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My One-Week Potato Challenge

7/22/2018

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I ate just plain potatoes for a week and this is what happened!

First off, before we get started, a couple of disclaimers for you.
  1. I get a yearly physical and I’m currently in good health, but even with that, I approach these types of challenges with caution.  If you suffer from low blood pressure or take medication for health currently, please consult a physician before trying anything crazy.
  2. Over the past couple of years, I’ve done a variety of eating challenges to test myself and my addiction to food.  Over that time, I’ve kicked some big habits that you might still have, such as drinking sugary drinks or eating sweets constantly.  I believe that this has made the impact of a challenge like this a little less for me than others.  So your results may vary greatly.
  3. These challenges are more to me about self-mastery instead of just weight loss, so I take more of that approach.  Saying I can do something and then achieving that goal has done a lot for my esteem and notion that I can do even greater things next time.  Though the weight loss is a plus.
  4. There’s a lot of research that says eating just one thing and nothing else is bad for you and I agree.  Your body is a machine and needs a variety of nutrients to continue operating, so I would never suggest you do something like this for a prolonged period of time.

Let’s get started.

In my life, I’ve seen plenty of fad diets come and go, and I’ve never had a desire to test myself with them.  Recently, I had a friend show some great results while doing the Penn Jillette diet, which recommended eating nothing but potatoes for two weeks to reset your body and sever the romance we have with food.  I asked myself if I thought I could do something like that and decided to give it a try for a week.  Plus, I enjoy potatoes and everything else I’ve ever done put potatoes on the “don’t eat” list because of the high carb and starch content.

Over the years, I’ve found that when myself or other people say that they “can’t” do something unique with their eating, what they really mean is that they “won’t”.  We can do anything we put our minds to and I’ve realized that more and more as I explore giving up foods that I never thought I could live without.  I’m ok if someone simply tells me that they “won’t” try an eating challenge that they don’t want to.  I believe that a lot more than them saying they “can’t”. 

Here’s a quick look at the week:

Day 1
I started my day with some sweet potatoes and then moved into Russet country for dinner. I won't say if it was difficult or not because honestly anyone can do something for a day.  I did find myself needing to pee quite a bit today, which is likely due to dropping all salt and other chemicals from my diet.

Day 2
Shockingly, plain potatoes are just that, plain. I have an edge because I've always eaten my potatoes plain, so it's not killing me. I can see how this is designed to destroy your love of eating though because even after I finish my meal and have a full stomach, I still feel a void.  I can still talk myself into acting like I’m eating normally and nothing has changed, but it’s truly mind over matter.

I’m still experiencing minimal water retention, if any at all, so I’m running to the bathroom pretty constantly.  I suspect that the pounds I lost yesterday were all water weight because even though I’m drinking more water than most folks, I’m getting it out as fast as I put it in.  Still, it does give you a bit of a boost to look at the scale and see around 3lbs gone after the first day.

Day 3
Potato day three finished up and I only had a tinge of a headache. I also learned that cutting potatoes into fry shapes doesn't make them taste like anything else that plain potatoes. I had my true test of willpower tonight as I sat with family and friends over dinner and watched them eat plum chicken, followed by fresh peach crisp and four types of ice cream. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, simply because I accepted the challenge I’ve undertaken for the week.

Something that keeps you on track and moving forward in these types of fad diet experiments is definitely the scale.  While I’m not a scale fan, I decided to weigh myself daily and each day to this point I’m losing around 2-3 lbs each day.  Yes, I know that it’s not the healthiest way to lose weight, but it does give you a willpower boost to suffer through the experience if you’re feeling a bit weak willed.

Day 4
Potato Day 4 came to a close and it wasn't much of an issue. Possibly it's because I enjoy doing these crazy challenges, or it's the fact that honestly like potatoes. In the end, I've stopped looking at these challenges as "I'm giving something up" and instead focus on what I'm overcoming. You start to realize how much food controls your life and that at times you need to tell it that you're better than your cravings.

I know that doing something like this challenge might work in the short term, but if you don’t have a solid plan for when you finish, it will cause you a ton of trouble.  I’m already thinking of how I can slowly transition back to some regular foods next week so I don’t shock my system.  I know that if I were to celebrate my potato week by eating rich foods immediately after, then my stomach would be a wreck.  I’d never recommend someone do this experiment as a short term fix before going on a vacation where they might splurge the day after.  I’m pretty sure their bowels would make the vacation experience horrible.

Day 5
If there is such a thing as a potato wall, I pretty much hit it today. I struggled through lunch, chomping away at my sweet potato wedges and russet fries. Dinner was even more torturous with each bite being difficult to swallow so I slowly chewed each piece into a paste that took forever to get down. I ended up not eating as much as previous days so I was still a bit hungry as I went to bed.  One thing that has saved me in this challenge is the ability to alternate between potato types, which does give you small sense of variety.

This was the day that eating felt a bit more like a chore and the romance was gone.  No longer did I look forward to my next meal and after I ate it still felt like I had a void inside when I finished.  It’s almost like having a job you hate, but you need the paycheck.  You have to eat the potatoes to not feel hungry, but it’s like you’re trudging through the experience, just trying to get it over with.

Body wise, it felt like there was pressure being applied to me all over, not really in a bad way, but I could definitely recognize it.  My stomach and chest felt a bit like I had done an ab workout the previous day, but I can assure you I didn’t.  Just like the other morning’s though, the scale gave me the encouragement I needed to stay strong with around 2.5 lbs lost overnight.

Day 6
The potato wall is still there and I really had a tough time talking myself into food being exciting and tasteful.  I took extra care to prepare each meal perfectly so it was edible, but once the potatoes got cold or too chewy, it was impossible to keep going on them.  This was likely the least amount of food I had eaten all week.

My body doesn’t feel bad, but it doesn’t feel right either.  Joints have become a little achy and my energy level was down just a bit.  Kind of like when you’re driving a car and you can sense something’s not quite right, but have no idea what the exact issue is.

Day 7
I started my day with not much of a plan or a desire to even eat.  I didn’t wake up hungry, just more like my stomach was dead inside.  As I became hungry, I ate and checked that box, but I found you don’t really look forward to eating anymore.  When you eat, you feel full, but don’t feel fulfilled.  I ended the night with mashing up a large Russet potato with skins and added a bit of sweet potato to “jazz” it up.  I actually should have done that sooner because it tasted pretty good.

Looking in the bathroom mirror today, I can actually see the physical changes my body has taken over the past week.  It’s strange to see such a difference in a short timeframe.  I don’t feel sick or incredibly tired.  I didn’t get overly irritable or angry.  Overall, I survived and that’s what counts.

My week by the numbers:
  • Cost for a week of meals:  Less than $25.00.  That was two bags of Russet Potatoes, one bag of Sweet, a bag each of the mini potatoes.
  • Average carbs per day:  120 - 140 grams
  • Average calories per day:  700 - 900
  • Average protein per day:  15 - 20 grams
  • Average fat per day:  0 grams
  • Total pounds lost in week:  18lbs

Recap
I’ve always hated the “diet consciousness” of our society that has become ingrained in each of us.  Everybody has become an expert on what you should or shouldn't eat, and what you can't live without.  Let’s be honest and admit that any direction someone takes with eating will have both support and negativity found on the internet.  We have been programmed by constant streams of information and misinformation about eating all of our lives to the point that no one is an expert for everyone anymore.  After experiencing my week, I don’t feel like I’ve done irreparable harm to my body during the experience.  Sure, I wouldn’t recommend it everyone as something to try, but I would still put it out on the table as an option for someone if they were open to trying anything to kickstart their weightloss.  

In the end, you have to make the decision that’s right for you and your situation at the time, because you have to live with it.  Is this the hardest thing I’ve ever done?  No, not at all.  Will I do it again?  Probably, because I want to see if I can make two weeks straight.  Will I use this as a springboard for continuing onward with a no sugar/no flour eating program?  Yes, because I couldn’t imagine doing this experiment and then going right back to eating poorly, causing a horrible yo-yo effect.

I hope this helps you as you consider different things for your personal mastery and potential weight loss.  Hit me up at FIGIDPress@Gmail.com if you have a question about something you think I should have mentioned.

All the best!
John Graham

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March's Challenge will be a doozy!

2/25/2018

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I’m wondering if I have a problem with addiction.  Well, I’m already aware that I have some sort of food addiction, but over the past two years I’ve realized that I’ve developed a new one.  I think I’ve become addicted to challenging myself by going without certain foods that I never thought I could go without.  In the beginning, it was giving up sugar and flour, but then continued to move on through other things added onto that base idea. 
 
I realized though, that over my many challenges I had never completed one specific behavior that most health professionals recommend.  In fact, almost every book or program ever written about becoming healthier, contains this one direction that I’ve always ignored.  Tracking your food intake.  I’ll be honest here and tell you that I’m not a big fan of writing down what I eat, likely because I don’t want a written record for others to scrutinize.  Missing this step though, causes me to miss quite a few opportunities to figure out where I might be straying from the healthy path.
 
Enter March 2018, and a new challenge beckons me.  I’m sure you know what’s next and you’re likely not very impressed.  Whoop de doo, John’s going to jot down what he eats every day, great for him.  I wish it was that simple, but that’s not really a challenge though, is it?  I’ve decided to raise the stakes and not only just track my food, but also try to function on 25 carbs or less each day.  This is a new place for me because my no sugar/no flour mentality has given me results, without having to worry about the carbs, but with that thinking I’ve consumed some things that aren’t the best for me.  Call them the junk foods of the no sugar/no flour world and I’ve eaten them, sometimes sabotaging my hard work while lulling me into a sense that I was still “sticking with it”.
 
My new challenge will change all of that and for once open my eyes on how many carbs I consume in a day.  This test comes from watching friends utilize the KETO diet to change their lives, which caused me to wonder how far that was from what I’m doing currently.  While I’m not even positive I can eat in way to put my body into Ketosis, I thought it might make an interesting challenge to see how close I get.  In the end, I will at least gain an understanding of how to eat while minimizing my carb intake.  Plus, I’m sure that consuming less carbs, especially the bad ones, can on some level be good for me.  At least my no sugar/no flour behaviors have prepped me well for this experiment because those two things are the toughest for most people to get out of their system.
 
So look for updates throughout March on my survival and I’ll do my best to keep them coming.  I’m still a very picky person, so we’ll see how I can incorporate my lackluster meal choices into making this work.  Maybe this will make a nice chapter for the revised version of my book later this year.
 
All the best!
John Graham
 
PS – If you’re interested in checking out a well written blog about the KETO experience, then check out our friend’s blog at:  www.crazyhealthyketo.com

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What the heck.

1/21/2018

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Around week three of going without sugar and flour, you brain and body encounter a different phenomenon than what you might be used to.  I call it the "What the heck" stage.  You see, up to that point, your old feelings, habits, and food cravings are lingering about, maybe keeping you from making the healthy change easily.  After a few weeks, that starts to disappear and in its place you start having these mental exchanges.

​"Looks like I have a little time on my hands, wonder what I should do?  What the heck, I think I'll go to the gym for a while."

"I'm starting to get a little hungry, what should I eat?  What the heck, I'm going to grab some fruit."

​"Man, I sure am thirsty.  What the heck, I'll grab some water and be just fine."

​These exchanges look entirely different from our previous lives, when the answers may have been sit and watch a show, eat a candy bar, or grab a soda.  It's amazing how three weeks can change your outlook, but it can.  I'm hoping you're close to the point of asking yourself this question:

​"How can I finally make a positive impact on my health and see what I'm capable of?  What the heck, I'm going to give up sugar and flour for a month and see what happens."

I know you can do it.
All the best!
​John Graham
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Do Something!

1/6/2018

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I’ve been toying with the idea of doing one of those 100 day challenges.  You know the ones I’m talking about, you see them as viral videos on Facebook, etc.  Basically someone does some healthy activity or specific exercise for 100 days and they record themselves doing it every day.  The video is then spliced together so you can see their progress over that time and you usually find yourself impressed or motivated, so you share the video and tag it with a “check this out”.
 
The problem with thinking about doing something like this is that it seems like a long time so you begin to map out everything that would keep you from being successful.  For me, the questions ranged from when I would do the activity, how would I record it, what happens if I get sick, and what if it interferes with other activities I have planned during the next three months.  There’s a lot of variables, so in the end, most people, such as myself, feel it’s too much and never even start.  Maybe this describes you too?
 
This morning though, I found myself asking why couldn’t I just do it for a month?  Or even 50 days instead of 100?  Was there some sort of rule out there that if I didn’t post something that encompassed 100 total days, then people would shame me?  Well, maybe my video wouldn’t go viral because the results wouldn’t smack you across the face at the end, so folks would just give me a, “good for that guy and his month of hard work”.  This entire thought process gave me the realization about myself and so many others that I’ve spoken with about my One Month No Sugar and No Flour Challenge.
 
People often tell me that they couldn’t give up sugar and flour for a month because there’s a special event coming up, like a holiday or birthday.  It’s like this holiday at the end of the month is causing them to not even think about starting, giving them their ultimate excuse.  Other excuses are peppered in, such as they couldn’t live without either sugar or flour for a month or they have family members that would hold them back.
 
After my epiphany today, I have to wonder what’s keeping people from doing just two weeks without sugar and flour, or even one week?  Do they think that if they approached me and told me they only completed two weeks instead of a month, I would push them into the dirt and call them worthless for not doing the whole month?  Do I think the 100 day challenge police will arrest me if I only made it 75 days?  I’m pretty sure no one is going to mock me for only going one month recording my healthy activity and I promise that if someone posted on the Facebook page that they did just a week without no sugar and no flour, I would still congratulate them and be proud.
 
Ask yourself at this moment, what’s keeping you from starting something healthy today?  Are you doing a great job of talking yourself out of it because it seems like too much work?  Are you setting too lofty a goal, like planning for a marathon next month when you haven’t ran in years and then find yourself frustrated and give up?  Are you focusing on the 50 pounds you have to lose and find yourself constantly thinking of the time it will take because it doesn’t melt away with the first trip to the gym?  What if you just set a small goal and celebrated that? 
 
If you want to impress me, then go five days without sugar and flour.  I’m pretty sure you could do anything for five days and I’ve realized that you begin feeling something positive after that time.  Maybe it won’t change your life, but if you make it that amount of time, then you know you did it.  The next time it comes up and someone tells you they couldn’t last two days, then you could tell them they can do at least five days because you did.  Your second attempt might give you eight days or ten and you’ll realize that you can do that too.  Feel free to post all attempts to the Facebook page or email me directly and I will celebrate the crap out of your success with you, no matter how big or small you think it is.
 
Feel free to read through this entire blog or buy the book.  Do the challenge for a month and be amazed, or do it for shorter and see what happens.  I can promise you that you won’t regret any decision that helps you become healthier and realize your potential.
 
All the best!
John Graham

Available on Amazon!  Click the book cover to go there.

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Reclaiming the glory

12/31/2017

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December 31st, 2017
 
I realized today that it took me 14 months to lose 70 pounds and then around 5 months to put half of it back on.  Sure, I can list a variety of excuses for my lack of eating focus, stresses like moving into a new house and starting a new job, or even fun stuff like a 2-week vacation to Orlando where buffets rule and convenience eating is king.  Honestly though, not much of that matters.
 
What does matter is that I feel terrible every day and find myself putting up with it.  When I originally lost my weight, I drew a line in the sand and gave away all my 3XL shirts and pants, stating that I would never go back to that size.  While I haven’t gotten to point where I need to start buying a bigger wardrobe, I have found that my selection of 2XL shirts is slowly diminishing as I grow bigger.  I’m down to just a few that fit comfortably and I wonder if maybe they were mistagged at the factory.  Either way, everything I wear right now is tight and uncomfortable, so something must happen.
 
I’ve never been much for “New Year’s Resolutions”, simply because starting something in January makes you feel like a Lemming that’s joining the crowd and running until you eventually go over the cliff and back to the way you were.  I often let things die down a bit and start my goals in February, after the crowds thin out at the gym because folks can’t maintain their momentum.  This often puts me in a good position as Spring starts in March and the weather changing gives me further encouragement.  Whether I like it or not, I can’t wait another day for the sake of my health and well-being.
 
I think the biggest issue with losing a lot weight and then putting some of it back on is that you become keenly aware of who you haven’t seen in a while.  When you’re losing weight, it’s always great to run into that friend you haven’t seen in months because they are often blown away by the change and can’t help but to comment on your progress.  This action pumps you up and keeps you going.  When it’s the other way around, you find yourself dreading the contact with others that haven’t seen you since your fall from grace.  Even if they likely can’t remember how thin you were, you still are keenly aware of it and can’t help but have it pester you while you interact with them.
 
The second issue of the weight yo-yo must be the memory of how good you felt then, and how different that is now.  Let’s be honest here, it’s likely twice as bad for me because I had the nerve to write a book about my experience, recording everything I felt as things got better and better.  It’s tough for me to even go back and read it at this point because the words sting and I feel even worse about my lack of ability to maintain the things I spoke about.  The big thing is understanding that I’m aware of the difference and I want to get back to where I was.
 
So, what’s the point of writing this all down for you once again?  It’s likely one of the more embarrassing topics in my life right now and it’s even difficult to talk with my wife about it, let alone a group of strangers.  I’m doing this because I feel like there’s more to food as it relates to my life than I previously understood and I need to be honest about that fact.  I know I need to begin my journey back to where I was with my weight just six months ago, but for the effort to be effective, I need to do a better job this time at figuring out why food can impact my life just as much as alcohol does with an alcoholic or drugs with a drug abuser.  My goal is to analyze the addiction of food in my case so I can help myself and help others.
 
Putting my soul out there isn’t the easiest thing to do, but I know that my first time around, things I wrote helped others in their lives, so maybe this will too.  Often, we feel like we’re alone in our troubles and despair, thinking that everyone else has such a perfect life and doesn’t experience these things.  Let me be the first to say that my life and health aren’t perfect, so you’re not alone if that’s the case for you.  I’m willing to put myself out there for you to realize that there’s someone else experiencing similar issues to what you might be. 
 
Here’s to 2018!  Let’s all get back on track.
John Graham
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Moderation - Myth or Miracle

8/9/2017

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I don’t think this blog entry will help you.  In fact, like most things that deal with eating habits, food cravings, and lack of will power, I often feel like I’m the only one impacted by it in the world and the rest of you have no issue.  When I started down this road over a year ago, I committed to baring my soul and struggles with eating, exercise, and surviving day to day.  I’ve found that when it comes to our actions with food, we often feel like the only one struggling and everyone else is perfect.  The truth is, everyone has their demons to exorcise when it comes to living a healthier life.

This blog isn’t for you if you have no issue with moderation and portion control.  If you can eat just one cookie and find it’s all you need to be completely satisfied, then don’t bother reading on.  If you go out to a restaurant and order your favorite dish, only to eat half and then take the rest home to enjoy later, then there’s nothing else I can teach you.  If your nickname is “one-slice” because you’re content having just one slice of pizza, cake, or pie, then God bless you because you have an advantage over me.  If your self-control is unshakeable, then I’m jealous and not sure why you’re reading my blog in the first place.  You’re perfect.

As for me, I’m not perfect.  In fact, I’ve realized over the years that I have an “all or nothing” type of approach to food.  Sure this mentality has helped me do fantastic when I put my mind to enduring an eating challenge, like my one-month, no sugar, no flour experiment, but it doesn’t serve me at all when I try to walk the tightrope between eating the foods I love and not eating “too much” of the foods I love.  I do my best with moderation for the short term, but often find myself slowly creeping back to my old eating habits.  This can often lead to me going backwards with my health as fast as I went forwards without sugar and flour.  This is why I need ongoing challenges to help keep me on track, even after my month without sugar and flour.

No, this isn’t a ploy to have you purchase another book from me called “Ongoing Healthy Challenges”, even though I think that’s a pretty cool title.  Instead, I want to quickly explain my thinking here and leave it up to you for the next step.  First, keep in mind that not all challenges have to be as grandiose as giving up sugar and flour, nor do they have to be back-to-back in a continual string of months.  A challenge can be something small that keeps you focused on the long term goal.  This is the same thought process you use for any long-term goal, just create milestones along your way to help you track your progress.  Too often we focus on the final number, like wanting to lose fifty pounds, and after a while give up because it feels like we’ll never make it.

Smaller challenges are vital, so put your mind to creating a list of things that you can do.  One month, I challenged myself to do at least 30 minutes of an “exercise” activity five days a week.  While I quickly felt the benefits of moving every day, I also reaped the reward of not eating too terribly because I tend to eat better when I’m exercising.  Once, after taking a close look at my food intake while still going without sugar and flour, I realized that I was consuming way too much cheese.  Cheese was definitely a weakness for me, so I decided to see if I could live without it for a month.  You know what?  Not only did I survive a month without that dairy deliciousness, but since that day I no longer have the same cravings I did for cheese each day.   Still another month I made my goal to stay under 8 tsps. of sugar each day, which gave me a little more freedom in my eating, but not a whole ton of wiggle room to get readdicted to the sweets.

I don’t want to scare you into thinking that you’ll have to go on and off challenges for the rest of your life, but if you’re someone who has a tough time with moderation, then you need something in your bag of tricks.  Accept that you’ll have to create methods to remind yourself that food will always have some sort of power over you and acknowledge your need for different ways to combat your food urges.  I would like nothing more than to tell you to “just eat in moderation” and your life changes forever, unfortunately some people such as myself might struggle with it more than others.  So yes, I’m preaching moderation, but I also recommend keeping some monthly challenges in your back pocket if that doesn’t work.

Suggested Challenges – Though this is really a personal decision on what is best for you.

Month 1 – The No Sugar / No Flour Challenge
Month 2 – Moderation or an 8 tsp sugar a day challenge.  Possibly some bread reintroduced if you can’t live without your sandwiches.
Month 3 – Exercise challenge month.  Set a weekly goal and hit it all month long.
Month 4 – No Sugar / No Flour Challenge Month
Month 5 – Crutch food challenge.  Is there something you rely on too much that doesn’t have sugar or flour?  Possibly white potatoes, cheese, milk, etc?  Something high in calories or fat, but you’ve justified large quantities because it’s “sugar and flour free”?  Eliminate it for a month and see what happens.
Month 6 – Exercise challenge.  Pick a whole new workout routine of exercises you need, but don’t love to do.  You’ve likely created an exercise routine by now that’s filled with activities that you tend to enjoy, so take this month and get out of your comfort zone.
Month 7 – Moderation.  Navigate the world of eating normally and see how you do.
Month 8 – No Sugar / No Flour challenge month with an exercise challenge added in.  Make your physical activity count double this month.
Month 9 – Moderation and new food challenge.  Commit to integrating some new foods into your diet that don’t contain sugar and flour.
Month 10 – The exercise event challenge.  Sign up for a 5K, Sprint Triathlon, or something else with a set date that you have to train for and get training.  Find a buddy to make it twice as fun.
Month 11 – Pick the previous challenge that fits with your life right now and go at it.
Month 12 – No Sugar / No Flour challenge with crutch food elimination.  You’re already giving stuff up, so add some of those “crutch” foods to the mix and really impress your friends.  (They already thought you were crazy for just giving up sugar and flour for a month, so maybe they’ll think you’ve gone off the deep end.)
​

These are just some thoughts, but feel free to explore what might work best for you.  The key is to keep working toward your goal through the year.
All the best!
John Graham

Interested in learning more about how I tackled a month of not eating sugar and flour?  Read my day-to-day experience in my book, just click on the picture to the right.

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You can't call it a failure if you learn from it.

5/28/2017

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The month of May is wrapping up and so is my most recent challenge of no sugar, flour, white potatoes, corn, milk, and cheese.  In the spirit of transparency, I will admit that I wasn’t 100% successful this time around, but I’m still pretty proud of my accomplishment.

People often ask me what the point of these challenges are, especially since I’m already a pretty picky person and it just limits my eating even more.  I’ve thought a lot about the answer and it really comes down to helping me realize what I am capable of living without.  You see, each of the items on my list were all things that I swore I couldn’t live without for a week, let alone a whole month.  With each successive challenge, I was able to remove the shackles of that particular food group from my eating.

As people go on “diets” or other restrictive eating programs, it seems they identify a couple of foods that they enjoy and are also within the parameters of their current eating regime.  These foods tend to become the crutch that helps them survive the timeframe of their restrictive eating, so often it becomes a sad trade off where you don’t get out and experience new foods, but instead just stick to what you know.  Often times, the over dependency on certain “healthier” foods might actually make those foods work against you.  This is something I discovered early on with my first no sugar/no flour challenge when I leaned too heavily on white potatoes, French fries, and corn so my results were minimized.

As I built up my confidence with completing the first challenge, it gave me the courage to eliminate something else in addition to sugar and flour, so white potatoes went.  Then after a few months, I once again wanted to challenge myself and added corn and corn based products, simply because corn tortilla chips were becoming a part of my weekly eating routine.  So corn was added to the list of no-no’s and still survived without it.

For over a year I was able to balance my intake on corn and white potatoes, but as I looked at my diet I quickly realized that cheese was filling in the void left by eliminating those other foods.  Up to that point, I felt that cheese was never going to be something I could live without, which made it a perfect candidate to go.  To my surprise, chees was easier to give up than sugar and flour, so the first three weeks breezed by.  Near the end of May though, cheese sought me out as an ingredient for a meal or two and I ended up eating it instead of seeking out something else.

I don’t consider the month a failure though for a couple of reasons.  First, I’ve realized that cheese doesn’t need to be such a big deal in my life anymore.  I don’t need to sprinkle it on all the foods I did previously, and I’ll still live without having a block to slice up when I need a quick snack.  In fact, I realized that by not having cheese at those “snack” times, I really wasn’t hungry at all and didn’t try to use another food to fill the gap.  This was the equivalent of me reaching into my daily eating and removing close to 1000 calories a day, but not replacing them.  The results from this month have been wonderful on my waistline.  (If you think 1000 calories of cheese is a lot, take a look at the portion size and you’ll see how fast someone can get there in a couple of meals.)

So once again, the education about my capabilities is reinforced and I realize that I’m able to do more than I imagined I could.  This message is really what my book and continuous challenges are all about, encouraging you to tackle one month just to see how it impacts you.  People are always quick to say what they can’t live without, but they just go off of what they know and not what they want to test.  I know you can make a change for at least a month, maybe more.  I hope that one day you’ll realize the same thing and that the day comes soon.
​

John Graham
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May 7th, 2017 - Update on my latest challenge and more.

5/7/2017

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ello Everyone.
Over the past year I’ve gone through a variety of challenges with my eating habits to encourage a healthier lifestyle for myself.
  It started with giving up sugar and flour for a month and then has sporadically grown to include other foods that I began to rely on too much when not eating sugar and flour.  These challenges have become less about weight loss and more about an attempt to see what I am capable of when I put my mind to it.  Throughout the entire process, I’ve tried to be as open with others as possible so they can gain insight into my journey and decide to take on a challenge themselves.

In this month of May, I am challenging myself on a grander scale than ever before.  Not just giving up sugar and flour, but also white potatoes, corn, milk, and cheese.  This may seem crazy to you, but this is my way of determining my dependency on these “crutch” foods that I find myself relying on as I try to be healthier.  I don’t hold any personal ill will towards white potatoes and corn, I simply found myself eating French fries, corn chips, and other snack foods a little too often, which worked against me even as I ate no sugar or flour.  Cheese is a whole other issue, stemming from what could be called an addiction to the delicious substance.  I ended up putting cheese on too many foods and found myself snacking on cheese cubes when I wanted to curb my hunger. 

I always said that I could give up everything else, but I could never give up cheese, but as I continue to evolve my mindset I realize that I can do anything, including just that.  So, this blog is to talk about my first week without cheese and I want to warn you in advance that I’ll be candid about the effects of this week on my body to help others who may experience the same.  As always, I’m not a doctor or dietician, so the experiences are mine and may not reflect all of society.  So here we go.

Unlike giving up sugar and flour for the first time, I never felt cravings for cheese during this week.  Maybe I’ve just gotten to a point where I can give things up for a month and my mind just goes along with me now.  There were not longings or dreams about the dairy delight.  I will say that food that I used to enjoy with cheese seemed blander, so I found myself using more spices than typical.

The biggest difference came with my bowel movements, that started coming more frequently and seemed to not give me as much notice as before.  Looking back at the week, I feel like the amount of cheese I ate, (which was a lot), acted as a binding agent that kept things moving at a slower and more controlled pace.  Without that binding, some foods seemed to process through me much quicker than that they had in the past, especially those higher in fiber.  After five days, I stepped on the scale and found that I lost almost 8 pounds, which was quite shocking to me because I didn’t feel much different than a week before.  Sure, I had gone to the gym 4 days that week, but I had never seen those results in the past.  As I reflect on it, I’m imagining that I had multiple days’ storage of waste in my bowels, but it had all been coming out with nothing bad going in.  Sort of like cleaning out a clogged drain, even though I never felt like I was constipated to this point.

If this concept of bowel storage freaks you out, then you might not want to research it, because it’s a real thing and you probably have a few pounds worth of food still working its way through your intestines as you read this.

While I liked losing the weight, as the week progressed I found the downside.  Irritable stomach pains based on what I ate and a sensitivity to some high fiber foods, which seemed to flow right through me.  As a person who’s been on a regular bowel movement schedule my entire adult life, the randomness of needing to poop was not an exciting side effect.  But, like any new eating pattern, I am quickly figuring out my balance of food intake and what it does to me shortly after.  This has also made me think more about portion control than ever before, which has also contributed to my positive weight results.

I tried to do some research and provide links, but everything I can find was more on the other negative effects of dairy or the horrors of the dairy industry.  I’m not trying to disparage the industry or get you to hate cheese, because I’m sure I’ll go back to its loving arms after the month of May.  This challenge is giving me a better understanding of my body before giving up cheese, during the process, and then as reintroduce it later.  Sorry to be so graphic about my bowels, but I don’t mind embarrassing myself a little if it helps you out.
​

All the best!
John Graham
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Even though I miss the dairy delight, I'm learning quite a bit about myself this month.

Click cover for more information.
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My one-year anniversary of the "experiment".

3/7/2017

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Hello everyone!
March 1
st was my one-year anniversary of an experiment where I gave up sugar and flour for a month.  My goal was simply to see if I had the willpower to walk away from foods that were such an important part of my life.  Trust me when I say that I was more addicted to pizza, cookies, and cereal than the average person, along with the countless other delicious items that I could run out and buy whenever I wanted.  I decided to see if I could survive a month and I did.  What I didn’t realize was how large of an impact it would have on my mind after that month ended.

Now I’m not going to detail my journey over the past year, simply because I’ve written extensively in this blog about it during the previous year and you can scroll back to get the full effect.  Instead I want to take a moment to reflect and explore how this one-month experiment morphed into a life-changing year, how it’s worked for me, and how I believe it can work for you.

Before we begin, here’s a special disclaimer for you.  You see, there isn’t anything special about me compared to you in regards to motivation, desire to be healthy, or determination.  I say this because we tend to see the results of others with their health and immediately try to figure out something special about that person that we can never do.  I used to be that same way, watching the Youtube videos of people being healthier over a year and saying I could never be as motivated, resilient, or focused as they were, so why should I bother.  So, even though I’d like to say I’m special, the truth is that the “me” in January of 2016 is likely the exact same person as the “you” of right now.

Here are some of my main learnings from my experience this year.

1.      Set a timeframe goal!  You’ve already heard speeches and read books about goal setting, so I’m not going regurgitate a bunch of stuff here that you’ve gotten somewhere else already.  Short version is that you need to set some sort of timeframe for your “experiment” and stick to it.  I recommend a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of a month because two weeks without sugar, flour, and processed foods lets you get most everything out of your system and begin feeling the benefits.  One month gives you the mental clarity to realize the haze you’ve lived in all your life and you’ll likely want to keep going.  Besides, how can you say no to a two-week experiment?  What do you have to lose?  I can tell you what you will gain, the ability to realize that it’s possible and you can do it, then a month seems possible at that point.
2.      Tell people what you’re doing!  Now I’m not saying you need to go grab strangers and tell them you’ve reached a point so low in your life that you’re trying something crazy to see what happens.  And I don’t recommend posting on social media that you’re starting a new “crazy diet” and people should express their condolences.  Make it more about the experiment and testing of your personal willpower than the eating.  You’ll find that people will start encouraging you more and become involved in your success each day for the timeframe you set.
3.      Don’t make it about the eating!  People seem to always get hung up on their diet and what they are going without.  In my past, I would focus so much on what I could and couldn’t eat, that it ended up consuming me.  I made the “diet” into an evil creature that was to blame for making me go without the foods I loved.  This would cause you to hear multiple statements like: “I’d love a piece of pizza, but my diet won’t allow it.” Or “That’s not something I can eat because of my diet.”  People started to pity me because of this evil “diet” that was ruining my life and making me sad.  In fact, once I started to cheat, my brain didn’t see it as a bad thing, but instead that I was escaping the clutches of the diet overlords and finally tasting freedom after a long imprisonment.
4.      Finally, I must put a plug in for planning. Let’s be realistic and agree that you can’t completely change your eating habits, unless you do some planning and prep on the front end, and some regular planning throughout.

Beyond these four points, I’ve realized that my experiment was built on three simple things that fed into each other.
  Commitment, Results, and Motivation.

My commitment to the initial experiment equaled great results.
  The results I felt then contributed to my motivation to continue with the experiment for a longer time.  This longer timeframe of showing success then helped me continually renew my commitment, which started the entire cycle over again.

I can honestly tell you that if you have the commitment to try the same experiment I did, you will be amazed after just a few weeks.  This is true even if you have little motivation to give up the sweet foods you’re addicted to and even if you don’t believe the results will be the same as mine.  Start with commitment and the rest will follow behind, whether you like it or not.

So there you go, my life-changing year in a nutshell.  My health has drastically improved, I’ve lost around 70lbs, and all my stats are better than they have been in a decade.  I have the self-confidence to keep challenging myself with new experiments around eating and exercise, and I obviously have no issue baring my soul to the world through a blog.  Even with the distance I’ve come this year, my journey started with a single step and when I took it, I was in the exact same place you might be right now.  Think about what’s holding you back from trying a “crazy” experiment in the coming months and weigh it against what you’ve done in the past.
​

All the best!
John Graham
​

"The biggest change I've felt this year is the severing of my emotional connection with food.  Imagine if you didn't get cravings anymore.  How would that change your life?"
​--John Graham

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The more success I experience, the tougher it is to talk about it.

2/9/2017

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I really wish I knew what to say in this blog or in person now to help people understand how my “food” life has changed in the last year.  In March when I started down this road, the last thing I imagined would be me still pursuing my healthy goals a year later and showing great success.  I also didn’t imagine that I would write a book about my experience that would turn out to be one of my best sellers so far.

Even though I feel great about the direction my health has taken this year, I also suffer from carrying the burden of knowledge about what I’ve done and what I know others can do.  For almost a year now I’ve tried to explain to others the mental clarity, the focus, and the feeling of actual weight loss you get when you cut out sugar and flour from your life.  I just figured that since I succeeded at something I could never have imagined doing, then it was something any average person could do.

But I realized quickly that the problem is that people don’t want to do it, no matter how you sell it or explain the benefits.  This scenario causes me not to push too hard because you don’t want to become that person who goes on and on about their healthy lifestyle and the great results, which makes others want to punch them in the face.  I find myself balancing a desire to not get punched, with the knowledge that if people just committed a month or two, then they could have a complete mindset change like I did.

Now, before I waste the entire blog on my personal healthy living pity-party, let me give a quick recap of my year so far.  As you remember, I did my initial no sugar / no flour experiment in March 2016 and blogged about it daily.  I was amazed by the end of the third week at how great I felt, so I kept going for a few more months after that.  The results were staggering, with weight loss, aches and pains going away, medical conditions clearing up, and gaining a more positive self-image.  As summer came and went, I still avoided sugar and flour most of the time, with sporadic breaks on special occasions or when I had no other choice.   This eating, along with some regular exercise, helped me achieve around 60 pounds of weight loss and completely eliminate the 3XL size from my wardrobe.

Let’s pause for a minute so I can help you understand that after the first month, I no longer felt like I was “going without” foods like you might imagine would be tough to live without.  You see, for the first time in my life, I found a healthy method of living that actually got easier the longer I did it.  The more time passed, the less emotionally connected I became to foods that once ruled my brain.  This is the hardest point to get across to others when it comes to the challenge of giving up sugar and flour because people just visualize endless days of cravings that can never be satisfied, so it must be impossible.  Truthfully it isn’t like that at all, and many of my cravings are just vague memories.

When December arrived, I decided to loosen things up a bit and enjoy the delightful foods that the holidays tend to bring.  While I still couldn’t bring myself to go completely over to the dark side again, (ice cream, cookie dough, and soda), I still over did it here and there causing a few pounds to creep back on which was enough to bring back the sick, lethargic feelings that I lived with for most of my life.  While I didn’t enjoy feeling like a failure that month, it was definitely eye opening for me to feel once again what my life was like when I was eating sugar and flour regularly.  So, I did what anyone would do as they begin to slip back into their old ways of eating, I published my book about my previous success and decided that February would be National no sugar / no flour month.  I was dedicated to going without once again to reclaim the amazing feeling I felt when my system had no sugar or flour in it.

Once January arrived, it was a bit strange because even though I had not eaten that healthy in December, much of my emotional connection with food was still gone.  I decided on the fourth of January that I would prep for February by just giving up sugar and flour the next day and on January 5th I just stopped eating it.  No fanfare, no big announcements, it was just like flipping a switch and I was back to eating the way my body wanted again, especially since the memory of my sugar free days were still fresh on my mind.  It didn’t take me that long to become addicted once again to how great I felt and I decided that I wanted to challenge myself even more for the month of February.

The first week of February has wrapped up and I’m shocked at how easy it is to go without sugar and flour, simply because I had done it before.  I even upped the ante on the challenge and gave up white potatoes and corn, two of my favorite items that fit the criteria of no sugar and no flour, but aren’t the best for you.  I expected the extra sacrifice to throw me off a bit, but again, once the emotional connection with food is severed, it completely changes your brain.  I’m actually looking forward to what the month brings me since this time around I gave myself an exercise goal of 14 trips to the gym during this month also.  We’ll see how it turns out.

As I try to eloquently wrap this up for you, I’ll only try once again to explain that going without sugar and flour becomes easier the longer you do it.  Take a moment and think about the last few days of your week.  How many times did your brain tell you that you “needed” a certain food?  How many moments did you feel forced to pick something up to eat that you “just had to have”?  In this world we live in, we have the ultimate power to get any food we want at a moment’s notice, so what would you give to not feel forced to buy something just because your body and brain “wanted” it. 
​

At age 65 we will have spent 780 months on this planet, so why not try something crazy with one of them.
All the best!
John Graham

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