kingkeld's Journal, 09 January 2014

Good morning!

Yesterday was a great day!

Yesterday, I went to the hospital for all the preliminary checkups for my heart thing tomorrow. I'm still nervous as heck about it, but I'm told by everyone at the hospital that it really is a smaller thing and to not worry. I will try to do this. It's hard, though. I only have one heart, and I am not too comfortable with anyone fiddling with it.

I left early - at 5:30 am - to go to Holbæk, where the hospital is. I had the appointment at 8 AM, and was in town at 6:10. I decided to just walk, walk, walk. I had put almost 8 kilometers behind me by the time I went for my appointment.

The checkups were about an hour long. I was done early, and went to wlak by the peer. It was a cold, grey day, but I went anyways. I had a cup of coffee at a little stand, and went to buy fish meatballs for dinner. Wife and I LOVE them!

After that, I was just gonna go home and relax, but ended up going to Roskilde, about 20 minutes away, to pick up Wife from work. I met with her a little after lunch time, and we went to have lunch - the most amazing shish kebab. Ooooh. Wife was ecstatic! This is very much food in the same tradition as her grandmother used to make it, and it reminded her of the good ole days. The food WAS amazing.

It just ended up being a great day. I did great on my calories. I went to the max of my allowance according to my calculations. I went as high as I had to, to not lose muscle.

I did 30,000 steps! I burned more then 3800 calories! A brilliant day. It'll do wonders to my averages.

...

So, what about the weight? How did I do? Well, it's yet another strange weigh-in. The numbers don't make much sense to me. I think the kicker is a lot of dehydration from all the walking (and probably not drinking enough since I was on the go all day).

I weigh the same as yesterday but 100g, and that's fine. But the body fat percentage jumped up a full percent, even if I had a ridiculously high calorie burn - about 3800 calories. I consumed 2500 total yesterday, so there should be NO chance of a fat gain. I know there isn't - it's the other factors that are bumping it around.

What is more worrisome is that my muscle mass is the lowest I have registered since surgery. And then again, it might NOT be a concern.

I am sure that I am losing muscle mass. Not doing my training will do that. However, when I look back at my numbers, I see the same low numbers when I was dehydrating myself for my surgery. This time I think it's probably half and half. That would make sense to me.

The muscle and fluid numbers pretty much match the ones I registered at the morning of my surgery. Only difference is that I am about two kilos heavier altogether. This is probably fat, from the excess eating I went through.

The excessive eating is slowly being cancelled out by eating right and by exercising. It's almost gone, and I see the numbers turning around.

Using my smart spreadsheet to calculate averages and allowed calorie intake, I get around 100 extra calories to play with every day. It's rising fast to meet the averages.

Then comes the next challenge:

There has to be found a good balance for me. Once I am up in calories where I start being allowed more than I actually burn - this happens to "compensate" for all the calorie deficit I have been in lately - then I need to remember to be smart about it, and NOT consume more than I burn.

Until now, the averages have helped me get back on track after surgery, and keep everything neat and tidy.

Sometime around Monday, my spreadsheet says, the game changes a little. I will keep getting extra calories allowed, until I use them and end up at status quo. Going back 28 days, every day that I am under my RDI I will get a little added to my future RDI of the next 28 days. And the other way around too, obviously. Every day I go over my RDI, I will lose a little amount of calories for the next 28 days' RDI. It makes sense.

BUT...

Since I right now have had WEEKS with a significant deficit, it will start adjusting differently. If I keep the trend of burning significantly more calories than I consume, then the RDI will end up at 4000 calories! Of course, once I take a day of 4000, it'll adjust dramatically.

I see it as my "calorie bank" that makes it okay to pig out now and then. I think it's a good, healthy system.

...

The next thing that will come is then to challenge the Fitbit accuracy. I will then start looking at whether I need to put in a "burn factor" on top of the numbers I get. I think they're pretty accurate, but maybe they're not. After all, the Fitbit simply IS a pedometer. It can't tell everything apart. There will always be a lot of factors missing.

So, I will keep going with my system. I think it works. But as I go, I will take a look at my numbers every so often, and try to adjust. Maybe I should be consuming 95% of the calories that the Fitbit suggest? Maybe 105%? Who knows? This is my next step in getting a grip on things.

...

Obviously, another step is to - hopefully - get going on strength training soon. I miss it. A LOT.

After tomorrow's procedure, I hope to be allowed to get going soon.

I took a quick look at WebMD to see what to expect, and I was happy to find this:

"Make an exercise plan together with your doctor. An exercise program usually consists of stretching, activities that increase your heart rate (aerobic exercise), and strength training (lifting light weights)."

It looks like there is a good chance that I can go back to my normal routines.

...

Today, it's back-to-work day. I can't say I'm not protesting it a little bit. I would have rather started Monday, but I guess technically I CAN work today. I'm still stressing a lot over tomorrow's adventures, so I think it's gonna be hard to focus. I'll go, sit down, do what I can, and go home. Monday, I will start up from scratch.

EDIT:
It's pouring down, so it'll be hard to get all my steps in today. I might have to settle for an hour (or two) on the stationary bike. I'm not sure I'm liking that. First of all, I like getting the actual step count. Second, my legs are tired from 30,000 steps yesterday. Let's see what happens. Hopefully the weather clears up.
END OF EDIT.

...

Today, I'm thankful for:
- Wife!
- Getting up early after a good night's sleep!
- Coffee!
- FatSecret!
- Understanding my weigh-in numbers, even when they seemingly make no sense.

Happy Thursday! Life is good!

180.6 lb Lost so far: 161.2 lb.    Still to go: 0 lb.    Diet followed 100%.