Current Weight: 194
Things may not be moving quite as fast as they did right at the beginning. But the fact is we're a month and a half into this thing and I'm down 18 pounds. That's an average of 12 pounds a month, which translates to 48 pounds in four months... which translates, pretty much, to the L-IV goal.
Now, this might be a little rigged at this point. In the last couple weeks I've stepped back on the diet - though to be fair what I've stepped back on is the paleo restrictions and not so much the goal of eating not more than 100 grams of carbs a day and certainly well under 2000 calories. In fact, in the last week my average daily intake looks like this:
1586 calories
88 grams fat
110 grams carbs
90 grams protein
Even that's not entirely fair since I opted not to hold myself back on the carbs on Christmas. Take out the 242 from that day, and the other six days averaged a mere 88 grams of carbs.
Anyway, as I said, the 12 pounds a month figure might not quite work at this point, since of the 18 pounds I've lost, I lost ten in the first two weeks, meaning I lost just eight in the last month. At eight a month, the 32 pounds I have to go would take another four months from now, which means it would take 5.5 months total. But frankly, that's still pretty good, and if that's the cost of not being miserable on a super-restrictive diet for four months, I'll take it.
We do still have to see what happens in January with all the traveling, which is now less than a week away from starting. Not only will I be eating worse and/or more, but I also probably won't be exercising much aside from just walking. It is only two weeks, of course. I suppose the worst case scenario is I put a couple pounds back on and simply have to turn the jets back on once travel concludes. Really, I should just do what I can to watch portions - order small things when possible. I certainly feel like I've gotten to a point where I don't have any need (to the extent that I ever did) for huge amounts of food - I mean, I'm operating on 1600 calories a day and I feel fine. So as long as the blowout mega-calorie days are kept to a minimum, hopefully this will be okay.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Redoubling
So, in the time since I last posted, I crept under 200 pounds - to 199 - at my weigh-in last Monday. I also got sick of the paleo diet and went off it for a while; my trainer suggested that it might have a positive effect to go off for maybe a week and then go back on, to keep the body on its toes.
I don't know if that's true or not, but after this past week, I feel motivated to redouble my efforts. I've spent the last few days traveling - and, as a result, not exercising and eating a lot more calories (and in particular carbs) than I had gotten used to. And my body is not happy with me. The problems that had pretty much vanished by a week into the low-carb diet - no heartburn, minimal GI issues - have been creeping back in the last day or two. Between Thursday and Friday I ate nearly 6,000 calories and nearly 650 grams of carbs - that's more like four days of calories and a full week of carbs based on how I had been eating. And as sick as I was getting of the paleo diet as I reached the end of the first month, eating like that for even a couple days has really bothered me both mentally and physically. Combine that with the lack of exercise due to travel and I might skip a week on the scale - hopefully I can rebound this week and then have a good weigh-in on the 27th.
It's funny when I think about it, though. I lost 13 pounds in a month, and it took me just a couple days of eating the way I always would have in years past to make me feel like I hadn't accomplished anything at all. I have no idea how I'm going to handle this in January when we're traveling for almost two weeks solid - lots of almonds and the least adorned meats I can find, I guess. Trying to eat smaller portions doesn't really help on the road because then I'm just wasting food, rather than being able to at least turn a large meal into more than one by bringing home leftovers. At any rate, the good news is that if I fell out of the wagon this week, the last couple days have made me want to chase it down and grab the reins. Looking forward to getting back to the gym on Monday.
I don't know if that's true or not, but after this past week, I feel motivated to redouble my efforts. I've spent the last few days traveling - and, as a result, not exercising and eating a lot more calories (and in particular carbs) than I had gotten used to. And my body is not happy with me. The problems that had pretty much vanished by a week into the low-carb diet - no heartburn, minimal GI issues - have been creeping back in the last day or two. Between Thursday and Friday I ate nearly 6,000 calories and nearly 650 grams of carbs - that's more like four days of calories and a full week of carbs based on how I had been eating. And as sick as I was getting of the paleo diet as I reached the end of the first month, eating like that for even a couple days has really bothered me both mentally and physically. Combine that with the lack of exercise due to travel and I might skip a week on the scale - hopefully I can rebound this week and then have a good weigh-in on the 27th.
It's funny when I think about it, though. I lost 13 pounds in a month, and it took me just a couple days of eating the way I always would have in years past to make me feel like I hadn't accomplished anything at all. I have no idea how I'm going to handle this in January when we're traveling for almost two weeks solid - lots of almonds and the least adorned meats I can find, I guess. Trying to eat smaller portions doesn't really help on the road because then I'm just wasting food, rather than being able to at least turn a large meal into more than one by bringing home leftovers. At any rate, the good news is that if I fell out of the wagon this week, the last couple days have made me want to chase it down and grab the reins. Looking forward to getting back to the gym on Monday.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Rolling along
My calories/fat/protein/carbs this week so far:
Monday: 1,448/82/110/73
Tuesday: 1,764/116/103/85
Wednesday: 1,565/83/147/60
Thursday: 1,494/83/133/59
Barely out of ketosis there today. I must confess to a serving of pumpkin pie yesterday and today - look, no one else likes it and I love pumpkin pie - but while that violates paleo rules it really hasn't violated the intended limits; notice that my carb totals were at historic lows even with the 35ish grams that a serving of pumpkin pie adds. I could probably stand to boost my calorie numbers a bit, but really, as long as I'm not constantly starving, it's not that big a deal, right? By the end of the week, I should be under 200 pounds for the first time in literally years - looking at an old blog post from New Year's 2006, I wrote as part of a note that I was hoping to get into better shape that "I still haven't ever hit 200 pounds." I'm pretty sure I did it at some point later that year, so that means it's been four-plus, and pretty close to five, years since I weighed as little as I will at the end of this week if everything goes according to plan. The weight loss is becoming increasingly noticeable (not as much in the torso, which is really the area I'm least satisfied with, but that stuff always comes off last), I continue to be heartburn-free, and while the diet can be tough (even with my little violations) it's mostly working well so far. (I confess I'm tempted to add just dairy back, for the variety, but let's see how much longer I can keep it rolling without any full-time cheats, especially since I'll be traveling in January, which will make it more difficult to adhere to any serious dietary standards.)
Basically, while eating so much less and working out so much more is tough, it's getting results, and that makes me happy. It's definitely going to be a lot easier to keep up this regimen the longer I keep having four and five-pound loss weeks.
Monday: 1,448/82/110/73
Tuesday: 1,764/116/103/85
Wednesday: 1,565/83/147/60
Thursday: 1,494/83/133/59
Barely out of ketosis there today. I must confess to a serving of pumpkin pie yesterday and today - look, no one else likes it and I love pumpkin pie - but while that violates paleo rules it really hasn't violated the intended limits; notice that my carb totals were at historic lows even with the 35ish grams that a serving of pumpkin pie adds. I could probably stand to boost my calorie numbers a bit, but really, as long as I'm not constantly starving, it's not that big a deal, right? By the end of the week, I should be under 200 pounds for the first time in literally years - looking at an old blog post from New Year's 2006, I wrote as part of a note that I was hoping to get into better shape that "I still haven't ever hit 200 pounds." I'm pretty sure I did it at some point later that year, so that means it's been four-plus, and pretty close to five, years since I weighed as little as I will at the end of this week if everything goes according to plan. The weight loss is becoming increasingly noticeable (not as much in the torso, which is really the area I'm least satisfied with, but that stuff always comes off last), I continue to be heartburn-free, and while the diet can be tough (even with my little violations) it's mostly working well so far. (I confess I'm tempted to add just dairy back, for the variety, but let's see how much longer I can keep it rolling without any full-time cheats, especially since I'll be traveling in January, which will make it more difficult to adhere to any serious dietary standards.)
Basically, while eating so much less and working out so much more is tough, it's getting results, and that makes me happy. It's definitely going to be a lot easier to keep up this regimen the longer I keep having four and five-pound loss weeks.
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