AKA Moose 1964-2011

On June 13th 2011, Paul Anthony Michael Fernandez, AKA Moose, age 46, passed away peacefully at home with his wife at his bedside. Paul was born in Saratoga, California to Constantino P. Fernandez and Ann Dwyer Fernandez who have both predeceased him.
He is survived by his wife Pamela Pimental of Sacramento, his sister Ann Fernandez Swan & brother-in-law Phil Swan of Sacramento, his brother Daniel Fernandez & brother-in-law Angel Fernandez of Seattle, WA, his uncle John Dwyer, aunt Corrine Lee, and their two children—his cousins—Katie & Michael Dwyer of San Francisco, his beloved god-daughters, Brandy DiNatale and Ashley Ramos of Fremont, his mother-in-law, Phyllis Eymann of Sacramento, his Staten Island cousins Jinnie Ericksen and Janet Brown, his Cerritos cousins, Patricia & Don Erlandson, and his step-mother Mary Fernandez of Campbell.
He graduated Saratoga High School in 1982 having been a member of the 1980 Central Coast Football Champions where he proudly wore jersey #65. He was a student at De Anza College and became a CAD draftsman after attending DeVry Technical Institute. He went on to work with a Los Gatos architect, and then to work in transportation engineering for Wilbur Smith & Associates, San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, and then as the information systems manager for Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch Architects of San Francisco. Most knew him as a computer geek, a sci-fi and space junkie, who loved all things electronic.
Paul and Pam eloped to Lake Tahoe after twelve years of courtship and remained a loving couple and best friends for twenty-nine years. They were members of Good Shepherd Church of Fremont where Paul served on the budget committee, volunteered as tech support, photographer, and occasional barbecue chef. After their move to Sacramento, they became members of the Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Citrus Heights.
Paul's deep love of history led him to learn fencing and the use of a musket. Paul and his good friend Spyros Stamos (now deceased) served as volunteers in the National Civil War Association. They attended events all over Northern California, often serving as docents at Civil War historical sites and appeared as extras in eight Civil War documentaries including Gettysburg, Civil War Battlefields-Manassas and Antietam, which were filmed on location.
Paul will be remembered by all as a low-key gentleman, deeply philosophical, with an intense love of friends and family. Fiercely loyal, he cheered the San Francisco Giants but loved the San Jose Sharks, attending many games with his father, Connie. His passion included quarterly Uno games with his life-long buddies—Michael Brinkmann, Trent Balalis, Craig Citko, and Spyros Stamos.
He considered the most important moment of his life to be able to walk—six months after his below-the-knee amputation—his god-daughter Brandy DeLara down the aisle at her 2009 wedding to Vlad DiNatale.
Memorial service will be held 1:00 P.M. on Saturday June 25th at Good Shepherd South Asian Ministry, 4211 Carol Ave. Fremont, CA. 94538.

There will also be a wake with an informal service at the Sacramento home of Paul and Pam—Casa de Fernandez on Sunday June 26th at 3:00PM to 5:00PM.
Additional information is available by contacting pamferd@gmail.com.

Sad

My mother approached my great-grandmother, decades ago, on the occasion of the death of GG Mapes’ youngest daughter. Mom asked how she dealt with the loss, having buried two husbands and all but one of her seven children. My great-grandmother turned and gave her the oddest look, paused for a long time, then gave some answer appropriate for a minister’s wife—a response meant to sooth Mom’s soul.

I never believed she spoke what was on her heart.

This morning, I recognized her odd look in the mirror.

Thursday, a dear friend died. He was forty-six years old. Recently, you may have lost someone that was also young. Perhaps you just started your grieving of a sudden death, or you like Spyros’ friends and family have held the grief inside since his November cancer diagnosis. Although the quick end came as a blessing for one suffering with immense pain, it did wrench the hearts of those who loved him.

For me, it seemed to be the last gasp of sadness that I could draw in. My mirror reflected that.

Friday at the memorial service, friends will hold hands, hug, cry, celebrate a short life remembered, and part.

I can only accept the truth that this not the final stage of our lives. I will hold Spyros again. For now, I cannot feel sad anymore. Not about Spyros, others we have lost, or my darling’s ongoing suffering—battling diabetes. The joy must be in touch of my husband’s breath on my cheek. The puppy growling in his sleep. The surprise delivery of flowers from a friend.

The blessings in my life are small and powerful—all I need to end the sadness of everyday living. Maybe that was exactly what my great-grandmother said.

God Bless Your Family

Diabetes

My God-daughter called me today with a bit of a scare. She had been tested for diabetes at the tender age of twenty-seven about the same age that Paul was when he found out he had diabetes. The tests for her were negative. Yea! However the reality of diabetes looms on the horizon not just for Brandy but for many more in the United States.

Your diet can trigger health issues like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer or it can be utilized to promote health, strong bones, and a beautiful complexion. The choice is a matter of what you put into your mouth. You could eat nine hundred calories a day and lose weight. It really doesn’t matter what calories you consume. Four and a half candy bars are about nine hundred calories. So are four salads, one banana, one slice of sprouted bread with peanut butter, cup of herb tea, ten glasses of water, an apple, six ounces of lemon sole fish, three pieces of California roll with soy sauce. Now which option—the candy or the food—would be the better health choice for dieting? Yet advertisement after advertisement shows skinny people eating “diet” candy bars or getting energy from a peanut caramel bar. No wonder we are confused.

Whole, fresh, and mostly raw foods offer the solution to hereditary—and I use that term as loosely as the AMA does—illnesses like hypertension and diabetes. Americans must give up fast, processed, and comfort foods to live healthy. Don’t take my word for it. Research magazines like “Diabetes Management” or books like “The Cure.” Please look at the statistics below. The source is American Diabetes Association http://www.diabetes.org/.

Data from the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet (released Jan. 26, 2011)
Total prevalence of diabetes
Total: 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—have diabetes.
Diagnosed: 18.8 million people
Undiagnosed: 7.0 million people
Prediabetes: 79 million people*
New Cases: 1.9 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed in people aged 20 years and older in 2010.
* In contrast to the 2007 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, which used fasting glucose data to estimate undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes, the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet uses both fasting glucose and A1C levels to derive estimates for undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes. These tests were chosen because they are most frequently used in clinical practice.

Under 20 years of age
• 215,000, or 0.26% of all people in this age group have diabetes
• About 1 in every 400 children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes
Age 20 years or older
• 25.6 million, or 11.3% of all people in this age group have diabetes
Morbidity and Mortality
• In 2007, diabetes was listed as the underlying cause on 71,382 death certificates and was listed as a contributing factor on an additional 160,022 death certificates. This means that diabetes contributed to a total of 231,404 deaths.

Brandy is changing her life by changing her diet. I hope you will do the same.

Surviving Backsliding

My Moose landed himself in the hospital on Friday. Sunday, he will have a partial amputation of his left and only remaining foot. You can imagine the stress and anxiety on both our parts.

With my husband in the hospital, it is easy to fall into my old negative eating patterns—bad fattening foods eaten at odd hours, caffeinated coffee with cream sipped throughout the day, and snacks, snacks, snacks. Not this time. I’ve worked to hard to get to my current weight and activity level.

I have fallen off the raw food wagon a little. Last night I found my husband’s stash of Christmas candy. I ate one I liked and threw the rest away. Don't feel sorry for the Moose. He's a diabetic and should not have candy stash in the first place. On the way home from the hospital, I wanted to stop at Starbucks for a vanilla latte instead had an instant decaf International coffee in my own kitchen.

Although my choices were not raw-diet legal, they were still better than my old pattern. The idea is to get through the tough times with as little weight gain as possible. We all understand that stress alone can add pounds. Exercise, water, and sleep are the only legitimate tools to fight the bulge during anxious periods. Plus I have the Rounder trampoline to bounce on whenever I feel stress which seems to be continuous.

Oh and pack a lunch sack. Hospital cafeterias are not the place to find nutrition.

Amazed

June 29th I held a weight of 260 pounds, obese, and wearing a size 20W. Today, September 6, I am 226 pounds – one pound short of my transplant weight goal – feeling healthy and wearing size 16 pants. Thirty-four pounds in ten weeks. 3.4 pounds per week average. Has anyone else ever experienced a diet like this?

No Plateau – Five Pounds Lighter

Yes indeedie. I lost five pounds this week. This is the forty-first day of the diet including the first week I just added water to my daily routine. With a total loss of twenty-seven pounds, I am averaging – are you ready – 0.65 or three-fifths of a pound per day. That is better than my average weekly loss with Tops, Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, South Beach, or any other program I have done and I have done many.

This past week I included a lemon-water fast followed by a two-day watermelon cleanse. According to “The Cure,” by Dr. Tim Brantley, you must break your fast with one week for each day fasting. I fasted three days so I cannot fast for three weeks. I remember a woman I worked with at Spartan Shops, San Jose State University – Marilyn Railsback. Every Wednesday, Marilyn sat at lunch sipping on tepid lemon-water, talking with the group, ignoring the mounds of food and desserts we stuffed into our mouths. We all thought she was a little off. Now I know she had much more respect for her body than I ever had. A weekly fast now seems the logical move for my system.

Annette passed along four more books relating to this diet. I finished “The Hippocrates Diet” by Ann Wigmore. Similar to “The Cure,” she discusses the elimination of certain diseases from the body through proper diet. In fact, last three books, including Dr. Tim’s, talked so much about how cancer, heart disease, and diabetes all stem from processed food, I felt guilty for feeding poor Poindexter canned dog food. Many of my friends pets died of cancer, making me ask if that could have been avoided by feeding carnivores raw meat like nature intended.

If we could turn back time, I would join Marilyn in her weekly fast and change my diet and my then-boyfriend’s too. We could have stopped the onset of Paul's diabetes or at the very least lessened its devastation. If we could…

Fasted and Feeling Righteous

I’m down to the last few hours of my three day fast: one day lemon-water only and two days watermelon with water chasers – three days longer than I ever fasted. I can’t say the experience pleased me but it kept me out of mischief. That is something.

Yesterday at church, my friend and I engaged in a conversation about fasting, when another joined in the conversation. I said that I managed to get through the experience by remembering that Jesus fasted forty days and I only needed to survive three.

The third person said, “…but Jesus had someone holding his hand.”

I said, “I would like to think the same hand was holding mine.”

“No,” she said, “God was really holding Jesus’ hand.”

“I understand…”

It seems my Christian friend could not believe that the same God that held Jesus hand could hold mine. I believe that Paul and I could not have lived through everything we have without God holding our hands. We are about to face surgery together – husband and wife sharing danger with the hope of a better quality of life. We cannot do that without a little faith.

I did it!

One whole day of fasting! I did it. Around 4:00 yesterday, I wasn't sure that I would make it. Drinking lemon water becomes a task rather than a treat after ten hours. I switched to plain water and made it through the day. This morning little hunger and a lot of thrist hit me. I waited an hour before cutting into that beautiful cold watermelon. First juicy bite tasted bitter. I'm not sure if it was bitter or my taste buds are in shock. In a couple hours I will know when I feast again on the melon. Two days of watermelon fasting awaits...

Lost 20 pounds in 27 days

     Four pounds down this week. I have been on many diets, my friend, and this is just unbelievable. My energy is up, emotions fairly stable, and old body is shrinking. Yesterday, I took a long walk with my friend Lois and Poindexter, my dog. We pulled the garage sale signs that I posted on Friday plus old signs leftover by those who apparently cannot clean-up after themselves. Poindexter encountered a large wild turkey and a couple cats. I received an excellent aerobic workout keeping a forty pound puppy from flying after the critters. When we finished the sign eradication, I felt up to a second trip around the area. Poor Dex dragged his chunky paws for the last couple of blocks. It was nice to wear out a ten-month old pup.
    Today, I am going to count calories for those asking what my caloric intake is because I haven’t a clue. I am sticking with the modified diet outlined in Dr. Brantley’s “The Cure.” I eat salads, soft boiled eggs, fruit, occasional raw fish or seared meat, and a teaspoon of peanut butter for protein cravings. Nothing beats cold watermelon for hunger-pang emergencies. Steamed dark green veggies and sliced banana every other day is needed to keep up potassium and iron levels. Plus I am still drinking eight-ounces of tepid water every half hour.
    The juicing required for the complete detoxification diet or “level A” is not something I have enjoyed so far. To cleanse requires lots of juice. I do like the combination of carrot and orange juice but have not found any combination of green juices that I like so far. I love V-8 but that is on the no-no list of processed foods.  
Does anyone have juicing ideas for me to try?

I Cheated & I Have Headache…

I cheated on my diet last night. My family celebrated Paul’s forty-sixth birthday at the local Japanese restaurant. I thought my food choices fit the plan with edamame, salad, and a tuna roll. The breakdown:

Good: Vegetables in the salad, raw tuna, avocado, fish roe, seaweed in the roll.
Bad: Processed salad dressing, soy sauce, wasabi, pickled ginger, the rice in the roll, sauce on the roll, cooked edamame, and ice water with dinner. The ice water caused my internal working to play the “1912 Overture” throughout dinner. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Mom hadn’t hummed along.

More than likely the meal contained some MSG in the mix.
This morning, I awoke with my head pounding and my sinus swollen – first time since I started this diet. As this is all a learning process, I know I could have done better ordering.

Organic on a Budget

  When you start this program, you are eliminating any processed foods – fast food, canned goods, sauces, dressings, mixes, and all. Next is buying good raw foods for your daily consumption. I tried with carefree abandon to jump into Dr. Brantley’s diet. However, the costs of goods got in my way. Dr. Tim wants organics. I’m pro organics but there is a price tag to be paid with quality fruits, vegs, and for that matter eggs.
  Whole Foods is the iconic grocery store for organics here on the West coast. So off I went to pick up items from the book: organic fruits and vegetables, unrefined sea salt, sprouted bread, whole milk (unpasteurized) products, and flax seeds for sprouting. The price came to more than my weekly budget plus I still had a husband to feed. I compared pricing with Trader Joes that had most items except young coconuts and unpasteurized yogurt. Safeway had only the organic fruits, vegetables, and eggs. Wal-Mart, or Wally World as we call it in our home, did not carry any of the items.
  My brain did the usual running away with itself. I realized that the better-for-you foods were available at the high end markets while the diabetes-cancer-heart-attack foods were readily available in mass quantities at budget-accommodating markets. But before I started soap-boxing about the poor and downtrodden, I decided to find a way to do this diet on a budget like most Americans would.
  First look to your own yard, patio, deck or window box. What can you grow organically? I am lucky to have a home in Sacramento – fertile farm land – with about a quarter of an acre. I have lemons, oranges, apricots, and apples. All organic. I’m hoping to add a small vegetable garden next spring.
  Second what do you need that is organic? The Environmental Working Group has posted on their website that lists the fruits and vegs that carry the most pesticides – “Dirty Dozen” and that carry the least pesticides – “Clean 15.” . I now buy the clean produce on sale at any market and an organic version of the dirty produce when I can. Also try haunting farmer’s markets in the area. Many are organic. This week, Trader Joes has regular and organic blueberries on sale for the same price. Maybe times are changing.
  I am still shopping at Whole Foods for the yogurt and the great deals they have on organic bulk. To stay in budget, I must be selective. Shopping at multiple stores is a pain but it is worth it to get the food I need to stay healthy and lose weight.

Diet Week Two Done – 2 ½ lbs loss

Two and one-half pounds gone! I started this blog at 260 pounds. That is seventy pounds over my healthy weight goal. To be a kidney donor for my husband, I need to weigh-in at 225 or less. Today my weight is 244, a loss of sixteen pounds, since June 29th and currently, within nineteen pounds of my donor goal. I am absolutely amazed.
First, I feel wonderful. No aches or pains. No stress headaches. Second, I can see the inches dropping. My stomach and midsection are shrinking. My clothes are fitting and I have oodles of energy. On the flip side, I am still hungry but now just every two hours.
This week Oprah, Martha Stewart, and the Sacramento Bee, all ran features on raw diets and cleansing. I must be very main stream. As you may have notice from my description of my food intake the other day, I have not attained total raw in my diet. Nor have I given up coffee. Even though, I drink half-caff coffee is the last thing I can give up.
Also I have not done a cleansing of my system yet. Cleansing is a way through eating and drinking specific raw fruits and vegetables to detoxify your body. Mostly it involves green sludge looking drinks for breakfast. The book, “The Cure” and the Mayo Clinic both say to start with the cleansing. I have tried a couple of the green sludgies so far and well… let’s say I am not eager to cleanse. I am saving this excitement for when I hit my weight plateau.
In the meantime, I am slowly replacing animal protein with vegetable protein, increasing my physical activity, and eating six small portions of food all day long. I have completed two of my eighteen week plan to lose weight. I am doing great. Please let me know how you are doing in the comments.
Other books recommended by my friend, Vicki: Dr. Neal Barnard's book on Reversing Diabetes and “Eat to Live” by Dr. Joel Furhman.