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A Pilot’s Final
Approach to Lighten the Plane!
As pilots, we are always looking for ways to lighten our loads, so that we can a) take more people with us; b) take more things with us; c) have fewer fuel stops; d) fly safely.
We look at each and every little item in the cockpit, and the rest of the compartments, and we ask ourselves, “How can I remove another few pounds out of this plane to bring it under the Maximum Gross Take Off Weight shown in the Pilot’s Operating Handbook and still take full fuel?”
Photo left: The gray haired gentlemen are actually before and after pictures of Jim Pawlicki! A little Photoshop work allowed us to superimpose "fat" Jim (left) next to "slim" Jim (right).
As important as it is to reduce the final gross weight of the plane, it is equally important that we take proper care of our bodies for other reasons.
Many of us are at the age where passing our physicals every one or two years becomes more and more difficult. The extra pounds we carry not only go to make us uncomfortable and unsightly, but extra weight can bring on other problems which can prevent us from getting a clear medical. Such things as diabetes, various heart arrhythmias, kidney problems, hypertension and other various and sundry ailments can be prevented by keeping our weight at a good and proper level for our heights and ages.
Have you ever sweated out a regular FAA medical because you knew your blood pressure was probably too high, and the medical examiner might not see fit to pass you? Have you ever tried to sit very calm and cool in the examiner’s waiting room trying desperately to bring that blood pressure down to acceptable levels? I know I have.
When you’ve gotten to that level, it’s time to do as much as you can to actually bring the hypertension under control. Aside from medication, there is something else you can do - lose some weight!
Practically everybody I know has tried to lose weight at one time or another. I don’t know if all of their experiences were the same as mine, but they probably were. Losing weight is not the easiest, nor the most desirable thing to do. It requires hard work, patience, persistence and perseverance.
Most of us in the United States today need to lose many of those excess pounds. Let’s face it; we’re a fat producing society. Getting fat and staying fat are very easy things to do today. The problem is that food is in abundance today, and has been for a very long time. Eating has become a pastime for Americans instead of a means to fuel our bodies. Just take a look at most of the commercials on television today; they are usually selling something to consume at every turn!
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you have been on at least four diets in your lifetime, and have probably lost an accumulation of over a hundred pounds. Am I right? Of course I’m right, because that’s probably about the average, and I’ve been there and done that, and I’m about the most average person I know.
There is a problem with dieting. When one goes on a diet, it pre-supposes that at some time, one will go off of the diet, and you know what happens when you quit the diet…you gain it all back! When you diet, do you start it with a vengeance? Are you determined to shed those extra pounds? If you’re normal, that zeal you have will last until about the third day, and then the old habits of munching because you’re hungry, nervous, or just plain weak set in.
The message is clear: go on a diet, go off the diet, lose some weight, and gain it back…in spades!
Have you ever noticed, whenever you diet, then go off of the diet, that you gain more back? Don’t you know why? It’s because you have deprived your body of what it needs and craves…food!
After you quit the diet, and start to eat the way you normally do, your body says to itself, “Oops, I’ve been deprived of sustenance for awhile, and I don’t want to die, and if I don’t have fuel, I will.”
So what does your body do? Whatever nourishment you give it, it immediately converts it to its only storable fuel, fat. It knows that it just went through a period of famine, and it wants to prepare for the next famine. So do yourself a favor, DON’T DIET!!
Want to lose weight .
. . don't diet! It seems kind of strange to tell you not to diet. This is, after all an article that is supposed to help you lose weight. You cannot have a permanent weight loss if you go on a diet, then go off of the diet, and go back to eating the way you did before. It can’t be said any more plainly, and you know it!
So let’s forget about a diet as something we get on and off as if it were a bus. Let’s treat the word the way it was originally intended, as a way of life. If we can change our way of life, if we can change the way we eat, if we can change the foods we select, if we can realize that the way we have been living our lives and eating our foods was not necessarily the best way, then I promise you, we can and will lose weight, and better yet, we will keep it off! And as important as that is, you will have fewer problems passing your FAA medical. Wouldn’t that be great?
If you do decide to do it (not try it, but do it), I promise you, even though it may seem difficult in the beginning, before long it will seem not only easy, but also natural. And the mechanics of it are so easy, you’ll be amazed. There are no calories to count, no formula to figure out, no points to assign. It’s just a simple, life-plan for your entire future.
OK, let’s get started . . .
First, weigh yourself. Now you’ve got to decide just where you want to be. You’ve got to set a goal. Are you ten pounds more than your goal? Who are you kidding, if that’s all you’ve got to lose, just fast a little. Just kidding, you should probably change the way you eat anyway. Most of us should be that lucky to have to lose only ten pounds! Are you twenty pounds over? Are you fifty pounds over? Are you a hundred pounds over?
Start out this way of life you are going into by visiting your doctor, and getting a complete physical checkup. I mean complete. Get your blood pressure checked, heart monitored, blood work done, the whole nine yards. Tell your doctor what you are planning, and after you finish this story, tell him exactly how you are going to do it.
The method you are about to read is both simple, and the way your doctor would like you to do it.
Find out what the results from your blood work were. You’ll need this because in about six months you are going to go back to get another physical and compare your cholesterol and other blood contents, and you are going to be thrilled. First of all, your doctor won’t recognize you right away because of your reduced size. Second, he’s going to explain to you how much longer you’re going to live because of what your blood work report says. I swear to you it is going to happen.
After that first visit, go home and decide what you want to do, and where you want to end up. Set a goal for yourself. Make it time sensitive, but don’t put too much stock in the time period. If it doesn’t take as long as you allowed, perfect! If it takes longer, so what. You’re talking about the rest of your life here, if you take a little more time than you originally wanted, too bad. In the long haul it won’t make one whit of difference.
A couple of other things people have done to help them attain their goals are to hang a picture of what they looked like when they were thinner. They put it right on their bathroom mirror so when they are brushing their teeth they can get inspired to help them through the day. You can also hang up pictures of some swimsuits, or other items of clothing you would like to fit into in the end. Make sure you also have a picture of your fat self hanging there. If that isn’t inspiration, I don’t know what is! It will also be helpful later on to compare to your new body.
OK, let’s proceed.
Remember I told you earlier that you are not going to go on a diet. What you are going to do is change the way you eat and change the way you live. You are simply going to change your diet, and start eating the way you should eat, for life.
One piece of advice a doctor gave me several years ago was to leave the table while I was still hungry, before I felt full. He went on to say that it takes the body between ten to twenty minutes before the message gets to the brain that the stomach is full. So he said if I continued to eat until I felt full, I was actually to the point of already being over-full. It’s sort of like filling up your gas tank, and not being able to see when the tank was full for ten to twenty minutes. By the time you realize that the tank is full, you’re swimming in gasoline!
You have to eat less. Period. No, that’s not the whole story, but it’s a huge part of it. Whenever you sit down to a meal, start by just putting a little less on your plate as you plan to eat. Try not to fill your plate as if it’s Thanksgiving dinner every day.
Have you ever noticed when you finish a Thanksgiving meal, even up to your last bite of pumpkin pie, you have never once felt actually full? It’s because you just didn’t know that you had already filled up, and by the time you’ve settled in front of the television, and you start to get uncomfortable, it’s too late. The damage has already been done. You are so overfull that you just want to hang yourself and get it over with. So what I want you to do is just put less of everything on your plate.
The key to eating right is to eat less.
I like food, and I love many of the foods your doctor might say are not right for you, especially the foods that Atkins says you shouldn’t eat. So I could never again try to lose weight by depriving myself of foods I love.
I’m here to tell you right now I lost eighty-seven pounds, so far, and I never once stopped eating the foods I love, and you don’t have to either. I don’t care what the foods are (with some minor exceptions such as foods with refined sugar like ice cream and candy, I avoid them altogether), I eat whatever I want. I just eat less of them!
How you do it is you start by putting less food on your plate in the first place. Then, don’t eat everything on your plate. This is important. It helps physically by not taking as much in; it also helps psychologically because it keeps your desire for weight loss in TOMA (top of mind awareness). I also like to make it a point to deliberately push my plate away while it still has food on it. It makes it seem like it’s a victory I’ve accomplished over food.
Try it the next time you sit down to a meal. Put less on your plate; eat less than what’s there, and make a show of pushing your plate away. It may seem strange, and you may still feel hungry, but do it anyway. Get that moral victory you need to help you on your way to success. After about ten to twenty minutes, ask yourself; “Am I still hungry?” If you are honest with yourself, you’ll find you’re not. You have just taken the first steps to success.
Now, think about your daily meals . . .
Start the day with a bowl of healthy cereal with a little 2% milk. No extra sugar. I like the Kashi brands of cereal. They are good, they crunch (which helps to satisfy), and they fill you up quickly, and it lasts for a few hours. It sort of revives you after having been asleep all night.
If you don’t have the cereal, try a couple of poached eggs on dry toast. Just make sure you eat breakfast.
Lunch for me is always a small salad. I’ve got to mention something about salads. I never liked eating a sandwich, or a heavy meal for lunch. OK, that’s a lie; there was nothing I liked better than to have a huge delicious lunch. What I hated was the way I felt after having eaten a larger lunch. All I ever wanted to do after a lunch like that was curl up under my desk at work, and sleep it off. You know the feeling, I know you do.
A small salad not only doesn’t give you that bloated, over-fed feeling, it satisfies you. And don’t forget, you’re going to still push some of it away.
After a lunch like that, you won’t be hungry, and you’ll have much more energy to stay productive for the rest of the workday. A salad can also be very satisfying, and even a meal to look forward to. You actually get to the point where you crave the salad, and can’t wait to start eating it.
If you make it where it satisfies all of your food needs; that’s when it’s tasty, has some variation to the contents, and has a little crunch (very important), then you will definitely find yourself craving it the way you used to crave a bucket of KFC.
It doesn’t matter if you use low-cal or low-fat dressing on your salad or the regular stuff. Just don’t drown your salad in it. The salad must have taste enough to satisfy you, so don’t be afraid of the regular stuff. Besides, this is how you are going to eat for a long time, might as well make what you’re having tasty.
After having done this for a few weeks, and becoming very proficient at varying the salad just enough every day, you will find that you look forward to the salad, every bit as much as you used to look forward to a burger, or a large sandwich.
Dinner can be anything you decide to prepare. Have steak, pork, sausage, liver, chicken, turkey, fish, vegetables, rice, potatoes, and pretty much whatever you want. You can generally have a salad also. If you have something that’s particularly high in fat, or carbs, try to make sure that the next night you have something leaner, like fish, or turkey, or chicken. Don’t forget, smaller portions, and don’t finish everything.
Remember, don’t skip meals . . .
It never helps to skip a meal. You’ll just end up snacking on something you probably shouldn’t have later anyway. Also, you’ve got to keep your digestive system working. You don’t want your body to think it’s starving. That’s never good.
There are a few things you should avoid, but don’t be afraid to eat them. For example, I try to avoid bread, but I still love it, and so I eat it. I just try to eat whole grain healthier bread. But there are times when I want a good piece of unhealthy white bread and butter. Well, when those times crop up, and they do, I eat it.
That’s all there is to it. You’re not on a diet, you’ve just changed your diet, and one piece of bread and butter is not cause for alarm, and not a deal breaker as in most diets.
Crave junk food?
I’ve already said that I avoid refined sugar. I think everybody should. In my opinion, it’s just not the best thing in the world for you. But again, there are times when I would just love a piece of chocolate candy, or a little ice cream. OK, so eat it, just don’t be a pig and have a ton of the stuff.
One piece of candy to satisfy the sweet tooth, or a very small dish of ice cream (of which you are going to leave some in the bowl anyway), won’t hurt. Don’t forget, eat whatever you want, just much, much less of it than you are used to.
I love pizza, and chicken wings. Don’t forget, I’m from Buffalo, the home of the chicken wing, and some of the best pizza in the world. There was a time (eighty-seven pounds ago) that I would go to a restaurant and eat about fifteen to twenty wings, and about five or six slices of pizza, and wash it down with about a pitcher of beer.
Today, I still eat pizza, wings and wash it down with beer. I just stick to one piece of pizza, about three wings with the obligatory blue cheese, and one or two beers. It makes a difference, obviously.
And even though you’ve just eaten some things that are totally banned by most diets, you will not only not gain, but you will still lose some weight. Your regimen won’t change. Your body isn’t going to automatically say, “Oh goody, some fat to hold onto and apply directly to the old abdomen.”
It’s just not the mortal sin that you may think. Your body just processes it as it does everything else. It uses it to fuel itself, and discards what it doesn’t need. Now, if you were stuffing yourself as you used to, your body would then decide to take some of what you’ve just eaten, and store it as fat. Your body will not kick you in the backside and gain weight for enjoying a little bit of what you like.
The other thing is, don’t eat these not necessarily healthy foods every day of the week. Very important item. Once in a while is no sin, and not a deal killer.
I think this is a very important concept to understand. It is definitely not a sin to enjoy some of the things that you enjoy, just because you are losing weight. Just make sure you don’t eat those things like the glutton you used to be.
Also, if you went out on Friday night and had some of those supposed bad items, don’t for one minute think you can then go out on Saturday and do the same thing. Once is not bad. Twice, three or four times are. Wait about a couple of weeks before doing it again, and keep the portions small, and remember: don’t finish everything that you take. Make it a point to push your plate away while it still has some food on it.
Don’t be afraid to grab a piece of fruit, or a raw vegetable between meals when you feel hungry. It adds nothing substantial to the entire intake, and it has a tendency to satisfy and tide you over until the next meal.
Fruit itself satisfies not only the hunger urges, but the sweet tooth as well. Raw vegetables, with their crunch also fill you up, with no substantial caloric intake; and the crunch really feels good. In fact some vegetables require more calories to chew and digest than they provide!
Additional Tips . . .
There are other things to do to reward yourself for having been such a good person and eating less, and pushing your half-full plate away after each meal. You might have one or two sugar-free popsicles while relaxing at night before going to bed. Or you might have a small amount of popcorn, or a couple of peanuts (don’t forget the crunch, it really helps to satisfy).
I love to go to the movies. When I go, I always get a small bag of their delicious popcorn, and an extra large diet drink. It lasts for the whole movie, I don’t take in a significant amount of calories and fat, and it really fills me up. I do cheat though; I eat the whole bag of popcorn. There isn’t a table where I can make a show of pushing it away anyway.
When we go to the movies, I usually like to coincide that with having an extra small meal, because I know I’ll be eating the popcorn, and don’t want to complicate my life with too much food.
I’d like to give you all sorts of recipes, and all kinds of lists of good and bad foods, but the plain truth is you can eat whatever you want. Eat steak, eat pork, eat lobster with drawn butter, eat fish, eat pasta, and eat whatever your heart desires. JUST EAT A LOT LESS OF THESE FOODS THAN YOU USED TO! And don’t forget; LEAVE SOME OF THE FOOD ON YOUR PLATE!
An occasional drink???
On your weight loss plan you will have to drastically reduce your alcohol intake, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to quit drinking entirely, at least until you get to your goal weight. I did this until I was about seventy percent of the way along toward my goal. Then I decided that hey, if I can control my eating so efficiently, I probably could also control my drinking in the same manner.
Today, I just drink mainly on the weekends. I’ll have about three or four beers for the entire weekend. Don’t forget, if you go back to drinking, those calories you are taking in aren’t doing one little thing to nourish your body. They are dead, non-beneficial calories. Keep the quantity as low as possible.
Oh no, . . . exercise ! ! !
OK, now for the part you’ve all been dreading; the ‘E’ word. That’s right, you’ve got to EXERCISE. Unfortunately, changing your diet alone will only do so much. Your body will soon enough get to a point of equilibrium where it will maintain its weight even with the reduced intake you are providing.
There’s no avoiding it, you must start burning the calories faster than you take them in. If your fat body was a plane that had a full tank of gas, and you wanted to reduce the amount of gas in the tank, you would have to run the plane more than the amount of gas you add. It’s that simple!
Well, what to do? What should you do? How do you start? Don’t forget, that all-important doctor’s visit you said you would go to, to start your new life. It’s at that visit you have to let the doctor know, not only are you going to change your lifestyle with regard to eating, but you are also going to begin an exercise routine.
You have to ask him what you can and can’t do. It makes a difference. Your age, your body structure, and your physical make up will all contribute to how much, or how little exercise you can do.
It’s ultra, ultra important not to overdo it, especially in the beginning. First of all, if you overdo it, you’ll probably only do it for one or two days and then quit, and that won’t help you. Also, if you are in extremely bad shape, which you may very well be, it could cause harm, and even kill you. So please, ask your doctor what you can and can’t do, and for how long, and then do it his way.
There are many exercise programs people can do, but I’ve found what works the best is a walk/run routine. I say walk/run, because in the beginning, walking was all I could do. Running was absolutely out of the question. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you walk or run, you’ll burn the same amount of calories traveling the same distance.
How to walk/run; should you do it on a treadmill, or actually go outside and do it? I prefer to stay off the treadmill. I own one, but I never use it. My problem with the treadmill is that it’s just too easy to stop and get off of it any time I want. Getting tired? No problem, just step off, and I’m still home. Got better things to do? OK, just shut the thing down and go about your business.
On the other hand, if you’re actually out in the world, a mile or two or three away from your home, you’ve still got to get back home, so in order to do this, you’ve got to finish your routine.
Of course, there are many other routines that will work for you. You can go to the gym, you can swim, you can ride a bike, row a boat, hike, or whatever you want to do. But aerobic/cardio exercising, the raising and maintaining of your heart rate and respiration is a sure-fired way of losing those pounds, and firming up your flab.
After about a month and a half after you start, you’ll notice the weight start coming off faster, and you’ll start to notice some extra skin hanging around places that used to be just round globs of fat. You’re going to have to do some floor exercises, crunches, push-ups, lift weights.
You’re going to have to tighten up a little. But you’re going to notice that it’s a little easier to do these routines; not only because you’ll be getting stronger, and they then become a little easier, but also, you will become more and more excited about them because of the successes you will achieve.
Things will start looking better. You’ll start looking better. You’ll be increasing your routine until you get to a comfortable point. That is, a point where you’re reducing, tightening, and generally feeling pretty good about yourself.
The time of day you do it is entirely up to you. I just prefer to get it out of the way, so I do it early in the morning. I had always tried to exercise after work, but that never worked out. I prefer to unwind and relax after work, not exercise.
My preference is to get up at 4:30 or 5:00AM, do my floor exercises and stretch, then run. This routine has several benefits: 1) It’s cooler at this hour; 2) There are fewer cars on the road to contend with; 3) Once it’s done, it’s done for the day. It’s out of the way.
You may decide to exercise at night, in the afternoon, in the gym, or what or when ever; it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you just do it on a regular (hopefully daily) basis.
So how are we doing?
I started this change of lifestyle sixteen months ago. At the time I weighed 262 pounds. My average “good” blood pressure was 154/95, on three pills a day to keep it that low! I couldn’t walk or talk without wheezing. I was fifty-five years old, and I know I would never have made sixty-two.
I was on a collision course with the grim reaper, and he was going to be the one left standing. Today, I weigh 175 pounds. I have lost the equivalent of five and a half bowling balls, or better yet, fourteen and a half gallons of avgas! My blood pressure is now the ideal 120/80, without any type of medication. I can run, let alone walk without the slightest wheeze, and my inevitable appointment with the reaper has been postponed, indefinitely.
I have gone from wearing a forty-four inch waist to a thirty-four. I wore shirts with nineteen-inch necks, now I’m into fifteen and a half’s. But the real fun part is, my wife, and my two best friends in the world and I can all fly together, in the same plane! It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a world of difference.
I participate in local 5K and 8K runs for charitable causes, and I love it! Being out there with younger (and older) athletes and actually being part of the event is so gratifying, knowing that a short time ago I would never have even thought of participating. I had probably consigned myself to early death. No more!
One of the greatest things that come out of a weight loss such as what you’ll be going through is having people ask what and how you’ve done it. Some will be afraid to ask. They’ll think you’ve got some incurable disease that you can’t talk about. It’s true. It’s actually happened several times to me.
When people ask how you’ve done it, you’ll never tire of telling your story to them. You’ll be proud of this accomplishment, very proud. I’ve fought with my weight all of my life, and I’ve finally won the war, after winning and losing many battles. But I also never tire of explaining because it gives me a chance to try to inspire someone else to follow my example.
I know my story has influenced several people to follow my lead, and do what I did to make them healthier and happier. They all say that at first it seemed impossible, but after a while, it became easier, and eventually turned into a way of life. Those people are going to live healthier, happier, and longer lives because they listened to what I had to say, and saw me prove it with my own success.
I want you, too, to take my story to heart. I want you to change your lifestyle, forever. It’s not that hard, and you will be a better person for it. You will learn to like yourself again. You will learn that feeling good is not just a saying, it really and truly happens, and can happen to you.
And one of the best things you will find is that you are no longer the heaviest thing in the plane! You’ll be able to take more people and things with you, and especially, gas! You will never again fear the FAA medical examiner. In fact, you will probably look forward to the visit! I promise you, it will happen.
Give it a go. Do it for all the right reasons, for yourself, your family, your health, and your airplane!
If you would like to learn more about Jim's remarkable weight loss experience, he invites OTA readers to contact him at jpprinter@minutemanpress.com
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After looking in all of the usual places in the
plane, there’s only one other place to look; ourselves. Many, of us
are overweight enough that if we were able to take off an arm, or a
thigh, we could get under that elusive maximum weight.