Eating Problem: I Don't Cook

Recently, I've been talking about "a thousand trees," referring to what seems to be countless little eating problems I appear to have that may have contributed to my getting obese. I've talked about the habit of allowing myself more than I need because something tastes good, for example. I think if you've got a serious weight problem, you'll identify with some of the problems I write about and maybe think of some of your own. You may or may not, however, identify with this one: I don't know how to cook.

Not cooking leads to more unhealthy choices like consuming processed foods (often high fat, high calorie) and fast food. It also prevents me from having good quality, satisfying meals. And it likely keeps healthy foods like vegetables out of my belly.

I was so bothered by this last summer, I made efforts to find someone to teach me basic cooking skills. I've come across this problem in other obese people as well. A lot of us can't cook and there's really no one to teach us as adults. I checked into basic cooking classes and as far as I can see, they don't exist in my area.

But I'm not a man who gives up easily. I've wanted to have a decent house to live in so over the past decade I taught myself how to renovate. A couple of books and hours watching home improvement shows helped me build upon basic skills I learned in high school woodworking class. But there are two things in high school I wish I had taken: auto mechanics and home ec (so I could cook.) It'd be nice to fix my own car then cook up a tasty meal!

I've tried watching The Food Network to see if it would rub off on me like the home renovation shows did but they don't teach basics. I am, however, quite inspired by watching them. They get me all worked up to try cooking dinner.

In the fall I made progress by getting over my fear of cooking meat. Instead of buying precooked hamburgers like I usually do, I finally tried cooking raw burgers on the barbecue. I have always worried that I would not cook them thoroughly and it would be gross and I'd make my family sick. Chalk it up to a minor phobia.

Since then, we've had the most obscenely delicious burgers at home, much better than the ones I've been choking down in the drive through line for most of my life. I make them how I like them, with old cheddar, red onions, mustard and relish. Oh, and lettuce, tomato and half fat mayo. We use PC brand Blue Menu lean burgers. We tried the Safeway version and they tasted like hockey pucks (and don't think I've never tasted a hockey puck.)

Tonight I boldly attempted to make a stir fry. I got the idea from watching my wife eat at a food court last week. I began watching YouTube videos on making a chicken stir fry with rice. It all seemed so easy and, like the reno viewing I did, I cross referenced different videos. You watch a bunch of videos on one subject and they begin to fill in the blanks (doubts or questions you may have.)

Cooking is big on the Internet so there's no shortage of info out there.

I get queezie about eating my own experimental cooking but what I made tonight was palatable. We decided the "Chinese style" soya sauce was a little different than your normal run of the mill soya sauce (don't ask me why) and it was a little off in flavour. But there I was chopping yellow onions, green onions, etc. using the rocker chopping method (thank you, Food Network!).

It's a baby step but it's a big one for me.

• Here's a short playlist of videos teaching basic cooking of a handful of foods.

A Fantastic Walk/Jog Tonight Leads Me to Write

Chrystal Levy's story is very similar to mine

Since my unpleasant, adrenaline-pumping incidents on the streets of my neighbourhood last week, I've had plenty of feedback and heard many horrible stories. But most people soldier on, especially those whose health depends on it. Myself, I chose to keep walking past Angry Entitled Teenager's house because it's on my normal walking route.

This attitude applies to everything in life: Don't let your fears get the best of you, meet them head on. That said, I'm wired for confrontation. It has to do with a troubled upbringing. I have to get past that. If I seek confrontation, or don't avoid it when possible, I could run the risk of being in a violent situation when it is totally unnecessary. I've also watched a number of self-defence videos on YouTube that helped put me at ease.

In the last week or so I've been doing a little jogging every night instead of 6 or 7 minutes twice per week. Depending on how I felt I might do as little as thirty seconds, just to spice up my walk, or a couple of bouts of two minutes. I wanted to try something different to see how my body and fitness level would respond. Then last night I just walked without any jogging so I could rest up for a longer jog tonight.

Tonight was fantastic. I was strong, my heart rate was relatively moderate and I barely broke a sweat. On other nights I will seek out a higher (85%) heart rate by running slightly faster, at least for a while at the end, and I'll welcome the inevitable buckets of sweat, but tonight, it was comforting to have my seven minute jog seem almost effortless.

My goal with running is to gradually increase it and add some spice to my workout routine beyond just walking. It really is great to get the heart pumping for a sustained period. It's the greatest natural drug you can get. If you absolutely refuse to ever try a little running, I know a couple of women who do Zumba (Latin dance workouts.)

I saw a story on the national news Friday night about a woman who very much reminded me of me and my journey in the last few months. She was feeling sore, drained of energy and very immobile. She started walking and she's a very different woman today. You can watch the video of the news story here. Think of me when you do and know that I spend my days looking forward to my next workout.

Why You Shouldn't Be Scared of Jogging

There's two main things I got out of watching obesity reality shows: An insight into the mental dysfunction it takes to become severely obese, and that the obese body is every bit capable of exercise as any healthy body. It may take longer, but if you make your body move, it adapts in a remarkable fashion for the next time it might have to do the same thing.

If all you can do is walk to the nearest lamp post, do it. Do it a few times then start walking a few steps further each day. You'll find your body is adapting and probably building the muscle necessary to complete the task.

With me, I could walk about twenty minutes when I started getting fit this time. I thought that was all I could do until I saw people twice my weight doing more, including jogging. So I almost doubled my walking time that I do every day and I was perfectly fine.

In my late twenties, when I first got fit and lost a great deal of weight, I cycled a lot and, after I lost about 40 pounds, started jogging. Much to my surprise I liked it. Hell, I loved it. It was so empowering to think that the lifelong fat guy could jog. But mostly I liked the endorphins that my body released when I exercised at a little higher intensity. I became an endorphins junkie. I can tell you that "runner's high" is very real. Maybe not everyone gets it easily, but I did.

It was big morale boost for me to be able to ride my bicycle a few times this month, but jogging--or as the kids these days call it: "running"--seems like the last frontier of exercise to conquer. I jogged for about ten seconds during my walk one night to see what would happen. I didn't die.

Earlier this month I would occasionally (not every night) start jogging for about thirty seconds after I got well into my walk. If I went any further I'd get severely out of breath and that doesn't seem safe to me. But, as any expert will tell you, all you have to do is jog for a little while (usually 90 seconds at first) and then walk for a couple of minutes to rest up, then repeat. That's called 'walking to run.' It's how most people start a jogging program if they're not already fit.

Ninety seconds is too much for me right now. I'm too out of shape and too heavy. My rule of thumb is to jog until I can't any more because I'm out of breath or my legs are too fatigued. At first it was 30 seconds, but now it's a minute, and today I did five minutes of a very slow trot on the treadmill at my clinic. Treadmills are a little easier than running in the real world because the side walk is moving for you. The remedy for that is to raise the incline of the treadmill up slightly to just 1%. That compensates for the moving walking surface.

It feels good to jog and it feels good to sweat. It's a self esteem boost and anything that helps me get out and exercise is important. I can see myself jogging for ten minutes later this year as part of my walks, but just not on consecutive days.

I hurt my knee when jogging when I got in shape fifteen years ago. Injury is possible but it's rare and you have to use common sense. If you're middle aged like me and or if you're quite heavy, taking a day off between jogs is important to help your body recover and get strong again. The compulsivity and risk taking behaviour that got me obese in the first place caused me to jog too much, too often and when my knee began to hurt, I didn't stop because I was looking for my endorphins fix.

It took a few months to heal and I really hated stopping jogging for that long. I've learned my lesson though. My knees are doing just fine these days. Four months ago they'd hurt just by walking up the stairs in my house. But my body has since greatly adapted to exercise.

Here's to good health!

More on Weight Loss Television Shows

Before and after pictures of two participants of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition (ABC)

I continue to be inspired by watching other very obese people access their inner athlete and transform themselves into healthy, smaller people. I'm still amazed at how capable the obese body is at becoming athletic. I still challenge my own perceptions of what I am currently capable of when I watch these shows. And I continue to be counselled by seeing the common emotional dysfunction I share with each of these people. Last night I jogged a bit, only because I saw other people heavier than me doing it. And I can do it. It's just going to happen slowly, but I never would have tried if I weren't inspired by watching others on TV.

The current obesity weight loss show that is on the air is Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. Super-obese subjects spend a year transforming themselves with the help of trainer Chris Powell. He claims to live with the subjects for the first three months, changing their eating habits and teaching them how to work out (for five hours per day!). However, I don't know how that's possible from a TV production standpoint. (He'd have to spend a year with just four subjects and there are eight in this current season.)

The show only lightly touches on how they do the transformations. All of fifteen seconds of an episode is devoted to a nutritionist cooking up a healthy alternative to the subject's favourite unhealthy meal. Through one of the subject's public Facebook page, I came across an interview with the nutritionist who works with the obese people on the series.

Paullette Lambert (right) teaches an EMWLE client how to make a healthy meal

What struck me were her comments about many of the subjects not being able to cook their own food. As a result they weren't getting healthy vegetables in their meals. That's something I identify with and see as a problem I have.

She also said not to drink your calories, something I've long been aware of and have stopped doing years ago in spite of my ever-increasing weight. But some people drink the equivalent of a five pound bag of sugar in a week through pop or fruit drinks.

Fast food is also a common problem: too high a calorie count in relatively small volumes of food, and no vegetables or fruit included. Fast food is a huge issue for me. I'm making healthier choices when I go there now, and I'm including a side salad with my meals, but I'm still hooked on going to the damned places.

The subjects of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition were allowed the calories that a normal adult needs (approx 1600 for woman and 2000 or so for men.) But the subjects exercised for five hours per day and their caloric needs were upwards of 6000 because of their large size. A 3500 calorie deficit is a pound of fat loss. Some were losing a pound or more per day in the first few months. The nutritionist for the show recommends a normal caloric intake and doing an hour of exercise per day, but less is also very beneficial and would achieve weigh loss.

I have a hard time doing much more than a half hour of exercise per day before my joints get sore, but it's working for me. Four months ago I was, for all intents and purposes, disabled. Today I'm a new man, doing things I never thought I would do again.

The night before last I pulled my three-year-old daughter in a bike trailer. For the last six years I watched my wife take the kids in that thing and never even imagined I would one day be capable of doing it. Even when I started to improve my physical capabilities this spring, I didn't foresee something like this happening this summer.

Discovering I am capable of jogging, and riding a bike--something I've loved all my life--has been a huge emotional boost for me. It's broken down the perception I had of myself and what is possible for me in my future.

Weight Loss / Obesity Reality TV Shows

Chris Powell (right) works with a client on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition

My apologies to TV lovers everywhere, but I've never enjoyed reality TV. I blame the fact that my education and work experience has been in film and television. I always feel like I'm being manipulated because I "see through" the techniques they use to contrive drama and conflict. You may be surprised to know that I never became a regular viewer of a reality show.

Jamie Oliver shows the amount of sugar in chocolate milk.

Then along came Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution in the spring of 2010. He went into school food programs in the most obese part of American and tried to educate and transform what the State was feeding our kids. He was passionate and unstoppable. I watched with the family to educate my kids about the dangers of obesity. All too often, I saw myself and my family's eating habits portrayed, mostly through the high consumption of fast food and processed foods. No one seems to cook any more. Oliver wants us to question what we're eating and where our food comes from.

The show returned this season and once again my family watched eagerly. During it I saw commercials for Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. This was occurring during the time I was beginning to work harder changing my lifestyle through daily walking and restricting my overeating. I caved and watched an episode.

Heavy (A&E)

Since then, I've devoured ALL of the episodes and, on the advice of my nutritionist, also viewed every episode of Heavy from A&E, a similar show but more of a documentary than a reality series. From these viewings I've gained tremendous inspiration and knowledge. Not knowledge on the secrets of losing weight, but knowledge of what it means to be fat.

There's something about seeing a four or five hundred pound person transform themselves every week, over and over and over, young, old, man, woman. You begin to believe that it's possible to do the same. Maybe you don't need to work out four or five hours per day but you see what's possible: that the human body that is that way, doesn't have to be that way.

Watching these shows is like AA for the fat person who's out of control. You don't get to vent your own problems, but you always see yourself in the subjects of these shows and you can identify with their struggles. Every new person brings a trait that I see in myself. Few of these traits are flattering.

You see sad, pathetic traits in others (a childish helplessness is one common trait I've noticed) and you begin to hold a mirror up to yourself. I don't see myself very often, but I do when I watch these shows.

I wish I could watch a new show every week to reset my inspiration. These people, after all, are usually much worse off than me. Almost all the men are a hundred pounds more than me, some practically double my weight. The question posed by these shows is: if they can do it, why can't I?

Soon after I started watching, I doubled my daily exercise time because I realized it was possible that I could do more. The most inspiring episodes are when someone my age (in the mid-forties) or older does a transformation. I had transformed myself before at age 28, but I had come to believe it was no longer possible. I know now that it is possible at almost any age.

Boiled down to one thing, these unscripted obesity programs show that the human body is remarkable. And so is the human mind, which is most certainly at the center of every morbidly obese person's illness.

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Links:

A & E's "Heavy" (all episodes available online)

Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition

"How do you know if you're working hard enough to have a good workout?"

This was a question David Letterman asked Richard Simmons a number of years ago on his late night TV show.

Simmons' answer: "When your underwear is soaking wet."

He was serious and I think he's right.