne
Body by Payne