Belt-tightening of a personal kind

By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer

Mayor Jeremy Harris hoists bags of rice, representing the 40-plus pounds he has lost. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Harris has lost 42 pounds in the past three months. His weight in March was 232; today it is 189, just one pound short of his goal, 188. His waist has been reduced from 42 inches to 34.

Although he certainly never looked fat, Harris said "A 6-foot-3 frame can hide a lot of excess fat underneath a Reyn's aloha shirt."

What was his motivation? "I was always thin until I turned 50 and my metabolism shifted," he said. (That was three years ago — he is now 53.) "After that, I just looked at food and put on weight."

In addition, his cholesterol spiked up to 276 and his blood pressure was high, at 155 over 95. Even with medication, he could only get his cholesterol down to 210, and his physician said that was still too high.

Harris chose the Atkins low-carbohydrate diet as his weight loss method, modifying it by staying on the more rigid regimen of the induction phase for the entire three months. "As a scientist, I had scoffed at the Atkins diet. It made no sense to me," Harris said. However he had tried eating a vegetarian diet for a year, and his cholesterol remained at 256. "With my lifestyle, it was hard to be that regimented, because I hardly ever ate at home. In fact, one year I only ate at home for seven meals all year."

His physician also was somewhat skeptical, but gave Harris the go-ahead to try the Atkins method.

He avoids all carbs — rice, bread, pasta, potatoes, even tomatoes and carrots. He allows himself only one quarter cup of berries, although fruits are what he misses the most.

Harris likes the Atkins diet because it doesn't limit how much you eat. "You can eat as much as you want so you don't feel hungry," he said. On a typical day he eats a three-egg omelette with cheese, sausage and bacon for breakfast, fish and salad for lunch, and steak with fried onions for dinner.

"It's ironic that I used to snack on pretzels because they are low in calories. However, they are also high in carbs. Now I snack on a quarter-pound of turkey bacon and I wake up a pound lighter," Harris said with a grin.

Harris has not increased his exercise. He gets in a fair amount of walking in his daily job and says, "I no longer feel winded. Now I bound up the stairs. I feel 20 years younger."

What's next after he loses that one more pound and reaches his college weight of 188? "I haven't figured out how to transition out of it yet." Although he would love a piece of apple pie and a glass of milk, he's lost his cravings for carbs.

Reach Paula Rath at prath@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5464.