kingkeld's Journal, 25 June 2013

Good morning!

How are you guys doing? :)

I'm doing pretty good this morning. I'm still working damage control (weight-wise), moving my way towards my goal weight again.

Yesterday, I was at 82.5 kilos. Today, I'm at 81.7. Things are moving in the right direction, and fairly swift too. This is good.

I had all the intentions of a Low Cal Day yesterday, but I didn't quite make it. It wasn't bad though - I ended up a little over 1000 calories, and I still had 1100 calories that I COULD have had without any damage. It's all good.

I simply didn't make it because I got tempted by goodies at work. Damn work. :) It's all okay though, I managed to just have one piece of cake and leave it at that.

Today, I will go for another Low Cal Day. 2nd attempt. I really want one, because I know how much greater it makes me feel. This is what I need to remember when I get tempted. Remember how I feel when I do right. It's an amazing feeling, but it easily gets pushed in the background when the sudden urge for sugar clouds my mind.

Still, I know I can do it. I've done so MANY times, and I can do it again today.

...

Yesterday's weight loss classes went GREAT! I had 4 people lose more than 5 lbs each since last week! Wow! I was completely amazed. They are doing so great.

As the class broke up at the end, there were five of them just kinda lingering and one asked if she could be assured to get to "renew" her memebership in the class when their three months are over in about a week. I assured her that OF COURSE there is a spot. The other four immediately pitched in that they'd like spots too. :) Business is GOOD!

I had a new client too. There are fewer and fewer spots available in my 2nd class now. 2 spots left and I have to call "sold out". Damn. Where are they coming from?!? :)

Actually, I know where they're coming from. Everyone seems to know about the classes at the gym, and all the ladies there gossip. I don't mind this kind of gossip. I can't imagine getting better (and free!) advertising than this.

I think I could easily open up another class. I've been thinking a lot about that. The thing about it is that I would have to do this another day than Monday, as I am fully booked by now. I don't think I have the mind for a 3rd class on the same day, and I don't really have the time to find another night for it. I need to re-evaluate what to do.

I have the night-school weight loss class starting up in September, if enough people have signed up. I'm not sure where that one is going just yet - but it could be more students for my class and it could be good money again. I am mainly doing this because I committed to it a long time ago, but seeing how well the classes at the gym are moving forward, I think the night school class is gonna be last time I'm doing that. If any of the students that I'll have in that class wants to continue afterwards, then I'll ask them to take the class at the gym. I don't want to make two classes competing like that. It's a waste to energy for me.

So what to do? I don't know. I need to make sure that I don't dedicate to TOO much. I'm already a busy bee doing all this.

...

Speaking of dedicating to too much....

I have a meeting with a mom and her daughter tomorrow. I promised to help them out, and I hope I can. This will be a one-on-one consultant thing.

The daughter, who is 13, is overweight. She's being teasted in school and she has a hard time there. She's bright enough, and really sweet. I know her from the gym where they have signed her up recently.

She's really motivated to lose the weight, as she wants the teasing to stop. I can fully relate. I used to be the fat kid in school, and it's no fun. Kids are frickin' mean.

So, I agreed to try to help them getting going on the weight loss. I think it's just as much MOM that needs to learn some things, but just as much daughter that needs to see what damage the candies etc. does to her.

It's a huge challenge, as I have never done weight loss for kids before. I'm curious to see where we can take it, and to what extend we can make this work.

I have sent them to the doctor to get a full checkup, to make sure that we're only talking calorie/exercise control, and not something medical that I could be working against. We gotta do this in a safe manner.

...

Today is an easy day at work. I'm catching up on all my cases. Basically, I'm going through everything, making sure I have all the papers that I need and everything else. It's all good.

I feel that I am mentally pretty calm these days - it's a good thing. No siginificant stress levels, and I go to work in a great mood.

I do miss my mornings at the gym though. I really liked getting out of the house early, go walk, then hit the gym before work. It really worked for me.

However, with Wife working out too, this just doesn't workout for us. I want to go with her, to motivate her to keep going, and just because it's more fun to go with her. She can't go in the mornings, as she works earlier than I do, so this is not an option.

Instead, we go AFTER work. This is okay, but I don't feel that I get the full benefit the same way as I used to. It's not NO benefit though, and it still works, but I do miss it. Oh, the things you do for love, huh? :)

...

I am still happy with the "8 hour window" way of eating. I think the 8 hours fits me nicely. I've seen ideas going all the way down to 5 hours and ONE meal per day, but I think it's pushing it for me. I like food, and I like having control of it, but one meal sounds like pushing a little hard for me - at least for now.

Then again, I do feel that I am not concerned with food at all until I actually start eating - no matter the time I start. It's not difficult at all doing this.

Reading the "2 meal solution" book, I learned about maximizing the benefits of my workouts. One way to do this was to work out while in the fasting "mode". This means work out before you eat, and not eat the next hour or so afterwards.

I am seriously considering NOT eating until I've been at the gym this afternoon, but I'm not sure how that'll go. This would mean no food until maybe 5 pm tonight.

Sure, it's no worse than when I "reset my hunger", with a Low Cal Day combined with the 24 hour fast, but still - seems a little intimidating right now.

Then again, I might just go for it. It's not worse than I can simply choose to have lunch, or later lunch, if I want.

If I choose to go for the gym before eating, I will DEFINITELY end up having a Low Cal Day. There is alway THAT benefit to it. :)

Let's see what happens. I don't think I'll make it all the way on this, but I will give it a fair and serious shot. Besides, I'm still weighing 81.7 kilos when I really want to weigh 77. I need to work on this.

...

Speaking of that. It can be really hard to grasp this for me occasionally. The weight difference.

Let me explain.

I reach a new low of 76.8 last Saturday. Sunday I gain to 79.5, Monday to 82.5. Obviously, it's not all fat. That goes without saying.

If I did an honest estimation of my food intake and my calories burned, I'd say that pigging out like I have done, I probably and most likely gained 1lb of fat over those days.

Now, to lose that I would need a 3500 calorie deficit over some days. The rest of the weight gain is simply food processing in my body, and massive water fluctuations. I know this. I know this very well.

Still, I feel that when I see these "high" numbers, then I need to work much harder on weight loss. I feel that I need to work out harder, consume less calories and just go more intense on weight loss.

This should not be the case at all, when you think about it. If I only gained one pound, then all I should do is have the 3500 calorie deficit and the rest will adjust. No biggie.

I am pretty sure that if I simply went for this approach, then I would end up where I am supposed to be, maybe a little later than expected.

So why the hurry? Am I simply too much in "weight loss mode" and too little in "weight maintenance mode"? Am I too much in a hurry to reach that new low because I hate seeing numbers over 80 (or 77, for that matter!)?

I keep looking at numbers to find out what I realistically burn in a day. All three calculators - Fatsecret/Madlog/Fitbit - says the same, pretty much. I can handle 3000 calories in a day, if I am honest about my activity level (which is set to "moderate" when I actually think it should be "active").

I think part of the answer is that I am SCARED of going too high in calories on a regular basis. This is probably a very natural thing for a person like me to have happening.

Having lost all the weight, I am terrified of ending up gaining it all back. That'll never happen, of course, but the thought will probably always be there, lingering.

I am often thinking about how to best approach this.

One of the solutions for me is the fitbit calorie counter.

In the fitbit website, I can see what calories I have burned through the day. This counter changes as I move more and more through the day, and from what I can see it fits reasonably well with what I see from other counters, only it takes my activity level RIGHT NOW into account. I love this.

Then, when I put in a goal weight of x kilos, it'll cut off some calories in my allowance, and simply tell me what I can consume today, based on my general stats, my BMR, my weight goal AND my activities today.

This has to be more accurate than any other counter. It's basically a fluctuating "activity level setting" that will change constantly.

I think that if I use THIS as a general guideline, maybe it'll help me not freak out as much about what I can and can't do. It'll keep me on track too. I keep wanting to use this number as my guide, but I'm also a little scared of letting go of the other guidelines.

For me, the Fitbit counter is only interesting to measure what I CAN eat. There is a fully developed system like Fatsecret in there, to count calories consumed, but I by far prefer the Danish system. It has all the foods I can get here, and there is no proper replacement for that system. This one stays.

But I'm thinking that I can simply count the calories on there, and use Fitbit to tell me HOW MUCH I can do on a day-to-day basis.

Trouble is, of course, that it'll ruin my ability to run statistics on Madlog, and I like statistics. :)

Still, this is probably the way to go.

...

Since I am on this topic already, there is another thing that I can't help pondering.

I see my lowest weight on Saturdays. Like clockwork. It's almost always a Saturday.

I think I hit this day simply because it's the weigh-in before Indulgence Day. Saturday is the day I end up eating a lot of food, and it weighs me down, not just talking about calories.

So, I am thinking... if I go with a "normal" RDI, just to maintain the weight I am happy with... will I gain some kilos simply because I eat more food, to reach my natural, healthy RDI and thus have more food processing in my body on a day-to-day basis? And if so, how much will that affect my weight?

I know. These questions don't really matter - it's all about how I feel and all that - but my mind wants to know. It annoys me knowing that when I reach my goal weight of 77 kilos, then simply eating right from then and onwards will make me gain a few kilos.

It makes sense though, and I will not let it bug me too much. I just can't help wondering.

...

Anyways, I'm babbling, and I need to go do my walk.

Today, I'm thankful for:
- Feeling great, having had a good night's sleep. 7 hours.
- A nice day at work.
- Off to do my walk.
- Gym today!
- Doing an attempt to not eat before gym, even if it's LATE in the day. Let's see what happens. I am bringing chicken breast for a salad if I need it.
- Morning coffee and water. The ultimate breakfast. LOL.

Life is good!

180.1 lb Lost so far: 161.6 lb.    Still to go: 0 lb.    Diet followed 100%.

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3370 kcal

Activities & Exercise: Circuit Training - 30 minutes, Walking (moderate) - 3/mph - 1 hour and 15 minutes, Sleeping - 7 hours, Standing - 7 hours and 30 minutes, Sitting - 7 hours and 45 minutes. more...