By Jeff Salisbury

https://misterjournalism.wordpress.com/

If you follow me on Facebook you probably already know this, but I’ve been on a quest to lose some weight. A lot of weight. Since August, after I watched a PBS special – itwas pledge week actually – about something called The Wheat Belly Diet, I’ve increasingly eating a regimen of less and less rains and refined or process sugars.

The plan, devised by a Wisconsin cardiologist, Dr. William Davis, was originally somethinghe recommended for his heart patients who for the most part were 1) type 2 diabetic or pre-diabetic, 2) insulin resistant, 3) had fatty livers and fat bellies, 4) had lots of weight to lose, and 5) were suffering from disrupted bowel flora that can limit recovering from prior grain consumption.

The long and short of it is this – he determined that eating fat does not make you fat but what does is sugar consumption. Not just refined or processed sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, but it turns out sugars and carbohydrates raised blood glucose levels and caused repeated and lengthy insulin spikes and levels and the body’s reaction to the stress causes  the body to store not remove fat.

Oddly enough one food group beyond those containing refined and/or processed sugars, which increased glucose levels and triggered insulin spiking were grains. The worst were whole grains. Wheat in particular, although all grains – corn, oats, and so on – and they did so beyond simple processed foods like candy bars and jelly beans to name two. And the spikes last longer with grains than any other foods.

So, I bought his book and began eliminating grains and refined and process sugars. I became a real label reader too. That was August, as I said above, and when I weighed in at 279.9 pounds.

Fast forward and here we are almost the end of January and just above 237 pounds. In November, the first actually, day before my 67th birthday, I accepted a Facebook challenge from a cousin of mine to join a group that was vowing to walk everyday in November – rain or shine – snow or cloudy – at whatever pace and over whatever distance.

That was November 1 and today as I write this it is January 23 and I haven’t missed a day. Sometimes inside – on our treadmill – or inside one of our schools – or at a mall – 84 consecutive days! Now no question that has helped with weight loss – but the primary agent of change is my diet. By controlling my blood glucose levels and thus myinsulin levels my body is no longer storing fat but eliminating it.

And all that has meant I have altogether too much slack in my slacks. It was time for some new pants because let’s just say my old stretched-out stretch waistband 44/46s were beginning to look like something either Bozo the Clown or MC Hammer could wear and my wife Penny was kind enough to pick out two pair from JC Penney online and which she then picked up at one of their stores in Grand Rapids.

That was a few weeks ago and the40/42s slacks are now pretty “slack” too. In fact, this week I ordered two pair of 38/40s.

Finally, speaking of JC Penney, I think you might enjoy this brief bio of the company’s new CEO. It took Marvin Ellison, 50, who is the fourth of seven children and was raisedin a small town northeast of Memphis, over six years to get his business degree from the University of Memphis. Ellison worked his way through school on the graveyard shift at a convenience store, as a janitor at a women’s department store and driving a plumbing supplies truck.

Ellison’s journey reminded me of how long my own was – 13 years from high school graduation in June 1967 to the day I walked across the stage at the MSU’s Jenison Field House in June 1980. Here’s the link:

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/20150622-marvin-ellisons-story-is-classic-

j.c.-penney.ece