I want to give you a brief history of my crazy bathroom scale saga. Up until my late teens and into my early twenties I ate because everybody must eat. I was boney thin and had no appetite. I tried to eat fattening foods to gain weight, but to no avail. In my mid-twenties an appetite decided to show up. I ate everything and a lot of it. Still, the scale did not move.

Suddenly, around the age of thirty-two, with my appetite still being quite healthy, the numbers on the scale were on the rise, and kept going in a direction that did not make me happy. This is where my battle began. Now I am on the other side of food obsession. I used to eat a lot of whatever, whenever and I knew that I could not do that anymore. I was lost. This was a new thing going on with my body and I really did not have a clue what to do.

I enrolled myself in the self-taught school of hit or miss. I tried every diet that crossed my path and inquired about others. I missed more often than I hit. But I did learn what worked for me and what did not. It took, thinking back, more than 15 years to get a handle on my weight. I chose calorie counting. I learned how to modify recipes so I could continue to have what I enjoyed eating.

Yes, some consider calorie counting as “old school.” Call it old school but it works. Often, calorie counting is used to gain (bulk up). So, it also works in the reverse. And the fact that we could incorporate our food choices helped get us to our comfort zone of today.

That is my story! OUR story only took place when my husband, Steve, was ready to make changes. Our story helped him accomplish dropping those numbers on the dreaded bathroom scale as well.

It is my heart’s desire that our stories will help you find a path to a healthier you. My husband Steve will fill you in on his medical history and motivator and maybe a word or two or three of our awesome boat life aboard our sailing vessel IMAGINE.

YOUR ON STEVE!

Steve here. This is great opportunity to share my story of change with the reader. I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes in 1993 and never was able not get my blood sugar under control. My A1C’s were always in the 10’s or 11’s. With Type II diabetics heart disease issues have a nasty habit of showing up when you least expect them. After my last bout of AFIB, I was ready to do something different. I finally decided to follow the directions of my two physicians. They are the professionals, not me. I know what my efforts produced. I also talked with Michele about my desires, and she agreed to help me to eat better. Prior to traveling for work, whenever my wife and I walked anywhere in the marina, I was able to walk only about fifty feet before I started getting chest pains and felt pressure in my chest. I would always tell Michele that I had a leg cramp. That excuse seemed to work, but I knew something was wrong.

One day 2008, as I walked back to my boat from the car, I got severe chest pain and had to stop to sit. After some time passed the pain subsided enough that I continued my walk to the boat. I got to my boat and the severe pain came back. It should only have been a ten-minute walk, but it took almost 45 minutes. When I sat down in my boat, which is our home, the pain didn’t go away. I walked back towards the Marina Office holding my chest. It felt like someone that weighed five hundred pounds was standing on it. I walked into the Marina Office and was told to sit because they saw me coming, knew what was wrong and had already called for an ambulance. They also called my wife at work to let her know what was happening. That was my first minor heart attack and first stent in the right coronary artery that was 95% blocked. Second minor heart attack and two additional stents were placed at the VA Hospital in Miami, Florida in 2015. You would think that would give me reason to do something different. It didn’t. I believed that since the stent made me feel better, I was cured. No such thing. I kept eating the same way for the next few years and several pant sizes increases.

That was my life up until I was working in Washington, DC in late 2015. I was by myself and staying at an extended stay type of hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, eating as I usually would have. Breakfast would either be a McDonalds sandwich or a Jimmy Dean microwave sandwich or whatever the hotel was serving… scrambled eggs and bacon with hash browns and a muffin or waffles with sausage and sugar free syrup. Lunch four or five days of the week was a Whopper with bacon and cheese, French fries, and a diet coke or some other choke-and-puke. I don’t even remember what I ate for dinner most nights, but I know that whatever it was, it wasn’t healthy and heavy on the calories, fat and boy I loved my carbs. I thought that salads and veggies were there to chase away vampires or something like that. I weighed 234 pounds and, as I stated earlier, had already had 3 stents placed into different arteries near my heart because of major blockages. I was taken to the hospital from my hotel room in Alexandria twice in two weeks with more chest pain and feeling like I was dying. Two bouts of AFIB in two weeks. I was a bit afraid to tell Michele what was happening but had no choice. I asked the cardiologist what I could do to prevent further episodes and he told me that if I changed my diet and lost some weight it would help. I made a feeble effort to change what I was eating but had no clue what I was doing. I managed to cut out the McDonalds sandwich with hash browns and the four times a week (minimum) Whopper with bacon and cheese. When I got home to spend the holiday season with Michele before returning to Alexandria, she decided that she would return with me and research ways to prepare foods that would help me…if I truly wanted to get any better. I WAS READY! I was finally serious and wanted to change my eating behavior. My regular physician in Alexandria had also been unhappy with my diabetic blood work and did his very best to hold his tongue and not yell at me. He was telling me the same thing. I had to do something and when Michele and I talked about it, I would say that I would be happy to lose fifteen pounds. Fifteen pounds seemed like a thousand to me!

Her research was miraculous. Within several months I had lost almost forty pounds and by about a year or so had lost fifty-four pounds. I got down to one hundred eighty pounds. My cardiologist took away two of the three medications that he prescribed, and my regular physician cut out two of the four diabetes medications that he prescribed and cut the others down by half. That was in very early 2017. I have maintained my weight ever since. We still eat the same foods, and many more delicious creations, that got me to this weight and now I can even outwalk her. I have never felt better in my life which is a very good thing since we live in a sailboat that requires some level of work all the time. I love our boat life and had I kept on going the way I was going; I seriously think that my boat life today would not exist. I would like to share a thought with you. After reading about my experiences, I hope that you don’t have to have a medical scare to motivate you to get ready. YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL ITS ALMOST TOO LATE… WHEN YOUR HEALTH IS AT ITS WORST AND A COUPLE OF TRIPS TO THE HOSPITAL. The title of this book says it all. “If You Are Ready, You CAN Stop Your Food Battle”.

BACK TO YOU MICHELE!

So, when Steve was ready, he actually helped me help him. Along with eating the wrong foods, he also was a very fussy eater. But because he was ready and serious about changing his life, he was willing to stretch and adjust his taste buds.

And that is exactly where I started, with his taste buds. I knew what he enjoyed, and I started searching out ways to not

necessarily change what he was eating but ways to modify them to a lower calorie count (along with cholesterol, sodium, and carbohydrates) that was as tasty as he was accustomed to.

I mentioned that he helped me help him. As I introduced these experiments of modified foods, he would often ‘say mmm, I could eat this every week.’ I knew then that it was a keeper. He does this to this day. And if he stayed quiet, I went back to my experimental lab (my Galley) and readjusted my recipe for the next time. That was a significant help with expanding our menu further. At the start of this journey of ours, the menu was quite limited. But our menu has grown over time to where we are quite diversified with our food entrees.

It was definitely a process. The results were so well worth it for both of us. Steve lost those unwanted pounds and is healthier. And for me, my meal preparations are so easy these days and has become a way of life.

It is time to snack chat. Steve and I are snackers. So snacking was important not to exclude. There are many thoughts about snacking. Its' not healthy... it promotes weight gain.... you should not snack past 6 pm... if you are going to snack, have some celery... eating a proper amount at dinner time (whatever that is), will eliminate the want for an evening snack... how about this one? - I do not sleep well if I eat before bedtime.

Well, Steve and I are on team "SNACKERS". If we want something to chew on or are feeling a bit hungry, snacking has worked well for us.

I plan snacks for myself for mid-morning, midafternoon, and evening. Steve snacks mainly at nighttime after dinner. I snack all day. He enjoys a sweet after lunch, I do not. We are all different. That fact needs to be recognized. So do not compare yourself to others. Just be true to yourself and seek out what works for you.

One of the things I do is try to eat a very light breakfast keeping it under two hundred calories. Steve’s breakfast is under 350. His body mass can handle more calories than I can. That is my goal. Of course, there are days that goal is not met. I have approximately 2 or 3 hundred 100-calorie snacks after dinner between 7 and 11 pm.

Again, our lunch is light as a rule and I plan a snack for myself around midafternoon, Steve does not but he does have his after-lunch sweet. As I said, Steve is an evening snacker, I am a 24/7 girl. I will get up in the middle of the night and grab a bite of something. Truly just a bite. Like a newborn babe, it helps me go back to sleep.

We love being on TEAM SNACKERS. I am always aware, and maybe even anal about our food choices (calorically speaking). That is me. That is what I do. That is what works for us. I am aware that snacking is a pit fall for most. I am not suggesting that our way is "the way". I agree that it is not the greatest team to belong to.

We ARE about the quality of our meals, watching preservatives and processed foods. I use them but not in excess. We aim for fresh foods. What my mother taught me as a child, applies to so many diets, certainly mine. When I was not thrilled with what was on my plate, she would say, “Just eat a little. A little bit is not going to hurt you.” To this day, I think of my mom when I am making choices using processed foods. A little bit is not going to hurt us. Moderation is key for me.

Steve and I recognize and accept the fact that we have healthy appetites. So, I am aware of quantity as well. We enjoy a full plate. Quantity is not a bad word, just so long as you stay within the boundaries of your chosen plan. That looks different for each of us. Although, to my surprise, our appetites as well as our waistlines have diminished, and our portions lessened as the result of our weight loss. 

Heavy calorie days happen, generally when we dine out. I will serve my lighter choices of caloric meals for a few days, then return to our regularly scheduled program per say.

One of our staples that we thoroughly enjoy is riced cauliflower. I purchase it frozen and use it for both a rice dish and a mashed cauliflower side. It is a great low-calorie exchange for both white rice and mashed potatoes. We are all about vegetables on our dinner plate and an evening side salad. It was not that way in the beginning of our journey. We were fast food junkies and carb addicts. And I stand corrected, we did have vegetables in the beginning of our journey… French fries are a veggie, right?

So, as you can see, it is obvious that our success was not achieved through the norm. I do not even recommend full plates and heavy snacking.... unless you are willing to do what I do. That is to count the calories, modify recipes and moderate servings when necessary. And do not forget those veggies. 

Good luck and stay true to your taste buds.