|
Good morning!
It's Sunday morning. It's WAY too early to be up for pretty much any reason. And yet, here I am.
It's simply that I feel rested and done sleeping. Wife has had trouble sleeping, so I don't want to be in bed tossing and turning and potentially wake her up. She needs her sleep too.
So, I decided to get up, make some coffee, weigh in and write my journal.
Just like after any other Indulgence Day, I am up in weight quite a bit - this time almost 3 kgs!
After more than a year of doing Indulgence Days, it still gets to me how in the world I can gain this much in a day. It kills me a little every time I see the high number. Still, I know that it's gonna happen and that I get to see these high numbers as long as I insist on weighing myself every day.
The obvious, easy way to fix this is of course to simply weigh in weekly. I can't do that, sorry. I need to know where I stand, I need to know my daily weight. It's a clear comfort zone for me, knowing what I am doing and where I'm standing. I don't wanna be without it.
Obviously, the numbers are entered in the calorie counter and the fitbit page, and they are considering the new data when assigning my daily calories.
As I have mentioned before, my maintenance RDI shooting for 80 kilos is 2100, give or take. It's a walk in the part. Easy to do. Besides, the extra weight today is nothing but food eaten, along with some fluid. Nothing to panic over.
...
It still gets to me how one can gain MORE than one ate in a day. :)
It IS kinda weird, isn't it? I mean, there is NO way that I ate 3 kilos of food yesterday.
I would assume that the rest is simply water fluctuations that I experience from the food and the higher calories.
...
I did pretty good on the food side yesterday. By far most of my calories came from "real food", and not candy and junk. It was nice. We had good meals all the way, but foods with more fat and more of "the good stuff". I ended up at 3500 calories, as is my allowance on Saturdays, and it's all good. The extra calories have already been saved up through the last week. It's only a couple of hundred calories per day that I need to be under my normal RDI to do this. It's easy.
This is something that really have made it easy for me. Of course, it requirest that one is able to not panic too much over fluctuations, as there will be a lot of them, but it really has helped me stay sane that I could do these high calorie days now and then.
I do think it's time to retire them somewhat. I do think it's time to NOT have them every week. From what I can see, this would give me several advantages.
One, is obviously that I won't have as extreme fluctuations. I'm sure my body will be happier without those fluctuations to have to fight. I'm sure my body uses some energy getting rid of excell fluids and all that. It would make sense that it is so, though I'm no expert.
Two, I would spend more time actually being UNDER 80 kilos, now that I have claimed to have reached my goal. Not only will this make more sense instead of claiming to be done losing weight because I reached 80 kilos and I still weigh 83, but it would also raise my daily RDI to 2700 and make me have to worry even less about my food intake.
This is definitely something I'm considering. I was pondering on this when I was in bed, debating whether I should try sleeping more or if I should just get up.
It makes sense, doesn't it? Skip the Indulgence Day, go lower than 80 more often than not, and maybe just use a full 2700 calorie RDI on Saturdays to "live life a little".
This could be a great future approach.
...
Yesterday I COMPLETELY failed meeting any exercise goals. I missed them ALL.
That's ok. It was a conscious choice, more or less.
Wife and I had planned a morning walk, until we looked out the window. It was raining, again. Hard rain, too. Then we went to eat, and though the sun had come out, I opted to not go walk. I wanted to spend the day at home with Wife, and just hang and enjoy myself.
So, I made a conscious choice to fail it all yesterday.
I barely made it to 50% of my goal on "Very Active Minutes", steps or kilometers. I'm surprised I made it that far, actually.
My calories burned was also at an all time low, at 2245 calories.
...
2245 is actually an interesting number.
According to my stats from the "LOOP CHECK" from Friday, I have a BMR of 2090. I would have to do virtually NO movement at all yesterday to reach 2245. This was NOT the case. We did walk for about 15-20 minutes total, I did stand up for at least 2 hours through the day, and did a few things at home, though definitely not a lot.
I would say that one is maybe a tiny bit off from the other, but I'm not sure which.
On one hand the LOOP CHECK scale is indeed expensive equipment, and I trust it to be fairly accurate. It considers many factors when it hands out the numbers.
On the other hand the FITBIT has fewer informations of my body, as it can not measure current resistance through my body like the scale does. It does, however, track all my movement.
So which is more correct? I would have thought I would have reached maybe 2500 calories from my activites.
Still, it's not THAT important, just something I just realized. There will always be inaccuracies in those numbers, no matter what we do. It's not a precise science, and it will never be.
What I think counts MUCH more in all this is the fact that I can see numbers go up and down when I do more or less. It works this way, and I do think it can measure things in a very useful manner, and with reasonable accuracy.
I do trust that when Fitbit says that I burned 2800 calories as my daily goal, then this is pretty certain to be true.
I do also see that days where I am incredibly active, I will have a LOT more calories burned. It makes sense.
...
I am often tempted to start using the RDI that Fitbit gives me.
I'm not sure I dare, though.
It's pretty smart, actually. It starts out with a low number, today it's 1890 calories. This is what I am allowed to consume today, to reach my goal weening back to 80 kilos from today's 83.6. It's my allowance, based on Fitbit's calculations of my average calorie burn and paired with the fact that I virtually haven't moved at all today.
Then, as the day goes by and I get to be more active, the RDI will go up - allowing me to eat more. So, in other words, if you want to eat MORE than your RDI given to you, you need to EARN it. I like that thought. Also, you can set the deficit you want for days when you are heavier than what you're "supposed to be". If you weigh more than your goal weigh, then it'll subtract some calories, 250, 500, 750 or 1000. I generally set mine to 1000, but it might actually be too steep for maintenance mode. I'm not sure about this.
EDIT:
I have now walked my 5k - and Fitbit now suggests that I can consume 2222 calories today. I have thus earned about 330 calories simply by walking. That's pretty clever, and a pretty good estimate of my calorie burn doing this activity, if I am to compare it to fatsecret, my calorie counter, endomondo and several others.
END OF EDIT.
This far in the game it's really not about fat loss, obviously. It's about NOT overeating and gaining weight from crazy water fluctuations due to Indulgence Days.
Not that they matter at all, in regards to fat and weight loss. I don't really care if I have a couple of liters of water in my body. They don't bother me as such, but the numbers will probably always bother me a little.
It's something that I need to come to terms with, and of course also make sure happens less and less. This is probably the next thing that needs to happen in this journey. Control the Indulgence Days and get fluctuations reduced.
I think it's a fair goal.
...
My buddy FullaBella mentioned in a comment to my journal yesterday, that she read/heard that it takes about three years to get good eating habits to really, truly sit there for life.
I'm not sure it can be done "just like that". I think she is doing amazingly well, because she is approaching the whole thing from a more psychological point of view, always analyzing her behavior and her thoughts.
I think THIS is the key thing for many of us.
We all know that we need to eat less, move more and not eat stupid s**t.
We all know that we got fat because we ate too much. But I would claim that MOST of us don't know WHY we ate too much.
I think that we aren't fully able to adjust to losing weight until we are aware of this. I think that so many of us are compensating for something else when we eat. And as long as we compensate for something else and don't give that hidden monster what it needs, then we won't be able to put down the forks.
Doing this will make a lot of things a lot easier, and I'm glad to say that I don't feel that I have many skeletons in the closet that needs cleaning out. It makes life easy.
But, back to the three-year rule. I started out saying that I'm not sure it can simply be put like that. Basically "Eat right for three years, and it's all good". Sorry, Bella, I know I'm simplifying it, and probably putting words in your mouth. Don't worry, they're calorie free. :)
That being said about the three year rule, I do see SO MANY CHANGES in my food behaviors. Some were things that were obvious to change from get-go. Things like "Don't eat a frickin' deep pan pizza by yourself every frickin' day - are you insane?!?". They don't need any kind of light-bulb moment for anyone to see that this might be a smart move if you wanna lose weight.
But others have taken my full journey to see and realize. Just two weeks ago I started focusing a LOT more on protein and fat levels. The results so far have been remarkable. Amazing, really. I wonder what would be different today if I had focused on this much earlier on?
...
Protein and fat will be my new focus points.
I will of course stay within the daily alotted RDI, to maintain my weight. This is obvious. I don't want to gain ANYTHING back, other than the usual fluctuations.
But I will use the calorie counters more for tracking protein (1st priority) and fat (2nd priority). It seems that it works pretty well for me doing the 1g of protein per 1 lb of bodyweight, and 30% of my RDI from fat.
It makes room for some nice, relaxed foods here and there, and room for tons of meat. I love meat. :)
I do see that it can potentially be an expensive thing, though. To get ALL that protein I need to either eat a LOT of meat, cheese, etc., or eat/drink a lot of protein bars/powders. It's all pretty pricey stuff. I'm not fully sure how to get around this long term. Maybe it's just something I need to get used to doing, take the financial hit and learn to live with it.
It does annoy me a little that I need to prep shakes and all that. Life is a lot simpler without it.
I might - over the course of time - see if I REALLY need all that protein. If any of you who read this have any idea, experience, and even more important FACTS on this, I would love to hear it. I see so many opinions on the amount of protein needed. I know I am shooting for the high end of the scale here, as I have read anything from 0.4g per lb to 1g. It's a HUGE difference.
I do understand that the 0.4g might be for "normal" people who do not work out, and that 1g might be for people who work out a LOT more than I do. This is why I think I might be aiming high. I simply don't know.
What I do know is that I feel VERY different after I started consuming more protein. INCREDIBLY different, actually. I feel like I have SO MUCH extra energy, and that it all works much better for me, my workouts, my walks, my day-to-day energy. It's amazing.
...
So, it's now 5:20 AM. I have written for almost 90 minutes. Maybe it's time to put on pants and go for my walk, get it "done and overwith". It seems like it's no longer raining, and the drunks on the street seem to have either gone home or passed out. I live right above a handful of bars in the busy main shopping street in my little town. I have never been bothered by anyone, but I just generally don't like drunks on the street, especially not having to go through crowds of them.
So, I think I will go do my walk. Get my 5k in before Wife gets up. :)
...
Today, I'm thankful for:
- German TV. I've been watching recordings from the German Wacken Festival, all good heavy metal shows. :)
- Morning coffee. A very popular item at 4 AM.
- Wife. I'm glad she gets some much needed sleep.
- Burnin' Live!
Life is good!
|
184.3 lb
Lost so far: 157.4 lb.
Still to go: 0 lb.
Diet followed reasonably well.
|
gaining 43.2 lb a week
|