If one oversteps the bounds of moderation,
the greatest pleasures cease to please.
- Epictetus, Stoic philosopher
Caught sleeping in the baby bear’s bed, Goldilocks in Joseph
Cundell’s rendition of Robert Southby’s Goldilocks and the Three Bears, confesses she tasted the porridge that was too hot, too cold and consumed
the porridge that was “…just right…”
It’s all about moderation isn’t it? In the context of the ‘porridge’ I eat, I had
to learn that every calorie in sight was not fair game for healthy
consumption…volume requires deliberate cultivation.
It started like this…
I slipped on my trousers, zipped them up and had a little
trouble hooking the clasp. I was alone
in the closet, so I did what most fellows do…sucked in my breath, connected the
‘hook and eye,’ cinched up my belt, let out my breath and pretended all was
well with my waistline! It was the mid-nineties
and it looked like it was time to consider another ‘wardrobe adjustment.’
“I guess this is what
happens when you get older,” I thought, “Getting a little bigger is just part
of it.”
I was healthy, exercising
regularly, sleeping well and eating the appropriate foods. It was just the engines were incrementally slowing
down at the “…speed of dark…” You know, changes so slight they were only noticeable when my TROUSERS SUDDENLY SEEMED
TOO SMALL!!
I really didn’t have any experience in aging. I mean, who does? Each day was/is brand new in this
process…it’s not like you can practice being older!
This was not the first time.
A couple of years earlier I had gone from a size 36 (.91m) waist to a 38
(.96m). My pride wanted, 37s (93m), but
I could not find any…so 38 became the comfortably loose choice.
Now I was staring size 40 (1m) in the face...uh, the
waist. I knew it had been coming, but
like most men whose ‘memory’ of size and weight – never mind the ‘reality’ –
was anchored somewhere in my mid-twenties.
In those days, I noticed with some curiosity, that a lot of
older fellows wore 34-inch (.86m) trousers around their hips with what appeared
to be 45-inch (1.1m) tummies overhanging their belts. In those days, I wondered why they just
didn’t buy 45-inch trousers and get a bigger belt. In those days…WAIT A MINUTE! It was now “…those days…” for me! I found I was heading down the slippery slope…
the fantasy relationship between memory and the reality of waste….I mean, waist
management!
As I pondered this growing dilemma, I was reminded of Peter
Finch playing Howard Beale, a news anchor in the 1976 film Network, resigning on
air saying, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!”
Maybe my expanding waistline was NOT just a matter of
aging…maybe I could do something about this.
I wasn’t exactly clear about the next step, but I made the decision, that
under no circumstance was I going to move to a size forty trouser!!
Sometimes you need a
recipe.
A friend in Minneapolis, confronting the same issue,
listened to me whine about the ‘adipose tissue creep.’ He suggested I try a carbohydrate sparing diet;
he had been on, leading to a fair amount of weight loss.
“Hmmm,” I thought, “I wonder if that would work for
me.”
It was either that or move to those 40s with a guaranteed future
of ‘tummy hang!!’ So I bought the book
and on a flight from someplace to somewhere and read it.
It was a diet that became a lifestyle over the next two to
three years. It began by eating
virtually no carbohydrate for 30 days, permitting my body to shed its extra
stored sugar, giving me a clean metabolic slate.
Over the months, the regimen permitted a reintroduction of
healthy, low calorie sugars in the form of salads, green vegetables and berries
(red and blue) with occasional small amounts of other fruit such as apples or
pears. Starches like rice, potatoes and pasta, however, were out…with a capital
‘O’ and a capital ‘T!’
It was a small price to pay as I shed 25 pounds of real
weight over the first year or so. In
fact, I found my way back down to those coveted 36” leg huggers! To show resolve that there would be NO
turning back, I got rid of my entire wardrobe of 38” trousers.
For 10 or 15 years, I pretty much kept the weight off
following this formula. Well, there were
a few ups and downs in between, BUT those ‘38s’ became nothing more than a wisp
of memory tucked away in the neurochemistry of my brain…and 40s? Are you kidding me??
This led to a much healthier way of eating…less ‘structure’ but
deliberate moderation. I came to
understand those older engines simply did not need so much fuel.
Releasing the
responsibility…
In spite of the fact that I am a health care professional, Molly
has had the biggest influence on the eating health of our two-person nuclear family.
Over time, she led us to a modified Mediterranean, gluten
free life style. It is a, “…not carved
in stone and flexible…” approach to eating that has served us both well in
weight management and good health. As
long as we’re careful, pretty much everything is ‘on the table’…even those carb
heavy starches like the rice, pasta and potatoes I had been avoiding.
I remember the first baked potato after many years of self
denial…the first meal with wild rice…the first bowl of spaghetti, all of which
are now ‘on limits’ with our eating lifestyle.
It turns out; I have not ballooned in either weight or waist. Like Goldilocks, it has become clear it is
not really what, but the way I eat it.
Maybe one of these days, those 36s will seem a little looser! One can only hope...
- ted
No comments:
Post a Comment