JayLoss

Foods that affect me Mentally – ADHD

Posted on 05. Nov, 2010 by Jay.

As a person with ADHD I have to be very careful about what I eat because any little thing can affect me mentally and either increase ADHD symptoms or go the other way and help me out. Here are foods that I have recently notice affect me mentally.

Caffeine - This drug makes very alert for about an hour (drinking one cup of coffee) but then crashes me out after that. It nullifies any ADHD drug that I take at the time. I have since STOPPED drinking any caffeine, especially in sodas. I switched over to tea which I love but I find the caffeine in tea is just as strong and it makes me have a headache usually the next day. That and I tend to have increased heart rate and I physically shake with just with ONE cup of coffee. It affects me that much now. So I try and stay away from caffeine.

Chocolate - This is an easy one. Chocolate gives me a spike in happy good feelings for a couple minutes. But because it has caffeine in it, if I have too much chocolate in a day (more then a couple pieces) it cancels out my ADHD drug (Adderall) and I get nothing done for the day because I can’t focus. That and if I have chocolate everyday I eventually start to CRAVE chocolate. I have to have it. I don’t like that addicting feeling so I try and limit chocolate intake to every once in awhile.

Chicken Breast – I eat a lot of chicken, you guys know this. I find when I eat chicken I have that instant satisfied feeling. I am energized and ready to go. It gives a slow release of energy over 3-5 hour period. It makes me feel great and ready to do more for the day.

Fatty BBQ Food – Similar to Chicken Breast (my food staple), once in awhile I’ll have something high in fat. Usually when I have foods high in fat, like BBQ ribs or something in the pig family, it makes me feel INSTANTLY happy. Within 30 seconds of chomping down on a juice fatty rib, I feel extremely happy. If I was feeling bad earlier, I would now feel very happy. The bad thing is this sort of food is VERY addicting and not healthy for you in the long run, so I have it maybe once a month.

Salmon - My favorite fish, salmon usually affects my mood more then any other food. I eat at least half of pound of salmon when I do eat it so I get my fair share. Salmon actually helps me focus better and for long period of time, usually for 3-5 hours naturally. The high amount of omega 3 fatty acids I think does it. It’s just a natural high and I love it. I have salmon about once a week.

Nuts - Usually walnuts affects me the most. It almost has the same affects of chicken breast for me, but not as satisfying. It tends to keep me energized throughout the day as I snack on it. I stay away from nuts that have salt on them. Other then that walnuts are great.

Avocados - Wow these things are mind changing. They fill you up, stay in your system for a long time giving you a lot of energy and wow they make you feel good. They have a ton of vitamins in them, you can make a DIP out of it and more. Eating avocados is a lot like eating salmon to me. They both give out the same exact feelings, except avocados is better for you.

Processed Foods – I have noticed in general processed foods leave me feeling hungry still and actually make me feel jittery and not able to focus. This is especially true for colorful processed foods for some reason. I read the other day that foods with artificial flavors are very bad for people with ADHD, especially red 40. So I try and stay away from anything processed as a result.

Salt - I like salt, but I try and stay away from it as well. All the foods you eat already have enough salt in them. I don’t own table salt for this reason. Salt taste great sure, but I find for me it’s VERY addicting. I like the taste of salt and I CRAVE it at times. Too much salt will increase blood pressure and cause a whole host of problems for your system though. Because it’s addicting you’ll find tons of it in all processed foods, especially fast foods like McDonalds. Fast food companies do this to make you addicted to their food. That and the high fat content of fast foods which makes you feel great and make you want more and more! You see how fast food companies get you?

Orange Juice – I love orange juice. I have a cup EVERY morning. Not fake orange juice, but 100% real orange juice. It’s like taking a B vitamin shot. The quick burst of energy it gives you to wake up and feel alert is great. I have noticed no downer drinking Orange Juice every morning. It has a lot of vitamins in it, it gets you going for the day and makes me feel good.

Eggs - About every other day I will have eggs for breakfast. I usually have mushrooms and eggs or something else and eggs. I find eggs to be filling and stable enough to give me energy for several hours. It’s a good protein to eat. It has a ton of vitamins in it, it taste great. It’s a winner.

Complex Carbs – I find complex carbs make me fill full and give me energy for 1-2 hours usually. In comparison processed carbs like white bread is just a jolt of sugar that leaves me crashed in 30 minutes of so.  I stay away from white bread as a results. I only eat complex carbs and it’s like a quick release of energy that stays with you for awhile and keep you full longer. Luckily I’m not addicted to sugary carbs like some people.

These are just a few of the foods that affect me mentally. Since I started to eat better I have taken note of how foods affect me and I tend to stay away from the bad foods as a result.

My biggest food vice is chips. For some reason I love to eat Fritos or any chips really. It has all the properties that are addicting and not good for me but I love them. I have a serving or two of Fritos or any other chips brand maybe every other day. I tried health chips, but found they didn’t taste as good.

It’s a work in progress to quit.

Do you have any bad foods that you still eat to this day?

How do certain foods make you feel?

Jay,

Current Weight: 175lbs.
Blog Starting Weight: 268 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: %10.5

Why I Decided to Lose the Weight

Posted on 27. Oct, 2010 by Jay.

When I found that most of my problems in life resulted around being obese, that’s when it hit me.

Stages of Fatness

It’s 2008, I’m stuck in my apartment depressed about life. I have no self-control, I live for eating fatty foods. I let the pressure of TV commercials get to me. Taco Bell had the most enticing commercials at the time. It was the “Eat Late” at Taco Bell one that got me EVERY TIME.

(I couldn’t find the specific video, but I did learn something interesting about a meat HOSE)

Moving on…

I could be on the couch watching something I recorded earlier skipping through the commercials but it didn’t matter. I ALWAYS saw that Eat Late (forth meal) commercial even when I fast forward. I was like a ninja spotting it. One split second glace and I’m grabbing my keys and heading to the bell.

Well I dumped the cable awhile back and I haven’t looked back since.

So it was the constant pressure from outside sources. It was my lack of knowledge of eating healthy and what an impact it played in my health.

I decided one night not to take it anymore. I decided that if I wanted a change, I would be the ONLY one that could do it for me. No one else could do the work. I had to sit down and figure out a strategy. I had to figure out what everyone else was doing to successfully lose weight and apply it to myself. I worked out at the gym already but that didn’t change things very much. I was missing some magical ingredient.

I was missing CALORIE restriction.

It wasn’t until I started counting calories and documenting each and everything I ate during the day did I realize how much food I was really eating. There were times where I would have TWO lunches (two sandwiches and half a bag of chips each lunch). Same thing for breakfast. I would eat two or three bowls of cereal without even thinking about it. I guess I’m the type of person that is so into what they’re doing that I just never noticed I was eating constantly!

After documenting what I ate for a couple weeks I started to scale things back. I did research online and figured out how many calories I should eat in a day and I decided to stick to that amount no matter what. I started at 1000 calories a day for a couple months (not safe). I did it because I was impatient. Thankfully it didn’t do very much damage to myself. I lost about 20lbs a month for three months.

I did more research online and found that I should up my calories because I was losing weight too quickly and I could do more harm then good with my diet.

I upped it to 1200 – 1400 calories a day and I stayed with that for 6 months. I lost more weight (all documented in the blog).

Then as I was coming up to my goal weight (200 pounds), I put on the breaks and increased my calories again. I went up to 1800-2000 calories a day.

Even at that level I still slowly lost weight (which was fine by me).

I continued at that level until I reached my final goal weight of 175 pounds.

I have been maintaining that weight for a few months now. It took me a year of hard-work and dedication to finally say enough is a enough and get it done.

It’s a mind game really.

I was tired of living the life of a slob. I didn’t do this for anyone but MYSELF. If I didn’t want it, no one was going to talk me into doing it. It HAD to be something I WANTED.

Once that way of thinking was established and I figured out how to lose the weight (counting calories), the Aha moment happened. All of a sudden everything made sense, and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. After that I knew for a FACT that I would lose the weight.

It was one of the happiest moments I experienced in a long time.

If you struggle with weight loss, EDUCATE yourself.

For me several things had to be established in order for weight loss to occur.

1. Diet (weight loss WILL NOT occur without a restricted calorie diet. Figure out how many calories you need to MAINTAIN your weight daily and then subtract 1000 calories from that number and you WILL lose 1-2 pounds a week. If it takes you 4000 calories a day to maintain. Start eating 3000 calories a day and document it.)
2. Exercise (3-4 times a week for 30-45 minutes is plenty. Get the blood flowing, and get a good sweat. Make sure to do resistance training as well. You want to keep muscle mass as you lose weight. The worst thing you can do is lose muscle by starving yourself.)
3. Mental (Like I said it’s a mind game. Without documenting everything I ate in a day, I still do this, I would have NEVER succeeded. I simply have too much going on in a day to remember everything I eat and it’s calorie content. This works for tons of other things in life as well. Grab a notepad and get to work!)

That’s about it.

Once I mentally decided to make the change and I finally understood how to do it. There was no stopping me.

Make that change.

Jay,
Current Weight: 174lbs.
Blog Starting Weight: 268 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: ?

Maintaining (173lbs and a SOLID 34-waist!)

Posted on 26. Oct, 2010 by Jay.

It’s been over a month since my last real blog post (sorry) and during this time I have been in maintenance mode. My goal has been to stay at the same weight and continue to workout.

Well I’m happy to say I’m pretty much at the same weight. I weighed myself this morning and I’m 173 pounds. Just a couple pounds lower then last time.

The cool thing is my waist size has decreased to size 34!!!

My size 36′ pants were becoming too large so I downgraded to size 34′ and bought four new pairs of pants the other day. I’m very happy about that. I don’t remember the last time I was size 34′. Maybe when I was in middle school!

I haven’t been watching my body fat, but I’m guessing its in the 12% to 13% range. It’s not a big concern for me right now.

My goal is to focus more on building muscle. I have been working out every other day pretty hard to work on that. There was a period a couple weeks back where I didn’t workout for almost two weeks (I told myself I was crazy busy and didn’t have time for workouts). Everyone has time for it, they just don’t want to believe they do.

Anyway since I’m out of that slump I have been working out every other day. I want to up that to five days a week, taking the weekends off and just workout hard!

I think changing things up and lifting heavier along with eating more (I eat a lot), I can increase muscle mass.

Oh and I eat a lot!

I eat on average 2500-3000 calories a day and sometimes more. I eat so much I’m running out of food twice as fast and have to eat out sometimes.

Protein is my bread and butter. I love certain carbs but protein keeps me going.

So that’s an update to how things are going.

Should I post new pictures? My hair is twice as long as last time.

Jay,
Current Weight: 173lbs.
Blog Starting Weight: 268 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: ??

Reader Comment (thanks!)

Posted on 17. Oct, 2010 by Jay.

Long time no see.

I found an excuse to write a new blog post today.

An avid reader of the blog sent me this email this morning. Hopefully she doesn’t mind me posting it here.

So I found your blog online a few months back after searching for tips on weight loss. I was pretty much in the same boat as you. I had no idea how to go about loosing the weight and after reading your blog it all made sense.
Your blog inspired me loads so I made a point of reading a page everyday, more so when I felt like quiting.
after 5 months ive hit my target weight and I know it sounds silly but I feel like you played a role in it, so I just want to say thank you for blogging!
Well done on your lose, you look really great.

It’s these types of emails I really like.

It reminds me of situation I was in right before I started this blog. I used to go to this grocery store all the time when I was 336+ pounds and some of the employees there started to get to know me.

Anyway so I move away and don’t go back to the store until two years later. I think I had some pick up something for a Bar-B-Q I was heading to.

So at checkout, the guy at the cash register recognized me from a couple years back (I didn’t remember him) and noticed I dropped a good amount of weight. At that time I was in the 260s.

He was very positive and congratulating (making me feel good).

He was a big guy as well and wanted to know how I lost the weight.

I was 336+ pounds the last time he saw me, so I lost a good 70+ pounds at that time.

Anyway I gave the guy some quick tips and advice but I felt it wasn’t enough and I wanted to help him out more.

Well that bump in was a MAJOR reason why I created this blog in the first place. If it was for that guy, I don’t think I would have spent all those months typing away and posting about my goals.

I wanted something to give people who wanted help losing weight after watching me do it. I wanted something they could follow and learn from to quickly get on the right track. I know for years I struggled with losing weight. I wanted it to happen, but I simply didn’t know where or how to start. It wasn’t until I started talking to people and researching online that I figured out how to do things the right way.

So congratulations Cat and thank you very much for your email.

I’m happy JayLoss was able to help you in some small way reach your weight loss goal(s).

Have a good one,

Jay

Body Fat Goal Not Reached

Posted on 11. Sep, 2010 by Jay.

I set a goal awhile back of reaching 8% body fat by September 12th, 2010. It was a three month challenge, in which I had a starting body fat of 15 percent!

I made it all the way down to 9.9% body fat, but then I couldn’t stick to it. Basically what I found was as I was losing weight, my body fat percentage would go down as a result. Makes sense right? I would watch my calorie intake like a hawk, and make sure to get the proper exercise in throughout the week and it worked out great. I felt I could of reached 8% body fat, but then I would over shoot my weight loss goal of 175-pounds, which I didn’t want to do.

Once I reached my goal weight, losing anymore wasn’t an option.

At 175 I feel I’m where I should be and as such I want to maintain and build muscle at around this level. That means eating more, and lifting heavier.

What I really want to do is continue losing body fat, while increasing muscle mass all while staying in the 175 range… I here that’s pretty hard to do though and not very efficient.

I can lose weight and body-fat easily, that’s not a problem.

Gaining muscle on the other is more intensive, and slower process I fear. It could take 3-6 months just to gain a few pounds of muscle from what I’ve been reading. Then after you do that, you have to work on losing the extra body-fat built up.

I think I have some reading to do on proper bulking up recommendations.

By the way since coming down from 268-pounds to my today weight of 175, I have gained muscle. Actually I can lift about 1/3 more then what I used to be able to do. So in the processes of losing weight, it is possible to gain muscle at the same time. I never had a problem gaining muscle, it’s just the snail pace of gaining that irks me. And no, drugs are not an option for me.

An update!

Jay,
Current Weight: 175.5lbs.
Blog Starting Weight: 268 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 11.3%

P.S. Look at this BS!

This is NO WAY, that in three months this guy gained that much muscle, while lowering his body fat percentage. That should have taken 6-12 month at least!

Bah!

Time to Build – Bulking Up!

Posted on 01. Sep, 2010 by Jay.

Hey guys, sorry for not updating  in awhile. I have been very busy at work, basically working nonstop.

I just wanted to say that I have been able to maintain my weight by eating healthy, and I stopped going out to eat at places like Carl’s Junior. I don’t know why I like that place so much, they do have some healthy food, like the vegetarian burger, which is basically a hamburger wrapped with lettuce instead of a hamburger bun (not so much healthy, but not as bad for you). Also they have grilled chicken sandwiches, which are pretty tasty. Everything else they have pretty much isn’t good for you, like fries or onion rings. I usually just have a chicken sandwich and iced tea without any sweetener. But again I won’t be going back there anytime soon.

I don’t know my current body fat, I think it’s gone up to maybe 11% body fat. But I’m not too concerned about it, because my goal is to gain muscle in the long run. So increasing my body fat slightly is okay for right now.

By the way I am writing this post by my iPad dictation application, which writes everything I say down for me. So yeah, it’s gotten to that points where I am so strapped for time, that the only way I can write content is through my voice. Sorry if I sound boring at times.

What else to talk about?

Oh, I know what to talk about, I have decided not to run the half marathon. The reason why is because I feel my long-term goal of gaining muscle will be compromised if I attempt to train for the half marathon. It’s the increased cardio workouts that worry me, running miles and miles each and every week leading up to the half marathon will not benefit me in gaining muscle for the most part. Most likely what would happen is that I would actually start to lose muscle as I lose more weight with increased cardio which I don’t want to happen.

If I wanted to lose more weight, then sure I would run a half marathon and train for it, but that’s not the case for me. Instead I feel it’s time for me to bulk up!

I told my trainer that I want you primarily focus on gaining muscle now, I still want to lose body fat but in the process of gaining muscle, body fat increases. It’s not a big deal for right now. Obviously I won’t reach my 8% body fat goal for this month, but I can set that aside for another time.

It’s all about what you eat and it doesn’t matter what stage you’re in apparently, you always have to eat healthy. That’s what I have come to realize. If you want to lose weight you have to eat healthy, if you want to maintain your weight you have to eat healthy, if you want to bulk up you have to eat even better.

I’m going to focus mostly on high quality proteins, and minimal fats, only the good fats. I won’t be cheating and eating out at fast food places like I did a couple weeks ago. That was just dumb.

So Jay is now in the body-building phase!

By the way, I think I’ll have phases of cutting and bulking up from here on out. Let’s hope for some good results in the coming months.

Jay,
Current Weight: 178lbs.
Blog Starting Weight: 268 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: ???
Goal Body Fat: 8%

Lower Body Fat does not Forgive

Posted on 26. Aug, 2010 by Jay.

I guess my trainer was right that once you have a lower body fat percentage.. if you have one bad week of eating, it really shows.

So I have been eating not so good foods lately in an attempt to not lose anymore weight. The good thing is I’m exactly the same weight (177) pounds a few days ago, but the bad thing is my body fat percentage has gone up a little bit.

I think all those days of eating out is catching up with me?

It’s like I have to start all over with figuring out which things to eat to best maintain my weight while accomplishing my other goals.

I guess eating out at Carl’s Jr twice in one week isn’t a good idea.

Live and learn…

Jay,
Current Weight: 177 lbs.
Blog Starting Weight: 268 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 10.9%
Goal Body Fat: 8%

Goal Weight Reached – I’m Done!

Posted on 22. Aug, 2010 by Jay.

A few days ago I reached my goal weight of 175 pounds!

To be exact I came in at 175.5 pounds, which is close enough. Today I’m at 177 pounds and I’m happy to stay within the 175 to 185 pound range as I work on lowering my body fat and building muscle. I think that’s a healthy range to stay in. As of now I’m at 10.3% body fat and I’m slowly going down.

I have increased my calories from around 1600 per day, to 2500 per day to make sure I don’t lose anymore weight. I have been slacking off at the gym this week. I have only been two or three times I do believe. I’m wanting to go today to train for the half-marathon, but I’m not sure if I’m up to it.

So my long term weight loss goal is complete!

I don’t plan on losing any more weight. Funny enough I’ll most likely gain weight as I focus more on building muscle. Though I’ll make sure to keep an eye on my body fat percentage in the long run.

I haven’t committed to running the half-marathon yet. I have a couple concerns with it before I say yes or no. First off I suck at running for the most part. I can run fine, but it’s not what I focus on at all when I’m at the gym. The LONGEST distance I’ve traveled running is maybe 1.5 miles non-stop. I have never attempted to run further then that.

Two as I don’t want to lose anymore weight, and I’m attempting to gain muscle, I think running will be counter productive to that. If running will help me in other ways, as in lower my body fat then I might have to say yes to it and focus on building muscle until after the half-marathon.

I’m in a fork in the road right now and I don’t know which path to take just yet.

By the way the reason this decision is so hard for me is once I say I’m going to do something, I do it. There is no going back unless I can’t help it.

Well, that’s a quick update. My long term goal and the entire reason this blog was created is now complete! I lost a total of 91-pounds in 9 in a half months.

Now I can go pig out on some ice-cream, Lol.

By the way to see some pictures of where I’ve come from and where I am at now, check out this post.

Jay,
Current Weight: 177 lbs.
Blog Starting Weight: 268 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 10.1%
Goal Body Fat: 8%

Should I run a half-marathon?

Posted on 18. Aug, 2010 by Jay.

Should I run a half marathon?

A couple friends of mine are running the half marathon in November and they asked me if I wanted to run it as well.

The only problem I have is I don’t want to lose anymore weight. So I’m going to have to eat a lot more, most likely over 2500 calories per day.

The problem with eating more is that I’ve come to enjoy proteins. Proteins that fill you up and have low calories.

I wake up in the morning and I have eggs with toast and orange juice. And then for a snack. I might have a boiled egg, and then later maybe a protein shake. Then for lunch I would have chicken or a turkey sandwich. And then maybe some sort of low-carb snack.

There are carbs in there, a good amount. But I think I need to eat more carbs if I want to increase my calories per day. The bad thing is I don’t know a lot of healthy carbs to eat. For example, today I ate a bagel, some chips with salsa, a couple pieces of chocolate, and I think that was it for breakfast.

It made sense that several hours later I felt very tired I still feel very tired and fatigued, I think it was my blood sugar that spiked and then went down. So I don’t like a lot of carbs.

I just finished off a protein shake, which is waking me up a little bit right now, I am slowly getting my energy back. I’m about to make some salmon for a mid afternoon snack.

Sorry for the randomness of this post, I’m actually writing it all by just my voice. I’m using this application on my iPad, which is called dictation. I believe that’s what it’s called, no it’s called Dragon dictation!

It’s pretty nice I like it very much. I wrote all this with just my voice in a couple minutes.

So what do you think, should I run a half marathon and risk losing more weight? That’s my biggest concern over the half marathon, I’m pretty sure I can do it. It’s just that the increased cardio workouts, the training, will increase my calorie burning per day which I really do not need right now.

So what do you think?

Jay,

Weightloss and Unsupportive Family & Friends that comes with it…

Posted on 14. Aug, 2010 by Jay.

This seems to be a trend with losing weight and getting fit. As your appearance changes and becomes more dramatic over months and years, it almost never fails that the people closest to you start poking fun and question whether or not you’re doing things the right way. All of a sudden they’re weight loss experts (even though 95% of them are overweight) and they feel that you’re doing something dramatic or dangerous to lose weight, rather simple exercise and diet. They feel that you are out of control and that you don’t know what you’re doing.

At least that’s what it sounds like from my perspective…

My goal weight is 175 pounds. I’m only a few pounds away from that goal. My starting weight was 336 pounds several years ago, a 161 pound difference once I reach my goal weight of 175 pounds. Today I weigh 179 pounds after a depressed eating frenzy last night.

I take what people say about me to heart and at times let it affect me. It’s funny, the people that I’ve just met the past few months think I’m doing great and look great as well. My family and friends on the other hand say stuff like this:

• “you’re wither away” – close friend I’ve known for a couple years
• “you look like a crackhead” – Uncle
• “if you don’t start eating something I’m going to have to force feed you” – close friend I’ve known for 10+ years
• “you look sick” – mom
• “you look different, you need to STOP losing weight” – mom
• “you look completely different, you don’t look like Jay anymore” -uncle
• “soon you’re going to disappear” – close friend I’ve known for a couple years
• “so what’s going on, are you not eating?” – friend I’ve known for 10+ years
• “are you throwing up? Are you not eating anymore? You look completely different” – Uncle

And the list can go on and on as it seems every time I’m near these people, I hear their negative (with positive sometimes) feedback and I’m getting sick of it. Most of them do not know about this blog and I’d like to keep it like that. And apparently they don’t know my goals or how I’m reaching them, because if they did they probably wouldn’t say stuff like this. I guess they didn’t believe me when I said getting fit and healthy would be my number one goal in life. It’s everything to me right now. There is literally nothing above my health and fitness, and because of this way of thinking I have been able to make dramatic changes to the way I look and feel.

This is me the first week I started this blog, December 7th 2009 at 268 pounds:

And this is me today after a workout, I’m 179 pounds here:

Diet and exercise does work!

I’m going to think of their opinions as uneducated and an unwarranted cause of alarm due to dramatic changes I’ve gone through. The funny thing is if they’re causing such a ruckus at this stage of the game, I wonder what they’ll say 6 months to a year from now when I bulk up. I can either take it as a challenge to surprise them or give in to their poking and quit, which I hope doesn’t happen.

Sigh..

Jay,
Current Weight: 179 lbs.
Goal Weight: 175 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 10.8%
Goal Body Fat: 8%