Finally got my weight down (225 lbs to 205 lbs) - thanks to MFP and avoiding Sugar and Simple Carbs.

johnfnord

On Jan 1st, 2015, I decided to give up sugar and track my progress with MFP http://www.myfitnesspal.com - I had read the first half of the memoir,
“Year Of No Sugar” by Eve Schaub, ironically, over the Christmas Holidaze. http://www.amazon.com/Year-No-Sugar-A-Memoir/dp/1402295871/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1421619851&sr=8-1

During the previous summer, I climbed Mt Whitney thrice, Charlotte Dome, and a 31-mile, ten-peak hike in the Mt. Baldy Cucamonga Wilderness. Yet, during the hike, a lovely lady, Patti, hiking with our small group asked me, “If you are so active why are you so fat?” I was amused by her frankness, said it a nurturing tone I can’t really convey. Rather than answer her directly, I responded with an accounting of a similar conversation I had with my writing mentor, Jen Grisanti, who had recently recommended the book, “The Emotional Eater’s Repair Manual” – which she suggested as a book to help me understand characters’ motivations but I suspected another agenda.

I’ve been a poor eater with a serious sweet tooth all my life. For the last five years, I lived on Figueroa St. in Downtown Los Angeles, a mile North of USC, a street filled with every fast food enterprise known to contribute to America’s battle of the bulge. My loft is above a French café, Etchea, that makes coffee drinks, wonderful pastries, and other tempting edibles, my favorite being chocolate chip walnut cookies, chocolate walnut brownies and espresso brownies. I am their best customer, as verified on Yelp. Despite an active lifestyle, on Jan 1st, I was 225 lbs. more than 25 lbs. overweight.

You can probably sense a theme here. A left-brain rational for a right brain lenience; walnuts or caffeine with my sweetened chocolate. A favorite meal of mine has been oatmeal with maple cream and a mocha. I thought this was a healthy meal since the name didn’t suggest sugar or even have an “s.” Alas the maple cream is a sugar saturated cream sauce.

But that’s just the tip of my sugar iceberg. There is ice cream, which I justify with the maxim “delicious treats make you feel good.” Which anyone familiar with Jeremy Bentham’s’ hedonistic calculus may take issue with. I also enjoy an occasional drink, and had recently come up with a nice Christmas beverage by mixing equal parts cinnamon whiskey and peppermint schnapps – which we called a fiery snowshoe and in my defense, is healthier than eggnog.

And if this doesn’t convince the reader of my eclectic obsessive disorder consider also that I can only read stories during the time (months) they take place. I will drop a book halfway through if it takes place in June and it is winter, or the reverse. As I have done recently with “Wild”, “Missing in the Minarets” and “ Year Of No Sugar.” I have marked my calendar for when I can pick them back up.

Incidentally, this meant finding material to read in the southern hemisphere (I.e. Argentina) was very tricky but that is another story. The only exception to this has been course work and Game of Thrones which seems perpetually in fall; the motto for the series is “Winter is coming.”

In late December, while reading Eve’s memoir, I watched her inspiration, Robert Lustig, who had been on 60 Minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJGS3jdjJGE
and who recently had an anti sugar lecture go viral on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
and an even more compelling and pithy talk at Ted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmC4Rm5cpOI

This was a sobering discussion by an established authority. I was convinced. I cleaned the refined sugar out of my house and any sugar substitutes except stevia and honey. I know honey is considered bad by anti sugar people but I only use a couple drops for green tea. I get the honey from an ex-girlfriend, Kim, who raises bees in Kansas.
The jury is out on stevia.

I quickly arrived to two major obstacles: identifying sugar and maintaining energy.
First, it’s very tricky to identify sugar in it all of its forms. Refined sugar is easy but then there is dextrose, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), glucose, maple sugar, maltose, molasses, and so many more: http://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/57-names-sugar For instance, the memoir that inspired my effort “Year Of No Sugar” recommends dextrose as a healthy alternative but then was panned on Amazon.

There are implicit sugars: alcohol, fruit juices, white bread, rice and pasta and even some fruit with high sugar content – mangos, bananas and grapes! http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/262978.php.

This is confusing; consider all the juice diets and the subway Jerrod commercials. Diary products are infused with sugar. I haven’t found a sugar free yogurt or milk and curiously lactose free has more sugar than whole milk. I was flummoxed, I could barely find a varied supply of food at home, and finding food for hiking was proving very difficult, leading to an overindulgent binge after the hike.

The second week of January, I took two friends, Eusebio (37) and, his stepdaughter, Daniela (10) on a strenuous hike up Mt. Baldy. We had an early start so they skipped breakfast. While approaching the ski hut on Mt. Baldy, Eusebio and Daniela fell behind. Daniela became irritable and tired. She got to the hut but wasn’t keen to continue.

This is uncharacteristic for her. She is a fast hiker and has led the group on previous hikes. Eusebio gave her a piece of an apple turnover and we started back up. Daniela munched on Skittles but she was slower than I had ever seen her. As we approached the last major climb to the snow covered Baldy summit, we were passed by a very fit if skinny blond girl of about 22 wearing micro-shorts and micro-spikes, who greeted Daniela.
“Wow, look at you, you’re amazing” the snow sprite offered as she floated past.
This lifted Daniela’s spirits. Without breaking stride the sprite yelled back
“Keep eating.”

I considered this. “Keep eating” might be confusing to a young girl who is eating skittles every ten feet. Daniela made it to the Baldy summit but was very cold and did not enjoy the experience as much as her previous hikes. Afterward, we had our typical meal at Lindo Oaxaca either chile rellenos or chilaquiles while Daniela enjoyed a hamburger.

I discovered a timely and motivating episode from John Oliver from last Halloween: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MepXBJjsNxs

After discussing inappropriately sexy costumes, John Oliver went on to decry America’s $2.2 Billion Halloween candy habit, and the challenges of identifying hidden sugars quoting recent reports by 60 mins and CNN. Most poignantly, John takes the sugar industry to task for promoting their product in a vacuum of science. Sadly the FDA is outclassed by the $5 Billion sugar industry and its army of lobbyists.

I refined my breakfast options, substituting Special K, with either shredded wheat cereal or a breakfast burrito and I swapped cow milk (12g sugar) for unsweetened almond milk (0g sugar).

I was more aware of how sugar affected my energy and those of my hiking partners. Finding healthy alternatives to sugar was tricky, and finding options for children almost impossible, especially on the trail.

Interrupting my social networking and web surfing, the online ads promoted Katie Couric’s Fed Up movie. Fed Up goes into the industry behind the obesity epidemic and the sugar epidemic. This was the final push I needed to keep me motivated.

The third weekend in January, I led a group up San Gorgonio via the South Fork. We started at 5:00 a.m. This is a strenuous hike up the highest peak in Southern California, at 11,503 ft. and, covered in snow. The South Fork is an arduous mix of snow shoeing and hiking with ice spikes for 12 miles.

The group did well, but I was too lackluster to offer much motivation. I ate carefully, almonds and walnuts but not enough and my energy was low. The other leader, Kevin and I decided the group was too tired to handle the dangerous terrain (traversing steep gullies with snow shoes) and at 12:00 am, we turned around 2.5 miles from the summit. I had not slept well, although I had not eaten any sugar and I had not eaten enough. After I drove home, I slept like the dead.

When I awoke, I realized that being careful about what I eat is more important than exercise. In fact, because I get famished when hiking, exercise can aggravate weight problems. I needed better sources of energy for the trail.

Yet, six weeks in, despite the challenging science of this amateurish nutritional pursuit, I feel calmer, more energetic and have lost 10lbs to 213 lbs. However, I had been nursing a stress fracture in my left foot, so I took two weeks off of hiking in early February in order to prepare (heal) for another attempt of San Gorgonio via the South Fork and then attempt Mt. Whitney’s Mountaineer’s Route in March.

On Valentines Day, I joined a hike up the 5 peaks San Gabriel Peak, Mt. Disappointment, Mt. Deception, Mt. Markham, and Mt. Lowe in the Angeles Wilderness. On Mt. Markham, I gave the hike leader a bag of chocolate hearts and was struck by the hypocrisy of given out candy I wouldn’t myself eat.

Two days later, I hiked with a new group in another area of the Angeles forest, Mt. Wilson. The group of 10, which dissolved into a group of 4. We had an animated conversation about the evils of sugar where the premise ‘a calorie is not a calorie’ was assumed. Tammi, a PE teacher, mentioned that she had her gall bladder removed so she was unable to eat sugar and had to keep a diligent eye out for processed or hidden sugars. I asked her about hiking foods and she suggested dates. She also liked the idea of a breakfast burrito made with sweet potatoes but recommended a Japanese variety called Stokes that apparently have more antioxidants than blueberries and are less sweet. I had made a burrito with sweet potatoes and they are a bit sweet so I look forward to trying the stokes. I later was told there is a way to make sweet potatoes less sweet, by boiling rather than baking.

Another hiker, Ray, was an older man who knew the area intimately and was a strong hiker and a draconian nutritionist aka ‘food nazi’. Ray was a better teacher than listener but still provided a lot of great information. He recommended farmfreetogo a service that brings organic – actually organic is passe, Ray prefers bio divergent, sugar free and farm fresh grazed animal products: meat, milk and eggs, and he prefers farmers markets. I guess mostly what I learned from Ray, was the importance of moderation.

On February 19th, Dr. Robert Lustig was featured in the New York Times
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com//2014/02/19/learning-to-cut-the-sugar/
Where he extolled the virtues of a healthy breakfast for influencing the young.

The third week in February, I was asked to lead two San Gorgonio hikes:
Saturday, February 21st, I ate carefully including the ‘Fit Slam’ breakfast at Denny’s and we, three (Loraine, John and I) summited San G via South Fork with snow! Although my energy waned on the way down, we were elated. We were the first group of our friends that made the winter ascent this year.

Repeating the climb the next day with another group was difficult. I woke late and skipped breakfast. We made it to the saddleback before we decided to turn back due to wind. I ate nuts, half a cucumber, an orange and apple and a green pepper. I was low on energy until a fellow hiker gave me some salami and cheese. The two days of hiking and careful eating got me to 210 finally, although I think just watching calories is safer than dealing with the post hike hunger.

Meanwhile the campaign against sugar was building:
In late February, Business Insider provided this article:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-world-is-eating-way-too-much-sugar--and-youre-probably-consuming-more-of-it-than-you-think-2015-3 which referred to the World Health Org recent paper: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/149782/1/9789241549028_eng.pdf


Both which reinforced the dystopian trends than Robert Lustig and Katie Couric’s movie suggested. Remember the rotund people in the animation Wall E.

My last winter adventures included three weeks of climbing at Red Rocks, NV and the Eastern Sierra: climbs up Cat in the Hat and Bird Land, some climbing in Pine Creek, North of Bishop, CA including a lead up Gigi and climbs up Racing Lizards, The Big Deal and the Raw Deal. The next day, we began Spring with a climb up Mt. Whitney’s Mountaineer’s Route in snow. We finished a day early so concluded with some more rock climbing in Owens River Gorge.

Now, 90 days later I am 20 lbs. lighter and an anti-sugar zealot. I seem to be thinking clearer, sleeping better and more emotionally stable. I’m climbing better and hope I’m writing better. Finally, although I didn’t need any more encouragement, I found another relevant article that says Sugar reduces testosterone. http://www.drdavidwilliams.com/cut-sugar-boost-testosterone/.

Looks like at least another season No Sugar.

annette_15

tl:dr...cliffs?

Mycophilia

This should be enlightening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UZJRR8OHhY

crazyjerseygirl

So you are anti sucrose (I assume it's what you mean by sugar) but you are ok with dates (4.5g/date) and sweet potatos (5gsugar, 26g total carbs)?

Sucrose breaks up into glucose and fructose. Complex carbs break up into pretty much the same stuff, so what's the difference?

A banana has 14g sugar but 27g total carbs. They both have similar dietary fiber, and research shows that complex carbs affect the glycemic index just as much as simple (http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(84)90554-3/abstract)

I guess I don't see the difference. Obviously candy is bad for you. Obviously lots of sugary things are because they are empty calories, sugar but no nutrition. But saying a sweet potato is great and a banana not? More science less talking heads please!

giannigreco83

didn't know MFP was an advertising tool...

crazyjerseygirl

giannigreco83 wrote: »

didn't know MFP was an advertising tool...

I didn't know Wall-E contained scientific evidence!

leecha2014

I found your post so interesting, I've always said that sugar is the devil. Have you thought of making your own energy bars for your hikes? There are so many recipes using dates, rolled oats, chia seeds, almonds, etc. I like no meat athlete, also highly recommend researching plant-based nutrition, at least to incorporate a little more into your diet if you are looking for optimal health and nutrition. Read The China Sudy and watch Forks over Knives. Just an idea

totaloblivia

If you gave your body some time to adapt to ketogenic diet (carbs below 50g per day, can vary according to person), I bet you would rock those hikes! I agree with @leecha214 - sugar is the devil, not fat!