Let’s start this blog with a disclaimer. Frankly, I could read stories about the battle of the bulge – the belly bulge, that is – all day long. But if such stories annoy you or don’t interest you, you’ll want to skip this one.
To me, one of the most annoying things about my story is my childhood naiveté. When I was young and thin, it never occurred to me that I might one day have a weight problem. In fact, I was such a picky eater back in those days that Daddy used to tell me the wind was going to blow me away if I didn’t eat more.
Going UP!
So, when I went off to college and started gaining weight, I was shocked! “I’m supposed to be a thin person. Why am I gaining weight?” I asked myself as my dorm mates and I scarfed down bags of Doritos and cans of soda pop.
Little did I realize that the 10-15 pounds I gained in my 20s were just a little drop in a Big Bucket!
I cruised along for a couple of decades, doing my best to put the kibosh on creeping corpulence. It was a losing battle. I had gained 25-30 pounds by the time I was 50.
That’s when I became a school teacher. And then the pounds piled on. I had so much to do and so little time for sleep that I began eating more in a desperate quest for energy. It didn’t take me too many years to realize I was gaining ten pounds a year.
Ten pounds a year! What a revolting development that was! And I couldn’t seem to do a thing about it.
I hate to admit it, but it took me five years and fifty pounds to realize that I could lose my annual ten pound weight gain over the summer. Duh!
For the next five years, I managed not to turn into an absolute hippo by losing ten pounds every summer. But I still had the original 50 pounds I had put on. Plus the 30 pounds I had gained before I began teaching.
Eighty disgusting pounds! It just wasn’t acceptable. Or smart.
The Journey DOWN
My first solution to my obesity problem was good, old-fashioned eating less. I had taken time off from teaching to stay with an aunt so she wouldn’t have to move to a nursing home. She didn’t have much of an appetite, so I began preparing meals for one. Then we shared the meal. Twenty-five pounds dropped off before I knew it! Then five more disappeared.
Unfortunately, I plateaued there.
Two years later, I returned to teaching, gaining ten pounds every school year, and losing ten pounds every summer. My adiposity level was better, but still ghastly – ugly and unhealthy.
Intermittent Fasting
It was a happy day for me when Audible (amazon.com’s audio book sellers) put The Obesity Code by Jason Fung, M.D., on sale. I didn’t know it was a happy event when I first listened to the book because Dr. Fung said I should quit eating so many carbs, especially my favorite things: candy, cookies, pies, cakes, etc.
And he recommended fasting.
Boo! Hiss! I didn’t want to follow either of those recommendations. So, I blew it off for a while.
But I was getting older every day, and my mirror just got meaner and meaner – showing me exactly what I looked like! Yech!!!
And then I listened to another of Dr. Fung’s books – The Diabetes Code – not because I have diabetes, but because I was interested. It was the same sad story. Health demanded a vast reduction in my consumption of sugar. And fasting was therapeutic in many ways. I still didn’t like it, but I was surprised to learn that Dr. Fung is able to help his patients reverse Type 2 diabetes and reduce or stop taking their meds. Now that’s impressive!
Okay. Okay.
So, I decided to give fasting a try – fasting in some form. Should I fast for 24 hours, 36 hours, 72 hours, a week, a month?
In the first place, I don’t fast well on work days. I get weak and HUNGRY when fasting. I need to have the option of taking a break – resting or napping – when the symptoms hit. So, I’m limited to fasting on weekends or during holidays.
On fasting days, I drink plenty of water and have bone broth and sparkling water handy. And that’s it. No solid food, no juice, no diet soda pop. I’m not fanatic about it. If I get too hungry, I eat.
At first, I wanted to accomplish fasts of two, three, and seven days. Yeah, fat chance! I almost made it three days once. And I did two days several times.
One day is easy. I eat brunch in the middle of the morning and nothing else until 24 hours later. If I sleep late, it’s even easier – like not fasting, at all.
Nowadays – nearly three years since I began this experiment – the longest I fast is 24 hours. And I do that because it’s so easy. Plus, I almost always skip evening meals, which is also easy. Some people find it easier to skip breakfast, but that option has never worked for me. Without breakfast, I’m soon so hungry all I can think about is FOOD.
After a year of intermittent fasting, I had lost nearly 30 pounds. I was no longer obese, just fat. And I was actually within five pounds of a normal BMI (body mass index) – the upper limit of my normal BMI. I could practically smell it!
My goal was to hit the upper limits of normal, then lose five more pounds. At that point, if I gained a few pounds, my BMI would still be normal. Of course, I planned to lose those few pounds any time they sneaked onto my body, but it sounded like a dream to always be sorta’ normal.
Along Came the Quit Sugar Summit
It was just before Christmas (2019) when I hit my year mark for intermittent fasting. I spent the rest of the school year cruising along, not losing, not gaining. I figured I could lose the last five pounds, plus five more the next summer, and, thus, reach my goal.
But the next summer (2020), I was introduced to Mike Collins’ Quit Sugar Summit. Mike Collins is a proponent of living life sugar-free. He, personally, goes so far as to avoid even processed foods that contain sugar (and that is MOST processed foods.) He has been off sugar for over three decades.
Mr. Collins hosts an annual, week-long webinar series, the Quit Sugar Summit, dedicated to helping people who are damaged by their love affair with sugar. That summer, the summit included over 40 speakers discussing the rationale behind a sugar-free lifestyle and supplying tips for saying bye-bye to the white stuff forever.
The plain truth is that I knew all those speakers were talking to ME. I needed to quit poisoning myself with the sweet stuff. But I do love sugar. Desserts literally gave me something to look forward to each day. I didn’t want to give it up, but…
“Okay,” I decided, “I’ll take a year to psych myself up. I’ll eat all the sweets I want for a year. Then, next summer, I’m through with sugar forever…maybe…I’ll decide next summer.”
A Year of Sugar Bloat
I’ll make a long story short. I gained 20 pounds that year. 20!!!
I ate candy and cake and ice cream, etc., etc. etc. Oh my, I did enjoy myself. But I had never gained 20 pounds in one year before. You can just imagine what it was like trying to get into my clothes as the year progressed. Fortunately, I still had some of my “fat” clothes in the closet.
I guess binging on sugar for a year was a foolish plan, but when the summer of 2021 arrived, I was ready to make a major change. Starting June 1, 2021, I quit eating desserts. I decided to continue drinking Cokes, but to reduce the amount. Previously, I was probably drinking about 42 oz. of Coke per week. I cut that down to 25 oz. or less per week. And I still eat some processed food – salad dressings, dips, potato chips and tortilla chips, for example – so you know I’m getting more doses of sugar that way. But giving up desserts was a big deal for me.
Besides my sugar reduction, I continued intermittent fasting (no evening meals). I reduced carbs, in general, as much as possible. And I managed to lose 16 of the 20 pounds over the summer.
Going Forward
That’s my Battle of the Belly Bulge story. My goal is still to get, at least, five pounds below the upper limit of my normal BMI. That means I need to lose about ten more pounds. Some days – usually days when the scales take a dip – I think I can do it. Easy peasy! But most days, I think it’s impossible; I feel like pigging out and ignoring the scale with its gloomy tidings.
On those days, I need some motivation. For example, maybe I should get rid of all my fat clothes – give myself another reason to stick with it.
But I do have three excellent reasons for persisting in my weight loss goals. Three besides not wanting to look like a hippo:
1 Health. Medical care is getting more and more expensive. I used to think that was the biggest reason to maintain good health. Then the pandemic hit – let’s just call it “19” – you’ll know what I mean. It turns out that there are safe, effective, inexpensive treatments for 19. Yet many doctors refuse to provide these treatments. Instead, they stand by and watch their patients die. And courageous doctors who dare to provide effective medical care for 19, are often persecuted – ridiculed or even forbidden admitting privileges at hospitals. Outrageous!
Obviously, it’s about politics, and that’s terrifying. Do you want Big Brother dictating your health care? I don’t. I want to do everything I can to stay out of doctors’ offices and hospitals. Even if it means living without desserts.
2 Challenge. We all need challenges. Whether it’s winning a prize, earning a promotion, running a marathon, or loving an enemy, those impossible dreams are the spice of life. They are the stars we navigate by, the fuel in our engines. Without them, out world fades to gray.
So, losing weight is one more challenge that can excite our passions. Granted, it really does seem like an impossible goal sometimes. But what if – just imagine – what if you made it? What if you finally saw that perfect weight on the scale? What if you could climb comfortably into those blue jeans you used to live in? What if this impossible dream came true? Wouldn’t that be a blast!
And then, you could tackle the challenge of keeping the weight off. But let’s not worry about that today. First, let’s get there…
3 Temple Responsibility. Because I’m born again and the Holy Spirit lives in me, the Bible says I am a temple. God Himself indwells my body!
Check out I Corinthians 6:19-20: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (NIV)
In the Old Testament, when God chose to manifest His Presence in the Tabernacle or the Temple, His Presence was so powerful, the priests could not stand and minister. Now, “That’s heavy!” God’s Presence is holy and glorious and powerful.
And He’s in me?!
It seems to me that the least I can do is to keep my part of God’s temple as clean and healthy as I can. I wish I were a better caretaker of His property. But I am trying. And I thank God for doing me the incomparable honor of living in me!
Resources
In case you’re interested, here are some of the books I read and/or listened to over the past three years.
About Fasting
- Jason Fung, M.D. – The Complete Guide to Fasting; The Obesity Code; The Diabetes Code
- Brad Pilon – Eat Stop Eat
- Naomi William, Rachel Pilon – The Secrets of Autophagy
About Eating
- Robert H. Lustig – Fat Chance; Metabolical
- Gary Taubes, Why We Get Fat and What To Do about It; The Case Against Sugar
- Liz Wolfe, Eat the Yolks
Thank you to Open Clipart-Vectors and pixabay.com for the featured picture.