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Good morning!
I'm up early, but I feel rested. I slept great, and most of the night. I had about 6 hours sleep, so I can't complain. :) It's a LOT better than last night, where I hardly slept at all.
This morning's weigh-in is done early. Very early, at 2:50AM. This usually means that I am a tad heavier than I would have been if I had weighed myself an hour or two later. That's fine.
I'm below 80 kilos again, weighin in at 79.8 kilos. That's a LOT better than 82+ just the other day. That was a shocker, though I never worried much about it. I knew it was just my Indulgence Day that had affected me, and it was just a matter of time before the weight would disappear.
So, today I am very happy with my weight. I am still a kilo from the new low I reached last week, but it's only Tuesday and I think I will drop more through the week. That's the plan.
I'm still debating what my "perfect weight" should be. Sometimes I feel like 77 is still a great number. I am sure a lot of it comes from the time where I was working on qualifying for surgery. It became such a "thing" for me to reach this number, but this time around it's different. I already qualify for surgery number two. I have more muscle. It's a different game.
At the same time, 77 is a great goal weight, simply because it should generally help me stay under 80 at all times. I like that thought, and I know I feel great when I am under 80.
On the other hand, I feel that "under 80" is good enough. I feel great where I am, and I feel very accomplished. However, it's not PERFECT. But does it need to be?
I am debating this on a daily basis. It's not a big battle, but just a little ongoing discussion that I have with myself, as I adjust my RDI back and forth.
I don't want it to be simply to allow myself more calories on that specific day. It makes a huge difference in my allowance when I change the goal weight for my maintenance level.
As an example: If I set my goal weight to 77 today (which is where it's set), my RDI suggests 2153 calories, as I still need to lose 2.8 kilos. However, if I change goal weight to 80, and thus have reached my goal, then it suggests 2777 calories. HUGE difference.
So which is better?
Now, of course just because I set my RDI to I can get 2777 doesn't mean that I will eat all that. It's a LOT of food, if I am to only eat "good" things. If I still keep to my rules about NOT eating bad stuff other than on Saturdays, then it can be a pretty big mouthful (literally!) to finish up all the calories.
I would most days go lower, thus lose a little weight, and eventually probably end up at 77 anyways.
I'm in no hurry about getting there, but at the same time it's probably a good thing to set a goal. We can't reach a finishing line if we don't know where it is, right?
Another factor is, of course, my Low Cal Days. Twice a week I only consume 600 calories, or at least VERY close to it. It makes me feel amazing to do this, I get massive health benefits from it (supposedly) and it keeps me on my toes on my weight and my food intake. I still want to do this. This is obviously also help me maintain my weight, even if I am allowed the 2777 on the other five days. It should help me stay in the clear at all times. In fact, that alone would give me a reduction of 4200 calories per week, and bring me closer to 77 kilos without me doing anything else.
Is that the solution? Claim "goal weight reached" at 80, get the 2777 allowance, never eat past that, and stick to 600 calories twice per week?
It would definitely work.
If anything, I can always lower the goal weight kilo by kilo as they are dropped, to prevent myself from gaining again. So, set my weight to 80 today, get the 2777 allowance. Then, when I reach less than 79, change it to 79. Then when I go lower than 78, change it to 78. And finally 77. It would mentally push me kilo by kilo to reach the last few kilos, but not push me very hard. I don't feel that I need to be pushed hard - I got a great grip on it all these days.
I think what really has become a game changer for me recently, what has really knocked me out of the rut I was in for about 6 months, is the exercise, and cutting out the candies and snacks on weekdays - and of course the Low Cal Days.
It has completely changed my focus, and also made me a much more happy and satisfied person again. It's great. I completely feel the benefits of it, and I have absolutely no intention of starting to slack on these things. When I don't hit the gym on a scheduled day, I feel that I miss out. It all feels wrong. This is definitely a good thing.
Okay... decision time. I think I will go with my latter suggestion on the numbers. Let's try it and see what happens.
Today, I will claim goal reached at 79.8. I am 79.8 kilos. This will allow me 2744 calories. I will keep weighing in daily, and make adjustments in my goal/maintenance way. When I lose weight, I will adjust the maintenance level to the new, lower weight. When I gain weight (because we all know that this WILL happen too), I will leave the setting at my low weight, and get the reduced RDI instead, until I reach the weight again. This will slowly knock me down to my final goal weight of 77 kilos. At 77 kilos, I will generally not have any trouble staying under 80 kilos at (almost) any given time, and when I gain weight after an Indulgence Day (or binge), then I will have the lower RDI to guide me back on track.
I think it makes sense.
I am 100% sure I won't use all the calories I have available this way - most days I eat less than 2000, many days less then 1500, but it's nice to know I have 'em if I need them.
The rules are (as always):
I can't use the calories on bad food. No candy. No chocolate. No sugary soda. The calories are to be used on reasonable food.
Saturdays, I am allowed to eat "bad stuff" within reason. Try not to go nuts.
Twice per week (I usually pick Sunday and Tuesday, as they fit my schedules) I will do a Low Cal Day, where the goal is to not consume more than 600 calories. 650 is acceptable. This MUST BE DONE. If there is a day where I want to NOT have this, I need to have push in a Low Cal Day prior to it.
...
This last rule - the Low Cal Day rule - comes in effect this week.
I have already done my days this week, Sunday and yesterday, but I know that next Sunday will not be a Low Cal Day. This will be quite the opposite, as we're invited to a BBQ and I would want to be able to eat good food and have a few beers.
To accommodate this, I will do a Low Cal Day prior to it (basically taking my Sunday Low Cal Day earlier - probably Wednesday or Thursday), and eat reasonable on Saturday, thus moving my Indulgence Day to Sunday.
Now, this brings up another question. If I am allowed 2744 calories on a daily basis (whether I use them or not), do I really need an Indulgence Day any longer? Do I need a day where I can go all the way to 3300-3500? If anything, I would need it to avoid stalling, but I seriously doubt that this will be an issue, when consuming all this. It would probably be smarter to just rid myself of the Indulgence Day high calorie allowance and just let it be the day where I can make bad choices, as long as I don't go over my RDI.
Also, this has been a challenge lately, the not going over my RDI thing. The last several Indulgence Days, I have ended up losing control somewhat, and had overeaten much to my regret. No damage has come from it, but it bothers me that I lose control.
On the other hand, naturally thin people take days like that all the time, going nuts here and there. They just compensate other places, which is essentially what I do. I still lose weight, so there is no real damage done when it comes to that.
What concerns me more is that I go against what I know I shouldn't even WANT to eat. Obviously, I like candy. I love chocolate. I think we've established that by now. I have a HARD time just having a little, and it's generally better for me to just say no.
My next step will HAVE to be to learn to control that. I would love if I one day won't have to REMIND myself that I am not allowed to have bad foods on weekdays. I would LOVE to be able to just go for ONE piece of chocolates at the meetings at work. I would LOVE to be able to have these things, but I know that they trigger the want for more, and I know it yanks my chain badly when I give in.
This is something that needs working on, but I am not sure how to approach that without risking binging over and over again. Any suggestions?
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Today is a fairly easy day at work, I think. I need that. Yesterday was rough to get through. I had several bad experiences at work - all of them things that weren't caused by me but that affected me, and the teaching weigth loss classes afterwards was rough. I hadn't slept at all the night before, so I really had to muster up the energy. The choice to take a Low Cal Day yesterday didn't exactly help me either. Still, I managed it all, and even more important - I had 4 new clients for my classes! Yay!
This means that I now have a 6 PM class with 8 people, and a brand new 4:30 PM class with 4. I was hoping for 5, but one was a no-show. I know from experience that more will come. People talk, and things are starting to move fast.
The owner of the gym where I work and teach the classes asked me yesterday if we should consider putting an ad in the newspaper. Honestly, this terrifies me a little. I would most likely have to open ANOTHER class, and it would just kill me on my time.
I would have to step very carefully to do this right.
I have a lot of things going on these days. I am a busy bee. There is nothing I would rather do than to expand my business, but I gotta watch out for myself and take a few baby steps. I just started class number 2 yesterday, and by doing that I am committing to three months with them. If I burn out because it is too much, then I have three months of hell to go through.
I don't think this will happen, though, but I gotta be careful. I think I will give the dual-class a month or so, then we'll talk about it again. It's a great thing that he offers, and I know it will benefit both my business and his. It would be great to one day be able to live off this, but I am not ready for that just yet.
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Today, I am thankful for:
- New class up and running!
- Feeling rested today, even if I woke up way too early!
- A good chunk of weight dropped!
- Weighing less than 80 again!
- Morning coffee at 3 AM!
Have a great day! Life is good!
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175.9 lb
Lost so far: 165.8 lb.
Still to go: 0 lb.
Diet followed 100%.
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losing 26.2 lb a week
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