The Eastwood Diet

This is about my weight loss. I call it The Eastwood Diet, aka The Diet With No Name. On July 26 of last summer, I weighed an alarming 291 pounds. This morning, a little over 8 months later, I weighed 209 pounds. My Body Mass Index has dropped from 38.4 to 27.9, which is still technically "overweight" by 18 pounds. So, I still have some more to go. I used to wear size 46 pants and XXXL shirts. Now, I wear 34 pants and L shirts. I haven't been this size since college.

The whole weight-loss thing started last Summer with some basic research. I learned that the American food industry purposefully exploits known combinations of sugar/fat/salt in their prepared/processed foods - combinations that PHYSICALLY effect the hypothalmus and nearly force half the American population to overeat without having the ability to stop. The addiction level of these combos of sugar/fat/salt are almost as high as cocaine levels in lab rats. They know this. They have experts create their menu items specifically designed to snag people who are susceptible to overeating and cannot stop themselves.

So, I started a new lifestyle (I refuse to call it a diet) that involves eating less, eating good calories instead of bad calories, and being more active. I did not join a gym. I did not begin some kooky diet regimen. I just started living correctly, and eating like a grown-up. Overeating is what causes obesity in normal people - end of story. And therefore, the only remedy for obesity is to stop eating so friggin much. I do some light calisthentics and stationary biking, but I don't do those things for weight-loss, because exercise is NEVER a strategy for weight-loss. Exercise promotes cardio-health, muscle and bone strength, etc., but is NEVER a solution to obesity. You would have to walk almost 10 miles a day every day in order to achieve the same weight-loss benefit as simply cutting 1000 calories per day out of your diet. The only way to battle obesity is to stop eating for pleasure, or for social obligation, or for depression, or for reward, or for stress, or for therapy. We eat in order to provide nutrients to our body's organs so they can function normally. That is the only reason for eating, and anyone who is obese can never become normal again without accepting that.

I have noticed an odd thing when people ask about my weight loss - no one will accept that what I've done is to change my lifestyle. I don't overeat, I rarely snack, I'm no longer addicted to foods high in sugar/salt/fat, I only eat enough food to keep hunger at bay until the next meal, I don't eat refined carbohydrates, I stay in constant "contact" with how my body feels, and I don't eat for social obligations/stress/reward/pleasure. When I try to explain that to anyone, they instantly cut me off and say, "Oh, it's the Blah Blah Diet."

People can't accept that someone can lose weight by simply becoming healthy and converting to a permanent, healthy lifestyle - it has to have a published label for them to understand it. And they usually say something like, "And on the Blah Blah Diet, you can eat all the chocolate cake, Snickers bars, and ice cream you want, and still lose weight!" But if being healthy is your motivation, why would you WANT to keep eating all that? Translation of typical diets: I'm an American, and I demand to eat as much of whatever I want without changing anything about my life, and stay skinny. In fact, the only person (other than my wife and my father) who seems to understand what I'm doing is one of my faculty colleagues who is from Darfur. He was the first person at work to mention my weight loss, and he asked me what I was doing different. I told him I was no longer eating like an American. He threw his head back and laughed and said, "I know EXACTLY what you mean." I have another colleague at work who tried to lose weight last Spring, and he gained it all back again by Christmas. Whenever he's not glaring at me, he's busy telling me how dangerous and unhealthy my weight loss has been in the long run. It's obvious that he doesn't want me to successfully lose weight the hard way, and he's not the only one.

Since losing so much weight, I'm more alert, more energetic, but (sadly) still just as stubborn and bullheaded as always. Apparently, those characteristics aren't weight-related.