Good morning!
Wow, I have so many things I want to say today, I'll try to remember them all!
First of all, it's way too early for me to be up, but it is what it is. I'm done sleeping for tonight. It's only 3AM, and I've been up for about 30 minutes.
I know that if I go back to bed, then I'll just lie there awake, and potentially waking up Wife also. No can do.
So, I got up, went to the rest room, then made coffee, and here I am.
I'm down in weight, one pound, since yesterday. It's not as much as I hoped, but I'm really not trying to reach anything specific. I'm at 79.5, goal is still 76, and there's no way I will reach that goal this week no matter what I do. I'm 100% at peace with it.
I have one weigh-in left, which is tomorrow (Friday). I'm sleeping at a friend's house Friday night, and there is because of this no weigh-in Saturday morning. This is probably a good thing, because Friday is Chili gettogether. :) I'm really looking forward to it too.
It's not the WORST food choices this year, but certainly not the best either. Plus, there will be beer, snacks, ice creams, candy. Oh, wait. Maybe it IS the WORST food choices. LOL. :)
Still, it's a fun day out, and I am saving up for it.
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I did reasonably well yesterday on my exercise.
Take a look. I reached all my goals, but just barely made it on my calorie burn goal. I'm kinda suprised that it's not higher, but that's okay. I made it. That's what matters.
On the calorie intake side of things, I did great too. I had a 900 calorie day. I am WELL under what I need to do, and I'm pretty happy about that. I have done the best I could - AND had a massive screw-up day Monday, and I still have plenty of room for TWO Indulgence Days Friday and Saturday. The extra calories are plenty compensated for.
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It's been pretty easy, these last two days. I think my realisations from the last couple of days have really - REALLY - pushed my focus back where it belongs.
I don't feel that I'm a slave to the weight goal number any longer. Not the way I was just a few days ago.
I want to be under 80 kilos at all times. That is my goal. I don't NEED to be at 76 kilos, but it's a good anchor. Go back to 76 now and then just to stick to the goals, and the "risk" of hitting 80 is minimal, and will only be because of fluctuations. It's really that simple.
So I am just doing my best, and keeping going.
There has been no sugar cravings. Not in the way that I have had them just a few days ago. I seem to have made up my mind to not have sugars through the weekdays, and it seems to be working.
I did "indulge" on two little licorices last night. Wife had some, and there were two left. Total of 10 grams. I figured I'd have 'em. They didn't trigger ANYTHING, other than that they tasted good, and I had no issue stopping afterwards. That's how I want it to be.
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So, 79.5 kilos this morning. It would have been nice to see a larger drop, but I figured this would be about it. I'm under 80 - I'm happy. I'll be 84 by Sunday again(!) and that's ok. It's gonna be a FUN weekend! :)
My goal is to be under 80 for August 9th, when I see the surgeon. I can do this, no problem. And it's a Friday, close to the day I normally weigh the least. I might have to skip Indulgence Day the weekend before, but that's okay. I'll do great.
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Yesterday, I had my 2nd coaching session with the mom and daughter. To recap: Mom came to sign up daughter at the gym, and happened upon ME. It turns out that their goal was to get daughter to lose some weight, as she is overweight and having issues with kids teasing her in school. The weight makes her an easy target, and though I do know that they might "just" find something else to tease her with, then at least fixing the weight problem is a good place to start.
We had a good talk one week ago, and we found many little things that they could easily change to do better on the foods.
Daughter also got signed up for the gym and she is now exercising three times per week.
So, how did it go? Let's just say that I was dead nervous for this one. Could she do it? More important, could MOM do it?
Well, they came back and told me that they felt that they had done okay. Not great, but just okay. They had put some effort into it, and they had focused on changing the meals/snacks up a bit, as we had talked about.
The girl had gone to the gym several times, and had fun doing it.
I was really curious to see if it had made any difference at all. This is the first time I coach weight loss to a child, and I had no idea what to expect.
So...
I was much surprised as she got on the scale.
Last week, she weighed 58 kilos. Yesterday, she was 55.5 kilos. Yup, in ONE WEEK she dropped 2½ kilos. That's 5 lbs for you Americans.
I am AMAZED!
So, of course I gave her TONS of praise. She was beaming and SO proud. It was awesome to see.
Now, we're simply gonna move forward, and setting a next goal of moving more throughout the week. She doesn't move much at home, and we made a little deal that she's gonna use the Nintendo Wii some more. She likes her "JUST DANCE" game, and I figure it's a good place to do some movement.
I also explained to Mom that it would be good for the girl that mom also gave her time where she is NOT after her for not moving. It sounded like Mom could be a little pushy on this issue.
As much as I understand that Mom wants her to move to stay in better shape, we gotta start low, and not intimidate her too much.
I think she's doing amazingly well.
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This makes me realize that I never really concluded WHAT weight she needs to reach. I think we need to set a goal for this mission for her. She needs to reach "normal" weight, but just how much is that for a child?
I gotta go google that. :)
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So, Intermittent Fasting.
It's been SO EASY lately. Lastely being these last couple of days.
When it runs smoothly, it's really NO issue. The REAL issue that I see maybe coming down the road is to eat enough "real" food to get all my calories to maintain my weight. THis is such a bizarre issue. I never ever thought this would be something I encounter.
Once we get focused on NOT eating junk, the calorie intake comes down severely. At least, this is what is happening to me.
I had GREAT food yesterday. I only ate within my 8 hour window, and I was never at any point hungry, or felt like having anything I couldn't really have.
I did have a small "surge" of a sugar craving, but it was put to rest with an apple.
This is what I had:
Breakfast: I skipped it. I'll be skipping this most mornings from now on, I think. I see how it gets me in trouble eating breakfast.
Lunch: Leftover liver and onions. Potatoes. Corn.
"To kill sugar cravings": An apple.
"Mindless afternoon snack": A pear.
"Waiting for weight loss client": A Coke Zero.
Dinner: A grand slice of Omelette, Danish style, with eggs (duh), tons of ham, bacon, mushrooms, onion, bell peppers, spring onions.
"Mindless after-dinner snack": Two small licorices.
Lots of water and coffee.
By far mostly real food.
I find that the Coke Zero is very efficient in keeping me out of trouble when I get bored or when I want to snack. To me, it's a great solution, and a zero or one calorie solution at that. Does it get any better? :)
Now, this day only gave me 900 calories. In maintenance mode, I should be having about 2000 more! WOW! All I can say is that this is a tough goal to reach, and I can see that I - when my weight is a little more stabile and a little lower - will have to work on UPPING it. Those meals are gonna be a challenge.
This brings me right back to the comments I made yesterday about NOT counting calories. It makes perfect sense to me that I won't be needing to, and that things will be fine regardless.
It will be a mental challenge though. Counting calories is a HUGE part of my everyday life, and something I like doing. It's interesting to me, and it's now not only a mental crutch to ensure that I am doing things right, it's also a fun game. I actually really like to see my calorie numbers and I really like fitting everything into their place.
I like getting the statistics and I like seeing the numbers and the results. So do I really need to quit? Is my wish to quit only to be like everyone else?
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I did experience a mental hunger a few minutes before my "8 hour window" opened yesterday. I think this was simply from me knowing that I had awesome lunch waiting for me at 11 am, and it wasn't something that I couldn't mentally kill in a few moments. Lunch was something I was really looking forward to, as it was superb food, and I knew it. So I got hungry just from the thought.
However, it didn't make me eat faster, and I couldn't really eat more than planned, as it was all we had. :) Still, I am very good at one plate meals now, and I don't need more than that one plate. I'm perfectly fine doing this.
Later in the evening I was surfing online, and found a great article on Intermittent Fasting. Nothing new, but it had some fun stuff. I found this, and I thought it fitted my day perfect yesterday:
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So, today is my LONG work day. This is what bothers me the most about getting up at 2:30 AM when I should be sleeping.
I'll be at work around 7 AM today. I'll be there until 5 PM. Then I go grab a pita bread with ham, and head for the gym. I'll be working the gym until 9 PM, and I will be home and in bed at around 9:30 PM.
Because of our Chili Fest Friday, I'll have to be at work at 6 AM Friday, so I can leave early. So it's gonna be rough. I need to get my sleep in there too, or I'll crash and burn Friday.
I'll manage though. I know I'll sleep like a rock tonight.
Working at the gym is easy, it's fun and time flies. And I think I have a pretty good day at work too.
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It is, of course, cake day today. The dreaded cake day. :) Actually, I like cake day. Wife makes the BEST stuff at work, and today will be no exception.
I will take a serious evaluation of my actions when I get there. I might have a small taste if I feel "safe". If not, I'll have fruit. I honestly feel strong enough to make the evaluation on the spot.
Of course, I have felt like this many times before, and fallen deep into the carb home because of it. I'll do my best though. The good thing is that there won't really be any other places to GET the bad stuff, if I get cravings. I'll simply have to kill them with fruit. I wonder how that works? Still, it'll have to be very small samples. I have a double Indulgence Day mission.
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Saving up for those two Indulgence Days has gone fine though. I am actually on average 300 calories low per day this week. I have alotted 3500 calories to spend on both Friday and Saturday, and a Low Cal Day Sunday, as I know I'll have no trouble doing one Sunday. It'll be band practice day, and those are no trouble at all.
So, I could - COULD - spend 2000 calories more without reaching my max. And mind you, my max is 500 lower than maintenance level, as I am still weighing more than my ultimate goal weight of 76. Whenever I weigh more, my calorie counter will lower my intake to 2100 calories per day. When I am at or under my goal weight, it'll up the number to 2600.
So, I am nowhere near trouble.
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I was looking at my statistics yesterday, as I was making sure that I am doing okay this week, with the parties and all.
It looks great. The numbers are exactly where I want them to be.
And looking back over the course of two weeks (last week and this week), one month and three months, the calorie intakes are really perfect. The big days and the little days even out just as they're supposed to.
It's hard to see on a day-to-day basis, when I binge and when I feel that I'm losing grip. But the low calorie days and the days where I just don't reach my max are fully compensating. It's great to see and good to know.
What is REALLY interesting about this is that when I generally do my food plate at dinner, lunch, etc., I don't really restrict myself.
I don't grab a piece of meat and change my choice after seeing the weight of the meat or seeing the size of it. I go by eye, and evaluate if this is reasonable. I then weigh the meat, and enter it in my counter app. Then I DECIDE to have maybe 150g of potatoes, and I weigh that amount. I enter it.
The decisions are made, and I enter the numbers to record them. I don't really limit the portions, but I have a great idea about the size of dish I need to be satisfied.
Then, I have days where I lose control.
Those days, I do one of two things. I either count everything, but can't stop eating junk, or I don't record at all, then feel bad, then "punish" my statistics by adding say 4000 calories on that day to make absolutely sure that I have put enough calories to not damage my goal further down the road.
Now that I think about it, had I not recorded ANY foods, but done everything else, I would have ended up just where I am now, weight-wise.
This is interesting. Again, it doesn't mean that I can just let go of recording my food, but it shows that I am in good shape when it comes to evaluating portion sizes. I already know what I want to eat, when I am doing good.
When I am NOT doing good, anything goes, regardless of whether I record my food or not. LOL. The trick is to NOT have too many days where I go nuts. Limit those days and everything will work out in my favor.
This is what I am working on, and this is what it seems like I am (mostly) successfully doing.
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Today I'm thankful for:
- A good (but short) night's sleep.
- Down a pound!
- A fun (but long) day ahead.
- Morning coffee!
- A positive attitude!
- Getting that girl into losing weight! I'm so damn proud of her losing 5 lbs in a week! Her success is MY success, and I am sure her mom will tell people. :)
Happy Thursday! Life is good!
