Category: Guest Posts

[This is the next in a series of guest posts about healthy diet and lifestyle from Dave Banko.]

Counting calories was the subject of a major debate in my Facebook weight-loss support group, and the short answer is: there is no correct answer.  A lot depends on you and how much you need to lose.

When I started losing weight and weighed over 360 lbs, I didn’t need to count calories.  The idea of a food diary and researching calorie content for everything I ate was too extreme for me, and the changes I was already making to my eating lifestyle resulted in dropping the weight relatively easily.

When I got down to around 250 lbs, it was becoming more difficult. With a much smaller percentage of body fat left to lose, and so many cuts already made, the margins were smaller, and I found I had to start counting calories to work off the last pounds.

If you want to start counting calories, smart phone apps make the process much easier. I researched 3 different ones and settled on My Fitness Pal.  I only use the free version, and haven’t seen a need yet for the premium services.

This app has a huge database of foods to search and automatically load, including many restaurant menu items which makes going out to eat easier.  You can also pre-load and copy items.  And it interfaces with a number of activity/step trackers like Fitbit so you can automatically include the calories burned from exercise.

Two of the most interesting functions I found are 1) the ability to track what I ate against my weight the next day, and 2) the ability to pre-plan meals.

• The 1st thing I did was track my normal usage for 1 week, then started experimenting with diet and exercise over a 2 week period.  While the average male stat is 2500 calories per day, I found for me the break-even point was 2200.  If I ate more than 2200 calories, I generally gained weight, and if I ate less than 2200 calories, I generally lost weight.  I say ‘generally’ because it isn’t an exact formula.  Calorie counting is only a tool, but not the only tool you should use to lose weight as there are many other factors too.
• The 2nd is the ability to pre-plan.  If I know what I am planning to eat for the day, or what restaurant I’m going to, I can look up the items I plan to eat and the calorie content and see how it fits so I know how much I can consume and stay within my daily allowance.  Also, if I’d like a glass of wine, some chocolate or ice cream, I can add this in and know where I need to cut back in other areas to have my treat and stay within the limits.

Someone asked me about cheating, by not entering everything.  This tool is for me, to help me with eating healthy.  The only person I’m cheating by not using the tool properly is myself.

One final point, as referenced above, your body is very complex, and simply counting calories will not do it.  If you are staying within your calorie limits, but the majority of the food you consume is unhealthy or out of proportion, it will have negative effects on your health and you may still gain weight. One calorie is not like every other calorie!

So, if you decide to count calories or use something like the Weight Watchers point system, your first step should be to adjust to healthier foods in the correct ratios.  Then you can use a calorie counting tool to help control the portion sizes.

As always, feel free to contact me at daveb.uk@hotmail.com with any comments or questions not covered.  [Crew Dog: Or comment below.]

[This is the next post in the guest series from Dave Banko on healthy diet and lifestyle.]

I remember being scolded as a boy for ‘inhaling‘ my food and not chewing it.

In basic training, the instructors would count our chews and slow down our caloric intake in other ways, but, when you only had 15 minutes to eat and it was taking too long, that changed to “Down as much as you can in the last 5 minutes!”  Needless to say, I ate too fast and this didn’t help my weight.

Having lived and traveled extensively in Europe, I’ve noticed this is a major difference between the European and the American culture.  The American culture is very “results-oriented” and this seems to apply to nearly every aspect of life, not just business.

I remember going to a restaurant in London for the first time.  What stood out for me was the space between tables (the owners weren’t trying to maximize how many people fit in the room) and no one pressured us to leave after we’d been there a few hours (not worried about increasing turnover).  I came back to the US and went to dinner at a restaurant where we took our time and noticed the table next to us turned over 3 times while we were there and the waitress was pressuring us to pay the bill and leave.

Slowing down your eating is a major recommendation of the ‘What’s the Right Diet for You?’ program.  

Experiment

Day 1: The researchers gave each participant a hamburger for lunch then secretly timed them.  All of them ate their hamburgers in less than 5 minutes, some in less than 2 minutes.  The researchers then asked for feedback and nearly all participants were still hungry.  Some said it was like a snack and they could easily eat another.  Then the researchers took blood samples, which showed that the hormone telling the participants’ brains they were full was low.

Day 2: The researchers gave each participant another hamburger of the same size and calorie content, but required them to take 30 minutes to eat it.  To help, the researchers had the participants sit down and use a knife and fork.  At the end of the 30 minutes, they again asked for feedback.  All of the participants felt full!  While some said they could eat more, they no longer felt hungry and were able to stop after one hamburger.  The blood samples supported this as the hormone levels were doubled!

After changing *what* I ate, the next big challenge was *how much* I eat and this information alone was very helpful.  I put this to the test myself and couldn’t believe the difference.

In my 2nd blog post, I spoke about the French Paradox.  How can the French (and I’ve seen this in other European countries like Spain, Italy and Germany) eat rich fatty foods and still stay thin with low cholesterol and heart disease?  They eat small portions over extended periods of time, so their bodies can process it properly.

To them, food isn’t something to conquer, ‘Man vs Food,‘ but part of an event to be enjoyed with friends.

Here are a few of the techniques I use to slow down when I eat:

• Sit down to eat. If you are standing, or are in an uncomfortable position, you will be more inclined to rush eating.
• Take a sip of water or other drink in-between bites. If alcohol, alternate alcohol and water, as alcohol adds calories too.
• Have your meal with someone and engage in conversation during the course of your meal.
• Cut your food into small pieces.
• Chew your food thoroughly before swallowing. As your mouth includes digestive enzymes, this also helps digestion and fully processing the nutrients in your food.
• Try to spread out your meal. When I’m at home, instead of having my meal all at once, I’ll spread it out over an hour or two.  For example, for breakfast, I’ll start with a large glass of water with lemon, then have a 150g container of full fat natural yogurt.  About 15 to 30 minutes later I’ll have some fruit, usually some berries like blueberries or strawberries.  Another 30 to 45 minutes later, I’ll have my 2 eggs.  I’ll have also had another full glass of water with lemon, and tea without sugar during my meal.  I’ve now had about a 450 calorie breakfast over 90 minutes and don’t feel hungry at all.

Unfortunately, we can’t always take the time to slow down.  In those times, you will need to use your will power to remind yourself you have consumed enough food and your body doesn’t need more, even if you still feel hungry.

As always, feel free to contact me at daveb.uk@hotmail.com if you have any comments or questions not already covered.  [Crew Dog: Or comment right here! 🙂 ]

[The next post in Dave Banko’s guest series on healthy diet and lifestyle.]

Setting challenging but achievable goals is important in all aspects of our life, and weight loss is no different.  

When I started, I set the goal for myself to lose 100 lbs in a year. Even though I had never lost more than 15 lbs on any previous diet, I set this goal based on several factors:

1. I wanted to give the new program a full year and, based on a weekly goal of losing 2 lbs a week, 100 lbs in a year seemed reasonable.
2. I saw several middle-aged celebrity men who lost 100 or more lbs with diet and exercise (not with surgery).
3. I also had 2 colleagues at work who recently lost a significant amount of weight, one of whom lost 100 lbs.

The example of friends and public figures achieving this gave me hope!  Although I haven’t been successful before, it has been done, and so I should be able to do it.

I hope sharing my story will inspire you that you can do it too!

100 lbs is daunting, especially having never lost more than 15 lbs before.  After initially setting this end target, I went back to set short and intermediate goals.

Rather than focusing on the end target, I knew if I focused on the short-term goals, the intermediate and end goals would come.

My friend’s Facebook group agreed we would do a weekly virtual weigh-in on Friday or Saturday.  To avoid embarrassment, we wouldn’t report actual weight, but just how many lbs up or down from the previous week.

Even though this was voluntary, it did apply a level of peer pressure to want to be able to report a positive result.  (You could lie of course because no one actually observed your weigh in, but the only one you’d be hurting is yourself.)

I found this combination of reasonable short-term goals, support, & accountability to both my family and a group of others on a similar journey very helpful.

There were some who opted not to do this, and none of them reached their goals.  Not everyone who set goals and reported regularly achieved their goals as quickly as they wanted, but it did help them keep going in the right direction.  The group also offered nothing but encouragement, celebrating our achievements with us and lifting us up when we were struggling.

Although group support is the primary strategy of ‘Emotional Eaters,’ I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to make a significant long-lasting lifestyle change.

I tracked my weight weekly and celebrated my intermediate successes.  Every time I reach a 0 (350 lbs, then 340, then 330 and so on) it felt like crossing a minor milestone.

Then crossing the BMI index: I started at 45, and going below 40, from very obese to obese was huge for me.  Then again, when I went below 30 from obese to overweight.

Finally, I also celebrated loss by body weight %, starting at 10% of my starting body weight lost, 20%, 25% and so on.

This may sound like a lot of celebrating, but for those of you who, like me, struggled for so long, seeing real progress is something to celebrate!

The ‘What’s the Right Diet for You?’ program succeeded so well, I decided to extend my end goal from 100 lbs in a year to 150 lbs total taking me back to what I weighed on active duty.

I reached the 100 lbs lost mark after 7 months.  I’m currently about 10 lbs from the end goal.

These last few lbs have been much harder.  I set weekly targets at just 1/2 lb per week and don’t meet this target every week, but I keep working towards it.  I am thrilled with what I achieved and how I feel, so I won’t let missing the short-term targets get me down.  Having the target, though, helps me stay focused until the day comes when this new eating lifestyle is so ingrained I no longer have to think about it.

Finally, I realized each day is a new day. It hasn’t all been success. I have had days when I over-ate and even binged. I’ve missed targets. But I know the plan works. When I stick to it, I see the results. So when I have a bad day, I don’t beat myself up about it. I start fresh the next morning; it’s a new day! 🙂

As always, please contact me at daveb.uk@hotmail.com with any questions or comments.  [From Crew Dog: Or comment right here at One Sick Vet 🙂 ]

[Dave Banko continues his guest post series on healthy diet and lifestyle.]

The host of this blog, Crew Dog, wrote an excellent article posted on 9 February 2016 about the ‘What’s the Right Diet for You?’ program put together by doctors, nutritionists and dietitians from Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England. As mentioned in my first post, I watched this program just as I was starting my latest ‘diet’ and the comprehensiveness of the program along with the science behind their recommendations impressed me.

Of the 3 over-eating categories, Constant Craver, Emotional Eater, and Feaster, I was clearly a Feaster. I love food, and once I start, I don’t stop until I am literally stuffed. I no longer know what it feels like to be full.

A number of things could have led to this. Everyone in my family is overweight, so there may be a biological predisposition. I also learned to eat very fast growing up, and in the military, which bypasses the response time for your stomach.  I wanted to get my money’s worth at ‘all you can eat’ buffets. And it’s just common courtesy when you are a guest and you enjoy the host’s food to have seconds (or thirds). I suspect all of these thing got me to this place, but now how do I get out of it?

The plan for the ‘Feaster’ is have a ‘high protein low glycemic index (GI)’ diet.

‘High protein’ doesn’t mean I should have an all meat or protein-based diet, but rather a higher ratio of protein than a general diet.

‘Low GI‘, doesn’t mean low carb. It means the carbohydrates I eat should have a low glycemic index.

The glycemic index is how quickly the carbohydrates are metabolized. A lower GI (below 55) metabolizes more slowly, prolonging the release of glucose and insulin into the blood stream.

High GI foods shock your system with a rush of glucose into the blood stream requiring a spike in insulin levels to accommodate. Too many spikes over a prolonged period of time reduces your body’s ability to respond and results in diabetes.

Low GI Foods	High GI Foods
Hummus	Cornflakes
Beans/Legumes	Sugar
Whole Grains	White (Processed or Refined) Grains
Whole Grain Breads	White Bread
Pasta	White Potatoes

So I cut sugar and eliminated processed/refined grains except on my cheat days on the weekend, but then still keeping them to small portions. I also made sure I added some form of protein to every meal.

The protein combined with the low GI foods helps me feel satisfied for longer.

I no longer could depend on my body to tell me when I was full, but by adjusting the foods I ate and the ratio, I would feel satisfied with less and it would sustain me for longer periods before I’d feel hungry again.

I didn’t stop there though. Just because I was a ‘Feaster’ didn’t mean I couldn’t learn something from the ‘Constant Cravers’ and the ‘Emotional Eaters’ too.

Constant Cravers were recommended to implement the 5 and 2 diet, so I skipped dinner 2 nights a week. Emotional Eaters were recommended to join a support group, so I joined the online Facebook Group my friend started to encourage each other in our weight loss and fitness goals.

I put the whole program together and the results were over 130 lbs lost in 13 months.

My routine looked like this:

• Sunday to Thursday, strict adherence to the eating program using food I like to eat.
• Tuesdays and Thursdays as my ‘fast’ days skipping dinner.
• Friday and Saturdays are my cheat days. (after our virtual weigh-in for our Facebook Group on Friday mornings)

On my cheat days I would enjoy some of the higher GI foods I avoided during the week, as well as wine and ice cream, but I still would not go crazy on portion sizes.

During the week, my plate would look like this:

½ fruit and veg, ¼ complex carbs, and ¼ meat or other protein source

At this stage you may ask, “What about exercise?”

One of the points stressed in the program is that exercise is beneficial to overall health and fitness but, to lose weight, the #1 factor is diet.

I can bear witness to this, as numerous times I started weight loss programs with exercise. In 6 to 9 months I might lose 10-15 lbs, but I didn’t control my diet. Then something would happen and I’d have to stop exercising. Because I didn’t control my diet, as soon as the activity ceased, I put on the weight plus some as I was eating more because I was hungrier from the physical exercise.

I did add exercise into my routine, but I followed the program’s advice and kept my primary focus on my diet.

I will expand on the details of my routine and how it evolved over time, as well as tips and food tidbits I picked up along the way, in subsequent posts.

For now, I have one final piece of advice to include in this post – Start Small!

You can’t sustain a crash diet, nor is it healthy for you. Also, if you would have told me before I started that I’d be satisfied eating as little as I do today (now I aim to consume 1800-2000 calories per day in a healthy balance) when at the time I must have been consuming 4000-5000 calories per day, I would have thought you were crazy. And I would not have been able to sustain that big of a drop.

Small changes will have an affect! If you reduce the foods that aren’t helpful and increase the ratio of the good foods while starting to decrease the overall portions, you will lose weight!

After a while, your body will adjust to the reduction and your weight will stabilize – the dreaded plateau! That’s the time to make another round of adjustments.

Let me give you an example. I was working in a city and because I was being reimbursed for lunch, I would go out to buy something every day. I found a great little shop that used whole grain breads and natural ingredients in their sandwiches and fantastic soups.

When I started, I would order a large soup, a large sandwich, a dessert and a diet coke. The first thing was to cut dessert and the diet coke (more on that coming later as well). After a while, I then reduced my sandwich from a whole to a half, later eliminating the sandwich altogether. My lunch calories started around 1500 and ended up being 300-400 (with the piece of whole fruit the office provided). The transition from 1500 to 400 calories for lunch took 6-9 months.

Remember Rule #1 – This is a healthy eating lifestyle, not a diet!

Habits take time to break and to form new ones.

Good luck and feel free to contact me at daveb.uk@hotmail.com if this has helped you or if you have specific questions not yet addressed.

 

 

[Here’s another in the series of healthy eating and lifestyle posts from Dave Banko.]

Shortly after I started eating more healthily, another TV program aired called, “50 of the World’s Best and Worst Diets.” Countries were ranked by average lifespans, rates of obesity, and other health issues, then related to their diet and lifestyle. The results are fascinating!

Worst Countries

#50 – Marshall Islands

• Health – Highest death rate from diabetes
• Diet – White (refined) rice, tinned [canned] vegetables, and high-fat processed meats

#49 – Russia

• Health – ¼ of men die before age 55, high rates of liver disease, alcohol poisoning and car accidents
• Diet – High consumption of Vodka

#44 – Mexico

• Health – 1/3 of the population is obese
• Diet – Lots of soft drinks and processed calories, lack of fresh and natural foods

#43 – USA

• Health – High diabetes and obesity
• Diet – Super-sized portions with processed food and cheap sweeteners like corn syrup (fructose)

#38 – Australia

• Health – Fastest growing rate of obesity
• Diet – Plenty of Meat and Beer!

Best Countries

#13 – South Korea

• Health – Lowest obesity rate
• Diet – Lots of fresh fish and lots of vegetables and fermented foods

#10 – Netherlands

• Health – Tallest people in the world
• Diet – Lots of milk and milk products!

#8 – France

• Health – Low levels of cholesterol and heart disease
• Diet – Red wine, cheese, high saturated fat dishes!

#7 – Kuna Indians

• Health – Lowest levels of cardiovascular disease and blood pressure
• Diet – Lots of chocolate (up to 5 cups a day) in combination with plantains, coconuts and fish

#5 – Japan

• Health – longest life expectancy for women
• Diet – Rich in vegetables and fish

#3 & 2 – (Greece & Italy)

• Health – Long life span
• Diet – Rich in legumes, fruit, vegetables, fish, olive oil, wine, dairy, pasta, whole grain rice, and red meat

#1 – Iceland

• Health – Longest overall average life span
• Diet – fish, red meat and dairy from grass-fed animals, and few fruits and vegetables

Why is this important? Diet information is about as confusing as it gets, fat or no fat, all meat or vegetarian, carbs or no carbs. If you look at these best diets in the world, it seems to only add to the confusion.

• How can the best diet in the world include few fruits & vegetables?
• How can the French have such low levels of cholesterol and heart disease with a diet loaded with high saturated fat?
• Who got excited when they saw #7 was high in chocolate?!

The facts are:

• Icelanders eat the fresh produce from the land and sea with little processing.
• The French consume rich food, but in small portions and take their time – enjoying life.
• The Italians eat pasta with every meal, (made from complex carb flour) even when dieting, with lots of fresh, simple ingredients and small portions.

Most of the diet plans out there were put together as something that worked for someone else. But it wasn’t mine, or what I like to eat.

Recipes are helpful, but need to be adapted to what you like to become a healthy eating lifestyle you can sustain.

There are general principles to follow:

• Avoid or minimize: sugar & sugary products, processed foods, foods with lots of chemicals, and refined foods
• Reduce portion sizes – This goes without saying as the curse of our own abundance in a super-sized or ‘all you can eat’ culture.

The countries with the worst diets overindulge in less-healthy food and empty calories.

• Balance & variety – our bodies need lots of different nutrients for health. I’d be wary of any program that eliminates or focuses on any one food group.
• 80/20 rule – ‘I adhere to the 80/20 rule. I eat healthily 80 per cent of the time, and that leaves me free to eat what I want for the remaining 20 per cent. And those cheat meals taste so much better when they are a treat rather than the norm,’ Bear Grylls. I follow this myself, relaxing my program on the weekends to have some ice cream, mashed potatoes, or other treats which I avoid during the week.

I’ll share more about the principles and specific techniques in future posts.

For now, pick a balanced program closest to the type of food you generally like to eat, and use it as your starting point. But don’t be afraid to experiment and adapt it to what you like and what works for you.

Until next time!

Dave Banko

P.S. – In case you were interested, here’s the link to the countries in the middle.

[Note from Crew Dog: Looking for a diet starting point, but don’t have time to read all of the “What’s the Right Diet for You?” information?  Start with the guidelines in this article.]

 

[Today we have a guest post from Dave Banko.  Thanks for sharing your inspiring story, Dave!]

My friend, Crew Dog, asked if I’d be a guest blogger, sharing my experience losing over 100 lbs in a year. I was thrilled by the offer and happy to share my experience!

As this is a complex subject, I will be doing a series of posts about various aspects of my journey and specific topics related to healthy eating and weight loss.

Let me preface by saying I’m not a doctor, nutritionist, or health professional of any kind.  I am a veteran, and I have struggled with my weight all my life.

I’m not a person who sits on the couch eating chips or ice cream.   Diabetes runs in my family, so I’ve been careful to avoid sugary food. I have been very active, but injuries over the years have slowed me down.

To put it frankly, I love life and good food!

But my love of food has gradually put on the pounds. On a fairly regular basis, I started another diet to try to lose weight. I tried pills, special recipes, cleansing purges, fiber, meal plans and countless hours in the gym – costing lots of time and money! I’d be good for a little while, maybe lose a few pounds, then something would happen, I’d have to stop and the weight came back plus more.

I even contemplated gastric bypass (and associated) surgeries.

However, when I went for the consultation and heard how strict a diet I would need to follow for the rest of my life, I felt “What’s the point” as it is really the diet I’d have to maintain to lose the weight without surgery.

I reached in excess of 360 lbs.

I felt old. I couldn’t walk far or up stairs. I sweated profusely in a heated room or in a crowd. I developed sleep apnea and needed a CPAP to sleep properly.

Then I was at a Christmas party in December 2014, my feet tangled on some coats, and I fell on my shoulder. I was in severe pain for weeks from such a simple fall.

I know I’m getting older (approaching 50), and the body doesn’t heal as quickly as it did, but I also know I landed with a lot of force and, if I were lighter, it wouldn’t have been so extreme. I determined I was ready to try again after the holidays, but didn’t know what I was going to do differently.

At the beginning of 2015, the stars aligned!

I was in the right frame of mind to start, a friend of mine started a Facebook group of friends to encourage each other to lose weight and adapt a healthier lifestyle, and a program was aired on TV called, ‘What’s the Right Diet for You?’ (referenced in the 9 February post Food, Glorious Food!).

What’s the Right Diet for You? was a 3 part series put together by doctors, nutritionists, and dietitians from Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Rather than prescribing a formula to follow to lose weight, they first addressed why people are overweight, then provided strategies to address the root causes.

This is the first time any program really addressed the root causes, physiologically and mentally, of why we overeat, and put together a comprehensive strategy for a lifestyle of healthy eating, not just a short-term diet. They then supported the strategy with experiments demonstrating the science behind the advice.

I recorded the programs and watched them over and over, adapting the strategies for me, and the pounds starting melting off. I was stunned by the results!

So far, I’ve lost 132 lbs in a little over a year, and have 9 more lbs to go. My target is to reach my military weight.

Unfortunately, I was too embarrassed by the way I looked and had so little confidence of real success that I didn’t take a proper “before” picture. The one in the side-by-side photo above was the best I can find from when I was generally around 350-360 lbs. In the middle is when I reached 100 lbs lost, and the right is 130 lbs lost.

I wish I could provide links for you to watch the programs yourself, but they are no longer available on YouTube. I will try to do justice to the information imparted over a series of blog posts.  If you are where I was in December 2014, get ready.

Rule #1 – This is a healthy eating lifestyle, not a diet!

Accept this now. What I will be sharing is not a short-term diet, but a plan for a long-term healthy eating lifestyle.

[Note from Crew Dog: I hope you will follow along as Dave shares his techniques and experiences with us in a series of guest posts on healthy eating and weight loss. For links and downloads on “What is the Right Diet for You?”, see the previous post Food, Glorious Food.]