Losing Weight is no Piece of Cake

Amid last month’s media frenzy over the latest government shutdown, you may have missed the launching of the newest volley in the burger wars: Burger King’s Double Quarter Pound King Sandwich.

Designed to compete with McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder, the “gut bomb” contains two beef patties with American cheese, sliced onions, pickles and ketchup on a toasted sesame seed bun.

It checks in at 900 calories and 54 grams of fat. That is close to half the daily recommended caloric intake for adults and nearly all the fat.

As my brother likes to say, this burger is more evidence of the way people really eat, instead of the way they say they eat.

Dieting with Ice Cream

The Burger King news instantly brought to mind another headline I saw a year earlier, about how eating ice cream can help you lose weight.

Turns out the author was serious in discussing the three-day military diet.

Supposedly, it increases body metabolism and restricts calorie count as it sets you off on a new path to a fit, trimmer body. A path where ice cream is not forbidden.

Other measures are positively spartan. Things like eating broccoli, replacing cottage cheese with Greek yogurt, fruit, green tea, and hummus. Or, soy butter or almond butter in place of peanut butter.

While I’ve never tried this regimen and can’t offer an evaluation, I knew it wasn’t for me when I saw the suggestion to replace hot dogs with tofu or soy dogs.

Even when I was following a strict vegetarian diet, the faux hot dog I ate tasted so bad that I vowed to never eat hot dogs again unless they were the real kind. Every summer, I savor one on two or three occasions.

The Impossible Dream

I jest because the challenge of losing weight is so tough. Yet, as a relative who shed 45 pounds last year, and a good friend who lost 25 and is out to match that accomplishment during 2018, it is possible to shed weight.

Lately, though, I’ve had considerable frustration in trying to do so. It crept back on during a bout with back pain that wound up sending me to physical therapy for nearly four months.

Ultimately, I didn’t just regain all the poundage I had lost during a healthy lifestyle program after double bypass surgery. For good measure, I added several more.

Seeing my need to stop talking about it and actually do something, last August I enlisted the services of a lifestyle coach through my health insurance plan.

Accidental Setback

Progress came so slow that it seemed like I would never get anywhere. Yet after four months I was five pounds slimmer, and determined to go further.

That is, until my accidental fall down the steps up to my home office just before Thanksgiving.

Suffering from the effects of a concussion and so weak I struggled to keep up with work, the ideas of measuring food and restricting evening snacks sank out of sight.

I hadn’t forgotten them. I was just too decimated to keep up with anything besides barely coping. Weight loss stopped cold.

Two months after my accident, I finally was able to return to the YMCA. Even with a wrist brace making it impossible to work on the weight machines, I could walk on the treadmill or ride the stationery bike.

Although I’m feeling a tad stronger these days, I also recognize that I must summon some inner discipline to push away from the table more often.

I know I will never make my goal eating Double Quarter Pounders or hot fudge sundaes.