Dan-Aug 2007
Dan-Sept 2011
Slightly over a year ago I began working at UM Flint. Since I made this move I crossed paths w/ Dan Ruchames. His occupation brings him to campus, and into my office a few times a year. Last time I had run into Dan was Winter Semester 2011. Dan and I have had some chats regarding Olympic Style weight lifting and he had a bit of interest in one of my passions-Kettlebells. He recently stopped by and I could instantly tell he had made some extreme lifestyle changes. Previously Dan was not in the best of health. At a doctor appt he was told he would need to start taking meds for diabetes. Dan chose to make better choices, and he has lost 50 lbs since I last saw him. How you ask? By eating healthier and doing a bit of walking. When I say DIET is bare minimum 80% of weight loss, I am NOT kidding. Dan is living proof. I am proud of him, and the care he has taken to avoid all these medicines and improve his life. Please enjoy the interview below!
EM: How about starting off telling
us a bit about yourself-where you grew up.
DAN: I'm a native New Yorker, born
in the Bronx and growing up in Queens from the age of 3. Came to Michigan 16
years ago, from Minnesota.
EM: How cool. I have never been to
New York. Seems there is always something exciting going on there.
DAN: Yes, always tons of things to
do but most of it takes place in Manhattan, and getting there from Queens can
sometimes be difficult, i.e., traffic, parking.
EM: I can only imagine. What was
your childhood like there?
DAN: Fairly conventional, I guess.
Grew up in a garden apartment complex in Whitestone called Clearview Gardens, a
90%+ Jewish community (I'm Jewish). Always
lots of kids to play with, and large driveways behind the buildings, where the
garages were located, and we played lots of stickball, touch football, and
basketball there.
EM: I bet those were fun times! What
took you out to Minnesota?
DAN: Well...I hate to burst anyone's
bubble, but in all honesty by the time I reached my 20s I was interested in
leaving NY, but it took marriage to get me to Minnesota, which is where my
ex-wife is from. I owned a used
bookstore there, but sold it after about four years and moved to Hillsdale, MI.
EM: Is that where you live now?
DAN: Yes.
EM: What brought you to Michigan?
DAN: I had this idea, after selling
the bookstore, that we'd move midway between our respective homes in NY and
Minnesota, on the idea that we'd have equal access to our families. That part
didn't really work out well in practice, as we found ourselves with a decrease
in the number of family visits overall, but other things, fortunately, did work
out well. We moved specifically to Hillsdale because of a desire to send our
children to the Hillsdale Academy, a private school run by Hillsdale College.
That worked out best of all.
EM: Interesting. Bringing us up to
speed: what were your past hobbies, and
what are your more current ones?
DAN: I've always been a
sports/music/politics guy. In sports I fancied myself an aspiring athlete and
tried my hand at competitive weightlifting, track and cross country running,
and later a bit of masters swimming. Musically I enjoy a variety of things, but
especially oldies rock from the '60s and original longhair classical music,
i.e., Beethoven and Company. Politically I'm conservative, though didn't start
out that way, having been one of those who became involved in the student
radical movement at the end of the 1960s. By the mid-'70s I moved to being a
libertarian, and a few years later evolved toward conservatism.
EM: That's a wide collection of
interests!
DAN: I guess, but I always feel a little self-conscious that I don't seem to have more conventional hobbies such as working in the garage or home repair or hunting, but then I'm a city kid, so that reduced the likelihood of an interest in hunting.
EM: More recently you have gotten back into your health. Tell us what sparked the interest again. What was your journey, and do you have a destination?
DAN: I guess, but I always feel a little self-conscious that I don't seem to have more conventional hobbies such as working in the garage or home repair or hunting, but then I'm a city kid, so that reduced the likelihood of an interest in hunting.
EM: More recently you have gotten back into your health. Tell us what sparked the interest again. What was your journey, and do you have a destination?
DAN: Yes. The demands of my
used bookstore found me neglecting my fitness interests and for the past 20
years I'd just been sedentary and becoming overweight. Just prior to opening
the bookstore I had spent the summer swimming and gotten my weight down to 179
from 210, at 5'9.5" on a small-to-medium frame. Through these years--20 by
this time--I kept gradually putting on weight. For the past 4 years or so, my
doctor warned me that I was in the pre-diabetic stage. With good genes I felt
in my gut that while this was something to pay attention to, I didn't really
feel it would happen to me. It's easy to agree with the doctor that I need to
lose weight and get in shape, but as everyone knows, doing it is another matter
entirely. Finally, in April, a new local doctor had me do a blood work-up and I
came in with a fasting glucose reading of 209! The cut-off point for diabetes
is about 125. If that wasn't shocking enough, he prescribed three medications,
all with likely side-effects. Since this was the first time I had tested above
the cut-off I thought this was possibly overkill, so I began to investigate,
talking to people and reading, and decided to attempt to control my sugar
through diet and exercise. During this beginning period I consulted with the dietitian at the hospital, who's also a certified diabetes educator, and she
endorsed what I was doing. Five months later I had lost 50 pounds and my
readings were in the normal range!
EM: Sounds like you were beginning
to make some really good choices for yourself!
That is pretty awesome!
DAN: I'm still a bit over 200 lbs.
and would like to get below 180.
EM: And you did all of that through
diet and exercise?
DAN: Yes. I've never taken any of
the medications he prescribed, including the samples, and actually never
returned to his office. I'm returning to my previous doctor in Ann Arbor, who I
left only for reasons of convenience and the fact that nothing was happening. Just
goes to show.
EM: What does a day in your diet
look like?
DAN: In many ways it probably looks
very ordinary. The nutritionist advised me that I could eat a certain amount of
carbs each day, so I do. A typical breakfast will be bacon (EM suggests turkey bacon) and eggs with a
thinly sliced piece of buttered rye toast (EM suggests a light spread or fresh avocado). This morning I had 1/4 cup of
cottage cheese and a bowl of Scottish Oats, 1/4 cup before cooking. I'll often
have an orange with either, but one thing I've eliminated is fruit juice. For
lunch, today I had a 6-oz. hamburger with peppers and onions, pan-fried in some
butter (EM suggests skipping the butter). For dessert I had peanuts. For dinner last night I had some chicken
breast on the barbie, topped with some really good barbecue sauce that I just
discovered on the manager's special table at my local Kroger's. That was
accompanied by a smallish sweet potato and a nice helping of steamed
cauliflower and string beans. Five months later I had lost 50 pounds and my
readings were in the normal range!
EM: Drinking your calories can
become an issue. What are Scottish Oats?
DAN: Scottish Oats are a more finely
cut version of Steel-Cut (or Irish) Oats. In Trader Joe's they call them Quick
Cooking Steel-Cut Oats, but the only difference is the finer cut, which enables
them to cook more quickly. The Scottish Oats take about 8 minutes to cook,
versus about 35 minutes for the standard steel-cut oats.
EM: Oh, gotcha. That is
nice--quickly available always makes a difference! It sounds like you have a pretty well rounded
diet--all things included: protein, carbs, veggies, and fruit.
DAN: Yes, I think so. Sometimes I'm
concerned that I'm eating too many carbs, but the readings are consistently
good, which is key. My weight loss has slowed down a lot, but in a way that
doesn't matter, as the important thing is to make sure the glucose readings
remain in the normal range.
EM: Carbs are a great form of energy
for the body, as long as you choose good sources, like your oats! Do you have
any near future goals other than the 180 you mentioned already?
DAN: In the last few months I've
begun walking consistently. The doctor recommended at least a half-hour per
day, at least 5 days per week, and I've been doing about 35-40 minutes. Lately
I've added freehand deep-knee bends (similar to squats) to my walks, for the purpose
of adding some intensity and hopefully eliminating the need to increase the
time. Walking isn't terribly exciting, IMHO! I do two sets of knee-bends, but
still am in mediocre shape, so only do 13 per set, separated by about 10-15
minutes. I'm adding one rep per week and look forward to reaching 50, which I
think will be an indicator of halfway-decent conditioning. And sometime in the
next few weeks I'm expecting to join one of the local gyms to work on the rest
of my body. Plus, it will be cold, and I may need to resort to a treadmill or
an exercise bike, indoors of course.
EM: Yes, the cold always pushes us
indoors. The joy of getting creative in the winter! Sounds like you have some good plans, and have
your walk routine down! Where is your favorite place to walk?
DAN: We have a walking/biking path
here in Hillsdale, which I often frequent, and then I vary the route a little
too. My biggest variation is doing it in the opposite direction.
EM: I have notice lately the
direction you walk in can change your perception even though it is a small
change.
DAN: So I guess my goal in the next
few months is to reach that two sets of 50 reps in my knee-bends accompanying
the walk, and also to get into the gym and hopefully being able to do chin-ups
once again.
EM: Ahhhh, chin ups! What fun!
DAN: I walk based on my mood, but
always knowing that I've got to get in the half-hour+ and the knee bends. Hey-when
I weighed 150 (I was 25 at the time) I was able to do lots of them! It's
definitely more difficult at 208. And it's always harder for women/girls. But
I'm getting ahead of myself. Right now I think I may be able to do one!
EM: Yes, I am lucky to get in 1
unassisted, but it's a work in progress, right?!
DAN: Yes, but it helps to remember
the basic differences between men and women.
Meanwhile, just do those lat pulldowns.
EM: What is the best bit of advice
you can give anyone that may have be in the shoes you were in when you were
faced w/ the diabetes diagnosis?
DAN: Diabetes, or anything, don't
regard your doctor as a god. Sometimes they are wrong, and if the advice they
give doesn't seem right always feel free to get other opinions. As I mentioned
earlier, I regard myself as having good genes, healthwise, so it was truly a
shocker to get the diabetes diagnosis. It really lit a fire under me and made
me super-motivated, though I have to tell you that for the first day or two
after receiving the news I was in a stupor. The doctor got me very upset with
his attitude and demeanor, and I was highly motivated to prove him wrong. The
great irony is that I've wanted to lose weight for a long, long time, but it
took this diagnosis to do it. And there's still a ways to go, though really
there is no end, as the low-carb regimen must be adhered to forever for the
sake of the meter readings.
EM: You have done an awesome job! You must be proud!
DAN: I am very gratified, though
it's still a work in progress.
EM: I really appreciate the time to talk to you
today, and being able to share your journey as an inspiration to others.
Changing your diet can make a huge change in your life and physical results.
Adding a bit of exercise to the mix will make you shine!
~~~~~~~~~~~
If you would be interested in doing an interview with me in regards to a healthful lifestyle journey you have been on please feel free to email me at emily dot manship at gmail dot com!
