kingkeld's Journal, 19 April 2013

Goodmorning!

Ahhh, finally Friday, and the last day before my ONE WEEK OF VACATION! :)

That's right! No work all of next week!

This time around, I am looking forward to it more than usual. There will be almost no dieting, as I have PLENTY of calories on most days - and I'm even prepping a little extra, but more on that in a moment.

I have some things I want to do, we have a few things planned too, and it's gonna be a good time.

Monday, I'm finally doing the interview with the journalist. I can't believe how fast time flies! I was gonna wait until after I met with the surgeons. Not just to be able to talk about that, but also because I knew I'd be in better shape for a photo by then. Sure, call me shallow, but if I am to be in a nationally sold newspaper, then I don't want to talk weight loss and not look my best. LOL.

Tuesday, Wife has a checkup at the hospital, and I will of course join her. Tuesday is when I usually do a Low Cal Day, and I really don't want to have this going on that very day - I plan on us going out and enjoying our vacation day together.

So, I am taking a Low Cal Day today, to be ahead of schedule on this. Essentially I am doing one today instead of Sunday, and one on Sunday instead of Tuesday. :) Makes sense?

So, how am I doing on maintenance level so far?

Surprisingly, I am at the same weight - within 200g from last Friday. The weight has been fluctuating some kilos along the way, so it's not necessarily showing that it's all stable, but so far so good.

I can't really judge yet if this IS maintenance level - an average of 2200 calories daily sounds low for maintenance, but I see that I don't really need more to feel full, satisfied and energized. However, adding 200 more daily will probalby not do any damage.

I will wait another week though, before messing with it. I want three weeks to evaluate my progress.

Also, I gotta remember that I came straight from three weeks of only 600 calorie days (and a weekly Indulgence Day), and there has to be some kind of after effect weight gain after that.

So, I wrote a comment to my buddy sk1nnyfuture on my journal yesterday. She was asking how in the world I manage to stay at 600 calories on a full day. She tried it out and saw that it was hard to squeeze it all down to this low, low level.

It is hard. It takes practice.

Personally, I think it helps a LOT to do the "hard reset" I have mentioned earlier - simply not eat for a full 24 hours. Eat dinner, then nothing until dinner the day after. This next dinner isn't supposed to be more than 600 calories (500 for the ladies).

For me, this was a revelation - truly! It made me see that I don't get hungry, and there is nothing to be scared of.

(not saying that my buddy Pam is scared of hunger! I think she's far too experienced in this game to get into that).

After I did my first 600 cal day, it's been no problem to do Low Cal Days.

I set up a full meal plan in my comment yesterday, just to show what I had planned on doing today, however I decided to change things around.

My meal plan for today looks like this now:

Breakfast (142 calories):
One boiled egg
One slice (35g) of low fat rye bread

2nd Breakfast (52 calories):
Apple

Lunch (205 calories):
Protein shake

Afternoon (52 calories):
Apple

Dinner: (162 calories):
Keld's famous tomato soup (a whopping 600 grams!)

Total calories: 612!

Not bad, huh?

I decided to switch it around as I realized that I would need more protein through the earlier hours of the day.

I don't have a "food" lunch, but the shake is so fulfilling that I don't really need anything more than that.

It will be just fine.

...

Other than that, not much in the term of news today.

Still no rehearsing with The Black Peanut. It seems like too many band members are prioritizing other things higher than the band. All I can say is that I am glad I have ANOTHER band - Burnin' Live! - that is not only more dedicated, but also a LOT more fun.

I'm seriously cosidering to just dedicate my energy with Burnin' Live!, it's a lot more along the lines of what I'd like to play and do, and it's a bunch of really fun guys to do it with.

And if The Black Peanut simply becomes a once in a while thing, then I am not interested. The things we do are simply not interesting enough for me to keep practicing 30-40 songs just to play them once a month with them. Then it's better to spend that time practicing things I need all the time, right?

...

Today, I'm thankful for:
- A good weigh-in, not too different from yesterday, even if I felt that I was eating, eating, eating yesterday. I had to put a focused effort into reaching my calorie goal.
- A great night's sleep!
- 5½ hours of work and it's vaca time!
- Morning coffee!
- Wife getting up early with me, even if she has the day off.

Happy Friday! Let's make this weekend a ROCKIN' one! Life is good!

188.5 lb Lost so far: 153.2 lb.    Still to go: 1.1 lb.    Diet followed 100%.