My Daily Fiber

     Page One Hundred-Fifteen.
     Here's an appetizing topic to discuss today: fiber. Are you getting enough?
     In the olden days (pre-1980's) fiber was referred to as roughage. People used to talk about getting their daily roughage because if you didn't eat it, you might not be "regular". Around one hundred years ago, the public believed that many, many health issues could be traced back to irregularity. During the decades leading up to the twentieth century, American bowel habits were the open topics of conversations. As delicate as Americans think they are, we just love to talk about our bowels and whether or not they're working properly.
   A few pages back (page 108) I wrote about how I'd recently been sick with the flu and wasn't eating properly for a few days. I took advantage of that illness to allow my stomach to shrink so I could jump start a little weight loss diet. Nobody would ever accuse me of being obese, but for a few years now, I've been wanting to loose a couple inches around the waistline, nothing more. Well, it's worked and my stomach has definitely shrunk. With a shrunken stomach, less food is required to feel full so less is consumed, thus fat loss. What a concept.
     For eighteen days now I've been consuming maybe 40-50% of the fat and calories that I had been eating. I'm rarely hungry because I usually feel full (see shrunken tum-tum, previous paragraph), my energy level is normal, my color is good and I'm doing my complete weight training routine. I'm taking my beloved 3-5 mile hikes around the neighborhood, biking, jogging... everything is good in spite of the fact that I'm eating half of what I had been. It's really shocking to discover how little food I really need to live. I'm sure that I could eat more, but my current mindset is such that I'm really enjoying getting back to the body shape that I'm most comfortable with. Basically, right now my higher priority is to loose some of the fat I've put on in the last eight years as opposed to stuffing my face and stretching my stomach back to what it was. Who knows how long this will last, but at my current rate, in about eight weeks or so I'll be where I want to be. And, in fact, if this little experiment works, I'll actually be in better shape that before because I'm substantially more muscular today than I was back then. So, my torso will be more of a "V" than it was. We'll see... I'm choosing not to stress too much over this whole thing.
     Getting back to roughage, I've been concerned that I haven't been consuming enough of that. So yesterday I resorted to a trick I learned while working at Fancy-Schmany Nursing Home. I mixed some Miller's Bran into a dish of apple sauce. I'm sure I added way too much bran, but I ate it. Was it as tasty as, say, a slice of Death By Chocolate cake? Probably not. In fact, definitely not. (But then again, you don't eat Death By Chocolate cake exclusively so it'll make you move your bowels.) But it really wasn't terrible. And in fact, that bowl of applesauce/bran was so filling that it ended up being my dinner. Seriously. I don't know if that's a commentary on how filling it was or how little it takes to stuff my stomach right now. But regardless, it was my 6PM snack.
     Americans are notorious for not getting enough fiber as much of our food is highly processed. So, even after this little weight loss experiment ends, for good or bad, I should probably consider incorporating this trick on a regular basis. But one thing at a time. First, loose about ten to fourteen pounds (optimistically) and stabilize at that spot. Yeah! Second, have a slice of Death By Chocolate cake again. Yum! Third, eat more fiber. Yum!