eSpecialized Blog

We got some more baked beans cooked again.

After days of seeing increasing higher weights.  After just some of the beans last night, my wife is nearly back down to her max weight loss.  How odd really!

What is it about baked beans that makes them so special? Or for that matter the white bean variety in particular? Off to Wikipedia to find out more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus_vulgaris

White Beans: Consumption of baked beans has been shown to lower total cholesterol levels and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.^[15][16] This might be at least partly explained by high saponin content of navy bean. Saponins also exhibit antibacterial and antifungal activity, and have been found to inhibit cancer cell growth.

Saponin leaves room for future blog updates. Look forward to more updates.

Its been a while.  3 weeks and a few days.

Yesterday I saw a low of 256.6 lbs on the scale.

My wife and I have eaten out to much this week, but the positive aspect here is the weight is indeed gone. The losses appear less when eating foods that are to salty, or cause us allergies.

Our decision is to make more home made beans for the next few weeks.  The 15 bean cajun soup was not very tasty.  I tried adding some Cayenne pepper, and more lemon juice, this helped perk it up for me enough that I can like eating it.

The Plan;
Beans for breakfast and lunch only.  Regular snacks if we are hungry.  Standard dinner.  I’ve been craving proteins lately, probably due to the walking.

We hope to continue to see loss doing this.

Bean type: Stick with what we know works.  Pinto or Great Northern white beans.

Recipe details:
Any kind of meat. We have 2 lbs of bacon left in the freezer, low salt to use. So we will do that.  We will use the Pinto’s in a Rancher (Texas) style beans.

Cheers;
Here is to impressive numbers next week! Cheers!

Since Friday, I have yet to see 254.6lbs again.  I saw 257lbs today. So that’s good.  The bounce back up for my wife and I has been difficult.  We are wondering “what happened?”. This happens when you watch the scale daily, and often. It may be that you think its crazy to weigh yourself more than once daily.  One thing to keep in mind, building muscle builds weight.  Also for very little effort besides introducing beans into our diet, the losses are still there despite a bounce back up in either water, allergy or inflammation weight etc.  We remain positive that we can keep it up.

Our diet has been equally crazy the past few days.  I’ll catch up here soon so I can see that I am keeping on track, and U 2.

Exercise today was very kewl; Its like playing a video game to use this Cardio Trainer on the Android. I know I am an iOS programming for a long while now, and I have taken a tick or two at programming the Android,  I did decide to stick mostly with iOS devices tho, at least for now.

I pushed myself today, and got a good solid hour in. My feet are no worse for wear!  Just like Friday, my feet hurt for an hour, but no problems walking after about an hours break.

Today’s diet,  We have this home made bean soup, that has several varieties of beans, all souped together with some Portuguese sausage. Cajun style.  So putting all that together in the diet program, gotta go finish that now.

So today is Saturday, the aftermath and cost of eating rice noodles comes today.  I waited as long as I could. At 3pm this is my weight, at 1020pm it was the same.

You can see I am up from the prior days 254.6 lbs now to a 257.2 lbs, this is a  2.6lb increase.  My Diet and Exercise Friday on Day 18, will actually prove beneficial in the long run.

Worry not! Fear not! This is not the diet failing, but mearly a false measure of weight loss.  You must keep at a regimen to make it all work out in the end.

Why do I say not to worry?

All Saturday/Sundays, or days after eating at restaurants do this to me.  The saltier, or more starchy the food, the more of a bounce effect I will see.  I have been here before, and understand the effects.  By Monday or Tuesday morning, I will see lower numbers again towards 254 lbs.  Tuesday Morning marks the end of a 3rd week for a mostly bean diet.

At which point I will increase my bean intake, and decrease everything else to see myself go back into the mid to high 240 lbs weight range.

My wife and I talked to our friendly neighbors about their diet with beans, as they are a Hispanic American family.  We also learned how they cook their beans.  Basically our friend says that she did a four week bean diet and lost 25 lbs.  Basically only beans, and walking up/down stairs, plus fruits for bfast.  Approximately 1 month of this resulted in her loosing 25lbs.  Normally they eat beans once or twice a week, so this may be why it doesn’t help them as its eaten to infrequently.

The story from her is encouraging.  After all other kinds of diet craziness to find something that sounds like it will work, has worked for people we know, and is working for both my wife and I, I won’t stop now, but continue on this journey to a positive weight.

The other side of the coin,  problems with back pain, knee’s,  being unable to walk due to foot pain.  A lot of these have disappeared entirely in the past 2 1/2 weeks.  However my allergies are bad right now, and I cannot seem to stop using the CPAP yet (A CPAP is a device used to for assisted breathing while sleeping at night).  I may never be able to stop using the CPAP, but I remain positive that at about 200lbs I can stop using it.

Are there any reasons to slow down?
Yes, at about 230lbs, I need to work on the muscle tone of my arms vigorously. I need my skin to tighten around my belly, and swimming may be the key to all this.

A week of half/half. Half White and Half Mung beans.

Finally today’s diet.

I think I hit my 2000 calorie goal again today. NO exercise, today is a rest day from that.  Its raining outside, and I just want to sleeeeeep!

Day 18 is 2011/06/17 Friday.

Basically half burrito’s from a Mexican restaurant, the real kicker here for weight gain the next day besides salt, is the pancit rice noodles really absorb water.

So you can see, even if my diet was a few dozen calories over, I still burned 430 more calories than I consumed, which is exactly what we want to see!

I should point out that I am not being endorsed by any companies for this,  I am hopeful that this blog will garner attention for people who have given up on everything else.

I do have games I develop on the App Store, and getting the word out about those would be nice

I got out and got for a good clip walking using Cardio Trainer on the Android, that is the kewlest app I’ve used thus far!

This is just part 1.  My feet are hurting a little from the fact I had a 3mph clip.  So going to wait an hour or two before I mow the lawn then shower.

I’ll see if this trainer can estimate my calories burned mowing hehe

The iPad app that has info on calorie target, well the target is changeable by the end user, so you can make it what ever you want. This is a problem.  So I had to look up what my targets are.

So I went and looked up what would be appropriate for me, so I can stay on target for this diet.  I believe a problem for me exists here, as I have gone months on end with a 1600 calorie target with no weight progress whats so ever.  This was back when I weight 242 lbs for about a year, later I gained weight to 247lbs.

Still this is just a guide on targets;

http://caloriecount.about.com had this to say from its calculations of my size, weight, age etc.

http://www.freedieting.com said this about the same.

So my target for weight loss is really 2050 calories per day.  Without exercise.  I can eat a little more with exercise.

Take into account I can eat 1 cup of beans every 2 hours of the day.  About 7 cups in a whole day, and reach a little over half of this caloric intake, and still feel full.

So now I have my targets. I’ll have my wife take measurements,  my pants already allow four fingers to fit between my waist and the pants waist line, which is incredible!

2 weeks and 3 days. 7.4 lbs lost.

Today was a shocker.  It shouldn’t be, I just got over a flu, and just have symptoms remaining. I attribute some weight loss to this as I did not eat a lot of beans yesterday as per normal.

Yesterdays diet was a bit more varied, I ate out twice.

I was really craving protein again.  This time I planned on the lunch item to get,  basically any non-breaded chicken would be ideal in a bun. Turns out this is a good rule, as some fast food chains have breaded chicken, which tastes better, but is actually a huge calorie load. So when in doubt, get a grilled chicken instead of breaded.  The bun is included in the calorie count,  figure about 500 calories for chicken in a bun.

I’m going to switch to a different calorie program today to see more details on what I am consuming.

These past few days, I’ve had the flu, and this has most probably made the difference in weight loss this week, so its hard to imagine getting a good scientific scope on if this is working as good as it appears to be. All the more reason to continue doing measurements, and eating beans daily.

Let me just state that on a South Beach diet, I plateau like so many people probably do. After loosing 10 lbs of water weight in 2 weeks, the losses stopped for me.  Instead of eating the regular foods I like to eat, I had to stick to something very strict which was extremely hard. I don’t do this diet now because of other issues I have.

My wife has saw a 4 lb decrease, I won’t share her actual weight numbers to spare her.  For 2 weeks of just inserting BEANS here, its working for her too.

I think we have discovered why so many people in other countries, and here in American’ our spanish immigrants from Mexico are doing so well weight wise compared to us. They eat beans regularly.

The next stages of this experiment are as follows;
A. 1 week of adding beans to 2 meals.  1 cup approximately, does the weight continue to come off. This is how many foreigners to America probably have their beans. A supplement to their meal.
B. 1 week of 2 meals just beans, how much weight comes off.  Snacks, and dinner are permitted without beans.
C. Our neighbors are Hispanic, so I will find out how they eat beans, maybe they are doing something wrong that does not promote the weight loss?

Also – Fighting protein cravings;

I think this may have to do with just having either more beans, or adding the white rice as filler more often.  I crave just before meals, but it is very mild.

So to keep up on this daily will be a bit of work, still I think the progress is best documented for other people to reference to see how they can do it.

Here is yesterdays diet info.  About the only thing not inserted into this is the dessert, which was a roll with strawberry jam on it. I’ll begin being more precise in measure for your benefit here from now on.

Here is today’s measurements at 9am;

And then again a little later (noon), after drinking lots of water, and not wearing a tank top, its a little less..  I do weigh several times, the digital meter does not usually change much.

Looks like this lower weight has taken, so in 17 days, I have maintained the loss of 6 lbs from 262lbs.

3 lbs a week is almost about .5 lbs a day.   0.42lbs to be more precise, but hey, this is an experiment after all!

Two Weeks ago, Tuesday May 31st, 2011. I Found out a guy who had been on a diet of baked beans strictly for a few months and lost a lot of weight.

http://www.diet-meals-recipes.com/2007/09/baked-beans-diet.html

The problem with the post is the math adds up wrong.  The guy lost 76Lbs over 6 months. Basically 12 1/2 lbs per month, about 3 lbs per week. Also the number of bean cans he ate, if he ate 2 a day, in 6 months he consumed 360 cans of beans.

Basically the guy was determined to mostly stick with baked beans to loose weight. Or so the story unfolds.  I am here to tell you there are a tremendous variety of beans out there, and they don’t have to be boring.

In just 2 weeks, I have gone from 262lbs, to today’s weight in at 256.  That’s 6 lbs in 2 weeks.  My wife has also managed to peel off 3 lbs without trying, and her weight is as stubborn as mine in trying to loose any.

I don’t have an image of the 262Lbs, so I guess you will have to trust me on that one.. I have a picture that puts it close here, just a few days ago;

Weight as you know is a flow, it increases and decreases at random changes.  So let me expose, this is just 2 days ago measured.  It was early in the morning when I could not sleep.

So the weight was measured outside the window of when I normally weight myself.  Here is one this morning at the normal time to weight in;

Some of this loss is due to sweating all night long.. I have come down with a sinus infection, so I expect to see more results like this in the next few days, It will probably spring back.

All in all, in 2 weeks, I saw 3lbs average peel off, so this extra 3 lbs of loss we will just sum to sweating in bed.  Although this morning I do not feel dehydrated like I usually do.

What have my wife and I been doing?
After reading that guys article, it inspired me to try it out, we mostly eat beans.  Luckily, there are a lot of varieties of baked beans out there, there is pork and beans, there are chili’s with beans,  there are plain beans in cans.  There is also rolling your own recipe, or choosing one from someone like Alton Brown’s Once and Future beans..   We made a double batch of Altons Once and Future Beans, excellent eats over a 1 week period.

My concern over using the bean recipe and anything with white beans in general, my thinking was that the white beans are less fiber than Pinto’s, and the bacon would change the balance, and result in less weight loss.  Well it turns out, on entering my diet info into a nutrition program, both my wife and I ended up eating a whole lot less food by eating beans, and we were not hungry, we were not drained of energy, the beans filled us up, and we were less likely to be hungry later.

How do you stick with the beans diet?
Mung beans, bacon, onion are excellent together.
Pinto beans go excellent in texas style beans, you can get canned varieties of this to try out.
White beans are excellent, and in a lot of baked bean cans and recipes, as well as pork and beans.
Chili’s
Fast food places offer Bean Burrito’s, I’ve been trying these out.
Your food should be thought of as fuel, with that in mind, it makes it a whole lot easier.
Nacho’s and beans + cheese at Mexican restaurants.
Mega food marts have been burritos that are frozen.
Its really a no brainer tho, as long as most of your meals are beans, go out and be merry at the other times with friends and family.  Don’t feel guilty about it. Your not off the train just by skipping a bean meal.  And take this into account, you could snack on a bowl of beans 2 hours before bed time.

Is it necessary to eat every meal with beans?
No. My wife and I eat out 2-3 times a week. All other meals are either strictly beans, or beans and white basmati or brown basmati rice mixed in as a filler.  I did do a sandwhich here or there too.  In all about 6 meals in a week had no beans and the weight still came off.   I would postulate that this is due to reduced calorie intake.

We are eating desserts every night too I don’t know many people who can say that while loosing weight!

What is my motivations for this?
Back pain, weight causes a lot of problems, and they are catching up to me.
After meeting other people who over weight for to long, they are at the point of getting joints replaced, and legs removed, I never ever want that.
My blood indicators are a mess for cholesterol and related readings.  I’ve not had enough fiber in my diet in a years, and beans meets this requirement.
Other diet plans have only resulted in weight gains, even during the diet.
My wife is on board with the idea.
I like beans, but not every day. So to get past that personality trait required a change in thinking, and trying new recipe’s.

Additions to this;
2 x 40 minute walks weekly.  Work up to 40 minutes.  4×20 minute walks will also help, but those 20 minute walks should get you to the 40 minute or better walks.  These are just normal 2MPH walks for me, its not shopping, its just not 2.5 or 3.5MPH walks.

What to avoid;
Weight gain 10,000 items.
Anything with Caramel color in it will probably mess you up. This is in more foods, for me it causes IB issues. Go figure.  I miss soda’s that have it in it. Its been like this for years.
Any kind of store bought cookies self defeat immediately.  Don’t get me wrong, I love cream filled store bought cookies and mint chocolate cookies.  Some ingredient in those causes me to gain 2lbs per bag.  This gain also always stays on.  Once you know your enemy and weakness, move in the other direction.
I found on my own diet, that if I skip commercial cookies of any kind, and just eat desserts at home,  home made cookies, cakes etc. I gain no weight, but I also loose none. The exception to this rule is broken by the beans. I can eat desserts and still loose weight with beans, who knew?

Conclusions:
As I have reached this point, my next mile stone will be 252 lbs.  I haven’t seen that weight in 2 years.

Remaining thoughts;
To many meals outside of beans may result in less progressive results.  So this blog will help determine the progress of it all. I’ll go a week on a strict bean regimen. And others weeks with normal eating mostly beans.

Following my blog, this Health and Dieting category in particular. I’ll begin keeping a photographic record of the progress to really see this one work out.