CathyM Weight Loss & Health Blog

I am so proud that my almost grown kids are taking an interest in their health! That we can enjoy beautiful healthy food and some exercise on Mother’s Day is a great treat for me. My daughter came over early in the day, we had some beautiful berries from the Farmer’s market. She recently started growing wheat grass and we made a drink with the blender. I was surprised at how sweet the wheat grass drink was and the left over fiber went to our dog – no waste. She also made a homemade vegan salad dressing with cashews, that sure was good. We had it on fresh salad greens with avocado. For dinner, the whole family went to a local tofu restaurant – Korean. They serve lovely salads with seaweed, sprouts, kimchi, and more. The soups are all hot tofu based with the addition of your choice of mushrooms, beef, pork, and seafood. Delcious. My son started the Atkins diet last fall and has lost over 70 pounds. Yes, he had gotten quite heavy. He could eat everything at the Tofu Restaurant except the rice.

Besides the lovely, healthy food, my daughter and I took an aerobic dance class at the local health club. It’s a lot of fun and a great work out. I am trying to increase my exercise levels up to 6 hours per week to see if I can drop a few more pounds. I have been on a plateau for a year. I consider that to be good because I have not gained back any weight. I still follow the Sonoma Diet but probably am not being as strict as I should be particularly in quantity of food and maybe a little too much wine.

After dinner, we all headed out to see the new Star Trek movie. We were full and the theatre did not get any snack money from us. It was a fun movie, I enjoyed the way the new actors played the parts of the familiar characters at a young age.

Yea! I am happy to be migraine free for almost six months now. I have been tracking my migraines for 10 years and during that time never went more than a couple of months without one. The migraines started at the same time that I developed other symptoms of perimenopause. That was a long drawn out 10 years of heavy periods and monthly migraines. I guess I can be thankful that the migraines didn’t start during puberty. After I figured out that my headaches were migraines and convinced my doctor, I was able to keep them under control by taking Imitrex at the onset of the headache. I kepet track of the dates of my migraines and periods and convinced my doctor that these were hormonal migraines. He said I should hope for an early menopause. Well, it wasn’t early, it was a late one but it does seem to have stopped the migraines.

There is one other possibility, I have been on the Sonoma Diet since January and the migraines stopped in February so it could be extrapolated that it was the diet that cured the migraines. But I think not. I ate rather healthy before this diet, including drinking wine and alcohol. The only big change in eating habits is the switch to near 100% whole grains.

I write this to give hope to some of you that suffer with migraines. I suggest charting them on a spreadsheet or calendar with your periods and see if there is a correlation. Hormonal migraines often come a couple of days before the period. If there is a correlation, there is a chance that like me, your migraines will eventually end with menopause.

I heard a snippet of a talk on the early show this week. I would quote the speaker but I just didn’t catch his name. He said something to the effect of, “The speed of weight loss is not important. What is important is the amount of weight loss and the durability of the loss.” I have to agree. When starting on a weight loss program, the weight tends to come off quickly in the initial weeks and then the plateaus and even small weight gains might kick in. These could be because the body has adjusted to the reduced calories by not requiring so many calories. They also can be because we just can’t follow the program religiously and start to cheat a bit here and there. The thing to remember is that there is no quick fix to weight loss. Yes, we can loose 5 – 10 pounds quickly if we try hard but as soon as we stop trying, we’ll gain it back. We all know that it takes a life long dedication to healthy eating to really keep the weight under control. So that’s what I am trying to do. I lost only 2 pounds over the last 3 weeks. I know it is possible to loose 2 pounds in a single week but I just have to remember this is the way it goes sometimes and be ok with it. Actually, I should be very happy with it because it’s all progress in the right direction!

I know that the harder challenge for me will be the point when I have reached my goal weight and move into maintenance. But I’m not there yet so will worry about that challenge when I get there.

Ultimately, I think I can make it work because I love the food on the Sonoma Diet.

Wish me luck!

I have now lost 14 pounds on the Sonoma Diet. There are many aspects of the diet that I love and most important is the food is delicious and satisfying. This diet is not low carb or low fat. However, the carbs are unrefined – either fresh fruit and vegetables or whole grains. We’re talking 100% whole wheat or whole grain bread (not wheat bread but whole wheat bread). I currently have the whole grain bread from Milton’s which has 5 grams of fiber in a slice. Cereal also has to be whole grain and typically with 8 grams of fiber in a serving – you really have to read the labels to find cereal with that much fiber. I have also learned to cook with many new whole grains including quinoa, barley, and wheet berries. You mind think that these foods would be bland and tasteless but to the contrary, they have a natural nutty texture and the Sonoma Diet recipes include lots of spices and flavor.

There are so many health benefits to fiber. From a diet perspective, the high fiber foods take a little longer to chew and to digest – that is good – makes you fill up and burn calories eating. From a health perspective, fiber helps with digestion, lowers cholesterol, and stablizes blood sugar. This can help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The Mayo Clinic has a great write up on the benefits of a high fiber diet.

Is there any downside to this high fiber diet? Yes, there is one, the food takes longer to cook. The Sonoma Diet will be tough to follow if you don’t have time to prepare the food. You’ll have to learn some short cuts, prepare ahead, and use your leftovers. For me, it has been well worth the extra time in the kitchen.

If this sounds like a diet plan for you, visit Sonoma Diet Online to try this wonderful diet.

Last month I left for New Zealand weighing 169 pounds and I came back at the same weight. That’s a great accomplishment for 3 weeks of travel! I found it easy to stick with the essentials of the Sonoma Diet Online in New Zealand. While arranging our trip, I looked for B & B’s that mentioned fresh produce as part of their breakfast (most did). Some even mentioned smoked salmon or whitebait fish for breakfast (I liked that too). I also knew that we would stay a week in a beautiful house where we would cook our own meals which would give me the oppotunity to cook Sonoma Diet style.

My expectations were met and exceeded. The first meal we had in New Zealand was at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the water. It was lunch and we wanted New Zealand green mussels. First, they don’t put white bread baskets on the table – yea! Second, they serve delicious fresh food in right sized proportions. The mussels were perfect, a great start to eating wonderful food in moderation in New Zealand. For breakfast the next morning at the B & B, I noticed that the 3 cereals offered were healthy choices. None of this sugar coated stuff like in the US. We tried the Weetabix – New Zealand’s most popular cereal – along with fresh fruit.

While driving through the country we of course noted the miles and miles of grazing sheep and cattle. Another great thing about the meat in New Zealand – it is all free range because they have so much grazing land! Likewise with the poultry, the chickens are also free range. Everyone in New Zealand lives pretty close to water and seafood is also a major component of their food. We enjoyed scallops, fish, mussels, oysters, crayfish (spiny lobster), and paua (abalone). All local and prepared in a variety of delicious ways. Fish and chips is a popular menu item, so not everything was Sonoma Diet compatable, but there was plenty of healthful food to satisfy me.

Just as much of the meat is free range, so also is much of the produce organic. While in Blenheim, we were able to shop at the Sunday Farmer’s Market. It was marvelous! The fruits were similar to what you would expect in summer in the US, strawberries, blueberries, plums, apples, and more. The vegetables were also great – green beans, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, and more. All was of a very high quality. We also picked up hazelnuts, and local cheeses, and bacon that seemed more like what we would refer to as Canadian bacon.

A part of the Sonoma Diet that I really enjoy is a glass of wine with dinner. Well, New Zealand has the perfect climate for wine and lots to choose from. We spent a day in the wine country and visited several wineries stocking up for our week on Arapawa Island where there are no stores. New Zealand is most famous for white wines especially sauvignon blanc, and along with chardonney, and riseling. We picked up some great wines to go with our many seafood dinners. We also found some wonderful pinot noirs.

This blog is about healthy food but I also have to mention that the people of New Zealand have to be the friendliest and most helpful people of the world. Always willing to help you find your way. And of course the country is beautiful – Have you seen Lord of the Rings? – this is the place! Outdoor activities are fantastic, we enjoyed some of the best scuba diving in the world. There is also unlimited options for tramping (hiking) as well as adventurous activities such as bungie jumping.

We had a perfect 3 weeks and are looking forward to an opportunity to return to New Zealand for another visit.

There’s an article yesterday about “Americans opt for healthy eating, not diets.” Eight out of 10 dieters said their goal was both to lose weight and improve their health. The Sonoma Diet tries to meet these goals with wholesome, fresh, and delicious food. I have just finished the first week and all of the food has been delicious.

I ordered The Sonoma Diet Book from Amazon and it arrived today. Although the online program is great, it does help to have the reference book too for quick answers on some things. One of my questions was can I occasionally substitute other alcohol for wine. The answer is no and the reason given is that only wine has enough healthy nutrients to make the extra calories worth it.

A couple of points from the introductory chapter of the book. The Sonoma Diet is not low carb or low fat. There are plenty of satisfying carbs and they are all whole grains – high fiber and healthy! The fats emphasize olive oil which has been shown to be heart healthy. By not depriving carbs and fats, this diet is satisfying and I hope one that I can continue with as an eating lifestyle for a very long time.

One thing I disagree with is the statement that it is “Simple for busy lives.” The meals take a long time to prepare. About 2 – 4 hours a day. Many of the lunch meals have as much preparation time as the dinners. I think that the longer I am on it, I will develop ways to shorten the preparation time or make substitutions but for now I am trying to stick fairly close to the menus offered online. I love the food and am willing to put in the time because of that.

I have a few more days on Wave 1 (1st 10 days of the plan are the most strict) and I look forward to seeing what new food alternatives there will be in Wave 2.

For the last couple of months it seems that I have had a hard time maintaining my weight. I wondered if the problem could be my electric blanket. Our house is cool at night and it was espcially cold this winter. I purchased an electric blanket right before Christmas. Since then I have gained some weight.

I searched on Google, and yes, there is a physicist, C. Johnson who has analyzed the calorie counts. He says that being really cozy in bed with an electric blanket or many covers will eliminate 480 calories of energy that would otherwise have been used up and radiated away as heat. That can add up to 1 pound per week of weight gain. Wow, that’s a lot. Here’s a link to his whole analysis.

I think from now on I’ll try to turn on the electric blanket for just 5 minutes at night to warm the bed and see if I can get my weight back under control and still get some sleep at night.

The waters have been warm off of California. What does that have to do with my diet? The warm waters bring in fish to the area that otherwise might not be here. In particular, the seas are full of bonito. Bonito are related to and resemble tuna but are smaller. For the last few weeks they have been plentiful and we troll for them along the coast. We catch a half dozen or so, bring them home and make sashimi, spicey tuna rolls, poke, tuna salad, and my favorite is the bonito pan fried with a little olive oil, lemon juice, and coarse salt.

There is lots of research about the benefits of omega 3’s. Just today in Yahoo! New from the American Journal of Preventitive Medicine:

Fish oil could potentially save more lives than cardiac defibrillators, devices used to revive individuals whose hearts have stopped beating and to prevent and treat life-threatening heart arrhythmias, researchers estimate in a new report.

I believe that fresh fish is always better than frozen and that fresh food is almost always better than supplements. I found that the Australian Consumer’s Association Choice agrees with me (or I agree with them): Oils ain’t oils in the frozen fish world

Now is this bonito diet helping with my weight loss goals. Maybe. Because of my rotator cuff injury, I have been doing far less exercise than I normally do. I also have not been focused on dieting. Yet I have managed to maintain my 10 pound weight loss. That’s good.

I will see if I can find some nutritional information on bonito and come back and post that later.

One thing I learned on Diet.com
– from the diet personalitly quiz is that one of my biggest problems is portion control – they call me a Hearty Portioner! I have been able to keep my portions in control over the last few weeks. Here’s how I did it:

1. I can eat anything if I only take a bite! There’s a good dessert at the table – if someone will let me taste their’s, I’m good.
2. I can eat unlimited vegetables (of course assuming they are not drenched in cheese or butter). I can still have unlimited vegetables if there are small amounts of butter or sauce – and that small amount can go a long ways towards making them desirable!
3. I eat 2 or 3 fruits per day. This is not unlimited because of sugar. Fruits are highly recommended though because of their antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber!
4. Good fats make a meal tasty. Olive oil is good and if I want to saute, I add a small amount of butter for flavor. Oil is not unlimited. A few teaspoonfuls a day is max.
5. Bread and Pasta are limited. One or 2 small servings a day. Whole grain is best, the less refined the better.
6. Protein is also limited. Lean meat is better than fatty meat. Seafood is excellent. Beans are also great, especially for fiber. Portion control on meat can be done by using the fist as a measure. A fist size portion is about 4 ounces. Two servings is max for the day.
7. Alcohol – has to go. Have it only one night a week.

I have been doing the above for the last couple of weeks and with little exercise I have maintained my weight. I don’t feel bad about being on a plateau for a while because I maintained and ultimately that’s the hardest part – keeping the weight off after loosing it.

Does the stomach shrink while dieting? It does seem to me that it does. I have been eating less for a few weeks now and I do get full at meals and do not feel the need to stuff myself and go back for seconds. I will do some research to see if there is any truth/science to support this.

The first result on Google is from the European Food Information Council. It looks like a legitimate site/organization that provides science based information. It says about fasting:

When you have not eaten for about four hours your stomach will be relatively empty, looks a bit like a deflated balloon and in this state, holds about 50ml. Once full, however, it can greatly expand and hold up to 4 litres of food and drink. Fasting can not therefore shrink the stomach; it simply remains in the empty, deflated state. As soon as you start eating and drinking normally again, it expands once more.

Next result is from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and a small study of obese patients, based on 4 weeks of diet for some and no diet for others:

The results demonstrate a reduction in gastric capacity in obese subjects after a restricted diet.

The reduction was 27% to 36% in capacity depending on how they measured it. On another website that refers to this study, they discuss how obese people may have stretched their stomachs with continual overeating at meals. I think this might be true for me. I like to eat and even if not hungry will go back for 2nds and 3rds beyond what most people will eat. Well, I’m not doing that now but when I am overeating, I do. Something to be mindful of.

I find other websites that purport to answer the question but without any scientific basis. Most say that the stomach will stretch when over filled but will not shrink. Some say that the only way to shrink the stomach is surgery.

What matters to me is that I am now eating less and feeling satisfied with what I eat. I am also drinking very little alcohol and have adjusted to that as well. The trick will be to maintain this state.