![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threadwalkerIt's good. I feel like I have a better understanding of what my body is doing and knowledge is power.
The numbers:
1. I am eating 400 more calories a day than I was before. How awesome is that?
2. I have lost somewhere between 3.5 and 5 lbs in 2 weeks. It seems to totally depend on the time of day I weigh myself and whether I've eaten all my foods... more on that below.
3. I'm eating 90% of my calories before 5pm. Before I was eating after work outs and shortly before bed in order to reach my calorie goal, but I ended up feeling bloated in the morning.. Yuck. But to get 90% in before working out, it means my biggest meals need to be done by 5pm. So Lunch is now my "heartiest" meal and after my work out I have a piece of fruit and a yogurt to round out my day and hit my goals.
4. Now that I'm logging protein, carbs, etc, I'm a lot more conscious about the choices I'm making, I'm more engaged with healthful eating, and I'm really working hard at balancing my nutrition. That said, I haven't given up on food with flavor or fat. In fact, I feel less guilty now because as long as I track it, I'm good. Last night I had four home-made tacos for dinner, then I ran for an hour in the gym, and the (unreliable) home scale had me down 0.5lb this morning since Tuesday. So it's not all plain salad and veggie snacks.
The feel:
I unboxed my "fat" pants a few months ago. I will need to put them back soon because when I suck it in, they almost fall down. Today I'm wearing one of my size 8 suits from Macy's and THEY seem to size their clothing unforgivingly correctly. This suit was uncomfortably snug a few weeks ago and now it's comfortably loose.
The brain and thoughts and non-quantifiable stuff:
I had a melt down on Tuesday. The scale at home (the liar) had been showing some steady decrease and then suddenly it was "up" to almost where I'd started 2 weeks ago.
Insert frowny face. Then shake fist at scale. Then jab roll of flubber around waist/hips. Then flop down on bed and pour angst out to husband, who is trapped audience by nature of recent foot surgery.
He reminded me of a few things:
1. I am now an "old hand" at weight loss. Stuff happens. It's the long haul that counts. Today I'm up, but it might be water retention or hormones, etc.
2. Am I going to give up? Is all this work worth it or should I just join the "cheese cake of the month" club and start buying bigger clothing in anticipation of ballooning up?
3. I'm older. My body is going to fight me.
4. He loves me no matter what I look like, but knows that this is important to me and wants me to be happy; whatever I need to do, he will support.
It was exactly the pep talk I needed. I reviewed my food journal and found a few things.
a. Sushi for dinner on Monday - I always bloat after sushi. I'd forgotten that.
b. This is where I looked at how much I was eating and I didn't eat enough a few days at the end of last week, so the sudden dip after that was probably due to not eating enough and the scale creeping up a few days later in conjunction with Sushi is probably an indication of taking in the right calories plus water retention from sushi. Why don't I just cut back to 1200 cal/day and see how much more I can lose? I asked myself that. I'm not getting paid to do this, I am choosing to do this. There's no gold star for sand-bagging the scale or trinket for getting to my goal weight (in WW group meetings, they have fun trinkets). I'm supposed to be avoiding starvation because it slows my metabolism and then I'm back where I started. So I am recommitted to being dilligent about eating all my calories. The scale crept back up afew pounds, but I think it's temporary. I think I will be down a few more pounds in a week or so.
c. The time of day I was weighing myself was the same, but my eating schedule has changed. I was weighing myself after I'd eaten ALL my 1600 calories, which is also before I'd worked out. Before I was eating maybe half my calories, then weighing myself and then working out. This is a change I made last week, so I've changed the rules on the weigh-in, but I'm still looking at the data as though I hadn't made the change.
d. Who knows. Maybe my hormones were freaking or maybe the electronic scale at home was being moody. That night I went to the gym and the mechanical scale had me a pound or so lower. Then after my "Booty Workout from Hell", the gym scale put me even lower (even though I drank an entire sport bottle of gatorade which would more than compensate for any sweat).
So there it is. I'm encouraged. I rewarded myself for journaling food everyday by getting some music from iTunes.
The numbers:
1. I am eating 400 more calories a day than I was before. How awesome is that?
2. I have lost somewhere between 3.5 and 5 lbs in 2 weeks. It seems to totally depend on the time of day I weigh myself and whether I've eaten all my foods... more on that below.
3. I'm eating 90% of my calories before 5pm. Before I was eating after work outs and shortly before bed in order to reach my calorie goal, but I ended up feeling bloated in the morning.. Yuck. But to get 90% in before working out, it means my biggest meals need to be done by 5pm. So Lunch is now my "heartiest" meal and after my work out I have a piece of fruit and a yogurt to round out my day and hit my goals.
4. Now that I'm logging protein, carbs, etc, I'm a lot more conscious about the choices I'm making, I'm more engaged with healthful eating, and I'm really working hard at balancing my nutrition. That said, I haven't given up on food with flavor or fat. In fact, I feel less guilty now because as long as I track it, I'm good. Last night I had four home-made tacos for dinner, then I ran for an hour in the gym, and the (unreliable) home scale had me down 0.5lb this morning since Tuesday. So it's not all plain salad and veggie snacks.
The feel:
I unboxed my "fat" pants a few months ago. I will need to put them back soon because when I suck it in, they almost fall down. Today I'm wearing one of my size 8 suits from Macy's and THEY seem to size their clothing unforgivingly correctly. This suit was uncomfortably snug a few weeks ago and now it's comfortably loose.
The brain and thoughts and non-quantifiable stuff:
I had a melt down on Tuesday. The scale at home (the liar) had been showing some steady decrease and then suddenly it was "up" to almost where I'd started 2 weeks ago.
Insert frowny face. Then shake fist at scale. Then jab roll of flubber around waist/hips. Then flop down on bed and pour angst out to husband, who is trapped audience by nature of recent foot surgery.
He reminded me of a few things:
1. I am now an "old hand" at weight loss. Stuff happens. It's the long haul that counts. Today I'm up, but it might be water retention or hormones, etc.
2. Am I going to give up? Is all this work worth it or should I just join the "cheese cake of the month" club and start buying bigger clothing in anticipation of ballooning up?
3. I'm older. My body is going to fight me.
4. He loves me no matter what I look like, but knows that this is important to me and wants me to be happy; whatever I need to do, he will support.
It was exactly the pep talk I needed. I reviewed my food journal and found a few things.
a. Sushi for dinner on Monday - I always bloat after sushi. I'd forgotten that.
b. This is where I looked at how much I was eating and I didn't eat enough a few days at the end of last week, so the sudden dip after that was probably due to not eating enough and the scale creeping up a few days later in conjunction with Sushi is probably an indication of taking in the right calories plus water retention from sushi. Why don't I just cut back to 1200 cal/day and see how much more I can lose? I asked myself that. I'm not getting paid to do this, I am choosing to do this. There's no gold star for sand-bagging the scale or trinket for getting to my goal weight (in WW group meetings, they have fun trinkets). I'm supposed to be avoiding starvation because it slows my metabolism and then I'm back where I started. So I am recommitted to being dilligent about eating all my calories. The scale crept back up afew pounds, but I think it's temporary. I think I will be down a few more pounds in a week or so.
c. The time of day I was weighing myself was the same, but my eating schedule has changed. I was weighing myself after I'd eaten ALL my 1600 calories, which is also before I'd worked out. Before I was eating maybe half my calories, then weighing myself and then working out. This is a change I made last week, so I've changed the rules on the weigh-in, but I'm still looking at the data as though I hadn't made the change.
d. Who knows. Maybe my hormones were freaking or maybe the electronic scale at home was being moody. That night I went to the gym and the mechanical scale had me a pound or so lower. Then after my "Booty Workout from Hell", the gym scale put me even lower (even though I drank an entire sport bottle of gatorade which would more than compensate for any sweat).
So there it is. I'm encouraged. I rewarded myself for journaling food everyday by getting some music from iTunes.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 06:16 pm (UTC)I haven't lost any weight yet, but I am still getting used to eating less and recognize that I have gone well over the recommended calories on a couple of days. One measurement has changed - my waist is 1/2 inch smaller.
I weigh myself in the morning before eating anything, so that eliminates one possible variable. Now looking at this makes me realize that I usually drink some water when I first get up, but not always. Hmm.
I have a pretty good scale at home so I trust it. But still, hormones can affect weight. Or extra salt or sushi or ...
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 06:21 pm (UTC)